Road Allowance Era

Northwest Resistance, the third volume of Katherena Vermette’s graphic novel series, “A Girl Called Echo”, concludes at a critical juncture in the historical event. The year 1885 saw several armed confrontations between Canadian government forces and the Métis. After General Middleton’s forces overtake Batoche, Louis Riel decides that he will surrender himself, and Gabriel Dumont heads for U.S.-Canada border, making his way to Montana. In Northwest Resistance, Echo meets Josephine, the daughter of Benjamin who guided her through the events depicted in Red River Resistance, the second volume in the series. At the conclusion of Northwest Resistance, Echo’s mom surprises her with a genealogical chart, pictures of past ancestors, and an important document – a scrip from 1870, an allowance for the purchase of Crown Land.

Road Allowance Era picks up from Echo’s discovery that Benjamin is her ancestor, father of Josephine, her great-great-great grandmother. Josephine was the first of her family to move to the city (i.e. Winnipeg), and Echo’s mom describes the woman as “tough as boots and could hunt anything. Skin a rabbit in a single pull”. (p. 2) Echo’s little brother is grossed out at the rabbit-skinning, but he’s reminded that it was all about survival, especially if you had little or no money. As Echo looks at the genealogy chart and the photos, she tries to make sense of it all. Wishing that she could go back to Josephine, she finds herself back in time. Standing side by side at the Regina Courthouse, they witness Riel’s trial, death sentence, and, on November 16, 1885, his hanging. Josephine states, “We are done. All of us.” (p. 12)

So, the Métis head east to Manitoba to claim land entitled to them by the scrip received when “Riel’s List of Rights were written into the Manitoba Act in 1870, after the first resistance at Fort Garry.” (p. 13) But, the offer written on the scrip is not honoured. The Métis are offered a paltry sum of cash, and, when Dominion of Canada land agents are asked about treaty and rights to the land, the Métis are told that as “ungrateful rebels. Dirty savages! . . . half breeds do not get a treaty. . .” (p. 17) Once again, Josephine’s family moves on, this time to a new community called Ste. Madeleine where they will once again try to rebuild their lives and homes. Echo is torn; should she stay with Josephine or not? She decides to return to the present, still confused by it all.

The next day at school, Echo’s history teacher provides a concise description of the post-Riel era.

The Métis were absolutely homeless. They never received treaty from the government, and none of their original land, occupied for generations, was ever recovered. After 1885, they founded many communities throughout the Saskatchewan and Manitoba territories. Some squatted on as yet unused Crown Land, called Road Allowance Land. Some Métis owned their property, at least in part, and held it until the Great Depression when, like many of their settler counterparts, they were largely unable to pay their taxes. Unlike the settlers, however, the Métis were once again driven off the land they had occupied for decades. (p. 20)

Echo is saddened by the history lesson, and, after class, she and her friend, Micah Fontaine, talk about the circular nature of historical events, how the same things seem to occur, again and again. Sitting in the hallway under the rainbow flag of Winnipeg Middle School’s GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), Micah agrees that, although there is plenty of pain, marginalized groups can also have a sense of power just for having survived. He is optimistic, believing that, despite the negative effects of European contact, Indigenous culture and its people have survived and always will. Back at home, the everyday tasks of life continue: Echo helps with yard work, chops veggies for salad, washes the dishes. But life in the 21st century is somehow unsatisfying, and so, just as she wishes, she returns to the past, to Ste. Madeleine.

