OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Save Wounded Knee
By JOSEPH BRINGS PLENTY
Published: April 11, 2013
WOUNDED KNEE, S.D.
THE Lakota Sioux word “takini” means “to die and come back” but is usually translated more simply as “survivor.” It is a sacred word long associated with the killing of scores of unarmed Lakota men, women and children by soldiers of the United States Army’s Seventh Cavalry in the winter of 1890.
Wounded Knee was the so-called final battle of America’s war on its Native peoples. But what happened was hardly a battle. It was a massacre.
A band of several hundred Lakota led by Big Foot, a chief of the Mnicoujou Sioux, was intercepted and detained by troops as they made their way from the Cheyenne River Reservation to Pine Ridge for supplies and safety. After a night of drinking, the bluecoats were disarming warriors the next morning when a shot went off. Soldiers opened fire with their Hotchkiss machine guns. At least 150 but perhaps as many as 300 or more Lakota died.
Our fight to survive as a people continues today, a struggle to preserve not just our culture and our language but also our history and our land. Though I now live on the western reaches of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, I grew up in Pine Ridge, among my Oglala kin just a few miles from Wounded Knee. One member of my family survived the killing; others died.
The killing ground stirs great emotion in all of our people — memories of bodies frozen into twisted shapes, of those who were hunted down and murdered as they fled, and of those who escaped in bitter cold across wind-swept plains. These stories have been handed down to us and live within us.
One story I remember vividly was told to me when I was about 8 by a tribal elder, a very old woman whose mother had survived the bloodshed as a child. The old woman’s mother told her how her own mother had gathered her up when the bullets started flying. Just then, a young horse warrior galloped past and took the child up in his arms to help her escape. As she looked back, she saw her mother shot down, her chest torn open by bullets. She told her daughter that she remembered tasting the salt in her tears. The old woman told me all this after I had knocked over a saltshaker. Salt still reminded her of her mother.
There are many such stories. The spiritual power of the place explains why members of the American Indian Movement took it over in 1973 to call the nation’s attention to the economic and cultural injustices against our Native brothers and sisters.
Now, our heritage is in danger of becoming a real-estate transaction, another parcel of what once was our land auctioned off to the highest bidder. The cries of our murdered people still echo off the barren hills — the cries we remember in our hearts every day of our lives. But they may finally be drowned out by bulldozers and the ka-ching of commerce read more from NYTimes. com
>>> UPDATE April 11, 2013 < << The buffets have been replaced with off-the-menu ordering, although Friday thru Sunday the CAFE features a Lobster Buffet from 5:00pm until 10:00pm. Also, Ardore’s has undergone a name-change. The new name is, BISTRO 321 CHOPHOUSE. Visit the LasVegasBuffetClub’s Colorado Casino’s page on THE RESERVE at the bottom of this post. This information supersedes any of the following.
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Hotel/Casino THE RESERVE in Central City, Colorado, formerly Fortune Valley Hotel Casino, keeps on getting better and better, in fact it’s becoming a Gilpin County favorite.
The Reserve sent me another room comp + a voucher for a trifle-bit of gambling/food cash, I jumped at the opportunity.
This hotel (resplendent with it’s rock & roll theme, 60s-70s vintage rock-posters, signed R&R memorabilia including guitars, records and microphones – also, crazy motorcycles, including a replica of the Easy Rider “Captain America Bike,” a Go Cart with a V8 auto-engine, and a long-legged-blonde-Pamela Anderson-look-alike-cocktail-waitress) is becoming yet more attractive by expanding the hours of the “fine-dining” restaurant ARDORE to seven days (ARDORE used to only be open on the weekends,) and converting the buffet to a real all-you-can-eat buffet. These are two excellent changes that are helping fine-tune this roadhouse-get-a-way in the mountains.
