Book Review: Argentina: Enchantment of the World

 Argentina: Enchantment of the World by Jean F. Blashfield, Scholastic 2015.

This is a very good book about Argentina.  It includes history, economy, industry, topography and things to see.  There are many unique sites in Argentina; waterfalls of Iguazú, missions in Missiones, Mount Aconcagua, highest point in the Americas, cave of the hands with over 800 hands, Tierra Del Fuego, skiing, beaches and glaciers.  A section of Antartica belongs to Argentina.  

Argentina is one of the leading producers of soybeans in the world.  They do not produce as much beef as they once did, but the still eat a lot of beef.  

Argentina has varied wildlife, including Rheas, a large ostrich type bird, penguins, Andean condors, and jaguars which are large than mountain lions.  Argentina has lots of dinosaur bones, including the largest dinosaurs found.  

Spanish is the official language.  However there are a couple native languages still spoken including Quechua, language of the Incas.  Argentine Spanish is different form other Spanish.  Argentines call their language Castellano.  They use the voz form instead of tú.  And the accent on commands and vrrbs is different.  The Spanish is Argentina is very much influenced by Italian.  It is also influenced by Argentine slang.  (Morfar or manchar for to eat instead of comer.  They also refer to others as ché and the command and voz verb is pronounced differently.  

The Pope before the current one is from Argentina.  Deolind Correa is worshipped.  She had a baby who continued nursing on her even after she had died.  Non Catholic christians are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Evangilist.  There is a large Jewish population.  

Argentines love their Fútbol (s0ccer).  Lionel Messi is from Argentina.  The National sport however is polo.  Argentina has long been the top in the world.

Tango and Argentine folk music are popular music styles.  School is Argentina is compulsory and free up through grade 12.  University is also free.  Argentines have a lively night life, and support this by sleeping  before going out.  The siesta after lunch is not as popular as it once was.  Dinner is eaten very late in Argentina.  Favorite foods include beef asado, locro or stew and the drink mate.  

The economy in Argentina has fluctuated with high inflation at times.  This is now under control and the economy is doing well.

Very enjoyable and informative book.  Publish in 2015 so somethings may be outdated.

Magazine Article Review: Queen of the Air (First Black Woman Aviator)

 Queen of the Air, by Victor Luckerson, illustrated by David Perrin, Smithsonian June 2026, pp 18-22.

Long before the Tuskegee Airmen, Bessie Coleman inspired a generation of Black pilots to take to the skies.  

This is a story I had never heard.  How a young woman, determined to fly airplanes.  She was from Texas, but wanted more.  She moved in his her brother in Chicago and became a manicurist, and earned good tips working in barber shops.  Her brothr announced that Black wome could not fly airplanes.  That set her in motion.  But white pilots in Chicago would not train her; and the U.S. Army Air Service did not take women.  She began saving money and studying French and at age 28 she headed for France where she was trained as a pilot.  Flying was dangeroujs and a classmate died.  But she was determined to let Blacks know that they could fly.  She received her license in 1921.  She was an. instant celebrity, but still had financial issues performing stunts in air shows did not make a lot of money.  Finally in 1923 she purchased her own plan, but crashed it landing herself in the hospital for three months.  She was determined to return to flying.  Ahe flew in an all black air circus in 1925 for Juneteenth.  She hoped to start a school to train black pilots, however tragedy struck.  She and William Wills were surveying an area in Florida for a possible air show.  Wills lost control of the plane and it flipped over, dumping Coleman from the passenger seat to her death.  Wills also died when the plane crashed in a field.

Coleman has been the inspiration for many Black airmen.  When Mae Jamison went to space she carried a photograph of Coleman.

Documentary Review: Charlie Kirk: American Martyr

 Charlie Kirk: American Martyr, Daily Caller, 2025.  Available through Angel Studios.  

Tucker Carlson describes Charlie Kirk as "a man of peace."  It is sad that his life was taken violently by those who say they are peaceful.  Charlie Kirk could discuss issues with others--can keep his peace about him.  He was a family man with two small children.  He was more criticized than any one, and he was stopped by a bullet.  He would do Prove Me Wrong meetings on University campuses.  Because the couldn't prove him wrong they would call him racist and homophobic.  That rhetoric lead someone to decide he needed to kill Charlie Kirk.  

Liberals are evil.  And they have unleashed their evil in many elections this this year.  I pray we as Americans reject this evil outright.  

South Omaha Immigrant History Museum or Mexican American Historical Society of the Midlands

I stopped by the South Omaha Immigrant History Museum and it appeared everything was in flux.  I talked to Jose Reyes who said that the museum was changing hands.  It seems the Mexican American Historical Society was taking over the space.  I did get pictures of some of the things there.   The museum is on the second floor of the Central Mall.

Posthumous Medal of Honor winner Ed Babe Gomez

Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavides Medal of Honor

1979 50 years of Mexican Americans in South Omaha

Diego Rivera Mural

Durham Museum History Museum: Irish Immigration to Omaha

 There was a fine display of photgraphs dealing with Irish immigration in the photo library at the Durham Museum.  Irish were responsible for Creighton University and Boys Town, a couple local landmarks.  They also played a part in development of the Stockyards.

Boys Town

Father Flanagan

Creightons

Magazine Article Review: Chief Standing Bear and the Declaration of Independence

 Chief Standing Bear and the Declaration of Independence by David L Bristow, Nebraska State Historical Society, Nebraskaland Magazine, January/February 2026, pp 44-47.

