History Team

Roland Bohr

Team Leader

Roland Bohr is the Director of the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg, where he also teaches North American Indigenous history. Bohr’s interdisciplinary research specializes in Indigenous material culture of the fur trade period and involves manufacturing functional reproductions of Indigenous bows and arrows, based on information obtained from examining surviving Indigenous artifacts in museums, working with Indigenous Elders and analyzing fur trader’s journals and travel accounts.

Keith Goulet

Collaborator

To come.

Scott Stephen

Collaborator

Scott Stephen has spent more than thirty years working in museums, archives, universities, heritage organizations, and anywhere else that a History degree might come in handy. Between 2000 and 2014, he taught history at both the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. Since 2007, his 'day job' has been with Parks Canada's Winnipeg office, where he has worked on a variety of projects for national historic sites from York Factory to the Yellowhead Pass and beyond. He is particularly interested in the Hudson’s Bay Company and the trading post communities which it helped create: within this larger context, his current research interests includea history of work (overlapping with, but distinct from, labour history) and a history of space, landscape, and soundscape. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife, his son, two cats, and an alarming number of books.

Robert Coutts

Research Associate

Robert Coutts worked as a historian with Parks Canada for over thirty years researching historic sites throughout western and northern Canada. He is the author or co-author of three books on the history of Manitoba including (with Flora Beardy) Voices from Hudson Bay: Cree Stories from York Factory (second edition, 2017), and has published articles and reviews in journals in Canada, the U.S and Great Britain. Robert has studied Indigenous history in the West for many years and is editor of the journal Manitoba History. He has recently completed a doctorate in History at the University of Manitoba.

Barbara Mitchell

Research Associate

Barbara Mitchell, Department of English, Trent University. Professor Mitchell is the author of the biography of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s first interior surveyor, titled Mapmaker: Philip Turnor in Rupert’s Land in the Age of Enlightenment. The History Team draws on Barbara Mitchell’s expertise with Hudson’s Bay Company Records, especially in regard to ethnographic information on Indigenous Peoples who interacted with the HBC.

Lesley Beardy

Student

Tansi/Boozhoo. Hello, my name is Lesley Beardy. I am both Cree and Annishnaabe from the Missipwastic Cree Nation in Treaty Five Territory. I am attending the Winnipeg Education Centre at the University of Winnipeg. I have attained a Bachelor of Arts in History and plan to finish my education degree. I would also like to enroll in the Master in Indigenous Governance program at the University of Winnipeg in the future. I am a part-time research assistant for the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak Project, and I also work as a causal administrative assistant for a consulting firm. I am the 2017-2018 recipient of the Harington Fellowship, and a 2018 Indigenous Summer Scholar Student. I will be working in partnership with the Winnipeg Art Gallery for the summer and fall.

It is an honour to be a part of the history team on the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak Project. I believe that reclaiming our culture will help with our healing journey as a nation. I enjoy the research work, I know this work is valuable for many people in the South Indian Lake region, and it’s a good feeling to know that the community is also on board with this project. I love that I am making factual history for future generations.

Anne Lindsay

Student

Currently pursuing a PhD in history at the University of Manitoba, Anne Lindsay’s career has focused on archival primary source research, particularly in areas relating to Indigenous and fur trade history. She has worked and continues to work as a researcher for a number of Indigenous communities, and in the past has done research for APTN. In addition to this work, Anne has held positions in archives and research with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba and before that with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and with the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg where she worked as assistant to the director.

Thamer Linklater

Student

Thamer Linklater is a member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and a survivor of the Child Welfare system in Manitoba. She recently graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a B.A. in English and is now working on her Master’s in Indigenous Studies at Trent University. She has worked in various teams for the Six Seasons Project. She has been involved with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and is an active First Nations advocate. Thamer has recently started work on her collection of poems and hopes to publish them soon. In her free time, she enjoys reading novels, studying her culture, and painting. She has developed a passion for her culture and pursues any chance at learning more about her people.

Patricia Murdock

Student

Patrica Murdock is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Winnipeg, working towards her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in history and minoring in sociology. Patricia is Cree and Ojibwe from Lake St. Martin.

Alex Oldroyd

Student

Alex is an American graduate student from Utah and Hawai'i studying in the MDP in Indigenous Development program at the University of Winnipeg. He graduated recently with a BA in English Language and Literature and a certificate in social innovation and entrepreneurship from Brigham Young University. His undergraduate thesis involved research into the 1819 Hawaiian Iconoclasm which was distilled into a historical fiction novella. As an undergraduate, he also received a grant to write and illustrate two Native Hawaiian language children's books for use in immersion preschools. Over the past several years, Alex has volunteered and worked for several nonprofits and government entities including the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, the Utah State Legislature, and Indigenous International. In his work with Indigenous International, he helped produce one of the first ever reports of its kind on economic development challenges specific to the eight tribes of Utah for us by the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. He has also worked for and started his own consulting business to help nonprofits and Native American organizations raise funds for development projects. As a graduate student, he hopes to further the important work of decolonization and strengthening Indigenous nations, particularly when it comes to economic development, public policy, digital sovereignty, language revitalization. Alex is excited to be a part of the Six Seasons Project and to assist in the ongoing work of reclaiming language, histories, and knowledges among the Asiniskow Ithiniwak.

Chantelle Ranville

Student

Chantelle is a proud member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation and community member of the North End. Chantelle graduated from the Aboriginal Self-Government Administration Program at Red River College in 2018 and currently in the joint program at University of Winnipeg in Indigenous Studies. In the future, Chantelle is looking to pursue a PhD in Indigenous Studies and publish Indigenous material coming from an Indigenous perspective. In their spare time, Chantelle enjoys reading and working on poetry.