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Title: A history of Gitxsan relations with colonial and Canadian law, 1858-1909
Contributors: Jeremy David Richard Williams (author), Robin Fisher (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: In 1858 Governor Douglas passed into law a statute requiring that murder cases in British Columbia be resolved according to English law. This thesis addresses the Gitxsan First Nation's role in legal colonization to 1909, when the first permanent police station was established in their traditional territory of the Skeena river. It bases the inquiry on analysis of a series of case studies, including the Haatq case of 1884, the Skeena incident of 1888, and the Simon Gunanoot case, which were documented by British Columbia Sessional Papers, Attorney-General and British Columbia Police correspondences, and Gitxsan witness accounts recorded by Marius Barbeau. Colonial and provincial authorities successfully implemented English law in the upper Skeena area. Yet at the same time, Gitxsan resistance ensured that English law was not to have the total influence over homicide cases that it legally required. In the 1860's and 1870's, Gitxsan legal norms pertaining to homicides occurring on traditional territory continued to operate relatively unobstructed. By the 1880's this changed, however, when provincial authorities began to have greater influence than Gitxsan law over homicide cases, notwithstanding the Gitxsan's efforts to seek resolutions that respected the legal norms of both cultures. Indeed, their protests served only to convince local whites to lobby successfully for enhanced law enforcement, which took the form of a gaol and permanent constables stationed in the upper Skeena region in 1888. Following this development of local law enforcement, unprecedented numbers of Gitxsan "criminals" were prosecuted. Yet, the Gitxsan continued to preserve their traditional xsiisxw, or dispute resolution norms, in the 1890's and early 1900's. Their role in legal colonization helped to ensure that the gap between the theory of English legal hegemony in the upper Skeena area, and its practical realization, did not close altogether.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2000

Title: Building dams, constructing stories: The press, the Sekani and the Peace River Dam, 1957--1969.
Contributors: Holly Nathan (author), Theodore Binnema (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: Between 1957 and 1969, the print media overwhelmingly portrayed the construction of a large dam on the Peace River in northern British Columbia as necessary for economic development in the region, while failing to discuss the repercussions of the project for the Sekani who lived in the valley that would be flooded. This study explains how and why that happened. Media coverage, analyzed in the context of communications theories, reveals that although the local and regional mainstream press showed interest in aboriginal issues, it ignored the potential consequences of the dam for the Sekani despite concerns raised at the time, particularly by an aboriginal press seeking to politicize the general public. Because of the significant role of mainstream press structures and journalistic practice, stories conveyed notions that development had no negative consequences, and that marginalization of Indians was caused by factors unrelated to industrial resource exploitation. This study contributes to our understanding of aboriginal history, the history of hydroelectric development, and the history of the media by exploring press coverage of the W.A.C. Bennett dam and the Sekani during a period marked by significant changes in the structure of the Canadian media and the practice of journalism in Canada.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2009

Title: The development of Native Studies at Canadian universities: Four programs, four provinces, four decades.
Contributors: Shoshona Taner (author), Robin Fisher (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: An historical and critical examination of First Nations programs at Trent University, the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, The University of Alberta, and UNBC.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 1997

Title: Canadian Indians and the Second World War: The pivotal event of the 20th century for Canadian Indians and Canadian Indian policy?
Contributors: Roy P. Toomey (author), Theodore Binnema (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: No abstract available.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2007

Title: "All the elements of a permanent community": A history of society, culture and entertainment in the Cariboo.
Contributors: Melanie Anne Buddle (author), Robin Fisher (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: No abstract available.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 1997

Title: Yamato nadeshiko in Canada: Experiences of Japanese immigrant women, 1868--1941.
Contributors: Kaori Donovan (author), Mary Ellen Kelm (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: No abstract available.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2002

Title: The shapeliest legs under the council table: Defining the feminist influence on women in British Columbia municipal politics, 1950--1980.
Contributors: Rebecca Jane Shorten (author), Hualin Chen (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The complex relationship between politics and feminism in British Columbia between 1950 and 1980 is explored in this thesis, with an emphasis on the media's role in forming the identities of women involved in local government. The careers of Beth Wood of New Westminster, Carrie Jane Gray of Prince George, and Doreen Lawson of Burnaby will be used as examples of how women were expected to maintain a feminine appearance and still demonstrate an aptitude for work that had once been determined best suited for men. Newspaper portrayals of these women often accentuated the differences between women politicians and their male colleagues, making equality a more difficult objective to attain. Even though these women did not appear to advocate feminist causes, by today's standards, however, these women would be considered feminists because of their convictions and actions and by opening the doors of city hall for future generations of women.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2008

