Welcome to My Archives!

The links below will take you to various writings and projects, some old, some new, otherwise unavailable either because they were never published or published in obscure or out-of-print media. Over time, I hope to scan and digitized more of these works and make them available on this website.

Please note the size of the files—if your connection is slow (like mine), you might want to get a cup of coffee or tea while you’re waiting.

As always, you can leave feedback in my guestbook or e-mail me.

"Unsolved Mystery," Montana Standard, October 8, 2006

“The Murder of Frank Little” was my first in-depth historical research project. It began way back in 1972 when I was a high school student in Missoula, Montana. Given special permission to do an independent project to meet my American History requirement, my advisor suggested I look into the role of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, a.k.a. the “Wobblies”) in Butte, Montana during the tumultuous labor struggles that occurred during the First World War—in particular, the 1917 lynching of the IWW organizer, Frank Little.

At the time, my mother owned a small drugstore in downtown Missoula, around the corner from an Army/Navy surplus store run by two former residents of Butte. When they learned about my project, they began sharing stories they had heard from an old Wobbly, who was a young man at the time of the lynching and claimed to know the identity of the Little’s killers. In the course of my research, I ended up with a list of names of suspected lynchers. Some of whom were prominent Butte citizens. My efforts to confirm these stories were unsuccessful, so I did not include the names in my report.

Recently, however, I had an opportunity to revisit my research and write an article about it that appeared in the Montana Standard, where I identified the names I researched back in 1972. The second link will take you a copy of that article.

I’ve also become aware of new dimension of the story. Thanks to Karl Olsen, I learned of the writings of Myron Brinig. Brinig was gay and Jewish, and he grew up in Butte in the early twentieth century. A prolific writer, Brinig wrote several novels set in Butte. They nearly all make mention of the lynching, and at least two of them have a character clearly based on Frank Little. In both cases, the character is indirectly portrayed as being gay.

It seems the past always has new stories to tell us, and in my spare time I'm trying following up on these tantalizing leads—so stay tuned!

Butte...1972

Pictures I took in 1972 while doing research in Butte of various sites pertaining to the lynching of Frank Little.

Lozen: Apache Medicine Woman and Warrior (.ppt — 2.3 MB)

This is a beta-version prototype of a multimedia presentation (created in PowerPoint) telling the story of the Apache medicine person and warrior woman, Lozen. I described Lozen’s career briefly in Changing Ones. Since then I’ve been able to do additional research, which leads to me attribute even greater significance to her role in Apache history. I offer this work-in-progress here as web-lecture, not for distribution, so no part of it should be downloaded or reproduced without permission of copyright holders. Clicking on the link should launch the presentation in a browser, and you can navigate by right clicking for a menu or clicking on the arrows in the lower left corner of your screen.

The Indian Midwife (.pdf — 1.4 MB)

I was named after my great-grandfather, William Andrew Patt, who was known most of his life as “Billy,” the nickname my parents gave me when I was a boy. Billy Patt was a pioneer settler who arrived in the West in 1880. Growing up I remember hearing stories about his adventures and how he raised a family of seven children on homesteads in Montana and Idaho. Among these was an account of how one or more of the Patt children had been delivered by an Indian midwife. I had nearly forgetten these stories, however, until I began visiting relatives in the last couple years who shared with me new details regarding the identity of the “Indian midwife.” It turns out that she was the younger sister of the famous Northern Paiute advocate Sarah Winnemucca. In fact, Sarah was with her sister Elma at the birth pf my great-uncle Andy in 1891.

This piece, written to distribute among family members, provides a brief account of Sarah’s life, her sister, and their connection with the Patt family. It is, however, already out-of-date. I’ve learned a great deal more about my family, and some more about Elma Winnemucca, thanks to an amazing collection of materials in my aunt’s possession.

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