Wow, one day left till Christmas! Guess I better get shopping. I’ve been posting to this blog since September and we’ve moved through a half century of history and learned a little bit about Ojibwa culture. Now for some more history.

We are now approaching the end of the 1600’s. For the latter half of the 17th century the Iroquois Five Nations were flexing their muscles by expanding their territory and annoying their neighbors. This was especially true of the Seneca and Mohawk nations. They had moved into Southern Ontario and at first used it only as beaver trapping grounds, but after a couple of decades they began to move there by establishing several towns.

The Mohawk nation had pushed at the Three Fires Confederacy’s territory making many raids waylaying trading expeditions to Montreal and stealing their pelts. Threats were made, peace agreements were agreed to and then broken. The Ojibwa’s patience was running out. They had taken the brunt of the Iroquois raids so they threatened to bring the whole weight of the Three Fires Confederacy to bear. A peace conference was scheduled to take place at a major Mohawk town at the mouth of the Saugeen River.

According to a traditional story told to me by my grandmother who came from Saugeen a delegation left Superior country for the peace conference. While they were on their way a Mohawk raiding party attacked an Ojibway village and kidnapped the Ojibway chief’s young son. They returned to the Saugeen by a different route and double time arriving there before the Three Fires delegation. The young boy’s father was among the delegates.

When they arrived they received the royal treatment. A huge feast was put on for them and there was one particular dish not recognized, however the meat was delicious. A new agreement was quickly reached and the Algonquian speaking delegates left for home not realizing their antagonists had cooked and fed the son to his own father!

The news spread and the Ojibwa were outraged. A Three Fire’s Grand Council was called and many of the council members called for a war of expulsion. There was little or no opposition. They devised a stratagem where they would leave the next spring with four divisions of warriors. They would only travel at night and when all were in place would attack simultaneously on the new moon.

The eastern division was made up of the largest of the Ojibwa tribes, the Mississauga, and was led by their war chief Bald Eagle. They were to use the trade route to Montreal. That would have been up the French River and across Lake Nipissing, portage to the Mattawa River and halfway down the Ottawa River. They then turned inland to confront the Iroquois towns from the east.

There were two divisions that moved in unison southward from Bawitig which today is called Sault Ste. Marie. The division that was made up of Amikouai or Beaver tribe warriors was led by White Cloud. They made their way to the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula to lay in wait for the new moon.

The other division that was to attack directly south was made up of Ottawa warriors led by their great war chief Sahgimah. They arrived at the Penetanguishene Peninsula where they lay in wait.

My forefather Young Gull had by this time become a major Ojibwa war chief and he led the western division. They were made up of Ojibwa, Potawatomi and Wyandotte warriors and they made their way down the lower peninsula of Michigan to Round Lake (Lake St. Clair) where they would attack from the west. According to Young Gull’s son, my great-great grandfather, Animikeence or Little Thunder the western division consisted of 400 war canoes each manned by eight warriors. They stretched out the entire length of the St. Clair River from its mouth at Lake Huron to Bkejwanong or Walpole Island. When all were in place and the new moon arrived they attacked. This time the Iroquois adversaries had 50 years of trading with the French for guns so they were equally well-armed. However, population tipped the balance of power to the Three Fires’ side. They outnumbered the Iroquois by four to one!

NEXT WEEK: The New Moon Arrives!

The Native (North and South) American Indians have a relationship with YHVH (YHWH) that precedes the white man’s gospel.

How did they know?

Click here for more

How many Native Americans do we really have in the USA, considering that many nations and groups have been growing in numbers since 2000? Census 2010 may be able to gather mare accurate numbers.  There are still jobs available with the 2010 Census project and many will last through 2011.

A younger person asked about population numbers for the Native American nations and groups in t he American Southeast. The most recent estimates are form 2004 and available at:

Southeast Native American Indian Nations

This presentation provides a substantial amount of information for school term projects, along with links to 30+ additional articles about Indigenous Peoples throughout North and South America and Mexico. This comprises literal 1000s of different nation or tribes.

Good morning everyone! Well, at least it’s morning as I write this. I had some problems with my blog this past week. It was suspended for suspicion of violating the terms of service. It was a mistake and as you can see I’m back on-line. Sometimes I long for the ‘good old days’. Now, back to some Great Lakes history!

