2ECOND THOUGHT A publication of the North Dakota Humanities Council
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[the CIVIL WAR issue]
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Photo by Joleyn Larson, Mandan, ND
note from the executive director
Our Shared History After a three-year hiatus, the North Dakota Humanities Council is pleased to relaunch the Everett C. Albers Chautauqua program in North Dakota. Under the direction of historian Dakota Goodhouse, Chautauqua is poised to become an important annual event in communities across the state as scholars take the stage to recreate pivotal moments in American history and spark meaningful explorations of our shared past. Now more than ever, it is important for Americans to understand where we came from and what we stand for, in order to imagine a better way forward. Chautauqua provides such an opportunity in both a family-friendly and entertaining way. Because we believe that American history belongs to all Americans, every Chautauqua event is free and open to the public. However, creating and sustaining these events is not free. A great deal of effort goes into the careful research and preparation, as well as coordination of these events. We hope you will experience the immense value of the Chautauqua program for yourself and consider making a generous contribution to the North Dakota Humanities Council so we can offer this opportunity to your community and other towns across North Dakota. Brenna Daugherty Gerhardt, Executive Director
features [contents] THE CIVIL WAR: CONFLICTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
2 William Jayne: First Governor of Dakota Territory By D. Jerome Tweton
6 His Red Nation: The Tale of Little Crow By Dakota Goodhouse
10 General Ely Parker: We Are All Americans
By Reuben Fast Horse
14 Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln: In Service of a Reconstructed Humanity
By Charles Everett Pace
20 Clara Barton: Civil War Nurse
By Karen Vuranch
2012 CHAUTAUQUA 26 The History of Chautauqua 30 The History of St. George’s Episcopal Church
By Amy Juhala
33 Complete Schedule of Chautauqua Events
ON SECOND THOUGHT is published by the North Dakota Humanities Council. Brenna Daugherty Gerhardt, Editor Jan Daley Jury, Line Editor Dakota Goodhouse, Researcher To subscribe please contact us: North Dakota Humanities Council 418 E. Broadway, Suite 8 Bismarck, ND 58501 800-338-6543 council@ndhumanities.org
The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground, painting by Rick Reeves, 2004. US National Guard.
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William Jayne: F First Governor of Dakota Territory By D. Jerome Tweton
In 1854, the political situation in Illinois was volatile. Abolitionists were outraged that Congress had given the people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska the right to decide whether or not to allow slavery. The Know-Nothing party (officially Native American party) was demanding laws that would restrict immigration in a campaign that lauded “America for Americans.” A committee of Springfield Know-Nothings wanted to nominate Abraham Lincoln for the Illinois legislature. Lincoln, who had already served in Congress, saw this as a backward political move and, hoping that the legislature might select him as United States senator, refused their overtures. On September 3, William A. Jayne (1826-1916), Lincoln’s physician and Know-Nothing abolitionist, disregarded his wishes and placed an ad in the Illinois State Journal that announced Lincoln’s candidacy. An angry Mary Lincoln, looking out for her husband’s political career, rushed to the newspaper’s office and demanded the withdrawal of his name. Undaunted, Jayne rushed over to Lincoln’s house to convince him to stay in the race. As Jayne recalled many years later, Lincoln was “the saddest man I ever saw—the gloomiest.” Lincoln paced back and forth on the verge of tears, laying out the reasons he could not run. Jayne refused to take no for an answer, and finally Lincoln very reluctantly gave in. Lincoln won the November election in a landslide. Sensing that the legislature might send him to Washington, Lincoln declined election. Abolitionists and Know-Nothings were furious. Dr. Jayne felt betrayed and now, in his words, everyone was “down on Lincoln—hated him.”
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Jayne and Lincoln remained good friends. In 1860 Jayne, now the mayor of Springfield, won election to the Illinois state senate, and Lincoln captured the White House. Congress created Dakota Territory on March 2, 1861, and Lincoln rewarded his good friend and physician by appointing him the first governor of Dakota Territory. As soon as the snows melted, Jayne headed west to oversee the organization of a governmental structure for the new territory. Dakota Territory’s white population was small and scattered. The largest town was Yankton, with around 300 people. J.B.S. Todd, a cousin of Mrs. Lincoln, ran a trading company and controlled most businesses in town. Folks referred to Yankton as “Captain Todd’s town.” “His” town was a collection of sod and log houses; the Ash Hotel provided beds, food, and whiskey. Other settlements along the Missouri—Vermillion, Bon Homme, and Elk Point—claimed no more than a handful of residents. To the north, land speculators had lured a few dozen Minnesota people to the Sioux Falls area, and, to the far north, about 300 people, mostly Metis, lived around Pembina on the Canadian border. Jayne arrived in Sioux City, Iowa, in late May, rented rooms for his wife, and set out by horse and buggy for Yankton. The new governor selected Yankton as the seat of government upon the suggestion of Mrs. Lincoln until the legislature could make an official selection. Until an adequate log house was built for the governor, he spent the first six weeks at the Ash Hotel where he had to share a bed with the attorney general. He created three judicial districts and assigned a judge to each. He divided the settled areas into legislative districts, ordered an election for September 16, and scheduled the first session for the following March. The most important elected office—the territorial delegate to the Congress—was won by Todd. Although the delegate could not vote, the salary was good and life in Washington much superior to that in Yankton. After the September election, the appointed and the elected officials left for their homes in the East, avoiding a bleak Dakota winter. Governor Jayne and the other officials returned in March for the first legislative session. In his address to the lawmakers, he envisioned a great future for Dakota. “We have combined the pleasant, salubrious climate of southern Minnesota with the fertility of soil of central Illinois. I venture the prediction that the wheat granary of the continent will be found in the valley of the Red River.” That first session has been described as “rough-and-tumble” and “wild-and-woolly.” Capital selection
“We have combined the pleasant, salubrious climate of southern Minnesota with the fertility of soil of central Illinois.”
D. Jerome Tweton D. Jerome “Jerry” Tweton is the host and moderator in the character of Dr. William Jayne, President Abraham Lincoln’s personal physician and the first governor of Dakota Territory. Tweton has worked several years with the North Dakota Humanities Council as a consultant and contributing author to numerous publications. Tweton is also the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of North Dakota and the recipient of the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s Larry Remele Award. He has authored/edited fourteen books and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Tweton originated a firstperson portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the NDHC Chautauqua, and portrayed John Jacob Astor for four seasons in the last Great Plains Chautauqua Society program. Tweton and his wife Paula own and operate the historic Beiseker Mansion, a bed-and-breakfast establishment in Fessenden, ND.
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Left: Citizen Know Nothing, Uncle Sam’s Youngest Son, Sarony & Co. 1854. Below: President Abraham Lincoln and General George McClellan, Oct. 3, 1862, photo by Alexander Gardner.
was the main order of business and tested the patience of Governor Jayne. Bon Homme, Vermilllion, and Yankton fought it out. At one point Jayne had to provide military protection for the speaker of the house whom Todd had thrown through a closed window. Yankton won. Moses Armstrong of the surveyor general’s office described the process: “A little blood was shed, much whiskey drunk, a few eyes blackened, revolvers drawn, and some running done.” If the politics of the 1862 legislative session were hectic, the September election of 1862 and the legislative session of 1863 surpassed hectic. The September election (1862) was the territory’s first general election. Voting irregularities were common: ballot box stuffing, minors and nonresidents voting. The election’s centerpiece was the contest for the representative to Congress. Governor Jayne decided to run against incumbent Todd. Voters had to choose between Mrs. Lincoln’s cousin and President Lincoln’s doctor. The canvassing board declared Jayne the winner by sixteen votes. But the ballots from Pembina, a Todd stronghold, arrived too late to be counted. Todd immediately filed a protest with Congress. The 1863 legislative session was a bitter, divisive affair. Because of disputed election results in several legislative districts, two sets of lawmakers from each district arrived in Yankton—one group was loyal to Todd, the other to Jayne. The attorney general ruled in favor of the Todd legislators; Jayne, however, refused to accept that decision and worked with his own lawmakers. Dakota Territory had two legislatures. Finally a compromise was worked out and the session completed its work in relative peace. Jayne resigned in late March after the session to begin his life as territorial delegate. Lincoln, upon Jayne’s recommendation, appointed Newton Edmunds, the chief clerk in the surveyor general’s office, to the governorship. Jayne took his seat in Congress in January 1864. In May, however, the House Committee on Elections ruled that the Pembina votes, which were overwhelmingly for Todd, should be counted. Todd was declared the winner. Jayne went back to Springfield where he served as mayor for several terms. 4
transform lives & strengthen communities The North Dakota Humanities Council is a statewide nonprofit providing humanities-based educational and cultural opportunities that transform lives and strengthen communities. Our programs—all free and open to the public—encourage people to reflect on and draw inspiration from our cultural variety, the ideas of our great thinkers, the pivotal events of our history, and the imaginative creations of our great writers.
Help us keep events like Chautauqua free and open to the public. Donate to the North Dakota Humanities Council.
