Dissertation
THEY WOULD “ACCESS CANADA AT A USUAL AND ACCUSTOMED GATHERING PLACE”: CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND PRESERVATION ACROSS THE US-CANADA BORDER BY THE SINIXT NATION AND THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE COLVILLE RESERVATION
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111248
Abstract
This dissertation researches transnational connections of Indigenous Peoples in the western borderlands of the United States and Canada. The dissertation focuses on attempts of cultural preservation in this cross-border setting with a specific focus on the traditional Sin-Aikst People who are today represented by the unrecognized Sinixt Nation in Canada and the Lakes Peoples of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The role of women in these cross-border movements for cultural preservation are a main focus of the dissertation. Geographically the research focuses on the western United States and Canada along the U.S.-Canadian border in British Columbia and Washington State. The United States and the British Empire established the border between the western United States and Canada with the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 and the 1846 Oregon Treaty. Women played significant roles in preserving Indigenous cultures and languages, but their roles have mostly been overlooked by scholars. The tribal connections across the U.S.-Canadian border impacted the way those women protected their cultural heritage. They learned from each other about traditions, legends, folktales, and through this were able to protect their cultural heritage for future generations. The experience of women like Mourning Dove was immensely impacted by the different timelines of assimilation attempts in the western United States and Canada, as Mourning Dove was able to access traditional Sin-Aikst knowledge more freely on the Canadian side of the border than on the United States side. The dissertation adds to the historiographies of transnationalism with its focus on “transnational” Indigenous communities crossing the U.S.-Canadian border and the resistance across international boundaries towards assimilation attempts in the United States and Canada during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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Details
- Title
- THEY WOULD “ACCESS CANADA AT A USUAL AND ACCUSTOMED GATHERING PLACE”: CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND PRESERVATION ACROSS THE US-CANADA BORDER BY THE SINIXT NATION AND THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE COLVILLE RESERVATION
- Creators
- Melanie Reimann
- Contributors
- Robert McCoy (Advisor)Lawrence B.A. Hatter (Committee Member)Jennifer Thigpen (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 274
- Identifiers
- 99900581703601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation