Thursday, February 28, 2013

Wounded Knee a sad moment in history, even for Madison County and OZ


Well today marks the 40th Anniversary of the Wounded Knee Stand Off and it comes close to the recent death of one of the events major players, Russell Means.  Means is today remembered more for his role in Last of the Mohegan’s than for the 71 day stand off arranged by AIM (The American Indian Movement.)

The incident began February 27, 1973 when about 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of AIM seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The grassroots protest followed the failure of their effort to impeach the elected tribal president Richard Wilson

The story however dates back to December of 1890 when 290 women, babies, children, old people and a handful of warriors were massacred by the 7th Calvery.  Yes massacred.  The 25 to 30 service members were for the most part killed by friendly fire as the Indians had been rounded up and fired upon by the troops after one Native American struggled with a soldier for his gun and it went off!

History seems to like to forget things like our total lack of concern for the people who originally lived and owned this land called the United States of America.

Today we need to look back to our past to understand how we can improve the future…a future that must deal with immigration, drug wars, religious inequity, and civil rights abuse.  People today are just as angry as that one brave who did not want to give up his rifle… a rifle that was his only means to provide meat and fur and protections for his family. 

The other thing is that it brought back to me back to one of my greatest peeves that I bitch about frequently during dinner parties when we talk about Madison County history... I hate it that we seem to only embrace and promote the bad guys in good guy clothing as our major history players...celebrating them... rather than the wonderful people who actually did change history from Madison county. 

Yes I mean the likes of Gerrit Smith whose good side rallied against slavery, but whose bad side funded and knew of the treasonous acts of a crazy zealot named John Brown.  What about Noyes founder of the Oneida Community…his good works founded a community business that flourished for a long while in the area ...his questionable side a “Perfectionist “ leader…who still practiced and condoned the sexual predatory nature of so called “Religious Leaders”?    Then of course there is L Frank Baum of Wizard of Oz fame?

L Frank Baum is a man we celebrate for his Wizard of Oz children’s books…but what about his roll in the "Massacre of Wounded Knee"… Yes, the children’s book writer was once the editor of a newspaper that advocated through “his editorials” the extinction of Natives Americans that precipitated the Massacre at Wounded Knee!

 In the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. A week or so before the massacre of the Lakota at Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, Baum "urged the wholesale extermination of all America's native peoples." Baum's words:
"The nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they should die than live the miserable wretches they are."

After news of this mass murder was circulated, L. Frank Baum crowed: "We had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up ... and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth."


What Happened At Wounded Knee?

What followed next can perhaps best be told by the Commanding General, Nelson A. Miles:
General Miles : "I was in command of that Department in 1889, 1890 and 1891, when what is known as the Messiah Craze and threatened uprising of the Indians occurred...the Indians had been in almost a starving condition in South Dakota, owing to the scarcity of rations and the nonfulfillment of treaties and sacred obligations under which the Government had been placed to the Indians, caused great dissatisfaction, dissension and almost hostility...During this time the tribe, under Big Foot, moved from their reservation to near Red Cloud Agency in South Dakota under a flag of truce. They numbered over four hundred souls. They were intercepted by a command under Lt. Col. Whitside, who demanded their surrender, which they complied with, and moved that afternoon some two or three miles and camped where they were directed to do, near the camp of the troops."
General Miles :"During the night Colonel Forsyth joined the command with reinforcements of several troops of the 7th calvalry. The next morning he deployed his troops around the camp, placed two pieces of artillery in position, and demanded the surrender of the arms of the warriors. This was complied with by the warriors going out from camp and placing the arms on the ground where they were directed. Chief Big Foot, an old man, sick at the time and unable to walk, was taken out of a wagon and laid on the ground."
General Miles :While this was being done a detachment of soldiers was sent into the camp to search for any arms remaining there, and it was reported that their rudeness frightened the women and children. It is also reported that a remark was made by some one of the soldiers that "when we get the arms away from them we can do as we please with them," indicating that they were to be destroyed. Some of the Indians could understand English. This and other things alarmed the Indians and [a] scuffle occurred between one warrior who had [a] rifle in his hand and two soldiers. The rifle was discharged and a massacre occurred, not only the warriors but the sick Chief Big Foot, and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running and scattering over the prairie were hunted down and killed."

Fast forward to Modern times..

A festival was to be held in 1990’s in Aberdeen to address past issues and a document was submitted that in part reads thus:

We Apologize We apologize to the Lakota people for the part that our community and nation played in the killing of their relatives.

We Apologize  In as much that as] residents of Aberdeen, some of us are descendants of settlers who lived in Aberdeen at the time of the Wounded Knee massacre and who read L. Frank Baum's editorials and made no protest against them as far as we know; As residents of the state in which the massacre took place; as residents of a nation in which, according to Sen. Tom Daeschle (1993), the Congress apologized to the Sioux people for the 1890 Massacre in Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 153 of the 101st Congress.

A question remains….why would someone who believed in genocide.. so dark and ..evil turn to writing children’s books ….Truthfully there are tons of theories…the one I pick is ...this:

“The energy created from the opposition is ‘given’
to both sides equally” (“Jung”), which is explained in the
“Carl Jung” web page. Each of these characters feed off of each
other with their desire to make it to the Emerald City. The third principle,
the principle of entropy, is seen through the image that the Wizard puts up
for himself, and his actual personality. “This is the tendency for oppositions
to come together, and so for energy to decrease, over a person’s lifetime”
(“Jung”). The image that the Wizard tries to fool everyone with
is the total opposite than that of his true identity. At the end of the story,
since his true identity is revealed, these opposite images even each other out.


Here is a good video based on fact…



Some links for more information....


Read the book - American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World by David E. Stannard

Or visit…



Thursday, February 21, 2013

A miserable week of dealing with cold, wind, and a Hawk!


Well this has been an unbelievable week….  It has been horribly cold here in old Eaton with temperatures and wind chills far below zero.   I unfortunately live on the lowest spot between hills at or below the level of the Chenango…in other words damp and cold.  I also live with the back of the house facing north and facing a wide-open valley.

I have spent the week trying to stay warm as the woodpile has dwindled to nothing much.  So I am burning pieces of the gnarly old Maple tree that fell on my house this summer and the old wood from my bridge.

My cat Rascal has been a real bother also, tired of staying in but not wanting to go out…and Kitten, the sight impaired stray that has chosen my attic to live in, has been keeping close to the woodstove’s heat in her comfy room upstairs.  (She still won’t come out or let me near her.)

So the other night with the wind and creaking and cat noise upstairs I thought Kitten was getting cold and wanting to be fed.  So I left the kitchen with her meal...(scramble) hearing me coming of course, she then hides until I’m gone.  I went out and up the stairs to her little insulated loft area. (Yes, I made her a room.)  Her room is over the kitchen but you get to it by going out of the house, through the garage and up the stairs.

As I got to the top of the stairs I suddenly heard a crashing, something flying against the window…and banging into the ceiling.   Startled I thought it was a small bird that got in under the roof...But it seemed terribly big...but it was dark!

So I went back to the kitchen, picked up a flashlight and a lightweight blanket to try and catch it with if I had to …and returned to the garage.  To my amazement when I got to the second floor and turned the  light on it…it was a Hawk!  A big beautiful Hawk!  It just stared at me!

I managed to get the window open and shoo it out…it flew swiftly away unharmed…but it left me wondering how it got into my garage area… and how it got to the second floor???? Better yet why????

I have been told that my totem is the Hawk and that the Hawk brings a message….hmmm.   So for the past 24 hours I have been asking myself what could that message could be???

Since there is no birdfeeder in the area…though my back yard does back to a field…he could have come from there...how did he get in…but…never mind.  He was beautiful…and I cursed myself for not bring a camera with me… But how many times do you find a Hawk in February on the second floor of your garage!  Really!

