In order to add to the wall, select the appropriate option from the pull-down menu above.
THE IRONWORKER’S PRAYER
O God, make me as straight and as strong
As the iron on which I work
Grant me the ability to excel in my profession
Protect me with thy robe
From the chill of fog
And the turbulence of wind
Walk with me under fair skies
So I may reach the blessings of home.
by Galloway
- Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 12:08:09 (PST)
Hey - this is Christopher Stuck... one of the first contributors to TRiBE. I know some of those names you are talking about... I was nuclearchild back then. Who is in charge of this site now??? I hate to see it like this. I would be interested in taking over the burden. c.d.stuck@gmail.com
- Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 12:26:11 (PST)
Oui, l'enfer, c'est les autres, oui Quebecor Media aspire vraiment mal.
- Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:57:32 (PST)
Oui, l'enfer, c'est les autres, oui Quebecor Media aspire vraiment mal.
- Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:56:11 (PST)
Hi.
I wonder if names like Crystal Queenie, 20th century socks, etc. mean anything to anyone, anymore? The countless hours spent on Doors chat way back on more innocent, if not ancient times still bring meories back. Weird, huh?
LostSoul?
Cheers!! from Frank Kelley, Parker Watson, Ann Jones and Lou Devlin, O'Reilly's Pub St. John's New Foundland.
- Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 15:07:26 (PST)
Top Harper official defends CBC ad policies against boycott accusations from Quebecor, Blahblah Conservative Nonsense.
By Steve Mertl
National Affairs Contributor
Quebecor Media Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau. There's a man-bites-dog quality to this story but it's true: A senior official in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is defending the CBC, even praising its policies, against attacks from Sun Media, the Conservative government's staunchest media supporter.
The Canadian Press has acquired an internal memo by Wayne Wouters, powerful clerk of the Privy Council, under the Access to Information Act that clears the public broadcaster of boycotting Sun Media in its advertising contracts.
Sun Media's parent company, Quebecor Inc., and owner Pierre Karl Peladeau have been feuding for years with the CBC, which Peladeau believes provides unfair, taxpayer-funded competition for private broadcasters like him.
Sun outlets have been demanding access to CBC documents that they argue should be available under access legislation but which the CBC refuses to hand over, saying they would reveal competitive business information. The dispute has spilled over into legal challenges and acrimonious hearings before a parliamentary committee.
Peladeau claims the CBC is boycotting Sun newspapers in its program advertising to punish Quebecor for its criticism of the broadcaster's spending and refusal to reveal its internal workings.
"Such an attack on fundamental rights held dear by Canadians is all the more deplorable for having been conducted by a Crown corporation that is supposed to be accountable to Canadians," Peladeau wrote to CBC president Hubert Lacroix last month.
The Canadian Press reports Peladeau also wrote directly to Harper last May about "discriminatory practice that serves no one but the vindictive interest of CBC/Radio-Canada's leadership."
But in a Sept. 7 memo to Harper, Wouters concludes "there is no policy at CBC/RC that systematically excludes Quebecor publications or media from CBC/RC's purchases of promotional space."
On the contrary, Wouters' memo goes on to praise the CBC's advertising and marketing decisions.
"In absolute and relative terms, the CBC/RC is reaching more Canadians across more platforms than at any time in their history," says the memo.
"One of the key factors contributing to this strong performance has been an effective approach to advertising and marketing."
The Canadian Press story noted the memo contrasts sharply with the grilling Lacroix received around the same time from a Commons committee reviewing Peladeau's allegations.
Harper's spokesman would not comment on the dispute.
"The government does, however, expect CBC/Radio-Canada to operate in an impartial and transparent manner when using taxpayer funds," said Andrew MacDougall.
However, Quebecor corporate affairs vice-president Serge Sasseville said he was "very surprised" by what the memo says, adding Harper's officials never contacted the company for information.
Lacroix told the Toronto Star's editorial board recently that he doesn't believe Quebecor and Harper's Conservatives have ganged up on the CBC.
"We had the idea of sending them a bill … we've given them a lot of content," Lacroix joked.
Lacroix presented a survey detailing the extent of Sun Media's negative coverage of the CBC since September 2009. It spiked dramatically in December 2010, when its Sun News TV network began operating
- Friday, February 17, 2012 at 14:56:03 (PST)
Right-wingers are less intelligent than left-wingers: Brock University Study.
MetroTube-Cite News.
Controversial Brock University study looks at political views and intelligence.
Do you tend to vote for right-wing parties in elections? If the answer is yes, you should probably look away now.
A Canadian study out of Brock University, Ontario, is receiving a lot of international attention for saying that right-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and that people with low childhood intelligence grow up to be racist and hold anti-gay views.
The authors of the study published in Psychological Science claim that people with low intelligence tend to gravitate towards ring-wing views because they make them feel safe. In fact the academics also suggest that conservative politics serve as a ‘gateway’ into prejudice against others.
The research analyzed more than 15,000 people from two studies conducted in 1958 and 1970. Children were assessed for intelligence at the age of 10 and 11, and then the same group was asked political questions when they turned 33 to form a correlation between smartness and political views. In adulthood these people were asked whether they agreed with statements such as “I wouldn’t mind working with people from other races,” or “I wouldn’t mind if a family of different race moved next door.”
Apparently social status plays no part in this study and neither does education. The findings say that only innate intelligence is a factor into conservatism.
As expected, this study is causing quite a stir both at home and internationally.
- Monday, February 06, 2012 at 13:53:53 (PST)
You might as well give your son a ticket to Hell than a five-string banjo. --Unknown Minister
- Thursday, February 02, 2012 at 11:00:40 (PST)
Glad to see people still visit here :)
- Monday, January 16, 2012 at 19:40:10 (PST)
Classic album covers - with those who have passed photoshopped out.
http://liveiseedeadpeoples.tumblr.com/
- Saturday, January 07, 2012 at 10:46:28 (PST)
An amazing English Poem. My town library rocks!
Jeff Kelley.
The Battle of Maldon.
Translated from the Anglo-Saxon by Wilfrid Berridge
Part I
BRITHNOTH DECIDES TO FIGHT
Then he ordered each of his warriors his horse to loose
Far off to send it and forth to go,
To be mindful of his hands and of his high heart.
Then did Offa's Kinsman first know
That the earl would not brook cowardice,
Loosed he from his hands his darling to fly,
His Hawk to the wood, and to the battle strode.
From that one could tell that the chieftain would never
Weaken in the warfare - when he his weapons seized.
And after him Edric chose his chief to follow,
His friend in the fight - then 'gan he forth to bear
The spear to the strife - high spirit had he,
So long as he with his hands to hold was able
His buckler and broadsword; his boast he fulfilled
That he by his friend's side should fight.
BRITHNOTH PREPARES HIS ARRAY
Then did Brithnoth begin his men to bestow -
He rode up and counselled them - his soldiers he taught
How they should stand, and their standing to keep,
And bade them their round shields rightly to hold
Fast to their forearms, that they flinch not at all.
And when he had his folk fairly bestowed
He lighted there with his people, where he would liefest be
Where he knew his own troops were most to be trusted.
THE VIKINGS PARLEY
Then stood forth on the strand and sternly spake
The messenger of the Vikings, delivered his tidings;
He boastfully spoke, for the seafarers
Their sentence to the earl, where he stood on the shore.
"They sent me to thee, those bold seamen,
And bade me to say that thou must send swiftly
Ring-money for pledges. For you were it better
That you buy off this spear-rush with your tax,
Than that we should have so hard a battle.
What need we to vex us, if you will agree?
We will for this gold a sure compact make
If thou wilt agree to it - thou that art strongest.
If that thou be willing thy people to redeem,
To yield to the seamen at their own choice
Tribute for a truce, and so take peace of us,
Then will we with the tax to ship betake us
To sail on the sea - and hold truce with you.
Brithnoth made answer - his buckler he grasped,
Brandished his slender spear - and spoke.
"Hearest thou, sea-robber, what this people say?
For tribute they're ready to give you their spears,
The edge poison-bitter, and the ancient sword.
War-gear that will bring you no profit in the fight.
Thou messenger of the seamen, back with thy message.
Tell to thy people, these far more hateful tidings,
There stands here a good earl in the midst of his men,
Who will this country ever defend,
The kingdom of Aethelred, mine overlord,
The folk and the ground - but they shall fall,
The foemen in the fight; too shameful methinks
That ye with our tribute, to ship should be gone
Without a blow struck - now that ye have thus far
Made your incoming into our land.
Nor shall ye so softly carry off our riches.
Sooner shall point and edge reconcile us,
Grim warplay indeed - before we give tribute."
Bade he then to bear the shields, the warriors to go,
So that they on the river's bank all stood.
THE TIDE DELAYS THE FIGHTING
Nor could for the water, the army come at the other,
For there came flowing, flood after ebb;
Locked were the ocean-streams, and too long it seemed
Until they together might carry their spears.
There by Panta's stream in array they bestood,
Essex men's rank, and the men from the ships,
Nor might any one of them injure the other
Except where from arrow's flight one had his death.
The flood went out - the pirates stood ready.
Full many of the Vikings, eager for battle.
BRITHNOTH SETS A GUARD OVER THE FORD
Then bade the men's saviour, one to hold the bridge,
A warrior war-hardened, that was Wulfstan hight1,
Courageous mid his kin - he was Ceola's son,
Who the first foeman with his spear did fell
That bravest stepped forth upon the bridge.
There stood with Wulfstan warriors goodly
Aelfere and Maccus, high hearted both,
That never at the ford would turn them to flight,
But they steadfastly 'gainst their foes made defence,
While their weapons to wield they were able.
THE VIKINGS ARE BAULKED
When they saw that, and keenly espied
That bitter bridge-guardians there they met
Then began they to feign - those loathed guests -
And begged that they might some foothold get,
To fare over the ford - the foemen to lead.
BRITHNOTH ALLOWS THE VIKINGS TO CROSS
Then did the earl, in his overweening heart
Lend land too much to that loathed people.
Then 'gan he call out - across the cold water
Brighthelm's son, and all the band listened.
"Now room is meted you, come swiftly to us,
Warriors to war. Only God knows
Who at the end shall possess this fight's field".
Then went the war wolves - for water they recked not.
The troop of the pirates, west over Panta.
Over the shining water they carried their shields
Seamen to the shore, their bucklers they shouldered.
There against the raiders ready stood
Brithnoth with his band, and with the bucklers bade
Form the shield wall, and make firm the ranks
Fast against the foes. Then was fighting nigh,
Fame in the fight - now was the hour come
When that the feymen2 must fall.
