As a boy watching TV documentaries about the environment and historical monuments, I used to wonder about what our ancestors might have built. I knew we had tepees and the I remember reading about the Iroquois building longhouses and the Haida building beautiful cedar houses.

My paternal grandparents used to have an encyclopedia set called, “The New Book of Knowledge,” where I read about Canadian and American history. These publications did not have much information about First Nations people. I did not learn about our real history until high school and university from other sources.

I had only known about the Pyramids of Giza because they would be prominently shown in magazines and of course, on television. In high school, I learned that there were pyramids way down south in Mexico, not exactly our ancestors but Indigenous people nonetheless.

The most famous one I found was the Chichen Itza (pictured). Not as big as the Giza pyramids but a historical monument built by North American Indigenous people, the Mayas. While my discovery was and is somewhat satisfying, it does not tell of the horrible history the Mayans had to face.

The Spanish conquistadores received permission from the King of Spain for the right to conquer Yucatán. This started a series of campaigns where the Spanish attempted to take the land from the Mayans and pillage the villages of their gold. Many of the Mayans had been massacred as they tried to defend themselves. ¹

Mayans proved difficult to Christianize, but the Spanish managed to convert more and more of them as they continued the conquest to go further into the land in search of riches. The Mayans fought hard and actually did well in their battles, however, the introduction of Old World diseases, such as smallpox, devastated populations of their people. ²

There are many articles and videos available these days regarding the atrocities of the conquests and not all are in favour of the way it was done. It is not unlike what our ancestors had to go through in Canada. Like the Mayans, “[t]hey formed complex social, political, economic and cultural systems before Europeans came to North America.” ³

I recently found out that:

The world’s largest pyramid can be found not in Egypt, but hidden beneath a hill in a small town in the central Mexican state of Puebla. Known variously as the Great Pyramid of Cholula ⁴ 

The pyramid was covered with dirt and plant life by the time the Spanish arrived and they built a church on top of the supposed hill. (Video at bottom of page).

It is no surprise that the Mayans have continued to rebel against their governments and have clashed time and again. ⁵

All of the activities toward Indigenous people have been horrendous. The stealing of land, the diseases, and residential schools, a terrible history, and the demoralizing nature of such treatment continue to this day. The lack of resources and underfunding of Indigenous programs is prominent in many of our communities. The lack of respect for our language and culture is evident when our governments continue to undermine the importance of our heritage. It is only through our perseverance and determination that we are still here.

1. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Yucat%C3%A1n
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Yucat%C3%A1n#Impact_of_Old_World_diseases
3. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/first-nations
4. https://www.historytoday.com/grand-tour/largest-pyramid-world
5. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/massacre-santiago-atitlan-turning-point-maya-struggle

Other articles:

https://pixabay.com/images/search/chich%C3%A9n%20itz%C3%A1/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pyramids-of-Giza

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza

Church Image by saulhm from Pixabay

Chichén itzá Image by Makalu from Pixabay

Giza Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

I remember as a boy in school, Remembrance Day was always done with a ceremony at 11:00AM. We would stand in silence for a moment to remember those that fought and especially those who gave their life. I remember readings of poems and how we were given projects with poppies and graves.

The poem most associated with Remembrance Day, would be “In Flanders Fields,” by John McCrae. In some classes, we all stood to read the poem, in others, we read as presentations. I wish I could remember what classes those were and who the teachers were. They all blend together at this point. A blurred memory with familiar faces in the rows of standing students. Some quiet and respectful. One or two, still not grasping the seriousness of the silent moment.

In the gym, there would be at least one veteran of the WWII. Speakers would take turns telling tales of war and how it impacted them during the war, but even more when they got home. They would speak of good friends who never made it back home. Loved ones of solders would be given medals and flags from the countries they served. How many veterans are left? Maybe a few, Indigenous or not, they gave their lives too.

Later in high school, we learned of Indigenous people not receiving what their non-Indigenous fighters did. We learned of Cree-speaking “code talkers,” such as Charles Checker Tompkins of Alberta, provided great service to the war. According to “https://www.veterans.gc.ca/,  “it has been estimated that as many as 12,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit people served in the great conflicts of the 20th century, with at least 500 of them sadly losing their lives.” Indigenous people were not strangers to war, as they battled settlers and amongst themselves when they needed to in the distant past.

Today, the ceremonies of Remembrance Day are not as prominent during this pandemic. Thankfully, we have social media to express our admiration and to share our thoughts across the world. A world that would have been very different, Canada and our allies did not stand victorious against a very determined enemy.

Thank you to all who served, and especially to all who fell.

Remembrance Day – kanokiskisiwinikīsikāw (A day to keep remembering)

Indigenous Veterans – https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/indigenous-veterans

Native War Veterans Enlisted Even Though They Were Not Canadian Citizens – http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/2019/10/native-war-veterans-enlisted-even-though-they-were-not-canadian-citizens/

In Flanders Fields – https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-flanders-fields

Poppy Image by Schwoaze from Pixabay

Grave Image by edaly from Pixabay

I finally submitted a short story to CBC literary prizes, with 90 minutes to spare. I asked a friend of mine on the day of the deadline to go over and edit my story. She is actually a professional and I did not think to ask her sooner.

The contest opened in September, but I was very unsure about entering the competition. There are many great writers who enter and I felt a bit intimidated. I am glad I went through with it, even though there is little chance I will place. At least I am putting myself out there.

I almost entered the challenge last year but I was not confident enough. This year I figured I should at least try. Now I am thinking of joining other contests.

I feel somewhat revitalized about writing more stories. It can be fun when you are on a roll and creating entertaining content is important for this website.

I regretfully did not add any Cree to the story but I thinking about it, I really did not want to disrupt the flow of the story. I feel it is okay to add Cree for the website because I can easily put Cree audio clips under the text. This way people can slow down and listen to the audio and repeat to themselves to learn a bit of Cree.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/literaryprizes/cbc-short-story-prize-1.4090935

So I finally completed my story on September 12, 2021. I did some minor edits throughout the week, mostly grammar and some spelling errors. It seems to be much more work to edit the draft than it is to write because research needs to be done.

I am enjoying the editing because then I can see how I could have written better and I am getting my daughter to read it. She is a bit of a book worm. I do not know if she completed it, I will go ask her (okay she did not have the recent copy, I just sent it to her).

Anyway, I have a long way to go before I complete the story. I am thinking self publishing through Amazon. The technicalities seem doable enough, that is my strong suit. It will be good practice for future projects. The graphic work will be challenging because I am not an artist.

Thankfully my son likes to dabble a bit with paint, so I can ask him for some (free) graphics that I can manipulate to my liking. These graphic tasks are not very fun, so it will be challenging to complete a cover. I am actually overwhelmed thinking about it so I better stop writing about it.

Now I know you as a reader is finding mistakes in this blog, that is because I do not have an editor, I just write how I feel. I am hoping to continue with the updates about my current journey so I can continue to practice writing and getting better. If I was not so busy during the week, I would get more writing done, however, I do not want to write when I am feeling tired and unmotivated.

I was hoping this particular blog would motivate me but it is having the opposite effect. I am glad I am not working on my story right now, but I will be this weekend. It takes awhile to get started, but once I get going, I end staying at all hours of the night. (which goes well with my insomnia).

cv

Banner Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay