THE
March 2014 Vo l u m e I I I I s s u e I I I
Photograph Alien Glow by Sandra Sitzmann
Volume I II I ssue I II
In this Issue of The West Old & New ________________________ Modern Day Murder Mystery in the Orient? The conflicting circumstances in the death of Shane Todd, an American engineer from Montana, who allegedly committed suicide in Singapore in June 2012, is one of those quintessential mysteries that haunts the loved ones left behind and sometimes goes unsolved. Pg. 4
Mountain Men of the West Approximately 3,000 mountain men ranged the mountains between 1820 and 1840, the peak beaverharvesting period. Some of whom became well known characters on the western landscape. Pg. 7
David Thompson - Fur Trader, Surveyor and Map Maker A British-Canadian for known having mapped over 3.9 million square kilometers of North America in the late 1800s and described as the “greatest land geographer who ever lived. Pg. 9
A Natural Monster Lurks in the Wild Beauty of the West Yellowstone Park is the site of one of the world’s largest calderas, a super volcano that has been the subject of recent online articles because of its activity. Pg. 12
The National Bison Range In 1905, some wealthy non-Indians formed the American Bison Society in New York. In 1909, they convinced Congress to seize over 16,000 acres of the Flathead Reservation to form the National Bison Range. Pg. 11
How Hemp Become Illegal on August 2, 1937
Pg. 21
Biscuits & Gravy The iconic stick to your ribs breakfast made from meat, biscuits and gravy. Pg. 18
The West Old & New Published by Susan Faye Roberts P.O. Box 10 Hot Springs, Montana 59845 thewestoldandnew@gmail.com
The West Old & New Online Magazine Issuu.com & Joomag.com
Winter Full Moon photograph by S.F. Roberts The West Old & New Page 3
Modern Day Murder Mystery in the Orient?
The circumstances in the death of Shane Todd, an American engineer who allegedly committed suicide in Singapore in June 2012, is one of those quintessential mysteries that haunts the loved ones left behind and sometimes goes unsolved. Todd was working for the Institute for Micro Electronics (IME) a government run Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore. Todd was doing work that allegedly involved a collaborative project that had potential military implications. These allegations would be denied by both IME and Huawei, a major Chinese electronics and telecommunications company after his death. In February of 2012 Todd decided to leave his employer and gave 60 days notice. He was offered a job in America with Nuvotronics, a research firm. His last day of work at IME was in Friday, June 22nd. The 24th was a Sunday and his girl friend, Shirley Sarmiento went looking for him after not hearing from him all weekend. She found his door unlocked and discovered him hanging from the bathroom door. Shane Todd’s death was the subject of a single major investigative report in February 2013 by the Financial Times newspaper. The article carried the Todd family's claim that Singapore police had not properly investigated Dr Todd's death, and also contained their allegations that IME was collaborating on a project with potential military implication with Huawei, a major Chinese electronics and telecommunications company. His mother Mary and father Bruce went to the apartment in Singapore where their son had allegedly killed himself and upon entering had doubts about his suicide. The Todd family's suspicions were based on several different things which would all be considered circumstantial evidence. They alleged that police had failed to properly investigate the scene of the crime, and that the typed suicide notes ostensibly left by Dr Todd were out of character. The official autopsy report provided by the Singapore police stated that death was due to "asphyxia by hanging." His family took his body state side and stated they found bruises on his hands and a bump on his forehead, neither of which was mentioned in the autopsy report. They asked the mortuary to photograph Shane's body before burial, and then sent the photographs to Dr. Edward Adelstein, a county-level deputy medical examiner in Missouri. Adelstein's initial theory was that The West Old & New Page 4 Dr Todd's wounds did not support the suicide hypothesis. He stated it appeared that Shane was in-
volved in a fight with an attacker and died by "garroting". The original pathologist in Singapore dismissed Adelstein's conclusions, stating that the medical examiner in the states had not seen the body and had mistook the post-mortem pooling of blood in the hands for bruises. Further the description of the crime scene by the Singapore police did not fit what his mother Mary noted when she entered the apartment. There were no holes in the marble walls of the bathroom, and neither were there bolts or screws. The location of the toilet was also not where the police report indicated it was. The police were quoted as saying that Todd "drilled holes into his bathroom wall, bolted in a pulley, then slipped a black strap through the pulley and wrapped it around the toilet several times. He then tethered the strap to his neck and jumped from a chair." Dr David Camp a criminologist from Illinois analyzed the suicide note side-by-side with a collection of Shane’s other writings and told reporters that he held the opinion that the suicide note found by the police was not written by Todd. Dr Camp concluded that it wasn't written by an American and wasn't typical of a suicide because it was detached and unemotional, and did not match up with Todd's personality. He added that "everything about the alleged suicide note was different: different format, different cultural backgrounds, different wording, different sentence length, everything about it was completely different, which leads to his conclusion that it had been written by someone else.” Todd’s conversations with his parents prior to his death were anxious and he told them he was being asked to do things which made him uncomfortable, one of which he made allegory to was being asked to compromise American security. In one instance Shane told his mother that if she didn’t hear from every week, she was to contact the American Embassy. During this time period Todd turned to religion and was prescribed antidepressants to cope with stress. The Financial Times reported that Dr Todd's home "looked like a snapshot of a man in the middle of a move". Before his death, Dr Todd was in the middle of doing the laundry. He had packed boxes in preparation for his move back the United States, and had clean clothes folded on the couch. He was also apparently in the middle of trying to sell his furniture, and had been writing out price tags. His airline ticket back to the United States was on the table, but his laptop and phone had been taken away by the police. Employees at IME were reportedly told not to speak to reporters about Todd's death. However, one of Todd's colleagues did reach out to his parents, telling them "After collecting all information available, I cannot believe it is a suicide case. Actually, no one believes it...I truly hope that [the] FBI can be involved and perform further investigation.” A grassroots petition was started on the White House website asking President Obama to direct the Department of Justice to thoroughly investigate, under the federal witness murder statute regarding whether Todd was killed to keep him from talking to U.S. authorities about his work with the Chinese. Todd's parents took their concerns and questions to the US Embassy in Singapore, to the Police and to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and also asked whether the FBI could join the investigation, which would require an agreement between the Singaporean and US governments. Todd's parents pushed for a congressional investigation into their son's death. The Financial