Jesse Thistle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jesse Thistle
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| Occupation | Historian, teacher, writer  |
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| Website | jessethistle |
Jesse Thistle (born 1976) is a Métis-Cree author, historian, and professor from Canada. He teaches at York University in Toronto. He is famous for his 2019 book, From the Ashes, which tells the story of his life. He also wrote a book of poetry called Scars and Stars in 2022.
His book From the Ashes is very successful. It was named one of the 100 most important books published by Simon and Schuster in its 100-year history. Thistle is also a PhD candidate at York University. His studies focus on the history and survival of the road allowance Métis people. He uses his own life experiences, including his past struggles with homelessness, to help with his research.
Contents
Early Life and Family
Jesse Thistle was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. When he was three years old, he and his brothers moved to Brampton, Ontario. They were raised by their grandparents. As a young man, Thistle faced many difficult challenges, including homelessness. Eventually, he decided to turn his life around and focus on his education.
Family History
Thistle's family history is very important to his work. His mother, Blanche Morissette, is Métis-Cree. She grew up in a special type of settlement called a road allowance community in Saskatchewan. These were places where Métis people lived on unused government land. His father, Cyril "Sonny" Thistle, has Scot-Algonquin roots and has been missing since 1982.
Thistle's great-grandmother, Marianne Ledoux Morissette, was part of the Métis Resistance in 1885. She helped during the Battle of Batoche. A TV documentary called Family Camera shows pictures of Thistle's family. In the film, he, his mother, and his aunts talk about their family's history and the challenges Métis people have faced in Canada.
Education and Achievements
Thistle earned his first degree in history from York University in 2015. He then completed a master's degree in history at the University of Waterloo in 2016. His studies focused on Métis history and how difficult experiences can affect families for many generations. This is sometimes called intergenerational trauma.
In 2016, Thistle began working on his PhD in history at York University. He has won many awards for his schoolwork. These include the Governor General's Silver Medal in 2016. He is also a Trudeau Scholar and a Vanier scholar, which are very important awards for students in Canada.
Career and Research
Jesse Thistle uses his own life story to help him with his research. By studying his past, he better understands the history of Métis people in Canada. He looks at how events from the past can affect people today.
Research on Métis History
Thistle has done important research on Métis history. He once studied whether Métis people lived in the Toronto area in the past. At first, he thought they did. But after more research, he changed his mind. He now believes there were no permanent Métis communities in Toronto. He has talked about this to help make sure historical information is correct.
Most of his research is about the road allowance communities in Saskatchewan. He studies his own family's history to learn more about these communities. He uses old documents and records to piece together the stories of his ancestors. A short film called kiskisiwin | remembering shows how he uses historical archives to connect with his culture.
Work on Indigenous Homelessness
From 2015 to 2017, Thistle worked with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. He helped people understand Indigenous homelessness in a new way. He explained that for many Indigenous people, homelessness is not just about not having a house. It is also about losing their culture and connection to their home communities.
He argued that events like the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop have had a lasting impact. He created a new definition of Indigenous homelessness in 2017 to help others understand these unique challenges.
Famous Books
In 2019, Thistle published his life story, From the Ashes. The book talks about his childhood, his difficult teenage years, and his journey to becoming a professor. It was praised for being honest and powerful. The book became a bestseller in Canada.
In 2020, From the Ashes was the bestselling book by a Canadian author. It was also chosen for the CBC Canada Reads competition.
Awards and Honours
- From the Ashes was the #1 bestselling Indigenous memoir in Canada from 2005 to 2023.
- Simon and Schuster named From the Ashes one of the 100 most notable books it published between 1924 and 2024.
- It was the #1 bestselling Canadian book in any category in 2020.
- It was the #1 most borrowed Canadian non-fiction book from libraries in 2021.
- Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for non-fiction.
- Indigo Books chose From the Ashes as one of the best books of 2019.
- His poetry book, Scars and Stars, was chosen as one of the best books of 2022.
- He was named one of the 50 most influential people in Toronto in 2019.
Selected Works
- Thistle, Jesse. The Puzzle of the Morrissette-Arcand Clan: A History of Metis Historic and Intergenerational Trauma. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
- Thistle, Jesse A. The Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, Toronto: York University, 2017. http://homelesshub.ca/IndigenousHomelessness
- Thistle, Jesse A. "We are children of the river: Toronto’s Lost Metis History," YOUR Review, vol 3 (2016).[1]
- Thistle, Jesse A., "kiskisiwin – remembering: Challenging Indigenous Erasure in Canada’s Public History Displays," Active History (July 3, 2017).[2]
- Thistle, Jesse A. "Listening to History: Correcting the Toronto Metis Land Acknowledgement," Active History (December 2, 2016).[3]
- Podruchny, Carolyn, and Jesse Thistle. "A Geography of Blood: Uncovering the Hidden Histories of Metis Peoples in Canada." In Spaces of Difference: Conflicts and Cohabitation, edited by Ursala Lehmkuhl, Hans-Jurgen Lusebrink, and Laurence McFalls, 61–82. New York: Waxmann, 2016.
