Claiming the Land
BRITISH COLUMBIA AND THE MAKING OF A NEW EL DORADO
B.C. History
- Price
- $24.95
This trailblazing history of early British Columbia focuses on the 1858 Fraser River gold rush — the third great mass migration of gold seekers after the Californian and Australian rushes in search of a new El Dorado.
Marshall’s detailed account becomes an adventure, prospecting the rich pay streaks of B.C.’s “founding” event and the gold fever that gripped populations all along the Pacific Slope. In doing so, Marshall unsettles many of our romanticized assumptions about the Fraser rush. He shows how foreign miner-militias crossed the 49th parallel, taking the law into their own hands and conducting extermination campaigns against Indigenous peoples. Drawing on new evidence, Marshall explores the three principal cultures of the goldfields: those of the fur trade (both Indigenous and the Hudson’s Bay Company); the Californian; and the British. The year 1858 was a year of chaos unlike any other in Pacific Northwest history. It produced not only violence but the formal inauguration of colonialism, Native reserves, and, ultimately, the expansion of Canada to the Pacific Slope — leaving Indigenous sovereignty waiting for a full resolution.
Reviews
Winner, Canadian Historical Association’s Clio Prize, British Columbia
Winner, Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Book on British Columbia
Gold medal winner, IPPY Award, Best Regional Non-fiction Canada-West
“The Fraser Canyon War, as it came to be called, was ‘a conflict of cataclysmic proportions . . . . and it’s also one of the greatest untold stories of our time. . . . This whole country needs a deeply inclusive story that all of us can see ourselves in’ is the case Claiming the Land author Daniel Marshall makes” —Terry Glavin, Maclean’s Magazine
“Marshall has, in effect, rewritten the pivotal history of the birth of the province. This book is long overdue and will form the basis for further research for years to come.” —Canada’s History
“Our efforts toward reconciliation, seen from this perspective, still have very far to go. Claiming the land continues; now it is Indigenous peoples versus pipelines. The stakes are as high as they were in 1858.” —The Tyee
“It’s one of those stories you never heard about in school. . . . Meticulously documented, Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New Eldorado belongs in libraries and schools among the history books that tell our country’s founding story. It helps fill a major gap in our historical narrative — the largely untold Canyon War and the central role of Indigenous peoples — the original discoverers of gold and their important role in B.C. being a part of Canada.” —Vancouver Sun
“I say it is a vital new book, because, first, any book about the virtually unknown and bitterly deadly Fraser Canyon War of 1858, is welcome. . . . It’s brilliant. So much that has been unclear is suddenly in clear light” —The Ormsby Review
“Marshall . . . reminds us how everything changed for Indigenous peoples in 1858 — something we continue to grapple with today.” —BC BookWorld
“Marshall’s lucid script documents the complexities of the 1858 Gold Rush and the various confrontations between Indigenous people and gold-seeking immigrants. . . [a] revisionist history concerning an often-overlooked topic. Recommended.” —Canadian Literature
“The year 1858 is considered the birth of British Columbia, as we know it, but the events of that year have never before been considered as critically and exhaustively as they have been in this book. Marshall has, in effect, rewritten the pivotal history of the birth of the province and of Victoria. This book will form the basis for further research for years to come.” —Times Colonist
“Claiming the Land . . . reveals how Indigenous people, backed up by British colonial and fur trade officials, neutralized lawless paramilitary brigades of American gold miners on the Fraser River in the summer of 1858.” —BC Booklook
“Marshall is for the first time writing the full history of the Fraser River Gold Rush. And it’s a history which has not seen the light of day until now.” —Hope-Standard
“That the war even happened will take many people by surprise. Downplayed or ignored in Canadian research, its significance gets special emphasis in Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New El Dorado. The war constitutes one of a number of surprises in what author Daniel Marshall . . . calls a ‘substantial revisionist history.’” —Resource Clips
Book Details
Pub Date: June 2018
Trade Paperback
406 pages
Print ISBN 9781553805021
E-book ISBN 9781553805038
PDF ISBN 9781553805045
6” x 9”
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