ARDORE - A TUSCAN STEAKHOUSE AND WINE EXPERIENCE
Upon arriving, walking through the casino, we gave ARDORE the once over and decided to come back later in the evening to try out this restaurant since it was the first time we found it open (we usually go up during the week and ARDORE previously only opened weekends.) “Ardore, meaning passion in Italian is Reserve’s own gourmet restaurant, featuring steakhouse style dishes with an Italian and Tuscan flare.” After checking in, settling in to the room to have a cocktail and catch up on the news, we went over to the AMERISTAR on Richman to play with the small gaming “stipend” they sent me. I did all-right, coming close to acquiring enough points to get a free-buffet (20 out of 25 points,) however we were still set on trying out ARDORE so I cashed in, dead-even, and we drove back up the hill to Central City.
ARDORE is fronted by glass and bottles and bottles (500) of stacked wine from THE RESERVE’S owner Tom Celani’s, “Celani Family Vineyards.” On weekends the restaurant offers up-scale Tuscan-style fine dining and also does business as: ARDORE’S BISTRO every day from 11:30 am to 4:00 pm for Lunch and re-opens for Dinner Monday thru Thursday at 4:30 p.m. serving lighter meals including salads, bistro-appetizers, and entrees including: a 1/2 lb. Certified Angus Beef Burger “Served on our House Roll with Tomato, Lettuce & Onion, and choice of Fries or Chips 7.99, Topped with your choice of Bleu, Swiss, Cheddar or American Cheese 8.99,” Avocado Salmon (13.99,) Merlot Meatloaf (12.99,) a couple of pasta dishes including: Rock ‘n’ Rollin’ Bolognese – “House Made Bolognese of Marinara, Ground Beef, Celery, Carrot, Onion over Angel Hair Pasta 11.99” and more see the complete menu at THE RESERVE’S website.
Weekends, they jack up the dinner menu a notch – menu-choices as well as prices. For instance the weekend dinner-menu offers: among the ANTIPASTI – APPETIZERS: there’s CALAMARI “Fried Calamari above a creamy Red Pepper emulsion and Micro greens – 7.00,” and entrees such as: LAMB SHANK “Braised Lamb Shank, marinated and baked in our house Marinara served over Risotto Primavera,” as well as an ARDORE RIBEYE “12 oz. House Butchered Ribeye, Our Signature Zip sauce, Asiago cheese, Truffle Rosemary Potatoes and Sautéed Spinach,” each $21.00. There’s also a BOLOGNESE Pasta “House made Bolognese consisting of celery, onion, carrot, Marinara and ground beef over your choice of Fettuccini or Angel Hair 16.00.” View the complete weekend dinner-menu at ARDORE’S website.
Being a Cobb Salad guy I ordered, guess what, The Cobb Salad. It was beautifully presented in a cool, white, oval deep-dish/plate that was made in such a manner that it tilts at an angle to your face, you gotta see it. All of the ingredients were “right” (including Grilled Chicken, Bacon, Avocado, Tomatoes, Hard-Boiled Egg and Crumbled Blue Cheese,) fresh and artistically placed in neat little groupings around the plate over a bed of Romaine Lettuce. The salad is offered with “either a Side of Bleu Cheese or Balsamic Vinaigrette 9.99.” It’s one of the better Cobbs I’ve had. That includes the Cobb at the (long-gone) Stardust in Las Vegas as well as that tasty honey-mustard Cobb at BOOMTOWN before it became SILVERTON on Blue Diamond Road in South Las Vegas. Yea I know – I’m just a Western/Southwestern dude, I don’t travel much out of the West, haven’t found a need to… Can’t get enough of that desert. Regarding the salad dressing, I would prefer a creamier (less tart/vinegary) Bleu Cheese. ARDORE’S might be just the place to dine before the (Central City) Opera. If other food choices aren’t up to par, don’t blame me, remember I’ve only had the Cobb Salad, so far…
The Chef's Kitchen Buffet
Regarding the little breakfast buffet ($3.99 or $1.99 with coupon) in The Chef’s Kitchen at THE RESERVE, it is now (to repeat) a true, all-you-can-eat buffet, and now one serves oneself at the buffet. Used to be that the buffeters’ plates were plated by a server behind the glass: they would ask you what you want and then you would have to point and say “some of this and some of that.” That’s over now, you load up your plate with exactly what you want and then come back for more – good move Reserve. Breakfast Buffet choices include: Western Scrambled Eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, pancakes, French Toast, fruit, bagels, sweet-rolls, cereals, biscuits and gravy, coffee and more. Orange juice and other drinks are extra. [This may be wrong, last time we went up Orange Juice was available in a dispenser next to the water dispenser.] This little Breakfast Buffet is my “hands-down” favorite in the area. It’s small-town intimate and though the food choices are minimal there’s enough for me. $1.99 with the coupon ain’t a bad price either.
