Stubbendieck book prize winner Hogue to speak Sept. 29

Michel Hogue, winner of this year’s Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize, will speak at the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at 7 p.m. Sept. 29.

Hogue, assistant professor in history at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, won the award for his book “Métis and the Medicine Line: Creating a Border and Dividing a People.” His talk will focus on the Métis, who are the descendants of French-Canadian fur traders and northern Great Plains indigenous tribes. The Medicine Line refers to what some Indians called the U.S.-Canadian border because it seemed to magically stop U.S. soldiers from pursuing them. The Métis were important economic and political intermediaries between white and Native people on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.

In April 2016, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the Métis and other non-status Natives must be considered true Natives in the eyes of the federal government and can pursue benefits from Canada’s Indian Act.

Hogue’s lecture is part of the Great Plains, Great Ideas Paul A. Olson Seminar series and is free and open to the public. Hogue’s book will be available for purchase at the lecture, after which he will sign copies. The center is at 1155 Q St. in downtown Lincoln. For more information, click here.