Valley of the Birdtail
Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation (HarperCollins, 2022).

Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson’s book Valley of the Birdtail (HarperCollins, 2022) won the Dafoe Prize and the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize. It was a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

LH: What is Valley of the Birdtail about and why should people read it?

DS: Valley is a history of Canada. The two Manitoba communities that we follow, Rossburn and Waywayseecappo, were both founded around the same time. We track family members and follow them over 150 years, right up to the present day, to show how government policy favours one population over the other. 

LH: Andrew, you recently said you learned absolutely nothing about Indigenous people in history class. I assume there have been a lot of changes to how this subject is taught. Do you think Valley of the Birdtail addresses a gap that still exists in how the education system teaches Indigenous issues? 

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Lauren Heuser founded Canadian Affairs in 2023. Her previous roles include chief strategy officer of a Paris-based news service for young people, deputy section editor at the National Post and corporate...