A History of the Native People of Canada, Vol. 3, Part 1 (AD 500-European Contact)

John Stanley is a senior policy advisor in the Corporate Policy Branch
Management Board Secretariat, Government of Ontario.

James Wright was a man who stood tall in archaeology, as he did in
physical stature. His ability to visualize the “big picture” in
terms of archaeological traditions, first in Ontario and then in the
rest of Canada, aided the discipline greatly. This book, the third in
his series of archaeologically based looks at the pre-contact history of
Native people of Canada, covers the time period from A.D. 500 to
European contact, and considers the Maritime Algonquian, St. Lawrence
Iroquois, Ontario Iroquois, Glen Meyer/Western Basin and Northern
Algonquian.

Wright makes no bones about the fact that his work lacks the
“distanced objectivity” of the anonymous scholar. This very personal
account reveals a man who does not suffer fools gladly, particularly
those whose sense of evidence does not match his old-school standards.
My favourite comment is the following: “I can’t decide whether some
of the foregoing misplaced opinions are the products of self-enhancing
anarchism, post-modern fadism, or simply some kind of an immature game
of playing the Devil’s Advocate.”

This does not make of Wright’s work an essentially conservative
piece. He repeatedly demonstrates that his mind is not closed to new
ideas and techniques of interpretation, whether it be the probability
that Glen Meyer was Algonquian and not Iroquoian as has long been
thought (including by Wright) or in the use of lake varves (annually
laid-down sediments) as a dating device. And he is well aware of the
failings of the discipline, old and new, as is best illustrated in the
section of each chapter titled “Limitations in the Evidence.”

A History of the Native People of Canada, Vol. 3, Part 1 is recommended
for all students and scholars of the time period and cultures it
encompasses.