[PLUG-TALK] off topic: a bit of oregon history

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 12:36:11PM -0800, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> The article does not mention that Oregon law prohibited people of
> Chinese descent to own real property. The purpose was to keep them from
> owning mining claims, which are legally real estate, so they could not
> get into the gold business.

My great-grandfather ( father's-mother's-father ) Johan Longi
was a Finn immigrant coal miner in Wyoming.  One of my hobbies
is tracing his (and his wife Lizzie's) roots back to Finland.
Also, his relation to three (4?) other coal miners surnamed
Longi who died in the 1903 and 1908 Hanna mine disasters.

Hundreds of Wyoming Chinese coal miners were massacred by 
laid-off "white" coal miners.  Perhaps my great-grandfather
was involved.  Hope not.  

When COVID-22 finishes killing antivax volunteers, and it
is safe to travel again, I hope to visit archives in Wyoming 
to learn more about the immigrants and the massacres.  Not
to judge - ignorance, powerlessness, and debt slavery turns
frightened men into monsters.  We are not so different now.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com