As a scholar who frequently relies on a microhistorical and biographical approach to Indigenous history, I often marvel at the ability of other historians to synthesize and build on previous scholarship to develop broad narratives that span political, cultural, and temporal borders. One of the perils of such an approach is that a cohesive argument can often become lost as data and sources multiply and become unmanageable. Despite these challenges, in No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous historian Sheldon Krasowski has succeeded in producing an innovative and cohesive account of the first seven numbered treaties negotiated between the Canadian government and western First Nations between 1871 and 1877.
Drawing from his work with Indigenous elders and academics in the province of Saskatchewan, Krasowski implements an Indigenous “Treaty Bundle” approach. By recognizing treaties as sacred undertakings enacted through ceremony, this approach draws on Indigenous oral histories that understood the treaties to...
