PROFESSOR JAMES HUNTER CBE, Director, Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands
A MacDonald in the Camp of Sitting Bull
顿补迟别/罢颈尘别:听 12th November 2009, 17:30
In 1876 they wiped out General George A Custer and his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Now Chief Sitting Bull and his Sioux people have fled from the United States to Canada. Here, in the fall of 1877, the Sioux are joined by the remnants of the latest Indian nation to make a stand against the U.S. army. They are the Nez Perce. Their survivors are led by Chief White Bird. A young man follows White Bird to Sitting Bull鈥檚 camp. He is White Bird鈥檚 close relative and he aims to tell the story of the Nez Perce War from the Nez Perce point of view. This young man鈥檚 name is Duncan McDonald. Descended from chiefs of the Nez Perce and from chiefs of Scotland鈥檚 most formidable clan, Duncan鈥檚 family 鈥� first as Highlanders, then as Native Americans 鈥� have twice been victims of massacre and dispossession. This lecture tells their story.
Professor James Hunter CBE FRSE is director of the UHI Centre for History. The author of eleven books on the Scottish Highlands and on the region鈥檚 worldwide diaspora, he has also been active in the public life of the area. In the mid-1980s, he became the first director of the Scottish Crofters Union, now the Scottish Crofting Foundation. More recently, he served for six years as chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the North of Scotland鈥檚 development agency. In the course of a varied career, Jim has also been a journalist and broadcaster. He is presently a board member of Scottish Natural Heritage and chairs SNH鈥檚 Scientific Advisory Committee. Jim Hunter was born and grew up in Duror, North Argyll. In recognition of his services to the Highlands and Islands, he was made a CBE in 2001. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007.