100 years ago in Spokane: Museum displays Revolutionary War flag

The fledgling Spokane Public Museum, housed in a building at 413 W. First, displayed an American flag “that waved above the revolutionary forces under General George Washington at the battle of Yorktown.”

“The flag is believed to be the oldest in design in the world, flags of other nations having been changed radically in design during the past century,” said the museum curator.

The display also included a snare drum that sounded a charge in that battle.

From the tribal beat: Two chiefs of the Yakama Tribe sent a formal protest to the U.S. Indian Commissioner, after he issued an order forbidding tribal dances.

The chiefs charged that this was the height of hypocrisy.

“You tell us in other ways to look to the white man?” said the chiefs in their letter. “You say, ‘Farm as the white man does,’ and ‘Save your money as the white man does,’ and the like. When you stop the white man from dancing, we may begin to think dancing an evil and also stop dancing. But why should the poor Indian stop his dances when the white man doesn’t stop his?”

The chiefs announced that they planned to hold their tribal spring dances as usual.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1800: Alessandro Volta reports his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London.

1984: The U.S. Senate rejects an amendment that would have permitted spoken prayer in public schools.