Category Archives: On this date…

On this date… April 17, 1680… Quebec

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date in 1680, Kateri Tekakwitha breathed her last.  She was a captive orphan, a girl convert, a French Iroquois, and a Catholic saint.  Descriptions of her death are colored with racial overtones.  A priest at her bedside observed, … Continue reading →

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On this date… April 5, 1614… Virginia

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date in 1614, Pocahontas was married to John Rolfe.  Never mind that she was already married to Kocoum and had a child. At this point she was being held hostage, raped, and impregnated.  Her first husband had been … Continue reading →

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On this date… March 17, 1699… Louisiana

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date in 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville cast his eyes on Le Baton Rouge, the Red Stick or Red Pole.  It served as “the dividing line between the Ouma’s hunting ground and the Bayogoula’s.  On the bank are … Continue reading →

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On this date… February 28, 1823… Washington, D.C.

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall redefined land ownership in America in the case of Johnson v. M’Intosh. It was a stretch, but he went back to the fifteenth century, when the Pope allotted newly discovered lands … Continue reading →

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On this date… February 10, 1763… Florida

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date in 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Year’s War, also known as the French and Indian War.  The French and Spanish were expelled from what would become the United States, leaving Great Britain as the … Continue reading →

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On this date… January 24, 1599… New Mexico

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date in 1599, Acoma Pueblo, the sky city, fell. Rising above the desert plain, perched atop smooth sandstone cliffs that reflect brilliant orange in the morning sun, Acoma had been there since the 1100s.  It was the oldest … Continue reading →

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On this date… January 9-10, 1879… Nebraska

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date in 1879, in weather even colder than today’s, the long saga of Dull Knife’s (aka Morning Star) band of Cheyenne reached a climax. Three years earlier, in the aftermath of the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Custer’s … Continue reading →

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On this date… December 15, 1970… New Mexico

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Stephen Carr Hampton

On this date in 1970, the Taos Pueblo won back Blue Lake through an act of Congress and sixty-four years of struggle. At 11,332 feet above sea level, the lake reflects the deep dark blue of the bold sky.  The … Continue reading →

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What really happened: The account of the first Thanksgiving

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Here is the original account of the first Thanksgiving. It’s only three short paragraphs. But first, a little context.  It’s 1621. The Pilgrims arrived the previous December, finally settling in the abandoned Native village of Patuxet.  A year or two … Continue reading →

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On this date… November 19, 1863… Pennsylvania

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Stephen Carr Hampton

The airwaves today are filled with gushing remembrances of Abraham Lincoln’s brief eloquent eulogy at the Gettysburg Battlefield site on November 19, 1863.  In that speech, Lincoln stated that the nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are … Continue reading →

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