As an Indigenous person on Northern Plains in Canada, I never understood why my home couldn’t be the setting of a mystical Western like the ones I’d read, seen, played, heard all about. The most important components of a fantastic Western were everywhere—larger-than-life landscapes that only larger-than-life people could survive. Big sun, big water, big trees, big animals, big prairies, big sky, big history, big problems. My home had it all. My grandpa’s home in Saskatchewan had it all too.
I think all Indigenous people have uncomfortable fondness for Westerns. No other genre features us so integrally. Yet no other genre is predicated on the legend of the extermination of an entire people. If Indigenous Peoples’ fight for existence is the foundation of the Western, why can’t Indigenous Peoples tell Westerns from our perspectives too? If overwhelming landscapes produce overwhelming characters, who better to tell those stories than the characters indigenous to that land?
Because of its Indigenous history, Saskatchewan has an outsized footprint on the history of the Northern Plains. In fact, some of the most consequential violence in Canada happened in modern Saskatchewan—including the North-West Rebellion, which was the largest authorization of deadly force against Indigenous Peoples in Canada that left a monumental scar across the Northern Plains. Wouldn’t that be perfect for a Western?
For my debut novel, Treat Them as Buffalo, I wanted to return to my family and my grandpa’s home in Saskatchewan—the land, the people, and the history. Here are six books that help me understand somewhere as historical and mythological as Saskatchewan.
If you read one book from this list, it’s this one. Maria Campbell’s 1973 memoir Halfbreed is unquestionably one of the most important books in Indigenous literary history. Originally published when Campbell was in her early-to-mid-thirties, Halfbreed is the autobiographical recount of a Métis woman’s complicated upbringing in the bush near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and her resilient adulthood in urban Western Canada. Never had a book made me feel like I was real or belonged before. I immediately recommended Halfbreed to my mom so we could understand our family better, and so we could better see the indelible mark Saskatchewan left on my grandpa before he left.
The Englishman’s Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Although I didn’t discover The Englishman’s Boy until nearly twenty years after its initial publication in 1996, Guy Vanderhaeghe’s novel about the Cypress Hills Massacre in southwest Saskatchewan in 1873 gave me artistic authorization to craft a Western about history in Canada. An historically fictional re-creation of one of the catalyzing events for the establishment of Canada’s iconic Mounties, The Englishman’s Boy demonstrates how the violent colonial myth of the West isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon.
A Girl Called Echo: Omnibus by Katherena Vermette
A powerful reclamation of Métis history in Canada as valuable for adults as teens, katherena vermette’s A Girl Called Echo follows a modern Métis girl’s blast through Métis history on the Northern Plains. One of two graphic novels on my list, A Girl Called Echo breaks Métis history down into digestible and fun overviews that are as entertaining as they are informative. Although I confess that A Girl Called Echo is predominantly a Manitoba text, its representations of the North-West Rebellion and Saskatchewan Métis make A Girl Called Echo a welcomed member to this list.
Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown
The second graphic novel, the second text that isn’t uniquely Saskatchewan, and the second text authored by a non-Indigenous person, Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography is unquestionably the most controversial book on this list. However, given its subject matter, I expect no less from Chester Brown’s best attempt at humanizing the most heavily mythologized figure in Canadian history. Comical, sympathetic, and grounded in its representations of the Métis Nation’s preeminent folk hero and the most politically controversial man in Canadian history, Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography covers Riel and his life without kit gloves, balancing his humanity with his legend.
Louis: The Heretic Poems by Gregory Scofield
Easily the shortest book on this list as its sole collection of poetry, Gregory Scofield’s analysis of Louis Riel’s religiosity and megalomania through poetry—Riel’s own favoured mode or artistic expression—is an intimate and fiercely Indigenous examination of Riel’s legacy on the Northern Plains. Each poem is poignant with authentically Métis voices to narrate the poems, and Louis: The Heretic Poems is a strong reclamation of the Métis Nation’s folk hero in all his thorny martyrdom. Keavy, if you read this, I promise to return your copy signed!
The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir by Joseph Auguste Merasty
I round out my Debutiful list with yet another profound Saskatchewan memoir in which I could see my family: The Education of Augie Merasty by the late Joseph Auguste Merasty. Like America reconciles with its tragic history of Indian boarding schools, Canada continues to reconcile with its own history of residential schools, which functioned as impactful instruments of colonization like Indian boarding schools. The Education of Augie Merasty helped me intimately understand not only regular student life at the institutions, but how the atrocities committed on their grounds saddled students with trauma for generations, including my own family members. The Education of Augie Merasty is a moving insight into one of the most insidious colonial projects in North American history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Blair Palmer Yoxall (he/him/his) is a prize-winning writer and poet. He is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta, and is of Métis and settler parentage. Blair enjoys fly-fishing in the Alberta Rockies. Treat Them as Buffalo is his debut novel. Follow him @atayookee.