Prairie Fire!

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Winnipeg,
Manitoba.

In 1876, the Bains family travels from Ontario to Manitoba to acquire a
quarter section homestead (180 acres) near Portage la Prairie. Widow
Peggy and her four children embrace the challenge of prairie life
enthusiastically. They must plan and construct a sod house, plough and
prepare both garden and fields, plant vegetables and wheat, forage for
available food, hunt and preserve meat, fight mosquitoes and other
pests, and prepare for a winter they know will be harsh and demanding.
They face opposition from some Métis who resent having settlers on land
they have long considered their own.

Firebrand Louis Dauphin, attracted to 16-year-old Meg, tempers his
initial hostility and advises the Bains family to “be observant; watch
for signs of life; become part of the landscape.” The Dauphin family
supports its new neighbors and lends a hand whenever possible. The other
homesteaders insist the Métis “don’t deserve our respect” and set
out to drive them off. The Bains take the Métis’ side and the
estrangement grows until a prairie fire forces everyone to work
together.

Problems between the English and the Métis have not been solved to
this day; the simplistic solution to this story’s conflict, then,
fails to convince. However, Freeman does provide some vivid descriptions
of prairie life in the 1870s, and his dialogue is realistic. Sixteen
pages of photographs and diagrams are provided to authenticate and
complement the somewhat didactic text. Recommended with reservations.