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Showing posts from November, 2012

"If they're hungry, let them eat grass or their own dung."

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Minnesota's Sioux uprising of 1862 Reprint from Telelaget of America The Sioux Uprising of 1862 was primarily the result of the government's failure to honor the terms of the Treaty of Traverse de Sioux in 1851.  The Indians gave up over 20 million acres of land, preserving for themselves a reservation of the land on each side of the Minnesota river, roughly from the Minnesota border to New Ulm. The government did not honor these terms, and a number of pioneer settlements began to sprang up on what legally was reservation land. The government promised yearly payments to the tribes for the land they gave up; the payments were often late and were gobbled up by the trading post owners who charged outrageous prices but offered credit to Indians during the year. In the summer of 1862, the payments were once again late and the Indians were starving.  On August 4, 1862, representatives of the northern Sissetowan and Wahpeton Dakota bands met at the Upper Sioux Agenc

Russell Means: A Look at His Journey Through Life

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By  ICTMN Staff   October 22, 2012 AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander Russell Means, who walked on early the morning of October 22, is seen here on January 31, 1989 testifying before a special investigative committee of Senate Select Committee. As news of his walking on spreads across Indian country, we’ve taken the time to look back at  Russell Means ’ storied life. He passed at 4:44 a.m. on October 22 at his home in Porcupine, South Dakota. Means laughed in response to being called the most famous American Indian since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse by the  Los Angeles Times . Last year he told the Rapid City Journal: “I thought  Jim Thorpe  was,” he said with a grin. “Jim Thorpe was my hero.” November 10, 1939 Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. 1942 Family moved to the San Francisco Bay area. 1958 Graduated from San Leandro High School in San Leandro,  California . 1970 Became the first national director of the  American Indian Movement

Happy Birthday to the #1 Miser in all of US History

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Known during her time as "The Witch of Wall Street," Henrietta Howland Robinson was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the daughter of Edward Mott Robinson and Abby Howland. Her family were Quakers who owned a large whaling fleet and also profited from the China trade. At the age of two, she was living with her grandfather, Gideon Howland. Because of his influence and that of her father, and possibly because her mother was constantly ill, she took to her father's side and was reading financial papers to him by the age of six. When she was 13, Hetty became the family bookkeeper. At the age of 15, she went to a school in Boston. When her father died in 1864, she inherited $7.5 million ($107 million in 2010 adjusted for inflation) in liquid assets, against the objections of most of her family, and invested in Civil War war bonds. When she heard that her aunt Sylvia had willed most of her $2 million to charity, she challenged the will's validity in cour

Many people confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day

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Do you know the difference? * Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring those who died serving their country.  *On a Veterans Day we thank and honor those who served in the military. Veterans Day is observed on November 11th of each year. This day used to be called Armistice Day. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations." The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue another proclamation to observe November 11

Electoral Votes: Does the System Really Work?

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Electoral College critics  point out the elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. in their arguments to prove the system doesn't work. In those three elections the candidate who won the Electoral College vote, did not win the popular vote. Besides forgetting the 50 other elections where the Electoral College agrees with the popular vote, critics conveniently ignore the factors that caused these three situations. 1824 - Adams vs Jackson I n  1824 , John Quincy Adams was elected president despite not winning either the popular vote or the electoral vote. Andrew Jackson was the winner in both categories. Jackson received 38,000 more popular votes than Adams, and beat him in the electoral vote 99 to 84. Despite his victories, Jackson didn’t reach the majority 131 votes needed in the Electoral College to be declared president. In fact, neither candidate did. The decision went to the House of Representatives, which voted Adams into the White House. THE CRITICS CHARGE:  I