Misquoting Jesus in Spokane

Big local event coming up! EWU and the Daniel and Margaret Carper Foundation are bringing Bart Ehrman to town to give a history talk: Misquoting Jesus:Discrepancies in Christian scripture. Ehrman teaches Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is the author of 20 books about the Bible, and is one of the top New Testament scholars in the world. He is a big deal, and a very engaging and witty speaker. YouTube is full of the guy.

The event is at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 23, 2013 at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, Downtown Spokane, Wash.. And it is free! See you there.

So What is Happening with Spokane Historical?

Come and explore Spokane Historical!

Spokane Historical is a smartphone app and website for local history, and is a project of the Public History program at Eastern Washington University. It has been awhile since I blogged about this project, and there is a lot to report.

There are now over 150 high quality points of interpretation, or "tour stops" on Spokane Historical. All were created by EWU students in public history courses. I have given students a pretty free hand in choosing their topics, and I am pleased with the diversity of topics. In Spokane we have everything from a tour of the historic parks and Fort George Wright to stops along the Art Walk and many historic buildings and events.

Spokane Historical also includes substantial content in Cheney, including downtown landmarks such as the Odd Fellows Building and Bill's Tavern. We have interpreted over a dozen sites on the EWU campus, including Showalter Hall, the JFK Library, and Jore School--the one-room schoolhouse on the Cheney campus.

There is so much terrific content on Spokane Historical that for the next few weeks I will feature a series of posts about the project. But you don't have to wait for me--go ahead and take a look around.

Lewis and Clark Events in Spokane this Weekend!

I just received this press release in the mail. Unfortunately I will be out of town this weekend, but thought some local Northwest History readers might find it of interest:

Press Announcement

Washington Chapter

Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc.

Spokane, Washington meeting and field trip

September 15-16, 2012

Saturday, September 15 

10:00 AM Meeting near 1916 Sacajawea statue in lobby of Showalter Hall, on Eastern Washington University campus, Cheney, Washington.

Enter at 5^th and College Street, parking at 5^th and F St. 

Sacajawea statue at EWU

11:00  – Chapter Board meeting

2:00 PM meet at Greenwood Memorial Terrace – 211 North Government Way

see grave of Ben Bierney, grandson of Sgt Patrick Gass, and floral presentation.   

3:00 PM  History of Lewis and Clark flag by John Caskey of Fairmont Memorial Association 5200 West Wellesley Ave

Optional stops on your own:

• Abraham Lincoln statue by Victor Alonzo Lewis (Captain Lewis descendant) West Main Ave and North Monroe St downtown Spokane
•  Pennington Hotel, (now the east entrance parking area at the Davenport Hotel, 10 South Post Street at Sprague Ave,) where Ben Bierney died. 
• Lewis and Clark High School Auditorium. 521 West 4^th Ave Note large murals of Captains Clark and Lewis on either side of the stage, also by Victor Alonzo Lewis    

7:30 PM Historian and Chapter President Barb Kubik presents "Sah-gah-gar we a: Stories, Statues and Symbols" at Spokane Falls Community College 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr. Building 18, Room 129    

Sunday, September 16

10:00 meet at Spokane House Interpretative Center – Highway 291 - 9711 West Charles, Nine Mile Falls, Washington 99026 (State Parks Discovery Pass required)

  

Please contact me if you have any questions

Thank You

Robert Heacock

Secretary/Membership Chair

Washington State Chapter

Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc.

509-924-4020

509-954-6913

heacock1@mindspring.com

Native Vision Program @ EWU this Thursday

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk in someone else's shoes?  Come take a walk through history as Living Voices depicts a Navajo girl exploring her family's past while struggling to keep her culture in a government-run boarding school.   This story (1930's to 1940's) is brought to life through the performance of Lily Gladstone.  Lily Gladstone (Blackfeet/Nez Perce) graduated with a BFA in Acting and a Minor in Native American Studies from the University of Montana in 2008.  Born and raised on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana, Lily is excited to be a part of an expanding presence of Native voices in the performing arts.  She hopes that through Native Vision, she can in some way honor this story of extreme adversity, extraordinary resilience and, ultimately, of healing.

Native Vision is one of several Living Voices multi-media performances that combines theater, video and live interaction to impact its audience.  The EWU Libraries is proud to host this event on the following date and times:

Thursday, April 14, 2011
9:00 - 10:00 am                                   JFK Library Lobby
Noon - 1:00 pm                                    JFK Auditorium
3:00 - 4:00 pm                                    JFK Auditorium
6:00 - 7:30 pm                                    Riverpoint SAC 20 Auditorium

EWU Libraries is celebrating the new Washington State curriculum Since Time Immemorial : Tribal Sovereignty freely available at http://indian-ed.org/ for all students native and non-Native. More information at http://k12.wa.gov/indianed.

Help EWU Offer a Free Online History MA for Teachers!

