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85-861: Red, White, Black (2001–2003) Northern League 2000–2002 The Allentown Ambassadors were an independent baseball team that competed in the Northeast League and the Northern League from 1997 until 2003. They played their home games at Bicentennial Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania . In 1996, Allentown was granted a franchise in the Northeast League, replacing the Rhode Island Tiger Sharks . The team faced difficulties before their inaugural season even began; 16-year Major League veteran infielder Ken Oberkfell

170-489: A $ 12 million grant from the state for a new baseball facility. The roster, for the most part, was dispersed through all the teams in the league, and whatever was left (with the addition of a few free agents) became part of a traveling team known as The Aces . The Aces played one season before the league replaced them with the Worcester Tornadoes . In April 2008, professional baseball returned to Allentown, when

255-413: A 32–58 record, 20 + 1 ⁄ 2 games out of first. However, their biggest loss was in the attendance category. Once again, most league teams were averaging over 150,000 fans per season, but Allentown saw only about 40,000 fans for the year, or 888 fans per game. The attendance numbers were the fourth-worst in all of independent baseball. Grammy Award winning recording artist John Mayer performed at

340-642: A U.S. Army by Native Americans. The British demanded the establishment of a Native American barrier state at the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812 , but American negotiators rejected the idea because Britain had lost control of the region in the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of the Thames in 1813, where Tecumseh was killed by U.S. forces. The British then abandoned their Native American allies south of

425-460: A house, clearing the ground, and planting crops. A number of means facilitated the legal settlement of the territories in the Midwest: land speculation , federal public land auctions , bounty land grants in lieu of pay to military veterans, and, later, preemption rights for squatters. The "squatters" became "pioneers" and were increasingly able to purchase the lands on which they had settled for

510-497: A number from 1 through 5 attached to the LS depending on how long they had been in pro baseball. The league began in 1993 with six teams: Duluth–Superior Dukes ( Duluth, Minnesota ), Rochester Aces ( Rochester, Minnesota ), St. Paul Saints ( St. Paul, Minnesota ), Sioux Falls Canaries ( Sioux Falls, South Dakota ), Sioux City Explorers ( Sioux City, Iowa ) and Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks ( Thunder Bay , Ontario ). The prospects for

595-544: A supernatural being who lived in the sky and was believed to have created the world and the Huron people. At death, Hurons thought the soul left the body to live in a village in the sky. Chippewas were a deeply religious people who believed in the Great Spirit. They worshiped the Great Spirit through all their seasonal activities, and viewed religion as a private matter: Each person's relation with his personal guardian spirit

680-543: A written form of language. In the 16th century, the natives of the area used projectiles and tools of stone, bone, and wood to hunt and farm. They made canoes for fishing. Most of them lived in oval or conical wigwams that could be easily moved away. Various tribes had different ways of living. The Ojibwas were primarily hunters and fishing was also important in the Ojibwas economy. Other tribes such as Sac, Fox, and Miami, both hunted and farmed. They were oriented toward

765-933: Is Heartland . Among the Native Americans , Paleo-Americans cultures were the earliest in North America, with a presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Following the Paleo-American period is the Archaic period (8,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE), the Woodland Tradition (1,000 BCE to 100 CE), and the Mississippian Period (900 to 1500 CE). Archeological evidence indicates that Mississippian culture traits probably began in

850-647: Is between the Northeastern United States and the Western United States , with Canada to the north and the Southern United States to the south. The U.S. Census Bureau's definition consists of 12 states in the north central United States: Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Kansas , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , Nebraska , North Dakota , Ohio , South Dakota , and Wisconsin . The region generally lies on

935-510: Is the area between the historical foreground of European invasion and occupation and the background of Indian defeat and retreat. White specifically designates "the lands bordering the rivers flowing into the northern Great Lakes and the lands south of the lakes to the Ohio" as the location of the middle ground. This includes the modern Midwestern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan as well as parts of Canada. The middle ground

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1020-777: The Algonquian language family. Some tribes—such as the Stockbridge-Munsee and the Brothertown —are also Algonkian-speaking tribes who relocated from the eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes region in the 19th century. The Oneida belong to the Iroquois language group and the Ho-Chunk of Wisconsin are one of the few Great Lakes tribes to speak a Siouan language. American Indians in this area did not develop

