One of the first officers of the newly formed North-West Mounted Police, Francis Dickens, son of novelist Charles Dickens, was noted for his famous parentage, if not much else.
Book Review: James Daschuk’s much-heralded Clearing the Plains is an intricate and well-crafted examination of the historical role of food and disease in the life of First Nations of Western Canada. In a strong first chapter, Daschuk dispenses notions that indigenous sickness and starvation were “new” while gesturing to food security and political autonomy as reasons why these communities flourished for centuries before European contact.