Showing posts with label South Dakota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Dakota. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Today In Wyoming's History: Major Gale "Buck" Cleven

Today In Wyoming's History: Major Gale "Buck" Cleven:  

Major Gale "Buck" Cleven

 


In the Apple TV series Masters of the Air, one of the characters is Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven, who reports himself as being from Casper twice in the first episode.

Who was he, and was he really from Casper?

Clevens was born in Lemmon, South Dakota, on December 27, 1918, just after the end of World War One.  His family moved to Casper when he was still a child, although I'm not certain when, as they moved first to Lusk, in 1920.  He likely was a 1937 graduate from Natrona County High School, the only high school in Casper at the time (Natrona County had a second one in Midwest).  Following graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wyoming while also working on drilling crews as a roughneck.

He did, in fact, move at some point to Casper, where he was employed as a roughneck on drilling crews.  He used the money he earned to attend the University of Wyoming and was enrolled by the fall of 1937, presumably right after high school.  His name appears in the social pages of The Branding Iron as having had a date attend the men's residence hall October dance.  He was a guest of a different young lady at the 1939 Tri Delts Halloween sorority dance.  The same year he was apparently in a fraternity, as he's noted as having attended the Phi Delta Theta dance with, yes, another young lady.  In February 1939 he went to a fraternity dance with Nova Carter, whom I believe I'm related to by marriage.  A year later, February 1940, he took a different gal to the same dance.

He left UW in 1941 to join the Army, intent on being a pilot.  The October 21, 1943, edition of the UW Student Newspaper, The Branding Iron, notes him (inaccurately) as being stationed in North Africa and having received the Distinguished Service Cross, which he in fact did receive for piloting his badly stricken plane from Schweinfurt to North Africa, the flight path taken on that raid. This even is depicted in Masters of the Air.  The Branding Iron noted that he had attended UW for three years.  In June, 1944, the student newspaper reported him a POW.  He's noted again for a second decoration in the March 2, 1944, edition, which also notes that he was a Prisoner of War.

As depicted in Masters of the Air, his B-17 was in fact shot down over Germany.  He ended up becoming a POW, as reported in the UW paper, at Stalag Luft III for 18 months, after which he escaped and made it to Allied lines.  He was put back in the cockpit after the war flying troops back to the United States.

Following the war, he was back at the University of Wyoming.  He graduated from UW with a bachelor's in 1946.  He apparently reentered the Air Force after that, or was recalled into service, and served in the Korean War, leaving the Air Force around that time.

He was on the Winter Quarter 1954 UW Honor Roll and obtained a Masters Degree, probably in geology, from UW in 1956.  Somewhere in here, he obtained a MBA degree from Harvard and an interplanetary physics doctorate from George Washington University.  

He married immediately after the war in 1945 to Marjorie Ruth Spencer, who was originally from Lander Wyoming.  They had known each other since childhood.  She tragically passed away in 1953 while visiting her parents, while due to join Gale at Morton Air Force Base in California.  Polio was the cause of her death, and unusually her headstone, in Texas, bears her maiden name.  Reportedly, her death threw Cleven into a deep depression.  He married again in 1955, to Esther Lee Athey.

His post-war career is hard to follow.  He flew again during the Korean War, as noted, which would explain the gap between his bachelors and master’s degrees, and probably his doctorate.  He's noted as having served again during the Vietnam War, and also has having held a post at the Pentagon.  He was in charge of EDP information at Hughes Aircraft.  Given all of that, it's hard to know if an intended career in geology ever materialized, or if his World War Two service ended up essentially dominating the remainder of his career in the form of military service.  The interplanetary physics degree would and employment by Hughes would suggest the latter.  His highest held rank in the Air Force was Colonel.

Following retirement, he lived in Dickenson, North Dakota, and then later at the Sugarland Retirement Center in Sheridan.  He died at age 86 in 2006, and is buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his marker noting service in three wars.

Monday, May 8, 2023

Tuesday, May 8, 1973. End of the Seige at Wounded Knee.

Today In Wyoming's History: May 81973    Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.

US Marshals with duck hunter pattern camouflage raise the flat at Wounded Knee. From https://www.usmarshals.gov/who-we-are/history/historical-reading-room/incident-wounded-knee

Sudan, much in the news recently, released all of its political prisoners as a new constitution went into effect.

Palden Thandup Namgyal gave up his absolute authority of Sikkim in an agreement with India.

Fighting broke out between Lebanon and the PLO.

Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals made his 242nd consecutive start, a 20th Century record, in a game against the San Francisco Giants.

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Missing.

Twenty eight South Dakotans, many of them teens, and many of them Native Americans, have gone missing since January 1, 2023.

They are, with their dates of disappearance:

Missing since Jan. 17, 2023

• Jake Moore, 13, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department

• Angelo Jones, 15, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

• Kylie Mesteth, 16, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department

Missing since Jan. 16, 2023

• Emma Huska, 16, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department

• Luta Arapahoe, 14, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department

Missing since Jan. 15, 2023

• Ricki Becker, 29, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

Missing since Jan. 14, 2023

• Delbert Bad Milk, 15, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department

• Anthony Bad Milk, 13, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department

• Kateri Two Elk, 37, reported missing by Box Elder Police Department

Missing since Jan. 13, 2023

• Maria Valladares, 17, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

• Janae Mitchell, 15, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

• Brooklyn Ford, 9, reported missing by Clark County Sheriff’s Office

Missing since Jan. 12, 2023

• Ethan Stewart 26, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

• Matthew Harmon, 45, reported missing by Aberdeen Police Department

• Janiya Farmer, 17, reported missing by Sisseton Whapeton Oyate Tribal Police Department

Missing since Jan. 11, 2023

• Felicia Dreaming Bear, 33, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department

