Jessica Crabtree

August 11, 3,114 BC: Beginning of the Long Count in the Mayan calendar

It seems everyone knows that the Mayan calendar is supposed to end in 2012. But the day it begins doesn’t get quite so much publicity.

Actually, both terms are something of a misnomer – the Mayan calendar doesn’t end, and doesn’t begin. The Western idea of time is quite linear compared with many of the world’s other systems of time keeping, which like the Mayan calendar move in a circle.

The Mayan calendar, or more properly the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, was used in various forms throughout Central America, including by the Aztec. Its unique counting system is based on 20 and 18, rather than 10 or 60, making it a challenge for many scholars to decipher.

WebExhibits: Calendars Through the Ages THE MAYAN CALENDAR

But even the term “calendar” itself is a little misleading, because what lay persons are actually referring to is a specific unit in this system known as the Long Count – a recurring period of approximately 5,125 years. It’s the current “great cycle” that ends in 2012 – not the calendar.

Each great cycle in the Long Count contains 13 baktuns, just as a year in our calendar contains 12 months. The winter solstice of 2012 will mark the end of this Long Count’s 13th baktun, and the beginning of the 14th. According to the Mayan calendar, that means we’ll be entering a new great cycle.

Why 5,125 years?

The Maya standardized the units of time for their calendar sometime in the 2nd century, when the early classical Mayan empire was at its height, in order to reflect the “revised history” of the empire, its creation, and its ruling dynasties. In other words, it was history in retrospect, because in the Mayan worldview, the cosmos revolved around their empire. They incorporated their vast knowledge of astronomy to bolster this worldview.

Many people have noticed that several ancient calendars begin close the same period – the Chinese, Hindu, and the biblical Hebrew calendar, among others. The end of the 3rd millennium BC also witnessed the start of construction on timekeeping monuments such as Stonehenge. This time in history marked a period immediately following dramatic environmental changes that turned the page on civilizations across the world. Apparently these changes were so significant that in some cases they marked that starting point of these early civilizations’ record of time.

The difference with the Mayan calendar, as with the Hindu, is that it does not begin with its current cycle; it actually records time much, much further back. And when one cycle ends it simply starts a new one, just as we would turn a century or a millennium. This misunderstanding is the partly the basis of the popular “Mayan doomsday hypothesis,” despite the fact that it doesn’t “end” in 2012 at all – it simply starts a new cycle of baktuns.

Apocalypse Soon? What the Maya calendar really tells us about 2012 and the end of time
by Anthony Aveni Archaeology.com

National Geographic: 2012 Countdown to Armageddon

Tulane University: The Sky is Not Falling

Wikipedia: 2012 Phenomenon

Even so, the 2012 Mayan doomsday prophecy is a popular topic these days, from old-fashioned diner gossip to New Age gurus to street prophets in the Bronx ranting about the end of the world.

Many people expect a planetary alignment within our solar system to work like some kind of cosmic combination lock, unleashing a wave of “higher energy” that will usher in a new era of existence (although, as historical and astronomical records can easily attest, planets line up all the time with no discernable effect on the earth — that is, outside of the hype generated by astrologers and wannabe mystics).

Yet others foresee in the Mayan calendar a dire prediction of a massive solar burst that will occur that fateful Christmas week, crippling our global infrastructure and invoking worldwide chaos.

But thinking that the start of a new cycle in the ancient Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012 means the end of our world is about as logical as a modern person dreading the Ides of March because the Roman Empire fell.

NatGeo Special Feature: Maya Rise and Fall
Saga of a civilization in three parts: The rise, the monumental splendor, and the collapse.

July 26, 1796: Birth of painter George Catlin

George Catlin was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, into the large family of a Revolutionary War veteran. His mother’s and grandmother’s accounts of their experiences as Indian captives may have sparked his early fascination with Native Americans that later became a lifelong passion. As a young man he abandoned a law career to accompany expeditions researching and documenting indigenous peoples throughout North and South America.

