Plains Cree

Revisiting the political activism of WIC Wuttunee

William (Bill) Wuttunee was a trailblazing lawyer, a courageous native rights activist; and one of the architects of the process for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His 1971 book, Ruffled Feathers: Indians in Canadian Society, decried conditions on reserves and pressed for integration-on Indigenous peoples' own terms-supporting many of the aims of the Trudeau government's 1969 "White Paper." Though controversial at the time, Wuttunee's arguments were rooted in a foundational belief in the strengths of his people and a steadfast rejection of victimhood. In the fifty years that have followed its publication, Ruffled Feathers has been largely forgotten, though ideas that Wuttunee put forth-ending the Indian Act and the reserve system-continue to find space within contemporary Canadian political discourse.

In this volume, editor Wanda Wuttunee gathers a diverse cohort of scholars to engage with her father's ideas and offer their own perspectives on the opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous peoples in Canada, then and now. Favouring discourse over conclusions, Still Ruffling Feathers leads the reader to a nuanced understanding of the ongoing conversations and unresolved issues stemming from the Indian Act and invites us to envision miyo-pimâtisiwin, "the good life."

Reviews"
"Still Ruffling Feathers explores an important area of modern history on Indigenous leadership. The thoughts and ideas expressed by William Wuttunee still have resonance today." - Dr. Brian Caillou, University of Calgary

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Brotherhood by William I.C. Wuttunee

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Introduction by Wakchan (Wanda Wuttunee), Red Pheasant Cree Nation, Saskatchewan

Chapter 1. Reflections on a Legacy--An Eagle Eye Perspective by Wakchan (Wanda Wuttunee), Red Pheasant Cree Nation, Saskatchewan

Chapter 2. Still Ruffling Feathers Too--More than 50 Years Later by Makookins (Xakiji (Chief) Lee Crowchild), Tsuut'ina Nation, Alberta

Chapter 3. William Wuttunee--Ruffling Feathers in "Indian" Time and Space by Thohahoken (Michael Doxtater), Mohawk Turtle Clan Family of Satekariwate, Ontario

Chapter 4. Learning to Straighten Our Ruffled Feathers: An Education by Askîy Pihêsiw (Robert Falcon Ouelette), Red Pheasant Cree Nation, Saskatchewan

Chapter 5. Ruffled Feathers: A Critical Assessment by Bush Doctor (Peter Kulchyski), Bissett, Manitoba

Chapter 6. Final Thoughts--Debating Our Future, Coming to One Mind by David Newhouse, Onandaga, Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario.

Appendix A: Excerpts from Ruffled Feathers (1971) by William I.C. Wuttunee

Appendix B. Selected Poetry of William I. C. Wuttunee

Appendix C. Discussion Questions Bibliography

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

Bestselling author of Birdie, Tracey Lindberg, and renowned artist George Littlechild join together in a stunning collaboration of story and art to explore love in all its forms—romantic, familial, community and kin—in the Cree experience.

In The Cree Word for Love, author Tracey Lindberg and artist George Littlechild consider a teaching from an Elder that in their culture, the notion of love as constructed in Western society does not exist. Here, through original fiction and select iconic paintings, Lindberg and Littlechild respond.

Together they have created and curated this collaboration which travels, season by season, mirroring the four rounds in ceremony, through the themes of the love within a family, ties of kinship, desire for romantic love and connection, strength in the face of loss and violence, and importance of self-love, as well as, crucially, a deeper exploration of the meaning of “all my relations.”

Together, art and story inspire and move readers to recall our responsibilities to our human and more than human relations, to think about the obligation that is love, and to imagine what it could possibly mean to have no Cree word for love. The result is a powerful story about where we find connection, strength, and the many forms of what it means to live lovingly.

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224 pages | 6.00" x 8.00" | 20 full-color photos of paintings | Hardcover 

In ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one other, nêhîyaw educator ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn uses the spirit marker writing system as a foundation for teaching ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin. The spirit marker writing system holds forty-four spirit markers and fourteen minor spirit markers. Some people call that system the star chart. Each spirit marker holds a law. These laws are meant to guide us in ways that support us in life. They are meant to guide us in ways of living well with the elements: fire, land, water, and air. The spirit markers remind us that these elements form the foundations of all relationships on earth.

Educator Information
In ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ, reuben quinn uses the spirit marker writing system as a foundation for teaching ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin.

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96 pages | 5.51" x 8.50" | Paperback

Passionate poetry and prose exploring the experience of an Indigenous person who feels like a stranger in a strange land, not quite accepted because of his light skin but also undermined by a settler-colonial society. Lyrical and heartfelt, bewildered and shaken, the poet struggles to find a connection to his family and lost culture.

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75 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

For over twenty years, Nehiyawak-Metis artist and author John Brady McDonald’s day job has been working with youth. Over half of that time was spent as a Frontline Youth Outreach Worker on the streets of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. During that time, John would write down his thoughts and feelings on scraps of paper and in little black hardcover notebooks, chronicling the struggles and traumas of the youth he worked with and which he himself had also experienced. Never being quite the right fit for his other poetry books, John took these poems and hid them away for years, until now. Recently rediscovered in his archives, John has compiled them, using a 54-year-old typewriter, into a work which gives voice to the experiences and resilience of those youth, along with his own experiences, thoughts and recollections of a poet in the midst of a turbulent moment in time amongst the concrete and asphalt of the city.

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

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

In their second poetry collection, Tawahum Bige explores belonging and voice of a Two-Spirit Dene youth.

These poems are a stark plunge—an answer to how voice emerges for a young Two Spirit growing up in so-called “Surrey, BC,” far from his Łutselk'e Dene territories. The fundamental thrum in which vocal cords produce sound to whisper, cry, holler and laugh—these inner workings are made corporeal through moments of growth from childhood to young adulthood to show how the seeds sprouted for someone who needed to learn to express to find their path.

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96 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | 25 colour and b&w photographs | Paperback 

A new edition, revised and updated by the author, of John Brady McDonald’s acclaimed debut poetry collection

John Brady McDonald, MBSFA, a Nêhiyawak-Métis multidisciplinary artist and writer from Treaty Six Territory in Saskatchewan, Canada, is an award-winning author of multiple books who has presented at literary festivals around the world. Before all this, however, he was a young, urban Indigenous youth, struggling with addictions, the streets, and the pain and turmoil of intergenerational trauma as a residential school survivor and the child of residential school survivors.

These raw, lyrical poems are a glimpse of the birth of a poet, recklessly using language and words with abandon and without restraint. It is the poetry of an individual experimenting with the language, influenced by the works of Shakespeare and Jim Morrison, mixed with the teenage goth writing style of youth—the base metals from which a lifetime of words was forged.

Originally published by Kegedonce Press in 2004, The Glass Lodge was presented across Canada and the US at esteemed festivals. Chosen for the First Nations Communities Read program, it was also nominated for the Anskohk Aboriginal Book of the Year in 2005. Since that first edition went out of print a few years ago, McDonald has re-edited and restored the work. He also rediscovered many of the original, handwritten poems, which serve as illustrations in this new edition.

Reviews
"The Glass Lodge transcends all the cliches of the angst-ridden Urban Indian. McDonald's verse is a brilliant fusion of the brutality and hope that is inherent in the Aboriginal experience. I have never read poetry that so closely resembles my own experience as a First Nations man." - Darrell Dennis, Writer, Tales of an Urban Indian, Moccasin Flats

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74 pages | 6.00" x 8.50" | Hardcover | 2nd Edition 

This is the 3rd Edition of our Cree coloring book with some new coloring sheets for adults and children. Read the wisdom pieces shared by Cree elder John Sinclair which introduce the teachings he received from his forefathers. Colour the beautiful artwork by Cree artists Delree Dumont.

Every book purchased will provide royalties to the artist and elder as well as a donation to Kani Kanichihk, a Cree organization for their cultural revitalization and community work.