Title: Settler mythology and the construction of the historical memory of the Indian Wars of the Pacific Northwest.
Contributors: Gregory Earl Sell (author), Theodore Binnema (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The 1850s in the Pacific Northwest were marked by conflict between the territorial officials of Oregon and Washington and an apparent majority of the settlers of those two territories, on the one hand, and a small number of federal officials and a very few settlers, on the other. Thus, the historical memory of the Indian Wars of the Pacific Northwest was complicated by controversy almost immediately upon the commencement of hostilities. The struggle to construct and maintain the historical memory of the conflicts of 1855-56 in a way that would support the quest for Congressional funding continued throughout most of the nineteenth century. This struggle resulted in two vastly different accounts of the war, one account very supportive of the war, the other highly critical. The critical, minority, account was excluded from the developing historical memory of the conflict in the Pacific Northwest. This exclusion led to a fundamental lack of honesty in the mainstream historical memory, which shifted the responsibility for the Indian wars away from the settlers.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2008

Title: The resilience of the Babine: The economic and social relations of the Babine to 1830.
Contributors: Blake Emile Bouchard (author), Theodore Binnema (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The Resilience of the Babine' argues that the arrival of the fur trade did not alter fundamentally the economic and social networks of the Babine before 1830. These conclusions are drawn through examining the relevant Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) archival materials which serve as the foundation for this research. Literature from anthropology, the cultural material found in the Delgamuukw court case, linguistics, and environmental science corroborate and provide context for the evidence found in the HBC journals. The conclusions reached run counter to the general scholarly trends regarding the impact of the fur trade on aboriginal networks and suggest the need for a significant re-evaluation of not only the history around Babine Lake, but of all interior regions where the indigenous inhabitants had access to coastal markets through trade networks. --P. ii.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2012

Title: "She's the queen of everyone's heart": Community, gender, morality and sexuality in the "Queen Val-Vedette" and "Queen Aurora of the Evergreens" beauty pageants, 1948--1970.
Contributors: Alison Matte (author), Jacqueline Holler (Thesis advisor), Jonathan Swainger (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: During the decades immediately following the Second World War, beauty pageants were popular spectacles throughout North American society. In contests held in Penticton and Prince George, British Columbia during the 1950s and 1960s, the winners were named Queen Val-Vedette' and Queen Aurora of the Evergreens' respectively. As indicated by unique titles awarded to the queens, these pageants held very specific meanings to some residents. Beauty contests were used as outlets for these residents' to express their sense of community identity, as well as gendered expectations for local young women. This thesis argues that the Penticton and Prince George pageants shared many similarities but ultimately portrayed their candidates and queens in manners that reflected divergent local values. These specific meanings did not necessarily translate to the provincial level, as evidenced by Queen Val-Vedette and Queen Aurora of the Evergreen's involvement with the Miss Pacific National Exhibition' pageant in Vancouver, British Columbia. --P. ii.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2012

Title: Beneath the waters: a microhistory of Ootsa Lake, a northern Eurocanadian community
Contributors: Christopher John Wesley Beach (author), David del Mar (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad across Canada in the years prior to the FIrst World War led to an unprecedented degree of non-aboriginal settlement in northern British Columbia. Thousands of euroCanadians flocked to the North in search of inexpensive agricultural land, spreading out and creating communities in even the most remote sub-regions adjacent to the railway corridor. This thesis explores the development of one such community, Ootsa Lake, from its inception shortly after the turn of the century through to its displacement fifty years later. The community, composed of the four settlements of Wistaria, Streatham, Ootsa and Marilla along the north shore of Ootsa Lake, was flooded out by Alcan's Kemano project in the early 1950s. By looking back through the oral testimony of twenty-six former residents, this thesis examines how the settlers came to know, use and appreciate their environment in ways that defy conventional academic wisdom about non-aboriginal communities in northern British Columbia history. Such wisdom paints a picture of non-native sojourners who travel to the North in search of fortune and either succeed in the purpose or leave shortly thereafter in defeat. Yet the experience of the Ootsa Lake settlers suggests an altogether different story. These settlers quickly discarded any notions of economic grandeur and learned to adapt to their abundant, yet often harsh, environment. A strong dependence upon the surrounding landscape coupled with extreme geographic isolation, brought about a subsistence/barter economy and a relative absence of wage labour and currency. Consequently, the Ootsa Lake settlers were able to build a viable, multi-generational community that survived largely outside of the boom and bust economic cycles that have haunted 'company' and resource-based towns in the provincial North. As such, the history of the Ootsa Lake settlements, long forgotten beneath the waters of the Nechako Reservoir, provides an insightful look into the development of northern British Columbian society.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 1998

