Get Cynical

In his newspaper, Baum responded to the news of the Wounded Knee massacre, and to word of the murder of Hunkpapa Sioux leader Sitting Bull two weeks earlier (December 15, 1890), with editorials calling for the total destruction of the Sioux people. The originals of these editorials are difficult to obtain; the only relatively complete run of the Saturday Pioneer is held by the Alexander Mitchell Library in Aberdeen, where it can be viewed on microfilm.

Baum’s Wounded Knee editorials have previously been published elsewhere on the World Wide Web. However, at least one paragraph was inadvertently omitted from that version of the editorials. While the missing paragraph does not exonerate Baum of charges of genocidal racism, it seemed advisable to offer a complete transcription of the editorials as they appeared in the newspaper, so that scholars and other interested parties might base their understanding of this incident in our history on the complete version of what Baum wrote.

Welcome to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! Let me show you around the place…

We’ll start off on the East side of the building – imagine that we’re walking up from the parking lot – which we would be, if Chris hadn’t run out of room and base plates. The first thing you’ll notice is the large “Touched By His Noodly Appendage” mural on the wall of the church. Other than a few blue flowers in the corner there isn’t much landscaping to get in the way of our enjoyment of this bit of artwork.