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118 Pages | 8.5" x 11" | 3rd Edition 

A bold, provocative collection of essays exploring the historical and contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada.

With authority and insight, Truth Telling examines a wide range of Indigenous issues framed by Michelle Good’s personal experience and knowledge.

From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening. Truth Telling also demonstrates the myths underlying Canadian history and the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin modern social institutions in Canada.

Passionate and uncompromising, Michelle Good affirms that meaningful and substantive reconciliation hinges on recognition of Indigenous self-determination, the return of lands, and a just redistribution of the wealth that has been taken from those lands without regard for Indigenous peoples.

Truth Telling is essential reading for those looking to acknowledge the past and understand the way forward.

Reviews
“With blistering clarity, Michelle Good exposes the contradictions at the heart of Canada, but also imagines beyond them, setting out a specific vision for an Indigenous future governed by us. Good’s essays, woven with personal testimony, are deeply researched and traverse great swaths of history and policy; they are also very rousing and moving. No Canadian can feign ignorance of the Indigenous struggle when this book is within arm’s reach.” — Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A Minor Chorus

"Good reminds us what the truth in Truth and Reconciliation actually requires of all of us: Indigenous peoples and Canadians. Addressing storytelling and historical myth-making, this book would have changed my nineteen-year-old world had it been available and rendered normative for my teachers. Good’s work is formidable, elemental and reminiscent of Cardinal’s Unjust Society. This work, should be required reading for every Canadian. Smart, generous and insightful. 'There is no such thing as Crown Land. It is all Indigenous land.' Good writes. This truth resonates. Serves notice: it is time." — Dr. Tracey Lindberg, Law Professor, author of Birdie

“Truth Telling is at once heartfelt, instructive, and authentic, expertly exploring the key issues that have shaped the Indigenous reality in Canada.… This collection is an indispensable resource.” — Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Crusted Snow

“As Canadians search for a national approach to reconciliation... this book reminds us of how we arrived at this moment.…[and] is the kind of reference that will help us navigate our fraught journey.” — Dr. Eldon Yellowhorn, Professor of Indigenous Studies, Simon Fraser University

“Truth Telling is a powerful, urgent, and necessary book that gets to the heart of true reconciliation and maps a course for achieving it. Bridging personal stories and lived experiences with sharp historical analysis, Michelle Good’s writing is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Honest, forthright, and powerful, Truth Telling offers insights and analysis that every policymaker and politician—indeed, any person who calls Canada “home”— can and must read. Urgently.” — 2023 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy Jury

Educator Information
Truth Telling is a collection of essays about the contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada.

Additional Information
232 pages | 5.00" x 7.50" | Paperback

A Little Plains Cree Book for Children—Teaching Guide contains lesson plans, student assignments, and other helpful information for teaching the Plains Cree language—a companion to nēhiyawēwin awāsimasinahikanis: A Little Plains Cree Book for Children: A Reference for Teaching the Plains Cree Language, the content of which focuses on terms familiar to the First Nations Cree people of Saskatchewan and follows curriculum for Kindergarten to Grade 12.

Educator Information
Find the companion resource here: A Little Plains Cree Book for Children: A Reference for Teaching the Plains Cree Language

A colouring book companion is here: A Little Plains Cree Colouring Book: Plains Cree People

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128 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Spiral Bound

The third edition of the iconic collection Making Space for Indigenous Feminism features feminist, queer and two-spirit voices from across generations and locations.

Feminism has much to offer Indigenous women, and all Indigenous Peoples, in their struggles against oppression. Indigenous feminists in the first edition fought for feminism to be considered a valid and essential intellectual and activist position. The second edition animated Indigenous feminisms through real-world applications. This third edition, curated by award-wining scholar Gina Starblanket, reflects and celebrates Indigenous feminism’s intergenerational longevity through the changing landscape of anti-colonial struggle and theory. Diverse contributors examine Indigenous feminism’s ongoing relevance to contemporary contexts and debates, including queer and two-spirit approaches to decolonization, gendered and sexualized violence, storytelling and narrative, digital and land-based presence, Black and Indigenous relationalities and more. This book bridges generations of powerful Indigenous feminist thinking to demonstrate the movement’s cruciality for today.

Reviews
“This collection is all feast, no fluff. It covers foundational elements of Indigenous feminism with depth and breadth and engages issues of national and international importance with considerable insight. Due to its readability and smart use of theory, this book is eminently teachable. I haven't highlighted this much in a long time.”— Margaret Robinson, Canada Research Chair in Reconciliation, Gender, and Identity

“This volume offers a view of the development and expansion of Indigenous feminisms as theory and praxis, reaffirming the validity of our respective Indigenous epistemologies to guide us into the future.”— Jennifer Nez Denetdale (Diné), University of New Mexico

“Multiplying are the calls for transformative healing issued by Indigenous feminism which is, at its core, about Indigenous sovereignty, solidarity, and liberatory justice for all. The diverse and incisive essays in Making Space for Indigenous Feminism (3rd ed) expose ongoing cis-heteropatriarchal settler colonialism, anti-Indigenous racism, and the erasure of gender and sexual diversity (including by Indigenous people ourselves), and their impacts upon minds, bodies, lived experiences, and relationships. Resistance and hope abound in the re-centring of (queer) Indigenous feminist futurisms: world-building that honours the self-determination of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, and trans folks, and promotes wellbeing for all of Creation.”— Chantal Fiola, author and associate professor, University of Manitoba

“This third edition continues to fulfill the promise of the title to make space for feminist interventions in Canadian Indigenous studies. Each author is committed to relational ethics and transformative praxis in addressing the most pressing issues that create epistemic and material injustices. From the heart rendering an intimate state-of-the-field assessment from pillars in the field, the politics of gender, policy, and violence manifested in Canada currently, to its latter chapters that open up new spaces by continuing to press for just Indigenous futures, of which decentering binaries of gender and sexuality is necessary, we see the importance of Indigenous feminist theorizing and praxis. Confronting gendered violence, heterosexism, disciplinary regimes, and colonialism with honesty and truth telling, Making Space generously offers us new paths to materialize a decolonial world.”— Mishuana Goeman, author of Mark My Words and Settler Aesthetics: Visualizing the Spectacle of Originary Moments in The New World

“Making Space for Indigenous Feminism provides us with powerful voices emerging from and incorporating past, present, and future. Each chapter continues to make space for the power of Indigenous feminisms, as women, femme, Queer, LGBTQS+ and Mad think together in a powerful analysis of our now. This latest edition of a classic, newly edited by Gina Starblanket, includes Elders and youth and brings us back to why Indigenous feminisms are the embodied, lived and felt knowledges that will inform our struggles going forward.”— Dian Million, University of Washington, American IndianStudies

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Extending Our Accounts of Indigenous Feminism—Joyce Green and Gina Starblanket

Section I: Home | Identity | Legacies
- Always Coming Home: Indigenous Identity, Indigenous Feminism, Scholarship and Life—Joyce Green
- Why Am I a Feminist?—Emma LaRocque
- Settler Colonialism in Canada: Making “Indian” Women Disappear—Mary Eberts, Shelagh Day, Sharon McIvor

Section II: Institutions | Representation | Resistance
- Red Ticket Women: Revisiting the Political Contributions of the Indian Rights for Indian Women’s Movement—Gina Starblanket
- Perpetual State of Violence: An Indigenous Feminist Anti-Oppression Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls—Robyn Bourgeois
- Gender Reveals that Matter: Cis-Heteropatriarchy, Settler Colonialism, and Child Welfare—Megan Scribe

Section III: Land | Relationality | Love
- Towards an Anti-Colonial Feminist Care Ethic—Eva Jewell
- Our Movements Need some Love as Well: Indigenous Land Defense and Relationality—Isabel Altamirano-Jimenez
- Mana Wahine and Mothering at the Loʻi: A Two-Spirit/Queer Analysis—Hōkūlani K. Aikau

Section IV: Decoloniality | Movement | Futurities
- Decolonization is a Queer Desire: Poetics, Politics, Negativity—Billy-Ray Belcourt
- Mad Indigenous Womanhood and the Psycho-Politics of Settler Colonialism—Cara Peacock
- On Black and Indigenous Relationality: A Conversation—Gina Starblanket, Robyn Maynard, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
- Decolonization is Also Metaphorical: Indigenous Feminist and Queer-Two-Spirit Storywork Matters—Kelly Aguirre

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

A testimony to Indigenous resilience in business.

