The Voyageur

I purchased this book shortly after returning from a week in northern Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe area, the general area of my birthplace, many relatives and my french canadian ancestors. After visiting the historic site of the NW trading company at Grand Portage, I was ashamed to admit how little I knew of the this important and colorful part of early american history. I found the book not only informative but very entertaining as well. The first half of the book focuses on the origins, life and culture of the voyageur and then expands into their additional roles as explorers, early settlers etc. Accompanying the story of the voyageur, there is much necessary early 19th century NW history included and required, as The voyageurs served a vast expanse of present day US and Canadian territory both before and during the period described in the book and their contributions go far beyond those of Master Paddlers.

Read this before, during, and after your Boundary Waters canoe trip and enjoy finding the places past and present intersect.

Our census returns published in 2001 indicate that the population of the United States is increasingly of mixed race and ethnic identity. If I had a dollar for every pundit who claimed that this is a revolutionary situation that has never happened before in America, I could buy my own fleet of birchbark canoes. Of course, there have been many subsets of North American society that have been characterized by a mixing and blurring of ethnic identity. Some of these subsets arose centuries ago. One of them is that group of French-Canadian-Indian men and women known as the "metis" or "voyageurs." The social customs of this group, their values, their strengths, their love of life, are recounted here by an enthusiast. Miss Nute was a pioneer. She wrote before her time. I heartily recommend this book to everyone.