Review of Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow by Brian D. McInne

Story, Eric

English

Scholars Commons

Canadian Military History
Volume 27 | Issue 1 Article 11
2-28-2018
"Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis
Pegahmagabow (Book Review)" by Brian D.
McInnes
Eric Story
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Recommended Citation
Story, Eric () ""Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow (Book Review)" by Brian D. McInnes," Canadian Military
History: Vol. 27 : Iss. 1 , Article 11.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol27/iss1/11
36 Book Reviews
Brian D. McInnes. Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis 
Pegahmagabow. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2015. Pp. 
221.
Many will have heard the name Francis Pegahmagabow. If they 
have, they will likely know him as Canada’s most decorated 
soldier and the deadliest sniper in Canadian history. But, as Brian 
McInnes’ important biography Sounding Thunder demonstrates, 
Pegahmagabow was more than just a soldier of the Great War. He 
was an Ojibwe man who adhered to, and believed deeply in, the 
traditional Nishnaabe way of life but was caught up in the rapidly 
changing times of colonial North America in the late nineteenth and 
early twentieth centuries.
McInnes begins his book by contextualising Pegahmagabow’s life 
in the longer, cultural history of the Ojibwe people of Georgian Bay. In 
the second chapter, he recounts the pre-contact migration story of the 
various communities of Ojibwe who came to inhabit the Great Lakes 
region. By the end of their journey from the eastern seaboard, many 
Ojibwe had travelled as far as the western tip of the Great Lakes, 
but several groups had broken from the main party and remained 
at key points along the way––one being at present-day Shawanaga, 
where Pegahmagabow was born, and another at Wasauksing, where 
he would reside when he returned home from the war.
In the three chapters that follow, McInnes offers the reader a 
glimpse into the life of Pegahmagabow and the lives of the Nishnaabeg 
at Wasauksing and Shawanaga, shaped as they were by geography, 
language and culture. A valuable annotated map of traditional place 
names at Wasauksing First Nation based on years of research with 
local elders from both Wasauksing and Shawanaga identifies the areas 
that would have been familiar and important to Pegahmagabow and 
other Nishnaabeg (pp. 68–73). These names were often based on the 
traditions by which the community made use of natural resources or 
were inspired by spiritual entities thought to inhabit its spaces.
The last three chapters shift the focus from the community to 
the individual and represent McInnes’ most significant contribution 
to the historical writings on Francis Pegahmagabow. Chapter Six 
places Pegahmagabow in a familial line of political leaders––his own 
leadership being in the style of traditional Nishnaabe governance and 
interrelationships. Elected as chief of Wasauksing between 1921 and 
1935, and again from 1942 to 1945, Pegahmagabow spent these years 
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Story: "Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow (Book Revi
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  37C A N A D I A N  M I L I TA RY  H I S T O RY 
fighting to re-establish Nishnaabe independence from the Department 
of Indian Affairs.
Pegahmagabow is perhaps best known for his martial capabilities 
during the Great War, and McInnes does provide some new insight into 
his actions during and after this period of his life. Growing up on the 
treacherous terrain of Georgian Bay aided in his preparation for and 
accomplishments on the battlefield, while the use of tobacco helped 
maintain the Spirit that fuelled his physical and mental strength. 
However, the effects of war returned with him to the Wasauksing 
First Nation. The physical, mental and even spiritual injuries he 
sustained in battle took their toll as years passed. A recurring image 
in McInnes’ book is of Pegahmagabow sleeping upright in his chair, 
unable to rest in a bed due to inflamed lungs which caused him great 
pain. Even the thunder spirits that blessed him as a young boy and 
gave him strength during the war brought back terrible memories of 
his experiences fighting in the trenches and isolated him from family 
and friends.
McInnes’ final chapter looks at community life in Wasauksing and 
Pegahmagabow’s place within it. The author writes of the importance 
of sharing stories––a “favourite pastime” of Pegahmagabow’s, which 
he passed along to his children (p. 160). The Nishnaabe of Georgian 
Bay were also deeply spiritual people, who infused their traditional 
spiritual practices with the concepts of Christ. Pegahmagabow 
regularly attended the Catholic Church at the Wasauksing First 
Nation, finding strength in Christian prayer which had helped him 
through his trials of fire during the First World War.
By itself a brilliant and deeply personal monograph, McInnes’ 
study of the life and times of Francis Pegahmagabow is strengthened 
by his use of methodologies from various disciplines. He utilises 
linguistics, anthropology, geography, Indigenous storytelling and, 
