From the award-winning author of Unsettling Canada: A National
Wake-Up Call and TheReconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land,
Rebuilding the Economy comes an inspiring memoir of poverty, hard work,
and incredible business success.
In the opening to his memoir, Grand Chief Ron Derrickson says his "story
is not a litany of complaints but a list of battles" that he has fought.
And he promises he will not be overly pious in his telling of them. "As
a businessman," he writes, "I like to give the straight goods."
In Fight or Submit, Derrickson delivers on his promise and it turns
out he has a hell of a story to tell. Born and raised in a tarpaper
shack, he went on to become one of the most successful Indigenous
businessmen in Canada. As a political leader, he served as Chief of the
Westbank First Nation for a dozen years and was made a Grand Chief by
the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
He has been the target of a full Royal Commission and an assassination
attempt by a hitman hired by local whites. As Chief, he increased his
community's revenues by 3500% and led his people into a war in the
forest over logging rights. This is the determined and direct story of
an Indigenous entrepreneur who, in the face of hatred and violence,
always lifted his community up and had fun along the way.
