Name of ethnic group: San Diu (San Deo, Trai, Trai Dat, and “Man Quan Coc” (Man in Shorts). Population: 126,237 people (Year 1999). Locality: The San Diu live in the midlands of Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen, and Tuyen Quang provinces.
Customs and habits: The San Diu house is built level with the ground. The roof is usually covered with thatch or tile, the walls are built of bricks, and the houses are clustered closely together in each village.
The husband (father) is the head of the family. The children take the family name of the father and only sons have the right of inheritance. The parents also decide when their children should marry. The funeral ceremony of the San Diu has many rites.
The San Diu worship their ancestors and the God of the Kitchen. They hold many annual ceremonies usually before crop planting, after crop planting, after the new rice matures, and when they need to pray for rain.
Culture: The San Diu language belongs to the Han Group. The San Diu sing alternating songs (soong co) during cultural activities and at festivals. They have many musical instruments such as horns, clarinets, drums, flutes, cymbals, and castanets.
They also like to play many games such as walking on sticks, a game involving sticks, badminton in the San Diu way, and tug-of-war. Costumes: The San Diu have gradually adopted the Kinh style of dress.
Economy: The San Diu engage in rice farming practices through submerging their fields, animal and forest exploitation, fishing, fish breeding, tile and brick making, blacksmithing, and basketry. The San Diu also manufacture the no-wheel “quet” cart drawn by a buffalo to transport goods.
https://www.vietnamparadisetravel.com/blog/ethnic-group-san-diu
The Sán Dìu (also known as San Deo, Trai, Trai Dat and Man Quan Coc; Chinese: 山由族; pinyin: Shān yóu zú; Jyutping: saan1 jau4 zuk6; Cantonese Yale: Sanyau Juk; Chữ nôm: 𠊛山由; Vietnamese alphabet: Người Sán Dìu) are a Yao ethnic group in northern Vietnam who speak Yue Chinese (Cantonese), a Chinese language.
Although the Vietnamese government classifies San Diu as an independent group, the San Diu people are originally a part of Chinese people in Vietnam. They are believed to have migrated from Guangdong, China around 1600.
The group's estimated population as of 2000 was 117,500; a 2009 estimate put the number at 146,821. They speak a variant of Cantonese, and it is suggested that some still speak Iu Mien.
The major religions are Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism, with elements of animism and veneration of the dead. About 400 are adherents of the Catholic Church; a few are evangelical Protestants. This ethnic group is mainly concentrated in Quảng Ninh Province.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diu_people
South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. clinched a 470 billion won ($421 million) worth order to build a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant (SWRO) in Saudi Arabia, its first feat in the country in five years.
According to the Korean company on Wednesday, the builder which is a global leader in the field signed a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) to construct a reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination plant with the country’s biggest capacity in Shuaibah, about 110 kilometers south of Jeddah, the second largest city of the country.
Under the deal, Doosan Heavy plans to construct the plant on an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) basis designed to desalinate around 400,000 tons into fresh water, or a daily supply for 130,000 people. In 2012, the South Korean company won a 1.1 trillion won deal to build a seawater desalination facility in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
https://m.pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2017&no=216747
If you’re planning a Mekong River Cruise, you might want to get clued up on your destination before you set off. The Mekong River starts at the Tibetan Plateau and runs for over 2,700 miles through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
For many inhabitants of these countries, the Mekong River is a vital resource around which daily life revolves. Providing food, water, and access to many communities, the Mekong River is more than just a pretty sight and you’re about to see why for yourself.
Most of our river cruises take place on the Lower Mekong, but the Upper Mekong is just as fascinating and important. Whether you choose to cruise the upper or lower part will result in two very different, but equally memorable, experiences. Throughout this article we will look at the two distinct parts of the Mekong and highlight the features of each.
Historically, the Khone falls in southern Laos have been the point that divides the upper and lower parts of the Mekong River. These falls sit just before the border with Cambodia and are largely un-navigable due to the presence of large rocks, which form tiny islands in the river. They are beautiful to behold, but are a nightmare for sailors.
North of the Khone Falls is what is known as the Upper Mekong. This stretch of river runs predominantly through Laos and China, dipping only momentarily into Thailand and Myanmar.
It is considered the more scenic side of the river and a cruise through the Upper Mekong will be filled with natural vistas of mountains, jungles, and other untamed landscapes.
The scenery around the Upper Mekong seems largely untouched. The human footprint is far less prevalent here than in other parts of Southeast Asia – in some sections, it feels like you are traveling back in time to a land before modern civilization laid down its roots.
Animals graze peacefully on the river banks and Mother Nature reigns supreme. There may be long stretches where you do not encounter another boat or human being. The Anouvong Mekong cruise sails through this area of the river and offers 4, 8 and 10-day cruise itineraries.
The Lower Mekong is almost the complete opposite to its upper counterpart. Where the Upper Mekong is about the tranquillity of nature, the Lower Mekong is about human interaction with the river.
The Lower Mekong bustles with life as floating markets sprawl out from the shores and taxi boats race by in every direction. For an authentic insight into modern life on and around the Mekong River, there is nowhere better that the Lower Mekong.
Despite the buzz of human activity, the Lower Mekong still has vast swathes of natural beauty. Lush jungles hang over the water, while wildlife basks in the sun on the river’s shores.
