The age-old search to understand each other
Two days before Spring, March 19, 1840, there was a council between General Hugh McLeod and officials of the four year old Republic of Texas and a delegation of 12 Comanche chiefs from around the area, seeking a solution to their problems.
After the Republic of Texas was founded in 1836, Sam Houston tried to keep the Indian's treaties with the Spanish and Mexicans in working order. Trouble between the whites and Indians sprung up without rhyme or reason, here and there. Keeping treaties with one group meant nothing to others, including Caddos or Kiowas.
The Comanche made up some 12 tribes with over 30 roaming bands that operated independently. With no one chief in charge, the bands raided farms and captured whites as they pleased. The Texans could not fathom the how or why of the Indians continued breaking the treaties that demanded the return of captive hostages.
Had General Sam Houston been involved rather than McLeod there was the possibility of a peaceful solution. Sam Houston had lived with and respected the Indians. With all his faults Sam Houston was ahead of his times and a legend in his own time.
This San Antonio council meeting followed several bloody and failed attempts for the two groups to find any solution. Both lived in their own world and thought of the other side as demons and usurpers. This attitude prevailed despite the fact that the Indian people were the first Americans.
"At that time when we had these troubles it was to take my country away from me ... they wanted my country and I was in trouble defending it." -- Chitto Harjo. (A full blood Creek, who in 1906 recorded his memories. See Angie Debo's "A History of the Indians of the United States, 9th printing, page 22.)
Under a truce the Comanche leaders met with General Hugh McLeod in San Antonio, then Texas' largest city. The Spaniards founded San Antonio in 1718. The Indians wanted the Texan victors over the Mexicans, to recognize their well-laid out boundaries; to respect their sovereign land, possibly even treat each other as humans.
The Texans, in turn, wanted the Comanches to release white hostages they held. The discussions at the gathering, later known as the bloody Council House conflict, did not go well from the start.
With no unified Comanche front, of which the Texans knew nothing, the participants grew farther and father apart. They thought of Indians as vicious savages. The Comanches went expecting the kind of treaties they had with the Spanish which allowed peaceful trade in exchange for captives. They did not heed Buffalo Hump's warning that the whites could not be trusted.
The Indians brought with them one white captive, Miss Matilda Lockhart, age 16. She had been held 18 months and her release was a "terrible blunder," according to historian T. R. Fehrenbach. "Matilda had been so hideously abused during her captivity, and her appearance was to turn this day..."
Beyond Matilda's sexual humiliations, she had been tortured by the women. She told there were 15 additional white captives in the camp. "The Comanches were oblivious of this stunning effect on the Texans" (Fehrenbach).
Chief Muguara said he would return the prisoners in exchange for ammunition. That did not sit well with the Texas, who threatened to make Muguara a prisioner which only made the Indians angry.
Unfortunately, the council ended with the deaths of many Comanche leaders who wrongly believed that the flag of truce would protect them from harm. Texans also died in the melee that followed. McLeod, in his report the next day, noted 30 Comanche males, 3 women and 2 children were killed. They also took 27 women and 2 old men prisoner. Seven Texans died and 10 were wounded.
Confabs such as the 1840 exchange between the whites and the Indians were more the norm than the exception. The attempt to understand people who are different is faced in every generation, but every effort must be made to find mutual respect and ways to live together.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Real Gold is in the Heart
Gold is in men's hearts, not the mountains
Rummaging through my library this week I found a book I had not seen in nearly 60 years. It was about our favorite state, Arizona. Nothing like walking around in the wilderness. Either the Catalinas or the Superstition Mountains would be our ideal home. In Old Tucson (southwest of Tucson) we saw many a western movie in productions. And meeting Geronomo's son on the Pima reservation.
The Catalinas are between our home in the copper company town of San Manuel and the ever-exciting historical city of Tucson. These mountains are not known for ghost or lost gold mines, but the earliest visitors sure looked for it from time to time.
Every summer we held a young people's retreat in the highest point in the Catalinas, Mount Lemmon. The Catalinas were named by Italian Jesuit priest Eusebio Francisco Kino 1697.
The Superstitions are a range of mountains in Arizona located to the east of Phoenix. The Superstition Mountains have a desert climate, whereas the Catalinas are forests. It is in the Superstitions that the famous Lost Dutchman Mine was located.