There is also an all-you-can-eat, Lunch Buffet, (Monday – Friday) for $8.99 and a Champagne Brunch for $10.99 on Saturday and Sunday; and there’s a Dinner Buffet (7-days) for $16.99 in The Chef’s Kitchen. Call for hours and more buffet information.
If you’re an East-coast foodie/food-snob, you’ll find the buffet choices minimal. For the little mountain-town of Central City, they’re doing just fine, thank you. The restaurant experience is all-around, small-town friendly. The staff at the buffet are friendly, upbeat and helpful. The gracious, Debbi will make sure your visit to the buffet was satisfactory, at breakfast for sure. Perhaps she works other shifts as well.
Inside Market Street (the Reserve’s restaurant area,) besides the buffet line, there’s a coffee-bistro called Java Express “a little sandwich shop” that offers several Panini sandwiches for around $5.99. They also serve salads for about $4-bucks, beverages and Pizza slices ($1.99 or $.99 w/players card) and whole pies for $5.99 and $10.99, or Calzones $7.99. Beer is available here by the glass or pitcher. Take-out your order and head back to your room or have a seat at one of several, nearby tables.
From The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Full Moon Video
Each month, we will explain the traditional names of the full Moon along with some fascinating Moon facts. In this video, learn about the Full Worm Moon, Moon illusion, and when and why the Moon rides high or rides low. Click below to watch video.
Historically, the Native Americans who lived in the area that is now the northern and eastern United States kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to the recurring full Moons.
Each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred.
The Full Worm Moon was given its name by the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. At the time of this spring Moon, the ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins. This is also known as the Sap Moon, as it marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins.
OUT WEST
From Western Washington University:
American Indians gave names to each of the full moons to keep track of the passing year. The names are associated with the entire month until the next full moon occurs. Since a lunar month averages 29 days, the dates of the moons change from year to year. Here [is the information from one tribe.]
By Barnini Chakraborty Published March 13, 2013 FoxNews.com
While the Transportation Department warns that the sequester will lead to cutbacks causing snarled lines at airports across America, the agency is still considering a massive $5.5 billion government gamble on a high-speed train from suburban California to Vegas.
The total cost of the XpressWest project is $6.9 billion, with 80 percent potentially being fronted by the federal government. It would create a train that runs from Victorville, Calif., to Las Vegas and, if green-lighted, would be the largest loan of its type issued in America.
But there are severe roadblocks, which skeptical lawmakers are once again drawing attention to at a time when the government is supposed to be looking for savings.
“We are deeply troubled by the prospects of subsidizing another costly, wasteful and risky high-speed rail project, particularly when our nation is facing a debt crisis that threatens the well-being of the current and future generations of Americans,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on March 6.