During the 1830s, he traveled extensively through the Midwest and the Great Plains, where he spent weeks and months at a time among the Indian nations of the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys – becoming one of the first Europeans to do so. The notes and drawings he compiled during this tour formed the basis of his collection of documentary paintings, which he later published in a two-volume work entitled Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians. He amassed a huge collection of artifacts and kept a detailed record of the customs and appearances of the Native American peoples he encountered. His total output consisted of more than 600 original paintings and over 700 drawings and sketches, making him one of the premier painters of Native Americana.

Catlin attempted unsuccessfully to sell his portfolio to the United States government as a public historical exhibit; eventually he sold his original works to a private collector. He spent much of his later career traveling, writing memoirs, and marketing his work in European tours. He died in New Jersey in 1872; his works were later donated to the Smithsonian Museum.

About His Work

George Catlin is certainly not a painter who became famous solely on account of his artistic skills. In technical terms, his works range from mediocre to downright primitive, as some critics have labeled it. What drove his career was an almost obsessive desire to portray Native Americans from across the continent in the most original setting possible.

Like Edward Curtis, he felt compelled to portray the appearance and customs of peoples whom he felt were a “vanishing race.” In some cases, this proved to be fateful; for example, his extensive work among the Mandan barely preceded a smallpox epidemic that reduced their number to a mere handful. As a result, Catlin’s depictions of the Mandan are valuable today because no artist after him was able to produce such a successful pictorial record of them.

Above: The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas; Below: Mandan Buffalo Dance

There is much controversy over the duplicity in Catlin’s portrayals of Indians. On one hand, his genuine appreciation of Native Americans fueled his eagerness to preserve their cultural record; on the other, he stooped to using white models in Indian apparel for some paintings, and staging performing acts similar to later wild west shows as part of his marketing scheme. Both of these contributed to spreading and reinforcing damaging stereotypes that are still prevalent today.

Right: Sha-kó-ka (“Mint”), a Mandan girl (1832)

The fact remains that his personal mentality in regards to American Indians was far ahead of his time. Whatever his motives in promoting his own work, and his means for marketing it, his profound respect for the cultures he encountered was remarkable, and would have still been uncommon a generation or more ahead of his time.

His confidence in the character of Indian society as a whole was boundless. “The very use of the word savage, as it is applied in its general sense, I am inclined to believe is an abuse of the word, and the people to whom it is applied,” Catlin asserted. Towards the end of his career, he remarked, “No Indian ever betrayed me, struck me with a blow, or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property.” And this at a time when Indians were still perceived largely as inferior humans predisposed toward aggression and brutality. (continue reading…)

July 15, 1606: Birth of Rembrandt van Rijn

As far as I can remember, Rembrandt was the first great artist I got to know. I recall being a toddler with a big book in my lap, gazing at Rembrandt’s deep, dark, thickly textured scenes and the garishly-dressed figures with penetrating stares, and thinking, “This must be the guy who invented painting.”

Belshazzar’s Feast, 1638

I wasn’t quite right on that score, but few artists – and few great masters – ever achieved the status that Rembrandt did. His talent was and still is phenomenal and his style completely unmistakable. The strikingly dramatic chiaroscuro that first caught my eye, and the oil paints slapped on in heavy layers make his work completely original. Despite this fact, his output is widely varied – ranging from the Renaissance style of his earlier pieces, to the photorealism of the Dutch and Flemish schools, to the strongly Impressionist flavor of his later works.

The interesting thing is, much of his phenomenal ability may have come from a form of disability – similar to Einstein’s abnormal brain anatomy. He is believed to have suffered from a syndrome known as “stereo blindness” which causes a person to see three-dimensional objects in two dimensions. Researchers believe that rather than being a handicap, this may have facilitated his ability to transfer images to paper or canvas – a process which normally inhibits the average person when first learning to draw. (continue reading…)

June 25, 1876: Battle of Little Big Horn

There’s not much about this event that hasn’t been said – both true and not so true. It has been studied more extensively, and become more entrenched in popular culture, than possibly any other encounter between Indians and US forces. Maybe that’s because it involved so many influential figures – General Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse – or maybe because it was so shocking to Americans when it occurred that it was instantly and permanently seared into the public memory. Whatever the reasons, our understanding of the conflict and the events surrounding it have changed dramatically through time. The technologies of forensic archaeology and ballistics have reconstructed the course of events on the Greasy Grass, from the movements on the field to weapons used and the nature of the combat.

