The White Oneida: Guest Review 1

by Jean Rae Baxter 

978-1-55380-332-4

Ronsdale Press

280 pp.

Ages 10-14

For release September 2014

The White Oneida, by Jean Rae Baxter, was an amazing book! Set during the 1700’s, the protagonist’s name is Broken Trail. Broken Trail was born white, but when he was 10, he was kidnapped by the Oneida tribe. He grew up appreciating their culture and ways of life, and wouldn’t want to live any other way. Then, he meets a powerful man named Joseph Brant, who wants to unite all of the tribes and help them learn together. He sends Broken Trail to school because he thinks that will help him with his mission.

Broken Trail meets an aboriginal girl named Margaret, who wants to help him unite the tribes. His first move is to combine the tribes in the school lacrosse games, which makes a big difference within the school. Broken Trail is a huge influence on many students, including Christians. During his stay at the school, he busts a teacher, saves a professor and a student from dying, and befriends many people. The story continues, but you must read the book to find out what happens next…

From this book, I learned many things about history, a subject I can’t wait to study in grade seven. There were many conflicts between white and Aboriginal peoples, though some respected most people. Many First Nations were being given a horrible reputation by scholars, and Broken Trail had to sit through this torture.

Whether you’re reading this book on the way to a soccer game, as I was, or curling up with it before bed, I can guarantee that you will love and thoroughly enjoy this book, and be begging for more. Even though I hadn’t read the first book, everything was clearly and beautifully explained, and I didn’t get lost once! Enjoy your reading! :)

Grace D., Age 12

The White Oneida

by Jean Rae Baxter 

978-1-55380-332-4

Ronsdale Press

280 pp.

Ages 10-14

For release September 2014 

Born white but captured and adopted by the Oneida when a boy, seventeen-year-old Broken Trail is often referred to as the White Oneida. For this dual identity and his role in halting war with the Mississaugas, Broken Trail has been selected by a group of chiefs led by Mohawk chief Thayendanegea (a.k.a. Joseph Brant) for an important diplomatic role. So, in 1785, Broken Trail is sent to the Sedgewick School in Vermont as a first step in Thayendanegea’s plan to unite the tribes into a powerful federation.

Sedgewick School emphasizes the important skills of reading, writing and numeracy but expects most boys to become missionaries. Though not akin to later residential schools of abuse, the school’s mandates conflict with the tribal ways of Broken Trail and his Oneida, Mohawk, Mohican and Shawnee cabin mates. From names (Broken Trail becomes Moses Cobman), to clothing (“one less noble and less free”; pg. 21), rituals and even text being dictated, the message is that native people are savage and in need of being civilized. Fortunately, Broken Trail benefits from insight, careful observation, determination and sensitivity, attempting to amend the boys’ hostile lacrosse games and supportive when dealing with prejudice and physical harm.

Still focused on his mission to gain support for one federation of tribes, Broken Trail travels to Brant’s Ford and then onto the Ohio River, learning more about Brant’s plans and failings, about the hazy definition of good and bad in both native and white communities, and about the young Shawnee warrior Tecumseh, who has his own strategies for dealing with white men.

Historical fiction author Jean Rae Baxter, who first introduced Broken Trail in Broken Trail (Ronsdale, 2011), has become an astute storyteller of the past, avoiding the pitfall of focusing on history and expecting it to carry the story. That only works for textbooks. The White Oneida could have been the narrative of Thayendanegea and Tecumseh and their approaches to dealing with European settlers. Instead, it is the captivating story of Broken Trail’s education in the ways of both his peoples and ultimately in self-acceptance as he truly is, not as others see him or want him to be. The richness of the history, albeit a problematic one, only enhances Broken Trail’s story of self-discovery, never overtaking it.


A version of this review was originally written for and published in Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.

Kubiw, H. (2014, July/August). [Review of the book The White Oneida, by Jean Rae Baxter]. Quill & Quire, 80 (6): 44-45.

#CanLitChoices for "The Birchbark House"

The Birchbark House
by Louise Erdrich
Hyperion Books
244 pp.
Age 8-12
RL 4.9
1999
This novel, winner of countless book awards including the National Book Award, is a favourite novel used in the middle grades as an example of historical fiction with the focus on Aboriginal Peoples. Written at a reading level at 4.9 (this means a child should be able to read this at the ninth month of Grade 4), The Birchbark House provides teachers with an emphasis on historical fiction and the following themes:

• community
• family
• Aboriginal Peoples
• culture conflict
• death

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While all of these themes are not present in each of the following youngCanLit, these eight titles provide a variety of options, at different reading levels, for historical fiction that has an emphasis on the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.  I encourage teachers to delve into these titles to provide your young readers with Canadian alternatives to The Birchbark House.

Blood Red Ochre
by Kevin Major
Delacorte Press
160 pp.
Ages 11-14
1989

When a Newfoundland boy, David, travels to Red Ochre Island, to help with a school project on the Beothuk, he learns of the Beothuk way of life from Dauoodaset, one of the last of tribe, before it goes extinct.

Broken Circle
by Christopher Dinsdale
Napoleon Publishing
98 pp.
Ages 8-12
2004

When twelve-year-old Jesse meet his late father's Wendat relatives for the very first time, he is transformed into a deer during an unexpected vision quest, and finds himself experiencing the Wendat history of the mid-17th century.  That historical period has Iroquois invading Wendat territory and the French fort at Ste. Marie seeming to be possible shelter. By presenting himself as a spirit guide, Jesse finds a way to help his Wendat ancestors.

Counting on Hope
by Sylvia Olsen
Sono Nis
299 pp.
Ages 10-14
2009

Though twelve-year-olds Hope (whose family moved from England to an island off the coast of British Columbia) and Letia (whose tribe, the Lamalcha, make their summer home on the island) become secret friends, there is much suspicion and conflict between the settlers and the First Nations in the early 1860s on Wallace Island.


The Dream Carvers
by Joan Clark
Puffin Canada
240 pp.
Ages 11-14
1995

A Norse boy from 11th century Greenland is captured by the Beothuk and struggles with retaining his own identity until he adjusts to their world and their ways.

Outcasts of River Falls
by Jacqueline Guest
Coteau Books
242 pp.
Ages 9-13
2012

After her father dies, Kathryn must leave her upper class life in Toronto to live with her Aunt Belle in River Falls, Alberta. There, in the community of shacks, she learns of her Métis identity and the life of the Métis, including the grave injustices they endure.

Sister to the Wolf
by Maxine Trottier
Kids Can Press
348 pp.
Ages 10-14
2004

In 1703, French Canadian Cécile Chesne rescues Lesharo, a Pawnee, from brutal slavery but learns more about prejudice when they travel to Fort Detroit.

Sky
by Pamela Porter
Illustrated by by Mary Jane Gerber
Groundwood Books
104 pp.
Ages 9-11
2004

The life of the Métis living with the Blackfoot is told through the voice and eyes of a young girl, emphasizing the poverty and discrimination as well as historic events in 1960s Montana.

Sweetgrass
by Jan Hudson
Puffin
168 pp.
Ages 11-15
1999

Life on the early 19th century Canadian prairie is not easy for Sweetgrass, a fifteen-year-old Blackfoot, especially with starvation and smallpox forcing her to break a tribal taboo for which she must endure the consequences.


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Leave comments if you have any other suggestions for alternatives or to select an age-old novel that needs refreshing with #CanLitChoices.