Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
CBC Books | Posted: March 8, 2017 6:07 PM | Last Updated: June 12
A forgotten Haudenosaunee social song beams into the cosmos like a homing beacon for interstellar visitors. A computer learns to feel sadness and grief from the history of atrocities committed against First Nations. A young Indigenous man discovers the secret to time travel in ancient petroglyphs.
The nine stories in this collection span all traditional topics of science fiction — from peaceful aliens to hostile invaders; from space travel to time travel; from government conspiracies to connections across generations. (From Douglas & McIntyre)
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Drew Hayden Taylor is an Ojibway playwright, author and journalist from Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario. He has worked on over 17 documentaries examining Indigenous experiences. His other books include Motorcycle and Sweetgrass.
From the book
His family often wondered why he was always tired. It seemed to them that he was only well rested in winter, when the boy's people moved into the warm wigwams, or when it was cloudy and rainy for days. Nimki had difficulty explaining his interest in the night sky. He had tried once to tell his best friend, Keesic, who just shrugged, uninterested in such ideas.
Suddenly, his eyes caught another flash of light streaking through the mottled blackness. A flaming arrow perhaps, from the world above? A falling torch that burned out before it landed on Turtle Island, maybe? He wished he knew.
From Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor ©2016. Published by Douglas & McIntyre.