Strangers in the house : a prairie story of bigotry and belonging Cover Image

Book

Strangers in the house : a prairie story of bigotry and belonging / Candace Savage.

Savage, Candace, 1949- (author.). David Suzuki Institute. (Added Author).

Record details

ISBN: 9781771642040 (hardcover)
Physical Description: 274 pages : illustrations, map, genealogical table ; 23 cm
Publisher: Vancouver : David Suzuki Institute/Greystone Books, [2019]
Copyright: ©2019

Content descriptions

General Note:

When researching the first occupant of her Saskatoon home, Candace Savage discovers a family more fascinating and heartbreaking than she expected. Napoléon Sureau dit Blondin built the house in the 1920s, an era when French-speakers like him were deemed "undesirable" by the political and social elite, who sought to populate the Canadian prairies with WASPs only. In an atmosphere poisoned first by the Orange Order and then by the Ku Klux Klan, Napoléon and his young family adopted anglicized names and did their best to disguise their "foreignness." In Strangers in the House, Savage scours public records and historical accounts and interviews several of Napoléon's descendants, including his youngest son, to reveal a family story marked by challenge and resilience. In the process, she examines a troubling episode in Canadian history, one with surprising relevance today.