New this month from the University of Nebraska Press: Lt. Charles Gatewood & His Apache Wars Memoir by Charles B. Gatewood, edited and with additional text by Louis Kraft.

Lt. Charles B. Gatewood (1853–1896), an educated Virginian, served in the Sixth U.S. Cavalry as the commander of Indian scouts. Gatewood was largely accepted by the Native peoples with whom he worked because of his efforts to understand their cultures. It was this connection that Gatewood formed with the Indians, and with Geronimo and Naiche in particular, that led to his involvement in the last Apache war and his work for Indian rights.

Realizing that he had more experience dealing with Native peoples than other lieutenants serving on the frontier, Gatewood decided to record his experiences. Although he died before he completed his project, the work he left behind remains an important firsthand account of his life as a commander of Apache scouts and as a military commandant of the White Mountain Indian Reservation.

This week’s installment of Tuesday Trivia is about the Apache Indians. Ready?

1. The word “Apachean” describes Indian groups language and culture are similar to that of the Apache. Name another major Apachean Native American group.

Continue reading “Tuesday Trivia: January 27, 2009”

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press: The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1872-1876. Henry James was a prolific letter writer, and the University of Nebraska press is publishing the thousands and thousands of letters he wrote in an ongoing series. Volume No. 3 is a collection of letters written between 1872 and 1876, and the letters from those years fill more than 500 pages. Imagine if Henry James had had access to text messaging! Today’s linking in Lincoln is all about a cousin of the letter, the diary, and diary’s kid sister, blog. Ready? 1. In 1660, a … Continue reading Linking in Lincoln: January 22, 2009

All eyes are on Barack Obama today (or at least on HBO) as the nation’s most famous community organizer prepares to take office. In keeping with his community organizer roots, Obama declared yesterday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a day of service. Listening to the news last night, I found the interviews with people who spent the holiday cleaning up parks, volunteering at shelters and even giving haircuts to those in need pretty inspiring. No doubt former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis would find such service inspiring, too. Before she was mayor, Boosalis was a volunteer and community organizer herself. … Continue reading Community organizers in the White House and in Lincoln, too

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press: Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887-1934, by Katherine M. B. Osburn.

After the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, the Southern Ute Agency was the scene of an intense federal effort to assimilate the Ute Indians. The Southern Utes were to break up their common land holdings and transform themselves into middle-class patriarchal farm and pastoral families. In this assimilationist scheme, women were to surrender the considerable autonomy they enjoyed in traditional Ute society and become housebound homemakers, the “civilizers” of their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. Southern Ute Women shows that these women accommodated Anglo ways that benefited them but refused to give up indigenous culture and ways that gave their lives meaning and bolstered personal autonomy.

This week’s Tuesday Trivia will test your knowledge of Ute history and culture. Ready?

1. Which state derived its name from the word “Ute”?

2. Most Utes today live in two states. Which ones?

Continue reading “Tuesday Trivia: January 20, 2009”