1105-660: The American Association of Independent Professional Baseball . Stone was replaced by Jim Weigel, who in turn was replaced by Clark C. Griffith after one year in charge. Following the 2007 season, the league was left with six teams as Calgary and Edmonton left to join the Golden Baseball League . This number grew to seven in 2009 as Zion, Illinois , was granted an expansion team known as the Lake County Fielders . In 2010 an eighth team

1190-532: The Arikara , Hidatsa , Iowa , Kaw (or Kansa) , Kitsai , Mandan , Missouria , Nez Perce , Omaha , Osage , Otoe , Pawnee , Ponca , Quapaw , Santee , Wichita , and Yankton . The nomadic tribes of the Great Plains survived on hunting ; some of their major hunts centered on deer and buffalo. Some tribes are described as part of the "Buffalo Culture" (sometimes called, for the American bison ). Although

1275-486: The Blackfoot , Arapaho , Assiniboine , Cheyenne , Comanche , Crow , Gros Ventre , Kiowa , Lakota , Lipan , Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree , Plains Ojibwe , Sarsi , Shoshone , Stoney , and Tonkawa . The second group of Plains Indians (sometimes referred to as Prairie Indians) were the semi-sedentary tribes who, in addition to hunting buffalo, lived in villages and raised crops. These included

1360-486: The Can-Am League ) The Northern League has hosted an annual All-Star Game since 1997. The venue changes annually. Its format pits the all-stars from each division against each other. In 2008 and 2009 there were no divisions during the regular season so the league temporarily split to have the "Chicagoland" clubs play the "I-29" clubs in 2008 and the "Great Lakes" clubs play the "Great Plains" clubs in 2009. In 2010

1445-553: The Frontier League . The other three franchises merged with the Golden Baseball League and United League Baseball franchises to form the North American League . However, things did not work out as planned. The Flyers were evicted from Alexian Field , their home stadium, due to a large amount of debt owed to their home town of Schaumburg and eventually suspended operations. The RiverHawks decided to decline

1530-656: The Great Lakes region . The West North Central Division includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota, several of which are located, at least partly, within the Great Plains region. Chicago is the most populous city in the American Midwest and the third-most populous in the United States. Chicago and its suburbs , colloquially known as Chicagoland , form

1615-649: The Haitian Revolution and together with the fact that France could not effectively defend Louisiana from a possible British attack, he sold the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Meanwhile, the British maintained forts and trading posts in U.S. territory, refusing to give them up until 1796 by the Jay Treaty . American settlement began either via routes over

1700-549: The Kansas City metro area , the Columbus metro area , and Greater Cleveland . The region's economy is a mix of heavy industry and agriculture, with extensive areas forming part of the United States' Corn Belt . Finance and services such as medicine and education are becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a transportation crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks, and airplanes. Politically,

1785-701: The Lehigh Valley IronPigs , the AAA-level Philadelphia Phillies team, began play at Coca-Cola Park , a new, 8,500-capacity stadium. *Denotes Playoff Team The Ambassadors had 20 former Major League players over their seven seasons of play. While the Ambassadors featured players that would be signed by Major League clubs, no Ambassador player, former Major Leaguer or otherwise, reached the Majors after playing with

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1870-649: The Lincoln Saltdogs while teams were awarded to Joliet, Illinois , and Gary, Indiana , in 2002. The Joliet JackHammers made the playoffs in their first season while the Gary SouthShore RailCats were forced to play an entire season on the road because the city of Gary did not have their stadium completed on time. At the end of the 2002 season Miles Wolff resigned as commissioner of the Northern League to focus on his duties with

1955-578: The Louisiana Purchase , and establish trade and U.S. sovereignty over the native peoples along the Missouri River . The Lewis and Clark Expedition established relations with more than two dozen indigenous nations west of the Missouri River. The Expedition returned east to St. Louis in the spring of 1806. The Midwest has been a key swing district in national elections, with highly contested elections in closely divided states often deciding

2040-753: The Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with their cessation of the majority of their holdings in North America to the Kingdom of Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763) . In 1673 the Governor of New France sent Jacques Marquette , a Catholic priest and missionary, and Louis Jolliet , a fur trader , to map the way to the Northwest Passage to the Pacific. They traveled through Michigan's upper peninsula to