1 ‘hight’ = archaic, literary word meaning ‘named’ or ‘called’
2 ‘feymen’ = ‘doomed men’ destined to die in the battle
Best Scrooge film is the 1951 British (black and white) version of Scrooge. It's directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. Starring Alastair Sim, Hermione Baddeley, Kathleen Harrison. An old bitter miser is given a chance for redemption when he is haunted by ghosts on the eve of Yuletide. John Elwes is the closest real Scrooge, from Dicken's notes.
- Friday, December 09, 2011 at 19:26:49 (PST)
David Gehue Mi'kmaq: O Great Spirit, we give you thanks today for the gift of life you have given all of us. We come here today to give a message to our white brothers and sisters so they will hear the cry of Mother Earth, they will hear the cry of the children, they will hear the cry of the animals, they will hear the cry of our indigenous people. Please help us and listen. Hau.
LeeAnne
- Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 12:03:13 (PST)
Hell Broke Luce.
Tom Waits
I had a good home but I left,
I had a good home but I left, right, left,
That big fucking bomb made me deaf, deaf,
A Humvee mechanic with his Kevlar on wrong,
Guarantee a meetup with a suicide bomb,
And hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,
Dig fucking ditches in the middle of the road,
You pay a hundred dollars just for filling in the hole,
Listen to the general every goddamn word,
How many ways can you polish up a turd,
And left, right,
Left, left, right,
Left, right,
Hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,
Now we are not the only ones responsible for making this mess,
Got their sorry asses stapled to a goddamn desk,
And hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,
Left, right, left,
What did you do before the war,
I was a chef, I was a chef,
And what was the name it was Jeff, Jeff
I lost a buddy in Iraq, raq
I come down from the meth,
So I slept, slept,
I had a good home but I left, left,
Pants to the wind for a joke,
I passed right in with a goat,
Glanced at her shins she said nope, hope,
Left, right, left,
Nimrod Bobfish have you any wool,
Get me another body bag, the body bag's full,
My face was scars, scars,
I miss my home, I miss my porch, porch,
Left, right, left,
Can I go home and march, march?
My stance is a chin full of soap,
And rancid dinner with the pope,
And left, right, left,
Kelly Prezoa got his sons aloft,
Sergio's developing a real bad cough,
Sergio's developing a real bad cough,
And hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,
Boom went his head away and boom went Bowery,
What the hell was it that the president said?
Give them all a beautiful parade instead,
And left, right, left,
Well I was over here, America, to cope,
I left my arm in my coat,
My mum she died in a rote,
Set by the fire in her coat,
Just before he died he had a toke,
Now I'm home,
And I'm blind,
And I'm broke,
What is next?
Yes, maybe the love and care of the State.
- Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 06:52:03 (PDT)
Insurance companies are legal thieves. You have to fight them every inch of the way with lawyers and consequently insurance companies do this on purpose so they do not have to pay because most people give up in frustration and despair. It is a horrible ugly game they play considering you pay for a health plan and then the first time you use it, they screw you and then you pay with what is left of your health.
- Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 07:48:42 (PDT)
Insurance companies are legal thieves. You have to fight them every inch of the way with lawyers and consequently insurance companies do this on purpose so they do not have to pay because most people give up in frustration and despair. It is a horrible ugly game they play considering you pay for a health plan and then the first time you use it, they screw you and the you pay with what is left of your health.
- Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 07:48:07 (PDT)
Insurance companies are legal thieves. You have to fight them every inch of the way with lawyers and consequently insurance companies do this on purpose so they do not have to pay because most people give up in frustration and despair. It is a horrible ugly game they play considering you pay for a health plan and then the first time you use it, they screw you and the you pay with what is left of your health.
Texas Conservatives reject Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Omnibus Crime package Bill C-10.
Conservatives in the United States' toughest crime-fighting jurisdiction — Texas — say the Harper government's crime strategy won't work.
"You will spend billions and billions and billions on locking people up," says Judge John Creuzot of the Dallas County Court. "And there will come a point in time where the public says, 'Enough!' And you'll wind up letting them out."
Adds Rep. Jerry Madden, a conservative Republican who heads the Texas House Committee on Corrections, "It's a very expensive thing to build new prisons and, if you build 'em, I guarantee you they will come. They'll be filled, OK? Because people will send them there.
"But, if you don't build 'em, they will come up with very creative things to do that keep the community safe and yet still do the incarceration necessary."
These comments are in line with a coalition of experts in Washington, DC, who attacked the Harper government's omnibus crime package, Bill C-10, in a statement Monday.
"Republican governors and state legislators in such states of Texas, South Carolina, and Ohio are repealing mandatory minimum sentences, increasing opportunities for effective community supervision, and funding drug treatment because they know it will improve public safety and reduce taxpayer costs," said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute.
"If passed, C-10 will take Canadian justice policies 180-degrees in the wrong direction, and Canadian citizens will bear the costs."
On a recent trip to Texas, an array of conservative voices told CBC News that Texas tried what Canada plans to do – and it failed.
As recently as 2004, Texas had the highest incarceration rate in the world, with fully one in 20 of its adult residents behind bars or on parole or probation. The Lone Star state still has the death penalty, with more than 300 prisoners on death row today. But for three decades, as crime rates fell all over the U.S., the rate in Texas fell at only half the national average.
That didn't change the policy — but its cost did.
Faced with a budget crisis in 2005, the Texas statehouse was handed an estimate of $2 billion to build new prisons for a predicted influx of new prisoners.
They told Rep. Madden to find a way out. He and his committee dug into the facts. Did all those new prisoners really need to go to jail? And did all of those already behind bars really need to be there?
Madden's answer was, no. He found that Texas had diverted money from treatment and probation services to building prisons. But sending people to prison was costing 10 times as much as putting them on probation, on parole, or in treatment.
"I was kinda silly, what we were doing," says Madden. Then, he discovered that drug treatment wasn't just cheaper — it cut crime much more effectively than prison.
That was the moment, he says, when he knew: "My colleagues are gonna understand this. The public is gonna understand this…The public will be safer and we will spend less money!"
His colleagues agreed. Texas just said no to the new prisons.
Instead, over the next few years, it spent a fraction of the $2 billion those prisons would have cost — about $300 million — to beef up drug treatment programs, mental health centres, probation services and community supervision for prisoners out on parole.
It worked. Costs fell and crime fell, too. Now, word of the Canadian government's crime plan is filtering down to Texas and it's getting bad reviews.
Marc Levin, a lawyer with an anti-tax group called Right on Crime, argues that building more prisons is a waste of taxpayers' money.
"We've see a double-digit decline in the last few years in Texas, both in our prison incarceration rate and, most importantly in our crime rate," says Levin.
"And the way we've done it is by strengthening some of the alternatives to prison."
The statistics bear him out. According to the Texas Department of Corrections, the rate of incarceration fell 9 per cent between 2005 and 2010. In the same period, according to the FBI, the crime rate in Texas fell by 12.8 per cent.
By contrast, Levin says, the Canadian government has increased the prison budget sharply, even though crime in Canada is down to its lowest level since 1973.
In fact, federal spending on corrections in Canada has gone up from $1.6 billion in 2005-06, when Stephen Harper's Conservatives took power, to $2.98 billion in 2010-1011. That's an increase of 86 per cent. Soon, it will double.
The Harper government has already increased prison sentences by scrapping the two-for-one credit for time served waiting for trial. Bill C-10 would add new and longer sentences for drug offences, increase mandatory minimums and cut the use of conditional sentences such as house arrest.
In each case, Texas is doing the opposite.
So are several other states — egged on by a group of hardline conservatives who have joined the Right on Crime movement. These include Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the tax-fighter Grover Norquist and the former Attorney General for President Ronald Reagan, Ed Meese.
That's not a list of liberals. Marc Levin says Canada is out of step with the best conservative thinking south of the border.
"We've seen in the United States, states and conservative leaders moving in a much different direction than the Conservative Party is saying in Canada," he says.
"I think the conservative thing to do is to be cost-effective and to hold offenders accountable. And, frankly, for many of them, they go to prison, they don't pay child support, they don't have to work in the private sector, they don't pay restitution — I don't believe that's holding people accountable."
What Levin means by accountability is what happens at Judge John Creuzot's drug court in Dallas.
Thieves, drug addicts and drunk drivers must file into Creuzot's courtroom each week as a condition of their sentences. They're on probation with the threat of prison hanging over them. They must prove they are keeping up with their drug treatment.
Judge Creuzot cajoles, threatens and lectures them to stick with the program - but he also rewards them when they succeed. If they graduate from treatment, clean and sober, he holds an awards ceremony in his courtroom. Then, he gives them a big, back-slapping Texas hug.
"Congratulations, bro!" he says as he wraps his arms around a hulking ex-addict. "Proud of ya!" he says as he hugs another and places a medal around her neck.
Hugs? From a judge in the state that gave us chain gangs?
It's not your father's Texas. But Judge Creuzot isn't all hugs. He renders a blunt verdict when he is asked what's wrong with the Harper government's plan to get criminals off Canadian streets.
"Nothing, if you don't mind spending a lot of money locking people up and seeing your crime rate go up! Nothing wrong with it at all!"
Creuzot says prison just doesn't work as well as the less expensive methods he uses — because, one way or another, drugs and alcohol lie at the root of 80 per cent of crimes.
"What we've learned," he says, "is that if you deal with those underlying issues with the proper assessments up front, doing that before you make a sentencing decision … and you fund programs that will deal with that on a long-term basis, that you avoid sending thousands of people to prison."
But isn't all the treatment expensive?
"It's less expensive!" Creuzot snaps. "We had a university do a cost-benefit analysis. And every dollar we spend is worth $9 and 34 cents in avoided criminal justice costs."
Other studies in Texas agree that treatment and probation services cost about one tenth of what it costs to build and run prisons. Besides that, offenders emerge much less likely to commit fresh crimes than those with similar records who go to prison.
At Phoenix House, a drug treatment centre in Wilmer, just south of Dallas, Dr. Teresa May-Williams is a forensic psychologist, paid to assess the risk of letting offenders out on parole or in treatment. She's found that prison is even riskier.
"We can't ignore the fact that our ‘tough on crime' stance that puts a person in prison and assumes that their drug problem will somehow magically disappear while they're incarcerated and they'll never get out again and offend, is ridiculous!" she says.
Dr. May-Williams says most offenders with drug or alcohol problems quickly resume their criminal lifestyle when they get out of prison.
"The data showed that 60 per cent of those individuals will be out and committing a new crime in, on average, about 11 months."
That's four times the rate of those who go through her six-month program instead.
"A big focus of it is getting their drug problem under control," she says, "and then beginning to work on education, job training, getting them employed, getting them focused on becoming a tax payer rather than a tax user. The recidivism rate for probation, the same kind of offender, is somewhere around 15-16 per cent."
Equally striking is that even the hardest cases can respond to court-ordered treatment.
Kathryn Griffin, by her own account, was a "hopeless" case.
