Fantasy and Mythology Stories Wanted

 

Peasant Magazine is seeking submissions for Issue #2. Specifically it is looking for fantasy, historical fantasy, historical fiction and magical realism stories that are between 1,000 and 8,000 words in length.

PM is a free nonprofit fantasy/historical fiction/magical realism literary magazine that focuses on stories set on earth prior to 1750 or set in a fantasy world.

Furthermore stories don't have to be 'first time publications'. They also accept reprints of previously published works.

Peasant Magazine is available in both 8x11 magazine format from Amazon, and as a free PDF for download.

Peasant Magazine Issue #1, 8x11

Peasant Magazine Issue #1, Free PDF

 

 

A Fresh Look at Dudley George

Open Letter to Canadians:

I was wondering if you have given thought to writing a piece about the death of indigenous activist Dudley George, whose shooting death by the OPP was the centre of an inquiry years ago.

Before and during the inquiry process Kenneth Deane (the shooter) and multiple OPP officers were all killed in car accidents that the OPP investigated and declared accidents.

Sergeant Margaret Eve, a dispatch officer on the day of the shooting, was hit by a transport truck on Highway 401 near Chatham in June 2000.

Inspector Dale Linton, the officer who activated Deane's unit the night Dudley George was shot, was killed in a vehicle accident near Smiths Falls in October 2000.

Kenneth "Tex" Deane was killed on February 25, 2006 in a car accident when his vehicle collided with a truck near Prescott, Ontario.

All three were killed before they could testify at the inquiry. The inquiry was quite literally a "dead end" because there was no one alive from the chain of command to say who ordered the shooting death of Dudley George.

The OPP deny being any foul play in the deaths of their officers, but can we really trust the OPP to investigate the deaths of witnesses to an event the OPP was intimately involved with?

And with that in mind, we should understand that the 1200+ indigenous women who were murdered / missing likely involves police either bungling cases or deliberately bungling cases because they themselves were responsible.

INDIGENOUS LIVES MATTER, but clearly so do police lives when there is apparently a serial killer targeting the OPP.

Please Copy, Paste and Share

The Indigenous Peoples Voting Bloc

"One in ten Canadians are indigenous. They are one of the largest voting blocs in the country. When they all vote together, they have the power to topple governments. You would have to be a moron to ignore the Indigenous Peoples vote."

In October Stephen Harper was booted from office and amongst the reasons why was the fact that he ignored repeated calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

The new Liberal government has promised an inquiry and is going to deliver. The new interim Conservative leader, Rona Ambrose, is now backpeddling on the issue and saying she will support an inquiry... But why?

Is it because the Conservatives realized that 10% of voters in Canada are indigenous and that 10% can be the difference between winning an election and going home in resounding defeat?

I think so.

Clearly the reversal of the Conservative Party shows that they previously thought that Indigenous vote didn't matter, and they have now realized that it does matter.

So was Stephen Harper a moron for ignoring 10% of voters? Quite possibly? Or was he simply a racist who apparently hates Muslims, indigenous peoples, and anyone else who gets in his way? He apparently is not fond of women, children, and that poor kitten in the one famous photo looks traumatized.

Earlier this year many chiefs were urging their people to vote - not necessarily to vote against Harper, simply that they should vote. Because they knew that the Indigenous vote does matter.

And now it has been proven.

Natives pissed on by Stephen Harper

I got the following image below from this website: Anybody But Stephen Harper.

It is not a myth. It describes something that actually happened. For more details on the incident read the CBC news articles from 2009:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ottawa-sends-body-bags-to-manitoba-reserves-1.844427

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/health-canada-apologizes-for-body-bags-1.790351

What that incident shows is the level of disregard the Harper government has for Native Canadians.

Also while we are at it, what about the 1200+ missing / murdered women cases which are unsolved that Stephen Harper claims "most of those have already been solved". Complete BS. They have not been solved at all. Apparently he doesn't understand the term "unsolved".

And on top of being treated like shit, aboriginals in Canada are apparently expected to keep boiling their water in many communities that don't even have clean drinking water. The money is apparently there to fix the problem, but the Harper government has been ignoring the problem for 10 years because they are using clean drinking water as a bargaining stick when dealing with these communities.

Got a message for you Stephen Harper. Clean drinking water is NOT a bargaining stick. It is a right.

It is no wonder so many aboriginals in Canada hate Stephen Harper. They have a right to be pissed off. Anybody who gets treated like that should feel like they are being physically threatened by the Harper government, because in reality they are being physically threatened. Their lives are at stake.

People are dying. Something needs to be done. Stephen Harper is not the man for the job.

Native Bowyer / Bow Making Videos

Below are some Native American bowyer, bow making, arrow making and arrowhead making videos full of tips on how make a traditional Native bow.

3 of the videos are from "Aboriginal Revivalist" Noel Grayson - who is absolutely amazing to listen to. I would listen to him tell stories about making bows, arrows, arrowheads, etc all day long.

