Louis, Son of the Prairies

Leslie Aitken is Collection Development Librarian in the Herbert T.
Coutts Library at the University of Alberta.

This fictionalized biography of the young Louis Riel is set in the
Métis communities of Fort Garry, St. Boniface, and St. Vital in the
1840s and 1850s. By recreating key events that touched the lives of
Riel’s family, Palud-Pelletier is able to establish the context for
Louis’s upbringing, and to imply the major influences on his
childhood.

The senior Louis Riel’s defence of Guilluame Sayer, who in 1849 was
charged with “illegal fur trading,” is identified as having
impressed on young Louis the importance of politics. Descriptions of the
Métis community’s response to the flooding of the Red River in the
spring of 1852 suggest the closeness, co-operativeness, and fortitude of
Riel’s people. Details of a buffalo hunt take on significance as the
reader learns how the hunters’ Camp Council was organized. (Numbering
over a thousand men, the camp and its Council were clearly a
sophisticated polity.) The relationships between the Métis and the
Indians, and the Church’s role in educational as well as religious
leadership, are conveyed.

Understanding the developmental milieu of the child Louis gives the
young reader insight into the character traits of the adult Louis:
courage, religious fervor, political passion, sense of mission, and
loyalty to the Métis. The book, therefore, has value.

Its weaknesses stem from the nature of the genre: actual events are
blended with conjecture, and sometimes the mix lacks verisimilitude. For
example, Louis’s mother says of Louis’s father, “He’s doing a
special kind of work which grown-ups call politics. . . . It’s a way
of loving and helping people.” No sources are cited for any such
quotes, and they detract from the work’s general credibility.

On the positive side, the descriptions of historical events, places,
and human activities are believable. They align with what may be read in
standard sources about the Métis.

Palud-Pelletier’s writing style is appropriate for the upper
elementary reader. Her syntax is simple, her vocabulary varied and
lively. Maguet’s English translation of the work retains the present
tense, giving the writing both an appealing French flavor and great
immediacy. Excellent illustrations by Philippe Dupas and simple maps by
Réal Bérard enhance a text that deserves a place in school and public
libraries.