Maria Campbell (Metis)

Campbell is best known for her autobiography Halfbreed, which relates her struggles as a Metis woman in Canadian society. A best-seller in Canada, the book has been described by Hartmut Lutz as "the most important and seminal book authored by a Native person from Canada." Of Scottish, Indian, and French descent and the eldest daughter in a family of seven children, Campbell was born in Northern Saskatchewan . After her mother's death, Campbell was forced to quit school at age twelve to take care of her younger siblings. At age fifteen she married an alcoholic, abusive white man in order to prevent her brothers and sisters from being placed in an orphanage. Her attempt to keep her family united, however, was unsuccessful; her husband reported her to the welfare authorities, and her siblings were placed in foster care.

After moving to Vancouver, where her husband deserted her, Campbell became a prostitute and drug addict. After two suicide attempts and a nervous breakdown, she was hospitalized and entered Alcoholics Anonymous. She began writing Halfbreed in an attempt to deal with her anger, frustration, loneliness, and the pressure to return to a life of drugs and prostitution: "I had no money, and I was on the verge of being kicked out of my house, had no food, and I decided to go back out in the street and work. I went out one night and sat in a bit. And I just couldn't, because I knew if I went back to that, I'd be back on drugs again . . . I started writing a letter [to myself] because I had to have somebody to talk to, and there was nobody to talk to. And that was how I wrote Halfbreed."

Relating the first thirty-three years of her life, Halfbreed recounts on a personal level the discrimination and racism to which the Metis have historically been subjected. Infused with a strong undercurrent of anger and bitterness, the book documents Campbell's search for self identity, her attempts to overcome the harshness of Metis life, and finally, albeit briefly, her work as a political activist. Considered a sociological tract as well as a moving historical account, the book has been praised for its humor, its documentation of Metis patois and rituals, and its tender portrait of Campbell's loving relationship with her grandmother, Cheechum.

Campbell is additionally known for such children's works as People of the Buffalo: How the Plains Indians Lived and Riel's People, which relate Metis traditions and history, and for The Book of Jessica: A Theatrical Transformation, which documents her attempt to produce a stage adaptation of Halfbreed with Linda Griffiths. Commenting on the significance of Halfbreed to cross-cultural communication, Agnes Grant has observed: "although the book was written for non-Natives Maria keeps them at a distance. She writes of things she knows, which she believes her readers do not know. The humor and irony are very effective in pointing out to the readers that, indeed, Maria is right. There are things that we did not know. Until she wrote the book, 'Halfbreed' was nothing but a common derogatory term; now it means a person living between two cultures."

Some text taken from Smoke Rising: The Native North American Literary Companion