1
50
17
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/bd92e4fbc33066336189ab94cb2cebd3.pdf
faafa5c5af75e827adb96e85cb965890
PDF Text
Text
�������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal Index, 1983-1993</em>
Description
An account of the resource
This document is a topical index to all 38 issues of <em><a href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/browse?collection=79" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</a>. </em>
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, </em> later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal, </em>was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.</em></p>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Periodicals--Indexes
Sustainable living--Periodicals--Indexes
North Carolina, Western
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rob Messick
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
periodical indexes
PDF
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Acid Deposition
Agriculture
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Children's Page
Community
Death and Dying
Earth Energies
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
Education
Electric Power Companies
European Immigration
Fire
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Geography
Glossaries
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Hunting
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Permaculture
Pigeon River
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Sacred Sites
Shelter
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/de17f54be8d2e1fccacd51c09b08146c.pdf
e4018ca4e8f5df316bedfdd2f6ee2887
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE
AUTUMN
NO. 1
1983
�BIOREGIONS :
"The Trail To Home"
FROM ULSTER TO CAROLINA :
(The Scotch-Irish Migration To N. Carolina)
1
3
(""!
N
4
PERHACULTURE PRACTICES
A Story
MOSHKA & LAKIMA
N
By
Snow Bear
<
z
H
,.J
0
''Wind Rose" By George Ellison
MAP MEDITATIONS
6
8
OLD TIME APPLES
POETRY
......
co
The Katuah Bioregion
9
10
i:x:
<
u
::c
f-1
i:x:
MOUNTAIN GUIDES
A Resource Bibliography
i.2
BIOREGIONAL CONGRESSES
14
ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMICS
17
FINDING KATUAH
0
z
19
A Bioregional Questionnaire
FALL CAL EN l}\R
21
CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION
22
..
(""!
......
co
�"A TRAIL TO HOME": continued from page l
By W1frI of definition of this word, Peter Berg writes :
The teim refers both to a gecgrapti.cal terrain and a terrain of consciousness - to a place and the ideas that haVe
developed about how to live in that place. Within a bi.ore9ioo the oonditicns that influence l ife are slllli.lar, and
these in turn have influenced lunan ooc:upancy.
EDITORIAL STAFF:
Bonrue .CamJ;:bel.l
'1b:mas Rain Crowe
IDretta Rattler
Arrly Feinstin
Oluck Marsh
a:1 McNeil!
Olip Smith
Ida Mc:Neill
Mamie Muller
David Reed
Sam Sutker
Martha Tree
David Wheeler
A bimegioo can be detemined initially by the use of climatology, physiognqily, animal and pl.ant geogra?lY, natural history, and other descriptive natural sciences. The final
boundaries o f a bioregioo are best described by the people who
live within it, th:cough hunan rec:cgnitioo of the realities of
livin:;J-in-place.
All life al the planet is ocmected in a f&1 obvious ways, and
in many nme that are barely explora:i. But there is a distinct
resonance lllDl19 living things and the factors which influence
them that occurs specifically within each separate place al the
planet. Di.soovering and describing that resonance is a way to
describe a bioregion."
EDITORIAL OFFICE FOR THIS ISSUE:
Long Branch Environmental
~ducation Center
Route 2, Box 132
Leicester, N.C . 28748
PRINTING:
Sylva Herald Publishing Co.
Sylva, N.C.
ADDRESS CORRESPONDENCE TO:
Kat.µab: Biorez1onal Joµrnal of the
Southern Appalachians
Box 873
Cullowhee, N.C. 28723
'lbe effects of seeing the world in this W1frI would be far-reaching.
WOUld our national policies be the sane if the land was seen as a
sacred being? WOUld our eoonanic:s be the sane if the <X>St to the
biosphere were reckoned into the price of production? WOUld our politics be the same if power over an area were in the hands of the
people who lived there? lllat if oak, bear, fox, and chickadee had a
voice in the decisial-lll!lking oouncils?
The key to this transitioo is in the spiritual realm, for
in disoovering the land as she is in the place \othere we
live, we di.soover ourselves in the izooess. 'DleJ:e is a necessary connecti.cn here, for the self we see axoum us is
not our own nature in metapx>r or reflection. I t is our
own aelf tJ:uly and actually. 'lbis is the mystical oonneotion that makes healing, knowl.edl;Je, and power all possible. If we make a gesture to the earth, the earth gestures
back - this is the source of the nagic.
'!!le geological fomations urx3erpinning the land, the sprinq
rains every year, the wims sweeping in f%an the west, the
tan;Jled uniergrowth of a rhoc!odermon slick, the juna>es
playing anong the forest trees - these are mcng the forces
that shape our bioregion and give it its unique character.
'lbese forces also shape the landscape of our own cxnscicus-
ness.
But our mind is a creative force as well, and the attuned
h1.1nan mind can be a power for encx:iuragi.ng the ecological
health of an area. 'lb:>se who see thEmlelves as sta.lards,
protectors, and healers will be uniting the power of their
minds to this task.
To these pe:>ple falls the responsibility of keeping the essential nature of the nountain area intact. 'lbe .A{pllac:bjans are the oldest irountains, and they are strong sources
o f power for the whole eastern half of TUrtle Island. This
is .iJttx>ssible to explain to those who do not already understand it fran their own experience. To them, this po-
....
-·.,,.-··
.
sition would seen reactionary and a::>unter-pr:oduc:tive, and
they cannot see why it is ultimately inportant to the
survival of us all.
we are here to make changes, but the biggest changes are
within ourselves. We are here to learn and grow and, like
the great trees of the forest, to develop roots and beo:rne part of this place.
In this way the process of transfomation begins. It is a
healing process, a voluntai:y marriage of ourselves to the
land. As we help the land to repair the damage done by a
careless humanity, so does she help us to repair the damage done within our hearts and minds by a bankrupt system.
By infomling our
vision and giving a a::>ntext to our work,
the idea of a bioregion can be a powerful tool in our
spiritual, ecxxanic, and political liberation. It can help
us to becane whole in our spirit, in our bodies , in the land,
and in our experience.
Prayer chant:
"Ancient M::>ther I Ancient M::>ther
You who have waited so l.alg,
You Wio have waited so lcn;J
For your children to return,
Your children are oow returned Here we are"
,
KATU1!.H - page 2
'lbe Blue Ridge M::>untains are under duress, but the area
still has a feeling of sacredness, an aura of power that
has protected it sanewhat fran the ravages of humankind.
we are lucky in the land that has been left to us. 'lbis
area is a prine location to hatch an ecologically sane
and healthy society - the no.mtains are equal to the task
if we are. We have an area that is relatively untraapled
and not overpopll.ated. Because of its inaccessibility, it
is econ::mically depressEd and therefore relatively \mindustrialized. Because of its isolation many of its p e o p l e ,
are unsqhlsticated and still feel close ties to the
mountains.
aubml 1983
�FROM ULSTER TO CAROLINA
The Migration Of The Scotch-Irish To Southwestern North Carolina
The study of migration is particularly valuable to Americans, for either in an
ancient past (for American Indians) or in more recent centuries, all Americans
are immigrants. To an amazing degree we have remained a migratory people,
profoundly mobile, moving from city to city, state to state. Alexis de Tocqueville
observed of early American society that the American "grows accustomed to
change." Once having moved, it was easier to move again and again.
Migration frequently leaves only a sketchy historical record. While the great
sweep of events might be clear, the details are often lost in the confusion of move·
ment. Many family histories remain incomplete and often even the names of those
who first came are lost. The problem of understanding and evaluating the ex·
perience of the Scotch-Irish is made more difficult by the eagerness with which
they threw over the culture of the Old World which might have identified them
as a group in America. Still, their presence surrounds us in the Southern Appalachians in the evidence o( family names, in the stamp they placed upon the
customs of the region and in lingering memories. A distinctive feature of the
Southern Appalachian region is that its relative isolation in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries has preserved a strong sense of a Scotch-Irish past.
At the close of the American Revolution, the territory west of the Blue Ridge
and Allegheny Mountains quickly opened to the first legal white immigra.nts.
Southwestern North Carolina was one of many regions across the new American
nation that received a flood of new people. For perhaps two decades before the
area was opened for settlement, it had been admired by the inhabitants of the
western Piedmont and Watauga who hunted there and fought with General
Rutherford against the Cherokee in 1776. In the last year~ of the Revolutionary
War, North Carolina passed legislation granting mountam lands to ve~erans of
the state's militia and the Continental Army - from 640 acres for pnvates to
12 ()()() for brigadier generals. For others, land was available throughout the period
fo; five and ten cents per acre plus fees. A series of treaties with the C~erokee
between 1785 and the 1830s progressively opened the land and kept tt cheap
and plentiful. Beginning in 1787, when the first grants were made on t~e Swan·
nanoa and French Broad Rivers, war veterans and settlers from the Piedmont
and Watauga, as well as a steady flow of people down the Great Wagon Road,
settled the mountain lands with surprising sp~. Although early census figures
are notorious for underestimating populations, the census of 1790 recorded 88
families some 559 souls already settled on Reems Creek, and a considerable settlement' to the south ~here Bee Tree Creek enters the Swannanoa River.
Between 1787 and 1840 the Old West Frontier passed through southwestern
North Carolina and a new society evolved. The census of 1840 recorded a population of approximately 34,000 people in that region west of the eastern boundary
of Buncombe County, divided at that time into Buncombe, Henderson, Hayw?°'1,
Macon and Cherokee counties. Like all frontiers, the region was never static or
isolated but constantly growing and changing. For many new settlers, western
North Carolina was only another temporary stop. There were people who grew
a few crops on land they never legally claimed and then pushed on either westward
into Tennessee and Kentucky, or southward to Georgia and Alabama. Some
raised children before seeking another home and still others stayed. ~os~ who
settled amongst and frequently displaced the Cherokee were of ~tverse
backgrounds: English, German, French, Black, Welsh as w_ell as Scotc~·lr1Sh: No
single ethnic group can claim an exclusive role in the creation of fr~~tte~ ~1ety,
but a careful examination of the family names in the new communmes md1cates
that the largest group among the early settlers was the Scotch-Irish.
aubm'l
1983
Mountain Agriculture
"I doubt not that those
(Scotch-Irish) pioneers who
came to the South and gave
all cheir strength and devotion
to the fabrication of such
civilization as we have were
grim and decermined and stiff.
necked and opinionated and
fearless people. le is probably
easier to admire chem than it
would have been pleasant to
live with chem. I spent my
earliest days amongst them
and I have no doubt that their
arrributes had been transmitted almost unmodified to them
by their ancestors for generation after generation. They
were and they are
undemonstrative, apparently
without affection and superficially cold. But they generally
have opinions, right or wrong,
and they are altogether willing,
if nor anxious, to stand by
their opinions to their last
breaths. I scarcely think our
government could have come
into being without them."}.
K. Hall on his Scotch-Irish
ancestors in North Carolina,
personal correspondence, 1941.
This large, mobile and adaptive group of immigrants brought to their new homes
a culture formed in Scotland and the north of Ireland and molded by migration.
Much of the Ulster legacy had been put aside for new ways with few signs of
regret. The Scotch-Irish brought a simple, practical and unadorned style of life,
but in at least two essential areas, religion and agriculture, thier mark upon mountain life still bears witness to their Ulster origins.
The other area besides religion where the Scotch-Irish left their mark upon
mountain life was their use of the land. The pattern of mixed farming which
they develop«P was one that they brought with them and which they found wellsuited to their new environment.
This mixed farming was appropriate for the mountains because it did not require enormous amounts of first-quality land and could in fact utilize unclaimed
"open range." Nor did it require the kind of capital that was needed to obtain
the best lands, so it was better suited to a people most of whom had left Ulster
with little material wealth. and it was appropriate to a heavily-forested and laborshort area.
This type of mixed farming is described in the wills and farm inventories of
the earliest settlers, such as those surviving for Haywood County. Grains were
the dominant crops with Indian corn far and away the leader, followed oy oats,
wheat and barley.- Plows are listed in most of the inventories, indicating that in
addition to hoe cultivation many fields were also being cleared and plowed as
agriculture moved out of the earliest pioneer phase. Other crops such as flax and
cotton were also grown, though in small amounts for local use.
This .t ype of agriculture, using slash and burn techniques to remove trees and
the hoe to cultivate around the stumps which were left, as well as the raising
of small numbers of animals, was a pattern which had been practiced in Ulster
in the infield-outfield system, and it was a pattern which the Scotch-Irish stamped
upon the mountains of western North Carolina.
James Patton, the weaver from County Derry, offers a valuable insight into
that.aspect of the frontier economy. In the Philadelphia area he had found various
employment as a casual laborer until he had accumulated enough money by 1789
to purchase a supply of·goods and set out for western North Carolina. His experiences in Pennsylvania indicate that in fact Patton knew little about farm work
and had no taste for it. This marked the beginning of his new career as a traveling merchant, taking trade goods south to the North Carolina mountains and
driving livestock north to the cities of Washington, Balti!Ilore, and Philadelphia.
His experiences give a good idea of what it took to prosper as.a merchant working
the Great Wagon Road and into western North Carolina. During his life, he
saw economic activity grow from the late 1780s, when there was little money
available in the mountains, to the 1830s when his inventories of trade goods reveal
a significant expansion of commerce. The primary "cash crop" that mountaineers
raised was livestock, whici1 according to Patton was driven out of the mountains
in large numbers, supplemented by furs, feathers, beeswax, and roots for medicine
such as gipseng and snake root. He observed:
... I settled in the upper part of North Carolina at that time the poorest part
of the country I ever saw to make property; but I do not entertain the same opi·
nion now. Changes and improvements have convinced me that there are few sections of country superior to the western part of North Carolina.
,
KAW.AH - page 3
�WHAT IS PERMACULTURE
" • • • Pe.Jtma.c.u.ltwr.e. -l6 ~ a c.oMdoU6ly duigne.d ag.Jtic.uli:WLe. .t>y.t>tem • ••
that c.ombinu land.6c.ape. duign wi;th pe11.e.nniai. pf.ant.6 a.nd a.nimai.6 to make a.
.t>a.6e. a.nd .6U6tainable. 11.uoWLc.e. 6011. town a.nd c.ou.ntluj• •a. :t.Jwly a.pp11.op.Jtia.te.
te.c.hnology giving h-i..gh yie.ld.6 6011. low e.ne.11.gy inpd.6, a.nd U.6.lng only hu.ma.n
.t>IUU and Welle.ct to a.c.hie.ve. a .t>table. ILe..l)oWLc.e 06 g11.e.a.t c.ompf.ex.lty and
.6tabil..ity•
• • • ( pe11.mac.u.ltwr.e.) -l6 a philo.t>ophy 06 woll.h.ing wi;th, 11.athell. than agaiMt
na.twr.e; 06 p11.otll.a.c.te.d a.nd thought6ul ob.6M.va.tion 11.athell. than p11.otll.a.cte.d and
thoughtlu.6 labo11.; and o~ looking a.t pf.a.nt.6 a.nd a.n.imal.6 in all the.ill.
6u.nc.tionli , Jta:the11. than tll.e.a.ting a.ny a.11.e.a. a..6 a. .t>ingle.-p11.odu.ct .t>y.t>tem."
---&ill. Molti..6on
a..6 quoted in AGAYULI , Pvuna.c.uli:WLe New6lette11.
THE CHICKENWIRE DAM
EVERY YEAR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TONS OF TOPSOIL
WASH OFF OF OUR AMERICAN LAND INTO THE OCEAN. SOIL IS
ONE OF OUR K>ST PRECIOUS RESOURCES . WITHOUT F!ln'I LE
SOIL. AGRICULTURE -THE FOUNDATION OF OUR CIVILI ZATI ONFAILS. THE LAND CAN NO LONGER SUPPO!n' BUMAN LIFE. THIS
HAS HAPPENED THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF OUR PLANET MANY
TIMES. IN FACT. MANY OF THE WORLD'S DESERTS ARE THE
DIRECT RESULT OF POOR AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND DE FORESTATION THAT LED TO SOIL LOSS THROUGH WIND AND WATER
EROSION.
PEBMACULTURE IS AN ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP AGRICULTURAL
SYSTEMS THAT ARE ECOLOGICALLY SOUND,PERMANENT.SUSTAINABLE AND ENERGY AND RESOURCE CONSERVING. THE PRACTICE OF
PERMACULTURE DRAWS FROM THE BEST OF EXISTING AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND COMBINES THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNIQUES TO CREATE CONSCIOUSLY DESIGNED, H!GH QUALITY LIFE
SUPPORT SYSTEMS. THE CllICKENWIRE DAM. WHICH WAS DISCOVERED QUITE BY ACCIDENT. CAN PROVIDE A USEFUL TOOL FOR
SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION FOR SMALL STREAMS IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF PERMACULTURAL SYSTEMS.
THE CHICKENWIRE DAM, WHICH IS ESSENTIALLY A RUMANMADE BEAVER DAM, IS QUITE EASY TO BUILD. SET LOCUST POSTS
AT 4- FOOT INTERVALS ACROSS A SHALL STREAM BED AND UP THE
SIDESOF THE STREAM BANK TO THE TOP EDGES. SECURE THE TWO
END POSTS WITH GUY WIRES OR SOME OTHER BRACING SYSTP.M.
ATTACH 36" OR 48" HI GH, l " OR 2" MESH CHICKENWIRE TO THE
POST IN THE SAHE MANNER AS IF YOU WERE FENCING A CHICKEN
YARD. IN FACT THIS DAM CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO A CHICKEN ENCLOSURE. SECURE THE BOTTOM EDGE OF THE CHICKENWIRE
TO THE STREAM BOTTOM AND BANKS WITH PEGS OR ROCK. FLOAT
HAY, LEAVES. OR SIMILAR DEBRIS DOWN THE STREAM ABOVE THE
FENCING AND ALLOW IT TO BUILD UP ON THE FENCING AND GRADUALLY SEAL ON THE MESH .
WATER WILL BEGIN TO DAM UP BEHIND THE DEBRIS-CLOGGED
FENCING, WHILE SOME WATER ~LL CONTINUE TO PASS THROUGH
AND OVER THE DAM.
THIS STEP WILL HAVE TO BE REPEATED SEVERAL TIMES TO
INCREASE THE HEIGHT OF THE DAM, AS DEBRIS PROGRESSIVELY
BUILDS UP HIGHER AND HIGHER ON THE FENCING. EVEN THOUGH
AT FIRST THE DAM WILL LEAK COPIOUSLY, OVER TIME THE DEBRIS
WILL SEAL MORE TIGHTLY AGAINST THE CHICKENWIRE.
THE CHICKENWIRE DAM HAS MANY POTENTIAL PERMACULTURAL
APPLICATIONS. THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE SYSTEM'S VIRTUES AND USES. IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH ANY MORE, PLEASE
LET ME KNOW.
1. THE DAM IS INEXPENSIVE AND QUICK AND EASY TO
CONSTRUCT. OTHER MATERIAL THAN CHICKENWIRE. SUCH AS
WOVEN CANE OR BRUSH SECURED IN THE CREEK BEAVERDAM
FASHION COULD BE USED.
2. THE DAM IS FLOOD PROOF. WATER JUST FLOWS THROUGH
THE DAM OR OVER THE CHICKENWIRE CLOGGED WITH DEBRIS.
IN FACT. FLOODS CAN ACTUALLY MAKE THE DAM POND DEEPER
BY ADDING DEBRIS HIGHER UP ON THE DAM FENCING.
J. THE DAM SLOWS WATER LFAVING THE PROPERTY AND
INCREASES THE WATER' S POTENTIAL USES.
4. THE DAM ACTS TO COLLECT SILT AND SOIL BEING
CARRIED DOWNSTREAM. THUS REDUCING A PROPERTY'S SOIL
LOSS AND PROVIDING A SOURCE OF RIGH QUALITY , EASILY
COLLECTED SOIL FOR RETURNING TO FIELDS AND GARDENS.
THESE DAMS CAN BE PLACED IN A SERIES ALONG A STREAM
FOR EVEN GREATER SOIL CONSERVATION AND COLLECTION.
THE SILT THAT EVENTUALLY WOULD FILL THE AREA BEHIND
THE DAM COULD BE USED FOR STREAMSIDE GROWING AREAS
FOR SUCH PLANTS AS WILD RICE. CATTAILS, SAGITTARIA,
CREEK MINT AND .OTHER AQUATIC PLANTS.
5. PONDS SO CREATED MAKE "
GREAT POULTRY WATERING
HOLES AND HABITAT FOR DOCKS . GEESE, FROGS , CRAYFISH,
AND OTHER WILDLIFE OR DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
6. THE DAMS. IF PLACED NEAR CULTIVATED AREAS.
CAN BE USED FOR IRRIGATION PONDS FOR FLOOD. GRAVITY
OR PUMP IRRIGATION SYSTEMS .
By: Chuck Marsh , Bountiful Gardens ,
P.O . Box 509 , Dillsboro, NC 28725
(70 4) 586- 5186
,
I<ATlWI - page
4
autum 1983
�SCOTCH-IRISH MIGRATION
a-/fer ]uia,
b°'J'
t:lt &atlt
continued from page 3
ij nf
aJ4 :J }J,..lt Ml 1'.W\li:
~ HtAo""J ,,., k tu tfD.," ;,,, ft""' JJAilu.re1.
'JI JA°'rt:f wilh ,,,_ i1j c/,eu,., wa.h1J1
"These mountains /of North
Caro/ma/ begin ro be
populated rapidly. The salubri·
ry of rhe air, rhe excellence of
rhc warcr, and more especially
rhe pasrurage of rhese wild
peas for the carrle, are so
many causes char induce new
inhabiranrs ro serrle rhere.
"Esrares of rhe first class are
sold at rhe rare of two dollars,
and rhe raxes are nor more
rhan a half.penny per acre. In·
dian corn, whear, rye, oats,
and peach rrees, are the sold
ob1ecr of culrure.
"The inhabitants of these
mountains are famed for being
excel/enc hunters. Towards the
middle of aurumn mosr of
chem go in pursuir of bears, of
which rhey sell rhe skins, and
rhe flesh, which is very good,
sttves chem in sr:.ear measure
for food during that season.
They prefer ir ro al/ ocher
kinds of meat, and look upon
it as the only thing rhey can
ear wirhour being indisposed
by it. They make also of their
hind legs the most delicious
hams ... They hunt chem
wirh great dogs, which,
wirhouc going near chem,
bar/c, cease, and oblige chem
to climb up a rree, when rhe
hunter kills chem wirh a car·
bine." F. A. Michaux, Travels
il nulu.r11 "'Y jDUl.
'); luJJ 1"I i.IO!Jf f/,I J4ih If rtpl ihidi"f
/w ilj oi.m JIM.
gtt~ 1~"f1' :J fA1Ut ~11WfA- ttltcYJ
A~ j/u.""'1j #f iWAUJJ f
:J f•r M tvf/, fo,. 11¥ &.rlJ, ij wilA. Mes
Llj ~hl.a.inj w ilj JIA)
ihtj fJ!mflJrl ~.
0, fta1 &ulJ,,, ym M je1 tl ""1«~vd
i,. ilcl ~ '1f Mj tMM-~) I
'-n filt1J, ""f 1'1i1Wi ,.,jlJi. n111t..l#ttj ~
""°'!
1-ttJ MY 14JO!HJI,.
jur1ly lit# iur 41'11 IJ,,e J'4j4,.j
;Mil
..n
lite
l4YJ If
fo/1""'
Ml
,,.r Zift
uJ :; 1c1>ZZ J.in
j,,,
The Drovers' Road through
North Carolina
connected rhe region ro
Charleston and Savannah. Ir
was a roure of serrlement in
che early 19th century as well
as rhe sire of rhe carrle and
swine drives char were so im·
porranc ro che regional
economy.
sourhwesr~
i
l!Je ha.vlf ef ih~
far1r1r-.
_,y,. 1if:
~J ~.u,. CJr41111
HOW THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS GOT THEIR NAME
- FROM A GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
It is worthv notice, that our mountaini; are not liOlitnn• and scattered
confusedlv o~er the face of the countrv; but that the~ c:ommcnce at
about 15~ miles from the sea-coast, are' disposed in ridges one behind
another, running nearly parallel with the sea-coast, though rather
approaching it as they advance north-eastwardly. To the south-west,
as the tract of countrv between the sea-coast and the ~l ississippi
becomes narrower, the ~1ountains converge into a single ridge, which.
as it appronches the Culph of :\lexico, subsides into plain countr~'· and
gives rise to some of the wilters of that ~ulph. and particularly to a
ri\'er called the Apillachicola, probably from tht- :\p;1l;1d1il'S, an Indian
nation formerh· n•sidin~ on it. Hence the mount.tins ~i\'in~ rise to that
river, and s~n from its various parts. ,,.l'rc e;1lll•d thl' :\p;1lachi;1n
mountains, being in fact the md or ll'rmination only uf tlw ~'feat rid~es
passing through the <.'Ontinl'llt. European gcograplwrs howc\'er l'Xtended the name northwardlv ns far as the mountoins extended; some
giving it, after their separation into different ridges, to the Blue ridge,
others to the North mountain, others to the Alleghaney, others to the
Laurel ridge, as may he seen in their different maps. But the fact I
believe is, that none of these ridges were e,·er lmo\\11 by that name
to the inh;1bitants, either nati\'e or emigrant, but a~ tht>y saw them liO
called in European maps. In the same dir<.'C'tion ~t·1wr;11l\' are the \'t>ins
of limcstmll'. coal. and other minerals hitherto 1lisl~l\'t•rt•tl : :incl so range
the foils of our ~rt·at ri\'ers.
-TllOM.\S jEFt'Ell.>;OS
Xotc1 0 11 tl1c State nf \ 'ir::,i11ia. 1781-82
West of the Alleghania,
1802.
Two fundamental features of the early Scotch-Irish do stand out. The first is
the cultural interaction they experienced with people around them throughout
their migrations. They never settled in isolation from others. The second is their
readiness to change and adopt new ideas and practices. Perhaps their most per·
sistent trait as settlers on the American frontier was their way of using the land,
evolved in the uplands of Scotland and Ireland and ideally suited to the frontier
that unfolded south and west of Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Their familiarity, even contentment, with this way of life drew them to the fron·
tier and invited them ever onward in search of plentiful land and game. And
here too their preference for the single family farm over the village community
sustained their strong spirit of individuality and the importance of family and
self-sufficiency. This is where their greatest influence lies - in the kind of land .
use and social organization they brought to much of the South. The open range
system in which crops were fenced and livestock roamed free prevailed across
much of the South into .t he 20th century and is an important element in the
shaping of Southern history.
Southwestern North Carolina had by the mid-19th century created a society
that was a synthesis of cultures and peoples reacting to their new environment.
This new Appalachian culture was shaped by forces distinct to the region. Ethnicity
was largely submerged by regional conflicts within the state; by new economic
activities such as logging, mining, and tourism; by the intervention of the federal
government in land policies and development projects; and by continuing in·
and out-migration as the Southern Appalachians became increasingly differentiated from surrounding regions. Those who would understand modern Appalachia would be right to pursue these themes; but a true understanding of the
traditions of the region and its sense of itself still calls us to back to the ethnic
heritages the first settlers brought.
~
Migration of rhe Scocch·lrish People
A Comprehensive Ex hibition Produced By
Mounrain Heritage Center of Western Carolina University
Sam Gray: Project Director
Curtis Wood and Tykr Blethen: Hntorical
autum 1983
R~arch
and Writing
'
I<ATUAH - page
s
�MOSHKA. t LAKlMA
The. moon .6m.U.e.d Jted .thJr.ough the. ne.u a:t the. edge
06 the meadow. TJr.Unk, bMnc.h a.nd lea6 .6ha.dOW.6 .6netc.hed a.c.Jr.0.6.6 a. JLlppUng .6ea 06 the. t:a.ll gMUU a.nd wil..d6loWelL6 belong.lng to Ealith Mathe.Jr.' .6 late .6wnmeJt. Ro.6e.
c.oloJted ha.Jr.vut moonU.ght .6lowly ga.ve. wa.y to .6h.,i.n,lng
.6il.ve.1r., a.nd a..6 the. nee .6ha.do1Al6 .6hMnk, the. .li..ght 6eU
upon the. two 6ox pup.6 pe.1r.c.he.d upon the. ta.ll.., .6mooth,
Jr.Ound gMnlle. boulde.Jr. ,ln the. VeJL':f c.e.n.te.Jr. 06 the.
meadow.
A STORY BY SNOW BEAR
Mo.6hka. a.nd La.IWna. 6eU the a.nc.ient powe.Jr. 06 .tha:t
Jr.Oc.k .6.lng.lng thJr.Ough them, c.oUIL6ing ~d.6 th/Lough
the pa.d6 06 the.iJr. plW6. But the.iJr. ga.ze tAn-6 6.bc.e.d upon
the meadow; .6lowly .the.iJr. .6.talr.e. c»r.c.J.e.d .it., taJUng bt
the. bowa:ty 06 ti6e tha..t .tlvt.ive.d on that JUc.h, bla.c.k
.60il. and the plant.6 a.nd wec.U tha..t gJte:w on a.nd w.lthbt. The.iJr. e.alt.6 c.a.u.ght .the. c.on.tented IWmbl.lng 6Jr.Om .the
bla.c.k beaJL '.6 thJr.Oa..t a..6 .6he. e.66oltt,lu.6lq lti.pped open
.the Jr.Otten hemlock tha..t ha.d 6a.Ueninto .the. me.a.drxu. She
.6a..t on he.Jr. hau.nc.hu, tic.k.lng 6Jr.Om he.Jr. pa.w the. wh.U:e.
g.ltl.Lb.6 tha:t ha.d lived w.i.tkin the. log. HeJt c.ub poked
a.nd .6c.Jr.a..tc.he.d a..t .the. .6o6t wood, 6incllng he.Jr. own 6ood .
Clo.6eJt .to .the. a.nc.ie.n.t Jr.Och .the. wh.ue. 6la..6h 06 the
.6kunk '.6 .6.tJU.pu dlr.w .the..ilt a.tte.n.tlon. A6 .they wa-tc.he.d
he. .6c.Jr.a..tc.he.d a. hole. ,ln the. .6oil., Jte.a.c.hing down wLth
one pa.w a.nd wlth.dJr..aw.in a. gJtea..t p.(.nk ri.igh.t CltaWleJr..
Then .tluwr. lz.e.e.n eyu caught the. UniJ Jtu.6.tting 06
gM.6.6 a..6 the. 6,le.ld mou.6e. Mn thJr.Ough hi.6 tunnel, c.otte.c.U.ng 6a.Ue.n .6e.e.d. They .6e.n.6e.d hi.6 6eaJL a..6 he. 6Jr.Oze.
when the. .6ha.dow pa.ue.d ave.Jr. hi.6 ba.c.lz.. Vown-!Wrlne.d
6ea..the.lr..6 mu.66te.d the. .6ound 06 the. gJtea..t ho1tned owl' .6
6.li..ght a..6 .it. .6WOOped bt a..t gM.6.6 top level. to ha.Jr.vut
IJU a.no.their. /,i..e.ld 110U6e. The. .6p.iJLlt6 06 the. boo young
6oxu .6oa.Jted upon the. .6ong.6 06 the. night: .the. c.hiltp
0 6 the. c.Jr.ic.lz.e.t.6, the. wlU.6 pelt 0 6 the. glta.6.6 e.6 tha..t
ntaltke.d .the. pa.u.i.ng 06 .the tung .6nake., the. .tJt.iLllng 06
the. nee. 6Jr.Og.6, the. yipp.i.ng a.nd how.U.ng o 6 the c.oyotu,
.the. de.e.p-.tlvr.oa..te.d hooting 06 .the owl.
But then, 6Jr.Om the. wut, ca.me. a. ha.Jr..6h Jr.Oa.!Llng .tha:t
dlr.owne.d out the .6ong.6 06 .the night. Mo.6hlz.a. a.nd LalWna.
tultned a.nd IAJ!Lin.k,l.e.d theAJr. nw.LZzlU a..t the. .6meU a.nd
.6ound 06 da.nge.1r. .tha..t wa..6he.d oveJt them. They c.Jr.Ouc.he.d
down tow, pltU.6.ing the.tn.6e.l.uu a.ga.in.6t the. gMnlle. be.neath, gJr.Owt..i.ng a..t the. btv.l6ible. .thltea..t ,ln .the. w. A.nd
.then, a..6 the. Jr.Oa.!Llng gJtw unbea.Mbly loud, .they .6a.w .it.
c.oming ! A. bU.teJt, ove.1r.powe.Jt.lng w.ind bUIL6.t upon .the.
va.Uey, .6na.pp.lng wea.lz. tJr.e.e..top.6, upending .6ha.Uow Jtoote.d
nee tltunk.6 and 6la.tte.ning .the deU.c.a..te. meadow gJta.uu.
It .6la.ppe.d the. two 6oxu, nybtg to tea.Jr. them aJAJa.':f 6Jr.Om
.the a.nc.ient .6.tone., but they hehl on w.it.h a.U the.iJr.
.6ne.ngth. Ic.y 6.ingell.6 cfug be.neath theAJr. .61z.bt; .the.Vt
ha.c.lz.lu we.1r.e. M.l6ed, .theAJr. ha.iJt .6t.ood on end. And then,
a..6 .6wi6tty a..6 .it. ha.d c.ome., .it. pa.ue.d on. They looked
up bt we to .6 ee. .tha..t teM.lble. w.ind Jtoa.!Llng down the.
vall.ey, .6 na.ppi.ng ne.u a.nd 6latte.n.i.ng gM.6.6 u a..6 .it.
went.
The. wind ha.d le.6.t; .it..6 biting c.hilt wU:hbt .them; the.
on the.iJr. ne.c.lz..6 .6til.t .6tood out, the.iJr. eyu we.Jte
wide. a.nd gla..6.6y with teJr.Jr.OJt. Looking a..t the. meadow they
.6a.w d.tvtk .6ha.dowy c.la.IAl6 a.nd teeth Jr.U6hing a:t them. The.
moonUgh.t 6-lU.e.d .the. .6pa.cu be.tween the .6ha.dow c.la.IAl6
with gho.6.tly .6il.ve1t .6ha.pu .tha..t CltaWle.d a.long .the. e.dgu
06 the 6ie.td. The. moon .it..6e.l.6 Wd.6 .tro.l6.te.d in.to a. .6c.owl.lng huma.n 6a.c.e.. PaiJr.6 06 a.ngJty Jte.d eyu .6t.alr.e.d a:t .them
ha,iJr.
KATOAR - page 6
autlm1 1983
�6Jtom wltkin .the g.11.a.uu thlr.eate.ning .to pou.nc.e and claw
and b.lte. F1tom a.U. cU/r.e.c;tion6 came kideou.6 AntL'Ll.6 g1towl6
and Al.U:he.Jt.ing noi6u .
'
Pa.n.i.c made. .them dlUJw down w.ltJWt .them6elvu 6rwthe.1t
and 6WLtheJL; .they e.a.c.h. weJLe. 4b.6otu.telq alone., 601tgo.tten
to ea.ch o.theJL. They coul.d onhj hu.nc.h oveJL and Ah..i.veJL.
r.t l.00.6 Lak..ima. who 6.irralt.lJ ga.the11.ed the. 1tenw.Uning 4.tl!.e.ngth
06 hi6 Ahltin#Ung .6p.iltU and .in an .i.Jvr.u..Uta.bte. bu;t .6.U.e.nt
vo.i.c.e. Aa..id, " Mo.6hka, took at me.I Look .into my e.yu l "
She. twr.ned he.It he.ad and looked .in.to he.It bJto.the.Jt '.6 e.yu.
A4 .the»r. eyu met, a Apalr.k l.00.6 tu..ndled. The tonge.Jt they
looked, the AtltongeJL .the 6lame 61tOm .that Apalr.k g1te.w,
until. .the 6.i.Jte 06 Ap.ilt.lt bl.a.zed .in .the.ilr. .6ou.l.6, rn.<.nd4 and
bod.i.u. That IAJtVUnth .6plle.a.d .thJtOu.ghou;t to dutltoy .the cold
6e.a.Jt .that had COn6u.med .th~.
When .the l.tu.t .tlutcu 06 6e.4Jt we.1te. gone, they bltOke
.the.ilr. gaze upon ea.ch o.the.1t. They looked to the E44.t .into
.the n,ight .that ha.d Awai.towed .that cold, powe.1t6u.l wlnd
and .they .6en6ed a Ao6t Jtu.4.t.Ung 6.tow.i.ng up .the. valley.
A '4Wlm, gentle bJte.eze moved .the .tl!.eu .into a Jthy.thmic.,
.614.tly.i.ng danc.e. It U6.ted up .the gll.444e6 .that had been
p1r.u.6ed 6la.t and ILi.ppt.ed them gently, 44 .i.6 .the meadow
l.00.6 the 4u.Jt6ace. 06 a AIWrrneJL.i.ng lake. The. &«1IUll iAJind
calte.6.6 ed the.iJr. 6aCe6, and played wUh .the.i.Jt 6u.Jt 44 .lt
had wUh .the. gJUZUe.6, JUppLi.llg .lt .in IAllVe.6 06 lted,
white and black. Then .they 6elt .lt pa.u .in.to .the Wut,
Jtutolt.i.ng eve11.rJ-th.i.ng .to .the calm .that had been be601te
.the. cold wlnd lt4vaged .the. va.U.e.y. Once. 494.i.n .the meadow
l.00.6 a pt.ace 06 be.a.u;ty .that frilled them IAllth Aong. The
Aong came 6oltth ucaping .in.to .the. cte.a.Jt n.ight aAJr. and
l.00.6 dJuuAwt .in.to .the he.a.Jtt 06 e.veJLy Uv.ing .th.i.ng .in .that
pt.ace.
Exha.u.6ted, .they padded Atowl.q and 40(,t.l.y u.p .the. Vlt.i.p
Spll.i.ng Hollow and cLimbed .the. hA..U to .the. ltOck owt:Cltopping .that hel.d .the.ilr. home.. S.i..tt.i.ng .in a c.i.Jtcte .in 61tont
06 .the. den we11.e. Tlt..i.4hka and Ka.lwn4, .the.ilr. mo.the.It and
6athe11., and w.i.4e. old W44hte., the IUlcoon. The1te we.Jte
.6.tlutnge du,i.gn6 .6CIUltched .into .the e.a.Jtth be601te. .them;
they Aat .touch.i.ng ea.ch o.the11. '.6 paW6 and A.i.ng.i.ng .i.n a
la.ngu.a.ge .the young 6oxu had neve.Jt he.a.ltd be60Jt.e.
When .they dlr.e.w clo4 e, fAl44hte looked u.p and 44.i.d,
" Thi6 n.i.ght you. have 6ou.ght tong and luvtd wUh an
enemy 6e.w Me able .to conqu.e.Jt. FoJt you. have conqu.e11.ed
the Sp.(Jt.lt 06 Fe.a.It and though .lt mtL1J 4444u.lt you. o6ten,
you. wlU a.l.wa.y.6 be .lt4 ma.6.tell.. The. powe.Jt 06 .the. love
.i.n you. that m44.te.Jted .lt wlU g1tow .6.tl!.onge.Jt .in .the
1Je.a.lt4 ahe.a.d. We .thJtee have 14Nltc.hed you. g1tow, r..m..tJUng
.the Path 06 TIW.th, and knew you Welte 1te.a.dy .to 6ac.e
.thi6 tJUal.. r.t l.00.6 we Jto Ae.nt .that Sp.(Jt.lt 06 Fe4Jt
upon you., .to .6.tl!.e.ng.then you. and 40 you. m,i.ght know .the
powe.Jt .that h44 601t Ao tong AptVr.k.t.ed wl.th.in you.Jt eyu.
F1t0m .tw day on, you. have. w.ltJWt you.Jt Ap.i.Jr..lt .the
c.hih.llten you. we.1te, bwt we wlU .tl!.U6t you. 44 ou.Jt .tJtu.ebJto.the.Jt and .t1we-.6i4.te.1t. But now, .into .the den
wUh you.. "
When .they CltaWled wl.th.i.n .the. 11.oc.k.6, be.6 011.e. .them a
6eJU.t l.00.6 la.id ou;t 06 a.U. .the.i.Jt 6avolt.lte. 6Jtu..lt4 06 the.
meadow: bla.c.kbeNtq, .6br.awbeM.y, ll.44pbeM.IJ, and pe!t4..innon,
all luvtvu.ted and dlr..i.ed .in .the. ti.me. 06 the.i.Jt Jt.i.pene.6.6.
They ate glt4.te6u.lty, .then la..i.d down .in ne.w, .606.t bed.6
06 pu!Li6y.ing c.e.dalr. bou.gh.4 and went glt4Ce.6u.lty .in.to
.the IA10lthJ. 06 dlr.e.am.6~
autmn 1983
Snow Bear is a teacher and herbalist of traditional
alternatives for children and adults. He and his
wife Khalisa are founders and directors of the
Pepper land Farm Camp in Farner, Tenn.
~ - page 7
�In the North Carolina mountains,
people have developed an appreciation
for a variety of apples because apples
were used in so many ways. In the old
days, apples were not an occasional
treat. They were a staple food. From
the planning of the home orchard to the
drying of the apple slices, every way
possible was used to extend the apple
season and preserve the fruit. In the
absence of modern refrigeration, various
kinds of apples came to be known not
only for their taste but also for their
rate of ripening and their capacity for
preservation. Each apple had its specific
season and purpose. Some apples are
early apples and some are better late
in the season. Some are for drying ,
some are best suited for sauce while
others are best for canning. There are
juicy ones for cider and hard ones for
storing and, of course, there are plain
And who knows how the Leatherman,
old eating apples.
the Milam, ~he Democrat and the
During the season, some of the best
Knotley Pea got their names. Many
by Dou;J Elliott
old-time eating apples are Crow's Eggs,
of the apple varieties I mention
Bellflowers, Black Hoovers, Virginia
here are found only in a particular
Beauties, and Spice apples. The small
area, perhaps as small as a portion
yellow Spice apples actually have a
Just about anyone who's been raised of the county. And some names might
distinctive wintergreen-mint flavor .
be a local name for a widespread
in·· the mountains or who's looked at
Some eating apples will keep for months,
variety. For example , Theron showed
apples in the western part of our
while others might be right for eating
me what he called a "No-rthern Spice
State has come cross Winter Johns or
during only a few weeks of the season.
Apple" that looked suspiciously
some of the other old and almost
Theron showed me a little apple called
like a common New England breed
forgotten varieties of apples. Until
a Stripey. Early in the season the apple
called "Northern Spy . "
recently, an apple was just an apple
has a crisp, tangy, white flesh; but if
One of the great proponents of prefor me. That was before I started
it gets too ripe or you let it sit around
serving the many varieties of apples
ranging the hills and hollows with
the house too long, sometimes even for a
was L.H . Bailey whose 1922 book, The
Jheron Edwards, a sharp-eyed mountain
few days, its crisp texture turns mealy.
Apple Tree, lamented that of the more
man from Yancey County raised in the
"It'll almost choke you," says Theron of
mountain tradition of self-sufficiency than 800 varieties listed in nurseryits sawdust-like texture. As good as this
men's catalogues in 1892, not more
and well in touch with much of the
delicious morsel is fresh from the tree,
than a hundred were available at the
old-time wisdom and ways . After a
you'll never find it in the suppermarket.
time of book's publication.
couple of seasons of seeing apples
Sauce apples and canning apples each
'
through Theron's eyes, I felt like
have different properties; they aren't
someone who had been shown a rainjust labeled as cooking apples . Good
bow in full color after seeing only
canning apples are firm-fruited and won't
black and white.
turn brown while a whole panful is peeled
The fact is, there's an incredible
andsliced. The slices hold their shape as
variety of apples in the mountains of
they are exposed to the rigors of home
North Carolina. And by biting into a
canning. Some good canning apples are
few of these old-time apples we can
Winter Johns, Pippins, Milams, Sweet
tap the richness of a rapidly distA~
Russets, Knotley Peas, and Spitzbergens.
appearing culture and life style.
Although it is possible to make sauce out
When I asked Theron how many types
a,
of almost any apple, the best have a soft
of apples he knew, he rattled off a
texture that will break down into sauce
list of more than 20 varieties . Just
with little cooking. Bellflowers and
the names of these almost forgotten
Stripeys are ideal for sauce-making. Juicy
breeds left my head reeling with deapples like Winesaps and Sheep's Nose lend
light. Some were named for what they
themselves well to cider-making. Pippins
resembled, like the elongated, lopand Crow's Eggs are favorite pie apples.
sided Sheep's Nose apple, the oval
The large Stripped Ben Davis is a favorite
Crow's Egg, and the yellow Bellflower.
"Why do we need so many kinds of
baking apple.
Others took people's names, presumapples?" Mr . Bailey asks. "Because
Good canning apples are usually good
ably the ones who developed the
there are so many folks," he says.
drying apples because of their firm flesh.
variety or who first brought it into
"A person has a right to gratify his
Apple-drying was an important home industry
the area. So there's Stark Apples,
legitimate taste. If he wants twenty or in many parts of North Carolina . Itinerant
Betsy Deatons, Black Hoovers, Stripforty kinds of apples for his personal
merchants traveled back country buying or
ed Ben Davis's and Ducketts. Still
use, running from Early Harvest to
trading dried apples. Theron tells of
Others, like the Winesap, Sweet
Roxbury Russett, he should be accorded
peeling and slicing basket after basket
Russet, Stripey and Spice apple are
the privilege. There is merit in
of apples which were dried on racks over
named for their distinctive tastes,
variety itself . It provides more
the cookstove . In some areas the apples wer
color patterns or both. The
contacts with life, and leads away
cored and sliced into rings which were drie
_ Spitzbergen and the Virginia Beauty
from uniformity and monotony."
by stringing the slices on a pole . Drying
refer tn their place of origin; the
Today, according to the North
is one of the simplest and, if you have a
Horse apple is so big and sour that
Carolina Agricultural Extension Service wood stove, one of the most efficient ways
it is considered fit only as feed
90% of the State's co11DDercial apple
to preserve apples. Just slice the apples
for horses; the Limbertwig was
crop is made up of only their varieties thinly and spread them on window screens
named for the distinctive shape and
Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and
CONTINUED ON
flexible limbs of
arent tree.
Rome Beaut •
aubml 1983
KMUAH - paqe 8
,,
=1nd by bitin.y into
a few of tAese
old-time apples
we can ttLf
rtc/in,ess '?f
:ap tdl_y dts°i'feartTtj cutture and
lifestyle.''
�...- :·
. ~,.
. •>...,, .
--
· _ _
..,.....a
-
.-
-~---~
for B, a geopolitical song as emblem,
in this 22nd year of heavenly deadlock
"The bastard wilde Popple is called ••••• in English winde Rose •• ••• "
Gerarde, Herbal (II, lxx 301), 1597
"In those days, even though ancient astronomers had learned to divide the circle mathematically, directions were not
marked by degrees, but in terms of winds • Every experienced seaman, however untutored, knew his winds. They meant more
to him than any number 0 to 360. Since the ancients recognized 12 primary winds, at first the medieval compass cards
were circles divided into 12 directional points •• ••• And the way they were drawn, often with artistic flair, reminded
sailors of a 32-petaled flower. Hence the compass cards became known as wind roses. To this day the Portugese call the
compass card a rosa dos ventos, a wind rose, and any modern cartographer wishing to affect an old chart places in one
corner an elaborate and full- blown wind rose."
John Noble Wilford, The Mapmakers, 1981
Finally, of course, there are oo naps, oo c:arpasses, oo
destinations.
No plans . No yesterdays. No tarorrows. Just place.
The only lodestar is your heart.
Switchbacking
fran the cul-de-sac above the shade
we pass through air so still
it is a balm
but we can see that sure breeze
jagging treelight
on the crestline
& when we get there, love, I pranise you
it will swirl us into pattern
up the main ridge to CliJ'9'1BllS
(passi1'¥3 over the JUdge's eyrie at Sharp Top
we' 11 raven-croak in unison into his solanness)
& sail us Cbwn the high divde to Silers Bald & 'lhurderhead
& on & on & on
devouring the upgrades & laurel hells with the sheer ease
of flight
(the ridges west in Tennessee are negligible
but eyeing the other incline
we'll tick off
Forney Welch Jenkins Twenty Mile & IDI¥3 Hun;p:y
&you&I
will spy the threads in this tapestry glinting in the
norni1'¥3 sun
Peachtree Noland Forney Hazel
for this is our
&
Eagle
range)
till the downdraft shelves to Fontana
& ~ering back through the old river valley
finds us
wieldil'¥3 these walkID]sticks
tryi1'¥3 to get a little higher
on the slope
together •
.
..• .
... . ;,.,·
autl:lm 1983
KAnfAH - page 9
�......
"I WAS VRIVING BACK ON 1-40 FROM RALEIGH, AMV I
STARTEV TO GET THIS EXCITEV FEELING AS I VROVE INTO
THE FOOTHILLS. I BEGAN TO FEEL THAT CERTAIN FEELING
OF BEING IN THE MOUNTAINS AGAIN AS I STARTEV TO
CLIMB, ANV I KNEW I WAS COMING HOME.
THE MOUNTAINS WERE IN FRONT OF ME, LOOKING MAGNIFICENT. YOU KN(XJJ THE WAY THEY ARE SOMETIMES, WITH l
BIG CLOUDS GATHEREV ALL AROUMV THE TOPS ANV THE SUNLIGfT SLANTING THROUGI, LIKE GOV WAS SAYING, 'THESE ~
ARE MY MOUNTAINS, KEEP THEM HOLY'."
THE APPALACHIAN BIOREGION,
LIKE THE LAND ANYWHERE, IS AN
EXPERIENCE. IT IS THE BEING
THERE, THE WORKING , THE EXPLORING, THE COMING TO GRIPS
WITH ITS MYSTERIES THAT ULTIMATELY .PROVIDES OUR PHYSICAL
SUBSISTENCE AND OUR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH.
WRITINGS AND MAPS CAN NEVER
SUBSTITUTE FOR THIS EXPERIENCE. THERE IS A SPECIAL INTENSITY IN STANDING AT THE
TOP OF A STEEP MOUNTAIN
RIDGE LOOKING OUR OVER FORESTED VALLEYS OR IN ARISING
AT DAYBREAK ABOVE ROLLING
BANKS OF CLOUDS THAT ISOLATE
THE MOUNTAINTOPS LIKE ISLANDS
IN A GRAY OCEAN. THERE IS A
PERVADCNG SENSE OF ALIVENESS """
AND AWARENESS IN A FOREST OF
TALL TREES THAT AWAKENS THE
MIND TO THE NATURAL SURROUNDINGS AND REVEALS A SPECIAL
SENSE OF PRESENCE.
BUT WORDS AND PICTURES CAN BE
GUIDES TO POINT THE WAY. IT
IS PLAIN TO SEE ON THE LAND
SURFACE MAP OF THE EASTERN
RALF OF THE CONTINENT, TURTLE
ISLAND, THAT THERE IS AN APEX
OF INTENSE ENERGY: THE BLUE
RIDGE AND SURROUNDING MOUNTAINS, WITH THE GREAT SMOKY
MOUNTAINS AS THE ENERGY CENTER.
FROM THAT CENI'ER, THE ENERGY FLOWS OUT, RADIATING IN ALL
DIRECTIONS. JUST AS IRON FILINGS WILL DELINEATE THE INVISIBLE FLOWS OF MAGNETIC FORCE, THE LINES OF THE RIVERS ON THE
MAP SHOW THE ENERGY PATHS RADIATING OUTWARD.
THE RIVERS ARE BORN IN THE MOUNTAINS. TREY FLOW OUTWARD IN
ALL DIRECTIONS: EAST TO THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD; SOUTH INTO
THE PALMETTO COUNTRY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA; INTO THE GULF OF MEXICO THROUGH THE ALABAMA LOWLANDS OR
BY WAY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE WEST; EVEN NORTH TO
THE GREAT LAKES. THE POWER OF THE EARTH SPIRIT FLOWS OUT
OVER ALL THE LANDS
THERE ARE BOUNDARIES TO THE MOUNTAIN REGION; BUT THEY ARE
"SOFT" BOUNDARIES. NATURE DOES NOT LEND HERSELF TO HARDAND-FAST LINES, BUT RATHER TO TENCENCIES. NIGHT MOVES INTO
DAY, WINTER MOVES INTO SPRING - THE DIFFERENCES ARE APPAI<A1lJAH - page 10
RENT, BUT THE PRECISE POINT WHERE THE TRANSITION TAKES
PLACE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DEFINE. SO IT IS WITH THE LAND. AS
ONE TYPE OF CLIMATE, VEGETATION, OR TERRAIN MERGES INTO
ANOTHER, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MARK THE PRECISE CROSSOVER
POINT.
/
t<ATUAH: THE CENTER
"ON CEREMONIAL OCCASIONS, THEY FREQUENTLY SPEAK OF
THEMSELVES AS "ANI-KITUHWAGI" OR "PEOPLE OF KITUWHA", AN ANCIENT SITTLEMENT ON THE TUCKASEGEE RIVER
ANV APPARENTLY THE ORIGINAL NUCLEUS OF THE TRIBE."
- Jamu Mooney, My.th.6 06 .the. CheJr.Oke.e.
~
THIS NAME, KATUAH, APPEARING IN A VARIETY OF PHONETIC SPELLINGS, REFERRED TO THE CHEROKEE VILLAGE LOCATED JUST BELOW
THE JUNCTION OF THE TUCKASEGEE AND OCONOLUFTEE RIVERS IN
autmin 1983
�WHAT IS NOW CALLED SWAIN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. THIS VILLAGE DOMINATED THE "MIDDLE TOWNS" OF THE CHEROKEE NATION,
THOSE VILLAGES LYING ALONG THE TUCKASEGEE AND THE UPPER
PART OF THE LITTLE TENNESSEE RIVER, AND THAT AREA WAS FREQUENTLY REFERRED TO AS KATfiAH.
..
THE MEANING OF THE WORD KATUAH HAS BEEN LOST, BUT IT IS ONE
OF THOSE WORDS THAT CARRIES A SIGNIFICANCE DEEPER THAN ITS
DEFINITION. THE WORD WAS USED WITH DEEP RESPECT, AND, ACCORDING TO MOONEY, WAS "FREQUENTLY EXTENDED TO INCLUDE THE
WHOLE TRIBE".
...
THESE RANGES PERHAPS RELATE MORE TO THEIR LOCAL ENVIRONS
THAN TO THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM AS A WHOLE.
ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE APPALACHIAN CHAIN, THE PIEDMONT
PLATEAU FOLLOWS THW MOUNTAINS SERVING AS A TRANSITION AREA
BETWEEN THE HEIGHTS AND THE COASTAL PLAIN •
APPALACHIA IS BOUNDED ON THE WEST BY THE TERRITORY DEFINED
BY THE OHIO, CUNBERLAND, AND TENNESSEE RIVER DRAINAGES.
TO THE SOUTH, THE MOUNTAIN SYSTEM DIMINISHES IN NORTH
GEORGIA AND NORTHEAST ALABAMA UNTIL IT CEASES ALTOGETHER IN
,
THE VICINITY OF THE GREAT ETOWAH MOUND NEAR MARIETTA, GEORINDEED, IT CAN BE SEEN ON THE MAP THAT KATtl-·- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . , GIA.
AH IS THE GEOGRAPHICAL CENTER OF THE CBER<r
KEE TERRITORY, AS TH.§ INDIANS APPARENTLY
ECONOMICALLY , THE CITY OF ATLANTA , ORIWERE WELL AWARE . KATUAH ALSO COINCIDES WITH
GINALLY THE OLD RAILROAD JUNCTION,
THE ENERGY CENTER FOR THE EASTERN HALF OF
FACES AWAY FROM THE HIGHLANDS TOWARDS
THE TURTLE ISLAND CONTINENT. IT IS FROM
THE PROFITABLE COMMERCE OF THE SOUTHTHIS CENTEJ WE BORROW THE NAME FOR OUR PR<r
EASTERN FLATLANDS. YET .THE MOUNVINCE, l<ATUAH. AND '!T IS THROUGH THE NAME
TAINS ARE ALWAYS THERE, SENDING
KATLJAH WE HOPE IN OUR MODERN CONTEXT TO REOUT THEIR INFLUENCE, AND STILL
AWAKEN THE SPIRITUAL IDENTITY THIS AREA HAS
HAVE A HOLD ON THE HEARTS OF MANY
HAD IN THE PAST.
OF THE CITY'S PEOPLE.
THIS PROVINCE, THE FOCUS OF OUR ENERGIES
THE APPALACHIANS ARE THE OLDEST
AND OUR OWN BIOGEOGRAPHICAL NICHE, ROUGHLY
MOUNTAINS ON THE CONTINENT. IN THE
COINCIDES WITH THE ORIGINAL AREA OF CHER<r
EONS OF THEIR YOUTH, IT IS HYPOTHEKEE SETTLEMENT IN PRE-COLUMBIAN TIMES.
SIZED THAT THEY STOOD AS TALL AS THE
THIS AREA IS ALSO LARGELY COINCIDENTAL WITH
HIMALAYAS. NOW, ROUNDED AND WORN WITH
"OLD APPALACHIA", THE GEOLOGICAL NAME FOR
AGE, THEY ARE A DEEP STORE OF WISDOM,
THE EARLIER FORMATIONS OF THE APPALACHIAN
STRENGTH, AND ENDURANCE. THEY ARE THE
CHAIN - THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, THE UNAKA
ELDERS OF THE LAND, AND THEIR ENERRANGE, AND THE TRANSVERSE RANGES BETWEEN
GIES ARE MORE SUBTLE AND DEMAND MORE
THEM .
~""" d.e. "'-.P
ATTUNEMENT THAN THE RAW PRIDE OF THE
Tll f.: CllJ:;HOJ<EI·:
MOUNTAINS TO THE WEST GLORYING IN
THEIR PHYSICAL STRENGTH.
THE APPALACHIAN CHAIN WAS FORMED IN TWO
DISTINCT STAGES. "THE GREAT APPALACHIAN
.JAMl':S :-.100.N t-:\"
THE POWER OF THE APPALACHIANS IS A
11:)00
VALLEY" - THE TENNESSEE AND SHENANDOAH
STRONG FORCE IN THE LIVES OF ALL
RIVER VALLEYS SEEN AS ONE - DIVIDES
@dui-rft..J K~ ..t~ site.
THE PEOPLE UNDER THEIR INFLUENCE.
"OLD APPALACHIA" FROM "NEW APPALACHIA" ~
.__ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __.THEY STAND STRONG ABOVE THE RUSH OF
THE ALLEGHENIES AND THE CUMBERLAND
THE COASTAL POPULATION CENTERS.
MOUNTAINS, YOUNGER RANGES THAT CONTAIN THE MASSIVE COAL DECALM, IMPASSIVE, ENDURING, THEY GROUND AND BALANCE THE
POSITS SO CHARACTERISTIC OF APPALACHIA JN MANY PEOPLE'S
l'KENETIC ENERGIES OF THE PROFIT-SEEKERS AND THOSE TOO
MINDS.
ABSORBED IN SIMPLY MEETING THE BILLS ON THEIR LIVES TO
NOTICE WHERE THEY ARE OR THE WORLD OF LIFE AROUND THEM.
THE MOUNTAINS ARE IN MANY WAYS SIMILAR THROUGHOUT, BUT THE
MINING OF COAL HAS PERMEATED THE HISTORY, CULTURE, ECONOLIKE THE MOUNTAINS' POSITIVE BENEFITS, THE CHANGES THAT
MICS, AND CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PEOPLE OF "NEW APPALACHIA"
WOULD COME ABOUT IF THEIR INFLUENCE WERE DIMINISHED BY
TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CONDITIONS HAVE
THE MISTAKES AND EXCESSES OF HUMANKIND WOULD ALSO BE
BEEN CREATED BETWEEN THE TWO HALVES OF THE APPALACHIAN
SUBTLE AND FAR-REACHING. IN WHAT MANNER THESE CHANGES
CHAIN. HOPEFULLY, THESE WILL BE RESOLVED IN THE COURSE OF
WOULD APPEAR IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY, BUT THEY WOULD
POST-INDUSTRIAL HISTORY, BUT IT WILL TAKE TIME.
SURELY aE DESTRUCTIVE AND WOULD LESSEN THE VITALITY OF
THE HUMAN SPECIES AND OUR POTENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL.
APPALACHIA: O SIORE&lON
UR
THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS FROM EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA TO THEIR
SOUTHERN LIMITS IN NORTHERN GEORGIA AND ALABAMA COMPRISE OUR
COMPLETE BIOREGION.
PROTECTING AND MAINTAINING THE LIFE OF THE MOUNTAINS
IS A VERY PRACTICAL SORT OF WISDOM, FOR OUR WELL-BEING
AND THE SPIRITUAL HEALTH OF THE LAND ARE INTIMATELY
LINKED.
CLWTINUED ON PAG£ tO
GEOLOGICALLY, THE APPALACHIAN CHAIN PICKS UP AGAIN TO THE
NORTH AS THE CATSKILL AND ADIRONDACK MOUNTAiNS IN NEW YORK
STATE AND THE GREEN AND WHITE MOUNTAINS IN NEW ENGLAND. BUT
aut\ml 1983
r
KATlWl - page 11
�A RESOURCE BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR KATUAH AREA
THE BIOREGION IVEA
AKWESASNE NOTES. A BASIC CALL TO CONSCIOUSNESS: THE RAV DENO SAU NEE ADDRESS TO
THE WESTERN WORLD. AKWESASNE NOTES, PUBLISHER-cJo MOHAWK NATION, ROOSEVELTOWN, NY 1368~e bioregional ethic as lived by the Iroquois Nation from
Paleolithic era to the present and the attack upon it by European colonialism.
BERG, PETER, ed. REINHABITING ! SEPARATE COUNTRY. PLANET DRUM FOUNDATION, BOX 31251,
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. 1978. The bioregional experience, Northern California as example.
BERRY, WENDELL. THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA. SIERRA CLUB,
LAND. NORTH POINT PRESS,
SNYDER, GARY . EARTH HOUSE.ti:OLD. NEW DIRECTIONS; THE OLD WAYS. CITY LIGHTS; THE
REAL WORK. NEW DIRECTIONS; TURTLE ISLAND. NEW DIRECTIONS. Bioregional
classics - poems and essays of respect to Gaia and the "real work", getting
in touch with ourselves and nature.
TUKEL, GEORGE. TOWARD! BIOREGIONAL MODEL ; BERG, PETER. t?IGURES OF REGULATION;
TODD, JOHN & TUKE~. GEORGE. REINHABITING CITIES AND TOWNS. PLANET DRUM
FOUNDATION, publisher. Some of the publications from Planet DrlDD which
give a good overall $ense of designing for sustainability.
periodicals:
AKWESASNE NOTES. c/o MOhAWK NATION, ROOSEVELTOWN, NY 13683. Official publication
of the Mohawk Nation; Best statemect of the traditional Native viewpoint
on modern problems .
CoEVOLUTION QUARTERLY (CEQ). "WATERSHE!'JS" ISSUE. WINTER, 1976-77. published t;y
the Whole Earth Catalog, Box 428, Sausalito, CA 94966.
CoEVOLUTION QUARTERLY. "BIOREGIONS" ISS!.iE . no . 32 WINTER 1981. published oy tile:
Whole Earth Catalog .
RAISE 7HE STAKES.PLANET DRUM FOUNDATION, Box 31251, Sa& Francisco, CA 94~31.
- - Tri-annual publication dedicated to "deve:!.oping, analyzing <i-:ld communicating the concept of a bioregion". Interested in developing an exchange
among individuals and groups "tnat are exploring cultural, environmental
anci economic forms appropriate to L:he places they live in".
GEOLOG'I
ROGERS, JOHN. THE TECTONICS OF THE APPALACHIANS. WILEY-INTERSCIENCE, 1970.
NATURAL HISTORY
Use any good field identification books ( The A~dubon Field Guides
good) plus the following of special regional interest:
BROOKS, MORRIS. THE APPALACHIANS.
~re
particularly
Natural History textbook.
CAMPBELL, HUTSON, SHARPE. GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN WILDFLOWERS . UNIVERSITY OF TN PRESS.
CHILTOSKEY, .'1ARY & HAMEL, PAUL . CHEROKEE PLANTS. HERALD PUBLISHING, 1975. Syl va, NC
ELLIOTT, DOUG. ROOTS. CHATHAM PRESS . Exceller.t 5uide to r:ne underground world of
medicinal and othe::vide useful plant rhizomes.
GRAY, SAM. HAZEL CREEK: PATTERNS OF LIFE ON AN APPALACHIAN WATERSHED. MOUNTAIN
HERITAGE CENTER, WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY, CULLOWHEE, NC.
HESLER, L. R•. ' MUSHROOMS OF THE GREAT SMOKIES.
KROCHMAL, ARNOLD AND CONNIE. GUIDE TO MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE UNITED STATES . QUADRANGLE PRESS. Experts on Appalachian plant life.
KATUAH - page 12
autunn 1983
�LINZEY, ALICIA AND DONALD. MAMMALS OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK.
UNIVERSITY OF TN PRESS.
STUPKA, ARTHUR. NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK;
TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK.
One of the best-k. lwn naturalists specializing on this area.
STUPKA, ARTHUR AND HUHEEY, JAMES. AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF THE GREAT SMOKY
MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK. The Smokies are known for the varieties of
amphibious creatures.
BARTRAM, WILLIAM. THE TRAVELS OF WILLIAM BARTRAM. BARNES & NOBLE. One of the
first whites into the area, Bartram wrote of the land and the Indians
in almost an untouched state.
TIME-LIFE. THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS . TIME-LIFE BOOKS AND JEROME DOOLITTLE, 1975.
NATIVE INHABITANTS
There are a lot of books on the Cherokees, but it is hard to find information
about their traditional ways. Mooney is the best source.
MOONEY, JAMES. MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE AND SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEE.
CHARLES ELDER, BOOKSELLER.
GRAY, SAM. MYTHIC MAPS: CHEROKEE LEGENDS OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. MOUNTAIN
HERITAGE CENTER, WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY.
ULMER, MARY AND BECK, SAMUEL. CHEROKEE COOKLORE . PUBLISHED BY MARY AND GOINGBACK
CHILTOSKY, 1951. MUSEUM OF CHEROKEE INDIAN.
JOURNAL OF THE CHEROKEE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. CHEROKEE, NC 28719 . Periodical .
Sometimes interesting, sometimes boring accounts of Cherokee life and
history, almost always by white academics.
WHITE SETTLERS: HISTORY ANO CU L
TURE
CAMPBELL, JOHN C. THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDER AND HIS HOMELAND. UNIVERSITY PRESS OF
KENTUCKY .
KEPHART, HORACE. OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS . UNIVERSITY OF TN PRESS
LOVINS, CLIFFORD R. OUR MOUNTAIN HERITAGE. MOUNTAIN HERITAGE CENTER, WESTERN
CAROLINA UNIVERSITY.
PARRIS, JOHN. ROAMING THE MOUNTAINS ; MY MOUNTAINEERS, MY PEOPLE; THESE STORIED
MOUNTAINS. A good storyteller and knowledgeable"""'ibout the mountains, if
you can get through his descriptive verbiage .
VAN NOPPEN, JOHN AND INA. WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA SINCE THE CIVIL WAR. APPALACHIAN
CONSORTIUM PRESS.
WIGGINTON, ELIOT, ed. THE FOXFIRE BOOK and FOXFIRE 2-6. ANCHOR PRESS/DOUBLEDAY.
The famous interview series on mountain culture.
SEEING
BERRY, WENDELL. THE WHEEL (poems) ; FARMING:~ HANDBOOK : THE COUNTRY OF
MARRIAGE
CARTER, FORREST. THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE. DELACORTE PRESS.
A young boy learns from his Cherokee grandparents in East Tennessee.
DILLARD, ANNIE. PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK. HARPER'S MAGAZINE PRESS.
PORTER, ELIOT (PHOTOS) AND ABBEY, EDWARD (TEXT). APPALACHIAN WILDERNESS .
BALLANTINE BOOKS. NEW YORK, 1973.
POLITICS
ASKINS, JOHNSON, LEWIS, editors . COLONIALISM IN MODERN AMERICA: THE APPALACHIAN
CASE.
EMERGING 810REGIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN RESOURCE CATALOG. PUBLISHED 1980-82 . AVAILABLE NOW
IN LIBRARIES OF WNC AREA.
autunn 1983
�FOLKS IN THE OZARKS HAVE BEEN MEETING AS
A BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS EACH YEAR FOR THE
LAST THREE YEARS. OTHER BIOREGIONAL CONGRESSES AROUND OUR CONTINENT ARE BEGINNING TO CONVENE AS WELL. IN FACT, THERE
IS EVEN GOING TO BE A NORTH AMERICAN BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS IN SPRING OF 1984 TO
BRING TOGETHER ALL OF THESE CONGRESSES.
WHY ARE THESE CONGRESSES HAPPENING AND
WHAT ARE THEY ABOUT? WELL, FIRST OF ALL,
BIOREGIONAL BOUNDARIES ARE CLEARLY DIFFERENT THAN POLITICAL BOUNDARIES.WHEN YOU
BEGIN TO THINK BIOREGIONALLY, YOU BEGIN
TO HONOR WHOLE PROCESSES THAT SURROUND
YOU. YOU CANNOT CUT OFF A MOUNTAIN RANGE
JUST BECAUSE IT HAPPENS TO EXTEND INTO
ANOTHER STATE; NOR CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU
CAN FORGET WHAT HAPPENS DOWN RIVER BECAUSE IT HAPPENS TO BE UNDER OTHER'POLITICAL JURISDICTION'. IN OTHER WORDS,
BIOREGIONAL BOUNDARIES INCLUDE "WHOLE
SYSTEMS" AND HONOR THE NATURAL, ECOLOGICAL "LEGAL" SYSTEM THAT IS ALREADY
FUNCTIONING.
BIOREGIONAL CONGRESSES A.lIB INFORMAL LEGISLATIVE BODIES WHICH HAVE 'CROPPED UP',
SO TO SPEAK, WITHIN THEIR RESPECTIVE BIOREGIONS. A MAIN PURPOSE OF A BIOREGIONAL
CONGRESS IS TO REFLECT WITHIN THE HUMAN
CONSCIOUSNESS/CULTURE THE WIDER "BIOLEGAL" STRUCTURE THAT EXISTS IN THAT BIOREGION; IN OTHER WORDS, TO TRANSLATE INTO HUMAN TERMS THE ECOLOGICAL LEGAL SYSTEM WHICH IS ALREADY FUNCTIONING IN THAT
BIOREGION.
ANOTHER PURPOSE OF A BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS
IS TO FACILITATE THE ADAPTATION--INTEGRATION--INTER-FACING OF THE HUMAN CULTURE
INTO THE WIDER BIO-SYSTEM. HERE THE EMPHASIS IS ON "SUSTAINABILITY". ARE HUMAN
PRACTICES THERE --ECONOMIC, SPIRITUAL,
SOCIAL,ETC.-- ALLOWING FOR OR CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE BIOREG- ION.
THE FOLKS IN THE OZARKS WHO CONVENE EACH
YEAR AS THE OZARK AREA COMMUNITY CONGRESS
(O.A.C.C.) HAVE BEGUN TO EVOLVE A VIABLE
PROCESS FOR "CONGRESSING". THEY HAVE FIRST
IDENTIFIED ALL THE VARIOUS ASPECTS IN THE
BIOREGION WHICH THEY CONSIDER TO BE SIGNIFICANT. HAVING IDENTIFIED THESE ASPECTS,
THEY , THEN, HAVE SET UP ELEVEN PERMANENT
STANDING COMMITTEES TO ADDRESS THESE INDIVIDUAL ASPECTS AND TO CAUCUS DURING
EACH CONGRESS. THE ELEVEN COMMITTEES ARE
AS FOLLOWS : APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
ENVIRONMENTAL/ECOLOGICAL
COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS
COMMUNITIES/ALTERNATIVE LAND TENU
AGRICULTURE/DIRECT MARKETING
BIOREGIONAL/ECOLOGICAL POLITICS
ENERGY/RENEWABLE RESOURCES
HEALTH
EDUCATION/NETWORKING/COMMUNICATION
PEACE/HUMAN RIGHTS
SAFE ENERGY
KAT6AH -
page 14
autunn 1983
�EACH REPRESENTATIVE ATTENDING THE CONGRESS
IS ASKED TO JOIN ONE OF THE ELEVEN STANDING
COMMITTEES AND TO CAUCUS WITH THAT COMMITTEE DURING THE CONGRESSIONAL SESSION. THE
COMMITTEES MEET SEVERAL TIMES DURING THE
FOUR-DAY SESSION OF THE CONGRESS --DOING
INTENSIVE NETWORKING, INFORMATION-SHARING,
AND PLANNING WHAT THEY WILL DO AS A GROUP
FOR THE COMING YEAR.
A MAJOR FUNCTION FOR EACH STANDING COMMITTEE IS TO DRAFT A SET OF RESOLUTIONS -WHICH ACT AS A PERMANENT GUlDELINE FOR
THAT COMMITTEE'S DIRECTION. TOWARDS THE
END OF THE CONGRESSIONAL SESSION , THE RESOLUTIONS ARE THEN BROUGHT TO THE FULL CONGRESS IN PLENARY SESS ION AND ARE REVIEWED
AND RATIFIED . TAKEN AS A WHOLE THE BODY OF
RESOLUTIONS FROM THE ELEVEN MAJOR COMMITTEES THEN FORMS THE CONSTITUTION/MISSION
STATEMENT FOR THE CONGRESS.
THROUGH ITS CONSTITUTION , THE CONGRESS-BY IDENTIFYING THE MAJOR AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIOREGION -- HOPES TO PROVIDE
A "ONE-TO-ONE CORRESPONDENCE" TO THE ACTUAL
BIOREGION, IN ORDER TO ACKNOWLEDGE ITS COMPLEXITY AND INTERWOVENESS AND, THEREFORE,
TO CONSCIOUSLY PLAN FOR ITS SUSTAINABILITY.
IN OTHER WORDS , THE CONGRESS HOPES TO
"MIRROR" THE BIOREGION.
THE REPRESENTATIVES WHO ATTEND THE CONGRESS
ARE MAINLY PEOPLE FROM THE BIOREGION WHO
ARE ALREADY INVOLVED IN THE "SUSTAINABILITY" OF THE BIOREGION IN SOME WAY --EITHER
THROUGH THE ARTS, THE ENVIRONMENT, THE
REGIONAL ECONOMY,ETC . THE CONGRESS IS NOT
"JUST ONE MORE THING TO DO" -- IT IS A WAY
OF LETTING PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY WORKING
ON PARTICULAR ISSUES OR IN SPECIFIC AREAS
SEE HOW THEY ' FIT IN' TO THE WIDER PICTURE
OF SUSTAINING THE BIOREGION AND TO RENEW
THEIR SENSE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THEIR PERSONAL ACTION .
IN THE YEAR BETWEEN CONGRESSES, THE STANDING COMMITTEES MAY MEET PHYSICALLY , OR JUST
MAINTAIN COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MEMBERS , OR
DO NOTHING AT ALL. THEIR DEGREE OF ORGANIZATION IS ENTIRELY SELF-DETERMINING AND DEVELOPS OVER A PERIOD OF YEARS. O.A.C.C.
FEELS THAT IT IS KEY THAT THE CONGRESS DEVELOP IN A NON-FORCED, ORGANIC WAY -- THAT
THERE NOT BE STRONG EXPECTATIONS LAID ON
THE CONGRESS OR ITS COMMITTEES IN ITS FIRST
YEARS. THE METAPHOR IS THAT OF Ni\TURAL
AND ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES: LET IT UNFOLD,
REMEMBERING THAT THE BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS
MODEL IS NOT BASED ON "HUMAN LAW" AND
HUMAN PRIORITIES BUT RATHER ON THE WIDER
RHYTHMS.
THE VARIOUS BIOREGIONAL CONGRESSES ON
THIS CONTINENT AND THOSE BEGINNING IN
EUROPE ARE EMERGING BECAUSE THE STANDARD
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES, BOTH REGIONALLY
AND NATIONALLY, ARE NOT TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THIS REALITY OF WHOLE, INTERDEPENDENT SYSTEMS NOR ARE THEY TAKING ON THE
TASK OF SUSTAINING OUR ECOLOGICAL, CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE. THESE EMERGING BIOREGIONAL CONGRESSES ARE PROVIDING A MEANS
FOR HEALING AND RE-NEWING THE BODY POLITIC,
IN ITS TRUE SENSE. THROUGH THESE CONGRESSES,
WE HUMANS CAN AGAIN ALIGN OURSELVES WITH
THE FORCES THAT ALLOW THIS PLANET TO
EXIST.
dltawn 61Wm c.onveJt6a..Uon6 wlth Vav.ld Hae.nke.
HERE IS A LIST OF BIOREGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,
BOTH EXISTING ONES AND THOSE IN FORMATION:
OZARK AREA COMMUNITY CONGRESS , O.A.C.C. O.A. C. C., Box 129, Drury, Missouri 65638. Thia Congress meets in the fall of each year. Bioregionaliata from other areas are welcome to attend. O.A. C.C.
is also spearheading t he co-ordination of the upcOIDing North Amer ican Bioregional Congress .
THE GREAT LAKES BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS G.L.B.C. , Box 24 , Old Mission, Michigan 49673. Thia
Congress is now being formed and plans to hold its
first congress in October ('83).
OCOOH AREA COHMUNITY CONGRESS OCOOH, c/o Spark Burwiaater, Rt.l, Box 77A, Chaseburg
Wisconsin 54621. This Congress is now organizing and
may hold a Congress this fall ('83).
NEW YORK STATE BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS -
c/o Alan Casline/ROOTDRINKER, Box 864, Sarasota
Springs , New York 12866. Thia Congress is now
forming and is planning for a Congress to be held
July 4, 1984.
KANSAS AREA WATERSHED COUNCIL, KAW KAW, 816 Mississippi St, Lawrence, Kansas 66044.
Thia Congress formed in Kay, 1982. A Congress is
scheduled for tbJ.s fall ( '83).
O. S.INTERIOR PACIFIC NORTHWEST c/o Michael Pilarski, Friends of the Trees Society
Box 1064, Tonasket, Washington 98855 . A bioregional gathering is being planned for this winter ('83).
SOUTHERN APPALACHIA BIOREGION c/o KATUAH, Rt . 2 Box 132, Leicester, NC 28748.
A strong bioregional consciousness is coming out
of this area. A new bioregional journal KATUAH
will be published quarterly, beginning i~
fall ('83). There is also interest in forming a
Congress for the area .
U.S.SOOTHEAST c/o Southern Onity Network/Renewable Energy Projects (SUNREP) P.O.Box 10121, Knoxville,TN 37919 .
SUNR!P organized the Southeastern Connections Conference which was held in August '82 and was cosponsored by over 77 organizations in the Southeast. This conference included vorbhops on bioregional organizing. SUNREP offers to help facilitate people in the Southeast to s et up bioregional organizations in their area.
COLORADO PLATEAU Southwest Bioregional Congress, 227 Eas t Coronado,
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 . A Southwest Bioregional Congress is in the process of being formed. A
Congress was scheduled for fall ' 83, but has been
postponed.
OHIO RIVER BASIN Ohio River Basin Information Service (ORBIS) c/o
Sunrock Farm, 103 Gibson Lane, Wilder, KY 41076.
The Ohio River Basin Information Service has been
formed to facilitate bioregional awareness in this
vast watershed .
TENNESSEE BIOREGIONS c/o Louise Gorenflo, editor , Tennessee Organic Growe r, Route 6 Box 526, Crossville, TN 38555. Bioregional consciousness is being developed in this area
and a bioregional gathering is being planned.
INTERNATIONAL
THAMES VALLEY BIOREGION c/o Mark ltinzley, 7 Gayshaa Avenue, Cants Hill ,
Ilford, Essex IG2 6TB England. A bioregional
organization is beginning to form in London.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IM LEARNING
MORE ABOUT BIOREGIONAL CONGRESSES
OR IN HELPING TO FORM A CONGRESS
FOR OUR SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREGION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Marnie Mulle r c/o KATUAH
Rt.2 Box 132, Leicester,NC 28748
RNIE MULLER
autum 1983
KATdtw -
page 15 '
�" TheJte. ne.e.d.6 to be. Continent Con91tu6
that the.
occ.upa~
6.inai.1.tj become
60
06 Nollth Ame.JU.ca can
.inhabUa~
LEARN TO BUILV A LCXll-COST, FUEL-EFFICIENT
FINNISH MA.SONRV WOOV-HEATER
and frind out
whVte the.IJ Me.•• Th-U ti.me Con91tu6 iA
a veJtb •.. Cong1tu6, come togetheJt. Come
togetheJt with the continent. "
- PeteJt Be.Ilg, 7976
THE NORTH AMERICAN BIOREGIONAL
CONGRESS ( NABC ) IS SCHEDULED TO
BE HELD IN MAY, 1984 IN THE NORTHERN OZARKS. IT WILL
BE THE FIRST MAJOR CONVENING OF THE CONTINENTAL BIOREGIONALIST MOVEMENT AND WILL INCLUDE THOSE WORJ<ING
IN 'GREEN POLITICS' AND FOR SUSTAINABILITY, IN GENERAL,AS WELL AS NATIVE TRIBES AND ORGANIZATIONS.
A HANDS-ON
CONSTRUCTION
WORKSHOP wU:h
an in-depth 1teview 06
it.6 contJt.a-ntow duign
pll.inciptu
SEPT.16-18, 1983
Workshop leader:
Tom Trout
FOR THE EXPERIENCED
AND INEXPERIENCED
SINCE 1981 WHEN A RESOLUTION WAS PASSED BY O.A.C.C.II
ALIKE
(OZARK AREA COMMUNITY CONGRESS) CALLING FOR A NORTH
AMERICAN BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS, INDIVIDUALS AND ORGAN- Thi6 week-end wo1tfuhop
IZATIONS HAVE BEEN WORJ<ING TOWARDS CO-ORDINATING THIS
6e.atWle both a
CONGRESS.
1tev.lew 06 the F.lnn.i.6h
Ma.6onlllj He.ateJt du.lgn
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN YOUR ORGANIZATION BECOMING
A CO-SPONSOR FOR THIS CONGRESS OR IF YOU WANT TO PART- M well. M the hand.6on con.6.tlw.ct.ion 06 it
ICIPATE IN CO-ORDINATING THIS CONGRESS, CONTACT:
---at Long Bllanch EnTHE BIOREGIONAL PROJECT/N.A.B.C.
v.i.Jr.onmentai. Education
BOX 129
CenteJt.
DRURY, MO 65638
rwt
--~:::c;;:CCI
P.-.-n--.:::=~-
I.ONG BRANCH
t:N\?IRONMl:NTAl
t:OUCATJON
Cf:NTt:R
Rl'ul.z 2. Box 132
1..ek:es\er. N .C . 28748
INFORMATION
683-3662
PLANET DRUM BOOKS
Planet Drum Foundation is dedicated to the vision
of communities living within the natural cycles and
energy flows of their particular bioregion-in the city
or in the country-as conscious participants in the biosphere. Many people and a growingnumberofcommunities have adopted a bioregional stan~-they
retnhabit their regions, they choose to Uve-inplace and intend to restore and maintain that
place in the planetary web of life.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
We foster and report the bioregional
movement. and relate It to devolution,
Native American issues and dec:entralism
in Raile tlw Stoia, a trl-annual review.
We network amon1 emerpnt bioreg·
Iona I sroups to provide needed information. reference to expertise and contacts with potential memben and other groups.
Planet Drum Foundation memben
set Roi# tlw Stalra.
Planet/ Drum "Bundle1"
and publications from Planet Drum Books. We
respond to requests for information and
contacts. and consider memben as
bioresional correspondents. Membership
also helps support our efforts to achieve recognition for bioregions and create a reinhabitory society.
Yearly Membenldp/115
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We invite you to join the Planet Drum circle.
D S15 regular membership (one year)
Help us help your bioregional ettorts
Name ··- _ _
-~
Addn·'~
(1!\
Zip
BOX 31251 SAN FRANCISCO. CALIFORNIA. 94131 USA
• Rrlnhabiling a Srparatr
Country: A Bloregional Anthol·
OJ.!!/ of Northern California.
editt'<i hy Peter Berg. 220 pages.
E~ay,, natural history, biographies, poem~ and stories re\·ealing Northern Co&lifomia as a di.~
tinct area of the planetary biosphere. SS postpaid.
• Devolutionary Note1 by
Michael Zwerln. 64 pages. A fir~t
hand account or European M>parati~t movements today. S3.50
postpaid.
• Eco-Derf'ntrali.st Dmgn: A 3.
,·olume set including Figura of
Regulation: Guides for Re-Bala ncing Society with Thr Biosphere by Peter Berg; Toward a
Bioregional Model: Clearing
Ground for Watershed Planning
by George Tukel; and Reinhabiting Cities and Towns: Delignlng
for Swtainability by John Todd
with Geori~e Tukel. 98 pages
complete. Critical preliminary
readings for intentional bioregional planning. $10 postpaid.
• Bloreglons: Winter l 981 / 2,
issue 132 or CoEvolution Quar·
terly. Guest edited by Peter Bertt
and Stephanie Mills. 144 pages.
Murra)' Bookchin on social ecology, Jan Morris, Gary Snyder,
and Peter Berg with essays on
de\'olution and the Fourth
World. Jerry Mandt>r. Winona
La Dukt•, \\'t"' Jac-kson and Paul
I la" kt•n art' amon2 othl'f'i "ho
l'ontrih11tt• tu thi' il'.,•1t·. R<·1l<1rt'
on tlw South"t"t. Gre:.11 Plain\.
'1:11rtl1 \\ 11e11k ,111d :\la,k.t in tht•
l ' ~.A. ~4 l''"tpaid
BUNDLES
• Rur l..lm111 Tiie Rm kir\. A \IX·
p.ut l\11ndl1· of l"-\a\·s. p0t•m,.
j1111rnak c·alt·ndar' and prnpmah
ahout tht• fral!ilt Rock' ~toun
tain,. $4 po\lllaid.
PLEASE CUT AND MAIL IN TODAYi .
.
~
- page 16
autam 1983
�ALTERNATJVES
TO ECONOMJCS
SUSTAINABILITY OF OUR BIOREGION IS INTIMATELY BOUNV TO
OUR ABILITY TO RE-CONCEPTUALIZE OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM. WE
AS A CULTURE NEEV JO GET OURSELVES BACK ON AN EVEN KEEL
WITH OUR ENVIRONMENT BY FIGURING OUT HOW TO INTEGRATE
OUR HUMAN ECONOMIC SYSTEM INTO THE WIVER 'PRIMARY ECONOMIC SYSTEM' OF THE BIOSPHERE. RIGHT NOW OUR HUMAN
ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS OPERATING OFF-BALANCE BECAUSE IT
VOES NOT REFLECT THE ACTUAL ENERGY INPUT-OUTPUT THAT
IS OCCURING ANV BECAUSE IT EXTERNALIZES A PORTION OF
ITS BASIC COSTS OUTSIVE OF ITS BUVGETING SYSTEM.
A GOOV TEXT TO REAV ON THIS SUBJECT IS HAZEL HENVERSON'S
THE POLITICS OF THE SOLAR AGE: ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMICS
(Ancho~ Book'6~, 1981). THIS VERY REAVABLE BOOi<°IS ACTUALLY A TREATISE ON REFORMULATING ECONOMICS --HlXAJ TO SHIFT
"FROM ECONOMIES THAT MAXIMIZE PROVUCTION ANV ARE BASEV
ON NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES, TO ECONOMIES THAT MINIMIZE
WASTE, RECYCLE EVERYTHING, MAXIMIZE RENEWABLE RESOURCES,
ANV ARE MANAGE'O FOR SUSTAINEV-YIELV PROVUCTIVITY".(p. 81
HENVERSON APPROACHES THE QUESTION OF RE-CONCEPTUALIZING
ECONOMICS FROM A PLANETARY PERSPECTIVE, BUT HER "MEASURING STICKS" CAN WORK ON A BIOREGIONAL LEVEL, AS WELL.
FOR OUR BIOREGION, WE CAN BEGIN TO ASK THESE KEY QUESTIONS:
If the economic system in the bioregion is considered to be efficient/beneficial/productive, FOR
WHOM is it efficient/beneficial/productive and OVER
WHAT PERIOD OF TIME is this being judged?
-Since no system is value-free, what are the
VALUES inherent in our EXISTING economic system?
In terms of scale, what is the best scale to
use when the variables of RENEWABLE ENERGY, FULL EMPLOYMENT and ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY are being
considered?
RE-CONCEPTUALIZING ECONOMICS FOR OUR BIOREGION MEANS
THAT WE BEGIN TO KEENLY EXAMINE THE PRACTICES OF OUR
CULTURE TO SEE IF THEY REFLECT OUR TRUE VALUES ANV TO
SEE IF THEY ARE IN SYNCHRONICITY WITH THE WIVER ECOSYSTEM. WE NEEV TO STUVY A WIVE VARIETY OF PRACTICES
INCLUVING: BANKING PRACTICES; BUILVING COVES; FOOVPROVUCTION; TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS; SOIL ANV WATER
CONSERVATION; HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS; RESEARCH SECTOR;
MARKffiNG SYSTEMS; GOVERNMENTAL BUVGET PRIORITIES;
ANV SO ON.
,,
KATUAH WOULO LIKE TO PROVIVE A FORUM FOR THOSE OF
US IN THIS AREA WHO ARE PARTICULARLY INTERESTEV IN
RE-CONCEPTUALIZING ECONOMICS FOR OUR AREA. IF YOU
ARE INTERESTEV IN RESEARCHING A SPECIFIC AREA OF
THIS ISSUE OR IN WRITING AN ARTICLE OR IN SHARING
IVEAS, PLEASE LET US KNOOJ.~
- MARNIE MULLER, A..lteJtna;t,lve Econom.i.C.6
,,
EditoJr.
KATUAH, Rt. 2 Box. 132, LeicuteJL, NC
FROM POLITICS OF THE SOLAR AGE:
ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMICS
Hazel Henderson • • ••••. • • • ••
'
v ..
'
. .
'~ -. ··
'
•.
l!n··
. ff il
~.
"The task for all of us committed to these
social-change movements (human rights, corporate accountability, economic justice, ~onsumer
and environmental protection, holistic health,
appropriate technologies and those promoting
stmple living, personal growth, and greater
awareness of the interdependence of the human
family on this blue planet) is to see that
we a.te. 011e. coa.Lltlort in the larger politics of
reconceptualization . Together we must demystify today's counterfeit priesthood of •puppet•
leaders, and map and align our own energies
with these larger-field forces and the energies
that, in reality, drive our planet: the daily
solar flux, which in turn drives our planetary
weather system; the cycles of oxygen, of nitrogen, and of hydrogen, and the plant photosyntbeais that is our ~ e.collOm.i.c 4114tem•••••••••
• • • we can see ourselves and our diverse socialchange activities as part of a living orchestration, generating larger patterns, out of which
grow new paradigms of knowledge, policy, and
personal behavior.•
• •• For many of us, activities in various movements for social change have helped us understand our own and each other's inner space and
to tap the deeply coded knowledge of the creation. This inner/outer search provides a base
for healing the body politic. Some of us, in
the environmental movement for example, began
with the objective manifestations of human
pathology or, as in my case, with diagnosing
the pathology of economics . Now we are coming
together in a growing coalition with the potential for 'wholing' ourselves 111td recycling our
culture.•
"Farmers have always understood what
sustained-yield productivity means -now we have to teach it to economists."
"When asked for advice by the U.S.State
Department concerning the formulas that
economics might develop, my response was
that the economic method was entirely
inappropriate, since economic models do
not take account of bio-productivity,
the requirement for diversity in ecosystems. the widely differing approaches
to production and consumption in each
culture and value system as lte.60WtCe.6 ••• "
28748
autmJn
1983
f
KA'lUNI - page 17
\
�CONTIMIED FROM PAc.£ 8
(preferably nylon screens) suspended a few
The apple tree, like most of us who call
ourselves American, is not native to the
feet above your wopd stove or oth~r heat
source. The drying usually takes three days
Americas. Some crab apples are an exception,
to a week. During warm, dry weather
but the apple tree actually originated in
(a rarity in the Appalachains) apples can
Persia although it had been cultivated in
Europe for at least 2000 years before it
be sun-dried, but they must be taken inside
every night to protect them from the dew.
was brought to the New World. Despite its
Traditionally, people who were preparing
foreign origins, no tree has contributed
more to America than the apple tree . Besides
apples for the market peeled them to make
the vinegars and tonics , it's given us apple
a more refinerl product. However. this is not
necessar y, especially if the apples have not
jack, apple brandy, apple wine and apple
been sprayed.
cider ; there's apple jelly, apple sauce,
The art of preserving fresh-eating apples
apple butter, apple cake and pie; and
l\'\Cr't-,
nowadays has been relegated to the relm of
don't forget apple leather (broiled and
horticultural science and refrigeration
dried apples), candy apples, baked apples,
engineering. Modern storage houses are vaporscalloped apples, apple grunter and apple crisp
sealed and have massive refrigeration systems
that maintain a constant temperature of 31 F.
and a relative humidity of at least 85% .
However, the-old-time methods of storing
apples are still worth knowing, not only
because they may be of use to those who
might like to store a few bushels of apples
for home use but also because they demonstrate
a creative relationship with the enviornment
app~.
and a sensitivity to nature that is disappearing from our modern world.
Eor· th~ person versed in the art of applestoring, the first thing to consider is the
hase of the moon. As Theron tells it ,"keeping"
apples are best picked on the "down side"
of the moon (yhen it is waning). During this
phase, any bruises that occur will most likely
dry up and not ruin the apple. However, if
you make hard cider or home brew, you'd best
make it during the "comin' up" of the moon,
since things "work" or ferment better as the
on is waxing.
Next you must choose a good keepingapple variety. Winter Johns and HardThere are apple toys like apple-faced
enings are the favorites in our area .
dolls and apple games like bobbing for
The apples are picked carefully, each
apples. Appl e wood is prized wherever
apple lifted upward to snap off the
a hard, fine- gr a ined wood i s called for.
stem. If it is pulled so that the stem
In colonial days, it was used for marips out of the apple , decay can soon
chinery, particularly cogs, wheels and
ruin it. In colonial days two men, a
shuttles. Even the apple tree bark can
picker and a packer, harvested each tree
be used as a vegetable dye to give vivid
with gloved hands . The picker handed
golds and yellows.
two apples at a time down to the packer
Jonathan Chapman, better known as
who carefully laid the apples in straw
Johnny Appleseed, said, " Nothing gives
on a sled. (A sled juggled and bumped
more yet asks less in r eturn than a tree,
less than a wagon or a wheelbarrow.)
particularly the appl e."
When loaded, the sled was skidded over
Whenever you roam the hills and the
hay to the packing cellar.
hollows of the Appalachians and come upon
The apples were then stored in cellars .
an apple tree, stop and look around . You
In Vermont and Connecticut where there
will probably see others as well and
was ready access to quarries, some apple
perhaps some ancient rose bushes, lilacs
cellars actually had marble shelves to
or other cultivated plants. Nearby, you
keep the fruit cold and dry. Sometimes
may see the ruins of an old cabin, perhaps
they even had windmills that operated
no more than the fallen chimney and a
fans inside them to keep the air moving.
depression i n the ground that marks the
Noah Webster recommended packing apples
cellar where many an apple was stored.
in heat-dried sand . Others used grain
Living in the space age, it is difficult
pr dry straw. Sometimes really special
_
for most of us to understand the richness
apples were hung "by their tails" (stems) ~-~ ~- 7 -~
as well as the hardships of that kind of
from the cellar 's rafters. One favorite ~ -:::;../
l lfe. Other than reading a little history,
down-home Appalachian apple sot rehouse
~'=:--:::;-~ - "
listening to the music and the s tories of
is a hollow chestnut stump. It is cleaned
the old-timers, there aren't many ways for
out, lined with dry leaves, filled with
us to get a flavor of the old times-unless
apples, covered with more dry leaves and
it's through the flavor of old-time apples.
some slabs of bark to shed the rain .
Theron has also piled apples on the ground
and then covered them with a thick layer
Voug Elliott iA c.uJrJr.enti.y Uvi.ng i.n
of "loose blade fodder"-dried corn leaves8UIUt6 ville, N. C. • He iA well.-known
tied in bundles. This insulates the apples
i.n :the mounta..LM a.6 an heJLbai.iA:t a.nd
from severe cold, yet allows plenty of
a. hil.alti..olLA i,tolltj:telle.JL. He -l6 :the
air circulation. "They'll keep all winter,"
au:tholl 06 a. book, Root.6: An UndeJr.Theron says.
gJr.Ound Follag eJL' .s GUlde.
'Not~i" ~i'ffll,S
fet
lt7j
a7K7
m rtlur111
pdtrtt.<,tki~ r.!f
,,
tfw;
~
KA1UAH - page 18
autmn 1983
�WHAT IS THE ELEVATION OF THE PLACE WHERE YOU LIVE
WHAT IS THE GEOLOGICAL UNVERPINNINGS OF YOUR PLACE
?
?
HOW WAS IT FORMEV
?
TRACE THE ROUTE OF WATER FLOW FROM YOUR HOUSE TO THE OCEAN - -TRACE THE PATH OF THE ENERGY THAT POWERS YOUR HOME FROM ITS SOURCE TO YOU --FROM WHICH VIRECTIONS ARE THE SEASONAL PREVAILING WINVS IN YOUR AREA
?
NAME SEVEN COMMON TREES IN YOUR AREA --NAME SEVEN COMMON WILV ANIMALS IN YOUR AREA --NAME SEVEN VARIETIES OF BIRVS COMMON TO YOUR AREA - ARE THEY WINTER OR SUMMER
RESIVENTS ?
VO YOU TALK TO TREES
?
PLANTS
?
LIST FIVE CRITICAL ECOLOGICAL ISSUES IN YOUR AREA ---
· ·~ ~;;%;:.
.
~~~I!~~~
WHAT ANV WHERE IS THE CLOSEST NUCLEAR FACILITY TO YOU
?
WHAT ANV WHERE ARE THE LARGE INVUSTRIES NEAR YOU ?
A.) WHAT ARE THEIR WASTE PROVUCTS ? HOW ARE THEY TREATEV ?
8.) VO THEY SELL WITHIN OR OUTSIVE OUR BIOREGION, OR BOTH ?
WHAT IS THE POLICY OF YOUR LOCAL VUMP ON SALVAGE ANV RECYCLING
?
WHAT IS THE STORY BEHINV THE NAME OF YOUR LIVING PLACE ( cove, CJteek, town, etc. ) ?
We woui.d Uk.e yowr. JLupon.6 e and po.6.6-i.ble .6k.e.tchu t.o the tJAJO qu.ution.6
below. Plea.6 e mail. to: Katuah, P.O.Box 873, Cu.Uotdtee, N.C. 28723.
WHAT IS THE TOTEM CREATURE FOR OUR REGION ? ( That -U, the CJtea.twr.e that
by at; wU.qu.enu.6, at; ,impo!Lta.nce to the na:tu.lta.l ecology, oil at; pJLevalence
but expJLU.6U the. .6p.i.Jr1;t 06 owr. aJLea - example.: Pac-i..6-i.c. Nold.hwut - .6a.lmon I
WHAT IS THE TOTEM PLANT FOR OUR REGION
? (
example.: Ozallk. Mou.nta-i..n6 - oak )
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _l_ _ _I
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
......... ,,,.•
A..
.....
I
-=-
I
~ ~
........
11.....
•
lll&P..."llli
....1p•11•u-1. , :"°'.
--
I
I
I
111111.'llll
...........
~-Wmrpml belt representin3 the fonnation of the Il:oquoian League with design meaning "one heart for all the nations. n
--------------------------------------------
autumn 1983
IOOU'AH _ page 19
/
�_Q:O:oo~®.oQ....oc.Qo_~_.o-~.oo-or~
REmIABITATIOO
••• IT IS TI ME TO RETURN HOME . .. TO LI VE AS ~
NATIVE PEOPLES OF THIS AREA, MAKING OUR LIVING BY SKI LL ANV ~
ATTUNEMENT TO THIS PLACE, AJJIARE ANV SENSITIVE TO ITS
CHANGES, LIVING SO ITS CHANGES REALLY MATTER ..• RATHER THAN
LIVING IN ONE PLACE ANV SUPPORTING OURSELVES BY EXPLOITING
J:l
THE RESOURCES OF SOMEWHERE ELSE, IT IS TIME TO ROOT OUR
~
LIVES HERE ••• TO SHARE THI~ PLACE WITH TffE LIVING BEINGS
1--J
WHO SHARE IT WITH US...
~
SUSTAINABILITY
... THE LEVEL AT WHICH A BIOREGION CAN
CONTINUE TO PROVUCE WITH INTEGRITY ... MEETING OUR FOOV, WATER ANV ENERGY VEMANVS FROM WITHIN OUR OWN AREA BY TECHNIQUES APPROPRIATE TO THAT AREA ... SHAPING OUR VE
MANVS TO THE
ABILITY OF OUR REGION TO PROVIVE .•. "LIVING FOR THE SEVENTH
GENERATION OF OUR CHILVREN'S CHILVREN"...
g
JJ:
tl
Li
D
~
P.
••• "A VOMICILE ••• LJALLS OF HILLS OR MOUNTAINS, A
FLOOR OF A RIVER OR A LAKE, A ROOF OF RAINCLOUVS . .. CLOUVS ~ ·
PART WITH RAIN WHICH FALLS ANV EROVES THE WALLS INTO THE
AQUEOUS FLOOR WHICH EVAPORATES BACK INTO THE CLOUV R OF ...
O
THE WATER CIRCLE/CYCLE FORMS A BIO-SPHERE"...
N
(Pe.tell Wa11..6ha.U.)
l'1
WATEBSHED
0
ECOLOGICAL LA/JI OF THE BIOSPHERE AS
~
EXPRESSEV IN THE FORCE OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS - EARTH, WATER, ~
FIRE, ANV AIR - IN MOTION ••• THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THESE
ELEMENTS VEFINEV AS LIFE-FORMS , OF WHICH THE HUMAN SPECIES IS ONLY ONE AMONG MANY .•. GREEN LA/JI: BEAUTIFUL, VISPASSIONATE, INEXORABLE, RUTHLESS, ANV TOTALLY JUST...
~
"GREEN IM"
••• THE
~
••• A COUNCIL MEETING OF THE BIOTIC
~
A GOVERNMENT, BUT ITS NATURAL ALTERNATIVE •••
HERE ALL ARE REPRESENTEV, BE THEY CLOUVS, ROCK, SOIL,
PLANTS , ANIMALS, TREES, OR PEOPLE ... WHERE CONSENSUS IS
SOUGHT ON THE ECOLOGICAL LAJJIS OF THE LANV AS WE REAV THEM
IN THE BIOREGION ANV THE LIFE THAT SURROUNVS US . .. WHERE
THE STEWARVS ANV CARETAVERS OF THE LANV VEVELOP STRATEGIES TO VEFENV AN1J PROTECT THE NATURAL ECOLOGY ANV TO
STRENGTHEN THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NATURAL WORLV ...
BIOREX;IOOAL
COMMUNITY ... NOT
~
•• •"ALL THE THINGS OF THE WORLV ARE REAL, MATERIAL THINGS. THE CREATION IS A TRUE, MATERIAL PHENOMENON,
ANV THE CREATION MANIFESTS ITSELF THROUGH REALITY •.. THE
SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE, THEN, IS MANIFEST TO HUMANS AS THE
CREATION .. . (64om the Invoca.tion)
Appalachian Physiographic Provinces
MA? ME.D\TAT\ONS -- c.oNT!NUEO FROM PA•E II
LAND/LIFE/FORMS
WE CAN NEVER COMPREHENV HER, BUT WE CAN KN()il HER. VEEP
IN OUR EVERY CELL, VEEP IN THE SOUL O~ OUR BEING, THERE
CAN AJJIAKEN AN AFFINITY FOR THE LANV SO THAT ONE MOVES
INSTINCTIVELY TO HER RHYTHMS, KNOWS WHERE TO FINV VEER
OR GINSENG, KNOWS WHEN IT WILL RAIN, KNOWS HOW TO
SPEAK TO MOUNTAINS.
••• OUR MOTHER GAIA, THE EARTH, SINGS TO US ••.
IN EVERY PLACE THE SONG IS VIFFERENT: BE IT STEEP, FORESTEV
MOUNTAINS: WIVE, FLAT PLAINS; OR PALM TREE BEACHES ... EACH
EXPRESSION IS UNIQUE ANV REQUIRES A UNIQUE RESPONSE IN THE
THIS IS NATIVENESS. THIS CAN COME FROM GENERATIONS OF
ECONOMIC, CULTURAL, ANV SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THOSE HUMANS
LIVING IN THE SAME AREA, OR IT CAN BE CULTIVATEV BY
WHO ARE LISTENING ... THE PLACE, THE SONG, THE RESPONSE:
~ CONSCIOUSNESS ANV AWARENESS OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE
THE BIOREGION...
~ LAN1J ANV HER WAYS ANV HOW WE LIFE OUR VAILY LIVES IN
HER PRESENCE .
BIOREGION
..n... cs-cro.QtrcJLL>®..o~_o:o_p_g_ :o:o::.o..~
a
''THE IDEA OF A BIOREGIONAL IS CULTURAL. IT DEFINES
BOTH A PLACE AND ADAPTIVE IDEAS ABOUT LIVING IN THAT
PLACE," SAYS PETER BERG OF THE PLANET DRUM FOUNDATION.
THE BIOREGION, AS WELL AS BEIN D
G EFINED B THE LAY OF
Y
THE LAND AND THE FORCE-FLOWS OF THE ELEMENTS, IS ALSO
IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF ITS PEOPLE.
IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, THOSE WHO LOOK TO THE MOUNTAINS TO SEE BEAUTY, THOSE WHO LOOK TO THE MOUNTAINS
FOR STRENGTH AND INSPIRATION, THOSE WHO DEFINE THEMSELVES IN THE MOUNTAINS' TERMS ARE ALL RIGHT THERE IN
THE MOUNTAIN BIOREGION.
THE BIOREGION DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ORGANIZED OR PROCLAIMED. IT IS ALREADY THERE, WAITING FOR US TO DISCOVER IT. IT IS A PROCESS BEGUN LONG AGO, WAITING
ONLY FOR US TO PLUNGE INTO ITS STREAM.
,P'
autum 1983
�l :oo llY\
e..\vtc..
~1101aue1 NC....
autmn 1983
£..8J1'B'Z-
CM&Mc &I. "'L&. 'UT'&~AL.
cMEttAc£E c.tt...w=r.s ~ c.uauu, .rnc.acew,
lN1)"'fll P601>
•lllC..W..., f'U>WA'f, EKtUllT.S
OM Tt\• us-.11rtr10...i, CAt•lt.Otce'l! 1 N. c..
0tT. lf-·9 -
Mt,
,
I<ATUAH - paqe
21
�,1-·
.. .. . ,.... .. . . .......
"·"';!<.•-'' ,••
······~--- ., .• 1?". •• ••••• ,.
·'·'t·:t=::'IO-• ••.•••••.;,..,:r.
•
n·:="'=':=·~ ,;=~•:.;;!1==7=',>~··•"''·'*·n--.:;;;."~''·",:= •-1..._.~,=rn!:;:!:
...
;.:..:t~tc.:t.• ····:1·1·•:i;:1:f••••:...; ...._.. . . ..... ·••l•"':"'•·· ····r. •t!i:t ·it". ,·:,;)!:,..........;·····-- 1 •• J'i'\"'~····•-•.\:..,.1 ...... l' •.:•;·1~-m· •i ,.: ;1: •••:., '' /l •"""".. -;·· ....··,...... 1'::;!i?:..-.......... ,._,u. ~1: • .• ·•,4 •. S'·-··
................._. •••
·t··...··-·-- a·1...._. • ..,
•
;~:.~r.:1:· !.t'i,,....~~ ........... ·••::...!•1 . .:::"": :!: .: ..:i:.•,:.:;."!:?· ..., •.•.•,,..,.~,.·µ,•r· ••
···'--' :•-:.:c • 1:t:~ -~· .... ·• · · ~t:i-•;•·'~';~:::1.:1.1: i.'··-· •..:.;:;.:.: .1!1t 11"~•
1 =<···..···~;Jtr~r.:;:J~ni'd•?;·"·•.:.·~~s·· ...,.,. ';Jl·!iJ-;t'r._J\a 1 ·~ · 'i 1· : !:?:!t!;.!t.-:••• i'i~ ... , ·• ·~.:: ;~-: .~Je.: ........... ·• ... :11\:!:'f; ..._._.......,:!:, ~a.....-tl!
l~Mi;i
••\ .,., ~;',•
.:..
1 ,~.,.,
~···~ ~~::.;,'!-,:•.,,,=::••""""~"'"~'""'-•!•'-';:;<;;,;•.:::;~· - ~ -·-r.
"~ -'""~·r.i'"'"" ;>;t•~I"""·~"
\~g;:;~f.i;5fil~i,ifPJ;:r::n!!XE:t~:=ti;?.~~::!f~r.:qf:r;;~
1/i~·e~ ~
_J ... - - - ~ -~
S~···· ~!f.!**1
· ;...~·--••
:il~t.!U~;.~~·; J't!'•!J.!• •tJ.t:-1•·•L.9.fl·•·..-..•••J;ll•t..::.:.
~::.~!
t!;l-:t;:i;j;:ie1;'>!rfu:T¥,' ;b_•) ••I I I •!":\!t•t.;,.,_""t 'f•
'Jfill• '' 1~t •\ ...~m~·:';l~-:m-!~~: l·::;,:-,1;:f.
jl,l~r.~
•f•••t
~t'"•1••...,.,a '
•1·"• •!:
Joo.. ......
t" tie
'
£)
..
...........r.:·1·' : ....~· ·'·ft•;.s:,1.;..,, ..
At
1
...-·-···:.-·''.,,, ''·
"'
-"
1/t'$t'01t
.. ...
"····
, ....,-... -cc;
. ..
--· ..,.
.-. ....,.1··-··~ ..
C''i:
.......... ~.- ..,,,,
.... .~~·,s·•t.'lff.h•~··r:r-.!i··1,· · - ··~~
~
··-·
·-~!t·•
• .::.,·1:-t~:! ~.i-.., .............~.. •• ·= :.1~c;.:•"'~'~...... ....,... \' ;.,.,,,. ·•• tfHWl•• ·1.r • •• •,.,...._._-;::~--t~~~~.-1~..•.•·,.......l .., .~, :~ ~·i·•·Jr': •1:~1 :;..-r..;:-~-..-:i~::;.;i.,·,!;..!!t 1! lt!:~~ ;:.,}:t;.,t l'tC ·•-· .,.. ~~~.1fi1
.:-ffil!
....
::;.;.:.;i~::;.:i,r ...!,![!j\1~1
;or~
,..., \ ~~~ . ..... °"'·•·•·1·•····~-.,... 1•.......... '!,,,;..i., .... '"" • .......:.~~ 1 .:·~1~·~!~·t'-. .. ..
'1 ':i.:: r.. ;:;:.r.;:.;:.,;:..:..."'t ..
••
. ,,,.,
::.
r.:·1
:" ..._ . . . ....,~ ..£
·:~~.c;.~.~1!.1'!!'r~W~~fo;:' 1 ..!· <J•• i::.-..., •..,.. ••,:.:·,· _. ......."..... 1 . .. ~.; tJ:.•;-Et~.
t..-r= ~:~;t'!':c;, •... mr.1~1!:!: ::, • - ........
.~
! ~Pr.1~ 1!rf:~ ;HH;.tr!;{l; ...~:r:
r.·-~r ..
..,~,. ···r:·:.
....
!.,. . ~··· . 1 1
.
. .. . . • .. ..
. . .
.:, ..kl:l. (1.J1Ii!l
····•:•:J,Ji04F~~·~i~~~.~t~F~
.
.
.
.
AL.
L
11! 1~~i·•· 0 !:i; ..."l;~i
1
1 '-'·•
•f , .... .,, ••
t
u t, 0"99
I
!i;m:.:::i..-~·?1J.:
Ma.gaz.uie d-UiVLibu.ti.on doun t ha.ve to mean IAWLt:.nOU.6U Ou
D
• . . . ,., II g
_,,.
t... •
~
,
newti plUnt wi;t.h -t.OadeJl.6 ha.u.U.ng ,.,....,...,...w onto ··- :-1-- • "-IW."-r"° •
~.uig
.;r-;.~;;~ ~!11·:·•·
'I
J• ._.,•. -•••:...
.,
:{~J.f;i:~~!i~~
v
,.,,, HS{it~~i:;~: How about a d.i..66eJr.ent v.U,lon? Kata.ah 11.oad people :tlla.veLi.ng
~~flr.~~~£:?,F,;t
.
~J~il:ii!.!i?r the length and b}[.ead.:th o 6 the mountcU.n c.ount:Jr.y wl:t.h a .~tac.k
..,1·•··..·......i.~•• ~.,,
..... c·· ~ ..,..!'1 .......,.,_. ·"'••••:'Jr•r.•1•·•9"!.·•fJ,,• ·~ 1 - "' '&,.::.
h
d
b
. ""h
::.1*9':":.·~~:1~',.\.~:'.-!ir:t=W:t\>l'e:.\t~~.t~~.i.•-:{".!r;?T~j···!1~;. j \iWi!'&<Tiflil~c1· o' mnnaz.inu among the dot u an "go}[.p" ag~ .ui ""- U.11.
~!;'fP!~';:1;~~.:.;rrl~~fr.! r,f;!:~fit:-:~7:-::·!::·!·~:.'!t!'l!!.:.i; .,.-:;:.~i!:!'--U"·li :.:..;.t. r!.~1••;~1.-.:..~! bu i. -::J i... .
.. ,,, .• H• u• :-·.. 1... ~ ....r
"!'U· J,,1• ....
!.!. r.J,.t, H'ltl:! • •__ , ... ,,,,...••, ... i~~r'tt;~11~=:~.,~;.-:.:::
4Cr<.paC.rGO
i;;;:.:,tt·~;~~
:::m;: :~-:- r.t~J:;!:,_
~L~:::
.......... ~···!'> ......r;......
m::Ei;
1
·::sffir,.:~ii-;~~
;m:.:;;•.~1
..e~~n;:~·
t..:J•~t·•'fo••
fg1Eii.>~~t
;:-;:!!!*Wir
f_=nfJsm~·,.
~W~i:Ef:l!
·····-·~ ·i\i55fJ!:i.::
1:t-:t::~·~
:'t':t-:;.:!r!!:..
· ·:n·..-•,...
:~:~·
::?;~~ ..,,....-·
p:s~::.:;o.;:J
~~i:llf~.
~~ft!:!'i'"!
~i!r. ... r..
.
:;;~~Jf~!iF.f'
':!~j~]!~t~.
_
• - ..... :u
~.l~1.. ,...... t
::J;:r:-.1''!!'J
ri
"
1 • :,,_:.
r;."'"'!~.,.,._; \.:J:J;
;1!'!~z;!!1~::.
:;z;......
.,.,, .,....
:FH~f! ~E:::-!E;:_r-~:
FOR TH E I DEAS AND INFoRMATioN !.!il.:!;!: 1!¥.!!m;::~:~~
ABOUT BIOREGIONAL CONSCIENCE
ll{17:~;;tt;.1~~u~~tl~!~~:1
•t1•·-r1 Jt--ffll.,... -~.
THAT WE ARE TRYING TO BRING
~·!!ll~·1r~:rr~:.:.:!r:l:.~
FORTH IN KATt1AH TO BE SPREAD
~tfu~~j~;~:filf.4il~!fJ
FAR AND WIDE WITHIN THE REG:Ujtilf~JHl~~riE~:~}).!.j~
ION, WE NEED THE JOURNAL TO
~iif,lt;1m=.-1~~~-ni';tr.~1J
..... (1:•·l- ·-··l~:·.hl ...~
REACH AS WIDE A GROUP OF PEO- ~:.m!u;~~)jmi!;h.!.:::.i.:.;:
~ ... .!~~m1 1 !L!;!a:!:Cct:\r1
PLE AS POSSIBLE.
:!r.:;!;:t!,~:i~1!~!J·~~~rn~!•
: •r···~t"·J··~1~· , ... ,r
SEEKING THE ,;,~-ur.-·:li:ta :7!,Ji;~.!r~~
TO THIS END WE ARE
·
1 ~:~:;n...:....!-:;,·1:1t':;i.;;
SUPPORT OF OUR READERS IN DE- :~..t-~~:ti!:\!~j!~~!llj~?5i
VELOPING A REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM. IF YOU ARE INTER-mi.=ifoil~Bi:"..;~~~::
··· ··:t··-:::?l!~!f~:S.~t·
1
h;!§nil~filH;~ilii'!lli-
ESTED IN HELPING TO DISTRIBUTE
THIS JOURNAL IN YOUR AREA
,
BY
ILLING
PLEASE CONTACT us
F
... ,,..,·,,.,f, ..oi
r..:.F.f!i':!a-r• OUT T HE FORM BELOr.T
'".
· · ....... ·
:w.~~:~m;r.i.lli:!..~tn~:=
~m!;as;.·?~..!<~~:i !;-~hi
:l • ..••~ho"l~
i• ••~y:•·-~-1c· ~:; •. ·f1filF
1 ~r?!:-!1,~~~ :.r;::m::ffl1:
...::,n,-.:--
[r.··f·'·ft~··· 1 c .......n . 1lt
':i;.~.{!i .• 1.~:.::~r~-:!~~
DISTRIBUTORS CONTRACT TO BUY THE JOURN~L AT THE
WHOLESALE PRICE. ALSO FOR EVERY 20 COPIES OF THE
JOURNAL THAT THEY SELL, DISTRIBUTORS GET ONE COPY
FREE TO SELL OR KEEP.
;t;j;
~.
~m·
1.?J
.. ,.
~ii
~-
THIS INCENTIVE IS TO ENCOURAGE DIRECT DISTRIBUTION :irt~
BECAUSE, AS WELL AS BEING A MEDIA COMMUNICATION,
THE JOURNAL IS A "TALKING TOOL" TO HELP INITIATE
DIALOGUE. IN FACT, IT WORKS BEST THAT WAY. THE
~~
STRONGEST CONNECTIONS ARE FACE-TO-FACE AND HEART- :J.::~j
fiiEl
;rn
···TO-HEART. PLAIN WORDS CARRY A STRONG MEANING THEN· ~ll!
PERHAPS YOU FEEL THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE
ABOUT KATUAH AND THE BIOREGIONAL IDEA IN GENERAL
so AS TO FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE DIALOGUING AND
FIELDING QUESTIONS FROM YOUR NEIGHBORS OR PEOPLE
ON THE STREET.
THIS IS WHY WE PROPOSE LOCAL MEETING GROUPS. THESE
ARE GROUPS OF PEOPLE IN EACH COUNTY OR CITY WHO
MEET TO TALK ABOUT BIOREGIONAL ISSUES IN GENERAL,
AND TO STUDY THEIR LOCAL HABITAT, IN PARTICULAR.
THEY GATHER STORIES OF UNIQUE PEOPLE AND PLACES IN
THEIR AREA AND SEND THEM TO THE JOURNAL. THEY
COALESCE INTO AN AFFINITY/ACTION GROUP IN CASE OF
AN ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY.
THIS IS WHY THERE ARE ONLY I MEMBERS' AND NO I SUBSCRIBERS. TO KATUAH. THE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM FOR
THIS JOURNAL WILLHOPEFULLY GROW INTO A PROCESS A DYNAMIC PROCESS OF INTERACTION, OPENING, AND
CHANGING ON ALL SIDES THAT WILL FOSTER A GROWING
AWARENESS OF WHAT Is AT STAKE FOR OUR LIVES AND THE
LAND IN THE DAYS TO COME INTERESTED? WRITE US, AND WE'LL EXPLAIN THE DISTRIBUTION PROCEDURE AND HOOK YOU UP WITH OTHERS
NEAR YOU WHO WANT TO GET INVOLVED. THESE ARE THE
TIMES!
U1.{
#
•
#
~-' about KA""·~Ah and a u.<..uueJtulA. uny
-': ', A~.,.
~
0,
0
loofU.liln a:t and Uv,lng wl:t.h theliind, they might al.-60 C1VVr..IJ
·~
h
nO
a c.ameJul and maybe a. .6maU ta.pe /[.eC'.oltdeJt. At:, t: ey .tlr.a.v~,
they .talk wlth people about Ka..tU.a.h, note thw JtUpon.6U,
and pellha.p-6 take thU!t p.i.c.tu.11.e. Fii.om t/W, ,lnteJr.c.hange
c.omu mateJLial.. 60/[. the next .U.6ue 06 the j 0wr.na.l. -- the
c.a.nclld though.t.6 and 6ee.li.ng.6 06 oUJr. ne-i.ghboJUi .
... ""he -v'LU. ~-v ..... "OV"" """"~-vAo,,,.~ ~ -v.. ""he ,...,"""- '\A.In ""'d agni"', .o\.l'i
.. ,... +e "":-e ~·
""L.elj
tW ""........,,
leaJLn the te.Jr.JIJU.n. They Lind .6topning "'""c.u: .the homu
06 new 61Llend6 wheJte they ft.ind a :;;;i.C'.c:;- whetheJr. 6Ji.om
old mountai.n 6olk.6, new age homuteade.JU,, 0/[. .60cia.l.
o.ct.lv.Uu Uv.ing ,ln a ~ a""'""'"... ent.
,,;-1-..
~...,..,,,
The ,,;,.A .. : .,. ,,.;d,, .. /··~01..,,,.~ IM.Q\...
..J:.,.,OV"" n""' mou~""ni .....:0.1_
~...., ..~ .....
'""-1',-v ....
,IA._... ~
0 An-'· nnd 6 ;.,.d "Ov"• "nd .. idgn• .,.L.A.,. •oon be"ome 0°-'
u.o """
"""'' '- ~ ""'
~ ""-nuA... ""
'-'.
Ao
• : .,. ""h
·
LJLle.nu.o. The Vta.v~M.6 J[.e.tuJul to V;(..6-v\.. ""- em '\.,. :- and aga..ut.
A,111e
o
Pe!Lha.fl6 they w.ill be 91Llded onto l.lttte-U.6ed tJw.il..6 that
they Vi.ample down and wlden by thw c.ontinued pa.6.611gU
.60 that t:hey }[.ema.in M r.ooi.fUng }[.OutU 60/[. othell.6 to 60.U.Ow
on thw own joUJr.netj.6 ,ln lateJr. ti.mu when people w.iU
enjoy r.ooi.ki..ng to the,Vr. du.ti.na.ti.on-6.
V.UVUbu:ti.ng KatUo.h c.ould be a new uny to .6ee OWl land
and heJL. people ClMe up.
AnotheJr. .6C'.ene: A 6am-U.y ta.ku Ka:t&.a.h to the c.ornrnunay
At:,
t hey CJVVr..y t he.
WO'W
0
'V ..
.(..U.
'V..
""""
.(..U..
'V\..
potlllc.k and .6eU up a ta.bte to hell. the joWtniJ..l to the.ilt
61Llend6 and ne,ighboJUi. "HeJte, ta.ke a. look. 16 you like U,
you c.a.n. butj .lt. )U.6t don, t .6p.i.U a.ny o6 tha:t g1U1vy on a,
now. Tell. me what you th..i.nk."
::µ:
~~
Olt p.i.dWte th,U,: The .60und 06 dlr.wn6 WU OVVl the bU.6tte
and din 06 the mountain 6a.ilt OJ[. CJLa6t .6how. People W.6t
ii~.~-_: OVeJt to a b!Li.gh:tty C'.Olo}[.ed booth ba.c.ked by a l<Vtge map 06
-··
the Ka,tilah mountai.n Me.a. TheJte they jo,ln people al.Jr.eady
i~~ da.nc..ing to the ciJw.m6 and c.hanting vo,lc.u, "Ka-tu-ah.
*~ Ka-tu-ah. II The .6ound6 JtLLn up and down thw .6p.i.nu,
~ij~; M.ng,lng deeply, open-ing .6e.cJLet pla.c.u c.lo.6ed by c.en.tWLiu
~ht: o6 c..i.v.illza:t..Um.
Hii±~ Then the mU-6,l('. -6.top.6 and .6omeone .6pe.a.k.6 b1Lle6ly .06 a bio~nm 11.eg,lonal 6u.tUJr.e ,ln KatJ.a.h. Thvr.e Me quu.tion-6 and an.6we!L6,
~·f\'{f. and .6ome n_innau'..nu Me .6old. The mU-6.lc. c.ontinuu. A .6eed
:..~!·-·!,n.
-:i
d -·--' b ·
.,.
_ • 06 ®Wi.enU.6 and c.omrrun.lttJ .U pla.nte u.na eg-<..n-6 "-o g}[.ow.
t~·~
~ij~ AnotheJr. ..<.de.a: Young people U.6ed to peddle nW6papeJL6 on
~&T ,,;-1-,, .6:t.1Leet.6 to make a Li.;t;Ue ex.tlul money. Tho.6e da.tj.6 may
f.!t~ b;bac.k, but now U' .6 .in the wl.de c.oMA..doJUi 06 hhopping
i:E~ rnali.li, a:t the c..i.v,lc. c.enteJt on c.onc.eJtt rr-ight, 0/[. maybe a:t
H~ a c.oun:tluj da.nc.e. 16 you know .60me !fOung 60.t.k.6 tha-t would
j~!?. .Uke to make ~ome money 6oJt them6e1.vu, Ka:tUa.h wil.t .6upply
~~~g the mga.z.i.nu.
!"(•--·
!:e--·~;·•.&.,.:r• ... H1'~1·~····l• .... ~;:.,.i•J1 ···1i.:t i'f!'"-'•1•·-··•·• .,•.•.• ,......,..,~ ~;.;,.;.;.._ ·-:.4:;.i:r:t
:.~;j". · . • ,....... •·r·r ~ --·--· - ·f··~,,~.-· .. ·,.- ··1
..
••i'•· ... h.•·... a,,. ,., ..,..,. i'~·i.i!•..,., ..,J:~•~..,..,.fi··40
t•J li:t~
1
.• t::".r:~-ai,.q.11'.Ct!l;;:i:.::;;.· :.J ....··- :.:~: •. 1:.1, ., ,.. .
"
..::illr·•• .. a.·,·r.:• .....····a.·..,. ;\,9f.;.,,,,..,....,...... ......... ., 1 .w..,,....... ::.. ;t • •tR.I'(. . .¥.'.:-t:: ;t:..::.:~..~·-,•••.•,•. ~ ~··
~
. . .. ............... ,,1
;l ·ffi:1~ ffi~j';l,:-f:!~i;r·~~!~~~~'.'~.... . ;;li~~'1·
:.-:~;
...:
... .;.:;!:!(:;'&;'!:.:;:'!:-.,•:.;:.!-,:ffi:Jg:;e ~:;_..r:;:,.,J;iS
., T-•11H· •· ..\,,. ....,................. ';1:
rl~,:i....
-·•·.. ~·•-•· .....
·~~ ... ~ ·•·•-•r:' t:·
t-:..::-:=.:-.t-•rr:!?~1:::~1J:~·~!~:!~1!r~~-=•!""'. :,:~:,:,:i!~i~:~r.#Jf!jJ:. ,.~~.:,;n-=:-.s:1r ~~'!."!~L;::
..
~·!.:-"'· ~\.,,~;,:-:-•,-· ......., -,.-' ,..=. ,.: ....:1••·r:.' n···!r:, ..... ~1....-· ·!-:i·!:.l J:r!·-~ .... ~ ••:........., .... ··•:!:-r... ..
t1~.•~!>.1.,,~., ,.,,~!~r!E!i:·~ ,· ···;J"····,~l.fl·,,,, .:.:!..!J. ····,···.' ·.!~:;! ......:.,.. !H.~ •• ,.......J ......, ',,· •!ll~•• ·;tr.. , , ......
....
Hii~
1.....
-~···
........
,11.--... ............
, ........ , ........
_..f''
""'•r• • ..........•• , ~.-..• • ·•• •t•~·· ·~ :c-................
t-.
,.,..,_ r11 ,, ...... -
!'':lt-t.'i~: !'2~!~'!! ::.~.......
~
.,....., .•••,
......... -. ••• ·,
,..,...,.,....,~-.r·• :·'~-; :.'\ • w , .. I!\.,'":~ ~
f"1'1~. ~
!(\ ( ~:;
":!.
YES, I AM INTERESTED IN FINqING OUT
.:-cm.~~:
MORE ABOUT DISTRIBUTING KATUAH. I
·•·r··~~,1
UNDERSTAND THAT I CAN RECEIVE COPIES
•:,:-~:~.o.:
OF KATUAH AT THE WHOLESALE PRICE OF
r-Jfu-t~'.
$1.10 AND CAN SELL THEM AT THE RETAIL {~¥~ki~
PRICE OF $1. 50. I ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT .;!:m;i~
NO PAYMENT IS DUE UNTIL THE COPIES ARE r:.u··:t:~
i~~h!~
SOLD •
''-''·~~~:::.
:.r;,m::iii
PHONE--------
~
RETURN TO:
KATUAH
P.O.BOX 873
CULLOWHEE,NC 2 8 7 2 3
KMUAl:I - page 22
autmn 1983
�WMATTO 8JUN<t t
SCHEPULE:
10 - 12:30 - Discussion of bi oregional
concerns, issues, and directions for
future gr owth
12 : 30 - 2:00 - POT-LUCK LUNCH
2:00 - 5:00 - Tradin', pl ayin ', socializin ' , and interest group meetings
-Covered dish and utensils for the
whole family
-Items for trade , barter, sale (plant s,
craft s , produce, canned goods)
-Information to share : issues, topics ,
interesting folks , organization
bioregional happenings
-Hope , good humor, and ideal ism
OCTOBER 29
at DEEP CREEK CAMPGROUND
GREAT SMOKY MTN . NATIONAL PARK
Driving : Go to Bryson City, N.C. and follow signs
to " ~ ep Creek Campgrounds"
EVERYONE WELCOME!
For more information , contact:
paqe 23
�ISSUE
NO . l
AUTUMN
g
I
o
~
~
o
~
~
g
§
~
o
~
~
Og
oommmooo
Dnr«atimv
1983
mmmooomnunoog
I
1n the beginning, we we/le told that t he human
being.6 that IAXli.h.. abou..t on :the Ecvvth have been
g
pMvided with all the thing.6 nec.Ul>aJl.y f,011.. li6e ..E!
We we/le ..i.n.6.tJw.eted to C'.aJl.ll..y a love. f,011.. one.
~
arto.thell, and to l>how a 11..upeet f,011. all the be- g
ing.6 of, thl.6 EaM:h. We aJi.e L>hown that ouJL li6e ~
exi-6.t.6 with the .tll.ee Uf,e, -that oWt we.U-being ~
depe.nd.6 on the wei...t-being of, :the. vegetable.
g
Uf,e, that we. a11.e. the. c1.o.6e. 11.e.f.ativu of, the.
~
6oWt-legged being.6. In OW!. VXJ.lj.6, .6p,i.Jt,(;twi£
~
c.on.6eioU.6nU.6 i.6 the. highut f,oJun of, poUt-i.c6 .
g
OW!..6 i.6 a v.xi.y of, Uf,e. . We. believe. that all
Uving thing.6 aJl.e. .6 pi!U:tua..f. be.ing.6 . S pVU;t-6
~ c.an be exp11.u.6ed M e.nellgy f,Oll.1116 manif,uted
i= ,(.n mat.tell. A biade ofi gJt.aM i.6 an ene11.gy f,011..m
manif,ute.d in rna:ltell - gJt.aM m
atte.11... The
~ .6 pilU:t 0 6 the gll..a.6.6 ,(A that U.n.6 een f,011.c.e whic.h
f3 p11.odl.1.c.u the. .6 peciu ofi gll.M .6 , and it i.6
g
O
~o
a
g
g
i
0
a
o
i :;::9~ o:~: ::dg:•~eal, ~<Mal i
g
0
g thing.6 . The C11..eation i.6 a .tJw.e, mateJLi..a..f. phe.n~ ome.non, and the Cltea.ti.on manif,ut.6 -ihe.l.6 to
~ U.6 :thMu.gh 11..e.af.it.y. Th e. .6 p,i.Jt,(;tual u.nivelll> e.,
o then, i.6 man-i.Lu t t o man M the. Cll..eation, the
~ Cll..eation wh..i..c.h i,u.ppoJtt.6 Li6e. . We believe that
e man i.6 11..ea.l, a paJtt o6 C11..e.at.lo n, and that
g hi.6 du..ty i.6 to .t>u.ppoll.:t Uf,e. in c.onju.netion
with o.t:heJr. be.inQ' •
Oo
n
I
o The 011..igina.f. 1n.6.tJw.etion <Li.Jr.eet that
~
O
e
o
~
~
I
o
g
I
we.
who
v.xi..f.k abou..t on the Ea.11.:th a.11.e to e.xp11.u.6 a
g11.e.at 11.upe.et, and a6f,e.etion, and a g.Jta.t..ltu.de
toVXJ.Jt.d all the .t>p.i.Jr.i,t.6 wh.i..c.h c.11.e.ate. and .6u.ppoll.:t Uf,e. . We give. a g11..eeting and a tha.nkl>giving to the many .6u.ppoll.:tell.6 of, ou.11.. own Uvu the c.011..n, the. bean.6, :the .t>qu.a..6h, :the wind.6,
.the i,u.n. When people c.eMe :to 11.upe.et and explle.6.6 glLD.t:-i;tude f, 011. :thue many :thing.6, then
all Uf,e. wlU be dutll.oyed, and human Uf,e
on thi.6 pl.a.net will. c.ome to an end.
g
~
Ou.11.. 11.00.t.6 a11.e deep in the .t.o.nd.6 whelle we. Uve.
we have a g.11.e.at love 6011. ou.11. c.ou.n:tll.y, f,011. ou.11.
e fWtthpl.a.c.e i.6 the/le . The. .6oil i.6 11..ic.h f,11.0m :the.
g bonu of, thou.L>and.6 of, ou.11. g.e.nellation.6. Eac.h 06
~ U.6 VXJ..6 c.11.e.ate.d in :tho.6 e .f.a.nd.6, and i:t AA Ou.IL
~ dl.1.ty to take. c.a11.e. of, them, bec.a.u.L>e 611.om thue.
g
dl.1.ty to take. g.11.e.at c.a.11.e. o6 them, be.c.a.u.L> e. 611.om
I ~~~~e.~~~~~ri11!e.t~~~~~~f~~~~
o abou..t w.Uh a g.11.e.a:t 11.upe.c.:t, f,011. the. Ea.Jr.th i.6
I
a
Vell.IJ
0
0
:
e
0
o
~
~
0
-
.6ac.11.ed pl.ac.e...
~
p---
address of the Hau De No Sau Nee
to the western world (presented
to the United Nations, Conference
of Non-governmental Organizations;
Geneva, Switzerland, 1977)
9
0
0
ol
0
°
I
1
1
1
0
0
o
0
0
0
g
I
(
"The land is sacred," the Indians told the European ool onists.
It is only in this generation, un:ier the threat of nmaway uraniml,
runaway in:iustrialization, and the ravages of EX>isol'OlS sprays am
waste-EX>llutants that we are CDning to realize the true depth and
meaning of these words. Now we have rediscovered the web of life,
called "the ecology" am the spirit of the lam, "the envirorment."
cnly now, alm::lst 500 years after Colurbls, refugees fran the invading irdustrial society are anbarking on amther voyage of exploration into the New World. We are looking at the lam with new eyes to
fin:i space, subsistence, am meaning for our lives. Ia:>king arourXi,
we see a different world, alive and p.tlsating, a spiritual being.
OUr planet seen in this way, we call GAI A. a living organism with a
will and an intelligence of her own. She dances to her own time,
and it is to our own peril i f we do oot follow her lead.
'lhe ancient name of this continent we inhabit is TURTLE 1SLANV.
0
"Turtle Island - the old/ new name for the continent based
on many creation myths of the people who have been living
here for rnillenia, and rea.pplied by sane of than to "North
.America" in recent years. Also, ari idea fourxi world-wide,
o f the earth, or the cosnos even, sustained by a great
turtle or serpent-of-eternity.
g
0
g
a
·
I
0
~
name: that we may see ourse lves 11Dre accurately on this
continent of watersheds and life-camnmities - plant zones,
piysiograpri.c provinces, culture areas; following nat\Jral
boundaries. 'lhe "U.S.A"and its states and oounties are arbitrary and inaccurate inp::>sitions on what is really here."
- Gary Snyder
A
g
111
0
1
0
g
I
o
)
speak of the world 11Dre accurately, to speak of the world that is
really here instead of the arbitrary ploitical boun3aries, we speak
of BIOREG!ONS.
TO
0
Qmmmooommmooommmooommmooommmooo1DDDD0oommmooomnunooo~
autum 1983
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians,</em> Issue 1, Autumn 1983
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Apples--Varieties--North Carolina, Western
Apples--Storage
Traditional Farming--United States--Appalachian Region, Southern
Alternative agriculture--Appalachian Region, Southern
Permaculture--Appalachian Region, Southern
Animals--Folklore
Appalachians (People)--History
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Description
An account of the resource
The first issue of <em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, published in the fall of 1983, sets the platform of the publication which expresses and overall tone of respect and stewardship of the land and all life in it. Topics in this issue include Katúah and its meaning, the world as bioregions, the migration of Ulster Scots to North Carolina, and sustainable practices. Authors and artists in this issue include: Chuck Marsh, Thomas Rain Crowe, Sam Gray, Curtis Wood, Tyler Blethen, Snow Bear, Doug Elliott, George Ellison, and Marnie Muller.<br /><br />Beginning with Issue 19, Spring 1988, the journal title was shortened to <em>Katúah Journal</em>. The journal was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. <br /><br />
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Bioregions: "The Trail to Home".......1<br /><br />From Ulster to Carolina : <br />(The Scotch-Irish Migration to N. Carolina).......3<br /><br />Permaculture Practices.......4 <br /><br />Moshka & Lakima : A Story By Snow Bear.......6 <br /><br />Old Time Apples.......8 <br /><br />Poetry : "Wind Rose" by George Ellison.......9 <br /><br />Map Meditations : The Katuah Bioregion.......10 <br /><br />Mountain Guides : A Resource Bibliography.......12<br /><br />Bioregional Congresses.......14<br /><br />Alternatives to Economics.......17 <br /><br />Finding Katuah : A Bioregional Questionnaire.......22 <br /><br />Fall Calendar........21 <br /><br />Creative Distribution.......22<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Economic Alternatives
European Immigration
Geography
Glossaries
Katúah
Permaculture
Poems
Reading Resources
Stories
Turtle Island
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0af6f876cd851df118a0e27b06bd6952.pdf
5453315bc90cf3f65463f81f56c5674a
PDF Text
Text
�����������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians,</em> Issue 2, Winter 1983-1984
Description
An account of the resource
The second issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on various topics such as black bears, the Pigeon River pollution, effective political involvement, and bioregional citizenship. Authors and artists in this issue include: Martha Tree, J. Linn Mackey, Snow Bear, Marnie Muller, Chuck Marsh, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Sharyn Jayne Hyatt, Gayle Knox, Chip Smith, Van Wormer, and Joseph Chapman.<br><br>
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1984
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Black bear--Appalachian Region, Southern
Water--Pollution--North Carolina--Pigeon River
Political participation--Appalachian Region, Southern
Pigeon River (N.C. and Tenn.)
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>Paradise Polluted<br /> The Pigeon River Story.......3<br /><br />Charlie & Russell<br /> Bear Hunters.......4<br /><br />There is Another Way<br /> by Snow Bear.......5<br /><br />Katúah Under the Drill<br /> Western North Carolina Alliance.......6<br /><br />Good Medicine<br /> Spiritual Warriors.......8 <br /><br />How the Humans Came to Be.......9 <br /><br />Council Meeting.......11 <br /><br />Our Mountain Woodlands.......13 <br /><br />Alma <br /> Poems - by Kathryn Byer.......14 <br /><br />On Becoming Politically Effective<br /> on Bioregional Level.......20<br /><br /><em><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em><br /></em></p>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Geography
Good Medicine
Katúah
Permaculture
Pigeon River
Politics
Stories
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/5f3f8b62bd6a3f9c717ec7bce721dab8.pdf
8dbe5987ca218068d745dd7a80a3c280
PDF Text
Text
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
ISSUE THREE
SPRING 1984
ONE DOLLAR
�����������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 3, Spring 1984
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1984
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Corn--History
Seeds--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable agriculture--Appalachian Region, Southern
Organic farming--Appalachian Region, Southern
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Description
An account of the resource
The third issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on topics such as corn and its importance in through the centuries, heirloom seeds and organic farming, and human impact on forests. This issue also includes an interview with then Jackson County (North Carolina) Commissioner, Veronica Nicholas, on power companies and women in politics. Authors and artists in this issue include: R. Otto Wylie, Martha Tree, Thomas Rain Crowe, George Ellison, Judith Hallock, Jody Segal-Friedman, Clyde Hollifield, Robert Zahner, and Snow Bear.
<br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>Selu, The Corn Mother.......1<br /><br /> A Sustainable Agriculture.......2<br /><br /> Rebirth of the Sun Sister.......6<br /><br /> The Spirit of Corn.......7<br /><br /> Human Impact on the Forests of the Southern Appalachians...8<br /><br /> Good Medicine: Allies.......10<br /><br /> Kingfisher's Return (poem).......11<br /><br /> Power and Light: Veronica Nicholas.......12<br /><br /> The Little People.......18<br /><br /> Children's Education.......21<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em></p>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Education
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Good Medicine
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Reading Resources
Stories
Turtle Island
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/2548901c8e81db0f1dc689fd56cb5e8b.pdf
491885735eda5ab93680a5efa814bbe1
PDF Text
Text
���������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 4, Summer 1984
Description
An account of the resource
The fourth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on topics such as water quality, hydropower, forest management, the 1984 Cherokee reunion in Tennessee, and the 1984 solar eclipse. Authors and artists in this issue include: Sam Gray, Robin Williamson, Michael Heron, Thomas J. Harshbarger, Jerry West, Margaret Kerr, Thomas Rain Crowe, Bennie Lee Sinclair, Clyde Hollifield, Paul Gallimore, Richard Hotaling, Avram Friedman, Jody Segal-Friedman, Jim Wayne Miller, Marnie Muller, J. Mackey, Chuck Marsh, and Robert Zahner. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1984
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
The Waterdrum by Sam Gray.......1 <br /><br />Living Trout: Living Water.......3 <br /><br />Trout An Article by Jerry West.......4 <br /><br />Streamwatch.......6 <br /><br />The Annular Eclipse of the Sun.......8 <br /><br />"Lord of Springs" poetry by Bennie L. Sinclair.......9 <br /><br />Waterpower.......10 <br /><br />Homemade Electricity.......11 <br /><br />Clearcutting Part II by Robert Zahner.......12 <br /><br />Living with Kudzu.......14 <br /><br />"Shapes" by Jim Wayne Miller.......16 <br /><br />Good Medicine: Going to Water.......18 <br /><br />Voice of the Turtle: N.A.B.C. Report.......20<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Water quality--Appalachian Region, Southern
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
Small scale hydropower
Kudzu
Cherokee Indians--History--20th century
Solar eclipses--1984
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Alternative Energy
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Cherokees
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Geography
Good Medicine
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Poems
Reading Resources
Stories
Water Quality
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/a1feba40871ce614a08133c6846cda92.pdf
9ea20a95b097d62eeecabfc775e81415
PDF Text
Text
---~
ATUAB
$JOO
~
ISSUE XII
) " SUMMER 1986
�LIVI~ IN 'THE GARC>EN..............................................•...•...............1
r.c
Tl-E
Nl.n.EAR FEFERENDl.M..---···..····----·······-··········-···.3
SHIIT'Ali<E•••.••.•..•.•..•.......•......••••..•........................................................4
"Tl-E WATER CYCLE": A PC:EM...................................................•..6
'THE SACRE.D SCA,RAB.•...•...•...........................................................7
CIRCl.ES
~UNICATIC:>l'il-................................................•...8
a=
fEVIEW: JHEWISE VOMN HERBAL
FOO Tl-IE Cl-tll.DBEARI~ YEAR...........................................9
REVBV: 1HE SMALL-scAl..E AQ.JACULTI.JAE BOOK..........10
C3C:XD MEDONE: TOOA,COO.........................................................12
SUN ROOT.....•...................................................................................14
POEM: "THE HCMESTEAD ~ HORN MCX.JNTAIN"....-.............14
"HD..AHl'VlJ_.": THE FORMATIQ\J OF 1HE
APPAl..ACl-tlAN ~NTAINS.............................................15
NATIJRAL ~ NEWS..............................................................19
'1l£ WIUDNTIEE": ACHILDREN'S STORY......-.................25
•. ,·,· i.~
'"
NABC II...............................................................................................:;.,
M
N
,....
Q)
N
~
H
...l
0
~
u
i5
~
~
tj
~
g
u
M•
,....
co
t<
:i
Q
co
=
g
11111
ti
~
...
fj
a
8
fll
co
a
a
~
�......
ATUAH
~
Tf£ ffiSSlBLE ffiMOlst:
LtUING 1 THE: GAPlOc(\)
N
"The garden", as it is known in the community below,
occupies a small clearing among the folded ridges of the
Black Mountains. In the summer the Rarden blooms
profusely. Flowers, shrubs, vegetables, and trees crowd
toget~r in what first appears to be a wild disarray of diverse
colors and textures falling over the stone terraces stacked up
the hillside. A tiny log cabin and gnomish yurt stand at the
edge of the trees to one side, while "the pavilion", a large
buildmg that is both work space and community danc~ hall
looms above.
In the midst ofthe riot of Rrowth, partners Joe Hollis
and Rhea Rose Orm1Jnd work, looking like the small
human figures in the middle of a Chinese paiflling. Joe has
been on this site for 15 years now, intuitively creating an
enviroMMnt to meet his particular needs of habitation, and
consciously attuning and adapting himself to his chosen
niche.
KATUAH - page 1
ISSUE XII
SUMMm 1986
by Joe Hollis
illustrations by Rhea Rose Ormond
"I came here with an idea to start a garden. It took: me
a couple of years to clear trees and to build this cabin where I
live now. But then I started to garden. I started right in front
of the cabin, and I've been working out since then. The soil
is good here; there's a lot of leaf mold in it. But it took: a lot
of clearing to get out the roots, the stumps, the black:benies and the rocks. It is extremely rocky in this hollow. Some
kind of landslide ended up here. The rocks are all jumbled;
you can see how they ended up on top of each other. As I
began to dig them out. I made rock piles. Then. to get rid of
the rock piles, I made walls. Now this whole hillside is a
tcrraccd garden, and the terraces are still growing. There arc
rock piles down there right now waiting to get laid up.
"I started with the standard flowering percnniaJ plants poppy, Sweet William, bulbs. All good, sturdy local
varieties that I'd get by trading with old ladies down in the
neighborhood. Then when I bad some walls laid up, I got
the idea to put strawberries among the stones. Once I had the
notion that plants could help tie the walls together, I stumbled
into the world of rock gardening. For many people, rock
- continued on p. 13
Summer 1986
�'
2!2·,·!l·.·#jW:·,·H:l U¢iijiJ@ld!#lt·UO,.
· il!ll.
EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE:
Rob Messick
Martha Tree
Martha Overlock
J. Linn Mackey
David Wheeler
Will Ashe Bason
Chip Smith
Mamie Muller
Michael Red Fox
Scott Bird
Brad Stanback
Judith Hallock
EDITORIAL ASSISIANCE:
Joe Roberts
Brooks Michael
Jeff Fobes
EDITORIAL OFFICE
THIS ISSUE:
Asheville, NC
PRINTEPBY:
Sylva lk.rsls1
Publishing Co.
Sylva, NC
WEITEUSAI:
TELEPHONE:
(704) 252-9167
Kmih
Box 873
Cullowbee, NC 28723
COVER· Rob Messick
JR\10CllTJ0R
'fthf!""--.
~
Wt:. c.o.J£
~ Cl..~E
'f~f'lhs: . . wf. CD.fl Live
'f~t::.f:h.Ef" . . . 'ti£
f ~r -.-
CJ).N
or
Uu5t
'WE COil
W E eDN
'f~lher .. . wrz
'f~
will
OlrsdW:S.
\w;al. ~ E"ARt\\ ·
T~ ... '11€ ~ bir-th
f~ .. .
paicE.
our bo.bes.
~ ~ ~'4ES
~K as
ONE".
.. _ 'ti£ wi\\ uvf. oor clIEoJftS .
Statement ofPurpose
Here in the southern-most heanland of the Appalachian
mountains, the oldest mountain range on our continent,
Turtle Island, a small but growing group has begun to take
on a sense of responsibiliry for the implications of that
geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of
responsibiliry centers on the concept of living within the
natural scale and balance of universal systems and laws. We
begin by invoking the Cherokee name "Kariiah" as the
old/new name for this area of the mountains and for its
journal as well.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this area, and to foster the awareness that the
land is a living being deserving of our love and respect.
Living in this manner is the only way to ensure the
sustainability of our biosphere and a lasting place for~
ourselves in its contifll4ing evolutionary process.
) ,
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a "db or
die" situation in terms of a contilll4ed quality standard of life
on this planet. It is the aim ofthis journal tO db its part in the
re-inhabitation and re-culturation of the Kamah province of
the Southern Appalachians. This province is indicated by its
natural boundaries: the New River vicinity to the north; the
foothills ofthe piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountain and
the Georgia hill.s to the south; and the Tennessee River Valley
to the west.
Humbly, as self-appointed stewards with sacred
instructions as "new natives" to protect and preserve its
sacredness, we advocate a centered approach to the concept
of decentralization and hope to become a support system for
those accepting the challenge of sustainabiliry and the
creation of harmony and balance in a total sense, here in this
plaa.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism, pertinent
informa1ion, articles, artwork, etc. with hopes that K1l1fJ.gh
will grow to serve the best interests of this region and all its
living, breathing family members.
• The Editors
The Internal Revenue Service has declared K.aWAh a
non-profit organization under section 50J(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code.
All contributions to KilWlb. are deductible from
personal income tax.
Summer 19 6
�I
THE IMPORTANCE OF SAYING "NO"
'
THE NORTH CAROLINA NUCLEAR WASTE REFERENDUM
by Avram Friedman
On May 6, 1986, 93% of the
electorate in North Carolina rejected the
location of a high level nuclear waste and
spent fuel repository in that state.
At first glance' this event may not
seem astounding, but its political
significance is potentially far-reaching and
could mean a watershed of good news for
environmentalists on the local, state,
regional, and national levels.
The news of this referendum is still
so fresh that as of yet many organiz.ations,
active individuals, and politicians have not
grasped the meaning of what has happened.
A Powerful New Tool For Local
Organizations
A powerful tool has just been handed
to anti-nuclear waste, anti-nuclear energy,
and environmental organiz.ations in North
Carolina State officials and politicians who
have their fingers lifted to the winds to
sense the public mood, just ran into a
hurricane. 1t is now a matter of public
record that Nonh Carolinians almost
unanimously reject participation in one part
of the nuclear fuel cycle. Politicians can
now be effectively pressured into taking
further environmentally responsible actions.
For example, since the referendum,
the Citizens for a Choice on Nuclear Waste
(CCNW), of Jackson County, has informed
every state legislator that North Carolina
should not enter into a "compact" with other
southeastern states that would result in this
state receiving all th~low-level radioactive
waste produced by the entire region.
CCNW told the politicians that the public
would be informed how each legislator
votes on the issue when the decision is
made this July in Raleigh. Will politicians
dare to stand against 93% of the public in an
election year?
Although the entire 93% cannot
necessarily be transferred from one related
issue to the next, a politician can only use
the information available to him/her to draw
assumptions about the public mood. The
only concrete indication available at this
time, concerning nuclear issues, is the waste
referendum. Combined with the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant accident in April, the
THERE WILL BE NO "SUSPENSION"OF
To those who have worked on the related
issues of the nuclear waste dump, the
Monitored Retrievable Storage Facility
(MRS), and the transportation of nuclear
waste through the mountains of KatUah, it is
blatantly obvious that the recent
announcemer.t l.>y Energy Secretary John
Herrington that the search for an eastern
waste suppository has been "suspended" is
a political move designed to take the heat off
the incumbent administration until after the
next presidential elections, at which time the
hunt for the second nuclear waste
suppository will be continued at full force.
It is hard to believe the degree of
callousness of those who would toy in this
way with the hopes, the dreams, and the
expectations of the people who live in the
affected areas. Ultimately, their scheme will
backfire, because eventually the people will
know that they have been disenfranchised
by the machinations of the technocrats who
seem to wield so much power in
government While it may put people to
sleep for a time, in the end it will serve only
to drive home the realization that doing
away with nuclear involvement altogether is
the only permanent solution to the problem
of nuclear waste.
Besides the obvious goal of
manipulating the electoral vote, the strategic
purposes of this move, the "suspension
announcement", are twofold:
First, the nuclear consortium hopes to
divide the anti-waste movement They hope
KA
AH-page 3
that by offering a false security to the
residents of the eastern states, they can
increase the pressure on the western states
to force a nuclear waste dump on them.
Onoe this is accomplished, they will then
tum their full attention to the goal of
establishing a second dump site in the east
The bureaucrats' second purpose is to
create a lull in which they might establish an
MRS facility in eastern Tennessee. The
MRS always has been and still is the !'mt
step in the strategy to bring a nuclear waste
dump into the Appalachians. Allowing the
MRS to be emplaced would constitute an
engraved invitation to emplant a nuclear
waste suppository in Katfiah sometime in
the future.
In one way the "suspension"
announcement is helpful. It makes clear the
difference between the politicians who are
working in the interests of the people of this
area and in the interests of the land itself and
those politicians who are working strictly in
their own interest or on behalf of large
corporations in other parts of the country.
Those who do not care about this land and
its people are parading about crowing, "It's
over! We've won! It's all finished now!"
They are trying to disarm us and put us to
sleep in the face of an impending nuclear
catastrophe.
But the leaders who have the interests
of the people at heart are cautioning that the
mountain interstates are stiJJ prime routes for
the transportation of nuclear wastes and still
referendum bas dramatically shifted the
burden of popular support to the nuclear
industry. Anti-nuclear groups will find it
much easier to convince politicians that the
safe political ground lies in opposing nukes.
In addition to the political leverage
gained in dealing with legislative action,
anti-dump groups and individuals will now
find it much easier and safer to carry out
further actions against the U.S. Department
· continued on . 26
DISBELIEF
opposing the MRS. A truly conscientious
leader would exhibit the courage to call for a
moratorium on the construction and
operation of all new nuclear facilities, but a
leader of such caliber has not yet stepped
forward.
The "suspension" of the nuclear
waste dump plan in the east does not mean a
suspension of interest on the part of the
DOE, but rather the suspension of a
panicular strategic approach that has proved
a failure. The DOE is simply going to
approach its self-chosen task more
carefully, trying to diYide and then conquer
the anti-suppository movement and to
disarm the people of Katuab in hopes they
would awaken one day in the future to be
faced with afait accompli in the form of an
MRS facility installed in Tennessee just
waiting to package high-level radioactive
wastes for a second waste suppository in
Appalachia.
If this country is to have a nuclear
future, and there is no doubt that this is
what the DOE, the present political
administration, and the giant energy
corporations desire, there will necessarily
have to be a second nuclear waste dump.
The recent "suspension" of activity makes
clear our task: to expose the actual
environmental and economic costs of
nuclear power and to promote the
development of a more viable fuel to power
our future.
,
ummer 1986
�by Michael Red Fox
The generic name is Lentinus e®des,
but say "shc-i-ta'-kee" if you want people to
know that you arc talking about an oriental
mushroom that has become a popular item
in western urban gourmet cuisine. Long
known in both China and Japan as "The
Emperor's Food" and jealously guarded by
Samurai warriors, shiitake today offers the
more democratic promise of being a
low-cost way to diversify small farm
income and to improve the health of regular
users.
Demand for the dark brown,
wide-gilled shiitakc mushrooms far exceeds
the present supply. Why the demand?
Because as well as being renowned for its
flavor, the easily grown mush.room resists
bruising and spoiling and can be quickly
pickled, canned, or dried (remaining
nutritious for 13 months). Using beat to
dry shiitakc enhances certain popular navor
characteristics. Shiitakc rehydrates well and
when cooked maintains its color and impartS
a smokey. full-bodied, aromatic navor
while maintaining a delightfully delicate,
fleshy texture. It can be added to any dish
which uses the familiar white mushroom,
though much Jess shiitakc is needed.
Shiitakc has twice the protein value of
the common mushroom and contains all
eight essential amino acids in proportions
similar to that or milk and animal nesh. It is
low in calorics and contains large amounts
of B vitamins and minerals.
For centuries, the Japanese have
priud the health· giving benefits of shiitake.
Now modern research shows that shiitake
reduces scrum cholesterol, strengthens the
immune system against viral diseases, and
bas prevented or caused remission of certain
typeS of tumors in mice.
Sbiitake already generates more than
$1 billion annually in export sales for Japan.
There arc nearly 200,000 shiitake growers
in Japan raising 161,000 metric tons of
shlitake every year.
Toby Farris, head of the USDA
Mushroom Project in Asheville, NC,
estimates that small farms in KatUah can
increase their incomes 30% by growing
shiitakc. But he suggests that small farmers
gradually develop shiitakc cultivation as a
stabilizing second income rather than trying
to turn it into a get-rich.quick scheme.
Market price of fresh shiitake is
anywhere from $4.00 - 20.00 per pound.
This price varies according to the quality of
GROWING SHIITAKE - HERE'S HOW
There arc six key cultivation phases in
growing shiitakc, each of which requires
careful attention. These arc: 1) obtaining
viable inoculum (spawn) in pure culture and
storing it until use, 2) preparing logs for
cultivation, 3) inoculation, 4) laying the logs
to favor fungal growth, 5) raising the spawn
to favor fruiting, and 6) harvesting and
storing the crop.
Spawn: Shiitakc spawn is usually
grown on small dowel or peg-like pieces of
wood 3/8 to 3/4 inches in length that are
supplied in sealed autoclaved plastic
containers. Occasionally it is grown on
sawdust.
The spawn should be moist, generally
white, and appear rather fuzzy. Spawn may
be kept as long as one year under
refrigeration. The retail cost of spawn
varies widely, so it would pay to carefully
check different prices and quality.
the product and the location of the market
A com of oak firewood can sell for as
little as $30.00. That same cord of wood
could produce between $1,000 - 2,000 of
shiitake during the average five-year life
cycle.
Preparing the logs: The most
important ingredient of a good shHtakc farm
is a sustainable source of hardwoods,
prefcrabTy oak,. 6CCCii, or hornbeam. Softer
hardwoods, such as poplar and maple arc
being used experimentally to nurture
shiitakc mushrooms, but whether they have
a commercial future is still uncertain.
White, black, northern red, and chestnut
oak wilJ hold onto their bark and maintain
the proper moisture content for shiitake.
Thick-barked trees, such as locust, hamper
the inoculations and spread of the shiitakc
spawn.
A growing area is necessary that
provides protection from direct sunlight
(70-85% shade is best) and from strong
winds. Nearby there must be a good source
of clean water.
Shiitake is a non-pathogenic fungus
and will not grow on living tissues. It
survives on dead wood only and must
establish itself before competitive fungi
colonize the wood. For these reasons, only
live trees arc cut for shiitakc cultivation.
Cutting the live tree is best done in the
fall or winter to capture the supply of sugar
stored in the dormant wood. Also the bark
tends to stay on the logs longer if the trees
arc cut when the leaves arc gone. Keeping
the bark on the logs and keeping it intact is
�critical for proper moisture control and to
block competitive "weed" fungi
Logs are cut to 3-5 foot lengths and
may be 2-8 inches in diameter. Branches
may also be used. Seal the ends of the logs
with a latex paint or soft wax to provide a
moisture barrier and to keep out the "weed
fungi". It is important to keep the exposed
log ends from coming in contact with the
soil. Therefore, never skid the logs from
the forest. Soil contact greatly increases
contamination of the logs. Stack the logs
off the ground for six weeks to allow the
natural defense mechanism against fungi to
die off and allow the moisture level to adjust
to 50-70%.
How will you know when the logs
have reached the proper moisture level? It
can be measured by slicing off the end of a
log and weighing it This figure is the net
weight Weigh the cut end again after it has
been dried overnight in a warm oven. This
figure is the dry weight. Subtracting the dry
weight from net weight gives the weight of
the water in the slice. Dividing that figure
by the net weight of the piece gives the
percent of moisture in the log.
Before inoculation, scrape lichen,
mosses and debris off the logs without
damaging the barlc.
Inoculation: Inoculation is best
done when daytime temperatures are 50-60
degrees F and the coldest weather is past.
March and April are the best times to
inoculate. Inoculation should be done in a
shaded area to avoid direct exposure of the
spawn to sunlight
To inoculate the logs, drill holes 6-8
inches apart in a row along the length of the
log.
Insert a dowel in each hole
immediately after drilling. Space the rows
so that the holes are staggered and 2-3
inches apart around the citcumfercnce of the
log. Tap the dowels in gently with a
hammer and immediately brush over the
plug with a thin layer of wax. Growth
begins almost immediately under favorable
conditions. If sawdust-grown spawn is
used, the holes should be completely filled
with the sawdust-and-spawn mixture.
Laying: In practice, most failures in
shiitake cultivation have been traced to
incorrect stacking of the logs in the "laying
yard" that creates conditions that favor
"weed fungi" instead of the shiitake.
Logs should be laid at a 45 degree
angle to encourage growth of the shiitake
mycelia. They should be reversed every 2-4
months to encourage even mycelial growth.
In addition, the logs may be soaked in water
for 18-24 hours if necessary during
exceptionally dry periods. The optimum
conditions in the laying yard are
temperatures between 59-82 degrees F and a
relative humidity of 80-85%.
Raising: The following winter the
logs can be moved to the "raising yard".
There they arc laid nearly upright or stacked
log cabin style and kept shaded and moist
until fruiting.
A relatively dry log surface will help
discourage the growth of surface molds.
Therefore, if logs are watered artificially,
they should be watered thoroughly for a
relatively short period of time. Studies
show that if motsture is maintained near
70%, a 50% increase in production will
result, but light, frequent waterings should
be avoided.
In commercial production,
dehydration of the logs followed by soaking
in cool water 55-70 degrees F is often done
to stimulate fruiting. Logs that have been
dehydrated usually produce bumper crops
within a week of being soaked! Soaking
also tends to eliminate cerUin kinds of
pests.
Any logs that lose their bark should
be discarded. Old logs should be disposed
of in a separate location a good distance
from the cultivation site.
logs ca.n provide 3-5 years of consistent
cropping of shiitake mushrooms.
Cultivated in the Orient for more than
400 years and praised as the "ginseng of
mushrooms" and "elixir of life'', shiitake
offers special promise for small farmers in
Katuah.
Happy 'shrooming!
SOURCES OF SHIITAKE MUSHROOM
SPAWN AND CULTIVATION AIDS:
Fruiting: Shiitake is capable of
fruiting only after the mycelia have
completely colonized the log. First fruiting
usually occurs early in spring or in late fall
of the year following inoculation. At this
time, a fuzzy white fungal growth can be
seen at the cut ends of the Jog in the
sapwood area, especially just under the
bark. From this time on, conditions should
be altered w favor fruiting.
To fruit, the fungus requires abundant
moisture, sufficient air movement, and little
exposure to light Fruiting is favored by
cool nights of 46-72 degrees F followed by
warm days and a constantly high relative
humidity of 85-90%.
When the mushrooms appear, the
caps begin as round buttons and flatten out
as the mushroom matures. They will
eventually reach a size of 2-6 inches in
diameter. A flush of shiitake may last a
week.
Harvesting:
Mushrooms are
harvested as the cap begins to open to
expose the gills. Fresh shiitake can be
stored under refrigeration in ventilated
containers for 2 weeks.
Continuing Harvests: After
ceasing to produce mushrooms, the logs
must be rested for 3-6 months in an
environment similar to the raising
conditions. Winter conditions in KatUah
ordinarily would not damage the mycelia as
they lay dormant, ready to flush again
during the next spring and again the
following fall. Properly treated and cured,
American Forest Mushroom Association
P.O. Box 1362
Asheville, NC 28802
Ellie Corporation
Route 1
Arvonia, VA 23004
Mushroompeople
P.O. Box 158
Inverness, CA 94937
Dr. Yoo Farm
P.O. Box 290
College Park, MD 20740
REFERENCES:
Shiitake News ($25 I year)
from Forest Resource Center
Route 2, Box 156-A
Lanesboro, MN 55949
Shiitake Oardcnine and Fannin&
by Bob Harris ($3.00)
CUltiyation of Shiitake The Japanese forest
Mushroom. on Loes
by Gary Leatham ($1.50)
How to erow Forest Mushrooms CShiitakel
by Daniel D. Kuo and Maw H. Kuo
($10.45)
(Books listed above are available from
Mushroompeople)
"
�KATUAH - page 6
Sum.mer 1986
�I have been _successfully
experimenting with scandt1'cctles and their
larvae as an answer to the problem of
disposing of human waste. After eight
years of 'field research', I feel I can now
pass on what I have uncovered to .Ka.1Wih
readers.
Scarab beetle larvae eat fecal matter
with a vengeance, turning it into a flaky,
dry, odorless substance, which can later be
used as a fertilizer. It is an extremely
sanitary process, and no flies venture near
the scarab beetle's domain, as they'll eat fly
eggs too. The waste becomes so broken
down or compacted that an individual could
not fill a two foot square bole for many
years no matter how much food be
consumed.
A change of location will not confuse
the beetles, provided it is not too far away.
All you need do is dig a new hole and bait
it, and when spring has been around for a
while, the beetles will be in the base of the
hole awaiting your return. They will roll the
fecal matter into little balls and lay their
eggs.
You may cover the hole with the
luxury of an outhouse, or simply cover it
with plywood so the scarabs won't drown
when it rains. And as a matter of courtesy I
avoid urinating on them. An empty jar will
suffice for thaL Also avoid using lime.
In peak summer months, one visit to
the outhouse will be disposed of in a matter
of minutes, provided you have built up a
good population. They slow down activity
when the nights get below freezing, and
when the days no longer hold wannth they
become dormant, not noticeably becoming
efficient again until late spring or early
summer. I know one fellow who kept his
larvae warm enough to keep them active
throughout the year so that there was no
gap. I have an alternative outhouse that I
use a few months out of the year. This past
year my larvae did not close up shop until
early January, but I kept a number of the
larvae alive on into the winter by placing a
large frying pan over them. On cold ni~hts
this was warmed by a candle I placed m a
jar covered by a metal lid punched with
holes. I would pull it all off in the mornings
and all the little things would be huddled
under the operation. But I began to worry
that I might be interfering with their normal
life cycle or that when the new adults came,
they might cat the balls with the eggs. In
any case, on the coldest night of the year
they perished. Either the candle went out,
or after setting up my little rig, trembling,
with a flashlight in my mouth, I forgot to
light the candle. They must have cocooned
or died thinking I was crazy.
I think they can be kept alive in the
KA
AH-page 7
winter, but at this time I would recommend
keeping a batch to survive the winter and a
batch to keep their natural cycle for this
region.
Facts on scarab beetles arc mentioned
in some texts, but utilizing their
undertakings has never been considered,
nor their effectiveness realized. At least not
since the Egyptians, who regarded both
beetles and their larvae as sacred.
My variety of beetle is indigenous to
the piedmont of South Carolina. They arc
black and arc about the size of a quarter. A
smaller, colorful variety has infiltrated their
ranks in lesser numbers.
I do not have any good pictures of
them. I have a very overexposed slide of
one beetle. The slide was taken under far
too powerful a flash. The photographer
should have gone with a bright light (but be
was stressfully lazy). Usually they arc very
gentle and docile, but this poor beetle must
have bu.med its retinas out, for it went
berserk - I never knew they could move that
fast I put it back in the gallon jar to take it
back home, but somehow it escaped,
probably into the environs of the car, and I
have felt quite sick about it ever since.
When you get to know them, you will know
that this is no joke.
I have never considered turning this
operation into a business, though the right
person with the right setup could easily do
so. If the dung ball gets rolling I could bask
in the knowledge that I had done
humankind, Mother Earth, and life itself a
great service. I do not really eat enough to
punch them out in vast quantities, though I
do have more than enough, and usually feel
obligated to make sure they get enough to
eat during their active cycles. If I bad a
larger setup a.n d more active, shitting
humans, populations would soar. And I
could go to Europe!
I personally started with about 60
larvae. I expect 7- 10,000 by late summer,
but it could be in the millions with more
food. Sending larvae is a way to start a
herd. They arc clean and easy to ship. I am
willing to give away starter colonies maybe for a $10.00 mailing and handling
fee. And if someone is enterprising enough
to get a business going, a bumble royalty
would not insult my virtues.
Neither the larvae nor the beetles arc
offensive to the sight or in any other
manner. They are man (sic) and beast at
their finest hour.
For more information, contact
Corry
P.O. Box 5242
Columbia, SC 29250
The ancien1 Egyptians Wt!refascinated
by the small scarab beetle. The scarab
beetle, Scarabeus sggr, "lays its eggs in a
ball of dung some two inches across,· this it
subsequen1ly pushes around with its rear
legs with great determination, loohng for a
suitable crevice in which to deposit it.
Inside the ball, the larvaefud on the dung until they eventually break through the ball
to freedom. This was regarded by the
ancienr Egyptians as a most mysterious
process of self-generation: the young butlu
appearing from a ball qfdung aµr they had
been helped only by a single scarab butle.
Jn a grand analogy, ii was a beetle thal was
seen to be rolling the sun itself over the
eastern horizon, as the climax to the
self generative processes thal had taken
place during the night. The beetle itself
became a symbol for the change of state
from deaJh to rebirth, which was ofprimary
interest to the ancienl theologians, who
described it in sorru: ofthe long tats ofthe
royal tombs in considerable detail. The
beetle also became one ofthe most popular
symbols of ancien1 Egypt and small scarab
seals were made in mi/JWns, a tradition thal
continues to this day. It seems too, that
parts of the mysterious functions of this
beetle have never been lost since ancien1
times; early in the presen1 cenJUry the village
women of Thebes ate these harny black
insects which were supposed to aid their
fertility, and many properties similar to the
ancient symbolisms are attributed to
Scarabeus sacer in the writings of the
mediaeval alchemists."
from valley Qf tbc Kines.
byJohnRorru:r, 1981.
~
Summer 1986
�"-"X.1.NB NEW FR.1.ENDI
HAV\NCl J'UNI
J'1.JU:I "11.'JlU>UT '1.o\'J'Cf(£1
J'ORAB1.NB "11.LD FOODI
CONCf:N'Jll..tTI.ON •.. .• CR.ljlTALI ... . . tC&U.1.NB
11.NCl'lNCl
D.ANC1.NCl
DR.WU
1.N TH£ 11"1£.U LOME . ••••
KAWAH - page 8
J'1.ND'lNCl "1KO "1£
~
Summer I 986
�Review
Wise Woman Herb al
Childbearing Year
for
the
by Susun S. Weed
published by Ashtree Publishing, POB 64,
Woodstock, NY 12498
($ 6.95 plus $ 2.00 for shipping & handling)
reviewed by Ise Williams
For more than a million years Wise Women have used
herbs - ga1hered, eaten, tended, loved herbs - and taughl their
daughters the wisdom of herbs in the cllildbean·ng year.
In Europe, five hundred years ago, men tortured and
burned the Wise Women who healed with herbs, the
midwives, the ones who celebrated the cyclical ways.
Calling them witches, they burned them in millions and
broke the flow of mother-to-daughter transmission.
In the Americas, their sons in later years killed the
medicine women and c11randeras. the Wise Women of the
New World. Then they denied the existence of Wise Wome"
in history.
Without our connections ro each other and the Earth,
withollt our mothers' wisdom, we forgot our power. When
we were told that we had no souls, and no minds, and no
sisters, we believed it was true. When they cold us that
childbearing was too difficult for women, midwives, and
herbs, we believed it was true.
Bm the Wise Women live in our dreams, our visions,
our deepest munories. We hear their whispers, and we
listen..
Wise Women herbalists see the whole herb, the
physical forces and the subtle forces, and respect the
wholeness. Wise Women make use of rite color, form,
spirit, and substance of a plant, using it as a whole, not
dividing it into parts and seeing power only in the HactiveH
principle. Wise Women lcnbw thaJ we are each whole and
unique, in an individu.a l, everchanging, symbiotic
relationship with herbs.
Wise Woman healing is grounded, earthed, rooted.
The Wise Woman accepts herself and her changes, her
moods, and her bleedings. She tends to birthing and dying
withaur alienaiion from herself or rite ones site helps. Site is
open to the life song surrounding her, she ~ the secrets
of the herbs. Fairies appear to her; devas bless her. All that
she needs for health and well-being grows within the fall of
her foot.
This book speaks to the Wise Woman in you - the
pregnant woman - aT1d to the Wise Woman in your mare,
lover, midwife, doctor, childbinh educator, and friends. It is
based on the belief that you are capable of observing yo1u
own body, heart, and mind, responding to the messages you
receive during the childbearing year, and caring/or yourself
in a context of loving s11ppon and assistance.
·from the introduction
Thie; is a wonderful herbal. one that I'm sure will
become the companion of many a pregnant woman, and also
a resource that goes far beyond lhe childbearing year. Since
pregnancy is a period of growth which couches on all aspeccs
of our lives, I find many of the issues covered are also
applicable to the situations of my non-pregnant friends,
women and men alike.
The dedication makes clear the spirit m which lhe book
is written:
May the six directzons empower tlus medicine work. May it
be pleasing to my grandmothers, the a11ciem ones. And may
it be of benefic to all beings.
One of lhe chapters, titled "Herbal Pharmacy", covers
very concisely how co respectfully encounter planes in our
environment and how to safely tum them into water-.
alcohol and oil-based herbal medicines. le is an excellent
and comprehensive guide for everyone desiring to take
responsibility for their own health care.
KATUAH - page 9
The book is written in the Wise Woman tradition,
which views everything as cyclical and deeply
interconnected. In these ancient traditions, once owned by
each tribe and each people, women were the gacherers and
growers of herbs, the nunurers, and the healers. Today
more and more men are beginning to work out of the same
stream of consciousness. However, in our society the oral
tradition has been brutally interrupted by the medieval witch
burnings. A large body of knowledge was destroyed and
losL We are only now beginning to reclaim it. Healing
ways evencually were narrowed down co male-dominated
allopathic medicine, which is linear in Lhink.ing and promotes
a world view of black and white, of sickness versus health.
Wise Woman healing begins with nourishing and nurturing
and reseIVes dramatic interventions as the last reson.
"Wise Women understand the attunement built into our
cells after thousands of generations nourished on wild foods,
the special kinship our bodies have with the vital elements
condensed in herbs", says Susun Weed. Consequently
you'll find in this Wjse Woman Herbal references to other
pertinent publications, addresses of conscientious herb
businesses, appendices that list herbal soun:es of vitamins
and minerals, and recipes for herbal preparations. There are
lovingly handwritten notes in the margins that give the names
of herbs in different languages - including Russian and
Chinese! A comprehensive index makes it easy to locate
specific information.
Susun's knowledge cenainly could fill many a
volume. I hope that Susun will find the time to be a prolific
writer, besides being an avid gardener, homesteader,
naturalist, feminist artist, and travelling lecturer/workshop
facilitator. Presently, her busy schedule takes ber from coast
to coast, attending herbalists' conferences and sharing the
knowledge extracted from 20 years of studying and working
with medicinal herbs.
The Wjse Woman Herbal is written with compassion
and from direct experience. It is not just another compilation /;:;41"
of facts retrieved from other books. What a blessing!
p
'* Elder
The fragile, cream-colored flowers of Sambucus
species, when tinctured., provide a superb remedy for treating
infants' fevers. Elder blossom tincture seems to encourage
balance in the mechanism which regulates temperature. It
reduces frighteningly high fevers without fail. Put one drop
per pound of body weight directly under your baby's tongue,
or slide the dropper alongside your nipple and administer the
drops while the baby is nursing. (Measure the drops into a
spoon, then take the correct dose into the empty dropper.)
The dose may be repeated as often as needed; it is completely
harmless. The fever usually begins to decrease within a few
hours of the first dose.
Stories abound about the dangerous Elder. And there
is a story told all over the world, in different cultures and
various versions, of the woman who lives in the Elder.
Sometimes she is called the Elder Lady, sometimes Elder
Woman, but my favorite name for her is Elda Mor.
The stories say that Elda Mor is a Wise Woman who
has taken the shape of a tree in order to heal her children.
She is powerful and she demands respect. If you wish to
have her help, you must honor her. If you abuse her, or fail
to ask her permission to take part of her, Elda Mor will
poison you.
Elder grows somewhere near you; look and ask for
her. When you find an Elder bush, develop a relationship
with Elda Mor. Visit with her from time to time. Then,
when the Elder blooms, go out in the moonlight and tell her
of your desire to heal with her magic and her knowledge.
She wilJ respond, granting permission for you to take her
sweet flowers. Thank her and put up your tincture
immediately, capturing moon beams, Elder dreams, and the
ancient wisdom of women in your bottle.
From The Wjse Woman Herbal for the Chjldbearine Year
�Review:
THE FRESHWATER AQUACU LT URE BOOK
A handbook for small scale fish culture in North America
The Freshwater Aguaculture Book· A Handbook for Small
Scale Fish Culture jn Noah America; William McLamey
(Point Roberts, WA 98281; Box 147; Hartley and Marks,
1984) 600 pp. 150 illustrations; appendices, index.
available from the publisher for $40.00 plus $1.00 handling.
The need/or aquaculture arises from the same root as
thaJ for agriculture. It is commonly accepted thaJ it would be
impossible to supply human demands for meat solely on the
basis of hunring wild game, or to provide all our fruits and
vegetables by foraging in the naJUral environment. Yet most
of the world still obtains fish in this manner, through
traditional "capture" fisheries based on natural stocks .....
The current world harvest of about seventy million
metric tons per year is not nearly enough to go around, much
less to keep pace with the demands imposed by a
still-increasing human population. The obvious solution is
oquacubure.
- The Freshwater Aquaculture Boole
Bill McLarney was trained as a fisheries biologist at
John Carroll University and the University of Michigan. He
was a co-founder and director of aquaculture studies at the
New Alchemy Institute in Massachusetts, which for 20 years
has done pioneer experiments in ecological living. He
presently divides his time between Fran.k lin, NC in Katiiab
and Costa Rica, where he is director of New Alchemy's
Central America project
In the l 970's McLarney and his co-workers at New
Alchemy developed innovative techniques for small-scale,
low-budget fish culture. Because of their careful study,
observation, and creativity, many of the methods developed
then still stand as the simplest and most efficient available
today.
McLamey has distilled his years of experience and
research into The Freshwater Aguaculturc Book. He has
taken on an ambitious project, and has succeeded in giving
us a highly useful tool: a comprehensive manual for raising
all known varieties of food fish (as well as some types of
aquatic animals) in all the areas of Turtle Island where
fish-raising is feasible. There are also sections on
greenhouse and closed system culture.
McLamey's work is by far the most complete
collection of factual material on the topic to date, but it is also
of importance that he writes from a perspective that respects
the needs and conditions of local ecologies and the "hidden"
economic value and practicality of the efforts of small
producers. This makes The freshwater Aquacul!ure Book
eminently appropriate and a very valuable resource for people
who choose to worJc in the context of their own particular
locale.
WORLD AQUACULTURE
The introduction to the book is a brief survey of the
history and practice of aquaculture around the world. But in
the course of the world overview, McLarney breaks down
these two primary values, ecological awareness and
decentralization, into a set of principles which underpin the
information he presents throughout the book. Illustrative
examples are drawn mainly from the Chinese aquaculture
system, which McLamey regards as the most highly
develo~ in terms of simplicity, productivity, efficiency,
and minimal environmental disruption. But although the
language is "fish culture", the principles expressed could
serve as well to ensure the sound operation and long-term
survival of any type of bioregional enterprise.
Keep in mind thaJ part ofthe secret ofChinese fish culture is
in making the best use of a given local ecology and materials.
However, consider this: The currem average production of
traditional pond polyculture in China is said to be over 4 ,000
lb/acre/year (4,412 kg/ha/yr). (Much higher yields are
achieved in southern China and in southeast Asia, where the
growing season is year-round.) This is accomplished
primarily through the use of fertilizers, with no processed
feeds whatsoever, with virtually no technology, and using
ancient methods developed without benefit of scientific
research . The products of Chinese pond polyculture have
traditionally been available widely and cheaply; they are an
important factor in the nutrition of the Chinese people, as
well as in Chinese high cuisine. Chinese aquaculture may
also be regarded as ecologically beneficial, as it provides a
facility f or recycling organic "wastes".
