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Older version of Dry January


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Buffalo Bill's circus also came to Inverness in 1904 and set up in what was Dalneigh Farm. A quote from Bill;

“With the exception of my own country, of course, I consider the Highlands of Scotland the finest country I ever visited. My only regret is that I am unable to see very much of it in consequence of being so much engaged during the day, and having to do my travelling at night.”

Buffalo Bill (Inverness, Scotland, 1904)

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A little more info;

When Bill visited Scotland the second time in 1904 with his Rough Riders Of The World Show he toured all over Scotland visiting towns such as Perth and Dundee and even went as far North as Inverness, the capital of the Highlands.

While in Inverness, two of the Indian company Iron Tail and Blue Shield took a trip even further North to John O’ Groats the most northerly settlement on the British mainland. They were accompanied by Mr. Small who had taken to dressing in a kilt while touring Scotland and was the show’s photographer.
 

Iron+Tail+in+Glasgow-300.jpg
Iron Tail in Glasgow, 1904
(photo courtesy of
Invisible Emperors Ltd)

An article in the Northern Ensign, a local newspaper, comments that both Indians were dressed in their ‘Native garb,’ and were ‘decorated with feathers.’ Local onlookers had a totally different view of the Indians. They were convinced the warriors were women!

After all, the Indians had long, dark hair and smooth skin on their faces, it was an easy mistake to make… However, the photograph sold well as a postcard, and the incident is a great example of Buffalo Bill’s showmanship and marketing skills.

No one knows if Iron Tail and Blue Shield found out what those John O’ Groats onlookers thought. And it is ironic that many of the Native Americans who travelled with the Wild West Show were warriors who had fought during the Wounded Knee massacre. Their lands lost to immigrants, and their culture suppressed by white Europeans, much like the ones they were now entertaining.

In fact, the Wild West Show was one of the few ways that the Native Americans were able to preserve their culture, through the display of traditional skills in horsemanship and archery.

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Buffalo Bill's circus also came to Inverness in 1904 and set up in what was Dalneigh Farm.

 

So that was why I found elephant poo and camel dung in my back garden 60 years later!!

Yah must have had some fine tatties growing in that lot CB, bet you were doing some trumpeting after you ate em though.

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Buffalo Bill's circus also came to Inverness in 1904 and set up in what was Dalneigh Farm.

 

So that was why I found elephant poo and camel dung in my back garden 60 years later!!

Yah must have had some fine tatties growing in that lot CB, bet you were doing some trumpeting after you ate em though.

Not as much as after eating the minister's apples when we nicked them!

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Interesting pictures.":

Battle of Wounded Knee--some battle!! Brutal Massacre more like. Sioux clan as I recall.

The Cavalry corralled them with their women and children out in the open. There is talk that someone deliberately fired a shot or cracked a whip and the U.S soldiers replied with a cannonade of  bullets which mowed the Indians down like flies. They had no chance at all of survival.

 

Buffalo Bill  was a pragmatist, recognizing that the Injun way of life was more or less doomed. He had tried to do what he could for his people but the odds were always against him. The yanks wanted their land and squeezed them , and squeezed them and squeezed them. So he parlayed his talents into parodying the Indian way of life and the Westerners lapped it up; even Kings and Notables wanted to meet him. He was feted and sensationalized and  was quite a smart guy all told.

 

In Canada the Indians have always come off second best. They were treated very  poorly and taken advantage of  to coin a , well, very euphemistic, phrase. The whites during the last century took all the Indigenous children from their families and shut them in  RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS where they subjected them to all kinds of horrors, physical beatings and controls, sexual attacks and abuse on a grand scale and mind-scarred most of the kids for life. I think about 50,000 children were affected all told.

They tried so hard to eradicate all the  Indian-ness out of them and turn them into White people-- a strategy that only served to confuse them , crush them with loneliness and grief as they pined for their indigenous families and failed in their stupid, selfish objectives.  A Supreme court case was held recently to try to redress the wrongs perpetrated on these poor children and a devastating judgement was made and large reparations agreed on for the remaining Indians in Canada who suffered so much. Many of them still live in appalling conditions and many of the Chiefs have turned the situation to their personal advantage where the Government has shovelled money into the villages in the hope that that would be a salve on their consciences. But they never instituted any controls over the spending and  most of the money appears to have landed in the pockets of the Chiefs and many reservation Indians still live in wretched conditions, their children do not get their proper education and their women are either raped or murdered in the thousands--apparently mostly by Indigenous males whose character and minds  have been twisted and warped and changed  by the  devastating effects of the past.

Stories about guys like Geronimo and Cochise his side-kick in the West are legend. The cavalry could never ever find them and they simply finally ran out of time and victuals because their cattle were also being stolen by the Yanks as they over-run territory after territory in the U S. Geronimo also ended up a North American hero and was as feted as Buffalo Bill ever was. Wherever he went the crowds cheered him for his spirit of Independence and he was looked upon as a true American hero.  But, actually, as time hade worn on, he turned from being simply a renegade on the move with a mission into a vicious savage killer  but many say this reputation was  no worse than the people who so relentlessly pursued and harried him to the end, taking everything he ever valued from him in the process. I think the cheers were more for the underdog than for the actual man, Geroninmo, and amongst the admiration for his capacity to outsmart the white man there was also hidden guilt trying to get out of their systems. Cochise was the forerunner of Geronimo but they had separated when younger  and went their separate ways.

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IHE--That's so nice of you to  do that all for me. What a great looking bike an'all.  It's a Vindec I'm sure.

Lots of loving tender care went into the making of it I can see that. Just the ticket for a night out in Alaska but, with no Moose handlebars, it's well a wee bit of 'Unfinished business" aint it? And the brand of booze is not quite right old lad. Let's try for Canadian beer or  Extra Old Stock which has quite a bite to it. It's brewed up in Northern B.C. so we need to keep the home fires burning, like.:crazy: 

 

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