Times investigative report hit the news and the Todd case was soon all over the major news media. Max Baucus, a Democratic Montana senator, and Frank Wolf, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Virginia, met with the parents. Baucus brought the case to the attention of the White House. The Senate Finance Committee, which Max Baucus chairs, subsequently raised the issue surrounding Shane's death in face-to-face meetings with Singapore's U.S. Embassy staffers and Singaporean officials. The FBI offered assistance to the Singapore authorities, but were initially refused. Then on February 28th 2013, the Singapore authorities asked for assistance on two specific matters. One was in regards to an external hard drive that contained some files related to a possible cooperation between Huawei and IME. The Todd’s stated they had found a hard disk in Shane's room. They hired a private forensic investigator to investigate its contents. The investigator noted that the disk was accessed 3 days after Shane's death, and an opened copy of a file related to his work was then deleted. The Todd’s refused to hand over it over to the Singapore Police directly and initially the FBI as well, stating: "It doesn't make sense for us to give information to the FBI until they're given full access to the investigation." Allegedly the Todd family was also not cooperating with regard to Shane Todd’s psychiatric medical records after from 2002. After the Todd’s turned the hard disk over to the FBI, the FBI issued a report on May 9th supporting the Singapore Police's claims that the hard disk was accessed by the police who were checking for evidence, and not some unknown third party. They also stated that the Todd’s did not find it in Shane’s apartment but had it handed to them in the presence of U.S. Embassy staff. In May of 2013 a two week Coroner's Inquiry was conducted in Singapore. Evidence presented showed multiple visits had been made to suicide websites from Todd's laptop. The fact that he was prescribed anti-depressants was also submitted. The finding by the Singapore government's forensic pathologist was that there were no injuries to Todd's body which indicated he was garroted or had put up a struggle. This evidence was corroborated by two independent Chief Medical Examiners from the U.S. No hacking attempts on Todd's laptop to upload suicide notes were found. On July 8, the coroner released the verdict which ruled the death as "asphyxia due to hanging". Following the conclusion of the coroner's inquiry into Dr Todd's death, the US embassy in Singapore issued a statement saying that the inquiry was "comprehensive, fair and transparent. An inquiry was launched by Singaporean authorities into the cause of Dr Todd's death on 13 May 2013. The Todd family was allowed to post relevant questions, and appointed five lawyers from three Singapore Law Firms. The West Old & New Page 5
Timeline of the Coroner‘s Inquiry in Singapore on Shane Todd’s Death May 2013 ___________________________________________________________ 13 May, during the first day of the inquiry, the government's lawyer, Tai Wei Shyong, presented evidence that Todd's laptop revealed he had accessed suicide-related websites 19 times between 10 March 2012 and 23 May 2012. Todd had earlier consulted a psychiatrist and had been prescribed anti-depressants. The state counsel presented a report by the FBI that verifying that the hard drive allegedly found by the Todd’s was the same one which the Singapore police had taken from the apartment and subsequently given to the Todds after they did not find suspicious material in it. 16 May, the 3rd day of the inquest, Senior consultant forensic pathologist Wee Keng Poh of the Health Sciences Authority, who supervised the post-mortem examination, refuted the October claim by Adelstein that Todd had been garroted and reiterated that evidence on the case showed that Shade Todd's death was caused by hanging. This conclusion was supported by two U.S.-based medial examiners who had reviewed the autopsy reports: David Fowler, chief medical examiner for the State of Maryland, and Valerie Josephine Rao, chief medical examiner of District 4 and part of District 3, Jacksonville, Florida. 20 May The deputy executive director of research at IME, Patrick Lo was asked if he tried to influence the testimonies given by his employees, based on a recording made during a briefing he gave them. Lo said his objective was to inform them of their obligation to tell the truth to the police, as well as the company's obligation of confidentiality to its clients, including Huawei. On the Todd's claims that Todd had been ordered to hand copy gallium nitride (GaN) recipes when Todd was sent to a US-based vendor for training, Lo said that "such a formula would be "useless", because even one for a simple LED light would have some 6,000 entries, and it would not have been possible to hand copy without inaccuracies.". Lo also testfied that IME does not conduct any classified military research. Employees of IME also testified that although there were meetings between their company and Huawei, including one where Todd and senior employees of Huawei were involved, nothing had been finalized. 21st May, the 6th day of the inquest, Adelstein, who told the inquiry that he wasn't a qualified forensic pathologist, retracted his previous claim that Todd was garroted after reviewing new medical evidence, and speculated instead that Todd could have been disabled with a taser then killed with an arm lock. His conclusions were based on reviewing photos of Todd's body and other circumstantial evidence. He also asserted that Todd was "a very dangerous person" to IME and Huawei Technologies, that "they had him killed" and well-trained "assassins" may have been involved, without offering evidence to support his claim. Todd's parents walked out of the inquest after complaining about what they called the introduction of a surprise witness— Luis Alejandro Andro Montes, who was an ex-colleague of Todd. Although the witness was named on May 13, day 1 of the inquiry, Montes had only arrived in Singapore on May 18, his written testimony was only taken on May 20 and subsequently made known to the courts and the Todd’s on the morning of 21 May . Mary Todd told reporters that they did not believe the testimony, and wanted time to investigate. Todd's father said “The prosecution brings forth witnesses at the last minute and we have no chance to question it. Basically we actually have lost faith in the process". The Todd’s also claimed that neither they nor Todd's girlfriend Shirley Sarmiento recognized Luis. 22 May, chief medical examiners Dr David Fowler (Maryland) and Dr Valerie Josephine Rao (Florida) testified as independent experts and rejected Adelstein's murder theory from the day before. Fowler said that the marks on Todd's hands identified by Adelstein as bruises from a fight were actually "the most classical example of post-mortem lividities" in hanging cases and declared that "the cause of death was asphyxia due to hanging". Dr Rao agreed that there were no injuries indicative of a struggle and cited suicide as the cause of death. The Todd’s discharged their lawyers, saying that they “no longer have confidence in the transparency and fairness of the system,” and will no longer participate in the inquiry, and "will return to the U.S. as soon as possible and turn to the court of public opinion for judgment" on their belief that Todd was murdered. 23 May, Montes testified that he had last seen Shane on 23 June 2012, which contradicted the Todd’s claims that Shane had been killed before that date. He also contradicted the Todd’s assertion that they did not know him, testifying that he had met them in their hotel room days after Shane's death, in the presence of other close friends of Shane's. 28 May Inquiry Ends.
