RAISING A TEPEE.

American Indians built tepees big enough to shelter a family in winter or summer. Old movie westerns showed tepees that were open structures with a flap over the entrance. In the movies a tall person had to stoop a bit to enter and maybe four people could fit inside seated around a fire. I was privileged to watch Harvey White Bear and his wife Cathy put up this authentic tepee at Sky Hawk Ranch in Murphys.


The poles are 25 feet long and each one is a birch tree. Over several hundred years, the nomadic plains Indians learned to build a comfortable, practical dwelling  that served them well through summer and winter. Harvey walks a rope around and around the structure.  Each set of poles is tied the required six times.


The people took down their dwellings about every six months as they followed the herds of buffalo, their main source of food and materials. Precise ways, tried and true, are followed to make the job faster and easier to pick up and move on as a group.


Harvey spreads the canvas centered on one pole. He secures it at the required distance from the top so it won't slip when it is raised. It is a ritual. He loves staying in touch with his heritage by erecting this tepee according to the custom of his forefathers. "I don't get much practice," he said. "I was very happy the Clan asked me to put it up." Harvey belongs to the Bear Clan centered in Idaho. He lives in Wallace and is Cherokee, raised by Comanche with Miwuk cousins. There is another tepee like this one erected near Laytonville by the Owl Clan.


Cathy and "Grandmother Jan" loosely fold the canvas over the pole. Elder women and men are called "grandfather" and "grandmother." They are treated with special respect. It is an honor to be a grandmother or grandfather who council the young, and teach them the accumulated wisdom and  history of the tribe through the years.


Cathy picks  up the heavy end so Harvey can get a rope under the heavy mass of wood and canvas. He ties it in two places.


Cindy holds the heavy end, Harvey takes the great weight in the middle and Jan balances with the top of the pole. Cindy will place the end on the ground and keep her foot wedged against it while Harvey and Jan raise it up to the top.


That plan didn't work. It was too heavy to get to the top with just three people. And, it also hit some tree branches before it could be placed. Grandmother Jan suggested seating it narrow end first and avoid the branches.


Grandmother Jan got reinforcements by waking up a night working neighbor, Rob. Harvey climbed up a ladder and guided it into the right slot.

From the inside, the poles are pushed out as far as they will go pushing into the canvas and tightening it.


Harvey laces up the door which must face East.


The last two poles are inserted into leather cones that have been sewn into the canvas. This is the air conditioning and draft mechanism for the fire. They can be positioned to take advantage of the wind. They vent the smoke and can be flipped to the other side of the tepee if needed.

The last task is to stake the tent to the ground. Native Americans use metal stakes and canvas and every modern tool they can to make the job easier. Their ancestors had fewer choices. Grandfather John, joined us late in the process.

It took about three hours to raise the tepee. In summer, the air flows up from the bottom and out the top. The air conditioning.
During winter, another canvas is attached to the inside covering the draft. It can be rolled up and down as needed. This tepee will not be used as a dwelling, so the inside cover is not placed. Harvey is active with the boy scouts to teach his particular skills. But, he doesn't get many opportunities to put up a grand tepee. The ceremony to bless the dwelling with a gathering of the clan will depend on the health of Grandmother Tanya, who is ill and is the head of the Clan.
The Clan is of mixed tribes who have joined together for their own preservation.  Harvey mentioned that there were about 9,000 different Tribes in North America heavily populated with estimates close to a billion people. Now only 500 distinct tribes exist, most on the west coast. Their combined population is 5,295,700.  They've been decimated by European diseases, Indian Removal Acts, Broken Treaties, Indoctrination, Re-education, Confinement to Reservation life and killing off the buffalo. The loss of dignity, their oral history, art, respect, hope, language and pervasive alcoholism threatens the thin chain of life for many. Another stage of American imperialism and shame. Europeans are a patriarchal society and could never understand or respect a matriarchal society.
The tide is turning but it is still an uphill battle. I hope to be invited to the up-coming ceremony.

CINCO DE MAYO

As a surprise for me, Jim bought us tickets to the Performing Arts Center’s program on Cinco De Mayo. Lighted stage performances disappoint when using a simple point and shoot, but the program was excellent. Besides, I found myself seated next to the bongo players wife and that made it more personal and interesting.

The theme of the program, celebrates the amazing mix of cultures that populates New Mexico.  Native Americans mixed with the Spanish conquerors who in turn mixed with dominating Mexicans,  which evolved into this distinct Mestizo, Latino, culture that is New Mexico today. Two performances stood out above all the rest for me. Shelly Morningsong sang and played Native American flute. Her beautiful voice and haunting flute brought me to tears. The backdrop of a prairie under moonlight, the calling flute, left me longing  for wide open spaces,  a campfire, and the call of the wild. It was  so lovely.


And Frances Lujan, dancer and program choreographer, producer.  This multi-talented woman did an astonishing castanet piece with graceful fingers moving in a blur.  She was joined by two other castanet dancers, all dancing and clicking in  sync with each other and  the band. Throughout the evening, the castanets came back again and again. She made them talk.  It was stunning.


Antonio Reyna was clearly a well-known audience favorite. He sings with such expression and passion that even if you don’t understand Spanish, you know when to sigh, laugh and clap. They were in love with him and he was in love with his audience. Masterful.


