North Spirit: Travels Among the Cree and Ojibway Nations and Their Star Maps

Franзois Boudreau is a professor of sociology at Laurentian University
in Sudbury.

The author, who lived among the Cree and Ojibwa people in remote
communities of Northern Ontario for seven years, presents in this
“creative non-fiction” novel her experiences as a cultural outsider
who tried to understand the Anishinabek culture. We learn stories that
the “spontaneously created people” (the translation of Anishinabek)
tell one another as a way of passing down traditions. The book is full
of subtle cultural understanding, not only of Anishinabek traditions but
also of the conflicting value systems of traditionalist elders and
educated young people. Jiles concludes that Anishinabek culture,
although still vibrant, is increasingly threatened by media and social
forces that diminish the authority of oral tradition.

Her well-written book should prove fascinating to anyone with an
interest in Native cultures.