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Where some ideas are stranger than others...

TURTLE ISLAND at the Moonspeaker

'Turtle Island' is an english translation of one of the many Indigenous names for the continent currently labelled 'North America' in most atlases. Being a Métis writer I've found myself with opportunities to write short pieces on Indigenous history, culture, and interests. In effect, they're little polaroid snapshots of what I knew and thought about the issue at the time it was written, which is why they are listed under the heading 'Contested Documents' – chances are they'll all need some sort of follow up at one time or another. 'Living Memory' is a bit different, in that it presents some of my research on Métis history in North America. It's memory and living because, the pieces there are present works in progress.

Contested Documents

Living Memory

Other Important Sources

  • Indigenous Palaeolithic Database of the Americas: A major, ongoing project overseen by Dr. Paulette Steeves, whose book The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a key counter to the utter nonsense spread around by mainstream anthropologists committed to continuing to pretend that the americas were completely isolated from the world for practically all time. In both this website and her book, Steeves holds the evidence to the practical standards mainstream research and reconstruction is supposed to be beholden to: practical evidence and a willingness to examine evidence without preconceptions.
  • Ojibwe People's Dictionary: I learned about this dictionary via Mary Siisip Geniusz' beautiful book, Plants Have So Much To Give Us, All We Have To Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings. It is not so limited as may be most familiar from mainstream style english or french dictionaries. Of course it includes words, grammar, definitions, and so on. It also includes critical historical and material information, from treaties and comedy to octopus bags and wigwam construction.
  • A Casualty of Colonialism - Red River Métis Farming, 1810-1870: One of Norma J. Hall's excellent research projects, this one focussed on a still poorly aspect of Northwest Métis farming in the Red River region. She includes many maps and diagrams.
  • Alberta Metis Historical Society History Site: If you get a page warning you that this site is archived and no longer updated, don't worry, that is supposed to happen. This site is now part of the Library and Archives Canada digital archive, with all of its parts included. The windows media files may be viewed by converting them using a program like handbrake, although there are more recent and better quality videos now available elsewhere.
  • The Métis in Alberta: Another archived, 2005 Métis history project, focussed on the communities in alberta and developed by the now defunct heritage community foundation. It was intended to be part of an alberta online encyclopedia, which did not survive, unlike the saskatchewan equivalent.
  • The Rooster Town Online Archive, archive of research materials digitized in the course of writing the book Rooster Town: The History of an Urban Métis Community, 1901–1961 by Evelyn Peters, Matthew Stock, and Adrian Werner, with Lawrie Barkwell. The university of manitoba is supporting the site, including a call for additional materials pertaining to Rooster Town.
  • Further to Rooster Town, Episode 3, Season 2 of the cbc.ca podcast Muddied Water, hosted by Stephanie Cram. The elder speaking in this episode is Frank Sais. (alternate source)
  • activehistory.ca: We Get a Piece and We Get a Say - Approaching Confederation From the Perspective of the Métis of the North-West, talk by Jean Teillet (alternate source)
  • Unreserved Podcast with Rosanna Deerchild: From scrip to road allowances: Canada's complicated history with the Métis (alternate source)
  • Pape Salter Teillet LLP: Jean Teillet
    - check the Publications page for Métis Law in Canada ordering information
  • Selected Articles From the Saskatchewan Indian, 1970-2003
  • Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre
  • Haida Raid: Haida Gwaii Artists Send Message to Harper About Enbridge Pipeline; also see HaidaWood
  • All Mouth and No Ears: Settlers With Opinions by Daniel Heath Justice
  • The Decolonial Turn 2.0: The Reckoning by Zoe Todd (15 June 2018)
  • University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog: The Pass System by Team ReconciliAction YEG (5 October 2018)
  • In Search of Aztlán, original site of the docu-comedy, which is still posted in file formats potentially convertible to something viewable using VLC player. There are other important gems on the site filling in intriguing historic details about important Indigenous movements in northern mexico, and a series of interview transcriptions with suc important leaders as Jack D. Forbes and Rudolf Anaya.
  • Theory and Event Special Issue "On Colonial Unknowing," Volume 19, Issue 4, 2016. This issue, edited by Alyosha Goldstein, Juliana Hu Pegues, and Manu Vimalassery is free access for the general public and an incredible collection of searing papers.
  • Louis Riel Collection, scanned papers and notebooks written by Louis Riel and now officially owned by the university of calgary. The Métis Heritage Centre which will be opening in Manitoba is trying to negotiate a lending agreement.
  • Sakitawak Conservation IPCA, where "IPCA" is the acronym for "Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas." The Île-à-la-Crosse Métis are leading this project, and this site includes an excellent overview of the community's deep history and connections to trade networks from long before the arrival of europeans.
  • The Pass System, an investigative documentary produced by Alex Williams in collaboration with Elders, community knowledge keepers, and historians. Released in 2015, it reconstructs the history of the thoroughly illegal pass system used to keep status Indians imprisoned on reserves between 1885 and 1941.
Copyright © C. Osborne 2024
Last Modified: Sunday, September 08, 2024 13:52:59