Educational Leave Report

Pall Semester 1986

E Alan McMillan

Social Sciences Department
May 1987

This report briefly describes and assesses activities carried out while
on educational leave during the Fall 1986 semester. As the original proposal
was divided into three parts, each is described separately below.

l. Most of my educational leave time was spent on library research and
writing. My book, tentatively titled Canadian Native Cultures: An Anthropological
Overview, should be finished later this year and will be published by
Douglas & McIntyre sometime in 1988.

 

The book was primarily designed as a textbook for my Anthropology 160
(Canadian Native Cultures) course. The book provides an overview on
all major issues affecting Canadian natives. Specific chapters deal
with anthropologists and Canadian natives, archaeological evidence for
earliest native arrival in what is today Canada, detailed treatment

of each major region of Canada, and an overview of contemporary issues,
such as land claims and the constitution, which affect all Canadian
natives. i

 

The stimulus for writing this book was the lack of any suitable text
for ANT 160. The standard reference book on the subject was originally
published in 1932 and continually bemoans the imminent extinction of

© Canada's Indians! Completion of this book will mean that ANT 160 will
have a textbook designed specifically for it. The book will also serve
as useful supplementary reading for ANT 120 (Indians of British Columbia)

Two chapters of the planned twelve chapter book were written during

the summer of 1985. In 1986, using P.D., holiday and educational leave

time I completed an additional six chapters. The final four chapters

are to be completed during the summer of 1987, in order to meet a publisher's
deadline of August 31. Hopefully, the book will be available for use

by the fall semester of 1988.

The research I have done in preparation for this book has greatly enhanced
my knowledge of the subject matter. It has also stimulated considerable
re-organization of the course. To a lesser extent it has enhanced my
teaching of other courses, such as ANT 111 and 112, as I have attempted

in the book to demonstrate how the various sub-fields of anthropology
inter-relate in the study of native cultures.

2. My proposal also involved travel across western and central Canada,
visiting museums, archaeological sites, and Indian reserves along the
way. I collected a considerable amount of data for the book and new
information for the course. I also took a large number of photographs.
While some were for the book, most were slides to be used in teaching.
These will be invaluable for almost all the courses I teach, not just

© the one for which the book is being written. This trip required six