Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Book 10 of 2012 -- Kisiskaciwan (Saskatchewan): Tracing My Grandmother's Roots

This is a follow up to this book.  In researching his earlier book Vern Wishart came across the scant records of his third great grandmother, a Cree woman named Kisiskaciwan.  Because of the nature of the times, there are few written records of a Cree woman who entered a "country marriage" with an employee of the Hudson's Bay Country near the end of the 18th century.

Wishart has taken what information he was able to find about his ancestor and has placed them into this work of "creative non-fiction".  As he weaves an educated guess about the life she led he shares much about the times in which she lived and the attitudes she likely encountered among the Europeans who were taking over the continent (with a degree of editorial comment evident about those attitudes).

Wishart takes us from a Cree camp on the shores of the Kisiskaciwan-sipiy (North Saskatchewan River) to a trip down to York Factory, to a series of fur-trade posts, to the Red River Settlement, to the West Coast, and back to Red River.  Many adventures along the road.  Many meetings with people whos names are much better known.

A good read.  If you want to get hold of it this link might help.  It is one of those volumes unlikely to be carried by the major chains.

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