Jesse Thistle presents, Bison brigades and battle tactics during the Northwest Resistance.

Métis life on the plains was extremely perilous. From century-long fights with the Sioux, to the massive and dangerous logistics of the bison hunt, Métis hunting tactics took on a battle-like precision run by a general known as the Captain of the Hunt. The Métis took their bison-hardened skills into battle during the Northwest Resistance, winning two battles against Canadian troops at Duck Lake and Fish Creek, and holding off columns of much bigger forces for days at the final battle of Batoche. Jesse will sketch out some of these tactics and show how the Métis were a people who had unique and organized guerrilla war tactics far ahead of their time.

Offered in partnership with the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies.

Admission by donation.

Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Equity Studies at York University in Toronto. He is a PhD candidate in the History program at York University where he is working on theories of intergenerational and historic trauma of the Métis people. Jesse has won the P.E. Trudeau and Vanier doctoral scholarships, and he is a governor general medalist.  Jesse is the author of the Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada published through the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, and his historical research has been published in numerous academic journals, book chapters, and featured on CBC Ideas, CBC Campus, and Unreserved. His most recent work is a bestselling memoir published by Simon and Schuster entitled From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way. You can follow him on Twitter at @Michifman.