Calgary author Blair Palmer Yoxall has released a debut novel that reimagines the western genre through a Metis lens, offering an unsettling counter-narrative to traditional cowboy-and-Indian tales. The 33-year-old writer, who has Metis heritage on his mother's side, drew inspiration from his family history and a lifelong frustration with how Indigenous people are depicted in popular culture.
A Personal Connection to History
Yoxall's grandfather was a residential school survivor who grew up in Loon Lake (Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation) in Saskatchewan. Growing up in Calgary, Yoxall loved westerns but always felt something was wrong. 'I remember as a kid always watching westerns, reading westerns, playing westerns,' he says. 'But, ever since I was a little kid, something always bugged me about westerns. I'm tired of seeing Indigenous people always being scalped or in some way just being a savage enemy. That always really offended me and bothered me. Because in my family, the Indigenous people are cowboys.'
The Inspiration Behind the Novel
Yoxall's admiration for Cormac McCarthy's ultra-violent novel Blood Meridian, often described as an anti-western, partly inspired his own work. 'I remember reading it and thinking, "This book is genuinely beautiful, this book is genuinely gorgeous, I'm enjoying it," ' Yoxall recalls. 'But I can only get scalped so many times before I'm like, "OK, are you guys going to kill someone who is not an innocent Indigenous person who is just chilling?" It was not that I was desensitized by the violence; I just thought it felt like there needed to be consequences. It felt like these non-Indigenous scalp hunters needed to get their comeuppance, but it wasn't coming.' This frustration drove him to write a story directly in conversation with those representations.
The Novel: Treat Them As Buffalo
Released earlier this month, Treat Them As Buffalo began as Yoxall's Master of Arts thesis at the University of Alberta, after more than a decade of development. After completing the manuscript, he found a literary agent and signed with HarperCollins following a brief bidding war. The novel has received critical acclaim, with praise from notable Canadian authors such as Heather O'Neill and Thomas Wharton.
The story is set in 1885 in the Saskatchewan town of Lac-aux-Trois-Pistoles, against the backdrop of Louis Riel's North-West Rebellion. While the historical setting adds urgency, the narrative focuses on the personal horror experienced by the Erikson-Desjarlais family, told through the eyes of 12-year-old Metis boy Nikosis. He lives with his Nimama (mother), Auntie, and Chapan (grandmother). The novel opens with the kidnapping of Nikosis's cousin in broad daylight, leading the townsfolk to realize that someone is targeting Metis boys, who begin to disappear one by one.
A Story of Anger and Healing
Yoxall explains that the novel allowed him to channel his emotions constructively. 'It was this mix of personal family history, admiration for genre and the author's desire to get out some of my anger in a way that's not going to hurt anybody or myself,' he says. The book challenges the myths of the western genre while exploring themes of family, loss, and resilience. By centering the Metis experience, Yoxall offers a fresh perspective on a turbulent period in Canadian history.
