Robert Pilgrim

Robert Pilgrim was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, from 1730 to 1750.
Pilgrim originally worked as a steward on Hudson's Bay Company ships. In 1735 he given command of a small local Hudson's Bay Company vessel.
In 1740 Pilgrim was given a position on Fort Prince of Wales's Governing Council. He became the Factor, or Governor, in 1745.
According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Pilgrim's administration was marked by incompetence, a lack of initiative, and conflicts with his subordinates. Joseph Robson was one of the subordinates with whom he was in conflict. Robson testified before a Parliamentary committee, in 1748.
Pilgrim returned to England, in 1750, with his wife, Ruehegan Thu a higon, a First Nations woman, and their son. He died shortly after his return. His will requested the Hudson's Bay Company allow his wife to return to live with her family, in Churchill, Manitoba. The Company did return her, but instructed Captains to not bring any further Native women to the United Kingdom.


Lower Post

Lower Post is an aboriginal community in northern British Columbia, Canada, located on Highway 97, the Alaska Highway, approximately 15 miles (23 kilometres) southeast of Watson Lake, Yukon. Its historical mile designation is Mile 620. It is located near the confluence of the Dease and Liard Rivers.
History.
Early fur traders named it Lower Post to distinguish between the upper and lower Liard trading posts.
Lower Post, or Fort Liard (its original name), had been established by an American, Rufus Sylvester, in 1872. Four years later the Hudson's Bay Company took it over and a couple of years afterwards two of its officials brokered peace between the local Kaska Dena and a raiding party of two hundred Taku.
Before Lower Post became a community, it served as a fishing spot, a crossing and a meeting place. Because many different indigenous people stopped here for trading, the community still has a diverse ethnic make-up today. In the early 1940s, it served as a stopover for scheduled airline passenger service between Whitehorse and Edmonton via Fort Nelson.
One of the aboriginal languages spoken in Lower Post is Kaska, of which there are very few fluent speakers.
There are no services provided at Lower Post, with residents using services at nearby Watson Lake, Yukon.
The local school, Denetia School, is a K-7 elementary school that is British Columbia's most northern school and part of the School District 87 Stikine. The school has between 9 and 12 students and currently operates as a one-room school focusing on outdoor experiential education called P.A.C.E.S..
In 2016, approximately 81 people lived in Lower Post, which is a decrease from the 2011 population of 105.


Arent Schuyler

Arent Philipse Schuyler (June 25, 1662 – November 26, 1730) was a member of the influential Schuyler family (among the first settlers to New Netherland). He was a surveyor, Native American trader, miner, merchant, and land speculator.
Early life.
Arent Philipse Schuyler was born on June 25, 1662, in Rensselaerswyck, New York. He was the son of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628–1683) and Margarita Van Slichtenhorst (1627–1710) and the younger brother of Pieter Schuyler (1657–1724).
He was one of 10 children born to his parents, including Gysbert Schuyler (1652-1664/5), Gertruj Schuyler (b. 1654), who married Stephanus van Cortlandt (1643–1700) (the patroon of Van Cortlandt Manor and a Mayor of New York City from 1677 to 1678 and again from 1686 to 1688), Alida Schuyler (b. 1656), who first married Nicholas van Rensselaer (1636-1678) and then second, Robert Livingston the Elder (1654–1728), Pieter Schuyler (1657–1724), who married Engeltie Van Schaick and Maria Van Rensselaer, Brant Schuyler (1659-1702), who married Cornelia Van Cortlandt, Sybilla Schuyler (b. 1664), Philip Schuyler (b. 1666), Johannes Schuyler (b. 1668), and Margritta Schuyler (b. 1672), who married Jacobus Verplanck.
The many Schuyler children established the family name and homes, including the Schuyler Mansion in Albany. They were closely related with the great family patroons of New York, the Van Cortlandts.
Career.
Schuyler participated in the military actions of an early French and Indian War in Canada in the 1690s. In 1694, Schuyler traveled into north-western New Jersey to investigate rumors that the French were trying to incite the local Lenni-Lenape population to rebel against the English. Schuyler found no evidence of a rebellion, but discovered a rich fertile valley where the Lenni-Lenape grew a variety of crops. Schuyler reported his findings to the English and then convinced Major Anthony Brockholst, Samuel Bayard, Samuel Berry, Hendrick and David Mandeville, George Ryerson and John Mead to invest in the purchase of the land he referred to as the Pompton Valley. The seven chose Schuyler to be negotiator with the Lenape for the rights to the area. Samual Bayard, however, was chosen to negotiate with the East Jersey Company, which maintained land rights over the area that is now Wayne. Approximately 5,000 acres (20 km2) were purchased on November 11, 1695. He built the Schuyler-Colfax House along the Pompton River.
In 1710, he bought a large tract on New Barbadoes Neck. The new purchase (present-day Kearny, North Arlington, and Lyndhurst and Kingsland) had a significant deposit of copper, and the family became wealthy as they started to mine the metal at the Schuyler Copper Mine.
Personal life.
Arent Schuyler married three times, first to Jenneke Teller (1662–1703) on November 26, 1684. Together, they had:
After her death in 1703, he married Swantje Van Duyckhuysen (1679–1724). With his second wife, he had:
In 1724, after Swantje's death, he married for the third time, to Maria Walter (1689–1764), the daughter of Robert Walter and Catharine Leisler. They did not have any children.
Schuyler died in Belleville, New Jersey, on November 26, 1730. After his death, his widow, Maria Walter, married Archibald Kennedy (1685–1763), with whom she had five children, including Archibald Kennedy (1736–1794), who would eventually marry Schuyler's granddaughter, Katherine.
Descendants.
Schuyler's son, Peter Schuyler (1710–1762), was responsible for the introduction of the first steam engine assembled in the United States. Schuyler Avenue in Kearny and was named for Peter in honor of the early settlers.
His grandson, Arent Schuyler DePeyster (1736–1822), was a British military officer. His granddaughter, Katherine Schuyler (1737–1765), married Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Casselis, a Scottish peer who lived in the United States, and was the son of his widow, Maria Walter.


