Where Happiness Dwells

A History of the Dane-zaa First Nations

By Robin Ridington & Jillian Ridington
With in collaboration with elders of the Dane-zaa First Nations
Categories: Regional & Cultural Studies, Canadian Studies, History, Indigenous History, Canadian History, Social Sciences, Anthropology, Indigenous Studies
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774822954, 420 pages, February 2013
Paperback : 9780774822961, 420 pages, July 2013
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774822978, 420 pages, February 2013
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Table of contents

Preface, with Linguistic Note and Pronunciation Guide

Introduction: Trails of Time

1 The Dane-zaa Creation Story

2 Tsááyaa, the Culture Hero

3 Shin kaa, the Vision Quest

4 Archaeology, Prehistory, and Oral History

5 The Early Fur Trade

6 The Later Fur Trade and the Hudson’s Bay Company Killings

7 Priests and Dreamers

8 The First and Last Dreamers

9 Kinship and Community

10 The 1899 North West Mounted Police Census and Treaty 8

11 Seasonal Rounds in British Columbia and Alberta

12 The 1918 Flu Epidemic

13 Losing Suu Na chii k’chige, the Great Fire, and Petersen’s Crossing

14 The Place Where Happiness Dwells, Indian Reserve 172

15 Today and Tomorrow

16 Dane-zaa Stories and the Anthropological Literature

Appendices

Works Cited

Acknowledgments

Index

Dane-zaa elders share their oral histories and paint a portrait of strength and cultural survival in northeastern BC.

Description

The Dane-zaa people have lived in BC’s Peace River area for thousands of years. Elders documented their peoples’ history and worldview, passing them on through storytelling. Language loss, however, threatens to break the bonds of knowledge transmission. At the request of the Doig River First Nations, anthropologists Robin and Jillian Ridington present a history of the Dane-zaa people based on oral histories collected over a half century of fieldwork. These powerful stories not only preserve traditional knowledge for future generations, they also tell the inspiring story of how the Dane-zaa learned to succeed and flourish in the modern world.

Awards

  • Commended, Aboriginal History Prize, Canadian Historical Association 2014
  • Winner, K.D. Srivastava Prize, UBC Press 2014