A news children’s book is passing on the often-overlooked stories of north-central Saskatchewan Metis people who were considered squatters by the government after the Battle at Batoche.
The group, called the Road Allowance Metis, had built homes on unused land that the federal government had set aside for road-building government long ago. Displaced Metis people settled on the unused Crown land that had been unsuitable for roads.
Wilfred Burton’s illustrated book, titled the Road Allowance Kitten, was inspired by three different people he spoke to whose families were uprooted when the government forced them from their homes in the 1940s and moved them to new land by train. Mabel Gibson, Isadore Pelletier, and Sandy Pelletier’s documentation of her mother’s experience being uprooted from her home are the basis for the fictional book, which combines their experiences into one.
Burton said two of those families had pet cats, and were told they couldn’t bring them when they moved. That’s what sparked the idea for him to write a children’s book on such a difficult topic.
“It’s historical, it’s political, and little, you know, younger children – eight, nine, 10 years old – probably wouldn’t be that engaged if you just told it to them, however if you brought in an animal, like a cat, their attention would increase and they would like it,” he said.
The reality of the move for Road Allowance Metis was quite troubling for many reasons, Burton said. Few Metis people owned land after the 1885 Metis resistance, and they were treated largely inequitably. For example, Metis soldiers were excluded when the government offered land provisions for veterans who fought in World War I.
It was common for the government to burn down the families’ homes as they were taken away on the trains, something that is reflected in the story.
The two girls in the story devise a plan to save their pet, and “as quickly as they were put on the train … they see smoke and they realize that their houses are being burnt,” Burton said.
“It’s quite a horrific story but I tried to weave the story together so that, you know, kids could be engaged and kind of cheer for the kitten.”
As a Metis man and a teacher, Burton has long seen the education system’s gaps in his people’s history. Even though school curriculums mandate indigenous education, he said the resources aren’t all there.
And in recent years, he’s made efforts to write books that gives teachers a way to pass on those topics to their students.
The Gabriel Dumont institute stepped up to publish Road Allowance Kitten. One important cultural note for Burton is that the book was printed in a Michif translation as well.
Burton said the people who inspired the book have since passed on, which adds extra meaning to it, and a way to pass on their experiences.
For more information on how to purchase Road Allowance Kitten, follow this link.