5 comments about Canoeing with the Cree.

1. Great story written by Eric Sevareid, tells of a inspiring canoe trip with his high school classmate, Walter Port. This fast paced story provides a glimpse of a world most of us will never see. Sevareid's prose borders on poetry at times and he provides trip details even when he and Port took the wrong turn. This story would be appropriate for children, but entertaining to adults as well. Highly recommended.



2. Excellent shape, received in a timely manner. Enjoyed the story, although not sure where "the Cree" fits in. Good account from two young men on an adventure. A quick read.



3. Anyone who enjoys adventure fiction will love this true-life adventure story. Eric Sevareid and Walter Port decided that they'd spend the summer after high school graduation canoeing up the Red River from central Minnesota all the way to Hudson Bay with nothing but an 18-foot canoe, a few bad maps, a few dollars, and their own smarts. On their way they experience everything from remote First Nations communities to utterly desolate wilderness to a formal dinner at the posh Winnipeg Canoe Club. They risk their lives again and again, shooting rapids and (in one case) almost dying when they take the wrong advice and end up trapped in a brackish lake in bad weather. But in every instance Sevareid's writing makes their travels come alive.
   
   I loved this book, and I highly recommend it.
   
   Incidentally, I found this book at the St. Vital library in Winnipeg, which was built on the grounds of the old Canoe Club clubhouse. I found that utterly cool. Less cool was the fact that the book hadn't been taken out in fourteen years!



4. ... that inspire those of even a mature age.
   
   Eric Sevareid was one of the preeminent TV newscasters, and this is the story of how he started. He was 17 years old, just graduated from high school, and with his friend, Walter C. Port, 19, set off on a 2,250 mile trip (almost the width of the United States) from Minneapolis to York Factory, on Hudson Bay. It was a race with the weather, and the on-coming winter, one they almost lost. The year was 1930, long before GPS, aerial rescue, or even good maps. In the later portion of the journey, down the aptly named "God's River," there was a point of no return, and you either made it, or didn't. Fortunately Sevareid did, filing stories with the Minneapolis paper, thereby funding his trip for a mere $100, and commencing his journalistic career. He wrote of his trip in book format in 1935.
   
   There are some other excellent reviews of the book, describing their adventures and hardships, noting that they were less than "politically correct," by today's standards, or even the latter wise standards of Sevareid of CBS News, in describing the Indians along the way. Indeed, as one reviewer indicated, the title itself is inappropriate, since they neither canoed with them, nor emulated their style. The book is written in the straightforward adventure style of a 17 year old, with only a minimum of introspection.
   
   To the other reviews I'd like to add a comment on the divergence in the men's lives thereafter. Sevareid went on to the pinnacles of acclaim in the world of journalism. Port decided his one great adventure in life was sufficient, and went back to Bemidji, Minnesota where he ran a drug store for the rest of his life, and where I was able to buy this book.
   
   The dream of long-distance canoeing was dangled, and I was unable to grab "the brass ring." I contented myself on a long journey in the Quattico, and hopefully in the near future, a gentler one in the Yukon. As one reviewer said, this is an inspiring book for Nintendo-bound kids, and I would add that if adults reduced the clutter in their lives, they too might be able to fulfill the dream of two Minnesota youths.
   
   Highly recommended to read, and to do, while the time is available.



5. My, how the world changes in 80 years! This is not a book with the profundity that Sevareid was later noted for. It is a straight off account of two boys setting out on an adventure more dangerous than they realized which could easily have cost them their lives. Fool-hardy, yes. But, how remarkable that they succeeded.
   
   The book gives insight to how primitive Northern Canada and the world was almost within my own lifetime. Places like Norway House and York Factory still exist, but are now virtually abandoned. At the time of the story they were major outposts of civilization in what was then a primeval land. Sevareid's and Post's joy at encountering a Cree family in a canoe and learning that they were within a few hours of a Cree village where there was safety and succor almost brought me to tears.
   
   This is a book that more people should read. Now, not many people even know who Arnold Eric Sevareid was, even less, Walter Post. But, this book launched Sevareid's career as a reporter and writer. Later books, "Not So Wild a Dream" especially, reveal much more about his inner thoughts and empathy for humanity, but there are hints of this in "Canoeing with the Cree".
   
   It is especially remarkable, almost incredible, that he and Post did this great adventure for $100! I have one nagging question: what has become of the original 9 dispatches that he sent to the Minneapolis Star. My internet search has, so far, only turned up one of them. I'm sure the book is better written; after all it is five years after the events. But, I would love to read the original dispatches upon which it is based.
   
