Aboriginal Ontario: Historical Perspectives on the First Nations

Winner of the 1995 Ontario Historical Society Joseph Brant Award for the best book on native studies

Aboriginal Ontario: Historical Perspectives on the First Nations contains seventeen essays on aspects of the history of the First Nations living within the present-day boundaries of Ontario. This volume reviews the experience of both the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples in Southern Ontario, as well as the Algonquians in Northern Ontario. The first section describes the climate and landforms of Ontario thousands of years ago. It includes a comprehensive account of the archaeologists’ contributions to our knowledge of the material culture of the First Nations before the arrival of the Europeans. The essays in the second and third sections look respectively at the Native peoples of Southern Ontario and Northern Ontario, from 1550 to 1945. The final section looks at more recent developments. The volume includes numerous illustrations and maps, as well as an extensive bibliography.

Dr. Edward Rogers was the head of the Department of Ethnology at the Royal Ontario Museum, a professor of anthropology at McMaster, and long-time researcher, friend, and associate of Canada's Native peoples.

Donald B. Smith is a professor emeritus of History at the University of Calgary who focused his career on the history of Aboriginal Canada, Quebec, and the history of Calgary and Southern Alberta. He has written five biographies on individuals connected with Aboriginal Canada, including Mississauga Portraits, which won the Floyd S. Chalmers Award for the best book on Ontario history. He lives in Calgary.