The Annual Chiniki Lecture in First Nations History

What is the Chiniki Lecture Series?

The series is hosted by the Stoney Nakoda First Nation and the History Graduate Student's Union

The Chiniki Lecture Series was inspired by the desire to engage the broader community with new research in First Nations History. To that end, the early lectures were hosted at the Chief Chiniki Restaurant in the Stoney Nakoda First Nation in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. The lectures are attended by academics, students, and members of the public. They also serve to link the Department of History with its Social Science brethren, as the series hosts speakers from various disciplines.

Chiniki lecture 2018: Saturday, March 17, 2018. More info coming soon!  

Chiniki Lecture, 2017

March 18th, 2017, Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta

This year marks both the 10^th anniversary of the Chiniki Lecture and the 140^th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 7. Our lecture, titled “Indigenous History and Reflections on 140 Years of Treaty 7,” will feature presentations from Edmonton historian Walter Hildebrandt, coauthor of The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7, and Calgary historian Ian Getty and University of Calgary Professor Emeritus Donald Smith, authors of One Century Later: Western Canadian Reserve Indians since Treaty 7. As in past years, each presentation will be followed by a response by a speaker from the Stoney Nakoda First Nation community.

The lecture will take place from 1-4 p.m. at the Rolston Recital Hall at the Banff Centre.

Chiniki Lecture 2016

March 19, 2016, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta

The 2016 lecture, titled Indigenous Women in Narratives and Film: Portrayals and Contemporary Reflections, featured Sarah Carter (University of Alberta), who spoke about her book Capturing Women and discussed a history of perspectives and attitudes towards women of the Prairie West through captivity narratives from the late nineteenth century, and Elise Marubbio (Augsburg College), who spoke about her research on images and the portrayal of Aboriginal women in United States and Canadian film, with a particular focus on the promotion of racist stereotypes. 

Chiniki Lecture 2015

March 21st, 2015, Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta

The 2015 lecture featured historians Maureen Lux (Brock University) and Frits Pannekoek.  Maureen Lux (Brock University), the author of Medicine that Walks: Disease, Medicine, and Canadian Plains Native People, 1880-1940 (University of Toronto Press: 2001), presented material from a new book project in her talk, “‘Neither law nor treaty’: Indian Hospitals and the construction of National Health."

Frits Pannekoek edited Behind the man: John Laurie, Ruth Gorman, and the Indian vote in Canada (University of Calgary: 2007) and addressed the struggle for First Nations’ political rights.  His talk is entitled, “The Indian Association of Alberta, Ruth Gorman and John Laurie - The Vote for Treaty People.”

Chiniki Lecture 2014

March 22nd, 2014, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta

In 2014, the talk addressed the relationship between Banff National Park and the Stoney-Nakoda. Melanie Niemi-Bohun (PhD Candidate, University of Alberta) spoke to how Stoney-Nakoda exclusion from the park had much more to do with the interests of game conservation, sport hunting, and assimilation and not to keep a pristine wilderness uninhabited. Jonathan Clapperton (Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Alberta) argued that Banff Indian Days was constructed to temporarily welcome Stoney-Nakoda back to the park in a ritual considered safe by onlookers, while asserting a broader role for themselves within the park and settler-colonial society.

Chiniki Lecture 2013

April 9th, 2013, Room EEEL 210, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta

Don Smith (University of Calgary, Emeritus) is the author of the biography SACRED FEATHERS (1987) and the collective biography MISSISSAUGA PORTRAITS, to be released in June by University of Toronto Press. The Sloping Sky, known as Joseph Sawyer in English, is one of his “portraits.” In his illustrated slide talk to be given in the month that marks the 200th anniversary of the American occupation of Toronto, Smith will review The Sloping Sky’s life and times. He will also touch upon the War of 1812 veteran’s subsequent career as Head Chief of Mississauga from the 1820s to his death in 1863, and the struggle of a First Nations community to gain respect and equality.   Smith taught in the Department of History from 1974 to 2009.

Chiniki Lecture 2012

March 29th, 2012, Room EEEL 161, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta

Dr. Paige Raibmon (University of British Columbia) spoke to the impact of relocation on the environment and health of the Mowachaht and Muchalaht First Nations when they were moved from Yuquot (Friendly Cove) to the site of a new pulp mill near Gold River, on Vancouver Island in the early 1960s. The assessments of government and health "experts" diverged from the expertise of community members whose knowledge derived from experience. Raibmon examines the contrasting ways of knowing environment, the authority of scientific assessment, and the problems both parties shared in communicating their knowledge of place. 

Chiniki Lecture 2011

May, 2011

Grand Chief Sam Gargan of the Dehcho Nation spoke to a number of important subjects affecting the Dehcho nation and the Canadian North. One subject of great importance to the Dehcho remains the ongoing jurisdictional and self-governance process with the Canadian government. Intimately tied to this question of governance are the Dehcho's relations with the government and international oil companies and the future of the recently approved $16 billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline project - which project developers hope to run across Dehcho land. Grand Chief Gargan will also be discussing the expansion and protection of Nahanni National Park and his peoples' protected areas and land use strategy.

The HGSU would like to thank the Government of Alberta's Community Spirit Program for their support of this event.

Chiniki Lecture 2010

May 2010

Keith Thor Carlson is a professor of History at the University of Saskatchewan whose research and publishing interest focus on the history of Northwest Coast people, and especially the Salish. He has authored three books: The Power of Place, the Problem of Time: Aboriginal Identity and Historical Consciousness in the Cauldron of Colonialism (U of T 2010); The  Twisted Road to Freedom: America's Granting of Independence to the Philippines (U of Philippines Press 2005); I am Sto:lo: Katherine Explores Her Heritage (Sto:lo Heritage Press, 2000). His current SSHRC funded research explores the issue of Aboriginal Historical Consciousness.

Chiniki Lecture 2009

March 14th, 2009, Chief Chiniki Restaurant, Morley, Alberta

Dr. Eldon Yellowhorn was born and raised on the Piikani First Nation in Alberta, and grew up speaking Blackfoot and English. He holds undergraduate degrees in geography and archaeology, an MA in archaeology from Simon Fraser University and a PhD in anthropology from McGill University. A faculty member at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, he teaches archaeology and First Nations studies. His published works have appeared in such journals as the Canadian Journal of Archaeology, Native Studies Review and Plains Anthropologist.

To view the abstract of Dr. Yellowhorn's talk, please click here.
 

Chiniki Lecture 2008

March 1st, 2008, Chief Chiniki Restaurant, Morley, Alberta

Dr. Jim Miller is the Canada Research Chair in Native - Newcomer Relations in the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan. He is an experienced and widely published specialist in the history of relations between Native peoples and newcomers in Canada from contact to the twenty-first century. His monographs include, Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations, Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools, and Bounty and Benevolence: A History of Saskatchewan Treaties, among others. His most recent project was a general history of treaty-making by First Nations and the Crown in Canada.

To view the abstract of Dr. Miller's talk, please click here.