Wildlife, Land, and People: A Century of Change in Prairie Canada

by Donald G. Wetherell

Overview

Encounters with wild animals are among the most significant relationships between humans and the natural world. Presenting a history of human interactions with wildlife in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan between 1870 and 1960, Wildlife, Land, and People examines the confrontations that led to diverse consequences – from the near annihilation of some species to the extraordinary preservation of others – and skilfully finds the roots of these relationships in people’s needs for food, sport, security, economic development, personal fulfillment, and identity. Donald Wetherell shows how utilitarian practices, in which humans viewed animals either as friendly sources of profit or as threats to their economic and personal security, dominated until the 1960s. Alongside these views, however, other attitudes asserted that wild animals were part of the beauty, mystery, and order of the natural world. Wetherell outlines the ways in which this attitude gained strength after World War II, distinguished by a growing conviction that every species has ecological value. Through a century in which the natural landscape of the prairie region was radically transformed by human activity, conflicts developed over fur and game management, over Aboriginal use of the land, and over the preservation of endangered species like bison and elk. Yet the period also saw the creation of national parks, zoos, and natural history societies. Drawing on a wide array of historical sources and photographs as well as current approaches to environmental history, Wildlife, Land, and People enriches our understanding of the many-layered relationships between humans and nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773547919
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	09/29/2016
Series:	Carleton Library Series , #238
Pages:	640
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Donald G. Wetherell is professor emeritus of heritage resources management at Athabasca University.

Table of Contents

Figures ix

Abbreviations xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Preface xvii

Part 1 The Animals and the Place

1 The State of Things: Wildlife, Land, and People after 1870 3

Part 2 Thinking About Animals

2 Some Perspectives on Animal Behaviour 35

3 Friends and Foes 75

Part 3 Connections

4 A Pursuit of Utility: The State and Wildlife 117

5 Eating Wild Animals 158

6 Hunting as Sport: Ideals and Practice 183

7 Reconstructing Nature: Acclimatizing Animals for the Wild 227

8 It's a War: Farming and Wildlife 252

9 First Nations, the State, and the Economy of Wildlife 290

10 Economics and Nostalgia: Encounters with Fur-Bearers 321

11 The Spectacle of Nature: Wildlife and the National Parks 356

12 Rounding Out a Full Life: Traditions of Natural History 404

13 Displaying Wild Animals 434

Conclusion: Fitting and Not Fitting Together 484

Notes 505

Bibliography 573

Index 597

Editorial Reviews

11/21/2016
Wetherell (Alberta Formed—Alberta Transformed) has crafted a magnum opus of environmental history outlining the complex relationships between humans and wildlife on the Canadian prairies since 1870. He argues that humans and the environment are integrated in ways that have shaped Canada’s modern development. People have encountered wild animals under different temporal, geographical, economic, and cultural circumstances that offer “a critical dimension of the working of power in society and the implications of human agency in the world.” The first section deals with the place-based interactions between people and wild animals on the prairies in the late 19th century. The second outlines how white Canadians and First Nations peoples have thought about the roles of animals in the world. The third discusses how individuals and the state have managed wildlife as a natural resource. Wetherell charts a history during which humans transitioned from viewing animals as “friends or foes” and gradually came to understand that all species are parts of interconnected ecosystems. Though this is a hefty, academic study, it is written and highly recommended for a broader readership interested in history and conservation. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Wildlife, Land, and People is a valuable contribution that scholars from many disciplines and fields will enjoy. This book is a cultural, intellectual, and environmental history of animals and people. At the same time, filled with anecdotes and stories, $Wildlife, Land, and People is quite a book! ...it is and will be for many years the seminal and authoritative history of human- wildlife interactions in the Prairie Provinces. It is excellent environmental history and can be drawn on for classes on geography, wildlife studies, and cultural and environmental history, or any classes on western Canada or the northern Great Plains. It would make excellent required reading for graduate seminars in any of those fields. [It] is truly an opus magnus." Great Plains Research


“Wetherell (Alberta Formed—Alberta Transformed) has crafted a magnum opus of environmental history outlining the complex relationships between humans and wildlife on the Canadian prairies since 1870. Though this is a hefty, academic study, it is written and highly recommended for a broader readership interested in history and conservation." Publisher’s Weekly


"There is something in the tremendous loss of species at the hands of humans discussed here that invites comparison as a Prairies version of Farley Mowat's Sea of Slaughter." Darcy Ingram, University of Ottawa and Selkirk College

From the Publisher