Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Winner – 2023 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize

Winner – 2023 John W. Dafoe Book Prize

Winner – 2023 High Plains Book Award for Indigenous Writer

Winner – 2022 Manitoba Historical Society Margaret McWilliams Book Award for Local History

Winner – 2023 Quebec Writers’ Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction and Concordia University First Book Prize

Finalist – 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

Finalist – Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

Finalist – 2023 Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Evergreen Award

Finalist and Honourable Mention – Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Finalist – Ukrainian Canadian Foundation Kobzar Book Award

Longlisted – 2023-2024 First Nations Communities Read

A heart-rending true story about racism and reconciliation

Divided by a beautiful valley and 150 years of racism, the town of Rossburn and the Waywayseecappo Indian reserve have been neighbours nearly as long as Canada has been a country. Their story reflects much of what has gone wrong in relations between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. It also offers, in the end, an uncommon measure of hope.

Valley of the Birdtail is about how two communities became separate and unequal—and what it means for the rest of us. In Rossburn, once settled by Ukrainian immigrants who fled poverty and persecution, family income is near the national average and more than a third of adults have graduated from university. In Waywayseecappo, the average family lives below the national poverty line and less than a third of adults have graduated from high school, with many haunted by their time in residential schools.

This book follows multiple generations of two families, one white and one Indigenous, and weaves their lives into the larger story of Canada. It is a story of villains and heroes, irony and idealism, racism and reconciliation. Valley of the Birdtail has the ambition to change the way we think about our past and show a path to a better future.

1140977986
Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Winner – 2023 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize

Winner – 2023 John W. Dafoe Book Prize

Winner – 2023 High Plains Book Award for Indigenous Writer

Winner – 2022 Manitoba Historical Society Margaret McWilliams Book Award for Local History

Winner – 2023 Quebec Writers’ Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction and Concordia University First Book Prize

Finalist – 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

Finalist – Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

Finalist – 2023 Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Evergreen Award

Finalist and Honourable Mention – Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Finalist – Ukrainian Canadian Foundation Kobzar Book Award

Longlisted – 2023-2024 First Nations Communities Read

A heart-rending true story about racism and reconciliation

Divided by a beautiful valley and 150 years of racism, the town of Rossburn and the Waywayseecappo Indian reserve have been neighbours nearly as long as Canada has been a country. Their story reflects much of what has gone wrong in relations between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. It also offers, in the end, an uncommon measure of hope.

Valley of the Birdtail is about how two communities became separate and unequal—and what it means for the rest of us. In Rossburn, once settled by Ukrainian immigrants who fled poverty and persecution, family income is near the national average and more than a third of adults have graduated from university. In Waywayseecappo, the average family lives below the national poverty line and less than a third of adults have graduated from high school, with many haunted by their time in residential schools.

This book follows multiple generations of two families, one white and one Indigenous, and weaves their lives into the larger story of Canada. It is a story of villains and heroes, irony and idealism, racism and reconciliation. Valley of the Birdtail has the ambition to change the way we think about our past and show a path to a better future.

11.99 In Stock
Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation

Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation

Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation

Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation

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Overview

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Winner – 2023 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize

Winner – 2023 John W. Dafoe Book Prize

Winner – 2023 High Plains Book Award for Indigenous Writer

Winner – 2022 Manitoba Historical Society Margaret McWilliams Book Award for Local History

Winner – 2023 Quebec Writers’ Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction and Concordia University First Book Prize

Finalist – 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

Finalist – Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

Finalist – 2023 Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Evergreen Award

Finalist and Honourable Mention – Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Finalist – Ukrainian Canadian Foundation Kobzar Book Award

Longlisted – 2023-2024 First Nations Communities Read

A heart-rending true story about racism and reconciliation

Divided by a beautiful valley and 150 years of racism, the town of Rossburn and the Waywayseecappo Indian reserve have been neighbours nearly as long as Canada has been a country. Their story reflects much of what has gone wrong in relations between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. It also offers, in the end, an uncommon measure of hope.

Valley of the Birdtail is about how two communities became separate and unequal—and what it means for the rest of us. In Rossburn, once settled by Ukrainian immigrants who fled poverty and persecution, family income is near the national average and more than a third of adults have graduated from university. In Waywayseecappo, the average family lives below the national poverty line and less than a third of adults have graduated from high school, with many haunted by their time in residential schools.

This book follows multiple generations of two families, one white and one Indigenous, and weaves their lives into the larger story of Canada. It is a story of villains and heroes, irony and idealism, racism and reconciliation. Valley of the Birdtail has the ambition to change the way we think about our past and show a path to a better future.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781443466318
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Publication date: 08/30/2022
Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
Format: eBook
Pages: 384
File size: 20 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

ANDREW STOBO SNIDERMAN is a writer, lawyer and Rhodes Scholar from Montreal. He has written for the New York Times, the Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. He has also argued before the Supreme Court of Canada, served as the human rights policy advisor to the Canadian minister of foreign affairs, and worked for a judge of South Africa’s Constitutional Court.



DOUGLAS SANDERSON (AMO BINASHII) is the Prichard Wilson Chair in Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He has served as a senior policy advisor to Ontario’s attorney general and minister of Indigenous affairs. Douglas Sanderson is Swampy Cree, Beaver clan, of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation.

Table of Contents

List of People ix

Authors' Note xi

A Note on Terminology xv

Prologue: "The Valley of the Birdtail" 1

Part I "Masters of Their Own Destiny"

1 "Dear Diary" 15

2 Linda's Shoes 28

3 "An Indian Thinks" 49

4 "Whitewash" 64

Part II "The Cunning of the White Man"

5 "Let Us Live Here Like Brothers" 87

6 "Iron Heart" 102

7 "The Young Napoleon of the West" 132

8 "One Load of Barley" 151

9 "Reasonable Amusement" 164

Part III "Sifton's Pets"

10 "Never Forget" 185

11 Faceoff 201

12 Bloodvein 211

13 "The Way It Works" 223

Part IV Partnership

14 "Stark and Obvious" 233

15 "People Say We're Racists" 245

16 "Kids Are Kids" 255

17 "Bury the Hatchet" 267

18 "A Grand Notion" 280

Epilogue: "Shining Sun" 303

Afterword Maureen Twovoice Binesi Ikwe (Thunderbird Woman) 307

Acknowledgements 313

Endnotes 317

Index 359

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