W.L. Mackenzie King: A Bibliography and Research Guide by George F. Henderson (review)

274 LETTERS IN CANADA 1998 The Ojibwa head chief's father was non-Native, his identity today being totally unknown. One story held that he was an English soldier; another legend told to Chute by Dan Pine, Sr, contended that he was French, a son ofNapoleon Bonaparte! In any eventShingwaukonse'5 genetic background had no effect whatsoever on his loyalty to the community now known as the Garden River Ojibwa. Culturally and politically, he identified entirely with his mother's people. Throughoutthe 18405he worked, unsuccessfully, to found a homeland in Canada, near Sault Ste Marie, for American Ojibwa bands threatened with removal west of the Mississippi River. In the late 18405 and early 18S0S he fought to obtain Ojibwa control of mineral and timber resources in their traditional territories. He enlisted the support of an idealistic non-Native lawyer, Allan Macdonnell from Toronto, to help them in this struggle. Chapter 5 chronicles their struggle for aboriginal rights, one complicated by narrow legal interpretations of the terms of the Robinson Treaties of 1850. The study extendsbeyond Shingwaukonse's death in 1854 to include, in chapters 5 to 8, a review of his successors' attempts to fight for his goal of self-government. Shingwaukonse's successors, who included, in turn, his two sons - Ogista (18oo--go) and Buhkwujjenene (1811-19°0) - battled the federal and provincial governments' efforts to assimilate the community into the mainstream society. Chapter 9, which concludes the book, tersely summarizes the intriguing story of Shingwaukonse and his legacy. Janet Chute's valuable study greatly enriches our knowledge of nineteenthcentury aboriginal Ontario. (DONALD B. SMITH) George F. Henderson. W.L. Mackenzie Kil1g: A Bibliography and Research Guide University of Toronto Press. xxiv, 368. $95.00 It comes as a pleasant surprise. This is a bibliography which actually looks like a book and feels like a book - solid, well-botmd, with an attractive (although unimaginative) dust-jacket. Even more surprising, the pages inside have reasonable margins, readable print, a full space between entries; even the footnotes don't need magnification. Bibliographies are not usually treated so respectfully. Fortunately, this bibliography deserves respect. The author has been indefatigable in his search for material by and about King. He has then organized his findings logically and added an index to make them even more readily accessible to the reader. The first half of the bibliography is a comprehensive record of King's writings and speeches. Full bibliographical details are provided for each edition of King'5 five books pIus a brief account of the writing of each book. The section on King's articles deserves special attention; Henderson has found references in King's diaries and his correspondence to some 400 un- HUMANITIES 275 signed articles and has actually gone through newspapers and journalsand located 345 of them. The longest section lists the speeches that were published as pamphlets, with each entry giving the location in the King papers and also in the major academic and public libraries inCanada where a copy has been found. Another section lists more than 100 recordings of King's speeches and statements. The author's introduction to each section is clear and succinct; the introduction to the section on King's diaries should be compulsory reading for any student who uses them. This half of the bibliography is, without question, a definitive listing of King's writings. . The second part covers other material relating to Mackenzie King. The author has included books and articles about the era as well as about the man. It makes the bibliography more useful to students and scholars but does have the disadvantage that the listings can never be complete. Every reviewer will be obliged to point out some omission. For example, why include the volumes by D.G. Creighton and rH. Thompson from the Centermial series on the history of Canada and not the earlier volume by G.R. Cook and R.C. Brown? More questionable was the decision to include some of the newspaper reviews of the major biographical studies but not the reviews in scholarly journals. On the whole, however, the author has selected judiciously and any omissions are more than compensated for by sections on newsreels and...