Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear

Book excerpt: Learn about the real-life story of Theresa Delaney and Theresa Gowanlock, whose names were on everyone's lips after they were held captive together with seventy-eight other hostages two months in 1885 by the Plains Cree. Rumors circulated about their mistreatment during captivity, but the two women emerged unharmed and insisted that the rumors were unfounded. Despite their firsthand account, the published narrative of their experience, 'Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear', followed the literary conventions of the Indian captivity narrative, creating simplified heroes and villains and contributing to a narrow and one-sided representation of the events of 1885. This book is a complicated legacy of past perspectives that were commonly held by many at the time.