According to newspaperman Oren Arnold the mine was first discovered by a young Mexican who was fleeing from Don Miguel Peralta, whose daughter he had been courting. In the 1840s Carlos (the fleeing lothario) saw the bonanza, "the most dazzling human eyes ever beheld."
Carlos loaded up bags of gold and headed back to Mexico to buy forgiveness from Señior Peralta and regain his love. Carlos died in a rainstorm-swollen river on his way home.
The next and better known character to take the venture into the Superstition Mountains, was Jacob Walz, known as Snow Beard, the Dutchman (Arnold said he was German) who claimed the mother lode. As time passed it became known as the Lost Dutchman Mine. Jacob Walz (or: Waltz, Wolz or even "Miller"?) shot the three Mexican youths who showed him the mine, and five other men, one his own nephew, to protect the secret of the mine.
In 1954, Oren Arnold, a Texan by birth, wrote a book "Ghost Gold," which demanded a re-read. One day in the 1870s, Walz set out from about where Roosevelt Dam is now located. He was headed for the Salt River but decided to take a short-cut through the Superstitions. Roaming Apaches shot arrows and nicked his arm. He fled farther into the mountains and came upon a camp of three Mexicans.
When they told them of their gold mine, "Eet ess La Mina Sombrera! Eet ees ours." In time Walz shot the three Mexican youths, and five other men, one his own nephew, to protect the secret of the mine. He had been in Arizona for ten years and this was the first time he discovered gold.
In the Preface to the book "Ghost Gold," Arnold wrote: "True? Of course these stories are true! ... Richest gold lies not in the mountains but in the heart of men. The fascination of lost gold is not in the finding or even the searching, but in the meditating, the day dreaming, the telling."
Arnold, when ask his motivation for writing, said: "Money! Exactly as Shakespeare was motivated." Arnold believed that "humor is the calisthenics of the mind. A wholesome sense of humor is every bit as important as a sense of morals."
Jacob Walz made trips to small towns to show off his gold. It made him the envy if every man who ever searched for gold. Often, for fun, he would give false clues to the location. No one ever found the mine before or after his death.
He revealed the whole story of the mine on his Phoenix deathbed in 1891 to Dick Holmes. He gave Holmes a map and said to find a palo verde tree, with only one one limb, pointing to Weaver's Needle. "Dick Holmes," Arnold writes, "spent 28 years trying to find the property. He died a disappointed man. His widow and sons have hopes of locating the bonanza some day."
"Ghost Gold" also includes advice on how best to go about making your own trip into the maze of canyons of the Superstitions, should you, too, "have an urge."
Rummaging through my library this week I found a book I had not seen in nearly 60 years. It was about our favorite state, Arizona. Nothing like walking around in the wilderness. Either the Catalinas or the Superstition Mountains would be our ideal home. In Old Tucson (southwest of Tucson) we saw many a western movie in productions. And meeting Geronomo's son on the Pima reservation.
The Catalinas are between our home in the copper company town of San Manuel and the ever-exciting historical city of Tucson. These mountains are not known for ghost or lost gold mines, but the earliest visitors sure looked for it from time to time.
Every summer we held a young people's retreat in the highest point in the Catalinas, Mount Lemmon. The Catalinas were named by Italian Jesuit priest Eusebio Francisco Kino 1697.
The Superstitions are a range of mountains in Arizona located to the east of Phoenix. The Superstition Mountains have a desert climate, whereas the Catalinas are forests. It is in the Superstitions that the famous Lost Dutchman Mine was located.
According to newspaperman Oren Arnold the mine was first discovered by a young Mexican who was fleeing from Don Miguel Peralta, whose daughter he had been courting. In the 1840s Carlos (the fleeing lothario) saw the bonanza, "the most dazzling human eyes ever beheld."
Carlos loaded up bags of gold and headed back to Mexico to buy forgiveness from Señior Peralta and regain his love. Carlos died in a rainstorm-swollen river on his way home.
The next and better known character to take the venture into the Superstition Mountains, was Jacob Walz, known as Snow Beard, the Dutchman (Arnold said he was German) who claimed the mother lode. As time passed it became known as the Lost Dutchman Mine. Jacob Walz (or: Waltz, Wolz or even "Miller"?) shot the three Mexican youths who showed him the mine, and five other men, one his own nephew, to protect the secret of the mine.
