7 Days That Transformed the World

The Day the Bison Disappeared
by Ashleigh Androsoff

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 6:00 p.m.
Hose and Hydrant Brewing Company
# 612 11th Street E.

The significant reduction of the bison herds in northwestern North America was devastating for the Plains indigenous communities which had drawn their strength from this animal for thousands of years. The threat of starvation was only their most immediate problem: Canada’s colonization of the territory, made possible by the disappearance of the bison, utterly transformed the world for the people living in or moving to Canada’s Prairie West.

Bio: Dr. Ashleigh Androsoff’s research focuses on the history of Western Canada (present-day British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). Her first book, Spirit Wrestling: The "Doukhobor Problem" in Russia and in Canada (UBC Press, forthcoming) contributes to our understanding of the tensions multiethnic states face in trying to reconcile multiculturalism-as-policy with nation- or empire-building impulses. Her second book project, Stalwart Peasants with their Stout Wives, studies immigrant challenges to Canadian norms concerning gender roles and relations, focusing on the Doukhobors as a case study.

For more information, please contact Keith Carlson