Writing Outside the Lines

Writing Outside the Lines

         

I was reading an article in the “Roundup” magazine from Western Writers of America about “writing outside the lines.” I wasn’t into it very far when I realized, that is exactly what I do. In my stories I often include back ground that is not in keeping with accepted and promoted history. The reason for that is that I’ve found things that sometimes don’t support the usual teaching. The following are a very few facts I’ve found over several years of research that disagree with what is often accepted.

1.     “Nothing of significance happened in Canada”

Several dozen significant events took place in Canada. Several wars where fought on her soil; between France and England (several times), between England and the USA, between several aboriginal nations and Norwegian, French and British forces.

Events in Canada had an impact on and continue to have an impact on world events. Examples include several European wars (100 Years’ War, War of the Roses, 1812, US Civil War, Indian Wars, both WWI and WWII).

For a time “Britain rules the waves” but would not have done so without white pine from Eastern Canada.

This is a list that could go on for a very long time

2.     “The settlement of Canada was done without any major contention by loyal subjects.”

This is probably the most unfounded of all the misleading statements about our past. Simply look at the dissention surrounding any election, study or proposal one might care to name. In addition there are the rebellions in the early 1800s in Montreal, Quebec and Toronto. Then take a look at the disgusting (as well as unfounded, unsupportable and criminal) attacks on citizens during the general strike of 1919 in Winnipeg and the Regina Riot of 1935. The several rebellious actions both for and against Confederation in the 1860s (Maritimes), 1870s (BC) and the 1970s.

3.     “Men don’t carry firearms in Canada.”

This is actually a line from a “Canada moment” and spoken by a character portraying NWMP Inspector Sam Steele in the Yukon. Even though he and his force did confiscate many firearms when they deemed it necessary he would never have made such a statement. In addition it takes only a very short study to realize that most of the miners they were dealing with did carry firearms except within urban areas. This was also the case in almost all of Western Canada.

This is a country populated by momma moose with newborn calves, Grizzly and black bear as well as wolves and cougar that, during some famine years will attack anything. Anyone travelling alone across this land in the 1800s and right into the mid-1900s without personal protection of some sort is only going to survive through some extraordinary luck.

Even today it is not a good idea. True, we now have bear spray available but it doesn’t do much when one is trying to call for help and flare guns can start fires we don’t want to see.

4.     “These attacks on citizens by outlaws didn’t really happen.”

Tell that to the descendants of those who survived the Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873. Or those who were killed a few at a time, both red and white of which very little if anything was ever said. In some cases it was white on white or red on red as the result of some party fueled by an alcohol fueled feud (often based on wood alcohol). Sometimes it was due to someone without a work ethic taking from someone who had a work ethic … much as is the case today.

We have theft today but there are people around who report and complain and we even have “eyes in the sky”. I suspect when there was no one around for miles there was a great deal more savage treatment (at least as a percentage of population), including theft and murder than there is today.

         

It has always bothered me (and I’ve written about it several times) that history is often presented in the most boring, uninteresting ways possible. As a result there is a large group, probably the majority, who have no interest in what or who built the spot/city/country where they live.

          And that’s the biggest reason why they don’t know who they are; they don’t know how they got here or there or wherever they are.

          Yes, history must remain true to the facts or the actually events. Yes, writing history requires research. If the writer hasn’t recounted the facts accurately then it isn’t history.

          However, if no one reads it (and thus repeats the inaccuracies) who cares?

          Besides, while being so diligent in researching and relating the “facts” it is often the case that the important information, such as the people involved and what they were like, is completely ignored.

          The important consideration is that people make history. The British Colonial Ministry, the British Ministry of Taxation, or the various Colonial Governments (including those in the 13 colonies) recorded those things they thought made them look good or increased their funding but they had little to do with “making” history. The reactions of the citizens to those governments or ministries are what constituted the most important aspects of history.

Here are a few other things from history that aren’t exactly as they are usually presented.

John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister is credited with the ideas that resulted in Canadian Confederation, Canadian Pacific Railroad and so called “protective” tariffs restricting trade with both the US and Europe.

None of these where is idea. He was convinced by his political rival, George Brown that an amalgamation of political parties was the only way to maintain a governing council of the Province of Canada (still a British Colony at the time). Further argument convinced him of pursuing the idea of self-government and Canadian Confederation. He became the driving force behind the efforts that resulted in the British North American Act but it wasn’t his original idea.

