1939 Golden Spike Days Ceremony in Omaha and Council Bluffs

 The Durham History Museum has a display of photographs from their archives of the 70th anniversary of the completion of the railroad and the golden spike in Utah which coincided with the premiere of the Cecil B. Demille movie, Union Pacific, in Omaha.  This resulted in a four-day celebration in Omaha with parades and dancing and festivities.  The town was decorated with an 1867 mode, and there were historic Abraham Lincoln hats and an Abraham Lincoln impersonator.  Lincoln put into motion the transcontinental railroad after having visited Council Bluffs before he was elected president.  Omaha has a long history with the Union Pacific.  200,000 people attended the parades and festivities.  

One of the dignitaries Barbara Stanwyck.  She and Robert Preston
attended the festivities as they starred in the film.

Unveiling of the Golden Spike Monument in Council Bluffs.  The largest
golden spike monument in the world

Vietnam War History as per the Nebraska Vietnam War Memorial

The Nebraska Vietnam War Memorial is in Papillion.  Among the memorial is a series of columns that give an outline of the Vietnam War which lasted from 1959 to 1975.

 

Magazine Article Review: Beyond Reach (The story of Crazy Horse's Death)

 Beyond Reach, by Ron J. Jackson jr.,  Nebraska Life, November/December 2025, pp 20-25.

Crazy Horse was murdered September 6, 1877.  He had been summoned to talk with General George Crook at Camp Robinson (now Fort Robinson).  However this was false pretense as the intent was to arrest him based on reports the general had received of Crazy Horse's intent to leave the reservation.  When he arrived, Crazy Horse realized he was being arrested and resisted.  He was stabbed in the side with a bayonet, which pierced both his kidneys.  The arresting officers were Lakota.  Crazy Horse had been the Lakota war chief of the Oglala band.

One year earlier he had participated in the Battle of Little Big Horn and the death of General Custer.  Since that time the American Army had pursued an unrelenting war against the Sioux, burning villages, killing buffalo.  They brought the Sioux to starvation.  Crazy Horse and his band survived the winter, but in the spring the surrendered at the Red Cloud Agency.  

Even so rations were still sparse.  The rumors of Crazy Horse leaving the reservation were based on the lack of food.  However mostly the were promoted by rival leaders and some by army officers skittish of Crazy Horse's influence.  

After Crazy Horse was wounded, his father Crazy Horse Sr. was allowed to see him.  "I am hurt bad, I am going to die."  By morning he was dead.  

His father was allowed to take the body and a procession took him to the Spotted Tail agency near Camp Sheridan.  He traveled on a travois.  In the precession was his wife, Black Shawl Woman.  He was placed in his coffin in a tree on a bluff overlooking Camp Sheridan and the valley of Beaver Creek.  Old Man Crazy Horse and others kept vigil there for five weeks.  The Native Americans were ordered to move north they took Crazy Horse with them, again on a travois.  Lt. William P. Clark, aid to General Crook reported that "Crazy Horse's father was hauling along his dead son.  This is the last confirmed mention of Crazy Horse's body.  

Horn Chips, cousin to, and spiritual advisor to Crazy Horse would say he had been at five interments, Beaver by the cliffs, then along Clay Creek, white Horse Creek, in a cave above the cliffs and finally at Wounded Knee.  Victoria Conroy, niece to Crazy Horse Sr. wrote in 1934 that her mother had helped bury Crazy Horse secretly between Porcupine and Wounded Knee Creeks.  

The exact location of the burial of Crazy Horse is not known.  It was a secret kept by the family.  Anyone who would have known has now passed away.

What Did Crazy Horse Look Like?  Crazy Horse was lighter complected than most Native Americans.  His hair was sandy brown.  He was not tall, about five feet six inches.  Despite being of average heights, his courage and calm made him seem larger than life.

Book Review: The Hopi

The Hopi: Native American Nations by Liz Sonneborn, consultant Tim Topper, Blastoff Discovery, Bellwether Media, Minneapolis, MN, 2024.