• Isabelle White Calf, 16, reported missing by Box Elder Police Department

Missing since Jan. 10, 2023

• Diego Perez, 17, reported missing by Pennington County Sheriff’s Office

Missing since Jan. 8, 2023

• Ezra Decker, 16, reported missing by Kingsbury County Sheriff’s Office

Missing since Jan. 7, 2023

• Honorae Little Bear, 16, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

Missing since Jan. 6, 2023

• Nevin Huapapi, 15, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

• Liyah Adams, 15, reported missing by Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Tribal Police Department

Missing since Jan. 5, 2023

• Ray Pena, 16, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

Missing since Jan. 4, 2023

• Mercedes Johnson, 17, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

Missing since Jan. 3, 2023

• Prairie Crowe, 16, reported missing by Pennington County Sheriff’s Office

Missing since Jan. 1, 2023

• Electra Wright, 17, reported missing by Butte County Sheriff’s Office

• Kelly Tiah, 16, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department

• Bobbie Miller, 23, reported missing by Pennington County Sheriff’s Office

Numbers to call for folks with information.

Rapid City Police Department: 605-394-4131

Sioux Falls Police Department: 605-367-7000

Box Elder Police Department: 605-394-4131

Clark County Sheriff’s Office: 605-532-3822

Aberdeen Police Department: 605-626-7000

Sisseton Whapeton Oyate Tribal PD: 605-698-7661

Pennington County Sheriff’s Office: 605-394-4131

Kingsbury County Sheriff’s Office: 605-854-3339

Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Tribal PD: 605-867-5111

Butte County Sheriff’s Office: 605-892-3324

Friday, January 23, 1943. Chinook.

A Chinook wind caused an increase in temperature in Spearfish, South Dakota, in which the temperature went from -4F to 45F in two minutes.  It ultimately went up to 54F over two hours, then dropped back below 0 in 30 minutes, all of this in a single morning.

Papua was liberated from the Japanese, becoming the first territory they had captured from which they'd been completely expelled.

Japan's losses on the island were 13,000 in number, compared to 2,000 for Australia and 600 for the United States.

On the same day, the British 8th Army took Tripoli.

According to many sources, today, not yesterday, was the date on which the Germans lost their last airfield at Stalingrad.

French police and German forces began the Marseilles Roundup, the gathering and deportation of the city's Jewish population.  The action would result in the deportation of 1,642 people, the displacement of 20,000 and the arrest of 6,000.  The Old Port district was destroyed.

Margaret Bourke-White flew in a U.S. bombing mission over Tunis in the B-17 Little Bill.  The photographer and reporter was the first woman to do so.


Bourke-White was already a famous photographer by that time, having photographed extensively during the Great Depression and having photographed the Soviet Union prior to World War Two.  She died at age 67 in 1971 of Parkinson's Disease.

Franklin Roosevelt dined with Moroccan Sultan Mohammed V, during which he expressed sympathy for post-war Moroccan independence.

Roosevelt was always solidly anti-colonial, a fact that became an increasing problem for the British as the war went on and which would impact the immediate post war world.

Sunday, October 31, 2021

Friday October 31, 1941. Did you have a friend on the Good Reuben James?

On this day in 1941 the USS Reuben James, a destroyer, was sunk by a U-boat while escorting merchant ships.  The destroyer was not flying the US ensign at the time and therefore wouldn't have been completely easy for a U-boat to identify as a US ship.  At the time it was hit, it was dropping depth chargers on another U-boat, although ironically the U-552 was actually aiming for the merchant ship, which was carrying ammunition, at the time it was hit.

100 sailers were killed in the strike, only 44 survived. The ship sank rapidly.

The event resulted in a notable folk song by Woody Guthrie.

While tragic, the event was another example of the United States really crossing the line on what a neutral could do.  The ship wasn't flying the US ensign and it was attempting to sink a U-boat when it was instead sunk itself.  Perhaps realizing that this was of a certain type of nature, the American public didn't rush towards war as a result of the sinking, as it likely would have done in 1917.

Guthrie's song was perhaps a natural for him.  He was a communist and had been, therefore, an "anti fascist" since the Spanish Civil War days. The US entry into the war would lead him to be concerned about being conscripted into the Army, when the war came, and he actively attempted to receive an assignment through the Army to the USO, and effort which not too surprisingly failed.  He then joined the Merchant Marines, which was a role that was actually more dangerous than being a combat infantryman.  He served as a Merchant Marine from June 1943 until 1945, when his status as a communist resulted in the government requiring his discharge from that service.  In July 1945 he was conscripted into the U.S. Army.  

Guthrie's relationship with the Federal Government was an odd one.  During the Depression and even after he was commissioned to write songs for the government, and famously wrote a set of songs associated with damming the Columbia River.  He was a true musical genius of the folk genre, and while he was openly a communist or communistic,it probably only really shows strongly in one of his songs, the much misunderstood This Land Is Your Land.  He died in 1967 at age 55 of Woody Guthrie's Disease.  He was the father, of course, of musical legend Arlo Guthrie.

Final drilling took place on the monuments at Mt. Rushmore. This is regarded as the project's completion.

Mt. Rushmore, October 2011















Nazi Germany imposed a heavy "sin tax" on this date in 1941, which it claimed was to reduce consumption of unhealthful products.  The tax was on tobacco, hard liquor and champagne.

Health measure or not, by this point in the war the German economy had been overheated for a decade and things were getting worse. The Nazis did legitimately oppose tobacco consumption and were aware of its health dangers in a pioneering manner.  Hitler, who had weird dietary views, was a teetotaler but the more likely reason for the tax on hard liquor and champagne was that they needed the money and the production of both resulted in caloric diversions that could have been better invested in other agricultural products.  The Nazis did not attempt to take on beer, however.