Kuujjuaq

Kuujjuaq (; or , "Great River"), formerly known as and by other names, is a former Hudson's Bay Company outpost at the mouth of the Koksoak River on Ungava Bay that has become the largest northern village (Inuit community) in the Nunavik region of Quebec, Canada. It is the administrative capital of the Kativik Regional Government. Its population was 2,754 as of the 2016 census.
Names.
Kuujjuaq was founded as in 1830 but in 1831 changed its name to , an anglicization of the Inuit word , meaning "Let's shake hands". As this was a common greeting locals used with the HBC fur traders, they adopted it as the name of their trading post. (A fictional account of this naming is given in the 1857 novel "Ungava" by R. M. Ballantyne, where it is taken from a girl character's beloved dog.) On 5 February 1980, the name was changed to Kuujjuaq, the Inuit name for the Koksoak River.
It has also been known informally as Koksoak and Washgagen.
History.
The first Europeans to have contact with local Inuit were Moravian missionaries. On August 25, 1811, after a perilous trip along the coasts of Labrador and Ungava Bay, Benjamin Gottlieb Kohlmeister and George Kmoch arrived at an Inuit camp on the east shore of the Koksoak. Their aim was to scout the area for future missions and, if possible, to convert the "Esquimaux" to Christianity. According to their journal, the Inuit of the Koksoak River were very interested in having a Moravian mission in the area, but after reaching a little farther than "Pilgerruh" ("Pilgrim's Rest") on "Unity's Bay" they turned back for home.
Attracted by the missionaries' praise of the location, the Hudson's Bay Company established a permanent station on the east shore of the Koksoak River in 1830, at a site about downstream from the present settlement. Governor Simpson's plan was to attract trade from the Inuit of the surrounding territory as well as from the islands and ice sheets north of the bay. Its first factor was Nicol Finlayson, who sent Erland Erlandson to establish an outpost on the Wausquash; this had to be abandoned in late 1833 or early 1834. By 1833, Fort Chimo comprised seven buildings in a defensive square, principally trading in caribou hides and white fox and marten pelts. Erlandson ultimately discovered bountiful trapping far to the south in the highlands around Lake Petitsikapau; he briefly succeeded Finlayson as acting factor but was replaced when a brig delivered John McLean to his new post in 1837. Over the next four years, he succeeded in establishing an efficient riverine connection with Fort Smith on Lake Melville, but the trade at Chimo itself was so sparse that the trails they found were simply used to supply Fort Naskaupi in the rich interior. In the winter of 1840–1841, fish and game were so scarce that the agents were forced to scatter into open camps around the countryside to survive as best they could. Fort Chimo and its Ungava District were shuttered on 1 September 1843, an HBC ship carting away the remaining men and supplies.
The fort did not reopen until 1866, when it was thought necessary to curtail the trade going to the Moravians in the area and the steamboat "Labrador" made resupplying the distant outpost easier. At that time, Inuit, Montagnais, and Naskapi came to trade at the post. By the 1950s, Fort Chimo included two dormitories, two warehouses, oil and salt sheds, and carpentry, cooperage, and machinist workshops. A sloop, a steamer, and outposts at the mouths of the Whale and George Rivers helped carry out the salmon catch each August, which was salted on site for use, sale, and export. The fort was usually supplied by the steamer "Eric", while a smaller refrigerated steamer picked up the salmon haul.
Amid the Second World War, the US Air Force surveyed the area from amphibious aircraft out of Gander on 12 July 1941 and established the Crystal 1 weather station on the western shore of the Koksoak on 10 October 1941. It was supplied by the US Coast Guard. An airfield was established in the summer of 1942, although it was never used for the Crimson East's intended purpose of facilitating trans-Atlantic ferry flights. The US turned over the base to the Canadian government in 1944 and 1945, which established Naval Radio Station Chimo (call sign CFI) as part of the Canadian Supplementary Radio Activities (SUPRAD) system in 1948. Direction-finding facilities were finished and commenced operations in 1949. In 1950, it became part of the Atlantic high-frequency radio direction finding (HFDF) network after the Royal Canadian Navy and the US Navy agreed to coordinate and standardize their detection operations. The high cost of maintaining and supplying the base, however, led to it being shuttered in late summer 1952 and its equipment and personnel moved to Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island. The site was eventually adapted as the Kuujjuaq Airport, which now includes a Nav Canada air-traffic control facility that relays information on flights in northern Canada to Montreal.
With more Inuit settling in the area during this time to assist the base, a Catholic mission was established in 1948 and was followed by an infirmary, a school, and a weather station. The HBC outpost at Fort Chimo was closed for months of repairs in 1957 after a major fire, and the post was moved closer to the airfield in 1960. The remaining families who had still lived around the old site finally joined the larger community, establishing present-day Kuujjuaq (although it did not receive that name until 1980). The HBC store was sold to Hudson's Bay Northern Stores in 1987.
Since 1996, police services in the Kativik region, including Kuujjuaq, are provided by the Kativik Regional Police Force (KRPF). The headquarters of the KRPF are located in Kuujjuaq.
Geography.
Kuujjuaq lies upstream from Ungava Bay. Life in this community involves a close relationship with the river. Its tides regularly change the local landscape, while their rhythm strongly influences the traditional summer activities.
Although the tree line is very close, the boreal forest is present around Kuujjuaq. Patches of black spruce and larch stand in marshy valleys. Kuujjuaq also witnesses annual migrations of the George River caribou herd. These animals pass through the region throughout August and September.
Transportation.
With ocean access and two runways at the Kuujjuaq Airport, Kuujjuaq is the transportation hub of the entire region. The Avataq cargo ship delivers cargo once a year, and a new beach port has been built north of the town. There are no roads to outside the region, but there have been proposals floated by regional and provincial officials to build a road link from the south, linking to the Trans-Taïga Road and also providing access to Schefferville.
Education.
Kativik School Board operates two schools in the village. Pitakallak School serves students from kindergarten to grade 3, while Jaanimmarik School serves students from grade 4 to secondary 5.
The village boasts a number of hotels, restaurants, stores, arts and crafts shops and a bank.
Climate.
Kuujjuaq has a very cold subarctic climate (Dfc), not far above the polar climate, but avoids that classification due to the temperate summers with daily mean temperatures of above . Winters are severely cold but by no means extreme by the standards for its latitude within Eastern Canada.
The cause of the extreme swings is the effect of the Hudson Bay to its west freezing in November. This eliminates maritime moderation from westerlies that are prevalent in moderating summer temperatures. With Hudson Bay effectively becoming a landmass during the winter, Kuujjuaq ends up being subject to severely cold winds. With the Labrador Current to its south-east also being cold, , winter moderation is eliminated to its east as well. Although less snowfall is received compared to the more coastal Nain further south, the influence of the current contributes to a sizeable snow tally for a climate that cold. In June, Hudson Bay thaws, resulting in mild maritime air from the cold water moderating westerlies. In spite of this, Kuujjuaq being situated with a direct landmass link to its south for thousands of kilometres can contribute to warm southerlies reaching the settlement, bringing temperatures above .
During fall, Kuujjuaq's diurnal temperature variation is at its lowest, as the maritime moderation is at its strongest. Simultaneously, the Hudson Bay freezing process begins as cold builds up over the vast landmasses surrounding the bay. This renders Kuujjuaq to commonly get ice days throughout October, before winter begins in November and proceeds to the end of April. Unlike Inukjuak directly on the Hudson Bay shore, Kuujjuaq still has a greater continental warmth impact on its summers, and is as a result below the tree line. Kuujjuaq has a cloudy climate, as a result of the Icelandic Low influence.
Kuujjuaq has been affected by global warming in recent decades, similar to other Arctic locations. For example, December 2010 had an average high of , while a average high was measured for March 2018. Summer has also been affected, with a average high for June 2012, and a average high during August 2014.


Jean-Bonaventure Rousseau

Jean-Bonaventure Rousseau was an influential fur trader in New France, and, after its capture by Great Britain, the Province of Canada. His father who also went by the given name Jean, had been a fur trader in the Ohio River valley. His son Jean Baptiste Rousseau started as a fur trader before becoming one of the most important merchants in Upper Canada.
In the 1750s, French authorities destroyed some fortifications, including the Magasin Royal, Fort Toronto and Fort Rouillé during the Seven Year's War. Rousseau restored Fort Toronto, near the mouth of the Humber, to serve as a fur trading post, and delegated its operation to his son.
After the British conquest of New France, Rousseau swore a loyalty oath and worked for the British as an interpreter, circa 1770. He subsequently received a license to trade fur around the Toronto area "“and from thence to any markets or parts which he should find advantageous for the sale of his merchandise"". This included the trade along both the Humber River and Credit River.
A record exists of the contents of the freight canoe that carried his first trade goods, which included of rum, as well as of wine. Thomas Gage, commander of British forces in North America, wrote that Rousseau was "debauching" First Nations people.


Uncompahgre River

The Uncompahgre River is a tributary of the Gunnison River, approximately 75 mi (121 km) long, in southwestern Colorado in the United States. Lake Como at 12,215 ft (3723m) in northern San Juan County, in the Uncompahgre National Forest in the northwestern San Juan Mountains is the headwaters of the river. It flows northwest past Ouray, Ridgway, Montrose, and Olathe and joins the Gunnison at Confluence Park in Delta.
The river forms Poughkeepsie Gulch and the Uncompahgre Gorge. The major tributaries are all creeks draining the northwest San Juan Mountains.
There are two dams on the Uncompahgre River, a small diversion dam in the Uncompahgre Gorge, and Ridgway Dam below the town of Ridgway which forms Ridgway Reservoir.
The river is used for irrigation in the Uncompahgre Valley. Additionally, water from the Gunnison is diverted to the valley via the Gunnison Tunnel. The Uncompahgre is unnavigable except at high water.
The name "Uncompahgre" () comes from the Ute word "Uncompaghre", which loosely translates to "dirty water," "red lake," or "red water spring" and is likely a reference to the many hot springs in the vicinity of Ouray.
Conservation.
In October 2020, the City of Montrose announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar river restoration project along the Uncompahgre, including $785,00 total grants from the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The project will enhance fishing habitats, provide bank stabilization, increase river access and fishing opportunities for the public.
The public-private partnership includes Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Colorado Trout Unlimited, and fly fishing company Mayfly Outdoors.


William Bent

William Wells Bent (May 23, 1809 – May 19, 1869) was a frontier trader and rancher in the American West, with forts in Colorado. He also acted as a mediator among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United States. With his brothers, Bent established a trade business along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early 1830s Bent built an adobe fort, called Bent's Fort, along the Arkansas River in present-day Colorado. Furs, horses and other goods were traded for food and other household goods by travelers along the Santa Fe trail, fur-trappers, and local Mexican and Native American people. Bent negotiated a peace among the many Plains tribes north and south of the Arkansas River, as well as between the Native American and the United States government.
In 1835 Bent married Owl Woman, the daughter of White Thunder, a Cheyenne chief and medicine man. Together they had four children. Bent was accepted into the Cheyenne tribe and became a sub-chief. In the 1840s, according to the Cheyenne custom for successful men, Bent took Owl Woman's sisters, Eagle woman and Island, as secondary wives. He had his fifth child with Eagle Woman. After Owl Woman died in 1847, Island cared for her children. Each of the sisters left Bent and, in 1869, he married the young Adaline Harvey, the educated mixed-race daughter of Alexander Harvey, a friend who was a prominent American fur trader in Kansas City. Bent died shortly after their marriage, and Adaline bore their daughter, his sixth child, after his death.
Early years.
William Wells Bent was born May 23, 1809 St. Louis, Missouri, a son of Silas Bent and his wife, Martha (nee Kerr) Bent. His father was later appointed as a justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. William was one of the Bents' eleven children. The first three were born in Charleston, Virginia, present-day West Virginia and the remaining children were born in St. Louis after the family migrated there.
Three of William's brothers, George, Charles, and Robert, partnered with him in trading with Native Americans in the West. Charles was the oldest son, born in 1799, and the remaining brothers were born in or after 1806. Later based in Santa Fe, Charles Bent lived in Taos. He served briefly as the first territorial governor of New Mexico.
Bent trading empire.
Trapping, stockades and trading.
Charles, George, Robert, and William Bent partnered in the fur trade with Ceran St. Vrain, also a St. Louis native. The city had several major fur trading families. They left Missouri about 1826 to explore what is now southern Colorado along the upper Arkansas River to trap for furs and establish a trade business. Within a couple of years, the Bents and St. Vrain had built two stockades, one near the present town of Pueblo, Colorado and the other stockade either at the mouth of the Purgatoire River, on the northern side of the Arkansas River. The historian Grinnell suggested that William Bent was likely trapping furs before the first stockade was built. St. Vrain and his older brother, Charles, made the round trips to St. Louis, a regional trading center, to sell furs and return with supplies.
To set up their trading venture, the brothers used a legacy of their father, Judge Silas Bent. The brothers reinvested the substantial profits of their enterprise to develop their business.
Bent's Old Fort.
By around 1832, although possibly as late as 1834, the partners built a permanent trading post called Bent's Fort. The elaborate adobe construction could accommodate 200 people, and had been built on the northern "Mountain Route" of the Santa Fe Trail, by then open for business. The partners picked this location after discussions with the Cheyenne; it was near La Junta and land occupied by the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. It became an important center of trade, principally in furs but also in numerous other goods, including horses and mules. It was the only privately owned, fortified installation in the west.
William and Charles operated the fort in partnership with Ceran St Vrain, a fur trader who had already established significant trading contacts in New Mexico. Sometimes referred to as Fort William, the post was in "the perfect place at the perfect time" for someone looking to make money from trading. For example, the Bents could buy a gallon of brandy in St Louis for 2 and sell it at the fort for 25.
The historian Anne Hyde has dated the moment when the Cheyenne chief White Thunder realized a common interest with Bent. In November 1833, they talked together as a meteor shower lit up the sky over the plains. Many Cheyenne believed that the celestial event was a signal of the end of the world; it was subsequently referred to as "the Night the Stars Fell". White Thunder saw it as a new beginning. He sought a truce with the Pawnee and the return of the four sacred arrows which they had captured in a battle with the Cheyenne earlier that year. To achieve this, White Thunder made a solo, unarmed visit to the Pawnee village to seek peace and returned with two of the arrows and an agreement.
White Thunder also arranged a formal marital alliance between Bent and his daughter Owl Woman. He believed that their children would represent another element of the new beginning, of peace for the Cheyenne and the region. By this time Bent had learned the language of the Cheyenne, and he was known as "Little White Man" by the native tribes. When the Bents first met with the Cheyenne, the Indians gave them names in the Cheyenne language. The Bent brothers' respect for the Cheyenne protocols during the convivial occasion created a relationship base for their future development of the fort and trading.
Life at Bent's Old Fort.
The fort, and the area immediately outside it, comprised a multi-cultural, multi-lingual center with permanent inhabitants from many nations and visitors. Native tribes in the area for trading, such as the Sioux, Apache and Kiowa, as well as Comanche and Cheyenne also established temporary camps outside the fort. It was the hub of a trading area that encompassed a 500-mile radius. It was also a stop each year for hundreds of wagons of European Americans traveling the Santa Fe trail. Hyde writes in "Empires, Nations and Families" that
Bent's Fort was the one spot on the Santa Fe trail where exchanges with Indians were welcomed and encouraged, and the effects of those conversations on both sides were far-reaching  ...  archaeological evidence tells us that people sat in the courtyard together and smoked—a lot".Bent managed trade to and from the fort: he provided a safe zone in the area and a supply of goods for its store, as well as shipping buffalo robes back to St. Louis for sale. As many as 20,000 Native Americans camped near the fort in the fall for seasonal trading.
European-American travelers sometimes stayed for as long as three weeks at the fort before resuming their journeys. From fall through spring, the fort was busy with people coming to trade, and travelers resting and restocking supplies. The Bents had up to 100 employees, depending on the season, who had a variety of skills: clerks, guards, traders, teamsters, trappers, a tailor, blacksmith, carpenter and herders. Caravans took goods to trade with regional Native American tribes.
The fort was usually relatively empty during the summer months. During that period, Bent often made the six-month round trip on the trail to and from Westport, Missouri (present-day Kansas City) to trade the furs and goods gathered over the previous winter. He would purchase goods to replenish the stocks of the fort for the forthcoming hunting season. Westport Landing was an ideal terminus for the Bents' trade. Located on the Missouri River, it was a port for steamboats that hauled goods eastward to St. Louis. Sometimes five or six steamboats would be unloading goods for the Santa Fe trade at one time; dried buffalo meat, buffalo robes and furs would be loaded onto the boats for the return east. Westport was a boom town until a cholera epidemic in the mid-1840s reduced the town's population by 50%. In 1853 Westport was renamed Kansas City. While Bent and the pack trains were away, the fort managed with a skeleton crew of herders, clerks, traders and laborers for Native Americans and travelers.
William and Charles Bent had brought three slaves from St. Louis to work in their households: the brothers Andrew and Dick Green, and Dick's wife Charlotte, who served as a cook. In 1848 Charlotte Green described herself to George Ruxton as "de only lady in de whole damn Injun country". Her cooking won her a high reputation among the fur traders and travelers. One person called her a "culinary divinity". Bent's Fort held dances regularly; Colonel Henry Inman described Charlotte as "the center of attention, the belle of the evening. She knew her worth and danced accordingly."
In 1846 Bent was given the title of "Colonel" by the United States (US) Army after supplying US troops and guiding them into New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. George and William Bent freed Dick Green for his heroic efforts in an Indian revolt in 1847 at Taos, during which their brother Charles was killed. Green had gone north with American soldiers to defend Bent's Taos home. He bravely led a skirmish against a group of Taos Pueblo and other warriors. Green was severely wounded but survived a trip back to Bent's Fort. Also allowing Charlotte Green to leave with her husband, the Bents gave her an informal freedom.
Bent's new fort.
As the demand for furs declined, business dropped at the fort. An 1849 cholera epidemic among the Cheyenne took the lives of half the tribe, including Tall Woman, Bent's mother-in-law.
Bent wanted to build a new fort closer to Big Timbers, near the winter grounds for many tribes. Unable to agree on a selling price for the old fort, after removing his inventory of goods, Bent blew up and set fire to the old fort. In 1853 he established a stone fort in the Big Timbers area. Six years later, the US government purchased the new "Bent's Fort", renamed it Fort Wise and remodeled it for military use.
Other forts.
Bent, Vrain & Company had other forts, including
Kansas City, Missouri farm.
On April 6, 1858 Bent purchased a farm with a small brick house at 1032 West 55th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. While generally living at his home in Missouri in 1859, Bent was an agent to the Cheyenne and Arapaho at Big Timbers. At that time, Bent continued his trading business for new settlers lured by the Colorado gold rush. He also freighted goods for the United States government, which yielded a good profit.
During the American Civil War, Bent's farm was the site of the Battle of Westport in 1864. In 1871, two years after Bent's death, Adaline sold the Westport farm to Seth Ward, a prosperous businessman.
Marriages and family.
In 1835 Bent married Owl Woman ("Mis-stan-stur"), the oldest daughter of White Thunder and Tail Woman, in a Cheyenne ceremony. Her father was an influential Cheyenne leader and medicine man. He was the tribe's "Keeper of the Arrows," four arrows thought to have a sacred or medicinal role. The prestige of his position as a medicine man meant that his daughters also had high status.
Owl Woman
As a part of the marriage ritual, Owl Woman was carried into a lodge which was constructed for them in the Cheyenne village near the fort, while Bent dispensed numerous gifts to her people. Bent later became a "Cheyenne sub-chief", as he was given tribal membership with his marriage to Owl Woman.
The marriage was important for both Bent and Owl Woman's father White Thunder. For Bent, the marriage reinforced his relationship with the Cheyenne. White Thunder believed the marriage would strengthen his alliance with Bent and provide protection for the Cheyenne. On a personal level, it enhanced his prestige within the tribe.
Owl Woman and Bent had the following children, named in English and Cheyenne:
As a successful man, Bent followed Cheyenne custom and by 1844 took Owl Woman's two younger sisters, Yellow Woman and Island, as secondary wives. He had another son with Yellow Woman:
Owl Woman died in 1847 or later. In the following six years, life for the family changed dramatically. In 1849 a cholera epidemic swept through the Cheyenne tribe, killing up to half of the people, including the children's maternal grandmother, Tail Woman. After this, Bent destroyed his old fort and built a new stone one at Big Timbers.
Island became the primary caregiver for Owl Woman's children. She did not want to stay in the Bents' new stone fort, nor did she want the children there. In February 1854, she had her lodge moved to just outside the new fort. That winter, William's oldest son George Bent, then age 11, was sent to Kansas City to attend an Episcopal boarding school. In the following years, he was separated from his family for much of the time in order to attend school. Island later left Bent for Joe Baraldo.
In 1864 Yellow Woman also left Bent. She left with their son Charley Bent, then 19, who joined the Dog Soldiers. This group of warriors formed to retaliate for the Sand Creek Massacre that year, when US forces attacked and killed numerous Cheyenne.
Adaline Harvey
After Yellow Woman and Island had both left him, Bent married Adaline Harvey, the 20-year-old mixed-race daughter of his friend Alexander Harvey, a fur trader based in Kansas City and a Blackfeet mother. He was then 60 years old. They married on April 4, 1869 in Jackson County, Missouri. Harvey traded in the Upper Missouri region; his company was named Harvey, Primeau & Company.
When the son George Bent met his father's new wife, he recognized Adaline Harvey as having been a student at his school; she was five years younger than he. They had both been assigned Robert Campbell as a guardian while at the boarding school.
The marriage was short, as William died later that year. Pregnant at his death, Adaline Harvey Bent was reported to have had a daughter. Adaline Bent inherited her husband's property in Kansas City in 1869 and sold it in 1871.
Family life at Bent's Fort.
Life at the fort, called the "mud castle of the plains", reflected the heritage of both Owl Woman and Bent. The children's clothes included linen shirts and soft-leather moccasins. They ate on fine china and, according to Cheyenne custom, slept on the ground in soft hides. The furnishings and household goods included items from the United States, Mexico and overseas nations. The children enjoyed pumpkin pie and pancakes made by Charlotte Green, an enslaved cook whose husband was also held by the Bents. Chipita, the French-Mexican wife of a Bent worker, made taffy for the children. She performed housekeeping and laundry services at the fort.
Owl Woman's mother Tall Woman taught the children to be respectful and courteous to their elders. They gave discipline by stern glances and waving fingers. In their multi-cultural environment, the children learned to speak many languages; George learned to speak Cheyenne, English, Spanish, Comanche, Kiowa and Arapaho. The boys learned to ride horses bareback, to hunt and to be warriors. The girls learned to assist in the household, assessing the dryness of wood for gathering, learning to recognize the varieties of berries and other plants, and their uses. Girls were taught to be gracious, generous hosts. Later George Bent recalled of his childhood at the fort:
Living arrangements.
William and his wife Owl Woman had several homes. Where they lived depended on the season, which affected both his travels and the Cheyenne's seasonal movements.
Native American relationships and negotiations.
Background.
In the 1820s, the central plains area was subject to political and economic turmoil resulting from the Mexican War of Independence. The Arkansas River delineated the border, with Mexico to the south and the United States northward. The people looked for new opportunities for trade alliances, in part to replace those that had involved the now-deposed Spanish governors. United States settlers and military forces began to arrive in the area as people were exploring the west.
The Native American tribes of the central and southern plains were also defining or redefining their territories. Tribes moved to new lands within the plains for various reasons: they may have been displaced in their previous land, had internal disputes that caused them to relocate, sought better hunting or gathering grounds, or sought land that supported their way of life. The Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho were among the competing tribes. The Cheyenne likely moved into the plains in the 17th and 18th century from Minnesota. By the mid-1800s, they lived with the Arapaho north of the Arkansas River near the site later developed as Bent's Fort in Colorado.
The Comanche came to the grasslands of southern plains for a better life but competed for resources and territory with other tribes. In an agreement reached with the Cheyenne, "The Great Peace of 1840", they agreed to stay south of the Arkansas River and the Cheyenne and Arapaho north of it.
Negotiations.
The long-settled and the recently settled tribes had different views of the traders, which exacerbated inter-tribal rivalries. In 1833 White Thunder led the Cheyenne into a fight with the Pawnee; his people lost many warriors, and the Pawnee captured the four sacred arrows. White Thunder and his tribe lost much respect as a result.
During the mid-1830s, the Cheyenne and the Arapaho had become eager to work with the incoming trade caravans, and notably those associated with Bent. They saw the trade caravans as an opportunity for enrichment rather than as a threat. The Cheyenne favored Bent because he had intervened to protect them against Comanche raiders.
Bent worked to negotiate a resolution to the inter-tribal disputes, and to end their raids on settlers and traders. While the truce was uneasy, it enhanced his position. The historian Anne Hyde described the situation as similar to that in northern California, as a "negotiated community. ... Only constant renegotiation and the conscious creation of community through family ties, diplomacy, warfare, and dinner made it operate in a surprisingly stable way."
In contrast, the Comanche had resisted traders and other incursions. They had for many years protected their territory to the south of the Arkansas River against almost all who attempted to move into it. They had built up their power with a deep knowledge of their territory, shrewd trading arrangements, and their willingness to raid those who threatened or breached the arrangements. Their grip on the territory to the south of the river was one of the reasons why Bent's Fort had been constructed to the north. Although the Comanche continued to assert their power after Mexican independence, the influx of displaced tribes, the westward push of European-American settlers, and the development of the Santa Fe Trail generated new conflicts. Raids and battles resulted in many fatalities. The Comanche raided the fort and its surroundings north of the river in 1839, provoking a retaliatory raid by the Cheyenne.
The trading environment improved after 1840, when Bent's Fort became the site of a truce between the Comanche, Apache and Kiowa tribes of the north and the Cheyenne and Arapaho of the south. Hyde describes this as a "network of enormous significance." The tribes negotiated a peace over several weeks during the summer of 1840.
Bent hosted the various camps and their celebrations. Hyde has said that
George Ruxton described in 1848 how the council room at the fort was used: "Chiefs of the Shain [sic], Kioway and Araphó sit in solemn conclave with the head traders, and smoke the "calumet" over their real and imaginary grievances."
Black Kettle, chief of the Southern Cheyenne, wanted peace with the United States. He and other chiefs signed a treaty in 1861 which resulted in his tribes being assigned to a reservation along Sand Creek, although the area was nearly devoid of game. White settlers continued to trespass upon Cheyenne land. Unable to feed their families, some Cheyenne begged for food from settlers; others returned to old hunting grounds. Still others raided settlers and wagon trains for food.
Sand Creek Massacre.
The Pike's Peak gold rush of 1858 led to increasing conflicts. American miners and settlers gradually encroached on Cheyenne lands until fighting broke out in 1864. Black Kettle asked Bent to persuade the Americans to negotiate peace and, briefly, it appeared possible. But, Governor John Evans and Colonel John Chivington (who was planning a run for U.S. Congress) had based their political futures on ending the Native American threat. They had amassed troops from Washington, D.C. When Bent, who had lived among the Cheyenne for 40 years and had half-Cheyenne children, asked for peaceful resolution, Chivington told him it was not possible.
Despite an apparent peace agreement, on November 28, 1864, Chivington and a volunteer army captured Bent's son Robert. They forced him to guide the soldiers to the Cheyenne campsite on the reservation. The US forces killed and mutilated between 200 and 400 Cheyenne in the Sand Creek Massacre. Charles, Julie and George Bent were all inside Black Kettle's village when Chivington and his forces arrived.
George Bent recalled that day:
Robert Bent said:
All of Bent's grown children survived the massacre. Robert Bent testified in court against Chivington, who had forced him to guide the soldiers to the Cheyenne village. His brothers Charles and George Bent joined the Dog Soldiers band, as did Yellow Woman, who left William Bent to go with her son Charles. The Dog Soldiers led continuing resistance to drive the European Americans from the Cheyenne homeland. Charles Bent was later killed by scouts for the U.S. Army.
Regular Army officers were horrified by the massacre at Sand Creek. Both the Congress and Army investigated, and General Ulysses S. Grant called Chivington's actions murder, but no one was punished. The Committee on the Conduct of the War reported:
Most of the Dog Soldiers band was killed by US forces in June 1869 in the Battle of Summit Springs.
George Bent survived and married Magpie, a Cheyenne woman, and had a family. Bilingual, he served as an interpreter beginning in 1865. He moved to the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation in 1870, where he lived the rest of his life, and worked for the US Indian agent as an interpreter and assistant. In the early twentieth century, he served as a major source or informant for James Mooney and George Bird Grinnell, anthropologists who went to the West to study the Cheyenne and learn about their history and culture. Based on his letters to George E. Hyde, Hyde wrote his biography, which was not published until 1968.
Treaty of 1865.
On October 14, 1865, the Arapaho and Cheyenne of the Upper Arkansas valley made a treaty with the US government. US representatives included Bent and Kit Carson, who was Special Commissioner. The US apologized to the Arapaho and Cheyenne for the Sand Creek Massacre. Some of the tribe members did not approve of the treaty, which would limit them to a reservation south of the Arkansas River, rather than their traditional territory to the north, which was larger.
As part of the treaty, four of Bent's children, as Cheyenne, were each awarded 640 acres land on a reservation south of the Arkansas River, between Red Creek and Buffalo Creek:
Robert Bent was awarded 640 acres in Sulphur Springs, north of the Arkansas River.
William Bent assisted in the negotiation of the treaty with the Kiowa and Comanche on October 18, 1865.
Later years.
Las Animas, Colorado ranch.
In 1869, following his marriage to Adaline Harvey, Bent moved with her to his ranch in Las Animas, Colorado on the Purgatoire River, south of the Arkansas River. (Note: Source above for the year is the 1869 marriage record, from official records.) From there he managed his freighting business.
Death.
While on a supply trip from Colorado to Missouri in 1869, Bent stopped off to see his daughter Mary and son-in-law, R. M. Moore, a judge. They had built a house on his ranch land in Kansas City. Contracting pneumonia, Bent died on May 19, 1869. He is interred at the Las Animas Cemetery south of Las Animas, Colorado.
Adaline Harvey Bent gave birth to their daughter, after his death. She lived most of her life in Colorado, where she died February 26, 1905 at the Pueblo Women's Hospital.
References.
Notes
Citations


