French-speaking people pushed far west and north, establishing trade and kin networks, long before much-mythologized, English-speaking people like Davie Crocket, Daniel Boone and Jim Bridger ventured into these frontiers. Les Canadiens and Métis founded settlements that became great cities like Detroit, Saint Louis, and New Orleans. Furthermore, their French lingua franca and ways of life are embedded in the narrative of North American life.

Michel Bouchard’s Songs Upon Rivers celebrates and examines this part of Francophone history. Songs Upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Métis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi across to the Pacific (Baraka Books 2016) was co-written with Robert Foxcurran and Sebastien Malette. Michel Bouchard is Chair and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George. He was born and raised in a French-speaking community in Northern Alberta.

BOOKS:

Songs Upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Métis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi across to the Pacific (Baraka Books 2016) $34.95 978-1-77186-081-9

Bois-Brules: The Untold Story of the Métis of Western Quebec (UBC 2020) Co-written with Sebastien Malette and Guillaume Marcotte. $34.95 978-0-7748-6233-2

[BCBW 2020] ILMBC2