Rooster Town: The History of an Urban Métis Community, 1901–1961

by Evelyn Peters, Matthew Stock, Adrian Werner

Melonville. Smokey Hollow. Bannock Town. Fort Tuyau. Little Chicago. Mud Flats. Pumpville. Tintown. La Coulee. These were some of the names given to Métis communities at the edges of urban areas in Manitoba, but Rooster Town, which endured on the outskirts of southwest Winnipeg from 1901 to 1961, is probably the most famous of them all. 
Those years in Winnipeg were characterized by the twin pressures of depression and inflation, chronic housing shortages, and a spotty social support network. At the city’s edge, Rooster Town grew without city services as rural Métis arrived to participate in the urban economy and build their own houses. Métis culture and community remained a central part of their lives. 
In other growing settler cities, the First Nations experience was largely characterized by removal and confinement. But the continuing presence of Métis living and working in Winnipeg, and the establishment of Rooster Town itself, made the Métis experience unique. Rooster Town documents the story of a community rooted in kinship, culture, and historical circumstance, whose residents existed unofficially in the cracks of municipal bureaucracy, while navigating the legacy of settler colonialism and the demands of modernity and urbanization.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, History, Canada

248 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2018

Reviews

[Janice Forman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the history of the French Métis in Rooster Town extremely interesting likely because my family lived in the area where Rooster Town was located. This recounting helped clear up some of my misconceptions regarding this community and the eventual dissolution of this close-knit group.

Rooster Town existed from 1901-1961 in the southwestern area of Fort Rouge in Winnipeg. Although parts of the research are a little tedious comparing statistics over time and providing names of various residents, the history and the study of how the societal norms shaped the lives of the French Métis is extremely informative. I particularly enjoyed the maps and the aerial views and the ability to relate to the predominantly White Anglo-Saxon Protestant neighbourhood that grew up around Rooster Town.

If you are interested in learning more about the Métis experience and Reconciliation, I recommend this read. My father was born in a run-room shanty in the middle of Rooster Town and lived on the periphery of this community with his parents. My family is white — their story is so different simply because they were white!

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's good information and analysis in here, but i suspect it could've been dwindled down to 15 page booklet. You have to sift through pages and pages of dry, unnecessary info like annual wages of dozens of individuals, costs of housing permits and valuations of homes that makes it feel like a slog at times.

Still, with very little information available elsewhere, i'm glad for the research these folks have done and put out into the world. I kept thinking while reading this that it would be amazing if Katherina Vermette picked some of the families and individuals researched in this book and turned it into a lively novel. *That* would be a great read.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I came in with the wrong expectations. This read academically, repetitively and I guess I wanted more about the lives of the residents than hard facts about where they lived and statistics about how many moved in and out of the community.

During reading I had to flip back and re-read the beginning because I could not remember what they had laid out at the start. It just didn't stick with me. Usually when I finish reading I can regurgitate some info and discuss what I read - I finished this not feeling any more comfortable talking about this topic than before the reading.

The most interesting parts were HOW they lived and the sketches and final pictures of their houses - some of which are still standing (!)

An important study and relevant consciousness raising of a stereotyped and disparaged community but not the most riveting of reads.

[Daniel Gutman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a history book. It is not trying to be anything besides that. So it is not exactly a page turner.

However, the amount of detailed research, analysis, and awesome maps that went into this book is hugely impressive. It documents an important and largely unstudied topic within Winnipeg history. Knowledge of Rooster Town should be a requirement for anyone living in the city.

I think ideally the authors might create another work with a more “popular” audience in mind, for those who want to learn the history of Rooster Town without wading through all the academic details.

[Heather(Gibby) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very interesting, it was a part of Winnipeg's history I did not know much about.
It is a very academically written book, and relies heavy on historical records, and past newspaper articles.

[Dorothy Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting academic read about Métis settlements in Canada.

[Magdalena Milosz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is important research. Perhaps due to the limited sources available, the family histories didn't seem to come to life. I really appreciated, however, the analysis in chapter 1 of how settler colonialism and dispossession affected the families described in subsequent chapters. Knowing that the authors did interviews with former residents and descendants, I wish more of their stories had been included, and a better sense of how cultural continuity was enabled by the community. The maps were great and conveyed how the community was pushed further to Winnipeg's periphery throughout the first half of the twentieth century. I think it's an important contribution that will hopefully pave the way to further Métis spatial histories.

[Aimee Rice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually didn't finish this book. Too dry, no narrative