2125-777: The St. Louis, Missouri area and spread northwest along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and entered the state along the Kankakee River system. It also spread northward into Indiana along the Wabash , Tippecanoe , and White Rivers. Mississippian peoples in the Midwest were mostly farmers who followed the rich, flat floodplains of Midwestern rivers. They brought with them a well-developed agricultural complex based on three major crops— maize , beans , and squash . Maize, or corn,

2210-462: The Treaty of Paris , Spain was given Louisiana ; the area west of the Mississippi. St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve in Missouri were the main towns, but there was little new settlement. France regained Louisiana from Spain in exchange for Tuscany by the terms of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. Napoleon had lost interest in re-establishing a French colonial empire in North America following

2295-508: The Ambassadors. 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Northern League (baseball, 1993%E2%80%932010) The modern Northern League was founded by Miles Wolff. Wolff started the league after many midwestern cities contacted him (through his affiliation with Baseball America ) asking how they could get a minor league team. After visiting some of them, most notably Duluth, Minnesota , and its Wade Stadium , he began contacting potential owners to start

2380-725: The Appalachian Mountains or through the waterways of the Great Lakes. Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh ) at the source of the Ohio River became the main base for settlers moving into the Midwest. Marietta, Ohio in 1787 became the first settlement in Ohio, but not until the defeat of Native American tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 was large-scale settlement possible. Large numbers also came north from Kentucky into southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The region's fertile soil produced corn and vegetables; most farmers were self-sufficient. They cut trees and claimed

2465-1018: The Edmonton Capitals (the former Cracker-Cats). The fate of the North American League was also soon decided with the Golden Baseball League's teams disbanding and the United Baseball League decided to re-adopt their league name due to only UBL teams remaining in the ill-fated NAL after the 2012 season. The UBL itself folded after the 2014 season. Over 12 seasons, over two dozen former Northern League players have played in Major League Baseball. These include players such as J. D. Drew , Kevin Millar , Chris Coste , Jeff Zimmerman , and Rey Ordóñez . Several former MLB players played in

2550-633: The Endeavors of Government, or Fear of Indians has kept them properly within Bounds." The British had a long-standing goal of establishing a Native American buffer state in the American Midwest to resist American westward expansion. With victory in the American Revolution the new government considered evicting the squatters from areas that were now federally owned public lands. In 1785, soldiers under General Josiah Harmar were sent into

2635-597: The French and British, conflicts and treaties with the United States both during the Revolutionary War and after , and its ultimate clearing/erasure throughout the nineteenth century. European settlement of the area began in the 17th century following French exploration of the region and became known as New France , including the Illinois Country . The French period began with the exploration of

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2720-545: The French and the British into competition with each other to their own benefit. The Indian demand for certain kinds of cloth in particular fueled this competition. This, however, changed following the Seven Years' War with Britain's victory over France and the cession of New France to Great Britain. The British attempted to establish a more assertive relationship with the Indians of the pays d'en haut , eliminating

2805-473: The Northern League and become the Northern League's East Division. The rest of the Northern League teams comprised the Central Division, and both division champions would meet in a league championship series. The merger lasted until 2002, and Northeast League teams won all four of the Northern League's championships in that time. Meanwhile, Madison's team moved to Lincoln, Nebraska , in 2001 to become

2890-436: The Northern League consisted of between eight and twelve teams, it played a split season 96-game schedule with two divisions from late May until early September. The division winners in each half qualified for the post-season, though if a team were to win both halves, the team with the best overall record, regardless of division, qualified as a wild card. Both the league semi-finals and Championship Series were best of five. When

2975-768: The Northern League played the Golden League all-stars. Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest ) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau . It occupies the northern central part of the United States . It was officially named the North Central Region by the U.S. Census Bureau until 1984. It

3060-527: The Northern League voted to expand from its 96-game season to a 100-game schedule, effective for the 2010 season. The playoff format was to remain the same, with the top four clubs making the playoffs. During the season, rosters were limited to 22 players, broken into seven classes based on a players years of service. One year of service was defined as one National Association (affiliated) season, or two independent league seasons. Final league members Former Team (Left to re-form Northeast League , then later

