Autobiography, Biography as a literary form, Canadian literature -- Indigenous authors, Canadian literature, Indigenous authors, Canadian literature -- Métis authors, Métis authors, Cree -- Biography -- History and criticism, Cree -- Intellectual life, Cree, Indigenous peoples -- Canada -- Biography -- History and criticism, Indigenous peoples -- Canada -- Intellectual life, Métis -- Biography -- History and criticism, Métis -- Intellectual life, Métis 

"Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition critiques ways of approaching Indigenous texts that are informed by the Western academic tradition and offers instead a new way of theorizing Indigenous literature based on the Indigenous practice of life writing. Since the 1970s non-Indigenous scholars have perpetrated the notion that Indigenous people were disinclined to talk about their lives and underscored the assumption that autobiography is a European invention. Deanna Reder challenges such long held assumptions by calling attention to longstanding autobiographical practices that are engrained in Cree and Métis, or nêhiyawak, culture and examining a series of examples of Indigenous life writing. Blended with family stories and drawing on original historical research, Reder examines censored and suppressed writing by nêhiyawak intellectuals such as Maria Campbell, Edward Ahenakew, and James Brady. Grounded in nêhiyawak ontologies and epistemologies that consider life stories to be an intergenerational conduit to pass on knowledge about a shared world, this study encourages a widespread re-evaluation of past and present engagement with Indigenous storytelling forms across scholarly disciplines."--Provided by publisher. 

xii, 179 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. 

Contents:
Glossary of Cree terms
Introduction
She Told Us Stories Constantly: Autobiography as Methodology
Chapter 1. acimisowina as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition: From George Copway to James Settee
Chapter 2. Interrelatedness and Obligation: wahkowtowin in Maria Campbell's acimisowin
Chapter 3. Respectful Interaction and Tolerance for Different Pesrpectives: kihceyihtamowin in Edward Ahenakew's Old Keyam
Chapter 4. Edward Ahenakew's Intertwined Unpublished Life-Inspired Stories: aniskwacimopicikewin in Old Keyam and Black Hawk
Chapter 5. How acimisowin Preserves History: James Brady, Papaschase, and Absolom Halkett
Chapter 6. kiskeyihtamowin: Seekers of Knowledge, Cree Intergenerational Inquiry, Shared by Harold Cardinal
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
Index.