The main difference is that humans have integrated themselves into the nature down here. Rather than destroying the jungle and dominating the landscape, the locals have found a way to live in harmony with nature.
During your trip along the Lower Mekong, you will have the opportunity to get hands on experience of life in this part of the world. You will explore busy markets, attend workshops, and watch as local delicacies are whipped up seemingly effortlessly.
https://www.rainforestcruises.com/jungle-blog/the-difference-between-the-upper-mekong-and-lower-mekong
The Mekong River is the lifeblood of mainland Southeast Asia. It flows through six countries and affects the lives of some 60 million people. China and Laos are damming the river in many places. And Thailand is planning a large-scale of diversion of water that could further affect its flow.
The Mekong River and its watershed. The river originates in the Tibetan Plateau of China, where it is known as the Lancang River; it then proceeds through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Right: The lower Mekong basin. The river empties into the South China Sea.
This is the second article of an in-depth, four-part series exploring threats facing the Mekong Delta and how they might be addressed. Read the first, third and fourth installments.
Nothing that influences the future of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta induces more angst than the hydroelectric dam projects on the mainstream of the Mekong, upriver from the Delta. A handful of Vietnamese experts have been sounding the alarm for years.
That hasn’t translated to effective diplomacy by the government in Hanoi, which may have concluded — perhaps correctly — that resistance is futile. Seven dams are already operating on the Lancang River (the Chinese portion of the Mekong) in the steep gorges of Yunnan province.
Another mainstream dam is nearing completion in upper Laos, construction will soon begin on yet another at the Don Sahong rapids just north of the Laos-Cambodia border, and nine more are projected — seven in Laos and two in Cambodia.
Imagine a future in which Mekong Delta farmers can no longer rely on the river’s annual flood pulse to flush out salt intrusion and bring new fertility in the form of silt washed down from mountains far to the north.
That future has already arrived. It is manifesting in a lower and later annual flood crest and a sharp reduction, perhaps already as much as one-half, in the river’s sediment load. As these dams are built upstream, their impact on the fertility of agriculture downstream and on the river’s fish stocks will be progressively devastating. There is simply no doubt of this.
Consider, for example, the dam cascade’s impact on the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake. Its seasonal flooding is a hydrological wonder. The lake lies in a huge depression in central Cambodia.
It is connected to the Mekong mainstream by the 120-kilometer Sap River. During the dry season, from December through June, the Sap drains the lake. Then, when the monsoon rains come and the Mekong rises, the Sap’s flow reverses, and 20 percent of the Mekong’s floodwaters pour into the Tonle Sap. The area of the lake expands from 2,700 square kilometers to 16,000 square kilometers and its volume increases by 80 times.
In this manner, the Tonle Sap has regulated the supply of water to the Delta downstream for as long as people have farmed there (and doubtless for eons before), smoothing and extending the flood pulse.
As dams are built in the Mekong’s middle reaches, however, the Tonle Sap may no longer fill as usual in the wet season nor drain properly in the dry season. If, or more likely when, that happens, the Delta’s hydrological rhythm will be undone, and with that, the highly engineered foundations of its agriculture.
A slowly unfolding manmade disaster - Although Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam pledged in 1995 to “cooperate in the maintenance of flows on the mainstream…and to enable the acceptable natural reverse flow of the Tonle Sap to take place during the wet season,” as a matter of international politics, the Lao have the whip hand; the Thai are ambivalent; and the downstream countries, Vietnam and Cambodia, can only protest ineffectively.
Matters came to a head in 2011. Back then, in meetings of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), senior diplomats and ministers from the riparian states considered the imminent start of construction of a 1,285-megawatt dam and hydropower plant near Xayaburi, a northern Lao town.
Supported by Cambodia, Vietnam argued that construction should be deferred for 10 years pending further study of the downstream impacts of the dam. Thailand’s representatives squirmed uneasily.
Though conscious of protests by environmentalists and farmers’ groups in their nation’s northeastern provinces, the Thai officials were also heavily lobbied by Xayaburi’s Thai developer and its intended customer, the Thai national power company.
Lao officials listened, objected and at length declared that, having discharged their nation’s obligations under the MRC’s prior consultation process, they would greenlight the project.
Thus Laos proved impervious to Western pressure, whether from governments, multilateral banks or the international media. Behind the representatives of the Lao regime, it has been easy to discern the hulking shadows of their Chinese patrons.
The rest of the world has turned away from megadam projects, but dam builders are a formidable sector of China’s state industrial complex. Their quest for new business on the middle Mekong dovetailed nicely with their government’s pursuit of dominant influence in mainland Southeast Asia.
Lao leaders were charmed by the idea that their poor and landlocked nation could become “the battery of Southeast Asia,” and use revenues from power sales to fund economic development. Chinese companies’ free-spending lobbying efforts rendered the Lao officials blind to negative impacts on the environment and rural communities, even in Laos itself.
Western readers who have followed the Mekong dams issue understand it mainly as a matter of preserving the world’s richest freshwater fishery. That’s not a surprise; the Western media depends on fish-focused, Cambodia-based Western NGOs for information.
And indeed, the impact of dam construction on migratory fish is a serious concern. Cambodians rely on the annual catch for 80 percent of the animal protein in their diets. Researchers agree that at least half that catch is at risk.
The implications of the Xayaburi Dam for Mekong Delta agriculture meanwhile got little attention outside Vietnam, and in Vietnam only belatedly. Hanoi had put too much trust in the MRC’s consultation mechanisms and the benign engagement of Western governments.
