Métis Imposter

Honoré Jaxon: Prairie Visionary is the third in a series of detailed and nuanced biographical works about “Prairie Imposters” by University of Calgary historian Donald Smith. It follows earlier books on Grey Owl and Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, both of whom made questionable claims to aboriginality. Grey Owl, born Archie Belaney in Britain to British parents, made quite spurious representations, while Long Lance, being European, aboriginal and African American, had a more complex (un)truth behind some of his claims. Honoré Jaxon, more obscure today than either Grey Owl or Long Lance, played a colourful role in the second Métis attempt to curb central Canadian power under Louis Riel in 1885. During the Northwest Rebellion, Jaxon had the distinction of being jailed by both sides in the conflict over the treatment of Métis and First Nations people in what is now northern Saskatchewan.

Jaxon, born William Henry Jackson to a Methodist family in southern...