Algonquin

From veteran hockey reporter Patrick Johnston and Gino’s longtime friend Peter Leech comes the authorized biography of Gino Odjick.

In the 1980s and ’90s, National Hockey League games were very different from the nimble, skill-focused displays we see today. One of the greatest differences—and one of the sport’s more popular facets at the time—was the widespread presence of “enforcers”: hulking, battle-scarred players whose main task was to police the sport by chasing down and brawling with opponents who had broken unwritten codes determining which aspects of violence counted as dishonorable or unjustified.

When hard-hitting Vancouver Canucks player Gino Odjick emerged in the early 1990s, he quickly became one of the game’s most feared enforcers and revered teammates, a sign of a new era for the team, racking up 296 penalty minutes in the 45 games he played in his rookie season. Hailing from Kitigan Zibi, an Algonquin community near Maniwaki, Quebec, Gino was one of the few Indigenous players in the NHL at the time. But it was Gino’s ferocious play contrasted by his genuinely affable and openhearted personality off the ice that won him a special place in the hearts of Canucks supporters.

Yet legends often obscure the human stories behind them. Patrick Johnston and Peter Leech look beyond Gino’s legendary persona, drawing on insights from family members, friends, and teammates to recount Gino’s early years in a loving household that was always ready to welcome foster children. Gino’s father, Joe, had suffered the lonely traumas of the residential school system, and the experience had instilled a commitment in the family to those who were less fortunate.

The book also details Gino’s eventual struggles with alcohol abuse, and how he responded by taking on the role of empathetic mentor to young Indigenous people, travelling from community to community to hear their stories and offer hope. He never wavered in this role, even as he confronted serious illnesses, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the rare blood disorder that he survived for years longer than expected, but that eventually led to his death at age fifty-two.

Gino is a moving tribute to a beloved hockey legend.

Reviews
"Gino was the greatest teammate; he had such a huge heart and knew his role better than anyone in the league. Gino loved being a Vancouver Canuck and gave back to the community in so many ways. He will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and fans. This book will give people insight into his remarkable life."—Geoff Courtnall

“Gino provides a compelling account of the life of a beloved Vancouver Canuck. From his humble beginnings in Quebec to NHL stardom and beyond, Odjick was dedicated to the well-being of teammates and the Indigenous community. This is an excellent tribute to an exceptional man.”—Randi Druzin, author of Between the Pipes and Behind the Mask

Additional Information
288 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | b&w insert | Hardcover 

How people today create respectful relationships through peace and friendship.

Deyohahá:ge:, “two roads or paths” in Cayuga language, evokes the Covenant Chain-Two Row Wampum, known as the “grandfather of the treaties.” Famously, this Haudenosaunee wampum agreement showed how Indigenous people and newcomers could build peace and friendship by respecting each other’s cultures, beliefs, and laws as they shared the river of life.

Written by members of Six Nations and their neighbours, this book introduces readers not only to the 17th-century history of how the Dutch and British joined the wampum agreement, but also to how it might restore good relations today. Many Canadians and Americans have never heard of the Covenant Chain or Two Row Wampum, but 200 years of disregard have not obliterated the covenant. We all need to learn about this foundational wampum, because it is resurging in our communities, institutions, and courthouses—charting a way to a future.

The writers of Deyohahá:ge delve into the eco-philosophy, legal evolution, and ethical protocols of two-path peace-making. They tend the sacred, ethical space that many of us navigate between these paths. They show how people today create peace, friendship, and respect—literally—on the river of everyday life.

Reviews
"Deyohahá:ge: brilliantly reminds us of our obligations and responsibilities to one another, and the more-than-human world. It shows that pathways can only be forged by respecting the waters, earth, fires, and skies through which all creation travels.” - John Borrows, Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law, University of Toronto

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Indigenous Imaginings series.

