The novel draws on published historical records, archival material, Indigenous scholarship, lived experience, family memory, and imagination. This page keeps the research trail separate from the supernatural story.
These references are offered so readers can examine the record independently of the fiction. Additional case citations and publication details will be added when the final edition is complete.
Métis cultural sources identify Kookoush as a boogeyman figure. The novel uses that figure through Marcel Simpson’s contemporary fictional lens and does not claim that every Kookoush, Wiitigo, or Wendigo teaching is the same across Métis, Cree, Anishinaabe, or other Nations.
Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada — Oral TraditionThe novel refers to nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century court, settler, and historical records while asking what those archives preserve and what they leave out. These are treated as institutional records, not as complete Indigenous accounts.
Extended case citations will be published with the final edition.The technological thread asks what happens when a machine learns history from records created by institutions that had more power to document themselves than the people they described.
Supporting research and final citations will remain public.Identified and Witnessed are fictional terms created for the novel’s warning system. The painted stones, the KOOKOUSH interface, and the map are narrative devices, not traditional Métis ceremony or real-world case classifications.
Map locations are intentionally broad and do not identify sacred sites, private property, or verified supernatural events.The Métis Nation has its own distinct culture, history, and language traditions. This site uses “Métis” and “Michif” deliberately rather than as interchangeable labels for Indigenous peoples generally.
Métis National Council — Culture & HeritageReal acts of violence, colonial policy, and institutional failure remain human acts in the novel. The supernatural layer is fiction; it is not offered as an explanation that excuses perpetrators or turns documented suffering into folklore.