Soon marginalized in the military as Aboriginal people, they eventually gained the attention of their superiors and the grudging respect of their fellow soldiers through their excellence as marksmen.Īboard ship, on the troop transport to Europe, both witnessed the abuse of morphine by non-Aboriginal soldiers. Soon, Elijah also learned and eventually excelled at hunting and trapping.Īs young men, Xavier and Elijah decided to join the Canadian military to serve overseas.
Eventually, the two took in Xavier’s friend Elijah, who spent his pre-teen years in a residential school.
When her sister was incapacitated, she ended up raising her nephew Xavier, whom she trained to be a trapper, hunter and marksman. In order to remove such a threat from a community, northern Cree people called upon specialists who had the necessary ritual knowledge and skills to deal with persons who had turned windigo.Īs a young woman, after the death of her father, Niska moved away from the settlement of Moose Factory to live a reclusive life in the bush, sustaining herself through hunting, trapping and gathering. In northern Cree culture the concept of “windigo,” the ultimate expression of selfishness through survival cannibalism, was believed to eventually cause an unstoppable and irreversible desire for human flesh and for killing in the afflicted person. Niska and Xavier come from a family whose traditional obligation has been the extermination of cannibals, persons who had turned into a windigo. The story is told in flashbacks, alternating between Niska’s and Xavier’s perspective. Through the perspective of Niska, Xavier’s aunt, Boyden presents a parallel story of an Aboriginal woman caught up i n rapid cultural change and personal loss. In his debut novel Three Day Road, Joseph Byoden tells a powerful and dramatic story of two Cree men from Moose Factory, Xavier and Elijah, who experience the horrors of trench warfare in World War I as snipers with the Canadian forces in Belgium and France. As an historical document, the article may contain language and views that are no longer in common use and may be culturally sensitive in nature. We make this online version available as a free, public service. This article was published originally in Manitoba History by the Manitoba Historical Society on the above date. History Department, University of Winnipeg Manitoba History: Review: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
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