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His Red Nation: The Tale of Little Crow By Dakota Goodhouse
Taoyate Duta, His Red Nation was born the winter that Little Beaver’s cabin burned down (1810), in the Dakota village of Kaposia, Not Encumbered With Much Baggage (St. Paul, MN), where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers converge. His Red Nation was so named by his father, a prominent Mdewakanton Dakota chief by the name of Cetan Wakhuwan Mani, Hawk Hunting Walks. Due to a mistranslation, and probably because of His Red Nation’s status as son to Hawk Hunting Walks, His Red Nation is more commonly recognized as Little Crow. His Red Nation will forever be associated with the 1862 Minnesota Dakota Conflict, but the conflict was only the latest of terrible events. To understand the conflict and its consequences, one must examine the precarious circumstances in which the Eastern Dakota found themselves. The Santee Dakota, or Eastern Sioux, had actively traded with the French and English since about 1640. The English pushed west of what was considered then the Northwest Territory, or present-day Ohio. Colonel Robert Dickson, a British trade agent at the turn of 1800, became good friends with the Santee. His Red Nation was still a toddler when the War of 1812 broke out. Dickson recruited hundreds of Chippewa and Dakota and led them into Ohio to fight against Americans. Hawk Hunting Walks, was among those who fought for the English.
Top: Little Crow, photo by Whitney, 1862. Middle: Dakota Chief Ta-oya-te-duta, known in English as Little Crow, sketched at Traverse des Sioux, Minnesota Territory, by Frank Blackwell Mayer, 1851. Bottom: Chetaii wakan manii, The Sacred Pigeon-hawk Which Comes Walking, by Charles Bird King, 1824.
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After the War of 1812, England and the United States signed the Treat of Ghent, ending warfare between the two countries. The treaty also gave control of Minnesota to the United States. The Santee would now have to deal with an unforgiving country they had initially fought against. Hawk Hunting Walks was honored with several gifts and accommodations from Colonel Dickson, but Hawk Hunting Walks refused them and was said to have kicked them, saying, “Now after we have fought for you, endured many hardships, lost some of our people, and awakened the vengeance of a powerful nation, our neighbours, you make a peace for yourselves, and leave us to get such terms as we can. You no longer need our services, and offer us these goods as a compensation for having deserted us. But, no—we will not take them; we hold them and yourselves in equal contempt.”
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Traditional warfare between the Santee and Chippewa resumed, regardless of the fact that they briefly fought alongside each other in the War of 1812. In 1823, Colonel Leavenworth led the Missouri Legion in a campaign against the Arikara on the Missouri River. About 750 Dakota and Lakota warriors fought for the United States under Leavenworth against an age-old foe in the first USled military campaign against a Plains Indian tribe. It was a crushing defeat for the Arikara, who abandoned their earthlodge villages and fled west. Their fields of corn, squash, and beans were plucked clean by the Dakota and Lakota who recalled the year as “The Winter Corn was Taken.” Charles King Bird painted Hawk Hunting Walks’ image on a visit to President James Monroe in 1824. Monroe congratulated the Sioux for their participation in breaking the Arikara out west; this, as sentiment grew in Washington that Indians should all be moved west of the Mississippi River. Hawk Hunting Walks returned to Minnesota, perhaps a little wary, and signed the Treaty of Prairie Du Chien of 1825 under the watchful eye of General William Clark, former captain of the Corps of Discovery. The treaty formalized tribal territories and sought to end generations of intertribal conflict.
west of the Missouri River, and continuing warfare with the Chippewa up north. Smallpox took the lives of thousands of Indians across the Plains. A massive star fall is remembered in nearly all winter counts. In 1846 Hawk Hunting Walks had a gun mishap in which he accidentally shot himself and died. Chieftanship of the Mdewakanton Dakota, whom Hawk Hunting Walks led, was in dispute. Hawk Hunting Walks had children with three wives. His Red Nation’s mother was a Wahpekute Dakota, and so his brothers from his father’s other wives conspired to keep the chieftanship within the Mdewakanton. All of Hawk Hunting Walks’ sons met at a tribal get-together. His Red Nation’s brothers attempted to assassinate him; at the last moment, however, a young man knocked the gun with his hatchet causing the bullet to strike His Red Nation in the arm, breaking it—it was never set properly and healed crookedly, leaving an awful scar. The conspiring brothers were condemned to death and His Red Nation became the chief. As a boy, His Red Nation engaged in sham fights to learn stealth and leadership. To gain a victory in a sham fight, a mock war party had to take the village by surprise, or it wasn’t a victory at all. When he was ten, His Red Nation took his village by surprise when he crept into it unseen with the aid of his dog. A few years later, a friend of his fell through the ice and His Red Nation risked his own life to save him with a line. He fell through the ice as well, but managed to save his friend. His Red Nation became known in his youth as a
In 1830 General Clark brought several bands of Sioux together to sign another Treaty of Prairie Du Chien, which ceded three large tracts of land to the United States for westward expansion into Minnesota. It was a treaty that the Dakota were hard-pressed to keep. The Sioux—Dakota and Lakota—had other concerns throughout the 1830s and 1840s. There was warfare with the Crow, Arikara, Pawnee, and Shoshone
Execution of the Thirty-Eight Sioux Indians by John C. Wise for the Library of Congress, 1863. 7
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A Dakota camp is invaded by Sully’s brigade during the Dakota Wars at the Battle of White Stone Hill, Dakota Territory, Harper’s Weekly, Oct. 31, 1863.
trusty messenger and a great hunter. In 1851, after years of preparation, the untimely death of his father, and an attempt on his life, His Red Nation received his first test in American bureaucracy at the Treaty of Traverse De Sioux in which the southern half of Minnesota was ceded to the United States, and the Treaty of Mendota, in which permanent agencies were established for the Dakota in Minnesota. The Dakota were to receive payments for their land cession and food supplements while they adjusted to a sedentary lifestyle. His Red Nation tried his best to placate the settlers and new Minnesota government by adopting the white man’s clothes. He also converted to Christianity and became an Episcopalian. His Red Nation even took up farming. In his best efforts to ensure peace in his homeland, which had become an island in the middle of non-Native settlement, His Red Nation went east to visit with President James Buchanan in 1860 to remind him that the Dakota fought for the United States under Leavenworth and had willingly signed and followed treaty stipulation. The United States had other concerns: the Civil War. By 1862, the Civil War was drawing on all the resources of the states from able men to fields of crops. The Indian agents and traders were suddenly faced with little supervision in their work and as the saying goes, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Indian agents in Minnesota were selling their wards’ food, supplies, and seed when it was supposed to have been distributed according to treaty. Meanwhile, a combination of drought, disease, and infestation nearly put an end to the growing season leaving little to harvest. The Dakota began to starve while warehouses stood full. The situation became desperate and in bad times the only choices left are bad choices. His Red Nation could not reassure his people, ease their anxiety, or feed them, and his ability to restrain his people weakened. On August 4, 1862, a desperate and hungry party of Dakota men broke into the food warehouse at the Lower Agency on the Minnesota River. The Indian Agent, Thomas Galbraith, ordered the soldiers under his command not to fire and immediately called for a council with His Red Nation and his people. At this hastily called council, His Red Nation reminded Galbraith that the Dakota were owed money to buy food and supplies and warned the agent that “when men are hungry, they help themselves.” A representative of the traders, Andrew Myrick, smartly retorted, “So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung.” With hunger abated for the moment, the Dakota returned home. A few days later, August, 17, five Dakota men were returning from an unsuccessful hunt and goaded one another to steal from a farmer on their return home. The theft turned into a gunfight which left five settlers dead. The hunters returned home and told of their exploit which rattled the Dakota community. Some were for turning in the five hunters, others were for outright war. His Red Nation was for keeping the peace but he was still their chief, and when an overwhelming number of his people wanted to fight, he reluctantly prepared for war. His Red Nation led the war party to Myrick’s house. They killed Myrick and then stuffed his mouth with 8
[civil war issue] grass for his cutting words. His Red Nation led them on a campaign along the Minnesota River with victories at New Ulm, which they burned to the ground, but only a month into their campaign against the settlers and soldiers, His Red Nation took a severe defeat in the Battle of Wood Lake, September 23. The defeat was such that His Red Nation broke for Canada. Men who fought under his leadership in a war he did not want to fight either fled for Canada as well, or journeyed west to Dakota Territory to live among their Teton relatives. The Dakota who surrendered after the Battle of Wood Lake were taken to Mankato, Minnesota. There, 303 Dakota men were convicted of murder and rape. The trials for many lasted five minutes or less. No one explained the proceedings, nor were any Dakota men represented. President Abraham Lincoln personally reviewed each case and commuted the death sentence of 264 of the Dakota men, and ordered thirty-nine to hang in the largest mass execution in US history on December 26, 1862. On January 1, 1863, just one week later, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
“So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung.”