Despite investments in nation building, self-autonomy, and cultural resurgence, Indigenous economic development has remained an underexplored and underestimated area of research. Engraved on Our Nations overturns the discouraging deficit perspective too common in policy and academia and amplifies the largely undocumented history of successful Indigenous economic activity in Canada.

Following David Newhouse’s overview of Indigenous economic history, the authors of this collection illustrate how First Nation and Métis individuals and communities have met and overcome an array of challenges. Case studies focus on First Nations from Membertou (Nova Scotia) to Tahltan (British Columbia) and Indigenous-led enterprises like McDonald Brothers Electric (Northwest Territories) and Neechi Commons (Manitoba). Simultaneously celebrating Indigenous entrepreneurs and exploring concerns around sustainable development, the book also asks: can capitalism be Indigenized?

This first-of-its-kind collection shares stories not only of entrepreneurial excellence and persistence but savvy leadership, innovation, and reciprocity. In doing so, Engraved on Our Nations provides hope to Indigenous business leaders, youth, and elected officials working on the front lines to improve economic conditions and achieve "a good life" for their communities.

Reviews
“There are few books that can compare to this. The strengths-based approach used by each author is refreshing and will be of service to First Nations communities and to Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars in community economic development.” — Shelley T. Price

“Engraved on Our Nations clearly articulates the strength, courage, and foresight of Indigenous people. The uplifting stories within this volume will open the eyes of readers and elicit hope, inspiration, and pride.” — Bob Kayseas

Educator Information

Table of Contents
Preface: Exploring Indigenous Economic Tenacity in Canada – Wanda Wuttunee and Fred Wien

Introduction: Indigenous Economic History as the History of Tenacity – David Newhouse

Part One: Strategic Leadership

1. How Does First Nation Social and Economic Development Contribute to the Surrounding Region? A Case Study of Membertou – Mary Beth Doucette and Fred Wien

2. Incremental Planning: The Tsawwassen First Nation Experience – Daniel M. Millette

3. Fulfilling Treaty Promises: Treaty Land Entitlement and Urban Reserves in Saskatchewan – Charlotte Bezamat-Mantes

Part Two: Culturally on Point

4. Trading on Tradition: Innovative Indigenous Enterprise – Isobel M. Findlay

5. Capitalism: Can It Be Indigenized? – Clifford Gordon Atleo

6. Challenges and Opportunities for BC First Nations’ Economic Self-Determination – J. Sayers

Part Three: Family Connections

7. Honouring Entrepreneurial Resilience: Atlantic Region Lifetime Achievers – Chris Googoo, Catherine Martin, and Fred Wien

8. A Métis Light in the Northern Darkness—Case Study – Wanda Wuttunee

9. Neechi Commons Case Study: A Lost Love Letter to Winnipeg – Wanda Wuttunee

Part Four: Partnering for Success

10. Tahltan Economic Tenacity—From Affluence to Poverty to Affluence – Jerry Asp

11. Stronger Together: First Nation Community/Municipality Collaborations – Wanda Wuttunee

Conclusion: What Did We Learn About Indigenous Tenacity? Fred Wien and Wanda Wuttunee

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Index

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304 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Index, Bibliography | Paperback

Sewing new understandings.

Indigenous beadwork has taken the art world by storm, but it is still sometimes misunderstood as static, anthropological artifact. Today’s prairie artists defy this categorization, demonstrating how beads tell stories and reclaim cultural identity. Whether artists seek out and share techniques through YouTube videos or in-person gatherings, beading fosters traditional methods of teaching and learning and enables intergenerational transmissions of pattern and skill.

In Bead Talk, editors Carmen Robertson, Judy Anderson, and Katherine Boyer gather conversations, interviews, essays, and full-colour reproductions of beadwork from expert and emerging artists, academics, and curators to illustrate the importance of beading in contemporary Indigenous arts. Taken together, the book poses and responds to philosophical questions about beading on the prairies: How do the practices and processes of beading embody reciprocity, respect, and storytelling? How is beading related to Indigenous ways of knowing? How does beading help individuals reconnect with the land? Why do we bead?

Showcasing beaded tumplines, text, masks, regalia, and more, Bead Talk emphasizes that there is no one way to engage with this art. The contributors to this collection invite us all into the beading circle as they reshape how beads are understood and stitch together generations of artists.

Reviews
“An evocative, aesthetically gorgeous book that is rich in knowledge, relationality, and experience. Curated with care, rooted in artistic practice and lived experience, and embodying a polyvocal, collaborative spirit, it immerses the reader in the world of Indigenous beadwork on the prairies. Bead Talk carries teachings about decolonial love, healing and medicine, cultural knowledges, political and theoretical modes of action, gendered experience, and more. I can’t think of any other book like this—it is a gift!” — Aubrey Hanson

Educator Information
Contributors: Ruth Cuthand, Dayna Danger, Sherry Farrell Racette, Marcy Friesen, Felicia Gay, Franchesca [Fran] Hebert-Spence, Audie Murray, Cathy Mattes.

Table of Contents

Foreword – Brenda Macdougall

Who We Are

Introduction – Carmen Robertson, Judy Anderson, and Katherine Boyer

Part I: Conversations

1. Mentoring/Beading – Ruth Cuthand and Marcy Friesen

2. mîkisistahêwin (bead medicine) – Judy Anderson and Audie Murray

3. Parallel Lines Move Along Together: A Beaded Line that Connects Me to You – Katherine Boyer and Dayna Danger

4. The Power of Gathering: Revisiting the Seeds of Ziigimineshin – Franchesca Hebert-Spence and Carmen Robertson

5. Beads, Blood, and Curating Ruth Cuthand’s Art – Felicia Gay and Carmen Robertson

Part II: Essays

6. “Until We Bead Again”: The BU Beading Babe and Embodying Lateral Love and Generous Reciprocity – Cathy Mattes

7. Visiting Kin: Indigenous Flatland Beading Aesthetics – Carmen Robertson

8. If the Needles Don’t Break and the Thread Doesn’t Tangle: Beading Utopia – Sherry Farrell Racette

Afterword: Spreading the Bead Love Far and Wide

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 8.50" | 62 colour illustrations | Paperback 

For fans of Chuck Palahniuk, Joyce Carol Oates, and Karen Russell, God Isn’t Here Today ricochet between form and genre, taking readers on a dark, irreverent, yet poignant journey led by a unique and powerful new voice.

Driven by desperation into moments of transformation, Cunningham’s characters are presented with moments of choice—some for the better and some for the worse. A young man goes to God’s office downtown for advice; a woman discovers she is the last human on Earth; an ice cream vendor is driven insane by his truck’s song; an ageing stripper uses undergarments to enact her escape plan; an incubus tires of his professional grind; and a young woman inherits a power that has survived genocide, but comes with a burden of its own.

Even as they flirt with the fantastic, Cunningham’s stories unfold with the innate elegance of a spring fern, reminding us of the inherent dualities in human nature—and that redemption can arise where we least expect it.

