With No Vaccines and Antibiotics Thousands Died of Diphtheria
Vaccines and antibiotics have saved countless lives
Tales from
Pioneers and Soldiers
Memorial Cemetery
216th in a Series
By SUE HUNTER WEIR
More than 800 people buried in the Cemetery, almost 670 of them children, died from diphtheria, a disease that has for the most part disappeared. It was a particularly cruel disease, one that often claimed two or more children of a family’s children within days of each other. Parents stood by watching their children struggling to breathe. So-called doctors and healers claimed to have liniments, ointments, and blood purifiers that guaranteed a 100% chance of a cure but it wasn’t true. There were no antibiotics, no vaccinations, nothing in the way of a cure.
Diphtheria, a highly contagious disease, was spread through coughs, sneezes, and occasionally touch. People who lived in close quarters were particularly vulnerable. It was so frightening that the Mpls. City Health Department reported the number of new cases in the local papers every day.… Read the rest “With No Vaccines and Antibiotics Thousands Died of Diphtheria”
Even though you can’t see us, we never left
By MARCIE RENDON
From Bdote rise Wic’ahpi Oyate
From the sky to the waters, the Star people rise
From the birthplace of the people
38 plus 2, their spirits ride
September 22, 1862
Emancipation Proclamation
‘on this day…all people held as slaves
Shall be free…’
December 26, 1862
‘Anxious to not act with so much clemency…
nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty…
I ordered…’
38 plus 2 Dakota hung
From Mississippi Bluffs to Bde Maka Ska
Their warrior spirit’s ride
At Cloud Man’s Village, rest
Their people exiled
to the prairies of the west
38 plus 2, their spirits ride
East to west, now back again
In plain sight, in exile
Great-great-grandsons, soul weary, sit in Denny’s
brush black strands of hair
Off foreheads lined with prison worry
They don’t let on they can hear
38 plus 2, horse hooves clack
Journeying east to west
Great-great-granddaughters from Little Earth
Push great-great-great grandbaby in strollers across
the Martin Sabo Bridge, exiled, in plain sight,
Car-less, without a credit card for
An uber or a lyft, they stroll to shop at Hi-Lake
The breath of 38 plus 2, provide security
Riding on the wind, east to west
And back again
The city burns
Men and women warriors, exiled in plain sight, rise
Men and women sing
Spirit songs, the AIM song
38 plus 2, in the smoke you can see
From the sky to the waters the Star people rise
Look for a new book of poetry, ‘Anishinaabe Songs for the New Millennium’, in Spring, 2024 (University of Minnesota Press).
An Author’s Author
Something I Said
By DWIGHT HOBBES
Marcie Rendon is an author’s author. Among her accomplishments: Murder on the Red River, Girl Gone Missing, Sinister Graves (crime novels), SongCatcher (Minnesota History Theater), Pow Wow Summer, Farmer’s Market: Families Working Together (non-fiction) and Dreaming Into Being (poetry). She’s won a slew of awards, including McKnight Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award, Pinckley Prize for Debut Crime Fiction and WLA Children’s Book Award. Marcie Rendon gave the following interview to the alley.
Q: You’re producer/director/creator of ‘Free FryBread’ (Raving Native Productions) a mock telethon mercilessly satirizing America’s prison system and its treatment of Indigenous people. How’d that happen?
A: [It] came about as a result of me receiving the LIN (Leadership in Neighborhoods Award) back in the early 90s. The goal for me, for the award, was to create a viable Native American presence in the Twin Cities Theater community. I met with all the various artistic directors around the Cities. I did not want to create a ‘new’ theater or 501c3 – I wanted us, Native folks, to have access to the already existing theaters. Another part of the project was to gather Native folks who might be interested in theater [once] a month for a year, provide food and open the table for discussion.… Read the rest “An Author’s Author”