Video - Lake Minnewaska Sunsets

Pictures set to music, what a way to enjoy the sunsets of Lake Minnewaska.  Turn up your volume and watch this on your big screen please.

Indian Schools Revisited

I write this report today because of a monument I found today in the cemetery near Clontarf.  See picture below.

Last year I wrote about the Indian Boarding Schools, in particular the school at nearby Clontarf.  The Great Northern Railroad brought native youth from the plains to the schools so that they could become “civilized”.

This is what achieving civilization looked like in practice: Students were stripped of all things associated with Native life. Their long hair, a source of pride for many Native peoples, was cut short, usually into identical bowl haircuts. They exchanged traditional clothing for uniforms and embarked on a life influenced by strict military-style regimentation. Students were physically punished for speaking their Native languages. Contact with family and community members was discouraged or forbidden altogether. Survivors have described a culture of pervasive physical and sexual abuse at the schools. Food and medical attention were often scarce; many students died. Their parents sometimes learned of their death only after they had been buried in school cemeteries, some of which were unmarked.

Minnesota had sixteen boarding schools that drew students from all eleven of the state’s reservations. The earliest was White Earth Indian School, begun in 1871. In 1902, St. Mary’s Mission boarded an average of sixty-two students, Red Lake School seventy-seven, and Cross Lake forty two. At Morris, more than two thousand children attended the school during its history. White Earth had room for 110 students. Clontarf housed an average of 130 children from reservations in Dakota Territory. By 1910, Vermilion Lake held 120 students. Cass/Leech Lake opened with a capacity of fifty students. Pipestone housed children from Dakota, Oneida, Pottawatomie (Bodéwadmi), Arikara, and Sac and Fox (Sauk and Meskwakwi) tribes.

Methods of discipline at Minnesota boarding schools were harsh. Some schools had cells or dungeons where students were confined for days and given only bread and water. One forced a young boy to dress like a girl for a month as a punishment; another cut a rebellious girl’s hair as short as a boy’s. Minnesota boarding schools recorded epidemics of measles, influenza, blood poisoning, diphtheria, typhoid, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, pneumonia, trachoma, and mumps, which swept through overcrowded dormitories. Students also died from accidents such as drowning and falls.

The monument I spotted today denotes the burial site of fourteen students of the Clontarf school.  They were of the Sioux and Chippewa Nations.

 

 

Sunset of June 17

 

“Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A sunset paints the sky as if there were no tomorrow.” – Anthony T. Hincks

 “If you are in a beautiful place where you can enjoy sunrise and sunset, then you are living like a lord.” – Nathan Phillips

 “When your world moves too fast and you lose yourself in the chaos, introduce yourself to each colour of the sunset.” – Christy Ann Martine

 “No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.” – Maya Angelou

 “Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.” – Richard Paul Evans

 

“O, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.” – Roman Payne

 

“Sunsets are proof that no matter what happens, every day can end beautifully.” – Kristen Butler

 

“Dawn and dusk are mutual friends of the sun; one opens the door for him to a brand new day and the other one has to shut it to embrace the darkness of night.” – Munia Khan

“Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It’s the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist.” – Mia Kirshner

“The sun was a fiery furnace of gold, but finally it set in the west and the cosmos glittered like a million burning embers, briefly reminding Awa of poetry readings under starry skies in Timbuktu.” – Rehan Khan

If you like Sunrises too, you will like this Donovan tune.

Colours

Pheasant

When you set out your bird feeders you can expect many visitors.  Gophers, chipmunks, squirrels, and birds both great and small.

Here is a surprise visitor, a pheasant.