3145-477: The Ohio country to destroy the crops and burn down the homes of any squatters they found living there. But overall the federal policy was to move Indians to western lands (such as the Indian Territory in modern Oklahoma) and allow a very large numbers of farmers to replace a small number of hunters. Congress repeatedly debated how to legalize settlements. On the one hand, Whigs such as Henry Clay wanted

3230-534: The Plains Indians hunted other animals, such as elk or antelope , bison was their primary game food source. Bison flesh, hide, and bones from bison hunting provided the chief source of raw materials for items that Plains Indians made, including food, cups, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing. The tribes followed the bison's seasonal grazing and migration. The Plains Indians lived in teepees because they were easily disassembled and allowed

3315-729: The alliance it created. In the meshed French and Algonquian system of trade, the Algonquian familial metaphor of a father and his children shaped the political relationship between the French and the Natives in this region. The French, regarded as the metaphoric father, were expected to provide for the needs of the Algonquians and, in return, the Algonquians, the metaphoric children, would be obligated to assist and obey them. Traders coming into Indian villages facilitated this system of symbolic exchange to establish or maintain alliances and friendships. Marriage also became an important aspect of

3400-814: The broad Interior Plain between the states occupying the Appalachian Mountain range and the states occupying the Rocky Mountain range . Major rivers in the region include, from east to west, the Ohio River , the Upper Mississippi River , and the Missouri River . The 2020 United States census put the population of the Midwest at 68,995,685. The Midwest is divided by the U.S. Census Bureau into two divisions. The East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of

3485-411: The conflict, the British government was forced to compromise and loosely re-created a trade system that was an echo of the French one. While French control ended in 1763 after their defeat in the Seven Years' War, most of the several hundred French settlers in small villages along the Mississippi River and its tributaries remained, and were not disturbed by the new British administration. By the terms of

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3570-452: The female line, while the others favored the patrilineal method. All tribes were governed under chiefdoms or complex chiefdoms. For example, Hurons were divided into matrilineal clans, each represented by a chief in the town council, where they met with a town chief on civic matters. But Chippewa people's social and political life was simpler than that of settled tribes. The religious beliefs varied among tribes. Hurons believed in Yoscaha ,

3655-417: The global climate change of the Little Ice Age . Their culture effectively ended before 1492. The major tribes of the Great Lakes region included the Huron , Ottawa , Ojibwe , Potawatomi , Ho-Chunk , Menominee , Sauk , Meskwaki , Neutrals , and the Miami . Most numerous were the Huron and Ho-Chunk. Fighting and battle were often launched between tribes, with the losers forced to flee. Most are of

3740-566: The government to get maximum revenue and also wanted stable middle-class law-abiding settlements of the sort that supported towns (and bankers). Jacksonian Democrats such as Thomas Hart Benton wanted the support of poor farmers, who reproduced rapidly, had little cash, and were eager to acquire cheap land in the West. Democrats did not want a big government, and keeping revenues low helped that cause. Democrats avoided words like "squatter" and regarded "actual settlers" as those who gained title to land, settled on it, and then improved upon it by building

3825-461: The growing influence of women in the fur trade also came the increasing demand of cloth which very quickly grew to be the most desired trade good. English traders entered the Ohio country as a serious competitor to the French in the fur trade around the 1690s. English (and later British) traders almost consistently offered the Indians better goods and better rates than the French, with the Indians being able to play that to their advantage, thrusting

3910-406: The invitation in the league and return to the Frontier League for 2011. The Fielders were the only team remaining from the original three merged into the new league but have since folded, meaning there are no longer any Northern League teams remaining in the North American League. As of the end of the 2011 season only one member of the North American League has, in fact, played in the Northern League –

3995-411: The lakes. The Native Americans ended being the main losers in the War of 1812 . Apart from the short Black Hawk War of 1832, the days of Native American warfare east of the Mississippi River had ended. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition that took place between May 1804 and September 1806. Launching from Camp Dubois in Illinois, the goal was to explore

4080-582: The land, then sold it to newcomers and then moved further west to repeat the process. Settlers without legal claims, called "squatters", had been moving into the Midwest for years before 1776. They pushed further and further down the Ohio River during the 1760s and 1770s and sometimes engaged in conflict with the Native Americans. British officials were outraged. These squatters were characterized by British General Thomas Gage as "too Numerous, too Lawless, and Licentious ever to be restrained", and regarded them as "almost out of Reach of Law and government; Neither