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Friday October 7, 1921. 4H Clubs and Baseball Clubs.

A Third year high school girl in the chemical laboratory, - Greenbank Consolidated School, Oct. 7, 1921. Location: Pocahontas County, West Virginia

A photographer spent a second day documenting the lives of teenagers and the condition of schools in West Virginia.  In doing so, he took this photo of a "third year" (either a junior or a senior) girl in the chemical laboratory.

The photos speak volumes. She's of our age, but not  Very plainly dressed and very adult looking.

On this day in 1921, The New York Giants beat the Yankees 13 to 5 in Game 3 of the 1921 World Series.

China responded to a demand from Japan for certain rights in Shantung province with a complete rejection.  The demands were based on the Treaty of Versailles transferring German possessions to Japan following World War One, which included port cities in the province.  The Chinese were not willing to go along with the treaty on these points, and ultimately their position prevailed.

Austria and Hungary submitted a territorial dispute between them to the League of Nations, with Italy to act as the mediator.

The same photographer that toured schools in West Virginia took the photos of members of a 4H Club.

Betsey Price, - First year High School at her club sewing. 4 H Club work - Marlinton, W. Va.  She would have been in 9th or 10th Grade, but again looked quite mature in this photo.



Forest Kellison, 4 H Club Member raising a sheep. Examining the quality of the fleece under direction of Harold Willey, Farm Bureau Agent. Location: Pocahontas County, West Virginia

Forest Kellison, 4 H Club member, treating his sheep for internal parasites.

Susie Kellison, raising chickens. Examining the wing and looking for smut. The club in this county had 250 members at the time. Location: Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

Harry Harper, with his registered calf. Location: Pocahontas County--Hillsboro, West Virginia.


Earl Kidd, with his registered calf. Hillsboro, Pocahontas Co. W. Va. Location: Pocahontas County--Hillsboro, West Virginia

The photographer also documented conditions at schools, some of which were quite advanced, and some not so much. This was a one-room schoolhouse, and the photographer disapproved of the location of the privies.


And he photographed farms as well.



Gen. W. D. Connor, who was a significant figure in the Department of the Army at the time, sat for a portrait.

Brig. Gen. W.D. Connor.

A group of South Dakotans visited the President.



Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Wednesday, June 30, 1971. Dropping the voting age to 18, Soviet Space Disaster, the Pentagon Papers.

On this day in 1971 Congress ratified the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution which dropped the voting age from 21 to 18.

Marine Corps position in Vietnam, 1967.

The Vietnam War, and the increasing involvement of young Americans in protesting it, really caused the change to come about.  18 was the conscription age, which thereby made men that age liable for combat, and there was a widespread feeling that you couldn't really justly ask people to potentially go to their deaths for a country and not let the same people vote in its elections.  That logic was pretty solid really, even though as a practical historical fact very few 18 year olds served in Vietnam.  That point, while correct, is really irrelevant, however. The larger point, that you could require people to divert from their plans and force them to serve in the military, but they couldn't vote, didn't make a lot of sense and Congress recognized that fact.

Indeed, the voting age was really a carryover from a much older era in which the drafters of the Constitution paternalistically felt that a lot of people couldn't vote as they didn't have the mental maturity before a certain age or,  in other instances, because of their gender. Women couldn't vote, originally, at any age.  And the feeling in Colonial times that only propertied men could vote was widespread.

Indeed, in English speaking countries the concept that a person became an adult at age 18 was not the norm and is somewhat of an American oddity.  Ultimately it came to be the widespread view, but that was in no small part due to World War One. The English, for example, originally viewed 21 years of age as the service age, although it accepted the oddity of allowing parents to enlist their children, without the children agreeing to it, down to about age 13, if I recall correctly. Be that as it may, younger enlistees were not supposed to serve outside of Great Britain, although it occasionally occurred. The Great War changed all that.

The United States really started off with this view, which reflected, to some degree, its origin as an agrarian nation.  Contrary to widespread believe, youthful marriage was not an American norm and early in the country's history a man of 18 or 19 was most probably working on his parent's farm, or perhaps apprenticed to a nearby tradesman.  He wasn't out on his own, normally, and he wasn't in the Army, which was so small as to be nearly nonexistent, as we covered here the other day.   That started to increasingly change with industrialization and when the formal public school system became universal by the 20th Century the distinct concept of a person graduating from high school and into the adult world arrived.

By and large, however, people usually didn't.  Most 18 year olds who graduated, which was a minority of men well into the 20th Century, still went into nearby work and they weren't setting up their own households. The real separation of generations, as noted, began with World War One. Following that, the Roaring Twenties briefly started what the 1960s would more fully develop, which was the concept of leaving home to go to university.  The Depression put an end to the Jazz Age abruptly, but World War Two massively introduced the idea that at age 18, you were an adult.  It not only did that, it massively separated teenagers from their homes and, if they weren't in the service, many were in university on their way to the service.  The war also boosted youthful marriage, briefly, as people rushed into adulthood not knowing how long the war would last.

Coming out of the Second World War the trend continued with the GI Bill and the concept of "graduating from high school and going to college" really set in.  My own father was the first in his family to do that (my mother's parents, in contrast, were both university graduates from the 1910s, something extraordinarily unusual at the time).  He was somewhat compelled to do so, however, by family pressure and circumstances.  My grandfather had died and with him my father's probable future employment.  My father's Irish American mother, to whom he was close, had already seen him enter "junior college" and when my grandfather died she wouldn't allow my father to retain a job he'd taken with the Post Office and required him to move on, on the basis that "he was too intelligent" to work the job that he'd been comfortable with.  He was a genius, so perhaps her view had merit.  We'll deal with that another day.

