by Rich Wandschneider | Dec 31, 2025 | Manifest Destiny, Marcus Whitman, Native Americans, Nespelem, Nex Perce history, Nez Perce
President Trump’s recent outbursts about Somali-Americans and their homeland being “garbage” have been the most xenophobic rants since those a year ago about Haitians eating pets in Illinois. There have been milder explosions about Venezuelans and South Africans and...
by Rich Wandschneider | Dec 11, 2024 | George Washington, Indian population, Marcus Whitman, measles, mumps, smallpox, vaccination, vaccine, Whitman massacre
A friend texted me to say that she “got whooping cough for Christmas.” I’m 82 and don’t remember knowing anyone with whooping cough. Maybe it was around when I was young, but my own disease related memories are chicken pox—mom taking me to the neighbor’s house to...
by Rich Wandschneider | Oct 31, 2022 | baseball, Lewis and Clark, Marcus Whitman, Nex Perce history, Nez Perce, Oregon Trail
I watched all 8 hours of Ken Burns’ recently released “Muhammad Ali”; good, but maybe a bit too long. And it reminded me that I had also watched “Jackie Robinson” and “Jack Johnson,” and all 18 innings of “Baseball.” Baseball was glorious and my favorite; it told the...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 2, 2021 | Bison Books, Catholicism, Manifest Destiny, Marcus Whitman, Reverend Spalding, smallpox epidemic of 1780s, spalding, whitman
My last rambling blog post tried to link missionaries Whitman and Spalding, Catholic and anti-Catholic Northwesterners, Yale historians, Manifest Destiny, the Fur Trade, Whitman College and Bison Books into a tidy essay on history and historiography. I could have done...
by Rich Wandschneider | Aug 24, 2015 | Alvin Josephy, Chief Joseph, Eliza Spalding, Marcus Whitman, Nez Perce, Nez Perce War, The Dying Grass, Wallowas
William Vollman’s new novel, The Dying Grass: A Novel of the Nez Perce War, is getting rave reviews. I have it, have glanced at the first few pages and looked at the extended notes and acknowledgements—and hoisted the 1350 page and what must be five-pound...
by Rich Wandschneider | Jun 21, 2014 | Black Death, Brian Fagan, Father Desmet, Marcus Whitman, Plague, Salem witch trials, smallpox, Weyakin
Smallpox didn’t rate a line in the ‘Western Civilization textbook that I used in 1961—The Course of Civilization, by Strayer, Gatzke, and Harison. In fact, the Plague, or Black Death, which some now think wiped out a third of Europe’s population in the mid fourteenth...