The so-called train-of-the-future’s success depends on sunny ridership projections, which would be four times the ridership of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor Acela, says Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Wendell Cox. The chances of that ridership being achieved aren’t likely. Last year, Amtrak clocked its best year ever with more than 11.4 million passengers on that route. Read more…
When I was a kid, I reveled in the Circus Side-Shows, which by the way, were beginning to disappear by then, probably due to political correctness. There is just something about seeing people outside of the common norms, either in appearance or by something they do. I actually only saw one or two of these side-shows when the circus was in town. This was enough to whet my appetite so I did what I could to access stories and movies about the original side-shows which featured legitimate “oddities of nature” as well as fake side-show acts. There was usually a bearded-lady, maybe a very thin woman with a small head billed as the chicken lady, I believe it was. Others were sword-swallowers, strong men, the very tall or very short. There were little rooms with showcases of two-headed snakes or other animal anomalies; There were shrunken-heads, and small babies or animals in large liquid filled bottles. All of this displayed in a somewhat hush-hush, behind closed door manner. There was usually an underlying air of sexual titillation. And more overtly there was every young-boys fantasy, The Peepshow. The side-shows were usually situated in small tents just outside of the main circus tent.
In 1932 there was the underground classic FREAKS by Todd Browning.
Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film about sideshow performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival (funfair) performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins’ 1923 short story “Spurs”. Director Browning took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow “freaks,” rather than using costumes and makeup read more…
Now we have Todd Ray. Todd Ray (aka T-Ray) is an American music producer and stars in the AMC reality show “Freakshow.” He owns and operates the Venice Beach Freakshow in Venice Beach, CA.
Freakshow is the real-deal – with George Bell, the tallest American, and the Mistress of Mayhem, Brianna Belladonna “Hanging from hooks – that’s normal to us,” “Creature” creates a body that is original and strays away from the normal pattern; Meet Morgue, one of the performers who swallows stuff – looking every bit the rock star, and Find out what makes Murrugun The Mystic tick. Amazing Ali: Be amazed by LA’s Littlest Lady. Inside Freakshow you’ll see doubled headed animals, alive and in jars, the bearded lady. And you’ll see Ray’s gorgeous daughter, Asia Ray who’s learning to do stuff. Many stars will emerge from this show.
Freakshow is Calice Cooper, Dufus Osbourne and the rest of the Hollywood spook-rockers all rolled into to one group of real “special” folk.
CAROLYN LEONHART seems to be the only credited backup singer on this YouTube version of the song “Cousin Dupree.” That’s OK with me since I was writing this post about her specifically. I did several searches on the other B.U. singers on this song without results. I know they’re there, I see at least four ladies in the video.
This woman seems to be the embodiment of THE MUSIC. She seems to have captured the essence of what it is to be an essential part of that music. I can’t seem to be able articulate exactly what it is, so just watch. She usually stands in the middle. NO WAIT… there is nothing cooler than a Steely Dan back-up singer; that’s it, an ideal American girl…
OOH AH – OOH EE
From the pages of WIKI:
“Cousin Dupree.” is the first single from Steely Dan’s 2000 album Two Against Nature. The song describes the desire a young man (Dupree) has for his attractive cousin. In 2001 the song won a Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal.”
By the way, a musician I was in a studio with in the early 1970s played on this album. That would be the Hit-Maker, First-Call Sideman (for over forty-years,) Dean Parks
The Dan has reached Audio Nirvana, if you will, several times over the years. One amazing moment happens, courtesy of Dean Parks, on the Royal Scam track \”Haitian Divorce\” which features a Talkbox to produce a chicken clucking sound. Dean Parks plays through that talk-box. NIRVANA! On this recording the magic happens around 03:51 with Fagen and “the girls” trading vocal licks with the way-tasty: OOH AH – OOH EE! HOW ABOUT A KISS FOR YOUR COUSIN DUPREE!
Carolyn Leonhart was born in New York City on 10 July 1971, daughter of bassist and composer Jay Leonhart and vocalist Donna Leonhart. She was exposed to music from a very early age, attending her father’s gigs where she saw him accompany famous singers such as Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormé and Peggy Lee. Leonhart sang on television commercials as a young child. She attended The High School of Music & Art in New York City, and for four years sang in the school’s Gospel Choir. While at school, she performed in the TV show “It’s Showtime At The Apollo”. At home she would spend hours singing while her father and brother played jazz standards. She won the Lena Horne High School Jazz Vocalist competition while in her senior year.
