Songs Upon the Rivers : The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Metis From the Great Lakes

Before the Davie Crockets, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far west and north establishing trade and kin networks across the continent. They founded settlements that would become great cities such as Detroit, Saint Louis, and New Orleans, but their history has been largely buried or relegated to local lore or confined to Quebec. In this seminal work, Foxcurran, Bouchard, and Malette scrutinize primary sources and uncover the alliances between early French settlers and voyagers and the indigenous nations.

"Songs Upon the Rivers continues to break through the barriers of sugar-coated and watered down standard depictions of early Canadian history ensuring that even the most sinister stories of our past will finally be told. With each copy that is sold readers are rejecting the rosy veneer of revisionism and demanding factual honesty as the basis of Canada’s national identity . . . The book boasts a rich array of unearthed photographs and archived maps giving the reader a vivid visual perspective of the history unfolding on the page.” — Regan Treewater, Alberta Native News

“Foxcurran, Bouchard, and Malette are serious researchers; they consulted published primary sources (from the Internet) and secondary publications written in both French and English. French traders, the authors argue, were not only indefatigable explorers, they were also brokers of a hybrid culture with indigenous people, which became so strong that it remained dominant on the Pacific Northwest frontier until the middle of the 19th century . . . the writing, maps, historic images, and excellent index happily extend our understanding of the Canadien and Metis cultures.” — Robert C. Carriker, Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History