The following summer, His Red Nation decided to risk a return to Minnesota with his seventeen-year-old son, Wowinape, Haven or Sanctuary but often translated as Place Of Refuge. His Red Nation and Haven decided to stop in a farmer’s field to gather raspberries. The farmer, Nathan Lamson, and his son engaged His Red Nation and Haven, mortally wounding His Red Nation. His Red Nation shot and wounded Lamson. His Red Nation told his son to run, even as Lamson’s son ran to get help. Lamson’s son ran about twelve miles to Hutchinson, Minnesota, and returned with a posse. At first the posse didn’t recognize that the dead Dakota man was His Red Nation, but as realization dawned on them that they had the body of “Little Crow,” they mutilated his body and brought it back to Hutchinson where they dragged it down Main Street. The citizens placed firecrackers in the dead man’s ears and allowed their dogs to chew on the body, which was tossed in an alley where refuse was typically discarded. Haven ran to Spirit Lake, Dakota Territory. He was captured around Fort Totten, tried, and sentenced to hang. Haven was sent to prison in Davenport, Iowa. There, he converted to Christianity and took the name Thomas Wakeman. He was pardoned in 1865, after the Civil War, and settled in Dakota Territory. In 1971, His Red Nation’s remains were returned to Jesse Wakeman, Haven’s son, for internment. Dakota Goodhouse is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Goodhouse is a theologian by education and a public historian by trade. His published works include Chapter 4 of “The Year The Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts At The Smithsonian” and articles in the First People’s Theology Journal, Vols. 2 & 8.
Jerome Kills Small Jerome Kills Small, Sisoka, or Red Robin, is Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Jerome is the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award from South Dakota Humanities Council, Reconciliation Award from the Governor of South Dakota, George Nickleson, University of South Dakota Poet of the Year in 1994, and he has awards and certificates for speaking at Red Road Retreat and the Building Bridges Conference. He has appeared in several videos for Iowa State University. Jerome has many talents and, as a traditional storyteller and oral historian, he presents workshops for both adults and children. Presently he portrays Tecumseh and Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, the first medicine doctor of the Lakota people, for the Nebraska and South Dakota Speaker’s Bureau and Chautauqua Series. He knows the origins and stories behind the flag song, patriotic songs of the Lakota, ceremonial songs, songs of the Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee and Big Foot. He is an arena director, conducts ceremonies, and explains cultural protocol. He makes drums and drum sticks, does feather work, made the staff for the first sun dance at Vermillion and constructs sweat lodges. Jerome and his wife grow and harvest foods and medicines in the Lakota tradition. 9
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General Ely Parker: We Are All Americans By Reuben Fast Horse Ha-sa-no-an-da (Leading Name) came into this world in 1828 on the Tonawanda Seneca Indian Reservation in upstate New York. He was the sixth child of seven, born to Jo-no-es-sto-wa (Dragonfly) a.k.a. William Parker and Ga-ont-gwut-twus or Ji-gon-saseh (Lynx) a.k.a. Elizabeth Parker. Both Dragonfly and Lynx walked with one foot in the Seneca Nation and the other in the United States. They immersed their children in the language and heritage of the Seneca Nation and the Iroquois Confederacy. Dragonfly was also a Baptist minister who baptized all his children and gave them Christian names. When Lynx was pregnant with her son Leading Name, she received a vision about the future of her baby: A son will be born to you who will be distinguished among his nation as a peacemaker; he will become a white man as well as an Indian, with great learning; he will be a warrior for the palefaces; he will be a wise white man, but will never desert his Indian people or ‘lay down his horns as a great Iroquois chief’; his name will reach from the East to the West—the North to the South, as great among his Indian family and the palefaces. His sun will rise on Indian land and set on the white man’s land. Yet the land of his ancestors will fold him in death. When Dragonfly baptized Leading Name at Ely Stone’s Baptist church, he gave his son the name “Ely Parker.” Parker was educated at Elder Ely Stone’s Baptist School early on in life and was later sent to an Iroquois settlement along the Grand River in Ontario to learn traditional hunting and fishing when he was ten years old. When Ely turned thirteen, he became extremely homesick and left for home in New York. On the road from London to Hamilton in Ontario, some British officers ridiculed him for his poor speech. Parker could understand what they said but was unable to comprehend the humor at his expense. Parker came away from the experience determined to master English. Parker’s parents approved of his initiative to learn the English language and sent him back to the mission school. His studies excelled, and he earned a tuition waiver to attend the Yates Academy in Orleans County, New York. At the academy he also studied Greek and Latin, which he mastered. Parker became so well versed in the studies and proficient in English at the age of fourteen that his people selected him to serve as their interpreter in their exchange with President John Tyler. As a teenager, when young people begin to develop and explore their interests, Parker became heavily involved in drafting and interpreting correspondence with the Ogden Land Company. The land company struck a private deal with the Seneca at Cattaraugus and the Seneca at Allegheny. Quaker missionaries advised these other two Seneca bands to sign over the lands of the Seneca at Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda. From 1842 to 1845, the land of the Tonawanda was seized and settled. Parker finished his studies at Yates Academy and enrolled at the Cayuga Academy in Aurora where he faced some hostility from classmates, though generally he was treated well. In 1846, the Seneca at Tonawanda called him back to defend with words on paper the right for the Seneca to stay at Tonawanda. He was eighteen years old when the Tonawanda Seneca took him with them to appeal their case with President James Polk.
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The Tonawanda Seneca appeal took five years to fight, and, in the end, Parker was credited with saving three-fifths of the Tonawanda reservation from the Ogden Land Company and was given fifty acres of land for his personal use. Parker’s academic pursuits received a boost in motivation when he visited Washington, D.C., in 1847 when he viewed a series of paintings of explorers, traders, and settlers in their meetings with the natives, such as the Pilgrims receiving food from the Indians, Captain Smith and Pocahontas, and Daniel Boone fighting Indians. When he went to church, he was asked to move himself to the seating above, instead of sitting in the main sanctuary. The slights he received and Parker’s own reflections about the injustices of all Indian peoples moved him to become a lawyer. He applied to Harvard, but received no word on his application. He applied for a clerkship in Washington, D.C., but no position opened up for him. Parker applied to take the bar exam in New York, but was denied when he was told he was not a U.S. citizen. Parker had become friends with Ely Morgan who tapped his network to get Parker a job as an engineer on the Genesee Valley Canal project. While he gained work experience as an engineer, he learned to country dance from a fellow’s wife. By 1850, Parker’s contacts, unparalleled work ethic, knowledge of the land, and engineering skills landed him a job in Rochester as a civil engineer on the New York canals. Parker’s friendship with Ely Morgan grew out of Morgan’s keen interest in documenting
Ely Parker wears his grandfather Red Jacket’s medal. The silver medal was given to Red Jacket by President George Washington in 1792. Photographer unknown, 1850s. Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.
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[civil war issue] Reuben Fast Horse Reuben Fast Horse is a traditional Lakota singer, dancer, flutist, drummer, craftsman, storyteller and educator. Born in 1971 on the Standing Rock Sioux (Lakota) Reservation, Fast Horse resides on the reservation at Little Eagle, South Dakota, and was certified by the Tribe and the North Dakota State Board of Education as an “Eminent Scholar.” He taught Lakota culture at the Standing Rock Elementary Grant School. In 1997, Fast Horse performed with Lunar Drive, a London-based band that draws upon American Indian music and dance for inspiration. Together they played in Belgium, France, and at the WOMAD World Music Festival in Reading, England. The summer of 1998 found Fast Horse performing at regional rendezvous events and powwows, and recording a new album with Lunar Drive. In the autumn of 1998, Reuben performed with Kevin Locke at several residencies, including a week at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. As an educator and cultural ambassador, Reuben speaks eloquently about the contributions of Native America to contemporary life: I love sharing this information and perspective with everyone because we all benefit from the knowledge and practices of the First Nations. If you peel back the layers of American history, you will find roots in Native America. Much of our foods, tools, medicines, and government structures derive from Ancient America. You will not find this knowledge in typical American history books, and as Americans we all should know our history.
the changing or disappearing cultural traditions of the Seneca. They worked together and produced Morgan’s League of the Ho-de-no-saunee, or Iroquois which was published in 1851. Morgan’s research and methodology has led many to regard him as the father of American anthropology. Morgan’s book was dedicated to Parker. Parker’s work with Morgan and legal fight with the Federal court system on behalf of the Seneca came to a head in September 1851. The council of the Six Nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) met and called on Parker to return, where they installed him as one of the fifty sachems of the Iroquois Confederacy. Parker was then selected as the Grand Sachem of the Six Nations. The new sachem was also given a new name: Do-ne-ho-gawa, “Open Door.” The sachem who traditionally carried this name was also the Keeper of the Western Door, the one whom all approaches by other tribes were made. Parker was twenty-three. Parker applied for a position with the U.S. Treasury Department in hopes of getting an assignment in Chicago, but when he was brought on, he was appointed to work on lighthouses on the Great Lakes in Michigan. His work on lighthouses on the lakes eventually brought him from Detroit, Michigan, to work on a public buildings in Galena, Illinois. There, in Galena, Parker became friends with Capt. Ulysses Grant. Politics in Illinois took a turn for the worse for Parker. The locals called him a stranger and resented his assignment there without their consultation. Petitions called for his 12
removal, but congressmen on the East Coast and his engineering associates in the canals overwhelmingly supported his work assignment in Illinois. Parker resigned after the construction of the Galena custom house was complete. Throughout Parker’s engineering career, tensions between the North and the South escalated into impending war. At an appearance in Dubuque, Iowa, Parker was called on to speak about the state of the country. He rendered a short speech about the founding of the country and the beliefs of the founding fathers; then Parker reached into his pocket and removed a medal for all to see. The medal was gift to his great-grandfather Red Jacket from President George Washington. Parker’s speech and the medal “awakened the spark of patriotism” of everyone present. Parker returned to Tonawanda and raised crops while he made every effort to enlist with the Union army. He sought commissions as an engineer, but was repeatedly declined because he was an Indian and not a U.S. citizen, despite the dire need for engineers. Several of his tribesmen found ways to enter the service, but Parker wanted a commission because of his education and experience. Parker waited two years. Brig. Gen. John E. Smith, a friend of Parker’s in Galena, knew of Parker’s desire to enlist as an officer. Smith got an endorsement from General Grant, another of Parker’s friends, and was commissioned to Grant’s staff as Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers with the rank of captain. The Seneca honored Parker’s commission with a feast and blessing before he went off to serve in the war.