In 1954, Oren Arnold, a Texan by birth, wrote a book "Ghost Gold," which demanded a re-read. One day in the 1870s, Walz set out from about where Roosevelt Dam is now located. He was headed for the Salt River but decided to take a short-cut through the Superstitions. Roaming Apaches shot arrows and nicked his arm. He fled farther into the mountains and came upon a camp of three Mexicans.
When they told them of their gold mine, "Eet ess La Mina Sombrera! Eet ees ours." In time Walz shot the three Mexican youths, and five other men, one his own nephew, to protect the secret of the mine. He had been in Arizona for ten years and this was the first time he discovered gold.
In the Preface to the book "Ghost Gold," Arnold wrote: "True? Of course these stories are true! ... Richest gold lies not in the mountains but in the heart of men. The fascination of lost gold is not in the finding or even the searching, but in the meditating, the day dreaming, the telling."
Arnold, when ask his motivation for writing, said: "Money! Exactly as Shakespeare was motivated." Arnold believed that "humor is the calisthenics of the mind. A wholesome sense of humor is every bit as important as a sense of morals."
Jacob Walz made trips to small towns to show off his gold. It made him the envy if every man who ever searched for gold. Often, for fun, he would give false clues to the location. No one ever found the mine before or after his death.
He revealed the whole story of the mine on his Phoenix deathbed in 1891 to Dick Holmes. He gave Holmes a map and said to find a palo verde tree, with only one one limb, pointing to Weaver's Needle. "Dick Holmes," Arnold writes, "spent 28 years trying to find the property. He died a disappointed man. His widow and sons have hopes of locating the bonanza some day."
"Ghost Gold" also includes advice on how best to go about making your own trip into the maze of canyons of the Superstitions, should you, too, "have an urge."
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Free at last! Free of FACEBOOK!
How great is the good feeling to have found a way to flee the weird web site called FACEBOOK.
As you can see in the color photo of Jody and me, we are getting into our 2001 Olds and leaving F A C E B O O K !
It can be done if you search all over the place. They don't want to make it easy to quit them. Just like most sites that woo you on, do not want to lose you to their lists of victims.
The FACEBOOK people behind the scenes said they would leave it up for two weeks in the event I changed my mind. But as of this glorious day, Thursday, April 8, 2010, I will not be seen near the FACEBOOK web pages.
Once you get out, you feel so free. Who would want to go back? To all those I have left behind, sorry. It is just not my cup of tea, like Tea-Party folks, it is not for me. But I will not go on marches holding bad banners or signs against either FACEBOOK or TEA PARTYERS. To Each His/Her Own.
I know Tea Party and FACEBOOK have no connection. They are different entities.
THAT IS MY DECISION AND COMMITMENT TO STAYING FREE OF BOTH.
(All the above has been approved by Owl Tree Publishers and The Tao Foundation.)
Friday, March 26, 2010
Obama & the elusive race card
Frank Schaeffer, a Christian writer and speaker, has been speaking out on one of the most heated subjects of our day. He is especially prepared for this as the son of the famous Francis Schaeffer, who became a "savior" to the American Christian Right.
Frank Schaeffer has had enough of claims that America is now in a "post-racial" era. "If that's true," he asks, "why does so much of the opposition to President Barack Obama's actions seem to have a nasty undertone?"
I agree with Frank Schaeffer, the underlying reason so many have gone after President Obama with the intent to destroy all his efforts, has been that they do not want a person of African-American descent in the white house.
It is evident they would not have gone after Hillary Clinton had she become president. It is also apparent President Obama's year-long efforts at bipartisanship has not worked. Every time he turns around his opponents make personal attacks on his motives.
The most un-American act of the Republican National Committee's comparing the president to the infamous Joker character from Batman comics is beyond the pale. It was one thing for tea baggers carrying such signs and calling the president fascist, socialist, communist and the anti-Christ. But when the national opposition party spreads such videos, they have crossed the line.
Such raw bigotry is rampant simply because the man in the white house is not their shade of white. These people continue to claim he is not a citizen, not a real Christian, friend of terrorists and a man determined to destroy the nation. The right-wing radio talk shows harp on this daily. Those shows have decided nothing he does could possibly be right.
It just so happens that the threat level that the Secret Service investigates is up 400% above that of any previous presidency. (This fact is laughed off by the BHL Conspirators (Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh).
