Charcoal's World

Western Canadian Classics

by Hugh A. Dempsey

Charcoal's World was bounded by the mountains, hills, and plains of southwestern Alberta. That was the homeland of his people, the Blood Indians, but Charcoal was not free to enjoy it as his ancestors had. For millennia, they had lived each day in the company of spirits, and even with the coming of the white man that much did not change. Major Samuel Benfield Steele of the North West Mounted Police did not know about the Indian spirit world and would not have cared to learn. In 1896 when Charcoal killed a man and made attempts on others, Steele saw him as a common murderer and vowed to chase him down. The tale of Charcoal is well known among the Indians of southern Alberta. Their stories of his exploits agree in many ways with the official reports of the North West Mounted Police, but the two sources conflict in the reasons for the success of Charcoal and his eventual downfall. Hugh A. Dempsey has spent twenty-five years researching the material on Charcoal; he has studied the government records and spoken with the elders and historians of the Blood Reserve. The result is Charcoal's World, giving us the Indian side of this remarkable story of Indian-white confrontation.

Genres: Nonfiction

178 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Hugh Aylmer Dempsey is a well known Canadian historian and writer who has authored twelve books and numerous articles. He is an honorary chief of the Blood Tribe and was the chief curator of the Glenbow Museum. Among the many awards he has received for his writing are the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Alberta History and Award of Merit, Local History Section, Canadian Historical Association. He lives in Calgary.

Reviews

[Lydia Presley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charcoal's World by Hugh Dempsey is the third in a trilogy of books I am reading for my Great Plains literature class this fall. This book, unlike the other two (Waterlily and Fools Crow), comes across as more of an historical tale first and story second. While the others were also filled with interesting historical facts, Charcoal's World goes even further to discuss the laws and the individual lives of the people surrounding Charcoal all with the intent, it seems, of providing us the whole story.

But even more so than the historical information included in Charcoal's story is the amazing survival nature that Charcoal possessed. He was on the run for weeks, evading, eluding, and sometimes even slipping under the noses of the police and the Indian scouts who were hunting him. He was on a mission, and even though those of us who have not been raised in the way Charcoal was raised may not understand how that mission could be so important, we can understand - through our own faiths and convictions, how desperately Charcoal sought to fulfill his own. He was a man of honor throughout his mission, he acted according to how he was called, and his journey ended up being as thrilling for this reader as it was tragic for Charcoal in the end.

While Dempsey's writing is a bit more stilted and difficult to really get into than Welch's and Deloria's, Charcoal's story is strong enough and fascinating enough to make up for it.

[Juanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story for anyone interested in settler-indigenous history. But on a larger scale, it seems the story is of cultural clash and those that get squashed in the process.

[Sarah Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Living in Calgary it was particularly fascinating to get a better idea of the native land on which I live. I learnt a lot more about First Nations culture.

[Tamara Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating book. 5 stars for the story, 3 stars for the writing. This is a rich part of Alberta's heritage following the story of Charcoal and his evasion of the NWMP for weeks on end. I found it particularly interesting to read after visting Fort Walsh (first home of the NWMP) and seeing things like the holding cells first hand. The system of "law and order" in early Canada was rustic at best. I also found this an interesting read after completing Boyden's "Orenda" as it delved into the beliefs surrounding death and the afterlife (ie. Charcoal felt he needed to kill a "chief" in order to announce his own arrival into the spirit world via suicide resulting in him trying to find a suitable victim for weeks before successfully killing a NWMP officer. He was caught before his suicide could be completed). It is interesting this story was based heavily on oral accounts as well as testimony recorded in the trial. I found myself rooting for the outlaw who, despite suffering from advanced tuberculosis, freezing temperatures, near starvation, exhaustion and meager supplies, Charcoal kept over 100 men headed by the legendary Sir Sam Steele on a manhunt for weeks simply by using cunning strategy and the skills he learned as a young warrior.