Reviews
"Each of the stories is quite different from the other, but many are connected by themes of death and transformation and a fragrant throughline of lemon and lavender. ... The stories contain a distinct viscerality: hemoglobin and skin grafts, fantasies of rough sex and bondage, ice cream melting down forearms, and a DIY trepanation. ...God Isn’t Here Today may appeal to fans of Joshua Whitehead, Chuck Palahniuk, and the trash cinema of John Waters."—Shantell Powell Cloud Lake Literary

"God Isn't Here Today is a collection, I feel, that is whispered in the calligraphy of ghosts. Cunningham continues to both astound and haunt all who discover her. Wow!"—Richard Van Camp, author of The Lesser Blessed

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

Putting Gerald Stanley's acquittal for killing Colten Boushie in the context of Canada's colonial and systemic discrimination against Indigenous peoples.

In August 2016 Colten Boushie, a twenty-two-year-old Cree man from Red Pheasant First Nation, was fatally shot on a Saskatchewan farm by white farmer Gerald Stanley. In a trial that bitterly divided Canadians, Stanley was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter by a jury in Battleford with no visible Indigenous representation.

In Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice Kent Roach critically reconstructs the Gerald Stanley/Colten Boushie case to examine how it may be a miscarriage of justice. Roach provides historical, legal, political, and sociological background to the case including misunderstandings over crime when Treaty 6 was negotiated, the 1885 hanging of eight Indigenous men at Fort Battleford, the role of the RCMP, prior litigation over Indigenous underrepresentation on juries, and the racially charged debate about defence of property, self-defence, guns, and rural crime. Drawing on both trial transcripts and research on miscarriages of justice, Roach looks at jury selection, the controversial "hang fire" defence, how the credibility and beliefs of Indigenous witnesses were challenged on the stand, and Gerald Stanley's implicit appeals to self-defence and defence of property, as well as the decision not to appeal the acquittal. Concluding his study, Roach asks whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's controversial call to "do better" is possible, given similar cases since Stanley's, the difficulty of reforming the jury or the RCMP, and the combination of Indigenous underrepresentation on juries and overrepresentation among those victimized and accused of crimes.

Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice is a searing account of one case that provides valuable insight into criminal justice, racism, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Reviews
"In a meticulously researched and documented analysis of the trial of Gerald Stanley for the killing of Boushie in 2016, Roach exposes a whole system designed to maintain inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians." - The Tyee

"This was a book that needed to be written. Roach, despite various reasons to be pessimistic about the future, offers practical suggestions on how the situation of Canadian justice and Indigenous injustice can be improved. But he admits himself that even these suggestions do not go far enough in rectifying the situation; this instead will take a wholescale shift in Canadian norms and values, not just in the judicial system. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to readers, both expert and general."  - British Journal of Canadian Studies

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

Childhood Thoughts and Water is a collection of Beat Poetry, Spoken Word, Performance Art and Lyrical Verse. This is a work which journeys into the memories and events of an Urban Indigenous warrior's struggles to reconnect with a language and culture that is seemingly always almost out of reach. The common theme of reconnecting with nature and with water is interspersed with the imagery of childhood recollections and anecdotes about life and love, aspirations and defeats, and the desire to achieve greatness in spite of the obstacles and barriers inherent in a life lived on the fringes, in the shadows and on the streets, in the spotlight and behind the backstage curtain.

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

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

Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships explains settler colonialism through the lens of economic exploitation, using Indigenous methodologies and critical approaches. What is the relationship between economic progress in the land now called Canada and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples? And what gifts embedded within Indigenous world views speak to miyo‐pimâtisiwin ᒥᔪ ᐱᒫᑎᓯᐃᐧᐣ (the good life), and specifically to good economic relations?

Shalene Wuttunee Jobin draws on the knowledge systems of the nehiyawak ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐊᐧᐠ (Cree people) – whose distinctive principles and practices shape their economic behaviour – to make two central arguments. The first is that economic exploitation was the initial and most enduring relationship between newcomers and Indigenous peoples. The second is that Indigenous economic relationships are constitutive: connections to the land, water, and other human and nonhuman beings form who we are as individuals and as peoples. This groundbreaking study employs Cree narratives that draw from the past and move into the present to reveal previously overlooked Indigenous economic theories and relationships, and provides contemporary examples of nehiyawak renewing these relationships in resurgent ways. In the process, Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships offers tools that enable us to reimagine how we can aspire to the good life with all our relations.

This study will interest not only scholars and students of Indigenous studies, particularly Cree studies, but also Indigenous community members involved in community and economic development, planning, and governance.

Reviews

"Beautifully written, Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships is crucially important as a comprehensive exploration of Cree economic values told through story and oral history." - Glen Coulthard, author of Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition

"Shalene Jobin’s refreshing perspective on a prairie First Nations community is a desperately needed contribution to Indigenous studies as well as history, anthropology, and Canadian studies." -Priscilla Settee, professor, Indigenous Studies, University of Saskatchewan

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Grounding Methods
2 Grounding Economic Relationships
3 nehiyawak Peoplehood and Relationality
4 Canada’s Genesis Story
5 ᐃᐧᐦᑎᑯᐤ Warnings of Insatiable Greed
6 Indigenous Women’s Lands and Bodies
7 Theorizing Cree Economic and Governing Relationships
8 Colonial Dissonance
9 Principles Guiding Cree Economic Relationships
10 Renewed Relationships through Resurgent Practices
11 Upholding Relations
Postscript
Glossary of Cree Terms
Notes; References; Index

Additional Information
272 pages | 6 x 9" | Paperback

Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity offers a conversation between Indigenous Peoples of two regions in this time of political and environmental upheaval. Both regions are environmentally sensitive areas that have become hot spots in the debates circling around climate change and have long been contact zones between Indigenous Peoples and outsiders — zones of meeting and clashing, of contradictions and entanglement.

Opening with an Epistolary Exchange between the editors, Arctic/Amazon then widens to include essays by 12 Indigenous artists, curators, and knowledge-keepers about the integration of spirituality, ancestral respect, traditional knowledges, and political critique in artistic practice and more than 100 image reproductions and installation shots. The result is an extraordinary conversation about life, artistic practise, and geopolitical realities faced by Indigenous peoples in regions at risk.

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256 pages | 8.87" x 12.12" | Hardcover

A vital collection weaving history, personal experience, and Indigenous resilience.

Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead: mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân is a wonder. It plays with form, space, and language, comparing meanings in English and nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree). The reader’s attention is drawn to the restrictive and imposed constructs of English grammar, the way it boxes in interpretation and cadence.

With inspiring defiance, Wanda John-Kehewin demonstrates which magics cannot be suppressed. Broken into three sections, Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead looks at the sickening grip of colonialism: its ongoing detriment to the mental health of Indigenous people, its theft of language, and the scope of its intergenerational harms. The author places herself, her work, and her family’s personal experiences in the context of a historical timeline running from the so-called doctrine of discovery to the present day. Recounting the two in tandem reveals the unrelenting nature of violence and, in turn, resistance. There is great power in truth; John-Kehewin “stands in her truth” so that other survivors may stand in theirs.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools resource collection as being useful for grades 11 and 12 for English Language Arts, English First Peoples, Social Studies.

Content Warning: Coarse language, mature content: references to abuse, trauma, suicide.

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96 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

The climate crisis is here, and the end of this world—a world built on land theft, resource extraction, and colonial genocide—is on the horizon. In this compelling roadmap to a livable future, Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice go hand in hand.

Drawing on their work in Indigenous activism, the labour movement, youth climate campaigns, community-engaged scholarship, and independent journalism, the six authors challenge toothless proposals and false solutions to show that a just transition from fossil fuels cannot succeed without the dismantling of settler capitalism in Canada. Together, they envision a near future where oil and gas stay in the ground; where a caring economy provides social supports for all; where wealth is redistributed from the bloated billionaire class; and where stolen land is rightfully reclaimed under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples.

