Saturday, March 26, 2011

STARBUCKS SATURDAY

Good morning.  We are sitting at Starbucks again because the signal power at our RV park is nil.  Zilch.  Nada.  Nothing.

Yesterday we spent the day with my sister and BIL.  We drove up to their place, about 22 miles from here, and parked our big huge monster truck, and took their car down to the parking lot of the light rail.  We bought an all day pass, and hopped on to go to downtown Phoenix and the Heard Museum.
 The museum houses a large collection of contemporary Native American art.
I thought these glass and ceramic things looked like torches, although I don't know what they were actually representing.  Maybe they were just glass and ceramic things!
I liked this sculpture of a family group, eating their meal together.
The jewelry was beautiful, but you would never see me wearing those heavy turquoise squash blossom necklaces!  Wow, they looked heavy!
This collection of dolls came from Barry Goldwater.
And then came the part I hated.  It made me sick.  The second floor housed an exhibit focusing on the forced removal of children from their homes to place them in schools to "civilize" them.  This took place all over the United States, in the name of Christianity and of taming the savages.  It makes me physically ill.
This photo is of the boarding school at Fort Totten, North Dakota.  It resembles a military fort to me.  WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! 
This was a very pleasant spot at the train stop to wait for our train to head back to Mesa.  Aren't these flowers pretty?
And I believe someone is totally pooped out and ready to call it a day!  But I think we're pretty even now.......he's done his golfing and I've seen my museums.  Gotta be fair, you know!

3 comments:

TonjiaT said...

Marge, those sticks could be talking sticks. I am not sure, but in most native american cultures, they passed a stick around the circle to allow each person to speak.

The schools for Indian children were like prisoner camps, there was a large school where I used to work in Carlisle PA and the cemetery was as large as some of the dormitories, it was a very sad attempt at "civilizing the savages"... so sad..


Have you ever checked into getting one of those plug in modems from your cell phone carrier to give you internet on your computer no matter where you are? I dont know how expensive the data plan is for one of them but it would sure be handy!

Have a great week!!

TonjiaT said...

oh I forgot, those dolls of Barry Goldwaters are called Kachina dolls and they all represent something different. Some are guardians and some are for spells....

Thomas said...

The savagery that was done in the name of Christianity is sickening. May the future generations learn of the atrocities in our past so they never have to repeat it.

The pictures of Barry Goldwaters dolls brought back a memory from my childhood that made me smile. My aunt and uncle were neighbors of the Goldwaters in the 70's and one March day when I was about 10, I hit a heck of a softball my uncle tossed me in his backyard adn it went sailing over the tall, stone wall into the Goldwater's yard. My uncle retrieved it and I will never forget the story. At the time it meant nothing to me, as my mom and dad were Democrats, but now the story gives me a chuckle!