The War Trail Of Big Bear

Cameron, William Bleasdell

London, 1927

By Duckworth
$58.00 USD
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Details

Hardcover, 256 pages, 5x7.25 in, [12x19 cm], B&W plates. Originally published by Ryerson Press of Toronto, the present copy a 1927, 2nd edition, revised, published by Duckworth of London, England.
Condition

Lacking one plate (p. 88, portrait of Imasses, son of Big Bear). Gift inscription in ink on the front blank endpaper. Text block shows scattered short tears, creasing, light staining, and a few ink marks. Additional ink notation on the rear pastedown. Covers heavily worn, with rubbing, staining, edge tears, and general surface wear; fore-edge corners bumped.
Notes

The War Trail of Big Bear presents William Bleasdell Cameron’s firsthand account of an episode of the 1885 North-West Resistance—the events at Frog Lake. Cameron, then a young clerk with the Hudson’s Bay Company, survived the attack and spent roughly two months as a captive among Big Bear’s band. His narrative stands out for its measured tone. rather than casting simple villains and heroes, he offers a nuanced, often empathetic portrait of the Cree people caught in the tightening pressures of famine, failed government promises, and political unrest.

The book traces the tensions leading up to the outbreak at Frog Lake, recounts the violence of the day itself, and follows Cameron through his captivity and eventual release. Peel (3) 1360

Later in life, Cameron expanded and reworked the memoir, issuing it under the title Blood Red the Sun in 1950.
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