I Have Lived Here Since the World Began: An Illustrated History of Canada's Native People

J.R. Miller is a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan,
the author of Skyscrapers Hide in the Heavens: A History of Indian-White
Relations in Canada, and co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review.

Arthur Ray, a leader among the historical geographers—who, over the
past 30 years, have revolutionized our understanding of the history of
Native peoples in Canada—has summarized much of this knowledge in this
survey history. Ray enriches his scholarship with a marvelous gallery of
archival and newspaper photographs, works of art, and artifacts to
produce a readable and informative overview of Native-newcomer relations
over the past five centuries.

Ray’s account follows a familiar pattern, beginning in the east with
the contacts that led to the creation of New France and following the
frontier of interaction between indigenous and immigrant peoples
westward and then north. His particular focus is on the economic
relations of Native peoples and Europeans.

Given the absence of endnotes and the inclusion of only a skimpy
bibliography, it is reasonable to assume that the book is aimed at a
general audience. While the high quality of the research, writing, and
illustration that underlie it should guarantee that this aim is
achieved, I Have Lived Here Since the World Began should also prove
useful in undergraduate university courses, though the absence of
references and a full bibliography will limit its utility for
postsecondary students.

There is little in Ray’s introductory survey that attracts criticism.
There are a few minor slips of fact or interpretation concerning western
treaties and federal government policies that aimed at the assimilation
and political subjugation of First Nations communities between the 1880s
and the 1970s. The work is also uneven in a geographical sense,
providing superb coverage of the northwest interior or Hudson’s Bay
Company lands, the Pacific region, and the North, but skimping on
central Canada after about 1830, and the Atlantic region following the
Treaty of Utrecht (1713). However, given the many strengths and overall
excellence of Ray’s coverage, these deficiencies should be overlooked.