Perhaps the biggest change in perception is the shift in bias. The role of the US military, and of Custer in particular, is no longer so glorified as it once was, and the Indians not so vilified. We’ve come to understand how the hunger for gold in the forbidden Black Hills motivated the Custer Expedition of 1876. And with more Native accounts coming to light – and being heard – our understanding of the events on the ground has become more objective and comprehensive.

These changes are relatively recent, however. For most of the 20th century, discussing the legitimacy of US Indian policies was strictly taboo – and so was challenging the objectivity of “official” accounts. (continue reading…)

June 12, 1616: Pocahontas, her husband John Rolfe, and their infant son Thomas arrive at the port of Plymouth, England.

Why Visit England?

John Rolfe was a young English colonist whose claim to fame was obtaining tobacco seeds of a marketable variety that would grow in the cooler mid-Atlantic colonies. At the time, England and Spain were locked in a power struggle for domination of trade and colonial expansion, and Spain’s rigid monopoly on the booming tobacco industry gave it a valuable edge. Rolfe’s tobacco enterprise in Virginia offered the English colonies a lucrative advantage, and his marriage to the daughter of the region’s most powerful sachem represented an alliance between colonists and Native Americans – a relationship that had already proven vital to the existence of the colony. So in a word, a visit to England with his wife and son (as well as around a dozen Powhatan emissaries) was a well-calculated move in a public relations strategy.

Reception

Pocahontas was received at the court of King James with all the pomp of a visiting dignitary. Her presence was widely acclaimed throughout London and she appeared at numerous high-profile social functions, where according to contemporaries she distinguished herself by her poise and dignity. Her meteoric career as a media darling was short-lived, however; she fell ill and died unexpectedly while preparing to embark on the return voyage to the American colony in 1617. But her legend continued to enthrall Europeans for centuries, as implied by the long tradition of paintings, songs, and literature she inspired.

Left: A hypothetical reenactment showing Pocahontas in Jacobean dress. (I’m not sure of the source of this photo but it’s a very interesting attempt at a historical reconstruction.)

It is arguable that the sensation caused by Pocahontas’s presence in England helped to spawn the legend of the “Indian princess” that subsequently became so entrenched in the American ethos. As European colonists emigrated to the Americas by the thousands, they desired to connect with their new homeland and forge a unique identity, and before long nearly every colonial family could trace back to some “prominent Indian maiden.” Even today this vestigial “Indian princess” ancestor still reflects the desire of white Americans to try to incorporate their national past onto a personal level.

Behind the Scenes

Still, Pocahontas’s celebrity image stood in stark contrast to the reality in which most Continental Europeans associated with the American Indian. By this point, Native Americans made up a significant, although lesser-known component of the European slave trade. Since the 1500s, European slavers plied the Atlantic seaboard, taking captive thousands of Indian men, women, and children, who were then shipped to England, Spain, and other countries and sold at slave markets. (A prime example is the story of Squanto, the well-known Pawtuxet who was sold into slavery in Spain before escaping to England.) Even more were enslaved elsewhere in the colonies on plantations, and later on, in colonial communities as a primary labor source. As part of European expansion in the colonies, Native Americans from New England, and from Pocahontas’s own homeland in the mid-Atlantic regions, were a major part of the slave trade well into the 18th century.

In this way, Pocahontas’s image both past and present has reflected the discrepancies in white perceptions and portrayals of Native culture, particularly in its interactions with European colonialism.

“Sedgeford Portrait”

See also:
More on the Sedgeford portrait, the Rolfe family, and portrayals of Pocahontas through the ages -
This Day in History: Birth of Thomas Rolfe

In an interesting footnote, a relic of Pocahontas’s visit to England may have survived. A pair of earrings shown in the so-called “Sedgeford Portrait” (which supposedly portrays Pocahontas with a somewhat older Thomas) has been passed down through the Rolfe family and now belong to the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. The earrings are made from a very rare and valuable variety of shell, in English silver settings. According to George Percy, a Virginia settler and author of a history of the colony, the earrings were set in England by his brother the Duke of Northumberland during Pocahontas’s 1616 visit. The earrings were on display at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and the Jamestown Exhibition of 1907.

General Links

National Geographic Interactive: Jamestown and the Powhatan

Historic Jamestowne: Official Website

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Partial transcription of a 1935 article on the history of the Sedgeford portrait and Pocahontas’s earrings

A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: The First Century by Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, Ph.D. (An e-book provided by the National Park Service)

Smithsonian Magazine: “Picturing Pocahontas”

May 28, 1888: Birth of Native American pan-athlete Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe was born near Prague, Oklahoma in the Sauk and Fox Nation. His Native name was Wa-tho-huk, or “Bright Path.” He is celebrated as one of the most gifted athletes who ever lived. His supreme athletic ability made him a legend in football, baseball, basketball, track, and several other sports. He was gold medalist in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, although his medals were stripped when it was publicized that he played on an under-league baseball team in school.

Although this devastated his professional career, Thorpe remained an icon for sportsmen around the world and in particular a champion for Native Americans. Throughout his life he battled racism towards Native Americans (before 1924 Indians did not even have US citizenship) and stereotyping. His Sauk and Fox and Potawatomi heritage was a source of great pride to him; he once said that it was more valuable to him than all his sports awards.

Thorpe died of a heart attack in 1953. His Olympic medals were reinstated posthumously by act of Congress in 1983.

Jim Thorpe: The Official Site

Library of Congress: This Day in History – Jim Thorpe Web Exhibit

May 21, 1471: Birth of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer

Left: Self-Portrait, Oil on lime panel (1500)

Durer is most famous for his signature work – the ubiquitous “Praying Hands.” The story has it that they are the hands of his brother, who gave up his chance at an art career in order to provide for Albrecht’s training. Praying Hands, brush drawing on blue primed paper (c. 1508)

Whether or not the story is apocryphal, Durer did go on to become possibly the most influential artist of the Northern Renaissance. Durer’s style is characterized by painstaking attention to detail and a focused, dramatic approach to composition. His fascinating portfolio betrays him as a man with an open mind and a curious nature.

He was a prolific artist, and unlike his Italian contemporary Leonardo da Vinci, left behind an incredibly diverse collection of artwork in a wide range of mediums and subjects. Well over a thousand of his paintings, drawings, and etchings have survived to the present day.

Left: Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman,
Oil on elm panel (1505)

Right:
Head Study of a Man Aged 93, Brush drawing on primed paper (1521)

Like da Vinci, however, his most significant accomplishment lay in his ability as a draftsman. Living in Germany in the wake of the printing revolution, he used the crafts of woodcutting and engraving to capitalize on the potential of art reproduction as an industry, making him one the most widely published and esteemed artists of the Renaissance.

Web Gallery of Art – Online Museum Database: Albrecht Durer Biography and Gallery

Below: Wing of a Roller, watercolor/gouache on vellum (1512)
Right: Two Squirrels (1492)
Below right: Young Hare, watercolor and gouache (1502)

May 7, 1763: Pontiac’s War begins with the siege of Fort Detroit by a coalition of Native American forces

The war is named for Pontiac, an Ottawa chief who led a coalition army in an all-out war to eradicate British influence from the Northwest frontier.