Reflecting on the climactic MRC meeting, a Vietnamese journalist wrote in 2011 that “the Xayaburi business has reached a dead end. Now Vietnam must urgently make a plan of action to cope with the worst that can happen.”
No political process currently gives hope, but economics may yet avert the worst case scenario for the downstream countries. Specifically, the middle Mekong dam cascade looks less bankable now than it once did. Citing environmental and social costs, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank decided in 2004 that they would no longer finance big dams on the Mekong or anywhere else.
More recently, the region’s commercial banks, pondering the uncertainty of baseload electricity demand many years in the future and the political issues associated with the massive dams’ construction, have also shown considerably less interest in financing them.
The enormous Nuozhadu Dam in China's Yunnan province - The dam was built by an arm of the China Huaneng Group, a state-owned enterprise. The enormous Nuozhadu Dam in China’s Yunnan province. The dam was built by an arm of the China Huaneng Group, a state-owned enterprise.
Public policy analysts at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based thinktank, concluded after conversations with Chinese bankers and construction company executives in mid-2015 that these, too, have become increasingly wary of risks, and more inclined to resist Chinese government pressures to finance dam construction on the Mekong. Finally, the Lao government is simply unable to guarantee the investments that it hopes will make Laos “the battery of Southeast Asia.”
Whether more mainstream dams are built seems therefore to depend on whether Beijing is ready, either directly or indirectly via the newly formed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to guarantee its state-owned enterprises against losses.
There’s no evidence that China is ready to give up the game. They have considerable ability to build dams and can leverage a dominant position in Laos to squeeze Vietnam while drawing other Southeast Asian nations further into the rising superpower’s political and economic orbit.
Diversions - just a cloud on the horizon, meanwhile, is the Kong-Loei-Chi-Mun superproject, a Thai Royal Irrigation Department (RID) proposal to divert part of the Mekong’s flow. Water would be pumped from the Mekong’s junction with the Loei River, an insignificant tributary on the Thai side of the river about 125 kilometers upstream from the Lao capital, Vientiane.
The waters so diverted would pass over and through a small mountain range and into the headwaters of northeast Thailand’s Chi-Mun river system. Newspaper reports say the project’s supposed to cost $75 billion, take about 16 years to complete, and irrigate 5 million hectares. That is, coincidentally, an area as vast as the lower Delta, including the Cambodian part, and so probably worth the cost of construction.
The Irrigation Department’s diversion scheme surfaced a few years ago and then was pulled back, whether for further tinkering or because Bangkok was daunted by the negative reaction of neighboring nations. It didn’t stay gone, however.
This spring there was serious drought in northeast Thailand as well as in the lower Mekong. When things got desperate in March, the newswires hummed with reports that the Thai government had authorized diversion of 47 million cubic meters of water from the Mekong.
That’s just a drop in the bucket, so to speak, the equivalent of a mere 18,000 Olympic swimming pools, just enough to test the over-the-mountains pumping concept and Bangkok’s chances of facing down Hanoi, Phnom Penh and maybe also Laos.
An RID official downplayed matters, saying that it would have “no significant impact” downstream and, “anyway, large-scale diversion is at least two years’ off.”
If fully implemented, the superproject is supposed to divert 4 billion cubic meters of water annually into Thailand’s dry northeastern provinces. Four billion cubic meters is four cubic kilometers, one percent of the Mekong’s average annual discharge into the Delta.
The Thai have promised to consult. They’re dead wrong if they think the Vietnamese won’t raise a fuss. In the wake of the epic drought that decimated the winter-spring rice crop, Delta farmers are apt to blame upstream diversions and dams, rather than climate change, for an unprecedented bout of saline intrusion. Farmers are acutely aware that the customary rhythm of the seasons has been disrupted. These are nervous times in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/vietnam-sweats-bullets-as-china-laos-dam-the-mekong/
Comanche women had a lot of responsibility. In the world of the Numunuu (People), they were active in caring for their children and the daily chores of home life. The women were always busy preparing food, shelter, and clothing for their families.
They were extremely industrious in everyday life and were invaluable members to Comanche life. With their knives, animals were skinned and hides were packed by the women. Once back in their villages with their hides, they began the time consuming process of changing this resource into needed articles such as bags, clothing, and coverings for their tipis.
https://www.facebook.com/ComancheMuseum
The Texas Rangers are the Original Law Enforcement agency of the Republic of Texas, before it became a State of the United States. The Institution of the Texas Rangers was created after the Alamo due to the lack of military age men to protect the Nation of Texas.
There were less than 100 of them originally whos job it was to police and protect the whole Nation of Texas on horseback. Due to the massive size of Texas and the limited number of Rangers, they were necessarily endowed with broad authority to police the State of Texas as law officers and soldiers of war.
Today they function mostly as the police of the police. Basically, if you believe that you have a corrupt police department, judge, mayor or any other government official, it is the Texas Ranger who you want to call.
They have the authority to arrest any other law enforcement officer or government official in the State. No other law enforcement agency has more power than the Texas Rangers. They have the authority to make war to protect the State of Texas if they have to.
A ranger ain't looking for you unless it's a serious deal, they're people hunters, a trooper is generally in a traffic safety law enforcement role. If you're doing, or have done, really bad stuff and either one gets hold of you they won't let go.
