Expedition Oklahoma

Nature is Non-Essential

America, we have a problem.  Those old men who've long been passed away are busy rolling over in their graves tonight; John Muir, John Wesley Powell, Teddy Roosevelt, 19th century dreamers, poets and early 20th century activists who crusaded to protect natural beauty from development would be in outraged.  Nature in 2013 is "non-essential."  I shot these photos at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area today. One of the nation's oldest National Parks once called Platt National Park.  It features a travertine spring and a beautiful creek with natural swimming areas.   The Sulphur Springs is in an area of the park that is always open for people to stop and sip the strongly scented sulphur water.   

Not only has the federal government taken natural beauty away from the people as "punishment" by labeling the National Parks Service employees as non-essential this is a petty show of the will of governmental power.  This is in effect showing "We the People" of the United States that we are not responsible enough to visit a National park without a nanny state guardian available.   Yet, we educate our citizens that they have ownership in our national places. That these places are for everyone, all the time.  

A symbolic cone placed to tell people that we aren't allowed to walk freely throughout this park collectively owned by American citizens, that the stewards who are hired to work here aren't important enough.  A tradition of protecting natural beauty for over a hundred years is now subjugated to political games and ploys to show the power of the Government.   

This show of the "might" of the US Government is just as mighty as a parade of 10,000 soldiers down the streets of a big city.  It is a flagrant slap in the face to the American people telling them that this country is not theirs, it belongs to "the Government" and the Government will determine what we need and what is essential and "non-essential" so while regulators and tax collectors continue to go to work and harass and fine ordinary citizens, our parks are unnecessary.   This is no different as unveiling giant paintings of a dictator, this is the marching of troops, this is a group of soldiers invading a home to look for one person in Boston.   This is a show of power.  

Yet, Government excess exists, an unsustainable path of destruction exists for a country whose expenditures outstrip income.  We are beholden to the full faith and trust of a system whose show of might is to put barricades up to keep citizens from seeing collectively owned natural beauty.

In many ways this reminds me of the historic treatment of Native peoples in this Nation.  The government has deemed what is essential and nature is not.  Native people have always held land as sacred within certain religious ceremonies.  The sense of place holds a power with people whose ancestry may be traced back tens of thousands of years on this continent.  Yet, ultimately the government with it's courts and judges decide what is sacred and what land is to be protected.  This time the Government has decided what is important and nature is not important.   

The Governmental shutdown is a passion play that our legislators like to have with each other every so often, yet I disagree that running the country into the ground is the best idea for our children.  But, at the same time I don't see that an entire park system needs to be shutdown especially as our national parks produce revenue.  Maybe we need fewer insurance companies, agents, and lawyers sitting around making up regulations and laws to protect their own self interest.  

Maybe for the most part we don't need to be hovered over at National Parks and for the most part at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area I never see park workers, especially near the Sulphur Springs.  This show of Governmental power is to show the American Citizens -- the very citizens that we educate about their ownership of the government--that we are indeed powerless against barricades and cones that tell us that "this land is not our land."  This land is Government Property and you, the citizens are to keep out.  The sad part is that the park system provides the only nature that some people enjoy.  A controlled beautiful nature, not a wild nature to be explored but a highly regulated, legislated natural beauty.  

No one owns the land,ultimately all civilizations rise and fall and change. A short millenia ago this land was also occupied great civilization who left us echoes of their mounds which we can visit at the Chickasaw Cultural Center, which is not closed by the Government of the United States.  

It is not time to privatize the National Parks, privatize to development and corporate ownership along with more fines and fees. It is time for the old men running the country to show some respect for the people who put them in office and take a step back and re-prioritize the essentials.  

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Orange Butterfly at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area

Swimming at Bear Falls in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area

Some Sunday Shots

Fisheye Little Niagara

A Beautiful Cemetery

UPDATE: Shutdown closes beloved Oklahoma recreational area

Government shutdown: Gate-jumpers at national parks entering gray legal areas (+video)

County In Utah Threatens Takeover Of National Park Areas

Sipokni

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 Maybe, after centuries of destruction... not all knowledge should be known by all.  It should be kept in the minds of those who honor it. 

 

 

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Doaksville

A Bunch of Bull

Ft Towson Cemetery (Old Doaksville)

A few weeks ago I was on a quest, actually it was a totally unplanned quest- but it happened. I was halfway across the state when an appointment got canceled and decided to explore. I decided to go exploring without a map.  How on earth did I get in my car and not have an Oklahoma map in it?   I had a map of DFW metro area, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska, but no Oklahoma map.  Which is crazy, afterall this page is "Expedition Oklahoma."  Yes, I have maps on my phone but those are only for specific navigational instructions and they often get me turned around in the wrong direction.  That is why you have the very brief "Swink" posting- I was going in the opposite direction. It doesn't help that the maps on the iPhone are horrible.   

Why did I go to a cemetery?  Well this cemetery is of particular importance because it is where my Great-Grandfather Willie Willis is buried in an unmarked grave. It was once marked with Indian Pottery.  He died as a young man in 1904, before my Grandfather was born in 1905.   He was a full blood Choctaw and we only have one image of him.   I look into his face to see something of myself. I wonder what kind of personality he had.  We know he liked to play baseball.  We know he had family who owned their own general stores.   We know he was a very young man when he was struck and killed while expecting a new child who he would never meet.  He was born in 1878.  He died in Antlers, Indian Territory. His father was Marcus and his Grandfather was "Ste-Me-Liche-Be" according the the data that the family has.  They lived in Alikchi. Willie Died August 15, 1904.  Sam (my Grandfather) was born January 11, 1905. 

This is from a letter my Step-Grandfather wrote to my Mother about the family history: Willie's (pictured above) Mother died in 1882 (when he was four - how heartbreaking), a couple took him and his brother to Paris Texas to raise him.  After his father died he came back to take over the store he had owned with his brother.  He sold his interest and moved to Ringgold with his wife Gracie.  My Mom has compiled copies of all of the historical documents of her Grandfather for me. 

I don't know where he is buried in this cemetery.  My daughter (who is also named Grace) immediately went to a section of people with the surname of Willis (which seems common in Choctaw country).  

It is strange when you have a surname which you know isn't the correct  name historically.  When you know your name was handed out by someone at an agency.   

I didn't take a lot of time in the cemetery.  We did not realize that you could get to the historic ghost town of Doaksville through passing through the back of the cemetery.   My daugher was on a quest to find the entrance. 

I want to write more on Doaksville and Ft. Towson but Doaksville is more of a personal journey.  

It is the people who are in the unmarked graves who are forgotten, those in the unmarked cemeteries.  Whereever we are still laying our dead to rest someone might look them up and remember or say their name.  

These are all graves, their markers are gone or have been stolen.  

My thesis is focusing on the ancient Choctaw people.  This is actually helping me focus, working on photos within the Choctaw nation. It helps me continue my research while getting my "hobby" of posting on my page out of my system.   

These are all dated and difficult to read.  But, clearly building a visitors center for Fort Towson is getting a lot of funding.  Afterall..military Forts trump towns of the indigenous people who were forced to relocate to this area at the hands of greedy white southerners.  Not that those weren't my ancestors too.  

I seek out the oldest graves in a cemetery, because it fascinates me to think of what kind of lives these people must have led out west in Indian Territory.   Know I can envision the place where Willie was laid to rest.   

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Glauconite Maybe?

Talimena Scenic Drive in The Fall

I have never been a great fan of the falling leaves and the weather that Autumn heralds, but I have to say this is a glorious drive to take in the Fall.  I was afraid I would miss it with appointments being changed from late October to early November, but apparently we had perfect timing.  

I love this view in the Spring and Summer but I didn't imagine the array of colors that there would be in the fall. 

Such a beautiful afternoon in the mountains.  People don't really think about the mountains of Oklahoma.   They talk of the Rocky Mountains, or the Smoky Mountains in other states but we don't hear about the Ouachitas very often.  It's a shame this is one spectacular place.  But maybe it isn't a shame, there arent' always hordes of tourists here.   It is peaceful.  