Attributes & symbolic meanings of the messenger hawk: Attention, Vision, Power, Energy, Leadership, and Intensity


For more on a Cooper’s Hawk..from Cornell




Monday, February 18, 2013

President's Day, the Blizzard of '66, and my Grandmother...


Winter storms and President's birthdays always remind me of my Grandmother Messere.  Grandma was born on Lincoln’s Birthday, a fact she was proud of since she was a naturalized citizen. As a matter of fact the family took her to Washington D. C. once and I can still remember her standing under the Capital Dome telling me the history of the building and of the United States.

Grandma had a hard life...she was an orphan from Italy who was farmed out with her brother...to a wealthy landowner and his wife.  The boys worked the fields starting at 4 am and the girls worked the food and kitchen.  Though the boys were fed at a certain time, the domestics could not eat until the lady of the house rose and ate…many hours later most times.

The fact was she was the greatest person to tell your troubles to for she understood troubles.  She would laugh after telling you a story of her hard past,  laugh until she cried…and then you laughed - at yourself.

One story I loved was when the state forced her master to send her brother and her to school some miles away.  Since they had to walk, the lady had to buy them shoes.  The first day of school on the way home they stopped to play in a field and put their shoes on a fence post to run free.  While playing someone stole their only shoes…and the master never bought them another pair. (They hated the shoes.)

She came to the United States as an indentured servant and worked to pay that debt back.  She married and lost many babies and one son who ate green apples at 7 years old and died.  She was a Gold Star mother who lost one of her sons at war.  ((Six Served!) dGrandma worked picking vegetables in the summer so she could buy nice things for her house…things Grandpa would never buy! 

Grandma also worked from 5 in the morning to late at night, - in the garden, crocheting, making things…but always working. I can still smell the gardenias that she put out in the summer near the porch.  She said her prayers in the morning and late night ...on her knees ...and she walked to church every day!

Her  “grandma isms” were so great ...she would say…”It only happens to the living”, when I would complain about this or that.   It wasn’t until I was full grown and "threw" the phrase out to a sad co-worker that the real meaning rang clear to me.  “Can only happen to the Living”…well it can’t happen to the DEAD!

She would sometimes quote a phrase she used for my Grandfather...(a stern fellow)…if I complained about someone - She’d say, ”You never have to tell someone to go to Hell…they will go there on their own!”

The day she died we were in the middle of the famous Blizzard of 1966.  We had no heat...the snow was up to the roof.  Grandma lived next door and my father was trying to keep the place warm with the kitchen burners... she was very sick.  Finally he called the village and they sent a V-plow, shovel-ers and ambulance to get her.  

Dad went with grandma to the hospital.  A few hours later he called and said he needed me to pick him up.  All of the neighbor’s kids came over and we shoveled the snow...60 plus inches from the driveway. I had to put chains on the car...and I drove in the path the plow had made to the main road and to the hospital.  We returned home only to hear that the hospital called and that grandma had died!

Everyone called her a saint…she was.  How could anyone like her have had such a wonderful outlook on life?  But perhaps it is through a tough life that we can learn to accept all the pain that life to offer in this world… and look forward to the future. She did!

Video on the Blizzard!


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

How are Super Bowl, Clydesdales, Hops & Cooperstown related!


Well the Super Bowl is over for this year, though I don’t watch it as I have no Television or Cable…. but I do keep up with my favorite commercials ... the ones that make you cry or smile with the Clydesdale Horses.  This year's was a gem…the little horse growing up to become a Clydesdale Team horse for Budweiser….

Gussie and family
The tradition of the Budweiser Team was the brilliant idea of the companies founder Adolphus Busch’s grandson, August Anheuser-Busch …who used a team of Clydesdales pulling a Budweiser wagon to haul the first case of beer after the repeal of Prohibition down 5th Avenue in New York City to Alfred E. Smith the Mayor, and another down Pennsylvania Avenue to President Roosevelt in the White House.
This symbol of Budweiser has been part of our American fabric for over 80 years now.

