Geronimo Essays - Apache Wars, Apache People, Chiricahua, Geronimo

Geronimo I was born in No-doyohn Canon, Arizona, June, 1829. In that country which lies around the head waters of the Gila River I was reared. This range was our fatherland; among these mountains our wigwams were hidden; the scattered valleys contained our fields; the boundless prairies, stretching away on every side, were our pastures; the rocky caverns were our burying places. I was fourth in a family of eight children-- four boys and four girls. Of that family, only myself, my brother, Porico, and my sister, Nah-da-ste , are yet alive. We are held as prisoners of war in this Military Reservation (Fort Sill). As a babe I rolled on the dirt floor of my father's tepee, hung in my tsoch (Apache name for cradle) at my mother's back, or suspended from the bough of a tree. I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds, and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. When a child my mother taught me the legends of our people; taught me of the sun and sky, the moon and stars, the clouds and storms. She also taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom, and protection. We never prayed against any person, but if we had faught against any individual we ourselves took vengeance. We were taught that Usen does not care for the petty quarrels of men. My father had often told me of the brave deeds of our warriors, of the pleasures of the chase, and the glories of the war path. With my brothers and sisters I played about my father's home. Sometimes we played at hide-and-seek among the rocks and pines; sometimes we loitered in the shade of the cottonwood trees or sought the shudock (a kind of wild cherry) while our parents worked in the field. Sometimes we played that we were warriors. We would practice stealing upon some object that represented an enemy, and in our childish imitation often perform the feats of war. Sometimes we would hide away from our mother to see if she could find us, and often when thus concealed go to sleep and perhaps remain hidden for many hours. When we were old enough to be of real service we went to the field with our parents: not to play, but to toil. When the crops were to be planted we broke the ground with wooden hoes. We planted the corn in straight rows, the beans among the corn, and the melons and pumpkins in irregular order over the field. We cultivated these crops as there was need. Our field usually contained about two acres of ground. The fields were never fenced. It was common for many families to cultivate land in the same valley and share the burden of protecting the growing crops from destruction by the ponies of the tribe, or by deer and other wild animals. Melons were gathered as they were consumed. In the autumn pumpkins and beans were gathered and placed in bags or baskets; ears of corn were tied together by the husks, and then the harvest was carried on the backs of ponies up to our homes. Here the corn was shelled, and all the harvest stored away in caves or other secluded places to be used in winter. We never fed corn to our ponies, but if we kept them up in the winter time we gave them fodder to eat. We had no cattle or other domestic animals except our dogs and ponies. We did not cultivate tobacco, but found it growing wild. This we cut and cured in autumn, but if the supply ran out the leaves from the stalks left standing served our purpose. All Indians smoked---men and women. No boy was allowed to smoke until he had hunted alone and killed large game--wolves and bears. Unmarried women were not prohibited from smoking, but were considered immodest if they did so. Nearly all matrons smoked. Besides grinding the corn (by hand with stone mortars and pestles) for bread, we sometimes crushed it and soaked it, and after it had fermented made from this juice a tis-win, which had the power of intoxication, and was very highly prized by the Indians. This work was done by the squaws and children. When berries or nuts were to be gathered the small children and the squaws would go in parties to hunt them, and sometimes stay all day. When they went any great distance from camp they took ponies to carry the baskets

Democratic Caucus Process

Democratic Caucus Process Democratic Caucus ProcessA Democratic Caucus will be held for each of Presidential candidate nomination's 2,487 precincts. These caucuses will all be held on the same evening beginning at 7 p.m. Caucus attendees will register upon arriving at the caucus. A person may vote and/or run for delegate to the County Convention if they: are a resident of that particular precinct; are eligible to vote in the precinct; will be at least 18 years old on election day; supports the purposes of the Presidential candidate nomination Democratic Party; and are a registered Democrat.The caucus will be called to order at 7 p.m. The first order of business will be to elect a chairperson and secretary. Each caucus attendee will have the opportunity to sign nomination papers for various local, state and federal candidates. They may sign the nomination papers for only one candidate for each office. The caucus chair will call for discussion and voting on platform resolutions.A volunteer answers a question at Washington State...Resolutions that pass will be given to the Platform Committee member who will be elected later in the evening from that precinct.After the discussion and passage of resolutions but not before 7:30 p.m., the caucus may proceed to the election of delegates to the County Convention. The entire caucus shall elect from the delegates or alternates members of the County Platform Committee and Committee on Committees for the County Convention. Precinct Committee people will be elected to represent the Democrats of their precinct on the Democratic County Central Committee. There are generally two committee people elected at each precinct caucus. In the name of reform, in 1968, the nominating system was changed from a predominantly representative process in which delegates and party leaders had the final say in choosing the nominees, to a process based on the principle of...

The Man with the Golden Arm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Man with the Golden Arm - Essay Example .. Mr. Algren, boy, you are good" ("Review Quote": np). After reading this novel, I am compelled to agree. This novel is at times strange, at times very dark, and always engaging and very interesting. People the world over all know Chicago by reputation, and yet the version of this famous city offered up by Nelson Algren is grittier and edgier than the versions offered up by tourist brochures or television sitcoms. The characters are also intriguing and engaging. There is an almost simultaneous sense of disgust and admiration as we experience how these characters aspire and strive in uncertain and distasteful circumstances. The atmosphere which he creates deepens rather than minimizes the reading pleasure. The novel's world is both plausible and foreign; more particularly, it is an atmosphere which we can imagine existing, but which also seems to be an atmosphere that we will never actually step into personally. There is a certain feeling of safety in this distance, which Nelson Algren provides through the medium of the novel. Finally, i t is also important to note that Nelson Algren chooses and uses his words, both narrative and dialogue, meaningfully and succinctly. He does not bore the reader with tangential information. He does not deaden the plot with unnecessary details. Every word conveys meaning. The result is a novel which is extraordinarily difficult to put down, and even more difficult to forget once the final page is read. This is a book which under normal circumstances I would probably never have read. This book report will explain why I am so happy that I have now read the novel. As an initial matter, this is the story of a Chicago drug addict. This character, Frankie the Machine Makjinek, works as a card dealer at illegal poker games. The golden arm reference is to his steady, card-dealing arm. Frankie has just returned to his old neighborhood in Chicago, from jail and a temporarily successful attempt at detoxification, and he works as a card dealer while he tries to turn his life around. He wants to beat his morphine addiction, and he also wants to stay out of trouble and out of jail. The story revolves around his attempts to straighten out his life while simultaneously existing alongside other drug addicts, attempting to pacify a dominant wife, and striving to beat his own former addiction to morphine. In many ways, this is a similar type of story. A person has made a mistake, the mistake has had negative consequences, and the person wants to pursue a better and a more productive life. There are thousands and thousands of stories premised in the same fundamental fashion. What is different about The Man with the Golden Arm, however, is the way in which the story is presented. There is a tremendous depth in the characters. There is a very particularized depth in the setting. More significantly, Nelson Algren presents this quest by the main protagonist as an almost impossible quest. There is an almost mocking tone extended to notions that human beings are civilized or otherwise capable of suppressing deep-seated urges and instinctive desires. Nelson Algren seems alm ost a cynic and a realist at the same time. He feels sympathy rather than pity for his main protagonist. In this way, the reader is compelled, at times, to question whether Frankie the Machi