The window for fall photography is brief, we have such a vibrant display of colors for such a short time that you have to grasp the opportunity to photograph them while you can. 

There was a fire off in the distance...

We could talk about the election?  The stock market dropped 300 points.   Fear and social issues forced many one issue voters to the polls, and unfortunately religious zealotry keeps many people away from a party who has a realistic grasp on the economic realities that this nation faces.  

Nature doesn't care about politics.  There was nature before there was politics.  There was nature before the man tried to control it and tell it what to do...

I have more shots but this is enough for now! 

N. Scott Momaday at Oklahoma City University

I believe in opportunity and taking opportunities you are given.  I believe if you are given the opportunity to be around, see or hear people who are doing amazing things or have had amazing lives you take the opportunity.  If it presents an inconvenience and makes you tired the next day you still have had that opportunity to learn and soak up the wisdom that was offered.  You may find that what you learn is not what you expect.  You may find your knowledge diverging and intersecting and creating a tangled web of synapse and dendrites which gather together in your mind to create this rich experience called life.   

Yesterday evening I made my way to Oklahoma City University, a campus that I had not been to since 1994.  Why 1994?  The summer between my Junior and Senior year in High School I won a scholarship opportunity to go to a science camp with 15 other kids from Oklahoma. It was a geography camp and we explored "Prairies to Peaks."  It was one of those early life changing experiences, to be awarded something competitive and be able to travel throughout Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado for two weeks. For that I will always appreciate the experience that I had been given.   It was an experience where I arrived and found out I was chosen to be one out of over 150 applicants.  

 To hear N. Scott Momaday speak about his work, and his life.  You know when you are in the presence of a star.   Not all stars look and sound like Josh Turner, Gary Allan, Sara Evans (I invite you to look at their photos also)  not all stars are on a stage with thousands of fans screaming at them. This is N. Scott Momaday, a living legend and a incredible personality.  He arrived to a packed house in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City on a Tuesday evening. 

N. Scott Momaday is a master of words.  He takes and creates with his mastery of the language worlds that you can visit and imagine and feel.  He creates images in your mind, sensations and feelings.  First a poet, inspired by Emily Dickinson.  He spent a substantial amount of his youth in the Pueblos of New Mexico, "I saw things in Jemez, I'll never see again that belong in a world different from my own."  Said Momaday,  when he spoke of the Pueblos it was captivating, because they hold such a unique position in the world.   To live within an ancient culture among a people who still hold those ancient traditions close.  

Momaday was speaking of the writer Wilie Morris and how he had once said to him that "You know what I like about the autobiographical narrative?  You get to lie a lot."  "Why do you write?" "Writing is a passion"  "You have fulfilled your destiny, you have been true to yourself."  

My friend who I met over four years ago at a Seminar at North Dakota State University drove 300 miles to attend this lecture.   I loved seeing her and we had a great day.  What an impact this six week seminar sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities had in my life!  This seminar was one I naturally gravitated to, being a Child of the Great Plains,  so I had the opportunity to study as one of the writers who came out of the experience of the Plains. I met Plains Folk, Dr. Tom Isern who led us on a five week geographical exploration of the Northern Plains of the United States and Canada.   The opportunity to learn from outstanding educators and to gain a fresh perspective on writing, History and literature. 

  I appreciate Momaday as a writer, because I was introduced to him in 2008.   In 2009, I had another amazing opportunity to take part in a seminar at Stanford University, also shared with a friend from my Fargo experience.  I walked down the halls of the University that help shape Momaday as a writer.   My children took their first breath in the Indian Hospital where Momaday was born, my grandparents took their last breaths there.   The beauty of the Wichita Mountains are the place I run to when I need solace on the worst days.   I relate to his stories of the Pueblos because my first year as an educator was spent in an ancient village.   

I will end with a part of the "House Made of Dawn," from the novel that won him the Pulitzer prize: 

"In the white man's world, language, too- and the way in which the white man thinks of it-- has undergone a process of change.   The white man takes such things as words and literatures forgranted, as indeed he must, for nothing in his world is so commonplace.  On every side of him there are words by the millions, an unending succession of pamphlets and papers, letters and books, and bills and bulletins, commentaries, and conversations.  He has diluted and multiplied the Word, and words have begun to close in upon him.  He is sated and insensitive; his regard for language--for the Word itself-- as an instrument of creation has diminished nearly to the point of no return.   It may be that he will perish by the word."

