Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: We were not the savages : collision between European and North American civilizations / by Daniel N. Paul.
Names: Paul, Daniel N., author.
Description: 4th edition. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220265828 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220265887 | ISBN 9781773635637 (softcover) | ISBN 9781773635842 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781773635859 (PDF)
Subjects: CSH: First Nations—Maritime Provinces—History. | CSH: First Nations—First contact with Europeans—Maritime Provinces. | CSH: First Nations—Maritime Provinces— Government relations. | CSH: First Nations, Treatment of—Maritime Provinces—History. | LCSH: Maritime Provinces—Race relations—History. | LCSH: Maritime Provinces—Ethnic relations—History.
Classification: LCC E99.M6 P38 2022 | DDC 971.5004/97343—dc23

Canadians to order click Fernwood Publishing
Fourth Edition - We Were Not the Savages 

Bookstores and other retailers of Books, to order: UTP (University of Toronto Press)
UTP 

Americans to order click Columbia University Press
Fourth Edition - We Were Not the Savages 

Signed copies are available at several locations in Nova Scotia:

Millbrook Mi'kmaw Community, Power Center, highway 102:
Millbrook Heritage and Cultural Center:
Glooscap Trading Post:
Membertou Mi'kmaw Community: Petroglyphs Gift Shop:
Halifax Historic Properties: Garrefour Atlantic and the Puffin Gallery:

Due to my age, I will be 84 in December, the fourth edition will be the final edition. This final edition includes such items as reconciliation, Indian Day and Residential school settlements, Double standard by governments when it comes to relating and teaching Indigenous History and European History, and lots more. A quote from the Foreword, written by Dr. Pamela Palmater, professor and Chair in Indigenous Governance, Ryerson University

“While I have learned a great deal from the writings of Indigenous Peoples from all over Turtle Island, there is one book that has been my anchor: We Were Not the Savages, by Mi’kmaw Elder and author Dr. Daniel N. (Danny) Paul. I have relied on his book as both a shield against the longstanding, widespread anti-Indigenous racism in society and as a powerful sword of knowledge, challenging racist and false government propaganda about our peoples. This book has grounded me in my own journey to learn more about my Mi’kmaw history and culture. Its core message rings as true today in the fourth edition as it did when it was first published in 1993. The so-called “Indian problem” has never been about us. There is nothing wrong with our people; we were not the savages — the leaders of the invading European countries were. This truth has stuck with me ever since.”

January 31, 2023 - Review

We Were Not the Savages is something rare and wonderful, a comprehensive history of an indigenous American people, written by a member of the nation, covering in detail the times before European colonisation, the brutal period of conquest, and the struggle for justice that continues to the present day. The book is disarmingly and engagingly written. Every story within it is either carefully documented with citations to archival material or scholarly sources, or else deeply informed by Paul's personal experience and what he has learned from his neighbours. Those of you who have read earlier editions of this book should pick up this one. Paul has thoroughly rewritten the book, updating the scholarship, adding personal material, and carrying the story forward to the present day. Our understanding of the history of north-eastern North America has been transformed since the publication of the first edition of We Were Not the Savages. Especially in Nova Scotia, the impact of that transformation is visible on the landscape. If you want to understand what's happened, you need to read the fourth edition.

Professor Geoffrey Plank,
School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England

We Were Not the Savages is a history of the near demise, from a Mi'kmaq perspective, of ancient democratic North American First Nations, caused by the European invasion of the Americas, with special focus on the Mi'kmaq. Although other European Nations, Spain for instance, were in on the slaughter this history relates in detail the actions of only one, Great Britain.

In Great Britain's case it isn't hard to prove culpability because British colonial officials, while representing the Crown, recorded in minute detail the horrors they committed. When reading the records left behind by these individuals one gets the impression that they were proud of the barbarous crimes against humanity that they were committing while they were, using brute force, appropriating the properties of sovereign First Nations Peoples. From my knowledge of what they did I can, without fear of contradiction from men and women of good conscience, use uncivilized savagery to describe it.

The following are some of the methods they used to cleanse the land of its rightful owners: Bounties for human scalps, including women and children, out and out massacres, starvation and germ warfare. These cruel British methods of destruction were so effective that the British came close to realizing their cleansing goal. All North American civilizations under their occupation were badly damaged, many eliminated, and close to 95% of the people exterminated.

In fact, after reviewing the horrific barbarities that the European invaders subjected First Nations citizens too, one finds it almost impossible to comprehend how any managed to survive. That some North American First Nations Peoples did survive the best efforts of their tormentors to exterminate them - from 1497 to 1850s out and out genocide and starvation, and from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s a malnutrition existence under the rule of Canada and the United States, is a testament to the tenacious courage and faith in the Great Spirit of our ancestors.

Today, although starvation and malnutrition have been mostly eliminated, the systemic racism instilled in the majority of Caucasians by colonial demonizing propaganda, which depicts our ancestors as the ultimate sub-human savages, is still widespread. This is witnessed by the level of discrimination still suffered, which is a very heavy burden for our Peoples to try to overcome.

Interestingly, although both claim to be compassionate countries with justice for all as a core value, Canada and the United States are not making any viable effort to substitute demonizing colonial propaganda with the truth. This is why I wrote We Were Not the Savages, my small effort to air as much of the truth as possible.

Amazon.Com Author's Page for Daniel Paul http://www.amazon.com/author/www.danielnpaul.com