I had a ranger come to the door one day, hunting for the guy that was living in the efficiency apartment behind the house I was renting at the time. He didn't really need to ask me any questions, just observing me told him everything he needed to know from me.
Out of politeness, he introduced himself and handed me one of his cards, showed me his badge, and his .45 all in one smooth motion that left me behind, he just waited for me to take the card. Then the conversation went about like this:
Ranger: You know first name last name that's staying behind you?
Me: Yes but I didn't know his last name.
Ranger: You see him today?
Me: No.
Ranger: You see him yesterday?
Me: Yeah, I seen him last evening.
Ranger: You reckon you'll see him tonight?
Me: I don't know but usually do.
Ranger: Well if you do you make sure and let me know.
Me: Alright.
Ranger: Thanks.
The guy didn't come in that evening and I lived there two or three more years and never saw either one of them again.
My uncle is a police officer and I asked him this question once and he explained like this. I hope I am remembering this correctly. Typically, an officer just has authority or jurisdiction in the community or the department that employs him or her. That would a city or town, or a county for a sheriff’s deputy, or a state for a state trooper.
https://www.instagram.com/dewdropdwelling/
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His or authority and jurisdiction can carry over to another town, county, etc if a crime was committed in the officer’s jurisdiction but the subject fleas to another area. That’s usually known as interdepartmental cooperation.
The Texas Ranger have jurisdiction and authority over every square inch of Texas and over every city, county, and other state LE agencies. They have have authority and jurisdiction over the state troopers. Texas Rangers and State Troopers share many of the same authorizations and do much of the same thing. Both can arrest Judges, other officers, etc. A Texas Rangers jurisdiction is where ever he stands; whether it be Austin, Alabama, Argentina or Mexico. State Troopers generally have jurisdiction in their State.
That said, Troopers have the power of arrest in any State in the US if they see a crime. They are required by law to act upon seeing a crime being committed. Rangers and Troopers are held to a higher standard then most law enforcement officers.
That said, Texas Rangers are what every law enforcement officer wants to be. They are the elite of law enforcement. Never, I repeat; NEVER challenge either one. They will mop the floor with you. I know, I’ve worked with State Troopers and a few Rangers.
The Texas Revolution of 1836 conjures visions of the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto. It also brings to mind such heroes as Travis, Fannin and Sam Houston. The Texas Rangers conjure visions of brave and heroic figures such as Jack Hays, Rip Ford and others.
Very little has been written about the combination of the Texas Rangers and in the Texas Revolution, but much is known about the Rangers’ commanding officer during 1836, Robert McAlpin Williamson. A heroic figure, Williamson is best known by his nickname: "Three Legged Willie." To understand how this nickname came to be, one must look at his background.
Robert McAlpin Williamson was born in 1804 into a well-to-do, distinguished and cultured home in Georgia. He was given every advantage money could buy, but at the age of fifteen he contracted what was probably polio which left him bedridden. He eventually recovered but was left with his right lower leg bent straight back at the knee.
Out of school he was tutored and was well grounded in the classics and mathematics. He also had a working knowledge of Latin and several other languages. Williamson’s handicap did not hold him back; he had a lust for life.
Young Williamson threw away his crutches, had a peg leg attached at the knee, and always had his pants made with the trousers covering his artificial limb. Eventually he could walk, run, dance, ride and shoot. By age nineteen, he was a lawyer.
Williamson had it all with his family connections, money and profession. So why did he leave and go to Mexican Colonial Texas? It was because of a woman. She was a proud Georgia beauty for whom he killed a man in a duel and by whom he was then spurned. As a result of this rejection, he packed up and left for Texas in 1826.
In 1827 Williamson rode into San Felipe, Texas, and presented a letter of introduction to Empressario Stephen F. Austin. Williamson’s education and zest for life soon brought him into the mainstream of the frontier people.
Williamson was not a snob. He participated in the community and quickly adapted to the frontier lifestyle that matched his passion for life. He became an excellent horseman and rifleman and was just as adept in a barroom brawl as a legal debate.
The colonists, with typical frontier humor, gave him the nickname "Three-Legged Willie" and Williamson was accepted as one of their own. While living in San Felipe, Williamson made friends with another lawyer, William B. Travis.
Their friendship would cause them to be on the forefront of events leading up to the Texas Revolution. On July 4, 1835, Williamson published a speech that would eventually label him the "Patrick Henry of the Texas Revolution".
At the time, however, it made him unpopular with the colonists who wanted peace and with the Mexican government who wanted him arrested. In mid-July, Williamson left San Felipe and moved to the outer edge of the frontier: Bastrop County and the town of Mina.
It was here that he made his name as an Indian fighter and a leader of the "Ranging Corps." Bastrop County was on the outer edge of colonized Texas, and there Williamson learned the craft of being a Ranger from the best in Texas.
He made friends and associates like Edward Burleson, John H. Moore, R. M. Coleman, John J. Tumlinson, Jesse Billingsly, Rueben Hornsby and many others. Here he would also learn the horrors of innocent families murdered by various Indian tribes.
He knew Josiah Wilbarger, who was shot, scalped and left for dead but survived and lived with the terrible wound that would not heal till the day he died years later. Shortly after July 1835, John H. Moore arrived and raised three companies of mounted militia for an expedition against some hostile Indians who had mauled Captain R. M. Coleman’s company.
