Cree, Cree -- Social life and customs, Plains Cree, Saskatchewan, Edward Ahenakew, Chief Thunderchild, Cree -- Saskatchewan -- Folklore, Cree -- Folklore, Indigenous peoples -- Saskatchewan -- Folklore, Indigenous peoples -- Legends, Cree -- Saskatchewan, Plains Cree -- Social life and customs, Plains Cree -- Folklore, nêhiyaw -- Social life and customs, nêhiyaw -- Traditional teachings, nêhiyaw 

"When buffalo were many on the western plains. When Cree and Blackfoot warred in unrelenting enmity. When the Sun Dance and the shaking tent were still a way of life. These were the days of Chief Thunderchild, who roamed the Saskatchewan plains, fought and hunted, lived and sometimes nearly starved there. His stories of a fierce and vanished freedom are printed now for the first time — exactly as he told them to Edward Ahenakew in 1923. His voice, simple and poetic, resonates with something of the wide expanse of sky, the song of the wind, the sound of water.

The other voice in this volume is equally moving, but in a very different way. It is the voice of Old Keyam, pained and angry, raised in protest against the Indian's lethargy and the white man's insensitivity. A fictional character, semi-autobiographical, he is very much the voice of Edward Ahenakew, telling of life on the reservations in the new white world of the early twentieth century. Precursor of later, more vehement voices, Old Keyam presents and examines the Indian's predicament, conveying the tragic image of caged and broken spirits.

Here, rescued from near and distant pasts, are two contrasting voices, each speaking with singular eloquence, each providing valuable records of Indian history and, even more, each affording fresh understanding through rare glimpses into the Indian heart, culture and tradition.

Chief Thunderchild was born in 1849 and lived on the North Saskatchewan River during the last days of the Plains Cree freedom. He resisted the Treaties with the whites but his band finally had no choice but to live on the reserves. He died in 1927, four years after recounting his tales to Edward Ahenakew."--Book jacket. 

204 pages, 6 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, map (on lining paper) 

Contents:
Part I Stories of old Chief Thunderchild
Part II Old Keyam.