Packed with clear-eyed analysis of both short- and long-term strategies for radical social change, The End of This World promises that the next world is within reach and worth fighting for.

Reviews
“The End of This World gifts readers with a mapping of a communal future grounded in Indigneous concepts of caring, relationship, solidarity, and a sharp analysis of the present. It is a gathering space, an experiment, and an invitation towards building formations of life outside of the cage of colonialism and capitalism. Engaging, timely, and crucial, I am so grateful this book exists, and for the futures it will inspire."— Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, co-author of “Rehearsals for Living”

"This book is a major and much-needed contribution to the climate conversation in Canada. The collective behind it embodies the very politics necessary to win a just transition that is worthy of the name: Indigenous-led, internationalist, rooted in solidarity, and crackling with moral clarity. The End of This World advances a holistic, radically reasonable vision of a future worth fighting for—and the authors have tallied the receipts for that glorious moment when the perpetrators of planetary arson get served the bill.”— Avi Lewis, co-author of “The Leap Manifesto”

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240 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

John Brady McDonald has lived in Kistahpinanihk, an area that includes Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, for nearly all his life. A member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and a descendent of Metis leader Jim Brady, John Brady has worked to move carefully between these two nations – to learn their stories, honour their traditions and reclaim their languages, all of which were nearly lost to him. In this wide-ranging collection the author looks at everything from the city of Prince Albert to his experience of residential school, to northern firefighting, to his time in the United Kingdom, where he “discovered” and “claimed” the island for the First People of the Americas. These are essays filled with history, much careful observation and some hard-learned lessons about racism, about recovery, about the ongoing tragedies facing Indigenous peoples. With honesty, a poet’s turn of phrase and a bit of sly humour, John Brady pulls us deep into the life he has lived in Kistahpinanihk and asks us to consider what life could be like in a New North Territory.

Reviews
“Authentic and illuminating, Carrying It Forward is a candid and comprehensive account of the complexity of modern Indigenous life in Canada. John Brady McDonald’s compelling life stories are both unique and relatable. Through heartfelt honesty, he carefully and considerately invites the reader into his circle. It was a pleasure and an honour to get to know him through his powerful words. This collection is a vibrant showcase of the rich humanity that still thrives in Indigenous nations across Turtle Island.” – Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Crusted Snow

“John Brady McDonald’s Carrying It Forward is a gift to the future, documenting with searing honesty and funny precision what it is like to be a Cree artist, activist and survivor while envisioning what justice and reconciliation can and should be. From northern Saskatchewan to the United Kingdom, McDonald’s keen eye to detail and rich poetic descriptions forge place and time into surprising new homes built by love and fortified by truth. McDonald is a writer everyone should read now, here, today to make this place better.” – Niigaan Sinclair, columnist, Winnipeg Free Press

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200 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

The Big Melt is a debut poetry collection rooted in nehiyaw thought and urban millennial life events. It examines what it means to repair kinship, contend with fraught history, go home and contemplate prairie ndn utopia in the era of late capitalism and climate change. Part memoir, part research project, this collection draws on Riddle’s experience working in Indigenous governance and her affection for confessional poetry in crafting feminist works that are firmly rooted in place. This book refuses a linear understanding of time in its focus on women in the author’s family, some who have passed and others who are yet to come. The Big Melt is about inheriting a Treaty relationship just as much as it is about breakups, demonstrating that governance is just as much about our interpersonal relationships as it is law and policy. How does one live one’s life in a way that honours inherited responsibilities, a deep love for humour and a commitment to always learning about the tension between a culture that deeply values collectivity and the autonomy of the individual? Perhaps we find these answers in the examination of ourselves, the lands we are from and the relationships we hold.

Awards

• 2023 Indigenous Voices Awards Co-Winner for Published Poetry in English

Reviews
"Gentle, firm and funny, Emily Riddle uses The Big Melt to Aunty us all. This radically personal debut, like an iceberg or crater on the moon, reaches deep down into history—political, familial, environmental, romantical—to make sense of what it means to be an ndn on the prairies today who understands that the Oilers and West Edmonton Mall and miniskirts are sacred, and that this “bootlegging operation called Canada” can’t stop telling lies. There are truths here for us; the immense research behind the text feels like a lifetime labour of love, done out of necessity to reconcile loss and fashion some comfort in the face of colonial violence. What a gift it is for Riddle to show us, with clarity and wit, how fierce friendship and unshakeable matriarchs have helped her to connect with her ancestors, nehiyaw askiy, and herself." — Molly Cross-Blanchard, August 2022

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112 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | Paperback

A hands-on guide for parents and caregivers to develop best practices in revitalizing and teaching Cree to young children.

In nēhiyawētān kīkināhk / ​Speaking Cree in the Home, Belinda Daniels and Andrea Custer provide an introductory text to help families immerse themselves, their children, and their homes in nēhiyawēwin—the Cree language.

Despite the colonial attacks on Cree culture, language, and peoples, Custer and Daniels remind readers that the traditional ways of knowing and transferring knowledge to younger generations have not been lost and can be revived in the home, around the table, every day.

nēhiyawētān kīkināhk / ​Speaking Cree in the Home is an approachable, hands-on manual that helps to re-forge connections between identity, language, family, and community—by centering Indigenous knowledge and providing Cree learners and speakers with a practical guide to begin their own journey of reclaiming and revitalizing Cree in the home.

Readers are guided through methods for language learning, the basics of reading Cree and Standard Roman Orthography, pronunciation of vowels, engaging language-learning games, and examples of high-frequency words and phrases that can easily be incorporated into daily routines and taught to children young and old.

Reviews
“This is a welcome book for all who are interested in learning the Cree language, either for themselves alone or for themselves and their families. The book offers good guidance on the best practices in language learning based on the authors’ personal experiences in their respective language journeys.” —Solomon Ratt, author of mâci-nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree

“A major contribution, this book will be a useful resource in Cree classes, at both high school and university levels. But it is also useful for home use, as it describes the practical application of speaking Cree in the home and provides in an easy-to-read format and details a hands-on approach too.” —Dorothy Thunder (Plains Cree, Little Pine First Nation), Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta

“The activity-based learning lessons that are presented here should serve as a model not only for teaching the language in a family setting, but in any other formal and informal settings, because they cover all aspects of teaching and learning; the content, variety of methods, appropriate timing and setting. . . . The pioneering in Cree language acquisition and revival has begun and hopefully this book reaches all interested individuals.” —Ken Paupanekis, author of Pocket Cree: A Phrasebook for Nearly All Occasions

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122 pages | 4.72" x 7.27" | Paperback

Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars forward child welfare issues currently impacting Indigenous children in Canada.

Developed by the Prairie Child Welfare Consortium, this edited collection brings together accomplished Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars from the prairie provinces to forward critical research about a range of contemporary child welfare issues currently impacting Indigenous children in Canada.
 
Centering Indigenous knowledge and working to decolonize child welfare, contributors address the over-representation of Indigenous children in the child welfare system, the un-met recommendations of the TRC, the connections between colonialism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, the impact of Bill C-92, and more.
 
Contributors include: Jason Albert, Dorothy Badry, Cindy Blackstock, Elder Mae Louise Campbell, Peter Choate, Linda Dano-Chartrand, Michael Doyle, Koren Lightning Earle, Arlene Eaton Erickson, Yahya El-Lahib, Hadley Friedland,  Don Fuchs, Del Graff, Jennifer Hedges, Bernadette Iahtail, Jennifer King, Brittany Mathews, Eveline Milliken, Kelly Provost—Ekkinnasoyii (Sparks in a Fire), Christina Tortorelli, Gabrielle Lindstrom Tsapinaki, Susannah Walker, and Robyn Williams

Reviews
“A great contribution for all of us who conduct research, teach, and work directly in the field of Indigenous child welfare practice.”—Jeannine Carrière, author of Calling Our Families Home: Métis Peoples’ Experiences with Child Welfare

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288 pages | 5.00" x 7.50" | Paperback

In this new edition of her powerful debut, Plains Cree writer and National Poet Laureate Louise B. Halfe - Sky Dancer reckons with personal history within cultural genocide.

