Before Billie and Ella, there was Mildred

I recently saw on PBS evening news that our U.S. Predator’s ICE goons are stopping, questioning and frightening native Americans on the outskirts of tribal reservations whose ancestors settled America countless centuries before Trump’s or his laughably incompetent leg‑humping Cabinet member forebears were even a glint in some pioneer dude’s eyes.

To counter such Gestapo‑like actions and erasure of essential American history (e.g. — the slaughter of native Americans as we civilized white immigrants stole their land) I suggest asking Alexa for recorded classics by one of the world’s earliest and greatest jazz vocalists, Mildred Bailey.

Her 1930s hits included "All Of Me," "St. Louis Blues," "Georgia On My Mind," "Darn That Dream" and other evergreens. The job of the U.S. Predator’s ICE louts is to rid America of rotten low‑class people who aren’t white, right? Well, Ms. Bailey wasn’t black, like fellow legends Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald. Nor was she white, like Peggy Lee or Diana Kral. She was brown, and famous long before those singers were. Like it not, ICE stumblebums, Ms. Bailey was a Native American member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Her ancestors were here centuries before yours; and she sure as heck is a more valuable, contributing American than you with your urban carnage and murders – thanks to America’s own Adolph.

TIM H. HENNEY

Sandpoint