Owóknage

Shortlisted, Indigenous Peoples' Publishing Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards, 2023
Shortlisted, Nonfiction Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards
Shortlisted, Publishing Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards
Shortlisted, Scholarly Writing Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards

"A powerful history that feels like a blueprint for a fuller, truer recounting of the past." —Canada's History Magazine

Born out of a meticulous, well-researched historical and current traditional land-use study led by Cega̔ K´iɳna Nakoda Oyáté (Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation), Owóknage is the first book to tell the definitive, comprehensive story of the Nakoda people (formerly known as the Assiniboine), in their own words. From pre-contact to current-day life, from thriving on the Great Plains to forced removal from their traditional, sacred lands in the Cypress Hills via a Canadian “Trail of Tears” starvation march to where they now currently reside south of Sintaluta, Saskatchewan, this is their story of resilience and resurgence.

“Owóknage provides a nuanced, detailed account of the history and culture of Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation. Its scholarship is exemplary...It joins Daschuk’s (2013) Clearing the Plains and Kulchinsky’s (2019) No Surrender as books that should be required reading for Canadians in facilitating reconciliation between residents of the prairie.” —Prairie History Magazine

“A fine example for those hoping to create a well-researched history of their own communities, one that gives equal weight to oral history and documentary evidence." —The Canadian Historical Review

"Né makóce né Nakóta téhą ų́bi no Wóyabi né ta’ówowįcaknagabi cá okná én Togáda giyá nená knuzábįkta no Wóyábi ne eháȟtiya cá Nína pinámaya! / These are the stories of the Nakóta people, they have retained them for generations. The future Nakóta people will retain them. This book provides a truthful Nakóta perspective." — Michael Turcotte, Fort Peck Húdešana Nakóda (Red Bottom Nakóda)

“A monumental collaboration…that traces the 700-year odyssey of the Nakoda Nation.” —James Daschuk, author of Clearing the Plains