Chris Marsh PhD

Chris completed his M.A. at the University of Calgary in 2012. His thesis examined a decade of intertribal warfare in the borderlands of northern Montana and southern Alberta in the 1880s involving the Kainai (Blood Tribe) of the Blackfoot Confederacy and the A’aninin (Gros Ventre) and Nakoda (Assiniboine) of Fort Belknap. It explored the influence of environmental alteration in the continuity of equestrian and warrior culture as well as the interaction between the Canadian federal state-in the form of the North West Mounted Police and the local level of the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA)- and First Nations peoples in the early reserve era (1876-1900). His research interests include U.S.-Canadian borderlands history in the Great Plains region, comparative U.S.-Canadian Western history, Native-newcomer relations on the Great Plains, Aboriginal farming and ranching, and the development of law enforcement and the legal system in the Canadian West. He is currently engaged in coursework in preparation for comprehensive exams. He is a member of the Sustainable Farms Systems Great Plains team for 2014-2015.