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, Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)

One Manitoba region, two vastly different communities.  The authors – one Indigenous, the other not - provide a historical portrait of the prosperous 'white’ town of Rossburn, composed largely at first of Ukrainian settlers,  and the nearby Indigenous reserve of Waywayseecappo, struggling with poverty and other all-too-familiar challenges.  Their lives are dramatically different to the point where they can seem joined only by their lack of knowledge about one another.  But those points of despair are leavened by hope – some inspiring examples of warm gestures and reconciliation, and the proposition of ‘A Grand Notion’ by which Indigenous self-government, executed comprehensively, might be to the benefit of everyone. An engaging read that may also provide a blueprint for tomorrow.