Loquacious, loud and candid, Griffin had six felonies on her record — for drug possession and prostitution — so she was facing 35 years to life in jail when she came to court in Dallas, yet again.
"I'm a person who had a $30,000 a month cocaine habit for 22 years!" she says. But, "I am totally clean and sober today."
And she's stayed clean for eight years — because, she says, she was a "guinea pig" in what was, back then, a new experiment: drug court.
The judge gave her a choice: get clean in drug treatment or flunk out — and die in prison.
She made it. Now, she has a job counselling street prostitutes, pays taxes and tells anyone who will listen that Texas, too, has changed its ways.
"What I like about this state and our government is they are willing to listen, look, study, learn and see results."
Left, right and middle-of-the-road Texans are recommending that Canada do the same — and the Conservatives most of all.
_________________________________________________
Texoma Hamarama hamfest, forum, swap meet, expo and numerous ham radio vendors.
The 2011 West Gulf Division Convention.
Start Date: 10/21/2011
End Date: 10/22/2011
Location: Ardmore Convention Center
2401 North Rockford Road
Ardmore, OK 73401
Sponsor: Texoma Hamarama Committee
Talk-In: 146.970 PL 131.8
Contact Name: Henry Allen , W5TYD
- Saturday, October 01, 2011 at 20:34:12 (PDT)
For George Harvie from Lee Williams. Have a good one.
Osā'kiwŭg - Muskwakiwuk histories:
Sauk ( Osā'kiwŭg, 'people of the outlet,' or, possibly, 'people of the yellow earth,' in contradistinction from the Muskwakiwuk, 'Red Earth People', a name of the Foxes).
One of a number of Algonquian tribes whose earliest known habitat was embraced within the eastern peninsula of Michigan, the other tribes being the Potawatomi, the "Nation of the Fork," and probably the famous Mascoutens and the Foxes. The present name of Saginaw Bay (Sāginā'we’, signifying 'the country or place of the Sauk') is apparently derived from the ethnic appellative Sauk. There is presumptive evidence that the Sauk, with the tribes mentioned above, were first known to Europeans under the general ethnic term "Gens de Feu" or that of "Asistagueronon," the latter being the Huron translation of the specific name Potawatomi.
Both the terms in question being first recorded by Champlain and Sagard. In 1616 Champlain, while in what is now Ontario, learned from the Tionontati, or Tobacco Nation, that their kindred, the Neutral Nation, aided the Ottawa (Cheueux releuez) in waging war against the Gens de Fen, i. e. 'People of the Fire,' and that the Ottawa carried on a warfare against "another nation of savages who were called Asistagueronon, which is to say, 'People of the Place of the Fire,"' who were distant from the Ottawa 10 days' journey; and lastly, in more fully describing the country, manners, and customs of the Ottawa, he added, "In the first place, they wage war against another nation of savages who are called Asistagueronon, which is to say, 'people of the fire,' distant from them 10 days' journey."
He supplemented this statement with the remark that "they pressed me strongly to assist them against their enemies, who are on the shore of the Mer Douce [Lake Huron], distant 200 leagues." Sagard, who was in Canada during the years 1623-26, wrote in his Histoire du Canada (I, 194, ed. 1866), that the sedentary and the migratory Ottawa together waged war against the Asistagueronon, who were 9 or 10 days' journey by canoe from the Ottawa, a distance which he estimated at "about 200 leagues and more of travel."
Before the Sauk became known as an independent tribe, it is evident that they formed a part of this group of important Algonquian communities, which was called by the Hurons and cognate peoples "Asistagueronon," and by the French, "Nation or People of the Fire," a translation of the former appellative. In order therefore to understand clearly the ethnic relations of the Sauk, it will be necessary to review the earliest known facts relating to this interesting group of tribes.
So far as known, the Sauk were first mentioned independently in the Jesuit Relation for 1640 (35, ed. 1858) under the generic Huron name Hvattoehronon, i. e. 'people of the sunset,' or briefly, 'westerners.' They were here mentioned among a number of other tribes along with the Foxes (Skenchiohronon), the Potawatomi (Attistaehronon), the Kickapoo (Ontarahronon, `lake people'), the Mascoutens (Oherokouaehronon, 'people of the place of grass'), the Winnebago (Aoueatsiouaenhronon, 'saline or brackish water people'), and the Crane band of the Miami (Attochingochronon). The following citations from the Jesuit Relations embody some of the evidence that the Sauk, the Potawatomi (q. v.), and the Nation of the Fork, were generally comprised in the Huron ethnic appellative Asistagueronon, i. e. 'People of the Place of Fire,' which is the literal signification of the tribal name Potawatomi.
Rev. Father Allouez, the first person to describe the Sauk, wrote in 1667 that they were more savage than all the other peoples he had met; that they were a populous tribe, although they had no fixed dwelling place, being wanderers and vagabonds in the forests. He was told that if they or the Foxes found a person in an isolated place they would kill him, especially if he were a Frenchman, for they could not endure the sight of the whiskers of the European.
Yet, two years later he reported that the first place in which he began to give religious instruction was in a village of the "Ousaki," situated at the DePere Rapids, Wis., wherein he found several tribes in winter quarters, namely, the "Ousaki, the Pouteouatami, the Outagami [Foxes], and the Ovenibigoutz [Winnebago] about 600 souls." Allouez adds that a league and a half away there was another village of about 150 persons; that at 4 leagues farther away there was another of about 100 persons; that at 8 leagues away there was another of about 300 persons, situated on the opposite side of the bay; that at 25 leagues, at a place called Ouestatinong, dwelt the Foxes, and that at a day's journey from this tribe dwelt the Makskouteng [Mascoutens, and the Oumami [Miami], the latter being reputed to be a band of the Illinois. The Indians of this region, the Father reported, were "more barbarous than usual," having no ingenuity, not knowing even how "to make a bark dish or a ladle," using shells instead.
In the Jesuit Relation for 1658 (21, ed. 1858) Father Ragueneau reported what he had learned concerning the upper lake tribes from Father Bruillettes, a skilful and accomplished Huron and Algonquian linguist, who in listing these tribes used to some extent the knowledge of these communities obtained by Radisson and Groseilliers, who had then but recently discovered and visited a number of them. In the descriptive list of these tribes cited by Father Ragueneau, the following statements are pertinent here: "The third nation is distant about 3 days' journey by water from the town of St Michel, going inland. It is composed of the Makoutensak and the Outitchakouk [i. e. the Crane Miami].
The two Frenchmen [probably Radisson and Groseilliers] who have traveled in those countries say that these people are of a very mild nature." "The fourteenth nation has 30 towns, inhabited by the Atsistagherronnons. They are southwest a quarter south at 6 or 7 days' journey from St Michel. The Onondaga have recently declared war against them." This is presumptive evidence from seemingly competent authority that the ethnic names Mascoutens and Atsistagherronnons were not in 1658 by any means synonymous or convertible epithets, and that therefore the peoples designated by them were not identical.
This confusion as to names in question persisted until about 1671, as the following citations will show. In the Jesuit Relation for 1670 (99, ed. 1858) Father Allouez stated that "We entered the river which leads to the Machkoutench, called Assista Ectaeronnons, Nation of the Fire, by the Hurons"; but in the Relation for the following year (p. 45) Father Allouez stated that "The Nation of the Fire bears this name by an error, properly calling themselves Maskoutench, which signifies a land cleared of trees, such as is that which these people inhabit; but because by the change of a few letters which one makes, this same word signifies fire, it follows that one calls them the Nation of the Fire."
There is in each of these statements an error which was due directly to the process of the gradual elimination of tribes becoming known from a group of unknown peoples or tribes which bore a generic name "people of the place of fire," derived from the specific name of an important one of these tribes, the Potawatomi (q. v.), whose name signifies literally, 'people of the place of fire.' This confounding of several tribes one with another, and the consequent misapplication of specific and generic names, were made evidently not by the Hurons but by French traders and missionaries.
In the Jesuit Relation for 1671 (25, ed. 1858) Father Dablon, speaking of Green Bay, Wisconsin, wrote that the Menominee, the Sauk, the Potawatomi, and other neighboring tribes, "being driven from their own countries, which are the lands southward near Missilimakinac, have taken refuge at the head of this bay, beyond which one can see inland the 'Nation of the Fire,' or Mathkoutench, with one of the Illinois tribes called Oumiami, and the Foxes."
And in the same Relation (p. 37), he said: "The three nations who are now in the bay of the Winnebago as strangers resided on the mainland which is south of this island [i. e. Missilimakinac] some on the shores of the Lake of the Illinois [i. e. Michigan], others on those of the Lake of the Hurons. A part of those who call themselves Salteurs [Chippewa] possessed lands on the mainland toward the west.
Four villages of the Ottawa also had their lands in these quarters, but especially those who bore the name of the island, calling themselves Missilimakinac, and who were so numerous that some of those who are still living [1670] assert that they composed 30 villages, and that they had enclosed themselves in a fort a league and a half in circuit, when the Iroquois, flushed with a victory gained over 3,000 men of this tribe who had carried the war even into the country of the Mohawk, came to defeat them."
Further (p. 42), the Father relates: "Four nations make their abode here, namely, those who hear the name Puants [i. e., the Winnebago], who have always lived here, as it were, in their own country, and who, having been defeated by the Illinois, their enemies, have been reduced from a very flourishing and populous people to nothing; the Potawatomi, the Sauk, and the Nation of the Fork (de la Fourche) also live here, but as strangers, the fear of the Iroquois having driven them from their lands, which are between the Lake of the Hurons and that of the Illinois."
There can be little if any doubt that in these citations the names "Iroquois" and "Mohawk" should be replaced by "Neuters," who to these fugitive tribes were known also as 'Nadō'weg' (see Nadowa); otherwise established facts are contravened by these statements, and it has already been shown that the "Neutre Nation" aided the Ottawa against the tribes on the shores of Lake Huron.
The foregoing quotations make it evident that the Potawatomi, the Sauk, and the 'Nation of the Fork' were included in the Asistagueronon of Champlain and Sagard, represented by them as dwelling in 1616 on the western shore lands of Lake Huron and farther westward. Thus far no evidence has been adduced to show that Mascoutens and Asistagueronon were at first convertible or synonymous appellatives.
Further, Father Dablon, in the Jesuit Relation for 1670 (79, ed. 1858), said with reference to the Sault Sainte Marie: "The first and native inhabitants of this place are those who call themselves Pahouiting8ach Irini, whom the French name Saulteurs, because these are they who dwell at the Sault, as in their own country, the others being there only by adoption; they number only 150 souls, but they have united with three other tribes, who number more than 550 persons, to whom they have made a cession of the rights of their native country; they also reside there fixedly, except during the time in which they go to hunt. Those whom one calls the Nouquet range forth purpose southward of Lake Superior, when they came originally, and the Outchibo [Chippewa] with the Marameg, north ward of the same lake, which they regard as their own proper country."
