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“We Want Democracy to Be Restored”: Protesters in Chile Decry Inequality Amid Military Crackdown

In Chile, as many as eight people have died in widespread civil unrest that’s brought Santiago to a standstill and sparked a violent police and military crackdown across the country. The protests in Chile began in response to a subway fare hike two weeks ago and have grown into a mass uprising against rising inequality, high cost of living and privatization. Conservative billionaire President Sebastián Piñera canceled the fee increase on Saturday, but protests are continuing, with a national strike called for today.

President Piñera declared a state of emergency in Santiago and five other cities over the weekend, imposing a curfew and sending the military into the streets in response to civil unrest for the first time since dictator Augusto Pinochet’s nearly 20-year regime.

Andra Chastain.
Chastain

Andra Chastain, assistant professor of history at WSU: “I first want to say that this is nothing new. Transit fare increases have sparked major social protests in Santiago and throughout Latin America for over a century. And up until the dictatorship in 1973, social protest and political opposition and opposition to fare increases were a major reason why fares were held relatively low for many decades. There were uprisings in 1949, in 1957 in Santiago…. I also want to say that in 2007 there was a major overhaul of the transportation system that integrated the buses with the Metro, known as Transantiago, which also sparked major protests. So, this is nothing new. I think that social protest actually is a legitimate way to force the government into changing its policies.

“I also want to say that the Metro has — it began in the late ’60s — and it has represented the Chilean state for a very long time, and it has represented both the left and the right. So, under the socialist revolution of Salvador Allende, Allende supported the Metro. But after he was overthrown, the dictatorship of Pinochet kind of seized on the Metro as a shining example of what could happen under an authoritarian government. And since the return to democracy, both governments on the right and the left have held up the Metro as kind of an example of what they like to call the “Chilean miracle,” showing Chile to the outside world as this developed and democratic and exemplary model.”

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Democracy Now

Center for Arts and Humanities celebrates launch, hosts NEH chairman

Washington State University will celebrate the public launch of the Center for Arts and Humanities (CAH) with two workshops and a reception on Oct. 24. Joining the festivities will be Jon Parrish Peede, chairman for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“The center will serve as a ‘front door’ to the arts and humanities at WSU. Our goal is to nurture curiosity and encourage innovation that crosses traditional scholarly boundaries and supports the public good,” said Todd Butler, associate professor of English and CAH director.

The center will award its first two undergraduate scholarships at the reception and celebrate the work of the current cohort of eight CAH Faculty Fellows, who are pursuing projects ranging from an examination of the links between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frank Lloyd Wright to collaborations with Native American singers to preserve recordings of traditional Nez Perce songs.

Formally approved by the Board of Regents in May 2019, the center is supported by a University-wide consortium that includes the Office of Research, College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School, WSU Libraries, and the Office of the President.

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WSU Insider

Opinion: The U.S. Recruited Missionaries as Spies During World War II. Their Stories Are Only Now Being Told

By Matthew Avery Sutton, Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of History and department chair

William Alfred Eddy did not look the part of super spy. No movie mogul would have cast him as a James Bond or a Jason Bourne. In his mid-40s, he had a limp, a receding hairline, a pudgy face and an expanding waist. Though he had served as a Marine in World War I, he dedicated his life after the war to the cause of peace. He became a missionary, sharing the Christian gospel with students in the Muslim world. But when the United States returned to war in the early 1940s, he again responded to his nation’s call to serve.

Matthew Avery Sutton.
Sutton

Eddy was one of dozens of missionaries recruited to help launch the United States’ first foreign intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Eddy was sent to Morocco, where the missionary could put his knowledge of the Quran, years of practice speaking Arabic and partnerships with Muslim leaders to good use preparing the way for Operation Torch, the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa. As one of the most effective OSS field operatives, he soon became the target of Axis intelligence agents. Eddy’s American bosses warned him to take the greatest precautions or he would be returning home in a box, but he had other things in mind.

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TIME Magazine

Finding could expand Indians’ land claims

Treaty cession document includes Wood River Valley

Until recently, the final displacement of the Mixed Band of Native Americans, the group that gave birth to Sacajawea, was thought to be the last chapter in a long history of land grabs and betrayals at the hands of the federal government.

But the recent discovery of a historical document in the National Archives shows that territory slated for cession to the Mixed Band in 1870 was far larger than once assumed and included the lower Wood River Valley, including land under the present-day towns of Ketchum, Sun Valley, Hailey and Bellevue.

Orlan Svingen.
Svingen

The document was found in 2007 by a then-student of Orlan Svingen, WSU professor of history. It was written and signed by all concerned parties. It indicates that the Mixed Band once were entitled to claim territory stretching over 31,871 square miles in three states, with 10,072 square miles in southwest Montana, 2,318 square miles in northwest Wyoming and 19,480 square miles in Idaho.

Svingen helped convert the written descriptions contained in the document into a map of the ceded territory.

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Idaho Mountain Express

Celebrating Hanford’s 75th anniversary with community events

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Hanford Site, Washington State University Tri-Cities’ Hanford History Project will host and partner to offer several activities throughout the month of September that provide a glimpse into the unique history of Hanford and impact that it has had on the region, state and world.

Robert Franklin.
Franklin

“Hanford is a unique place with unique history,” said Robert Franklin, WSU history instructor and alumnus and assistant director of the WSU Tri-Cities Hanford History Project. “It is also a really complicated place, with a complicated history, but that is what makes it interesting. It had a huge impact on the development of the city of Richland, and it had an impact on the rest of the world.”

Hanford is the location of the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor, the B Reactor, which also made the plutonium for the “Fat Man” nuclear bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II. It led to the creation of a variety of scientific and engineering discoveries and technology. It is now the site of one of the world’s largest nuclear cleanup efforts.

“This is a great opportunity to learn more about Hanford and its impact, especially on the regional Tri-Cities community,” Franklin said. “We want to make people more aware of just how accessible historical resources for Hanford are in our local community, and we want to bring that history to our community.”

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WSU Insider