I pulled a few quotes from an August 7, 2007 newspaper someone handed me recently, but I’ve left the town name blank. Try to guess the town:
‘Violent death toll soars on _ _ _ _ _ _ streets?
‘Spate of stabbings, assaults alarms citizens, police?
Did you guess Winnipeg, Manitoba?
The newspaper is the Grassroots News, that includes in its banner, ‘Manitoba’s Weekly Aboriginal Newspaper.?
Aboriginal is not an often used word in these parts, so I refreshed my memory. Aboriginal: See native — Webster.
Aborigine: member of the earliest-known group of people to inhabit a country — Encyclopedia.
Ah, and therein lies the root of the violence being experienced in Winnipeg. It started when some Dakota and Lakota Sioux Indian tribes were given refuge by Canada when they fled the U.S. in 1876-77 after the battle of the Little Big Horn, when, the article claims, ‘U.S. authorities were intent on wiping out the surviving Sioux.?
These tribes spread out across southern Manitoba and Sakatchewan. Since, these tribes have been seeking aboriginal rights from the Canadian government.
The government claims these people are political refugees, thus have not proved aboriginal rights, though the government offered them sanctuary.
The Dakotas complain they’re owed hundreds of millions of dollars for oil and other resources extracted from southwest Manitoba over more than six decades, and they will no longer allow governments to run roughshod over their aboriginal title and rights.
As the political disputes go on, the rash of violence continues on Winnipeg streets. A city councillor has called on aboriginal leaders to step in to stem the violence, he says, predominantly involves aboriginal people.
An aboriginal leader rebuked the councillor, pointing to the extreme poverty, lack of employment and resource sharing with the aboriginals as breeding grounds for anger, despair and crime.
I’ll close with a quote from a man with Sioux ancestry, which applies to situations around the world:
‘The white men wrote history as they saw it, but they didn’t see or know what this land was or the people on it before they arrived.
‘Borders and countries are the constructs of white men and imperial states and colonial governments and were alien and irrelevant to our ancestors and our way of life and habitation, and in the end that’s what this is about, correcting a flawed view of the history of this country and the land.?
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Since the only one I have to please with my cooking is me, I occasionally read a recipe for kicks. I’m not going to vary much on my electric range from warm-ups, bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, fried zucchini, grilled meat, baked potatoes and Caesar salad. My spices are salt, pepper and Lawry’s.
However, Hazel left me with 44 jars and tins of spices. I sometimes wonder what I can use them for, thus I read a recipe now and then.
This one for Chicken Cacciatore calls for 2 tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil, divided. What? Segregate my olive or vegetable oil?
And, any one of four wild mushrooms: shitake, oyster, chanterelle or porcini. How about some of those springing up in my yard lately?
Then we add dried basil, curry powder and bay leaves. Seriously, cookers, are any of these really tasted when put with onions, peppers and garlic?
I was about to try this Cacciatore when I saw it called for 2-cups of reduced-sodium chicken broth. Some label may tell me the sodium is reduced, but what are they comparing it to, non-reduced sodium?
If I were going to cook this dish I think I’d put in some of Hazel’s marjoram, dill, cumin seed and lemon peel. Maybe some rubbed sage, too.