Unsettled: Lord Selkirk's Scottish Colonists and the Battle for Canada's West, 1813-1816
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Unsettled: Lord Selkirk's Scottish Colonists and the Battle for Canada's West, 1813-1816
By (Author) Robert Lower
ECW Press,Canada
ECW Press,Canada
1st June 2023
Canada
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
971.2701
Physical Properties
Paperback
400
Width 146mm, Height 222mm
Description
The fascinating story of the Red River Settlement, now Winnipeg, in the years 1813 to 1816, told with archival journals, reports, and letters
Unsettled tells the story of two hundred Highlanders who flee the Scottish Clearances in 1813 to establish a settlement on the Red River in what eventually became Winnipeg. They are sponsored by the Earl of Selkirk, a man who has never been west of Montreal. Families who have never left their Highland crofts take an epic journey over ocean, up wild rivers, and through boundless wilderness, surviving disease and brutal winter only to face the determined opposition of fur barons who want no sodbusters threatening their trade and are prepared to stop at nothing to destroy their dream.
The empty land theyve been promised is also anything but, already occupied by First Nations bands and the beginnings of that proud nation soon to be called Mtis, whom they must befriend or fight.
Unsettled takes you inside the experience, relying on journals, reports, and letters to bring these days of soaring hope, crushing despair, and heroic determination to life to bring their present into ours.
Reviews
"Drawing on the rich documentary record and his decades-long career in filmmaking, Lower tells the tragic story of the beginnings of the Red River Settlement (Winnipeg) and how bitter fur trade rivalries, short-sighted leadership, and mistrust and misunderstanding left an 'unsettled' legacy that continues to inform Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations to this day." -- Bill Waiser, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction
Author Bio
Robert Lower is a native of Winnipeg, where he wrote, edited, and directed films for over 40 years. Always fascinated by history, he was led to this book by his personal connection to the Red River Settlers. He and his wife, Elise, now divide their time between Winnipeg and Victoria, B.C.
