Across the Steel River

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

The steel river is an east-west railway line which, in June 1952,
separated the 500–person “white” community of Grayson, Alberta,
from a Blackfoot reserve. Will Sampson and Arthur, both 12, are best
friends, but they literally come from the opposite sides of these tracks
which divide the two communities in more ways than just geographically.

When the two boys discover a badly beaten Blackfoot man named
Yellowfly, they see Grayson’s racism in action. Despite the fact that
Yellowfly is a World War II hero, the local RCMP officer denies a crime
involving whites could have occurred and chooses instead to ascribe the
“Indian’s” injuries to his being hit by a train. The pair of
friends set out to find Yellowfly’s assailants.

Stenhouse has produced a very thought-provoking novel that explores
the many faces of racism, including the role residential schools were
intended to play in transforming Native children into “whites.”
Despite his own close friendship with a Blackfoot, Will recognizes that
even he has unconsciously absorbed some of his community’s negative
stereotypes about Natives. While rural prairie dwellers, in particular,
will identify with Stenhouse’s recreation of a sleepy small town, most
readers will recognize that the racism of a half century ago has not yet
been erased but has just assumed new guises. To help middle-school
readers follow the action, the book opens with a map of Grayson and its
surroundings. Highly recommended.