4165-550: The largest metropolitan area with 10 million people, making it the fourth-largest metropolitan area in North America , after Greater Mexico City , the New York metropolitan area , and Greater Los Angeles . Other large Midwestern cities include Columbus , Indianapolis , Detroit , Milwaukee , Kansas City , Omaha , Minneapolis , Wichita , Cleveland , Cincinnati , St. Paul , St. Louis , and Des Moines . Large midwestern metropolitan areas include Metro Detroit , Minneapolis–St. Paul , Greater St. Louis , Greater Cincinnati ,

4250-428: The league dropped to six teams in 2008, it still played a 96-game schedule, but did not split the season and did not have divisions. Instead, the top four teams qualified for the playoffs. The first round consisted of a best-of-five series between the first and fourth-place finishers and between second and third-place finishers. The winners of the first round then played a best-of-five championship series. In October 2009

4335-441: The league in that category. In 1998, the team continued to improve, sporting an impressive 52–32 record but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New Jersey Jackals . They led the league in attendance with an impressive 122,000 fans on the season, an average of about 2,900 fans per game. In 1999, the league merged with the very successful Northern League to play in the new Northern League East division. The Ambassadors won

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4420-498: The league including Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd , Darryl Strawberry , Jack Morris , Pedro Guerrero , Jermaine Allensworth , Ken Harvey , Mike Caruso , Bo Hart , Leon "Bull" Durham , and Brant Brown . Former MLB players and coaches have also coached or managed in the Northern League including Terry Bevington , "Dirty" Al Gallagher , Jackie Hernández , Danny Jackson , Maury Wills , Tim Johnson , Ron Kittle , Hal Lanier , Darryl Motley , Matt Nokes , and Wayne Terwilliger . When

4505-488: The league were originally "cloudy." Many forecast an early demise especially in St. Paul where competition with the Minnesota Twins led many local sportswriters to consider it a "beer league." The league, however, was a relatively moderate success, with only the Rochester franchise struggling to draw crowds to their games. The first league title was won by St. Paul. After the season, the Aces were sold to an ownership group led by future Winnipeg , Manitoba mayor Sam Katz and

4590-405: The league. Mike Stone left the commissioner's position in 2005 shortly after a dramatic move by several of the league's teams. Following the season's conclusion St. Paul, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, and Lincoln announced they were leaving the league to form a new independent league with five teams from the folded Central Baseball League in the southern United States; the new league was to be known as

4675-428: The league. The league was structured to where teams were not allowed to load their rosters with ex-pros. Players with five or more years of professional experience were labeled "veterans" and teams could carry no more than four. At least the same number of "rookies" (players with less than a year of experience) had to be on a team's roster. The rest of the roster was made up of "limited service" or "LS" players, each having

4760-399: The location of Native American settlements near the headwaters of the Wabash River , but on November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket . More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, which has since borne the name " St. Clair's Defeat ". It remains the greatest defeat of

4845-411: The metropolitan area that includes Moorhead, Minnesota , joined the league. The second wave of expansion came in 1999. First, the Whiskey Jacks left Canada and moved to Schaumburg, Illinois , where they became known as the Schaumburg Flyers . The bigger news, however, was that the Northeast League , an independent league in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states also founded by Wolff, would merge with

4930-437: The middle ground was introduced in Richard White's seminal work: The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 originally published in 1991. White defines the middle ground like so: The middle ground is the place in between cultures, peoples, and in between empires and the non state world of villages. It is a place where many of the North American subjects and allies of empires lived. It

5015-446: The minimum price thanks to various preemption acts and laws passed throughout the 1810s-1840s. In Washington, Jacksonian Democrats favored squatter rights while banker-oriented Whigs were opposed; the Democrats prevailed. In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair became commander of the United States Army and led a punitive expedition with two Regular Army regiments and some militia. Near modern-day Fort Recovery , his force advanced to

5100-503: The most powerful and dominant tribes were the Dakota or Sioux , who occupied large amounts of territory in the Great Plains of the Midwest. The area of the Great Sioux Nation spread throughout the South and Midwest, up into the areas of Minnesota and stretching out west into the Rocky Mountains. At the same time, they occupied the heart of prime buffalo range, and also an excellent region for furs they could sell to French and American traders for goods such as guns. The Sioux (Dakota) became

