Some of the first and most important protectors of America’s national parks were black soldiers. They were lauded for many achievements while stationed in the beautiful lands across the country, especially for their firefighting work in Glacier National Park in the early 1900s.

Missoulian’s Tristan Scott explores the rich history of the “Buffalo Soldiers’” past, including how the Natives of the land were affected by the unique presence.

Native Americans reportedly bestowed the nickname “Buffalo Soldiers” on the black troops with affection, likening the kinkiness of their hair to that of a buffalo.

But the relationship between the soldiers and the tribes, as Scott writes, was complex and often ugly.

But early regiments, many of them former slaves, also conducted campaigns against tribes on the western frontier, particularly in the southwest states like Texas and Arizona, but including Montana.

“It is one of the ironies of American history that … black soldiers had to earn their reputation as proficient troops by assisting in the suppression of [Native Americans] and by acting as strike breakers,” wrote John H. Nankievell in his book “Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926.”

. . .

“It is not always a celebratory story, but it’s a history of our culture,” said (Alan Spears, a legislative representative for the National Parks Conservation Association). “As we look at enhancing cultural diversity in the national parks, what I think is important about these stories is that the early American West was a far more diverse place than we originally believed. African Americans have always been in these parks and on these Western landscapes, far more than we knew.”

Jenna Cederberg

A rare, 13-star flag given to members of the Ojibwa tribe in Minnesota in the early 19th century remains locked in a safe-deposit box as family members fight to decide what its fate.

The Great Falls Tribune reports that members of the Gopher family (Little Shell band of the Chippewa tribe) met in court this week to try to come up with a solution as family members continue to disagree about what to do with the flag. Their mother Dorothy died without a will, leaving ownership in question.

The Gopher brothers disagree on who should be mainly responsible for the artifact. Mike Gopher believes the band the Gophers belonged to should have main guardianship. His brother, Glenn, thinks it should stay in the immediate family.

During the hearing, Mike Gopher said that his great-great-grandfather was offered the flag as an offering of peace. The Ojibwa were told that they could show the flag at U.S. forts and get guns and ammunition. It was eventually passed down to the Gophers’ father, Robert Gopher, who then left it to his wife, Dorothy, in his will when he died in 1998.

Ten years later, Dorothy died with no known will, and the flag is locked in a safety deposit box in her name. Currently, her children cannot access it, and the court was asked to decide who should have the keys.

A deep rift was evident during a 15-minute break in which (District Judge Thomas) McKittrick suggested they try to come up with two or three guardians that they could all agree on. After they were left alone in the room, Mike and Glenn did not speak to each other while other family members conversed with each other.


Jenna Cederberg

The Quechan Indians in southern California are taking their case to the courts this week to protest what they’re calling a culturally insensitive solar energy project approved Oct. 13 and funded by the federal government’s stimulus package.

FoxNews.com reports that in the rush to push the “shovel ready” project through, the impact on the habitat of the culturally significant Flat Tailed Horned Lizard was ignored.

The lizard is an integral part of the Quechan’s creation story, Fox reported. The tribe filed a federal suit filed Wednesday in the Southern District of California.

They allege that the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management rushed approval of a massive solar energy project in the Imperial Valley that would place more than 28,000 solar dishes across 6,144 acres of public land – and that they neglected to take into consideration the Quechans’ historic and cultural claims to the land.
…
The Quechan Tribe, which resides on a 45,000-acre reservation along the Mexico-California-Arizona border – an area it was granted in 1884 – numbered fewer than 3,000 members in the 2000 census. The tribe’s lawsuit states that it has lived in the Mojave Desert for thousands of years, and that the construction project will destroy artifacts and endanger the 432 cultural sites there that are important to the tribe.

California recreationalists are protesting a deal that would swap land between the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and U.S. Bureau of Land Management within the Santa Rosa San Jacinto Mountains National Monument in California.

According to the Press-Enterprise in California, under the plan, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would exchange 9 square miles in the northern part of the monument for 2.3 square miles belonging to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.

Tribal officials argue the land is a part “traditional use area” and contains historic Indian rock art and remnants of Cahuilla villages and campsites, the PE reported.