My father, like many men of his generation, went right from university, where he'd obtained a DDS degree, into the service, in his case the Air Force.  After his Air Force service, however, he came back home and was living at home when he met and married my mother. That retained pattern of life remained common as well.

But by the 1960s things were really changing.  And Congress followed the change.  On this day in 1971, the voting age became 18 years of age.  Only nine Congressman and two Senators voted against it.

I recall this actually occurring. In 1971 I was a grade school student and it was the talk of the school.  The fact that all of us very young people thought it was a great idea, and that even then we associated it with the Vietnam War, shows to what extent that must have been the view of our parents.

It should be noted that right about this time, although I don't recall exactly when, the Wyoming state legislature dropped the drinking age to 19 years of age. The rationale was exactly the same.  Wyoming had only one military base, but the thought was that you really couldn't ask people to go off and fight in Vietnam and tell them they were too  young to have a beer.  It frankly makes some sense.  The neighboring state of South Dakota dropped it to 18.  I don't know why Wyoming didn't go that low, but the thought of having people in high school young enough to drink probably had something to do with it.  As it was, the drop in the age came to mean that there was almost no drinking age as a practical matter.

Of course, over time, things change in various and interesting ways.  The Federal Government came about and ultimately punished states that had dropped their drinking ages with the threat of withholding highway funds, so they all boosted them back up to 21.  Wyoming did so only very reluctantly and nearly didn't.  In the end, however, it came around.  Conscription came to an end with the end of the Vietnam War, although men and women can still enlist at age 18.  On base, those in the service could drink at the 1-2-3 clubs by my recollection, irrespective of age and state law, although only 3.2 beer.  I don't know if that's still true or not.

The big change, however, is that the older pattern of living, with adult children living at home, has returned in a major way as the post World War Two economy finally ground to a halt in the last quarter of the 20th Century.  A matter of constant speculation by the press as a "new" development, it's nothing of the kind, but rather a return to prior days.

On the same day, the crew of the Soviets Soyuz 11 spacecraft were all killed in reentry, a horrible tragedy that I can can also recall being talked about at the time.  Interestingly, while we feared the Soviets, the heartache over the disaster was so palatable that I can still feel it, in thinking of it.  May God rest the souls of the Cosmonauts who perished so tragically on that day.

Also on this day, the United States Supreme Court found the New York Times publishing of the "Pentagon Papers" to be constitutionally protected by rejecting a Federal government effort at imposing an injunction on it as an unconstitutional instance of illegal prior restraint.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Today In Wyoming's History: Reviewing the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor.

Today In Wyoming's History: Reviewing the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor.

Reviewing the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor.

Sgt. Toy receiving the Medal of Honor in 1891.  Sgt. Toy was cited for "bravery while shooting Indians" at Wounded Knee.  He is known to have shot two during the engagement, which is about all that his citations and the supporting material relates.

 Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Revoked.

While this isn't a Wyoming item per se, the Battle of Wounded Knee has been noted here before, as its a regional one.

It would likely surprise most readers here that twenty Medals of Honor were awarded to soldiers who participated in the actions at Wounded Knee.  The odd thing is that I was under the impression that the Army had rescinded these medals long ago, and I'm not completely certain that they haven't.  Having said that, I can't find that they were, so my presumption must have been in error.

To put this in context, the medals that were rescinded, if any were, weren't rescinded because Wounded Knee was a massacre.  They were rescinded because they didn't meet the post April 1917 criteria for receiving the award.

The Medal of Honor was first authorized in 1861 by the Navy, not the Army, following the retirement of Gen. Winfield Scott, who was adamantly opposed to the awarding of medals to servicemen, which he regarded as a European practice, not an American one.  The award was authorized by Congress that year, at the Navy's request.  The Army followed in 1862 in the same fashion.  The medals actually vary by appearance, to this day, depending upon which service issues them, and they've varied somewhat in design over time.

During the Civil War the award was generally issued for extraordinary heroism, but not necessarily of the same degree for which it is today.  Because of this, a fairly large number of Medals of Honor were conferred after the Civil War to servicemen who retroactively sought them, so awards continued for Civil War service for decades following the war.  New awards were also issued, of course, for acts of heroism in the remaining decades of the 19th Century, with Army awards usually being related to service in the Indian Wars.  Navy awards, in contrast, tended to be issued for heroic acts in lifesaving, a non combat issuance of the award that could not occur today.  Indeed, a fairly large number were issued to sailors who went over the sides of ships to save the lives, or attempt to, of drowning individuals, often with tragic results to the sailors.

At any rate, the period following the war and the method by which it was retroactively issued may have acclimated the Army to issuing awards as there are a surprising number of them that were issued for frontier battles.  This does not mean that there were not genuine acts of heroism that took place in those battles, it's just surprising how many there were and its clear that the criteria was substantially lower than that which would apply for most of the 20th Century.

Indeed, in the 20th Century the Army began to significantly tighten up requirements to hold the medal. This came into full fruition during World War One during which the Army made it plain that it was only a combat medal, while the Navy continued to issue the medal for peacetime heroism.  In 1917 the Army took the position that the medal could only be issued for combat acts of heroism at the risk of life to the recipient, and in 1918 that change became official.  Prior to the 1918 change the Army commissioned a review board on past issuance of the medal and struck 911 instances of them having been issued.  I'd thought the Wounded Knee medals had been stricken, but my presumption must be in error.

Frontier era Medals of Honor, as well as those issued to Civil War era soldiers after the Civil War, tend to be remarkably lacking in information as to why they were conferred.  This has presented a problem for the Army looking back on them in general.

Indeed, the Wounded Knee medals have this character.  They don't say much, and what they do say isn't all that useful to really know much about what lead them to be awarded.  There is a peculiar aspect to them, however, in that they don't reflect what we generally know about the battle historically.  

Wikipedia has summarized the twenty awards and what they were awarded for, and this illustrates this problem.  The Wounded Knee Wikipedia page summarizes this as follows

·         Sergeant William Austin, cavalry, directed fire at Indians in ravine at Wounded Knee;

·         Private Mosheim Feaster, cavalry, extraordinary gallantry at Wounded Knee;

·         Private Mathew Hamilton, cavalry, bravery in action at Wounded Knee;

·         Private Joshua Hartzog, artillery, rescuing commanding officer who was wounded and carried him out of range of hostile guns at Wounded Knee;

·         Private Marvin Hillock, cavalry, distinguished bravery at Wounded Knee;

·         Sergeant Bernhard Jetter, cavalry, distinguished bravery at Wounded Knee for "killing an Indian who was in the act of killing a wounded man of B Troop."

·         Sergeant George Loyd, cavalry, bravery, especially after having been severely wounded through the lung at Wounded Knee;

·         Sergeant Albert McMillain, cavalry, while engaged with Indians concealed in a ravine, he assisted the men on the skirmish line, directed their fire, encouraged them by example, and used every effort to dislodge the enemy at Wounded Knee;

·         Private Thomas Sullivan, cavalry, conspicuous bravery in action against Indians concealed in a ravine at Wounded Knee;

·         First Sergeant Jacob Trautman, cavalry, killed a hostile Indian at close quarters, and, although entitled to retirement from service, remained to close of the campaign at Wounded Knee;

·         Sergeant James Ward, cavalry, continued to fight after being severely wounded at Wounded Knee;

·         Corporal William Wilson, cavalry, bravery in Sioux Campaign, 1890;

·         Private Hermann Ziegner, cavalry, conspicuous bravery at Wounded Knee;

·         Musician John Clancy, artillery, twice voluntarily rescued wounded comrades under fire of the enemy;

·         Lieutenant Ernest Garlington, cavalry, distinguished gallantry;

·         First Lieutenant John Chowning Gresham, cavalry, voluntarily led a party into a ravine to dislodge Sioux Indians concealed therein. He was wounded during this action.

·         Second Lieutenant Harry Hawthorne, artillery, distinguished conduct in battle with hostile Indians;

·         Private George Hobday, cavalry, conspicuous and gallant conduct in battle;

·         First Sergeant Frederick Toy, cavalry, bravery;

·         Corporal Paul Weinert, artillery, taking the place of his commanding officer who had fallen severely wounded, he gallantly served his piece, after each fire advancing it to a better position

For quite a few of these, we're left without a clue as to what the basis of the award was, at least based on this summation. But for some, it would suggest a pitched real battle.  A couple of the awards are for rescuing wounded comrades under fire.  Others are for combat actions that we can recognize.

Indeed, one historian that I know, and probably only because I know him, has noted the citations in support for "it was a real battle", taking the controversial, albeit private, position that Wounded Knee was a real, pitched, engagement, not simply a slaughter.  This isn't the popular view at all, of course, and its frankly not all that well supported by the evidence either.  But what of that evidence.

A popular thesis that's sometimes presented is that Wounded Knee was the 7th Cavalry's revenge for the Battle of the Little Big Horn.  Perhaps this is so, but if it is so, it's would be somewhat odd in that it would presume an institutional desire for revenge rather than a personal one, for the most part.  Wounded Knee was twenty four years after Little Big Horn and most of the men who had served at Little Big Horn were long since out of the service.  Indeed, some of the men who received awards would have been two young for service in 1890, and while I haven't looked up all of their biographies, some of them were not likely to have even been born at the time.  Maybe revenge was it, but if that's the case, it would demonstrate a 19th Century retention of institutional memories that vastly exceed the 20th and 21st Century ones.  Of course, the 7th Cavalry remains famous to this day for Little Big Horn, so perhaps that indeed is it.

Or perhaps what it reflects is that things went badly wrong at Wounded Knee and the massacre became a massively one sided battle featuring a slaughter, something that the Sioux on location would have been well within their rights to engage in. That is, once the things went wrong and the Army overreacted, as it certainly is well established that it did, the Sioux with recourse to arms would have been justified in acting in self defense.  That there were some actions in self defense which would have had the character of combat doesn't mean it wasn't combat.

And that raises the sticky moral issues of the Congressional efforts to rescind the medals.  Some of these medals are so poorly supported that the Army could likely simply rescind them on their own, as they have many others, and indeed, I thought they had.  Some seem quite unlikely to meet the modern criteria for the medal no matter what, and therefore under the practices established in 1917, they could be rescinded even if they were regarded as heroic at the time.  Cpl. Weinert's for example, unless there was more to it, would probably just merit a letter of commendation today.

Indeed, save for two examples that reference rescuing wounded comrades, I don't know that any of these would meet the modern criteria. They don't appear to.  So once again, most of these would appear to be subject to proper unilateral Army downgrading or rescission all on their own with no Congressional action.

But what of Congressional action, which has been proposed. The Army hasn't rescinded these awards and they certainly stand out as awards that should receive attention.  If Congress is to act, the best act likely would be to require the Army to review overall its pre 1917 awards once again.  If over 900 were weeded out the first time, at least a few would be today, and I suspect all of these would.

To simply rescind them, however, is problematic, as it will tend to be based neither on the criteria for award today, or the criteria of the award in 1890, but on the gigantic moral problem that is the Battle of Wounded Knee itself.  That is, these awards are proposed to be removed as we regard Wounded Knee as a genocidal act over all, which it does indeed appear to be.

