The Three Sisters

Abstract

Over the past several decades, as researchers we have worked, on and off, with Indigenous individuals and families who have approached us looking for genealogical records that might be able to provide them with answers to questions, or to document relationships with their communities and their families. Peoples’ reasons for wanting to find these records have ranged from personal interest, to being able to access significant health or education resources. Because Indigeneity has been defined by governments in Canada as a biological and genealogical quality, open access to quality genealogical resources for Indigenous people has implications that reach far beyond hobby genealogy. This case study involves the family of three sisters who left their family and their Cross Lake community in the twentieth century, and never returned.