POTENTIAL PAPER TOPICS

 

Students are encouraged to pursue their individual research interests in this course, as long as the subject relates to the history of the Canadian North (a concept we will discuss in class). The course website contains a list of suggested essay topics for which there are ample scholarly resources available. You may, of course, pick a topic that is not on this list, but you are advised to discuss it with the instructor prior to submitting your proposal.

Students majoring in a discipline other than history are also encouraged to undertake “interdisciplinary” research that draws upon their background studies in other disciplines. For example, a legal studies student might look at a particular legal case or issue, a psychology student might look at the concept of “arctic hysteria” and critically analyze an historical case or cases, or an anthropology student might look at whether a particular anthropological theory that s/he has studied pertains to certain historical experiences. Please feel free to talk to the professor if you are unsure about your topic.

Reader’s Guide 1: Beginnings to Confederation (Toronto, 1994), Doug Owram, ed., Canadian History: A Reader’s Guide 2: Confederation to Present (Toronto, 1994), and/or the recent (and very perceptive) chapters in K. Abel and K.S. Coates, eds. Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History prior to meeting with the instructor to discuss potential sources.

In preparing your papers you should consult at least eight major books and articles, one of which should be a primary source (written by a participant, or an actual witness of the event discussed).  The essays are to be footnoted/endnoted in Chicago Style and submitted with a proper bibliography.  MLA style is not acceptable and any papers cited in this format will be returned for a re-write with a 10% grade penalty.  For the format of a history paper students must consult the SJU History Essay Guide.

 

Potential Topics (a short and sporadic list of possibilities)

 

Indigenous relations in the pre-contact subarctic

The Norse and the Arctic

Early explorers and their contributions to European knowledge about the North

Early depictions of the Arctic and its peoples

The impacts of the subarctic fur trade on northern Aboriginal peoples

The role of women in the northern fur trade

The competition between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company

Why did the British fail to discover the Northwest Passage in the early and mid-nineteenth century?

Lady Franklin and her quest to determine the fate of her husband’s expedition.

Did the nineteenth century fur trade weaken or strengthen the Dene of the Mackenzie River Valley?  Discuss making specific reference to the Kutchin (Loucheux) (for this topic, you can consult the references list on the lecture page on the fur trade).

Compare the impact of the whalers on the Inuit on Hudson Bay and the Beaufort Sea.

What was the contribution of the Moravian missionaries to the welfare of the Labrador Inuit in the nineteenth century?

What has been the impact of the Anglican and/or Roman Catholic churches on the Inuit in the Western and/or the Eastern Canadian Arctic, or on Native peoples in the Mackenzie Valley?

The role of the RNWMP/RCMP in asserting Canadian sovereignty in the arctic

The social history of the Yukon in the gold rush era

The idea of “north” in early Canadian nationalist thought (Haliburton, Parkin, etc.)

Compare Vilhjalmar Stefansson and Diamond Jenness as commentators on the Inuit.  (Or you might look at anthropologists and how they have written about Northern aboriginal peoples over time.)

Critically analyze the film Nanook of the North in light of scholarly literature and the Inuit film response.

The impact of mining or other resource development projects on a particular area of the North

The airplane and the opening up of the North. (Or other transportation themes like the northern sea lift, steamboats on the Mackenzie, etc.)

Compare the impacts of the Klondike Gold Rush and of the Second World War on the Yukon.

Critically compare and analyze the literature about Albert Johnson, ‘the Mad Trapper,’ and the RCMP quest to track him down. 

Vilhjalmar Stefansson’s ideas on Canada’s northern destiny in the 1920s

How and why did American activities in the Second World War shock Canada out of their “fit of absence of mind” regarding the North?

Why did Canada support American military projects in the Canadian Arctic immediately after the war?  Discuss from 1945 to 1960.

What were the impacts of the construction and operation of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line on the Canadian arctic, or the construction and operation of the Mid-Canada Line on the subarctic?

Farley Mowat, Inuit starvation, and the “politics of embarrassment” in the 1950s

Why did the Canadian government relocate Inuit in the Eastern Arctic in the 1950's?  Was it for sovereignty, or for humanitarian reasons?

John Diefenbaker’s “northern vision” – What did it include? Why did it fail?

What impact has “urbanization” had on Aboriginal peoples in the arctic or subarctic?