Leonhart attended the University of Rochester, obtaining a degree in Comparative Religion. While at university she remained deeply involved in music, singing with bands at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. She recorded two solos with the Toshiba EMI label, and in her senior year was named Best College Jazz Vocalist by Downbeat Magazine.
Leonhart returned to New York and in 1994 began singing in jazz clubs. That year she competed in the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition, coming third. A critic said her choice of the songs “Nobody Else but Me” and “Day Dream” was daring, but she needed greater control and more focused delivery. In the following years Leonhart performed with a variety of musicians including The Real Live Show, a hip-hop group, and Wax Poetic. The Wax Poetic project combines electronica, trip hop, funk, and jazz. In 1998 she recorded an album with the Swiss Percussion Ensemble, a group of four classical percussionists whose instruments were mainly made of glass. In 2000, Leonhart released the album Steal The Moon, a collaborative project with pianist and composer Rob Bargad. Since then she began performing regularly with her own group at the Smoke Jazz Club in New York City, at Steamers and The Vic in California, and at other clubs on the east coast read more…
by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid jump into the Animas river in southern Colorado.
This is a reprint from FrontPageMagazine.com
By: David Yeagley
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, February 07, 2005
Robert Redford and George Soros surely make one of the oddest couples in American pop culture. For most of us, Redford’s all-American good looks evoke images of the dashing outlaw Harry Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid. By contrast, Soros’ gaunt visage, thousand-yard stare, thick Central European accent, levitating gray hair and megalomaniacal pronouncements weirdly echo those of the “Dr. Strangelove” character in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War classic.
The differences between these two men are only skin deep, however. Both owe allegiance to the far left. And both work quietly, in a sinister partnership, to flood U.S. media with anti-American agit-prop in the tradition of Michael Moore.
Most of Redford’s fans know nothing of his radical politics. Redford has successfully appropriated some of America’s most beloved archetypes on the silver screen. Just as an earlier generation identified John Wayne with the manly spirit of the Wild West, baby boomers confuse Robert Redford with the American folk heroes he impersonated on celluloid, from the rugged frontiersman Jeremiah Johnson to the tough but good-hearted pistolero Harry Longabaugh.
But Redford is no John Wayne. The Duke loved America. Redford threatened to leave America for good if George W. Bush won the 2004 election.
Redford has been a major funder of leftwing filmmakers for decades. He provided seed money to help Michael Moore get started. His Sundance Institute, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Cable Channel and Sundance Documentary Fund all specialize in promoting far-left films and programming.
That’s where the Soros connection comes in. On September 16, 2002, Robert Redford proudly announced at a press conference that he was launching a Sundance International Documentary Fund with $4.6 million in seed money from George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI). The new fund would underwrite films aimed at “promoting social justice and social change.” read more…
by The Navy should not be allowed to inflict harm to marine wildlife!
Petition Background
“The U.S. Navy is seeking permission to kill, permanently injure, or otherwise seriously harm whales and dolphins more than 31 million times over the next five years throughout Southern California, Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Atlantic Coast, using sonar and other equipment. This staggering and unprecedented amount of harm is the Navy’s own estimate of impacts from its training and testing activities to more than 40 marine mammal species, which can include loss of hearing, maiming or bleeding to death. The Navy is seeking permission to increase the use of this devastating sound and to use it intensively throughout an area the size of the country of Mexico. This is our last opportunity to comment on this proposal. The Navy should not be allowed to inflict harm to marine wildlife!” readmore…
This Video narrated by Amy Nieskens is from The Old Farmer’s Almanac:
From The Old Farmer’s Almanac:
Full Moon Names
February’s full Moon is traditionally called the Full Snow Moon because usually the heaviest snows fall in February.
Hunting becomes very difficult, and so some Native American tribes called this the Hunger Moon.