Have we read the so-called Manhattan Declaration, that warns our president that he'll be the "next Hitler" if he supports abortion rights and stem cell research. It is no mere coincidence this "threat" should appear with our present president in office.
The ganging up on Obama has nothing to do with the Obama/Hitler posters being circulated by the likes of people who also portray Obama with a bone in his nose! So when the evangelicals draw parallels to the Nazis that's just a coincidence too!
Frank Schaeffer points out that for the first time in American history a former Vice President (Dick Cheney) has accused the head of state of not wanting to keep America safe, has, "of course, nothing to do with disrespect to a black man!"
"We're living in a country where tens of millions of so-called conservatives would rather embrace outright and absurdly silly paranoid lies, go bankrupt, fail, lose our place in history and saddle ourselves with virtually infinite debt than work constructively with a moderate, decent, smart, kind and honest black man."
(Frank Schaeffer is New York Times best-selling author. Two of his many books: "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Help Found the Religious Right," and "Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism)"
(In the San Angelo Standard-Times of Mar 26 brought 16 responses. 2 were positive) Most readers do not refute the truth, just trash the messenger (writer).
Frank Schaeffer has had enough of claims that America is now in a "post-racial" era. "If that's true," he asks, "why does so much of the opposition to President Barack Obama's actions seem to have a nasty undertone?"
I agree with Frank Schaeffer, the underlying reason so many have gone after President Obama with the intent to destroy all his efforts, has been that they do not want a person of African-American descent in the white house.
It is evident they would not have gone after Hillary Clinton had she become president. It is also apparent President Obama's year-long efforts at bipartisanship has not worked. Every time he turns around his opponents make personal attacks on his motives.
The most un-American act of the Republican National Committee's comparing the president to the infamous Joker character from Batman comics is beyond the pale. It was one thing for tea baggers carrying such signs and calling the president fascist, socialist, communist and the anti-Christ. But when the national opposition party spreads such videos, they have crossed the line.
Such raw bigotry is rampant simply because the man in the white house is not their shade of white. These people continue to claim he is not a citizen, not a real Christian, friend of terrorists and a man determined to destroy the nation. The right-wing radio talk shows harp on this daily. Those shows have decided nothing he does could possibly be right.
It just so happens that the threat level that the Secret Service investigates is up 400% above that of any previous presidency. (This fact is laughed off by the BHL Conspirators (Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh).
Have we read the so-called Manhattan Declaration, that warns our president that he'll be the "next Hitler" if he supports abortion rights and stem cell research. It is no mere coincidence this "threat" should appear with our present president in office.
The ganging up on Obama has nothing to do with the Obama/Hitler posters being circulated by the likes of people who also portray Obama with a bone in his nose! So when the evangelicals draw parallels to the Nazis that's just a coincidence too!
Frank Schaeffer points out that for the first time in American history a former Vice President (Dick Cheney) has accused the head of state of not wanting to keep America safe, has, "of course, nothing to do with disrespect to a black man!"
"We're living in a country where tens of millions of so-called conservatives would rather embrace outright and absurdly silly paranoid lies, go bankrupt, fail, lose our place in history and saddle ourselves with virtually infinite debt than work constructively with a moderate, decent, smart, kind and honest black man."
(Frank Schaeffer is New York Times best-selling author. Two of his many books: "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Help Found the Religious Right," and "Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism)"
(In the San Angelo Standard-Times of Mar 26 brought 16 responses. 2 were positive) Most readers do not refute the truth, just trash the messenger (writer).
Sunday, March 21, 2010
50th Anniversay of Pingtung Taiwan Church
It was a lovely sunny Sunday in Pingtung (Pingdong)on January 17, 1960 as the charter members of the Pingtung Baptist Church organized to become a self-supporting church. A part of the National Taiwan Baptist Convention, which had been organized a few years before we arrived on Taiwan island, headquarters of the Republic of China, which next year will celebrate 100 years after overthrowing the Qing dynasty. Manchus from northeast China had ruled China from 1666 to 1911.
The photo was taken the day the church organized on #30 Linsen Lu. Still in a bamboo church in the yard of our house. We moved to Pingtung, the last large city before you come to the southern end of the beautiful isle. The Portuguese sailors were the first Europeans to see it and claim it. They called it FORMOSA, which means beautiful isle.
