The Free People - Li Gens Libres: A History of the M騁is Community of Batoche, Saskatchewan (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781552382394)

Revised and expanded to include fresh research, a discussion of recent interpretive trends, and a review of new literature, The Free People--Li Gens Libres is a comprehensive history of the M騁is community and national historic site of Batoche, Saskatchewan.

Diane Payment has a long personal association with Batoche; her study is the culmination of thirty years of documentary and field research as a participant-observer within the community. Her inquiry draws on a range of dictated and written historical sources, both M騁is and non-M騁is, as well as more recent oral history narratives and personal observations.

The Free People is one of the few studies on M騁is communities in western and northern Canada. Payment's approach demonstrates that any understanding of M騁is culture cannot be based on European or Euro-Canadian historical models, but on its own values and traditions. She argues that Batoche has persisted as a community despite conflict, crisis, and prejudice from immigrant ethnic groups and institutions such as the Canadian government and the Roman Catholic Church, succeeding in maintaining its uniquely M騁is identity.