All of the books advertised in this edition are FREE for downloading between March 2nd and March 8th, 2014. For the promo code email:
thewestoldandnew@gmail.com The West Old & New Page 6
Mountain Men Of the Old West A mountain man was a trapper and explorer who lived in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through the 1880s. They were instrumental in opening up the various Emigrant Trails allowing Americans in the east to settle the new territories of the far west by organized wagon trains traveling over roads explored and in many cases, physically improved by the mountain men and the big fur companies originally to serve the mule train based inland fur trade. They arose in a natural geographic and economic expansion driven by the lucrative earnings available in the North American fur trade, in the wake of the various 1806–07 published accounts of the Lewis and Clark expeditions' (1803–1806) findings about the Rockies and the (ownership-disputed) Oregon Country where they flourished economically for over three decades. Two new international treaties in early 1846 and early 1848 officially settled new western coastal territories on the United States and spurred a large upsurge in migration largely ending the days of mountain men making a good living by fur trapping. This was partially because the fur industry was failing due to reduced demand and over trapping. With the silk trade and quick collapse of the North American beaver-based fur trade in the later 1830s–1840s, many of the mountain men settled into jobs as Army Scouts, wagon train guides and settlers through the lands which they had helped open up. Others, like William Sublette, opened up forttrading posts along the Oregon Trail to service the remnant fur trade and the settlers heading west. Approximately 3,000 mountain men ranged the mountains between 1820 and 1840, the peak beaver-harvesting period. While there were many free trappers, most mountain men were employed by major fur companies. The life of a company man was almost militarized. The men had mess groups, hunted and trapped in brigades and always reported to the head of the trapping party. This man was called a "boosway", a bastardization of the French term bourgeoisie. He was the leader of the brigade and the head trader. Donald Mackenzie, representing the North West Company, held a Rendezvous in the Boise River Valley in 1819. The rendezvous system was later implemented by William Henry Ashley of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, whose company representatives would haul supplies to specific mountain locations in the spring, engage in trading with trappers, and bring pelts back to communities on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in the fall. Ashley sold his business to the outfit of Jackson and Sublette. He continued to earn revenue by selling that firm their supplies. This system of rendezvous with trappers continued when other firms, particularly the American Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor, entered the field. The annual rendezvous was often held at Horse Creek on the Green River, now called the Upper Green River Rendezvous Site, near present-day Pinedale, Wyoming. By the mid-1830s, it attracted 450-500 men annually, essentially all the American trappers and traders working in the Rockies, as well as numerous Native Americans. In the late 1830s, the Canadian-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) instituted a policy to destroy the American fur trade. The HBC's annual Snake River Expedition was transformed to a trading enterprise. Beginning in 1834, it visited the American Rendezvous to buy furs at low prices. The HBC was able to offer manufactured trade goods at prices far below that with which American fur companies could compete. Combined The West Old & New Page 7 with a decline in demand for and supply of beaver, by 1840 the HBC had effectively destroyed the
American system. The last rendezvous was held in 1840. During the same years, fashion in Europe shifted away from the formerly popular beaver hats; at the same time, the animal had become over hunted. After achieving an American monopoly by 1830, Astor got out of the fur business before its decline. By 1841 the American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company were in ruins. By 1846 only some 50 American trappers still worked in the Snake River country, compared to 500-600 in 1826. Soon after the strategic victory by the HBC, the Snake River route was used for emigrants as the Oregon Trail, which brought a new form of competition. Former trappers earned money as guides or hunters for the emigrant parties. A second fur trading and supply center grew up in Taos in what is today New Mexico. This trade attracted numerous French Americans from Louisiana and some French Canadian trappers, in addition to Anglo-Americans. Some New Mexican residents also pursued the beaver trade, as Mexican citizens initially had some legal advantages. Trappers and traders in the Southwest covered territory that was generally inaccessible to the large fur companies. It included parts of New Mexico, Nevada, California and central and southern Utah. After the decline in beaver and the fur trade, with some emigrants to the West using the Mormon Trail, former trappers found work as guides and hunters for the traveling parties. After the short-lived American Pacific Fur Company was sold, the British controlled the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, under first the North West Company and then the Hudson's Bay Company. To prevent American fur traders from competing, the British companies adopted a policy of destroying fur resources west of the Rocky Mountains, especially in the upper Snake River country. After the Hudson's Bay Company took over operations in the Pacific Northwest in 1821, the Snake River country was rapidly trapped out. This halted American expansion into the region. After 1825 few American trappers worked west of the Rocky Mountains, and those who did generally found it unprofitable. According to historian Richard Mackie, this policy of the Hudson's Bay Company forced American trappers to remain in the Rocky Mountains, which gave rise to the term "mountain men". The stereotypical mountain man has been depicted as dressed in buckskin and a coonskin cap, sporting bushy facial hair and carrying a Hawken rifle and Bowie knife, commonly referred to as a "scalpin' knife." They have been romanticized as honorable men with their own chivalrous code, loners who would help those in need but who had found their home in the wild. Their typical dress combined woolen hats and cloaks with serviceable Indian-style leather breeches and shirts. Mountain men often wore moccasins, but generally carried a pair of heavy boots for rough terrain. Each mountain man also carried basic gear, which could include arms, powder horns and a shot pouch, knives and hatchets, canteens, cooking utensils, and supplies of tobacco, coffee, salt, and pemmican. Items (other than shooting supplies) that needed to be "at hand" were carried in a "possibles" bag. Horses or mules were essential, in sufficient number for a riding horse for each man and at least one for carrying supplies and furs. In the summer, mountain men searched for fur animals, but they waited until autumn to set their trap lines. They sometimes worked in groups. Several men would trap, others would hunt for game, and one would remain in camp to guard the camp and be a cook. Since there were always Indians in the areas where they trapped, trappers had to deal with each tribe or band separately. Some tribes were friendly, while others were hostile. Mountain men traded with friendly tribes and exchanged information. Hostile tribes were avoided when possible.