Andrew Bowne

Captain Andrew Bowne (c. 1638 - c. 1708) was an American colonial politician and jurist, who served in various capacities in both New York and New Jersey.
Biography.
A son of William and Ann Bowne, Andrew Bowne was born circa 1638 in Salem, Massachusetts, where he was baptized on August 12, 1638. About 1645 or 1646, the Bowne family moved to Gravesend, an English settlement in New Netherland. He became a mariner by profession, and by 1680 was a resident of New York City, where he became a merchant. In 1686 he became a resident of Middletown Township, New Jersey, where he purchased 1,000 acres from Samuel Winder on June 17. Winder was a son in law of Thomas Rudyard, to whom the land had been originally granted. This land is now Cliffwood and Cliffwood Beach in Aberdeen Township; it was here that Bowne lived until his death.
Political career.
New York.
On October 10, 1683, after having served there as a juror the month before, Andrew Bowne was appointed by Governor Thomas Dongan as a judge of the Admiralty Court. On November 3, 1684, he was commissioned as an Alderman of New York City, and again on October 16, 1685.
East New Jersey.
Andrew Bowne was appointed as a justice of the peace for Monmouth County in 1690; he also held the position from 1695 through 1698. In 1692 he was appointed a judge of the Court of Session, and was Presiding Judge in 1693, 1697, 1698 and 1699. In 1698 and 1699 Bowne was a judge of the East Jersey Court of Common Right, the supreme court of the colony.
In 1692 Andrew Bowne was appointed a member of the East New Jersey Provincial Council, the upper house of the legislature. He remained of the Council through the first administration of Governor Andrew Hamilton and that of Gov. Jeremiah Basse.
On May 9, 1699, Basse proposed to the council the need for a deputy governor to act during his absence in London; the Council appointed Andrew Bowne to the position; he took the oath of allegiance and official oath on May 15. On August 19, Hamilton was reappointed as governor, succeeding Basse. Hamilton arrived in December 1699, superseding Bowne.
The political rivalry between Bowne and Hamilton did not end here, for on June 17, 1701, Bowne came before the council with a commission dated March 25 and signed by six East Jersey Proprietors living in England appointing him as Governor of East New Jersey. The Proprietors residing in East Jersey were called before the council and questioned the validity of Bowne's commission, as it had been signed by a minority of Proprietors in England, and presented a protest against it. While Bowne was resolved to publish his commission, Hamilton refused to surrender the governor's office, stating that to do so would leave the province without government, as Bowne's commission was defective rendering him unqualified to take over the office.
The following day the Council ordered "that Proclamations be Issued out to Acquaint the People of Capt. Bownes Defective Commission, that no body pay Obedience thereto", signed by Gov. Hamilton under the seal of the province. The Council further ordered that a letter be written to the Proprietors in England advising them of the council's reasons in advising Hamilton not to surrender the government, stating that in their opinion, "the only use Intended to be made of this commission was to Supersede (Colonel) Hamiltons And then to throw up the Other and thereby to Lodge the Government in the People".
Province of New Jersey.
After the late 1690s the government of East and West Jersey became increasingly dysfunctional, of which the controversies involving Andrew Bowne were only a symptom. This ultimately resulted in the surrender by the Proprietors of East Jersey and those of West Jersey of the right of government to Queen Anne. Anne's government united the two colonies as the Province of New Jersey, a royal colony, establishing a new system of government. This reorganization and the period leading up to it saw many New Jersey politicians jockeying for power and influence in the new government. Bowne and his supporters were no exception, as were his opponents.
A 1701 petition to The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Foreign Plantations, signed by Lewis Morris and others, purporting to be "the Greatest part of ye Proprietors of the Provinces of East and West Jersie", recommended the appointment of Andrew Hamilton as Governor of New Jersey, at the same time cautioning against the appointment of Andrew Bowne to the office. A proposal by Sir Thomas Lane and other West Jersey proprietors, however, recommended Bowne for a seat in the proposed New Jersey Provincial Council. A proposal by East Jersey Proprietors William Dockwra, Thomas Barker, Clement Plumstead and Peter Sonmans recommended Bowne or Richard Ingoldesby for governor; if Ingoldesby was the choice then they recommended Bowne for a Council seat (It is notable that these were four of the six who had signed the defective commission as governor).
In spite of the political wrangling in New Jersey, London determined that its interests would best be served by a governor with no previous connections to any of the political factions; in late 1702 Queen Anne appointed her cousin, Viscount Cornbury to the governorship. Andrew Bowne was seated in the council as a member from the Eastern Division. With the suspension of President Lewis Morris from Council in 1704, Bowne became president.
Governor Cornbury appointed Andrew Bowne a judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas on December 11, 1704, and on November 6, 1705, elevated him to the New Jersey Supreme Court. In spite of these appointments, Cornbury expressed concern about the health of Bowne and others and their ability to serve in Council to the Lords of Trade in 1703 and 1706. By 1708, Captain Andrew Bowne was dead.
Personal life.
Andrew Bowne had five brothers, John, James, Philip and Gershom, and one sister, who married a Mr. Mott. John and James both served in the East Jersey General Assembly, with John serving as Speaker from 1680 to 1683.
He was married to Elizabeth; they had one daughter, also named Elizabeth.


Wyoming Range

The Wyoming Range is a mountain range located in western Wyoming. It is a range of the Rocky Mountains that runs north-south near the western edge of the state. Its highest peak is Wyoming Peak, which stands at above sea-level. The range is sometimes referred to as The Wyomings.
The vast majority of the range is public land administered by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and is a popular destination for hiking, camping, fishing, horseback riding, snowmobiling, hunting, and other activities. The range contains numerous lakes and developed campgrounds, in addition to many wild and primitive areas. The closest towns to the range include Big Piney, Marbleton, La Barge, and Kemmerer.
A branch of the Oregon Trail known as the Lander Road traverses the mountain range. The cutoff offered emigrants a shorter travel option. Numerous grave sites and historical markers can be found relating to the trail.
The range is not to be confused with the Salt River Range, which runs closely parallel to the Wyoming Range on its western side. The two ranges are separated by Greys River that flows north through the Star Valley into the Snake River.
The United States House of Representatives voted March 25, 2009, to grant wilderness status to two million acres (8,000 km²) of public land in nine states. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which had already been passed by the Senate, was approved in the House by a 285-to-140 vote. It was signed into law March 30 by President Barack Obama. The legislation included the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, which shields of the Wyoming Range from future oil and gas leasing. Leases that were issued in the withdrawal area prior to passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act were not affected by the legislation.


Osnaburgh House


Mountain plover

The mountain plover ("Charadrius montanus") is a medium-sized ground bird in the plover family (Charadriidae). It is misnamed, as it lives on level land. Unlike most plovers, it is usually not found near bodies of water or even on wet soil; it prefers dry habitat with short grass (usually due to grazing) and bare ground.
Description.
The word "plover" came from a Latin word "pluvia" which means "rain". In Medieval England some migratory birds became known as plovers because they returned to their breeding grounds each spring with rain. In 1832 American naturalist John Kirk Townsend spotted a species of unknown bird near the Rocky Mountains, and assumed that all these birds live in mountains. The plover comes back each spring to its breeding grounds, and so the wrong name mountain plover was given to the species.
The mountain plover is 8 to 9.5 inches (20 to 24 cm) long and weighs about 3.7 ounces (105 grams). Its wingspread is 17.5 to 19.5 inches (44.5 to 49.5 cm). The mountain plover's call consists of a low, variable whistle. Both sexes are of the same size. In appearance it is typical of "Charadrius" plovers, except that unlike most, it has no band across the breast. The upperparts are sandy brown and the underparts and face are whitish. There are black feathers on the forecrown and a black stripe from each eye to the bill (the stripe is brown and may be indistinct in winter); otherwise the plumage is plain. The mountain plover is much quieter than its relative the killdeer. Its calls are variable, often low-pitched trilled or gurgling whistles. In courtship it makes a sound much like a far-off cow mooing.
Distribution.
It breeds in the high plains of North America from extreme southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan to northern New Mexico and the Texas panhandle, as well as an isolated site in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. About 85 percent of the population winters in the San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys in California. Its winter range also extends along the U.S.-Mexican border, more extensively on the Mexican side. The mountain plover needs about 70 acres of territory for breeding, and about 25 acres for survival in non-breeding times.
Around late July, mountain plovers leave their breeding range for a period of post-breeding wandering around the southern Great Plains. Little is known about their movements at this time, although they are regularly seen around Walsh, Colorado and on sod farms in central New Mexico. By early November, most move southward and westward to their wintering grounds. Spring migration is apparently direct and non-stop.
Ecology and status.
It feeds mostly on insects and other small arthropods. It often associates with livestock, which attract and stir up insects.
Mountain plovers nest on bare ground in early spring (April in northern Colorado). The breeding territory must have bare round with short, sparse vegetation. Plovers usually select a breeding range that they share with bison and black tailed prairie dogs. These animals are grazers that keep vegetation short. Plovers like to nest among prairie dog colonies because the foraging and burrowing that these animals do expose even more bare soil which creates an ideal habitat for plover nest sites. It is believed that plovers like to nest on bare soil because they blend into the land hiding them from birds that may prey on them and the short vegetation allows them to easily detect predators on the ground. It is also believed it is easier for them to spot insects to eat.
A mountain plover nest has a survival rate that ranges from 26 to 65%. This wide range may be due to the impact that varying climate has on nest survival. A nest made in a colder climate with less precipitation has a better chance of survival. These conditions are preferred because of the climate's effect on the eggs directly, changes in predatory behavior, or changes in vegetation that can affect the mortality rates of parents. Higher heat may expose eggs to heat stress;also, a wetter climate may factor in to predators having a more sensitive sense of smell, aiding the discovery of nests. Nest predators are the biggest cause of nest destruction. Because of this, it is a primary driving force of survival rate. Increase in soil moisture may the environment of bare grounds and short grass that prairie birds thrive in.
Their breeding season extends over the summer months and ends some time around late July or early August. During mating the male will set a territory and perform displays to attract a female. Females lay multiple clutches of eggs with three eggs to a clutch; the eggs are off-white with blackish spots. Egg size decreases as the breeding season goes on because of the high energy cost on the females. It has been found that eggs laid during a time of drought tend to be larger providing the incubating chick with more nourishment and so a greater chance at survival. Mountain plovers perform uniparental incubation by both sexes. Females leave their first clutch to be incubated and tended to by the male and then lay a second clutch, which she tends to herself. This type of incubation suits the mountain plover well and allows for a greater yield of chicks compared to similar species of birds in which both the male and female tend a single clutch together. Females can mate with several males and have several male tended nests in one breeding season. This would result in a greater reproductive success for the female but there is a high energy cost on the female laying so many eggs and so it is more common for a female to lay only two clutches. If the eggs survive various dangers, especially such predators as coyotes, snakes, and swift foxes, they hatch in 28 to 31 days, and the hatchlings leave the nest within a few hours. In the next two or three days, the family usually moves one to two kilometers from the nest site to a good feeding area, often near a water tank for livestock.
The population has been estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 adult birds, although those numbers have recently been revised to the range of 11,000 to 14,000, with a total population estimate of about 15,000 to 20,000. In March 2009, a multi-agency report, the first of its kind, issued by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology in conjunction with federal agencies and other organizations, indicated that the mountain plover is one of the birds showing serious declines in population. The population of mountain plovers is in decline because of cultivation, urbanization, and over-grazing of their living space.
Fritz Knopf has closely studied the mountain plover, and has tracked population declines. These downhill trends led to a 1999 proposal to list them as a threatened species.
On June 29, 2009 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposed rule to list the mountain plover as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Preservation.
A 2005 report details that in a study conducted by Stephen J Dinsmore, Gary C White, and Fritz L Knopf, the populations of mountain plovers and prairie dogs in southern Phillips County in north-central Montana were observed in the effort to provide clues about the ecosystem and mountain plover preservation. Mountain plovers like to build their habitats in prairie dog colonies, meaning that an increase in prairie dogs will coincide with an increase in mountain plovers. This knowledge can be useful in mountain plover conservation efforts. The loss of prairie dog colonies is a huge threat to mountain plovers in Montana; if prairie dog colonies can be preserved, there is a greater chance that mountain plovers can be saved. Other proposed plans of preservation include protecting remaining breeding and wintering habitats, and stopping the conversion of grasslands for agricultural purposes.
The connection between mountain plovers and prairie dogs is particularly strong in Montana, but less so in the grasslands of Colorado and the grasslands and shrub-steppe habitats of Wyoming. In places where prairie dogs aren't as prominent in the ecosystem, fire or grazing can act as substitutes for prairie dogs in creating suitable plover nesting because they maintain low vegetation. In the construction of suitable plover habitats, more success would be found in short-grass prairie habitats. However, concerning conservation, a large portion of the overall plover population breeds near the northern limit of their range in Montana, and it would be wise to make this area a conservation priority.
The population of plovers in Wyoming is lower than that of other states, but Wyoming's population of mountain plovers and mostly intact expanses of grazed rangeland will probably become much more important in the coming years as urban and agricultural development continues in contiguous states.
In Oklahoma, 90% of mapped mountain plover locations are in cultivated fields, often bare and flat. Their preferred land areas contain clay loam soils, as the sandier soils are less reliable when sand can easily be blown around, covering nests, obscuring vision, and irritating eyes. Additional study is needed to help ensure the continued presence of mountain plovers in Oklahoma.
Mountain plover populations should continue to be monitored and investigated so as to understand how to support their survival. Plovers are important to the ecosystem at large because they are considered indicators of the health of their respective habitats. Local population managers can best help the plovers by protecting the land and prairie dog colonies from human disturbances such as mining, and monitoring the size and health of suitable plover habitat in each region.
Lower chick survival contributes to the decline in population. Efforts to increase nest survival provides minimal growth when compared to ensuring juvenile chick survival. Population growth can be helped more by learning more about post-egg survival.
References.
Survival in Mountain Plovers. "Avian Conservation and Ecology" Vol. 7 No. 1 Article. 6


