That said, because the manuscript is so old it almost certainly has historical worth – however, beyond this it may require editing before it would be publishable today and this gets tricky. For example, the term ‘folk lore’ is not one that I would think most Cree people would use to refer to their stories. Changing it to make it more current and correct would be better for a modern reader – but the author isn’t here to give permission for his work to be altered and in a way it may impact on the integrity of the work as a historical document. So, this would have to be worked out perhaps by having two versions, one in its original state that the communities (and perhaps cultural centre) could archive and one that would be edited and prepared to be submitted to a publisher.

I echo Joanne’s comments to be careful in the choice of publisher and to arm oneself with knowledge of publishing contracts and processes.

In any case, I do believe that people from the communities your friend visited would be very interested in seeing the manuscript and archiving it. That in itself would be a great legacy for your friend.

Anyway, I do hope that helps.

Next, I think it would be good protocol to contact the people currently representing the specific communities that your friend worked in, and share the material with them, both for their own archives, and from the perspective of (hopefully) getting permission to share the work as written by your friend, in his youth. As stories generally belong to individuals, and/or famillies, communities, this is a very important step in your journey.

As these things go, help will appear: the more people that you talk to about the project, the more specific details of where to go next will appear… there are some excellent publishers, and some slightly treacherous ones, and I wish you a soft journey bearing the gifts of your friend’s memory.

Joanne