There is a tendency for books – fiction and otherwise – to describe native people as either being trampled emotionally by years of oppression, or abundantly rich in traditional culture. Both stereotypes exist, but they exist simultaneously. This understanding is W. P. Kinsella’s most admirable talent as a non-native writer who can tell stories of native people without ironing flat the status quo. His characters aren’t unidimensional, they’re multifarious – sharp witted, vulnerably intelligent, and spiritually guided as much by Oprah as by the holistic enlightenment of their own medicine lady.

Readers of Kinsella’s earlier collections will not find this perceptive standpoint a secret. He has been writing from the native perspective for over 20 years and turning the tables on white folks, metaphorically represented by the buffoonery of the RCMP, and the sheepishness of blue-suit officials. The Secret of the Northern Lights brings back the regular cast: Frank Fencepost, his pal Silas Ermineskin, and Mad Etta, the reserve’s ageless medicine lady, all of whom appeared back in 1977 in Kinsella’s first book Dance Me Outside.

In 12 stories, these three protagonists manage to reaffirm their identities through experience and storytelling. Some are happy, many are sad, but most are telling markers of how stereotypes hide more than they reveal. Case in point: in Fun and Games, Frank and Silas decide to head off to Victoria to join the Commonwealth Games as athletes of the country Hobbema (the name of their Albertan reserve). They manage to march with athletes in the opening reception, pick up blondes because of their “foreignness,” and sell their ID to athletes hoping for asylum in welfare-friendly Canada. In the end Silas winds up being informed by immigration officials that his crime-free track record back in Hobbema means he will have to be deported. “So,” Sila concludes, “I been turned down as an immigrant to my own country because I’m not dangerous enough. Frank get to stay because he’s a criminal.” Kinsella has been knocked by native critics for his appropriation of voice, but his characters are deft at tripping along in life, and finding each step a telling bit of human and spiritual wisdom.