So. It is 1868. In Russia Maxim Gorky is born, in Canada Thomas D’Arcy McGee gets assassinated, and in England astronomer Norman Lockyer discovers helium. In the Wyoming Territory of the United States, meanwhile, the Treaty of Fort Laramie is signed, setting aside for the sole use of the Lakota tribe forever the Black Hills mountain range and all of northeastern Wyoming.
Given the endless suffering in so many wars between settlers and First Nations—from the Cherokees and Seminoles in the East to the Nez Perce and Sioux in the West (these choices being entirely arbitrary: little earth is free of blood)—the resolution of this treaty is a blessing, a blessing that, designed to be eternal, lasts in fact six years. In 1874, enter General George Armstrong Custer, last seen killing Cheyennes in the Battle of Washita River. Of all things, Custer discovers gold in them thar Black Hills andJohn Burns is the editor-in-chief of Vancouver magazine, a city staple published in traditional Musqueam territory since 1967.
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