In our last post we took a brief look at the historical legacy of Canada’s founding Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, who historian James Daschuk claims instituted a policy of starvation against First Nations in an effort to “clear” prairie lands for railway construction. Aboriginal peoples were either denied food or given rotten meat and diseased animals. Thousands died as a result, but the Dominion government secured its railway and considered the policy a success. Daschuk’s widely acclaimed book Clearing the Plains is one of the more recent examples in Canadian historical literature to have employed a narrative structure that focuses on the colonial victimization of Aboriginal peoples. Today we offer a quick survey of some of the more influential works on Aboriginal history and Native-Newcomer relations, laying the foundation for a short series that explores the growth and evolution of the field.