"Auto de Fe" at Mani

                                     Auto de Fe at Mani

            The auto de fe at Mani may be the first great political/economic scandal affecting both the New World and the Old World.

               Among Europeans it frightened the Aristocracy, the Church, the military, and the great merchants and traders in Mexico City, Madrid, Rome, and beyond.

               At first it may seem a case of business as usual. A churchman caused a few Indians to be punished and a relatively small amount of their religious and cultural items to be destroyed. A common occurrence between Old Word "conquers" and New world "conquered."

            However in this case.....   

Should I continue the story?

Do you want to?

Should we both?

by Richard Sheehan

for you

Not Yet

History With RCS: There is a lot to learn about the people in North America  before 1,400 AD. In this blog there is some that has been learned, but not by many.

 

                I do not know of anyone who has seen a red American Indian recently. Do you?

                The Red Paint People were probably in North America in 9000 BP.
                Does Iron Oxide People sound stranger than Red Paint People?

                Red Paint People were active in North America at least until 1000 AD. Some have called them Red Ocher People. 

                The peak of the RPP culture in N.A. was probably from 3000 BC to 1000 AD.

                Might these red people, natives of N.A., be the source of the appellation red Indian?

 

 

                                                                        rcs 

Red Indians: not in Europe!

 History With RCS, archaeology, prehistory, history, and a little conjecture

                Why did newcomers to to the east coast of North America, years before and after 1500 AD, often speak of red Indians? I have seen many Indians from coast to coast in the U.S. and  none looked red to me. Once I did see a Navajo "medicine man" painted red for a purification ceremony.

                Painted.

                My questions, as to why east coast Indians were so often called red, have not been answered. So, I have looked around a bit and trying to make an 'educated' guess.

                So far, I have discovered that professionals have written about a Red Paint People on the northeast coast of North America known mostly by their burial remains. Burial sites found all over the east coast of Canada and the U.S. The east coast where the term Red Indian was most used. Those Red Paint People used what looked to be red paint to color their grave sites and their dead red. It has been said that those sites were dated from about 4500 BP to about 1000 AD.

                Could ancestors of the Red Paint People have been painting themselves red when some of our ancestors arrived

                Red.

                Then, in the literature, I found discussion of a Red Ochre People having lived in much the same area. They have been dated back to 5000 BC or earlier. They too spread red coloring around their dwellings, burial sites, and over their dead. May they not have colored their living red? May the not have had some family colored red around 1500?

                I observed, not so long ago, Indians who passed their days at Santo Domingo do los Colorados, Ecuador with their skin colored red.

                So then, could it be that in those early days of discovery and exploration our ancestors were not color blind, but that rather they actually observed native peoples colored red?

                Maybe later, words about the Ancient Maritime People of all around the North Atlantic who liked the iron oxide red coloring greatly may be an appropriate.

by Richard

Cow Head

History With RCS: Forty years exploring the the New World in the 1500s   

                 Most Americans know Cabeza de Vaca as one of the four survivors of a three hundred man expedition to Florida in 1583. H e wandered eight years in North America a a naked, unarmed healer of  Indians and probably the first European to describe thundering herds of buffalo.

                In 1541 the same Alvero Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was penetrating southern Brazil by canoe near what is now the riverine intersection of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. When in the distance, he saw a cloud of spray "two spear throws or more above the treetops." He had to beach the expedition before it plunged over the brink of an enormous waterfall. He ha discovered Iguazú Catarata. Iguazu is as wide as three Niagras and one hundred feet higher.

                Let me know when you want more of this or more like this.

                                                                                                                RCS

The Looting Of Ameican Prehistoric Sites

 History of mound robbing and looting in the U.S. Bad archaeology at the Spiro Mounds Complex in Oklahoma. The history of this site looting has been largely recovered thanks to the people of the great state of Oklahoma (Way down yonder in the Indian nation). This site was such a treasure trove that it was call the King Tuts Tomb of the Arkansas Valley.

 

Snake War: short version

 

The people of the United States have warred a lot (as have other peoples)

They seemed to have been easily led to it. During their Civil War(1861 to 1865)they found time and resources to drive a lot of Indians off their lands. At the end of that Civil War they began to "pacify" Indians from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Coast.

By 1850 powerful and influential men  from around the world became interested in the American West. We might blame that on the Fortyniners and gold fever. The name, California became a sort of magnet which drew men from from east of the the Mississippi and the Pacific coast. That same magnet drew men around the Horn and through the Straights of Magellan: some crossed the Pacific ocean from the Far East to get to California. That magnet drew men and their capital and during the Civil War and drew them even more strongly after that war of Americans against Americans.

In 1864 the Snake War began and then continued until 1868. Their were other U.S. wars (from about 1861 to 1868) during this same time. There were: Texas-Indian wars, a Colorado war, Apache wars, California Indian wars, and a Cheyenne Campaign! Many were sure that "good Indians were dead Indians." Indians were to put their heads down, in a dirty corner of what had once been their America the Beautiful, or die.

Historians called the Snake War an irregular war which Americans fought against the Northern Paiute, the Bannock,
and the Western Shoshone. Some of that fighting was done along the Snake river. When historians used the word "irregular" they were being diplomatic. This war took place in what became the states of Oregon, Nevada, California, and Idaho. The U.S. Won.

The war began when many small bands of the tribes mentioned above were disturbed by the activities of people of the mining interests and the new road building interests digging in the lands from which those Indians were accustomed to take their sustenance. Significant numbers of those Indians were made "good." Some Indians were able to make a few interlopers "good" too.

Powerful and influential persons were interested in the undeveloped lands of the U.S. Monied people in California,  on the US. East Coast. and elsewhere were interested in the lead, copper, gold, and silver. They were interested in the prime lands of the Far west of what was becoming the U.S.
The were interested in the resources the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. They saw an access to a toad to greater wealth.

There were those who had the the resources to apply pressure where needed to see that the natives of the land did not hinder their plans. California interests brought pressure to bear on' general George Wright, commander of the department of the Pacific, to provide better protection for those building the new roads from from Red Bluff and Chico to Silver City and Boise. "Do something about those Indians," they were demanding. It would take a book to cover all the powerful pressures brought to bear to clear the way to wealth. Still we can stay that much of those pressures had to do with money, wealth, power, and the growing craft of Public Relations, the selling of ideas which move the public.

In the States, a growing number of strong pressures were being felt by men in positions to act on the will of the men with the power to put effective power on them. Pressures acted on Congressmen, large contractors, railroad men, world wide mining interests: capitalists from the
East Coast, the West Coast, and around our world. There were high hopes and a great deal of pushing and shoving. The people felt these activities. 

The War consisted mostly of hunting Indians. Volunteers hunted Indians, interested citizens hunted Indians, immigrants hunted Indians, the Army hunted Indians. Some said that the Indians were in the way of destiny.     




by Richard Sheehan



Should I start to think of learning to copyright my work?

I look forward to your comments, questions, additions corrections, criticisms, and praise.