In those days, companies elected their captains, and Williamson was elected to lead the Mina Company. They spent fifty days in the field chasing Tonkawa and Waco Indians, living off the land, hunting their own food, and sleeping under the open sky.
This kind of lifestyle made a frontiersman out of a man or he didn’t last long in command. Captain Williamson, despite his peg leg, proved he was just as natural in buckskins as a suit and tie. Not long after the company’s return to Mina, word came of trouble in Gonzales, Texas. Texians in that town had refused to surrender an old cannon that the Mexican soldiers were sent to confiscate. The Texians had constructed a homemade flag with the inscription, "Come and Take It." The conflict resulted in a Texas victory and fueled the fire for a revolution.
By this time, Stephen Austin and others who had advocated peace realized that war was the only course left because it was Mexico’s intention to put an end to the colonization of ex-United States citizens. Texian forces then moved on San Antonio to drive out the Mexican general Martín Perfecto de Cos and his soldiers. In reality, the revolution against Mexico had begun.
Realizing the magnitude of the task they were taking on, the Texians established a provisional government called the Consultation. With his law background, Williamson was selected as a member representing Mina and he played a leading role in drafting statements of the Consultation.
Texians had gained easy victories thus far, but the growing hostilities with the Indians was perceived as a very real threat. In haste and confusion several documents concerning the formation of the Texas Rangers were produced.
Finally the ordinance and degree establishing a corps of Rangers was finalized and the Texas Rangers become a government of the revolutionary Texas-sanctioned official force.
The Consultation held an election of officers for the Ranging Corps and on November 28, 1835, Three-Legged Willie became a major and commanding officer of the Ranging Corps. The Ranger companies were to be First Company out of Mina, Second Company out of Gonzales, and Third Company out of Milam.
Captains of the three companies that made the Battalion of Rangers were John J. Tumlinson, William Arrington and Isaac W. Burton. All the while the provisional government squabbled, most Texian militia were involved in the siege of San Antonio. That was where Tumlinson was fighting as a first lieutenant in the militia when he was elected.
In late November 1835, Major Williamson was ordered to Mina by General Sam Houston to guard and protect the frontier. Most men from Mina, however, didn’t return from the San Antonio campaign until mid-December when Christmas holidays were observed. In early January, Williamson began recruiting with his first company commander, John J. Tumlinson.
No one in Mina contested the choice of the respected Indian fighters for the command positions, but recruitment was slow. Captain Tumlinson moved out to the frontier with eighteen or so Rangers. His second company from Milam started forming on January 17 under Captain Sterling C. Robertson.
Texas defense policy had not changed much from that of pioneer Tennessee and Kentucky in the 1790s. A series of interlinked outposts or forts were built with patrols of Rangers to "range" along the frontier. Captain Tumlinson, who was going to use his men to build outposts, stopped at Hornsby’s farm and made camp.
Shortly after, a half-naked, abused, bruised and heartbroken Sarah Hibbons stumbled into the farm of Jacob Harrell, a neighbor of Hornsby. Harrell brought her to the Rangers’ attention. Mrs. Hibbons had escaped a Comanche raiding party that had killed her husband, brother and infant child. She had escaped at night, leaving behind her young son.
Because she had walked and her trail was fresh and relatively close by, the Rangers knew that the Indians were near. The Rangers immediately shifted their primary mission from fort building to protecting the settlers.
The eighteen-odd Tumlinson Rangers mounted up and hit the trail. The next morning, in a lightning-strike raid, the Rangers caught the Comanches by surprise.
Tumlinson’s Rangers defeated the Comanche party and rescued the Hibbons boy. This was a highly praised accomplishment among the Texians because, sadly, many kidnapped children were never rescued. Back at Hornsby’s, more Ranger recruits arrived and Captain Tumlinson then went with his men into the frontier and built his blockhouse.
Major Williamson, having recruited approximately thirty-four out of fifty-six men for Captain Tumlinson’s company, returned to San Felipe to directly voice his concern over the problems of the fledgling corps. The Consultation was already aware of the problems: low pay and disorganization.
The Rangers traditionally elected their own captains, and in Gonzales there was a problem. The Consultation, on February 4, advised Governor Robertson of the situations in Gonzales and Milam, where the other companies were to be formed. As a result, the Consultation, under Williamson’s urging, wrote specific orders and duties for the Commander of the Ranging Corps (printed as written):
ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO J. W. ROBINSON
Council Hall San Felipe de Austin Feb.14 1836
The advisory committee to the Executive appointed by the General Council to act in the capacity in the absence of a quorum of said Council. Having learned with regret of Indian depredations and murders committed on our frontiers, and deeming it of the greatest importance that prompt and efficient measures should be taken to organized and put into active service the Ranging Corps, for this purpose the committee advise that the acting Governor issue the following orders to the Major of the Ranging Corps.
1st. That he continue his Head Quarters at Mina (present Bastrop), Stationing one of the Subaltern Officers at the place to act as aid or secretary.
2d. That he proceed to the frontier and make arrangements for the building blockhouses and fortifications and at such points as he deem best calculated for the protection of the frontiers and also adopt prompt measures for enlisting and organizing the full number of men contemplated by the law creating the Ranging Corps, Reporting to the Governor and Council any vacancies there may occur in officers of said Corps.
3d. That he appoint a contractor for supplying said Corps with provisions who shall be appointed from the subalterns of the line. The Paymaster & Commissary shall be subject to the same rules and regulations as are prescribed by law for same Officers in the Regular Army.
4th. In cases of emergency, or prospect of general engagement, he shall have the power to call on the mounted volunteers, to call out the militia of the county, and to concentrate his command at such points as may be necessary for the protection of the frontier.
5th. The Major shall report his proceeding to the Governor and Council for the present, as often as may be convenient
D. C. Barret Chairman
Alexr Thomson
G. A. Pattillo
J. D. Clements
With these orders in hand, Major Williamson traveled to Gonzales to form his Third Company and to gather intelligence that had been filtering in for weeks about a Mexican Army coming north. The first portion of the Gonzales Ranging Company consisted of twenty-eight men with Lieutenant George C. Kimble in command and was officially formed on February 24, 1836.
William Arrington was not elected as captain of the company and therefore would not serve in the Rangers. On February 25, 1836, messengers arrived from Bexar reporting that the Mexican Army vanguard had arrived and Willie’s old friend "Buck" Travis and one hundred fifty men had "forted" up in the Alamo.
Travis asked for help. Williamson wrote a plea to all Texians to come to the aid of Travis. He also wrote to the Council and the Governor of his intentions. Major Williamson ordered Captain J. J. Tumlinson to leave the frontier and come to reinforce the Alamo.
Copies of the order were sent with messengers to San Felipe and to Mina. On February 27, Williamson dispatched the Gonzales Ranging Company to reinforce the Alamo. He could not have known at the time that this group would be the last Texian unit to arrive at the Alamo and would be doomed to share the same fate of the defenders already there.
On March 1, 1836, Williamson passed a personal letter to James Butler Bonham to give to Travis at the Alamo. Bonham arrived at the Alamo and told Travis that reinforcements were on the way and to "Hold out for God’s sake."
Williamson continued to organize the Gonzales relief forces and gather supplies. Colonel Edward Burleson arrived with Captain Jesse Billingsly’s Mina Militia and relieved Williamson by order of General Houston. Captain Tumlinson’s Ranger company was to remain in Mina and Major Williamson was to carry out his original orders: protect the frontier.
Williamson had now lost his entire Second Command and his friend Travis On March 10, he arrived back in Mina and took command of the Rangers. In Bastrop County, the Runaway Scrape began when news of the Alamo’s fall reached the area. Families fled the anticipated Mexican invasion, fearing the savage attack of General Santa Anna.
Williamson ordered his First and Third Companies to protect the families remaining in Mina. He then broke up Tumlinson’s Rangers into detachments. Some would go to protect the fleeing families, others were sent to gather cattle to keep food out of the Mexican Army’s hands. Other Rangers would be assigned as spies (scouts) and as a rear guard to monitor Mexican movements.
Without the Rangers, fleeing families were at the mercy of the hazards of the Texas frontier. There was a fear of attacks from Indians and from Tejanos, who were Texans of Mexican descent. The Tejanos sided with the Mexican army and spied and raided for Mexican general Genoa, who was in charge of the northern flank of the Mexican invasion force.
Thái Thanh (born Phạm Thị Băng Thanh; August 5, 1934 – March 17, 2020) was a Vietnamese-American singer. She was one of the most iconic singers of the Western-influenced popular music in Vietnam, known as 'New music of Vietnam (Tân nhạc)'. Thái Thanh started her career before the First Indochina War when she was 14 years old, without any formal music education. She learned singing from her informal knowledge of northern Vietnamese folk singing and French music books, which she later fused in her performances. She was a member of her family-based band, Thăng Long, one of the first widely known music bands in Vietnam during the 20th century. She began her solo career and adopted her stage name Thái Thanh in 1950. Her older sister Phạm Thị Quang Thái was a famous singer under the stage name Thái Hằng, and her older brother Phạm Đình Chương was a prominent musical figure and singer under the stage name Hoài Bắc. Her brother-in-law was the leading songwriter Phạm Duy, who was married to Thái Hằng. In 1956, Thái Thanh married Lê Quỳnh, and they had three daughters and two sons together: Ý Lan (1957), Lê Việt (1958), Quỳnh Dao (1960), Thanh Loan (1962) và Lê Đại (1964). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A1i_Thanh
In addition, there were the settlers’ own Texian outlaws who robbed and raped throughout the frontier. Families fled in different directions and the Rangers scattered. Upon completion of moving the families to safety, the Rangers returned to Williamson or to General Houston’s army.
In early April 1836, Williamson set up headquarters in Washington, Houston was at Groce’s Plantation, and Santa Anna encamped in San Felipe. Williamson was in communication with General Houston and discussed the spies out on assignments.
Williamson again followed his original orders and organized a company called the Washington Guards under Captain J. B. Chance and sent them to Houston’s army. In Washington, he dealt with looters and hung two Mexican Army deserters.
On April 13, Williamson was recalled to Houston’s Army but ordered to keep his spies out. Williamson served as a messenger until the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21,1836, where he served in the cavalry.
Having completed their tasks on detachment, other Rangers returned to the Army, integrated into various Army companies, and also fought in the famous battle. After the Battle of San Jacinto, more Rangers filtered back to Houston’s army.
