1. Leanne Simpson and Kiera L. Ladner, “Introduction,” in This Is an Honour Song: Twenty Years since the Blockades, ed. Leanne Simpson and Kiera L. Ladner ( Winnipeg, MB: Arbeiter Ring, 2010 ), 8.
2. Ibid., 345. See also Richard Wagamese’s article written during the resistance: “Nature of the Warrior Serves Two Functions,” in The Terrible Summer ( Toronto: Warwick, 1996 ), 109–11.
3. David R. Newhouse, Cora Voyageur, and Dan Beavon, eds., Hidden in Plain Sight: Contributions of Aboriginal Peoples to Canadian Identity and Culture ( Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005 ).
4. For example, in the preface to Speculative Fictions, Wyile apologizes for the “conspicuous” absence of Native writers in the study, noting “the relative absence of historical fiction” by Native writers, but he predicts that “given the increasing variety, innovation, and postcolonial complexity of work by native writers, I would venture that it is just a matter of time (no pun intended) before we see native writers producing their own historical fiction” (xvi). Although casting Native literature as a field in development, the statement draws attention to the historical marginalization of Aboriginal peoples: “The dominant culture’s continued ignorance concerning the significance of the historical context of land claims, the effect of residential schools on cultural practices and family structures, and the question of self-government, the past is bound to become more prominent as a territory to which native writers turn” (xvi–xvii). More recently, Wyile seems to see his prediction fulfilled in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road (Toronto: Viking, 2005), which “suggests the potential of writers of Aboriginal heritage to extend the borders of the historical novel in Canada in exciting new directions” (see “Windigo Killing: Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road,” in Cabajsky and Grubisic, National Plots, 83).
5. Michael Crummey, River Thieves ( Toronto: Anchor, 2001 ), 144.