Mr. Kanouse's description of the above photograph continues as follows:
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led an early morning surprise attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle on November 27, 1868. The chief was among the dead, along with numerous women and children. Photo of April 24, 2014 (by klk).
That is good as far as it goes except that it omits a few things, starting with the fact that all the men in the camp were killed along with Black Kettle, his wife, and numerous women and children. Custer had set the stage for such a massacre by dividing his force into four parts the night before and positioning them such that the Cheyenne encampment would be subject to simultaneous surprise attack from four different directions, permitting no chance of resistance or escape
This was, of course, officially called The Battle of the Washita. Though some contemporaneous observers described it as a massacre, it was declared to be no such thing because Custer's troops and allies didn't kill everybody in the village but also took some "hostages". I consider it to be routine settler linguistics independent of the death toll. I was surprised to find that Wikipedia more or less agreed with me:
"Indian massacre" is a phrase whose use and definition has evolved and expanded over time. The phrase was initially used by European colonists to describe attacks by indigenous Americans which resulted in mass colonial casualties. While similar attacks by colonists on Indian villages were called "raids" or "battles", successful Indian attacks on white settlements or military posts were routinely termed "massacres".
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_massacres_in_North_America ] Emphasis Added
I put "hostages" in quotes above because that does not fully describe the behavior of Custer, his officers and others of his troops towards them. Custer openly advocated the taking of such hostages to prevent counter attacks by survivors of such "raids" or other bands encamped nearby. He did not, however, publicly advocate the enslavement and/or forced concubinage to which such "hostages" were subjected because there were significant numbers of the populace which would find such behaviors objectionable.
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It is allegedly National Electric Guitar Day, but there never was a National electric guitar, National made resonator guitars. The first electric was made by 3 of National's associates, Rickenbacker, Beauchamp and Barth, who formed the Rickerbacker Guitar Company.
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It turns out that it is also Needles and Pins Day, so, fine:
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So much for that
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On this day in history:
1095 – Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade
1703 – The Eddystone Lighthouse was destroyed in a storm
1809 – The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated
1868 – The Washita Massacre of Cheyenne living on reservation land by troops under Custer *** 1895 – Alfred Nobel signed his will creating the Nobel Prize
1896 – Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss was first performed.
1901 – The U.S. Army War College was established
1945 – CARE was founded
1965 – The Pentagon told LBJ it needed 280,000 more troops
1968 – Penny Ann Early played for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the L.A. Stars
1971 – The Soviet space program's Mars 2's descent module crashed onto Mars
1978 – George Moscone and Harvey Milk were assassinated by Dan White
2015 – An attack inside a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, killed three and injured six.
**** One of numerous atrocities that are part of history's greatest genocide (but never referred to as such.) The whole continent was stolen, and the theft, murder, kidnapping of children, and oppression continues yet today.
Some people who were born on this day:
cultivate in young minds an equal love of the good, the beautiful and the absurd; most people's lives are too lead-colored to lose the smallest twinkle of light from a flash of nonsense.
~~ Fanny Kemble
1701 – Anders Celsius, astronomer, physicist, and mathematician
1809 – Fanny Kemble, actress, author, playwright and poet
1857 – Charles Scott Sherrington, physiologist, bacteriologist, and pathologist
1871 – Giovanni Giorgi, physicist and engineer, proposed Giorgi system
1894 – Konosuke Matsushita, businessman, founded Panasonic
1897 – Vito Genovese, businessman
1907 – L. Sprague de Camp, historian and author
1921 – Dora Dougherty Strother, pilot, WASP
1925 – John Maddox, chemist, physicist, and journalist
1934 – Al Jackson, Jr., drummer, songwriter, MG, and producer
1934 – Gilbert Strang, mathematician and academic
1935 – Les Blank, director and producer
1941 – Eddie Rabbitt, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1942 – Jimi Hendrix, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1945 – Randy Brecker, trumpeter and flugelhornest
1953 – Boris Grebenshchikov, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1953 – Lyle Mays, keyboardist and composer
1959 – Charlie Burchill, guitarist and songwriter
1959 – Viktoria Mullova, violinist
1962 – Charlie Benante, drummer and songwriter
1962 – Mike Bordin, drummer
1969 – El Chombo, singer and songwriter
1979 – Hilary Hahn, violinist
1980 – Jackie Greene, singer, songwriter and guitarist
Some people who died on this day:
Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.
~~ Horace
8 BCE – Horace, soldier and poet
1570 – Jacopo Sansovino, sculptor and architect
1754 – Abraham de Moivre, mathematician and theorist
1811 – Andrew Meikle, engineer, designed the threshing machine
1852 – Ada Lovelace, mathematician and computer scientist
1875 – Richard Christopher Carrington, astronomer and educator
1881 – Theobald Boehm, flute player, composer, instrument designer
1901 – Clement Studebaker, co-founder of Studebaker car company
1908 – Jean Albert Gaudry, geologist and paleontologist
1930 – Simon Kahquados, Potawatomi political activist
1934 – Baby Face Nelson, businessman
1953 – Eugene O'Neill, playwright
1973 – Frank Christian, trumpet player
1981 – Lotte Lenya, singer and actress
1998 – Barbara Acklin, singer and songwriter
2005 – Joe Jones, singer and songwriter
2006 – Don Butterfield, tuba player
2009 – Al Alberts, singer and songwriter
2012 – Mickey Baker, guitarist
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Meh, roll your own
Washita Massacre User Winter Rabbit posted a column devoted to the Washita Massacre over at the Daily Kos on 11/26/2017. The link is: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/26/1718704/-Washita-Massacre-of-November-27-1868-149th-Anniversary
Today's Tunes
The Eddystone Lighthouse
War College
More troops for Vietnam
Al Jackson Jr.
Eddie Rabbit
Jimi Hendrix
Randy Brecker
Lyle Mays
Viktoria Mullova
Hilary Hahn
Jackie Greene
Theobald Boehm
Clement Studebaker
Frank Christian
Lotte Lenya
Barbara Acklin
Joe Jones
Don Butterfield
Mickey Baker
Bonus:
Mickey Baker
picture is "Visitor Center mural depicting the Washita Massacre", photo by Kent Kanouse (CC BY-NC 2.0) - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Open Thread, Washita Massacre, Army War College, Penny Ann Early, Fanny Kemble, Harvey Milk, George Moscone, Eddie Rabbit, Jimi Hendrix, Lotte Lenya, Mickey Baker, LBJ, Clement Studebaker, Joe Jones
EDIT: Attempted to undo the arbitrary and capricious reformatting performed on the original by the site’s concatenation software.