Category Archives: my own thoughts

Sitting on 700: The short story of my lifelist

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Sometime long ago when I started birding, when I was seven, I read that the ultimate lifetime goal for birders in the US was to see 700 species in North America. For birders, “North America” was defined by the American … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged 700, ABA, birding, birds, bluethroat, chasing, Citrine wagtail, Kougarok, lifelist, listing, nome | 2 Comments

The movie Wind River and white saviors: A review of reviews

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Wind River, a 2017 crime thriller set in the winter wilderness of the Wind River Indian Reservation, focuses on the on-going epidemic of assaulted and missing Native women and girls. Examples of the problem are not hard to find. The … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged film, ICTMN, jeremy renner, movie, reservation, review, white savior, wind river | 1 Comment

Alt-history Part 2: The mound builder myth reborn, Nazis, and Solutreans

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Continued from Alt-history Part 1: The mound builder myth and ethnic cleansing. The myth lives on The mound builder myth justified the ethnic cleansing of the 1800s. It was seemingly put to rest in 1894 just as Native Americans were … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged Ahnenerbe, aryan, barry fell, erasure, frank collin, glenn beck, hyperdiffusionism, kennewick man, kyle bristow, lost civilizations, native american, neo-nazi, Solutrean, White supremacist | Leave a comment

Alt-history Part 1: The mound builder myth and ethnic cleansing

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Throughout the 1800s, most white Americans believed in an alternative history– that they were here first; they are the true “natives”, related to the Mound Builders; and that “redskins” have no real claim to the land. Marietta, Ohio Traveling down … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged American Antiquities, Atlantis, cahokia, Crania Americana, Grave Creek Stone, Josiah Priest, marietta, mormon, moundbuilders, native american, Phoenicians, powell, Samuel George Morton, Solutrean | 7 Comments

Haiti: Nation of slaves

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

To understand Haiti’s poverty, one must understand its history. It is often said that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is—and it’s not even close. This is because Haiti is also one of the most exploited … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged allende, aristide, haiti, mikaben, paul farmer, shithole, slave, slave revolt, uses of haiti | Leave a comment

Native mascots: A comprehensive literature review

Posted on January 6, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

In 1909 the University of Wisconsin lacrosse team adopted the first Native mascot. By the 1950s, they were commonplace. Beginning in 1968, Native Americans condemned the use of these mascots, arguing that they are based on stereotypes that “have a … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged blackhawks, chief illiniwek, chief osceola, chief wahoo, civil rights, cleveland indians, controversy, culture, dennis banks, fighting hawks, fighting illini, fighting sioux, florida state, football, fryberg, illini, literature review, logo, mascot, mascots, Native, native american, ncaa, nfl, North Dakota, ole miss, political correctness, rebels, red face, redskins, seminoles, sports, sports illustrated, staurowsky, steinfeldt, stereotype, university of illinois, washington redskins | 2 Comments

The Electoral College: White lives matter

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Stephen Carr Hampton

In the wake of Trump’s election, in which he lost the popular vote by nearly three million, much has been said about the use of the Electoral College. Only four times in US history has the winner of the electoral … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts, news | Tagged #electoralcollege, 2016, clinton, compromise, election, electoral college, electors, ethnicity, popular vote, race, slavery, trump | Leave a comment

Totality Visions

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Stephen Carr Hampton

“It’s so beautiful.” My voice was uncontrollably shaking and tears were welling up in my eyes. Like Jodie Foster at the end of Contact. From atop a sagebrush bluff in eastern Oregon, we felt the day cool and the bright … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged #SolarEclipse2017, 1890, eclipse, ghost dance, nevada, Paiute, unity, visions, Wounded Knee, wovoka | 1 Comment

Mapping Native America

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Stephen Carr Hampton

There are lots of maps of Native America floating around in books and on-line, most suggesting a sea of an indigenous nation-states that was fixed in time until the Europeans arrived. In reality, these “tribes” labeled on maps were most … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged aboriginal territory, carapella, map, mapping, maps, native american, Native American history, native lands, native-land.ca | Leave a comment

Photography of Native Americans, past and present

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Teju Cole, a Nigerian living in New York City, is one of my favorite writers and photographers. In his recent column in New York Times Magazine, he compares the portraits by Horace Poolaw, Kiowa, with those by Edward Curtis. Poolaw’s … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts, news, Standing Rock | Tagged edward curtis, horace poolaw, josue rivas, Moses on the Mesa, native american, New York Times, photographs, Standing Rock | Leave a comment