Notes From The Frontier

Movies, television series, and books have extolled the legendary mountain man-turned-bear-tamer, Grizzly Adams.

Female Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn-Custer's Last Stand-with distinction.

Baby boomers grew up on the 1964 Daniel Boone tv series and the theme song. Some of you may even be able to sing along.

Today is the 138th anniversary of the gunfight at the OK corral on October 26, 1881. It was only 30 seconds of fury and flying lead.

For a century, American Westerns have captured the blood-and-thunder of the Wild West, cowboys and Indians, outlaws and outlanders.

Frontier justice could be harsh, but few Wild West legends ended as badly for a bad guy as did the life of Big Nose George.

The tradition of foot-binding, also called “lotus feet,” was a thousand-year-old tradition in China that was brought to the United States.

One Native man reached the very highest echelons of white power and, in 1865, penned the final surrender terms of the Civil War.

The wild, wild west was indeed untamed, unconventional and “under the radar” in many ways, especially regarding intimacy.

Once upon a time, before European whites ever set foot on the North American continent, 75-100 million buffalo roamed the land.

It turns out that Angela Swedberg is one of the leading Tribally Certified Indian Artisans in the country.

The obscenity of the West was indeed, 'striking,' but the obscenity of mining camps was unbelievable.”

The legend was a towering, six-foot-plus black woman named “Stagecoach Mary.” And she could drink, smoke, cuss, fistfight and shoot.

George Armstrong Custer was a great dog lover and he had that to commend him. At one time late in his life he had between 40 and 80 dogs.

If ever there was an icon that embodied the Wild West, it was Wild Bill Hickok. He lived violently and died violently.

Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Canary, is an enigma in Western legend. Much has been written about her, much of it fictional.

The Cheyenne called Custer "Attacker at Dawn" because of the Washita Massacre of 1868.

The truth is that gun fights were rare, not premeditated, and didn't happen at a 75-foot distance.

The "oldest profession" was one of the first to go West to the frontier, following the first mountain men, loggers and prospectors.

Contrary to Hollywood, scalping has been practiced by warring people-especially whites- throughout human history.