The effect of s.kik must be considered for any
enterprise in terms of economics, necessary labor, and
relation to the surrounding environment to determine what is
truly the most effective and appropriate system. l l i
Freshwater Aquaculture Book emphasizes the simplest
possible systems that require the least capital investment and
are easiest to construcL
INTEGRATED FARMSTEAD
_
_
, _..,.,.....
a. ,.....,. ... ,.. .......
..
-------.!_
----___
-_ __
_
--.--......----_
__
- --...............................
.........
.__ ...._.
.. ..........
, ,.....
..
··- ~
._
11. T... _ _ _ ,.... _ _
· --- _
- _____
,....
----·--...... ,_,~
12.
~
... - . . - - , _ ......
ta.- ..... - - - - . -
14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-~-----
,.._...--.
,..
"·-
------"-Cont---.
-19. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
21.21.IU_...._
24........W--._,.....
KAWAH - page JO
Surnrnerl986
�From the many aquatic habitars available, rite Chinese chose
the small pond as providing the best combination of
prod11ctiviry and manageability. Though aquaculrure has
subseque111ly been pracriced in virmally every orher type of
aquaric environmen.t, the truth of this rarely acknowledged
insighr remains. Ponds are nawrally present in many
localities and may be constructed, by hand labor if necessary,
in nwst other places. As compared to larger laJces and the
oceans, a higher percentage of pond warer is relatively
shallow, hence more productive and easier to harvesr.
Srreams represent a rheorerically more productive
environment, but use of flowing waler often raises
comperirive situations with regard to water righ1s,j1Shing,
pollution, ere
culrure or eaJ comnu:m carp, and aquaculrurisrs had to seek
other fishJo raise. It was found rhar if one stocked several
kinds offish - say one which fed on the botrom, one which
fed in
mid-water, and one which could eat green leaves
provided by the farmer - grearer yields would be achieved
rhan if one stocked the same number of common carp only.
This was the beginning ofpolyculture. Through trial
and error and observation, Chinese fish culrurists eventually
developed much more complex polyculrures, in some cases
including as many as a dozen species. These culrure systems
are ofren unique to a particular locality, having taken
advantage of local conditions, availability of stocks ofj1Sh,
feed, or ferrilizer marerials.
WASTE UTILIZATION
What we wish to create are living systems, but it must
be remembered that these living systems are always parts of
greater ecosystems or natural communities and can only be
considered as parts of the larger whole. This concept
Mclarney calls jntemrion.
It is nor customary in Norrh America 10 rlunk of bodies
of water used for intensive aquaculture as parrs of a total
farm ecosystem. A commercial fish/arm is afHh.farm period. Yet inregrarion of terrestrial and aquaric crops and
byproducrs is part and parcel of many rraditional Oriental
food-producing systems. The Oriental approach, which is
more ecologically sensirive and less dependent on
technology, may be difficult to adapt to a large-scale
commercial situation in North America, but the small,
diversified/armer, parricularly the/armer for whom fish is a
subsistence crop, would do well to study it.
The related principlcS' of diversity and~ are basic
m considering any living community. Application of these
two ideas can work to stabilize and maximize the productivity
of a fish farm, as they do in nature.
It happened that the family name of the Tang emperors was
Lee, which has the same sound as the Chinese word/or the
common carp. For a time it was considered sacrilegious to
trout, e totem spirit of the Appalachian
The cul tu
waters, is well covered in The Freshwater AQuaculturc
.RQQk, and author Bill McLamey emphasizes methods that
are suitable and affordable for the small farmer and
homesteader. Bass-bluegill combinations do well in ponds
in all but the highest elevations of Katuah, but trout will
always be most in demand as the pre-eminent Appalachian
food fish and as representative of the cold, pristine waters
beneath forested slopes that so many people come here to
find.
Trout have special requirements for their culture and
require strict adherence to certain conditions to do well.
They thrive only in cold water (50-60 degrees F) and require
a high dissolved oxygen content (7 ppm) to simulate the
freshness of a running stream - moving water is the best
habitat.
Trout are almost exclusively carnivorous and therefore
require high-protein feeds. Because they favor cold water,
they grow more slowly than do other fish species, and they
are very sensitive to excessive handling and pollution.
Cold water environments have a low nutrient-carrying
capacity, so cold water food chains are shortened. Few
intermediate-size or vegetarian fish share natural trout
habitats. Therefore, trout ponds are essentially monoculture
situations, which seems to violate the principle of
diversifying the fishpond, but trout are virtually the only
accepted food fish that can be grown in cold water, and their
popularity makes their culture worthwhile.
Because The Freshwater Aguaculture Book is a
compendium of information covering fish-raising throughout
Turtle Island, no one fish farmer will be able to use all the
information the book contains. The best way to use the book
KA AH - page 11
It is said in the study of ecology that a climax system,
the most stable community possible at a given location,
develops many layers of use for available materials, so that
very little energy leaks out of the system.
In human terms, this is stated as "Recycle!", and an
important negative cntcrion of a system's effectiveness is the
amount of waste it generates. A system truly integrated
within itself and in the natural surroundings produces a
rninimum of waste.
The Chinese seem to have recognized rhe value of
pond fertility early on, and to have understood thatfish could
be grown more cheaply through fenilizarion with "wastes"
than by direct feeding with marerials which could be eaten by
other livesrock or by people.
These basic principles, which are also basic to the
ideas we choose to call "bioregional", are underlying
assumptions to the text of The Freshwater AQuaculture Book
and are inherent even in the structure of the book itself. For
in presenting fish culture, McLamey does not set out pat
formulas or a dogmatic school of practice. Rather, he 1)
introduces the fish and their habitat requirements, 2) gives
- continued on p. 24
is to read it through one time to get an overview of
aquaculture, the conditions that need to be considered, and
the options available, then to go back, aided by the
comprehensive index, and look up the special requirements
of the fish to be raised and find the most appropriate
methods.
Whether one wants to raise trout commercially for sale
to restaurants, operate a catch-your-own trout pond, or just
have a convenient source for a quick supper in the back yard,
trout raising has a place on almost any small farm in Katilah
where flowing water is available.
Among trout species, the rainbow trout (Sa/mo
gafrdneri ) responds best to culture. The native brook trout
(Sa/mo fontinalis) are smaller, prefer colder water, and grow
more slowly. They are therefore raised only when the farmer
has a specific market or a specific personal preference for
them. Brown trout (Salnw trutta ) are the preferred fish in
commercial hatcheries for stream stocking. Of the three
species, brown crout are the hardest to catch, most tolerant of
pollution, and attain the greatest size where food is plentiful.
But the browns are sensitive to overcrowding and the least
favored for eating, and so a.re not widely cultured as a food
source.
DESIGNING A TROUT FARM
The type of enclosure in which the fish are contained is
determined by the amount of moving water available and the
size of the operation desired. Ponds are easiest and most
economical to construct for the amount of water contained,
but raceways (defined by McLamey as any enclosure where
there is a constantly moving CWTCnt perceptible throughout)
as used in commercial hatcheries, can produce more fish in a
given area of available space. McLamcy discusses the
advantages of each and gives siting and design
considerations.
Trout feeding is another important variable that is
- continued on . 21
Summer 1986
�TOBACCO
We have been told that no non-food plant has had so
great an impact on humans as tobacco. It has affected the
whole world. It is a plant native to this continent, Turtle
Island, but now there is not a country in the world that does
not use tobacco in some fonn or other.
The elders say that tobacco is an ancient planL The
native Cherokee people call it the Old One or
Tsal Agayun1i. They believe that after the lichen, moss
and fem that the fU'St plant was ginseng and the second plant
was tobacco.
Native people consider plants to have a gender and a
personality like people. Medicine plants are plants used for
direct healing by treating a disease of the body or by altering
a person spiritually. European science would say that it is
the "active principle" in the drug that makes one well Native
people call the healing power of plants the "spiritual
personality" of the planL Healing with plants was based on
the principle of using something positive to get rid of the
negative or bad thing causing sickness. The spiritual
personality of tobacco used in the traditional way was female
and positive.
We have been told that there were two original types of
tobacco used by native people. The old tobacco, Nicotiana
rustica, has yellow blossoms, the other, Nicoriana tabacwn,
has pink blossoms. The old tobacco has about ten times the
nicotine content of the tobacco raised commercially today.
The old tobacco was jealously protected by the Cherokee. It
was not usually traded with other tribes, but the
pink-flowered tobacco was a common trade item.
We have been told that the old tobacco was used for
ritual and medicine purposes. It was raised in a special way.
A medicine person would go into the woods and plant the
tobacco seed in a spot he would clear by burning. They
might plant eight or ten of these patches so that no one would
see the tobacco. The tobacco would lose its power if
someone else saw it growing.
We have been told that tobacco was smoked in a ritual
at the beginning of any important councils. The hopes and
prayers of the people were sent up to all of the creation as the
smoke rose to the heavens. It was also the custom to smoke
tobacco when someone visited another person's lodge. The
pipe was brought out and liL It would be passed around and
everyone would take one or two puffs of the sacred smoke
before the conversation would begin.
We have been told that tobacco was used also in
fasting and on vision quests. It helped a person fast because
it cwbed the appetite and suppressed the need to sleep. The
old tobacco of the Cherokees also helped to bring dreams and
visions.
We have been told that the pipes in which tobacco is
smoked arc important Native people have medicine pipes
and social pipes. Social pipes are made from clay or stone.
- page 12
Medicine pipes are carved from soapstone. The Cherokee
carved pipes are made from red or black soapstone. The red
stone is preferred, but it is hard to come by so that most
medfoine pipes are black. Images, say of a totem spirit or
animal teacher are carved on Cherokee pipes. A medicine
pipe never "belongs" to an individual. It is given to a person
by someone who thinks they are ready for the pipe.
Sometimes the pipe is a new one carved by the giver.
Sometimes the pipe bas been passed through several hands.
An individual is considered the caretaker, not the owner, of
the pipe. It is their responsibility to see that the pipe is
passed on in a good way. "A good way" means that the
pipe's new caretaker will take care of the pipe, use it
responsibly, and in tum pass it on.
We have been told that tobacco was an integral part of
a special ceremony to protect a sick person from "liver
eaters". These were people that bad the power to create an
illusion. They did not actually have the power to tum
themselves into an owl or raven, but they could create this
illusion. That is bow they moved abouL They would come
into a lodge and kiss a sick person or a person nea.r death to
taste the sweetness of their breath. The liver eater would
then draw the power from the liver of the suffering person.
This would immediately kill the person and the liver eater
would receive however much time that person had been fated
to live to extend its own evil life.
We arc told that in the ceremony to protect the sick
person, the medicine people would drive four sourwood
stakes around the lodge. They would then go into the sick
person's lodge and make a fire with sourwood or wood from
a tree that had been struck by lightning and had lived. They
would heap up the hot coals into a pile. Then they would
take a pinch of fine-ground "old" tobacco and hold it over the
coals. When the tobacco was dropped. it would fall in the
direction from which the liver eater was coming. If it hit
directly on center, then the liver eater was in the room or
above the roof. Theo another pinch of tobacco was dropped.
If it sparked or made an explosion, a person in the
community would die in four or five days, and that person
was the liver eater. That was how they killed the liver eaters.
We have been told that native people used the old
tobacco as an insect repellant on plants. It works well on
everything except tomatoes. Tobacco extract was spread on
beans and on the silks of the com. If insects eat the sprayed
parts they die, but usually the scent confuses the insects so
that they are not attracted. The only thing that eats tobacco is
the tobacco worm. Native people used the extract of the
nightshade plant to kill the tobacco worm. The extract was
made by boiling the nightshade plant in water and spraying
the water on the tobacco plants.
We have been told that tobacco was also used as a
poison. Pure nicotine is deadly in a dose as small as 100
milligrams. The nicotine was used on blow darts for revenge
killing. The darts would be soaked in nicotine for a long
time before they were used. The blow gun and poisoned dart
were used only in this way. They were never used in war.
It is true that native people never used tobacco as a
personal drug as it is frequently used today. It was taken
into the body only sparingly as part of a ceremony or ritual.
Used in this way, it promoted healing. The way it is used
today causes addiction and illness.
We have been told that among the Cherokee there are
tribal secrets about tobacco that cannot be revealed. When
these secrets are taught within the tribe, the one who receives
the knowledge promises not to reveal iL Keeping this lore
hidden is done not for the sake of the knowledge itself, but
as an obligation to the person who passed on the secret
teachings.
~
Summer 1986
�THE GARDEN - continued from p.l
gardening is a lesson in applied ecology. It deals mainly
with alpine plants, and rock gardeners go to extreme lengths
to duplicate exactly the conditions we have here: lots of
tumbled-down rocks and perfect drainage, yet deep moisture.
"In the terraces I was planting shrubs and vegetables,
and a few trees as l could obtain them, so it was all
progressing at the same time. All these beds are mixed
flowers and vegetables now. They say flowers help the
vegetables, but that is a meaningless distinction. They all
flower. They all should be here in as much diversity as
possible.
"A lot of my training has been learning by mistakes.
My gardening plan is simply to set out plants that I like, of all
different varieties and types and see what naturalizes and
multiplies. The plants you see here are the plants that have
survived a natural selection process at this site. I've used a
lot of self-seeding annuals. They pop up each year, and I
leave them where they're appropriate and pull them up where
they're in the way. They fill in all the holes.
"Berries are a good crop for around here. This is good
nut and berry country. It's easy to see, they grow so well in
the wild. Did you know that blueberries only became a
domesticated crop during the l 940's? Before that, people
found all they needed on the hilltops. The plant was brought
under cultivation under the auspices of the TVA right in this
area. They gave kids a piece of cardboard with a hole
punched in it If the kids could find a bush with berries that
wouldn't fit through the hole and could lead the growers to
it, they would earn $1.00. That's how they developed the
first cultivated varieties of blueberries.
"We're going to grow a lot more strawberries. We
became acquainted with an everbearing variety that produced
right up to Thanksgiving last year. Really good fruit! We
also have bush cherries, lots of currants, rosehips, barberries
- lots of food for wildlife. That helps to blur the line between
cultivated and uncultivated aspects of the garden.
"I've found that the easiest way to work is to use the
natural energy flows. For instance, we get some colloidal
phosphate, some lime, and some cottonseed meal for
fertilizers, but we try to bring as few materials up the hill as
possible. We plant rye in some of the beds in the fall and in
the springtime we turn it in with handforks. We pile the
weeds we pull out of the garden - it seems to generate a big
heap every three weeks.
"The creek that flows through the garden brings down
leaves during the spring floods. The stream is normally
buried by the landslide, but if it rains hard enough the stream
rises to the surface. [f it rains mal1:t hard, the stream will
flow right through the garden and on down the hill. But if I
wait until it's raining enough so that the stream recedes back
among the rocks inside the garden, I can go uphill and rake
leaves into the water and they'll be dropped off right where I
need them. They are deposited as wads of leaves mixed with
silt. I have to collect them quickly because the mixture rots
fairly fast. If I come back too late, it's already part of the
soil. It's a wonderful system: during one short season in
spring I can skim off a little of the surplus fertility."
~-.,, '{·~
. r,.
.
-..-
..:<::" - ~
- ~~~
' k.
"
. " /-
~~
~
•
Joe is a quiet individual. He can be goaded to
excitemmt when talking abour the plant.s or the people thaJ he
Loves, bur he is generally content to let the obvious evitknce
of the garden speak for him. He has spent marry moonlit
nights and many winter months thinking about his
relationship to the garden and the natural mountain
landscape, however, and this shows up when he can be
coaxed to speak ofthe deeper levels of his garden experience:
"The garden is a mandala (a circular design) that
expresses our understanding of the place we live. This
garden is my conscious attempt to live in the context of
nature. 'Paradise' means 'to be perfectly integrated in
nature'. The prevalent vision in western culture of a life in
accord with nature is the Garden of Eden, where human.kind,
Adam and Eve, were given the garden and charged to 'dress
and keep it' in the beautiful words of the King James version
of the Bible <Genesis 2: 15).
"But 'paradise' does not have to be an idealized place.
It is a way of living here, wherever we're at right now. It is
a co-evolutionary process - we change together. Living and
learning, 1 transform myself to live as this place demands,
and as part of the process I also transform this place into my
personal paradise.
"Eugene Odom had a more technical vision of the ideal
human niche, which he called 'the ecosystem manager'
whose function is to maximize the productivity and
perpetuate the survival of the system. The ecosystem
manager rearranges the growth of the natural environment a
little - snipping something here, starting something over there
- and s/he gets paid a little bit by all the diversity of other
creatures in the system
"It's a similar position to that of a bear or a wolf. If
there's too much of something, that's what the bear or the
wolf gets to eat that year. The service they perfonn for that
plant or animal is selection and population control, which is
to the benefit of that species. By keeping ecological balance,
the manager gets enough off the top to keep him or her alive
and functioning. By caring for the ecological principal, one
gets to live off the ecological interest An unlimited number
of people could devote themselves to that task, and it would
provide for all of them.
"Odom's somewhat mechanistic definition hinges on
food supply as the determining factor. This is basic, but the
idea of creating a niche also has to do with being surrounded
by beautiful things when one walks out the door. Our
aesthetic sense is a natural organizing system. It is a fine
form of positive feedback that is much underrated in our
culture. In this society the basic standard is the economic
one which is expressed in terms of profit and loss. But what
I'm saying is: 'Enjoy it!' Be spontaneous in gardening.
Trust that intuitive sense of rightness that we all have in us.
It is at least as true an indicator as the profit sheet of the
health and productivity of a natural community.
"Historically, some anthropologists believe that the
'Paradise' myth refers to the transition from a hunter/gatherer
economy to an agricultural economy. Rindos, in his book
7J;=---:;:::::=~~~~ar·(iSth'-~:BF:::::_.--,r - continued on next page
�- continued from p.13 THE GARDEN
The Orieins of Amcu!ture. puts the changeover into the
context of co-evolution, saying that there were changes on
both sides. The hunter/gatherers were working with plants maybe by weeding preferred crops or by planting some
selected seeds - and while the plants were changed to be
more what the people wanted, the people were also changed
as they developed certain behaviors to encourage these plants
- disturbing the ground, staying in one place,
experimentation, selection, and observation. These two
processes together produced the gradual development of the
agroecosystem.
"I think to some extent the people were seduced into it
Perhaps it was the plants who domesticated the people. I like
to think that certain plants tricked us into devoting our lives
to changing the world for their benefit One could look at it
either way.
"The food surplus produced by agricultural techniques
had the effect of increasing human population. This resulted
in a new context for human life as specialization developed
and people became more involved within the framework of
human society and less involved in the wider circle of nature.
The human sphere continues to expand. It is replacing the
diversity of nature with human diversity, and we are the
worse off for it
"A 'niche' is a way of describing an organism from the
ecosystem's point of view: it is the relationship of the
organism to its environment and the flows of energy and
matter. Because there have been no effective natural checks
on the human population, we have created an unhealthy niche
for ourselves, called 'civilization'.
"'Paradise' is a genetic memory of a time when
humanity was integrated into the natural environment. It
could be summed up as a continuing, spontaneous, intuitive
response to the world. But that spontaneous response to the
real conditions of life is buried under millenia of accretion of
cultural elaborations on the distinction 'good/evil'.
"The garden as you see it here is a conscious attempt to
invent and occupy an appropriate niche. Using the
knowledge of modern civilization, I am attempting to work a
way back through centuries of physical and behavioral
programming (our 'needs') to a real relationship with the
Earth, a transition to a natural support system.
"More and more," Joe reflected, "I'm beginning to feel
I should specialize in the flora of the Black Mountains. It's
such a beautiful habitat, and no one else has taken it on. I
need to get out there, spend more time in the woods, find the
specimens with the biggest fruits find the particular clones,
the things that should be propagated, and work with them,
get really involved....."
- recorded by DW
SUN ROOTS
The Sun Root is a native American vegetable which
was under cultivation by many tribes, including the
Cherokee, when white people arrived here. These white
people, for mysterious reasons, ignored this Indian name and
called it Jerusalem Artichoke. The Latin name is /leliaruhus
tuberousus, which means "sunflower full of swellings".
This is an accurate label because Sun Roots are a sunflower
with large, edible roots.
By whatever name, this is one of the world's most
practical and easiest to cultivate vegetables. They are started
from a piece of tuber in the spring, much like potatoes, and
are perennial in practice since even a very careful harvest
leaves enough tubers for the next year's crop. The stalks are
6 to 12 feet high and are topped by beautiful brown and
yellow flowers which smell a little like chocolate. Most
varieties produce mature tubers in 120 days, but the
Columbia and Stampede varieties are about 30 days earlier.
Tubers can be harvested any time during the fall, winter, or
early spring when the ground is not frozen.
Nutritionally, Sun Roots are interesting because they
have very little starch. Their carbohydrates are stored in the
form of inulin, which is composed of fructose molecules.
Humans lack the enzyme inulase which is necessary to break
down this inulin, so most of the calories of Sun Roots pass
through our systems unused. What is used is the protein,
which is of very high quality and high in lysine, and the iron
which is present in large quantity. These qualities, along
with their good taste, high quality fiber, and satisfying
crunch make Sun Roots a very good, low calorie snack food.
There are people at work developing the "artichip".
Sun Roots are an excellent feedstock for fuel alcohol
stills because of their large yields and the fact that inulin,
unlike starch, does not need to be broken down before
fermentation. They are also a very good potential source of
commercial fructose. A flour made from dried sun roots is
good tasting and high in protein. A protein extract can be
taken from sun roots which is 60- 70% high quality protein
and could be used to feed the world's hungry people. The
tops of this versatile vegetable are already finding commercial
use as an animal feed
(This information is taken from The ArticboJce
Connection; Rt 2, Box 157; Spartansburg, PA 16434.
Subscriptions are $10 a year and it comes out on a quarterly
basis.)
THE HOMESTEAD
ON HORN MOUNTAIN
Long ago
someone climbed to the top of this mountain
and dug a well.
This is the place, marked
by an elderly pine.
I part a way through the overgrowth
with my stick
to the black brackish water in its circle of stones.
This is mystery:
the circle,
older than the pine,
stone more ancient than the mountain: water
as eternal as all circles.
Someone lived here and drank that water
and disappeared under moss and bramble.
The ground is littered with rocks
of a fallen homestead.
The well is a shaft of memory sunk in the ground.
Turning to scribble a note to myself
I start to the sound
ofa motor.
since I last climbed Hom Mountain somebody
has cut a road just above the old homestead,
I can see the cigarette
in the driver's hand as a yellow truck comes
trundling past -
r duck below the bramble like the spirit of ruin
that haunts this place,
diving back down the black shaft
of undrinkable remembrance
past the names of mountains and roots of pines
down to the fertile aquifer of earth's
forgetfulness.
Stephen Wingeier
;e:t'
~
KAfUAH - page 14
))t
Summer 1986
�by 4 cords
hanging down ·
the island earth
from the sky vault
suspended
of solid rock
east
west
floating
north
south
in a sea of water
�0
750 MILLION
ON1CF.
-
650 MILU ON
I
'"\I'\ r.,
LG v..
n
·'""'......., .. .
A(~
The southern Appalachians have evolved in a series of
collisions of fragments of continental or island-an: material at
the eastern edge of North America.
About 750 million years ago magma rising deep from the
interior of the earth split a megacontinental expanse into at
least two large continents
Laurentia or proto-North America
Gondwana or proto-Africa
and at least
two continental fragments that included the Inner
Piedmont-Blue Ridge fragment and the Carolina slate belt
fragment ...
Volcanism started in the island an: of the Carolina slate belt
fragment some 650 million years ago.
...500 million years ago
the basin between proto-North America and the
Inner-Piedmont-Blue Ridge fragments began to close...
beyond the arch
in Galunlati above
when all was water
the animals were very crowded
and wanting more room
they wondered what was below the water
Dayunisi, the little Water-beetle
offered to go down and see if he could learn
It darted over the surface in every direction
but could find no firm place to rest
Then it dived to the bottom
and came up with some soft mud
which began to grow and spread
on every side until it became
the island Earth
500 MILLION
Most of the rocks at the swface of the southern Appalachians
are highly defonned metamorphic ones ... older than or
contemporaneous with the horizontal sedimentary strata
under them ... suggesting that roughly 415 million years ago
the swface rocks began to be transported as a thin sheet for at
least 260 kilometers over the eastern continental margin of
the land mass that was to become North America.
...from 300 million to 250 million years ago, the last major
compressional event was the Alleghenian orogeny. This
mountain-building episode can be attributed to the collision
of proto-North America and proto-Africa (or perhaps South
America) to form the supen:ontinent of Pangaea.
...a segment of the African
(or South American) continental shelf underthrust the eastern
margin of the Carolina slate belt fragment resulting in a
fold-and-thrust belt that went in the opposite direction...the
southern Appalachians...
...western Africa and northern South America
all have belts of folding and thrusting...
The Mauritanide
mountain chain of western Africa is characterized east to west
by a series of belts that are similar in some ways to the
Appalachian belts.
... the Mauritanids are a mirror image of the Appalachians...
�~75
MILLION
200 MILLION
300 .. 250MILLION
··....
'····· .......
at first the earth was flat
and very soft and wet
...
-~{_,:.:,+~. -
.·
the animals were anxious to get down
and sent out different birds to see if it was dry
but they found no place to alight
and returned to Galunlati
.....•
,,·
t
••
at last it seemed to be time
and they sent out the Buzzard
and told him to go and make ready for them
.
·············· ·········
:
..·········.
'7..
\
~
....··
...
··············
the Great Buzzard flew over the earth
low down near the ground
when he reached Cherokee Country
he was very tired and his wings
began to flap and strike the ground
...
.·
..···
and wherever they struck
the earth was a valley
and where they turned up
there was a mountain
...
...
...the continents that now border the Atlantic were joined 200
million years ago like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to fonn
one huge expanse of land ... a megacontinent Pangaea...
At that time North America began to separate from Europe,
Africa, and South America.
·
As the continents drifted apart the Atlantic
Ocean was left in their wake.
As the Atlantic grew the current
continental shelf was built up off the eastern coast of North
America (and off the western coast of Africa and the northern
coast of Sou~ America).
when the animals above saw this
they were afraid the whole world
would be mountains
so they called him back
but the Cherokee Country remains
full of mountains until this day
...·
.·
.....
.·
••
.
�--
..
(
J
.
:•
...······ .
...
.··
.,...•
when the world grows old
and the earth will sink
the people will die
down into the ocean
and the cord will break
and all will be water again
written by Jeny Trivette
drawings by Rob Messick
�0 --"
NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
NANTAHALACO.BROUGHTTO
U.S. SUPREME COURT
Natunl World News Service
Since 1976, when Henry Truett of
Bryson City, NC filed suit against the
Nantahala Power Company to protest the
high costs resulting from hydroelectricity
being drained from the mountains of KatUah
to fuel the Alcoa aluminum plant in
Marysville, TN, the question "Who owns
the mountain water power?" has been a
botJy-contested issue in this region (see
Ki1V.ah #3).
.
The dispute came to a head April 21
as arguments were heard in the US Supreme
Court from attorneys for Alcoa and for the
Committee for Low-Cost Power, a citizens'
group from five counties in Ka!Uah.
The case was an appeal by Alcoa of a
North Carolina State Suptcme Court ruling
handed down last July that awarded $29
million in refunds to Nantahala customers
because of practices by the company ~t .led
to excessive rate costs. Two other surular
decisions by the court awarded the
ratepayers another $16 million in refunds.
The conflict goes back to the very
beginnings of the ~ant~hala Power
Company and Tapoco, its sister company
which operates two hydroelectric dams on
the Santeetlah and Cheoah Rivers. Both
companies arc registered as public utilities,
but both arc also wholly-owned subsidiaries
of the Alcoa Corporation. All the power
from the Tapoco Company has gone to
operate Alcoa smelters in Tennessee,
although since its inception th7 coml?any ~
been receiving the benefits of us des1gnanon
as a utility. Tapoco has never be~n
responsible to regional customers, and 1n
1960 even tried to sell its high-power
transmission lines to the Duke Power
Company. But while "fapoco power .has
been flowing down the nver to Marysville,
the Nantahala Power Company has been
supplementing its hydroelectric power with
expensive, imported, nuclear power
generated in Tennessee .by the.-rv:A. The
North Carolina court recnfied this difference
by declaring that North Carolina ratepayers
should retroactively be charged as though
the cheaper Tapoco power were available to
them, which would result in a total of $45
million in refunds.
Alcoa attorneys maintained in the
Supreme Court hearings that the Nort!1
Carolina courts had overstepped the1t
boundaries and were trying to set rates for
power generation between states, citing a
KATUAH - page 19
1971 Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) ruling that Tapoco had
no obligation to make its power available to
the Nantahala Company. Alcoa attorney
Rex Lee stated before the court, "What
North Carolina has done ... is to take from
Tennessee a share of power which properly
belongs to Tennessee."
But William Crisp, a Raleigh lawyer
who has worked with Nantahala ratepayers
for 25 years, explained meticulously and
eloquentJy that this was not a case of one
state's interest against another's, but "a
flagrant example of a corporate giant, a
multinational. taking over public assets for
its own benefit" Pointing out that the
ruling of the NC Supreme Court did not
actually divert any power, but instead
created a "roll-in" where both companies
were considered as one for ratemalcing
purposes, Crisp made it clear that the issue
was whether the hydroelectric resources of
the mountains shouJd be used for public
service or private profit. Alcoa has
attempted to develop its subsidiary company
Tapoco solely to divert water resources
from Kanfah strictly for its own benefit,
Crisp maintained, which in effect has forced
the ratepayers in the mountains to pay the
difference for Alcoa's cheap hydroelectric
power.
Alcoa has threatened that if they do
not win continued access to the mountain
water power, they would close their
Marysville plant, terminating o~er l,~
jobs in East Tennessee. Responding to this
threat, the US Steelworkers Union, Local
309, which represents the Alcoa plant
workers, joined the corporate appeal as a
"friend of the court".
"If they had known the true facts of
the case," said Veronica Nicholas, Jackson
County commissioner and witness to the
Supreme Court hearing, "I don 't believe
they wouJd have taken that position. If we
could talk with them people-to-people, I
thinlc they would see that the corporation is
trying to victimize us all in pursuit of its
interests."
,
BIG MOUNTAIN UPDATE
Na!W'al World News Service
The Big Mountain issue - the
proposed removal of 10,000 to 15 ,~
Navajo (Dineh) and Hopi Indians from their
ancient homeland • remains critical. In 1974
Congtcss passed legislation (P.L. 93-531)
to settJe a so-called "land dispute" between
the two tribes calling for the removal by
July 7, 1986 (see Kutfah #11).
CoincidentJy, this area known as the Four
Corners is extremely rich with high-quality
coal and uranium deposits. Peabody Coal
Co., among other energy giants, is
extremely interested in the resources o~ the
area. It appears, however, that a rrunor
victory has been won.
In early May, 1986, Ross Swimmer
of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and
Ivan Sidney, Hopi Tribal Chairperson, said
that they wouJd not forcibly remove Najajos
(Dineh) from what they and the U.S.
Government call "disputed land". The Hopi
Tribal Council is a creation of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs and the traditional people feel
that the Tribal Council is a sham and docs
not represent their interests. Swimmer
sought an opinion from the U.S. Solicitor
General who s.Ud that July, 1986 was
merely a target date and was not cited within
the actual law. Sidney commented, "We do
want those Navajo off our land."
This delay in the forced .remo~al ~s
just that - a delay. Perhaps the intention 1s
to allow the media and public attention on
the issue to subside. The Big Mountain
Legal Defense is still urging citiz.cns to ~te
letters to U.S. Senators and Represent.aUves
demanding the repeal of P.L. 93-531. If
you write a letter and receive a form
response, BMLD is asking that you wr!te
and write again to establish dialogue with
those in power. Send copies of your letters
as well as copies of responses to:
Big Mountain (JUA) Legal D/O Committee
2501 N. 4th St Suite 18
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Write them also for updates and local
contactinformation,orcall(602)7~
LOWER WEST SLOPE OF
GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN UP
FOR SALE
N11unl World News Sctvice
AIRPORT PLANNED FOR
JULIAN PRICE PARK
Nllunl Wor1d News Service
The Watauga County Commission is
trying to build a county airport in Julian
Price Park, part of the Blue Ridge Parkway
near Blowing Rock, NC. The National
Park Service is strongly opposed to an
airport on Park Service land, but much of
the lobbying for the airport is going on over
their heads at the Department of Interior in
Washington. The secret agenda ~or the
airport is a new highway connec~g the
high country ski and resort are~ directly
with the Charlotte metropolitan area.
National Parle land couJd not be obtained for
the construction of a highway, but ~ere is
apparently some precedent for putnng an
airport in a National Park. Once the airport
was OK'd, the highway could be put in to
provide access to it and the developers
would have their way.
The lower west side of Grandfather
Mountain in Avery County is up for sale
and threatened with development as a ski
resort Hugh Morton, one of Grandfather
Mountain's owners, is adamant about
protecting the upper elevations of the
mountain, which is designated as a North
Carolina Natural Heritage Area. A new
hiking trail is being construe~ t~ ~la?C
the classic Shanty Spring trail which 1s in
the area to be sold.
,
~
_
. ' J
...~~,fii;·}...... ~.
'~"'-~
. -
,/.,
'<..
:.
'
, ..\IV'
---~
- continued on next page
Summer 1 86
�.·
USFS 50-YEAR PLAN
IN THE MAKING
OUR "CHAMPION" IN COURT
Nalllnl World News Service
The dispute over the discharge
standards of the Champion Paper Company
plant in Canton, NC is heating up. In recent
months charges and countercllargcs have
been flying, there llas been a furious
shllffiing of papers, and two solemn collrt
decrees have been ordered. Yet the Pigeon
River is still smelly, mllfky, and rolling
with foam as it flows into Tennessee.
On March 31 Judge David Scntclle of
U.S. District Court in Asheville declared
that the Champion Paper Company would
have to apply for a federal wastewater
discllarge pennit from the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) while litigation
continues in the controversy over the quality
of the Pigeon River waters.
The decision arose from an
unprecedented move by the EPA, which in
November of 1985 stepped in and
superseded the right of the North Carolina
Environmental Management Commission
(EMC) to issue Champion a wastewater
discllarge permit (as reported in KaW1h.
#10). Under the national Clean Water Act,
the issuance of discharge permits was
placed under the jurisdiction of the EPA, but
the agency has traditionally delegated that
power to state environmental regulatory
agencies and acted only in a supervisory
capacity.
In January of this year Champion
responded to the EPA's action by filing suit
in the District Court to void the agency's
authority in the Pigeon River dispute. The
company simultaneously filed a motion for a
tctnporary restraining order to release
Champion from obtaining a federal permit
while the primary lawsuit was in the courts.
It was this motion that was struck down,
compelling Champion to apply to the EPA
for a permit to operate until a ve.r dict on the
request for a permanent injunction is
reaclled.
The EPA move to strip the state EMC
of its power to dispense a permit to
Champion implied that the federal
government saw extraordinary neglect in
enforcement of basic environmental
standards by the state agency.
In a prepared statement read last
January, Champion manager Oliver
Blackwell disagreed with that assessment,
praising the state for a "professional job" of
determining operating standards for the
factory. This may have to do with the fact
that in recent years the EMC has issued
"variances" and "special consent orders"
which have allowed Champion to operate
below existing norms in the most
controversial areas of regulation, water
temperature and color, instead of
comprehensive and enforceable discllarge
directives.
Apparent neglect on the part of the
state environmental agency turned into
apparent collusion as state attorneys sat at
the same table with Champion lawyers in
the district courtroom to argue that the
corporate giant should be allowed to have its
way with the Pigeon River without federal
interference. "They shouldn't have taken
the power away from the state," said
assistant state attorney general Don Oakley.
Although Champion did reluctantly
comply with the judge's order to submit an
application to the EPA, the company's
pending suit will definitely delay a stringent
The US Forest Service (USFS) is
soliciting active citizen input on its revised
version of the 50-ycar management plan for
the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests.
According to Bob Cunningham, US
Forest Service planner in the Asheville
office, Forest Service staff have reorganized
their data and are now compiling the
preliminary results for their new plan.
During the latter part of June and July,
Cunningham will meet with individuals or
representatives of any interest groups who
wish to discuss the data at the Forest
Service office in Asheville.
"We're going to be building the new
plan as we interact with the public on it,"
said Cunningham.
Maps and brochures interpreting the
environmental effects of each of the Forest
Service plans will be available to the public
at the USFS District Offices free upon
request
The Forest Service is inviting
comment on the new plan. Take them up on
it! Although they would like people to come
to their Asheville office, cards and letters
from those who cannot go to the city Yi.ill
make a difference. Let the Forest Service
serve us. Tell them how you feel about
their policies, either in person or in writing:
George Olson, Forest Supervisor
US Forest Service
Box 2750
Asheville, NC 28802
~
(704) 257-4200
P'
KA
AH - page 20
Natutal Wodd News SeMcc
permiL "It reveals the company's true
stripes," said Pigeon River Action Group
activist Jim Harrison. "They won't spend a
nickel on the environment unless they're
absolutely forced to. The money (and
paper) they arc squandering on legal
entanglement would be far better spent for
real action to restore the river."
In another collrtroOm in Nashville,
the Tennessee State Supreme Court on April
21 threw out a lawsuit brought in 1983 by
the government of that state against
Champion that wollld have required the
paper company to pay civil damages of
$10,000 per day since 1977 to compensate
for the degradation of the river in heu of a
total river cleanup. The suit, as argued by
Tennessee deputy attorney general Frank
Scanlon, was based on Tennessee
environmental protection laws, particularly
clauses regulating water color standards,
which are much stricter than the North
Carolina laws tlnder which the Champion
plant is operating.
But the collrt ruled that one state has
no jurisdiction or control over another
state's environmental laws, even if laxness
or environmental neglect causes damage tllat
extends over state lines.
After receiving the disappointing
ruling of the Tennessee high court, deputy
attorney general Scanlon vowed to carry the
case on to the U.S. Supreme Collrt. There
would seem to be some basis for this, for,
short of discarding the whole patchwork
system of state governments, there needs to
be some remedy found to accommodate the
blatant disregard by the natural clements of
the illegitimate state boundaries.
It would be unfortunate if this ruling
were allowed to remain as a precedent, for
the whole issue of atmospheric deposition
("acid rain") hinges on the ability of one
region to convince the hllman inhabitants of
a different region of their accountability for
destruction of a distant habitaL In this
ever-shrinking world, it is imperative that
we recognize the evidences of Ollf close
interdependence. Much is at stake.
WRITE!
There is sometlling we can do to help
the Pigeon. The conditions of Champion's
operating permit are being decided right
now by the EPA. Write to:
Jack Ravan, Regional Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
345 Courtland SL NE
Atlanta, GA 30365
Ask that the new permit determine the
maximum limits for color and water
temperature, and that minimum levels of
dissolved oxygen be maintained.
Please send a copy of your letter to:
Dick Mullinix
c/o Pigeon River Action Group
P.O. Box 105
WaynesviUc, NC 28786
Summer 1986
�COMMUNITY ALERT:
BUNCOMBECO.THREATENED
BY WASTE INCINERATOR
Natun.I World News Service
The
Buncombe
County
Commissioners are being pressured to
pursue a co-incinerator (for burning both
municipal sewage sludge and solid waste)
as a means to relieve the growing problems
of sewage sludge and over 600 tons per day
of solid waste going into the landfill on the
French Broad River.
In order to qualify for a $5 million
EPA grant to help with new sewage
treatment facilities, the Commissioners must
decide prior to June 31, 1986 whether to
pursue the technology of incineration.
URGENT NEED FOR PUBLIC
HEARINGS!
Please write the commissioners,
Curtis Ratcliff, Jesse Ledbetter, Wayne
Montgomery, Tom Sobol, and Doris
Giezentanner to request that a series of
public hearings be held on the question of
mcineration to examine the potential health
risks from:
•
Hazardous air emissions (dioxin,
dibenzo-furans, acid gasses, ethylene
dichloride, toxic metals, etc.)
•
The disposal of toxic ash residue
(heavy metals and other contaminants)
•
The inability to adequately screen out
hazardous wastes from entering the
incinerator
Buncombe County Commissioners
POB 7435
Asheville, NC 28807
252-5536
CLEARCUTTING
BATTLE
MOVES TO JACKSON COUNfY
from a repon by Pcny Eul)'
Proposed clcarcuts in the Nantahala
National Forest in Jackson County have led
residents to organize a county chapter of the
Western North Carolina Alliance to preserve
the natural diversity of the forest
Sites on Greens Creek are scheduled
to be clearcut this fall if citizen action cannot
change the Forest Service's plans. Other
clearcuts adding up to an estimated 300
acres of land are planned during the coming
decade in the Sheeps Knob, Dicks Creek,
Terrapin Mountain, Buckeye Gap, Fall
Cliff, and Pinhook areas.
Petitions bearing the names of over
300 Jackson County residents demanding
that the Forest Service change its cutting
methods have been sent to the USFS
Regional Office in Atlanta. The next move
in the campaign to save the Jackson County
forest areas depends on the response of the
Forest Service to the petitions.
Clarence Hall, head of the Jackson
County group, said, "I walked the area they
plan to cut on Greens Creek with Marcus
Moore and some of the Forest Service
people. They acted real nice and were much
easier to talk with than they have been in the
past. They made some changes for us smaller areas to be clearcut, leaving some
spots of timber, things like that
"They seemed like they were very
willing to compromise, but I think that the
Gramm-Rudman Act has hit them hard, and
they're not going to compromise any further
than what they've been cut back to already."
WNC Alliance
SOURCE SEPARATION, RECYCLING,
AND COMPOSTING ARE PROVEN
- ~ALTERNATIVF.S!
, ..p repared by Long Branch Environmen~
Education Center (704) 683-3662
/:"'
HERE WE GLOW AGAIN!
Natural World News Service
Five western North Carolina counties
are being seriously considered in the search
for a suitable site to receive the low-level
radioactive waste (LLW's) from eight
southeastern states. The eight states
(Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, and
Nonh Carolina) have joined a Southeastern
Compact to deal jointly with the waste
problem, but many North Carolina citizens
are demanding that North Carolina
withdraw from the compact if the burden of
waste disposal is to be shouldered by that
state alone. The compact will choose one of
its member states as the host for the
low-level waste dump site by July 14, 1986
and locations in Burke, Cleveland,
McDowell, Polk, and Rutherford counties
are being closely examined for a potential
low-level nuclear waste dump site.
The term "low-level" is actually a
mis-nomer as the category is defined as all
radioactive wastes that are not specifically
classified as "high-level".
This
encompasses a wide range of materials,
many of which arc as deadly as high-level
KATUAH- page 21
P.O. Box 117
Murphy, NC 28906
Call Clarence Hall at (704) 586-2056 for
/
more infonnation.
wastes. LLW s can in fact be potentially
more dangerous in many cases because
there are no stringent safety standards for
the handling of low-level radioactive
materials.
The most massive and most
dangerous of the low-level wastes produced
in North Carolina come mainly from the
nuclear power plants which account for
approximately 87% of the volume and 97%
of the radioactivity. Citizen groups are
suggesting that power plants manage their
own waste in safe, on-site, storage facilities
at their own expense.
The remaining wastes - mostly
medical, industrial and research wastes - a
lot of which are short-lived - could be
managed by the state in a small storage
facility. It is important, the groups advise,
that there be fi2 landfills and that various
low-level wastes be separated according to
radioactive life-span and managed in
above-ground, monitored, retrievable
storage facilities.
For more info, contact
- continued from p. 11
TROUT FARMING
dependent on the size of the operation and
the intensity of culture employed. Most
trout farmers now use dry commercial feeds
because of the high protein requirement of
trout, but live foods are often less
expensive, can sometimes be produced on
the site, and have the advantage of
producing trout flesh that is pink in color
and tastier than that of commercially-fed
fish, which is white in color.
McLamey discusses several
possibilities, including feeding trout meat
wastes or slaughterhouse offal, starting a
worm-raising operation to complement the
home fish farm, using "bug lights" to
capture insects, and even the trick of putting
a rotting log upstream to be a free, natural
culture medium for live trout food. Feeding
times, feeding amount, and many other
specifics are also covered.
Methods of harvesting and handling
fish are outlined in detail in the book. Trout
can be harvested by seining, various kinds
of trapping nets, or by draining the pond to
capture all the fish. An "umbrella net"
dangled under the feeding place is an easy
alternative for a partial harvest, but the
fishing rod will never be totally replaced for
the home pond.
McLarncy gives
suggestions and complete instructions for
the use of various nets and traps. Pests,
predators, diseases, and contamination by
silt and pollution are also discussed.
Appendices to the book give
additional infonnation on cooking the fish, a
summary of their characteristics, and
resource information on standard reference
works and sources for supplies and further
advice.
"Experience is the best teacher", but
The Freshwater Agyacutwre Book is an
excellent place to start a fish-raising
operation.
Bill McLarney is offering an
aquaculture consulting service for fish
farmers in KatUah. Inquire by letter to:
1176 Bryson City Rd.
Franklin, NC 28734
~
j:Y
h erbs, nct t ive plcsnl!;, f1erennidl:.,
flow~rs,
fruit lrees, bulbs,
bedding planl:..
80 lakeside Drive
8/I01hs of a mile from turdee'li
in Franklin, N.C.
for infurmdlion c:all 524·3321
Millie Buch;man, Clca.n Water Fund ~
(704) 253-4423
/:"'
Summer 1986
�RUMMING
..
LETTERS TO KATUAH
In Dwellers jn the L,and. Kirkpatrick Sale states: "What
makes the bioregional vision different -- in any foreseeable
future, anyway -- is that it asks nothing of the Federal
government and needs no national legislation, no
governmental regulation, no Presidential dispensation" (p.
169).
But it seems to me that the bioregional movement
cannot simply wait for the exhaustion of the world's supplies
of fossil fuels to make long-distance transportation
uneconomical and thus force the world to adopt bioregional
economies. The carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere
by the combustion of fossil and biomass fuels will so
drastically change the climate of all pans of the earth as to
fundamentally alter the biotic potential of every bioregion. In
order to prevent that, it would be necessary for all industrial
nations to begin ~ to phase out the petroleum, coal,
automobile, railroad, and merchant marine industries. That
would require political action, since those industries will not
voluntary go out of business. How else could a liveable
bioregional world be brought into being?
Ed Price
Sylva, NC
Dear Friends,
I have r;ad and enjoyed the K.aWah. I am broadcasting
on WUM radio on Sundays at 1:45 P.M. I sing sacred
songs, read poems, Bible, and etc. I am sending some home
remedies from an old New York doctor book published
1919.
Kate Rogers
Franklin, NC
LEMONS
Heartburn - Slowly suck the juice from one to two lemons,
which is generally sufficient to give relief.
Colds - Add the juice of two lemons to the same quantity of
strained honey, and mix thoroughly. Take a teaspoonful of
this mixture every ten or fifteen minutes.
Rheumatism - Take the juice of several lemons every day and
in a short time all signs of rheumatism will disappear.
Corns - Bind a piece of lemon over the com every night for
four or five nights.
Asthma - Persons suffering from asthma should drink the
juice of two or three lemons every day.
Headache - The juice from half a lemon added to a cup of hot
water sweetened with honey will generally relieve the most
severe headache.
(For more on Kare Rogers, see Kmfil.lb.1110 - Eds.)
KA
1 offer you a quote that has been a source of great
power for me:
Remember thaJ you live always wuler the protection of
some mysterious force. T.hi.s...ffU« i~ ~.Therefore, true
self-defense does not stop with defending oneself against
others, but strives to make oneself worthy of defense by
nature herself ... When your mind and your acts become OIU!
with narure, then narure will protect you.
Fear no enemy; fear only to be separated from the
mind of nature. If you are on the right path, nature will
protect you and you need not fear anything. Trust nanlre and
do not worry. Leave both your mind and body to narure.
Do not recognize friend or foe in your mind. In your
heart, let tlwre be generosiry as large as the sea, which
accepts both clean and unclean water. Let your mind be as
merciful as namre, which loves the smallest tree or blade of
grass. Let your mind be strong with sincerity thaJ can pierce
iron or srone. Repay the favors of nature, work/or the good
of all, and make yourself a person whom nature is pleased to
let live.
Koichi Tohei
(in Ajkjdo, The Art of Self-Defense I
The spirit and practice of the martial art of Aikido can
give us some idea of principles that can successfully be used
in political resistance. My knowledge and understandfog of
Aikido are limited, so I speak as no expert, but to my
understanding Aik.ido works with the "flow" of energy and
does not confront force with force. Instead, it allows the
opposing force its expression and then moves to turn the
opposing force to its own disadvantage. The Aikido
practitioner will allow an attacker to lunge and with a simple
movement will use the attackers own energy to send him
reeling. Aikido works with centering and directing the
body's energy or ,Ki. That's an oversimplistic explanation,
but it might give you an idea.
Translating the principles into action is what presents
the challenge. Obviously we can't match force with the
nuclear power industry, the chemical industry, or the
technological forces which are killing our Mother Earth. The
Indians tried to stop it with force years ago, and look what
happened So how do we keep it from happening and stay
sane at the same time?
First, maybe we have to give up the notion that ~
have to keep it from happening. If this crazy absurdity of the
modem world were not a part of the Great Spirit's plan, it
would not be happening. And maybe it's going to have to
get even crazier before the majority of humans arc going to
pay attention. Once during a discourse with a "psychic
being", l expressed a great deal of concern about the rampant
commercial development that was placing all our best food
growing land under concrete and asphalt I was advised that
the disease must run its course and not to base my life on
fighting the disease, for if I did, when the disease vanished
so would my life.
So do we just give it up as hopeless? Absolutely not.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "The test of a first rate
intelligence is to hold cwo opposed ideas in your mind at the
same time and still retain your capacity to function. You
should, for example, be able to sec that things are hopeless
and yet be determined to make them otherwise."
It sounds a lot easier than it really is. Once we begin
the work in earnest in our own hearts, then the Great Spirit
may guide us to other action. If we try to tackle the "evil"
without purifying our own hearts, then we simply give it
more energy and make it stronger.
We are not alone. Many people all over this planet are
facing similar situations. We live in a world that is extremely
unbalanced and full of great suffering. For this reason we
must develop and hold a clear vision of the world as we wish
it to be - happy, healthy, and filled with life. Affirm that
vision every day. Don't let negatives get in the way. Our
vision is our prayer. Keep the vision foremost and clear.
And we must not wish ill on our perceived "enemies" -- this
is not Good Medicine. Pray for happiness, health and peace
for all beings on the Earth Mother.
Dan Vega
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Summer 1986
�Dear Folks,
l am writing you concerning your promotional material
for your Spring Gathering. I think .K..iUia.h is a great
publication and I think your having a gathering is a good
idea. Snow Bear came to our Fall Gathering last year and
was on the teaching staff with Grandfather Wallace Black
Elk, Grandmother Grace Spotted Eagle, Buck Ghost Horse,
Ron Evans, and others. We really like Snow Bear and
promote his camp through our newsletter.
The way you have stated "SACRED SWEAT
LODGE" on your promotional material can be easily
interpreted to mean that you are selling the sweat lodge. I
hope you are clear about what you are doing. I don't believe
that Snow Bear would in fact charge money for a sweat.
SeUing ceremonies of this type is as offensjve as having
Christian sacraments offered on a sale basis. Advertising
sweats as a prominent clement of a for-sale program is also
offensive to many people.
I wish you no harm. Several of your staff know me
personally. I would appreciate some cla. ification on these
r
matters. We all make errors and it seems that errors of
advertising and pubHcation are very easy to make and once
made propagate rapidly.
Sincerely,
Art Horn
Marietta, GA
An,
As the person who drew up the flyer for the ~
Spring Ga1hering, I am the person to respond to your letter.
Thonks very much/or raising the issue. We appreciate your
lerrer and the spirit in which it was offered.
We did nor consider the Gathering as something that
was for sale when we put together the flyer. The money
mentioned represented our guess as to the minimum amount
we would require from each participant ro cover our basic
expenses for renting the camp and providing our food. All
work on the Gathering was volunteer, as is all work on the
Kiufimljournal. Nobody took any money home, unlike a lot
of spiritual seminars put on by some white people (and a few
native people, too, who have been mentioned/or Hselling"
sacred gatherings and sacred objects). If we had been fasting
in a wilderness area, the Ka1Uilh Gathering would have been
free.
I did not show the flyer to Snow Bear before sending
it out. If I had, he said he would have advised me 10 take the
sweat lodge off the page. He had some good words about
that. He said that regardless of our circumstances, it is an
historical fact that white people have consistently taken the
tra&tions ofthe native people and abused them. We cenainly
do not want to do that. On rlie contrary, I mentioned the
proposed sweat lodge so people would know that we were
seeking the highest possible spiritual level for our meeting,
not to produce the opposite effect. So with that in mind, we
thank you for poillling our attention to this mistake, and I
rrust we won't re,,ea1 it.
David Wheeler
~Friends,
It seems desirable to consider some positive
alternatives to the wasteful and dangerous burial of high level
nuclear waste in "solid" rock. So, here is an alternative
pattern that seems worth consideration:
( 1) Instead of transporting dangerous nuclear waste to
an individual repository, why not keep the waste at the site
where it is produced, thus avoiding the danger of
transporting these dangerous materials. If persons in a given
location produce such waste, and probably benefit financially
from the operation, it seems only fair that those same people
should deal with the waste; not persons in some distant
location.
(2) High level nuclear waste contains a great deal of
energy. Instead of heating rock with that energy, it is
suggested that the energy be converted directly to some
useful form. (e.g., it is estimated that the 70,000 tons of
waste proposed for burial in a permanent repository would
yield, in a 256 year period, over 60 billion dollars worth of
energy at $.035 per kwh.)
(3) The present method of using thermal fission
processes, with the demonstrated danger of catastrophic
meltdown, is a relatively inefficient means of obtaining
electrical energy. It is possible to ~izc direct coo version to
electrical energy by slowing the beta and alpha particles in an
electric field. The direct conversion could be used with
suitably processed waste as weU as with nuclear fuel now
being used in wasteful and dangerous thermal fission
reactors. (Note: Some of the nuclear physicists who
demonstrated the conversion of matter to energy in the early
experiments with Fermi wanted to develop safer, more
efficient conversion schemes for commercial use. The
politics of that situation led to the present dangerous and
wasteful methods, rather than the safer and more efficient
processes proposed by those early pioneers in nuclear
physics. It may be time to pay attention to the suggestions of
those expert and creative persons.)
(4) Placing large amounts of collected waste in a
localized region is contrary to the teaching of the old ones.
The forests, meadows, waters, winds, and earth processes
tend to scatter and diffuse matter. Large concentrations may
be an expression of humankind that is destructive and
hannful when out-of-tune with nature.
(5) Instead of spending over 9 billion dollars to place
dangerous waste in the ground, why not spend that money
on research and development that would use the waste for
useful purposes and help to preserve the natural ways given
to us?
(6) Those of us in Katuah (Katuahins?) can come
together to encourage alternative, more constructive patterns.
The epic of nuclear processes on earth demonstrates
again the power of the mind to rcaHze signillcant new
patterns. That power of the mind can be used to help form
these new patterns into beautiful and useful configurations.
Fear, greed, and ignorance can be replaced by peace,
fairness, and understanding.
Harmony is a possible alternative.
Ho,
Peregrine Falcon
KATIJAH - page 23
John Artley
Hot Springs, NC
- continued on p. 24
�- continued from p. 23
Dear Folks at~
Dear~.
I wrote to the President of the United States and
enclosed the pullout section on the nuclear dump plan from
the spring K.ci.ah.
Yesterday, I recieved a two page typed letter written
"on behalf of President Reagan" in response to my letter
"regarding the Nation's second repository program." The
letter and a folder of materials came from the Department of
Energy.
According to the letter, "the DOE evaluated, with State
assi.stance, existing publicly available geologic and
envuonmental data ... to identify preliminary candidate
areas.''
In my opinion, North Carolinians should be asking,
"Where was Gevemor Martin during the time that South
Carolina's Governor was in Washington, D.C. fighting to
protect that state from being dumped on more than they
already have beenr' Arc the people aware that Governor
Martin is from South Carolina?
Also, the people should be made aware that
Congressman Bill Hendon accepted campaign funds from 18
out-of-state nuclear power companies of $250.00 each plus
donations from in-state companies. Isn't it reasonable to
assume that he would feel obligated to them rather than the
people of this state? Isn't it possible that he may not be
well-informed on the potential threat to the lives of the people
in thC: vicinity of a hazardous nuclear waste dump as we arc?
Consider the fact that he recently made a "mistake" in voting
[Qr the MRS budget and that he has not been successful in
getting one bill through Congress in over three years.
If we are to be successful in protecting ourselves and
future generations from a nuclear holocaust, we must get
involved in the political process and elect public officials who
w~ be responsive to our urgent requests to protect our
envuonment
DOE anticipates "recommending to the President three
sites for characterization for a second repository in the early
1990's." Let's be sure that the people of wesrcrn North
Carolina have someone in Washington, D.C. to care for YJnotjust big industry.
Sincerely,
Esther c. Cunningham
Franklin, NC
- continued from p. 11
'I
.
. . I am mtei:ested in_ proi:notin~ home music-making -smgmg & playing music with friends and writing songs.
Those of us who were not born where we have put down
roo~ become part of local culture, and can bring our insights
& light co a place ... music is my way of doing it. I love
spontaneous music-making & sharing. rt turns us away
from mass culture (TV & MTV, etc.) and gives us a beauty
and richness we can share.
Als~>, in a mystic~! sense, our singing and playing
adds music of a human kind 10 a place long after the music
has stopped. M~st of my son~s sing about nature anyway.
Human bemgs neeg to sing. Nature loves the singing.
Thank you for .Katlulh's song.
Love,
Cindy Crossen
Pittsboro, NC
Dear friends at Kill!.ah.
We appreciate your kind words for our publication and
the Backroads column. We have seen young people,
families, older people, and combinations of all of the above
taking those tours. They occasionally stop by to say hello
and all of them have been very nice people who appreciate
the very things we would like to preserve about the Blue
Ridge. We know that, like everywhere else, growth is
inevitablC:, _but we hope to ~ abl~ to guide that growth along
more posittve, non-destrucuve hnes. We feel one way is to
create an awareness of what is here and has been here. In the
past two years, The Mountain I.aurel has attracted national
attention, so we must be on the right track. We have no
degrees in journalism, but follow only our instincts. We try
to present mountain people and their ways and mountain
places in their true light and give people a "taste" of what
mountain life is really like.
Susan Thigpen, Editor
The Mountain I.aurel:
Monthly Journal of Mountain Life
Route I
MeadowsofDan, VA 24120
,,#
,P'
AQUACULTURE
basic background information for each stage of the
fish-raising process, and 3) offers a variety of techniques to
handle the different fish species in different fish farm
situations. The result is that fish farmers are able to design
their own individual aquaculture operations that arc tailored
to the particular conditions of their environment and the scale
at which they want to work.
The freshwater Aguaculture Book is a multi-leveled
statement In its form and in its content it speaks to the
question of what arc the true and enduring values that will
make fish culture or any other enterprise a truly satisfying
and life-enhancing occupation. Many people will benefit
from the practical infonnation and advice McLamey offers on
fish-raising. It can only be hoped that some will respond as
well to the deeper discourse that seeks to define what is truly
appropriate and lasting. Ultimately, these values can only be
realized through experimentation and practice as part of a
continuing process of maintaining our "place", the point
where we arc in balance with the natural world, but il is most
helpful to have a guidebook to help point the way.
If we are to speak of an aquaculture for small groups
and individuals, it will ultimately be up to us, as small
groups and individuals, to create it. Fortuna1ely, despite the
gaps in our knowledge, there is much that we can do right
now. Some of what we can do is contained in this book.
The implementaJion of this information and the testing of
these ideas will be an important step toward a more diverse
and imponant future for aquaculture in North America.
reviewed by David Wheeler,
KA
AH-page 4
1
,, .
~•
l:11mmer 1986
�A CHILDREN'S PAGE
W.l ow
+he_.,;
W,//ow~
r
~
f'P)
~
f ~
-"Jf'
~ 8/1.1,ru ze
B
, \ (l;;Y
P/
/( ~
111t1e
/he
AH - page 25
a11J
Once fhere w,.~if.
Su~
Sec.A
a
IN' S e>ri
"
COCA/J not /;,,..,
5o 11,c PltN.f a!iked
WinJ.
KA
f
to blow
if
0'1
If.
+k :fe°'r
+o earlh.
"'@
c::>
~
�..
- continued from p. 3
SA YING "NO!"
of Energy. With the knowledge that the
citizenry of this state is solidly behind them,
activists can organize without fear of local
h~tility from state officials. More people
will be likely to participate in civil
disobedience, for example, if it comes down
to ~at It's nice to know you're in friendly
temtory.
Rererendums on Other Issues?
When the Nonh Carolina legislature
decided to place the high-level nuclear waste
issue on the ballot, it broke a longstanding
rule against holding referendums. Indeed, it
was the first referendum in the history of the
state on anything but a Constitutional
Amendment or a bond issue, both of which
are required by state law.
Many other groups, representing a
multitude of causes, have been clamoring
for state-wide referendums on their issues,
only to be rejected by the state legislature on
the grounds that North Carolina traditionally
has a "representative form of government".
This means that the people elect officials
who in turn are supposed to make all the
important decisions for them. This is an
archaic interpretation of democratic
government which amounts to tight fisted,
autocratic control and discourages a
participatory role by the citizenry. This
philosophy of government has ruled North
Carolina and the entire Southeast since the
Revolutionary War, and kept this state in the
political dark ages. Many states, by
contrast, have instated an "Initiative
Process" whereby any group or individual
can circulate a petition for a referendum and.
once the required number of signatures has
been achieved, it is placed on the st.ate-wide
ballot In some states, such as Oregon and
Maine, initiatives become binding laws if
voted on and passed by a majority of the
people.
Now that the North Carolina State
Legislature has broken with tradition by
placing one referendum on the ballot, it will
be hard to rationalize the denial of others.
The pressure from lobbying groups will be
enormous. Perhaps the stranglehold of
authoritarian rule is finally beginning to lose
its grip and a new political age is dawning.
National Significance
On a national level, the results of this
referendum have great meaning.
. As much as the ~t of Energy
denies that politics enters its
decision-making process, politics will be the
~iding factor in where, if anywhere, a
high-level nuclear waste repository will go.
There is no safe method to bury
nuclear waste and there is no safe place for
nuclear waste. No geological location is
suitable. Everywhere is on top of some
water table. The DOE is merely in the
process of finding out where they can put
the repository so that it will be economically
suitable for the nuclear industry and where
people will let them put it without major
political upheaval.
They have now
discovered, to their disappointment, that
Nonh Carolina is not that place.
In addition to putting the DOE on
notice, the waste referendum has sent out a
signal. to the rest of the country which is of
great importance. North Carolina and the
southeast is not known for its leadership in
en.~ental issues. Quite to the contrary,
this region has been the most politically
conservative and industry-oriented. The
fact that this state has taken such an
overwhelming stand in opposition to nuclear
waste bas particular significance. The
referendum has given North Carolina
leadership potential on a national basis in
regard to the nuclear waste issue. The less
conservative st.ates, threatened with the
dump, will in all probability, hold similar
referendums of their own in the near future.
(Wisconsin held a referendum prior to
No~ .Carolina and rejc:cted the dump with a
maJOnty of 89%.) This turn of events will
create a block of st.ates from different
regions of the ceuntry in alliance with each
other. and ~pposcd to the misguided process
that 1s being used to deal with nuclear
waste. Io essence these states will
spearhead a national movement which could
lead to the demise of the Nuclear Waste
Policy Act of 1982.
•.»o0 • A variety 1J{
~f,..i""'"" wholesome baked goods
OC4 Chesterfte!d tttU
next IO French Broad Trading Co.op
Potential is the Key Word
The referendum in North Carolina has
come and gone. Those of us who worked
bard to make it a reality have tasted a small
measure of success. But the real fruits of
our labor are yet to come, and it will involve
a committment to years of hard work to
bring this saga to a happy conclusion.
The referendum has generated a great
potential to bring about all the benefits
outlined here, but the potential will not be
realized unless people make a concerted
effort to take advantage of the momentum
we presently have, to direct that momentum,
and to create the future scenario we desire.
Let's use this referendum for what
it's worth.
If you live in a state other than North
Carolina and wish to help instigate a
referendum in your state, CCNW might be a
good source of infonnation for you. Write:
NATIJRAL FOOD STORE
&DELI
CCNW
P.O. Box 653
Dillsboro, NC 28725
Avram FriMman and the CCNW group first
initiated the idea of a NC nuclear waste
referendwn this past winter (see ~
#ll).
,
Open 7 Days A Week
160 Broadway
Asheville, NC 28801
Monday - Friday
9:00 a.rn. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday
9:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Sunday
1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.rn.
(704) 253-7656
Where Broadway
Meets Merrimoo
And 1-240
ACUPUNCTURE ASSOCIATES
of
ASHEVILLE
Mary C. Majebc
258-9016
KurtKochek
258-0837
Naoki Kubota
254-9236
Acupuncture, Nutritional Counselling, Chinese Herbology, Shiatsu
Summer 1986
�N'flBe. tJ.
- --ea-t L alces r- g-on-. C a- ca - Sh-asta, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.:..,__
Gr
- - - e i
- s -dia,
_
'The larger functi.oning of bjoregions
leads to a consideration that the Earth be
view~d pr~marily as an inlt!r-related system
of b1oreg1ons and only secondarily as a
community of nations.
'The more massive bureaucratic
nations of the world have lost their inner
vitality because they can no longer respond
to the particular functioning of the various
bioregions within their borders. A second
difficulty within the massive nations is the
exploitation of some bioregions for the
advantage of others. A third difficulty is the
threate~ devastalWn of the entire planel by
the conflict ofmassive bureaucratic nations
with their weaponry capable of continental
and even planetary devastation . To break
these nations down into their appropriate
bioregiona/ communities could be a possible
way to peace.
'This bioregional mode of thinking
and acting is presently one of the most
vigorous movements taking place anywhere
on the North American continent. Its
comprehensive concern is leading toward a
rt!()rdering ofall our existing establishmenrs:
the political-legal, the commercial-industrial
communications, educational and religio~
establishmenrs.
N
Upper Sonoran, Ohio River basin Hudson
River Estuary, and Katuah as ' well as
others. The regions themselves were
reercsented - the land, the plants, the
animals, as well as the humans. The focus
of the Congress was on the whole
ecological community of North America Turtle Island.
At the final plenary session ofNABC
I it was unanimously agreed that a second
North American Bioregional Congress
should convene in 1986.
Now plans are underway for NABC
1I! It will be hosted by the Great Lakes
Bioregional Congress (GLBC) from August
25-29, 1986. There will be a conference
style format at the beginning of the week
followed by the convening of the formal
Congress later in the week. Some major
areas of ecologically-based work which will
be represented at NABC D are:
~xhibit ~air.
The format of the Congress
itself will .be at the discretion of the
representallves.
The NABC I was
structured to include NABC Standing
Committees (Agriculture/Permaculture
Econ?mics, Forests, Culture & Arts, etc.}
~ectln~ on a regular basis plus small
d!scus~1on .groups meeting to discuss
b1orcg1onal 1ssues and practical strategies
as well as plenary sessions.
'
Throughout the week there will be
amp!~ . time for informal networking,
socializing, and celebrating.
I_'. contingency from Kat6ah will be
a~tendi.ng NABC II and is developing a
b1orc;g1onal .presentation and exhibit for
sharing with the other bioregions.
~ponsors of NABC II from Appalachia
include: Katiiab: Bjorc~onal Journal of the
Southern Appalachjans. Indian Valley
Ce~~r for Holistic Living and Learning
(Wilhs, VA), Lon~ Branch Environmental
Educatio~ Cen~ (S~dy Mush, NC), and
A~p~ach1a-Sc1ence 10 the Public Interest
~LIVlng~ton, KY).
For additional
mfonnaoon, contact
Mamie Muller
~
(704) 252-9167
P"'
All Species Rights
Appropriate Technology, An:hirecture, and Design
Bioregionalisrn...Cooperatives/Communities
Cul1we/Ans •• .Ecological Politics/Green
Ec~Feminism'Posl patriarchlal values
Politics
Educalioo...Environmental DefensdConservatioo
Forestry/Agrofaesuy
Holistic Health Care/Healing
Land Stewardship...Native People's Rights
Organic Agricu ltute/Pennaculture
- Thomas Berry in
Bjoregjons.· The Context for Rejnhabjtjng
the Eqrth. 1984
Peace/Equality/Justice...Regional Planning
In May of 1984, over 200 participants
from all over the continent attended the first
North American Bi~egional Congress ...
representatives from bloregional, ecological
an~ sustain~bility-oriented groups, and
nauve and tnbal organizations. Bioregional
areas represented included the Prairie
Ozarks, Cumberland-Green watershed'
'
Renewable Resource Development
Responsible lnves1rnent
Spiriruallty/Sacredne.WCeremony
Sustainable F.conomics/BU$iness
Water Quality
....• as weU as others.
The Conference time will include
papers,. panels and special
b1oregional presentauons,and a bioregional
"".orks~ops,
~a~e,
~~
T-SHI RTS
Each ori2inal desi 2n
hand screened in 5 colors
on the finest 100%
pre-shrunk cotton
Short SIMVe
Long SIHVe
short and lon2 sleeve t-shirts.
110
ppd. rSEJIP CJrFOC
s14 pd l
P
CNA1t9E'
• Na
me
Black Bear D Silver 0 Tan 0 While
Red-failed Hawk D Ecru
long
Short
0
0
a
l'f, a
,r ,
J long sleeve Includes hawk feat'-s /L__ _
)
,.....,po~
Address
'"&::::;:=~;:;;;~;::::::::::::=
Mastercard v·
"
_T_,,......_........
flt.one
Silver 0 Tan
S·M-L-Xl
.., r,,,..ti.. •
~(
1-·
O(M,~:;1~.,.
ISO -------Exp. date
w.,....ui.,11en7M olltu dalgns_o - .-lob-1.e__
#Nlfar o lxocJuuc
ULTRAVIOLET PURIFICATION ANO FILTERING SYSTE"IS
SOLAR PRODUCTS WATER ANAlYSIS
RANDALL C. LAN IER
704 29359 12
H W Y 107
RT. 68 BOX 125
CUL LOW HEE, N C 28 723
KAT AH - page 27
Joe Roberts
258-1038
734 Town Mountain Rd ,
01vrd Reed
253 2846
Ashtville. NC 28805
. nmml'r IQRI'\
�20-22
e
v
€
n
t'
5
13-18
Slippery Rock, PA
A People's Conference on the
Fate of Our Forests. Slippery
Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA;
sponsored by The Earth Regeneration and
Reforestation Association (fERRA); More
info: TERRA c/o Elfin Permacu!ture; P.O.
Box 202; Orange, MA 01364; (617)
544-7810.
28
20-25
28-July 5 Burnsville, NC
Southern Appalachian Wilderness
Encounter led by Doug Elliott; hiking
camping, foraging in the mountains - for
info, write or call: Doug Elliott; Rt 4, Box
137; Burnsville, NC
28714 (704)
682-9263.
Nantahala River
Nantaha!a River Festiya! - River
cleanup, environmental awareness
programs, biking, Bartram Trail walks,
swimming. Free camping; meals available.
Reply to: Brett Poirier; US 19W, Box 41;
Bryson City, NC 28713.
21
Summer Solstice-Full Moon
Celo Community, NC
Full Moon Party - Drumming,
dancing; bring instruments, snacks, high
spirits; "Mountain Gardens," 3020
Whiteoak Creek Rd. (704) 675-5664.
Pre-register: Southern Dharma Retreat
Center; Rt. 1, Box 34H; Hot Springs, NC
28743.
28
Great Smokies Park
Greeory Bald Azalea Hike
Smoky Mountain Field School, see 6121-22
28
Banner Elk, NC
R2an Mountain Hike North
Carolina Nature Conservancy; P.O. Box
805; Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
21
21
Swannanoa, NC
O_penine Concert of Swannanoa
Oamber Festival at Warxcn Wi1son Co!!cze
William Nelson and Werner John. 8:00
P.M., Kittredge Theater, WWC.
Hot Sprlngs, NC
Goddesses Arnone Us: An
Empowr;rment Retreat for Meo and Women
Black Mountain, NC
Timmy Abell Irish & Traditional.
McDibbs, see 6121.
28-29
Great Smokies Park
Mt. LeConte Lodee Hjke &
Oyernieht Research Qn Wild Mammals Qf
the Sm2kies: A Hands-On Course Qn
Animal Life jn SmQky Mountain Streams
Smoley Mountain Field School, see 6121-22
Il1LY
~
July
Genius Qf fubn Juliys WilnQty Cherokee Heritage Center.
21
Black Mountain, NC
John Pabey Conte.mporary of
Leo Kottke. McDibbs; 119 Cherry St;
B!aclc Mountain, NC 28711.
21-22
13-15
Farner, TN
Herbal Retreat at PeJ>perland
Fann Camp; herb walks, foraging for wild
foods, identifying medicinal plants, etc.
$65.00 meals & lodging/adults; children
6-16, $15; under 6, free. (704) 494-2353.
Leicester, NC
"Positively StQppine tbe Dump"
Celebration - Fuodraiser. Music, food,
volleyball and information. Sandy Mush
Community Center 12:00 Noon - 8:00 PM.
14
Great Smokies Park
Identification of Fems Smoky
Mountain Field School.
Non-credit
programs. 2016 Lake Ave.; University of
Tennessee; Knoxville, 1N 37996.
22-28
Brasstown, NC
June Dance Week English,
American & Scottish country dance and
song. Tuition $130 plus lodging and meals.
John C. Campbell Folk School, see 6/15.
14-22
Sam's Knob
Mountain Reeional Rainbow
Summer Solstice Celebration Contact:
David Recd, (704) 253-2846 (before 9:30
P.M.).
Brasstown, NC
June Festival Choice of classes
in mountain singing, recorder, and
dulcimer; or crafts. Tuition $130 plus meals
and lodging. John C. Campbell Fol.le
School; Rt. l; Brasstown, NC 28902.
(704) 837-2775.
5
Alum Ridge, VA
Psycho Chiroloey Seminar on
psychological hand interpretation with
Muzawir. $25 or barter, free camping.
Pre-register: Penny Royal Educational
Center; Rt. H C 67, Box 171 ; Alum Ridge,
VA 24051 (703)763-3728.
6-7
Turtle Island
"Circle Qf Lieht" - Prayers for
protection of the Hopis and Dineb
threatened with forced removal from their
sacred land by the U.S. Government. From
midnight July 6 throughout the removal
deadline date of July 7.
15-21
23-27
Horsepasture River
Pretty Pictures & Politics: visual
Environmentalism
Appalachian
Environmental Arts Center; P.O. Drawer
580; Highlands, NC 28741.
6-7
Celo Community, NC
"Mountain Gardens" tour and
perennial plant sale; 3020 Whiteoak Creek
Rd., (704) 675-5664.
18-21
Bakersville, NC
RhQdQdendrnn Festival
TRAC; Spruce Pine, NC 28777.
Raleigh, NC
l.ow-Jeyel Radiation Waste Rally
to urge the NC General Assembly to get out
of SE Compact (see ~ p.21) Maio
speaker: Brost Schori, biosafety radiation
officer at Dartmouth Medical Center. At
State Capitol, starts 9:00 am. more info:
(919) 832-7491.
17
25-26
Raleigh, NC
NC Al!ematiye Faonine Fjeld
Jlu. Promising new approaches for a
sustainable agriculture. More info: Dr. R.
H. Miller; Dept of Soil Science; P.O. Box
7619, NC State University; Raleigh, NC
27695-7619.
26-29
Swannanoa, NC
SwQCds intQ Plowshares
Peace Studies programs in higher
education. Warren Wilson College.
Swannanoa, NC 298-3325 (x231).
10-Aug 3 Blue Ridge Parkway
MQuntain Sweet Talk Two-act
play by The Folkte!Jers. Folk Art Center
Theater. More info: Mountain Sweet Talk;
c/o The Fol.lctellers; P.O. Box 2898;
Asheville, NC 28802 (704) 258-1113.
�11- 19
Alum Ridge, VA
Psychic Allunement Seminar with
Tom Williams and Muzawir. Explore the
self-healing abilities we all possess. S200
or barter; bring food, pre-register. sec 115.
'?
,·..~ ..~
..
·
{u-~~
~
•
~)
...
~~
:~
. ). :t ' '. ~-- . - .
-
r.:-
_,. - ~~
-
~
9-10
Willis, VA
The Herbal Medjcjne Chest with
Susun S. Weed. Contact: Indian Valley
Holistic Center. Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis, VA
24380.
11-17
Willis, VA
Women's Wellness Week
Bodywork, herbal medicine and medical
self-help, see 8/9.
12
West Jefferson, NC
Bluff Mountain Hike North
Carolina Nature Conservancy, see 6128.
14-25
Elkins, WV
Augusta Heritage Arts fair food, crafts, and !otsa music! (3
workshops by Doug Elliott as well: herbs,
woodslore, basketmaking) call : (304)
636-1903 for info.
As heville, NC
39th Annya! Soythem Hiehlands
Handicraft Guild Fair. Asheville Civic
Center, (704) 298-7928.
16
Alum Ridge, VA
Environmental
Harmony
Workshop with Edward J. Kesgen of
Sunshine Weavers. Cost $35 per person,
$55 per couple; bring food. Pre-register by
8/8. see 11
5.
19
13-20
Asheville, NC
French Broad River Weck,
Featuring:
Sept. 13 RIVERFEST - AU-day event on
the Asheville waterfront celebrating the
French Broad River - raft rides, games,
crafts, displays. Music by Mike Cross and
local musicians.
Celo Community, NC
full Moon Paay - sec 612 ! .
17-20
19
Celo Community, NC
full Moon Paey - see 612 l.
Great Lakes Bioregion
North American Bjoregional
Coneress 11 NABC 11 Office; Bioregional
Project; New Life Farm, Inc. Box 3;
Brixey, MO 65618. Regionally: (704)
252-9167.
25-31
Banner Elk, NC
Bie Yellow Mountain Hike NC
Nature Conservancy, sec 6128.
Also raft and canoe trips, hikes, displays,
contests, river clean-up throughout French
Broad River Weck. Dates not set at
publication time. Call or write:
Bill Eaker
Land of Sky Regional Council
19
25 Heritage Drive
Asheville, NC 28806
(704) 254-8131
for dates and details.
SEPTEMBER
7-8
20-26
Brasstown, NC
Multi-Media Week I Basketry,
Pottery, Blacksmithing & more. John C.
Campbell Folk School, sec 6/15.
Celo Community, NC
"Mountain Gardens" tour and
perennial plant sale; see July 6-7.
18
21-25
Swannanoa, NC
The Many faces of PeacemaJcjng,
Elderhostel class on global understanding.
Warren Wilson College; More info:
298-3325 (x231).
,.st3~
.~CJ,_ .
-.
Swannanoa, NC
Facine the Nuclear Winter Njght:
Options and Actjons. World Affairs
Institute. Warren Wilson College,
Swannanoa, NC (919) 786-5233.
25-27
Modica! Sell-Help
30-Aug 3 Swannanoa, NC
fellowship of Reconcjliation
National Conference Key speakers include
Wendell Berry, Dorothy Cotton and Miles
Honon. Contact: Rural Southern Voice for
Peace; 190 I Hannah Branch Road;
Burnsville, NC 28714.
Celo Community, NC
"Moyntajn Gardens" tour and
perennial plant sale; sec July 6-7.
3-16
Brasstown, NC
Mountain Traditions Stone
Carving, Dulcimer & more. John C.
Campbell Folk School, see 6/15.
8
Brasstown, NC
Mountain Music Concert with
Homer Ledford. John C. Campbell Folk
School, see 6/15.
-
J:J11da J"!J G>tik
S1'1'C.//Jfi (} fXtp ~(11.1<tf ~f.1.wqr
:R!t~ ti 'R.;faritJ 'f3.1f..111rn~q -
A llA!rlng Ind '-"'II mou,_, _
Cm!f""
August 11·17
Wldl H-S-WMd, c.,..,_ M_.t, MD.
Hd 8od1 w...... udMlllklM Mtndldl Mclno..a
"!ltffJ D:<'\1u_y.u .W•11
255-19M
IHDIAH VALU!Y RETREAT
- 2ao.sa.w... vA2-110317-
, ff
13- 18
Ib'
20 -22
27-29
July
4-6
11- 13
6211-15J7
SOUTHE:RN DHARMJ\ RE:TRE:J\T CE:NTE:R
SUMMER SCHEDULE
Q11ddcuu
Eamgy,~DJKn&
AUGUST
3-4
/
~
HMology
P•- . l l S -
WOQIXD1'8 w.a&Jll!a W%llX
Asheville, NC
Bele Cher Festival; Downtown
Asheville.
f(1
~
S""'"'9
w.....,_
25-27
Celo Community, NC
Full Moon Paey - sec 6121.
ama111
Lii
Ao
B'-lttll Cm M= 1Dd Wgmm
with Roger Woolger. Ao iouoductloo to
the universal feminine archeiypcs aod ao
exploration or their meaoiog to us.
:Cai Cb! Cb11m - Ihc E11cmlm E11cm with
Harold Miller. A wec.ltend CllploratioD ioto
the way of oot-doiog, or dancing the
Mystic Spiral, or creating your own
Formless Form.
A ~iRllllDI MGdllllhlD Yl';ks=Dd with
Rodney Smith. RodDCy will provide useM
guidlll(:e aod instruction in medication aod
will be available as teacber-io-re11dence
June 30 through July 3 for those who wish
to do private retreats.
2S-27
SRWL with Harruoo HobU~lle, Ph.D. A
weekend or mediUtiOD aod discuuioo
~latlog Buddhitm and ChriJtlaoil:y.
Miad[11lan1 Mcdi111l11a with S11110
Augenstein. Medlutlon aod momnt to
momen1 awareness are the focUJ or this
week.cod.
Aqust
Xllll !Qt Xlllll Wb11lc l.iCI< with BODDe
Kelly. Adaptiog yoga to daily 1etivitia aod
individual needs.
22- 24 A Bjau! z,o Wi:ckmd with S&ody Stewar1.
The way or the selllesa self.
29 .
~ Hs:1lia1 I•:r Imi11 Mt:dilltiSZD IDd Cal
Sept I K.11.u. with Anna Joy Oaybeart. A
comp~hens lve ioll'Oductlon to Ille ll)(:le111
Taoist pr1ellces.
12-14 I2iss<cD1laa lb' Cbd11 Seed l1!'.ilbia with
A ~ilHlllDI Mcdllaliaa W"l"ad with
John YungbluL Exploring Christlaoi1y and
Rodney Smith.
relatiag the mystical upcrieoce of Christ to
lcsi1b1 Mcdi111i11n IDd lb' Li!c ac 1bc
meditatioo and. cootempla11ve prayer.
Southern Obarma Retreat Center is localed in a ~moie area of the Smoley M
ountains near Asheville, North
Carolina. For further information about Southern Ohanna or about aoy or the programs above, call or write:
SOtrrH.ERN DRARMA RETREAT CENTER
8-10
RLI, Boll 34-H; Roi Sprio&J, NC
28743 (704) 622-7112
�Hoaldeas GARDENING NEWSLETTER - A
monthly review gleaning the mos1 practical and
innovative ideas from hundreds of teehnical
iniemational horticuhural publications - S 10 per
year; sample copy: SI. Route I; Gravel Swhch,
KY 40328.
ACCESS is a free lelephone infonnation service on
peace issues including mili1ary spending,
environ.menial impacts of miliiary activity, conflicl
resolution, elC. Your only charge is your
long-distance phone call. ACCESS I is (202)
328-2323.
ln!m!arianal pmnacuhgrc Seeti Yearbook - The
annual bulletin, direciory, and resource guide for
pen:nacultvre practitionen; $10.00; Box 202;
Onnge,MA 01364.
DRUM WORKSHOPS - for children of all ages.
lherapeutic massage - Relaxes lhe body &
mind...Call Martha for more info 11 (704)
252-2420.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - herbal salves,
tincnues, & oils for birthing & family heallh. For
brochu~ please write: Moon Dance Farm; RL I,
Box 726; Hampton. TN 37658
HOLOGRAPHIC ASTROLOGY - Every part of a
hologram con1J1ins all !he info abou1 the en1ire
hologram, and each ctll in your body contains all
!he genetic data about your whole body. Similarly,
every body conlains all Ille infounation about lhe
entire solar sysiern - you are !he solar sysiem and
each of your planeu is ooe of your potentials. Olan
& Consul11tion, SS0.00 Harrie1 Witt Miller (704)
689-4617.
FAIRGLEN FARMS offen organic, biological
feniliz.ers for fmn md garden. Send SASE for price
lisL Biologically-grown produce IO sell? We SC
interested in acting IS cooperalive nwketing agenlS
with other growers. Wriie: Rouie 1, Box 319;
Clyde, NC 28721.
HOW - TO - BOOKS: "Gemstones, Crysials &
Healing" by The.Ima Isaacs - 30 mineral families cl
oompleie descriptions ($8.00); "NllUJ'e's Pantty" by
David Wilson - 100 wild edible foods ($3.00); "The
Soler Energy N0tebook" by Rankins cl Wilson use lhe sun for home heating ($6.00}. Please add $I
~:Jpping per order. Lorien House, POB 1112,
Black Mounlain, NC 28711.
1HE RAINBOW LODGE, a conference ctnier and
reirea1 facility, is available for workshops, reueais,
ete. - Write: RL 4, Boll 4636; BWrsville, GA
30512.
CRAFTS FROM SALVADORAN AND
GUATEMALAN REFUGEES IN NICARAGUA:
Cards, plaques, boxes, puzzles, patt:bes; This irade
benefits refugees directly. Brochure from:
Dry Creek Cooperative Trading
918 Jennings CL
Woodbu.ry, TN 37190
a oon-profil oraaniz.ation.
UGHTWORKS - luminous fabric window pieces
by Cathy Scou; 734 Town Mountain Rd.;
Asheville, NC 28804.
FRIENDS OF 1lfE MOUNTAINS is a grassrOOlS
organization involved in !he conservation and
proiection of !he soulhem Appalachian highlands.
RL 2, Box 2279; ClaylOll, GA 30525.
CHEROKEE CLEANSING lEA - over a doz.en
herbs (makes app. one gallon) - $1 .SO from
Medicine Canoe Products; RL2, Box 90-E; Old
Fon. NC 28762.
ELACHEE NATURE SCIENCE CENTER dedicaled IO !he undemanding and apjX1!Cialion of lhe
nawral world. For membership or visiting info,
write P.O. Boll 2771 ; Gainesville, GA 30503.
AMRITA HERBAL PRODUCTS - Comfrey,
Eucalypws, or Golden Seal Salve, Lemon or
Lavender Pace Cream. Made wilh nawral and
essential oils and love. Send for brochure: RL 1,
Box 737; Floyd, VA 24091.
AMERICAN MINOR BREEDS CONSERVANCY
is saving endangered breeds of farm liveslOCk. If
you keep any minor breeds or know of olhen who
do, please lei AMBC know. $10 10 join. AMBC;
P.O. Box 477; PillSboro, NC 27312.
CUSTOM CELTIC HARPS - A'Coun Bason;
Travianna F1rn1; RL 1; Check. VA 24072.
Shares for sale in FLOYD AORICULTURAL
ENERGY CO-OP; par valued at $100 each. Will
Bason; Travianna Farm; Rt I ; Check, VA 24002.
•AS WE ARE" - Women's music by Pomegrana1e
Rose, a four-woman group playing lively original
music. Casse11e llpe avail.able for $9.00 ppd. from
RL 2, Box 435; Piusboro, NC 27312.
INDIAN VALLEY RETREATS - We offer
individual or group reireats on our 140 acteS of
rolling meadows, wooded r:raiJs, fresh waier streams
and clean air in the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains
of Soulhwes1 Virginia, IS miles norlh of !he Blue
Ridge Parkway. Reireats can be lailorcd 10 your
needs, wilh as much or as little guidanct and social
imerx1ion as you wish. We have rustic cabins,
privaie or semi-private rooms or camping. $10 per
nigh1 per person, bed and breakfasL Indian Valley
Holistic Center; RL 2, Box 58; Willis, VA 24380
(703) 789-4295.
THE LONE RECYQ ER -- Comic book advenwres
of humankind's early suuggle to combat
was1efulness. $4.00 pp. from Long Branch
Environmenlal Education Cenicr; RL 2, Boll 132;
~._~.•::~~o
""
Send submissions io:
K.o.DWi
P.O. Boll 873
Cniiownee, NC 28723
BIG MOUNTAIN - 10,000 traditional Navajo
people lhreaiened with removal by US govemmenl
IO make way for coal and uranium mines. Support
and donations needed. Write: Big Mountain Legal
Defense/Offense Committ.ee; 2501 N. 41h SI.,
Suile 18; Flags1aff, AZ 86001 (602) 774-5233.
At ARTIIUR MORGAN SCHOOL 24 swdents and
14 staff learn iogelher by living in community.
Curriculum includes creative academics. group
decision-making, a work program, servict projects,
extensive field trips, challenging ou1door
ellperiencts. Write: 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714.
GREEN RIVER RESEARCH JOURNAL exploring lhe connections beiween body. cools, and
land. Send $1.00 for sample copy io: Boit 1919;
Brattleboro, VT 05301.
APPALACHIAN GINSENG CO. - Cuhivaied
American ginseng, siratlfied seeds, seedling roots T-Shins wilh ginseng logo, $9.00 ppd from P.O.
Box 547; Dillsboro, NC 28725.
KA
AH - page 30
MALAPROP'S
BOOKSTORE/CAFE
BOOKS - CARDS - RECORDS
FOUR WINDS VlLLAGE - health and spiri1ua1
reireat; home for children in need. For visiting info,
write: Boll 112; Tiger, GA 30576.
61 HAYWOOD ST., ASHEVILLE, NC 28801
(704) 254-6734
Summerl986
�K1Hfiah. wants to communicate your thoughts and
f eelings 10 the other people in the bioregiona/ provirlce. Send
them to us as letters, poems, stories, drawings, or
pho tographs. Please send your contributions to us at:
Kmflgh; Box 873; Cullowhee, NC 28723.
The fall Kitiiah, Issue XIll, will collect our thoughts
and experiences of "Death and Dying". The deadline for all
submissions for that issue is August I.
Please send your ideas for a theme for the winter issue
of .Kat:Y.im.
Medicine-- .Allies
GET BACK!
issues of Katuah
full color
T-sfiirts
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today are
only diminutive fonns of the mythic beings
who once inhabited the world, but who now
reside in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the
highest heaven. But a few of the original
powers broke through the spiritual barrier
and exist yet in the world as we know it.
These beings are called with reverence
"grandfathers". And of them, the strongest
are KfilWi, the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'nati. the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the earth plane; and
Yunwi Usdj, "the little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power from th.e underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their
energies complement each other to form an
even greater power. As medicine allies,
they represent the healing power of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katiiah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen
by Ridgerunner Naturals on top-quality,
all-cotton shirts, they are available now in
all adult sii.es from the Km.ah journal.
"To show r espect for this
supernatural trinity of the natural world is to
in turn become an ally in the continuing
process of maintaining harmony and balance
here in the mountains ofKatUah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE TWO - WTNTER 1983-84
Yona - But Huniers - Pigeon River Another Way With Animals - Alma Becoming Polilically Erreclive •
Mountain Woodlands - Katii.ab Under lhc
Drill - Spiritual Warriors
ISSUE THREE - SPRING 1984
SUstainable Agriculture - SuoOowers Human lm.pect oo the Forest • Childrens'
Education - Veronica Nicbolas:Woman
in Politics - Little People - Medicine
Allies
ISSUE NINE - FAll 198S
The Waldec Forest - The Trees Speak Migrating Foresu - Horse Logging Starting a Tree Crop - Urban Trees Acom Bread · Myth Tune
ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
Waier Oram - Water Quality - Kudzu Solar Eclipse - Clcarcuttin8 - Trout ·
Going to Water • Ram Pumps Microhydro - Poems: Bennie Lee
Sinclair, Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE TEN - WINTER 198S-86 Kale
Rogers - Circles of Stone • Internal
Mylhmakiog - Holistic Hcalln8 on Trial
- Poems: Sieve Koauth - Mythic Places The Uktena's Tale - Crystal Magic "Dreamspeaking"
ISSUE FIVE- FAll 1984
Harvest • Old Ways in Cherokee Ginseng - Nuclear Wasie - Our Celtic
Heritage - Biore8ionaliJm: Past, Present,
and Future - John Wllnoty - Healio8
Oarlcness • Politics of Participation
ISSUE EL£VSN - SPRING 1986
Community Planning · Cities and the
Bioregional Vision - Recycling •
Community Gardening· Floyd County,
VA • Gasohol • Two Bioregiooal Views Nuclear Supplement - Foxfire Gamca
-Good Medicine: Visions
ISSUE SIX - WINTER 1984-85
Winter Solstice Barth Ceremony
Horsepastu.re River • Com.log of lhe
Light - Log Cabin Roou - Mountain
Agriculture: The Right Crop - William
Taylor - The Future of the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN · SPRING 19&S
Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs Worker Ownership - The Great Economy
• Self Help Credit Union - Wild Turkey Responsible Investing • Working in the
Web of Life
KATUAH: Bjoreeional Journal of the Southern Ap_palacbjans
Box 873; Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723
For more info: call Marnie Muller (704) 252-9167
Regular Membership........$10/yr.
Sponsor.......................$20/yr.
Contributor...................$50/yr.
Name
ISSUE EIGHT· SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life - Ka!Uab
18,000 Years Ago • Sacred Siles - Folk
Ans in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer - Cherokee
Heritage Center · Who Owns
Appalachia?
Address
Back Issues
Issue#
@ $2.00 = $
Issue# - -@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#--@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#--@ $2.00 = $- Issue#--@ $2.00 = $ - Complete Set (2-11)
-@ $15.00 = $_ _
T-Shirts: specify quantity
color: tan
M
Enclosed is$
to give
this effort an extra boost
I can be a local contact
person for my area
State
City
Area Code
Phone Number
KATUAH - page 31
S
L
@ $9.50 each ............$_ _
XL
Zip
TOTAL PRICE =
postage paid
$_ _
Summer 1986
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 12, Summer 1986
Description
An account of the resource
The twelfth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> covers a variety of topics, including, nuclear energy issues, shiitake mushrooms, trout farms, and the Cherokee people's historic use of tobacco. Authors and artists in this issue include: Joe Hollis, Rhea Rose Ormond, Avram Friedman, Michael Red Fox, D. Newton Smith, Rob Messick, Corry, Ise Williams, David Wheeler, Stephen Wingeier, Jerry Trivette, Perry Eury, and Marnie Muller. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Living in the Garden.......1<br /><br />The NC Nuclear Referendum.......3<br /><br />Shiitake.......4<br /><br />"The Water Cycle": A Poem.......6<br /><br />The Sacred Scarab.......7<br /><br />Circles of Communication.......8<br /><br />Review: The Wise Woman Herbal For the Childbearing Year.......9<br /><br />Review: The Small-Scale Aquaculture Book.......10<br /><br />Good Medicine: Tobacco.......12<br /><br />Sun Root.......14<br /><br />Poem: "The Homestead on Horn Mountain".......14<br /><br />"Hilahi'Yu...": The Formation of the Appalachian Mountains.......15<br /><br />Natural World News.......19<br /><br />"The Willow Tree": A Children's Story.......25<br /><br />NABC II.......27<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Beginning
Human ecology
Radioactive waste disposal--Appalachian Region, Southern
Shiitake--Appalachian Region, Southern
Dung beetles
Cherokee Indians--Tobacco use--History
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Children's Page
Community
Electric Power Companies
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Katúah
Pigeon River
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e7f01928de6c753c09827e4dfd0aace1.pdf
ef599a4389ecc1498b620fa99229c8b9
PDF Text
Text
--~
$JOO
ATUAH
ISSUE XVI
SUMMER1987
Coming of Age
�('"I
N
["
00
N
El
~
~
ll..
INTERVIEW: HELEN WAITE. .............................................................3
POEM : "VISIONS IN A GARDEN"....................................................5
THE VISION QlJEST............................................................................6
FIRST FLOW .........................................................................................8
THOUGHTS ON INITIATION.............................................................9
ARCHETYPES OF MALE INITIATION.............................................9
LEARNING IN THE WILDERNESS................................................. 12
CHEROKEE CHALLENGE ..................................................................15
NATURAL WORLD NEWS................................................................16
VIEW FROM THE CORNERS: "VALUING TREf;:S"......................19
TURTLE ISLAND TALKING ............................................................20
YOUNG PEOPLE'S PAGE..................................................................25
~
~
. ... -.
=
~
~
:;
·. .
• z .s,
Ul
(.)
~
~
• ~ ti
!;
~
~~
g
..J
St
~
a~
~
so
~
~
~
0
~
E-1
CJ)
~
0
~
i::t:;
z
0
H
E-1
u
~
~
u
0
CJ)
CJ)
~
0
~
�---~
ATUAH
ISSUE XVI
SUMMER 1987
f'om time immemorial,
aJ the onset of sexual maturity
the young peopk would leave
the tribe and go out, each one
alone, into the world to meet
the elements, be tested a11d
taught, and find out who they
really were.
They would make a bond,
often expressed in the form of
an animal spirit ally, with their
homeland that would be a
foundation for their adulthood
and a continuing source of
strength. Thereafter, for all
their lives, they would know
with a deep and certain
awareness that the waves from
their every gesture rippled to
the farthest reaches of creation
and that the power that flowed
through them was the force of
the all of life.
These expeditions into the
wild te"ain of the soul were
ritualized and became an
important part of community
life. The community was
revitalized and the social bonds
were strengthened as the old
ones offered their wisdom to
the young, and the young ones
dedicated their exuberant life
energy to the continuance of the
tribe and the life ofthe world.
In our times, the continuity
has been broken.
The land is still there • all
knowledge lies just outside our
doorway, just off the side of the
road - and life continues to
pulse in the bodies of the young
ones coming of age. But that
crucial connection in which
these were joined is largely
missing. Today we must drill
into our intelkctual minds the
message that was aJ one time a
matter of cellular certainty:
KATIJAH - page l
that we are part of a wider
community of life, and we need
to take responsibility for our
participation in the Earth
family.
But that urge to seek
ourselves in the wild and to
touch the wild in ourselves is
instinctive and deep, and there
are yet those willing to bring
the young ones to the threshold
of the world, to the edge of
their own being, and say, "You
must take the next step alone,
but I will be here. I will wait
for you, and I will be
watching."
Even without the benefit of
the old traditions, these leaders
of the coming generation are
woking for new forms and new
guidance to re-establish the old
continuity and reunite the two
circles, the circle of the world
and the cyc/,e of our lives, and
make them once more single
and whole.
In this issue of KatUah.
some of these teachers and
guides speak to us ofhow they
are bringing young p eople out
from civilization to meet the
world and some of the lessons
that are there lo be learned. In
speaking of these things, they
offer to us the same challenge
that each young person meets
when they stand on the brink of
adulthood: to open to the
world, to kt iJflow through the
body into the soul, to feel its
power, and by following that
power back to its source, to
once again come upon the
essential nature of our
existence and touch our deepest
roots.
Summer 1987
�H
EDITORIAL STAFF nus ISSUE:
Snow Bear
Scott Bird
Julie Gaunt
Judith Hallock
Rob Messick
Mamie Muller
Michael Red Fox
Chip Smith
Brad Stanback
Manha Tree
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Sylvia Fox
Than.le you again, Kathleen!
Special lhanks 10 Bob Wiesclman
EDITORIAL OFFICE
nus ISSUE:
Asheville, NC
PRINTED BY:
Sylva Herald
Publishing Co.
Sylva, NC
WRITE US AT:
Katiiab
Box638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
TELEPHONE:
(704) 683-1414
COVER: "One must become chaos, ro give binh ro a dancing
star....." (Picasso) - by Manha Tree
Diversity is an important element of biorcgional ecology, both
natural and social. In line with this principle, lWWib cries IO serve as a
forum for discussion ol rcgiooal issues. Signed articles express ooly the
opinioo or the authors and are n<ll oecessarily the opinions of the
KaWab ediLOrS or Stlff.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared Klu.Wih a non-profit
organization under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. A II
coniributions IO KA1UWi are deductible from personal income tax.
CORRECTION
We apologize to Milo Guthrie and to our readers for
neglecting to put his name as author of the excellent article
''The Promise of Biosexuality" on page 12 of KruYfil! #15.
'Ult{VOC~TWN
lHE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREGION AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
Statement of Purpose
Here in the sowhem-most heanland ofthe Appalachian
mountains, the oldest mountain range on our continent,
Tunle Island, a small bw growing group has begun to talce
on a sense of responsibility for the implications of that
geographical and cultural heritage. Tlris sense of
responsibility centers on the concept of living within the
natural scale and balance ofuniversal systems and laws. We
begin by invoking the Cherokee name "KatfLah" as the
old/new name for this area of the mountains and for its
journal as well.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this area, and to foster the awareness that the
land is a living being deserving of our love and respect.
Living in this manner is the only way to ensure the
sustainability of our biosphere and a lasting place for
ourselves in itS continuing evolutionary process.
We seem ro have reached thefulcrwnpoinrof a "do or
dieH sirnarion in terms ofa continued qU111iry standard of life
on this planet. lt is the aim ofthis journal ro do itS part in the
re-inhabitation and re-culturation ofthe Kamah province of
the Somhern Appalachians. This province is indicated by its
natural boundaries: the Roanoke River Valley to tlte north,
the foothills ofthe piedmont area to the east,· Yona Mottntain
and the Georgia hills to the sourh; and the Tennessee River
Valley 10 the west.
Humbly, as self-appointed stewards with sacred
instructions as "new natives" to protect and preserve its
sacredness, we advocate a centered approach to the concept
of decentralization and hope to become a support system for
those accepting the challenge of sustainability and the
creation of harmony and balance in a total sense, here in this
plaa.
We are nourished by OUT Mother the Eanhfrom whom
all life springs. We must understand OUT dependence, and
protect her with our love, respect, and ceremonies.
The natural law says that the Eanh belongs ro our
children seven generations in the future, and we are the
caretakers wJw must understand, respect, and protect
E Te No Ha for all life.
The faces ofthe future generations are looking up to us
from the Eanh, and we step with great care not to disturb
OUT grandchildren.
from a mes.rage to the Unittd Nations
GtMral Assemblyfrom the
Navajo-Hopi
Traditional Circle ofElders,
August, 1982
KATUAH - page 2
We welcome all correspondence, criticism, pertinent
inforrnaJion, articles, ariwork, etc. with hopes that Kmflah
will grow to serve the best interestS of this region and all its
living, breathing family members.
- The Editors
With the next issue, the K.WAh journal will be changing
from a tabloid format to a magazine format. This will mean
better quality paper and more durability, as welJ as a
two-color cover. We're looking forward to the shift and we
hope you will be pleased with it. Coincidentally, this
upcoming issue, Autumn '87, will also mark the fourth
anniversary since KfilYAh began publishing.
Summer 1987
�The Eagle has always represented the soaring
spirit.....
Of all the birds who fly between Heaven and Earth,
the Eagle ascends the highest.....
But even the Eagle, born to fly, hatches from the
egg into a nest .....
Now, on a bright day in the early summer of his
life, the young eaglet crouches on the edge of
the nest.....
Until this moment, the woven circle of sticks has
been the bounds of his world.....
Within the nest.food came; all the young bird had
to do was wait.
Within the nest, it was familiar; if the young bird
stayed, mother would always return.
Within the nest, it was always safe; all the young
bird had to do was not look outside.
Now.for the eaglet, hesitating there, the nest is a
center point in a much greater circle that
extends to the horizon in every direction unknown, dangerous, exciting, and free.
The young eagle spreads his wings and leaps into
the boundless sky.....
To the American Camp Association, Helen Waite is the
director of the Eagle's Nest Camp near Brevard, NC, an
accredited summer camp for boys and girls that is now
entering its sixtieth year ofoperation and its third generation
ofcampers.
But during the summer months, to the young people
attending Eagle's Nest Camp, Helen Waite is "Bending
GrassH, medicine woman of the camp tri~. a leader and a
~cher by virtue of the love and respect offered to her.
Helen Waite works confuJe111ly and capably on both levels
of her life, giving the young people who attend Eagle's Nest
an excellenl place in which to explore, grow, and change,
and then e111ering with them into that special place and rime to
help guide them through their changes.
Helen: One of the important clements we utilize in camp is
"myth-time". This is an underlying aspect of every camp
activity.
I see a summer camp experience as being about
relationships: relationships between the camp members,
relationships between ourselves and the Earth, relationships
between our split inner selves, etc. In order to learn from
anything or anybody, one must first acknowledge one's
inter-relationship with that other. Once this connection is
recognized. the relationship can be seen as the bonded space
between the two. The speed of learning is the quality of lhat
space. Camp is the connection field, and we put our attention
into creating quality bonding.
"Myth-time" is what makes this possible. It is "the time
before time", the beginning of lhings. By being aware of the
"myth-time" that always lies beneath the surface of our camp
activities and our relationships. we create a circle, a tribal
circle, within which our relauonships grow - honest, strong,
and deep.
We humans arc like gods and goddesses in that we can
create prodigious amounts of constructive effort or
prodigious amounts of chaos. I think we have to return to
"myth-time" to relearn lhe true nature of things and to
re-connect the two halves of our soul, before we can
undertake "initiation", which is talcing a big step "forward"
into the next stage of life.
~: How docs this sense of "myth-time" make itself
felt in the course of camp life?
Helen: "Myth-time" appears in some situations more
clearly than others. All the campers do routine ch.ores as part
of the camp flow. They learn to take care of themselves by
making their beds and taking care of their cabin areas, but
they also take part in camp maintainence, doing dishes,
making bread, carrying out the compost, tending the
gardens. These are tasks that simply need to be done, but
they also build relationships. The campers arc learning to
serve and to take care of others, and although they may not
realize it, they are going back to beginnings. By baking bread
they learn the basic nature of bread - the primary
relationships that exist before the plastic wrap goes on. The
gardens teach them that the Earth is a patient giver. By caring
for the animals, the campers come to know them and learn
the relationships between all species. By doing subsistence
work, the kids learn basic things about the world with the
right side of their minds, even as they are consciously
acquiring basic skills with the left side of their minds.
The presence of "myth-time" is more easily seen when we
do story-dramas in the evenings. We start from old Indian
tales, creation stories usually, but as the kids go from there
and create their own stories, these dramas begin to present in
mythic terms what is happening in the camp at the moment.
The kids write their own scripts and make their own
costumes. We encourage them to use natural music - drums,
flutes, and sometimes guitar - to emphasize the basic
relationship with the Earth.
Katiiah: One of the main driving forces of the adolescent
transformation is the awakening sexual energy. Do you deal
with that at the camp?
Helen: Very much so. First of all, groups are co-ed. We
want to have the boys and girls interacting together. We want
to encourage strong, natural relationships. In the greater
culture young people usually follow roles that on the one
hand deviously try to ensnare someone of the opposite sex,
and on the other band domincerin&lv try to ensnare someone
of the opposite sex.
At camp and on field trips the kids are involved in real
situations that often demand courage and physical stamina.
When everybody is pitching in on a difficult task or talking
openly together in a group circle, the sham tends to fall
away, and they deal with each other more as individuals and
allow each person to make their own, unique contributions.
- continued on page 4
KATUAH - page 3
Summer 1987
�• COlllim.aed fiom NC 3
Relationships arise that arc based on friendliness and arc
deep and enduring. We see big changes. The girls in
particular become more assertive.
Often in a group there is one girl, whom I call the
"goddess" or the "queen of beans", who takes an active role
in the other girls' lives and relationships.The "queen" takes
confessions from the other girls - I'm amazed sometimes
about how frank they are! - and negotiates relationships.
Sometimes she gives her blessing; other times it's "Off with
his head!"
We talk about siruations like this in the girls' circle, and I
ask them, "Do you like having her decide on your life and
decide whom you should like?"
Usually they say "No", but if they say "Yes", then it's out
in the open, and we set up basic ground rules about bow to
carry it on.
Another approach is to act out the
situation. I sometimes say, "Sarah, you
be Betty. Jane, you be Sue. Now what
would you say, if she came up and said
this: ..... " It's often very educational for
the kids to see how the others perceive
siruations they're all involved in.
There are also times when a boy will
do something like go into a girl's trunk
and snatch out her underwear, because
be thinks that that is a powerful act. But
it's actually an act of domination. The
girl has bad something that's close to
her, something very private and
personal, exposed against her will.
In a siruation like that, I might take
the ones involved apart from the group
and talk with them about the different
levels and the different meanings of the
word "rape", trying to be very frank
and open so it can be seen as something
manageable and not a dark sin someone
will be condemned for. I might express
it in terms of old stories of gods
abducting goddesses, or I might
suggest they act out parts of Troilius
and Cressida or another story like that something so that the basic relationships
are very clear to them.
These arc valuable experiences .....if
we confront them. So we always try to
confront them when they occur. We
spend a remarkable amount of time
doing that. Of course we do horseback
riding, swimming, and all the regular
camp things, but we spend a great deal
of ti.me in learning siruations like these.
But to be learning experiences, there
bas to always be someone there who is
aware and understands the implications
of the siruation in order to take advantage of it and bring it to
a satisfactory resolution.
In the evenings when we have our shows or
entertainment, the kids will let it all out, and we'll see them
really strut their stuff. That's great - that's up front and real,
and if a camper does have some attra.ction as an actor/actress
or a story-teller, that's quite valid. That's their real self
coming out
KllWlb: "Initiation" is used to mean peak moments that
mark stages in a process of transformation that is acrually
gradual and happening continuously. But at certain key
points one can stop the action and say, "A change is
happening here," by recognizing and celebrating the occasion
with a ceremony or ritual. Arc there cenain ways these
moments are recogniz.ed in camp life?
Helen: The first major initiation is for a camper to leave
home. This is "moving into the tribal circle". Our society is
so fragmented that this sometimes is a major growth-change
for a child and often the most important single event of the
camp experience.
KATUAH - page4
Every camper receives a camp name. I work with an
Indian lore group, which is a "tribe within the tribe". They
receive their names in a little ceremony which is held at a
small waterfall. Each camper has already chosen their name,
and they crawl through the waterfall into a small crevice
behind, getting completely wet in the process. They are then
called back out by their new name.
I start with the campers to whom this is a challenge of
medium proportions. This docs not make it seem like a light
thing of no consequence, but at the same time it encourages
those who are more afraid. Because the situation is a
ceremonial one, the lcids all go through with it, even though
it may be a big step for some. There is something about
ceremony and ritual that brings out the deepest and truest
aspects of people. The sense of "myth-time" gives meaning
to the situation.
There is also an element of sacrifice
in the ceremony. That is one reason it is
hard for some of the kids to go under
the waterfall. Beyond just thinking
about getting their clothes wet. there is a
part of them that realizes that they have
to give something up, that "something"
being their old identity, to receive a new
name and a new identity.
For the older kids, we have a
program called Hanre, which is roughly
analagous to the "walkabout" or other
ancient puberty rites in which the young
people went out to seek power and to
learn about themselves in the context of
the natural elements. But while young
people in ancient times who had grown
up in the circle of the tribe went off on
their own as individuals, our campers
go off in a group of kids their own age.
Hante challenges their physical abilities,
which gives them a feeling of
accomplishment; it gets them outside in
close touch with nature; and, not least
imponantly, it tires them out. They do
activities like rock-climbing, whitewater
kayaking,
making
a
mountains-to-the-sea bicycle trek, and
hiking. The "Odyessy Trek" is an
11-day, 100-mile walk along the
Appalachian Trail.
Being able to take care of yourself
completely is an important part of that
stage of life, and the Hante group
provides for itself totally: they live in
their own area, and they cook all their
own meals. That means if they come
back late from somewhere, and they
decide they want supper, they have to
decide to prepare it, too. They also
prepare and pack alJ their own food for the "Odyssey" hike.
We have two food dryers, which the campers built for
themselves, and they dry food and make "pemmican" (which
is actually my grandmother's fruitcake recipe with a lot more
fruit and nuts added) to take with them on the trail.
While they're hiking, each camper carries their own food
and equipment for the whole 11 days in a 45 pound pack on
their back. The group cooks supper together over a
communal fire, but each camper is responsible for their other
two meals each day. They have to ration their food for
themselves. If they cat it all up before the bike is over, then
it's gone.
The mountains and the woods have an effect on the
kids.The "Odyessy" is a journey back to our first home, the
wild places. These mountains are very special. They are
powerful teachers, and they will work on anyone who will
make the effon to get off into the backcountry.
Body movement itself is important Jusr the rhythm of
feet on the trail can set up a meditative state that changes the
kids' consciousness.
On the trail we always have a sunset ceremony each day.
We gather and pass a "talking feather" so that each camper
- continued on page 28
Summer 1987
�Visions in a Garden
A light green voice
lihs my eyes from the leaves:
the Goddess of Green Things
is approaching me.
Between okra and squash
and tomatoes she comes
smiling at the com rows
through the green song she hums.
She·s the mistress of mustard greens
an oracle of onions
proctor of pumpkins
serenader of squash.
She·s the governess of garlic
enchanter of eggplants
leading the lettuce
in a growing symphony.
With no written rhythms
of the cycles and seasons
she sings to tempt the turnips
and beguile the green beans.
With leafy green lyrics
highlighting sunshine and rain
she conducts the orchestra
of my garden and
fertilizes my brain.
Tat& Andres
�by Snow Bear
Conirary to what others may say, the
dominant culture has evolved cenain "rites
of passage" for young people. Drug,
alcohol, or toba.cco abuse; early sexual
relations; and the thrill of fast and reckless
driving are ways that our youth sometimes
signify to themselves and to their parents
that they are emerging into adulthood. These
things arc glorified by the television,
movies, and advertising that control the way
children of the dominant culture think.
I was initiated by my father into the
world of men when I recieved a gun from
him at the aic of twelve. This is still an
imponant moment for many young men
in this area. It is a statement of trust for
a father to place a gun, and therefore the
power of life or death, into his son's
hands. It is a major responsibility to
accept a gun, for if it is used carelessly,
a human life could be ta.lccn.
But hunting is also an excuse for
the father and son to go out i.nto the
woods together. It was a very
meaningful time to me. When one is
hunting, one is very quiet and sensitive
to the presence of other living things.
Of course there is the adrenalin rush of
squeezing the ttiggcr and ending a life,
but, for me, a large pan of the initiation
consisted of being alone with my father,
silent in the forest
Today, I have come to feel that
receiving a gun is not a good token of
maturity. Our forests arc small and
ovcrhuntcd. Where I live we can nor
afford to continue killing the few
remaining animals. I strongly believe
that today our young people need a
siitnificant emcrience i.n1Q. life; we
should not place such an emphasis on taking
life.
Before, when hunting was a way of
life among the native people, a successful
hunt was a matter of human survival;
hunters took the lives of their fellow
creatures with a spirit of thankfulness based
on revcrancc. Today the gun removes us
from panicipation in the life and death of the
animals we hunt. When someone shoots
down a buck from 100 yards away, they do
not have to know the animal as well as if
they had to get within bowshot. They arc
removed from the pain and terror in the
animal's eyes at the time of death.
I put down the gun at 14 years of age
when I discovered I would rather sec
squirrels jumping through the treetops, and
the deer grazing peacefully under massive
oaks.
HELPING TROUBLED TEENS
MAKE TIIE PASSAGE
Part of my family's work is to reach
out with understanding to youth at risk and
adjudicated youth. In our Second Home
Program we take young people into our
family (my wife Khalisa, Jody (14),
Leilana (6), Johanna (3), who is
handicapped). For two months to a year,
they arc part of our life and work. We tutor
them in all their school subjects; if they are
high school graduates, we do remedial work
and indepcndant academic study. They learn
agricultural and building skills, receive daily
counsel, and extend their physical and
emotional limits through wilderness
challenge activities - backpacking,
KATUAH - page 6
visioN
QU£ST
being self-centered to thinking of things
ouLSide themselves and providing for needs
other than their own.
Another challenge is to see that whatever task they are given is done well. The
kids that come to us often do the minimum
expected of them at home or in school and
make linle effon at personal achievement. In
school, when a student "fails", it is
assumed that they cannot do any better.
Usually they do not~ to do better. In our
one-on-one tutoring, we carefully go over
every mistake made, and the work is redone
correctly. The result of this has been that in
a four hour learning day, kids who were
labeled '1earning disabled" passed the
achievement level of their peers going to
school seven hours a day.
We are also, literally, a "second
family" to the kids. We live in a family
context, and we spend most of our time
at home. We grow food and make
meals together, clean house and cut
firewood together, and serve the people
who come to the school group
programs, seminars, and summer
camp. Teenagers from the city are used
to having school, the movies and
hangouts be the setting for their lives.
In our experience, the kids with the
least family life are the most messed up.
We give them membership in a family
that is physically together. There is a
feeling of having an extended family
built on a foundation of understanding
and acceptance, trust and love. It is
something solid to move out into the
world from, and a place to return to
when things get hard
TirE VISION QUEST
whitewater canoeing, horseback riding, and
primitive camping skills.
Most of these young people have
come from the urban culture and have been
damaged by negative "rites of passage".
We try to replace those negative rites with
positive qualities that will serve them
wherever they choose to live.
The first order of business is to
introduce them to the real world. Not the
"real world" as they thought of it • which
was largely concrete and fast action, but the
living world that sustains us.
Connectedness with the earth is healing to
human beings, no matter where they are
from or bow they grew up. When a person
is surrounded by the beauty of living things
and the songs of wind and water, the spirit
begins to heal. no matter how wounded it
is. I try to bring knowledge of the plants
and animals to these young people, because
it is easier to feel close to familiar things.
Along with this, we present them
with personal challenges: responsibilities
successfully fulfilled, communicating
honestly and openly, showing energy and
initiative in all their work. We extend our
trust to them unless they have betrayed it by
being dishonest with us.
Responsibilities successfully fulfilled
usually lead to a feeling of confidence and
strength. As teenagers become proficient at
handling responsibility, we tum over to
them more responsibility for their own
lives, and with that comes more freedom,
which is what they keenly desire.
A good beginning is taking care of the
horses. Keeping them watered, fed and
exercised takes a young person beyond
As a single rite of passage, the Vision
Quest is the form I most strongly relate to,
simply because of what it did for me and the
influence it had on my life. My
understanding of the Vision Quest is that it
is a time of solitude in the wilderness, of
fasting and prayer, of self examination; a
time of discovering one's beginning gifts
(strengths and virtues), and limitations,
one's medicine name, and how to be of
service to others.
Two of the teenagers with us in the
Second Home Program chose to go on
Vision Quests. One boy tried to do a
four-day quest fasting alone in the woods,
using only water and sage herb. When he
began, be thought it would be an easy thing
to accomplish, but he returned after a day
and a half in the woods. The fasting had
been bard, but the "aloneness" was what
had driven him back.
He said he had been scared of what I
would say, but I told him, "What I think
matters very little. The important thing is not
to be ashamed. The Vision Quest is a
teacher. You thought it would be easy to be
with yourself alone, and you found that it
was not so. You learned something about
yourself, and therefore the experience was
not a failure."
The other person to attempt the Vision
Quest was a woman 20 years old. She had
stayed with us when sh.e was 15, and had
been visiting us regularly ever since, so she
was truly "family" to us. She completed her
vision quest, in the course of it facing up to
some difficult things about herself, and
came through in a very strong way.
Nowadays few people pass directly
Summer 1987
�into adulthood from pubeny. I know that
was true for myself. My body was mature
quite awhile before I was, and I am still not
finished! I have had six people ask me to
help with their Vision QuesL Most of them
were in their twenties or thinies before they
began even asking the 4uestions that led
them to make the passage.
In the old days when a girl reached
the age of 13 or 14 it was time to begin
raising a family, and she had to be ready for
it. Now there are people in their fonies
looking for answers and feeling that they
have missed something. Whenever these
people ask me, I tell them that they have not
missed out, that this change does not come
at a set time for everyone, and that it is
never LOO late to go through the transition.
Those people who come to me
asking my help with their Vision Quest,
come because they k:now me, and they
know the effect my Vision Quest had on my
life. The first thing I tell them is that there
are other people who can help them better
than I could. Then, if they persist, I warn
them that, because we are not the Old
People, what worked for them in one way
may not work for us in the same way. I
warn them not to expect dramatic,
thunderous visions. Then, if they still want
the experience, I make sure that they
themselves choose the conditions of their
quest.
There are two main possibilities. One
is a quest for a personal vision to gain better
self-understanding and a purpose in life and
to find a beginning place on the world
medicine wheel. This is best helped by
fasting, personal prayer, song, and selfcxamination. The other possibility is to fast
for the benefit of all living beings. In this
fast I encourage people to make a medicine
wheel and walk, first LO the east where they
make a song or prayer, then back to the
center, and then to the south, where they
make a song or prayer, continuing in this
way around the medicine wheel for the
whole day, or as long as their strength holds
out. Several people have mixed the two
ways, doing the first for two days. and then
the second for two days more.
PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY
We prepare for the Vision Quest first
by exploring the person's purpose in
choosing to do the quest, agreeing to the
conditions of it (how long, in what place)
and passing on any necessary instructions,
such as how to build a medicine wheel or
how to bless the Vision Quest site. Then we
go to the sweat lodge together with a few
carefully chosen friends to help us. In the
lodge we sing and pray to strengthen and
purify ourselves for the healing work ahead.
After the sweat lodge, we fill the prayer pipe
in a sacred manner. If the person has their
own, we fill it, seal it, and that person holds
that pipe every waking moment of their
quest. My prayer pipe is filled and scaled,
and every sunset during the Vision Quest I
hold it to make prayer and song to send my
power to them. Also at sunset I leave water
and sage for them at a place near the site of
their Vision Quest
At the end of their time I meet them,
carrying my prayer pipe. We do not say
anything until we have smoked in silence,
then the person relates what has happened
during the time of the Vision Quest.
Of panicular importance to me is to
KA TUAH - page 7
know what living things visited them in the
course of their fast and what they thought
and felt in the presence of these beings.
Even the smallest messengers of the spirit
arc imponant., and often they have very
strong powers. I tell people, "Until you can
receive a fly or an ant as one of your
relations, you won't be able to receive the
eagle or bear."
One woman was visited by a spider
that dangled just in front of her eyes. She
watched it for hours as it went about its
work. They became sisters and she learned
much.
drumming of
the woodpecker
echoing
always there
with the trees - yakking
laughing
i don't know where
a feeling
ifollow
i am the forest
around me
the activity
i am the creek
the mus
the violets
and the bees
i am the branches spreading
into the sky
the sun in your eyes
which vanishes suddenly
the clouds
birds come around
a rabbit
Only after we talk of these things do
the people tell me about their dreams. Even
on a Vision Quest, most people's dreams
that I have heard have been quite ordinary. I
am not a spiritual dream interpreter, but I do
give my thoughts and observations as a
fellow human being. Dreams arc valuable
because they arc often the battleground
where peop.lc contend with the fears,
doubts, and things they do not like about
themselves.
In consenting to aid people in their
Vision Quests, I am not trying to set myself
up as a teacher. I do this with people whom
I feel arc my. brothers or sisters. I do this
first as a friend. Today many people cannot
find elders who know the way of the Vision
Quest to aid them. Lacking thi.s , I consider
that for them to have this experience with
the help of a friend is better than not to have
it at all.
Everyone I know who has taken a
Vision Quest has returned from it
strcnghthcned, humbled, and deeply
moved. On the Vision Quest we come to
know ourselves and our world in a way
words cannot express.
they don't mind
the rain
somethingfallsfrom a tree
and lands with a thud
stay here long enough
and you will know
there are no secrets
i can't describe whaJ
i understand
the entire meaning
seems to be
almost here
coming
from
everywhere
a/la/once
i can't even see
guided by the wind
whispering in my ear
- Patrick Clark
Snow Bear has bun co·dirtctor of
Farm Camp with hU wife Kh.alisafor
niM years. lie is a naturalist, htrbologist. and
/
follower tf native Earth ways.
Pep~rland
Medicine s.h.i~ld by Snow Beu
Photo by Rob Mcuick
Summer 1987
�..
an experience that was hidden for them ...and where they can
pass onto her, my daughter, in an atmosphere of empowerment,
something that they will in a sense be giving to themselves that
they have learned in their own time. I love any and all
ceremonies.
Do you have any specifics as to how or where you'd
li ke to shar e this ceremony with your daughter? W h o
would you invite? Where will you hold your ceremony
?
Bonnie: When the event occurs, my daughter has requested that
she would like to go out with the family for a special dinner at her
favorite restaurant. We have quite a few younger daughtefll also
and I think it would be beneficial to them co be a part of this
celebration and to understand that this is a "big" day --their
sister's special day.
My daughter and I would then create within the following
few days a ceremony for her and some women friends, mutual
friends, and we would come together in our teepee.
How do you feel about this?
Hannah: A little strange...
Bonnie: What is strange? Do you think this ceremony will help
you to feel less strange?
Hannah: Probably
Do you feel this way because you know tha t other
girls your age do not have this type olf ceremony?
first flow
We are here today 10 ta.l k about something very special
Hannah: Yes
Do you want to gather together with other girls your
age?
10
a
Hannah: No, grownups, but not girls in my class.
Bonnie: Would you like to share with us an impression that you
woman --her initiation into womanhood. Two friends are here
got from the Amazon lndians?
with me .. .Bonnie Freed, mother and her daughter Hannah, 12
years old. We've come here to discuss the celebration for this
daughter's soon-to-come puberty.
Julie Gaunt , interviewing for .Katu.ah
Hannah: Yes, I watched this movie called Emerald Forest
about this boy who got lost in the Amazon and these Indians
kidnapped him and he grew up with them in their tribe and when
he got old enough, they put ants all over him and this made him
change into a man.
Bonnie: That was the symbol of his passing into adulthood.
What is it that has inspired you to want to celebr ate
your stepdaughter's coming into womanhood?
Would you like to go through that?
Bonnie: I read a wonderful article in Mothering magazine about
a community in California that celebrates the coming of age of the
young men and women in their community, boys when they tum
13 and girls when they experience their first menses. It just really
inspired me because I feel that whenever we put out or put in
front of us an intention, it draws to itself 'like energy'. ln other
words, if we choose to celebrate a certain time or coming of age
and we do it with an energy, we draw in real positive energy and
we give it emphasis. ln a loving and powerful way, my daughter
will gain some of that strength in her experience.
I believe that it is important, in whatever way we can, to
acknowledge and reconnect ourselves to the rhythms of our
bodies and also our Earth. These acknowledgements are
powerful for us as human beings. There is a rhythm to our lives,
our bodies, and to our planet . As a culture we have become very
disconnected from these rhythms. So it is very helpful for us to
create our own ceremonies from our own instinctive beingness
and to empower each other to enact them.
I felt very attracted to this particular ceremony as it is
presenting itself in my life--having a daughter who is coming
along very much into puberty. I feel this could be beneficial to all
of us. I want to say though that we do not have to follow any
certain ceremony. although we can draw from other ceremonies
and learn from them. We should go ahead and create out of our
hearts, our love, and our own instincts, ceremonies for passages
so that all of us feel connected to our deep inner rhythms.
I can re-affirm my own feminine wisdom, my own ageless
womanhood, and bring my daughter this celebration that will
create a groove..or a flow .. where her life can have a
direction... where other women will also come together and
affirm for themselves an experience that was difficult for them, or
KATUAH - page 8
Hannah: No. (laughter)
Bonnie: l think it's important to acknowledge that it is a bodily
symbol of passage into adulthood.
Hannah: It's scarey!
Bonnie: Why do you feel it's scarey?
Hannah: I don't know.
Bonnie: Do you feel it will be less scarey if you share with other
women about how they felt and what becoming a woman meant
to them?
Hannah: Yes.
What 's often scarey is the unknown. We a r e talking
abou t somethin g that you h ave not yet e:rcperi enced.
This is something you've never been through, so it's
na tural for you to be scar ed.
Bonnie: So many adolescents don't have an acknowledgement of
their passage and so they use other ways to try to establish it, like
rebellion and pushing the parents away. Nothing they do seems
right to them and they drive too fast, do drugs or whatever they
can. If we as parents take that opportunity to acknowledge this
passage, perhaps it will free them from these confusing times
where they are trying to prove they are adults--if we allow them
to become adults.
Resources: "Self.(jenerated Ceremonies", Foster, S. & Little, M. in
Molherlng. Winter 1986. The article is excerpted from an upcoming book
by Foster & Little entitled Crossjng !be Threshold; Contrnrnvrarv
7
Rites of Passage and lnjtjation at SjgniCicant Stages oC !.jCe.
Also Earth Wisdom, Dolores LaChapelle.
Summer 1987
�THOUGHTS ON INITIATION
In connection with the topic of initiations, I have been
having thoughts, particularly in relation to young people coming
of age, and, I agree, it's vital work. In the past year I've spent a
lot of time growing toward an understanding of what's lacking
for teenage kids these days and how to provide opportunities for
them to find and follow their own visions in a positive cultural
context.
Today's adolescents are the Pluto conjunct Uranus
generation born into the nuclear/mass media age of insanity and
deep global transformation.• They need to develop the inner
resources necessary to cope with the unbelievable stress built into
our social environment. They don't need more information. They
don't need dogma in any form. They need iniuanon mto their
own private, collective mysteries. There's a fierceness of spirit in
kids these days that demands to be grounded in timeless reality to
enable them to find strength, compassion, and clarity within,
while chaos and change rage unchecked about them.
What is initiation?
ft is a self- or group-induced experience that frees one to
encoun1er one's highest self, one's deepest truth, and one's most
expansive vision of reality.
What are the functions of such an experience?
To provide opportunities for people to find and trLtSt their
own myths to live by and to aid them in all life transitions by
leading them 10 their own connection with rhe Great Mystery.
. l~IJI
And ritual?
Ufe is a ritual, wherein we learn to bring feelings and ideas
into physical reality and to enjoy the process. Along the way, we
are all constantly being initiatied into greater awareness and
responsibilicy by every instant's dreams. Occasionally we take
the time to recognize the miracle of the moment and to honor it:
ritual.
We need more of those moments of recognition and
remembering. We need to do it for ourselves and for each other,
and a group ricual provides a structure and context in which it can
happen. It is exciting and comforting to be with others who are
also daring to get back to their essential selves. It confirms the
power, beauty, and reality of the experience we are all sharing.
Someday I wish to do initiation rituals with young
adolescents. I would ger them our into nature, let them go wild,
and then bring all that energy back to Earth in grounded group
mediui.tions. I would teach them how to focus all that fine cellular
energy in healing ways by channeling it through their hearts. I
would give them time, space, and encouragement to find their
own deep connections with both the Eanh and the Stars. We
would explore and share our discoveries through artwork,
poetry, music, and dance. The initiation would be into our
infinitely creative selves and into the healing power of love.
Rituals would grow out of each person's dreams and
awakenings, deaths and creations. The ri1uals would be each
person's narratives of reality as experienced both inwardly and
outwardly and would serve as bridges between the two.
Thank you for existing Maggie Schneider
ARCHETYPES OF MALE INITIATION
by Rob Messick
The first initiation of a human being into the world occurs
at binh. At this sacred time an infant instinctively needs to bond
with parents. As with other primates, this bond is made through
touch and is crucial to the healthy and associative development of
an individual throughout his or her life.
Due to the large skull and brain size of our species, we are
born somewhat prematurely, so that we can pass through the
pelvis. The infant is helpless for many months after birth and
must have support from parents or other adults for the survival
not only of the body, but also for the transmission of human
culture through language and other customs.
Likewise in human evolution, puberty has also become
premacure to the begetting of an adult into responsible life in a
community. We can reproduce before our highly structured
societies can accommodate the effect of this urge. Near puberty
we need a bond slightly different from that required at childbirth.
We seek relationships with other adults in the community and
with peers of both the SlL!lC and the opposite sex.
There are three basic themes in initiation rites of a youth
into adulthood: sepfJation from parents and siblings;
transformation of roles and attitudes; and integration into the
village or community through apprenticeship. The main purpose
of initiation practices for young men is to start them on paths into
the community, away from the influence of their immediate
families, yet still being in proximity to them. Many cultures of the
past, and some today, recognize this coming of age time as basic
to the health and longevity of a people. The industrial era, or
"civilii.ation" in general, has created an environment where these
essential bonds are easily jeopardized. It is deprivation at 1hese
important junctures that can lead to isolation or disinterest in the
cohesive contacts human beings need.
Adolescence is basically a result of our descent into
"civilization" and the hyper-industrialiw:I era which has created a
kind of extended dependency. This period starts after puberty and
can last into a young person's twenties. Through schools, jails,
factories, and military posts we have institutionalized the
spontaneity out of a boy's rite of passage until it hardly exists any
longer. Instead of a sudden initiation near puberty, the process is
dragged out over many years, which sets up obstacles that can
block an individual's ability to integrate into a meaningful role
within a community.
It is doubtful that we will ever be able to give up
adolescence and fully initiate young men into adult roles a1
puberty. There is much to be absorbed of what humans have
learned about Universe and our place in it. Yet the initiation
process must be started at or near the time of puberty t0 avoid
confusion. Some cultural event needs to happen, so that a boy
knows that be is accepted and that the other members of the
- continued on page 10
KATUAH - page 9
Summer 1987
�"Initiation is a critical time in
which the direction is set for the
next generation of humanity."
•
:..:- .J.'
J1.t;.'
... ~ - -- ----
._..!_;i.}..:...
lllusintion from a painting by Greg Smith
ARCHETYPES OF MALE INITIATION
corthJed flan precedlrG page
community are ready for him to change. It can be done through
tests or trials of strength or endurance, or through vision quests
in times of fasting and searching.
Initiation is a critical time in which the direction is set for
the next generation of humanity. Adults in a village or community
need to give great attention to young people going through these
changes because the time of cultural bonding can pass swiftly,
and for a youth the complexity of finding worth in the world is
already frustrating. In these times of great emotional intensity,
neglect is the root of misery for individuals and societies. The
effects may be delayed for a time, but the response, assistance or
abuse, that is offered to a human being in time of need shows the
true health or illness of a society. If we mishandle these
responsibilities, we cause suffering.
For the initiation process to fully flower, a boy must find a
role model or set of role models with which he can readily
identify. The archetypes, or pre-existing forms., that manifest in
these role models are basically those of the Warrior and the
Husbandman. Throughout all human systems these
complementary aspects exist
An individual becomes a miniature of the whole human
experience, re.fleeting into and being reflected by all that is good
and all that is bad in it. Each person has the capacity to give life
and to take life as well. We live out the full circle of our decision
to die with peace or with killing. Either path requires great
courage.
The Warrior is partially represented in the range of
de.~b1.lctive role models offered by the present dominant western
culture. Militarism is the primary culprit in this psychological
tragedy, not only in terms of wars fought among nations, but
also in communities, the family, and especially within a man's
soul. Militarism seeks to break the spirit and split the heart and
mind of an individual and then call these powers back in the
allegiance of a state or cause. This is done by manipulation
through fear and rupturing or perverting lhe ties with family,
peers, and community. There is a false discipline in this
alienation from deep human bonds, which ultimately denies a
sustentative initiation into life. Militarism also perpetuates the
myth that the only evil enemy is somewhere outside the self,
neglecting the necessary struggle to conquer the enemy within. A
real initiation should clearly teach that the potential for doing
wrong exists in everyone, but that the power of choice exists
also. It is only through self-examination that the faults of our
species can be clearly identified and transformed.
KATUAH- page 10
The personae that arise from a long-standing tradition of
militarism become deceptively enticing, and appear to offer roles
that are important and economically worthwhile to those on the
verge of initiation. These destructive male role models ultimately
weaken and often tear apart the social fabric of human beings and
the sacred web of life on this planet.
There is a need for strong, alternative male example in this
society. The archetype of Husbandman offers a vital option. The
practice of Husbandry is defined as male caretaking, not only in
helping to raise a family but also in tenns of growing food,
caring for other species, and being a contributing member in a
community. This involves a deep and spontaneous motion away
from the trodden paths of destructive male energies toward those
that plant good seed and provide a place for them to grow. Also
"Sensitivity and the ability to love
and be compassionate are essential
to human survival, as are the
qualities of being determined and
forceful."
involved in this creative process is the wisdom that recognizes the
generations to come. Planting for the future joins the human path
with other life in such a way that humans become a kind of
permaculture, adapting and innovating within a bioregion as an
interconnected yet distinct structure.
The Husbandman attempts to integrate and heal within the
human community. This does not mean that men should become
effeminate and passive. It means that the strength of male energy
can be expressed through beneficial roles within a community. It
is important for a male to be in balance with the female part of his
soul. Sensitivity and the ability to love and be compassionate are
essential to human survival, as are the qualities of being
determined and forceful The love within the heart of our species
can flourish when we respect our connectedness.
Initiation is a call to face the Wanior and the Husbandman.
This initiation rite should exist to allow a boy to listen to his inner
voice, with guidance and wisdom from elders, to determine what
path he must take. Initiation for a male is successful when it
evokes conscience even in the midst of fear; when it shows that
both archetypes exist within him.
Summer 1987
�Katuah Spring
Gathering
KATIJAH - page 11
Summer 1987
'( .,'.Lq • 111\U l IVI
�ADVENTURES IN THE REAL WORLD:
LEARNING IN THE WILDERNESS
SLICKROCK EXPEDmONS
and so perhaps our adolescent rites of
passage should be less specific and less
strucrured than in a deeply-rooted society.
On the trips I lead, our goal is to learn
about ourselves. I keep the groups small.
There are five boys or three father-and-son
pairs in each trip. The fathers and sons take
a siit-day trip, and the boys take an
eight-day trip, of which five are spent
hiking and three in canoes. I supply the
people taking part with everything except
their clothes.
The Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock
Wilderness Area is an ideal place for our
exploration because it is high, rugged
country and contains one of the largest
remaining stands of old-growth forest in the
Southern Appalachian Mountains. This is a
portion of the Appalachians that remains
unaltered, and with Lake Cheoah to the
north for canoeing, I feel that this area
offers a deep experience of the basic
elements of the natural world.
On the trips I emphasize survival
skills blended with experiences of naturt!. I
want the kids to learn how to make a camp,
how to cook, and how to clean the site so
that there is no trace of camp remaining. At
the same time, I want them to learn to
identify plants and animals and to know
which plants are useful to the camper.
complete the trip. After two or three days it
is as easy to continue up the mountain as it
is to go down, and each boy wants to keep
up with the others.
When we SW1 out, the boys have a
hard time concentrating on any one thing.
They are noisy, and their minds are going in
20 different directions at once. But when
they get out in the deep woods among the
mountains, there is a sobering effect. When
we are camping out on Stratton Bald, for
instance, which is a 5,000 foot high grassy
bald, there are miles of unbroken forest all
around us, and it gives a sense of the
enduring strength of these Southern
Appalachian Mountains. It is humbling to be
up there on your own resources, so far
away that the nearest town is just a small
glow on the horizon and overhead is all of
the immense, dark sky. lt makes one feel
not quite so gigantic in the world, but more
a part of the world.
I would also like the boys to gain a
sense of the world in and of itself. I hope
that more than once on every trip each boy
has an opportunity to forget aU about
himself in contemplating some aspec1 of
nature, whether it is a butterfly, a tiny
flower, or something as awesome and
frightening as being on top of a mountain
and seeing a thunderstorm come in at eye
level.
by Bun Kornegay
Burr Kornegay is an experienced
wilderness guide, having led trips since
1971 when he started taking people into the
Adirondack Mountains of New York Stace.
Now he takes groups of boys 11-16 years
ofage and f ather-a11d-son groups to explore
rile Slickrock Wilderness Area in Graham
County, NC.
We visited and talked wirh Bun, and
he told us how he brings boys to and
through a particular rite of passage. This
initiation helps the young adolescents to
discover and work with a new, mature
perspective.
There is nolhing that one could call an
"ideal initiation" as such. An initiation
implies a very definite idea of the status that
a person is being initiated into. There are
some very elaborate and enduring initiation
rites among tribal groups. The ceremony for
boys who are passing into manhood in the
Masai tribe of Kenya is an elaborate ritual
that lasts several days. The Masai have, in
the course of a long, unbroken tradition,
come to a very clear idea of what a man is,
and their initiation prepares the boys for
that. Perhaps for them that is an ideal
initiation, because it makes everything very
definite. The boys know exactly what they
are heading for, and are led there by a
carefully defined procedure.
The way our society is, I do not
believe we can have that sort of thing. And
perhaps it is not so desireable anymore to
know so clearly what a man or a woman is,
KATUAH- page 12
"Any kind of rite of
passage slwuld be a challenge
to the young people
involved. It should test them
to what they believe is their
utmost to utilize both their
mental and physical
endurance and to draw out of
them qualities that they did
not know they had."
At the end of the trip the boys will
know a way of camping that works. The
next time they go out, they can add their
own ideas and do things their own way, but
they always have the basic knowledge that
they can live well in lhe wild.
Any kind of rite of passage should be
a challenge to the young people involved. It
should test them to what they believe is their
utmost to utilize both their mental and
physical endurance and to draw out of them
qualities that they did not know they had.
While hiking, I have had boys say that they
were going to literally die right at that
moment at that very spot on the trail, but I
have never yet had a boy who did not
Summer 1987
�"It is humbling to be up there on your own
resources, so far away that the nearest town is
just a small glow on the horizon and overhead is
all of the immense, dark sky. It makes one feel
not quite so gigantic in the world, but more a
part of the world."
I want them to sense the age of these
mountains. That is another aspect of
learning their place in this world: to
remember how long these ridges have been
here.
Another thing I hope to bring to the
boys is some degree of organization and
self-discipline. This is an important aspect
of attaining adulthood, because another
name for a teenage boy is "disorganization".
Camping is literally an exercise in getting
one's life together for a time. Trips demand
a lot of attention to details, or else a boy
might find himself unable to locate that
poncho or that flashlight at a time when he
needs it.
When we are on the expeditions we
do everything as a group. The boys do not
carry their own rations or cook their own
meals.We rotate duties, and the meals are
packed so that in one package is everything
for a complete meal for the whole group.
I run a tight ship when we are in the
woods. I do not allow the boys to run off
this way and that, because that is taking a
chance that they would get bun or get lost.
The boys soon realize that they are going to
have to work and play together to be both
safe and comfortable in the woods.
When I am leading these groups of
boys I have to remember that I'm offering
myself as an example to them. When I was
young and in Scouts, I remember how I
looked up to my Scout leaders. It's a natural
thing. This is an imponant influence for a
young person's behavior. Out in the woods
I try to set an example of an "outdoorsman"
in the fullest and best sense of the word: one
who is not only a skilled camper, but
someone who sees nature as more than just
something to exploit
KATUAH - page 13
I have to be a teacher, a guide, and a
counselor, but sometimes I like to just be
one of the boys. I like to swim and play
"king of the mountain". I like to have fun
too.
J have had boys who were considered
"problem cases". One boy who came the
first summer had been diagnosed as
hyperactive and was on two or three
different types of medications. He had been
in a lot of trouble at school, and the
psychiatrist who was working with him
advised me to not accept him on the ttip.
He was an active fellow. It was hard
to wear him out, but there was not a mean
bone in his body. That first year, I saw he
took his medicine every day, but he was still
as hyperactive as any boy could be. It
appeared that the medicine was having no
effect at all
He came out again the next summer,
bringing all his medicines with him, but I
did not remind him about it, and he did not
take his medicine the whofo time we were
out. He was so much better! Calmer, mvre
responsible, much more pleasant to be
around.
I told his grandfather about this when
he came to pick the boy up. The boy's
mother later told me on the telephone that he
bad not been on any medication at all since
that trip. That was a kind of initiation weaning from Ritalin!
Many of today's outdoor recreation
activities reflect a desire to conquer or
dominate the world, a trait that runs deep
within our culture.
The world does naturally present us
with obstacles, and surmounting these
obstacles as they confront us is very
imponant to our development. But on my
expeditions I downplay external thrills.
There is a lot of challenge and adventure in
living outside and exploring rugged, wild
country. If someone goes out with the
purpose of dominating or overcoming
nature, they are using it to build up their
own ego. There is a big difference between
that and going out to humbly learn about
oneself.
For mQre information on Slickrock
Expeditions, wntact:
Burt Kornegay
P.O. Box 1129
Cullowhee, NC 28723
-recorded by Stephaen De/or, Didier Cuzange, and
David Whttkr
Summer 1987
�more
ADVENTURES IN THE REAL WORLD
WOLFCREEK Wll.DERNESS SCHOOL
by Curry Morris
Wolfcreek Wilderness School in
Blairsville, GA has been offering programs
for teenagers for 15 years.
The school recognizes the natural
environment as the ideal locale for
self-realization and offers a variety of
outdoor courses to promote self-reliance and
personal growth. The school also has
mountain heritage programs that teach
aspects of the land-based cultures of the
Cherokee Indians and the early white
setllers.
"I'd like to leave you with a little
thought I've been thinking about ..... it's
about finding the "rhythm of life" .... .'The
Rhythm oflife" is like truly good music: if
you have to ask what it is, you'll never
know. You and the people at Wolfcreek
showed me how to find my "rhythm of
life". Thank you." - C (Sclwol course)
One of the school's most specialized
offerings is a 26-day outdoor exploration
program for teenage boys in trouble with the
law. For many of the boys the program is a
last alternative to long jail sentences. The
program is not specifically therapeutic or
rehabilitory, but is based on the premise that
challenging experiences in contact with the
world of nature can put a boy in touch with
deeper and truer inner resources untapped in
life on the urban streets, that can serve as
the foundation for a new awareness of self
and can lead to a new relationship to
society.
During the summer one- to
three-week courses are open to individual
youths of all ages.
Wolfcreek Wilderness School
Rt. I, Box II90
Blairsville, GA 30512
KATUAH- page 14
OU1WARDBOUND
by Doug Silsbee
Outward Bound was conceived when
a British shipping magnate observed that, in
several instances when his ships were
torpedoed in the North Sea, it was often the
older, more seasoned sailors who survived
in the lifeboats, while younger, physically
stronger seamen perished.
Outward Bound founder Kurt Hahn
began the program as an experimental
approach to train younger seamen - not in
survival skills per se, but in fully utilizing
their own tenacity and inner resources in
difficult circumstances. The program was
continued in British private schools as a
training course for adolescents. Hahn's
vision was to strengthen society by
improving the individual's self-concept,
sense of responsibility to others, and
awareness of Lhe potential to achieve
seemingly impossible goals.
There are now 30 Outward Bound
schools in the world, one of which is
located on Table Rock Mountain, NC. The
North Carolina Outward Bound School runs
wilderness-based courses in a number of
places in Katiiah, from Linville Gorge and
Grandfather Mountain to Standing Indian
and the Chatooga River. The goal of the
school is to create powerful emotional and
spiritual experiences for the 2,000 students
that take part each year.
The programs offered by the organization
are personal growth and values oriented,
and wilderness is an important component
of the training experience. Participants,
many of whom have never slept outside in
their iives, spend from 4 to 23 days outside
with a group of 10 to 12 other students and
two instructors.
Courses take place in the wilderness
because of its inherent spiritual value, and
because it is a new and unfamiliar
environment for most of the participants,
and it is a much less complex emotional
environment than civilized society in which
to learn about oneself.
fears: of falling, of not looking good in
front of their peers, of being alone, of
failing. By dealing with the external
challenge of the activities, and the internal
challenge of their own fears and perceived
limitations, participants come to better know
themselves.
Other activities focus much more on
the group, and impel group members to
come to terms with conflict, to look hard at
their own decision-making processes, and
to find new and more effective ways to
work together towards a common goal
Outward Bound experiences are
different from most initiation rites in that
they do not occur at a set time in a person's
life, and are (usually) not proscribed by
someone else as a prerequisite for coming of
age. There are special c-0urses offered for
educators, adult women, people over age
55, corporate executives, alcoholics, and
cancer patients, but a majority of Outward
Bound participants are adolescents, and for
these the course provides a powerful and
meaningful "initiation rite" into adulthood.
NC OurwardBound School
121 N. Sterling St.
Morganton, NC 28679
,y/1
p
Course activities are designed to place
people under a manageable, yet significant,
degree of stress. Rock-climbing, a specially
designed ropes course, whitewater
canoeing, hiking. solitary time in the forest,
and runs on mountain roads and trails are
new and challenging experiences for most
of the participants. Many of the activities
require inctividuals to confront their own
Summer 1987
�adventure, education about the tribe's
cultural heritage, and community service.
In 1979 Gil Jackson, head of the
Family Services office on the Cherokee
Indian Reservation, and Earl Davis, a
former Peace Corps worker, began the
Cherokee Challenge program in response to
problems they saw among the youth of the
Eastern Band of the Cherokees.
"Most of the kids felt poorly about
themselves," said Davis, "and that feeling
arose specifically because they didn't feel
good about being Indians. Any time they
saw Indians portrayed, it was in a negative
way - the image they had was that Indians
were at best poor and slovenly and at worst
public drunks.
"Cherokee Challenge was begun
initially because the kids needed to know
that there was a lot in their Indian heritage
that they could be proud of. We want the
young people to feel good ~of who
they are, not in~ of who they arc.
"That was in 1979. Now the
organization's concept has broadened
somewhat, because we have found that
when the kids think better of themselves,
they do better in school, they're more fun to
be around, and, in general, they're bener,
healthier people."
The Challenge groups from each
township on the reservation and in
Robbinsville are organhed into gru ups
called"clans", after the fu~cient Cherokee
clan system. Participants arc 11-14 years of
age and mostly boys. One clan has a mixed
membership of boys and girls. The others
meet separately.
Cherokee Challenge activities stress
KATIJAH - page 15
All aspects of the Challenge program
are group oriented, and the canoeing,
rock-climbing, hiking, and caving
eitpeditions, said Davis, "help the group
members to learn about themselves and
about each other. The trips get the kids
outdoors, where they learn new skills and
learn how to get along with others."
On one caving expedition the group
went to cast Tennessee near Craighead
Caverns (now the tourist attraction Lost Sea
Caverns), which archeological excavations
have revealed was formerly used for council
meetings or ceremonies by the native
inhabitants.
'The group went into large caves near
there," Davis related, "so they could
experience the wonder of the caves and feel
the annospherc their ancestors felt 200 years
ago when they gathered there for an
initiation or a meeting."
Service work - picking up trash,
splitting wood for the elderly, visiting at the
old people's home, to name a few of the
activities - helps the children in getting along
with the community and points them toward
worthwhile ways to fit in. "It shows them
that they, too, have a role in the life of the
community," said Davis.
As a part of reclaiming pride in their
native heritage, the children have been doing
sweat lodge ceremonies under the tutelage
of Nora Montelongo and her son, who is a
pipe-carrier for the Cherokee nation. The
sweat lodge is a sacred rite of bodily and
spiritual purification that in fonncr times
was practiced before any important mission
was undertaken. In the lodge the children
learn chants and songs in the Cherokee
language, which otherwise is not widely
spoken among the young people on the
reservation.
In speaking of the ceremony, Davis
said that the young people are expected to
approach it seriously and that "they are
taught that the sweat lodge is a valid way to
communicate with God, the Great Spirit, the
Life Force, or whatever we want to call that
part of ourselves."
The Cherokee language has proven a
stumbling block, however, in the cuhural
preservation project "Fading Voices", which
is an interview program fun ded by a
foundation grant in which young people
from Cherokee Challenge were to go among
elders of the tribe to record their stories,
reminiscences, and details of the way tribal
life used to be.
"We haven't been able to get as much
participation by the kids as we had at first
hoped," explained Davis, "because the old
people are more comfortable speaking in
Cherokee. It is their native tongue, and they
can express themselves beuer in their native
language. Since so few of the kids know
Cherokee, many times they got left out of
the conversation.
"Since we have been under some
pressure to produce materials in order to
comply with the conditions of the grant,
much of the work has necessarily been
taken over by adults familiar with the
language. However, I hope that later on we
can turn the kids loose with tape recorders
to get interviews in the way they want to.
This oral history program is extremely
valuable - any time one of those old people
passes away, something irreplaceable is lost
- but it would also be valuable for the kids
to have the experience of communicating
with the ciders, even if we don't get a foot
of tape from it."
"We want the young people
to feel good because of who
they are, not in spite of who
they are."
Material from the "Fading Voices"
interviews will be printed in a special issue
of the Journal of Cherokee Studies
published by the Cherokee Historical
Museum.
Working on a shoestring budget and
relying largely on volunteer help from the
community, Cherokee Challenge has made
strong beginnings in the formidable job of
picking up the broken threads of Cherokee
tribal tradition and reweaving them into a
meaningful community life for the youth of
the tribe today.
/
Cherokee Challenge
P.O. Box507
Cherokee,NC 28719
Cheroue Challenge is a Mn·fJl'ofil organization.
Summer 1987
�NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
THE BUTTERNUT IS DYING
by Clyde Osborne
The white walnut, another of
America's great nut and timber trees, seems
headed for extinction, says Bob Anderson,
a plant pathologist at the Southeastern
Forest Experiment Station near Asheville,
NC.
Better known as the butternut tree,
this walnut species has been hit by a fungus
disease known as the butternut canker.
"And no one is doing.anything about
it," Anderson said as he pointed out tree
after tree in the Bent Creek drainage basin
being devastated by the disease.
"There's not a single scientist in the
nation trying to find a solution to this
problem. A pathologist at the University of
Wisconsin worked on it for 10 years, but he
retired three years ago, and no one has taken
up his work," Anderson said.
The disease was first found in 1967
and has spread rapidly. In 1966 a survey in
North Carolina and Virginia found 7 .5
million butternut trees in the two states.
A new survey which has just been
finished found that there are only 2.5
million left, and almost all of them are
diseased.
Cankers spread around branches and
trunks, eventually killing the infected trees,
although each canker lasts for only one year
and then heals over. Eventually the trees are
girdled by canker after canker in the bark
and the cambium "right down to the wood",
according to Anderson.
The chestnut tree, decimated by a
blight disease, has continued to live because
it continually sprouts from the roots left in
the soil. But the butternut doesn't send up
sprouts from the roots.
And sadder yet is the fact that the nuts
of diseased butternut trees are not viable.
The disease puts the trees under extreme
stress. The nuts produced are useless for
propagation. "So unless some answers are
found by someone, it looks like the tree is a
goner," said Anderson.
A pathologist in Virginia told
Anderson that he had found a few butternuts
which seem to have some resistance to the
disease.
If these resistant trees could be
propagated, he said, they might be used to
restock forests where butternuts have been
eliminated or are being killed.
The butternut tree is basically a
northeastern American tree. Like many other
northeastern species, it grows in the
Appalachian mountains, but is uncommon
in other parts of North Carolina.
KATUAH-page 16
Butternut has been used for furniture,
cabinets, fine woodwork, and panelling. Its
wood is lighter than that of black walnut.
But it has been an economically valuable
tree just like its cousin over the years,
although it has never been as prevalent .
The black walnut seems to be
resistant to the butternut canker, Anderson
said, "although you can infect the tree
manually by intrOducing the fungus into it"
And occasionally, black walnut
saplings, if under stress, will show signs of
the disease. Still the disease does not seem
to be a threat to the black walnut.
Reprinted from the Asheville Ci1ill.l1 by
permission.
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT
Nawral World News Seivice
The American Chestnut was the: most
generous tree in the forest., giving nutritious
nuts for humans, livestock, and wildlife.
The wood was lightweight, rot resistant,
and had a beautiful grain. The bark was an
excellent source of tannin. The native
chestnuts grew 30% faster than oaks, and
even surpassed the rate of growth of Tulip
Poplar. A mature American Chestnut tree
could be over 100 feet tall and have a
diameter of 10 feet or more. And
furthermore, the chestnut composed 25% of
the Appalachian forest trees, growing
everywhere from deep rich coves to dry acid
ridges.
The American Chestnut is now extinct
within its native range, except for the
shrubby sprouts that grow from the old root
systems. It is the victim of a fungus disease
called "the blight" that was accidentally
imported on some Chinese Chestnut trees
around the turn of the century. The blight
kills the trees by forming a canker just
underneath the bark, which spreads until it
eventually girdles the tree. The Cninese
trees evolved with the blight for thousands
of years, and are resistant to it, but the
American Chestnut had no resistance. The
root systems of the trees survive and
continue to send up new sprouts, but the
blight usually kills these before they grow
large enough to produce nuts.
Because of the American Chestnut's
generosity and dominance of the eastern
forests, its demise is considered the greatest
biological disaster in recorded history.
There have been many disappointing
attempts to bring the trees back, but it seems
that the time has finally come for a
breakthrough in blight-resistant American
Chestnut trees.
The Chinese Chestnut is
blight-resistant and produces large nuts, but
it is a cultivated orchard tree and could not
survive or reproduce in a wild forest
ecosystem.
The American Chestnut
Foundation is undertaking a "backcross"
breeding program that will result in a tree
with the blight resistance of the Chinese
Chestnut and the forest-type timber growth
of the American Chestnut. The initial step
in the backcross breeding program is to
cross a Chinese with an American chestnut.
This bas been done before, but the offspring
usually resemble the Chinese parent in their
growth pattern and only about half of them
are able to resist the blighL With backcross
breeding, the blight-resistant half of the
Chinese X American offspring are crossed
with a pure American Chestnut.
Approximately half of the hybrid offspring
of this cross are blight-resistant, but since
they are 3/4 American Chestnut, they will
exhibit more of a forest-type growth pattern.
Working with only the blight-resistant half
of each generation, the backcross step is
repeated to bring in more and more of the
American Chestnut growth pattern while
retaining the blight resistance acquired from
the original cross with the Chinese parent.
If the American Chestnut Foundation can
get the financial support it needs to continue
the backcross program for 20 years, we
should have a blight resistant chestnut tree
that is almost identical to the native
American Chestnut. (Then we'll have to get
out our hoedads and stan planting chestnut
trees on those Farce Service clearcuts.)
There is yet another ray of hope for
the American Chestnut. The blight, a
fungus disease, has become infected with a
virus disease in some areas of the country.
The infected blight is known as
hypovirulent, and even the non-resistant
chestnut trees are usually able to survive
infestation by bypovirulent blight. If the
hypovirulent blight spreads and replaces the
killing blight, then the old American
Chestnut root sprouts that are already here
in the forest will be able to grow to
Summer 1987
�maturity. The drawback to hypovirulence is
that there appear to be many different strains
of the blight fungus, and each strain of the
blight can only be affected by a compatible
strain of hypovirulent blight The American
Chesmut Foundation is sponsoring research
on hypovirulence aimed at isolating
hypovirulent strains that can spread
naturally through the forests.
The American Cllestnut Foundation
publishes an annual joumal and accepts
tax-deductible contributions. Contact:
Dr. David French, Treasurer
The American Chestnut Foundation
c/o Dept of Plant Palhology
University of MinllCSOla
St. Paul, MN 55108
For more information on chestnuts,
subscribe to:
Cheslllutworks
RL I, Box 341
Alachua, FL 32615
($10 per yenr - 2 issues)
NATIONAL FOREST PLAN:
CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
TIIB GYPSY MOTii COMETH
Nalllral World News Service
The "public input" meetings were
well attended, yet an eerie silence persisted
throughout. Most had already heard of the
millions of acres defoliated in the
northeastern states. Few came to debate or
question the proposed treatments. AU came
to find out just what was to take place.
At stake was the fate of 11,000 acres
of private and federal lands in Clay County,
NC. The Fires Creek watershed bad become
the site of a "spot infestation" of the feared
gypsy moth and had received a personalized
environmental impact statement and a
custom-made "eradication program".
The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar
L., was imponed into this country in 1869
in an attempt to create a silk-producing
moth. The rest is history. What the future
bolds for us here in Southern Appalachia
may come as a surprise, for the gypsy has
arrived.
The gypsy moth is more than an
out-of-state transplant. It is a symbol of our
mobile society. It is highly adaptable and
has no natural predators here. The larvae
spin silken threads and are carried by the
four winds. The adult moth lays eggs on
any object near at banct, thus hitching a ride
to faraway and exotic places.
Natunl World News Service
The 15-year management plan for the
Pisgah and Nantabala National Forests was
made official in April and immediately
elicited another storm of protest from both
local and national environmental watchdog
groups.
At issue were three points insened
into the plan in Washington after a
compromise draft plan was submitted from
the US Forest Service regional office. The
first point said that if timber demand
increases, the maximum acreage liable for
cutting could be raised from 586,000 to
846,420 acres. The new plan also called for
a study to assess that demand, although the
last study was completed only two years
ago. The new plan also called into question
the status of three areas declared as
wilderness in the draft plan. A brief
statement insened into the final document
said that wilderness designation for Craggy
Mountain, Lost Cove (Avery Co.), and
Harper Creek (Avery-Caldwell Co's.)
would be subject to review and "possible
modification by the Chief of the Forest
Service, the Secretary of Agriculture, and
the President."
The Western North Carolina Alliance
was already intending to appeal the plan
because of the high level of clearcutting
called for in the Pisgah and Nantahala
forests, but the Wilderness Society, a
national environmental group, said through
spokesman Ron Tipton that the insertion of
the three points into the plan would almost
cenainly result in an appeal from that group
as well. Tipton indicated that other
environmental groups might join in the
action.
Its food source is primarily the
foliage of oak trees, but it also feeds on
hickory, poplar, birch, and cherry leaves,
while a menu of 500 species of shrubs and
vines is also available. Fruit trees, some
nursery stock, and evergreens such as
spruces, helmlock, and pines are selected as
well by older larvae. The primary goal. of
the larvae is to eat, and after the first molnng
this becomes a twenty-four-hour-a-day
obsession.
The effects of defoliation are varied
and depend on several factors. Dry sites
with shallow soils seem to be more
susceptible than protected sites where
moisture and organic matter are adequate.
Yet, slow-growing trees may survive
repeated defoliation better than fast-growing
timber. Healthy trees can withstand one or
two consecutive defoliations while stressed
trees and evergreens succomb after one
attack. Even the healthiest tree will exhibit
dieback and a 30 to 50% reduction in
diametric growth. Defoliation weakens trees
and valuable energy reserves are used to
refoliate. Weakened trees are attacked by
other opponunistic pests and usually die.
Defoliated areas are subject to
increased levels of runoff and
sedimentation, increased temperature, and
ultra-violet light levels at the forest floor and
waterways. Larvae droppings are a stream
pollutant Mast crops would be drastically
reduced. The overall change in plant and
animal species composition would be
cataclysmic.
It was obvious that some action had
to be take.n. The Southern Appalachian
region is considered to be more favorable
than any other area previously occupied by
the gypsy. Conditions in Clay County we~
shown to be more than adequate to sustatn
very high population levels. AdditionallY,
clearcutting to favor oaks, the current
management technique iJn the National
Forest lands, encourages infestation and
timber loss while mixed hardwood stands
are less susceptible.
Unless remedial action against the
moth was taken, the Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APffiS) of the
US Department of Agriculture, acting on a
congressional mandate, could quarantine all
timber products, nursery stock, horticultural
and agricultural crops, and regulate the
movement of mobile homes, RV's, and any
object that could harbor eggs and increase
the spread of the insect The result of this
quarantine would be socio-economic chaos
in the region.
Because of the large acreage of the
Fires Creek tract, aerial spraying was
accepted at the public meeting as the o.nlY
viable method of attack. Several chenucal
and biological alternatives were proposed to
curb the infestation. Each came with its own
dangers.
The dangers of introducing synthetic,
chemical insecticides are widely known,
thus the treatment was not seriously
considered. The idea of biological control
was the preferred alternative.
It was agreed that two foliar
applications of a liquid formulation of
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bl) and Dimilin
(Diflubenzmon) would be sprayed 7 to 10
days apart at the onslaught of larval
feeding. Bt would be used along waterwars
and Dimilin throughout the steep mountatn
terrain.
Bt is a naturally-occurring bacteria
which when eaten by the larvae, induces
digestive paralysis and death by starvation
within three days. It has a relatively small
target group of insect species. EPA bas
given it a "full registration" and has not
assigned precautionary restrications for use
over water. The Bt spores are degraded by
sunlight in 3 to 12 days bot may persist in
the soil for several months before passing
into the food chain. It is "essentially
nontoxic" to mammals, birds, fish and other
animals. Treated areas may be re-entered
once the spray has dried.
.
Dimilin is a harsher but more effecnve
treatment. It belongs to a group of
insecticides known as growth regulators. It
targets insects having exoskeletons and kills
by interfering with the molting stage of their
life cycle. EPA considers Dimilin to be
"moderately to extremely" toxic to insects
and aquatic invertebrates and "slightly" toxic
to mammals, fish and birds. lt has a soil
half life of 1 to 3 years and "will not
accumulate in organisms as it degrades and
passes through the food chain." Research
on the use of parasites and sterile male
moths as natural controls has shown
promise, but the methods are still oriented
towards small "hot spots."
It was the opinion of the expens that
this treatment would control the gypsy moth
with minimal environmental impact. A
- continued on page 18
KATUAH - page 17
Summer 1987
�--------- ,;::II_.·.
.
w--- _i_ _ trca - cn - co-n- u _ i_ _l_ 8 4 8 5 - - -tsim lar _ -tm -t, - d -c-ted n 9_ --- . ---"""""
.;~,~~~=·--------C- &_ - - E- -- -A
- P L_RAT- S ARE over thousands of acres along the
Tennessee-North Carolina line (cast of
Johnson City and west of Boone), provided
hopeful results.
In early May spraying on Fires Creek
was completed. Monitoring of the area will
continue for several years. The local feeling
is "what's done is done and it had better
work."
But the gypsy moth is advancing
south at the rate of 6 miles per year.
Rcgardlcssofthcdcgrccofcontrol achieved
in watersheds such as Fires Creek, the
gypsy moth will enter Katuah in
approximately 20 years and within 35 years
will become well established throughout the
bioregional province.
WASTE TRANSPORTATION
Natural World Newi
The Monitored Retrievable Storage
(MRS) facility that the US Department of
Energy wants to locate in Oak Ridge, TN
may rum into a semi-permanent repository
for all of the nation's high-level nuclear
waste.
Faced by widespread citizen
resistance, DOE hopes for completing a
nuclear waste repository by their 1996
contract deadline have faded into the
distance. The MRS is currently the favored
alternative as a storage place for the spent
nuclear fuel rods that will be passed over to
the government in that year.
If the MRS were to be built, 13,400
shipment-miles of radioactive nuclear waste
in railcars and 6,200 shipment-miles in
trucks would pass through the Katiiah
mountain area annually, according to figures
released by the Southern States Energy
Board. Without an MRS facility,
3,700-5,400 shipment-miles of wastes
would pass through the mountains annually
during the next few years.
Responding to this threat, citizens
from 13 states met in Maryville, TN in
response to a call by the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League to devise a
strategy to counter the proposed MRS and
the problem of nuclear waste transponation.
The group coalesced into a new
organization,
the
Southeastern
Environmental Network and agreed to work
on nuclear and hazardous waste
transponation problems and to encourage
alternative fuels and energy sources.
The new organization represents a
consensus that local people need to take the
initiative in determining new directions for
energy policy. The feeling was that if the
people did not do it for them.selves, nobody
would, and that local groups needed to
make their needs clearly felt in the legislative
chambers and, in effect, "lead the leaders"
to better solutions to questions of energy
generation and waste disposal.
KATUAH- page 18
.[:\_f;~~; .··
~:f-'"''"..
.
. ; ·'1:·
.-:).:• ·~
..,,
• ".:!.: :.-. ,•
.·!~·::··;-. ~,
· ti·
·:.,.,.~.~
;;~t:~Y ·
STATE ENDANGERED LIST
·z~;!:: .#~. NC Wildlife Resources Commission
r"i ,..
!~J/_.
The North Carolina Wildlife
Resources Commission is seeking
legislation that would create an official state
list of animals that arc endangered,
threatened, or of special concern in that
state.
A bill now under consideration by the
NC General Assembly would allow the
Commission's Nongame Advisory
Committee to name members to a council of
wildlife scientists. Those experts would
develop and use standard criteria for
identifying and placing animals and birds in
the three categories.
Debbie Paul, manager of the
Nongame Section of the Division of
Wildlife Management, said, "We have rare
species of particular interest in North
Carolina that aren't on the federal list. There
are several unofficial lists of rare animals,
but none developed under scientific review
or using standard criteria."
Some animals already considered
endangered in Nonh Carolina include the
peregrine falcon, the bald eagle, and th~
eastern cougar.
•
,
MOUNTAINS GET THE SHAKES
NUCLE A_ .....,
- - _ R
WASTE," SAYS DR. SMELLO
Nauual World News Sa-vice
How far away is the Shearon Harris
nuclear plant from the mountains?
As close as your electric bill, CP&L
ratepayers learned at a NC Utilities
Commission hearing in Asheville May 20
when company representatives told a
stunned audience that they were seeking a
26% rate increase over the next two years.
The revenue is largely to pay for the $3.8
billion Shearon Harris facility, which went
into operation on May 2.
CP&L spokespeople did offer to give
customers a reduction in fuel rates and an
overcharge refund, -which would panially
offset the effects of the increase during the
first year, if consumers agreed to swallow
the proposed rate hike.
Many of the people who jammed the
hearing were elderly people on fixed
incomes who may have remembered the
exuberant early days of nuclear power when
officials promised "power too cheap to
meter".
The Harris plant was criticized
throughout its construction for consistently
running over budget, but only later will
consumers learn about the "hidden costs" of
the Harris plant, which are not figured into
cost estimates for nuclear power: the price
of radioactive waste disposal and of
"decommissioning" (tearing apan and
disposing of the irradiated building
structures) in 40-50 years when it must be
taken out of service. Environmental coSts,
of course, never show op in corporate
accounting.
Or. Smcllo, a colorful clown ,
attended the meeting wearing a sign saying,
"CP&L rates are a nuclear waste". Smello
accurately summed up the feeling of the
meeting at the end of his address when he
said, "I may look like a clown, but CP&L is
areal joke."
/
Narural World News Service
An earthquake registering 4.2 on the
Richter seismic scale shook parts of Katiiah
during the early-morning hours of March
29, 1987. Sheriffs' departments and rescue
squads received several calls from alarmed
residents, but damage by the tremor was
limited to pictures shaken off the walls.
The quake centered
30 miles
southwest of Knoxville, TN, but the effects
were felt as far cast as Andrews, NC.
Katiiah is located in the Appalachian
Seismic Zone. According to the Tennessee
Eanhquake Information Center, this wne is
a weak spot in the Earth's crust where two
major tectonic plates meet and overlap.The
two plates generate great stresses where
they press together. The seismic rone is an
area where that pressure is likely to be
released in the form of an earthquake.
The last major quake in the
Appalachian Zone was a movement of 5.8
magnitude in 1897 that was centered near
Pearisburg, VA. The March tremor was the
first to register over 4.0 in 13 years.
According to the eanhquake center,
the Appalachian Seismic Zone is an active
area, recording 25 to 30 shakes per year,
but most of the activity registers under 2.0
on the Richter scale and is not perceptible to
humans.
NEWS
The senate was held hostage
today
by strongwomen who fired
brilliant bursts of metaphor
over their heads
and then escaped
into a waiting
Future.
The Right Hemisphere Liberation Army
has claimed responsibility.
• Will Ashe Bason
Summer 1987
�MONITORING TIIE 'CIDE
SEASON
It's summertime again in Katuah!
Time for sunshine, birds, flowers .....and
poisonous chemical sprays.
Many farmers, companies, and
government agencies use herbicides and
pesticides for fast, effective, and highly
tocic weed and insect control. Farmers
spray pre-emergent herbicides to discourage
weeds in their com and tobacco. Railroad
companies and state transportation
departments regularly spray railroad beds
and roadsides, utility companies poison
powerline right-of-ways to keep them clear,
and the US Forest Service blankets selected
areas in the National Forests with herbicide
sprays from helicopters. Throughout the
growing season, farmers protect their crops
with pernicious, long-lasttng pesticides.
Suspended particles of these liquid
sprays drift great distances through the air.
They enter the food chain by being inhaled
or ingested in contaminated water and food.
The sprays are highly foen, carbon-bound
chemicals, so instead of being broken
down, they accumulate in the bodies of
humans and animals.
Acute exposure to pesticides and
herbicides cause a burning sensation in the
skin, eyes, or throat, and forms congestion
in the head and lungs. There may be
swelling and aching in these areas and
coughing.
Sub-acute exposure may cause only a
listless, achey feeling and a low resistance
to virus. This level of exposure is possibly
more dangerous in the long run, because the
cumulative effects may result in cancer or
other degenerative diseases years later when
the cause is hard to pinpoint.
A group in Floyd County, VA
is surveying the effects of toxic
sp rays among their community
members and encourages groups in
other parts of Katuah to do the same
by keeping records of spraying dates
and locations and watching for any
apparent differences among family
and friends.
"If we all do this and compile our
records," they say, "we may notice a
pattern, and we will have more information
with which to stand up and say that most
spraying is unnecessary and unsafe."
Contact: Nancy Barnhardt
P.O. Box 417
Floyd, VA 24091
A VIEW FROM THE
by Mchael Hockaday
CORNERS
Valuing Trees:
A Thought Burl Had
Nowadays I was thinking: what Is
a tree worth anyways, In the year of its
cutting, and in its lifetime, that being a
history of everytime we change it? One
half a tree becomes a stud framed In a
wall as long as it stands, forever worth
about a dollar twenty-nine. That's what
you paid for it. Sure, it helps (or
doesn't help) hold up a wall, a door, a
window, but its inherent value as a
stud has been fixed, done with,
forgotten behind a layer of fabric,
sheetrock, paneling. Done for. Gone.
Another soldier of the forest bites the
dust of anonymity. Other trees, or
half-trees, quarter-trees, trunks,
boards, cherished in their dead state
more than when they grew alive, are
used, touched again and again,
changed, utilized in continually
various ways; these have a life in
history as various as many lives.
This winter, after Christmas
mostly, I started cutting up the gnarly
little yellow pine poles a neighbor
used some years ago to hang that
season's crop of tobacco in my barn. I
had mentioned in the fall he'd better
come get them, else they'd be dust by
spring. More nitrogen in the garden.
Gone. Done for. I decided to handcut
them to stove and hearth length with
my bucksaw that's been hanging
around doing very little since I made it
more than a year ago.
It's work, in-between, after-work,
work that's harder as their girth gets
bigger, but chainsawing them hasn't
been a joy either. And it's quiet at
least, a task more aimed at viewing
and appreciating the winter sunsets,
end as they may.
These poles (trees) 1 was
rendering into kindling had been
grown, whether by God and nature or
man 1 don't know, cut down, trucked
around, de-limbed, nailed up to
support a cancer-causing agent, left to
rot, then taken down, de-nailed,
dragged from the barn, sawed Into
length, and carried again inside to
quickly burn into ash. Makes a hot fire.
Good start for winter mornings. Can't
be used to hold up much anymore.
Gone. Glad to have it. And what a
store of time and labor went into the
using of those trees, each one a part of
the shade we love in summer, helping
to sustain some forest's mystery. What
attention we have given them.we who
are In need of trees, maybe more
attention than some people and
animals get. So what 1 the worth of
is
those trees that cost the original user
nothing but the time spent getting
them? And another thing: the same
parts of a tree that may be less than
their worth to use them - a real waste
of time
twisty, doughty ,
unmanageable for building needs maybe the very material made into
items that become collectibles - the
life-size carving of a saint, a sparkling
oaken
threshold,
or
the
delicate-colored, uniquely shaped
panel, screen, or fan. What is the worth
of only that sort of tree? How
expensive is shade?
So is it irony, fate, wisdom, or
simply a matter of economics that the
ugliest, most hard-to-get-to, orneriest
trees become the survivors,
landmarks, or sacred ones? Some
trees are not made for studs, but
mostly all wood bums if you get it hot
enough.
When summer came and that
shade that is woven by a community of
trees appeared, beckoning in its cool
appeal, I left off the burning of
deadwood to go and just sit under
such a precious canopy of living
wonder. I sat content awhile, having
for a spell no further need to cut,
change, bum. There, in those healing
depths of forest - or was it a wood? who cares? - the creek chuckled as it
sparkled along to the sea, and I could
not but agree that things seemed fine
in such a greenwood, while the sun
blazed and wind shimmered the
heatwaves. "What is the worth of these
trees?" I was thinking.
Gr1tphics by Rob Mcssiclt
KATUAH- page 19
Summer 1987
�Resource Directory
Hurrah!
Plan et Dr um Foundation has just published
A Bioregiona l Directo ry listing bioregional groups,
publications and contact persons in Nonh America. The directory
includes a brief description of each listing and it also includes a
map of the represented areas. To purchase a directory ($2) or to
fi.nd out about joini.ng Planet Drum ($15), contact: P lanet Dru m
P.O . Box 31251, S an F r a ncisco, CA
F oundation,
9413L Here are some selections from the Directory:
Mattole Watershed Salmon Support Group,
P.O.Box 188, Petrolia, CA
95558
(707)
629-3514
Restoring near-extinct native populations of Ki.ng and
Silver salmon through the use of low-tech propagation
techniques and habitat repair, MWSSG focuses on
salmon as an indicator species in order to raise local
watershed consciousness. Established in 1980, the
group has released over 100,000 salmon into the Mattole
River.
Ohio River Basin Info rmation Service, 103
Gibson Lane; Wilder, KY
41076
(606)
781-5502
ORBIS gathers and distributes information that is
pertinent to the health of both the natural and social
ecology of the Ohio River Basin. It is concerned with
water pollution, soil erosion, and ways in which the
human community can promote healing the bioregion.
ORBIS runs Sunrock Farm, a bioregional educational
center, which hosts a program on "Fanning and the
Natural World" including activities, tours, songs and
hayrides for lhe kids.
ORBIS will eventually publish a resource newsletter,
"The Heartland Teacher", to promote bioregional
education at the elementary school level.
The Hopi Epicentre for International Outreach
The Hopi E p icentre fo r I ntern ational O u t r each has
opened its doors under the authority and auspices of the Hopi
Traditional Leaders from the village of Mishongnovi on Second
Mesa. Its purpose is to educate the national and international
communities about Hopi culture, history and spirituality in
relation to current events and how each individual must take
personal responsibility towards the healing of the Earth and all
her inhabitants.
Directed by spokeswoman Marilyn Harris from
Mishongnovi, the office is currently worlcing on a film project
ba~ed on the "Hopi/Dine Neighborship Gathering". It is an effon
to inform, educate and share important spiritual perspectives of
Natural Law with the hope of stimulating creative solutions to the
problems facing humankind today. Also, there is an effort to gain
entrance to the UN as the Sovereign Hopi Nation to address an
official meeting of the General Assembly in order to deliver the
Navoti (Hopi prophecy and knowledge).
To inquire or connibute:
Hopi Epicentre for International Outreach, 22 S. San
Francisco St., Suite 211, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. (601)
TILTH Association, P.O. Box 218, Tualatin,
OR 97062
TILTH is a non-profit association on the Pacific
Nonhwest which links urban and rural people who
support a sustainable, regional agriculture. Members
include commercial organic farmers, small holders,
market and home gardeners, landscape designers and
many others who either practice or support biologically
sound and socially equitable agriculture for the region.
TILTH publishes a quarterly journal and periodic
newsletter updates.
TILTH ASSOCIATION/SEATILE
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103
SEATILE Til.,TH is an urban chapter within Til.,TH's
regional network that is interested in city-based food
production. Its office contains a resource library of
books and journals devoted to urban gardening and
animal husbandry. Seattle TILTH .aJso has a
"Demonstration Garden" featuring raised-bed vegetable
planting, espaliered fruit trees, composting
demonstrations and a solar greenhouse.
774-2644
Earth Island
Earth Island Journal, An International E n viron m en tal
N~ws Magazine is an invaluable resource for keeping in touch
with the ecologicaVcultural health of the planet--including
rainforests, sustainable development, indigenous peoples,
appropriate technology, etc. Earth Island is a network
(computer and otherwise) of individuals, projects, ideas, and
places that promote ecological consciousness and action.
Ea r t h Island I n stitute, 13 Columbus Avenue, San
Fran cisco, CA 94111
KATUAR - page 20
NABC Il Proceedings
The NABC II P r oceedings from the North American
Bioregional Congress, 1986 is now being published. It is a
90-page quality paperbound book which contains highlights of
the week-long Congress, including reports, resolutions, and
summaries of presentations as well as photos. The topic areas
ran;l:e from alternative economics, eco-feminism, permaculture,
nauve peoples and people of color to bioregionaJ envisioning and
poetry. Price is $l0eacb plus $1.50 p&h.
Contact: Alexandra Han/ Proceedings, P.O. Box 1010,
Forestville, CA 95436
Summer 1987
�m
Big Mountain
"Our way of life is our re ligion, and our
teaching. If we are r elocated by force, we will
all die slowly. The people wo uld not be in
bala nce with Mother Earth and Father Sky and
t he spirit ual people. In ever y way, he re we are
connected to t he la nd. We belong here."
