On Western Trails in the Early Seventies : Frontier Pioneer Life in the Canadian North-West

Hardcover, 279 pages, 5x7.5 in X 15x19 cm, B&W frontispiece.

Covers worn and soiled, corners bumped. Back cover rubbed through to board at top edge. Edges soiled. Hinges cracked, frontispiece starting. Front pastedown and early pages stamped by previous owner, frontispiece recto marked in ink by previous (school board) owner. Ffep missing; rear free endpaper rough along gutter with 2 cm (.75 in) loss at gutter top. Some pages lightly stained or creased at top corner, all pages readable.

John McDougall (1842-1917) was a Methodist missionary who – like his father, George McDougall – served in Canada’s North-West. McDougall ascended to a Superintendent position in the Church’s Indian Missions branch in his mid-30s, remaining a notable voice in Indigenous-settler relations into the early 1900s. In this volume, McDougall writes about his life on the prairies 1873-1875. He describes many trips by land and water, encounters with First Nations groups, and occasional journeys to settlements such as Edmonton for church business. McDougall emphasizes the arrival of government-enforced “law and order” on the prairies, including his role in communicating the coming of the North-West Mounted Police to Indigenous groups. With humorous asides and typical bravado, he recounts his experiences during a short but significant period in the North-West’s history. Peel(3) 581.