Stolen Life

Stolen Life PDF Author: Yvonne Johnson
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307367134
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Written with primal intensity, touched with redeeming compassion, Rudy Wiebe--has explored our history, our roots and the secrets of our hearts with moral seriousness and great feeling." Governor General's Award for Fiction Citation, 1994 A powerful, major work of non-fiction, beautifully written, from the twice winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, and the great-great-granddaughter of Big Bear. This is a story about justice, and terrible injustices, a story about a murder, and a courtroom drama as compelling as any thriller as it unravels the events that put Yvonne Johnson behind bars for life, first in Kingston's Federal Prison for Women until the riot that closed it, and presently in the Okimaw Ochi Healing Lodge in the Cypress Hills. But above all it is the unforgettable true story of the life of a Native woman who has decided to speak out and break the silence, written with the redeeming compassion that marks all Rudy Wiebe's writing, and informed throughout by Yvonne Johnson's own intelligence and poetic eloquence. Characters and events spring to life with the vividness of fiction. The story is told sometimes in the first person by Rudy Wiebe, sometimes by Yvonne herself. He tracks down the details of Yvonne's early life in Butte, Montana, as a child with a double-cleft palate, unable to speak until the kindness of one man provided the necessary operations; the murder of her beloved brother while in police custody; her life of sexual abuse at the hands of another brother, grandfather and others; her escape to Canada - to Winnipeg and Wetaskiwin; the traumas of her life that led to alcoholism, and her slow descent into hell despite the love she found with her husband and three children. He reveals how she participated, with three others, in the murder of the man she believed to be a child abuser; he unravels the police story, taking us step by step, with jail-taped transcripts, through the police attempts to set one member of the group against the others in their search for a conviction - and the courtroom drama that followed. And Yvonne openly examines her life and, through her grandmother, comes to understand the legacy she has inherited from her ancestor Big Bear; having been led through pain to wisdom, she brings us with her to the point where she finds spiritual strength in passing on the lessons and understandings of her life. How the great-great-granddaughter of Big Bear reached out to the author of The Temptations of Big Bear to help her tell her story is itself an extraordinary tale. The co-authorship between one of Canada's foremost writers and the only Native woman in Canada serving life imprisonment for murder has produced a deeply moving, raw and honest book that speaks to all of us, and gives us new insight into the society we live in, while offering a deeply moving affirmation of spiritual healing.

Stolen Life

Stolen Life PDF Author: Yvonne Johnson
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307367134
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Written with primal intensity, touched with redeeming compassion, Rudy Wiebe--has explored our history, our roots and the secrets of our hearts with moral seriousness and great feeling." Governor General's Award for Fiction Citation, 1994 A powerful, major work of non-fiction, beautifully written, from the twice winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, and the great-great-granddaughter of Big Bear. This is a story about justice, and terrible injustices, a story about a murder, and a courtroom drama as compelling as any thriller as it unravels the events that put Yvonne Johnson behind bars for life, first in Kingston's Federal Prison for Women until the riot that closed it, and presently in the Okimaw Ochi Healing Lodge in the Cypress Hills. But above all it is the unforgettable true story of the life of a Native woman who has decided to speak out and break the silence, written with the redeeming compassion that marks all Rudy Wiebe's writing, and informed throughout by Yvonne Johnson's own intelligence and poetic eloquence. Characters and events spring to life with the vividness of fiction. The story is told sometimes in the first person by Rudy Wiebe, sometimes by Yvonne herself. He tracks down the details of Yvonne's early life in Butte, Montana, as a child with a double-cleft palate, unable to speak until the kindness of one man provided the necessary operations; the murder of her beloved brother while in police custody; her life of sexual abuse at the hands of another brother, grandfather and others; her escape to Canada - to Winnipeg and Wetaskiwin; the traumas of her life that led to alcoholism, and her slow descent into hell despite the love she found with her husband and three children. He reveals how she participated, with three others, in the murder of the man she believed to be a child abuser; he unravels the police story, taking us step by step, with jail-taped transcripts, through the police attempts to set one member of the group against the others in their search for a conviction - and the courtroom drama that followed. And Yvonne openly examines her life and, through her grandmother, comes to understand the legacy she has inherited from her ancestor Big Bear; having been led through pain to wisdom, she brings us with her to the point where she finds spiritual strength in passing on the lessons and understandings of her life. How the great-great-granddaughter of Big Bear reached out to the author of The Temptations of Big Bear to help her tell her story is itself an extraordinary tale. The co-authorship between one of Canada's foremost writers and the only Native woman in Canada serving life imprisonment for murder has produced a deeply moving, raw and honest book that speaks to all of us, and gives us new insight into the society we live in, while offering a deeply moving affirmation of spiritual healing.