Ma ry T. Begay, Dine elder
Background:
Just south of the Peabody Co:i1 Company strip mine at Black Mesa
(AZ), the U.S. government is forcibly relocnting 10,000 Navajos (Dine) nnd
100 Hopis in what has come 10 be known as the Navajo-Hopi land dispute.
In 1974, Congress passed Public Law 93-531, which crcntcd n
Relocation Commission and declared that Navajos and Hopis living on I.he
wrong side or Lile panition hne c1rawn by Congress would have to move.
Native leaders charge that the relocation is designed 10 facilitate access 10
minerals, primarily coal, underlying the disputed lands. Relocation is
cwrently being accelerated by livestock seizures, fencing by government
crews, a housing construction ban, and harassment of Navajos resisting
relocation. Nnvajos who hove voluntarily moved to nearby cities have fallen
victim 10 fradulent real estate deals and loansharking. (frotn Th e
Workbook, Southwest Research & Information Center, P.O. Box 4524,
Albuqucniue. NM 87106)
Big Mountain suppon groups around th~. contin~nt
continue to renew their effons to suppon the traditional Dine
(Navajo) and Hopi peoples in their struggle against forced
relocation from lheir homelands.
Currently, a lawsuit is being filed which challenges the
constitutionality of forced relocation by demonstrating the
inseparable relationship between the land and the religious
practices of the traditional Dine. All attorneys involv_ed a;e
donating their services, but funding for offices, etc. is sull
needed.
Both the US House and US Senate arc planning to conduct
field hearings this fall in the Joint Use Area (JUA) and Hopi
Village Nations, concerning this issue. In the House, the
commiuce which will be conducting the hearing will be the
House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. Three
representatives from around the Katuah arc~ are on this
committee: Clarke (NC); Darden (GA); and Lewis (GA). These
hearings could possibly be an imponant way for ~c traditional
Hopi and Dine voices to be heard. If you want to wntc to express
your concerns, write: Rep_ _; US House; Washington, DC
20515.
Although the Dine arc usually self-sufficient, government
harassment in recent years has created a serious need for food,
clothing, wool, and tools. A slide show "In Defense of Sacred
Land" (30 min w/ tape) is available for sale ($65) or rent
($20/wk). It offers a close·up look at 1he traditional Dine cult~re
at Big Mountain and features the complex reasons behind
relocation and the people's acts of resistance. A video "The
Wrong Side of the Fence" (VHS, 60 min) is also available for
sale ($50) or rental ($20).
For general information on Big Mountain and to make
contributions, contact:
Big
Mounta i n
Legal
Defense/Offense
Committee, 2029 N. Center St.,
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(602) 774-5233
Prophecies
The coming of great eanh changes ( canhquakes, upheaval, polar
shifts, etc.) in this period of our canh history has been spoken of
in the prophecies of many cultures including_ Hopi, Mayan, ~s
wcli as Christian. In the Mayan tradition, this August, 1987 is
regarded as an extremely significant time. In all the traditions.
great emphasis is placed o~ the period lc_ading up !o these
changes as an important ume for conscious cleanng a_nd
hcaling... a rime for getting in _balance with the Earth an~ w11h
oncsclf...a time to make a special effon to walk evenly With one
anothcr...a time to acknowledge and live within the ways of the
Great Spirit ... to remember the Great Mystery. Even now, Tunle
Island and the whole planet is experiencing great stress. It is
imponant that we listen keenly to what is occurring. Ho!
KATUAH-page21
Green Politics
"Throughous our country aNJ our region there is a deep Med /0 reclaim tht
word 'politics'. Politics does /IOI hove 10 conjure up images of special
illteresu. corporOle affiances aNJ short·range vi.sum. It can begin 10 mean
self-gowrnance, day-kH/ay ciliunshipaNJ long-range understanding. Politics
can begin 10 reflect and align itself with nature and tht Earth instead of
actively defying it. Wt can begin to see pofilics.. .as if people mal/ered...as if
tht biotic community mauered...as if tht Earth mO/ttred.
from "Tht Politics of Participation"
~ Autumn, 1984
H
Currently, there is a thrust towards a new/old dimension to
politics...one that speaks to ecological wisdom, grassroots
democracy, and personal & social re5P0nsibility. It promotes
regionally-based cultures as well as community-based
economics. It encourages an envisioning of the present and the
future, in terms of bioccntric sustainability. The movement here
in North America and around the globe is called "Green Politics".
In North America, both in Canada and the United States,
the activity and focus is more regional and local rather than
national. In the United States, though, there is a Committees of
Correspondence Clearinghouse which serves as a national
networking center for local and regional groups and individuals
in the country. Groups around the continent are working on
many levcls--some arc running local and regional candidates,
others arc drafting political platforms, while others arc forming
study groups, addressing specific environmental and economic
issues, etc.
This summer 1987, Building the G reco Movement
will be the first open national meeting of the Greens in the US,
and will take place July 2-7, 1987 in Amherst, Massachusetts. It
will be an educational conference rather than a gathering to make
decisions for the Green movement. Sponsored by the
Committees of Correspondence, it is open to all Greens and
activists in kindred movements. It will include plenary panels,
workshops, and group discussions as well as music and
celebration. For conference infonnarion and general inquiry:
Na ti o n al
C learinghouse,
Comm i ttees
of
Correspondence, P.O. Box 30208, Kansas City, MO
64112
The ten key values which have been drafted by the
Committees of Correspondence and are being discussed and
stmtcgiz.ed by local Green groups around the country arc:
*Ecological W isdom •Grassroots Democracy
*PersonaJ & Social Responsibility •Nonviolence
•Decentralization •Community-Based Economics
•Postpatriarchal Values •Respect for Diversity
*Global Responsibility
*Future Focus &
Sustainability
Richard Harrison, from the Katiiah region, is planning to
attend the national conference as well as assist in forming a
regional ·11oca1 Green Discussion group . The first meeting will
be held on Wednesday, July 22 at the Pack Library meeting
room in Asheville, NC from 7:00 -9:00 pm. For more
information: Richard Harrison, 183 Edgewood Road, Asheville.
NC 28804 (704) 254-6910.
Resource reading: Green Poli!ks. The G(obnl Promjss:,
Capra and SprellUllc. Bear & Co, S:111t:1 Fe, NM, New cdir.ion t986;
Secjo g Green; The Polj!jcs or Ecology Exp(pjncd.
Porritt, J. Basil Blackwell, Inc. NY 1984 ; The Sojrilunl
Dimcosjon or Green Po(il!cs, Spretnak. Bear & Co, 1986
... periodicals: Green Lfllrr. ed. Jerry Gwnthney. P.O.Box
9242, Berkeley, CA 94709; New Options , ed. !'.tuk Satin.
/
P.O.Box 19324, Washington. DC 20036
Turrie Island is the native name for the continent of Norrh
America.
Summer 1987
�DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
Following are portions of a letter sent to the editors of
community papers in Georgia and Tennessee as well as to
Katuah:
Dear Editor,
In order to keep my family off food stamps, I've had
to leave my home in southwestern Virginia for the past three
winters and set pine seedlings on clearcut National Forest
land in the Southern Appalachians.
We use an axe-like tool called a "hoedad" and get paid
by the tree, so we hustle over mountainsides and through
briars, bushes, and the tops of fallen trees. It is hard work,
but the pay is good.
The land we plant has usually been clearcut of any
vegetation over three inches in diameter and then burned over
so that when a planter looks up from planting the view in the
distance is often like a picrure postcard, while the closeup
Looks like a scene of nuclear devastation.
At fll'St I thought that the government must make a lot
of money doing this, but in truth it costs tire taxpayers a lot
of171()ney to clearcut National Forest land!
In the fll'St place, the timber or pulpwood is usually
sold cheaply because of the remoteness of most National
Forest land. Then there is the cost. both environmental and
economic, of the roads that the Forest Service puts in to the
site and the cost of a new gate and Ioele to keep the public
out. Then there are the salaries of various people who mark
the boundaries, bum the site, replant pines, people who
oversee the people who replant pines, and often people to cut
away or poison competing hardwoods a few years later.
The cash from the timber sale only barely begins to
pay the money price and could never pay the environmental
price of the cuttings.
Replacing the mixed hardwood forests with rows of
pines reduces the food resources available for many animals.
Cutting the hardwoods also reduces the brilliance of the fall
colors in the mountains. The new pine forests are made of
trees genetically similar to each other, which are more likely
to fall prey to insects or disease before they are scheduled to
be cut When this happens, the Forest Service sometimes
sprays large areas with insecticides, and this has a large
economic and ecological cost
The Appalachians can never really compete in growing
pulpwood with the deeper soil and warmer climare of the
nearby Piedmont or the Coastal Plain, and in the misguided
and federally-funded attempt to do this we will lose priceless
mountain topsoil into our streams and lakes and also lose a
lot of money.
rm not advocating an immediate end to clearcutting,
rather a slowing down to think it over and an end to
automatically favoring pines over hardwoods.
The policy of clearcutting was begun in a sincere
attempt to help our local economies. 11 is certainly true that I
need the money I make at my job. So let's invent some more
wholesome employment for ourselves:
- Perhaps we could pay people to replant ginseng on
suitable mountain sides in the national forest. This could
KATUAH-page 22
conceivably make more money than timber sales with vastly
less environmental impact. Harvest could be by permit or by
free foraging. This could greatly benefit all kinds of local
people and even earn needed foreign eithange, as
Appalachian ginseng is esteemed the world over as the very
best.
- Perhaps people could be employed seeking out the
surviving American chestnut trees and helping them survive.
Perhaps some of the new blight-resistant hybrids of
American and Chinese chestnuts could be planted.
- Perhaps the Forest Service could hire more people to
extend and maintain hiking, bicycle, and horse trails.
- Perhaps the Forest Service could help local people set
up more efficient sawmills, solar kilns, and small
woodworking industries to make better use of the hardwoods
we do log.
- Perhaps the Forest Service could establish small,
local nurseries for treeS and shrubs that benefit local ecology
and economy.
- Perhaps the Forest Service could do more work
educating itself and the people about the terrible realiiy of
acid rain, which has already killed the trees on the tops of the
highest peaks and is threatening the entire forest.
- Perhaps the Forest Service could foster the
development of a few small, viable, village communities
within the National Forest which use local energy sources
and are built to suict environmental standards to teach us
how to live with the forest instead of off it, and offer the
people wholesome alternatives to living in trailer parks at the
bottoms of mountains or in cabins in beautiful bu1 lonely
hollows.
If any of these ideas seem far-fetched, remember that
we could save taxpayers a lot of money by deciding 10 give
the land back to the Cherokee Elders who, after all, did a
very good job of land stewardship here for thousands of
years and would probably take the job at no pay!
The Forest Service is composed mostly of fine
outdoor-loving men and women who hate the bureaucracy
that siymies them more than any outsider possibly could.
They have been caught between a rock and a hard pince with
a charter that demands economic benefit of the local
communiry, the reality of local timber economics, and the the
basically similar needs of sponspeople, conserv:uioniStS. and
tourists.
Remember, only you can prevent runaway
bureaucracy! The Forest Service was set up to nuke policy
based on feedback from local people, and when we don't
offer this feedback, we short-circuit a very good and
idealistic system.
Please write down your ideas about National Forest
land use and send them to:
Chief Forester, US Forest Service, USDA
P.O. Box 2417
Washington, DC 20013
Help return the Forest Service to the service of the
forest.
Will Ashe Bason
Check, VA
Summer 1987
�Dear Katiiah,
rocks
only by shoring their silence
ond solitude
or e we invi ted into
their deep time
their woy of being before god
whot they do
they do well
keep time
w eor w eother
guard secr et s
mark the eorth
whot we see them d o
is nothing
our senses ore too human
their shopes t oo eternal
t he life t hat flow s too hidden
for all our owareness
we have little understanding
of how such life Is sacred
so they fall split open
sit p atiently until
w e come ond hear
the universe w i thin them
groan Its sacred groon
- Thom as Dal e Cowan
Pho10 by Rob Messick
This information is im~t! Can you include this, in pan,
in the 'Solstice' issue of Katiiab? Please try to find room!
(Excerpts from material senr in)
The canh operates as a resonant function of the interface
of two metaprograms, the solar and the galactic, whlch
together comprise a single field.
A resonant frequency phase shift (RFPS) is scheduled
to occur August 16/17, 1987.
The RFPS will alter the molecular resonance patterns of
all living phenomena. By their plasmic nature, most
biological fonns will be able to absorb this shift and
adjust to the new frequency pat1ern. However, much
that has been artificially constructed according to stress
specifications not accounting for RFPS may well be
disintegrated.
In prepara.tion for Phase Shift '87, it is important to
reactivate spirit guides and human-to-human bonding
programs; to reactivate biopsychic maintenance of
planet nodes and crystal gridwoik so that new
frequency imprinting can be received by the earth itself
in order to activate and monitor the new phase. This is
to be accomplished by groups of people in common
attunement attending to all planetary nodes-power
points, shrines, sacred sites; to alert people by whatever
skillful means possible concerning what is about to
occur. Ultimately this means the evacuation of the
cities. since their artificial structures will be largely
destroyed Therefore, plan a crusade--a phase shift
crossing--that is a completely hannonic operation, one
that can synthesize the old frequency into the new. The
Crusade should be in motion by Summer Solstice,
1986. (transmission)
1987-- 144,000 Sun Dance enlightened teachers will
totally awaken in their dream mind bodies. They will
begin to meet in their own feathered serpent or winged
seipent wheels and become a major source of the light
to help the rest of humanity to dance their dream awake.
A Sun Dance teacher is any human being who has
awakened, who has balanced their shields, who has
gained the dream mindbody and who honors all paths,
all teachers, and all ways. (from Prophecies of
lntenribal Medicine Societies of Native American
Indians)
Beginning at Dawn everywhere on the canh on Sunday,
August 16, 1987, 144,000 humans arc being called
upon to create a complete field of trust by surrendering
themselves to the planet and to the hlgher galactic
intelligences which monitor the planet At that time and
continuing through Monday, August 17, the higher
galactic intelligences will be transmitting a collective
planetary vision as well as messages of personal destiny
to and through these people, the rainbow humans.
(Open letter)
Harmonic Convergence: World Harmony Days Aug
16-17, 1987
Join in the Celebration of Harmonic Convergence, a
conscious bonding of people to support an evolutionary
shift from separation to unity and from fear to love.
World Harmony Days include celebrations at local,
regional and international levels which will focus
healing energies to the earth. At the core, 144,000
people will gather at sunrise on Aug 16 at sacred sites
around the globe. They will join at these Earth
"acupuncture points" to create a resonating link between
Universal Energies and the Earth. For info: Harmonic
Convergence, P.O. Box 6111, Boulder, CO 80306
(303) 443-4328.
Anonymous
DRUMMING -conlinuedpage24
KATUAH- page 23
Sammer 1987
�Dear Follc-
1 really enjoyed the latest issue of KatUah. Il
continues to give me great joy to think of the time,
energy, spirit, and blood that is cycled through each
issue. It is a great labor oflove and work. I liked the
"Coverlets" anicle a great deal. I learned much.
But the letters on "More Wilderness" in the
"Drumming" section seemed to me to be shon-sighted.
Sometimes I am confused by what most people think of
as being a "whole system", since the word as it is
commonly only used often seems to have little to do with
the world of good science. (I'm ralkjng about responsive
scientists who care about the land, and there are more
than a few out there.)
I wonder if those writers have any idea how
complex a proposal it is to suggest that cougars could
once again roam "the wild areas of the Appalachian
Region"? Let them take a trip to south Florida and take a
look at how hard it is to support a couple of dozen
cougars in an area as large as .illl of western North
Carolina! Who knows how common cougars were in
this area? They are primarily "big package" predators by
preference, which would suggest that white-tailed deer
would be a major food source. The scat of healthy
cougar cats consists of 90% "big packages" and 10%
small game. So maybe to establish a Fe/is concolor
population in Katuab, we should put them in Cades
Cove instead of in a "wilderness area".
Like Henry Thoreau, I feel now is the time to stop
building castles in the air and start putting in a few
foundations. I'd as soon see us use our energy to create
a "working community" of people, plants, animals, land,
and life in the Appalachians with what we have now. We
already have a wonderful predator moving into our area:
lhe coyote. What"s wrong with a few coyotes?
I would suggest that people who care about the
wildlife in our area go out with a good .410 shotgun and
kill every feral housccat in the region. These "wild" cats
take a huge toll on songbirds and small mammals.
John Lane
,
fKJl iffl)J~(}={f !NJ!ElfWO!RlK
~fPJflOfli1@~
ffrr©m
@~qfhl@rrnfli1@Jrq
Over 125 adults and children gathered at
the Pepperland Farm Camp in Farner, TN
for the Katiiah Spring Gathering. It would
take quite a while to describe in depth the
things we learned, the experiences we
shared, and the spirit we felt there. But we
can say that, there, the beginnings were set
to help the Katuah bioregional organization
grow and become more firmly rooted in our
daily lives and in our local communities.
A network of local contact people is
developing... to help nurture a bioregional
vision in their communities, to help bring
the Katiiah journal to more people, to
encourage more local input into the journal,
to pass around the word about events and
actions, and to sponsor bioregional speakers
and events in their local communities.
Write to the Katiiah journal to find out what
being a local contact per son means.
Volunteer, if you can.
People are also coming together into
" speci fic interest" groups to discuss
particular areas of bioregional life and
culture. The emphasis is on educatin g
themselves as to the most a ppropriate
strategies for living in the mountains. It
includes keeping up with news, events, and
new developments in that particular interest
area as well as lively discussions of how it
relates to this r egion. Hopefull y, it will also
mean submitting articles on that topic so
that each aspect of mountain life is
represented in the Katuab journal. to
"Specific interest " topics include:
Forestry and Wildlife, Agriculture and
Regional Diet, Water, Sustainable
Economics, Healing, Education/Personal
Growth,
Communities,
Ene rg y,
Spirituality, Bioregional Theory, Regional
Politics, and Shelter.
Luke Staengl of Floyd County, Virginia agreed to
coordinate a Katuah regional phone tree to be
used as a networking tool for issues that require
immediate attention such as environmental defense
issues, legislative action, and other special events.
Luke emphasized that when an issue comes
up locally and yet receives regional attention and
response, it is much more likely to be taken
seriously. He encourages all of us to make use of
this kind of networking.
Already, there are over 70 names on the
phone tree list. Some people have agreed to
simply receive a phone call and act on it (write a
letter, etc.). Others have volunteered to call others
in their community, as well. If you would like to
participate in this important regional phone tree
send name, add ress, phone number to:
Luke Stacngl,
Rt.3, Box 120·2, Floyd, VA
24091.
KA11JAH - page 24
Write to the Katiiah journal if you
have an interest you would like to discuss
with other people in the region or if you
would like to participate in this budding
regional network in some way:
Katiiah , P.O.Box 638, Leicester, NC 28748
Summer 1987
�TRANSITION
The hawk flies over me and up
it sings silently soaring; "Spring!"
I have died from lack of flight
from lack of green
it grows.
I see the new and turn my head
the old has clasped my soul
strength welling up and
tears that are not wet but
fall like acid rain, scorching
emotions and stunting growth.
The hawk flies over me and east.
I turn to see what it sees - taking
on the sorrows all around and
shaking and testing my new wings
I cannot fly
yet.
I turn east, thirst overcoming, I
long for water. Mirages appear
in front of me and I think I
have found what I am looking for but it is not water in my mouth,
it is stars.
The hawk flies over me and up
singing, silently soaring, springing
from ashes and into lightning.
I am becoming light
free as the clouds, soaring.....
I am learning to love with
the intensity of fire. Hawk,
energy condensed, shadow threatening
those like me who laugh and
put if off. Shadow comforting
those like me who cry, and my tears
are sizzling like hot oil on the water
of transition.
Wustration by Misha Wilson
- Mara Bradburn
LESSONS IN PEACE
Young
Pe op I e's
Page
Wanted: a world of peace.
I say peace - easily,
freely, the word stems out
and perhaps is used too
often. Wanted: Peace.
I crave it. Freely.
I create it. Sometimes.
Peace is when my anger
turns back on itself and
cries for wisdom. When
anger thinks logically and
knows it's not worth it.
Anger, mushrooming, exploding
in my body, turning,
facing, understanding .....
Wanted: A peaceful world.
The earth is crying.
Peace is when my sorrow
grows into the trees
the leaves absorb it
and say; :"rejoicer·
When sorrow is channelled
the tears become song Peace is when I ache
but I walk, singing, in the
woods anyway.
Wanted: Peace.
I say peace as if I know
what it means.
But when I listen, instead
of talking, Peace says that no one
knows. No one.
Peace is when my resentment
lets loose its harsh ties
and becomes forgiveness.
Wanted: a world of peace.
I dance. I talk. I laugh. I act.
I create. Peace is
when you're doing everything
you can and the only one
listening Is Peace.
- Mara Bradbu,
KATUAH- page 25
Summer 1987
�f't't~'t'f'f't'f'ft'tf't'f'ft'f't't'f't
events ~:::~::r~JUNE
9-8/16 ASHEVILLE, NC
19-21
CULLOWHEE, NC
Appalachian Writers' Association
meeting. Contact: Jim Nicholl; Dept. of
English; Western Carolina University;
Cullowhee, NC 28723
21
SUMMER SOLSTICE
Local gatherings everywhere!
21-27
BRASSTOWN, NC
Music/Craft Week. Contact: John
C. Campbell Follc School; Brasstown, NC
28902 (704) 837-2775
JULY
1-7
G R AHAM COUNTY, NC
Continental Rainbow Family
Gathering. For information, contact:
Rainbow Family of Living Light
Box 1097
Newpon, TN 37821
Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. For
ticket info., write: The Follctellers, P.O.
Box 2898; Asheville, NC 28802
10
CELO, NC
Full Moon Gathering.
Mount.ain Gardens, 6/24.
See
11
HIGHLANDS, NC
"Nantahala Week". Education,
exploration, raft trip. Contac1: The Mountain
Retreat Center; 841 Highway 106;
Highlands, NC 28741 (704) 526-5838
21-27
23-24
SWANNANOA, NC
Second Annual North Carolina
Alternative Earmin& Fjeld Days.
Workshops:
Marketing
Green Manure Crops
Spccialiry Crops
Grceobousc Management
Tools..... more.
Exhibits, demonscrations.
At Warren Wilson College campus.
Contact: Dr. Greg Hoyt; Mountain
Horticultural Oops Rescareh Station; 2016
Fanning Bridge Rd.; Fletcher, NC 28732
2-7
AMHERST, MA
"National Conference for a New
(Green) Politics" - workshops, strategy,
principles. Write: New England Committees
of Correspondence; P.O. Box 703; White
River Jct., VT 05001
3-5
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"The Bliss of Freedom" meditation
retreat. Stil-Light Theosophical Rc1rcat
Center; Rt. 1, Box 326; Waynesville, NC
28786
11
ROAN MOUNTAIN
Roan Mountain Day Hike. See
Nature Conservancy, 6111
11-12
LINVILLE, NC
The Highland Games. Scottish
piping, dancing, Highland athletics
("tossing the caber", "putting the sheath",
more). $7.00. McRae Meadows (US 221 two miles north of Linville, NC)
13-18
~",r
,-....,.,..-,
CELO, NC
"Building and Planting Stone
Walls" workshop. Joe Hollis; c/o Mountain
Gardens; 3020 White Oak Creek Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714
24
~"
,£~
HOT SPRINGS, NC
A Rinzai Zen Retreat. Contact:
Southern Dhanna Retreat Center; Rt 1, Box
34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743
24-28
MARSHALL, NC
Timber Framing Workshop.
Contact: Country Workshops; 90 Mill Occk
Rd.; Marshall, NC 28753 (704) 656-2280
15
CELO, NC
"Building and Planting Stone
Walls". Mountain Gardens, sec 6/24.
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Mosses and Related Plants".
Smoky Mountain Field School, see
6127-28.
18-19
22
27
BAT CAVE, NC
Day bike. Contact: NC Nature
Conservancy; P.O. Box 805; Chapel Hill,
NC 27514
CELO, NC
"Art in the Gnrden" - drawing and
painting class. Saturdays through 8/1.
Rhea Rose Ormond; Mountain Gardens, see
6/24.
3-12
HOT SPRINGS, NC
" Breathing and Meditation".
Southern Dharma, see 6124-28.
ASHEVILLE, NC
Formative meeting for Green
Politics Discussion Group. 7:00, Pack
Library. Contact:. Richard Harrison; 183
Edgewood Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804
(704) 254-6910
5-11
27
T ROUTVILLE, VA
"When Modem Medicine Fails What Then?" Exploring alternatives.
Rainbow Chapel; Rt. 4, Box 87-A;
Troutville, VA 24175
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Research on Wild Mammals of the
Great Smokies" workshop with Dr. Michael
Pelton. Smoky Mountain Field School;
Dep't. of Non-Credit Programs; 2016 Lake
Ave.; Knoxville, TN 37996
CULLOWHEE, NC
"Landscaping with Native Plants"
seminar. Contact: Jim Honon; Dept. of
Biology; Cullowhec, NC 28723 (704)
227-7244
BRASSTOWN, NC
Black smithing Summer Craft
Session. JCC Folk School, sec 6/21-27.
25
HIGHLANDS, NC
"Folks, Lore, and Truth". Sec The
Mountain, 6/21-27.
23-25
5-18
BLUFF MOUNTAIN, NC
Day hike. Nature Conservancy, sec
6/27.
27-28
8
CELO, NC
"Dancing on the Deck" - morning
and evening dance classes. Wednesdays
through August 12. Rhea Rose Ormond;
Mountain Gnrdens, see 6/24.
MARSHALL, NC
Ladder-back
Chairmaking
Workshop. Country Workshops, see
7/13-18
27-31
f't't'f'f'f'f'f't't'f'tf't't't't't~'t't't
KATUAH - page 26
Summer 1987
�AUGUST
1-2
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Mushroom Identification"
weekend and "Big Game Observation"
backpacking trip. Smoky Mountain Field
School, see 6/27-28.
2-15
CELO, NC
Full Moon Gathering. Mountain
Gardens, see 6/24
9-14
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
19
"Forests and Trees of the
Smokies". Smoky Mountain Field School,
see 6/27-28.
23-30 WA YNES VILLE, NC
"What
is
Theosophy? "
seminar/retreat. Stil-Light, see 7/3-5.
19-20 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Research on Wild Mammals of the
Great Smokies" with Dr. Michael Pelton.
Smoky Mountain Field School, see
6/27-28.
24-28
MARSHALL, NC
White Oak Basketry Workshop.
Country Workshops, see 7/13-18.
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Vipassana and Hatha Yoga".
Southern Dhmna, see 6/24-28.
8
NORTH WEBSTER, IN
"The North American Conference
on Christianity and Ecology". Write c/o
P.O. Box 14305; San Francisco, CA 94114
BRASSTOWN, NC
Blacksmithing, Knife Making
courses. JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27.
7-14
19-22
26-30 HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation
Retreat" . Southern Dharma, see 6/24-28.
29-9/4 BRASSTOWN, NC
"Eanhworks" (Fiber and Clay
Week). JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27.
MARSHALL, NC
20-26 BRASSTOWN, NC
Blacksmithing and Early American
Crafts. JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27.
25-27
WA YNES VILLE, NC
"An Introduction to Spiritual
Astrology". Stil-Light, see 7/3-5.
29
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Is There a Future for the Black
Bear in the Southern Appalachians?"
conference. $5.00. 9 am - 6 pm.Owen
Conference Center; UNC-Asheville. See ad
this page.
Windsor Chairmaking Workshop.
Country Workshops, see 7/13-18.
10-15 FARNER, TN
"Backpacking Adventure" (ages
11-18); tracking, foraging, primitive
camping with Snow Bear. Pepperland Fann
Camp; Star Route; Farner, 1N 37333
"IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE
BLACK BEAR
IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS?"
SEPTEMBER
3-7
FARNER, TN
"Touching the Earth Mother".
Retreat with Shahabuddin Less. See
8/10-15.
~~~tt
RECLAIM YOUR P£RSONAl POWER AT A NUA1\JRING MCM.NTAIN RETFtEAT
°""""" -
AUGUST17-23 $285
am. U 81Y OUT\.AW, UIT, MICHAEL.A&CHMlOT
CHR1$TIHE 9YRD. C.H.C.. HERBALIST PAM MONTGOMERY,
4-7
BRASSTOWN, NC
Labor Day Music and Dance
Weekend. JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27.
CAROLYN MOOR£,
INOIAN VAUEY RETREAT
6
CELO, NC
Ill 2 eox sa. WI.US, VA. 24390 fnl3l .,...295
PleMt tMJ.11• 04/I bfocAn ICW oet.MI
Full Moon Gathering. Mountain
Gardens, see 6/24.
14-16 ELKINS, WV
Augusta Folk Festival. Augusta
Heritage Center; Davis and Elkins College;
100 Sycamore St.; Elkins, WV 26241
11-13 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Spiders of the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park". Smoky
Mountain Field School, see 6127-28.
16
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Summer Wildflowers of the Great
Smokies". Smoky Mountain Field School,
see 6/27-28.
16
HARMONIC
CONVERGENCE
Join with others at sunrise and
share your vision of world peace and
harmony.
16-19 HIGHLANDS, NC
"Dare to Explore". Rock climbing,
whitewater canoeing, hiking. The
Mountain, see 6/21-27.
Issues Facing the Black Bear and
Mountain Habitat
Its
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1987
Owen Conference Center, UNC-Asheville
11-13 WAYNESVILLE, NC
"Henry David Thoreau and the Tao
of Simplicity" seminar at Stil-Light. See
7/3-5.
16
CELO, NC
"Dividing Perennials and Making a
Flower Garden" workshop. Mountain
Gardens, see 6/24.
18-20 ASHEVILLE, NC
New Priorities Conference on
Peace, Social Justice, and the Environment.
Contact: The New Priorities Center; 54
Starnes Ave.; Asheville, NC 28801
Invited Speakers Include:
Dr. Michael Pelton
(University of Tennessee)
Dr. Roger Powell (NC State University)
Ms. Lauren Hillman (US Forest Service)
Dr. John Collins
(NC Wildlife Resources Comm.)
Jim Noles (NC Bearhunters' Ass'n.)
Admission: $5.00
Sponsored by:
Dept. of Environmental Studies, UNC-A
Bear Action Networlt
Kal(iah
�gets a chance to speak. They talk about things they are
feeling, experiences of that day, or whatever they want to
speak about The simple ritual of passing the feather puts a
lot of meaning into that little gathering. It makes it
ceremonial, and I find the Jcids often talk of very deep things
that are on their minds. Again, it's the power of the mythic
that seems to bring out people's deeper selves.
We always try to have a fire in the evenings when we're
traveling . It's not just for the practical necessity of cooking
our foocl. nor only because the fire is a center for the group
circle, but we make a fire because it is in itself such a basic,
important element that I want to invite it into our circle and
introduce the Jcids to it. And fire is a teacher. In mythic tenns
it says to us very starkJy, "That which would give light must
endure burning."
~: Besides the external recognition, there is also an
initiation that happens within the adolescent at this time of
change. These private initiations are perhaps the most
important Do you run into examples of these at the camp?
Helen: Kids want to be heroes and heroines. They will do
a lot to achieve a victory. And they want to be good
grown-ops, so they will respond to a challenge to prove
themselves.
Kayaking and rock-climbing provide a different type of
challenge. Rather than testing endurance and encouraging a
reflective, meditative state, they bring the campers very much
into the immediate moment They have to extend tlleir senses
and concentrate on putting all their energies 10 the task at
always some point where they have to meet that fear and
overcome it to be able to continue. At that crisis point there is
a sudden sensation of becoming very calm and objective. As
the Hopi Indians say, "The soul comes out of the top of the
head" through the fontanelle and looks down on the body
clinging there with a single, perfectly clear eye that
transcends all fear or questioning.
Kat\Jah: So these experiences actually coun that fear to
generate energy for an initiatory experience.
Helen: They inevitably do that, but they also demand total
physical exertion which often exceeds what the camper
believed to be his or her physical limits. The world is
perceived very clearly when one is hanging on to a
finger-hold crevice, and a single climb can shift the terms in
which a young person defines his or her identity, creating a
new acceptance of self. And all these elements together add
up in some way to a spiritual connection with the God force,
which, while it is not readily defineable, is the strongest
source of personal power.
Bot we don't have to seeJc these situations out. They are a
naturally-occuuing part of camp life. One time I was with a
group of the younger campers. The thing we were going to
do that period was to climb trecS. They all started going up,
except for a mentally disturbed boy named Jimmy. He was
standing on the ground malcing climbing motions with his
hands, ~oing "Uh, uh, uh," like a monkey.
I thtnk it's very important for the kids that, once we say
we're going to do something, we do it. I realized that this
was an important moment for him; it was very imponant that
he at least got to the first branch.
So I called the other Jcids around. Some of them were
already way op in the tops of the trees, but they all gathered
around, and we talked about this. We made it a group
project. Jimmy didn't mind the group talking about his
problem, in fact I find that the kids seldom mind having the
others talk about them in the circle. We talked about it, and
then with a lot of reaching, hoisting, and encouragement,
Jimmy made it up into the tree. It was a group effon, but it
was also a personal victory for him.
hand.
11
The river is a good teacher of
humility, because in a kayak, the ldds
have to recognize and use that force.
11
Groups go k.ayalcing in the fast rapids in several of the
mountain rivers. On the water, the kids have to concentrate
on their movements, their techniques, while always being
aware of the rapids coming up ahead. They have to be
constantly sensitive to the river. It's an immense, strong
force. The river is a good teacher of humility, because in a
kayak, the kids have to recognize and use that force. TI1ey
have to flow with it, if they're going to avoid being thrown
under.
Rock-<:limbing is another challenging activity that tests the
kids' abilities. When they're pulling themselves up the side
of a cliff, the campers have 10 rely on their own strength and
have to watch their own motions in the same way as on the
river. They have to control their fear, so their body can be
completely relaxed, and they can continue 10 climb. There's
KATUAH - page 28
These experiences come up, bot for them to have a
positive effect, there must be a teacher present who can
interpret and resolve them. "Education" in its Latin
beginnings derived from educatus, part of the verb educare,
"to bring fonh from within". Education does not mean to
superimpose knowledge that belongs to others on top of the
initiate. It means to bring out the eternal truths that lie hidden
in every relationship. So there must be relationship and it
must be experiemial. Now that's a school!
,,
- Recorded by DIV
Summer 1987
�w€BWO~
ENVlRONME.NTAL IN'raRNSHIPS available at
Long Branch Environmental Education Center in
pcnnaculllR. wildlife ad'JOCIC)', 80lid and ha%ardous
waste issues, appropriate technology. Room and
board. Coruacc Paul and Pal Gallimore; RL 2, Box
132; Leicester, NC 28748 (704) 683-3662
ORGANlC FERTILIZERS, herbs, and
organically-grown, local produce at the WNC
Farmers' MJutetl Look for the Fa.irglen Farms stall,
uniis F and G in the wholesale area of the Farmcn'
Market: 570 Brevard Rd.; Asheville, NC (704)
252-4414
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, cenified,
creative, self-motivated, and organized needed at
Valley School, a parent-governed alternative school
in Monongahela National Forest, WV. Resume,
refeicnces to: Teri KulSko; I Kirk St.; Elkins, WV
26241(304)636-2979
THE APPALACHIAN HERB NEWSLETTER:
exploring the potenlial for herbs as cash crops in
Appalachia. Subscriptions $12/yr.. Write:
A!)J)a!acbjan Herb Newslcttcr - ASPI; RL 5, Box
423; Livings100, KY 40445
acres near
Boone, NC sccting families with SIJ'Ol1g visions and
resources to manifest a peaceful place for our
children to grow in love and to survive the corning
of the new age. Paul and Susan Del Rios; RL 2,
Box 314; Vilas, NC 28692 (704) 297-4937
LAND TRUST in the forming on 57
PURE HONEY - unhealed and unfiltered. Poplar,
locust, and sourwood. One of nature's blessings!
Price and ordering info from Jimmy Holladay, the
Beekeeper; P.O. Box 908; Black Mt'n., NC 28711
(704) 669-9788
INDIAN VALLEY RETREAT- 140 llC(CS in Blue
Ridge mountains with facilities available to rent for
groups or individual retreats, either guided or
unstructured. Send for information and seasonal
calendar of healing, transformative evenis to: Indian
Valley Holistic Center; RL 2, Box 58; Willis, VA
24380.
"AS WE ARE" - Women's music by Pomegranate
Rose, a four-woman group playing lively original
music. Casseue tape available for $9.00 ppd. from
RL 2, Box 435; Pittsboro, NC 27312
A Bil.L is under consideration in the NC legislawre
that would affect lhe future of homeschooling in the
state. For info, call: Candy Boehm (704) 667-8826
or Tricia Sommerville (704) 658-0809
Tiffi CENTER FOR NEW PRIORITIES - now
open, in Asheville, NC, for all groups dedicated to
wort:ing towards genuine, life-oricnl.cd, change for
lhe community. Office space, small meeting space,
and ltitchen facmties are available. For more
information, call (704) 254-4714 or write the
Center, 54 Starnes Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801.
The Cenier appreciates donations, large or small, to
help with iis upkeep and activities.
PEPPERLAND FARM CAMP - a unique summer
camp experience for chi.ldrcn 6-16 years. AdvenlWI:
trips, riding, Indian lore, swimming, more.
Delicious vegetarian meals - special diets
accomodated. Also seeking counselors and slllff. For
info: Pepperland Fann Camp; Star Route; Farner,
TN 37333 (704) 494-2353
WINGED HEART HOMESTEAD - 283 ICl'CS in
Indian Valley district, SW Virginia. On this Cann
we want IO start a self-reliant community of
families emphasizing organic farming melbods and
creative personal and spiritual growth. Contaet:
Muzawir; RL HC-67, Box 171: Alum Ridge, VA
24051.
APPRENTICESHIPS • offered in large, organic,
m3Jket garden business and home subsistence/
preservation garden. Gardeners have eight years
experience teaching organic, biodynamic-French
intensive, labor intensive gardening. Housing.
Contact: Bob and Sandy Gow; Rt. 2, Box SI;
Zionvillc, NC 28698. {919) 385-6606.
CLINCH RIVER EDUCATIONAL CENTER offers
counseling for individuals, couples, groups. Also
classes in personal growth and body awareness. P.O.
Box 993; Abingdon, VA 24210.
FARM FOR SALE - 43 acres, Calhoun Cty. WV;
5 room older house, deep well, 30+ apple trees,
indoor hot water and bath, outdoor toilet, FREE
NATURAL GAS, hilltop. 1/4 mile well-maintained
access road. Allan &: Carol Freeman, (704)
FLOWER ESSENCES - Harmony with Nature &:
SpiriL Gentle emotiortal support during transitions,
specific issues, relationships. Opens
communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic,
awareness "tools" for improving the ionCl quality.
Correspondence to: Elaine Geouge, c/o Patchwork
Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So., BumsvWe, NC
28714
At ARTHUR MORGAN SCHOOL 24 studenlS and
264-5726. $30,000.
KA11JAH - page 29
SOCK-A-DOOZ PUPPET PETS - Walk 'cm, talk
'em, make 'cm Oy. Wag their tails, you can try.
They will love you, hug you if you're blue. Now
PUPPET PETS can be your friends too.
Handcrafted by Bonnie Blue; 78 1(2 Patton Ave.
(#10): Asheville, NC 28801
"CELEBRATION SPACE: Songs to Celebrate
Life" - A casset.te tape completely produced,
performed, and recorded by members and friends or
lhe Floyd County community to raise money for
the Floyd County Community Hall. This audio
songbook contains 15 original songs and chants and
3 traditional songs to learn and sing in your own
community. The sound quality is uneven, but the
c:ncrgy. spirit, and joy shine through.
For the cassette 1ape with lyric sheet (ppd.), send
$10.00 to the Floyd County Communi1y Hall
Projca; RL 1, Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091.
CREEKSIDE PRESS - Assistance for authors and
poctS in editing, computer scrvices, and submitting
manuscripts for publication. Lori Ward Hamm;
P.O. Box 331; Abingdon, VA 24210.
PARM WANTED - young family seeks
owner-financed, low down payment (SSOO or less)
small acreage (10 acres or less) in the N.C.
mountains for home, gardens, fruit tree, and peace.
Also, we would appreciate info on jobs and/or job
offers in the area. We are young, hard-working and
dependable. Please write Mr. &. Mrs. Jorge
Velazquez: 174 Countrywood, Cleveland, TX
77327.
ARCHITECTURAL ADVlCE AND DESIGN:
Adam C.ohen; RL 2. Box 217; Check, VA 24072
14 staff learn together by living in community.
Curriculum includes creative academics, group
decision-making, a work program, service projccis,
extensive field trips, challenging outdoor
experiences. Write: 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714.
Shell gorget llJlelJ1hod 11 IM Orcat MoWld. ScvieiviUe. TN
WEBWORKING continued next page
Summer 1987
�WEBWORKING cootinucd
ASTROLOGICAL
CHART S.
7-page
interpretations of planets in signs and houses with
planetary aspects. Easy to read. Great gift for the
newly-born. Send SIS, name, date. time, and place
of birth to TouchslOOe; Rt. 2, Box 314-K; Vilas,
NC 28692
OAK LEAF WORKS - hand-crafted futon
mauresses, zabolOO noor cushions, yogamats, and
buckwheat bull pillows; SUllldard & custom sius
available, to suit your needs. Write or call for our
free brochwe: Oak Leaf Works; Star Route, Box
43; Floyd, VA 24()1)1; (703) 763-2373.
DA YSTAR ASTROLOGICAL SERVICE - niual,
transit, comparison charts. Very accurate. Only
$3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason; Rt. 2, Box 217;
Check, VA 24072 (703) 651-3492
ROSE AROMATICS - cssentiai oils have been
healing body, mind, spirit, since ancient EgypL A
most pleasant therapy! Dabney Rose; 108 Church
Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804 (704)2S4-9SS I
WEBWORKING Is free.
Send submissions to:
Ka1W
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - herbal salves,
tinctures, & oils for bitthing & family health. For
brochwe., please wrire: Moon Dance Farm; RL l,
Box 726; Hampton, TN 376S8
P.O. Box638
Leicester, NC
Katliah \ Province 28748
SCOTT BIRD
GREG BLACK
(704) 683-1414
683-4795
Mebtcltte of tne
farlfJ ~Spirit
Ul.TIIAVIOLET PUAlflCATIOH AHO ALTElllMG SYSTEMS
cus~m
beabeb nystal
MCklaces
SOLAR PRODUCT'S · WATER AHALVSIS
RANDA~ C.
704-~5912
LANIER
_.._..
~
131 r.,_ -..,..,, 1111.
- l l o. N C. 2*4
. HWY. 107
RT. 88 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
(1041 291-103'
Chinese
Acupuncture
and
Herbology
Clinic
NaturaJ Food Store
& Deli
160 BroadWay
Asheville, NC 28801
MALAPROP'S
BOOKSTORE/ CAFE
BOOKS -
342 Merrimon Avenue Asheville, NC
(704) 258-9016
CARDS -
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-Saturday: 9am·8pm
Sunday: 1pm-5pm
RECORDS
61 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 253-7656
(704) 254-0134
'Jlja!?~ 'J\!1~1
BOBCAT
l'ruvoJ1na PttM>nol ~<Vt«
Fllloni
Book Nttds
In Spcclahzecl Fle!Js
704-264-5866
'Nat!lr<\ls
y,..,
T-SHIRT
SHORT SLEEVE T: $10.00 ppd.
Colors: Ecru, White, Sliver,
Seafoam (It. green) Tea/
LONG SLEEVE T: $14.00 ppd.
(Include• Paw Print on Sleeve)
Colors: Ecru, Sliver, Tea/, White
Satisfaction assured or return for full refund.
PleaH Indicate size, color,
sleeve length, quantity.
B ~)OkD Q""'
Thin(s L, .. .
GARY HEMSO'TH
8ooludrr
IN ADULT SIZES S,M,L,XL
We a/so have a /In• of aweanhlrts and kid• T-Shlrta
Boone Bel&bts Sbopploc Centu
Boone, North CaroUna 28607
t-----------------t
FRIEDMAN &
Introducing the BOBCAT
This full color design Is hand-screened on
T-SHIRTS OF 100% PRESHRUNK COTTON
KAlUAH - page 30
Where Broadway mMts
Merrlmon Ave & 1-240
8
DESIGN, INC.
ENUGY SYSTEMS
THAT />AY FOR THEAISELVF..'i
I
..- -
~-- -,..
-.., ~-=..,.,ca=-=-.,:-:.=-.-=-=
- -=::-::....,..==.
l(AWI~-
P O llOXlll7
OIUS80AO. H C 21125
Summer 1987
�Kmflal1 wants to communicate your thoughts a11d feeli11gs to the other
people in the bioregional province. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories,
drawings, or photographs. Please send your contributions to us at: K.atiJ11.b; Box
638; Leicester, NC; Ka!Uah Province 28748.
For fall, Katflah is looking for facts.feelings, and amazing tales about
Yonah, the black bear, totem spirit of the Southern Appalachians.
In the winter issue, the focus will be on "Sheller". Please send drawings,
designs, thoughts, or ideas on what is appropriate she/1.:r in the mountains.
Medfclnt" ;illfes
BACK ISSUES
ISSUE NINE - FALL 1985
The Waldee Forest - The Trees Spealc Migrating Forests - Horse Logging Starting a Tree Crop · Urban Trees Acom Bread - Mylll 'Time
ISSUE 1WO- WINTER 1983-84
Yona - Bear Hunters - Pigeon River Another Way With Animals - Alma Becoming PoliticaJly Effective Mountain Woodlands - Katiiah Under the
Drill- Spiritual Warriors
full color
ISSUE TEN - WIN11'ER 1985-86
Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone : Internal
Mythmalting - Holistic Healing OD Trial Poems: Steve Knaulh - Mythic Places The Uktena's Tale. - Crystal Magic "Dreamspcaking"
ISSUE THREE - SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agriculture - Sunflowers Human Impact on the Forest - Childrens'
Education - Veronica N"icholas:Woman in
Politics - Lillle People - Medicine Allies
T- s&frts
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today are
only diminuitive forms of the mythic beings
who once inhabited the world, but who now
reside in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the
highest heaven. But a few of the original
powers broke through the spiritual barrier
and exist yet in the world as we know it.
These beings arc called with reverence
"grandfathers". And of them, the strongest
are Kanati, the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'nati, the raulesnake, who
personifies the power of the earth plane; and
Yunwi Usdi, "the little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power &om the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their
energies compliment each ocher to form an
even greater power. As medicine allies, they
represent the healing powers of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen
by Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality,
all-cotton shirts, they are available now in
all adult sizes from the Katfiah journal.
"To show respect for this supernatural
trinity of the natural world is to in turn
become an ally in the continuing process of
maintaining harmony and balance here in the
mountains of Katuah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRING 1986
Community Planning - Cities and the
Bioregional Vision - Recycling Community Gardening- Floyd County,
VA - Gasohol - Two Bioregional Views Nuclear Supplement - Foxfire Games
-Oood Medicine: Visions
ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
Water Drum - Water Quality - Kudzu Solar Eclipse - Clearcuuing - Trout Going to Water - Ram Pumps Mierohydro- Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair,
Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE- FALL 1984
Harvest - Old Ways in Cheroltee Ginseng - Nuclear Waste - Our Celtic
Heritage - Bioregionalism: Past, Present,
and Future - John Wilnoty - Healing
Darltness - Politics of Participation
ISSUE THIRTEEN - Fall 1986
Center For Awakening· Elizabeth Callari
- A Gentle Death - Ro.spice - Ernest
Morgan - Dealing Creatively with Death Home Burial Box - The Walce - The
Raven. Moelter - Woodslore and
Wildwoods Wisdom ·Good Medicine: The
Sweat Lodge
ISSUE SIX - WIN'IBR 1984-85
Winter Solstice Earth Ceremony Horsepasture River - Coming of the Light
- Log Cabin Roots - Mountain
Agriculwre: The Right Crop • WilJiam
Taylor - The Future of the Forest
ISSUE FOURTEEN • Winter 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owle - Boogers and Mummers
- All Species Day - Cabin Fever
University - Homeless in Katuah Hommade Hot Water - Stovemaker's
Narrative - Good Medicine: Interspecies
Communication
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRING 1985
Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs WOTker Ownership-The Great Economy Self Help Credit Un.ion - Wild Turkey Responsible Investing - Worlting in the
Web of Life
ISSUE FIFTEEN - Spring 1987
Coverlets - Woman Forester - Susie
McM.ahan: Midwife - Alternative
Contraception - Biosexuality Bioregionalism and Women - Good
Medicine: Mauiarchical CullUl'e - "Pead"
JSSUE EIGHT - SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life - Katiiah
18,000 Years Ago - Sacred Sites - Polit
Ans in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer - Cherokee
Hcriiage Center - Who Owns Appalachia?
Celebration
KAWAH: Bjoreruonal Journal of the Southern Appalachians
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
Regular Membership........$10/yr.
Sponsor..........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Name
Address
City
Area Code
K.AWAH- page 31
Enclosed is $
to give
this ejfort an extra boost
State
Phone Number
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Back Issues
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.00 = $_ _
Complete Set (2-11, 13-15)
@ $19.00 = $_ _
T-Shirts: specify quantity
color: tan
S_ _ M_ _
L_ _ XL_ _
@ $9.50 each............$_
TOTAL PRICE=
postage paid
_
$_ _
Summer 1987
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 16, Summer 1987
Description
An account of the resource
The sixteenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on the initiations and rituals surrounding the coming of age and the maturation of young people. Authors and artists in this issue include Tata Andres, Snow Bear, Patrick Clark, Maggie Schneider, Rob Messick, Burt Kornegay, Stephaen Delor, Didier Cuzange, David Wheeler, Curry Morris, Doug Silsbee, John Lane, Clyde Osborne, Will Ashe Bason, Michael Hockaday, Nancy Barnhardt, Thomas Dale Cowan, and Mara Bradburn. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Interview: Helen Waite.......3<br /><br />Poem: "Visions in a Garden".......5<br /><br />The Vision Quest.......6<br /><br />First Flow.......8<br /><br />Thoughts on Initiation.......9<br /><br />Archetypes of Male Initiation.......9<br /><br />Learning in the Wilderness.......12<br /><br />Cherokee Challenge.......15<br /><br />Natural World News.......16<br /><br />View from the Corners: "Valuing Trees".......19<br /><br />Turtle Island Talking.......20<br /><br />Young People's Page.......25<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Puberty rites
Outdoor Education--North Carolina, Western
Camps--North Carolina, Western
Youth development--North Carolina, Western
Cherokee youth--North Carolina, Western
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Cherokees
Community
Education
Electric Power Companies
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/7e7d24eb4270ddd2fe219a5da68fd1f1.pdf
f88274a18bcfefc1226b5e712085a2fb
PDF Text
Text
laueXVD
Fall 1987
$1.00
BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
THE MOUNTAIN BLACK BEAR
�(uTiJAR,
P.O. Box 873 Cullowhee, NC Katuah Province 28723
Note new address, inside!
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Paid .
Non-profit Org.
Permitt12
Cullowhee, NC
28723
�The Life and Death of Bear #87.... 3
Glady and Tire Pisgah Bear Project
Bear Story...... ......... ................. 6
bySam Gray
Issues (and a Few Answers)
for che Black Bear:..................... 8
An lmerview
with Dr. Michael Pelton
The Challenger: ......................... 11
The Wild Boar in the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park
cougar...................................... 12
a poem
Good Medicine: .......................... 13
"Finding Allies in the World"
"Me and My Walker Hounds"...... 14
by Robert McMahan
"Smells Like Money to Me:" ........ 16
a report on Champwn l lllUnlJJional
by Jay S. Geru
Bear ................. ........................ 18
THE BLACK BEAR IN KATUAH
Exactly four years ago this autu!IUl,
Katua/1 began publishing. Our first issue
spoke to the sacredness of these mountains
and to the journal's intent to explore how
we humans could better understand our
relationship to this region and how to more
sensitively inhabit this place we call home.
Because the totem spirit is the living
soul of a region's natural life community, in
the second issue of the journal, we
searchingly asked "Who is the totem spirit
of the Karuah region'? Which is the species
most closely connected to the spirit of these
IDOWltains?"
The black bear,
called Yonah by the Cherokee,
answered:
"/am a mountain in my body.
Dark like the hills at midnight.
Fur covers my back
As the darkjirs clothe rhe ridges.
l am massive.
Rock is in my bones.
My growl is the thunder,
voice of the mils...
a poem /Jy Scott Bird
Green Politics in Katuah .............. 19
by Richard Harrison
Natural World News ................... 20
Modem Science Restores
Ancient Indian Maize
Prt>tecting Our Mountain Werlands
DOE Hot Meals Program
No Problem with Tobacco
Showdown ar Flat Creek
NC Legislators Want Dump
Peregrine Nesr Discovered
Turtle Island Talking.............. .... 23
Al.ookatPeaceNer
Old Galaxies:............... ............. 23
a poem by Michael Hockaday
Drumming: ............................... 24
Letten to KatllQh
Littering: The Same Old Story ..... 27
/Jy Michael Hockaday
Fa11 Calendar of Events ............... 28
Webworking....................... .... .. . 30
So in that issue we began our quest co
meet one of the most ancient inhabitants of
these moumains--the black bear. The cover
of the issue displayed Martha Tree's
powerful drawing of the black bear spirit
gazing up at the vision of the golden eagle.
Within the pages of that second issue was a
story-myth of the role that bears played in
creating the human race and there were tales
of encounters with the animal world by
Snow Bear. Also there was a story about
the exploits of two old bearhunters, Charlie
and Russell, now both passed on .... and
other black: bear lore.
Now four years later, we find
ourselves coming full circle. Again, we are
asking "Who is the Black Bear?" and "What
is our relationship to Yonah?" In this issue
we are investigating in particular the future
of the black bear here in southern
Appalachia and the chances of its survival
Concern for the survival of the black
bear is not just an isolated case of kindness
to a single animal species. The health of the
entire Katuah bioregion is reflected io the
health of the black bear. What is at stake is
the present aod future existence of the
bear's forest habitat -- the old, spreading
trees capable of providing nuts and space to
den; the herbaceous plants that grow up in
their shade; the fertile soils rich in leaf-mold
and teeming with micro-organisms that
suppon their growth; the clear running
streams that spring up among their roots;
and all the other creatures that depend on
and at the same time create the conditions of
the climax growth stage of the Appalachian
forest This is the balance that the mountains
have been growing toward for millenia.
The bears were not put here to be our
teachers; the welfare of the human race is
immaterial to them. But if the humans
would humbly respect and learn from
Yonah, the black bear would show us that
the conditions of the climax forest are in the
long run the best living conditions for us all.
The life of the black bear is not only
closely linked to the spirit of the land, but,
as the Cherokee legend in this issue's
"Good Medicine" column indicates, it is
also joined in some deep and mysterious
way to the spirit of the human inhabitants as
well. Feelings about Yonah run deep, andlike any deep feelings-they are complex and
inextricably mixed with emotion. TI1e bl:ick
bear takes many forms in the minds and
emotions of humans....
..... Yonah as rhe mother bear, the
Great She-Bear of the night sky, a cult
figure in ancient times, the spirit of the great
Mother Earth, massive in stature and a
bountiful provider, warm and comforting,
yet quick UJ anger and ferocious in her rage.
.....Yonah as a funny, playful clown
wlw entertains the tourists as they motor
through the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, drawing them out of their
cars to cadge snacks and goodies.
.....Yonah at the heart of the chase,
the hunt, the annual tracking of wildness by
the domestic llllmans.
..... Yonall as the shadowy figure,
dark and savage, that takes shape in our
fears just outside the safe boundaries of the
setrlement clearing. waiting to maim tile
unaware and steal tire fruits of civilized
living ...... Yonah, the medicine animal,
who, like the land, sleeps away the winter
in a cave or a hole, dreaming powerful
dreams and returning with knowledge from
the underworld within the heart of the
mountains.
.....Yonall as the wise one who can
show how to live close to rhe true spirit of
these mountains.
The black bear may take any or all of
these forms within the human mind io our
quest to know this ancient creature. Like
any proper spirit, Yonah is elusive and
impossible to pin down.
But if we are to continue for long here
in these mountains, we need to look inward
and touch outward to learn the wisdom that
the black: bear holds.
.
-·~
- The Editors
pr
�fi,ATUAH,
EDITQRIAL STAFF nus ISSUE:
Scott Bird
Mamie Muller
Rob Messick
Michael Red Fox
Martha Tree
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Judith Hallock
Sylvia Fox
Jeff Fobes
Anne Muller
Arjuna
Cover: Blue Mountain Printmakers
New Sharon, ME 04955
Back cover drawing: Laurie Pierce
EPITQRlAL OFFICE rms ISSUE:
Worley Cove, Sandymusb Creek
The Southern Appalachian Bloregion and Major Eastern river systems
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co., Sylva, NC
TELEPHONE:
(704) 683-1414
WRITE US AI:
K1JJW1h
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on our
continent, Turtle Island, a small bw growing group has
begun to taU on a sense of responsibility for the implications
of that geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of
responsibility centers on the concept of living within the
natural scale and balance of universal systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the Cherokee
name Kattiah" as the old/new name for this area of the
mountains and for its journal as well. The province is
indicated by its nanual boundaries: the Roanoke River Valley
to the north; the foothills of the piedmont area to the east;
Yona Mountain and the Georgia hills ro rhe south; and rhe
Tennessee River Valley to ti~ west.
The editorial prioriries I or us are to co/leer and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this region, and to foster the aware11ess rlwt rhe
land is a living being deserving of our love and respect.
living in rliis manner is a way to insure the sustainability of
the biosphere and a lasting place for ourselves in its
co11tinuing evolutionary process.
We seem to lwve reached the fulcrum point ofa" do or
die " sitttation ifl tenns of a qua/iry standard of life for all
/i11i11g beings 011 this planet. As a voice for rhe caretakers of
this sacred land, Katiiall, we advocate a cemered approach to
the concept of decentralization. It is oiu hope to become a
support system for those accepti11g the challe11ge of
sustainability a11d the creation of harmony and bala11ce in a
total sense, here in this place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism, perti11ent
information, articles, artwork, etc. with hopes that Kauiah
will grow to serve the best interests of this region and all its
living, breathing members.
H
Diversi1y is an imponant elcmen1 of bioregional ecology. bolh
n:uural and social. Jn line wilh I.his principle. ~h tries IO serve as a
forum for I.he discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express only
I.he opinion of I.he aulhors and are not necessarily I.he opinions of I.he
KatUa/J edil°" « slalT.
- The Editors
the other galaxies...
You open the way.
In the last issue of Kattlah, we mentioned that with this
current issue, we would be changing from our traditional
newspaper formal to a new magazine format
As you can see, we are in the process of reconsidering
the wisdom of that change. We would appreciate your inpu1
as well in this decision. Would you rather have a more
durable, but more expensive maga1ine format or a less
durable, but less expensive newspaper format for Kari/ah?
Please share your ideas, suggestions and preferences
with us. We appreciate your feedback.
The lnicmal Revenue Service has declared KJJtilnh a non·proli1
organilnlion under section SOl(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All
coniribuuons IO KillHPli are deductible from personal income l!lX.
�THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BEAR
#87
by David Wheeler
"Poachers Tune In On Sleeping
Bears" declared lhe page one headline in lhe
Asheville Citizen on the morning of January
17, 1987. Poachers had shot and killed an
older female bear in her winter den site in a
hollow cree within the confines of the
Pisgah Bear Sanctuary below the Blue
Ridge Parkway.
The bear was number 87 of lhe bears
who had been radio-collared for radio
telemetry tracking by members of The
Pisgah Bear Project, a research program
being carried out by Nonh Carolina State
University (NCSU) scientists and students.
The radio collars emit a sustained signal that
is tracked by directional antennas to plot a
precise location of the animal to give a
picture of its range area and its daily
movements.
People all through the mountains
were shocked and angered that the poachers
had located the helpless bear by monitoring
the signals from her collar. When the
poachers found her location, they had
climbed her tree and shot her between the
eyes while she was asleep, and then had cut
down the tree to rettieve her carcass. People
were particularly outraged because Bear 87
was about to give birth when she was
killed.
"Glady" was the name The Pisgah
Bear Project researchers had given Bear 87.
At the time of her death she had just turned
11 years old - a remarkable age for a bear in
a region where few bears roam the woods
for more than six years before they are shot
Glady had been trapped and collared
in June of 1984 and was well-known to the
staff of The Pisgah Bear Project, who had
"Glady" was the name The Pisgah
Bear Project researchers had
given Bear 87. At the time of her
death she had just turned J1 years
old - a remarkable age for a bear
in a region where few bears roam
the woods for more than six years
before they are shot.
monitored her movements almost daily since
that date. In the subsequent two and
one-half years of contact, she had been
recaptured five times and had provided a
wealth of data on her habits and
movements. In the June previous to her
shooting she had been caught, measured,
and released. She was 125 pounds in
weight, 148 centimeters (58.25 inches) in
length, and 79 centimeters (31 inches) in
chest circumference at that time.
Glady had lived the life of any wild
sow-bear for the first eight years of her
life. ..She was one of the two cubs born that
winier of 1976 in the warm darkness of her
nwrher's den, and rhat small space was all
she knew for the first four nwnrhs of her
life. Jn the <kn she nursed and grew from
one pound to four or five pounds by rhe
rime her nwrher climbed our of her den
bringing her cubs with her.
Even beneath rhe rrees, the lighl of
rhai April sun mu.st have been intensely
bright to Glady's young eyes. Her mother
continued ro stay near the den site for
another monrh, nwving little and gradually
beginning to eat rhe tender young grasses,
branch lertuce, and squawroot (Conophilis
americano) C()ming up through rhe leaves.
As rhe spring progressed, Glady and
her sibling followed their mother down to
her spring range area, and, as food became
more abundant, their mother put on weight,
and rhe cubs continued to grow and gain in
StTengrh.
That first summer was a tklighr for
rile young cubs. They stayed close to rheir
- continued on llCll page
Phoio: NC Wildlife RC50un:es Commission
KATUAH- page 3
FALL 1987
�._....___....,._...,. ·=-- .. ........... - • --.-... - ... -·· _._....
mother and are buckberries under the tall
trees, blackberries from the choked jungles
along the open streambanks, and then
browsed the open hillsides and forests for
the succulent moL1ntain blueberries. They
also raided yellowjacket nests for their
larvae, and ate ants and grubs from rotten
logs their mother tore open with her long
claws.
Once they watched from the groL1nd
as their mother robbed a bee tree, slopping
ow globs of the sticJ..y honey and delicious
larvae, oblivious to the stings of the enraged
bees And, if they \Vere lucky, they would
occasionally find carrion th.Ill was not too
spoiled lying in the woods.
Mother ta11gh1 them to climb trees, to
hide, and to wait motimilessfor her return.
Tirey developed short. powerful legs 10
climb the mountain slopes and, although
their eyes were never very useful, their
noses became keen and sensitive as they
became accustomed to the seems of the
forest.
Then in the fall, they joined their
mother in gorging themselves on ripe acorns
and hickory mus to build up fat to insulate
and feed them during their winter den time.
The cubs contented themselves with
scooping acorns up from the ground with
their front paws and dextrous lips, but their
mother often went high into the oak trees,
bending and cracking branches to bring the
acorns, rich in protein and oils, within
reach.
Dllring this time the cubs and their
mother were moving almost constantly,
While male bears sleep lightly.
often lying on the grou11d with
011/y a laurel thicket or broken
brush for cover.female bears put
more energy into finding a warm,
secure den and sleep deeply,
stirring little duri11g rheir whole
rime of dorma11cy.
using every possible minme to fortify their
bodies to endure the winter's fast. The
young bears were tired and, when at tire
beginning of November the food supply
declined and their mother started for tire
high country to find an isolated den site,
they were glad.
They did not enter the den
immediately, but for one month they
lingered in the vicinity ofthe den site, eating
what they could find, b111 not going far to
forage for food. Finally, however, their
mother showed them how to ingest a fecal
plug of old leaves and twigs to stop
elimination, and they followed her into the
den. Their first year was over,
While male bears sleep lightly, often
lying on the Rro1md with only a laurel
thicket or broken brush for cover, female
bears p11111wre energy into finding a wann.
secure den and sleep deeply, stirring little
during their \\ihole time of donnaney.
Tiie small family of bears did not
leave their den to defecattJ or urinate during
their four-momh denning period. By a
miracle ofphysiology not duplicated in the
animal world, bears recycle their 1-.aste
water through their kidneys a1ul mrn the
nitrogen from urea waste compounds back
into protein.
So, although Glady was gaunt and
disheveled 1\'lren size emerged from the den
in the sprinR. the remarkable metabolism
and amazing endurance of her species had
brought her through the wimer with no
unus11al stress. Yet she was h11ngry,
grumpy, disoriented, and in no mood to
appreciate tire beauties of spring in the
mountains. 8111 as food magically appeared
in the forest, she grew in strength and
confidence. She became eager for another
year of roaming the slopes with her mother
GLADY'S RANGE
(South and cast or Mt. Pisgah. straddling lhe Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah N:irional Forest)
KATUAH - page 4
FALL 1987
�and hu sibling.
Glady thoughl the summer to come
would be a repetition of the last, and so she
was dismayed when in late June their
mother drove the two cubs away with fierce
growls and threats, when an amorous male
bear began to move close to her feeding
area.
The two yearling bears stayed close
together for companionship during that
summer and fall, but they separared into
individual dens ar the onset of winter.
Glady was on her own then, but she
stayed close to the familiar areas of her
mother's home range. She saw her mother
several times. but as long as it was not
mating season, her mother did not seem to
mind her presen~. It was two or three more
years before Glady went into estrus, but as
soon as it became evident that she was
sexually ma11ue, another large male began w
stay close to her and eventually mated with
the young sow-bear.
Glady continued to roam her range
and feed during the summer and the fall,
while, unknown to her, another unique
adaptation was taking place within her
body. The two fertilized blastocysts that
were to be her first cubs did not implant to
the uierine wall, but instead floated free in
the uterus while blueberry season moved
into acorn season, and Glady began intense
feeding to gain weight for her winter
dormancy period.
The acorns were plentiful that year,
and as Glady moved uphill to la11guish in
the vici11ity of her den site, the blastocysts
implanted themselves to her uterus and her
cubs began to grow inside her, perfectly
timed to emerge within her den in the dead
of winter.
I/Glady had notfoundfood enough
to bring her up to a weight that would
support reproduction and /actarion, through
the "delayed implantation" process, as it is
called, she would have passed the fertilized
blastocysrs and terminated her pregnancy
with little trouble and at a very slight
physiological cost.
Although she did not know she was
pregnant, Glady took unusual care in
picking a den site that year, and finally
found a tree of wide girth with a decayed
core and an opening, small and safe, high
up the trunk.
Glady bore two cubs in the den thaJ
winter, although she was hardly aware of
the fact. Even their insistent nursing did
little to disturb her winter sloth. But when
she awoke again that spring, she found she
was the mother with two cubs looking to
her to introduce them to the world.
So life continued for Glady lhrough
good yC3l"S and bad until June of 1984 when
Dr. Roger Powell of the Zoology
Dcpanmcnt of NCSU and other members of
The Pisgah Bear Project research group
caught her in a leg snare trap baited with
odiferous sardines.
The project was three years old al the
time, and Powell and his crew were
trapping, collaring, and releasing bears in
the Pisgah Sanctuary with several specific
KATUAH-page5
objectives in mind. Telemetry studies were
providing data on the bears' movements and
range areas. Trapping operations and the
co!Jars were also aiding in collection of
information on monality and reproduction
statistics, to be used in evaluating the bear
sanctuary and in drawing up guidelines to
help determine state management policies
and set hunting regulations. Simultaneously, bait station surveys (sec p. 9)
were providing population indexes, and
work had begun to determine exactly how
much food for bears the forest does
provide, which will shed additional light on
the findings about the females' home range
areas.
The study has also shown that
almost half of the human-caused
mortality among the study
animals has been a result of
poaching.
Now, although the study is not yet
completed, some results are beginning to
come clear. The bait station surveys show a
population decline in the sanctuary from
levels in the late 1970's. The decline seems
to have halted, "and," cautions Powell, "that
technique gives only a rough index, so I
would hesitate to say how significant that
decline is."
The study has also shown that almost
half of the human-caused monality among
the study animals has been a result of
poaching.
"1be Project has been in the press a
lot lately because Glady was shot in her
den," says Powell, "and our findings on
poaching have been what the press bas
emphasized. There is no question that we
have documented poaching in the Pisgah
Bear Sanctuary, but there's a lot more to the
Project than evidence of illegal hunting.
"From the habitat work that graduate
student John Zimmerman is doing, for
instance, we're getting to the point where
we should be able to predict bear use habitat
and develop models for what is good bear
habitat here and what isn't. That could be
very valuable to the Forest Service and the
Wildlife Resources Commission.
"We arc also developing a probability
curve that will tell us for a bear of any given
age what the probability is that it will live
longer. I feel good about our reproduction
data - it appears that the standard litter size
here is between two and three cubs - but
we're still missing some critical
survivorship data on cubs and yearling
bears, so we can't say for cenain whether
survivorship is greater than or less than
reproduction."
The Pisgah Bear Project's best work
has been in what it has found out about bear
spacing patterns and social organization.
The study has determined that although
female bears elsewhere often guard an area
to protect food sources, there is apparently
no territoriality in the Pisgah Bear
Sanctuary. By following the interactions of
neighboring females, masters candidate
Peggy Horner demonstrated this by
showing that they used the same areas at the
same time without conflicts. Project
members are now considering the
hypolhesis that male bears define their
territory, not by food avaiJability, but by Lhe
availability of females.
"What the bears appear to be doing is
predicted by most behaviorial and ecological
theories," says Powe!J. "But these theories
were mostly developed for smaller creatures
with shon life·spans, like hummingbirds
and anolis lizards, which give a lot of data
in a shon time. Bears have different time
spans, but they appear to be working on
basically the same rules. Thar's exciting to
me. That means we don't have to rethink a
lot of our behavioral and ecological theory."
S incc food availability is a basic
factor in the female bears' social
organization, The Pisgah Bear Project is
also measuring food production levels to see
how they compare with levels in other study
areas and what behavioral effects derive
from this. This is done by loeating marked
study sites in different areas of the
sanctuary, which a.re then visited regularly
by Project workers and every bit of food
material of three major indicator food
species (squawroot, berries, and acorns) arc
gleaned and weighed.
"The habitat here is tremendous" says
Roger Powell. "When I get out there and
actually sit down and pick berries at one of
these sites, I'm impressed by how
productive they are, and I can sec how, if
you found a good berry site and ate berries
all day, you could get faL"
'That's why I was enraged when I
found out about Glady's killing.
Had she been killed legally, I
would have been sorry, but I
would have accepted it. But to
have tracked her down by radio,
inside the sanctuary, inside her
den absolutely enraged me.
There's no sense to it."
Until the time of her death, Glady
played an imponant pan in the NCSU
reasearch. Erran Seaman, a graduate student
working with the project team, said, "Bears
can live on toward 20 years if they're not
disturbed. However, Glady was the oldest
female we knew of in the sanctuary. They
simply don't survive to live out their full life
span. We don't have many that ate over five
and one-half now.
"That's why I was enraged when J
found out about Glady's lcilling. Had she
been killed legally, I would have been
. continued on page 25
FALL 1987
�Bear Story
by Sam Gray
She was nuzzling and pawing at a spikenard
root as big as her face when she first heard the
hounds. Hunger was not the motive for grubbing in the dirt. She'd
eaten well for the past month. The aroma was the thing. A
discreet peace and a clear mind were hidden there in the array of
smells released from the bruised starch of the rhizome.
Reluctantly, she raised herself up into the October dusk to
KATUAH - page 6
FALL 1987
�listen to the baying orison coming to her from
another world. She could make out two separate
packs of dogs and an indeterminate number of
hunters. They were way down the mountain,
working back and forth across cold traces, getting
their bearings. Some of the voices were familiar;
old hounds that knew her ways, ancient choruses
that cried, "We've come." There were young,
strong voices too. It would be a long race.
She left the aromatic peace of the spikenard,
made her way into the violence of the night. She
moved upslope and to the northeast, leading them
away from the tree where her cubs were perched.
Her body and mind were quick and clear - water
moving among stones. By the time she sprang from
the upper timber into the wet grass of the Old Field
Bald at the summit, her strategy was shaped. She
paused in the shadow of a laurel clump to pant and
listen.
111e bald was lambent and still, except for an
owl cruising among the ash trees hunting rodents.
From the clangor in the distance, she beard an old
hound announce fresh scent. The other pack had
diverged and was moving to the west. She snorted,
sighed, and plunged down the north slope, gaining a
deeper darkness and in moments a tiny rivulet that
offered a quick drink and possibly some effacement
of her trace.
Further down, the creek was joined by a
tributary and between the two streams was a
quarter acre of doghobble bushes. She leaped into
them, using her body to plane down the entangling
mass, gain a foothold, and leap again, until she had
crossed it and stood panting and listening. The
dogs would be an hour getting through it.
On previous chases, she bad, from this point,
worked her way around the massive side of Cold
Mountain, weaving back and forth from stream to
doghobble patch to boulder field until the dogs
were beaten flesh. It was her mountain.
Tonight, however, something or everything
was different. Something beckoned downslope and
to the west. She had gone but a little way in that
direction when she pitched forward, tumbling
among rocks and moss and mud, moaning
uncontrollably. The bear had been struck down by
an insistent, sharply certain knowledge that reached
her across the great heart of connectedness: her
cubs were gone. By what wings or winds !his
message had come to her cannot be told, but it was
the truth. For at that moment, under a tall tree a
mile away, a man, exulting in the certainty that she
was elsewhere, was triumphantly holding aloft in
each hand a squirming, mewling bear cub, grasped
by the nape of the neck, bathed in torchlight and
terror.
With a single thrash and roll of her body the
bear massaged her anguish into the moist earth
beside the watercourse - and quickly left it there.
The game was changed. Before the capture of
the cubs, her strategy was determined by the need to
protect them, even sacrificing herself if necessary.
Now she must survive to breed again. And in
another place. For nothing held her to Cold
KATUAH-page7
Mountain now.
For the remainder of the night the bear moved
with unobstructed intention and speed down the
great slope of the mountain. At first light she was
lumbering along a gentler slope miles from the
dogs. the hunters, and the pain. Ahead of her were a
few apple trees, a meadow, an ancient fence, and
beyond these, indistinct in the morning mist, the
outlines of a cabin.
It was his habit to rise early and in good
weather to sit on the porch to watch the light gather.
For half a century, be had done this in all seasons,
liking best to sit in autumnal silence, reading the
sun's progress among the hickories, red oaks, and
maples of Lickstone Ridge - the leaves taking the
light inside themselves and then giving it back,
changed and revalued. He was an old man sitting
alone, lost in early light and dreams, when he saw
something moving out among the apple trees.
His first thought was, "It's Trudy." Trudy had
gotten up early, before him even, and was out there
in her old black coat picking up the last of the
apples.
He slowly and unwillingly Jet go of this notion
along with the brief joy it had borne him and forced
himself to acknowledge that it wasn't Trudy. She
had been dead now for over a year. The form
emerging from the mist was not his wife, but a
bear, and it was coming closer.
The bear covered the ground between them
quickly and darted under the cabin at a point where
the sills were raised on rock pillars two feet from
the ground. The unnailed puncheon floor inside the
cabin began to rumble and raise as the bear moved
around underneath. The old man stood in the
doorway and watched the tremors until they ceased
and everything was still. The thrum of cicadas,
jarflies, and gnats pulsed in his ears. He felt strange
- alive, but unsteady. Ile turned, groped for his
chair, sank into it. The dreams in his head began to
swirl together, and the images superimposed
themselves on each other and over the mountain
landscape before his porch.
He opened his eyes. Two men were standing at
the bottom of the porch steps. One of them was
calling out his name:
"Quill, Quill! Wake up, Uncle Quill!"
A haze suffused everything and through it, as
if from a great distance, he recognized bis
neighbor. Vance Callahan, along with bis son, June.
The old man struggled to his feet, and, leaning on a
post for support, stared blankly down at the
apparitions below.
"We been huntin' bear all night. We're
roundin' up the dogs now. You seen any, Uncle
Quill?"
The old man continued to stare, then cleared
his throat as if to deliver some oratory. But all he
said was. "No. No, I ain't."
Vance Callahan said something the old fellow
couldn't quite make out, and then the two figures
were gone.
The old man continued to lean against the post
and stare out into the warm October afternoon. ,
FALL 1987
�ISSUES (AND A FEW ANSWERS) FOR THE
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BLACK BEAR:
An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton
by Paul Gallimore and David Wheeler
indicate that just prior 10 that time few bears
were seen anywhere. They had been killed
up to the most remote areas. The historic
sites were Bone Valley up Hazel Creek and
under Thunderhead Mountain on the west
side. But it wasn't too many years after
1934 that the black bear population began to
climb. The black bear population in the Park
has been in the range of 400-600 bears for
many years, and this breeding nucleus
supplies the surrounding national forest
areas.
Dr. Michael Pelton has been studying
the blac/c bears of the Guat Smoky
Mowttains National Park. and the Cherokee
National Forest/or 17 years as part of his
job as professor in rhe Department of
Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries at the
University of Tennessee. In the course of
his research he has trapped, tagged, and
released more than 1,000 bears. He has
helped to develop research methods that are
now standard techniques in s111dyi11g bears
and other mammals worldwide. He is an
iruernationally-k.nown authority 011 bears,
and travels to o ther countries to advise
research efforts.
In talking with him, he is relaxed and
friendly, a person appreciative of wildlife,
who just happens to have an extraordinary
knowledge of the creatures of the forest
around us.
Katuah: We've heard an estimate of
2,000 bears in the Southern App:ilachian
Mountains. Did that come from you?
Pelton: That is a rough estimate that
we came up with when we were puuing
together the Tri-State Black Bear Study back
in 1978. It's based on a combination of
things: what we know about actual
population density in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, bait-station
surveys, and kill data.
Historically, state game and fish
commissions have taken the number of
bears reponed killed during hunting season
and assumed that number is 20 percent of
the population, and as long as the sex and
age ratios stay about the same, they assume
everything is in a steady state.
When the Park was set aside in 1934,
the repons I get from those early records
KATUAH - page 8
I say 400-600 bears, because they
have dramatic population fluctuations
depending on the hard mast (acorn and nut)
situation. A crop failure sends the
population way down, but then all the
females are ready to breed the next year, so
that with a good harvest, it soars right back
up. It's a boom and bust cycle.
Last summer during the drought
everyone was concerned about the mast
crop. We all thought it was going to be
serious, especially following the poor mast
crop of 1984, which set the stage for a
tremendous number of cubs to be born in
1985. That whole generation was in
jeopardy, but the shonage never developed.
The harvest was spotty, but it wasn't
disasttous, and a lot of young bears should
have left their mothers and dispersed this
summer.
Kat fiah: It seems that if the times
were hard for the bears, the percentage
taken during the hunting season would go
l!J2 instead of remaining steady. That would
make kill data an unreliable estimate. It
would seem that they would need to have
some hard figures to actually know what is
happening to the population in the region.
Pelton: Estimating population is
complicated. There are a lot of variables.
The sex and age ratios have been holding
steady, but it would be good to know more
than the age srructure and the kill data to be
able to tell what's actually going on. People
who work with populations can take age
structure statistics, and they can prove to
you that a population is heading toward
extinction; then the next minute they can
prove that the same population is expanding
fantastically.
Censuses arc tough. That's what we
tried to do for so many years in the
Smokies: capture/recapture using various
techniques, anything we could think of to
count bears. It was a very intense research
project on a small area. It's totally
unrealistic to talk about doing something
like that on a regional basis even one time,
much less year after year.
Ideally, I would like to do what they
are doing in Pennsylvania: there they trap a
lot of bears - a good percentage of the
population - in the summertime, and then
when the hunter kill data comes in during
the fall, they compare the ratio of
tagged/untagged bears. They feel like they
are right on in terms of the bear population
in Pennsylvania.
The bait station index is the best
method we have right now (see sidebar).
It's rough, but it gives us more information,
and it's a feasible method that could be
carried out throughout the whole Tri-State
bear range.
We've gotten good correlations
between bait station results and what we
actually know about population density in
the Smokies. For instance, for a long time
we figured that the density of bears in the
Cherokee National Forest was one-half that
in the Park for a lot of reasons - road
access, higher than usual poaching, and so
on - and when we got in some bait station
data, it indicated that the bait station talce
was about one-half what we were geuing in
the Smokies. It told us what we thought
we'd find out.
A friend of mine Died the bait station
technique out in Idaho, and it correlated
very well to what we found in this area.
They're using it in Michigan and are
very optimistic about it out there. Georgia
Died it in the Chattahoochee National Forest
for three years, and they are now going to
make it a permanent part of their
inanagernentprogram.
It's a general index, and it works very
well, if you don't expect more from it than
that.
Katuah: When you say the Tri-Staie
area, what does that encompass?
Pelton: It's basically the same as the
area known as the Blue Ridge
physiographic province (Katuah) in the
states of North Carolina, Georgia, and
Tennessee. The bear range is basically the
federally-owned lands in this area. The
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a
focal point for this range. We can call an
area a discrete range as long ns there are
connections between its various pans, and
the Park is connected to all the major
national forest areas surrounding it. But
there is a very definite line of human
habitation between the Cherokee National
Forest in Tennessee and the George
Washington National Forest in Virginia that
cuts those two bear populations apart
The assistant head of the wildlife
department in Virginia called me last year to
see about meeting at the state line to discuss
reconnecting the national forest areas by
means of wildlife corridors or conservation
easements.
FALL 1987
�Katiiali: Wouldn't corridors make
bears more liable to poaching pressure by
concentrating their numbers in a narrow
saip of land?
Pelton: This is a new idea, and I
don't know exactly how wide a corridor
should be to protect bears in this kind of
country
South of here we've seen black bears
dispersed down hardwood corridors along
riverbanks that are just a few yards wide.
They are very vulnerable in th:u situation.
The best survival habitat is~ of cover,
and the wider the corridors can be, the
better.
I don't have much hope for anything
outside the federally-owned lands. The rest
is gone. Down in Louisiana they are
reclaiming some abandoned farmland and
putting it back into bear habitat, but I don't
think that will be the case in Southern
Appalachia. Once the second homes and the
strip developments are there, they're there
forever.
K atua/1: Is the region approaching
its carrying capacity for bears?
P elton: I can't speak much for the
North Carolina side of the mountains, but
from what I can tell in the Cherokee
National Forest. it's not near the carrying
capacity.
The mast production there cenainly is
not optimal. A lot of these forests arc 40-60
years old now after being essentially wiped
out during the '30's, and they're just
beginning to reach mast production
capability, so there's room to grow there.
Wit h more control of illegal hunting
activi ries. the density in the national forest
could approach that in the Park, which is
approximate!y one bear per 1,000 acres.
K at fiah: What do you think arc the
cumulative effects of human habitation on
the bears?
Pelton: "Cumulative effects" is a
specific term for a relatively new idea tha t
has already been applied to the grizzly
s.ituacion our west. It means to take all the
bits and pieces of impact and put them
together to see how they fit in terms of an
overall effect on the species you arc looking
at.
They are doing that in a very
sophisticated way for the grizzly, and a
Forest Service employee is going to develop
a cumulative effects model for the
Chauahoochee National Forest as a case
study for the Southern Appalachians. That
will involve him looking at all the
population parameters he can dig out of our
data base and adding up all those factors:
roads, timber management, number of
people, bunting, and so on.
Essentially, he is going to t.alce each
of those factors and index it with some son
of value system that is weighted in terms of
its assumed impact.
Pe lton: I don't think it's going to be
that sophisticated. This is just a one-person
project.
My personal concerns are, first,
sustained, long-term mast production, and,
second, access and how that's used.
My first question is: is the clearcut
technique setting into motion a situation
where they are going to be perpetuating
non-mast-producing species for eons of
time?
If there is a marginal cove hardwood
setting where there was a good oak
component, and it is clearcut , then that oak
component is lost forever, either because it
is replanted in white pine, or because it
comes back in poplar, and they return in 60
• 80 years and cut it again when the poplar
is large, but the oaks haven't had a chance
to get started.
f ve been ta.king the Forest Service to
task for that. They argue that the oaks reach
maturity in 80 years and start downhill after
that, and that they need to be cut at that
point. rm not convinced that the data would
support them on that, particularly with white
oak, which is the most important one. I'm
not a forester, but from all the data that rve
been a ble to dig o ut, they do not reach
maturity until 120-150 years, when they arc
reaching peak acorn production.
O ur second poi nt is that the trees
should be allowed to sustain their peak for a
c:untinued on nCXI page
TENN.
N.C.
s.c.
GA.
BLACK BEAR RANGE IN THE "TRI-STATE REGION"
(Source: Tri-Stntc Block Bear s1udy, 1978)
KATUAH-page9
BAIT STATION SURVEY
K at uah : Will it take atmospheric
deposition into account?
The bait station survey was developed
as a relatively inexpensive method that is
easy to implement and provides a standard
data base of relative density, distriburion.
and activities of the black bear that could be
easily implemented throughout the whole of
Katuah.
The bait, three panially opened cans
of sardines, is hung at least 10 feet high in a
small tree, so that it is necessary for a bear
to bend the tree over to get at the cans.
These stations arc spaced a1 one-half mile
intervals along routes selecte d to
systematically cover the chosen sample area
at the density of one bait site per mile. Baits
arc placed during the month of July, when
bear activity is highest.
The s lope; aspect, ele vatio n;
oversto ry and unders tory vegetation ;
d istance to the nearest road; timber
c::= -
..,.ne....t; nmal past.
1u4
disllDce to die
1lle
or bear
sanctuary
bat,
boundary are noted for
each bait site to aid in analysis of bear
habits. movements, and habiw preferences.
Each bait station is revisited five
nights after it is set. Marks of tampering arc
very clear, and the percentage o f baits taken
is used as a comparative index value to give
an idea of the bear population in different
areas over the course of time.
The more widespread the usc of the
bait-station method and the higher the
degree of consistency that can be achieved
in its usc, the more value it will have as a
research technique in the Southern
Appalachians.
The bear range in Tennessee and
Georgia is being monitored with bait-station
surveys c onducted by the Tennessee
Wildlife Resources Agency and the Georgia
Depanment of Natural Resources. The
National Park service carries out surveys in
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Isolated surveys are being done as pan of
research projects in North Carolina bear
sanctuaries.
An annual, region-wide bait station
survey is immediately possible and
dcsircable as a means to provide uniform
data among the differe nt p o litical
jurisdic tions and agencies of Ka tuah.
Coordina ti o n by a n i ndepe nde nt
organization or the US Fish and Wildlife
Service could enhance the value o f such a
survey.
All that is lacking is a committment
from the US Forest Service and 1he NC
Wildlife Resources Commission to make a
region-wide black bear management swvey
a reality.
~
FALL 1987
�• oonunucd rrom pm·ious page
period of time to get the best mast crops. So
I've been pushing them to increase the
rotation time to 120-150 years.
There is also a problem regenerating
oaks. foresters just haven't been abk to
work that ouL Some of them are certainly
interested, but all they have been able to do
is to go into a stand before they cut it and
see if there's enough advanced regeneration
(oak saplings) beneath it so that there will be
some oaks coming back. If they cut too
early the oaks will be out-competed by tulip
poplars and other sun-loving, pioneer
species.
"It would help immediately
also the effect of gener:il use of the ro:id
forcing individual be:irs to shift their home
range to another are:i.
A be:ir chooses :in area for a home
range because it's a good habitat :irea. :ind if
he has to shift it over. he will either have to
shift over to land that is not as good for
habitat or he will push another bear over to
poorer land. The more marginal the
situation, the more vulnerable the bear
becomes.
I've said before that road
development should be restricted where
there is more than one-half mile of road per
square mile of forest.
Kai1ial1: But gating roads would
if the Forest Service defined its
job as more than just timber
management. Like the Park
Service and the state game and
fish agencies, they need to play a
tripartite role in managing the
forest: biological management,
enforcement, and information/
education."
"MARK TREES" MYSTERY
For many years naturalists have
speculated on the meaning of the trees found
in bear habitat area that have been
purposcfulJy scarred with clawmarks. As
;
yet, no one has been able to decipher the
meaning oflhe "mark trees".
Marie trees are not randomly scattered
through the brush. They arc always on a
trail and usually on a ridgetop along a very
distinct game trail. Any species of tree may
be marked. They are always live· although
sometimes a tree may be killed by extensive
marking. The marks arc definitely made by
bears. They are always head-high, and
sometimes bear hairs can be found caught in
lhe b:irk of rough-skinned trees.
The marks can be vertical or
horizontal, but arc most oflen horizontal ns
differentiated from the venical marks they
leave \\hen they are climbing a tree.
There are several theories as to the
meaning of the m:irks. One thought is that it
is females and males signalling to one
another during the breeding season.
Another idea is that the marks signify
the dominance hierarchy among the males,
panicularly during the mating season when
they are competing for fem.1lcs.
They could also be territorial markers
placed by an adult female to warn away
other females from her range area.
Whatever the interpretation, the marks
are of great imponancc to the bears. Tree
marking appears to be highly ritualized.
Some trees are marked once and never
marked ag;1in, while others :ire marked year
after year. But if a tree is marked repeatedly,
the bears - even different bears - wiJI walk
in the same footprints to get to the tree.
Trappers used to take advnntage of this and
set their traps around a previous footprint
close to a mark tree. They knew that if a
bear returned to the tree, he would follow
the cJ<.isting footprints and be a sure ca~
help.
Pelton: Cenainly, unless they use
that road to make a clearcut.....
It would help immediately if the
Forest Service defined its job as more than
just timber management. Like the Park
Service and the state game and fish
agencies, they need to play a tripanite role in
managing the forest: biological management, enforcement, and information/
education.
They don't do much enforcement.
For example, they only have one man on the
whole southern Cherokee National Forest.
One person can't do anything in an area like
that.
They also don't do much educating of
the local people about what the forest means
and how it serves them. In the northeast
people are more accepting of bears. Up
there if a person killed a bear out of season,
he'd get reponed. People would gee irate
about it! Here you don't see that. It's a
long-tenn educational problem. People need
to learn about the animal.
The Forest Service has not been
fleJ<.ible enough about alternative
silvicultural methods that might be
applicable in cenain areas. They tend to
generalize and say that they don't have the
time or the personnel to try some other
alternative Conn of cutting.
The second concern is roads. We are
finding that road density may not be as
imponant as how the road is used by
vehicles over time. There are two effects of
roads. There's the direct effect of hunters
using that road to kill a bear, and there's
- Mike Pelton
KATUAH - page 10
FAI.t 1987
�Attirude is very imponant as well. In
Vennont, the Forest Service didn't have any
trouble getting their mar.agemcnt plan for
the Green Mountain Forest accepted. There
they staned out on the right foot. Their
approach was to question, "What's unique
about this forest, and what docs it provide
that won't be provided any other way?"
The black bear was one resource they
mentioned. Another was large saw timber
grown on a long rotation. That just isn't
available outside the national forest
anymore. We have the opponunity to
provide that as well
Vermont also has some very strict
land use and zoning laws. I saw them in
action, and it's impressive. When anyone
wants to do anything to change the land,
especially above a cenain elevation, they
have to appear before a board and justify
their planning, even if they own the land.
Pel ton: A lot. ....I have a lot of
respect for the animal, more and more as
each year goes by. I am constantly amazed
at what it is capable of doing.
There's a special relationship between
humans and bears that has existed through
time. There's a theory floating around that
says it is because of the bears that we are
here. As far as we know, the only place in
the world where there hasn't been ttaccs of
pre-historic bears is in central and southern
Africa. and that's the focal point of the
development of primates, and the thought is
that had there been bears there, the primate
species would never have been able to
develop and evolve as they did.
Bears were always imponant to the
early culrurcs, but even in the present, there
is an instinctive attraction that people have to
the animal. Perhaps it's its human-like
characteristics. I don't know what.
Today I think people are drawn to the
bears because they are symbolic of our
remaining wild lands.
Katuah: The black bear has been a
major pan of your life for the last two
decades. From your long experience with
them, what have they come to mean to you
personally?
Resource Reading on the Black
Bear:
-The fragmented Forest, Larry D. Harris
(Univ. of Chicago Press, 1984)
- The Sacred Paw: The Bear jn Nature,
Myth. and Literature. Paul Shepard and
Barry Sanders (Viking Press, 1985)
- The World of the Black Bear, Joseph V.
Wormer (Lippincott, 1966)
- Mammals of 1he Grea1 Smoky Mountains
National Park, Alicia and Donald W. Linzey
(Univ. of TN Press, 1971)
- The Mammals of Nonh America, E.R.
Hall (John Wiley & Sons, 1987)
- Bear Crossjn~s: An Antholoc of Noah
American Poe1s, Anne Newman and Julie
Suk, eds. (New South Co., 1983)
- The Tri-State Black Bear Study (by
university faculty and government agencies
in TN, NC, and GA - available from the NC
Wildlife Resources Commission; 512 N.
Salisbury St.; Raleigh, NC 27611)
THE CHALLENGER:
THE WILD BOAR
IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
NATIONAL PARK
There is competition between the black bear and the wild
boar ... The stiffest competition is in years of a poor mast
crop, for then both species are trying for the same acorns.
In the early 1900's George Gordon
Moore, a wealthy English businessman,
decided to entenain clients by creating a
game preserve in the area of Hooper's Bald
in the Snowbird Mountains. He built a huge
enclosure of split chestnut rails and brought
in a variety of big game animals - bear,
buffalo, elk, and the European wild boar.
The game park was a miserable
failure. The fence broke down, the animals
escaped, and vinually everything was shot
in the open woods .....exccpt the wild boar,
and they have been in the mountains ever
since.
Boars (Sus scrofa) are shy and
secretive, so they are not often seen by
humans, but they are impressive-looking
animals. Average adult weight is 120-150
pounds, but individuals close to 300 pounds
have been captured. Their long tusks are
vicious-looking and can produce terrible
wounds, but boars are generally shy and
avoid humans whenever possible.
The wild boar species is native to
Russia, eastern Europe, and western
Europe. In their native territory their major
predator was wolves, which had already
been exterminated from the Appalachians
when the boars were first imported. A
bobcat or occasionally a bear will kill a
young piglet, but otherwise they have no
natural predators in the mountains.
After their escape, the boar population
readily naturalized itself in rhe
Appalachians, and in time the animal
became a high-profile big game species in
both Nonh Carolina and Tennessee. People
from all over the country came to bunt wild
boar in the wild mountains.
At that time it was still legal to
free-range domestic bogs in the forest. The
two breeds had a lot of contact, and at one
point hog cholera almost wiped out the wild
strain. The two strains are of the same
species, so they interbred freely. Even in
1973 ttappers caught two or three black and
white spotted boars - the sign of mixed
breeds. None of those have been caught
lately, so it is assumed that the domestic hog
characteristics have been eliminated.
Inevitably the wild boars moved into
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The first sightings were on Parson's Bald
and Gregory Bald at the west end of the
Park. The Park administration immediately
recognized the threat from the wild boars
and began a trapping program to catch the
animals using hogwire enclosures.
It was a futile effort. The hogs spread
eastward, and now the entire Park is
occupied by the species, although they favor
continued on next page
KATUAH - page 11
FALL 1987
�- continued Crom P&&C 11
the western end.
On the Tennessee side of the Park
hogs can be removed by trapping or
shooting by a special team of hunters.
They can only be trapped on the Nonh
Carolina side of the Park. In 1986 over
1,100 wild boar were trapped or shot
within the Park boundanes. Officials
have no guess whether that is 10% Or
90% of the boar population.
Whether or not the wild boar can
be eliminated from the Park is no longer
in question. The Park is a huge area over 500,000 acres - of which a large
pan is only accessible by foot trails, and
a large pan of that can only be reached
by climbing cross-country through the
thickest kind of brush. These
inaccessible areas harbor a breeding
nucleus of boar that multiplies
exponentially in years of a good acorn
harvest And immediately bordering the
Park, the Nonh Carolina and Tennessee
wildlife agencies are developing and
promoting the wild boar as game
animals.
Wild boar do an incredible amount
of damage wherever they go. Their
rooting can tum over great areas of the
forest floor as if it bad been tilled. They
are a great threat to the many endemic
varieties of plants that are found in the
Great Smoky Mountains and exist
nowhere else in the world. There are
rare plants here that are in great jeopardy.
Wild hogs will root up
salamanders. They will wallow in the
only water sources at the higher
elevations and silt them and foul them,
so that the water is undrinkable. They
spread diseases to other wildlife species.
The damage they are creating is serious,
and much of it is permanent
There is competition between the
black bear and the wild boar. In a direct
confrontation a grown bear will kill an
adult boar, but these occasions are
infrequent
The stiffest competition is in years
of a poor mast crop, for then both
species are trying for the same acorns.
Bears have an advantage in that they can
climb into the tops of the oak trees and
feed on the acorns before they drop.
Bears arc also safely in their dens
during the cold winter months, while the
boars have to continue to forage for food
in all weather. To make a dent in their
population levels, the best time to hit
them is at the end of a hard winter. They
are in poor condition then.
The wild boars' biggest advantage
is in their remarkable reproduction
capacity. Under the best conditions
female bears, when they become
sexually mature at three and one-half or
four and one-half years of age, can have
only two or three cubs every other year.
Female hogs become sexually mature at
six to eight months of age. After that
time they can have two litters of four to
eight piglets each year! The boar
population is dramatically affected by the
acorn crop. In a poor acorn year, rhey do
not reproduce, but when the acorn crop
is good, the boar population
mushrooms. In that kind of situation the
piecemeal control being practiced in the
Park is not effective.
.
- Mike Pelton
KATUAH - page 12
cougar
thick velvet fur rippling
bone muscle sinew moving
eyes sharp clear piercing
you pulse
through the dense night air.
lithe fluid lean
slipping through pathways
known only to your kind
you stalk life itself
in the still luminous forest.
/#
fr
gn(ilie: Martha Tree
poem: Mamie Muller
�Finding Allies in the World
We have been told that the Indian people native to Turtle
Island saw the world differently than the Europeans do. They
saw the world as a spiritual place, where Spirit took shape
and existed in the many forms of the Creation.
We have been told that the Indian people believed in
power, and they sought power, but the power they sought
was spiritual power and not power over others, such as the
white people seek.
We have been told that every rock and tree, every bird and
every animal, each living thing in the world is an ex:pression
of some aspect of the spiritual energy of Creation. Each
entity has its own spiritual personality, so to speak. The
native people saw some of these personalities as particularly
good and desireable, and they would seek out these spiritual
beings and ask their help for the tribe and the people so that
they could get along in the world. They called these beings to
become the spiritual allies of the tribe.
We have been told that an individual could also seek a
spiritual ally to strengthen some pan of his character and
balance his personality. Preparation was an important part of
this. Just because someone wanted an ally, it did not mean
that the ally would come. First that individual would go to a
medicine person. The medicine person would give them
medicine to attract the ally - a feather, some hair, or perhaps a
bone from that animal. And the medicine person might give
that individual some advice on what to do and how to act and
give that person a song with which to call the desired ally.
Then the seeker would go off alone into the forest and fast
and pray for that spirit to come.
Sometimes, we were told, an ally comes to someone
without that person even asking. A Cherokee man in the
generation of our grandparents' parents was knocked into a
river by a bear, who then pursued him into the water and
slapped him down several times and clawed him. The bear
went away leaving the man with scratchmarks and bruises,
but did not kill him. The medicine people in the mans' village
told him that Yonah had chosen to be his ally and would help
and protect him. The medicine people said that it was
apparent the bear had followed the man into the water to be
sure he was marked. Always after that the man was called
"Man-Who-Bear-Knocked-1nto -Water". One does not have
to be mauled to realise the presence of a spirit ally, but people
today are so domesticated that some have allies and are not
even aware of it.
We were told that once a connection with the spiritual
realm was made, that people then spoke to their spirit allies in
a tone of command. The Creator, and the Sun, the Moon,
and Fire (which is the power of the Sun on Earth), are
primary Jl9Wers, and these were always asked very politely
to share their power. But other spirit beings were told what
was needed, not arrogantly, but in a way that ex:pected their
cooperation.
We were told that even Kanati, the lightning, must
sometimes be taunted and mocked before he will bring rain.
Someone could speak to him in such a way, saying, "Kanati,
you are considered a great power, yet there you sit, while I.be
humans and all living things here below stand in great need
of rain. Ha! ls this the best you can do?" But when speaking
to Kanati in that way it is a1 ways wise to stand in a place
where one can take shelter quickly.
KATIJAH-page 13
We have been told, however, that although it would not
work to beg a spirit ally for its help, one must always thank
an ally sincerely for coming and lending its power. And
nothing is given for nothing. A human must always serve an
ally and think well of it to keep the spiritual connection
strong.
Yonah, the bear, we were told, is a spirit representing
great physical srrength and endurance. The bear is strong in
the ability to survive, because it can eat almost anything. It is
also moody, and its temper is ferocious. In its build and its
appearance, the bear shows it is closely related to the
mountains. And since the red wolf, the elk, the panther, and
!he woods bison are gone from the mountains, Yonah is the
last symbol of animal strength remaining here.
But, we were told, a spirit does not need to be large and
physically strong to be a powerful ally. The dragonfly is a
very small creature. It is not fierce. It is very delicate and
beautiful, but the dragonfly is a very strong power in the
world.
We have been told that the golden eagle is a strong power
both in the physical body and in spirit. The eagle could fly so
high into the sky that he would disappear from the sight of
those watching from the ground. When he returned and sat
on a branch, he had such a regal look about him that the old
ones would say,"Surely, he has spoken with the Creator."
But, we were told, the Cherokee people did not consider
the bear to be one of the str0ngest powers in the mountains,
because they knew where the bears came from.
The bears, it is said, were once humans, a clan of the
Cherokee tribe called Ani-Tsa'guhi. One boy among them
would spend a lot of time in the forest, until one day his
mother noticed that he was starting to grow hair all over his
body.
"Stay in the village with us," she begged. "You spend all
your time in the woods. You hardly eat with us anymore."
"I am going to go to the forest to live all the time," the boy
replied. "There is plenty of food to eat there, and I like wild
food berter than com and beans. Why don't all of you come
with me? There is enough for our whole clan to eat."
The clan met in council, we were told, and they decided to
go with the boy to live in the forest. He told them that first
they must fast for seven days. So they did that, and after that
time, they went away from their village.
We were told that on their way, they were met by a group
of messengers from the other villages, who had come to beg
them to stay in their homes. But the Ani-Tsa'guhi could not
be persuaded. In fact they were already starting to grow hair
on their bodies.
"We are going into the forest to live forever," said the
Ani-Tsa'guhi. "There is plenty for us to eat there. But when
you hunger, come into the forest and call us, and we will
offer our bodies to you that you may eat our flesh. Do not be
afraid to kill us, for we will live forever."
And we were told that the Ani-Tsa'guhi taught the
messengers the proper songs and told the messengers how to
call them. Then, singing and dancing, the clan went away
into the forest. As the messengers started back to their
villages, they turned around for one last look, just in time to
see the last of a line of black bears disappear into the trees.
Therefore it is said that Yonah, the bear, is Cherokee, but
is not Cherokee. The bear is considered a brother, bur there
are stronger allies, like Fire and Water, and the trinity Kanati~
rattlesnake, and ginseng, living in the mountains.
#-
Tlu!se words are spoken by a traditional Clu!rokee.
FALL 1987
�"ME AND MY WALKER HOUNDS:"
An Exposition on Bears and Bear Dogs by Robert McMahan
When I was seven years old, my daddy
would take me hunting. He didn't force me to go. I went
because I wanted to go.
I'd say, "Daddy, you goin' bunting tonight?"
"Yep."
"You care if I go with you?"
"Nope."
Well, I'd go with Daddy. He'd lay out aJI night
long. I'd make it 'til about midnight. They'd always
cook a hot dog or fry some bacon on a stick about then,
and I'd stay up for that, but lhen I'd go to the sleeping
bag.
As I got up to 10 or 12 years old, I got to listening
to what they were listening to: the dogs. I got to be able
to tell which dogs were leading, which dogs were
behind, how long it was going to take this dog to catch
up, or how far ahead lhat dog was from the pack.
I started possum bunting when I was
14 or 15 years old. I'd borrow a certain
redbone hound dog from my uncle. I lived
in the very last house on the paved road,
and I'd walk down to my uncle's house on
lhe highway, borrow that dog, and walk
back up to the top of that mountain. I
enjoyed doing that. I caught some possums
using a .22 and a two-cell flashlight. Most
of the time that little two-cell flashlight
wouldn't shine more'n three or four limbs
up on the tree. If the little possum wasn't
there, I'd grab my dog and go. l didn't pay
no attention to walking three miles in lhere
to that tree.
Finally I got enough money to buy
my own dog. A good dog cost $50-75.00
back then. It made it real big for me to know
that !hfil dog belonged to~I started out bear hunting with an
older man namedWade HaJl. I was about 22
when I first went out with him. The whole
first year I hunted, I never saw a bear. We
- oonlinued on ne.<tl page
KATUAH - page 14
FALL 1987
�had some good chases, and we had some
good times, but the bear just didn't show.
I start breeding and training Walker
hounds in L976. The United Kennel Club
(UKC) recognizes six breeds of hunting
hounds: blue tick, English, redbone, Plort,
black-and-tans, and Walker.
Walkers are making their mark in the
bear hunting world. They're coming along.
The reason these Walker dogs are
coming along is that people are breeding
them carefully. They're wanting to get the
best. and they'll go where they have to to
get the best. But anybody with a hound dog
will tell you, you can breed the best to the
best. but your wodc is still cut out for you,
because you still have 10 train that dog.
You're going to wear out a lot of shoe
leather to make those pups into bear dogs.
There are different things to look for
in a dog. Myself, I'm looking for a good,
medium-nosed dog. I don't want a real
cold-nosed dog that can trail a track two
days old. Sometimes that pays off: I've seen
it happen that a dog will start on a cold trail
he could just barely smell, go over the
ridge, and a bear will be laid up there. If a
bear gets in an area where there's mash
(mast), he'll stay there 'til the mash is gone.
But you can waste a lot of time that way,
too.
I also want a dog that'll go when I
tum him loose. I don't want one hangin'
'round my feet. He's got to go 'ti! he
strikes.
The mouth is another thing. I like a
dog to have a good bay mouth when he's
trailing or running and just "hammers every
breath," as I call it. That way I know right
where the bear is at. And when he comes
into the tree (trees the bear), he needs to
change over to a good, hard, chop-mouth
sound. You can tell when a good one does
tree.
Color is imponant too. I don't want
no ticks in a Walker. I like big spots. If I
find small spotS about the size of a quarter
all over the dog, that tells me that's not a
pure-bred dog. What's color is color, and
what's aint, ain't.
Before I go out there and breed to
someone else's dog other than my own, I
just about have to see how M's bred and
raised his dog. I have to see what that dog
does when it trees a bear or a coon.
One thing to get straight: the dogs are
the main factor in bear hunting. The greatest
pan of the sportsmen in this area, all they
want is to hear their dogs run, hear a good
race, and see a good fi_ght The grea[er pan
of them is not interested in killing a bear.
We carry a rifle. We're legal - we don't
believe that's illegal - but killing 1he bear
isn't the main thing.
To get a good gun dog, now, you do
need eo gee him on a bear kill. You kill one
to him, because chat really perks a dog up.
He feels like he's accomplishing something
then. He's got a taste of what he's supposed
to be doing. But you don't have to kill every
bear that a dog gets after. You could take
one bear a year for a pack of dogs, and that
pack will go in next year and run you
anol.ber bear.
Some people say. "You get more
game from a bound dog." Well, that's not
true. We hunt with our dogs, because that's
KATUAH- page 15
what's important 10 us. I don't see any :;pon
wha1soever in still hunting. That's why I
don't deer hunt. You go up there early of a
morning, get behind a tree, and sit there
about two hours, and wait on a deer to
come up. That deer doesn't even know
you're there. He's grazing, and you stick
that gun barrel out from around that tree,
you shoot that deer, and he's a dead deer.
He never knew what hit him.
I could see doing it for I.be meat, but
in this area here there's nobody who has to
depend on deer meat or bear meat to
survive. There's no point in going out there
and just shooting it.
1lle way we bear hunt is in a group.
It takes at least seven men who get along to
make a good group. l could go bear hunting
by myself, but more than likely I'd be
fighting a losing battle. I couldn't stay up
with the dogs, because when a bear is
jumped, he'll turn and run. An
averaged-sized native bear, a 100-200
pound animal who's been born and raised in
these mountains, can run eight to ten hours
or even longer. There's no way one man
could stay up. But if you've got a good
group of seven men, you get someone on
one ridge, one on another, and one on
another. There might be three dogs after the
bear, and then when he comes my way, I'll
turn my dogs loose to see what they can do.
.....you could tap Sam on the lzead
with your foot, and everything in
him would just rattle. He was
broken ruJ. to pieces.
When a bear is jumped up and
running, he might be a mile ahead of the
dogs, but they can run him then with their
heads down. A bear hunter can tell every
one of his dogs by its bark. The whole rime
he's listening to the chase, he's got that
sound down pat He can tell which dog is
which, and he can tell what it's a-doing.
You can't tum a young pup on a
track, because there's so much other game
in these woods. You loose the well-trained
ones first. Ihu'll stay on the bear. But if
you go ahead and tum out 15 dogs, you're
gonna have 10 that don't even know what
they're out there after. They're going to be
ahead of your dogs trailing the bear, and
they're going to jump a deer or whatever,
and - wham! - there's a big blow-up.
You don't want more than seven dogs
on the chase up to the point where they stop
him. Then you turn your young dogs in on
that. That's the way you make bear dogs.
I've known limes when somebody
saw a bear cross the road, and ~body
got excited, and J<Ymbody jerked their dogs
out. Ir didn't take that bear l 0 minutes to get
tid of che dogs, but it took us three days to
find chem. Not one dog got after the bear and we'd~ 1hat bear!
You can put as many dogs as you like
on a bear that's 75 pounds and up, and
they'll never kill that bear. That bear's
gonna take care of himself, he's dangerous,
and he'll kill a dog.
Everybody's got their own opinion
about breeding and raising dogs, but I
believe that if you're going to get a bear,
you've got to have dogs that'll fight.
You've got to have dogs chat'll nip at his
heels and let him know that they're there
and not be scared of that bear in no way.
If you have dogs that'll fight that
bear, that bear's gonna have to do one of
two things: he's either going have to run
and get the bell out of there, or he's going to
have to get into a tree.
A bear will kill a dog - he will, there's
no doube about it A bear'll slap a dog, but
his intention is 10 get the dog pulled into
him, to get a mouth hold on that dog. If he
gets a mouth hold on that dog, that's a dead
dog. You can make it up for that dog, he's
gone.
We turned out one last year named
OJ' Sam - as good a dog as I've ever seen
turned after a bear. He was an English dog,
and while I've been acquainted wi1h some
dogs that were as gQQd as that one. but as
far as being any better, they're hard LO find.
This wasn't but an averaged-sized bear, and
we turned Sam and the rest of the dogs on
it, and in 15 minutes that dog was dead.
What happened that panicular time
was that we turned the dogs on one bear,
but a bigger bear had crossed this other
one's path going another direction. The
bigger bear didn't run; he wailed for the
dogs, and by the time we made it up to
there, you could tap Sam on the head with
your foot, and everything in him would just
rattle. He was broken all 10 pieces.
Personally, in my opinion, a bear's a
beautiful animal. If you are out in the
woods, and you happen to see one, chey
look real pretty just because you so very
seldom get to see one.
But once you put the dogs on a bear,
it's different. It's a fact of me saying, ''l'm
going to stop you," and him saying, "No,
you're not." If I win the battle, I've got him;
he's mine. Then he's not so good-looking. I
mean, he looks good, but not near as good
as he was standing somewhere all alone, no
dogs, up there.
But if he kills or injures one of my
dogs, when we finally get enough dogs on
him to get him stopped, he's not
good-looking at all.
Once a good dog gets on the trail of a
bear, he'll be there. He'll be there 'ti! he just
totally gives out. When a dog like that gives
out, he'll be two days before you find him,
unless you know tight where to go gee him.
because he's going to go out there
somewhere and lay down. I'v.: carried
several out of the woods. Even afeer two
days, they'll walk four or five s1eps and fall
down, walk four or five steps and fall
down. It wasn't that the bear hu·: them in
any way, it was just 1hat the dog I 1d, as the
old saying goes, "busted a gut."
When a bear is shot, we Lake it to
someone's place, Clarence Hall's or maybe
mine, and we lay him ouc and chop him up,
and we take the meat and put it in10 liule
piles, one for each man who's hunted wilh
us. Each pile has the same amount of each
part, and we put those in freezer bags, and
carry that meat home. I like bear meat in the
fall of the year, but I don't like it frozen too
much. Several people down here call me
every year, asking if I've got any bear meat.
If I've got it, they're welcome to it. le does
me good 10 see them eat it.
- continued on page 26
FALL 1987
�Onphic by Rob Messick ~
"SMELLS LIKE MONEY TO ME"
by Jay S. Gertz
The campaign to get Champion
International Paper Company to clean up the
Pigeon River is not a new one. This
long-term crisis has currently been reheated
by a groundswell of opposition
downstream, fanned by recent federal
concern, and fueled by Champion's
incendiary ultimatum: 'We cannot afford the
pollution controls necessary to clean up our
wastes, and we will close down rather than
clean up!"
By putting the people of Canton and
Haywood County under the fear of
widespread joblessness and the subsequent
spectre of economic collapse, Champion has
amassed quite a constituency of vocal
proponents. Many residents believe that the
environmentalists, the citizens of Newpon,
TN, and all others who just happen to want
a clean river in their backyards are
black-hearted scoundrels pushing poor,
little, old Champion to the brink of
bankruptcy and ruination.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. Champion International, a huge,
multinational corporation based in
Stamford, CT, does have the resources and
power to return the Pigeon River to its
former crystal clarity. For Champion to bold
the citizens of Canton economic hostage in
this matter is patently unfair.
Champion's claim that they cannot
meet their own clean-up costs tarnishes their
corporate image and philosophy. It is also
KATIJAH - page 16
Other industries and
individuals now see the
Pigeon River as a potential
resource again, not only in
economic terms, but in terms
of its former g Lory as a
free-flowing, living stream.
ironic, because Champion Corporation was
a major factor in crearinft the economic
structure prevailing in Katuah today.
Champion Fiber Co. came to the
mountains as the brainchild of Ohio-based
industrialist Peter G. Thompson in 1905. At
the height of the timber boom, Thompson
and other nonhem industrialists purchased
400,000 acres of steep forest land, built a
pulp plant on the banks of the Pigeon River,
and began construction of a mill town,
which he named after Canton, Ohio.
Thompson showed great foresight in
his undertaking. He shrewdly profited on a
rural, unindustrialized area with an
abundance of timber, a constant source of
water for pulp processing, and a cheap and
unlimited native labor supply. By 1914 the
Canton mill employed 1,000 people, and the
population of the surrounding area had
jumped from 400 to 8,000.
There was not a diversity of interests
in the new company town of Canton. As in
the other towns that sprang up ar that time,
the single-interest economy was dominated
by the controlli.ng industry in the area, the
timber interests.
In Haywood County, Champion
become the guiding force for the entire
locale. Following the pattern of industrial
development then current in Appalachia, the
company controlled the jobs, the political
system, and the surrounding natural
resources.
The people of Haywood County were
hard-working members of an isolated,
agriculturally self-sufficient, indigenous
mountain culture. Like other mountain
people, many of them sold their land for
ready cash and forsook the hardship of
farming the difficult terrain for the promise
of steady work and wages.
This migration to the mill towns and
industrial centers denoted a turning point in
mountain life. It marked the beginning of
the modem era, in which mountain people
gave up their independent ways and became
a part of the cash economy.
By 1930 the Champion operation in
Canton was the largest in the United States.
Today Champion International is the founh
largest company in the forest products
industry. They are ranked as the 86th largest
company in the world. Their sales in 1986
FALL 1987
�topped $4.3 billion. Champion is the
second-largest private landowner in the US
with 6.5 million acres of timber. They also
own oil and gas fields with reserves of 2.5
million barrels of oil and 2.2 million cubic
feet of gas. From mills in the United States,
Canada, and Brazil, Champion produces
3.3 million tons of pulp, 815 thousand tons
of newsprint, and 2.5 million tons of paper
annually. Champion's six chief and 15
executive officers receive $6.25 million per
year with additional incentive compensation
of$2.8 million annually.
Canton and Waynesville's 2,300
Champion also uses 43 millio11
gallons ofthe Pigeon River daily.
This constitutes 90% of the total
stream.
Champion employees contribute a mighty
share to the wealth of that international
giant. They make one-third of the country's
total of coated papers (including duplicating
paper and most of the nation's dairy-type
containers). In 1982 the Canton mill used
2,162 cords of wood and 956 tons of coal
per day to make 1,620 tons of paper and
board per day.
Champion also uses 43 million
gallons of the Pigeon River daily. This
constitutes 90% of the total stream. The
wastewater is extremely discolored by
tannins and filled with other organic
compounds. This "din". although not
dangerously toxic, renders the Pigeon River
unfit not only for aquatic life, but for
commercial and domestic use as well.
Champion Fiber was once the sole
lord of a tremendous mountain fiefdom. The
Pigeon was its personal river - itS chief
resource, its sewer, and its ttansportation
system. Other industries and individuals
now see the Pigeon River as a potential
resource again, not only in economic tenns,
but in terms of its former glory as a
free-flowing, living stream.
Prior to 1900, the Pigeon River was
as pristine a mountain stream as one could
find in eastern North America. One could
see the bottom through ten feet of water.
Bass were prevalent, and upriver the
speckled trout were plentiful. Sun perch,
borneyheads, mullets, and hogsuckers
could be caught by the string in a matter of
hours. Mud tunics and muskrats could be
trapped by the water's edge. Other riparian
species lived by the Pigeon in great
numbers.
Now highly-colored tannins and other
compounds enter the Pigeon at Canton.
From this point on into Tennessee, the
Pigeon River no longer has the natural
vitality necessary to suppon typical aquatic
life. The sparkling clarity of the Pigeon bas
given way to a murky, smelly, and
sometimes foamy brew.
Above Canton the Pigeon River is
designated a Class A-ll trout stream, and the
water can be used for drinking or food
production. Below Canton the river
supports some atrophied "garbage" fish,
like carp, goldfish, and suckers. The
municipality of Newport, TN finds the
Pigeon so noxious, that although the river
flows through their city, they get their
drinking water from the French Broad, six
miles away.
The Southern Appalachians of the late
1980's are home to a greater variety of
corporate interests and economic livelihoods
than ever envisioned by the early timber and
mineral barons. One of them is the
recreational industry, which includes
fishing, hunting, camping, hiking,
white-water rafting, kayaking, etc. A study
recently published by two professors at
Walters State Community College estimates
the direct recreational benefit of a clean
Pigeon River at $7.3 million per year. This
does not include a projected increase in
agricultural use or productivity along the
river. or new industries. or a rise in real
estate values or development
Yet the river cannot be any sort of
asset to anyone, as long as Champion views
the Pigeon as its own and refuses to clean
its wastewater any further.
Champion lntemational, with annual
assets in excess of $6 billion, claims it
cannot afford to clean up the Pigeon River.
Over the past ten years, Chamfion has
earned $1.28 billion, paying $62 million
just to stockholders. If Champion spent $60
million in colorant removal, their projected
earnings would be reduced by $7 .8 million,
which is only a loss of 8 cents per share.
Champion's corporate philosophy is
summed up in a document entitled l l i
Champion Way. According to this
document, "Champion wantS to be known
as a company which strives to conserve
resources, to reduce waste, and to use and
dispose of materials with scrupulous regard
for safety and health. We taJce panicular
pride in this company's record of
compliance with the spirit as well as the
letter of all environmental regulations."
In the mid-1960's Champion did
begin instituting pollution abatement on the
Pigeon. At that time only sludgeworms
could live in the river. Gradually other
life-forms returned to the water, but not in
vast numbers or in the great variety of
former times.
Champion no longer
provides the only source of
livelihood in these mountains, and
they can no longer dictate a single
use for the river.
Today, Champion's North Carolina
wastewater permit docs not meet up with the
stricter federal standards of the Clean Water
Act, and Champion claims that it is
economically impossible to bring the river
up to legal standards.
For Champion to claim that a fouled
river is necessary to its business operations
should be an outrage to all the citizens of
this region. Presently existing waste
handling technology could reduce the color
pollution by 95-99%, and with 23% profits
last year and 40% profilS projected for this
year, Champion can cenainly afford to be
cleaner.
Another statement from ~
Champion Way points out the vast gulf
between the corporate ideal and the hard-line
stance of the Canton management:
"Champion wants to be known as an open,
LESSONS TO BE LEARNED
FROM CANTON'S PLIGHT
Despite financial headlines
proclaiming a bull market on Wall Sacct and
a rosy financial picture, the national
economy has been sluggish throughout the
1980's. Champion Paper Co. has
maintained a dominant place in the national
financial picture by a drastic streamlining
program begun in 1983. Shut-downs and
layoffs arc pan of that program. They have
laid off27,400 employees nationally in five
years. They have divested huge scgment.s of
their industry, such as brown paper
packaging, envelopes, cardboard boxes, a
distribution network, and an insurance
company.
Andrew Sigler, Champion CEO,
plans to "meld remaining business and
boost return on equity from single digits
into the top quaner of US industry." The
only way to grasp this potential 16% leap is
to cut costs and raise productivity. The
company intends to save $400 million (or
10% of its costs) annually.
This may explain the company's
bard-line stance on the Pigeon River plant.
The Canton mill is already 79 years old, its
rate of return is dropping as newer plants
with more modem technology arc built, and
it is obvious even to the plant management
that it has outgrown the river that feeds it
Champion will very soon, perhaps already,
be faced with a choice of expensive
modernization at the Canton mill or closing
the plant and moving to greener J>3StureS.
The decision, in fact, may already
have been made. Champion will finish
planning on a state-of-the-an mill in
Halifax, NC in 1989. They could decide to
close down in Canton and write off the
capital loss in corporate wees.
In that situation, they could only win
by taking an uncompromising stance on
pollution abatement. They would either
force the EPA to knuckle under and
maximize profits from the last days of the
Canton mill, or they would provide
themselves an excellent cover under which
to pull out of Haywood County: it would
then appear that it was the EPA and the
"damn environmentalists" and not the profit
motive that caused them to leave.
Whether Champion chooses to
squeeze Canton or to leave Canton, the
outlook for that mill town, whose whole
livelihood depends on the outmoded
Champion plant, is bleak. Hindsight, of
course, is 20/20, but it is obvious now that
Canton should have begun years ago to
diversify itS local economy, preferably with
smaller, locally-owned businesses. It is also
in times like these when the value of a
strong agricultural sector is clear.
Hopefully other towns will learn from
Canton's plight. The temptation is great to
give over to large outside business interests,
when it seems that they have the power to
make local residents pan of the American
Dream. But the end result is inevitably
economic peonage. The giant corporate
interests do not come here to give money;
they come here to taJce it, and they will stay
only as long as their profit interest is served.
In these times it may seem like
bucking the economic tide, but stability in
- continued on nexl ~&•·
- continued en MJCI page
KATUAH-page 17
FALL 1987
�continued from prcv ious page
1ru1hful company. We are committed to the
highest standards of business conduct in our
relationships with customers, suppliers,
employees, communities, and shareholders
In all our pursuits, we are unequivocal in
our suppon of the laws of the land, and acts
of questionable legality will not be
tolerated."
This sta1ement from a company that
threatens 10 sink an entire region inio a
depression if its excessive profits margins
are not upheld.
Champion no longer provides the
only source of livelihood in these
mountains, and they can no longer dictate a
single use for the river. Champion must
begin to accept the variety of commerce and
the multitude of changes that have come to
the mountains in recent years.
If Champion would uphold its values
of corporate excellence, it must stand by
words like these: "If change has a most
valuable lesson to offer, perhaps it is that
we need not be victims of it, if we can
accept it as an opportunity to grow and
achieve. In this sense, we believe that the
best companies are the ones with operating
styles flexible enough to make necessary
changes ..... " (from the Champion
International 1986 Annual Repon)
~
-wntinued from previous page
the long run is best maintained by making
decisions locally about the land, its
resources, and the economic sustenance that
is based on them. Perhaps now it is again
time 10 reclaim part of the mountain tradition
of self-sufficiency disrupted by the arrival
of industrialism to Appalachia.
The days of an economy based on
subsistence farming are past, but the more
people who move into locally-based, basic
production, such as producing food or
finished wood products; or who serve the
need for healing that draw people 10 the
mountains; or who pioneer new, more
appropriate occupations, the less
catastrophic will be the corning changes in
Haywood County and elsewhere.
Canton and its individual residents
would do welJ to de-emphasize their
dependence on the Champion plant before
the Champion company does the same.
Local governments and far-sighted banks
who would like to keep 1he local area
functioning and in1ac1 could begin now to
inventory local resources and opportunities
and begin making money available for
training and business loans to put the
Canton economy on a firmer footing. An
inventory of goods and materials imponed
into Haywood County would also indicate
needs that could be locally filled.
The hope that Champion Paper can
provide continuing security for the area is a
strong one, but in the end a strongly
diversified local economy will best
withstand the ·vagaries of the industrial
economy. Corporate interests are not always
the same as local interests. Champion
Company is a huge business complex and
responds 10 changes in the economic winds
far distant from the Southern Appalachians.
To Champion executives in S1amford,
there are many thmgs more important than
the welfare of a small, isolated mountain
town. To someone who lives here and sees
their job threatened by shifts in corporate
~
economics, there is not.
KATUAH- page 18
Bear
In the core of the thing is darkness
It is our final judgement
While we sleep it paces outside our door
It is the first time It has been around us
So closely. Steaming shit in early morning.
Maybe our private poems will never leave our heads,
Thoughts about confrontations.
Fear of opening that door.
Maybe our pirate poems will leave our books
And enter into our nights
And bring us Interrupted dreams
Of half knowing and fear until we awake
And wonder over ignorance.
It is the current tracking we must be
Concerned with, tables turned.
Hunting signs that read Know Me or Keep Out.
Except for untamed few of us,
We know only edge of mountain forest
Home to the black bear.
The word now is totem
The word out is guns and dogs down
Radios, cages, baiting - unholy
The apparition before us is round
Ginseng, Raccoon, Kanati, Bear, Wind, Earth gathered
With one place empty, Us.
- by Scott Bird
FALL 1987
�/
GREEN POLITICS IN KATUAH
Wlien Ille animals come to us,
askitlg for our help,
will we k11ow what tliey are saying?
When the plants speak to us
iii their delicate beautiful language,
will we be able to answer tllem?
When tlie planet lierself
sings to us in our dreams,
will we be able to wake ourselves,
and act?
-Gary Lawless, Eart/J First!
can developed countrjes contrOI and dictate nctions
to 'underdeveloped' nations. All people, no mnucr of
what sex. color. creed, sexual oricnta~on or heritage
must be empowered 10 have conLrol over the
decisions which nffect their own lives We must live
with a dedication for nonviolence in all aspects of
our lives.
Green panics are growing ~roughout the
world today. Most notably are the West Germon
Greens who during the lasl election won 8.3~ of
the national voie and the same proportional number
or scats in the Bundestag. Other pmies exist in
1131y, France. England, Canada, Cosu Rica, Brazil,
Sri Lanka and Spain.
It was an incredible evening. lhlll night in
Amherst. MassachWICUS siuing with several hundred
other people listening to G:iry rc:id his pocuy. We
had already spent three days and nights discussing
our ideas on wh:it the green movement is and what
is happening in our own areas th:it is 'green'. Gary's
words soothed our spirits and connected us all with
our most fundamental belief-th:it we must live in
harmony with all of nature.
We have to develop a new p;irodigm for our
world, one which follows a love and understanding
for our role within nature as equals tO all other
species, not as dominntors. We arc not, as our
indus1.rial society purports, doing 'battle with'
nature. As we recognize this fact. then we can see
better how to reorder our lives nnd rcl::uionships
with each other and the planet. This new paradigm
must begin in our own local communities and
regions, be it Katuah, the 01.nrks, or wbcrcvcr.
During the I950's the civil rights movement
began as a struggle by the peoples of color to
empower themselves and take their n:uuro.I and equal
place in a white dominated and contr0lled society
and to change th:it society. This movement later
IJUnsformcd into a celebration or peoples' or color
bcrilllge and history and contribution to our world in
freedom and oppre,sion. Later an lhe sixties. the
emphasis v.'35 on community control. anti-war,
feminism; and then in the seventies, aw;in:ness of
en\·ironmcntal concerns and problems. l':ow in the
eighties all or these concerns and energies for change
arc drawing together into the grocn movcmenL
Many people throughout the world are
becoming awnrc Ihm specific io;sue activism, though
icrribly necessary, doc.~ not change the root causes
of the problems. Green politics is a holis11c view of
life on Eanh. ft is based on the premise th3t we
cannot pursue growlh for growth's sake without
regard for its impacL It insists on the necessity tO
chnnge our foc11s from quantity to quality of
lifestyle. No longer can men dominate women; nor
KATUAH- page 19
There are now over 75 gnssroot gTCCn
organizations throughout the United StateS. They
are networked togelher under an orgooization based
in Kansas City. Missouri called the CommittteS of
Correspondence. named afru the original grassrooc
movement agnirul colonial rule in America.
As l lhink of my community witlun Katunh
I see many 'green' activities, though they may not
Ten Key Values
Ecological Wisdom
Grassroots Democracy
Personal & Social Responsibility
Nonviolence
Decentraliuition
Community-based Economics
Postpatriarchal Values
Respect for Diversity
Global Responsibility
Future Focus
have been labeled as such. Take, fer instance, the
Stone Soup Restaurant in Asheville, NC. A
worker-owned business, it is celebrating its
tenth-year anniversary this year. 'Thue ue also the
small business incubators located ii Waynesville
and Marion, NC which provide a location and
technical small business assisiaace to infant
businesses for two years each. After this time the
businesses move out into the community and new
'babies' move in. The Self-Help Credit Union is
another example. This organimtion h!lp<; employees
buy businesses which are closing, as well as sun
new ones, throughout the state.
The Swnnnanoa Valley Project 1s a case or
local people taking contr0l of the direction of their
community's growth and doing som~thing positive
to unite them all. Through meetings with the local
residents, they found what people liked about
Swannanoa; what they didn't like: w~nt they wanted
to change; where the investments of the people were
used by the banking institutions whether within or
out of the area; where did their community's garbage
and waste go; and where do the valley's youth go
when leaving school for good. This gave lhc people
of lhe Swannanoa community a power to move in
ways which they could truly affect their area's life.
After reluming to Katuah from the
conference in July, I helped tO set up an initial
meeting to sec who in the area was interested in
green politics. Over SO people auended from all
around this area - Brevard, Hendersonville,
Asheville, Madison County, NC. Since then we
have organized a group called lbc Western Nonh
Carolina Greens which has adopted the JO key
vat ues or the Commiuees of Correspondence as its
philosophical foundation.
At our August meeting we filled out a
questionaire to find out each person's views and
ideas about how they would want the regional
organization IO be involved politically, i.e. field
Green Party candidates, support 'green' Democratic
candidateS, or present green positions on specific
issues IO the voters and traclitional candidaies. There
was overwhelming interest in working on
cnvironmen131 issues as well as presenting a 'green'
position on local issues. Other interest arens are:
organizing a town meeting or open forum with
minutes being submitted 10 city/county
government; promoting voter registration/
participation, particularly people of color; assisting
local government and group recycling efforts; giving
auention to low-income housing with a view to
appropriate residential development in order tO
avoid growth which forces people out or their
ncighbolhoods and communities; and adding support
to ongoing community groups and organll.ations.
Monthly meetings are planned as well as
separate 'green' value study groups. Times and dates
will be announced in the Western Carolina
Coalition for Social Concerns Calend:lr (always on
display at Pack Library in Asheville, NC); on
WCQS: Malaprop's bookstore in Ashe,·ille. as well
as uca newspapers. For more information call
704/2.54-6910 or write:
W.N.C. Greens
P.O. Box 14-1
Asheville, NC 28802
Next Meeetlng: Sept 30 (see calendar p.28)
Thi.r article was wriuen by Richard llarri.fon
who has returned from a national grun
conftreru:e which took place this swnmer (see
Katilah Jssiu XVI). I/ere he shares his report
with us as it relates to our bioregion.
FALL 1987
�PROTECTING OUR
MOUNTAIN WETLANDS
NATURAL
by William 0. McLamcy, PhD
WORLD
NEWS
MODERN SCIENCE RESTORES
ANCIENT INDIAN MAIZE
For thousands of years the Cherokee
Indians have had a distinctive variety of
maize, or "com" as it came to be called by
the European seulers. Ii was derived from
the Harinoso de Ocho strain of maize found
in northwestern Mexico, and it has long
been a scientific mystery how the variety
made its way to the Appalachians without
leaving a trace of its passage between
Mexico and the eastern mountains (see
Krufuill. #3).
In 1981 Dr. William Brown, retired
president and general manager of Pioneer
Hi-Bred International Inc. of Des Moines,
Iowa, the world's largest producer of
hybrid com seed, was visiting his friend Dr.
H. F. Robinson, former professor of
biology and at that time chancellor of
Western Carolina University in Cullowhee,
NC. During that visit, Brown noticed that
some Indian farmers on Lhe Cherokee Indian
Reservation in Cherokee, NC were still
growing the old flour corn, although it had
been contaminated by cross-breeding with
varieties of commercial yellow dent com,
commonly grown for s1ock feeding. The
two decided to collaborate on a project to
restore the Cherokee white flour corn,
develop an improved, pure seed, and give it
back to the Cherokee fanners for their own
food supply and for distribution as ground
meal outside the reservation.
The project was begun in 1982, and
the first two years were directed at making a
basic improvement in the Cherokee flour
com. Test plots were planted and seed that
had the characteristics of the original maize white kernels free from indemations, or
"dents" - was selected from the harvest.
The second stage of the program was
begun in 1984 and is almost completed. The
objectives of this pan of the project are to
purify the seed by eliminating all of the
characteristics not found in the original
Indian maize and to improve the yield.
Brown and Robinson are working to derive
flour com with shorter stalks; more ears of
com per stalk; ears with eight or ten rows of
kernels; and com free of tillers, or extra
stalks. Taller com, or stalks weakened by
tillers, may fall over and rot. The native
Indian maize typically grew on stalks much
taller than modem hybrid varieties.
Among the techniques used by the
scientists was the creation of "selfed
one-generation" plants. In this process, the
silks of a forming ear of com are dusted
with pollen from the same plant, a kind of
forced inbreeding to help eliminate foreign
characteristics.
KATUAH - page20
Plantings in fields in Cullowhee and
Bryson City were harvested last fall, and the
superior 10 percent of some 200 tested
plants was saved to provide seed that was
planted this spring to create the superior
variety of flour com. The seed from that
crop will be harvested this fall and will be
given in carefully measured quantities to 20
Cherokee farm families for planting in
1988.
Thus, after five years of work,
Brown and Robinson will be able to return
to Cherokee farmers a seed that will produce
Cherokee maize in its historic white,
smooth, flour kernel form.
The Cherokees will be able to grow
the maize for their own use as cornmeal,
hominy, and grits, as they have
traditionally, and it can also be ground into
meal for commercial sales. The scant supply
of it now available stays in demand at a
premium price. The appeal of the pure com
meal could make it an important product for
tourist sales.
And for the scientific world and the
rest of us, the result will be the preservation
of a locally-adapted species of native Indian
maize that can continue itself here in the
Appalachian Mountain region.
(Source: Western Horizon: May, 1987)
One of the least appreciated resources
in Karuah is our wetlands. While we do not
have environments as extensive or
immediately impressive as the floodplain
forests, cypress swamps, or salt marshes of
the coastal plain, our own mountain bogs,
pocket swamps, and beaver ponds are
important pans of the uplands ecosystem
and all the more precious for their scarcity.
And they are under the same pressures as
the lowland swamps - mainly dredging and
filling for "development."
Section 404 of the Clean Water Act
states that anyone who wants to do any
modifications of a wetland area must first
get a permit from the US Army Corps of
Engineers. lf that seems to you like setting
the fox to guard the henhouse, your
instincts are sound. In fact, no agency of the
federal government has a worse overall
environmental record than the Corps.
On the other hand, to make any sense
at all out of our dealings with the
government, we need to understand that it
does not function like an ecosystem. !1 is
often at cross purposes with itself. From a
practical point of view, what matters is lo
identify the good individuals and the useful
offices.
Recently, a two-acre swamp just
upstream from my house came under
assault by crews using bulldozers. chain
saws, and fire. It was a spot I have to pass
on the way to town, and I have delighted in
watching the maples be the first trees to tum
red in the fall or scanning the edges for
colorful or unusual birds - redwing
blackbirds, yellow warblers, and perhaps an
occasional teal.
I would prowl the edges noting where
the deer (so scarce in this pan of the
mountains) had taken advantage of the
protection of the thick growth and had
found a small, dry spot in which to bed
down.
During spring and summer evenings
the frog concert would entertain me as I
went past, and I would sometimes see the
muskrats and beaver who lived in the
vicinity of the marsh.
The tiny swamp even offered
downstream residents like myself a
modicum of flood protection.
Local rumor had it that this delightful
lµ'Ca, so full of natural life, was destined to
be a trailer park. I wasn't happy about this.
Since I knew the law, I phoned the Corps
Regulatory Branch in Wilmington, NC to
report the situation.
I was dubious abouc what the result
of this action would be, but, to my
amazement, a biologist from the Corps was
on the scene within two days time.
While my reaction was not fast
enough, nor the law tough enough, to save
all the swamp, the owner was forced to
modify bis plans and the habitat hangs on.
More importantly, that visit was the
beginning of a series of Corps actions in the
mountain area that are enhancing the
prospects for the survival of our mountain
wetlands. In some cases itll has been
removed and landowners ordered to carry
out restoration work; in other cases filling
has been prevented.
FALL 1987
�Neither the law nor the agency are
perfect. We have much better control over
filling than ditching. Small projects are
sometimes exempt. There are questions of
interpretation, and the answers have not
always made me happy. Nevertheless,
contractors and developers in Karuah can no
longer claim ignorance of the 404 permit
process.
So we have a tool to use. One of its
limitations is that all of North Carolina is
administered from the Corps Wilmington
office some 400 miles away. With this in
mind, a number of people in organizations
in North Carolina have been trying to get the
Corps to establish a regulatory office in
Asheville. If you would like to help, write:
Col. Paul Woodbury
US Corps of Engineers
P.O. Box 1890
Wilmington, NC 28402
Tell Colonel Woodbury that our
wetlands need protection, that it is the
Corps' job, and that you are not sarisfied
with the service we are getting. Suggest
they open a permanent regulatory office in
the mountains.
Not all of Katliah is in North
Carolina, but the situation is similar in other
states. The bulk of the Corps' traditional
work - the damming, dredging, canalbuilding and ditch-digging for which the
Corps is so infamous - is in lowland areas,
and so are their offices.
Before residents of other states call on
the Army Corps of Engineers to intervene in
I.heir local sicuations, they might want to
check with local conservation groups. The
regulation branch in Wilmington, I am told,
has a good reputation for dealing with
conservation issues, and I am certainly
impressed with the integrity of the
individuals l have dealt with. Other district
regulation branches may be equally
conscientious, but I do not want to be
blamed for loosing the proverbial fox into
anybody's henhouse.
Ecologically, our high-elevation
wetlands are our most critical habitat. They
are imponant stopover points for migrating
birds whose flyways pass across the
mountains. They are home for endemic,
marshland plant and amphibious species that
are found nowhere else.
Other animals pass through the
micro-marshes, some feeding on the rank
growth, others preying on the smaller
animals, and all taking advantage of the
protection afforded by the swamplands'
dense cover.
If you see what looks to you like a
wetlands violation, call Bob Johnson at tfie
Wilmington office at (919) 343-4641.
If you want to learn more about this,
ca1l me at (704) 524-8369.
Oraphic by Rob Messick
D.0.E. HOT MEALS PROGRAM
Natutal World News Sct"icc
Natural World News has recently
learned that the US Department of Energy
(DOE) has finally come up with a solution
to the bothersome nuclear waste crisis:
we're going to eat it!
The vehicle for this dramatic
breakthrough is the Byproducts Utilization
Program (BUrP). This seemingly
innocuous scheme is the cover under which
the doebo1s plan to recycle nuclear waste
into the private sector. An early plan was to
resurrcc1 "low-level" contaminated metallic
hardware from nuclear plants as
dinnerware. Now the doebots are planning
to irradiate food with cesium 137 to help the
food industry control spoilage organisms
and give fresh food a longer shelf life.
Developing cesium 137 food
irradiation facilities (there arc plans calling
for 1,000 such facilities) would serve the
DOE in two ways:
First, if the doebots are allowed to
create an artificial market for Cesium 137,
then they can put pressure on Congress to
repeal a 1982 ban on the hazardous
reprocessing of civilian spent fuel rods,
which have accumulated in dangerous
amounts in temporary storage pools at the
nuclear plants. Congress originally
institu1ed the ban to prevent circulation of
the material to keep i1 secure from terrorists.
Secondly, reprocessing would
allevia1e the waste problem by reducing
radioactivity up to 55%, thus encouraging
the use and production of more nukes and
more waste, and would generate plutonium
enough to satisfy the Pentagon's appetite
well into the 21st century.
The food irradiation plan is being
continued despite knowledge of potential
health hazards as cited in the Congressional
Record, S1788, February 4, 1987: "The
application of ionizing radiation alters or
damages food cells. It also creates reactive
chemical intermediates known as free
radicals, which react with food constituents
to fonn potentially new compounds in the
food called 'radiolytic products' or RP's.
Some of these compounds, called 'unique
radioly1ic products' or URP's, formed
during radiation exposure are no1 known 10
exist previously in foods."
In the US House of Representatives,
Rep. Doug Bosco has introduced "The
Food Irradiation Safety and Labeling Act of
1987" (HR 956). Senator George Mitchell
has introduced a companion bill in the US
Senate. The two bills would stop food
irradiation plans until safety studies are
completed and contain strict labeling
regulations for irradiated food products.
Unless you would like to be served
up a plutonium/cesium 137 economy, you
might want to write your Congressional
legislators and express your support of the
bills.
Cesium 137 - all you care to cat!
BURP!
NO PROBLEMS WITH TOBACCO
Nanni World NeWl Savice
"We do not have a problem of
pesticide use on tobacco," said NC
Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham, as
he announced that an NC Department of
Agriculture (NCDA) task force of inspectors
has been specially trained to detect the use
of herbicides (particularly Dicambra and
2,4-D) on smoking and chewing tobacco.
The toxic herbicides kill the tobacco plantS
prematurely and yellow the leaves, making
it appear that they have been cured in the
field. The herbicides are highly poisonous,
and their use is illegal on tobacco and food
plants.
According to a report in the
Agricultural Review. the official publication
of 1he NCDA, the specially-trained
inspectors will fan out to every
tobacco-producing county in the state to
stamp out any traces of illegal herbicide use
on tobacco bound to domestic or foreign
consumers.
The inspectors will visually check
tobacco crops for signs of illegal herbicides
and will pull leaf samples for lab analysis.
Offenders, who endanger the health of
consumers and the reputation of the North
Carolina tobacco product, will be hit with
strict penalties, Graham promised.
Commissioner Graham also sent
letters to all of the major domestic and
export tobacco companies to explicitly
assure them that the North Carolina tobacco
crop is uncontaminated with poisonous
chemicals, and that there is no problem in
the North Carolina tobacco fields.
- NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued
K.ATUAH- page 21
®Xt
page
FALL 1987
�- NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued
SHOWDOWN AT FLAT CREEK
NalUnl World News
The signs appear all around the Flat
Creek Community on billboards, telephone
poles, and motor vehicles:
STOP VULCAN QUARRY!
Vulcan Materials Company, a national
corporation
headquartered
in
Winston-Salem, N.C., has leased 99 acres
and plans to blast 400 feet into the Eanh to
mine the granite substratum below the Aat
Creek Community. The angered community
residents are not going to let it happen.
Vulcan says there is enough granite
to work. three shifts a day at the quarry for
55 years. How does that weigh against the
risk to the health and well-being of Aat
Creek, its watershed, and its people?
Aat Creek itself would suffer. Any
water that leaks into the 400-foot-deep pit
during quarrying operations would be
pumped into Aat Creek. That water would
be laden with sediment, wastes, oil,
chemicals, hydraulic fluids, and other debris
from the mining operations.
Vulcan is required to maintain only a
75 feet buffer strip between their operation
and the waters of Flat Creek.
"Seventy-five feet? That's the same
as for my septic tank!" declared an irate
residenL "What do they think they are doing
here?"
The ground water beneath the Flat
Creek watershed would also be heavily
impacted. A letter received June 24, 1987
from the North Carolina Dept of Natural
Resources and Community Development
listed four impacts a quarrying operation
could have on ground waters around the
site:
1. When the overburden above
bedrock is stripped away, the water storage
for the underlying fractured rock aquificr is
removed. This can affect the flow of water
in nearby wells and springs.
2. The blasting of bedrock can disrupt
the flow of water in the fracture system
supplying bedrock (drilled) well sand
springs.
3. Dewatering the open pit could
lower the water-table in the vicinity.
4. The exposure of fractured bedrock
in the quarry can result in contaminated
water entering and contaminating drilled
wells in the vicinity.
Constant blasting and the noise and
dust from the cavalcade of trucks and heavy
machinery will affect the two hundred
homes and the two schools that are within
one half mile of the quarry site.
Vulcan already operates a quarry in
Enka that blasts six days a week. The noise
and the residues of the blasting dust are
impossible to conttol. The new Enka High
School, only two years old, is already
starting to show cracks.
Vulcan Materials Company has leased
the 99-acre propeny in Flat Creek rather
than purchase the land. Leasing relieves a
company from any liability if water, air,
propeny values, etc. are negatively affected
by their panicular use or misuse of the land.
A public meeting was held at the Flat
Creek Elementary School August 6 in
response to the announcement of the quarry
plan. Over 600 concerned citiz.ens ancnded.
KATUAH - page 22
For an area such as Flat Creek to
become a "community'', a petition has to be
submitted bearing the signatures of at least
20% of the citizens. Within four days 60%
of the people of Flat Creek had signed a
request for community status, and within
one week Flat Creek formally became Flat
Creek Community· a voice united.
The concerns among the Flat Creek
Community residents arc valid and
immediate. With threatened water and air
quality, daily explosions, increased traffic
flows, and potential lowering of property
values, it seems safe to say that Vulcan
Materials Company would be more
responsible and wiser 10 choose an area that
offers less risk to humans and the
environment than within the Flat Creek
Community.
NC LEGISLATORS WANT DUMP
Nlllnl World News Service
The North Carolina General
Assembly bas decided, at least for the time
being, to remain a member of the Southeast
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact and
to receive all the low-level nuclear waste
from the member states for the next 20
years.
In both the House of Representatives
and in the Senate motions to table
withdrawal legislation won overwhclmi_ngly
by margins of 66-32 and 39-IO respecuvely
during the last days of the session. Most of
the western representatives voted for
withdrawal.
The three weeks of the legislative
session saw an intensive campaign by paid
utility company lobbyists to influence
legislators. Their cffons apparently had
effect, as the legislature passed RB 35,
which calls for a Siting Authority that is not
accountable to either the public or the
legislature to decide on the location of the
radioactive waste dump.
If there is any positive benefit from
these votes at all, it is that the roll calls
indicate which legislators deserve to retain
their posts and which need to be replaced in
the primary election next May. Then we can
try again next session.
Our work is cut out for us.
For more information, contact:
Citizens Concerned about Nuclear Waste
P.O. Box 653
Dillsboro, NC 28725
or
Ron Lambe, Nuclear Waste Task Force
WNC Alliance
P.O. Box 157
Spruce Pinc, NC 28777
PEREGRINE NEST DISCOVERED
NC Wildlife Reaowces Commission
Thirty years ago the peregrine falcon,
the fastest of the birds of prey, was wiped
out of the Southern Appalachians largely
due to damage from the pesticide DDT.
For the past four years NC Wildlife
Resources Commission (WRC) staff and
volunteers have been "hacking" young
peregrine falcons at several l<?Cations i.n t~e
Katuah province to re-establish the bird m
this pan of its native range.
The program seems to be paying o~f.
A pair of the peregrines have made a nest ~n
the Pisgah National Forest. The female ln1d
two eggs in the nest, one of which hatched a
young chicle, who only lived for three
weeks before dying of unknown causes..
Nevertheless, Allen Boynton, project
leader for the WRC, was exuberant.
"This is the first nesting pair of
peregrines in the state in 30 years," he said.
"All the people in the project arc thrilled."
When biologists learned the sole
falcon chick had died, they quickly sent for
another peregrine chick that had been born
in captivity. When the chick arrived, it was
placed in the nest, a mossy area on a rock
ledge.
"When the adults returned, they flew
aroung the nesting site, looking at the
chick," said Boynton. "The chick staned
begging for food whenever an adult
peregrine would land on the ledge. After a
couple of hours, the birds settled down.
Several days later when I returned, I saw
one of the adults feeding the chick.
"We put the foster chick in to hold the
adults at that nesting site and to give them
experience in raising a chick," said
Boynton. "We'll continue to watch for
return birds, as well as releasing more
falcons in future years."
The peregrine project has released 45
young falcons in the state of Nonh Carolina
in the four years of its existence. The project
is funded by the Peregrine Fund, a national
organization dedicated to re-establishing the
peregrine in its native range, and taxpayers
who marke<l the Non-game W1l<llllc
Checkoff on their state income tax returns.
The US Forest Service and the US Fish and
Wildlife Service have also provided funding
and personnel for the project. ~
FALL 1987
�PeaceNet
In tenns of networking continentally and globally, an
invaluable resource is PeaceNet. PeaceNet is computer-based
communication system helping the peace movement and the
environmental movement throughout the planet cooperate
more effectively and efficiently.
With a large minicomputer based in northern California
connected to Telenet, a common carrier, PeaceNet can
facilitate letting subscribers communicate globally, usually
through a local phone call. PeaceNet is compatible with
virtually any personal computer or computer terminal
outfiued with a 300 or 1200 baud modem.
P eaceNet has more than 1,000 subscribers including
the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy as well
as Earth Island Institute. PeaceNet now also serves EcoNet.
PeaceNet has an electronic mail system which allows one to
send and receive messages to and from the other PeaceNet
subscribers and from Telex and University systems around
the world. It offers easy-to-use tools for posting events on
international bulletin boards, preparing joint projects through
electronic conferences, and finding out the latest information
on environmental and peace issues.
In addition, PeaceNet can provide computer
conferences, like specialized bulletin boards. By using
this conference tool, a geographically spread out
organization can carry on frequent and responsive
communications. Some organizations use it to facilitate
group decision-making and task sharing processes,
long distance. Conferences can be set up in private
fashion for a small group of users or they can be
established as a public resource.
PeaceNet also has databases which provide
easy access to large quantities of information and allow
for custom searching and output (printing) fonnats.
Databases include: lists of speakers, organizations, and
foundations as well as bibliographic, legislative and
project infonnation.
PeaceNet is a non-profit project of the Tides
Foundation, based in San Francisco. So far, PeaceNet
has been funded primarily through grant and gifts.
Soon, though, fees from users will help it become
financially independent. PeaceNet's rates arc extremely
reasonable. Fll"Sl, you pay a $10 one-time sign-up fee.
This gives you a user's manual and a free hour of
off-peak computer time. Then you pay a monthly
charge of $10, which gets you another hour of
off-peak computer time each month. Every additional
peak hour is $10 and every off-peak hour is $5.
Sometimes, initial fees are waived and sometimes
discounts arc available.
If you are interested in finding out more about
PeaceNet, writeorcall:
PeaceNet
3228 Sacramento St
San Francisco, CA 94 I I 5
(415) 923·0900
,
Oacc it caac to ac j1st after the leans
had catirely flllca ia the forests,
whca cn1 loacsoac whip-poor-wills had goac,
that s1rely it is c111g• jHt to breathe
aad be, or take nothcr's h11d i1 Inc,
sighiag to behold the old Milky Way
dastiag the hcucas with a t&gae woader.
Why do we aeed sach passioaatc delights
whca we may fi1d aew streagth ia elder aightsT
S1rcly te feel preaeditated s11
wara oa yon sh11lders all the S1aaer,
or to gaze 1po1 fresh saow i1 wiater,
is charge enough to wholly fill our days.
So whcace comes the dark mysteries we breed,
huiag to s1ffer, or at least astond
the world, and her followers arouad usT
We hue forgottca what we oace beheld:
that life is what we make ef it: ao more.
Tho1gh sickless cater as ia awcfal forms,
our lowed oacs die eatirely, lcuiag aoae,
aid weights of tragedy 11chor fi1e joys,
of 11 iastaat we may feel sweet gladacss,
seeiag though it fades, that it still eadares.
So wherefore the sad, regrettable maaT
Builg oace drau such sercadipity,
10 time is left to sorrow or coaform.
Each murmur of aatare souads iHiolate.
by Michael Hoctadag
~
•
,.
~
~
'furtlt ls/Olld is tht o/dlnew nativt namt for North Am.:rica
KATUAH - page 23
Old Galaxies
Cnpluc by Rob M~s1d: ~
�DRUMMING
LETIERS TO KATUAH
Persimmon seed, I am ....
let me glisten in the sunlight
to paint you colours,
gold, bronze, amber forever.
let me be free to grow
to bear....
to watch my young sway,
to grow, to bear.
let me not lay
on the cold, damp ground
trample me not
for the Eanh is my food
and the sunlight my wonderment
Dear Katuah,
I am writing you I.his leuer because while visiting wiLh
our new friends Ann and Michael at the Rainbow Gathering
here in neighboring Graham County, we were given a copy
of your paper.
During our visit lo the gathering, my wife and I found
I.hat our love for the mountains I.hat we live in was revitalized
and reinforced by Lhe people's love and respect for nature
and their desire to preserve our planet for generations to
come. They also helped to remind us to judge only a
person's deeds, not his looks or possessions.
My wife and I both work at Mountain Park Medical
Center in Andrews where we live. Some of our co-workers
were quick to judge the Rainbow brothers and sisters by
looks alone, never trying to understand what they stood for
or believed in.
I am 37 years old and can still remember what the
sixties meant. I may have served in the Navy during that
time, but I always believed that everyone should follow their
own hearts and not be absorbed in the masses. We must
remain individuals, yet not do anything to hurt any other
living c reature, no matter how small or seemingly
insignificant they may seem. My wife and I both stop for
animals when driving, getting out and carrying turtles to the
side of the road in the direction that they were heading.
Getting back to why I am writing this, we would like
any information pertaining to groups or activities in this area
that we could attend or help at. We would like to help
preserve our bioregion for all time. Also, please let us know
about subscribing to your journal.
Kelly
(Kelly and Deborah Jones
Andrews, NC)
Persimmon seed, I am....
betraying the man.
Bern Grey Owl
Raleigh, NC
Dear~
Dear Katilah,
Someone showed me your summer issue and I
noticed that your next issue, in the fall, is going to be on the
black bear.
As a bear hunter, I may have something in common
with you. I want to see the black bear population flourish in
these mountains.
Here are some things that concern me about the present
state of affairs: Jllegal hunting. In some areas in these
mountains, poaching is rampant. What we need is good
enforcement of the hunting laws. There needs to be enough
personnel to do this. Illegal hunting doesn't do any of us
legal hunters any good.
Huntini: season in NC. The hunting season here in NC
actually opens too soon(@ Oct 12). You see, female bears
need time to get in their dens; they go into their dens earlier
than the males. For the black bear to reproduce, it is very
important to protect the females during this time. Also, they
may still be caring for cubs at this time, and the cubs need the
protection, too. Other states around here don't start up their
season 'til later. That's what we need to do in NC. Although
it's illegal, I have seen hunters shoot a female bear with cub.
Radjo Collars. Some hunters rely on tracking bears
with radio collars on their hunting dogs. To me, this takes
the sport out of it
.B.fil..l:ill. Although it is illegal, some hunters bait for
bears. The law against this needs to be enforced as well.
Having good hunting laws and the personnel to
adequately enforce them is our best bet in ensuring a healthy
black bear population for these mountains.
anyone, - HELP!
The word has been out long enough about scarab
beetle larvae (see .K_illiiM. #12). After getting sick at yet
another Rainbow Gathering, I'm pissed. The time for
pondering has passed. It's time for Rainbow people to quit
scratching their asses and produce a large enough crop of
these critters to eat all the shits of a gathering. The larvae can
be scooped up at the end and returned home. If it's a very
cold gathering, a few candles in jars should keep their
appetites stirred. The shitters won't fill up, and dysentery
will become history.
If not the Rainbow Family to lead the way of the
future, who? 'Cause the larvae are coming to the world to
clean up one of man's (sic) greatest problems with or without
the Rainbow Family (unless the poles shift first... ..)
I am but one person at a lonely Rainbow outpost, who
can only do so much, like write you and send a few starters
for new colonies.
I kept them alive all winter!
They are ready! Let's go! The time is NOW!
Sincerely,
Corry
M.C.
Rutherford County, NC
KATUAH - page 24
FALL 1987
�The Lessons of the Hunt
"Patience," says the stately Heron
As it stands in the shallows,
Waiting for a fish or frog
To obligingly swim by.
and isn't he
contained in she?
(She wishpered) isn't
he in herand
here and male in
side of female? Isn't man in
woman, prince in princess
God in Goddess? Isn't
Ibis a very narural thing
in a very natural world
Yes! i said
(an excited fool now) Yes!
HE is in HER!
Yes! HEARE
H*E*ARE
"Patience," says the tiny Jumping Spider
As it dans along a vine,
Its huge front eyes alert
For an insect's telltale twitch.
"Patience, "says the coiled Rattlesnake
As it lies beside a log,
Waiting for an unsuspecting mouse
To follow its accustomed path.
"Concentration," says the Heron
As, one slowly moving foot at a time,
It stalks
A shining minnow.
HE*R HER
And i saw this planet as a
veiled cruxible of
pressured light and
She laughed and said
even the Y chroma
some's an
X standing on
one leg and
i laughed too.
"Concentration," says the Rattlesnake
As the mouse scampers closer,
For there can be
But a single strike.
"I see and understand," say I
dr.iwing by Troy Settler
Will Ashe Bason
Check, VA
"And thank you for your gifts.
Now I can tread the inner paths
To seek my own prey, Truth."
e Douglas A. Rossman
- continued from page 5
In his normal tone he resumed, 'The
sorry, but I would have accepted it. But to
have tracked her down by radio, insjde the
sanctuary, inside her den absolutely enraged
me. There's no sense to it. Someone
hunting, even poaching, outside the
sanctuary is likely to pick up transient
males. But invading the sanctuary means a
poacher is likely to get one of the females,
which are the breeding element of the
population."
To protect the other bears, all radio
collars have been removed, except for three
bears the Project team has been unable to
catch. Removing the collars has hampered
the study this year, but Roger Powell says,
"We're fairly confident that we have figured
out a way that we can continue to collect
data that will put the bears in no jeopardy of
poaching - but we're not talking about it yet
"Our project's handling procedure has
one of the best safety records for least bear
injury and monality of any large mammal
study in North America. I feel good about
that. We've put a lot of care into handling
lhe bears promptly and safely, so that it has
minimal impact on them. It seems that all
that care has been worth it."
bears have to live with people. We need to
"Those of us who want to share
the world with other creatures need
to learn as much as we can about
them ....."
learn as much about the bears as we can,
because I've got a feeling that most people
are not ready to immediately stop changing
the world to suit themselves.
"Those of us who want to share the
world with other creatures need to learn as
much as we can about them, because there
are a lot of people out there who don't care.
"We need to get to the good things
and keep them good, before other people get
to those things and change them."
c
..
CD
And, when asked if he thought that
the bears had anything to teach us, he
replied softly, "The whole world does.
"I don't see the bears out there trying
lO change things. They're living with the
world the way it is. It seems that every time
we change it, we mess it up. We're better
offleaving it the way it is."
KATUAH - page 25
~~E.'11.~~
c
::>
~
::>
:~e:~~~
I
3
~
.;..;~ri:l:lllL.IC~ ~~;;s;.::.::..;;...;;;..:;:c;::i;z..;:m:;~.a.:.;..l:ll;;L...:;~-=---':.;._.::.:...:::::=::......11..;:,;.;;.:.;...J ;
FALL 1987
�- continued from page 15
Every year our club has a bear
supper. Our wivcs'll cook bear meat. They
fix ii about five different ways - baked,
barbecued, stcwed.....any way you like it.
And they make potatoes, bread, coffee, all
the side dishes. It's a fine time, and it
doesn't cost nobody a dime. You can cat
bear meat 'til you can't eat no more.
At the first part of the season when
our club gets together, we take up a
donation. Everybody pitches in $3-5.00,
whatever they can afford. We put that
money in an envelope, and one guy hangs
onto it. If anybody's dog gets hun, and has
10 go to the vet, that money pays for that
dog, no matter who's dog it is. A group of
guys sticking together can 1113kc up that bill,
where one guy can't afford it.
We depend on Forest Service land to
hunt. Bears like to go back into the deep
woods. They always have, and, as long as
there's a mash crop every year, they always
will. For the last five or six years the mash
has been spotty. If you go back deep in the
mountains, you might find a big, bumper
crop of mash on one mountain and none at
all on another mountain. But I believe that
as long as the Forest Service controls that
land, and keeps people from building
summer cottages there, we'll always have
bears. They'll always be here.
The hunters aren't going to destroy
the bears, but the poachers nre something
else again. They arc something the Wildlife
Commission doesn't like; the sponsmcn
don't like them; and the ochers don't like
them either. But as long as there's man and
womnn on the face of this Earth, there's
going to be murders, there's going to be
robberies, and there's going to be poachers.
Hunters themselves are going to have
to protect the wildlife. And they can do that,
because they are out in the woods, and they
can report any violations that they see going
~
on.
l'nwiJona Ptr1Mal S..rv1ct
Fill,,,. You< 8oolt Netds
In 5r«1ahzed fjelJa
--=~
UlTIIAVIOlET PUlllFICATIOH AHO FILTERING SYSTEMS
SOlAll PRODUCTS · WATER AHALYllS
OAJtY HEMSOTM
8oola.ltr
~ Htleh«is Sbopplq Ctntu
~ Nar1b c.rouna 28'07
RANDAU. C. LANIER
~2
.HWY 107
RT. 68 BOX 125
CUUOWHEE. NC 28723
Chinese
Acupuncture
and
Herbology
Clinic
SCOTT BIRD
GREG BLACK
(704) 683-1414
683-4795
342 Merrlmon Avenue Ashevllle, NC
(704) 258-9016
•.,.(notli«r Small lluslnut Jor IJorCd P£ACe ...
'1\iilee,
'ltUll~I 'Na~rcm
BOBCAT
T-SHIRT
SHORT SLEEVE T: $10.00 ppd.
Colors: Ecru, White, Sliver,
Se.foam (It. green) Teal
LONG SLEEVE T: $14.00 ppd.
(Includes Paw Print on Sleeve)
Color1: Ecru, Sliver, Teal, White
Satisfaction assured or return for full refund.
Please Indicate size, color,
sleeve length, quantity.
--t<c.,_._ _
l :::I
ICIU ........_M,w . , -.IC-!lO'I-._,
~a..
Introducing the BOBCAT
This full color design Is hand-screened on
T-SHIRTS OF 100% PRESHRUNK COTTON
IN ADULT SIZES S,M,L,XL
We •I.a have a line of sweatshirt• and kids T-Shlrts
KATU All - page 26
c~•-..;::=:=:=:=:=:
C WSA
~I
Natural Food Store
& Deli
160 Broadway
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Where Broldway1Neta
Mamnon Ave & 1-240
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-Saturday: 9am·8pm
Sunday: lpm·Spm
(704) 253-7656
FALL 1987
�Littering: The Same Old Story
~
by Michael Hockaday
I think it happened by accident,
but it's hard to decide about some
things. I'd bad it with a bag of fruit
left aging on its own too long. It was
time to go, so I brought it with me on
my morning walk over along the
pastures where the creek doglegs
toward the big oak mountain. I
stopped to toss those too-juicy pears
toward a neighbor's cows clustered at
the far end near the cornfields,
leaving the bag by the wayside. I'd
get it on return. Which I did, and
found myself colJecting bottles,
broken mostly, and cans: glass,
plastic, aluminum. Beer cans were
understandably the worst offenders,
especially Budweiser, the King of
Beer. Obviously Bud isn't wiser, and
I still didn't understand.
How quiet it was late Friday
morning just coasting into the noon
daze .... .leaves falling together in
little groups or spiraling away one by
one. Crickets caroled their tiny insect
syrunphonies, or were they lullabies
being put sleep by the vivid sunshine?
Crows were growing less raucous,
but the bluejays sure were arguing. I
kept on with it, listening and cursing
some.
It was hard not to have bad
thoughts against those who
offhandedly dumped some of their
junk on ~ nieghborhood, this
stretch of public, county dirt road to
boot! But I thought: I too am a
litterer, though I don't break bottles
against treetrunks or creekrocks, or
cast my cigarette wrappers where all
the world will see. Call that pride,
ability? Ignorance? Carelessness?
KATIJAH - page 27
No, I don't litter like I used to . Yet,
as a consumer, I do my share of
littering, for to buy and to throw
away is interwoven.
So there I was collecting
garbage in my own neighborhood,
which seemed at first a little
embarrassing. I'll admit to being
stubborn, but I didn't get it all. And
I'm glad no one drove by. Those
candy wrappers left seasoning for the
last few weeks in the autumn sunshine
had dried, melted, and broken into
slivers that stuck to the blades and
stalks of grass and weeds. I really
couldn't pick them up without being
quite meticulous, and it's true: the
shade of my own front porch was
calling me.
Pausing in the road in the hot
noon light, I remembered why I fear
walking barefoot through these
countrysides, crossing creeks at
random, drying my feet in the cool
shore sand: broken glass, jagged tin.
Sparkling like mica under current,
hidden under soft fall leaves.
Dragging it all back home, I found
out one thing: within an arrowshot of
this old farmhouse I call home, a
large grocery bag had been filled
with that dirty stuff: garbage, junk,
waste. Nowadays our roads are
becoming dotted with more silver,
red, black, orange, and less natural
greens or the clear, plain color of the
dirt of a Georgia country road. Why?
I felt confused and very ignorant. It
is more than a process of becoming
an adult.
A lot of conflicting thoughts
and new questions came and went in
my mind. Was littering a form of
possessing, of exercising the right to
litter the space around you, especially
the place you grew up, the land you
claim as yours? At first I believed the
stuff I carried home was left by
people driving through, or were my
own neighbors littering? Could
someone pay me to do this? Do I want
to be a waste disposal unit? Hello,
Mr. Dumpster. Or free to walk the
woods and forest paths like I did the
first year I arrived from a dirty city,
going barefoot through the upland
meadows, moving casually through
deep grass, not finding any hurt but
vinerash or stonebruise to my naked
soles? And I would love to have those
days again, though the past won't be
reclaimed. But in the present, in
today's world, does it seem too much
to expect strolling barefoot through
these hills, or to thoughtlessly race
and dive into these lakes becoming
clearer, yet thus more poisonous?
Do you know where the
honeysuckle clusters around that
locust comerpost where the roads
meet and the pavement starts? I found
a pile of broken bottles there. And
you know along the creek where the
bitter, purple ironweed prospers in
the low spots - I am finding layers
upon layers of old junk: tractor tires,
glinting slivers of old mirror glass,
red velvet dance shoes dampening to
tatters and dust Old garbage, family
trash. The same old story. Quite
usual. But still I feel a useless,
impotent sense of despair as I see the
simple, local, beautiful places marred
by littering. Society at large won't
solve it. Neither can I. That night I
spent more time gazing on the feather
of the grand Milky Way,
appreciating clear, silver, tremulous
stars. A cool wind stirred and
freshened me.
FALL 1987
�evenrs
3
WILLIS, VA
"Healing the Family in the
Wise Woman Way" - finding and preparing
herbal medicines with Kathleen Maier and
Sherry Willis. Indian Valley Holistic Center,
see 9/19-20.
SEPTEMBER
12-13
ASHEVILLE, NC
RIVERFEST - "C'mon down
to the riverside!" for the grand finale of
French Broad River Week. Call (704)
254-8131 far more information.
18-19
3
ZIONVILLE, NC
"Whole Brea1h Bodywork"
workshop at Polestar Re11eat Center with
Ginny Wright; 604 Mt. Vernon Ave.;
Charlotte, NC 28203
ASHEVILLE, NC
New Priorities Conference on
Peace, Social Justice and the Environment..
3-4
Includes featured speakers, workshops,
panels and fellowship. Sponsored by
Katifah and many other organizations.
Asheville High School. $10 registtation,
includes lunch; childcare $2. Info: (704)
252-3036
Is There a Future for the
Southern Appalachian
BLACK BEAR?
4-9
18-20
TOWNSEND, TN
Tenn. Environmental Education
Association Conference at the Great Smoky
Mountains lnstitu1e at Tremont; Townsend,
TN37882
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Research on the Wild
Mammals of the Great Smokies" with Dr.
Michael Pelton. $40. Smoky Mountain
Field School; Department of Non-credit
Programs; 2016 Lake Ave.; Knoxville, TN
37996
A Wlldllfe and Habitat Conference
September 29, 1987
WILLIS, VA
"Health and the Human Mind"
- the fundamentals of body electronics with
Richard Lowenthal. $95 + $20 room and
board. Indian Valley Holistic Center; Rt. 2,
Box 58; Willis, VA 24380
21
FALL EQUINOX
BREAKS, VA
Stage productions "South of
the Mountain" and ''Talcs" by the Roadside
Theater. For more info, write: The Roadside
Theatre; Box 743; Whitesburg, KY 41858
22-27
BRASSTOWN, NC
Coker Creek Anists' Creative
Clothing Workshop. John C. Campbell Folk
School; Brasstown, NC 28906
9-11
Owen Confemice Cent.er
UNCA, Asheville. NC
19-20
19-20
STAUNTON, VA
Earth First! Appalachian
rendezvous and action against clearcutting in
the George Washington National Forest Meet
at North River campground, GW NF. For
more info, call Roland Knapp at (606)
259-0252.
Sponsored by:
Environmentlll Studies Program. UNCA
Soul.hem Appalachian Black Bear Fe.dcnltion
Long Branch Environmental EducDtion Center
KAWh.Biorcgio03l Journal
27
WILLIS, VA
"An Afternoon of Personal and
Planetary Healing" - circle on Mother
Mound with Tom Williams. Donations.
Indi~ Valley Holistic Center, see 9/19-20.
30
ASHEVILLE, NC
Green Politics. Regional meeting of the WNC Greens. Montford
Community Center. 7pm More info: (704)
254-6910.
OCTOBER
15-18
HIGHLANDS, NC
"Fall Landscape Photography
Workshop" with Sam Wang - exploring and
photographing fall in the beautiful Highlands
area. $250. The Appalachian Environmental
Ans Center; P.O. Box 580; Highlands, NC
28741
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
The Black Mountain Fall
Festival. Traditional music, dance, and stories
by Gamble Rogers. the Houseband, Peter
Ostrousko Band, Wild Asparagus, David
Wilcox, Golden Rod Puooets and others. $30
for the weekend. Write: Grey Eagle and
Friends; P.O. Box 216; Black Mountain, NC
28711
16-18
2-4
ZIONVILLE, NC
"Healing Wise," a weekend
seminar on herbal healing with Susan S.
Weed. $125 or daily, includes camping,
meals. Sun.- "For Women Only". Contac1:
Phoenix Productions; Rt. 2, Box 59;
Zionville, NC 28698
25-27
WA YNES VILLE, NC
"Spiritual Astrology: Symbols
of the Self" - using the birthchan as a
mandala to center the Self among the
various roles we play in life. Michael
Thurma.n at Stil-Light Theosophical Retreat
Cen1er; Rt 1, Box 326; Waynesville, NC
28786 (704) 452-4569
25-27
KATUAH - page 28
HIGHLANDS, NC
"Elders' Circle of the American
Indian Council - elders from the Six Nations,
Hopi, Pueblo, eastern and western Cherokee
will speak at the Mountain; 841 Highway 106;
Highlands, NC 28741 (704) 526-5838
WA YNESVnLE, NC
"The Modern Woman and
Spirituality" with Elisabeth Peryam.
Discussion, group work, ar.d worship for
women at Stil-Light. See 9/25-27.
FARNER, TN
"Wild Foods and Medicines"
expedition into the woods with Snow Bear.
$50. Pepperland Farm Camp; Star Route;
Farner, TN 37333. (704) 494-2353
2-4
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Courage, Kindness. Commitment, and Humor" retreat with Bo Lozoff.
$50. Sou1hern Dhanna Retreat Center; Rt. l,
Box 34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743
CEDAR MOUNTAIN, NC
Sierra Club "Outing Skills
Workshop" - essentials of backpacking,
knots, food drying, map and compass work
and much more. $20 includes meals. Write for
info before Oct 1 to: Shirl Thomas; P.O. Box
272; Cednr Mountain, NC 28718
17-18
WILLIS, VA
"Introduction 10 Pennaculture"
principles of cultivation with Thelma Snell.
Indian Valley Holistic Center, see 9/19-20.
17-18
2-4
23-25
FARNER, TN
"Primitive Camping Skills" learn to stay warm, dry, and well-fed wilh
what lhe forest has to offer. See 10/2-4.
FALL 1987
�- .. '
21
KNOXVILLE, TN
The Roadside Theatre presents
"South of the Mountain''. See 9n.2·27.
25-29
WAYNESVILLE, !'liC
Good cookin' at Stil-Light! "A
Vegetarian Thanksgiving - The Role of Diet
on the Spiritual Journey." $20. Sec 9n.5.
27-29
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Medicine Wheel/Mamlala
The Circle of Peace" with Louise Sunfeathcr
and Jennifer Gordon See 10/2-4.
14
Rob Messick
23-25
YELLOW SPRINGS, OH
Conference: "The Self-Reliant
Community" with Jeffery Bercuvicz, director
of Rodale's Regeneration Project; Sue
Jackson; William Berkowitz - identifying local
skills, talents, and capital and using them to
take the community's future in hand. $50 +
$20 accomoclations. Prices include meals.
Contact: Community Services; P.O. Box 243;
Yellow Springs, OH 45387
WILLIS, VA
"Rebirthing Weekend" Michael McDowell. $50. Indian Valley
Holistic Cenier, see 9(1.7
24
W ILLIS, VA
"Healing Old Wounds" rele:ising the past. Tom Williams. Indian
Valley Holistic Center, see 9n.7.
UNICO I ST. PAR~ GA
"Earth Skills Workshop" for
the whole family with Eustace Conway.
Contact: Linda Rigell; Rt. l, Box 1426;
Clayton, GA 30525.
28-29
DECEMBER
7-8
13-15
FARNER, TN
Caving expedition. See 11/6-8.
5-6
SMOKY MT'N PARK
Winter
High
Country
Camping. The Smoky Mountain Field School.
See 9/19-20.
11-13
14
GREAT SMOK Y MT'NS.
Winter Field Botany. Smoky
Mountain Field School, see 9/19-20.
23-25
BRASSTOWN, NC
Fall Dance Weekend. JCC Folk
School, see 10/4-9.
WILLIS, VA
"Trusli ng In tu it ion"
following the inner voice. Tom Williams.
$60. Indian Valley Holistic Center. See 9n.7.
14
RADFOR~VA
"Leaving Egypt" - stage
production by the Roadside Theatre. See
9/22-27.
20-22
CHAPEL HILL, NC
Economics As If Earth Mattered
Conference with Herman Daly and Paul
Wachtel. Center for Reflection on the
Second Law. (919) 847-5819
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"Intuition: Gateway to
Knowing" - "Intuition is not psychic
phenomena.... It is the Soul and its expression
in form" - Joyce Keane. $20. Stil-Light, see
9n.5-27.
HOT SPRINGS, NC
''Tibetan Buddhism: Traditional
Methods for Spiritual Growth" - the Ven.
Tubten Pendey. $75. Southern Dhanna, see
ion.-4.
11-13
BRASSTOWN, NC
18
Olde Follcs Party.
19
Children's Pany. JCC Folk
School, see 10/4-9.
30
HALLOWE' EN (Samhain) the ancient Feast of the Dead.
30-11/1
HOT SPRINGS, NC
''To Leap Like :i Tiger: A Zen
Weekend" with B:irbara Rhodes. $86.
Southern Dhanna, see lOn.-4.
NOVEMBER
1-14
BRASSTOWN, r\C
"Log Cabin Building" course
with Peter Goit. JCC Folk School, see
I0/4·9.
6·8
FARNER, TN
Caving expedition to Cloudland
Canyon. Basic safety. geology instruction by
Snow Bear. Pepperland, sec IOn.-4.
6-10
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Meditation Retreat for
Women" with Anna Douglas. $112. Southern
Dharmn, see ion.-4.
KATIJAH - page 29
FALL 1987
�STIL-LIGllT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTER • a qu1el space for personal mcdiLntion,
group interaction through study and community
worlc, and spiritual semin:lrs. Contact Leon Frankel:
RL I, Box 32.6; Waynesville. NC 28786
CRAFTSPEOPLE -send price listings to Gif1td
/lands of NC, 331 Blake St; Raleigh, NC 27601
(Au'n: Bcm Grey Owl) - unique shop presenting
35-40 craflers' worlcs in Raleigh's City MlrkcL All
aafts considered.
ROCKIN' Willi BILLY B • Do the Dance of tht
Dragonfly or the Rock 'Roll of Photosyntthsis in
the "Music and the Natural World" workshop.
Available for bookings for schools or loc3l groups,
Jan. 29-Fcb. 4, 1988. Great motivation for kids!
Call Ken Voorhis (615) 448-6700.
FUTO~S
by Simple Pleasures • affordably p1iccd
Send SASE for info to: Simple Pleasures; Rt. I,
Box 1426; Clayton, GA 30525 (404) 782-3920
I HA VE ACCEPTED the responsibility to
participate m a powerful and imporunt cetemony to
be condut1Cd in Nov. '87 inside the Great Pyrnmid
in Egypt. I believe this wo1k will help uncarth
ancient and new information crucial to the
well-being of our planeL I h:ive received guidance
Lhm in order to go on this mission. I would have to
be sponsored. Plc.ise send don:itions t0: RL 2, Box
58; Willis. VA 24380 (att: Journey to Egypt) Tom W illiruns..
...AnJ I/it £11r//1 limf
APPLE TREES • grafted old-fashioned and
contemporary. Send 50 cents for catalog: Henry
Monon: RL I, Box 203; Gatlinburg, TN 37738
ASTROLOGICAL
CHARTS.
7-pllge
intcrproLntions of planets in signs and houses with
plancwy aspects. Easy to read. Great gift for the
newly-born. Send SS. name, date, time, and place of
birth 10 Touchstone; Rt. 2, Box 314·K: Vilas. NC
28692
ORGANIC FERTILIZERS, herbs, and
organically·grown, local produce at the WNC
Farmer.;' Market! Look for the Fairglen Farms stall.
units F and G in the wholesale area of the Farmers'
Market; 570 Brevard Rd.; Asheville, NC (704)
2524414
ELEMEl'.'TARY SCHOOL TEACHER, certified,
creative, self-motivated, and organized needed at
Valley School, a parent-governed 11ltcmati"e school
in Monongahela National Forest, WV Resume,
references to: Teri Kutsko; I Kirt St., Elkins, WV
26241 (304) 636-2979
THE APPALACHIAN HERR NEWSLETTER:
explonng the potential for herbs as ca.\h crops m
Appalachia. Subscriptions $12/yr.. Write:
Aopalnchj3n Herb Newslwcr • ASPI; RL 5, Box
423; Livini;sion. KY 40445
LAND TRUST in I.he forming on 57 acres near
Boone, NC ~king famihcs wiLh strong visions and
resources to manifest a peaceful place for our
children to grow in love nnd to survive the coming
of the new age. Paul and Susan Del Rios; RL 2,
Boit 314; Vilas, NC 28692 (704) 297-4937
ROSE AROMATICS • essential oils have been
healing body, mind, spirit, since ancient EgypL A
most plcasa.nt therapy! Dabney Rose; 108 Church
Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804 (704)254-9551
PURE HONEY • unheated and unfiltered. Poplnr,
locust., and sourwood. One of nature's blessings!
