Sunday, October 01, 2006
Identity crisis, 1884
This is about my favorite front page in the world, the first issue of a Choctaw Nation-subsidized newspaper published in Atoka, Indian Territory, in 1884. The editors and publishers got their newspaper cart ahead of their nameplate horse is what they done went and did!Gettin' a very short and power point organized for the ailing Dr. ER to build for me when she gets over whatever crud has her laid low. And her hip is acting up again, which has put her down. Picked both up on the plane to and from Florida last week, we reckon.
Then, I'll reduce a fine 25-page article to a 10-minute talk, make a stack of copies of the paper to pass out, and I'll be ready to do my song-and-dance before a bunch of workin' historians in a couple of weeks.
Let's see. A workin' press type such as myself interlopin' among a bunch of workin' historians. Mightn't that cause a rip in the journalistic-historical space-time continuum? We'll see.
Off to the store. Got a hankerin' for pork chops and sauerkraut in the electric skillet.
--ER
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The mast says "Devoted to Indian and Stock News." I'm sorry but I had the vision of a series of stories from say the 1850s such as:
Comanches make off with the 10,000th Pony from Texas Ranches.
The Cheyenne report 300 head of horses missing after Crow band roams by village.
Kiowas charge 25 head of cattle for each cattle drive crossing their land.
Unknown bands raid Choctaw Cattle Ranch.
You must admit that is interesting mixture of topics, and even one or two decades or so changed the whole focus of what it would mean.
Comanches make off with the 10,000th Pony from Texas Ranches.
The Cheyenne report 300 head of horses missing after Crow band roams by village.
Kiowas charge 25 head of cattle for each cattle drive crossing their land.
Unknown bands raid Choctaw Cattle Ranch.
You must admit that is interesting mixture of topics, and even one or two decades or so changed the whole focus of what it would mean.
# posted by 
: 10:42 PM
: 10:42 PM
Yep. But you bring a distinctly western Oklahoma perspective to it, and I bring an easern perspective to it.
Except for the raids in the western regions, the 1850s were pretty much the heyday for the Five Civilized Tribes, with the rmoval behind them and the Civil War unforeseen. ...
Did you know that there were Indians at the big National Cattlemen's Convention in St. Louis that year, in 1884?
The Northern Plains cattlemen were still wanting to shoot every Indian in sight, and wanted legislation to that effect, without regard to tribe. Of course, the be-suited, be-booted and be-Stetsoned Indian stockmen from what's now eastern Oklahoma, the "civilized" tribes, would have none of it.
The Northern Plains cattle guys could scarcely believe the civilized tribes existed - a refrain that recurs in Indian Country to this day, in some ways.
The Chocks, and Chicks, did have major trouble with the western tribes. But things were rleatively settled by '84, with the reservations set up -- and the possibility of the Sioux coming down, post-Custer, having never gotten anywhere.
Except for the raids in the western regions, the 1850s were pretty much the heyday for the Five Civilized Tribes, with the rmoval behind them and the Civil War unforeseen. ...
Did you know that there were Indians at the big National Cattlemen's Convention in St. Louis that year, in 1884?
The Northern Plains cattlemen were still wanting to shoot every Indian in sight, and wanted legislation to that effect, without regard to tribe. Of course, the be-suited, be-booted and be-Stetsoned Indian stockmen from what's now eastern Oklahoma, the "civilized" tribes, would have none of it.
The Northern Plains cattle guys could scarcely believe the civilized tribes existed - a refrain that recurs in Indian Country to this day, in some ways.
The Chocks, and Chicks, did have major trouble with the western tribes. But things were rleatively settled by '84, with the reservations set up -- and the possibility of the Sioux coming down, post-Custer, having never gotten anywhere.
Hell the Northern "stockmen" still have that attitude about Indians. But as the Sioux and the Crow etc. continue to buy them out as they fail, pretty soon the only Northern Stockmen will be Indian.
By 1884 even the Comanche chief Quannah Parker was probably at the stock show in St. Louie along side your "tame" Eastern Indians.
By 1884 even the Comanche chief Quannah Parker was probably at the stock show in St. Louie along side your "tame" Eastern Indians.
# posted by : 8:30 AM
: 8:30 AM
These days most businessmen look so much alike that you can't tell who's got Native heritage and who doesn't, unless they tell you and specify the tribe. Or unless you look at their bank accounts...
Thanks. As usual, I'm waiting til the last dang minute to put it together! Paper is long done. The talk's not! But shoot, if I can BS for 10 minutes about it with a once-over just beforehand, I should just hang it up.
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