   Bottom line: it's an inexpensive book and quick read about a simply amazing quest by one of the 20th Century's greatest journalists.

5 comments about People of the Deer (Death of a People).

1. If you've read any of Farley Mowat's books, this one will excite you as much as any of the others. If you've wondered how Mowat became attached to the Northlands and it's people, People of the Deer will show you how it all began. This book also introduces us to a people that have all but lost their land and their way of life.



2. "People of the Deer" is apparently Farley Mowat's first book and one of his best. He lived for a year amongst the Ihalmiut, an Inuit people Mowat refers to as "People of the Deer" although they regarded themselves, as have many aborigonal people, as simple "The People."
   
   They are people of the deer--caribou--because, unlike other Inuit groups they are not sea hunters but, instead predators of the migratory caribou herds. The herds have declined in numbers but not as much as the Ihalmiut. From a population high of around 7,000 they had, by Mowat's time, declined to only 40. Why? The impact of European Civilization is too simple of a generalization but, in the Ihalmiut, a people almost extinct, we see the fate of millions.
   
   Native Americans have little or no immunity to Old World diseases. You probably don't have to go much deeper than this. Sure there was alcohol and cultural deterioration but, first and foremost, there is disease. It wasn't deliberate but it came when the first white man and/or African stepped shore in the Americas. Probably the Inhalmiut were slightly luckier than many. Many tribes died out without a trace. Estimates [read '1491'] that as many as 90% of native americans died as the result of unintentionally introduced European diseases.
   
   Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico



3. Farley Mowat is a Canadian National treasure.
   
   This novel is set in the northern territories of Canada. It move within the people of the inuit. These inland eskimos are an indigeounous people whose population has been diminishing. The influence on the environment as well as the impact on the caribou herds has been putting these people at risk to where they now near extinction and a loss of their way of life.
   
   Beautifully written, the tundra and the barrens comes to life.
   
   A wonderful read!



4. The concept is correct anyway. These people were led to their demise by three factors: the church, commercialization (HBC), and the Canadian government. Mowat claims he spent two years living among these people. This is doubted by some. I've traveled in some of the areas that this book takes place. Not everyone has great things to say about this author. One person I talked to called him a historical novelist. He has other nicknames.
   
   But while it is questionable that all the events described in this book and its' successor (The Desperate People) actually took place, at least he got the main theme correct.



5. What ever you do, do not waste your precious life reading this book...

4 comments about It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl.

1. [...]
   
   "The latest: It Stops with Me: Memoirs of a Canuck Girl, by Charleen Touchette. Finally, some solid writing. Touchette is also a gifted visual artist and includes black and white and colour prints of her paintings in the book. As well, she is a curator, an educator, an activist and freelance writer. She has numerous book titles to her name, many with feminist perspectives, others that explore issues of cultural, religious and historical identities.
   
   I don't think Touchette and I would be best friends; this woman takes her politics very seriously and for all that she says she loves to laugh and enjoy life, her childhood was so bleak, violent and confusing, that it takes very bit of her sane self to keep the tortured self from imposing permanent depressions and mental and physical dysfunctions of all sorts.
   
   That said, I have huge admiration for someone who has done as much as this woman has done, and succeeded in so many areas. I also admire someone who, as a young adult, chose a resoundingly sane and loving man with whom to share her life and make a family. If anyone could be forgiven for having chosen an unkind life partner, it would be Touchette. And yet she bypassed entirely the common pattern of abused children growing up to choose abusive partners. Now that's a person who somehow protected her absolute core of sanity - against all odds.
   
   It was a lovely and at the same disturbing read. My only criticism is the odd coyness about revealing the extent of her father's sexual abuse. She builds up the tension in this regard again and again - in the art work and in the prose - but never flat-out says that she was raped, although this is intimated.
   
   Likewise, she often repeats that the time was not right to tell her parents about the abuse (that would be tell her mother and confront her father) and the reader is left to guess that she never did tell them directly, but did show the art work around the country and beyond, and of course publish the memoir.
   
   Again, you feel as the the entire book is building towards a showdown with the father - and yet this never occurs. Mind you, I don't blame her for avoiding/putting off a showdown. The father remains a right prick throughout her life, for all that his violent ways tone down with age. It's just that the story feels strangely climax-less - especially for a book that builds towards a climax almost from the first page.
   
