Honoré Jaxon: Prairie Visionary

By Donald Smith

Born in 1861 to a Methodist family, William Henry Jackson grew up in Ontario before moving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he sympathized with the M tis and became personal secretary to Louis Riel. After the M tis defeat a Regina court committed the young English Canadian idealist to the lunatic asylum at Lower Fort Garry. He eventually escaped to the United States, joined the labour union movement, and renounced his race. Self-identifying as M tis, he changed his name to the French-sounding "Honor Jaxon" and devoted the remainder of his life to fighting for the working class and the Indigenous peoples of North America.

In Honor Jaxon, Donald B. Smith draws on extensive archival research and interviews with family members to present a definitive biography of this complex political man. The book follows Jaxon into the 1940s, where his life mission became the establishment of a library for the First Nations in Saskatchewan, collecting as many books, newspapers, and pamphlets relating to the M tis people as possible. In 1951, at age ninety, he was evicted from his apartment and his library discarded to the New York City dump. In poor health and broken in spirit, he died one month later.

Heavily illustrated, Honor Jaxon recounts the complicated story of a young English Canadian who imagined a society in which English and French, Indigenous and M tis would be equals.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1487550146
• ISBN13: 9781487550141
• Release Date: November 2023
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher