Happy Independence Day

Alea Iacta Est

Sometimes it pays to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and to be just a little bit on the geeky side.

Many people before have asked why I collect so many books. I can only provide the response that best sums it up: I hate being without answers; if I want to know something, I want to have a reference that immediately provides the correct answer.

I don't care how arcane the reference - at some point, I'll want to know. Like Gordon Gekko said - "The most valuable commodity I know of is information."

I read a couple of months ago that two of the supporting characters in Rome, Vorenus and Pullo, are based on real persons of the same names.

Curiosity got the best of me, as it usually does. Once I got home, I located my copy of Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. In Book V, Chapter LXIV, Caesar himself writes of two Centurions, Lucuis Vorenus and Titus Pullo, who were of near equal strength and bravery.

The 355 words written by Gaius Julius over 2,000 year ago about these two warriors are the only historical record we have of their existence. Why their story was included is of great interest considering Pullo later supported Caesar's opponent in the civil war.

Reading these stories last night made me think:

Caesar was lucky in that his Rubicon was actually the Rubicon. The barrier he had to cross was both literal and figurative.

I've always wondered what mine is.

This Land Is My Land; It Used to be Your Land...(Second Verse, Same as the First)

Just a half-century after its founding, the United States and its population already began to exceed its capacity for serviceable land. Although the term "Manifest Destiny" would not exist for another two decades, it was obvious the only room for growth was toward the sunset.

Enter the founding member of the modern Democrat Party - Old Hickory, himself.

Fresh from his victories over the Seminole and Creek, Andrew Jackson convinced Congress to give him the authority to purchase land and negotiate treaties with the Original Americans.

Riddle me this: why would an Indian War hero turned public official feel compelled to purchase or otherwise negotiate for anything that he as an Army commander would just take?

[Although I think Jackson is the leading candidate for the worst president, he did provide my favorite presidential quote: "Never trust a man who has only one way to spell a word."]

Soon thereafter, gold was discovered on tribal lands and it became even more urgent the white man obtain ownership of these lands; and to use a term that became popular some 13 decades later, by any means necessary. Problem was, it was already owned by another nation.

The State of Georgia brilliantly tried to bypass the Constitution; because some tribal lands existed within the state boundaries, Georgia argued, the state could compel a sovereign nation to abide by its rules. The 1832 Supreme Court decision Worchester v. Georgia respectfully disagreed and rightfully negated Georgia's jurisdiction on Cherokee land.

Re-enter President Jackson and his solution before the Final Solution - tell the chiefs of the Five Civilized Tribes there is enough land out West for all of them - better hunting grounds, maybe not as sacred as the land they currently owned, but it could be with the right amount of time; more water; and best of all, do the U.S. government this one favor and the white man would never bother them again; just trust us.

This policy culminated in the Trail of Tears.

A sect of the Chocktaw tribe, the Chickasaw, ended up in Southern Oklahoma. In time, they found land that became sacred to them; they called it "Peaceful Valley of Rippling Waters". The land straddled the Eastern deciduous forest and the Western prairie. As such, the flora and fauna were both plentiful and diverse; the area later known as the Seven Springs was sacred for the spring's medicinal powers.

While Reconstruction reformed the South, those that didn't want to be reformed (mainly crooks, debtors, speculators, and those who would rather roam the desert than live with scallywags and carpetbaggers) followed the sound advice of Horace Greeley; Forts Arbuckle and Washita provided protection from the Plains Indians while the Topeka and Santa Fe railroads provided the transportation out West. In fact, Lt. Colonel Custer fought Black Kettle and the Cheyenne near the Washita River eight years before he would face Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse as a general a thousand miles away at Little Bighorn.

Confounding the Indians with the brilliant legal jargon and immutable precedent that nobody called "No backs touching black" when the original treaties were signed, white settlers found gold again on tribal land (this time the black, liquid, underground kind) and incorporated a town immediately north of the Chickasaw tribal lands; they called it Sulphur Springs.

Beginning to think the U.S. government didn't take its promises seriously, the tribe decided to sell 640 acres at $20 per, well whatever was left after the Dawes Commission took theirs. Theodore Roosevelt (my favorite president of all time, by the way), not wanting this land, which included the springs, to be purchased by private developers, signed enabling legislation in 1902 that created a national park to be known as the Platt District.

The original area has since expanded its borders to include lakes Arbuckle and Veterans; in its entirety, the locality is now known as the Chickasaw National Recreation Area.

Risking extremely wet weather, this is where I hope to rest my head this weekend.