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Left: Surrender at Appomattox, painting by Tom Lovell, 1987. Appomattox Court House National Historic Park. Right: Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and staff of fourteen, photo by Matthew Brady, 1860-1865. National Archives and Records Administration.
Parker was barely under Grant’s command a few days when he took ill and nearly died, but after his recovery, he accompanied Grant on the Chattanooga Campaign at the Battle of Orchard Knob and Lookout Mountain. When Grant was promoted lieutenant general and went east to Washington, Parker went with him. In General Grant’s move to cross the Rapidan River in Virginia, which precipitated the Battle of the Wilderness, Parker saved Grant from capture. On May 7, 1864, Grant was heading toward Confederate General Roger Pryor’s line. Parker sensed a trap and led Grant’s command away from Pryor’s line. Grant used Parker’s engineering skill to plan and dig entrenchments and post batteries. On one occasion, a Southern woman refused to vacate her home and told Parker that her husband was in command of nearby Confederate forces, and that he’d never fire on their house. Parker told the woman she could stay and he quickly ordered the line behind her house. In September 1864, Grant promoted Parker to lieutenant colonel, and he served as Grant’s personal secretary the remainder of the war. Parker was eventually promoted to the rank of brigadier general. On April 7, 1865, General Grant was closing in on General Lee’s command. Grant began a correspondence with Lee through Parker’s hand and on April 9, Lee met with Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House to discuss the terms of surrender with Grant, who took Parker with him. Grant’s staff met with Lee’s staff in the parlor of William McLean’s house where both staffs were formally introduced to one another. Lee was said to be courteous and cool, offering no further remark to Grant’s staff other than a salutation. When Parker was introduced to Lee, Lee paused for several seconds, startled, then extended his hand to Parker and said, “I am glad to see one American here.” Parker took Lee’s hand and replied, “We are all Americans.” Grant then had Parker compose the surrender papers, which Lee signed. After the war Grant appointed Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He was the first American Indian to hold this post and resigned from this position in 1871. Although Parker was recognized more for drafting the terms of surrender at Appomattox, his accomplishments in his life make apparent that he was a formidable man. Despite his difficulties and heritage, he set out to achieve whatever he put his mind to. Often we hear or read about heroic figures in our past, yet we don’t always hear about the person themselves. Who they were, what they were like, why they did what they did, and what remains, are the facts left for us to decipher about a person. Parker signifies the change we all have to make at some point in our lives to accept, to adapt, and to overcome, not just our obstacles or enemies but ourselves. This is what America is, and to be American is to honor the sacrifices of those who gave and believed in what they so desperately lived, bled, and died for. 13
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Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln: In Service of a Reconstructed Humanity By Charles Everett Pace
The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground, painting by Rick Reeves, 2004. US National Guard. 14
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Frederick Douglass, the most inspirational and influential black man of the Civil War era, demonstrated through his thoughts, words, and actions what it meant to be a public man in nineteenth-century America. Rising from his slave caste status to become an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln, Douglass, as abolitionist, advisor and critic of the president, illustrated how postwar reconstruction could be mirrored in personal terms as well. Because military necessity forced the reconstruction and merger of their personal and political relationship, their joint efforts during the Civil War proved that the long road from slavery to human equality, signified in the opening words of the Declaration of Independence, was a possibility for average Americans, black and white, not only in principle but in fact. Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln made visible the promise of reconstruction in their own lives.
Frederick Douglass, photograph by George K. Warren, 1879, National Archives.
In a letter, Douglass wrote to his abolitionist friend Gerrit Smith that, though he hoped for a Republican victory in the presidential election, he would cast his vote for the Radical Abolitionists’ candidate because, “I cannot support Lincoln.” Douglass’s abolitionist’s goals diverged from the status quo goals of the Republican party with Lincoln as its standard bearer. Lincoln personally felt that slavery was morally wrong. He argued that while the framers of the U.S. Constitution allowed slavery to continue, it was a compromise move—one that ensured the union of the southern and northern colonies that would form the United States of America. But Lincoln also argued that the framers believed that slavery would eventually be disbanded by those same states at some unknown time in the
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future. However, because slavery was the law of the land, Lincoln said he would uphold the law. What he and the Republicans did was to hold slavery within its present locales and restrict its expansion into any newly acquired territories. They believed in a policy of containment rather than a policy of abolition. Thus, though Lincoln confessed: “I have always [personally] hated slavery,” this tension between the personal and the political made Lincoln an unacceptable candidate to Douglass and his abolitionist cohorts. Yet, Douglass was also a realist, and, because of his own personal and political decisions, had himself incurred severe criticism, even ostracism, from abolitionist friends, including his mentor William Lloyd Garrison. In 1848, following his move from Lynn, Massachusetts, to Rochester, New York, Douglass, in becoming his “own man,” joined the political abolitionists in a move that placed him in at odds with the “moral persuasions” position of those who followed William Lloyd Garrison. They championed three main points that Douglass, after numerous conversations with Gerrit Smith, came to doubt and to eventually oppose. The Garrisonian position was: 1. The U. S. Constitution is a pro-slavery document, therefore they did not engage in party politics, a politics that derived its validity from said Constitution; 2. the church was a pro-slavery institution; and 3. moral persuasion should be the strongest action employed to overthrow the institution of slavery. Douglass, after a close reading of the Constitution, agreeing with Smith, argued that the Constitution was actually anti-slavery, and thus it was not only a proper but a wise choice to leverage the power of the political mainstream in his opposition to slavery. Second, Douglass eventually concluded while the Southern churches were pro-slavery and there should be no union with them, this restriction did not apply to northern churches that broke their affiliation with their southern counterparts. Finally, influenced by the ideas of John Brown, and outraged by the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the Fugitive Slave Bill, and The Dred Scott Decision in 1850, Douglass concluded that armed resistance might be necessary to opposed the growing power of the southern planters. Thus, by the time that he published his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom, in 1855, Douglass was indeed free, not only from the physical power of slaveholders to control his body and labor, but free from
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Garrison to control his mind. Because he was free to advance his own principles and abolitionist approaches, Frederick Douglass assumed the mantle of national leadership in his own right. In a sense then, Douglass, in restructuring and ‘reconstructing’ his position relative to the Garrisonians, succeeded in ‘reconstructing’ himself. Douglass, in making the transition from Maryland slave, to Massachusetts fugitive, to New York freedman, was now in a position to be both a moralist and a politician. He had positioned himself in such a way that he could, and sometimes did, shift his position in accordance with changes in the world. And, like Lincoln, Douglass understood the power of persuasive words to influence and sometimes even to control public opinion, as well as advance one’s moral and political agenda. Thus when it became clear that the “war of the rebellion” was not a skirmish, one that would be easily and effectively put down by northern troops, both Douglass and Lincoln escalated their efforts in personal and political reconstruction. With the realization that we were in the midst of a full-scale Civil War, Douglass emerged as an ardent supporter of Lincoln, even though he remained critical of his policy of only opposing the rebelling slave-holders, rather warring with real enemy, slavery itself. Douglass called for a war to free the slaves, as well as a war to save the Union. He also called for the even more radical position of arming black men to fight in the Union military. This was precisely the position that Lincoln, by late 1862, himself had reached. He declared in his Emancipation Proclamation that, as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states were now and “forever free.” Lincoln also adopted the radical position, long advocated by Douglass, that because northern blacks and runaway slaves could advance Unionist goals, and since the Confederacy was employing slave labor to support its war effort, and because of the debilitating psychological effect of Confederate troops facing armed black men fighting for their people’s liberation, black military might was a resource that must be tapped. Thus, when Lincoln gave the order, Douglass himself became a major recruiter of the Massachusetts 54th and 55th Regiments. His oldest sons were his first two recruits. Also, in a meeting with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton,
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Douglass agreed that upon receipt of his promised commission in the officer corps, he would join General Lorenzo Thomas in the Mississippi Valley. Because his promised commission was not issued, he refused to join the army, but did continue to recruit. The major question posed about black recruitment was, however, would they fight? This question was quickly settled by the brave action of black soldiers in the Battles of Milliken’s Bend and Vicksburg, Port Hudson in Louisiana and Ft. Wagner in South Carolina. And, according to Cornish, “An officially recorded number of 178,892 black men served in the Union armies, including some 7,000 noncommissioned officers and about 100 commissioned officers, virtually all at company-grade levels (a token few making it to field-grade level). (p.ix) In the end, it was this juxtaposition of the abolitionist War to Save the Union that set up Douglass to become a champion of Lincoln as a symbol of reconstructions ideals. It set Douglass on the road to becoming a staunch and lifelong Republican operative as well. After the war, Douglass worked to aid Lincoln’s Reconstruction aims—no small task. David Blight argues in Race and Reunion, after five years of combat with over 600,000 dead, northern and southern whites were much more willing to unify with each other than either side were to unify with blacks, whom they regarded as the primary beneficiaries of the war. Many, if not most whites, questioned not only the desirability but the very possibility of union, in terms of human equality between blacks and whites. It was around this issue that Douglass once again merged the personal with the political by leveraging the memory of his three wartime meetings with Lincoln as demonstrating the reality of black and white social relations based on the recognition of human equality. In so doing, he hoped that their personal and political relationship would serve as the living symbol of a racially unified America. Their ‘reconstructed’ relationship, beginning on opposite sides of the abolitionist question, and ending with a mutual policy of abolitionist unification, could serve as a model for the potential, reconstructed, equal relationship between blacks and whites in the nation as a whole. To make his point, Douglass often told the story of how Lincoln personally received him at his home, the White House. And, the symbolic nature of Douglass’s (and one must believe Lincoln’s) political agenda was not lost on the receiving public. As Oakes informs us: “The Anti-Slavery Society had printed the text of Douglass’s December address, with its brief but glowing account of his visit to the White House. The Democrats seized on Douglass’s words, churning them back in a pamphlet entitled Miscegenation Indorsed by the Republican Party…The Democrats took particular note of Douglass’s claim that the President had received him ‘as one gentleman receives another’” (Oakes, p. 229). In later years, Douglass made sure that his reception by the president got maximum contemporary and historical coverage, the most prominent being the “Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument, in memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park, Washington, D. C., April 14, 1876.” In this address Douglass portrays how Lincoln, during the course of his administration from 1860 to 1863, reconstructed himself—in both his racial consciousness and, in his relationship to blacks.
