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.
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.
1985
1995
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.
1992 – 2001
Historian & Research Coordinator for the Stó:lõ Tribal Council
/ Stó:lõ Nation, Chilliwack BC.
1996
2005
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
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
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)
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.
2016
2019
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).
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.