Indigenous Peoples in Canada

“My name is Sam George. In spite of everything that happened to me, by the grace of the Creator, I have lived to be an Elder.”

The crimes carried out at St. Paul’s Indian Residential School in North Vancouver scarred untold numbers of Indigenous children and families across generations. Sam George was one of these children. This candid account follows Sam from his idyllic childhood growing up on the Eslhá7an (Mission) reserve to St. Paul’s, where he weathered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. He spent much of his life navigating the effects of this trauma – prison, addiction, and challenging relationships – until he found the strength to face his past. Now an Elder and educator with the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, this is Sam’s harrowing story, in his own words. An ember of Sam’s spirit always burned within him, and even in the darkest of places he retained his humour and dignity.

The Fire Still Burns is an unflinching look at the horrors of a childhood in the Indian Residential School system and the long-term effects on survivors. It illustrates the healing power of one’s culture and the resilience that allows an individual to rebuild a life and a future.

This frank and powerful personal story of trauma and resilience will bring a greater understanding to all readers – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike – of residential schools and the impact they had on those who were forced to attend them.

Reviews
"I am glad that Sam George has lent his voice to the many voices of survivors now surfacing from residential "schools". I love the way Sam describes his traditional life before he was forced to go to the school and then later goes back to his culture to overcome the trauma he endured. Sam did time in jail for a crime he committed, but the real crime is that our Indigenous way of life was interfered with, and that created the dysfunction in our communities. This book shows that we had it right all along – Indigenous culture is our saviour."— Bev Sellars, author of They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

"Brutally frank yet disarmingly subtle, sensitive, and funny, The Fire Still Burns by Sam George offers an unflinching look at the human dimensions of Canada’s attempted genocide of Indigenous Peoples through residential schooling." — Sam McKegney, author of Carrying the Burden of Peace: Reimagining Indigenous Masculinities through Story

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Preface / Sam George
Acknowledgments
A Note on the Text
1 Your Name Is T'seatsultux
2 In Them Days
3 Our Lives Signed Away
4 The Strap
5 A Girl Named Pearl, a Boy Named Charlie
6 Runaway
7 I Tried to Be Invisible
8 Finding Ways to Feel Good
9 On Our Own
10 Oakalla
11 Haney Correctional
12 Longshoreman
13 Misery Loves Company
14 Drowning
15 Tsow-Tun Le Lum
16 I’m Still Here
Afterword: On Co-Writing Sam George’s Memoir / Jill Yonit Goldberg
Reader’s Guide
About the Authors

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152 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

The First Few Feet in a World of Wolves chronicles the fictionalization of the year the author spent teaching in Aupaluk (a remote Inuit community on the Ungava Coast of Nunavik). The story outlines, and explores, the history of oppression experienced by the more than five hundred Indigenous nations across northern Turtle Island at the hands of the Canadian government since the Royal Proclamation.

Told through the voice of Nomad, who finds himself very much at odds with the land itself. Nomad slowly learns how to reconnect with his fractured history as he embraces and is embraced by the Elders and his own students. Told is crisp, spare prose, this debut novel brings forward a powerful new Indigenous voice to the literary landscape.

Reviews
"Speaking in a voice that is both powerful and playful, Scott Mainprize weaves a thoughtful investigation into the Indigenous Peoples' oppression through the eyes of his fictional character, Nomad. And we discover as Nomad discovers that the art of storytelling is a way towards healing and reconciliation." - Mary Barnes, author of Moving Upstream

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350 pages | 8.00" x 5.00"| Paperback

A history of Indigenous Pentecostalism in Canada, through the experience of the Northland Mission.

