TECUMSEH

 Near my house, on the way to the nearest Costco, I cross a street called Tecumseh. 

What I did not know was this is the name of a Shawnee chief and warrior, born in what is now Ohio. He was a folk hero, travelling widely and forming a Native American confederacy. 

His younger brother Tenskwatawa became known as the Shawnee Prophet, who founded a religious movement that rejected European influence and valued their traditional lifestyle. 

The two brothers would go on to establish Prophetstown, Indiana, a multi-tribal community, that would be destroyed by Americans in 1811. 

In the War of 1812, Tecumseh joined with the British, helping capture Detroit. He participated with the British in the failed campaign against the Americans in Ohio and Indiana. When US Naval Forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, he retreated with the British into Upper Canada (a town near Windsor is named after him), and was killed at the Battle of the Thames on October 1813. 

His death lead to the collapse of the conferacy, and the lands he fought to defend were ceded to the US government.

LISA COOK

 The study of economics in my life has largely been a post-secondary personal pursuit. My high school teacher gave me the impression that the financial system was increasingly unknowable following the uncoupling of currency and gold. Additionally, our investment into Air Canada (which was, to be fair, only a year long) was a failure, earning less on the sale then we had put it, which hurt in 1989 when a GI was returning 10%. Needless to say, I learn to save, and invest safely, which doesn't help me much in the current market. 

Since then, I have moved from personal budgets to financial planning to investment. I am still learning, so a few years ago, when I happened on a podcast called Planet Money, I began to see that economist have a point of view on far more than money. From my personal viewpoint, they are some of the greatest modern philosophers in the world. They analyze date and come up with solutions. They have insight into almost every system out there, and that is very exciting and comforting!

One such economist has sparked even further interest in her extensive historical research. Her name is Lisa Cook, and her articles are worth reading.The podcast called Patent Racism that introduced her to me was on Planet Money was an analysis of black racism and the impact of black innovation. She found that people's general understanding of the history of black was lacking, and even had to provide that as the basis of her economic study and argument that lynching/violence kills innovation while it's killing victims. It's a pivotal note in history, and a modern day cautionary tale. 

From her work, I was introduced to the lynching of Emmitt Till (and his remarkable mother, in Women of the Movement on Global), the devastation of the Tulsa Race massacre (imagine your neighbourhood razed to the ground), and the Tuskegee report on lynchings (a brutal short history here).

 Racism and lack of diversity kills innovation, and both need to be avoided. The paper that started it all is titled: Violence and Economic Activity  with its abstract.

Here is a talk she gave on Diversity and Innovation. Another on What Promotes Or Kills Innovation?

Here is the blueprint for the present proposed implementation for an Innovation Economy, called the Hamilton Project.

I look forward to follow and aspiring to more Lisa Cook ideas.

BOOK REVIEW: THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN

 Logo of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People

EVERYDAY IS TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION DAY

It's been an appallingly slow process to improve the heavily biased and often ignorant history taught in school to even begin to tell a more complete story. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was published in 1996, but the apologies and settlements will be ongoing for generations to come. 

This year will remembered as a traumatic one for many reasons, but I don't think we will soon forget the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school at the end of the school year has ballooned to a total that has yet to be confirmed but is being quoted as high as 6509. 

Here is a map of how extensive the system was. These horrific findings are not a surprise, but the rising counts of bodies between covid waves has coaxed along with a national conversation, marking September 30th as the first national marking of the long work that is Truth and Reconciliation.

My daughter participated in her school's organization of the day, wearing an orange shirt in honour of Phyllis Webstad. Like my daughter, her proud memory of being dressed up by her family for the exciting first day of school. Unlike my daughter, she arrived and was stripped of all of her clothes, including that beloved orange shirt, and it was never returned to her. Now we wear orange to recognize the harm done to Phyllis and countless others by the residential school system, and affirm our commitment to reconcile, apologized, and learn from the admission of the truth of systemic racism, and our need to turn this trauma to growth.

It is an embarassment and an affront that Premier Legault denies that systemic racism exists, and that . The coroner's report of Joyce Echaquan's death underlines the need for acknowledgement of systemic racism. 

Here is a link to a document called Myths and Realities of Indigenous People from the Quebec commission of human and child rights.

Coming from the University of Manitoba, that has been proactive in indigenous education of all students, there is a National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation