From the Barren Lands

Overview

This is a story about the fur trade and First Nations, and the development of northern Canada, seen and experienced not only through Leonard Flett’s eyes, but also through the eyes of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.The lives of indigenous people in remote areas of northern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan in the 1960s and 1970s are examined in detail. Flett’s successful career with both the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company provides an insight into the dying days of the fur trade and the rise of a new retail business tailored to First Nations.

Reviews

"a remarkable point of view." — Trevor Greyeyes, First Nations Voice 

"a promising personal memoir  … it's [Flett's] incidental descriptions of what it was like on those far-away and isolated trading posts of the legendary HBC that makes this book spring to life as an entertaining read." — Winnipeg Free Press

Author Biography

Leonard Flett is a Cree status member of the Big Trout Lake Ontario First Nation. Originally from Cumberland House, Saskatchewan and Shamattawa, Manitoba, he has an extensive 42-year background with the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, retiring as vice-president in 2005. He has been recognized by the Aboriginal community with the bestowal of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2002, by the province of Manitoba with the Order of Manitoba in 2012, and by Canada with the induction into the Order of Canada in 2004. He is also a recipient of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal.