The Windigo, Wemstikoshiw, and War: Three Day Road and the Intergenerational Story of Indigenous Canadians

The history of relations between the Indigenous populations of Canada and its colonial government is an inherently militaristic one. Charting an intergenerational story of this relationship from the early post-Confederation era, to the end of World War One, Joseph Boyden’s historical fiction novel “Three Day Road” provides a historically accurate and poignant reading of the oft-unreflectively celebrated early years of Canada from a uniquely critical perspective. This paper further expands the fictional interactions of the novel’s characters, and their historical inspirations, with analysis and comparison to other colonial examples from across the British Empire. In particular, it examines and compares the approaches of policing and education in the cultural unmaking of Indigenous peoples. Culminating in Canada’s ‘baptism in fire’ of the Great War, the experiences of indigenous soldiers also find parallels with those of the other soldiers serving across the Western Front, further underscoring the issue’s historical complexity.