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Superiorland Yesterdays

EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

MARQUETTE — Native American author and educator Vine Deloria Jr. will be Northern Michigan University’s spring commencement speaker. Deloria, who has written more than a dozen books on contemporary Indian issues and history, will receive an honorary doctor of humanities degree during the May 10th ceremony. He is professor of American Indian Studies and adjunct professor of law at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He was most recently at NMU in 1989 as a visiting professor, and tool part in Native American Awareness Days here in 1984.Born in Martin, S.D., Deloria is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota and comes from a long line of Indian scholars, clergymen and chiefs. He is the founder and former chairman of the institute for the Development of Indian law, and vice-chairman of the Council of Indian Affairs.

60 years ago

K.I SAWYER — K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base’s “oldest” man will leave the base this month- the oldest, that is, in terms of length of time assigned here. T-Sgt. Robert L. Cress, formerly known as non-commissioned officer in charge of 58th Air Force Base Squadron Supply, will depart here for Hickson Air Force Base, Hawaii, bringing an end to nearly five years of duty at K. I. Sawyer. Years during which he was the first Air Force member to be assigned here and witness to the base growth from dirt trails and scaffolding to the present giant, modern installation. “The only completed building on the base was the Army Corps of Engineers building,” Sgt. Cross said, “and the present road system existed only in the form of snow-covered (he arrived in November) trails.” Of course there were no living quarters on base at the time and Sgt. Cross, in company with the handful of Air Force personnel which began trickling into the Upper Peninsula during subsequent months, were boarded at the Gwinn Inn.

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