Famous & Well Known Mountain Men George Drouillard (1774/75?–1810). Hunter, interpreter, sign-talker on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He went on trapping in today's Wyoming and Montana after the expedition, working for Manuel Lisa Missouri Fur Company he had signed on with in 1807. Drouillard was savagely killed in May 1810 by Blackfeet Indians in the Three Forks area. Jim Beckwourth (1800–1866) born into slavery, came to Missouri with his parents and was freed by his father. He started working with the Ashley expedition, signed on with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and became a well-known mountain man. He lived with the Crow for years and became a war chief. He was the only African American in the West to have his life story The West Old & New Page 8
published (1856). He was credited with the discovery of Beckwourth Pass in the Sierra Nevada in 1850, and improved a Native American path to create what became known as the Beckwourth Trail through the mountains to Marysville, California. Jim Bridger (1804–1881) came west in 1822 at the age of 17, as a member of Ashley's Hundred exploring the Upper Missouri drainage. He was among the first non-natives to see the geysers and other natural wonders of the Yellowstone region. He is also considered one of the first men of European descent, along with Étienne Provost, to see the Great Salt Lake. Because of its salinity, he first believed it to be an arm of the Pacific Ocean. In 1830, Bridger purchased shares in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He established Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming. He was also well known as a teller of tall tales. John Colter (1774–1812), one of the first mountain men, was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He later became the first European man to enter Yellowstone National Park, and to see what is now Jackson Hole and the Teton Mountain Range. His description of the geothermal activity there seemed so outrageous to some that the area was mockingly referred to as Colter's Hell. Colter's narrow escape following capture by Blackfeet, leaving him naked and alone in the wilderness, became a legend known as "Colter's Run". Kit Carson (1809–1868) achieved notability for his later exploits, but he got his start and gained some recognition as a trapper. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. He was hired by John C. Fremont as a guide, and led 'the Pathfinder' through much of California, Oregon and the Great Basin area. He achieved national fame through Fremont. Stories of his life as a mountain man turned him into a frontier hero-figure: the prototypical mountain man of his time. John “Liver-Eating” Johnson (1824–1900) was one of the more notable latter-day mountain men. Johnson worked in Wyoming and Montana, trapping for beaver, buffalo and wolf hides. Unaffiliated with a company, Johnson bargained independently to get prices for his hides. Elements of his story were portrayed in the film Jeremiah Johnson. Dennis McLelland wrote a biography about him. Joseph Lafayette "Joe" Meek (1810–1875) was a trapper, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A pioneer involved in the fur trade before settling in the Tualatin Valley, Meek would play a prominent role at the Champoeg Meetings of 1843 where he was elected as a sheriff. Later he served in the Provisional Legislature of Oregon before being selected as the United States Marshal for the Oregon Territory. Jedediah Smith (1799 - circa 1831) was a hunter, trapper, and fur trader whose explorations were significant in opening the American West to settlement by Europeans and Americans. Smith is considered the first man of European descent to cross the future state of Nevada; the first to traverse Utah from north to south and from west to east; and the first American to enter California by an overland route. He was also first to scale the High Sierra and explore the area from San Diego to the banks of the Columbia River. He was a successful businessman and a full partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company after the departure of Ashley. Smith had notable facial scarring from a grizzly bear attack. To the left a photograph of mountain man Seth Kinman.
David Thompson Known as “Koo-Koo Sint, the Stargazer David Thompson was a British-Canadian fur trader, surveyor and map-maker. He was known to the native people as “Koo-Koo-Sint,” the Stargazer. He is known for the fact that he mapped over 3.9 million square kilometers of North America and is described as the “greatest land geographer who ever lived. He was born in Westminster to Welsh migrants, David and Ann Thompson. When he was two his father died. The financial hardship caused by this resulted din his placement in the Grey Coat Hospital, a school for the disadvantaged. Thompson graduated to the Grey Coat mathematical school and was introduced to basic navigation skills. At the age of 14, in 1784, he entered a seven-year apprenticeship with the Hudson’s Bay Company. He set sail in May of that year from England and arrived in Churchill, (now Manitoba, Canada). He was put to work copying the personal papers of the governor of Fort Churchill. He spent one year in York Factory and then was a clerk at Cumberland House and SouthBranch House before arriving at Manchester House in 1787. In 1788 he seriously fractured his leg, which forced him to spend two winters in recovery at Cumberland House. During this time he refined his mathematical, astronomical and surveying skills under the tutelage of Hudson’s Bay Company surveyor Philip Turnor. Also during this period of time he lost sight in his right eye. In 1790 as his apprenticeship neared its end he made the unusual request for a set of surveying tools in place of the typical parting gift of fine clothes offered by the company to those completing their indenture. He received The West Old & New Page 9 both, and entered the employment of the company as a fur trader. In 1792 he completed his first signifi-
cant survey, mapping a route to Lake Athabasca which straddles the Alberta/ Saskatchewan border. In recognition of his map-making skills, the company promoted him to surveyor in 1794. Thompson continued working for the Hudson's Bay Company until May 23, 1797 when, frustrated with the Hudson's Bay Company's policies, he left and walked 80 miles in the snow to enter the employ of the competition, the North West Company where he continued to work as a fur trader and surveyor. His defection without providing the customary one-year notice was not well received by his former employers. However, joining the North West Company allowed Thompson to pursue his interest in surveying and work on mapping the interior of what was to become Canada. In 1797, Thompson was sent south by his employers to survey part of the Canada-U.S. boundary along the water routes from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods to satisfy unresolved questions of territory arising from the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States. By 1798 Thompson had completed a survey of 6,750 km (4,190 mi) from Grand Portage, through Lake Winnipeg, to the headwaters of the Assiniboine and Mississippi Rivers, as well as two sides of Lake Superior. In 1798, the company sent him to Red Deer Lake, located in present-day Alberta to establish a trading post. In 1804, at the annual meeting of the North West Company Thompson was made a full partner of the company and spent the next few seasons based there managing the fur trading operations but still finding time to expand his surveys of the waterways around Lake Superior. However, a decision was made at the 1806 company meeting to send Thompson back out into the interior. Concern over the American-backed expedition of Lewis and Clark prompted the North West Company to charge Thompson with the task of finding a route to the Pacific in order to open up the lucrative trading territories of the Pacific Northwest. David Thompson was the first European to navigate the full length of the Columbia River. During Thompson's 1811 voyage down the Columbia River he camped at the junction with the Snake River on July 9, 1811, and erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site. David Thompson is known in Montana for having created a trading post in Thompson Falls, called Salish House. The building’s are gone now but every year the town of Thompson Falls holds David Thompson Days in July. It is a three day gathering of people interested in the lifestyle of the fur traders, mountain man, and adventurer of the northwest.