Table of Contents
The Words That Come Before All Else
Acknowledgements
Introduction, Daniel Coleman, Ki’en Debicki, and Bonnie Freeman

Section One: Original Instructions
Gä•sweñta’ Reflections. Oren Lyons
Where the Roots Touch: tsi niyothahinen ne Tehontatenentshonteronhtáhkwa, Amber Meadow Adams
Wunnáumwash: Wampum Justice, Kelsey Leonard The Chain, Naturally Understood, Kayanesenh Paul Williams

Section Two: Learning from the River
Guswenta Space: An Invitation to Dialogue, David Newhouse
Navigating the Two Row in the Academy, Vanessa Watts
Two Rows of Reconciliation, Rick Hill
Below Decks in the Covenant: Blackness in the Two Row Tradition, Phanuel Antwi
Towards Peace: Living in the Three White Rows of the Two Row”, Sarah General

Section Three: Living on the River
The Pen Pal Project: Bridging the Divide with the Teachings of the Two Row Wampum Treaty,” Susie Miller and Scot Cooper
Deyohahage Gihe gowa’hneh: Living the Two Row Wampum, on the Grand River, Ellie Joseph and Jay Bailey
The Deep and Rippling Consciousness of Water: The Transition of Youth Experiences with the Two Row on the Grand River Paddle, Bonnie Freeman and Trish van Katwyk
Contributors
Endnotes
Bibliography
Glossary
Index

Additional Information
336 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback 

In the ages and eons before settlers descended upon Turtle Island, Indigenous people made their homes here, among the trees, rivers, lakes and mountains. Babies were born; people died during famine and war; families roamed from one gathering place to another, always in search of food that would help them survive another winter. Four-leggeds, fliers, swimmers and crawlers provided meat; the standing people, bushes and plants took care of the rest. The water, cold and clear, was available to everyone. Mother Earth supplied everything needed to sustain the inhabitants, and Creator of All watched over their comings and goings. Life was hard, but joy also abounded.

Although a work of fiction, this might have been the story of my family . . . or yours.

Additional Information
248 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

On the twentieth anniversary of its first volume, Staging Coyote’s Dream Volume 3 is a curated collection of new works rooted in Indigenous values, aesthetics, and narrative structures. Inspired by their own dramaturgical practices and current conversations in contemporary theatre creation, co-editors Monique Mojica and Lindsay Lachance identify the invaluable and understudied ways that many Indigenous theatre artists are creating culturally specific dramaturgical processes and shifting the paradigm for what is considered “text.” By presenting models for relational theatre-making and land-based explorations outside the traditional “well-made-play” structure, Staging Coyote’s Dream Volume 3 is more than just a collection of plays; it offers some strategies and tools for how Indigenous artists can reimagine the structures of new-play development and performance on Turtle Island.

An anthology that identifies and highlights a vast array of anti-colonial performing arts processes, including reclamation, embodiment, and community-engaged work—to name only a few—Mojica and Lachance gather the works of artists leading these practices to not only honour how their plays are expanding dramaturgy, but to build Indigenous performance literacies for all practitioners creating on Turtle Island.

Additional Information
416 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

This art book features artwork by Anishinaabe artist Donna Langhorne.

In the Seven Visions, Anishinaabe artist Donna Langhorne describes to you the meaning behind her seven pieces of artwork. Her visions were inspired by the seven sacred teachings, and draw on contemporary issues affecting Indigenous people.

Diana Frost from Colouring It Forward adds suggestions of activities that you can engage in to do something about these issues and to participate in reconciliation.

Additional Information
8.5"x11", 24 pages, full colour book

Young Dominique Rankin was intended to succeed his father as Algonquin Hereditary Chief and Medicine Man. Before that could happen, the Government of Canada’s policies of Indigenous assimilation wrested the boy from his home to entrust him to the infamous Indian residential school system. There, like thousands of Indigenous children across North America, Dominique would endure a terrible ordeal. Only upon leaving the school years later would the young man finally be free to begin a long journey of healing and self-discovery that would reunite him with his heritage and his true destiny.