Title: Patterns of diffusion: The 1886-1888 measles epidemic and the expansion of settler influence in the Central Interior of British Columbia.
Contributors: Amanda Nicole Dinnes (author), Ted Binnema (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: Patterns of Diffusion' argues that the measles epidemic of 1886-1889 was a pivotal event in the indigenous history of British Columbia especially in its Central Interior. This conclusion is drawn primarily through the examination of Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) documents, but also from newspaper accounts, the oral histories of Imbert Orchard, and the anthropological notes of Marius Barbeau. Prior to this study, no academic work has fully examined the epidemic. Patterns of Diffusion' traces the spread of the epidemic, explores the involvement of the HBC, and examines the origins of the Skeena River Uprising, in which the epidemic was deeply involved. The incorporation of the 1886-1889 measles epidemic into the broader historical narrative contributes to our understanding of the expansion of white settlement and colonial authority in BC's Central Interior region at the end of the nineteenth century. --Leaf ii.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2014

Title: Reshaping the land: an environmental history of Prince George, British Columbia
Contributors: Robert Neil Diaz (author), W.R. Morrison (Thesis advisor), D. del Mar (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: This thesis describes how people interacted with the natural environment of Prince George up to 1915. In general, the author notes that relationship was based on resource extraction, which resulted in unprecedented changes in the land.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 1996

Title: "It Happened to Me in Barkerville": Aboriginal identity, economy, and law in the Cariboo Gold Rush, 1862--1900.
Contributors: Mica Amy Royer Jorgenson (author), Theodore Binnema (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: It Happened to Me in Barkerville' argues that aboriginal people were participants in many aspects of gold rush life in Barkerville and the surrounding region. Despite the fact that many of the records of aboriginal participation are restricted to the areas in which they came into contact with the British-influenced social elite, a critical examination of the existing documents partially reconstructs the experiences of aboriginal people living there. Letters and correspondence, mining company ledgers, newspaper accounts, and court records suggest that aboriginal experiences were complex and diverse. This was especially true of their integration into Barkerville society, opportunistic participation in the gold rush economy, and relationships with colonial administrators at the Richfield courthouse. These conclusions help provide a more complete history of the Cariboo gold rush at Barkerville, and contribute to a better understanding of the history of indigenous people in British Columbia. --P. ii
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2012

Title: Hags, frogs, diamonds, and fairies
Contributors: Alauna Brown (author), Jacqueline Holler (thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia College of Arts, Social, and Health Sciences (Degree granting institution), Dana Wessell Lightfoot (committee member), Virginia Lettinga (committee member), Kristen Guest (committee member)
Abstract: This project examines how representations of the main female characters from a select group of fairy tales from the seventeenth century change over time. The tales studied are significant stories classified as tales of Magical Reward and Punishment for Good and Bad Girls. Instead of a single snapshot of a fairy tale re-imagined, my project captures an evolution of female representation by historically analyzing the fairy tales and reproducing the changes witnessed across the tales in the form of three original paintings. The artwork produced in my study creates new forms of knowledge that explore the validity and complexity of the fairy tale genre, reveal the underestimated power of gender representation, and challenge the audience to think critically about fairy tales not just as stories for children, but as important historical sources.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2017

Title: No Indians allowed
Contributors: Matthew Barager (author), Ted Binnema (thesis advisor), Jonathan Swainger (committee member), Agnes Pawlowska-Mainville (committee member)
Abstract: This thesis argues that Indians and White people who were sympathetic to Native issues episodically challenged racial discrimination and segregation during the post-war era by asserting Native people's growing citizenship rights while calling into question the cultural assumptions that underpinned such prejudice. Those participating in this discourse used analogies with global theatres of racial tension, namely the southern United States, to legitimize their protests. Indians articulated their demands for citizenship by leveraging their burgeoning political rights, their wartime contributions to Canada, and their growing economic contribution to post-war northern British Columbia. During this era, Indians, activists, and sympathetic Whites fought for the liberalization of Native drinking laws and the culturally deterministic preconceptions that motivated such legislation. Finally, newspaper reportage and public perceptions influenced, and to some degree shaped, public discourse on issues of racial discrimination as well as on Native political protest and activism.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2019