   All of which makes me sad. It seems that no matter how successful Touchette is, how brilliantly she has created and maintained a happy and healthy family life of her own, her fear of her father still dictates major decisions in her life. There are too many points I end up guessing about. Did she decide the pain of confrontation was not worth whatever good and liberating feelings she might receive back? Did the love she had for her mother get in the way of confronting the father? Was her mother's role in the abuse (pretending it didn't happen, looking the other way, blaming Touchette for the violence her father metes out to her) far too upsetting to explore in a meaningful way?
   
   In the end consideration, I am not sure how I feel about the book." by Marjorie Simmins posted on May 18, 2009 on Memoirs and More.



2. An autobiography of a spunky Franco-American woman from Woonsocket, Rhode Island gives cultural storytelling multi-generational appeal. Too many Franco-Americans (with ancestral roots in French-Canada) are quickly amalgamating into the mainstream of American culture without writing their special family stories. Fortunately, Charleen Touchette, a Woonsocket, Rhode Island writer and artist now living in New Mexico, puts both of her pleasingly creative talents together in "It Stops With Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl".
   Touchette writes about her Franco-American roots by relating simple, often bittersweet and even brutal experiences growing up as a typical French Catholic girl in Woonsocket and later as an accomplished artist.
   Moreover, Touchette energizes her autobiography's prose with a series of original black, and white and color print blocks. In other words, "It Stops With Me" expresses Touchette's Franco-American creativity using prose accentuated by her surprisingly cutting edge original art describing absorbing coming of age experiences. Her journey from a parochial Franco-American into her adult life is fraught with opportunities, along with unexpected harsh challenges. Her life is ordinary in some ways but hardly a nostalgic cake walk.
   "It Stops With Me" is at its best when Touchette looks back and elevates normal Franco-American experiences to familiarities we can identify with. For example, she describes cooking with her "Ma Tantes" or getting ready to receive First Holy Communion at Woonsocket's Eglise Précieux-Sang (Church of Precious Blood).
   Discord arises at a young age. Growing up as a French Roman Catholic girl is an underlying theme. Touchette's typical childhood is without the benefit of feeling safe at home, as she depicts in one of her portraits of a "Not a Picture Perfect Family".
   Rather, Touchette's absorbing life story endures familial stress, social and personal conflicts, even leading to physical ailments, which haunt her into adult years.
   Touchette's hard hitting narrative is set apart from others of the modern autobiographic genre by the intimate and complicated relationships she shares with her family. Delving even deeper into her private spiral are the intense personal investigations Touchette undertakes with regard to her sad relationship with her father.
   Nevertheless, in spite of the particular circumstances, it's typical of Franco-Americans to harbor deep attachments for their relatives and parents regardless of obvious flaws, shortcomings or even family violence. Female family role models are especially strong in Touchette's life. "Although my Maman was a devout Catholic, she was a strong supporter of my right to freedom of expression," writes Touchette. In fact, her female relatives were outraged when Touchette even considered not going to college after high school. In her Woonsocket Franco-Americans world, Touchette writes about how curious it was to be singled out for college when no other woman in her family ever went beyond a high school education.
   Throughout the autobiography, her French heritage is front and center, even when she embraces the peace of Judaism.
   Many of the book's chapters are charmingly led by simple French titles.
   Touchette's talent as a creative writer moves the reader beyond the dark side of her autobiography. Using the power of words, she inspires us to learn more about her as an individual woman with a spellbinding story to tell. Touchette does a good job explaining the pros and cons of the personal contrasts she inherited from her religious and ethnic roots. This is a well written autobiography, nominated for book awards, with a progressive social focus.



3. I had an opportunity to meet the author, Charleen, at a B & B on Amelia Island in February 2005. I purchased her book and was lead into her amazing childhood and adulthood. A book that was impossible to put down or forget about. This book will make you think about your own childhood. Unfortunately Charleen was brought up with poor parenting but lucky enough to be born with wonderful skills and talents. I finished her book all too soon but will re-read it another time.



4. It Stops With Me: Memoir Of A Canuck Girl is the autobiography of artist, writer, curator, educator and activist Charleen Touchette. Narrating a life steeped in traditions of both French Canadian and Indian cultures, but also darkened by the legacies of anger, alcoholic rages, and violence, It Stops With Me tells of one woman's journey from girlhood to motherhood, to being debilitated by an illness that compels her to face the dark memories of her past. A captivating and sober memoir of a difficult and varied life.

