Description: The Battle of Batoche is the best-known confrontation between Métis and British soldiers in the Northwest Resistance of 1885. It remains one of Canada's most emotion-laden memories, eloquently revisited in this revised and expanded edition.The strategies of both sides are thoroughly examined, and numerous maps and photographs offer detailed description of the fateful battle. Introduction by Jean Teillet, great-grandniece of Louis Riel.
Brief description: Walter Hildebrandt is known as both a poet and historian. A consultant on Aboriginal treaties, he is author of Views From Battleford: Constructed Visions of an Anglo-Canadian West and co-author of The Cypress Hills: The Land and Its People and The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7, which won the Gustavus Myers Award for outstanding work on intolerance in North America in 1997. Winnipeg from the Fringes, his eighth book of poetry, was published in 2011. An earlier volume, Where the Land Gets Broken, received the 2005 Stephen G. Stephensson Award for Poetry.
Review Quotes:
"Each year since the battle at Batoche in 1885, Métis people gather there to commemorate the sacrifices of our ancestors and celebrate our culture. Despite the defeat on the battlefield and the subsequent execution of our leader Louis Riel, Batoche personifies the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of displacement, marginalization and indifference.
I welcome this book for accurately capturing the military history of the North-West Resistance. Instilling in Canadians an appreciation of the powerful forces at work during that period can foster a better understanding of the challenges faced today by the Métis Nation in its ongoing struggle for self-determination within Canada."
- Clem Chartier, President, Métis National Council