Buffalo Dreamer

Twelve-year-old Summer travels with her mother and six-year-old brother Sage to her mother’s family home on a reservation in Northern Alberta. As they cross the border, her mother insists on using their Indian status cards instead of their passports. She references the Jay Treaty which guaranteed the rights of Aboriginal peoples to cross the border freely. Her mother is fiercely determined to exercise her rights.

Once they arrive at the reservation, Summer is delighted to see her entire extended family and particularly her cousin Autumn. They are best friends and look forward to spending the summer together. Summer looks forward to joining some powwows and riding her horse, Luna, which her uncle gave her last summer.

However, Summer is troubled by disturbing dreams in which she seems to experience being in a residential school. She also dreams about a girl named Ann who ran away from the school. She vaguely recalls the details of their parting, but Summer cannot explain why she is having these dreams. Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been searching for the bodies of residential school students buried near the school buildings. These lost children have been hidden for many years.

During her stay, Summer discovers that her family was impacted by the residential school system. Her dreams culminate in a very vivid dream about the Buffalo Dreamer. She struggles with the reason for her dreams and eventually decides to discuss her dreams with her family to explore what they are really trying to tell her. She hopes to find out what really happened to Ann, the girl in her dreams who disappeared.

Summer searches for answers about Canada’s residential schools and their impact on Aboriginal children and their families. She is portrayed as a spiritual but also a very practical young lady looking for answers. Her vivid dreams are described in detail, and readers will appreciate the powerful imagery with which they are portrayed. The spiritual dimension of Summer’s experience is beautifully written. Even skeptical readers will be moved by Violet Duncan’s portrayal.

Writing this novel was a very personal experience for Violet Duncan whose family members experienced the horrors of the residential school system in Canada. She writes about important themes: social justice, Aboriginal culture, spirituality, dreams, family, friendship, nature, social activism, assimilation, Canadian history, discrimination, inequality, and trauma. Duncan concludes that the experiences of the residential school system traumatized the Aboriginal community but have also led to healing, “Every puzzle solved and every truth uncovered has the power to change lives and restore hope.” (p. 62) The stories of the survivors need to be told.