Rare Intellect

Page 16

Joshua Fraser

-Vice-president, Youth

Aboriginal Peoples' Commission

Recommends:

History of the Ojibway People

by William W. Warren

Minnesota Historical Society Press-1885

I first read History of the Ojibway People as research for a paper I was writing on Ojibway people for a college senior-level Indigenous anthropology course. As I am part Anishinabe (Ojibway), I felt it was important to have a firmly rounded grasp of the history of my people.

What initially attracted me to the book was the author, William W. Warren, who was the son of an Ojibway mother and a white father. The book was also written by an Aboriginal person in 1885 when most others didn't have the western education to read and write in English.

Mr. Warren was a true bi-culturalist, having a firm grasp of his traditional Ojibway society and knowing how to translate his understanding of his people in a format that non-Aboriginal people could understand.

The book is a rich, easy-read that gives you a firm and genuine perspective of the author and his understanding of his people. On a controversial note, he also suggests that the Blackfoot language may be part of the Ojibway, which could be true considering the guttural similarities.