You will recall that the French had moved their endeavors north to Superior country. The Iroquois had moved into the rich beaver hunting grounds of Southern Ontario. The military advantage the Dutch had given them made their ego soar along with their arrogance. The British had taken over the Dutch colony and changed the name of the main post from Orange to Albany. They also continued to supply the Iroquois with firearms. The Iroquois continued to harass their neighbors and were continually making war on the French. Such was the situation when we pick up our story in the year 1686.

The Governor of New France, Monsieur Le Marquis de Nonville , ordered the explorer Du Lhut to build a military post at de Troit. This was the name the French called the waterways between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. It means the strait. The main purpose of a military fort at the lower end of Lake Huron was to keep the British out of the upper Great Lakes. He chose a spot where the St. Clair River was the narrowest and established Fort St. Joseph. That site is located in what is now Pinegrove Park in downtown Port Huron, Michigan.

In 1687 de Nonville decided to have a war of extermination of the Seneca. They had embarrassed the French by slaughtering many colonists in constant raids and had totally defeated the Miamis and the Illinois who had put themselves under the protection of the French. To this end he gathered an army of 1500 French regulars and 500 praying Indians from Quebec. These were mostly Iroquois the French had converted to Christianity. He also ordered Du Lhut to gather a force of Far Indians to join the expedition.

Du Lhut convinced some of the war chiefs to follow him in this venture and some 500 warriors from the Potawatomi, Ottawa, Wyandotte and Ojibwa began gathering at Fort St. Joseph. However, most of them were Saulteux Ojibwa from the St. Marys River district. My great, great, great-grandfather, Kioscance or Young Gull was a war chief of the Saulteux at the time and was in all likelihood leading this group of warriors. When they had all arrived they left to meet de Nonville’s forces at Irondequoit on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

The French forces left Montreal and part of them moved along the north shore of Lake Ontario and part of them moved along the south shore. They did this in case the weather presented any strong winds that would prevent either one of the groups from reaching the rendezvous place the other group would make it there on time. However the weather was fine and all three forces met at Irondequoit Bay on the same day.

De Nonville first sent scouts up the Genesee River to survey any Seneca towns and their strengths. The Seneca knew they had arrived so they sent their women, children and old people further into Seneca country for protection. They gathered a force of 500 warriors and lay in wait hiding themselves in the underbrush waiting for the ambush. The French scouts passed them, found the first town they encountered burned and deserted. They found two more towns further upstream in the same condition so they returned to make a report to the governor. All the time they were unaware of the 500 Seneca warriors who watched them from their hiding places.

The French governor decided to move the French regulars upstream to the three Seneca towns. As they were passing the hidden Seneca they sprung their ambush. The French soldiers were taken completely by surprise and panicked. Some fled east and some west and they began firing back on each other. The Seneca had bested them but the Indian forces arrived and they were much more adept at forest warfare. The tide turned and the Seneca retreated back up the river. 

When de Nonville arrived at the towns he stopped. He was quite shaken by the disarray of his soldiers. After all they were regulars and the best the French had. He ordered the fields burned, which took several days while the native allies looked on with disbelief. They knew the enemy was in full retreat and they thought the best course of action was to pursue and finish the job. As the soldiers cut down the corn and beans and gathered the squash the Ojibwa and their Three Fires brothers fumed. De Nonville then ordered a retreat saying the Seneca had been taught a good lesson. The Ojibwa and their allies accused de Nonville of doing nothing but warring on the cornfields and left in a huff. It would be a long time before they would again join the French in any military campaigns.

NEXT WEEK: The Iroquois War

…occasioned by Native American students in Idaho and an ‘08 MSNBC piece on the increasing profile of ‘mixed-race/multiracial’ folks, what with Obama and all.

Who buys figurines of Native Americans? Fans of Westerns and Cowboy/Indian shoot ‘em up movies? Not Native Americans themselves, as these figurines are trite and rather tacky. If you are ever tempted to buy one of these, step away slowly…. In 2001, the US Commission on Civil Rights declared that such mascots and logos using Native American images were offensive and denigrating to the native population. This was followed by resolutions of the American Counselling Association and the American Psychological Association calling for the end of the use of images of Native American Indians. Figurines are generally representative objects of veneration, so what would someone buy these for? A sense of guilt?

Catherine photographed this selection of figurines in a Coburg shop selling all manner of giftware.

Prof. Chomsky delivers the 5th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University School for International Affairs for the Heyman Center for the Humanities. After paying homage to Edward Said stressing imperialism as central to our culture, Prof. Chomsky builds his case with telling quotes of American leaders rationalizing and denying genocide of indigenous ‘new worlders’ through U.S. terrorism in Latin America—Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia—and the Middle East (1:03:46):

(h/t: joefriendly)

Aztec Dancers (http://www.postindependent.com/article/20091208/VALLEYNEWS/912079980/1083&ParentProfile=1074)

Post Independent’s, John Stroud reports on a Native American gathering at the recreational community centre in Carbondale, Colorado on December 5.

The three day festival which  celebrates the  American’s indian culture, included traditional music, dancing and food.

Dr. Ramon Nenadich the gatherings organiser said in Stroud’s article that humankind can take two trains, one  that is headed towards an abyss with no driver:

“The other is headed toward the salvation of humanity,” he said. “It is moving more slowly, and stopping all the time. It is the train of forgiveness, of humbleness and of understanding. The driver of that train is the indigenous people.

” Most of society is on the wrong train,” he said.

The gathering was concluded with a fundraiser for the organisation backing the festival, the Davi Nikent organization. Click here to read Stroud’s article

Author: Sherman Alexie

Publication: New York: Little, Brown, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-316-01368-0 (hardcover), 978-0-316-01369-7 (paperback)

Plot summary: After being suspended from the high school on the reservation, Arnold Spirit (known as Junior), a Spokane, decides to attend a school twenty-two miles away with a largely white student body. At his new school he is the target of ridicule, verbal abuse, and the humiliation of simply being ignored; but he does not arrive without certain skills: the ability to punch someone in the face, play basketball, and draw cartoons and sketches that matter to him. He meets the beautiful Penelope, a bulimic girl, and their friendship builds on the recognition that they are both under stress to conform or not, to be accepted socially or not. But Junior experiences the loss of several people important to him, which may be why it’s so important to hang on to those he can.

Reader’s annotation: Arnold (“Junior”) Spirit, leaves the reservation every day to attend a white high school. Although his Indian community may feel he is a traitor, Junior lives his life with sincerity, enduring tragic losses, overcoming personal and societal hurdles, without losing his sense of humor.

About the author: A writer and filmmaker, Sherman Alexie is known primarily for his stories for adults, many about the experiences of American Indians, and for his poetry. He lives in Seattle.

Genre: Realistic fiction

Curriculum ties: American Indians, specifically Spokane; racism

Booktalking ideas: 1) Have you ever felt out of place somewhere? What did you do to try to put yourself at ease? (Did it work?)

Recommended age of reader: 13+

Challenge issues: masturbation, mild profanity, alcohol use

Response to challenges: Standard procedure: 1) Speak with the person making the challenge and actively listen to his or her concerns. 2) Ask politely if the person has read the entire book or just certain sections of it (they may have a section out of context). 3) Have on hand the selection policies governing the collection. 4) Have reviews of the book so that you can show that the title is highly rated and mention any awards it may have received. 5) Offer to work out an individual remedy, such as the parent asking his or her child not to check out certain books. 6) Have the reconsideration form and next steps ready to explain if the patron/parent is not satisfied after you have gone through the previous steps.

Selected reviews and awards: National Book Award winner, New York Times Notable Book of 2007, BBYA Top 10 Book for Teens, Kirkus Reviews Best YA Book

Why is this book included? An obvious choice for promoting discussion of racism,  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian presents a likable protagonist who rebounds from trials and tribulations near the bleak end of the spectrum most teens would experience. This is also a funny book, of which there cannot be too many. It is blunt in showing the devastating effects of alcoholism, particularly but not exclusively among American Indians. Ultimately, the book’s strongest message may be one of balancing self-acceptance with ambition.

HEALTH | December 02, 2009 New Hopes on Health Care for American Indians By PAM BELLUCK Congress, with the support of the White House, appears poised to greatly improve the Indian health care system.

My Take:

Native Americans are yet another overlooked population, but who have more claim to this country than any other group of people. So it is shameful that they do not have quality health care along with many other services provided to other segments of the population. Improving the health care of Native Americans should be a number one goal in the United States. This article shows a first step but it should no way be the last.

Ihanktonwan Oyate, more commonly known as the Yankton Sioux Tribe, are a band of the Pte Oyate, pronounced “Puh-tay,” (Buffalo People), or the Great Sioux Nation.

Click here for more

Author: Allan Wolf

Publication: Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2004.