From the Jesuit Relation for 1644 it is learned that the long struggle between the so-called "Neutral Nation" and the "Nation du Feu" at that time was still maintained with unabated fury. Father Jerome Lallemant (Jes. Rel. 1644, 98, ed. 1858) states that in the summer of 1642 the Neuters with a force of 2,000 warriors advanced into the country of the "Nation du Feu" and attacked a town of this tribe which was strongly defended by palisades and manned by 900 resolute warriors; that these patriots withstood the assaults of the besiegers for 10 days, but that at the end of this time the devoted place was carried. Many of its defenders were killed on the spot, and 800 captives-men, women, and children were taken; and 70 of the best warriors among the prisoners were burned at the stake, the, merciless victors putting out the eyes and cutting away the lips of all the old men and leaving them thus to die miserably.
The Father adds the interesting statement that "this Nation of the Fire is more populous than all the Neutral Nation, all the Hurons, and all the Iroquois, enemies of the Hurons, put together; it consists of a large number of villages wherein the Algonquin language is spoken." This last citation is further proof that the term "Fire Nation," or "Nation of the Place of Fire," at that period was applied in a broad general sense rather than in a specific one. Apparently it embraced all the tribes formerly dwelling in the eastern peninsula of the present state of Michigan, and later removed to the north and west shores of the present Lake Michigan, and still later it embraced some of the Illinois tribes.
From the Jesuit Relation for 1642, (97,ed.1858) it is learned that the Saulteurs informed the Jesuit fathers that "a certain tribe more distant [than the Sault Sainte Marie from the Huron mission], which they call Pouteatami, had abandoned its country and had come to take refuge with the inhabitants of the Sault to escape from some other hostile tribe that vexes them with ceaseless wars." This shows that the Potawatomi were then westward from the home of the Saulteurs, and that their emigration from the Michigan peninsula was not then of many years' standing.
It has been shown from historical data that for a long period before 1651 the Neuters and the Ottawa together waged bitter warfare against a group of tribes which became known to the French writers as Gens de Feu, or 'People of the Fire,' and as Asistagueronon, or 'People of the Place of Fire,' and later as the Mascoutens, by an error, the last name meaning, as an appellative, `People Dwelling in Small Prairies.' There is no known historical data showing that, during the time that the Ottawa and the Neuters occupied the peninsula north of Lake Erie, the Iroquois, specifically so called, carried on any warlike operations against tribes dwelling westward of the two just mentioned.
The fact is that the name Nadoweg, or Nadō'weg, was a general name of hateful significance which was applied by Algonquian tribes generally to any people of Iroquoian stock, as the Neuters, the Tionontati, and the Hurons. Now, inasmuch as the Neuters with their allies, the Ottawa, encountered their enemies on the western "shores" of Lake Huron, i. e., in the present Michigan peninsula, and as it is known that as late as 1642 the Neuters sent into this region a force of 2,000 warriors which destroyed a stronghold of their enemies, it can be said with propriety that the Algonquian tribes formerly inhabiting the peninsula were driven there from by the Nadō'weg, meaning, conclusively it would seem, the Neuters, but understood by the French missionaries and writers to signify the "Iroquois," properly so called.
Hence, the confusion regarding the invaders who drove out the tribes formerly dwelling westward of Lake Huron. But it is also true that after the total defeat of the Neuters in 1651 by the "true" Iroquois, or League of Five Nations, these latter tribes came in touch at once with the tribes which had been at war against the Neuters, and in some cases naturally the Iroquois inherited the quarrels of the Neuters. The Iroquois proper did not, therefore, drive out the Potawatomi, the Sauk, the Foxes, and the other fugitive tribes from their ancient territories west of Lake Huron, for the Potawatomi were in Wisconsin as early as 1634, when Nicolet found them there. It was nearly 20 years later that the "true" Iroquois advanced into the lake region in pursuit of the Hurons, the Tionontati, and the Neuter fugitives, fleeing from the ruins of their towns and homes.
It seems clear that the tribes of the Algonquian stock formerly inhabiting the northern peninsula of Michigan were driven out by the Neuters and the Ottawa, their allies. It is erroneous to assume that the fugitive tribes retreated first southward and then westward around the southern end of Lake Michigan, directly across rather than directly away from the line of attack from the north along Detroit and St Clair rivers. It is learned from Perrot that the Neuters occupied Detroit river.
Most Indians who have been forced to retire from a battlefield or from their homes have shown that they were past-masters in the art of eluding a pursuing foe, and it has not been shown that the Sauk, the Potawatomi, the Rasawakoueton or Fork tribe, and their allies, were devoid of this characteristic trait. It is not probable, therefore, that the Sauk, starting from the shores of Saginaw bay, deliberately exposed their flank and rear to the direct attacks of the Neuters over a march exceeding 300 miles. The more probable course of the retreat of the Sauk and their allies from the Michigan peninsula was evidently northwestward across Mackinaw straits into northern Michigan, thence westward to the region around Green Bay and Fox river, where they were first found by the early French explorers.
From the Jesuit Relation for 1666-67 it is learned that bands of the Sauk and Foxes were dwelling in the vicinity of Shaugawaumikong (La Pointe) and that Father Allouez preached to them and baptized some of their children.
During 1671-72 the expatriated Hurons, composed largely of the Tionontati and the (Black) Squirrel band of the Ottawa (Sinagos), having perfected preparations, together marched against the Sioux, who were at peace with them. On their way they succeeded in corrupting the Sauk with presents, and the Foxes and Potawatomi also were induced to join the expedition. The united tribes mustered about 1,000 warriors for this raid, nearly all of whom were armed with guns and provided with ammunition which the first two tribes had obtained in Montreal during the previous year. As a precautionary measure they had moved their villages back to Michilimackinac and Manitoulin Island. As soon as this force reached the Sioux country, it fell upon some small villages, putting the men to flight and capturing the women and children.
Fugitives soon spread the alarm in all the allied villages of the Sioux, whence issued swarms of warriors who attacked the enemy so vigorously that the latter were forced to abandon a fort which they had commenced to erect and to flee in consternation. The Sioux pursued them so closely that they were enabled to kill many of the fugitives, some of whom threw away their arms to expedite their flight. These losses and those caused by hunger and the rigor of the weather resulted in the practical annihilation of the allies; the Foxes, the Kiskakon, and the Potawatomi, being less inured to the stress of warfare than the others, did not lose many warriors on this occasion, because they fled at the beginning of the combat.
The Hurons, the Squirrel band of the Ottawa, and the Sauk, however, distinguished themselves by their courage and prowess, and by their stubborn resistance materially aided the others in making their escape. In the retreat, which was turned to a rout by the furious pursuit of the Sioux, the confusion became so great that many of the fugitives, driven by privation and hunger, were compelled to eat one another. The chief of the Squirrel band of the Ottawa was captured by the Sioux and condemned to torture by fire. They broiled pieces of his flesh and forced him to eat them. He and his brother-in-law, the Sauk chief, were thus fed until their death at the stake. The rest of the prisoners were shot to death with arrows.
Bacqueville de 1a Potherie says that in 1665-66 the Potawatomi took the southern, the Sauk the northern, part of Green Bay, and the Winnebago, who were not fishermen, went into the forest to live on venison and bear meat. In the spring the Foxes notified the Sauk that they had established themselves in quarters 30 leagues from the bay, forming a settlement of about 600 lodges. The French, for prudent reasons, left to the Sauk the trade in peltries with the Foxes, since they could the more quietly deal with the Sauk in the autumn.
In 1721 the Sauk were still resident at Green Bay, but owing to growing difficulties with the Foxes, they were on the point of removing to the St Joseph river. At this time their village was situated on the left bank of Fox river, near its mouth. Although consisting only of a small number of persons at this period, the Sauk had separated into two factions, of which one was attached to the Foxes and the other to the Potawatomi and the French. It was these latter who constituted the bulk of the village mentioned above.
In 1725 the Sauk, in sympathy with the Foxes and the Sioux, were preparing to attack the Illinois. According to a letter of Beauharnois, dated July 21, 1729 (Wis. Hist. Coll., xvii, 63), the Sauk and the Potawatomi of St Joseph river, along with the Ottawa and the Chippewa of Michilimackinac, the Miami, Wea, and Hurons, together with the Potawatomi and Ottawa of Detroit, went to Montreal to inform him what had occurred concerning the Foxes, against whom they were then at war, and to learn what he desired them to do further.
The Sauk, whose village was situated probably on the west side of Fox river, near the site of the present city of Green Bay, Wis., gave in 1733 asylum to some refugee Foxes. When the Sieur De Villiers, the younger, attempted after a formal demand for the surrender of the Foxes by the Sauk to take them by force, the Sauk resisted and killed De Villiers and Monsieur De Repentigny and several other Frenchmen, thus repulsing the detachment of French and Indian allies. Three days later the Sauk evacuated their fort by night. They were pursued by the French and their Indian allies, the Ottawa, the Menominee, and the Chippewa under the ensign, the Sieur De Villiers, who overtook the Sauk and the Foxes probably at what is now called Little Butte des Morts, near the present Appleton. De Villiers at once attacked the Sauk, and after several hours of fighting defeated them. The Sauk lost 20, the Foxes 9, and among the injured 9 others were mortally wounded. Among the French 13 officers and men were wounded and 2 were killed; the Ottawa lost 9 men, including their head chief; the Chippewa loss was 2 killed and 4 wounded.
The Marquis de Beauharnois, the governor of Canada, at once gave orders to attack the Sauk and the remaining Foxes to avenge the shedding of French blood. The death of De Villiers, who was the victor at LeRocher in 1730, led to two important events, first, the close confederation of the Sauk and the Foxes, and second, the removal of the united tribes from the territory of Wisconsin to the land of the Iowa, west of the Mississippi. Previous to the events leading up to this migration the Sauk had ostensibly been allies of the French, even taking part in the war against the Foxes, but they had nevertheless clandestinely given aid and comfort to the devoted Foxes. From this period the united tribes became known as the Sauk and Foxes.
In 1777 the Spanish authorities at San Luis de Ylinneses knew the Sauk as one of the tribes that came from the English district "to receive presents at this post; that they had 400 warriors, and that they were kindly disposed toward the Spanish," for although "frequent bands" had visited "this village," they had caused no trouble. In 1780 Francisco Cruzat, a Spanish officer, wrote to Governor Bernardo Galvez, of Louisiana, that he had caused the Sauk to surrender to him two English banners and thirteen medals which they desired to be replaced with Spanish medals. Cruzat accordingly afterward made the exchange in order that he might "content said chiefs."
