Diary #2

Dear Diary,



My Favourite Dress

          I am very worried now. The government wants us to give up our lands and sign something called treaties. I do not know what treaties are, but it does not sound so good. No one is telling me anything. All I know is from bits and pieces of conversations I overheard last night. I hope that a war does not arise because of this. I pray that nothing harsh will happen. Even with all my worries and concerns, the day had to go on. 


       I woke up in my teepee and I put on a new dress before I went out. My Mother sewed the dress. It is beautiful and is delicately covered with beads. It is also one of my favourite dresses. I pulled on my old, worn out moccasins and got to work.


      Today I mended the fish nets and weaved baskets. It is not very hard for me, so it did not take too long to finish. After I finished doing my chores, I watched the children play together in the woods. They looked so happy like they had no care in the world. I wish I was like that as it would be nice not to worry once in a while. Our lives are so peaceful and I hope nobody disrupts it. Throughout the day I could not forget about what I overheard. All of the women were talking about it in low whispers so nobody would hear.


     I wanted to get my mind off the treaties, so I started to paint. I made a painting of my family. I love them very much and I do not want anything to happen to them. I wanted to show my Grandmother my painting and talk to her about the the treaties, so I walked over to her teepee. Strangely she was not in there and she was usually always there in the evening. I wonder where she went. 


      I went back to my teepee and began to make dinner and forgot all about my Grandmother. For dinner we had some bread and soup. Once the whole family ate dinner the little children including me, were told to go to sleep. I knew they were going to talk about the treaties, but I knew I was not allowed to listen. I hope it is not as serious as they make it seem. I wish they would tell me what was going on. I hope tomorrow will be a better day.
                                                                                    -Ekala
(By: Chinthuri Selvarajah)