Suzi Light

"A bird’s-eye look at the Ghost Dance, the first instance of modern, collective racial self-consciousness for Native peoples in the United States

From the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) to the Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890), Indigenous religious practices—legally banned after 1883—took on new meanings as acts of defiance against colonialism and white supremacy. By reexamining the familiar story of the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee Massacre and placing it into the context of resistance by Black and Native peoples during Reconstruction and Redemption, historian Tiffany M. Hale explains the Ghost Dance not just as a religious movement but also as a complex social phenomenon that enabled Indigenous people to maintain their identities and communities despite the pervasive force of colonialism and the challenges of modernity.

Chronicling how individual Native people, their families, and communities navigated the fraught post–Civil War conditions of the United States, Hale suggests that Ghost Dances hold something in common with blues traditions of working-class African Americans. By giving Ghost Dance participants a chance to reflect on their lived experiences of warfare, deracination, and diplomacy, “fugitive religion” helped create modern racial self-consciousness in the United States."

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In 2026 I think I am closer to understanding why the Ghost Dances empowered native people.

Religious Crimes Code of 1883 bans Native dances, ceremonies

"Congress bans all Native dancing and ceremonies, including the Sun Dance, Ghost Dance, potlatches, and the practices of medicine persons. The Code gives Indian agents authority to use force, imprisonment, and the withholding of rations to stop any cultural practices they deem immoral or subversive to federal government-mandated assimilation policies."

"Host Chelsea Rose speaks with Marc James Carpenter about the research behind his recent book "The War on Illahee: Genocide, Complicity, and Cover-Ups in the Pioneer Northwest." The book explores the many ways historians have erased, overwritten or morphed the atrocities of settler colonialism into what Carpenter calls "cozy pioneer histories." (15 minute interview)

Carpenter investigates the Rogue River War as part of a larger War on Illahee, which allows for a more nuanced and honest view of the violent settlement of the American West. The audiobook version, narrated by the estimable Rick Adamson, was just released by Tantor Media."

2026 Congress ignoring science. Again.

Morning sunlight sets your circadian rhythm, the body clock.

Your circadian rhythm affects:

sleep-wake cycle

hormone release

appetite and digestion

body temperature

mental state

alertness, mood and overall health

How Your Brain’s Nightly Cleanse Keeps It Healthy

Washing waste from the brain is an essential function of sleep—and it could help ward off dementia.

15 minute podcast interview about the Oregon cabin

Zane Grey's Books in Order

Zane Grey Bio & Museum link

"Pearl, as he was known to friends and family, was an imaginative, active boy who loved the outdoors but didn’t like school. As a child he developed a love of hunting, camping, and, especially, baseball and fishing. His father discouraged each of these pursuits as time- wasters. Most of all, Lewis Gray scorned his son’s enjoyment of crafting exciting adventure stories.

As Pearl got older, he stopped using his first name and began calling himself by his middle name, Zane. He also changed the spelling of his last name from “Gray” to Grey to distance himself from a family scandal."

Wearing a silk gown she designed and hand stitched in 140 hours, Claire goes to a ball at Versailles. Stunning! Beautiful!