Weaving the Prophecy of the Seven Fires’ teachings with the powerful narrative of his own tumultuous life, Chief Dominique Rankin delivers a vibrant testimony on respect, forgiveness, and healing. In this poignant memoir, the residential school Survivor, Elder, Medicine Man, and former Grand Chief of the Algonquin Nation bares all—the dark and the light alike—to unshroud a chapter of our sombre collective past and to illuminate a path to a better, brighter future.

Additional Information
160 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 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

Additional Information
350 pages | 8.00" x 5.00"| Paperback

A significant moment in Canadian history is portrayed in this documentary musical about race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Weaving hundreds of real interviews conducted with Saskatchewan residents and the court transcripts surrounding the killing of Colten Boushie and trial of Gerald Stanley, a kaleidoscopic picture is formed of the views of the incident, the province, and Indigenous people in Canada.

Reasonable Doubt—with interviews by Joel Bernbaum, music by Lancelot Knight, and dramaturgy by Yvette Nolan—provides a space to honestly talk to each other about what has happened on this land and how we can live together.

Reviews
“Verbatim theatre usually does a good job of putting the audience in the shoes of the people speaking, but Reasonable Doubt puts you in your own shoes and makes you deal with the mud splattered across them.” — Matt Olson, Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Additional Information
128 pages | 5.37" x 8.38" | Paperback

Magodiz (Anishinabemowin, Algonquin dialect): a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of their country.

Everything that was green and good is gone, scorched away by a war that no one living remembers. The small surviving human population scavenges to get by; they cannot read or write and lack the tools or knowledge to rebuild. The only ones with any power are the mindless Enforcers, controlled by the Madjideye, a faceless, formless spiritual entity that has infiltrated the world to subjugate the human population.

A'tugwewinu is the last survivor of the Andwanikadjigan. On the run from the Madjideye with her lover, Bel, a descendant of the Warrior Nation, they seek to share what the world has forgotten: stories. In Pasakamate, both Shkitagen, the firekeeper of his generation, and his life's heart, Nitawesi, whose hands mend bones and cure sickness, attempt to find a home where they can raise children in peace without fear of slavers or rising waters. In Zhong yang, Riordan wheels around just fine, leading xir gang of misfits in hopes of surviving until the next meal. However, Elite Enforcer H-09761 (Yun Seo, who was abducted as a child, then tortured and brainwashed into servitude) is determined to arrest Riordan for theft of resources and will stop at nothing to bring xir to the Madjideye. In a ruined world, six people collide, discovering family and foes, navigating friendship and love, and reclaiming the sacredness of the gifts they carry.

With themes of resistance, of ceremony as the conduit between realms, of transcending gender, Magodiz is a powerful and visionary reclamation that Two-Spirit people always have and always will be vital to the cultural and spiritual legacy of their communities.

Additional Information
304 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

In the winter of 1876, a baby is born to Anishinaabe parents along the trapline in the northern Ontario wilderness. Seventy-five years later, her granddaughter is seeking information about her grandmother's life, why her family is so fractured, and what part the residential school played in the dysfunction and estrangement which has shaped her own life. To that end, twenty—two-year-old Janey enlists the help of a hypnotist who regresses Janey back to a time when Indigenous people in Canada lived off the land, supported each other and raised their children without outside interference. But when settlers began to arrive and residential schools were established, all that changed.

In her hypnotic state, Janey is able to follow her grandmother, Wabanang (Morning Star) as a child, as a residential school student and as a medicine woman for her people. But the seeds of distrust and fear sown along the way are destroying her family. Estranged from her mother and living with her only relative, Janey must find her own way through the smoke of confusion to discover who she is.

Although this is a work of fiction. The author has drawn on her own family's history, ceremonies and visions from her own life, stories shared with her by respected elders, as well as many years of researching her own and other families.