The growth of cooperatives in the postwar arctic

The commercialization of Inuit art

How have the Territories evolved as "Canada's colonies" since the Klondike Gold Rush?

 What was the impact of Judges J.H. Sissons (1955-1965) and W.G. Morrow (1965-1976) on the administration of justice in the N.W.T.?

Themes related to medicine, welfare, and education (eg. residential schools) in the North

 What impact did the Berger Inquiry have on the development of the Mackenzie Valley in the late 1970s and 1980s?

The Cree struggle against hydroelectric megaprojects in Quebec and the modern land claims process (or another example of a comprehensive land claim in the modern north)

The Goose Bay low-level flying debate in the late 1980s/early 1990s

The origins of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) or Indian and Eskimo Association/Inuit Tapirisat Kanatami (ITK) and their activities to further northern Aboriginal peoples’ interests

Why was a separate political jurisdiction for the Eastern Arctic (Nunavut) created? 

Compare Canadian responses to the voyages of the Manhattan and the Polar Sea.

Why did Trudeau’s government invoke the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act and how did it represent ‘functional sovereignty’?

A historiographical assessment of a particular Northern theme, individual, or area (which you might wish to discuss with the professor in advance)

 

You may, of course, pick a topic that is not on this list.  You are advised to discuss it with the instructor prior to submitting your proposal. 

 

At the 3rd year level, student papers should reference both primary and secondary sources.

 

Examples of Primary Documents

 

Amundsen, R., G. Hansen, et al. (1908). Roald Amundsen's "The North West Passage" : Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Gjoa" 1903-1907. London, A. Constable.
 

Cody, H. A. (1908). An apostle of the North : memoirs of William Carpenter Bompas.

 

Comer, G. and W. G. Ross (1984). An Arctic whaling diary : the journal of Captain George Comer in Hudson Bay, 1903-1905. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
 

Grace, S. (2004). Mina Benson Hubbard's "A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador. Edited with an Introduction. McGill-Queen's University Press.

 

Hearne, S. (1977). A journey from Prince of Wale's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean undertaken by order of the Hudson's Bay Company, for the discovery of copper mines, a northwest passage, &c., in the years 1769, 1770, 1771, & 1772. New Haven, Conn., Research Publications 1977?

Houston, J. A. (1995). Confessions of an igloo dweller. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart.
 

Howerd, G. (1960). DEW line doctor. London, Hale.
 

King, R. (1855). The Franklin expedition, from first to last. London, J. Churchill.

Mackenzie, S. A. and W. Combe (1801). Voyages from Montreal : on the river St. Laurence, through the continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific oceans ; in the years 1789 and 1793. With a preliminary account of the rise, progress, and present state of the fur trade of that country. London, T. Cadell jun. and W. Davies ; etc. etc.

Pitseolak, P. and D. Eber (1993). People from our side : a life story. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Ranson, R. (2003). Working north : DEW line to drill ship. Edmonton, NeWest Press.

Stefansson, V. (1922). The Friendly Arctic, The Story of Five Years in Polar Regions. New York, Macmillan.

Stefansson, V. and R. M. Anderson (1913). My Life With the Eskimo. New York, Macmillan.

Stefansson, V. (1964). Discovery; The Autobiography of Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York, Mcgraw-Hill.

Sverdrup, O. N. and T. C. E. Fairley (1959). Arctic Adventures. Adapted From New Land: Four Years in the Arctic Regions, by the Norwegian Explorer Otto Sverdrup. (Translated From the Norwegian by Ethel Harriet Hearn. (London) Longmans.

You can also visit the Champlain Society Publications website, which contains a number of applicable volumes (available online, full text, free of charge) in the Hudson's Bay Company Series and General Series.  If you choose to go this route, be sure to pick a volume that relates to the Canadian "North."  If you are unsure, discuss your suggestion with the professor.
 

Early Canadiana Online also contains relevant primary sources.

 

 

Example of Secondary Sources

 

Useful search terms (Subject) to find book sources in Trellis include:

Canada, Northern History

Labrador History

Northwest, Canadian History

Northwest Territories History

Yukon Territory History

Abel, K. M. (2005). Drum songs : glimpses of Dene history. Montreal ; Ithaca, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Backhouse, F., P. Berton, et al. (1996). Women of the Klondike. Vancouver, Whitecap Books.

