Pursued by a Bear

Tricksters, medicine shows, and ghosts are some of the story elements discussed in this collection of essays about First Nations Canadian authors. Posing questions about how such folklore adds to the country's collective memory, the essays look at Ben Cardinal's No Name Indians and Generic Warriors; Tomson Highway's The Sage, the Dancer and the Fool; Billy Merasty's Fireweed; Beatrice Mosionier's Night of the Trickster; and Floyd Favel Starr's Lady of Silences. An eye-opening look at Native Canadians as they negotiate their way through white culture, the book also offers insights on Native Americans in similar predicaments in movie westerns and the musical Oklahoma!