May292014 One of my earliest memories was walking bare foot on the cool, muddy rows between tall stalks of cotton on our cotton farm in the Panhandle of Texas. I was around two-and-one-half years old and the cotton towered over my head as I toddled along accompanied by my faithful Colley dog, Tippie. Cotton was the primary crop grown in Hall County when I was growing up and I spent a major part of my time working in the fields with my family to cultivate and harvest the pre

It was probably a peaceful, happy morning for the families of Black Kettle’s warriors who were off on a buffalo hunt. Black Kettle probably slept peacefully that night convinced that he had secured peace and the protection of the government for his people since he had checked in at Fort Lyon and moved his tribe to Sand Creek as instructed. But, the elders, women, children and a few young men that were left at camp were unprepared for that tragic morning November 29, 1864. H

Lean Bear and the other Cheyenne chiefs came away from their meeting with President Lincoln in 1862 feeling good about the outcome. They even took a detour to visit New York at the request of P. T. Barnham and visited his museum. But in less than two years, in the spring of 1864, despite promises from Lincoln to keep the peace, things took a tragic turn. Lean Bear with his wife and tribe were camped near Ash Creek in Kansas on a buffalo hunt when troops from the Colorado Mili

It was while reading one of my favorite authors, Margaret Coel’s book “Killing Custer” that I was reminded of the killing of Chief Lean Bear. I have often thought about what the Native American could have done differently that might have enabled them to avoid the brutal and inhumane treatment they suffered in the 1800’s. But, my research has found that they did try everything and there was nothing that would have worked. For me, that futility is epitomized in the story of Chi

When James Mooney, who worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology in the late 1800’s, lived with the Cherokee, he recorded many of their myths and legends. I love the story of the origin of strawberries because it presents the Cherokee version of Adam and Eve and gives us insight into the Cherokee’s thoughts on the power of love. Here is the Mooney version: “When the first man was created and a mate was given to him, they lived together very happily for a time, but then bega