The problem with that is that even if it is a genocidal act in chief, individual acts during it may or may not be. So, rushing forwards to rescue a wounded comrade might truly be heroic, even if done in the middle of an act of barbarism.  Other acts, such as simply shooting somebody, would seem to be participating in that barbarism, but here too you still have the situation of individual soldiers suddenly committed to action and not, in every instance, knowing what is going on.  It's now too late to know in most cases.  Were they acting like William Calley or just as a regular confused soldier?

Indeed, if medals can be stricken because we now abhor what they were fighting for (and in regard to Wounded Knee, it was questioned nearly immediately, which may be why the Army felt compelled to issue medals to those participating in it, to suggest it was a battle more than it was), what do we do with other problematic wars?

Eighty six men, for example, received the Medal of Honor for the Philippine Insurrection.  In retrospect, that was a pure colonial war we'd not condone in any fashion today, and it was controversial at the time.  Theodore Roosevelt very belatedly received the Medal of Honor for leading the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry up Kettle Hill during the Spanish American War, and he no doubt met the modern criterial, but the Spanish American War itself is morally dubious at best.  

Of course, none of these awards are associated with an act of genocide, which takes us back to Wounded Knee.  As noted above, maybe so many awards were issued there as the Army wanted to to convert a massacre into a battle, and conferring awards for bravery was a way to attempt to do that.

Certainly the number of awards for Wounded Knee is very outsized.  It's been noted that as many awards have been issued for heroism at Wounded Knee as have been for some gigantic Civil War battles.  Was the Army really more heroic at Wounded Knee than Antietam?  That seems unlikely.

Anyway a person looks at it, this is one of those topics that it seems clear would be best served by Army action.  The Army has looked at the topic of pre 1917 awards before, and it removed a fair number of them.  There's no reason that it can't do so again. It was regarded as harsh the last time it occurred, and some will complain now as well, but the Army simply did it last time.   That would honor the medal and acknowledge the history, and it really shouldn't be confined to just Wounded Knee.

Dead men and horses at Wounded Knee following the conflict.

Sunday, October 11, 2020

October 11, 1920, The Custer Wolf Killed

Williams, left and the Custer Wolf.

The Custer wolf was a notorious livestock predator that roamed in the 1911 to 1920 period near Custer, South Dakota.  The wolf took hundreds of cattle in its career, a fact that was brought about by the fact it engaged in surplus killing.

The wolf was killed by Federal "wolfer" H. P. Williams, an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture's Biological Survey..  It took Williams seven months to track the wolf down, with Williams first killing two coyotes that had taken up running with the wolf.

Cleveland won game six of the World Series in a one run game.

Tris Speaker scores the winning run of game 6 of the 1920 World Series.


The future King Edward VII, at the time the Prince of Wales, returned to England to cheering crowds after a six month world tour.

Friday, February 14, 2020

February 14, 1920. A Sober Valentine's Day.

Zintkala Nuni

Zintkala Nuni, who was found as an orphaned infant on the bloody grounds of Wounded Knee died of the flu contracted from her husband on this day in 1920.

Her story is uniformly tragic.

She was found by an Army burial detail still tied to the back of her dead mother.  She was raised at first by members of her tribe, who named her "Lost Bird", but was soon taken into the home of Gen. Leonard Wright Colby who referred to her, at first, as a "curio" of the massacre.  Colby and his wife Clara Bewick Cody adopted her in 1891, with Clara, a suffragette and publisher of Women's Tribune principally raising her.

When she was five, her adoptive father abandoned Clara and Zintkala and married Zintkala's nanny, thereafter moving to Beatrice, Nebraska.  Her childhood was rough as an Indian child raised among the white privileged.  Like many Indian she was educated in Indian boarding schools for part of the time, in part because Clara was so busy.  At age 17 the rebellious Zintkala was sent to live with Gen. Colby and became pregnant soon thereafter.  The father of her child is unknown but some historians suspect Colby of sexual abuse of her.  After she became pregnant Colby committed her to a reformatory for unwed mothers, where the child was born stillborn.

She then returned to Clara's home and married, leaving her husband after a few weeks of marriage and after having contracted syphilis from her husband.  The Spanish Flu ultimately brought about her death.

On the same day Konstantin Konstantinovich Mamontov, former Imperial Russian General and then serving as a White Russian General, a Don Cossack, died of typhus at age 50.

Konstantin Mamontov

And in Chicago, the League of Women's Voters was founded.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Corporate farming. Why?

Nebraska prohibits corporate farming in its constitution:

XII-8.

Corporation acquiring an interest in real estate used for farming or ranching or engaging in farming or ranching; restrictions; Secretary of State, Attorney General; duties; Legislature; powers.

That Article XII of the Constitution of the State of Nebraska be amended by adding a new section numbered 8 and subsections as numbered, notwithstanding any other provisions of this Constitution.
Sec. 8(1) No corporation or syndicate shall acquire, or otherwise obtain an interest, whether legal, beneficial, or otherwise, in any title to real estate used for farming or ranching in this state, or engage in farming or ranching.

Corporation shall mean any corporation organized under the laws of any state of the United States or any country or any partnership of which such corporation is a partner.

Farming or ranching shall mean (i) the cultivation of land for the production of agricultural crops, fruit, or other horticultural products, or (ii) the ownership, keeping or feeding of animals for the production of livestock or livestock products.

Syndicate shall mean any limited partnership organized under the laws of any state of the United States or any country, other than limited partnerships in which the partners are members of a family, or a trust created for the benefit of a member of that family, related to one another within the fourth degree of kindred according to the rules of civil law, or their spouses, at least one of whom is a person residing on or actively engaged in the day to day labor and management of the farm or ranch, and none of whom are nonresident aliens. This shall not include general partnerships.

