1. Three Day Road Significance of Title? Why ‘Three Day Road?’
pay attention to ‘threes’ throughout the novel
Structure of Narrative
interweaving of two narratives;
dual narrative  one foot in history, one foot in ‘new’ world
What can be said of the narrators? Who?
shifting points of view  gender, culture, experience
Who else is a ‘storyteller?’
non-linear, non-chronological
echoes oral traditions of storytelling
1st person narratives
several parallel plot structures and characters  parallel plot structures of rooting out evil
foreshadowing
‘I am the second to last in a long line of windigo killers. There is still one more.’ (My Father)
Questions to consider early on
Theme – Identity – Colonialism and Cultural Conflict?
Assimilation? What do Xavier and Elijah face when going off to war?
Conformity? How does Niska respond to the Wemistikoshiw?
Why does Xavier refuse to sing the songs of the whiteman?
Theme – Friendship
Though they were once brothers, Xavier and Elijah’s relationship changes as a result of the war. How?

2. Windigo malevolent, cannibalistic supernatural being
strongly associated with winter, the north, famine and starvation
‘windigo psychosis’
when humans become possessed by the windigo spirit
crave flesh (cannibalism), and other obscene things
curing attempts come from traditional healers, but….
if incurable, and threaten those around them – must be executed
ultimate transgression against nature
Micah’s wife and baby were turning windigo. The children in camp stopped sleeping, cried in fear, no longer felt their hunger. We’d grown up on stories of the windigo that our parents fed us over fires, of people who eat other people’s flesh and grow into wild beasts 20 feet tall whose hunger can be satisfied only by more human flesh and then the hunger turns worse. I listened to the adults of the camp talk nervously among themselves, their voices interrupted by the wife’s growls and mad language.
(44)
Was it wrong of the Wemistikoshiw (white man) to condemn Niska’s father for killing Micah’s wife and child?
How does the windigo spirit inform the journey of Xavier and Elijah?

3. Aboriginal Stereotypes
A simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.
A thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality.
Discussion questions -
What are some Aboriginal stereotypes?
Is your list of Aboriginal stereotypes a positive or negative reflection of Aboriginal people?
How do these stereotypes impact our impression of Aboriginal people?
Wab Kinew on Native Stereotypes in Canada:

4. Assimilation
when a cultural group is encouraged or forced to give up its culture in favour the of dominant culture
What examples are there from the novel, Three Day Road, of assimilation?
Historical Context –
Indian Act, 1876
‘wards of the state’
state take paternalistic approach to Aboriginal peoples across Canada
Reserve System
Residential Schools
Wab Kinew on Colonialism and the ‘Indian’

5. Reserves
The more pressure there was for settlement of Western Canada, the more the government pressured Indian people to settle on Reserves
Land controlled by the government
Reserve clusters were kept far enough apart to discourage Bands from forming alliances against the government
Also kept far from the rest of Canadian population, making assimilation difficult (How ironic!)

6. Residential Schools
After a century of operation, the residential schools had nearly destroyed First Nations communities
These schools suppressed their language, culture, and spirituality
The extended period of time spent in these schools with caregivers who were often abusive resulted in this abuse of children moving into the Indian communities
The last government controlled residential school closed in 1986

7. Residential Schools – con’t
Education became the primary instrument to assimilate Indian people
Residential and industrial schools were established following the signing of the Numbered Treaties
Run by Catholic, Anglican and Protestant missionaries
The objectives were:
to assimilate aboriginal children
to Christianize;
to teach the 3 R's; and
to develop children into farmers & housekeepers

8. War Poetry of the First World War
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Written in 1915 – 2nd Battle of Ypres
Most oft quoted, popular poems of WWI
A rondeau –
a form of medieval and renaissance French poetry
Point of View?
To whom are they speaking?
What message are they trying to convey?
This poem has achieved ‘iconic’ status in Canada and is typically read aloud at most Remembrance Day ceremonies across the nation.

9. War Poetry of the First World War
Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, 
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, 
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. 
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling 
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, 
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 
In all my dreams before my helpless sight, 
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace 
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; 
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud 
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 
To children ardent for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est 
Pro patria mori.

10. Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War is Kind by Stephen Crane
Because the lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the frightened steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,
Little souls who thirst for fight,
These men were born to drill and die.
The unexplained glory flies above them,
Great is the Battle-God, great, and his Kingdom –
A field where a thousand corpses lie.
Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,
Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.
Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
War is kind.

11. The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have set us down to wet Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because-- Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was; That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps, Off-hand like--just as I-- Was out of work--had sold his traps-- No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You'd treat, if met where any bar is, Or help to half a crown.
Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries by A. E. Houseman
These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling,
And took their wages, and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.

12. The 8th Fire – A 500-year-old relationship…
The 8th Fire – A 500-year-old relationship….coming out of conflict, colonialism and denial
8TH Fire draws from an Anishinaabe prophecy that declares now is the time for Aboriginal peoples and the settler community to come together and build the '8TH Fire' of justice and harmony.
Seven fires prophecy is an Anishinaabe prophecy which marks phases, or epochs, in the life of the people on Turtle Island, a Native American name for the North American continent. The seven fires of the prophecy represent key spiritual teachings for North America, and suggest that the different colors and traditions of the human beings can come together on a basis of respect. It predates the arrival of the Europeans, and contains information for the future lives of the Anishnaabe, which are still in the process of being fulfilled.
The 8th Fire: Aboriginal Peoples, Canada and the Way Forward
CBC Documentary Series – hosted by Wab Kinew
This series focusses on the changing relationship between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginals

13. Scalping
Scalping independently developed in cultures in both the Old and New worlds
Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the taking and display of human body parts as trophies, and may have developed as an alternative to the taking of human heads, for scalps were easier to take, transport, and preserve for subsequent display.
In Europe, it was common to chop one’s head off
Settlers adapted the practice of scalping, as it was easier to carry scalps then to have to carry an entire head….
Scalping has become synonymous with North American Indigenous Culture, so much so it represents a stereotype of the Indian as ‘savage’ and ‘heathen.’
In turn, bounties were offered for them by colonial authorities, which in turn led to an escalation of intertribal warfare and scalping in North America.
Dances With Wolves Scalping Scene
Does Boyden refute or perpetuate the stereotype of scalping and Indigenous cultural practice in Three Day Road? (See ‘Skinning’ Chapter)

14. Three Day Road Symbolism
MEANING
QUOTATION (pg#)
Addiction
Scalping (Motif?)
Guns (the Mauser)
No Man’s Land
(Trench Warfare)
Wemistikoshiw (‘Whiteman’)
Cree Language

15. Three Day Road Themes – Major and Secondary Themes
Friendship and Betrayal Cultural Conflicts and Colonialism
Secondary Themes
Modernity v. Tradition
War and Hunting
Visibility v. Invisibility
Sound v. Silence
Windigo
Storytelling

16. Joseph Boyden’s Indigenous Ancestry Questioned
Award-winning Canadian novelist Joseph Boyden is defending his right to identify as an indigenous person, after an aboriginal publication raised questions about his background and name-callers on Twitter labelled him a pretender, or rather, ‘pretendian’.
“I once said that, ‘A small part of me is Indigenous, but it is a huge part of who I am,’” the Giller Prize-winning author wrote in a statement published on Twitter. “This remains true to me to this day.… I do belong.”
The statement came in response to a 2,700-word article probing his background, published two days earlier on the website of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. The article says Mr. Boyden’s indigenous heritage “has been an ever shifting, evolving thing. Over the years, Boyden has variously claimed his family’s roots extended to the Métis, Mi’kmaq, Ojibway and Nipmuc peoples.” The article does not reach firm conclusions, but says it is difficult to pinpoint where his aboriginal heritage began on either his mother’s or father’s sides of the family.
Joseph Boyden, Author of acclaimed works such as:
Three Day Road
Through Black Spruce
The Orenda
Is the question of Boyden’s identity relevant when discussing his works, which are primarily focused on indigenous themes? Does it matter that he may or may not be of indigenous ancestry? How authentic is his narrative? Or, is this simply identity politics at work?