I mentioned the bongo player, Billy Loren on the left. The program moves through centuries of music, instruments, costume, and dance from Native American to all Latin music and dance, including rumba, salsa, flamenco, tango, la bamba. Then intersperse  the miners,  cowboys,  and rock music of today.  At one point the bongos and a “keg” drummer had a dueling solo. Billy’s fingers move so fast, they too, become a blur.

During the contemporary segment, two of the guitarists performed a fun, humorous duel that is meant to  display  their talent.
The bands, Mariachi Raices de America, playing the traditional Mexican horns, violins, guitars brings you back to old Mexico.   Los Primos, their variety and passion for latin and contemporary music and contemporary instruments.  The many different dances, with beautiful costuming, colorful and lively. Ahh! An enviable evening.

After the show, we tried to drive the Neon Strip, but again, the police had barricaded much of Central Ave. I’m beginning to think this is standard behavior for the police around here. Hmmm.  What should we close off tonight?  I realize that I have no personal understanding of why we have been barricaded  three times in five days. It is just life in this amazing town of Albuquerque.  Earlier in the day, we visited the Kimo Theatre, but  I’ll blog it another day.
And, that special moon  I told everyone about?  Or, maybe I just mentioned it in email?  It was there, but hiding in the clouds.

MONTE WOLFE REVISITED

Last night, a friend of mine offered to share some information he has worked on about Monte Wolfe.  I’ve known Mark for some time, but what I didn’t know about  Mark Bonar was his  long history of interest in the reclusive Hermit, Monte Wolfe.  Since I’d written about Wolfe in the 1980′s,  Mark  came by with materials and we enjoyed an evening of ruminating about Wolfe. Mark had the good fortune of living in Calaveras County in the 1950′s.  His then father-in-law, Paul LaTeer had met Monte and later wrote stories about Monte and influenced Mark and his family to engage the vast, mountainous arenas and rivers that Monte called home. I promised Mark I wouldn’t write anything from our interview until I passed it by him, first.

For those who don’t know the legendary Monte Wolfe story,  I’ve provided two  links  to my  blogs of 2009 as an introduction to Monte Wolfe.
http://marysramblins.blogspot.com/2009/03/disappearance-of-monte-wolf.html

http://marysramblins.blogspot.com/2009/03/monte-wolf-legend.html

Wolfe spelled his names two ways, sometimes as Wolf and sometimes as Wolfe. Mark uses Wolf with an e and thus this blog is consistent with that spelling.
Wolfe lived like an Indian, surviving completely in the wild with no services. He didn’t have a totem, that I know of, but on a recent walk, I took a picture of a neighbor’s totem that I’d like to share today. I’m always looking for ways to display my amazing pile of junk and this totem  inspired me to build the bottle fence I’ve promised myself.  I only save bottles and jars that are embossed with writing or insignias of some kind, or that have unusual shapes. Anyway, here goes. Don’t tell me. My kids have already informed me that I’m weird.  And, they ought to know.

You  might note that the top of this totem is made of  carved wooden feathers.

What else can you do with rusty tools and broken pieces of tile?

A true totem has a face.

Two faces, optional.

Since I’m part Indian, and I approve, three and four faces are also appropriate.

I also took a picture of a chicken coop.

My brother, Norman, told me he will come back in the spring and build me a chicken coop. (But, what I really want is a totem.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL

Yuma Indians are the Quechen's. They have a modern casino and a not so modern church. But, we all know the Reason For The Season. We decided to visit the Yuma Indian Church and we found a charming little Creche nearby on their site on a hill above Yuma where you can look down on the Imperial Valley with field upon field of lettuces, kale, spinach cabbages, cauliflower and date palms.
They were Christianized many years ago but they have a large surviving population here in Yuma. The city is heavily Hispanic and Indian. The Mexican people are very friendly and musical and also very Chatholic. The Mexican people like their music with a strong beat and very loud. They love festivals and occasions to party. We picked up fresh home made tamales at the Arts Center in old town Yuma for Christmas plus we bought the ingredients for the Meat Pies and a bottle of champagne. The music of Christmas is magical as is the season. Merry Christmas to all.

Planet Earth, Local Herons On The Road

A Fabulous 14 hour video entitled Planet Earth provides an extraordinary view of our living quarters and the fact that we share it with so many creatures and places of great beauty. Its been a joy to see many birds as we roamed. The most spectacular at this time of year are the sitings of blue and white herons. The pictures don't always do them justice and the smaller birds are the back-up chorus that we hardly ever see fit to photograph and so often take for granted, even the loudmouth crows. Egads! The Matzek's have a few loudmouthed members if I do say so myself.
Cedric Puleston's family are bird people from way back and if you go to
http://puleston.osprey.bnl.org/OspreyFund/ospreycam.php
The ospreys are now hatched in his Grandmother's backyard. The fledgelings have left but if you click that link at Brookhaven, NY you'll get a number of interesting cameras for birds that you don't have to register to see. There are live cams and some not so live for kestrels, great tits, barn owls, peregrine falcons, black storks, gentoo penquins. Too many to list.
We are still at Pio Pico Thousand Trails. Pio Pico was the Governor of Mexican California. He owned this property as a Spanish Land Grant. Interesting man of mixed decent, African, Mexican, Indian, Spanish and European. When California became a state an assigned a new governor, Pio Pico fled. His land got promptly gobbled up.