Winter Hay in Camas Prairie, Montana photograph by S.F. Roberts The West Old & New Page 10
The National Bison Range Moise, Montana Established in 1908 the National Bison Range is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. It is the oldest Wildlife Refuge in the nation. The 18,700 – acre range consists of native Palouse Prairie, forests, wetlands and streams. Elk, deer, pronghorn, black bear, coyote and ground squirrels share the area with 350 to 500 bison. A drive thru park there are several different roads that can be taken. The Prairie Drive/West Loop is a five mile long gravel road that travels through the flats and is open all year long. The Red Sleep Mountain Drive is a nineteen mile long one-way road which gains 2,000 feet with switchbacks. This drive is open from mid-May to late October. The Winter Drive is a ten mile gravel road through the flats and along Mission Creek. It is open from October to mid-May. There is a day use and picnic area near Mission Creek with tables, grills, water and accessible toilets. A covered pavilion is also available. There are no garbage cans, so you must pack out what you bring in. The bison on this range have a high level of genetic diversity. This herd is closed from outside sources to retain the high genetic quality. The relationship with the bison was the heart of the traditional way of life for the Salish and Pend d’Oreille people. “Going to buffalo” was part of the traditional cycle of life for these people. They developed a wide-ranging, complex trail system throughout their vast territories to the buffalo grounds. Often the river corridors were used by these Indigenous tribes for traveling to the buffalo. The indigenous people used all parts of the animal and wasted nothing. The meat of the bison would be dried, pounded and packed into parfleches. The hooves were boiled for food, and the intestines and organs baked. The neck hide of the bulls would be formed over stumps and used for buckets or made into strong ropes after being cut into long strips and pounded with stones. The hair of the bulls would be braided and used for halters and bridles on horses. The bones were chopped and pounded with the bone marrow extracted. The horns were used as drinking cups, and later for storing gun powder. The robes of the animal were highly prized for clothing and bedding. The hides after tanning were sewn together to make lodges or tipis. Dried buffalo chips were used in fires. The elders say that in the second to last year of the traditional buffalo hunts, hunters were able to kill only 27 buffalo. The following year that number was seven. Pend d’Oreille elders some years earlier had said a man named Atatice (Peregrine Falcon Robe) had proposed that the people herd some of the orphaned calves back west of the mountains to begin a herd of bison on the Flathead Reservation. This change in the traditional way of life was not acceptable to the elders at the time and Atatice withdrew his proposal. In the late 1870s the chiefs seeing a lose of their bison allowed Atatice’s son (Little Peregrine Falcon Robe) to carry out the idea. About six calves survived the journey west. Some years later this herd was sold to Michel Pablo and Charles Allard and a buffalo range was set up along the Flathead River where the herd grew to hundreds of animals. In 1896 Allard died. In 1901 a portion of his herd was sold to the Conrad family in Kalispell. Other portions of the Allard herd were sold to Howard Eaton, a friend of Charlie Russell’s. Eaton later sold his animals to Yellowstone Park. In 1904 Congress passed the Flathead Allotment Act which cut the reservation land into smaller parcels and led to the opening of the reservation for white homesteading. With the advent of homesteading Michel Pablo rounded up his herd and sold them to the Canadian government. By 1908 some 695 buffalo had been rounded up and shipped by train to Alberta. In 1905, some wealthy non-Indians formed the American Bison Society in New York. In 1909, they convinced Congress to seize over 16,000 acres of the Flathead Reservation to form the National Bison Range. In 1994 the American Indian Self-Determination Act was passed and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes crafted a proposal for management of the range. The tribe is considered one of the most accomplished and highly trained Natural Resource Departments in the U.S. and they manage the reserve in accordance with federal standards combining it with their ancient cultural values and the modern techniques and scientific management tools. By 1854 Buffalo herds were thinning in the west. In the 1870’s the market for buffalo robe coats and buffalo tongue soared and white hunters began the wholesale slaughter of the animals. At that time the estimated number for bison still roaming the west was fifty million, in 1875 a mere one million were left. Ten years later in 1885 the last great herd of buffalo in the U.S. was exterminated. Photograph of shed horn sculpture in the parking lot of the National Bison Range by S.F. Roberts The West Old & New Page 11
A Natural Monster Lurks in the Wild Beauty of the West Yellowstone Parks Caldera Volcano
I grew up believing that I lived in one of the safest places in the world, aside from the threat of grizzly bears and mountain lions. However, in 2006 I discovered that I was actually living next to one of nature’s most powerful volcano’s, a caldera locate in Yellowstone Park. The caldera located in Yellowstone National Park in the United States is often referred to as a super volcano. The caldera is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, in which the vast majority of the park is contained. The major features of the caldera measure about 34 by 45 miles (55 by 72 km). The caldera formed during the last of three supereruptions over the past 2.1 million years. Volcanism at Yellowstone is relatively recent with calderas that were created during large eruptions that took place 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago. The calderas lie over a hotspot where light, hot, molten rock from the mantle rises toward the surface. While the Yellowstone hotspot is now under the Yellowstone Plateau, it previously helped create the eastern Snake River Plain (to the west of Yellowstone) through a series of huge volcanic eruptions. The hotspot appears to move across terrain in the east-northeast direction, but in fact the hotspot is much deeper than terrain and remains stationary while the North American Plate moves west-southwest over it. Over the past 18 million years or so, this hotspot has generated a succession of violent eruptions and less violent floods of basaltic lava. Together these eruptions have helped create the eastern part of the Snake River Plain from a once-mountainous region. At least a dozen of these eruptions were so massive that they are classified as supereruptions. Volcanic eruptions sometimes empty their stores of magma so swiftly that they cause the overlying land to collapse into the emptied magma chamber, forming a geographic depression called a caldera. The oldest identified caldera remnant straddles the border near McDermitt, Nevada-Oregon, although there are volcaniclastic piles and arcuate faults that define caldera complexes more than 60 km (37 mi) in diameter in the Carmacks Group of southwestcentral Yukon, Canada, which is interpreted to have formed 70 million years ago by the Yellowstone hotspot. Progressively younger caldera remnants, most grouped in several overlapping volcanic fields, extend from the Nevada-Oregon border through the eastern Snake River Plain and terminate in the Yellowstone Plateau. One such caldera, the Bruneau-Jarbidge caldera in southern Idaho, was formed between 10 and 12 million years ago, and the event dropped ash to a depth of one foot (30 cm) 1,000 miles (1,600 km) away in northeastern Nebraska and killed large herds of rhinoceros, camel, and other animals at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park. The USGS estimates there are one or two major caldera-forming eruptions and 100 or so lava extruding eruptions per million years, and "several to many" steam eruptions per century. The loosely defined term 'supervolcano' has been used to describe volcanic fields that produce exceptionally large volcanic eruptions. Thus defined, the Yellowstone Supervolcano is the volcanic field which produced the latest three supereruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot; it also produced one additional smaller eruption, thereby creating West Thumb Lake 174,000 years ago. The three super eruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago, and produced the 2,500 times as much ash as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The next biggest supereruption formed the Yellowstone Caldera The West Old & New Page 12