Title: Poise under pressure: Eliteness, fashion, and the spatial perception of women in nineteenth-century Britain
Contributors: Megan Blair MacMillan (author), Dana Wessel Lightfoot (thesis advisor), Monica Mattfeld (committee member), Kristen Guest (committee member), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: Every summer thousands of Britain’s elite upper class travelled to London’s West End to socialize and participate in the Season. During this time, elite women donned luxurious court gowns and went to St. James Palace to present themselves before Queen Victoria in Drawing Room ceremonies. One of these gowns, from 1863, survives today and offers an evocative glimpse of how elite women styled themselves for one of the most important ceremonies in their life. But, the West End was not just an elite neighbourhood. It also housed and employed middle and working-class Victorians with whom the elite did not always happily coexist. In 1861, peer and M.P. Sir Shelley allegedly flashed the public and his middle-class neighbours while a carriage procession for one of the Queen’s Drawing Room ceremonies passed below. The Times reported his trial, which featured contemptuous cross-examinations of several working-class women, and Sir Shelley’s triumphant victory. Two years later, several elite men submitted letters to the editor of The Times, complaining about the cramped and sometimes combative atmosphere of royal ceremonies, suggesting that they were not safe for women to attend. There is a gendered conflict in these sources. Those from elite feminine perspectives show the value in attending royal ceremonies, during which women could use their fashion and occupation of space to reinforce or manipulate their social status. The documents written from men’s points of view, however, show an attempted renegotiation of elite status by excluding the middle class and further limiting women’s access to elite spaces. My research questions where this conflict originated and how historians can utilize less traditional sources to bring feminine perspectives into areas of history in which male points of view have often dominated.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2022-12-09

Title: The newspaper wars in Prince George, B.C., 1909--1918.
Contributors: Rhys Alan Pugh (author), William Morrison (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: One of the most interesting aspects of early Prince George history is the ongoing feud between the city\u2019s first two newspapers. On the surface this feud seems to exist only because of the confrontational and opinionated people who edited these newspapers. On deeper inspection it becomes clear that both of Prince George\u2019s founding newspapers argued as surrogates for the local interest groups they represented. They both articulated positions that would benefit their particular interest group, and their reporting and writing was designed to support this end. Despite this, historians of Prince George have done little to explain this ongoing battle, particularly how it was fought through local newspapers. This thesis aims to show that in its early days Prince George was not a unified community, but was instead a competing group of small communities, fighting bitterly among themselves for dominance. Furthermore, this fight was conducted through the local newspapers primarily over the issues of the location of the station and the incorporation and the promotion of Prince George.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2005

Title: 'Not by oil alone': A history of Khanty and Mansi political mobilization, 1985 to 1996.
Contributors: Donna L. Atkinson (author), Aileen Espiritu (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: No abstract available.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2005

Title: "Physically We are a Mighty Nation, Nationally We are Children" - Conscription and Identity in Canada, 1940-1945
Contributors: Mercedes Miranda DuBois (author), Jonathan Swainger (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia College of Arts, Social, and Health Sciences (Degree granting institution), Theodore Binnema (Committee member), Gary Wilson (Committee member)
Abstract: Throughout the Second World War, over 150,000 men were compelled to arms under Canada's National Resources Mobilization Act, but these men could not be sent overseas unless they volunteered for front-line service. Their status as conscripts led many contemporaries to construct them as disloyal and unpatriotic foreigners because they were not willing to subscribe to ideas surrounding patriotism and voluntarism. These constructions speak to the profound disquiet that the conscription issue triggered for the nation. This thesis explores contemporary ideas about conscripts, as well as the perspectives of compulsory recruits themselves, to argue that Canadians were unsettled by waning British imperialism, emerging ideas interconnected with the rise of the welfare state, and the country's lack of its own sense of self. These conclusions provide a more nuanced understanding of conscription and identity outside of the high-level political approach that dominates the historiography.
Discipline: History
Content Model: info:fedora/ir:thesisCModel
Date added: 2016

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