Dear Readers,

In this blog, I will briefly describe the stories and projects I’m working on in 2025 and when you can expect to see them. Some of these stories are about to be released. Others are still in the working stage, and still others are just ideas rambling around in my head. Some of those ramblings may never see the light of day. I will update this post regularly to inform you what’s on the agenda.

I’m excited to see our book, Cartographic Poetry, finally reaching the bookstores. The folks at the University of Alberta Press are doing an admirable job putting this book together. The authors have worked on this project for many years and are happy to see it come to fruition.

I have received offers from publishers to publish two of my historical fiction manuscripts. Unless I get better offers from interested parties, I’ve decided to self-publish these stories because these offers made little economic sense.

I’m not aiming to get rich from publishing. But I don’t think I should lose money promoting my literature. I now know how farmers and artists must feel. They do all the work, take all the risks, use their considerable creative abilities, and then get paid little or nothing for their effort.

I realize it costs money to edit, illustrate, print, promote and market, and sell literature, but to give authors relatively little in return or expect them to fork out $5,000 – $10,000 upfront to prepare a book for sale, just does not seem like a good economic plan for me. Would my work benefit from professional copy editors, illustrators and marketing people? Certainly. But not at the prices they propose and the returns on my work I would get.

In short, by self-publishing, I bypass publishing houses and go directly to you, the customer. I’ll let you decide what you like or don’t like. If my work is any good, people will buy it. If not, then I’ll soon get the message. But at least I won’t be out of pocket thousands of dollars.

UPCOMING BOOKS

1. Cartographic Poetry. Examining Historic Blackfoot and Gros Ventre Maps. (University of Alberta Press. Release Date: May 1, 2025.)

Overview: History and Ethnohistory

“Poetry is language condensed; Siksika cartography is landscape distilled.”

Cartographic Poetry is the first book-length, multidisciplinary study of five maps drawn in 1801 and 1802 by several Blackfoot and Gros Ventre people for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Representing some of the oldest documents created by Indigenous people on the North American prairies and foothills, these maps preserve invaluable evidence about places on the landscape and historic Blackfoot views of their territories. Intended as navigational tools, the landforms and locations on the maps hold significance for the Blackfoot well beyond wayfinding and have for many centuries. Informed by a career-long fascination with this priceless archive, the Piikani Nation’s placenames project, and fieldwork efforts to align Indigenous places and present geography, Ted Binnema, François Lanoë, and Heinz W. Pyszczyk study the maps as ethnohistorical sources. Exploring their beauty and utility from historical, linguistic, and archeological perspectives, the authors analyze the maps, their placenames and features, and the tours and trips they may have supported, along with providing present-day photographs of many of the maps’ landforms. A final section of the book outlines how Indigenous maps contributed significantly to Western geographical knowledge and maps of North America from the 1500s onward. Cartographic Poetry will appeal to anthropologists, archaeologists, geographers, historians, cartographers of the Great Plains, and all readers interested in how Indigenous peoples perceived and navigated their territories in this early period of colonial encounter. With a Foreword by Jerry Potts Jr. and an Afterword by Dr. Eldon Yellowhorn. 

2. Tales of the Canadian Fur Trade. A compilation of stories of historical fiction about Canada’s 18th and 19th century western frontier. (To be self-published. Release date: 2025.)

Overview: Historical Fiction

Tales of the Canadian Fur Trade is a compilation of ten stories of historical fiction about the 18th and 19th-century fur trade era in western Canada written by Heinz W. Pyszczyk. These works of fiction, however, are based on actual places, events, and historical figures set in the Canadian prairie provinces. As a historical archaeologist who has excavated at Fort Edmonton, Vermilion, and Dunvegan (and others) I have walked in places that Peter Pond, David Thompson, Alexander Mackenzie and Peter Fidler once frequented – and often found myself imagining what interesting lives they led. These men, who have left their mark on Canadian history, frequently had a more personal or lesser-known side to them. In the first two stories, Mr. Pond’s Finest Set of China, and Mr. Pond’s Most Magnificent Map I explore how the American, Peter Pond, known for his sometimes unpredictable, violent temper, and his considerable skills in cartography, finally manages to control his moods (or does he?) when dealing with his Canadian adversaries while in today’s northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. In We’ll Build Us a ‘Yole,’ the Hudson’s Bay Company trader and mapmaker Peter Fidler tackles the daunting transportation logistics of the fur trade, becoming one of the first men to build the York Boat at Buckingham House on the North Saskatchewan River during the 1790s. Considered a calm, quiet, intelligent man, in my story, I ask and explore the question: What if Peter had a more calculating, aggressive side lurking within him?