(640,000 years ago). The volcanic eruptions, as well as the continuing geothermal activity, are a result of a great cove of magma located below the caldera's surface. The magma in this cove contains gases that are kept dissolved only by the immense pressure that the magma is under. If the pressure is released to a sufficient degree by some geological shift, then some of the gases bubble out and cause the magma to expand. This can cause a runaway reaction. If the expansion results in further relief of pressure, for example, by blowing crust material off the top of the chamber, the result is a very large gas explosion. According to the analysis of earthquake data in 2013, the magma chamber is 80 km (50 mi) long and 20 km (12 mi) wide, and is shaped like 4,000 km3 (960 cu mi) underground mass, of which 6–8% is filled with molten rock. Due to the volcanic and tectonic nature of the region, the Yellowstone Caldera experiences between 1000 and 2000 measurable earthquakes a year. Most are relatively minor, measuring a magnitude of 3 or weaker. Occasionally, numerous earthquakes are detected in a relatively short period of time, an event known as an earthquake swarm. In 1985, more than 3000 earthquakes were measured over several months. More than 70 smaller swarms have been detected between 1983 and 2008. The USGS states that these swarms could be caused more by slips on pre-existing faults than by movements of magma or hydrothermal fluids. In December 2008, continuing into January 2009, more than 500 quakes were detected under the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake over a seven day span, with the largest registering a magnitude of 3.9. The most recent swarm started in January 2010 after the Haiti earthquake and before the Chile earthquake. With 1620 small earthquakes between January 17, 2010 and February 1, 2010, this swarm was the second largest ever recorded in the Yellowstone Caldera. The largest of these shocks was a magnitude 3.8 on January 21, 2010 at 11:16 PM MST. This swarm reached the background levels by 21 February. The last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Lava Creek eruption which happened nearly 640,000 years ago, ejected approximately 240 cubic miles (1,000 km3) of rock, dust and volcanic ash into the sky. Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which measures on average 0.6 inches (1.5 cm) yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure. The upward movement of the Yellowstone caldera floor between 2004 and 2008 — almost 3 inches (7.6 cm) each year — was more than three times greater than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923. From mid-summer 2004 through midsummer 2008, the land surface within the caldera moved upward as much as 8 inches (20 cm) at the White Lake GPS station. By the end of 2009, the uplift had slowed significantly and appeared to have stopped. In January 2010, the USGS stated that "uplift of the Yellowstone Caldera has slowed significantly" and that uplift continues but at a slower pace. The U.S. Geological Survey, University of Utah and National Park Service scientists with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory maintain that they "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future. Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable." This conclusion was reiterated in December 2013 in the aftermath of the publication of a study by University of Utah scientists finding that the "size of the magma body beneath Yellowstone is significantly larger than had been thought." Other media reports were more hyperbolic in their coverage. A study published in GSA Today identified three fault zones that future eruptions are most likely to be centered on. Two of those areas are associated with lava flows aged 174,000–70,000 years, and the third area is a focus of present-day seismicity. Studies and analysis may indicate that the greater hazard comes from hydrothermal activity which occurs independently of volcanic activity. Over 20 large craters have been produced in the past 14,000 years, resulting in such features as Mary Bay, Turbid Lake, and Indian Pond which was created in an eruption about 1300 BC. In a 2003 report, USGS researchers proposed that an earthquake may have displaced more than 77 million cubic feet (2,200,000 m3) (576,000,000 US gallons) of water in Yellowstone Lake, creating colossal waves that unsealed a capped geothermal system leading into the hydrothermal explosion that formed Mary Bay. Further research shows that earthquakes from great distances do reach and have effects upon the activities at Yellowstone, such as the 1992 7.3 magnitude Landers earthquake in California’s Mojave The West Old & New Page 13
Excerpt from Ida Hawkins, P.I. EIGHT DAYS “You can’t do this,” she screamed kicking her legs against him. “You loved me. You can’t kill someone you love.” Frankie locked her against his chest dragging her forward through the brushes toward the river. “You’re going to kill me and then go home to her?” Ida screamed. “It’s that easy, Frankie?” Ida aimed several wild kicks in succession for the most sensitive area on his body. He knew what she was doing and fought to stay out of the way but she got lucky and landed one that made him let go. As he bent over in a deep groan of pain Ida flew through the bushes behind him for open ground. Ida had once been fast on her feet but the desk job was showing itself, her legs raw from movement and her lungs searching for breath. It didn’t take Frankie long to catch up with her. This time he grabbed both her hands bucking them high behind her back. Ida fell on her knees moaning in pain and stopped fighting. “Please, don’t do this Frankie,” Ida begged. “You know I loved you. You can’t do this to me. You killed me once already.” Frankie pulled the woman up in front of him and began dragging her to the edge of the river pushing her in front of him into the water. The icy cold river creeping up the legs of her jeans and taking her breath away as it climbed higher and higher from her knees to her waist. The water at the level of Ida’s chest, Frankie stopped moving. Ida slid her feet over the slimy rocks of river looking into the murky green grave.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/290343
An Anthology of short stories written around the Montana landscape. Excerpt from Silenced Lieutenant Dunswood brushed a piece of lint from the sleeve of his dress blues. It was late afternoon and the fall sun beat down on his dark blue Calvary hat. He watched a dirt devil tossing a tumble weed across the empty prairie outside the open gates of the fort. With luck the stage would be on time, and he leaned forward scanning the horizon and the dirt tracks leading to civilization over the hills to the east. Beads of sweat gathered along his neck under the collar of the starched white shirt. He’d risen early to bath and shave a week or more of stubble from his chin. He’d swept the cabin one last time and straightened the calico quilt on the bed before leaving. He wanted everything to be perfect for Sara. They had only been married six months before he’d been called out west, leaving her at a Fort in Mississippi. Six months of letters lay in a box under the bed, six months of waiting for the right time to bring her west and into his waiting arms. He flicked small beads of sweat from his brow; today he would hold her slender body next to his. He watched a red tail hawk ride the wind marking dust from the east, a winding haze of flying dirt under the hooves of alone rider. Dunswood squinted for a better view. It was news to him that a scout would be sent out in front of the stage. Dunswood knew something was wrong when the rider’s feet hit the ground seconds after he pulled his horse up, words were unnecessary. A cold chill climbing his spine to clutch his belly and making his skin crawl, something was terribly wrong. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291041
Desert that triggered a swarm of quakes from more than 800 miles (1,300 km) away and the 2002 7.9 magnitude Denali fault earthquake 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away in Alaska that altered the activity of many geysers and hot springs for several months afterward. The source of the Yellowstone hotspot is controversial. Some geoscientists hypothesize that the Yellowstone hotspot is the effect of an interaction between local conditions in the lithosphere and upper mantle convection. Others suggest a deep mantle origin or mantle plume. Part of the controversy is due to the relatively sudden appearance of the hotspot in the geologic record. Additionally, the Columbia Basalt flows appeared at the same approximate time, causing speculation about their origin. Yellowstone National Park is a thermally active area with an extensive system of hot springs, fumaroles, geysers, and mudpots. There are also several hydrothermal explosion craters, which are not to be confused with calderas, which are collapse features. Eight of these hydrothermal explosion craters are in hydrothermally cemented glacial deposits, and two are in Pleistocene ash-flow. Each is surrounded by a rim composed of debris derived from the crater, 10 to 30 yards high. More than 20 large hydrothermal explosions have occurred at Yellowstone, approximately one every 700 years. The temperature of the magma reservoir below Yellowstone is believed to exceed 800° Celsius causing the heating of rocks in the region. If so, the average heat flow supplied by convection currents is 30 times greater than anywhere in the Rocky Mountains. Snowmelt and rainfall seep into the ground at a rapid rate and can conduct enough heat to raise the temperature of ground water to almost boiling. The phenomena of geyser basins are the product of hot ground water rising close to the surface, and occasionally bubbling through. Water temperatures of 238° Celsius at 332 meters have been recorded at Norris Geyser Basin. Pocket Basin was originally an ice-dammed lake over a hydrothermal system. Melting ice during the last glacial period caused the lake to rapidly drain, causing a sudden change in pressure triggering a massive hydrothermal explosion. Recent activity has stirred the interest of the media with the most recent being a release of helium 4 gas near the end of February, and a week prior to that a string of small earthquakes.
