Something/Someone Old

It's a little late to celebrate the anniversary of White Buffalo Calf Road woman's actions in the Battle of the Rosebud (June 17, 1876) and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (June 25-26, 1876), but I just discovered her story last week.

This is an amazing woman.

First, a bit of background about the Battle of the Rosebud, which has been overshadowed in cultural memory by the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This is from an article entitled "Rosebud Gets No Respect," written by Daniel Brown for a website entitled True West: History of the American Frontier
(https://truewestmagazine.com/rosebud-gets-no-respect/):

In June 1876, two battles were fought in Montana Territory between the U.S. Army and a coalition of Northern Cheyenne and Lakota warriors. Although separated by only eight days and 50 miles, the outcomes could not have been more dissimilar.

The first battle, on June 17, lasted most of the day, as the opponents were equally matched in number. The generalship on one side was novel and superb. Although one army claimed a tactical victory, it suffered a strategic defeat, one which indirectly influenced the outcome of the second conflict.

The crux of the latter fight, on June 25-26, lasted only an hour or so. It was a lopsided affair, during which 4,000 combatants on one side annihilated 200 on the other. The name of the losing commander became a byword for gross military incompetence.

The commander of the U.S. forces at Rosebud was General George Crook.

He and Custer and Gen John Gibbon were trying to encircle Crazy Horse's village of, shall we say, nonconforming Cheyenne and Lakota people. Objecting to being herded like cattle onto land of your conqueror's choosing tends to elicit a military response, and this was it.

Apparently the site of the Rosebud battle is not flat. The land undulates in ridges, past which it's not possible to see. This geographical fact was apparently quite important to the battle, in that each army was trying to encircle the other, but neither could see each other until they crested each ridge. So the battle was a series of short, abrupt confrontations as enemy soldiers would abruptly come face to face at the crest of a ridge (thank God they didn't have World-War-I-style artillery back then. What a disgusting invention that was.)

Rosebud was unusual compared to most battles between the U.S. military and indigenous people. It was much more, well, European:

this was a pitched mêlée between two armed mounted forces, not much different than a clash of medieval knights in armor. The furious seesaw affair lasted six hours as each side used the terrain in an attempt to cut off and encircle the other.

I didn't know what a great general Crazy Horse was, not having studied this history. Apparently he had to think outside his own cultural assumptions about what military action is in order to create an effective military strategy against the United States army. It requires imagination and a different kind of courage to be able to do this, especially under pressure, so I feel he deserves a shout-out here, even though my focus is on Buffalo Calf Road Woman:

Many Old West historians have noted that Rosebud was the premier showcase of Crazy Horse’s leadership qualities. He had learned that charging off in a quest for glory and scalps would not defeat the white soldiers who were more interested in killing, than honor. Crazy Horse instructed his warriors to fight as a united force, so they could drive the invaders out of their homeland. Like any great strategist, Crazy Horse massed his forces where the soldiers were the weakest and adopted tactics that corresponded to fluid battlefield conditions.

Back to Buffalo Calf Road Woman. This is from the website Amazing Women in History by Rosemary Agonito:

At one point she spotted her brother, Comes In Sight, in a gully below, trapped by soldiers closing in. Immediately, Calf rode down into the gully amidst the flying bullets and, in an amazing rescue, pulled her brother onto her horse and out of the gully to safety. Those warriors observing the scene were greatly impressed, since they themselves had hesitated, thinking the situation too impossible to save Comes In Sight. Victorious, her people named the battle for her, The Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother, and called her Brave Woman.

The True West site says that the United States forces claimed a tactical victory that day, but suffered a strategic defeat that had implications for later battles such as Little Big Horn. Sort of the way that Jeremy Corbyn didn't win the election, but won the advantage anyway. What Buffalo Calf Road Woman did caused a profound shift in morale, perhaps especially because she was female.

Her rescue must have been a startling vision for the fighters of both armies. Amid the chaos and adrenaline, the deafening cacophony of eagle-bone whistles and gunshots, the whizzing of bullets and arrows, the roar of the wind through the trees came this brave deed from such an unlikely source that the Indians must have felt their blood pumping, while the cavalry troopers sensed their blood pressure soaring.

Had Crook not been surprised at the Rosebud or had he continued on to link up with Custer, the outcome of the Little Big Horn fight might have been different. The 7th Cavalry would have been augmented by 1,000 more troops, and the overall command would have passed on to Crook, a more level-headed commander.

A week later, Buffalo Calf Road Woman would fight beside her husband at Little Big Horn. According to information provided by the Cheyenne oral historians after they broke a 100-year-long silence on the subject, she was the one who struck the blow that knocked Custer off his horse.

The [Cheyenne] storytellers, including Rowland, attributed Buffalo Calf Trail Woman for delivering the blow that knocked Custer from his steed before he died.

