Covering topics such as the Indian Act, the High Arctic relocation of 1953, and the conflict at Ipperwash, Keith D. Smith draws on a diverse selection of documents including letters, testimonies, speeches, transcripts, newspaper articles, and government records. In his thoughtful introduction, Smith provides guidance on the unique challenges of dealing with Indigenous primary sources by highlighting the critical skill of "reading against the grain." Each chapter includes an introduction and a list of discussion questions, and helpful background information is provided for each of the readings. Organized thematically into fifteen chapters, the reader also contains a list of key figures, along with maps and images.

The over 90 historical documents contained in Strange Visitors record the complicated relationship between Canada's Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations from 1876 to the present. Covering topics such as the Indian Act, the high Arctic relocation of 1953, and the conflict at Ipperwash, the selected sources inform readers on a wide range of topics and perspectives, drawing on letters, testimonies, speeches, transcripts, newspaper articles, and government records. In his thoughtful introduction, Keith D. Smith provides guidance on the unique challenges when dealing with Indigenous primary sources by highlighting the critical skill of "reading against the grain."

Each chapter includes an introduction and a list of discussion questions, and helpful background information is provided for each reading. Organized thematically into 15 chapters, the reader also contains a list of key figures, maps and images.

Canada is regularly presented as a country where liberalism has ensuredfreedom and equality for all. Yet with the expansion of settlers intothe First Nations territories that became southern Alberta and BC,liberalism proved to be an exclusionary rather than inclusionary force.Between 1877 and 1927, government officials, police officers, churchrepresentatives, ordinary settlers, and many others operated to excludeand reform Indigenous people. Presenting Anglo-Canadian liberalcapitalist values and structures and interests as normal, natural, andbeyond reproach devalued virtually every aspect of Indigenous cultures.This book explores the means used to facilitate and justifycolonization, their effects on Indigenous economic, political, social,and spiritual lives, and how they were resisted.