Employing Indigenous spirituality, black comedy, and the memories of her own childhood as healing arts, celebrated poet Louise B. Halfe - Sky Dancer finds an irrepressible source of strength and dignity in her people. Bear Bones and Feathers offers moving portraits of Halfe's grandmother (a medicine woman whose life straddled old and new worlds), her parents (both trapped in a cycle of jealousy and abuse), and the people whose pain she witnessed on the reserve and at residential school.

Originally published by Coteau Books in 1994, Bear Bones and Feathers won the Milton Acorn People's Poet Award, and was a finalist for the Spirit of Saskatchewan Award, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Gerald Lampert Award.

Reviews
"With gentleness, old woman's humour, and a good red willow switch, Louise chases out the shadowy images that haunt our lives. She makes good medicine, she sings a beautiful song."— Maria Campbell, author of Halfbreed

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144 pages | 5.75" x 8.50" | Paperback

A stunning debut poetry collection confronting colonialism, relationships, grief and intergenerational wounds.

Cut to Fortress considers the possibility of decolonization through a personal lens, urging for a resistance that is tied using cord and old-growth tree roots; a resistance that tethers us all together in this contemporary existence.

With an upbringing in Surrey, fraught familial conflicts, the passing of his older brother and its influence on his world view, Bige slices through the forts built overtop occupied Turtle Island to examine their origin and his own. His journey climbs into the mountains while he reconnects with his Dene and Cree cultures like a gripping hand on jagged rock. His path draws into the concrete urban streets that Wetako-medicine lurks through, especially for his people. The labour of these travels brings him to the springs where healing passed-down traumas becomes possible by drawing water through vulnerability.

Reviews
"The reinforcement of knowing the interconnectedness of all things—including the grime of (Vancouver) city and endangered forest beauty found within these lean staccato poems—ring with a desperate voice of “youth” who want to remain part of it all. Inspiration too, enacted in the listening and learning from those who have journeyed here before. Is this activism poetry, or reflections of a soul memory rife with humanity and new/old teachings of the way it could and can be?" — Janet Rogers

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96 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | Paperback

The horrors of the Indian residential schools are by now well-known historical facts, and they have certainly found purchase in the Canadian consciousness in recent years. The history of violence and the struggles of survivors for redress resulted in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which chronicled the harms inflicted by the residential schools and explored ways to address the resulting social fallouts. One of those fallouts is the crisis of Indigenous over-incarceration. While the residential school system may not be the only harmful process of colonization that fuels Indigenous over-incarceration, it is arguably the most critical factor. It is likely that the residential school system forms an important part of the background of almost every Indigenous person who ends up incarcerated, even those who did not attend the schools. The legacy of harm caused by the schools is a vivid and crucial link between Canadian colonialism and Indigenous over-incarceration. Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice provides an account of the ongoing ties between the enduring trauma caused by the residential schools and Indigenous over-incarceration.

Reviews
“David Milward provides a clear-sighted and accessible engagement with the challenge of Indigenous over-incarceration and the continuing legacy of Indian Residential Schools, using compelling examples to present a pathway for doing justice better in Canada.” — Andrew Woolford, author of The Politics of Restorative Justice and Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology University of Manitoba

“Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the Canadian criminal justice system fails Indigenous people and how Indigenous Justice can, under the right conditions, be fairer, less expensive and more effective.” — Kent Roach, Professor of Law, University of Toronto

Educator Information
Chapter 1: The Legacy of the Residential Schools

Chapter 2: Different Views of Crime
1. Theoretical Constructions of
2. Constructions of Crime and Justice Policy

Chapter 3: The Seeds of Intergenerational Trauma
1. Stories and Studies of Trauma
2. Victimized by the Residential Schools
3. Abuse All Around: School and Home
4. Subsequent Substance Abuse
5. Mental Health
6. Racism in and outside of Residential Schools
7. Loss of Culture
8. Deficient Parenting

Chapter 4: Intergenerational Trauma and Crime
1. Intergenerational Domestic Violence
2. Intergenerational Sexual Abuse
3. Poverty
4. Child Welfare
5. Substance Abuse in Later Generations
6. FASD
7. Multiple Traumas
8. At a Community Level

Chapter 5: Reconciliation So Far
1. What is Meant by Reconciliation
2. The Calls to Action and Indigenous Justice
3. Reconciliation Moving Forward

Chapter 6: The Status Quo is Not Reconciliation
1. The Settlement Agreement
2. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation
3. The Problem with Deterrence
4. Punishment as Retribution
5. Indigenous-Specific Sentencing
6. Need for More Comprehensive Resolution

Chapter 7: Preventative Programming
1. Justice Reinvestment and Long-Term Savings
2. Preventative Programming as Social Reparations
3. Indigenous-Specific Preventative Programming

Chapter 8: Arguments for Indigenous Criminal Justice
1. Comparing Indigenous Justice to Restorative Justice
2. Why We Need Alternatives to Incarceration
3. Greater Victim Inclusion
4. Encouraging the Offender to be Responsible
5. Repairing Relationships
6. More Effective Than Incarceration

Chapter 9: Arguments against Restorative Justice
1. Power Imbalances
2. Getting Off Easy
3. Doubts about Greater Efficacy
4. Divergence of Interests between the Participants
5. Not Taking Harm Seriously
6. Economic Concerns

Chapter 10: Ways Forward for Indigenous Justice
1. Procedural Protections
2. Making Indigenous Justice More Effective
3. Indigenous Justice and Offender Responsibility
4. Will No Progress Be Made?

Chapter 11: Indigenous Corrections and Parole
1. The Theory of Indigenous Healing in Prison
2. Canadian Correctional Law
3. Does It Work?
4. Lack of Resource Commitment
5. Security Classification and Parole
6. Risk Assessment and Parole
7. Indigenous Gangs and Parole

Chapter 12: Reconciliation in the Future

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240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

The hilarious story of an unlikely group of Indigenous dancers who find themselves thrown together on a performance tour of Europe.

The Tour is all prepared. The Prairie Chicken dance troupe is all set for a fifteen-day trek through Europe, performing at festivals and cultural events. But then the performers all come down with the flu. And John Greyeyes, a retired cowboy who hasn't danced in fifteen years, finds himself abruptly thrust into the position of leading a hastily-assembled group of replacement dancers.

A group of expert dancers they are not. There's a middle-aged woman with advanced arthritis, her nineteen-year-old niece who is far more interested in flirtations than pow-wow, and an enigmatic man from the U.S. -- all being chased by Nadine, the organizer of the original tour who is determined to be a part of the action, and the handsome man she picked up in a gas-station bathroom. They're all looking to John, who has never left the continent, to guide them through a world that he knows nothing about. As the gang makes its way from one stop to another, absolutely nothing goes as planned and the tour becomes a string of madcap adventures.

The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour is loosely based -- like, hospital-gown loose -- on the true story of a group of Indigenous dancers who left Saskatchewan and toured through Europe in the 1970s. Dawn Dumont brings her signature razor-sharp wit and impeccable comedic timing to this hilarious, warm, and wildly entertaining novel.

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

Trailblazer. Residential school Survivor. First Treaty Indigenous player in the NHL. All of these descriptions are true--but none of them tell the whole story.

Fred Sasakamoose, torn from his home at the age of seven, endured the horrors of residential school for a decade before becoming one of 120 players in the most elite hockey league in the world. He has been heralded as the first Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL, making his official debut as a 1954 Chicago Black Hawks player on Hockey Night in Canada and teaching Foster Hewitt how to pronounce his name. Sasakamoose played against such legends as Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau, and Maurice Richard. After twelve games, he returned home.