ISBN: 0-76362113-7

Plot summary: Beginning in 1804, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and as many as forty-five crew members made an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. The voices of Lewis and Clark and twelve individuals in the “Corps of Discovery” are captured in the poems that constitute this novel, a fictionalized account of the actual expedition based substantially on the two captains’ journal entries. The journey includes encounters with a variety of Indians, animals such as buffalo and bears, natural beauty and hazards. Among the crew are Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman; her infant son, born on the way; York, Captain Clark’s slave; and Captain Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, Seaman. Whether commenting on minutiae such as species of plants, or attempting to describe the meaning of exploration or the longing for home, the fourteen voices created in this believable account are distinct and compelling. Most readers will know how the story ends, with Lewis reporting back to President Jefferson in 1807; but that does not diminish the suspense of each of the personal journeys that made up the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Reader’s annotation: In short poems, 14 distinct voices tell the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

About the author: Allan Wolf is a poet, performer, and teacher who lives in Asheville, North Carolina. He is the Education Director for Poetry Alive! and a promoter of poetry through any means, particularly poetry slams. He claims to have literally hundreds of poems committed to memory.

Genre: Poetry

Curriculum ties: U.S. History, Westward Expansion, American Indian, Lewis & Clark Expedition, geography, Thomas Jefferson

Booktalking ideas: 1) Just read some of these brilliant poems aloud. 2) Attempt to write a poem in the voice of a dog you know, or if you don’t know any dogs, a cat should do.

Challenge issues: none

Selected reviews and awards: School Library Journal Best Book, ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Why is this book included? New Found Land achieves at least two purposes at once. It is a collection of outstanding and readable poems; it teaches about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. By including such a variety of voices, it reveals the diversity of people that made up what we call the United States, even back then. It’s also rather surprising that such a young, contemporary poet with seemingly no special interest in history would take on a historical event.

Read BigGovernment.com

As Stage Right clearly lays out the story, there was an orchestrated effort that began in early August and culminated with the attack on Kenneth Gladney. It was led and directed by high level White House staffers with the message to Congressmen and women that “we’d have your backs” at the health care town hall meetings.  And memos that laid out a precise strategy for the SEIU and HCAN foot soldiers.

This article illustrates how well-organized Obama’s Marxist street army is, unlike the so-called “tea baggers” who are just average folks, showing up and exercising their constitutional rights.

I’m pretty sure that the national tea party organizers are reading this and paying attention. And we might want to take a lesson from the little known Marion’s Brigade. During the revolutionary war, they were a group of Patriots who used guerrilla warfare against the British. They hid behind trees and ambushed the enemy with quick, hit and run attacks: much like how the Native Indians fought.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we hide behind trees and benches in the park, with loaded muskets, by any means. In fact, just the opposite. Non-violence has been the shining example of the tea party movement. But we know their tactics and we need to fight back in unexpected and non-violent ways.

There is no better example of where the SEIU is getting their marching orders from than the head taco, himself. Do you remember how presidential this was? He “will call you out” if you disagree with or fight his Marxist plans for this nation. And  he encourages his followers to “get in the faces” of anyone who’s not in lock-step with The Plan.

NATIVE AMERICAN Music Awards launches new web page in honor of Native American Heritage Day, November 27, 2009, and as part of National Native American Month as proclaimed by the President of the United States each year, the Native American Music Awards & Association has published a photo gallery entitled, “Did You Know They Are Native American?” on their website to raise awareness of the contributions made by leading figures of Native American descent in the music, entertainment, and sports industries. Featured individuals range from [adapted for Spain by michelle]: Tina Turner (Navajo), Beyoncé (Creole), Cher and Jimi Hendrix (Cherokee),  Angelina Jolie (Haudenosaunee/Iroquois), Johnny Depp, Cameron Diaz and Burt Reynolds (Cherokee), Ava Gardner (Tuscarora), (continues…)

George Orwell, author of “1984”, once wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”

Such holds true about the history of “Thanksgiving.” Those who are indigenous to the land we now call the “United States of America” have been long misrepresented, demonized, and effectively marginalized in American history textbooks in favor of glorifying European colonialism. Why does a democracy, such as ours, refuse to teach that 10 to 30 million Natives were unjustifiably slaughtered in the name of conquest and imperialism? Where is our “free market of ideas” when selective and biased history is being taught in our educational institutions?

There is no other way to put it, but erasing the memory of an entire race of people is systematic racism. Not only is biased history presented to us through a distorted lens, but we are also subjected to an ever-growing culture of capitalism, in which commercialization of an ambiguous holiday merely pulls us away from facts and meaning. Turkeys are associated with “Thanksgiving” in the same way Santa Clause and the Easter bunny have become synonymous with Christmas and Easter, respectively. Through the guise of innocence, capitalism is constantly telling us to consume because consumption equals “happiness.” It is no coincidence that we all rush to our favorite malls and shopping centers on “Black Friday” for “big savings.”