Fifty years have passed. Benjamin is now an old man, and Josephine has married and is now living in Red River, in Rooster Town, also known as Pakan Town, after the Cree word for the hazelnut trees growing in the area. Echo tells Benjamin that she now knows that they are related but can’t understand why she time-travels back into the past of the Métis people. The answer is both simple and complex. Benjamin explains that, as relatives, they continue to be present in her, “in your blood. It’s something we call blood memory, bone memory. It is powerful medicine. All we have is in you”, (p. 29) both sorrows and strengths. Then, Echo returns to the present, and, this time, the day’s history lesson is all about the Road Allowance. Their scrip not honoured and with nowhere else to go, the Métis just settled on lands which were road allowances, usually on the edges of urban areas. But, it wasn’t a peaceful putting down of roots. Because they couldn’t claim or purchase the land, the Métis were often forcibly removed, and, in some cases, communities, such as Ste. Madeleine, were burned to the ground. Hearing of this, Echo has a sudden glimpse back into the past before finding herself in Rooster Town and meeting Josephine. Her husband’s attempts to purchase the land on which they have lived for years was rejected at Winnipeg’s Land Titles Office, and so, in 1940, Josephine’s family moves into Winnipeg where they will rent rooms and look for jobs.

Echo is fully discouraged by the cruelty and racism of the Land Titles Office staff and clients, but Josephine is strong and resilient. She sees in her great-great-great granddaughter a hope for the future and sends her back to the present. Back home, Echo is still angry at the injustice of it all, but her mother reminds her that many of the Indigenous land claims challenges have been successful, even though the Canadian government continues to spend considerable money and effort in fighting them. Anne Marie, Echo’s mother, also has hope for the future and believes in her daughter, telling her, “You’ll figure it out. You have the strength of all your ancestors behind you. You can do anything.” (p. 42) The book concludes at the end of the school year. It is graduation day at Winnipeg Middle School, and, in the foreground of the final page, Echo is smiling, holding her graduation certificate while, in the background, her ancestors stand proudly behind her. In the previous three volumes of “A Girl Called Echo”, the cover art features a young woman who looks sad or frightened. But, on the cover of Road Allowance Era, there’s hint of a smile as Echo stands with arms outstretched, holding aloft the flag of the Métis nation.

Road Allowance Era details a portion of western Canadian history which I don’t believe is given much attention in high school history teaching, even in Winnipeg where Rooster Town was located in the city’s southwest. As a lifelong resident of Winnipeg, I learned of its existence only a few years ago. Each of the books in the Echo series has a timeline of events, and, in this volume, the “Timeline of the Road Allowance Era” indicates that in 1959 Rooster Town’s remaining residents were evicted and their homes burned and bulldozed. Following, the land was redeveloped for both residential and commercial purposes. This fourth and final volume continues directly from its preceding work, Northwest Resistance, and the two books need to be read in order to understand the ancestral connections described in the opening pages of this book. More than the other three volumes of the series, Road Allowance Era is not a stand-alone read as it pulls together the events to which Echo is an active witness trying hard to make sense of past and present.

As with the previous three volumes, Robertson’s drawings and Yaciuk’s colourings define and illuminate the two worlds in which Echo lives. The frames portraying life at home and at school are dominated by neutral tones. The past is compelling, and the intensity of Echo’s emotional response emerges in the vibrant colours of its pictorial representation. The “Timeline of the Road Allowance Era”, listing dates, events, and their outcome, appeared at the end of the book, and I think that it might have been better to place it at the beginning in order to clarify and provide context for some of the story’s major events. The map of western Canada, provided in Northwest Resistance, would have been helpful for those who are unfamiliar with the location of Frog Lake, Duck Lake, Batoche, Seven Oaks, and Red River. The book’s final page offers an artifact facsimile: Dominion of Canada scrip, as well as the “proof of scrip”, containing the personal details (date of birth, place of residence, parentage) of the individual to whom it was granted. It clarifies the term for those unfamiliar with the concept of “scrip.”

The intended audience for Road Allowance Era is ages14-18, an age group which would be studying Canadian history. Although the book ends on a positive note, as a reader, I found the ending somewhat unsatisfying, wrapping things up too easily. I wanted to know more about Echo as a person who is making her way through adolescence. Her struggles to fit in at Winnipeg Middle School seem to have taken a back seat to her struggles to understand who she is within the context of her family’s history. However, Road Allowance Era offers an important, lesser-known story of injustice to and displacement of the Métis people. Teachers of Social Studies and Canadian History will find the book a worthwhile supplemental resource, and adolescent readers who remembered Echo from the other three books will be pleased to see her graduation from Winnipeg Middle School.