In the instructions for the Spanish Governor of St Louis, dated Feb. 15, 1781 (Wis. Hist. Coll., xviii, 419, 1908), the writer thereof said: "I believe it is excellent for Your Grace to have distinguished the zeal and affection of the Sac tribe who have so generously lent to our district in circumstances of so little advantage [to them].
On this occasion, 16 medals are sent and 10 flags with 16 letters patent which Your Grace is to distribute among the chiefs of the Sac tribe, who, according to Your Grace's advice of the 28th of September, surrendered 13 English medals and three banners. I hope that in spite of the great presents which are distributed by the English among these tribes, and notwithstanding the small sum that we have, their hopes will prove empty, even though the [English] governor descend from Michilimakinak, which I doubt. At all events, the zeal, honor, and activity of Your Grace promises me a happy result on our part in their boasted attack on those settlements next Spring. I approve the determination which Your Grace took with the tribes of the Misuri, in making them hand over the two English banners which had been introduced among them.
Chuteau [Chouteau] delivered me the 14 medal, and 5 English flags which Your Grace recovered from the Sac and Pus [Potawatomi] tribes, as I have said, they were replaced on this occasion." These extracts show the good effect of the Spanish policy in restraining the extreme western tribes from following English agents against the American colonists.
Among the tribes of the Illinois country, the Sank in 1769 received presents from the Spaniards. In 1766 Carver found the chief town of the Sauk on Wisconsin river, probably on the site of Prairie du Sac; it consisted of about 90 lodges and 300 warriors.
From the journal of Peter Pond, 177375 (Wis. Hist. Coll., xviii, 335 et seq.), the following citation concerning the habits and customs of the Sauk is made: "These People are Cald Saukeas.
They are of a Good Sise and Well Disposed Les Inclind to tricks and Bad manners than thare Nighbers. Thay will take of the traders Goods on Creadit in the fall for thare youse. In Winter and Except for Axedant thay Pay the Deapt Verey Wel I for Indans I mite have sade Inlitend or Sivelised Indans which are in General made worse by the Operation. Sum of thare Huts are Sixtey feet Long and Contanes Several fammalayes. . . . In the fall of ye Year thay Leave thare Huts and Go into the Woods in Quest of Game and Return in the Spring to thare Huts before Planting time. The Women Rase Grate Crops of Corn, Been, Punkens, Potatoes, Millans and artikels-the Land is Exaleant-and Clear of Wood Sum Distans from the Villeag. Thare [are] Sum Hundred of Inhabitants. Thare amnsments are Singing, Dancing, Smokein, Mateheis, Gaining, Feasting, Drinking, Playing the Slite of Hand, Hunting and thay are fainas in Mageack. Thay are Not Verey Gellas of thare Women. In General the Women find meanes to Grattafv them Selves without Consent of the Men." Pond adds that the Sauk warriors often joined the war parties of neighboring tribes against the Indians on Missouri river and westward; that sometimes they went to the vicinity of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and captured Spanish horses, of which he had seen a large number.
A Sauk band, which later became known as the Missouri River Sauk, had been for some time in the habit of wintering near the post of St Louis on the Missouri. One winter, about 1804, the head-men of this band were drawn into negotiations with government officials at the post. It is an open question if these leaders knew what they were doing.
At any rate the band became a party to negotiations, which in time were to lead to the undoing of the Sauk and Foxes, by which these tribes were to relinquish all claim to territory in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri. The know ledge of what the Missouri River band had done naturally incensed the rest of the people. It was then that the band realized what it had done, but it was too late. Knowing the temper of the people, the band remained away, and it has continued to do so ever since.
The Foxes became so angry with the Sauk for letting one of their bands act for all the people that they began at once to draw away from the Sauk, and in the course of a generation they had moved over into their hunting grounds in Iowa. Other agreements were entered into with the three divisions of these people before the treaty of 1804 was finally carried out. Out of all this, in connection with the general unrest of the tribes of this region, arose the Black Hawk War in 1832. It is customary to lay the cause of this conflict to the refusal of the Sauk to comply with the terms of agreement they had entered into with the Government with reference particularly to the lands on Rock river in Illinois. Be that as it may, the actual fighting between the Sauk and the Government was of a rather feeble character. But the fighting between the Sauk on the one hand and the Sioux, Omaha, and Menominee on the other was extremely severe. These tribes, together with the Potawatomi and Winnebago, had previously sent emissaries to the Sauk urging them on to fight the whites and at the same time promising immediate assistance.
The Potawatomi were the most persistent in this matter; they had prophets in the camp of the Sauk preaching restoration of the old hunting grounds, the return of the game, and the sudden miraculous destruction of the whites; but when hostilities began, their chief, Shabonee (q. v.), was the first to warn the whites against the Sauk. Among the Sauk at this time was an able man of the Thunder clan known to the whites under the name of Black Hawk (q. v. ). who had gained a good record for bravery and leadership in war.
Blacl Hawk was deeply spiritual and patriotic regarding matters of his People. He had fought under Tecumseh and had become imbued with some of the ideas of the great Shawnee. About this man rallied the hostile Sauk. He first tried holding the Sauk in check until he could count on the combined help of the Kickapoo and Foxes, but the fighting got under way before he was ready.
The Sauk were thoroughly beaten, and sought refuge among the Foxes in Iowa. Considerable resentment was felt against the Winnebago for having delivered Black Hawk over to the whites when he had come to them seeking refuge; and the same feeling was entertained toward the Potawatomi for going over to the whites. For some time previous to this trouble there had been intimate relationship between the Sauk and these two tribes. This conflict practically broke the power of the Sauk and Foxes. They united again in Iowa, this time to avenge themselves against the Sioux, Omaha, and Menominee, whom they chastised in lively fashion, but not enough to satisfy their desires.
So constantly harassed were the Sioux that they finally left Iowa altogether, and the Menominee withdrew northward where they continued to remain. In 1837 the Sauk and Foxes made the last of their various cessions of Iowa lands, and were given in exchange a tract across the Missouri in Kansas. Here they remained practically as one people for about 20 years. But internal dissensions, due largely to Keokuk (q. v., were causing them to grow apart. They maintained separate villages, the Sauk in one and the Foxes in another.
One summer about the years 1857-59, the leading Foxes returned from a buffalo hunt and found that during their absence the Sauk had made a treaty with the Government by the terms of which the Sauk and Foxes were to take up lands in severalty and sell the remainder, the whole transaction having been negotiated by whites to get possession of the Indians' land for purposes of speculation.
The Fox chief refused to ratify the agreement on behalf of the Foxes, and for so doing was deprived of his chieftainship; but the Foxes did not recognize the act of the agent deposing their chief. In the fall the Fox chief went away to Iowa, and with him most of the Foxes. An incident occurring shortly before this time, i. e., in 1854, had much to do with hastening the departure of many of the Foxes for Iowa. While on a buffalo hunt a party of about 50 men were attacked by a large force of Plains Indians, consisting, it is said, of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche. The Foxes were armed with "Kentucky rifles," while the others had only bows and arrows. Retreating upon a rise of ground where approach was possible from only one direction, the Foxes beat off their assailants, inflicting heavy loss.
On their return home they became uneasy lest the Government, on learning the news of the slaughter, might deal sternly with them, and so they quietly stole off to Iowa. A few Foxes had never gone to Kansas, but had remained in Iowa. Some had returned before the main exodus of 1859. They finally found a place on Iowa river, near Tama City, where they bought a small piece of land. This has been added to from time to time till they now have more than 3,000 acres which they hold in common. They have nothing more to do with the Sauk politically. In 1867 the Sauk ceded their lands in Kansas and in exchange were given a tract in Indian Territory. In 1889 they took up lands in severalty and sold the remainder to the Government.
The close relations of the Sauk with the Foxes in historical time make it difficult to form more than an approximate estimate of their numbers in past, but it is probable that the population of the tribe never exceeded: 3,500 souls. When first known to history, i. e. in 1650, the Sauk and Foxes together numbered probably 6,500 (Sauk 3,500, Foxes 3,000). Perrot, writing in the first quarter of the 18th century, says that the Potawatomi, the Sauk, and the Foxes composed a body of more than 1,000 warriors.
The principal estimates of the Sauk alone are: 750 persons in 1736; 1,000 (1759); 2,000 (1766); 2,250 (1783); 2,850 (1810); 4,800(Beltrami, 1825); and 2,500 (1834). The two tribes together have been estimated at 3,000 (1820); 6,400 (1825); 5,300 (1834); 5,000 (1837). The estimates of the combined tribes indicate that the Foxes (q. v.) were the more numerous, but these appear to be incorrect.
In 1885 the two tribes had a total population of about 930, of whom 457 were in Indian Territory, 380 (who claimed to be Foxes only) were at Tama, Iowa, and 87 in southeast Nebraska; in addition there were a few at the various Indian schools. The Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1909 gives 352 persons (almost all Foxes) at the Sauk and Fox agency, Iowa, 536 (chiefly Sauk) at the Sank and Fox agency in Oklahoma, and 87 Sauk and Foxes (chiefly Sauk) in Kansas, a total Sauk and Fox population of 975.
For more detailed information concerning the many petty wars, alliances, and migrations of the Sauk and their interrelations with the French and neighboring Indian tribes, consult Bacqueville de Ia Potherie, Histoire de L'Amérique Septentrionale, 1753; Perrot, Mémoire sur les Mœnrs, Coustumes et Relligion des Sauvages de l'Amérique Septentrionale, 1864; Jesuit Relations, I-II, 1858, also Thwaites edition, I-LXXXIII,1896-1901; the Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Laverdière, Œuvres de Champlain, 1870; Sagard Theodat, Histoire du Canada, I-IV, 1866; Sagard Theodat, Voyage du Pays des Hurons, I-II, 1865.
- Monday, September 19, 2011 at 08:17:25 (PDT)
R.I.P. Jack Layton, Me and my family and friends will miss you. You walked your talk and were a light of compassion and hope to many of us Canadians struggling to survive in these tough times. Shine on Jack !!
sincerely, Ilona McEvoy, Activist and poet.
..TORONTO - Jack Layton's family has released a letter the federal NDP leader wrote just two days prior to his death today at the age of 61. The text of that letter follows.
August 20, 2011
Toronto, Ontario
Dear Friends,
Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.
Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.
I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.
I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.
A few additional thoughts:
To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don't be discouraged that my own journey hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.
To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.
To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.
To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.
To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.
And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don't let them tell you it can't be done.
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
All my very best,
Jack Layton
- Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 17:42:09 (PDT)
This is Nick aka beatNick. I'm not sure if I posted the link here before but I have a news and politics site now, which will eventually include member blogs and much more than it has now. It's been around for around six months. I'll be investing more in growing it soon so that the social network can eventually take off Political Graffiti: The Social Network of Politics
- Friday, May 20, 2011 at 13:43:30 (PDT)
Under the Moon:
Under the Moon we dance and sing
Under the Moon we soar on wings
Under the Moon we make a stance
Under the Moon, we take the leap, we take the chance
Under the Moon they hear our voice
Under the Moon we bond, this is our choice
Under the Moon we survive
Under the Moon we shall thrive
Under the Moon our love is strong
Under the Moon our message is there, sung in every song.
