| Brenda: I have when I was in high school or going to college where I did read a book on Riel. I mean heck, my teacher at time had to leaned me a book about my own people! Because there was nothing in the college library in the books he talked about. Also misspelt "Nez Perce" there should be no "a" there. |
| Brenda: My curiosity leads me on these tracks and also maybe no one has ever asked the question of why. Why didn't a figure like Riel who was Metis rise in the US? |
| Brenda: Course as for the US, it was war leaders that arose. Men like Geronimo and Sitting Bull, though I would include Chief Joseph of the Nez Pearce from Washington state as well in that group. This people hardly fired a shot. He just led the US army on a grand chase through the mountains of Washington state. They got as far as the border but something stopped them from crossing. I think he and his people were too tired and hungry as well as sick. So he had no choice but turn his people over to the army. Though there was also the rise of the Ghost Dance on the plains too in the US. |
| Brenda: I don't know about anything like that in my area for historical books and materials. I know from my library you can download digital books as long as you have a library card. But I think I would have to look outside BC for more information, like in Manitoba. |
| 6ixStringJack: I'm pretty sure that you can do something through archive.org too, and you can "rent" digital books from there with an account. Not sure if you need to sign up with any credit cards at any point to use it. I have an account there for other reasons and I've never tried renting a book through them before. |
| 6ixStringJack: This could open up the amount of books available to you by quite a bit if you've got access to a system like that. |
| 6ixStringJack: Man... I hope you can figure some of that out. I have a hard time finding out information from the 1980's and 1990's. I think you might have to be doing research offline to know more about this. Nothing at your library? Does Canada have any system in place where you can temporarily download "rental" books like they do here in America? I don't know exactly how it works, but they have a collective digital book exchange program thing out there where you can "rent" an online licensed copy. I would think you could be able to get something like that done without a credit card. |
| Brenda: I mean in the US, you had railroads being built going across First Nations' lands, farms too. You had trappers and fur traders as well. Forts were being built, the Pony Express was pushing in as well. Course the gold rush, but too my knowledge there are no gold mines in Manitoba. Here the gold was in BC and the Yukon.
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| Brenda: The most unifying or common thread I find with the Metis or just half breeds from the Prairies , seems to be the Cree. The gentleman, I meet at the Seniors' Centre and the lady who could have been my cousin, Cree. But that's not enough to my mind why Riel became such a galvanizing figure. I don't think even the railroad was the complete cause because the railroad was going through other parts of Canada. Tribal lands and farm lands.
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| Brenda: I'm sure we will too but it is going to be rough for a while and 150 year old relationship is nothing to toss out. Oh, I know about the saber rattling, it is just a wee bit unsettling. |
| Brenda: No that bit of Canadian history wouldn't make it down there even though Riel spent a year or more in Montana, I think. That is if I am remembering my history right. Then he was brought home to Canada by some of his people, looking for someone to deal with the Canadian government at the time. It has helped me to get a clearer picture but not enough to draw any real conclusions. I would really have to delve more I think into American history to figure out where the divergence was. As I said that has always left me puzzled. |
| 6ixStringJack: As for like Canada and US relations right now? We'll be fine, Brenda. If all it took was a few price wars and 100 days of uncertainty to break that relationship, it wasn't much of a relationship to begin with if you ask me. The politicians are all doing a lot of saber rattling right now and the media's job is to keep all of us arguing with each other. |
| 6ixStringJack: I have to admit, to say I'm not well read on the topic would be an understatement and I wouldn't be of much use helping you come to a conclusion. I hope that writing it out helps you. I know it does for me. |
| Brenda: I was having a think last night. I was wondering about how Canada's and the US's history diverged. This is something I have thought about off and on for years. Canada produced a man like Louis Riel, the leader of the Metis. But no such figure ever came out of the US. Was it because there was no dominant First Nations culture among half breeds? Or just too spread out and too shunned by both sides? |
| Brenda: Nope |
6ixStringJack: Oh. Right. I was already missing those. Did I mention I had a really great dream last night where I was 22 years old again and I had a full set of teeth?  |
Brenda: Nope.  |
| 6ixStringJack: Hey Brenda. I woke up this morning and I'm missing a few teeth. You didn't sock me while I was sleeping, didja? |
| 6ixStringJack: Brenda is awesome. |
| THG: This is who Jack is Breada. But you've always known that. |