"We know from history Custer had two wounds," Rowland said, referring to Custer's head wound and the wound to his chest. "When he fell, he wasn't touched by the warriors because he was unclean. He was bad medicine."

It was the women, Rowland said, who took their revenge.

http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/northern-cheyenne-break-vow-...

As a feminist, I am more impressed by Buffalo Calf Road Woman than I am by modern-day ceiling-breaking for rich white women. Just saying.

Something New

Netflix has reinstated Sense8, in response to intense fan outcry.

Lana Wachowski, co-creator and executive producer of the show, had this to say about Netflix's change of heart:

I had never worked so hard, or put so much of myself into a project as I had with Sense8 and its cancellation hollowed me out. I felt the disappointment of my amazing crew (I wish people could understand the impossibilities they achieved with implausible regularity.) I felt the sadness of the actors who had given so much of themselves, always finding more whenever the sun broke from the clouds. But most of all I felt the heartbreak of our fans (again I wish I could cluster with you to share some of the beautiful moments, the hugs, tears and laughter, as well as the insightful and humbling conversations I have had with people who have connected to this show; they are unlike any fans I have ever encountered as an artist.)

Friends kept calling from all over the world asking, ‘Isn’t there anything you can do?’

And the truth was, no. By myself, there was nothing I could do.

But just as the characters in our show discover that they are not alone, I too have learned that I am not just a me. I am also a we.

The passionate letters, the petitions, the collective voice that rose up like the fist of Sun to fight for this show was beyond what anyone was expecting.

In this world it is easy to believe that you cannot make a difference; that when a government or an institution or corporation makes a decision, there is something irrevocable about the decision; that love is always less important than the bottom line.

But here is a gift from the fans of this show that I will carry forever in my heart: while it is often true those decisions are irreversible, it is not always true.

Improbably, unforeseeably, your love has brought Sense8 back to life. (I could kiss every single one of you!)

So occasionally we do win, at least a bit. Apparently Netflix couldn't ignore the Sense8 fans. They have confirmed a 2-hour special, scheduled for 2018. So here's to recalcitrant fans!

Something Borrowed

This is the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performing the theme to Shaft.

It's so wonderful that this even exists. I didn't even know there was a ukulele orchestra of Great Britain.

For those of you too young to remember Shaft, this is the original:

and here's how I first heard it:

Something Blue

Apparently these are now called "Blue Forests:"

Apparently, mangrove swamps are also known as "Blue Forests." I think this term is coming out of the NGO world, because they want to class mangrove swamps with forests in order to protect them under the auspices of any agreements the UN might come to. I'm not really sure, at this point, why it matters what agreements the UN comes to, since people can apparently pop off out of the agreement any time they want a cigarette, but it's nice to know that somebody is finally paying attention to the importance of coastal swamps. I've always known they were important, but I live in a place that's likely to erode into the sea without them. Also, somewhat more mystically, I've always felt like they were great lungs, inhaling from and exhaling into the ocean. When you drive through southern Georgia, south of Savannah, you can feel them breathing.

From an NGO site (Global Environment Facility; apparently they do work trying to preserve the oceans and coastal environments) (http://www.gefblueforests.org/):

What are blue forests?
Coastal and marine ecosystems, including mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and saltwater marshes, support livelihoods and wellbeing of across the globe. These ‘blue forests’ are vital for coastal and island communities through the many services they provide, such as shoreline protection, providing essential habitat for fisheries and supporting marine biodiversity. They are also significant for our global climate by storing and sequestering atmospheric carbon; giving them additional value and significance in the global climate challenge (a concept also termed ‘blue carbon’).

Aren't they beautiful? This one is from Puerto Rico.

Here's what the Smithsonian (http://ocean.si.edu/mangroves) has to say about them. They are lively places:

Many...kinds of birds also nest, roost, and feed in mangroves. And they’re not alone. Mangroves buzz with insects. Ants, spiders, moths, termites, and scorpions feed and nest in hollowed twigs. Snakes and lizards crawl along tree limbs. Frogs cling to bark and leaves. Crocodiles laze in the salt water...As a whole, mangroves are among the most productive and biologically complex ecosystems on Earth.

Dive underwater, and a mangrove’s smooth brown roots suddenly take on the textures and hues of the multitude of marine organisms clinging to its bark. Anchored in mud, the roots are literally coated with creatures—barnacles, oysters, crabs, sponges, anemones, and much, much more. The dense, intertwining roots serve as nurseries for many colorful coral reef fishes and for fishes valued by fishermen. Juvenile fish find shelter there during their first vulnerable weeks of life, before swimming off to deeper, more dangerous waters.

If the rest of life on earth died, but enough subtropical and tropical swamps survived, you could bung a few forks of lightning through them and start the whole thing up again. At least, that's what I believe.

This feels like home to me: