The Story Behind The Lesser Blood: Why Wolves and Coyotes?
Of all the stories in Silent as the Wild, The Lesser Blood may have one of the clearest connections to the history that inspired it.
This time, I knew the story I wanted to tell before I knew which animals would tell it.
I wanted to explore something from early Métis history.
The Métis emerged over generations from relationships between First Nations women and European men. Their descendants eventually developed distinct communities, traditions, political identities and a culture that was neither simply European nor First Nations.
But belonging wasn't always simple. People of mixed ancestry could find themselves living between worlds, and prejudice could come from more than one direction. I wanted to tell a story about that. But first, I needed some animals.
Enter the wolf and the coyote
This required a little research. I needed two different animals that could realistically have offspring together, and I wanted those offspring to be able to have families of their own.
That last part mattered.
Some animals from different species can produce offspring, but those offspring aren't always fertile.
Then I discovered wolves and coyotes.
Wolves and coyotes are closely related enough that they can interbreed, and their offspring can themselves reproduce.
Suddenly, I had my characters. And The Lesser Blood began to take shape.
A wolf, a coyote and a mother who is NOT impressed
At the centre of the story is a young wolf who falls in love with a coyote. His mother is not pleased. Actually, that's putting it mildly. She believes her son should be with his own kind. In her mind, wolves are wolves, coyotes are coyotes, and mixing the two can only diminish what they are.
Hence the title: The Lesser Blood.
It reflects the idea that one bloodline can somehow be considered better, purer or more worthy than another.
It is an ugly idea. And, of course, a very human one. Apparently I gave it to a wolf.
Something new begins
The young wolf and his coyote mate eventually leave and begin a life of their own.
And they aren't alone forever. A community begins to grow. That's the part of the story that mattered most to me.
Because the Métis did not simply remain people caught permanently between two cultures.
Over generations, something distinct emerged. Communities formed. Families grew. Traditions developed and were passed on. A culture, identity and nationhood took shape.
The Métis became a people in their own right.
In The Lesser Blood, I wanted the new community of wolves, coyotes and their descendants to echo a little of that history. Not to recreate it exactly. They're wolves and coyotes, after all. But to explore the idea of people creating a place of belonging when the existing world doesn't quite have one for them.
And then there's Mother
I didn't want the wolf mother to suddenly discover that she had been wrong all along and become a completely different character.
People usually aren't that tidy.
Her acceptance comes because the thing she feared becomes real. And it isn't what she imagined.
Her son hasn't disappeared. His family isn't lesser. The new community isn't some terrible dilution of everything she values. It is simply something new. And gradually, she sees it.
That's where I wanted to leave her: not with a grand speech about tolerance, but with a changed understanding, because sometimes acceptance doesn't begin with understanding everything.
Sometimes it begins when we finally stop being afraid of what is different.
Why The Lesser Blood?
I knew when I wrote this story that the title might make people uncomfortable.
It's supposed to.
The idea of “lesser blood” belongs to the mother at the beginning of the story , not to me, and ultimately not to the story itself.
By the end, the very thing she once regarded as lesser has become a family and a community. And perhaps that's what I like most about this particular story. I started with a piece of Métis history I wanted to explore. I went looking for animals that could help me tell it. And somehow a rather opinionated wolf mother, her lovestruck son and one apparently unsuitable coyote took it from there.