~Emma
- Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 10:37:28 (PDT)
The 2011 federal election was historic in many ways and most of us are still trying to process the outcome. It is crucial that we pause to reflect on its meaning and think carefully about the next steps we must take.
While it is true that the remarkable surge in support for the NDP means a more dependable progressive voice in the House of Commons than we have had for years, it is equally true that the most socially and economically right-wing government perhaps in Canadian history has just won a substantial majority in the House and - along with their control of the Senate - is now free to implement its agenda even if every member of every other party votes against it.
The Harper Conservatives are now free to:
- cut corporate taxes and transfer payments;
- go after public services, public sector workers and public pensions;
- allow the growth of private health services to undermine Medicare in the lead-up to the expiry of the Canada Health Accord in 2014;
- vigorously promote more unregulated free trade agreements like the Canada–European Union CETA, that will drastically curtail the democratic rights of local governments to promote local economic development, local resource sovereignty, or local food production;
- kill the Canadian Wheat Board;
- fast track the security perimeter deal with the United States that will violate the civil liberties of Canadians and give away crucial pieces of our sovereignty;
- kill the long-gun registry;
- continue to decimate environmental regulations, under fund source water protection, promote dirty energy projects such as the tar sands, gas fracking and Arctic oil and gas drilling, while ignoring the rights of nature;
- and spend our money on military equipment and prisons we don’t need and don’t want.
This means we at the Council of Canadians and civil society in general have our work cut out for us as never before.
However, there are important signs of hope. The Harper Conservatives do not have the support of the majority of Canadians. Almost 40% of eligible Canadian voters did not cast a ballot in the election and of those who did, fully 60% voted for parties other than the Conservatives. This means that over two-thirds of Canadians who were eligible to vote did not cast a vote for the Harper agenda.
As well, the presence of an opposition with a clear progressive agenda on trade, social and environmental justice and public services will create the opportunity for unparalleled (until now) collaboration between Members of Parliament and progressive civil society. While we have had good working relationships with some Liberal MPs on some issues, how frustrating it was to see the Liberals side with the Conservatives on signing trade deals with corrupt and criminal regimes in Peru and Colombia. Further, the election of the first Green Party member, Elizabeth May, will open the door for an environmental debate and dialogue too long missing from the House of Commons.
And, as Council of Canadians trade campaigner Stuart Trew reminds us, we have fought battles against both majority and minority governments before and won. Unfair deals such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and the Security and Prosperity Partnership were defeated by popular protest. Unfair trade deals are fought and won outside Parliament, in the court of public opinion, he points out. It was also public pressure that stopped Canadian troops from being sent to Iraq. Similarly, no matter how much Stephen Harper dislikes public health care (and is on record in his preference for private health services), he can go only so far in his dismantling of Medicare, so deeply loved and fiercely protected is this most important of Canadian social programs. And let Harper try to open the doors for commercial export of our water and see how far he gets!
In other words, this country and its values still belongs to the people. As our director of development, Jamian Logue, says, “Neither our democratic responsibilities nor our democratic opportunities ended on May 2. Democracy is a 24/7 pursuit. We have the right and responsibility to act beyond the ballot box.”
What is needed now is a coming together of progressive forces in civil society and the labour movement as never before in our country’s history. Social and trade justice groups, First Nations people, labour unions, women, environmentalists, faith-based organizations, the cultural community, farmers, public health care coalitions, front line public sector workers, and many others must come together to protect and promote the values that the majority of Canadians hold dear. And we must work with, and demand the active representation of, the opposition forces in the House of Commons. In particular, the NDP must oppose the Harper agenda with the full weight of its new power and the Liberals must redeem themselves by working alongside the NDP in defending the interests of the people of Canada.
As the old union saying goes, “Don’t mourn – organize!”. The Harper majority is unfortunately really due to our “first past the post” system. (An American friend writes that he and his colleagues are having trouble understanding how Stephen Harper is Prime Minister with way less than half the votes in Canada. This reminds us of the urgency to promote proportional representation.)
But support for the Harper agenda is paper-thin, as most Canadians do not share the values of this agenda. This then is our task: to work hard over the next four years to protect the laws, rights and services that generations of Canadians have fought for from being dismantled; fight the corporate-friendly, anti-environmental, security obsessed agenda that will come at us; and prepare the way for the kind of government in four years that does in fact, express the will of the people – one with an agenda of justice and respect, of care for the earth, of the more equitable sharing of our incredible bounty.
This will be hard work and will take a great deal of courage and commitment. But really, what more important thing do we have to do?
best regards, Maude Barlow.
_________________________________________________
- Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 06:37:02 (PDT)
Winter
By the embers it is peaceful
The air is mellow
Resting close to you
Northern lights dance under high heavens
with sundry forms of fires
The full moon keeps watch of weak wanderers
so the coldness of winter won't trick us
beyond the border of eternity
Surround my world
with radiance and warmth
red beauty
Let me be in the center of life
where it's boiling, burning hot
Listening to the sound of life
where does it come from
Following its path, in pursuit
brings me close to your colours and warmth
which shimmer, shine and seduce me
Sofia Jannok.
- Monday, May 09, 2011 at 16:13:02 (PDT)
A glimpse behind the curtain that hides the Harper Conservatives: Are plans afoot to kill the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation / The CBC?
By David J. Climenhaga. April 24, 2011.
Write to editor Support rabble Corrections
ST. ALBERT, Alberta, CANADA.
Are plans afoot to destroy the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation if the Harper Conservatives get their longed-for majority?
A tantalizing hint by Edmonton-St. Albert Conservative Member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber at an all-candidates' meeting Thursday evening in this Edmonton dormitory city of 60,000 suggests this may be so.
"I don't know that we need a national broadcaster in 2011," Rathgeber told about 100 people at a Chamber of Commerce all-candidates' forum in a local hotel. "…We have to wean them off … of the taxpayer's dollar…"
It is well known, of course, how since Stephen Harper became prime minister of Canada, the Conservative Party has become a tightly disciplined organization, especially during election campaigns.
No Conservative candidate strays far from the official talking points, and if that means repeating the phrase "constant bickering" seven times in an introductory speech to a local all-candidates' meeting in a Prairie town, as Rathgeber did at another forum last week, you can be confident the same phrase is being repeated a similar number of times at dozens of other meetings across English Canada.
Moreover, since any Conservative in Western Canada has a chance of being elected, and because practically all of the party's candidates in Alberta are a virtual shoo-in, the party tends to attract potential MPs disciplined and smart enough to stay on message through thick and thin. Rathgeber is no exception, normally sticking manfully and at times artfully to his talking points, no matter where his interlocutors want him to go.
Still, now and then -- notwithstanding the best efforts of the Chamber of Commerce types who organize these events to serve up only softball questions from a Conservative perspective -- one slips through that really resists a retreat to the official party line. This is especially true, of course, when there are no talking points available about the topic.
Advertising? So when a seemingly innocent written question about the future of the CBC was handed to the a moderator of the St. Albert Chamber's forum, Rathgeber's commentary was interesting -- revealing, as one suspects it surely must, the Harper government's actual direction on the future of our national broadcaster if it gets the chance to act as it wishes. Remember, after all, that Rathgeber is a careful backbencher who never strays even one iota from the party line.
I pulled the key points out of Rathgeber's remarks above. Here they are in context, as recorded by my handy-dandy iPhone:
"…There was a time when the CBC was necessary because nobody would broadcast in rural parts of Northern Alberta, Northern Saskatchewan or in the Arctic. But with the advent of satellites, I mean, now anybody anywhere can get a thousand channels!
"So, I don't know that we need a national broadcaster in 2011. Um… Sun TV launched this week and they have an annual budget of $17 million. Well, the CBC in addition to its revenues that it gets from advertising, gets a billion dollars from the taxpayer every year.
"I think that has to change. They have to become more competitive. We have to wean them off, uh, of the taxpayer's dollar…"
Sun TV. Really? Think about this for a moment, people, as the Conservative model to replace the CBC. We're talking about an organization that premieres its vaunted political commentary program with cartoons considered sacrilegious by adherents of the world's second-largest religion -- an item that is offensive to a million or so Canadians and was old news at the same time.
What's next for the geniuses behind Fox News North? Piss Christ as the backdrop to the national news?
Never mind that the CBC budget Rathgeber attacks includes the costs of coast-to-coast radio and television news, public affairs and cultural programming in two languages. This in fact costs more than merely running cable news for bigots.
Never mind that the $17-million Sun TV figure he quotes is obviously bogus, as it does not include the cost to Quebecor Media of pressing reporters and newspaper operations from coast to coast into service as low-rent videography studios.
And never mind the cozy relationship between Sun TV and the Prime Minister's Office, which intends to use FNN as the PMO's own electronic version of Pravda.
There are probably enough people in a typical Alberta audience who agree with Rathgeber's sentiments about the CBC that for all I know they're outlined in the Conservative Party's talking points.
The Edmonton-St. Albert MP is certainly not shy or repeating over and over and over again with clear PMO sanction that no serious economist supports the idea of tax increases -- although many, including at least one still-living Nobel Prize winner, manifestly do. But maybe he doesn't read the same newspapers that I do.
But somehow I doubt these particular remarks about the CBC were in the official Harper government MPs' briefing book. Since the CBC has its supporters, why would the Conservatives encourage a controversy that no one's talking about just now?
I think Rathgeber unintentionally let the veil slip aside for just a moment and gave us a glimpse of one of the many things that's behind it: the destruction of the CBC.
If you care about Canadian culture, and if you prefer news not to see what's left of the media completely dominated by the northern equivalent of Fox News, I think you should pay attention to what Rathgeber had to say on Thursday night, and I think you should take it seriously.
- Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 18:25:09 (PDT)
Stephen Harper believes the filthy rich have had it too hard for too long.
Stephen Harper's economic 'recovery' favoured the extremely wealthy. Over 321,000 Canadians lost their jobs in 2008 and Canadians' average wages fell. Meanwhile Canada's 100 wealthiest persons became richer, reaching an average net worth of $1.7 billion each, up almost 5 per cent from 2008.
Phyllis McEvoy.
- Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 19:05:51 (PDT)
Stephen Harper believes the filthy rich have had it too hard for too long.
Stephen Harper's economic 'recovery' favoured the extremely wealthy. Over 321,000 Canadians lost their jobs in 2008 and Canadians' average wages fell. Meanwhile Canada's 100 wealthiest persons became richer, reaching an average net worth of $1.7 billion each, up almost 5 per cent from 2008.
