Our Chiefs and Elders: Words and Photographs of Native Leaders

Ronald N. Harpelle is an assistant professor of history at the
University of Manitoba.

David Neel has done a remarkable job of collecting, transcribing, and
presenting the personal accounts of Native chiefs and elders in British
Columbia. Our Chiefs and Elders is filled with evocative photographs and
stories that reveal the richness of a traditional way of life. Most of
the people in the book are men, who are usually chiefs, but women’s
voices are also included as elders. All explain who they are and offer
an account of some aspect of their life or of Native tradition. The true
value of the book is in its sensitive presentation of oral accounts of
Native traditions (there is little evidence of an editor’s hand at
work). This book serves to keep the images and values of some of British
Columbia’s aboriginal peoples alive.