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This paper explores the blurring of boundaries among class identities in nineteenth-century Protestant missions to the Tsimshian, Aboriginal people of the northwest British Columbia coast. Through an exploration of the nature of Christian chiefs, Tsimshian demand for literacy and schooling, and finally mission housing, this paper highlights ways in which the class implications of religious association had profoundly different meanings in Native and non-Native milieus. Scholars must take into account historical Aboriginal perspectives not only on conversion, but on their class positions in mission Christianity and more precisely, how their roles within the mission sphere were informed by their own notions of class. While some Native converts undoubtedly utilized conversion to Christianity to circumvent usual social conventions surrounding rank, privilege, and access to spiritual power, other Tsimshian sought transformation by using these new forms of spirituality to bolster their existing social positions.

This is the second of two essays examining the recent historiography of Canadian Aboriginal History published roughly in the last two decades (1992-2012) using a regional focus -British Columbia. Historians have been touched by trends outside their own discipline, even from beyond the academy. Aboriginal land claims, rights litigation, and landmark cases originating in BC, such as Delgamuukw, have made historians more aware of constructions of history in the courts. Scholars writing about Aboriginal history in British Columbia reference popular and community histories and education curricula alongside academic works. The fixation on colonialism has kept Native-Settler relations at the forefront. Recently, however, the scholarship has begun to push past mere explorations of BC's Aboriginal peoples in colonial history to consider colonialism within Aboriginal history and epistemologies. Indigenous-centric scholarship has demanded a more substantial voice in the production of histories, some insisting on exclusivity. At the same time, academic historians seek out opportunities for cross-cultural dialogues and listen attentively to alternative histories bringing them into the professional scholarship even at the cost of "unsettling" historical narratives.

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