Book Review: As Long as the Rivers Flow

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As Long as the Rivers Flow

By Larry Loyie

with Constance Brissenden

Illustrated by

Heather D. Holmlund

A Groundwood Book-Douglas & McIntyre

36 pages (sc)

$18.95

As Long as the Rivers Flow is a poignant story of a 'golden Indian summer' in 1944 and how good it was to be a young Cree boy living a traditional life with his family on Slave Lake in northern Alberta.

It is a magical childhood for 10-year-old Lawrence, living in a log cabin, eating rich rabbit stew, fishing and camping on the banks of a wide river, playing hard with friends and working hard to learn the skills his parents are teaching him.

Lawrence has a baby owl named Ooh-Hoo, orphaned after falling out of his nest near a trapline. Lawrence's papa brought the little creature home to teach his children how to care for a wild thing until it could survive on its own.

Frustrated that he is not old enough to join a real hunting expedition, Lawrence learns to stalk a beaver by camouflaging himself in the tall grass on the riverbank.

A close encounter with a grizzly bear almost ends in disaster, but the quick thinking and bravery of his grandmother saves both their lives. She teaches Lawrence how to use every part of the bear, including the meat, the grease, claws, teeth and the hide, which is made into a prize rug.

A Cree naming ceremony is held to commemorate Lawrence's bravery and his family's pride that he has become Oskiniko, a fine young man.

With fingers stained purple from the sweet juice of Saskatoon berries and chokecherries, the children gather around the evening fire to hear stories of the old days and learn from their Elders.

This most wonderful of all childhoods ends abruptly when the children are taken away in a truck by scary looking men in black who resemble "giant crows" to attend residential school far away.

Terrified and tearful, Lawrence and his brothers and sister find themselves ripped from their secure, cozy nest and, like the baby owl, have no parents to watch over them.

As Long As The Rivers Flow ends with a short history describing the harsh realities of residential school life and a collection of black and white photos, circa 1944, of author Lawrence (Larry) Loyie with his brothers, sisters and the nuns and priests at St. Bernard's Mission in northern Alberta.

Lavishly illustrated with quiet, subtle watercolor paintings on every page, this bittersweet story is as beautifully told in pictures as it is in words.

Loyie, winner of the 2001 Canada Post Literacy Award for Individual Achievement, has penned a small masterpiece of unsentimental storytelling that bridges the richness of traditional Cree culture with the intergenerational havoc wrecked upon Native people by the residential school system. Highly recommended reading.

Review by Pamela Sexsmith