by Nikki Rajala | Aug 1, 2026 | Voyageur
This book came out a year ago. It’s taken me more than a year to consolidate my thoughts into a post. While I requested permission to reprint images and quotes, I never heard back, so the only artistry I can show are the covers of Gawboy’s work. “Fur Trade...
by Nikki Rajala | Feb 16, 2026 | Featured
For youth, Bigfork’s tiny public library had one short shelf of biographies, jacketed in red and yellow, illustrated with black and white drawings. After finishing the life stories of all the women (maybe 7 total), I kept on, reading about men like Lewis and...
by Nikki Rajala | Jul 13, 2025 | Voyageur
“A Canadian, if born to be a labourer, deems himself to be very unfortunate if he … shall reach five feet ten or eleven, it forever excludes him from the privilege of becoming voyageur. There is no room for the legs of such people in these canoes, But if he shall stop...
by Nikki Rajala | Jun 15, 2025 | Voyageur
In honor of National Canoe Day — June 26 in Canada — I created this emoji: ͼ!¡¡¡¡¡¡¡!ͻ Canoes were built in a variety of sizes, depending on need. Indigenous people used canoes for traveling, ricing, … and large canoes for war and trading. When the fur trade...
by Nikki Rajala | Mar 3, 2024 | Featured
Readers have asked for maps of Andre’s travels. To make it easier to locate him, I included a map in Book 3. And because I love maps and perused them extensively while writing “Uncharted Waters,” I’m sharing my favorite sections of those maps, with...
