A Box Full of Tears: Askuwheteau at Vimy Ridge (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781519696779)

Askuwheteau flies straight at you from the imagined Cree legend "A Box Full of Tears". You will grow through the formative years of a young, remarkable, metis boy from the Cree community of Lac La Biche, and Saddle Lake, Alberta. Through his eyes you will witness the systematic destruction of Cree native culture as the relentless administration of Canada's Residential School policies are driven and enforced on him and over a hundred thousand fellow native children. Raised by a daunting, loving grandmother, Askuwheteau survives to mature into a young man his village grows to depend on for his skill as a trapper. He finds love in the arms and furs of his first erotic encounter. You will endure and rise with him as he becomes just one small part of the river of Canadians that flowed from Halifax to Europe to suffer and triumph on the battlefields of France, Flanders, and Belgium. Thrill with him as he becomes a sniper. Enjoy with him delights found in darkened bedrooms in London and Arras. Suffer as he suffers with life changing wounds; feel his pain on returning to his home to find a Canada that is changing and growing too fast to give a moment's thought to the unbelievable tragedy was enfolding throughout the villages of our First Nations communities. A Box Full of Tears is an incredibly powerful story. One that every Canadian should read as we approach the remembrance of the One Hundredth Anniversary of Vimy Ridge. This book will relate one part of our history that will not be celebrated.