Friends:

Eastern Washington University is in the process of applying for a Teaching American History grant to help teachers earn Masters degrees in history. Our plan is to offer graduate degrees in history online to teachers around the state, particularly those in rural areas who would not otherwise have the opportunity to do so. If we are successful in this effort, the federal funds would pay all tuition, fees, and books as well as summer institutes at historic sites. And after the funded program is over, EWU hopes to continue to offer the online MA in history--not only to teachers in our state but to anyone, anywhere who wants some graduate courses or an entire MA in history but cannot come to a traditional campus program. There are only a handful of graduate history programs online in the nation so we think we would be serving a definite need.

The first step is for EWU to prove to both state officials and the federal Department of Education that there is a demand for a high-quality, online MA program in history. You can help by taking this quick survey. It will take no more than five minutes of your time. The survey is completely anonymous, though if you want to enter your email we will notify you about how to apply for the program if we are funded.

And please FORWARD THIS POST (you can use the "Share" button below) to anyone who might be interested in seeing online history courses available from EWU -- teachers, people working in museums and archives, genealogists, and anyone with an interest in history. The more people who answer the survey affirmatively, the better our chance of being able to provide this opportunity.

You don't have to be in Washington to take the survey! In fact a substantial response from out-of-state might strengthen our chances.

Click on this link to take the survey. And thank you.

Presentation at EWU: Assessing the Bureau of Reclamation Art Collection

Beginning in 1968, during a period of growing environmental activism and concern in the U.S., the Bureau of Reclamation commissioned paintings from artists willing to depict the "imaginative aspects of the Reclamation Program." The result was a collection of paintings, drawings and etchings that often worked within the well-known traditions of American exceptionalism to promote the Bureau's activities. The collection is an example of the Bureau of Reclamation's self-promotion and "issues management" public relations style, which set a trend that U.S. corporations would later follow.


EWU Professor of English Paul Lindholdt, PhD, will present on this topic at 10 a.m., Feb. 18, 2010, for the EWU Retirees Association. The event will take place on the EWU campus in the Pence Union Building, room 263/265 PUB. Everyone is welcome. Here is a nice Inlander article about Lindholt's research.

Spring Course: Buffalo Bill and the Wild West

I am really excited about the new course I am teaching at Eastern Washington University in the Spring Quarter: History 498/596: Buffalo Bill and the Wild West. The course will meet Wednesday evenings from 5 until 9:30 p.m.

William F. Cody, aka “Buffalo Bill” was America’s first international celebrity. In a public career spanning more than 40 years he appeared before crowds from Spokane to New York City, and from Glasgow to Moscow. His Wild West show parlayed his early life experiences as a buffalo hunter and Army scout into the most popular public entertainment of his era. Along the way he interacted with Teddy Roosevelt and Sitting Bull, Thomas Edison and the Queen of England. He was America’s first international celebrity and many of our western myths were shaped by his Wild West show. But how much of it was true?

In this exciting course we will discover the realities behind the many myths of Buffalo Bill. We will explore Cody and his world via primary and secondary sources, historic and contemporary film, and archival research.

This course builds on a new partnership between the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming and the Public History Program at Eastern Washington University. Students will get the chance to have their work published in the forthcoming Biographical Encyclopedia of the Wild West.

The course is open to both graduates and undergraduates. For more information contact Professor Larry Cebula at LarryCebula@gmail.com.

Eisenhower Fellowships for Native Students at EWU

I see from my visitor logs that there are some people in native country who read this blog and I wanted to get the word out about a great opportunity for American Indian students at Eastern Washington University. But you need to act fast because the deadline in January 26. Here is the announcement, with the application form, but the short version is that EWU has four scholarships of $10,000 a year available for American Indian students "interested in careers related to transportation" (Eisenhower pushed forward the Interstate Highway Act).

For more information follow the link!

Michael Finley on Native America Calling

I am listening to the Chairman of the Colville Confederated Tribes, Michael Finley, on the nationally syndicated radio program Native America Calling. (Click here to play the October 28 show, Gonna Paint the White House Red.) Finley is the youngest ever chairman of the Colville Nation, the co-author of the excellent volume Finding Chief Kamiakin: The Life and Legacy of a Northwest Patriot. Finley also holds an MA in history from Eastern Washington University. He appeared on Native America Calling to discuss the upcoming Tribal Nations Conference at the White House that he will be attending.

As a faculty member at EWU it is exciting to watch Finley's progress. Though I wasn't a member of the department at the time I am told he was one of the most impressive students to come through our graduate history program in recent years. He has published a number of interesting articles recently as well as the biography of Kamiakin. And a few months ago he was elected tribal chairman. Finley is at his best on the program, for example describing the Grand Coulee dam as "an example of what the tribes have had to pay for what some call progress" and "the concrete monolith that . . . is like a tombstone for us" because it blocked the salmon runs. Check it out.

