Basil H. Johnston writes about his people--the Ojibway--their traditions, customs, and relationships with the white man on and off the reserve. His writings, whether short stories, poems, retellings of traditional legends, or historical and critical essays, articulate the feelings of a Canadian Indian author who wishes to set the record straight and to preserve aspects of a culture which is facing assimilation into the mainstream. Johnston achieves these goals through quiet dignity, wit, and humor. His short stories abound in jovial banter for, in the bewilderment of the complexity and acquisitiveness of modern technological society, laughter helps to wipe out hard feelings and misunderstandings and to lighten the load of failure and disappointment. His sense of humor reflects the Ojibway's sociability and recreation. And humor, sometimes wry and subtle, sometimes mischievously funny, plays an important role in Johnston's writings.

The son of Rufus and Mary Lafreniere Johnston, Basil...