On Canada Day and July 4th
Image source: https://ca.usembassy.gov/united-states-canada-strength-partnership/
In acknowledgment of both Canada Day (July 1) and American Independence Day (July 4), this post addresses nations whose forebears were here on this land before either Canada or the United States:
[Posted by Jen Breach for Writing With a Broken Tusk]
In June 1942, Major General Clarence Tinker’s plane was downed in the Battle of Midway, and he was lost in the ocean. He had been a career soldier, a decorated aviator, and the highest ranking Native American officer in the US armed services.
Clarence was Osage, and lived among his extended family in Osage Nation until he was forcibly enrolled in a Catholic boarding school. There, while forbidden to practice his Osage language or traditions, he was taught about Native Americans who had assisted colonist military forces since Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus.
In a phone interview with a local Washingston state public radio in 2019, Makah tribal member and educator Cynthia Savini put it this way: “We felt that being warriors and being protectors of America, regardless of who was in charge, or in office, was an important role for us to play…something that we understood. So patriotism runs very, very high on reservations.”
Now, Native Americans have the highest percentage of involvement in the US military of any minority group, per capita. It’s always been complicated, and just how complicated it is dazzled away in the light of sparklers and fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Savini says “[Native Americans, the military, and patriotism] means embracing, in some ways, our captors, so existing in that tension is a really interesting place to be, especially once you become aware…just how propagandized we’ve been, how whitewashed we’ve been for so long.”
Un-whitewashing history and experience takes time and effort, and more than reflection on a single day of the year. In that spirit, we are grateful for First Nations educator, Orange Shirt Day founder and children’s book writer Phyllis Webstad’s list of 29 essential books by Indigenous creators and about Indigenous experiences.
And then, there is the story of Major General Clarence Tinker, I Am Osage: How Clarence Tinker Became the First Native American Major General, by Kim Rogers and illustrated by Bobby Von Martin, from Heartdrum, author-curator Cynthia Leitech Smith’s imprint dedicated to indigenous stories and artists. We hope to bring you more about this book later this year.
Uma adds: Like other human endeavours, Nationalism has always had two sides. It can unify diverse societies. Conversely, taken to extremes, it can fuel violence, xenophobia and hatred—for other nations, other peoples. On the eve of this Fourth of July, elections are over in India, looming in Canada, and inescapable in the United States. We still have choices in each of the nations I choose to lay claim to—but they’re narrowing.
