"Growing up Métis: Stories of Resiliency is the follow-up to Cort Dogniez's Road to la Prairie Ronde. This book contains two stories based on Cort's great-grandmother and grandmother when they were young girls. The first story tells the story of Josephine Gariepy and her family's migration from Batoche after the 1885 Resistance to Onion Lake. This story is a fictional account of how Cort's great-grandparents left Batoche to move to Onion Lake. His grandmother didn't explain why her parents chose Onion Lake as a destination, but his research revealed that the Dumonts had previously lived in the Fort Pitt area for many years before returning to Red River, and then moving to the Batoche area. The Dumont, Delorme, and Gariepy families had close bonds established from their days as buffalo hunters. It made sense that they would stick together as they left the Batoche area for homesteads that offered a promising future for them. Cort wanted to share this story through the eyes of a young Josephine struggling with the challenges of growing up in a swiftly changing world. Métis culture is woven throughout the story with a focus on nicknames, faith, storytelling and a resilient spirit. Words from both the Cree and Michif languages are also included in the story. Josephine's infatuation with the handsome Frederick is pivotal to the story as he does become her future husband. The names shared within the story are the actual names of my relatives. The second story is based on Clara Dumont, and is a fictional story, based on Cort's grandmother's real-life experiences. Clara Dumont was born in 1914 in Onion Lake, Saskatchewan. She remembered the day the men in suits came to their house and told them that they had to get off the land immediately. This was a common experience for many Métis at that time. Her family lived year-round in a prospector's tent with five children and two adults. Her lifelong fear of thunderstorms was directly related to living in the tent and feeling vulnerable. Clara believed in the roogaroo because she was visited by a large, black dog throughout her lifetime, and it warned her of bad things to come. Clara's first language was Cree and she really was afraid of settler children who spoke English. She promised herself that she would learn English and never teach her language to her children to protect them from racism. She really did shoot holes in the flour sacks though the circumstances of the event were much different from this story. By the time Clara's family arrived in La Prairie Ronde, many of its community members had moved to the road allowance outside of Saskatoon. Her family soon followed and camped on the east side of the city. Clara met Leo Delorme at that time and they married and moved to the west side of Saskatoon. They had three children together, one of whom was Cort's mother, Marlene Delorme. He grew up listening to his grandmother's stories and hopes to honour her by sharing them."--