The Hopi are a people from Northeast Arizona.  Their history dates back at least until 1150 when the city Oraibi was established, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States.  They live in a harsh arid desert environment with springs and rain water to sustain them.  The developed a unique culture to deal with the hardship based on balance, community and peace.  They raise corn and cotton.  They weave baskets.  They gather nuts and berries and wild fruit and raise turkeys.  They built pueblos of stone and mud.  They also built kivas for religious ceremonies.  

In 1540 the Spaniars arrived looking for gold.  The Spaniards held them in subjugation for the next 140 years until Po'pay lead them in revolt in 1680.  In 1821 they became part f Mexico and in 1848 part of the United States.  In 1882 their reservation was established.  In 1894 Hope elders were imprisoned because they refused to send their children to boarding schools.  They struggled to keep their culture alive.  Children were forced by the government to Indian schools.  The Hopi peo0ple have insisted on keeping their cultre and language and have been able to do so.

Famous people of the Hopi include Po'Pay, Nampeyo who is known for pottery and Tsökahovi (Lewis) Tewanima who is a long distance runner and won a silver medal in the 1912 Olympics.

The tribe is facing problems with the left overs of now abandoned coal kines, and with the lack of water.

C.D. Navajo Songs

 Navajo Songs, recorded by Laura Boulton, 1933, 1940, including Ben Hudson Begay, Joe Lee and Pablo and Frank Huerito, Smithsonian Folkways, 1992.

Driving to Las Vegas early in the morning the only radio station that would come in was from Window Rock New Mexico.  They would play country music but they would also play Navajo songs which I enjoyed, even though I did not understand a thing.

This C.D. includes ceremonial songs as well as game songs.  In includes a section from the Yeibichei which is a sacred curing song.  They first call and talking god.  The ceremony includes masked dancers, sand paintings, chanting and high energy dancing.  The goal is to restore balance, harmony and health.  These six songs had the same kind of feel. Also included are corn grinding songs, sway songs, circle dance songs, and moccasin game songs.  Circle dance songs are used for the round dance which can be very powerful.

Documentary Review: The War #7: A World Without War by Ken Burns

 The seventh of the series by Ken Burns tells several different stories:  The Battle of Okinawa and the kamikaze planes that inflicted heavy loses on the Navy.  The death of President Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman takes over.  The Soviets begin the final assault on Berlin and the suicide of Adolph Hitler.  The concentration camps are liberated with the Holocaust is made known to the world.  Victory Europe Day is celebrated, but the war against Japan goes on.  USS Indianapolis is sunk after delivering atomic bomb; only 300 of 1100 survive.  800 went into the water but sharks and hyperthermia claimed many.  The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The Japanese surrender and victory Japan Day.  The return of the service men to civilian life.  Some do better than others and shell shock leaves permanent scars.  African Americans return to a segregated world.  Japanese are freed from the holding centers.  Civilian prisoners are freed in the Phillipines but many starve before the liberation.  Prisoners in Japan are freed.  Some were thought dead.

The War #1 A Necessary War

The War #2 When Things Get Tough

The War #3 A Deadly Calling

The War #4 Pride of Our Nation

The War #5 FUBAR

The War #6 The Ghost Front

The War #7 A World Without War

Native American Book Review: Navajo

Navajo: Native Americans by Sarah Tieck, Big Buddy Books and imprint of Abdo Books, North Mankato, Minnesota, 2015.

This book indicates that the Navajo originally lived in Canada and moved south to the four corners area of the southwest.  The lived in hogans which are circular homes, or octogan or hexagon.  They were formers who raised corn, squash and beans and also fruit such as peaches.  They also would eat small game, prarie dogs, deer, rabbits and mountain goats.  They also raised sheep and goats for meat and milk.  Children learned by watching adults.  Navajo are experts at making jewelry, rugs, baskets and pottery.  Spirit life is very important to them.  Medicine men will make sand art drawings as part of healing.  Story telling is an important part of their culture.  Men and women both tell stories.  A common story is of the windwalker but some Navajo feel it is bad luck to talk of them.

In 1864 the government foced the Navajo to a reservation in New Mexico, Bosque Redondo.  In the march south, and in the heat in New Mexico, about 2000 Navajo died.  Manuelito had to negotiate to get their land back.  They now have a reservation of 24,000 square miles.  Manuelito stress education as important for the Navajo future and there are many educated Navajo.