This section, to me in 2012 brings to mind the internet.  The words that we throw around here every day which are diminished because there are so many of them, constantly.  A constant stream of language that saturates our world with the voices of billions who cry out to each other, every day online.    Such a timeless passage. 

Momaday signing a book.  He wrote The Way to Rainy Mountain and he speaks of it in House Made of Dawn 

"I followed their ancient way to my Grandmother's grave.  Thoush she lived out her long life in the shadow of Rainy Mountain, the immense landscape of the continential interior--all of its seasons and sounds-- lay like the memory in her blood."  

This is the Rainy Mountain that Momaday writes of (this image is an early example of my photography). I ramble here on this post, but it is my page, my work, my life.   I love the beauty of the Wichita Mountains and I love Momaday's writing because the images he paints when I read his work are just as real as the photographs that I take.  I'm often drawn to writers for their ability to conquer the land with their narratives, I stay for the story.   

 

 

The Pow-Wow at OU

If you don't know, I'm currently working on my Masters degree at the University of Oklahoma.  I'm studying Native American Studies.  It has been an intense year filled with learning.  I attended the Pow-Wow at OU last weekend. My Great Grandfather was a full blood Choctaw, and my Grandfather was born in Indian Territory and was an infant on the Dawes Roll, he was unfortunately raised without his Choctaw Culture because his father passed away prior to his birth, in 1904.  So, I'm interested in that aspect of my heritage and enjoy attending events such as these, despite not being raised with the heritage.  

“When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white men came, an Indian said simply "Ours.” ~Vine Deloria Jr.  

Western civilization, unfortunately, does not link knowledge and morality but rather, it connects knowledge and power and makes them equivalent. ~Vine Deloria Jr. 

I don't have the patience or attention span to learn beadwork.  The beadwork and detail on the dress for the pow wow is incredible.  I can't imagine the time that it takes to create the beautiful beadwork that adorns so many of the people who were here dancing.  I can't imagine sitting still and working with tiny beads. 

I think what impresses me the most about art, is the art that I know that I am not capable of.  

What beautiful work.   

My first teaching job was in the Pueblo of Zuni in Western New Mexico. Many of my students did not like showing their faces or being photographed.  So, these photos will not show peoples faces.  People such as Edward Curtis and early photographers in the American West, photographed Native Americans and used their culture as a means of study and profited from Native Culture. 

With my love of photography, the allure of the colors is incredibly appealing.  

At one time in American History Native American dances were banned by the Federal Government. Religion was not protected and expressing this aspect of culture was illegal.  It was banned by legislators whose ancestors came to this "New World" to find their own "religious freedom."  These Intertribal Pow-wows are an expression of Tribal Sovereignty. 

I enjoy watching and listening.  

The Fancy Dancers are incredible, they move so beautifully and so fast.  It is just something that you have to see in person to understand. 

Enough from me today! I'm tired. I had a much needed day of playing with pictures.  

Cowboys and Indians

Why, you ask am I doing a post titled "Cowboys and Indians"-  Simple.  I'm behind on posting photos and I attended a pow-wow at OU last week, and last night I went to the rodeo.  I need to mow the lawn, go exercise, put up laundry, cook dinner and maybe go to the rodeo again tonight. Finish a paper, take a final and edit some more photos.   So I definitely am short on time this week.  We can argue, history, culture, wrongs by one group of people to another, but instead we should sit and enjoy the beauty of the culture that surrounds us in Oklahoma. Instead of going to a movie and watching something created out of the imagination of Hollywood you can go enjoy the beautiful expressions of culture that living in Southwest Oklahoma allows us.   What can you enjoy about your culture?   

 These photos are from the OU Pow-wow that was at the Lloyd Noble center last weekend.  Which I'm in awe of the talented dancers and their incredible beadwork and beautiful dress.   