Background

The major result of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the changeover of colonial power in North America from French to British hands. The commander in chief of British forces in America was General Jeffrey Amherst, who like many of his peers viewed the Native Americans contemptuously, and this was reflected in the new British policies. Amherst put an end to ceremonial gift giving traditionally used between Indians and their allies, placed strict limits on the sale of weapons to Indians, and severely regulated trade between colonists and Indians.

The French, in contrast to the English, had been less interested in mass-colonization, and thought of Native Americans more as business colleagues. French trappers and fur traders often lived among the Indian nations who were their trade partners, marrying into or being adopted by Indian families; French settlements existed side by side with Native villages. Many of the nations of the “Old Northwest Territory,” comprising the highly desirable land around the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley, were formerly French allies and found the changes of this new regime alarming.

In addition, peoples of the Old Northwest such as the Ottawa, Miami, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibway, and Wyandot suffered greatly from the pressures of colonial encroachment. The effects of European diseases, the introduction of liquor through trade, and intertribal conflicts over resources all contributed to a breakdown of family groups and traditional culture. In this setting religious leaders such as Neolin, of the Lenape nation, actively promoted a campaign to shun European customs and embrace traditional values. As with other nativist movements, including those of Tenskwatawa and Wovoka, the religious message became a platform for political unity and eventually a resistance movement – often spearheaded by a charismatic military leader.

Click image for larger view. Image source: University of Omaha website

Legacy

The war ultimately lasted three years and was possibly the most violent and destructive conflict to take place between Native Americans and English colonists since King Philip’s War nearly a century earlier.

It resulted in the fall of several important forts, including Detroit and Michilimackinac, and the death, displacement, or capture of thousands of settlers throughout the Upper Midwest.

The most infamous event during this war was the British use of biological warfare against the Indians, by distributing smallpox-infected blankets among them. Exactly who was responsible for this policy is still controversial, although it is now believed that Amherst alone was not solely responsible.

Although the uprising failed to remove British power from the region, the British were unable to defeat the Native alliance, which led to the revision of many overbearing policies. The ratification of the Proclamation of 1763 barred English expansion into the Old Northwest and recognized the sovereignty of its Native American nations – a decision which outraged American colonists and became a contributing cause of the Revolution. When Americans began expansion into the Northwest Territory after the Revolution – disregarding the Proclamation Line – the British by and large kept the agreements made with Indian nations during Pontiac’s War. They later fought together as allies against the American expansion during the War of 1812. Pontiac’s War set the stage for later pan-Indian movements, such as those led by Tecumseh.

Right: Lord Jeffrey Amherst, 1765 (Wikipedia)

Links

Ohio History Central – related articles

We Shall Remain: Tecumseh’s Vision – (you can watch the American Experience docudrama online here)

The War That Made America – PBS mini-series on the French and Indian War

Michigan State University: History of the Northwest Territory

Wikipedia: Pontiac’s Rebellion

About.com European History: “Pontiac’s War”

April 15, 1452: Birth of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo was born near Florence, Italy and spent his career in various Italian city-states during the height of the Renaissance. He is the archetype of the “renaissance man” – inventor, engineer, architect, botanist, anatomist, mathematician, philosopher, musician, sculptor, and artist. His reputation has eclipsed even such contemporaries as Michelangelo and Raphael. And in recent times his legend has undergone something of a renaissance (no pun intended) thanks to Dan Brown.

Out of all his achievements, Leonardo is best remembered as a painter. The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are still cultural icons and arguably the most famous paintings in the world.

His work largely contributed to the development of modern painting, especially portraiture. Ironically, few of his paintings have survived (not much over a dozen) and many of these are not entirely original due to the practice of sub-contracting work to talented apprentices who exchanged acknowledgment for experience under a master’s guidance.

The bulk of Leonardo’s artistic work consists of his extensive drawings of many subjects, ranging from character studies to anatomy to landscapes.

Leonardo: Master Draftsman – Interactive exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Quotes:

“A good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man’s mind.”

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.”