I hear the church is still going and doing well. I had hoped to go back to Taiwan for the 50th anniversay celebration. But am sending the a DVD of films of building the bamboo church and the lovely brick building seating 400 later in 1960.
I will add more photos as I uncover them.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Urumqi, Xinjiang, China
Out in West China, nearly 3,000 miles from Shanghai and almost another country from the Han people's China. In history the area was called Turkestan or Chinese Turkestan. The people are Muslim and look more Middle Easterns. They speak Turkish and their writing reminds us of Arabic and Hindi. The name today is Xinjiang Province and is neighbors with Afghanistan and Central Asian, former Soviet-controlled states. The above scene is of happy folks gathered around like a musical picnic. Can't read the artist's name but like that kind of art. Several tribes populate the area and the Chinese government have moved man Han Chinese there to keep it under control. The natives would rather be their own boss, just as many Tibetians and Taiwanese want home control.
Britt Towery visited Wulumuqi (Urumqi) the capital often in the 1980s. Leading a Retreat for English teachers in the schools there.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sunday Worship Tradition
KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY
The Bible tells us that the Lord God told the people of Israel to do all their labor in six days and keep holy the seventh (Exodus 20:8-11, 31:12-17).
Christians came along some ages later, though most of them came from a Jewish heritage, they did not apply this command literally. The new faith took "the first day of the week," Sunday as their day of rest and worship.
The Puritans settled in New England and kept the Old Testament close, but worshiped on Sundays. Along with other colonists, they wrote many laws to restrict Sunday work and what was permitted on Sundays and what was not proper.
Well into the 19th century, many of these religious laws were carried over to the secular law courts and subject to various punishments. In 1831-32, the famous French traveler, Alexis de Tocqueville observed "Sunday travelers being stopped by officials and interrogated about the necessity o their trip." (Jeffery A. Smith quote from de Tocqueville's "Journey to America.")
In 1810 the Postal Service provoked those who saw the Sabbath as holy by announcing mail service would be delivered seven days a week. The government was pliable and tried to make delivers on Sunday to not interfere with church services. Some hard-liners against the 7-day mail delivery sound like today's televangelist Pat Robertson: the holy day was being profaned; morality would decay; predicted that a wrathful God would punish the nation.
The National Reform Association was formed by eleven denominations during the Civil War. This group regarded the Civil War as divine judgment. Even the end of Christianity was predicted.
1890, Postmaster General John Wannamaker, a Presbyterian elder and Bible teacher, was denounced at a Sabbath Association meeting saying he should be dismissed from his church unless he stopped Sunday mail service. He didn't stop the service.
The printing of Sunday newspapers were attacked. Many post offices were in stores, so they stayed open for mail pick-up and place to buy newspapers. This little crack in the mercantile door caused more stores to begin Sunday openings. Ballgames and fairs became popular. The congress was bombarded to enact a national Sabbath. This Christian lobbying force was not successful in getting an acknowledgment of God, Christ, and the Bible authority in a preamble to their law proposal.
Sir William Blackstone viewed profanation of the Sabbath as punishable because it corrupted morals. At the same time, 1894, "Fishing on Sunday," was a penal statue. The Blue Laws-------
More liberal (progressive is what the word means, not being stuck in the past as conservatives) clergymen and churches were saying Sunday should observe what Jesus said, "the Sabbath was made for man." They insisted to give the people leisure for thought, rest, and clear the mind for a new week of work, would benefit both religious and secular life.
DeWitt Talmage was a leading preacher in 19th century New York. He cautioned, "Don't fight newspapers. Attack provokes attack." Talmage's brother was a missionary to East China and I want to write someday about him. Excuse me, I digress.
Having lived in a time when stores closed down on Sunday and early on Wednesdays (mid-week services), I admit it was a far different time than today. Mother bought groceries during the weekdays and never considered going to a movie on a Sunday. It just was not even considered as a option.
In the 1930s and 1940s, there might be one or two gasoline stations open Sunday, but only on the highway or the afternoon. City buses did not run and public schools did not hold athletic or academic contests. During the summer there were no Wednesday night softball games scheduled. (I have my doubts how many of the players, coaches and fans darkened a church door on Wednesday nights – unless a good supper was being involved. The coach of my team was in church, he was the educational director.)
Wide-open Sundays are not progress, nor a blessing. May I suggest a new American law? Make work illegal on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This would fulfill the Law of Moses.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)