Beyond the Scenery

PARK NEWS

         November is Native American Heritage Month, chosen because it’s the traditional harvest season. I’ll be doing my Native American Sites in Our National Parks program several times in November. Let me introduce you to a couple of park sites relating stories of our country’s original inhabitants.

         Remember studying the French and Indian War (also called The Seven Years War) in American history class? Not much, right? Most of us have probably forgotten this conflict between France and Great Britain, which set the stage for the American Revolution.

         The two countries both claimed large tracts of land in North America, and each wanted supremacy in the continent. Most colonists sided with the British, and encouraged the natives to ally with them. Here is a young George Washington trying to persuade them to join their cause.

         The British did gain the support of the Catawba and Cherokee, as well as the Iroquois/Six Nations Confederacy (now called the Haudenosaunee Confederacy) of upstate New York and Canada, composed of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. These six tribes helped built Fort Stanwix, now a national monument in the Park Service, constructed on traditional Oneida land.

  The British also recruited Indians from the Ohio Valley to fight for them there. This is American colonel George Rogers Clark persuading them to switch their allegiance from the French to the British. That story is told at Indiana’s George Rogers Clark National Historical Park.

Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Pennsylvania, where the first clash of the French and Indian War occurred, is the only park site dedicated to that war.

Great Britain was the victor when the 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the war. King George III declared a swath of land west of the Mississippi River, won from France, an Indian reserve. The British also signed a treaty with the Six Nations formally establishing their boundaries. However, white colonists eagerly settled in both these places, setting the stage for future conflict.

Great Britain’s win came at a high price. And who would pay off that tremendous war debt? Why, the American colonies, of course, through a series of taxes. Those levies on the colonists—you know, taxation without representation in Parliament—stoked the flames of rebellion.

         During the American Revolution, an estimated fifty-five hundred African and Native American men served on the colonial side. Many more allied themselves with the British, Blacks lured with promises of emancipation, Indians with guarantees of keeping their land.

Captain Louis Joseph Cook, the English name of a Six Nations member, was the highest-ranking soldier of Black and American Indian descent to be commissioned by the Continental Congress. He’d teamed up with the colonists in the French and Indian War, and even went on to serve America in the War of 1812, where he died in battle. Cook was buried with full military honors, and you’ll learn more about him at Valley Forge National Historical Park.

How the federal government shutdown is affecting the parks

         Not only is the National Park Service losing tons of money, especially from entrance fees, but people are engaging in dangerous stunts in the parks because they think they can get away with it since less rangers are on site. BASE jumping, the sport of jumping from fixed objects like buildings, antennas, spans and earth (like cliffs), is illegal throughout the Park Service, and a trio of BASE jumpers were caught and convicted in Yosemite National Park recently.

November’s Subpar Parks review

         “Not really what I thought” is the assessment of Craters of the Moon National Monument. I don’t know exactly what the reviewer meant, but this park has lava tube caves, formed by scalding rivers of molten rock underground, hollowed out to allow them to be explored. Other features include spatter and cinder cones (the former are mini-volcanoes, the latter is made up of lava fragments thrown out when a volcano erupts), and a trail through hardened and ropy pahoehoe (pah-HOEE-hoee) lava (the other type of lava is a’a—pronounced ah-ah—which is thick and chunky)

NEW BOOKS

Yay, grandparenting!

My husband and I became grandparents this year, and we love it! That’s why I’m excited about a new book coming out by Lori Wildenberg, a member of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association like me. Grandparents Make Grand Partners: How to Have an Eternal Impact on Your Grandchild's Life can be pre-ordered now, but its official launch date is November 11.

Annie (but not the ones you might be thinking of)

From fellow Pelican Book Group author Jody Day comes a historical western, Annie True and Brave. It’s due out November 7, but you can pre-order this one, too.
 

STILL THE BEST-SELLING BOOK IN THE WORLD

         In 1940, a group of business and professional men founded the National Bible Association as war raged in Europe. Their purpose was to encourage Americans to look to Scripture for hope, encouragement, strength and guidance, especially during the tumultuous time.

         The Association launched a National Bible Week campaign to celebrate the reading and studying of Scripture the following year, from December 8-14, with a kickoff reading of the Bible on December 7, 1941 to be aired on the NBC radio network. That plan was interrupted by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet the Bible reading continued throughout the day, as our nation faced another world war. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Today, National Bible Week coincides with Thanksgiving week, the Sunday before to the Sunday after (November 23-30 this year). The way to observe it is, of course, to pick up a Bible and read it, as well as share a favorite verse or two. Here’s one of mine, which I reference every time I sign one of my books: “You will make known to me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11).

