Could this story have been titled: "Eighty Centuries of Man in Vancouver?"

This story could only have been about Mexico -- and not Canada -- because Mexico acknowledges its pre-Columbian history and calls it that. Mexico does not call the time before Columbus' landfall pre-history. As a result, Mexico has history like Spain and Europe have history; there is no history/pre-history division.

In Mexico it is clearly stated, history did not begin with Columbus. Spanish and Indian histories have merged into Mexican history. According to the Mexican government, and Mexicans agree, their country is thousands of years old. The country advertises for tourists with the slogan "Thirty Centuries of Splendour," which means there is no sharp break before and after Columbus -- there is continuity here.

That is in stark contrast to Canada where the government declares, and it is generally agreed, that Canada is 132 years old, dating from Confederation in 1867.

This is why the National Geographic Society could not do a similiar article on a Canadian city because Canada is seen as a young country. Nor could they do such an article on a city in the United States because the US is 223 years old, from 1776 -- another young country. History is given a starting point here and not there, and there it is long and here it is short.

A federal department of Indian Affairs spokesman said while history is longer in the east because western provinces joined Confederation later, Canada has different policies than Mexico. The official said Indian oral history is now being accepted in the courts and there is change occurring as a result of the Delgamuukw decision. But First Nations leaders would say that change is happening at an unacceptably slow rate.

Why did the Spanish colonizers -- who, of course, are Europeans -- acknowledge the New World's earlier centuries of historic settlement by First Nations peoples, while further north, the English in Canada and the United States -- who are also Europeans -- did not?

Mexico accomodates its pre-Columbian history, despite repression in Chiapas province where the Mexican government has used the army to wipe out villages as it has done to other Natives in other instances within its borders. The Mexican government unfortunately uses harsh methods at times but Indians are not denied their place in the history of Mexico.

What does this say about Canada?

2- English Canada uneasy with Metis, mestizos, half-breeds

Looking back almost 400 years to the early decades of the 17th century, when the first English villages were established on the East Coast, there is no discussion in the history books of a halfway-Metis or half-breed people being created. The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay set up what were called "Praying towns," for Indians. Indians were herded into these predecessors of reservations that were near the Puritan villages, but no new half-breed people resulted from this proximity. From the New England states south to the Carolinas, in all the English Thirteen Colonies over a vast and diverse area, there is surprising homegeneity across the board on this point.

About 159 years larer, by 1760, the word half-breed entered the English language, a mixed-race people were finally named. It was a reluctant word as it has now passed out of use by the media because it is seen to have negative connotations. Was this a case of ethnic cleansing perhaps? A word and a people were shunned and half-breeds have quietly vanished.

The majority of the population of Ontario is English-speaking; the provincial government is taking the Metis Nation of Ontario to court questioning their existence. This makes logical if cruel sense because the democratic majority of Ontarions who speak English no longer culturally acknowledge half-breeds as they are understood not to exist any more. Now Metis are next on the list. People are people, and if English-speaking people do not have a half-way people, then French-speaking people cannot either.

This Metis court challenge would likely not be initiated in the West, Quebec, or by the federal government. Metis and halfbreeds were instrumental in the creation of the province of Manitoba and its entering Confederation in 1871 and integral to the history of the Prairie Provinces, but not Ontario. The Ontario public however, in a 400-year-old eastern tradition, does not know a halfway people, so the government must represent this view. Even if the people are wrong or misinformed; history, language, and culture lead government policy in a democracy.