These Mountains Are Our Sacred Places: The Story of the Stoney People

J.R. (Jim) Miller is Canada Research Chair of History at the University
of Saskatchewan. His latest works are Reflections on Native-Newcomer
Relations: Selected Essays and Lethal Legacy: Current Native
Controversies in Canada.

First published in 1977, in part to commemorate the 100th anniversary of
Treaty 7 in southern Alberta, These Mountains Are Our Sacred Places has
enjoyed a good reputation among students of the First Nations of Canada.


Written by Stoney Chief John Snow, at the time of the first edition
also a United Church of Canada minister, These Mountains reviews very
briefly the pre-contact history of the Stoney, a Nakoda (Sioux) people
of the foothills of the Rockies, and then turns to a more detailed
survey of relations between the Stoney and non-Natives from contact to
the late 20th century. It effectively provides the Stoney view of Treaty
7 as a treaty of peace and friendship, rather than land surrender and
political submission, and explains the sense of betrayal that that First
Nation has experienced since 1877. In brief, what the Stoney understood
the treaty to have promised concerning reserves, food aid, and medical
help for the most part has not been forthcoming from the government of
Canada.

The volume recounts, largely from the records of the Department of
Indian Affairs but also with some oral history evidence, the Stoney
campaign for redress of its claims, especially that concerning the
inadequacy of the reserves they were assigned. It expresses eloquently
the sense of betrayal and disappointment the First Nation felt by the
time of the treaty’s centenary in 1977.

A new epilogue is the only addition to the original text.
Unfortunately, it is rather disjointed in its argument and somewhat hard
to follow. Its single most important conclusion is that little has
changed for the Stoney since 1977. For his part, Chief Snow has changed:
he no longer considers himself an ordained Christian minister.

Written in an accessible, readable format, this republished volume of
Native–newcomer history is a welcome event.