Behold the Awesomeness of My Public History Students

My Introduction to Public History course finished up with student presentations of their final projects. I gave students the option of writing a traditional paper or doing a digital final project and most of them chose the latter. Digital history was brand new to all of them and yet they did some fine work. As I watched them present I thought to myself--Hey! I have a blog! I should share some of this stuff.

Three of my students became interested in rephotography and created websites to present their work. Amber Chapin used Blogger to create a website: Kirtland Cutter Architecture: Then and Now. Cutter, was Spokane's most prominent architect of the late 19th and early 20th century and designed homes for the city elites as well as commercial buildings and even bridges. I like the way that Chapin found not only historic photographs but also blueprints for many of the Cutter buildings, and how she explored a variety of his work, not just the grand residences for which he is so locally famous.

James Dupey too quite a different tack in his project Historic Hillyard. Built as a depot town for James J. Hill's Great Northern Railroad in the late 19th century, Hillyard hit hard times as the railroad pulled out in the early 20th century and is today one of the most depressed neighborhoods in the state. But sometimes economic depression is the friend of preservation, and 85% of the historic buildings of Hillyard still stand.

Chris Hendee did a rephotography project focused on Racine, Wisconsin. Racine, Hendee tells us, has always been a town of immigrants who brought an eclectic mix of architectural styles to the community. I was impressed by how much of the historic fabric is intact.

Michele Reid drew on her connections with Great Falls, Montana and her thesis research to create a fifteen-minute historical documentary film, Red Stars on the Horizon: The Seventh Ferrying Group in World War II. The Seventh Ferrying Group was composed on pilots, some of them women, who flew airplanes from American factories to the Soviet Union as part of the Lend-Lease program in World War Two.

Finally Meagan Yapp used Google Sites to create a simple website to host her interviews with women veterans. The website is a bit rough but the interviews are excellent.

It was fun watching the students stretch their abilities and practice history in new ways. They agreed that a digital project turned out to be more work than they had bargained for, but was very satisfying. At the same time I will make some changes next time around. Some of the projects presented history digitally but did very little analysis, as a teacher I need to emphasize the importance of interpretation. I wish I had pushed the geographic turn in digital history a bit more--most of the projects could have integrated a map function. And I need to emphasize more strongly the need for credits and attributions in student projects.

This quarter I am teaching Digital History for the first time and will be raising the bar for the students--stay tuned!

Bruce Levine to Speak at EWU and Spokane

Heads up! Civil War historian Bruce Levine will be speaking at EWU this Thursday noon and at the MAC in Spokane Thursday evening. Levine's newest book is Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves During the War. (A review of the book is here.) Levine will deliver two lectures:

"The Myth of the Black Confederate"
Thursday Oct. 2 at 12 noon
Monroe Hall 205, Cheney WA

"The Confederacy's Plan to Emancipate (and Arm) Slaves"
Thursday Oct. 2 at 6 p.m.
Eric A. Johnston Memorial Audition - Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
2316 W. First Avenue, Spokane WA

These are important lectures. In recent years neo-confederate "heritage" groups have worked hard to refashion the public narrative of the Civil War, downplaying or dismissing entirely the central importance of slavery and racism. One of their efforts has been to argue that there were large numbers of blacks who fought on the side of the South because they just loved their Massa Lee or something. It is nonsense of course and academic historians have mostly ignored the black confederate mythology even as the neoconfederates have created websites, educational programs, and shoddy publications based on the myth. Levine is among the few historians willing to tackle the topic head-on. (For more on the topic, check out The Myth of Black Confederates tag at the Civil War Memory blog.)

This opportunity to hear a top historian is thanks to a Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education to Spokane Educational Service District 101.

(If you can't make it here is an MP3 of Levine delivering the second lecture at UC Santa Cruz.)

Kalispel Wellness Center Grand Opening

On Friday I enjoyed the privilege of attending a grand opening ceremony at the Kalispel Tribe's Wellness Center in Usk, Washington. I tagged along with the delegation from Eastern Washington University.

The Kalispel (the French dubbed them the Pend O'Reilles, and they often appear in the historical record under that name) once lived across a wide swath of the inland Northwest. They were not party to any of the 19th-century treaties however and only gained a reservation in 1914--a nine by one mile strip of land along the Columbia River. In 2001 the Kalispel opened the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights near Spokane and their fortunes began to improve.

The Wellness Center is the most visible sign on the Kalispel Reservation of the tribe's new wealth. The center includes health care facilities, a dentists office, daycare and after-school facilities, an astonishing set of indoor pools including a therapy pool, exercise center, and much more. The opening ceremony included welcomes from various tribal officials and elders and a wonderful performance of traditional music from the Frog Island Singers. Later Joe Pakootas, Executive Director of the Camas Institute gave us a tour of the Wellness Center. A few pictures below:

Main Hallway of the Wellness Center

Joe Patookas Welcomes the Crowd


The Pool Area

Climbing Wall




Mountain Views

Kalispel Buffalo Herd

I want to say thank you to the Kalispel Tribe for opening the facility to the public and to my friends at Eastern Washington University for letting me tag along.