A Line of Blood and Dirt

Novel and powerful is Hoy's dedication to demonstrating how Indigenous peoples were not hapless victims of border creation and enforcement....Race, proximity to the border, the impact of broader geopolitical developments, the surprisingly potent influence of local border officials, and other factors all complicate attempts to generalize what the border meant to people or how it influenced them....The consistent inclusion of on-the-ground perspectives adds striking intimacy and humanity to what could otherwise be a macrolevel and impersonal administrative text....Hoy's analytical apparatus and methodology elevate what would already be a useful narrative of border history.....Scholars on both sides of the Canada-US border in a host of historical fields will greatly benefit from this carefully researched and powerfully written text. * Brenden W. Rensink, Canadian Journal of History * A marvellous easy-to-follow examination of the Canadian-American borderlands from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean from the 1870s to the 1930s. It is a well-written and enjoyable narrative of how Canada and the United States created an international border across a landscape already filled with Indigenous borders....Throughout its history, the border comes more clearly into focus through its inconsistencies, impositions, contestations, and inequalities. What is clear is the centrality of Indigenous peoples to the development of the border. A Line of Blood and Dirt is...a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the stretch and limit of state power along a border and its impact on peoples. * Karl Hele, Anishinabek News *