Speaking English in America Vs Navajo

Cherokee Story of Two Wolves

The Earth belongs to Our Children

The Ghost of Dudley George

In 1995 Native protester Dudley George was shot by OPP officer Kenneth Deane.

Then Premier Mike Harris ordered the police to force the Natives off Native land known as Ipperwash by "any means necessary".

After the death of Dudley George there was an inquiry which revealed the police had failed to even negotiate with the Natives and had opted to solve the situation with gunfire.

Kenneth "Tex" Deane was mysteriously killed on February 25, 2006 in a car accident when his vehicle collided with a truck near Prescott, Ontario. He was the third person involved in the Ipperwash Crisis to be mysteriously killed in a car accident.

No investigation into whether the three car accidents are connected was ever made.

The first person to die was Sergeant Margaret Eve. She was hit by a transport truck on Highway 401 near Chatham in June 2000.

Inspector Dale Linton, the officer who activated Deane's unit the night Dudley George was shot, was killed in an accident near Smiths Falls in October 2000.

All three were experienced and well-trained drivers. It is possible that they were being pursued by an unknown attacker and eventually made a mistake which led to their deaths.

All three were to be witnesses in the Ipperwash Inquiry. None of them lived to testify.

So is Dudley George's ghost hunting down the people who caused his death?

Or did former Premier Mike Harris have the witnesses murdered?

The Origin of Earth - Tuskegee

Before the beginning, water was everywhere. But no people, animals, or earth were visible.

There were birds, however, who held a council to decide if it might be best to have all land or all water. "Let us have land, so we can have more food," said some of the birds. Others said, "Let's have all water, because we like it this way."

Subsequently, they appointed Eagle as their Chief who was to decide one way or the other. Eagle decided upon land and asked, "Who will go and search for land?"

Dove volunteered first and flew away. In four days he completed his hunt and returned, reporting, "I could not find land anywhere."

Crawfish came swimming along and was asked by the council to help search for land. He disappeared under the water for four days. When he arose to the surface again, he held some dirt in his claws. He had found some land deep in the water.

Crawfish made a ball of the dirt and handed it to Chief Eagle, who then flew away with it. Four days later he returned and said to the council, "Now there is land, an island has been formed-- follow me!"

The whole bird colony flew after Eagle to see the new land, though it was a very small island. Gradually, the land began to grow larger and larger as the water became lower and lower. More islands appeared and these grew together, creating larger islands into one earth.

Tuskegee Indians say they were chosen by the Great Spirit to be the first people to live upon the new earth, a long, long time ago.

Girl-Without-Parents Creation Story - Apache

Animals, elements, the solar system, and natural phenomena are revered by the Apaches. That which is beyond their understanding is always ascribed to the supernatural.

In the beginning nothing existed--no earth, no sky, no sun, no moon, only darkness was everywhere.

Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. As if waking from a long nap, he rubbed his eyes and face with both hands.

When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks of dawn. To the west, tints of many colours appeared everywhere. There were also clouds of different colours.

Creator wiped his sweating face and rubbed his hands together, thrusting them downward. Behold! A shining cloud upon which sat a little girl.

"Stand up and tell me where are you going," said Creator. But she did not reply. He rubbed his eyes again and offered his right hand to the Girl-Without-Parents.

"Where did you come from?" she asked, grasping his hand.

"From the east where it is now light," he replied, stepping upon her cloud.

"Where is the earth?" she asked.

"Where is the sky?" he asked, and sang, "I am thinking, thinking, thinking what I shall create next." He sang four times, which was the magic number.

Creator brushed his face with his hands, rubbed them together, then flung them wide open! Before them stood Sun-God. Again Creator rubbed his sweaty brow and from his hands dropped Small- Boy.

All four gods sat in deep thought upon the small cloud.

"What shall we make next?" asked Creator. "This cloud is much too small for us to live upon."

Then he created Tarantula, Big Dipper, Wind, Lightning-Maker, and some western clouds in which to house Lightning-Rumbler, which he just finished.

Creator sang, "Let us make earth. I am thinking of the earth, earth, earth; I am thinking of the earth," he sang four times.

All four gods shook hands. In doing so, their sweat mixed together and Creator rubbed his palms, from which fell a small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean.

Creator kicked it, and it expanded. Girl-Without-Parents kicked the ball, and it enlarged more. Sun-God and Small-Boy took turns giving it hard kicks, and each time the ball expanded. Creator told Wind to go inside the ball and to blow it up.

Tarantula spun a black cord and, attaching it to the ball, crawled away fast to the east, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Tarantula repeated with a blue cord to the south, a yellow cord to the west, and a white cord to the north. With mighty pulls in each direction, the brown ball stretched to immeasurable size--it became the earth! No hills, mountains, or rivers were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains appeared.

Creator scratched his chest and rubbed his fingers together and there appeared Hummingbird.

"Fly north, south, east, and west and tell us what you see," said Creator.

