Letti begins her reconnection journey to her First Nation home

For Kaska Dena author Wendy Proverbs, her second book Letti in Progress for young readers is as close as she's going to get to telling her real-life story right now.

“There are definitely aspects of myself in Letti,” said Proverbs of her 11-year-old character. “When I was adopted, Indigenous people were kind of looked down upon and the non-Indigenous society was there to ‘raise us up’ and to assimilate, basically.”

Proverbs was part of the Sixties Scoop (mid-1950s through the 1980s) where Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in non-Indigenous homes. Like Letti, Proverbs had a supportive adoptive family. However, unlike Letti, Proverbs had no support at school.

“When I was going through the school system, there was absolutely nothing to encourage cultural aspects of Indigenous people. That’s just the way it was. And I think we had a little chapter in Social Studies about Indigenous people on the prairies and tipis. So it was really lacking in support and resources,” said Proverbs, who resides in Vancouver.

That isn’t the case for Letti, whose journey is placed in contemporary times.

In fact, it is through the help of Letti’s school counselor, who is Coast Salish and Scottish, that the young girl and her mom connect with Letti’s ancestry in Kaska Dena territory in the Yukon.

Proverbs takes both the readers and Letti’s extended family on the more than 2,000 km road trip to connect with Letti’s maternal grandmother. The family travels from Victoria to Daylu Denu (also known as Lower Post) located along the Alaska Highway just north of the British Columbia border. Proverbs includes a map of the road trip in the front of the book.

When Letti, her mom and her aunts arrive in Daylu, they learn about the continuing impact of Indian residential schools.

“…Many of our people were taken far away from our communities to attend residential school, and many lost their connection to their homeland. It’s possible that’s what happened to your grandmother. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t Kaska Dena,” Lou, the band administrator, tells Letti.

Proverbs says people need to remember that children who went to residential schools “were cast adrift. Some that maybe tried to come back, they weren't necessarily accepted because they weren't Kaska Dena really, because they were stripped of their language, their culture, et cetera. I think that's quite important that not everybody gets a happy, welcoming homecoming from a community that really doesn't know much about you.”

Letti’s journey doesn’t end with the single trip to her home territory. She gets a commitment from her mother that she can return the next year to attend the Kaska Youth Camp.

And that’s the “in progress” aspect of the book title, says Proverbs. 

“This is something for the future for Letti to work toward because she's going to go back to the camp and she will eventually, I believe, meet some distant cousins or somebody that will help her in her understanding of her heritage,” said Proverbs.

Proverbs points out that while things have changed since her adoption, with the inclusion of Orange Shirt Day, honouring survivors of Indian residential schools, and cultural days at schools, the 2021 Canadian census reports that Indigenous children make up 53.8 per cent of those in foster care. This is why a story like Letti in Progress is still so important.

“Indigenous children are being taken from their home communities, not as much as they used to, but it does still occur. It's a relevant issue and…we need to improve those stats greatly,” said Proverbs.

The book also includes a study guide applicable for children in grades 3 through 7. While it’s aimed at teachers, parents and guardians, Proverbs says she hopes children who read the book will also look at the study guide and think about some of the questions posed.

Proverbs says the inclusion of the study guide was a proactive measure after teachers requested one for her debut awards-winning children’s book Aggie & Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dene Children (2021). That story was based on Proverbs’ biological mother and aunt.

Letti in Progress is illustrated by Alyssa Koski, a member of the Kainai Nation. It is published by Heritage House and will be released Sept. 1. It can be purchased at https://heritagehouse.ca/collections/wendy-proverbs/products/letti-in-p…