Honoré JaxonHonoré Jaxon

The first definitive biography of this complex political man, who served as Louis Riel's secretary in 1885, and went on to be a labour leader in Chicago and a "capitalist" in New York City. Born in Wingham, Ontario to a Methodist family, William Henry Jackson attended the University of Toronto before moving to Prince Albert, where he began to sympathize with the Métis and their struggle against the Canadian government. Jackson became personal secretary to Louis Riel, was captured by the Canadian militia during the 1885 Resistance, and was convicted of treason and sentenced to an insane asylum near Winnipeg. When he escaped to the United States, joining the labour union movement, he told everyone that he was Métis, and started using his Riel-given name, Honoré Jaxon. After a lively career as a politically radical public figure in Chicago - where he befriended, among others, the revolutionary architect Frank Lloyd Wright -- Jaxon eventually moved to New York City to attempt life as a real estate developer. His ongoing project was to collect the complete written record of books, newspapers, and pamphlets relating to the Métis people, in an attempt to establish a museum in their honour. However, he became indigent and his entire collection was sent to the New York City garbage dump. He died a month later, in early 1952. Honoré Jaxon: Prairie Visionary completes Donald Smith_s "Prairie Imposters" popular history trilogy concerning three prominent figures who all pretended a native ancestry they did not, in fact, possess -- Honoré Jaxon, Grey Owl, and Long Lance.