When people tell Sasakamoose's story, this is usually where they end it. They say he left the NHL to return to the family and culture that the Canadian government had ripped away from him. That returning to his family and home was more important to him than an NHL career. But there was much more to his decision than that. Understanding Sasakamoose's choice means acknowledging the dislocation and treatment of generations of Indigenous peoples. It means considering how a man who spent his childhood as a ward of the government would hear those supposedly golden words: "You are Black Hawks property."

Sasakamoose's story was far from over once his NHL days concluded. He continued to play for another decade in leagues around Western Canada. He became a band councillor, served as Chief, and established athletic programs for kids. He paved a way for youth to find solace and meaning in sports for generations to come. Yet, threaded through these impressive accomplishments were periods of heartbreak and unimaginable tragedy--as well moments of passion and great joy.

This isn't just a hockey story; Sasakamoose's groundbreaking memoir sheds piercing light on Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and follows this extraordinary man's journey to reclaim pride in an identity and a heritage that had previously been used against him.

Reviews
“Fred Sasakamoose played in the NHL before First Nations people had the right to vote in Canada. This page turner will have you cheering for “Fast Freddy” as he faces off against huge challenges both on and off the ice—a great gift to every proud hockey fan, Canadian, and Indigenous person.”—Wab Kinew, Leader of the Manitoba NDP and author of The Reason You Walk

“Call Me Indian needs to be in every library and on every school curriculum in Canada. Fred Sasakamoose’s story is gripping and powerfully told—a story of triumph and tragedy, of great success and the perils of excess. There is laughter and tears here aplenty, but also inspiration. Characters as large as Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull are easily matched by the likes of Moosum, Freddy’s grandfather; Father Roussel, the only good to be found in residential school; George Vogan, who always believed in Fred—and Loretta, who loved him, gave him family, and ultimately saved him.”—Roy MacGregor, bestselling author of Chief: The Fearless Vision of Billy Diamond and Canadians: Portrait of a Country

Additional Information
288 pages | 5.20" x 7.94" | 8 pp 4/c photo insert

Meg Masters assisted Fred in writing his memoir.  She is a Toronto-based writer and editor who has worked with many bestselling Canadian authors.

A gender-fluid trickster character leaps from Cree stories to inhabit this raucous and rebellious new work by award-winning poet Louise Bernice Halfe.

There are no pronouns in Cree for gender; awâsis (which means illuminated child) reveals herself through shapeshifting, adopting different genders, exploring the English language with merriment, and sharing his journey of mishaps with humor, mystery, and spirituality. Opening with a joyful and intimate Foreword from Elder Maria Campbell, awâsis – kinky and dishevelled is a force of Indigenous resurgence, resistance, and soul-healing laughter.

If you’ve read Halfe’s previous books, prepared to be surprised by this one. Raging in the dark, uncovering the painful facts wrought on her and her people’s lives by colonialism, racism, religion, and residential schools, she has walked us through raw realities with unabashed courage and intense, precise lyricism. But for her fifth book, another choice presented itself. Would she carve her way with determined ferocity into the still-powerful destructive forces of colonialism, despite Canada’s official, hollow promises to make things better? After a soul-searching Truth and Reconciliation process, the drinking water still hasn’t improved, and Louise began to wonder whether inspiration had deserted her.

Then awâsis showed up—a trickster, teacher, healer, wheeler-dealer, shapeshifter, woman, man, nuisance, inspiration. A Holy Fool with their fly open, speaking Cree, awâsis came to Louise out of the ancient stories of her people, from the quiet words of the Elders, from community input through tears and laughter, from her own aching heart and her three-dimensional dreams. Following awâsis’s lead, Louise has flipped her blanket over, revealing a joking, mischievous, unapologetic alter ego—right on time.

Reviews
“There really isn’t any template for telling stories as experienced from within Indigenous minds. In her book awâsis – kinky and dishevelled, Cree poet Louise Bernice Halfe (Sky Dancer) presents a whole new way to experience story poems. It’s kinda like she writes in English but thinks in Cree. Lovely, revealing, funny, stunning. A whole new way to write!” — Buffy Sainte-Marie

“Louise Halfe knows, without question, how to make miyo-iskotêw, a beautiful fire with her kindling of words and moss gathered from a sacred place known only to her, to the Old Ones. These poems, sharp and crackling, are among one of the most beautiful fires I’ve ever sat beside.” — Gregory Scofield, author of Witness, I Am

“Louise makes awâsis out of irreverent sacred text. The darkness enlightens. She uses humor as a scalpel and sometimes as a butcher knife, to cut away, or hack off, our hurts, our pain, our grief and our traumas. In the end we laugh and laugh and laugh.” — Harold R. Johnson, author of Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada

“This is all about Indigenizing and reconciliation among ourselves. It’s the kind of funny, shake up, poking, smacking, and farting we all need while laughing our guts out. It’s beautiful, gentle and loving.” — Marie Campbell, author of Halfbreed (from the Foreword)

Additional Information
104 pages | 5.75" x 8.50"

The Neyhiyawak (Plains Cree) word "Kitotam" translates into English as, "He Speaks to It." This is a collection of free-verse poetry by Indigenous poet and artist John McDonald. Written in two parts, these poems chronicle John's life and experiences as an urban Indigenous youth during the 1980s. The second half of the book is a look into the inspirations and events, that shaped John's career as an internationally known spoken word artist, beat poet, monologist and performance artist.

Additional Information
88 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Strong women dominate these reminiscences: the grandmother taught the girl whose mother refused to let her go to school, and the life-changing events they witnessed range from the ravages of the influenza epidemic of 1918–20 and murder committed in a jealous rage to the abduction of a young woman by underground spirits who on her release grant her healing powers.

A highly personal document, these memoirs are altogether exceptional in recounting the thoughts and feelings of a Cree woman as she copes with the challenges of reserve life but also, in a key chapter, with her loneliness while tending a relative’s children in a place far away from home – and, apparently just as debilitating, away from the company of other women. Her experiences and reactions throw fresh light on the lives lived by Plains Cree women on the Canadian prairies over much of the twentieth century.

The late Sarah Whitecalf (1919–1991) spoke Cree exclusively, spending most of her life at Nakiwacîhk / Sweetgrass Reserve on the North Saskatchewan River. This is where Leonard Bloomfield was told his Sacred Stories of the Sweet Grass Cree in 1925 and where a decade later David Mandelbaum apprenticed himself to Kâ-miyokîsihkwêw / Fineday, the step-grandfather in whose family Sarah Whitecalf grew up.

In presenting a Cree woman’s view of her world, the texts in this volume directly reflect the spoken word: Sarah Whitecalf’s memoirs are here printed in Cree exactly as she recorded them, with a close English translation on the facing page. They constitute an autobiography of great personal authority and rare authenticity.

Educator Information
Table of Contents
PART I Becoming a Cree woman

Ch. 1—êkosi nikî-pê-ay-itâcihonân / This has been our way of life

Ch. 2—êkosi nikî-tâs-ôy-ohpikihikawin / This is the way I was raised

Ch. 3—mêh-mêskoc nikî-pimohtahikawin / I was taken back and forth

Ch. 4—miton ê-kî-pê-na-nêhiyaw-ôhpikihikawiyân / I was truly raised as a Cree woman

PART II Being a Cree woman

Ch. 5—êwak ôm ê-kî-ay-itâcimisot awa nikâwiy / This is my mother’s own story

Ch. 6—iyikohk ê-kî-sôhkêpayik anima nipahtâkêwin / So horrible was that murder

Ch. 7—ê-nipahi-kâh-kaskêyihtamân / I was desperately lonesome

Ch. 8—pikw êkwa niya / Now I had to take charge

PART III The spiritual life

Ch. 9—ê-sîkâwîhcikêhk / Observing the mourning ritual

Ch. 10—manitow kâ-matwêhikêt / Where the spirits drum (I)

Ch. 11—manitow kâ-matwêhikêt / Where the spirits drum (II)

Ch. 12—manitow kâ-matwêhikêt / Where the spirits drum (III)

Additional Information
366 pages | 6.50" x 9.75"

Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.

Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.

Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.

With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.

Awards

• Amazon Canada First Novel Award
• 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction
• 2022 Canada Reads Winner 

Educator Information
Winner of the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Price for Best New Fiction, Michelle Good's Five Little Indians is told from alternating points of view of five former residential school students as they struggle to survive in 1960s Vancouver.

Additional Information
304 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Francine Cunningham lives with constant reminders that she doesn't fit the desired expectations of the world: she is a white-passing, city-raised Indigenous woman with mental illness who has lost her mother. In her debut poetry collection ON/ME, Cunningham explores, with keen attention and poise, what it means to be forced to exist within the margins. Cunningham does not hold back: she holds a lens to residential schools, intergenerational trauma, Indigenous Peoples forcibly sent to sanatoriums, systemic racism and mental illness, and translates these topics into lived experiences that are nuanced, emotional, funny and heartbreaking all at once. ON/ME is an encyclopedia of Cunningham, who shares some of her most sacred moments with the hope to spark a conversation that needs to be had.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 8 to 12 in the areas of English Language Arts and Social Studies.

Caution: mature subject matter.

Additional Information
96 pages | 8.00" x 5.50"

During the 60s Scoop, over 20,000 Indigenous children in Canada were removed from their biological families, lands and culture and trafficked across provinces, borders and overseas to be raised in non-Indigenous households. 

Ohpikiihaakan-ohpihmeh — Raised Somewhere Else delves into the personal and provocative narrative of Colleen Cardinal’s journey growing up in a non- Indigenous household as a 60s Scoop adoptee. Cardinal speaks frankly and intimately about instances of violence and abuse throughout her life, but this book is not a story of tragedy. It is a story of empowerment, reclamation and, ultimately, personal reconciliation. It is a form of Indigenous resistance through truth-telling, a story that informs the narrative on missing and murdered Indigenous women, colonial violence, racism and the Indigenous child welfare system.

Reviews
“With Canadians slowly awakening to the reality of the 60s Scoop and its ongoing repercussions, Cardinal’s inspiring work here is essential reading and will be an integral resource for generations to come.” — Waubgeshig Rice, author of Legacy

“Offers a window through which readers can see why cultural suppression is such a dark chapter in Canada’s history.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“I highly recommend reading this story for anyone interested in learning more about the Sixties Scoop and understanding what’s really happening under the stereotypes put on many Indigenous by those who do not truly understand.” — All Booked

Educator Information
The Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools list recommends this resource for Grades 10-12 for English Language Arts.

Additional Information
214 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Foreward by Raven Sinclair

A deeply scouring poetic account of the residential school experience, and a deeply important indictment of colonialism in Canada.

Many of the poems in Louise Halfe's Burning in This Midnight Dream were written in response to the grim tide of emotions, memories, dreams and nightmares that arose in her as the Truth and Reconciliation process unfolded. In heart-wrenching detail, Halfe recalls the damage done to her parents, her family, herself. With fearlessly wrought verse, Halfe describes how the experience of the residential schools continues to haunt those who survive, and how the effects pass like a virus from one generation to the next. She asks us to consider the damage done to children taken from their families, to families mourning their children; damage done to entire communities and to ancient cultures.

Halfe's poetic voice soars in this incredibly moving collection as she digs deep to discover the root of her pain. Her images, created from the natural world, reveal the spiritual strength of her culture.

Originally published in 2016 by Coteau Books, Burning in This Midnight Dream won the Indigenous Peoples' Publishing award, the Rasmussen, Ramussen & Charowsky Indigenous Peoples' Writing award, the Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award, the League of Canadian Poets' Raymond Souster Award, and the High Plains Book Award for Indigenous Writers. It was also the 2017 WILLA Literacy Award Finalist in Poetry. This new edition includes a new Afterword by Halfe.

Reviews
"Burning in this Midnight Dream honours the witness of a singular experience, Halfe's experience, that many others of kin and clan experienced. Halfe descends into personal and cultural darkness with the care of a master storyteller and gives story voice to mourning. By giving voice to shame, confusion, injustice Halfe begins to reclaim a history. It is the start of a larger dialogue than what is contained in the pages." --Raymond Souster Award jury citation

Additional Information
104 pages | 5.75" x 8.50" | 8 illustrations

Amelia McLean Paget was born in 1867 at Fort Simpson, In what is now the Northwest Territories. Her father, William McLean, was a Scot involved in the fur trade and her mother, Helen Murray, belonged to an illustrious Métis famly which had been active in the fur trade for generations. Amelia's life spanned some of the most tumultuous events in the West, including the disappearance of the buffalo, the North-West Resistance, and the establishment of the reserve system. She had a more sympathetic appreciation of Aboriginal culture than is to found in many of her contemporaries. In People of the Plains (first published in 1909), she records her observations of the customs, beliefs, and lifestyles of the Plains Cree and Saulteaux among whom she lived. She died in Ottawa in 1922.

Additional Information
78 pages | 6.75" x 9.75" | Paperback

This is the first in a series of readers in the First Nations languages of the prairie provinces meant for language learners and language users. The stories in this volume come from a variety of sources, all being narrated or written by fluent speakers of Cree, whether students or instructors of the Cree language or Elders. Funny Little Stories is a collection of nine stories representing the Plains Cree, Woods Cree, and Swampy Cree dialects, with a pronunciation guide and a Cree-to-English glossary.

Students and Elders come together in this volume to offer samples of three distinct genres of Cree storytelling: word play, humorous accounts of life experiences, and traditional stories about Wisahkecahk, the trickster-hero.

Each story is illustrated and is presented in both Standard Roman Orthography and syllabics, with English translation.

Educator & Series Information
Funny Little Stories is part of the First Nations Language Readers series. With a mix of traditional and new stories, each First Nations Language Reader introduces an Indigenous language and demonstrates how each language is used today. The University of Regina Press’s long-term goal is to publish all 60+ Indigenous languages of Canada.

Additional Information
110 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Narrated by Cree-speaking students, instructors, and Elders | Transcribed and Translated by Cree Linguistics Students | Edited and with a glossary and syllabics by Arok Wolvengrey

Authenticity Note: Because of the contribution of Indigenous Peoples, such as Cree-speaking Elders, to this work on Cree storytelling, it has received the Authentic Indigenous Text label.

This gorgeous volume draws from the vast archives of the National Museum of the American Indian and the voices of some of the most prominent Native American scholars, writers, activists and tribal leaders. More than 300 full-color illustrations depict the artistry and culture of our hemisphere’s diverse indigenous peoples. With its insightful, firsthand prose, the book is a reminder that the ancient philosophies and folkways are just as valuable and relevant in today’s world as they were generations ago.

The voices of Blue Marrow sing out from the past and the present. They are the voices of the Grandmothers, both personal and legendary. They share their wisdom, their lives, their dreams. They proclaim the injustice of colonialism, the violence of proselytism, and the horrors of the residential school system with an honesty that cuts to the marrow. Speaking in both English and Cree, these are voices of hopefulness, strength, and survivance. Blue Marrow is a tribute to the indomitable power of Indigenous women of the past and of the present day.

Educator Information
This is the 3rd Edition of this book.  More than twenty years since its first publication, this critically acclaimed collection is available in a redesigned edition, including an all-new interview with its celebrated author, Louise B. Halfe - Sky Dancer.

Some of the text is written in Cree.

Additional Information
120 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | paperback | 8 illustrations

DraMétis is the first anthology to focus on the emerging discipline of Métis drama. The pieces have all been previously produced and highlight the diversity of Métis drama being written and performed in Canada.