Beardsley, M. (2002). Deadly winter : the life of Sir John Franklin. Annapolis, Md., Naval Intitute Press.

Berton, P. (1956). The mysterious north. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart.

Berton, P. (1972). Klondike : the Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1972.

Berton, P. (1988). The Arctic grail : the quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1911. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart.

Black, M. L. (1976). My ninety years. Anchorage, Alaska, Alaska Northwest Pub. Co.

Brody, H. (1982). Maps and dreams : Indians and the British Columbia frontier. London, Norman & Hobhouse.

Brody, H. (1987). Living Arctic : hunters of the Canadian north. Vancouver, Douglas & McIntyre.

Brody, H. (1991). The people's land : Inuit, whites and the eastern Arctic. Vancouver, B.C., Douglas & McIntyre.

Coates, K. (1985). The Alaska highway : papers of the 40th Anniversary Symposium. Vancouver, University of British Columbia Press.

Coates, K. (1985). Canada's colonies : a history of the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Toronto, Lorimer.

Coates, K., W. R. Morrison, et al. (1989). For purposes of dominion : essays in honour of Morris Zaslow. North York, Ont., Captus Press.

Coates, K. and W. R. Morrison (1989). Interpreting Canada's North : selected readings. Mississauga, Ont., Copp Clark Pitman.

Coates, K. and J. Powell (1989). The modern North : people, politics and the struggle against colonialism. Toronto, Lorimer.

Coates, K. and W. R. Morrison (1990). The sinking of the Princess Sophia : taking the north down with her. Toronto, Oxford University Press.

Coates, K. A. (1991). Best Left as Indians: Native-White Relations in the Yukon Territory, 1840-1973. Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Coates, K. S. and W. R. Morrison (1992). The forgotten North : a history of Canada's provincial Norths. Toronto, J. Lorimer.

Coates, K. A. a. W. R. M. (1992). The Alaska Highway in WWII: The U.S. Army of Occupation in Canada's Northwest. Norman, OK, University of Oklahoma Press.

Coates, K. A. a. W. R. M. (1994). Working the North: Labor and the Northwest Defense Projects 1942-1946. Anchorage, University of Alaska Press.

Coates, K. and W. R. Morrison (1996). The historiography of the provincial norths. Thunder Bay, Ont., Centre for Northern Studies Lakehead University.

Coates, K. and W. R. Morrison (2004). Strange things done : murder in Yukon history. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Coates, K. and W. R. Morrison (2005). Land of the midnight sun : a history of the Yukon. Montreal & Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Cruikshank, J. (1990). Life lived like a story : life stories of three Yukon native elders. Vancouver, University of British Columbia Press.

Damas, D. (2002). Arctic migrants/Arctic villagers : the transformation of Inuit settlement in the central Arctic. Montreal ; Ithaca, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Diubaldo, R. (1978). Stefansson and the Canadian arctic. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Duffy, R. Q. (1988). The Road to Nunavut: The Progress of Eastern Arctic Inuit since the Second World War. Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Eber, D. (1989). When the whalers were up north : Inuit memories from the Eastern Arctic. Kingston, Ont., McGill-Queen's University Press.

Eber, D. (1997). Images of justice : a legal history of the Northwest Territories as traced through the Yellowknife Courthouse Collection of Inuit sculpture. Montreal ; Buffalo, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Folk, G. E. and M. A. Folk (1984). Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the development of Arctic terrestrial science. Iowa City, Iowa, University of Iowa.

Fossett, R. (2001). In order to live untroubled : Inuit of the central Arctic, 1550-1940. Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Press.

Francis, D. (1984). Arctic Chase : a History of Whaling in Canada's North. (St. John'S, Nfld.) Breakwater Books, C1984.

Fumoleau, R. and Arctic Institute of North America. (2004). As long as this land shall last: a history of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, 1870-1939. Calgary, University of Calgary Press.

Geller, P. G. (2004). Northern exposures : photographing and filming the Canadian north, 1920-45. Vancouver, UBC Press.

Gough, B. M. (1997). First across the continent : Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart Inc.

Grace, S. (2001). Canada and the idea of north. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Grant, J. W. (1984). Moon of Wintertime : Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter Since 1534. Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1984.

