The Herders Honor Speakowa’s History, UA Reportedly Not Happy
by Jules Anderson for The Cherricaw Mirror
July 13, 1929
The Cherricaw Community Center houses more than just the Cherricaw Herders. The stadium seating where fans watch their team play professional baseball is the newest addition to a public park that goes back over 1200 years to the initial meetings between Itoldun wanderers and nomadic Northmen that led to the creation of the nation of Speakowa in 707 AE. This moment in history is looked back upon as a crucial turning point from the oppression of the Treven Crusades that dominated the continent for centuries before and after the Cherrican Exodus.
The land where the Community Center sits is a particularly fertile patch of the historic floodplain along the delta that now lies on the border of Toford and Speakowa. When the Itolduns settled the land, they brought agricultural knowledge from the west to the nomadic peoples already inhabiting the great valley. The fields that sustained the Speakowans in those first winters became the bread basket of the region as the local cultures clashed, mingled, and blossomed, and the war for independence from the Harmonyc Brotherhood and Treven control stretched on over decades and centuries. The land has been a traditional gathering place for the public in times of trouble, the seat of Speakowan government; it has seen great military feats and tragedies, a small village of outcast wanderers that grew to a thriving city, and the founding of two nations. To this day, beans, soy, and corn surround the Community Center and feed the local population. The fresh, robust taste of Speakowan food is now exported all over the continent.
The deep scents of Potabaka stew and roasting Totoka peppers filled the air this week as Speakowans celebrated the founding of their nation, now a state in the USU. The Herders joined in the festivities at their baseball field, just a few hundred feet from where the first Speakowans camped and made plans to break free once and for all from HB imperialism as their ancestors had dreamed. July 12th is known around Uplantica as Speakowan Independence Day, but the celebration here in Cherricaw lasts all week.
The Herders team returned home from their series in Railey late Tuesday. They took advantage of a day off on Wednesday to participate in the 30+ mile parade from the banks of the Continental River to the Community Center in Cherricaw. The parade reenacts the last desperate march of the escaped Itoldun slaves, who evaded HB patrols for three years in their trek across mountain peaks and endless plains, before the Exodus finally settled in the Cherrican basin. Traditionally, the parade is done on foot to pay respects to the ancestors’ tribulation, but these days motor vehicles are permitted (especially for professional athletes with a grueling schedule of games to keep up). The next evening, before the Herders’ game with the Prissley Trail Blazers at the Community Center, players from both teams participated in the play-acting of a reenactment of the 731 Battle of Cherricaw, when the settlers, with help from friendly Northmen fighters, held off crusader soldiers sent to raze the fledgling village. Last night the team honored Independence Day itself with a four hour concert festival of traditional and popular music at the stadium after their afternoon game against Prissley. The local but nationally-known big rhythm band, The Baka Barkers, headlined the bill.
The Herders are inarguably the UA team most closely tied their local community, especially since the Herders are the only UA team to offer shared ownership to the public. To locals, the Herders participation in Independence Day traditions is a perfectly natural expression of their pride in their community. Outside of Speakowa, however, the festivities are apparently viewed as more controversial. According to a source inside the team’s company staff, a formal complaint came down late Friday night from UA commissioner Jim Windsor’s office. This is only a complaint, indicating that punitive action won’t be taken against the Herders. The league claims that certain Cherrican Independence celebrations or reenactments involving league players, in or out of uniform, violates the league statute forbidding discrimination, because “the Harmonyc Brotherhood has since renounced the harmful views of their ancestors and adopted the goal of a multicultural United States of Uplantica.”
Our anonymous source inside the team said this morning: “The hypocrisy of making this call [to the Herders] when the UA’s top team glorifies the very crusaders that enslaved their neighbors and then sought to eradicate the Speakowans is staggering. Clearly, our very existence is still a threat to the HB, no matter what their official patriotic statements say. And sadly, the commissioner is letting the HB set the tone for what’s acceptable or offensive in this league. So much for equality. It’s so twisted.”
The Herders have not made an official statement, nor has the Uplantic Association.
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