Honoring Magpie

I'm pretty busy recently. Besides home projects, I attended the Washita Battlefield 2002 Symposium Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 15-17, in Cheyenne, Oklahoma, 90 miles to the west. I'll write more about it.

An emotional part was a special ceremony at the nearby National Monument for grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Magpie - a Cheyenne Indian who as a youth was present at the Battle of the Washita. Troops under General George Armstrong Custer attacked the Cheyenne camp beside the Washita River. It was early morning, in a blinding snowstorm, on November 27, 1868. Much oral history, considered honest and accurate, etc., was given by Magpie in his older years.

Beside the many pleasant family memories expressed, two elderly men spoke well of Magpie as a caring and friendly "grandfatherly" figure in their lives. Each lived on farms near Magpie's farm in their youth. I was born in 1939 close to the time Magpie died in the mid-1930's. Amazing! My life and Magpie's life nearly overlap.