In Her Words: Marie Rose Delorme Smith--Pioneer, Homesteader, Métis Matriarch - Paperback
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Part historical biography, part compilation of the written works of Mary Rose Delorme Smith (1861-1960), a prolific and accomplished Métis woman.
Born into a prominent fur-trading family and remembered as a community builder and rancher, Marie Rose Delorme Smith (1861-1960) is seldom recognized as a writer and chronicler of Métis and Prairie history. Fluent in French, English, and likely Michif, Delorme Smith recorded a wealth of written records and stories throughout her long life, in the form of letters, published articles, unpublished manuscripts, and personal documents.
Donated to public archives following her death, these written works garnered some interest among scholars and biographers over the years, as prominent Indigenous women gradually found a place in the histories they had been left out of for generations. Delorme Smith became the subject of biographies and scholarly research, and she was finally recognized as a "National Historic Person" by the Canadian government in 2022. However, the recognition bestowed upon her rarely highlighted her own words, which reveal so much about her life, Métis history, and Prairie life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
For the first time, historian and biographer Doris Jeanne MacKinnon presents an extensive array of Delorme Smith's writings, preserved verbatim, and puts them in historical and social context. This fascinating collection of documents from a bygone era reveals the strength, intellect, and leadership of a fascinating Métis martriarch.
Marie Rose Delorme Smith (1861-1960) was a Métis woman born during the fur trade era. Married at sixteen to a robe-and-whiskey trader several years her senior, Marie Rose spent most of her adult life in Pincher Creek, Alberta, where she became a homesteader, raised seventeen children, established a boarding house, served as a medicine woman and midwife, and published numerous articles in the periodical, Canadian Cattlemen. Her writing, both published and unpublished, sheds light on Métis identity during a period of cultural, political, and economic change. In 2022, she was designated a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada.
McCargar, Donald: - Donald McCargar is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and is the great-grandson of Marie Rose Delorme Smith.MacKinnon, Doris Jeanne: - Doris Jeanne MacKinnon was born on a farm in northeastern Alberta and attended school in the historic town of St-Paul-dés-Métis. She holds a PhD in Indigenous and post-Confederation Canadian history. An independent researcher, author, and post-secondary instructor, she lives in Central Alberta. Her publications, including the bestselling The Premier and His Grandmother and Métis Matriarchs: Agents of Transition (co-edited with Cheryl Troupe), focus on Métis women and Western Canadian topics that expand readers' understanding of our diverse people and experiences. Her books are written in an engaging style that appeals to a broad cross-section of the population.Contributor(s)
Doris Jeanne MacKinnon, Marie Rose Delorme Smith, Donald McCargar
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