Among these were Noah Smithwick and some Rangers who came back with the families they escorted. Major Williamson was once again in charge of the Ranging Corps mission and began a reorganization of the Corps while his Rangers followed the retreating Mexican Army. He formed a Fourth Company under command of Captain Isaac W. Burton, who had fought as a private in Deaf Smith’s Spy Company. Burton was supposed to be the Third Company’s commander according to the Consultation election in 1835.
On May 19, 1836, the massacre and kidnapping at Fort Parker by the Comanches occurred. News of the long-expected Indian raid reached the Army and a new Ranger command was formed consisting of three companies under Colonel Edward Burleson.
The unit was mainly comprised of men from Bastrop, Robertson and Milam Counties and it was made up of militiamen and Rangers. Captain Calvin Boales now commanded the Milam Company (Third Company). Many Tumlinson Rangers joined these companies and in essence, Tumlinson’s Rangers were disbanded.
While Colonel Burleson marched north for another four months of campaigning in the field, Captain Burton’s command moved south along the coast and scored a major victory in early June. Using guile, the Rangers captured three ships bringing Mexican Army supplies and earned the title of "Horse Marines."
On June 24, 1836, Williamson turned over command of the Ranging Corps to Major Isaac Watts Burton. Williamson went on to help organize the government of the newly won Republic of Texas.
Upon reflection of the original organization and orders, "Three-Legged Willie" accomplished his mission the best he could in the middle of the Revolution. Robert McAlpin Williamson later became a famous judge and congressman of Texas.
He married Mary Jane Edwards and they had seven children. He died on November 20,1859. John S. "Rip" Ford said, "Robert McAlpin Williamson did more than any one man to nerve our people to strike for Liberty".
James D. Gray has co-authored the book Maritime Terror with Gary Stubblefield and Mark Monday, and published numerous articles in Navy Special Warfare’s Full Mission Profile journal and in Combat Craft, the professional journal of waterborne operations. He retired in 1999 as a Master Chief Gunner’s Mate from the Naval Special Warfare Combatant Craft Community of the Navy.
Gray was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, and is a descendant of a member of Captain John J. Tumlinson’s "ranging company" of 1836. His family came to Texas in 1831. Though he now lives in Covina, California he claims he has never stopped being a Texan.
He is a member of the Alamo Society and is currently working on a book on "Three-Legged Willie" and the Rangers of the Texas Revolution. The Texas Rangers are a part of the Texas Dept. of Public Safety, but Rangers are the creme de la creme of the Dept.
To become a Ranger, one must first become a Texas State Trooper, and then only a few chosen each year get a chance to become a Ranger. Rangers are to Texas as the FBI is to the federal level of law enforcement. If you ever see a Texas Ranger in on a case, you know it’s serious.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-Texas-ranger-and-a-state-trooper-police
HAYS, JOHN COFFEE (1817–1883). John Coffee (Jack) Hays, Texas Ranger extraordinary and Mexican War officer, son of Harmon and Elizabeth (Cage) Hays, was born at Little Cedar Lick, Wilson County, Tennessee, on January 28, 1817. His father, of Scots-Irish descent, fought with Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston in the War of 1812.
Hays became the prototypical Texas Ranger officer, and he and his cohorts—John S. (Rip) Ford, Ben McCulloch, and Samuel H. Walker established the ranger tradition. Hays joined the Texas Rangers in the formative years of their role as citizen soldiers.
His rangers gained a reputation as mounted troops with revolvers and individually styled uniforms, who marched and fought with a noticeable lack of military discipline. This rough-and-ready image of an irregular force left its imprint on the chronicles of ranger history.
In the thirteen years that he lived in Texas, Hays mixed a military career with surveying. At an early age he left home, surveyed lands in Mississippi, attended Davidson Academy at Nashville, and decided to cast his lot with the rebels in the Texas Revolution.
In 1836 he traveled to New Orleans and entered Texas at Nacogdoches in time to join the troops under Thomas J. Rusk and bury the remains of victims of the Goliad Massacre. Houston advised Hays to join a company of rangers under Erastus (Deaf) Smith for service from San Antonio to the Rio Grande, under the orders of Col. Henry W. Karnes.
In this role Hays took part in an engagement with Mexican cavalry near Laredo, assisted in the capture of Juan Sánchez, and rose to the rank of sergeant. After appointment as deputy surveyor of the Bexar District, Hays combined soldiering and surveying for several years. The more he learned about Indian methods of warfare, the better he protected surveying parties against Indian attacks.
In the three-way struggle of Anglo colonists, Hispanic settlers, and Indians, Hays proved to be an able leader and fearless fighter (called "Devil Yack"), who gained the respect of the rank and file of the Texas Rangers.
Yet his stature-five feet nine inches-his fair complexion, and his mild manners did not match the looks and actions of the legendary ranger in later popular culture. From 1840 through 1846 Hays, at first a captain, then a major, and his ranger companies, sometimes with Mexican volunteers and such Indian allies as Lipan chief Flacco, engaged the Comanches and Mexican troops in small skirmishes and major battles.
Important military actions took place at Plum Creek, Cañón de Ugalde, Salado (against Mexican soldiers under Adrián Woll), and Walker's Creek. In these battles Hays and his rangers were usually outnumbered, and their effective use of revolvers revolutionized warfare against Texas Indians.
The Texas Rangers gained a national reputation in the Mexican War. Into Mexico rode Hays's rangers. Out of Mexico came a mounted irregular body of rangers celebrated in song and story throughout the United States.
