Honoré Jaxon : prairie visionary

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Honoré Jaxon : prairie visionary

Summary: 'Honore Jaxon' presents the life story of a complex political figure who invented an Indigenous ancestry he did not, in fact, possess. Born in 1861 to a Methodist family, William Henry Jackson grew up in Ontario before moving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he sympathized with the Mtis and their struggle for land rights. Jackson became personal secretary to Louis Riel. After the Metis defeat, a Regina court committed the young English Canadian idealist, who had become a Catholic in the Metis camp, and who had later accepted Louis Riel as the prophet of a reformed Christian church, to the lunatic asylum at Lower Fort Garry. He eventually escaped to the United States, joined the labour union movement, and renounced his race. Self-identifying as Metis, he changed his name to the French-sounding "Honore Jaxon" and devoted the remainder of his life to fighting for the working class and the Indigenous peoples of North America. In Honore Jaxon, Donald B. Smith draws on extensive archival research and interviews with family members to present a definitive biography of this complex political man. The book follows Jaxon into the 1940s, where his life mission became the establishment of a library for the First Nations in Saskatchewan, collecting as many books, newspapers, and pamphlets relating to the Metis people as possible. In 1951, at age ninety, he was evicted from his apartment and his library was discarded to the New York City dump. In poor health and broken in spirit, he died one month later. Heavily illustrated, Honore Jaxon recounts the complicated story of a young English Canadian who imagined a society in which English and French, Indigenous and Metis would be equals.

Record details

ISBN: 9781487550141 (pbk.)
Physical Description: xxii, 294 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
print
Edition: Second edition.
Publisher: Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2023]
Copyright: ©2023

Content descriptions

General Note:: Originally published: Regina: Coteau Books, 2007.
Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Preface to the new edition -- Prologue: New York City, winter 1951-52 -- Note on usage -- Chapter 1. Young Will, 1861-77 -- Chapter 2. Call to greatness, 1878-84 -- Chapter 3. "Riel's secretary," 1884-85 -- Chapter 4. The trial, the lunatic asylum, and exile, 1885-86 -- Chapter 5. Jackson becomes Jaxon, 1886-89 -- Chapter 6. Chicago's "Long-Haired Child of Destiny," 1890-96 -- Chapter 7. Honoré in love, 1897-1907 -- Chapter 8. Return of the "Native" son, 1907-09 -- Chapter 9. Crescendo, 1910-18 -- Chapter 10. Trying to become a capitalist, 1919-36 -- Chapter 11. Light, storm, and shadow, 1937-45 -- Chapter 12. The descent, New York City, 1946-52 -- Conclusion: the summing up -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Endnotes -- A short bibliography -- Index.