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The Lion's Historian is a native New Orleanian who always believed there was more to history than we were taught.  Her questions turned into a quest for alternative narratives of history and cultures.  As she met with elders to document and record their stories, her assumptions were validated.  History was not told by the victors, but by those with the power of the pen and access to the media to promote their perspectives. 

 

History books, television, radio, newspapers, magazines were all tools to promote the single narrative and further the initiatives of a few.  Aboriginal peoples were the original builders and creators of culture in their native environments. However, foreign colonizers, writing themselves into the antiquity of those spaces, completely erased the indigenous out of their own stories.  The Doctrine of Discovery is unfortunately still in play.

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Where else, other than colonized territories, did natives rely on foreigners for survival in their native lands?  History tells the stories of natives being wild and ignorant of their resources and surroundings until they were enlightened by outsiders.   The trope of the stupid indigenous requiring the knowledge of a foreigner to teach them how to survive in their native environments.  The perpetuation of single narratives is how the culture of Louisiana has been misappropriated as Cajun, though indigenous Attakapa, Opelousas, Choctaw,  Chickasaw, Tunica, etc., existed hundreds of thousands of years before the group we know as Acadians were expelled out of Nova Scotia.  When the Cajuns arrived most of the culture that has been attributed to them already existed.  Historically, foreigners have overlaid their names and languages over existing indigenous infrastructures. Though they may have added to the fabric of the culture, the single narrative of being the creators is false.  

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If we are to be honest we need to acknowledge that the most creolized group of people are those who traversed other lands and were exposed to other cultures, taking what they wanted and claiming as their own.  It is no surprise that a foreigner's stroke of genius is stoked after encountering new cultures and spaces.  If one group is the creator of all things, why were those cultural assets not created where they originated?  Why isn't one landmass the hub of  all creations? Why aren't those cultural assets present in their place of origin? 

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The Lion's Historian seek to not rewrite history but "right" (correct)  history by sharing and preserving native narratives,  specifically the contributions of excluded originators.  It is a space for preserving narratives told from the perspective of the lion.