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Red River Resistance Author: Katherena Vermette Illustrated by: Scott B. Henderson, Colour by Donovan Yaciuk Series: A Girl Called Echo - Vol. 2 Winnipeg, MB: HighWater Press/Portage & Main Press, 2018 49 pp., trade pbk., epub & pdf, $18.95 (pbk.) ISBN: 9781553797470 (pbk.) 9781553797654 (epub) 9781553797661 (pdf)
Grades: Grades 9-12
Ages: Ages 14-17
Review by: Joanne Peters
Pemmican Wars, the first volume of Katherena Vermette's graphic novel series, "A Girl Called Echo", ended in the early decades of the nineteenth century in the territory known as Red River. More than fifty years have passed, and, in the opening pages of Red River Resistance, the second volume of the series, Echo lies asleep in her room, dreaming of the open prairie. Next morning, she heads offto school, and in her history class, she learns that the landscape will change:
Throughout the 1860s, immigrants from the province of Canada started arriving in the Red River Colony. Some came to farm, others - such as Dr. John Schultz - came out as land speculators, out to make their fortune when an expected immigration rush took place. When the Hudson's Bay Company sold 7 million acres of land to Canada, many residents of Red River were worried the Canadian government would not honour their land titles . . . (p. 6)
As she listens, Echo travels into another time and place and finds herself on a farm in the Red River Settlement in October, 1869. Suddenly, a young Métis man, Benjamin, charges out of a nearby barn and stops long enough to introduce himself and to offer Echo a ride on his horse. The two set off, stopping close enough to observe a confrontation between a Canadian government survey party and a group of Métis being led by Louis Riel. Major Webb is adamant that "the Hudson's Bay Company owned this land and everything on it. They sold it to Canada." But Riel and his men, whose families have lived on the land for generations, are equally firm: "Red River doesn't belong to Canada yet. And the HBC doesn't own us." (p. 12) The air is charged with anger, and while Riel insists that he and his men want no violence, they also want the surveyors to leave. Surprisingly,...