However, I also write about the histories of the lesser-known and documented 1st Nations and Métis men and women in the Canadian fur trade who did not write down their stories and histories. In Better Days Ahead, Elizabeth, the Métis wife of Clerk Colin Campbell at Fort Vermilion, uses her Native knowledge to save the fort inhabitants from certain starvation. In Pick Your Poison: Louis’ Peculiar Tobacco Pipe, I explore the life of a French-Canadian voyageur, Louis, at Fort Vermilion, whose peculiar tobacco pipe is the envy of his comrades – until it isn’t. The Canadian fur trade had a substantial negative impact on Indigenous life. Beware Those Bearing Gifts describes the initial move by the major fur trade Companies up the Peace River into the Fort Vermilion area in the 1780s and attempts to capture the turmoil, the potential violence and tension existing between the local Dunne-za and the first white traders entering the region. In the mid-19th century story, entitled, My Boy Twist, I chronicle the coming of the first missionaries to the central Peace River Region in northern Alberta, and the ensuing clash between traditional Native spiritualism and Christianity as our central character, a young Métis interpreter for the Hudson’s Bay Company by the name of ‘Twist’ negotiates a path riddled with conflict between both worlds.

I have for many years, through my writing and lectures, championed the idea that Canadian history contains objects (artifacts, food, buildings, etc.) that enable us to write about history with the object being a central part of the story. In each story there is one important object, be it a tobacco pipe, cattail, or York Boat, which drives the narrative and plot. In The ‘Little Emperor’s’ Toothbrush, I conjecture that the Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, George Simpson who, while visiting Fort Vermilion in 1822, carries with him a rare bone toothbrush like the one found at Fort Vermilion and seems to find himself in a lot of trouble with the fort’s women. In The Trader’s Private Stock, trader Angus Shaw while at his North West Company post, Fort George (1792-1800) overlooking the North Saskatchewan River, is running short on alcohol and becomes overly suspicious that some of his men might be pilfering it, leading to the construction of a most unusual storage cellar beside his Big House. The Sampleman’s Gambit is about the newest styles and highly sought-after glass trade beads and how one young German businessman (known as a sampleman) attempted to entice the women of Fort Edmonton to buy his glass beads during the late 1840s. While all three stories contain a bit of ‘tongue in cheek’, they bring out some serious issues during the Canadian fur trade – excessive abuse of power by an elite fur trade officer class; excessive use of alcohol by the Companies to boost trade; and, excessive and ruthless competition for furs using the latest glass bead styles or other trade goods to encourage Indigenous populations to trade. Although each story is written to stand alone, the reader will note that the settings and characters of each story often overlap, giving us a slightly different perspective on the same place and character.

5. Archaeology Guide & Tour of Greater Edmonton Area: History Beneath Our Feet. (Likely self-published. No release date set.)

Overview: History and Archaeology

In 1992, I wrote the above booklet, published by the then Provincial Museum of Alberta, about Edmonton’s history and archaeology. I have always wanted to revise this booklet and turn it into something bigger. Since 1992 a substantial amount of archaeological research has been carried out in the Edmonton area. This book will explore both the prehistoric and historic periods in Edmonton. For example, on one of my walking tours, I visited the site of the last HBC Fort Edmonton, seen in the above photograph, and discuss both the history and archaeology of this site (which we excavated between 1992 and 1995). The Edmonton area also contains many prehistoric sites, some going back to the earliest period of Edmonton’s human history, known as the Early Prehistoric Period (c.7,800 – ~12,000 years). When I wrote this booklet, the greater Edmonton Area contained approximately 600 recorded archaeological sites. By now, I’m certain there are over 1,000 sites on record, some of which have added considerably to our knowledge of the City’s human history.

FUTURE BLOGS ON MY CANEHDIANSTORIES WEBSITE

1. A Chinook’s A’Comin. (Release date: ~April 1, 2025)

Overview: Archaeology and History

A Chinook is a warm, dry wind that blows off the eastern slopes of mountain ranges and reaches tremendous speeds as it flows over the plains. In various parts of the world, this wind is known as a Foehn (Germany), Zonda (Argentina), Berg (South Africa), and si’kssópoistsi (Blackfoot).

Chinooks are not entirely a Canadian phenomenon. They occur along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, as far south as Colorado, and also in Washington State, blowing off the Cascade Mountains and Nevada (rolling down the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range). However, parts of southern Alberta contain the most frequent and intense Chinooks in North America.

Hundreds of media stories have been written about Canada’s Prairie Chinooks. Few, however, delve into their history and how plants, animals and humans may have adapted to them or used them to their advantage.

2. Grinding and Pecking My Stone Maul: An Update. (Release date: 2025)

Overview: Experimental Archaeology

Grooved stone mauls are a common prehistoric tool on the North American Great Plains. In Alberta, approximately 75% of all stone mauls are made from quartzite. Working on the assumption that quartzite was too hard to peck (and with some preliminary experiments) effectively, I decided first to try grinding a groove on the quartzite cobble. I accomplished this task, but only after considerable effort and work. I have written several blogs describing the grinding process on this website. I then decided to peck a groove and compare the results to the grinding experiment. The results indicate that it took considerably less time and effort to peck a groove in the quartzite cobble than to grind one. Along with my colleague, Bob Dawe, Royal Alberta Museum, we then examined the physical marks from both manufacturing methods microscopically and compared those attributes to a sample of Alberta quartzite mauls. The results indicate that all the Alberta mauls we examined show similar physical characteristics to the experimentally pecked maul. In short, it is far easier to peck a stone maul than to grind one.