cover image The Homesteaders

The Homesteaders

Sandra Rollings-Magnusson. Univ. of Regina, $29.95 (275p) ISBN 978-0-88977-515-2

Rollings-Magnusson delivers a sweeping, wide-ranging account of the homesteaders of Saskatchewan, who arrived there beginning in the 1870s after the implementation of the Dominion Lands Act. It reads partly like a typical history book and partly like a collective memoir, with photos and the homesteaders’ own words interspersed throughout. The author drew upon the pioneer questionnaire developed and distributed in the 1950s by the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan. Homesteaders filled out a variety of questionnaires on different subjects and submitted them for the following three decades, creating a vivid record of the province’s homesteading history. As Rollings-Magnusson notes, the settlers persevered through poverty, near-starvation, horrific accidents, wild weather, and more; she includes everything from accounts of mothers crying over feeding their children meager rations to girls giggling during a sleepover. She also broadens the book’s perspective to take into account those excluded (African-Americans, who were barred from entering Canada), discriminated against (people of Asian descent), and violently displaced (the indigenous peoples) by the homesteading program. This is a valuable and readable document of the daily experience, culture, and history of Canadian homesteaders. Photos. (Oct.)