5 comments about Stolen Life: Journey Of A Cree Woman.

1. I chose this book to read for a review assignment, and I must say, I'm glad I chose it. It is the life-story of a woman, the hardships she had to face throughout her life, as seen through her eyes. The book also shows how the judicial system, which we often view as having distinct boundaries, and as having the final hand in society, cannot ultimately be seen as such. While others may view Yvonne Johnson as a "cold-blooded criminal" and her subsequent novel as a "commercial enterprise", it is rather that this book is simply a means for her to have her voice heard, in a world that has silenced her for so long. We all want to have our voices heard, we all want to find our strengths. This book is how she found hers.



2. It's a shame when we put our criminals up on pedestals like this, especially with a murder so cold-blooded and senseless. That anyone can profit financially from such a heinous crime is deplorable and tells us something significant about our culture.
   
   As to the questions of injustice, it's not pointed out very often that Ms.Johnson was not the only native involved in this crime. Her co-conspirators were also native, as was the victim Leonard Charles Skwarok. Where then can we point the finger of racism?
   
   I personally did not find this book very poetic at all. Its narrative is uselessly disjointed, its grammar is often clumsy, and its poetic devices nearly non-existent. While Ms.Johnson writes most of the book in first person, the crucial chapters detailing the murder are written in third person. Is this because Ms.Johnson can't clearly remember what happened that night because she was drunk at the time, or because she wishes to detach herself from the incident, and have us see her more as an observer than as a participant? In any case, it's a clever device designed to separate the criminal from the crime. I for one don't buy it.



3. I just finished the book about Yvonne and her hardships. I read it in Norwegian, but that did not diminish the affect it had on me. It's unbelievable what some people have to go through, without anyone doing something about it. And then actually surviving it all, amazing!
   She said it herself in the book that people who have been through hard experiences easier can understand what others have to struggle with. And being as she is a Medicine Woman it is in her blood to try and help, wherever possible.
   It is also a startling report on how the Natives are still treated in both America and Canada. One can only hope that books like this can help open at least a few peoples eyes...



4. I have actually just begun to read the book as I became interested in this particular book very recently -- my family grew up in the same neighborhood as Yvonne Johnson and I felt compelled to read the book. I recall certain incidents from childhood such as her father on the front porch lining up all the children &(drunk) screaming "Indians on the Warpath" and one time grabbing my own sister off her bike, throwing her down (mistaking her for Yvonne) and then having to apologize profusely (he was drunk that time also)to my family. I recall her oldest brother dying while in the county jail, how my mother had him at times mow our lawns & we recalled how sad that time was, how the youngest, Perry, looked like a female with the long flowing hair (he had the lightest coloring), the girls Karen, Sharon, Kathy, Yvonne, how the Mother drove truck--the hard-scrabble life they led--I am sure it took a tremendous amount of courage to write this book, I recalled how she struggled with her speech, etc and how people could be mean to her.



5. Tansi,

   I come from a small reserve in northern Manitoba. What I read in "Journey of a Cree Woman" was unbelievable. I cannot believe how many hardships this woman had to go through, and yet she still continues on. This book really opened my eyes as to what other women go through . This book touched my heart and many times I got shivers down my back. This book is an awesome book, that I recommend especially for women. There are many good things I could say about this book, but there is a limit. I commend Rudy on his awesome work and continuied support with Yvonne. I commend Yvonne for sharing her story with us as it is not easy to tell a story that is nothing but the truth!

No comments about Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast.

2 comments about This Land Is My Land.

1. This is a gorgeous book. LIttlechild is an incredible artist and memoirist. The texts, which narrate each painting, are very useful for demonstrating the integration of memoir and art in the classroom. Teachers of elementary grades should know that he is very open and honest, using words such as prostitution and alcoholism, when he discusses the plight of urban Indian issues and family matters. My fourth graders were amazed at the art work, and we're hoping to do something similar. He collages photographs of his ancestors and uses bright, bold colors. He is part Cree, as is the singer/educator/artist/activist Buffy Sainte-Marie. Together, his art and her music enhance any study of Native North America.



2. I reviewed this book for circulation in the children's library where I work as an intern. I found it very touching, a first-hand account from a Native American who explains his feelings in a kind, appealing voice for a child. I am purchasing a copy for myself.

2 comments about Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits.

