The history of relations between Americans and Indigenous people can be summed up in one exchange. — This Monday, while most of the United States observes Columbus Day, a small but growing number of cities and states will instead be celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which rejects Christopher Columbus’s brutality of the natives and honors the many indigenous cultures of the Americas. The United States has a long…

Norman Ah-Sing had no patience for a frivolous lawsuit against him. — In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, Norman Ah-Sing, a Chinese merchant in San Francisco during the gold rush, responded angrily, forcefully, and eloquently to the governor of California, who had advocated a ban on Chinese immigration. Norman Ah-Sing, described as a “sallow, dried, cadaverous, but active and keen…

“When your nation was a wilderness . . . we exercised most of the arts and virtues of civilized life.” — In the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the 1850s, thousands of glittery-eyed Chinese immigrated across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of North America. At first, Chinese-white relations were agreeable. But as the easy gold was snatched up, attitudes hardened. …

“We are not the degraded race you would make us.” — In the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the 1850s, thousands of glittery-eyed hopefuls migrated to the west coast of North America. They came from Europe, Australia, the United States (California would become a state in 1850), Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Hawaii, and large numbers sailed across the Pacific Ocean…

The landscape for the flu vaccine was the Wild West. — The Covid-19 vaccine rollout, since it started in December, 2020, has often been labeled “chaotic,” “confusing,” and “inequitable.” Lines are long to receive the vaccine and a patchwork of local rules restricts who can get it and where, and that’s if a person is lucky and tenacious enough to score…

From 1896 to 2016, defeated presidential contenders have conceded gracefully to their opponents. — “HON. WM. MCKINLEY,” William Jennings Bryan wrote in his November 5, 1896 telegram to William McKinley, to whom Bryan had just lost the presidential election, “Senator Jones has just informed me that the returns indicate your election, and I hasten to extend my congratulations. …

Americans have given thanks through wars, depressions, and pandemics. — One of the educational staples passed on to American school children is the tale of The First Thanksgiving. The pilgrims, as it goes, arrived in Plymouth and established their colony in 1620, yet were decimated by a harsh winter that followed. …

But does she accept it? — Happy Election Day! With the Big Decision on the country’s mind today, it’s time for an election-themed update to an old story. Two months ago I published an entry celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment — also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment — which guaranteed universal…

It’s the 126th anniversary of Labor Day. Why do we celebrate working by not working? — Monday, September 7, 2020 marks the 126th anniversary of the federal holiday Labor Day, though some states, Oregon being the first, had been celebrating it already. From the late 1700s to mid 1800s, an industrial revolution, starting in Britain, swept over Europe and the United States. “Revolution” is not an…