Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

In celebration, I plan to live like an indigenous person today. That is, I will forgo all dental care and force my wife to tend the children and raise crops while I go romp in the forest with my buddies, hunting for whatever it is I can find in the brown, dead hills of San Diego in October.

I figure I'll come home with a handful of lizards.

No matter, what's important is throwing away Euro-Christian hegemonic thingamabobs and embracing the purity and goodness of indigenous peoples. With that in mind, I will also engage in wars of conquest with my neighbors in the hopes of capturing slaves or at least raiding their houses for goodies.

Since I'm not a total purist, I won't attempt to capture their animals. The dogs next door are horrible creatures and I have no interest in bringing them into my house. Instead, I will put them to the sword. Err, I will put them to the rock lashed to the end of a stick with some vines. If I can find any vines, which I probably can't, given the local vegetation. I guess I'll just have to put them to the rock held in my hand.

Eww. That's pretty gross. Best not to think of that.

Speaking of things not to think of, I've been reading, on and off, this noble tome.

It's quite good. I highly recommend it.

That aside, it points out that the indigenous peoples lacked the ability to build POW camps. That meant taking prisoners was not just a waste of time, but an actual disadvantage due to the manpower required to keep control over the captured enemy warriors.

I'll leave it to your imagination to picture what our cul-de-sac will look like by the end of the day.

Have a great Indigenous Peoples Day! I hope you survive it.