Jesse Thistle facts for kids

Jesse Thistle (born in 1976) is a Métis-Cree author and a professor at York University in Toronto. He wrote the book From the Ashes in 2019, which tells his life story. He also wrote a poetry book called Scars and Stars in 2022. From the Ashes is considered one of the most important books published by Simon and Schuster in its 100-year history. Jesse Thistle is also studying for his PhD in history at York University. He is researching how past challenges affect Métis people today. This research helps him understand his own life experiences.

Early Life and Family

Jesse Thistle was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. When he was young, in 1979, he and his two brothers moved to Brampton, Ontario. They were raised by their grandparents there. As a teenager and young adult, Jesse faced many difficult times. He experienced homelessness and other challenges. After a tough period, he decided to seek help and turn his life around.

Jesse's research into history often includes stories from his own family. His mother, Blanche Morissette, is Métis-Cree. She grew up in a "road allowance" community called Park Valley in Big River, Saskatchewan. His father, Cyril "Sonny" Thistle, has Scottish and Algonquin roots. Jesse's great-grandmother, Marianne Ledoux Morissette, was part of the Métis Resistance in 1885. This was during the Battle of Batoche. A documentary called Family Camera shows pictures of the Morissette family. It also includes interviews with Jesse, his mother, and aunts. They share stories about living in road allowance communities. They also talk about how the Canadian government treated Métis people.

Education and Achievements

Jesse Thistle earned his first university degree in History from York University in 2015. His main project for this degree was about the historic Métis community near Lake Timiskaming. He then completed a Master's degree in History at the University of Waterloo in 2016. His Master's project explored the history of his own family, the Morrissette-Arcand Clan. In 2016, he started working on his PhD in History at York University.

Jesse has received many important awards for his studies. He is a Trudeau Scholar and a Vanier Scholar. These are very respected awards given to top students in Canada. In 2016, he also won a Governor General's Silver Medal. He has won other awards too, like the Odessa Award in 2014. In 2015, he won the Dr. James Wu prize for his paper "We are children of the river: Toronto’s Lost Metis History."

Research and Writing

Jesse Thistle uses his academic research to understand his own life story. He grew up disconnected from his Indigenous community and its history. His past experiences with homelessness and other challenges have shaped his unique research. His historical work looks at the place of Métis people and culture in Canada. He especially focuses on the idea of challenges that are passed down through generations.

Early in his research, Jesse looked into whether Métis people lived permanently in the Toronto area long ago. In 2016, he wrote an article called "Listening to History: Correcting the Toronto Metis Land Acknowledgement." In this article, he explained that his research now suggests there were no permanent Métis settlements in Toronto. He believes that the standard land acknowledgement used in Toronto, which often includes the Métis, might be incorrect. He shared this view in an article for The New Yorker magazine.

A big part of Jesse's research is about the road allowance Métis in Saskatchewan. He learns about them by studying his own family's history. He finds old documents and connects with his Indigenous culture. He wrote about this process in an article called "Archives as Good Medicine." It's also shown in a short film called kiskisiwin | remembering. Jesse has visited northern Saskatchewan and interviewed people there for his PhD work. His research on the Road Allowance Métis community has been featured on CBC Radio's "Unreserved" program.

From 2015 to 2017, Jesse was the National Representative for Indigenous Homelessness. He worked with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. In this role, he argued that we need to understand homelessness differently for Indigenous people. He said that current ways of helping don't always consider the impact of challenges passed down through generations. He also highlighted the deep sense of loss of culture and home for survivors of experiences like residential schools and the Sixties Scoop. He believes that helping Indigenous people experiencing homelessness must include Indigenous ways of thinking. In October 2017, Jesse published a new way to define Indigenous homelessness.

In 2019, Jesse published his memoir, From the Ashes. This book shares details about his childhood, youth, and early adult life. It talks about his journey through difficult times and his path to higher education. The book shows how he eventually became a professor and found love and a sense of belonging. People praised the book for being honest about loss and pain. They also admired how it showed the long-lasting effects of colonization and trauma. Many famous people, like psychologist Gabor Mate, have supported the book. From the Ashes became a bestseller in Canada. It was the bestselling book by a Canadian author in 2020. It was also the bestselling Indigenous memoir of the last 20 years. In 2020, singer George Canyon chose it for the CBC Canada Reads competition.

Awards and Honours

• #1 Bestselling Indigenous memoir in Canada between 2005-2023 - From the Ashes.
• From the Ashes was named one of the "most notable" 100 books published by Simon and Schuster in its 100-year history (1924-2024). It is the only Canadian book on this list, alongside famous authors like Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King.
• #1 Bestselling Canadian book of 2020 (any type or format) - From the Ashes.
• #1 Most borrowed Canadian non-fiction book of 2021 - From the Ashes.
• #1 Bestselling Canadian non-fiction book of 2020 - From the Ashes.
• #1 Bestselling two-year-old Canadian book (2019-2021) - From the Ashes.
• Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for non-fiction.
• From the Ashes was chosen as #3 on Indigo's best books of 2019 list.
• Scars and Stars was chosen as #6 best book of 2022.
• Named one of the 50 most influential Torontonians of 2019.

Images for kids

• 

  Jesse Thistle