Autobiography As Indigenous Intellectual Tradition

Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) ) is Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and English at Simon Fraser University. Her research project, The People and the Text, focuses on the understudied archive of Indigenous literary work in Canada, and she has co-edited several anthologies in Indigenous literary studies.

• Glossary: Cree termsIntroduction: She Told Us Stories Constantly: Autobiography as Theoretical Practice1. âcimisowina: Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition2. kiskêyihtamowin: Seekers of Knowledge, Cree Intergenerational Inquiry3. Interrelatedness and Obligation: wâhkowtowin in Maria Campbell’s âcimisowin4. Edward Ahenakew’s Intertwined Unpublished Life-Inspired Stories: aniskwâcimopicikêwin in Black Hawk and Old Keyam5. Contradiction and kisteanemétowin in Edward Ahenakew’s “Old Keyam” 6. Traces of âcimisowina left behind: James Brady and Absolom Halkett EpilogueBibliography

“This fierce, timely, visionary book lives up to the ‘obligations of stories’ to which Reder commits. Reder is one of the most generous, brilliant scholars in her field, whose kindness and sharp wit radiate from each page. Bringing together essential texts in nêhiyaw intellectual tradition over a span of two hundred years, Reder doesn’t forget to place her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother within this constellation of storymakers. These writers and tellers of âcimisowina, or personal stories, have motivated Reder’s own lifelong work of words and inspired practice of ‘autobiography as methodology.’” —Sophie McCall, Simon Fraser University, co-editor, Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island“By contextualizing these nuanced acts of interpretation within the rich storytelling traditions of her own Cree-Métis relations, Deanna Reder presents a mode of reading that is vitally important: reading through wâkôhtiwin. The result is a grounded, relational, and ethically engaged form of criticism that provides a new path toward understanding classic works of Cree and Métis autobiography. With its attention to critical responsibilities and to the connectedness that stories generate, this work provides an important model for all students and scholars of Indigenous literature.” —Warren Cariou, University of Manitoba, editor, mahikan ka onot: The Poetry of Duncan Mercredi