Anthony Beale (fur trader)

Anthony Beale (c. 1664 – 13 April 1731) became a governor and chief commander for the Hudson's Bay Company in James Bay.
Beale was an apprentice with the Hudson's Bay Company starting in 1678. He rose gradually through the ranks of the company and received his appointment as governor in 1705. He served until 1714 when the Treaty of Utrecht gave the British sovereignty over Rupert's Land. This changed the fabric and scope of the HBC operations and, in 1714, Beale was recalled to England.


Smoky Mountains (Idaho)

The Smoky Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains and located on the west side of the Wood River Valley near Sun Valley, Idaho, in the Western United States. The range is within Sawtooth National Forest, while part of it is within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The highest point in the range is Saviers Peak at .
The Smoky Mountains area closely surrounded by other mountain ranges including the Sawtooth Mountains to the northwest, Boulder Mountains to the north, Pioneer Mountains to the east, and Soldier Mountains to the south. The Smoky Mountains are located within the watersheds of the Big Wood, Salmon, and Boise Rivers. The mountains are most easily accessed from Idaho State Highway 75, although many unimproved and improved dirt roads, including National Forest road 227, enter and cross the mountains.
The Smoky Mountains were named from the frequent forest fires in the mountains. In 2007 the Castle Rock Fire burned of the Smoky Mountains near Ketchum.


Needle Mountains

The Needle Mountains are a subrange of the San Juan Mountains of the Rocky Mountains located in the southwestern part of the U.S. State of Colorado. Much of the range is protected in the Weminuche Wilderness of the San Juan National Forest. The range is notable for having some of the most rugged mountains in the state, and includes many technical climbs and scrambles. A small but dramatic east-west subrange in the northern section is known as the Grenadier Range.
Geology.
Unlike the rest of the San Juan Mountains, which are volcanic in origin, the Needle Mountains (along with the Grenadier Range) are a mass of uplifted Precambrian rocks. They consist chiefly of quartzite, granite, and amphibolite. The mountains are referred to as the Needle Mountains Uplift.


Aaron Paquette

Aaron Paquette is a Canadian writer, artist, speaker and politician who currently serves on the Edmonton City Council, representing Ward 4 (also known as Ward Dene) in the city's northeast. He was elected to the Edmonton City Council on October 16, 2017.
He was a winner of the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature in 2015 for his debut young adult fantasy novel "Lightfinder" (Kegedonce Press). As a painter, his most notable work is a public art mural at Edmonton's Grandin LRT Station. He also created several iconic images used in the Idle No More movement. His work may also be found in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. His murals are also present the walls of many Edmonton schools and public locations.
He is featured in the documentary program, "From the Spirit."
Paquette is Métis of Cree (Nehiyaw), Cayuse and Norwegian descent.
Consulting Work.
Paquette is the president of Cree8 Success, a consulting firm.
In 2012, Cree8 Success ran an Education Conference that hosted the following facilitators and presenters: David Bouchard, Richard Wagamese, Ryan McMahon, ASANI (musical trio made up of Debbie Houle, Sarah Pocklington, and Sherryl Sewepagaham), K.A.S.P. (a.k.a. Paul Sawan),Dawn Marie Marchand, Amanda Woodward (traditional dancer), and Richard Van Camp, in addition to Aaron Paquette.
Paquette has recorded a podcast for Cree8 Success, which can be accessed through SoundCloud.
Politics.
He ran as a New Democratic Party candidate in the riding of Edmonton Manning in the 2015 federal election, defeated by candidate Ziad Aboultaif of the Conservative Party.
In 2017, Paquette ran for Edmonton City Council in Ward 4, which includes the neighbourhoods of Northeast Edmonton, Manning, and Clareview. Paquette defeated 11 other candidates for the seat with 23.79% of the vote.
Paquette announced in March 2021 that he will seek re-election to the Edmonton City Council in October 2021. He emphasized that as a City Councilor he has focused on improving services for Edmonton residents and ending what are known as "ward wars," wherein municipalities fight with each other for budgets and support services. The 2021 municipal election is anticipated to see significant changes, including changes to the ward names and boundaries.


