Belfry at Mission San Juan Bautista

To summarize the linked story, Ascencion was a Native American and the last known native speaker of the Mutsun language spoken by the Amah Mutsun tribe in the Central Coast area of California (roughly San Luis Obispo to Santa Cruz.) In 1929, Ascencion was visited by the noted Smithsonian linguist John Peabody Harrington who recorded her oral history. After seeing a photograph of Ascencion in the San Francisco Chronicle, her story came to the attention of Fresno State University professor Helene Joseph-Weil who then created a libretto version that was set to music by her colleague, composer Benjamin Boone. (If you are interested, there is a nice audio slideshow with an excerpt from the piece linked to the NPR article. )

When I first saw the article, I was immediately reminded of the story of Ishi, the last known surviving member of the Yahi tribe, who in August of 1911 wandered into Oroville, California. (Very near where I completed my undergraduate degree.) Ishi was subsequently moved to San Francisco where he provided a wealth of information about his people and his native Yana language.

What I found particularly interesting though, is that one of the University of California linguists who worked with Ishi was a gentleman named Alfred L. Kroeber who in turn gave several lectures attended by a student at nearby Stanford University by the name of John Peabody Harrington. Perhaps not a surprise, but I like finding these sort of connections.

Happy Independence Day!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching a group of young American soccer players beat Poland 6-1 in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada, headlined by a hat-trick by the previously hyped and now much maligned Freddy Adu. It was a good match in light of the dismal performances of the senior “B” team at the Copa America in Venezuela and restored a bit of faith that one day, this country will emerge from the nether regions of world football. I now hope that Adu and several of the other promising youngsters find their way to the European leagues where they can find meaningful experience in those well-developed youth systems.

Soccer wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye yesterday, because I had a bit of a chuckle at what I consider an ill-conceived bit of journalism, MSNBC has devised a “quiz” based on the actual test that prospective citizens take as part of their naturalization process. I’m sure it was meant to be a bit of light-hearted interactivity for American readers, the scoring chart with the pithy remarks was certainly meant to be humorous, but in my estimation, fall flat.

Thanks to a little bit of common sense and some basic knowledge of American history and civics, I didn’t miss a question, but then again, it was multiple choice.

As the son of a history teacher, I have always been interested in the subject and consider it one of my many hobbies. Much to my delight, I just learned that one of the largest battles in Medieval history occurred only a few miles from where I sit. On August 20th, 917, at the height of the Bulgarian empire and in the area between the modern cities of Burgas and Pomorie (Anchialos), a large Byzantine force was routed by a Bulgarian army led by Emperor Simeon I (the Great.)

Unfortunately, there are no roadside markers, no monuments, and no national park to mark the site of the battle. There is however, a peak in Antarctica named after Simeon, at least according to Wikipedia.