westernartgirl
luckygrrrA “Burning Controversy” Around the Bonanza Map
Talk about a “burning controversy.” A comment from a Trading Posts reader this week prompted us to take another look at a famous map in our collection that is perhaps one of the most widely seen in history. The map is of the Ponderosa, the Nevada property where plot of Bonanza, one of the most … Read more
A New Saint for an Ancient People
The Vatican’s announcement on Dec. 19, 2011 that Kateri Tekakwitha, a seventeenth-century Native American woman, has been cleared to become a saint was, for Joann Samon, as well-received as the miracle cure attributed to Tekakwitha of a boy afflicted with a flesh-eating bacteria in 2006. Samon, who is of Dine, Yaqui and Hopi descent, is … Read more
Native American Music and the GRAMMY Awards
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) decision in April to drop 31 music categories from the annual GRAMMY Awards, including their own, has left Native American musicians dismayed. They say it took a herculean effort to achieve the academy’s recognition with their own category in 2001, only to have it taken away … Read more
Buck Brannaman, the Real Horse Whisperer
Buck Brannaman, a therapist in cowboy boots, uses a saddle instead of a psychiatrist’s couch to do his job. Without words, his four-legged clients tell him tales of pain, abuse and fear at the hands of people, and he works with them — and with the people — to heal their relationships. Pretty new-agey for … Read more
James Arness, ‘Gunsmoke’s’ Marshal Matt Dillon
James Arness, the towering (6-foot-6) actor who for 20 years portrayed the taciturn, lantern-jawed U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon in CBS’s Gunsmoke, died Friday. A cause of death was not disclosed, but according to the Associated Press, he died in his sleep at his Brentwood home. He was 88. Arness, who was born James Aurness but … Read more
The Endeavour Shuttle’s Final Flight into History
Updated May 20 — The space shuttle Endeavour lifted off Monday from Launch Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on its last flight into space, a 16-day mission to the International Space Station. But as historic as that is, it’s not necessarily the trip on Ken Phillips’ mind at the moment. The California Science … Read more
Decoding Punishment: the Prison System in California
Updated May 12 — As Californians — both voters and legislators — ponder how to balance the state’s budget, one of the most important questions to consider is whether and how to reform the state’s prison system. And to begin to decipher that question, says UCLA History Professor Michael Meranze, they should consider an even … Read more
George Harwood Phillips on Stitching Together the Story of a People
Updated May 9 — When, as a young academic at UCLA, George Harwood Phillips switched from African history to focusing on the Native peoples of California, he had no idea that they were probably one of the best-documented groups in existence. Phillips, now a retired Professor of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder, spoke … Read more
Bin Laden Navy SEAL Victory Tarnished by a Single Word
As details continued to trickle out regarding the Sunday night Navy SEAL raid that resulted in the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a single word in the message sent to President Obama after its success lept out at Native Americans: Geronimo EKIA (enemy killed in action). Native American tribes, organizations and institutions, … Read more
Crochet As An Act of Mathematics to Save the Environment
Updated May 11 — Science writer Margaret Wertheim is used to pondering complexities of science, mathematics and philosophy, in the process making them accessible to the everyday reader. But even she seems a little awed by all the conceptual layers of her latest project, one which has taken her beyond her comfort zone and into … Read more