Price and ordering info from Jimmy Holladay, the
Beekeeper; P.O. Box 908; Black Mt'n., NC 28711
(704) 669-9788
.. ANQ THE EARTH LIYEP HAPPILY EVER
AEJ.El.· stories from folk U11ditions all around the
world chosen lO help protect all living beings by
bringing the world society a few steps closer lO
peace and respect for au life. Edited by Floating
Eagle Feather. $7.00 ppd. (All profits go to
Greenpeace and the Peace Museum). Order from:
Wages of Peace; 309 Trudeau Dr.; Metaire, LA
70003
ALTERNATIVE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL - At
Arthur MorgJll School 24 students and 14 staff lc:im
together by living in community. Curriculum
includes creative academics, group decision-making,
a work program, service projects, extensive field
trips, challenging outdoor experiences. Write: 190 I
Hannah Branch Rd.: Burnsville, NC 28714 (704)
675-42.62
DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic-dumbecks 8c
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe at (704)
258-1038 or David at (704) 253-2846, or write ta:
Joe Roberts, 738 Town Mountain Rd.; Asheville,
NC 28804.
TECHNOLOGICAL
APPROPRIATE
COMMUNICATIONS • low-tech, economical
telephone systems for the altcmntive community or
farm. 2· 100 phones, a.utomatic or human-assisted
systems available. Write: TAC; PO Box 936;
Gatlinburg. TN 37730
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS· herbal salves,
tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For
brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm; RL I,
Box 726; Hampton, TN 37658
PEPPERLAND offers a vericty of outdoor education
for church, school, or civic groups
year-round. We will help you design a program for
your group. Send for information packet to:
Pcpperlnnd Farm Camp: Star Route; Farner, TN
37333
program~
1988 SIMPLE LIFESTYLES CALENDAR •
PhOlos of "CraftSpCOple of App:il:ich1a" by Warren
Brunner and suggestions for simple hvmg for each
day. S6.00 from Appalachia-Science in the Public
Interest; Rt. 5, Box 423; Livingston, KY 4~45.
All proceeds benefit the work of ASPI, n non-profit
corporation.
CHEROKEE INDIAN LANGUAGE classes. For
info, \\rite Robcn Bushyhc:id; P.O. Box 705:
Cherokee. NC 28719
APPLE TREES • Old·timcy and popul.1r
contcmpor.uy varieties on sumdanl, semi·, or dw:irf
stock. Send SASE for prices: Jeff Poppen: Long
Hungry Creek N~; Red Boahng Springs, TN
37150
ARCHITECTURAL ADVICE ANO DESIGN:
Adam Cohen; RL 2, Box 217; Check, VA 24072
SOCK-A-DOOZ PUPPET PETS • Walk 'cm, talk
'em. make 'em Oy. Wag their tails, you can try.
They will love you. bug you if you're blue. Now
PUPPET PETS can be your friends too.
Handcrafted by Bonnie Blue; 78 1/2 Pauon Ave.
(#10); A.~hevillc, NC 28801
FLOWER ESSENCES • Harmony with Nature &
SpiriL Gentle emotional suppon durmg tr.lllsitions,
specific issues, relationships. Opens
communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic,
awareness "tools" for improving I.he inner quality.
Correspondence to: Elaine Gcougc, c/o Patchwork
Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So.. Burnsville, NC
28714
DAYSTAR ASTROLOOICAL SERVICE· natal,
transil, comparison charts. Very accurate. Only
S3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason; Rt. 2, Box 217:
Check, VA 24072 (703) 651·3492
KATUAH ·page 30
APPALACHIAN GlNSENG CO. - Stratified seeds,
seedlings, roots. Send for price list to: P.O. Box
541; Dillsboro. NC 28725
WEBWORKlNG is free.
Send submissions to:
Kil.l.uAh
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
FALL 1987
�. /¥IDJ1lh wan~s to commtmicate yoiu· thougltts and feelings to the other people in the
b1oreg1onal province. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories, drawings, or
photographs. Please send yo1u contributions to 11S at: Ki:Wklh; Box 638 ·Leicester NC
Karuah Province 28748.
'
'
'
"Home" is shelter....."llome" is the heartll....•"Home" is conun11nity. Share yotu
plans, sketches, and dreams with the others in tlie bioregion in the winter issue ofKm.tklh.
The deadline/or conrriblllions is October 3.
What does spring make you think of? Send your ideas to us for the spring isme.
Mtdfrfnt- Alllts
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE lWO- WINTER 1983-84
Yona - Bear Huntus - Pigeon River Another Way With Animals - Alma Becoming Politically Effective Mouniain Woodlands - Katiinh Under lhe
Drill - Spirilwtl Warriors
full rolor
T-snlrts
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today are
only climinuitive forms of the mythic beings
who once inhabited the world, but who now
reside in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the
highest heaven. But a few of the original
powers broke through the spiritual barrier
and exist yet in the world as we know it.
These beings are called with reverence
"grandfathers". And of them, the strongest
are Kanati, the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the eanh plane; and
Yunwi Usdi, "the little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their
energies compliment each other to form an
even greater power. As medicine allies, they
represent the healing powers of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen
by Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality.
all-cotton shins, they a.re available now in
all adult sizes from the Kanfoh journal.
"To show respect for this supernatural
trinity of the natural world is to in turn
become an ally in the continuing process of
mnintaining hnnnony and balance here in the
mountains of Kau.iah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUETHREE-SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agriculture - Su.n nowen • Human
Impact on the Forest • Childrcns' Education
Veronica Nicholas:Woman in Politics - Linle
People - Medicine Allies
lSSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
Water Drum - Water Quality - Kudx.u ·Solar
Eclipse· Clearcutling - Trout - Goin& to Wal&¥
Rom Pumps - Microhydto ·Poems: Bennie
Lee Sinclair, Tun Wayne Millet
lSSUE FIVE. FAU. 1984
Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginsen& •
Nuclear Waste • Our Celtic Heritage •
Bioregionalism: Past. Present. and Futute -
John Wi!nol)I • Healing Darkness - Politics of
~
ISSUE SIX· WINTER 1984-85
Winter Solslice Earth Ceremony • HcrKp&Slurt
River - Corrung or the Ugbl - Log Cabin
Roota • Mountain Apiculturc: The Ril!lt Crop
- William Taylor ·The Future or the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN · SPRING 1985
Susiainable Economics - Hot Sprinas - Worker
Ownership· The Great Economy - Self Help
Credit Union - Wild Turkey - Re'J'Onsible
bwesting • Working in the Web of Life
lSSUE EIGHT· SUMMER 198S
Celebration: A Way of Life. Kauiah 18.000
Years Ago • S6Cred Sites • Folk Aru in the
Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle Poems:
Hilda Downer· Chcroku Heritage Center•
Who Owns Appallchla?
lSSUE NINE· FALL 1985
The Waldee Forest - The Trecs Spcalt •
Migrating Foresu - Horse Logging • Starting a
Tree Crop· Urban Trees • Acom Bread • Myth
Tune
ISSUE TEN· WINTER 19&S-$6
Kate Rogers - Cin:les or St.one • lntemal
Mylhmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial •
Poems: Steve Knauth - Mythic Places • The
Uktena's Tale • Crystal Magic •
"Omu-nspcalcing"
ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRING 1986
Community Planning • Cities and the
Bioregional Vision - Recycling - Communil)I
Gadcning· Floyd Counly, VA • Gasohol •
Two Bioregional Views - Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Games - Good Medicine: Vasicns
ISSUE n«RTEEN - Fall 1986
Center For Awakening· Elizabeth Calllri. A
Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest MoTgan •
Ocaling Creatively with Death - Home Buri.al
Box • Th" Wake • The Raven Mocker •
Woodslore and Wildwoods WiJdom • Good
Medicine: n...s..-Lodge
lSSUE FOURTEEN. Winier 1986-87
Uoyd Carl Owtc - Boogcn and Mummc:n AD
Species Day - Cabin Fever Un ..cnlty •
Homeless in KatUah - Homemade Hot Wall:r
Stovcmakcis Narrative - GooJ Medicine:
lntmpeci"5 Conummication
ISSUE FIFTEEN -Spring 1987
Coverlcls • Wom:m Forester · Susie McMahan
Midwife - Alternative Contraception •
Bioscxuality - Bioregionalism and Women Good Medicine: Mlllriacharial Culwn: - ~
ISSUE SIXTEEN - Swnmcr 1987
Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden •
Vision Quest - First Flow - Initiation •
Leaming in the Wilderness - Cherokee
Olallenge- "Valuing Trees•
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------KAJVAH: Biore~jonal Journal of the Southern Appalachians
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Marnie Muller (7().1)683-1414
Regular Membership........$ IO/yr.
Sponsor..........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Name
Address
City
Area Code
KAJVAH -page 31
~ess!
t1ot£r.t"'
Enclosed is S
to give
this ejfon an exrra boost
State
Phone Number
Zip
Back Issues
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#_@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#_@ $2.00 = $
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ _ _
Complete Set (2-11, 13-16)
@$19.00=$_ _
T-Shirts: specify quanticy
color: tan
S_ _ M_ _
L_ _ XL_ _
@ $9.50 each............$_ _
I can be a local contact
person for my area
TOTALPRICE=
postage paid
$_ _
FALL 1987
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 17, Fall 1987
Description
An account of the resource
The seventeenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on black bears: their place and future in southern Appalachia. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Sam Gray, Paul Gallimore, Mike Pelton, Robert McMahan, Jay S. Gertz, Scott Bird, Richard Harrison, Michael Hockaday, Martha Tree, Marnie Muller, Rob Messick, Richard Harrison, William O. McLarney, Bern Grey Owl, Will Ashe Bason, Douglas A. Rossman, and Troy Setzler. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
The Life and Death of Bear #87: Glady and The Pisgah Bear Project.......3<br /><br />Bear Story by Sam Gray.......6<br /><br />Issues (and a Few Answers) for the Black Bear: An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton.......8<br /><br />The Challenger: The Wild Boar in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.......11<br /><br />cougar: A Poem.......12<br /><br />Good Medicine: "Finding Allies in the World".......13<br /><br />"Me and My Walker Hounds" by Robert McMahan.......14<br /><br />"Smells Like Money to Me": A Report on Champion International by Jay S. Gertz.......16<br /><br />Bear: A Poem by Scott Bird.......18<br /><br />Green Politics in Katúah by Richard Harrison.......19<br /><br />Natural World News: Modern Science Restores Ancient Indian Maize | Protecting Our Mountain Wetlands | DOE Hot Meals Program | No Problem with Tobacco | Showdown at Flat Creek | NC Legislators Want Dump | Peregrine Nest Discovered.......20<br /><br />Turtle Island Talking: A Look at PeaceNet.......23<br /><br />Old Galaxies: A Poem by Michael Hockaday.......23<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24<br /><br />Littering: The Same Old Story by Michael Hockaday.......23<br /><br />Fall Calendar of Events.......28<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Black bear--Appalachian Region, Southern
Bear hunting--North Carolina, Western
Black bear--North Carolina--Fiction
Black bear--Mythology
Animals--Poetry
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Cherokees
Community
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Hunting
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Pigeon River
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/b7c30c6ce7c5fb288b9fbaf8533bfb00.pdf
e4fb1233504bfc8d0f823864df5a94b2
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 19 SPRING 1988
$1.50
BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF THE ~OUTHERN APPALACHIANS
�©~
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit#18
Leicester, NC
28748
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�The Perelandra Garden ...... 3
Spring Tonics .............. 6
Rooting Blueberries ......... 7
"First Dogwoods"
a poem by Michael Hockaday .... 7
Gardens of the Blue Ridge .... 8
A Visit with Granny:
An lnterVlew with Carolyn Port ... 1O
Flower Essence ..... . ...... 13
The Origin of the Animals:
Plants have been in
communion with the human
species for thousands of years.
Only recently with the advent of
the mechanical age have we
relegated them to muteness.
a story by Clyde Hollifield . . . . . . 14
''Sacrament,"
"Rain Has Come Again:"
poems by Janeice Ray ......... 15
Good Medicine: "Power" .... 16
Be A Tree .......... ...... 17
Natural World News ........ 18
Drumming:
Letters to Katuah .......... 22
A Children' Page . .......... 25
Events ... .. .............. 28
Spring Gathering ........... 29
Webworking ............... 30
In the past, plants have
shared their information with us.
They have told us which of their
species is good for medicines,
for healing, for food, for making
musical instruments ... They have
whispered songs to our ancestors
...and poems. They have sent
dreams our way...and visions.
We share a sacred bond with
plants. Our "world" depends on
their world. Even from the
beginning, photosynthesis was
essential in allowing our
species to eventually occur.
Today, sharing the earth's
atmosphere...exchanging oxygen
and carbon dioxide with each
other... reflects how intimate our
connection is. In fact, at the
heart of the relationship is
"exchange".
We receive nourishment from
plants ... not only for the physical
body, but also for the psyche.
They daily reveal to us visions
of rootedness, stillness ...
vibrancy and life.
The plant world holds the
memory of what a bioregion
is...what it looks like in its
wholeness. By listening to the
plant world, we can tap our own
underlying sense of what this
region could be... how to
re-inhabit Katuah.
As we begin to become more
conscious, we see how power and
creativity can be used to enhance
and celebrate the heartbeat of
the ecological processes here
rather than disrupt or destroy it.
The plant world can participate
in a vital way in this
internal reawakening . Plants
can partner with us as we
explore integrating the human
species into the ecological
symphony of this place.
Whether in a garden, in a
grove...or in wilderness, we can
begin to develop a co-creative
partnership with plants, where
once again, they speak to ~
�EPlTORTAL STAFF THIS ISSUE;
Scott Bird
Christina Morrison
Mamie Muller
Jack Chaney
Sam Gray
Michael Red Fox
Sally Mander
Manha Tree
Rob Messick
David Wheeler
THA NKS TO: Julie Gaunt. Ellen John, Brooks Michael,
Judith Hallock, Tom Hendricks, Kathleen Mclaughlin, Karen
W.i1.ldns-Deckct. Susan Laird, Chip Smi1h, Joe Roberts, John
Peuie, Manha & Dean, and Cclo Communi1y.
Cover: Manha Tree
Invocation: Rob Messick
EPTTORTAL OEFTCE nos ISSUE:
Worley Cove, Sandymush Creek
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREOION AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co., Sylva, NC
WRTTEUSAT:
TELEPHONE:
(704) 683-1414
KiWah.
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Diversity is an imponan1 elemeni of biorcgional ecology, both
nn1urol and social. In line with this principle, KatCiah tries IO serve as a
forum for 1.he discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express only
the opinion of the authors and are no1 necessarily lhe opinions of the
KatU/Jh editors oc staff.
The lniemal Revenue Service has declared KaJiia.h a non-profi1
organizatioo under section SOl(cXJ) of the lntcmal Revenue Code. All
conuibutions IO KaJliah are deduclible from pcrsooal income 13X.
Let !he center of the earth
Be my heart
Aod the laod be mv shell
Let the soil be mv cells
Aod the rock be rrrv bo!la
U!t the water be my blood
The ocean be my pulse
And a• rivers be my veins
Let the atmosphere
Be mv bream
And the seasont be my senses
As the spirit lives
Let its growing bring a change
Aod plant the seed of its continuance
For all things will return
To the elements from which they come
In
being
one
Sl'ATEMENTOF PURPOSE
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range
on our continent, Turtle Island; a small but growing
group has begun to take on a sense ofresponsibility
for the implications of that geographical and
cultural heritage. This sense of responsibility
centers on the concept of living within the natural
scale and balance of universal systems and
principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name" Katuah" as the old/new name/or
this area of the mountains and for its journal as
well. The province is indicated by its natural
boundaries: the Roanoke River Va.l/ey to the north;
the foothills of the piedmont area to the east; Yona
Mountain and the Georgia hills to the souih; and the
Tennessee River Valley to the west.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect
and disseminate information and energy which
pertains specifically to this region, and to foster the
awareness thaJ the land is a living being deserving
of our love and respect. living in this manner is a
way to insure the sustainability of the biosphere and
a lasting place for ourselves in its continuing
evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of
a " do or die " situation in terms of a quality
standard of life for all living beings on this planet.
As a voice for the caretakers of this sacred land,
KalUah, we advocate a centered approach to the
concept of decentralization. It is our hope to
become a support system for those accepting the
challenge of sustainability and the creation of
harmony and balance in a total sense, here in this
place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information, articles, artwork, etc. with
hopes that Katfuzh will grow to serve the best
interests of this region and all its living, breaJhing
members.
- The&Utors
KATUAH - page 2
SPRING - 1988
�'The Pere.Candra Clarden: Cooperation JJi,th N atu.re 'LnteUU}ences
It is in a garden that we have a special opportunity
to enter into a purposeful relationship with the Earth
and its creative energies. MachaeUe Small Wright has
been working with these energies in her garden in a
specific, conscious way for over a decade. She refers to
them as "nature intelligences."
Machaelle's garden, called Perelandra, lies a few
miles east of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.
Perelandra, meaning "of the heart", began as a small
family homestead and has now grown into a nature
research & learning center. There, she teaches
co-creative gardening, produces flower essences, and
publishes books and tapes based on her experiences.
Machaelle's first book, Behaving As If The
God in All Life Mattered (1983), is an
autobiographical account of how she came to garden in
cooperation with nature intelligences.
From Behaving As If the God in All Life
Mattered:
...One evening in early January 1977, I walked into
the woods and announced in a loud, clear voice, "...I
want to work with devas and I want to work with nature
spirits. I invite all of you to make yourselves known to
me. I am ready to learn from you."
Then I left the woods, returned to the house, put
myself into meditation and waited.
At the time of "my declaration," I didn't know what
I was doing. But years later, l realized that I had used a
oercmony to ground a shift that was taking place in me.
Ceremony is a physical vehicle used to ground energy
from a higher level, thereby giving it form and greater
accessibility to the people involved in the ceremony. It's
a tool designed to give clarity and form to energy. To
accomplish this, we use special settings, actions, words,
music... whatever is appropriate. On that night in
January, I moved through a ceremony. I made a clear
decision about what I wanted. I chose the woods as my
setting. Then I moved through a seric:s of physical
actions via the use of words. I stated my mtent Clearly
SPRING-1~88
and simply. I invoked to myself what I felt I would need
to carry out my intent. Then I scaled my declaration by
physically acting on it -- by going into meditation and
opening myself to whatever was to happen next
The response was immediate. In fact, I. had the same
experience that Dorothy Maclean had at Fmdhom when
she first connected with devas. I had a "crowd of voices"
coming at me, all talk:ing at the same time - all telling me
that it was "about time." I connected in with them and
found that they had been waiting for this for some time. I
remembered that in the Findhom book, when Dorothy
described this experience, she said she simply asked the
devas to speak to her one at a time. Having nothing to
lose, I tried the same thing. Much to my ama~ment,
they responded instantaneously. And from that pomt on,
I received one devic voice at a time.
Behaving was followed in 1987 by The
Perelandra Garden Workbook: A Complete
Guide to Gardening with Nature Intelligences.
This book is a step-by-step manual for anyone wishing
to develop a relationship with the devic levels and
nature spirits. In this excerpt, Machaelle describes her
understanding of these presences and their distinctive
characteristics.
From The Perelandra Garden Workbook:
... "Deva" is a sanskrit word meaning body of light.
This has little correlation with what I experience when I
am open to the devic level, but I accept the word. The
devic level is the architectural dynamic within nature. It
is the force that formulates every individual aspect of
form on Eanh. It is the creative force which determines
the size, color, shape. weight, texture, taste, life cycle,
and requirements of all form, all of nature. Each form
has inherent in it its own deva. There is, for example, the
• continued on Delli pqc
Editots' Note: In her book:s, Machacllc baa chosen to follow lhe conventional
mode of grammar, ic. "he" ralher lhUI "1/he" or "one"; "mankind" ralher lhUI
"bwnankind"; etc. Becauac lhc pusagca cc diJcct excap!S. we have left them u
they arc.
- continued on next page
--·KATUAH - page 3
�Deva of Soil, the Deva of che Shasta Daisy, the Oak Tree
Deva, the Carrot Deva. Each deva holds, as in a
computer bank, all the specific information relative to its
form. It also holds the information pertaining to how its
individual natural form fits into the grand scheme of
things both on Earth and within the universe. If there are
to be any physical changes made -- for example,
changing carrots from the color orange to pink - they
must be made within the devic level in order to maintain
natural balance. Change made through the pure will and
desire of us humans disregarding the devic dynamic is
called "manipulation" and results in a weakening
imbalance and becomes part of the ecological disaster we
are experiencing...
...There is another distinguishing feature about
nature spirits that will help you understand them and the
differences between them and devas. Nature spirits are
regional. Although I do not have a phalanx of little
people visible in the garden, I do have my group of
nature spirits who are connected to this land and what is
happening here. Your connection will be with your own
group. They are an intelligent reality that is individuated
enough to be connected with specific geographic areas
on Earth. Devas, on the other hand, are universal in
dynamic. When I contact the Carrot Deva, I touch into
lhe very same intelligent reality someone in China would
touch into when making the same contact.
...Here is my understanding of nature spirits.
In Behaving .... I referred to nature spirits as the
blue collar workers within the realm of nature
intelligence. I still hold to this imagery today but feel it is
simplistic. My work with the nature spirits has
convinced me that they are truly masters of
understanding and working with the concept of bringing
spirit into matter, energy into form. They tend to the
shifting of an energy reality which has been formulated
on the devic level and assist the translation of that reality
from a dynamic of energy to form. In short, they
constantly work with the principle of manifestation on
Earth. They also function in a custodial capacity with all
that is of form on the planet. That is, when not interfered
with by us humans, they tend to the care and needs of all
physical reality, assuring perfection within form. ..
Machaelle depends on a systematic communication with the devas and nature spirits to inform
her about every aspect of the garden, including what
plants go in which locations, soil preparation, and how
to deal with insects and animals. She consistently
affirms that "the backbone of the Perelandra garden is
communication."
From The Perelandra Garden Workbook:
.. .I happen to be someone who feels deeply that this
communication is possible for everyone. We are talking
about a natural partnership between humans and nature
and it is not meant to be exclusive. It only stands to
reason that there be simple ways for us and nature to
communicate with one another. There have to be
language frameworks that are just waiting to be
developed.
I see the communication problem as being similar to
the problem that arises when you are faced with someone
from another country who speaks a language that is
completely foreign to your ear. There isn't one sound
they are making that strikes a familiar note. We can back
off the situation and say, ''This is impossible." Or we
can tackle the situation together with the other person,
begin to learn each other's language, and devise
additional techniques for communication.
This is what I've done with nature. I've worked to
develop techniques which we can use for the purpose of
sending and receiving information. And it's not difficult.
In fact, it's embarrassingly simple. But that's as it
should be.
The workbook gives complete instructions on
how to use the form of communication that Machaelle
has found to be most effective - kinesiology. In the
following passage, she explains the principles of this
technique.
From The Perelandra Garden Workbook:
...Simply stated, if a negative energy (that is, any
physical object or energy vibration that does not maintain
or enhance the health and balance of an individual), is
introduced into a person's overall energy field, his
muscles, when having physical pressure applied, will be
unable to hold their power. For example, if pressure is
applied to an individual's extended arm while his field is
being affected by a negative, the arm will not be able to
resist the pressure. It will weaken and fall to his side. If
pressure is applied wl\ile being affected by a positive, the
person will easily be able to resist IUld the arm will hold
its position.
To expand on a more technical level, when a negative
is placed within a person's field, his electrical system
(the electrical energy grid contained within the body) will
immediately respond by "short-circuiting," making it
di.fficll]t for the muscles to maintain their strength and
hold their position when pressure is added. When a
positive is placed within the field, the electrical system
holds and the muscles are able to maintain their level of
strength when pressure is applied.
Original Drawings by Kore Loy McWhirtt:r
SPRING - 1988
�This electrical/muscular relationship is a natural pan of
the human system. It is not mystical or magical.
Kinesiology is the established method for reading their
state of interaction at any given moment. It is most
commonly used today by wholistic physicians,
chiropractors and the Touch for Health people.
What does this have to do with "hearing" information
from the nature spirits and devic levels, you ask. Simple.
If you ask a question using the yes/no format, they can
answer your question by transferring a yes (positive) or
no (negative) into your energy field. Then you read the
answer by testing yourself using kinesiology...
For good communication, Machaelle emphasizes
being outside in the garden space, achieving an inner
quiet, and vocalizing one's requests. She then affirms
the importance of asking simple, precise questions and
being willing to act on the information and ideas
received...even if they challenge one's conventional
concepts.
The workbook provides detailed information on
how to formulate these questions. It also includes many
insights and practical tips that Machaelle has gained
from her own experience in the garden.
From The Perelandra Garden Workbook:
...It has been over ten years since I began gardening
under the tutelage of these nature intelligences and the
result has been a garden in which all inhabitants, be they
animal, mineral or vegetable arc truly compatible with
one another. Each member of the garden enhances the
health and well being of all the others. And this includes
the bugs. The garden is inclusive, not excl usive. I do
nothing for the purpose of repelling. The focus is to
create a balanced, wholistic environment in which all
within that environment arc enhanced. The results are not
only more food than I know what to do with, but also
food that has contained within it a very high level of life
energy - light.
...The Perelandra garden thrives because of the
approach I have been taught and the underlying
consciousness and reality that motivates the approach.
What l'm going to describe to you in this book docs not
fit comfonably into the recognized notions of tradition,
logic or even sanity. Be that as it may, it works. And
that's what drives traditional gardening thinkers a little
nuts. Everything you know which has gone into
establishing your sense of order, stability and balance, in
other words, logic, both in your garden and your life
away from it, will be constantly challenged. For you see,
this gardening is, in fact, a metaphor for the whole of
life. As you change how you approach the garden, you
will, in turn, change the very fabric of how you
approach your life.
'"~7~,.....~~t
In addition to the specific information that
Machaelle obtains through kioesiology, she also
receives more extensive messages from the nature
intelligences. In both books, she includes these
messages that have deepened her understanding of
herself and her garden. (1be devic voices are indicated
by italics.)
From Behaving As If The God in All Li/e
Mattered:
... As each deva came into my awareness, 1 noticed
that there was a slight shift in vibration, that each had its
own vibration. After awhile, I could recognize which
deva was entering my awareness. This led me to develop
tho ability to call upon specific devas by "aiming" my
awareness for the deva's own vibratory pattern...
Overlighring Deva ofthe Garden
We urge you to join our creative process. When you
planr a seed, invoke the deva and nature spirits connected
with that seed. The seed is the door between you and the
various energies that are drawn rogether on the devic
level and cared/or by the nattue spirits. Once you have
planted the seed, put our the call for the deva to draw
together all the individual energy components of that
variety. Ask that the natwe spirits receive the energies
and, in essence.fuse them to the seed. The seed contains
the potential of the plant's perfection. The grounding of
the plant's energy into the seed activates that potential
and transfonns it inw reality. As you call the energy into
form, see its energy channel wuch into the seed as it is
growuled by the nattue spirits.
By joining in our creative process in this manner,
you will begin to see the importance of worldng with the
nature energies with clarity. We urge you to plant the
garden in this new way and see the difference yow clear
panicipatkm as a co·creative partner with us makes i11 the
germi11arion ofthe seeds and the qualily ofplant growth.
· continued on page 24
KATUAH - page 5
�dandelion can be used throughout the growing season. but
to avoid bitterness you need to look for new growth and
young plants.
Spring Tonics!
The docks, dandelion, roostard, sorrel and lamb's
quarters can all be used as cooked greens. V- 0/ets can also
1
be cooked, but I have never bothered. They are too good
raw. When cooking greens it's best to pid< a lot because
they cook down. Most can be thrown into boiling water and
cooked, but dandelion leaves should be started in cold
water and brought to a boH.
by Lucinda Flodin
A s I sit poring over seed catalogues, looking for
bargains on untreated, non-hybrid seeds, scheming and
dreaming my gardens. plotting crop rotations, remembering
ga"tr:Jens past, wishing gardens future. feeling in my rooscles
the reminders of turning spring soil - I remember a time not
too long ago when I thought one could not have food
without the hard work of digging, planting, and weeding.
Lamb's Quarters
M ind you, gardening is work I love, especially in the
springtime, but in recent years I have disct:Jvered the joy of
foraging for wild foods, food that is Earth's gift - available at
the cost of some study and a walk in the sunshine (although
some plarts I hardly have to leave my door to find!). I feel a
wonderful balance when I take a break from the garden to
seek out a treasvred wild food which grew gloriously without
my help or work. It gives an insight into how the Earth
worlcS..... who, after all, really grows the food.
I start to forage early, pulling bad< snow looking for
that first new growth. By the time spring arrives •officially"
there is food abounding - rooch moffJ than I find in my garden
at that point. This is a time when mountain people tonic with
wild foods, knowing their health will be more vigorous year
round. It is a tradition worth embracing.
My favorite cooked green is poke, which roost be
cooked when young and tender. ff the stems are red or the
plant is over 12" high, it is too old, because it becomes
poisonous with maturity. The roots and the seeds are
medicinal, but they are poisonous and should be used under
the guidance of an experienced herbalist. Some folks will say
that poke should always be eaten cooked. I always do, but I
have seen ffJCjJes that cal for it raw.
Another fine cooked green, ff you don't mind the
hassle, is nettle, the stinging variety. Anyone who's ever
been caught in nettle knows the respect the plant requires.
Long pants, long sleeved shirt and heavy gloves are
necessary to gather and handle it until it's cooked or dried.
Repeated cookings, each in fffJsh water, get rid of the
stinging hails. It's a wonderful food rich in vitamins A and C
and high in protein. It is also a lot of wolk. I always gather a
bunch to dry for nettle tea in the winter.
There BffJ so many edib/8 plants and so many ways to
eat them. An old timer is a great ally in teaming local plants.
and theffJ are also many books that contain good pictures
and important information. I am fond of Foraging For Dinner
by Helen Ross Russell, Roda/e's Herb Book, and also the
Foxfire books. It is important to know your food plants,
because there are others which can poison you.
Early spring salads can begin with a base of sorrel
rumex and sorrel moxalis. Rumex sorrel can be eaten in great
quantity; moxalis sorrel must be eaten In small amounts to
avoid too much oxalic acid. Both have a slightly sour taste. I
add small amounts of the more bitter plants - dandelion,
cress, and the docks (yellow, curled, or burdock) - using very
young leaves because they get more bitter the bigger they
grow. I try to pick dock leaves before they have completely
unfolded. In early salads I also use leaf lettuce from my
greenhouse, and I add in violet leaves and flowers as soon as
I see them. Violets are also a favorite hiking food, a nice
munch while you walk.
Later in the spring saxifrage comes in season,
followed closely by lamb's quarters. a great salad green which
will carry you to the first frost. Late spring salads are also nice
with purslane leaves and shepherd's purse leaves. Dock and
Plantain
A nother way to prepare spring foods is green drinks.
Rll your blender with leaves • violet, plantain, mints,
dandelion, or other tasty greens (either singly or as a mix).
Cover with water and whiz in the blender until it is a pretty
green color. Strain and drink immediately.
I have heard that you should blend green drinks for at
least a minute, but that makes a powerful drink, which Is too
heroic and strong for most. When I use bitter plants In a drink,
I add a lot of mint to sweeten it. Some vegies like carrots w11
1
also sweeten the taste. Experimentation will lead you to the
tastes you like. Green drinks have become a standard In our
home when the children decide to hate green food. Then
they get a ChOice - they can eat a salad or drink a green drink •
it's the same great nutrition whichever they choose.
Ramps are a food which people either love or love to
hate. I love them - in moderation. The blend of onion and
garlic taste is a wonderful seasoner to food. A few ramps will
season a pot of beans or a mess of greens. Try them cooked
if you don't like the strong raw taste. Ramps are not only
good tasting, their lily·like appearance makes them one of
the prettiest plants.
Violet
KATUAH - page 6
illustrations by Ellen John
SPRING - 1988
�rooting blueberries
After a warm rain, when the darl< blue violets bloom,
the morel ~shrooms grow. They Jove old apple groves in
the fn!'Untams.....and they are the highlight of spring
foragmg. Morels are all one piece and they are hollow. f went
rooshrooming ona tifn8 with a neighbor to be sure I could
cfistingufsh the right kind, before I set off on my own. Morels
are fun to hunt, beause they hide In the undergrowth.
Sometimes one will appear beneath your feet, as though in
that instant it had magically popped to full growth. .... perhaps
by Will Ashe Bason
it did.
In my kltehen the best meal of springtime happens in
May when we have stir-fried rafTfJS, morel rooshrooms and
asparagus with a wild green salad. To me it's Thanksgiving
spring-style • knowing that each food is there because the
Earth grew It, and we were blessed to find it. We look forward ~
to it and celebrate It. The Earth Is good to us.
P'
Scientific classifications and vitamin/mineral information on
above mentioned plants:
Nettle (urt/ca d/oica) • contains almost all vitamins and
minerals necessary for human growth and health.
Vitamins A, C, 0, K. Calcium. potassium, iron, sulphur,
silicon, copper.
Lamb·~ quaners (Chimopodium abum) - contains calcium,
silicon, follc acid.
Dandelion (Taraxacum otricinale) ·contains vitamins A, 81.
82, niacin, C, E. Calcium, phosphorous, potassium,
magnesium and many trace minerals. The bast
at(angthener of tha liver.
Yellow dock (Rumu crispus) • Fully absorbable,
non-consllpating source of iron.
Burdock (Att:tium lappa) • Vitamin C, iron.
Watercress (Nasturtium ofrlcina/e) • contains Vitamins A,
81, E, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium,
Iron, manganese, flourine, copper, sulphur, Iodine,
zinc.
Plantain (P/anlago ma;or) - contains calcium, potassium,
sulphur
Sorrel (Rumex aa.tosa} • oontains iron.
Violet (Viola psp/lionacea) • contains vrtamin A, calcium
Shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pa. toris) - contains
s
calcium, Vitamin K. A great remedy for all bleeding
problems
Poke (Phytolacca amerlcana) • contains vitamin A. C,
calcium.
Lucinda Flodin lives a1 Moon Dance Fann in Hampton,
TN where she crea1es herbal health care products, Moon
Dance Farm Herbals. Moon Dance Farm, Rt. I , Box
726, Hampton, TN 37658.
First Dogwoods
Now I don't know what is going on.
These days I wale the fJBJds with tears
in my eyes. Spring is so lovely
l follows fn8 around and gives mB shame.
In quiet little D~minations of the moment,
when rlJbons of light descend between the ic.B and snow,
my heatt achBs with death and dying itto the nBW land.
Sure it is good to bum li<e the eatth with desire,
and then by aystal beauty to be cooled. Each brief
rainshower glistens the air so the sollBI)' trees
in first leaf glow li<e candles on the mountainsides.
During spaC6s between the birds singing so freely,
my lamentation unfolds. My mind bursts open
like the hard·held ctUst finally gona to green.
My woe Is akin the whispers of an errant breeze
enveloped and carried off by the long west winds.
SPRING · 1988
© ev'J
B lueberries are an excellent crop for Katuah. They
bloom late enough to almost always escape spring frosts and
love acid soil. Here In Floyd Co. VA we doni have the high
quality wild blueberries found in most of the rest of Katuah
The oldest planting I know of is a half acre in the Riverflow
Comroonity that is seven years old and doing very well.
Last year, as my friend Alta was pruning the Riverflow
blueberries, we decided to try to root the prunings. Alta put the
prunlngs Into water In which I'd placed willow cuttings several
days before. The willow has magic rooting enzymes which the
blueberries lack. Chris, my wife, cut these prunlngs Into pieces
about 3 or 4 Inches long, and dipped their tower ends In
rooting hormone powder. She then Inserted the cuttings Into a
propagation frame filled with a mixture of half sand and half
peatmoss.
T his frame was oovered with a layer cl plastie and then a
layer of burtap. The plastic keeps the environment humid and
the burtap reduces the amount of sun to a tolerable level We
made our frame 2' by 4', from 1x4's and with a bottom of
hardware cloth. We made the ribs for the covering from some
bent rebar we had but bamboO, lath or pvc pipe would wort<.
We watered the cuttings mostly with comfrey and with a
ittle manure tea We took the poly oover off in June and the
burtap off In August although I think this last could have been
e811ier. We had about a 90% soocess rate and some cl cuttings
put on 6 inches of new growth.
We were worl<lng with highbush varieties but this year
we are rooting some rabblt-i!ye varieties as weU. These are
larger bushes and though oonsldered less oold tolerant than
highbush or lowbush, some are thriving in the riverflow
oomroonity and we are at neal1y 2500 feet at the northern tip of
Karuah. Rabbit-eye blueberries fruit later than the hlghbush
and, In our area, continue till frost. They are supposed to be
harder to root.
-Will Ashe Bason /
KATUAH - page 7
�..
©~
rot\li
Ejardtns "f-t11e 13(11f.
'RiJ,t..
...Each displaying its own particular
beauty beneath the young sunshine and soft
waters ofspring
·
...Each with its own particular niche
in tMwoodland habitat benelllh the tall rrees
- the right balance of fll()iscure and light, the
particular soil that will encourage its
growth.
...And each with its own unique
capabilities and strategies for sustaining life
and reproducing its ldnd.
The world of the forest wildflowers is simultaneously
one of exquisite beauty, rigorous specialization, and
demanding competition. Though the soft colors and delicate
textures of their blossoms delight the eye in springtime, these
plants have evolved through eons of stress. and change to
prove their sturdiness and resiliency among the life forms,
great and small, inhabiting the Appalachian forest.
Their magical appearance in the spring, their apparent
daintiness, and their impossible beauty, have enchanted the
human beings of every age. And in these days, when people
want their affluence to be tasteful, there is a resurgence of
interest in purchasing the small wildflowers of the eastern
forest for shade gardening and home landscaping.
KATUAH-page 8
There are several companies now catering to that
interest, but none have been in the trade longer than a small
concern located off Highway 221 near ihe smaU town of
Linville, NC at 4,000 feet elevation in the heart of Katuah
province. The Gardens of the -Blue Ridge was begun in
1892 by the family of a surveyor named S.T. Kelsey. The
sense of power and grandeur around nearby Grandfather
Mountain had always atttacted people to the area. In Indian
times it was known as a sacred place of power. In Kelsey's
day, Grandfather Mountain Corporation and the Linville
Improvement Co. were founded on a cenain reverence for
the area's durable real estate values.
Kelsey was called to use his surveying skills to help
parcel out the lands at the Grandfather's feet. He liked the
area and bought a tract for himself for the nursery from
which he sold ornamental shrubbery.
A young man from the area, Edward C. Robins, took
a job at the nursery and worked there steadily until 1923,
when he bought the operation. Since then the Gardens of the
Blue Ridge has been a Robins family enterprise. Members
of t~e fourth generation of Robins' are now worlcing in the
company.
For a time E.C. Robins carried on the business as
Kelsey had left it to him. He dug a tremendous number of
nati\'e rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel, and
dogWood trees and shipped them by rail throughout the East.
As a sideline, he also collected and sold the small woodland
wildflowers.
. But the ornamental shrubs trade grew more
competitive, and the native varieties began to be eclipsed in
the eyes of wealthy buyers by new hybrids developed
especially for the color, holding capacity, and brilliance of
thei{ blooms. Robins decided to deal exclusively in
wildflowers and began a tradition that the family has adhered
to since.
In those early days of the Garden's development, the
trees still stood tall in many areas of the forest. The ground
was largely clear beneath the great trees' massive crowns,
and hunters and bikers could still stumble into clearings
carpeted in ginseng or brilliant with the color of an extensive
colony of pink ladyslippers in full bloom.
In those days it seemed that the forest would never die,
and .the wildflowers would always grace the forest floor.
Robins employed 30 - 40 men digging, transplanting, and
shipping shrubs and flowers. They dug wherever they could
and took all they could find. Trilliums and lilies were
popular at the time, and Robins shipped thousands of
individuals of the various trillium species, the (now rare and
endangered) Gray's JiJy, (Lilium Grayii) and the Tur.k's cap
lily (Lilium superbum) to the eastern cities. As he became
more completely committed to the wildflowers, Robins
gathered all the local varieties he could find, until he was
offering 200 varieties of plants.
E.C. Robins lived until 1969, when he died at the age
of 93. Today the Gardens of the Blue Ridge is run by hrs
son, Edward P. Robins. The company still offers 159
varieties of flowering plants, 22 varieties of native fems,
and 38 types of trees and shrubs. But the plants are now
propagated almost exclusively in 10 acres of mulched, raised
beds at the nursery.
Logging practices and extensive development were
largely responsible for changing the face of the forest, and it
was in the late 1940's -and early 1950's that the Robins
realized that the supply of local flora was limited and that
their methods of coUecting were helping to diminish the
supply. The family shares with their customers a deep
appreciation for the subtle beauties of the native wildflowers.
So, once begun, the transition to nursery propagation was
made swiftly.
In 1969 ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) became a
protected plant in the state of Nonh Carolina. Now the small
plant known as shortia or Oconee bells (Shortia galacifolia)
and the medicinal plant golden seal (Hydrastis canadensis)
SPRING - 1988
�are also registered plants, requiring a special certificate to
accompany each individual sold. Pink ladyslipper
(Cypripidium acaule) in all probability will soon join the list.
The Robins family follows scrupulously all regulations
for producing and selling the native plants. They note that by
making wildflowe~ available, they are relieving pressures on
the wild natives and that they are actuaUy aiding several
species of wildflowers to survive by spreading them as
domestic plantings, while their native habitats are being
destroyed or drastically cunailed. In particular, they have
helped ex.tend the range of shortia by shipping it throughout
the East. The plant grows on runners and is easy to
establish, if it is planted in a moist spot or kept wet until it is
well secured. E.P. Robins remembers one private wildlife
preserve in western Massachusetts where they planted
"thousands, literally thousands" of shortia as a ground cover.
Pink ladyslipper is harder to establish. The plant
depends on a relationship with a particular variety of funius
that lives in the soil close to the plant roots. Wherever 1t is
planted, pink ladyslipper will prosper for the first year, but
unless the soil is such that it can produce the particular strain
of symbiotic fungus, the plant will soon languish and die.
Once the business of collecting native plants '+'as
strictly a matter of stamina and endurance. E.P. Robins
remembers fondly the day when the company received a
permit to collect plants on some land near the North
Carolina-South Carolina state line that was to be cleared by
Duke Power Company. "We dug 10,000 shortia that day."
But idiosyncrasies such as that shown by the pink
ladyslipper make propagating the wild plants in nursery beds
more a question of familiarity and accurate attention to detail.
The demand for the graceful natives has been steady
through the years, and there is room for new companies to
enter the field.
"There's good prospects for this business," says E.P.
Robins. ''It's always been steady. Even during the
Depression it was a good business. Wildflowers are
becoming popular, so the demand might go up for awhile.
But we have all the business we can handle right now, so we
don't care if it goes up more or not.''
Breaking into commercial wildflower raising requires
more initiative and careful attention than capital. It is a
business that can sran small and grow to whatever ~ize is
desired. But it is slow work. While most of the flower
varieties are easy to raise, some varieties have special
requirements that can only be learned through long familiarity
and by suffering through mistakes. It takes time to establish
a market and to~ain a reputation.
"We never got rich," says E.P. Robins, "but we didn't
expect to get rich, and we're making a living. As long as we
keep our bead <tbove water and have a liltle, that's all·we
·:.:· .....
.··
..·:
:-.
·.
.! ·.
shortw
·:·..·.
.
·: ...
©~
Shortia, Oconee bells (Shortia galacifolia), the
mystery plant of the mountains of western North Carolina
was first discovered by a French botanist, Andre Michaux,
on December 8, 1788. He had been sent to America by the
French government to seek new plants that might be of value
ro France. In his search through western North Carolina and
eastern Tennessee, Andre Michaux found and described
many new species and carried back to France pressed
specimens to be placed in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.
Some were labeled "unknown" and among these was a leaf
and root of this plant from the mountains of western
Carolina.
care."
Perhaps many botanists studied the specimens with M
identity over a period of the next fifty years. In 1839 Asa
Gray, a young American botanist, became intrigued with a
specimen and recognized it as a new genus, and wrote a
scientific description of the genus from the single specimen
in France. To lwMr Dr. Charles W. Short, an able botanist
of Kentucky, Gray devised the scientific name of tlte genus,
Shortia. And, since it resembled galax, the species name
became galacifolia.
But growing the native wildflowers offers rich
rewards in satisfaction. The international reputation for
quality plants developed over the last 96 years by the
Gardens of the Blue Ridge is obviously a source of d~ep
pride to Mr. Robins. Propagating the native wild plants is an
occupation that takes little from the land and offers much in
the way of natural beauty. And it is good to walk beneath the
tall trees and see the colors of the flowers shining in the
spring rain.
~
Gray soon returned to America and began his search,
high in the mountains ofNorth Carolina and Tennessee.for
shortia. In 1842 Dr. Gray was appointed professor of nanual
history at Harvard University. For 38 years on every field
trip high in the mountains of North Carolina, Gray hunted
for the elusive slwrtia. He found many plants and published
manuals on botany, but always the little specimen in Paris
continued to haunt him.
Sources for wildflower plants:
- Gardens of the Blue Ridge
P.O. Box 10
Pineola. N.C. 28662
- Appalachian Wildflower Nursery
RL I, Box 275-A
Reedsville, PA 17084
,P'
Further reading:
Growing and Propagating Native
Wildflowers. Harry Phillips (UNC
Press; Chapel Hill, NC. 1985)
SPRING - 1988
Then, on an April day in 1877, George HytllnS went
fishing in the Catawba River in McDowell County. His
father was a botanist employed by Wallace Brothers of
Statesville, NC, whose firm collected plants for
pharmaceutical purposes. Nodding and swaying in the breeze
were some charming bell-shaped, waxy white flowers, on
slender stems, with irregularly-toothed petals, growing from
a roserre of wavy-margined, roundish, shiny evergreen
leaves, similar to the familiar mountain galax. George
decided to take a piece Jwme to his father. Mr. Hyams did
Mt know the plant, but it looked so interesting that he sent a
specimen to Dr. Gray at Harvard University for
identijicaJion. Dr. Gray replied, "You have smmbled on what
for many years I have tried so hard to find."
continued on page 26
KATUAH - page 9
�;-
--
- ____.,._...,..,.
_
_,_
-- -- ---·-------~
F'inclitUJ Out Abou t lka!int] with Plants ....
A Visit with Granny
An Interview with Carolyn Port
by Karen Watkins-Decker and Christina Morrison
Carolyn Porr has been a practitioner
of herbal medicine in Burke County, NC for
over 50 years. She has also given lectures,
classes and workshops on herbology and
will soon publish a book of herbal
remedies.
As a single woman, Carolyn raised
two adopted childre11 and now has several
grandchildren a11d great-gra11dchildren. She
is fondly referred to as "Granny" by family
and friends.
Katuah:: How did you begin your work?
G r anny: I'm a registered nurse. I also
carried a midwife's certificate for years until
retirement age pushed me out
K: How did you become specifically
interested in the use of herbs?
G: I don't know that I was more interested
in herbs than anything else. The body is a
whole. If it's sick one place it's sick all
over, and it needs help all the way around.
Anything that brings it back to normal is
good.
K: Yet you've found that herbs treat the
whole body better than olher medicines?
G: Yes. I believe that herbs build health
as well as treat symptoms. And if an old
woman told you that wall link tea would
save a baby's life that had bold hives, you'd
try it.
K: What is wall link? I've never heard of
it
G: It's a kind of lichen that grows in spring
have to take a knife and scrape those little
roots off to make it clean enough for the
baby.
Editor's ll()te: Wall·linJc "lichen" is actually a type
of liverwort (probably Marcha!ltla polymorpha).
conjectured to bt among the very first plants to
exist on land. It is interesting that such a primitive
plant is healing to humans in our tarly stages of
developmen1; i.e. infancy.
branches. Some people call it "turkey
tracks."
K : Where did you gather all your
knowledge? From your own experience?
K: And bold hives - what kind of illness is
this?
G: People told me things just like I'm
G: I don't really know. I think in the
medical profession some would say that
there is no such thing as bold hives. The old
folks said there was. The babies would just
tum blue - they'd find them blue in the bed.
Some of them broke out in a red rash first.
like pimples, and not be able to catch their
breath - so they'd die.
K: The symptoms you mention remind me
of sudden infant death syndrome for which
no cause or cure has been discovered. I'd
like to know just exactly which lichen
you're talking about.
G: I can't show it to you as good as if I
had you over on the creek bank. It's a deep
green • not a green green. It has a ridge right
under the center seam and its hair-like roots
go down into the moss to get moisture. You
KATIJAH - na2e 10
telling you. They told me about the wall link
tea and I said I'd remember that and try it
and see if it works .. .if I need it • and I did
need it again for a baby that was JO months
old. They called me in the night and I went.
The baby had been blue for two weeks.
They'd had her to the doctor twice and in
the hospital once for a day or so. It didn't
do her any good - still she was blue and
beginning to get the red rash. Quick as I got
there, I gave her a hot and a cold bath to
stimulate circulation and it pinked her up
right away. She seemed a little more alen,
but as soon as she was out of the bath she
began to look blue again. So I asked if
anyone knew where I could find some wall
link. They said there was some in an old
spring half way down the mountain. I asked
if anybody would go get some. One woman
said she'd go if I'd go with her; nobody
else wanted to - they knew how bad the
road was. (she laughs, remembering). We
took a pine pitch torch and climbed down
the mountain at 2 o'clock in the morning
and gathered wall link. I got a nice handful
of it and went back and made some tea.
When the baby got a taste of it she just
drank that bottle Hke she'd never had
anything good before. And before she was
through she began to get pink. I stayed
around to 5 o'clock when I was sure she
was alright, and then I went home... and
that's the way I got the remedy.
K : From what age did you begin paying
ancntion to these things?
G: I decided I was going to be a nurse
when I was just three years old. My mother
was a nUTSC and while she treated people I
treated my doll. I'd give my doll an enema
and then hang her on the clothesline by her
toes to dry. (laughs)
K: Your mother took care of people at
home too, just as you do?
G: Yes, and my father was a veterinarian.
K: Did your mother use many herbs?
G: What she knew she used. For instance,
when they learned that raspberry leaf tea
would stop hemorrhaging we always kept it
on hand. She used blackberry roots for
diarrhea; things like that
K: Did you and your parents work
together?
SPRING - 1988
�G: Yes. When we moved here (to
Morganton) in 1920 we built a home across
K: Do you have any' favorite plants that
you work with?
the street. We had three private room units
and an upstairs for father and mother. We
could take up to 4 mothers with their babies.
G: I just get whatever people need. rve
also got a greenhouse full of aloe and I use
K: So that's when you became a midwife?
G: I was a midwife from the time I finished
school in 1929.
K : You already had your degree by the
time you were 20?
G: Yes. You didn't have to finish high
school back then, so I went straight into
nursing school. Then when I was about to
finish up, they said I couldn't take the stare
board exams because I was 100 young to
become a nurse. But my supervisors
worked things ou1 for me to take the exams
anyway and I made a 98 average.
K: Do you use any standard medicines in
your practice?
G: I never have. That's the reason I didn't
nurse in a hospital professionally. I had 10
find some other way to help people, because
I'm not going to give others something I
won't take myself.
K: And how did you develop that attitude?
Did your mother have that approach?
G: Yes. She never gave drugs. She was an
old Battle Creek, Mich. graduate if you've
ever heard of that school. When she was
there it was in its heyday. It was around the
tum of the century and they had patients
from all over the world. They used many
kinds of therapies like hydrotherapy, diet,
herbs ...as well as standard medicine.
K: That must have been quite a departure
from the general trend in the rest of the
country.
G: Yes. They believed the body was the
temple of God and they treated it that way.
They used very few drugs.
K: Seems that possibly we've gotten away
from the use of herbs because people have
come to mistrust them - they're unknown,
unfamiliar. Maybe if we stan using them
more we'll come to trust them again.
G: We've got to.
K: They can even become like old friends.
G: You wouldn't think that the humble
little violet would cure stomach ulcers - bu1
it does.
K: Do you gather most of the herbs you
use?
G: Yes, I love to... but I don't have time to
pick many. And I try 10 get people to gather
them on their own. If they're going to get
any real lasting benefit they'll have to learn
10 do it themselves. That's why people
don't doctor with herbs - they think it's too
much trouble to get out and hunt for them
and fix them up.
it for lots of things - it helps people with
cancer who are losing strength, its good for
the stomach if drunk· as a juice... ! make
suppositories with it for hemorrhoids or
vaginal infections. And of course for bums
there's nothing that takes its place.
So, many herbs li,kc aloe can be used
for different things, but when you think of a
malady you should use the plant that's the
I!!Qfil ~ for that problem. For instance,
aloe is good for the stomach but if you have
an ulcered stomach and are having pain,
violet leaf tea is the thing you wanL There
are also lots of remedies for colds, flu and
bronchitis, but the best one l know is a tea
made from mullein and cockleburrs
(xanthium pensylvanicum)... the cockleburrs
really make it taste good. And the beauty of
it is, you can put it right in a baby's bottle just dilute it a little. (see REMEDIES)
G: Comsi1k tea and Queen Anne's lace tea
are good for kidney ailments too. A woman
came to me who was going to the hospital
the next day to have one of her kidneys
taken out as she had so many stones in it. It
was right in the summer when Queen
Anne's lace was in bloom all over the place.
I told her I believed I'd try some Queen
Anne's lace tea before I had an operation.
She said, " Alright, I will." We went up on
the hill and galhered flowers and stems to
make the tea. I told her to drink a cup every
thirty minutes 'til bedtime and whenever she
got up in the night to use her chamber pot
she should drink some more. Well, by
morning she'd filled that pot up half-way,
but the bottom of it looked like red clay In."
thick. Those stones had dissolved. And as
far as I know, she's never had that problem
again.
Editor's note: Queen Anne's lace (Daucus
carota) somewhat resembles poison
hemlock (Conium maculatum). Be sure to
know the difference.
K: My neighbor's baby often has colds I'll recommend it.
G: You know, when you give a child herbs
you're giving them a kind of nourishment
they don't get any other way. And it seems
to immunize them to that same malady.
They won't have it nearly so quickly or so
badly again, and they'll get over it faster.
K: Why do you think the medical
profession has gouen so far away from
using herbs?
"Of course these
common weeds we walk
over all the time, like
dandelion and chickweeds,
are some of the best - if
you can get to them before
the mower does!"
G: How would they make any money with
it? Oaughs). I knew a doctor once whose
little girl nearly bled to death with a nose
bleed. I told him to give her raspberry leaf
tea to stop the bleeding - and he did and it
worked - but he didn't seem interested in
finding out why it worked or in using it
again.
K: What do you think about when you're
harvesting herbs?
G: I think about how quick I can get this
person enough plant to do some good
Oaughs) and get home and get it fixed up.
And I don't get to go out and harvest all the
time. If I did I might be like the man I know
who went up on the parkway towazd Jonas
Ridge. There was a whole bank of ttailing
arbutus there and he decided to gather
some. He'd filled a bag half full when a
lady patrolman came along and asked him
what he was doing. II was against the law
up there to pick those leaves, so she took
them and put them in the back of her car. He
told her, "I hope you know what to do with
them!"
K: What arc ttailing arbutus leaves used
for?
G: Kidney stones, or as the old folks say,
"gravel" ...some folks call arbutus, "gravel
weed" because it eases the pain in passing
kidney stones by dissolving them.
K: Sounds as though it's been a useful and
well-known remedy.
K: How did you learn to identify plants?
G: We always studied nature in our family.
Sabbath afternoons we'd go for hikes in the
woods and look for bmls and flowers ...and
whatever we didn't know we'd look up. Of
course these common weeds we walk over
all the time, like dandelion and chickweeds,
arc some of the best - if you can get to them
before the mower does! Chickweed is a
wonderful little weed.
K: ... and it tastes so good fresh.
G: Yes, and it's a good wash for any skin
ailment. But it's not only the wilder plants
that arc good, we have tame things like
marigolds and calendula which arc good for
salves.
K: You use marigolds? I use those for a
dye.
G: If you grow them in your gazden they
keep the bugs off your plants ... and a
tincture of them will keep the bugs off your
head! A young'un of mine got uce at scnool
and we rubbed the tincture into his scalp and
wrapped it in a towel overnight. Next
morning we washed it out and that was thaL
(see REMEDIES) You can also dry the
blossoms for tea that takes polyps out of the
intestines.
• continued on next page.
SPRING - 1988
KATUAH - page 11
u. OSCO - nn.v '""
�- continued from page 11
K: I never knew marigolds had so many
uses!
G: Well, when you get started on
something you find so many things its good
for ...
K: What is your feeling about the healing
properties of plants - the origin of that?
G: God put it there. That's exactly where
it comes from. He knows what we need.
Now right around here, there's lots of
kidney stones ...something in the soil
contributes to that problem. There's also a
lot of trailing arbutus. It's like an herbalist
once telling me to gather stinging nettles and
I said, "Yes, if I can stand the sting." And
she said, "Wherever the nettles grow you'll
find yellow dock - just rub your sting with
its leaves and it won't hurt."
K: That reminds me of using jewel weed to
neutralize poison ivy. Do you primarily
make teas with herbs?
G: Most herbs do yield their strength best
to water - some to cold, some to hot - either
boiled or steeped - according to what you
need. For high blood pressure you use cold
mistletoe tea. (see REMEDIES) But if
you've got epilepsy or seizures then you
make a hot infusion. (see REMEDIES)
K: I know of a dog with epilepsy - maybe
it would cure him. (laughs)
outlawed in the U.S. And now I've beard
they're closed down. I hope its not true.
K: Did you keep the literature from that
course or do you just remember everything?
G: Well, I got all hepped up studying it and
ii worked so good...that I got the address of
Indiana Botanical Gardens - and what I
didn't know I'd order so J could recognize it
and test it out.
K: Did your father use herbs as a
veterinarian?
G: Yes, we studied together. One day a
man came to us who'd overworked his
horse. He said her heart was pounding like
a hammer and she was standing with all
four legs splayed - wouldn't eat; wouldn't
drink. So I fixed some lobelia tea and filled
up a big drenching bottle full. When we got
to the mare the sweat was running off her in
a stream and her nostrils were red and
looked like they would burst. We lifted her
head and drenched her but only got half of it
in her before she reared up and came back
down and slobbered. After a while she
began to walk around and drink water. He
asked if she'd live and I said I didn't know she might have burst a blood vessel.
Months later my father saw him again and
asked about the horse. He said he'd been
logging her everyday.
G: Well, you just be a brave woman and
drink it down - and drink some water after.
K: What if someone's ailments demanded
remedies of an opposite kind - of opposing
forces, so to speak'?
G: Nature fits with nature.
K : Lobelia is an herb I've beard you
should be careful with.
G: Did you ever taste Indian Turnip?
Lobelia's like that - very strong. It smells
good, but nobody's going to eat much of it.
Only a very little is needed for healing.
K: I've also heard that the seeds of the
poke plant are supposed to be poisonous,
although I've eaten them myself. The young
shoots are very good cooked Do you use
poke?
G: Yes, I've given the berries for arthritis
(see REMEDIES) and folks have had good
results. Some harvest the berries every fall
and freeze them to have oo hand all year.
K: Staghom sumac berries (rhus typhina)
crushed and soaked in water make good
lemonade. Have you used them as a
remedy?
G: The tea is good for bedwetting - helps
K: Not quite as hard, I hope! That's
retain the urine.
interesting - lobelia grows in my holler
G: A woman came to me one day and said,
where horses are still
used for
logging... Has anyone ever had a bad
''What can I do for my poor little doggie?
reaction to remedies you've prescribed?
He's having seizures one right after
another." So I said, "Give him some
G: I don't give them anything that would
mistletoe tea." She said, "That's poison,
cause a bad reaction.
isn't it?" I said, "They say so - but birds eat
it." She said, "Well ..." A couple wee.ks
K: Are there any herbs that you finally
later I saw her and she said, "What can I do
decided to stop using?
for my doggy?" And I said, "Did you give
him the tea?" She said, "No." So I said,
G: Some are easier to get than others...and
"Well, just let him die then." And she
some taste a lot better than others.
looked at me as if I was the meanest thing in
Personal) y I like things that taste better. If I
the world. I didn't think she was very
much impressed. Then a few months later I
saw her husband and he said, "Did you
hear-the dog's all well." I said, "Good what did you do?" He said, "We gave it
mistletoe tea!" (laughs) The dog had gotten
so weak he couldn't get into his little wicker
bed. He wouldn't drink water and hadn't
eaten for days. She put down a bowl of tea
and she said his nose twitched and he raised
up and began to drink. When he finished
she set down another bowl and some food
and water. She expected him to be dead by
morning. But in the morning the tea was
gone, the water was gone, the food was
gone and the dog was gone! He was over
V'.......~~~*::;:;:·~rt;.l'!D
across the carport in his bed.
K: What a great success story! So how did
you learn how to prepare so many different
herbs - was it just from people telling you?
G: No, honey, l see what you're after.. .!
took a correspondence course from
Canadian Herbal College in the early '30's.
They had to go to Canada because they were
K: Do you have any ideas about the
intelligenc.e behind plants?
G: The same God that made you and me
made the plants. He knows what they need and they haven't perverted their appetites
like I have. So they take only the
nourishment they need from their
environment..! think the.main good we get
comes through the life of the plant - from
the minerals and food value it gives us.
K: It's very pure, isn't it..
G: It gives your body just what it needs.
K: Do you feel the plants you gather have
any awareness of your picking lhem?
G: I don't feel they have a ...what would
you say?... a soul...or a menrality. But they
do have some kind of feelings and ability to
communicate. And I think in the new earth
state, after sin is gone, that we'll be able to
communicate with animals and plant life
better than we can now.
K: But you don't feel like you do thar at all
now - when you're working with them?
G: No...when I'm gathering plants I think
Mullein
illustra11on b'f Ellen John
give people somerhing that tastes good
they'll probably use more of it.
K: How do you mask the ones that don't
taste good?
of the good they're going to do. I don't
believe in nature spirirs or fairies ... Angels
exist, and can lead us to plants, but God is
the spirit And He is a personal God. I le
made us and He made the herbs. He knew
what we needed so He put their healing
qualities in them.
- continued on page 27
KATIJAH- page 12
SPRING - 1988
�Frower Essences:
Harmony wtth Sp£r£t and Nature
Flower essences serve as catalysts to
awaken the natural life force and spiritual
consciousness within us. Each flower essence
embodies the hamumious vibrational panern of
the particular flower species used, and thus
attunes and resonates with specific human
energy patterns. The essences stimulate an
enhanced awareness and ability to transform
limiting attitudes, emotions and behavior into
more creative and health-affirming ways of
living.
Flower essences are liquid, potentized
preparations which carry a distinct imprint ofa
given flower and only an insignificant material
component. They are prepared from
sun-infusions ofj[Qwers in water, diluted and
preserved with brandy and generally taken
orally af~ drops at a time, several tim&r per
flower, coltsfoot In the joy of the moment we
found the radiance within one another and
made our life commitment together, although
the golden flower eluded us then. Since that
lovely day, coltsfoot has found us often...and
in most surprising places... along highways
and mountainsides, dry bulldozed places and
small streams...during needful, dark and
joyous moments. Each time she Earths the
Light for us along our journey. Each time she
opens us to our own knowing.
day.
yellow is used to dispel depression. One
spring, Edward and I both developed 'lung
fevers' - my first, his, a long endured ailment
It was this particular Spring that we felt
agreement to prepare the flower essence. I'd
been relating with friends with 'lung troubles'
and this encouraged my own healing. fd been
holding grief for so long. The Equinox came
brightly and we t.ook our healing bodies to the
cold creek to be with the coltsfoot flower. In a
sacred way we happily created coltsfoot
essence, with her permission. Her radiant light
dispelled our 'darkness' and we got welU
These essences are completely safe and
do not inteifere with and are not ajfected by
other medications. They show a lack of
effectiveness if used improperly but if too
much is taken they do no harm. Flower
essences harmonize well with other health and
growth practices including exercise, nourishing
diet, relaxation, balanced lifestyle, and
appropriale medical care.
Always gentle and strengthening.flower
essences bring a continual union between soul
and body, Higher Self and personality. The
graduiJJ attuning within blends and connects
one with one's source.
As a medicinal herb, ~o farfm
(coltsfoot) is traditionally used for lung
ailments. The lung is an "earth" organ and
Drawing by Shell Lodge
Cottsfoot
~tooc£t"oot
C oltsfoot is the earliest blooming flower
here where we live in Katuah, appearing in
February before the cold snows have finished
melting. Blooming fully bright, coltsfoot
brings her Promise of the Light and Radiance
of Spring from the deepening regenerative
forces of Winter's Dark.
In early Spring, before leaves cast
shadowy images, petite candles stand erect on
hardwood forest floors. Arriving at dawn, one
can lie amongst their glow. As the sun warms
the day, one then can watch the delieate
unfolding petals of the beautiful bloodrool
flower. A single protective leaf shelters this
flower in her early development As it matures,
the candlelight shoots up from the leaf and
opens to fullness. Then the forest ground
covering is a myriad of white stars with
glowing golden centers.
Heaven laying to rest a s~ll on Earth...Spirit
blossoming with matter.
Her special way of responding to the
sun lends to us knowledge of her use as a
flower essence. She follows the arc of sunlight
across the blue Heavens then closes up silently
to the cold night awaiting the Sun's ever
re-appearing warmth for opening each day. The
large green leaves developing at the end of her
flowering season grow in the shape of a "
colt's foot" and tell us of her ability to ground
us as well as enlighten.
My husband and I affectionately call
coltsfoot our initiator. On a clear sunshiny day
along a delightfully cold rushing mounrain
creek, Edward and I searched the banks and
boulders for signs of the radiant yellow ray
F eelings of my sacredness flow while in
the presence of Red Puccoon ( Indian for
bloodroot). a revelation of my opening psyche.
My initial experience of using bloodroot flower
essence came like the swift flooding river over
rapids, gurgling forth in living affirmations.
Life affirming words came pouring forth from
my being, streaming out. fd been struggling
with the use of affirmations, but no more! I
experience their inner wadrings now; I foci
surprise and delight and laughter. The aeative
process of receiving the Divine Feminine
within began blossoming.
T hrough this process Bloodroot
becomes my friend ...sharing her self wilh me
through the opening of my feminine
psyche...and being so intimately here with me
while I clear the cobwebs from my ancient
cauldron. The exhilarating union with my
feminine creative spirit and ageless wisdoms is
coming home using bloodroot flower essence.
As an herb, this member of the poppy
family is known to be internally poisonous in
all but small doses. The red root was used
medicinally to make tinctures and decoctions
for internal use , and external washes for skin
Edward & Elaine Geouge are flower ess~nce
infections. When freshly dug, the root of
sanquinaria canadensis bleeds a red juice. Dried lovers living in Yancey Co., NC ga1herinY'
flowers and wisdom to co-create flower
and powdered roots were used by the Indians
essences with Nature in KaJUah.
as a dye and as a body paint
These Appalachian Gower essences are available lhtough
Flower Essence Services, P.O. Box 586, Nevada City,
CA 95959. A.sic ror the research flower essence list.
SPRING - 1988
KATUAH-page 13
�THE ORIGIN OF THE ANIMALS
by Clyde Hollifield
" lam a storyteller. You can take this
story any way you want to - as a dream, a
Ue, an exaggeration, a vision, or as the
truth. l am only required to tell the tale. "
Long, long ago, at the dawn ohime,
there were only plants upon the Earth. No
people, no animals, no birds, no fish - only
plants.
At first the plants were rather meager.
T here were onl y algaes, liule mosses,
lichens, and fems, but gradually they grew
into larger species. The early trees began to
develop.
If you look at the geological record,
you will see that animals came into existence
about the same time that plants began to
develop fruit, nuts, and grains. Of course,
the animals could not have existed before
this, because there would not have been
anything to eat. Here is how it came to
happen.
Plants bad evolved for millions of
years before any animal was even thought
of. For eons they had experimented with
dispersing seed using water and air as
carriers. For a lot of the plants, this was a
problem. Some, like the milkweed, bad
learned to send their liule seeds on
parachutes through the air. The cattails and
the rushes experimented with floating seeds
that were carried to the other shore of the
lake and took root there. But many of the
other plants could only drop their seed at the
base of their own stem, and were thus
crowded out by their own offspring.
As the plants evolved, and their
intelligence grew, some among them began
to discuss a radically new way of dispersing
seed. The oak trees, in particular, were
precocious plants. They watc hed the
mistletoe, the only mobile plant, which had
no roots and flew from one oak tree to
another. From this the oak trees got an idea:
they would devise a small, living creature
that could move !lllml around from one place
to another, as the mistletoe was able to do.
They called together the hickory trees, the
walnut trees, the hazel, and all the other
nut-bearing trees, and they made their plan.
It being such a new idea, it was
difficult at first to convince the other plants
to allow it.
"It'll never happen."
"Ridiculous."
"Go away," said the other trees, but
the oak tree persisted. (Oaks are very
persistant trees) .T hey agreed that they
would design their creature so it would not
harm the environment or intrude on the
living spaces of the other trees and plants.
They also agreed to provide total care for
this little "animal" creature.
You have probably guessed already
that the animal they were devising was the
squirrel. His job would be to plant oak
seeds at some distance from the parent tree.
lo exchange, the tree would offer him a
place to live, hollow places in which to take
shelter, and food in the form of acorns and
nuts.
They finally completed their task,
and, as you can see to this day, the plan
KATUAH- page 14
worked very well. A squirrel will get a
mouthful of nuts, run down the tree, and go
off into the woods a little way. Then he will
dig a little hole, plant the seed right side up,
and pack the din back around it very
carefully. Then be will promptly forget
where he's planted it. That's the business of
the squirrel; it's in his nature.
With the help of the squirrel, oak
trees began to become a dominant tree on
the Earth. The other trees began to think that
maybe this was not such a silly idea after
all, and the persimmon tree, the
serviceberry, and the pawpaw got together
and decided to create a creature of their
own. The persimmon tree suggested an
idea, and they all thought it was a good one,
and carried it out. They made the possum.
The possum was different from the
squirrel. It was completely nomadic, it
never denned up. This was an improvement
because they did not have to provide the
possum with a home, only food.
The fruit trees were not as determined
as the stout nut trees, and the possum was
the lazy approach to making a squirrel. The
fruit trees did not waste a lot of energy
filling up the possum's brain housing. The
possum, therefore, is not quick and clever
like the squirrel. Face it, a possum is dumb.
But the possum does not have to be
smart, because it has a natural design
advantage. It eats the sweet, ripe fruit off
the trees. Then, as the possum meanders on
through the forest, the fruit passes through
its body, and when the possum is a good
distance from the parent tree, the seeds are
deposited .among tho leaves, neatly packed
in a small bundle of fertilizer.
But neither squirrels nor po5sums can
cross large bodies of water;·and some of the
other plants began to think that they would
have a big advantage if they could come up
with an animal that could fly.
What a totally outrageous idea! None
of the other plants thought it would work,
but a daring group of plants - blackberries,
blueberries, mulberries, and even cherries got together on it, and so many of them
were working on the plan that they actually
made it come about. They took the best
features of the possum, passing the seeds
through the digestive tract, combined with
the brightness of the squirrel, and they
designed their creature with wings and a
new invention, feathers and this new being a bird - actually flew!
With their mobility and sense of
purpose, birds could fly to where a crop of
berries were ripening, eat these, and fly,
often for hundreds of miles, to where other
berries were coming into season, depositing
their seed packages along the way.
These plants, too, took care of their
own particular creature. They gave the birds
materials to use in building a nest and a safe
place back in among the briars or high in the
tree branches to protect themselves and
safely raise their young.
The new idea worked splendidly, and
there came to be more and more birds of all
sizes and varieties, and at the same time
more new and different animals were being
created as well.
SPRING - 1988
�But what plant devised the human
beings? This is a question that bas baffled
science for centuries. Some say that the
humans were thought up by the intestinal
bacteria. but l happen to know that the apple
tree was responsible.
The apple tree felt that life was
becoming too confusing, because there were
too many kinds of apples. Each young tree
created from seed was different from its
parents, and when the young ones crossed,
they themselves produced entirely different
types. It was a dilemma that required a
quick and drastic solution. So the apple tree
devised a creature with the intelligence to
help them reproduce by cloning. In this way
a strain would remain true to its original
form.
This required a creature with special
qualifications. This creature needed to be
able to graft a tree, and, when the graft was
established, to transplant it in a good
location, and then wait seven to ten years
before being rewarded with any apples.
This was a remarkable achievement. None
of the other trees had created a creature that
could do that. It took a coalition of different
kinds of plants - the apple tree and other
fruits, the grains, and the vegetables - to
create and sustain the human animal.
The new "animal" system was turning
out to be successful beyond any plant's
wildest expectations. The plants were doing
extremely well. and there was hardly a pan
of the Earth that they could not coloniz.e.
But too much was happening at
once. It was too much to control. The fust
sign of trouble was when some lower
orders of plants. being too lazy to take the
trouble to devise and maintain their own
animal or bird, grew seeds that could ride in
other animal's fur. These were the
hitcbikers: cockleburrs, beggar lice,
agrimony, and others like them.
This was just the beginning of the
troubles. The animal kingdom that the plants
had created took on a will of its own, and
new animal species began appearing that the
plants bad never dreamed of. Animals
apppeared that ate the flesh of other animals
and were not under the control of any of the
plants. Other animals began to manipulate
the environment to their satsfaction.
Beavers, for instance, began gnawing down
their host trees to build dams and lodges.
Shocking! Before this only the plants had
done anything to change the way of the
world.
A bad day came when the humans
discovered fire. With fire they became the
greatest threat to the plant world that had
ever appeared. They could start fires, but
they were not so proficient at putting them
out. The humans made a lot of mistakes and
did a lot of damage in the early days when
they were learning how to manage fire.
·
The beautiful system the plants had
created was careening out of control, and
the plants could do nothing to bring it back
into balance. The plant kingdom began to go
on the defensive against the very creatures
they themselves had created. Poisonous
plants developed, vines and brambles
appeared to hinder the animals' way through
the forest. Long prickers grew on the locust
tree and other plants that had never bome
thorns before.
The humans, their most complex
creation, turned out to be devilishly adept at
cutting, cleating, digging, and poisoning the
SACRAMENT
Candlemas Day divined one blue violet.
Yesterday trout lilies were spawning
down at the creek.
I have saved a beeswax candle;
there will be other times to celebrate
the rites of spring:
the planting of peas & potatoes,
signs of urging warmth, a stirring of the earth,
the surging of the body to stir the earth.
One honeyed candle burns at an altar of lilies.
bringing the poems of spring to light.
-Janeice Ray
RAIN HAS COME AGAIN
Rain has come again
after the dryest spring recorded
deep in me the garden has leapt
these past weeks-mullein sends up spires
in the moonlight.
The four o'clocks burn a bush
of sweet purple, effigy of efflorescense.
The garden is a dense verdant
mass of growing summer vine & bush & stalk
screaming recklessly open to
foraging bees, wasps, bugs, birds, me.
I think I have seen it climax,
baptiz.ed in pale the night of the last
full moon of summer, wide wide open
and singing with life.
Flowers of luffa glow yellow and grow long.
Vines vein white; leaves in a mad ebb
of chlorophyll drink in the sudden
abundance of water
and are reborn.
The mute sundial casts gray & wan.
Stolons passing underground
fountain into spearmint.
These are the showers of blessings.
From the wetness comes redemption.
- Janeice Ray
- C01llinuod on page 21
SPRIN,9 - 1988
_ KATUAH-pagel5
�(These are lhe words of a traditional Cherokee 111-0dicinc person.)
ON POWER
There are three types of power, and they are:
Power over others or power over ideas. This is the
power to force other people to do certain actions,
whether they would like ro or not.
Personal power. This is the power of will. This power
can bring ideas into physical form. A person can also use
this power to step into a negative situation and change it
into a positive situation by simple strength of will.
The third kind of power is spiritual power, and this kind
of power comes when one is connected to the Greater
Life, which is the totality ofcreation. We must recognize
that we are only a part of a greater whole. Then we will
be able to receive spiritual power. This is the greatest
power ofall.
To attain spirirual power, one has to be open to it. This
is done, not by cultivating a strong desire for spiritual power,
but by recognizing a need for that power. This creates a hole
or a space that the spiritual power can flow into.
In the story of the Garden of Eden, it was separation,
not fornication, that was man and woman's original failing in
the Garden. Separation from the Greater Life is the source of
all our limitations. We limit ourselves by emphasizing and
valuing our egos, our fears, and our prejudices. This limits
the spiritual power we can contain. We cannot be changed by
the spiritual power if we indulge ourselves by dwelling on
our limitations. What if your mother did do something that
was not right to you when you were a kid?! The hell with it!
We all have to continue and to live our own lives.
Ask some spiritual people the simple question "How
are you doing?" and they will say "Oh, I'm working
on...... " and give a whole involved list of what they see as
their personality defects. These people devote a good part of
their attention and energy to what is holding them back,
instead of thinking about how far they have gotten. If those
people would think about how far they have gotten, they
would be amazed at the resources they have to work with and
what they could do. If they would share those resources and
put them to use, they would find that they would grow mucli
faster than by "working" on their limitations.
0
ne way to overcome our limits is by serving
unselfishly. Most people begin to practice this in order to
increase their spiritual power. This is ''serving selfishly," but
service becomes a habit that is performed without thinking,
and then it begins to woik. Another way to gain spirirual
power is by practicing unconditional love. This means to
love somebody without requiring that the person do
something, be something, or act in any particular way to
"deserve" that love. What a strong magic this is!
Fasting is also useful in helping to become conscious
of our limitations. We may feel that we cannot go four days
without food or four days without food or water. But when
we accomplish that, even if there is some bitching, we learn
about how we can go beyond our limits.
Praying is talking to the power of creation. When
praying, express your feelings clearly. Any person who
would pray for 15 minutes every day would witness
remarkable changes in themselves and in the world. It does
not maner how you identify the Spirit to which you pray.
The action and sincerity of praying will bring amazing
changes in just a few months.
We have been told not to pray for ourselves, but to
pray on behalf of others. The only thfog to ask for oneself is
the strength and endurance to continue to serve the Creation
and to help others. Praying is a humbling activity, because
prayers must be humble to be sincere.
A sincere prayer is powerful and can bring about real
accomplishments. When even just one person is convinced
that something is true, the power of that belief is enough to
set changes in motion. If only one person sees an obvious
injustice and knows that it is an injustice, that is enough to
change the situation a little bit
It may appear that nothing has happened, but if one
person out of 100 can be changed, then much has been
accomplished, because an idea grows like a seed, and once
the seed is planted in someone's mind, that person will
change somebody else, and the idea will keep growing and
spreading in that way.
Spiritual power is greatly magnified in the circle of the
people. We need to get over our separation - literally - and
come together to pray. If 20 people who are fairly clean
inside gather together in the circle and hook into the power,
that group could accomplish almost anylhing. Of course if
there are people working in opposition to the goals of thls
group. that limits the degree of unity that can be reached.
And, of course, we cannot eliminate negativity and evil. If
we did, there would be nothing in the world! Each of the
opposing forces, positive and negative, is the basis for the
other, but the negative can be neutralized or deflected by
people's focussed energies.
How is this done? On the spiritual level we do not try
to defeat other people or their energies. Instead we 1ransform
them by bringing them to the awareness that the world is a
unified and connected entity, and that we are not separate
from the world or from each other. Thus we achieve our
goals by increasing the opposition's spirirual power!
Conjuring in the traditional Cherokee medicine is a
way a medicine person empowers his or her prayers. To
bring about a healing, a medicine person first would pray and
then would do conjuring, which is acting out the cure and
seeing the result already accomplished. The act of conjuring
opens part.S of the mind that do not act through verbalization
and focusses the deeper power of the mind on the task at
band.
The old-time conjurors knew that praying does not
take the place of action. The old Cherokee belief is: "You put
the seed in the ground before you pray for the crops to
grow." You do your work, and then you hook into the
Greater Power to bring it to fruition. This is very sincere,
very humble. The physical work is an important part of the
magic.
- continued on page 26
KATUAH - page 16
SPRING - 1988
�BEA TREE
by Brian Ellis
The following is a brief exercise I
use frequently with children at camp and
with adults at conferences. You may want to
adjust the vocabulary to the child or group
you are working .with. Be sure to add lots of
pauses... and speak In a soft voice.
F ind a tree that you feel really
drawn towards, one that speaks
of beauty...perhaps, one that you
may have climbed in your youth.
Stand facing that tree. If a small
group, hold hands encircling the
tree. Then, begin to center down,
breathing deeply and relaxing.
(At this point, I introduce the
idea of "deep listening" or
"hearing with your inner ear".)
Ask, "Have you ever been sitting
quietly, maybe thinking about a
problem, and all of a sudden you
hear a voice inside that tells you
what you need to know? Or have
you ever sort of known
something and not known exactly
where it came from? Well,
that's a kind of deep listening.
What we are going to do is to let
our "inner ear" open to what
this tree may want to share with
us. Some of you might hear a
song, a poem, or a story of what
happened here long ago. For some
of you it might be a feeling,
pictures, or Images.
Continue to breathe slowly and
deeply. Keep your eyes closed
and focus your attention on your
feet. Wiggle your toes a little.
Now imagine that you are
growing roots. Feel your roots
sinking down Into the soll,
sprouting out In all directions.
And like a tree, draw energy
from the earth. Feel warm,
healing energy flowing Into your
roots, into your feet and legs, up
your strong straight trunk. Feel
Iha! energy coming from the
earth up into your heart,
shoulders, arms, and head.
SPRING - 1988
Now Imagine yourself growing
limbs, reaching out in all
directions. Send earth energy
from your body, up, out into
your branches. Draw the
warmth of the sun into your
leaves. Feel the warm light soak
down into you, filling your
heart, filling your body and
sinking down into the earth.
Earth energy surging up through
your roots; Sun energy pouring
down through your
branches...and mixing in your
heart.
Now feel your own heart send
love, warm light, into this t.ree.
Open your heart to this tree.
Allow the love to flow back and
forth. Take a few moments of
silence and listen with your
inner ear to what this tree might
have to share with you...open
your heart to this tree... (pause
2 - 5 minutes)...and know that
you can always reconnect In this
way. (again, pause)
Now it Is time to finish up.
Remember to give the tree
thanks...now draw back into your
heart. Feel your body becoming
human. Feel how strong and
healthy it feels to be a human
being. Wiggle your toes and
fingers, drop hands and stretch.
Open your eyes and shake your
arms and legs. Feel how vibrant
and alive you feel! Now give the
tree a hug, maybe a kiss and a
deep thank you.
At this point, I give folks a
chance to share what it felt like
to be a tree, or something the
tree shared with them. Almost
every time people have really
powerful feelings of empathy and
often some neat idea or bit of
wisdom.
I remember once a girl shared a
real clear image of what the
place looked like when the tree
was a sprout. Another time a
child said, "The tree told me how
old it ls...157". I have counted a
lot of rings on a lot of trees and I
would have guessed it was about
150orso.
Please be careful when you lead
this exercise with a group. Let
them know what they are getting
Into and carefully guide them
out. Please try it many times by
yourself or with an experienced
guide before leading others. And
make offerings to the spirit of
the forest. Mo/ All my relations/
Walk in Balance~
BRIAN ELLIS (alias Flying Fox)
/iv9s in Celo, NC. HB is a dynamic
storytBllBr, pOBt, and songw1iter
as well as a membBr of lhB National
Association for the PBrpetuation
and Preservation of StorytBliing.
KATUAH-page 17
�an issue when dealing with the giant utility
corporations, but Duke Power Co. in
panicular seems to have a hazy conception
of the difference between public service and
corporate adventurism. The company bas
promised
ratepayers
in
t h e ir
recently-acquired NP&L territories that for
several years their rates will remain lower
than those of Duke customers on !he
piedmont. After that promise has expired,
however, Dulce's new dependents may find
themselves contributing the capital to fuel
Duke's continued corporate expansion.
NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
THE LATEST WORD IN
NUCLEAR WASTE
P ANTHERTOWN SOLD!
Nllllr&I Worid Naws Service
High at the headwaters of the east
fork of the Tuckaseegee River lies a valley
called Panthertown. The beauty of the
valley's striking features was for many
years a secret known only to a few. But
Panthertown may soon be crossed by a
Dulce Power high-voltage electric al
transmission line.
The site has recently been the focus of
much attention and activity, but for a long
time it lay in relative obscurity, the property
of the Liberty Life Insurance Company,
which limited access to the area. Before last
year few people knew of the white, domed
cliffs that framed the valley and the sttcams
and waterfalls that graced the location.
When Liberty Life decided to unload
the 7100-acre tract, they tagged it with an
aslcing price of $10 million. Congress
passed bills in both houses, one sponsored
by NC Senator Terry Sanford and the other
by Rep. Jamie Clarice of the NC Eleventh
Distriet, that appropriated $6 million toward
the purchase. But this was not enough for
Liberty Life, so the Nature Conservancy, a
private land conservation organization, went
to work to try to engineer the purchase to
bring the prized site into the public domain.
For financial reasons, the Nature
Conservancy let its option on the
Panthenown tract lapse. Immediately Duke
Power stepped in and bought up the
prope.rty for the $10 million asking price.
Dulce is in the final stages of acquiring the
holdings of the Nantahala Power and Light
Co. (NP&L), and the utility has been
rapidly buying up land in the Panthertown
area to create a link between the NP&L
territory and Duke's other facilities in the
Piedmont. The high-profile, high tension
wires will span 30 miles to join a station in
the Jocassee watershed area to a tie-in in the
Tuckaseegee district that links with all the
NP&L facilities. The proposed ttansmission
line will cost $30 million to build.
It is unclear whether Dulce's
expressed interest in the Panthertown
property contributed to Liberty Life's
intransigence in the land dealings. Duke has
been willing (and is certainly able) to pay a
high price to obtain clear ownership and
avoid any public accountability over the
route. The corporation has reportedly paid
exorbitant rates for small-acreage tracts, so
as to have complete control over the
proposed right-of-way.
That control is now virtually
consolidated, and Duke is acting the part of
a magnaminious benefactor who might
KAUIAH- page l8
- - -~--~
compromise its own interests to accomodate
those who wish to preserve the beauty and
habitat areas in the Panthertown valley,
rather than a public agency that must
consider the best interests of all in its
decisions. In other words, Duke is holding
all the cards, and those who arc interested in
keeping the valley in a wild state arc
scrambling to petition the company to take
the least obtrusive route for the proposed
power line.
While the utility corporation's first
proposal was to run the high-tension wires
down the middle of the valley corridor,
there are now several alternate routes under
consideration. Ralph Bauman, land
acquisition officer for the US Forest
Service, has indicated that the agency is
open to land swaps of adjoining National
Forest land to make alternative routes
possible. Congressman Clarke's office and
the Nature Conservancy are still hopeful of
acquiring the unused remainder of the
property a fter the locatio n of the
transmission corridor is set
The route of the proposed power line
will affect other areas as well. From the
power house at Bear Lake through the
magnificent Tuckaseegee Gorge, the
Tuckasccgee River valley is pristine with no
sign of human habitation. A route should be
chosen that would spare the river the
massive intrusion of a high-voltage line.
The installation of the new power line
will be tho culmination of decades of
corporate planning and desire on the part of
Duke Power. The company has the dubious
honor of being known as efficient and
effective managers of nuclear reactors,
because they have been making their
stoclcholdcrs substantial profits from the
generation of nuclear power while other
utilities have beeen backpedaling from the
nukes lilce the proverbial "hot potato."
In recent years Duke has maintained
an aggressively expansionist stance. Their
insistence on initiating a gig antic
engineering project to generate electricity on
Coley Creek in the Jocassec watershed
when the need for that amount of power
remains still unproven, and the enormous
size of the proposed transmission line that is
to penetrate the Panthertown area has raised
questions that perhaps the company is
contemplating a move into TV A territory in
east Tennessee, as the TVA nuclear plants
along the Tennessee River are currently
inoperable. There has been speculation that
Duke plans to install yet another reactor on
the shores of the Oconee lakes to funnel
power west to accomplish this goal.
Public accountability has always been
Nllunl Worid News Service
Under the t e rms of the
Johnston-McClure Bill passed by Congress
in December, 1987 an unwilling state of
Nevada was chosen as the site of the first
nuclear waste repository.
The bill also eliminated the eastern
repository - which in politicians' language
means, "eliminated the eastern repository
for awhile." An area overlapping Madison,
Buncombe, and Haywood counties in
Katilah was considered a lilcely site for the
eastern dump.
The Monitored Retrievable Storage
(MRS) facility, a "temporary" storage area
which the Department of Energy is counting
on to hold tons of spent nuclear fuel rods
that become government property in 1996,
was re-ratified in principle, but no
construction work may be begun until a site
for the first underground repository is
clearly decided. As part of the political
dealings around the bill, the states of
Tennessee and South Carolina were grant.e d
immunity from consideration as MRS sites.
A . three-person panel will be
appointed by Congress to study the need for
a MRS facility, which may delay plans for
the facility somewhat, and a negative
finding by the commission will most
certainly strengthen opposition to the MRS.
A DOE study at Yucca Mountain,
NV, the favored first repository site, shows
a strong possibility !hat groundwater
contamination may occur. This may delay
first repository siting and therefore slow the
MRS as well.
Johnston-McClure serves notice that
if a politically feasible solution presents
itself, Congress will seize it immediately to
hasten an end to the nuclear waste debacle.
The bill does buy us additional time.
Meanwhile, heed the words of
Congressman Clarke: "We must be prepared
to fight any future plans to locate an MRS
facility in our region."
ENDANGERING AN
ENDANGER ED SPECIES
T he Roanoke logperc h, an
endangered species, will become more
endangered if developers and ignorant
public officials of Roanoke County, VA
have their way. Their plan is IO withdraw
most of the flow of the Roanoke River and
pump it into the proposed Spring Hollow
Reservoir.
Even after strenuous opposition from
a citizens' group, "Friends of the River" and
SPRJNG - 1988
�milder opposition from the US Fish and
Wildlife Service and the State of Virginia, a
colonel of the US Army Corps of Engineers
responsible for the project "leans" toward
approval of the reservoir.
The question for people interested in
the future of the river is, "Arc the profits to
be made from this project worth sucking
away the habitat of an endangered species?"
If the answer to this question seems
clear, send a letter of protest to:
US Army Corps of Engineers
P.O. Box 1890
Wilmington, NC 28401
EVEN CANTON IS
DOWNSTREAM
Na.tural World News Scrv""'
"We have to give quality water to our
people!" shrilled C.W. Hardin, the mayor
of the town of Canton, NC.
A turnabout on the question of
Champion International Paper Company's
effluent discharge?
Not hardly. It was discovered that a
faulty wastewater treatment system was
discharging improperly treated effluent into
the little Pigeon Creek, which feeds into the
Pigeon River from which Canton draws its
drinking water. The system handles wastes
from the Pisgah Inn, a concession on the
Blue Ridge Parkway at the head of the
Pigeon River watershed. It was Canton's
tum to be downstream.
Public health officials closed down
the old treatment plant, but the inn bas a
permit to install a new system that would
again discharge imo Little Pigeon Qcclc.
Unfortunately, that permit was sought
and received without consultation with the
Environmental Advisory Board of the Blue
Ridge Parkway. The board has among its
members Dr. Dan Pittillo and Dr. Garrett
Smathers, well-known and respect¢d
scientists in the region, who sincerely care
about the fragile ridge-top environment the
Parkway traverses.
"Overload on the original facilities
was a contributing cause to the system
failure, " said Pittillo, ''but they are adding
even more buildings and extending the
paved roads in the campground even
further. And flushing down oil from the gas
station and chemicals from RV chemical
toilets is not going to help. Those
substances kill organisms in the biological
treatment system and will slow or possibly
stop decomposition.
"The Pisgah Inn is acting like any
business: it's trying to get more and more
people in. And the Parkway administration
is saying everything is alright, but it's not
alright.
'They need to remember where they
are. That is a very delicate area, and the
greatest resource they have up there is the
area itself.
''The whole operation needs to be
reviewed. Perhaps it is time for a study to
determine a ceiling on the traffic the area can
handle."
Serious questions arise when people
throng to a delicate area like the top of the
Pisgah Ridge. Those questions are always
close to tho surface when vigilant
watchdogs like the Environmental Advisory
Board and the town of Canton are standing
up for water quality.
SLOWING THE LAND RUSH
NllUnl World News Seivice
Two concurrent bills now before the
Georgia state legislature offer some relief
against the rampant development proceeding
unimpeded in the north Georgia hill
country.
The Senate unanimously passed Bill
393, the Mountain Protection Act, which
restricts development on lands over 2200
feet in elevation and with more than a 25
percent slope to one single-family unit per
acre. Within the area of the bill's
jurisdiction only one single-family dwelling
or six-family unit could be built per acre.
No structure may extend more than 40 feet
above the ridge line. The measure also
provides that any land on which more than
40 percent of the forest cover is removed
must be reforested.
Other minimum standards would
require an environmental assessment and
landscape plan for commercial construction,
a soil erosion prevention plan for
agricultural activities, and would permit
private logging activities only after a harvest
plan had been professionally prepared.
A similar bill is now before the
Natural Resources Committee of the GA
House of Representatives. The House bill
has been modified to restrict construction on
lands over 1200 feet in elevation that
maintain a 33 1/3 percent slope over a
distance of 500 feet
In other respects the bill as it stands
before the House is only slightly different
from the measure that passed the Senate.
One clause in the House bill attempts to put
some teeth into the Soil Erosion and
Sedimentation Act by allowing the GA
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to
charge counties and municipalities for the
services of the DNR if the agency has to
move in to enforce the terms of the
anti-erosion law.
Although the Mountain Protection Act
is just a beginning at alleviating human
pressures on the north Georgia habitat, it
bas attracted a major amount of attention.
With the legislative session nearing its
close, it is in doubt whether there is time for
the House to pass its version of the bill and
work out a joint measure with the Senate to
give Georgia a much-needed land use
Statute.
EARTH SHAKE!
NlllnU World News Seivice
The mountains trembled Wednesday
evening, February 17, as a minor
earthquake shook Cherokee, Clay, and
Graham counties in western North Carolina
and parts of eastern Tennessee at 7:30 P.cc.
The tremor, centered near Robbinsv11le,
NC, registered 3.8 on the Richter scale.
No damage was reported. Residents
who experienced the quake felt a vibration
and beard a rumbling noise at the time of the
event. Some reported feeling a brief
sensation of being under pressure, as is
experienced when one goes deep
underwater.
©~
TRACHEAL BEE MITE
INVADES WESTERN SLOPE
Nallllal World News Service
Bee colonies in the Katuab region
have come under attack by the tracheal bee
mite, a destructive intemaJ parasite.
Officials of the Tennessee State
Agricultural Extension Service announced
that the state bee inspector found hives
dying from mite infestations in Greene
County, TN and Monroe County, TN
during the month of January.
The mites are suspected to have
arrived in shipments of bees from South
Carolina. Once established, the mites spread
rapidly. The infestation was first reported
within the national boundaries of tho United
States only four years ago. Since that time it
has spread to locations in 30 states. Bees
throughout the region are now under
immediate threat of the parasite invasion.
Chemical poisons cannot be used
inside of bee hives, as they contaminate
honey and beeswax in the hive, so
commercial beekeepers are deprived of the
orthodox method of recourse. The TN
Extension Service does not know of any
natural defenses the bees have against tho
parasite.
The only known method to protect
bees from the tracheal mite is complete
isolation of the hive. Hardest hit by the
infestation will be commercial apiarists who
routinely import bees and equipment. To
commercial producers, replacing lost hives
means a financial loss in labor and
equipment costs.
Honey producers who survive the
mite attack will not receive premium prices
for their honey, according to the Extension
Service announcement, because cheaper,
imported honey will make up for any
shortage in the regional supply. Allergenics
and those who depend on local honey
supplies may have to look harder for honey
this summer, and there will be fewer
honeybees to pollinate the apple blossoms
and sunflowers this year.
- continued next
SPRING - 1988
~
KATUAH- page 19
�EPA TESTING FOR DIOXIN
IN PIGEON RIVER
Nllllnl World News Service
Who knows what evil lurks in the
murky shadows of the Pigeon River?
Officials of the Champion
International Paper Co. have consistently
claimed that it is only the excessive
coloration of their corporate effluent that
keeps the Pigeon River barren and lifeless
below the Canton paper mill in Haywood
County, NC. They are fond of deriding
"environmentalists'" and other residents'
concerns about the river as a big flap based
on arbitrary regulations of "harmless"
colorants.
River fish say otherwise, having
deserted the river in droves, leaving only a
few species of pollution-tolerant "garbage
fish" to inhabit the lower reaches of the
Pigeon.
Now, alerted by reports of the highly
toxic compound dioxin being found in the
effluents of other paper-making companies
that employ a process similar to that used at
the Canton mill, the federal Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered that
fish samples be taken from the river to test
for that substance, which is a deadly
carcinogen.
Dioxin was a primary component of
the herbicide 2,4,5,-T, which gained
notoriety as the defoliant Agent Orange in
Vietnam and which came under attack in this
country as a dangerous substance that
causes cancers and mutations.
Fish samples from both the NC and
TN stretches of the Pigeon River have been
sent to the EPA for analysis. The samples
were obtained by an elecao-shock technique
that stuns f1Sh within an eight-foot radius of
the point of contact with a powerful
electrical source.The fish are then gathered
and sent to EPA laboratories in Atlanta for
testing.
Tennessee officials had to return to
the river for a second round of
fish-gathering after taking initial samples in
January, 1988. They did not bring in
enough fish in their first try to make an
adequate sample.
The government fishermen said that
the water in the deep pools where they
fished was a dark brown color. They
complained of the foul smell of the river.
Local people living along the
riverbanks said that although fish were few
in the river, they would catch what they
could, untiJ lhrcc years ago when, according
to one resident, the fish "had a lcind of blue
mold on them and their eyes were
funny-looking."
Dioxin has been shown 10 pass along
the foodchain via small, bottom-feeding fish
and into the larger predator fish.
Officials from Champion International
and the state of Tennessee are involved in
protracted negotiations that might perhaps
resolve the immediate fate of the river. The
EPA has indicated that it would be amenable
to ratifying a compromise agreement on
color standards for the Pigeon, if one could
be reached.
The fish say that unless the river is
cleaned up completely, they will noc return.
The Dead Pigeon River Council
(DPRC) is a group of western slope
residents who feel victimized by
Champion's misuse of the river. The group
KATIJAH - page 20
was a strontt voice urging the EPA to
undertake the dioxin testing. They also have
been persiste.ntly urging the TN Department
of Health and Environment to undertake a
study of the abnormally high number of
cancer deaths of residents of the
downstream community of Hanford, TN.
An informal survey by residents of
the town (population 500) revealed that 167
cancer deaths have occurred there in the past
20 years. The Cocke County commu ' t;y is
.locally known as "Widowville."
The TN Water Quality Control Board
will test Hanford's well for contamination
of the local water table by river water
pending a review of the EPA 's dioxin tests.
ConlOCI:
The Dead Pigeon River Council
803 Prospect Ave.
Newport, TN 37821
MEETINGS CALLED
ON TOXIC SPRAYING
Nanni World News Set\lice
Carol McGincbey, Mary Ann Delany,
and Nancy Barnhardt are three women who
litcralJy cannot stand toxic chemicals in the
environment. The women, who are from
neighboring Floyd and Patrick counties,
VA, have body systems that are extremely
sensitive to toxic chemicals. They have
suffered acute symptoms of poisoning in the
presence of chemical insecticides and
herbicides.
The three arc acting as a liason
committee between community people and
state agencies on the questions of
agricultural and silvicultural spraying. They
are meeting with Dennis Anderson of the
Vrrginia Forest Service and a representative
of the state Agricultural Extension to discuss
the spraying of the herbicide "Round-up" to
weed out young broadleaf trees, particularly
yellow locust, which contend with young
plantings of white pines, and the spraying
of "Paraquat" as a pre-emergence herbicide
oo "no-till" com plantings.
Nancy experiences liver problems and
respiratory ailments in the presence of the
poisonous sprays.
"When I feel an aching sensation in
the area near my liver," she says, "I start to
ask around. If I investigate, I always find
that someone is spraying nearby."
Carol has more extreme symptoms in
the presence of the toxics. Her body reacts
with a high fever, sore throat, numbness of
the extremities, nausea, and extreme fatigue.
"I was laid out in bed for three or four
days at a time in several instances last spring
and summer," she said.
The
women
maintained
communication with Anderson during last
year's spraying season. The Forest Service
officer said it was almost uncanny how the
women pinpointed his spraying schedule
through their bodily reactions.
The women also approached the
Appalachian Power Co. about clearing
brush under their transmission lines by
mechanical means rather than with
poisonous herbicides. The company is now
considering the idea.
This year the three are meeting with
Anderson and the state Extension Service
before the spraying season to communicate
the depth of feeling that some area residents
have about this question and to suggest
measures like publicizing spraying
schedules so sensitive people can avoid the
toxic clouds.
"We are going to meet with them in a
non-confrontational way," said Carol, "to
tell them about our needs and viewpoints,
and to seek out any common ground we
may have about this issue."
"Everyone, whether they know it or
not, is affected by these poisons near our
living-places," said Nancy. "Everyone who
is exposed accumulates those complex
chemical compounds within their bodies to
the detriment of their life and overall health.
Because our special sensitivity causes us to
have immediate, visible reactions to the
poisons, we have been selected to be the
buffer between the sprayers and the general
community."
Suppon the women advocates of air
that is clean and safe to breathe. Investigate
toxic spraying in every part of the
bioregional province. To offer suppon, or
to receive advice and a standard survey form
to evaluate the effects of chemical poisons in
the local environment. write to:
Nancy Barnhardt
P.O. Box 417
Aoyd, VA 24091
US FOREST SERVICE
RELENTS ON RIVERS
Nawn! World News SCNlce
104 miles of eleven rivers in Katuah
are among 35 rivers and 98,000 acres of
riparian land in the southeast that are at least
temporarily protected by agreements with
US National Forest supervisors.
"Binding comminmcnts" by the US
Forest Service (USFS) provide for
evaluation of ponions of these rivers to be
included into the National Wild and Scenic
Rivers System and five 10 ten years of
protection while the study is being carried
out. Only the parts of the rivers on National
Forest land arc presently under
consideration.
The agreement was negotiated by the
American Rivers organization with the
assistance of the Sierra Club Legal Defense
Fund. Highly pleased with the results of
their talks, American Rivers withdrew
motions of appeal the group had filed
against the forest management plans for the
National Forests involved.
American Rivers is a non-profit
organization seeking legal protections for
rivers in the US.
FORECAST: CLOUDY UNLESS THE PEOPLE ACT!
Nllllnl World News Service
Against overwhelming economic,
scientific, and ecological evidence,
incineration still persists among technocrats
as a preferred choice for solid waste
disposal. The engineering mentality
apparently demands a technological solution
to the waste disposal problem, as it has in
so many aspects of our society.
Yee, when the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) announced their
opinion that incineration of Asheville's
dehydrated sewage sludge by the
metropolitan Sewage District (MSD) would
require no environmental impact
assessment, such a squall of protest arose
that the agency extended the public comment
period, and is now considering public
SPRING- 1988
�petitions for a full environmental irnJ?act
statement.
Local residents and organizations
have sent documentation to the EPA that the
most favored alternative, biological
composting, as well as being cheaper, is
ecologically safer. The airborne emissions
from incinerator p lants simply move
pollution into the upper at:m0sphere, and the
leftover ash is in most cases classified as a
hazardous waste. Dangerous cadmium
levels from industrial process wastes in
Asheville's sludge can only be removed by
an electrostatic precipitator. This is much
more expensive that the Venturi scrubber
process currently budgeted by the MSD and
might make the cost of incineration
prohibitive.
Activists have also informed the EPA
that land next to the MSD facilicy is available
to buy, which would considerably lower
MSD cost estimates for composting, which
were boosted by the addition of expenses
for transportation and transportation
equipment to move the sludge to a distant
site.
Cocke Councy, TN is also flirting
with the incineration alternative for waste
disposal. A Nashville, TN company,
ironically called Resource Recovery
Tech nology, has approached the
commissioners of the west slope councy
with a package plan in which the private
corporation .would assume all construction
costs for an incineration facilicy and charge
a disposal fee of $18-22 per ton of trash. As
Cocke Co. is producing about 100 tons of
refuse daily, the cost for incine.ration would
likely be over $100,000 per year.
Steam power from the incineration
plant would be sold to a local industry for
additional profits for the contractor.
Apparently, Resource Recovery
Technology Co. did not mention toxic gases
and heavy metal particulate matter among
the benefits of the plan.
CSI WASTE INCINERATOR
waL BE CLOSED
The county commissioners of
Caldwell Councy announced that they will
close the Caldwell System Inc. (CSI)
hazardous waste incinerator.
There is a major law suit pending
involving the county commissioners,
Caldwell Systems, and several local
ci ti:zens. At issue is the fate of a dairy farmer
located just below the plant who bas
suffered a complete Joss of his business due
to health concerns about his product. Other
local citizens in the neighborhood have
suffered r ashes and burns, and a study
commissio ned by members of the local
chapter of the Western North Caro lina
Alliance uncovered evidence of toxic soot
falling miles away on the 1-40 expressway.
CSI is offe ring an out-of-court
settle ment, whic h is meeting mixed
reactions from local citizens. The company
wants to shut down its operation but use the
site for hazardous waste storage for five
years. Many feel that plan is unacceptable
and want guarantees of verifi able
monitoring written into any agreement.
From WNCA "Issues Update"
available from WNCA; Box 180
~
Asheville, NC 28814
P'
SPRING - 1988
The Origin of the Animals
continued from page IS
plant people. They even learned to hybridi:ze
the plants. By stealing their reproductive
power the humans gained control over the
plant kingdom. They made the plants serve
as human food sources, instead of
cooper ating in serving the plants as
seed-bearers, as it was intended to be.
This is a most dangerous new
development. Hybridization is causing the
disappearance of the str0ng, old varieties
that could reproduce themselves. They are
being replaced by new varieties that,
although they better serve the humans'
immediate purposes, are weak and not able
to stand up to stressful conditions like the
natural varieties. By their desire for control,
the humans are putting themselves in
jeopardy. If their ltost plants cannot swvive
in the world as it changes, then the humans
will perish as well..
The humans also have still not learned
to control their fire. Their powerful nuclear
fire is the most dangerous form yet
discovered. This above all causes the plants
to be concerned about the future of the
world which has been thrown so out
balance by their wayward experiment.
But the story continues. It is not over
yet. There may be other developments in the
evolutionary game.
Who knows? The world may be
returned to the plants. once again. Plants are
more immune to radiation than animals.
They mutate and change in the presence of
radiation; they are not as likely to die and
become extinct. Plants eat sunlight, which is
one fonn of radiation. They may find the
means to utilize other types of radiation.
They are far ahead of the humans in that
respect and may once again become the
masters of the planet
It is obvious from this look at our
history that if we want to fulfill our true
purpose on Earth, we should save seeds and
propagate plants. That is our inborn duty
and one of the most healthy things we can
do for our world.
/
Rediscovering Heirloom Seeds
Janeice Ray
Hybridization has taken the ancient art
of seed-saving away from us. F-1 hybrids
(meaning first filial generation) are a forced
genetic cross between two unalike parents and
exhibit unusual vigor and uniformity. Their
seeds, when grown out, revert back to some
ancestral strain. Hybrids must be re-crossed
year after year by seed companies, so we
become totally dependent upon them for the
basic source of our food.
The uniformity of hybrids produces
vulnerability to crop failure. Hybridization and
the lack of varieties shrinks the genetic base of
our crops, leaving them in a weakened state.
This caused the potato famine In Ireland in the
1840's · the people were growing only a few
varieties of potatoes, which were not blight
resistant, and the country starved when the
disease spread through the fields.
Crop diversity may save us in the future
when we are searching for a gene that may
withstand the environmental problems that our
world faces. Are there varieties that can take
the effects of acid rain? Or of shifting weather
patterns? Some old variety may be the answer,
and we need to keep those gene pools alive.
So I am convinced to buy only standard,
open-pollinated varieties, no matter how
amazing the hybrids sound, and I am learning to
save my own seeds. I buy seeds from small,
family-owned seed companies. Many of the
major companies have been taken over by
huge corporations, usually petrochemical in
nature. The smaller companies with the less
glossy catalogs (most of whJch enoourage seed
independence) need our support. The Graham
Center Seed and Nursery Directory published
by the Rural Advancement Fund is a wonderful
resou rce for localing these seedspeople.
Send a few dollars to:
Rural Advancement Fund
P.O. Box 1029
Pittsboro, NC 27312
I am beginning to plant heirlooms -
vari eties our foreparents grew for generations.
With the advent of seed companies, many of
these were lost, many endangered, and only
now are folks rediscovering them and returning
them to our collective gene pool. The book to
read is Heirloom Gardening by Carolyn Jabs,
and the place to connect with like-minded
people is:
The Seed Savers' Exchang~
Rt. 3, Box 239
Decorah, IA 52101
Here are a few seed companies offering
open-pollinated and traditional varieties:
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Albion, ME 04901
JL. Hudson,Seedsman
P.O. Box 1058
Redwood City, CA 94064
(Catalog: $1 J)())
F/Qating MoUlltain Seeds
P.O. Box 1275
Port Angl!les, WA 98362
forganically-grqwn heirWoms ca1a/og: $1 .00)
BounJiful Gar<kns
5798 Ridgewood Rd.
Willits, CA 95490
(open-pollint1led, untrea1ed)
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
P.O. Box 158
North Garden, VA 22959
(Caralog: $1 J)())
Peace Seeds
1130 TetJu:row Rd.
Williams, OR 97544
(Caralog: $1 .00)
Seeds Blum
ldalw City Stage
Boise, ID 83707
(1-ltirloom seeds, catalog $2.00)
KATUAH - page 21
�DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
Dear Katuah My husband and I own 40+ acres in Kaniah. We have no
children and are concerned about whnt will happen to our
land when we die. We would like 10 sec it prorected, not
subdivided, and used in a way that is kind to the earth hopefully continuing the organic gardening & orcharding we
arc doing, carefully using and preserving the forest land, etc.
Ideally we would also like to sec it benefit people in need. A
lot to ask! If you have any ideas or can refer us to anyone
with solutions for this sort of situation, we would appreciate
it. We don't want to sec the place tied up in such a way as to
be useful to no one.
Thanks for any help you can give us.
Shalom,
Sheila Wofsy
Reggie Lenoir
Rt. 1Box178
Suchcs, GA 30572
Dear Editor,
Someone who did not identify themselves sent me an
unsolicited photocopy of your Fall, 1987 issue of K.i1.iah
containing the article "Smells Like Money To Me" CKiW.i\11
#17 - ed.)
The author presented a corporacc image of the wealth
of the Champion Corporation, however implications in the
article were critical because Haywood County had not
diversified the economy, and because Champion did little to
support quality of life, including this generation of Haywood
County residents. True, the mill is old, and Haywood
County should be offering incentives to keep the industry,
and to assure that better environmental controls arc the goal.
In the meantime, children are threatened by the attitude
of fear and unrest that prevails because their parents,
grandparents, and neighbors are frightened.
If your publication is truly interested in the
bio-technical development of Southern Appalachia, publish
positive approaches about appropriate industrial development
which will match our workforce, our geographical terrain,
our water and sewerage supply, our cultural and ethnic
heritage.
Please include articles 10 which the common man who
has a sense of stewardship for the earth can relates. l am of
Scotch-Irish descent, a daughter of generations of farmers
who valued land. Today I see developers cutting into the
mountains wilhout regard to the sediment which will be
altered and moved into our streams. l see local real estate
developments over-building on fragile land sites. J see that
the larger number of land holders are no longer full time
residents of the county. A land use plan is a critical issue for
Haywood County. An indusrrial recruitment plan would add
balance to the economy.
Yes, I care about poUotion, but try to be
comprehensive in future articles rachcr than singling out our
"greatesc bread basket" in Haywood. r believe a reasonable
solution such as a five-year plan could be implemented.
Sincerely,
Ernestine E. Upchurch
Maggie Valley, NC
Thank you/or your thbughtful reply. - The Editors
Hopefully KJJ.nu11J 1120 will be ofsome help. - Editors
The Stones at Laurel Creek
The stones here are
shoulders and elbows of the lover I
looked for everywhere I travelled
to anive hen:
poking through her
garment of rhododendron, shaped
by the rush of her laughter,
pools of thought
I feel her
enjoying my step best when I step
naked, enjoying it
Like the pause
when the fingers seem to listen to the skin
and forget which name the lover has
and what color the skin,
I bend
to soothe my bands on her tender grain
Through the slow, gigantic
pulse of sun in stone I suddenly
recognize her- "Mother!" (bur even thar
is just a name
She lies
under every itch and movement ofmy f001
and I have only known her
by names-)
- Stephen Wing
KAlUAH - page 22
Awakening
Soft vault of sleep
attended darkness
Quiet folds around me
silence screams
In the midst of pitch
my eyes arc opened
to wondrous views
ineffable
Angel's garments, as white smoke
gently billowing
as they tum
My mouth is opened to kiss
hot coals
burning away mortality
I change
and enter, again, the womb
of infinity
- Diane Yeager
SPRING - 1988
�Dear Katuah -
An idea we have been considering here in Spring
CTCCk is the Community Computer Bulletin Board This is an
interlocking system of computers in users' households that
are connected by telephone lines to a central computer that
stores the messages that folks wa.nt to share with their
neighbors. The networlc could be set up on a local or regional
level.
The system could be used for communication, keeping
records, playing games, word processing, and planning
various projects. The network could coordinate bulk
purchases of commonly-used items like clothing, shoes,
tires, seeds, and fertilizer to obtain substantial discounts.
People could barter, buy and sell, call for help, announce a
baby, share car-pool infonnation.....the list of uses is
endless.
The information on the bulletin board appears on the
individual TV sets or monitors in the users' homes or places
of business. The central computer is located in the home of
the system operator. If desired, the computers could connect
to national and international networks, so the bulletin could
extend all over the world.
If a user had a telephone and a TV set, the minimum
cost to buy a computer would be around $270. The cost of
the central computer and its operation would be shared by the
users.
If any readers are interested in the Community
Computer Bulletin Board idea, please have them contact me.
John Artley
Rt 1, Box 27-A
Hot Springs, NC 28743
(704) 622-7421
Flowers
I'm cleaning up
the inner environment
I'm plowing the fear
to prepare the soil
I'm mixing the elements
to make my hean fertile
rm weeding the hun
4:00 A.M.
Grandmother moon
is caught in the branches
of the tulip tree.
My husband's arm
is around me.
She calls out her longing.
We hold the crystal aloft
and catch her Light
in its center.
This moment is Forever.
Our moccasins
lie still
Upon the flintstone.
to care for the love
I'm coming up flowers
- Colleen Redman
SPRING - 1988
- Rose Morningstar
Bryson City, NC
Drawings by Kore Loy McWhiner
KATI IAH - oa2e 23
�continued from page 5
From The Perelandra Garden Workbook:
Deva of Soil
When Jmmans open a garden, any garden, a note is
sounded within the devic level. One mustn.'tforget that a
garden is a man.made invention. Therefore, the sounding
of the note indicating that one is w be created must come
from humans. When such a thing occurs, 1he devic level
immediately responds by creating the numerous energy
units which will even.tually be grounded into form.
When a human sounds the note with the intent to
work in co-creative partnership with devas and n.ature
spirits, that note is very different in sound, quality, and
vibration. If I were w use an orchestra as an example, I
would say that in the case of the ordin.ary garden, the
note sounded would be that of one instrument. Add to it
the intent to co-create the garden with nature itself, and
one would suddenly hear a full orchestra sounding a
deep and vibran.t multi-levelled chord.
Nawre, on all its levels, will respon.d in kind. The
various energy units we on the devic level create when
the single note is heard is very different from the units
we create when the full orchestra is sounded. So from
the instant you sound the note with the more expanded
intent, you will set off creation and movement on a far
grander scale.
As Machaelle's relationship with the garden grew,
she found herself appreciating the quallity and integrity
of the relationship itself as much as the fruits and
vegetables produced.
From The Perela11dra Garden Workbook:
Deva ofthe Pere/andra Garden
The physical planting process of a garden is not the
primary issue. What is of utmost importance is attitude
and i111ent...
I have specifically chosen dance (as metaphor for the
garden)for in order w parricipatefully within dance, one
must lift his spirit, center his senses.focus his thoughts in essence, he must strike an attitude that will allow him
to hear the mu.sic all the way into his soul and move in
accordance to that music. It is this attimde I wish to
convey for one who wishes to move into the garden in
harmony with what is happening there....
...Through (your mind and heart), the music will
1nove an.d you will naturally move with ~t both within
and outside yourself. And you will be most surprised at
the ease and grace in which you. your tools, and your
young plants and seeds join in effortless movement.
...My experience in the harvesting process has been
to sense joy and celebration for a job well done. At
special times, I can feel all of nature around me, on its
various levels, literally celebrate not just the health and
balance of the garden, but the resulting incredible
production as well. When I approach gardening, it is
with my sights set on creating a bala111ced, healthful
environment. I don't consider production. That
automatically takes care of itself. So there is always a
moment of happy surprise on my part when 1 realize the
green bean row has produced a whole slew of beans. It
may sound terribly naive, but I think this probably
illusttates best how changed my thoughts, focus and
intent are around gardening.
The larger issue of humankind's relationship with
nature is a central theme in the messages Machaelle
receives from the devas. It is in her garden that the
macrocosm becomes revealed by the microcosm.
KATUAH - page 24
Photographs by Clarence Wright
The devic messages address the importance of
reverence for life in the Perelandra garden as well as
the importance of reverence for all of life. Machaelle's
sensitivity and attention to the Perelandra garden opens
up for her a "window" on the needs and cures for the
whole planet.
Machaelle Small Wright's journey to the center of
her garden was a long one. The first half of her
autobiographical work, Behaving, recalls a childhood
of intense pain and trauma. Yet the chaos of events,
memories, and feelings has now become a sensible
whole.
Through her garden, the healing of herself and of
the land has become a single and continual process. It is
in her garden that Machaelle has taken the opportunity
to interact in a daily, conscious way with the dynamic
energies present there. Through her works, she offers
us the inspiration and encouragement t_o begin the
endeavor ourselves.
From Tiie Perela11dr0: Garden Workbook:
...The Perelandra garden is my life, my. heart aoo .
my very breath. It is my friend, my healer, my nurturer
and teacher - about myself, my planet and my unjverse ...
.. .It has taught me about power - my own and that
which is contained in all life around me. About equality.
About balance. About teamwork on a peer level...
... And it has taught me that we are a vibrant, active
planet fully participating in a larger, loving whole. /
Excerp<s rq>rinJedfrom The Pcrclandra Garden Workbook with f"m1issit111.
Machaelle Small Wriglu has just completed her third book, eniitled
Flower Essences: Reordering Our Understanding and
Approach to Illness and Health. It will be available in June 1988.
Gardening workshops and an annual open house are held at
Perelandra during the summer and early fall. For schedules and infomlillion
or to order any of Macluulle's books. meditation tapes orflower essences,
write 10: Perelandra, Box 136. Jefferson/on. VA 22724.
Excerpts selected by Christina Morrison with Mamie Mui/er
and Sam Gray assisting.
SPRING - 1988
�The
true art
of dancing
is
dancing what
comes out and not
following the rules.
Dancing
ho~ you want.
Because if you
follow rules
your soul
will never
get to show you
the dance you've
known ever since
you were born.
- Emily
1dance within myself
And look without
Joy within
Sadness without
Music within
Silence without
Lying on my bed
Waiting for morning to come
The moon sings to me
About the sun
Words by Emily Turner, age 6 with
Drawings by Amelia Brommer, age 8
SPRING - 1988
KATIJAH - page 25
�900€£ me€£i.ci.ne
continued from 1>3ge 16
What people call "visualii.ation" today
is a fonn of conjuring. People can visualiu:
a healing and by putting their collective
energy behind it and getting some sense of
how it fits in with the all, they can "push it
with power."
It is best not to try to visualize a
specific end to a situation, because that
limits lhe possibilities. Also, things seldom
tum out the way we plan. It is bes1 10
visualiu: a return to balance and hannony
and to encourage the awareness that the
lives of all things are interrelated. However,
I do see anything lhat works against the Life
Force as a whole as being negative and evil.
Nuclear arms and nuclear power, for
instance, appear to be destructive forces as
far as l can see. They seem like something
we can gel along without.
The human species is a high
consciousness, bu1 a1 the same time 1he
human race is a cancerous cell that is trying
to diges1 its host, the Greater Life. Yet
people on the spiritual path are always
searching for the connection to the whole.
As individuals 1hey realize their separation,
and they are searching for that connection
with every part of every cell from the
marrow of their bones outward.
One of the greatest blocks for us
.humans is our intellect. lt is self-defeating to
try to comprehend the universe with the
intellect, for it is not designed to
comprehend the whole. Being in a linear,
critical culture as we are makes it even more
difficult. Not impossible, but certainly more
difficulL It leads us to try to understand the
whole by adding up all of the parts. But the
whole is greater than 1he sum of its parts.
Organ ic Gr owin g Coop e rotiue
The Organic Gardening Cooperative
of Western North Carolina was started in
the early spring of 1987. A small group of
enthusiastic people came together 10
promote the merits of organic gardening and
fanning and the health and life-giving value
of organically-raised food. Meetings are at
Unity of Arden on Airport Road. The
cooperative meets the third Monday evening
of each month. There is time for sharing at
6:30 pm and a meeting at 7:00 pm.
The name "cooperative" was chosen,
because the group wished 10 create an open
forum for sharing experience, infonnation,
resources, and projects. There is a steering
committee that plans and coordinates the
meetings and other activi1ies. 01her
commiuees take on the tasks of a newsletter,
education, publicity, and telephoning. These
committees are volunteer efforts, and new
participants are always welcome. Th~ are
no dues. A small voluntary donation per
meeting helps to cover expenses.
The cooperative's meetings offer an
array of interesting activities such as songs
and music about gardening and nature; an
educational program with speakers, films,
slide shows, etc; a short nutritional update;
news on environmental issues; and a time
for sharing among the group. The main
topic of each program usually pertains to
gardening ac1ivities appropriate for that
month of the year, such as composting, soil
preparation, seed starting, etc. A varied
program is designed to meet the needs of
beginning gardeners as well as the
experienced ones in the group. There are
presentations of resources like magazines,
seed catalogs. extra seeds and produce, and
group seed or narural fenilizer orders. Glass
(clear and colored) and aluminum are
collected for recycling at each meeting.
We who are active in the cooperative
feel it is an exciting opportunity to
encourage each other and the public at large
to learn how to live in harmony with the
Earth and to produce quality food, which
will make us all more healthy and happy.
We invite newcomers to come and
participate at the meetings. Together we can
create rewarding adventures in learning and
"growing!"
- Ellen John
For more information about the
Organic Gartkning CooperaJjve, call Cheryl
Stippich a1(704)687-1741.
Herbology
Clinic
M. C. Majebe
Licensed Acupuncturist
78 E.ast Chestnut St. Ashevllle, NC 28801
(704) 258-9016
KATUAH - page 26
• conlinucd Crom JlliC 9
Dr. Gray soon arrived in Statesville
bringing several eminent botanists. Dr.
Gray had been misled by Miclraux's
description of the habitaJ of slwrtia. ltistead
of the moun1ain tops where he Juul always
looked, it Juul been found along a stream in
the foothills. Michaux's directions had been
fairly specific, bw his continual references
to the "high mountains" misled Gray, the
botany detective. Shorria, the mystery
flower of the mountains, soon became so
famous that pressed specimens of a single
plaru were selling/or fifty dollars.
SJwrtia makes a good grour1d-cover
under rhododer1drons. It needs a shady sire
with an acid soil rich in humus, plemy of
water, and regular mulching with oflk
leaves. It spreads mostly by runners, and
grows in luxuriant, dense colonies where
conditions are to its liking. Its delicate white
flowers lost for several days. It is one ofthe
most coveted plants of any wild flower
garden.
A collector has written, "No idea of
the beauty of this planI can be formed unJil it
hos been seen in its native Jwme. The mass
of glossy green and white, once seer1, car1
never be forgotten." It was never Gray's
privilege to see shortia at the height of its
blooming period, which is the latter part of
March into early April.
Of the 25,000 botanical specimens
that Gray classified before he died, Gray
asked that shortia cover his grave at
Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Gray's life,
many honors had come to him, but they
were os naughl compared to the discovery
ofthe little mountain pla111 thal Dr. Asa Gray
named shortia.
The mystery plant, sJwrtia, lost/or a
hundred years, because ofits limited narural
distribution, is probably to be found
growing more in culdvarion now than in the
~ild. This is especially significant today
because of the destruction of much of
shortia's native habiuu in North and Sowh
Carolina due to artificial lake construction.
Rtprinltd from the Noah Carolina Native
p(o111 Proaagqljon Handbook prepared by the North
Carolina Wild Flower Prtsuvalion Sociery (Tollen
Chinese
Acupuncture
and
sh.ot"tta
Garlkn Centtr 3375; University ofNorth Cmolina;
Chapel Hiil, NC 27599 - $5.00 ppd.) /
Natural Food Store
& Dell
160 Bro.ctway
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Whlf-e llroadwmy n..ia
MlrTlmon Ave I. ~240
OPEN 7 DAYS A WE. K
E
Mond•y·Salurday: 9am·8pm
Sunday: 1pm-Spm
(704) 253-7656
DE_51GNS
by Rob Messick
Illustration & Design
In Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil
P.O . 8o)( 260t . eoone. NC 28U07 • (704J7a4 tiOQ7'
SPRING - 1988
�· continued from page 12
K: How d o you think people first
determined how to use herbs?
G: The first herbs that were used were the
leaves of the Tree of Life in the Garden of
Eden. And we'll never find the fountain of
youth until we get the Garden of Eden back
and get back to the Tree of Life.
K: Until we get back in touch with nature?
G: No, back to the Tree of Life. God took
that to heaven before the flood. And when
he makes this earth new again he's going to
bring it back. And when we see the Garden
of Eden we'll see herbs as they're s'posed
to be.
K : Do you think this will be a sudden
occurence or will it be a gradual awakening
of God, and now Satan's walking up and
down, to and fro on the earth. You see, this
battle isn't something done in a comer; this
earth is the theatre of God's love. God had
to let us tear things up and let things go
because our natures won't accept the truth
otherwise.
Are you passing your knowledge on to
them? Are they receptive?
G: No young people are interested like I
was when I was young. Some are interested
and could learn, but they're all afraid of
being tied down. They're interested when
they feel like it, but when they don't feel
like it they don't want to be bothered.
K: Do you know when your book will be
out or what you11 call it?
G: When there are enough people that will
G: No, I don't. I was held up all summer
be true to God then Christ will come. Think
how all this time the angels have tried to
help people to think of these things and do
what's right Still we go on in our lives and
don't study, don't stop to read what God's
given us. And just look what a mess we've
made. Think of the Garden of Eden - the
beautiful flowers and trees - and then loolc at
that hillside over there (points to trailer park
across road) ... all the death and dying. Of
course there's still a lot of beauty here...
Satan tried his best to get Christ to give
up and not go through with his plan of
salvation, but He stuck to it and proved that
God's truth could be followed. Adam sold
out because he chose to obey Satan instead
with my eyes - couldn't see to read. And
many days like today are holding me
baclc...(laughs). [While talking to us,
Granny gracefully received five patients and
several phone calls. We arrived at 10 a.m.
and by 5 p.m. she hadn't paused once.]
K: Thanks so much for your time and
energy! We both have personal questions
but they can wait 'til another day.
G: Oh, I can help you now - would you
like that?
K: Sure, but you must be tired...
COMF TOlHf
FOR
Drcamwcaver l!Boomllcn:
Books and Tapes by Mall and Special
Order. Metaphysics, Comparative Religion,
Psychology, Children and Women' s
Studies. New Age Music. Call Barbara,
(912) 233--5934 for Info.
NEW AGE SEMI NARS
\llHOLISTIC lf[ALTH
RETRf;ATS
&md fnr our Ire,.. bcuchurtr:
L.1.F. E. • Bo• 144K
Pullmon WV 26421
(.1041 t.5?·319:1
'Living In Full E nergy
K : Everything!
REMEDIES
K: What about your great-grandchildren?
among people?
l.l.F.E. RETREAT
CENTER
G: What have I been doing?
Cockleburr and Mullein cold remedy:
A large handful each of cocldebuns and mullein
leaves to 2 qts waJtt. Boil 20 minutes. Suain well
and drink. Burrs and leaves can be used a 2nd time
with 2 more quarts waier boiled 20 minutes again.
Mar l&old tin cture for lice:
Chop marigold blossoms fine. Cover with rubbing
alcohol in glass jar. Sel in sun for 2 wect.s, stirring
once each day. Strain and boWe.
MislldOt tea
For lal&b blood pressure: 1 Tbsp crushed
mislleioe leaves 10 1 qt cold water. Shake and let
Slalld ovcmighL Strain and drink 1(2 cup before
breakfast; 1/2 cup after brealdasL Repeat wilh
supper.
Mlstlttc>t tea
For epilepsy or Stizuns: Pour 1 pint boiling
water over l Tbsp crushed leaves. Take 2 Tbsp.
every 2 boors.
Poktbtrry artbrlt.ls remedy:
Take one berry at each meal the lst day, 2 at each
meal the 2nd, 3 the 3rd and so on for 8 days. Then
drop back to one berry again and begin climbing
back up IO 8. Continue until joints feel free. Then
drop back one berry per meat 8-7-6-5, until you're
baclc to ooe, and quit
mtl&n
WEEKLY CRAFTS COURSES
~
Woodcarving,We aving,
Blacksmithing,Basketry,
Pottery,Spinning,etc.
John C. Campbell Folk School
Brasstown, NC 28902
(704) 837-2775 o r 837-7329
T-SHIRTS, SWEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
15 ORIGINAL
HAND·PRINTED
NATURE DESIGNS
,_.'?
ULTRAVIOLET l'UNFICATIOH AHO FILTENNG SYSTalS
SOI.AR PflOOUCTS ·WATER ANALYSIS
.HWY. 107
EACH COLORFUL
DE.SIGN IS
RT. 88 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
PRIN'IED ON
QUALITY T' s
Alill SWEA'IS
APPALACIDAN BUILDING
& DESIGN
Passive Solar,
Eartlt-Shellered Homes
Greenhouses, Spas,
Decks
SCOTI BIRD
(704) 683·1414
GREG BLACK
683-4795
SPRING - 1988
KATUAH - page 27
�MARCH
20
evenrs
SPRING EQUINOX
23-24
ASHEVILLE, NC
Rhythm Alive! Classes in African
drumming with Martha Overlock and Dean
Buchan:ln. Ongoing. Wed and Thu evenings, 7: l S al
Asheville Academy of BallcL Call (704) 645~
16
canoes.
New Moon
CULLOWHEE, NC
Tuckaseegee River Cleanup. Rllfts,
kayaks. Mcct 11 am. 227-7206 for more
info.
14-15
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
Spring WildOower Pilgrimage. Auto,
wal.lcing tours lO view plants and birds of the
Smokies. SS. Call (615) 436-1257.
27-29
24
ASHEVILLE, NC
Sierra Club meeting. Spcllkcr Bill
Thomas, "TheJocasse WatcrShed" with slides. 7:30.
Unitarian Univcrsalist Church, Edwin Pl. and
Oiarloue.
25-27
WAYNESV ILLE, NC
"Vibrational Healing" with Joyce
Keane. "Flowers arc the highest vibratory
expression in the vegetable kingdom." Lc:im to use
Oower essences - gentle, yet powerful. $20.
Stil-Light Center; Rt. I, Box 326: 28786. (704)
452-4569.
26
ASHEVILLE, NC
The Paul Winter Consort,
"Celebration of Creation." Central Methodist
Church. Tickets $10.SO at Malaprop's.
and meditation with Fr. John Groff. SSS.Southern
Dharma Foundation; RL I, Box 34-H; Hot Springs,
NC28743.
29-30 & T ANASJ RIDGE
MAY I Come to X.~.'TU.~K SJ>1t1.N<l
(l.~'JKE1t1.Nlll Worlcshops, waterfall, crystals,
mountain meadows. Join the family circle! (Sec ad
next page.)
30
BELTANE (MAY EVE)
ROANOKE, VA
Sixth Annual New Horizons Festival
of alternative healing and lifestyles at Roanoke
Civic Center. Pre-register. S26.00.
TRENTON, GA
Caving Expedition with Snow Be:ir.
Learn safety, techniQue, geology.Camping at
Cloudlaad Canyoo. f.quipmem provided. Sec sn.s.
IS
New Moon
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
The Black Mountain Music Festival.
Taj Mahal, Rare Air, Robin and Linda Williams,
Elise Win and the Small Family Band, Fred
Armstrong-Park, and more will be there.
Pre-register: $35 for the weekend. For more info,
ctll Gray Eagle and Friends, (704) 669-2456.
20-22
20-22
WAYNESVILL E, NC
"Therapeutic Touch" • using hands to
direct human energies in healing with Maria
Parisen. SLil-Light Sec 3(25-27.
WILLIS, VA
"Finding Our Place.• Developing a
deeper relatiooship with the land and the spirilS who
dwell there. Brian Ellis. Pre-rcgisler. $85. Indian
Valley Holistic Center. Sec 4/8-10.
28-29
APRIL
31
2
Full Moon
CELO, NC
Full Moon Drumming Celebration al
Mountain Gardens. Call (704) 675-5664 for more
info. ONGOING.
Full Moon ("Blue Moon")
JUNE
1·30
3
CHEROKEE, NC
"Cherokee Concepts of Birth and
DcBlh" art exhibit on display al Cherolcee Hcriwge
Museum and Gallery.
EASTER SUNDAY
8-10
WILLIS, VA
"lmaginccring Ourselves and the
Crystal Planet." Exploring Earth energies with
Mary and Joseph Jochmans. Pre-register: $95.
Indian Valley Holistic Center; Rt. 2, Box 58;
Willis, VA. (404) 789-4295.
APPALACH IAN TRAIL
Trail work. Bring gloves. Call
Thelbett Dowdy, (704) 684-3053 for dcUlils.
4
MAY
9
9
BLACK MT'N., NC
David Wilcox, singer and songwriter
Bl McDibbs'. $4. Sec 3(l2.
9-10
ATLANTA, GA
Shamanic Jowney, Power and Healing
workshop. $100. Call Barbara Hmison, (9 12)
233-5934.
HELEN, GA
EARTHSKILLS WORKSHOP Lc:im
old ways, a new awattllCSS of the woods with Snow
Bear, Darry Wood, and EUSUllCe Conway. For more
info, call (404) 878-2201.
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Forests and Trees or the Smokies."
Pre-register: $25. Smoky Mountain Field School;
Univ. of TN: 2016 Lake Ave; Knoxville, TN
37996.
F ull Moon
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
•A Historical Perspective of the Great
Smoky Mountains NP." Natural and human history
of the Park with Wilma Dykeman. Pre-register:
$25. See 6/4.
!!
1-31
ASHEVILLE, NC
Robert Johnson's paintings on exhibit
t the Asheville An Museum. One of the main
themes that runs through his work is the
tionsbip between the inner world of dreams and
visions and the world of Natwe.
He has lived in the Cclo Community near
o, NC for the past 16 years and the Katuah
ioregion has had a strong innuencc on his worlc. %
o Community. Burnsville, NC 28714.
lS-16
14
15-19
HIGHLANDS, NC
"Meianora• with Walter Chappell.
Recording the ethcric image or local nora. $250
includes accommodations.Highlands Biological
Center. P.O. Drawer 580; Higblllnds, NC 28741.
WILLIS, VA
"HEALING WISE • an Herbal
Medicine Intensive.• Work with botanical
medicines, spirit healing, body systems, and
self-love with herbal healer Susun Weed.
Pre-register: S9S. Indian Valley Holistic CenlCr. Sec
-4/8-10.
KATUAH - page 28
CHEROKEE, NC
"The Eagle Dancer." exhibit or the
worlc or carver John Julius Wilnoty on display at
Cherokee Heritage Museum and Gallery.
17-19
7-8
IS-17
New Moon
1-31
17-19
FARNER, TN
"Wild Foods and Medicines• taught by
Sn.ow Bear. Peppcrland Farm Camp; Swr Rt;
Farner, TN 37333. (704) 494-2353.
13-15
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"The Mystic Journey
Rc1tc~11·
- talks
BOT SJ>RINGS, NC
"A Rinz.ai Zen Retreat" with Sandy
Stewart. Pre-register: SSS. Sec 5/13-15.
WAYNESVILLE, NC
Workshop: "Fundamentals of the
Ancient Wisdom.· Esoteric philosophy with Ed and
Mary Abdill. Pre-register: S20. Stil-Light. Sec
3(}.S-27.
20
SUMMER SOLSTICE
..
SPRING - 1988
�KATUAH JOURNAL is beginning
compilation of a regional directory... a
GREEN PAGES of political, food,
environmental, clothing, arts and
crafts, shelter, healing, and other basic
resources in the Katuah bioregional
province. Listings will be free. If you or
your group would like to enter a listing
( including a brief description ) in these
or any other categories, please send
to:
KatUah Journal
P.O. Box638
Leicester, NC 28748
The International 4th World
Assembly wilJ hold its seventh assembly
this summer, July 31-August 4, 1988 at
Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. The 4th
World is an informal group of people from
all over the world who affirm the right of
urban neighborhoods and rural villages to
make their own decisions about their own
lives. The theme this year is "Community
Economics As If the Earth Mattered".
Registration is open to all. Full conference
fee including meals, lodging and
proceedings is $150. ($130 before June 1).
For more info: School of Living, 7th
assembly; 3030 Sleepy Hollow Rd, Falls
Church, VA 22042.
News Flash!
Environmentalist in NC
Governor's Race
NABCID
The third North American
Bloregiolllll Congress will be
held in the bioregion ofthe Ish
River Confluenc-e, north or
Vancouver, British Columbia. It
will be held August 21·26, 1988.
NABC I ('84) and NABC II
('86) brought together local and
regional peoples from all over
Turtle Island to celebrate and
work towards preservln& the
spiritual, environmental and
cultural diversily or this
precious continent. NABC Ill
will continue lhis work and
discover other ways to cooperale
in this way.
Katuah has been represented
at these congressings. If you
are Interested In participatin&
in this upcoming coneress,
please contact KaJilah, P.O. Box
638, uicttter, NC 28748 or
write to: NABC m, Box 1012,
Lillooet, BC, VOK lVO, Canada.
... Avram Friedman (Bruce A.
Friedman) announces his candidacy
for Governor of the state of North
Carolina...
As director of the NC Political Action
Committee to Dump the Co~act. Avram had
been looking lor candidates for all the NC state
offices who oppose NC's membership In the
Southeast Low Level Radioactive Waste
Compact. Because there was no gubernatorial
or lieutenant gubernatorial candidate who was
In favor of withdrawing from the compact, he
began a statewide search to enlist a candidate
for governor. Because he found no one who
would be willing, he registered himself as a
democratic candidate right ahead of the
deadline.
He Is basing his gubernatorial campaign
specifically on getting NC out of the Compact
although he stresses there are many more
related Issues including NC's economy and its
future.
For more information, w rite: CCNW, P.O. Box
653, Dillsboro, NC 28725
on the Tanasl Ridge, near Blue Ridge Parkway
'.F'rtday - Sunday, A.priL 29-'.M.a.y 1
Wor~nops:
Nati.ve Crysta.Cs
Kerb f"ora.91..n<J
Women 's Ci.rcCe
The ftiorecJional Poet
Commu.ni.ty
nowsi.n<_J ... and: others
..USo: M.eadows, Waterf~ . M.usic,
Dancl.tuJ, & Drummi.tuJ
and
Cdebratl.on of the first of ttay
wUh MoypoCe, Dc:mc1.!19 !o S""e4 Ckc;C.e
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tent or RV Camping
Bring your shelter, bedding and utensils.
Bring clothing for all weather conditions.
Friday night potluck
Other meals community cooking,
with food provided
Name:_______________________________
Address:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __
Phone: L_)_ _ _ _ __
Number of Adults_ _ _ _ __
Number of Children_________
SPRING· 1988
$15/adult before April15
$1 O/child before April 15
$17/ adult at camp
$121 child at camp
Mail to: Karen Rodriguez
U.S. 19W, Box481
Bryson City, NC
Katuah Province 28713
KAnJAH · page 29
�PEPPERl.AND FARM CAMP - a unique summer
camp experience for child!Cn 6-16 years. Adventure
trips, riding, Indian lore, swimming, more.
Delicious vegetarian meals - special diets
accomodatcd. Also seeking counsellors and staff.
For info: Pepperland Farm Camp; Star Route:
Farner, TN 37333 (704) 494-2353
STIL-LIGHT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTER - a quiet space for petSOnal meditation,
group interacti. n through study and community
o
work. and spiritual seminars. Contact Leon Frankel;
RL l, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 28786
RM DESIGNS - I use the media of pencils, colored
pencils, gouache, pen and ink, and pholOgraphy in
creating unique fine and grafick an. l can make
diagrams, logos, finished prints, and designs for
brochwes, calenders, cards, books, ete. Mandalas and
symbols are my tendancy among other styles.
Coo tact Rob Messick (704) 754-6097.
ALTERNATIVE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL - Al
Arthur Morgan School students and staff learn
t0gether by living in community. Curriculum
includes creative academics, group decision-making,
a worlc program, service projects, extensive field
trips, cballcnging outdoor experiences. Write: 1901
Hannah Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714 (704)
675-4262
SEEDS FOR SALE - organically grown lurfa
sponge, purple globe amaranth, Mexican sunflower,
bushel basket gourd, garlic chives, holy basil SJ/pkt. w/SASE. Velvet beans, jack bean - S2/pkL
w/SASE lO Janeice Ray; RL. I Box 188-H; Quincy,
FL 32351
SIX RURAL COMMUNITIES - established over
lhe last 20 years, invite visitors/members.
Nonsexist, Nonracist, genlie cullUres based on
equality and cooperation. Write (SI appreciated):
Federation ofEgalitarian Communities; Twin Oaks,
KH8; Louisa, VA 23093
FREE CATALOG - Our books cover solar energy,
natural foods, metaphysics, fiction and poetry. The
latest project is Black Mountain Review, with
themes on the individual vs. society. Write: Lorien
House; P.O. Box 1112; Black Mountain, NC 28711
(704) 669-621 l.
KA1UAH- page 30
HAND CARVED WOODSPIRITS. mystical
hilting staffs and wall hangings by Steve Duncan.
For brochure, please write Wippoorwill Studio; RL
4, Box 981; Marion, NC 28752.
SOCIAL ECOLOGY SUMMER SEMESTER June 10 lO July 24. For more information call (802)
454-8493, or write: Institute For Social Ecology;
P.O. Box 89, DepL K; Plainfield. VT 05667
CENTER FOR ROBERT BLY STUDIES - Ally
Press is now maintaining a mailing list for people
who would like lO be informed of Robert Bly's
workshop and reading sciledules. An updated listing
is sent out twice a year along with a catalog of all
available books and tapes. Please write Ally Press;
Box K; 524 Orleans SL; SL Paul, MN 55107
1988 SUMMER WORKSHOPS at the Penny
Royal Center (Winged Heart Homestead) by Sufi
teacher Muzawir. How to prepare spiritually for
Earth Changes, How to build a no mortgage shelter
and much more. Send SASE lO P.O. Box 552;
Floyd. VA 24091
TEACHER NEEDED: Alternative, parent-governed
elementary (K-6), set in Monongahela National
ForesL Send resume lO Valley School; P.O. Box
83; Elkins, WV 26241.
DRUMS • Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbecks &
wooden medicine drums. CaU Joe Roberts at (704}
258-1038 or write to: 738 Town Mountain Rd.;
Asheville, NC 28804.
REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER PURIFICATION better than dislillers. To find out why write New
Energy Products; 660 K SL; Pullman, WV 26421
BLIGHT RESISTANT CHESTNUT - hybrid
American/Chinese Dunstan Chestnut trees - bliglht
resistant, timber growth form, productive orchard
crop with large, sweet, easily peeled nuts. Chestnut
Hill Nursery; RL 1 Box 341K; Alachua, FL 32615
(904) 462-2820.
NA1lVE AMERICAN MEDICINAL PRODUCfS:
white sage, cedar, sweet grass, k:innikinnick and
more. Please specify your needs and send SASE lO:
Good Medicine; 77 Parle Terrace East, D38; New
York, NY 10034 (212) 304-9605.
M. TREE DESIGNS: Illustrations and design
Beyond the pages of this journal, I work in pencil,
colored pencil, ink, cut paper, and batik. Fine and
graphic art to express and enhance our lives. Logos,
brochures, books, portraiture, window and wall
hangings. Cont.act Martha Tree (704) 754-6097.
HANDWOVEN WOOL BLANKETS - inexpensive,
from Mexico. Federation of Christian Cooperatives;
P.O. Box 120154; San AnlOnio, TX 78212
LETT'ERS OF FRlENDSHIP AND SUPPORT
would be appreciated by incarcerated brother. Write
t0: Rick Whilalcer #85670; Box 2000; Wartburg,
TN37887
WANTED: IDEAL SPACE FOR RURAL
COMMUNITY/HEALING CENTER. 50 - 150
acres, at least 30 arable, with southern exposure,
privacy, within 45 min. of Asheville or equivalent
urban center. One large house and several cabins
preferred. StteamS, springs, river, lalcc? Finder's fee.
Write Hibiscus; 521 Northeast Blvd.; Gainesville,
FL 32601 or call collect (904) 376-2146.
GARDENERS are encouraged lO visit our Paradise
garden for instruction and inspiration (free) and/or
pereMial plant sale (cheap). Artists are invited 10
come and create in the garden - painting, drawing
and photography are encouraged. We also bnvc a
cabin available in exchange for working in lhe
garden. Mountain Gardens; 3020 While Oak Creek;
Celo, NC 28714 (704) 675-5664
"TREASURES IN THE STREAM" - a cassette tape
of songs by Bob Avery-Grubel. $10 postpaid to Bob
at RL 1 Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY NOW FORMING
in the mountains of north Georgia. Join others
seeking greater cooperation and self-sufficiency.
Based on spiritual and ecological values. Propeny is
now available. (404) 778-8754
'ESSENCE' - the all-one skin - dress - jumper pantaloons with nursing pockets. Earthwear; RD 1,
Box 75-Cl; CarllOn, PA 16311
WOMANSONG - ongoing choral group forming.
Songs of beauty, meaning, spirit, fun, peace,
cooperation, sisterhood. Come and sing! Monday
evenings 7:30 - 9. Also Orff Schulwerk:
music-making for beginners of aU ages. Come and
sec the studio! CaU (704) 254-7()68
WANTED - LAND in western NC. Family seeks 5
or more acres, preferably near Cullowhee, 10
preserve and eventually inhabiL If you have or know
of affordable land, contacl Bob & Mary Davis; 213
Westmoreland Cowt: Georgetown, KY 40324 (502}
863-4267.
WISCONSIN RENAISSANCE FAIRE - 2-story
shop for sale or renL Weekends July 9 - Aug. 21.
Excellent location with sales and living space. Write
or call Becky Farnam; RL 1: Check, VA 24072
(703) 651-6170
WEBWORKING is.free.
Send submissions to:
K.a.IW.
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC
Kaulah Province 28748
SPRING - 1988
�I
Comt.n«J Up . . .
Mtdfrfn,.. Allfts
The Katuall Journal wants to communicare your thoughts and feelings to the
other people in the bioregional province. Send them to LIS as letters, poems, stories,
arricles, drawings, or photographs, etc. Please send your co111ribwions to u.s at: Katuah
Jo11r11al, P. 0. Box 638, Leicester, NC, Katuah Province 28748.
The summer issue of Katiiah will concern itself with "Our Relations with the
Land" ...our effect on the land, new forms of relating, visions of our fumre habitat, and
other perspectives.
In the fall, Katuah will look at Castanea dentata, tile American cliestnut
tree. Any information abo1a this great tree's past andfmure will be welcome.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE ELEVEN · SPRING 1986
Community Planning
Cities and the
Bioregional Vision • Recycling • Community
Gardening· Floyd Couruy. VA • Guohol •
Two BIORgional Views • Nuel- Supplemau
Foxfire GllllCS ·Good Medicine: Visions
ISSUE THREE · SPRING 1984
Sustainable Aj!ricuhure · Sunflowers - Human
Impact on the Forest • Cllildrens' Education
Veronica Nicholas:Woman in Politics· Ullle
Ptopl.e . Medicine Albea
ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
Water Drwn • Waiu Quality • Kudzu • Solu
Eclipse· C~tling ·Trout ·Going IO W1.1U
Ram Pumps. Microhydro · Poems: Bennie
Lee Sinclair, Jim Wayne Miller
full rolor
T-s61rts
In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief,
the creatures in the world today are only
diminuitive forms of the mythic beings who
once inhabited the world. but who now reside
in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest
heaven. But a few of the original powers broke
through the splritual barrier and exist yet In the
world as we know fl. These beings are called
with reverence •grandfathers·. And of them,
the strongest are Kanai/, the lightning, the
power of the sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake.
who personifies the power of the earth plane;
and Yunwi Usdi. ihe little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies. who draws up
power from the underworld.
Each Is the strongest power in Its o wn
domain. Together they are allies: their energies
complement each other to form an even
greater power. As medicine allies. they
represent the healing powers of t he
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of Kawah have been
depicted in a striking T-shirt design by Ibby
Kenna. Printed In 5-color silkscreen by
Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality, a/I-cotton
shirts, they are available now in ail adult sizes
from the Katiiah Joumsl.
"To show respect for this supernatural trinity
of the natural world is to in tum become an ally
in the continuing process of maintaining
harmony and balance here in the mountains of
KatUah."
To order. use the form be/Ow.
ISSUE TIURTEEN - Fall 1986
Ccnicr For Awakening • Elizabeth Callari ·A
Gentle Death • Hospice • Ernest Morgan •
Dealing Creatively with Death • Home Burial
Box • The Wake • The Raven Mocker •
Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom • Good
Medicine: The SWeat Lodp
ISSUE FIVE • FALL 1984
Hatvest ·Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginseng Nucleu Waste • Our Celtic Heritage •
Bioregionalism: Put. Present. and Future •
John Wilnoty • Healing Dukness • Politics or
Plttiaipation
ISSUE SIX-WINTER 1984·85
Winia Solstice Earth Cuemony • Horsepas1ur•
River - Coming or the Uaht • Log ~in
Root• • Mounl&in AgricullW'C: The Right Crop
• W"tll.i.IJn Taylor· The Furore or the foiat
ISSUE SEVEN • SPRING 1985
Sustainable Eco~ics . Hot Springs ·Worker
Ownership • The Great Economy • Self Help
Credit Union • Wild Turkey • Responsible
Investing • Woriting in Iha Wab of Ll!e
ISSUE EIGIIT ·SUMMER 198S
Celebration: A Way or Ufe • Katuah 18,000
Ycan Ago • Sacred Sites • Folk Aru in the
Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle • Poems:
Hilda Downer • Chciokee Hcri• Cenu:r •
Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE- FALL 198S
The Waldee Forest • The Trees Speak •
Migating Foresll • Horse Logaing • SW1lng a
Tree Crop - Urban Trees • Acom Bread - Mylh
lllllC
'
ISSUE FOURTEEN· Winlef 1986-87
Uoyd Cul Owle • Boogcrs and Mummen • All
Species Day • Cabin Fever University •
Homeless in Katuah • Homemade Hot Waicr
Siovemakcr·s Narrative • Good Medicine:
lnLcrspCcics Communication
ISSUE FIFTEEN· Spring 1987
Coverlets • Wo~ Forester • Susia McMllwi
Midwife • Alternative Contraception •
Biosexuallty • Bioregionalism and Women •
Good Medicine: Matriacharial Culwre • &ad
ISSUE SIXTEEN· Summer 1987
Helen Waite • Poem: Visions in 1 Garden •
Vision Quest • First Flow • Initiation •
Leaming in the Wildcmeas • Cherokeea
OWlcnJ!C ·"Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGH1E£N ·WU- 1987-88
Vemaculu Atehi1eeiure ·Dreams in Wood and
Stone • Mowllain Home • Earth Energiea •
Earth.Sheltered Living • Membtanc Houses •
Brush Shelter • Poems: Oc1ol!cr Dusk • Good
Mcdk:inc: "Shelia" •
ISSUE TEN. WINl'ER 1985-86
Kate Rogers • Circles of Sione • Internal
Mylhmaking • Holistic Healing on Trial •
Poems: SleVe Knaulb • Mythic Places • The
Uk:ten a's Ta.la • Crystal Magic •
"Dmmspeakin&.
/'"r"
~UA~URNAL
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
For more information:
(704) 683-1414
Name
RegularMembcrship........ $10/yr.
Sponsor- .......................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
Enclosed is $
to give
this ejfon an extra bOOst
City
Area Code
State
Phone Number
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Back Issues
Issue# _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue # _@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _ @ $2.50 = $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16, 18)
@ $25.00 =$_ _
T-Shins: specify quantity
color: tan
S_ _ M_ _
L_ _ XL_ _
@ $9.50 each............$_
TOTAL PRICE =
_
$_ _
postage paid
SPRING - 1988
KATUAH - page3 1
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 19, Spring 1988
Description
An account of the resource
The nineteenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on springtime, plants, and the New Age movement: gardening with "nature intelligences", rooting blueberries, native plants, and herbal medicine. Authors and artists in this issue include: Michael Hockaday, Clyde Hollifield, Janeice Ray, Lucinda Flodin, Will Ashe Bason, Karen Watkins-Decker, Christina Morrison, Elaine Geouge, Sheli Lodge, Martha Tree, Brian Ellis, Stephen Wing, Diane Yeager, Colleen Redman, Rose Morningstar, and Ellen John. <br /><br />Beginning this issue, the title of the journal was simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>. A quarterly publication, it was published from 1983 to 1993 and was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>The Perelandra Garden.......3<br /><br />Spring Tonics.......6<br /><br />Rooting Blueberries.......7<br /><br />"First Dogwoods" a poem by Michael Hockaday.......7<br /><br />Gardens of the Blue Ridge.......8<br /><br />A Visit with Granny: An Interview with Carolyn Port......10<br /><br />Flower Essence.......13<br /><br />The Origin of the Animals: a story by Clyde Hollifield.......14<br /><br />"Sacrament" <br />"Rain Has Come Again:"<br />poems by Janeice Ray.......15<br /><br />Good Medicine: "Power".......16<br /><br />Be A Tree.......17<br /><br />Natural World News........18<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......22<br /><br />A Children' [sic] Page........25<br /><br />Events.......28<br /><br />Spring Gathering.......29<br /><br />Webworking........30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em></p>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Herbs--Therapeutic use--North Carolina, Western
Plants, Edible--Appalachian Region, Southern
New Age movement--Appalachian Region, Southern
Wild flowers--Blue Ridge Mountains
Heirloom varieties (Plants)
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Children's Page
Earth Energies
Electric Power Companies
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Pigeon River
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/3bb540dcdbeaaaf1f14ddae1dc0e4557.pdf
a36e851f2b8b17710f0753e60cf20014
PDF Text
Text
Postage Paid
~UA~)OURNAL
Bulk Ma~
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
P.O. Box638
Leicester, NC
28748
Katu ah Province 28748
ADDRESS
CORRECTION
REQUESTED
ISSUE 20 SUMMER 1988
$1.50
BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF TH E SOUTHERN A PPALACHIANS
�THE TRACKS OF THE PANTHER
Will Mark the Length of the Appalachian Range
..... and Beyond
CONTENTS
The Tracks of the Panther............... 1
"Wilderness is not a land-use designation!"
Alphonso Lubek
Highlands of Roan ..................................6
Celo Community:
50 Years on the Land ..................... 8
Celo. lnterview.................................... 1O
Land Trust: Tenure for Our Time.. 11
Learning Community......................... .12
Mountain Landscapes at Risk ......... 13
Rest in Perpetual Wilderness ....... 14
"The Ridge"............................................15
Farmers and the Farm Bill... ........... 16
Good Medicine:
"Relating to the Land" ............. 17
"It Comes in a Mist" ...........................18
Duke's Power Play.............................. 19
Cherokee Micro hydro Project... ..... 21
Drumming: Letters to Katuah ........ 22
by David Wheeler
Photographs by Gil Leebrick
Leave for awhile this world of
damaged and broken life cycles, and step
into a different time frame. Leave the
deranged pace of our society - the quick
buck, fast food, the instant replay - and
move to another rhythm. In this time
perspective, forests and glaciers flow and
recede. Slowly and ponderously the
mountains breathe, inhaling and exhaling
through the ages. Species migrate across the
face of the Earth, through time in which
there is no time, only an endless procession
of seasons and the stars circling overhead.
This is evolutionary time. From this
time space we can see indusaial society as a
sudden wound that tore open the Eanh's
flesh and let in dangerous poisons,
diseases, and putrefactions which threatened
our planet's very existence. But the wound
is now slowly healing over. The last traces
of infection and sick, decaying tissue arc
now disappearing.
See a new race of human beings, few
in number, their bodies strong and sensitive
to the world, their intuitive faculties awake
and aware to every shift in the energy
patterns around them. These people are not
driven by goals or guilt from artificial
motivations or formulations of good and
evil. They live simply, keeping their senses
unencumbered to fully receive the greatest
delight: the gift of existence in a world that
is whole, that informs and provides every
motivations or formulations of good and
evil. They live simply, keeping their senses
unencumbered to fully receive the greatest
delight: the gift of existence in a world that
is whole, that informs and provides every
facet of their lives.
These people live in small tribal
circles surrounded by the powerful forces
of the natural world. They see themselves
as the eye at the center of the world - the
part of the whole that can look back on
itself, see itself jn its entirety and delight in
the intricacies and movements of the life
pattern mandala.
The camps of these humans are small
islands in the midst of the flow of the
world. Wilderness to them is not a rare and
specialized category. Wilderness is their
reality • sometimes fearsome, but never
alien or forbidding. Wilderness is the central
fact of their existence. It provides for them.
It shapes their consciousness as well as
their physical existence. And when the
time comes, wilderness takes their lives.
Wilderness is habitat is home.
Life at the center of the world can be
sustained forever, if the people think and
live in evolutionary time.
The step into this vision of the world
may seem like a long one to us, situated as
we are in this time, but in actuality it is not
so far. We are only 400 years removed
from it on this continent. And we need to
think in these terms, for this is ecological
reality. This is a vision of the world in
balance. We need to think of it, aspire to it,
before we can achieve it
It is from this perspective that we are
offered the proposal "Preserve Appalachian
Wilderness" (PAW) authored by Jamie
Sayen of Stratford, NH and first published
(continued on page 3)
KATUAH- page 1
SUMMER- 1988
�CARRYING WATER:
Scott Bird
Christina Morrison
Chip Smith
Rob Messick
Marnie Muller
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
John Morris
Jack Chaney
Michael Red Fox
John Lang
Colleen Williams
Will Ashe Bason
Judith Hallock
Michael Hockaday
Oliver Loveday
Cover Photo by Gil Leebrick of the
Environmental Arts Center, Highlands, NC
Invocation by kore loy mcwhirter
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
EDITORIAL QFFJCE nus ISSUE:
Worley Cove, Sandymush Creek
PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co., Sylva, NC
WRITE US AT:
Katuah Journal
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
TifE SOlll'HERN APPALACHIAN BIOREC!ON
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
TELEPHONE:
(704) 683-1414
Diversity is an imponanl element or biorcgional ecology. bOth
natural and social. In line with this principle, the Katuab Journal
lries to serve as a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed
anicles express only the opinion or the authors and arc not nccessnrily
!he opinions of the Katuab Journal editors or stare.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared KatiJah a non-profit
orgnniMtion under section 50t(c)(3) of !he Internal Revenue Code. All
contributions to KatUah are deductible from personal income tax.
'LNVOCA.TWN
summre solstice songe
I speake forre the darke forces
I amme the seede
the light-mongres have forgottenne theirre purpose
we gathre ande growe
no one canne live withoute oure beinge
evenne the sma!Jeste glimmre
is made greate
inne oure presence
a!Je muste returne to us
you maye dance ande dragge atte youre sbadowes
wishlnge themme awaye
whenne you wearye of the battle
forre supremacye and separationne
you wille come to reste inne oure annes
we wille rocke you to sleepe
to the songe of the moones' darke face
she singes of youre memorye
thatte we are one
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range
on our continent, Turtle Island; a small but growing
group has begun to take on a sense ofresponsibility
for the implications of that geographical and
cultural heritage. This sense of r~sponsibility
centers on the concept of living within the natural
scale and balance of universal systems and
principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name "Kantah" as the old/new name for
this area of the mountains and for its journal as
well. The province is indicated by its nawral
boundaries: the Roanoke River Valley to the north;
the foothills of the piedmont area to the east; Yona
Mountain and the Georgia hills to the south; and the
Tennessee River Valley to the west.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect
and disseminate information and energy which
pertains specifically to this region, and to foster the
awareness that the land is a living being deserving
of our love and respect. Living in this manner is a
way to insure the sustainability ofthe biosphere and
a lasting place for ourselves in its continuing
evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point
of a " do or die " situation in terms of a quality
standard of life for all living beings on this planet.
As a voice for the caretakers of this sacred land,
Katuah, we advocate a centered approach to the
concept of decentralization. It is our hope to
become a support system for those accepting the
challenge of sustainability and the creation of
harmony and balance in a total sense, here in this
place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information, articles, artwork, etc. with
hopes that Katuah will grow to serve the best
interests of this region and all its living, breathing
members.
- The EdiJors
KATUAH - page 2
SUMMER - 1988
�(continued from page I}
in the Eanh Firsr! Journal. The PAW idea is
simply to create a continuous wilderness or
habitat area from the Florida Keys to the
Laurentian Mountains in Quebec, using as a
foundation the present protected route of the
Appalachian Trail. The idea seems
outrageous in the present social context, but
it is actually a modest transitional step
toward ecological sanity.
A continuous wild habitat the length
of the Appalachian Range could provide the
first requirement for wilderness, space, and
in time enable the return of unique plants
and large animals - panthers, bears, wolves,
moose - that have been exterminated
throughout all or parts of the mountain
chain. lf the PAW plan became a reality,
plant and animal species could migrate
freely from Karuah to the Gulf of Maine
bioregion to the north, and likewise to the
Aorida Peninsula bioregion to the south.
"The 'backbone' for this wideranging habitat," says the PAW document,
"already exists, albeit plagued by slipped
discs and cracked vertebrae. The
Appalachian Trail runs for over 2,000 miles
from Mt. Katahdin in nonhem Maine to
Springer Mountain in northern Georgia.
"Wild areas along the Appalachian
Trail must be expanded, buffered, and
protected in perpetuity as wilderness. Only
then will the backbone suppon the weight of
the massive wild areas throughout the
C3Stern reaches of Tunic Island which will
be joined to the Appalachian Trail
'wilderness backbone' by means of wild,
natural corridors. In this way the
Adirondack wilderness (in NY) can be
linked co the Appalachian Trail in the Green
Mountain National Forest (VT) via Lake
Champlain and other riparian and terrestrial
wild corridors."
KA1UAH - page 3
A continuous wild
habitat the length of the
Appalachian Range could
provide the first requirement
for wilderness, space, and in
time enable the return of
unique plants and large
animals - panthers, bears,
wolves, moose - that have
been
exterminated
throughout all or parts of the
mountain chain.
Of the Katuah province, PAW says:
'The Southern Appalachians.....are home to
the most varied deciduous forest in North
America. Due to the extraordinary range of
plant habitats and climates, 2,500 tree,
shrub, moss, and lichen species occur there,
1.500 of which are flowering. There are
over 200 endemic species, including 40
wildflower species.
'There are more than 25 wilderness
preserves in this area, but, unfortunately,
most are of the usual variety, i.e., less than
10,000 acres. Almost the entire length of the
Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain
to the northern tip of the Shenandoah
National Park traverses National Park,
National Forest, or designated wilderness.
There is enormous potential for 'big
wilderness' in the southern Appalachians.
"This is the good news. The rest of
the story is more familiar. Roads parallel or
bisect much of the Appalachian Trail.
National ForestS and Parks are not managed
for wilderness, and most designated
wilderness is fragmented and confined to
mountain tops with spectacular views. The
lower reaches, drainages, swamps, valleys,
and less scenic areas - in shon, the areas
with the greatest biological diversity and
species richness - are generally
unprotected."
The proposal also mentions
re-establishing the American chestnut tree,
once a dominant species in the Appalachian
woods and a major food source for the large
wildlife populations that inhabited the
mountain forests.
PAW activist R.F. Mueller and olhers
in Virginia have proposed a 65,000 acre
"Shenandoah Wilderness Area" in the
northwest corner of the present state
boundaries. The PAW proposal states that,
"This proposal is PA W's highest shon tenn
priority even though the Shenandoah
Wilderness lies approximately 30 miles
from the Appalachian Trail. Appropriate
buffering and connecting corridors in
National Forest land will connect it to the
backbone. It should be noted that in the long
run PA W's vision calls for greatly
expanding this core area.....
"The Cranberry Back Country in the
Monongahela National Forest in West
Virginia, fifty miles as Raven flies from lhe
Appalachian Trail in Virginia, will also be
joined by natural corridors to the
backbone..... (The Cranberry Back
Country) offers promise of supporting a
healthy wolf population which could begin
to radiate to other wild areas such as
Shenandoah Wilderness, and then up and
(continued on page 4)
SUMMER- 1988
�(c.ontinued from page 3)
down the Appalachian Trail Wilderness
network.
"The Cranberry Back Country is
composed of the 35,000 acre Cranberry
Wilderness and the 45,000 acre Cranberry
Back Country which merits immediate
wilderness designation. Surrounding the
Cranberry Back Country is a large block of
roaded, but wild, Monongahela National
Forest and other public and private lands
which provide good buffer to the core
wilderness..... "
The northernmost of the large,
protected habitat areas would be a Northeast
Kingdom Wilderness Park and Biological
Preserve in the northeast quadrant in the
present state of Vermont. The PAW
document says that this area is particularly
important, because "For four of the most
wilderness-dependent species - cougar,
lynx, wolf, and pine marten - blocks of
400,000 acres or more in wilderness are
needed to maintain viable, stable
populations. For the cougar, a 400,000 acre
wilderness is needed specifically in Vermont
to assure thriving, interbreeding populations
elsewhere in the Appalachians, because this
species has a country-wide distribution and
prefers mountain realms."
Below Springer mountain the habitat
zone would continue south to link up with a
proposed habitat area for the Florida panther
and other native life forms that would
comprise most of central Florida.
"One possibility," mentioned in the
proposal, "would be to continue the
Appalachian Trail southwest from Springer
Mountain into eastern Alabama's Talladega
National Forest and thence eatsward to the
Chattahoochee River south of Columbus,
Ga.
"A similar priority exists at the
northern end of the Appalachian Trail A
route north of Katahdin, hopefully
incorporating the St. John's River and the
fabled Allagash in Maine to the Gaspe
Peninsula region must be devised The goal
is to ultimately reach the Canadian tundra.
Then the tropical will be truly rejoined with
the tundra, just as migratory birds have
KATUAH - page 4
continued to keep them joined throughout
the centuries of ecological fragmentation and
destruction."
"We must consider the
natural history of the region
and the ecological needs of
wild/ife and the landscape,
rather than continuing to ask,
"What is politically realistic
in the context of industrial
.
A merzca.?' . . . . . we must
consider the whole system,
not what sort of a
compromise we can sneak
through Congress."
"Our basic strategy," says the PAW
manifesto, "is to identify large, core
wilderness areas which are to be protected
in perpetuity as federally-designated
wilderness. Surrounding these cores will be
buffer zones. The inner buffer zones will be
managed as mature forests, thus increasing
the effective size of the wilderness core.
They will mitigate the impact of civilization
on the core areas and will mitigate the
depredations of wildlife species on humans
and their possessions. Appropriate benign
human activities like canoeing will be
permitted.
"Outer buffer zones would border on
human settlements. Primitive hunting and
long-rotation forestry might be permitted in
the inner portions of these outer zones. The
outermost sections, which actually border
on developed areas, might permit more
intensive forestry, including tree farming,
recreation, and possibly low-density
housing.
"These buffered wilderness cores
would be linked by wild corridors to other
nearby cores. These corridors must be wide
enough to permit the flow of species,
individuals, genes, and energy, and to
provide space for habitat patches."
Elsewhere in the PAW document
author Sayen explains the need for massive,
undisturbed habitat areas:
"The issue of predation points out the
importance of large wilderness preserves,
preserves of 400,000 or -more acres. As is
well known, many plant and animal species
undergo periodic fluctuations in population
and range. During periods of unusually
favorable weather, species tend to expand
their ranges and populations. When
conditions change adversely, range and
population contract to below-average
numbers.
"Herbivores like moose and deer feast
off early successional plant species that
colonize natural disturbance areas. But after
a number of years the plants mature and
grow out of reach of the herbivores, or the
SUMMER- 1988
�browsing pressure causes a decline in
vegetation locally. Large moose and deer
populations can no longer be supported. and
they either decline or go localJy extinct and
move on co another, more hospitable
locales. The decline of the herbivore
population affords plant communities a
chance to recover.
"Meanwhile, the decline in prey base
causes the wolf population to decline or go
locally extinct, as it follows its shifting
prey. Gradually, the herbivore population
builds up in favorable new feeding areas
and the wolf population follows. The cycle
goes on endlessly, and in time herbivores
return to the first site, whicb by now has
recovered from earlier overbrowsing. It is
essential that wildlife and wilderness
managers recognize this cyclic phenomenon
and that a wide range of ecosysteµis in
differing states of succession be inclulied in
a wilderness preserve to insure chis dypamic
process. This requires that we manage for
processes rather than for individual
species."
The PAW proposal is a challenge to
us to dare to break the boundaries on our
thinking imposed by the current social
order:
"We must consider the natural history
of the region and the ecological needs of
wildlife and the landscape, rather than
continuing to ask, "What is politically
realistic in the context of industrial
America?'.....We must consider the whole
system, not what son of a compromise we
can sneak through Congress."
The vision embodied in PAW is also
a challenge to our society as a whole,
because "Merely setting aside large
wilderness preserves will be fruitless if we
continue to generate acid rain; nuclearwaste;
pesticides and herbicides; overpopulation;
and a violent. exploitative attitude towards
others (human and non-human)."
Can our species live up to the
standards of wilderness? This question is
crucial to the success of the venture to
"Preserve Appalachian Wilderness," but it is
also the ultimate question of our species'
continued survival in the world.
KA TUAH - page 5
Jamie Sayen, the author of the PAW
manifesto, is also tlu! author of the book Einstein in
America. lie is a member of Conneeticut Valley
Earth First! and was a spawner in the Salmon
Revival Run up the Connecticut River this
summer.
Gil Lubrick is residenf plzofography
teacher and workshop leader at the Appalachian
Environmental Arts Center in llighlonds, NC. lie
has fought of Honolulu Community College and
NC Cenrral University. His landscape photographs
hove been nationally exhibited and reside in
numerous public and private collections.
Copies of the complete PAW
proposal are available for $3 .00 ppd. from:
Gulf of Maine Books; 61 Maine St.;
Brunswick, ME 04011
In addition to the outline of the
wilderness plan, the paper also contains
valuable background information on the
formation of the Appalachian mounrain
chain, a brief history of the Appalachlan
Trail, thoughts on the importance of
wilderness and the need for large,
wuJisrurbed habitat areas, and more specific
specifications for wilderness in the
nonheast.
THE POSSIBLE WILDERNESS
For more information on the
importance of large-scale wilderness
habitats, read The Fragmented Forest by
l.Arry Harris (University of Chlcago Press,
1984)
Potential Wilderness Areas in Appalachia
SUMMER-1988
�Xnown as the Highlands of Roan, the Roan Mountain
massif is a magnificent isolated mountain mass of 23,000
acres located in Caner County, Tennessee and Avery and
Mitchell Counties, North Carolina It is a vast high country
with huge grassy areas that roll and undulate in every
direction. Winds, averaging 25 miles per hour year-round,
ripple the tall sedges and hair grass ...like seaweed in a great
tide. l n late June, Catawba rhododendron blooms color the
ridges purple. Flame azalea and mountain laurel splay orange
and pink against blue-grey backdrops. In winter, the winds
pile snow deep in the protected valleys while rime ice clings
to exposed twigs on the summits. Unaka, the Cherokee word
for "white", gives the range its name. Season by season,
almost moment by moment, the Roan reveals itself, always
displaying a wide spectrum of mood and ecological treasure.
The Roan provides a haven for an extraordinary
diversity of plants and animals, many of which are rare and
endangered. Each year researchers, teachers, and amateur
ecologists come to the Higltlands to study the many species
and seek new finds. Throughout the nineteenth century,
botanists from around the world visited the Roan in their
studies of Appalachian flora. The quote (on next page) from
Elisha Mitchell, for whom the East's highest mountain is
named, is indicative of the high regard these botanists held
for Roan Mountain.
The balds are treeless areas of sedges, grasses and
wildflowers covering several hundred acres along rounded
KATIJAH - page 6
ridges and peaks from 5,400 feet to 6,100 feet above sea
level. Wild, yet tranquil, rugged yet fragile, this place is not
like any other. Great rocks, weathered and timeworn into
strange and fascinating shapes, jut from knee-deep grasses.
Wind-wracked, rocky crags edge the balds. Ancient
many-colored lichens, centuries old, creep across the rocks at
the rate of only 1/16 of an inch every 25 years.
Season f>y season, almost
rnom.ent f>y m.om.ent, the '.R.oti.n
rnvealS i-tsd f , alwa y s d:i-spCa.yi-fl-9
· a wi-d:e sp ectrum. of mood: and:
ec0Co9i.cal t r easure .
For fifteen of its 2,100 miles, the Appalachian Trail
traverses the Higltlands of Roan. It crosses the great balds
and moves into the conifer-covered Roan High Knob-Roan
High Bluff area, providing hikers with some of the most
striking natural vistas along the entire Trail. lo season,
wildflowers carpet the Highlands. Acres of white fringed
phacelia cover the ground in May, accented with splotches of
may apples with white and purple violets, trout lilies and
many other early spring flowers. A month later the balds are
streaked yellow and red with hawk weed and other
sun-loving flowers.
·.
SUMMER- 1988
�'Lt ts the most &ea.u.ti.fut and will
& r epay the Ca&or of ascendi.~ i.t of
est
aU ou.r h.i.qh. mou.ntai.ns. 1Ji.th. the
except w n. of a &
oc:Cy of roe~ Coo~i.~
[ ilt,e the rui.ns of an o[c:C casUe near i.ts
sou.th.western. ex.t remi.ty, the top of th.e
R oan may & c:Cescri.&ec:C a.s a vast
e
meadow wi.th.ou.t a tree to obs t r uct a
prospect, w h.ere a person may 9a.[[op
fl.ts fwrse for a m ile or two wi.th. North.
Caro[i.na. a t fl.ts f eet on one si.c:Ce and
Tennessee on. the other and a 9rea.t
ocea.n of mou.n.ta.i.ns ra.tsec:C i.n.
tremendous &tllows i.mmedia.tay
a.rou.nd h.f.m . 1.t t.s the eLyst.u.m of the
southern &ota.nt.st, a.s a. nu.m&er of
From a boianist's perspective, the Roan Mountain
massif is superlative because of the outstanding diversity and
the exceptional quality of plant communities found there.
Over 300 species of plants a.re found on the Highlands,
including the very rare Gray's lily (lilium grayi) as well as
spreading avens (Geum radiatum) and Blue Ridge goldenrod
(Solidago spithamaea). There arc more nationally or
regionally ranked rare species on the Roan massif than any
other site in the high mountains of the southern
Appalachians.
Roan Mountain also has varied and abundant wildlife,
a fact which can be attributed to its exceptional habitat
diversity-a product of latitude, altitude, geology, vegetation,
and even history. At least seven of the thirty rare mammals
listed in Endangered and Threarened Plants and Animals of
North Carolina have been reported in the Highlands. The
Ronn massif is a vast, high altitude island surrounded and
isolated by low and narrow valleys and rolling hills. Because
its slopes vary in steepness, soil composition, orientation,
and drainage, it suppons a mosaic of vegetation types and
microhabitats, and these are of sufficient total area to sustain
substantial animal populations.
Ice Age History
Roan's dynamic Ice Age history transformed the
18-mile ridge into a fauna! melting pot of northern relics,
southern invaders, and local isolates or endemics. The Roan
was left a northern island in a sea of southern deciduous
forests. These factors as well as the low level of human
activity have created the living space for a spectacular array
of animal species. Roan Mountain's major habitats arc
generally described in terms of their dominant vegetation.
Distinctive attitudinal plant zones, from the spruce-fir forests,
grass balds, and rhododendron heaths at high elevations,
through northern hardwood and oak forests to valley
hardwoods and old field sites, largely simulate the Latitudinal
sequence of habitats from southern Canada to southeastern
US. Thus a few species, such as the New England cottontail
and the bog lemming, arc at or near their southern limits and
may be relics of a past ice age. Others, like the opossum and
southern flying squirrel, are warm-climate species which
periodically invade the upper slopes.
Some species arc confined to one type of habitat on a
pennanent or seasonal basis. For example, meadow mice
inhabit the grass balds, a habitat used by the rare snow
bunting only in winter. Other species occupy the adjacent
pans of two vegetation wnes: the threatened northern flying
~----.1
pCa.n.ts a.re fou.nd 9rowt."9 t.n th.ts co[c:C
and h.u.mt4 a.tmosphere wnicn a.re not
seen GCJGt.n. u.n.tU we ha.ve 9one
h.u.ndrecls of mUes fu.rther north."
- EUsh.a. M.t.tcheU, 1839
squirrel frequents the lower spruce-fir and upper northern
hardwood forests. Still other animals-shrews, jumping
mice, salamanders and many invcncbrates--require ccnain
micro-habitats within a zone to provide special foods or
refuges. Finally, active carnivores (least weasels, spotted
skunks), large species (bears, bobcats, and foxes), and fliers
with special needs (owls, bats, hummingbirds) must range
widely over the mountain and, in fact, would probably not
survive if confined to a single area. The Roan also provides a
haven for over a hundred species of birds during nesting,
migration and wintering. Bird sitings include the bald eagle,
golden eagle, peregrine falcon, snow bunting, raven, alder
flycatcher, and saw-whet owl.
Need for Protection
This whole extraordinary area is in great need of
protection. Fortunately, the Southern Appalachian Highlands
Conservancy is working to preserve it. The Southern
Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) is a
non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1974 with
two goals in mind: to ensure the means whereby the
Highlands of Roan wiJl be protected in perpetuity against
development and other incompatible uses and to establish a
continuing program of stewardship for these lands.
Efforts to protect the Highlands were begun under the
auspices of the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) in 1966.
Most of the initial preservation work of the Highlands was
directed toward the proteetion of tracts along the Appalachian
Trail in preparation for their purchase by the ForeSt Service.
Conservation efforts were carried out by the Roan Mountain
Preservation Committee of the ATC, with the cooperation of
The Nature Conservancy. In time it became evident that the
Highlands of Roan project would require a greater cffon than
could be accomplished through a committee of an
organization concerned with the entire Appalachian Trail. As
a result, the SAHC was organized to take responsibility for
fund-raising, land acquisition, and land management
In the mid 1960's, the US Forest Service, cooperating
with the ATC, instituted an acquisition program on Roan
Mountain. So far, SAHC has assisted the US Forest Service
in acquiring 4,300 acres. When combined with the Forest
Service's previous holdings, a central core of 11,800 acres
has now been acquired as public lands. The remainder of the
protection effon is focussed around this core area. As most
of the Forest Service's planned Appalachian Trail corridor
acquisition work has been completed, it is now up to other
organizations and individuals to complete the mountain's
protection.
(continued on page 2.S)
pho10graphs councsy of SAHC
KATUAH - page 7
SUMMER- 1988
�C 1981 John M. Morgan
CELO connu.Nt'Jy:
50 YEARS ON THE LAND
by Marilyn Cade
While fireworks were exploding for the bicentennial
anniversary of the United States Constitution, in a small
valley at the feet of the Black Mountains in Yancey County,
NC another anniversary slipped by quietly, almost
unnoticed. 1987 was the fiftieth year of existence for the
Celo Community, the oldest land stewardship community in
the nation, but life flowed on as evenly as the South Toe
River, which winds through the valley.
Celo Community, Incorporated (CCO is an eclectic,
occasionally eccentric, collection of people who all unite on
the idea of saving and preserving the land. They are painters,
carpenters, architects, glass blowers, poners, weavers, and
farmers by trade. Some are staff at the Arthur Morgan
School, an alternative junior high located in the community.
The school grounds are also the location of the Celo
Press, a small publishing firm. Rural Southern Voice for
Peace, a newsletter published by members and non-members
of Celo Community, has its offices on the campus as well.
The Barrus family runs a summer camp for children
with an emphasis on interlinking with handicapped children
and children of different races and socio-economic
backgrounds.
