by Nikki Rajala | Nov 11, 2018 | Featured
The tag on my website is “Nikki Rajala: writer, speaker, voyageur descendant.” So, who are those voyageurs I descended from? More importantly for you, might there be voyageurs in your family tree? Confession: I haven’t yet pored through microfilms of...
by Nikki Rajala | Oct 26, 2018 | Featured
In discussing “Treacherous Waters” in a group with French-Canadian ancestry, I mentioned what I’d learned about Ste. Anne as a patroness of voyageurs. I felt so smug. Then Marie asked, “Which Ste. Anne? Ste. Anne de Beaupré?” Oops. More than one Ste. Anne? I...
by Nikki Rajala | Oct 18, 2018 | Featured
“Saint Anne is the patroness of the Canadians, in all their travels by water.” That’s what Alexander Henry (the Elder) wrote in his 1804 journal about his 1761 venture into Canadian fur country. I also read about her in various fur trade histories. So I believed...
by Nikki Rajala | Oct 4, 2018 | Featured
Bon jour! (“Good day” in French) Have you wondered what the foreign words in “Waters Like the Sky” or “Treacherous Waters” sound like as you’re reading about the adventures and mishaps of a brigade of fur traders in the 1800s? If so, now you can check out the...
by Nikki Rajala | Sep 14, 2018 | Featured
A few days back I blogged about red voyageur sashes, though they came in many colors — the sash was the most defining piece of a voyageur’s apparel. Wearing a bright sash was a useful and stylish part of voyageur clothing. In Chapter 2 of “Treacherous Waters,”...
by Nikki Rajala | Jul 14, 2018 | Featured
The March-April 2018 issue of the Minnesota Conservation “Volunteer” magazine had a surprising article in “Crunch Goes the Cricket” — insects as a potential, sustainable and nutritious food source. They are packed with protein. (If only my starving voyageur characters...
