Wild Turkeys

1. The Wild Turkey is a true indigenous American.
2. Adult males are called gobblers or toms.
3. Female birds are known as hens.
4. Each turkey has 5,000 and 6,000 feathers.
5. Wild Turkeys are agile flyers who sail close to the ground.
6. They can cover a quarter-mile distance each flight.
7. Florida State University research suggest that First Nation tribes were raising turkeys as early as 1200-1400 AD: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161121111328.htm
8. Early Native Americans only hunted turkeys for food in emergencies.
9. Farming communities kept wild fowl for insect control of their crops.
10. Turkey feathers are considered powerful medicine.
11. They are also used in making ceremonial cloaks and headdresses.
12. In some villages these birds are considered to be wily tricksters.
13. In other cultures the turkey is characterized as shy and elusive.
14. The Pina honor the turkey as a Rain Spirit that can predict weather.
15. The Turkey Dance is important to the Caddo.
16. Many groups consider this bird to be a shamanistic medium between the sky spirits and the earth.
17. Believing that turkeys acted as guides to the next world, many Southwestern branches traditionally  buried their dead in turkey-feather robes.
18. Early European invaders killed as many as 100 fowl each day, hunting them almost to extinction.
19. Programs to reintroduce these birds into the wild are starting to show promise.
20. Benjamin Franklin admired the turkey for its modesty, alertness, self-reliance, and its ability to thrive of the land.

Sources:

Native Languages of the Americas, “Native American Turkey Mythology,” at http://www.native-languages.org/legends-turkey.htm

Nature Almanac, “A Short Social History pf the Wild Turkey,” at http://www.naturealmanac.com/archive/wild_turkey/wild_turkey.html

Science Daily, “Native Americans raised turkeys long before first Thanksgiving,” at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161121111328.htm

Wikipedia, “Turkey (bird)” at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)

Wooden Leg (Cheyenne)

“. . . it is wrong to tear loose from its place on the earth anything that may be growing there.  It may be cut off, but it should not be uprooted.”

Land of the Silver Birch

(Traditional Folk Song)

Buffalo Stew

Ingredients

1lb buffalo steak, cubed

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine

1 onion, chopped

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 stick celery,chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2lb potatoes, whole or halved

1/2 lb mushrooms, slice

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 cups beef stock

3 teaspoons beef flavor bouillon (or 1 Oxo cube)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Salt

Pepper

Corn starch to thicken (or Bisto Gravy powder / granules)

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large cooktop pan.  Add the steak.  Sear and stir until brown.
2. Add the garlic, onion, carrots, potatoes, celery, and mushrooms.  Stir until softened and slightly brown.
3. Pour in the wine, beef stock, bouillon, Worcestershire Sauce, mixed herbs, salt and pepper.  Bring to the boil.
4. Add the tomatoes.  Stir well.  Reduce heat and simmer on low.
5. Cover the pan with a lid.  Cook for approximately 1-2 hours, until the meat is tender.
6. Thicken with gravy mix, or melt the corn starch with water in a small bowl and add through a sieve to avoid lumping.
7. Stir to desired thickness.
8. Serve with corn, peas, or fresh crusty bread and butter.

“There is this edge where shadows

and bones of some of us walk

                                                                       backwards.”

(From Call It Fear by Joy Harjo)

Great White Buffalo

(Ted Nugent)

Well, listen everybody
To what I got to say,
There’s hope for tomorrow
Ooh, we’re working on today.
Well, it happened long ago
In the new, magic land.

The Indian and the buffalo
They existed hand in hand.
The Indian needed food,
He needed skins for a roof
But he only took what they needed, baby
Millions of buffalo were the proof.

Container

(Fiona Apple)

 (Photo: Jon Flobrant)

I was screaming into the canyon
At the moment of my death.
The echo I created
Outlasted my last breath.

My voice it made an avalanche
And buried a man I never knew.
And when he died his widowed bride
Met your daddy and they made you.

I have only one thing to do and that’s
To be the wave that I am and then
Sink back into the ocean.

Sink back into the o-
Sink back into the ocean.
Sink back into the o-
Sink back into the ocean.

***

This haunting melody is the theme song to the TV show “The Affair.”  Check it out here:

Q: What is the difference between a wigwam and a tipi,tepee,or teepee?

A: A wigwam is a static, dome-shaped hut, covered in bark or animal skins stretched over a framework of poles.  It was traditionally common in the Great Lakes region:

 Wigwam

A tipi, however, was the portable cone-shaped tent used by the Sioux and other Plains Indians.  It is also made from animal hide stretched over long poles, though it also has a smoke flap at the top:

 Tipi

The Apache

1. The Apache are a predominantly southern people connected with Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.  But historical evidence suggests they once inhabited the Great Plains, Southern Colorado, and Northern Mexico regions too.
2. Anthropological finds suggest they migrated from the north, sometime between AD 1200-1500.
3. There were originally six major branches, independent of each other, who sometimes came into conflict.
4. They are closely connected to the Navajo.
5. Their language is related to the Athabaskan family.
6. The Apache are noted for their warfare skills – fierce braves and clever leadership.
7. They traditionally lived a nomadic life following the buffalo herds, incorporating regional practices into their own culture as they passed through.
8. They hunted animals, gathered plants, grew domestic food, and traded with neighboring tribes.
9. The villagers lived in tents, and moved their possessions on travois pulled by dogs.
10. They traded with – and raided from – the Spanish.
11. Plains Apaches used portable tipis.  Highland groups lived in a type of wood-framed hut covered with brush called a wickiup.  And in Mexico they built cool, earthen homes known as hogans.
12. Women were responsible for constructing and maintaining these homes.  And as well as the daily domestic chores, they also gathered food for cooking and plants for medicine.
13. Men were the hunters.  They prayed and fasted before setting out, and took part in medicine rituals.
14. Their most important weapon was the bow and arrow.  A successful hunt or battle often depended on cunning strategy.
15. They followed their tribal leader by choice.  A good chief was industrious, impartial, generous, forgiving, conscientious, and eloquent.
16. Their clothes were traditionally made from buckskin and decorated with colorful beads.
17. Eating “bad animals” animals was taboo (including bears, snakes, owls, and coyotes).  Fish were also avoided because they resembled snakes.
18. Some villagers drank deer-blood for good health.
19. After they acquired horses and guns, the Apache became a formidable force throughout the southern states.
20. In 1835, Mexico put a bounty on their scalps.
21. An influx of white prospectors into the Santa Rita Mountains triggered the Apache Wars of the 1850s.
22. In 1875 the U.S. military forced an estimated 1,500 Apaches onto a reservation 180 miles away, where they were held in internment for 25 years.
23. Apache children were taken away from their families, and adopted by white Americans, as part of the government’s assimilation program.
24. Their most famous warrior is Geronimo.  His band of 30-50 people surrendered in 1886, finally defeated by an army of 5,000 U.S. troops.
25. Sand painting has always been an important sacred ceremony in many communities.