Additional Information
232 pages | 5.51" x 8.46" | Paperback

In this haunting and groundbreaking historical novel, Danielle Daniel imagines the lives of women in the Algonquin territories of the 1600s, a story inspired by her family’s ancestral link to a young girl who was murdered by French settlers.

1657. Marie, a gifted healer of the Deer Clan, does not want to marry the green-eyed soldier from France who has asked for her hand. But her people are threatened by disease and starvation and need help against the Iroquois and their English allies if they are to survive. When her chief begs her to accept the white man’s proposal, she cannot refuse him, and sheds her deerskin tunic for a borrowed blue wedding dress to become Pierre’s bride.

1675. Jeanne, Marie’s oldest child, is seventeen, neither white nor Algonquin, caught between worlds. Caught by her own desires, too. Her heart belongs to a girl named Josephine, but soon her father will have to find her a husband or be forced to pay a hefty fine to the French crown. Among her mother’s people, Jeanne would have been considered blessed, her two-spirited nature a sign of special wisdom. To the settlers of New France, and even to her own father, Jeanne is unnatural, sinful—a woman to be shunned, beaten, and much worse.

With the poignant, unforgettable story of Marie and Jeanne, Danielle Daniel reaches back through the centuries to touch the very origin of the long history of violence against Indigenous women and the deliberate, equally violent disruption of First Nations cultures.

Reviews
“Danielle Daniel renders the stories of her ancestors vividly, poetically and with deep love and respect. Daughters of the Deer gives long overdue voices to the Indigenous women who came before. A subtle, moving demonstration of how colonization attempted to strip Indigenous women of their power and place, and a testament to the enduring strength and wisdom that no colonial power could extinguish.” —Jessica McDiarmid, author of Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Additional Information
344 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | Paperback

For 34 years, Lynn Gehl fought against the sex discrimination built into Canada’s Indian Act. This is the story of her challenges and eventual success.

A follow-up to Claiming Anishinaabe, Gehl v Canada is the story of Lynn Gehl’s lifelong journey of survival against the nation-state’s constant genocidal assault against her existence. While Canada set up its colonial powers—including the Supreme Court, House of Commons, Senate Chamber, and the Residences of the Prime Minister and Governor General—on her traditional Algonquin territory, usurping the riches and resources of the land, she was pushed to the margins, exiled to a life of poverty in Toronto’s inner-city.

With only beads in her pocket, Gehl spent her entire life fighting back, and now offers an insider analysis of Indian Act litigation, the narrow remedies the court imposes, and of obfuscating parliamentary discourse, as well as an important critique of the methodology of legal positivism. Drawing on social identity and Indigenous theories, the author presents Disenfranchised Spirit Theory, revealing insights into the identity struggles facing Indigenous Peoples to this day.

Reviews
“Congratulations . . . to Dr. Lynn Gehl for her successful challenge of the Indian Registrar’s refusal to allow her to be registered under the Indian Act. . . . Good win, Lynn!”—The Honourable Murray Sinclair

“With knowledge and experience from years of advocacy before Parliament as well as the courts, and the depth of perception typical of all her scholarly work, Dr. Gehl assesses what more is needed before the Indian Act system can be truly egalitarian. Her book is unique and inspiring.” —Mary Eberts, from the foreword

“[R]emarkable . . . a monument in Indigenous struggles with the colonial Crown.” —Veldon Coburn, Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies at University of Ottawa

“Gehl embodies essential Indigenous wisdom, bravery, and responsibility in her work to dismantle the systems of colonial oppression. Her work serves as a beacon in a network of pathways for our people to make their way home.” —Chief Wendy Jocko, Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation
 
“The legal decision in Gehl v Canada will have profound effects for the future, ensuring that hundreds of thousands of Indigenous mothers will be able to pass their status on to their children. This victory, the product of decades of struggle by Lynn Gehl, is chronicled here. Read it and learn!” —Bonita Lawrence, author of Fractured Homeland

Educator Information
This is the follow-up to Claiming Anishinaabe.

