Salmagundi

This new section of the Quarterly presents material “not elsewhere classified.” Its title is defined by the dictionary as “any miscellaneous collection of things, a mixture, medley.” Salmagundi is in a sense a sister of Serendipity.     

The Save the Children Fund and the Russian Famine of 1921–23: Claims and Counter‐Claims about Feeding “Bolshevik” Children*

Drawing on literature on the social construction of social problems, this paper examines the British Save the Children Fund's claims making activities regarding support for child famine victims in Russia in 1921–23. It examines 1) how the Fund constructed famine in Russia as a social problem that was worthy of British, and wider international, support and attention; 2) the rhetorical strategies used by the Fund to construct the causes of the famine for the British public; and 3) the claims the Fund made about why Britons should care about starving children in Russia. We also attend to counter‐claims made about the Fund and its involvement with Russia. We used unpublished letters, memos and reports from The Save the Children Fund archives to examine how the Fund responded to attacks on its activities coming from Russian émigrés and from The Daily Express. We suggest that the examination of this case through the concept of claims making offers a lens to understand how children in distress in the early 20^th century became the objects of British, and wider international aid.     

‘Where's the Beef?‘: Cattle Killing,Rations Policy and First Nations ‘Criminality’ in Southern Alberta, 1892–1895

Abstract This paper analyzes cattle killing by First Nations in Southern Alberta in the 1890s in light of different theoretical approaches to the issue of First Nations crime. This paper suggests that this form of criminal behaviour was not a result of cultural differences or cultural misunderstandings between First Nations and Europeans. Rather, this type of First Nations criminality was rooted in material circumstances characterized by extreme hunger, and was reflective of a process of resistance to state policies. The crime of cattle killing was, in part, a political act that was part of Treaty Seven First Nations efforts to oppose and change the Department of Indian Affairs rations policy.