An officially recorded number of 178,892 black men served in the Union armies, including some 7,000 noncommissioned officers and about 100 commissioned officers.
54th Massachusetts Regiment, unknown photographer, 1862.
Frederick Douglass appealing to President Lincoln and his cabinet to enlist Negroes, mural by William Edouard Scott at the Recorder of Deeds building, Washington, D.C., 1943.
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During the opening moments of the oration, Douglass charts the change for the distinguished and mixed race crowd: “In his interests, his associations, his habits of thought and in his prejudices, he [Lincoln] was a white man” (Life and Times, p. 353). For example, he noted: “He was ready to execute all the supposed constitutional guarantees of the United States Constitution in favor of the slave system anywhere inside the slave states. He was willing to pursue, recapture, and send back the fugitive slave to his master, and to suppress a slave rising for liberty, though the guilty master were already in arms against the Government (Life and Times, p. 354).” Charles Everett Pace Charles Everett Pace has undergraduate and graduate degrees from The University of Texas at Austin (B.A., biology) and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana (M.A., American studies: history and anthropology). As well as being a program advisor at the Texas Union, University of Texas at Austin, Charles has taught at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Purdue University, and most recently at Centre College in Kentucky. His research area is the anthropology of performance, experience and visual communications. He has performed and conducted workshops in hundreds of cities across the United States, as well as in London. Pace has also conducted performancebased public diplomacy work for the United States Information Agency (USIA).
Works Cited Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (New York: Dover, 2003). Originally published in 1892 by DeWolf & Frisk Company, Boston. Dudley Taylor Cornish, The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 18611865 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1987). James Oakes, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007).
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But, as they were all aware, this was not the position of the president as the war continued. Yet, at the beginning of his administration, Lincoln, the self-made man, was a man of the masses. He was one of them in belief and behavior. But, in order to save the Union, Lincoln was forced into a confrontation with his own psyche and concluded that for our national salvation (and perhaps his own), he would have to, and he did, reconstruct his ideas, policies and behavior in tune with the realities of a changing and new world/national order. The result of this personal/political reconstruction is that former slaves were now citizens and the “divided house” was now unified. Thus, Lincoln serves as a model of the transition that others must and can make with the right type of leadership in place. And, because of this example, black people are in his debt and pay homage to his significance symbolically through the erection of the Lincoln monuments. Reflecting on this fact, Douglass goes on: “When therefore, it shall be asked what we have to do with the memory of Abraham Lincoln, or what Abraham Lincoln had to do with us, the answer is ready, full, and complete” (Ibid, p. 355). “He was assailed by abolitionists; he was assailed by slaveholders…he was assailed for not making the war an abolition war; and he was most bitterly assailed for making the war an abolition war. But now behold the change: the judgment of the present hour is, that, taking him for all in all, measuring the tremendous magnitude of the work before him; considering the necessary means to ends, and surveying the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into the world better fitted for his mission than was Abraham Lincoln” (ibid, p. 358). Through this oration, which Douglass delivered during the last full year of the Reconstruction years, he places the black race squarely within the actions of a civilized people. He places them within the world of artists and cultural workers, where literate and creative expression represents the height of what it means to be human. And thus, linking the monument’s dedication with the reconstructionist vision of the dead president, Douglass closes with the comforting admonition that when their humanity is questioned even further ”…we may point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln” (p. 361) and proclaim their right to sit at the seat of the highest reaches of a common humanity.
A statewide nonprofit organization, the mission of the North Dakota Humanities Council is to invest in the people of North Dakota by creating and sustaining humanities programs that provide us with a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better vision for the future.
Improve teaching and learning in schools North Star Dakotan provides teachers with a low-cost, educational and wellwritten text as they teach North Dakota history in their classrooms. This full-color series of newspapers brings history alive in an accessible and engaging format. Strengthen the capacity of key social institutions to provide education and services to their communities Museum on Main Street shares Smithsonian collections, research, and exhibitions with rural Americans, broadens public interest in American history and develops a heightened awareness of local heritage, and motivates small, rural museums to make lasting institutional advancements.
Promote lifelong learning and critical inquiry by making education and culture accessible community experiences Chautauqua uses theater as a vehicle for teaching American history in the town square. Read North Dakota encourages readers, writers, and educators to enjoy good literature rooted in North Dakota though community and classroom events, as well as providing web resources for authors and books at ReadND.org. Public Symposiums bring the citizens of the state together to explore the people, places and ideas that have played pivotal roles in shaping our nation and world.
Dakota Discussions improves literacy and revitalizes libraries by offering film and book discussions as mediums for renewing civic connections. Grants offered by the NDHC enhance the ability of institutions and organizations to deliver public humanities programs and opportunities.
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Karen Vuranch Storyteller, actress, and writer Karen Vuranch weaves together a love of history, a passion for stories and a sense of community. She is known for her traditional storytelling, plays based on oral history, and living history presentations of famous American women. She brings history to life through her unique performance style, which combines storytelling and drama to create an engaging presentation. She has an M.A. in Humanities from West Virginia Graduate College and teaches Introduction to Theater and Speech and Appalachian Studies for the Concord University Campus in Beckley. Through her interest in the humanities and belief in the importance of communities, Karen has built a reputation gathering oral history interviews and turning those true life experiences into performances. She feels it is important to preserve the personal and family stories of a community. She conducts residencies with elementary through high school students, teaching them to interview their family members and, in turn, tell their family stories. Recently she received a letter from a woman in West Virginia who took part in a group session Karen conducted when she was gathering oral history for a new play. The woman wrote, “Thank you for your workshop. I never thought before that my life was important. Now, I know that I am part of my country’s history.” Karen Vuranch is available for performances, workshops and residencies. She performs regularly for conferences, banquets, schools and arts events.
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Clara Barton, photograph by Matthew Brady, 1865. Clara Barton National Historic Site, National Park Service.