CPR and “protective” tariffs were also not his idea. It was easy to get him on board with transcontinental construction of a railroad since the distance and terrain involved made it obvious that communication and transportation would be necessary to maintain a nation so large. With the same problems in mind it was easy to see that Canadian businesses would have difficulty competing on a level field with US companies who already had transportation and communication structures and a customer base that could offer business stability. Both ideas, the railroad and the tariffs, were ideas from Canadian commercial enterprises but where easy to sell to any senior minister under several layers of pressure including a lack of funding.

As with most ideas from government there was nothing wrong with conception. However there was no research (as usual), poor installation, (again) no re-evaluation, and no re-instigation.

The point of all this, the information about John A. and the various disparaging and even supportive statements about Canadian history is to demonstrate common perceptions are often wrong. Sometimes it’s because we don’t have all the information in the first place. Other times it’s because the “accepted” idea needs a great deal of support to survive because it was in error in the first place.

Something else we do is judge these characters from history – both the celebrities (John A. PM) and the unknown (John Q. Citizen) by the standards of today. The needs, thoughts and actions of 1840 have no relationship to what was then needed, thought or done in 1870. The standards of morality accepted at the time and primarily mined from the Bible had not changed in those thirty years but how to achieve those goals had changed.

The same is true comparing then to now, except, of course that fewer people now are checking morality standards by studying anything including the Bible.

Here are a few things that I’ve discovered by research and attempt to support by “writing outside the lines.”

“No consideration was given to individuals in post-industrial England.”

B---S--t!

“The USA was settled with the gun.”

Also B---S--t! (It wasn’t just the plow, either.)

“The settlement of Canada was without rancour or violence”

Also B---S--t!

“The celebrities of yesterday (Benjamin Disraeli, George Washington, John MacDonald) where true heroes and great icons.”

B---S--t! They were just people like your neighbor.

And people are entertaining.

You don’t agree? Tell me so. Leave a comment.

The Disappearing Métis

“Into the Mountains”  background

Gabriel Dumont

Louis Riel's Children

Jean Louis and Angelique

In 1885 after years of unfulfilled promises from Canada’s Federal Government the Métis of the North Battleford and Frog Lake areas of the North West Territories (in today’s province of Saskatchewan) rebelled over their treatment. It was known as the Northwest Rebellion or the Second Riel Rebellion since it was led by Louis Riel who had led a rebellion in 1870 in the Fort Gary/Red River area (today’s Winnipeg).

Riel was indeed the leader but the military leader or Métis General was Gabriel Dumont and they were joined by some Assiniboine and Cree people. Despite being ill equipped in relation to the Canadian Militia and North West Mounted Police …

(Though both sides had some repeating rifles about half of the Métis’s were muzzle loading/percussion weapons. Toward the end when supplies where disappearing a few flint locks appeared. )

Martini-Henri 1871 in  577-450

This was the weapon used by the Canadian militia 

... if they had been properly issued in enough numbers

The North West Mounted Police had transitioned to this

the Winchester 1876 in 44-40 from a Ross rifle and

in 1886 began switching again to ...

Winchester 1886 in 45-70

Some of the Métis may have used the Spencer 1860 carbine

This is a 7 shot repeater loading through the base of the butt-stock

Using a .50 or .52 rimfire cartridge

…and vastly outnumbered, the rebellion lasted for several months and resulted in the deaths of 91 people. Had Dumont been allowed to operate without political interference it probably would have lasted much longer thus resulting in more deaths.

The eventual outcome probably would not have been any different. The Canadian Militia (Including a detachment of North West Mounted Police lead by Sam Steele) had them greatly outnumbered and had better equipment including two Gatling guns (and an officer and two non-coms) on loan from the US military, several artillery pieces, all the horses they could round up and commandeer in the country, and the use of a couple of stern-wheel river boats.

This is an 1876 model Gatling. It is probably of .50 Cal.

but there were few made in 1"

An episode with one of the river boats supplied some comic relief for the Métis. They strung a cable across the North Saskatchewan which resulted in the removal of the wheel house and fancy footwork by those aboard.

When it was all over several of the leaders escaped (Dumont into the US) and some, including Riel were tried, convicted and executed. At least one and perhaps more of those where not involved in the rebellion and had tried to keep their people (Cree and Assiniboine) out of the fracas and either died in Stoney Mountain Penitentiary or shortly after release.

