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Book Review
| The Archive of Place: Unearthing the Pasts of the Chilcotin Plateau. By William J. Turkel. Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2007. xxvi + 322 pp. Nature History Society Series. Illustrations, notes, tables, maps, bibliography, glossary, toponymic index, general index. Cloth $85.00.
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| In this unorthodox and intriguing book, William Turkel uses the Chilcotin Plateau, an arid and sparsely settled region of west-central British Columbia, to ask a series of questions about how we acquire and use knowledge of the past. In particular, he is interested in "material evidence of place," and how it interacts with "representational evidence" (myths, stories, and histories) to create meaning. |
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Part 1 considers how knowledge of the geological, ecological, and First Nations pasts were used to bolster property rights in the context of a controversial mine development. Part 2 focuses on the attempt to build a trail tracing the route of eighteenth century explorer Alexander Mackenzie. Trail supporters had "representations"—Mackenzie's maps and his journal—which they wished to set down in place. But Mackenzie had traveled but one route in a vast network used by the Tsilhqot'in people. These "grease trails" (a major trade good was Oolichan fish oil) anchored "systems of understandings, ways to negotiate with others ...; shared ideas about travel, trade, and usufruct rights," in other words, a whole cultural and political system. Controversy arose, Turkel explains, as a problem of "ground truth." There was a gap between the multiple meanings embedded in this place and the univocal representation favored by the trail builders. |
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