Excerpt from Madam Delacroix’s Diary A thin patter of rain pelted the dark sheet of night driven by a gusting wind that banged an unsecured window shutter into the weathered side of the cottage. The lights were on inside, every pane brilliant with a glow that reached beyond them touching the edges of Madame’s flower beds tucked along the outside edge of the building. The nether light striking the angular stalks of dead flowers bent in full seed over a wetted earth. The late fall wind had scatter them and a periphery of color would sprout in early spring, but not as usual, under the vigilant gaze of Madame, for Madame was dead. Detective Henri Bernard stood in the bedroom of Colette Delacriox at the end of the bed and beside him the young Officer Petit. “She is beautiful even in death,” the younger man said removing his hat and dropping his eyes to the floor. Detective Bernard glancing sideways at Petit, stated in a dry voice, “Your reference to her beauty would have irritated her.” “But she’s dead,” Petit said putting his hat back on. “That she is,” Detective Bernard sighed walking around the bed to look down at the deceased woman. She lay inclined across a spray of thick pillows, a burgundy shawl of soft material entangled about her still shoulders. Her head inclined to the side the patterned fabric of the pillow case framing her in profile. Her hair falling in chaotic black curls laced with silver threads against the paltry skin of high cheek bones. She looked as if she’d taken a moment to doze, her chin tucked against the slope of her left shoulder as it curved toward an arm embedded in the delicate lace of a nightgown. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/364041 The West Old & New Page 15
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In 1910 the Flathead Indian Reservation was opened to homesteaders. Read real stories about life on the high mountain prairie.
One man who came to the valley gave voice to the changes the Dawes Act leveled on the Native people. Known as an Indian trader Fred E. Peeso came to Camas Hot Springs in 1908, “The whites have come in and robbed the Indians of their lands and other possessions, killed off their game and destroyed their means of livelihood, made it impossible to get a square deal in the courts. Not satisfied with that, they have tried by every means to defame their character and give them a bad name.” The white settlers said little about the Native people in their oral history that was originally compiled in “Settlers and Sodbusters,” as a Bicentennial Project of the Hot Springs Historical Society in June 1976, the majority of their stories are about how they got here, how they built homes, and how they survived. This book is a compilation of their stories compiled in to chapters on the landscape that defined their lives.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291038
The best of The West Old & New. Stories from the first year of publication of the magazine as a quarterly in 2012. The first year of the West was a hard copy only. Read about the people and places of Montana.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/290345
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Biscuits & Gravy Biscuits and gravy is a popular breakfast dish in the United States and definitely on many menus in restaurants, cafes and bakeries in Montana. It consists of soft dough biscuits covered in either sawmill or sausage gravy. Sawmill gravy comes from the Southern cuisine and is a gravy used on chicken fried steak as well. It is essentially a Béchamel sauce, with the roux being made of meat drippings and flour. Milk or cream is added and thickened by the roux; once prepared, black pepper and bits of mild sausage or chicken liver. For biscuits and gravy meat and the drippings of cooked pork sausage are used, but any ground meat can be substituted such as hamburger or bacon. The gravy is often flavored with black pepper. American English and British English use the word "biscuit" to refer to two distinctly different modern foods. Early hard biscuits (North American: cookies) were derived from a twice-baked bread, whereas the North American biscuit is similar to a savoury European scone. Early European settlers in the United States brought with them a simpler and easy style of cooking, most often based on meat, ground wheat and warmed with gravy. After the first pigs were carried from England to Jamestown, Virginia in 1608, they became popular as a home-grown edible animal. The meal emerged as a distinct regional dish after the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), when stocks of food stuffs were in short supply.
Basic Biscuit Recipe 2 cups flour ½ cup butter or vegetable shortening 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Milk, cream or water Mix dry ingredients together, add shortening breaking it up into small pieces and covering them in flour until they are small. Add enough milk, cream or water to make a soft sticky dough. Turn out onto a counter and make the dough about a half inch or better in height. Cut out your biscuits. Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown.
Sausage Gravy 1 Pound ground sausage 3 Tablespoons Flour Milk Salt & Pepper Cook the ground sausage in a pan until done, breaking it into small chunks. Add the flour and stir until all of the meat is covered with the flour. Add milk half way in the pan and stir until it thickens. Add salt an pepper to taste. The West Old & New Page 18
An eclectic collection of short stories
Excerpt from “Another Person’s Shoes” Delbert Alexander Theiser could vaguely remember enjoying the winter’s night with a glass of brandy, in front of the fire place listening to classical music, the sound covering the high pitched fever of the rapid fire tunes from the kid’s gaming machines in the family room below. His lovely wife of twenty odd years, Myrna, was sitting across from him with a book of word puzzles, a cup of hot tea on the table beside her and her thin blonde hair already in curlers, the edges of a heavy terry robe open and tucked around gray sweat pants. He remembered wondering how long it had been since he’d seen her in anything even remotely sexy, and he remembered crawling between the flannel sheets of the large King size bed after looking out the window into a light snow falling over the dense forest that hid his rambling ranch house from the neighbors. And that was the last thing he remembered before falling into the bliss of sleep.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291039
He woke to a buzzing sound, the soft purr of flimsy wings hovering near an ear that brought the instinctive slap of a hand. Confused he sat up. His body was smaller, thin and undernourished, with skin the color of coffee before you add the cream. He choked as he swallowed, the unfamiliar limbs reaching out to feel along thin arms. He suddenly was viewing slender legs lying across dirty sheets that smelled unwashed. He had endured a few nightmares in the spread of his fifty some years but this one was unequaled in detail. The bed was ramshackle and held together by tied rope and a window lay open, the flies and mosquitoes passing in and out of the room like it was Grand Central Station. The West Old & New Page 19
These photographs were taken at the Boiling River in Yellowstone Park in the fall of 2007. It was October, and a rainbow bridged the Gardner River as we walked out after soaking at a spot in the river where the extreme cold of the Gardner is infused with hot geothermal water. The Boiling River is located on the 46th Parallel a few miles from the entrance to the park, from Gardener, Montana. It is about a half mile walk into the site where you can soak and the bottom of the river is very rocky. The trick is to find a spot where the cold an hot water mix in the right proportions for comfort. Photographs by S.F. Roberts The West Old & New Page 20