of course, history to write about the Ojibwe people who came to 
inhabit the Georgian Bay region and the leader they called Francis 
Pegahmagabow. His analysis refuses to place Pegahmagabow into 
the predictable binary framework of “victimhood/agency” employed 
by many historians of Indigenous peoples. Relying heavily on 
oral testimony as opposed to written sources, he writes less of 
Pegahmagabow’s relationship with the state and settler population and 
more about the one between himself, his family and his community. 
McInnes’ story thus allows the reader to relate to Pegahmagabow on 
an intimate level.
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38 Book Reviews
As book-ends to his chapters, McInnes also relates the stories 
told by Duncan and Marie Pegahmagabow, two of Francis’ children, 
whose oral testimony forms the bulk of his sources. These stories are 
highly personal, told first in Ojibwe and then translated into English. 
They reflect Pegahmagabow’s great love for the Ojibwe language and 
tradition of storytelling. The most moving of them––called Ndedm 
Gaa-Giiwed (When My Father Went Home)––is Duncan’s re-telling 
of his father’s passing, and how he came to terms with it (pp. 176–
184).
Yet McInnes’ book is not without its flaws. Relying almost 
solely on the oral testimony of two of Pegahmagabow’s children, 
the book sometimes leans towards an overly flattering portrayal of 
Pegahmagabow. At one point, Duncan says of his father: “I admired 
him to the point that I almost thought of him as a kind of god, that 
is how much I admired and respected my father” (p. 176). Such 
testimony raises questions about the objectivity of the source and its 
ability to speak critically about the subject in question. Yet without 
Duncan and Marie, McInnes would not have been able to write 
Sounding Thunder as it is, particularly the chapters that deal with 
family and community. Whatever readers prioritise––the legitimacy 
of McInnes’ oral sources or the chapters on family and community––
will shape how they view this book. For myself, the latter is more 
important than the former.
Aside from a few insights into Pegahmagabow’s life during and 
after the war, McInnes does not have much to add. He understands 
Pegahmagabow as a “community member and family man rather 
than a soldier,” and as a result, his experiences overseas are relegated 
to a short chapter (p. 22). Although this might be a disappointment 
to some, it perhaps better reflects the life of Francis Pegahmagabow. 
The war was only four short years in his sixty-four-year lifespan. 
Admittedly, it did teach him lessons that he would carry with him 
for the remainder of his life, but it simply was not as important as the 
fight he waged against the destructive colonial forces that wreaked 
havoc on his people, his language and his culture (p. 25). 
McInnes’ Sounding Thunder brings complexity and nuance to the 
story (or stories) of Francis Pegahmagabow’s life. Past authors have 
portrayed Pegahmagabow alternatively as a warrior, a veteran, and/
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Story: "Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow (Book Revi
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier,
  39C A N A D I A N  M I L I TA RY  H I S T O RY 
or a political activist.1 Certainly, these depictions capture snapshots 
of his character. But McInnes goes much further, adding breadth 
and depth to the sketch of the Nishnaabe man from Georgian Bay. 
He has produced a high-quality piece of historical research that tells 
an important story of Indigenous peoples as human beings with 
challenges that exist both within and without the constraints of 
colonialism.
eric story, wilfrid laurier university
1  The historiography of Francis Pegahmagabow is fairly lengthy. For the first––albeit 
limited––treatment of him, see Fred Gaffen, Forgotten Soldiers (Penticton: Theytus 
Books, 1985), 28, 37. Subsequent and more expansive works that have looked at 
Pegahmagabow’s wartime experiences include Adrian Hayes, Pegahmagabow: 
Legendary Warrior, Forgotten Hero (Huntsville: Fox Meadow Creations, 2003), 
21–41; John Steckley and Bryan Cummins, “Pegahmagabow of Parry Island: From 
Jenness Informant to Individual,” Canadian Journal of Natives Studies 25, no. 1 
(2005): 44–45; and Timothy C. Winegard, For King and Kanata: Canadian Indians 
and the First World War (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012), 50–51, 
113–117. See also Robin Jarvis Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye: Indian Agents, Government 
Power, and Aboriginal Resistance, 1918–1939 (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 
2003), 63–69; Hayes, Pegahmagabow, 59–69; Winegard, For King and Kanata, 153, 
157; and Eric Story, “‘The Awakening Has Come’: First Nations in the Great War 
Era, 1914–1932,” Canadian Military History 24, no. 2 (2015): 15–16, 25–26, for his 
life as a disillusioned and politically-active veteran.
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Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow (Book Review)  by Brian D. McInnes

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Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow (Book Review) by Brian D. McInnes

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