Dale Lloyd
Husband, Father & Mentor to Many
View What The Napanee Beaver Has To Say About Dale Lloyd's Book October's Dying
Article Written by Sarah Williams, February 21, 2020
Discover the History of Native people
Content
What's Inside The Book?
Dale Lloyd is the son of a Mohawk mother and a British father. His novel—October’s Dying—is rooted in that mix. He has lived his life in the tension of “half native & half colonizer”. Consciousness of this half and half mix resulted in a deep, silent shame. That shame and the debilitating fear it produced kept Dale “muzzled” for much of his life.
The book you hold in your hand (along with five other works, three published and two waiting to be published) shows that he became unmuzzled. He cannot name a specific place, experience, or time, but in the evolution of his life, he learned to embrace who he was in that mix.
The art of storytelling is organic to Dale’s soul. He finds its most effective release while hiking through the woods he knew as a child. The streams and rivers that ran through his youth provide the perfect context for silent and deep meditation and reflection.
Dale constantly references the “two beautiful girls” in his life: Wenda, his wife of forty-seven years, and their incredible daughter Darline, whom they adopted out of a Haitian orphanage. Home is Napanee, Ontario, Canada.
What Readers Say about the Book
Amazing book. Gut wrenching, passionate, brilliant, triumphant. Thank you for listening to your heart and pouring it into us, Dale. And the timing? With Indigenous rights on full display in Canada presently... wow. Much love and respect️
Wow! I just finished reading October’s Dying, a book by H. Dale Lloyd. This historical novel is riveting to say the least. Dale has based this story on factual events that occurred in Canada from 1866 to 1996. As European settlements were being established, the indigenous peoples of the land had to be dealt with. Unfortunately, their methods were reprehensible—cruel and murderous. “The Native Advantage” was implemented to help the Indians assimilate into the “white man’s” world, supposedly.
The book tells the story of a Mohawk boy named Rawenni:io, who was taken from his family by the government and sent to live in a Residential School, where he was renamed, Brandon. As I read the horrible account of life in Brandon’s school, I was emotionally distraught that such treatment of children could have happened. Thankfully, Dale then begins a wonderful story of love. However, it would prove to be a difficult love story—Brandon fell in love with a wealthy European girl named Samantha. I don’t want to spoil the read for you, but be prepared to smile, laugh, and cry. The story carries a theme of the power of love and forgiveness. If you enjoy books that take all your emotions on a roller coaster ride, this is a must-read.
WOW! Powerful book. Epic.
I just finished reading it through .. got it Tuesday and finished it today! It’s one of those ‘can’t put it down’ books!
Congratulations on such a fine work, filled with horror and beauty, darkness and light, damnification and redemption, the sinister weakness of law and the glorious power of grace!
I am glad you held our face to the horrors of what we have done (and continue to do) to the First Nation’s People (as shameful and painful as that is for us to hear), and supremely thankful that you led us gently to the power of redemption - not to gloss over the horror, or dismiss it’s effects, but to give us hope that it won’t have the last word.
I think my favourite line in the whole book is found on page 127 “The wise had learned to reserve judgement, and the very wise never entertained judgement at all for they had lived through enough paintings to know that the final picture would be glorious and filled with wonder.”
Thank you for all the personal energy, emotion, and soul you put into this work.
---
PS. I suspect that when I walk the boardwalks of Halifax now, I will not be surprised to see the ghost of Brent Attwood still waiting for Sam!
"Given today’s climate, the need is more urgent than ever that we confront the difficult, uncomfortable parts of our history, and that we confront them without revision or defense. The hard stories must be told, and Dale, as a master story- teller, has told one here with courage and sensitivity. The epic span of the book (well over a century) would be daunting for many writers, but the story lines and historical context are woven together here in such a way that the reader is swept along effortlessly. His characters are real and compelling, and his lush descriptive language places the reader squarely into the story. This is a book that should be read for its literary achievement, yes. But it is also a book that must be read for its courageous and moving examination of a past that we can no longer afford to dismiss."
(B.S. Special Education & Rehabilitation; M.S. Educational Psychology; Post-Graduate work in History & Political Science; National Board Certification in History/Social Studies)
“In October’s Dying, the author bravely and brilliantly rips open the corrupt curtain on Canada’s best kept and most shameful secret: the collaborative conspiracy of church and state to exterminate Canada’s Native population and eradicate their national identity. Each poignant paragraph pulsates with passion and pathos as the cast of characters come to life, their tragic and traumatic reality evoking deep emotional connection and responses in the reader. While neither wasting nor mincing words in his searching and scorching rebuke of the perpetrators of this crime against a people, the author paints this graphic portrait against a canvas that rhythmically resonates with the palpable sights and sounds of a created world, made more vivid by the defining and descriptive richness of his language. The reader can sense the writer’s incarnate investment in the narrative as the story unfolds. The author masterfully crafts an epic of beauty where love and truth harmonize to ultimately triumph over hatred and deception. He courageously confronts the deliberate, devious and devilish scheme of the political and religious worlds, and demonstrates its ultimate defeat in the lives of those whose nobility, fortitude, resilience and integrity empowered them to rise above and thwart the efforts of those who sought their destruction. This book deserves the widest of circulation, and will inspire any and all who have ever been or felt victimized by those who pretend some superiority. I was moved to tears throughout and couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it.”
