by Rich Wandschneider | Oct 12, 2020 | Carib, Columbian Exchange, Columbus, Columbus Day, Doctrine of Discovery, Jim Crow, slavery
“Columbus Day” was first celebrated by Italian-Americans in San Francisco in 1869, and worked its way into a national holiday in 1937. Those of us who went to school in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and probably through the 1990s and are not of Italian heritage, remember...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 24, 2016 | alt right, Cabeza de Vaca, Columbian Exchange, cranberries, little ice age, Richard Spencer, Thanksgiving, wild turkey
“Wild” cranberries “America was until this last generation a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation and it belongs to us.” That’s a quote from Richard Spencer, self-appointed spokesman for the “alt-right” in a gathering of...
by Rich Wandschneider | Oct 13, 2016 | Civil Rights, Columbian Exchange, encominedas, Indian slavery, Indian vote, Latino, President Obama, Treaty Rights
In this election year, African Americans and Latinos are getting a lot of attention. Immigrants too. We are a “nation of them.” Oops—Indians were here when the first European immigrants arrived, and are still. (But their voting numbers are small, and they are...
by Rich Wandschneider | Oct 8, 2014 | Alfred Crosby, Alice Fletcher, Allen Pinkham, Alvin Josephy, Charles Mann, Columbian Exchange, Dawes Act, Nez Perce
In preparation for my Portland presentation on the Nez Perce in the Wallowa Country tomorrow night, and thinking about this ecosystems/ Pacific NW tribes class I am teaching in La Grande, I got to wondering about which elements of Alfred Crosby’s Columbian Exchange...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 29, 2013 | Alvin Josephy, Columbian Exchange, Denis Strong, JFK, Patriot Chiefs, Peace Corps, Profiles in Courage, Squanto, Tecumseh, Thanksgiving, Turkey, UCR
It is the end of November in my 72nd year and my mind churns. I guess for many of us of a certain age November will always be associated with John Kennedy’s death. Yes, I remember the day, remember riding my bike to class at UC Riverside, putting it in a rack and...
by Rich Wandschneider | Dec 6, 2012 | 1491, Alvin Josephy, American West Magazine, beaver hats, Charles Mann, Columbian Exchange, fur trade, fur traders, Hudson’s Bay Company, Louisiana Purchase, Plymouth colony, smallpox
Sometimes you read something or hear something or something happens that changes how you look at the world. For me, reading Charles Mann’s 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, and thinking about world history in terms of the “Columbian Exchange” did...
