NWA Rollergirls

While I was living in Austin, TX a new/old phenomenon began to emerge–the return of roller derby. Down there in the heart of Texas there were even competing leagues…the Texas Rollergirls and the Lone Star Rollergirls. These girls combine old school roller derby, with punk/grrl-power attitude, campy team themes and a healthy dose of violence….my kind of scene…especially when you combine it with live Austin music (think lots of rockabilly and retro-stuff).

The rest of the world has gotten a taste of this new rollerderby through cable TV–in 2006 A&E ran its “Rollergirls” show that followed a season of the Lone Star Rollergirls (I’m sure the name infuriated the Texas Rollergirls)….

At any rate…now its time for Northwest Arkansas to get into the act.

The NWA Rollergirls are “Arkansas’ first all-female, quad skate, flat track rollerderby league – the cream of the badass crop in Northwest Arkansas!” They have over 40 members and growing and they are currently practicing twice a week and planning their business structure.

How can you help get NWARG off the ground? Go to some of their fundraising events, garage sales, concerts, etc….or, if you have the “enthusiasm and passion”….join their street team!

Next event:
06/17/06: A night of rockabilly and punk at the Dart Room, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Brunache Abroad…

Well, TJV & I have returned from a two week trip to visit the families….A long road trip to Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. I had a good time & as I haven’t seen most of relatives in over a year…it was long overdue.

At any rate, upon my return I find that one of my dearest friends and colleagues from the University of Texas–Peggy Brunache–has begun a great adventure and roadtrip of her own. Peggy is a Miami native Haitian-American who does historical archaeology of the African Diaspora with a twist…she is intensely interested in food and identity. Most recently Peggy has been doing work on the island of Guadalupe looking at creole foodways, slavery, gender and identity. Good stuff…

So what is her “great adventure”? She has just moved to the town of Perth in Scotland! Why? Love…of course. She met and fell in love with a highlander at Austin’s SXSW music festival.

If you are a friend or acquaintance of Peggy, have no fear…she has provided us with an ongoing blog so we can follow her through the process of getting to know an entirely different home and, more importantly for Peggy, a interesting food culture with deep roots and a lot of dynamics.

Check her out at Adventures in Negroshire ….

We all wish you the best, Peg….

hmmm….Peggy in Scotland, Apen in Spain, John in Morocco…
I feel a big road trip of my own coming on.

Geronimo’s Skull

The Hartford Courant reports today that a journalist has uncovered evidence that members of Yale’s secretive Skull and Bones society may have robbed Geronimo’s grave during World War I and brought the Apache warrior’s skull and other remains back to New Haven.

The plundering of Geronimo’s grave in Fort Sill, OK, has long been rumored, and some sources (but not The Hartford Courant) claim that Prescott Bush (W.’s grandfather) may have been one of the culprits (along with a couple of other Skull and Bones members).

Several years ago, a Skull & Bones member anonymously “leaked” information regarding the society and “The Tomb.” This included documents and photographs. One of the documents detailed Prescott Bush’s graverobbing exploits. One of the photographs was of a skull and bridle on a shelf, next to a framed photograph of Geronimo. Other sources have since come forward and confirmed that Geronimo’s skull is indeed on display in “The Tomb” and considered the “mascot” of this “club” on High Street.

Now a 1918 letter, found deep in Yale University’s archives, suggests there may be some validity to the story. Current Members of Skull and Bones chose not to comment on the legitimacy of the allegations.

How ironic is it that President George H. W. Bush signed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) into law in 1990? Of course as the Skull & Bones are not federally funded (at least not directly) they do not fall under this legislation…

So…for the record…Ishi’s brain has been repatriated, Geronimo’s skull has not.

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-skullbones0509.artmay09,0,3995631.story
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/rant/geronimoskull.html
http://www.theramp.net/kohr4/geronimo_skull.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/Geronimo/petition.html
http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=2523

Magnolia, Arkansas

Latitude and Longitude: 33º16’01″N 093º14’21″W
Elevation: 330 feet
Area: 9.3 square miles (2000 Census)
Population: 10,858 (2000 Census)
Incorporation Date: January 6, 1855

Magnolia is the home of Southern Arkansas University, a public university that offers 4-year and some advanced (Master’s level) degrees. With a student body of over 3000, its most notable programs are agriculture, business, and education. The University’s cultural foucs is Harton Theatre, which provides a venue for both departmental plays, concerts, and local cultural events.

The town’s primary economic focus is heavy industrial, including Albemarle Corporation’s Bromine Products Division (which has two facilities near town), Amfuel (which produces fuel cells for the military), and Alcoa’s extruded aluminum products facility. Also prevalent in the area are several oil and brine drilling companies, many of which are locally owned, and timber companies, such as Deltic and Weyerhaeuser.

Downtown Magnolia is an historic mural Mecca. Created to foster awareness of and community participation in the visual arts, these murals cover a wide range of subjects and can be found indoors as well as outdoors. In all there are five large outdoor wall murals, 3 smaller outdoor murals, and 4 indoors murals.

Indoor murals include “Wheat Harvest” by Joe Jones in the 1930s (in the Magnolia Public Library), and the four-panel “History of SAU Represented through the Arts” by Melchor Peredo Garcia (Southern Arkansas University Harton Theater).

(Information complied from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Wikipedia, and Arkansas South)

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies (along with the help of many other scholars throughout the state) has started a project that strives to offer a definitive, comprehensive, and accurate record of Arkansas–The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. The online version of the Encyclopedia is the first component of the project & it has made its debut today at:

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net

This project, obviously inspired by similar efforts such as the Handbook of Texas Online , also gets me anxious to tackle a project that I have wanted to undertake for awhile–a on-line content-heavy site for Arkansas archaeology. This too is inspired by a Texas effort–Texas Beyond History.

Photo: Sketch by Edwin Curtiss of the Stanly Mound at Toltec (Lonoke County); circa 1879. From the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture's media gallery.

I’m hoping that in my new position as AAS Station Archeologist that I (and maybe my colleague George Sabo) might start work on web content in earnest.

Try out the Encyclopedia of Arkansas: a search for “archaeology” reveals entries for historical archaeology, Samuel Dellinger, Mark R. Harrington, Edwin Curtis, C. B. Moore, Salt Making, all the periods you can think of (e.g., Mississippian, Woodland, Archaic, etc.)…looks like a good start to me.

Note: our Van Winkle’s Mill Archaeological Project gets a mention in the “historical archaeology” entry of the Arkansas Encyclopedia. It’s a great article written by Mary Kwas & Leslie “Skip” Stewart-Abernathy.

Tags: arkansas, history, website