Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc. (CRNHA), will host a virtual Coffee and Conversation lecture entitled: The Red River Medicine Stone on Saturday, July 25, 2020 with regional historian, Robin Cole-Jett. “We’re thrilled to have Robin join us again to share her research with our followers as she uncovers some of our region’s most fascinating hidden histories,” remarked Rebecca Blankenbaker, CRNHA Executive Director.
The lecture will explore the Cole-Jett’s research of when Anglos first encountered “The Red River Medicine Stone,” a large meteorite along the Red River that the Comanches and Taovayans revered as medicine. The Anglos believed it to be platinum and, subsequently, stole it. Join Robin Cole-Jett, the Red River Historian, via Facebook Live at the Grand Ecore Visitor Center to learn more about the history and legacy of the Medicine Stone, now housed at the Peabody Museum at Yale University.
Robin Cole-Jett is a native Texan with deep roots in Louisiana, she has published the website, Red River Historian – the History of where the South meets the West, for twenty years. A holder of two master’s degrees with doctoral work in anthropology, she is also a community college history instructor, museum consultant, tour guide, and the author of five books. She has spoken previously about the “Great Red River Raft” and “Steamboats along the Red River” at the Grand Ecore Visitor’s Center.
Tune on Saturday, July 20, 2020 via Facebook Live on Cane River National Heritage Area’s Facebook Page, facebook.com/CaneRiverNHA. For more information contact Cane River National Heritage Area at 318-356-5555.
Comanche Giving Arrows to the Medicine Rock
Photo: George Catlin, Smithsonian
Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc. manages the daily operations and visitor relations of the Grand Ecore Visitor Center in partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Grand Ecore Visitor Center is a US Army Corps of Engineers site on the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, a 236-mile segment of Red River extending from Shreveport, Louisiana to the Mississippi River.
So an artifact, considered sacred to the indigenous people of OUR region of the country is now in a museum at Yale University? In New Haven, Connecticut? Because some Anglos (white people) stole it?
Anybody else see a problem with this?
It’s like other things that have left our area. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t say when it was stolen, and there is probably not anything that can be done to get it back. But please don’t make this a race issue, as most of the ‘white’ people of today had nothing to do with that theft. We can’t keep bringing up things that happened in the 1800’s to cause a divide in our nation today. The past is done, we can’t change. What we can change is today and the future, but we can’t change it if there is hate and resentment in our hearts. Let’s learn from the past so that we can move forward. We can learn to live together if we rid ourselves of the hate in our hearts.
What time should we tune in on Saturday, July 25, 2020?