Wild People Quiet

The author was recently in Winnipeg to launch this book but as I was out of town I didn’t get to attend. However, I put a hold on the book and, to my delight, it was waiting for me when I returned home. It’s set in Saskatchewan in the twentieth century and the protagonist is a Metis woman who decides to pass as white. It’s a great story as historical fiction but, more than that, it is an important reminder of the discrimination that people faced based on the colour of their skin.
In 1946, Florence Banks is a key employee of Pratt’s Insurance and Real Estate in the fictional town of Torduvalle (perhaps a stand-in for Fort Qu’Appelle). No one in town has any idea that she is Metis and grew up in a shantytown positioned on a road show more allowance in northern Saskatchewan. Florence never attended school and didn’t know how to read and write until she was living in Regina as an adult. Once she was literate, she put herself through secretarial school while working as a maid in a hotel. In Torduvalle she was able to pass as white and buy a house and become a respected member of the town. Then, while leaving a diner after lunch, she passed a group of Indian men who had been told they couldn’t eat in the diner but could take their food at a picnic table outside. One of the men calls out her name. She realizes it is her younger brother, Clancy, who she hasn’t seen in twenty years. Florence is worried that Clancy will destroy her carefully constructed life. She tells him to come to her house after dark and then she offers him a substantial sum of money to leave town. But Clancy has come with a present—a pair of slippers that she had beaded herself for her mother when she lived at home. Clancy also tells her that their aunt Lillian is living in a shack nearby and that she wants to see Florence. Florence was once very close to her aunt who taught her to bead and said that she was the most talented beader she had ever seen. Florence hasn’t beaded in years but, when she goes to see Lillian, she receives some beads and cloth from her. Clancy has agreed to leave and take Aunt Lillian with him to Winnipeg. Florence decides to bead a gift for her aunt. But Aunt Lillian gets sick just when they were going to leave and all the money has to go for the hospital bill and medicine for her. Clancy says he will go when Lillian is well and he has saved up enough money. Through her work, Florence learns that the land where the Metis settlement is located is going to be turned into a community pasture and all the people there are going to be turned out. It’s a breach of confidentiality but Florence tells Clancy so that he can make plans. When Clancy turns up at the town council meeting to protest the expropriation, Florence’s bosses realize she divulged the plans to him and they fire her. Rapidly, everything goes downhill for Florence after that. However, she has reclaimed her heritage and started beading again and she has decided to stop bleaching her hair. Life will go on but it will be different than how she lived it for the last 20 years.
The title of the book is taken from a statement Prime Minister John A. Macdonald made about the man he sent out west to negotiate with Louis Riel to admit Manitoba to Confederation. He told a colleague “I anticipate that [he] will have a great deal of trouble, and it will require considerable management to keep those wild people quiet.”
I also want to acknowledge the beautiful cover on this book which is an image called The Sky Vest by Katherine Boyer. When you get close to the book you can see that it is a piece of beaded art. Boyer is a textile artist who teaches at the University of Manitoba. show less

This was an interesting and very good read.

Florence lives in a small town in Saskatchewan, Tourduvelle, 1946. She works as a secretary for an insurance company, and has a good life. When a group of Metis men , who are working at a nearby farm, come into town, everything changes for her. One of the men recognizes her and greets her. Florence denies knowing him, but there is a family connection. This was a great exploration how the Metis people were treated in the past.

Highly recommended.