Phyllis McEvoy.
- Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 19:05:40 (PDT)
i have not "moved on to the other side" ......jus reloacted to facebook ...*g* ....come n schee me http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=100000410657605
- Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 16:37:14 (PST)
One of my biggest weaknesses is in realizing others have moved on (whether they even realize it themselves or not)
I'm officially signing off now. I'm sad but I need closure. Something vibrant once lived here. Hopefully this will help me deal with what has died here.............
- Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 00:00:20 (PST)
Here's for you little Jack jr.,
my Morning-Cawffee c[_] Song.
later son, Jack McEvoy.
______________
Airborne
Rangers lead the way
Lead in
Airborne
Rangers lead the way
Deep in the battlefield covered in blood
Lies an Airborne Ranger dying in the mud
Airborne
Rangers lead the way
With those silver wings upon his chest
Tell America that he's one of their best
Airborne
Rangers lead the way
Lead out
Airborne
Rangers lead the way
- Friday, October 29, 2010 at 07:45:04 (PDT)
A New Star Wars Trilogy?
D.I.S.H.
Lucas secretly developing sequels
A long time ago, (well, the seventies) in a galaxy far, far away (well, Los Angeles) George Lucas began what would grow to be one of the biggest and most enduring movie franchises of all time.
While developing the first trilogy of Star Wars films, Lucas announced there would one day be 3 trilogies - the second and third bracketing the first.
Following the release of 'Episodes' 1 through 3 however, Lucas announced he was done with the series and there would be no Episodes 7-9. On the one hand, fans regarded this as a huge disappointment. On the other, it meant there was little risk of another Phantom Menace.
But now - in what could be the biggest news to come out of Hollywood in years - IESB is reporting that Lucas has secretly put all three movies into pre-development.
The site says that, while little is known about what to expect story-wise, the new movies will be sequels to the known history of the Star Wars universe. They're also not expected to have anything to do with the live action TV series Lucas is already developing.
The site's sources claim that while the stories will exist in the same world as the previous films, they won't have anything to do with the Skywalkers, be they Anakin or Luke.
The plan right now is to begin releasing Episodes 1-6 in 3D, starting in 2012 and ending with Return of the Jedi in 2017. Within two years after that, the new trilogy will begin.
IESB reports that the main motivation for Lucas has been the popularity of The Clone Wars animated series and the massive success of James Cameron's Avatar.
-30-
Charlie Briggs.
- Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 11:05:41 (PDT)
Hey all. This is beatNick/Nicholas Jackson. I recently started a politics and news site at http://www.graffiti-usa.com if anyone would happen to be interested in submitting an article. I'm glad to see the Tribe still around!
- Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 19:09:40 (PDT)
so many changes...and I may have run out of words. I try not to blink.
- Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 20:02:17 (PDT)
It is no coincidence that September 2001 is the month we began saving our Wall archives.
"The Wall" existed before then, and was regularly cleared. But we were unable to delete the messages left nine years ago.
- Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 14:57:23 (PDT)
Gavroche nods
- Wednesday, September 08, 2010 at 12:18:14 (PDT)
hello, hello, hello....is there anybody in there? just nod if you can hear me. is there anyone at home?
- Wednesday, September 01, 2010 at 00:43:24 (PDT)
"If [man] is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practise kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
Immanuel Kant
Soviet Republic of Georgia claims it has World's Oldest Person Age 130 years.
Jul 8, 2010.
By Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili
SACHIRE, Ga. - Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia claim a woman from a remote mountain village turned 130 on Thursday, making her the oldest person on Earth.
Antisa Khvichava from western Georgia was born on July 8, 1880, said Georgiy Meurnishvili, spokesman for the civil registry at the Justice Ministry.
The woman, who lives with her 40-year-old grandson in an idyllic vine-covered country house in the mountains, retired from her job as a tea and corn picker in 1965, when she was 85, records say.
"I've always been healthy, and I've worked all my life — at home and at the farm," said Khvichava, in a bright dress and headscarf, her withering lips rejuvenated by shiny red lipstick. Sitting in the chair and holding her cane, Khvichava spoke quietly through an interpreter since she never went to school to learn Georgian and speaks only the local language, Mingrelian.
Her age couldn't immediately be independently verified. Her birth certificate was lost — one of the great number to have disappeared in the past century amid revolutions and a civil war which followed the collapse of the Russian Empire.
But Meurnishvili showed two Soviet-era documents that he says attest to her age. Scores of officials, neighbours, friends, and descendants backed up her claim as the world's top senior.
The Gerontology Research Group currently recognizes 114-year-old Eugenie Blanchard of Saint Barthelemy, France, as the world's oldest person. The organization is yet to examine Khvichava's claim.
Khvichava has a son, 10 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and six great, great grandchidren.
Khvichava's 70-year-old son Mikhail apparently was born when his mother was 60. She said she also had two children from a previous marriage, but says they died of hunger during World War II.
Although Khvichava has difficulty walking and has stayed largely in bed during the past seven years, she makes a point of hobbling unaided to the outhouse on the other side of the yard, loathe to be a nuisance, Mikhail said.
Though her body has all but quit on her — her fingers cramped and deformed by age mean she can no longer maintain her love of knitting — relatives say her mind remains sharp.
"Grandma has a very clear mind and she hasn't lost an ability to think rationally," said Khvichava's granddaughter Shorena, who lives in a nearby village.
To mark the centurion's birthday, a string ensemble played folk music out on the lawn, while grandchildren offered traditional Mingrelian dishes like corn porridge and spiced chicken with herbs to all guests as the party.
Toronto and the G8/G20: Peaceful protest suffers amidst heavy security measures and acts of vandalism. Amnesty International.
As the Annual General Meeting of Amnesty International Canada (English branch) concluded today in Toronto, Amnesty International members from across the country expressed their very deep concern that important rights associated with peaceful protest have suffered considerably in the city over the weekend.
In connection with the G20 leaders summit, the heavy police and security presence that has permeated the city for several days, as well as acts of vandalism and other violence by numbers of individuals, have contributed to an atmosphere of apprehension and fearfulness that has led many individuals to refrain from or limit their involvement in peaceful demonstrations and other activities.
At a time when the public should be encouraged to actively engage in debate and discussion about pressing global issues, the security measures that were put in place in Toronto in the lead up to the G20 Summit held in the city instead narrowed the space for civic expression and cast a chill over citizen participation in public discourse. Many thousands of individuals did take part in public events such as the “People First” demonstration during the afternoon of June 26, but felt apprehensive while doing so. Many others did not take part out of a sense of unease and fearfulness.
In meeting in Toronto at the same time as G8 and G20 leaders have held their summits in Canada, Amnesty International members have sought to draw attention to important human rights issues that should be priority concerns for both bodies. We have highlighted that it is a particularly key juncture in the development of the G20 as an emerging body that will exert growing influence on world economic, political and social affairs. We have emphasized, therefore, that we look to them to take action to ensure that human rights are brought to the heart of the global effort to fight poverty, particularly through the millennium development goals. We look to them to ensure that respect for universal human rights will become the hallmark of their deliberations and decision making.
Yet at a time when human rights need so very much to come to the fore, we have instead witnessed and experienced a curtailment of civil liberties. On the streets, protesters were faced with high fences, new weaponry, massive surveillance, and the intimidating impact of the overwhelming police presence. Combined with uncertainty and worry about unclear powers of arrest, this created an atmosphere in which countless individuals felt unable or too fearful to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and assembly and participate in rallies and other events which would have offered them an opportunity to express their views on a range of important national and international issues.
We unequivocally condemn the acts of vandalism and violence that have been carried out by numbers of individuals, particularly during the evening of June 26. Such acts are criminal and undermine the safety of the many thousands of individuals involved in peaceful protest.
We recognize that police have a responsibility to respond to such actions, to protect public safety, prevent damage to property, and ensure the safety of leaders and other officials attending the G20 Summit.
There are concerns, however, about possible police excesses, including reports of journalists being arrested or constrained in the course of covering confrontations between police and demonstrators. In one reported case, the journalist was apparently beaten in the course of being arrested. Nearly 500 people are reported to have been arrested, as of the morning of June 27th. Witnesses have reported that some of those arrested appear to have been engaging in peaceful protest.
It has not been possible to get clear information about which tactics and weapons police have deployed in the course of securing specific areas and responding to incidents of both violence and legitimate protest. This lack of clear information has further fueled misunderstanding and fears about police actions as protests are expected to continue.
The amount of money, reported to be in excess of $1 billion, that has been spent on security measures in Toronto over the past several days has been unprecedented. Yet on one hand extensive acts of vandalism and other violence were carried out and on the other hand thousands of individuals felt nervous and uneasy about exercising their right to engage in peaceful protest.
This cannot become the hallmark of how the G20 conducts its business. Instead, we call on G20 leaders to ensure that future Summits are carried out in ways that maximize rather than restrict rights associated with peaceful protest, particularly freedom of expression and assembly.
Lessons must be learned from these events. We call on the Canadian government and the government of the province of Ontario to cooperate in launching an independent review of the security measures that were put in place for the G8 and G20 Summits.
The review should include opportunities for public input and the results should be released to the public. Among other issues, the review should consider:
•The impact of security measures, including decisions about the location and venues for the two summits, on the protection of human rights, including the freedoms of expression and assembly.
• The ways in which police operations and the use of legal provisions such as the Public Works Protection Act have impacted the rights of the many thousands of people living, working and operating businesses within and near the G20 security zone.
For further information contact:
Elizabeth Berton-Hunter, Media Relations
bberton-hunter@amnesty.ca
Cell phone: 416 904 7158
- Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 14:33:17 (PDT)
Here you go Brian, that Pogues website you wanted me to find (http://www.pogues.com ).
UC Berkeley's Spring 2010 Poetry Conference Helps to Bring Awareness to Bay Area Homelessness Crisis.
LiBbey Joplin reads her urban slam poetry at UC Berkeley's Spring 2010 Poetry Conference to raise awareness around the Bay Area's homelessness crisis. Some 76 poets gathered and read their works to raise money for new Bay Area Homeless Shelter. A great time was had by all.
Flag-paved cemetery seas unfurl, undulate,
hard edges splashed with pulsing hues;
sorrow's depth, uncontained,
boggles the mourner's eye.
She's shrapnel embedded in bone,
clasping an insulated shroud,
macerating poppies into scarlet bloom.
Vessels thrum chamber walls, a six shot salute
to memories lodged fathoms deep,
nestled where she lives and grieves,
too bruised to beat her way out.
Limestone whispers; the next wave breaks,
over mourners swimming against the wind,
over bodies of water riddled by holes,
filling with new blood.
- Monday, May 31, 2010 at 11:41:09 (PDT)
RIP Dennis Hopper. what an impact you made on my life.............
Scientists discover explanation for why the Universe exists.
Michael Bolen.
Physicists have long wondered why the universe exists when matter and anti-matter particles obliterate each other on contact.
But new data from a particle accelerator in the United States suggests a reason.
The tests showed that when anti-protons and protons collide, the resulting new particles show a one per cent skew toward matter over anti-matter. Over a long period of time, this characteristic of the universe could explain why matter has come to dominate over anti-matter.
"Many of us felt goose bumps when we saw the result," said Stefan Soldner-Rembold, a physicist at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
"We knew we were seeing something beyond what we have seen before and beyond what current theories can explain."
Every basic particle of matter has a matching anti-particle. The anti-particle has the same mass as the standard particle, but an opposite electric charge. Anti-matter is not to be confused with dark matter.
While anti-matter has been demonstrated in numerous experiments, dark matter remains a hypothesis used to help explain the effects of mass which scientists cannot currently see.
The dark matter hypothesis helps to explain why the universe hasn't expanded into a cold and relatively motionless void. The extra mass, and resulting gravity, is the reason galaxies form into clumps rather than flying apart.
Particle accelerators, such as the Tevatron collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, which conducted the tests, and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the Swiss-French border, use electric fields to smash particles into each other at incredibly high speeds.
Scientists then study the particles that are created. Researchers seek larger and larger accelerators in order to create collisions that more closely resemble those which took place soon after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, when the temperature and density of the universe were much higher.
The new findings deviate from what is known as the Standard Model, the theory created in the 1970s to explain the complex interaction of sub-atomic particles.
Up until now, the model predicted a small preference toward matter over anti-matter, but not enough to explain the structure of the universe we see today.
The findings come ahead of an experiment to be held at CERN, called LHCb, also aimed at explaining matter's dominance.
Consequently, the results of the test in the U.S. could soon be confirmed and expanded, forming the basis for a new or amended quantum theory.
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- The victim might have forgiven the woman who ran him down in a Massachusetts crosswalk, but police haven't.
Police say a Pittsfield woman has been cited for running down a man named Lord Jesus Christ as he crossed a street in Northampton on Tuesday.
The 50-year-old man is from Belchertown. Officers checked his ID and discovered that, indeed, his legal name is Lord Jesus Christ. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of minor facial injuries.
Police say 20-year-old Brittany Cantarella was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
- Friday, May 07, 2010 at 13:14:15 (PDT)
Things are very bad for many, many ailing vulnerable citizens in Ontario, Canada. Please, spread the word ( COMPASSION is still a worthy virtue ).
respect-fully, Anne Carling.
Open Letter to Premier McGuinty from the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction
Open Letter to Premier McGuinty from the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction
Budget Decisions on Social Assistance Call Commitment into Question
29 April 2010
Dear Premier McGuinty,
As organizations committed to the mission to reduce poverty, we write to express our serious concern about recent moves your government has taken on the poverty front.
More than a year into Ontario’s efforts to reduce poverty by 25% by 2013, your government has made the following moves that call into question your government’s commitment to meeting its own poverty reduction goals:
1.Ending the Special Diet Allowance Program without a previous and clearly thought through replacement plan, which will result in a significant drop in income for people on social assistance who have health-related nutritional needs;
2.Allowing, for the first time since 2006, social assistance rate increases to fall below the rate of inflation.
These actions are distressing, and – without adequate and commensurate resolution – threaten the health and safety of many struggling individuals in this province.
We keenly appreciate the fiscal constraints facing Ontario post-recession. We also acknowledge and have publicly celebrated the important positive steps taken in the 2010 budget. These include additional investment to improve enforcement of employment standards enforcement for precarious workers as well as your government’s commitment to permanently fund subsidized child care and invest in full-day early learning and child care. We were also very pleased to see the full-day early learning and child care legislation pass on April 27, and to see an additional $6 million in fee subsidies, growing to $51 million over five years.
These are key measures that support low-income families, but do little to directly support their health and well-being. We are deeply concerned about the actions you have taken that affect the most vulnerable people our society – those on social assistance.
By ending the special diet allowance, doctors, nurses, medical officers of health, labour organizations, activists, advocates, and many others warn that your government is putting the security, dignity, and even the lives of many sick Ontarians at risk. They cite the clearly demonstrated relationship between poverty, food insecurity, and poor health.
Others have raised concerns about what this decision says about your government’s commitment to strengthening Ontario’s human rights system, which was apparent in Bill 107, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act, in your first mandate.
Your own Social Assistance Review Advisory Council expressed disappointment with the decision to end the special diet allowance.
If an adequate replacement program to provide people with the finances required to support special dietary needs is not forthcoming, this decision will result in increased sickness, increased housing insecurity, and rising future health care costs.
The decision also underscores the critical need for your government to create a coherent plan to provide livable incomes to people on social assistance. This is because the incomes of people on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program fall far short of what is needed cover the costs of housing, nutritious food and, for those with health issues, to be able afford special foods to stay healthy.
We feel strongly that your commitment to poverty reduction has reached a crossroads. Over the coming weeks you will have three opportunities to clearly demonstrate your determination to get the 25 in 5 poverty reduction commitment back on track.
1.Affordable Housing Strategy: Since housing takes up such a large part of a low-income person’s budget, what your government does now to make housing more affordable will make a big difference. Your Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy will lay out a plan this spring that requires immediate action. By bringing in affordable housing measures this spring, you could help poor Ontarians – including those on social assistance – lower their budgetary costs, and create jobs at a time when the province needs them.
2.Social Assistance Review: Your Social Assistance Review Advisory Council will also make its recommendations this spring on the scope and direction of a comprehensive review for income security in Ontario, giving you an opportunity to fix a system that has long been broken and to align it with an agenda for poverty reduction and shared prosperity in Ontario.
3.Nutrition Supplement: Finally, resolution to the loss of the special diet allowance has yet to be worked out. This highly disturbing development in your government’s policy program must be remedied. The 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction is currently working with its partner groups to provide recommendations to your government on the principles that must underlie the replacement program, which we will forward to you in the coming days. However, we feel strongly that your government must immediately address the broader issue of income insecurity that people on social assistance are forced to endure.
Entire nations are recovering from the worldwide economic meltdown of 2008. Recovery efforts can, and will, test the mettle of many governments. Your challenge is to not let today’s fear hamper the future of the poorest of the poor – they are relying on your humanity, your vision and your leadership.
As a network, we strive to ensure the voices of the voiceless are heard in the halls of power. We have been supportive of your promises to reduce poverty and the steps you have taken so far to realize these promises. Our most important commitment is to the poor of this province – as should be yours.
We request a meeting with the core Ministers responsible for carrying out your poverty reduction plan to discuss our hopes and concerns:
· The Hon. Laurel Broten, Minister Responsible for Poverty Reduction
· The Hon. Madeleine Meilleur, Minister of Community and Social Services
· The Hon. Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
· The Hon. Jim Bradley, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Sincerely,
Michael Creek and Greg deGroot-Maggetti
Co-chairs, 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction
cc: Tim Hudak, MPP, Leader of the Official Opposition
Andrea Horwath, MPP, Leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario
- Thursday, May 06, 2010 at 08:19:49 (PDT)
- Monday, April 26, 2010 at 21:16:52 (PDT)
The Loon Upon the Lake (Ojibwa).
I looked across the water,
I bent o'er it and listened,
I thought it was my lover,
My true lover's paddle glistened.
Joyous thus his light canoe would the silver ripples wake.-
But no!-it is the loon alone-
The loon upon the lake.
Ah me! it is the loon alone-
The loon upon the lake.
I see the fallen maple
Where he stood, his red scarf waving,
Though waters nearly bury
Boughs they then were newly laving.
I hear his last farewell, as it echoed from the brake.-
But no, it is the loon alone-
The loon upon the lake,
Ah me! it is the loon alone-
The loon upon the lake.
OBAMA signs historic Health-Care Bill!!!!!!! SHINE ON OBAMA !!!!!!!
- Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 11:09:41 (PDT)
Love'ya JIMBO!
Viva DOORS!
So many fantastic colours!!
- Friday, February 26, 2010 at 01:50:24 (PST)
Happy Birthday to George Washington, Father of America. We honor you.
Happy Birthday to Ted Kennedy, when you died, it was the end of an era. I hope we can get healthcare passed in some form.
Happy Birthday Dr. J. May it be a slam dunk.
Happy Birthday to Jeri Ryan. I await assimilation.
Happy Birthday to Drew Barrymore - my personal firestarter.
Happy Birthday to Lea Salonga - Marius was a fool.
- Monday, February 22, 2010 at 13:04:20 (PST)
To all Americans:
Happy "George Washington's Birthday" - The Father of our Country - He had no children of his own, so he adopted the entire nation.
(He was actually born on either February 11th or February 22nd, depending upon whether you use the Julian or Gregorian calendar. But his birthday is observed on the Third Monday of February.)
- Monday, February 15, 2010 at 13:21:46 (PST)
WHODAT? THE SAINTS, THAT'S WHO! (and The Who. Who are you? who who!)
- Sunday, February 07, 2010 at 20:24:27 (PST)
Creatures, All
(for JDM)
It’s St. Valentine’s Day...
but my childhood died, November-past,
my personal saint, on chilled wing, flown.
And I’m thinking of you...
of your kind regard for sparrows:
those vociferous scavengers
who crouch behind feathered black masks.
They shoot for the heart,
but their aim’s pure Mardi Gras,
minus the parade.
No trumpeting swans are they.
Less conspicuous, they cluster come Spring,
and in subtle retaliation,
pull back the grey...
unveiling a freshly riddled bloom.
Careful reading of the article indicates that the 'original' anonymous visitor to Poe's grave, who annually left the roses and Cognac, died in 1998, after passing the tradition on to his two sons a few years earlier.
Suggesting something kept both sons away this year.
- Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 12:16:18 (PST)
Here's a link to the article referenced in the post below.
Gavroche
- Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 10:49:57 (PST)
First time in over 60 years...Poe Toaster fails to show up. Edgar still received his roses and cognac, though.
My guess -- Edgar is immortal, but the Poe Toaster wasn't.
- Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 10:47:14 (PST)
THIS SUCKS!
Haitian capital largely destroyed in quake
Casualties severe and widespread throughout Port-au-Prince
Nightly News
msnbc.com and NBC News
updated less than 1 minute ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The Haitian capital was largely destroyed in the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in more than 200 years. Journalists from The Associated Press described severe and widespread casualties after a tour of streets where blood and bodies could be seen.
The damage was described as staggering even in a country accustomed to tragedy and disaster. AP reporters said the National Palace was a crumbled ruin and tens of thousands of people were homeless.
Many gravely injured people sat in the street, pleading for doctors many hours after the quake. In public squares thousands of people were singing hymns and holding hands.