Chief Standing Bear was the first Native American to sue the federal government and win.  The federal attorney argued that the laws of habeas corpus did not extend to standing bear, but Judge Elmer Dundy did not agree.  In siting his ruling the judge sited the Declaration of Independence.  The small group of Ponca Indians must be released because they had chosen to separate from the rest of the tribe which had been forced to Oklahoma.  They "have the inalienable right to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  Once Americans embraced equality as a core value, then the decision was set.  The article quotes Sussette LaFlesche (Bright Eyes), Standing Bear's interpreter, "The people are the power which moves the magistrates who administer the laws."  She add, "They ask for liberty, and law is liberty."

Chief Standing Bear

Judge Elmer Dundy

Documentary Review: The First American Indian Doctor: Unladylike 2020, American Masters, PBS

 The First American Indian Doctor: Unladylike 2020, American Masters, PBS, June 2020.

A brief documentary that tells the story os Susan La Flesche Picotte and her becoming a medical doctor  She graduated in 1889 from Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.  Rather than provide services in the East she decided to return to the reservation to serve her people.  She also took a roll in public health among her people, and educated about good health practices to avoid spreading disease.  She became the doctor for the Omaha reservation and the winebago reservation.  She and her husband lived just off the reservation.  She treated both native and white people.  She left a lantern lit at her house so people would know she was available--all hours of the day or night.  She did much more than doctoring.  She started a children's library, she taught Sunday school, she started a quilting circle for Omaha women and she translated legal documents for members of the tribe.  She advocated for a ban on alcohol.  She did not like federal land allotment, through which much of the Indian land was lost.  In 1913 she opened a privately funded hospital on the Omaha Indian Reservation.  However just a couple years after opening the hospital, bone cancer claimed her life.  The hospital continued to operate for 30 years.  It is now open as a health clinic and community center and museum.  It is now an historical landmark.

LaFlesche is quoted as saying, "I will always fight good and hard, even if I have to fight alone."

Cast: Narrator Julianna Margulies; Joe Starita, author book about LaFlesche; Renée Sans Sousi, Omaha Native educator; Dr. Yvette Roubideaux Sioux doctor Rosebud Reservation and head of Indian Health Services.

Jeffie Brewer Artist: Story Walk

I ran into this story walk at the Gene Leahy Mall.  The walk is around his Jeffie Brewer's artwork "Sneek" that is in the mall as part of the sculpture garden.

 

Native American Biography: John Joseph Mathews, Osage

 John Joseph Mathews was Osage.  This was the tribe that many members were murdered for the "head" rights, which gave them oil money.  He became a very important person among the Osage and was their spokesperson.  He was university educated, University of Oklahoma and Oxford, and served as a pilot in WWI.  He became a writer of books.  His first, Wah 'kon-tah: The Osage and the White Man's Road (1929) was a best seller.  His second book, Sundown (1934) would be his most significant.  It explored the effect of the oil boom on the Osage people and looked at the murder of the Osage by those wanting oil money.  This book is his only novel.  In the 1930s he served two terms on the Osage Nation Tribal Council.  He also served on the Oklahoma State Board of Education. He married and had two children by his first wife, however he walked away and had little contact with them.

He built an unusual home on his reservation property and called it The Blackjacks.  It was a two room sandstone home with a fireplace in the middle.  The home is now part of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and seasonally open to tours.  From here he continued writing.  His third book was Talking to the Moon (1945) about his life among the Osage.  He wrote a biography of a prominent oilman, Life and Death of an Oilman: The Career of E.W. Marland (1951).  He also published a book of stories from the Osage people based on his research with Osage elders, The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters (1961). He remarried a widow and she had two children who he raised with his wife.  

In his later life he was working on a three volume autobiography.  One volume was publish posthumously, Twenty Thousand Mornings (2012), edited by Susan Kalter.  Kalter also edited a group of short stories which was also published, Old Three Toes and other Stories of Survival and Extinction (2015).  Mathews passed away in 1979 and at his request was buried in the garden of his home Blackjacks.  He was inducted posthumously into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.  

Historical Markers at Creighton University: Before the University and the University

 

Native Americans before the University: Omaha, Ponca, Ioway and Oto.  The Pawnee were here originally before these later arriving tribes

History of Creighton University

Mountain Man: Old Bill Williams

William Sherley Williams, known as old Bill was a mountain man of some renown, but also served as an interpreter for the U.S. as he knew several languages.   He was born in 1787 in North Carolina.  His family moved to St. Louis.  When he was 17 he left home to be a preacher, and then became a mountain man/ fur trapper.  He also became a trail guide.  He married into the Osage nation, A-Ci'n-ga (Wind Blossom) and had two daughters by his wife.   He helped to translate the bible into Osage.  He also became a trail guide.  His daughters both married John Allen Mathews, first Mary Ann and when she died then Sara.  Old Bill Williams is the grandfather of John Joseph Mathews, an Osage writer.  He helped the blaze the Santa Fe Trail and traveled in the southwest.  He traveled with Albert Pike.  He trapped with Kit Carson along the Green River and he had friendships with the Utes.  He served as guide for the John C. Fremont fourth expedition which became mired in snow and eleven members died.  In 1849 he returned to the area with Dr. Benjamin Kern to look for survivors as well as papers that had been lost.  While on this mission he and Dr. Kern were killed by Ute Indians.  The town of Williams in Arizona is named for him and there is a statue there.