This was the Rodeo in Duncan, the PRCA Rodeo.  

So graceful...  from the OU Powwow 

 You should celebrate who you are.  What you were raised to be.  Appreciate all culture around you. 

We are who our ancestors were.   Whether we were born with the culture or we have to learn it.  

The adrenalin pulls us to watch  the rodeo..  it is adventurous.  

While the beauty of the pow-wow can take your breath away...  simply stunning.  

Celebrate who you are.  

A Visit to the Chickasaw Cultural Center

My oldest Son wanted to spend his birthday "out" by going to a Museum.   Museum's are his new thing.  So we went to the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur.  Now, if you want to go to a town in Oklahoma that not only has a gorgeous museum and National Recreation area go to Sulphur.

  I appreciated the video that they play as you enter the museum and its emphasis on Tribal Sovereignty.  I think that most people need to understand that being a member of a tribe, is representative of a special relationship with the United States Government.  A political relationship formed by treaties which were in existence prior to Native Americans holding citizenship in this country. Some aspects of sovereignty are "inherent" they existed before any of the colonizers arrived, one of those is water rights (which is currently a hot topic).   So, remember the tribes relationship with the United States is not an issue of "race" - it is an issue of Sovereignty and Nation to Nation relations. So enjoy the gaming, enjoy the museums and appreciate all of the wonderful economic developments our other nations are doing for the state of Oklahoma's economy.  Because of the tribes we are not struggling like so many states are.   

The traditional Chickasaw Village is pretty cool.  Now, the Chickasaws and the Choctaws were once the same tribe. Two brothers split and went in different directions.  They have also been enemies.  Their language is very similar.  The Chickasaws came from northern Missisippi while the Choctaws were further south.  The Chickasaws formed Alliances with the English/Americans while the Choctaws sided with the French.  

 This beautiful 44 million dollar facility holds the archives of the Chickasaw Nation.  

Recreation of the mound building culture.  Moundbuilders were found all throughout the central United States, from Wisconsin- where we find effigy mounds to the giant Emerald Mound in Mississippi.   Some of them are more like pyramids than mounds.  

My "little baby" is all grown up looking now!  Time goes so fast.  He has been learning Choctaw with his Grandma and was speaking Choctaw to the Chickasaw guides.   I was impressed.  He is really interested in his Choctaw heritage.  

Look at how tall my baby is.  He's a half a foot taller than I am now and taller than his Dad!  

 

 

Sunset in the Wichita Mountains

These Mountains are important to the Kiowa people.  They are ancient.  Beautiful, weathered. Peaceful.  I come to the mountains for peace.  Tonight's sunset was beautiful.  

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone.  And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.  ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir

Having spent the better part of my life trying either to relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes is peace.  ~Author Unknown

If you worry about what might be, and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is.  ~Author Unknown

Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.  ~Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859

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Chickasaw Cultural Center

My Tribal Economic Development class from OU had a wonderful day visiting the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur Oklahoma on Friday. I'm not going to write a lot about what a great place this is to take your family to experience, the pictures speak for themselves.  I can't say enough about OU and the fact that my Professors do take the extra effort to give the students field experiences.  I was a teacher in the Public School system for close to a decade and I've been on more field trips in a semester at OU than I did teaching in Oklahoma's High Schools.  

 I am learning all the time.  The tombstone will be my diploma.  ~Eartha Kitt

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.  ~Winston Churchill

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.  ~Chinese Proverb

Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.  ~Vernon Howard

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.  ~Lloyd Alexander

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires.  Seek discipline and find your liberty.  ~Frank Herbert, Dune Chronicles

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.  ~Victor Hugo

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.  ~Theodore Roosevelt

Practical life teaches us that people may differ and that both may be wrong: it also teaches us that people may differ and both be right.  Anchor yourself fast in the latter faith, or the former will sweep your heart away.  ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.  ~Albert Einstein

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.  ~Danny Kaye

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.  ~Author Unknown

My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.  ~Louis Adamic

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.  ~T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

I liked the mosaic...very cool...

Very serious contemplation going on here.