marierioux:When she enlisted, they didn’t really want her in the barracks. There was a lot of racism

marierioux:When she enlisted, they didn’t really want her in the barracks. There was a lot of racism against natives and it was all kind of hushed up. But she said, “I knew what was going on.”So she boarded outside the barracks. One day her sergeant and two Mounties showed up and said, “We’ll give you a good new uniform and a good lunch. We want you to take a picture.”And this is the picture.They drove over out to the Piapot reserve. The man standing there is a man named Harry Ball. He’s a World War One veteran. He wasn’t the chief of the Piapot reserve [at the time he was a councilor, and later became chief], but he was a vet. And he happened to be hanging around.The regalia that he’s wearing was cobbled together by the Mounties. They went into people’s houses and pulled out a blanket here, an old headdress from a powwow there. And they found a pipe. The stem on it was pieced together with some tape and a bit of twine one of the Mounties had.And they told them to pose. And this picture is apparently an Indian princess getting a blessing from the chief of her tribe.Now Harry is from Piapot. Mary is from Muskeg Lake, Cree. And they didn’t know each other.They took picture after picture. Mary joined up in June, so this picture was taken in late June in Saskatchewan. If you know much about the prairies, you know how goddamn hot it is there.She’s kneeling in the grass. The grass is full of bugs. And they’re flying up and the Mounties are telling them to stand still and the photographer is trying to get the picture.And Mary and Harry are talking. Mary says, “Christ.” (They’re speaking in Cree, and this is Mary’s story.)And Harry says, “God it’s hot. What did you get for this?”Mary says, “I get a good lunch.”Harry says, “I got 20 bucks.”Mary says, “So what are you bitching about? You get 20 bucks and I’m down here with bugs.”And that’s the blessing that you see.This picture was published in the Regina Leader-Post, and it went viral, I guess, in those days. It appeared all over the British Empire to show the power of the colonies fighting for King and country. -- source link

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