Their Example Showed Me the Way / kwayask e-ki-pe-kiskinowapahtihicik A Cree Woman's Life Shaped by Two Cultures - Softcover

Minde, Emma; Freda Ahenakew; H.C. Wolfart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0888642911 ISBN 13: 9780888642912

Publisher: University of Alberta Press, 1997

Synopsis

Emma Minde’s portraits of the family into which she was given in marriage are touching and instructive. They show us a young woman leaving her home in Saddle Lake, Alberta, to join a household of strangers in Hobbema. In addition to the husband she has yet to meet, Emma comes to know four strong-willed people who will shape her life: her husband’s parents, Mary-Jane and Dan Minde, Dan’s younger brother, Sam, and his wife, Mary. These reminiscences, told to Freda Ahenakew, offer rare insights into a life guided by two powerful forces: the traditional world of the Plains Cree and the Catholic missions and boarding-schools of the day, designed to re-make their charges entirely. Rarely has the interplay of these two worlds€”often in conflict, yet oddly in harmony€”been sketched so eloquently as in this moving autobiography. Emma Minde’s stories are presented here as she told them in Cree, with a translation into English on the facing pages. With its Cre

About this title

About the Author

Emma Minde, a Cree woman, was born in 1907 and raised in Saddle Lake, Alberta. Upon her marriage, she moved to Hobbema (now Maskwacis). She recorded her autobiography in 1988.

From the Back Cover

Emma Minde's portraits of the family into which she was gives in marriage are touching and instructive. They show us a young woman leaving her home at Saddle Lake, Alberta, to join a household of strangers at Hobbema-with not only a husband she has yet to meet, but also four powerful adults who will shape her life: her husband's parents, Mary-Jane and Dan Minde, and Dan Minde's youngest brother Sam and his wife Mary.

Emma Minde's autobiography focuses on her relationship with these two women, Mary-Jane Minde and Mary-Minde. The education that the newly arrived wife received in their households was built on obedience, hard work and a firmly held set of beliefs, seen as essential preparation for a life of uncertainty and rapid change, hardship and constant struggle.

These reminiscences, told to Freda Ahenakew, offer rare insights into a life history guided by two powerful forces: the traditional world of the Plains Cree and the Catholic missions with their boarding-schools, designed to re-make their charges entirely. Rarely has the interplay of these two world views-often in conflict, but often also, it seems, very much in harmony with one another-been sketched so eloquently as in Emma Minde's autobiography.

Emma Minde's stories are presented as she told them in Cree, with a translation into English on facing pages. With its Cree-English Glossary and an English Index tot he Glossary, this work is an important Cree language resource.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Alberta Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0888642911
• ISBN 13: 9780888642912
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220