Thanks for this terribly relevant work. The truths and fictions of the Heritage Minutes are a great starting point for research. The border between settler NWT and settler US was apparently called the “magic” or “medicine” line (not sure of the Lakota word) because abstract, fixed, geographical borders were a white govt concept, but one with powerful effects.
“There the Great Mother’s redcoats turned out to be stern policemen, and the Great Father’s bluecoats watched like hawks from the other side of a magic line on the prairie that the Sioux could not see. Food proved scarce and life grim.” (Utley, condescendingly, in The Last Days of the Sioux Nation, 1963, p. 19.)
Thanks for this terribly relevant work. The truths and fictions of the Heritage Minutes are a great starting point for research. The border between settler NWT and settler US was apparently called the “magic” or “medicine” line (not sure of the Lakota word) because abstract, fixed, geographical borders were a white govt concept, but one with powerful effects.
“There the Great Mother’s redcoats turned out to be stern policemen, and the Great Father’s bluecoats watched like hawks from the other side of a magic line on the prairie that the Sioux could not see. Food proved scarce and life grim.” (Utley, condescendingly, in The Last Days of the Sioux Nation, 1963, p. 19.)
Of course, no one could see the magic line. Recently the phrase was used for the Roxham Rd border crossing (by Frances Ravensbergen, a volunteer with the group Bridges Not Borders, quoted in G&M https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-roxham-road-migrants/ )