Leonard Flett was born in Shamattawa, Manitoba, and was a proud member of the Big Trout Lake First Nation in Ontario. Because of his father’s employment with the Hudson’s Bay Company, his family lived in various areas during his childhood, eventually settling in Cumberland House, Saskatchewan. The second eldest of 14 children, he was sent away to school at age seven, returning home only on school holidays. Though he found it traumatic to be away from his family and reserve, he loved learning and was honoured to be valedictorian of his high school class. After graduation, he was hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company. He worked for the Hudson Bay Company and The North West Company for his entire career, retiring as vice-president in 2005 after 42 years of service. He was the first Indigenous Canadian to achieve such a high status in the corporate world, and for this he received many accolades and awards, including an Indspire Award, the Order of Manitoba, and the Order of Canada. In his later years, he fulfilled a dream he had of documenting his unique Canadian experience, authoring the highly acclaimed memoir, From the Barren Lands.