Adriaen van der Donck

Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (16181655) was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific "Jonkheer" the city of Yonkers, New York, is named. Although he was not, as sometimes claimed, the first lawyer in the Dutch colony (an 'honor' that befell the lesser-known Lubbert Dinclagen who arrived in 1634), Van der Donck was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (modern New York City), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post.
Enchanted by his new homeland of New Netherland, van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential "Description of New Netherland". Charles Gehring, Director of the New Netherland Institute, has called it "the fullest account of the province, its geography, the Indians who inhabited it, and its prospects … It has been said that had it not been written in Dutch, it would have gone down as one of the great works of American colonial literature."
Newly translated records from the colony suggest that van der Donck was a significant figure in the early development of what would later become the United States, neglected by history because of the eventual English conquest of New Netherland. Today, he is also recognized as a sympathetic early Native American ethnographer, having learned the languages and observed many of the customs of the Mahicans and Mohawks. His descriptions of their practices are cited in many modern works, such as the 2005 book "".
Early life.
Van der Donck was born in approximately 1618, in the town of Breda in the southern Netherlands. His father was Cornelis Gijsbrechtszoon van der Donck and his mother was Agatha Van Bergen. His family was well connected on his mother's side, as her father, Adriaen van Bergen, was remembered as a hero for having helped free Breda from Spanish forces during the course of the Eighty Years' War.
In 1638, van der Donck entered the University of Leiden as a law student. Leiden had rapidly become an intellectual center due to Dutch religious freedom and the lack of censorship. At Leiden, he obtained his Doctor of both laws, that is, both civil and canon law. Despite a booming Dutch economy, van der Donck decided to go to the New World. To this end, he approached the patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer, securing a post as "schout", a combination of sheriff and prosecutor, for his large, semi-independent estate, Rensselaerswijck, located near modern Albany.
In New Netherland.
Rensselaerswyck.
In 1641, van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard "Den Eykenboom" ("The Oak Tree"). He was immediately impressed by the land, which, in contrast with the Netherlands, was thickly forested, hilly, and full of wildlife. Once in his post, he attracted the ire of Van Rensselaer with his independence. This manifested itself first when the "schout" selected one of the patroon's finest stallions for himself and then decided that his appointed farm was poorly chosen and simply picked another site.
The patroon expected van der Donck's primary concern to be the colony's profit rather than the colonists' welfare. According to Van Rensselaer, his duty was "to seek my advantage and protect me against loss." This was to consist mainly of cracking down on the black market and catching those who ran away before their service contracts expired. Instead, van der Donck ignored Van Rensselaer's orders when told to collect late rent from those who obviously could not pay, protested that colonists could not swear binding oaths of loyalty on behalf of their servants, and began organizing improvements to various mills and the construction of a brickyard. Van Rensselaer's letters indicate that he became increasingly frustrated with his "schout"'s behavior, chiding him, "from the beginning you have acted not as officer but as director."
In his employer's eyes, van der Donck also spent a disturbing amount of time exploring the surroundings. During these excursions, he learned a great deal about the land and its inhabitants, often neglecting his duties as "schout" in his eagerness to observe and document as much as he could about this new land. He met local Indians, such as the Mahicans and the Mohawks, ate their food, and became adept at their language. Van der Donck recorded their customs, beliefs, medicine, political structure, and technology in an objective and detailed way.
Unsatisfied in his post and realizing the potential of the land, van der Donck eventually began to use his contacts amongst the Indians to negotiate for land in the Catskills, where he wanted to found his own colony. When Van Rensselaer learned that van der Donck sought to acquire neighboring land to his own, he snapped it up first. Van der Donck's contract as "schout" was not renewed when its term expired in 1644.
Early political activism.
In New Amsterdam, disgruntled colonists had been sending ineffective complaints to the Dutch West India Company about the Director-General of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, who had begun a bloody war with the Indians against the advice of the council of twelve men. Kieft's War badly damaged relations and trade between the Indians and the Dutch, made life more dangerous for colonists living in outlying areas, and drained the colony's resources. He exacerbated his relationship with the already financially strained colonists by enacting a tax on beaver skins and beer to fund the war.
In 1645, Kieft tried to mend relations with the Indians and asked van der Donck to assist as a guide and interpreter. At the negotiations, Kieft found himself in the awkward position of coming without the necessary gifts. Van der Donck had not informed Kieft of this important component to negotiations in advance, but happened to have brought an appropriate amount of "sewant" ("wampum"), which he loaned to Kieft.
In return for this favor, Kieft granted van der Donck on the mainland north of Manhattan in the territory of the Wecquaesgeek in 1646. He named the estate "Colen Donck" and built several mills along what he named the "Saeck Kill", later to become the "Neperham River" and today the Saw Mill. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the "Jonkheer" ("young gentleman" or "squire"), a word from which the name "Yonkers" is derived. By this time, van der Donck had already married the Englishwoman Mary Doughty, whose father had lost his land after irking Kieft.
Kieft remained out of favor with the colonists in New Amsterdam. Adriaen van der Donck stepped into this environment of political unrest and used his rhetorical legal skills to give voice to the disaffected colonists. Upon his arrival, the tone of the colonists' petitions suddenly changed. While ostensibly putting himself at Kieft's disposal as a lawyer and a translator, he was working with disgruntled members of the community to get Kieft recalled and convince the company of the need for a Dutch-style representative government in New Amsterdam.
The Dutch West India Company did decide to remove Kieft from his post in 1645, citing the terrible damage caused to trade by his war against the Indians. But rather than yield to the colonists' requests for the establishment of local government, the company decided that a stronger Director-General would succeed in squelching political dissent. They chose Peter Stuyvesant. Despite this change, van der Donck continued his flurry of documents against Kieft, apparently using his example now solely to make a case for the creation of a local government.
Board of Nine.
The new director-general tried to take a firm hand with the colonists — it was noted that anyone who opposed Stuyvesant "hath as much as the sun and moon against him" — but eventually he had to agree to the creation of a permanent advisory board. Following a Dutch tradition, eighteen people would be elected, from whom Stuyvesant would choose nine to serve. Van der Donck was among the nine selected in December 1648, and quickly became a leading figure.
Van der Donck began keeping a journal of the colonists' many grievances against the West India Company, Kieft, and Stuyvesant, planning to synthesize their complaints into a single document to be presented to the Dutch States General. When Stuyvesant got wind of this, he ordered van der Donck put under house arrest, seized his papers, and arranged his removal from the Board of Nine.
Despite this, on July 26, 1649, eleven current and former members of the Nine Men signed the "Petition of the Commonality of New Netherland", which requested that the States General take action to encourage economic freedom and force local government like that in the Netherlands. Van der Donck was one of three men selected to travel to the Netherlands to present this request, along with a description of the colony written primarily by van der Donck entitled "Remonstrance of New Netherland". The latter makes the case that the colony is unusually valuable and in danger of being lost due to mismanagement under the Dutch West India Company.
Return to the Netherlands.
While in the Netherlands, van der Donck engaged in political and public relations campaigns in addition to organizing groups of new colonists for New Netherland. He repeatedly presented his case to the States General opposite a representative sent by Stuyvesant, Cornelis van Tienhoven.
Activism on behalf of the colony.
The case before the States General was delayed because of disruptions within the Dutch government caused by William II of Orange. During this delay, van der Donck turned his attention to public relations. In 1650, he printed his "Remonstrance" as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the land and its potential created much excitement about New Netherland; so many were suddenly eager to immigrate that ships were forced to turn away paying passengers. A Dutch West India Company director wrote, "Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of, and now heaven and earth seem to be stirred up by it and every one tries to be the first in selecting the best pieces [of land] there."
To go alongside the "Remonstrance", van der Donck commissioned the Jansson-Visscher map of the colony. The map was color engraved by Johannes Blaue and designed in such a way that it would appear visually appealing. It showed New Netherland along the original Dutch territorial claim from Cape Hinlopen just south of the Delaware Bay at 38 degrees to the start of New England at 42 degrees and included drawings of typical Indian villages, wild game, and the town of New Amsterdam. The map itself remained the definitive depiction of the area for over a century, cementing many Dutch place names. It would be reprinted thirty-one times before the mid-18th century.
States General's decision.
Apparently, van der Donck's decision to go public paid off, because in April 1650, the States General issued a provisional order that the West India Company create a more liberal form of government to encourage emigration to the Dutch colony. They produced their final decision in 1652: the Dutch West India Company was forced to order Stuyvesant to set up a municipal government. A municipal charter was enacted in New Amsterdam on February 2, 1653. The States General also drafted a letter in April 1652 demanding the recall of Stuyvesant to the Netherlands, which van der Donck would personally deliver to the Director-General.
Van der Donck prepared to return to New Amsterdam, having successfully secured a liberal government for the colony without the restrictions of the Dutch West India Company and national support for emigrating colonists from the Netherlands to the colonies. He was also reinstated as President of the Board of Nine and would be a leader in the new government.
But on May 29, 1652, before van der Donck could sail for home, the First Anglo-Dutch War broke out, and his hopes for New Amsterdam suddenly and unexpectedly fell apart. The States General feared experimenting in local government in a time of war, and needed the close cooperation of the West India Company (practically a branch of the military) in the struggle, and so rescinded their decision.
Defeated, van der Donck tried to return to New Netherland, but was blocked because of the destabilizing effect of his activism. In the meantime, he took a "Supremus in jure" degree at the University of Leiden. Still eager to promote the colony, he also wrote a comprehensive description of its geography and native peoples based on material in his earlier "Remonstrance". This new book was well-crafted to the interests of his audience, consisting of an analysis of European claims to New Netherland, and extensive description of Indians and their customs, a chapter on beavers, and, finally, a dialogue between a Dutch "Patriot" and a New Netherlander addressing the questions of potential colonists.
Though it was finished and copyrighted by July 1653, because of the war, the publication of "Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant" ("Description of New Netherland") was delayed until 1655. Van der Donck's motivation was directed at encouraging greater settlement in the colony. The book was wildly popular, going into a second edition the very next year; however, it was not published in English until 1841, in a translation that eliminated subtleties and often even reversed the intended meaning, characterized by the editor of a modern edition as "inept".
Return to New Amsterdam.
After years of firmly blocking van der Donck's requests to sail, the Dutch West India Company finally agreed on May 26, 1653 to allow him to return home to his family on the condition he retire from public life. The Company sent the following petition to its directors:
The undersigned, Adriaen van der Donck, humbly requests consent and passport of the Board to go to New Netherland, offering to resign the commission previously given to him as President of the community, or otherwise as its deputy, and...to accept no office whatever it may be, but rather to live in private peacefully and quietly as a common inhabitant, submitting to the orders and commands of the Company or those enacted by its director.
However, once arrived, van der Donck's giving up public office was apparently not enough, as he was subsequently denied the right to continue practicing law because there was no one of "sufficient ability and the necessary qualifications" to equal him. These restrictions seem to have not hindered his behind-the-scenes efforts: another political uprising against Stuyvesant broke out just weeks after van der Donck's return. In December, he had to petition for protection from Stuyvesant.
There is no record of van der Donck's death, but he was alive and just 37 years old during the summer of 1655, then referred to as deceased in a court case heard January 10, 1656 (Wolfert Webber "v." Catalyntie Verbeeck.The Records of New Amsterdam Vol. II, 1653 to 1674, Court of Burgomasters & Schepens, edited by Fernow, 1897, p.8) over parties disputing ownership of two bibles taken from his house by Indians. An affidavit from his widow was presented in that case on the matter. He evidently died on his estate, perhaps peacefully, as it is likely a violent death in one of a series of Indian raids during the Peach Tree War of September 1655 would have been raised and noted in the court record. He was survived by his wife and by his parents, whom he had separately convinced to emigrate.
Legacy.
Johnson's translation was long recognized as "defective" and even "inept", but until 2008 remained the only translation available. Nevertheless, Mariana Van Rensselaer called van der Donck's "Description of New Netherland" "an exceptionally intelligent book of its kind", especially praising its quality as a natural history monograph. Its quality as an ethnography has also been praised by anthropologists and historians. Thomas O'Donnell wrote,
Had he written in English rather than Dutch, his "Description" would certainly have won from posterity the same kind, if not the same amount, of veneration that has been bestowed on Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation". As it turned out, Van der Donck's book was written, published, widely read, put aside, and, alas, almost forgotten long before Bradford's book was published at all.
Though the English eventually took over the colony, the city of New Amsterdam retained the municipal charter van der Donck had lobbied for, including uniquely Dutch features, such as a guarantee of free trade.
In his 2004 work "The Island at the Center of the Center of the World", the New York Times contributing writer Russell Shorto wrote that van der Donck's character and actions were important to the development of the American spirit and he labeled Donck as a "forgotten American patriot."
The author J. van den Hout, in his book "Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth Century America", stated that, "At best, he (van der Donck) has been labeled a hero, a visionary, and a spokesman for the people. At worst he has been branded arrogant and selfish, thinking only of his own ambitions.
Sources.
Further reading