Other Native American tribes called this Moon the “Shoulder to Shoulder Around the Fire Moon” (Wishram Native Americans), the “No Snow in the Trails Moon” (Zuni Native Americans), and the “Bone Moon” (Cherokee Native Americans). The Bone Moon meant that there was so little food that people gnawed on bones and ate bone marrow soup.
The Reserve Hotel Casino
321 Gregory Street
Central City, Colorado 80427
303.582.0800 | 1.800.924.6646
The Reserve sent me some comped show-tickets for the Lava Room. Juice Newton’s picture/name on the ad struck true. I had a total crush on her back in the day. Her persona was wild and free-spirited.
Juice Newton
70s – 80s Pop Singing Diva, Juice Newton, is playing The Reserve Hotel Casino for two shows: 7PM and 9Pm on April 20, 2013.
“Born in New Jersey and raised in Virginia, Judith Kay Newton first picked up the guitar as an adolescent, inspired by the Byrds, Bob Dylan and folk artists like Tom Rush and Ian & Sylvia. By age 13 she was performing professionally (for the extravagant sum of $10), curving her small hand around the wide neck of her nylon-stringed axe and assaying folk and country tunes with her already impressive voice . Before long she’d partnered with some older teen musicians. “I’d written some songs but they weren’t very good,” she recalls, “so I mostly focused on my singing.” She would return to songwriting later, though, with some powerful results.”
“She, Otha Young and Tom Kealey formed the country-leaning group Silver Spur; they were signed and relocated to Los Angeles in short order, releasing their debut LP on RCA Records in 1975. By the time they moved to Capitol Records a few years later it was as Juice Newton and Silver Spur. In her capacity as a solo artist, she saw action on the charts with songs like “It’s a Heartache,” “Let’s Keep It That Way” and “Sunshine,” among others. Meanwhile, the Newton-Young composition “Sweet, Sweet Smile” became a hit for pop icons the Carpenters in 1978.”
“But it was with 1981′s Juice that the singer exploded into the mainstream, thanks to the enormous hits “Angel of the Morning,” “Queen of Hearts” and #1 country smash “The Sweetest Thing (I’ve Ever Known).” Delivering tearful, wall-of-sound pop, sprightly country-rock and everything in between with crystalline tone and infectious energy, Newton brought a sparkling authenticity to an era dominated by artifice. Juice went platinum and became an international monster, “The Sweetest Thing” spent 18 weeks in the Top 40, and Juice Newton earned two Grammy nominations for Best Female Vocalist.”
“Her 1982 album, Quiet Lies, was certified gold within months and spawned the hits “Love’s Been a Little Bit Hard on Me” (which scored Newton another Best Pop Female Vocalist Grammy nomination) and “Break It to Me Gently” (#1 AC, #2 Country, #11 Pop), which landed her a Grammy statuette for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Among the other nominees in that category: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Rosanne Cash. The disc also featured “Heart of the Night” (#4 AC, #25 Pop). She added a Country Music Award for Best New Female Artist, back-to-back Billboard Female Album Artist of the Year honors and Australian Music Media’s #1 International Country Artist win to her trophy cabinet.”
Other acts coming to the Lava Room in the foreseeable future: Dave Mason
April 27, 2013
Two shows: 7PM and 9PM
Little Texas
May 26, 2013
Two shows: 7PM and 9PM
Gwen Sebastian
Gwen Sebastian– SHOW’S OVER
February 17, 2013
Two shows: 7PM and 9PM
“Many voices contributed to Gwen Sebastian’s sudden and long-sought career growth, but which played the biggest part? Certainly her run on NBC’s hit singing competition The Voice was a huge boost. The sound of her coach and country superstar Blake Shelton offering a spot on his tour was equally sweet. One came in the form of a relative’s phone call, suggesting she attend an audition. There’s also the inner voice that brought her through a career crossroads before the show was even a consideration. Most recently, there’s the one that led her to a powerfully uplifting new single called “Met Him In A Motel Room.”
by 
