Revealing how Canada’s first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada.

In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics—the politics of ethnocide—played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of Indigenous people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald’s “National Dream.”

It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day.

This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, an opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, and explanations of the book’s influence by leading Canadian historians. Called “one of the most important books of the twenty-first century” by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a “Book of the Year” by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers’ Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others.

James Daschuk has a Ph.D in History from the University of Manitoba. He is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the Univeristy of Regina and a researcher with the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Unit.

James Daschuk's profile page

J.D. Nicholsen's profile page

Elizabeth A. Fenn's profile page

Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair is Anishinaabe, originally from St. Peter's (Little Peguis) Indian Settlement. He is an assistant professor in the departments of English and Native Studies at the University of Manitoba. His essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in books and journals throughout Turtle Island. In 2009, he co-edited (with Renate Eigenbrod) a double issue of The Canadian Journal of Native Studies (#29; 1 & 2) and was a featured author in The Exile Book of Native Canadian Fiction and Drama, edited by Daniel David Moses (2011). His upcoming book Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (co-edited with Warren Cariou) is an anthology of Manitoba Aboriginal writing from the past three centuries (Portage & Main Press). Another, Centering Anishinaabeg Studies (co-edited with Jill Doerfler and Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark), is a collection of critical and creative works on Anishinaabeg story (Michigan State University Press). A former high-school drama and language arts teacher, Niigaan has authored a number of teachers' guides for Portage & Main Press. He currently lives in Winnipeg, where he is completing his PhD in Anishinaabeg literatures and traditional expression.

Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair's profile page

• Winner, Aboriginal History Prize
• Winner, Clio Prize
• Winner, Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History

“A tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of indigenous peoples…This is fearless, evidence-driven history at its finest.” —Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana

“Required reading for all Canadians.” —Candace Savage, author of A Geography of Blood

“Clearly written, deeply researched, and properly contextualized history. ..Essential reading for everyone interested in the history of indigenous North America.” —J. R. McNeill, author of Mosquito Empires