How Hemp Become Illegal on August 2, 1937 By S.F. Roberts As a society we have become monster consumers, as evidenced by the amount of garbage mounting in land fills. We allow big money to continue the rape and pillage of the earth for oil, gas, and coal to keep the lamps burning, the television sets on, the computers on line, and supply plastics for our every need. We also have allowed a travesty by our government concerning one of the most valuable sustainable crops available to mankind, hemp. As far back as the 1600s hemp farming was popular and actually mandatory in the colonies. The first American Hemp Law was passed in the Jamestown Colony in Virginia making it mandatory for all farmers to grow hemp seed. At the time if you didn’t grow hemp during times of shortage you could be hauled off to jail between the years of 1763-1767. Hemp was even used as a currency. The word hemp comes from Old English hoenep and is defined as a soft, durable fibre that is cultivated from plants in the Cannabis genus. Unfortunately it also has been lumped together with its kissing cousin, also a cannabis genus, marijuana from the Spanish word marihuana. The industrial variety grown for its fibre is cannabis sativa L. subsp. sativa va. Sativa, while the one primarily used for recreational and medicinal purposes is a Cannabis C. sativa subsp. indica. The primary difference between the plants is the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol or (THC) secreted in the epidermal hairs of the plant. Hemp only has minute amounts of this psychoactive drug, not enough for any physical or psychological effect. Hemp contains below .3% THC while marijuana can contain anywhere from 6 to 20%. The illegality of this highly sustainable crop began August 2, 1937 when the Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn introduced a bill called The Marijuana Tax Act. The bill ordered American farmers to obtain a license from the Treasury Department to grow industrial hemp and made it a Federal crime for Americans to possess, give away or sell it without paying a 1% tax. What began as a tax ended up becoming an issue over marihuana (not a typo) when Drug Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics ( later the DEA) introduced the bill into committee hearings for review and made it analogous with the genus used as a drug. The bill was not debated and took only 92 seconds before it became Federal Law. In 1972 Richard Nixon dismissed a panel of experts, the Shafer Commission which recommended immediate decriminalization of marijuana and declared war on cannabis. Today hemp remains at the top of the DEA’s list of dangerous drugs, next to heroin. Hemp is one of the fastest grown biomasses known. As a crop it is very environmentally friendly and requires few if any pesticides or herbicides. It is one of the earliest known domesticated plants in the world. Our country still does not distinguish between marijuana and the cannabis used for commercial and industrial purposes. The world leader in producing hemp is China with smaller production in Europe, Chile, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Over 30 countries produce industrial hemp including Australia, Austria, Canada, Great Britain, France, Russia and Spain. Uruguay approved a hemp production project for the second half of 2010. Hemp can be used to make an estimated 50,000 products including cordage, everlasting clothing, and numerous food products for humans and animals, wood products such as plywood and building materials, car bodies, biofuels for vehicles, and the list goes on and on. It can be used to make plastic like materials, and makes a sturdy paper. The bible was printed on hemp paper at one time and the original U.S. flag is made from hemp material. A renewable house was built in the UK from hemp-based materials in 2009, and a US made hemp-based house was completed in Asheville, North Carolina in 2010. Hemp because of its height and density is a very effective weed killer. It grows at a rapid rate and is cultivated in a variety of soils. Montana passed Senate Bill No. 261 in 2001 which was introduced by C. Christianens, E. Clark, Eggers, Ekergren, G. Forrester, Glaser, Hargrove, Harrington, Jergeson, Mangan, Masolo, McNutt, Nelson, Ripley, Roush, Schmidt, Tash, Tester, Toole, J. Whitaker, and Jacobson. We are one of the seven states in the United States which legalized the growing of hemp. Under Montana Code Annotated 80-18-103 an individual can grow industrial hemp for commercial purposes by purchasing a license. The applicant must give a legal description of the land to be used and if a first time applicant must have their finger prints taken, and allow a nationwide criminal history check with the FBI. The license is good for one year. The licensing requirements of this code do not apply to employees of the agricultural experiment station or the Montana state University of Bozeman extension service involved in research and extension-related activities. A web search produced no information showing that they have been experimenting with growing hemp. It wasn’t until 2009 that the first license was procured, by a woman living in Bozeman. Nothing is known whether she grew a crop or not. She was alleged to have leased acreage in Ennis, Montana. Presently America is one of the largest consumers of hemp products exported from other countries. Currently the number of jobs the American economy needs to create in order to return to the pre-recession unemployment rate of 5% is 11 million. Industrial hemp makes sense. The West Old & New Page 21
Here is your chance to read stories of life in contemporary Montana published on my blog in 2013. Read essays about wakes, happy hour, animals, bull riders, life in general and the characters in a small town on a western Indian reservation.
Download it today! https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/362785
The West Old & New Page 22
Life on the Hi-Line of Montana in the 1960s In the 1960s we were living the American dream on the high prairie of Montana. Life in general was still based on survival, but already the future was imprinting this landscape. In the Sunburst/Kevin area of Montana giant mechanical grasshoppers dotted the hills, their heavy metal legs pumping rich crude out of the shale of the hi-line like synchronized clocks. I never asked or even considered who owned those oil fields or where it went. They were part of my existence as much as their small natural counter parts were. Life on the hi-line was constant work. We horded the goods produced from one season to get through the next. We hauled our own water and put it in a cistern. It came from nature, and was sweet and clean. We planted a huge garden of beans, peas and carrots. We had half an acre of potatoes. Early spring was messy, the usual wished for commodity of water now rampant and flooding everywhere. Water standing in the fields was good, it meant the ground would soak it up and then give it back to the roots of the crops. Late spring brought planting, then summer weeding and watering, and then the fall harvest. Winter was vicious, coming on the wind first as frigid temperatures and then blowing snow. The carpet of prairie in moon light glistened like precious gems. A beautiful silence came as well, as if everything was in a long sleep. Life on the hi-line was an abundance of nature, our survival built around its rhythms and the movement of the water, wind and sunlight. Our basement a holding area for all the jars canned at the end of summer, the kitchen becoming a processing plant in fall for meat. White packages labeled and stacked into the freezer. Whole days were relegated to specific tasks. There were beans to be picked, carrots and potatoes to dig up and put in burlap sack. The basement pantry would be the grocery store in winter. My mother was a sewer, she could make a coat from an old blanket, and it would be done with flair. We passed a jar around while watching television at night, churning fresh butter. We lived in the middle of nature, dependent and subsisting off of the abundance and sometimes the lack there of. Life was constant planning. I never considered what wonderful food I was given, until now. Vitamins were in the food, our meat was not adulterated with penicillin, or growth hormones. I watched the entire process, assisted in that process and appreciated it. Sculpture and photograph by Alan Howes The West Old & New Page 23
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