And as children dress up as Pilgrims and Natives to reenact the romanticized version of history, they are not only perpetuating stereotypes, but more importantly, they’re embodying racist and ethnocentric lies. What do they really know about the Pilgrims and the Natives? Consider a high school history textbook called “The American Tradition” which describes the scene quite succinctly:

After some exploring, the Pilgrims chose the land around Plymouth Harbor for their settlement. Unfortunately, they had arrived in December and were not prepared for the New England winter. However, they were aided by friendly Indians, who gave them food and showed them how to grow corn. When warm weather came, the colonists planted, fished, hunted, and prepared themselves for the next winter. After harvesting their first crop, they and their Indian friends celebrated the first Thanksgiving.

This patronizing version of history excludes many embarrassing facts of European history. As stated by James W. Loewen, author of “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” many college students are unaware of the horrific plague that devastated and significantly reduced the population of Natives after Columbus’ arrival in the “new world.” Most diseases, for instance, came from animals that were domesticated by Europeans. Cowpox from cows led to smallpox, which was later “spread through gifts of blankets by infected Europeans.” Of the twelve high school textbooks Professor Loewen studied and analyzed, only three offer some explanation that the plague was a factor of European colonization. The nine remaining textbooks mention almost nothing, and two of them omit the subject altogether. He writes: “Each of the other seven furnishes only a fragment of a paragraph that does not even make it into the index, let alone into students’ minds.”

Why is it important to mention the plague? Quite simply, it reinforced European ethnocentrism and hardly produced a “friendly” relationship between the Natives and Europeans. To most of the Pilgrims and Europeans, the Natives were heathens, savages, treacherous, and Satanic. Upon seeing thousands of dead Natives, the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, called the plague “miraculous.” In 1634, he wrote to a friend in England:

But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by the small pox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not fifty, have put themselves under our protect…

The ugly truth is that many Pilgrims were thankful and grateful that the Native population was decreasing. Even worse, there was the Pequot Massacre in 1637, which started after the colonists found a murdered white man in his boat. Ninety armed settlers burned a Native village, along with their crops, and then demanded the Natives to turn in the murderers. When the Natives refused, a massacre followed.

Captain John Mason and his colonist army surrounded a fortified Pequot village and reportedly shouted: “We must burn them! Such a dreadful terror let the Almighty fall upon their spirits that they would flee from us and run into the very flames. Thus did the Lord Judge the heathen, filling the place with dead bodies.” The surviving Pequot were hunted and slain.

The Governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, further elaborates:

Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them.

Perhaps most disturbing: it is strongly argued by many historians that the Pequot Massacre led to the “Thanksgiving” festivities. The day after the massacre, the aforementioned Governor Massachusetts Bay Colony declared: “A day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children.” It was signed into law that, “This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots.”

Now, one may ask: What about Squanto, the Wampanoag man who learned to speak English and helped the hungry, ill, and poor Pilgrims? As cited by Professor Loewen, an American high school textbook called “Land of Promise” reads:

Squanto had learned their language, the author explained, from English fishermen who ventured into the New England waters each summer. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, squash, and pumpkins. Would the small band of settlers have survived without Squanto’s help? We cannot say. But by the fall of 1621, colonists and Indians could sit down to several days of feast and thanksgiving to God (later celebrated as the first Thanksgiving).

Note that this text states the first Thanksgiving was on 1621. Indeed, there was a feast on that year, but it was not called a “Thanksgiving feast” nor was it repeated until years later after the Pequot Massacre in 1637. In regards to Squanto, the correct question to ask is: How did Squanto learn English? History textbooks neglect to mention that the Europeans did not perceive Squanto as an equal, but rather as “an instrument of their God” to help the “chosen people.” It is also omitted that, as a boy, Squanto was stolen by a British captain in 1605 and taken to England. He worked for a Plymouth Merchant who eventually helped him arrange passage back to Massachusetts, but less than a year later, he was seized by a British slave raider. Along with two dozen fellow Natives, Squanto was sold into slavery in Spain. He would manage to escape slavery, journey back to England, and then talk a ship captain into taking him along on his next trip to Cape Cod in 1619.

As Squanto walked back into his home village, he was horrified to find that he was the only surviving member of his village. The rest were either killed in battle or died of illness and disease. Excluding Squanto’s enslavement is to paint an incredibly distorted version of history that suggests Natives, like Squanto, learned English for no other reason but to help the colonists. It is to glorify the Europeans and erase the struggles and experiences of the Native people.

