April 27, 2018
T he C olumbia P ress
This Week in Aboriginal History
Senior Moments
by Carl A. Ellis
Sand Creek Massacre site is
memorialized in Colorado
April 27, 1763: Pontiac
holds council with a large
group of Ottawa, Wyandot
and Potawatomi Indians. He
tells them of his plans to at-
tack Fort Detroit and extols
the virtue of returning to the
old Indian ways before Euro-
peans arrived.
April 28, 2007: Sand
Creek Massacre Nation-
al Historic Site in Colorado
is dedicated as a memori-
al to the 150 Cheyenne and
Arapaho Indians who were
slaughtered at the hands of a
militia led by Col. John Chiv-
ington.
April 29, 1700: Lemoyne
d’Iberville visits a Pascagou-
la Indian village a day’s walk
from the French outpost at
Biloxi. The Pascagoula have
been hit hard by disease
brought by Europeans.
D’Iberville is impressed by
the beauty of the Pascagoula
women.
April 30, 1961: The
Menominee tribe of Wis-
consin is terminated from
its trust status as a federally
recognized sovereign Indi-
an tribe. The tribal rolls are
closed, all federal services
ended and the tax-exempt
status of reservation lands
eliminated. A decade later,
the Menominee regain feder-
al recognition from Congress.
May 1, 1945: Singer/
songwriter Rita Coolidge, a
Cherokee from Tennessee, is
born. She’ll enjoy a career in
rock, pop, R&B, country, folk
and gospel spanning three
decades. In 2000, she was
awarded the Native Ameri-
can Music Association’s Life-
time Achievement Award.
May 2, 1871: Indians raid
settlements near Fort Seldon
in southern New Mexico.
According to U.S. Army re-
cords, cavalry troops chase
them for 280 miles, but don’t
catch them.
May 3, 1806: Lewis and
Clark meet Nez Perce Chief
Weahkoonut.
Volunteers needed to help visitors
The Astoria-Warrenton
Area Chamber of Com-
merce seeks volunteers to
assist with greeting and
helping visitors who come
to the Visitor Center.
Regardless of how long
one has lived in the area,
volunteers will be able to
use their knowledge and
learn the rest.
Visitor Center volunteers
also help restock shelves,
mail brochures and help
prep supplies for chamber
events.
There
are
openings
on Monday mornings,
Tuesday afternoons and
Wednesday
afternoons,
plus on-call volunteers are
needed to fill in when oth-
er volunteers are sick or on
vacation. Shifts usually are
three hours.
To help, contact volun-
teer coordinator Barbi En-
gland at 503-325-6311.
9
with Emma Edwards
Paperwork purge: The new spring cleaning
Spring cleaning. Unneces-
sary clutter.
When I find it, I don’t need it.
When I need it, I can’t find it.
Ever feel that way? I decid-
ed to get serious lately and
dive in. I can no longer haul
all the boxes and bags out of
my Fibber McGee & Molly
closet. So the “kids” (who are
seniors themselves) came to
my rescue, unloading the first
of my three closets. It took up
half my living room space.
The “easy” part was the
clothes. I know I should give
to a worthwhile charity what-
ever I have not worn in two
years. Some say only one year.
Anyway, I invited the kids
to be here when I sorted the
stuff into bags, tubs and box-
es in case there was a treasure
they wanted. But they were
not the least bit interested in
any of my treasures.
More than a few tubs con-
tained “important papers”
dating to 2004, 1969 and
1978 and on and on. We dis-
cussed how long to keep pa-
perwork. That’s debatable,
I learned, but settled on the
following suggestions.
One of my sources suggest-
ed we “protect our identity by
shredding anything that con-
tains more personal informa-
tion than you can find in the
phone book.” Upon further
research, I found I could re-
Senior lunch menu
Monday, April 30: Spaghetti, Italian sausage in red sauce,
broccoli, romaine salad, ice cream.
Thursday, May 3: Parmesan chicken, Spanish rice, mixed Ital-
ian vegetables, spinach salad, bread pudding.
The Warrenton senior lunch program is at noon (doors
open at 10:30 a.m.) Mondays and Thursdays at Warrenton
Community Center, 170 SW Third St. Suggested donation is
$5 for ages 55 and older; $7 for those younger. For more
information, call 503-861-3502.
duce my “must save” papers
to one black file box covering
all my many years. We can
toss (shred) ATM receipts,
credit card receipts, state-
ments and utility bills after
paying them.
In summary, the things to
keep one year are paycheck
stubs, bank statements, bro-
kerage paperwork, 401(k)
and IRA statements and other
investment paperwork. Also
keep health care receipts.
Things to keep seven years
include papers supporting
your tax returns, including
W-2s, 1099s and deductions.
Papers to keep indefinite-
ly are tax returns, IRS forms
filed, receipts for capital im-
provements (until seven years
after you sell the house), in-
vestment statements, pen-
sion plan papers, savings
bonds until redeemed, loan
documents till paid off, ve-
hicle titles and registration
papers for cars, boats, trucks,
etc. Keep paperwork for ac-
tive insurance policies as well
as warranties and receipts for
big purchases you still own or
until the warranty expires.
Those things to keep for-
ever aren’t hard to figure
out. These include personal
and family records such as
birth certificates, marriage
licenses, divorce papers,
Social Security cards, mil-
itary discharge papers and
estate-planning documents
(power of attorney, will, trust
and advanced directive).
Jim Miller, author of “The
Savvy Senior” book, from
which I obtained some of
these nuggets of wisdom,
also says to keep these for-
ever items in a fireproof safe
or safe-deposit box. Miller
also includes instructions for
computer savvy people.
Some of us may remember
how we used to lay in bed at
night in the ‘40s and listen to
Fibber McGee & Molly. I can
still remember his famous
line, “ ‘Tain’t funny, McGee.”
That’s how I feel about all
this sorting!