"An important contribution to scholarship about First Nations of the Northwest Coast."—Eric Oakley, Pacific Northwest Quarterly Magazine
“Each of these chapters provides excellent case studies for teaching about Indigenous resource management and place-making and the continuity of these practices in spite of colonization and capitalism.”—Sara V. Komarnisky, Canadian Journal of Native Studies
“An engaging and important book. . . . Menzies effectively weaves archaeology and linguistics into People of the Saltwater, which also contains considerable history: oral history, written history, and Menzies’s own personal history. . . . [It] may be viewed as a hybrid, or crossover book that straddles the boundary between scholarly and popular. It is a significant addition to the scholarship of, and by, Indigenous peoples in British Columbia.”—Robert Muckle, BC Booklook
“An important addition to the Northwest Coast canon. Defying categorization, [People of the Saltwater] will be a meaningful contribution to class reading lists for Native studies, anthropology, and Northwest Coast studies and to everyone interested in the people and history of the Northwest Coast. . . . [People of the Saltwater] is complex and rich, with an intimate understanding of the intricacies of Git lax m’oon history and culture and the people’s relationship with their environment and natural resources.”—Frank Kelderman, American Indian Quarterly
“The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast have a special place in the history of anthropology, as they do in the development of autoethnography or native ethnography. . . . People of the Saltwater continues both of these proud traditions. It is a contemporary ethnography of a Tsimshian or Gitxaala community living still on British Columbia’s coast, written by an anthropologist who is himself a descendant of that society.”—David Eller, Anthropology Review
“[Menzies] astutely forefronts Native terms before their Canadian English translations to establish respectful priorities. . . . Because this is a contemporary ethnography by a native son, current legal and cultural issues are highlighted, firmly set within the context of a vibrant culture grounded in hereditary rights, adaawx, and wise leaders. . . . Of particular note, Menzies pays tribute to William Beynon, a Wolf-title holder (Gwisk’aayn), literate speaker, and prolific ethnographer and colleague of almost all the ‘greats’ of Northwest Coast anthropology.”—Jay Miller, Journal of Anthropological Research
“Menzies’s ethnography of the Gitxaała people is highly personal, enjoyably engaging, and a welcome contribution to community-based scholarship on the Northwest Coast. . . . Menzies’s analysis adds a clear voice to conversations about the impacts of global industrial processes on local peoples.”—Thomas McIlwraith, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Guelph and author of “We Are Still Didene”: Stories of Hunting and History from Northern British Columbia
