"At the place known as Head-Smashed-In in southwestern Alberta, Aboriginal people practiced a form of group hunting for nearly 6,000 years before European contact. The large communal bison traps of the Plains were the single greatest food-getting method ever developed in human history. Hunters, working with their knowledge of the land and of buffalo behaviour, drove their quarry over a cliff and into wooden corrals. The rest of the group butchered the kill in the camp below

The central aim of "The West and Beyond" is to evaluate and appraise the state of Western Canadian history, to acknowledge and assess the contributions of historians of the past and present, to showcase the research interests of a new generation of scholars, to chart new directions for the future, and stimulate further interrogations of our past.-- The book is broken into five sections and contains articles from both established and new scholars that broadly reflect findings of the conference "The West and Beyond:-- Historians Past, Present and Future" held in Edmonton, Alberta in the summer of 2008.-- The editors hope the collection will encourage dialogue among generations of historians of the West and among practitioners of diverse approaches to the past.-- The collection also reflects a broad range of disciplinary and professional interests suggesting a number of different ways to understand the West.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Alberta is one of the oldest, largest, and best-preserved buffalo jump sites in North America and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981. Author Gordon Reid has compiled a history of this significant site, describing the importance of the buffalo to Native peoples, how the jump was used, and the traditions and skills surrounding the hunt. He also looks at the excavation of the site, explaining how archaeologists uncovered artifacts, and what they learned about the history of the site and the people who used it. Also included is an overview of the resources offered by the Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump interpretive centre. This book, originally published in 1993, has been a very popular resource for tourists, educators, students, and people interested in Alberta's heritage. Completely updated and redesigned for this new edition, it will be the only book available that explains, in depth, the vital role of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Native history.

"the first book in twenty years to gather together a comprehensive prehistoric record --

My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell is a simple and outspoken account of the sexual and psychological abuse that Arthur Bear Chief suffered during his time at Old Sun Residential school in Gleichen on the Siksika Nation. In a series of chronological vignettes, Bear Chief depicts the punishment, cruelty, abuse, and injustice that he endured at Old Sun and then later relived in the traumatic process of retelling his story at an examination for discovery in connection with a lawsuit brought against the federal government. He returned to Gleichen late in life—to the home left to him by his mother—and it was there that he began to reconnect with Blackfoot language and culture and to write his story. Although the terrific adversity Bear Chief faced in his childhood made an indelible mark on his life, his unyielding spirit is evident throughout his story.

In October 2005, Jason Foster, then a staff member of the Alberta Federation of Labour, was walking a picket line outside Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta with the members of local 401. It was a first contract strike. And although the employees of the meat-packing plant—many of whom were immigrants and refugees—had chosen an unlikely partner in the United Food and Commercial Workers local, the newly formed alliance allowed the workers to stand their ground for a three-week strike that ended in the defeat of the notoriously anti-union company, Tyson Foods. It was but one example of a wide range of industries and occupations that local 401 organized over the last twenty years. In this study of UFCW 401, Foster investigates a union that has had remarkable success organizing a group of workers that North American unions often struggle to reach: immigrants, women, and youth. By examining not only the actions and behaviour of the local’s leadership and its members but also the narrative that accompanied the renewal of the union, Foster shows that both were essential components to legitimizing the leadership’s exercise of power and its unconventional organizing forces.

This sensitive examination of the meanings of landscape draws on the author's rich experience with diverse enviornments and peoples: the Gitksan and Witsuwit'en of norwestern British Columbia, the Kaska Dena of the southern Yukon, and the Gwich'in of the Mackenzie Delta. Johnson maintains that the ways people understand and act upon land have wide implications, shaping cultures and ways of life, determining identity and polity, and creating and mainting environmental relationships and economies. Her emphassis on landscape and ways of knowing the land provides a particular take on ecological relationships of First Peoples to land.