Metis and the Medicine Line is a sprawling, ambitious look at how national borders and notions of race were created and manipulated to unlock access to indigenous lands. It is also an intimate story of individuals and families, brought vividly to life by history writing at its best.

It begins with the emergence of the Plains Metis and ends with the fracturing of their communities as Canada/U.S. border was enforced. It also explores the borderland world of the Northern Plains, where an astonishing diversity of people met and mingled: Blackfoot, Cree, Gros Ventre, Lakota, Dakota, Nez Perce, Assiniboine, Anishinaabes, Metis, Europeans, Canadians, Americans, soldiers, police, settlers, farmers, hunters, traders, bureaucrats. 

In examining the battles that emerged over who belonged on what side of the border, Hogue disputes Canada's peaceful settlement story of the Prairie West and challenges familiar bromides about the "world's longest undefended border." 

Michel Hogue is assistant professor of History at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Michel Hogue's profile page

"Beautifully written." -Sarah Carter, Professor and H.M. Tory Chair, Department of History and Classics, and Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta

"A tremendous accomplishment. Hogue has beautifully brought to life the widely dispersed Metis communities of this borderland world. Make no mistake, this book will be the definitive one on this subject for years to come." -Andrew R. Graybill, award-winning historian and author of The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West and, Policing the Great Plains: Rangers, Mounties, and the North American Frontier, 1875-1910.