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the world. In Canada, it is the most rapidly growing Christian group among Indigenous people, with approximately one in ten Pentecostals in the country being Indigenous. Pentecostalism has become a religious force in many Indigenous communities, where congregations are most often led by Indigenous ministers – an achievement that took many decades. The Holy Spirit and the Eagle Feather traces the development of Indigenous Pentecostalism in Canada. Exploring the history of twentieth-century missionization, with particular attention to the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada’s Northland Mission, founded in 1943, Aaron Ross shows how the denomination’s Euro-Canadian leaders, who believed themselves to be supporters of Indigenous-led churches, struggled to relinquish control of mission management and finances. Drawing on interviews with contemporary figures in the movement, he describes how Indigenous Pentecostals would come to challenge the mission’s eurocentrism over decades, eventually entering positions of leadership in the church. This process required them to confront the painful vestiges of colonialism and to grapple with the different philosophies and theologies of Pentecostalism and Indigenous traditional spiritualities. In doing so they indigenized the movement and forged a new identity, as Indigenous and Pentecostal. Indigenous Pentecostals now occupy key roles in the church and serve as political, cultural, and economic leaders in their communities. The Holy Spirit and the Eagle Feather tells the story of how they overcame the church’s colonial impulses to become religious leaders, as well as agents for decolonization and reconciliation.

Reviews
“The Holy Spirit and the Eagle Feather is an impressively thorough history that importantly fills out the historical record on the spread of Pentecostalism through local Indigenous communities in northern Ontario while simultaneously connecting the local histories to a larger religious shift across North America. The book is well written, engaging, and filled with information only recorded in hard-to-access archives, until now.” - Kimberly Marshall, University of Oklahoma and author of Upward, Not Sunwise: Resonant Rupture in Navajo Neo-Pentecostalism

“The Holy Spirit and the Eagle Feather is a well-researched historical treatise of Pentecostalism among First Peoples, Nations, and bands in Canada. Once you have begun reading this book, you will be unable to put it down! The author’s ‘quiet voice’ has relevance and immediacy to the challenges of Canada. Truth never changes, but it must be packaged culturally and generationally to make it relevant with knowledge that is consistent with reality. Combining insight and foresight, Aaron Ross not only perceives tendencies common to cross-cultural workers, he is able to pinpoint those meanings for the reader. His work will retain a lasting validity that can be studied, and restudied.” - Rev. John E. Thohate Maracle (Mohawk Wolf Clan), Former Chief of the Native American Fellowship of the Assemblies of God USA

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392 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic. Paulette F. C. Steeves mines evidence from archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that people have been in the Western Hemisphere not only just prior to Clovis sites (10,200 years ago) but for more than 60,000 years, and likely more than 100,000 years.

Steeves discusses the political history of American anthropology to focus on why pre-Clovis sites have been dismissed by the field for nearly a century. She explores supporting evidence from genetics and linguistic anthropology regarding First Peoples and time frames of early migrations. Additionally, she highlights the work and struggles faced by a small yet vibrant group of American and European archaeologists who have excavated and reported on numerous pre-Clovis archaeology sites.

In this first book on Paleolithic archaeology of the Americas written from an Indigenous perspective, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere includes Indigenous oral traditions, archaeological evidence, and a critical and decolonizing discussion of the development of archaeology in the Americas.

Reviews

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328 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 2 photographs, 8 illustrations, 5 maps, 7 tables, 1 appendix, index | Paperback

One of the few biographies of an Inuk man from the 19th Century—separated from his family, community, and language—finding his place in history.

Augustine Tataneuck was an Inuk man born near the beginning of the 19th century on the northwestern coast of Hudson Bay. Between 1812 and 1834, his family sent him to Churchill, Manitoba, to live and work among strangers, where he could escape the harsh Arctic climate and earn a living in the burgeoning fur trade. He was perhaps the first Inuk man employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company as a labourer, and he also worked as an interpreter on John Franklin’s two overland expeditions in search of the northwest passage.

Tataneuck’s life was shaped by the inescapable, harsh environments he lived within, and he was an important, but not widely recognized, player in the struggle for the possession of northwest North America waged by Britain, Russia, and the United States. He left no diaries or letters.

Using the Hudson’s Bay Company’s journals and historical archives, historian Renee Fossett has pieced together a compelling biography of Augustine and the historical times he lived through: climate disasters, lethal disease episodes, and political upheavals on an international scale.

While The Life and Times of Augustine Tataneuck is a captivating portrait of an Inuk man who lived an extraordinary life, it also is an arresting, unique glimpse into the North as it was in the 19th century and into the lives of trappers, translators, and labourers who are seldom written about and often absent in the historical record.