The Plains Cree

The Plains Cree PDF Author: David Goodman Mandelbaum
Publisher: University of Regina Press
ISBN: 9780889770133
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on the author's thesis. Part I was previously published in 1940 by the American Museum of Natural History. This revised edition includes two additional comparative sections.

Mwakwa--Talks to the Loon

Mwakwa--Talks to the Loon PDF Author: Dale Auger
Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Co
ISBN: 9781894974042
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book Here

Book Description
When Kayãas becomes arrogant, he loses the Gift that allows him to find animals to hunt so that he may feed his people, so he asks Mwãakwa, the loon, for help, in a story that includes some words in Cree.

The Cree Language is Our Identity

The Cree Language is Our Identity PDF Author: Sarah Whitecalf
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
ISBN: 0887558941
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book Here

Book Description
Sarah Whitecalf (1919-1991) spoke Cree exclusively, having been raised in the traditional manner by her grandparents. She was well known for her discourses, mainly on Cree culture, which are exceptionally rich and beautiful. This book records in print Mrs Whitecalf’s spoken responses to questions put to her in January 1990 by a group of teachers; mostly Cree speakers themselves, they were students in a course in Cree language structures which Freda Ahenakew taught for the Northern Teacher Education Program (NORTEP) at La Ronge, Saskatchewan. The La Ronge Lectures of Sarah Whitecalf differ radically from most other text collections in the indigenous languages of North America: while she freely illustrates her discussion with personal experiences, Sarah Whitecalf’s purpose in these lectures is not to tell stories but to explicate Cree practices and beliefs. In this book, she deals with diverse aspects of traditional Cree life, ranging from the vegetable dyes used for porcupine-quills to love medicines and their antidotes; she speaks about the sacred pipe and other spiritual matters, such as reliance on owls as spirit messengers; and she also addresses the question whether or not Cree religious practices and the Cree language itself should be taught to Whites. Throughout the book, Sarah Whitecalf stresses the importance of language as the vehicle of culture and identity. Through the discussions of her traditional life, she stressed the importance of language as a vehicle of culture and identity. In Plains Cree with an English translation and syllabics. Includes glossary.

Mamaskatch

Mamaskatch PDF Author: Darrel J. McLeod
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
ISBN: 1571317295
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 211

Get Book Here

Book Description
As a small boy in remote Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod is immersed in his Cree family’s history, passed down in the stories of his mother, Bertha. There he is surrounded by her tales of joy and horror—of the strong men in their family, of her love for Darrel, and of the cruelty she and her sisters endured in residential school—as well as his many siblings and cousins, and the smells of moose stew and wild peppermint tea. And there young Darrel learns to be fiercely proud of his heritage and to listen to the birds that will guide him throughout his life. But after a series of tragic losses, Bertha turns wild and unstable, and their home life becomes chaotic. Sweet and eager to please, Darrel struggles to maintain his grades and pursue interests in music and science while changing homes, witnessing domestic violence, caring for his younger siblings, and suffering abuse at the hands of his brother-in-law. Meanwhile, he begins to question and grapple with his sexual identity—a reckoning complicated by the repercussions of his abuse and his sibling’s own gender transition. Thrillingly written in a series of fractured vignettes, and unflinchingly honest, Mamaskatch—“It’s a wonder!” in Cree—is a heartbreaking account of how traumas are passed down from one generation to the next, and an uplifting story of one individual who overcame enormous obstacles in pursuit of a fulfilling and adventurous life.

