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CM Archive
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SPIRIT OF THE WHITE BISON

Beatrice Culleton. Illustrated by Robert Kakaygeesick Jr..
Winnipeg, MB: Pemmican Publications, 1985.
64pp., paper, $6.95.
ISBN 0-919143-40-7. CIP.


Subject Headings:
Bison, American-Juvenile fiction.
Métis-Juvenile fiction.


Grades 5 and up / Ages 10 and up

Reviewed by Janet E. Goldack.

Volume 14 Number 1
1986 January


Reliving an era in Canadian history through the eyes of White Buffalo is a unique experience. When White Buffalo was born, bison herds roamed the Prairies untouched by human predators except for survival purposes. The arrival of Europeans with their rifles and the railway altered the pastoral life of the buffalo forever. In eight easy-to-read chapters, the devastation of the buffalo is portrayed in a simple, straight-forward manner. The introduction and the story content suggest that the work can be interpreted on a higher plane involving the traditional native culture and challenging areas of twentieth-century life. Cyclical aspects of life are evident even in the black-and-white illustrations where a circle is incorporated into almost every delicately drawn depiction. The author, a native person from Manitoba, has put as much sensitivity into this work as she did in her previous one, April Raintree ¹. The reader enjoys the story while being forced to examine the future of planet earth and the ramifications of present human activity.


Janet E. Goldack, Grant Park H.S., Winnipeg, MB.

¹ Reviewed vol. Xlll/6 November 1985, p.266.

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