Richard Frank Salisbury

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FRSC Richard Frank Salisbury
Born	(1926-12-08)December 8, 1926 London England
Died	June 17, 1989(1989-06-17) (aged 62) Montreal, Quebec
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge Harvard University Australian National University
Occupation	Anthropologist
Spouse	Mary Elizabeth Roseborough (1954)
Children	Thomas S., John W., Catherine E.
Awards	Killam Foundation Research Fellowship, 1980-1982

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Richard Frank Salisbury FRSC (December 8, 1926 – June 17, 1989), also known as Dick Salisbury, was a Canadian anthropologist, specializing in the field of economic anthropology and anthropology of development. His primary fieldwork and subsequent publications dealt with the Tolai and Siane people of Papua New Guinea and the Cree of Northern Quebec.

Salisbury was the founder of the McGill University Department of Anthropology, serving as its first chair (1966–1970).^[1] He was the co-founder of McGill University's Centre for Developing Areas Studies.^[2] He was the director of the Programme in the Anthropology of Development at McGill from 1970 – 1986 and finally Dean of the Faculty of Arts at McGill from 1986 to 1989.

A prolific writer, he authored or co-authored some 20 books, monographs and reports, more than 60 articles and numerous other reviews and commentaries. His most notable books are From Stone to Steel (1962),^[3] Vunamami (1970),^[4] and A Homeland for the Cree (1986).^[5]

Salisbury's influence was felt not only through his academic writings – he produced many high-impact research and policy reports on critical social issues of the day. He regularly engaged these issues as an anthropological consultant and public policy voice. His leadership on the impact study of the James Bay Project, a hydro-electric mega-complex, helped the James Bay Cree and the Government of Quebec work out the historic James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (1975). The Agreement was the first treaty (a 'comprehensive claims settlement' in the language of the 1970s) to be signed with an Indigenous people in Canada since the 1920s. It became a model for subsequent modern treaties, seeking terms for reconciling Indigenous autonomy, economic justice and cultural aspirations with the jurisdictional claims and development plans of provincial and federal governments.