Cover
Also by James Bartleman
As Long as the Rivers Flow (2011)
Raisin Wine (2008)
Rollercoaster: My Hectic Years as Jean Chrétien’s Diplomatic Advisor 1994–1998 (2005)
Out of Muskoka (2004)
On Six Continents: A Life in Canada’s Foreign Service (2004)
The
Redemption of
Oscar Wolf
James Bartleman
Dedication
For my mother, Maureen Benson Simcoe Bartleman,
a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation who was born in Muskoka in 1922 and spent her summers at the
Indian Camp in Port Carling as a child.
Author’s Note
From the early to mid-twentieth century, the period covered in this book, Canadian indigenous persons usually described themselves as Indians or Natives. Today, we refer to ourselves variously as Aboriginal persons, First Nations persons, Native Canadians, Natives, Indians, or by our national and tribal identities such as Chippewa or Ojibwa. Many of us no longer use the term Indian because in the past some non-Natives employed it in a derogatory or racist manner. Likewise, in the timeframe of the novel, Australian indigenous persons generally described themselves as Aborigines. Today, many prefer to be called Aboriginal persons or by their regional names such as Koori, Murri, and Nunga. I use the terms Indian, Native, Chippewa, Ojibwa, and Aborigine as appropriate to reflect the historical context of the novel.
This book is a work of fiction. With the exception of members of my family, any resemblance between the characters and individuals, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Port Carling is a composite creation, based only in part on the village of that name. The fictional village incorporates physical features taken from other small communities that dot Canada’s Precambrian Shield country. The attitudes of its inhabitants toward Native people are an amalgam of attitudes prevalent in mainstream Canadian society prior to and after the Second World War. In recent years, the real village of Port Carling has emerged as a place whose people maintain close and welcoming ties of friendship with their Native neighbours and community members.
Cast of Characters
Oscar’s Family
Oscar Wolf: the protagonist
Stella Musquedo Wolf: Oscar’s mother
Jacob Musquedo: Stella’s father; Oscar’s grandfather
Louisa Loon Musquedo: Jacob’s wife; Oscar’s grandmother
Caleb and Betsy Loon: Louisa’s parents; Oscar’s great-grandparents
Amos Wolf: Oscar’s father, killed in action in the Great War
Rosa Morning Star: Oscar’s wife
The Others
Clem McCrum: village drunk, Port Carling
James McCrum: Clem’s father and prominent local businessman
Leila McTavish McCrum: Clem’s mother
Reginald and Wilma McCrum: Clem’s grandparents, Muskoka pioneers
Reverend Lloyd Huxley: minister of Port Carling Presbyterian Church
Isabel Huxley: wife of Reverend Huxley
Claire Fitzgibbon: tourist from “Millionaires’ Row,” Muskoka
Dwight and Hilda Fitzgibbon: Claire’s parents
Harold Winston White: Claire’s husband
Mary Waabooz (Old Mary): Chippewa elder
Gloria Sunderland: the butcher shop owner’s daughter
Georges Leroux: Canadian ambassador to Colombia
Pilar Lopez y Ordonez: receptionist, Canadian embassy, Bogota
Luigi Ponti: anthropologist, Colombia
Robart Evans: Canadian high commissioner to Australia
Ruth Oxley: secretary to High Commissioner Evans
Reverend Gregory Mortimer: chairman, Australian Royal Commission on the Status of Aborigine Peoples (ARCSAP)
Father Adrian Murphy: member of ARCSAP
Captain Mary Fletcher: member of ARCSAP
Anna Kumquat: Australian prostitute
Larry Happlebee: deputy minister of Indian Affairs
Stuart Henderson: Canadian ambassador to South Africa
Bishop Jonathan Tumbula: Anglican bishop of Soweto
Joseph McCaully: minister of External Affairs
Sergeant Greg Penny: Ontario Provincial Police
Chief Zebadiah Mukwah: Osnaburgh Indian Reserve
Epigraph
The Creator, the old people used to say, put tricksters like you on Mother Earth so he could have a good laugh at your expense from time to time.
— Betsy Loon to Oscar Wolf, September 1935
Prologue
1914 to 1917
1
The afternoon newspapers had reported that thousands of Canadians had been killed and wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and the mood of the people of Toronto was grim on that hot and humid September evening of 1916. Streetcar operators clanged their bells angrily at the cars and trucks ahead of them in the traffic, and drivers in turn honked their horns impatiently at defiant jaywalkers. Men and women out for an evening stroll to escape the oppressive heat of their apartments and houses were quick to take offence, shoving back when jostled, however accidentally, by other pedestrians.
Stella Musquedo, a tall and muscular Chippewa teenager, who looked much older than her sixteen years, with dark-brown skin, piercing coal-black eyes, and straight raven-black hair, walked through the crowds, oblivious to the mood of the others. Married against her will just two months earlier to a soldier she barely knew who had shipped out to the trenches of northwestern France a few weeks later, she had just learned she was pregnant. But the last thing she had ever wanted was to bring a child into the world who would suffer as she had suffered from the lack of parental love, and she wanted to end the pregnancy as soon as possible. She had made an appointment with a doctor who was prepared to break the law to perform an abortion, and was on her way to see him.
Stella’s earliest memory of Mom dated back to one summer when she was four or five. It was early morning and she was camping with Mom and Dad on an island somewhere near the Indian Camp. Dad had caught a fish, and even though it was gooey, she had helped him scale and clean it, cut it into pieces, roll them in flour, and drop them into a frying pan of sizzling lard over the fire. Mom, as usual, had let them have all the fun.
After they ate, Dad took the canoe and went back out fishing. It was such a beautiful day. There were big white clouds in the blue sky and seagulls and crows were circling, looking for some scraps to eat. It was