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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2023

Liza Piper
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
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Summary

This chapter introduces the region, peoples, and historical changes underway in the mid-nineteenth century where the book begins. The lands lie along the Mackenzie and Yukon rivers and their tributaries, where waters flow north along the Mackenzie River into the Beaufort Sea and south-west down the Yukon River across into Alaska. These are the homelands of Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, Tłı̨chǫ, Dene, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Tagish, Tutchone, Dënesųłıné, and Métis. This chapter introduces these peoples as well as the earliest Euro-Canadian colonizers and settlers: fur traders, explorers, missionaries, police, state officials, and their families who arrived in the nineteenth century and describes the book’s objectives: to learn about the historical significance of major northern epidemics before 1940 from those who survived; to use ecological approaches to disease to understand how colonialism shaped northern health; and to demonstrate the influence of flaws ideas about isolation and vulnerability in shaping past interpretations of the role of disease in the process of colonization.

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When Disease Came to This Country
Epidemics and Colonialism in Northern North America
, pp. 1 - 23
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Liza Piper, University of Alberta
  • Book: When Disease Came to This Country
  • Online publication: 20 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009320924.003
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Liza Piper, University of Alberta
  • Book: When Disease Came to This Country
  • Online publication: 20 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009320924.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Liza Piper, University of Alberta
  • Book: When Disease Came to This Country
  • Online publication: 20 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009320924.003
Available formats
×