This transformation in fact and fiction started with the formation of the First Regiment, Texas Mounted Riflemen, under Colonel Hays. Serving with the army of Gen. Zachary Taylor, the rangers marched, scouted, and took part in the attack on Monterrey in 1846.
The next year Hays formed another regiment that participated in keeping communication and supply lines open between Veracruz and Mexico City for the troops under the command of Gen. Winfield Scott.
In doing so, Hays's rangers fought Mexican guerrillas near Veracruz and at such places as Teotihuacán and Sequalteplán. Controversy between the rangers and the Mexican people still lingers, for they robbed and killed each other off the battlefields.
In the years that followed the Mexican War, Hays pioneered trails through the Southwest to California and became a prominent citizen of that state. In 1848 he tried unsuccessfully to find a route between San Antonio and El Paso, and the following year he received an appointment from the federal government as Indian agent for the Gila River country.
In addition, he was elected sheriff of San Francisco County in 1850, appointed United States surveyor general for California in 1853, became one of the founders of the city of Oakland, and ran successful enterprises in real estate and ranching.
Though he was neutral during the Civil War, he was prominent in Democratic politics in California; he was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in 1876. He married Susan Calvert in 1847, and they had three daughters and three sons. Hays died on April 21, 1883, and is buried in California. Hays County, Texas, is named in his honor.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhabq
Jack Hays was born 28 January 1817 at Cedar Lick in Wilson County, Tennessee. By the age of fifteen he had moved to Mississippi and began to learn surveying. By mid-1836 Hays was in Texas where he joined a Ranger company under Erastus "Deaf" Smith.
He took part in a skirmish with the Mexican Cavalry and assisted in the capture of Juan Sánchez. He was appointed deputy surveyor of the Bexar District. Hays combined his knowledge of Indian warfare with his rangering.
In 1840, Hays was appointed a captain of the Rangers. He proved himself to be a fearless fighter and a good leader of men. His Ranger companies, often mixed groups of Anglos, Hispanics and Indians, engaged in battles and skirmishes with both the Comanches and other hostile Indian tribes, as well as Mexican troops, throughout the early years of the 1840s.
Hays and his Rangers were involved in important actions at Plum Creek, Cañon de Ugalde, Bandera Pass, Painted Rock, Salado, and Walker's Creek. The battle at Walker's Creek marked a turning point in Indian warfare with the first effective use of repeating firearms in close combat with the Comanche.Hays gained further respect as a fighter during the Mexican War.
The First Regiment, Texas Mounted Riflemen, under the command of Colonel Jack Hays, served with the army of Zachary Taylor. Hays' men scouted for the army and took part in the Battle of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico in 1846.
The next year, another regiment under Hays helped to keep the communication and supply lines open between Veracruz and Mexico City for the troops under Winfield Scott. After the Mexican War, Hays left Texas, following the gold rush to California in 1849. He was elected as Sheriff of San Francisco in 1850. In 1853 he was appointed U. S.
Surveyor General for California. He was one of the developers of Oakland, and held interests in land, banking and utilities. In 1876, Hays was a delegate to the Democratic national convention. Hays died 21 April 1883 and was interred in the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
https://www.texasranger.org/texas-ranger-museum/hall-of-fame/john-coffee-jack-hays/
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Any senior citizen can tell you that understanding is relative. What was right often turns out to be a cultural norm when considered many years later.
I have considered natural law for nearly sixty years and I still am not sure that there is such a thing as an immutable law. Instead, it seems evident that we, as the experiencing aspect of Infinite Intelligence (Source and reality field), are learning, and therefore, so is Infinite Intelligence.
That necessarily means the expression of Infinite Intelligence also evolves.
Rupert Sheldrake talks about this in a local (physical organism) sense as “Nature’s habit.” It is changed as the organism come up with creative alternatives.
Understanding does converge on something like a truth, however. A curve of this would look a lot like a half-life curve so that our first encounter with an experience might give us a good sense of what is true, but the next encounter will likely show that we did not completely understand, thus requiring us to modify our understanding.
Of course, this all assumes we are paying attention and actually want to learn.
As you can see, the next encounter will likely produce more understanding, and so on. The curve approaches complete understanding (truth) but never quite makes it.
Part of the reason for this imperfect understanding is that we share this venue for learning with other personalities. With those other personalities, we create this venue, and as our understanding increases, so the creative result is modified. …so goes the theory.
So what does this have to do with the Winter Solstice? First, it happens every year; it marks a cycle like the Fool in the Tarot. As a parable for progression (understanding), it illustrates that spiritual awakening is an iterative process.
While the Dark Night of Soul and The Tower of the Tarot represent awakening, they are not seen as a one-time event for the seeker. Key 0 of the Tarot, The Fool, is seen as both the beginning and the end of the cycle which is expected to repeat countless times.
This is echoed in the many initiations required in some modern societies as members progress from first initiate to master.
As we are beginning to understand about how our mind works, learning occurs in small increments. And as such, the Tower represents an “Ah ha moment.” That is the “secret wisdom” I see in the depiction of sudden enlightenment.
It is in this gradualism with an occasionally catastrophic moment of progress that I believe we all sense in New Years, the Winter Solstice and spring renewal.
The Māori people have it about right. Each year, the fern unfurrows its new fronds; the spiral represents renewal, and that is a cycle of life. The rest of the story is that progression is a life-long process.
https://ethericstudies.org/winter-solstice-and-progression/
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