I Am Saddened By The Announcement From U.S. Fish And Wildlife That Confirms The Extinction Of Stephan’s

The Indian Placement Program

From  1956 to 1996, the Mormon Church operated a program where Native American kids were baptized and placed in Mormon foster homes during the school year. The idea was fostering would “lighten” them. The Mormon Church teaches that Native Americans were originally white, but God punished them, and made them darker.

It began being criticized in the 1970s for weakening the children’s connection to their Native American families and communities, and causing psychological damage. And today the Mormon Church is being sued in tribal court for allegations of abuse while in their foster homes.

Tilly Jane, Mount Hood, Oregon

Amazingly, we have a photograph of a man who crossed the Delaware with George Washington. This is Conrad Heyer, born in 1749 and photographed in 1852 at age 103. He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, crossed the Delaware with Washington in December 1776, and fought in several major battles. The Maine Historical Society says that this makes him the earliest-born human being ever to be photographed.

American paleontologist O.C. Marsh with assistants.  c. 1872.

Reflections of Mt Hood  | © Photographer |  LFST

As we prepare for more cold weather this weekend, let’s take a look back at Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 voyage to the Antarctic. Just one day’s sail from the continent, his ship Endurance became trapped in sea ice. Frozen fast for 10 months, the ship was crushed and destroyed by ice pressure, and the crew was forced to abandon it. After camping on the ice for five months, Shackleton made two open boat journeys, one of which—a treacherous 800-mile ocean crossing to South Georgia Island—is now considered one of the greatest boat journeys in history. Trekking across the mountains of South Georgia, Shackleton reached the island’s remote whaling station, organized a rescue team, and saved all of the men he had left behind.

Unpopular opinion: Allosaurus is way cooler than T. Rex.

Team Allosaurus 2k15

The “dinosaur bones” that you see on display at the Museum aren’t really bones at all. Through the process of fossilization, ancient animal bones are turned into rock. 

Most ancient animals never became fossils. Their carcasses were likely consumed by other organisms, or worn away by wind or water. But sometimes the conditions were right and their remains were preserved. The most common process of fossilization happens when an animal is buried by sediment, such as sand or silt, shortly after it dies. Its bones are protected from rotting by layers of sediment. As its body decomposes all the fleshy parts wear away and only the hard parts, like bones, teeth, and horns, are left behind. Over millions of years, water in the nearby rocks surrounds these hard parts, and minerals in the water replace them, bit by bit. When the minerals have completely replaced the organic tissue, what’s left is a solid rock copy of the original specimen.

Learn more on the Museum’s Dinosaur website.