The North-West Is Our Mother

The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Metis Nation

By: Jean Teillet

Narrated by: Jean Teillet

Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

There is a missing chapter in the narrative of Canada’s Indigenous peoples - the story of the Métis Nation, a new Indigenous people descended from both First Nations and Europeans

Their story begins in the last decade of the 18th century in the Canadian North-West. Within 20 years the Métis proclaimed themselves a nation and won their first battle. Within 40 years they were famous throughout North America for their military skills, their nomadic life and their buffalo hunts.

The Métis Nation didn’t just drift slowly into the Canadian consciousness in the early 1800s; it burst onto the scene fully formed. The Métis were flamboyant, defiant, loud, and definitely not noble savages. They were nomads with a very different way of being in the world - always on the move, very much in the moment, passionate and fierce. They were romantics and visionaries with big dreams. They battled continuously - for recognition, for their lands and for their rights and freedoms. In 1870 and 1885, led by the iconic Louis Riel, they fought back when Canada took their lands. These acts of resistance became defining moments in Canadian history, with implications that reverberate to this day: Western alienation, Indigenous rights and the French/English divide.

After being defeated at the Battle of Batoche in 1885, the Métis lived in hiding for 20 years. But early in the 20th century, they determined to hide no more and began a long, successful fight back into the Canadian consciousness. The Métis people are now recognized in Canada as a distinct Indigenous nation. Written by the great-grandniece of Louis Riel, this popular and engaging history of “forgotten people” tells the story up to the present era of national reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

Title: Métis camp with Red River carts at [Milk River Lake, Alberta]

Source: Library and Archives Canada/George M. Dawson fonds/e011156514

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Jean Teillet (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

Must read!!!!

This is an amazing and captivating history of the Métis nation that everyone in North America should read!!!

Métis history primer

A good primer on the history of Métis resistance to Canada's violence towards them. The reign of terror against the Red River people J.A. MacDonald sat idly by and watched happen is thoroughly laid out.

Well told - educational storytelling

I loved this book. It is so dense I will listen to it again. I am a Canadian and when I was in school in the 1960s and 1970s, we learned American and British history. This was a delightful, entertaining way to learn about the history of my birth country. Well written, well narrated, thoroughly enjoyable.

beautiful account of history

great vocal performance in addition to being witty, honest, and intelligent. Greatly appreciate Jean's deep knowledge of the law. a long and very healing listen