5185-446: The most powerful of the Plains tribes and the greatest threat to American expansion. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on Siouan dialect and subculture: Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations, communities, and reserves in the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States, as well as Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan in Canada. The theory of

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5270-475: The national result. From 1860 to 1920, both parties tried to find their presidential and vice presidential candidates from the region. One of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican Party , originated in the Midwest in the 1850s; Ripon, Wisconsin , had the first local meeting while Jackson, Michigan , had the first statewide meeting of the new party. Its membership included many Yankees out of New England and New York who had settled

5355-410: The native peoples who lived along the route were generally friendly, and that the natural resources of the lands in between were extraordinary. New France officials led by LaSalle followed up and erected a 4,000-mile (6,400 km) network of fur trading posts. The fur trade was an integral part of early European and Indian relations. It was the foundation upon which their interactions were built and

5440-434: The nomadic life of following game. When Spanish horses were obtained, the Plains tribes rapidly integrated them into their daily lives. By the early 18th century, many tribes had fully adopted a horse culture . Before their adoption of guns, the Plains Indians hunted with spears , bows , and bows and arrows , and various forms of clubs . The use of horses by the Plains Indians made hunting (and warfare) much easier. Among

5525-414: The northern tip of Lake Michigan. On canoes, they crossed the massive lake and landed at present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin . They entered the Mississippi River on 17 June 1673. Marquette and Jolliet were the first to map the northern portion of the Mississippi River. They confirmed that it was easy to travel from the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico by water, that

5610-426: The now-reinstated Northeast League. Mike Stone became league commissioner in 2003. Over the next two years the league entered three new markets. Charter member Duluth-Superior left Minnesota in 2003 to move to Kansas City, Kansas , and became known as the Kansas City T-Bones . For 2004, the league expanded its Canadian operations into the province of Alberta and added the Calgary Vipers and Edmonton CrackerCats to

5695-453: The open prairies where they engaged in communal hunts for buffalo (bison) . In the northern forests, the Ottawas and Potawatomis separated into small family groups for hunting. The Winnebagos and Menominees used both hunting methods interchangeably and built up widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico , and east to the Atlantic Ocean. The Hurons reckoned descent through

5780-456: The park during the Ambassadors final season. Mayer's concert represented the most attended event in the venue's history. Just weeks before the Ambassadors were to begin their 2004 season, team owner Peter Karoly announced that he was folding the team as the Ambassadors filed for bankruptcy while simultaneously announcing his support for an affiliated baseball proposal from a group led by Craig Stein and Joseph Finley, who were working on obtaining

5865-522: The plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and famous conflicts with settlers and the US Army have made the Plains Indians archetypical in literature and art for American Indians everywhere. Plains Indians are usually divided into two broad classifications, with some degree of overlap. The first group were fully nomadic, following the vast herds of buffalo . Some tribes occasionally engaged in agriculture, growing tobacco and corn primarily. These included

5950-501: The practise of gift giving which they now saw as unnecessary. This, in combination with an underwhelming trade relationship with a surplus of whiskey, increase in prices generally, and a shortage of other goods led to unrest among the Indians that was exacerbated by the decision to significantly reduce the amount of rum being traded, a product that British merchants had been including in the trade for years. This would eventually culminate in Pontiac's War , which broke out in 1763. Following

6035-448: The processing of the pelts necessary to the fur trade. Women were integral to the fur trade and their contributions were lauded, so much so that the absence of the involvement of an Indian Woman was once cited as the cause for a trader's failure. When the French fur trade re-opened in 1716 upon the discovery that their overstock of pelts had been ruined, legal French traders continued to marry Indian women and remain in their villages. With

6120-576: The region is composed of swing states , and therefore is heavily contested and often decisive in elections. The term West was applied to the region in British America and in the early years of the United States, when the colonial territories had not extended far from the Atlantic coast and the Pacific seaboard was generally unknown. By the early 19th century, anything west of Appalachia

6205-415: The regular season title with a record of 47–39 but would lose in the playoffs, again to New Jersey. In 2000, the Ambassadors saw their record fall to 42–43 and they missed the playoffs. Also, attendance started to slip as other teams in the league all started seeing increases in attendance. 2001 was another tough year for Allentown, once again in terms of attendance and also their record fell to 43–47, which