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Clara Barton: Civil War Nurse By Karen Vuranch As Clara Barton lay on her deathbed at the age of 90, her thoughts traveled back to her work on the battlefields of the American Civil War. To be sure, Barton’s selfless service during the war earned her a place in the annals of American history. But, she continued to achieve recognition after the battlefields. Clara Barton was famous even in her lifetime. She was the first woman ambassador for the United States, representing the nation at the Geneva Convention, the first woman prison warden in America, the first woman hired by the federal government in her own name, and, most importantly, the founder of the American Red Cross, as agency she created at the age of 60 and directed for more than 20 years. This agency is her legacy and is still a driving force in the United States today. But, despite these achievements, it was her experiences as a nurse on the Civil War battlefields that she thought of as she lay dying. While she certainly served in the capacity of a nurse, Barton had no training in the field of nursing. In fact, she was working as a
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copyist in the U.S. Patent Office prior to the war—one of the few women—and had been a classroom teacher before that. Certainly her life had been one of service and hard work, and she would define herself and her own worth through her service to others, according to her biographer Elizabeth Brown Pryor in Clara Barton: Professional Angel. There was an incident in her childhood that exemplifies this need to serve which has been credited by many biographers as a portent of her later life. Clara’s brother David, a dashing daredevil according to Clara in her autobiography, The Story of My Childhood, had clambered up the ridgepole of a newly raised barn in order to work on the rafters. A timber broke under his weight and he fell, causing a head injury. “He had been my ideal from earliest memory,” Clara recalled in her autobiography. “I was distressed beyond
“I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.” measure at his condition. I had been his little protégée, his companion, and in his nervous wretchedness, he clung to me.” For the next few years, David was bedridden, and Clara, a mere eleven years of age, insisted on being his primary caregiver, allowing no one else at his bedside. “I could not be taken away from him except by compulsion and he was unhappy until my return. I learned to take all directions for his medicines from his physician and to administer them like a genuine nurse,” she stated. Finally, after two years of constant care, David did eventually regain his health. But, with the exception of this incident, Clara had no experience as a nurse. It was the horrific stories of suffering on the battlefield that led her to campaign to be allowed to serve the wounded soldiers. She said, “I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.” Clara was not alone in her passion to end the suffering of the soldiers. There were many other women nurses working in the hospitals of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, led by Dorothea Dix, as well as countless unaffiliated women who took individual initiative (Pryor, p. 101). What makes Clara Barton distinctive, according to biographer Stephen Oates, is her persistence in working on the actual battlefield. Before Clara served at the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg, all battlefield nurses were male. Clara had to fight the propriety of the time and the commonly held belief that women could not endure the hardship of the battlefield, as well as society’s strict moral code that frowned upon unchaperoned women in company of men. Indeed, it was the mores of Victorian society that prevented women from nursing. The way for women nurses had been paved just a few short years before in the Crimean War by a group of thirty-eight nurses led by Florence Nightingale. Before Nightingale’s cadre of nurses went to the Crimean front, nurses were considered to be on the low rung of the social ladder, performing menial chores such as emptying slop Office of Missing Soldiers Tin Sign, Clara Barton National buckets. In fact, Nightingale herself said of these hospital helpers that Historic Site, National Park Service. they were generally “those who were too old, too weak, too drunken, too dirty, too stolid or too bad to do anything else,” according to Dr. Keith Wilbur in his book Civil War Medicine. Nightingale and her nurses changed the image of nurses from
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that of charwomen to well-trained and well-bred women. They worked quickly to address the issue of sanitation in the field hospitals and they were able to reduce the death toll from 42 percent to 2 percent (Wilbur, p. 7). As a result of her experiences, Nightingale wrote Notes on Nursing in 1859. This book was an important influence on Barton and other nurses of the American Civil War and was one of the first publications to address the importance of cleanliness and sanitation. Sanitation was a crucial issue in the hospitals of the Civil War. By all accounts, these field hospitals were gruesome places. Of the more than 600,000 casualties of the war, it is estimated that more than 400,000, or two-thirds of the soldiers, died of disease and infection in the hospitals (www.civilwarhome.com). What grisly sights would Clara Barton have seen in those hospitals? First, the field hospitals were filthy beyond description. The overworked surgeons and their staff had no time to clean up after a procedure, and had no knowledge of how infection spread. Surgeons would wear the same apron, soaked with blood and other bodily fluids, for each surgery and use the same implements without benefit of cleaning the instruments between operations, leading to extensive infection in the hospital wards.
Dead soldiers at Antietam, photo by Alexander Gardner, 1862. Antietam National Battlefield, National Park Service.
Furthermore, new technology had been introduced into this war with the invention of the minié ball; a conical, soft-lead rifle bullet that tore through human flesh, shattering and shredding bones (Oates, p. 61). As a result, a new surgical procedure was needed. Surgical resection or excision, which allowed for successful amputation of limbs, began during the war. According to Susan Provost Beller, in her book Medical Practices in the Civil War, resection and excision was not even mentioned in medical texts before 1861. By 1865, Beller states that it rated an entire chapter. The ability to successfully amputate arms and legs did indeed save many lives and led to the development of artificial limbs, a technology that would be helpful to society in general. But, the extensive use of amputation also led to “ghastly heaps of cut off arms and legs,” as Clara records in her diary (Oates, p. 65). Once the horror of the surgery was past, nurses like Clara Barton would then have to deal with the after-effect, often referred to as “surgical fevers,” resulting from the unsanitary state of Civil War surgery. Indeed, it would be 20 years before doctors understood the importance of sterile conditions. Deadly pyemia (a form of blood poisoning from pus in the blood) or evil-smelling gangrene would often spread through the wound. Pyemia had a 90 percent mortality rate, and to treat gangrene, the surgeon would simply amputate more of the limb. A second amputation had a 52 percent mortality rate, one author estimated. Besides infection that caused life-threatening dysentery, other deadly infectious diseases were commonplace in the hospitals. Typhoid, cholera, and malaria took the lives of many soldiers and nurses alike. Clara Barton herself suffered from an attack of typhoid fever after the battle of Antietam. Even the medical treatments of the day could be deadly. One of the most controversial treatments was the administration of calomel. Used to treat cholera, calomel was used as a purgative. Unfortunately, calomel is comprised of mercury and caused acute mercury poisoning. The patient’s
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Civil War Union Field Hospital, Photo by James F Gibson, 1862. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
teeth would loosen, hair would fall out, and the gums and intestines were destroyed, according to Fred Smoot in his web article King Cholera. Infection and disease were not the only enemies in the battlefield hospitals. The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in the bitter cold of winter. Soldiers were brought from the frozen battleground to houses commandeered as hospitals, such as Lacy House, where Clara served. Soon, the house was overwhelmed with wounded soldiers. Clara wrote in a letter to Soldiers’ Aid Society that the soldiers “covered every foot of the floors and porticos, [they] lay on the stair landings and under all the tables. A man who could find opportunity to lie between the legs of a table thought himself rich, he was not likely to be stepped on” (Oates, p. 116). Once there was no room in the house, and Clara tended men on the porch by heating bricks from a torn-down chimney and placing the hot bricks around the men to keep them warm. The sheer number of soldiers was daunting. Furthermore, the main supply station was at one end of the house. Elizabeth Pryor, Barton’s biographer, stated that Clara walked the equivalent of 20 miles a night, traveling back and forth between the supply station and the wounded. In fact, it was the experience of Clara and other medical staff in the Civil War that changed hospitals dramatically, creating the pavilion design of today, a central desk with smaller hallways branching off, like spokes of a wheel (Beller, p. 85). But Fredericksburg would bring another change for Clara. Prior to this, she was the only woman serving on the battlefield, rather than the war hospitals. Originally, her service had been limited to the evacuation sites and she had several volunteers, including some women, accompany her. When she was given permission to go to Antietam, she could only take a male volunteer, Cornelius Welles, with her. However, after the Battle of Fredericksburg, several Dix nurses from the U.S. Sanitary
Commission showed up to care for the sick and wounded. Biographer Stephen Oates claims this was an ominous development for Clara, as Miss Dix extended her sphere of influence and sought to exclude all unaffiliated female nurses like Clara from medical service (p. 125). As a result, Clara left her beloved Army of the Potomac and went to serve the Army of the James, stationed in Hilton Head, South Carolina, further away from the reach of Miss Dix. Clara actually did have authorization from the Army Quartermaster to work with the Army of the James, but still served as a volunteer, without salary. Dix’s nurses, by the way, earned $12 per month, while a male nurse in the army earned $20 per month (Oates, p. 23). It was while she served in the Sea Islands of South Carolina that Clara tended the wounded after the horrific battle at Battery Wagner. As Stephen Oates puts it, many Union soldiers fought and died bravely there, but the regiment that won the highest accolades was the 54th Massachusetts, a regiment comprised of AfricanAmericans. Clara was as devoted to these soldiers as any, praising their bravery and thinking that justice was served as the black man had been “permitted to strike a lawful, organized blow at the fetters which bound him body and soul” (Oates, p. 174). Clara had been an ardent abolitionist before the war and the exemplary action of the 54th Massachusetts only served to reinforce her belief in the importance of racial justice. Barton continued to serve as a nurse for the remainder of the war, but another challenge presented itself toward the war’s end. Clara, now famous throughout the nation, received hundreds of letters from women worried about their missing sons or husbands. Clara sympathized with them. Her own brother, Stephen Barton, had been missing behind enemy lines and, when Clara finally found him, he was languishing in a prisoner-of-war camp. Clara was able to procure his release and brought him to Hilton Head to nurse. Sadly, he died of the ravages of the terrible
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conditions of the prison camps. So, when asked by women to find the whereabouts of missing soldiers, Clara could identify with their loss and grief. She approached President Lincoln with the idea of establishing an Office of Missing Soldiers. Lincoln supported her plan and, following the war, Clara continued to serve her country by leading a campaign to identify the whereabouts of soldiers missing in action. Due to her persistence, the graves of 22,000 soldiers were identified. These efforts included a trip to the notorious southern prison of Andersonville, where thousands of Union soldiers were reinterred in proper graves, and Clara raised the American flag over this new national cemetery. Clara’s service to humanity did not end with the Civil War and the ensuing work with the Office of Missing Soldiers. Her firsthand experience with the desperate need for supplies and medical help in the face of disaster led her to create the American Red Cross, an agency that continues to this day to provide war and disaster relief. Although Clara Barton was both catalyst and inspiration for the success of the American Red Cross, it was her days nursing on the battlefields of the Civil War that remained her glory days, and she often recalled those experiences throughout her life. As she lay dying, it was the battlefields of the Civil War that she relived in her mind. She had fallen ill with pneumonia shortly after celebrating her ninetieth birthday and, as the days progressed, she grew worse, drifting in and out of consciousness. On April 10, according to her biographer Pryor, she suddenly awoke and told of a dream she had where she was again on the battlefield, wading through blood and watching the men in agony. She said, “I crept round once more, trying to give them at least a drink of water to cool their parched lips.” Two days later, the beloved heroine of the battlefield passed away, leaving a legacy of selfless commitment to the service of others.