The Celo Community land base is owned, not by
individuals, but by the CCI. An individual or family cannot
purchase title to any of the community land, but rather leases
a "holding". The price is actually a "deposit", calculated
according to the local price for a similar piece of land in the
surrounding area. But community agreements govern the use
of the land, and land speculation, subdividing, clear-cutting,
abusive agriculcure, etc. are not available options.
If a member withdraws from the community, the
amount they paid as a deposit is refunded, without regard to
any appreciation in land value since the original holding was
taken. Any buildings or homes are treated separately, with
refunds equalling the cost of replacement value including
depreciation.
For members, the advantages of community
landholding outweigh the loss of traditional ownership.
Residents are attracted by the concern shown for the present
and future well-being of the land. They want to live on a
protected large tract, where certain areas are kept wild. And
they enjoy sharing the community life.
Cooperative ownership is contrary to the notion that
KATUAH-page 8
hwnans arc given dominion over lhc Earth. It is based
instead on the idea that we arc given stewardship over it, that
we are accountable for our actions. This principle is now
being advanced in the land trust concept, a new model for
land tenure currently being practiced in Lhis country.
Ernest Morgan, a community member and son of
Anhur Morgan, says, 'The land trust is designed to avoid the
exploitive nature and abuses of individual land
ownership...The land trust concept is something lhat western
society urgently needs to face up 10."
Celo Community advocates the establishment of more
land trusts and cooperative ownership arrangements in the
region and beyond. The population of the community bas
stabilized and they are no longer actively seeking new
members. They hope that their role at the present time could
be as an inspiration and a model for lhe development of other
community experiments.
Depression Roots
The Depression and the t 930's were years of great
economic and social turmoil. ELhics in daily life seemed
desirable and even practical. People, especially young
people, were ready to experiment with new ways of living
and working outside the failing mainstream economy.
W illiam Regnery, a Chicago philanthropist, at this
same time sought suggestions for new charitable causes from
Arthur Morgan.Then Presidc.nt of Antioch College in Ohio,
Morgan had been an engineer who built successful flood
control dams, later becoming Chairman of the Tennessee
Valley Authority. He was a Quaker who had already thought
a good bit about the difficulties of leading a fulfilling life in
the modem world. He felt that there should be an opportunity
for young people to try new approaches to making a living.
Morgan told Regnery of an idea conceived in
conversations during 1932 and 1933 with Clarence Pickett,
the Executive Secretary of the American Friends Service
Committee. They wanted to somehow provide a situation in
which the young people then seeking answers from them
could instead work out their own solutions to leading a
fulfilling life.
With the general industrial collapse of the Depression,
they decided a rural piece of land suitable for families to
develop into individual farms would be most practical. This
whole idea appealed to Regnery, and he agreed to finance the
land if a suitable spot could be found and if Morgan and
Pickett would serve on the board of directors.
Morgan envisioned a small community situation. He
SUMMER- 1988
�wanted the land to be located in an area sufficiently isolated
that the settlers could pursue new goals without the
distraction of old habits reinforced by the wider world. A
small community would have more influence on how its
children grew up. A small community could support positive
values and beliefs among the adults.
If Morgan sounds utopian, that was not his intent. He
denied being io any way a visionary. He stated from the
beginning that there would be no religious, political, or social
code binding the community together. In a memorandum for
the community written in 1937, he said, "It takes more than
economic need or craving for congenial society to hold men
together. Set religious or political dogmas tend to be a
dividing influence. Above all other reasons for living and
working together, there needs to be a strong common
purpose..."
As to the land itself, Morgan desired a location that
was arable, affordable, had wholesome neighbors, and was
blessed with a natural beauty.
After several months of combing the Southern
Appalachian Mountain region for such a site, the search
ended in the valley of the South Toe. ln 1937, 1200 acres
of woods, somewhat exhausted farmland, streams, and
pasture were bought in the Celo area of the valley.
Land-sharing was not a clear objective when the
community first began. The earliest residents were renters
who were already living on the land when it was purchased
by the community. One of them was appointed a manager.
The goal of encouraging young families to be self-sustaining
was the primary object. However, most of the first families
who came had no financial resources. The struggle for
simple swvival prevented them from taking a larger view of
the community and its future.
Managers succeeded one another in frequent
succession, each one recruiting different kinds of people to
pioneer the community. Tenant farmers, socialJy troubled
families, bible colJegc graduates, and ex-missionaries came
for short periods of time between 1937 and I 945, with
largely unsatisfactory results. The community tried and then
gave up farming, dairy herds, a sawmill, timbering, and a
nursing home. By 1945, only five families remained in the
community.
Community Revival
1945 was clearly a watershed year for the Celo
Community. After some early members withdrew their
membership but kept title to their land, the first steps toward
community ownership were taken.
Conscientious objectors moved to the community after
the war, bringing with them a new idealism about the
community and land use, and they supported the land
cooperative idea.
It was also in 1945 that the land manager system was
finally abandoned at Celo as well. It was replaced by a
steering committee of fi vc people, one from each household.
The committee met once a week, and the whole membership
met once a month. The meetings have continued without
interruption since that year.
Members regard the meetings with varying degrees of
enthusiasm. One of the ongoing problems for the community
is maintaining a much higher level of group involvement than
most people have previously experienced. But since all
decision-making power rests with the meetings, they arc an
indcspcnsable part of the Cclo Community life.
There are also four standing committees: Finance,
Membership, Property, and Land Use. It is evident that half
the specific concerns arc about land.
Sara Smith, a daughter of a Celo family, wrote in a
college paper that "the single common bond for CCI
members now is the land they hold in trust".
During the 1950's more people came to Celo and
swelled the population to 20 member households. The "back:
to the land" movement and disaffection with prevailing
political and social conventions in the 1960's brought still
more members. Others came after being introduced to the
area while resident craftspeople at the Penland School of
KATIJAH - page 9
Crafts in nearby Mitchell County.
As the new members came, they tended to build their
houses in tucked-away comers of the woods. There was a
strong sense of wanting to pioneer and to feel self-sufficient.
However, the spreading population could quickly have made
the forest into a suburb. Realizing the danger, the community
about 17 years ago began to set aside land for a wild area. Of
the community's 1,200 acre land base, at least 300 acres arc
now in forest preservation.
Within this wild area, overseen by the Land Use
Committee, arc examples of the usual and unusual wild flora
of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. There are plant
communities that date back to the time of the glaciers. There
are endangered species found in some of the coves and
bogs. Use of the proteetcd area is limited to bikes and nature
walks.
Much of the community is bounded by National Forest
land. At ti.mes this has been seen as an asset, as for years at
a time there is no activity in these areas. However, the
National Forest is managed land, and the Forest Service
builds new roads and marks off timber sales for clearcuttlng.
Community members sec these actions as a threat to soil
stability as well as destruction of valuable forest. They lobby
the government and the Forest Service co limit this manner
of land use. They arc concerned 001 only with the land they
hold in trust, but with all the valley and the wider mountain
area.
Many members of the Cclo Community are active in
various organizations and strongly support local efforts to
preserve the environment, such as the Friends of the Toe
River. Bob Johnson, a wildlife enthusiast who is on the
Land Use Committee, has observed that "this is prime condo
country". AU around the county there is unprecedented
growth. County political leadership has expressed little
concern with curbing this development, and in fact probably
encourages it. The Southern Appalchians were economically
deprived for many decades, though chere has been much
improvement over the last 20 years. Still, it causes leaders to
sec any growth as a good thing.
Arthur Morgan, 50 years ago, predicted that decades
of upheaval lay ahead for the nation. Among his many
concerns he included land conservation, endangered species,
alcernative living opportunities, animal rights, and the need
for a new cornminment. He once remarked bow much he
would relish being a 25 year old starting ouc life in the Cclo
Community, ready to take on the challenge.
Morgan had some final thoughts on Celo when he
wrote a brief history of his experience with the community:
"It seems co me that Cclo Community and the surrounding
neighborhood is a favorable setting for an interesting human
adventure lasting through generations, which will not be a
retreat from life, but an adventure in living."
C 1981 John M. Morgan
SUMMER- 1988
�r--~·-·--
1
I
A Conversation
Ruth Ostrenga and Rio Alden have
Jived in Celo Community since 1985. In
February of this year they became official
members of Celo, where they now run a
plant and flower business called High
MoUnJain Greenery.
Christina Morrison of rhe Katuah
Journal spoke with them one afternoon
about how it feels to belong to a land
stewardship community.
with
Ruth and Rio
of Celo Community
Katuah: What does living on a land
cooperative mean to you?
Ruth: I've lhought about it a lot lately
and I've realized that its so much about
relationships. It's preserving a large piece of
land and looking to see what's the best use
for lhe land with people who have pretty
common values. And that requires working
lhings out in a community fashion where
you come together and have to really
communicate and see more sides than just
your own. I value that a great deal-growing
and moving through my stuff by being in
relationship-so what better place to be than
in a community where I'm pressed with it a
lot?
K: I understand that the. Forest
Service doesn't actually sell the land; they
sell lumber companies the right to clear-cut
And then the Forest Service builds the roads
for them and reseeds the land and actually
ends up losing money on the deal. And we
all lose the forest
Ruth: Exactly. Those are the kinds of
things we really have to take a look at. And
I know that lots ofus he.re don't approve of
this mis-use of government land and feel we
don't have the say we should have in it.
Ruth: I've had a dream for a long
time of growing good food for a large
number of people. And now that we're here
it's starting to seem feasible ...The idea is to
put up several composting greenhouses that
can grow food al l year round. They're
self-heating and also create C0 2 for
optimum growing conditions. I've already
asked to lease one of the open fields so we
may soon be growing enough food for the
whole area. Fresh vine-ripened tomatoes in
January! I know I'll need more energy than
mine to make it work, but I also know there
are others here who'd get excited about it
too.
/(: Sharing land seems to open up so
many possibilities. It's surprising that lhere
aren't more communal projects going on
that utilize th~ land.
Rilth: J ~c;e Ce!o,as )c.ind of divided
iMo two spaces--there are long-time
members who've.already figured out bow to
make it and then there are young ones wilh
families wJ\o are t;trusgling to 9uild houses
and take Qare of kids...so there's not a lot of'
extra energy for even things like stopping.
the clear-cutting. People are still doing
things they'd be doing anywhere and that is
getting their acrs togeiher.
K: How about your relationship wilh
lhe land itself?
Ruth: That's something lhat took a
while to sink in... that it's my land--all of
this is my land--yet it's not. A big thing is
that I have a voice in deciding anything that
happens in regards to it. That feels really
good. I feel the importance of taking
responsibility in all respects for what we're
doing right now to the Earth...and if I have
a band in a pretty good size chunk, then that
feels good to me. Also, because we're a
community, we have a wider influence than
just within the land trust. We can be an
example to others who want to do the same
thing - preserve large pieces of land.
We can also help to influence what
happens to other areas around us. Most of
our land backs right up to the National
Forest. land that the ~Forest service has
control over (that is actually ours too - only
not as directly), and they're going to be
selling off parcels to the lumber industry for
clear-cutting not far from here. That feels
really awful
K: Any dreams of what you'd like to
see here?
Rio: T here's been a lot more
cooperation lately about almost everything
though .... childcare, building projects-it
seems like a growing trend to give here and
take there and trade.
So....and this is kind of a wild idea, but I
thought perhaps the community could buy
rights to that land instead of the timber
companies. What better use for a chunk of
money? And if we bought the land they
wouldn't have to build a road or any of that
- so that could be subtracted from what
they'd normally charge and they'd actually
end up owing us money! (laughs) I can't
wait to run this by the land use committee.
K: So when you take care of a piece
of land you realize how connected it is to the
whole area.... Even though I'm not a
member, it's great to live near Celo and
have so much land to walk on with fewer
roads and fences and no "No Trespassing"
signs. It's a real feeling of freedom and
welcome. Living here, you can even forget
what it's like out in the "real world" where
land seems so arbitrarily divided up.
Rio: I think I would call this the real
Ruth: We've started a small garden
club of organic growe~--and there's even a
local person down the road who has joined.
It's a real nice thing to be connecting wilh
others in the area-feels like starting to reach
out and cover the whoJe planet in terms of
cooperation and doing things in a good
way....
Hey, there's the osprey! (points
above river) They've stayed around for
three weeks now--they might be raising
babies.
K: Are there any areas where you'd
like to see change?
Ruth: Some members would like 10
see more things done communally. We have
workdays once a month for 4 hours and
they're a great way to get things done and
help each other out. They'd really been
fizzling out, lately - like 2 people showing
up. But the last workday was really good,
Rio: I think it was partly your
enthusiasm...
Ruth: Yeah, I got really fired up at
lhe last meeting and presented it as a
wonderful opportunity for everyone.
world.
K: What was the job?
Ruth: I bet the trees would agree.
(continued on page 24)
KATIJAH-page 10
SUMMER- 1988
�LAND TRUST:
Tenure for Our Times
Among primitive tribal societies the
world over, the Earth was seen as a living
being, as alive and conscious as we. There
were no "resources," but the mother planet
gave her children what they needed to live.
The natural forces were potent elemental
beings. The idea of "owning" land or
"resources" never came to mind until the
development and spread of European
society.
lo our western culture land is
parcelled out and sold, and once money has
changed hands, owners assume it is their
right to have their way with "their"
property, whether or not it is in the interests
of the land, the wider human community, or
the life community as a whole.
In 1945 the members of the Celo
Community saw that individual land
ownership threatened the continued
existence of their community, and put their
land base into common ownership.
Members of Celo now lease a "holding,"
which grants a holder the right to live on
and the right to use the land within
guidelines set up by the community's
Property Committee.
This arrangement was a forerunner of
the land trust concept, which was developed
by Roben Swann and Ralph Borsodi during
the 1960's. A land trust is a corporate entity
(usually incorporated as not-for-profit)
which is empowered to hold land.
Land trusts are set up for a variety of
purposes:
- in rural areas they can be used to
make homes and fanning land available to
community people as the Community Land
Association is doing in Clairmont in
nonheast Tennessee.
- in cities they are a powerful t.ool for
resisting gentrification and making homes
available to low-and moderate-income
people. The South Atlanta Land Trust,
which is restoring a declining neighborhood
in Atlanta, GA is an example.
-Conservation land trusts put Large
tracts of undeveloped land into trust to
preserve them in perpetuity
The Ozarlc Regional Land Trust of
Canhage, MO is an umbrella organization
worlcing to foster all three approaches in the
Ourlc mountains, as well as initiating
educational projects in ecological land use
and farming practices appropriate to that
bioregion.
In each of these situations the
essential purpose of the land trust is to
remove the land from the speculative
marketplace so that. for whatever reasons, it
can no longer be treated as a commodity.
In a conservation land trust, human
access to the Land is strictly limited. In rural
community Land trusts, pans or alJ of a tract
are made available for human residency and
appropriate use such as ecological
agriculture. In an urban setting, land trust
holdings are dedicated to uses most
beneficial to the community, whether for
residences or community service areas.
The non-profit land trust corporation
retains title to the land and leases rights to
community people, subject to land use
KATUAH-page 11
Drawing by: Laurie Pierce
guidelines of varying strictness depending
on the purpose of the land trust. These
leases are usually long,term contracts that
may be passed on to descendants.
Leaseholders who wish· to terminate a lease
are allowed to sell the equity they have
earned (i.e., the value of buildings and other
improvements). Often tbe land trust reserves
first options on these equities and buys them
to re-sell to the next leaseholder.
Land trusts can slow down runaway
developmenL Land trusts can enable farm
families to gain access'to agricultural land
where Land speculation (as on vacation
home properties) has caused highly inflated
land prices. Land trusts can also preserve
wild areas far beyond the lifetime of an
individual owner.
It is now a widely accepted principle
that we cannot own ~nother of our own
species as propeny. Someday we may
evolve to the point where it would be
incomprehensible to own an individual of
any species as propehy. And someday,
someday, we may progress to a stage where
we once again regain the primitive sense of
a free and living Earth that cannot be cut into
pieces, cannot be bought or sold.
The land trust, then, is a
stepping-stone to the re-sacralization of the
natural world. It is a legalistic mechanism
suitable to the complexities of modem
society, but it offers a way forward into a
new and ancient relationship with the land.
RESOURCES
to help in unch:rstanding and implementing
land trust:
BOOKS
The Community Land Trust
Handbook by the lnstitwefor Community
Econormcs (Rodale Press; Emmaus, PA;
1982 - available for $6.00 from ICE, see
address below). "Through land trusts,
co171171Wiities can regain control oflocal land
and Jwusing. This book tells how.for both
nual and urban communities."
New OrJaniutional Prospects for
Community and Conservation Land
Trusts by Gregg Galbraith (available for
$12.50 ppdfrom the Ozark Regional land
Trust, see address beww). "A legal study of
the nl()tUI of a regional land trust to assist
the development of other regional land
trusts."
PERIODICALS
Communit1 Economics - quarterly
newsletter with articles abow develo~nts
in community land trusts, community
revolving loan funds, and other community
development issues. Available by donation
from ICE (see address beww).
ORGANIZATIONS
Jnstituiefor Communil)I Economics
151 Montague City Rd.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Oz.art Regional Land Trust
427 S. Main St.
Carthage, MO 64836
Solllhe.asr.un Land Presuvali,on Trust
305 Buclchead Ave. NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
The School ofLiving (land Com11Uttee)
do Common Ground
Rt. 3, Box 231
Lexington, VA 24450
The Katuah Regional Land
Trust is looking for charter members. This
new organization is dedicated to "serving
first the land, and then the life nourished by
the land" by "reserving and restDring narural
habitat areas; the ancient sacred sites and
places of power; and a land base, whether
rural or urban,for humans to conduct their
lives in accord wilh the conditions of nature
as found in the KatUah Province of the
Appalachian bioregion." Please respond to:
KatUali Regional land Trust; Rt. 2, Box
108-A; Whittier, NC 28789
~
SUMMER- 1988
�LEARNING COMMUNITY
by Judith Hallock
Arthur Morgan School is a unique
boarding school for 24 girls and boys in
grades seven through nine. Named after an
innovative American educator and activist,
the school is based on the principles of
Maria Montessori, Mohandas Gandhi,
Arthur Morgan, and the Religious Society
of Friends (Quakers). The stated central aim
of the school is to help each student grow
into a confident and responsible young
person.
The school property is part of Celo
Community, an intentional land stewardship
community. The 100 acre campus consists
mainly of woods and meadows and is
largely surrounded by national forest.
Elizabeth Morgan, Anhur Morgan's
daughter-in-law and founder of the Arthur
Morgan School, did not go to school until
she was the age for eighth grade. She had
been lightly tutored by her parents, but she
had mostly played around her home, helped
her mother, read books, and made music.
When she finally did start school, she found
it exciting and raced through high school in
three and one-half years as an honor student
Elizabeth oommeoted that the amount
of time children spend in school is usually
out of proportion to what they learn there,
and that most schools are a great waste of
children's time. School, she said, is mainly
a gigantic baby-sitting operation designed to
keep children out of circulation in a society
in which children no longer have any
meaningful function except to grow up.
It was her experience as a public
school teacher that inspired her to found the
Arthur Morgan School in 1962. She felt that
adolescence is a particularly crucial time in
the development of the whole person. Patty
Keene-Windsor, school clerk, a central
administrative position at the Arthur Morgan
School, defined some of the special needs
of puberty-aged young people:
"The years between 12 and 15 are
KATUAH- page 12
crucial years for developing a sense of self,
and to do some brt;alcing away from family.
It's a time of questioning habits and ways of
doing things, challenging the way your
family does things. It's a time of change and
rebelling."
In meeting these special needs, the
Arthur Morgan School offers a
community-based response.
"The main focus of the school is for
staff and students to create this community
together," said Patty.
Through conscious commuoitybui lding, the school becomes a
working/living/learning/caring place. in
educating the whole person, a whole life
approach is taken, and the loving, healthy
oommuoity becomes the core of the learning
experience. At the same time, a I :2
staff-to-student ratio suppons individual
needs.
Values, which have been largely
separated from education in the public
schools, are an integral part of the Arthur
Morgan School, and are directly related to
community ideals. Cooperation, respect,
openness, sense of self, responsibility, and
interdependence are all qualities of a healthy
community, and are learned by participation
in the school oommunity life.
''By creating this oommunity, we are
teaching community skills. We are giving
the students an experience and a model that
they can carry always. If they have
experienced hearing each other, working on
problems, being interdependent, in a small
oommunity like this, they will Temember
that when they move into a bigger
community, or when they start thinking
about the world," said Patty.
Housing at the school is in family
groups, with each composed of several
students and two houseparents who share
housekeeping functions as well as teaching
and/or other staff duties. These families live
in wood-heated homes on campus.
Margot, a houseparent at Arthur
Morgan School, wrote of her experience,
"Ideally the job of a houseparent is to create
a harmonious family environment for the
students dwelling under her roof. We try to
offer the students a secure and supportive
place to return to after their school day.
Since many of our students are seventh
graders leaving home for the first time, we
strive to maintain a family setting. The
boarding houses are not dormitories, rather
individual homes with structure and rules
varying with the different houseparents.
"What I find unique about
houseparenting these young adults is that I
can give them both support and positive
criticism in a more or less objective manner.
Their exposure to other peers of different
backgrounds expands their universe and
encourages social responsibility. The
houses reflect the philosophy of the school
in microcosm."
Breakfasts are cooked and eaten in the
houses, as are weekend lunches and two
dinners each week. All other meals are eaten
together in the school dining hall. The diet is
largely vegetarian, with an emphasis on
fresh whole foods, natural sweets, and
organic produce from the school's large
organfo garden.
Weekdays begin with a short
community gathering to share songs, skits,
and announcements. All students attend
classes in four core subjects - English,
social studies, science, and math. Though
individually designated by grade levels,
students are grouped in these classes only
by ability and interest. Class sizes are small,
so teachers can focus on individual needs.
Students are encouraged to see connections
between their classwork and the outside
world.
Academics are supplemented by an
electives program. Each student can choose
up to six classes a semester from such
offerings as music, drama. arts and crafts,
shop, languages, sports, and dance. Neither
electives nor core subjects are graded.
Students and parents receive instead
periodic written evaluations of the student's
work.
Leisure activities include special
Saturday night activities such as a dance,
talent show, group game, or sweat lodge. In
addition, weekends often include soccer
games and housefamily outings. Much time,
both on weekends and weekdays, is spent
outdoors.
The mountain forest surrounding the
Arthur Morgan School provides students
with a wide variety of outdoor experiences.
Extended trips in the fall and spring are
supplemented by periodic day hikes and
overnights.
Patty said, "We provide challenges in
this area that we are pretty sure the students
can meet: like being able to stay out in the
mountains for six days, or walking or
canoeing certain distances. At this age,
when these kind of physical challenges are
met, and the students feel they have
succeeded, there is a great feeling of
exhilaration."
Each spring the students explore the
world beyond Katuah on a three-week field
trip. In recent years they have put on a
travelling show, canoed the Florida
Everglades, and assisted at a refugee camp
on the Texas-Mexican border.
(conlinucd on page 26)
SUMMER-1988
�Land Use Planning in
Buncombe County, NC
by Carol Lawrence
Whether or not it is mentioned by
Asheville promoters recruiting new
businesses, one of the attractions of
Buncombe County - along with the clean air
and water, year-round temperate climate,
and stunning natural beauty - is the freedom
to develop land outside the city in any way
the owner sees fit.
There is, in other words, no overall
counry zoning plan.
The last attempt at county-wide
zoning was made in 1973. It was not
successful. Johnny Robens, a Flat Creek
resident who worked against the recent
zoning proposal there, remembers that
attempt.
"It went down like the Titanic," he
recalls.
Buncombe County Board of
Commissioners Chairman R. Curtis Ratcliff
recalls it the same way.
"When commissioners held hearings
on that proposed zoning plan, the further we
got into the county, the more opposed
everyone was."
"I doubt that there is currently enough
pro-zoning sentiment to revive the
county-wide plan," says Jim Coman,
County Zoning Administtator. "There is not
a consensus among the commissioners on
county-wide land use planning and
regulation. Undoubtedly, some are more in
favor of it than others. Among residents,
there's certainly limited desire for zoning
out in the rural areas. What I hear over and
over is 'We don't wanr anybody telling us
what to do with our land_"'
As a result, land use in the regions
surrounding Asheville is a matter left up to
each individual township. And the recenr
events in Flat Creek point up exactly how
difficult it can be to develop land use
planning on a local basis.
Earlier this year, the Vulcan Materials
Company of Birmingham, Alabama took
out a long-term lease option on a 99-acre
parcel of land in the Flat Creek area. Their
intent: 10 quarry granite and produce
crushed stone. Controlled blasting would
open up a large pit, eventually going down
some 200 to 400 feet. The granite in the
substrata would be extracted, crushed, and
hauled away in trucks.
In compliance with procedures
established by the North Carolina
Department of Natural Resources and
Community Development (NRCD), Vulcan
sem notice of its plans to all Flat Creek
residents owning adjacent land. Upon
learning of this intended development, area
residents became concerned. In fact, they
were so concerned that when the NRCD
sponsored a public bearing in the elementary
school on the hot, muggy night of August
6, the auditorium was packed with 400 area
residents. Another 400, unable to fit in,
remained outside.
Overwhelmingly, those attending
disapproved of the proposed quarry.
Together, they began to investigate what
they could do to prevent the coming of the
quarry. Thar's how Flat Creek residents
started what is called a community planning
program. This option, open to any
KATUAH - page 13
AT RISK
Photo by: Chip Smith
Buncombe County township, allows
residents to establish a community planning
council, which, in tum, can draft land use
(zoning) ordinances.
On October 17, after two months of
work by a 15-member planning council and
community input at the Buncombe County
Planning Department, a comprehensive
zoning ordinance was presented to the Flat
Creek residents for approval. As evidence
of the interest sparked by the zoning
question, 1,560 residents - 600 more than
cast ballocs in the last Presidential election turned out to vote. The proposed land use
ordinance was defeated by a margin of
nearly 3 to 1.
Manha Claxton, an Asheville
pediatrician who lives in Flat Creek, served
on the community planning council and
continues active volunteer work against the
proposed quarry. She explains the move
toward zoning this way: "We started
looking at zoning because of that quarry.
We were concerned about things like the
effects the quarry would have on the fragile
water table, whether the blasting would
cause basemenr walls to crack, how safe the
children would be in school buses that share
roads with large rock 1:IUcks, not to mention
the nuisance of noise, dust, and blasting
vibration."
"We knew, even in early August, that
passing of the zoning ordinance would not
necessarily keep Vulcan out; they started the
application process before we started the
zoning process. We proceeded because we
hoped that strong anti-quarry sentiment
combined with a zoning ordinance
prohibiting quarry expansion might cause
Vulcan to rethink that particular site."
Johnny Roberts, a 43-year resident of
the Flat Creek area and owner of a local
store, agrees that local sentiment ran against
the quarry. Yet he, like many others, voted
against zoning.
"The main thing is that people here
own their land, they pay for it, and they
don't want people telling them what to do
with it," he says. "The County has very
strict rules about building and construction
and people just feel that's enough."
There will be no zoning in Flat Creek.
And Flat Creek residents - who by and large
still oppose the proposed quarry - have not
solved the problem of persuading the
NRCD to refuse Vulcan's mining permit
application. Further, Flat Creek citizens
could find themselves in this sicuation again,
should another company announce plans to
build an asphalt production facility, for
example, or open another tavern adjacent to
the elementary school, or develop a
multi-acre mobile home park.
In every case in Buncombe County
where there has been interest in
community-based zoning, it has been in
response to unwelcome development. The
two communities in the county that enacted
local zoning, Beaverdam to the north and
Limestone to the south, did so out of
concern, the former about housing
development and the latter about a junkyard.
IUnkVard.
Currently, residents of an area on
Goldview Road are investigating zoning
because they do not want the new Craggy
Prison located in their neighborhood. They
approached the Commissioners for help in
developing prohibitive zoning. The
Commissioners responded by asking them
to try to establish a community planning
program for the whole French Broad
Township, rather than just the Goldview
Road area. Given strong anti-zoning
sentiment present in rural Buncombe
communities, it may be impossible to do
that
"Because of the differing opinions,
zoning is a difficult question," says County
Attorney Keith Snyder. "For the most part,
where there's interest in zoning is in
portions of townships that are highly
urbanized. In the outer perimeters of the
county, they are against it.
"Rather than have piecemeal, partial
zoning, I recommended to the Commission
that they do a comprehensive analysis of the
county. We know which areas are becoming
urbanized. We know where the large tracts
of undeveloped land are. Looking at all
those things together, the Commission
could then develop policy on where industry
should locate and where there should be
shopping centers and where there should
only be residential building."
In the meantime, county residents though in favor of protecting their
community's water supply, clean air, and
propeny values - may have little say in what
happens in their neighborhoods.
Reprinted from the Winter, 1988 issue of
Dircovery
News
a publication of
Asheville-Buncombe Discovery; 46 llaywood St.
(Suite 336); Asheville, NC 28801.
~
SUMMER - 1988
�REST IN PERPETUAL WILDERNESS
by Billy Campbell
In the densely popula1ed highlands of
the island of New Guinea in the lands of the
once cannibalistic Fore ( pronounced
"!or-AY") tribe, there are still pockets of
untouched wilderness. These are the sacred
groves, or pies masalai, near which the
bodies of their dead are buried. The Fore
regard these areas with/ear, believing that
here the ghosts of the dead are waiting to
possess the bodies of any who enter.
Because of their fear, beamif11l, wild,
untouched stands of the original forest still
exist in the midst ofagricultural lands and a
teeming human population.
When my father died, the funeral
director, a decent person and a friend from
childhood, steered us toward his
top-of-the-line casket It cost more than a lot
of cars do. We settled instead for the only
wooden model that he had. He cautioned us
that it was not "watertight," but consoled us
with the fact that Dan Blocker (Hoss
Cartwright on the TV show "Bonanza") was
buried in an identical casket
could we not put the money that is spent on
expensive burials and sterile plots into the
purchase of natural settings that could also
act as protected habitat areas?.....Sacred
groves, certainly. The money that we invest
in funerals and "perpetual care" today is
considerable. The Wall Street Journal stated
in May of 1985 that there is more than $4
billion invested in funeral trusts in this
country.
I live where the mountains drop to the
piedmont in South Carolina. Land here goes
for $800 per acre. Together, one thousand
members of a memorial society, each
contributing $1,000 (which is only
one-quarter the cost of my father's burial)
could purchase l,250 acres of land: a
The pies masaJais of the Fore inspired
me with a different idea. I would rather
have laid my father's body to rest in a wild
setting, full of the quiet and peace of
nature...a place reached by a trail instead of
a road, where trees would stand guard over
my father's remains and in turn be
nourished by him to stand tall in his
memory. Why is this not possible? Why
While some might want their remains
cremated and their ashes scattered, others
would want a marker designating a specific
place of interment. Instead of the usual
tombstones, more natural markers would be
appropriate. ln keeping with the concept of
creating vigneues of wilderness, living
plants, or colonies of plants, might be best.
A particular burial site might be graced by a
colony of orchids,for example, or perhaps
trilliums.
Living memorials could be
coordinated by a resident restoration
ecologist in areas that have been heavily
impacted. ln such a setting, an American
chestnut tree might make a particularly good
memorial. Because of the continuing blight
problem, native chestnuts will probably
need human help if they are to survive
outside of orchards. The setting would offer
a rich source for ritual. Imagine a
communion ceremony using chestnut bread
and muscadine wine. Limited harvesting of
stunted rrees from the forest would yield
materials to make heirloom baby cradles,
marriage beds, or even caskets. While it is
consistent with most religious beliefs, the
practice of using funeral parks could be
transforming, "greening" Christianity,
Islam, or other spiritual practices.
Next he showed us the vaults. The
first was Italian scrolled, guaranteed not to
leak for 100 years and able to withstand
thousands of pounds per square foot of
overpressure. I cold the director that it all
seemed silly. First of all, who was going to
check to see if it leaked, and who cared if it
did? Such strength might come in handy if
we were trying to protect the corpse from a
direct nuclear strike. but otherwise it seemed
pretty useless. I suggested that we not have
a vault.
The director seemed aghast at the
idea. "Billy, the casket you picked is not
watertight. If you don't get a vault, in a few
years the ground above will.....sink. in.
Family members would have to deal with
the fact that din and water are.....going
in .....on the loved one." Ultimately, my
father's body was pumped full of toxic
chemicals, placed in a casket, which was
placed in a vault, buried in an
over-manicured graveyard, and covered
with pea gravel. The whole affair cost
$4,000.00.
parks are hazardous waste dumps, filled
with small, sealed capsules of toxic
chemicals, the grass abpve artificially
maintained a perfect green with another
assortment of toxic materials.
significant parcel of land that would serve as
a lasting (and, to my mind, a fitting) legacy
for furure generations.
Large undeveloped tracts near towns
would be the first sites to be considered as
memorial forest areas, especially those
unlikely to be protected by government or
other private programs. Unprotected Indian
mounds, especially those in proximity to
extensive woodland areas, would be prime
sites. The membership in a given area might
sponsor a survey and biological inventory
of significant sites.
Burials in this memorial forest would
have to be simple. Bodies could not be
preserved, and any containers would have
to be built of easily degradeable materials.
Formaldehyde, with which bodies are
preserved in standard practice, is a
poisonous material. Present-day memorial
I wish my body to nourish a part of
the Living forest, marked only by a colony
of trilliums or a chestnut tree, in an area that
would be pleasant and rejuvenating for
others to visit, in which they would be
reminded of life's continuing cycles of
growth and death, decomposition and
rebirth. This would be truly a sacred place.
Any others who are interested in
joining a memorial forest society may
inquire (send no money, please) of:
Dr. Billy Campbell
P.O. Box 152
Westminster, SC 29693
or write to the:
Katuah Regional Land Trust
Rt. 2, Box 108-A
Whittier, NC
Katuah Province 28789
~
p
(see page 11)
Dr. Billy Campbell practices family
medicine in Westminster. He is a good Scot
and true to his clan.
Drawing by: Wes Wyau
KATUAH - page 14
SUMMER - 1988
�r
THE RIDGE
There is a ridge in southern Virginia over which I enter and leave my
farm. Deer leap and call on this ridge, ground hogs scurry to their holes,
wild turkeys range. An almost white skunk lives in an old pile of handmade
brick, which I would like to use were they not his home. I've seen a silver
fox on this ridge, and thought a 'possum really dead, and sat spellbound as
deer walked close and looked at me.
Here the moon rises damp and close and the stars seem near touching.
The unseen life of night lingers in the early dew and the sun rises with
ringing echo from two ridges and a river over, where a farmer calls his
cows. Unless fog has quietened the world, a blue line of distant ridges
separates the sky from all the fields and tree tops that lie before it. The
day's last color slips westward behind a mountain that humps large and
green, protective.
Breeze skips up the pass to this high place or shifts to wind that
rushes in from the woods to the north. An unmaintained road cuts beyond
those woods down to the house, too steep in ice or mud for my jeep. I park
atop the ridge and climb a split rail fence. Pasture grass nods as I walk,
and halfway down the familiar path, cool air from the spring dampens my
face. Grouse flap the air as they rise. I glimpse my house in the hollow
below.
The ridge is more than passage to my home and place where I walk at
each days beginning and end. The land itself is a friend to talk to and the
animals answer. Here I learned to stand alone and discovered myself joined
to all life. It is my place of beginning and entry to a larger world.
© 1988 &y Nancy Bcir nharcit
KATUAH - page 15
SUMMER-1988
�FARMERS AND THE FARM BILL
By Chip Smith
Late in 1985, the U.S. Congress
passed into law the Food Security Act, or
"Farm Bill." According to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, the
administrating agency, the intent of the bill
is to "reduce soil erosion, minimize the
amount of wetlands and grasslands being
converted to cropland, and reduce surplus
commodities, which in rum will strengthen
the overall farm economy.''
The impetus for this bill was the
realization that the governme.nt has actually
encouraged soil erosion and loss of
wetlands by allowing farmers to include
highly erodible lands and converted
wetlands as part of their "base acreage" for a
variety of farm support programs. This
policy contributed to the crop surplus and
falling commodity prices which have fueled
the recent era of unpaid loans and farm
forecloswes.
To Congress, "farm" means the
corporate superfarms of the west, midwest
and coastal regions, but agriculture in
Karuah is affected as well.
Legislation passed in Washington
cannot afford to be sensitive to special
problems and paradoxes on the local level.
But in Kanfah, implementation of the Farm
Security Act is rife with paradox. While the
goals of the act are necessary and valid and
the principles on which it is based are
admirable, the sweeping generalizations in
its provisions are causing hardship and loss
and may force more small farmers off their
mountain landholdings.
In Katuah, agriculture is a
small-scale industry that is no longer the
major contributor to soil erosion problems.
A "Land Development Security Act" or a
"Road Construction Security Act" would be
more effective in controlling soil loss and
stream siltation.
Yet, the conservation provisions of
the Farm Bill state that fields with a slope
greater than nine percent are "highly
erodible land" and are to blame for
excessive erosion and lost productivity.
Furthermore, if farmers are to receive
the benefits of the various farm support
programs, they must submit approved
conservation farm plans by 1990 and have
them implemented by 1995. The locaily
governed Soil and Water Conservation
Districts, with assistance from the U.S. Soil
Conservation Service, are in charge of plan
approval. The Conservation Reserve
Program has also been established for those
who wish to be subsidized for retiring
croplands to pasture or tree farms.
At the head of Long Branch in
Yancey County, North Carolina two old
timers, Raines and Eugene Hughes tend
burley tobacco. Their farm is an original
version of small-scale mountain agriculture.
They bought it as a gullied-out and
overgrown depression farm in 1936.
KATUAH-page 16
Today, the pastured hills, neat garden, and
"baccer" patch reveal much of their
independence and stewardship.
Proud and outspoken, they resent
what they feel is a judgment passed on their
farming abilities.
"Well, I tell you - I don't think too
much of that Farm Bill myself," said
Raines. "You don't have much freedom
anymore, do ya? Somebody telling you
something what to do all the time, seems
like.
"Anytbing's gonna get eroded, if it's
not got a cover on it"
And Eugene said, "We've always
farmed that way, ever since we were kids.
Our dad was the first man to start that in this
section here. It looks like a plan to cut us
small farmers out, is what it looks like."
Today, the conservation provisions of
the Farm Bill require the installation of
erosion control practices such as terrace
systems, grassed water ways, field borders,
and/or alternate year crop/cover crop
rotations. For mountain farmers already
short on tillable land, conservation
compliance means fewer crops, smaller
profits and a questionable future.
Tobacco has been a staple of
mountain agriculture for generations,
because tending burley is a labor intensive,
family operation. It requires very little
mechanization: a borrowed tractor and
planter and the garden tiller will do. The
labor needed for weeding, cutting, hanging,
and grading the leaf is provided by family
members.
Tobacco growing is possible with
resources mountain people have, and a
productive season can bring a profit of at
least $2000 an acre.
"To fellers like us it means a lot," said
Eugene. "It goes right back on the farm,
what we get from tobacco. That's what we
set aside to pay our taxes, buy our fertilize,
and such.
"People here in these mountains
depended on tobacco until these factory
plants came to town. We're one of the few
who still live off the farm."
Raines and Eugene realize the good
intentions of the Farm Bill, but as Eugene
put it, "Those fellers haven't been outta
Washington in a while:
"lf we was younger we'd kick more.
We always looked forward to farming all
our life. People say anymore: Well, I may
farm this year and I may not next year.'
Nowadays a feller will just get him a job at
the plant."
Raines said, "It's a haphazard way to
farm. It's just turned around from the way it
used to be."
Realizing
an too well the
consequences of noncompliance, Eugene
lamented, "We're gonna try to comply with
the law. Take two fellers that's 75 and 77
years old - we've not got too many years to
grow, have we? We're Appalachian
paupers, but proud of it."
In the midst of renewed interest in
stewardship and small-scale mountain
agriculture, many of our teachers are
packing up shop. These mountains are no
longer a barrier to the fast paced "outside
world." An inflated land market has pushed
propeny values out of the reach of local
Plant jobs are pulling family
people.
members off the farm, and discount stores
entice them away from agrarian values.
Tobacco abuse kills, but an alternative
crop to fill the place of burley in mountain
agriculture hasn't been found. In short,
while the Farm Bill may help clear the
streams, in the Appalachian mountain
country it is inadvenently contributing to
the demise of a way of life.
SUMMER- 1988
�"Relating to the Land"
(These are the words of a traditional Cherokee medicine
person)
My grandfather told me that one day when his
grandfather was sick and they knew that he was going to die,
he called together some friends and the members of his
family and spoke to them. My grandfather was jost a boy at
the time, and he could not hear what was said, but his
grandfather got up and he looked strong and healthy. The old
man gathered a group of men and boys, and, though he was
young, my grandfather was allowed to accompany them.
They walked and camped for a month through western NQitb
Carolina and parts of eastern Tennessee. They carried his
grandfather some of the time, but most of the time he walked
by himself.
They went to places that, seen through a boy's eyes,
seemed insignificant to my grandfather. They would go to a
rock and his grandfather would look at it and rub all over it,
and then maybe he would tell them to take him to some little
creek up in a cove someplace, and he would peer around in
there.
He was tcliving bis history. These were places that
were familiar to him, that represented part of his life, and
each place was important to the old man. To him, the land
was personal. These places wetc a part of himself. They
were alive as the world was alive.
Western culture sees the world as dead. But the Indian
People know the Earth as a living organism. The screams are
the Earth's blood. The soil is the flesh. The plants and the
leaves are the hair. The rocks are the bones. The wind is the
breath. The Earth is one living organism, and the human race
is part of that organism, not something set apart.
Everything has a spirit. Everything that is living seems
to be an in. ividual entity, separate to itself. Each of us seems
d
to be an individual. bot actually, we are each made op of
trillions of parts - things that can be seen and things that
cannot be seen. And all those pans are dependant on one
another. The planet is the same way. It is the same kind of
life just larger. And the human species is just one of the pans
of the Great Life.
Collectively, the individual spirits of everything that
lives make up the Great Spirit When you conjure, and you
hook into power, that is your power. But you have to feel
part of it first. We get our power from being able to move
evenly with the other pans of the Great Life. There is no trick
or magic to it, other than knowing yourself as a pan of this
life.
KATUAH-page 17
Our gifts of intelligence and creativity were given to us
so we could be caretakers, so we could perpetuate the Great
Life. It is our role, our pan of the plan, to be conscious. The
side effect of that is ego. Some people call it lust or sin, but
it's separation from God. It's true, because what we have
here is God, whatever it is.
At some time the human race reached a point in its
developement where our ego overrode all the innate
understandings we had held since we were primeval slime,
or whtaever we first were. Now, our biggest conflict is to
concrol our intellect that has grown by such leaps and bounds
in such a short period of time.
Our shortcomings are reflected in the culmination of
European or western culture, which is highly individualistic:
Western culture makes people believe that the Earth begins
when they are born, and is over when they die. They have
the most incredible notion that there is a God up in the sky
that serves us alone and, the ultimate of ego, that we are
created in his image. He made everything on this planet for
our use, and if we can't use it, it's a weed or crash.
The best story my grandfather ever told to show the
difference between European and Indian ways was to say
that when an Indian man bunts the bear, and be kills the bear,
be gives thanks, and promises the bear to use all the parts of
his body, for that is the bear's gift to us.
If an Indian man goes out to hunt the bear, and the
bear rips him down and eats him, there is no hostility against
the bear. It wasn't the bear's idea that be was to eat meat
The Creator.put this notion in him.
.
.,
The people would mourn the man and grieve for him,
but there was no anger toward the bear. It was just the
creature's nature, just like it was the man's nature to be out
hunting him. There was no separatiQn from the bear at all,
If this were to happen to a white man, the others
would go out and comb the mountains and kill any bear they
saw.
We arc all predators. But western man cannot tolerate
another predator. Wolves, mountain lions.... white people
don't want them out there as competitiou. They don't eat
them. The only other predators western man eats are fish.
They aren't going to eat a wolf, but they will kill him off. If a
creature can be domesticated, controlled completely, and
made useful to humans, then it's from God. If it can't be
made useful, then they eliminate it God made a mistake
there.
·
For European culture there. is no concept of balance,
no concept that we are pan of a greater whole. It is alien; it's
like they arc from another planet. Look at how they throw
their crash and litter around! Would they do that at home? It
all goes back to the ego that says we are made in the image of
God and all this was created for us.
In the body of the world, we are cancerous cells.
Cancer is when a group of cells in the body goes crazy for
one reason or another. There are environmental reasons for
why we are acting so crazy, reasons which we created
ourselves. But there are still some deeper reasons why we
are susceptible to this disease of the spirit. After all, we are
the product of millions and millions of years of evolution,
and everything else is evolving along with us. We m
responsible for ourselves. We may not be able to stop
accidents, or something somebody else does to us; but the
sickness and disease, we are responsible for all that.
The world was not made for us alone. My
grandfather's grandfather said that we are mainly observing
what is happening in our own lives. We can dodge things a
little bit to the left or to the right, but the major aspects of
things we are just observing. Observation....tbat's what we
are doing.
SUMMER - 1988
�- Soil acidification could release
bound aluminum in toxic amounts.
- Nutrients could be leached out and
lost from acidified soils.
- Excess nitrogen, acidification, or
released heavy metals could deplete or
destroy soil microorganism populations or
the mycorrhizae fungi, which Live in a
beneficial relationship with the roots of the
spruce and fir trees, causing nutrient
deficiencies.
NATURAL WORLD NEWS
REPORT
"IT COMES ON A MIST..... "
"The bottom line is that someone at
some point has to make a decision as to
whether or not the evidence is strong
enough to do something about acid rain .....
"We have a lot nwre informarion now
than we did two to three years ago. The
nwnality of trees has increased tenfold over
the past five years. But we could spend
another 50 years studying this issue and
never gather enough proof to slww that A
plus B equals C."
- Roben Bruck, to the
AsbeyWe Ciifilul, March 5, 1988
Since 1983 Dr. Robert Bruck has
been coordinating a team of field scientists
from North Carolina State University
(NCSU) investigating the mysterious
dieback of the spruce/fir forest that was
once a grand mantle draped over the
shoulders of Mount Mitchell and the other
peaks of the Black Mountain range (see
KatUah Journal #9).
Using the most sophisticated
equipment, the researchers have been testing
the soil, soil microorganisms, and the trees
themselves, to determine the amount of
airborne pollution the mountaintops are
receiving and the effects of this pollution.
Their field work is supported by
experiments in climate control chambers and
greenhouse tests to determine the tolerances
and parameters of the tree species. Another
team of NCSU scientists funded by the
Environmental Protection Agency doing
intensive studies of the chemistry of the
orographic (associated with mountains)
cloud cover that shrouds Mt. Mitchell and
the Blacks for 250 days of the year.
The data these scientists have
produced are chilling. During the year
1986-87 Ml. Mitchell received
approximately 122 kilograms/hectare
(roughly equal to pounds per acre) of
acidified sulfates. Ouring that same period
approximately 65 Kg/ha (lbs/a) of nitrates
were deposited on the mountaintop.
Ozone, when in the lower
atmosphere, is a gaseous pollutant
panicularly damaging to plants. It is formed
when nitrogen oxides are combined with the
hydrocarbons produced by auto exhaust in
the presence of sunlight. Ozone is
frequently present at concentrated levels at
the top of Mt. Mitchell. Of 3,000 readings
taken during 1986, one quarter approached
or exceeded a level of 80 ppb (parts per
billion), which was shown in greenhouse
tests to be acutely toxic to young fir and
spruce trees.
At the same time the mountaintops are
bathed in an acidic mist which registers a
2.5-3.4 pH level. Because pH is figured
KATIJAH - page 18
Cm.tree
logarithmically, the clouds' lowest pH
levels are 1,000 times more acidic than
normal atmospheric conditions.
Precipitation, which is more diluted, ranges
from pH 4.0-5.0.
Those clouds, so gentle in
appearance, are panicularly threatening to
the upland forests. They are formed by
moisture-laden air, which, as it rises over
the mountains, cools and condenses into
fog. In the process it attracts and bonds with
particles of airborne, water-soluble
pollutants, and this concentrated, poisonous
broth settles on the tree needles, where
much of the toxic payload is absorbed
before the droplets fall, branch by branch,
to the soil.
The variety of chemicals in the mist
solution could affect the trees in different
ways at each stage of their journey to the
eanh:
- Acidification could damage or
destroy foliage, as was observed after one
highly acidic cloud covered the
mountaintop. Forty-eight hours later the rips
of exposed spruce needles were brown and
dead.
- Acidic oxides, alone or in
combination with ozone, could leach
nutrients from the foliage.
-The chemical pollutants could
interfere with the tree's metabolic processes.
- Excess nitrogen could increase
susceptibility to frost and freeze damage.
Pollutants can also work through the
soil. In one experiment. seedlings were
planted in soil taken from the top of Mt.
Mitchell to a lower elevation. 93% of the
seedlings died. Examination of the soil
showed that it was highly acidified and low
in the nutrient elements calcium and
magnesium.
Toxins in the soil could damage trees
by some or any of these means:
To come to grips with the problem of
the airborne pollutants, " ..... the scientific
and policy-making communities wilJ have to
find common ground in dealing wich
'imperfect knowledge,"' wrote Dr. Bruck.
He is warning us that, although his
team and other scientists will be keeping up
the intensive investigations they have
maintained for the last five years, it would
be a mistake co postpone decision-making
until a clear and simple cause-and-effect
relationship is proven. The situation is
simply too complex. That the high-altitude
boreal forest is being subjected to massive
doses of airborne pollutants is clear. But it
is impossible to isolate a single chemical
compound or a single process as being the
sole culprit for the forest decline. The
different chemical permutations and
possibilities are endless, as would be the
wait if positive proof of the reasons for the
tree dieback were required.
It has been clearly shown, however,
that a great percentage of the sulfates being
carried on the air currents are produced by
coal-fired utility plants and smelcing
industries.
It is also known that most free nitrates
are put into the air by automotive exhaust
emissions.
There are sophisticated scrubbers
presently on the market that, if installed in
the tall industrial smokestacks, could
remove much of the sulfates now being
spewed into the air. Catalytic converters are
now being developed that could reduce the
level of nitrates produced by automotive
traffic by 85%, according to Bruck.
Nothing is going to avert the need for
a basic change in the way we live our lives,
but we are not going to have the chance to
effect a change, unless we take steps to
alleviate the ecological catastrophe we are
creating. And, meanwhile, we are
sacrificing other species daily to our
wantonness.
Again quoted by the Ashcyil le
~Bruck said:
1:
0
300
j
200
E
£
"The technology is available today,
right now, to clean up the vast majority of
the problems I am showing you the daJa on.
Tlrat is what can be done if you decide as a
society that this is a problem and that we
need to do something abouz it."
100
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95 1~ 115 125
0.-IPl>DI
SUMMER- 1988
�NATURAL WORLD NEWS
REPORT
Duke Power Company of Charlonc,
NC, intends 10 purchase the Nantahala
Power and Light Comany (NP&L) in
Katuah Province. The Linc is proposed 10
carry bulk electricity from Duke installations
on the piedmont to Nantahala's service area
in the mountains. But scratching away the
surface reveals that there is more, much
more, at stake in this project than the needs
of a small rural utility company.
The Linc is 10 be 26 miles long,
strung from hilltop to hilltop on towers that
would range from 125 10 175 feet in height
and 100 feet wide at the base, costing at
least $30 million to construct. It will carry
two 230 kilovolt (KV) high-tension lines
from Duke installations in the Jocassee
watershed to a point near Cashiers, NC,
from which point a single 161 KV line
would continue on to tie in with a
sub-station planned for construction in the
small community ofTuckascgee in Jackson
County, NC.
The Line would climb out of the
Jocassee Watershed, leaving an ugly scar
through the basin of the Toxaway River.
Along its route The Line would march up
the sides and over the top of Toxaway
Mountain, marring the face of that mountain
beloved by residents and summer people
alike in Transylvania County, NC. It would
stretch along the sides of the Pamhcnown
Valley, a spectacular area that harbors sights
of sheer cliffs and rare vegetation not 10 be
found anywhere else in the cast.
The Linc would bisect imponant wild
habitat areas in the Greenland Creek
drainage and the Tuckascgee River Valley,
which arc large areas of uninterrupted forest
that would be cut in two and laid open
forever after to disruption by humans and
their machines. Fanher down the valley,
The Line would swallow up property and
homes and heedlessly push aside families
who have lived on the same farms and
homesites for generations.
One evening in May representatives
of citizen and environmental groups and
residents of the NP&L service area came
together to talk about The Linc. As the
conversation moved around the table, and
each participant spoke of his or her own
perspective or fears on the issue, the pieces
of the giant jigsaw puzzle that is Duke's
master plan for the Kauiah Province, fell
into place.
Ripped Off by Alcoa
Veronica Nicholas, a county
commissioner in Jackson County, told of a
decade-long struggle between a group called
Citizens for Low-Cost Power and the Alcoa
Aluminum Company, the industrial giant
that presently owns NP&L (sec Katuah
Journal #3). Originally, Alcoa had set up
hydroelectric generating facilities on the
TV A lakes in the Tuckasegee River
watershed as a public utility, which meant
DUKE'S POWER PLAY
that the company had certain privileges in
acquiring land and setting rates that went
along with the obligation to provide power
to the residentS of the area.
However, soon after the generating
facilities were completed, Alcoa split its
holdings into two companies, Tapoco
Company and NP&L. Tapoco, although it
was originally established as pan of a public
utility, was kept to feed Alcoa's voracious
energy appetite. NP&L remained a utility to
provide for the area residents, but it was
clearly a "neglected stepchild" of the parent
corporation.
When Tapoco was a utility, almost all
of the area's electrical needs were met with
hydroelectric power generated in th.!
mountains. After the split, NP&L's
generating capacity had to be supplemented
by power purchased outside the region.
This resulted in the ludicrous situation of
Alcoa siphoning cheap electric power from
the mountains, while ratepayers in the hiUs
paid to have nuclear power "wheeled in"
from the Tennessee Valley Authority. Not
only did the nuclear power cost more, but it
had to pass directly through the Alcoa plant
on its way back to the mountains!
NP&L ratepayers finally rebelled in
1977 and began legal motions to regain the
use of Tapoco's generating power and 10
recover the money with which they had
been subsidizing Alcoa. The case went
through extended litigation, until the
ratepayers were flatly denied by an
unsympathetic conservative bench on the
US Supreme Court in 1987.
"II feels that (with this sale) we arc
simply changing masters," said Nicholas.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that we
are losing our power to determine the use of
our natural resources. That's what my main
input will be tonight: Tapoco is not included
in thjs sale to Duke Power. Alcoa is trying
to relieve itself of itS public obligations, just
as it did in the l950's when it tried to sell its
transmission lines to Duke. If this sale goes
through, Tapoco will be supplying the
power Alcoa needs for smelting aluminum,
and our ability to provide for ourselves will
be forever gone."
Biology professor Dan Pittillo,
chairman of the Western North Carolina
Alliance and a resident of Jackson County,
added, "NP&L has never been funded
properly, and it has not been able LO keep up
with their maintenance as they should, so
that there is S40 million in maintenance that
needs to be done in the next ten years.
"Duke promised us that when they
purchased the company, ratCS would remain
stable for five years. rm thinking, though,
that after that time the rates we will have to
pay will go up from the 4.5-5 cents per
kilowatt/hour that we arc paying now, to
8-9 cents per kilowatt/hour, which is about
what Duke's rates arc at present"
Pittillo also displayed a copy of a
Duke Power annual report, published in
February, 1988, which boasted that, "If
regulators approve the acquisiton, we expect
that NP&L will become a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Duke Power. The company
(continued on next page)
KATUAH-page 19
SUMMER- 1988
�HOLD THAT LINE!
WHAT'S ON THE OTHER END
OF THE DUKE POWER LINE?
- HABITAT & SCENIC AREAS
DESTRUCTION?
- NUCLEAR DEPENDENCY AND
NUCLEAR WASTE?
- RATE HIKES FOR EXPENSIVE
IMPORTED POWER?
- MORE DAMS? ENERGY
EXPLOITATION OF THE MOUNTAINS?
)!
~;
- ..
c:
• ·c
LET'S GET THE FACTS BEFORE DUKE BUYS OUT
NANTAHALA POWER AND LIGHT
S! •
-
Write to the public staff of the NC Utilities Commission.
Support their request to postpone hearings on the
Nantahala sale until, September.
Address: Antoinette-Wike, Public Staff, NC Utlltltles
u
c •
2
S!
,, >
c( .Cl
Commission, P.O. Box 29520, Ralelgh, NC 27626
M ,... fOf ttf HO\.D THAT llNIJ l o• -
Otll• "°" NC tUU
(continued from page 19)
will in turn supply bulk power to
supplement NP&L's hydroelectric
generating system. To deliver that power,
Duke will build a transmission line to the
NP&L system and gain a direct link.for the
first time with the 7VA, which serves more
than 3.1 million customers in seven states.
That link will create the opportunity for
other bulk power sales to the west."
(emphasis ours)
Showdown at Coley Creek
Sitting near Pinillo was Bill Thomas,
public lands chair for the NC state Sierra
Club chapter and a co-chairman of the
Jocassec Watershed Coalition. Duke has
nlready damaged a pristine wilderness area
in that basin with a pumped-storage project
on Bad Creek.
Thomas said, "The Jocassee
Watershed Coalition is tied up with this
transmission line in some fashion, because
Duke is considering putting a second 2100
megawau pumped-storage facility on Coley
Creek at a cost of $3.3 billion dollars. We
thought aJI along that they were jiggering
their electrical demand forecast to make it
appear as if they would need a 5,000
megawatt output in their service area by the
year2000.
"What I'm thinking now, when I sec
this NP&L move, is that there is no penalty
co Duke for over-forecasting if they have
this pipeline to the west. What we are seeing
is the use of North Carolina resources being
used for Duke's profit, as they extend their
tentacles to the west. That's a matter of
public policy that needs to be debated quite
fiercely."
Thomas continued, "Jim Hendricks,
principal engineer of Duke's design
division, and others have told us that the
ultimate plan is to put in a 500 KV line.
That means that any route that is chosen will
have two sets of towers and a 1,000·1,500
foot right-of-way.
"500 KV lines are up in the voltage
range where possible adverse health effects
are something you can't just brush off. I
don't know much about electromagnetic
KATIJAH - page 20
radiation fields, but it has been brought up
as a possible cause for health problems in
other places."
"Why, western North Carolina is
being set up like dominoes!" someone
exclaimed. "If they can get that line in, then
they can justify Coley Creek. And, while
they've been saying they need it to supply
NP&L, all along they've been wanting to
sell power to TVA and even further west!"
''What we are seeing is the
use of North Carolina
resources being used for
Duke's profit, as they extend
their tentacles to the west.
That's a matter of public
policy that needs to be
debated quite fiercely."
"We Didn't Want to See lt"
A woman resident from the Sapphire
Community, located along the route of The
Line as it passes through Transylvania
County, said, "It would have been just
above our house. We didn't want to see it,
but we didn't know what effect physically
living under those lines would have. So we
sold our house because of it
"Duke gave us a very good price. We
asked them if we should price it without our
furniture, but they said that they wanted co
keep the furnishings, because they were
going to use the house for an executive
retreat. That doesn't sound like a public
service company to me."
Dan Pittillo said, "A main issue in this
discussion is the attitude that Duke is taking.
Duke is working like an aggressive business
1hat is interested in selling power and
keeping people working on their projects.
They are doing what is good for business.
Their interest is not the people whom they
are supposed to be serving. They are not
interested in conserving energy. Why, if
Duke were on a conservative bent, they
would have no need for this whole system
whatsoever!"
Others in the room spoke as well.
Several Jackson County residents were
unalterably opposed to Duke Power's
nuclear record and the company's lobbying
effons to bring the Southeastern Compact's
low-level radioactive waste dump to North
Carolina. They wanted 1he NP&L sale
stopped completely.
Some of the most vigorous
opposition came from members of a
property-owners' group around Lake
Toxaway, whose main interest was in
maintaining the value of their area as a
vacation spot. They complained of Duke's
high·handed methods in not consulting with
local people as The Line was being planned,
buying the right-of-way propenies under
false pretenses, and announcing the project
only after the property was purchased and
the company was already commi11ed to a
specific route. Although Duke's publicity
said alternate routes were being considered,
the propeny-owners said that the company
could produce no alternative plans when
asked to do so.
The group gathered together that
evening represented different people from
different points of view, but each piece
added co the puzzle made the whole picture
of Duke Power Company's plans for the
"development" of Katuah become more
frighteningly clear.
David Wheeler
SUMMER 1988
�Tiffi CHEROKEE MICRO-HYDROELEC1RIC
DEMONSTRATION PROJECT:
An Appropriate Community Energy System
(Readers are referred to the article
"llomemade Electricity• by Richard llotaJing in
Ka11jah Journal #4 concerning the value,
simplicity, importance, and •how-10• of
micro-hydroelecrric power gtner01io11.)
Tucked away in the shade of a cool
mountain holler on the Cherokee Indian
Reservation is a prototype of an advanced
technology still little-known to the world.
It 1s not made with circuits and
capacitors, but rather with concrete, plastic
pipe, and common sense. It is a
micro-hydroelectric system that taps the
kinetic energy of the Galamore Branch, a
small creek flowing down from the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park into the
Raven Fork in the Big Cove Community.
Electricity produced at the site powers
the Big Cove Head Stan Center, the Big
Cove Community Center, and the Big Cove
Volunteer Fire Department building. The
project has been developed through the
cooperation of Appalachian State
University, the Energy Division of the
Nonh 01rolina Depanment of Commerce,
and Save the Children, lnc ..
by Michael Red Fox
With its abundant water supplies and
steep slopes, the Katuah Province is ideally
suited by climate and topography for
micro-hydro power production. It is hoped
that the Cherokee project will serve as a
model that will help increase popular
awareness that micro-hydro is a benign,
narural, and renewable energy resource and
will encourage the development of
micro-hydroelectric sites in other areas of
Kan1ah.
The site on Galamore Branch was
located in an early study of
micro-hydroelectric si1es in Katuah. The
study found 1,950 suitable micro-hydro
sites in the mountains that would be capable
of producing a combined potential output of
34,000 kilowaus of energy if developed.
Fifty-three of these sites are on the
Cherokee Indian Reservation and represent
a combined potential output of970 kilowaus.
The Big Cove micro-hydro system
divens a design flow of 1.2 cubic feet per
second through a six inch diameter PVC
penstock (pipe) for a distance of 2,500 feet
10 develop a net head (drop) of 210 feet
The intake structure is located at a
point where the streambed is less than six
feet wide and consists of a poured concrete
dam, which divens water into a concrete
seuling basin.
The energy generated by the falling
water is convened by a Pelton turbine wheel
into a design power output of 12 kilowaus.
The small turbo-generator is located beside
the Head Start pre-school building, which is
the primary load center that utilizes most of
the electricity produced The maximun load
for lhe pre-school is 7.4 kilowatts, which is
currently being reduced somewhat through
load management devices and more efficient
lighting.
Under federal law, small electricity
producers have a right to be connected into
the commercial power grid. However, the
Galamore Branch project is too small for
interconnection to be cost-effective.
Operating on a "stand-alone" basis (not
connected to the larger utility grid) requires
a ballast to prevent the electrical generator
from over-speeding when the load is low.
Currently the ballast load is divened
into two three-kilowatt resistance space
heaters mounted on the basement wall of the
Head Stan Center. However, plans call for
an integra1ed system in which the
micro-hydro plant will complement a
passive solar greenhouse to be built on the
side of the school building, which will
include water containers for a solar algae
pond aquaculture operation.
The water absorbs solar heat directly
and will not need backup heating in the
winter. But electrical resistance coils buried
in a bed of sand below the containers will
act as electrical ballast for the micro-hydro
system and will provide additional heat for
the tanks.
It is fitting that the Cherokee people
are developing this energy alternative. By
utilizing lhe natural products of the
ever-circling environment, they are
following the traditional values of their
culture in a modem context.
Micro-hydroelectric power is a
liberating technology. lt is a technology
scaled to living and working in place. It has
minimal negative environmental impacts and
could be a significant resource in developing
the new, land-based economv of Katuah.
Micro-hydroelectric power production
is site specific: each unique stream site
determines a different configuration for a
micro-hydro system. But the principles are
everywhere 1he same. The Galamore Branch
project provides descriptive exhibits and
workshops on micro-hydroelectric power
generation.
For information on visiting the
project, contact:
Save the Children
Box33J
Cherokee, NC
Ka/Uah Province 287I 9
or call (704) 497-6092
Michail Red Fox Is a whitt person
living on the Cherokl!e Indian Reserva1io11. fie was
involved in the design a11d construction of tht
micro-hydroelectric instal/Olion 011 Gal.amore Branch
aN1 is now head opera/or of the project.
KATIJAH- page21
SUMMER-1988
�spruce mountain song
DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
~
If I could take this broken world
and give it back it's trees
it's gentle healing summer rain
f
~
it's clear, cool, autumn breeze
then I could rake the magic of the wood
the magic of the mind
and spread it then to ail my kin
to all of humankind
~
~
.i
And yet I know even as I speak
that this cannot be done
J.
I feel the earth through every pore
my healing bas begun
we start out as a candle flame
we will become the sun
~~i
~
~
~ ::°'b::::g: ~ethe
~
l
~.
-
earth
Mara Bradburn, 16
~
Robert Stough
Deny.PA
'..t
:rl·
~~
;~
~
~
4
~
~
;
~.g
~.~ i·
~
~
.... .It's funny how I picked today to read this issue of
Katuab, because I took a long walk through the woods
today with my neighbor (I live in the mountains of north
Georgia). We walked an old road that runs by Sharp Mt.
Creek I often stopped to wonder what life was like here in
these woods hundreds of years ago and how peaceful it must
have been to be one with nature, in this sacred land.
I will be looking forward to bearing from you.
Valerie Ansted
Jasper, GA
~
~
~
kt.
~
!§
t~~~~~~~~~.\t:19~..~~~~ .
Dear Kattlah,
We're busy in this area trying to repel the
Superconducting Supercollider the governor of this state
thinks should be in Durham, Granville, and Person counties.
We're talking forced relocation of (at least) 100 or so
families, some who have lived here for 5-7 generations
already.
The SSC is an atom smasher (53-mile underground
circle), that will produce particles of energy called muo.ns,
that will penetrate soil, rock and groundwater tables. It will
only be used for 25 years, at which time they have no idea
bow they will deal with the leftovers (our children).
Please help us pray for the Eanh and our children here
in the flatlands.
Tara Clayton
Rougemont, NC
KATUAH - page 22
summer morning dew, the nightclouds gone,
dawnlight glowing on the old sugar maples,
tree-snails stiJTing in its thick moss-fur,
i take the deer-trails through soaking meadows,
thoughts flowing with the yellow swallowtails
over hucklebeny meadows bumming with bees,
past moccasin orchids, young ferns in the sun,
through flame azaleas and wind-twisted birch
into deep spruce shadows, mossy and still,
then down a ways along a faint grassy trail
to a cool spring among ancient spruce/sages,
and rested there awhile. a stone for a pillow,
a feather in the hair of the wild old nx>untain,
then wandered on, sailing with the ravens
over jwnbled rockfields and tangles blowdowns,
by flowering witch-hobble, snow-petaled comets,
sparrows chatting in gnarled gray hawthorns,
a lone swallow skimming the crest
above the broken wing of the old wrecked plane,
i a thoughtless seed drifting on the wind,
each moment a cosmos sprouting,
waves of gn:cn mountains rolling me home,
soaring free, clear blue sky in all my mind
Dear KatUa b,
Thanks so much for the time and interest you are
giving to help make our vision become a reality. Without
such concern of kindred spirits we know that very little
would ever be accomplished.
As I mentioned to you, we need any useful donations
of building materials, hand tools, garden tools, heavy farm
equipment. livestock, and even workers to help clear and
build shelters on over 18 acres, recently purchased to provide
needy people with a "farming community home"!
Thanks again,
Cherie & Tom Lowry
Rt.#5, Box 216 T
Ellijay, GA 30540
(404) 838-4636
SUMMER- 1988
�APPALACHIAN SLEEP
In sleep,
each tree
becomes
the one cree,
each flush
of rhododendron,
color for the cheek
oflhedream
I rub with
dozing fingers,
each mountain,
something to climb
without thinking,
to soar above it
effonlessly
as a brash-feathered bird.
I do not leave
the glorious ou~lde
as I slip beneath ,
the sheet
but bring it w\tb me,
to wearcomfonabJy,
to wrap round
the child's soft body.
John Grey
C RMDESIGNS
Spring Equinox Dream 1988
There is a group of us out on a kind of platfonn and
we are watching a performance: dancing and farting around.
It feels more like a show than a performance. There are some
of the kids among us participating in the performance that is
going on to music. It is a kind of trapeze they are playing on
that is pulling them over humps in the straps etc. They seem
to be having fun playing on it, though the apparatus does not
seem to be working very well. At some point we realize that
!here is an authority that is about to impose a soning on us.
We each have numbers and are seated on these smooth
rounded pebble like soners that glide easily on the floor
surface. As we are being sorted we go through openings in
which we can not see the ends or where they come out. I
realize that I do not have a number, and begin to also realize
that I am being sorted toward the low end of the numbers.
People with low numbers or no numbers are soned for
extinction by the brutal authority. As I am finally sorted into
this category 1 become restless and begin to search for ways
to get over to the groups with higher numbers, such as 8 or 9
and find it very intimidating and difficult. There seem to be
no physical police yet their presence is still felt. I have with
me a metallic object that has on it a symbol like a planet or a
rounded form and a there is a feather sticking out of it It
becomes a spirit guide to me as 1 get a rush of energy from it
and find my way to survival. This magic symbol in metallic
form spoke to me with wisdom and 1 easily made it to the
group that slipped past the authority. It showed me that I had
my own energy with which to escape the trap that was made.
Later we are walking through a passageway and I am so
amaz.ed that we made it through alright. I remember the spirit
guide and its assistance. Together some friends and I realize
that this is all a movie of ourselves that we are watching, and
we are walking out of a kind of theatre in the earth. Soon we
are all together in the yard of our house around a fire. There
is a friend who is burning huge sticks of incense and we are
talking, and eating, and laughing.
RM
You know
Sometimes
in the quiet cool of summer dusk
I sit oo the porch after a rain
has washed the dark mountains and covered them
with quiet mist
a restless dream
rising and rolling
and the still hum of a million trees
lulling to the milky sky
like
This moment
as the river murmurs in its sleep
a hot tongue of lightning licks a distant ridge
the husky voice of far off thunder
sends a shudder through the bedded earth
she turns and breathes a long green sigh
and in her subtle sleepy way
Whispers the answer
- Tony Fisher
KA TUAH - page 23
SUMMER- 1988
�A Conversation
with
Ruth and Rio
of Celo Community
continued from p. 10
Ruth: It was one of the worst things!
-the worst! How to deal with multiflora
rose.
K: lt seems that people here have
very different lifestyles and interests that
keep them busy and not as involved with
each other as they might be. That may make
support difficult. Yet diversity can also be a
strength ...
the dark. Someone put a flashlight in the
middle of the circle and there were just
shadows... and there was such a difference
in the way people were sharing! That was
when I talked about the next workday...and
I was able to be real vibrant and alive 'cause
everyone wasn't staring at me. It was like I
was in the dark by myself talking to I don't
know who.
Ruth: Yeah- I really value the large
age diversity here. You have the wisdom of
people who've been here so long and have
been through all the processes and then you
have the young sprouts wilh new ideas and
energy--it's such a nice mixture.
K: Because some want to use
herbicides and some don't?
Ruth: Yes, and some don't even care
if we get rid of it
Rio: What's neat about the older
members is how open they are to new ideas.
And how they can even joke about
themselves and the community and how
crazy it is here.
Rio: And some say, "We've been
fighting it forever and it's getting away from
us so let's have careful use of chemicals and
just get rid of it "...and it's become such a
touchy subject people don't even want to
bring it up anymore.
Ruth: I remember hearing an older
member talk about the process in the
meetings being just like in a family--how
you're certainly going to have
disagreements so you just go ahead and
have them and move on. And you still love
each other because you're a family.
Ruth: So it took some new people to
say, "Let's go folks ... those who wanna do
it, come on out - we'll have a great time!"
K: So what'd you do?
Rio:
And knowing that the
difficulties not only pass but that they're
useful. And that new energy is coming in
and things are moving constantly.
Rio: We cut and grubbed... and got
rid of a Jot!
.~
Ruth : Life would be like that
E anywhere, only there are more rewards and
Ruth: And the same day a big group
also cleaned up the river. People were really
enthusiastic and had a fun time together. I'd
like to see that trend continue.
~ more possibilities here than I can imagine
:i
d
Ruth: People not being open with
how they feel.
Rio: I tend to say very little in the
meetings because I'm often intimidated.
Ruth: But you're loosening up.
Rio: I have to-I'm secretary of the
Property Committee so I have to read my
minutes and if people think I didn't do it
right I have to go through that.
K: It's great you're doing it.
Rio: It is. I do see it as a good
process for me.
Ruth: One of the best meetings we've
had recently was last month's. There was a
thunderstorm and the lights went out and
three-fourths of the meeting took place in
KATUAH-page24
K : Making a commitment to land is
.9
Rio: Some of the complaints now are
about how group process in the meetings is
so difficult. ..
K: Because of communication
problems?
having anyplace else.
seems to give a blessing to whatever
happens there. It almost assures success
because the land is so giving in return.
1i' such an important thing to do these days .. .it
!
K: Sounds like you should hold all
of them that way! You mentioned
relationships before and how important they
are in communities ... yet some people
probably came here panly to avoid deali.ng
with others as much ...aod suddenly find
they're as close as ever!
Rio: That reminds me - Billy
Bernstein wrote a hilarious song after he'd
been here awhile -·it goes something like "I
thought I was dropping out but it looks like
rm dropping in"!
Ruth: Celo is also getting fairly large
and that makes group process all the more
difficult
Rio: And there arc so many opinions
and the aim is to reach consensus on
everything. It also seems that with groups in
general it's hard to make commitments and
follow through on what you say you'll do.
It really takes supporting each other.
Ruth: That makes me think about
owning land. We owned some land in
Minnesota and I never even felt like I owned
it even though it was in my name. Holding
land as a community feels much closer to
true ownership. I want to call it
stewardship. It's about taking care of land
the way it needs to be taken care of and not
about saying, "I can do whatever I want
with it!" That doesn't even make sense to
me.
I'm really grateful to Arthur Morgan
and the others who started this place - and
all the work that's gone into it over the
years. And the longer fm here, the more I
appreciate it. It's such a healing
place... there's healing going on, and you
can't even put your finger on it - it's just
happening.
SUMMER - 1988
�The "'i4Jhtan4s of Roan
continued from p. 7
The SAHC is leading the way in securing this
much-needed protection. Examination of a broad range of
alternatives has led SAHC to conclude that protection can
best be accomplished through a blend of federal, state and
private ownership. SAHC encourages governmental
protection where appropriate, receives gifts of land and buys
land from willing sellers using donated funds. To date,
SAHC has protected approximately 900 acres through private
means and has partially funded a 693-acre acquisition by the
state of Tennessee. Approximately 9,500 acres still remain to
be protected.
SAHC's protection strategy Involves four approaches:
I. Receive gifts of land, including conservation
easements and other partial interests.
2. Encourage additional acquisition by Federal and State
agencies.
3. Purchase lands or interests in lands with donated
funds; own and manage such lands. The bulk of the
protection will be accomplished by this means.
4. Register lands under the respective Stare Namral Area
Registry programs; since registry is nm binding upon the
registrant, it may be considered only temporary
protection.
Cooperating with SAHC in saving the Highlands are
state agencies in North Carolina and Tennessee as well as the
US Forest Service. Endorsing the program are the National
Audubon Society, the Garden Club of America, the
Appalachian Trail Conference, and numerous state 8Jld local
organizations.
Without an active plan for preservation, it is likely that
much of the area now unprotected would eventually be
purchased by developers. In the early days of the
preservation effort, a part of the area was purchased by
developers. Fortunately these tracts were since acquired by
the US Forest Service. To date there have been two kinds of
development pressures: 1) second homes and 2) high density
recreation. Development activity bas been particularly strong
o.n the North Carolina side of the mountain. The largest
stngle development is on Beech Mountain, about 10 miles to
the aonheas1 of the Highlands of Roan. A particularly
controversial development is that on top of Sugar Mountain
where a concrete ten-story condominium is visible from
many points. Public outcry against this intrusion was so
great that the NC Legislature passed a "ridge law" restricting
construction on mountain tops; however, there is no
equivalent law for the slopes. Numerous smaller
developments are in the vicinity. Throughout the
Newland-Linville-Boone area, second homes are appearing
on many ridges and in rural areas.
The high density recreation developments have so far
been primarily oriented toward skiing. One large tract within
the preservation project boundaries was earlier surveyed as a
possible ski resort and determined to be among the top ten
sites in the southeast. (The same tract was considered as a
site for a Tennessee Regional State Prison.) There are large
ski developments on nearby Beech Mountain, Sugar
Mountain, Big Bald, and at Seven Devils. If skiing business
increases, development pressures will escalate.
The adverse consequences of developments within a
unique natural area are worth recounting: First, developments
limit accessibility by the general public. The owners of
second homes want privacy. Other facilities may be limited to
club members or pacrons. Second, it is clear that the health of
the animal populations within the Roan massif depends upon
an adequate range over which they can roam and feed.
The entire massif provides protection for certain
species that individual tracts a lone cannot provide.
Rare plant and animal species are more likely to survive in a
large area of protected tracts. Third, the views from the
higher summits depend absolutely on the absence of
incompatible development on the massif itself, particularly
within the project boundaries adopted by SAHC. High
density recreation facilities, public or private, could be so
heavily used that the present naturalness-would disappear.
KATUAH- page 25
'lt is cCea.r that the health of the
ani.mat poputati.ons wi.thi.n the
.Roan massi.f depends u.pon an
adequate ran9e over which they
can rnam and feed. The enti.rn
massi.f prnvi.des prntecti.on for
certai.n. speci.es that i.ndi.vi.du.a[
tracts a!on.e cannot provi.de.
SAHC realizes that the task of land protection cannot
be accomplished simply by acquiring lands and conferring on
them a certain conservation status. A continuing stewardship
program must be exercised to prevent damage from
ever-present threats to existing natural values. SAHC's plan
is to keep the Highlands of Roan the way they are: to
maintain the balds, to leave the forests undisturbed. to
encourage retention of fanning and other rural activities on
the lower slopes, and generally to let the lands be available to
the visitor on foot. The overall goal of SAHC's stewardship
program is to accommodate nondestructive scientific,
educational, and recreational uses of the Highlands of Roan
while protecting their biological and physical features.
To assure survival of the rich fauna and flora of Roan
Mountain, SAHC is keenly aware that management plans and
preserve boundaries must consider both habitat diversity
and t he total size of the a rea to be protected.
Boundary and acquisition decisions based on the narrow
distributions and requirements of individual plant species and
a few special plant communities will not suffice. A broad
view of the protection zone-·one which considers
wildlife habitat, animal mobility, and critical
population size--is more likely to ass ure
preservation of both the flora and the vast wildlife
legacy.
Vital to the success of SAHC's plan to preserve the
Highlands of Roan is a strong and successful fund-raising
program. SAHC has launched a major effon to raise the
approximately $10 million needed to complete the private
share of the protection plan. Nearly $1,000,000 has been
raised so far mainly from individuals. Individual
memberships in SAHC are available from a $10 minimum
Subscribing Membership to $1,000 or more as a Life
Member. Currently SAHC bas approximately 1800
members in 40 states.
SAHC also receives donations. The project is an
excellent vehicle for individual tax-deductible giving.
Appreciated land, securities and other property may be
donated without payment of capital gains tax; donors may
take a tax deduction on the market value of the gift as well.
The donation goes into the land fund and is used for the
acquisition of tracts within the project. SAHC also maintains
a perpetual register of memorial gifts. Also a number of
members have named SAHC as beneficiary in their wills; no
estate taxes are payable on bequests to tax-exempt
organizations. Another common form of giving is to take out
a life insurance policy and make SAHC the beneficiary and
owner of the policy. Such donations are tax-deductible as
well as the premium payments.
Becoming a member of the Southern Appalachian
Highlands Conservancy and volunteering time and skills is
an excellent way to participate in the protection of this
excraoidinary treasure-the Highlands of Roan.
~
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conser vancy
P.O. Box 3356, Kingsport, TN 37664
(615) 323-3677
This ar1icle was compiled by Marnie Muller of
Katuah
Journal Crom SAHC materials, panicularly
the SAHC Case Statement. Special thanlcs to Stan
Murcay of SAHC.
SUMMER-1988
�LEARNING COMMUNITY
-Arth ur Morgan Schoolcontinucd from p. 12
'The reason we have such a variety of
experiences and such an openness about
giving the students choices is because we
know that there arc things that each student
can do well. We make an effon to help find
out what they are, and we let them know in
a sincere way that they arc good enough,"
said Patty.
ttEvery situation is approached
slightly differently. We try to give
everybody involved a chance to talk about
their perspective. We try to clarify all the
specifics of any problem. We might use the
chalkboard for writing 'this is his problem
with the issue, and this is what he would
like to see happen' and 'this is her problem
and what she would like to see happen' to
get everything clearly out
'This can be done in a small group,
or in the all-school meetings which happen
weekly. It is a consensus process and deals
with the issue in a way that can satisfy
everybody. Discipline often comes in the
form of a proposal that is carried on during
a trial period, such as from one all-school
meeting to the next. and then re-evaluated."
In this way students have the opponunity to
participate significantly in making decisions
that affect them.
Cooperation is another quality needed
in a healthy community. This means sharing
the work as well as the play. Students arc
involved in all phases of community
responsibility - cooking, cleaning, wood
gathering and spli11ing, and gardening.
Wor k teaches responsibility and
interdependence as well as practical skills.
Patty said. "If a student doesn't want
to do their chore at lunch, and their job is to
wash dishes, then that throws everything
off. It means that whoever is drying and
potting dishes away can't do it, or has to
wait In practical ways like that we try to
poi.n t out that each student's personal
actions affect everyone dse.
"This isn't the right school for
everybody. We want to be clear about what
the school is. We're flexible in trying to
meet each student's needs to an extent, but
if a student has a problem with stealing
things, for example, we're not willing to
lock everything up so that ccnain student
can remain here. If a student can't cope with
the 'freedom within a structure' that we
offer here, we're not going to change our
whole philosophy."
Elizabeth Morgan in her notes
referred to a quote from Mahatma Mohandas
Gandhi that summed up that philosophy: "A
school should be built by the children,
should seek to be self-supporting, and
should never be finished!"
,
DE.SIGNS
by Rob Messick
1
1tus1ra1lon & Design
in Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil
P.O. Box 2801 •
Boone. NC 28007 •
(704)7~;
111.TMVIOLET l'UWICATIOtl AHO fllTBllMO IYITfMI
GM PlflODUCTI • WATSI AHAL\'Ill
.HWY. 107
RAN~
C. LANIER
~2
RT. II IOX 125
CUL.1..0WHEE, NC am
T-SHIRTS, SWEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
15 ORIGINAL
HANO-PRINTED
NATURE DESIGNS
EACH COWRFUL
DESIGN IS
PRlN'IED ON
QUALITi T' s
AND SWEATS
Chinese
Acupuncture
and
Herbology
Clinic
M. C. Majebe
Licensed Acupuncturist
78 East Chestnut St. Ashevllle, NC 28801
(704) 258-901 6
KATIJAH - page 26
S~R-1988
�. ........
NABC ill
From Aug 21-26, 1988, Lhe Third North
A meric an Biorcgio na l Con gress
(NABC III) will draw Turtle Islanders
from all over the continent to Vancouver,
British Columbia, for a five-day celebration
of their varied cultural forms and their
commitment to the restoration of ecological
harmony on this pan of the planet
NABC Ill will adopt a cultural focus,
encouraging panicipants to express their
bioregional identities by telling their stories,
presenting displays and mapping projects,
exhibiting their arts and craflS, and sharing
their cerebral and ceremonial activities.
For more information, write NABC III,
Box 99, Lillooet, BC, Canada VOK !VO.
Individuals or groups wishing to contact
other NABC participants from Katliab may
phone (704) 683-1414.
For a copy of NABC ll Proceedings, a
112-page report on the 1986 Congress,
send $11. 50 (p & h included) to Ha.rt
Publishing, Box 1010, Forestville, CA
95436.
Cry, Sacred G round: Big Mountai n
U.S.A. (© 1988) by Anita Parlow js a
compelling oral testimony of Navaho
sheepherders who describe the religious
beliefs that underlie the impressive
resistance to stop a disinheritance from their
sacred ground. The Navahos who share
l11eir stories do so to make certain that what
is happening will not be forgotten - and that
it be stopped. As one Medicine Man told the
author, "our children will know that we
knew how to live.as' Navahos and we knew,
too, how to die as Navahos.
Cry, Sacred G ro und, produced by the
Sacred Lands Project of the Christie
Institute, includes 50 photographs and
artwork by award-winning artist William
Franklin.
,
.
The Sacred Lands Project of th.e Christie
lnstiuae, 1324 North Capitol Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20002
Who Owns North Carolina is a
420-page guide to the largest landowners in
the state's 100 counties, tile result of the
most exhaustive land ownership
investigation ever undertaken for a state or
region in the U.S.
Maps, charts, data analysis, and
interpretative essays offer statistical details
and comparative ranlcings of each county's
largest landowners, data on forestry and
farming in each county, rankings of the
counties by 25 different social, economic,
and political characteristics, and discussion
by the project's investigators of the cultural
significance of their findings.
The book is available for $30 for
Katuah readers (mention our name). Write:
lnstitme for Sowhern Studies, P.O. Box
531, Durham, NC 27702
The International 4th World
Assembly will hold its seventh assembly
this summer, July 31-August 4, 1988 at
Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. The 4th
World is an informal group of people from
all over the world who affirm the right of
urban neighborhoods and rural villages to
make their own decisions abopt their own
Jives. The theme this year is "Community
Economics As If the Earth Mattered".
Registration is open to all. Full conference
fee including meals, lod ging and
proceedings is $150.
For more info: School of Living, 7th
assembly; 3030 Sleepy Hollow Rd, Falls
Church, VA 22042.
Economics as If the Earth Really
Matte r e d is the first in a new series of
books from New Society Publishers
exploring the possibilities for creating an
accountable economy. The book by Susan
Meeker-Lowry offers hundreds of
suggestions of how average people can
invest their money and/or their time in
building a new economy in harmony with
life-affirming values. Subjects covered
include boycotts, shareholder action,
socially responsible investment funds,
small-scale investing, projects i n local
economic control and worker-ownership,
new community economics, tools for
reinvestment and.revitalization, alternative
exchange systems, and seeds for the future.
Dozens of names and addresses and
resource lists round out this unique and
exciting book.
Meeker-Lowry, publisher of Cara/yst-a
quarterly newsletter for those interested in
small-scale socially responsible investing,
offers us new glimpses of ways in which
people are using their participation in the
economic system as a vehicle for the
expression of consciously chosen values:
living in harmony with the earth, fighting
poverty and injustice, combatting feelings of
helplessness and hopelessness, and building
lives which combine diversity and
synthesis, integration and balance.
New Society Publishers, P.O. Box 582,
Santa Cruz, CA 95061-0582
The Ca r olina Associa tion fo r t he
Ad va ncement of Midwifery (CAAM)
is a grassroolS organization whose goal is to
remove the current legal restrictions that
prevent direct-entry midwives from
practicing in North Carolina. CAAM's goal
is to promote competent and legal midwives
to serve the women and families of North
Carolina. CAAM wants members from all
over North Carolina. Membership ($10/yr)
entitles one to receive future issues of
Midwifery News as well as contribute to the
effort to make North Carolina a state where
parents have real choices about giving birlll.
CAAM, Rt.1, Box 201 M, Durham, NC
27705
A unique
summer comp
uduenture
Natural Food Store
& Deli
160 Broadway
Asheville, NC 28801
{704)683-1414
68:M795
Where &oadWay rMets
Merrlmon Ave & 1-240
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-Saturday: 9am·8pm
Sunday: 1pm-5pm
ror
young people
6 - 18 years old
Woods, water, trail experiences,
horses, crafts, Indian lore
free brochure available
Pepperland Farm Camp
Star Rout e Fiimer, TN 37333
{704) 253-7656
KATUAH - page 27
SUMMER - 1988
�€V€0t'S
7-10
LINVILLE, NC
The Highland Games at
Grandfather Mountain. Caber toss, sheepdog trinls,
Highland dancing, bagpipes. $8.00/day. For more
info, call (704) 733-2013.
9
HELEN, GA
·Appalachian Mountain Music
Festival" at Unicoi State Park; Helen, GA 30545.
Call (404) 878-2201.
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
"Big Game Observation." S4S.
Smoky Mountain Field School Sec 6/},5-26.
9-10
JUNE
19-2S
BRASSTOWN, NC
"June Music and Dance Week" at
John C. Campbell Folk School; Brasstown, NC
28902.
SUMMER
20
CELEBRATION
SOLSTICE
22-26
HIGHLANDS, NC
"The Art of Landscape
Photography" workshop with Gil Leebrick and John
Scarlata. $2SO incl. accommodations. Appalachian
Environmental Ans Center; P.O. Box 580;
Highlands, NC 28741
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
"Wild Mammals of the Great
Smokies" field instruction with Dr. Michael Pelton.
$45. Smoley Mountain Field School; 2016 Lake
Ave.; Knoxville, TN 37996.
25-26
29
Full Moon
29
RABUN GAP, GA
"Wild Fems" expedition with
Marie Mellinger. $8 incl. lunch. The Hambidge
Center; P.O. Box 339; Rabun Gap, GA 30568 or
ca1J (404) 746-5718.
13
New Moon
13
RABUN GAP, GA
"Materializing the Shadows."
Investigating stream life with Dr. William
Mcl.arney. The Hambidge Center, SQC 6(29.
17-23
m G HLANDS, NC
"Transcendentalism on the
Mountain" seminar at The Mountain; 841 Highway
106; Highlands, NC 28741
29-31
CELO, NC
"Midw i fery
in
the
Mountains" conference. Workshops on
"Herbs in Pregnancy and Binh," "Medical
Questions," "Body Work," "Tricks of the
Trade," more. With Lucinda Flodin;
Barbara King, MD; Lisa Goldstein; Pat
Roy; others. $55 incl. meals. Lisa
Goldstein; 823-C Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714. (704) 675-5316.
30.31
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
"Mushroom ldcntific.ation," for
beginners. $45. Smoky Mountain Field School, sec
6/2S-26.
22-24
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Rhinoceros Glances at the Moon:
The Art of Movement as Meditation.• Tai Chi
weekend with Jay Dunbar. $75. Southern Dharma,
see7/l-4.
22-24
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
Family Weekend at Great Smoley
Mountains Institute at Tremont. Hiking,
siorytelling, music, more. AdultS:· $4S. Children:
$35. Write at Townsend, TN 37882 or call (615)
448-6709.
RALEIGH, NC
Fourth World Conference
("break down all the big powers into their
ethnic or bioregional areas") - bioregional
sp~ers, including Jim Berry, Peter Berg,
Susan Meeker-Lowry, and Mamie Muller.
At Meredith College. $150. For more info,
write School of Living; 3030 Sleepy
Hollow Rd.; Falls Church, VA 22042..or
call (703) 237-7507.
24-29
JULY
1-31
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Mountain Sweet Talk," a two-act
play with The Folktellers, Barbara Freeman and
Connie Regan-Blake, at the Folk An Center on the
Blue Ridge Parkway. Advance LickctS: S8.00. Call
(704) 258-11 13.
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Teacher and Naturalist
Week" (and anyone interested in learning
more about the natural world). Joseph
Cornell (Sharing Nature with Children),
guest instructor. "Learn about the natural
history of the Smokies and ways of
effectively motivating people toward a
deeper appreciation of the natural world."
$145. Great Smoky Mpuntains Institute at
Tremont. See7/22-24
31-8/4
24-30
1-4
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Writing Down the Bones."
Writing, meditation and yoga retreat with Natalie
Goldberg and Frances Kean. SJ20. Southern Dhnrma
Retreat Center; Rt 1, Box 34- H; Hot Springs, NC
28743.
ROANOKE, VA
"Celebrate Love• conrerence
sponsored by Visions or Tomorrow at Hollins
College. Cllls.<:es, events, conccrtS. Program: S165;
w/ food, acc. $290. Contact: Jan Settle; Rt. I, Box
310-A; Goode, VA 24556
28
AUG.UST
l
LAMMAS
FESTIVAL
1-28
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Mountain Swee1 Talk," sec
7/1 -31.
1-31
C HEROKEE, NC
"The Art of Cherokee
Fingerwcaving" cxhibil at the Cherokee Heritage
Museum and Gallery; Box 477; Cherokee. NC
28719.
5-7
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
Naiuro Siudy Workshop fOI' adults.
$45. Grct1t Smoley Mountains Institute al Tremont,
see 7/22-24
Full Moon
12
KATUAH- page 28
DAY ( Mid s ummer )
New Moon
SUMMER- 1988
�27
ELKrNS, WV
August.a Fcs1ival - 11adilional
music and dance wilh all the 11immings. Write
August.a Hcriiage Ccn1cr, Davis and Elkins College;
Elkins. WV 26241.
Full Moon
12-14
22-28
WILLIS, VA
"Women's Wellness Week"
with Libby Outlaw (massage therapist);
Carolyn Moore, MD; Katherine Chantal
(herbalist); Christine Byrd (nutirtional
counselor); much more. Pre-register: $295
incl. food and acc. Indian Valley Holistic
Center; Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis, VA 24380
26-28
LOUISA, VA
· women: Cclcbra1ing Our
Divcrsily - A Multiculiural Galhcring•
wi1h
workshops, performance, dance, culwml sharing.
S35·75 sliding rec. Wrile Women; Twin Oaks
Communi1y; Louisa VA 23093 (703) 894-5126.
10
New Moon
1-30
CHEROKEE, NC
"Ayun'ini (Swimmer): Cherokee
Shaman" exhibi1 al Cherokee Hcrit.age Museum and
Gallery. SceS/1-31.
2-5
BRASSTOWN, NC
"Labor Day Music and Dance
Weekend" wilh Pelc Sulhcrland, Karen Billings,
Marlha Owen, olhcrs. John C. Campbell Folk
School, sec 6/19-25.
3-5
HIGHL ANDS, NC
"Pinhole in lhe Landscape,"
pinhole camera workshop wilh Eric Renner. "/ use
no viewfinder or exposure meter; I rely upon the
passion and the timing within myself and the belief
that it will worlc." Environmcnllll Aris Ccn1cr, sec
6{22-26.
17-18
HARRISONB UR G, VA
"Restoring Wilderness in the
East: A Deep Ecology Perspective"
conference featuring Dave Foreman (Eanh
First!), Gary Lawless (Gulf of Maine
Bioregion), Jamie Sayen (PAW), Barbara
Dugelby (Earth First!), David Wheeler
(Kataah). Sponsored by Virginia Earth
First! and Virginians for Wilderness;
co-sponsored by Karuah. At James Madison
University in Harrisonburg. Registration:
$10 advance, $15 at door. For more info:
write VA EF!; Route 1, Box 250; S1aunton,
VA 2440 I or call (703) 885 6983.
17-18
HE LEN, CA
"Native Americans of lhc
Soulheast• a1 Unicoi St.ate Park, see 7/9.
4
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
"Wild Mammals or lhc Grcal
Smokies," see 6125-26.
/'
TU~
f~LL GATME~NG
RND THROE FRIR
SEPTEMBER 30 • OCTOBER 2 , 1988
in Floyd County, VA
Actiuitie s, Music, Dancing, Workshop s
Bring: camping equipment, musical instruments, trade goods
For more information, contact:
Katherine Delauney
Will Ashe Bason
Travianna Farm
Rt. 1, Box 217
Check, VA 24072
(703) 745-2708
(703) 651-3492
Need a ride? Share a ride? Call your local Katuah contact person or:
Eastern slope (NC, GA, SC): David Wheeler (705) 586-3146
Tom Hendricks (704) 689-5382
Western slope (TN):
Sariah Loveday (615) 688-7408
KATUAH - page 29
SUMMER- 1988
�STARSPAN ASTROLOGICAL PROFILES:
Relationships, life chans, forccastS. ChartS and
proCcssional taped readings also available. P.O. Boll
10413; Raleigh. NC 27605
WANTED: LAND in western NC. Flllllily seeks 5
or more acres, preferably near Cullowhee, to
preserve and evenwally inhabit U you have or know
or affordable land, contaeL Bob and Mary Davis; 213
Wesunorcland Ct; Georgetown, KY 40324 (502)
863-4267.
MOON DANCE PARM HERBALS - herbal salves,
tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For
brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm: Rt 1,
Box 726; Hampton, TN 37658
FUTONS by Simple Pleasures - affordably priced.
Send SASE for info 10: Simple Pleasures; RL. l,
Box 1426: Clayton, GA 30525 (404) 782-3920
FREE CATALOG - Our books cover solar energy,
natural foods, mCUlphysics, fiction, and poetry. The
latest project is Black Mountain Rtvitw, with
!hemes on lhe individual vs. society. Write: Lorien
House; P.O. Box I 112; Black Mountain, NC 28711
EUSTACE CONWAY- Guide and 1eaeher of
primitive Earth Skills with emphasis on fire
building, hide tanning., shell.er, and foraging. He
teaches at public schools, parks, environmenlal
cen1ers, and classes of au kinds. For more
information contact him at: 602 Deerwood Drive,
Gastonia, NC 28084 or call Allein Stanley al (704)
872-7972
POLE STAR RETREAT CENTER available for
rental. Days. weekends, or weeks. Conferences,
workshops, CIC. in privalC, rural setting. 30 ft yurt,
camping, swimming. Localed near Boone, NC.
Contact: Rt 2, Box 59: Zionville. NC 28698
(904) 385-2071.
GARDENERS are encouraged to visi1 our Paradise
Garden for instruction and inspiralion (free) and/or
perennial plan1 sale (cheap). ArtistS are inviied. IO
come and crealC in lhe garden - painting, drawing,
and photography are encouraged. We also have a
cabin available in exchange for working in lhe
garden. Mountain Gardens; 3020 While Ouk Crock;
Burnsville, NC 28714 (704) 675-5664.
M. TREE DESIGNS: Illustrations and Design Beyond the pages of lhis journal, I work in pencil,
colored pencil, ink, cul paper, and batik. Fine and
graphic an to express and enhance our lives. Logos,
brochures, books, portrailure, window and wall
hangings. Contae1 Martha Tree (704) 754-6097.
DAYSTAR ASTROLOGICAL SERVICE - natal,
transit, comparison chartS. Very accurate. Only
S3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason: RI. 2, Box 217;
Check, VA 24072 (703) 651-3492
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY in the Smoky
Mt'ns. of east TN. 10 acres with creek, springs,
views. good neighbors. Be a part for $8500. Call
Leslie (615) 453-1538.
STIL-LIGHT TREOSOPHJCAL RETREAT
CENTER - a quiet space for personal meditation,
group inLCraction lhrough s1udy, and community
work, and spiritual seminars. Contact Leon Frankel;
Rt l, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 28786
WOMANSONG - ongoing choral group forming.
Songs of bcau1y, meaning spiril, fun, peace.
cooperation, sisterhood. Come and sing! Mon.
evenings, 7:30-9, Asheville, NC. (704) 254-7068.
CRAFTSPEOPLE - send price listings 10 Gifted
/lands of NC, 331 Blake S1; Raleigh, NC 27601
(Au'n: Bern Grey Owl) - unique shop presenting
35-40 craflers' works in Raleigh's City Market All
crafts considered.
HAND-CARVED WOODSPIRITS. mys1i:al
hiking staffs, and wall hangings by Steve Duncan.
For brochure, please wri1e Whippoorwill S1udio;
Rt 4, Box 981: Marion, NC 28752.
ASTROLOGICAL CHARTS - natal. progressed, or
solar re1um. 4-page prin1ou1 includes wheel wilh
planetS and houses, aspecLS, midpoin1s, and
keywords. Specify name, binh time, date, place, and
chart type. StO 10 Phoenix Productions; Rt 2, Box
59; Zionville, NC 28698.
RM DESIGNS - I use the media of pencils, colored
pencils, gouache, pen and ink, and photography in
creating unique fine and graphic art I can make
diagrams, logos, finished prints, and designs for
brochures, calenders, cards, books, CIC. Mandalas and
symbols are my 1cndency among other styles.
Contact Rob Messick (704) 754-6097,
LAND TRUST in lhe forming on 57 acres near
Boone, NC seeking families wilh slrOng visions and
resources to manifest a peaceful place for our
children to grow in love and to survive lhe coming
of lhe new age. Paul and Susan Del Rios; RL 2,
Box 314; Vilas, NC 28692 (704) 297-4937
LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP AND SUPPORT
would be appreciated by incarcerated brothc.r. Write
10: Rick Whitaker #85670; Box 2000; Wartburg,
TN 37887
DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbccks &
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe Roberts at (704)
258-1038 or write LO: 738 Town Mountain Rd.;
Asheville, NC 28804.
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY now forming in
the mountains of norlh GA. Join olhers seeking
greater cooperation and self-sufficiency. Based on
spiritual and ecological values. Properly is now
available. (404) 778-8754.
BLIGHT RESISTANT CHESTNUT - hybrid
American/Chinese Dunstan chestnu1 trees - blight
resistant, timber growlh form, productive orchard
crop with large, swee1 easily-peeled nutS. Chestnu1
Alli Nursery; RI. J, Box 341-K; Alachua, FL
32615 (904) 462-2820
BLOW YOUR MIND wilh "Medicine Wind."
Finc-1uned bamboo nu1es and soothing musical
recordings masterfully 1rancemit1ed 1hrough
"Medicine Wind"/Gcorge Tortorelli; 86 NW 55 SL;
Gainesville, FL 32607 (904) 373-1837.
ORGANIC FERTILIZERS, herbs, and
organically-grown, local produce at the WNC
Farmcss' Markell Look for the Fairglcn Farms stall,
unitS F and G in lhe wholesale area of lhe Farmers'
Markel; 570 Brevard Rd.: Asheville, NC (704)
252-4414
"ESSENCE" - the all-one skin/dress/
jumper/pantaloons wilh nursing pockCIS. Earlhwcar;
ROI, Box 75-CI; Carl1on, PA 16311
SMALL HOUSE on land trust in rural NC
mountains in exchange for pan-time farm chores and
occasional companionship to creative, joyful,
mentally handicapped adul1 (or olher labor, such as
carpentry). Quaker Camily. Meeting nearby. Write:
Bob and Dot Barrus; Cll!llp Celo: 1349 Hannah
Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714
ARCHITECTURAL ADVICE AND DESIGN:
Adam Cohen; Rt. 2, Boll 217; Check, VA 24072
"TREASURES lN THE STREAM" - a casset1e tape
of songs by Bob Avery-Grubel. SIO to Rt. I, Box
735; Floyd, VA 24091.
WEBWORKJNG is free. Send submissions to:
KatUah Journal
P.O. Box 638
Leices1er, NC
Kauiah Province 28748
ORM DESIGNS
KATUAH - page 30
SUMMER - 1988
�Mtdlcln,..
The KatUah J ournal wants to communicate your thoughts and feelings to the
other people in the bioregional province. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories,
articles, drawings, or photographs, etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Kat:Uali
Journal, P. 0. Box 638, Leicester, NC, Katuah Province 28748.
.?tllfts
In the fall, Katuah will look at Castanea dentata, the American chestnut
tree, and its importance in restoring Appalachian habitat. Any information about this great
tree's past and future will be welcome.
"Hand Made," exploring the benefits of living simply and creatively, will be the
focus for the winter issue of the Katuah Jo um al.
·BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE - SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agriculture - Sunfl~wers - Humm
Impact on the Forest - Children.s' Eduution
Veronica Nicbolu:Woman in Politics - Little
People - Medicine Allies
full C'olor
ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
Waler Drum - Waw Quality - Kudzu - Solu
Eclipse - Clearcutting - Trout - Going to Waicr
Ram Pwnps - Microhydro - Poems: Bennie
Sinclair, Jim W ayne Miller
T-sfilrts
w
In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief,
the creatures in the world today are only
diminuitive forms of the mythic beings who
once inhabited the world, but who now reside
In Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest
heaven. But a few of the original powers broke
through the spiritual barrier and exist yet in the
world as we know it. These beings are called
with reverence •grandfathers·. And of them,
the strongest are Kanati, the lightning, the
power of the sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake,
who personifies the power of the earth plane;
and Yunwi Usdi. "the little man•, as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws up
power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their energies
complement each other to form an even
greater power. As medicine allies, they
represent the healing powers of the
APPalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of KattJah have been
depicted In a striking T-shirt design by Ibby
Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen by
Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality. all-cotton
shirts, they are available now in all adult sizes
from the KatUah Joumal.
"To show respect for this supernatural trinity
of the natural world is to in turn become an ally
in the continuing process of maintaining
harmony and balance here in the mountains of
Katuah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE AVE - FALL 1984
H:irvcsl - Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginseng Nuclear W ute - Our CeIlic Heri111ge Biorcgionallsm: Put. Present. and Future John Wilnoty - Healing Dlllkncss - Politics of
Participation
ISSUE SIX - WINTER 1984-85
Winier Solstice Earth Cct'cmony - Horscpasturc
River - Coming of the Light - Log Cabin
Roota - Mountain Agricul1ure: The Righi Crop
- William Taylor - The Fururc of the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRINO 1985
Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs - Worker
Ownership - The Great Economy - Self Help
Credit Union - Wild Turkey - Responsible
Investing - Working in the Web of Life
ISSUE EIOHT - SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life - Katuah 18,000
Years Ago - Sacred Sites - Folk Ans in the
Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems:
Hilda Downer - Cherokee Heritage Ccnicr -
Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE - FALL 1985
The \Va.Idec Forest - The Trees Speak Migrating Forests - Horse Logging - Starting•
Tree Crop - Urban Trees - Acom Bre.od - Myth
rune
ISSUE TEN- WINTER 1985-86
Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone - lnicmal
Mythmalting - Holistic Healieg on Trial Poems: Steve Knauth - Mythic Ploces - Tbe
Uktcna's Tale - CryJtal Magic -
I'"
ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRINO 1986
Community Planning - Cities and the
Bioregional Vision - Recycling - Community
Ocdcning- Floyd County, VA - GllSOhol Two BioregioMI Views - Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Oames - Good Medicine: V'tSion.s
ISSUE THIRTEEN - Fall 1986
Cenicr For Awalccning - Elizabeth Calllri - A
Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest Morgan .
Dealing Creatively with Death - Home Burial
Boit - The Wake - The Raven Mocker Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom - Good
Medicine: The Swea! Lodge
ISSUE FOURTEEN - Winier 1986-87
Uoyd Carl Owlc - Boogen and Mummers - All
Species Day - Cabin Fever University Homeless in Katuah - Homemade Hot Wau:r
Stovema kcr's Narrative - Good Medicine:
Interspecies Communication
ISSUE FIFTEEN - Spring 1987
Coverleis - Woman Forester - Susie McMahan
Midwife - Alterna tive Contraception Bioscxuallty - Bioregionalism and Women Good Medicine! Maniaclwial Culwie - ~
ISSUE SIXTEEN - Swnmcr 1987
Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden Vision Quest - First Flow - Initiatjon Leaming ie the Wilderness - Cherokee
Challenge - "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN - Winier 1987-88
Vernacular Architecture - Drums in Wood and
Stone - Mountain Home - Earth Enc.-gics Earth-Shch•m'<I Living - Membrane Houses .
Brush Shelter - Poems: Oc1obq Dusk - Good
Medicine: "Shelter"
ISSUENINETEEN-Spring 1988
Per!eandra Garden - Spring Tonics -Blueben:ies
WildDower Gardens - Granny Herbalist Flower Essences - "The Origin of the Animals:
Story - Good Medicine: "Power" - Be A Tnoc
"Dreamspcaking"
~~'
~UA~URNAL
For more info:
call (704) 683-1414
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28723
Back Issues
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
18-19)
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Name
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
Enclosed is$
to give
this ejfon an extra boost
City
State
@ $25.00 = $_ _
T-Shirts: specify quantity
color: tan
S_ _ M _ _
L_ _ XL_ _
@ $9.50 each............$_ _
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Area Code
KATUAH - page 31
Phone Number
TOTAL PRICE=
$_ _
postage paid
SUMMER-1988
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 20, Summer 1988
Description
An account of the resource
The twentieth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on preserving wilderness in Appalachia with a look at land trusts, the Preserving Appalachian Wilderness (PAW) proposal, and Cherokee perspective on relating to land. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Gil Leebrick, Marilyn Cade, Christina Morrison, Laurie Pierce, Judith Hallock, Carol Lawrence, Billy Campbell, Nancy Barnhardt, Chip Smith, Martha Tree, Michael Red Fox, John Grey, Rob Messick, and Tony Fisher. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
The Tracks of the Panther.......1<br /><br />Highlands of Roan.......6<br /><br />Celo Community: 50 Years on the Land.......8<br /><br />Celo: Interview.......10<br /><br />Land Trust: Tenure for Our Time.......11<br /><br />Learning Community.......12<br /><br />Mountain Landscapes at Risk.......13<br /><br />Rest in Perpetual Wilderness.......14<br /><br />"The Ridge"........15<br /><br />Farmers and the Farm Bill.......16<br /><br />Good Medicine: "Relating to the Land".......17<br /><br />"It Comes in a Mist".......18<br /><br />Duke's Power Play.......19<br /><br />Cherokee Microhydro Project.......21<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......22<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Human ecology
Wilderness areas--Appalachian Region, Southern
Celo Community--History
Land use, Rural--Appalachian Region, Southern
Land trusts
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Acid Deposition
Agriculture
Alternative Energy
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Community
Economic Alternatives
Education
Electric Power Companies
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Poems
Reading Resources
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Turtle Island
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d265838cdaadc8b321dba6f48590eaf8.pdf
1c5248620a6e795d64134a0d67addc57
PDF Text
Text
RESTORING THE CHESTNUT
�"No other tree grows so rapidly or to such a great size 011 tile
dry gravelly hills of the nonheastern states. Always beautiful
with its massive trunk. its compact round-topped lzead, and
slender dark green leaves, in early summer, long after the
flowers of its companions have disappeared, the Chestnut
covers itself with great masses of spikes of yellmi flowers. and
is then the mos1 magnificent ohject in the sylvan landscape."
1
- Charles Sprague Sargent, Silva of North America ( 1896)
~LlAH JOURNAL
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #1 8
Leicester, NC
28748
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�"Where There Be Mountains,
There Be Chesmuts"................. 1
A Natural History
Returning the Chesmut.. ................6
to the Eastern Forest
by Scott E. Schlarbaum
"Poem of Preservation and
Praise" .......................................7
by Stephen Lewandowski
Continuing the Quest.....................8
to Restore the Cliestruu
by uicille Griffin
Forests and Wildlifc ...................... 10
Eighty Years in tile Mountains
by Taylor Crockett
Gift of the Chestnut.. .................... 12
Chestnuts in the Regional Dier
by Kim Sandland
From the Roots ............................ .1 4
Chestnut Restoration Work
An Herb Note from Lucinda ......... 17
Good Medicine:............................ 18
"The Cli.anges to Corne"
Natural World News ..................... 20
Drumming: Leners to Karuah.......24
Review: Where Legends livc .......27
Young People's Page.....................29
Evcnts ........................................... 32
Webworking.................................34
"Where There Be Mountains, There Be Chestnuts"
by David Wheeler
I. The Forest of Old
B orn as we are into the world of the
twentieth century. we do not truly know the
Appalachian forest. What we know as "the
forest" now is a diminutive second growth
sprouting from the seed and stumps of the
devastation of the original trees. What we
are witnessing now is the foresi's incredible
powers of growth and rejuvenation and its
determined endurance in the face of
conditions that are becoming increasingly
hostile 10 life.
The forest we see is not the forest as
it once was nor the forest as it could be. We
have never seen the full majesty and power
of the climax forest. the great specimens of
"virgin" timber: massive beings - calm,
beautiful, and so very alive. We never have
experienced the abundance those trees
provided. It is hard in the present day for
our imaginations to even conceive of the
numbers of living cre:uures, great and
small, that the~c m:c:s supported and
sheltered.
"Climax" means 1he fullest expression
of growth for any given environment • h is
a state of dynamic equilibrium in the variety
of species and distribution of populations
that can sustain and continue itself un til a
major climatic shift sets new conditions for
climax. The deciduous forest in eastern
Turtle Island (Nonh American continent)
remained stable for thousands of years after
the retreat of the last glacier. But within a
mere 400 years after it was discovered by
European culture, the forest was completely
changed.
ln the lowland areas, the climax forest
fell back before the rush of European
settlers as they immigrated in unprecedenied
numbers in the 200 years following the
discovery of the New World. In the last
years of the nineteenth century and into the
beginning of the twentieth centu~y. the
remaining forest areas high an the
Appalachian mounrnins were subjected 1~
timber ex.traction marked by a degree ol
destructiveness unparallelled in history. .
The deadliest blow, however, fell m
the first half of the twentieth century when
an introduced fungus disease from the
Orient completely decimated the American
chestnut rree (Ca.uanea dentaia (Marsh.)
Borkh.), the largest and most prolific tree ~n
the fore ..1. The sudden and ca1astroph1c
disappearance of the chestnut sent sh~k
waves through the whole forest communuy.
The eastern climax forest was permanently
altered, and every plant and animal species
felt the impact of the chestnut's demise.
(continued on p3gc 3)
�,"
~LJAHjOURNAL
EDITORIAL STAFF THlS ISSUE:
Scou Bird
Jack Chaney
Rob Messick
Michael Red rox
ChipSmilh
David Wheeler
Mamie Muller
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Sariuh LowuJay Martha Tree Sam Gray \Viii Ashe Bason
Christina Mo"ison John Moffis Kim Sandland Judith llallock
Tom lltndrick.s Michael Jlockaday John Lang Jeff SmJ1h
John Creech Brad Stanback Brad Co111d
Thanks 10 the following ror their help in preparing this issue or
the Katuah Journal· Dr. Scou Schlarbaum, George Friacll. R.D.
Wallilce. Dr. John Rush Elkins, Edwin M:inchester, Philip Rutter.
COVER by Rob Messick
PUBLISHED BY: Ka!Uah Journal
PRINIED BY: The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
WRITE TO US:
K01U/Jh Journal
TELEPllONE:
(704) 683-1414
P. 0. Box 638
Leicester, NC
KalUah Province 28748
Diversity 1s an impon.3nt element of b1oreg1onal ecology, both
na1ural and social. In line with !hi..~ principle. the KatU/Jh Journal tries
to serve as a forum for the di~ussion of regional i~'UCS. Signed 1111iclcs
express only the opinion of the authors and are nol ncccssanly the
opinions or Ole K<Ullah Journal editors or sUIJT.
The lntemal Revenue Service has decbrcd Kati<ah u non-profit
org;inization under section 501(cX3) of lhc Internal Revenue Code. All
conlributions IO K01Uah are deductible from pcssooal income ux.
TiiE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREOION
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
STATEM£Nf OF PURPOSE
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range 011
our continent, Turtle Island; a small but growing group
has begun to take on a sense of responsibility for the
implications of that geographical and cultural heritage.
This sense of responsibility centers on the concept of
living within the natural scale and balance of universal
systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name" Katf.lah" as the old/new name/or this
area of the mountains and for ics journal as well. The
province is indicated by its natural boundaries: the
Roa11oke River Valley to the north; the foothills of the
piedmont area to the east: Yona Mountain and the
Georgia hills to the soU/h,· and the Tennessee River
Valle) to the west.
The edi1orial priorities for us are to collect and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this region, and to foster tile aware11ess
that the land is a living being deserving of our love and
respect. Livi11g in this manner is a way to insure the
sustainability of the biosphere and a laslillg place for
ourselves in its continuing evolwionmy process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a
"do or die "situation in terms of a quality sta11dard of
life for all living beings on this planet. As a voice for
the caretakers of this sacred land, Katiwh. we advocate
a centered approach to the concept ofdece11tralizatio11.
It is our hope to become a support system for those
accepting 1he challenge of sustainability and the
creation of harmony and balance in a total sense, here
in this place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism.
pertinent information. articles, artwork. etc. with
hopes that Katuah will grow to sen·e the best interests
of this region and all its living. breathing members.
- The Editors
KATUAH - page 2
AUTUMN- 1988
�•
"Chestnutt, of this sorte there is very greate plenty; the tymber whereof is
excellent for building, and is a very good commodity, especially ill respect of the
fruit, both for man and beast.''
·Monon, New £11glish Canaan (quoted by Charles Sprague Sargent
in Silva o/Norr/i America, 1896)
(conltn~ fn>m
page I)
fl.The Life of the Chestnut
The American chestnut tree was a
life-form unequalled in the eastern forests of
the Tunle Tsltmd continent. The chestnur
was a member of the family Fagaceae, and
the leaves resembled the leaves of the beech
in appearance, although they were larger
and longer. being six to eight inches in
length, "oblong-lanceolate" (like a long
ellipse, sharply pointed at both ends),
heavily toothed along the edges, with
prominent veins on the underside. The dark,
gray-brown bark was fissured and divided
into ridges interwoven into a distinctive
criss-cross pauern.
The leaves were late to unfold and
were followed in late June or early July by
the long, pendant catkins of drooping white
flowers that made a striking show on the
Appalachian hillsides. Chestnut flowers
gave off a sttong odor that was fragrant to
some and disagreeable to others. Because
they bloomed well after the last spring frost,
they set a reliable crop of nuts for wildlife LO
feed on each year.
After the first frost in October, the
prickly burs began to open and drop their
sweet chestnuts into the leaves on the forest
floor. The nuts were smaller than the
imponed chestnuts we are familiar with
today. being one-hair 10 one inch in width,
two or three to each bur.
Declared "one of the most useful and
beautiful trees of the forests of eastern
North America" by Harvard Arboretum
botanist Charles Sprague Sargent, the
American chestnut was surely the hallmark
of the eastern woodlands. The tree was
adaptable to a variely of habitat situations
and grew faster than any other hardwood
tree in the forest: two reasons for its
widespread success. The chestnul had a
spreading crown, and cast a deep shade
around its base as wide as the upper
branches could extend. In the open it could
produce a crown up to 100 feet in width. It
grew rapidly on soils that were poor and
shallow as well as on deep, fenile soils, and
only avoided limestone-based soils. fl was
moderately tolerant of the shade of other
trees, and so could grow up through their
shade until it in tum overshadowed them
and suppressed lheir growth.
The chestnut tree is thought to have
originated in China. The first seeds could
have been carried into Nonh America in the
food pouches of migrating humans. The
oldest evidence of the chestnut tree on this
continent was found in Yellowstone
National Park and dates back 50 million
years ago to the Eocene Era.
Once established on Tunle Island. the
chestnut tree migrated widely. Signs of its
presence have been found in Alaska and
Greenland. But climatic changes gradually
pushed the species into the eastern half of
AUTUMN· 198
the continent. There were 18 or 20
glaciations during the last two million years.
Each time the ice sheets pushed au before
them. After each glacier retreated, the
chestnut followed. The chestnut was a slow
mover, probably because it was a self-sterile
tree, and at the time of its demise it was still
a relative newcomer to the northern pans of
its habitat. Evidence shows that Cas1a11ea
arrived in the Connecticut River Valley a
scant 2,000 years ago.
Jn 1914 Professor Anhur Graves of
Yale University gave the range of Casr.af!4a
as extending "from southern Maine to the
valley of the Winooski River in northern
Vennom, to southern Ontario, and along 1he
American chestnut tree in size, but because
of its rapid growth habit and greater
tolernnce to shade, the chestnut prevailed as
a dominant tree throughout its range, while
the poplars were limited in number, usually
being restricted to choice cove habitats.
Today the yellow poplar inhabits m1my of
the sites formerly dominated by chestnut. In
its time. however, the chestnut tree often
comprised 25% of the forest, reaching
densities of 70-85% on the mountain slopes
of Katuah. So plentiful was the species that
a member of DeSoto's expedition through
the Appalachians in 1520, who styled
himself "The Gentleman of Elvas," declared
as simple fact, "Where there be mountains;
there be chestnuts: they are somewhat
smaller than the chestnuts of Spaine," thus
providing the first recorded reference to the
species by a white person in the New
World.
m. Chestnut Ecology
Natural r011ge of till! Am<ricon chL.ttnut tru.
shores of Lake Ontario to southeastern
Michigan, southward in the ~tern pan of
its range to Delaware, and in the west to
southeastern Indiana and extreme southern
Illinois, while it extends along the wuthem
Appalachians to north central Georgia.
central Alabama and Mississippi, and central
Tennessee (sec map)." In the southern
mountains the tree was common on slopes
between 2,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation,
but it was seen in the low bo11oms and up LO
6.000 feet on the highest peaks.
lt was in the Southern Appalachians
that the chestnut attained its greatest
dominance and its grandest size. Gifford
Pinchot in a 1897 report told of tre~s
reaching 120 feet in height and 13 feet in
diameter. Although the chestnut usually
grew to only 50-70 feet in height in t~e
nonhem part of its range, a standard tree in
the Southern Appalachians would be 90 feet
tall and 4-6 feet in diameter, often living
beyond 500 years of age.
Only the yellow poplar tree
( Liriodefldron mlipfera) rivaled the
The American chestnut tree was not
only a grand and unique species in the
11egral
eastern climax forest, it was also an i1
species. Oak trees. red maple, and
sometimes hemlock and gray birch. were
other t:ree species that, along with the yellow
poplar, could make a place for themselves
alongside the chestnut. In the shadow of
their high crowns grew hazel, holly, and
dogwood trees; huckleberries and other
Vaccirrnium species: and spicebush, flame
azalea, dog hobble, mountain laurel, and
rhododendron: the familiar understory
plants of the mountain forest. These species
interacted with the chestnut trees in a
multitude of ways to provide the conditions
for their mutual growth. Even the soil
chemistry and water patterns of the forest
were 1nnuenced through their many
generations of continuous habitation.
This association provided optimal
conditions for a wide variety of wildlife.
Many animals ate the chestnuts: they were a
nutritious. abundant, and dependable food
source. Game nourished at a rate
inconceivable today. Families of deer and
flocks of turkeys moved among the thick
trunks of the giant trees in the shady
twilight. Foxes denned in fallen, hollowed
trunks. Raccoons stored chestnuts in their
holes high off the ground, while chipmunks
carried nuts 10 their small holes among the
boulders. Squirrels and jays quarrelled over
possession of trees-full of the succulent
feast. Immense flocks of passenger pigeons
paused in their migrations to gorge on the
small, sweet nuts. In winter. elk pawed the
ground to tum up chestnuts hidden in the
leaves beneath the snow.
These animals in tum fed the great
predators that stalked the woods and s:iiled
the skies: the grny wolf, the mountam hon.
the red-tailed ha wk. the peregrine fal<X>n.
and the golden eagle.
(continued on page S)
KATUAH · page
�Mrs. ~Jimh Shelto11 of Sevier Col/Jl/y. Tc1111cs.set with her um Olld thru daughters s1afllling in front of a giant
chest11UJ tree MJJr Trtmofl/, presently in IM Great Smoky Mountains National Park.. /"his photo was taken 111 1920.
KATUAH - page~.
AUTUMN- 1988
�"They also grew behind my house, and 011e large tree, which almost overshadowed it, was. when
in flower, a bouquet which scented the whole neighborhood, but tile squirrels and the jays got the most of
its fruit; the last coming in flocks early in the morning and picking tile nuts out of the burs before they fell.
I relinquished these trees to them and visited the more distant woods composed wholly of chestnut. These
nuts, as far as they went, were a good substitute for bread."
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
(continued from p:1ge 3)
And high in the trees the black bears
would bend or break the branches in 1he foll
of the year to pull the sweet nuts from their
spiny husks to provide the all-imponant
calories necesary for them to survive their
winter sleep. Dead chestnu1 trees also
provided large, hollow trunks that were the
bears' preferred denning sites for a warm
winter home and a secure place for the
females to binh their cubs.
Humans came to live in the forest.
The Indians hunted Lhe animals that fed on
the chestnuts and also foraged for the nuts
themselves to store for the winter. As their
agriculture developed, chestnut bread made
of chestnuts ground into com flour and tied
in com husks to boil became a staple dish.
They also used an infusion of the chestnut
leaves medicinally 10 cure the whooping
cough.
When the white settlers came, they
valued the chestnut tree for the use they
could make of it. Most of the newcomers
were farmers, so they cleared the chestnut
ttees from their farming fields and used the
logs to build their cabins. They roofed their
small dwellings with shakes split from bolts
of chestnu1 wood. Chestnut rails and fence
posts kept their animals in the pasture. And
when the farmer died, he was buried in a
chestnut box. Because of its high tannin
content, chestnut was highly resistant to
moisture and rot when in contact with the
soil, and was known as the best coffin
wood.
1n 1914 Professor Graves spoke of
chestnut wood somewhat scornfully,
saying, "...as far as the finer, technical uses
are concerned, such as interior finish of
houses, furniture, etc., it is decidedly
second-class material because of its warping
and checking tendencies; yet it is often used
for these purposes, where 1he element of
cheapness is the chief consideration. By the
uninitia1ed, chestnut used in interior house
finish may easily be mis1aken for the more
expensive ash."
But the wood was highly valued for
its durability and was used for bridge and
mining timbers, ships' masts. railroad ties,
telegraph and, later, telephone poles. By the
cum of the century, one-quarter to one-third
of the saw timber crop in the Southern
Appalachians was chestnut wood.
It seemed that chestnut lumber was an
inexhaustible resource. After 1900,
tanneries bought 1he wood for $2.00 per
cord to extrac1 the tannic acid from the bark
and wood for leather processing. Chestnut
was also a major source of pulpwood for
the paperrnaking industry. With the chestnut
so prevalent, it did not seem was1eful 10
sacrifice millions of board feet of 1he wood
to the industrial mills.
Mountain families also counted on the
fall chestnu1 drop. It was an imponant pan
of 1heir livelihood. Hogs were allowed to
AUTUMN-19
free-range in the forest, and the family fed
on fall chestnuts in the fonn of pork roasts
and hog jowls during the wintenime. In an
interview with journalist Vic Weals of the
Knoxville Journal, John McCaulley, a
former inhabilant of Cades Cove (now pan
of the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park), spoke about this way of
stock-raising:
"In the fall we'd separate into families
and go into the mountains to 1end to our
hogs - move them along from place to place
where the chestnuts were plentiful.
"Our hogs ran wild in 1he woods.
We'd put a bell on the old sow and tum her
out, with the liller, and go see about her,
along.
"And then in the fall of the ye.ar we'd
drive !hem home just as fat as if they'd been
in the cornfield.
"The acorns hi1 in the fall, and the
chestnuts hit, and, law, it wasn't no trouble
to drive in a big herd of fa1 hogs."
Foraging for chestnuts was also an
important activity for many mountain
families. John Mccaulley said, "I saw one
time in the cabin at the bald mountain, 100
bushel of chestnuts, piled up there, and
abou1 four men packing them off, every
day. There was quite a lot of people there
gathering chestnuts then.
"There was worlds of chestnuts. I'm
a-telling you, the whole eanh'd just be black
with them ....
"The last time 1 was ever on the
mountain a-chestnut hunting, me and one of
the girls rode up there one day. We got up
there about one o'clock and we picked up
seven bushel.
''We propped them up against a ltCC
there and went back nex1 day with the mules
and carried them home. We took them 10
Knoxville and got four dollars a bushel for
them."
FaJI was the time for game hunting,
too. Every hunter knew that bear meat never
did 1as1e right until the bear had filled up on
chestnuts in the fall. Mountain families used
the chestnuts in many different ways.
For everyone and everything living in
the Appalachian forest, the chestnut tree was
an important fact of life. It was often taken
for granted simply because it was so
common, until, one day in the early I 890's,
a boat returning from a successful trading
nip 10 1he Orient docked in New York
harbor.
IV. The Destroyer
Unbeknownst to anyone, a silent,
invisible stowaway rode aboard that ship.
Nursery stock of Oriental chestnut trees that
were being imponed into the country carried
in their tissues a fungus disease later 10 be
known as Endorllia parasirica, the chestnut
blight. Oriental trees had lived with the
blight for thousands of years and had
developed an inbred resistance to the
fungus, but lhe native American trees were
highly vulnerable to the invading organism.
Observers on Long Island firs1 saw
the effects of the blight in 1893, but it was
not iden1ified until Hennan W. Merckcl,
forester at the New York ZoologicaJ
Gardens, recognized in 1904 that it was a
fungus disease which was killing the tops of
chestnut 1rees under his care. Merckel took
bark samples to Dr. A.W. Murrill of the
New York Botanical Garden, who named
the new disease and published his findings.
But Endotllia already had a headstan
on the scientists. The blight spread by 1wo
kinds of spores. 1n Lhe summer infected
cankers on the trees oozed a sticky mass of
spore material tha1 stuck to the feet of birds
and insects and was thus carried long
distances to other trees. In the winu:r clouds
of microscopic spores, like puffs of dus4
were carried by lhe winds. On landing in a
crack in the bark of a chestnut tree, the
spores grew into the wood, causing large
cankers (or swellings) on the irunk. The
cankers were visible as orange-tinted
(continued on p:ige 28)
Summary of measurements of a group of nine chestnuts in a sheltered hollow on
Noland Creek, Swain County, North Carolina
(Soll. 9ooa: upecl., 1:outhe>rly1 • levadon, 2,500
''"'I.I
Age ...•.•.........••................•.......••..•.... years .. 202
Diameter of stump, inside bark ...............•..••... inches .. 41
Average increase in diameter of stump for each decade ••... do .. 2
Increase in diameter for last ten years ................. do .. 1.1
Height ..•.•...•...•...•.............•.•........•...... feet .. 108
Length of merchantable timber ...••.•........•...........• do •. 62
Diameter, at top of merchantable timber,
inside bark .........•...........•. inches •. 21
Merchantable timber ..• - •.•..•............•....• feet B.M .•. 2,200
SOlVtt A'j(!rs.11.B. and WW. hM; The Soulhcm Appalachian Forest;
US GttJlogical Sun;ey. Pro{u1Wmal Paper No. J7 ,p 49 (1905)
KATIJAH- page 5
�RETURNING THE
AMERICAN CHESTNUT
TO THE FORESTS OF EASTERN NORTH
AMERICA
by Scott E. Schlarbaum
In the years following the infes1ation of the blight
fungus that destroyed the American chesmut tree (Castanea
dentata (Marsh.) Borkh.) throughout i1s range. developing
blight resistance in the na1ive ches1nut became a goal for
various scientific research programs in this counrry. Literally
thousands of cross-pollina1ions were made in an effon to
incorpor:ue blight resistance into the genetic background of
1he American chestnut. Native chestnut trees tha1 were
believed to be blight-resistant were crossed with each 01her
Other chestnut trees were crossed with Castanea species from
Europe, Japan, and China, as well as with the closely related
chinkapin species.
Resistance to 1he blight was greatest in hybrids
involving Asiatic chestnuts. However, 1hc poor form of 1hc
Asia1ic species was also inherited. Differences in bligh1
resisiance were detected in the American x American crosse~.
but 1he levels were so low that mos1 scientists gave up the
project as unfeasible.
Because of the largely negative results produced by
these two lines of research, most of the breeding programs to
restore the American chesmut to the eas1em forest had been
discontinued by the mid- I970's.
llowever, research on the Castanea species and on the
chestnut blight fungus (Endothia parasitica) did not stop. A
small number of plant pathologists and breeders fom1ed a
regional research project, "NE-140 Biological Improvement
of Chestnut," to continue studying the species and the
disease. This project still exists and has grown to include
representatives from seven state agricultural experiment
stations and various federal agencie~. Private organizations.
such as the American Chcstnu1 Foundation and the Roche
Institute for Molecular Biology. also arc involved in various
aspects of chestnu1 research and anend annual NE 140
1cchnical meetings. Research projects range from tr.insi1ional
breeding and plant pathology investigations to molecular
generics studies of the tree and the pathogen.
A renaissance in chestnut experimeniation came as a
result of developments in two different areas of research.
One was the discovery of trees that had been infected with
less virulent strains of 1hc chestnut blight fungus
(hypovirulcnt strains): the other was the discovery of an
unexplored breeding approach tha1 may provide the solution
for returning the American cheMnut 1rcc to its place in the
eas1em forest
The discovery of hypovirulent strains of the chestnut
bligh1 fungus has excited both 1hc scientific communi1y and
the general public (sec page this issue), A tree infected with
a hypovirulcn1 strain of the Endotllia fungus can heal and
eventually recover completely. Moreover, if spores of the
hypovirulent fungus land on or near the infection site, 1hey
can transform the virulent strain to a hypovirulcnt condi1ion,
Figure t. BRF.EDISG SCllF..\fE TO PROVL'Cf:
BLIGJl1" RESISTAXT .~ .\fERICA.\' CHESfNLfTS
Chinese
----
I11 YBRlDIZt\'flO:'ll
t
IF cF.:-;ERAno:-;I
I
----
Badcross (BC)
Bh11ht Resistant
American
Bhght Suscephblc
to
Amcm:nn Chestnut
t
!Uc:, GENERATION!
I
Snc1!n for Perltal
Rcs1slancc
Badcross Parhall\'
Rrsastant Trees
IBt
+
Gl::;>.;ERATIO:\I
I
Scrncn und
Baclccros~
t
lBC CF.NERATIQNI
I
Snecn 11ncl Cross within BC,
Crnarahon
Ir
Resistant
+
GE.'\ERATID~I
'''
Pnrli«lh Resistan1
Susrcptible
I
Screen & Select
Resistant Trees
+
Breeding Population of
Resistant Tr~'
Prepared by ProfCSD" Sclllarbaum a!icr Burnham
Gl.OSSARY:
Baduoss. C'o" betwun a hybridJ:td o/!Jf"llll o!ld MLm«r of its f'<J'tlll s~ctts
Blight rtslstane1. l11lr.trittd abif1ry to l41tlutalld blight.
Cambium .l'trtical ll1}tr 111 sttms ofplanu 011d trus 111 which trat1Sport of nu1ria1ts
occws: includes tlr.t ph/O(m alld xy/tm ltJytr!,
Canlctr. Wowul caused by dJSeaSt; infection .nit
Fplcormlt sprouts. Smalt brancht'J that cofrU' off the sidts of tht' main sum.
KATUA I · page<>
Hybrid. Cross betwu11 rwo sptc1e.s, tht olfspr111g of 14·hidi dots not necusunlJ
ahibit purt111 chvactL.nsacs.
llJpo•irultnt uss vrTult11t, l4'tilkt11td str0111 of blight
Phlotm. Stem laytr which carries org.1nic mattrial i11 plants.
S1ratificatian.C0<1/ing of ued.s to trUmic na1ival 1Hntu111g prou.u.
Xyltm. Sttm layer which carrits ..atu i11 plants.
AlHUMN- 1988
�•
.•
thereby allowing the tree to recover.
Early observation of the hypovirulent strains gave rise
to optimism that a biological control for chestnut blight had
been discovered. Unfortunately, this optimism was
premature, as infection by hypovirulent strains does not
immunize a cree, as vaccinarions do for humans. For a tree to
recover from the blight, spores of the hypovirulent strain of
Endotlzia must come into contact with each virulent canker.
There is also a question of compatibility, as there are many
varieties of the blight, and a hypovirulent strain may not
necessarily combine with a panicular virulent fonn of the
fungus.
Despite the fact that hypovirulence is not the whole
answer to the chestnut blight, extensive research is being
conducted on these variant strains. This research is providing
much-needed information on lhe biology of the chestnut
blight fungus and contributes greatly to the overall scientific
effon.
'
I
I
'
':'
I \
:
I
11
,'
The gTeatest promise for a return of the American
chestnut, however, lies with a breeding scheme commonly
used with agronomic crops. The technique was devised by
Dr. Charles Burnham, professor emerims at the University
of Minnesota and a member or the National Academy of
Science. In a survey of the scientific literature undenaken
some years ago, Dr. Burnham uncovered some clues that led
him to believe that restoration of the American chestnut might
still be possible.
Results of the early experiments had caused scientists
to believe that resistance to the blight was contr0lled by many
genes and that it was genetically linked to the low, spreading
growth form characteristic of the Oriental chestnut varieties.
In reviewing the data, Dr. Burnham came to the conclusion
that blight resistance was controlled by only one or two
genes, and he found no evidence that blight resistance and
tree form were linked together.
These realizations led him to investigate one breeding
approach that had not been fully explored: backcrossing of
hybrids to pure American chestnut stock. Professor Burnham
escima1cd chat af1er initial hybridiza1ion between American
and Chinese chestnuts, t4fee generations of backcrossing of
blight-resistant selections to American chestnut would yield
trees that were predominately American chestnut, possessing
the moderate blight resistance of the first generation Chinese
x American hybrids (see diagTam). Intercrossing of third
generation backcross trees would produce a percentage of
trees with the form of the American chestnut and the blight
resistance of lhe Chinese strain.
Currently there are a number of regional breeding
projecis following Professor Burnham's stra1egy. Even
within the same species, trees exhibit different charac1eristics
in response to different environmen1al conditions, and trees
must be bred to meet the demands of the area they are to
inhabit. Therefore, each region is developing its own
chestnut population, specifically adapted for conditions in
that region.
In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, chestnut
restoration work following Dr. Bumham's approach is being
carried out through a cooperative project formed by the
University of Tennessee with the National Park Service, the
US Forest Service Southern Region, the Tennessee Valley
Authority, the Tennessee Division of Forestry, and the
American Chestnut Foundation.
The American chestnut t.ree sprouts vigorously from
the roots and so, although the cops of the giant chestnut tree
have been destroyed, recurring root sprouts preserve the
species' genetic architecture. These sprouts can reach
reproductive maturity in the fores! Scion wood cuttings from
flowering sprouts bave been gathered by National Park
Service staff in 1he Great Smoky Mountains National Park
for grafting at the University of Tennessee. A substantial
breeding population is being accumulated. If enough grafts
flower next year. actual breeding will begin.
Unfonunately, most chestnut research programs arc
hampered by a lack of funding. It may be d1fficuh for a
(continued on page 23)
AUTUMN- 191SIS
•
•
•
. . . . . ... .. . . .
.
~ .
•
. . ..
•
•.
•.
•
•
.•
.·
..
..
•
Poem of Preser\'ation and Praise
•
•
•
•
for the /-lemlock!Canadice Watershed
•
•
•
.
•
•
•
•
•
•
by Stephen Lewandowski
.
•
•
•
•
•
...
.••.
..
..•. .
..
...
·:
•
•
•.
HERE JS THE LAND
WHERE TREES HAVE A VOTE.
WATCH HOW THEY ARE CAST.
WHITE PINE VOTES FOR CLEAN AJR.
BLACK WIUOW VOTES FOR WATER.
YOUNG POPLARS LOITERING JN A CROWD
VOTE FOR A FLOWING SPRING.
TRIBES OF CHESTNUT AND ELM
ARE SADLY DIMINISHED:
THEIR ONCE GREAT PLURAUTIES
SILENT.
SHAGBARK HICKORY VOTES
IN A HAJL OF NUTS.
SUGAR MAPLE AND BLACK CHERRY
CAST A SWEET BALLOT.
AT THE MARSH EDGE
BEECH, BIRCH. MAPLE AND ASH
GATHER TO DISCUSS ISSUES.
SCOTCH PINE PLANTATIONS VOTE
IN A BLOCK UKE A UNION.
HERE AND THERE
LONELY IDEALISTIC HEMLOCKS
HANG AGAJNST A SHADY BANK
STILL VOTING AGAINST GRA Vl7Y.
AGAJN THIS SPRING
WITH FLOWER. LEAF,
ROOT, BRANCH AND BOLE.
TREES VOTE UNANIMOUSLY
TO BASK IN SUNSHINE, TO
HOW SOIL AND DRINK WATER,
AND TO RETURN US BREATH.
.
•
."'
.
:•
·
.•
•
·
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
.•
.
.
.
..
•
•
•
.
.
·
.
•
•
•
•
:·
•
.
.
•
•
•
.
.
•
•
•
.
•
•
•
..
..
...
•
...
.....
...
•
..
•.
•.
..
.
.. ..
..
..
...
.
..
•
•
....
•
..
...
•
·:
•.
•
•
•
·:
•.
•
...
•
•
•.
•.
•.
•..
•
•
•.
•.
•
•
..
..
·:
·:
•
•
•
•
•
•
·:
•
.•
•
.
•
•
•
•
.
·•.
.
·•
.
..
..
•.
•
•..
•
•
Sttphtn Uw<Jndowsk.i is a biortgionol ~I and native of
tlu! Fingtr LaUs arta of Ntw York Sta~. lit i.f currtntly
d1smct educator with tht Ontario Counry Soil and Water
Conservation Dwrir.t. lli.f works inc/ULlt . Daohe'ko, The
•
..
..
Three Sisters an Seneca Life: lmphcauons for a Z-:auvc
Agric:uhurc an the Finger Lakes and Ten Tilousand Y~ m
Ten Mmu1c:1. a shon na1ur:il history of the Wc~tcm Finger
•
•
...
..
•
·:
•.
Lair.cs.
.
. . . . . . ..... . . .
KATUAH - page 7
--
•
...
.. .
•
�This idea is not new. It has been tried
previously, but worldwide scientific
investigations of the past 30 years have
supplied Griffin and Elkins with crucial
information their predecessors lacked.
The earliest crosses to encourage
blight resistance in ches1nuts were made by
R. B. Clapper and A. H. Graves in
Connecticut. Their approach was to develop
a hybrid between the American and the
Oriental chesmut strains that would display
the physical characteristics and vigor of the
American, while retaining 1he bligh1
resistance of the Oricn1al.
Hybrids from their first generation of
crosses were more blight resistant than 1he
American chesmut and still had reasonably
straight forest form. To further increase
resis1ance. these first genera1ion trees were
backcrossed to Japanese and Chine~e
chestnuts. Most of these seedlings grew to
favor the short, spreading "apple tree"
of the Oriental parents. From this group the
best trees were selected on the basis of their
resemblance to the American chestnut.
These hybrids were planted in a sepnr.lte
orchard to produce nuts by open pollination.
Seedlings from these experimenis and
other hybrids from later, more complicated.
crosses were planted in eastern forestlands.
The largest of these hybrid plantings was
established in the Lc:sesene State Forest in
Virginia by Richard A. Jaynes of the
Connecticut Agricultunil Experiment Station
in cooperation with the Virginia Division of
Forestry.
Eyvind Thor at the University of
Tennessee at Knoxville was the first to graft
shoots derived from mature trees surviving
in the wild. Many of the resulting t.rees were
likely to have carried some degree of blight
resistance, but Thor was hindered by the
lack of a definitive test for resisrance co the
blighc. The university deemed his work
unproductive and destroyed the nursery
after his retiremenL
The fate of Thor's trees convinced
Griffin and Elkins 10 begin the American
Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation. They
joined with Al Dietz., who had for 30 years
been working to induce mutations for blight
resistance by exposing American chestnuts
10 ionizing radiation. With the help of Bruce
Given, they were able to propagate their
large surviving trees by grafting. The ftrst
crosses were made between the most
resistant trees from lhis graf1ed stock. The
trees from these crosses are growing and
Spain, and Yugoslavia, and for centuries
were of great economic imponancc.
Thus it was wi1h dismay that growers
in Europe learned of an outbreak of the
chesrnut blight fungus (£11dothia parasitica)
in Italy in 1938. By 1950 the blight had
spread widely in ltaly and was reported in
France and other countries as well. While
the European chestnut was somewhat more
resistant to blight than itS American cousin,
it could not defend itself against the lethal
disease, and the European chestnut industry
appeared doomed. However. in 1953 an
Italian plant pathologist named Antonio
Biraghi reported seeing groves of chesmut
trees which appeared to be healing from the
blight. He found that cankers were
successfully fonning scab tissue, and that
new cankers were restricted to the bark layer
of the trees.
Jean Grente, a French mycologisl,
visited the Italian trees in 1964 and gathered
sample materials for research. He found that
there were two different stmins of the blight
fungus: one was a less virulent,
"hypovirulent," form of the original
Endorlzia strain.
Grente's most astonishing find,
however, was lhat the hypovirulencc factor
was transmissible: hypovirulent mains
could infect the virulent E11dothia and confer
the hypovirulent charJcteristics upon the
killing fungus. When he inoculated
blight-ridden trees wilh the hypovirulent
fungus, he observed tha1 the infected
cankers began to heal over, and that the
trees eventually recovered.
Gren1e began inoculatin~ infected
trees on French chestnut plantations. After
several years of continued inoculation
wherever blight cankers appeared, he found
that the hypovirulent blight had begun to
spread naturally throughout the groves
where it had been applied. The European
chestnut industry was thus saved from
extinction.
Reports of a possible biological
control of the chestnut blight in Europe
caused great excitement in Nonh America.
Research was begun and still continues at
Michigan State University. West Virilinia
University, the Connecticut Agricullural
Experiment Station, and the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University in
Blacksburg, Virginia.
The excitement increased when in
ronn
Woodcut by Rollo
CONTINUING THE QUEST
by Lucille Griffin
"It is Ml beyond the grasp of science
to restore the American chestnra to
economic importance. It corild be
accomplished within the next 50 years."
• Prof. Cary Griffin
A new breeding program is
a11empting to develop a bligh1-resistan1
American chesmut by combining 1he genes
from several large survivors of the
devastation of the chesmut bligh1 fungus
which swept through the eastern United
Suues during the firs1 hnlf of 1his century
and killed 99.9% of the species.
Surviving American chestnut trees
have been found in Ohio, West Virginia.
and Virginia in spite of 50 years' assault by
the blight. Gary Griffin a1 Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University
and John Elkins of Concord College, West
Virginia. have saved genetic material from
HYPOVIRULENCE
European chesmut 1rees (Castanea
sativa Mill.) were found growing near the
Black Sea and were introduced into Europe
by the Romans. They were planted widely
in Europe, paniculnrly in Italy, France,
• KA TV.~~-l - page 8
these large survivors as scion wood to be
grafted onto other rootstocks.
When they flower, the grafted trees
are tested for possible resistance to the
chestnut blight. They are then handpollinated to combine and possibly increase
in their offspring any blight resistance that
their parent trees may possess. By
developing blight resistance in this way
through several generations of genetic
crosses, the scientists hope to develop a
fully blight resistant American chestnut tree.
~U"ft.JMN •
!988
�awaiting tests for blight resistance.
Besides lacking a reliable screen for
blight resistance, Clapper, Thor, and the
other early researchers knew nothing of a
weakened strain of the blight fungus (called
hypoviruient), which was not identified in
this country until 1977. They also did not
know co assess the role of the environment,
which sometimes enhanced tree survival.
Thus, the effects of nature intervening on
behalf of certain American chestnut trees
were often wrongly identified as indications
of natural, and therefore heritable, blight
resistance. Accordingly, selections made in
earlier breeding trials were often mistaken,
and doomed the success of those early
programs.
The development of an observational
index 10 blight resistance by Griffin was a
significant contriburion to chestnut research.
The test is simple. One year after inoculating
a tree with virulent Endothia parasi1ica, the
vertical length of the cankers is measured
and factored by the percent of cankers
reaching the tree's vascular cambium layer
underneath the bark. This gives a shorthand
"canker severity index" thac has proven to
be a valuable shortcut 10 determining the
mosi likely breeding stock. This test has
helped to determine why a few large
American chestnuts still survive in the
Southern Appalachians: some arc living
mainly because of the effects of the
hypovirulent fungus; a few because of some
degree of herirnble blight resistance; and
many because of a combination of these
factors. in addition to
environmental
advantages.
At Concord, Elkins developed a
chemical test for blight resistance in Chinese
chestnuts through analysis of the tannins.
He is now working on a similar screen for
the American chestnut. based on enzymatic
analysis. Such a test would greatly improve
breeding efficiency by further shortening the
interval between planting and selecting from
each generation.
Offspring trees from lhe American
Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation breeding
program are growing in the Manin
American Chestnut Planting on Salt Pond
Mountain, Virginia, and at Beckley, West
Virginia. Planted in 1982, they represent
the first generation produced by combining
the genes of resistant American parents.
Some may already have resistance levels
adequate for planting in orch:ird or y:ird. By
testing and selecting among them through
several more generations of controlled
crosses, as much blight resistance as
possible will be loaded into the American
chestnut. If all goes as predicted, 1rees
resulting from this carefully directed
breeding program will be fit to compete
once again for a niche in our eas1em
hardwood foresLS.
calculate it with certainty, scientists decline
to set a definite deadline, but they do offer a
few hints.
From germination, it takes the
American chestnut an avCr:lge of ten years to
bear nuts, though grafting may reduce that
time period by three to live years. Chestnut
1rees usually reach large sawlog size in 50 to
55 years. but very favorable growmg
conditions can shorten this estilllllte by as
much as JO yeats. Gary and John, both
about 50, expect to see blight-resistant
American chestnut trees growing in
Appalachia. They believe our grandchildren
will see JOO-foot chestnut trees once again
dominating the eastern forest.
1976 Mrs. Priscilla Johnson of Rockford.
Michigan. found what she thought 10 be
hypovirulent blight on trees in her town.
Scientists in Connecticut confirmed that she
had indeed found a naturally-occurring
hypovirulent Endothia strain on the Nonh
American continent. Jn the ~ame year
hypovirulent strains were discovered on
wild chestnut trees in Virginia.
A research team at Michigan State
University led by Dennis W. Fulbright also
reported the encouraging news that
hypovirulent strains of the blight were
spreading among infected groves of old
chestnut trees in Michigan.
But the hopeful ~igns in :Vlichig:in
occurred in an ecological vacuum: outside
the irec's natural range. Experiments to test
the hypovirulent £mlothia as a biological
control for lhe blight within the chestnui's
natural range proved discouraging. First.
researchers found Lhat the varieties or the
native strain of the parasite were many and
diverse. Thcv found that in order for a
hypovirulent" fungus to modify a leth.11
strain, the two must be compatible, or the
hypovirulcnt fungus will have no effect.
They were also disappointed to learn
that applied hypovirulcnt E11do1Jria also
offered no lasting cure. llypovirulence is
caused by a virus-like factor in the
cytoplasm of the weakened strain. a
"disease of the disease," in a sense. Because
lhe hypovirulent facto~ are transferred from
one form of the blight 10 the other, the
hypovirulent strain must come in contact
with each infected canker. Trees do not
acquire immunity from contact with the
hypovirulent blight.
New evidence also andic:ucs that the
hypoviruleot blight is not always :;table and
may rcven back to the v1rulen1 fom1.
II appears th:u biological control of
the chcsmut blight in Appalachia, "'here
Endothia has been running rampant for 50
years. 1s much more complicated a
proposition than it was in Europe. Scientist!>
pursuing this line of research are now
grappling with the questions of how much
of a reservoir of hypovirulcm £11dmh1a and
how many different forms of the ~train
would be necessary to actually hope for any
control in lhe field.
Environmental factors must also be
considered. Young chestnut sprouts or
seedlings in a forest seuing must compeLe
with other tree spt'Cics as well as fend off
the blighL
Just like the sprouting chestnut t.ree
itself, however, hope for finding an
effective strain of hypovirulcnt E11dothia is
<>till alive. Besides being seen on \\ild
chestnut sprouts in Appalachia.
naturally-occurring hypovirulence has also
been found on a plantation of trees planted
for rcse:m:h purposes in Maryland. The
trees with the weakened blight arc
apparently recovering.
More reason for hope comes from 11
planting of chestnut trees in Connecticut.
Treated with a mixture of hypovirulent
fungus strains ten years ago, the
experiment w.is later declared n failure, and
the trees were left for dead Recently.
however, the disease has appeared to have
gone "into rcmii.~ion." Old cankers arc
healing over. and new ones arc le;;s severe.
Dr. Jack Elliston and hls team arc working
to find out .... hy.
Biological control of the chestnut
blight in Appalachia is ndmittcdly :i long
shot, but some fair day it might be a p:in ot
the program that restores the American
chestnut tree to the eastern foresL ~
AUTIJMN · 1988
Living Chestnut Tree in Flc>yd Co.. VA
How long will it take? Will we get to
see lhe really big trees? Because they cannOI
KATUAH • page 9
�FORESTS AND WILDLIFE
EIGHTY YEARS IN THE APPALACHIAN WOODLANDS
by Taylor Crockett
Taylor Crockett was brought up
in Black Mountain, North Carolina, the
son of a Presbyterian minister. His
father was ofren gone, raising money
for the church, and young Taylor fell in
with an old-timer who trapped, and
hunted herbs and semi- precious stones.
Taylor <kdares that hunting was
"in his nature." During the 1930's, after
his family moved 10 Macon County,
North Carolina, the young man would
go ow hunting and fishing for several
days at a rime in between logging jobs.
Sometimes he would carry a blanker
with him; other times he would simply
crawl into a "dry holler" with his dogs
and pile old leaves high over the whole
group of them to keep warm for the
nighJ.
In those days, when he was
''young and i"esponsible," he traveled
the whole te"itory from Wayah Bald to
the head of the Na111ahola River. The
general belief was that the bears had
been exterminated in that area, but
Taylor explored places where other
people never went, and he occasionally
saw bear sign.
"For years," he says, "I had the
only pack of bear dogs in Macon
County." He has always favored the
Pion lwwul.
In 1971 afrie11d gave Taylor a
.44 Magnum pistol, and he used it for
tlie rest of his Juuuing career, because it
was easier 10 carry through the laurel
thickets than his old .44 Winchester
CtJTbine.
Taylor and his wife live in a log
cabin half-buried in additioru in the
Carroogechaye Commw1ity south of
Franklin, North Carolina. He was 81
years old on August 4, 1988. Perhaps
that is why he noticed when he went om
bear hunting last year that lie "could11'1
keep up with the dogs the way I used
lO."
-The Editors
This pholograpli ap~ar~d in The American Lumberm111 shortly afltr IM turn ofIM u111ury.
When the white settlers first came into
this country, the mountains were covered by
great, open forests. 1 moved 10 Macon
County in 1928 and, when I arrived here,
there was still a lot of virgin forest left.
Half of the Nantahala River watershed was
still virgin forest at that time.
The carrying capacity of the forest
was much greater at that lime than it is now.
Under the conditions of the climax forest
then: was a lot more sunlighr., and the
woods were opened up so that certain
grasses and weeds could grow under 1he
1rees. There was oak grass and wild
legumes, like pcavine and beggar Lice, that
kepi 1he animals fat. IJigh-bush blueberries
and blackberries would grow in the
openings where one of the big trees had
died :ind fallen out of the crown.
Mast was plentiful al that lime as
chesmut. Some high coves I have seen were
half chesmu1 and the rest would be a mixed
stand of oak, (yellow) poplar, and cherry.
These were big, rich coves with a good
s1and of timber.
ln the old days when the wl'llte people
first came here, there were a 101 of bear, and
the settlers had to thin 1hem down, if they
wanted to plan1 any com or raise any
livestock.
In those times the way they raised
lives1ock was to mark them and let them
free-range in the open woods. They hunted
bear partly for meat, partly for spon, and
panly for self-preservation. because one
bear could kilJ several sheep or a calf or a
hog in one nigh1. Not every bear did that,
but stock would be missing every now and
then.
I was talking with an old couple by
well. Probably 20 perceni of the forest was
the name of Phillips, inquiring about the
KATUAH .- page 10 .. •
history of the Plou dog breed. They told me
that their father had come over from
Haywood County and had brought his Plou
hounds with him. They said that in the
summer their father would trap bear, and
then in the fall, when the weather got colder
and the bears got fat and fit to eat, their
father would take up the traps and hunt the
bears with dogs. Hunting the bears so much
exterminated them everywhere except for
the roughest, most isloatcd pockets of land.
In those days people virtually
replaced the native wildlife with caule,
hogs, and sheep. As the Forest Service
began taking over in the l 920's, they
instituted a "stock law," which said that a
farmer had 10 fence in his fields and that
livestock could run loose in the woods.
But fewer and fewer people were
depending on the open range, and finally a
law was pru;scd that said that the livestock
AUTUMN- I
�The most critical changes affecting wildlife today are
the result of clearcutting. In the next 25 years clearcutting
is going to have a devastating effect on our wildlife.
had to be fenced in.
By that time most people thought that
the bears had been completely exterminated,
but I spent a 101 of time out there, and I
knew better. I used to like to stan up Mill
Creek, go out Old Bald, down to Wine
Spring, over to White Oak, and come back
out by Silcr's Bald and down. I would take
off two, three, maybe four days, whatever I
felt like. 10 fish and hunt. J spent a 101 of
time in the upper reaches of the Nantahala
River. Those thickets are rough up there,
and once in a while I would see some bear
sign. Nobody else knew about il, because
nobody else went out there. Even the game
warden said, "No, there's not a bear in
these mountains."
But in the '30's when the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park was
created, the bear started coming back. The
population was back up to a pretty good
level a decade ago, but it has been
overhunted in the last five years-"ovcrkilling the increase," as they say. h's
getting hard to find country to hunt over
here. There are too many hunters for the
mountain territory.
Hunting appeals to 3I1 inherited streak
that has been passed down from when we
were nearly wild animals ourselves.
Hunting b an outlet for that thing that's in
our nature. Of course in earlier days there
was a reasonable excuse for wanting to kill
bears, because they threatened the people's
way of living. That's not the case anymore.
But any time a specie:; of wildlife has only a
limited area in which the population can
expand, they have 10 be kept under control,
or their numbers will get out of hand, and
they will starve or do the environment harm.
Hunting is the best method, unless it is
overdone.
Hunting bears the old-time way made
for a good contest. An ordinary man
wouldn't get a bear every time. A man had
, to be physically fit and willing to hang with
it. h was a good contest. With these roads
and thc:-.c walkie-talkies, it':-. not such a
good contest anymore.
I remember a bear they killed last year
across the Glade Gap. That bear had run
from way over on Tusquitec, across the
mountain, and he was home free, except
that a man in a truck saw him crossing the
road. He got on that walkie-talkie, reached
those men on the hunt, and told them where
the bear was. They drove all the wav
around, about 15 miles, put some more
dogs on the track and eventually killed th:u
bear. That':. ju't not giving the bear a
chance.
What appeab to me now is the dogs'
pcrfom1am:e. A good bear dog puts his life
at risk all the time. If he is going 10 slop that
bear for you, he has 10 be constantly in and
out. He pinches the bear, and he dodges.
h's a satisfaction 10 see a dog 1ha1 really
does 1he work. The contest of finding a
bear. of hunting him, and watching the dogs
perform is what appeals to me. I don't care
about killing a bear anymore. 1 wan1 most of
mine to get away. But once in awhile you
have to get some blood for your dogs, or
they'll wonder what i1's all about.
I've noticed that when I was younger
and able to follow my dogs close enough
that they could sense my presence, they
worked a 101 harder. They knew somebody
was behind them backing them up. Even
today, the more successful hunters will be
the young fellows who follow their dogs up
close.
The most critical changes affecting
wildlife today are the result of clearcuuing.
In the next 25 years clearcutting is going to
have a devastating effect on our wildlife.
h's a cumulative effect. For the first few
years clcarcuts provide more deer browse,
and insects will be there for the turkey and
grouse. But when those saplings get up
10-15 feet high, and they arc as thick as
they can grow, lhey shade out all the early
succession plants, and thereafter that area is
of very little wonh for wildlife. It remains
that way for years and years. until the uccs
get large and old age thins the forest out
naturally. But the Forest Service docs not let
that happen. Under the even-aged
management system, af1er 60-80 years they
come back and clearcut it again.
Clcarcuuing is also creating an
imbalance in the timber species. When the
chestnut died out, it opened up large spaces
for sunlight to hil the forest noor, and, if it
was a good, rich cove, this was an ideal
situation for poplar 10 grow. The result was
a 101 of young poplar thickets.
Poplar is a fas1-growing tree and a
good umber species, but it is not the same
as oak or chestnut. Poplar will not suppon
much wildlife. A boomer (red squirrel) or a
gray squirrel might eat some poplar seed.
but the main value of poplar for wildlife is
that wherever poplar comes up. grapevines
come up with it. Wild grapes arc a wry fine
fall wildlife food; everything likes them. But
they will not suppon the amount of wildlife
th:ll a good mast crop will.
Poplar is replacing oak, because it
grows faster. Clearcuts arc creating
conditions that favor the poplar. The Forest
Service admi1s we are losing our oak trees,
but they are continuing the policy that i~
responsible for the loss. In fact. if they had
tried 10 think up the best way 10 replace
stands of large oak timber with birch. red
m.1ple, and poplar, they could not ha"c done
better than what they nrc doing right now.
None of those types of wood serve the same
purposes as oak timber. The oak tree has
some uses the other woods cannot fill.
Poplar doesn't grow as fast on the
poorer ridges. and these would stay in oak
after clearcuuing. but the Forest Service is
replanting these ridges in \\-hite pine. That is
a poor policy. One hundred board feet of
oak is wonh twice as much as 100 board
feet of white pine. Of course, white pine
grows a 101 foster, but while the white pine
is making fiber, the oak tree will be
furnishing wildlife food and a valuable
timber.
The F0Tcs1 Service is also putting
roads through the last territory in which the
bears can find a little isolation and
pro1cc11on. Because of the roughness of the
terrain, those areas were natural sanctuaries,
but now those areas arc being laced with
gravel roads. With tha1 kind of access and
radios and radio-tracking collars on the
dogs, it is going to be more than the bears
can stand.
Some hunters want the roads open,
but a 101 of hunters have learned. When the
Forest Service first put the gates up with
locks on them, the hunters would shoot off
the locks and go in anyhow. They could
ride the roads in their jeeps and lei lhe dogs
trot along, and 11 was easy hunting. But they
found Out lhat after tWO Or three years Of
that, they could ride around there all night
and never sec a bear. That was when they
decided that they would rather have it a little
harder and have some game ro hunt for. So
now, while not aJI hunters are reconciled to
closing the roads, a 101 of them are.
Even when it is gated, a graveled road
gives more a'-ccss. Two years ago I got a
bear over here 1n Macon County on a new
gravel road. Before, ii was all I could do to
get through that area with just two dogs; I
couldn't go one·third as far in a day, so that
gave the bear some protection. That extra
access, even if it i:. on foot. is huning the
bear, and there nrc rm.ny miles or :idditional
acces). The Forest Service is essentially
nuking a tree farm out of our wood.\.
Small clcarcuts here and there would
be alnght. But clcarcutting at the rate of
10.000 acres per year, the way we arc now,
is going to result in a young forest that will
not suppon the numbers of wildlife that 1he
forest should. Because of both the densi1y
and the species make-up, the forest is not
going to support the game that it has in the
past.
KA TIJMI, page 11
�Gift of the Chestnut
by Kim Sandland
On a sultty July evening, my back
weary from hoeing and weeding, strands
of hair sticky-plastered down my neck, I
dreamily anticipate snowboot puddles on lhe
kitchen floor, a robe of snuggledown, and
the simmering sweet smell of summer's
preserved fruits wafting in from the kitchen.
Cooking! Cooking is the last thing
on my mind in summer .... or is it?
Rummaging through the freezer I find it at
la.st: one of winter's favorite memories- that
la.st bag of chestnuts gleaned from a friend's
Cherryville farm. I'm not lucky enough yet
to gather my own, but as I chop a cupful of
the fragram nuts, steamed tender and ready
for sau!Cing in butter and brown sugar (or
my favorite, maple sugar... and, yes, I add
a liule rum to mine). and savor the
anticipation of winier and winter foods, I
know I will gather chestnuts from my own
tree someday.
Someday soon, it looks like. Parts
of the nation are nunuring a growing
chestnut agriculture with natives or with
blighc-resistant hybrids of the once
magnificent American chestnut tree. That
chestnuts were once a staple in the diets of
wildlife and humans in the Southern
Appalachians is undisputed. The notes of
early scientists and settlers, some as early
as the 16th century, include chestnuts
among the foods of native Americans.
Among nut crops, gathered in the fall by
Indians throughout the Southeast and dried
for storage, the chestnut was the most
important, followed by chinquapins (a small
variety of the chestnut), pecans, hickory
nuts, and walnuts. Mooney's collected field
notes of the late l800's related how the
Cherokee burned the forcSlS in the fall to
clear the leaves and expose the chestnuts
when they dropped to the ground as the
burs split apart.
Chestnut bread, made by adding
chopped chesrnuts to a com batter,
wrapping pauies of dough in com shucks
and boiling them in water, and eaten fresh
or sun-dryed for storage, was a delicacy for
the Indians of the Southeast. This recipe
and the value of gathering from the
seemingly limitless bounty of plant and
animal foods were passed along by natives
to early settlers. Gathered chestnuts were
used as a form of exchange by early
Americans. The people of the Southern
Appalachians. for whom chestnuts had been
a plentiful staple, were especially hard-hit
by the chestnut blight. Some of our elders
living today may yet remember buying hot
roasted chestnuts from streetcomer vendors,
gathering chestnuts for the campfire roast,
or enjoying grandmother's Thanksgiving
stuffing.
KA UAll - page 12
Chestnuts can return to Appalachia
as an agricultural crop. Chestnut agriculture
flourishes in Europe and in the Orient,
where blight resistance has evolved or has
been successfully introduced. Chestnuts
have been cultivated in the Orient for
thousands of years, and chestnut orchards
on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, for
example, produce an average of more than
3,000 lbs. per acre. J.R. Smith, in his
book Tree Crops, compared this yield to
that of com in the Southern Appalachians:
"Yields of corn in Appalachia and of
chestnuts on European mountainsides are
about the same in quantity, but the corn
yield can be made only occasionally and for
a short period of time before erosion
destroys the field. Chestnut yields on and
on and holds in place the ground it feeds
on."
Corsicans, Smith noted, consume
chestnut bread instead of com bread, and
feed farm animals with dried chestnuts. A
rich chestnut stew , he said, has been a
basic dish for the common people
throughout Europe for centuries, while the
wealthy have served it in pates and sugary
dessens. In Corsica "one-third of a farm is
in grafted chesrnut with a byproduct of
wood; one-third of the farm is in tilled
fields; one-third is in pasture and hay
meadows."
The chestnut ttee, a proven high
producer, is also fast-growing, maturing to
bear fruit in only three to five years. It
could be an imponant family food resource
on any Appalachian homestead and replace
annual crops on at least a ponion of the
acreage of every mountain farm. Retail
prices of chestnuts run up to $6.00/lb.,
while wholesale prices run $1.00-3.00/lb..
Averaging 3,000 lbs. an acre, the income
potential for farmers is evidem. Twenty
million dollars wonh of chestnuts are
imported from orchards in Italy, France,
and Korea by the United States ever year .
Chestnut orchards are established in
the Pacific Northwest, where the climate
and growing conditions suit the species, and
where the blight has not spread from the
east. With the introduction of
blight-resistant hybrids, the same could
happen in Katuah, an area where the
chestnut once reigned over all flora.
The chestnut is an ideally balanced
source of nutrition: high in carbohydrates,
moderate in protein, and low in fat.
Nutritionally, chestnuts resemble a staple
grain and occupy that place in traditional
diets. Michael S. Burnell, in an article in
the journal Chestn11rworks, entitled "The
Grain that Grows on a Tree," reveals that an
almond contains three times as much fat as
protein, while a chestnut has three times as
much protein as fat. Chestnuts compare
favorably to brown rice in nutritional
components in government studies, yet
brown rice has over 100 times as much
sodium as chestnuts. Chestnuts contain an
optimal amount of three of the essential
amino acids (the components of protein)
needed for adequate daily nutrition, and,
gram for gram, provide more protein value
than eggs. Chestnuts have the added
advantage of containing no cholesterol.
Chestnuts must be cooked to be
palatable (raw, they produce intestinal gas).
They can be boiled or steamed until tender,
then sauteed in buner and served by
themselves or in a variety of combinations.
They can be roasted in their shells in the
oven or fireplace (the flat side is slit,
traditionally in an "x," so they won't
explode). They can be boiled in a syrup and
baked in a sugar coating for an unsurpassed
confection.
Yesterday at my house we had a
sliced chestnut-and-squash casserole, and
today we had fresh blackberry and chestnut
cobbler--the last of my winter stock. l
happily visualize that glorious spreading tree
in my pasture, only a few years from now,
and already taste the fruits of my own
gathering.
AUTUMN - 1988
�Essential Alnico Acid Content
<1119 ot amino acid per
9~
ot proteinl
l\!Di no Acid
Che;stnut
.I.deA.l.
Trypt.ophao
Lysine
Sulphurcontaining
amino acids
Isoleucine
11.67
54.29
51
11
50.24
37.38
26
42
106
106
193
89
Chestnut Stuffing
2 lbs chestnUIS, cooktd and sieved
J cup dicttl apples
1cup grruttl carrot
J12 cup m.elttd bu11er
smsoning
do.sh paprika
I cup dictd cekry
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
Native American Chestnut Bread
112 cup chopped onion
2 rblsp. chopped parsley
thyme, marjoram. and rosemary, if
tksired
Mix all together. Stuff turkey or pumpkin or
MAJOR NUTRITIONAL COMPONENTS
squash. eu:.
Sh.elf and put one lb. of chestnuts Chop finely or
mash. Add e110ugh cornmeal to hold chtstnws
togtthu, mixing ch.estnJAJS and cornmeal with
boiling water Wrap in gru11 corn shucks, tying
each one with white twine. Pfau in pot ofboilillg
water and cook IWO /tours. Saft when ea11ng, if
dWed.
CHESTNUT CAKES
CHESTNUT
ALMOND
50\ Carbohydrate
5-10\ Protein
1-5\ Fats and Oils
20\ Carbohydrate
18\ Protein
50\ Fat.
Thue may be se~d in ploct ofpow.tots:
To one lb. of mashed, cooUd cht.rtnws, odd OM
tbsp. cooud, chopptd onion; one oz. bw1u. and o
beOlen egg. Mix thoroughly and shape into colts.
COOi with egg and brtodcrumbs and fry until goldtn
brown. Drarn and ~rve with parsley.
114 cup bUlttr
314 cup dark corn syrup
2 cups coolced rice
2 cups peeled chestnuJs
I cup toastttl bread c~
I cup celery, chop(J(d
J cup onion, chopped
2 tbsp. Uimari soy souce
1 112 tsp. poultry seOSQning or sage
I 112 cup mil/cor cream (can be nut or soy}
Sauti onion, celery, bread cubes, and chestnuts
Ughlly. Combine with rest of ingrttlitlllS and boke
at 3500 for JO min
Northpon, WA 99157
<Doug/cw h)brids and other varieties)
qntJ SttdliJigs}
1 tsp. vaniffa
2 cups boikd and grated or ground chest/IUts
213 cup sugar
:J eggs btoten
1 singte·laycr pie shell
Chestnut-Brown Rice Loaf
Bear Creek Nuisery
P.O. Box 411
Chcs1nu1 Hill Nursery, Inc,
Rt. 3, Box U,7
Alochua, Fl. 32615
(Dunston hybrids and othLr blighz.resisJont grafts
CHESTNUT PIE
Recipes
Chestnut Trees for the Orchs rd:
Enrl Douglass
Red Creek. NY 13143
(ChintSe·Amtritxur hybrid sud and settllings}
Reading Resources:
PreheOI oven to 45<fJ. Cream butlu and sugar
togtthLr until flllffy; odd corn syrup, eggs. and
vanilla. Lint pit plate with pastry and sprinkle with
chestnuts. Top with beaten ingredit!llts. Salce/or JO
mm.; reduct MOl lO 3500 and baJce 35 min. fongtr,
or until a knife inserted in th.ti ctntu COlnl!S oui
clean. Mok.es orre 8" pie.
Nw Tru Culture in North America, edited
by Richard A. Joynes and published by lhe Nonhem
Nut Growcis' Associauon. They say it is "the most
complete boolc on Nonh American nut ttetS ever
wriuen; and lhis is true. ($17.SO from NNGA;
Brolceo Anow Road: Hamden. CT 06518)
The thru recipu above au from the
Victorian Nui Growers Associa1ion Recipe Book;
Mtfbourrre. Australia.
Alf the above recipes were reprinted in
Ch~mutworks and gleaned with pemussion.
Trtt Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, by J.
Russell Sm11h. Even though some of bis
tnformalion is outdated. Smith's book is worth
reading for his thoushtS on lrCt$ as food.producing
crops.
·Lynn Fain:hild
Chestnut Muffins
2 cups shelled, coolced chtstnJAJS
112 cup flour
1 tsp. hoking powder
l tsp. so.It
112 cupmil/c
2 egg )'01/c.s, beaten
2 egg whites, beoten
Purie the chtstnurs 111 blender; odd remoinillg
ingredients. carefully folding in the well-baJtn egg
whites lost Dalee ill muffin po11 in 3500 o~n for
15·20min.
• {romS1 . F1ancU\>ilk WommrClub
CooAbool<; SI Froncisvilk, 11/mois
DraW1ngs by Kim Sandland
AUTUMN· 1988
KATUAH • p;1ge I
�FROM THE ROOTS:
GETIING INVOLVED IN CHESTNUT RESTORATION WORK
START......... .
SAVE ..........
A CHESTNUT TREE!
ll will require a widespread
grassroots ("treeroots") effort by the people
of Appalachia if the magnificent American
chesl.llut tree is to once again become a
viable species in the orchards and forests of
our mountain land. The time to st.an is now!
People who intend to be serious
caretakers may request chestnut seeds from
the American Chestnut Cooperators
Foundation (see address under
"Organi7.ations," p 16.
Other sources for American chestnut
seed and seedlings are listed at the end of
this an:icle. Hybrid trees and foreign strains
for orchard plantings are available from the
nurseries listed on page 13.
The several chestnut restoration
organizatio11s listed need your help. Some
suggestions on how to support them are
given.
Or, find several chestnut sprouts
growing near each other in the woods,
release them (clear around them), and care
for them. These trees still carry the original
chestnut gene pattern, and, if they can be
brought to bear, will make a valuable
contribution to the species' gene pool.
paper towels will do. Be sure 10 leave lhe bag open
or lO punch plenty of air holes in ii Pu1 the nuLS
1mmediatcly in a cooler or refrigerator (32-400 is
best). Do no1 freeu. The vegetable crisper is an
idc:ll spoL Keep the seeds in this environmen1 for
abou1 two monlhs in order 10 siroufy them. Check
lhem often, and do not let them dry out.
• Source. American Chestnut Revival
Planting and Protection
IC possible, plant your nulS directly in their
permanent site and avoid transplanting, which is
very fussy work and always sclS back seedling
growth. ChestnulS prefer moderately acid, sandy
loam soil and sunshine and require a well-dr:uned
location. For maximum protection from frost, plnn1
on high ground on sloping land. Avoid known frost
pockets and wet spots. At least two trees arc
necessary to pollinate nuts, and they should be no
more than 200 feet opan for efficient pollination.
The nuts, sprouts, and young uees must be
protcctcd from animals. Squirrels, chipmunks, and
mice cat the seeds and young sprouLS. Mice and
Care and Maintenance
of Chestnut Trees
Handling and Storing Nuts
The time lO collect nuts is after frosl in late
September and early October. Remember. chestnut
l1US are self-sterile, so lhey w1U DOl produce viable
nut~. unless there is another tree nearby 10 pollil13lc
them.
The best straregy is 10 plan1 the nuts in the
fall, when they would drop nmurally. This avoids
the need for str.Uilication. (StratJlication meat\S to
pass the seeds through a cold, donnnnt period of two
months or more to s1imula1e the seeds 10
gcnninatc.)
If you purchase seeds or need to Store them,
ii is imporuint never to le1 lhe nuts dry ouL Drying
kills the germ. Newly obl:llncd nutS should always
be kept in a mois1 (no1 wet) contamer tha1 can
breathe. A iiplock bag with moist peal moss or
chipmunks gnaw the roots, and rabbits enjoy the
young stalks. Deer nibble the new growth and rub
agGinst the trunks or saplings.
The "tin can plnnling method" de1ers early
underground rodent damage. Remove the top from a
soup, beer, oil or similar-si7.cd can. Cut a hole one
mch m diame1cr in the other end; cover with one
inch of soi I: ploce the chestnut on us side, then fill
lhe res1 of the can with soil. Plant the can upside
down, with the one·mch hole ru ground level. To
preven1 the can from girdling the esublished
seedling, check to be sure iron cans have rusted
through: aluminum cans must be cut and removed
once the seedhng is well-established. Young t.rces
should be proieclt.d with plastic lJ'Ce guards availnble
at nurseries.
Rat trops baited with dry prunes or nulS IJed
to the !rigger will caich squirrels and chipmunks.
r'CllCing is always a good idea. If a nursery
bed is to be used, fence around the prepared soil wilh
1/4-inch mesh screen that cxiends 6" to 12" below
the surface lO prevent 1unnclling by mice and
chipmunks. Individual seedlings can be protecled
from deer rubs with wire fencing auached lO stakes
abou1 a fool from the 1rce. An eight foot fcnc~
aroWld the yard or orclwd will keep ou1 deer.
Less cxpcnsi ve than the big fence are the
many deer repellants on the llllll'ket, which de1er by
tasie, smell. to0ch, or all three. Consult your local
nursery people. However, repellants must be
re-applied aftcr each rainfall. For older seedlings. ooe
of our coopcr310rs in Georgia reports tha1 hanging
mesh b:lgs (like those in which citrus and onions me
sold) full of human hair (barbershop sweepings)
every three or four trees is an efTcctJve detcrrenL VA
Tech Exlension recommends using a cake of
Lifebuoy soap in the same way.
Mulching protccts the young plants from
extremes of heat, cold, and droughl and from weed
competition. Mulch should be pushed b.1ck from the
trunk during winter, so tha1 rodents will not hve
there and nibble lhc IJ'CC.
If one wi~cs 10 stnn the seeds in a protcetcd
si1uation, Dr. Collin McKeen of Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada has reported good germination results from
American ches1nu1s planted about two lO three
weeks aftcr hn.rvcs1 in a topless cold frame bu1l1
against the brick foundntion on the south side of his
house. The box was aboul four feet by four feet and
stood 1wo feet above the soil level. 'The soil was a
sandy loam mix. Seed nuts were laid on their sides
on the soil and covered with a mulch or rolled
leaves. A wire screen was fitted over the top to keep
out animals.
uanting from Our MistakLs
Th4 photo shows an U.co"ectly applied soil comprtss. The tree is an American chestnw trtt that was about
ltn years old in 1987 w~ the pMlO was talcen. The tret belongs to Mrs. Barbara Suman ofCt:nJre Island, Oyster
Bay, NY WM is pading UJro soil aroWld the base of the largtsl of three soil compresstS, which wert! securt:d over
the silts of blight outbrtak.
This /Tu is now dying from the bligh1. The first error is that this particular soil compress was applied Ont!
year 100 late. The trtt was already ~d......in applyillg the compress. hawtvu, tlie two lowest limbs should havt
bun cut away tnlirely and burned. The uwnk sMuld thln have /Ken covered with one large compress from ground
ltvel "' ont foot above the highest infection silt.
Although this porticuku ca# was a failure, it was a valuoblt tdut:ation in MW to apply the soil compress
correctly that has sub~quently hllped w greatly.
• from Lucille Griffin
.
. .
KATIJAH - page I
AUTUMN· 1988
�Drawing by M. Tree
Transplantin2
Unless con~lanl ~urvcillance is possible. or
lhe seedling is a precocious grower (20" or more m
!he first year), it is best IO wall until seedlings arc
two y~ old before moving lhcm Crom I.he nursery
to the permnnen1 site. Transplant them when I.he
seedling is donnant (no leaves) • in the fall or the
spring in the soulh, but only in lhe ~ring in the
north. The chestnut has a large tap root • e:inra care
must be taken not to injure it becau.~ this inJury is
life· th~tcning to the b'Ce.
Proper handling is important. Seedlings
should be planted as soon as possible. Purchased
seedlings should be SIOrcd in a cool pbce out or
sunlight The rootS .J\ould be wroppcd in sphagnum
moss and always kCPI moist. but not soaking wet.
If lhc objective is rcfon:station or growing
trees for wOO<I production, tr.1nspllln1 seedlings at 10
Coot intervals (435/acre). IC lhe object of plllnting is
nut prodllCtion for humans or animals, plant the
U'CCS at 2S foot inlCJ'Vl1ls (70/acn:) with the inicntion
or removing every other tree (for sale as a specialty
wood) when the crowns begin to touch.
Do not plant the uus f urtller than 200 feel
apatl, as this will limit pollination.
Review irisb'UCtions for pro1CCtion.
Cart ofTransplanttd
Chestnut Setdlin~
ChestnutS do not requite a rich soil, but lhe
R111jor nutricntS should be balanced. However, the
nut crop w1U be beucr and the nut size lnrger lf the
tree is growing on deep, fcnile soil. Fertilizing
should no1 begin unul lhc second yw after a tree is
planted. On poor soil apply an organic fcrtihzmg
rru:ictun: or one pound of S· IO·S per year of tree age
or per inch of tree trunk. diamc1tt.