When history is transformed into myths, tales, and bedtime stories, we ignore historical research that enables us to learn valuable and meaningful lessons about our present, as well as about our future. History is meant to be an accurate and honest account of civilizations, cultures, and events; not a one-sided narrative of ethnocentric and selective alterations.

As Professor Loewen states:

Thanksgiving is full of embarrassing facts. The Pilgrims did not introduce the Native Americans to the tradition; Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries. Our modern celebrations date back only to 1863; not until the 1890s did the Pilgrims get included in the tradition; no one even called them ‘Pilgrims’ until the 1870s.

I did not write this article with intentions to offend or say we shouldn’t celebrate “Thanksgiving.” None of us are responsible for the atrocities committed hundreds of years ago. None of us caused the plague or the massacres. But as human beings, I do feel that it’s important for us to approach history with honesty and integrity. Yes, we should spend time with our families and Loved ones, and yes, we should be grateful and thankful for all that we have, but not at the expense of ignoring an entire race of people, their culture, and their history. A hopeful and optimistic view comes from Jacqueline Keeler, a Native American, who writes:

I see, in the “First Thanksgiving” story, a hidden Pilgrim heart. The story of that heart is the real tale than needs to be told. What did it hold? Bigotry, hatred, greed, self-righteousness? We have seen the evil that it caused in the 350 years since. Genocide, environmental devastation, poverty, world wars, racism. Where is the hero who will destroy that heart of evil? I believe it must be each of us. Indeed, when I give thanks this Thursday and I cook my native food, I will be thinking of this hidden heart and how my ancestors survived the evil it caused. Because if we can survive, with our ability to share and to give intact, then the evil and the good will that met that Thanksgiving day in the land of the Wampanoag will have come full circle. And the healing can begin.

The fact that history textbooks and schools try to glorify the Pilgrims while omitting significant facts about the Natives represents that there is a lot to improve in the United States. Let us not become blinded by super-patriotism or the blowout sales of “Black Friday.” Let us be conscious of our brothers and sisters in humanity, learn about their contributions, and embolden ourselves to stand up against racism and genocide in all forms.

Peace.

~ Jehanzeb

Logan's Teacher - Mrs. Abbott

Logan’s school held their annual Thanksgiving lunch and program with parents yesterday. Parents were invited to the school to enjoy a Thanksgiving lunch with their child and watch a Thanksgiving program given by the class. I have been looking forward to this lunch and program for a few weeks now and had a really fun time!

I volunteered some time last week to help Mrs. Abbott prepare for the program. Mrs. Abbott assigned pilgrim hat and indian hat making to me and I went to town. It was really nice to see all the little pilgrims and indians in their hats.

Lunch was served at 11:00am and plates were filled with ham, green bean casserole, mashed or twice baked potatoes, watermelon, a dinner roll and white or chocolate milk. Pumpkin pie, pecan pie and cookies were available for dessert. I was really impressed with the amount of food that was given and it was ALL delicious! I wish I would have had school lunches like that when I was a kid!

Logan enjoying his Thanksgiving lunch.

After everyone was through with lunch, the kids showed their parents some of the things they have been working on to prepare for the program and to decorate the room with.

Turkey's on the wall - gobble gobble.

Logan's spiffy candy dish.

Turkey finger puppets

"We Give Thanks"

We Give Thanks

For family and friends

pie and turkey too.

Thanksgiving’s the time

we say thank you!

I am thankful for

(Logan filled in the blank with)…..My Mom

After the kids had a chance to show us all the things they had been working on, Mrs. Abbott gathered them all together for the program. The kids sang songs for all the parents and we were all smiling from ear to ear. I sat watching them sing their little hearts out and I couldn’t have been more proud of Logan!

Mrs. Abbott's Kindergarten class performing thier songs.

Logan singing his little heart out.

Logan singing his little heart out.

Logan singing his little heart out.