A coalition of bikers, hikers and land users say they are afraid access will be changed, as the swap could open the space up to development and new regulations.

The tribe would gain 5,799 acres of mostly inaccessible land, except for two key sections with trails, including part of the nationally ranked Skyline Trail, better known as Cactus-to-Clouds, a challenging hike from the Palm Springs Desert Museum to Mount San Jacinto Peak. Tribal members say the land, which contains ancient art and village sites, belonged to their ancestors and should have been part of their holdings all along.

Though the tribe says it won’t make changes, members of the Desert Trails Coalition are campaigning to block the exchange. They say it could result in restrictions on 11.6 miles of trails, including Thielman, Garstin, Araby and Wild Horse, that cross land the tribe will acquire. Mountain biking on 3 miles of trails would be restricted to protect habitat, according to an environmental assessment completed as part of the proposed land exchange.

The Rosebud Battlefield in southern Montana is now par with Wounded Knee, the Alamo and Mount Vernon in terms of National Historic Landmark status.

This week, a celebration on the 134th anniversary of the historic battle there between an alliance of Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne against the U.S. Army, marked that status. Lorna Thackeray of the Billings Gazette writes about it here.

The drum group Last Bear played and sang at the celebration for the Rosebud Battlefield. (Bob Zellar/Billings Gazette)

Estimates of the Sioux and Cheyenne force ranged between 1,000 and 1,500 warriors. The battle raged through six hours with soldiers and Indians advancing and retreating over the battlefield.

The Cheyenne call the battle site Kase’eetsevo’ – Where the Girl Saved Her Brother. The name comes from the actions of Buffalo Calf Trail Woman, who rescued her brother, Chief Comes In Sight, when his horse was shot out from under him.

By 2:30 that afternoon, with no clear victory for either side, the battle wound down. Crook lost 10 men and 21 more were wounded. The Sioux lost about 25 warriors and one Cheyenne was killed. Crazy Horse estimated the wounded at 63.

The major result was that [Gen. George] Crook withdrew his column to Wyoming, spoiling the government’s plan for a three-pronged assault.

A week later, and about 30 miles away, the same alliance of Sioux and Cheyenne were camped along the Little Bighorn River when Lt. Col. George Custer ordered an attack.

As William Walks Along, a member of the Northern Cheyenne’s Rosebud and Wolf Mountain National Historic Landmark Committee, told the people at this week’s ceremony, “events like this anchor me to the Earth.”

Thackeray recounts his comments that such sits have to be preserved so future generations will know their history.

“It is our duty,” Walks Along said.

We’ve blogged earlier, here, about the new book on the Little Bighorn Battle, Nathaniel Philbrick’s “The Last Stand,” which takes a look at that day through the eyes of both Sitting bull and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

The New York Times takes a look at Philbrick’s work, here, along with another book, this one about Quanah Parker of the Comanche.

The Times terms S.C. Gwynne’s book on Parker, “Empire of the Summer Moon,” transcendent:

Born the son of an Indian warrior and his white wife (who had been captured at the age of 9 during a raid on a Texas ranch), Parker grew up to become the last and greatest chief of the Comanche, the tribe that ruled the Great Plains for most of the 19th century. That’s his one-sentence biography. The deeper, richer story that unfolds in “Empire of the Summer Moon” is nothing short of a revelation. Gwynne, a former editor at Time and Texas Monthly, doesn’t merely retell the story of Parker’s life. He pulls his readers through an American frontier roiling with extreme violence, political intrigue, bravery, anguish, corruption, love, knives, rifles and arrows. Lots and lots of arrows. This book will leave dust and blood on your jeans.

Reviewer Bruce Barcott terms the Comanche a Native American superpower, and quotes Gwynne: “They held sway over some 20 different tribes who had been either conquered, driven off or reduced to vassal status,” Gwynne writes. “Such imperial dominance was no accident of geography. It was the product of over 150 years of deliberate, sustained combat against a series of enemies over a singular piece of land that contained the country’s largest buffalo herds.”

Parker’s own transformation mirrored that of his people:

Quanah Parker’s second act was, if anything, more remarkable than his first. Resigned to reservation life, he transformed himself from a death-dealing warrior to a prosperous cattleman and a hard-bargaining politician who earned the respect and friendship of Teddy Roosevelt.”