Water the same as you would garden crops.
Keep grasses and weeds outside a two foot
radius around !he ~ling~ by cultivaung or
mulching for at lea.'11 five years.
Cbesfnul Blight
'The fungus Endothia parasirica is present
throughout most of !he eastern US. Jn some
orchards. however. a virus disease or the blight
fungus causes hypovirultnu, which wCllkcn~ its
attack on lhc chestnut. American chestnuts infected
by the hypovirulcnt fungus usually survive.
To idcn11ry blight. look for oval·~hapcd.
reddish-brown local discolorations of the bark
followed by premalUJ'e yellowmg of the foliage
above. SomclimC$ protruding orange stubs of lbc
fungi may be visible. Epicormic sproutS growing
from the trunk of lhc tree arc a good mdic.ation of
lhc blight. Look JUSt above the sprouts to sec !be
canlccr.
If a canker is on a minor limb, trim off lhc
limb and bum it If n occurs on lhc ma.in trunk any
place wilhin reach. apply a soil compress.
Chestnut trees need careful watching,
because 11 lakes only one year for lhc blight io ltiU a
young tree.
FIRST AJD
FOR CllESTNUTTREES:
THE SOIL CO:\fPRESS METHOD
This technique m:iy be used to protect a
planted tree, or to kocp alive selected sprouts in the
woods. It will work as high on the ucc a.~ you can
manage to hfl lhc soil!
To m:ikc the Soil Compress: Cut away any
branches, even healthy one~. which occur 10 lhc area
that must be covered by the soil comprc.-.s. Fit a
sleeve: or polyethylene or similar sheet pl:istic 0( Lal'
J>3pcr around lhc cm:umfcrcnce of lhe trunk from
ground level upward IO a point that 1s as far above
the infection as IWO times the length of the
infection (because there is probably more Endothia
just under lhe bark lh:ll has not yet broken out).
Secure and seal the lower edge of the sleeve by
mounding soil up around 11and1>3ckmg iL firmly.
Fill the sleeve with wet gllrdcn soil 1• to I
If]." inches thick all the way around. There is an
antagon1st1c orgwusm which occurs naturally in
moist soil; wherever it is kept in conta.cl with the
disease, 11 ..,,u lull the fungus.
For the Soil Compress to succeed, 11 must
be appbed at lhc earliest Stages of the dLSCa.IC, when
the infection is pcrllaps under the bark but has noi
yel pcncumcd the wood.
• So11.rct: Tht Amtrican Chts111u1
Cooptra(()r-s' Foundmion (drawn largtly from tM
Handbook of North American Nut Trees tdittd by
Dr Richard A. Jaynts)
(COl'dJIUIDd on rwu pea")
AUTUMN· 19 8
TUAH ·page 15
�FROM THE ROOTS:
ORGANIZATIONS
(continued from page IS)
BRINGING BACK THE CHESTNUT TREE
Nonh Carolina (where American chestnuts
grew best) as a last bastion of polentially
good trees. The blight came later 10 Nonh
Carolina; hence the trees have not been
subject to StreSS from the blight for as long
as those we have worked with, and more
may be living." - John R. Elkins, secretary.
Cooperators are also needed to Taise
and care for chestnut trees from seed.
Volunteers must be ready to be responsible
for a long-tenn project and prepared to make
regular repons of successes and failures.
The American Chestnut Cooperators
Foundation is a publicly-supported,
tax-exempt foundation under section
501 (c)(3) of the IRS code. All donations arc
tax deductible.
"Wt art h4ppy to be involved in IM process of restocking lhtse hills with this beautiful Olld prodtutnot tree."
CHESTNUT COOPERATORS
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT
REVIVAL
do Carol Klinger
Rt. I
Dowelltown, TN 37059
The Mountain Garden Club, Highlands, NC
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT
FOUNDATION
do Dr. David W. French
Depa rtment of P lant Pathology
University of M innesota
St. Paul, M N 55108
The American Chestnut Foundation
was formed by a group of prominent
scientists in 1983 as a non-profit foundation
to suppon biological research and genetics
projects to restore the American chestnut
tree to its natural range. The American
Chestnut Foundation provides the suppon
for the breeding progTam developed by Dr.
Charles R. Burnham that is being carried
out in Minnesota and several regional
centers, including the University of
Tennessee at Knoxville. This program is the
most promising for a speedy return of the
American chestnut tree.
Mr. Phillip Rutter, president of the
foundation, says, "As a scientist, I have to
say that there is an 80% chance that I will
live to see a blight-resistant American
chestnut. As a human being, I'd say it's
100%."
Regular membership in the American
Chestnut Foundation is $15.00. Members
receive the Journal of the American
Chestnut Fou11dation and may attend the
annual meeting to hear progress reports on
foundation projects. Donations arc tax
deductible.
The foundation needs help with
fundraising, public education, and finding
wild chestnut tree locations.
KATUAH - page 16
The American ChestnUJ Foundation
requesrs rhe help ofall concerned abou1 the
fate of Ult! American chesrnut rree. The State
of New York is now considerating
legislation to establish a national chestnut
research cemer ro be affiliated with the state
university system and ihe American
Chestnut foundation. The legislators
sponsoring this effort need to know that
there is widespread StlJJf)()rt for this idea.
let them hear from you. Write to
Assemblyman Francis J. Pordum;
Legislative Office Building (Rm. 252);
Albany, NY 12248.
A~1ERICAN CH ESTNUT
COOPERAT ORS FOUNDATION
2100 J efferson St.
Bluefield, WV 24701
"Our top priority is for long-term
funding of the regional effon already
underway: first, 10 develop a blight-resistant
:4Jnerican chestnut tree capable of competing
m our eastern hardwood forests, and
second, to develop economical biological
control measures against chestnut blight in
the forest environmenL....Foundation work
will be focused in the Appalachian Mountain
area."
Besides funding, cooperators arc also
needed to help locate surviving American
chestnut trees which could be valuable
sources of genes carrying resistance to the
blight.
"We are especially interested in the
environs of the Blue Ridge Parkway in
The American Chestnut Revival is a
people's organization supponing the return
of the American chestnut. The group is the
creation of the Cumberland-Green Council,
our bioregional neighbor serving the
watersheds immediately west of the Kawah
Province. The Revival sponsors want to
link up with Katuah people 10 make the
American Chestnut Revival a cooperative,
inter-regional effon.
The stated goals of the group are to:
1) replenish our woods with the
American chestnut - a beautiful, useful
species
2) promote diversity and
ecological health in our forests
3) move toward a healthy,
self-sustaining agriculture
4) educate the public and our
public servants to the realities of
deforestation, ecological monocuhurization,
and general environment.al degradation.
The first priority for the group is to
locate and correctly identify existing wild
chestnut trees. Identification is tricky; even
expens are sometimes fooled, but the group
hopes to c:ualog large native chestnuts, keep
track of them, and protect them for the
future.
The group is also seeking chestnut
sdon wood for research purposes and for
their own grafting projects. American
cheslllut genes current.ly exist in a pure fonn
in surviving mature trees and in root sprouts
from trees whose tops were killed by blight.
They are also assisting in technical
research projects as needed. They presently
are maintaining a close connection with Dr.
Scott Schlarbaum and his project at the
University of Tennessee.
If you want to help bring back the
chestnut, take part in the American Chestnut
Revival!
~
AUTUMN- 1988
�RESOURCES
Seeds and Seedlings: Sources
Bear Creek Nursery
P.O. Drawer 411
Nonhpon, WA 99157
(American, ChiMSe, and hybrid CMStnllt
seedlings, grafted rrees - 5% of the value of
any sale of ches11uas benefits ti~ American
CMstruu FoW1daritJn)
Wexford Soil and Water
Conservation Disnict
200 West Thirteenth St
Cadillac, Ml 49()()1
(American chestnut seedlings - $41.40 for
JO, $25.80for 5. Writefororderi11g
i11fom111tion.)
Louis Lipovsky
RFD
Brunswick, ME 04011
(American chestllUl seedlings)
Benhan Rajala
3030 lsleview Road
Grand Rapids, MN 55744
(American cl~stnUJ seed)
Donald Rudisuhle
Rt. 3, Box 216
Caladonia, MN 55921
(America11 cl1es11111t seed)
Periodicals
CMstnurwork.s is edited by R. D. Wallace
and published by the Chestnut Growers'
Exchange. lls purpose is to promote
chestnuts as an agricultural crop, and to
research the natural history and culture of
the chestnut. Valuable updates on scientific
research on the species. Two issues per year
for $10.00. Write to: Rt. 3, Box 267;
Alachua, FL 32615
The Journal of the American Chestnrlt
Foundation focuses on the work of that
organization, but also carries articles by
other top scientists working to restore the
American chestnut to the wild. Membership:
$15.00 minimum donation. See ACF
address p. 16.
...tn J!er& Note from Luci.mla. . ..
'The clear, crisp days and nights of autumn arc, to
me, the best times for gathering roolS for food and
medicine. Roots can actually be gathered anytime from
lhe first frosts of fall until the early spring because that
is when the energy of the plant is in the rooc but to me
the best time is autumn. I like fall gathering for two
reasons: fi.rst, my memory of exactly where the plant is
is the freshest (often dying rock and dead tops remind
me of the way) and secondly, ~use after the heat of
summer passes my personal energy is rising, and that
feels like a good time to make medicine.
My personal ritual is to gather from the third quancr
to the new moon, following the first froi.ts. Now is the
lime for the hardier roots - burdock, yellow dock.
cchinacea, dandelion and comfrey. My lools vary from
a digging stick for the comfrcy to a pick axe for the
AUTUMN· 1988
Diagram 1:
Genetic Hybridization of
Chestnut Tree Species Castanea
dentata with Castanea
mollisima
Drawing by Rob M&asick
burdock. While I dig the root I tell the roots why 1 am
gathering them and ask for their healing power. Then I
listen. After I have dug the roots I need, I leave a gift of
tobacco or a prcuy rock or ~hell, and smooth rock the
earth over my diggin\.
One of my favorite fall tonics is an iron rich mix of
dandelion root, yellow dock root. and burdock root. 1
cut up the root~ and put them in a jar and then cover them
with apple cider vinegar. I use vinegar for the tincture
because alcohol inhibilS lhe absorption of the minerals.
ln vinegar, ilS shelf-life is shoncr, bul it will last unlil
next fall. I also dry some of each root for infusions.
Considering how hard il is lo gather burdock root, I have
io admit I try to use mostly tincture so I don't have to dig
so much!
Comfrey root I use in a number of ways, I've
already dried the leaf for lea, now I dry some of the root
in a darlt, dry place. I also malce tincturci; in alcohol and
Ill vinegar and, lastly, make an oil extraction in olive oil.
Comfrey is one of the most used herbs in my medicine
cabinet. so I try to keep it in all the varied ways I might
use it.
Echinacea is the herbal antibiotic and I cannot
imagine a medicine chest without it The kind of
echinacca which grows here is Echin1Jcea purpurea, and
it only has medicinal properties if it is freshly tinctured
(i.e., dig fresh root, uncture immcdiaiely). When it
dries it has no medicinal value. To make an infusion, it
is necessary IO order ec/unacea angustifolia. which
grows profusely in the West
There are numerous other fall root plants,
but these are the ones which are the mainstay:; in my
medicine chest I value lhc rime I spend in the autumn
gathering root medicine and feel the time spent, in itSClf,
is a tonic and nourisher of my spirit It prepares me for
the winler to come.
KATIJAH · page 17
�THE CHANGES TO COME
(TM>e are the words ofa uaditionol Cherl>Ut: medit1M person.)
I can agree with some of the things the
Judeao-Christian philosophy considers evil. but not the
majority of things. To me what is evil is that a small
percentage of the world's population can justify
destroying the Earth in the name of profit. I think that it
is the ultimate form of separ:nion--for the ego of the
human to think that the Eanh begins when one is born
and ends when one dies--to think that one can flush
one's waste in the river and not care about it going to
one's neighbors. We arc destroying the Great Life.
When I was about founcen years old l went with
my grandfather to listen to an old man talk. We went
over to these people's house and they had a fire outside
and they greeted everybody and passed coffee around
and I was proud that I could sit in the circle and listen.
The old man talked about lots of things, but one
thing he talked about strongly impressed me-in fact it
scared me so bad I thought it was going 10 happen in the
next few days. He said that the Earth's existence was m
four quaners, and each quaner was a very Jong time-thousands, maybe a million years, I don't know. But he
said that the bear was on three legs now and is about to
siep down on the founh. And he said every time that the
Ear1h goes through shifts from one quaner to another
one. there is a cleansing process. The cleansing takes the
form of droughts, floods. earthquakes and all these
things. The old man kept repcaung that the Earth is
living, ll's not dead. Volcanoes nren't things of the past,
they're things of now, Floods nrc things of now, nnd
droughts are things of now. 111e Earth is alive.
My body is a miniature Earth, as all kinds of
organism~
are miniature Eanhs, but \\e are all connec1ed
to this greater organism. We are like a cell in this Great
Life. When I take an alien substance inio my body, like
cigarette smoke or some other kind of pollution, ir's
destructive to me and I can feel the evidence of it. I
become ,,hortwinded and feel all the symptoms. I may
not feel the effects as strongly at first as I do later. The
Earth is now strongly feeling the effects of all the cmp
thnt we have been puuing in her atmosphere and in her
streams.
The point I want 10 make is that the evidence of the
effects of our abuse of the Eanh is here for everyone 10
sec. The Earth is heating up--the greenhouse effect. I
ha1e to bow to the ~icntists, but even the scientists are
saying that we an: in danger because of our own ncuons.
There are 1wo things we need to do. We have no
choice. l think we should do everything that we possibly
can to reverse this process because of the
unborn-yet-to-be. The unborn-yet-to-be have the right to
KATIJAH- page 18
be included in all the decisions we make today. Part of
that decision-making is 1ha1 they should have the same
choices about the environment as we do. I can breathe
fresh air, I can swim in the streams, although it's getting
harder even now in our generation. A friend who just
got back from New Jersey said she couldn't swim,
because the beaches were closed because of hospital
wastes. A place where she had swum all of her life had
been taken away from her.
Before the non-Indian came 10 this country I could
go to any stream or river and drink from it, but I no
longer can do that. I don't know of a river anywhere that
I can drink out of. I don't know of a srream anywhere I
can drink out of. And where I am right now I don't
know of a spring I can go to and drink out of that I
wouldn't be afraid because of agricultural run-off or any
of those sorts of things. There is the evidence. And the
evidence is multiplying by millions of tons just in my
own lifetime.
It is not fair that a few people based on
materialistic and shiny, glittery things can make the
decisions for the majority in the name of profit. It isn't
even in the name of national security . It is in the name of
individual, personal profit. because the only philosophy
we have as a society b to manufacture and to consume,
manufacture and consume--that's our only philosophy.
So in terms of this reality the most important thing is that
these people be perpetuated, no matter what happens
with the waste.
I intend to do everything within my po"'er--and I
encourage everyone I meet-to deal with this crisis. I
don't use scare tactics, but I do say whats going on.
and I tell people that they have a responsibility and an
obligation. Some people say, "Yeah. \I.ell, people have
always said the Earth is going 10 be destroyed. anJ there
have alv.ny~ been bad times ...and my father said it wa.-;
bleak and it was gorng to end," and so on and so on.
At first that statement bothc:red me. But there are
1wo forces on the planet: there's good and there's evil.
and we have to have both forces, or there's no existence.
And I think that the force that de~trovs the Great L.ifc is
evil--be,-ause 3 few can't make these choices for so many
and so many yet-to·bc. The force that destroys the
Earth-that destroys the streams, that kills all the animab
off, and that cuts all the trees down- is an evil force.
Now, I am a pacifist in the sense that I believe in
nonviolence. I think the Quaker attitude would help us
deal with this situation. We can do somcthmg about it in
our own regions: we can quit buying products that
destroy. We can examine how we can gear down our
own lives - not in the sense that we are bleakly going to
do away with everything. but we can do without things
like styrofoam, electric toothbrushes and all these
unnecessary kinds of things. We can try to make
everyone in our little area conscious of what's going on.
Stan from there, and encourage people from other areas
10 do the same thing.
AUTUMN - 1988
�The second step we need to take-and I think this
is just out of real procticality--is to make certain
preparations for ourselves and our families, and maybe
in some instances for our community as well. The
number one thing is 10 think of ways ro feed ourselves
when we unplug from that consumer/manufacturer
society. One of those things that we have to consider is
gardens--ways to raise a 101 of food in small an:as-and
also alternative forms of fanning, such as dryland
fanning like the Hopi Indians do. They raise food down
there in a place that gets very little rainfall.
We need to learn how to catch waternnd conserve
it. Even if you have only one moist spot, plant some
kind of food there, even if there's room for only one
plant.
We need to look al the indigenous plants around
us as food sources. Lamb's-quarters is a wonderful
food. but we pull it up and throw it away. Yet i1 keeps
returning, because it's adapted 10 the area. Look at
plants, like the different species of com: from the hard
flim com that grows in the southwest to the softer meal
com that grows here. Think about both of those plants
and start growing them and adapting them to this clim:nc.
Do the same thing with pumpkins. squash. and maybe
even the more arid-land food plams and trees. like some
of the nut trees.
When you think of growing planes. consider them
as protein and carbohydrate sources. Grow plants that
fill those needs. And get several varieties of each one of
several species. Be very selective about your seed. If
you have a dry year, pick '1he best plants for seed. Don't
do anything else with them, but encourage them 10 make
seeds. even if it means stripping them of leaves in order
to encourage the seeds to grow instead of the fruit, if it's
that way. And then pick the seed from there and be
merciless about picking the right seed. We ought to be
concerned about that
People ought to get into different kinds of food
preserving--canning, drying, and all fonns of food
processing. We need to sort 0111 our refuse and look a1
what's there. I take all of our kitchen garbage :ind throw
it tn our compost pile to make soil out of it. Even when I
pull a weed out of the garden, l put 11 m there. I think it's
important to build up the soil to be :is stron~ as it can.
Don't depenct so much on :mimal protein, because
the animals will be falling under the same environmental
stresses that we Y.111, and plants are much more odnptable
to drastic environmental changes than the animals. Don't
dismiss that when you consider your sources of protein.
I think for agriculture we should consider draft animals
as a back-up. Mules eat les~ food and ure stronger than
horses.
We ought to think about alternative energy
sources. An energy source that does pollute 10 a cenpin
extent, but is cenninly not a~ polluting as automobile~
and coal-powered plants, is the small steam engine. It
can run lots of tools: it can even generate electrici1r. if
people are still wanting electricity. Or consider
alcohol-based machines that use alcohol fuel from plants.
I think people ought to consider those sorts of things.
Another thing that has much to do \\ ith biological
survival is psychological and spiritual survival. Going
from a society in which almost c:very desire and whim is
met--or able to be met, if one has the money-and leaving
all that will create certain psychological stress. The
outside information that we get from TV's and radios
may not be there eventually. That's going to be a
psychological trauma for ~ople. People \\ill have 10
learn to deal with the psychological and emotional
upheavals which will come up when their so-called
reality is fractured in some way or another. That needs
to be addressed.
I also think that groups of maybe 25 people-or 30
at the very most--who live reasonably close together and
are of like heart and like mind should make some kind of
pact together. A group that size is a very compatible
group for surviving. I think we ought 10 include our
children in what's going on and what's happening. for
the simple reason that they're the ones who are going to
inherit whatever is left here.
Political action should be the emphasis for every
group of people. I think that nuclear war is an incredible
threat. and I'm no1 putting that down, but I think the
number one issue for this planet right now---0ne that will
be more devastating than even nuclear war. unless it's
total nuclear war--is the environment. If anyone doubts
that, all they have to do is look around. It's a new age
for us all--a new age in which the survival of our species
is going to be a number one concern.
Our philosophy is that the EJnh is one gn:at living
organism, and it operates like my own body. When
something a11:icks me--viruses or whatever--my immune
system goes 10 work. I think we have bc:come a
cancerous cell in this environment, and the droughts, the
eanhquakes. and all these kinds of events mean that the
Eanh is alive. Its ex1Stence is threatened by one of its
pans. and l think it's kickmg in its immune systc:m.
I think we're probably overpopulated on the
planet. I know we arc overpopulated as a species. Even
if we all work on it right now, y.e're s11ll going to led
terrible effects from 11. 11 we all had it in our minds that
"We are going to clean up 1he Eanh." and started doing
everything right now. we would still feel negouve effects
from what we've done in the past.
People are afraid of havin!! to do with less. We
could have a much higher quality 01 lifc--not only for
ourselves. but also for the whole planet. We may have 10
give up some of our so-called independence. but this is
an illusion anyhow.
We're going to have 10 change our way of
thinking. There are lots of ways we can go, but the
whole thing concerning the planet tod:iy i~ that first Y.C
ought 10 identify the problem. It's like slcoholism. Until
one admits there is a problem. there is no solution. But
the minute one admits there is a problem, then you're
one step towanl a solution. The big step.
Drawing by Rob Messick
AUTUM,\1- 1988
KATUAH - page 19
�. ... . .. Natural . . . Wor l d .. . News ........ .
• • • • • • • • Natura l • • • Wor l d . .. News .. . . . .. ... . .
NP&L SALE APPROVED;
DUKE POWER INVADES
Narural Wodd News Savicc
The controversy over Ille erection of a high
p0wer tnlnsmission line in Transylvania and
Jaclcson Counties is mounting.
Dulce Power Co. of Charloue, NC has
gained the approval of lhe NC Public Uti Iities
Commission (PUC) for ilS purchase of the
Nantahala Power and Light Company (NP&L) in
wesletn North Carolina. The company now has
righl-of-way access 10 scU ilS nuclear-generated
p0wer 10 Alcoa and TVA customers in Tennessee.
The PUC ignored a las1-dilCh effort by local
mounlain people lO form an energy co-op as an
alternative lO Duke's purchase of NP&L. To
lrnllspon this p0wer, Duke has proposed clcarculting
a huge swath of forest about 1,300 feet wide by 30
miles long. The line would slfelCh from Lake
Jocassee in South Carolina to a substation in the
rown ofTucicasegee in Jackson County, NC.
Residents of the Lake Toxaway area are
greatly upset that lheir view of Touway Moun&ain
WlU be SpOiled - IO lhe extent th3l they hued 10p
lawyers and enjoined Duke from any further
conslrUction until they revealed plans for an
alternative route. Tom Sweatt of the Lake Toxnway
Property Owners Association paints out that "there
are a IOL or people who have spent a lot of money lO
build homes where they can have a good view of
Toxaway Mounuun. • ln addition, Swe:m argues that
Duke's proposed route would endanger rare and
Propoud Transmission Corridor from
JocasM!e to TudJ:!Mgu-DukL Power line
KATUAH - p:ige
M
threatened plant communities and encroach on
pristine trout wruers in fackson County.
Unfonuna1ely on alternative route for the
powerline propOsed by the homeowners nnd Other
concert1cd groups trespasses through more of
Nantahala Nationlli Forest than Duke's proposed
route and will pass close 10 the homes of the
residents of the Owens Gap area Cena.inly the
allemlllivc would reduce the visual impact of the
line on the Lalcc To,.;away homeowners. but l11e line
would impact other residents and fragment an
eminently important habil.al area in the Nantahaln
Nlllional Forest.
USFS PROPOSES NEW REGS
Natural World News Service
The US Forest Service (USFS) has received
nearly 1,000 wriucn responses to sweeping
regulation changes proposed this spring.
On May 16 the USFS published revisions to
its appeal regulations. A year in the milking, these
fat-reaching revisions would fundamentally all.Cr the
USFS appeals process, and undercut the meaningful
right of appeal fOf all outside panics cooccmed with
USFS decisions.
The agency is heralding the revisions as an
au.empt to increase efficiency, reduce delay, and
benefit the public. Yet all evidence points lO
inl.emal mismMagCmCl1t and agency inaction as Ille
causes of most delays in the current appeals process.
ll is clear that the proposed revisions will nol
benelit Ille public.
Two setS or appeal ·processes• are proposed.
Forest planning, timber management. and Other
so-called "policy decisions" will be relcgalcd to a
sccond·class status of appeal under 36 CFR 217.
Democratic "due process" fealurcs would no longer
be avail3ble in p0licy appeals. A second set of rules
(36 CFR 251) would govern appeals dealing with
agency administration of written ins1tuments, such
as special use permits. The USFS prop0scs to
m:tintai"I full due process procedures for apppcals of
this ruuure.
Notices of appeal (now clllled "requests for
review') would be combined llllO a single document
with a suitc.ment of reasons. This document. along
with any siay requests, would have to be filed
within 45 days from the dale or publication of the
decision in a local newspaper. No time extenS1ons
are pcnnittedl This means that Forest Service
planners h11ve years 10 strategize clearcuts,
roadbuilding, recreation development, and other
assaults on "natural resources." Deep ecologists,
ci11ZCOS' groups, and their allies are allowed only a
moolh and one half ro prcp:irc a defense.
Other "efficiencies· the Forest Service
proposes would limil project appeals (umber sales.
etc.) to the level of the regional forestc.r. Appellant
replies to agency submissions ("responsive
suuemcnts") and oral pre~cnU1tions would be
cl1min3led.
While the USFS is nOI proposing a liling
fee for entering appeals, the agency IS specifically
rcquesung public comment on this controversial
issue.
The proposed changes in regulations would
further insulate the Fore~t Service from c11izcn
review of improper decisions. If changes in
regulations are ro be made, they must be balanced._
fair, and aimed at increasing efficiency and better
decision-making. The proposed revisions fall far
Mon of these basic goals.
By denying the public o right lO a
meaningful nppeal, the propOsed rules changes fora:
parties seeking ro influence the USFS to t:lke lheir
coocems to court. Private citizens and conservlllion
organizations do not have the financial resources IO
suppon numerous lawsuits.
Although the shon comment period alloled
foe the proposed regulation changes expired on July
12. 1988, the Forest Service needs IO hear how
people feel about being cu t out or the
decision-making process for the National Forests.
Theie is a tremendous amount of momentum within
the USFS 10 adopt lhesc revisions. The timber
indusuy is exerting pressure lO limit the scope of
Ille appeals process.
Send your ktters to:
F. Dale Robtrnon, Chief
US Fortst Suvice
P.O. Box 96()9()
Washington, DC 2()()90.
Send copies 10 your congressional
rtprtsoltati\leS.
FOREST WATCH!
HELP WANTED!
Nawral World News Service
A "Forest WalCh" program is being started
in K:uuah. Members of the Wilderness Society,
Western North Carolina Alliance, Carolina
Mounlain Club, Audubon Society, and four local
Sierra Club groups are creating a coalition that will
interact with rangers in each US Forest Service
(USFS) district. Forest Watch members will sit
down with rangers to discuss and review
environmental asscssmenL~ for proposed timber
cuts, roads. and other Forest Service ac11v1ties before
they are begun.
Successful Forest WalCh operations arc
already in action in other National Forests (e.g., the
Chauahoochce NF in Georgia). At the least, such
oversight activity will hold the USFS lO 1lS own
forcsl managemcnl plans. At best.. both volunteers
and rangers will move closer to cooperation and
muwal understanding, to lhe bcnelil of all.
Workshops will be offered on forest
management and on the Fores t Service
decision-making process. Those who would like to
ltnow more about forestry and multiple use
demands, and who would like to have some
mOuencc on the future of the forests Ill Kauiah,
$hould conlllCI Ginny Lind!>ay: P.O. Box 1275:
West Jefferson, NC 28694 (919) 982-3633 or Speed
Rogers: 251 Purple Finch Lane; Brcvnrd NC (704)
gg3.304g_
AU1ID1N - 1988
�....... Natural ... World ... News ........ .
RESISTERS RISK ARREST AT
Y-12 WEAPONS PLANT
by Pat Montee
In an historic moment on August 6. 1988 at
lhe gnies of the Y -12 Nuclear Weapons Components
Plant in Oak Ridge, TN, five people linked anns
and in a simple trespass action crossed over a
symbolic line onto lhe plant grounds to be arrested
by local police.
The action was the first act of civil
disobedience at Y-12 and was lhe culmill31lon of a
day of concern for lhe plant's role in nuclear
weaponry and nuclear cootamination.
Preceding lhe arrests 200 demonstrators
rallied at a municipal park and then paraded lo Y 12.
Speakers at the rally urged support for a
comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. The
demonstration was held on lhe anniversary of lhe
dropping or lhe first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The protest was organized by the
recently-formed Oak Ridge Environmental Peace
Alliance (OREPA). Co-sponoors included Tennessee
Peace and Disarmament Campaign, Jackson County
(NC) Peace Network, Western North Carolina
Alliance, Madison County (NC) PlowsharcS, and
lhe American Peace TCSL
Those living near weapons facilities across
the country are beginning to speak ouL The August
6 protest at Oak Ridge was minored by other
grassroots demonstrations at DOE facilities in
Aiken, SC, Amarillo, TX. and the Nevada test site.
The formation of OREPA is a call for public
auention to the DOE's Oak Ridge facility. In
February of last year the Radioactive Waste
Campaign, a public interest organization,
pinpointed the Oak Ridge Reservation as one of the
most scvesely contaminated government facil1ucs m
lhe US.
Millions of pounds of uranium-derived
wastes have been dumped in landfills at Y-12.
Between World War II and 1981, over 12 million
cubic feet of low-level rad.ioactive WllSUl we.re buried
at lhe Oak Ridge Reservation. Radioactivity has
seeped out and contaminated streams and
groundwater bolh on and off the site. The TV A has
identified more than 140 dangerous chemicals and
radioactive materials present in Oak Ridge creek
bouoms.
The Y-12 plant manufactures uranium
components for lhe primary sUJge and the principal
nuclear components for secondary stages of
thennonuclC31 weapons. Covering an area or 3,400
acres and employing over 7,000 people, the Y-12
plant plays a pan in the production of every major
nuclC31' weapon in lhe US arsenal. 1l was Y -12
which produced I.he firsi gram quantities of highly
enriched uranium used in the "Litlle Boy" bomb
which dcsuoycd Hiroshima.
One or I.hose arrested Ill y -12, Chris Irwin, a
University or Tennessee student and a native of
Knoxville, said, "IL seems lhal at Y-12 I.hey just
ignore us. I've written my congressman ·everyone
has .....SomcbOdy luld 10 do ~mething. If I don't,
who will?"
Sharing this concern for the future, Judnh
Hallock, a resident of Jackson County, NC and a
mother or three, was quo~d by the Associlucd Pres.-.
as saying before her arrest. "My children arc m
dotnger. The plnncl is in danger. and I feel I h;ive no
choice.•
Others arre.~led were: Jeff Warner, 24, of
Bowling Green, KY; M)'T'B Zeller. 40, or Madison
A
County, NC; and Doug Mason, 38, the father of
two children, who is from Memphis, TN.
The five anest.ed were booked at the site and
released on lhett own recognizance. At n hearing the
following Monday at the Anderson County
Court.house, they received a eiUJtion for simple
trespass.
OREPA is forming an active regional
community lO non-violenlly overcome the violence
at Oak Ridge. A "Nuke Watch" action as planned for
Octobcr24-29at y.12.
To conwcl the Oak Ridge Environmental and
Peace Alhancc, write Box 1101: Knoxville, TN
37901 or call evenings at (61S) 588-9370.
"the most massive crackdown of its kind in lhe
country". During lhe investigation. undercover
agents bought 266 gall bladders. SS claws, 77 feet,
four heads, nine hides and one black bear cub.
Agents also round dead bears in the woods from
which only the gall bladder and claws had bcc:n
removed, with the rest left to rot Black bear pans
are commonly sold illegally both on the
intcm.llional and domestJC rruirkets.
During lhe three year operation, wildlifo
officers were receiving criticism about not acting
against poaching. However, to have made a
premature move would have blown lhe cover on lhc
entire operation. Wildlife orrocers and olher state and
federal agencies formed 28 raid teams that served the
. -~
,~ ~
anc~t and search warrantS in a 20-county area in
~.,.. .;,.
/
,.t' ,,frl __ ~ K.atliah.
.:
'.. /~}'- -~ '//• "'.r r ..- -·~
All or lhis in. tense activity, however.
-~ 1
~
culminates in the cowuoom. h i~ up to the federal
.;.fJ/r~~, .
~udge to enforce the ex1s_ting law.s ~ regulations. as
.;.,,,J.11"'' ~.._.,...., ·~/
1t relalCS to bear poaching. If I.he Judge treais lhe
,,,,~,,,,,.....____, ~ "~
mauer lighlly and elects to impose very lenient
..._'<.~
sentences, ii would.be a signal to poachers that they
~-"
~
.
''"·"'"'
~~"
could continue w1lhout severe c.onsequences. It
fl///"
, \
would also be a blow to the wildlife officers who at
• ·
...,..., '
times risked their lives uncovenng the poaching
network.
Lcuec; to the US District Attorney would let
the court know that citi7.ens are watching and care
PERE GRINES RETURN
about lhe outcome of I.his case. Send a leuer
Nanni World News Setvicc
expressing your feelings and concerns to lhe D.A.
who is prosecuting lhe federal government's case
Five pairs of the peregrine falco11s •haclced
against the poachers.
out" Last summer by human volunteers have
Max Cogburn
returned to nesting places established in National
US District Au.omey
Forest areas in the Kauiah Province.
US Courthouse, Rm. 306
The small, but eictrcmcly swifi, raptors were
I00 Otis SllCCl
obSCIVed at nesting sites at Linville Gorge, lhe
AsheviUe. NC 28801
Shelton Laurel area of Madison County, Looking
(704) 259-0061
Glass Rock, Whiteside Mountain, and Pickens
.r - -"
·
'
,r...._, ;. ,.
j:-,,..
..,,,.,?';,::,:
'
Nose.
One young falcon was nedged from lhe DCSl
on Whiteside Mountain, and a heallhy chick is
livmg in the nest ID I.he Shelton Laurel area.
To avoid disturbance to the nesting falcons,
hang gliding and rock climbing were lmhed at
Whiteside Mountain and Looking Glass Rock unul
August 31 of this year. Climbers and gliders were
very cooperative wilh the closings.
The peregrine restoration project is a JOinl
effort of the US Forest Service, the NC Wildlife
Resources Commission, the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, and a private organiation called The
Peregrine Fund. The NC state income LaJt refund
"Check-off for Nong:imc and End:ingcred Wildlife"
contributed substantially to funding for the projecL
BEAR POACHERS ARRESTED
Natural World Ncw1 Scivice aa
A three-year investigauon into bear poaching
in western Norlh Carolina and ca~tern Tennessee led
to charges again.~t 43 people who were uccused of
illegally profiting from the marketing of gall
bl!lddus and olher b13ck bear paru.
Both federal and state wildlife officers
panic ipated in "Operation Smoley." de.<.eribcd as
PUBLIC INTEREST
LOST IN THE OZONE
Nuural World News Savicle
On July 2. 1988, ozone levels recorded at the
oz.one monitoring Slation in Fairview, NC, outside
of Asheville, reached 118 parlS per billion (ppb),
within 2 ppb. of the 120 ppb. maximum Standard
allowed by the Environmental Protccuon Agency
(EPA) under the Oean Air AcL
Ozone in the lower aunosphere is a proven
ha.z:lfd llult contcibut.eS io smog, rcspinuory disease
in humans, and damage lo trees and crops. At
excessive levels. o:r.one does acute damage to the
lungs or children, old people, asthmatics, and I.hose
who arc doing SLrCnuous outdoor exercise. Ozone
has been shown to be pan of the deadly combination
of factors that is killing the spruce/fir forest on Mt.
Mitchell.
Paradox 1cally, 07.0ne in 1he upper
atmosphere is necessary 10 slueld lhe Earth from
harmful ultraviolet radiauon in the run's rays, but m
the lower atmo:;phcre it ~ a dangerous pollutant,
and Asheville re:;1dcn1S rue now aware thal their cuy.
too. ha:. an air qualuy problem.
Yet, one month after lhe high reading was
recorded, the 01.ooe monitoring station was closed.
According 10 Ronald Boone, lhe director of the
(conllnucd on nut Ne)
- p:igc 21
�...more...Natural World News
LOST IN THE OZONE
(canlin\IOd from IJa&C 21)
Western North Carolina Air Pollution Control
Agency, construction had displaced the Station from
its original location at Fairview school. and lhere was
no ochet space available in Buncombe County r0t the
8 root by 8 foot IJ'ailer which houses the monitoring
instruments. The EPA granted permission for the
closure.
This action was iaken shortly before the
summer heat wave, which undoubtedly booSted
ozone levels considerably in Asheville and
surrounding areas in tho French Broad River basin.
ff«, sugnant air masses provide ideal conditions ror
lhe creation cl owne and keep the gaseow subslance
trapped in valley areas, inslead of allowing it to
dispetse.
Had the sys1em been in operation, it almost
cettainly would have recorded orone levels higher
lhat the 118 ppb. reading or July 9. Readings
during August would in all probability have shown
Iha! Asheville was exceeding the re.detal Slandattls for
ozone.
The EPA has declared th:u if a city exceeds
the maximum allowable ozone SUUldard of 120 ppb.
two times in a single year, vehiculnr emissions
ICStS must be undenaken immediately. Hydrocarbons
from vehicle exhaust combine with nitrous oxides
Crom industrial and utility company fumes to create
Orone.
The EPA also says Iha! if the ozone problem
persists in a city, tha1 ci ty will be designated a
"non-attainment area• and be rcsuicted from starting
any new industries that require smokcsUICks to
exhaust industrial vapors. If Asheville were
restricted as a "non-a1
tainmen1 area." it would
obviously slow the city's industrial grow1h, and
might adVCtSC!y affect tOUnSt tr.iffic as well.
The ozone monitoring station is still closed,
and Boone says that. as ozone levels decline during
the cooler months, it will probably be April of
1989 before another locauon for the focility will bc
found.
Having no accurate de1ermm:1uons or how
severe the ozone problem actually is m the French
Brood River ba.sin will do liule to relieve public
uncasinesi. about the situnuon.
And pulling orr finding a locntion for the
small testing sUllion for nine months does little lo
bol.'ilU public confidence thnt the problem IS being
adequately dc:ll t with or even considered.
Having unknown levels or 01.one in
Asheville's air supply iL1so r:uses other quesuons.
bolh environmental and political
New datn have been made public that show
that long-term exposure to lower conccn11111Jons of
ozone impairs the foncuonmg of the lung.~. causes
adverse biochemical renctions in the lung$, and
acceler.ites lung delerioration due to aging. These
data have led scientists to urge the EPA lO
immediately ndopt more stnngcnt oz.one standards.
If the standnrds were changed, the EPA
predicis lhat nine urbnn areas in the US would be
ou1 of compliance. Prominent on that list is
Asheville, NC.
Is the municipal public hc:llth admmistrauon
trying to sidestep the consequences of exceeding
federal regulations by subjecting city ~dcnLS IO the
consequences of exc:essi ve air poll uuon levels?
Buncombe County's Metropolitan Sewage
Administmtion is presently considering construcuon
of an incineration plant to dispose of the area's
sewage sludge. The pt;in has already come under
severe criucism, as it would add several types of
KA TUAH • page 22
dangerous gaseous pollutants into the area's air
flow.
With Asheville already suffering a critical air
pollution problem, it seems obvious that an
insUllation which would make major contributions
IO the ambient air toxicity should be avoided.
Yet, at recent hearings on the incinerator
proposal, of all !hose who made presentations, only
two individuals spolce in favor or the plan. Those
were Jim Tenney. Di.rector of Public Health for
Buncombe County, and Air Pollution Control
Direct.or Boone.
Actions such as this call into question the
competancc or public health adminis1n1tion in
Buncombe County, or r.iise the ugly possibility that
the public health is being made subservient to the
intcrest.s or economic and industrial growth.
CP&L RA TE INCREASE
(or " LET THEM EAT CAKE")
residents posted their own black-and-white metal
signs aloog a 30-mile stretch of the river. The s igns
warn that fish from the river ate contaminated with
dangerous levels of dioxin, a toxin that "causes
cancer, miscarriages. and birth defeas."
Recent EPA tesl.S have found dioxin in most
or the 120 flSh taken from lakes fed by the
contaminau:d river. One brown U'OUt was round to
contain 80 pans per trillion or dioxin, more than
three times the allowable dose.
Shelley Stcwart. a Greenpeace official from
Seaule who studies the pulp and paper industry.
says thal "lhere is no levd al which this stuff can be
considered safe.• Stewan also pointcd out that
dioxin levels in the Pigeon are the second-highest
found yet in the EPA's current analysis of 100 rivers
below pulp and paper mills. Dioxin residues result
Crom tile chlorine bleaching process used by
Champion and other mills.
Grttnptace may be contacted 01 (404)
874-8581.
Nanual World News Service
On August 8, 1988 the NC Public Utilities
Commisssion (PUC) granted Carolina Power and
Light (CP&L) a 9.1% increase. Profits from the rate
hike will benefit the shareholders of the
privately·held monopoly and will pay for the
extr&Ordinarily high cost of building the Shearon
Harris Nuclear PlanL
According 1 F3lr Share of North Carolina, a
0
consumer advocate group. CPclL has spen t S4.S
million on outside consultants to teSury in the rate
case. A key issue was the cost overruns incurred in
the conSU11Ction of the Shearon Harris planL Design
changes and reworking during construction added at
least $200 million LO the cost or the nuclear power
pl:inL
In testimony before the PUC, Chip Smith
of Fair Share presented an anmysis of over l,000
changes 1n design during a nine-mont.h period.
CP&L's own records showed most were errors and
only one was cau!S(XJ by changes m rcgufauons.
Fair Share maintained that the cost of
misl.'lke~ made during cons11UCtion was excessive.
CP&L mainl.3ined it "should 001 have to be
pctfecL"
In the linal weeks before the PUC decision,
a S300.pcr-hour CP&L consullllnt stated that 1f
widows and orphans could nOl pay lhetr electric
bills, they could tum their lights off. Does this
reveal CP&L's true pcrspecuve?
Writt th<! NC Public U11li1its Commission
or P.0 Bo.IC 29510: Raleigh, NC 27626 10 t.ICpl'US
your opinion of 11rL1r dtcision. and ID Fov Shart of
North COTolino: P.O. BO.IC 12543; Raleigh. NC
27605 111 support of thtir worlc.
POISON PIGEON FISH
NllUnl World News Service
Representauves from the Greenpeace
organization and 01hcr concerned people recently
accused Nonh Carolina's Health Dcpanmcnt or
dragging its feet in posung warnings along the
Pigeon River, which the Env1
ronrnenUll Protccuoo
Agency (EPA) has round is contaminated with the
chemical dioxin below the Champion International
paper mill m Canton, NC.
Dr. Ted Taylor. a State tolliCOIOglSI, could
not say when the sign would be posted, even though
the flSh have been known 1 be toXJc since last
0
spring.
"MOURNING THE VICTIMS"
NlllWIJ World News Service
East Tennessee residents seeking to
short-circuit Champion International's bid for a
wastewater permit a1 a public ~earing August 18,
mourned for 1 Cocke Cow!ty cancer victims
67
whom they believe died as a result of accumulations
of dioxin from wastcwater dumped into the Pigeon
Rtvcr by the Champion plant in Canton, NC.
Organizers of the variance hearing labeled
167 cent.er-section seats with the names of the dead
and marlced the rows with block bows. Flags in
Newport, TN bung at half-mast as a memorial rite
was held. which fcatwcd the unveiling of a cenoiaph
listing the names of the cancer vicums.
Champion has produced blc:iched paper in
the Canton plant since 1908. and scientisL' say
dioicin is a byproduct of the bleaching process.
The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and Tenne..~see omcials inili.ally proposed a
wastew;iter pennn for the company that would have
set a SO-unit color limit on the river at the statc
line.
Although dioxin levels nre not adclres.o;ed m
the proposed wastewacer pcrmu. envrronmentahsts
say that chemical and color levels ace closely
associaced
Tennessee Governor Ned McWhcrter 1s
likely to make the linnl dec1s1on. Speakers at the
hearing directed therr 1111ger at the governor almost as
often a.~ at Champion. McWhcrtcr campaigned in
Newpott during the last elecuon, promising to help
clean the darkened and foamy Pigeon River. which
nows through the ci ty's downtown distncL
Two Asheville researchers demonstr:ued a
new process they have developed, which they say
can clean up the waters or the Pigeon. University of
North Carolina Asheville professor Richard Maas
and scienust Philip Neal hope to sell Champion on
their method, tha1 they say could remove 90 percent
of the color in the water.
Wilma Dykeman, Tennessee state hisiorian,
called a11en1ion to Champion's history of
environmental abuse. and went on LO say that
human actions should not be allowed to destroy any
natural re.source.
One speaker suggested that to establisb a
vanance would open a Pandora's box to industry.
Another Cocke County resident said that he felt that
SU\lc leaders, by holding the hearing, were requesting
the public "to make my murder legal.•
So Greenpeace voluntocrs and ea.st Tcmesscc
UTUMN • 1988
�(continued from page 7)
Natural World News
SPECIAL REPORT
THE DOGWOOD BLIGHT
by John Creech
For as long as people have lived in Appalachia. they have delighted in the
white dogwood flowers which splash the hillsides in spring.
The bright red berries of the dogwood arc an important food source for many
bud Gild ammal species when lhey appear in the fall.
And the dogwood tree plays an imponan1 part in the ecology of the forcsL II is
a prevalent understory tree that helps to develop the dark, loamy forest soil that is the
basis of life.
Soon, however, the great contributions of this small ltCC may be a thing of the
past For, even as we lament the blight that killed the chestnut tree back to the
ground, another blight lhreatcns the existence of the dogwood r.n:e I.Oday.
The dogwood blight has been liule-publiciu.d, yet it has been killing Cornus
Jlorida uces throughout a three million acre area in Georgia, Tcnn~ee. and Nonh
Carolina. according to Professor of Foresuy Roben Zahner of Clemson University.
Unlike the chestnut blight, which was introduced from Asia and swept through
lhe Appalachian range 10 a period of 40 years, the anthmcnose fungus which causes the
dogwood blight has coexisted with other plant life throughout the region for thousands
of years.
Scienlists first identified the fungus on dogwoods in Now York and
Pennsylvania about 10 years ago. Reseachers at Cornell University inilially believed
that some species of the fungus had mutated and attaekcd dogwoods only in the
nonheasL However, an identical fungus was discovered on dogwoods in the Cashiers,
North Carolina nrea about five years ago and has since been identified on Cornus f/orida
trees throughout the Appalachians. The alternate-leaf dogwood (Cornus alttrnifolia),
which is not as prevalent nor as beautiful as the flowering dogwood does not seem to
be affected by this fonn of the blighL
The blight thrives most successfully in moist, shaded areas such as mature
forest areas, where it appears first as colonies of spots on lower tree branches. Sunlight
inhibits the fungus, so it climbs upward from the shaded interior leaves, blackening and
curling all of a tree's healthy foliage in a shon time. The youngest trees are the first 10
succomb to the infection.
One scientific hypolhesis is that environmental StrCSSCS may have weakened lhe
dogwood tree species 10 such an extent that 11 has become susceptible to the blight
fungus. If this is true. as well as boding ill for Lhc dogwood species, it may mean that
other trCCS as well arc on the threshold of their tolerance of hUITlllll pollution.
Currently rcscarchcrs arc cultivating dogwood trees in controlled environment
chambers under various kinds of simulated streSS s1IU31ions. Folinge on young trees has
been leached with anlficial acid rain at levels similar 10 those present in the Ka1Uah
region today. Investigators have found that these dogwoods take inoculation of the
fungus quickly and easily, whereas trees grown free of acidic precipitalion have taken
inoculation poorly or not at all.
Acidic moisture qwtc possibly destroys the waxy layer of cutin on the leaf
surface. leaving interior cells vulnerable to infection. Thi~ damage. perhaps coupled
with stress from ozone or other pollutants, allows the fungus to destroy lhc affected
leaves in a single year.
The metabolism of lhe dogwood U'CC requires tremendous amounts or calcium
for sustained and heallhy growth, all of which must be cycled up from the soil. Zahner
and others in the scientific community believe that the chemical relationship is such
that sulphur and nitrogen deposited in the soil from precipitation are releasing large
amounts of aluminum normally bound in chemical comb1ruuions and unavailable. The
roots of the dogwood tree draw dissolved aluminum into the tree, where, as Zahner
says, the aluminum"competes with the sites on the cell membranes that would
normally be occupied by calcium." Th.is creates a calcium deficiency which wealcens
and evenlU3lly kills the trees.
The dogwood is "not just another pretty tree." The pH of its foliage is basic,
and, as the uccs shed their leaves in the fall. Ibis addition to the soil helps balance the
soil pH throughout the yenr.
Dogwood berries arc a dependable fall and winter food source for quail, IUrkcy,
grouse, and a host of songbirds. They arc a wintertime staple for these birds, when
v1nually no other foods arc available. Squirrels and deer also rely on this fruit for
winter nutrition, and it is an allcmntive fall food for black bc8IS during a poor mast
year.
. .
Zahner believes that this valuable member of the forest community 1s
diminishing more rapidly than we rcali7..C. Indeed, the dogwood may soon be facing
citlinclion in lhe Appalachian Mounuuns.
~owy display of the
KATUAll - page 23
;i'
Photograph taken tarly in this century of miud timber growth on
Moust Knob Branch of S110wbird Creek.
chestnut enthusiast to understand why state and federal
agencies are not providing strong support for chestnut
research. The hard fact is that the chestnut is essentially gone
from today's forests. Government research monies are
already so severely limited that important areas of research
for existing commercial species are often not addressed.
Diversion of these dollars for chestnut breeding research,
which can offer no absolute guarantees of success, would
not be in the best interests of our forests from either an
ecological or a commercial standpoint.
Therefore, it falls upon the private sector, both
individual people and organized foundations, to suppon
chestnut research. Private support can come in a variety of
forms: monetary donations, sharing knowledge of flowering
chestnut sprouts with researchers. or volunteer labor. Private
chestnut interest groups are forming in a number of states.
The American Chestnut Foundation is an ideal organization
10 coordinate the activities of private groups and individuals.
The Foundation's scientific steering committee is comprised
of leading chestnut researchers and other scientific
authorities. It advises and guides research conducted by the
Foundation and associated cooperators. Private groups may
become state chapters of the Foundation and thereby become
linked with the scientific community.
In summary, there is still hope for returning the
American chestnut to the forests of eastern Nonh America.
An increasing number of scientists, private individuals, and
organizations are working toward developing a
blight-resistant native chestnut. Reforestation of our
woodlands with American chestnut trees is a massive
undertaking and will only be possible through the
cooperation and coordination of all interested parties.
Hopefully, the results will be positive, and some day in the
future some of us will be able to sil under the "spreading
chestnut tree."
Dr. Scott £. Schlarbaum is Associate Professor of
Forest Genetics in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife,
and Fisheries of the Institute of Agriculture at the
University o/Tennessee in Knoxville. He direc1s the UT
Tree lmprovemem Program and is coordinating a project
to develop blight-resistant American chestnuts suitable
for resroration ill the Appalachian Mowuain bioregion.
,
AUTUMN-1988
�Dear friends,
We have heard about you lhrough friends and
want to supparc your effortS at b1oregional
enlightmcnt. We have a small family dairy with
25 cows, hogs, sheep, poultry, etc. on a 200 acre
hill farm 20 miles north or Roanoke. We can
spare you about 200 lbs of milk (translated mto
monetary donation). Send us a few back issues if
you have them. Lei us know when you need
more. Many thanks for your effons.
DRUMMING
LETTE RS TO K
ATUAH
John & Linda Thornton
Fincastle. Virginia
Dear Friends,
Dear KOJUah,
A friend gave me a copy of Summer '&8
issue a few days ago. I read through ii with
delight I've lived here 12 years loving these
mountains while watching lhe desolation, which
is gelling out or hand and going really rast It is
good 10 see a journal which represents other, of a
concern similar 10 my own. I feel less alone in
my panicular facets or appreciation for this mOSt
beautiful area of USNearlh ..•The change going
on here is best expressed by announcers a1
monster IJUCk rallies when a big-wheel pick-up is
crushing a line of cars, "The dcs11Uc1ion is
awesome.•
1 enclose a donation 1ow3tds encouraging
your efforts, and would love 10 panicipaie along
the way in whatever capacity possible. I can write
readably. and my heart is with you.
T. J. Northington
Spana, North Carolina
Dear Friends,
David Wheelers article, '"The Tracks or lhe
Panther" is so incredibly beautifulIt was also very informative and inspiring.
There is enough motivation and human power tO
bring this wilderness corridor into reality' With
just a handful or advocates locrucd lhrooghou1 lhe
ll1C8 or the proposed corridor, interest can be
drawn from local Audubon chapterS. Sierra Clubs.
etc.
I remember my first trip along the parkway
and thoughts of what it could be like if moose,
cllc, bear and wolves still remained. I remember
the sadness of knowing they were gone. I beheved
they could never return. What a gin Jamie Saycn
has given us by focusing his energy and
developing the PAW plan! And how fonunate we
are to have KOJUllh to bring us the news!
The PAW plan is so WORTllY of our
aucnuonl WE can mnke a positive 1mpac1 on the
ecology unlike anything that h:is been done to
dale in lhe United StateS.
Dear Friends at Ka11'ah,
Blessings! Thanks so much for your wisdom and
time on the phone (in helping to form a bioregiofllll
journaJ for the Adirondack area). We are making
some solid contaCtS with wrilCrS, graphic artists. and
others who are encouraging us on to do this thing
and are iniercslCd 1n participating. The crv.ies1
"chance• meetings cum out to be the most fruitful
of all.
We had spoken about lhe boundaries of this
region - n's huge! The Adirondack Biorcgional
Province (according 10 a map in the old
RAJNBOOK) prcuy much follows the boundaries
of the Adirondack Parle - 6 million acres!
Needless to say, we llunlc that we can best get a
clear image of the many ecosystems here if we
divide this massive area into 4 to 6 (or more)
sections, and in the first issue ask in1crcs1ed
persons in each section tO connect with us - they
can 1C3d us on an exploration of their particular
sections - one fca1ured in each successive issue.
How does 1ha1 look to you? Comments and
advice are apprcciar.cdl
I'll just enclose what we have so far. We'd
love lO be able IO share Our copy of Ka1Uah with
folks. but i1 is bccom ing dog-eared, ecc. Tt's in
our collection or newsleu.ers that we are using as
"texcbooks". If you could find some exlt3S, we
would be happy IO help with a dona1ion 10 cover
eos1 or postage and retail value of copies! (And,
of course, to suppan your efforts there, a bil
more green). A friend se1 up a barter for us: If I
do a particular Indy's gardening, she will do our
initial layout design!
Tnlce care, Mamie and all! We respect you,
KOJtlah!
With Warmth!
Joyce Vanselow
Box 12
Riparius, New Yort 12862
With love, cxci1emcn1 and e1emal gratitude,
Frank Trombeua
HendCtSOnv1llc, North Carolina
Dear KOJuah,
...Thanks. Your journal moved me, as a native or
Kaniah now displxed to ScauJc.
Clair Englander
KATUAH - page 24
...Found a copy of Kotuah Journal at the
Appalachian Trail shelter on Wild Cat Mountain·
near the Fish Hatchery - and near Camp Cherokee
...enjoying iL
Beuy M Gore
Dec!l1ur, Georgia
Today I received your complimentary issue
and I'd like to thank you very much for it When
I saw 11 a1 the Black Mountain Festival, I knew it
was for me. At present, I'm unable to send the
SIO, but once I'm employed again 1 plan 10
subscribe.
A li1Lle while ago a friend called to say he
h:id mailed in a subscription in my name. Now,
once I can afford it, I'll order one or your great
tee shins.
The day after returning from the festival, and
after having !'CM your Spring issue. I h:id an asunl
experience which I'd like to share with you and
perhaps you could shed ligh1'as to lhe meaning
for me. I was above the festival s11e and saw ii
all - sky, mounUlins, meadow, ring of tents and
pand; with 4 hawk feathers in the sky a1 cardinal
poincs. Superimposed on it all were the words
"Wolf Medic me".
I am carving all or this in what I call a
medicine shield format. and once it's completed
and painted, I'll send you a picture. l wonder
whaL the signific~nce of Wolf medicine is. Any
ideas from you or your re:idecs?
Thanks,
Kicran Crunficld
412 ML View
Valdese, North Carolina 28690
.. .I enjoy taking my newborn (well. actually
he's 3 months old already) with me m the woods,
and he looks around a1 the ll'CCS so w ide-eycd. He
really loves the outdoors, and sometimes I will
wonder, wow, if only you could see the Smokies,
the wild rivers, the huge boulders, the trees, feel
God's presence around you, way up on a
mountain ...bul then I remember, my wife and I
lived m Tennessee (Pigeon Forge) for four
momh~ and we Jost everything we owned trying
to survive up !here.
I don'1 think I wilJ ever be able to live
amongst the earth cathedrals of Kauiah, but I've
kepi Philippians 4: 11 m my mind. I'm not
t0ta.lly satisfied here in Texas, but I am doing
wha1 I can. I've already planted 3 low chill apple
trees on my 1/3 acre "farm", and I plan on using
pcrmaculturc design principles throughout The
beginnings of a Big Thickel/Texas pcrmacul1urc
center, maybe? ...
Peace and light,
Jorge Vcl4zqu.e1
Rt 5, Box 86-D
Cleveland, Teus 77327
AUTUMN - 1988
�Drawing by Rob Messick
Dear Friends,
I am a member or the Prison Opposi1ion
Commiucc. We arc b:mling a prison the
Arkansas S1:1te Boord of Corrections says lhcy
wall build in our unique comer or the Ozarks.
And we say they will not.
We have over 3,000 sign31WCS on petiuons.
At our last meeting, a mM named Ray Waus
stood up and told how his grc:it. great-grandfather
was born on the Trail of Tt3rs. He s:tid th:lt 300
Indians had died at a place called Lukcy Springs
(obou1 three miles rrom my home). The TraiJ or
Tears runs very, very near the proposed prison
Sile.
That night I was reading. I heard a
rhythm--rain1ly at first, becoming louder--and
then I "hc:ud" the words or the enclo.~ poem. As
I Slit up lO get pen and pencil, a presence "sat
down" to my len. It wns very, very UUlgible. (I
am part Cherokee.) I wrote down the poem.
Later, as I do1.cd off, I felt my right arm
being rruscd an the darkncss--qu1tc eerie. Then a
voice spolcc through me--a hu.~ky voice, like a
man's. It s«med to me that a lot or time
posscd-but my husband ~id u was only a liuJe
while. •r had spoken of being "lost..los1..I had
II()( died a Warnor's death. I had come to join in
this new battle"."
Yesterday we traveled over a portion or the
Military Road--a part or the Trail or Tears. I saw
Lukcy Sprin~. A little further along the road, I
was led" into the woods. There I saw a faint
impression in the earth - lhc old trail. Then I
"heard" them again. I s:it on the ground. They
said again, ·we did 1101 die a Warrior's death.
When these leaves fall ... we will return .•." This
autumn will mark the 150th "birthday" of the
Trail or Tears.
I sec this as a Vasioo Quc.~1! I intend to
record mote or Ray W:m's stories and legends
handed down in ha~ family • and I m1end to record
the Voices of my people ti they ~to/through
me. Arc you interested an my journal as I ltllvel
along?
Sincerely.
Barbara Ellet Dail
AUTUMN- I
TRAIL OF TEARS A NEW PROTEST
Our only mark a wind thaJ blows
Upon our heads a thousand snows.....
Ow only tears rain on the hills
And the sobbing song ofthe
wluppoonvil/s.
YOU asked for the stOry of \lo hy I spc:ik about
pcsticulcs. II is a question I have :l'kcd m>-sclf,
because I would rather enjoy the farm quaclly or
speak of the oneness or hfc. Several years ago I
be&311 to conuic1 App31achian Power Comp:111y
and slalC agencies 10 protect myself from p.!Sl!Cide
exposure. I had had severe allergic reacuons to
chcmicols and several years or health proi.tems•
.,,,hich have healed 'The scns1tiv11y I ha'e now IO
chemicals simply alcns me to theu presence tn
the air.
Often .,,, hen there LS pc.~ticulc an the air. 311d
v3por from it docs get in the air, I hc.y others
speak or symptoms which I know can be
tnggcrcd by indirect pesticide exposure. I ~'peel
that many people without recognizing at are
nffcclCd to some degree by chemicals. Sance Uiey
are a stress to the immune system, I wond.:r what
wall be the long term consequences to children
growing up in the midst of chemical use. And
how much wall our environment absorb? I speak
of my concern while knowing that symptoms
reflect something deeper.
Three umes I was accidenlly SPtayed in public
places with herbicide or insecticide.and I think
about the weeds and insects that arc labelled pc~ts
ond lulled. And about lhc animals on which these
chemicals arc tested. The language of public
agencies IS facts and figures. a different language
from that which Earth and its fauna and flora
speak, but one which I have learned out of my
experience. So I speak of facts and figures,
though they arc but one level of a multi-leveled
truth .
Thanks to Ka1Uah for speaking so beautifully
ol the mtcr-coonectedocss oC all life.
Sincerely,
Nancy Barnhardt
ML Airy, Virginia
Now peacefully we lie at resr
Here in the Ozarks' Stoney brea.rt.
In life we could not wulerstand
Why we were driven across the land
And now we hear, not even death
Can save us from the white man's breath,
For still he gives the loud commands
Thal drove us once across srrange lands.
He comes now ro disturb our sleep
Where cedar glades a vigil keep.
Hear us now. We will not go
For on our heads a thousand snows.
Hear us now. \Ve will not bend
To the white mllll's ways again.
Three Juuulred strong, a mighty ba11d
To keep the wltire man from the land.
They cannot build a prison here;
Where live men like the the dead appear.
Hear us now. We will not go.
Hear us now. We rel/ you so.
We waJJc these hills on ~ery wind.
Great Spirit is a mighty friend.
-Barbara Eller Dail
Noncy has now moved to the Chapel Ifill, North
Corolino area (Uwharria bioregional pro11inet}
where she will be working as on tnvironmtntal
lobbyist.
Dc:it Kailiah friends,
The issues you are dealing with are criucal for
our continued CJtistcncc. Being a member of the
Baha'i Faith and having Cherokee heritage makes
me even more concerned about ha.rmony with
nature and my fellow humans.
Some Baha'i friends arid I arc in the planning
stages of cstabli.~hing a Lcaming/Hcalmg center
which v.oold work 10ward the uni[)' ol the healing
.u and education methods. Therefore I would be
very intcrcSIC.d m any Ulfornutioo or contacts )'OU
may ha\'C in this area. I am especially inLCreSICd
in knowing more about herbal n:mcdics such as
those prescnlt.d by Carolyn Pon.
I would v.-clcome the opportUn11y 10 meet
with you to discuss some of our mulllal concerns
and goals. I li\'C near the headwaters of the Clillch
Raver. What do you know about this area (the
Clinch Valley) being sacred tem1ory 10 the
OlcroL.ccs? I am looking forward to heanng from
you.
Warmest Greetings,
Oint Dye
P.O. Box 55
Swords Creek,
Virginia 24CH9
KATU AH - page 25
�(nruural) - no electne, no plumbing, and the liule
DRUMMING
continued from p. 25
wildlife people feel OK hete.
Ka11lah editor:
I really connected IO the concepis of your
journal and your goals. as expressed in Earth
First! (February issue, •Reviews"). all.ho' I
myself see us as passed beyond the point of
choosing qwtlity life stand:uds or not, for living
beings. I feel humans have destroyed (and are
destroying) so much of our basic life-support
needs - air, watctS, soils- that we may only have a
choice of octivating NOW IO save what's left., or
simply become extinct in I.he very near fuuue.
I've been trying IO "live on I.he land"hcre
since 1978, doing a "half-passed" Job of it-still
connected much IOO much IO machine age things.
I'm trying now IO deepen my own dctcm1inalion,
woit MUCH harder, sleep less. quit wasting time
on any unnecessary things, and become much
more self-suflicicnL Cutting off from machine
age life 100% is my goo.I. I want IO produce all
my own food and drinking water. finish the rock
walls for this old home, can all the summer fruit
here, and so on. I've kept my place very primitive
Anyhow. I wnnt to offer you info of I.he
suppon system that has enabled me to deal wilh
never-ending stvere problems as natural world
meets machine age. I refer to Nichircn Shoshu,
Buddhist World Peace MovcmcnL
Here's our chant:
"NAM-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO" and we chJnt LO
a small scroll called "Gohonzon" on which is
inscribed concepts of universal enlightenmenL
Due to I.he miserable schedule of my city
job, I feared I'd not get my nightly chanting done
last nighL I figured I'd fall asleep, after nighis of
home-coming al midnight and 1:20 am, so I've
been chanting how I'd stay awake.
Sure enough, after some chanting. I dozed
off last night. I woke up. but I jus1 would not get
up, laying there, thinking of all the urgent
things, but NOT MOVING. Then I heard
"Thump. Thump." an odd noise ..?? I guessed
what it was and jumped up. It was BAD KiUy,
go1 in I.he cupboard, got my Swiss cheese, and
was banging it on the floor to break off bites. It
was chanting that brought Kiuy into the cabinet
of food: the only lhing lh31 would get me up,
without being dreadful, like a fire or such.
I've chanted for Glady, murdered bear, that
she returns to happier new life. Here's a grc:it
phJ'Mc Crom our teacher, wriucn by Miao-lo, great
Buddhist teacher of India:
•A plant., a uee, a pebble, a speck of dust,
each has innate Buddha D3turc, along with the
other causes and conditions needed t0 auain
Buddhahood." I hope you people there may only
try this chanting 10 bring many bencliis to your
own fine work. To locate members in your area,
contact: Nichercn Shisher Community, 4603
Eastern Avenue. Mt. Ranier. Maryland 20712.
(301) 779-3255.
Sincerely,
Janice Blise
A Katuah reader in Knoxville, TN sends this
flier that was being distributed there by you11g
people in punk auire.
ROOFING FOR AUNT PEARL
"They want met' move I' town,"
bent over her cane and squinting
up at me covered with stop-leak and tar,
holding hot rolled roof,
"but a told 'em:
her palsied hand's finger
pointing to the soil,
"that I'm Cold Knob born.
Cold Knob bred,
'n' when I die, by God,
I'm gonna be Cold Knob dead.·
KNOXVILLE PUNKS GO ECO ...
- Bob Henry Baber
Dear Kataah,
Just wan1ed to write in and say how
much I appreciate the efforts of those
wildlife officers who for three years have
!>een looking into the bear pooching here
tn these mountains. h was very
courageous of those folks to do that.
. .You know t~ey were really laying
their hvcs on the hne in some cases. So I
think they deserve a special thanks from
all of us who want to see the bears
survive here.
I hope the coun has the sense to
follow through in adequate punishment of
the people who were poaching. It doesn't
do much good to do all that work and then
have them not be strongly punished.
The bears are having a hard enough
time dealing with this drought. They
don't need co be having to deal with all the
threat of poaching as well.
MAKE TH M PAY PLUG
UP
A MAGH1NE TODAY !
Sincerely,
M. L. Lewis
Let Ille Military-Industrial Complex Beware!
�Medicine- .Allies
ful I color T- sfJirts
REVIEW
Where Legends Live:
A Pictorial Guide to
Cherokee Mythic Places
by Douglas A. Rossman
(Cherokee Publications; Cherokee, NC),
1988
If you are enchanted by the colorful,
moving myths ana legends of the
Cherokee .... .if the skin along your neck
crawls at the thought of Utluhtu, the
Spearfinger, snaring the livers of
unsuspecting victims.....if you have feared
the giant serpent Uktena, bearing the
blinding crystal Uluhsati on its head, luring
even the greatest warriors to their
death .. ... then you have also wondered
about the dwelling- and haunting-places of
these great creatures of myth.
Where Legends Live, by frequent
Kati1ah comributor Douglas A. Rossman,
will provide you with a glimpse of those
places. Black-and-while photographs depict
the actual geographic locations of sites: from
Gahudi ("the finding place"). where the
great Uktena met its demise; to the various
dwelling-places and council houses of the
Nuhnehi ("those who have always been
here"); to Uguh-yi, "the place behind the
water," where Thunder Beings lived.
Lovely stippled illustrations by Nancy-Lou
Patterson bring alive the text.
Where Legends Uve is the perfect
companion 10 Cherokee myths and legends
recorded by historians, ethnologists, and
other writers. If you dare to view the land of
the g.reat Uktena, Rossman's book is for
you.
In ths traditional Cherokee Indian belief.
the .cr~~turss in the world today ars only
dlmmultlve forms of the mythic beings who
once inhabited ths world, but who now reside
in Galuna'ti, ths spirit world, the highest
heaven. But a tsw of ths original powers broke
through ths spiritual barrier and exist yet in the
world as ws know it. These beings are called
with reverence •grandfathers•. And of thsm,
the strongest ars Kanatt, the lightning, the
power of the sky; Utsa'natl, ths rattlesnake.
who personifies the power of the earth plane;
and Yunwi USdi, "the little man·. as ginseng ls
called m the sacred ceremonies, who draws up
power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they ars allies: their energies
complement each other to form an even
greater power. As medicine a/Iles, they
represent the healing powers of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
lb~y Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen by
Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality, all-cotton
shirts, they are available now in all aduh sizes
through the Kalanu bioreglonal mail-order
suppUsr.
Order shirts from: KAl.ANU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
Katuah Province 28779
Please specify size: Sm., Med., Lg., X·Lg.
KRLRNU
BI OREG I ONRL BOOKS
ANO TOOLS FOR LIU I NG
IN RPPRLRCHIR
•The Education or LitUe Tree
• by Forrest Olster
A boy ltarllS oboUI lift from his
Chtrok.te gra11dpam11s ON! 1ht surrounding hills. A
story full of wisdom and love tlwt will one day be
recognized as a lilerary classic. • S11.00
• Myths and Sacred Fonnulas or the
Cherokee • collected by J31ncs Mooney
A jollnlty through time and the
Appalachian mythic lond.scap<!. - S15.00
• The French Brood • by Wilma Dykem311
A rousing history of the French Broad
River wotershtd.full offaCJs and tht spirit of the
mountainS. • SI0.00
• Strangers in High Places
- by Michael Frome
Tht story of 1/te Great Smoky
Mountains and tht creation of a national park. •
$9.50
• Landscaping with Native Plants
- by Cordelia Penn
Creating nmural londscQ/XS iJr ti~
eascernfores1 lands. • S7.00
• Where Legends Live
- by Douglas Rossman
A geography of Cherokee myth. ·
S5.00
All prices include posmge.
- Kim Sandland
P~ add
5% sales w IO iolal.
Order from:
KRLRNU
P. 0. Box 282; Sylva, NC
Kamah Province 28789
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SO LAR PROOUCTS
Member NC Wa1 Ouahly Assoc1auo11
er
HWY 107
RANDA LL C LANIER
RT. 68 BOX 125
704-293-59 12
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
.~·~
!> ~if."'~:
Natural Food Store
& Deli
All 1101urol
160 8I080W1ly
Ash9Yllle, NC 28801
· '.ll·1fiune- Cmm1..._
1
Ht,,.x l.J.Jc., L .·
~n.;.au.
Clary S.1gc. and more
.lir.lf,,;.,..
/re~ cota109ue
,.,. ~
Bluebird Botanlcalt ~ ·oJ~ao.G.r>
p 0 Bo• 1271 ~. . .;"'.
'J.~~·,
fr~nkkn NC 211734
~/
~
~
&rbdra R,;m,•n,nyder PhD ~,
~~--
t....
AUTUMN - 1988 '
Where l!lroadwly ~
Mlrrtmon Aw &1-240
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
SCOTT BIRD
GREGBLAO(
(704) 683-1414
fl8M795
Monday.S.urct.y: 9am·8pm
Sunday: 1pm-5pn
(704) 253-7656
KATUAH - page 27
�"A Cosby farmer used a hollow chestmn tree as a barn
for a pig and a cow."
JOURNEY
• Dr. Frank W. Woods (University of Tennessee)
1. Gm wl.ncrel!
IJear my &~ c:rown
Slt h1.9h on my throne
X.now the trees
CGU ••• CaU •••
TauntLnlj ~out of my sf«p ... wa!.A.
There·s sGfety ln the Jtock.
B1.1t you Gre Q Coner too
_.tnd,
Q WQtc:fiu
1.mpotlult to tclL
IJhere hGve you &ecn, c:row?
you C:Qn trovd ln GU wortds
Swoop down Qnd. r~
See lhroUCJh my CtJCS
!he c:unnlruJ
X.now my cfarrt.ness
What CQn you. open wlth my beart.?
l.lhat c:Gn you CJrGsp wlth my tciC.ons?
Caw ••• C11W •••
n~
c:row splrlt
f i.qflts the Ctil.Je
Ctever down.
you survwe
t see throucfo your eyes
the c:unnln9
1. &eco~ one wllh the c:row
Thro"'Jh the c:rGclt. Ln the stone
S!lp down journey
deep l.n f t!Ajht
n~ c:row Ln the nxu!
p Lcrt.s at my m l.nd.
1.t dears the splrLt. wGy
kle l.f"Gvet far
ln c:a!t Wortds
Author Lorna Thornborough stOJlding by a c~.ftnut giant in the I920's
(continued from page S)
The Last Rites
We neec! to rleClt our hurts
now
Put our [lves ln order
I?
now
We neel! to say
what we m&Gn to stly
and. pray
for9we anci CJlve
get Cuctd
now
Our [lves fttl5h &efore our eyes
The o[c( ways Ifie
I.le Gre rec1m1~"'9
the Ca~t nuis
from Crow Woman Dreaming
-poems
by
Colleen
(Self-published), 1988
Redman
Eight pages, available for $5.00--or
trnde--plus postage from Colleen Redman;
P.O. Box 634; Floyd, VA 24091. ,
KA TUAH • page 28
depressions in the bark with small orange
bumps protruding from them. The can.kers
grew through lhe phloem, to the cambium,
and into the rree's xylem layer, eventually
girdling the tree.
By 1910 the blight had spread acf?SS
New York and New Jersey and was moving
nonh into Massachusetts. It had previously
been spotted in locations in Pennsylvania.
Already the blight had damaged millions of
magnificent trees, and scientists knew that
they were faced with an epidemic.
Pennsylvania made the only attempt
to stop the spread of the blig.ht. In 11 _1he
state gathered a team of enunent sc1en11sts
and spent $500,000 on their effons. bu~ to
no avail. The blight continued on, mov.mg
inexorably southward • almost 25 miles
each year - through the valuable chestnut
stands.
By 1938 F.H. Milh:r, park forester in
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
announced that 'Tully 85% of the chestnul in
the Park has been killed or affecied by the
blight." Undamage~ tree~ we.re found,
p:micularly at 1he higher clevauons, even
laie into the I 940's. but eventually v1nually
all of them succumbed to the invader. An
estim:ued 3.5 billion Castanea trees
wllhered to the ground. The mighiy chestnut
was vanquished.
A mainstay of Appalachi:m economic
life was lost v. ith the demise of the
American chestnut, as well as an important
source of sustenance for mountain families.
But unquestionably it was the fore:.t wildlife
that was hardest hit by the loss of this gre~t
tree. No one was mrudng wildlife surveys m
the early J900's, but it was apparent to any
hunter lhat the loss of the chestnut severely
curtailed the populations of several species
of Appalachian wildlife. Black bears and
wild turkeys were particularly threatened.
Between the loss of the dependable fall
chestnut mast crop and the inroads of
over-hunting, both those species were
almost eliminated from the Southern
Appalachians.
The chestnut tree is not entirely
extinct but ll has been banished into a
strang~ limbo. Root systems still live
underground, and they still send up sprouts
that in some places have become an
imponam understory shrub. But ~fore ~e
young saplings can reach matunty, their
bark cracks, the typical cankers appea;. and
the small trees are soon dead. W11hout
leaves to suppon them, the chestnut roots
arc slowly losing their vigor under~round.
Few of the saplings reach nut-beanng age.
and large chestnut trees surviving above
ground are very, very few.
.
But isolated trees do survive. and
through the work o~ sc~cnce pas_!onately
s
applied and sheer f:ulh in the resiliency ot
the chestnut, hope for the former forest
giant i~ grov. ing. A concerted effort on the
pa.rt of a large number of aware volunteers
could undo the damage we have done a~d
restore the American chestnut tree to us
naturnl habitat in Appalachia.
"Where there be mountains, be there
clte.wiuus once again!"
AlJTUMN • 1988
�Young People's Page
!\ature is a book with a lesson for each day.
Before man This is where the animals roamed
looking for prey.
This is where the flowers grew
making the valley be:iutiful.
Then came man •
I le destroyed the animal ' homes.
I le killed 1he aninlats.
I le polluted the air: and water.
Man has done wrong.
It is up to u. to correct htm.
- M:itt Ghonnley
Clnldrcn, running through the fields,
Leaves. rustling through the winds.
The sight of n:itun: make-. me h:ippy.
But the iliought of nature m3kes me radiant.
- Steve Yazdik
- Kamari Venable
As the cricket checpi;
And the jays say goO<lnight
To one another,
I wonder "hy we must
Destroy this world
Which we do not own,
But nrc pennincd to borrow.
'I'ake your problems to lhe mountains
Ami ask for help.
Your problems may be solveu.
If you le:lrn how to listen.
- Brittany Hop~ns
. Wan.song lfarley
Nature is talking to us.
Some people have coough patience
To listen to what it.says.
The future can be changed
If only we i.top to listen.
- Suzanne Schenley
- B:irbara Miller
If every man had the chance to sit alone by a river.
he may think twice what he does.
- Amy Jones
Thanks ro Amy Cogan ar Grear Smoky Wo11111ain Envimnmenral Education
ln.srimre ar TrefTll)nt, locared in rile Grear Smnky Mo1111rui11 Nminnal Park.
Drawing by Rob Messick
AUTUMN- 1988
KATUAH ·page 29
�Helping
Injured
W ildlife
Each year many injured or orphaned
wild animals and birds of prey are brought
in from the woods. The Western North
Carolina Nature Center received over 600
creatures, mostly raptors, requiring
assistance last year. Yet there arc few
wildlife rchabilitators who have the
necessary permits from the US Depanment
of the Interior and the North Carolina
Wildlife Resources Commission to care for
the distressed individuals.
Wildlife rchabilitators house, feed,
and exercise the disabled birds and animals,
and then introduce them to prey so that they
can again fend for themselves. Presently,
the few wildJife rehabilitators in the region
are overburdened and cannot possibly keep
up with the number of creatures in trouble
that are constantly brought in.
Clyde Hollifield, a wildlife
rchabilitator from Old Fon, NC has
conceived of a program to help bird and
animal fanciers to become licensed
rehabilitators. Working with the Western
Nonh Carolina Nature Center, Clyde is
organizing a series of night courses on
rehabilitation skills: feeding, handling,
observing and diagnosing bird and animal
ailments, and emergency first aid. No
experience or technical skills are required,
just a desire and a commitment to help
wildlife. Rehabilitators are volunteers who,
though they receive no pay, gain deep
satisfaction from their work.
Being a wildJife rehabilitator requires
dedication, but it can rake up as little rime as
the practitioner desires. "Even keeping and
releasing one bird per yeru- is a great help, ..
says Clyde. "Every creature is important.
Each bird that flies away is a valuable
addition to the gene pool, and means many
generations of offspring later on down the
line.
"Even if there were just 10 or 20
more rehabilitators in the area, that would be
a great help."
Those who would like to register for
wildlife rehabilitator training classes or
would like more information about the
program, write or call Clyde Hollifield, 355
Cedar Creek Rd.; Black Mounrnin, NC
28711; (704) 669-6821.
Call for Presentations
lmernational Conference on
Parkways, Greenways, Riverways
The Steering Committee of the l111ulllJ(ional
Con[erenu on Parkways. Greenways. Riverways;:
The Way More Beouiifu/, to be held Sept.ember
19-22, 1989 in Asheville, North Carolina. invites
your proposals flll' prcsenutions.
An intemntional gathering of presenters is
being sought to represem diverse areas as they relate
to parkways, greenways and riverways--their
conceptual foundations, their design and
construction, and the roles they may piny in our
future. Suggested topic areas include
multi-governmental cooperation in the jurisdiction
of, psychologic:il importance or. and habit.at
preservation and the development of parkways,
grecnways. and rivcrwnys.
The Conference is intended to provide a
forum for di31ogue and discussion. Presentations can
be in the form or papers, panel discussions, films,
videotapes, workshops, case studies. artistic
interpretations. etc. Abstracts of presentations
should be submitted in narrative form, no longer
than two pages, and include presenter's name,
institutional/organizational affiJiation, address, and
ielephone number, and the title and description of
the proposed presentation. DEADLINE FOR
RECEIVlNG ABSTRACTS IS DECEMBER 1,
1988. AbstmclS or inquiries should be din!clCd to:
Dr. Barry Buxton
Appalachilln Consortium
University Hall
Boone. North Carolina 28608
(704) 262-2064
The Confetenee is sponsored by The Appalachian
Consortium, The Blue Ridge Parkway, The River
Foundation, The Lyndhurst Foundation, and the
National Parlt Service.
For additional ideas and inforl'll(llion, co111ae1 Kallinh
co-editor Marnie Mu.lier who is a member of the
Steering Committu.
New River Symposium
The New River Gorge National River, a unit
of the National Park System in West Virginia., and
lhe New River Slllte Parle in North Carolina arc
again co-sponsoring the New River Symposium.
The eighth annual throe-day symposium, scheduled
for April 20-22, 1989. will be held in Radford,
Virginia.
The multi-disciplinary symposium is open to all
those with a professional or avocational interest in
the New River, which courses from itS headwaters
in North Carolina through Virginia. to itS terminus
in West Virginia. a disUlllce of approximately 250
miles.
Papers for the symposium are being
requested in natural and/or cultural history, folklore,
:uchocology, geography, other na.1ur:il. physical. and
social sciences, and the humaniLies. All papers
should share Lhese common 1hcmes or the
interrelationships of the natural, physical, and/or
human environmenlS.
In order for proposals to be considerod they must
be received NO LATER THAN DECEMBER I,
198g and include a 250-400 word nbstrnct which
will be reviewed by a panel of professionals. All
proposals should be sent Lo the Chief of
lnterpret.ation, Nationnl Park Service, New River
Gorge National River, P.O. Box I 189. 03k Rill,
West Virginia 2590 I. Questions C11D be answered by
calling Parlt Headquarters at (3~) 465-0508.
~
T·SHIRTS, SWEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
15 ORIGINAL
HAND·PRINTED
NATURE DESIGNS
EACH COLORFUL
IIDHGN It;
PRIN'lED ON
Q.UALI'IY T' s
Ai<D SWEA'fS
�PLA NT A L ITTLE MAGIC
Cullivating Communities
In the Garden
Amuica11 Community Garde11111g Association
Conftwire · October 17-20. 1988 • Ask•·tllt,NC
All o•cr lhc: country people arc working
LOgcther io 1t:1nsrorm open, unu~ space mio viable
community gardens. A communtty garden is made
up or people, young and old. who appreciate the
beauty of growing vegclllblcs and nowers and
cultivating communities. Mountain ~ Gardeners
in Communtty (MAGIC) (sec Katuah Journal,
Spnng '86) has been developing twelve community
gardens in Asheville, Nonh Carolina for the past six
years.
This fall, on October 17·20. 19118, MAGIC
will host the American Community Gardening
A-~soci:uion's (ACGA) annual conference.This will
be a special opponunity for area residents to learn
how alive community gnrdening really 1s--around
the country. Formed in 1979. ACGA now has 600
members nationwide who suppon the greening or
cilies and the building or communities through
community gardcrung.
Community garden supporters from all over
lhc: country and parts or Canada will be imending
and MAGIC would like to cxitnd a direct invitation
to area residents 10 JOin m the events. The
conference will provide a full schedule of acuvities
including round ublc discussions. workshops, a
trade fair, a BBQ/square dance and a umc for
networking.
The conference. to be held at the Quality
Inn on the Plaza m downtown Asheville, will begin
at 9:00 am Mond3y with the kcynot.c address by Jeff
Bcn:uvit.Z, direct()( of the RcgcncrJuon PtOJeCt,
Rodale Press. The Rcgcncrauon Project is
pioneering an innovative rippro~h to community
revilllli:r.ation by focussing on the living
cn'·ironmcnt and sll'Cngthening local economic.~. Jeff
Bcrcuv1l7 will provide pmctiail mformauon or value
to groups working on de•cloping and strengthening
communities.
Workshops will be oHcrcd lrom 9 am 10 4
pm on Monday and Tuc.o;diy and 9 am to noon on
Thursday. A lot:JI of 26 workshops will cover a
wide range or topics, mcludmg sclf·help gardening
programs, gardening with children, new village
gardening in Mexico, recycling, and a homculturc
therapy panel. The trade fair will run all d3y
Tuesday nnd w11J feature ci1h1bits showing n:iuonal,
rcgionnl and locul products that provide sarcr, more
effccuvc gardening. Wednesday IS traveling d3y ror
conferees. featuring vi,1ts to MAGICs garden .sites,
a trip up to Cr:iggy G31d.:ns. and a BBQ/square dJncc
at the Warren Wilson campus.
The conference fees are SIOO for ACGA
members and Sl50 for non· mcmbel'!. A·la·carte
sclccuons of S35 for a full d3y or work.shops. S20
for the BBQ/sqlWC cbncc and SIO for the g:udcn tour
arc offered. If you arc int.c~•tcd in attending or
helping with the conrercncc, contact Tom
Youngblood·~tctliCll at (704) 251-5666.
• Kartn Morgan
Herbal Wisdom WorlL<Jiops
and I k1b:tl Products
Send for Brochure
Cyndi llcath
Route 2 Box 251
Vala.~.
NC 28692
The Second Annua l
NEW PRIORITIES
CONFERENCE
The Ka11iah Journal again joins with
a number of other organizations in the area
to co-sponsor the annual New Priorities
Conference o n Peace, Social Justice and the
Environment. The theme for this second
annual event is "Wake Up and Dream!"
The conference will begin at 8 pm
Fnday eve, September 23, with musical
entertainment and will then continue all day
Saturday, September 24. All activities will
be held at Asheville lligh School in
Asheville, Nonh Carolina.
Registration begins at 8:00 am on
Saturday with the opening plenary at 8:45
Keynote speaker will be Alan Gussow,
national president of Friends of the Earth,
who was enthusiastically received last year
as one of the main speakers. Afterwards the
morning workshops will offer ideas, skills,
and tools needed for turning community
"dreams" into reality. There will be two
concurrent sessions in each of these subject
areas: 1) Mediation/active listening/conflict
resolution; 2) Community building; 3)
Hope and empowennent/ dealing with
change; 4) Earth awareness; and 5) Creative
parenting/ non-violent lifestyles.
For the session on Earth awareness.
K acuali co-editor Marnie Muller, Kay
Littlejohn, nauve Cherokee, and Paul
Gallimore of Long Branch Environmental
Education Center will jointly present a
workshop entitled "The Earth is Alive:
Living Withi n the Community of Life
Systems." Drawing from the bioregional
work of Thomas Berry, from contemporary
biological and ecological findings, and from
native traditions. they will lead a discussion
on how to perceive, work with, and
celebrate the ecological life processes in
which we are immersed.
rn the afternoon workshops trained
facilitators will assist a dynamic coalescing
of "dreaming" and strategizing by
conference participants. Using the skills
and ideas fro m the morning session.
participants will have the opportunity to
envision together and share their personal
"community dreams," and then to develop
positive "next steps" for individual and
group actions.
The closing plenary, which will
conclude at 4:30 pm, will be a time for the
afternoon groups to summarize and share
the outcome of their workshops and to
acknowledge their ongoing capacity to wake
up and dream together during the coming
year.
Conference costs will be held at a
minimum to encour:!ge as broad a
participation as possible. Fee for Saturday
will be $8 to $12. depending on
preregistration and lunch options.
Scholarships and group rates are also
available. Childcare will be available for
children ages 3-10. The fee will be $2 per
child for the day. The Friday evening
musical event will be offered on a donation
basis. Volunteers to help with conference
prepnration and publicity are needed. For
more details regarding this imponanl event,
call (704) 252-3036.
Now available...
A B ioregional Bibliography
lis1ing major bon/c.s, periodicals a~ articles associa.1ed w!th 1/ze bioregio11al
effort. An e.xcel/em wot f~r a: 11111s1s, scli'!ta;s. /1~rari~s, a~d 1e.acl1ers.
Compiled by 1/ze Hudson 81oreg1onal Counc1/, in con1unc11on wuh 1he North
American Bwregional Congress.
/11c/U/k$ co1111tnit11J Jub/1J1J11g1, 46 pages. S4 00 111clu.ks po11agt. Carh or chr:ck (payabk
10 K. Salt). llwdw11 81oreg111nal CoW1C1/ clo 1\1,kSalt, I 13 W. //th S1 .. New. Yor.l. NY
10011.
DESIGNS
by Hob :-. tcssick
lllustrnt1on & Dcs1~n
In Pen & Ink and Colored Pcncll
t!lti11ese ,At11p1111ct11re
ut
.Her/J11'41v e!iHk
11U.STCKSNJTSllCliT
ASKVUl'....CZllOI
IOU~toll
AUTUMN· 1988
KATUAH ·page 31
�eveors
ON-GOI NG • CULLOWllEE, NC
"Mountain Troul" • exltibi1 wi1h
prints, painungs, pholOS, sculplure, rceM!ings of
old fishermen, and aquarium wilh live rrouL 8-5
Mon.·Fri., 12-4 Sal. al The MounUlin Het1U1ge
Center. WesLCrn Carolina Universily, Cullowhee,
NC 28723.
SEPTEMBER
17-18
HARRISONBURG, VA
"Restoring Wilderness in the
East: A Deep Ecology Perspective"
conference featuring Dave Foreman (Earth
First!), Gary Lawless (Gulf of Maine
Bioregion), Jamie Sayen (PAW), Barbara
Dugelby (Earth First!), David Wheeler
(Katuah). Sponsored by Virginia Earth
First! and Virginians for Wilderness;
co-sponsored by Kau1ah. At James Madison
University in Harrisonburg. Registration:
$10 advance, SIS at door. For more info:
write VA EFI; Route 1, Box 250; Staunton,
VA 24401 or call (703) 885 6983.
OCTOBER
8·9
CHEROKIEE, NC
'The An of Troy Anderson (wescem
Cherokee) and Shan Goshorn (eastern Cherokee)."
Cherokee Hericage Museum and Gnllcry; Cherokee,
NC 28719.
LO
1-31
MARS HfLL, NC
The Bascom Lamar Lundsford
Mountain Music and Dance Festival. Mounuun
crafts and mounUlin living CllhibiLions. music,
stories, dancing. Evening concert. 7 pm. For more
info .. call (704)689-1228.
1-2
BRASSTOWN, NC
Fall Music Fes1ival, John C.
Campbell Folk School; Brosscown, NC 28902
2-14
VALLE CRUCIS, NC
"The Great Mad Mother Earlh
Pa.intings• • exhibiting lhe work of Marlene
Mountain. Pan of "AesthcLic Access '88," privncc,
non-<:ommcrcial ellh1b1tions at the Lowell Hayes
Studio. Call for inviUltion: (704) 963·5835.
CHEROKEE, NC
Cherokee Fall Festival. Stickball,
Indian dancing, cheslnut bread. exhibits. Ceremonial
Grounds, Cherokee.
4-8
17-18
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
"Wild Mammnls of !he Great Smokies"
field instruction with Dr. Michael Pelton. $45.
Smoley Mountain Field School: 20\6 Lake Ave.:
Knoxville, 1N 37996.
17·18
RALEIGH, NC
Eart.h Skills Workshop with
Eustoce Conway. ConL3Cl Bern Grey Owl: 4 Winds
Indian Score: W. Johnson SL (919) gs6-0144.
6-7
CHEROKEE, NC
Shan Goshorn speaks about her
anwork. Cherokee Heritage Museum and Gallery:
Cherokee, NC 28719
CROSSNORE, NC
Forest Watch Training Program.
Forest management. wildlife, water qunh1y, CIC. $3
registrauon. Dorm space available: S!3/nigh1.
Meals extra. Sponsored by Blue Ridge Group, Sierra
Club.
NEW MOON
13-30
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Moumain Sweet Tallc." 2-act play
by The Follccellers (Barbara Freeman, Connie
Regan-Blake). The Follc Art Center, Blue Ridge
Parkway. S8 advance at Malaprop's, SIO al door.
For more info., write: The Folktcllcrs; Box 2898;
Asheville, NC 28802.
14-16
BLACK MOUNTAINt NC
"The Black Mountain
Festival" - traditional music and dance,
children's activities. The Merropolitnn Blues
All-Stars, 0.K. Bayou Dance Band, The
Heartbeats, Johnny Gimble, Claudia
Schmidc, Lorraine Duiset (of Trapezoid),
callers Fred Park and Sue DuPre. For the
kids: Goldenrod Puppets, songs and stories
with Susie Crace. Camping or bunks.
$35/person. Pre-regiscer: Grey Eagle and
Friends; P.O. Box 216; Black Mouncain,
NC2871 I
14-16
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"S1umbling Toward lhe Light" retreat wilh Bo and Siia Lozoff. $50. Southern
Dharma Retreat Center; RL I, Box 34-H: Hot
Springs. NC 28743.
15-16
ASHEVILLE, NC
The Second Annual New
Priorities Conference on Peace, Social
Justice, and the Environment - beginning
locally and reaching out. Keynote by Alan
Gussow (president, Friends of the Eanh).
Workshops, including "The Eanh Is Alive"
with Marnie Muller, Kay Littlejohn, and
Paul Gallimore. Pre-register by 9/16 to 725
Chunns Cove Rd.; Asheville, NC 28805.
For more info, see p. 31 or call: (704)
252-3036
23·24
24-25
RALEIGH, NC
Ear1h Skills Workshop, see
CARTERSVILL E, GA
Southeastern Indian Cullural
Festival al Etowah Indian Mound. Largest gathering
or SE Indian artisans ever assembled. Contacc
Valerie Spratldn (404) 942-8917.
ASHEVILLE, NC
American Community Garden
Association National Conference at Quality
Inn. Speaker Jeff Bercuvitz (director,
Regeneration Project), 9 am 10/17. Trade
show, 10/18. Workshops. Registration:
S!OO/members, $150/non-members. For
more info., see p. 3 1 or call MAGIC
(704)251-5666.
17-20
9/17-18.
2S
FULL MOON
20.23
J0..10/2
HIGHLANDS, NC
Men's ReucaL A special weekend for and
about men. A lime or exploration and shnring led by
Dr. Bill Sutton, psychologist. SIOO. Highlands
Camp and Conference Centcr: 841 Highway 106:
Hlghlllnds, NC 28741.
KATUAH • page 32
HI GHLANDS, NC
"Fall Landscape Workshop."
pho1ography instruction by Sam Wang.
App3lachian Environmenial Ans Center: Box 580:
28741
AlITUMN - 1988
�24-29 OAK Rll)GE, TN
"Nuke Wa1eh opera1ion ai Y-12 Nuclear
Weapons Components Plant. Con1ac1 Oak Ridge:
Environmcnllll and Peace Alliance: Box I IOI:
Knoxville, TN 37901 or call evenings al (615 l
588-9370.
WA YNESVlLLE, NC
Seminar. •A Theosophical Pcrspecu ve
on Dath and Dying· with Belly Bland. Towald
removing fear and anxiety lhrough under..1:111d1ng of
Ille process S20 donation. Std-Llgh1. Sec 10/21-23.
19-20
BOONE. NC
Earth Skills Workshop w11h
Eusll!cc Conway. Conltlct Allem Smnlcy (704)
872-7972.
ATHENS, GA
Sandy Creek American Indian
Pow-wow and Rendezvous. sponsored by Ille Native
American Cul1ural Prc.scrva1ion Socie1y Adults:
S4.00. Children, seniors: S2.00. For more info.•
call An:hie Russ (615) 525--6769.
28-30 HELEN, CA
"EARTHSKILLS WORKSHOP• with
Snow Benr and Darry Wood. Learn pnm1uve skills
1ha1 1each mindfulness as well as dex1erity.
Prc-rcgis1cr S65 10 Bob Slack; Unicoi Smte P..uk:
Box 1029: Helen. GA 30545. Call (404) 1178-2201
30-11/11 VALLF. CRUCIS, NC
"Thero: is a River·. Ille paintings of
Lowell Hayes on exhibll as pan or "Aes1he1ic
Accc.~s '88." See 10/2-14.
23-27
21-23
29
21-23
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"In1roduction to Zen
Meditation, lkebana. and the Tea
Ccre:mony" with Dnimn K:ungiri-Roshi and
Tomoe Kniagiri. Sou1hern Dhnrma, see
10/14-16.
21·23
YELLOW SPRINGS, 011
"Building Community as if 1he
Earth Mauers• conference. Susan Meeker-Lowry.
Bob Swann, Chris Weiss, speakers. Community
Service, Inc.; P.O. Box 2423; Yellow Springs, OH
45387 (513) 767-2161.
ASHEV ILLE, NC
Candidates' Forum - Morie Colton and
other candidlllcs for SUllC lcgislal.ive posillons will
discuss the issues at a public meeung. Sponsored by
WNC Alliance, WNC Environmental Summi1,
\VENOCA SicJTa Club. Asheville High School, 7
pm. Call 258-8737 for more info.
21-24
31
SAMHAIN (ALL llALLO\\'S
EVE) - Hnllowe'cn celebration. Gel out and howl!
PISGAH FOREST, NC
Rock Climbing Clinic for novu:es
at Looking Glass Rock. Gilbert's Rock. ConUICt
Eagle's Nest Camp: Rt. 2, Hart Rd.: Pisgah Forest.
NC 28768 (704) 877-4213.
23
FULL MOON
WAYNESVILLE, NC
A Thanksg1V1ng Weekend Spiritual
Retreat at Sul-Light with Ille Stil-Lighl staff.
Contemplation, discus.~ion of diet and a non-violcni
lifestyle. excellen1 vegetarian food. S20. Stil-Light
Sec 10/21·23.
DECEMBER
2-4
llOT SPRINGS, NC
"Tibetan Buddhism. Traditional
Melhods for Spirilual Growth" wllh lhc Ven.
Tub1cn Pcndey (James Dougherty). "Each moment
of our li~·es provides us with the potential for inner
growth." Southern Dharma, sec 10/14-16.
NOVEMBER
:!2
MADISON COUNTY, NC
County-wide recycling day. Cash
for trash. Raise money for your group! Call Lou
Z.cllcr (704) 656-2773 for de Lail.~.
9
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"A Mystical Sabbath" - exploring
the inner ways and practices of Ille Jewish lrodition
wi1h ordained woman rabbi Lynn Oouheb. Soulhcm
Dharma, see 10/14-16.
4-6
22-23
ATLANTA, GA
Earth Skills Workshop with
EusUlce Conway. Contac1 Jill Korn (404) 736-9573.
2.1
11-13
9
J.ULL MOON
NEW MOON
NEW MOON
18
FRANKLIN, NC
"KJllU3h: The Spiritual Landscape•
prcscnmtion by David Wheeler and Mamie Muller of
Ille Katdah Journal. Meeting of the Mountrun Ligh1
Network. Macon County Community Center. 2
pm. For more mfo, call Marion McCracken (404)
746-2454.
However...
We hope
you'll make plans Lo come
to the
'.K.atU.ah '.Fall PtcnLc
Fall Weekend
scheduled for
Sept 30 - Oct 2
in Floyd County,
Virginia
WILL NOTTAKE PLACE
due to unforeseen
community-wide health
problems there.
We apologize for any
disappointment or
inconvenience but will look
forward to the possibility of
planning it for 1989.
·~ .
AU'fUMN - 1988
..
'if
.(~•·:-
which we have now scheduled for
SATURDAY, OCT. 1st
Full Directions:
(They're simple, but lhey work.)
Go to Bryson City, Norlh Carolina.
Follow the signs to "Deep Creek
Campground".
Optional:
Camping is available on a first come
basis. The Campground ls pan of lhe
National Park system.
from 11 :00 am ti! 4:00 pm
at Deep Creek Campground
in I.he Great Smoky Mountains
National Park (as usual).
Potluck Lunch
games. music, fun. bioregional
sharing!
Everyone Welcome!
Pu::nic info: (704) 622-3430 or (704) 683-1414
Picnic info:
(704)622-3430or (704) 683-1414
..
KATUAH ·page 33
~
�DRUMS • Cus1am hnndcraft.ed ccr:unic dumbecks &:
wooden mediclllC drums. Call Joe Roberts al (704)
258-1038 or write to: 73g Town Mount.:iin Rd. ;
A.'hcvillc, !l/C 28804.
"I'm now 111 a minimum security prison in
Knoxville {my home town). r can get out Nov. I, if
I find a job before that date. Docs anybody Jeno"' of
any job opponunities in the Knoxville area?" Rick
Whiu.aker 185670; 5225 Ballard Dr.; Knox\•ille, TN
37918.
SMALL HOUSE on land trust in rural NC
mountains in exchange for pan-time farm chores and
occasional companionship to creative, joyful,
menially handicapped adult (or other lllbor, such as
tallJCOtry). Quaker family. Meeting nearby. Write:
Bob and Dot Barrus: Camp Celo: 1349 H3nnah
Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714
TR.EE PLANTERS WANTED • small, friendly
company. Hard worlc, eitccllcnt pay for n:sponSible
people with own transport and camping set-up. Dc:c.
thru Apr. Eckman Forestry Service; RL l, Box
290-D; Warrensville, NC 28693 (919} 385-6838.
FUTONS by Simple Plea<urcs - affordably priced.
Send SASE for info to: Simple Plcasurcs; RL I,
Box 1426; ClaytOn, GA 30525 (404) 782-3920
SIMPLE LIFESTYLE CALENDAR, notceards, and
publications on central Appalachian envuonmcntal
issues and home ccologicAI projects avwlablc from
ASPJ. AppaLlchia • Science in the Public Interest
Publications: Route 5 Boit 423: Livingston. KY
40445
M. TREE DESIGNS: Olustrations and Design •
Beyond the pages of lfiis journal, I work in pencil,
colored pencil, ink, cut paper, and batik. Fine and
graphic an to cxpn:ss and enhance our lives. Logos,
brochures, books, portraiture, window and wall
hnngings.. Contact Manha Tree (704) 754-«IJ7.
EUSTACE CONWAY Guide and teacher of
pnmiuve Earth Skills with cmphasi< on fire
b1ulding, hide tanning, shelter. and foraging. He
tc;Jch~ at public schools, parks, environmenwl
centers. and classes of all kinds. For more
infonnation conl:lCt him ac 602 Dc.irwood Drive,
Gastonia, NC 28084 or call Allcm Sl3111cy at {704)
872-7972
RM DESIGNS • l u.<;e the mcdiu or pencils. colored
pencil<, gouxhc, pen and ink, and photography m
cre<1ung unique line and graphic an. I can make
diagrams, logo<, linishcd prints. and design~ for
brochures, cal.:ndars, cards, books. etc. Mandalas and
symbols arc my tendency among other styles.
Contact Rob M~<~ick (704) 7S4.fl097.
KATUAH ·page 34
BLIGHT RESISTANT CHESTNUT · hybrid
Amcricarl/Chine.~ Dunstlln chestnut trees - blight
resistant, limber growth fonn, productive orchard
crop with lnrgc. swceL easily-peeled nuts. Chestnut
Hill Nursery: RL l, Boit 341-K; Alachua, FL
32615 (904) 462-2820
"TREASURES IN THE STREAM" • a cassette tape
of songs by Bob Avery-Grubel. S 10 to Rt. I. Box
735; Aoyd, VA 24091.
PEPPERLAND olTcrs a variety of outdoor education
programs for church, school, or civic groups
year-round. We will help you design a program for
your group. Send for information packet to:
Pcppcrland Farm camp; Star Route; Farner. TN
37333.
WANTED: LAND m western NC. Family seeks 5
or more acres, preferably near Cullowhec, to
preserve and eventually inhabit. tr you have or know
of affordable land, contact Bob and Mary Davi~; 213
Westmon:land Ct., Georgewwn, KY 40324 (502)
863-4267.
CROIV WOMAN DREAMING • selC-publishcd
poetry journal, Celebrating, JOUmeymg, love's
alchemy, p!J.netary last rites, renew-JI. SS (or trade)
+ po.uige: Colleen Redman: P.O. Box 634; Floyd,
VA 24091 .
CRAFTSPEOPLE - seeking American Indian and
contemporary a.rt and craft for purchase or
consignment. ConUICt Bero Grey Owl: Four Winds
Indian Store: 616 W. Johnson St.: Raleigh, NC
27603 (919) 856-0144.
WINGED HEART HOMESTEAD • 283 acres in
Indian Valley district, SW Virginia. On tl1is farm
we want to start a self-reliant community of
families emphasi1.mg orgWlic farming methods and
creative pcrsonnl and spiritual growth. Contact:
Muzawir; RL HC-67, Box 171; Alum Ridge, VA
24051.
HANDMADE HOME in secluded woods, beautiful
Wears Valley, Sevier Co .• TN. 7+ acres on priVllte
rd. w/ separate anist studio/guest room. House h3s l
bedr'm .• bath, wildOowcr patio garden. Asking
$52,700. Also•....
COMPLETE WOODCRAFT SHOP. tools and
mvcntory for S31e. Located one mile from house on
major highway. Reasonable lease on facility.
Asking S8700. For more info on the above, call
(615) 453-1206.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS • herbal ~Ives,
tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For
brochure, plca...c wnte: Moon Dance Farm; Rt. I,
Box 726: Hampton, TN 37658
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY now forming in
the mountnins of north GA. Joan others ~ccking
gn:atcr cooperation and sclf-suflicicncy. Bnscd oo
spiritulll and ecological values. Property IS now
available. (404) n8·87S4.
Wingtd lwm111 llgutt from Eiowah Mound, KJl!li.ah
MEDITATION CUSHIONS • High qWllity
traditional cusbaons as well as something new • an
"inllatable 1.afu." For fn:c brochure, write: Carolina
Morning Designs, Rt. l Box 31 -8, DepL K, Hot
Springs, NC 28743 or call (704) 622 7329.
STIL-LIGHT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTE.R a quiet space for personal mcdiuation,
group mtcracuon through study, community won..
and spiritual ~minar; . Contaet Leon Frunkel; Rt. I,
Box 326: Waynesville, NC 28786
FLOWER ESSENCES · H3rmony with Nawrc and
SpariL Ocntle cmouon3l support during transitions.
specific issues. rclat1onsh1ps. Open
commun1c11tions. Self -adJUSting. non-toxic,
awan:ncss "tool\" f0< improving the inner quality.
Write; Elaine Geougc; c/o Patchwork Castle: 3931
Hwy. 80 S.; Burnsville, NC 28714
HAND-CARVED WOODSPlRITS, mystical
hiking stnffs. and wall hangings by Steve Duncan.
For brochure, please write Whippoorwill Studio:
Rt. 4, Box 981: Marion, NC 28752.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL TRAINING • one
week basic to live week instructor certilicalion
COU!SCS. Best training m shelters, fircbuilding. food
procurement. plants, land navigation wi1hout
JOIRing the army • maybe better! Professional
training in beautiful wilderness setting. Green
Mountain Wildc:rness Survival School: P.O. Box
125; Waitslield, VT 05673 (802)496-5300.
APPLE TREES • old·timcy and popular
rontcmpornry varicues on swndard. semi-. or dwarf
stoek. Send SASE ror prices Jeff Poppen, Long
Hungry Creek Nursery: Red Boiling Springs, TN
37150.
APPLE TREES • grafted old -fashioned and
contemporary. Send 50¢ for catalog: Henry Mon on;
Rt. I, Box 203; G:lllinburg. TN 3773R
APPALACHIAN O!NSENG CO. · stratified seed. .
<
!>Ccdhngs, roots. Send for price list to: P.O. Box
547; Dillsboro. NC 28725.
CHEROKEE INDIAN LANGUAGE classes For
info, write Robert Bushyhcad; P.O Box 705;
Chcroktt, NC 28719.
WEBWORKING is free. Send submissions w:
Kauiah Journal
P.O. Boit 638
Lc1CCSLer, NC
Kaulah Province 28748
AUTUMN· 1988
�In the winter issue of Kattloh Jo11r11al the focus
will be on views of the economic and natural "changes to
come" and lifestyles that will carry us through.
The Katuah Journal wanes to commw1icate wmr
tlumglus and feelings to the other people the
in
bioregional province. Send them tom as le11ers,
poems, stories, articles, drawings, or photographs, etc.
Please send your comribwions to us at: Katliah Journal,
P 0. Box 638, Leicester, NC. Kattiah Prt1vi11ce
28748.
"Water" and "P~ce and Social Justice Issues in
the Mountains" are possible topics for future issues of
the Kati1ah Journal. What do you think? We would like
10 hear your perspectives on these imporunt questions. ·
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE TIIREE - Spring 1984
Sustainable Agriculture • Sunflowers - Humnn
Impact on the Fores1 - Childrens' Educnuon ·
Veronica Nicholru;: Woman in Politics - Liule
People • Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOURTEEN· Winier 1986·87
Lloyd Carl Owle · Boogcrs and Mummers • All
Species Day - Cabin Fever Unjvcrs1ty • Homeless
in Kaul:lh • Homemndc Hot Wal.CI • Stovcmakcr's
Narrative - Good Medicine: In terspecies
Communication
ISSUE FOUR - Summer 1984
Wiiler Drum - Water Quality • Kudzu· Solar Eclipse
• ClellJ'Cuuing - Troul - Going to Water - Ram
Pumps - MicrOhydro - Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair,
Jim Wnyne Miller
ISSUE FIFTEEN ·Spring 1987
Coverlcis - Woman Forester - Susie McMah.1n:
Midwife - AJLCmative Contr3Ccption - Bi~llll3li1y •
Bioregionalism and Women • Good Medicine:
Mauiacharial Culture - Pearl
ISSUE FIVE· Fall 1984
Harvesc - Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginseng • Nuclenr
Waste - Our Celtic Hcrit:1ge • Bioregionalism: Past.
Present, and Future • John Wilnoty • Healing
Darkness - Politics of Participation
ISSUE SlX - Winter 1984-85
Winter Solstice Earth Ceremony • Horsepns1ure
Raver - Coming of the Light - Log Cabin Roo1s Mountain Agriculture: The Righi Crop • Willi:un
Taylor . The Fu1ure of the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN· Spring 1985
Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs - Worker
Ownership ·The Great Economy • Self Help Credit
Union • Wald Turkey - Responsible Investing •
Working in the Web of Life
ISSUE EIGHT· Summer 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life· l<Duiah 18,000 Years
Ago • Sncrcd Sites - Folk ArL~ in the Sche>ols - Sun
Cycle/Moon Cycle • Poems: Hilda Downer Cherokee Heniage Ccmcr ·Who Owns Appala,h1a?
ISSUE NINE - Fall 1985
The Wnldee Forest - The Trees Spc~k • Migrating
Forests · Horse Logging • Starting a Tree Crop Urron Trees - Acom Bread - Myth Time
---- -- ------
ISSUE SIXTEEN • Summer 1987
Helen Waite - Poem; Visions in a Garden - Vision
Quest • Firs1 Flow - lnitilltion • Leaming in lhc
Wilderness - Cherokee Challenge - "Vuluing T~·
ISSUE TEN· Wlinccr 1985-86
Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone - ln1emal
Mythmnking - Holistic Healing on Trial - Poems:
Steve Knauth - Mythic Places • The Uktena's Tale·
Crystll Magic - "Drcamspcaking"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN· Winter 1987·88
Vernacular Architecture - Dreams in Wood and
Stone • Mountain Home • Ear1h Energies •
Eanh-Sbcltcrcd LlVlng • Membr:ane Houses - Brush
Shelter • Poems; October Dusk • Good Medicine:
"Shelter•
lSSUE ELEVEN· Spring 1986
Community Planning - Cities and the Biorcgional
Vision - Recycling • Community Gardening- Floyd
County, VA - Gtl.SOhol - Two Biorcgional Views·
Nuclear Supplement - Foxfire Games • Good
Medicine: Visions
ISSUE NINETEEN· Spring 1988
Perclandrn Garden • Spring Tonics - Blueberries •
Wildflower Gardens . Gr:anny Herbalist Flower
Essences - 'The Origin of the Animals:· Story Good Medicine: "Power" - Be A Troe
ISSUE THIRTEEN· Fall 1986
Center For Awakening - Eliz:ibcth Callari • A
Gentle Death · Hospice · Erne.'' Morgan • Dc;iling
Creatively with Death - Home Bunal Box - The
W;ike - The Raven Mocker • Woodslore and
Wildwood.\ Wisc.lorn • Good Medicine: The Sweat
Lodge
ISSUE nVENTY ·Summer 1988
Preserve Appalachmn W1ldcmess - Highlands of
Roan • Cclo Communily - L:md Trust - Arthur
Morgan School - Zoning Issue - "The Ridge• •
Farmers and the Farm Bill - Good Medicine: "Lind"
• Acid Rain • Duke's Power Play - Cherokee
M1c:rohydro Project
-
~UAH JOU RNAL
For more infom1atio11:
(70-l) 683-1414
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
Name
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/y r.
Address
F.nclosed 1s $
City
Area Code
AUTUMN· 1988
to gfre
this effort a11 e.ttra boost
State
Phone Number
Zip
Back Issues
Issue # __@ $2.50 "' $ _ _
Issue # _ _@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue # _@ $2.50 = .S_ _
Issue # _ @ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $~
Complc.te set of available issues
(see above)
@ $30.00 =$_ _
l can be a local contact
person for my area
KATUAH ·page 35
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 21, Fall 1988
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-first issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on the history of the American chestnut trees in the Appalachian mountains and a call for their restoration. Authors and artists in this issue include: Scott E. Schlarbaum, Stephen Lewandowski, Lucille Griffin, Taylor Crockett, Kim Sandland, David Wheeler, "Rollo," Martha Tree, Rob Messick, Lucinda Flodin, Pat Montee, John Creech, Barbara Ellet Dail, Bob Henry Baber, and Collen Redman. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>"Where There Be Mountains, There Be Chestnuts".......1<br /><em> A Natural History</em><br /><br />Returning the Chestnut.......6 <br /><em> to the Eastern Forest</em><br /><em> by Scott E. Schlarbaum</em><br /><br />"Poem of Preservation and Praise".......7<br /><em> by Stephen Lewandowski</em><br /><br />Continuing the Quest.......8 <br /><em> to Restore the Chestnut </em><br /><em> by Lucille Griffin</em><br /><br />Forests and Wildlife.......10<br /><em> Eighty Years in the Mountains </em><br /><em> by Taylor Crockett</em><br /><br />Gift of the Chestnut......12<br /><em> Chestnuts in the Regional Diet </em><br /><em> by Kim Sandland</em><br /><br />From the Roots........14<br /><em> Chestnut Restoration Work</em><br /><br />An Herb Note from Lucinda........17<br /><br />Good Medicine.......18 <br /> <em> "The Changes to Come"</em><br /><br />Natural World News........20<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24<br /><br />Review: <em>Where Legends Live</em>.......27<br /><br />Young People's Page.......29<br /><br />Events........32<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em></p>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Chestnut--Appalachian Region, Southern
Chestnut blight
Cooking (Chestnuts)
Forest health--North Carolina, Western--history
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Children's Page
Electric Power Companies
Forest History
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hunting
Katúah
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Turtle Island
Water Quality
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/8a5a4fec25f2fc73cddbd86819a283ba.pdf
bf0a8b567e8a648b583874aca5cd8629
PDF Text
Text
,.
·.
~UAl:i~ ®URNAL
...
ISSUE 22 WINTER 1988-89
seeds of survival
$1.50
�When strong-hearted people keep on singing the Song of Creation,
they will find the true path, forgotten by many,
so Grandpa David says.
When prayer and meditation are used rather than relying
on new inventions to create more Imbalance,
they will also find the true path.
Mother Nature tells us which is the right way.
When earthquakes, floods, hailstorms, drought, and famine
will be the life of every day, the time will have then come
for the return to the true path ...
-from Meditations with The Hopi
~LJAH JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�Global Wanning and Katuah .......... 3
by Kim Sarulland
Fire This Time ............................. 5
by lyfich Crabawr
Bioregions: The Context
for Reinhabiting the Earth .............6
by Thomas Berl)
Earth Exercise .............................9
by Marnie Muller and
2.oa Rockensrein
Poems and Drawings
by Kore Loy McWhirter.............. 10
Drawing by ESTHER
An Abundance of Emptiness......... 12
by Richard lowenJlia/
Reviews:
Thinking like a Mountain
Talkfog with Nawre .................... 14
Options For Regional Currency:
The LETSystem .......................... 15
by Fred MignoM
"Chronicles of Floyd" .................. 16
by "Granny" DeLauney
Knife, Axe, and Saw.................... 18
An lnrerview with Dorry Wood
Natural World News ................... 20
111c Bear Clan ...................•........22
Poem by luci11da Flodin ................. 23
Drumming: Letters to Kalllah ....... 24
Wcbworking .............................. 30
the Earth stirs in her dream
she wakens and arises.
she comes! she comes!
great in her gifts, striding with purpose.
each step an age in the evolution of life.
she is moving.
she will not remain to stagnate in our wastes.
she would be healed.
and we would break
through our brittle egg casings of separateness
to rejoin this planetary life community.
we are too powerful
to remain so ignorant
the change is begun.
we can cry out in pain or rejoice in our healing.
we Loo need to move. to work for the change,
to pray that the balance be restored
and, moving. we will be swept up and carried in the
wave of her motion.
�STAFFTI-IIS ISSUE:
Will Ashe Bason Rob Messick Mamie Muller
David Wheeler Chip Smith Christina Morrison
Kim Sandland Richard Lowenthal
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Scou Bird MlU'lha Tree Jack Chaney John Creech Andy Half-Baker
Lisa Franklin Sam Gray Michael Red Fox Marsha Ring
COVER by Martha Tree
INVOCATION by Andy Half-Baker
PUBLISHED BY: Kart1ahJournal
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BlORECION
ANO MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mo1111tai11eer Press
WBITEUS AT:
KatWih Journal
TELE Pl JONE:
(704)683-1414
Box 638
Leicester. NC
Kaufah Province 28748
Diversity il> an impor13111 clcmcn1 of bion:gional ecology, both
n3tural and social. In line with this princ;iple, the Katiiah Journal
tries 10 serve as a forum for the discussion of n:gion:ll issues. Signed
article.~ express only the opinion of the authors and are nol ncccs.o;arily
lhc opinions of lhe Katuab Journal editors or staff.
The ln!Cmal Revenue Service ha.~ dcclru-ed KaJU4h o non profit
organization under sccuon SO I(c)(3) of the In LemaI Revenue Code. A11
contributions IO Kartlah arc deductible from J>C™lll3I income uu.
invocation
From the deep dark place in ourselves,
Through the darkest part
of the changing year,
Through the darkness
of the turning world cycle,
We know of troubles facing us,
and of hope bearing us on.
Birth, death, rebirth.
Spring, Summer. Fall. Winter.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
lltrt in tht southern-most heartland of the Appaluchian mounlllins. thl"
oldest mountain range on our continent. Turtle Island, o small bur growing grmip
has begun to take on a stn.ft of responsibiliry for tht imp/icarions of 1ha1
geographical and cultural heritagt. This .ftnse of ruponsibiliry ctnters on 1~
conupt of living within the natural scalt and balance of univtnal system.1 a.1d
principles.
Within this circle wt begin by invoking the Ch1•ro~e nam11 " Katiu.ih"
as the oldr
new nameforthi.1 area of the mountains and/or iu journal at well. 1he
provmce u indicated by its natural bawuJaries: rhe Roanoke River ~'allt•v ta th~
narrh: ti~ foothills of the piedmont arta to the east: Yona Mountain and the
Georgia hi/1.1 to the sowh: and the Tennessee River ~'allq 10 the we.11.
J'he editorial prioririu for u.1 are to colleet and disseminate 111/ rmatirJn
o
and energy which ~rtains sptcifically 10 this region. anJ rofoster the awarelll!u
that the land is a living being deserving of our love and respect. Lfring in thi.s
manner is a way to insure the su:uailrability of the biosphere and a lasting place
for ourselves in its continwng evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a• do or die • situation in
terms of a quality sta/ldard of lift for all living beingson thi:r planet. Asa voice
for rhe carttak.trs of this sacred land, KariJah. we advocate a centered approach to
the co11cept of tkcentralizaiio11. /1 is our hape to become a .1uppor1 system/or
rhase accepti11g the challenge of su.staiMbilil)' and the creation of harmony and
balance in a total sense, here in this ploce.
We welcome all co"espondence. criticism. perti11e11t informa1io11,
articles. arrwork, etc wirh hopes that Kariuih will grow 10 urve rhe best intt:rms
of this regio11 and all its living. breathing mtmber.1.
-The Editors
We all grow and change.
Darkness is followed by light,
Sickness is followed by healing.
As Gaia goes around the circle
We reap what we have sown,
and plant new seeds for the coming light.
rrs NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTilER NATURE
�-~·
~
•.... •-:....i. ..•••·••.,,..........-: .,.• .........·• ""·. \ ....\, .••. . 1 • ••••• "• •••••.............. •·:. ; , ........ :· ; ...... .
{~~~~~ ... ~··· ....--~
·~.··
...~ .. .
GLOBAL WARMING AND KATUAH
By Kim Sandland
Just to satisfy a yearning for the breaking down of
barriers, this wricer is currently taking classes in the
beautiful, dramatic language of signs. a language
expressed with the bands and body and interpreted with
the eyes and the heart. My "sentences" arc stiJI a little
sluggish, my rtngerspclling a little awkward, and my
boots rattle around my ankles at the thought of
confronting a real live deaf person with no one's hands
around but my own. But someday. when I'm good
enough. sign language will allow me to enter the world
of the deaf and communicate with them. They will
understand me and I will understand them. It's all a
matter of knowing how.
There is another world that this human being would
like to know how to enter, another barrier to break
down. It is the barrier that prevents many people from
seeing and understanding the impact of human activities
on their Earth. It is the world in which many humans are
unable to interpret the language of the Earth, nor to hear
the voices of despair, cries of defilement, and pleas for
care.
Gary Miller, of the Depanment of Environmental
Studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville,
hears the voices. In a recent interview, Miller outlined
the here and now of the global warming trend, the
depletion of the ozone layer, the increase of ozone
pollution, and acid rain - - all are similar in their origin
and require the same solution, says Miller. For Kauiah,
the pressures of environmental catastrophe are already
apparent, and growing worse.
Oak decline is taking place on our slopes, and
drought like that we experienced over the pa.~t <;everal
years may exaggerate · and acceler,11e - that decline.
Miller a!lributes chat decline to a number of different
factors, including poor forest management practices
earlier in this century. like the harvest of prime trees,
leaving poorer trees which are more vulnerable to
adversity. If the greenhouse effec1 has staned, the
climate will only get warmer, and intense summer heat
and drought may make plant communities vulnerable to
wiY1h@1e ecosystem~ !\!re :irlll
je@pudy, !l!lld m!ly ~sa;p]pem ....
S1l!lclb. as the s:plrl.1ce-ffir ~osyitem
~yjpical @f aihe lb.ii.gh.er S@11.11tllaem
ApJP!lh1clmh1llll elev!lti~:ins, tfot
exm!I!ljplle. 111ds we bow."
invasion by disease, insects, and fungi. Plants and the
animal communities they suppon may not make the
necessary adjustments to severe climatic shifts in a shon
period of time. They need long-term evolution, Miller
says.
Whole ecosystems are in jeopardy, and may
disappear - - such as the spruce-Cir ecosystem typical of
the higher Southern Appalachian elevations, for
example. This we know. We have known, says Miller.
about acid rain since the 1870's, and about the
"greenhouse effect" since before the turn of the century.
Unfonunatcly we arc only now monitoring the changes
induced by these pollution effects and may yet be a
couple of years away from cfTectivcly implementing new
control legislation.
In 1988 we experienced the effect of increased water
temperatures and decreased water volume in our streams
and reservoirs, Miller says. Higher water temperatures
mean less oxygen concentrated in the water; less oxygen,
increased coxins, increased temperatures will mean less
fhh. For Katuah, this affects not only our fishermen.
but our trout industries as well, Trout fisheries ha\'e
already begun relying on well water, which has less
oxygen capacity than stream water, and so have turned to
(con1111ucJ on nest pegel
W1.NT£R. - 1988-89
Drawing by ROB MESSICK
Jeot.Uan Journa!
p~ 3
�(continued from previous page)
oxygenation systems, powered wilh electricity, powered
by fossil fuels.
Increasing populations, resulting in higher nitrogen
pollution from the burning of fossil fuels in power
plants, factories, and automobiles, coupled with the
temperature inversions characteristic of mountain
valleys, will fill our mountain air with unbreathable
substances, says Miller. During lhc past summer ~zone
pollution reached the highest levels ever recorded in our
"Refusing to learn the issues, refusing to raise
taxes and refusing to commit resources to
resolving environmental problems, will result
in an uninhabitable planet. Deferring action
until later will only cost us more in the long
run."
area. More air-conditioning will be desired by people as
the years go by; more air-conditioning means more
burning of fossil fuels, and more pollution, in a
never-ending cycle of waste and want. It's already
happening.
More people will be here, too. Miller believes it is
impossible to consider the ramifications of current trends
for the Katuah bioregion alone, because what happens in
other bioregions will have a direct effect on Kattiah.
Rising ocean waters, increasing greatly over the next
20-50 years, are likely 10 flood coastal areas. Coastal
communities, both marine and human, may be
devastated. Our wetlands, the coastal estuaries, the hean
of lhe seafood industry and the basis of the foodchain for
all species, will be destroyed by advancing seas. Sixty
to 65% of harvested fish and shellfish now spend pan of
their life cycle in the estuaries, says Miller, and they will
be affected. People have already begun flocking to the
mountain areas to escape hot climates; people will come
in droves, bringing their indusuies with them, as the
coastal economies and environments are changed. There
will be more fossil fuels consumed, more water
consumed, more native habitat destroyed here in Kattiah,
in the face of an already-shrinking resource base which
is falling 10 the effects of global warming and global
waste.
We know about all lhis. We know about hot
summers [which will grow hotter), and about
temperature inversions [which will only serve to make i1
hotter and harder to breathe, for all species), we know
about increasingly severe storms and drought and
landscapes of fallen trees and wi1hered undergrowth.
We know because we have read it, heard it, we have
already seen it. But is it 100 late for Katuah? Gary
Miller has some defini1e ideas.
There arc 1hree keys to understanding and action,
according to Miller, which m3y not undo what is already
upon us, but may save a pan of whnt we have for future
generations. The first is education. Gary Miller believes
that we should have a national required curriculum in
environmental science in all our schools. Says ~iller,
"The future of our planet depends on how well people
understand the issues." Many people are not aware;
they don't read, and they don't understand. lf we read
and understand, we can change our own wasteful
behaviors, and we can demand more of our politicians.
Part of education, says Miller, is comprehending the fact
that solutions are expensive. Refusing to learn the
issues, refusing to raise taxes and refusing to commit
resources 10 resolving environmental problems, will
result in an uninhabitable planet. Deferring action until
later will only cost us more in the long run. This has
always been the case.
The second key is consuming less, doing with less.
As Miller says, every time you lhrow it away, you waste
energy, because it must be recreated, using virgin
resources and more fossil fuels. And waste must be
disposed of, or incinerated when we run out of room for
disposal. More air pollution. Miller believes that all
people could cut their use of elecuicity by 40-50% today
and srill live comfonably, provided they give up their
need 10 live in a totally regulated environment with
temperature fluctuations of only a few degrees. Miller
calls it, "a new e1hos--try 10 live with less or do
without," and we can begin it in Karuah. It's not so
new, because some of us have been hearing it for years.
We can participate at any of several levels of activity:
recycling, avoiding plastics, wearing sweaters inside in
the winter. We can promote mass transit and drive our
personal cars less. We can conserve fossil fuels by
pursuing solar energy and other alternative energy
sources, excepting nuclear power. In the realm of
electoral politics, we need to investigate politicians'
records carefully, vote for pro-environmental candidates,
and demand more leadership from them. We can send
money to organizations trying to save lhe rain forests
(and those working on behalf of the temperate forests as
well), which are vital to our atmosphere.
"If we do not, we will lose our freedom of
choice as nature takes over, causing hurricanes
of magnificent force, high temperatures we can
not tum off, ultraviolet radiation and skin
cancer, air we can not breathe, a scarcity of
drinking water, and deserts where once there
were forests."
And the last key, says Miller, is planning. For
Katliah, this means that local and regional officials must
decide what is the true human carrying capacity of this
region, taking into consideration dwindling water
supplies, protection of habitat, and disposal of waste.
This is not being addressed by local planners and
officials, says Miller. An obvious example is lhe plan to
have incinerators handle the solid waste overload--and
anything, says Miller, with lhe potential of c?ntrib~ting
to air pollution, compounded by temperature inversions,
should be ruled out. Indiscriminate promotion of the
area in an effon to attract new mdusuies and more people
should be curtailed, until we understand what a
shrinking resource base will mean to us in the near
future.
We must make these difficult decisions now, says
Gary Miller. If we do not, we will lose our freedom of
choice as nature takes over, causing hurricanes of
magnificent force, high temperatures we c~ not rum off,
ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer, air we can not
breathe, a scarcity of drinking water, and desens where
once there were forests.
To those who don't hear, we must find a way to
communicate, a language of respect, conservation,
pro1ec1ion, and realization, to be shared among all
species. We must find that language soon, lest our
message have no ears to fall on.
WtNTDt - 1988- 89
�FIRE THIS TIME
by Lylich Crabawr
"God give Noah tM rainbow sign.
No more willer, fire~ time.•
• Block spiritual
Looking around at the forest about
me, l soe great imbalance. I see the forest
suffering as a result of acid rain,
clearcuuing, and the drought we have been
having. These are clearly the result of
human influence. The world is in need of
healing.
But each imbalance has within it the
conditions that will restore equilibrium. That
is also true in this case. There is a change
coming, and it is coming on much faster
than people think. We are presently caught
up in a cycle of drought. This is not going
to go away next summer. We might get a
reprieve next summer. it might not be as bad
as this year, but the following summer will
be, and the summer after that will be as
well.
Some drastic climatic shifts are in the
making. Different areas might become
weuer, drier, colder, or hotter. These
changes will occur for no apparent rilyme or
reason. The Southern Appalachians happen
10 be an area that is becoming hotter and
drier. In fact, I think this area is going to
dry up severely.
There is going to be a massive die-off
of the forest. We are seeing that already.
The Black Mountain Range is being
denuded by acid rain. Already there are
streaks of dry places on the ridgetops.
panicularly around rocky cliff areas, where
the water drops out quicker. If there is no
rain, those dry ridges have no source of
water. Lower down on the hillside, water
collects and drains down. But as the
moisture falls off and the water table drops,
the ridges suffer the mosc.
Already, the dries! varieties of plants
live on che ridgecops: scrub oak, scrub
pines, mountain laurel, and grasses. Those
are the species that are adapted to living up
there. Ginseng. the orchid species, or big
poplar IJ'CCS do not live up there.
ln effect, what is going 10 happen is
that the dry ridgecop conditions are going to
move down the hill. As the climatic change
intensifies and conditions become more
severe, the poplar cove associations will
become scarce as 1he dry ridgetop
community moves down into what were
once rich, moist coves. The moisture-loving
species will hold out longest alongside the
creeks. But then 1he smaller, higher
watersheds will dissipate, and 1he dry
conditions will move fanher and fanher
down. There will be a terrible decline in the
little streams now running through the hills.
r do not know if major rivers will dry up,
but they are going to become a 101 smaller.
How far ii will go, J do not know.
We have somewhat of an advantage in that
we have a number of micro-climates and a
vancty of different plants here in the
mountains. That will help lo offset the worst
aspects of the change.
When the forest dies off on 1he
ridges, greal amounts of dry tinder will be
left on the.hillsides. And as the dry weather
continues, there will probably be
tremendous firestonns burning off that
highly flammable material. That is going to
create an incredible amount of pollurion over
the temperate forest 1,ones, which will speed
up the degradation of the atmosphere and
intensify the "greenhouse effect" a1 an
exponential rate.
On these steep slopes, if the tree
cover dies off and fires burn off the organic
maner on the top of the soil layer, the soil
will be washed down the hillsides very
quickly, because the vegetation and the leaf
mulch is what holds the soil in place. If rhe
vegetation dies on the ridgetops, the soil is
going to come down. Strip a hillside now
and see how fast it gullies; see how fast the
streams silt up and die. There is always
more erosion in time of drought.
The situation here is going to be
similar to that in the island nation of Haiti
where the native people cut the wood off th~
hills for cooking fuel. With the vegetative
cover removed, che tropical rains washed all
the soil off the mountainsides, and the forest
could never grow back.
The Appalachian mountaintops are
basically granite rock with a couple of feet
of soil on the top. They will be eroded
down to bare rock. This is already
becoming evident. Mt. Mitchell has two to
three times as much rock showing on its
face as it used to have.
Eventually I believe we will have an
environment here similar to that of northern
New Mexico: bare, rocky mountaimops and
fenile valleys. There will be perhaps trees
and streams in the valleys, but all around us
1he hills will look like New Mexico. It
won't be unattractive. New Mexico is a
wonderful locale in its own way. But it is
going co be sad 10 see the species disappear
that live here in these rich coves.
Conditions might stabilize before
then. They might become more disastrous
than that The weather is not necessarily
going 10 be consistcnL Just because our
summers are going to be horter, that does
no1 mean tha1 our winters arc going to -be
warmer. We may have even colder winters,
but with more drastic changes, like sudden
storms followed by warm spells, or terrible
fronts coming down out of Canada.
I do not perceive the greenhouse
effect as causing worldwide desert,
however; ii is causing worldwide drastic
weather changes. Tl is not getting hotter
everywhere, but climate fluctuations arc
getting more extreme.
The Carri bean and the Gulf of Mexico
recently experienced the wors1 hurricane
within memory, Hurricane Gilben. Gilben
produced the lowest pressure ever recorded.
But as the climatic shift progresses, we may
see cyclones and hurricanes the likes of
which we cannot imagine at this time.
Massive thunderstorms may produce
corrential rains. There may be floods like
thO'iC this area experienced in 1916, but the
effects may be worse, because there will be
no vegetation on the hillsides to hold the
water and the mud.
The Anasazi and other pueblo Indians
in New Mexico and Arizona had a similar
experience. They suffered a drought and the
vegetation died off on the tops of the mesas,
so that when it did rain, nash noocts came
down the valleys, destroying their crops and
gullying out the fields, before the land
became dry again. Where they once had
com and squash growing at the edge of the
creek, the water was now running in a
trickle at the bonom of a gully 20 feet deep.
This made irrigation impossible for them,
and the uncontrolled erosion would carry
away more of their precious bouomland
(c;onunucd an pqc 26)
1.Jl.NTER - 1988-89
Eiching by ROB MESSICK
XAt.i&M Joul'~ p~ 5
�Bioregions:
The Context for Reinhabiting the Earth
by Thomas Berry
Tlwmas Berry's new book The Dream of the Earth has recenrly
been published by Sierra Club Books. Ir is regarded as a major book
of our time. This excerpt provides an excel/em introduction to his
work on bioregional thought and humans' relationship with the
planet.
T he universe expresses itself in the blazing radiance of the
in the vast reaches of the galactic systems. Its most intimate
expression of itself, however, is in this tiny planet: a planet that could
not exist in ilS present form except in a universe such as this one, in
which it has emerged and from which it has received its life energies.
The planet presents itself to us, not as a uniform global reality, but as
a complex of highly differentiated regions caught up in the
comprehensive unity of the planet itself. There a.re arctic and tropical,
coastal and inland regions. mountains and plains, river valleys and
desens. Each of these regions has its distinctive geological
formation, climactic conditions, and living fonns. Together these
constitute the wide variety of life communities that may be referred 10
as bi0tegions. Each is coherent within itself and intimately related to
the others. Together they express the wonder and splendor of this
garden planet of the universe.
Slar'S and
The human species has emerged within this complex of life
communities; it has survived and developed through participation in
the functioning of these communities at their most basic level. Out of
this interaction have come our distinctive human cultures. But while
at an early period we were aware of our dependence on the integral
functioning of these surrounding communities, this awareness faded
as we learned, through our scientific and technological skills, to
mnnipulare the community functioning 10 our own advantage. This
manipulation has brought about a disruption of the entire complex of
life systems. The norcscence that distinguished these communities in
the past is now severely diminished. A degradation of the entire
natural world has taken place.
Even though humans as well as the other species are in a
stressful situation, few of us are aware of the order of magnitude of
what is happening. Fewer still have any adequate understanding of
its causes or the capacity to initiate any effective program for the
revitalization of these life systems upon which everything depends.
Disruption of the life process has led to a severe disruption of the
human communicy itself. If social tunnoil and international rivalries
have evoked significant concern. the disruption of the eanh's life
systems remains only a vague awareness in the human mind. This is
strange indeed when we consider that the disruption of our
bioregional communities is leading to a poisoning of the air we
breathe, the water we drink, the soil and the seas that provide our
food. We seek to remedy our social ills with industrial processes that
lead only to further ecological devastation. Indeed our sensitivity to
human conflict over the sharing of earth's resources has di~tracted us
from the imperiled condition of these resources themselves. a peril
associated with the loss of topsoil, the destruction of forests, the
desenification of fruitful areas, the elimination of wetlands and
spawning areas, the exhaustion of aquifers, the salinization of
irrigated areas, the damaging of coral reefs.
The urgency of a remedy for this situation is such that all social
groups and all nations are called upon to reassess the entire
human-earth situarion. As was indicated by Edwanl Schumacher, we
must rethink our industrial approach to "development." This
rethinking involves appropriate technologies, but also appropriate
lifestyles, and, beyond those, appropriate human-earth relations.
The most difficult transition to make is from an anthropocentric
to a biocentric norm of progress. If there is to be any true progress,
then the entire life community must progress. Any progress of the
human at the expense of the larger life community must ultimately
lead to a diminishment of human life itself. A degraded habitat will
produce degraded humans. An enhanced habitat suppons an elevated
mode of the human. This is evident not only in the economic order,
but also throughout the entire range of human affairs. The splendor of
eanh is in the variety of its land and its seas, its life forms and its
atmospheric phenomena; these constitute in color and sound and
Drawing by ROR MESSICK
loltNTER - 1988- 89
�movement that great symphonic context which has inspired our sense
of the divine, given us our emotional and imaginative powers, and
evoked from us those entrancing insights that have governed our
more sublime moments.
This context not only activates our interior faculties; it also
provides our physical nourishment. The air and water and soil and
seeds that provide our basic sustenance, the sunshine t.hat pours its
energies over the landscape--these are integral with the functioning of
the fruitful earth. Physically and spiritually we are woven into this
living process. As long as the integrity of the process is preserved,
we have air to breathe and water to drink and nourishing food to eaL
The difficulty has come from our subversion of this integral life
communily, supposedly for our own advantage. In the process, we
have tom apart the life system itself. Our technologies that do not
function in harmony with earth technologies. With chemicals we
force the soil to produce beyond its natural rhythms. Having lost our
ability to invoke natural forces, we seek by violence to impose
mechanistic patterns on life forces. In consequence of such actions,
we now live in a world of declining fertility, a wasted world, a world
in which its purity and life-giving qualities have been dissipated.
The solution is simply for us as humans to join the eanh
community as participating members, to foster the progress and
prosperity of the bioregional communities to which we belong. A
bioregion is an identifiable geographical area of interacting life
systems that is relatively self-sustaining in the ever-renewing
processes of nature. The full diversity of life functions is carried out,
not as individuals or as species, or even as organic beings, but as a
community that includes the physical as well as the organic
components of the region. Such a bioregion is a self-propagating,
self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing and
self-fulfilling community. Each of the component life systems must
integrate its own functioning within this community functioning to
survive in any effective manner.
The solution is simply for us as humans to join
1he earth community as participating members, to
foster the progress and prosperity of the bioregional
communities to which we belong.
The first function, self-propagation, requires that we recognize
the rights of each species to its habitat, to its migratory routes, to its
place in the community. The bioregion is the domestic setting of the
community just as the home is the domestic setting of the family. The
community continues itself through successive generations precisely
as a community. Both in terms of species and in terms of numbers. a
certain balance must be maintained within the community. For
humans to assume rights to occupy land by excluding other lifeforms
from their needed habitat is 10 offend the community in its deepest
structure. Further, il is even to declare a state of warfare, which
humans cannot win since they themselves are ultimately dependent on
those very lifeforms that they arc destroying.
The second bioregional function, self-nourishment, requires
that the members of the community sustain one another in the
established pallerns of the natural world for the well-being of the
entire community and each of its members. Within this pattern the
expansion of each species is limited by opposed life forms or
conditions so that no one lifeform or group of lifeforms should
overwhelm the others. In this function of the community we include,
for humans, the entire world of food gathering, of agriculture, of
commerce, and of economics. The various bioregional communities
of the natuml world can be considered as commercial ventureS as well
~\NTt:R. - 1988-89
as biological processes. Even in the natural world there is a constant
interchange of values, the laying up of capital, the quest for more
economic ways of doing things. The earth is our best model for any
commercial venture. h carries out its operations with an economy
and a productivity far beyond that of human institutions. It also runs
its system with a minimum of entropy. There is in nature none of that
sterile or toxic waste or non-decomposing liner such as is made by
humans.
The third function of a bioregion is its self-education through
physical, chemical, biological and cul rural patterning. Each of these
requires the others for its existence and fulfillment. The entire
evolutionary process can be considered as a most remarkable feat of
self-education on the pan of the planet earth and of its distinctive
biorcgional units. An important aspect of this self-educational
process is the experiential mode of its procedures. The eanh, and
each of its biorogions, has performed unnumbered billions of
experiments in designing the existing life system. Thus the
self-educational processes observed in the natural world fonn a model
for the human. There is presently no other way for humans to
educate themselves for survival and fulfillment than through the
instruction available through the natural world.
The fourth function of a bioregion is self-governance. Ao
integral functional order exists within every regional life community.
This order is not an extrinsic imposition but an interior bonding of lhe
community that enables each of its members to participate in the
governance and to achieve that fullness of life expression that is
proper to each. This governance is presided over in much of the
world by the seasonal sequence of life expression. It provides the
order in which florescence and exuberant renewal of life takes place.
Humans have iraditionally inserted themselves into !his community
process through their ritual celebrations. These are not simply hu1l13ll
activicies, but expressions of the entire panicipating community. ln
human deliberations each of the various members of the community
should be represented.
The fifth function of the biorcgional community is self-healing.
The community carries within itself not only the nourishing energies
that are needed by each member of the community; it also contains
within itself the special powers of regeneration. This takes place, for
example, when forests arc damaged by the great storms or when
periods of drought wither the fields or when locusts swarm over a
region and leave it desolate. In all these instances the life community
adjusts itself, reaches deeper into its recuperative powers and brings
about a healing. The healing occurs whether the damage is to a single
individual or to an entire area of the community. Humans, roo, find
that their healing takes place through submission to the discipline of
the community and acceptance of its nourishing and healing powers.
The sixth function of the bioregional community is found in its
self-fulfilling activities. The community is fulfilled in each of its
components: in the flowering fields, in the great oak trees. in the
night of the sparrow, in the surfacing whale, and in any of the other
expressions of the natural world. Also there arc the seasonal modes
of community fulfillment, such as the mysterious springtime renewal.
In conscious celebration of the numinous mystery of the universe
expressed in the unique qualities of each regional community, the
human fulfills its own special role. This is expressed in religious
liturgies, in market festivals, in the solemnities of political assembly,
in all manner of play, in music and dance, in all the visual and
performing ans. From these come the cultural identity of the
bioregion.
The fururc of the human lies in acceptance and fulfillment of the
human role in all six of these community functions. The change
indicated is the change from an exploitive anthropoccntrism to a
panicipative biocentrism. This change requires something beyond
environmentalism, which remains anthropocentric while trying to
limit the deleterious effects of human p~nce on the environment.
�(continued from previous page)
We have limited our discussion so far to the inner functioning
of the regional communities because these provide the most
immediate basis of survival. If these communities do not fulfill their
most essential functions, then the larger complex of biorcgions cannot
fulfill its role. Each of these bioregions is. as we have noted.
re/a1ively sclf-suscaining. None is fully self-sustaining since air and
water flow across the entire planet, across all its regions. So it is
with the animals. Some of them range widely from one end of a
continent to another. Birds cross multiple bioregional, and even
continental, boundaries. EvenruaJJy aJI bioregions are interdependent.
Tllls interdependence is presently accentuated by the toxic waste
poured into the environment by our industriaJ society. Such toxic
materials are borne across entire continents and even across the entire
planet by water and atr. Such an extensive continental problem
would not exist, of course, if each of the various bioregions
functioned properly within its own context.
The larger functioning of bioregions leads to a consideration
that the canh be viewed primarily as an interrelated system of
bioregions, and only secondarily as a community of nations. The
massive bureaucratic nations of the world have lost their inner vitality
because they can no longer respond to the panicular functioning of
the various bioregions within their borders. A second difficulty with
these large nations is the exploitation of some bioregions for the
advantage of Others. A third clifficulry is the threatened devastation of
the enrire planet by the conflict between bureaucratic nations, with
their w~aponry capable of continental, and even planetary,
devastation. To break these nations down into their appropriate
biorcgionaJ communities could be a possible way to peace.
The bioregional mode of thinldng and acting is presently one of
the most vigorous movements taking pince on the Nonh American
continent. Its comprehensive concern is leading toward a reordering
of aJl our existing establishments: political-legal, commercialindustriaJ, communications, educa1ional and religious. At present all
of these establishments arc involved in the devastating impact of
indu~trial society on the natural world. The human arrogance they
manifest toward the other natural members of the life communities
remains only slightly affected by the foreboding concerning the future
expressed by professional biologists and by others who have
recognized that the imminent peril to the planet is not exactly the
nuclear bomb, but the plundering processes that are extinguishing
those very life systems on which we depend.
Yet the numbers of those speaking and acting and leading
in. pro~rams of reinhabiting the eanh in a more benign
relauonshtp with the other members of these natural communities are
growing constantly. This movement, often referred to as the Green
Movement, is fostering an ecological or biorcgional context for every
as~~t of life, for educarion, economics, government. healing and
rehg1on. So far, the movement remains a pervasive and growing
m~e o~ consciousness that is groping toward a more precise
an1culanon of its own ideals, its institutional fonn and its most
effective programs of action.
othe~s
. Of primary imponancc in Nonh America is identifying the
vanous bioregions. To do that requires a sensitivity akin to that of
the s~amanic personality of tribal peoples. While bioregions have
~nai~ geographic boundaries, they also have cennin mythic and
h1stoncal modes of self-identification. This idenrification depends on
ourselves as we participate in this process, which only now we begin
to understand or appreciate.
/
Excerpted by permission of Sierra Club Books from The Dream of
the Earth, e>I988 by Thomas Berry.
Available 11 bookslOfes around the region or by d!rec1 mail from: Sierra Club
Store Orders. 730 Polit Street. San Francisco. CA 94 IOCJ. (Prepaid orders only,
enclose S 18.95 plus SJ.00 for pomge and handling.)
Towards the Legal Recognition
of the Rights of All Species
Finally. II 1s beginning to dawn on us humans that the wider Earlh
communlly with whom we exist have nghts, IOO. Afl species have rights··such
as the right IO habi1a1. the right to breathe clean air, the right to have access 10
good water, elC.··and it is lime for these rights IO be legally rocognued.
In The Dream of the Ear1h, Thomas Berry refers to The World Charter
fur :>lalure which was adop1ed by lhe U.N. in 1982. This chnncr can be a
valu:ible. dynarmc tool for draftJng a regional or local Ch.:incr for Nature. Citucns
groups. study grou~. 13Sk forces or individunls could speamcnd this effort IO 3dap1.
the charter lO 1he specific region where they live (or t0 draft an entirely new one).
The document can then be submitted to one's !Own council, county commission,
state legislature. etc. for adopuon.
Having the righ1s of other species be lcgnlly rccogni1.cd is an imPortnnl step
111 bnnging ourselves and our species more in balance with the Life community m
which we part.icipal.C.
If you arc interested an receiving a copy of The World Charter for Nature,
wr11e: Mamie Muller. KatUiJh Journal, P. 0. Box 638. Leicester, NC 28748,
Katililh Province.
Earth exercise:
a guided exercise designed for
personal/community/Earlh healing
Getting in touch with our own interior heaJing resoun:es as
well as those of the planet itself is an imponant facet of any
environmentaJ, political, or social effon. Often we see ourselves
as bucking the cultural ride and feel a sense of futility. Yet, it is
important to see the work that we each do, as an individual and as
pan of an organization, from a wider perspective.
The body wants to heal itself, the planet wants to heal
i1self. We need to let ourselves feel a pan of this wider biotic
system of self-healing. We don't have to invent or create a
"make-believe" connection, all we have to do is give ourselves
the opportunity to see these wider connections that eiUst.
There are many "spontaneities" within us that can be
tapped into in order to pnnicipate consciously in this heaJing
process but we need 10 get beyond our "everyday" mind to do
this. Exercises such as the one here can provide a
non-threatening, comfonable way to begin this process of getting
in touch with these resources.
As we become more familiar with this way of seeing, our
"everyday" self can more easily shift into this wider perspec1ive
as well. Even our breathing in and breathing out can gently
remind us of our intimate connection to the wider Earth process.
Another aspect to invite into this conscious participation is our
dreamworld, which so often remains isolated from our "regular"
consciousness.
This (next page) is a guided exercise for groups assisted by
a facilitator which was originally designed for and used at the
afternoon sessions of the second Annual New Priorities
Conference held this fall in Asheville, NC. The Conference
theme was: "Wake Up and Dream!" The exercise is intended for
both experienced as well as inexperienced facilitators.
-Mamie Muller
W'\JlfJ'Ejl - 1988-89
�Let every pan of your body feel a sense
of being relaxed .. .let an inner smile
come to you.... to every pan of your
body. (wait I minule or more)
Now that you arc becoming deeply
relaxed.... let yourself settle in to
yourself... ...to a place that feels very
secure to you....... very loving......very
beautiful... ...Let yourself feel "at
home" there. (pause)
Experience fully a sense of your own
well-being. Feel i.mmcrsed in it. Let Lhat
weU-beingness pour over you like
sunshine.
( wait 1 minute or more)
Earth Exercise I
cksUjnd blJ narnie nuller
cuut Zoa R.ocfunsui-n
In.structiollSfor faci/ital()r
Design the selling in the form of a circle whethu
indoors or out.Side. If'JOU/eel it is appropria1e.
have some taped music quietly playing as people
come in and se11le down (for uample. Kitaro's Silk
Road or some othu soothing music). Once all are
present. have everyone get corr(ortable. llandbags.
books. papers, should be m owsilk of the
bo1uularies of the circle. You, asfacilita1or, should
be si11ing as part of the circle. A.s 'JOU share this
t'.Urcise. be sure to speak slowly and distinctly in a
quiet. gentle manner. Be sure to leDW! quiet time
bcuween each phrase.
As you are feeling your own sense of
well-being...of joy.... begin to feel the
well-being of those around you ...feel
wannth and sunlight coming to this
circle hcre...immersing us all in a sense
of Life and well-being. (pause)
As you breathe in and out... .feel the
water coursing down from the
mountains... bringing life and
well-being to all....feel the roots of
trees as they grow deeper into the
soil..... feel the autumn leaves laying
themselves one on another as they
become pan of the eanh....ex.pericnce
Lhe plants around soaking in wamuh
and light from the sun.... making food
for themselves and for all... .listen 10 the
melodic call of the birds in the forest
trees. Watch the hawk circle in the
sky.......Feel the wind blow gently
across your face ....(pausc)
llere is a suggested "script" which you are
welcome to adapt for your own use.
...............Ex.er-ci.se.................
Right now, we will do a
relaxation/guided exercise having to do
with your well-being, the well-being of
others and the well-being of the planet
Just relax and enjoy it. Images,
thoughts or feelings may come to you;
don't be concerned as to whether you
are getting visunl images or not, just let
it happen. If at any time in the process,
you feel uncomfortable with this
ex.ercise, simply open your eyes and
wait for the rest of us to finish.
Let's begin.
Close your eyes, if you'd like..... And
begin to relax ...Take a deep breath
in .... pause for a moment .. then breathe
out ...Breathe in again .... pause.....and
breathe out Continue to breathe in this
way, and let yourself begin to relax as
you do this breathing. Breathe
in.... pause....and breathe
out..... Breathe in... pause....and
breathe out
Focus your attention on the place inside
yourself where you are pausing
... between breathing in and breathing
out.
(wait 1 minute or more)
Let your muscles begin to un-tighten
and relax .....Lct your whole body feel
free and comfonable.......... Breathe
in..... pause.....and ...... breathe out.
IJ\NTER. - l 988 - 89
•
Feel the self-healing that has been going
on....on this planet... for thousands of
years .... (pause) Feel yourself a pan of
this process.....(pause) ...you are pan
of this life-giving process...even your
breathing in ...and your brca1hing
out.. .. brings life.....
(I minute or more).
Now let us together imagine that this
sense of well-being is being restored
throughout our entire community
..... throughout our whole mountain
region. (pause) Let us imagine
well-being nowing through any painful
or distressed areas of our community
---both our human community and our
wider ecological community..... Let us
feel a healing an<l a strengthening taking
place.... Let us feel a sense of
empowenncnt coming to all who are
afflicted. The well-being of each of us
is integral to the well-being of all of us.
Feel a sense of health and sufficiency
being available to all in our community
here.
Envision yourself as an importanl pan
of this healing and restoring that is
begiMing to take place in our
community. Sec how you, in an
on-going way, fit into this process.
(pause)..Fecl yourself a pan of the
Life-giving energy that will help ~tore
this community to a full state of
weU-being.
(1 minute or more)
Now imagine the entire planet........fecl
the tangible. intricate connection of all
life.... .Fecl the planet itself being
restored to a state of well-being
...(pause).........Though it is much
threatened right now, the planet is
working vigorously towards
self-healing. As your own body acts to
heal itself... from a cut or wound
...sense the planet's ability to work
towards self-healing.... Begjn to feel the
undercurrent well-being of the planet
itself....Feel yowself a pan of this
process.
(1 minute or more)
Return now to your secure place within
yoursclf...and let your own well-being
be strengthened.....and be renewed
...(pause). Experience deeply the
well-being that is at the hean of things,
and let yourself remember this sense
fully. (pause)
Now, gently, come to this circle
here...... Begin to arise out of this
meditation. (pausc)....As you begin to
arise out of this meditation. let yourself
know that this ability you have to see
things in this way is available Lo you
whenever you need it. ..... Now come
and be fully present Lo this circle, here.
-end-
InstructiollS/or facililator
Agiun. you may want to play sootl11ng music softly
for a few momtnts to give people timt to -come
bock". Lock aroUNJ the entire circle Olld ma.Jr.t f~#
each ~rson ts alnght and is 'with you".
;crediisc
The concqxof"ll\lltt smile" is dn..,, from TOO<ll WO)<llO
Traruform Strus Into ViJa/111 by ManW. Ch1a. The
imagery or autumn leaves layina lhcrruel•cs one on
anolhcr comes from lhe poem "Autumn" by Ycvgcny
Ycvlahenko.
l'CSOlll<JCS'.
A good ldvanccd l'C9QWCe is Wor.tiitg l/Uilk O..i (Applibl
MtdllaJ1on for f111ui11vc Prabla..-Salvifll) by Margo
Adair. Wingbow Prus. 1984 Available from Boolq>eoplc
2929 ri!lh S1r«1, Bcriu:ley, CA 94710.
Mtdita1/ng wull Cliildun by Deborah RoU\an and
Spwsilig 1-d by Mmy Mwdock ltC good for begimeo
mdcbMen.
�we are buUdinge a house
I wondre wille we evre real/ye live inne rharre place
wille we die inne ine
I nevre go rhere
ine is imaginarye space contained
I amme ftdfilled
imagininge irtefromme thisse distance
looking uppe ane ine as w the nighte skye
baskinge...no, skewered ande roasringe
inne irres vasre brillianre promise
I canne imagine livinge there
butte I cannorre imagine tllisse bodye
seuinge f oote inne the doore
we are buildinge rhisse house withe oure handes
withe woles moved bye oure bodies ande oure lives
closinge oute the skye
we looke oute the windowes
ro gette oure bearinges inne the worlde
we enrre tlzroughe the doorwaye to become sometlunge
otlzre thonne whane we have beene
I muste come zo ourgrowe tllisse comainre
we are makinge
lilce anye orhre cru.slllCeanne
mye lwde shelle
I amme softe inside
I musre reste ande growe winges
inne tllisse place tharre keepes oute the worlde
thenne openne a/le the doores ande windowes
takinge mye daughrres bye the hande
flye oure everywhere
I aname thisse womynne
I speak withe herre voice
she has beenefarre
she has seene the manye wayes
110 one beinge cannefarlwme a/le herre visionnes
I amme rhisse womynne
I canne feele a/le man11re ofherre senses
swellinge ande flowinge inne herre bloode
she is worthye ofyou.re deepeste arre11do.11ce
a/le creanues grea1e and smalle
va.sre ande f ewe
are honoured bye herre giftes ande blessinges
I amme thisse womynne
I canne see through alle herre harde walles
o\·re alle herre higheste rampartes
the warmrhe inne the brigluc roomes ofherre hcarte
the joyouse wisdomme
abundan1e ande ge11ero11Se
inne the da.rke ferrite groU/lde o/ lierrc soulle
I amme thisse womynne
I COJllU! telle you
she bearres no mysterye or angre so greaie
thatte itte deserves none youre moste trusti11ge
ande rendre regarde
I amme tllisse womynne
emered ande conJained
I speake withe herre voice
~iUM Jo\lrna.£ P"'Jll 10
W\.Nn:Jt - 1988- 89
�"
somerimes the goldenn.e-handed one
wille arrende you
she wille rouclli! youre woundes
ande tlieye wille openne
bloominge like tlli! manyejWwres
a place w reste
cradlinge youre sorroM-'t!S
she canne do no wronge
alle lierre ministrationnes
are rlie rainnes' attendance
onne thirstye growule
she willes you tender/ye backe to life
you cann.e joinne thisse downpourre
amonge the greaifulle herbes ande grasses
reachinge joyous/ye
withe youre manye-petalled woundes
goinge to seede
thisse softe-spokenne invirationne
w 1111! springe
ofllJ!rre unconditioMOlle generositye
....
.....
.....
"•
-~
thisse lwu.se is tire cauldrenne
where we drive 01ue lives inne withe everye 11aille
a/le horde lessonnes are learned inr1e iues newe raftres
withe oure booces onne
we walke inne or oute 011ne the dayes irte ope1111es irres dnores
irtes walles ca/le to us inne oure sleepe
come 111110 me I wille give you reste
I .amme watchinge tire vaste surface of yo1u face
like the oceamU! forre signes of re11u11e
yorue habintalle morio1111es to a11de fromme mye shores
are so like the tide
tharre I waslie owe to sea ande re11une smootlw
Olide more rare eache time you release me
the hmLl·e standl!s onne the edge ofshore ande sl11Jllnwes
irce is the liglulumse visible
inne the dangerouse ande beawiftule fogge we trm:elle
to reaclie orie tJJwthre
sometimes I amme the lande creature/you rite sea 011e
the house is wliere we meete ande pane
inne otLre bootes and inne 01uejinnes
washinge inne ande owe ofi11es dnores ande windowes
like anye commormefLSlre
or mysteriouse glwste watchre-womynne we/le sunge
who changes herre skinne to jinde love owe of herre elemente
wlw longes forre a place to harboure
a/le tlU!se unruleye weedes ande l11Juntes/11eedes ande wantes
you are bttildingtll amme imagininge 1/iisse house
011ne the slwre ofoure lives givenne ovre
we are maldnge oure betides
le11e us lie inne themme tellinge tW lies
k>'LNTER. - 1988-89
• I slil11ed wmingc withe t's mne
highc <;choolc bccnusc I wns bored antic I
hked lhc rrcnche and<: oldc cnglishc wayc
of domgc 1.l11~e; the waye the wordes
lookc antic rcctc ... htr.c lhc!yc don1.c stoppe
butte s1ghc into !he! nexte a huJc. Nowe I
~ulle do iue to slowe mysclfc ande the
wortdc downc ju.st a little.•
poems and drawings by Kore Loy McWhirtcr
�completion.
Thus, paradoxically, consumerism is actually the undoing of
prosperity and abundance because it both fosters and feeds on the
feeling of lack., and of identification with only human creations
instead of the whole of creation. This leads to enslavement to
unending desires and to the frantic acquisitiveness of our culture.
How can we avoid panicipating in this mad delusion of
"consumerism" and "conquest"? l low can we be psychologically
heahhy and ethically aware? Undeniably, we are all somewhat
susceptible to the massive hype and pervasive illusion that surround
us. Under this influence, we tend either to resist our society and its
materialistic preoccupations or to acquiesce and "go for it".
Unfortunately, either way we end up trapped in reaction, and
emotionally chained, because both resistance and acquiesence involve
a kind of bondage.
ln order to neither resist nor acquiesce, we need to learn to
identify with that within us which is already complete, already
fulfilled, and to gradually merge with this inner Being which does not
always need "more". Without this inner development, it is very
difficult, if not impossible, to avoid being "possessed" by the
dominant thought-fonns and desires/reactions of mass culture.
An /1bu11d arice. of
€mpti11es5
by Richard Lowenthal
Our planet's deepening ecological crisis has recently been
forcing us to reassess our culture's most basic assump1ions and
attitudes about nature, society, technology, and prosperity. In
particular, it is now urgent tha1 we understand our culture's
pathological preoccupation with consumerism.
In earlier times, "consumption" referred 10 a disease, namely
tuberculosis; today it refers to an accepted social norm. Tuberculosis
was called a "wasting disease" which caused a person to gradually
weaken and "waste away". Is it possible that modern mass
consumption is also a wasting disease, causing the human spirit and
the Eanh itSClf to "waste away"?
Through this consumer mentality, our cul1ure has become so
out of touch with nature that we arc threatening the Eanh's capacity to
be a functioning suppon system - not only for ourselves, but for the
entire Life community of the planet.
Consumerism can easily be likened to parasitism, in which the
parasitic organism (the human species) lives off of and gradually
destroys the host organism (the Earth). In fact, Western industrialism
and "prosperity" has always been based on a profound disregard for
the Eanh and an unbelievably arrogant intention to "conquer nature".
What really concerns me most is the feeling behind labelling
people "consumers". For any culture to identify its members as
"consumers" is quite degrading. le reduces the complexity and
grandeur of being human down 10 the lowest - and saddest · common
denominator. To be a "consumer" is to feel anxious, hollow, waiting
to be filled ... cons1antly trying to fill the void inside, desperately
buying things to block lhe feelings of emptiness and isolation. ft is a
state of continual, ceaseless hunger without any lasting satiation or
X.Otuah Jo14rnQ£ pa<Je 12
I am here reminded of Homer's Odyssey and his story of
Ullysses' encounter with the Sirens. As Ullysses' ship approached
the island of the Sirens, he recalled the warnings of the sorceress.
Circe. She had told him that if he and his men listened to the
hypnotic singing of the Sirens, they would steer towards those
rapturous voices even against their will, and be smashed to pieces on
the rocky shore. It took considerable ingenuity and strength of will
for Ullysses and his crew to get safely past them.
So how do we, on our own Life journeys, get past the Siren
songs, the hypnotic allure of consumerism and immersion in
appearances? Ullysses' tale dramatically shows us that we mustn't
delude ourselves into underestimating their influence upon us. One
of the most dangerous characteristics of modem materialism is its
insidious seductiveness, its open-armed invitation to those places in
us that feel most insecure and needy. "Come," murmur the Sirens of
consumerism in unison, "I will feed you, care for you, fulfill you,
satiate you. What you need, I can supply! I am yours ... (and you are
mine!)".
Obviously what we really need is the awareness and inner
resolve to steer clear of the hypnotic spell of our modem-day Sirens.
Just like Ullysses, we need to understand the nature and power of
these forces which can lure us into a spiritual 'wasteland' of illusion.
Jn order to free ourselves from Life-denying, illusory "consumer
prosperity". we need to face and identify our modem-day Sirens.
Here are some that J have identified for myself....
The Siren of Induced Need and Desire
We are subc.onsc1ously l13incd by advertising (and ofttn school and family)
to believe that we always need something ouisidc of ourselves to help us feel
okay. The undcnmble purpose of commercial advertising is to get us to foci
vulnerable and 111COmplctc, usually by playing on our <:exual and social desires and
fears. And the purpo:>e behind &his, of~. is to crtalt "n~· and &hen make
money from the "needy" in any way possible. Jn the swkes1 tcnns, whnt'~
happening is lha1 our $C11SC of inner self wonh and dignny 1s deliber:uely being
undermined, so we will buy lhctt message and thcirproducL Adverti:;crs know lhal
fulfilled and self-assured people aren't c:isily hocked; thus, their job is to nmplify
our fears and m'iCCuntie~ v.hilc prc1cnding to .\tn:nglhcn and help us.
The ltUly diabolical lwisl in this sccnano is &hut when our needs and
de~res ate increased, our capacity for happiness and contcnuncnt co11cspondingly
decreases. What rcsulLS is a preposterous but deadly catch-22: we arc told, in
innumerable sublle ways, "You aren't happy, bill you could be happy by chBngmg
your ouiu circumstances .••.Of course. since there ate alway:; bt11tr eircums1D11Ccs
to aspire to, what you have and who you 11IC 1s never good enough, so you aren't
happy, but you could be by...eic."
So, ·round and 'round we go-unul we choo.i:e to get off this vicious
•merry• -go-round. llS viciousness shows up in painful and continual comparison
of who we are wilh who we supposedly could or should be-as well as in
1.11.NlDl - 1988-89
�judgement and comp:irison of Olhers. It presents appearances as ultimate reality,
denying the inner essence. IL affirms only what we IW and havt, not who we
inherem.ly art.
This judgemental aunospherc is all around us in our socicty--at school, at
work., at home, even in bed. In fact. oftcn 11's such an integral pan or our lives
that we aren't even aware of this subtle negauvity unless we're the obvious
victims of judgement .
The way to recognize compllllSOO and judgement is that it is always
sep:uative and contracting rat.hec lhan inclusive and exp:ins1vc. IL causes us to feel
defensive. different. "better" or "worse". and to close our hcarlS oo real hum31l
conlllet-and it inclines olhets to react t0 us in the same way. To avoid lhis Siren.
we need to cultivate discernment and empathy, which are humane responses
instead ofjudgemenull reactions, and t0 embrace this moment, os it acrually i.s.
'Ln many ways our f!Ujht from nature
ancl c!esire to remake the wort:<£
arises from our fear of the unknown, the
uncontrollable, and ultimately of death.
The Sirtn or Unlimited Prognss and Technological Sah·ation
One of our most cherished modem beliefs is thru the natural world is not
designed for hum:111 comfort and lhus needs cictens1ve remodeling. This belief was
our key LO Pandora's boit. and it h3s motivated our rclcntlc.~s b3ttlc with nature,
with all ilS ierrible and unforeseen con.sequences. We h:lve acted as if the Earth and
a.II its plant and animal life exist to be used or abu.~ by humans, and we h3ve
ignOICd the fundnmental oneness and iolCtdependcncc of all life.
Underlying all this is a profound misunderstanding of the Structure of life:
we have ignored the foct that nature - including human mllun: • is inherently
imbued witll form, limits, structure, and boundaries. We apparently forgot - or
wiUfully denied - that we too are bound by ccnain nntural and ~iritual laws. rn
Greek tragedy, the hero is always brought down by a tragic naw known as
"hubns"··a blind arrog;incc which denies limits and auempts to usurp the power of
the gods. The desire for power over ll3lUl'C is our tragic naw--and a nlllll'al proccs.~
of rctribuuon has been set 1n motion. The uue place for limitless creative
'progress' is in our social and spiritual m3turation.
in mampulnting and
"conquering• physical n:ality.
.
£ven proponents of "prosperity consciousness• can be mesmcriied by this
Siren. lf one secs the universe as absolutely unlimited, doc:; this automnucally
mean that Lhc Earth's resources are also unlim11cd? ...that every person has a
"divine right" lO unlimited wealth and prosperity? Will we continue to ci1pcrience
"abundance" if, through our own doing, our p131lct's ecosystem becomes mcapable
or supporung life?
Allowing oneself Lo become a participant once agnm m the vibrancy of
lhe 113tural world and to begin to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of limit and
form is a step toward freedom from this Siren of "No Limiis".
"°'
The Siren or Domestication and lnsu1111ion rrom Reality
In many ways our night from na1urc and desire to remake the world arises
from our fear or the unknown, the unconuollable, and ulumately of dcalh
I once wa' on the Slaten Island ferry. cm.~g New York h:lrbor at n1ghL
when suddenly I had a vision of all those immense towers and all lhJl light and
glare functioning tO obliterate the mght. to !iOmehow shut out and dwarf the
darkness. the realm of death and lhe unkllown. Daylight helps us feel safe and m
rel31lvc conucl--everything is clear. distinct, visible, and the ego likes thaL Night
is a different mauer aliogethcr-disunctions and shapes blur and blend. the familillr
becomes unfamiliar, nnd the sun disappears. leaving us "in the dark". And then...
thousands of star.1 appear in lhe heavens, rem1nd1ng us of mlimtc ~. not only
'out there', but within us as well.
This is quite intolerable for lhe ego bent on conuol. to order 10 preserve 11S
illusion of omnipotence. lhe ego mu.st crcate an altcmntive reality which shuis
out change. decay, death. silence, diutness. And lo and behold, with modem
technology bolstered by advertising, we have seemingly accompli$hed !hi.~. We
insulate our homes so we don't h3ve to feel lhe heat or the cold; we light up our
houses and our strcelS lO negate lhe night, and lhe glow from our c1ues blocks out
the stan; we have radios. TV's, lape players. etc. 10 enien.am us and keep silence
at bay: we wash and scrub and dcodoril.e and disinfect our bodies, our dishes, our
clothes, our noors until everything is spotless-so clean that there is no place ror
germs and decay and death tO g;un a foolhold·-or so adverli<;tt$ would have us
imagine.
k1tNTER. - 1988-89
We also shut away the darker side of ourselW!s--1.he irrational, angry,
lustful, sad or murderous rcelings that m1gh1 puncture our illu.~ion of control--and
uy our best to be "nice". always in control. Of course, this means it simply
won't do to be spontane00s and child-like. No, when we "grow up" we have to
behave like adults and plan everything. But boring and dcrulcning as this may be,
111. lcast it's safe-and lhe ego despcr.uely need!. to feel safe, because deep down we
know that this separate ego is itself an illusion. So nuher th31l face this and get
catapulted inoo another level or awareness, we cleverly devise count.less avoid3nce
mechanisms to distract us from the uuth.
There 1$, however, a huge dose of divlllC humor in au this-because having
to be in control actually feels terribly consuicting and uncomfortable, while
letting go of control and entering the !low of the moment feels bolh liberating nnd
very safe-after we eitpcriencc lhe fear and move through 1L Every time wechnnge,
every umc we let go of lhe past, we die a liule-but we're also reborn: and if we
continually ICL ourselves die t0 lhe past. we're also continually reborn. The cosmic
joke is: this is the power and immon.a.lity lhe poor frightened ego is constantly
wanting, but II has lO be willing to "let go" lO get lO 1L
Tbt Sirf'n or Over-orodutlivlty and Wasterulntss
This siren has had a dcvasm1ing impact on the environmcnL Its internal
"logic" goes like lhts: Westerners arc led to believe th3l somelhmg temble will
happen if they don't continually 111cn:ase their GNP, so they·re always pushing LO
grow. construct, or manufacture more and more goods. These goods are
increasingly dc.~igned to be disposable or 10 qUJCk.ly become obsolete. Afier all, if
people throw more things away, thcy11 have to buy more later, and I.his increases
production and profits. Perfunctory hp service is paid to the Idea of recycling. but
the dommant message sull "in lhe lllI" in this cuhure is that 1t is perfectly fine t0
waste resources 1r this increnses bolh eonvcrucnce and production. Even fwther, if
we're really "prosperous• m this cuhun:. we're able to throw things away at wall
and replace them (with "new, improved" ones. of course!)
:Every time we "throw somethiruJ
away " (where is "away"?) ... we add to
the out-of-control "9arha9t,fi,cation" of
our planet Home.
In olher words, waste, squandering, conspicuous consumption, gadget
mania, ond total d1~n for the environment are our measuring sticks for llow
"prosperous" we are! This attitude has more to do with ecological suicide than
prosperity. Every Lime we "throw somctlung away" (where 1s •away"?),
especially non-degradable pla~ucs and styroforun, we add to lhe out-of~ontrol
"g:irbagilication" of our planet Home. If lCllAnlS ever ucaled a house the way we
treat our planet. they'd be evicted immcda:ncly, and the Board of Health 11oould
prob:lbly condemn lhe property!
We've been vainly trying lO send our garbage abroad and to p:iy other
nauons to take 11 off our hands. In 1988 we've witnessed the sad spccll!Cle of
masses of g:irbage and medical refuse washing up on our beaches. again and again.
Thus, it's now impossible not to recognize that our garbage and our attitudes are a
major ecological problem. Yet the visible garbage is only the 1ip of the
iccberg--what about nuclear contanunatlon and other invisible, highly t0xic
effluvia?
True prospcnty would never give nse to such an absurd and ecologically
harmful "modus operandi". Conscious pl:lncwry 51ewardship clcrnands th.11 we be
awarc of waste and ac11·v~/y srop supponing 1L We can recycle most house.hold
wastes: we can simplify our live~ nnd decrease our "needs•: and we can help
Olhcrs do lhe same. In this way conscrvatlon can go hand-in·h:lnd with a d«pcr
prospenty that honors Life.
The Siren or Pain Avoidance and Addklion to Pleasure
People have always sought plca.wre and tried tO avoid pain, but modem
society has turned this iendcncy into a quas1·religious and fanatical faith. On
every side we are beset by messages and infCICllCCS that pleasure is "good• while
pam is "bad", and that we should always feel eitcited, happy. and carefree-which
mean~ that we must deny and suppress our pain at all co:.IS. This attitude can be
br117cnly obvlOU.,, as in most advcrus1ng; it can also opcr.llC very subtly, so 11 can
be difficult to pinpoint and counteract iL, effccis. One effect, though, is feeling
illi.IJy about eitpcriencing pain--it somehow <;CCII\~ almos1 un-American to be in
pain! But growing up can at times be difficult and painful. In order to become
mature adults. we sometimes have LO go through and learn from painful
�Book Review:
11iINKING LIKE A MOUNTAIN:
Towanls a Council of all Beings
by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Reming, Ame Naess
1988; New Society Publishers; 128 pp.; $9.50.
Thinking Like a Mow11ain is a deep ecologist's prayer book.
Running Lhrough ils collection of essays, poems, rituals and
workshop notes is a pervasive sense of the emergence of Gaia, the
living planel, not as a quasi-scientific hypothesis, but a living
presence, a goddess.
The book's opening invocation by John Seed is a good
example:
"We ask for lhe presence of the spirit ofGaia ...Wc call upon
the spirit of evolution...We calJ upon the power which sustains the
planets in their orbits, that wheels our Milky Way in its
200-million-year spiral."
Directly relevant to the defense of eanh, Gaia is experienced
not only as presence pervading all, but as Seti', the larger Self of
which everything is pan. Experiencing the planet body as one's own
is for Seed the radical bean of deep ecology and something he
discovered Lhrough his own direct action defending the rainforest near
his home in New South Wales. "J was literally part of the rainforest
defending herself." "... we arc the rocks dancing."
This point 1s most powerfully made in 'The Testimony of
Graham Innes" which includes a p1C1ure of Innes buried up to his
neck as part of a campaign defending the Da.intree Rainforest against
the onslaught of bulldozers. "A slow dawning of awareness
(occurred) of a hitheno unknown connection. Eanh bonding. Her
pulse became mine, and the vessel, my body, became the vehicle for
her expression."
In addition to direct action, Seed suggestS a variety of
methods for inspiring the experience of deep ecology including
prayer, poetry, wilderness vision quests, and ritual of the sort
provided in thjs book.
Indeed "The Council of AU Beings" ritual developed by Seed
and Joanna Macy and described in the book by Macy and Pat Fleming
deserves detailed auemion. The ritual consists of three stages. The
first is entitled "Mourning."
Drawing on her experience with despair workshops. Joanna
Macy observes that the destruction of our life suppon systems is the
deepest and most pervasive source of anxiety in our time, that this
destruction is happening now, felt in our bodies as depression and
despair that we fear expressing because of the taboos set up in our
society. The first stage of the ritual acknowledges this despair - the
pain involved in the devastation of our soil. the loss of our forests,
the extinction of species, the poisoning of our breathe and blood, air
and water. The aim of the ritual at this point is to have the
participants "hear within themselves the sound of lhe eanh crying."
The second stage of the ritual is entitled "remembering."
Through both guided fantasy and active mimicry, panic1pantS reenact
the entire evolutionary journey of the cosmos, the planet and life on
earth acknowledging the real physical links of this journey built into
the coding of our genes.
The last stage of the ritual is the council itself with each
participant speaking for another life form and acting out the drama of
the contemoorarv olanetarv situation from a non-human perspective
as well as taking rums playing a human.
Jn addition to the ritual, the book contains poems by
Robinson Jeffers. Gary Snyder and Joanna Macy. an essay by Ame
Xatuah Journal pQ.CJe 14
Naess, beautiful rainforest illUSII'lltJons by Duilan Pugh and much else
useful for all of us working to generate the experience of deep
ecology.
It is interesting that in a collection of eanh prayerl> and
mvocauons to Gaia such as this, the selections are. w11h one
exception, the work of contemporary Western poets and authors
rather than excerpts from various Native American U'llditions which
have long revered the Great Spirit, Father Sky and Mother Earth.
(That one exception is a rcnrution of Chief Seattle's 1854 Duwam1sh
speech.) While the authors have undoubtedly been influen~ed by that
tradition, they represent what seems 10 be a new revelation shaped
both by contemporary science and contemporary vision. Their
poems, prayers and ritual evoke a spirit and offer a general fonn
rather than provide verbatim formulas. They begin to forge a path
into the teachings we must all be about the task of discovering and
inventing if the world of our children, let alone the world seven
generations hence is to survive as the rich luxuriant planet we have
known.
l must add that there is a healthy emphasis in the book that
ritual is not an end in itself but preparation for action by generating
deeply felt recognition that defense of the earth is self-defense. To
this end we join in the book's invocation: "O stars, lend us your
burning passion."
~
-Amy Hannon
Prinls by PAM and LIU TllOMAS
Book Review:
TALKING Wfl'H NATURE:
Sharing the Energies and Spirit ofTrees, Plants. Birds, and Earth
by Michael J. Roads
1987; H.J. Kramer, Inc.; 151 pp.; $9.95 (cloth)
The night was cloudy and I was alone with a book by the fire. So
l feh preny good Lo begin with,considering that's one of my favorite
places to be. but I was oot prepared for what the book would d~ to
me. As I read into it my heart opened and my sense of bemg
expanded. At midnight and half way through Lhe book, 1 could
contain myself no longer. I jumped out of my seat, rushed out the
door and flung my arms out 10 the night just as the wind blew the last
cloud from the moon and rushed past me in unbounded joy.
Ir's ha.rd to know what else to say about this book that really
matters. It is not as simple as the title implies, and yet in a very
deeply powerful way, it is simply about "talking with nature". It
brings that whole concept into an accessible reality. It is a sharing of
an unfolding that will touch you as deeply as your own untoldmg lies
within you. h holds vital pieces of wisdom, cruth and lighL It is
~
sweet nourishment.
• reprinted from 1~ EducOlional Resourct COOJ>(T(JJivc N~.tlt111er
IJ'\.N1£R. - t 988-89
�.. ..., ...
·~
•
"
. . . . . . . 'N.
r;:!:'1-~••.•.·~-'\..
IN
~~~i:r~ST
I
,i";'>. ................,
An Original Idea For Ka!Uah Oirrcncy
Options for Regional Currency:
A Look at
Local Employment Trading System
(LETS)
This network also increases the amou nt of personal contaet
between neighbors.
Reminding us of our true
interconnectiveness, it's a tool for the reweaving of ancient
pauems.or !Jibe and village. l~'s about simplifying and taking
respons1b1hty for our collective economic behavior. T he
LETSy~tem is an altemalive as well as a supplement to rhe
convennonal economy that can be implemented right now.
A LETSystem is a network whose members use a local
currency to allow them to 1rade foods and services without
necessarily having access to federal dollars. Members have
accounts which start with a balance of zero. Goods and services
which members want to obtain or provide arc listed in a monthly
mailing.
There are currently about 50 LETSystems operating around
the world, with much experience to draw from. Computer
software for operaung the ne twork is readily available. A
videotape, and a game which models the workings of the system,
can be used in educating folks about iL
Prices are stated in 'green dollars', a quasi-currency
equivalent in value to federal dollars. The lOtal of all member~·
account balances always equals zero. At any one point, there are
some accounts with a positive balance ("in credit") and some
accounts with a negative balance ("in commitment"). A stntement
of one's transactions and balance is received with the momhlv
mailing. A charge is deducted from each accoun1 monthly,
according 10 use, to cover the operating cos1s of the ne1work.
For example: John cu1s firewood. Pe1er 1s a weldcr, and
he wants wood bu1 has no money. John doesn'1 need any
welding done. Thai's usually where ii stops. However, if John
and Pe1er are members of a LETSystem, then John delivers the
wood, and Peter picks up the phone. He dials the LETSy,tem
answering machine and says, ''Hi, this is Peter, #48, plea~c
acknowledge John, #83, $75 for firewood. " This informauon 1s
fed to a computer. which increases John's account by 75 green
dollars and decreases Peter's account by 75 green dollars. In
tum, John employs a carpen1cr. the carpenter has a haircut, gels
some clothes made. buy~ food from a farmer. The farmer now
has a way to pay for a welder. so Peter gets to work again. In
this network people need never be unemployed because of a lack
of federal dollars in the communily.
Many transactions are likely to consist of pan green dollars
and pan federal dollars, as members take care of their needs for
cash. The LETSystem is compatible with the conventional
monetary system and simply increases the amount of local
economic activity.
What I sec happening as a next step is people who are
juiced up about tltis taking the time to consider the details. Then a
group of peo~le who feel clear about it can get the ball rolling by
actually starling a LETSysiem and organizing an educational
workshop designed to ium larger numbers of people onto the
network.
We are c~rr~ntly ro:m.in.g a LETSystem for the Floyd
County community in the Vtrg1ma portion of Katuah.
compiled by Fred Mignone
-rtprinrtd from Educauonol Rtsouru Coopt'raJi\'t', Box 80, Floyd. Virginia
24(~/
If you wo uld like to know more abo ut LETSvstcms
tha l a re c urre ntly fun ctioning in Cana da a nd the L.S.
as we ll as audio-vis ual ma te rials, send a d olla r to:
Lands man Community Servi ces, Ltd., 37 5 J ohnston
Avenue Courtenay, BC V9N 2Y2 C anada.
Olhcr rosourus:
Economics as If tht Earth Rtally Ma11utd: A Ca1alyst Guide 10 Socially
Conscious lnvtsting. Su'ian Meeker-Lowry. 1988. New Society Publishers,
P.O. Bo~ 582, Sama Crur., CA 95061
"The Local Employment Trading System•. Wholl! Earth Revitw, r-;o. SS.
Summer 1987.
Oraw1na by ROB MESSICK
W'l.N'J'ER - 1988- 89
X.OWah Journot pGCJe 15
�tft.e cft.t'ontcie.s of fCoycL
At the time of the change there were so many
wildly imaginative approaches 10 transformation; all
worked some, some worked a 101! What a time for
adventure and opponunity.... shining days.
One thing I remember, there was n lot of knitting
and darning going on. People just staned to draw up
the rough and tattered edges of the life cloth and sewed
them back together. One of the signs of it was the
coming of prosperity; all over people got together good
shelter and strong gardens, 1here was a 101 of local
commerce and baner. health re1umed 10 1he land and
birds came back. and bear. The people 1hrived no
maner what the weather. The seasons began 10 make
sense 10 1he people and they noticed the changes and
understood themselves.... they were able 10 help each
other, so prosperity returned.
The apprentice pa1h came into focus again. People
all of a sudden began to think of what they knew as a
gift and a tool of their trade. The work people did was
recognized as a pan of 1heir lifesong and deserved 10
be honored. Quality returned, and guild houses;
young folk traveled from guild to guild getting a taste
Text reprinted from EducatiolllJI R~ouret Ctnru Nt'Wslcutr:
Bo~ 80: Floyd, VA
24091
Drawing by 10
�•
r
.
O
_...
.. ""''
~~,
"
.'
>BMESSICK
. ~{)'.~J.. •1.~•
••:;\r;. •\I
"' • 'I , ••
',1~ ·~
..,
o,.,·
·:·
I(,,
of the difference, then they would take their pick. At
first everybody kept jumping from one 10 the next,
midst alot of smoke and dust, but it settled pre11y
quickly and folks could hear their intuits, which
always speeds things up. Now the choices usually are
clear. Of course, all the decision-making was helped
along greatly when we re-connected with our ancestral
helpers: the others or our group in the past, present and
future, who all want the same thing. They reminded us
that discipline Le; just remembering what you want.
And, of course, a big, big change came with the
passing of the age of leadership. We know now it was
really just a thought, but it projected such substance
and energy it was difficult to see thru it for a while....
like a heavy fog on the ridges. Bui by and by it lifted
and nobody needed a leader anymore, we all fell a
sense of purpose and had a plan, of course that
brought order - real orderliness like the way water
moves along, or fire bums, or a rock splits along a
line.
When I look back to the before rime, it's hard to
believe how all our lives were ordered by confusion.
Our power circuit was unplugged. So. or course, the
~
change was awesome at first, but 11 quickly became
normal... ..i1's easy to forget
I'm so glad 10 have seen these times.
-by Granny DeLauney
p
�.KNIFE, AXE, AND SAW
•
or
" Getting Pocketknife Religion"
Recorded by David Wheeler
Darry Wood thinks of himself as an
anisan. The word is French and refers to
someone who works in the middle ground
between an artist and a craftsperson.
"/ am happiest when I am creating
fimct1onal objects that are beautiful," he
says. And that sums up his work, whether
it is his house built of hand-hewn logs.
drawings, sculptures, cabinetwork,
museum-standard replications of the
eighteemh and nineteenth century clothing
of the Sowheastern Indian tribes, or the
self-made hand tools that he uses in these
projects.
Darry is also a master of primitive
camping techniques and the ancient native
technologies that have come w be known as
"Earth skills."
To whatever project he undertakes
Darry brings his fme sense of observation,
an intense power of concentration, and a
love for natural materials. These personal
qualities are constantS in all of his work.
As we calked at his homestead on
Buck Creek in Clay County (NC), Darry
scraped hair off a deer skin stretched tight
on a wooden frame preparatory to
brain-tanning the hide to condition it. The
rhythmic scratching of /us wahinle, as the
hide-scraping tool is called in the LAkota
Indian language. pwicwated his words as he
e.tplained that primitive skills were not
simply techniques, bill a way of life.
Katl1ah. You've JUSt returned from
doing an "Eanh Skills Workshop" wilh
Snow Bear and Bob Slack at the Unicoi
Staie Park in north Georgia. How do the
skills that you teach at those workshops
benefit the students?
Dorry Wood: We focus on making
fire without matches, going into the natural
environment and finding food, making
shelter without the use of metal tools,
brain-tanning, and 01her practical affairs of
life.
To me, these are primitive skills in the
highest sense of that word. People often
think of "primitive" as being crude or
obsolete. and I suppose a lot of people
would say that what we do in our
workshops is obsolete. h's not something 1
would care to debate with people who have
n much different system of values. But I see
what we are doing ill> "primilive" in the
Latin sense of the word meaning "the first,"
"the most basic" - "primary."
In practicing these ancient teehniqucs,
people inevitably touch back with
themselves, with who they really are. In this
day we are so insulated from lhc natural
world by plastic. aluminum, concrete, and
glass. we forget that we are of the Earth,
and that it is not Wi nn-Dixie and the Blue
Rjdge Mountain Electric Co-op and other
X4c.UM Jou.rna! p~ l 8
institutions !hat sustain us. It's the Mother
Eanh that sustains us, and by practicing
Eanh Skills people begin to see that in a real
way.
As we cook over an open fire, put our
hands into the flesh and blood of the deer,
and learn how to sharpen our knife and our
axe so that they'll serve us in the best
possible way, we can feel the simplicity of
life as it was in another time, and yet still
retain a feeling of just how relevant it is for
us in this time to take pan in the life process
as it has been continuing on this Eanh for
lhousands of years.
Our lifestyle has become so
dis-integrated, that living on a primitive
level for just 48 hours helps people
reintegrate in a way that lhey didn't realize
was possible.
What r teach are the basic skills of
life. It's home economics; it's rediscovering
our birthrighL
K: Even the practical techniques that
you talk about are highly sophisticated on
some levels. You showed me an adz.e in
your workshop that was made out of a
branch that was growing off the tree at just
the right angle, and showed me a ncshcr
that had a thong which went over your
wrist, so that it made your forearm into an
actual pan of the tool. Those tools show an
awareness of engineering lhat is more than
logical.
DW: Perhaps a more precise example
of what you arc talking about is the sticks
that make fire. Everybody has heard about
making fire by rubbing two sticks together,
it's almost legendary. Ir the knowledge of
how to create fire by friction were lost, it
would be very difficult to reinvent. There's
no telling how many thousands of years
human beings Strived to do this before
somebody succeeded. It must have been a
magical moment when a human being first
brought fire into being with his or her own
hands.
To actually bring fire, everything has
to be just so. h's not something one can
fake. The design of the tools has to be just
right. All the details of the fire-making
process have to be followed carefully or no
fire appears. This sk11l, or science,
whichever you want to call it, evolved over
lhousands of years. and while there arc
minor variations in method based on local
traditions and local material:., the basic
technique is always the same. Although this
is primitive, it is very specific. Like so
many things, it's easy when one knows
how and when one pays auention.
One of the basic facts of life in
America today that 1 have yet to face up to is
the operation of a computer. I know nothing
about it. And yet everywhere people are
doing it, and for a lot of people it has
become second nature, yet for me it's still a
great mystery. But ever since I was a kid I
have been making fire by friction and
preserving hides by brain-tanning, and all of
that is about as lhrcatening to me as making
a sandwich.
K: But operating a computer involves
only the pan of our brain that works with
logic. If someone is walking out in the
woods and sees a certain crook in a certain
kind of tree, and says, "Hey! There's my
adze handle," that involves knowledge and
logic but also an intuitive sense that does
not come into play in operating a computer.
OW. Let's say ii like this: to live in
the natural world requires a much greater
level of awareness than what most modem
people are used to manifesting.
I've thought about this a lot. In my
boyhood I was around some native people
who came as close as anything I could think
of to being prototypical savages. These
were native Creek and Seminole people
living in the Everglades of Florida, who,
unlike the Cherokees of these mountains,
were not exposed to the white people's
schools and churches throughout the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Yes, they had some European goods;
they had guns and they had cloth; but they
spoke very liule English. The old man who
taught me how to make moccasins, for
instance, was named Billy Bowlegs III. He
welcomed me to watch him at his work,
from which I gathered that my young
sma.n-alecky level of awareness was preny
shallow compared to the level of this
100-year-old man, who from behind could
tell that a crow was in his com, grab his
single-barrelled shotgun and, hardly
glancing more than once at the crow, could
knock it dead
l.1tNJER - 1988- 89
�I saw that happen !>CVeral times when
people to go into the forest and create a
lifestyle. Put me down in the American
• hardwood forest with these basic tools.
primitive hunters in the times before
give me a linle time, and I couldn't imagine
European contact must have maintained a
a more ideal situation.
remarkable intensity of awareness to be so
totally at home in the wild environment. It's
It shocks people when I begin a
workshop by saying that w-hen they get
hard for us to imagine how finely-tuned
home from the hardware store with a
were the senses of those native people, w-ho
brand-new, American-made knife, they
lived with, and in some ways like, the
don't have a tool that is ready to use. The
animals · on the Eanh in a natuml way.
assumption is that a tool comes from the
store ready to go. The one cutting tool with
K So a simple thing like sharpening
which that is probably the case is the saw.
your knife 1s a staning point 10 reawaken
Saws work on a different principle, and
some of thnt.. ..
come from the manufacturer as good as they
DW: Surely. If I have anything real
arc going to geL
at all to offer people, something that the
But axes and knives need a whole lot
of work. It's very subtle, but the basic issue
average modem person docs not know and
needs to know, it is the knowledge of how
is the angle to whlch the manufacturer has
to sharpen a knife. That is the basic lecture
ground the bevel of the cutung edge. !l's all
that I give at almost any workshop situation
wrong for-doing practical work. h's way
that I'm in. h's the opening hand; it's the
too thick:
Before I use a br:ind~new knife or ~
foundation from which all the rest builds.
If we are going to create a viable
axe,) first do considetable filing OP it to
••
lifestyle in a natural environment, the basic : •
remove the n)etatjust behind the edge, So as
operation, upon which all the rest are built,
to taper it and thin ii down, .so it will
is to rune up a knife so ii will be performing
peni:trate wuhouL resistance. Once 1 've
done that, l hone a fine cutting edge on it
at the highest level. To do otherw11;e 1s like
asking a concen violinist to go on stage and
~with 11 stone. American.made knives
play Paganini with an inslJ'Umcnl that is out
genccally come with the bevel ground to
of tune. It's just not reasonable to do. And
40-45°, which is much too obtuse for most
cutting operations. So I immc0u11ely take a
yet that same level of ignorance is where
file and readjuSt that to an 20.25u angle.
most people are operating when they an: out
in the woods with a knife or 'an axe. Their
almost half as thick as the epge tMt they$11
tool is dull, because they don't know how
you. before I put ir 10 w6rlc. Most people
to manage it in a way that will make life
don't know to do that , h's not in the BfJ}'
easy and comfonable.
Scout Haiidbook. lt'i; not in '3ny of the
Witness the choice of word~ that we
common pl:tces where B ~rson might
have developed in the English l:in~age to
Cl';pc<;t lO iud such a thing.
say "in trouble" or "in danger." We ~·
"Sharpening the Ktiife" s my basic
"We're not out of the w6ods yet," imJ>ly"ng
sermon. It's a beginning)Jlace. It's a key
for us to open ourselves up so that we can
that to be in the wood. is to be in a
hazardous state and that we are~e and free
begin to look oeeper.
If someone is seekin& enlightenment
when we get out of the wOOds. That's the
implication. But l totally reject rhat pq1nt of
11 nd their kl!ife is dull, they have the
view, for I am safe and at home when I am ~roverbial canoe~ the horse.
~
in the woods.
\
"\...
.It 1s .ror thnt reason that I don't
K: This priruidve lifestyle involves
an awful Jot of sophi~ticnted physic~ and
pamc1pate in any workshop where I am
advenised, and this has happened, as one engineering !
who is teaching "survival skills." That's
\
._
how the army writes its manuals dedicated
DW: That's beCnuse these arc thing
to teaching people how to hve m the narural ~ lhat peopTe haven't rhouglit vet)'. much
. nbo\lt. To sharpen a knife rcg_ujres ~IJ!Y.
environment. They call it "survival skills."
But to me survival skills are knowing how
two-minutes, once someone knows liOW.1
0
to cross Peach_tree Street without getting run
do lL
J. . , . . /
It's all relative io v.hat one bas been
over by a taxicab or how to walk through
the ci~y at night wi~out getting mugged.
exposed 10 and what one's condluoning is.
But give me my knife and set me down
It takes me at least one hour lO communicate
to someone else an understanding of what's
somewhere in the eastern hardwood forest,
going on down there where the steel meets
and I'm just like Bre'r Rabbit in the briar
patch. I'm home.
the stone. I find, however, that if someone
pays attention for an hour, then they can
K: And so "keeping your knife
bring a knife to useable condition in just a
sharp" is a way for people to live their lives,
few minutes.
even in a modem context.
K: But it's not just the knowledge
DW: Right. l call this "pocketknife
and the understanding, it's also nece!>sary to
religion."
practice the motions.
The folding knife is our basic unit. If
we have our pants on, our knife is with us
DW. That's right. Mastery comes
at all times: that's the fundamental tenet of
with repetition, but there's nnother element
pocketknife religion. Proceeding from there
as well.
to the axe and the saw, we build our holy
fn hunting, even when someone
trinity. It is knife, axe, and saw that enable
acquires a skill and can perform it well, that
I was a kid, and I've often thought that the
1
of itself is not enough. When the moment
comes to strike. one has to be able to bring
one's full auention to bear on the necessary
action. One has to be there with awareness,
or else the arrow doesn't shoot the deer
through the hean. Mastering skills like that
requires practice beforehand, but that
split-second moment of action aJso requires
a "present awareness" of an intensity most
people can't comprehend.
That is one reason I go outside and
either shoot my blowgun or shoot my bow
and arrow at least once every day. It helps
me to tune myself up, because these are
things that I have done for a long time, and I
know that I can hit the bullseye when I get
myself very calm and very still and
concentrate on that bullseye with what I
think of as "a savage intensity!
It's the same reason Ted WilJiams had
such a good batting average. A sponswriter
asked Ted one time how he could hit the
baseball so well, and Ted offered what I
thin~ is one of the most famous quotes in
Qa.seball, "I keep my eye on the ball."
Jt's simple, yes, but the difficulty lies
in hllving the presence of mind to do it in the
J>recisc moment. I know how to shoot the
bOW and the arrow, but I don't hit the
bullseye every time, because most of the
time I'm up there loafing - manifesting
verage flakey behavior. But there arc
momen~ when I wake myself up, and I
look intensely at that bullseye. I don't have
to thmk about technique at that moment; I've
practiced the technique for year.;. What is
required is tile determination, in that
moment, 10.put into practice what I Jcnow
how IO do. If· I can concenuare my aucntion
for that one split instant, the arrow goes
clean Into the center of the target. But
oftentimes I don't seem to have the
motivation to oo it at that level. Of course
ihe,old-time P,Cople living on the Eanh lrad
to do it, or they would have starved.
It may not be a weapon; it may be a
tQOI that l have in my hand. If I intend to fell
a tree with an ~e. to do it efficien~ly I have
to deliver the bu of my axe precisely to a
little pinpoint-sized spot that I pick out on
the bark. Then the next cut has to intersect
first precisely. The way most people flail
away at a tree with an axe, it looks like a
be~ver's been working t~ere, whereas a
skilled axehandler leaves JUSt a few large.
clean chips.
fill e
K· Some people are predicting an
economic collapse. saying that our whole
economic system is going to be changed on
a scale more catastrophic than the Great
Depression. Do you think that these ~kills
and the awareness they engender would be
of great practical value in a situation like
that?
DW:
I would think: so. The
awareness these skills create would be
particularly valuable. I'm not prophesying
it, but should such a coll3pse come, there is
no doubt but that we would have to do
things much differently. How we would
live, God only knows. There are not
enough deer in the woods that everyone
could wear deerskin clothing. In fact there's
((DllJinucd on p.tg~ 23)
WlNJER - 1988 89
Drawing by ROB MESSICK
JCAl.Ucm Jol.lrna!
pa~
t9
�./',,,,. ,...~,....................,,,,,,,,,. ,,
......
..
......
....
\~
/.NATURAL
~
~
~
~
WORLD
.
::
=:
~
·\...... NEWS
·~
:::
..
~
.~/
..
....
~·
·•,,,,,,,,,,,,_.....•,.m.·-'''''''~''''''.
"WATCHIN' 'DEM
BOMBS GO BY"
Nlllllt&I World News Savia:
A convoy of three ~ked trucks
accompanied by five escort vehicles pulled
out of the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas.
The trucks carried nuclear weapons or
nuclear weapons parts. There was no way
to identify the trucks or their cargo except
by the distinctive "goalpost" antenna~ tha~
extended up the sides and over the dnvers
cabs, but they were being watched: As they
emergl!d from the plant gates, a smgle car
swung in behind the convoy, and word
flashed ahead along !heir route.
As they proceeded east along the
interstate, newspapers were alerted ~nd
sign-carrying dcmonstrntOr.> called at.tenuon
to I.lie presence of the bomb ~ruck:; m each
major city as the nuclear shipment roll~d
through town. The single sedan stayed. with
the trucks and their anned guard vch1cle$.
sometimes talking pleasantly with the
drivers over the CB radio and staying in
contact with a central switchboard in
Oklahoma City by cellular phone.
Before sunrise on the morning or
November 5, 1988 the convoy approached
their destination at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Thiny miles west of the town 12 more
vehicles joined their esc?"· but these cars
were unanned, full of noisy protestors. and
carried signs warning "H-Bomb Trucks
Ahead." As the trucks entered the town
limitS, the unofficial escort pulled ahead,
and as the big rigs pulled up to the gates of
the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Components
Plant, they were greeted by shouting
demonstrators waving signs and banners.
This was Nukewatch.
During the week of October 31 November 5, tlie Oak Ridge Environmental
Peace Alliance (OREPA) joined the
nationwide Nukcwatch action by monitoring
the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge. Volunteers
maintained conslllllt surveiUancc at the Y-12
gates waiting for the specially designed,
unmarked "safe secure trailers" (SSTs) that
transport nuclear warheads, weapons
components, and nuclear ingredients for the
Department of Energy (DOE) .
Communication networks between Oak
Ridge. the Nukewatch headquarters at
Oklahoma City, OK and other weapons
:Kcitiuah JolU'f\Ot PQ'}e 20
installarions trncked nuclear convoys across
the nation.
. .
On the first day of monnonng,
OREPA truckwatcher Stephen Clements
followed a weapons transpon vehicle and
escon cars from the Y-12 gates, through
downtown Knoxville, and north ~n
Interstate 81 to Gaithersburg, Maryland in
the suburbs of Washington, DC. The
Washington Post followed up on the stozy,
and a reporter learned from a D~E
spokesperson that the truck wa~ carrying
97% pure, bomb-grade uranium to a
research reactor ai the Bureau of Standards
in Gaithersburg. A rcpon appeared in the
Post the next day.
The public scrutiny makes the DOE
nervous. They give possi?le t~s!'l as the
reason for their paranoia, but It 1s mo~
likely that they would rather that people did
not know that unmarked radioactive
shipments are passing down the highw~ys.
Nukewatch believes that people have a nght
to know how close nuclear war is to th.cir
personal Jives. Nuclear weapons production
becomes real to people when they realize the
truck they arc passing on the interstate 1s
loaded with parts for n~clea_r warhe~ds.
When shipments of radtoactt~e uranium
passing through an urban neighborhood
suddenly become visible~ it .brings home the
lesson that the first v1cums o f nuclear
confrontation are those affected by the
environmental hazards of nuclear production
and nuclear waste.
The Oak Ridge Enviro11mental
and Peace Alliance
Bo:c 1101
Knoxville, TN 37901
Call (evenings): (615) 588-9370
ISN'T IT OBVIOUS?
Nawral World NcWfl Savic:e
The North Carolina Forestry
Association has announced that with the
Western Nonh Carolina Development
Association's Forestry Commission it will
be launching a $30,000 "educational
campaign" to convince people in the
mountain area or the state of the benefits of
the clearcu11ing technique or logging. the
method preferred by loggers and the US
Forest Service for its economy, speed, and
ease of managcmenL
The camP,aign will be panially funded
by a $9,000 grant from the US Forestry
Association.
Clearcuuing has been coming under
strong and often bitter auack from all
manner of people in the mountain area or
Katuah. Besides being aesthetic~lly
unpleasing to humans, clearcutttng
diminishes already scarce wildlife habitat by
fragmenting valuable cover areas and
favoring yellow poplar and other
non-food-producing tree species over
valuable mast-producing species, like oaks
and hickories.
The US Forest Service: has also been
criticized for clearcumng trees on a short
rotation schedule, causing mast·bearing
trees to be removed before Ibey can enter
their period of highest produ~tivity •. and .ror
replanting clearcut areas wtth whne P.tne
trees which create vezy poor habuat
coodltions for most wildlife species.
USFS PLANSTOINCREASE
HERBICIDE USE
N.wn! Wodd News Service
The US Forest Service (USFS) has
released a draft environmental impact
statement that indicates that the age~cy
intends to increase the use of chemical
herbicides and prescribed bums in the
National Forests of the Southern
Appalachian Mountains.
The "vegetation management"
proposal covers the National Forests in. the
mountain areas of North Carolina,
Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky
and isolated areas in South Carolina and
Alabama a total of 5.2 million acres. It
defined V:ork in the areas of site preparation
(for planting of white pine ttees). corridor
(trails, roads, and utility linc:s> '!lainten~ce,
hazardous fuel reduction, wildlife clennngs,
and timber stand improvement operations.
The statement also considered the
impact of mechanica! and manu.al methods
of land clearing and stte preparation.
The statement was in the form of
eight alternative plans for management,
varying in intensity. The plans ranged fr~m
"no clearing" 10 clearing or preparing
173,000 acres each year. Under the most
intense regimen proposed, 3.3% of the
forest lands under study in the mountains
would be cleared or worked each year.
Herbicide use options varied from no
chemical treatment to treating 57 .~ acr~s
each year. Aerial spraying. by heh.copter 1s
considered in three of the eight opuons, and
1he alternative preferred by the USFS
provides for aerial applicauon~ ?n ru~ged
terrain and along some u11l11y lines.
Herbicide brands to be used would include
2,4-0; 2,4-DP; Tebuthiuron; Triclopyr. and
others.
.
The draft impact statement designates
a lOO·foot unsprayed buffer area around
wells, screams, springs, and private land
boundaries. and a 300-foot buffer .~ea
around private residences. No prov1s1on
was made for herbicide drift. The report
deemed that the poisonous spra}'.S ~ou!d
have "no significant effect" o~ w1ldhfe_ m
the spray areas and that se!ecuve sprar1ng
would minimize accumulauon of chemJcals
in the food chain.
These standards are unrealistic and
inadequate, and the persistent ~isoM being
used will have a strong negauve effect on
the plant and animal communities that live
on and in the forest soil and water.
Using heavy chemicals for economy
and convenience connicts with the USFS
mandate to protect the area's water sources.
The Appalachian public lands repre~~ts the
last large-scale habitat areas rem:.umng to
many species of wildlife. The l?resence of
str0ng and persistent toxic chemicals :vould
only contribute to the general degradauon.of
these already weakened and embattled hfe
systems.
.
.
Removing vege1a11on by chem1ca1
means takes money that could have
provided j~bs for moun~in ~sidents. The.se
jobs could improve the s11uat1on for counues
that have a low tax base because they
contain large percentages ofNati~nal.Forest
lands. Money spent on chcrrucals is divened
16'1.NTER. - 1988-89
�away from 1his region 10 gian1 chemical
manufac1uring conglomerates that arc major
producers of highly hazardou~ waMes.
The USFS draft environmental impact
sm1cment on vegeiation managcmcn1 seems
di-conceived and irresponsible. The public
will have the opponunity make commcnis
on the proposal until f-cbruary 17, 1989.
"Altcm:uive A," which provides for
"no treatment" is the only one of the
alternative plans that docs not in,'Olve the
use of 1ox1c chemicals. This is the bes1
choice for the fores1s until the USFS can
come up wi1h a be1tcr proposal 10 safely
manage the lands under their care.
Subm11 your comments to:
Bjorn Dahl, Fort·st Superl'isor
USDA Forest Scn•ice
Box 2750
Asheville, NC 28802
MRS HEARINGS
HeJrings on the proposed Monitored
Retrievable Storage facility for high-level
nuclear waste will be held in Atlanua, GA at
the Westin Peachtree Pl111.a Hotel from 9 am
- 5 pm on January 17, 1989.
For cronsponarion i11/orma1ion, write
Bo:c 291: Mars I/ill, NC 28754.
Biodiversity Bill Dies Will It Rise Again?
Nllllnll Wedd News Scr'liicc
HR 4335, the Nn1ional Biological
Diversity Conservation and Environmental
Research Ac1, did not pass the Congress
this year. Perhaps, however, i1 was a taste
of legislation to come as Congress auempts
to remedy what is now commonly
recognized as an environmental crisis of
monumental proportions: the mass
extinctions of other species stemming from
pollution and overdevelopment by the
human race.
The bill, sponsored in the I louse of
Representatives by Rep. James Scheuer
(D-NY) outlined a national policy for the
conservation of biological divcrsi1y and n
federal strategy for maintaining living
~ies and their habuat~ . The bill called for
a national research center devoted
exclusively to promoting understanding
about the conditioni. necessary to maintain
biological diversity and setting government
conscrvn1ion priorities. It also would have
amended the National Environmenial Policy
Act 10 insure that biological diversily y,ould
be required as a salient fac1or in preparing
environmental impac1 siatemcnis.
Ahhough the bill failed to pass the
Congress this year, it had wides11rcad
suppon and should be 11 s1rong contender
for passage in the next session of the
legislature. Write your representatives!
1"'lNTt:R. - 1988- 89
EIS ORDERED BEFORE CUT
BELOW CHEOAH BALO
Natural WDlid News Service
In 1979, during the days of 1hc
ill-fated Roadless Arca and Review
Evaluation II procedure (RARE II), the
Cheoah Bald area was the largc:.1 roadlcss
area in the National Fores1 lands in l\onh
Carolina, measuring 23,000 acres of
unbroken wild terrain. Roadlcss tracts
provide valuable wildlife habitat,
particularly for black bears, which arc
na1urally shy of roads, scnsi1ive 10 human
access, and rcquin: large, continuous range
areas in which 10 move.
Bui Cheoah Bald did not receive
wilderness designation in 1979, anCl when
the RARE II procer.s was nbandoncd, the
Fores1 Service moved quickly to cut roads
into 1hc area so that large tracts would be
removed from "roadless" status. Some
clearcuuing has already been earned out m
the area.
In 1987. however, when 1he US
Forest Service (USFS) announced plans to
clearcut ano1hcr 400 acres in 16 lr:J:CIS of
varying sizes in the Cheoah Bald area, the
Wilderness Society and other conservation
groups raised an outcry, and the USFS
consented to carr.• ou1 an cnvironmen1al
impact statement·(EIS) on the proposed
logging. This move sets a precedent,
because never before has 1he USFS
presented a full EIS for a clcarcuning
operation.
The usual procedure before a timber
sale is for a cursory "environmental
'ascr.sment" which inevi1ably produces a
verdict of "no significant impact" on the
environmen1 and rubber-stamps the timber
sale proceedings without serious
examination.
The crucial difference 1hat won the
Cheoah Bald area special consideration was
that the Appalachian Trnil passes through
the timber sale a~a. and some of the cuts
would be qui1e close to the trail, while
01hcrs would occur in vistas considered to
be among the mos1 spectacular along 1he
l,OOO·mile length of the trail. The Forest
Service's preccdcnt-seuing move, then. was
ra1her the resull of an aesthc1ic, rather than
an environmental, impact.
Other areas studied in the RARE II
proposal, the Big Creek area in Madison
County, NC, the Nolichucky area on the
.Nonh Carolina-Tennessee state line near
r:twin, TN. and the Wildcat area, which
adjoins the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, also lie along 1hc
Appalachian Trail. Big Creek is a valuable
habiuu area as well as a scenic asset. as it
borders a wilderness area in the Cherokee
.National Fores1. that would be cxp:inded to
create an unbroken habitat area of 25,000
.acres if Big Creek were also designated
wilderness. Timber sales are planned in the
near future in Big Creek and Wilclca1, and
2,000 acn:s of the Nolichucky area arc to be
designated as available for logging, but
because of possible scenic disruption to tmil
hikers, these areas have an advantage in
their fight to ~m:Un primarily habirac :uus.
Aesthetic beauty does denote a
healthy. functioning forest community, and
it also is important for humans 10 find solace
from a ubiquitous civilization. However,
environmental needs ~ist even when they
arc no1 vi~iblc to human beings. There arc
01her roadless areas slaccd to be opened up
for clearcu1ring that will receive no special
consideration and no environmcnial impac1
Statements. Roads and timber sales will both
be pushed through in these areas, unless
citizeni> stand up for the rights of \\ildlife
and the habitat that suppons them.
Some of these areas are:
• Upper Wilson creek - 6,530 acres.
inventoried in the RARE U s1udy. A timber
sale will be proposed for this area m 1989.
• Linville Gorge Extension - 2, 138
acres adjoining the Linville Gorge
Wilderness Arca now slated to be opened
for timbering.
• Balsam Cone - a 13,529-acre area
on the eastern slope of the Black Mount.a.ins,
adjoining Mt. Mitchell State Park and
encompassing six peaks over 6,000 feet, of
which 3,400 acres arc to be managed for
shon·ienn or longer-rotation logging.
• Middle Prong Extension - 2,265
acres near the Sunburst Recrca1ion Arca on
the Pigeon River in Haywood County tha1
will be opened to longer-rotation logging.
• Snowbird Wilderness Study A~a a large 8.490 tract high in the Snowbird
mountin of Graham County, NC and
adjacent to a roadless area in the Cherokee
N:uional Forest of Tennessee containing
prime habitat area, some natural balds, and
groves of virgin timber. Thi:. area was
studied for formal wilderness designation
by the Forest Service, but wilderness sta1us
was declined in the 15 -year draft
management plan, which is presently under
appeal.
• Tusquitce Mountains - a
16,720-acrc area studied under RARF. II
;;outheas1 of Andrews, NC.
• Chunky Gui - 12,446 acres near 1he
Tu~uitcc Mountains area. 5,600 acre:; arc
slated to be opened to intensive logging.
• Southern Nantahala Wilderness
Extcnsionr. - tracts totalling 11,402 acres
that adjoin the Southern Nantahala
Wilderness Area, the Chunky Gal tract, and
wilderness areas in Georgia, studied as pan
of RARE II. 8,000 acres are proposed for
short-1enn or long·term logging, and the
'Trail Ridge road and timber sale is soon to
go up for bid.
• Fishawk Mountain - 4,890 acres
southeast of Franklin, NC that is to be
opened for shon-tcrm and longer-term
logging rotations.
For illfom1ation on how you can
participate in habitaJ preunurion ejfons on
t/1£ public lands, conuzcr:
Forest Voices
Box 1275
West Jefferson, NC 28694
{T
Petc.r Kirby
The Wilderness Society
1819 Peaclllrt'e Rd. NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
,..
p;I/
XAti&ah Journm p'"JC'- 21
�t
t:t
1
tt
41..li.r.i
lhe honeybees. Can you gather those without being s1Ung? And
lhey also cal odle.r inseclS, grubs, and rotting carrion. Do you have
lhe SIOmach for those foods?
•And in lhe fall !he bears eat lhe mast, the acoms end !he
nuts or the forest trCCS, lO ge1 faL for the win!Ct. The bears also
love lhe persimmons, pawpaws,and gropes lhlU grow in the woods,
bul the mast crops are what keep lhe bears alive in their dens.
"Wild foods arc powerful foods. Although they e.a1 li1lle
meal, black bears can grow lO 500 pounds In siz.e in these
mounlllins, although the females are generally less than I 50
pounds and the males less than 250 poWlds. Bears are strong! They
brealt branches from oak trees IO reach the tasty acorns. Bears are
fast! They can nm for eight to ten hours and can ouldisl!UlCe several
p:icks of dogs if need be. Bears are agile! They like best to run
through the thickets of lawcl and ivy IO lose their pursuers. Wild
foods give the bears their strcngth and endwance.
•Because you do not grow a black fur robe lhnl is warm and
beautiful, but are naked and hairless, I feel SOIT)' for you. You must
use olhcr furs and materials for clothing, and you musl have a den
to live in lhe year round."
And lhc Bear Old Man told them more things, and some of
the people listened carefully. and these in their own minds called
themselves the Bear Clan. and they put small images of the blnck
bear among the other objects on the swen1 lodge aliar and by their
sacred springs from which nowed their pure drinking waler.
And these humans began IO create a habimt for themselves
based on the word.s Yonah had 10ld them. They bulll lhemselvcs
dens 10 live in that were m3dc of rock boulders or heavy logs. so
1ha1 their homes were massive and cave-like, cool in lhe
summertime and wann in lhe wintcrS.
They walked I.he woods in the spring and found the wild
ramps, buL instead of enllllg !hem all, they replanted some in lhc
fore.q~ near lheir home den.~. and lhe ramps multiplied and sixcad.
They followed the c:rccks and picked lhe early branch leuuce
and ne11le leaves, but they would leave a number of lhe plant
people growing and kept lhe Slrenms running clear and
unobstructed, and always spoke a word of thanks to lhc plant
people as they gathered them, so !11at the green things would
conunuc tO feed the humans.
In their hollows and coves lhcy grew fruit 1recs, bolh
cu!Livatcd and wild, and among lhe trees they placed h1YC.10 or bees,
for they knew that this would please the Bear Old Man.
In olher fields they culLivalCd blnckberries, blueberries, nnd
raspberries close 1ogclhcr, as they grow on the mounminlops. and
m the summer they moved among the berry bushes foraging their
food much tn the manner of bears.
They tended gardens of corn, spring greens. squash,
climbing beans, and lhc roo1s of potatoes, onions, and
rich-smelling garlic. They let the polcewced. creasy greens, and
bmb,;quancrs grow, for Yonah told them the.~ greens were some
of the mo'l nutriuous of foods. Bul bccau.-.c the humans did no1
have the suong digestion of the bears, they had 10 hnng heavy
loo~ of wood lO their home dens 10 cool these foods 10 mnke them
pablllble.
In the woods the Bear Cbn encouraged lhc wild fruit trees.
The)' helped these trees wherever they found them growing by
keeping down the other uees around them 10 give lhc fruil uces
sp:icc nnd light. They spent a 101 or ume wandering through lhe
woods. jusl watching the IJ'CCS, plllDLS, and animals growing, and tn
I.he proper seasons they would come upon feasts of the succulenl
THE BEAR CLAN
Long ago, a young boy of the Chcrolcecs led his entire clan
away from I.he SCllled life of the village IO live in I.he forest. and
these people were lral'ISfonned inlO blaclc bears. Thus, says the old
Oicrokee legend. ~ the bear nation first crcalCd.
The spi:ril of the Wild Boy. who first led his people to their
new life in I.he wild, grew old and changed int0 YOO!lb, the Bear
OldMan.
Yonah returned once more 10 the sculemenlS where he had
lived before. He found his rebtives, I.he humans, much changed.
The villages were now large, and many new people lived there,
suange and different from the native people, with skins as pale as
fall mushrooms and hair of all shades of color instead of the
lustrous black of his own people's hair. Yet YoMh spoke lo lhe
humans, newcomers as well as the remnining native people, and
those who wanled IO live closely wilh the lnnd heard his words.
"You cannot wm int0 bears and come live in the foresl
with me as my people did once before. Times have changed; lhnl
way is closed, and ii perhaps may never be opened again. Bul I will
tell you what I.he bears know about living in the moumam forcslS,
Md, if you follow my insuuelions and conlinue 10 give the bears
honor and respect, you will be able 10 live here forever."
And the Bear Old Man lOld the People;
"The stcepesl mouniain land can support one female bear
for every six or eighl square miles. Males arc more of a luxury, and
the mounl3ins allow one only every 30-50 square miles.
"lmngine bemg able lO find all you needed for life within
six or eighl square miles of tnnd! You humans may no1 be able IO
do this. You do not have a warm fur coot growing on your back.
You do no< have the strong digestive system of a bear, who CM\ cal
anytlUng!
•And you humans have seriously overbrcd beyond the
capabilily of the land lo sustain you. You need to reduce your
numbers so lhat you can live with the land. lkmg crowded 10gclhcr
so closely is a filthy and dismal way IO live. Your numbcn> are so
great lhal you cannot forage in the open woods, bul must lend
certain plants and humbly serve their needs, in.'tcad of the plants
serving you, as il should be m the world.
"Truly, your lives arc going to be miserable ones indeed
until you learn IO control your numbers. The firsl duly of any
specie) of l:irgc animal is 10 cn~ure that enough off$pnng live 10
conlinue lhe Cllislcncc of the species. Bul lhe second duty of the
species is to limil lhc1r number' to what the land can pro,ide for.
Paying Ollention 10 those simple rcahues would <1erve you far
bcu.cr than your prcoccupalion with "good and evil," which in truth
do no1cx1st m the world. Yet, if )'OU aire for the water and the soil
ond lend your plants, you will be able 10 make a living in l11e
mountain.\, although you will never know the true freedom of
being a block bear m the wild world. Bui do not complain aboul
your lol, ror you have brouglu this on yourselves by your own
doing.
·em as lhe belll'S cat. Bears ea1 the CMly greens m I.he spnng
·branch lcuuce and sungmg ncu.lcs from lhc cn:cks - and dig ramps
from under the leaves on the forest noor. Squawroot is a special
food reserved for I.he bc3rs, and you canoot cal that.
"lo !he summer the bears cal the many bClncs and the fruits
• serviccberries, wild plum~. wild cherries • thaL grow on lhe
moum.ainsides. They alw fca.\t on the sweet honey 8lld lilrVae of
(conunucd on p. 26)
Print by ULA 11-IOMAS
WtNTER.. - 1988-89
�(conllnucd from page 19)
not enough wood in the woods for
everybody to heat with wood! Those of us
who do these things arc taJc.ing advantage of
unique situations which in no event would
be available to the greater population.
So I would not want people to think
that learning these skills would guarantee
their survival. The real value of learning
these old techniques is to gain a feeling of
greater self-reliance. I don't usually use the
tenn ''self-sufficient," because it would be
foolish under any circumstances to uy to be
totally sufficient unto one's self. But I think
that to be more self-dependent is a great
virtUc. Going into the woods and learning
to identify ccnain plant and animal species
can help you in your life - even if you never
have to know them to survive.
Another economic shakedown is
certainly possible. I don't know whether it
will ever come to that, but 1 do know that
when I am able to do something even as
basic as being able to identify the plants and
the other animals of the forest, I gain a kind
of self-respect that helps me go on and face
up to whatever it is that has to be done.
K: But doesn't it also add a sense of
depth and meaning to the processes of life?
DW: It cenainly does for me.
Strangely enough, when I am doing my
thing right, concentrating totally on what I
am doing, I sometimes get a linle flash of
insight into the fact of our monali1y. Death
is an aspect of life that is important to face,
but most people in our culture prefer to
avoid it. We would rather live as if we were
never going to die, as though we could
maintain our present state of existence
indefinitely. But if we look at it for just a
moment, the obvious conclusion is that we
are mortal: our bodies arc going to perish
and in some way go back to the Eanh. And
when I am living my life correctly, I am
preparing for my death by getting myself a
little calmer and a little bit more in tune with
the overall plan.
K: Coming to terms with that has a
lot to do with achieving that "savage
intensity," doesn't it?
DW: I think it does. Exactly! To live
life to the fullest is what we are talking
about. That's what real "savage intensity"
is: right there in that moment to let this fine
brain that our species has inherited be
working in such a way that it's got us
breathing the most air, hearing the most
sounds, smelling the most smells, and
seeing all that we can see in that moment,
fully. And when that happens we are not at
all self-conscious about it.
K : If one were self-conscious, it
wouldn't be happening.
DW: That's right. In that state the
brain is not thinking as much as it is
processing the natural senses. Then
anything we do and anything that happens
arc spontaneous responses.
K: There is also a beauty to a
spontaneous action, because it is instinctual,
naturally graceful, and right.
DW: Often times I get too romantic
about this aspect of my work, but I do
believe that there is enough substance there
that I can insist 1ha1 when everything i~
1. st.um&Ce4 upon tt.
wnUe watcfil.rn.J a &I.rd t.n fCLcfot.
on one of those flrst. wuUl.s t.firou!Jh t.fie wooc!s
of my mountoln home
reU int.a l.t mmost.
&ut was lns tont(y &«Mn &y Us lmmcnsi.ly
Thls 9l.anl.. remnant of fmun &.fell, r..runfl. sia(a(;Jmtus rcad1lntJ
t.ft.yward
um( trotted over surrounded by Hs ci..rcfo
aU of me f ithnlJ msidc the cirdc
ant( 1 watd\a( the
uy
und h .r.t.crwd t.o llw voi.ccs from whuc the r oo ts had. &«.n
and r..hcy t.oCd m e thc st.or I.cs
. . . of the 9i.unt trees •. of thc t~mc when thc chcstnut.s
towued over thc mounwins
.... uu 'i'-'"ns
anc! l f t!t part of I.he cages whU:fi arc t.hi.s (Qnd
and h."'w 1. was welcome.
kllNTER. - 1988-89
Drawing by MAR1llA TREE
flowing just right, I have momenlS lha1 arc
almost ecsraric.
When shooting the blowgun,
sometimes as I raise it up, I can feel where
the cen1er of lhc target is. And when I shoot
il, I can sense the flight path of the dan, my
consciousness follows i1 all the way 10 the
bullseye, and I know even before it hits that
it's going to be right on the mark.
Other times I might be working on a
piece of wood at my bench, and, although I
know I am shaping it, I'm not aware of any
intellcc1uaJ process going on. I'm just aware
that my body is moving in a rhythm, and
that a wonderful result is occurring between
this natural material and the tool I am
holding, which m many cases I have made
myself.
Even though I will never get rich
doing what I do, the possibilicy for making
a modest living and at the same time
enjoying myself is going to keep me a1 it the
rest of my life, as long as I have eyes and
breath. Again, it's what I think people are
seeking through spirirual disciplines that are
supposed to lead to enlightenment or
happiness. When it's done well, this very
ordinary, everyday process of creating
useful things for a living can accomplish
that.
That's why I, with mock seriousness
and yet with real sincerity, say that this is
religion 10 me, this business of tools and
material and trying to c:1;trac1 the best I can
from them. In doing so. I realize my highest
potential and that of the tools and the
material - having them all working together.
�DRUMMING
LETIE RS TO KATUAH
Dear KO!Uah,
Have you ever wondered why so few Americans have suff.cient
interest in environmental problems, and their solutions, to join
organizations, such as the National Audubon Society, (one of the largest
environmental organizations with a membership of only about 0.2
percen1 or our population) and support i1 in its efforts to solve our
environmental problems?
Dear K01Uah,
... I found the Ka1Uah Journot at a restaurant named Stooc Soop in
Ashe,•ille, NC and was nourished by both. J found the work you are doing very
empowering and wish you all good energies in continuaLion. Tiie EARTH is
healing thanlcs to us all!. ..
Sincerely,
Maria Tncp:icz
DearK.J.,
Greetings in the light. I'm writing to thank you for the Fall issue. Also
thanks for printing my letter in the "Wcbworking" section. The Kim Sandl:ind
anicle "Gin of the Chestnut• was very informative. My prayers arc with you.
I'm the prison librarian. I place copies or KJ. on the magwine rack when I run
through with them.
With love, in peace,
Riek
And upon Mocher Earth I crouched,
And the Voice wns within ....
New Beginnings
from the Drum quietly echoed.
New Begionings
from the fcathcrcn:atioo in prayer.
New Beginnings
in lhecircle of service for my
brothers and sislefli
as
my oolh providcth for mankind
your feather lay gently
when the Drum had 'llOken....
simply the lasting vision,
New beginnings,
all my relauves.
- Bern Gn:y Owl
Dear KatUah,
...I was in W. Virginia for the fll'St ume this spring for
the Wildflowcr Festival m Blacltwater Falls State Parle- it was
grc:u Cun! Met a man there leading a field trip who had this
lfemendous encrgy...a native of W. Virginiit..He said he got up
every morning and said: "This day is gomg to be a 101• and
added "It usually is.• This prompled the following poem:
Yesterday is aln:ady gone ..•
Tomorrow will get here when ...
Today is all I've really gOL..
And It's gonna be a 10!
Many than.ks,
Barbara Wickersham
Knoxville, Tenncsste
Drawing by ROB MESSICK
You could take any 300 Americans, load them on n jumbo jet LO
some dcstinatioo, and there would be immediale and great con<:cm when
they had the slightcsl awareness of any problem with lhe plane's
environment. indicated by such events as decrease m cabin pressure,
increase in cabin temperature. sudden appcamnce or unnatural odor, etc.
And everyone, or course, is concerned when there are immediate and
obvious changes in the earth's environment in their vicinity. Who is
bored when they arc aware of an eanbquakc. volcanic eruption, tidal
wave, hurricane or tornado?
Yet very rew people I know, especially from my former habitat
(Long Island, NY) exhibit any emotlon, other than polite, sbon-term
interest, turning tO boredom, when I try to discuss the implications of
the discovery of a large bole m the 01.one layer in the atmosphere over
the South Pole. Their general viewpoint is something like •1 don't sec
how they can say It LS caused by escape to atmosphere of chemicals used
as refrigerants or aerosol propellants. Anyway, it is all to teehnical ror
me, and I don't believe there's anything to worry abou1 anyhow.•
A high government official, when told destruction of the ozone
layer could cause a great increase in the incidence of skin cancer.
responded with "People will have to learn to use more sunmn cream,
wear hats and wear datlter sunglasses.• This, or course, is hardly a viable
solution to the problem
In regard to the acid rain problem: it is rather difficult for the
non-teehnically oriented person to undcrsllll1d and accept bow smoke
from powethousc stacks containing combusuon products or a fuel
contaminnm (sulfur) can be convened, at very high altitudes, through
contact wi1h the ozone layer in the presence of the ultra-violcl
component of sunlight. into another gas. This. when absorbed into
water (rain, snow, or fog) in the aunosphere produces sulfuric acid.
Up on Long Island I listened to radio station WNEW. The ir
weather man seemed to be environmentally con<:emcd, so I wrote and
suggested he give. as a pan of his repons. the acidity (ph) of the most
recent precipitation to indicate its potcntial to cause acid ram damage.
He replied, · 1 think it is a good idea, but since acidity is expressed as ph
few people would under.;tand whal I was rallcing abouL Therefore, there
would be liule interest in the data.•
People, when faced with problems hard 10 understand and whose
solutions will cost them and change their lifestyle prefer, instead, to
look for and emphasi7.e reasons, mostly irrelevant, which will allow
them to believe there are really no problems and to proceed on the basis
that everything is alright.
II might be well to reeall tha1 in January 1987 ano1her
spaceship, the Challenger, and its crew were destroyed because lhosc in
ch3rge ( exccutiv~ of NASA and M<>rton-Th1okol) refused to listen to
their engineers about a problem with its boostet rockc1 seals. They
continued to proceed with the launch to save money. save face. and
maintam a good press. One of the results or their proceeding was that
they did none of the above.
One can only hope the same fmc does not befall the spaceship
Earth because of the ~me short-sighted, mista.ken awwdc on the pan of
the go,'CITlmcnt and the public m, so far, refusing to heed the advice and
warnings of expens and envll'Ollmentalists on the problems mcntJoncd.
as well as on many more.
There is one cond1uon that might prevent it. Those "m
authority" might come to their senses soon enough to prevent it because
they, also. arc ridmg this space ship. (edited)
J. J. Combes
Newland, North Carolina
ltJlNTER. - 1988- 89
�The Third
Dear Sirs:
t-.1r. Runer was in town last week nnd solved my puulemcnt. Earlier in the
month I hlld received the autumn issue o( your journal and had no idea who sent ii.
Wh:it a ~utiful piece of work on my favourite subject • the American Chc.~tnut.
I re:id every word nnd learned so much. Would you please sent me four copies
of this issue tO be used in my missionary work with <;0mc friends in Pcnnsylv:mia.
There are st.ill rolks up there who remember the talcs their folks told of this
1ru1gnificen1 tree.
Yours truly,
J.N. Salv1ro
Kensington. MD
NEW ZEALAND(IP
CHESTNUT
GROWERS ASSOCIATION INC.
P.O. Box 1328, lnvercargill
New Zealand
Dear Sir:
We would be pleased 1f you could supply us w1lh a copy or the Fall 1988 ediuon or
the KatUah Jourlll.ll which has cx1ensive nniclcs covering chcslllut rcscatth.
Cordially yours.
NEW ZEALAND CHESTNUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION INC.
ERNEST NEW
Executive Director
Dear KmUah,
Carolyn and I just got your letter and papers t1us morning. The enclosed
paper has been in circulat.ion for two years:
"You art invittd to con1emplme tht idta btlow, to sinctrtly short your idtas
about a just and ptactful world:
Cltarly lift on tht planet is in jeopardy. What will it takt to revtrst tht /tar,
tht weapons, the pollution, tht monopoly, tht inttr'Vtn/Wn ...and project Uft toward
abundance, coopuation, and environmental and social compassion? /low can wt
txperience such a miracle? "Consciousness crtatts form" /Seth/. PleaJe bt
prac11cal. fless than 500 words/ Art you willing to bt published? __yes _no.
Please include your llD.ml!, address. and a short tkscriptwn ofyourself.
It is our intention to circulate tht comributions, to create a conllnuwn and an
on-going forum
Facts. feelings. ideas. positivt creations art welcomed.
Transformation is inevitable. It is cltarly the will of the human race to live on
abundantly wt// into thtfuturt. Spirit awakn!
Send your responses to:
NamMt~ Consciousness
Box578
Ctnter Barnsttad, NII 03225
P.S Feel fret to copy and distribute"
My answer is: That best friends must bond around common pnnciples: to
share. care, heal, and enhance life locally in BIOCELLS by the thousands in every
BIOREGION. Each aulonomous cell is joined to the biorcgion by commitment to
the values.
Please share this invitation to respond with your readers.
Thanks,
Bruce
Center Barnstead, New Hampshire
I've got news for you. A Higher Jntclligencc has hlld me to know some
information about the way the Universe functions. What I learned was tha1 the
computers that we arc all growing so fond or arc a Gacan trick. The plan is Iha! the
h~man race will dump all their intelligence into those neat plastic boxes, then Gaea
will tum off the power. and it all will be gone. Then we'll be free! And we'll find we
dJdn'l need It anyway.
love.
l
..,'\.NTER. - 1988- 89
hildegardc
North American
Bioregional Congress
by Lisa Franklin
This summer I represented Katuah at the third Nonh
American Bioregional Congress (NABC Ill) held in a small
outdoor school nonh of Vancouver. B.C. Magical things had
happened to me while traveling on route to the congress, so I
came expecting more. 1 wasn't disappointed. It seemed that
an incredible exuberance just bubbled out of everyone.
At the morning circles we shared songs. information
and a sense of harmony that spread 1hroughoul 1he day. The
committee mceungs revealed an amazing array of qualified
and .in~onne~ individuals s~aring their ~nowledge. Some
spectaltzed in water qual11y, some in permaculture,
education, forest management, green cities, herbs. dow~ing,
etc.
Ideas were bounced around, scenarios entenained, and
a lot of creative. intellectual energy zipped about. The
previous congress resolutions were reviewed and any
proposed changes were brought before the plenary during the
last couple of days. This process was an inspiration to me
personally, and several different projects are now a part of
my life due to these idea sessions.
1 have begun working on an All Species Project in the
Asheville Alternative School and have been working with
education about organic agriculture and promoting local
production of organic produce. The proceedings from NABC
111 will be published in the spring of 1989 and will give
explicit deiails of the comminee discussions, their decisions,
and 1he plenary votes on issues brought before the whole
assembly.
Throughout the congress we were honored with
presentations from various native peoples from Tunle Island.
During many of these, we wept openly for the pain in their
lives which they shared with us. We took to heart the plea for
help that was extended by them. These people are asking to
be allowed to live their Lnlditions, as arc all native peoples
around the world, so that this spirituality can help to heal the
planet. May we each do whatever we can to let il be so.
The evening biorcgional presentations were a stream
of creative, honest ways of sharing the pain, humor and love
felt for the different partS of Tunic Island and the state of the
environment. The presentation for lhe Karuah bioregion was
well received and consisted of a Cherokee welcome song, a
creation myth, a slide show accompanied by banjo picking,
poetry, stories of home and family, and slides wi1h
commentary on lhe soulhem Appalachian trail
Late night drumming and dancing helped folks
loosen up after lots of intellectual discussion. It was a time
for physical expression and fun.
In the shon period of one week, we 300 or so people
bonded togclher into a tribal group, which no one wanted to
leave. Throughout 1he week, each person was working,
talking, lhinking, living, and breathing to find ways for all of
us to exist in greater hannony with our Mother Earth and all
the living things on it. We realized that we were seeds to help
the next shifl in consciousness happen and that we can help
the earth survive by loving her and not getting discouraged,
and by allowing that love to come lhrough our intellect to
solve problems. So at the week's end, reaffirmed in the
purpose that brought us together, we allowed the wind to
scatter us again so that each could set in motion the changes
needed everywhere to evolve life lo another level of
awareness. This is the energy that can help prevent worst
case scenarios in world problems and bring about change. I
am honored to have been a pan of it.
To obtain a copy of the Proceedings ofthe Third North
American Bioregional Congress, send $8.00 to:
Seth Zuckerman, P.O. Box 159, Petrolia, CA 7555
¥
Xo"'°" Journal ~ 25
�(continued from page 5)
each time it rained, so they moved on. They
still had water enough to drink, but the land
would no longer produce food.
Flash floods might come through my
little cove and take out my bottoms, as
happened to the Anasazis. The creekbcd
might suddenly become such a gorge that I
couldn't build a bridge across it, because it
was draining such a big torrent each time.
On the other hand, a mudslide might come
down the valley, and where my house and
fields once were, might suddenly be tree-top
high with ~ clay and boulders. That might
be the way of it I am not very optimistic.
As the cycle deepens, big fronts of
weather will be created. When big fronts get
moving, they move farther before they can
be dissipated. Strong, fast-moving cold
fronts could come down out of Canada. The
Sll'Onger they are, the further south they a.re
going to go. There may be routine freezes
in Miami at that lime, because the turbulent
weather will suck the winter fronts further
south, meaning more violent snow, cold, or
whatever, with each approaching front As
soon as a cold front dissipates, there may be
a SIJ'onger front approaching from the south,
bringing up warm, moist air or rainstorms
that thaw the ground and confuse the plants'
growing cycles. All one can say for sure is
that the climate will become turbulent and
unpredictable.
In ages past as the Earth evolved and
the climates changed, as in the wanning and
freezing periods in the time of the ice ages,
the process of change was a gradual one
talcing place over thousands of years. Plants
and animals had a chance to migrate, and
everything could adjust to maintain the
equilibrium. Species were extirpated,
cenainly, but many life-forms were able to
maintain their range in suitable habitat
conditions.
That is not the case this time. The
most disastrous element of these changes is
that everything is happening so fast, that
this time the desen plants in Arizona will not
have a chance to migrate to Kauiah to
replace the forest trees. And the plnnts here
are not going to have a chance to migrate to
New England or to some place more
habitable. They are simply going to die! The
difference is that this change is an artificial
one; it is not induced by natural causes. The
whole world is threatened, and, like a
patient thrashing around in a fever delirium,
the change is going to be convulsive and
simultaneous. There are not going to be safe
havens to flee to, because the change is
going to be happening everywhere at once.
It is going to be world-changing. It is going
to take a high toll on the animal and plant
species we live with today.
With the vegetation gone and the
soil gone from the hillsides, the damage
done will be permanent. There will come a
time when the world will get weuer again,
but it might be in 100,000 years. Of course,
we might get lucky and it might take only
10,000 years. To regenerate the vegetation,
of course, would take eons longer than that,
but I do not believe that conditions here will
ever again be the same as they are now.
The greenhouse effect is a cycle
already in motion, and it's not going to
Stop. The government does not even admit
that there is a problem yet The government
admits we are in a drought, but they assign
it to natural causes and will not admit that
the pollution, the ozone, or the nuclear
waste, are threats to our survival. The
government has just begun to mention skin
cancer as a possible effect of the degradation
of the atmosphere. Skin cancer is the least
of it! It may take 20 years to get skin cancer,
and someone could starve in six weeks.
The governments will recognize the
problem in a few y~ when it is too late to
do anything about it. Even if they said
tomorrow, "We've got a serious problem.
We're going to cut all traffic, you can only
use your vehicle half as much. Burn half as
much gas. Bum half as much wood. We're
going to shut down half the plants. We're
going to cut worldwide energy use in half,"
it would still be too late.
In the first place, a cutback in energy
consumption will never happen as long as
the profit motive is the first priority. But
even if we could make an immediate change
in the way we live, we might slow the
oncoming cycle down or we nU$ht not slow
it down at all, but we are not going to avoid
it. At this point it is snowballing. The
causes are all tied together, they are already
in motion, and I do not see any way that we
are not going to have to bite the bullet. We
caused the problem, and we are going to
have to face it. Basically Tdo not feel called
to conjure or to pray for relief from this
problem, because the only relief now is a
healing, a realignment of the Earth's
energies.
AJJ that we can do now is to try to
avoid contributing to the problem, do what
we can on behalf of the world environment,
let people know what is happening, and
prepare ourselves physically, mentally, and
spiritually for whatever future is coming.
But just in case, I'm going to plant
some cottonwood trees around my place and
put some western chokecherries in along the
creek.
Lylich Crabawr is an Appalachian
native of Scottish descent. He lives with his
family in a moUlllain cove also inhabited by
turkeys, hawks, owls, a pileated
woodpecker, gnomes, and others of the
Little People. He wrote on "Circles of
Stone" for Katuah Journal 1110.
_,
(continued &om page 22)
wild fruits freely offered.
They also encouraged the young nauve chestnut trCCS with
prayers and songs, and whenever they chanced t0 find a U'CC bearing
nutS, these were e:igerly distributed to all parts of the region and
planted, wntchcd. and aided. Their efforts began to produce results.
for more and more cheSUlut trtcS began to grow without the killing
disease cankers. The magic of the Beat Clan was known to be
powerful, because it was causmg the chesuwt trees IO appear where
they h3d dlsappeared before.
In olhcr fields the Bear Clan planted nut uec.~ • cultivntcd
chestnulS. filberts, and walnuts - and they mode sure to gnlbcr
acorns from the foTCSt each year (su K:11Uah /19 - ~ds.), so that in
the fall among the Bear Clan lhcrc was a frenzy of activity when,
lilce the bears, they hurried to store enough food for the winter
But, because they could not line their bodies. with fnt like their
relatives the bears. they lined the insides or their home dens with
dried foods and nuts tO last them through the winter months when
snow covered the mountaintop.s and nothing grew through the
frozen ground.
Because they did not have the powerful mow teeth of the
bears lha1 could crush hickory nuts and acotru1 to a fine powder,
they hlld to grind lhe.ir foods between stone wheels. This they did
and combined the com and nw flours together inlO the llllt cakes
they tiokcd in their healed ovens.
One winier sciveral families tried swallow111g fecal plugs. a.~
the bears do to close their systems, so they oould fast and steqi
through the winier months, but that expcrimCTit came to a messy
end, and they round thnt they were humw after all. with human
limitations and a human nature that they hnd IO follow.
By living like the bears. the Bear Clan came to be more
like the bcnrs in their bodies and their ways. They tended 10 be
heavy and hairy. The men were strong, oftentimes quanelsomc, and
sometimes ferocious, even among others or their own clan The
molhcrs were wide. soft, and co1y, with enormous laps to snuggle
into. Tiie young women were also large, and were known as strong
fighlCIS if aroused, and ricrocly 1ndcpendcnt. Tiie women ruled the
home dens, and the cave-like shcllCIS were wann retn::11S where food
was plentiful even 111 wanter, and the young ones grew rapidly.
Among their own the Bear Clan were mostly jovial.
fun-loving, and playful. But lil:c their relatives in the woods, they
were somcumes moody. seemingly inOucnced in a dramatic wny by
the cycle of the seasons and the tides of the moon.
Bear Old Man saw the many changes, and he was glad. He
visited the Bear Clan often and brought them the best dreams
during the long nights of winter. Many or the dreams were
personally enhghlClling. others granted special powers of healing or
working with the elements, while others were strange or prophetic.
so that the Bear Clan shared a deep knowledge among themselves,
although 11 was never spoken.
And the Bear Old Man spoke ID the mount.ain spirit.s, and
they provided well for those who followed the way of the block
bears, and the Bear Clan lived full lives for generations beyond
counung In the hills of Katilah.
,,#
p
WtN'TEJt - 1988-89
�(corwnucd from page 13)
experiences as well as pleasurable ones. So if we deny our p:un, we never get lO
grow up. we never have to grow up (we 1maginc)... wc'll be "forever young" ...
The cruel irony is that this "faith" has been turning us int0 a culture of
spoiled, self-indulgent "takers" who want nothing more than to suc..le at the
breast of our bountiful tcchnolog1cal "mother". Think about TV-bound "couch
potatoes"; tremendous use of both legal and illegal drugs: the fanuwic rise in "Cast
foods". "convenience" storCS, and quick fixes of every description. The need for
immediate gratification is an infantile trait, and inability to dc:il with p:iin is a
sure sign of emotional and spiritual imm111.urity.
This siren of pain avoidance can be extremely elusive and dangerous
because its message often comes across in a cheerful, breezy, thoroughly
innocuous way, as if getting rid of pain was such an obvious benefit that nobody
could even question iL The real meaning is far from cheerful, though. The
underlying theme invariably implies that life on Eanh i.\ difficult and painful, so
we need to create an artificial, human-made reality to escape from our fear and
pain. This is expressed quite openly in most drug advcrtisemenis--and then people
nnively wonder why we have such a "drug problem" m this country! In one ad for
a "p:iin-ltiller", a jaunty, successful businesswoman is portrayed in action. while
the background music sings. • r haven't got time for the pain, I haven't got room
for the pain, etc.".
But what happens to the pain we supposedly get rid of? What if pain is a
messenger, come 10 tell us of a potential or present problem in our lifestyle?
What then? Answer: we've lost (at least temporarily) a clue LO our health and our
inner identity. But the pain will show up somewhere (or sornellmc) else, JUSt hke
our garbage on the beaehcs--thc problem is merely put off and avoided, not really
gotten rid of at all. Obviously, we haven't succeeded in our quest 10 eradicate the
problems and pain of living-in fact, we seem to have increased them, if we look
at what's happening around us. The truth is, It's impossible to outwit nature, and
pain and pleasure arc both natural aspecis of life. Pain is a signal, a vital
indicaior. Denial of pain is really denial of information that is being relayed to us
by our body/being.
Only if we're willing lO embrace the full range of cmotions--lO experience
the hcighLS of rapture and the depths of pain-are we able to reach full maturity.
Our planet and our cul lure is in a massive "healing crisis", and we as individuals
need to be able to empathize with the p:iin our world is expcriencing... thc pain of
the animals, the planlS, the sky, the oceans.... not deny it, if we arc to be able lO
assist in the healing. And we need to feel our own pain and the pain of our
brothers and sisters everywhere. if we arc to develop compassion, wisdom. and
wholeness. There is no quick fix, and the only way out 1s through.
The Siren or lud ividualibm 1o1ud Nou -com mun io ri
This Siren works to undermine our sense of interrelatedness and
community. The frontier-era ethic of "rugged individualism" seems lO have given
way to a consumer-Oriented ethic of "p:issive individualism" ·-which combines the
isolation and separateness of the former with the neediness and passivity of the
"ideal consumer".
There arc, however, powerful human needs which can only be met through
communicauon and interaction, and when community breaks down, no amount of
consumption of things can fill this gap. The truth is that we arc individuals and
members of many diffeccnt communities-both social and natural. But in western
culture we've made individualism our god and tried Lo banish the idea of
community, even associating it with "Communism".
Some striking examples of individunli.sm run ramp:int are:
The glorijicaJion of the auJol'fWbile and the tkcline of railroads, trolleys and other
forms ofpublic transportOJiorr. Most cars on the road have only one or two people
in them. walled off from others within their mobile mctalhc box. Work. home,
friends arc often great disl3Jlccs from each other and so the dependency on the
aut0mobilc is reinforced. Urban design often glorifies the car more than human
interaction so the isolation becomes more "set in stone".
The tkJ)<ndency orr recorded SOWlds. Creating music used to mcan getting togc1hcr
with other people. either to listen or 10 play an instrument or sing. But toda> it's
much simpler to JUSL put on a record or a casscue without having LO socialize or
put out any cffon. This is wonderful up to a point-·but when people arc out in
public with tiny earphones in their ears, oblivious IO the sounds of life :iround
them, and intent only on lheu inner cxpcnencc, perhaps it's become another way
to create separation and isolation and to deny rclatiomhip.
"/he corrtinued diminishment of J)<Oplts' ho~ life. The M>Cial dimension of
homclifc has been steadily shrinking--from the cxtcndcd family, lO the nuclear
family, lo :.inglc-parcnt familie:., t0 couple$ living together -..ithout children, to
people living alone. The extended family has practically disappeared m western
culture. And aclual homelessness has been increasing at a very frightening pace as
well.
JlNTER - t 988-89
the l'fWVt towards instantarrtous food. Eating used LO be a basic, shaied form of
communion. But today, cooking and c:iting togclhu i:; no longer nccessruy-cxccpt
for rare holidays. Instcad,the food industry offers us thOU!i:lllds of prcfabricalCd
foods. Wlmt we've lost in term~ of nunurance nnd nourishment 1s noc made up for
by the variety and convenience of industrial food products. There is also a
profound difference between supcrmarkelS and old-world style markets
-supermarkclS are not conducive lO socializing.
Siren or Spir ilual Mater ialism and Dependency
Even those who are "aware• can be caught by consumption mania and the
drive for "more", whether it is material . psychological, or spiritual.
Mother Teresa, while visiting the US, felt strongly that Americans are the
poorest people she'd ever seen-lost amidst a multitude of possessions. separated,
starving for love, she said. With little cultuml acknowledgement or suppon of
the non-material dimension, it's often hard to maintain awareness of our inner
essence. Thus, we may be 1ost' in this deeper sense as well. This loss of self leads
directly lo the povcny of soul Mother Teresa describes.
The result, of course, 1s that we look outside ourselves for our power and
satisfaction. We often project our own power onto authority figures or 'sy~tcms'
such as churches, astrologers, psychics, doclors. 'channelling', and spiritual
groups. We then look to these sources for dirccuon, validation. The guidance
received may be quilc helpful. but the use being made of 11 fosterS unheahhy
dependency. The emptint$ and hunger underneath IS sull there, as is the denial,
the desire to gloss 11 over. But u is only through jOUmeying inio the hean of that
emptiness that the cycle can be broken, and our inner abundance can f1owcr.
To be and feel abundant is a state of experienced "beingness•-a stat.e of
wholeness, fullness. satisfaction. love, gratiludc. Gratitude is the essence of true
prosperity consciousncss--to embrace all of life, to be humbly and truly
appreciative of our daily food. our breath, our friends, our growth--even our pain.
It is a deep reeogn1uon of, and rcspecl for, the inter-connectedness of all living
things.
The
All of these Sirens, and others, are best able to entrap us when
we feel ourselves alone, separate from the human community and
from the wider Eanh community. When we feel rooted in the wider
Reality of the true human spirit and of nature, the consumption
mentality has less of a hold on us. In fac1, it becomes decidedly
unreal.
Our culture wilh iLS emphasis on constant consumption hides
an elemental cruth from us -- one 1hat is essential for us to rediscover
in breaking our bondage to the consumer mentality: namely, that
"emptiness" is an imponnnt aspect of any essenrial growth cycle. It is
only when we are able 10 appreciate a stale of true emptiness (the
'creative void') ... thal we are capable of seeing what we need and
what we don't need...that we are able to see the amazing abundance
of creation. It is then, in a spirit of gratirude and humility, that we are
able to experience our own inherent abundance.
When we experience this 'beingness'., we no l?nger ha~e lo
heavily iden ifv ourselves with our belongings, beliefs, projects,
money, etc. We no longer need to create our identity that way.
Human beings do seem to be "identifying". creat.ures, 1hough--so our
only option is to upgrade what we. tdenufy with. As.we l~am lo
identify with more universal, fulfilhng values and re~nt10nsh~ps, we
can honestly feel complete with or without those things which we
"consume" or have been "atLaChcd to".
We who believe in conscious growth and a deeper sense of
prosperity for ourselves and lhe planet ha~e the res.ponsibility of
re-creating community and ways 10 share this sense ~th each other.
Ritual sharing, celebration, and all the . vaned forms of
communication/ communion are things we need in order 10 feel 1n1ly
alive to feel prosperous and fulfilled. This is so imponant--and we
have 'so much to unleam...and so much to learn about living together
and with ourselves and the Eanh. But we've got to do il, if we truly
wish to enjoy the abundance that's available to all of us an<! the entir~
Life community. True abundance is a fonn of love, and like love, .tt
grows when we share it, and it withel'!t when we gra~p and clutch 11
tightly 10 ourselves.
�The Planetary Initiative
The Watauga
Land and Water Conservancy
"Open land and pure water for
all...for all time to come" is lhe motto of lhe
Waiauga Land and Water Conservancy, a
group forming to work in the upper
drainage basin of lhe Watauga and New
Rivers.
The group is not an advocacy group,
and want to reach out across all political
lines to form a broad-based group to acquire
wilderness and agricultural land through
donation and purchase. They envision
leasing land to farmers when appropriate
technology would be employed.
The Conservancy is still in the
fonnarive stage. 501 (c}3 non-profit status is
being sought.
For more information, contact: Gay
Gingrich (704) 963-5614 or Lowell Hayes
at (704) 963-5835.
• Su.son Rttd
DE.51GNS
by Rob Messick
lllus1ra1lon & Design
In Pen & Ink and Colore<I Pcnc II
An estimated 1.5 billion people will
be participating world-wide for the third
annual World Healing Day, an international
observance aimed at raising our awareness
of global issues. The event is unique in that
all participants will be located around the
world in more than I 00 countries, and all
services will be held at 12 noon Greenwich
time, 7:00 AM EST. More than 500
peace-related organizations and all major
religious faiths will be included in lhe event,
with emphasis on prayer, meditation, and
song creating a global mind link ac one hour
in time to express the desires of people to
live on planet Eanh.
The initiative was originally taken by
the Texas based Quanas Foundation in
1984. The first World Healing Day was
held on December 31, 1986. with more than
500 million participants. The size of the
global event grew to 800 million in 1987.
The event is presently coordinated by
the "Planetary Commission", a world-wide,
non-denominational, non-political organization without headquaners, structure, or
fundraising activities.
Interested persons are invited to
attend the local observances.
(In Asheville, NC: local
observances will be December 31, from
6:30 11111il 8:00 AM at Central United
Methodist Church, 27 Church Srreet. For
further information contact Gloria Free ar
(704) 274-7539, or James Cassara at (704)
252-2819.)
Workshops. ..
at Ille NC BiodomeCommuniJy
Waynm-lflt, NC (704) 916 0273
Integration of Creative Landscape
Design
Instructor: Bob Gow
The family's food & family fun; Landscaping
shelter for animals and friends; Food
production as an artistic expression; Designing
our evolving bioregional landscape
J a n. 21 $30 (or $25 w/ other garden or
herb workshop)
The Herbal Medicine Chest
lnstructor: Cindy Heath
Herbal Remedies that may ta.Ice lhe place of
aspirin, antihistamines, antibiotics. pain killers
and other commonly used drugs.
We will be making an herbal remedy to take
home.
February 4 $30 (or $25 w/ other garden
or herb workshop)
Relationship Enrichment
lnstructors: Jofannie Karla & Marie Rocchio
A workshop for commiued couples.
Overnight arrangemcntS available.
For infonnation: (704) 926-1625
March 4 & S $185 per couple
The Nursery for Home Use and Profit
Instructor: Bob Gow
Exploring gounnct vegetable production,
flower and herb cultivation, rock gardens, &
landscaping with native cultured materials.
March 28 $30 (or $25 w/ other garden or
herb workshop)
P 0. 13<>X :!hOI • Boone. '-C: 2tlti07 • 7Cl4J754 h0!17
e1ti11ae "''"'""''""
uA
..Her/Ju/JJ111 e1i11ie
u C. w.1E11E M.S. Ac.0
UC.~T
.A--"""1 .
THE ALTERNATIVE HEALING HOT-LINE
1-800-544-4980
A frtt 10 thr public r~fttr.tl '(_"nlcf' .Jod N-'lk>n.11 \.V"fn<-.,,
~witchbo•rd •
...u... tti....Ji., o..,~, I tt,
1':\TTO~ \L DIRECTORY OF 1101.ISl IC
PRACTITIO"lt:Rs. H•:ALERS, SCl1 001 <;,
Cl-:'-'Tl'RS & RrTRF.ATS
l'hon~ lh~ HOT·llNE fO find ouf how )nur pr•ctia,
«h.,.,I, he.ling trnfrr or rrfr,..f on t... li<f~ in fh~
'll•lion•I Oirttinrv.
?J/E_,A/'C ~io£Jo/1E Co.Ql,~U.tAty'
i/vFtES 8()1.t. 'toJoi/ ~s /It' tJuA. /JioPcJ///;/(tc ~..f!'t
.
.&-o ; &fr-'1/ff'l9st A.CT,tf£'9T5 W&?M"S#¥.S
/
/
S#'.ELto.Af·C'oY~ ,.f/J.
l{t 2 .13~ 11~ w.Ay/.esr;l'fE
(701'-) ?2t,-027J
A'. C.
.2378(,
�WORKSHOP ON
FORMING A
LOCAL LAND TRUST
The Nonh Carolina Natural Heritage
Foundation announces a two-day training
conference on March 17-18, 1989 to assist
people in forming a land trust (local land
conservancy) and designing land prote~tion
projects. The goal of the conference 1s to
assist the formation of more non-profit land
protection organizations and to strengthen
the communications network between
people and organizations interested in
protecting the land.
.
Topics covered at the workshop will
include: definition and history of landtrusts;
organizing, building, and maintaining a land
trust organization; land protection methods;
and tax laws. A training manual and
extensive reference materials will be
provided.
The workshop will be held at the
Ka nuga Episcopal Center near
Hendersonville, NC. The event is expected
to cost $90 per person, which includes two
night's lodging and five meals.
For registration information, write to:
The NC Natural Heritage Foundation
P.O. Box 11105
Raleigh, NC 27604
or call
The NC Natural Heritage Program at:
(919) 733-770 I
'.M-'.EDlClN'.E ALLl '.ES
In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief.
the creatures in the world today are only
diminuitive forms of the mythic beings who
once Inhabited the world, but who now reside
in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest
heaven. But a few of the original powers broke
through the spirilual barrier and exist yet m the
world as we kno w ii. These beings are called
wilh reverence •grandfathers·. And of them,
the strongest are Kanatl, the lightning, the
power of the sky; U/sa·nati, the rattlesnake.
who personifies the power of the earth plane:
and Yunwi Usd1, "the lit/le man·. as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies. who draws up
power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their energies
complement each other to form an even
greater power. As medicine allies, they
represent the healing powers of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powetS of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 4-cofor silkscreen by
Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality, all- cotton
shirts, /hey are available now in all adult sizes
through the Kalanu bioregional mail-order
wpplier.
Order shirts from: KALANU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
Katuah Province 28779
Please specify size: Sm.. Med., Lg.•
X-lg.
~~
~ WINGS WAY CONSULTANTS
Multi-Level Wellness
Nutrients for Body, Mind, Spirit
J..~~
.......
Rr
,._1.~.
.,_~~I.
L1l6e
t
"1
f'I
1~r.
Cl.nu 5.>q, and mor~
.l.lf~
ft • • t:n• io~u'
"' ~
Bluebird Bol• nlcalb~ .;;,!-1>
r;J~
PO Bo~ 12"1
Mnklon. NC Z8734
~/
'ljo
'1..: . ,•'
.,,~B.irbara R<'nnen,nycfpr PhD
~· ·
rum
D
wor115
I
IN
Ashiko Dr ums
738 Towu Mou.nl&i.A Rd.
Aabnille, N.C. 28804
(704) 258-1038
-
~'
-...,
.-'.
~
""'"'
A so:
l
I
Natural Food Store
&Deli
/"\ edrc1Ne 0RvM~
c ~RAMIC
Ou111bcc.k$ ...
S+R 1'f5
Member NC Water Ouahly AS$0Ciatlon
RANDALL C. LANIER
704·293-5912
1.11.NTEJl - 1988-89
HWY. 107
RT 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
KRLRNU
Soec1J1z1N9
Woo,f eN
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PRODUCTS
Send requests to: Lucille Griffin;
Rt. 2, Box 42; Newport, VA 24128
KHLRNU
(704) 688-7016
All natural
ANNOUNCEMENT
The American Chestnut Cooperators'
Foundation reports a very good harvest of
American Chestnut seeds this year and has
nuts available to willing cooperators. The
seed is free and will be shipped with
planting a nd care Instructions. The
Foundation requires only a brief annual
progress report on the seedlings each
September.
P 0. Box 282; Sylva, NC;
Katunh Province 28789
LUCHIA MAISON
1>i...A .. f1
.....
'/-a fumf- 'L Jf(lltL
841 Highway106
Higlilands, NC 28741
(704) 526-5638
Write for a f ree price list,
f rom :
Send $3.00 & long S.A.S.E. for Samples
& Catalogue
Box 1477
Old Fort, NC 28762
Members of the Elders' Circle of the
American lndlan Council will speak at a
weekend event at The Mountain Camp and
Conference Center in Highlands, NC on
March 17-19. They will present the native
perspective on important environmental,
social, and political issues.
The fee for the two-day meeting will
be $128, which includes two nights lodging
and six meals. For registration infonnation,
contact:
The Mow1tain Camp and Conference Cenrer
BI OREG I ONRL BOOKS
AND TOOLS FOR LIU ING
IN RPPRLRCHIR
Cost· $9.50, includes postage
P.O.
NATIVE ELDERS TO SPEAK
D~ vMcAses
'-
RAftl es
SeNd
160 Bl'Olldw8y
JI
,~~
-f R CA-f Afo j
o
-
AsheYllle, NC 28801
wi... a-dwlry....MlrTtmon Ave• l-240
~
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday·S.urday: hrn·8pn>
Sunday: 1pm-Spm
(704) 2.53-7656
�-ef6BWoR/S!t!g
APPROPRIATE PASSIVE SOLAR design,
blueprints. and foll working drawings for homes,
shops, and sheds. Creative drafting.....your ideas or
ours. Harmony Sunbuildcrs; P.O. Box 194; Sugar
Grove, NC 28697
MOTHER'S BREATH HERBAL PRODUCTS high quality herbal extracts, ointments, and oils,
lovingly created.. Send for free brochure 10 RL 2,
Box 25 I; Vilas, NC 28692.
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY on bcauliful lnnd
near Cherokee, NC seeking families desiring grcalet
cooperation and self-sufficiency. Based on SpirilUal
and ecological values. Property now available. Call
(404) 778-8754 for info.
WANTED: LAND in western NC. Family seeks 5
or more acres, preferably near Cullowhce, to
pn:scrve and evenllla.lly inhabiL ff you have or know
of affordable land, coniact Bob and M3Jy Davis; 213
Wesunoreland CL; Georgeiown, KY 40324 (502)
863-4267.
RM DESIGNS • I use lhe media or pencils, colored
pencils. gouaehe, pen and ink, and pbOtOgraphy in
creating unique fine and graphic an. I can make
diagrams. logos, finished prints. and designs for
brochures. ~dcrs. cards. books, etc. Mandalas and
symbols are my tendency among other styles.
ContaCt Rob Messick (704) 754-6097.
r:o:
SI~ LIFESTYLE CALENDAR • The photos
on llus page appear with Olhcr striking portraits or
moumnin people in "The F:iccs of Appalachia•
c:alendar. Procccd.s support lhe work of Appabchia.
Science in the Public lnlCJ'CSL To receive your
calendar postpaid, send $7.00 to: RL 5. Box 423;
Livingston, KY 40445
"TREASURES IN THE STREAM" • a casse1tc iape
of 50ngs by Bob Avcry-Orubcl. $10 10 RL I, Box
735; Floyd, VA 24091.
M TREE DESIGNS: fllustrallons and Design .
Beyond the pages of !his journal, I work in pencil,
colcwed pericil, ink. cut paper, and bauk. Fine and
graphic an tO express and enhance our lives. Logos,
brochures, books, por11aiturc, window and wall
h;)ngings. Coniact Manha Tree (704) 754-6097.
HAND-CARVED WOODSPIRITS. mystical
hiking staffs, and wall hangings by Steve Durican.
For brochure, please write Whippoorwill Studio;
RL 4, Box 981; Marson, NC 211752.
...And Tk Earth Lived llappily Ever Aflu ·stories
from foll: traditions all around the world chosen tO
help protect all living beings by bringing the world
socie.ty a few steps closer 10 peace and respect for all
life. Edited by Floating Eagle Fealhcr. $7.00 ppd.
(All profits go to Green peace and lhe Peace
Museum.) Order from: Wages of Peace; 309 Trude.au
Dr.; Mctatre, LA 70003.
JOURNEY INTO THE SLICKROCK Wildcmcss
Area. Boys, fatbtt-son, falher-daughtcr expcdillons.
Learn observation and woodcraft in the deep w~.
Burt Kornegay, experienced guide. Sliclcrock
Expeditions; Box 1214; Cullowbce, NC 28723.
AMRITA HERBAL PRODUCTS • Comfrey,
Eucalyptus, or Golden Seal salve, Lemon or
Lavender lllcccream. Made wilh natural and ~llal
oils and love. Send for brochure: RL I, Box 737:
Floyd, VA 24091.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS • herbal salves
tinctures, & oils for binhmg & family health.
brochure, please writc: Moon Darice Farm; RL 1.
Box 726; Hampton, TN 37658
FUTONS by Simple Pleasures - affordably priced.
Send SASE for info 10: Simple Pleasures; RL I,
Box 1426; ClaylOll, GA 30525 (404) 782-3920.
STIL-LIGHT THEOSOPHlCAL RETREAT
CENTER • a quiet space for personal meditation,
group interaction through study, and community
work, and spiritual seminars. Contact Leon Frankel;
RL I, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 28786.
EARTH REACH EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
teaching primitive skills tO children and adults.
Robert Martin. Jr. and Jeanne Moore; Rt. I, Box
178-A: Ferrum. VA 24088.
llEIRlOOM GARDENING and Saving Your Own
Suds, pamphlet with specific Instruct.ions on
growing, harvesting, and storing non-hybrid seed.
Sl.00 w/ SASE. Also, SEEDS . Sl.00/packec
velvet bean, wormsced, mullein, brown cotlOll,
luffa. All from Hoedown Organic Fann. Rt. 1, Box
188·1: Quincy, FL 32351.
CAROLINA MTN. MACROBIOTIC CENTER
offers natural foods cooking classes, dietary
oounsclliog, cducntional lectures for a helnlhitt life.
Tom or Debbie Alhos. Call (704) 254·9606.
WANTED: SOAPSTONE for carving and
sculpting. Wiii pick up. Barter or cash. Please call:
Scott BU'd (704) 683-1414
"ESSENCE" • the all-one skirt/dress/
jumper/pantaloons with nursing pockets. Eanhwcar,
ROI. Box 75..CI; Carlton, PA 1631 1
FREE LABOR - I would like to learn about
beekeeping and building New Age Housing. Willing
to worlc for- free during lhc summer All I a"1c is a
place for my tcm and an occasional meal. Contact
Chris Irwin: 1712 White Ave.. Knoxville, TN
37916 (615) 673-0653.
INDIAN VALLEY RETREAT - 140 acres in Blue
MEDITATION CUSHIONS from Carolina
Morning Designs. Tradittonal and innatablc i.afus.
For fr~ brochure. write; Rt. I. Bo~ .31-B; Hot
Springs, 11\C 28743.
A~TERNATIVE
COMMtlNll Y in the Smoky
Mt M. of Cl.SI TN. 10 acre.~ with creek. springs,
vie"':s· good nc1ghboc~. Be a part for S!!SOO. Call
whe (615) 4S3·1S38.
Ridge mountain~ with facilities available to n:nt ror-
groups or individual retreats, c11hcr guided or
unstructured. Send for information and c;ea.<ional
c:ilcntlar or healing tr.IClsfonnativc e•·ents to: Indian
Valley Holistic Center. RL 2, Box 58: W1lhs, VA
2-l3!!0.
MOU/ER £ART// N/ilVS " no longer rcJ1r1nung
back issue<:. AJpha.B11 ha' many, at co~cr pnce plus
postage. Wntc Alpha·B1t; Box 465; Mapleton, OR
97453.
Grurhk• ~OIVlaJ ofApfdl.Ji·>UaSc1mu in 1>.c Pub/re
/N.,,~JJ from the "Arralacltia, /0&9 • Slf1l('lc LJ/~
C""7dir."
\\'EB WORKING 1s free. Send subrn1ss1ons to:
Kattiah Journal
P.O. Box 638
U:scc,tcr, NC
Katliah Pro•·1nce 28741!
kllN'TEJl - 1988-89
�Send articles, drawings, and photos of what interests you about
the Katuah region for the spring issue of the journal.
The KatUtih Journal wants to communicate your thoughts and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
to us as letters, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or photographs,
etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Kau'lalr Jo11.mal. P. 0.
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748.
The summer issue of the Kati1aJ1 Journal will deal with the menning
of.1h.e word "Peace" a~ a dynamic process that can replace
e:iusung structures of domination with vibrant new relationships.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSI IE 11-IREE ·Spring 1984
Sustainable Agricuhurc - Sunnowers Ruman Impact on lhe Forest - Childrcns'
Education - Veronica Nicholas:Woman in
Politics· Lui.le People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FIFTEEN ·Spring 1987
Coverlets • Woman Forester - Susie
McMahon· Midwife - Altermuivc
Contracepuon - Biosexuality •
Biorcgionalism and Women - Good
Medicine· Mauinlchal Culwrc - Pearl
ISSUE FOUR· Summer 1984
Water Drum • Wnter Quality - Kudzu Solar Eclipse • Clearcuuing - Trout Going 10 Waler - Ram Pumps ·
Microhydro - Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair,
Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE SIXTEEN - Summer 1987
Helen Wane • Poem V1s1ons in a Garden
• Vis ion Quest • First Aow • Initiation •
Leaming in the Wilderness - Cherokee
Challenge· "Valuing Trees"
lSSUE FIVE - Fall 1984
Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee Ginseng • Nuclear Waste • Our Celuc
Heritage • B1orcgionalism: Past, Prescm,
and Future • John Wilnoty • Healing
Darkness - Pol iucs or Participation
ISSUE EIGHTEEN· Winter 1987-88
Vernacular Architecture - Dn:ams in Wood
and Stone • Mountain Home - Earth
Energies • Enrth·Shellercd Living •
Membrane Houses Bru~h Shelter ._
Poems: Octobu Dusk - Good Medicine:
"Shelter"
ISSUE SIX - Winter 1984-85
Winter Solsuee Earth Ceremony
Hor.;cpaswre River· Coming of lhe Light
• Log Cabin Roots • Mountain
Agriculture: The Right Crop - William
Taylor - The Future of lhe Forc~t
ISSUE SEVEN - Spring 1985
Sustainable Economics • Hot Springs Worker Ownership - The Great Ecooomy Sclr Help Credit Union • Wild Turkey Responsible Investing • Working :•1 the
Web of Life
ISSUE EIGHT· Swnmer 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life • K:11iiah
18,000 Years Ago - Sacred Sites - Folk
Ans in the Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer - Cherokee
Heritage Center - Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE- Fall 1985
The Waldee Forest - The Trees Speak Migrating Forests • Horse Logging •
Starting a Tree Crop • Urbnn Trees •
Acom Bread - Mylh Time
ISSUE NINETEEN ·Spring, 19&8
Pcrleandra Garden - Spring Tonics •
Blueberries· WildOowcr Garden$ - Granny
Herbalist - Rower Essences • "The
Origin of the Animals:• Story - Good
M.:<.licm.:: "E'U~cr· - Be A Tree
ISSUE THJRTEEN - Fall 1986
Center For Awakening· Eliuibcth Cnllllri
- A Gentle Death - Hospice · Ernest
Morgan - Dealing Creauvcly wilh Death Home Burial Boit - The Wake - The
Raven Mocker - Woodslore and
Wildwoods Wisdom - Good Medicine; The
Sweat Lodge
ISSUE TEN· Winta- 1985·86
Kale Rogers - Circles of Stone - Internal
Mylhmaking · Holistic Healing on Trial .
Poems: Steve Knaulh - Mythic Places •
The Uk1ena's Tale - Crystal Magic • Drcamspeaking.
ISSUE ELEVEN - Spring 1986
Community Plnnning • Cities and the
Biorcgional V1s1on - Recycling Community Gardening- Floyd County.
VA • Gasohol ·Two Biorcgional Views •
Nuclear Supplement • Foxfire Games •
Good Medicine: V!Sioos
ISSUE FOURTEEN - Winter 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owlc - Boogcrs and Mummers
- All Species Day • Cabin Fever
University - Homeless in Ka1iiah •
Homemade Hot Water • Stovemakcr's
Narrative - Good Medicine: Interspecies
Communication
ISSUE TWENTY· Summer, 1988
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness
Highlands or Roan - Cclo Commuruty Land Trust • Arthur Morgan School Zoning ls.~ue - "The Ridge" - Farmers and
lhe Fann Bill • Good Medicine: "Land" .
Acid Rain - Duke's Power Play Cherokee Microhydro Projcc1
ISSUE TWENTY-ONE· Fall, 1988
Chcslnuts: A Na1ural History • Restoring
lhc Chestnut • "Poem of Presetvntion and
Praise" - Continuing the Qucs1 - Forests
and Wildlife· ChestnUlS in Regional Diet
- Chcslnut Resources - Herb Note • Good
Medicine: "Chnngcs to Come• - Review:
W~rf: legends Li~
/'
~UA~QURNAL
P.O. Box 638
For more infonna1ioo:
(704) 683-14 14
Leicester, NC KatUah Province 28748
this effort an txtra bOosr
I can be a local contact
Address
City
Back Issues
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
18-21)
@ $30.00 $_ _
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Name
Enclosed is$
State
Zip
person for my area
Arca Code
Phone Number
to give
=
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 22, Winter 1988-1989
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-second issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on the relationship between humans and the environment. Authors and artists in this issue include: Kim Sandland, Lylich Crabawr, Thomas Berry, Marnie Muller, Zoa Rockenstein, Kore Loy McWhirter, Richard Lowenthal, Fred Mignone, "Granny" DeLauncey, Lucinda Flodin, "Esther," Rob Messick, Amy Hannon, Pam Thomas, Lila Thomas, David Wheeler, Martha Tree, Bern Grey Owl, and Lisa Franklin. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988-1989
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Global Warming and Katúah by Kim Sandland.......3<br /><br />Fire This Time by Lylich Crabawr.......5<br /><br />Bioregions: The Context for Reinhabiting the Earth by Thomas Berry.......6<br /><br />Earth Exercise by Marnie Muller and Zoa Rockenstein.......9<br /><br />Poems and Drawings by Kore Loy McWhirter.......10<br /><br />An Abundance of Emptiness by Richard Lowenthal.......12<br /><br />Reviews: Thinking Like a Mountain | Talking with Nature.......14<br /><br />Options for Regional Currency: The LETSystem by Fred Mignone.......15<br /><br />"Chronicles of Floyd" by "Granny" DeLauney.......16<br /><br />Knife, Axe, and Saw: An Interview with Darry Wood.......18<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />The Bear Clan.......22<br /><br />Poem by Lucinda Flodin.......23<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Human ecology--Appalachian Region, Southern
Global warming--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Community
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
Education
Forest Issues
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/cbf32695fba405c0cff45e3e9c54db62.pdf
616631b2f61e4f3060a633a13326ea4d
PDF Text
Text
$1.50
ISSUE 25 FALL 1989
.
for all things wild
I
,..
�October 27, 1989
"Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern Appalachians:
A Strategy for Survival"
Owen Conference Center, University of ~orth Carolina Asheville
A major conference bringing together scientists, educators, government land managers,
and conservationists to speak about the condition of the Southern Appalachian habitat and
the necessity to
initiate new programs for habitat
preservation
and restoration to
maintain the
the southern
diversity of life in
mountains.
For more
information
call (704)
251-6441
Registration: $20.00.
October 28
October 28
"Wild
in the Streets:
The Feral Ball "
"For All
Things Wild"
Warren Wilson College
Swannanoa, NC
Issues and strategy
discussion among activists
directed to arrive at means of restoring
biological diversity in the Southern
Appalachian region.
Speakers: Reed Noss, Laura
Jackson, Robert Zahner, Peter Kirby,
Jamie Sayen, David Wheeler. Open
discussion period.
Registration: $5.00. For more info:,
call (704) 298-3325 (Ext. 250).
rock to the music of
Grandmother
and
One Straw
We call upon the spirits of the wild!
Come costumed as one of our native
mountain species - or to express your
own wildest self!
8:00 pm. Location to be announced.
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�The Great Forcst ........................... 3
by Sam Gray
Restoring the Old-Growth Forest........5
by Robert 'Zahner
Regional Planning
for Habitat Intcgrity................... 8
by Laura Jackson
A Question o f Value ...................... 10
hy Dm·id Wheeler
Closing the Gate
on Forest Devastation ................ 12
by Anna Muir
Poem: "Sparrow Hawk" ................. 13
by Julia NUlllllJJ/y Duncan
A Place for Bears ......................... 15
An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton
Poem: "There Fell the Rain Healing" .. 16
by Annelinde Metzner
Eastern Panther, Where Are You?...... 17
by Patrick Clarlr.
Oak Decline ................................ 19
by Hetllher Blair
People and Habitat ........................ 2 1
by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawart
Perpetual Wild Sanctuaries ..............23
Natural World News..................... 24
Drumming ................................. 26
Living Green .............................. 29
Baner Fair................................. 30
(Natural) Resources ...................... 31
Events Calendar........................... 32
Webworking ............................... 34
1'"iirt. t 989
To sense what ls happening In the
mountains, we begin by perceiving
the Southern Appalachian region as
an ongoing. functioning. organic
euent. ..within the greater biosphere.
We can then tdenUfy ourselves and
our species In relation to It and sense
our place within Its evolutionary
history and cycles of renewal.
From the perspective of the whole
we are one species among many each \vith its own contribullon to
make. each wilh its own demands for
habitat. When there is a disturbance
in the pattern of the whole. the
effects even tu ally reach every
inhabitant.
Human beings have been here for
very few of the millions of years the
forest has been patiently growing
within a dynamic balance. In recent
times. our perception of these forests
has often lacked wisdom and
humility. resulting In actions
destructive to our home.
We can sense our relationship to
the whole, but we will never be able
to encompass It with our Intellect
alone. We are in it and of it. This Is
the Great Mystery of existence.
Intuitively we can perceive this
Mystery.
We can revere It and
celebrate lt. And by acting tn concert
with the Life cycles, we can come to
know It more fully. This knowing
then leads us to respond.
In thls issue of Katuah. we look at
biodiversity and habitat ln the
Southern Appalachian region and
how they are being disrupted.
Finding out about the current
situation In Katuah prompts us to
acuon--to speak out. protect. restore.
Throughout the articles. it becomes
apparent that to truly understand this
region. we need to experience.
acknowledge, and serve the region as
a whole.
-The Editors
Biodiversity is defined by ecologist Recd Noss llS "a
full complement of the native plant and animal species in
their natural or normal patterns of abundance."
Biodiversity is the foundation of evolution in any
biorcgion.
Habi tat is defined as an interdependent community of
life that supports the various species that live within iL
Habitat is the foundation of biodiversity.
�STAFF THIS ISSUE:
R.ichacd Lowenthal
Christina Morrison
James Rhea
Manha Tree
Rob Messick
Mamie Muller
Chip Smith
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Scott Bird
Jack Chaney
David Red
Kim Sandland
Heather Blair
Sam Gray
Marsha Ring
Morgan Swann
Thanks as well to Joe and Rhea and the Mountain Garden.
We offer special thanks for the influence of
Grandfather Mountain.
COVER by James Rhea
PUBLISHED BY; Ka11"1h Journal
PRINTED BY; The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE IBJS ISSUE: Globe Valley
W&ITEUS AT:
TELEPHONE;
(704) 683-1414
Katt1ah Journal
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Diversity is an imponant clement of bioregional ecology, both
nmwaJ and social. In line with this principle. the KatU/Jh Journal lrics
to serve as a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed articles
express only the opinion of the authors and are not necessarily the
opinions of lhe Ka1Uah Journal editors or staff.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared KatU/Jh a non-profit
organization under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All
contributions to KatU/Jh arc deductible from personal income tax.
'LNVOCA.TWN
Do you think you can take over the universe
and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
-from imsage 29. Tao Te Ching
attributed to Lao Tzu
™E SOUTHERN APPALACillAN BIOREGION
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on
our continent, Turrie Island; a small bur growing
group has begun to take on a sense of responsibility
for the implications of rhar geographical and cultural
heritage. This sense of responsibility centers on the
concept of living within the natural scale and balance
of 1miversal systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name "Kaufoh" as the old/new name for
this area of the mountains and for its journal as well.
The province is indicated by its natural boundaries: the
Roanoke River Valley to the nonh; thefoorhills of the
piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountain and the
Georgia hills to the south; and the Tennessee River
Valley ro the west.
The editorial priorities for us are to co/leer and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this region, and to foster the awareness
rhar the land is a living being deserving of our love
and respect. Living in this manner is a way ro insure
the sustainability of the biosphere and a lasting place
for ourselves in its continuing evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a
" do or die " situation in terms ofa quality standard of
life/or all living beings on this planet. As a voice/or
the caretakers ofthis sacred land, Kac-Uah, we advocate
a centered approach to rhe concept ofdecentralization.
It is our hope to become a support system/or those
accepting the challenge of sustainability and the
creation ofharmony and balance in a total sense, here
in this place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information, articles, artwork, etc. with
hopes that Kac-Uah will grow to serve the best interests
of this region and all its living, breathing members.
-The Editors
f"~U..
1989
�It may be that
s.ome little rcx:::>t
of the sacred tree still
lives.
"-lou-ish it then,
that it may leof and
bloom and fill
with singing birds.
- Q,lock Elk
Until recent time a great inland forest overlay the eastern
ponion of Nonh America-a continuous biologic fabric extending
from Nova Scotia to Alabama, west along the tributaries of the
Mississippi, and boundaried in the east by the pine barrens and
lowland marshes of the coastal plain.
This forest had its origins in an ancient circumpolar forest
system that dominated the temperate zones of Asia, Europe and
Nonh America in the Eocene epoch of the Teniary Period (50
million years B.P. [Before Present]) when the continents were
closer together. In spite of the intervening continental drift,
successive ice ages and vast chasms of time, there remain, to this
day, striking botanical linkages in the existing forest remnants of
these continents. This is panicularly evident in genera such as Acer
(maples), Panax (ginseng), Cory/us (hazels}, Populus (poplars),
Cornus (dogwoods), and Rhododendron.
(continued on ncxl page)
f'ca!t. t 989
Ji:.ati&ah Jo\lrnQL p1i9e 3
�(continued &om page 3)
The vast inland forest of Eastern America was geophysically
dominated by the long spine of the Appalachian Mountains which
determined the Forest's biological stTucture and diversity.
Contemporary references to what remains of this forest employ
terms such as "mixed mesophytic", "eastern hardwood" or
"temperate deciduous" to describe it. For purposes of this essay,
acknowledging its extent, its ancient origins, its astounding
diversity and resilience, its immense productive capacity, and its
profound effect on various human populations over the past 10,000
years, it will be telllled "The Great Forest".
When ecologists first began attempting to describe temperate
forest ecosystems, they developed the model of succession and
climax growth. This model, describes a developing forest that is
undergoing a series of stages in which pioneer plant communities
and their associated fauna colonize the area and are then replaced by
successor communities of larger trees until a forest of dominant
trees, known as the "climax forest" establishes a stable equilibrium.
This climax old gTOwth would cominue until some "disturbance"
such as fire, disease, climate change or human impact takes out the
climax community and the succession cycle begins again.
The succession-climax model is a useful one for
understanding the ecology of the Great Forest. It helps us to
recognize the importance and relative stability of old growth forests
and it describes how biotic communities in a forest maintain and
transform themselves over time as they respond to discontinuities
and disturbances, panicularly those caused by humans.
The first humans in the Great Forest were nomadic
gatherer/hunter groups who arrived after the last glaciation some
10,000 years B.P. These groups ranged over many thousands of
acres of oak-chestnut climax growth as well as other forest biomes
and while their impact on the forest was small by contemporary
standards, it was nonetheless important. Fire was the principal
instrument of ecologic change and was to remain so even into
recent rimes.
By 1900, the only remaining large boundary
of the original Great Forest lay in Katuah - the
Southern Appalachian highlands. Within two
decades that too was gone.
Seventeenth century Europeans observed and commented on
the burnings. "The savages," wrote Thomas Morton, "are
accustomed to set fire of the country in all places where they come
and to burne it twize a year, viz: at the spring and the fall of the
leafe." The purpose of the burnings was no less than ecosystem
management: facilitation of travel, augmentation of browse area for
game, encouragement of desirable herbage such as blackberry.
raspberry, and cenain grasses. the increase of mast-producing trees
Uke oak and chesmut on the drier, warmer soils of a burn area, and
the destruction of vermin and pests such as fleas. Selective burning
by the lndfans promoted a mosaic quality in the forest ecosystem
and created areas in many different stages of succession wilh
extensive boundary areas and a greater variety of game and plant
habitats - a phenornonen ecologists refer to as the "edge effect".
Thus the Indians practiced their own subtle kind of forest
management and husbandry. So subtle in fact, as to be undetected
in early European descriptions of the Great Forest. When 17th and
l 8rh century promoters of North American real estate extolled the
"natural" abundance of the land, they were unaware that they were
describing an ecosystem that the natives had been shaping for
thousands of years.
Other imponant aspects of the complex relationship between
the Great Forest and its native inhabitants escaped the notice of the
Europeans. As William Cronon points out in his masterful
ecological history of New England, Changes in the Land, a central
fact of temperate forest ecosystems is their periodicity. The
overlapping cycles of light, dark, long days, short days,
waxing/waning of the moon, the flow of sap, the rurting of deer,
spawning of fish, the matings of turkey, bear and frog, the fruiting
of plants and the migration of birds... these and myriad other
contrapuntal rhythms of the Great Forest's energy cycles were
understood and celebrated by the natives. Their own life rhythms of
seasonal nomadism, work, ritual and play were evolved from the
greater cycles of the forest . The European immigrants' experience
of natural cycles, on the other hand, had been filtered for over a
millenium through a culture offixed abodes and a social hierarchy
that discouraged nomadism as well as wilderness.
It is in the context of the periodic cycles of the forest that
Native American spirituality can best be understood. The Indians
did not attempt to manipulate, through magic and ritual, these
cycles to their own ends and were often confounded or amused by
the imprecatory prayers of the whites seeking the blessings of good
harvest and fortune from an awesome and distant god. Rather, their
own spiritual practices were designed to attune and inform
themselves to the subtleties of the forest's cycles. The
anthropologist Bronislow Malinowski recognized this when he
wrote in Myth and Primitive Psychology, "Magic never originated;
it never was created or invented. All magic simply was from the
beginning, as an essential adjunct to all those things and processes
which virally interested man (sic)." The natives inhabited an
animated forest world that was alive unto its fanhest recesses with
seen and unseen powers. Their task - the task of mind - was to so
organize themselves as to develop understanding of and
consonance with these powers.
When Europeans began to arrive at the Great Forest of North
America in sufficient numbers by the mid-17th century, they were
not disposed to recognize the animated universe that sustained the
natives. They could not or would not see the forest that the natives
knew, nor could they recognize the subtlety and intelligence behind
the Indians usage of the forest as habitat, susraining process, and
sacred ground. The European immigrants faced the Great Forest
with a conflicting array of perceptions and attitudes. The forest was
at once a threat and an opportunity.
The dominant sentiment in regard to the forest was that it was
an enormous commodity. Coming from lands long divested of
forests held in common, the right to extract and expon timber
almost at will was an overwhelming prospect 10 early
entrepreneurs. Wood was the main raw material for residential and
commercial building on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was even
more in demand as an energy source. Seventeenth and eighteenth
century industries in metallurgy, glass making and ceramics
required enormous amounts of wood for firing furnaces and for
charcoal. Individual household consumption was also extraordinary
by european standards. Peter Kalm, a Swedish naturalist visiting
colonial eastern America in 1749 wrote," an incredible amount of
wood is really squandered in this country for fuel..." As early as
1640, Boston was experiencing wood fuel shortages and most
major New England and mid-Atlantic settlements were soon to
follow.
foll, 1989
�The principal commodity that the Great Forest represented to
the E.uropeans was the land itself. Their original concepts of real
propeny were derived from the manorial system of feudal Europe
and can be ascenained by reviewing the terms or the Royal Charter
to the Massachusetts Bay Company:
"To have to houlde possess and enjoy the aforesaid
continent, lands, territories, islands, hereditaments and
precincts, seas, waters, fishings, with all and all manner their
commodities, royalties, libenies, prehemynences, and
profitts that should thenceforth arise from chcncc, with all
and singular their appunances and every pane and parccll
thereof unto the said councell and their successors and
assigns for ever."
The comprehensive, medieval, abstract quality of these early claims
underwent an evolution as they passed through the lexicon of 17th
and 18th century New World institutions, but the focus on
"commodities, royalties, liberues and profitts" never changed.
What also wen1 unchanged, leading to countless
misunderstandings and much bloodshed, was the European
assumption of the sovereignty of propeny rights granted through
'legal' title 10 Land. To the natives, the notion that parcels of land
could be considered commodities, bought and sold like cattle,
boundaried, possessed, 'improved', divided and sold again or
transferred to heirs was absurd. For them, land tenure was a
function of usage and usage was linked 10 the mobility that was a
central part of the strategy of resource management based on
periodicity. The Indian villages moved from habitat to habitat to
find maximum abundance with minimal work and reduced impact
on the land while the Europeans, in fixed abodes on their titled
propeny, worked long hard days 10 intensively farm or 'improve'
land with the eventual result being ecological degradation. It was
the concept of 'improvements' - replacing forest with fields and
pasture and the building of sheds, barns and homes - that soon
became the colonial justification for dispossessing the natives. A
people who moved around on the land and worked it so lillle could
have no justifiable claim to possess it. There were plenty of
references in the bible and in Calvinist theology to back up such a
sentimenL The unimproved forest with its native inhabitants was
eventually seen as an affront to progress, and Christian community.
r"u, t 989
With God's backing the righteous began to exterminate or conven
the savages and 'improve' the Great Forest out of existence.
The decimation of the Great Forest proceeded in two fairly
distinct historical phases - the first, occurring in the colonial period
and lasting until about 1850, can be termed pre-capitalist. It was
characterized by the deforestation patterns of an agricultural
economy. The best land was cleared for field crops and pasture.
Commercial extrnction of timber for energy or wood products was
confined to terrain accessible by human/animaJ power. The second
phase was indusoial/capitalist and it continues to the present day.
Utilizing machinery, organized capital, and cheap local labor, the
forest was harvested to satisfy national and international timber
demands. As habitat for the incredible diversity of wild plants and
creawres was impoverished, fonunes were amassed by men far
away who were never required to look upon the devastation. By
1900, the only remaining large boundary of the original Great
Forest lay in Katuah - 1he Southern Appalachian highlands. Within
two decades 1ha1 too was gone.
As humans, we have known the forest in many ways - as
home, as sustenance, as sacred ground, as repose, as commodity,
as teacher, as refuge. Our species is only now realizing the extent
of its power 10 diminish the radiance of the Great Forest. We are
beginning to understand a glimmer of what was... for we were once
forest-dwellers. Today there is an archetype becoming known in
the human spirit ...of regeneration. There is an embryonic
recognition of what we have lost and of what we must restore. We
cannot continue as we have done. The forest calls 10 us to come
back, for our own sake and for the sake of all our relations
dwelling therein.
The quotation from Black Elk that begins this essay captures
this hope for us when he speaks of the roots of the Sacred Tree the Tree of Life. The Sacred Tree, a universal symbol of
regeneration of both the human spirit and of the Earth, nourishes
our memory to recall that though the Great Forest has been felled, it
cannot and will not ever leave us.
wriuen by Sam Gray
plU>co ofJoyce Kilmer Memorial Forest on page 3 by
larry Tucker
x.at.Uah JounuiL p!UJ•
s
�Restoring the Old-Growth Forest
by Robert Zahner
A thing is right when it rends to preserve
the inregriry, stabi/iry, and beauty of rlze biotic
community. Ir is wrong when it tends
otherwise.
- AldD Leopold (I 949)
We stand at the threshold of a great
decision. We are on the verge of re-defining the
importance of our mountain landscape, its
natural habitats, and the Life forms they support.
Science has shown tha1 such habitats are vi1al to
planetary life support systems where natural
communities of interdependent plants and
animals can maintain reservoirs of biological
diversity.
When extensive logging destroyed the
primeval fores1s of the Southern Appalachian
Mountains, a critical factor for biodiversity,
habitat continuity over large areas, was
eradicated. During the century between 1830
and 1930 forest clearing and burning ravaged
native bio1ic communities and terminated
unknown numbers of plant and animal species.
Habitats were fragmented, and many surviving
endemic species were left in smaU, isolated
communities.
ln the first quaner of the twentieth century
the Southern Appalachian National Forests were
established as watershed preserves. Federal
conservation policies permined many forest
habitats to begin the natural process of restoring
themselves. This regrowth ecosystem, or
second generation forest, was similar to the
original primeval forest only in that it still
contained most of the original plant and animal
species. Today, after 60 to 80 years of recovery,
the new forest is still maturing, still unfolding its
species composition as new niches are created in
the complex progression toward what modem
ecologists term an "old-growth forest." But it
still has a long way to go to reach biological
maturity.
There is now the potential to restore a
diversity of species that would resemble the old
primeval forest. There is also the danger,
because of present National Forest management
plans, of losing much of the restoration already
gained. The United States Forest Service
(USFS), administered by foresters who are
highly competent timber managers, interprets the
Congressional Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act
of 1960 with a strong bias toward harvesting
commercially mature timber. The Act states
implicitly, however, that al/ resources of the
Notional Forests ore to be managed for sustained
yield. Other acts of Congress go on to define
natural diversity as a vital resource of 1he public
lands, and mandate that this resource shall be
maintained through habitat preservation. This
paper is written with the intent of furthering
public knowledge of this important
environmental issue.
Three Levels of Diversity
lo the despoilment and fragmentation of
the original forest, three levels of diversity were
either destroyed or placed in jeopardy: ( l)
genetic diversity within species, (2) species
diversity within habitats, and (3) habitat
Xatium Jo~rrmt P"9e 6
diversity within landscapes. We have no record
of how many species were irretrievably lost, but
1oday we are beginning co count the numbers
that are presently endangered and threatened
with extinction. Let us consider how lhese three
types of diversity are essential for a healthy
bioregion, and how all three can be restored as
the new forest grows toward biological
maturity.
Genetic Diversity: A great many
species counted as rare today could again
become more abundant if we allow natural biotic
processes to evolve unmolested.
For example, in the forest of today the
mountain gentian plant (Gentiana decora
Pollard)_grows singly or in small colonies in
damp, rich wooded habitats, generally isolated
from other members of the species by unsuitable
habitats. Gentians are pollinated by several rypes
of inseclS who are able to cross-fertilize separate
colonies of the plant. Thus, if undisturbed by
human activity, pollen exchange will increase
genetic diversity within the gentian species over
an ever-increasing area of 1he mountain
landscape. This renewed generic vitality is
critical to the future well-being of the species, as
human-caused environmental changes continue
to force all forms of life to adapt to such stresses
as aunospheric pollution and accelerated climatic
warming.
The same situation is true for literally
thousands of species of plants and animals
throughout the mountains. Each example
f"~U.. t989
�requires its own special sening, but the common
theme is natural balance. An endemic terresual
mole salamander, Ple1ho<k>n1ordani, is a highly
significant insectivore in the world beneath the
leaf litter of a mature hardwood forest. This
salamander requires large areas of ~ontinuous
forest cover to afford geneuc n11gra11on among
populations. Thus. when the cwopy overhead is
fragmented or removed. breeding populat!ons of
this animal disappear to reco.,,er only w11h the
re-establishment or the mature hardwood fores t.
Many species of reptiles. amphibians, and
anhropods w11h limited mobi:ity have similar
requirements for genetic exchange.
Conditions that promote generic diversity
arc essential so each species can adapt and
evolve, panicularly in light of the accelerating
environmental changes expected in the next
century.
Species Diversity: The next scale of
diversity is that of species within habitats. This
is often misinterpreted by federal land managers
to mean "the greatest number of differe nt
species for each given unit of land."
It is well kno wn that the na tural
succe ssio n of weed y species occupying
disturbed sites provides a wealth of diversity in
te rms of to tal numbe rs. The Southern
Appalachian Mountains today abound w ith
disturbed sites, the result of Jar.d clearings, road
bui lding, comme rc ial and reside ntial
development, forest c learcuuing, agricultural
activity, and wildfires. Therefore. the weedy
plants and small animal species that characterize
early succession habitats are most commo n
throughout lhe region.
But what about species diversity in other
habitats once prevalent in the primeval forest?
Two hundred years ago a north-facing site at
3,SOO feet elevation in the Blue Ridge
Mountains would likely have supported a mature
oversrory of 20 or more tree species, with many
large trees over 200 years old. The midstory
would have been composed of perhaps 20 or
more species of smaller trees of all ages, from
reproduction saplings fillin1 canopy pps to
very old species adapted to live out their lives in
the shade.
Many tree species, such as basswood
(TUia ~rerophylla VcnL), yellow birch (Betula
alleghaniensis Britt.), buncmut (J1111lans cinera
L.), mountain maple (Acer spicatum Lam.),
mountain winterbcny (Ila mofllana T . and G.),
ycllowwood (Cladrastis kentulcea Rudd), and,
of course, American chestnut (Castanea delllQta
Borich.). were more common in this ancient
foresr lhan they are today.
Shrub spec ies were numerous, and
carpeting !he ground in many places were large
colonies of painted trillium (Trillum undulatum
Willd.), baneberry (Actaea pachypoda Ell.),
do g-tooth violet (Eryrhronium americum Ker.),
um brella-leaf (Diphylleia cymosa Michaux).
jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisema triphyllum Schott.),
and many fem species.
Rotting logs provided substrate and
micro-habitats for many S1>ecies of fungi.
mosses. splecnwons. and all the attendant
invertebrate and small vertebrate animals that
were essential to the health of the entire larger
community. The large trees. living and dead.
provided food, shelter, and breeding situations
for many birds and other venebrate animals that
require a biologically mature. undisturbed.
mixed hardwood forest habitat. The mature
forest was a dynamic biotic community that
f'Q{L, t989
supported a large array of
interdependent species.
!'\one of the plants or
animals mentioned above is
exceptionally rare today. although
a number of today's threatened or
endangered species. such as the
small whorled pogonia (lsotria
medeoloides Rafinesque), could
well have been present in such a
habitat. The particular
corn/Jination of these species.
however, taken together as a
functionmg ecosystem. is today a
rare occurrence.
What species m ight be
present on such a site today'!
Following the indiscriminate
logging and burning at the the
tum of the century, conditions
were so severely altered that the
second-grow t h forest now
consists typically of a mixture of
60 to 80 year o ld oaks and
hickones, with perhaps fewer than 10 other tree
species. More prominent today are the
m1d-successional species: yellow poplar
(liriendendron tulip/era L.), eastern white pine
(Pinus strobw L .), black locust (Robinia
pseudoacacia L .). sourwood (Oxydendron
a rboreum L.), sassafras (Sassafras albidum
Nee s.), and stump sprouts o f Americ an
chestnut. Scauercd individuals of most of the
original species are also present, but the species
composition is so drastically altered that the
highland forest is typically c lassified as
~oalc-hiclcory" ralher than "mixed hardwoods."
Large cavity trees arc rare. The large
decomposing logs that typify biologically mature
habitat are largely absent from today's regrowth
forests.The number of undcrstory and ground
cover species are now reduced, retaining those
that thrive on disturbance, such as species of
berries (Vaccinium and Gaylussacia) and
rhododendron.
Early succession habitat caused by human
disturbance is the only habitat type that is
well-represented on the second level of
biodiversity, the diversity of species within
habitats. But the forest communities are slowly
maturing, and species enric hment is occurring
gradually in those habitat s that arc left
undisturbed. Biologically mature habitats, or
old-growth mixed hardwood forests, are again a
possibility within the next century.
Just as genetic diversity within a species
is e ssential for adaptation for survival in a
changing enviro nme nt, so spec ies d iversity
with in a habitat is essent ial for the whole
community of interdependent plants and animals
to meet the demands of evolution. The future of
those species combinations best adapted to old,
mature hardwood forest communities depends
on the integrity of the entire habitat.
Habitat Divers ity: Differentiation on
the third level of biological d iversity, that of
habitat diversity in the regional landscape, has
also been gradually emerging in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains throughout the second
half of this century. The national forest-; provide
large, contiguous blocks of forest area. which,
if they continue to be left und1stur_bed. ha~e the
potential to mature into a mosaic of diverse
forest habitats, each accommodating its own
composition of species, and all together making
provision for the genetic diversity essential for
species evolution. The key requirement for this
regional diversity lies in maintaining a continuity
of undisturbed habitats across the landscape.
Disconnected habitats that are left to
mature as isolated fragments cannot serve as
more than small rcfugia for generic material.
Such limitation confines ecnetic variation within
the boundaries of each of these tiny habi1a1 areas
and restricts the potential for evolution to
respond to future changes in the cnvironmenL
The current policy of national forest
management is to accommodate landscape
diversity by pwcscrving fragments of old growth
stands dispersed throughout a landscape that is
predominantly even-aged
st~nds .of
commercially valuable tree species wnh
provisions for a few important species of game
animals. This concept of diversity is analogous
to the preservation of species in arboretu ms.
bota nical gardens, and zoos. Cen ainl y a
bead-lily (Clinronia borealis Raf.) in a cultivated
garden has lost most of its wild "lily-ness,"
because a wildflower removed from its natural
habitat is no longer serving its role as a strand in
the web of life. In like manner, a fragment of
old-growth forest preserved in a landscape of
managed young forests has lost its essential
nature, as it is no longer a pan of the web of
biological e volution in the region its generic
material serves.
At the level of habitat diversity. just as at
the two lower levels. the ability or an entire
bioregion to adapt and survive environmental
change depends on the diversity of its natural
habitats. The greater the number of mature
�REGIONAL PLANNING FOR HABITAT
INTEGRITY
by Laura E. Jackson
Laura Jackson is the author of the study
Mountain Treasures at Risk: The Future of the
Southern Appalachian National Forests, a
comprehensive overview and critique of the US
Forest Service's Land and Resource Managemem
Plans for the six national forest areas of the
Southern Appalachians.
Laura is completing graduate work at the
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at
Duke University. She wrote the sllldy in
cooperation with Peter Kirby, regional director,
and other staff members of the Southeast
Regional Office of the Wilderness Society under a
Stanley Fellowship grant The book is published
and made available by the Wilderness Society.
Mountain Treasures at Risk is an excellent
resource for anyone who is concerned about
habitat i11 the Sowhem Appalachians. The text is
clear a11d to the point. The graphs and tables are
pleasing to the eye and revealing in their content.
Forest issues are de-mystified in a way that only
someone with a clear comprehension of the
dynamics involved could articula1e. 8111, most of
all, Laura Jackso11's suuiy is invaluable because it
is wriuen by someone with no ves1ed economic or
poli1ical in1eres1 in 1he Appalachian public lands b111 rather by someone with 011ly the interests of
1hefores1 01 liean.
The book talks in a straigluforward way
about tlie effects 011 the forest of below-cost timber
sales, over-roading, and the i11equities i11 budget
and emphasis show11 i11 Forest Service
management programs. The swdy co11clt1des with
guidelines/or managing the Sowhern Appalachian
11a1ional fores ts 10 protect wild la11ds a11d the
biological diversity they harbor, meet recreatio11al
and aesthetic demands, and restore the forest
1wilo1.
011 page one of Mountain Treasures at Risk
the report states that the two major flaws i11 the
Forest Service ma11ageme111 approach is the
agency's emphasis 011 commodity ex1ractio11from
the mow11ai11forests Olld their failure to recog11ize
the Somhern Appalachia11s as a regional habitat
system (in other words, a bioregio11).
/1 says, 'This report is the only ctunulative
analysis to dote to examine the Forest Service's
plaru for thil unique nwumuin environment." This
is true. Many t/1a11ks.
In the following article Laura Jackso11
explains further the differences in understanding
that result from viewing the Ka11'iah provi11ce a11d
its disti11ctive habitats as a whole, rather than
breaking it into administrative pieces....
·DW
Mountain Treasures at Risk is available at M
charge by writing to tht Wilderness Society Southeast
Regional Office at 1819 Peachtru St. NE; Atlanta, GA
30309. (Jlowevtr, consider making a volU11tary donation.
Tht reference is wt// worth It.)
>C.at i'.&ah Journat paqe 8
T he fragmentation of Souther n
Appalachian habitat is the familiar result of a
utilitarian value system that prizes goods
production and consumption over a healthy
relationship with our land. Forest managers ask
how their stands can fulfill national timber
quotas. State governments ask if thei r
wilderness fragments arc sufficient to satisfy
recreational demand. But their questions are
framed within self-imposed limits of vision that
reach only to the orderly edges of administrative
boundaries. Consequently, they are too narrow
in scope to address what arc now the most
critical issues. In this age of dwindling native
populations, dying mountaintops, and other
large-scale ecological catastrophes, we must
adopt a broad regional perspective in order to
evaluate and implement essential environmental
solutions.
The regional framework provides a logical
context by which to approach land management
decisions. The natural expanse of an ecosystem
(like a prairie, desert, or mountain range) with
its local resources, indigenous populations. and
traditional activities, can suggest
environmentally appropriate patterns of growth
and development. Requiring collaboration
among public agencies and private owners, the
regional perspective is gaining support around
the world as the solution to maintain ecological
systems and the integrity of the
human/environment relationship.
As the dominant land manager in the
Southern Appalachians, the US Forest Service
is in a position to best exemplify the philosophy
of regional stewardship. Currently, however,
the agency is under extensive criticism for its
unimaginative, homocentric planning and
management techniques. The Forest Service
conuols approx:imatcly three million acres in six
Southern Appalachian national forests. Despite
the contiguity of these lands, each national forest
is administered as a separate unit. Staff vision
and authority stop at the legal boundaries. As a
result, individual forest planners have set
inconsistent standards for managing shared
animal populations, lost opportunities to protect
roadlcss areas that straddle state lines, and
purposefully altered rare habitat in order to
incroduce elements already common on adjacent
private lands.
In the Katuah province, towns and private
inholdings comprise about half of the acreage
within official national forest boundaries. These
lands support agriculture, industrial forests,
developed and roaded recreation, and other
human-altered environments. Consequently they
have attracted hardy, invasive wildlife that
thrives in modified senings and displaces native
mountain species. A crucial role of federal
stewardship, therefore, is to promote natural
habitat continuity as a public investment in
biological diversity, clean air and water, and the
Southern Appalachian wild native heritage.
A satellite's-eye view of the Southern
Appalachian Mountains shows the Appalachian
public lands as a green island standing alone
above lowlands crowded with human beings
and the products of their ac1ivi1ies. This
mountainous ecosystem of tremendous natural
beauty and scientific importance is also in
increasing demand as a source for consumptive
supplies. A closer look would show public
forests fragmented by private inholdings,
development spreading across newly-cleared
hillsides, and wildlands straining under
increased resource use. Yet, to date, the core of
the Southern Appalachian habitat survives
relatively intact.
Invisible from overhead, yet just as real in
its effects on the highland forests, is the
administrative fragmentation that further stresses
the region's habitats. Southern Appalachian
forests fall under the jurisdictions of five state
governments, as many federal agencies, and
dozens of counties with differing objectives for
the use of their mountain commodities.
Countless private corporations also make
decisions based on their own perceived interests
in the resources of the Ka1uah province. The
accumulated effects of numerous land-use
decisions made in the isolation of corporate
boardrooms, federal office buildings, and the
offices of county or state agencies threaten 10
mortally fragment Katuah's natural systems and
desuoy their ecologi.cal functions.
If the administering agencies could view
the mountain region from the viewpoint of our
imaginary satellite hovering above, their
perspective and consequently their management
priorities might be changed:
• From overhead, it is clear that the
Southern Appalachians are a biological island,
the last remaining large block of forest habitat in
the southeast. Many areas can contribute to the
regional and national timber supply, most of
them better than these steep mountain forests.
But where better can we look for wilderness,
and the shady, moist storehouses of
undiscovered ecological value?
• The region's remote ridgelines and
pristine streams constitute rare wildland linkage
opponunities for migration, genetic exchange,
and the daily roamiogs of wide-ranging
mammals. These travelways could also extend
to wildlands in the Central Appalachians to the
north, and perhaps south into the Florida
peninsula as well, to ensure strong, adaptable
populations of black bear, mountain lion, and
other large predators. Broad corridors
connecting natural habitat areas along the length
of 1hc Appalachian range would serve as
ecological escape routes in cases of severe
environmental stress, whether of human or
natural origin.
rau.
19e9
�•The Appalachians are the headwaters of
all the great rivers east of the Mississippi. If
streams and rivers are not pure at their origins,
they can never be clean anywhere along their
length.
The expanses of forest that cover the
green mountains are also a fountainhead of
valuable oxygen in an increasingly polluted
armospherc.
• A regional perspective would correct the
misconception that each national forest should
provide the public with equivalent proportions
of all resources. The southeast supports an
abundance of cleared fields, thickets or young
"pioneer" trees, and the understory plants and
animals associated with early successional
habitats. However, areas of contiguous, remote
forest and old-growth comrrunities are precious
and rare. Species plentiful in one nationaJ forest
might be uncommon everywhere else; therefore
these should be preserved at the expense of
more ordinary forest uses.
• Research priorities and resource
inventories also attain broader significance when
framed in a regional perspective. State wildlife
officials and federal land managers currently
repon environmental characteristics in terms of
acres, head counts, and dollars. Such data arc
easily tabulated and readily available by state and
ownership category. Yet these quantitative
measures fail to capture the more comprehensive
information that is critical 10 effective habitat
management
Ta!L, 1989
• To ensure that resource u1ili7.ation docs
not deplete an ecosystem's natural variety,
managers must monitor across the landscape.
They must mitigate the encroachment or
common edge habitat into the diminishing forest
interior. They must delineate and protect
multi-state blocks of continuous forest and
migration pathways. Responsible stewardship
also requires improved biodiversity
measurements, the promotion of ecologically
rich old-growth stands, and the restoration of
degraded lands. These and other research
objectives necessitate inter-agency cooperation.
working relationships with private landowners,
and a more holistic view of the natural
environment and our relationship to it.
The responsibility for regional planning
docs not lie solely with public agencies.
Farmers, industrial foresters. university
administrators, even individual homeowners
must ask how their lands contribute to the
environmental landscape. Particularly those who
profit financially from Katuah's natural features
- the outfitters, resort managers. and members
of the entertainment and service sectors that
surround public lands - should suive to maintain
the integrity of the regional environment both as
a business investment and as a means to
compensate the land for its free use. Private
landowners can do a great deal to strengthen the
vitality of the region by managing their land to
help reconnect the broken pieces.
The time has come for landowners and
managers to acknowledge their shared
responsibility for environmental stewardship.
We can no longer afford to view properties as
discrete units unto themselves. to be modified,
unadvised, by their current legal authorities.
Businesses, families, and public agencies arc
but temporary guardians of many tiny pieces of
the Eanh. Yet the natural processes that permit
our physical survival, as well as foster creative
imagery and inspiration, besr operate
unconstrained by anificaJ divisions. In order to
maintain for the future the fundamental
life-support systems of humans and other
species, we must begin to counter the legacy of
fragmentation with a commitment to
environmental unity.
We must explore land uses that do not
deplete the Eanh's suitability for the other life
forms with whom we exist. We must instill a
deep appreciation for nature and natural
processes in our schoolchildren. We must not
insist on using. viewing, or populating every
available surface, so that truly wild expanses
may sustain the large animals who suffer in our
presence. Much to their credit, federal agencies
in the Southern Appalachians arc now
experimenting with cooperative management
programs. These require our encouragment and
participation. Ccnainly sacrifices of power,
pride, and privacy will be necessary to restore
our suffering environment Yet their significance
wanes beside the tangible and spiritual rewards
of a cooperative survival mission never before
attempted and never more important.
x.atfulh Journm pCUJe 9
�A Question of Value
by David Wheeler
The decades between 1880 and 1920
were the years of the timber barons in the
Southern Appalachian Mountains. This was the
great "logging boom," in which virtually all the
first-growth, "virgin" forest was cut off the
Appalachian slopes.
Fortunes were made during those years,
but the money did not stay in the mountains.
The wealth went to the corporate magnates and
investors in the eastern cities and in Europe.
When the ravishing of the Appalachian forests
was completed, the big companies headed for
greener forests to the west, and the local people
were left with a strong dependency on the
wage-earning system and without the means to
support it.
Today the old-growth forest, the first
forest, is gone, but the view that the forest is a
collection of resources, there for the use and
benefit of human beings still underpins our basic
attitudes and policies toward the Appalachian
woodlands.
The US Forest Service exemplifies that
attitude. Their policies and priorities suue plainly
that they consider the growing of hardwood
timber to be the fir.a purpose of the Southern
Appalachian national forest land.
In the Jefferson National Forest in
Virginia, two-thirds of the Forest Service budget
goes into timber-cutting and road-building,
which is directly tied to logging operations. In
the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest, 40% of
the budget is allocated to timber and roads.
Beyond that, a good portion of the
adminis1rative budget (which comprises 25% of
the overall budget and is tallied separately) also
goes to overseeing timbering and road-building
operations. Only 3.4% of the NantahalaPisgah's annual budget goes to monitoring and
providing for the needs of wildlife.
The road-building that logging operations
demand is the most expensive and damaging of
all the activities carried on by the Forest Service.
This is particularly true in the southern
mountains where the slopes are steep and highly
erosive (see page 12).
The justification for this continued
environmental destruction and human intrusion
into remote habitat areas is the familiar "jobs and
money" refrain. Much ado is made of the timber
shortage that would result if unconstrained
logging in the national forests were to be
stopped. Timber industry lobbyists declare 1ha1
old-growth forest is wasteful, that there is
already more than enough land set aside for
habitat, and argue against evidence that shows a
forest diminishing in native diversity and
threatened in its ability to provide the clean water
and air that help to nourish life on the planet.
Unhappy over the timber quotas set in the
Forest Service's Land and Resource
Management Plans for the National Forests in
the Southern Appalachians, the timber interests
demanded, and won, an agreement from the
Forest Service to sponsor a timber demand
study, thinking that would give them leverage to
XQt\mh Journc:i! pa9e 10
Phoro by Roo Musick/Profea Ligltthawt
further increase the Forest Service's emphasis
on timber cutting.
The result was the "Southern Appalachian
Timber St udy" prepared by a team of
researchers headed by J. Edward de Steiguer of
the Forest Service's Southeastern Experiment
Station. The repon exploded like a bombshell
onto the environmental scene.
First, rather than verifying a strong
demand for hardwood lumber from the National
Forests, che repon found that the prices offered
had actually been decreasing over the last
decade!
. And, rather 1han showing that the
Nauonal Forests were making an important
contributi?n co the region's timber output, che
report pointed out that che National Forests
contribute only 10 percem of the regional timber
supply. And this 10 percent is largely wood of
poor quality, used mostly for making pallets and
boxes, but also for railroad ties, mine props
plywood, chipboard, and finally paper pulp. A
portion of the better-quality hardwoods are used
as veneer woods and in the manufacturing of
furniture, decorative trim, and hardwood
floorin~, but the study mentioned in passing that
a growing percentage of best hardwoods were
being exported out of che country 10 buyers
overseas!
The Forest Supervisor's office in
Asheville, NC stated that only 700 jobs
throughout the North Carolina mountains were
directly relating to timber harvesting in the
national forests. In rhe Ka111ah province only
rwo counties, Graham and Swain, are dependent
on logging in the national forest as an important
pan of their overal I economies.
But the forest, like anything that lives, is
much greater than the sum of its parts. The cash
price of the standing timber is a paltry amount
compared to the true worth of the forest. How
could one appraise the rich diversity of life in
Karuah, unequalled in the temperate zones of the
world? We can on.ly be grateful for the priceless
blessings of dark soil, pure water, and clean air.
We cannot calculate the inestimable value of the
fragile quality of wholeness.
There has been much controversy lately
about clearcutting and the methods by which
timber is cut in the National Forests. However,
as biologist Glenda Zahner has said, in the face
of the perceived dangers to the survival of the
whole Appalachian habitat it appears that the
question is not how timber is taken, but whether
timber should be cut at all in the Southern
Appalachian narional forests.
Well-known are the infamous national
forest "below-cost timber sales" that have come
to light in the past few years. These are sales in
which the expense of the wood, site access and
preparation, and the administrative management
of rhe sale are not covered by the price received
in the sale con1rac1. Thus, the Forest Service has
actually lost money selling timber in many pans
of the country, including the Southern
Appalachians.
Figures collected for 1987 from the six
National Forests in the Southern Appalachians
(including the Pickens Ranger District of the
Sumter National Forest in South Carolina) show
that the Forest Service lost $5.5 million dollars
in that one year alone from their disastrous
timber policies.
Below-cost timber sales constitute an
unauthorized hand-out 10 the lumber interests
from the agency • and thus from the US
taxpayers. The $5.5 million deficit from one
year of clearcutting the forest could pay 275 of
those 800 working timber-related jobs in the
North Carolina national forests one year's salary
of $20,000 to leave the forests uncut and to
protect them as viable and living habicats.
The succeeding generation of trees that
replaced those carried away during the great
Appalachian lumber rush are now reaching 60 to
80 years of age. The trees are approaching
sawlog girth and soon their growth rate will
begin to slow. This is the age of economic
maturity (not to be confused with biological
YaU.1989
�•
maturity, which is anywhere between 200 and
500 years of age). This is a critical decision
point in our policy-making: is the forest to be set
back to the staning point again, or is it to be
allowed to continue on toward the old-~wth
stage to provide optimal habitat for the native
foresr species?
The Forest Service has made its position
clear. On page 33, de Steiguer's "Southern
Appalachian Timber Study" said, "From 1977 to
1986, the National Forests progressively
increased the harvest volume of all stumpage
products except softwood pulpwood. Real
prices fell during the same period. In fact, the
price lines are pracrically a mirror image of the
volw11e lines." The report showed that the rate
of timber cutting in the Southern Appalachian
National Forests doubled from 63 million board
feet in 1977 to 126 million board feet in 1986,
even as prices were declining.
Wise business practice would suggest
witholding supplies when t.he price is low. The
Forest Service has done e1tactly the opposite
during the last decade, selling more and more
timber for less and less money. Because timber
quotas have been determined on the basis of
political considerations rather than a response to
the real market, taxpayers have been paying for
the privilege of having the National Forests
clearcut by the timber industry.
At the time of this writing, the Forest
Service is planning to again double timber
cutting levels in the Southern Appalachians
between 1986 and 1996. If timber sales continue
10 lose money at the same rate that they are now,
then the money lost on below-cost timber sales
wiU also double during that time.
Under the current versions of the Forest
Service's Land and Resource Management
Plans for the Southern Appalachian national
forests, almost 2/3 of the national forests are
deemed suitable for logging, and all of that area
is scheduled 10 be cut within the next 50 years.
The narural cycle of succession leading to an
old-growth, climax forest habitat will be cut
short throughout two million acres of the
national forest lands. Oak trees, many of which
will be just beginning to produce the acorn mast
so important to black bears and many other
forest inhabitants, will be toppled in clearcuts,
and a portion of the cut-over areas will be
burned or sprayed with poisonous herbicides
and planted in straight lines of white pine trees,
which create inferior habitat for most forest
species. The large, open clearcut areas left to
regenerate naturaUy wiU invite yellow poplar
trees to invade and take over land that may have
been dominated by oaks and other tree species
that prefer some degree of shade. Clearcuts do
encourage diversity - a diversity of weedy plant
and animal species at the expense of increasingly
rare old-growth habitats.
Today the old pattern of lumber
extraction is being renewed as "the international
timber commodities market." Once again,
Appalachia is being relegated to the position of a
t:olonized economy from which raw materials
leave the region for processing elsewhere, along
with the power and the profits.
The United States is vinually the only
country in the world with the capability to
produce temperate hardwoods for expon. Most
of the American hardwoods, particularly the oak
lumber that is most in demand, come from the
ratt.
1989
Appalachian Range. Canada is supplied almost
enurely from the nearby Nonhem Appalachians.
Because they are of higher quality, the northern
hardwoods are also preferred in the
discriminating European market. Buyers in the
Far East, however, are more price-conscious,
and increasing amounts of Southern
Appalachian wood has been sold in Asia.
It is difficult to determine how dependent
on foreign sales the mountain timber industry
has become, because lumber to be shipped
overseas is shunted from logger to wholesaler
and perhaps to several brokers before it finally
reaches its port of embarkation. The US
Depanmenr of Commerce conveniently requires
no records of the point of origin of exported
lumber.
Industry representatives and Forest
Service analysts say that of the total amount of
hardwood cut each year, only 40-50% is large
enough and of a quality that could be considered
for export. They estimate that approximately
20-25% of that export-grade wood is sent
overseas. However, because this is the
highest-quality material of the wood species that
are most in demand, the economic value of the
exponed hardwoods is much greater than their
percentage in volume and is very important to
the hardwood market as a whole.
Distribution of Annual Timber Removals
in the Southern Appalachians. 1980-1986
Fnrms
25.5%
Miscclb ncous
Owner.>
l1riV"J tC
52.8%
Nauona I Forests
10.0%
Oz hcr l'uhlic Aboencics
1.9%
S~ Moun1ain Treasun.sOI Rislc
Much of the expon trade in hardwood is
in kiln-dried, rough-sawn lumber. which is
processed in foreign plants and used for
cabinetry and furniture manufacturing. The
country of Taiwan is among the largest buyers
today. UnHke Japan and West Germany, which
produce furniture largely for their own internal
consumer markets, Taiwan manufactures
furniture for export, mostly to the United States.
The Taiwanese furniture industry is modern and
efficient, and labor in that coumry is so cheap
that they can pay to import lumber from the
United States and then ship finished products
back 10 sell at competitive prices in this country.
John Syme, forest economist at Clemson
University says, "Quite a lot of the furniture
manufacmrers, panicularly in North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Virginia, are buying fumimre or
components produced in Taiwan and other
Pacific Rim countries and then selling them
along with what they manufacture domestically.
This is typical of chairs in particular, and other
items that have a high labor content."
It is possible that consumers in the town
of Sylva, Nonh Carolina could buy furniture
that was made in Taiwan of wood that was cut
within 25 miles of their own home. While they
might notice that a piece is stamped "Made in
Taiwan," they probably would not notice that
the price tag includes fees for shipping the
materials halfway around the world and then
shipping the finished product aU the way back
again.
To stimulate a market that is not
fast-paced enough for their liking, timber
industry profiteers are supplying materials to
keep alive wood-based industries in countries
that, due to misuse and overpopulation, have
already displaced their native forests. On paper,
the hardwood timber industry generates great
profits at the export game, but little of the money
made ever returns to the region where the wood
was originally grown. The materials are sold
from the mountains with a minimum of
processing - jobs are being shipped away along
with the wood. II is the brokers and traders in
the large eastern cities who benefit from timber
exporting. They are few, bur they benefit
greatly.
Sending raw materials to have value
added elsewhere is not advantageous for the
regional economy, but ultimately it is the forest
that pays the greatest price. Ir is the Southern
Appalachian lwbicat that is being cut and shipped
away overseas. It is the black bear's food
supply, the shady canopy protecting the ginseng
plant and the delicate ladyslipper. It is the cover
that hides the thrush, rhe tall guardians who
draw down and measure out the pure running
water. It is the integrity of the biological system,
that subtle sense of balance that is intangible, yet
so important.
Here again is that persistent question of
value: for what we are losing, what do we gain?
The approach that sees the forest trees as
materials for human use requires chat the trees be
cut down and carried away - extracted - before
they are of value.
But the other approach that sees value in
the wholeness of living communities requires
that humans keep their hands (feet, and wheels)
off large areas of the foresL The Southern
Appalachian national forests are a significant
land area in the Southeast. They could be a
magnificent habitat area. Timber cutting, which
supposedly is providing the greatest economic
benefits, is proving to be a public liability
instead. The national forests in the Kan1ah
province are providing very litcle timber, very
few jobs, and very litlle money to the local
people. Yet for those scanty benefits the
mountain forestlands are suffering inestimable
damage to the natural habitat chat will take
centuries to repair where it is reparable at all.
It is time 10 bring our forest policies back
into balance with the forest.
The "Southern Appalachian Timber Study" by de
Steiguer. ct al., is available from tlze USDA Forest
Service; Box 2750: Asheville, NC: Katuah Province
28802. This anicle also drew heavily on the excellent
resource Moumain Treasures at Risk by Laura E.
Jackson (see page 8).
�Let's Close The Gate To Forest Devastation
by Anna Muir
"Our forests are national rreasures nor national rreefanns."
- St1u11or Wye/le Fowler, Jr. (D-GA)
As far as land use is concerned, the key to
protecting the Southern Appalachian forest
habitat is to deny human access. Access means
roads.
"In 1985, narionalforesrs in the sowliern
Appalachians contained 4 ,95 J miles of
permanent Forest Service roads. The agency
plans ro add 3,263 miles of new road ro this
transportation sysrem by the year 2030 in order
to meet increased timber sale levels. The
resulting 8,2 14 miles will surpass rlie distance
from Denver, Colorado, to New Zealand. In
less than 50 years, these national forests will
support alrrwsr two miles of road per square
mile of land, nor including state, county, or
private roads."
budgeted $13,600 per mile c road gentle slopes
o
and $22,700 per mile/or sreep slopes."
- Laura E. Jackson, Mountain Treasures at Risk
Timber sales add up to a net liability for
the Forest Service and thus for the US
taxpayers. In the Southern Appalachians alone
logging cost taxpayers $5.5 million in 1987. It
is a vicious paradox, because preliminary road
building doom;; any chance that a timber sale
might clear a profit before cu1ting even starts.
Present policy states that the only viable
method of timber cutting is clearcutting. Under
repeated clcarcuning the original forest is never
given a chance to grow back, thus clearcuuing
represents forest fragmentation and species
discontinuity on the grossest scale. But loggmg
depends on the expensive permanent roads
installed at the taXpaycr's expense. No roads, no
clearcuts.
- Laura£. Jackson. Moumain T~ at Risk
R oad const ruc ti on c reates severe
disruption throughou t many square miles of
national forest habitat. The soil erosion and
stream siltation associated with logging
operattons arc predominately the result of the
roading necessary to remove the timber. Great
amounts of topsoil, D"CCS, and native herbaceous
plants arc displaced all along the many miles of
roads pushed into the forest habitat. Roading in
steep areas undercuts soil and rock structures,
maximizing erosion, often res ultin g in
rockslides and soil slumping.
"Access is rhe demise of bear habirar, and
anybody with comrrwn sense will tell you that.
The bear in the Piedmont has been wiped out
and replaced wirh people. For every mile of
road you punch imo these rrwuntains and leave
open, you're jusr pulling anorher nail in the
bear's coffin." - John Collins, wildlife blologw and
big gamt program coordinawr, NC Wildlife Resources
Commission. quoted 111 Wildlife in Nonh Carolina
rrrJg<UIJIL
In an inter-depanmental memo released to
the public, US ForeSt Service Regional Forester
Jnck Alcock stated that, "Approximately 98
percent of all recreation (in the national forests)
takes place within three-fourths mile of a road."
Oisregardfog the obvious question of where is
one to find a patch of national forest that 1s nor
three-fourths mile from a road, the regional
forester's statement gives some idea of the
tremendous negative impact of forest roads on
the natural habitat and how tremendously helpful
closing roads would be to the rejuvenation of
that habitat.
'This is a wasteful program that continues
a Jcind offar red calf existence even in these days
of tremendous budget dejicirs ....ln the last si.:c
[!Seal years alone the Forest Service constructed
3,725 more miles of road than needed, by its
own projec1ions, for rimber harves1ing. Such
unnecessary roadbuilding was1es the taxpayers'
money, while valuable fish and wildlife habirar
is destroyed."
- Sen. Wyche Fowler. Jr (D-CA) on the floor of
the US Stnate. July 29. 1989
The primary purpose of the forest roads
in the Southern Appalachian national forests is
to bring in logging trucks. The Forest Service
has claimed that the mosaic of roads interlacing
the national forests is necessary to support the
jobs and money generated by timber cutting.
However, this claim has been proven false.
Timber sales on the national forests have
actually been losing money in recent years (sec
p. 10 ), and a primary reason is the cost of road
building in the steep mountain terrain.
"Across rhe nation, approximately
one-half of all Forest service rimber expenses
are artribwable to road costs. Road construction
is expensive, particularly in mountainous
regions where many national fores rs are located.
Planners for 1Jie Jefferson (Na1ional Foresr)
Jc:.citUah Journm
p ~ 12
197S
11l6S
19115
2030
T OTAL REGION.
• Past, Current, and Projected Forest Service
Permanent Road Milage on the Southern
Appalachian National Forests, 1974-2030.
Soun:..
flfowitam Trtasuru ill Risk
"The excessive logging scheduled for
remore and sreep terrain requires a degree of
roading that will severely degrade rhe moumain
environment. Within 50 years. 3,263 miles of
new, permanent roads are pro;ecred for rhe
Sowhern Appalachian national foreslS. Road
consrrucrion is rhe most damaging activity
conducted in norional fores1 management. Even
miligalion ml!asures cannor prevent erosion, soil
compaction, and habiratfragmentarion - ongoing
results of road consrruction and subsequent
use." - Laura E. Jackson. Mounu11n Treasures at Risk
The greatest damage by forest roads 1s to
habitat values as they occur in remote areas of
the national forests. And the most damaging
aspects of the forest roads are those caused by
"cumulative cffectS" - those incremental changes
that considered together add up to debilitating
qualitative changes in the overall environment.
Here is an example of "cumulat ive
effects:' A road was bulldozed to a clearcut site.
The logging trucks and heavy equipment went
in, did their job and, after some months, came
out, leaving a treeless forest area compacted and
criss-crossed by caterpillar tracks.
Some of the loggers were bear hu nters,
and they noticed bear sign while they were
doing their work. So, that fall, trucks with
kennel boxes mounted on the back raised dust
up and dow n the road, until the bear s were
hunted out, and the hunters moved elsewhere to
finish off the season.
Now familiar with the area, some of the
hunters brought a picnicking party to a pleasant
pool they found in the creek flowing beyond the
logged-over area. The following year some of
the families rerurned to the clearcut to pick
blackberries. And o ne of the teenagers
remembered the picnicking party when he and
his friends needed an isolated place to park and
drink beer, so four-wheel-drive vehicles
careened up into the forest several weekends in
succession.
The Forest Service, noticing all the use
their small, rough forest road was attracting,
upgraded the road to "meet the traffic demand"
with the result that tourists in their large cars
could ride all the way to the top of the ridge to
enjoy the view .... And so it goes.
Each of these uses is not significant in
itself. Each is legitimate in its own way. But.
compounded together, the overall effect is
devastating to the natural habitat that once
existed on that ridgetop, protected by several
square miles of impenetrable forest. Cumulative
effects all too often add up to a habitat
destroyed.
f"l:ltt, t 989
�"Anyone who can't see that open roads
hurt bear habitat has got to be blind."- John
Collins, wildlife biologist and big game program
coordilliltor, NC Wildlife ReS(Jurces Commission
Besides the direct monality due to road
kills and increased hunter ingress, roads are a
primary cause of the forest fragmentation that is
one of the greatest threats to habitat in the
Karuah Province. Roads mean people, and black
bears and other large forest-dwelling animals
shy away from traffic-bearing roads, so that
large areas of previously umouched habitat, far
wider than the actual area of the roadbed itself,
are eliminated with the construction and
subsequent use of new roads. Thus, the
creatures native to the old forest are pushed into
smaller and smaller range areas that are less and
less desirable as living spaces as roads are
constructed in areas that were once prime
habitat.
New roads also mean wide strips of
cleared land and carry "edge effects,'' one of
which is rapid invasion by early-succession
("weed") species of plants and animals, deep
into the once-unbroken foresL
Multiple Use M o dule
(MUM)
Rud NDM ill NaJural Areas JoMrnol
"Mr. President, we already have an
excess of Forest Service roads through our
national forests ...."
- Sen. Wyche Fowler. Jr.
(D-GA) on the floor of the US Senate.July 29, 1989
In the interest of habitat preservation, not
only should the US Forest Service halt its
road-building program in Katuah completely,
but in key habitat areas existing roads should be
closed, erased, and planted with fast-growing,
hardwood, pioneer tree species to restore the
natural character of the once-roaded areas as
quickly as possible.
Closing forest roads completely and
permanently would open large expanses of
forest in which the black bear and other
old-growth dependent species could roam
freely, strengthening the gene pool, and
rejuvenating and expanding the present
populations. Closing roads is a necessary
prerequisite for any programs to reintroduce
large carnivorous animals, such as the mountain
lion, to restore proper predator/prey balances in
the forest. Closing roads is a key pan of any
program to restore old-growth habitat in the
,
Southern Appalachian Mountains.
SparrowHawk
The sparrow hawk became his friend,
though distrusting him at first,
not seeing that when the man found it
entangled in fishing line at the junkyard,
he meant anything but harm.
But it softened as he sat in the
dark room beside it
silent, his eyes averted,
letting it discover that he held it captive
only because he cared
and would offer freedom when the May hills were green
and the air sweetened and warm.
Trust came when he fed it chicken
and trained it to fly from his fist
at field mice and grasshoppers,
nurturing its strength and confidence
to face the world again.
Yet he was reluctant to give it back
to the endless sky and distant Blue Ridge,
saddened not to hear its chirp
or feel the light talons as it lit on his head
or see the solemn brown gaze;
but his time with the hawk was borrowed,
and as it flew beyond the pines vanished with the stirring breeze he was glad to have known 1t at all.
- Julia Nunnally Duncan
T11Ct, 1989
D1awU1g by RobM~sick.
�TA
by Heather Blair
fg[(,
1989
�A PLACE FOR BEARS
An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton
(This 1nttr11itw 1s a continuation of a
conlll!rsation btg"" ill issut 17 of the Ka!Uah Journal.)
Katuah Journal: What are the basic
clements for good bear habitat?
Pt/ton: In 1970 we questioned
southeastern state fish and wildlife agencies
about bear habitat Respondents indicated across
the board that black bears need good food
sources (acorns and berries) and thick
understory cover of some type There seemed to
be common agrccmcnt that these were necessary
clements for good bear habitat.
1bc third element is privacy - some degree
of seclusion and remoteness. Of these three
clements there is no doubt that the
privacy/protection element is the most irnponant.
Black bears are omnivores and have a broad
food habit. Throughout their range in North
America nuts and berries are always present.
Where these arc present the species will survive,
but only if there is some degree of privacy.
Kattlah Journal: Then how about the
effect of roads?
Ptll()n: Road density and rramc volume
arc the two factors that interact to determine the
degree to which a bear will avoid crossing or
even coming close to a road.
The animals can be affected in two major
ways. First, the road may make the habitat less
desirable. Therefore they shift their home range,
usually to a less desirable habitation. Thus they
would be more vulnerable to monality, as they
would have to move around more to find
adequate food, denning sites, or cover.
Secondly, a road may result in direct
monality. Besides obvious factors like road
kills, the mere presence of a rood invites people
to use ii. The more it is used, the greater the
possibility that hunting will be one of those
uses.
Katuah Journal:
Are there other
cumulative effects of roads?
Pelton: Certainly. Once a road is in place
and opened, it attracts all kinds of human
intrusion, whether it's logging or hunting.
The Twelve Mile Strip (an area between
the east border of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Parle and the Pisgah 1"ational Forest) is
an imponant dispersal area from the Park. It is
also a major hunting area. However, the Twelve
Mile Strip is essentially devoid of a resident bear
population. There is a high degree of road
access, which means heavy hunting pressure,
and the 1-40 freeway separates the Twelve Mile
Strip from the national forest, which is ccnainly
a barrier to bear migration.
A recent ttaffic surve)' we did on l-40
found that during the daytime a vehicle passed
the counting point every three seconds. At night
the traffic slowed to one vehicle every seven
seconds. The only real land bridge is the steep
ridge that runs over one tunnel. We also know
that there arc 13 or 14 culvcrtS in that area which
could be used to cross under 1-40, but we don't
f'11U, t 989
~ "11-Rltea
know if they arc being used. From road kills
we've found, we do know that bears do
occasionally tty to cross the highway.
When traveling the coastal area of Europe
last year, l found it very interesting to see their
road construction techniques. At locations where
we would "cut and fill" in this mountainous
countty, they "bridge and tunnel." It struck me
immediately that the "bridge and tunnel"
concept, for whatever reason they used it, is
ideal for animals in that it leaves large corridors
for dispersal movements, in contrast to the "cut
and fill" method that we use at present
The availability of acorns
drives the dynamics of the black
bear population in the Southern
Appalachians.
Katuah Journal: That's interesting,
especially since another major freeway is being
proposed up the 1-26 corridor into Tennessee. It
seems like it would be time to bring up
something like that.
You have also talked about acorns and
their imponance to the black bear population.
Pelton: The availability of acorns drives
the dynamics of the black bear population in the
Southern Appalachians.
Black bears react to this concentrated
energy source in amazing ways. Ecologically,
physiologically, and behaviorally they go
through a ttemendous change each fall.
Bears tty to incorporate prime acorn sites
into their home ranges. But acorns produce
sporadically, and in any given year black bears
will leave their traditional home range areas and
travel for miles to congregate at oak stands that
have abundant acorns.
During this "feeding frenzy," as we call it,
they sometimes seem to ignore a human
presence in situations in which at any other time
they would have jumped into the bushes and run
away. They also show much more tolerance for
one another at these focal eating areas. There
seems to be larger numbers of animals in smaller
areas than at any other rime of the year.
It also appears that bears can shift their
ability to digest various foods, particularly to
assimilate the fall mast more efficiently. Acorns
account for their ttemcndous fall weight gains,
which arc all put on as fat
Considered together, all these changes
point to the importance of acorns as a source of
food for the black bear. During the fall months
they put on their most significant weight gains.
This fat accumulation must carry them through
the winter denning and into the cub-bearing
season. We have been able to correlate the
availability of white oak mast and the percentage
of females lactating, and we found a direct and
significant relation to acorn production. More
dramatically, in the event of a failure of the
acorn crop, there is an almost complete faillll'C of
black bear reproduction. If alternative mast
c rops fail as well, it could mean w inter
starvation for the animal
The size of the acorn crop also directly
affects black bear mortality. A scarcity of mast
necessitates greater movements on the part of the
bear population. This makes them much more
vulnerable to all the factors of monality. It
affects them coming and going: natality
(reproduction) and mortality.
For example, in Tennessee this year the
state fish and wildlife agency is having to deal
with a lot of three year old male bears moving
out of the Great Smoky Mountains Narional
Park and ending up in Gatlinburg and
Sevierville. There is a dominance hierarchy
among black bears, and the subadult males of
two or three years of age tend to be the ones
who get kicked out and have to disperse to new
ranges.
This example fits in with events that
happened in 1984 when there was a tremendous
mast faillll'C. No cubs were born that year in the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That
meant that all the females were available to be
bred in 1985. Therefore, they all had cubs in
1986. These are the young bears that are now
(conlinuod on peg~ 16)
XAtUAh Journot Pll98 t 5
�bein& forced to look for new homes. It's
interesting how this situation today was
precipitated by the events of five years ago.
Katllah Journal: How docs clcarcuuing
affect black bears?
Pelton: My main concern is that
clearcutting may be subtracting from the
"principal," 10 put it in economic terms, of mast
producuon. There is a trade-off between the
summer mast that is produced for a few years
and the years of hard mast production that are
lost when oaks arc cut down. But my main
concern is that it appears that foresters still don't
have a full understanding of how 10 carry out a
clearcut and have predictable results in terms of
good, strong oak regeneration. We have made
numerous observations on the Pisgah National
Forest. In those instances it seemed that they
were not getting the regeneration they should
have. Thus this becomes a major concern. Once
a srand is cut, it may be lost to acorn production
for many, many years.
Another concern is denning. Bears do
sometimes den in the areas of thick undergrowth
created by a clearcut, and that's fine, but where
dogs are used for hunting, there is greatly
increased hunting pressure. The bears seem to
sense their vulnerability. The more exposed they
are, the more apt they arc 10 leave and abandon
their cubs. Female bears in particular need
secwe sites, such as large cavities in old, hollow
trees or rock crevices, in which to den. The
more secure the denning site, the more likely
they are to stay put.
Twenty-five or 30 years ago clearcuts
were hundreds of acres in size. Over the years
they have been shrunken in size until now they
are down to less than 40 acres in the Southern
Appalachians. These are beuer for most forest
species. It means more unbroken. contiguous
areas. Smaller cuts spaced apart seem 10 be a
more logical cuuing regime. Adjacent stands
should be allowed 10 mature to mast-producing
age.
Katllah Journal· What specifically could
we do to help improve habi1a1 for 1he black
bears?
Pelton: I think we need longer timber
rotations. I still contend that we need 10 examine
rotation times in light of the importance of
acorns 10 bears and other species. I have a
feeling that the rotation times need 10 be
lengthened to give the forest as a whole a chance
to be as it productive as it can be 10 produce the
food that is necessary. That production time
varies a lot from one variety of oak 10 another,
but I think that the rotations are probably still too
short
The other need is, as I mentioned before,
that foresters pay a 101 more attention to oak
regeneration when they cut. They need 10 make
ha1
sure that regeneration is advanced enough, 1
there are enough young oak seedlings and
saplings on the ground, so that maple or tulip
poplar or any other species don't overwhelm the
oaks and take over the site. Clcarcuts should
also be spaced so that acorn-producing stands
are adjacent.
roads. We have had a history of roads being
opened and closed, opened and closed,
re-opened and closed again in response 10
various political pressures.There needs 10 be a
consistent and Slandard policy throughout lhe
region regarding roads. Without it, there's no
doubt that roads are going to be quite detrimental
to black bears. Even gated roads arc being used
for illegal hunting. Total closwe may have to be
undenakcn.
The state agencies in North Carolina and
Tennessee are bolh putting a lot of thought into
their bear sanctuaries. It migh1 be timely 10
examine the sanctuary boundaries in relation to
where timber management activities and roads
will or won't be, so that lhe efficiency of the
system can be enhanced. They could make sure
I.hat the boundaries of a sanctuary take advantage
of a cenain prime white oak stand, for instance.
I think we need to learn more about designing
sanctuaries, but with a liule bit of thought and
planning, perhaps the system could be improved
considerably.
Dr. Michael Pelton has studied the
black bears in the Sowhern Appalachians/or the
last twenty years. He is recognized world-wide
for his knowledge and experience with bears
and has advised bear research and restoration
projectS in Norrh America and Europe.
Rtcortkd by David Whukr
Transcribtd by Marsha R111g
Edictd by Kim Sandland and Dovid \Vhttltr
About roads .. .ln a report I presented in
1985, I said that under present conditions black
bears needed 10 have wilderness or
quasi-wilderness, because of the indeterminate
policies of the Forest Service about closing
'Jfu:rc fell tl1e min liealin9
forty rlays
am! w e were fwatl ng, we w ere spfushi"'J
am! Caugfi£119
boos wUh our rwses in f wwers
aml throu9h tlui trus, nug9ets of s unlU)ht
and •v•rywhcr• 9run reachL"'] to fwld us
bark to touch am! 9run sprou ts, forgotten
in corners wfu:r• 9run had com. rw more.
C£u
7Mr• /eJ1. tlu& rain fu:ali"'],
mil£"'] am! f a!l£119,
remLmli"'J us of paths. rivulet.s /or9otten,
paths unilwtujit of, ways too new to Lrn<UJi.ne,
the joy of clesctmt unforesun, abandoned
to tlu& twists of mud am! stone, un.ltwwn,
new, quid.Ly. abrupt, steep.
rai,n remlndL"'J to fall w'tlwui ceasi"'],
fall 9Uully, /all gratefully,
fafl, lo119Cr and try f or tlu& bottom,
Ln mud, Ln stornJ, Ln green, Ln greetJ$St
magnif£ceru;e of rain,
the rain that falls ~lL119.
f"aCL, 1989
�ArlWOl'.I: l¥y JamM Rhea
If you ever talk to an old-timer, and you mention the word
"panther," be prepared for some emotion-laden and perhaps
superstitious stories. Human fear of the unknown has influenced
and shaped the Eastern panther's destiny. Because of this fear the
Eastern panther has been almost completely wiped out in eastern
Nonh America.
This article is an.anempt to decipher myth from reality and
to present evidence for or against the existence of the Eastern
panther today.
TI1e following is an example of the typical panther story
told to an old-timer of today by his or her parents:
'The night was dark and still. Daddy put a log in the
fireplace and then tricked us liule'uns in bed. The only sounds
were the hoot of a screech owl and inseccs serenading. And then,
all of a sudden - a clt1unp, on the roof!
Wha1's that, daddy?'we asked in fright.
They got us children down and we gathered around the
fire. We could hear the creature pacing back andforch above our
heads. It was rryinR ro claw up some shinRles!
'Don't be afraid,' Mommy cold us, 'it'll be alright.'
Daddy grabbed his gun from the wall. We knew it wasn't
a/rig Ju. Then there was a loud, piercing scream! We knew it was
the call of the painter."
Is this scenario accurate - or is it just exaggerated mountain
folklore? Was the Eastern cougar, or "painter," as it was called
by the mountaineers, so bold as to come up to a human home and
threaten to attack and kill humans? Do panthers still exist in the
Southern Appalachians? What were, or are, they really like?
Cougars were almost completely eliminated in eastern
Nonh America soon after it was seuled by European immigrants.
The attitude toward the great cat was the same auitude which
caused the "taming" and destrucrion of the wilderness. The
settlers anacked the animal, fearing it would prey on livestock
and humans. Also, the destruction of the deer population through
over-hunting and land-clearing, and direct hunting of the Eastern
cougar saw this subspecies to its demise.
1"aCC.. l989
According to Robert Downing, former Forest Service
officer in Clemson, South Carolina, the Eastern cougar (a
subspecies which differs from the Florida panther, western
panther, and twenty-seven other subspecies of Nonh American
panthers), is as elusive as the answer to the questions asked
about it. Many factors complicate the picture. First we must
understand the habits and peculiarities of the panther.
A cougar (Fe/is concolor) will live almost anywhere there
are deer, or enough of the other animals of its prey base, such as
racoon, opossum, rabbit, skunk, and fox. Deer, however, are by
far the preferred prey of the cougar. All predators are best
adapted for a specific prey animal. The deer is the right size and
speed for the cougar and has come to be almost the cougar's only
food source. ln Mexico where deer are few or non-existent,
panthers prey on smaller rodents solely. This means that the
panthers must spend more time and energy to kill more animals,
but also shows their exrreme adapuibility. Unlike bears. panthers
will not eat the meat of an animal they have not killed themselves.
Occasionally an individual panther will acquire the habit of
preying on livestock, although that occurrence is rare. Cougar
are not and have never been a real threat to livestock. Wild boar,
however, are definitely a possible prey animal for the cougar
(which has implications for restoring balanced ecosystems in the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park). Panthers feed only once
every week or two. They kill only when hungry, usually eating
pan of the deer and caching or hiding the rest to finish later.
Robert Downing is called at least once, and sometimes
several times, a month to investigate reponed sightings of the
Eastern panther. He is presently rraining other Fish and Wildlife
officials how to identify and verify rracks and scats. Only a
rrained expen can tell the difference between a panther track and
that of a large dog. Cats walk with their nails retracted (to keep
them sharp). except on rare occasions when they are in a hurry.
Panther scats average one and onequaner inches in diameter, and
are smooth like those of a bobcaL Another panther habit is to kick
up a pile of din and leaves on the edge of its territory and urinate
on it. This habit is also shared by bobcats and foxes, so it takes a
trained eye to determine the difference. Tracks are difficult 10 find
in the mountains because the ground is either hard clay or the
(continued on p:ige t8)
JC.at ®h Jo1mmC. pa9e t 7
�FRONT
COUGAR
"'"~
(continued from page 17)
constant rain washes the tracks away. Snowfall helps to locate
tracks, but high mountain winds, subsequent snow storms, and
melting make tracking in winter as challenging as any of the
seasons.
With so many sightings reported, Robert Downing finds it
hard to believe they can all be wrong. But it is also hard to
understand why there has never been an Eastern panther hit on
the highways, when 5-15% of the Florida panthers (another
subspecies) arc killed each year on the road. Perhaps the Florida
panthers find roads more desirable to navigate than low, rugged
wetlands. a problem the Eastern cougar would not have.
Cougars were formerly common throughout North and
South America. where they existed mostly on deer, bison, and
elk. Today only small pocket populations survive, mostly in the
western United States. Panthers are loners, rarely traveling in
groups or packs. An individual cougar in the west occupies a
10-20 square mile territory. In Florida each panther uses 50-60
square miles because the population pressure 1s not as great
There is no regular mating season for panthers. They will
breed any time of the year once they come to maturity at three
years of age. However, breeding for any one panther occurs only
once every two tO three years. The two or three kittens in each
litter are raised by the female. After weaning at two to three
months of age, they accompany the mother on hunts.
The panther ranges in length from five to eight feet,
including the tail, and weighs from eighty to two hundred
pounds. Their call varies. It can be soft like the cooing of a dove,
a rattling growl, or an eerie shriek -- sometimes described as
resembling the scream of an old woman. The panther does not
scream when it is about to attack, as myth would lead us to
believe. The bark of the grey fox is sometimes mistaken for a
cougar call, although there is no resemblance. Some owl calls
have even been mistaken for panther howls.
In Florida, and many eastern states, panthers are protected
as an endangered species. In western states cougar are managed
by state fish and wildlife departments as a game animal. In
Texas, there i s no protective legislation for the cougar
whatsoever.
A known population of panthers exists in Manitoba which
has spread west into Ontario, and south into the Upper Peninsula
of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Maine is an ideal habitat
for the panther, as there are large areas with no public roads and
large deer populations. But so far no panthers have been
officially sighted there.
Before there can be any action taken to protect the Eastern
cougar and its habitat, the presence of the Eastern cougar must be
confirmed. Roben Downing has written a report fol' the USDI
Fish and Wildlife Service entitled: "The Current Starus of the
Cougar in the Southern Appalachians." In it he describes recent
reports, historical aspects, searches for sign, and research needs.
The Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service pooled their
resources and sponsored Roben Downing's study when the
controversy came to a head in 1977. At that time several groups
threatened to bring suit against the Forest Service unless it hailed
timber harvests in an area where several cougars had reportedly
been seen. If you think you have seen a cougar or its sign, this
repon may help you to determine a true sighting.
The conclusion of Robert Downing's study is basically that
there is yet no conclusion as to the status of the Eastern cougar.
Although it seems fitting and right for panthers to be inhabiting
the southern mountains, not one official sighting has been made.
Until then, panther advocates have no basis for demandfog
protection for cougar habitat
The best thing one can do at this point is to get a copy of
"The Current Status of the Cougar in the Southern
Appalachians," learn all one can about tracks and panther habits,
and keep one's eyes and ears open when roaming the hills. The
true spirit of native Appalachia will shine forth when species such
as the panther (along with the American chestnut, gray wolf, and
black bear) are existing together in stable and self-sustaining
populations.
Roberr Downing's reporr, "The Current Sratus of the
Cougar in the Southern Appalachians," is available from rhe
Denver Wildlife Research Center; Department of Forestry;
Clemson Universiry; Clemson, SC 29631.
The Earth First! Biodiversity Project is collecting data for
an Eastern Cougar Study. Your help is needed to document
cougar sightings and habitat use in the eastern states.
If you see a cougar, remember as accurately as
possible the location; a description of the animal including height,
length, approximate weight, length of the tail, and distinguishing
marks; a description of the terrain; and an account of the event
Send information to: Eanh First! Biodiversity Project
2365 Willard Road
Parkersburg, WV 26101
Cougar tracks have four toe pad marks in a
semi-circle ahead of the larger metacarpal pad. There are usually
three lobes on the back of the metacarpal pad. The tracks of adult
cougars measure 2 3/4 inches or more in width. Cougars have a
central lead toe on each foot, and the two middle toes are not
symmetrical, but one is normally farther forward than the other.
Dog tracks appear similar to cougar tracks, but the toes arc
almost directly opposite each other, and claw marks arc always
visible ahead of the toe marks. Bobcat tracks are similar in
appearance to cougar tracks, but smaller. The tracks of a young
cougar will appear the same as those of a bobcat.
If you see a cougar track, make a plaster cast.
Here is how:
I) Prepare the ground surrounding the track by removing
any debris. Carefully remove any loose objects in the track itself.
2) Take a strip of light cardboard or plastic long enough to
surround the track, fold it into a circle and fasten lhe ends
togelher. Set it around lhe track.
3) Mix Plaster of Paris according to directions on package.
Once mixed, plaster sets quickly, so be prepared to pour
immediately.
4) Pour the plaster slowly over the track, taking care to fill
all the recesses, especially the toe marks, to avoid air bubbles.
Pouring too quickly will disturb the track. Pour plaster one inch
over the track.
5) Allow the plaster to harden. Then lift the cast and
carefully wipe away excess din and debris.
/
raet,1989
�Last fall, when the mornings turned c
turned to gathering firewood, we didn't hav
south-facing slope behind rhe cabin was doned
oaks. We discovered enough snags just along
the wood stove stoked all winter, and without I
summer I've found enough dead and dying oak
house next wioter, too.
Oaks are treasured trees -- valuabl~ fo~~r. !f!l~per
provide, valuable for their shady canopy and
wood and their sturdy beauty. But something is
oak forests of sourbcrn Appalachia. Since the
ll980's,
we've seen an increase in the mortality of oaks la
~land
h3nlwood fcxests throughout the eastern United ~ This
phenomenon, called• decline, has been o b s e r v e - y
since the early 1900's, bat foresucs~.ud 1
are just beginning to tmensi.v~ it! Ciiiil'di
k
is having on the forest ecosystem.
Oak decline is not caused by a single discaa odDlilllPa. bot
a series of interactions between environmenw strelles,
diseases, and insectS. A healthy oak ~ will begin to dec:Uae
when it is subjected to unusual stress, such u drought; fiosl
iniury or spring defoliation by insects. This causes physiological
changes in the tree and its root n~omes vllJn~ IO
lltlCk by the annillaria root'l'Offungus (Ari1tiJJaria metled), wllil:b
aormally lives on roOlS of dead trees. This runaus killS put oflhe
mot sySl!Cm, further weakening the tree and making it sa~
above ground auaclc by other diseases and iosects. The
two-lined chestnut borer (Argilus bilineatus) is often fond in
uees at this stage, its larvae making meandering galleries dna&b
the inner bark and eventually girdling the tree. As the aee
declines, ns growth slows down and the crown dies bact. Tbe
dead branches exposed as the leaves die are the most obvious
signs that a tree is being seriously stressed. If good condieiom
return, a young, vigorous tree may be able 10 recover, bat an
older tree will continue to decline and eveniually die, UiUll1y iwo
to five years after the stress first occured.
The U.S. Forest Service has been conducting surveys
throughout Karuah to determine how widespread oak decline ~
and which areas arc affected most severely. By combining aerial
surveys and data collec1ed on 1hc ground, resarchcn have
de1crmincd that oaks are declining in all southern upland
hardwood forests, but the damage varies greatly in different
areas. Oak species in the red oak group (including bhd. scarlet
and nonhcrn red oaks) are much more likely to decline lhan !hose
in the white oak group (white and chestnut oaks). Oak decline
1ends 10 be grca1cs1 in areas where trees naturally grow most
slowly -- on ridgc1ops, on shallow, rocky soils and on southand wes1-facing slopes.
Age is a fac1or, too. "Declines arc, by and large, diseases
of ma1ure trees." according to Sieve Oak, forest pathologist with
the Forest Service. "However, chronological age may not f>e the
best measure of tree maturity. On a high quali1y site, an
80-year-old black oak might be considered middle-aged, but on a
poor site the same ttcc would be a senior citizen, and probably
more prone to decline".
Oak seedlings arc relatively intolerant of shade so they
••id
br
'°
have a hard time establishing themselves under a forest caoopy.
Once a dominant tree dies and more fight reaches the g10lllld.
1hey tend 10 be out-competed by fas1cr growing seedling -yellow poplar, maple, sourwood, black locust In order 10 be
sure !hat oaks will be present in the next stand, it's generally
agreed tha1 there must be a substantial number of oak seedlings
and saplings already growing in tbc undcrstory before lhe
dominant trees die.
"If it doesn't maucr what kind of trees replace declined
oaks, then decline is of no consequence because some
regeneration will happen", Sieve Oak says. "But given the
problems of oak regeneration, it's not at all clear !hat oaks wilt
replace themselves after decline".
Understanding the biological causes of oak decline and
where it tends to occur gives some clues as to why we are seeing
ao increasing number of dead oaks in the green mountains of our
bioregion. Kan1ah forests were almost decimated by the "cut ou1
and get otlt" logging practices which prevailed around the tum of
!he century. As a result, the majority of these next-generation
forats are now in the 60 10 90 year range -- the age al which
oaks become more vulnerable to the stresses that cause decline.
1llc long-1erm drough1 we arc experiencing is surely a
contributing fac1or. Overall, the raie of global wanning since
1970 is higher than a1 any earlier recorded rime. If our heedless
consumption of fossil fuels continues to blanket the earth with
increasingly heavier layers of carbon dioxide, the drought stress
caused by higher tcmpcra1ures will have dire consequences for
the whole ccosys1em, and oaks may be among the firs! obvious
casualties.
Oak decline is also predicted 10 increase with the steady
advent of the leaf-hungry gypsy moth as It chews its way south
into these foresis. The gypsy moth, an insect pcs1 introduced 10
Nonh America in the ninc1eenth cen1ury, is expected 10 cause
significant amounts of defoliation in the near future.
One of the major current concerns about oak decline is the
impact it has on wildlife. As their crowns die back, declining
oaks produce less hard mast (acorns) and the nutritional value of
the mast may not be as high. In one declining stand surveyed, the
acorn yield was predicted to be 58% lower over five years than
would be cxpcacd in a hcahhy stand.
"Acorns arc very high in fa1 and carbohydrates", explains
Lauren Hi1hmn. Forest Service wildlife biologist. "They arc one
of 1he highest energy foods in !he forest".
This shortage creates a grave situation for all animals
which depend on acorns for fall and winter food -- black bear,
deer, eastern wild turkey, racoon, squirrel and other small
mammals. The populations of preda1ors such as bobca1, cougar
and raptors a.re also adversely affec1cd by decline, since much of
their prey consists of small mammals dependant on acorns.
According 10 Hillman, decline also decreases the diversity
of acorn species. Having a variety of mast in the forest, she says,
"cushions failure in one crop which may have a poor production
year. Given periodic hard mas(shonages, this could be a critical
fac1or for wildlife survival".
And !he impact of oak decline on wildJife wilJ be even
grca1er in the future because many dying oaks will be replaced by
(continued oo page 20)
foU, 1989
JC.atimn Journa! p1i9e 19
�olher species of trees which won't produce any hard mast.
"Black bear reproduction is directly dependent on. hard
mast availability", continues Hillman, and she asscns that 1f oa1c
decline continues to jcapardizc this food source, "the black bear
.
.
might not stnive".
If we consider long term trends m climate, the s1e~dy
advance of the gypsy moth and the current age of our .f?"=sts, 1.t is
reasonably safe to predict that oak decline is.a cond1uon wh~ch
will not be disappearing in the near future. Is 11 a problem which
needs to be addressed by forest management practices. or should
oa1c decline be viewed as one factor among many in the evolution
of a continuously changing ccosyst~m 7
.
The oak-dominated forests m the mountains of southern
Appalachia arc a result of land use history ov~r the last 200 years.
Past agricultural use of the land, woods _grazing, fire control and
the chestnut blight have all contributed to the present
predominance of oaks. But given ~hat we know a.bout ~ak
regeneration, it's a fair bet that there will
fewer oaks an K~u3!1
forests in the future if some oak decline management 1s!11
undenaken. If the resultant changes in wildlife habitat, species
diversity, wood supply and aesthetic valu~s are acceptable, t~en
there isn't any reason to try 10 reduce the impact of oak decline.
In areas where there is liule or no interference by humans, such
as in designated wilderness areas, oak decline and other n~tural
events are allowed 10 run their course. Then the ?Utc.ome 1s not
influenced by the imposition of management ObJecuves which
determine which resources to promote, oflen a1 the expense of
other resources.
However oak decline is increasingly being perceived as a
problem of fo~st health in forests which are being managed to
maximize one or more of these resources. The recently released
Draft Environmental Impact Statement co".ering the Grassy Gap
and Wesser timber sales in Nantahala Nauonal Forest. is one of
1he first public documents to address oak decline as a
consideration in the action alternatives.
The environmental and topographic factors which inc~
the incidence of decline cannot be altered by forestry pracuccs.
However there arc silvicultural treatments which can reduce the
effects of decline if the objective is to maintain a vigorous oalc
forest.
be
One such treatment is thinning. Reducing the density of
trees by thinning, especially when the trees arc ~l~tivcly young,
should help alleviate water stress. However, 1h1~mg can cause
an increase in armillaria root rot fungus, and u may actually
increase moisture stress if decline is already in progress by
exposing more of the soil surface to the drying effects of the sun.
