Cairo Calling: Short Stories from an Expat on the Edge

The Reclamation- Introduction

Sometimes our mother tells us of the happy days of her childhood before the Reclamation; of green grass and Sunday strolls through open parks. She tells us of Christmases at her grandmother’s house in Burnsville before the walls were built and we could no longer travel. She remembers snowmen and Christmas trees; sweet gingerbread cookies and snow-covered uncles coming in through the front door to pick her up in cold, wet arms and give her cold, wet kisses on her cheeks. On really good days she tells us stories of Como Zoo and taking picnics on Harriet Island before all of the parks and zoos were Reclaimed and we could no longer enter. These were the good days before the Democrats and Republicans split and formed rival factions disagreeing over foreign policy and economic decisions, the Democrats becoming decidedly Leftist and Socialist and the Republicans becoming unabashedly Xenophobic and Capitalistic. The states were individually forced to decide who they belonged to and citizens clashed in the streets over political affiliations. In response to the anarchy Minnesota declared itself a neutral state and set up its own ineffectual party of Independents. America, no longer able to stand unified against invaders, crumbled as chunks of states were taken by both Canada and Mexico; Mexico stating that it was only taking back what once belonged to it and Canada defending itself by claiming that it was invited by the residents of the areas to take over and defend them from the chaos and lawlessness.

Minnesota’s borders stood but the economy was weakened and the ruling party of Independents began to fall prey to bribes and corruption from both Democratic and Republican sides; it was during this time that the Reclamation began. The Native Americans, who in the absence of a unified America took to simply calling themselves Native, having long been a semi-sovereign Nation declared their independence and began to grab land. At first it was only the reservations and chunks of neighborhoods with a higher concentration of Natives living there but later they formed gangs and patrolled the streets, claiming empty houses and pressuring non-Natives who lived in those areas to sell and move. Some people fought back, getting aid from the Minnesotan National Guard, but soon the Natives were receiving aid themselves from the First Nation tribes in Canada who were sympathetic to their plight. Natives from the state of Wisconsin, who itself had aligned with the Republicans, began facing outright xenophobia from the government there and they began to move en masse into Native-controlled areas in Minnesota bringing additional funding and man-power. Similar movements began to take place in the neighboring states of North and South Dakota, the Native tribes of Dakota being cousin-brothers to the majority Lakota tribes in Minnesota, and soon the Nations came together under the unified name of the Lakota and declared war on the non-Native governing parties. After fierce fighting northern Wisconsin fell into the hands of the Natives still living there and the Republicans of Wisconsin signed a treaty granting them all the land north of the once interstate freeway 94 and barriers were built to keep them from advancing farther. The Wisconsin Natives, comprised of the Fox, Ojibwe, and Menominee tribes, joined the Lakota Nation who changed their name to simply the Nation and sent out a call to all the Native tribes of America to join them.

Natives from all over the broken remnants of the once great country, having already suffered hundreds of years of poverty on the reservations and then suffering even more poverty and depravation under the self-preserving governmental factions, eagerly answered the Nation’s call and moved to populate the stolen lands. Soon the non-natives, like our family, were concentrated into a last few strong holds and a treaty was signed and a ceasefire agreed to. Many homes had been stolen and people who had once commanded grand houses were packed into one-bedroom apartments with entire families sheltering under one roof.

And then the Nation began to build walls…

This is where our story begins.