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”

March 27, 1814: The Battle of Horseshoe Bend

By the time of the War of 1812, the new American republic was only beginning to expand into the Midwest and much of the deep South. Because Britain had lost its claim to American territory, it turned its support instead to the many Indian nations and confederacies – such as Tecumseh’s alliance – resisting American expansion. This forced nations like the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw – Britain’s former allies – to weigh the pros and cons of a strategic alliance with the Americans. The significant degree of cultural assimilation among these so-called “civilized tribes” led to deep rifts that divided their societies. The Creek nation of modern-day Georgia and Alabama effectively split into half over the issue of American support.

A splinter group of the Creeks known as the Red Sticks used hit-and-run tactics on the frontier as a violent expression of the resistance movement. After several successful military encounters throughout the mid-south, the Red Sticks faced a buildup of US militia led by up-and-coming Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s soldiers, and Indian allies under his command, met the Red Stick force at a bend of the Tallapoosa River in central Alabama in 1814. The result was a devastating loss to the Creek resistance, leaving most Red Sticks killed and the survivors fleeing to the Everglades with other Creek refugees.

Diorama at Horseshoe Bend Park Museum (Public domain)

Although the Red Sticks were only a faction of the Creek nation, the US government interpreted their actions as representing all Creeks. Their defeat in this battle meant that the entire Creek nation was forced to relinquish claim to their homelands and would eventually become subject to the mass removals of the 1830s. It also helped to launch the career of Andrew Jackson into one of the most powerful and ruthless opponents of Indians’ rights.

Chief Junaluska, a US-allied Cherokee who had saved Jackson’s life during the battle of Horseshoe Bend, later said, “If I had known that Jackson would drive us from our homes, I would have killed him at Horseshoe.”

See also:

Wikipedia: The Battle of Horseshoe Bend
Horseshoe Bend at Explore Southern History
Muskogee (Creek) Nation
We Shall Remain: Tecumseh’s Vision

FOOTNOTE: History Channel’s documentary on the life and career of Andrew Jackson airs this Friday, April 2 – check your local schedule. It gives an in-depth look at his early involvement in the Creek War and the War of 1812 (including the events at Horseshoe Bend) and his later role in the Indian Removals. Definitely worth seeing.

March 19, 1864: Birth of Western artist Charles Marion Russell

Raised in Missouri, Russell showed an early fascination with art and the West. He realized both at 16 when he left home to work on a Montana sheep ranch, where his obvious creative talent quickly drew attention. His early experiences in the northern Great Plains led to a prolific body of paintings depicting Western life and landscapes, including many portraits of the Piegan, Crow, Cree and other Indian nations before the onset of the reservation era.

Left: “A Cree Indian”
Above: “The Beauty Parlor”

By 1897 he opened a studio in Great Falls, Montana, where his career burgeoned under the shrewd management of his wife, Nancy. His works quickly became popular with collectors across the country, including celebrities such as Will Rogers. Like Rogers, he was renowned for his earthy wit and sincerity, and his deep attachment to the land he loved so much. He died in 1926 leaving thousands of paintings and sketches, bronze sculptures and carvings, and numerous literary works, all influential in memorializing the West in its Golden Age.

The Charles Marion Russell Museum
http://www.cmrussell.org/

Extensive online gallery of Russell’s paintings:
http://www.charlesmarionrussell.org/

“This is the only real American.
He fought and died for his country.
Today he has no vote
No country and is not a citizen
But history will not forget him.” (1914)

March 7, 1826: The first permanent photograph is taken by Nicephore Niepce

This 8 hour exposure, View from the Window at Le Gras, was made by French inventor Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833) using a camera obscura. Although no one person can claim to have invented photography, Niepce’s work laid the foundation for many important innovations by others such as Daguerre and Eastman.

The original plate was lost for many years, and now resides in the collection of University of Texas.
View the exhibit here:
University of Texas Exhibitions: The First Photograph

Read more about photography’s development in this Answers.com article:
Answers.com: “When was photography invented?”

The official website of the Niepce museum, featuring many of his inventions. (Note: this website is mechanically translated from French.)
www.nicephore-niepce.com