Reviews
"Renee Fossett's careful research ensures that the life of Augustine Tataneuck, Inuk interpreter and guide, will be remembered, with respect." —Julie Rak, co-editor of Life Among the Qallunaat

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504 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 4 Maps, 1 Illustration | Paperback

From global art superstar Kent Monkman and his longtime collaborator Gisèle Gordon, a transformational work of true stories and imagined history that will remake readers' understanding of the land called North America.

For decades, the singular and provocative paintings by Cree artist Kent Monkman have featured a recurring character—an alter ego of sorts, a shape-shifting, time-travelling elemental being named Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. Though we have glimpsed her across the years, and on countless canvases, it is finally time to hear her story, in her own words. And, in doing so, to hear the whole history of Turtle Island anew. The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island is a genre-demolishing work of genius, the imagined history of a legendary figure through which a profound truths emerge—a deeply Cree and gloriously queer understanding of our shared world, its past, its present, and its possibilities.

Volume Two, which takes us from the moment of confederation to the present day, is a heartbreaking and intimate examination of the tragedies of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Zeroing in on the story of one family told across generations, Miss Chief bears witness to the genocidal forces and structures that dispossessed and attempted to erase Indigenous peoples. Featuring many figures pulled from history as well as new individuals created for this story, Volume Two explores the legacy of colonial violence in the children’s work camps (called residential schools by some), the Sixties Scoop, and the urban disconnection of contemporary life. Ultimately, it is a story of resilience and reconnection, and charts the beginnings of an Indigenous future that is deeply rooted in an experience of Indigenous history—a perspective Miss Chief, a millennia-old legendary being, can offer like none other.

Blending history, fiction, and memoir in bold new ways, The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle are unlike anything published before. And in their power to reshape our shared understanding, they promise to change the way we see everything that lies ahead.

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264 pages | 6.79" x 10.26" | Hardcover

Misty Lake tells the story of a young Metis journalist from Winnipeg who travels to a Dene reserve in Northern Manitoba to conduct an interview with a former residential school student. What Mary imparts in her interview will change Patty's life profoundly, allowing the journalist to make the connections to her own troubled life in the city. Patty knows that her Metis grandmother went to residential school when she was a girl. But Patty hasn't understood until now that she's inherited the traumatic legacy of residential school that was passed down to her mother from her grandmother. With this new understanding, Patty embarks on a healing journey. It will take her to the Dene fishing camp at Misty Lake, a place of healing, where, with Mary, she will learn that healing begins when you can talk about your life.

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80 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

Exploring the intricacies of power, culture and emotion when a non-Indigenous person moves to an Indigenous community as an educator, Jennifer Manuel casts a spell as captivating and perceptive as in her bestselling novel The Heaviness of Things That Float.

When new teacher Molleigh Royston moves to Tawakin—a remote Nuu-chah-nulth community in the Pacific Northwest—she arrives with good intentions. However, as she struggles to understand and help her students, doubts begin to accumulate—including doubts about her own motivations. Things escalate when three students start behaving strangely and Molleigh makes a serious cultural transgression, triggering a series of disturbing events in the village. Giant boulders are placed in front of Molleigh’s house, furniture moves mysteriously and flowers erupt in flame.

The Morning Bell Brings the Broken Hearted is a captivating story about the complexity of hope and the limits of good intent, offering a grave look at how the education system fails remote Indigenous communities, leaving Indigenous students, with all their brilliance and resilience, in the hands of transient educators.

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272 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

An intriguing look at the connections between Alberta premier Peter Lougheed and his Métis grandmother, Isabella Clarke Hardisty Lougheed, exploring how Métis identity, political activism, and colonial institutional power shaped the lives and legacies of both.

Combining the approaches of political biography and historical narrative, The Premier and His Grandmother introduces readers to two compelling and complex public figures. Born into a prominent fur trading family, Isabella Clarke Hardisty Lougheed (1861–1936) established a distinct role for herself as an influential Métis woman in southern Alberta, at a time when racial boundaries in the province were hardening and Métis activists established a firm foundation for the Métis to be recognized as distinct Indigenous Peoples.

Isabella’s grandson Edgar Peter Lougheed (1928–2021) served as premier of Alberta at a time when some of that activism achieved both successes and losses. Drawing on Peter Lougheed’s personal papers, family interviews, and archival research, this book analyzes his political initiatives in the context of his own identity as a person of Métis ancestry. While there are several publications that refer to Peter Lougheed in the context of his role as premier, few of those publications have acknowledged his connection to an important Métis pioneer family and his connection to his Indigenous ancestors.

