Choice Review

This is an interesting, accessible, and atypical book, at least for the Pacific Coast region, in that it is basically an ethnography of the early historical period among the Tsimshian, based on the diaries of Wellington Clah. The benefit of the approach of emerita English professor Brock (Edith Cowan Univ., Australia) is that she provides a foil to the orthodox literature on the colonial period by giving an account of the experiences of the colonized, and fills in some of the gaps in the Tsimshian ethnographic literature. The case of Clah is also of interest in terms of the insights he provides into diary writing and the problems of being one of the first of his people to adopt Christianity. Clah seems like a fascinating individual as he struggles balancing his Tsimshian background with the practices and policies of the colonizers. Clah's use of the teachings of Christianity to criticize missionaries is particularly entertaining, as are his commentaries on the changes to Tsimshian society that he witnessed. Anyone interested in the ingenious ways indigenous peoples assimilated and resisted colonialism will find this book of value. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, public libraries. M. Ebert University of Saskatchewan