The Scarlet Lily
by Nan Shipley
Category: Manitoba

?This is the colorful story of the opening of Western Canada in 1860 as seen through the eyes of Ellen Nash--a beautiful, well-mannered, and musically talented young woman brought up in the East. She marries a missionary Indian, David Hunter, who is attempting to educate his tribesmen and the white settlers to understand each other’s needs and ways of doing things. On one of these expeditions David is killed. Some time later Ellen marries Bruce Cameron. The exciting political and social life of each community where Ellen lives--Indian camp, trading post, small town and later the cattle ranch and the national capital--is described in intimate detail. The story weaves back and forth between the personal life of Ellen and the dramatic events that affect the settling of the Northwest Territories in Canada; the building of the railroad; the financial intrigues of which Ellen becomes aware through her second husband’s involvement; the reactions of the Indian tribes that had occupied these lands for centuries; the means used by the rum-runners and traders to subdue the Indians; the formation of the Northwest Mounted Police; and finally the various treaties signed by Queen Victoria’s representatives and by the chiefs of the several Indian tribes.?--Book jacket.