"All is well," reported Hummingbird upon his return. "The earth is most beautiful, with water on the west side."

But the earth kept rolling and dancing up and down. So Creator made four giant posts--black, blue, yellow, and white to support the earth. Wind carried the four posts, placing them beneath the four cardinal points of the earth. The earth sat still.

Creator sang, "World is now made and now sits still," which he repeated four times.

Then he began a song about the sky. None existed, but he thought there should be one. After singing about it four times, twenty- eight people appeared to help make a sky above the earth. Creator chanted about making chiefs for the earth and sky.

He sent Lightning-Maker to encircle the world, and he returned with three uncouth creatures, two girls and a boy found in a turquoise shell. They had no eyes, ears, hair, mouths, noses, or teeth. They had arms and legs, but no fingers or toes.

Sun-God sent for Fly to come and build a sweathouse. Girl- Without-Parents covered it with four heavy clouds. In front of the east doorway she placed a soft, red cloud for a foot-blanket to be used after the sweat.

Four stones were heated by the fire inside the sweathouse. The three uncouth creatures were placed inside. The others sang songs of healing on the outside, until it was time for the sweat to be finished. Out came the three strangers who stood upon the magic red cloud-blanket. Creator then shook his hands toward them, giving each one fingers, toes, mouths, eyes, ears, noses and hair.

Creator named the boy, Sky-Boy, to be chief of the Sky-People. One girl he named Earth-Daughter, to take charge of the earth and its crops. The other girl he named Pollen-Girl, and gave her charge of health care for all Earth-People.

Since the earth was flat and barren, Creator thought it fun to create animals, birds, trees, and a hill. He sent Pigeon to see how the world looked. Four days later, he returned and reported, "All is beautiful around the world. But four days from now, the water on the other side of the earth will rise and cause a mighty flood."

Creator made a very tall pinon tree. Girl-Without-Parents covered the tree framework with pinon gum, creating a large, tight ball.

In four days, the flood occurred. Creator went up on a cloud, taking his twenty-eight helpers with him. Girl-Without-Parents put the others into the large, hollow ball, closing it tight at the top.

In twelve days, the water receded, leaving the float-ball high on a hilltop. The rushing floodwater changed the plains into mountains, hills, valleys, and rivers. Girl-Without-Parents led the gods out from the float-ball onto the new earth. She took them upon her cloud, drifting upward until they met Creator with his helpers, who had completed their work making the sky during the flood time on earth.

Together the two clouds descended to a valley below. There, Girl- Without-Parents gathered everyone together to listen to Creator.

"I am planning to leave you," he said. "I wish each of you to do your best toward making a perfect, happy world.

"You, Lightning-Rumbler, shall have charge of clouds and water.

"You, Sky-Boy, look after all Sky-People.

"You, Earth-Daughter, take charge of all crops and Earth-People.

"You, Pollen-Girl, care for their health and guide them.

"You, Girl-Without-Parents, I leave you in charge over all."

Creator then turned toward Girl-Without-Parents and together they rubbed their legs with their hands and quickly cast them forcefully downward. Immediately between them arose a great pile of wood, over which Creator waved a hand, creating fire.

Great billowy clouds of smoke at once drifted skyward. Into this cloud, Creator disappeared. The other gods followed him in other clouds of smoke, leaving the twenty-eight workers to people the earth.

Sun-God went east to live and travel with the Sun. Girl-Without- Parents departed westward to live on the far horizon. Small-Boy and Pollen-Girl made cloud homes in the south. Big Dipper can still be seen in the northern sky at night, a reliable guide to all.

The Buffalo Dance - Mandan

The most exciting event of the year's festival was the Buffalo Dance. Eight men participated, wearing buffalo skins on their backs and painting themselves black, red, and white. Dancers endeavoured to imitate the buffalo on the prairie.

Each dancer held a rattle in his right hand, and in his left a six-foot rod. On his head, he wore a bunch of green willow boughs. The season for the return of the buffalo coincided with the willow trees in full leaf.

Another dance required only four tribesmen, representing the four main directions of the compass from which the buffalo might come. With a canoe in the centre, two dancers, dressed as grizzly bears who might attack the hunters, took their places on each side. They growled and threatened to spring upon anyone who might interfere with the ceremony.

Onlookers tried to appease the grizzlies by tossing food to them. The two dancers would pounce upon the food, carrying it away to the prairie as possible lures for the coming of the buffaloes.

During the ceremony, the old men of the tribe beat upon drums and chanted prayers for successful buffalo hunting.

By the end of the fourth day of the Buffalo Dance, a man entered the camp disguised as the evil spirit of famine. Immediately he was driven away by shouts and stone-throwing from the younger Mandans, who waited excitedly to participate in the ceremony.

When the demon of famine was successfully driven away, the entire tribe joined in the bountiful thanksgiving feast, symbolic of the early return of buffalo to the Mandan hunting-grounds.