These restrictions shall not apply to:
(A) A family farm or ranch corporation. Family farm or ranch corporation shall mean a corporation engaged in farming or ranching or the ownership of agricultural land, in which the majority of the voting stock is held by members of a family, or a trust created for the benefit of a member of that family, related to one another within the fourth degree of kindred according to the rules of civil law, or their spouses, at least one of whom is a person residing on or actively engaged in the day to day labor and management of the farm or ranch and none of whose stockholders are non-resident aliens and none of whose stockholders are corporations or partnerships, unless all of the stockholders or partners of such entities are persons related within the fourth degree of kindred to the majority of stockholders in the family farm corporation.

These restrictions shall not apply to:
(B) Non-profit corporations.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(C) Nebraska Indian tribal corporations.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(D) Agricultural land, which, as of the effective date of this Act, is being farmed or ranched, or which is owned or leased, or in which there is a legal or beneficial interest in title directly or indirectly owned, acquired, or obtained by a corporation or syndicate, so long as such land or other interest in title shall be held in continuous ownership or under continuous lease by the same such corporation or syndicate, and including such additional ownership or leasehold as is reasonably necessary to meet the requirements of pollution control regulations. For the purposes of this exemption, land purchased on a contract signed as of the effective date of this amendment, shall be considered as owned on the effective date of this amendment.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(E) A farm or ranch operated for research or experimental purposes, if any commercial sales from such farm or ranch are only incidental to the research or experimental objectives of the corporation or syndicate.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(F) Agricultural land operated by a corporation for the purpose of raising poultry.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(G) Land leased by alfalfa processors for the production of alfalfa.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(H) Agricultural land operated for the purpose of growing seed, nursery plants, or sod.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(I) Mineral rights on agricultural land.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(J) Agricultural land acquired or leased by a corporation or syndicate for immediate or potential use for nonfarming or nonranching purposes. A corporation or syndicate may hold such agricultural land in such acreage as may be necessary to its nonfarm or nonranch business operation, but pending the development of such agricultural land for nonfarm or nonranch purposes, not to exceed a period of five years, such land may not be used for farming or ranching except under lease to a family farm or ranch corporation or a non-syndicate and non-corporate farm or ranch.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(K) Agricultural lands or livestock acquired by a corporation or syndicate by process of law in the collection of debts, or by any procedures for the enforcement of a lien, encumbrance, or claim thereon, whether created by mortgage or otherwise. Any lands so acquired shall be disposed of within a period of five years and shall not be used for farming or ranching prior to being disposed of, except under a lease to a family farm or ranch corporation or a non-syndicate and non-corporate farm or ranch.

These restrictions shall not apply to:
(L) A bona fide encumbrance taken for purposes of security.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(M) Custom spraying, fertilizing, or harvesting.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(N) Livestock futures contracts, livestock purchased for slaughter, or livestock purchased and resold within two weeks.

If a family farm corporation, which has qualified under all the requirements of a family farm or ranch corporation, ceases to meet the defined criteria, it shall have fifty years, if the ownership of the majority of the stock of such corporation continues to be held by persons related to one another within the fourth degree of kindred or their spouses, and their landholdings are not increased, to either re-qualify as a family farm corporation or dissolve and return to personal ownership.
The Secretary of State shall monitor corporate and syndicate agricultural land purchases and corporate and syndicate farming and ranching operations, and notify the Attorney General of any possible violations. If the Attorney General has reason to believe that a corporation or syndicate is violating this amendment, he or she shall commence an action in district court to enjoin any pending illegal land purchase, or livestock operation, or to force divestiture of land held in violation of this amendment. The court shall order any land held in violation of this amendment to be divested within two years. If land so ordered by the court has not been divested within two years, the court shall declare the land escheated to the State of Nebraska.

If the Secretary of State or Attorney General fails to perform his or her duties as directed by this amendment, Nebraska citizens and entities shall have standing in district court to seek enforcement.
The Nebraska Legislature may enact, by general law, further restrictions prohibiting certain agricultural operations that the legislature deems contrary to the intent of this section.
North Dakota prohibits corporate farming by statute: 
10-06.1-02. Farming or ranching by corporations and limited liability companies prohibited.

All corporations and limited liability companies, except as otherwise provided in this chapter, are prohibited from owning or leasing land used for farming or ranching and from engaging in the business of farming or ranching. A corporation or a limited liability company may be a partner in a partnership that is in the business of farming or ranching only if that corporation or limited liability company complies with this chapter.

10-06.1-3. Retention of mineral interests prohibited.

For land and minerals acquired after July 1, 1985, any corporation or limited liability company that acquires mineral interests through foreclosure or in lieu of foreclosure which were not specifically valued at the time the security interest in the minerals was acquired, and which prohibited from owning or leasing land used in farming or ranching, is prohibited from retaining mineral interests in land used for farming or ranching when the corporation or limited liability company divests itself of the land, and the mineral interests must be passed with the surface estate of the land when the corporation or limited liability company divests itself of the land under this chapter.
South Dakota also prohibits its statutorily:
47-9A-1.   Agriculture prohibited as corporate or limited liability company purpose. The Legislature of the State of South Dakota recognizes the importance of the family farm to the economic and moral stability of the state, and the Legislature recognizes that the existence of the family farm is threatened by conglomerates in farming. Therefore, it is hereby declared to be the public policy of this state, and shall be the provision of this chapter, that, notwithstanding the provisions of § 47-1A-301, no foreign or domestic corporation, except as provided herein, shall be formed or licensed under the South Dakota Business Corporation Act for the purpose of owning, leasing, holding or otherwise controlling agricultural land to be used in the business of agriculture.

