'Call Me Hank': A Stó:lõ Man's Reflections on Logg, Living, and Growing Old

J.R. (Jim) Miller is Canada Research Chair of History at the University
of Saskatchewan and the author of Reflections on Native-Newcomer
Relations: Selected Essays and Lethal Legacy: Current Native
Controversies in Canada.

‘Call Me Hank’ is a reissue of Chiefly Indian, the 1972 memoirs of
Henry Pennier, a Stу:lo man. Two generations of students of Aboriginal
life have profited from his memoir, and this reissue in an improved,
more accessible format is welcome. In addition, editors Keith Thor
Carlson, a historian, and Kristina Fagin, a literature specialist,
provide a substantial introduction that places the recollections in
their historical, cultural, and literary contexts. As a result of this
crucial editorial work, readers now can more easily understand the
significance of Henry—“Call me Hank,” he always
insisted—Pennier’s life.

Pennier was what today would be called a non-status Indian, though he
referred to himself almost indiscriminately as both an Indian and a
half-breed. His account is a proud man’s explanation of how he found
validation and dignity in hard work and achievement in the workplace. In
particular, he had a long and varied career in British Columbia’s
forest industry. It was his proudest boast that he was rarely out of
work and never on “the dole”; his most bitter complaint was that
workplace injuries ensured that he ended his life on disability payments
and welfare. The whole story—both its joys and achievements, and its
disappointments and heartbreaks—is told with humour that is by times
ribald, rollicking, and wry.

Thanks to “Hank,” Carlson and Fagin, students of 20th-century
Aboriginal history and Native–newcomer relations now have an
accessible, highly readable insight into 20th-century developments in
British Columbia.