Deanna Reder

Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition critiques ways of approaching Indigenous texts that are informed by the Western academic tradition and offers instead a new way of theorizing Indigenous literature based on the Indigenous practice of life writing.

Since the 1970s non-Indigenous scholars have perpetrated the notion that Indigenous people were disinclined to talk about their lives and underscored the assumption that autobiography is a European invention. Deanna Reder challenges such long held assumptions by calling attention to longstanding autobiographical practices that are engrained in Cree and Métis, or nêhiyawak, culture and examining a series of examples of Indigenous life writing. Blended with family stories and drawing on original historical research, Reder examines censored and suppressed writing by nêhiyawak intellectuals such as Maria Campbell, Edward Ahenakew, and James Brady. Grounded in nêhiyawak ontologies and epistemologies that consider life stories to be an intergenerational conduit to pass on knowledge about a shared world, this study encourages a widespread re-evaluation of past and present engagement with Indigenous storytelling forms across scholarly disciplines

Educator Information
Table of Contents

For fans of true crime, an unsolved mystery of missing persons, police conspiracies, and private investigations in an Indigenous community in northern Canada.

Métis leader James Brady was one of the most famous Indigenous activists in Canada. A communist, strategist, and bibliophile, he led Métis and First Nations to rebel against government and church oppression. Brady’s success made politicians and clergy fear him, and he had enemies everywhere.

In 1967, while prospecting in Saskatchewan with Cree Band Councillor and fellow activist Absolom Halkett, both men vanished without a trace from their remote lakeside camp. For 50 years rumours swirled of secret mining interests, political intrigue, assassination, and murder. Cold Case North is the story of how a small team, with the help of a local Indigenous community, exposed police failure in the original investigation, discovered new clues and testimony, and gathered the pieces of the North’s most enduring missing persons puzzle.

Reviews
“This engrossing account charts the efforts of three dedicated people to determine the fate of two missing Indigenous men in the north of Canada. [...] Meticulously researched, this smoothly written tale of injustice showcases the authors’ tenacity and arouses the reader’s indignation. This is a scathing rebuke of the RCMP’s failure to take the case of missing Indigenous people seriously.” —Publisher's Weekly

“Like too many cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people, authorities failed to ensure that Brady and Halkett’s deaths were properly investigated. This book helps get to the bottom of the fate of these two men, and demonstrates why investigators should never dismiss the knowledge of Indigenous peoples.” —Darren Prefontaine, author of Gabriel Dumont

“Cold Case North is part true crime thriller, part gripping mystery about the disappearance of Métis legend James Brady and Absolom Halkett in northern Saskatchewan. It is also about Indigenous knowledge, investigative incompetence, and the stuff of legend.” —Paul Seesequasis, author of Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun

“A fascinating search for the truth, Cold Case North unravels the layers of a decades’ old mystery. It is about how communities hold knowledge for generations, and how missing loved ones are never forgotten.” —Katherena Vermette, author of River Woman and The Break

Additional Information
272 pages | 5.00" x 7.00"