Barcott calls “Empire of the Summer Moon” “a forceful argument about the place of Native American tribes in geopolitical history.”

Sounds like a book worth reading.

Gwen Florio

It’s been more than 40 years since the 1968 re-enactment of The Long Walk, the name given the forced removal of Navajo people some 300 miles from where they were living to the Bosque Redondo area in New Mexico.

Dianne Livingston, now 56 and living in Church Rock, N.M., was just 15 when she participated in the re-enactment. The Navajo Times, here, writes of this past weekend’s reunion during Treaty Days Celebration of those who took part in that commemoration:

Approximately 300 Navajos from throughout the reservation participated as re-enactors, camp crew, horse wranglers, cooking crew and security staff.

On June 29, 1968, the group re-enacted the signing of the 1868 Treaty of Peace at Fort Sumner, N.M., then participated in parades in Fort Sumner, Santa Rosa, Albuquerque, Grants, Gallup and Window Rock over the following week.

Livingston remembers marching in those parades and riding the bus from Window Rock to Fort Sumner.

“It was a good experience, learning about Navajo history,” she said.

The reunion featured photos of the event. Those photos enabled LaViena Rajan, 33, of North Brunswick, N.J., to see her great-grandfather Holtsoi Yazzie and her uncle Jay Sherman, both of Twin Lakes, N.M. – both of whom died before Rajan was born.

Read more of Noel Lyn Smith’s story here.

Gwen Florio

Red Dead Redemption Launch Trailer – Watch more Game Trailers

Huge excitement this week over Tuesday’s pending release of Rockstar Games’ “Red Dead Redemption.”

The New York Times, of all places, goes a little nuts over it, with Seth Schiesel, here, calling it a gaming “tour de force.”

We’ve been checking out the trailers and noted something curious: For all the Old West icons that litter the game – bandits and bison, homesteaders and gunfighters, resentful Mexicans and scantily dressed women in distress – something seems to be missing. There’s barely a mention of Native Americans.

They’re not completely absent – they make a brief appearance in the trailer above – but they surely aren’t front and center, either. Given the way Indian people are too often portrayed in traditional Westerns, maybe that’s a good thing.

But this post by Luke Plunkett on the gaming blog Kotaku.com has another explanation. “Red Dead Redemption” takes place in the early1900s, when unfortunately most tribes had already been exiled to reservations and different groups of white settlers were squabbling over the tribes’ former territories.

Gwen Florio

Here’s a story by Lorna Thackeray of the Billings (Mont.) on a new display at the Little Bighorn National Monument that honors the people who fought the U.S. troops. It’s a great, informative read:

LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT — In the heat of battle with an enemy dead at his feet, 19-year-old Northern Cheyenne warrior Limpy took the cartridge belt from a trooper who had dared threaten the village his people shared with the Lakota on the banks of the Little Bighorn River.

A cartridge belt was a valuable prize in a season rife with war. U.S. troops were moving in from east, west and south to force the Cheyenne and their allies onto reservations.

“In all of the belts taken from the dead men there were cartridges,” Limpy’s contemporary, Wooden Leg, told his biographer Thomas Marquis several decades after the June 25, 1876, battle. “I did not see nor hear of any belt entirely emptied of its cartridges.”

Marquis, a lawyer, physician, photographer and writer, befriended many survivors of the battle as a government doctor at Lame Deer. In 1922, he began to probe their memories to chronicle their version of the Little Bighorn Battle. He learned sign language and consulted his elderly sources including Limpy, Wooden Leg and Bobtailed Horse on every detail.

In 1927, more than 50 years after the battle, Limpy bequeathed his captured cartridge belt to Marquis. Marquis snapped a photograph of the old warrior holding the ragged souvenir and displayed it along with the belt in his private museum in Hardin.

Now it is part of a new display that Sharon Small, curator at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, is putting together at the visitor center museum near Crow Agency. Other items taken from the battlefield by the victors and later given to Marquis are also featured in a new display case.

“This is my favorite collection,” Small said of the Marquis photographs and artifacts.
Read the rest of this entry »