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320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | b&w photographs | Paperback

Connect with healing traditions, stories, ancestral wisdom, and animal guidance through this 56-card deck and guidebook from Indigenous Medicine Woman and author of You Are the Medicine, Asha Frost.

Indigenous people know the power of earth and spirit medicine. Everything in our natural world is interconnected and sacred. The plants, animals, rocks, waters, stars, moon are our relations, our kin. Every aspect of creation has a spirit. This spirit lives in all things and informs us how to walk in a good way or, in Anishinaabemowin, Mino-bimaadiziwin.

The Sacred Medicine Oracle was birthed to invite readers into a conscious and respectful relationship with medicine teachings, awakening a daily connection to your own inner divinity, power, and wisdom. From the powerful remembering of "Past Life Medicine" to the promise of miracles with "Jingle Dress," each of the 56 cards depicts ceremony, traditions, moon phases, animal guides, and plant allies, all of them alive with energy and blessed with healing intentions from the ancestors.

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144 pages | 4.88" x 5.38" | 56 Cards and Guidebook 

In this intimate collection of writing and art, Brian J. Francis invites us to explore the sacred space within. Through vision, prayer, and dream work, Francis channels messages from the ancestors to help us contemplate themes of nature, mortality, truth, and reconciliation. Eclipsing space and time, Francis words and art resonate with deep texture, hope, colour, and mastery. The result is a shimmering testament to his Mi'kmaq ancestors, and a pledge to the next generation. Guiding us beyond spirit and nation boundaries, this eloquent read is ideal for anyone seeking sanctuary, sacred space, and a comfortable seat at their own altar.

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88 pages | 8.00" x 8.00" | Hardcover 

For over two centuries, the Métis have fought for recognition as an Indigenous people and as a Nation. This struggle has played out on the battlefield, in the courts, and at the negotiating table, often over issues of governance, land rights, and resources. It wasn’t until 1982, when the government patriated the Constitution, that Métis rights were officially recognized by Canada. The True Canadians chronicles Métis challenges and achievements over those 40 years and well before. Focused on Alberta, the book traces the growth of the Métis Nation of Alberta, which in 2022 ratified its own Constitution, the same year as the 40th anniversary of Canada’s Constitution Act. The title refers to the fact the Métis are the people born of this land.

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11.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover

Grocery-store clerk Beth has had a hell of a week. A hell of a life, actually, full of people squashing her soul. And after pushing back at life—stabbing a steak to her boss’s desk and lighting a magazine rack on fire, for instance—freshly unemployed Beth regroups at her mom’s suburban home. Just when Beth starts to think she’s to blame for systemic limits, the gift of a bird feeder sparks a relationship with a talking Crow who reconnects her with her true power.

This sly chamber piece from new voice Caleigh Crow turns post-capitalism ennui on its head with a righteous fury. It unearths the subtle (and not so subtle) ways we gaslight the marginalized, especially Indigenous women, people living with mental-health afflictions, and anyone struggling to make ends meet in low-income service jobs. There Is Violence captures the vivacity and humour of one truly remarkable woman not meant for this earth, and brings her to her own glorious transcendence.

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80 pages | 5.10" x 7.60" | Paperback

How educators can respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action

Educators have a special role in furthering truth and reconciliation practices in education, but many struggle to understand exactly what that means and how to accomplish it. Reconciliation through education is grounded in the amplification of Indigenous voices as the spark of authentic reconciliatory practices, as well as the understanding that everyone can gain insights through reconciliation practices and relationships.

Springing from a master’s certificate program at the University of Calgary called Indigenous Education: A Call to Action, this book explores stories from alumni, program designers, and instructors who have taken a deliberate and active role in responding to the TRC’s Calls to Action through education. Section I contains useful chapters on program design and concepts, while section II presents a collection of inspirational and thought-provoking personal stories and reflections from Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators.

This is a resource written by educators for educators wishing to embark on their own journeys of truth and reconciliation in their personal and professional lives. Join the reconciliatory education community in courageously teaching, learning, and acting, just as the educators in this collected volume are doing.

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240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback