Morantz shows that with the imposition of administration from the south the Crees had to confront a new set of foreigners whose ideas and plans were very different from those of the fur traders. In the 1930s and 1940s government intervention helped overcome the disastrous disappearance of the beaver through the creation of government-decreed preserves and a ban on beaver hunting, but beginning in the 1950s a revolving array of socio-economic programs instituted by the government brought the adverse effects of what Morantz calls bureaucratic colonialism. Drawing heavily on oral testimonies recorded by anthropologists in addition to eye-witness and archival sources, Morantz incorporates the Crees' own views, interests, and responses. She shows how their strong ties to the land and their appreciation of the wisdom of their way of life, coupled with the ineptness and excessive frugality of the Canadian bureaucracy, allowed them to escape the worst effects of colonialism. Despite becoming increasingly politically and economically dominated by Canadian society, the Crees succeeded in staving off cultural subjugation. They were able to face the massive hydroelectric development of the 1970s with their language, practices, and values intact and succeeded in negotiating a modern treaty. This detailed portrait of twentieth-century Canadian colonialism will be of interest to native studies specialists, anthropologists, and political scientists generally.

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"The Crees are actors, not victims, in this story. They adapt and survive. This very significant study is based on first rate scholarship, has an excellent balance of archival accounts and Cree narratives, and is as up-to-date and comprehensive as could be hoped for." John S. Long, assistant professor, Aboriginal Education Program, Nipissing University "Morantz is the prime scholar of this region for the classic fur trade period and she has now extended her work forward another century, demonstrating that the radical social, economic, and cultural changes of the 1900s emerged from the unintended effects of ameliorative government interventions in health, education, and welfare delivered to the Crees as if they were mainstream southern Canadians. This is a crucial test case of colonial theory as it has been applied to the Canadian north." Richard Preston, professor emeritus, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University

"The Crees are actors, not victims, in this story. They adapt and survive. This very significant study is based on first rate scholarship, has an excellent balance of archival accounts and Cree narratives, and is as up-to-date and comprehensive as could be hoped for." John S. Long, assistant professor, Aboriginal Education Program, Nipissing University
"Morantz is the prime scholar of this region for the classic fur trade period and she has now extended her work forward another century, demonstrating that the radical social, economic, and cultural changes of the 1900s emerged from the unintended effects of ameliorative government interventions in health, education, and welfare delivered to the Crees as if they were mainstream southern Canadians. This is a crucial test case of colonial theory as it has been applied to the Canadian north." Richard Preston, professor emeritus, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University