Canneries on the Columbia: A New Western History Canneries on the Columbia is different from other Oregon History Project narratives. The focus is on methodology and the assumptions underlying the beliefs we have regarding history. The narrative starts with an introduction by historian Elliott West and is followed by essays from four historians that offer differing interpretations of the Columbia River canneries. The canneries represent a story rich in relationship and can illuminate how New Western readings support efforts to rethink history in light of new questions. Each essay focuses on a particular topic within the broader subject. Katrine Barber relates the canneries to Native American culture, Chris Friday to issues of Gender, Ellen Eisenberg to Race and Ethnicity, and Joseph Taylor, III to the Environment."> compiled by West, Barber, Friday, Eisenberg, and Taylor

Introduction - Elliott West The new western history was not so much new methodologies, new conceptual frameworks, and applications of new questions from other fields. At the base was the exhilarating realization that there was so much in the western past that was just sitting there, waiting for us to see, pushing us to ask the only question that lovers of history ever really ask: What was going on here? Select Topics New Western History as Fish Tale Defining Gender The Essays The Native Fishery - Katrine Barber A full examination of the Columbia River commercial fishery requires historians to consider the overlapping worlds of Indian and non-Indian fishers. This essay will explore what set the Native fishery apart from the non-Native commercial fishery without losing focus on the various ways Native fishers accommodated the new economic, political, and cultural realities of a post-contact Pacific Northwest. Select Topics Introduction: What is Different ab... Stories and Ceremonies: The Cultura... Indigenous Regulations of the Harve... Fishing Technologies: Fusing Old wi... Gender Roles on the River A Treaty Right to Harvest Efforts to Limit Access Conclusion Reading Gender in Oregon's Salmon Fisheries - Chris Friday What we make of  biological distinctions regarding male, female, and the continuum between those two poles depends a great deal on the social, cultural, and historical setting. Did gender and its perceived hierarchy affect the division of labor on the Columbia River and in the salmon canneries? While gender is not the only category of analysis, considering it carefully provides a point for understanding many deep cultural and historic meanings regarding  Columbia River fishing practices and its commercial economies. Select Topics Gendering American Indian Fisheries Creating White Family Fishermen<... Skill and Masculinity Shoreworkers in a Global Context - ... Recreation of Community Divisions -... Shoreworkers - Beyond White Women Gender and Landscape Visible and Invisible Ethnicity - Ellen Eisenberg Analyzed with an eye toward ethnicity, the history of the Columbia River salmon canning industry suggests some of the regional variations on central questions in the field of American history: When were individuals and groups included as part of the “us” of a community, as the citizenry? When did their geographic origins, their culture, or their appearance mark them as different, as foreigners? Select Topics Immigrants, Ethnics, and Whiteness ... Chinese Workers: Visible Ethnicity An Ethnically Divided Labor Force European Americans: Invisible Ethni... Whites Become Ethnics: The Strike Astoria's Scandinavians Conclusions: Seeing Ethnicity in th... Nature of Salmon Canneries - Joseph E. Taylor III Explanations about the demise of Columbia River salmon canneries have dwelled primarily on the follies of greedy fishers and canners. Expanding our view to include issues like the variability of salmon bodies, the range of forces altering salmon habitat, the impact of ocean climate, and the host of small but significant influences of nature in and about canneries adds nuances to a story that still vexes us. Select Topics Natural and Cultural Foundations The Spaces and Timing of Fishing Nature in the Cannery Ecological Consequences Saving Salmon The Eclipse of Canneries Viewing the Past through the Prism ... Bibliography and Author Biographies Further reading on Columbia River fisheries and New Western History and a few words about the authors.  Select Topics Columbia River Fishery Bibliography New Western History Bibliography Author Biographies