Park News

The federal government shutdown

         Not all the 433 National Park Service sites are closed, but several former park superintendents wish they were. In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, they noted that during past shutdowns, when some parks stayed open despite limited staff, there were more incidents of vandalism, trash piled up, and visitor safety was compromised. With the newest personnel reductions (25% of the National Park Service’s permanent employees, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, it’s sure to happen again.

The changing of the leaves

        If you crave seeing the fall foliage in our parks, Travel + Leisure and Forbes have some ideas for you. Check first to make sure the sites are open, and what the hours are.

It's not even Halloween but the Christmas stuff is already out

I started seeing it mid-September!

The Park Service has to work that far in advance for the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. This is held on the Ellipse, part of the Park Service’s White House and President’s Park. As of today, information about the lottery for tickets to this the event hasn’t been posted yet, but keep checking the site if you’re interested in attending.

One hundred years for Mount Rushmore National Memorial

         A century ago, on October 1, 1925, the area in South Dakota’s Black Hills where four presidential faces would be carved was dedicated as a national monument. The actual sculpting, conceived and begun by Gutzon Borglum, didn’t begin until two years later. Read more about its construction here.

By the way, do you know why Borglum chose those specific Commanders-in Chief, and what each stands for? Washington, the most prominent figure, embodies America’s founding, Jefferson, its growth (think Louisiana Purchase), Lincoln the country’s preservation, and Theodore Roosevelt its development.

Mount Rushmore continues to be a sore subject with the Lakota Sioux. The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie returned the Black Hills, known by the Native Americans as Paha Sapa, to the Sioux. In exchange for giving up thousands of acres of land, they were “allowed” to relocate their reservation there, a sacred space for them. That pact was never rescinded so it remains valid, but obviously was never enforced. The reason? Gold was found in them there hills. FYI: Wyoming’s Fort Laramie is a national historic site in the Park Service.

Some of you may remember the 1970 American Indian Movement protest at Mount Rushmore about this issue. AIM leaders Dennis Banks (pictured) and Russell Means led the demonstration.

The lead-up to America’s 250^th birthday in our national parks

         In July 1775, the Continental Congress adopted what’s called the Olive Branch Petition (note John Hancock’s large signature, just as is on the Declaration of Independence). The paper aired the American patriots’ grievances, and entreated King George III to resolve the crisis between Great Britain and the colonies.

         The King didn’t even bother to read the petition. But what he did do was issue a proclamation the following month, declaring the revolt in American was the work of those “misled by dangerous and ill-designing men”…who forget “the allegiance which they owe to the power that has protected and sustained them…by open and avowed rebellion.”

         During this month 250 years ago, in an address at the opening of Parliament, King George offered his own magnanimous olive branch: “When the unhappy and deluded multitude [in America] become sensible of their error, I shall be ready to receive the misled with tenderness and mercy.”

         The song “You’ll Be Back” from the musical Hamilton is based on this speech, sung by the character of King George.

         Following the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, British soldiers occupied by Boston in a standoff between them and the patriot troops. This eleven-month period became known as the Siege of Boston.

         Since July 1775, after being appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington was stationed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in what's now the Park Service’s Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site (yes, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later lived there). In October that same year, by his own authority and at his own expense, Washington organized a small fleet to fend off British ships trying to resupply their dug-in soldiers. On the schooners, he hoisted this pine tree flag.

         This banner is also known as the Appeal to Heaven flag. The phrase, which has seen a resurgence in recent years, comes from English political philosopher John Locke’s writings of 1689: “Where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven.”

Minute Man National Historical Park and Boston National Historical Park in Massachusetts are where to find more information about these events. In September, my husband and I walked the Freedom Trail (5 miles round trip!).

October’s Sub-par calendar park review

         “It rained on me in the friggin’ desert!” is the incredulous review of Big Bend National Park in Texas. In its defense, the park does have indoor places to go to—its four Visitor Centers and the Fossil Discovery Exhibit,

          When the sun’s out (fall through spring bring cooler temps), there are plenty of outdoor activities. And because the park is so remote, it’s one of the best places in the lower 48 states for stargazing.

Life’s Sun and Rain

         I love the verse in Matthew 5:45 that says God brings both sun and rain on the evil and good alike. This is His “common grace,” as the phrase goes, but really, there’s nothing common about it. God’s undeserved favor, kindness, and goodness extend not only to those who follow Him, but also to people who don’t, either openly or indifferently.

         That alone should move all of us to thankfulness.