Updates on the blog

Greetings!! 

It's been about six months since I've started the blog.

It seems time for a round-up, a few thoughts and lessons learned, and announcements on coming changes. The original plan for this blog was to provide new content regularly in the areas of history, wargaming, historical and non-historical miniature gaming, media reviews, and media reviews.

I'm surprised that more people have not used the tags and scrolled through the older posts. There's some good stuff there. If you like history, use the tags. If you like photos of miniature figures, use the tags.

You may wish to know, I have books on several subjects for sale
 -- Books by Peter Huston at Amazon.

Current projects that I am working on include:

1. Bloody Sands, Cheering Stands --Miniature Wargame Rules and Wargamers Guide to the Roman Gladiators and Arena

2. 18th Century North American Wargaming Miniature Rules (working title is "Flintlocks and Funny Hats" but I hope to find a better one)

3. Chop Sockey!! Kung Fu Miniature Wargaming Rules

The above three will influence the content of this blog.

4.  Holidays at the Ambulance, 1986 --a novel that has been completed but remains in search of a publisher.

Recently released projects include 

Put Your Favorite Picture Here: Awesome Tales of Space Aliens, Vampires, Pop-Stars, Human Beings, And Other Truly Strange, Amazing, Amusing, And Disturbing Things as Written by the Award Winning, World Travelling, Life Saving Author Peter Huston

Since its founding, some of the pieces have gotten hundreds of hits.

For those interested, the top five posts were:

1. Smallpox in China

2. History and the Current Uighur Unrest

3. Elephants in the Arena

4. Updates on the Roman Arena Model

5. Mary Dyer, Quaker Martyr, and Troublemaker Supreme

Two of these I'd classify as well-researched pieces (the Smallpox in China and the Uighur Unrest pieces ). The Mary Dyer piece, I'd classify as light but little known history, something else I'd hoped to provide here. The pieces on the Roman arena were both gaming pieces and I suspect they attracted interest because they had nice pictures of interesting models and were shared in popular internet forums.

In the next few months, I hope to include more content. This will include straight pieces on historical subjects, wargaming photo pieces, and media reviews (especially book and film reviews.). These last pieces, the media focused pieces, will include links so that interested people can purchase the items and thus bring provide money and encouragement for the blog. Movie reviews are something I have no included in the past.

A Sampling of Other Blog Posts

In the meantime, should you wish to check out the past blog posts, there were several others that I either consider well done or wish had gotten more attention. You can check them out here. :

1. Iroquois housing and architectural shift at the time of the American Revolution (plus some gaming stuff)

        This one contains some well done research on an interesting question on a little known topic --Iroquois adaption of western housing styles. It also contains information on the subject for miniature wargamers.

2. Ancient Rome - What was the arena and what were “the games”?

3. Confucianism, Communism, and their Intersection in North Korean Symbolology.

4. Did the Chinese discover America? Is Gavin Menzies a genius? Hell, no. Smallpox shows they did not.

5. Did Marilyn Monroe get a rib removed to appear more slender?

        This one, interestingly, is getting a lot of hits at one of my other blogs, but not here.

6,  "Ambulance Dogs" in the German Army, circa 1900

7. Pseudohistory, Creationism, and Dinosaursl

8. South East Asian Cultural Boundaries of the Pre-Modern World and their Continuing Effects on the Modern World

9.  Historical European Martial Arts (H.E.M.A.), the Rondel or medieval dagger, and the Fiore Dei Libri manuscript

10. General Tso's Chicken and Jennifer 8. Lee's Chinese food presentations

Finally, for those interested, here is the least viewed post.

1. Great People of History, Tommy Page

          Fourteen people read this one. I don't know why. I think it's very interesting. It even has links to music videos. How can anyone be unhappy with piece that includes music videos? And personally I think more people should learn the story of Tommy Page. Check it out. Be number 15. Learn who Tommy Page was and why I consider him worth mentioning.

Indians in the American Revolution and Depictions of Iroquois from Fort Stanwix and Oriskany

The American Revolution ( American War of Independence) produced many changes in North America. One of these was the end of the Iroquois Confederacy as an important political entity. 

An exhibit from the Fort Stanwix visitor center showing two Iroquois and a trader from the period.

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The war in the Mohawk River Valley, then a frontier region of New York, was a civil war. The Whites fought each other, loyalists against those favoring independence, and among the Iroquois Six Nation Confederacy, the nations split, some favoring the American cause, others preferring their traditional loyalties with the British, particularly as the British had promised to help them curb the spread of the aggressive, land-hungry American settlers, and others struggling to remain as neutral as possible in what they considered a White man's war. 

Many Iroquois, particularly the Mohawks, left their home region soon after the war. 

Many of these events focused on a fortification called Fort Stanwix. It is now a National Historical Park and located in Rome, New York, a small city located between Syracuse and Utica. ( see: the National Park Service Website for Fort Stanwix. ) 

The Oriskany Battlefield, perhaps the most important battle of this part of the war, is located a little bit to the East. 

I have a strong interest in the history of the American Revolution (War of Independence) and wargame the period. Among my current projects are a large number of half-painted 25mm Old Glory "woodland Indians with rifles" that I intend to use as Iroquois. I'll try to include some photos of them when they are finished, but here's what the looked like a couple weeks ago. Clearly, there's a great deal of detail and color left to be added. 

Therefore, for those with similiar interests, I offer the following photos from the Fort Stanwix visitors center. Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos. I have come to the realization that if I wish this blog to be its best, I must improve my photography skills and hope to spend some time on that soon. 

Let's begin with some close ups of the above exhibit. After we will follow up with period and later depictions of some of the key Iroquois involved. 

The life size Iroquois models from the exhibit.
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Notice the bead work on the straps and the knife.
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Detail on the bag.
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This and the one below show the headdress detail on the models.

awful picture but does show some more detail from another angle
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Same poor quality but the other Iroquois model in the display.
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 Important Iroquois of the Time depicted in the Museum

This is a fuzzy photo (apologies) of the Seneca leader Cornplanter ( Gy-ant-wa-chia )
You can find a better image of this painting, plus a full biography at either of these two pages Cornplanter on Wikipedia or Indigenous People Net 

OH MY!! An even worse photo of the exhibit on Red Jacket. Although he reportedly fled the battle of Oriskany early in the fighting he went on to become an important Iroquois statesman. See these sites for better depictions and more details: wikipedia or Indigenous People Net