Works Cited Barton, Clara. The Story of My Childhood. NY: Baker & Taylor Co., 1907. Beller, Susan Provost. Medical Practices During the Civil War. Betterway Books, 1992. Hicks, Robert. Widow of the South. Grand Central Publishing, 2005. Goellnitz, Jenny. http://ehistory.com.osu.edu Oates, Stephen B., A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War, NY: The Free Press, 1994. Pryor, Elizabeth Brown, Clara Barton: Professional Angel, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987. Smoot, Fred. Sickness and Death in the Old South: King Cholera. http://www. tngenweb.org/darkside/cholera.html Wilbur, Dr. C. Keith. Civil War Medicine. The Globe Pequot Press: Guilford, CT. 1998. http:// www.civilwarhome.com
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Her firsthand experience with the desperate need for supplies and medical help in the face of disaster led her to create the American Red Cross...
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The History of Chautauqua The name is shrouded in mystery with at least three different translations from the native tribes who used to live upon its shores. One possible meaning is “Bag-Tied-In-The-Middle,” which supposedly references the shape of the lake. A second possible meaning is “Place-Where-FishAre-Taken,” and yet a third translation has it as “Place-Of Easy-Death.” In 1872, Methodist minister John Vincent had it in mind to offer instruction to Sunday school teachers outside along the scenic lake. In a few short years, the instruction style became so popular that in 1874, Vincent and an associate of his established the Chautauqua Institution. As a religious movement, Chautauqua spread across the country as a religious revival that was frequently hosted in large tents. Key components of Chautauqua were Christian instruction, preaching, worship, and band music. Gradually, lectures about other subjects appeared in the tent, such as politics, comedy or performance arts, philosophy, culture, and history. The popularity of the movement was undeniable. President Theodore Roosevelt even said it was “the most American thing in America.” But in 1940, the movement stalled. Americans were concerned about the war in Europe and worried about being drawn into the conflict, and Americans had just started to recover from the greatest economic disaster in U.S. history. Though the movement ended, the Chautauqua Institution in New York is still operating. The Contemporary Chautauqua Movement In the 1970s, Everett Albers, NDHC executive director, boldly reimagined and relaunched the modern Chautauqua movement as a series of scholars offering first-person interpretations of historical figures; that is, scholars dressed to look and sound like their subjects, scholars who so meticulously research their subject that he or she could answer contemporary questions based on what his or her subject believed, wrote, and practiced.
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Dickinson State University, where Albers taught, offers this summary of Albers’ work in the humanities: Everett C. Albers, born in the heart of North Dakota in Oliver County and a 1966 graduate of DSU, served the North Dakota Humanities Council as its first executive director from its beginning in 1973 until his too-early death in April of 2004. While a humanities professor from 1969-73, he created an integrated core humanities program. Among his other achievements, Albers created the contemporary humanities tent Chautauqua movement, founded the Great Plains Chautauqua Society, and authored several books and publications about North Dakota. Albers was a pioneer in arranging dialogs between academic humanities scholars and the general public, and was deeply committed to the idea that the humanities belong to all the people of North Dakota and the nation. The North Dakota Chautauqua was renamed the Everett Albers Chautauqua after Albers’ passing, in memory of his work in the humanities.
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Left: 1854 Ruston Chautauqua, Louisiana, unknown photographer, 1854. Louisiana Tech University’s Archives. Below: Everett Albers, North Dakota Humanities Council, circa 2001.
Chautauqua Comes to Bismarck Why is the Everett Albers Chautauqua coming to Bismarck? There are many reasons. Located near the confluence of the Missouri and Heart Rivers, the location has been continuously culturally occupied for a thousand years. The location has been historically important, from the Mandan Indians’ Looking Village which was abandoned in 1781 after a smallpox epidemic; the Canadian Red Leaf Fort which was established after Lewis and Clark passed by and was destroyed by the Dakota people in 1818; to General Sibley’s punitive campaign of 1863, when he encountered a force of a thousand Dakota and Lakota warriors in conflict at the mouth of Apple Creek; and the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The City of Bismarck was established in 1872 as Edwinton, shortly after the military established Camp Greeley. The camp and town changed names in 1873, to Bismarck and Hancock, respectively, in an effort to attract German immigrants to Dakota Territory. The City of Bismarck was once a true wild west town. Brothels and bars lined Fourth Street. In a few years, there were more cowboy types dying of fisticuffs and gunfights than in either Tombstone or Deadwood.
Chautauqua “The most American thing in America.” The violent image of the lawless old west town is something that Bismarck reckoned with right away. In fact, the community of Bismarck carefully and deliberately dealt with the outlaw image that the reputation of the old west is remembered by few.
View of the city of Bismarck, Dak. Capital of Dakota and county-seat of Burleigh-County 1883, North Dakota, Beck & Pauli, lithographers, 1883.
Chautauqua: The Civil War: Conflicts Across The Country The Everett Albers Chautauqua brings together five great historic characters as different in culture and background as can be: Colonel Ely Parker, the Union officer who drafted the surrender papers which General Lee signed at Appomattox; Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross; Frederick Douglass, a former slave; Little Crow, a Santee Sioux chief in the Minnesota Dakota Conflict of 1862; and Dr. William Jayne, first governor of Dakota Territory and President Lincoln’s personal physician, who will serve as moderator for the event. The American Civil War and the Reconstruction following are remembered as one of the most trying times in U.S. history. The varied backgrounds of our Chautauqua scholars reflect the American Civil 27
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The 8th Minn Infantry Mounted in the Battle of Ta Ha Kouty, by Carl Ludwig Boeckmann, Minnesota State Historical Society.
War which reached across the continent to the women at home tilling the fields in their husbands’ and sons’ absence; throughout Indian Country as captured Confederate soldiers were sent west to police the frontier as “galvanized Yankees” so that they wouldn’t have to fight against their fellow southerners; to the slaves who waited for the end of the war to gain their freedom; to the brave women who left their homes to comfort the wounded, dying, and broken on the field of war. We Are All Americans William Jayne was as interested in politics as he was in practicing medicine. Jayne was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1826. He entered Illinois College when he was eighteen, then graduated in medicine from the University of Missouri in 1849. Whether it was his Protestant upbringing, education, or by personal convictions, Jayne was as much an abolitionist as he was a “Nativist,” meaning, he believed in curbing immigration and naturalization. He joined the American Republican Party, also called the Native American Party, but more commonly known as the Know-Nothing Party. Shortly after Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office as the sixteenth U.S. president, Lincoln appointed Jayne as Dakota Territory’s first governor. Frederick Douglass was born and raised in the institution of slavery. His childhood was a horror to recall. He wrote, “He lashed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to leave the marks for a long time after.” Douglass was introduced to letters by his master’s wife, then 28
by sympathetic Anglo boys who lent him their books. Douglass is most known for his abolitionist efforts prior to the American Civil War. Clara Barton was eleven years old when her brother fell off the roof and nearly died from injuries until Barton nursed him back to health. Barton’s pursuits as an educator became stalled when the board of her school, which she started, hired a male teacher; she took to working for the U.S. Patent Office. Barton’s career was short-lived with the patent office which demoted her from clerk to copyist. Things changed for Barton after the First Battle of Bull Run. She collected medical supplies and obtained permission to enter the front lines to care for the wounded. Barton crossed paths with Frederick Douglass and became not just an advocate for women’s rights, but an abolitionist as well. Barton later founded the American Red Cross.
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Ely Parker’s story begins in 1828 on the Tonawonda Indian Reservation as Hasanoanda, or Leading Name. His parents baptized him with the Christian name of Ely Samuel Parker and raised him in the tradition of the Seneca Nation, but, at the same time, sent him to a mission school. His heritage was as important to him as much as becoming a U.S. citizen, and in 1851, he was made the sachem of the Seneca and renamed Donehogawa, or Keeper of the Western Door. Parker took the New York bar exam after years of study but was denied because he was Indian. When the Civil War broke, Parker worked as a civil engineer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He tried to enlist but was turned aside, again, because he was Indian. Parker knew the Union was short on civil engineers, so he called on his friend Ulysses Grant, who commissioned him a captain. Parker later wrote the surrender papers which General Lee signed at the Surrender of Appomattox. When Lee saw Parker he exclaimed, “I am glad to see one real American here,” Parker responded with, “We are all Americans, sir.” The least understood among these historical figures is Little Crow. Little Crow is perhaps known best for his role in leading the Dakota against settlers in the Dakota Conflict in Minnesota, 1862. His name was actually not Little Crow but Taoyate Duta, which means “His Red Nation.” Little Crow fought with his own brother to lead the Dakota after the death of their father, and won the right to lead. Little Crow signed two major treaties during his chieftainship, both of which had serious repercussions for his people and the settlers who came to the Minnesota River. When the Civil War started, resources such as supplemental food, clothing, and funding halted while they transitioned to the west bank of the Minnesota River. A poor decision by a hunting party to attack a settlement resulted in what some call the Sioux Uprising. The Civil War Came To Dakota Territory With most battles in the Civil War fought in the east and south, Americans seldom relate the war to the history of the West. It did, however, spread west to Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and even Dakota Territory. In 1863, the commands of Generals Sibley and Sully were pulled from active Civil War service and brought west to plan and execute a punitive campaign against the Dakota in retaliation for the uprising the previous year. Their only objectives were to meet and engage Sioux forces, and take prisoners. Many North Dakotans have heard of two of the campaigns’ major conflicts: Whitestone Hill and Killdeer. The Dakota and Lakota peoples have a difficult time reconciling how the conflicts are known with their ancestral experiences of these sites. For example, Whitestone Hill is promoted as a battlefield, despite North Dakota Century Code only designating it as Whitestone Hill State Historic Site. Native descendants of the Whitestone Hill incident across the Great Plains refer to it as a massacre. In 1863, General Sully’s command opened fire on the Dakota and Lakota at Whitestone Hill and took just over 200 prisoners, mostly women and children, the rest of the encampment—well over a thousand by Sully’s account—escaped. More Union soldiers died at Whitestone Hill killing each other than by the hand of the natives. That same year, General Sibley left Fort Pierre a month behind schedule. Sibley headed north along the Missouri River to a rendezvous with Sully at the Heart River. Having missed Sully entirely, but arriving when a Lakota encampment was set up above Apple Creek on a strong bluff, Sibley engaged what he estimated as a force of one thousand warriors over the course of three days. Sibley took no prisoners and could not estimate if his command killed any of the Lakota. On July 28, 1864, General Sully and his command of more than 4000 soldiers—half of them directly under Sully’s command— the largest U.S. military campaign against an Indian tribe in the country’s history, surrounded a Lakota encampment at Tahċa Kutėpi (Where They Hunt Deer; Killdeer). Sully estimated that his command killed up to 150 warriors, though Lakota estimates say 31 lives were lost. The next day, despite running low on food supplies, Sully ordered a pursuit of the Lakota into the Badlands. A running battle between scattered Lakota war parties and Sully’s command ensued between Sentinel Butte and present-day Medora, which lasted from August 7 to 9, 1864.
