weird weather

This is strange, only in Illinois, it's supposed to be up around 90 by tuesday! Well, I guess I'm going to Archon next weekend, the first SF con I've had the heart to go to since Dan died. I don't know if I can take it, but I have to try. I'll miss out on the drum singing at Mt. Pisgah next saturday, but I have to do this. All our old freinds will be there, it's going to be tough, but I will lead a SMOOTH for Dan.

If they were native this would not have happened

Have you read what's going on politicly? Well, I guess we all knew they weren't native.
But teenage boys? There is something really wrong in this country.

not a microsoft fan

I am a little, no a lot pissed at Bill's boys. I can understand no longer supporting win98, you have to stop sometime, but they will not fix the recent MAJOR holes in internet explorer and powerpoint unless you have XP. Many people can't afford the upgrade, and more are like me at work, there is no way my bosses will pay for an upgrade. This leaves us extremely vulnerable to major attacks.
They could at least fix big flaws, after all they sold us this package. I never heard of an auto company not being liable because the car was out of date!
This is just another example of microsoft arrogance, if you don't have money they don't care. If I could do it at this point, I would go completely to Linux.

This digusts me

I just saw an interview on the net with an extreme right winger who was pushing for elimination of federal taxes, and one thing he wanted was to eliminate social security. Well, I think that is stupid and selfish, but what got me was that he started talking about how senior citizens are all selfish, that they just wanted "more and more", and that they didn't care about their children or grandchildren.
This totally disgusted me! I was raised to believe that we honor our elders, that they are to be taken care of, their wisdom listened to. When we go to nursing homes to perform and bring a little light into their lives, looking around, the last thing that comes to mind is how selfish these poor people are.
I really believe this scumbag should be forced to spend a few months in a second class nursing home, getting by on a social security check. Then I could go and laugh at him.

the s word and the b word

Well, things didn't go to bad at Oquaka today, but while we were sitting up front and waiting to do our thing, they had a little play by some local kids about Blackhawk and all that. Of course they had him in a Lakota war bonnet and fringed buckskin, but I can live with that. What got me, and the rest of the group, is when these kids talked about the braves and squaws in their little tribe.
WAKE UP people, racism is dead! Or it should be. I guess racism is only dead when it doesn't refer to natives.

finally, the last of my trip west

Well, I guess it's time to put up the post about digging at Crow Canyon. The unit I was in was kind of unique. The old puebloes liked to build their kivas underground, but if the village was on bedrock they couldn't, so they built above ground then built a berm of dirt around it to make it seem like it was under the ground. Well, where I dug was just outside one of these kivas, where it was built next to the wall of the pueblo.
The midden (garbage heap) for this kiva was just outside, where it washed against the wall of the room block.
What I had to do was follow the wall down, while trying to follow the slope of the berm down through the midden.
Before this, most of the units at Goodman Point had been disapointingly sparse in artifacts, but man, this midden produced!
I found large amounts of potsherds, many datable, including many rim sherds, plus very many burnt corn cobs and kernals. It was rather thought provoking, knowing these were the remains of 800 year old meals.
I also got several large samples of ash, which can be analyzed through flotation to find out what sort of plants were being used at the time.
I also found a broken mano, which looked as though it had been grooved for hafting after being broken.
The neat thing was following the berm down. Apparently, no one has ever excavated one of these to know how they were built. The strata were amazingly visable on the walls.
They seemed to layer flat rocks to hold the dirt in place, but I just got started on the berm.
It was one of the neatest units I have ever dug.
There was another unique aspect of the unit, but I realy can't talk about that.

a good powwow

I know I said I will get back to finish my trip west, and I will ( it's only been a month, I have to stretch it out for what I can) but the powwow at 7 circles last weekend really made me feel good. There were a lot of people there! I mean a lot! The energy was fantastic, and I picked up on it, and WOW! My straight dance exhibition saturday night was one of the best I have ever done. I mean, I nailed it! Plus, a college girl asked me to show her how to rabbit dance, because she thought I was one of the better dancers there. I didn't say no!
There was one of the last WWII code talkers there, and he sang a Dine two step,I hadn't seen their version of the two step for years, but some people there seemed to know it.
What really made it great was how everyone came out to dance so much of the time, sometimes the circle was actually crowded, that doesn't happen often around here.
I don't really have a lot in my life to keep me going, but once in a while something like this comes along and makes it all seem worthwhile.

lots of energy

We had a lot energy at drum practice tonight, we got started late but made up for it. It seems like we can bring the energy when we want it anymore, instead of hoping for it.
We found out more about what they want from us at Oquaka, I don't know, these people have no idea. They wanted us to lend them war bonnets for their people playing sauk-fox warriors to wear. Jerry told them Black Hawk never wore a Lakota war bonnet, they said well, who would know!
Well, we'll do what we do and they can like it or not.
I will not be a cigar store indian for them!

family reunion

My mother's family had it's annual reunion sunday, with a pretty good turnout. What amazes me is how many people I don't know, especially the younger ones. I guess that's what getting older means. What is really great is how much these reunions are like the ones when I was young. Different faces, same gathering. This is what family is all about. I know many people in this country no longer have this, and I hope we can keep it going. The way I was raised, family is the most important thing. I would hate to see that idea abandoned completely.