I guess part of my like for the commercials is the beautiful way they are put together …the videography is spectacular!  The plots are inspiring.  If I could do anything it would be to make a commercial like this.

Another part of the story is I also am fond of the Busch family’s ties to history and Central New York.  Yes history ties…does that surprise you?

Adolphus Busch bought a huge number of acres in Otsego County for the hops.  Otsego County at time was one of the largest producers of hops. 

He also built a family home and farm in Cooperstown called Uncas Farm.  If you have ever driven down the side road to Cooperstown you may remember seeing the metal makers or signs saying A. Busch or Uncas Cabin. 

Today “Farmlands”, a beautiful manor overlooks Otsego Lake on the near Three Mile Point.  Louis Busch Hager built it on the site of the home once occupied by Alice Busch Gronewaldt, his grandmother.  

Alice (Gussie's sister) has her own ties to history, as it is through her generous donations that we have the Glimmerglass Opera and Alice Busch Opera Theater, named in her mother Alice’s honor.

But of course that is just part of the Cooperstown story.  It would not be complete without BASEBALL.   

August Anheuser-Busch, “Gussie”, is remembered at the Baseball Hall of Fame in downtown Cooperstown.  Gussie was the owner that saved the St. Louis Cardinals and built the Busch Stadiums. He is well remembered by fans for riding on the Clydesdale team and wagon at the games …sporting a red cowboy hat!

See how things travel in circles…. History relates….
The Busch’s still own much property in Cooperstown…and we still love their symbol of many years ...the Clydesdales!
















For more history visit my website at www.historystarproductions.com.

Enjoy!





Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Oneida Dispatch and its history..or "Less is More"!


This week marked a piece of history for Central New York as two of its larger newspapers went to only 3 days a week, the Post Standard in Syracuse and the Oneida Dispatch in Madison County.

A number of my friends complained about it and said they always got a daily paper and they couldn’t believe the paper was going to 3 days.  In reality however, many newspapers over the years were only one day a week newspapers... or Sunday only papers.  So being the history junkie that I am I decided to do a little history snooping on the Oneida paper.

The place to go for information such as this I decided was the Library of Congress… and BINGO… I found it.

It seems the Oneida Dispatch can trace its roots back to October of 1851 when a publisher by the name of D. H. Frost put out the first edition of the Oneida Telegraph - a weekly paper that ran until June of 1854. 

From June of 1854 John Crawford became the publisher of what was then called the Oneida Sachem. That too was a weekly paper. The Oneida Sachem was a Republican Journal and eventually E. H. Purdy and D. A. Jackson replaced Crawford as publisher. This paper was published until 1866 when it became the Oneida Dispatch.  (In 1869 the publisher E. Purdy was replaced by M. M. Allen, and eventually only by Mr. Jackson remained as the sole publisher.)

At some point the paper changed names and frequency; it went from the Oneida Dispatch - to the Oneida Weekly Dispatch and then to the Oneida Daily Dispatch.  The Oneida Daily Dispatch ran from 1926 until this week as a daily paper with the exception of Sundays and Holidays...quite a run!

So in essence it is now going to be something it has never been…a three-day print paper... plus a daily paper including… Sundays and holidays in a digital edition on line.

How times have changed…and how the newspaper business changed.

The newspaper business can actually trace its roots back to Roman times when boards were put up on main streets with the news of what was going on posted for the citizenry.

From there it went to printing by hand, then by presses with type set up by hand, then type set by machines, and now by the magic of the digital age!  Voila’!  Not only can we see pictures in color - we can see video and learn the news in real time! 

Wouldn’t those old Roman news people be jealous!  Imagine if they made a typo…today a machine corrects those with a push of a key stroke as we write…hmmm…we still make mistakes….but what the heck! 

So to all you daily complainers…in this case…”Less is really MORE!”


 **Heres a quick video history of newspapers!