On this, Settler Education’s publication day, I’d like to ask you non-indigenous Canadian sorts some questions. I’ve read some of the poems in this book in public, in Ontario, and I’ve found myself needing to first find out what audiences know about the stories and events told in this book, a good number of them … Continue reading A Settler Survey
The Battlefords is a town and a city, split by the North Saskatchewan River. In the town of Battleford, south of the river, things remain small and quiet, compared to the industry and burger-joint-strip-mall pall dominating the city of North Battleford. It was at Fort Battleford—formerly the capital of what was then the Northwest Territory—that … Continue reading (Fort) Battleford, Saskatchewan
Frenchman Butte, population around 50, but it bloats a little in the summer when the university kids come back home to work at the Lloyd Furman Museum. Reeking of old gasoline and stuffed full of arrowheads, a Red River cart, and a beaded leather coat that belonged to Louis Riel, among thousands of other things, … Continue reading Frenchman Butte, Saskatchewan
When Robert Hougham bought Fort Pitt from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1944 and began breaking the land to grow hay for his cattle, he found human remains in unmarked shallow graves beside the site of the fort. So he gave half an acre to those remains and built a cairn. And he was buried … Continue reading Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan
“In one sense, Frog Lake is a simple event of a proud people pushed down into poverty and into starvation. As a warrior, you’re not thinking ahead very far, but at the same time you are responsible for feeding your people. So, you can understand what drove them. But at the same time you cannot … Continue reading Frog Lake, Alberta
