The Homesteaders
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
The Homesteaders covers the whole settler experience, beginning in what is now Saskatchewan during the year Canada was founded and continuing through the immigration boom preceding the First World War. Based on a remarkable collection of interviews conducted in the 1950s, settlers recount in their own words how they built a society on land ethnically cleansed of Indigenous people, something most knew nothing about.
Homesteaders describe the formidable task of building the family home from sod or logs, the back-breaking labour of cropping and harvesting the fields, the patience needed when working with draught animals, and the misery of dealing with the pests that threatened their livelihood. Their reminiscences extend further as they discuss the type of food that was available, the medical practices they had to endure, and the educational experiences of their children in oneroom schoolhouses, as well as their hobbies, the books they read, the songs sang, the pets they owned, the games they played, and the local dances, picnics, weddings, and chivarees they attended during these early years.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rollings-Magnusson delivers a sweeping, wide-ranging account of the homesteaders of Saskatchewan, who arrived there beginning in the 1870s after the implementation of the Dominion Lands Act. It reads partly like a typical history book and partly like a collective memoir, with photos and the homesteaders' own words interspersed throughout. The author drew upon the pioneer questionnaire developed and distributed in the 1950s by the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan. Homesteaders filled out a variety of questionnaires on different subjects and submitted them for the following three decades, creating a vivid record of the province's homesteading history. As Rollings-Magnusson notes, the settlers persevered through poverty, near-starvation, horrific accidents, wild weather, and more; she includes everything from accounts of mothers crying over feeding their children meager rations to girls giggling during a sleepover. She also broadens the book's perspective to take into account those excluded (African-Americans, who were barred from entering Canada), discriminated against (people of Asian descent), and violently displaced (the indigenous peoples) by the homesteading program. This is a valuable and readable document of the daily experience, culture, and history of Canadian homesteaders. Photos.