Lunch was awesome for both the kids and parents alike! EVERYONE in that room was smiling from ear to ear and had so much fun!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Selected from: Delancey Place

In today’s excerpt – subjugating Ireland in the early 1600s. England, having recently broken away from the Catholic Church, feared that Catholic Spain would use still-Catholic Ireland as a stronghold for invading England, and therefore had incentive to subjugate and “colonize” Ireland. England could look to the new European experiences in the New World for examples of how to colonize and subjugate. And the colonizing mission required colonists to wear civilized clothes and inhabit civilized housing – however impractical that might be:

“Ironically and perhaps fatefully, early English conceptions of Indian life and character became intertwined with the justification of another colonizing venture. Ireland was nominally under English rule, but effective control did not extend beyond the small district known as ‘the Pale,’ centered on Dublin. The rest of the island was home to ‘the wild Irish,’ who were divided into loose collections of warlike people with a common interest in defying the English. With the Spanish seemingly set on ruling the world, England awakened to the danger that Catholic Spain might take over Catholic Ireland as a stronghold for invading England. Subjugating the Irish became a way of forestalling Spain. Elizabeth began by parceling out the country to her favorites, [Sir Walter] Ralegh among them. These English overlords could either tame their wild Irish tenants or supplant them with a more productive and tractable population. It was the same problem that Ralegh faced at Roanoke and the Virginia Company would face at Jamestown, not to say the problem the United States would face in its long march across North America.

“[To the English,] the Irish shared with American Indians a profound deficiency that required correction if they were to make proper subjects: they were not civil. That word carried hidden meanings and connotations that would reverberate throughout American history. Civility was a way of life not easily defined, but its results were visible: substantial housing and ample clothing. Uncivil peoples were naked and nomadic. Civility required of those who deserved the name a sustained effort, physical and intellectual. It did not require belief in Christianity, for the ancient Greeks and Romans had it; but Christianity, or at least Protestant Christianity, was impossible without it. The Irish Catholics and those Indians converted by Spanish or French missionaries were not, in the English view, either civil or Christian. The objective of colonization was to bring civility and Christianity to the uncivil, in that order.

“The objective was threatened, indeed civility itself was threatened, if lazy colonists, coveting the unfettered life of the uncivil, went native, or, it might be said, went naked. ‘Clothes were of tremendous importance, … because one’s whole identity was bound up in the self-presentation of dress. The Scots and Irish – and soon the American Indians – could not be civil unless they dressed in English clothes, like civilized people, and cut their long hair,’ signs of a capacity to submit to the enlightened government of their superiors.

“England’s preferred way of civilizing the Irish was through force of arms, but after ruthless military expeditions failed to bring widespread peace, and with it civility, the new solution was to plant the country with people who already rejoiced in that condition. Refractory natives would learn by example, or simply give way, left to a wretched existence on the margins of a profoundly transformed Ireland. Not long before the Virginia Company began supplying people to Jamestown for much the same purpose, the English authorities began settling far larger numbers across the Irish Sea, an estimated 100,000 by 1641.”

Edmund S. Morgan and Marie Morgan, “Our Shaky Beginnings,” The New York Review of Books, April 26, 2007, pp. 21-22.

To visit our homepage or sign up for our daily email click here

To view previous daily emails click here.

daily@delanceyplace.com

Every sanctified experience has a reverse gear in it. – Heard by author, February 7, 1994, Oelrichs, South Dakota.

You can’t be good without helping others to be good and you can’t be evil without helping others to be evil.  – Heard by author, February 10, 1994, Oelrichs, South Dakota.

If you’re in love with your money don’t ever marry…  – Heard by author, July 24, 2009, Muncie, Indiana.

I’m convinced there are a lot of people who want the benefits of Christianity without the purity. – Heard by author, July 30, 2009, Muncie, Indiana.

God has no program short of full surrender. – Heard by author, August 1, 2009, Muncie, Indiana.

Earl Newton was born this date, 11/16/1933, in Clemson, South Carolina.  He has pastored, worked with American Indians, worked with Christian schools, been a conference vice president, been a conference president, and is a holiness evangelist.

By Niles Anderegg

Here at President Lincoln’s Cottage we spend a lot of time both on our tours and in our exhibits dealing with Lincoln’s views on slavery and race. However, what gets much less attention in Lincoln studies are Lincoln’s views and actions in relation to Native Americans. As with slavery, his attitudes towards Native Americans were complicated and have to be approached with two different mindsets: one, our modern understanding of the unfair and often cruel treatment of Native Americans by white settlers and the U.S. government; and the other, the perspective of those 19th century settlers and government officials. As president, Lincoln had to deal with the prejudices of his contemporaries and was himself influenced by the attitudes of his time. One way of examining Lincoln’s views on Native Americans is by looking at one of the biggest crises in his presidency that involved Native Americans, the Dakota Conflict in Minnesota. Lincoln took a stance at the end of the Conflict that is still controversial, particularly in Minnesota, today.

