RUDIMENTS, pt. 818
(President Insurrection meets War Secretary Riot)
It always amazed to learn
that the entire Cherokee
nation, all through Georgia,
eastern Tennessee, and the
hills of Carolina, made their
peace with, and joined, the
Confederacy, as bands of
fierce fighters. They were
known to be vicious warriors,
even in their Johhny Reb
greys. I used to think,'Boy
that must have been some
grudge!' I guessed that
inasmuch as they had
nothing to lose, they also
had nothing to gain. If
they thought it to be anything
but a temporary marriage
of convenience, they must
have been crazy. Those
southern folk, and all those
southern fighting boys, hated
them as much as did anyone
else. North or south, there
was no convenience to be
made. I dug around a little
bit, and found out lots of
interesting things.
-
I often tended to get quite
preoccupied with what I was
doing, in the sense of getting
lost to the work and forgetting
all else. Thankfully, my life
right then fit that very loose
configuration : I really had
no 'hours' and few commitments.
I had a speaker-sheet, for the
lectures and subjects as needed,
at the Studio School, and my
open-ended studio time was
mine alone. So when I did
have to be somewhere, I
knew it. The Studio School
had really ONE organized
activity that they concentrated
on, and which I really disliked.
I did it for a while, but it proved
too uncomfortable and I backed
off, and no one cared, It also
made little sense to me - Life
Drawing. It proved too brittle
for me, and all I ever saw was
that the end result of what people
drew made little sense to me -
all sorts of harsh lines and
jagged squiggles, palsied
as it appeared. Shaking. I
myself just couldn't, let's
say, preoccupy myself and
draw at the same time, while
looking at one or two naked
babes stretching and contorting
on an elevated platform for 15
or 20 minutes at a time. I'm
sorry to admit, but it no longer
became about 'drawing.'
Guys too, which just became
annoying as well - mainly
because you knew they were
exhibitionists and were only
up there for their 35 bucks
because they were going to be
seen as well-endowed and
happy over it. Not my style.
Besides, the room wasn't
large enough for TWO big
guys (that's a joke,see).
-
Usually, I'd manage to chum
up with someone, after a while,
and we'd find something to do.
Jim Tomberg and junk metal,
subway trips to Brooklyn and
junkyards, dragging back odd
pieces of metal for him to
sculpt with. And, inevitably,
someone, seeing us heaving
metal around or riding the
rail car, would ask what was
up. Jim would say outlandish
things : 'We just came from a
train wreck down the line;
mangled steel everywhere.
We had to bring back some
samples of damages to the
bigwigs who investigate
accidents. We're just hoping
we get off here in time
ourselves - signals are
out all down the line. Same
thing will probably happen
to this train before long.'
The lady and child sitting
down the seat from the guy
who asked, hearing all this,
would turn white in terror.
This was back when train
windows still opened. I
fully expected someone
in a panic one of those days
to barf out the train window.
-
In order for white settlers to
'settle' the Appalachians, the
'Indians had to be moved out
first.' The Cherokee Nation
once inhabited a vast area
of George, Tennessee, and
today's North Carolina. Each
wave of white immigration
into the mountain regions was
accompanied by a treaty which
resulted in the Cherokees being
deprived of more and more of
their land and rights, beginning
with the Treaty of Hopewell,
(curious name for that; for
whom the hope?)...Fierce
Cherokee resistance and small
wars resulted each time in
the white man's superior
firepower, and organization,
taking a heavy toll. By about
the 1830's, the 17,000 or so
Cherokees left were basically
spent, and exhausted, impoverished
and out of everything. They
were so weak that any resistance
would have meant their total
annihilation. Then they were
promised money, and were
eventually removed to points
west, a mission undertaken
under the direction of General
Winfield Scott. This was added to
the previous forced displacement,
called the 'Trail of Tears.' Those
Cherokee who refused these
further lies fled, a large portion
of the North Carolina Cherokees,
balking, fled into the mountains.
They settled (think, NJ, the Ramapo
Whites), some of them, in what
would become Haywood County,
and established a central village
which they named Quallatown,
on the banks of the Soco Creek,
near the rivers' Tuckaseegee and
Oconoluftee juncture. Even to this
day they are still there, and at one
point, in this time-period, they
were led by William Holland
Thomas, a white man who had
grown into their culture and was
eventually elected as their 'Chief.'
23 years after the Great Removal,
he led virtually every able-bodied
Cherokee make into battle on
the Confederate side, creating
one of the most ruthless, vicious
and colorful Confederate units:
'Thomas' Highland Legion.'
(They eventually developed the
English Muffin. Kidding!)...They
were the only Confederate unit
given their autonomy, and their
tactics and battle ways, and
scalpings too, struck terror into
Union soldiers' hearts; some units
of which surrendered in terror
rather than have to try to fight
off the bushwhackers of that
Legion. Quite a scene, indeed!!
-
I used to walk around the streets
of New York City taking note
of all those places where the
Civil War too had affected things.
The Draft Riots of course, and
the street furies and lynchings
and the rest. All of a sudden, by
1860, the patterned and mannered
format of the early American
Revolution had again fallen
into insurrection, factionalism
and brutal despair. Many of
the New York regiments sent
out were Irishmen of fierce
intent, your immigrant sons
of young immigrant arrivals.
It was all so different and so
weird to me to imagine lines
of people cheering the marching
formations of enthusiastic men
walking off to their actions,
deaths or doom. The cheers
the huzzahs at dockside, the
boats coming back with the
wounded and dead. Somber
and dread versus willing
and living. There must have
been some strange sounds
at night. Odd words too, the
zouaves and batallion names,
pride place and number. I
was completely stunned
upon learning how, the
day after the Battle of
Gettysburg, the disoriented,
in-shock, still-dazed Union
troops were turned northeastward
and marched north - to occupy
NYC, and quell the rioting an
insurrection. The entire nation
had turned into its own bleating
quagmire! How many died
along that march, I wondered?
President Insurrection, meet
War Secretary Riot!
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