In Search Of April Raintree By Beatrice Culleton Mosionier

The book ‘In search of April Raintree’” by Beatrice Culleton Mosionier, a Canadian

Metis author, is about the dominance of the “white” society against the culturally different

Native people. It iswas about April Raintree, a twenty-four- year-old Metis woman telling the

story of her and her younger sister Cheryl's lives. April and her younger sister Cheryl, when only

six and four years old, were taken from their parents by the Children's Aid Society, first to a

convent orphanage, and then to various foster homes. Although they were often separated, they

always thought about and wrote to each other. Appearance wise April was the white Métis, while

Cheryl has dark skin tone and lookedwas totally Indian, with darker skin tone and

As time heals April’s wounds, Cheryl, on the other hand, is not able to

overcome her shame and victimization and finally regards suicide to be her last resort. April,

after Cheryl's death, learns everything Cheryl had suffered from and also learns about her son,

Henry Lee. April decides to take care of her nephew and is finally able to accept her Native

ancestry and is able to to be proud and self-confident of her Metis identity.

One of the main arguments that Beatrice forwardsputs forward are how both sisters,

April, and Cheryl, suffer suppressed oppression and self-hatred after being exposed to foreign

environments, such as the different ethics and lifestyle of their new foster families. April, from a

young age, had no interest in her ethnicity and disregarded her native side. April had s hown

demonstrated this since she was young, and playing with other kids in the playground she stated,

“But they were dirty looking and they dressed in real raggedy clothes. I didn’t care to play with

them at all. The other group was white-skinned, and I used to envy them”’ (pp.16pp. 16). Cheryl,

on the other hand, embraced her Metis culture and was encouraged to do so by her foster

Although this came at the cost of her sister, Cheryl, she had finally

found her identity. April had this to say regarding the cost of finding her identity, . ”“The denial

had been lifted from my spirit. It was tragic that it had taken Cheryl’s death to bring me to accept

my identity… Cheryl had died. But for Henry Lee and me, there would be a tomorrow. And it

would be better. I would strive for it. For my sister and her son. For my parents. For my people”

(pp. 207).

“In sSearch of April Raintree” is about the craving for self-identity and the longing to be

part of a communityto be part of a community to belong into. It is about how the self-identity of

the nNative people have the potential to beare lost in an urban environment. But perhaps,

because of the immediacy of the first-person narrative, as the reader, I inevitably was drawn into

the controversy regarding attitudinal ethics and the question of foster homes and adoption of

Nnative children. This book contributes to the field of studies in the cultural aspects of Native

people. However, it is limited in that we only see the story from the perspective of April, as