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The History of St. George’s Episcopal Church By Amy Juhala, Associate Professor of English at Bismarck State College
The first Episcopal Church service in Bismarck was held in the Capitol Hotel on March 8, 1873, when James Humbert, infant son of Lt. and Mrs. Humbert of Camp Hancock, was baptized by the Rev. Charles Swift. On July 5, 1876, the Far West riverboat docked in Bismarck after a fifty-four hour voyage downriver from the Little Bighorn, bearing news of General Custer’s defeat. The news was brought immediately to Camp Hancock where Bismarck’s only telegraph line carried the news to St. Paul, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The news of a major military campaign’s utter defeat wrinkled the United States’ centennial celebration. After the message was sent, it was imperative to keep the wire open until further details could be gathered from the survivors aboard the Far West. Colonel Lounsberry, also the editor of the Bismarck Tribune and a correspondent of the New York Herald, reached into his pocket and pulled out the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer and set it on the operator’s desk with the instruction, “Send this!,” and he did. Bishop Clarkson of Nebraska made a visit to Bismarck. In the fall of 1877, he appointed the Rev. J. A. Graham of Brainerd, Minnesota, to conduct services in Bismarck on the third Sunday of each month. The church service was held in the old city hall located on the east side of Fourth Street between Broadway and Thayer Avenues. The ladies of the congregation organized a New England dinner which earned them $200. This encouraged them to continue with the organization of the church. In 1878 the Rev. Miller became the first resident missionary. Church services were conducted in a new brick schoolhouse, located where the Provident Life Insurance building now stands, and the Protestant Episcopal Church of Bismarck was organized. At the request of Bishop Clarkson, the board of directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad deeded six lots to the church. These lots were located on the northeast corner of Mandan Street and Avenue A and cost a total of $30. The construction of a church building was completed by June 1881. Given the name The Church of the Bread of Life, the first Episcopal church of Bismarck was consecrated on Whitsunday by Bishop Clarkson, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Batterson of Philadelphia. The cost of the building was $2000 without furnishings. 30
St. George, photograph by Dakota Goodhouse, North Dakota Humanities Council, 2012.
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In 1882, the bell from the ill-fated steamboat Red Cloud was given to the Bismarck Episcopal community by Captain I. P. Baker, which was mounted in the belfry under his supervision. The bell was given to the Red Cloud by a pioneer Nebraska community in honor of the Oglala Lakota chieftan Red Cloud. The steamboat burned on the Upper Missouri but the bell was salvaged by an insurance company and bought by Captain Baker for the new Bismarck Episcopal Church. The bell has called worshippers to service since. In 1887, the church’s name was changed to St. George’s Episcopal Church. People thought the name, Bread of Life, suggested that the congregation was high church, an idea which they did not wish to promote. Around the turn of the century, the church building was moved to Third Street and Thayer Avenue. This old historic church building has been moved from that location to Camp Hancock, where it has been preserved and is now open to the public and used occasionally for special services. In April 1938, a new church was discussed with Bishop Atwill and, in 1941, H. M. Leonhard, an architect and member, was invited by the vestry to develop plans and estimates for the new building. Construction was begun after the war. On September 10, 1949, the members of St. George’s parish attended the first services in the new church, now called St. George’s Episcopal Memorial Church. The
These fragments... [were] salvaged from churches in southeast England destroyed by enemy bombing raids during World War II. church building is noted for its many memorials and especially the stained glass windows. They were made in Brighton, England, by the firm of Barton, Kinder, and Alderson. All of the blue/green-bordered windows contain (in the border) fragments of glass salvaged from churches in southeast England destroyed by enemy bombing raids during World War II. Some of this glass dates back to the twelfth century, and in the window borders, one may see a glass fragment of a hand, foot, or forehead that had once graced another church. The church has remained essentially unchanged since its construction except for two improvements. St. George’s aging organ was replaced by a Moller pipe organ in 1986. To accommodate the new organ in the sanctuary, the altar was moved forward closer to the chancel steps. The congregation welcomes you to St. George’s Episcopal Church. Church of The Bread of Life, photograph by Dakota Goodhouse, North Dakota Humanities Council, 2012.
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Stained Glass window with the Great Seal of North Dakota, photograph by Dakota Goodhouse, North Dakota Humanities Council, 2012.
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in Bismarck
Living history scholars will present the stories of four people who played significant roles in the Civil War in America: Little Crow, who led the Santee Dakota in the Dakota Conflict of 1862, portrayed by Jerome Kills Small; Gen. Ely Parker, the Seneca Indian chief and Union general who drafted the surrender papers signed by Confederate General Lee at Appomattox, portrayed by Reuben Fast Horse; Frederick Douglass, the former slave, abolitionist, and writer, portrayed by Charles Everett Pace; and Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, portrayed by Karen Vuranch. Governor William Jayne who was President Lincoln’s personal physician and first governor of Dakota Territory, portrayed by Dr. D. Jerome Tweton, will moderate the Chautauqua presentations.
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Programs will be held at three locations near downtown Bismarck: the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library (515 North 5th St.), St. George’s Episcopal Church (601 North 4th St.), and the Former Governors’ Mansion (320 East Ave. B).
Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012 10:00 AM Children’s program by Charles Everett Pace at the Bismarck Public Library (BPL) 2:00 PM Adult workshop by Karen Vuranch at the BPL 6:30 PM Musical prelude, Reuben Fast Horse at St. George’s 7:00 PM Little Crow at St. George’s Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012 10:00 AM Children’s program by Karen Vuranch at the BPL 2:00 PM Adult workshop by Jerome Kills Small at the BPL 6:30 PM Prelude by Dakota Goodhouse at St. George’s 7:00 PM Gen. Ely Parker at St. George’s Friday, Sept. 7, 2012 10:00 AM Children’s program by Jerome Kills Small at the BPL 2:00 PM Adult workshop by Reuben Fast Horse at the BPL 6:30 PM Musical prelude, Al Johnson at St. George’s 7:00 PM Frederick Douglass at St. George’s
Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012 1:00 PM Children’s program by Reuben Fast Horse at the BPL 2:00 PM Adult workshop by Charles Everett Pace at the BPL 3:00 PM Clara Barton at St. George’s 4:00 PM Chautauqua Scholar meet-and-greet at the ND Governor’s Mansion
North Dakota Humanities Council 418 E. Broadway, Suite 8 Bismarck, ND 58501 800-338-6543 council@ndhumanities.org
ndhumanities.org
We have ways of making you think. Board of Directors CHAIR Tayo “Jay” Basquiat, Mandan VICE CHAIR Kate Haugen, Fargo Najla Amundson, Fargo Barbara Andrist, Crosby Paige Baker, Mandaree Aaron Barth, Fargo Virginia Dambach, Fargo Tim Flakoll, Fargo Kara Geiger, Mandan Melissa Gjellstad, Grand Forks Kristin Hedger, Killdeer Janelle Masters, Mandan Christopher Rausch, Bismarck Jaclynn Davis Wallette, West Fargo Susan Wefald, Bismarck STAFF Brenna Daugherty Gerhardt, Executive Director Kenneth Glass, Associate Director Dakota Goodhouse, Program Officer Angela Hruby, Administrative Assistant The North Dakota Humanities Council is a partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The humanities inspire our vision of a thoughtful, respectful, actively engaged society that will be able to meet the challenge of sustaining our democracy across the many divisions of modern society and deal responsibly with the shared challenges we currently face as members of an interdependent world.
“We are all Americans.” — General Ely Parker
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