History, Take II

I wrote about some history a week ago as I am currently into a podcast called "The Rest is History." It's a couple of British guys that host it and they do a really good job. One thing I like about it is that each episode is about 45-60 minutes and they will often go over time. I recently listened to their one about Custer, which started as a three part series but each week they came back with more info and it turned into about eleven episode going past Custer and to the death of many of the big name first nations we know of (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, etc.)

One thing that struck me, that I never thought about, was the timeline. I always thing that for America, there was independence, the extermination of the first nations, and the civil war. But Custer fought in the Civil War. People he attacked were still alive in WW2. All of that stuff is remarkably recent and more intertwined than most realize.

Plus there are a lot of things that get left out of general histories, especially if being taught in a high school. Like how the Lakota would mutilate bodies so they couldn't attack you in the afterlife. This meant Custer had an arrow shoved up his penis.

There are also things left out of a more humorous nature. In one they noted "Custer celebrated this victory by writing a letter to his wife about his penis, John."

Where the fuck was that in high school? I would have paid attention a bit more with shit like that. I still clearly remember the first day of history class in grade ten with the principal, Mr. Larson (Not to be confused with the principal of elementary school, Mr. Larson). He asked us why people generally don't like history and I raised my hand and said it's boring. He then went on to say how the pyramids and the Roman empire aren't boring.

Then we went and learnt Canadian history. Now, I don't want to say Canadian history is boring, but it isn't exciting like many other places. It's much more peaceful and therefore less exciting. It's still important to learn and we did lots of horrible things to people, but it's not what a high schooler wants to pay attention to. Another one of the quotes in the Custer series was from an American General and was something along the lines of "We should stop lying to the Indians so much. The Canadians don't and they are having an easier time of it."

How bad do you have to treat people for historical first nations treatment in Canada to be the positive comparison?

But those exciting and funny stories probably do exist. Sure, horrible things happened, but showing funny, silly or weird stuff that happened also shows the humanity of those involved and how we could each be a part of it. One of the Kings of Sweden remarked to a soldier that had his toes and heels frozen off that it was a "Trifle." That's horrible but also fucking hilarious that a ruler could be that out of touch.

Teach this shit to high school students! Make it bad! Make it gory! Show them what happens when you live a life of being an asshole and when the rich and powerful get to tell everyone what to do.