The photograph is of an ice jam in the Yellowstone River as it approaches the confluence (where it meets the Missouri River) southwest of Williston. One might get a feeling for the size of this ice jam by noting the minuscule drilling rig on the lower left.
Meanwhile, a flood warning has been declared for Ward County (Minot).
*****************************
Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life, Kingsley M. Bray, c. 2006
I bought this book at Books on Broadway in Williston when I was visiting the Bakken a few weeks ago. I bought four books that day; I wasn't sure about this one, but I try to get a book on native American history every so often when I visit that bookstore. I've never been disappointed in any such books from Books on Broadway.
It wasn't until I got home that I read that the author is English. I have often said that the best writers are English, Scottish, and Irish. Kingsley Bray is an "independent scholar" who lives in Manchester, England. He was, apparently, raised in Yorkshire, where I spent some of the best days of my Air Force life.
The English have a fascination with the American West. In his acknowledgments, Bray writes:
In England, fellow students of the Plains Indians helped at various stages in the process of research and writing. Neil Gilbert, English Westerners' Society, helped crystallize my ideas about the Battle of the Rosebud. Members of the Custer Association of Great Britain, especially Derek Batten, Francis Taunton, and Barry C. Johnson, in inviting me to speak on Crazy Horse, helped me to focus my concept of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. .... I owe a special debt to Joseph Balmer, of Erlenbach, Switzerland. A founding member of the English Westerners' Society, Joe was also a prolific correspondent with historians and Indian people.I found it fascinating -- simply fascinating -- that there were such organizations in England and Europe: the Custer Association of Great Britain -- who would have thought?
No comments:
Post a Comment