top of page

Professor

Research Chair

Ethnohistorian

ABOUT

I am a Professor of History at the University of the Fraser Valley where I hold a Tier One Canada Research Chair in Indigenous and Community-Engaged History. I consider myself first and foremost an ethnohistorian. My scholarship is designed and conducted in partnership with communities and aspires to answer questions that are of relevance to those communities. I am interested in both indigenous history and indigenous historical consciousness. What intrigues me most is not the weighing of cultural continuity against colonial-induced change but in assessing the process of change within structures of continuity and the forces of continuity within systems of change. I focus on the history of the Coast Salish of British Columbia but am also building relationships with Aboriginal communities in Washington State and Saskatchewan, and in the past, I have worked extensively with Hukbalahap veterans in the Philippines.

Keith Nat Ab Day.jpg

I am a Professor of History at the University of the Fraser Valley where I hold a Tier One Canada Research Chair in Indigenous and Community-Engaged History. I consider myself first and foremost an ethnohistorian. 

 

My scholarship is designed and conducted in partnership with communities and aspires to answer questions that are of relevance to those communities. I am interested in Indigenous history, Indigenous historical consciousness, and the history of settler colonialism — especially in western Canada and north western USA. 

 

My approach is to invert the classic scholarly gaze and to forefront the perspective of my Indigenous partners. So what intrigues me most is not the history of Indigenous people in Canadian or American history, but the history of Canadian and American society within Indigenous histories.  

 

I focus on the history of the Coast Salish of British Columbia and Washington.  I also have worked extensively with Hukbalahap veterans in the Philippines.

Community Engagement
Timeline: 1985-1995

1985

1995

DSC01823.jpg

1992 

M.A. University of Victoria, American Diplomatic History.

Thesis title: The Twisted Road to Freedom: America’s Granting of Independence to the Philippines in 1946.

(Co-op Education distinctions). Supervisor: Professor W.T. Wooley.

IMG_5363.jpeg

1992 – 2001

Historian & Research Coordinator for the Stó:lõ Tribal Council

/ Stó:lõ Nation, Chilliwack BC.

Timeline: 1996-2006

1996

2005

DSC01523.jpg

2001

Editor with Sonny McHalsie and David Schaepe, A Stó:lõ-Coast Salish Historical Atlas.

(Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press; Chilliwack, B.C.: Stó:lô Heritage Trust, 2001)

2001

Appointed Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan

IMG_1774.jpeg

1996

Authored book 

The Twisted Road to Freedom: America’s Granting of Independence to the Philippines.

Manila: University of the Philippines Press, 1995; University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1996, 176pp.

2001

Made an honorary member of the

Stó:lõ Nation (Ceremony at Skowkale First Nation).

2002

A Stó:lõ Coast Salish Historical Atlas awarded BC Book Prize,

(Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize).

2004

Receive PhD from UBC. Dissertation is Faculty of Arts nomination for Governor General’s Gold Medal.

2005

My article “The Lynching of Louie Sam” (BC Studies 1996) is made into a documentary film (produced by David MacIlwraith for Wild Zone Films). As a result the Washington State Legislature issues formal apology to Stó:lõ people.

2006

2015

DSC03337.jpg

2006

Editor with Kristina Fagan,

Henry Pennier’s “Call Me Hank”:

A Stó:lõ Man’s Reflections on Logging, Living, and Growing Old.

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006).

2009-2019

Supervised 10 PhD students to completion of degree. Five secured tenure-stream appointments.

2010

The Power of Place, The Problem of Time: Aboriginal Identity and Historical Consciousness in the Cauldron of Colonialism,

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010).

2011

Canadian Historical Association's Clio Award for Best History in BC Region – for Power of Place, Problem of Time,

(UofT Press, 2010)

IMG_4231.jpeg

2012

Best Article in Aboriginal History Prize (awarded by the Canadian Historical Association) for the article “Orality About Literacy: The ‘Black and White’ of Salish History,” May 2012.

2014

Created the Community-engaged History Collaboratorium where I partner with communities to co-design research projects that are conducted by student summer research interns.

Timeline: 2006-2015

2016

2019

Potlatch2015_87.jpg
IMG_1056.JPG

2018

Editor with John Lutz, David Schaepe, and Sonny McHalsie, Towards a New Ethnohistory: Community-engaged Scholarship History Among The People of the River,”

(Winnipeg Manitoba, University of Winnipeg Press, 2018).

DSC04036.JPG

2017

Elected to the Royal Society of Canada – College of New Scholars.

2019

Appointed Tier One Canada Research Chair in Indigenous and Community-Engaged History, University of the Fraser Valley.

Timeline: 2016-2019
bottom of page