I have known Dale Lloyd for over fifty years. He has researched his history and his nation’s history and has attempted to understand the why as to that history. In the research and writing he has expressed his deep frustration and disappointment in the systems that have been and are so destructive to people.
But, in his research and writing he has found a way to battle and come to a sense of who he is. You will get to know this man Dale Lloyd, as you read his books. You will get to know the world where he lives, and you will get to know the world in which you live, we all live.
Read “October’s Dying,” and read his other books, to know the facts as told through novels, and to enjoy the writings of Dale Lloyd, a master story teller, a poet, and a man who is sensitive to the world he, and we are trying to understand.
The journey will be well worth your while.
Wow! A powerful message of hope rising out of the darkness. Some of the chapters were very hard to read (because of the actual history they referenced) but they also contrast the power of love as forgiveness brings a sense of renewal and a deep lasting beginning for a new generation. The events touch the core of what it means to be truly human and how everything that is good is constantly assaulted by the forces of false religion. Thanks, Dale, for your deep insight into the core of humanity’s need for
grace and love.
A Tale of Two Fields:
A Personal Journey Out of Legalism
by H. Dale Lloyd (2009-11-04) Paperback – 1608
What Readers Say about the Book
Although this is a "religious" book, it is not about religion. It's about being freed from religion and all of its restraints upon a true communion with a holy God. The author skillfully uses the analogy of two fields--hence the title--to compare the vastly different life of religious conformity with a life of unbridled faith. The Foreword sets the tone that conformity to a ritual is not a life of faith, but the freeing influence of shedding the conformity is freedom for the spirit. This book is a thinking man's commentary on the modern church and church experience. A must read--and re-read.
A Tale of Two Fields is a treasure yet to be discovered.
Wrappers and Revelation:
Finding God in All the Wrong Places
What Readers Say about the Book
Author's revealing insight into how we view the world and the people around us. The exterior "wrappings" set up the impression without ever looking at the gift. Our paradigm shifts when the gifts around us are revealed. Excellent read.
January's Child:
The colour of a Soul
What Readers Say about the Book
JANUARY'S CHILD, though written as a novel, reflects, in part, the life experience of Darline Chancy Lloyd, Haiti's most beautiful daughter, whom we had the privilege of adopting. She is presently twenty years old. As parents our first concern is the welfare of our dear daughter, as she moves through the various involvements of her life. But as with all the details of our personal experiences there is a larger picture. Experience is the filter through which we see and interpret life. Because of my long journey with the Christian church, I found myself viewing it through the lens of January's Child's encounter. The view has been less than positive and the dominate emotion that is evoked has been one of deep sadness. Two thousand years after the prayer of Christ's Passion, that we all would be one, we still find ourselves battling ancient prejudices which make our love, acceptance and welcome far less than unconditional. We stumble over difference, and view uniqueness as either making us superior or inferior to another. From the ridiculous to the sublime, we relegate "those" people to "their place" according to our prejudicial stereotype. We mete out love, acceptance and welcome conditioned upon distinction. Buried beneath these differences is the soul. For all who find it- both their own and with those to whom they relate- there is a refreshing discovery that the soul is colour blind. In fact it is blind to all those skin-deep differences that fuel discrimination, destroy peace in human relationships, and divide nations. In such a colour blind soul there is room for all souls regardless of external differences, and love, acceptance and welcome are without condition, demand or expectation. The barriers to relationship with other people, and God himself are simply nonexistent. What Colour is a soul?
About The Author
Dale Lloyd is the son of a Mohawk mother and a British father. His novel—October’s Dying—is rooted in that mix. He has lived his life in the tension of “half native & half colonizer”. Consciousness of this half and half mix resulted in a deep, silent shame. That shame and the debilitating fear it produced kept Dale “muzzled” for much of his life.
The book you hold in your hand (along with five other works, three published and two waiting to be published) shows that he became unmuzzled. He cannot name a specific place, experience, or time, but in the evolution of his life, he learned to embrace who he was in that mix.
The art of storytelling is organic to Dale’s soul. He finds its most effective release while hiking through the woods he knew as a child. The streams and rivers that ran through his youth provide the perfect context for silent and deep meditation and reflection.
Dale constantly references the “two beautiful girls” in his life: Wenda, his wife of forty-seven years, and their incredible daughter Darline, whom they adopted out of a Haitian orphanage. Home is Napanee, Ontario, Canada.