Centres Anishinaabe methods of personal truth over western academia.

Introduces readers to the paternity policy of the Indian Art, explaining how this policy was sexual discrimination and bloodless genocide. The paternity policy of the Indian Act required individuals claiming Status to demonstrate the lineage of both parents. Harmful to Indigenous mothers and children, and imposing a high evidentiary burden on Indigenous people claiming Status, it was overturned on April 20, 2017, in what is now known as the Gehl decision. 

Additional Information
288 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

In a post-apocalyptic world, Bern and Elena are exiled from their village. Their crime? The two women are no longer of child-bearing age.

Forced to rely upon traditional wisdom for their survival, Elena and Bern retreat from the remains of civilization to a freezing, desolate landscape where they attempt to continue their lives after the end of the world. When a charismatic stranger from the village arrives seeking their aid, the women must decide whether they will use their knowledge of the past to give the society that rejected them the chance at a future.

Additional Information
80 pages | 5.36" x 8.39"

Mācī-Anihšināpēmowin / Beginning Saulteaux is an introductory look at one of the most widely spoken of all North American Indigenous languages, regionally known as Saulteaux, Ojibway, Ottawa (Odawa), Chippewa, and Algonquian. In an easy-to-use and easy-to-read series of lessons, both designed for self-study or for use in the classroom, Beginning Saulteaux will guide beginners through the language’s grammatical structures and spelling systems, as well as everyday terms and phrases. The book grounds the language in both traditional and contemporary contexts, and sheds light on the Saulteaux world view. For example, there is no word for good-bye in the language, so upon parting people will usually say Kika-wāpamin mīnawā, meaning “I’ll see you again.”

Educator & Series Information
The third in our Indigenous Languages for Beginners series, Beginning Saulteaux is an invaluable resource produced in consultation with Elders, Language Keepers, and community members, and continues our commitment to revitalizing Indigenous languages.

Additional Information
304 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Spiral Bound

Nanabush. A name that has a certain weight on the tongue—a taste. Like lit sage in a windowless room or aluminum foil on a metal filling.

Trickster. Storyteller. Shape-shifter. An ancient troublemaker with the power to do great things, only he doesn’t want to put in the work.

Since coming home to Spirit Bear Point First Nation, Hazel Ellis has been dreaming of an old crow. He tells her he’s here to help her, save her. From what, exactly? Sure, her dad’s been dead for almost two years and she hasn’t quite reconciled that grief, but is that worth the time of an Algonquin demigod?

Soon Hazel learns that there’s more at play than just her own sadness and doubt. The quarry that’s been lying unsullied for over a century on her father’s property is stirring the old magic that crosses the boundaries between this world and the next. With the aid of Nanabush, Hazel must unravel a web of deceit that, if left untouched, could destroy her family and her home on both sides of the Medicine Wheel.

Reviews
“Full of spirit, love, mystery and good medicine, Crow Winter tells the story of Hazel and one very tricky little crow. Karen McBride’s debut novel ambitiously and successfully balances all these things creating a world and story that will stay with you after you have turned that last page.” - Katherena Vermette, award-winning author of The Break

"Algonquin Anishinaabe writer Karen McBride's debut is about a young woman who moves home to her First Nation reserve after losing her father. Dealing with grief and while memories are flooding her thoughts, Hazel's dreams are disturbed by her trickster kin, a crow, Nanabush. 

As she starts to unravel her father's history with a local quarry, the crow is a constant companion and guides her to find the truth. The physical and spiritual worlds are seamlessly woven together, and we are taken inside the experience Hazel is having reconciling her truth with her father's and the imposing facts of the real world.

A lovely story full of spirit and imagery that stays with you long after the final page. Karen is a writer to watch." - Sandy, indieCHOICE

Additional Information
352 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"