(There is a “Heritage Minute” for Louis Riel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=61&v=FVVFjfyvgMg )

True, the Métis where forced into a corner by the government and by the racist though accepted treatment by those surrounding their communities. However their actions where definitely rebellious and therefor constituted treason. On the other side the Métis had tried several peaceful methods to elicit attention and change but had been ignored. Therefor the government was guilty of incompetence and negligence but, as is and always has been the case, no one was charged for that ineptitude. The leaders of the losing side became public figures due to imprisonment and execution while the leaders of the winning side (who caused it all in the first place) where shuffled off to some innocuous position where their names would quietly disappear from history.

As has often been said the news (and history) is written by the winners.

The population of Métis suddenly decreased dramatically. Truthfully it undoubtedly increased but many denied their heritage and Métis suddenly “disappeared.” As mentioned, some like Dumont went south of the 49^th parallel into the US. What happened to the rest?

Almost a century later Métis suddenly appeared as individuals and as communities throughout the West. Perhaps my short story “Into the Mountains”, fiction though it is, supplies one possible explanation.

What do you think?

Education or manipulation?

Apparently there are those that think our ancestors always had the worst of motives when they presented their ideas. John A. McDonald and Sir Isaac Brock were not creating a country they were stealing. Samuel de Champlain, Henry Hudson and Giovanni Caboto were not mapping new country they were subjugating the populace in “new” lands.

Having read some of the writings of John A. and of those around him I’m 100% sure that he wanted free of the oppressive, ignorant demands of the British Colonial Secretary. His second concern was that the neighbor to the south would attempt to absorb “his” country.

He also thought that the various “Indian” (ie: aboriginal) peoples would be defeated by a more efficient economic system and history proved him correct. He also thought that they should learn some of the systems brought from Europe or the peoples, their societies and language would also disappear. History almost proved that to be correct as well but due to an understanding imparted by the education system some of those languages … and societies … may be saved.

It is also true that the education system was poorly managed. It was full of concepts that had nothing to do with education and turned the schools into prisons, torture chambers, and mental destructors.

As it is practiced today education in general has a great many short-comings, but thankfully nothing as bad as what the “residential” system became.

Remember that the “residential” system started off as a supportive, constructive idea. It became a way to destroy the various aboriginal societies, and to eliminate the various languages and spirituality.

It was not, initially, intended to be that way.

A top shelf educational system should have the goal of teaching students how to think constructively and artistically. However they are now systems designed to make students think “THE WAY YOU ARE TOLD TO THINK.”

Apparently we have all kinds of money to pay for things that don’t really matter such as foreign aid, UN membership and attendance, trade junkets (commercial enterprises should be paying for that), Federal and Provincial “studies” (on a few dozen matters that anyone dealing with them could answer for free), or for legislation that in many cases should be paid for by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies or special interest groups.

We don’t have money for schools, military veterans (who should be handling, when still in service, Foreign Aid), or seniors.

No money for school drama or music and very little for sports. Without sports a high percentage of the kids are likely going to be overweight and die early from circulatory problems. Without arts to develop minds they could precipitate almost any destruction one could imagine.

They certainly won’t have an education.

By the way, Sir Isaac Brock was a British soldier doing what British Parliament had told him to do.

Champlain, Hudson and Caboto would, in today’s world, be considered civil engineers or “surveyors”.

Education

By D.M. McGowan 2018

They taught us many things in school and some of us where fine

At following the words and rules along a designated line

A few were branded trouble when they left the proven trail

And popped the system bubble when they just refused to fail

“If you do exactly what we say you’re sure to get an “A”

Though you may not learn very much to help you through the day

But you’ll get the all important grade and be every politician’s dupe

For if you follow where you’re lead you’ll think they speak the truth”

What many didn’t see both students and the staff

It isn’t learning simple facts but how to love and laugh

Edison, Curie, Gates and Einstein they all had imagination

They didn’t follow another’s path or stay locked within their station.

Sure there is knowledge we all need in writing, science and math

Some we need more than others depending on our chosen path

And if you intend to just get along to do only as you’re told

What need for any new idea? What need to be so bold?

But if you intend to make a mark to be a Gates, or Jobs or Woz

You’ll need some imagination to be anywhere near the top

How do you exercise imagination, build its strength and survival?

Understand poetry, fiction and music to rise above any rival.

“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” Marie Curie.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” ― Jane Austen

“Study the past and you’ll know your mistakes aren’t unique.” Dave McGowan

https://www.amazon.com/D.-M.-McGowan/e/B004V9WZVI

www.dmmcgowan.blogspot.ca