Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today

2021 was annus horribilis in Canada. Preliminary investigations suggested that numerous unmarked, untended child graves may lie around defunct Indian Residential Schools. Statues of revered founders of public education and of the nation were toppled. Ongoing devastation was attested in footage of an Indigenous patient taunted by Quebec hospital staff as she lay dying. Historians and educators are left wondering how to better convey the evils while continuing to love and honor the good. Such a goal motivated Donald Smith, long-time University of Calgary historian of Indigenous Canada, award-winning scholar of Mississauga leaders, and textbook author with countless Indigenous friends; a public intellectual who cautions against “genocide” terminology (Literary Review of Canada) and the condemnation of educator Ryerson on flimsy evidence (Ontario History). Smith’s Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today offers readers unparalleled expertise on Canadian indigeneity...