by Maia Caron
Gabriel had moved closer as they spoke, asking of her grandfather. She told him that Big Bear was still in prison, serving time for the Frog Lake massacre, and Gabriel shook his head. “He did not go to Ottawa to meet the one who is higher.”
She could not find the words to tell him that Ottawa had ordered the prison guards to cut her grandfather’s long hair and keep him in chains, forced to hard labour.
They were silent for a moment. Gabriel lifted a hand to her arm, as if he were reaching to some apparition, a vision of her that might disappear like smoke. Through the thin cotton of her dress, his touch still managed to electrify her.
“There was news of you when someone came from the Saskatchewan,” he said. “I had to know you would stay.”
She began to tell him of her cabin, that she’d survived because of the money he had sent, but his face had softened as he looked at her, watching her mouth, eyes, memorizing her face.
“Wâwâc,” he said in Cree. Even now.
She had forgotten how he looked at a person—cut away what wasn’t true and let come what was. His eyes did it. They burned right through you.
The two of them walked out of the fairgrounds as the light changed and swung low over the aspen and the wide plains beyond, of Montana and the Territories and the world without end. It was not difficult to imagine how it might have seemed thousands of years ago, to a man or woman who stood on this hill, the snake bend of river, light reflecting from the sloughs, and buffalo that moved like clouds across the sun.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Song of Batoche is a work of historical fiction, but it is also about my ancestral history, and that of my people, the Métis. Most of the events are true to history, most of the characters, too. Some names were changed only because there were so many people with the name “Marie” and “Isidore” among the Métis. Josette, Norbert, and their children are products of my imagination.
Herb Wyile wrote in Speaking in the Past Tense: Canadian Novelists on Writing Historical Fiction: “A historical novel is kind of a work of impressionism.” After years of researching Riel, I found him a fascinating character. My interpretation of him, although based on real events and dialogue from his writings, diary entries, and poetry, is very much a personal impression.
Riel’s “relationship” with Josette is my own creation to give expression to his diary writings. The scenes that feature the two are fictional in nature, but were crafted to illustrate historical events, or to reveal what Riel was attempting to achieve with the Métis and the “Indians,” in terms of his mission. Although these scenes are fictional, the content documents historical occurrences that include the perspectives of the Métis women, whose viewpoints I felt were often not considered in earlier accounts. Where names were not changed in the story, every effort was made by the author to contact descendants for permission to fictionalize these characters.
Gabriel Dumont’s relationship with Josette is also conjecture, part of the story I wanted to tell—of vibrant three-dimensional characters who lived with problems and secrets that weren’t all that different from our own.
As well as primary source material, I read many secondary sources while I was researching this story and thank all of the authors. They are too numerous to mention here, but any reader interested can find a comprehensive list on my website: maiacaron.com
Special thanks to the following:
Beverly Crier, Director SCN Culture, Language Archives & Museum, Samson Cree Nation, for help with the Cree words and phrases.
Johanne Brissette who assisted me with French usage in the novel. Any mistakes that remain in either the Cree or French are mine alone.
Diane Payment for her exhaustive research and her documentation of stories of Métis elders who lived during the Resistance. Her book, The Free People, was invaluable to me.
Don McLean, researcher for the Gabriel Dumont Institute and author of 1885: Métis Rebellion or Government Conspiracy? His book helped me to flesh out Lawrence Clarke’s incredible story, which had only been touched upon in earlier sources. For those interested, the book is available in pdf form on the Gabriel Dumont Institute website.
Lawrence Barkwell for Veterans and Families of the 1885 Northwest Resistance, also published by the Gabriel Dumont Institute.
Jean Teillet for her insight into Riel’s Métis relations in Manitoba.
Ladonna Brave Bull Allard: an offering of tobacco for her information on Little Ghost and the Lakota Sioux.
The estate of Margaret Arnett MacLeod for permission to use excerpts from her book, Songs of Old Manitoba.
Thank you C.M. for everything and making it possible to write. My beautiful daughter, Shasta. My dad, Allan Caron, the best Métis. Auntie Jeanette, who gifted me with her haunting memories of growing up in Batoche. Dianne Shelton and Luanne Pucci who listened on the dog beach. Ronald B. Hatch and Meagan Dyer, you believed in this story and made it better. Murray Clark Johnson, who died before I could tell him: this one’s for you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maia Caron is Red River Métis. Her extended Caron, Dumas, and Parenteau family were among the founders of Batoche, Saskatchewan. They fought with Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont during the North-West Resistance of 1885. Maia is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario and lives in Toronto. Song of Batoche is her first novel. For more information, please visit her website at www.maiacaron.com. Or follow her on Twitter @MaiaCaron.