6290-665: The team relocated to the city and became known as the Winnipeg Goldeyes , taking the name of the Winnipeg team that played in the original Northern League. The Goldeyes won the league championship in their first season in the new city. The first wave of expansion to the league came in 1996 as the Northern League entered Wisconsin and North Dakota. The Madison Black Wolf , based in the capital of Wisconsin, and Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks , based in Fargo, North Dakota , but named for

6375-485: The trade in both the Ohio River valley and the French pays d'en haut with the temporary closing of the French fur trade from 1690 to 1716 and beyond. French fur traders were forced to abandon most posts and those remaining in the region became illegal traders who potentially sought these marriages to secure their safety. Another benefit for French traders marrying Indian women was that the Indian women were in charge of

6460-527: The upper Midwest. The party opposed the expansion of slavery and stressed the Protestant ideals of thrift, a hard work ethic, self-reliance, democratic decision making, and religious tolerance. In the early 1890s, the wheat-growing regions were strongholds of the short-lived Populist movement in the Plains states. Starting in the 1890s, the middle class urban Progressive movement became influential in

6545-424: Was a system that would evolve over time. Goods often traded included guns, clothing, blankets, strouds, cloth, tobacco, silver, and alcohol. The French and Indian exchange of goods was called an exchange of gifts rather than a trade. These gifts held greater meaning to the relationship between the two than a simple economic exchange because the trade itself was inseparable from the social relations it fostered and

6630-552: Was added when the Rockford RiverHawks moved from the Frontier League . Following the 2010 season, the Northern League announced that Winnipeg, Kansas City, Fargo-Moorhead, and Gary SouthShore would be leaving the league to join the American Association . This left Rockford, Lake County, Joliet, and Schaumburg with decisions to make. The JackHammers were sold and renamed to the Joliet Slammers , and moved to

6715-456: Was bounded by the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Some entities in the Midwest have "Northwest" in their names for historical reasons, such as Northwestern University in Illinois. One of the earliest late-19th-century uses of Midwest was in reference to Kansas and Nebraska to indicate that they were the civilized areas of the west. Another term applied to the same region

6800-736: Was considered American frontier . Over time the American frontier moved to west of the Mississippi River . During the colonial period, the upper-Mississippi watershed including the valleys of the Missouri River and the Illinois River , which were settled in the 17th and 18th century and called Illinois Country . In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance was enacted, creating the Northwest Territory , which

6885-430: Was formed on the foundations of mutual accommodation and common meanings established between the French and the Indians that then transformed and degraded as both were steadily lost as the French ceded their influence in the region in the aftermath of their defeat in the Seven Years' War and the Louisiana Purchase . Major aspects of the middle ground include blended culture, the fur trade , Native alliances with both

6970-557: Was last in the South Division. In 2002, things took a drastic turn for the worse. The Ambassadors finished a miserable 26–64 on the season, 36 + 1 ⁄ 2 games out of first place. They were also at the bottom of the league in attendance, averaging only about 1,700 fans per contest, which was no longer comparable with other Northeastern League teams. By 2003, the team only made minimal strides in terms of their on-field play. They once again finished last in their division with

7055-641: Was named the team's first manager in the summer of 1996. On December 19, 1996, Oberkfell would leave to become the manager of the Piedmont Boll Weevils of the South Atlantic League . Former Major League catcher Ed Ott would be named Oberkfell's replacement for their inaugural 1997 season and the Ambassadors finished the year a 39–43 record, leading the league in runs per game, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. The Ambassadors drew 69,537, finishing third in

7140-527: Was part of his thinking every day of life. Ottawa and Potawatomi people had very similar religious beliefs to those of the Chippewas. In the Ohio River Valley, the dominant food supply was not hunting but agriculture. There were orchards and fields of crops that were maintained by indigenous women. Corn was their most important crop. The Plains Indians are the indigenous peoples who live on

7225-413: Was the primary crop of Mississippian farmers. They gathered a wide variety of seeds, nuts, and berries, and fished and hunted for fowl to supplement their diets. With such an intensive form of agriculture , this culture supported large populations. The Mississippi period was characterized by a mound-building culture. The Mississippians suffered a tremendous population decline about 1400, coinciding with

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