Voices of the Plains Cree

Voices of the Plains Cree PDF Author: Edward Ahenakew
Publisher: University of Regina Press
ISBN: 9780889770836
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Get Book Here

Book Description
The papers in this collection deal with the traditions and past history of the Plains Cree, and the effects, fifty years ago, of a changing way of life. Topics covered are the following: a winter of hardship; Indian laws; revenge against the Blackfoot; Thunderchild takes his first horses from the Blackfoot; it is Pu-chi-to now who tells his story; Thunderchild takes part in a dangerous game; encounter with the Blackfoot in the Eagle hills; a fight with the Scarcee; a story of friendship; truce making and truce breaking; Buffalo pounds; the Buffalo chase; the Grizzly bear; walking wind tell his story of the Grizzly; Thunderchild's adventure with the bears; the foot-race; a faithless woman; the first man; the sun dance; the thirst dance; and, Thunderchild's conclusion.

Life Stages and Native Women

Life Stages and Native Women PDF Author: Kim Anderson
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
ISBN: 0887554164
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 309

Get Book Here

Book Description
A rare and inspiring guide to the health and well-being of Aboriginal women and their communities. The process of “digging up medicines” - of rediscovering the stories of the past - serves as a powerful healing force in the decolonization and recovery of Aboriginal communities. In Life Stages and Native Women, Kim Anderson shares the teachings of fourteen elders from the Canadian prairies and Ontario to illustrate how different life stages were experienced by Metis, Cree, and Anishinaabe girls and women during the mid-twentieth century. These elders relate stories about their own lives, the experiences of girls and women of their childhood communities, and customs related to pregnancy, birth, post-natal care, infant and child care, puberty rites, gender and age-specific work roles, the distinct roles of post-menopausal women, and women’s roles in managing death. Through these teachings, we learn how evolving responsibilities from infancy to adulthood shaped women’s identities and place within Indigenous society, and were integral to the health and well-being of their communities. By understanding how healthy communities were created in the past, Anderson explains how this traditional knowledge can be applied toward rebuilding healthy Indigenous communities today.

Three Hundred Years in Thirty

Three Hundred Years in Thirty PDF Author: Nicholas N. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781882190027
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Nicholas Smith has maintained a decades-long familiarity with Mistassini, a familiarity documented in his own photographic collection and complemented by his work as an ethnohistorian. His book should provide a welcome personal and historically knowledgeable record of the community. ¿Thomas Stone, Prof. of Anthropology Emeritus, SUNY Potsdam

The Cree Tribe

The Cree Tribe PDF Author: Janet Riehecky
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 9780736813662
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 28

Get Book Here

Book Description
An overview of the past and present lives of the Cree, including a description of their homes, clothing, family life, religion, and government.

Spirit Lives in the Mind

Spirit Lives in the Mind PDF Author: Louis Bird
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773576924
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
"In The Spirit Lives in the Mind the renowned storyteller and historian of the Omushkego shares teachings and stories of the Swampy Cree [Winisk Northern Ontario region] people that have been passed down from generation to generation as part of a rich oral tradition. Cree spiritual beliefs revolve around the sacred places and rich landscape of the Hudson Bay lowlands. [James Bay region also.] The beautiful narratives in The Spirit Lives in the Mind illuminate the meaning and value of spiritual maturity and power, the parallels between Omushkego morality and Roman Catholic teachings, and the importance of maintaining the traditional stories. Bird also offers explanations of shamanism and demonstrates how Catholicism affected Cree tradition. Bird collaborated with Susan Elaine Gray, who worked from many years of learning about and teaching Aboriginal culture and traditions in compiling his narratives and personal testament for The Spirit Lives in the Mind. It is a remarkable evocation of aboriginal storytelling about the Cree peoples, their landscape, and their places in the sky."--Pub. website.