Grant, S. (1988). Sovereignty or Security: Government Policy in the Canadian North, 1936-50. Vancouver, UBC Press.

Grant, S. D. (2002). Arctic justice : on trial for murder, Pond Inlet, 1923. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Hamilton, J. D. (1994). Arctic revolution : social change in the Northwest Territories, 1935-1994. Toronto, Dundurn Press.
 

Jockel, J. (1987). No Boundaries Upstairs: Canada, the United States, and the Origins of North American Air Defence, 1945-1958. Vancouver, UBC Press.

Karamanski, T. J. (1983). Fur trade and exploration : opening the Far Northwest, 1821-1852. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.

Kelcey, B. E. (2001). Alone in silence : European women in the Canadian North before 1940. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

McGhee, R. and Canadian Museum of Civilization. (2001). The arctic voyages of Martin Frobisher : an Elizabethan adventure. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

McGhee, R. and Canadian Museum of Civilization. (2001). Ancient people of the Arctic. Vancouver, UBC Press.

McMahon, K. (1988). Arctic twilight. Toronto, James Lorimer.

Mitchell, M. (1996). From talking chiefs to a native corporate elite : the birth of class and nationalism among Canadian Inuit. Montreal ; Buffalo, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Morenus, R. (1957). DEW line : distant early warning, the miracle of America's first line of defense. New York, Rand McNally.

Morison, S. E. (1971) The European Discovery of America. New York Oxford University Press.

Morrison, W. R. (1985). Showing the flag : the Mounted Police and Canadian Sovereignty in the North, 1894-1925. Vancouver, University of British Columbia Press.

Mowat, F. (1954). People of the deer. Boston, Little Brown.

Mowat, F. (1959). The Desperate People. Boston, Little Brown.

Mowat, F. (1976). The great betrayal : arctic Canada now. Boston ; Toronto, Little Brown.

Mowat, F. (1989). Ordeal by ice : the search for the Northwest Passage. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart.

Mowat, F. (2000). Walking on the land. Toronto, Key Porter Books.

Neatby, L. H. (1970). The Search for Franklin. Edmonton M.G. Hurtig.

North, D. (1989). Trackdown : the search for the mad trapper. Toronto, Macmillan of Canada.

Nuligak (1966). I, Nuligak. Translated From the Eskimo by Maurice Metayer. Illus. by Ekootak. Toronto: P. Martin Associates.

Oleson, T. J. (1963). Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, 1000-1632. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.

Page, R. J. D. (1986). Northern development : the Canadian dilemma. Toronto, Ont., McClelland and Stewart.

Peake, F. A. (1966). The bishop who ate his boots : a biography of Isaac O. Stringer. Toronto, Anglican Church of Canada.

Phillips, R. A. J. (1967). Canada's North. Toronto, McMillan of Canada.

Porsild, C. L. and netLibrary Inc. (1998). Gamblers and dreamers : women, men, and community in the Klondike. Vancouver, UBC Press.

Rea, K. J. (1968). The Political Economy of the Canadian North; An Interpretation of the Course of Development in the Northern Territories of Canada to the Early 1960's. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.

Rich, E. E. (1967). The Fur Trade and the Northwest to 1857. (Toronto) McClelland and Stewart (C1967).

Rutherdale, M. (2002). Women and the white man's God : gender and race in the Canadian mission field. Vancouver, UBC Press.

Steele, S. B. and M. G. Niblett (1915). Forty Years in Canada : Reminiscences of the Great North West, With Some Account of His Service in South Africa. Toronto Mcclelland, Goodchild & Stewart, 1915.

Stefansson, V. (1924). The Northward Course of Empire. With an Introd. by Edward William Nelson. New York, Macmillan.

Tester, F. J. and P. K. Kulchyski (1994). Tammarniit (mistakes) : Inuit relocation in the Eastern Arctic, 1939-63. Vancouver, UBC Press.

Wallace, H. N. (1980). The Navy, the Company, and Richard King : British exploration in the Canadian Arctic, 1829-1860. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press.

Zaslow, M. (1971). The Opening of the Canadian North, 1870-1914. Toronto, Mcclelland and Stewart (C1971).

Zaslow, M. (1988). The Northward Expansion of Canada, 1914-1967. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart.