appealing

The Maynard
Fall 2020

Heather Simeney MacLeod

Routes on the Red

The newcomers called it new land
tried to tame it
fastened names to it
from their homes
transplanting more than just themselves
their seeds ran north along the Red River
into the Saulteaux and the Cree
sank into the wetlands and marshes.
We, children, climbed out from under furs and forts
moving across the boreal and prairie plains
our point of origin the confluence of the French
or the Scottish fur traders
and the Saulteaux or the Cree women.
We are a basin named the Métis.
River lot farms in a stretch of hope then resignation
we named it what it was, exodus.
A route from the Red River.
Landless, we travelled with bits of scrip certificates.
Our dispersal, our diaspora across western provinces
into southern states as steady as a glacier.