1. This gem of a book approaches all of its subjects with deep humanity and keen intelligence. Some of Greer's conclusions will inevitably be controversial, given the subject matter. But having read dozens of academic history books on natives and Europeans, I know of only a few that unfold with such wisdom and scholarly maturity. Last point -- my college students love this book as well.



2. This is not a biography of the humble young Mohawk woman whose courage, holiness, faith, and purity earned her (as thousands who know and love her truly believe) that place in Heaven. This book, in the author's own paraphrased words, is meant to "bring Tekakwitha down from heaven." (And it is part of a gloomy trend to do just that - to as much as one can to bring one's subject down.) And, thankfully, despite over two hundred pages of trying, he has not succeeded in dragging her down.
   
   There are people who were primarily historic figures and those whose lives are mainly of religious significance. Blessed Kateri (or Catherine, as the author prefers to call her) Tekakwitha was very clearly the latter. But this book approaches her from the former point of view, making her a postmortem pawn in the Jesuit's missionary work among the natives in Canada. The mystical and the supernatural (from a religious view) are ignored. The author seems even unwillingly to use the title of "Blessed" in reference to her.
   
   At one point, the author even seems - in a very subtle way - to imply the Kateri and her closest friend (Marie-Therese Tegaiaguenta)were lovers. If, as he writes, there is "no reason to think they were lovers," why mention it at all? What does it serve?
   
   The author dwells on each and any discrepancy in the original accounts by the two missionaries who knew Kateri during the last years of her life. (Even the Bible - in all its various popular translations - has its discrepancies.) Any story of any person, any account of any event is bound to have differences when told by two different witnesses. That alone is not enough reason to discount the differences.
   
   His grim portrait of Kateri in no way accounts for the great numbers of people (not only Native Americans, but from around the world) who have a profound love for this holy young woman.
   I can speak from my own experiences and observations that she has had a great impact even on people who knew little or nothing of her.
   
   Historians may find this book of interest, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   On a personal level, I have been studying the life of Blessed Kateri for a number of years. My personal collection includes nearly a hundred works of literature on her. These range from reprints of the original biographies by Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholonec to fluffy, sentimentalized (to the point of being quite ridiculous) books for young readers.
   
   I am also the creator of the web site mentioned on page 241 of this new book. I work for and look forward to the day when she is finally declared a saint.
   
   I pre-ordered this book many months ago and read it with an open mind as I am always eager for new details on her life. For me, it was a dull read (the narrative flow seems uneven) with left me unimpressed (not with Catherine Tekakwitha) and with a very unpleasant taste.
   
   Historians, cultural anthropologists, and the politically correct may find something of interest in this dry and dreary book, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   (I gave it one star because there is no lesser option and, well, my site was mentioned in the Notes to Chapter 9. I suppose I owe it something.)

No comments about Joseph Brant and His World: 18th Century Mohawk Warrior and Statesman.

1 comments about Confessions of a Spiritual Thrillseeker: Medicine Teachings from the Grandmothers.

1. Perhaps fittingly, the science of dreams has billions of practicioners but very few professors! Visionary poet Oriah Mountain Dreamer has impacted many people with her recent poem, "The Invitation". But where did she come from? What is the background of this Mountain Dreamer? A dog-eared copy of this elusive and mysterious text made its way into my hands for a brief time-just long enough for me to read about the trials and tribulations of a young woman (the author) who fights to have her voice heard as she negotiates a life-altering path of ceremony and sorcery for well-intentioned beginners. Is exploration of the shadowy borderline between the seen and unseen accelerating chaotic changes in her life, or is it precipitating them? The seeker is faced with many turbulent decisions and personal dilemmas; and also seeds of light, veiled in darkness. The trickster nature of the coyote permeates the book, which is ultimately an unflinching account of a contemporary quest for ageless wisdom. Read this one with an open mind, and a giving heart. Merrily, merrily, and sometimes unmerrily, life is but a dream!

2 comments about Klee Wyck.

1. If you are interested in the environment which generated the powerful West Coast Native art, the artist, Emily Carr, conjures it up in this original book. Her travels to their coastal villages are translated into these atmospheric essays.



2. this book by Emily Carr gives a very wonderful and descriptive account of the Pacific Northwest along British Columbia's shores. Emily Carr was a very unique woman who defied her times in her interactions with Native Peoples and her adventurous independance. This book details her explorations among the Queen Charlotte Islands. It is so descriptive it makes one feel that they are actually on the west coast.