The Dakota Conflict of 1862 came about through a series of complicated events that go back to the beginning of white settlement of what we now call Minnesota. In the 1840s and 1850s European settlement of the Minnesota territory began. At this time most of the territory was home to several Native American tribes, including the Dakota . Over time, the United States government, in order to allow for the further settlement of the area, made several treaties with the Dakota. The terms of the treaties were fairly straightforward: the Dakota gave up land in southern Minnesota, and, in exchange, the US made a yearly payment of gold. Many of the Dakota were upset with these treaties, in part because the loss of their traditional lands undermined the Dakota’s natural nomadic existence. But the treaties were even more problematic because the treaty payments often were not given directly to the members of the tribe, but instead wound up in the pockets of Indian agents and traders.

These tensions between the whites and the Dakota were exacerbated by the outbreak of the American Civil War. The war made it harder for the federal government to deliver its payments of gold on time, a situation that lead to rumors in the summer of 1862 that the Dakota would not get the gold at all that year. The Dakota at this time were on the brink of starvation and any delay in treaty payments threatened their very survival. Moreover, the war itself was perceived by many as having weakened the United States government, especially the army. The news of the various Union defeats in 1862 led some Dakota to believe that the white settlers were vulnerable to attack.

All of this tension and anger exploded on August 17, 1862, the same day that the long-delayed gold actually left Saint Paul for the reservations, too late for either the Native Americans or the newer Americans living side by side in the region. A spontaneous act of violence by four young Dakota men resulted in the deaths of several settlers, and once those deaths occurred, many of the Dakota along the Minnesota River valley quickly became caught up in a war against the settlers and the U.S. government. The following six weeks saw the unfolding of one of the largest Indian wars in American history, at the end of which over 350 white settlers and soldiers were killed and over 1500 Dakota people were captured and put on trial. In response to what most of the settlers perceived as unprovoked murderous attacks on innocent people, the U. S. Army indiscriminately rounded up Dakota warriors and imprisoned them in Fort Snelling.

The trials of these 1500 Dakota were conducted by a military commission with little regard for the legal rights of the Dakota or for regular rules of legal procedure. For example, the Dakota were not represented by lawyers and the proceedings were conducted in English, giving the Dakota no ability to represent themselves or cross-examine the state’s witnesses. No wonder, then, that 303 people were sentenced to death by the commission. Despite this large number of convictions, many of the surviving settlers called for an even more harsh response from federal authority. President Lincoln, on the other hand, when he learned of the number of condemned people, took a step that outraged many: he requested transcripts of the trials so that he could personally review the evidence. By the time he had combed through these records, he had commuted the sentences of all but 38 of the condemned warriors. Ultimately these 38 Dakota men were hung in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Among the Dakota people today, this event is remembered with bitterness and, in the minds of some, Lincoln is held accountable. At the time, however, many Minnesota settlers and voters elsewhere viewed Lincoln as forgiving unforgivable violence.

Lincoln’s response to the Dakota Conflict shows a president caught between a sense of duty to the citizens of Minnesota whom he was bound to protect and a president deeply committed to the idea of law and order. On the one hand, Lincoln condemned 38 Dakota warriors to die, in part because doing so would prevent mob violence against Native Americans that many expected if all of the 300 original death sentences were reversed. But Lincoln also upheld the execution of 38 specific individuals because of Lincoln’s own sense of justice. Although he recognized the trial’s many glaring violations of civil rights and the principle of due process, he carefully evaluated the cases against all the convicted men using the best legal standard he could apply, given the circumstances. He decided to uphold death sentences only when evidence existed that the prisoners had either raped (2 cases) or killed civilians (36 cases) as opposed to merely participated in a battle.

Lincoln’s commitment to creating a legal standard out of a very troubling situation demonstrates that, although Lincoln was both president and a politician, he was also still at his core a lawyer who had to deal with the political and cultural constraints that existed in 1860s America. Ultimately Lincoln’s handling of the Dakota Conflict trial is another example, like the Emancipation Proclamation, of Lincoln’s ability to understand what he can and cannot do in a trying situation where there is no perfect solution. Perhaps Lincoln’s position is best summed up in a conversation he had with Minnesota Senator and former Governor Alexander Ramsey, who pushed hard for Lincoln to deal with the Dakota harshly. When Ramsey told Lincoln that his leniency towards the Dakota would cost the Republican votes in 1864 election, Lincoln is reported to have said to Ramsey, “I could not afford to hang men for votes.”

Mr. Anderegg is an Historical Interpreter at President Lincoln’s Cottage.