Island Lake, Manitoba

Island Lake is a small community in east central Manitoba, Canada.
The community is on several islands in Island Lake, which is the 6th largest lake in the province. The community is located east from Thompson, Manitoba and northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Other nearby communities on the lake are Garden Hill, St. Theresa Point and Wasagamack. The community is served by the Island Lake Airport. The community of Island Lake consists of several government and private agencies such as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment, Manitoba Conservation office, Government of Manitoba (operates the airport) Stevenson Island School (Frontier School Division), Bell MTS, Manitoba Hydro office, The North West Company which operates the Northern Store, several small convenience stores and Island Lake Lodge, a fly fishing lodge on Stevenson Island.
Perimeter Aviation has daily service to Island Lake from Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport using Bombardier Dash 8 and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners. They also have a Medevac Base on Stevenson Island serving the community 365 days a year.
Climate.
With 21.11 hours of fog annually, Island Lake is one of the least foggy places in Canada. Only Penticton gets less fog during the year, and no one gets less fog in February when Island Lake averages a mere 0.67 hours.
Island Lake has a subarctic climate (Dfc) with mild, rainy summers and severely cold winters.
Demographics.
In the 2016 Census, the Island Lake designated place had a population of living in of its total private dwellings.


Francis Rombouts

Francis Rombouts (22 June 1631 – 1691) was the 12th Mayor of New York City, (formerly New Amsterdam), from 1679 to 1680. He was one of three proprietors of the Rombout Patent, and father of pioneering Colonial businesswoman Catheryna Rombout Brett.
Biography.
Frans Rombout was born on June 22 at 1631 in Hasselt, Belgium, the second son of Jan Rombout, who was a taxreceiver for the Archdeacon of Liege, and Johanna Haenen.
Francis Rombout emigrated to New Amsterdam in 1653 aboard the ship "Nieuw Amsterdam". He engaged in trade as a merchant while yet a youth. In the year 1658, he enrolled himself among the burghers, or citizens, though he had been for several years previously a trader there. His trading operations as a merchant were tolerably extensive, though he did not rank among the wealthiest of the inhabitants. He was probably worth, as near as can be estimated, about ten thousand dollars, which was then, however, considered an independent fortune. Rombout bought his first stone house at Nieuw-Amsterdam, in the Heerestraat, now Broadway in Manhattan.
Rombout held several offices of trust among his fellow-citizens. In 1673, 1674, 1676, 1678, 1686, he was an Alderman. Afterward, in 1687, the city having been divided into wards, he was returned as Alderman of the West Ward. He afterward held the office of Justice of the Peace, until his death. His political principles were of a liberal character, and his manners and address grave and dignified. Rombout's dwelling was on Broadway, west side, near Rector street, extending to the North River shore. it embraced a large garden and an orchard. At the time of his mayoralty, the city contained about 3,500 inhabitants. Rombouts Avenue in the Bronx is named for him.
On May 31, 1665, Rombout married Aeltie Wessels in the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam. She died sometime prior to August 5, 1675, when he then married Anna Elizabeth Masschop. Widowed a second time, he married, on September 8, 1683, Helena Teller Bogardus Van Bael. It was the third marriage for both of them. Helena Teller was born about 1645, the daughter of William and Margaret Doncheson Teller of Schenectady. Helena had seven children from her previous marriages, and from this marriage, another three were born. She and Rombout had two boys and a girl. The boys died young but the girl, Catheryna, born on 5 September 1687, survived. Catheryna later married British Royal Navy lieutenant Roger Brett.
The Rombout Patent.
The Rombout Patent was a Colonial era land patent issued by King James II of England in 1685 sanctioning the right of Francis Rombouts and two partners to own some of land in the southeast of the then Province of New York that had purchased from the Wappinger people. The Patent included most of what is today's southern Dutchess County, New York.
Rombout had gone into the fur-trading business with merchant Gulian Verplanck. They were joined in 1683 by the patroon of Van Cortlandt Manor in Westchester County, Stephanus Van Cortlandt. Before a patent could be issued, Verplanck died, and his widow married Jacobus Kip, to whom the patent was issued.
See a period map of the Patent here at the Mount Gulian Historical Site.


Collegiate Peaks

The Collegiate Peaks (or Collegiate Range) is a name given to a section of the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains located in central Colorado. Drainages to the east include headwaters of the Arkansas River.
The Collegiate Peaks include some of the highest mountains in the Rockies. The section is so named because several of the mountains are named for prominent universities.


Marie Clements

Marie Clements (born January 10, 1962) is a Canadian Métis playwright, performer, director, producer and screenwriter. Marie was founding artistic director of urban ink productions, and is currently co-artistic director of red diva projects, and director of her new film company Working Pajama Lab Entertainment. Clements lives on Galiano Island, British Columbia. As a writer Marie has worked in a variety of mediums including theatre, performance, film, multi-media, radio, and television.
Early life.
Clements was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Early in her life she studied dance, speech, singing, piano, and music, but she dreamed of being a foreign correspondent. She studied journalism at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta.
Career.
During the 1980s Clements worked as a radio news reporter and is still a freelance contributor to CBC radio. She has also worked in the writing department of the television series "Da Vinci's Inquest" which featured a plot line similar to "The Unnatural and Accidental Women" which is based on the murders of several Native women in Vancouver's Skid Row district.
She has been a playwright in residence at the National Theatre School of Canada, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Firehall Arts Centre, and the National Arts Centre. She has been writer-in-residence at several prominent Canadian universities, including Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia
Theatre Research in Canada (TRIC) dedicated a special issue of the journal to the celebration of Clements's contribution to Canadian theatre.
In 2010, Marie Clements founded Working Pajama Lab, which specializes in the development, creation and strategic weaving of story across film, t.v., digital media and live performance. She also founded Red Diva Project the same year when she was commissioned to create the Aboriginal Pavilion's closing performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Marie Clements's plays often consider several overlapping themes, such as the themes of racism, sexism, and violence explored in "The Unnatural and Accidental Women." Her theatrical style is a blending of Aboriginal storytelling, ritual and western theatrical conventions. As a playwright, director, and dramaturg, she "explores important issues of women, aboriginals, and the realities of the urban core in innovative, highly theatrical stagings"
It was while touring the Canadian north that Clements wrote her first play, "Age of Iron" (1993). She says it was "sheer cold boredom and a serious desire to understand and integrate the elemental connections between Greek mythology and Native thought" that inspired her to write the play.
Clements's plays often "reframe...authorized Western histories" to encourage spectators acknowledgement of alternative histories and critically engage with the process of historiography. Both "Burning vision" (staged by Tom Bentley-Fisher for The Barcelona International Grec Festival) and "The Unnatural and Accidental Women" engage with elements of Canadian history that are pushed to the periphery and press issues of "counter-hegemonic remembrance practices"
Her importance as a Canadian playwright is reflected in the number of award nominations, the multiple translations of her works, and the number of scholarly articles dedicated to her plays.


Pieter Van Buskirk

Pieter Van Buskirk ( January 1, 1655 – July 21, 1738), also spelled Boskerck, is considered the first settler in the Constable Hook area of Bayonne, New Jersey.
Van Buskirk was the son of Laurens Andriessen Van Buskirk and Jannetje Jans, settlers in New Netherland. Not long after their arrival at New Amsterdam they moved to Bergen, settling at Minkakwa.
Van Buskirk built a home and farm around the year 1700 on a bluff overlooking the shore of Upper New York Bay on what became known as Van Buskirk's Point at the confluence of the bay and Kill van Kull. Van Buskirk started a small family cemetery next to his house in 1736. His wife, Tryntje died on October 31 of that year and is buried in the cemetery. Pieter Van Buskirk died two years later and was also buried in the cemetery.
For over 200 years, Van Buskirk and his descendants lived in his farmhouse. Today, the farm and the cemetery are gone. Both were demolished in 1906 by the Standard Oil Company, which purchased the land to expand their refinery. A different cemetery that was opened by James Van Buskirk still exists today. Part of the cemetery still exists due to a "restoration project" of the 1980s. The cemetery is surrounded by property owned by International-Matex Tank Terminals which operates a marine terminal together with storage and handling for bulk liquid products.


Donald Mackay (fur trader)

Donald Mackay (1753 – 26 June 1833) was born in Scotland and served in the British army during the early part of the American revolution. After he left the army, he decided to stay in Canada and pursue a career.
Mackay started in the fur trade out of Montreal in 1779 as a clerk with an independent trader. When the North West Company was formed at Grand Portage, he became a clerk with that organization. He had a varied and grueling start in the business and he and his partner ended up in 1780 trading on the Assiniboine River, near Fort La Reine. That year he led an expedition to the upper Missouri River and the Hidatsa villages.


Little Rocky Mountains

The Little Rocky Mountains, also known as the Little Rockies, are a group of buttes, roughly 765 km2 in area, located towards the southern end of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Blaine County and Phillips County in north-central Montana. Their highest summit is Antoine Butte (~5720 ft (1743 m)).
The nearest town is Dodson, Montana.