Sep

16

4. VIP Interview / Photo Opportunities

Please contact Sandy Alexander to set up interviews with the following special guests or to arrange photo opportunities prior to event or during event.

Steve Alexander as General George Armstrong Custer

Steve’s web site

Proclaimed by the United States Congress as the “foremost Custer living historian” Monroe resident Steve Alexander has been acknowledged by both the Michigan and Ohio Senates for his lifetime work and portrayal of America’s most controversial military leader, George Armstrong Custer. Steve has appeared as the General in over 20 television docudramas featured on the Discovery and History channels and A&E. Alexander was bestowed with the Crow Indian name, Ika Dieux’ Daka, by Tribal Historian Joe Medicine Crow. The name means Son of the Morning Star, a name previously held by only one man, George Armstrong Custer. Steve and his wife Sandy reside in the restored Bacon/Custer home.

Ernie LaPointe – Chief Sitting Bull’s great-grandson

Earnest (Ernie) W. LaPointe is the great-grandson of legendary Chief Sitting Bull. He descends from a long line of chiefs on both his maternal and paternal sides. Ernie, a disabled Vietnam veteran, was born in 1948, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. At age the tender age of 10, he suffered the loss of his mother, Angeline LaPointe (Spotted Horse) to cancer, and at 17, his father, Claude LaPointe, died from a heart attack. Ernie joined the United States Army at age 18 and was stationed in Korea, Turkey, and Germany, as well as throughout the United States. During 1970/71, he served one tour of duty in Vietnam and was honorably discharged in 1972.

In 1992, Ernie was given the opportunity to set the record straight on the Sitting Bull direct blood descendants by speaking at the induction of Sitting Bull into the Hall of Fame of American Indian Chiefs at Anadarko, Oklahoma. Since then he’s received numerous invitations to speak about his heritage from Crazy Horse Memorial and Little Big Horn Battlefield. The History Channel sought his assistance in 2004 and 2005 for two documentaries: Command Decisions and History Hogs. Ernie is a Sun Dancer who lives the traditional way of the Lakota and follows the rules of the sacred pipe.

Dakota Goodhouse – Chief of Interpretation, Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park

Dakota Goodhouse was born and raised on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. He’s a descendant of Blue Thunder, a US Scout and tribal historian of the Hunkpapa Lakota and Yanktonai Dakota tribes. Dakota’s traditional Lakota name is Ozuyé Nu_pa, freely translated as Fights-Two-Wars or Warrior-Two-Times.

Dakota graduated with honors from the University of Mary with a Bachelor of Arts in theology and history. The Lieutenant General of the US Army Corps of Engineers presented Dakota with a Medal of Excellence by for his work with the Corps of Discovery II. He was given a Medal of Excellence, an on-the-spot award, by the Major General of the US Air and Marine National Guard.

Dakota’s printed work has been published in the First Nations Theology Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (an icon of the Holy Trinity painted by Dakota also appears on the front cover of this issue) and in Chapter 4 of The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian. He is a regular contributing writer to The Past Times, a quarterly historical paper published by the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation, and moderates The Past Times audio series, which is available at fortlincoln.com.

Dakota has been by turns an archaeologist, an educator, a National Park ranger, and now works as the Chief of Interpretation at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, for the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation.

Lee Chambers – Author, Fort Abraham Lincoln Dakota Territory

Historians will relish this comprehensive new presentation about one of America’s most important 19th century forts whose first commanding office was Civil War hero Major General George Armstrong Custer. Custer was in command of Fort Lincoln at the time of the Seventh Cavalry’s fateful expedition to the Little Big Horn. In 2006, Lee and his brother, Rick, participated in an archaeological excavation at Fort Lincoln and located four rifle pits. Lee became interested in Fort Lincoln because his father was one of the last cavalrymen to go to war and fight on horseback for the United States. Lee’s in the process of constructing a 9’ x 18’ diorama of Fort Lincoln that includes over 100 buildings and replicates the 19th century terrain.

A retired police officer with 30 years of service, Lee Chambers was inducted into the Who’s Who in American Law Enforcement.

Chris Kull – Archivist, Monroe County Historical Museum

Chris Kull is the archivist at the Monroe County Historical Museum, a position she has held for over 20 years. Chris received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Lake Superior State College and her Master of Arts in historic preservation from Colorado State University. Her interest in researching various women of Monroe County’s past, including Elizabeth Custer and Maggie Custer Calhoun, led to the development Noteworthy Women of Monroe County, a program that garnered a Minuteman Award from the Monroe County Michigan Week Committee.
A lifelong resident of Monroe, she is married to Paul Merman and has 2 children, Katie, 21, and Isaac, 17. Chris enjoys tennis, boating and traveling. She’s a member of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, the Sawyer Homestead, Monroe County Historical Society, Michigan Archival Association, Friends of the River Raisin Battlefield, River Raisin Bicentennial Committee, and ACC Network.

Mark McPherson as Mark Twain

“He has ably succeeded in bringing history to life,” said United States Congressman John Dingell of Mark McPherson. Mark has long been fascinated by the intricacies of “history, mystery, and myth,” if not an array of great personages who have shaped them—unwittingly or not. His interests have also included a number of archaeological pursuits. As director of the DAEDALOS Investigative Agency, he’s participated in real-life expeditions that include searching for the real “Camelot” in southwestern Britain—diving for the source of Lost Atlantis—even hunting for the legendary Loch Ness Monster.
Mark’s literary interests have included a host of documentary films, including the PBS specials An Egyptian Odyssey and The Great Shakespeare Dual as well as The Houdini File. From a historical angle, Mark recently published Looking For Lisette: In Quest Of An American Original, which tells a real-life historical detective story involving the discovery of the life and legacies of Elizabeth Denison Forth (1786-1866), who was perhaps the first slave to sue for her freedom before an American court following the American Revolution.

A great aficionado of literary history and detective fiction as well as the lore of the American West, Mark McPherson is currently completing Wyatt’s Last Case, which he is also preparing as a screenplay. He is presently anticipating the publication of two books, Grail Bringer and its sequel, The Diana Code as well as a children’s book, The Mage, The Wand, & The Watch-Tower.

Kirk Shapland as Buffalo Bill Cody

Kirk Shapland’s web site

Kirk Shapland as “Cody of the Plains” brings a Young Buffalo Bill Cody to life through his stirring living history presentations. The audience both young and old will feel as though they are in the presence of Buffalo Bill both through Kirk’s remarkable resemblance to Buffalo Bill and his commanding knowledge of Cody and his life.

Jahnis Abelite as Russian Grand Duke Alexis

Michael N. Donahue - Author, DRAWING BATTLE LINES: The Map Testimony of Custer’s Last Fight
Michael N. Donahue is chairman of the Temple College Art Department, Temple, Texas. He is also a historical interpreter and park ranger at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, where he has served for 18 summers.


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