Today is June 18th, a date I'm always inclined to remember -- since it's the anniversary of the very interesting auto wreck in Jackson, Mississippi, precipitated by a lunging car from a side street and most timely indeed from the standpoint of the venomous adversaries of our Jackson Movement.  My car -- in which Martin King had ridden only a few days earlier -- was destroyed, I was seriously injured and almost killed, and my colleague, Reverend Ed King, was also profoundly injured almost to the point of death.  A memorable day for sure which I occasionally refer to as "the last holy day in the Jackson Movement calendar."  I had brushes with death before that and some since.  But, if I had been "taken away" on that day, I'm not at all sure what would have happened to Eldri and Baby Maria.

 

One thing for certain is that I wouldn't have received the fine Father's Day messages that came yesterday from Maria directly [who also gave me a fine Navajo bowl], and by phone from Josie, John, Peter, and Thomas. (We  have a total of ten fine grandchildren.)  A day or two earlier came a good, full letter from John's son, Quickbear [Bret].  Eldri produced a truly fine dish:  lots of salmon wrapped in spinach and pastry.  Maria baked an excellent cake. 

 

It's well worth noting that Thomas' spouse, Mimie [Yrengah], from Zambia and UK, received her Physician's Assistant degree on Saturday from University of Iowa.  Last January, she received her Masters in Public Health from UI.  Thomas is now beginning his fourth year of residency at the University's hospital -- psychiatry and internal medicine.  Mimie's mother, Mrs. Mutale Chilinda, came from UK for her graduation and Peter came from Lincoln.  Afterwards, they all had a hell of a great party.  They were joined by a good friend of Thomas' -- a physician resident in neuroscience from Nepal.

 

Diversity.  Cosmic people

 

We have a website page dealing with my own Native father's ill-starred adoption by William and Mary Salter.  It covers the highlights of his difficult experience.  While Mary Salter was kind and loving, William Salter -- a courageous and noted liberal activist on many critical fronts -- was old for his years and brittle.  The adoption was tempered for Dad by the personally supportive, oft-presence of  the Salters' brother-in-law, the philosopher William James, who encouraged my father's incipient fine art abilities and whose nickname for Dad was "Uncle Jack."  Later, since William Salter had cut Dad out of his will, the James estate funded his several years of study at the Chicago Art Institute leading to his B.A.  In time he received two grad degrees from the University of Iowa.

 

[Though the Salters had roots and primary residence in the northeastern states, William Salter's own father, the "old" William Salter, had been a pioneer Congregational missionary in Iowa in the very early period and had been a founder of the University of Iowa.  In the 1970s, I taught in UI's Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning.]

 

In the past few weeks, we have added some photos to that "Stormy Adoption" webpage.  One, never before published anywhere, depicts my father at 13 with William and Mary Salter.  The photo was taken in August,  1911 at Silver Lake/Chocorua, New Hampshire, in the White Mountains where the Salter and James families had large summer homes. I am interested in the state-of-the-art straw hat sitting by William Salter.  I happen to have here in Idaho his obviously very expensive silk top-hat (in mint shape) in a large and heavy leather carrying case, covered with shipping labels -- some involving travel abroad. When the Salters traveled in Europe, my father was left in this country.  Anyway, if interested in any of this:  http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm

 

Yours,

 

Hunter Gray (Hunter Bear)

 

 

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
 
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.)
 
For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI --
with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at
the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of
1962-63.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
 
And see - Elder Recognition Award
(Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Story Tellers:
http://hunterbear.org/elder_recognition_award_for_2005.htm