great time at prison powwow

We had a great time saturday at the prison, you can read more at inalidancers blog, but they really made us feel accepted. When we closed they invited us to sing the AIM song with them (the freedom song) and passed the lead to us. It was a moving experience.
I will try toget the last post on my trip up soon.

politics are getting disgusting

I've been watching this whole 911 movie thing, and I am just getting disgusted! Using the death of all those people for political gain. Maybe I sound like an old fogie, but politics didn't used be this bad. I'm really worried for this country.
And there's two more months!

surveying at crow canyon

More about my trip out west.
The first day at Crow Canyon those of us who had been there before,(alumni), went out to the field to spend the day doing total station surveying. We wanted to link the surveyed maps of a site we had worked a few years ago to the one from Goodman point, where we are working now. This way,the relationships between them can be better understood, one of the goals of the excavation. Total station surveying involves taking sightings from a known point to a new point in line of site, then switching and sighting back to the first point. The known datum points in the two sites were probably a mile apart, with hills, gullies, and dense pinyon and juniper forest between. We had to bushwhack across country to find line of site points between. And then we couldn't get the computer to work properly to record our sightings. It was time consuming, frustrating, exacting work, and it took all day, but we got it finished. I really have a better appreciation for archaeologists who spend days doing this. I also feel we acclomplished something important.
The next day we headed to the site to get set up in our units and start digging. This site, Goodman point, was the first area ever set aside by the U.S. government as an archaeological preserve, in the late 1800's I believe, and has never been excavated or even looted very much, so it is special. It is also part of Hovenweep national monument, and since the national park service has not let anyone dig at sites on their land for many years (at least in the southwest) it is a major coup for Crow Canyon.
I'll talk more about it later.
By the way, you may have noticed most of my archives are missing. I had major blog problems and ahad to start over, and I think they are gone for good. I might post more on that when I am not so ticked off about it.

why I lost all my posts

In case any one wonders why they can't find any of my past posts, I tried to claim this blog at technorati, I followed their instuctions, and I found the entire template, all the code for my site, wiped. I had to start from scratch.
I am not happy with technorati!

we're big time now

I will get back to my west trip, and how technorati stole a year of my life, but first I have to talk about what happened last night with the black fox drum. I will say more at inali dancers blog, but we just got offered a thousand dollars to play at a small, local powwow in january. This is what real drums get.
I think we're ready (I hope).

don't forget leonard

I mention'd this in past posts that got wiped(thanks, technorati), but sept. 12 is when we should show our support for Leonard Peltier. Let's give it a try, tho I don't think it will work.

a trip to Crow CanyonArchaeological center

I lost this whole blog thanks to technorati, years of work, you scum.
Oh well.
After leaving Taos,I went to Crow Canyon Archaeological Center for a week of research. In case you haven't heard of them, they are one of the most important centers of research in the southwest. They have three missions, research, education, and native involvment, and they excell at all three.The program I do, adult research, brings people from all walks of life together for real research. This is not tourist stuff, as the many papers and books written by people affiliated with Crow Canyon attests to. Florence Lister calls Crow Canyon a new force in southwest archaeology.
They do great in their other missions, too, with many youth groups from all across the nation coming for fun and education, and a native advisory board consulted on everything. I think I will put up a link to them, check the link list.
I had more before I lost it all, but now I think I will come back later on the trip.

I completely lost my blog

Everything is gone. but here is my last postWell, here's another post about my trip out west.
On saturday Ellen and I visited Taos pueblo, just north of town. I was a little unsure, I felt like I was intruding on peoples homes, but it's not set up like that. All the real homes are away and off limits, what is open is very tourist oriented, but interesting anyway. We got there fairly early, and that is the way to do it, before the crowds and buses arrive. This way we could talk to people on a more personal level.
The old village is in two halves, with a large plaza between. I knew better than to walk straight across the plaza (it's bad manners), but obviously many did not, or didn't care. It's thought provoking knowing these buildings were lived in before the english settled Jamestown (with many rebuildings, I'm sure).
Many of the villagers have set up small stores, where they sell arts and crafts, food and drink, and the like. We found the quality of the work to be mostly quite high, and they were willing to talk about it to us (it may have helped that Ellen is obviously part native).
One gentleman was making the best frybread I have ever had! He said he had worked on it for years, and even his grandmother said it was great.
There was one store that advertised itself as a Mirabel store, and we were surprised to find that it belonged to Robert Mirabel himself, and his brother Patrick!
Roberts Nammys (Native American Music Awards) were displayed, along with other awards and many photos with celebrities. He was out of town, but we talked to his brother, who often plays with him, and even got a short, private flute performance. WOW!
Of course, we had to buy some CDs.
Altogether, it was really worth it, especially as part of a trip that included excavation at a site where their ancestor pueblos lived (maybe not the people of Taos exactly, but still) and seeing how they lived at the time of the spanish entrada.
After this trip, I spent the afternoon shopping in town (a shoppers paradise), and had dinner again that night with Ellen and Richard.
The next day I was up early and off to Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado to spend the week digging.
But that's for another post.