It is further declared that no foreign or domestic limited liability company, except as provided herein, shall be formed or licensed under the South Dakota Limited Liability Company Act for the purpose of owning, leasing, holding or otherwise controlling agricultural land to be used in the business of agriculture.
So does Kansas:
17-5904. Restrictions; exceptions; penalties. (a) No corporation, trust, limited liability company, limited partnership or corporate partnership, other than a family farm corporation, authorized farm corporation, limited liability agricultural company, family farm limited liability agricultural company, limited agricultural partnership, family trust, authorized trust or testamentary trust shall, either directly or indirectly, own, acquire or otherwise obtain or lease any agricultural land in this state. The restrictions provided in this section do not apply to the following:
(1) A bona fide encumbrance taken for purposes of security.
(2) Agricultural land when acquired as a gift, either by grant or devise, by a bona fide educational, religious or charitable nonprofit corporation.
(3)  Agricultural land acquired by a corporation or a limited liability company in such acreage as is necessary for the operation of a nonfarming business. Such land may not be used for farming except under lease to one or more natural persons, a family farm corporation, authorized farm corporation, family trust, authorized trust or testamentary trust. The corporation shall not engage, either directly or indirectly, in the farming operation and shall not receive any financial benefit, other than rent, from the farming operation.
(4)  Agricultural land acquired by a corporation or a limited liability company by process of law in the collection of debts, or pursuant to a contract for deed executed prior to the effective date of this act, or by any procedure for the enforcement of a lien or claim thereon, whether created by mortgage or otherwise, if such corporation divests itself of any such agricultural land within 10 years after such process of law, contract or procedure, except that provisions of K.S.A. 9-1102, and amendments thereto, shall apply to any bank which acquires agricultural land.
(5) A municipal corporation.
(6)  Agricultural land which is acquired by a trust company or bank in a fiduciary capacity or as a trustee for a nonprofit corporation.
(7)  Agricultural land owned or leased or held under a lease purchase agreement as described in K.S.A. 12-1741, and amendments thereto, by a corporation, corporate partnership, limited corporate partnership or trust on the effective date of this act if: (A) Any such entity owned or leased such agricultural land prior to July 1, 1965, provided such entity shall not own or lease any greater acreage of agricultural land than it owned or leased prior to the effective date of this act unless it is in compliance with the provisions of this act; (B) any such entity was in compliance with the provisions of K.S.A. 17-5901, prior to its repeal by this act, provided such entity shall not own or lease any greater acreage of agricultural land than it owned or leased prior to the effective date of this act unless it is in compliance with the provisions of this act, and absence of evidence in the records of the county where such land is located of a judicial determination that such entity violated the provisions of K.S.A. 17-5901, prior to its repeal shall constitute proof that the provisions of this act do not apply to such agricultural land, and that such entity was in compliance with the provisions of K.S.A. 17-5901, prior to its repeal; or (C) any such entity was not in compliance with the provisions of K.S.A. 17-5901, prior to its repeal by this act, but is in compliance with the provisions of this act by July 1, 1991.
(8)  Agricultural land held or leased by a corporation or a limited liability company for use as a feedlot, a poultry confinement facility or rabbit confinement facility.
(9) Agricultural land held or leased by a corporation for the purpose of the production of timber, forest products, nursery products or sod.
(10) Agricultural land used for bona fide educational research or scientific or experimental farming.
(11)  Agricultural land used for the commercial production and conditioning of seed for sale or resale as seed or for the growing of alfalfa by an alfalfa processing entity if such land is located within 30 miles of such entity's plant site.
(12) Agricultural land owned or leased by a corporate partnership or limited corporate partnership in which the partners associated therein are either natural persons, family farm corporations, authorized farm corporations, limited liability agricultural companies, family trusts, authorized trusts or testamentary trusts.
(13) Any corporation, either domestic or foreign, or any limited liability company, organized for coal mining purposes which engages in farming on any tract of land owned by it which has been strip mined for coal.
(14) Agricultural land owned or leased by a limited partnership prior to the effective date of this act.
(15)  Except as provided by K.S.A. 17-5908, as it existed before the effective date of this act, and K.S.A. 1998 Supp. 17-5909, agricultural land held or leased by a corporation or a limited liability company for use as a swine production facility in any county which, before the effective date of this act, has voted favorably pursuant to K.S.A. 17-5908, as it existed before the effective date of this act, either by county resolution or by the electorate.
(16)  Agricultural land held or leased by a corporation, trust, limited liability company, limited partnership or corporate partnership for use as a swine production facility in any county where the voters, after the effective date of this act, have voted pursuant to K.S.A. 17-5908, and amendments thereto, to allow establishment of swine production facilities within the county.
(17) Agricultural land held or leased by a corporation, trust, limited liability company, limited partnership or corporate partnership for use as a dairy production facility in any county which has voted favorably pursuant to K.S.A. 17-5907, and amendments thereto, either by county resolution or by the electorate.
(18) Agricultural land held or leased by a corporation or a limited liability company used in a hydroponics setting.
(b)  Production contracts entered into by a corporation, trust, limited liability company, limited partnership or corporate partnership and a person engaged in farming for the production of agricultural products shall not be construed to mean the ownership, acquisition, obtainment or lease, either directly or indirectly, of any agricultural land in this state.
(c) Any corporation, trust, limited liability company, limited partnership or corporate partnership, other than a family farm corporation, authorized farm corporation, limited liability agricultural company, family farm limited liability agricultural company, limited agricultural partnership, family trust, authorized trust or testamentary trust, violating the provisions of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $50,000 and shall divest itself of any land acquired in violation of this section within one year after judgment is entered in the action. The district courts of this state may prevent and restrain violations of this section through the issuance of an injunction. The attorney general or district or county attorney shall institute suits on behalf of the state to enforce the provisions of this section.
(d)  Civil penalties sued for and recovered by the attorney general shall be paid into the state general fund. Civil penalties sued for and recovered by the county attorney or district attorney shall be paid into the general fund of the county where the proceedings were instigated.
Food for thought for Wyoming?