Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett

by Michael Nest

Other authorsDeanna Reder (Author), Eric Bell (Author)
Paperback, 2020

Status

Available

Call number

363.2 N47 2020

Call number

363.2 N47 2020

Description

"A small team uncovers new evidence and exposes police failure in one of the North's most enduring missing persons cases. Missing persons. Double murder? Métis leader James Brady was one of the most famous Indigenous activists in Canada. A communist, strategist, and bibliophile, he led Métis and First Nations to rebel against government and church oppression. Brady's success made politicians and clergy fear him; he had enemies everywhere. In 1967, while prospecting in Saskatchewan with Cree Band Councillor and fellow activist, Absolom Halkett, both men vanished from their remote lakeside camp. For 50 years rumours swirled of secret mining interests, political intrigue, and murder. Cold Case North is the story of how a small team, with the help of the Indigenous community, exposed police failure in the original investigation, discovered new clues and testimony, and gathered the pieces of the North's most enduring missing persons puzzle. 'Like too many cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people, authorities failed to ensure that Brady and Halkett's deaths were properly investigated. This book helps get to the bottom of the fate of these two men, and demonstrates why investigators should never dismiss the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples.' --Darren Prefontaine, author of Gabriel Dumont."--… (more)

Publication

University of Regina Press (2020), 272 pages

Original language

English

Language

User reviews

LibraryThing member lamour
In 1967, James Brady and Absolom Halkett were flown into Middle Foster Lake in Northern Saskatchewan to prospect for Uranium deposits. When their boss checked on them a week later, they were missing and never seen again. The RCMP quickly appeared to assume because they were indigenous they became
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lost and starved to death or had a fatal accident. The fact that they were experienced woodsmen and prospectors and would know how to survive if lost never seemed to occur to the authorities. They also never consulted other natives who were very familiar with the search area and the two men.

The local indigenous always felt the two men were murdered and even claimed they knew who. The three authors of this book spent several years researching the missing men's history, the original investigation and search and interviewed friends & relatives of the men. From all the information, they determined the two missing men had been murdered, where the murder took place and where the murderer dropped the bodies into the lake. A determined search of the lake bottom seemed to yield results enough to satisfied the searchers that they had found the resting place of Jim & Abbie.

One lesson for authorities to take from this case is to never dismiss the knowledge of Indigenous People.
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ISBN

0889777497 / 9780889777491
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