My daughter's school curriculum enlightened me to why I was a fourth generation immigrant to the Canadian prairies, but it did not do a good job explaining how the west was populated when it was already indigenously populated.
Today I watched a documentary that explains this "shared history". It explains "The Pass system", starting in 1885, concomitant with the immigration of farmers encouraged by "free landplots". For 60 years, the system was created that still echoes today. In order to leave the reservation, an aboriginal needed to ask an Indian Agent for a pass. To visit town, to go the hospital, to visit their children, who were taken as wards of the state to residential schools. They weren't always approved, were often hard to obtain, brief, and punishable by jail if not obtained.
Why is it so hard for history to be told by more than one side? As Napolean said, "History is a set of lies agreed upon". Surely it's time to tell a story with at least two sides?
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