Another management strategy involves encouraging oa1c
seedlings and saplings to grow in the understory of o~ stands
which arc declining, or which arc at high risk for dechne. As
noted earlier, oa1c seedlings under the shade of mature trees tend
to be out-competed by more shade tolerant species. If the growth
of these competing seedlings, saplings and shrubs is controlled,
the young oalcs will be in a position to talce advantage of
increased light when the mature trees arc gone.
The method chosen to control competing understory
vegetation is likely to cause some. controversy, si.nce .using
herbicides appears 10 be more effecuve and economical m the
shon tenn than cutting down the competing plants by hand.
Hopefully, this decision will be carefully considered in view of
its potential long term costs.. Much more needs t~ be ~nown
about the complex interacuons of these che1D1cals rn the
ecosystem before herbicides arc given a seal of appi:oval.
.
Some silviculturists advocate a second phase m the crcanon
of a vigorous stand: cuning down the declining mature trees.
From a silvicullural point of view, harvesting the big trees allows
enough strong light to reach the ground for the oak seedlings to
begin growing rapidly. Forest manag~rs "!BY .also .choose to
harvest declining trees based on economic obJCCUves, 1f the trees
can be sold as timber.
Harvest methods have been at the center of a great deal of
debate recently, with clearcutting generating most of the
opposition. And the controversy is likel>: to become eycn ~ore
intense with this issue, because clearcutung has been identified
by many silviculturalists as the most effective way to manage.oalc
decline. They affirm that if ~equate numbers of oak Sec<!lmgs
and saplings arc present rn the understory, clearcumng a
declining oalc stand is the most reliable way to ensure that ~e
following stand will be less susceptible to the stresses which
initiate decline.
The major harvest alternative to clcarcutting is managing an
uneven-aged forest by selectively cutting small groups of trees.
This harvesting is done periodically, usually every 10-20 .Y~·
and the trees arc selected in such a way that at least three d1sunc1
age classes will remain in the forest Uneven-aged stands are
valued for containing a diversity of ages and species of trees and
for their basically intact forest canopy.
However, oak decline is more likely to increase in stands
which arc managed this way than they arc in clearcut stands,
because uneven-aged harvest requires more logging road
construction, as well as more entries into the stand. This means
there is increased potcmial for soil compaction, i:oot system
damage and mechanical damage to the trees which arc not
harvested. These injuries decrease a tree 's resistance to the
stresses which cause decHne.
Skillful horse logging would subs1amially decrease lh~se
risks and would make uneven-aged management a beuer option
for declining stands. Unfonunatcly, neither the timber industry
nor the Forest Service consider logging with horses an
economically viable practice. Small woodland owners, without
the market pressures of big business, may find that using horses
to log decline-prone areas, thereby creating space_ for youn.g
vigorous trtts 10 grow, is a good way 10 m:in11ge de.chn .. on 1he1r
land and encourage biodiversity.
.
Oak decline is a biological fact in the forests of Katuah.
Watching robust, bountiful oak trees slowly lo.se th~1r stren~th
and die is an emotional experience. Oak decline is an issue which
gives us a chance 10 discuss what we value most about our
.
forests, and how we want 10 influence future forests by the
decisions we make now.
Photo abow, armillaria root rot fungus, courtrsy c{Strp~tt W. Oak
f"llU,1989
�PEOPLE & HABITAT
While many view the pastoral scenes and
remote majesty of the Southern Appalachians as
all-enduring, trends in human population
l migration and unrelenting resource extraction
have had monumental effects upon wildlife and
the diverse flora of their native habitat. Today
litlle remains unaltered by the effects of human
activity. The landscape we view today is a
threatened glimmer of what was once, but it still
exists as one of the most diverse ecosystems on
the North American continent.
A universal tenet that holds true for every
form of life is the ecological principle of
carrying capacity: a given habitat can only
suppon so many individuals of any given
species. Beyond that threshold the numbers of
the given species begin to decline or that species
begins to impinge on the ability of the habitat to
function and support other forms of life.
The principle of carrying capacity holds as
true for human beings as for any other life form.
The difference is that we are so insulated from
the greater environment by the barriers of
civilization, that we often do not realize the
impact we are having on local, to say nothing of
distant, habitats. In the case of homo sapiens the
situation is funher complicated by the effects of
a highly-developed technology, which adds an
additional element to the equation by magnifying
the impact of a given number of individual
humans.
Bioregional awareness leads us to become
as regionally self-sufficient as possible, so that
we restrict the impact of our presence to our
own bioregion. We also realize our
responsibility to accurately determine the
region's carrying capacity for human beings and
to limit our numbers accordingly.
A historical perspective of human
manipulation of the Katt.lab province will help
raise the question of the proper carrying capacity
for human beings in our bioregion - the level
that allows for the preservation of wild habitat.
land already subject to conditions of dire
overpopulation. The Old World represented a
virtually inexhaustible well of humanity that
flooded over the new frontier. After the
mountain highlands were first penetrated by
DeSoto in 1540, the question of access was of
paramoum importance in the development of the
Southern Appalachians.
The Indian culture tied to the land and her
offerings was rapidly overrun by the streams of
white-skinned settlers that moved in along the
major Indian trails 'through the Shenandoah
Valley and from the Atlantic Tidewater area,
widening the trails into roads as they went so
that others could more easily follow.
The first small communities sprang up
along the river valleys and larger coves of the
Watauga, French Broad, Little Tennessee, and
Hiwassee watersheds. Although few and far
between, their presence was marked by the
agrarian need for cleared land. The bottomlands
and wellands were cleared or drained firs1, and
!hen trees were felled on the side slopes to make
room for more fields and pastures. As the first
sertlemen1s became towns, the clearings spread
deeper into the mountains following small and
muddy roads that wound along the river and
stream tributaries.
Early In habitants and First Immigrants
The Cherokee Indians and the indigenous
people before lived in balance with their world,
utilizing the offerings of their Eden. Sources
estimate the native population co be about
22,000 individuals throughout the entire region
in the early 17th century. This number is
somewhat lower than pre-Columbian levels
because of war and disease brought by white
settlers. (Today, that number would be
considered only mediocre actendance at Fulton
County Stadium in Atlanta.)
The native people manipulated their
environment with a technology based on fire and
scone tools. Even though they had developed a
sophisticated system of agriculture before the
arrival of the first white people, it is clear they
never exceeded the ability of the region to
support them. They did not interfere with the
capability of the habitat to provide for other
forms of life; quite to the contrary, the native
people relied on that capability for their
continued existence.
The arrival of the first Europeans,
however, changed conditions drastically. The
first immigrants represented the overflow from a
1'a!L, 1989
Plwlo by Rob MusidJProject Ug/llhawlc
These first settlers lived largely off the
land, much in the manner of their native
predecessors. Like the Indians before them, the
white settlers annually burned off the forest
floor. However, because of their greater
numbers, this had a much greater effect on the
forest than it ever had before. Even so, until the
end of the 19th century most of the mountain
highlands remained an impenetrable wilderness.
Daunted by the richness of the New
by CHIP SMITH and
LEEK. FAWCETT
World, the Europeans regarded the productive
capacity of the land as limilless, leading them to
farm and hunt carelessly and without regard for
the future. Because they were completely
ignorant of ecological balances, they
exterminated game species of animals and birds
and slaughtered the native predators so that their
domestic livestock could free-range in the
woodlands. Hogs and turkeys were particularly
well-adapted to the forest environment and
thrived on 1he fall mas1 provided each year.
Once fattened, these were gathered into large
"droves" and walked along the "drovers' roads"
to markets in the piedmont
Mountaineers also traditionally foraged
for medicinal roots in the forest. As commercial
demand for these natural remedies began to
grow, medicinal roots became a prime baner
item in town and at the crossroad country stores.
As wagonloads of ginseng and other potent
roots and herbs began to roll down the twisting
mountain roads to the eastern cities, the rate of
trade began to threaten the survival of ginseng
and other herbaceous forest plants.
The Industrial Era
Grinding mills and small saw mills were
the height of industrial production in the
highlands until the mid-I 800's. The barter
system was the usual means of exchange. The
US Census estimated the population in the 18
western counties of North Carolina ac 200,000
in 1890. The lifestyle was still based primarily
o n subsistence agriculture, hunting, and
foraging.
However, in 1880. the first train into the
mountains pulled inco Asheville, and the
Southern Appalachians were changed forever.
The railroads represented a new degree of
access, and they brought exponential population
growth, absentee land ownership, and industrial
commerce.
The population of the city of Asheville
(which today is only somewhat greater than
65,000 people) mushroomed from 2,000 in
1880 to more than 10,000 by 1890. Tourism
also arrived on the rails, and sanitariums and
luxury hotels offered all the comfons a tired and
ailing flatlander could desire.
Commerce was the primary reason for
pushing through the railroads, and in the
Southern Appalachian region, commerce meant
timber. Large traces of land, often
30,000-200,000 acres in size, were opened up
to exploitation and soon surrendered their
bounty. Temporary company towns were built
at the base of major watersheds and railroad
lines extended into the highest coves.
The early timber barons were
industrialists, not foresters, and they neither
knew nor cared about the ideals of sustained
timber )'ields and forest regeneration. Their
mastery of the new steam technology gave them
access to the most remote reaches of the
mountain forest, and the destruction they
wrought there was unprecedented. The damage
to the species composition of the forest was
irrevocable, as was the damage to the soil. By
the early 1930's 80 percent of the mountain
(continued on page 22)
JC.awc:ih Jo'4rnat plMJe 21
�(continued from pqc 2 1)
landscape had been burned over. Little was left
to shield the soil from the area's high levels of
rainfall , and severe flooding occurred in 1896,
1901, and 1909, and periodically into the
1940's.
A mountain native, the Reverend A.E.
Brown provided first-hand insight in an
interview in the Manufacturer's Record ip 1910:
" ... these mountains were full of sparkling
brooks and creeks which required a two or three
week rain to make them muddy; today a few
hours of rain will muddy them .... Many of the
mountain streams are dry throughout the
summer and fall, while in winter, the waters
descend in torrents and do vast damage
rendering wonhless the bouom lands... The
sides of mountains have been denuded of their
topsoil and bouom lands have been overflowed
and swept away... "
Shortly after the end of World War I most
of the timber barons had tom up their tracks and
moved on to the Pacific Northwest. By 1930
only a few companies, such as Champion
Corporation, were left In the wake of the timber
rush, and at the onset of the nation's worst
drought and the chestnut blight, little was left for
human or beast.
The Present-day Forest
(or Wha t You See Is What Is Lefi)
Between the I 940's and the I 960's the
population of the Ka1uah province remained
static or even dropped The mountai n binhrate
remained high, as it had in the past, but many
young folks left the mountains to find wage
work in the cities of the east and the midwes1.
The bumpy roads offered a way out of the
mountains tO seek the American Dream.
During the 1960's and the I 970's,
however, a change took place. The isolation of
the "backward" Appalachians began 10 look
appealing to flatlanders sick of noise, crowds,
and pollution, and perhaps sick at heart at the
manner in which they earned their wealth. The
very isolation that had protected the mountains
from industrialization for so long now proved
their strongest attraccion. City-dwellers realized
that they could "have" that isolation - all they
lacked was a way 10 get there. Thus began the
era of the four-lane. The Appalachian Regional
Council brought in federal money 10 help state
governments upgrade old roads and build
modem expressways.
During this same period agriculture
declined sharply in the mountains - and with it
declined the traditionally high binhrate that had
always characterized Appalachia in the minds of
outsiders. With the construction of new roads,
in-migration became the driving force in the
population growth of the Ka1uah province.
Today the rate of biological growth (che ratio of
the binh rate 10 the death rate) remains at flat
zero or in fractions of a percentage point (0.07
percent in 1984), while the rate of in-migration
continues 10 rise dramatically, putting the overall
population growth of the Southern Appalachians
well above the national average. The number of
retirees translcx:ating to the mountains raises the
percentage of monality, but a look at the figures
shows the dominant influence of migration on
the regional population.
Lack of access has always been the
limiting factor on growth • the growth of human
populations, economic development, and
Xat®h Journal pa9e 22
industrialization - in Appalachia. Lack of access
protected the wild nature o f the mountain
habitat. Now the cork is out of the bottle. The
sporadic stream of in-migration has turned into a
flood. As over-populated Europe once offered
an inexhaustible supply of humanity to fill up
the New World, the large eastern cities now do
the same for the mountains, as the in1ersu1te
highway system offers an easy means of travel.
Along with the increaSe in new residents,
there has been a tremendous increase in demand
for recreational opponunities in the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park and the
national forests. Today, human management and
human use penetrates 10 the deepest reaches of
the forest on 4,900 miles of forest roads and
touches every aspect of life on virtually every
acre of the mountain forest habitat.
Meanwhile, wildlife has been pushed
back to the most remote areas of the forest in
search of food and safety due 10 the clearing
necessary for roads and development and the
associated noise.
Environment Committee assures us that al l this
developmen t can proceed with no impact
whatsoever on the "beautiful mountain scenery
that is so imponant to all of us" - in fact, it'll be
even beuer, because there will be more people
here to enjoy it wilh us.
Typical of this approach is the l-26
Corridor Association, a coalition of Western
Nonh Carolina industrialists, developers, and
their followers, who believe it is imperative 10
immediately upgrade the present Route 23 to
interstate proportions through Madison County
10 the Tennessee state line providing a d1rec1
connection between Asheville, Johnson City,
TN, and the large industrial cities of the
mid west.
Jerry Grant, the biggest developer in the
Katuah mountains, provides the following
insight via the /-26 Corridor Association
Newsletter: "We would be on the way to
somewhere - not the end of the line. We think
Asheville and this region are extremely fortunate
10 have an excellent liveability factor. We are
able to attract the right kinds of industry."
Those who still espouse this approach
have not yet realized that whenever we perceive
something as a resource, then it is automatically
for sale. And once sold, it is no longer ours. It
is gone.
In another public relations publication of
the l-26 Association, WNC at the Crossroads:
Crisis or Opportunity?, this theme of
development continues:
"Improving the US 23 gateway to
interstate standards opens the entire Ohio Valley
and Nonheastem US to the WNC mountain
expenence....Imagine how many more travelers
would discover WN~ if traffic now using I-77
and 1-75 could re-route via 1-26 through the
scenic Southern Highlands.... An interstate
would produce many business opportunities
away from its interchanges. Well-designed and
The North Carolina Highway Bill
(or Come One, Come All!)
This summer in Nonh Carolina the state
legislature passed a $9.1 billion Highway Bill.
Governor Ji m Manin's plan is 10 place "every
resident in the state within 10 miles o f a
four-lane road," build by-passes around seven
urban centers (includi ng Asheville), pave
10,000 miles of secondary gravel roads by
1999, and the remaining gravel roads in the state
by 2006 (see page 25).
To hear the road boosters talk, the new
roads are going 10 bring in all the good aspects
of industrial culture and none of the bad.
There's big bucks in it for everyone, we are
told, and, because we live in the mountains,
things will be as nice as they always were. The
;
N
PR(S(NT 4 LA~ES
--
fV\Ul'l.E CONNfClORS - - -
W
/
'll:/~E
v"' .
r
•~
I
I
\I
\
I
'\
\
I
\I
\
\
'\
f'aU:, 1989
�perpetual wild sanctuaries
It ts both a form of reverence
and a human need that we learn
at this time to intentionally leave
some wild places alone forever.
At this lime In Earth history. our
human species Is severely and Irreversibly
tmpacttng the ecosystems of the planet. As an
acknowledgement of our reverence for Life and
for the sake of our planet's biological heritage.
ll Is Important that we lntenllonally leave
perpetual wild sanctuaries where humans do
not enter....places where the non· human life
fonns tnd1genous to a pan.tcular area arc able
lo proceed lndeflnltely. undisturbed by human
presence. judgement. or Intentions.
This Idea Is not wtlhout precrdrnt. In
New Guinea there arc small areas of natural
vegetation left amid lands that have been
ovcr·grazed and ovcr·cut for cooking fuel.
These small fragments of natural diversity are
the burial grounds. rabu areas. sacred to the
spirits of the ancestors. where It Is blaspht>my
to tread.
In old English estates. amid the
Impeccably kept lawns and gardens. there Is
one comer kept wild "for the fairies • that Is
never entered These are probably areas that
would difficult lo matntaln anyway. and these
days the tradition Is most likely kept with
tongue tn cheek. but ll Is slill kept, as ll has
been for generations.
In the small country of Costa Rica the
newly-established tropical dryland forest
national park Is divided Into three pans: one
pan ts open to appropriate commercial use.
one pan Is only open to tradltlonal native use.
and the remainder Is not open to human use at
all.
Here In Katuah. there have always been
energy centers and sacred sites endowed with
spiritual power that were never entered except
by lndlvlduals or small groups of people who
felt compelled to venture there to fulfill a
specific spiritual mission.
ThJs idea could be easily translated lnlo
our own lime. lf people took ll to heart. Small
areas could be set aside on small tracts of land.
but setting aside a mountain range or large
areas of the forest to be forever undisturbed by
human presence would make a significant
difference tn the conditions of habitat and. no
less Importantly. would transform our
relationship to the land.
It Is both a form of reverence and a
human need that we learn at this lime to
Intentionally leave some wild places alone
forever. All who feel so tncllned are Invited to
set off an area of land - however large an area
for whJch the tndlvldual or group feels ll can
accept responsibility - as a perpetual wild
sanctuary. This could be done by purchase.
decree. or by personal witness. The areas could
be regarded as sacred shrines. devlc
dwclllng-places. burial grounds. or liberated
1.ones. In whatever manner It Is undertaken.
this commitment tnvolvcs a responstbtllty lo
respect the boundaries and lo urge others who
might come tn contact with the area to do the
same. It also Involves educallfllt the young
about the nature of this area and the purpose
for selllfllt ll aside. that they might be willing
to continue the practice.
ll Is time lhts Is brought forward as a
serious suggestion.
May all beings live wUd and free!
Plca.\C !lend any commcnis expressing your
rcacuons, dreams, or visions about a perpetual wild
sanctuary lO KatiUih Journal: Box 638: Leicester, NC
28748.
(conlJnUOd from Pl&C 22)
developed interchanges therefore not only
enhance the corridor's immediate environs, but
also seive as gateways which entice additional
development into surrounding counties.
"Regionally, the 1-26 gateway will
increase traffic throughout WNC. Thus,
thousands of businesses - both established and
yet-to-be stand to benefit...The US Chamber of
Commerce has determined that each additional
100 manufacturing jobs have the following
positive (sic) benefits on a given locale:
Non-manufacturing jobs .. ...............&!
Population increase...................... 202
Family units .............................. I 02
Increased school enrollments............ 61
(t ndguote)
The effects would certainly be positive for
the developers and real estate speculators who
stand to make a lot of money selling off the
mountain habitat. For current residents,
however, land booms do not necessarily mean
more jobs. They do mean higher taxes as the
local people absorb the costs of expanded water
supply and waste disposal services to provide an
infrastructure for the new industries. They do
without fail mean over-crowded schools, higher
crime rates, increased noise. congestion,
sedimentation. air and water pollution.
Richard Stiles. an economist for the
Western Nonh Carolina Tomorrow group, a
primary motivator behind the push for an 1-26
corridor, actually maintains that an
interstate- level highway would be less
ecologically damaging than expansion of the
present Rt. 23. He says that this is because an
interstate would have only limited access, rather
than being lined with development.
Such an analysis shows a complete
ignorance or disregard for the idea that there is
any limit to the regional canying capacity for
human beings.
T11U, 1989
Ptn:cmage Change in !>()pulation Size. Ra1c of Na1ural lncrcase.
and Net Mignuion Rate for lhc Average of !he Eighteen
Wt"stcm Counlle• of We.tern Nonh Carolina, 1940-1980
LEGEND:
- - Rate of PopulallOD Change
-""" ··· · Net Migrabon Rate:
· • • - - Ra1e of Natural ln~ase
25
20 -
15 10 5-
0-5 ·IO·
. :?Q -
1940-50
1950-60
1960-70
1970-80
(1971 l'"'JOC- )
Source: S«io-£c()namlc OverviLW of W~s1u11 Vorrli. Carol1NJ
fo r ti!, Vtu11aMla PusaJi VaiwNd Fou compilttl by the
.•t
Sou1hnn Appalachian Ccnlef, Man Hall College, Mars Halt,
NC
Direct displacement by the interstate
construction and resulting commercial
development will remove thousands of acres of
relatively undeveloped habitat. Migration routes
and range areas of different animals will be
disrupted by the cut-out, paved-over, and
fenced-in interstate route.
A new interstate route will greatly increase
fragmentation of habitaL The forest north of
Asheville will be severed by a route comparable
in size and volume to the 1-40 interstate. Instead
of one habitat area • however patchy and ragged
it is at present - there will be 1wo smaller areas.
The local gene pool, already in disucss, will be
divided in half once again.
However. the most damaging effect will
be the ucmcndously increased volume of traffic
that will pass over the new highway. A new
superhighway will mean more use. more
commerce, more in-migration, more human
demands on the already over-stressed
habitat. We long ago overshot the capacity of this
region to suppon the weight of our population.
As access opened the mountains to the ravages
of unrestrained technology at the turn of the
century, so now is it bringing in unrestrained
numbers of human beings. We arc the greatest
threat to habitat in the Southern Appalachians.
Rather than manage the forest to meet our
unending demands, we need to manage
ourselves. our numbers and our way of life. that
the forest may continue. In the long run, this
would be the best for all the inhabitants of the
mountain forestlands. ourselves included.
This process requires values that are at
once new and at the same time very, very old.
These values arc the substance of the biorcgional
vision. We need to learn/remember them and
pass them on. Only then will we be able to
approach a reasonable carrying capacity of
human beings in the Katuah province of the
Appalachian biorcgion.
~
Xot.Uah Journot p119e 23
�J
CAPTIVE BEARS FREED!
"ROAD MANIA" SLOWED
NabJral World News Service
Senator Wyche Fowler, Jr. (D-GA) led the US
Senate lo adopt an amendment to the interior
appropriations bill that cut the road-building budget of
the US Forest Service by $65 million.
Vowing lO curb "road-building mania" in the
Forest Service, Fowler called on his Senate colleagues to
pass the amendmenL They responded 55-44 in favor of
the measure. Twenty-rive million of the recovered money
would be returned to the federal treasury. The balance
would be used for stewardship programs, habitat
improvement, and land acquisition.
In calling for support of the amendment, Fowler
cited a Congressional Research Service study that found
that road construction was the most environmentally
damaging aspect of the Forest Service timber program.
OTTERS MAKE A COMEBACK
... AND A GETAWAY
Natunil World News Service
CARNIVOROUS PLANT LISTED
Norural Wbrld News Service
NllUnl) World News Service
Recent events in Cherokee drew attention to the
plight of caged and exploited black bears. One evening
this summer, several bears were "liberated" from
Saunooke's Bear Den show by unknown individual(s). A
large hole was cut in the outer wall of the enclosure,
through which the bears escaped along the creek into the
surrounding woods, and hopefully into the Great Smoky
Mountains National Parle.
The outcome for the escapees is unknown:
Saunooke has made no comment as to whether or not the
bears were quickly recaptured or escaped into the wild. In
any case, this evem effectively brought the bear's
situation to the attention of local media.
People for the Ethical TreaUTient of Animals
have annouoced plans to protest in Cherokee on
September 9, 1989. They have been warned off by the
Chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation,
Jonathan L. Taylor. A clear message appeared on August
15, 1989 in the Asheville Ci1iz11n-Times that any animal
rights protesters would be arrested and prosecuted for
"interfering• with the reservati.on practice of exploiting
bears. lo a pointed way. it is clear that on the
reservation, as in many areas or Katuab. the rights or
humans to exploit the bears supercedes any rights of the
animal species.
Loss of freshwater wetland habitat has
eliminated or threatened many plant and animal species
throughout the country. The US Fish and Wildlife
Service has recently proposed to add to the Endangered
Species List the mountain sweet pitcher plant (Sorrounio
rubro ssp. jonesii). Native only to a few motmtaln bogs
and streamsides in southwestern North Carolina and
northwestern South Csrolina along the Blue Ridge
Divide, the mounuiin sweet pitcher plant has been
reduced from 26 known historical populations to only
10. The pitcher plant has been the victim of drainage of
bogs. flooding. convctsion or the land for agriculture and
grazing, various other forms of land development, and
collection. Eight of the remaining 10 populations
survive on private land where they may be subject to
habitat alteration and collection by fanciers or
carnivorous plants; the other two are situaicd on State or
South Carolina lands. but are also vulnerable to
recreation and illegal collection.
The mountain sweet pitcher plant, like other
carnivorous plants, traps and digests insects for food. 11
grows up to 29 inches in height, producing showy.
typically maroon flowers gracefully suspended on single
tall stems, each covered with a hood. Insects. attracted to
the mouth of the pitcher by sweet secreted nectar, crawl
or fall into the pitcher. Their escape is prevented by a
smooth slippery surface just inside the mouth of the
pitcher. and by stiff hairs lining the interior or the pi!Cher
tubes, pointing downward. The insects are digested in the
enzyme.filled fluid secreted int the pitchers.
The mountain sweet pitcher plant and its related
species have long inspired curiosity and wonder. Unless
they are protected and s:ived they will soon inspire only
memories. Your comments can be addressed to the
Asheville Field Office: US Fish and Wildlife Service;
100 Otis Street (Room 224); Asheville, NC 28801.
ACID RAIN A PROVEN KILLER
NabJral World News Service
A link between acid precipitation and a wsease
which bas killed thousands of dogwood trees may have
been proven by US Forest Service plant pathologist
Robert Anderson and colleagues. Dogwood anthracnose,
or dogwood blight, caused by Disculo fungus species,
was first found to be infecting trees in the Northeast and
the Pacific Northwest about 10 years ago (see Kotuoli
Journal #21). Since then, it has spread lO many of the
Southeastern states and caused high mortality among
both woodland and ornamental dogwoods. More than one
quarter million acres in Kllttiah have been affected by the
disease.
Otters, absent from the Smoky Mountains
following excessive trapping and logging activities
during the 1930's, are making a comeback. Not only are
they successfully surviving in several reintroduction
sites, they arc claiming ierritoric:; across mountain ronges
from their points of rcintr0duction. Nine nvcr otters
were rclea.~ into thc Little River on the Tennessee side
of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and at
least two have crossed into Nonh Carolina drainages.
The ouers arc eluding the tracking efforts of
researchers. even though fitted with surgically-implanted
radio transmitters. Kim Dcl..o'1ier, wildlife biologist for
the Park. says, "Most of them have moved extensive
disuinces from the release site to other drainages. We
really don't know why they are moving so much."
Recently, biologists have been able to track the otters
only by air. A few oucrs from a 1986 release project an
the Cades Cove area of the Parle also were sighted later in
Nonh Carolina waters.
FtShermcn have expressed concern that ottcrs will
destroy game fish, but analysis or oner scat from river
banks bv University of Tennessee researchers revealed
that scat piles contain no trout bones.
"Trout are fast and much harder to catch," says
DeLozier. Instead. the otters prefer slow-moving fish like
white suckers. daces, sculpins, and hogsuckers, says
DeLo1Jer. For the ouers, •...these slow-moving fish ate
like picking sweets from a candy store."
The next proposed release of river ouers will Ulke
place as early as this winter in a watershed on the Nonh
Carolina side of the Park...but don't expect them to stay
there for long.
Xai.imh Journal pmJe 24
The disease is chanictcrized by putple-rimmcd leaf
spots. followed by twig, brunch. and stem cankers. Trees
ID the forest • parucularly trees growing ID moist
environments at high elevations - suffer more from
anthracnose than omrunental dogwoods located where the
disease can be controlled by cultural practices. Among
wild dogwoods, the disease is expected to continue 10
spread throughout the South.
In the past researchers had not been successful m
producing anthracnose symptoms on trees which had
been inoculated with lhe Disculo fungus in the
laboratory. In the recently reported experiments. one year
old dogwood seedlings were exposed to various levels of
simulated acid rain at a Forest Service lab. The seedlings
were then exposed to Disculo inoculum and the
subscquem rate of infection was noted. Exposed to the
fungus alone, the trees showed no sign or the blight. but
as the rain acidity levels were increased there appeared a
corresponding increase in infection. Research is
continuing to determine if the acid rain/anthracnose
connectio~an be observed in dogwoods growing under
field cond111ons.
Anderson's work will be helpful in effons to s:ive
the tree that bears the North Carolina state nowcr.
Perhaps more importantly. however, his experiments
have proven a link bclwecn acid rain and plant disease and
decline. It is commonly accepted that airborne pollution
is contributing 10 the deaths or red spruce and Fraser fir
treeS at high altitudes in the mountruns, but Anderson's
experiments offer the first scientifically accepted proof
that acid min is a major culprit in any instance or forcs1
degradation.
The logo above symbolizes the commitment of
the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League to protect
the integrity of the New River. The group is demanding
that the State of North Carolina carry ou1 its
rc.~nsibility to protect the river as a fcder:illy-dc.~ign:ncd
Wild and Scenic River area. The New is presently
designated a Wild and Scenic River for 26.5 miles or its
length, but this designation is threatened by an alarming
rate of de,•clopmcnt along its banks and a proposed water
treaUTient plan! upstream of the fcderally-pro1cc1cd zone
(sec Ka1t1aliJourna/ If 24).
Join the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League's efforts on behalf of the New River. Contact
BREDL: Box 1308; W. Jefferson, NC 28694.
raC!., 1989
�.
SAHC TO REVISE PROPOSAL
Nmural World News Strnce
The Southern Appalachian Highlands
Conservancy (SAHC) has announced !hot il will drop o
proposed National Scenic Area Proposal thllt the group
hnd drafted as potential leg1slauon 10 define m:inagemcnt
policy for the 24,000 acres of spcc18Cular landscape
known as the Highl:inds of R0311.
The ongin:ll propos:>I met w11h protest from local
l:indowncrs and building conl13Ctors who felt thllt lhcii
propcny rights would be violated by the plan.
The SAHC sud m a prepared sl3tcmcm, "Since u
has been our hope from the beginning !hot a proposal
could be drafted which met with the approval of all
part1e~ •... SAHC has withdrawn 1ts proposal for lhe
present and 1ntcods IO revise the same <;<>as IO hopefully
'™=Ct the conocms of local l'CSldcnts md landowners.•
The conservauon group pbns to hold both formal
and informal mceungs with all CO'ICcmcd to come up
wilh a new and belier proposal for keeping inl.3Cl the
beauty of the Roon Highlllnds.
NC ROAD BINGE
Nonnl World News Service
The North Carolina state legislature
overwhelmingly passed a bill o~ July 26 that will
contnbute greatly to mushrooming development in the
Klllliall province. By a House vote of 95-19 and a Senate
vote of 39-11, lhe legislature raufied a highway package
rood bill calling for S9. I billion for road construction
throughout the Slate.
In campaigning for the bill carher, Republican
GovClllOI" J1m Martin vowed IO bnng every resident of
the state within 10 miles of a fow--lanc highway. The
bill would fund major road-building and road-widening
projects and pave thousands of miles of ara,-cl roads.
Pnrndox1cally, the governor turned against his
own bill when Senate Democrats added a provision to use
incrca~ vehicle sales taxes for 11110 years to fund pay
raises for 1eaehcrs and swc employc:cs. But legislators did
not respond to the governor's last-minute call to tum
down lhe revised bill.
Among the projects IO be funded by the massive
highway constrUCtion act are widening of US 23 in
Madison County 10 cn::ue a four-lane roadway between
Asheville, NC and Johnson City. TN: widening of US
19-19E between Mars Hill and Ingalls m Avery County:
expansion of US 19 between Bryson City and Andrews:
widening of US 441 soulh of Franklin: and construction
of a loop IO circle west of Asheville between 1-26 and US
23.
1"c:i[(, I 989
FRIENDS OF GRANDFATHER
temperawrc in the river, which would cause populations
of fish and olha- life to decline.
Geologically, the Grandfather Mountain Window,
where some of the oldest rock exposed on earth juus out
of the gl'OWld, provides a unique glimpse into the past. 11
is estimated lhat Grandflllher Mountain is between 625 to
680 million years old, placing its formation during the
Precambrian era, a time when life still existed primarily
in the seti. and microorganisms were prom111CnL
Fncnd~ of Grandfather is c , rently securing
501(c)3 non-profit status with the Elisha Mitchell
Audubon Soc1c1y. It has also received suppon from the
Blue Ridge Group of the Sierra Club and is worlcing with
the Trust for Public Lands. To become involved or 10
send a donation to the Friends of Grandfather Mountain
Fund please write to them at: P.O. Box 239: Sugar
Grove, NC 28679.
Nonnl World Ne"°' Service
On !he northwest slope of Grandfather Mountain
hes 1,200 acres for sale. 900 acres of lhis is owned by
lhc Wilmore Corporation, headed by John Williams and
Hugh Monon. A master pion has been drawn up which
any developer interested in buying the property must
agn:c to. Tiie sellers see this master plan. which includes
a ski slope, shopping mall. convention center, golf
course, and 200 or more homesiteS as being earned out m
an envll"Ol\mentally conscious way.
Friends of Grandfather Mountain is a group of
concerned local citir.ens working to keep these
envuonmentally sensiuve areas mtact by initiaung a
media cnmpaign and an effort to purchase the land. By
purchasing the land and placing it in the care of a
conservation organi1.auon, perhaps future generations can
enJOY at least one moun1:1m whose i.rrcplacable beauty
lives unscathed.
In protceting the land, douns of species of plants
and animals would also be protccted. Many vnriwes of
irces, and several rare nnd threatened plants and animals
eiust on and near the 900 acre tract up for sale. Of pnme
botanical concern are the Blue Ridge goldenrod and the
Hclleri bla7jng star, both growing on the Profile Cliffs
directly above the endangered land. These species are
listed as critically globally imperiled by the Natural
Heritage Program. The Blue Ridge goldenrod is also
CODSJdered endangered by the State of North Carolina.
DU"CClly off the Shanty Springs Trail arc bent avcns and
lnuhng wolfsbane. These bcauuful plants arc also
globally imperiled. Their ap(>C3rllllce is considered rare
nnd highly localized.
The proposed development would also displace
hundreds of animal species mcludmg: deer. racoon,
opposum. red and grey fox, bobcats and an occasional
bear. Newly discovered is the presence of the northern
Oying sqwrrcl, a "Jlt'CiCS endangered in the Sl&IC of North
Carolina, just above the glade on the Shanty Springs
trail. These small, nocturnal creatures seem 10 be
declirung because of changes in vegetation and habitat
disturbance. The population of these rare squirrels at
Grandfather Mountain is the farthest north the species has
been discovered in the state. Also, disturbing the territory
below the hacking site for young endangered pe.rigrine
falcons may reduce the chance of the mature birds
renuning lO breed in lhal area.
From the westtm slope of Calloway Peak, the
highest peak in the Blue Ridge Range, spring three
pristme streams which form the headwaters of the
Linville and Watauga Rivers. Both rivers are currently
being proposed for designation as Outstanding Resource
Waters. The Watauga River may be unable to support
additional treated wastewat.Ct, awaillng further LCSts by the
NC Division of Environmental Management. Wastewater
treallllent standards for the nver have already been made
motC Stringent, and in some 111.S1allCC$ new pcnmts have
been denied. Any silt or 1dditional emuent into lhcsc
headwaters may ruin the nver"s quality. Of critical
imponance is the potentinl increase of average water
ACID VEINS
Narunl World Ne"°' Sen-a
The final mslallment of a ten year study on acid
rain for the Kau1ah biorcgion has recently been released
by Lhe Environmental Prolec:tion Agency. The final
rcpon states th:11. 1f current sulfur emissions continue et
the present rate, 129 streams in the region will become
acidic within SO )'ClltS, and 203 additional sueams will be
occasionally acidic.
Researchers also projected the possibility of
increases in sulfur emission during the same 50 year
period. Starling with a steady inc= of 20% in the first
10 years and continuing for 15 years, then leveling offin
the next 2S years. At lhis level 159 streams would
become acidic:, and 340 would be potcntJally vulnerable
IO periodic acidification.
Presently there are no S11C811lS in KatWlh that are
considered aciC:ic, and jUSt lhree are eswnated IO have an
ac1d-ncutrali21ng capacity or lower than 50
m1cro-equ1valcnts per liter • the estimated vulnerability
threshold or streams becoming temporarily acidic during
heavy snow melts and rainstorms.
Sulfur dioxide, wh.icb is convened in the
atmosphere into acid, 1s primarily produced by
C031-buming power plants and other industries.
Oxides or n11.rogcn arc released in approxim3tely
similar amounts by automobiles and industry. Even
though the CIU"Tcm presidential admlnlscraUon has
proposed a 10 million ton reduction in sulfur diollidc
emissions and a two million ton reduction in nitrogen
oxide releases over the next decade. one of lhe best means
to reduce poisonous emissions is energy conservation,
which lessens lhc need for both existing and proposed
power plants.
Here are some organizations that offer catalogs
contammg energy-effiCIClll products: Tiie Renew America
Prop:t: 1001 Connecticut Avenue NW (Sutte 63&):
Washington, DC 20036 (&02) 862-2999 and The Rocky
Mountain Institute: 1739 Snowmass Creek Road: Old
Snowmass. CO 81654.
�Gathering
I dream the spirits gather,
Gather in a space outside my
Room. They call my name over
DRUMMING
And over, I stand
Before them and their voices are
The howling of wolves, lhe cooing of doves,
LETIERS TO KATUAH
We are in another place,
They are touching me,
I feel like a candle
With a tall flame,
They give me messages,
When I wake I can only remember
The voices of doves,
Of Wolves, and the way
We wavered over this world,
Dear KatUah.
I'm writing to thank you for sending the
Katilah Journal all the way over to Swil.l.erlandl h's
very important lhat people sian to think and care more
and more about our environmental problems ALL
OVER the world!
I'm looking forward to your next issue!
The seem of sandalwood.
- Palricia Claire Peters
YourS sincerely.
Christine Moser
~t:.~S·
p$.
o-t$S
~ ri..~ \)~ tjl{C\;1!1
~G·s~~s
.~'.tS ....o~
,.c9v~st:.•S v
J\}t>G1!i :iS ~~
Dear Friends at Katrlal1 Journ(l/:,
Dear Katilah Journal People,
Your summer '89 issue on Ptau in the
Mowttains was a moment of serendipity for me as well
as good energy and inspiration. It connected with my
moment of comple{ing a silk screened print inspired by
and incorporating the Cherokee words for Water and
S~
7~(~:t;;)are:\JA 0' (pUJL'-)
Phone~ally pronounced:
~
-
q Ma.
Justice prevails - this time - in S.E. Georgia. If
here, anywhere! Your publication is excellent, keep it
running. Can we do an exchange with you?
At this time, it's a little out of balance, but the
best we can do. h's all part of the same problem greed and power.
Pax,
Martina. John and Donna
St. Mary's, GA
~
L/A1.,;1
-tho 1t1 :JU..
Several Cherokee people (Laura King, Pheasant
Driver, Mary and G.B. (Going Back) Chiltosky) helped
me with this identification and pronunciation.
~ 1hi1 G: spoken with urgency because water is
critically essential to life.
yours, delighted and connected,
Margaret Gregg
Jonesborough. TN
love Story
! lie wirh the Eanlt
Ukea lover.
Embracing Her
Enfolded in Her fragrance
In the heat of Her body
Through langucrous swooning afternoons
And rhythmic pulsing nights.
She is
With me
Dear KatW!h folks.
A new book is out. that all serious gardeners
and fanncrs should have. h's called Secrets of the Soil
by Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird (Harper &
Row, 1989). Please try to get a copy!
- from Knotts Island, NC
Arowuim£
Inside me.
Oneness.
Greenness.
Wilderness.
Wildness.
Swirling in the spiral
Lost in Mystery.
Knowing the Unknowable.
-Mary dt La Va/ttte
Xatiulh Jou.rnal p1i9e 26
f'aU., 1989
�Dear Friends.
Greiuly enjoyed your spring issue. ns usual.
need to call your attention, however, to what I consider
the Planet Art article's wholely uncritical appr~~al of the
current 'crystal craf.e'. So I thought I would send along
Earth F1rster. Karen DcBraaJ's brillnnt linlc piece on
crystals as an 31ltcdote. from 'Live Wild or Die', n recent
Eanh First! dcnvauve. Please consider pnnting 1L
Sincerely.
Bill McCormick
Crozet. VA
Enclosed anic:lc {b) Karen OcBf.131):
Crystals. Their shimmering beauty vibrates
deep into your being, helping your being, helping you
setf-actuahzc wuh healing powers und guided
imageries. Cool and hip, right? New age and stylin',
yes? But at what price? Well. hell, can a price be put
on spirituality? Can a price be put on how the earth
feels when her powerful energy trnnsm1uers and hc:llers
arc ripped from her bowels for a profit, be u monetary
orspmtual?
The ripping (np off) of crysuils from the earth
is causing her to ulcerate. Great eroding <;ear; rc,ult
from the hungry hordes scouring the U.S.N:uional
Forcsts (mainly in Arkansas) and areas in other
counties, such as Mexico and Brazil. Armed to the
teeth wuh screwdrivers, shovels and bulldozers,
new-age hucksters and spiritual profiteers.
well-meaning heaters and seelcers of the sacred arc
mining and tearing at the earth with no thought of the
cost to her. The environmental impact of our
spiritually starved, buclc-hungry droves is not a
consideration.
Think about it. The next time you stroll by
Toots for Fools (no kidding) or any other nashy
crystal store in Santa Crut or elsewhere, and sec those
t.v. si1~ cryslJlls glimmering in the display window,
think about the hole it left when it was wrenched out
by its roots. like a bloody wisdom t00th from a gum.
And all those smaller oncs... thcy aren't laying around
the forest noor like pine cones.
"It resembles Gold Rush Days." said
Montgomery County Sheriff James Carmack in
Spectrum (Dee. 23, 1987). when asked about crysllll
seekers in the Oucitn National Forest and surrounding
areas in Arkansas. According to Carmack, people
vandalve the area by stealing crystals from legal mines
and digging illegal muics. These all cause erosion. The
Forest Service liberally grants crystal mining permit,,
3Ccording to Spectrum. but the fees generated don't
begin to cover the cost of m:>nitoring the mines or
contr0lhng 1llcgnl hunters.
Sure. crystals are poweiful. But maybe they are
where they are for a reason. Leave them there, where
the earth c11n use them as she sees fiL It is mter.:sung
thnt newagc folks, who profess to care for the earth are
so blinded by the crystal light that they are dcstr0ymg
whnt they profess LO love. Their cryswls are bloody.
Docs our endlessly raped earth need more of this?
The NFS and the crystal-hungry massc.~ need to
hear from environmentalists: crystal mining 1s yet
another massive wounding that our earth doesn't need.
We need to heal ourselves by healing the earth.
Boycou crystals! If you own them, don't O:iunt them,
which encourages others to get them. Let the NFS
know th3t you don't want them to grant any more
crystal mining permits. Let people know that crysrols
belong to the earth!
''
• J
'·
I
.'
Draw111g by Sw Adams
Dear KatUah,
I picked up the wonderful winter issue of your excellent and much needed publication at the Tremont Center in
the Smokies. This issue has changed my perception and my life. I hope to live in the area some day. although I mny
Opl to have a cabin in the woods of Kentucky or Indiana. It has been a dream LO live m the forest for a long time • by
a stream. I wish to support and join the struggle for unity with the planet we inhabit. for stopping heedless
exploiUltion and destruction, for nurturing life. I am in the process of nunuring my own life (much damaged in
childhood). This nunurmg is most harmonious with the healing of the planet.
Thanks for your work,
Starfire
Forest Voices
I
Sleeping on the wall of the world
arching over the sun with the c11n•e
off est trees
or
wlwse tips are rwe11ry leagues high
i11 the morni11g light
casting golde11 leaf shadows
in this green place.
The high wind
orchestrates irs wisdom
with the forest:
Be at peace with the fly
and pain of bursitis
Let the heali11g ofthe pla11et
be pan ofyou.
Be one with me
2.
Hush, the gods of the forest
are speaking.
They toss the sun with their fingers.
The liale gods rising
from the growui
are staffs oftruth,
each blade ofgrass
a word of wisdom.
3.
listen,
the voice ofthe wmer sings,
the naiad ofthe stream
whispers
10 the silent one
who rests by her way.
The butterflies above
are mating
and the weefolk
are white water rafting
dow11 her tiny rapids
in small spherical crafts.
She says thar happiness
is here with the jwnpingjish
alld the drops of rain
quietly sampling
the edge of1he storm.
Here hidden and safe
I would wish to stay.
4.
W01erfa/ls
in nLrlung laugluer
as white fire ascends
in balance
ofcoll/I/er energies
providing
one another's needs
in mandala
of reality,
body alld spirit.
-S111rfire Soledad
f'p(t, 1989
�(conlinucd from page 7)
habitat types represented in the landscape, the
belier the possibilities for rhc survival of rhc
whole. Older, more mature forests musr extend
over many contiguous sites, not just on ridges
and in coves, for successful migration of
species. For life to adapt 10 changing conditions,
reproduction of all but the most highly .inobile,
weedy species must occur on adjacent sites.
Following the mosr recent ice age, forest
communities migrated at a rare of only a few
miles per century as the climate v.'nmled over rhe
course of thou,ands of years In the coming
century, species tha• cnmnnsc marurc fore t
communities musr migrate ar a rate perhaps I0
times faster, an impossible feat from isolated.
fragmented habiratS.
Optimum regional biodiversity, therefore,
requires a continuity of habitats across the
landscape in a mosaic of mature communities
that includes all topographic conditions: ridges,
nonh and south slopes, coves, streams and
gorges, balds, and bogs. FederaJ protection has
recently been extended 10 many of rhc latter
communities (at least those thar are not
commercially imponant) as Congressionally
designated Wilderness Areas. But nearly all of
the remainder - the large areas of contiguous
second-growth forests that arc now
cconomicaJly mature - is destined for violent
disturbance before the tum of rhc cenmry.
Defining Old-Growth Forests
Forests managed for commercial timber
and wild game species provide a great diver:;ity
of plant and animal species through logging and
other planned disturbances. Therefore, it is the
conclusion of Forest Service policy makers that
timber and game management activities meet the
legal requirement for biodiversity. The one
condition that managed forests do not meet is
that of providing for the types of natural
diversity in critically short supply: those
associated with mature old-growth forests. The
condition "old-growth" is defined by the
Southern Region of the US Forest Service as
any forest stand over 100 years of age. This
completely arbitrary definition fails to meet the
biological requisites for a mature forest, because
it simply means that any forest stand older than
an economic rotation for commercial timber
harvest is classed as "old-growth."
From the biological standpoint, an
old-growth forest contains trees in all age
classes, including dying, standing dead, and
fallen dead trees. Because most of the trce
species that comprise old-growth stands in the
Southern Appalachian forests do not reach
biological maturity for 200-400 years (and
pcrhnps longer 10 be wcll-rcpresenied in t11e
dying and dead tree categories), the present-day
second-growth hardwood forests must be left
free of disturbance for at least another 150
years. Even then, many micro-habitat niches
provided by old windthrown trees, standing
dead snags, and rotting logs will not become
available until yet another century has passed.
More imponantly, most of the plants and
animals of our second-growth forests represent
mid-successional species, which are not those
that will eventually be present in the climax
communities. The maturing forests of today will
undergo dynamic changes in species
composition when left undisturbed until they
reach a condition of biological old-growrh.
JCGtwm )o"rnaL paq~ 28
Artwork by Joma RN!a
Herc we should dispel several common
misconceptions regarding old-growth forests.
First, old-growth srands arc not decadent.
On the contrary, they arc dynamic and teeming
with life. As old crees fall. many new niches are
created for other plants and animals, both in the
canopy overhead and in the rotting wood on the
forest floor. Many microhabitats undergo
constant micro-successions of plants and
animals, as new niches arc created and old ones
disappear.
A second myth is that "old-growth" is
synonymous with "wilderness." This is
cenainly not true in eastern Nonh America,
where we have very liulc true old-growth in
areas that have been Congressionally designated
as "Wilderness." There is one important
difference between the two. Legal Wilderness is
by definition for hwnon beings. a commodity
for people to enjoy as a recreational experience,
and it is managed as such by the public
agencies. Old-growth forest is for bioro,
preserved for the intrinsic value of all the
various forms of biological diversity therein.
Managing for old-growth, however, does not
exclude use by people. rn fact, old-growth
forests enhance benefits such as recreation,
wildlife habitat, visual quality, and stream
quality, as well as providing for essential
biological diversity.
Restoring Old-Growth Diversity
We return full circle to the opening
paragraph of this paper. "Today we stand at the
threshold of a great decision" - one of the most
imponant for public land use since the creation
of the national forests.
Current management plans for the
Southern Appalachian national forests call for
widespread timber harvest, largely by
clearcurting, for most of the 60 to 80 year old
second-growth stands that have reached
economic maturity. There arc provisions in
some forest management plans to temporarily
preserve five percent of each harvested
component (approximately 50 acres for each
1000 acres harvested) for old-growth .
However, these temporary reserves are only
fragments surrounded by young managed
stands, and even these may also be harvested in
the future. Tree species in the young stands
created by harvesting will be heavily biased
toward those with known commercial value,
such as eastern white pine, yellow poplar, and
the red and white oaks. This would reduce
natural diversity ai.d would also reduce the
potential for genetically stable communities in
the future. An orientation toward timber
management is not going to maintain regional
biological diversity in its broadest sense.
The United States IOOth Congress stated,
"The Eanh's biological diversiry is being rapidly
depleted at a rate without precedent in human
history....Mosr losses of biological diversity are
largely avoidable consequences of human
activity ....Mointoining biological diversity
through habitat preserv01ion is often less costly
and more effective than ejforrs ro save species
once tltey become endangered." (Quoted from
H.R. 4335. 1988, emphasis added).
We frequently hear reports of
distinguished biological scientists warning that
human-caused destruction of naturaJ habnats is
the single most serious threat to survival of life
as we know it on our planet. The loss of genetic
diversity and the loss of entire ecosystems arc
occurring at an accelerating pace around the
world. The Southern Appalachian Mountains arc
a pan of this grim picture. But the existing
public lands have the potential to restore the
natural diversity provided by the old-growth
forests currently missing from the Appalachian
biorcgion. Unbroken, naturally-functioning
habitats must be restored here to provide the
basic life suppon systems necessary to carry all
forms of life through rhe unfolding ecological
catastrophe of our times.
We can overcome rhc mental blindness
that would have us believe that providing
commodities for people is the uhimote use for
the Appalachian national forests. We can expand
our vision to keep in mind the value of habitat,
the foundation for all life. Whole and healthy
habitats provide the necessary elements for the
continued survival of the entire global
ecosystem.
Robert Zollner was a professor of
forestry at Clemson Universiry specializing in
the ecology of Sowhern Appalachian hardwoods
until lus retirement in 1988.
f'~U.. 1989
�LIVING GREEN
<O Christoph and Mary-Clayton Endcrlein
The Oreen Movement is more than 1 political ideology because Green vallltS also involv~ how we live every
day. This list is for thl>se who have lhe "Green Spirit" and would like IO i~rponlle II further tnlO _daily
living...Only by activating the ilel1IS on lhis list, can our grea1-grea1-grea1 gra~c~1ldren have an opponunuy.
interacl directly wilh lhe grea1 whales, lhe elephanlS. the ravens, lhe wolves. This hs1 was created by Interspecies
Communication board member ChrisU>ph Enderlein and his wife Mary-ClaylOll. Feel free IO copy. bul do llOl change
i1 wilhoul permission.
'°
Recycle paper, glass, and metals
.
Recycle motor oil, dispose of hazardous waste responsibly
Use cloth diapers
Reuse egg cartons and paper bags
Avoid using styrofoam
.
Avoid disposable plates, cups, utensils
Use rags instead of paper towels
.
Use paper bags, not pa~r towels to drain ~se
Give away rather than dispose of unneeded nems
IO. Use the back of discardable paper for scratch paper
11. Be responsible and creative with leftover food
12. Use the water from cooking vegetables to make soup
13. Mend and repair rather than discard !llld replace
14. Invest in well-made functional clothing
15. Buy bulk and unpackaged rather than packaged ~oods
16. Purchase goods in reusable and recyclable containers
17. Buy organic, pesticide-free foods
18. Avoid highly processed foods
19. Eat foods from low on the food chain
20. Compost your food scraps
21. Grow your own food (even small kitchen gardens)
22. Volunteer to start or help with a community garden
23. Suppon your local food co-ops
24. Discover where the foods and goods you buy come from
25. Buy locally grown produce and other foods .
26. Use glass and steel cookware rather~ alu1TU11um
27. Volunteer to maintain local parlts and wilderness
28. Buy living Christmas trees
29. Plant trees in your community
30. Learn about the plants and animals in your re~on
31. Discover your watershed and work to protect II
32. Oppose the use of roadside defoliants in your area
33. Use non-toxic, biodegradable soaps and cleansers
34. Use non-toxic pest control
35. Don't buy products tested on animals
36. Keep hazardous chemicals in spillproof containers
37. Put m a water conserving shower head
38. Take shoner showers
39. Tum off the water while you brush your te~th
40. Put a water conservation device on your toilet
41. Learn where your waste and sewage goes
42. Learn where the energy for your home comes from
43. Suppon your local utility's conservation programs
44. Hang your clothes out to dry
45. Be sure your home is appropriately insulated
46. Weather-seal your home thoroughly
47. Heat your home responsibly, with renewable energy
48. Don't bum green wood
49. Choose the longterm investment of solar energy
50. Tum off lights when not in use
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Ta!!.1989
Drawing by Rob Messi<:lr.
51. Tum down your hot water heater
52. Lower your thcnnostat and wear warmer clothes
53. Buy energy efficient elccuical appliances
54. Keep your car engine well tuned
55. Drive a fuel-efficient car that uses unleaded gas
56. Walk, bicycle, carpool, and use public transponation
57. Shop by phone first, then pick up your purchases
58. Use rechargable batteries
59. Research socially-responsible investments
60. Suppon local credit unions
.
61. Suppon local shops and restaurants. not chruns
62. "Adopt a grandparent" from the local senior center
63. Volunteer to cook for senior citizens
64. Provide for children in need
65. Hold a community potluck to meet your neighbors
66. Pick up liner along highways and near your home
67. Sponsor a clothes swap
68. Become involved with community projects and events
69. Organize or panicipate in community spons
70. Be responsible for the values you express
71. Educate yourself on global and "Third World" issues
72. Participate in sister city and cultural exchanges
73. Learn about the cultural diversity in your region
74. Work for global peace
75. Learn how your legislators vote, let them know your views
76. Be an active voter and anend town meetings
77. Vote for candidates who support green values
78. Become involved with your child's school
79. Encourage your child's natural talents and interests
80. Organize or join a toy co-op
81. Put toxic substances out of reach of children
82. Teach your children ecological wisdom
83. Listen to your children's needs and suppon their dreams
84. Discourage the use of violent toys in your household
85. Communicate openly with your co-workers and friends
86. Acknowledge someone who provides quality service
87. Work to understand people with different values
88. Be conscious of the struggles of oppressed people
89. Unlearn cultural sexism and racism
90. Acknowledge individual spirituality in yourself and others
91. Donate blood if your health permits
92. Explore ways to reduce the stress in your life
93. Practice preventive health care
94. Exercise regularly and eat wisely
95. Bring music and laughterinto your life
96. Learn about the medications you put in your body
97. Practice responsible family planning
98. Learn First Aid and emergency procedures
99. Take time to play, relax and go into nature
JOO.Decrease TV watching and increase creative learning
IOI.Have fun and be joyful!
JC.atiuah JournGt p!MJB 29
�Whether you are a New Age prosperity
afti m1a11onist or an idealistic pauper avoiding
guilt by association with money, either way you
look at it, inflation has deemed our dollars paper
symobls of wealth that does not exist. A
practical person cannot help but wonder how
long before the big balloon pops and blows all
our preny greenbacks away.
There is a low-level anxiety present
concerning our inflated economy which has
prompted many people 10 s1ockpile food. move
back to the land, and in many other ways be as
self-sufficient as possible.
This awareness is helpful in keepi ng us
on our 1oes and ready for change, which is
inevitable, even if it is unpredictable. However,
survivalist consciousness can be devastating if
you spend all your energy preparing for the fall
of the existing order and deny yourself the
bounty of the present, which is all we have
really got.
It seems important to balance respect for
the preseni solu1ion of problems within 1
he
world in which we live, however imperfect,
with a vision and steps LOward an economics
rooted in life.
Barter Fairs offer a deeply satisfyin g
eicperience for those who long to participate in a
tangible, life-oriented exchange system, where
true value is considered.
As an example, here is a trade I witnessed
at a Saner Fair in Idaho a few years ago:
George had an anvil that Dennis wanted,
but all Dennis had brought to trade were
moccasins, which George did not need. Dennis
kept coming back to George longing for that
anvil, which George could not find anybody
else to take. Meanwhile, George had found
some gorgeous jewelry he could not live
without, and in talking to the crafter he
discovered that she was looking for some
footwear. George told her about Dennis. They
did a threesome, and the goods shifted hands.
All three lightened !heir loads and left richer.
Ideally the three people involved in the
trade did not translate their goods into money
value and compare their worth that way. They
each il~d a.a abundance of something of which
they no longer had a need and convened it into
something they preferred to carry around with
them. The anvil may have been worth $150
new, but to George it was just unused heavy
baggage. Those jewels might have carried a
hefty price tag at a craft fair. but since George
had such a yearning gaze and such an open
smile, the artist easily chose to exchange them
for Dennis' moccasins, which could never have
been sold for so much money, but fit her feet
like her own skin, to her infinite comfort and
delight.
BARTER
FAIR
All judgement on money ethics aside,
bartering goods and services without the value
translation of money is a stimulating,
heart-warming, and enlightening activity. The
true value of things is discovered to be
subjective. The shifting of a fair full of items to
their most valuing recipients is wondrous in its
unfoldment; the grounds for transfer are
infinitely variable.
The phenomenon of the modem American
Bane. Fair originated in the Pacific Northwest, a
r
region with a well-developed bioregional
awareness and a strong emphasis on
self-sufficiency . The fairs are held
semi-annually. The autumn fairs, coinciding
with harvest season, are heavier on agricultural
produce. In the spring, people bring more
handmade items produced during the long
winter. Both fairs are rich in reunions of
friends, music-malting. sitting around campfires
late into the night, and all the peripheral activitiCl>
of the time and place.
Barter Fairs are different than flea
markets, although many people do bring used
clothes, tools, and other goods to trade. They
are more akin to the county fairs in the country.
There is a spirit of festivity and pride in personal
accomplishment and a sense of the bounty that
comes of humanity working with nature. They
are a celebration of the fruits of this union within
a region of Earth.
There is no reason I can see that Saner
Fairs need to remain unique to the Northwest.
Our southern highlands, historically short on
money and high on resourcefulness, seem
naturally suited to generate and support this kjnd
of community celebration and self-sufficiency.
Barter Fairs carry on a spirit with ancient
roots in prehistoric times, when wandering
tribes periodically gathered together in great
council circles to define and experience their
cultural autonomy. During later agric ultural
periods fairs continued to stir human souls.
Now in the age of K-Mart when you can hardly
find a service station for your car, and pliers fall
apart after one use, it is especially good to come
together to celebrate our connectedness and
support each other in our skills. Barter Fairs in
Katuah will breed a healthy blend of personal
pride and community empowennent.
(Anyone with ideas on a good location to
hold a Baner Fair in Kat1'ui11, please contact me.
The main considerations are a flat place large
enough to accommodate camping, parking, and
trading for l ()() or so barterers and some daytime
visitors; a good water source; and reasonable
access by larger vehicles.)
- Morgan Swann
wrire clo KatUahJournal,
orcaU (704)298-1770
'1\iaee, '1Wll~l 'Nat\Jri\ls
KRLRNU
T-SHIRTS. S WEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
BIOREG ION AL BOOKS
AND TO OLS FOR LIUI NG
IN APPALACHIA
ORIGINAL HAND·PRINTED
NATURE DESIGNS
CALL or WRITE for
FREE COLOR CATALOG
Natural Food Store
The besl text on Deep Ecology,
Sacred Land Sacred Sex
Rapture of the Deep
&Deli
160 Broadway
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Where Broactw.y ~
Merrlmon Ave 6
~240
by Dolores LaChapclle
"...we should be glad 1/ia1 we have teaclws such as
Dolores LaC/iapelle." - Katu:ih Joumnl 1123
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-Satu rday: 9am·8pm
Sunday: lpm·Spm
$23.00 (Price Ulcludes postage)
NC resikrus plt!4Se add S'k sales tax.
Orderfrom: KALRNU
(704) 253-7656
JGQtiwh
Jo~rnat
pl:ll)e 3 0
P 0 Box 282, Sy/yo, NC; K01aoh ProYinu 28789
f'at!, !989
�The dates are set. The location is chosen.
The Fourth Norch American Bioregional
Congress (NABC IV) will be held August
19-26, 1990 in the Gulf of Maine Bioregion on
the shores of Lake Cobboosseecontee ("where
the sturgeon leap" in the Penobscot language)
just west of Augusta, Maine and the Kennebec
River.
This Congress finds the bioregional
movement at a critical juncture. The burgeoning
ecological crisis is going to test the depth of the
movement's commilment. The stakes are high,
and while Third World countries are currently
taking the brunt of the ecologicar impact, we 100
feel the
pressur~
here in North America
a.~
the
fortes maintaining industrial society struggle 10
keep their power.
But times of crisis are also times of
change. What we are witnessing could possibly
be the last days of induscriaJ civilization. A great
deal depends on what we do in the decade
ahead. The bioregional movement could be at
the pivot point of a great change, or it could end
up as just another bit of flotsam sucked down
the tubes. The values we hold to and the actions
we take are what will decide. At NABC IV we
will have an opportunity to clearly state those
values and decide how we will put those values
into action.
Excerpt from World Charter for Nature
NABC IV
The Eanh is calling to us. Are we ready to
listen?
A delegation of bioregional folks from ·the
Kaulah province will crave! to the Gulf of Maine
for the NABC IV. We would like to see the
Southern Appalachians well-represented at the
Congress. Make plans now if you are interested
in attending.
For information on the forming Katuah
delegation, contact:
K011"1h Journlll
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Kanlah Province 28748
(704) 683-1414
For information on the Congress, contact:
Gulf of Maine Biorcgional Network
61 Maine St.
Brunswick, ME
Gulf of Maine Bioregion 04011
• Leopold, Aldo; A Sund Country Almanac; Oxford;
Oxford University Press, 1949
• Lovelock, J.E.; Goio: A New look at Life on
Earth; Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1979
A Shon List of Sources and References on
Biodiversity and Habirat Relevant to the
Southern Appalachian Forest
• Margolin, Malcolm; The Earth Manual: I/ow to
Work on Wild Land Wi1hou1 Taming /1, Berkeley:
Heyday Books, 1985
• Berger, John J.: Restoring the Earth: /low
Americans An Working to Renew our Damaged
Environment; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986
• Maser, Chris; Tht Redesigned Forest: San
Pedro, CA; R. & E. Miles, 1988
• Berry, Thomas. Tile Dream of 1h11 Ear1h; San
Francisco; Sierra Club Books, 1988
• lfuxton, Barry and Melinda Crutchfield, eds.:
Tiie Great Fores/: An Appalachian Story: Boone, NC;
Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985
• Cooley, James L, and Jane H. Cooley, eds.;
Natural Divtrsi1y in Fores/ Ecosystems: Proceedings of
tht Workshop: Alhens; Institute of Ecology, University
of GA. 1984
• Frome, Michael: Strangers in lligh Places;
Knoxville, TN: University or Tennessee Press, 1966
• Gordon. Lorimer C.: S1and flis1ory and
Dynamics of a Southern Appalachian Virgin Forts/; Ph.
D. dissenation, Duke University DepL of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, 1977
• Harris, Larry D.; Tht Frogmenltd Forest: Island
Biogeogrophy Theory and 1he Prtstrvo1ion of Bio1ic
Diversi1y; Chicago, IL: University or Chicago Press,
1984
• Jackson, Laura; Moun1oin Treasures al Risk;
Washingion, DC; The Wilderness Society, 1989
• Kulhavy, D. L., and R. N. Conner,
eds.;Wi/derntss and Natural Artas in Eas1ern United
States: A Monogtmenl Chai/tinge; Nacogdoches, TX;
Stephen F. Austin State University, 1986
1"titL, I 989
• Ma.stran, Shelley Smith and Nan Lowerre;
Mountaineers and Rangers: A flis1ory of Federal Fores1
Monagemenl in 1he Sowhern Appalachians. 1900-1981:
Washingion, DC; US Dcpan.mcnt of Agriculture, 1983
• Michaux, F.A.; Travels 10 tht Westward of 1he
Alleghany Moun1oins in the States of Oliio. Kentucky,
and Tennessee in 1he Year 1802; London; Barnard and
Sulizer, 1805
• Myers, Normnn Or., gen. ed.; Goia: An Atlas of
PIOlll!tory Monagtmem: New York; Anchor Books, 1984
• Nash, Roderick F.; The Righ1s of Nature: A
History of Environmental E11iics: Madison; University of
Wisconsin Press, 1989
• Norse, Elliot A.; Conserving Biological
Diversiry in Our National Fortsis; Washington. DC; The
Wilderness Society, 1986
• Norton, Bryon G., ed.; Tht Preservation of
Species: Tht Value of Biological Diversity; Princeton,
NJ; Princeion University Press. 1986
• Pringle, Laurence and Jan Adkins; Chains,
Webs, & Pyramids: Tht Flow of Energy in Na1ure; New
York; Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975
• Raven, Pete.r H.; The Global Ecosys1em in
Crisis; Olicago:The MacAnhur Foundation, 1987
Adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly
(9 Nov 1982)
".... I. Nature shaU be respected and iis essential processes
shall not be impaired.
2. The genetic vinbility on the earth shnll not be
compromised; lhe population levels or all life forms, wild
and domesticated, must be at least sufficient for their
survival, and to this end necessary habitaL~ shall be
safcguan:lcd.
3. All areas or the canh. both land and sen, shall be
subject to these principles of conservation; special protection
shall be given to unique areaS, to representative samples of
nil the different types or ecosystems and to lhe habitats or
rare or endangered species.
4. Ecosystems and organisms, as well as the land,
marine and atmospheric resources that are utilized by
humans. shall be managed to achieve and maintain optimum
sustainable productivity, but not in such a way as to
endanger the integrity of those other ecosystems or species
wilh which they coexist.
5. Nature shall be secure.<! against degradation caused by
warfare or other hostile activities.
6. In lhe decision-making process it shall be recognized
lhat humans' needs can be met only by ensuring the proper
functioning or natural systems and by respecting the
principles set forth in the present Chnner...."
This UN Charter can serve as a starting point for
local areas and regions to draft their own Charter for
Nature. Legally recognizing the rights of other
species is a critical step in bringing our species' syslem
more in balance with the Life systems in which we
pa rt id pate.
If you would like a copy of the entire UN
Charter, send a SASE to: Mamie Muller, Katuah
Journal, P.O. Box 638, Leicester, NC 28748 Katuah
Province.
Please keep us in touch with your efforts. Ho!
• Seed. John, Joanna Macy, et al.; Thinking Wee
A Moun1oin: Towards A Council Of All Beings:
Philadelphia; New Society Publishers, 1988.
• Shands. William E. and Robert G. Healy; Thti
Lands Nobody Won1ed: Washington, DC; The
Conservation Foundation, 1977
• Shands, William E., and John S. Hoffmnn, eds.:
The Greenhouse Ef!u1. Climate Change, and U.S.
Fores1s; Washington, DC; The Conservation
Foundation, 1987
• Spurr, Stephen H., and Bunon V. Barnes; Forts/
Ecology {3rd edition); New York; Wiley and Sons,
1980
• United States Congress: Technologies to
Main1ain Biological Diversity; Washingum, DC; Office
ofTechnology Assessment, 1988
• United States Department of Agricult.ure, Forest
Service, Southern Region; Atlanta, GA; Land and
Resource Monagtmenl Plans and Final Environmenlal
Impact S101emen1s:
C!Jauaboochee-Oconec National Forests
(Georgia), 1985
Cherokee National Forests (Tennessee), 1986
Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests (North .
Carolina), 1987
• Wharton, Charles H., and Harvey L. Ragsdale;
The Values of Unmanaged Notional Fores1s in 1he
Sou1hern Appalachians; Atlanta, GA; The Georgia
Conservancy. 1983
�evenrs
SEPTEMBER
19-22
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Parkways, Greenways, Riverways: The Way
More Beautiful" linear parks conference. lnt.crdisciplinary
discussion of al1ematives to preserve the scenic landscape
againsl development, pollution, billboards, and
commercialism. Sponsored by the Appalachian
Consonium. Great Smokies Hilton. Regis1rotion: $~25.
For more info., call (704) 262-2064.
,,
22-2'
. rt'
~J/\(
~-
/
,,r /
"\' ~ . .
)
-J V\J
<:--.._//
Ii= ::J ~ r
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Walking Gently on the EartW' ~
with John and Penelope Youngb L
J
ynam1cs o evo UJ1on a t. e I ig so~ 't,.;p "
psych_ology ...a new evolutionary mysn.~sm.
Reading: The Dream of the Ewth b~ Tf":mas
Berry. SI 10. Sou~ern Dharma RylrQal C\\J'te~ RL ).
°·
/
(
OCTOBER ,
~
·
C,f{EROKEE, NC
Cherpkee Indian Fall Festival. Crafts, dance,_
stickball, archery, blowguns. exhibi~. midway. o..ilyadm~n: $3. A,! lhe Indian Ccremon,il\l Grounps.
3_7
Box 34-H; Hol Spnngs, NC 28743
t~
¥"' \ ) ,/
V--V \~
ASHEVILE NC
P
Child ~musical fantaS al>oul children
.
•
. .
eace th •
\, Y1
bnngmg peace to c world. Thomas ,vohe Audiionum.
Advance: S6 aaulls, $4 children and sr. citizens. Door: $7
d SS ~ . (704)
_
684 5530
an
·1
n
"I~ ~his r_etreat we will explore togetJ1er n
spmtual1ty of the Earth 1n harmony_w1
· if
J ·
nd h ·nS· hff ,, ~th
d
22-24
r
~
)
MORGANTON, WV
"
John Henry Blues feStiv#. ~usic,
workshops, theaLCr, more. Greer P•vill~. W~ver (
Park. Contact: Ed Cabbell; John HeorWl
SQl\iety;
Box 1172; Morgantown, WV 26507. 0fl4)~9 60?.
ASHEVILLE, NC
'11ie 'Dream of the 'Eartli.
'I1iomas 'Berry, autlwr of '11U '1>rtam
'Eart/i, 'flli{! sfum with us his concerns a6out mu
pfanet anti What fu means 6y "reinventin9 tk
fuiman at tk species kveC. 9:00 AM Iii Noon. Al
the Jubilee! Community Ccmer, 46 Wall StrccL For
more info, caJJ Mamie Muller (704) 683-1414.
23
ASHEVILLE, NC
African Drumming Workshop with Darrell
Rose. Noon 'ti! 3 pm. S20. At Troy Set7.ler's For
directions and info.: (704) 683·3405.
Evening African Drum performance with
Darrell Rose and Michael Saleen. Al Stone Soup, 9 pm.
FINCASTLE, VA
Firsl Annual Southeastern Men's Conference,
"Male Initiation and Isolation· wilh poet Rohen Bly,
James Hillman, Michale Meade (storyteller and musician
in the Ccllic tradition). and John Stokes, tracker.
Jn the post the "emotional bodies" of men were directly
ae1iva1ed by the interaction with elders, grand/others, and
mentors...What happens when the grandfathers are
aistant? ...How to hold to the duryofa father and not lose
the passion of a son? ...How to explore the rage, grief.
s'lro.me, anger, and joy inherent in the male psyche?
Registration: $450. For more info, wriie Fred Stephens;
'Box ~2; Raleigh, NC. or call Doug Lcaster(919)
782-2900.
·FILLED·
Write to bll put on mailing Ii.st for next year.
1
5-JS
MADISON, VA
"Wilddmcss Leaming Quest" - exploring lhe
viild, exploring ~e self. Sl60. Sevenoaks Pathwork
Center; Rt. I, BOX'~; Madison, VA 22n1.
17-20
'°6-8
JONESJWROUGl:f, TN
NAP~S Na~al Sl~rytelling Pe$,tival
fcaturirig mllJly famous nam~ in story·tellirjg. S5°'adull
»<>j·membets, S2S chi\dtt.n, $125 f~milie$. For ~re
inp>.• write f4ation3J AssQciailon for th~ Pn:se._rvalion &l\d
pcrpc1uati6o of Storytelll{lg: Box.__309; Joni;s,boroug~ .
37659foc call
~l~ 75~·2171.
- )
™
23
14-19
!p'tOXVl,LLE, TN
~nnual mecling of the Natural Areas
Assoc!lidon, \lllldentlal land conservation and restoration
organization. The fust day of the meeting will be devOLCd
1o th~lJibila.t of'lhe Soulhem Appalachian Mountains.
PulilcffiiViteb.. Hrau Regency Hotel. Contact J. Ralph
JordaJ;\TV ~; Norris, TN 37S2S (615) 494-9800.
.,_)
I
20.22
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
The Black Mountain Fall Festival wilh
,.s
lRASSTow ll, NC
~
/ ,.....
Vassar Clements, Allen Fontenot and the Country
Fall Festival al the JobD C. Campbj)ll Folk
dljuns. Roy Bookbinder, Rhythm in Shoes (step dance),
SchooL-'Mus)c. craftS, country danci1,1g. · )ohn._C.
• and more. Grey Eagle and Friends; Box 216; Black
Campbell Follc Sch09l; Brasstown, ~c· 28906,
Mountafo, NC 28711.
11·15
H.IGHLANDS, NC
20-22
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Visual EnvironmentaHsm· photography
"The Song of Creation al Harvest Time•
workshop in the field and in lhe dnrkroom wilh Robert
harvest celebration in the Jewish tradition with Lynn
Glenn Kelchum and Michael Wilder. $250 includes
Goulieb, storyteller and rabbi of the Nahalat Shalom
lodging. Appalachian Environmental Ans Center: Box
Community, Albuquerque, NM. SI LS. Sou.them Dharmn
5SO; Highlands, NC 28741. (704) 526-4303.
Relreal Center. See 9/22·24.
12
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
WomnnSong at McDibbs. "Socilll concern
through harmony." S3. 119 Cherry St. (704) 669-24S6.
27
ASHEVILLE, NC
Thomas Berry will give the sermon at the
Equinox service of the Jubilee! Community. Service
begins at llAM 46 Wall S1rcc1. {704) 252-5335
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Mountain Sweet Talk" - a lwo-acl play with
the Folktellcrs, Barbara Freeman and Connie
Rcgan-B lake. The Folk Art Center Theater. Thursdays
lhru Saturdays - S pm: Sundays - 3 pm. TickctS: SS
advance from Malaprop's; SIO dooc. Reservations, cnll
(704) 25S-l l 13.
29- LO/I
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Restoring Biodiversity in the
Southern Appalachians: A Strategy for
Survival" conference on mountain habitat
13-19
24
NEW MARKET, TN
STP (Slop the Poisoning) School al the
Highlander Center. Tactics, strategy, and networking for
those working to stop industrial pollulion. Pre-register.
Call Highlander at (615) 933-3443.
30
CULLOWREE, NC
Moumain Heritage Day at WCU campus.
Clogging, shape-note singing, exhibils, crafts, food,
musical events, kids' shows. For more info, call (704)
227-72ll.
30-10/l
SWANNANOA, NC
Women's class on Jamaican culwral ceremony
with Rev. Queen Mother Azula. For more info, call:
(704) 29S-3935. The Eanh Center; 302 Old Fellowship
Rd.; Swannanoa, NC 28776
12-29
HI GHLANDS, NC
"Praying Feel and Dirty Hands"
Intergenerational Peace Conference led by Stepanie
Nichols. Carol Powers (The Peace Network) and Bob
Alpern. Programs on US/USSR cooperation, connict
resolution and non-violence, overcoming slrCeotypcs,
more - "leading people into action." SSS includes meals
and lodging. The Mountain Camp and Conference
CenLCr; 841 Highway 106; Highlands. NC 2S741. (704)
526-5S3S.
14
AS HEVILLE, NC
"Danger Down Under" groundwnter pro1CCli011
workshop. Health risks, citizen action, simulations.
Keynote: Larry and Sheila Wilson of Highlander Center.
S:30-4:00. Owen Conference Center, UNCA.
Pre-register: S15 to Clean Water Fund of North Carolina:
l lS Person St.; Raleigh, NC 27602. For more info, call:
(704)251-0518.
(Sec ad on back cover.) Pre-registration: S20 to
"Resloring Biodiversity..." c/o Box 233; Hot Springs,
NC 28743. For more info, call: (704) 251-6441.
27
ASHEVILLE, NC
Earth First! Road Show with Dakou Sid nnd
Roger Featherstone. Music and rabble-rousing. Stone
Soup, Broadway and Walnut. al S:OO pm. $4.
28
ASHEVILLE, NC
"For All Things Wild" Forest
Rescue Action Workshop. Strategy meeting
for activists wishing to help defend and restore
Appalachian habitat. (See ad on back cover.)
Pre-regiStration: SS to "For All Things Wild" c/o Elmer
Hall; Box 233: Hot Springs, NC 28743. For more info..
call: (704) 29S-3325 (ExL 250).
Drawing by Rob Messick
f"aCC., l 989
�10-12
28
4
ASHEVILLE, NC
·wt1d In the Str••h: The Feral
Q.all· Do.-..:• with Grondmother o"d
Strow
Com•
c::o&-tutT\ed
o.s
your
Q,...
BLACK MOUNTAIN , NC
David Wilcox, vinuoso local songwriter, at
McDibbs. S4. See 10/12.
fovortt•
~"·"'• onlmal or bird ... or .som•tN""S
10-12
MADISON, VA
"Living the Sacred Round: Lessons from the
Medicine Wheel.• Sevenoaks Pa!hwork Center, see
1W15-18.
wlldl
B 00 """" Loccrtlon to be c:>l'V'C>unc:.ed
10-12
CAMP NEW HOPE, NC
Celebrating the Dream ofthe Eanh
Earth, isn't this whaJ you want
28-29
WA YNESVlLLE, NC
"Chi Kung: An Ancient Taoist Mysiery" with
Ellen Hines of the Chinese Acupuncture and Herbology
Clinic, Asheville, NC. S50 includes room and board.
Contact S1il-Light Retreat Center; Rt. I, Box 326;
Waynesville, NC 28786 (704) 452-4569
NOVEMBER
4
FLETCHER, NC
"Improving and Maintaining Soil Fertility," a
conference sponsored by the Carolina Farm Stewardship
Assocuiuon. $15 includes lunch. For more info., call
Fairglen Farms (704)252-4414.
invisibly to arise in us?
11
(Rilke)
Reflecting the key Lhemes of Thomas
Berry. the conference will focus on the cerebral
as well as ki11esthetic interpretations of the
Dream of the Earth. With Miriam Therese
MacGillis, Amy Hannon, Marnie Muller, and
others. Workshops include: "Evolutionary
Remembering," "Exploring the Dream through
Movement and Sound." Annual Conference of
the Center for Reflection on the Second Law.
Info: CFRSL; 8420 Camellia Dr.; Raleigh, NC
27612
Cost: $9.50, includes postage
(NC residents please add S~ sales tax.)
raU,1989
CELlNA, TN
TN Alternative Growers Assoc. Fall
Conference. Includes soil improvement and backyard fruit
production. At Sta.nding Stone State Park. info: (615)
232-7777.
DECEMBER
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Mike Cross at McDibbs. Shows at 8 and 10
pm Tickets SIO in advance. See 10/12.
..
...
Please specify size: Sm.. Med., Lg., X-Lg.
11·19
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Livingston Taylor at McDibbs. Shows at 8
an 10 pm. Tickets SS in advance. Sec 10/12.
15-17
Beer & Wine Making
Supplies
•: Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grains :.
In the traditional Cherokee Indian belier. the
creatures in the world LOday are only diminuitive forms of
the mythic beings who once inhabited lhe world, but
who now reside in Galuna'li, the spirit world, lhe highest
heaven. But a few of the original powers broke through
the spiritual barrier and exist yet in the world as we know
it These beings arc called with reverence "grandfathers".
And of !hem, the sirongest are Kanali, the lightning, lhe
power or the sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the eanh plane; and Yunwi Usdi,
"lhe little man•, as ginseng is called in the sacred
ceremonies, who draws up power from lhe underworld.
Each is lhe sirongest power in its own domain.
Together !hey arc aJJies: tJ1cir energies complement each
other 10 form an even grcatct power. As medicine allies,
they represent the healing powers of the Appalachian
Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katuah have been
depicted in a striking T-shin design by Ibby Kenna.
Printed in 4-color silkscreen by Ridgerunncr Naturals on
top quality, aU-couon shins, they are available now in
all adult sizes tllrough the Kal:mu bioregional mail-order
supplier.
Order shirts from: KRLANU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
KatW!h Province 28779
SWANNANOA, NC
Marketing Alternative Crops seminar at
Warren Wilson College. Call Fairglen Farms (704)
252-44 14 for more info.
2
Natural Foods
rt'.ED'LC'LN'.E A.LL'L'.ES
WAYNESVILLE, NC
Weekend Meditation Retreat with Dorothy
Abbenhouse, president of the Theosophical Society in
America. $60. Stil-Light Retreat Center. See 10/28-29.
Vitamins & Supplements
Wheat, Salt,
& Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy Substitutes
•: Hair & Skin Care Products
111
200 West Kina Street. Boone NC 28607
\.•
'\..,_
704-264-5220
~~':"'
WAYNESVILLE, NC
Discussion and practice of "The Yoga Sutras
of Patanjali" wilh Leon Frankel. $60. Stil-Light Retreat
Center. See 10/28-29.
224'. broadway
ashcvi.lle. n.c
288o1
704-252-8404
=•
Ill
..
carolina costume
compaey
_J~ .._________________,
1
=-~
MOON
Gilts of Celebration
(EARTHWAY BOOKSTORE)
Books • New Age Music
Wildcrafted Herbal Producu
Gemstones • Unique Cards
Magazines • & More
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PRODUCTS
Member NC Water Ouallly Assoeiallon
RANDALL C. LANIER
704-293-5912
HWY. 107
RT . 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
(704) 264-7242
315 E. King Street, Boone NC 28607
e1ti11ese .,4(11p1111(/11re
DESIGNS
111tli
Jler/Jp/gl/I e/iHi(
by Rob Messick
lllustralion & Design
in Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil
P O Box 2601 • soone. NC 28607 • 1704)754-0097
78 EMT CMESTNUT STREET
AS>il:VIU.E. NC 28801
704 2S8-llOl6
M.C. M.VEBE. M.S., Ao.0.
UC. ACUPl.INCT\JRIST
EU.£H Hll<ES M.Ac.. ¥ M.
UC. ACUPUNCTIJRIST
�LEAD TESTS • Is your plumbing leaching
poi.~onous lead into your drinkingwatcr? Find out
for sure • lead-testing kit from the non-profit Clean
Water Fund of NC. All you need for Sl2. Send a
check w/ name and address to CWF: 138 E.
Chestnut St.; Asheville, NC 28801
MOCCASINS, handcrafted of elkhide in the
traditional Plains Indian style. Water-resistant,
rcsolable, and rugged - great for hiking! Children's
and infant sizes available. Write: Blue Feather
Moccasins; Box 931; Asheville. NC 28802. or caU
Patrick Clark at (704) 253-5047.
BLIGHT RESISTANT CHESTNUT - hybrid
American/Chinese Dunstan chestnut lJ'CCS - blight
resistant, limber growth form, productive orchard
crop with large, sweet easily-peeled nuts. Chestnut
Hill Nursery: Rt. I, Box 341-K; Alachua, FL
32615 (904) 462-2820
APPLE TREES - old-timey and popular
contemporary varieties on standard, semi-, or dwarf
stock. Send SASE for prices: Jeff Poppen: Long
Hungry Creek Nursery; Red Boiling Springs. TN
37150.
UNION ACRES, an alternative community for 20
families based on principles of stewardship,
equality, consensus, and simplicity. Spaces
available. Apply to Caroline Grant: Rt. I, Box
61-J; Whittier, NC 28789 or call (704) 497-4964.
ADOPT-A-TREE. Trees are the great conservators
of the planeL The Adopt-A-'Ire.e program will help
malce the vital connection between individual people
and individual trees. Donations accepted. For more
info. write to Box 144, Sugnr Grove, NC 28679
CHRISTIAN MA TCH-A-FRlEND seeks to bring
together Christian men & women. Interested
persons, advenisc free. We arc non-profit. For
information please send a self-addressed envelope io:
Gospel Ministry. P.O. Box 654, Clinton, TN
37717.
RENEWAL PROGRAMS- I provide individual and
corporate renewal programs for businesses &
organizations interested in healing themselves and
providing empowerment 10 others. Write: Kathie
Pieper c/o Pieper Associates, Rt. I, Box 238
Waynesville, NC 28786.
NEEDED: CHJLD-LOVING PERSON who loves
Lo be a nanny and housekeeper for my four
children. Hours, wages negotiable. Rm. and bd.
available. Asheville area. Call Morgan (704)
689-5382.
NEW AGE - group forming. All interested in
shnring about spirit to spirit communication,
channeling, visualization, healing, chakras, tarot,
etc. Emphasis on spiril and our connecLion lo
Mother Earth, visualizing positive growth and
nunuring. ConUICt Theresa C&rlson, 7501 Ruic Rd.,
Knoxville, TN 37920.
PEPPERLAND offers a variety of outdoor education
programs for church, school, or civic groups
year-round. We will help you design a program for
your group. Send for information packet to:
Pepperland Farm camp: Star Route; Farner, TN
37333.
"THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT' - a complete
rcpon on our changing environment for the next 60
years. $17.00 poslpaid, or write for more
information. Lorien House, POB 1112, Black
Mountain, NC 28711-1112.
APPALACHJAN GINSENG CO. ·stratified seeds,
seedlings, roots. Send for price list to: P.O. Box
547; Dillsboro, NC 28725.
DRUMS ·Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbecks &
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe Roberts at (704)
258-1038 or write 10: 738 Town Mountain Rd.:
Asheville, NC 28804.
THE PEOPLE OF THE ONE SONG - booklet of
stories and poems that tell of the people's dreams,
rituals, roles, and relationships from the arthetypal
memory of the past, present, and future. S3 to
Colleen Redman: One Song Scribe; Box 634;
Floyd. VA 24091.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - herbal salves,
tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For
brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm; RL I,
Box 726: Hampton, TN 37658
WOMANSONG - ongoing choral group forming.
Songs of beauty, meaning spirit, fun, peace,
cooperation, sisterhood. Come and sing! Mon.
evenings, 7:30-9, Asheville, NC. (704) 254-7068.
X-citUah Jo1mmL pci9e 34
SEA KAY AKlNG - Come enjoy peace and
solitude traveling with the rhythms of the sea.
Classes. day trips, overnight tours, custom charters.
Kayak/Sail boat tours to the Bahamas. Kayak tours
to Costa Rica. For more information contact:
Chnrlie Reeves, Sea Level Inc. POB 478 Tybee
Island, GA 31328 (912)786-5853
ORGANIC HONEY - Tulip Poplnr, Sourwood
and WildOowcr. From Patrick County, Virginia. No
chemicals. no white sugar, no heat, ever Strained
through cheesecloth and packed in heavy glass
canning jars. For a 4-oz. sample of our premium
sourwood and our catalog, send $4 to: Wade
Buckholts & Megan Phillips; Route 2. Box 248:
Stuart, VA 24171. (703) 694-4571
LO cook
NAMASTE FAMILY needs brothers and sisters to
join us in Lovi~g. Giving, Growing. Send Sl2
donation for writings and videotape to Namast~
Family; RR2, Box 578: Barnstead, NH 03225.
THE WATAUGA LAND AND WATER
CONSERVANCY • is a not-for-profit charitable
trust set up to protect the values and ecological
settings which sustain us both spiritually and
economically. If you are concerned about the purity
of the headwaters and watercourses, and the
preservation of wild and agricultural lands GET
INVOLVED. Write to Quality Living Publications,
POB I, Valle Crucis, NC 28691
"MAGIC AFTERNOONS" - for children at the
Unitarian Church of Asheville. An an program with
Linda Metzner in music, Norma Bradly in visual
arts, and Barrie Barton in creative movemenL It
begins Sept.ember 18th. Call 254-7068 for details.
NATURE LOVERS' COMMUNITY· Christians
only. SIOOO gives you life time ownership rights
on .5 acres. Whole prope.n y consists of 45 acres of
wooded calm and privacy. Write: Gospel Ministry,
P.O. Box 654, Clinton, TN 37717.
ITS THE ACHOO! SERVICE - Patch the clown
brings laughter and fun to the hospital. Join him
and the Gesundheit Institute at 2630 Roben Walwer
Place, Arlington, VA 22207 or (703) 525-8169.
PURE SORGHUM - and sorghum based desserts
toppings and chocolates. Handmade in the
Appalachian foothills. Free sorghum recipe brochure
send SASE. Candy sampler (2-KY Buckeyes &
2-Bourbon Balls) $2.00 postpaid. Golden Kentucky
Products, POB 246, Livingston, KY. 40445. (606)
453-9800.
MOUNTAIN DULCIMERS • made of black
walnut, red cherry, or maple. Tops available in
wormy chestnut, butlernut, sweetgum, sassafras,
western cedar and other woods. Contact: Mize
Dulcimer Company Rt. 2, Box 288, Bloumville,
TN. 37617 (615) 323-8489.
WEBWORKING is free. Send submissions to:
RHYTHM ALIVE • Handcrafted African- Style
Drums, workshops, learning tapes. drumbags. and
accessories. Please send SASE to Rhythm Alive! 85
Phenix Cove Rd. Weaverville, NC 28787 (704)
645-3911.
Drawing by Rob Messick
Kat1'ah Journal
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
:r~u;.1999
�The Karuah Journal wants to communicate your thoughts and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
to us as letters, poems, stories, anicles, drawings, or photographs,
etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Kattiah Journal; P. 0.
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kan1ah Province 28748.
The Winter 1989-90 issue of the Katuall Journal will be
concerned with the challenges and opponunities involved in
"Raising Children into a New Consciousness." We are interested in
hearing first-person stories, alternative schooling information,
children's resources (books, places to go. etc.), and any other
creative or pertinant ideas. Don't forget the canoons (kids love
canoons!).
BACK ISSUES OF KATUA H JOURNAL AVAILABLE
' ,!,!';;..,
~
~-
-
The Spring 1990 issue of the K atuah Journal will be
focusing o n "Wellness in the Mountains." We are looking for
information and articles on those who contribute to the healthful
quality of life in our southern mountains; especially through
accivities which promote self-responsibilicy and a high level of
wellness as the nonnal living state. A broad look at wellness might
include topics like stress management, spirirualfry, retreats and
adventures, service to others, Earth stewardship, having fun,
education, family and other relationships, fitness and nutrition, or
other areas of a satisfying lifestyle.
lncluded in the "Wellness" issue will be a directory of goods
and services related to wellness. There is no cost for a listing in this
directory. Please send in your name, practice, and a shon
explanation of your work or product, if you wish to be listed.
ISSUE EIGHT · SUMMER 198S
Celebration: A Way of Life · K.uuah 18,000
Ycan Ago • Sacred Sites - Folk Ans in lhe
Schools Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems:
Hilda Downer - Cherokee Heritage Cenaer Who Owns Appalachia?
.
ISSUETHREE SPRING 1984
SUSllllJUlble Agricuhure - Sunflowcn - Human
lmpac1 on lhe ForcSI - Childtcns' Education
Veronica Nicholu:Woman in Polilics - Uule
People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR ·SUMMER 1984
Water Drum Water Quality • Kudzu • Solu
"i Eclipse · Clurcu1ung · Trout • Ooing IO Weier
~I Ram Pllmps . Microhydto - Poems: Bennie
Lee Sincl&ir, J1m Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE · FALL 1984
Harves1 • Old Ways m Chcrolt~ • Ginseng •
Nuclear Waste - Our Cehic Heritage Bioregionahsm: Put, Prucnt. and Future John Wilnoty Healing Oatkness • Politics of
Partlcipation
ISSUESIX - Wl.NTER 1984.SS
Winter SolsticG EAl'lh Ceremony - Horsepasturr
River - Coming of lhe Ligh1 - Log Cabin
Root• • Mountain Agriculture: The Right Crop
- Williun Taylor . The Future of lhe Forw
ISSUE SEVEN • SPRING 1985
Sust1111able &:onomM:s • Hot Springs • Wortcr
Owncnhip - The Gru1 Economy • Seit Help
Credit Union • Wild Turltcy - Responsible
lnvCS1m1 • Working in lhc Web of Life
ISSUE NINE - FALL 1985
The Waldce Fo re11 - The Trees Speak Migrating Forats - Horse Logging - S1ar11ng a
Tree Crop · Urban Trees • Acom Bread • Mylh
ISSUE FIFTEEN - Spring 1987
Coverlets • Woman Forester • Susie McMahan
Midwife - Ahcmativc Contraception •
Bioscxuolity - Biorcgionalism and Women Oood Medicine: Mairi.=hal Culture . P1t1Jrl
LSSUE SIXTEEN - Summer 1987
Helen Waiae • Poem: Visions m a Garden Vi11on Ques1 • First Flow • ln1llllllon
Learning in lhc Wilderness • Cherokee
Olallcngc - "Valuing Trees"
Time
ISSUE TEN · WINTER 1985-86
Kate Rogers • Circles of Stone - lntemal
Mylhmalting • Holistic Healing on Trial •
Poems: Steve Knaulh - Mythic Places - The
Ulttcna's Tale - Crystal Magic •
ISSUE EIGHTEEN · Winier 1987-88
Vernacular Archiaecrure . Drcanu in Wood and
Stone • Mountain Home • Earth Energies •
Earth-Shchcied Living - Membrane Houses •
Brush Sheller • Poems: October DMsk. • Oood
Mcdic111C: "Shclaer"
~g·
ISSUE ELEVEN SPRING 1986
Community Planning • Cities and the
Bioregional Vision • Recycling · Community
GIJdenin&. Floyd CoWll}', VA - Guohol Two Bt0rcgional Views - Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Gatnes • Oood Medicine: Visions
ISSUE THlRTEEN · Fall 1986
Cenaer For Awakening · Eliu.bclh Callari · A
Gentle Death • Hospice - Ernest Morgan Dealing Creatively wilh Oealh • Home Burial
Box • The Wake • The Raven Mocker •
Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom · Oood
Medicine: The Sweat Lodge
LSSUE FOURTEEN . Winier 1986-87
Uoyd Carl Owle • Boogcn and Mummers - All
Species Day • Cabin Fever University •
Homclca in Katuah - Homemade Hot Watu
Saovernalter's Narrative • Good Medicine:
lnaerspccics Communication
~UAt;)OURNAL
ISSUE NINETEEN - Spring, 1988
Perlcandra Gorden - Spring Tonics • Bluebarics
Wildnower Gardens - Granny Herbalist •
Flower Essences • '"The Origin of lhe Arumals ·
Saory • Oood Medicine: "Power" • Be A Tree
ISSUE TWEJIITY - Summer, 1988
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness - Hig)ilands
of Roan - Celo Community - Land Trust •
Arlhur Morgan School - Zoning hsuc • "The
Ridge" • Farmers l1ld lhe Farm Bill - Oood
Medicine: "Land" - Acid Rain - Duke's PowcT
Play • Cherok~ Microhydro Project
uve
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor .....................$50/yr.
Address
Enclosed is $
10 give
this ejforr an extra bOost
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Area Code
"'"'· 1989
Phone Number
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR · Summer, '89
Deep Listening • Life in Atomic City - Di.reel
Action! · Tree of Peace - Community Building
Peacemakers • Ethnic Survival • Pairing
Projcc1 - "Baulesong· • Growing Peace in
Cultures - Review: The Chalice and the B/Dde
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
Name
State
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - Spring, t 989
Pisgah Village - Planet An • Green City •
Poplar Appeal - "Cl- Sky" • "A New Eanh"
Black Swan - Wild Lovely Days • Reviews:
Sacr('Jf land Sacred Sa, / cc A1e • Poem:
"Sudden TaOils"
lSSUETWENTY-ONE - FaU, 1988
Chestnuts: A Natunl History - Restoring lhc
Chestnut - "Poem of Preservation and PnUc"
Continuing lhe Quest - Forests and Wildlife
Chestnuts in Regional Diet • Chestnut
Resources • Herb Noie • Oood Medicine:
"Changes to Came" - Review: Wliue u1ends
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 683-1414
City
-·-
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO - Wintu, •gg.g9
Global Wanning - Fire This Time • Thomu
Berry on "Biorcgions" • Eanh Exercise • Kor~
Loy McWhirtcr - An Abundance of Emp1iness
LETS - Chronicles of Floyd • Derry Wood
The Bear Clan
Back Issues
Issue#_@ $2.50 $_ _
Issue# _ _ @ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
18-23)
@ $35.00 = $_ _
=
=
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 25, Fall 1989
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-fifth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on biodiversity and habitat: forest ecosystem, old-growth forest, regional planning, forest devastation, black bears and Eastern panthers, and living green. Authors and artists in this issue include: Sam Gray, Robert Zahner, Laura E. Jackson, David Wheeler, Anna Muir, Julia Nunnally Duncan, Annelinde Metzner, Patrick Clark, Heather Blair, Chip Smith, Lee Kinnaird Fawcett, James Rhea, Rob Messick, Marnie Mikell, Patricia Claire Peters, Mary de La Valette, Sue Adams, Starfire Soledad, Christoph and Mary-Clayton Enderlein, and Morgan Swann, <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
The Great Forest by Sam Gray.......3<br /><br />Restoring the Old-Growth Forest by Robert Zahner.......5<br /><br />Regional Planning for Habitat Integrity by Laura Jackson.......8<br /><br />A Question of Value by David Wheeler.......10<br /><br />Closing the Gate on Forest Devastation by Ann Muir.......12<br /><br />Poem: "Sparrow Hawk" by Julia Nunnally Duncan.......13<br /><br />A Place for Bears: An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton.......15<br /><br />Poem: "There Fell the Rain Healing" by Annelinde Metzner.......16<br /><br />Eastern Panther, Where Are You? by Patrick Clark.......17<br /><br />Oak Decline by Heather Blair.......19<br /><br />People and Habitat by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawcett.......21<br /><br />Perpetual Wild Sanctuaries.......23<br /><br />Natural World News.......24<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Living Green.......29<br /><br />Barter Fair.......30<br /><br />(Natural) Resources.......31<br /><br />Events Calendar.......32<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
Human ecology
Black bear--Appalachian Region, Southern
Regional planning--Appalachian Region
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Acid Deposition
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Community
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
European Immigration
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Geography
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Reading Resources
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/6ac3b2d6326ea4a47a252670915b7c24.pdf
39d93874ae21ffbb586dcabe91047fcd
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 27 SPRING 1990
$1.50
BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
�Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�Personal and Planetary
Transformation:
A Holistic Model of Healing.......... !
by Richard Lowenthal
The Healing Power...................... 4
by David Wheeler
Peace to Their Ashes .................... 6
by Sam Gray
Healing in Katuah........................9
by Doug Aldridge
"When Left to Grow" ................. 10
a poem by Rob Messick
"Calling to the Ancestors,
Calling Our Relations" .......... 11
poems by Stephen Wing
PERSONAL AND PLANETARY
TRANSFORMATION:
A HOLISTIC MODEL OF HEALING
The l3elly .................................. 12
by Lisa Sarasohn
by Richard Lowenthal
EARTH DAY 1990 !!. ................ 15
a special pull-ow supplement
Food From the Ancient Porest.. .. .19
by Snow Bear
Natural World News ..................20
Good Medicine .......................... 24
Drumming ................................ 26
Leners to Katuah Journal
Events ...................................... 29
Webworking ............................. 30
It is abundantly clear that the Earth is in
the midst of a tremendous ecological crisis.
Human societies the world over are also
experiencing phenomenal changes and crises as are the individuals who live in them. Our
collective destiny seems to be shifting rapidly,
and may well be careening out of control. A
very good question, at this point in our
evolution, is "What is happening to us and to
the planet - and where are we heading?"
Our planetary crisis, like all crises,
combines great danger and great opportunity.
If we are to meet the challenge successfully,
we need to understand both the dangers and
the opportunities - and learn how to deal with
them.
The best model I have found, to help us
approach comprehension of this planetary
crisis, is derived from the holistic
understanding of health, illness, and the
healing process. In order to better understand
what is happening on a global scale, we need
to consider the recently-articulated possibility
that the Earth may in fact be one huge living
being, with its own self-regulating systems.
Both the Gaia Theory of Lovelock and
Margulis, and Peter Russell's work on "The
Global Brain", point in this direction. If the
Earth is truly an individual, indivisible being,
the processes of personal and planetary
healing may mirror each other in many ways even more, they may be inseparable.
In the holistic view, physical i!Jness is
often the result of unresolved emotional and
spiritual issues, as well as the build-up of
toxic waste-products in various organs and
tissues of the body. Our increasing
understanding of the human psyche, and of
the interaction between mind and body (if
indeed they can even be separated), has
shown that suppressed emotional traumas and
long-buried negative self-concepts have a
constricting, deadening effect upon the
body/mind. They, too, may thus be
considered powerful toxins which 'poison'
our entire body/mind system. Their effect is
reflected in, and amplified by, the
accumulation of chemical toxins in the body an excellent example of the mirroring effect
implicit in the holistic model of healing. That
is, our body/mind system is an integrated
whole, in which toxins on one level indicate
(continued on page 3)
�STAFFTinS ISSUE:
Susan Adam
Heather Blair
Rob Messick
Mamie Muller
Lisa Sarasohn
Scott Bini
Jim Houser
Richard Lowenthal
James Rhea
Chip Smith
Rodney Webb
Manha Tree
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Will Ashe Bason
Trip Halbkat
Michael Red Fox
Phil Ross
Jack Chaney
Michael Havelin
Marsha Ring
Kim Sandland
COVER by Martha Tree
Special thanks Kitty Boniske for providing a home for this
issue, and to Phil and Allen for their hospitality and
forbearance.
PUBLISHED BY: Kat"'1h Journal
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mounraineer Press
EDITORIAL OFACE JHIS ISSUE:
The Cenier for New Priorities, Asheville
WRITE US AT:
Kar"'1h Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
TELEPHONE: (704) 754-60')7
KalUah Journal is on Skyland BBS, Asheville, NC.
For information, call (704) 254-6700.
Diversity is an important clement of bioregional eoology, bolh
natural and social. In line with !his principle, lhe KatUalt Journal 1rics
IO serve as a forum for !he discussion of regional issues. Signed anicles
express only lhe opinion of lhc aulhors and are not necessarily lhe
opinions of lhe Ka1Ualt Journal edilOrs or slaff.
The lnlCmal Revenue Service has declared KatUalt a non·profit
organization under section 50l(cX3) of lhc lnlCmal Revenue Code. AU
conlributions IO Ka1ao1t aic deductible from personal income tax.
'LNVOC:ATWN
From the dark below
The young stem curves upright
Green into light
Leaves open their cluster
In the sun they sing
Wisdom of the stars
And blossom in the life of all creation
1l!E SOUTHERN APPALACFDAN BIOREGION
ANO MAJOR EASTERN RJVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on
our continent, Turtle Island; a small but growing
group has begun to take on a sense of responsibility
for the implications of that geographical and cultural
heritage. This sense of responsibility centers on the
concept of living within the natzual scale and balance
of universal systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name " Kat1'ah 1' as the old/new name for
this area of the mountains and for its journal as well.
The province is indicated by its natural boundaries:
the Roanoke River Valley to the north; the foothills
of the piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountain and
the Georgia hills to the south; and the Tennessee
River Valley to the west.
The editorial priorilies for us are to collect
and disseminate information and energy which
pertains specifically to this region, and to foster the
awareness that the land is a living being deserving of
our love and respect. Living in this manner is a way
to insure the sustainability of the biosphere and a
lasting place for ourselves in its continuing
evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of
a " do or die " situation in terms ofa quality standard
of life for all living beings on this planet. As a voice
for the caretakers of this sacred land, Katuah, we
advocate a centered approach to the concept of
decentralization. It is our hope to become a support
system for those accepting the challenge of
sustainability and the creation of harmony and
balance in a total sense, here in this place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information, articles, artwork, etc. with
hopes that Kat1'ah will grow to serve the best interests
of this region and all its living, breathing members.
-The Editors
"'-t\&nh )ournaL Pci<Je 2
/
SprLnlJ, 199 0
�(conlinued Cmm peac 1)
toxic build-up on other levels as well. Spiritual, emotional,
mental, and physical problems :ire completely intertwined and
interdependent. There 1s no separation between them, yet there is
a twist to this scenario - there is usually a "time lag" involved in
physical manifestation.
This idea of "time lag" is imporunt, because it indicates
that we may not sec visible, outer effects or iMer trauma or
constriction for a long time. Conversely, when we do see outer
effects, or when we consciously "feel bad," we can be pretty sure
that toxic ideas or feelings have been poisoning us inwardly and
subconsciously for some time, and/or our bodies are
overwhelmed by toxins and stress.
Since all the various "levels" of our being are interacting to
produce "disease" (dis-ease). the most effective healing method
addresses what is happening on each level simultaneously. In
particular, it deals quickly and directly with any physical
"presenting problems", especially those that are imminently
life-threatening. (This is the fort.e of modem medicine.) It would
also - and even more importantly - prescribe a process of gradual
detoxification, "remedial learning", and therapy to help the
person heal on the deeper, more intangible levels as well
These deeper levels of healing present some problems,
usually of a psychological nature. What happens is this: as the
body/mind starts releasing toxins - physical or emotional - we
enter a "healing crisis" which can take many forms. Often there
be brief l'CCUJ!Cnccs <?fold illnes~s which were suppressed
with drugs; chemical toxms st.an coming out through the skin,
which can brcalc out in pimples, boils, or rashes; and we may
experience nausea, weakness, and dizziness. These physical
symptoms are not "problems" in themselves • in fact, they arc
pan of the solution. Problems arise when we give in to fear and
believe we arc "getting sick", instead of understanding that we
are releasing toxins as we heal.
But here's the rub: since repressed emotions arc
themselves mental and emotional toxins, it is likely that we will
experience a lot of fear - or anger, or sadness - as buried
emotions are surfacing to be released. We wiU also be releasing
and experiencing our cultural fear of emotion, and our training to
be afraid of our fears! For this reason, we need extensive
preparation and prior education about the nature of a healing
crisis: what it means, what to expect, and how to deal with the
emotional discharge. The crucial clement is that we learn to look
beyond OUlU appearances or the temporary ill feeling, and ro trust
that the body/mind krwws very well how ro heal itself when it is
w!"
properly supported in doing so. Withour this krwwing, this faith,
healing is much more difficult.
4) Simultaneously, humanity as a whole is starting to
awaken to the mind-boggling depth of the issues involved.
Tremendous social problems such as drug and alcohol addiction,
di~i~tegration of the familr, distrust of government, teenage
suicide and pregnancy, SOCJal apathy, and overall deterioration
of education and our quality of life arc spurring people to seek
new ways, new answers. The success and rapid spread of the
Alcoholics Anonymous movement, its many off-shoots, and
therapy and support groups is one facet of this process.
The primary toxin being released is
our toxic belief in separation - our
misunderstanding of our relation to the
universe, nature, and other people.
5) The entire planet and all of humanity is going through a
healing crisis involving the generation and release of toxins on
every level. The crucial issue seems to be this: whatever we
refuse to deal with inwardly MUST eventually appear outwardly,
and KEEP appearing outwardly until we 'get the message'. This
means that our 'inner' psychological reality and the 'outer'
ecological reality are in fact ONE reality. Because we have
allowed such a toxic build-up within ourselves and our societies,
and have NOT dealt with our inner and interpersonal realities
effectively, our world is mirroring our internal denial--by
manifesting externally the pain we believe we've 'avoided'. Thus
unbelievable amountS of deadly toxins arc being produced either
intentionally - i.e. plutonium and chemical/biological weapons or as industrial wastes. And these toxins arc either stored away
for 'safe' keeping or dumped directly into the planetary
ecosystem, with disastrous results.
This process is the 'outpicturing'- the outer result - of
psychological toxins that have been accumulating for several
thousand years. The primary toxin being released is our toxic
belief in separation - our misunderstanding of our relation to the
universe, nature, and other people - and with it the overwhelming
fear and defensiveness this disempowering belief generates.
6) As humanity's emotional negativity and toxic belief
systems rise up from the depths of the collective unconscious and
come to the surface (become conscious). they at first cause an
increase in violence, immorality, greed, exploitation, and
narcissistic behavior. Initially, people identify with these
surfacing negative patterns and act accordingly; they may
temporarily become even more fearful, self-centered, and
exploitive (as we've seen during the 80's). This 'regression' is
Now, if we apply chis practical, yet visionary, model of
healing to our planetary crisis, we might arrive at the following
"diagnosis":
part of the healing, difficult as it is to accept; it is making our
inner reality outwardly visible and tangible - and inescapable.
1) We arc now experiencing on a planetary scale the
destructive outer effects of long-standing, toxic beliefs and
feelings operating within us, and within our social structures.
The intensifying pollution and degradation of the Eanh is a
reflection of humanity's inner pain, denial of interdependence,
and emotional and spiritual degradation. The outer problems we
arc generating arc mirroring back to us, in no unccnain terms,
the concrete, tangible, and inevitable results of our arrogant and
divisive belief systems. This outer reality is making our
intangible INNER reality visible. Though we have prided
ourselves on our 'enlightened self-interest'. we arc now being
forced to see that our modern way of life is neither enlightened
nor in our best interests - or the best interests of the planet.
2) Some of these outer effects are threatening our survival
and the life of the planet - effects such as tropical deforestation,
over-population, the "consumer mentality", acid rain, the world
arms trade, erosion of topsoil, production of huge amounts of
nuclear and chemical hazardous wastes, etc.
3) These life-threatening problems should be dealt with
immediately, to at least reduce their impact and buy time so the
body (of humanity and of the planet) has the time and strength to
recuperate somewhat. This would require ecological, political,
and social activism on a very broad-based, grass-roots level. It
would also require that we institute educational processes that
help people oo COMMUNICATE and COOPERATE more easily.
~~S!J'UCtivc tendencies we have set in motion may really be the
We thus need to recogniz.c that all the "terrible" events and
SprLnq, 1990
1moal messengers of a far deeper, positive change; we need to
remember that appearances are not always what they seem. And
we especially need an educationaJ approach that can help us get
through the darkest moments - or years - of this planetary
"healing crisis." A vision of the positive end result - the
proverbial "light at the end of the tuMel" - will be absolutely
necessary, if we arc not to lapse into judgementalism, impotent
rage, or despair.
Fonunatcly, we already have such visions available to us.
Many writers and 'futurists' are exploring and communicating
a~ut the incredible transformations already occurring in such
diverse fields of human endeavor as physics, biology, the
psy~hology and treatment of addiction, 'citizen diplomacy',
sohd-waste management', economics, and world politics.
All these developments have one thing in common: the
gradu~I shift from a mechanistic, separative, controlling mode of
consciousness to an ecological, holistic, relationship-oriented
mode. This shift aligns us with the Earth; it is the fundameotal
inner shift which will allow us, as it progresses, 10 adapt to the
immense changes we arc experiencing. The old order based on
separation, exploitation, and fear is dying. Let us assist in this
tremendous transformation process, and panicipatc in the birthing
of the new, with courage, determination. and love.
,,
JGQt®h Jo1Mnat
PQl}e
s
�THE HEALING POWER
by David Wheeler
The Appalachian Mountains are old, and their power is
subtle. But their power is yet strong. Standing over the eastern
seaboard of the Turtle Island continent, the intangible influence of
~e Appalachians racli~1es out over all the lowlands so thickly
mhab11ed by human bemgs. As surely as that power is invisible
and inexplicable, its subtle influence is also vital 10 maintaining
the balance of life of the eastern half of Tunle Island.
To the original inhabitants of the Southern Appalachians
"medicine" meant power, and the mountains were always know~
to.~ sacr~ and powerful. Traditionally, Cherokee Indians of a
spmtual mind would plunge every morning into the river that
flowed by each village. Thus they partook of the medicine of
water and mountains. They ate wild foods and healed bodily
ailments with roots dug from the ground, roots lhat were full of
the medicine of the mountains.
C:Cnain peaks or waterfalls or other special spots in the
mountams were known as sacred sites where the spiritual energy
of the mountains was concentrated. The native people went to
these places for fasting and prayer, to find who they were when
they came of age, and, if they could, to die when their time was
at an end. They knew that these were sacred places, for they
could sense the energy directly. And did not Grandfather Eagle,
the most sacred of creatures, choose to live on the mountain
heights?
The ftrst white people who came to the mountains were in
awe of the imposing presence of the Appalachians. On the
~urface, the fi~t immigrants who followed 1he early explorers
mto the mountain coves and "hollers" seemed to be too engrossed
!n sim~ly making a livelihood .fo~ themselves, and too caught up
m praying to an abstracted Chnsuan God, to recognize the power
of mountains - but inside, deep down, they knew.
Others, coming 100 years later, recognized the power of
mountains and came for healing. First by carriage, then by
~I, they came to escape the flatland heat and to cure a variety of
ailments - most often tuberculosis, for which the only cure
known in both Europe and North America was to retreat to the
mountains. Well-known resort centers, spas, and sanitariums
were .built, an~ their prospe~ous ~de became an important early
cash mdustry m the mountains. This type of commerce was at its
peak when the lumber barons were just beginning their
exploitation of the region's timber trees.
Only the rich could afford the healing offered in the
mountains, so the patrons of the fashionable resort/healing
centers were largely southern aris1ocra1s with a sprinkling of
northern industrialists. The Line between "healing" and "vacation"
often became quite blurred. It was sometimes hard 10 tell a
popular spa from a resort hotel, as the same building often served
both purposes.
The warm springs of the town now called Hot Springs in
Madison County, and other mineral springs along the French
Broad, became known as healing places, and several spas were
constructed during the middle 1800's for people to "take the
waters."
Wilma Dykeman tells of the great resort/healing centers in
her regional history, The French Broad. She wrote:
"Health and pleasure were the attractions of the watering
places: the first providing a worthy excuse for the indulgence of
the second. Advertisements of the period mentioned immediate
cures, upon use of the mineral waters, for 'Diseases of the Liver,
Dyspepsis, Vertigo, Neuralgia, Opthalmia or Sore Eyes,
Paralysis, Spinal Affections, Rheumatism, Scrofula, Gravel,
Diabetes, Consumption and Chronic Cough, Diseases of the
Skin, Tetter, Indolent Ulcers, General Debility, Sleeplessness,
and Nervous Prostration.' The waters of many places were
reputed good for barre nness in wives and impotence in
husbands.
th~
Drawing by Rob Messick
Spri:rMJ1 ! 999.•
�''The Wann Springs, most famous of all the French Broad
watering places, mentioned in one of their brochures that
partaking of their minerals would 'bring the bloom back to the
chec_k, the lustre to the eye, tone to the languid pulse, sr:rcngth to
the Jaded nerves, and vigor to the wasted frame.' From all
co~tcmpo_rary accounts of t~e social life of the place, its patrons
amved with cheeks already in full bloom, eyes overflowing with
lustre,_ and pulses. in no need of stimulation beyond that of
moonlight on the nver or the shady tum in a lover's walk."
The city of Asheville became the hub of both the health and
society circles. In 1888 a German doctor named Carl van Ruck
established the first large tuberculosis sanitarium, arid, as word
got out about the beneficial mountain climate, others soon sprung
up around the area.
. . . To ~he wealthy visitors, who knew only the highly
c1v1hzed life of the lowlands, the mountain landscapes were
exotic and wild. The fine "foreign folk" thrilled at the rugged
scenery, the waterfalls and swift-running creeks, and the
mountain air, so cool and crisp even in the summertime.
T?<1ay, muc~ the same attractions bring people to the
mount~1ns. Ostensibly, they say they come for tourism and
rccrea~on, but the deepest _need is for healing: the healing of
relax~on from ov~·paced lifestyles; healing from crowdedness,
poll~uon, and existen?Cs overfull of people and machines;
healing from banal rouones, fast food, and TV-screen lives· but
most of all, healing from an inner emptiness of which they~ no;
know the source.
Easy accessibility has brought the culture of civilization
~eep into the m.ountains. They are no longer strange, exotic,
isolated, and wild, as they were to the early socialites who
thronged the fashionable watering spots during the late I800's.
But there are what seem to modem urbanites to be great expanses
of unbroken forest. There is water that is actually drinkable as it
~m~s out from a spring! This is a functioning native habitat this 1s wholeness, the world as it could be.
There are so few examples of natural native environments
in the eastern pan of the continent that the forests and mountains
of ~ppalachia serve ~ ~ important grounding point for urban
v1s1tors. From a hfe in which the human influence is
omnip~nt, from an environment that is largely manufactured or
synthesized by human hands, the Appalachian hardwood forest is
a d.ose of reality. The ~~man spirit needs places like this by
which to refresh our sp1ms and to judge our actions - a mark
from which we can see if our culture is straying.
This sense of wholeness could be the cornerstone for a
whole new relationship between the human species and the
mountains. As it becomes increasingly rare, that sense of
wholeness becomes increasingly precious. Restoring the heaJth
of the. Appalachian forest by ending commercial exploitation and
allowing the forest to grow towards its natural climax state would
be the key to this new relationship. It would transform the
physical landscape of the mountains and would perhaps also
work to change the inner landscape of human society as well.
This new balance would require a greatly reduced human
prc~nce in the n:iountain habitat area. The primary use of the
region at present is as a resource base to support a large number
of human beings - but this is obviously not the purpose of
existence for the mountains. This has to change.
The "resources" of the area, the continuing life cycles arc
needed instead to support large numbers of trees, herbac~us
plants, and native wildlife. There must be a core habitat area that
is no.t violatc;ct by human beings, but used only in ways that are
consistent with the demands of the natural habitat - a biosphere
preserve. With conditions throughout the world already under so
much pressure from the human presence, the mountains should
be primarily a place for restrained visits.
But there is a possibility that a greatly limited number of
humans could create a right livelihood in a buffer zone that
surrounded the central preserve by leading others to the
wholeness .~f the land - relating specifically through healing.
learning, spintual exploration, art, recreation, and initiation.
SprlrMJ, I 990
. These kinds of activities need, of course, to be approached
with great care. When the value of an experience is in the
wholeness of it, then practitioners must be careful that the sense
of wlwle'!es~ is not ruined by the number of people arriving to
take part in 1t. Access would need to be carefully rationed. This
level of experience is obviously not to be degraded with crowded
parking lots, souvenir snips, or giant ridgctop condos. People
come to the mountains to treasure what is rare and special - and
strong - about them. It destroys their special ambience to make
them over to appear just like every other place frequented by
humans.
At the Cumberland Island National Seashore off the coast
of south Georgia, ~mping is by permit only and reservations
must be.made well 10 advanc~. This policy is intended to protect
the fragile nature of the seaside habitat. A similar policy would
serve well in the Appalachian biosphere preserve to protect the
fragile sense of wholeness.
This sense of wholeness could be the cornerstone
for a whole new relationship between the human
species and the mountains. As it becomes increasingly
rare •. that sense of wholeness becomes increasingly
precious.
Thinking .in t!tis vein leads to visions of the possibilities of
a new way of life 10 the buffer zone - a way of life that could
partake of the power of the mountains without diminishing it
The beginnings arc already in place. Carefully and respectfully,
the rest can grow.
Th~re are .~dy many summer camps and several outdoor
leadership tra1mng programs that draw on the natural
surroundings and provide challenging expeditions, environmental
education, and initiation experiences for young people (sec
KatUahJournal #16).
There are already several major colleges and universities in
the Ka!Uah province. They need to re-orient their direction of
study to focus on the ~l~gical context of their region, but they
represent excellent fac1h11es that arc already available. Like the
University of Tennessee in Knoxville and North Carolina State
University do at present, the learning institutions of the region
could provide headquarters and support for extended field
expeditions and field schools in the wild. Like the Great Smoky
Mountain Institution at Tremont they could teach the knowledge
and the values of the wild.
Other courses of study could be les$ fonnal such as
tracking sch~ls that taught skills and deepened awarcn~ss of our
plant and animal relations, and nomadic primitive Eanh skills
schools that created their own camps wherever they were.
A new vision for the mountains would also include more
~calin~ centers scauered among the hills, where people could
retreat to convalesce, or choose among a variety of healing
programs. These centers could also be used for educational
seminars and conference/retreats.
.
Spirit~al centers, like the existing Southern Dharma Center
m Hot Spnngs, NC, could also hold seminars and spirituaJ
retreats, as well as guide long prayer fasts and vision quests deep
in the uninhabited biosphere preserve area.
In this way the mountains could contribute to the
r7juvenation and ~nrichment o.f the human spirit. At the same
ume. by approaching the land m a manner that was once again
respectful and reverential, the humans could continue the work of
transforming our relarionship with the land.
The mountains will heal themselves, if we allow it. If we
can bring ourselves to allow it, then the mountains will be here
with all their power to heal us when we need their healing.
It. all could come around. The ghosts of the grand old
mountain health resorts could return once again to inspire a new
transfonnation in mountain life.
�Peace To Their Ashes
by Sam Gray
The earliest myths of the Katuah bioregion
available to us are those from the Cherokee people
collected by James Mooney a century ago (1887-1890)
on the Qualia Boundary in interviews with tribal
elders who were among the last surviving links
with the most ancient oral traditions of the tribe. It
~011/,' be fitting to observe the centenary of this
important cultural transmission with an invocation
of gratitude to these elders: John Ax, Swimmer,
Taywadihi, Suyeta, Ayasta, and to the spirits,
creatures, all our relations about whom tl1ey so
eloquently spoke. In Mooney's words, "peace to
their ashes and sorrow for their passing", for wit/I
them pa~sed away a universe of animated grace,
subtle wit, profound teachings, and recitative power
that will not come tllis way again.
James Mooney was an ethnologist, a skilled
tta.nsmittcr of oral traditions, who included ethnographic and
historical data in his book Myths of the Cherokee. He
refrained from interpretive comment about the meaning of
various themes within the narratives.
Int~rprecive th~o~cs about mytholo~ical discourse arc
very ancient. Hellerusuc and Roman wnters as diverse as
E~emerus, Ovid, and Pausa_nius made interesting, though
bnef, comments on the funcoon and nature of myth. Within
the last century a great many, more complex ideas about
myths have been developed by anthropologists,
psyc~ologis~s. and culrura_l hi~torians. An unbiased survey
o_f this vast liter.uurc leads inevuably to the conclusion that no
single theory, idea, or typology can satisfactorily account for
all the myths of a given culture. This literature. as a whole,
does estab~ish that ~yths have imponant links to various
psycholog1ca1, social, and cultural themes within and
beyond th~ society of o~gin and that the centrality of
mytbopocs1s to the evoluuon of human consciousness is
indisputable.
For the anentive there is, somewhere within the
mythological narrative, an opening - a door through which
the things spoken of in the narrative connect with things
unspoken inside ourselves. The legacy of the Cherokee
elders, transmitted by Mooney, and the accumulated
awareness of the function of myth in consciousness permit
us to respectfully approach the ancient myths of KatUah.
JUDACULLA
.
On Caney Fork Creek in Jackson County, NC. there
is a large stone about the size of a recumbent bison. h is of
steatite-sandstone composition and is covered with incised
graffiti, pictographs, pcuoglyphs, or "Indian writing." The
local name for this stone is Judaculla Rock. A few miles to
the east, high on the ridge above the Caney Fork watershed
at a ~lac~ _wh~re Jackson, Haywood, and Transylvania
Counties Join, 1s a cleared area known to the white sculcrs
as Judaculla Fields which was often used by them as a
summer pasture for livestock. This ridge, grassy bald, and
the vast watershed beneath was generally known as the
abode of him who some thought of as "The Indian Satan":
Judaculla.
I have known this place and the name Judaculla since
binh, having descended on the maternal side from those
earliest white settlers in the Caney Fork the Scotch-Irish
clans of Parker and Coward (cow-herd). My grandmother
grew up on the farm that included Judaculla Rock and her
brothers, father, cousins, and uncles used to drive livestock
up the long trail each spring to take advantage of the lush
grass covering Judaculla Fields. My grandmother related to
me that when she was a li!tle girl she was told to sweep and
clean the rock. Whether this was to occupy an energetic child
on a long summer day. or expressed the notion that it was
better to have the satanic writings exposed to the christian
light of day than be covered by din and undergrowth, to lie
there, eventually forgotten and unsuspected, and work some
mischief on later generations, I never learned. She also told
me that on occasion, groups of Cherokee Indians would visit
the rock, camp beside it and "sing and wail all night long".
These and other stories were told me about this place when I
was a boy, and at ftcqucnt intervals over the four decades of
my life I've visited the rock and the Caney Fork watershed,
drawn there by an energy I could neither wholly identify or
describe.
It was upon reading Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee
that I learned further truths about the place. Judaculla is an
English corruption of the Cherokee name, Tsul'ka/u
me~ing "slant-eyed," and he was a mythic hero of th~
ancient Cherokee. The Judaculla Fields arc known in
Cherokee as Tsunegun'yi, meaning 'white place', referring
doubtless to the uninterrupted whiteness of the snow-clad
bald in the winter and resonating further with the ancient
Cherokee cosmology in which the color white was associated
with peace and well-being. It was in the peaceful fields of
Tsunegun'yi that the slant-eyed giant Tsu/'kalu had his
abode.
TSUL'KALU
. A giant, a great bunter, lord of all the game, wild,
sohtary, of monstrous aspect, never seen, but heard often
enough during summer storms, rumbling around up there on
Tsunegun'yi ; this was Tsul'kalu. And like all who are
solitary and monstrous, Ts"l'kalu knows loneliness and in
time, goes looking for a mate. There is a beautiful Cherokee
girl, call her Sada'yi, who lives with her mother down
(continued on page 8)
Sprl."'J, 1990
�.,~(~)
Spc~. 1990 ~
�(continued from page 6)
along Caney Fork. Sada'yi has begun to sleep apart from
her mother in the asi, the cave-like dugout made of logs and
earth that was a common feature of Cherokee homesteads.
By sleeping in the asi, Sada'yi indicates the autonomy of her
young womanhood and her receptivity to the unknown. So
one dark night Tsul'ka/U comes to her. She tells him that
her mother has said whoever she chooses for a mate must be
a great hunter and provider.
"I am that," says Tsul'kalu and, though she has not
yet seen him, she senses his power and his truth and she lets
him enter. His huge body fills the darkened asi and there is
just room for her own small body to lie beside him. ln the
morning, he is gone and outside hangs a freshly killed deer
on the drying poles. They continue in this way for many
ni~bts.
Eventually Sada'yi's mother, ever practical, points out
that they have enough meat, could her mysterious and still
unseen lover possibly provide some wood for the winter
fires? The next morning they find whole trees, tom roots
and all from the eanh, piled in the clearing. The mother,
though puzzled, is pleased and $he presses for funher
se.rvice: could he chop the wood for \hem? Next morning all
the wood has been removed; the clearing is empty. Chopping
and stacking wood is an activity embedded in the human
order, and Tsul'kalu has emphatically pointed out that he is
not of that order.
Sada'yi's mother, an irrevocable voice of the human
order, begins to insist upon seeing her daughter's strange
lover. She wants to know more about him, take his
measure, encompass him, and harness his prodigious
powers. Sada'yi conveys her mother's request to the giant
and after some persuasion he is willing. He insisrs that she
(the mother) must prepare for a shock and above all she must
not react to the sight of him by losing control and screaming
out, "USGA'SETJ'YU!" meaning "frightful". So next
morning, he remains in the asi past daylight, and when the
mother lifts the flap to peek at him she, of course, goes away
screaming, "USGA'SETl'YU! USGA'SETl'YU!" In spite
of her intentions, the encounter with this intrinsically wild,
monstrous, disproponionate being from outside the human
order obliterates her control. Tsul'kalu vanishes and does not
return for a time.
Meanwhile Sada'yi has her menses and there is a
copious flow of blood. Her mother, disappointed there's
been no conception, and meddling now ever closer into the
affairs of the lovers, gathers the blood and throws it into the
river. When next Tsu/'ka/u visits Sada'yi, he asks,
"Where's the child?"
When told there's been none, he asks, "Where's the
blood?"
She takes him to the river bank where the blood was
thrown in. Something calls silently to him from the river
and he goes into the dark waters, dives down seven times
and emerges with a small worm, which he carries cupped in
his hands toward the asi. By the time be has reached it, the
worm has grown into a baby girl which he hands to Sada'yi
saying; "Your mother does not like me and abuses our child,
so come, let us go to my home."
She embraces the child, takes leave of her mother, and
they go together up the mountain to peaceful Tsunegun'yi ..
T he New Garments
Although the figures and events in a mythic narrative
arc usually distinct, the narrative as a whole sometimes
seems inconclusive and directionless, as if it were silently
linked to other myths or to moments outside itself. The myth
connects with ourselves and with the world but in ways that
are elusive and not always subject to articulation. In this, the
myth is like the dream. Upon waking we often feel that
remembered elements of the dream are meaningful; chey
connect with and inform consciousness. Sometimes a patient
analysis of the dream will elucidate these connections but this
process is never free of a potential collapse because we know
there is always more; that the recollected dream arose from a
region that remains disordered, directionless, and connected
to material we cannot reach. Recognizing the original unity
of myth and dream, the Australian Aborigines call the source
of their myths and scories, "The Dreaming".
The myth of Tsu/'kalu connects us with the
relationship between the human order and the wild, almost
incomprehensible order of nature itself. Tsul'kaltl is of this
latter order. He is, in a sense, lord of it by virtue of his
disproponionate, monstrous aspect, his magical energies that
supply food and create life from what the human order
discards (menstrual blood), and his refusal to be fixated by
human seeing and judgement. Tsul'kalll's huge hands can
make love to Sada'yi , silently kill the deer of the forest for
her sustenance, and fonn a womb for the gestation and birth
of their child. Like the forces of nature, be sustains the
human order and, at the same time, is irrevocably in
opposition to it. There is but one way the human order can
experience and comprehend Tsul'ka/u's order, and that way
is indicated by the monster giant himself in the final episode
of the myth:
Sada'yi's brother has come to Tsunegun'yi to see
her. He asks to see her husband also. She relays the message
to Tsu/'ka/u and he instructs: "You must put on new
garments in order to see me."
The brother indicates he is willing to do this.
"Go then," says Tsul'kalu , "and tell your people to
gather in the townhouse and fast for seven days. During that
time they cannot leave the townhouse or raise the war
whoop. At the end of seven days I will come to them with
the new gannents and then they can see me."
The brother recurns and explains all this to the people.
They very much want to see this giant lord of the game and
immediately gather into the townhouse to begin the fast.
Now there is one man among them who is not of
them. He's from another place and of another clan. This
man steals out of the townhouse at night and eats. On the
seventh day the people hear a great roaring coming down
from Tsunegun'yi. As it comes closer it becomes deafening
and they are all terrified. Suddenly, he who has broken the
fast can bear it no longer and runs from the townhouse and
the village shouting the war cry. The roaring ceases, then is
heard receding back up into the high mountains around
Tsunegun'yi where it is silent. The people never c lothe
themselves in the new garments, and they never see
Tsul'kalu.
The meaning of this episode offers profound insights
into the nature of Cherokee spirituality. The new garments the purified desire of the people - have no exact equivalents
in contemporary secular experience. They are the necessary
transformation that a people must undergo in order to face
sacred power. Sada'yi was made "new" by the purity of her
erotic surrender to the god. The people as a group were co be
transformed by their surrender to the God's discipline. It was
this discipline that would have sustained their well-being,
their courage and their silence in the face of the
mind-destroying power of the slant-eyed monster Tsu/'kalu.
WA DON'
8prLfl9, 1990
�HEALING IN KATUAH
by Doug Aldridge
Hin the search for wisdom, the soul must sojourn upon the
earth, and dJUing this stay it will be enlightened as to the purpose
and care of the earthly temple, the body oft/ie soul, or the body.
Children can be taught the uses of growing things and their
prepara1ion. Many have not the desire to learn them, and seek not
the knowledge which is all abow them. These then must rely
upon the medicine man, such as I, to help correct the results of
ignorance. Mankind must experience and grow through all
phases of wisdom before becoming evolved into the higher
realm. If the spirit is moved, then shall the knowledge be
acquired. The Grear Spirit speaks to all."
- Mauzsan
Powhatan shaman, 1603
I - A Karuah Healing
I am a relative newcomer to Katuah. In seven years here
my family and I have taken root, and with each passing year we
have found greater aliveness in our relationship with the land and
its people. This growth has emerged primarily through a
closeness to the eanh - found in gardening, foraging, wood
gathering, and living in increasing harmony with nature. Two of
our three children, Autumn-Leaf and Forest Hean, were born at
home in an old house perched at the edge of Cherokee Forest.
The attendants at their births were friends, not technicians, and
they came to suppon us in the growth of our family. The skillful
assistance of Lucinda Aodin (see "Birth Power" issue 26 Winter
1989-90) was instrumental in the success of our homebirth
experiences.
Living this close to nature - a half mile from the nearest
neighbor, a half-hour from the nearest four-lane road - cultivates
a trust in unseen powers. We sense that we are surrounded and
supponed by the same forces that suspend the stars in the clear
depths of the heavens above our house, that sustain the grasses
through the freezes and thaws, that warm the eanb from within,
while they hurl the sun in its daily changing arc above the
ridgetops.
Our home wasn't built here for convenient access to
anyplace else. It's a steep, winding mile of a dirt road down to
Highway 321 as it curves around the mountainsides that drop
down to Watauga Lake. And the TV reception is about the worst
on the East Coast. But it is well situated in other, more important
ways. Abundant springs, up behind the house, kept us in plenty
of water through the driest days of recent drought. Strong winds
rarely reach us in the shelter of the ridges. Water flows into the
house by gravity, and the kitchen stove doesn't care about power
outages, because it bums wood. In winter, a sheet of plastic
around our front porch cuts our heating needs and creates a
sunroom for the whole family.
Closeness to our environment has had a profound impact
on our faqlily's health of body, mind, and spirit. Plenty of fresh
air, pure +.tater, sunshine, and relative freedom from noise and
light pollution make this a nunuring place for a young family and
contributes to our peace of mind. Spiritually, our homeplace
draws us closer to the Oneness of All Life. It is that spirit - The
Great Spirit - that called us here six years ago. And the lessons
we've learned here prepared us to find another home, larger in
proponion to our growing needs, and well-watered, wellSprl."'J, 1990
sheltered by the lay of the land, with good southeast exposure
and plenty of garden space - another old homeplace where
generations of Kauiahans have been born, raised, and grown old.
"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God," said Jesus of Nazareth,
"and all these things will be added unto you." I believe that. I
also believe that seeking the Kingdom, today, means returning to
the source, and I thank God that it is still possible in KatUah.
II - Seeking Guidance
In the winter of 1987-88, friends from Charlotte, Nonh
Carolina recommended that we get in touch with Harold Green, a
healing ans practitioner. While the family was thriving, we hoped
Harold could teach us more ways of preventing disease and
promoting our own well being. We had never had cause to turn
over our responsibility for our children's health to anyone else.
My wife Barbel and I felt we needed more guidance than we
could get from books.
When Barbel first spoke with Harold on the phone, he
looked inward for guidance, as he often does when asked
questions; he "got a yes," and agreed to come up from Charlotte,
where he was teaching healing ans and giving personal health
consultations, working - as always - for donations. I have seen
him work for no personal gain, and I have seen him accept a
feather and a stone with the same sincere thanks he gives for an
offering of money. The most imponant thing, in his view, is that
each individual take responsibility for his or her own welJ being.
Harold Green, it turned out, practiced Native American
healing ans. He is an associate of Chief Two Trees at the Native
American Studies Institute in Old Fon, North Carolina. Both
Harold and Chief Two Trees teach that each individual must
become a healer in order to be cured of "dis-ease." As the Chief
put it when I asked him recently about the philosophical basis of
this teaching:
"Everyone is a healer - everyone - but the art of healing is
studied only by a few. What we're about is to teach people to
heal themselves. The Christian Bible says 'Physician, heal
thyself.' So everyone becomes a healer. Now the art of healing
has been passed down through generations and generations."
Commenting on the surrender of personal power involved
in our transition from an agricultural to an industrial society,
Chief Two Trees said, "People got into the habit of paying
somebody else - to raise their garden for them, to manage their
health for them, to spend their money for them. They even pay
their minister to manage their spiritual being for them. They gave
away all their power, kept nothing for themselves. So what we're
about is to teach people again to go back to growing their own
garden, even in the smallest amount. Learn how to identify, to be
in harmony with nature through a garden. I don't care if it's in a
window, in an apartment Know the value of fresh food with life
force in it, freshly harvested within a few minutes of being eaten.
Second, we also teach people to think for themselves in a
spiritual way. Because no one can walk in your moccasins."
Harold Green's first visit to our home in the winter of
1987-88 was an experience that opened up for our family new
avenues of knowledge and practical, usually simple, techniques
of healing and preventive medicine. We quickly recognized in
him the teacher we bad been seeking. The home remedies he
(continued on next page)
Drawing by Rob Messick
�(continued from page 9)
taught us 10 concoct from leaves and roots, berries and bark,
herbs and flowers, brought us greater strength and vitality. And
the act of gathering and preparing natural tonics and remedies
deepened our kinship wilh the land, making real the concept of
the interconnectedness of narure, humanity, and spirit. Gathering
black walnut leaves and hulls in summer 10 dry and hang in the
pantry can be mere ritual (which has value). Drinking black
walnut tea, on the other hand, can be merely medicinal. But
when I gather them myself and prepare a tea and drink it and
serve it 10 my family, then I combine lhe healing virtues of rirual
and medicine, and the benefit is greater than the sum of the pans.
Harold's work with us has helped our whole family 10 heal
huns ranging from physical to spirirual dis-ease. Sometimes
through common sense advice, a1 other times through the
intuitive gift by which he channels divine guidance, and always
with a rich fund of practical knowledge, he has 1augh1 us to
reclaim personal power and heal ourselves.
The responsibility for ta.king or not taking his advice is
ours, and we do what we think and feel is right. Although we
were strict vegetarians, we have introduced medicinal quantities
of meat into our family fare at his recommendation. We have
been strengthened by it More slowly than he would have liked,
we have taken to sharing the knowledge of healing arts nutrition, iridology, herbology, reflexology, acupressure,
massage, crystal therapy, dream analysis, hydrotherapy - that we
have been building over 1he years.
ill - A Katuah Healing Continues
When I slatted seeing Harold Green, I thought I was in
good heallh, despite a bout of blood poisoning a year before that
could have killed me had I not gone to a hospital. By the time
Harold came there was only a scar on my right hand to remind
me that when it came to preventative medicine, I had a 101 10
learn. In fact, my immune system was still dangerously weak. I
began my own healing by taking responsibility for my condition
and accepting Harold's guidance. I attacked parasites first with
herbs and later colonies. I strengthened organs, whose weakened
condition showed in my irises, with specific foods and
supplements. l treated my ears and mouth, which had bred a
systemic yeast infection, with tea tree oil (mixed, for use in cars,
with castor oil in 1:10 proportion). All this strengthened my body
and helped eliminate toxin-producing, energy-sapping parasites.
(Chief Two Trees maintains that 85% of all diseases are caused
by parasites.) Gradually, I made gains in overall vitality.
. \'(hen I was strong enough in spirit, mind, and body
(whtch 1 really one strength), I entered a deeper level of healing.
s
My new-found strength was drawn inward, focusing on the
work of healing from the inside out. The ground I had gained
physically was apparently lost during this time. I feh weak and
listless. I developed rashes as toxins were discharged through my
skin. I had to trust my intuition that I was getting better, because
I felt sick.
At that time, in the fall of '88, I intensified my use of
therapies Harold taught me. lridology helped 10 identify organs
and systems that needed nutritional suppon. The "laying on of
hands" through massage, acupressure, and reflexology improved
energy flow through my body. Hydrotherapy sped up the
elimination of 1oxins. Through dream analysis I was able to lay
hold of the taproot of my trouble, a parasitic liver condition.
This period of intense healing lasted about cwo months and
subsided in the winter of '88-'89. The evidences of its passage
are 1he presence of healing signs in the irises of my eyes, along
with a general reduction of iris discoloration associated with
toxicity. I now have a new vitality that includes a much stronger
immune response and heightened energy and productivity.
Through this experience I have learned that medicine which is
limited to relieving symptoms maintains the underlying causes of
disease. True healing leads back through the symptoms to the
underlying cause, making the cure complete.
The ripples of my well-being have spread outward into
other areas of my life where progress was blocked. I'm writing
for a wider audience. More money is coming in. We will soon be
moving to our own home from a rented one. Barbel and I are
sharing more widely in the healing ans movement, and we have
found another teacher in Rudolph Poss, Ph.D., Director of
Boone's Life Energy Center. We are both working at the Life
Energy Cemer as therapists. Barbel recently returned from the
first of a series of trips to New York City where she shares her
knowledge of healing ans.
Yes, the ripples of my own healing carry the work of
teaching and healing far beyond my horizon. Change starts in
your head and works its way out from y.our guts. But it doesn't
stop with you. Heal yourself and you'll heal your world.
Physician, heal thyself.
Doug Aldridge is afather, a healer, and a writer. He also
teaches at The Kid's Country School (a homeschool in Doe
Valley), and is a lecturer in English at Appalachian State
University. He practices pressure point therapy at the life
Energy Center in Boone.
~
WHEN LEFT TO GROW
Surrounded by forest
That clothes the land
Wilh fallen leaves
From sleepy trees
The warming sun
An occasional breeze
The ever flowlng creek
By this peacefully calm day
Closely following this windey stream
Us cool motion over rounded stone
That makes a constant sound
Coursing the way lo an open sea
Hovering in the wind
Being like lhe white cloud
In clear blue sky
Gliding over rolling countryside
These hairs like limbers
When left to grow
Become long and full
This body like rolling hills
When lefl to grow
Becomes intrinsically well and appealing
A mind like integral relations
When left to grow
Becomes clear and tuned to pattern
JC.atUah Journal: pc:iqe 10
Poem and Drawing by Rob Messick
Sprl.nq, 1990
�Calling to the Ancestors, Calling Our Relations:
Poems by Stephen Wing
Feather and Shadow
We have come to the lime of the choosing
of ancestors.
This is the place where my ancestors came down
from thcir square hole in the sky
The world is
bigger than we can see, that
long horizon promised.
So they built ships.
My ancestors grew com here, this is the clearing
where they danced the year
Preparing to abandon
their bodies, they built cathedrals
where the ancient groves had been.
The world is bigger than we can see...
One by one the monks
fell unconscious in thcir cells.
My ancestors camped here in the Winter
of the Early Snow, they knew th<? spot by the stars
The unknown continent grew
vaster as they conquered,
the invisible cities grew richer
in their delirium: each
Crusad<?r, each Conquistador
conjuring a private mansion,
lying in his fever and his cloud of
mes.
This is wh<?re the young men came
fasting and singing, alone in the sacred land
It might have been my great-grandfather
bending, the boy at the plow
too young to remember that horizon
of unbroken acreage, hanging back
against the pull of the mule
to pluck a flint-shard from the vanished prairie grass -
Visiting the Deer
This is where my ancestors came
to honor their dead, this windy ridge in the sky
He looks up. Douds break
into feathers, streaking over
the horizon. He sees one
sweep across the sun and the bright land of his father falls
into shadow.
We have come to the time of the choosing:
This is my native place.
This mountain. This creek.
This is my native place.
•
Sp r Lr19, 1990
Going up to visit the long view
at the top of the hill
today I have
travelled the deer-trails:
bending to duck under
where the deer duck under
branches,
leaping where the deer l<?ap
dry ravines, coming at last
in to open sky:
gazing down where the deer gaze
down on human hospitalities
with wild shy suspicionWhen I caught my breath
I looked down and saw only
the houses of my
neighbors, the loop of road.
Going back I travelled
as usual down the track of tires
in the dirt.
Drawing by James Rhea
JC.atUah
Journm
pQ4Je 11
�Pabllillg ofVislutM Krisluta
Jaipur, India
The Belly
Your Belly Pulse ls The Earth Mother's Heart Beat
Your belly pulse
is the earth Mother's
heart beat.
Press into yourself:
exit the breath, expireand sink,
sink down in to
the consecrated center
intense, dense, compressed,
the consolidated possible;
life engaged unto itself,
life drawing light unto
itself, life compacted to the
one still one point.
And press yourself out again:
be filled by the breath, inspired--
to live,
to live in to
the world that's ever being born from you:
galaxies expanding, stars chasing stars,
filling, bursting the radiating joy,
life swelling beyond
itself, life exploding
light, life spiraling outward,
the turning world.
Your belly pulse
is the earth Mother's
heart beat.
The earth trembles
her rhythm
through us; our feet skip
along her surface
while beneath she beats
her molten drum.
-Lisa Sarasohn
C Lisa Samsohn 1990
by Lisa Snrasohn
Our bodies are a gift from the earth: the solid substance
of who we are comes from the soil. By the powers of sun,
water, plant and animal life, the soil's minerals undergo a
change in fonn and we incorporate them as organ and gland,
corpuscle of blood, muscle fiber and bone. Our bodies arc the
gift of a woman's belly. It is in a woman's womb that our
Lives begin to take on form. The umbilical cord links our
bodies to our mothers, bringing nutrients directly into our
bellies.
The belly is the measurable center of our bodies: it is at
the mid-point between the crown of our heads and the soles of
our feet. Healing traditions the world over -- the ancient
cultures of Egypt, India, China, Japan, Greece, and the
Americas -- know the belly to be much more: the center of our
vitality, the place from which we live. These ancient traditions
recognize the belly as the source point for our physical and
emotional well-being. for our sense of individual wholeness.
Clearing and strengthening the belly through movement and
breathing techniques leads to resrnenl health, freedom from
fear, self-mastery, and the power of personal presence.
These same traditions also recognize the belly as the
source point for our spiritual well-being. Clearing and
strengthening the belly allows us to experience our individual
Sprl.f\9, 1990
�connectedneu to the universe, to sense our intimate
participation in the Great Life. Although our original. physical
connection with our mothers' nourishment has long been
severed, there's a subtle cord mnaining between our bellies
and the mother-world. A vortex of primordial. creative energy
swirls into and out of our bellies, feeding our spirits and
sustaining our vitality - if we allow it to do so.
A clear, strong belly provides a secure feeling of being
"at home" - at home in the body, at home on this Earth,
well-rooted and generously nurtured, kin to the creatures with
whom we share this planet. In this light, attending to the
strength and health of the belly not only enhances our personal
immunity from disease, such attention also brings fonh our
personal contribution to healing the planet When we embody
the knowledge - when we feel it in our bones and know it in
our guts -- that we are one with the Earth, preserving the
integrity of our natural systems will no longer be a political
issue. It will be a mauer of self-respect.
Jn writing this anicle, my intention is to inspile you to
honor your body, and particularly your belly, as you would
have others honor the Earth. Drawing on my studies of
biology. regional planning, yoga. and lhcrapeuric massage, I'll
outline the anatomy of the belly, indicate a range of cultural
attitudes regarding lhe belly, and explore their influence on our
well-being.
What's In a Belly?
The Vital Organs
The abdomen ranges from the pubic bone of the pelvis to
the muscular diaphrngm at the base of lhe rib ca~e. It houses
the vital organs of digestion, elimination, and reproduction:
stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, spleen, small intestines,
large in1estine, ovaries, uierus. The digestive organs process
and absorb nutrients, satisfying our hungers and providing the
energy and substance we require for all our life processes. It is
here, too, that toxins and waste products arc neuttalized, soned
out, and prepared for discharge.
Without regular physical exercise, mental stress and
shallow breathing tend to increase muscle tension and reduce
circulation throughou1 the body, increasing the accumulation of
toxins and unbalancing the flow of glandular secretions. These
factors can contribute to a host of abdominal dysfunctions,
including common ones such as indigestion, intestinal gas,
constipation, and menstrual discomfort.
From the poini of view of Western anatomy and
physiology alone, exercising 1he body, wilh particular attention
10 the belly, would seem to offer substantial health benefits.
The Body-Mind Connection
Jn her books You Can Heal Your Lift and Heal Your
Body, Louise Hay suggcs1s the specific patterns of thinking
which set the stage for various physical conditions. She
indicates lhat the accumulation of fat in general represents a
person's excessive sensitivity and his or her need for
protection. The fear a person feels, lhough, may be "a cover
for hidden anger and a resistance to forgive," she writes. ln
particular, a fa1 belly may reflect "anger at being denied
nourishment." She offers a positive affirmation to replace the
negative partem of though1: "I am always safe and secure. I
nourish myself with spiritual food and I am satisfied and free."
The psycho1hcrapis1 and bodyworker Lyn Davis Genelli
considers lhat the "pot belly" or "beer gut" which some men
develop reveals their "need to protecl their vital organs from an
attack." A large belly, she suggests, offers a sense of
protection in "the 'wars' of the production plan1 and corporate
suite..... Despite 1heir protesta1ions, men unconsciously love
their fat [belly) and feel tha1 the ownership of one... is a sign of
security, prosperity, and survivorhood."
My experience working with people who come to me for
therapeutic bodywork is in accord with the ideas these writers
Sprl."'J, 1990
have proposed. The condition, shape. and inner sense of the
belly reflect a person's willingness and ability to nouriJh himor herself emotionally, to digest new expcrieoces, to release the
past, to be courageous in the presence of risk, to generate the
self-approval which helps a person feel safe and secure.
ln working particularly with women, I find that
imbalances in the belly often relate to issues regarding
creativity. A bloated belly is like a storehouse, the place where
enormous creative power has been stuffed because expressing
that power has seemed to be either impossible or unbearably
risky. A woman who has not yet found a satisfying way to
express the fertility of her imagination may well embody the
image of the "pregnan1 virgin."
A woman's belly also ponrays her feelings abou1 her
sexuality and womanhood. Conflict.s related to sex,
pregnancy, child-bearing, rape, incest, and abortion will often
influence the belly's health.
The Belly Center
Japan: Hara
ln Japanese cuhure, the point two inches below the navel is
named "tanden". To indicate the whole abdominal region, the
Japanese use the ierm "hara," which literally cranslatcs as
"belly." Hara refers to this central physical region of the body,
and 10 much more: the rich human potential for psychological
and spiriiual development. The person wi1h hara is, as
approximated by our language, "gutsy." He or she has
developed the clari1y of his or her "gut feelings" and
consistently acts on the strength of this inner knowing.
In Hara: The Vital Cenier of Man (sic), Karlfried Graf Von
Durckhcim details the role of hara in the Japanese tradition and
also characterizes the physical, psychological, and spiritual
benefits of developing hara 10 people of all cultures. According
tO Von Durckheirn, the qualities of a person with hara include:
a feeling of boundless energy; enhanced immunity from disease
and rapid recovery from illness; easy and graceful movement;
creative imagination; tranquility, pa1icnce, inner calm and
flexibility; confidence, endurance, conienonent; penetrating
insight; a capacity for quick and mature decision-making; the
experience of security and lhc ability to mee1 changes with
equanimity and poise; a sclf-<:ollected harmony.
Von Durckhcim indicates that hara is significant for us on
two levels. For the individual, possession of hara "gives one a
special strength for living in this world." And on the universal
level, through hara "one is enabled to realize consciously one's
own being in the Great Being which is the ultimate meaning of
life." As hara develops and a person senses his or her own
immersion within, and identity with, the Great Being, he or she
"joyously experiences a new closeness to the world, to people
and lhings, to nature and God..."
India: The Ch.okras
The spiritual and healing traditions of Japan have evolved
from their initial source in yoga, the science of
self-development origina1ing in India more than 6,000 years
ago. Yoga recognizes a subtle core of life energy moving
through lhc body from the base of the spine to the crown of the
head. Along this column there are seven energy centers - seven
"chalcras." Each chakra corresponds to a location in the body
as well as t0 specific issues and concerns.
The belly region includes the firs1 three chalcras. Muladhara
chalcra is at the base of the spine, and rela1cs 10 our sense of
physical security and our individual survival, issues of trust
and mistrust. When lhis chakra is weak or congested a person
may typically experience fear - including fear of death, worry,
anxiety, and a fear of !erring go: "I feel threatened by ..." On a
regional and global level, solid was1c disposal and pollution
control seem to be "firs1 chakra" issues.
When it is clear and strong. the energy of lhis first chakra
generates self-sustaining instincts, urges, and initiatives; a
respectful awareness of the body and its functions; and a
healthy concern for self-preservation. I think of wilderness
survival training as a healthy "first chakra" activity: "l can take
(continued on next page)
JCQtUah Jo1.4mat PacJ'I 13
�(continued from page 13)
care of myself; I am always safe and secure."
1be second chakra is Swadhislhana, corresponding to the
reproductive organs and relating to sensuality. When energy is
congested here, a person typically experiences boredom,
frustration, and disappointment, often as the consequence of
overindulgence: "I feel incomplete unless I have ..." On a
larger scale, the problems related to over-production and
over-consumption of material goods arc "second chalcra"
issues.
In its clear expression, the second chalcra suppons the
faculties of imagining, generating ideas, recognizing
distinctions, and making choices. Enjoying beauty - savoring
tasty foods, appreciating good music, talcing delighi in vibrant
colors and rich texrurcs -- seem to me to be a healthy "second
chakra" expression: "Everything I need is already available to
me; the Universe supports me with abundant joy."
lower body, and belly center--between Heaven, Earth, and
the condition of being human. In order to perfect any pose,
holding its alignment with minimum cffon and maximum
relaxation, a person must discover for him or herself how to
intensify and use the strength of bis or her own belly. In this
process, a person also discovers how to sustain a balanced
relationship among upper body, lower body, and belly center.
1 see the belly as the point where energy descending
from the heavens through the torso meets energy ascending
through the legs from the Eanh. Such is the condition of being
human: living between the poles of heaven and earth,
embodying spirit, enfolding energy into matter, incorporating
consciousness.
The Cultured Belly: Views From Around the World
"If we are to heal the Earth,
let us start as close to home as possible:
let us start with the portions of Earth
which are our bodies."
The Wisc Woman tradition of herbal healing seems to
take a similar view. This ttadition perceives the intention of
Life to be so nurturing that our immediate environment
provides exactly the plants we need for promoting our
well-being. And these plants arc so abundant that we tend to
regard them as common weeds.
The third chakra is Manipura, ar the navel. It relates to
issues of personal will and the sense of emotional security.
Energy congested here often reveals itself in feelings of
jealousy, anger, resentment, hostility, and greed, resulting
from comparison and competition: "I bet I can make him
do .... " In a regional and global context, a third chakra issue is
political domination of one group of people over another.
As the energy at the third chakra clears and resolves, an
individual feels a secure sense of personal identity. I think of
healthy third chakra expression as self-empowerment - taking
assertive action in one's own best interest, motivated by self
esteem, and acting upon one's values no matter how unpopular
they may be: "I am at peace with my own feelings; I approve
of myself."
The stretching and breathing exercises of yoga energize
and clear the first three chalcras by bringing awareness to the
belly and by stimulating the flow of life energy up through
the central core. Some poses, such as Standing Leg Stretching
and Shoulder Stand, invert the torso and so apply the force of
gravity to draw the flow of energy down from the base of the
spine towards the crown of the head. Other poses, such as
Bow Pulling and Balancing Stick, require standing and
balancing on one leg while raising the other; they are difficult
to do without maintaining a sense of the belly as the pivot
point around which the body turns. In order to maintain
balance for more than a few seconds, a person must compress
the belly in towards the spine, increasing the density of the
belly center.
Poses such as Cobra, Locust, and Bow clear the
abdominal energy centers and also develop the power of
muscles in the abdomen, buttocks, and lower back. While in
these postures, a person must press the belly into the floor,
grounding it securely. Given this firm central contact and
support, the upper and lower portions of the body can lift
almost effortlessly: establishing the connection of the belly
with the Eanh allows the spirit to soar.
The poses of yoga bring the body into a configuration
which demonstrates the relationship between upper body,
As already mentioned, Oriental and Asian cultures
regard the belly with greatest respect, understanding it as the
center of life itself. Other cultures have given special attention
to the significance of the belly as well: belly dancing in the
Middle East and the vigorous ttaditional dances and midsection
massage of the South Sea Islanders ensure that the abdominal
muscles remain well-toned. I understand that two Australian
aborigine women will greet each other when they meet by
touching their bellies and foreheads together.
In American and European culture, the prescription for
physical beauty has included "belly in, chest out", as if the best
belly were an invisible one. Current fashions-high heels, tight
jeans, "tummy conttol" devices in underwear and pantyhose-work to flatten the belly, increasing the relative volume of the
upper body.
Hiding the belly and bringing attention to the upper body
signify the value our culture places on mental activity, speed,
and agility. Our attempt to raise Lhe body's center from the
belly to the chest, says Von Durckheim, reveals how we reject
our relationship to the Eanh: "The urge to transcend gravity is
quite natural to man (sic) as a spiritual being, but the desire to
break loose from the vitalizing bond with the solid earth is in
conflict with the law of his (sic) terrestrial existence."
European culture did not always consider the belly with
such distaste, however. Von Durckheim writes: "In the
Romanesque and Gothic sculpture the belly is clearly stated and
expresses strength...and calm acceptance of the bond with
earth....The Gothic belly seems 10 say: 'You cannot win
Heaven if you betray Earth."'
In The Obsession: Reflections On tire Tyranny of
Slenderness, Kim Chemin links our cultural attitude about
women's bellies with attitudes about pregnancy and childbirth.
She suggests that a womanly appearance-including a naturally
round and ample belly-- is threatening. It reminds us of a time
when as tiny infants we were helpless, totally dependent for
our survival on this huge, looming, rather frightening creature
called our mother. To see a woman with a large belly is to
revisit a primal sense of woman's awesome power.
Conclusion
A friend of mine often says, "How we do anything is
how we do everything." How we relate to our bodies and to
our bellies tells the ttuth about how we tend to the Earth and its
natural resources.
If we arc to heal the Earth, let us start as close to home
as possible: let us start with the portions of Earth which are our
bodies. Going beyond conceptions of good and bad, of
opposites and adversaries, to recognize the sanctity of all that
exists--including our very selves--this is the consciousness
which heals our bodies and will be healing our planet. And
we have a practical way to develop this consciousness, by
clearing and strengthening our bellies.
~
8pf'l-n4j, 1990
�~~
~UA~Jjf>URNAL
.
SPECIAL EARTH DAY 1990 EVENTS SECTION
Earth Day Just Dawning........ .
Earth Day affords us the opportunity to
publicly recognize our home planet as our source of
sustenance and nurturancc, and to acknowledge the
need Cor it to be honored, protected, and
appreciated. It is a time to admit that it is home
and life support systell\not just ror us humans, but
for the whole ecological life community in whjch
we participate. It is a time to celebrate its beauty
and diversity and its incredible cvolvement.
It is also a time to take responsibility for
this richness which we have been given. We must
recognize tha t our Insatiable demands are
darkening the future of life on this Earth. Even as
we accept that grim reality, we can rejoice in the
fact that by realizing our responsibility, we also
realize our power-that when we begin to change
ourselves and our lifestyles, the planet can begin to
renew Itself.
Let us mark Earth Day 1990, not as a
one-day affair, but as the beginning of a decade of
change, a decade of action toward an ecologically
sound future. Earth Day has the potential to be a
significant catalyzing influence. It can help to
mobilize an ongoing, citizen effort towa rds
~luating our environmental crisis and responding
to it. Earth Day can also provide an opportunity
to engage a much broader constituency on local and
regional levels.
Environmental action, the green pledge, the
environmental audits for home, business, and
institution, the pledge of allegiance to the Earth,
the Earth flags .... All of these need not become
"have-beens" artcr April 22; ra ther, they need to
become habits. Earth Day provides practical
guidelines and tools which can be shared with the
wider community --on an ongoing basis.
Our actions on behalf of the Earth during
the decade lo come are what will make Earth Day
1990 a mearungful even t. The problems we face
are global in nature, but our actions must begin here
at home in o ur own region:
• The extinction of Sp<'Cies threatens the
future of evolu tion. We can work to slop the
extinction of species by helping the black bear
here.
•Exploitation of the Earth as "rcsoun:cs• is
eroding the basis for life. We can help to stop
exploitation by protecting the forest here.
•The life cycles of the Earth arc being
poisoned by our pollution. We can join the effort to
stop the poisoning by demanding the beginning of
the end of acid rain. We can do something to stop
the poisoning by purifying our waler here.
It is almost 400 years since European people
first stumbled upon this continent. The invading
culture has been changing the face of this land
ever since. Now it is time to change ourselves. As
we celebrate the Earth, let us also accept our
responsibility ror lt.s future.
• The Editars of the Karuah Journal
....·..·:::·.·.·.::::::·:-:.:~..----······ ········..•
·····...
...
·········...
·.
'R.1-tu/uina a/ 1111~/wi4 ww1wns afW. '.UIM. inWuli"8 •IS ""'iJru!ir.fol4 (will• taj/) ill rtfatiDn 10 W. pfantti
6y
111ntr um.
~6 Musi4._
�Join in the celebration...
EARTH DAY
April 22, 1990!!
Celebrations and events will take
place "locally" all around the planet. In
our Katuah bioregion, there will be a
variety of events on Earth Day and
surrounding it. Here is a partial
listing ...Come join in the celebrations!
WATAUGA COUNTY, NC
APRIL 17 *Children's poster exhibit and Area
environmental exhibits. At Boone Mall. •concert by
Bill Oliver, well-known educator and environmental
follcsinger. At ASU Rosen Conccn Hall, BroyhHI
School of Music. Cont.act Harvard Ayers (704)
262-2295.
APRIL 18 • Environmental Exposition all day •
Earth Day storytelling with Karen Wallace. Al
Watauga Public Library. •Bill Oliver, mid-day conccn;
Judy Hunt, St.ate Represent.alive, speaking, 12:30 .
12:50 pm ; Earth Garnes, I - 2 pm. At ASU Mall.
•Speaker: Michael Robinson, Director, Na1.ional Zoo.
8:00 pm. Reception to follow. At ASU Fanhing
Auditorium. Contact Melissa Banh (704) 262-3098.
APRIL 19 •Environment.al exposition a.11 day: Janet
Hoyle, speaking 12:30 - 12:50 pm; Children's concen
with Bill Oliver, 1:30 - 2:30 pm. At ASU Ma.II.
•8:00 pm, Speaker: Thomas Berry, in1emationally
known speaker and author of TM Dream of IM Ear1h.
Reception to follow. Al ASU Farthing Auditorium.
Contact J. Linn Mackey (704) 262-2418.
APRIL 20 •s1eel drum band, 12 noon, a1 ASU Ma.IL
Tree planting on lhc ASU Mall, then moving to the
Boone Greenway. •Plant sale. a.i Rankin Gn:cnhouse.
• Awards, Children's poster exhibit, 7:00 pm. At
Boone Malt
APRIL 21 •Music on the ASU Mall. Bike-a-thon.
New River and Watauga River Clean up.• AJJ Species
Day Parade, starling 10:00 am, al the parking lot at
inlefSCCtion of King and Water Sts.. ending a1 ASU
Mall. Prizes for elerncnt.ary, middle, and high school
lellehers and studcnts...everyone invited to participate.
11:00 am, free ice cream. Cont.act Karen Lohr (704)
262-4089.
APRIL 22 EARTH DAY •Morning, Interfaith
worship.• Fun Run/Walk.• Earth Day ceremonies,
Earth games, storytelling, and music, beginning 12
noon. At ASU Mall. Cont.act Karen Lohr (704)
262-4089.
APRIL 22 EARTH DAY • Sunrise Ceremony with
stories and song. *Nature and wildlife hikes
throughout He nderson County. •Earth Day
Celebration, hands-on activities, storytelling, music,
recycling demonstration. Jackson Park,
Hendersonville, NC. Coniact Ms. Freudenberger (704)
693--0135.
BUNCOMBE COUNTY, NC
MARCH 19 • APRIL 30 Tree Planling. ConLact
Monte Wooum, Quality Forward (704) 254- I 776.
MARCH 29 Asheville-Buncombe EARTH DAY 1990
Community Meeting, 5:30 pm at the Unitarian
Univcrsalist Church (Charlolle SL). AJJ are encouraged
IO plan events for our own neighborhood or area and IO
voluntccr to help with local projects and events. To be
included in an area-wide calendar of Banh events, call
Dory Brown (704) 622-713 1 or write:
Asheville-Buncombe EARTH DAY 1990, P.O. Box
5855, Asheville. NC 28813.
APRIL 2 • 7 River Awareness Weck sponsored by
Warren Wilson College. Culminates with Swannanoa
River Clean-Up on SalUrday. Info: (704) 298-3325.
APRIL 7 Glad-Bagalhon open 10 groups and
individuals wanling 10 participate in litter clean-up
project and weigh-in contest. Contact Jane Wilson,
Qwilily Forward, (704) 254-1776.
APRJL 9 • 13 Project Pride Weck. sponsored by
Quality Forward and Asheville-Buncombe EARTH
DAY 1990. Experiential environment.al education
through lhe ans and sciences for students of Buncombe
County Schools. Info (704) 254·1776.
APRIL 16 *Free day al lhc Nature Center, Gashes
Creek Road, Asheville. (704) 298-5600. • Artisl°s
Earth Day exhibit unveiled; artists will exhibit !heir
environmental an in the unoccupied storefronts on
Haywood St. and Pack Square, Asheville.
APRJL 16-20 • Earth Weck at Aficrschool Programs;
Monte Wooten of Quality Forward is willing to come
to Asheville afl.erschool programs to give t.alks on our
earth and its environment. Cont.act Monie Wooten
(704) 254-1776. *Landfill Tours for EducaJOrS: group
or organization opportunity to tour local landfill.
Cont.act Steve Heisclman, landfill recycle coorinator,
or Monie Wooten, Quality Forward, (704) 254-1776.
APRIL 20 Conference: Resources a1 Risk: The
Effee1s of Acid Precipilation and Ozone on 1he
SoUJMrn Appalachians. 8:30am-4:00pm UNCA Owen
Center. Sponsored by: Western North Carolina
Tomorrow, USDA Fores t Service-SE Forest
Experiment Station and UNCA Environmenlal Studies
Program. Registration $5.00....Caten:d Lunch $5.00.
Contact: Fn:d Huber (704) 251-6104.
HEN DE RSON COUNTY, NC
APRIL 21 Art Auel.ion. Work donated by notable
area artists, proceeds go to saving the wetlands in
Henderson County. Cont.act David Malpass (704)
697-9557.
APRIL 20 Ctltbra1 IM Earth Story Thomas Berry,
ing
intemalionalJy-known spealce.r and aulhor of The
Dream of IM Earth (Sierra Club Press, 1989), will
give a talk at Owen Conference Center. UNC-A as pan
of community-wide Earth Week aclivities. 7:30pm.
No charge. Reception follows.
APRIL 21 The Sixth Annual Environment.al
Summit: Al IM Crossroads: lmpacl of Devtlopmenl
on Environmenlal Qualily. Speakers include.: Thomas
Berry, Cynthia Sullivan, BilJ Holman and others.
UNC-A Owen Conference Cent.er. Cont.act: (704)
251-6104.
APRIL 21 "Earth Energies" talk by Morgan Eaglebcar,
an Apache medicine man and great grandson of
Geronimo. 10:00-12:00pm; Opponunity to partake in
a sweaL Two lodges builL Beginning 12:00 noon.
Love offering accepted. At Eanh Center, Swannanoa,
NC. Cont.act: Zoe&. Jim Martin (704) 298-3935.
APRIL 21-22 Chez Op1 ion plans to show
environmental videos and distribute pamphlets in
SLOrcfront location on Haywood SL, Asheville, NC.
APRIL 22 EARTH DAY Celebration!! EvetyOllC is
invil.ed to wear Green for show of Earth solidarity!
• Bike ride for children and adults through downtown
Asheville. 12:30 pm. Contact Steve Millar (704)
254-0414. •Earth Day parade begins a1 2pm in
Downtown Asheville and marches IO City/County
Plaza. Everyone encouraged Lo join in!! • Earth
Games, Rainbow Games, and environmenlal exhibits
geared toward children. after the parade, at Radisson
Plaza Parking LoL •RALLY, wilh music, speakers,
sLrCCt lhealcr, and booths offering food, environment.al
products and information. •Bring your recyclables;
Scot Sanderson will have a recycling booth and will be
accepting plastic milk jugs. green and clear plastic
soda boules, aluminum, and sorted glass.
Pr oj ect EARTH (Environment.aJ Arrangement
Requiring Transportation that's Homemade) will aeate
a moveable environment.al display and show it in the
parade. ConlllCt: Project Eanh, PO Box 5855,
Asheville, NC 28813.
Re-invent Fair Have fun creating inventions from
recycled malCrial. Ideas can be pratical like making
sandals from old I.ires, or imaginative, like making a
perpetual motion machine from odds and ends. For
form and details, cont.act: Quality Forward, PO Box
22, AshcviJle, NC 28802 by April 16.
KNOXVILLE, TN AREA
APRIL 16 Murray Bookchin will speak a.t University
Center, UT campus. 7:00 pm
APRJL 21 • 22 EARTH DAY ECO-FAIR. Earth
Day Office: (615) 974-0643.
APRIL 21 EARTH DAY Benefit Concert. Earth Day
Office: (615) 974-0643.
APRIL 22 EARTH DAY Events • 5-K "Run for the
Earlh", sl8rtS a1 9 am a1 UT Vet School • Dance
againSt DeslrUCLion Marathon Benefit Dance• Video
festival •Earth Day Office: (615) 974-0643 or Center
for Global Sustainabili1y: (615) 524-4771.
�JOHNSON CITY, TN
NORTH GEORGIA
OTHEll RESOURCES:
APRIL 22 EARTH DAY CELEBRATION,
Downtown Johns on City, 1:00pm -5:00pm.
T~·planting, Music, storytelling, displays, recycling
fundraising, and Adopt-a-planter program. Contact;
Beuy Anderson, Director of Downtown Association
(615) 926-8546.
APRIL 17-22 Earth Skills Gathering. Twelve
individual ~ showing a wide variety of Native
American skills. Contaet: Darry Wood (704)
389-0428.
Eco-Net, an international computer network
link, will carry a national bulletin board for the
sharing of information, graphics, and ideas for
EARTH DAY events. EcoNet, 3228 Sacramento
Street, San Francisco, CA 94114/ (415) 923-0900.
KINGSPORT, TN
Earth Day Activities and events throughout Nonh
Georgia, contaet: Jirn Sneary (404) 226-0116, Dalton,
GA; Andrea Timpone (404) 535-1976 Gainesville,
GA; Christa FrangiJunorc (404) 351-3456 Atlanta.
GA.
APRIL 19 "Young Ecologist" Action Award presented
at Watauga Audubon Society Meeting.
GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLI NA
APRIL 21 EARTH DAY ACTIVITIES at Bay's
Mountain State Park, near Kingsport. Info: (61 S}
229-9447. Also Glad Bagathon and Recycling evenLS
in Tri-Cities area. Then. gathering at Davy Crockeu
Stale Park.
APRIL 22 EARTH DAY CELEBRATION sponsored
by Watauga Audubon, State of Franklin Sicmi Club
and ochers. Bluegrass music wilh cnvironmenUll lyrics,
storytelling, T-shins, 1-5pm at Bruce Park in
Kingsport.
FLOYD COUNTY, VA
APRIL 2 1 EARTH DAY AcnVITIES/ FUN DAY
FOR KIDS Kite flying. rccycUng exhibits, music,
food, local speakers. Contaec Mary Day (703)
763-2000.
EnvlroNet sponsored by Greenpeace Action and
open to the public. Greenpeace Action, Bldg. E,
Fort Mason, CA 94123. (415) 47U767.
APRIL 21 Earth Day Activities at Roper Mountain
Science Center. Speakers, music, booths, distributing
ttceS, ceremonial ucc-planting, free Ben & Jerry's ice
cream, living farm demos, and organic gardening,
nature walks, 9am-3pm. • Recycling Fa ir at
Greenville Braves Stadium, 8am-3pm. Contact: Linda
Elmore (803) 281-0090 . •Parade from Ci1y Hall lO
Heritage Green, 3pm-5pm. Contaet Jay Rogers: (803)
232-3690
APRil.. 22 EARTH DAY CELEBRATIONS around
the area. • Music at McPherson Park, 3pm-5pm.
Contact Mary Ellen Settlemycr (803) 240-4326
*EvcntS at Furman University, coruact: Amelia Fusaro
(803) 233-1232. Otl>cr Earth Day Activities &: related
events, contaet: Earth Day Steering Committcc for
OTHER EVENI'S
IntemaUonal ECO-City Conference will take
place in Berkeley, California, March 29- April
1, 1990. Keynote speaker. Dennis Hayes, Earth
Day Director. Info: Cerro Gordo Dorena Lake,
Box 569, Cottage, Grove, OR 97424. (503)
942-mO.
Earth Day Wall St. Action on Monday, April 23.
Contact: Brian Tokar, P.O.Box 93, Plainfield,
VT 05667.
Greenville, George Actehef (803) 288-8782;
OTHER EARTH DAY CONTACTS:
BLACKSBURG, VA
APRIL 17
Rainforest Sympos ium. Conl8ct:
Si.ephanie Trimmer (703) 951-5173.
Klds Netwotk Students all over North America
can share environmental data. National
Geographic Society, Ed. Services, Dept. 1001,
Washington, OC 20Cll7. (800) 368-2728.
Earth Day 1990 National Hdqtrs (415)321 -1990
Earth Day 1990 SE Regional HdqLrs: (404) 352-4080
Earth Day Southeastern Campus Coordinaior: ~i
Calloway (404) 876-8634
EARTHWEEK "MESSAGE OF THE DAY"
Earth Weck will nationally focus on an
"EnvironmcnUll Message of the Day": Monday (April
16} Energy; Tuesday (April 17) Recycling; Wednesday
(April 18) Waicr, Thursday (ApriJ 19) Alternative
Transportation: Friday (April 20) Toxics Information;
Saturday (April 21) Outdoor/Recreation. For more
info: Diana Aldridge (41S} 321-1990.
APRIL 18 Environmental Teach-In. CEC Auditorium.
1:30pm-9:00pm.
APRIL 20 •Earth Grove Dedication. Tree-planting.
ConL&ct: Heather McEllroy (703) 552-7897. •
Rainforest Benefit Concert. Buddy's ResL&urant
9:00pm.
APRIL 21 •Broomln' & Bloomin' Clean-Up 9:00am1:00pm •Bike Parade 2:00pm-3:00pm •Earth Festival
at Duck Pond 3:00pm-6:00pm. Contaet: Linda Binner
(703) 961-0586.
APRIL 22 PEACE-EARTH DAY CELEBRATION
Noon 'ti! Dark. At Amphitheater, Virginia
Poytcehnical Institute. Contact: Elizabeth DuFrane
(703) 232-2338. Environmental Audit Information for
Arca Colleges and Businesses. Conlllct: David
Hirschman (703) 951-8949.
ROANOKE, VA AREA
(jreen P{etfge
I pfeage to /Q my sfiare in savin9 tfu plamt 6y
f.tttin9 rny conum for cfu environment sfiape fww !:
Jilct: I pf.t49e to tU1 my utmost to recycle, UJnserve
tMl'//!J• saw fl/OUr, use efficient transportation, arul try to atfopt
a Gfestyf.t as if every tfay were 'E.arlli 'Day.
Purcfuue: I pfuf9e to 6uy l11llf use only tfwse proi{uct.s
feast fuzrmful to tfu environment. ?rlorwva, I wilI tlo 6usiruss
witli corporation.s tliat promote 9{06a{ environmental
ruponsi6ili ty.
'J/ote: I pk49c to vou arul support tfwse uuufufaw
wfw tkmonstrau an a6itflne UJnurn for tfst erwirrmment.
Support: I pfufae to support tfu pass49e of louJl. stau
arul fuftrol laws ana inurnational treaties tliat prouct tfu
environment.
Earth Day Activities &t related events. Coniact: Chris
Barlow (703) 774-0581 or 989-0802.
You COii return this pledge to your local Earth Day group or
mail ii 10 Earth Day 1990, P.O. Box AA Stanford Uni..,ersity, C.4
94309
�SUGGESTIONS FOR
PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT
·ElkinglOll, John, et al. The Green Conswner. Penguin,
1990.
•Capl:in, Ruth and Staff of Environmental ActK>n. Our
Earth, 011rstlwts. Bantam, 1990.
'.You tTUtJ(u want tQ.........
~ a hih - ~ a 6~ - diiM a tru - /Jiflt. t1ie
'Lartli a !Jift - (U{qpt a struzm - plant a tru 6e a utter·critter - astfast footf places tq use fess
protfur.t padc.Jiuitlfl - fimit use of pesticitles ion't tn:at soil fi{(J 4irt - avqjtf petro·cfilmicDl
transportation - fast for t1ie tlay -wal(.. G9fitfy.
jl
Recycling
• Help start a recycling routine at your school or
workplacc...aluminum cans, office paper, glass, CIC.
•Encourage your city and county governments lO set
up a curbside recycling program • Get your local
newspaper to print on recycled paper • Help gel a
"boUle biU" law passed by your Stale legislat.ure
Alternative Transportation
• Get bike lanes adopted for your city and county
Have some streets closed periodically, open only to
bicycles. • Ask that public uunsponation be improved
in your area and that mini-vans be explofed as part or
the solution.
Pfeage of jt{{egiance
to tfie 'FArtfi
I p(eage affegiance to tft.e
'F,artft., arul to tfie /fora, fauna
arul fiuman (ije tftat it supports,
one pfanet, irulivisi6(e,
witfi safe air, water ana soil
economic justice, equal rigfits
arul peace for a«.
Education
• Encourage your school to use the Earth Day '90
Lesson Plan and Home Survey which looks at energy
conservation, home toxics, transporuilion, water
conservation, and recycling • Encourage schools and
colleges in your area to conduct the Environmcnial
Audit • Adopt-A-Stream or other environmenllll project
at a natural area near your school • Tree-planting
aroWld school, and food for wildlife landscaping
Community Awareness
• Award businesses that use environmentally sound
practices • Help convert an urbnn vacant 101 inio a parlc.
or community gardens space • Support regionally and
locally owned businesses. • Buy products grown or
produced t11 lhc region • Invest in regionn.I businesses
Flying the Earth Flag!
Now is lhe time to encourage businesses,
schools, scout troups and others in the
community to get in the habit of publicly
displaying the Eanh Flag.
Sizes available: Large 3'x5' durable
nylon for inside or outside use; Medium 2'x3'
cotton for parade or inside use; and small
6"x9", on 15" stick. Available regionally and
nationally.
One regional source is: AshevilleBuncombe EARTH DAY 1990, P.O. Box
5855, Asheville, NC 28813.
Corporate Accountability
The Valdez Principles
A coalition of leading environmental organizations and
social investment firms have drafted a set of ten
guidelines for corporalC conduct concerning the
environment. They ore referred to as the Valdez
Principles. They address the issues of pollutants,
sustainable use of natural resources, rcducuon and
disposal of waste, energy efficiency, conservation, riSk
reduction IO employees and surrounding communities,
maarketing of safe products and services, damage
compensation, disclosure of poienulll hazards, need for
environmental representatives on corporate boards of
directors, and the value of annual corporate
environmental audits.
A copy of the Valdtz Principles is available from local
Earth Day groups as wrell as the Earth Day 1990
national ojfi~.
MAGAZ I NES
•Earth Island Journal. Enrth Island lnsutuLC, 300
Broadway, Suite 28, S:in Francisco, CA 94133
•£ -The Environmental Magazine P.0.Box 6667,
Syracuse, NY 13217. (800) 825-0061
•Raise the Stakes. Planet Drum Foundation, P.O.Box
31251, San Francisco, CA 94131
•World•Watch. Worldwateh lnslltut.c, 1776 Massachu:.eus
Ave., NW, Washington, OC 20036.
THINGS TO DO...
•The Earth Works Group. 50 Simple Things You Can
Do To Save The Earth. Box 25, 1400 Shlmuck Ave.,
Bcrlceley, CA 94709.
•MacEachcm, Diane. Save 011r Planet: 750 Everyday
Ways You Can llelp Clean Up the Earth. Dell, 1990.
-Council on Economic Proiorities. Shopping for a Beller
World. 30 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003
GOO D BOOKS...
•Raven, Peier H. The Global Ecosysuim in Crisis. The
MacArthur Foundation, 140 South Dearborn St.,
Chicago, n.. 60603, 1987.
•Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco:
Siena Club Books, 1988.
•Sahtouris, Elisabet. Gaia: The Human Journey from
Chaos 1 Cosmos. 1989.
0
•Lovelock, J. E. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of our
Living Earth. W.W. Nonon & Co., 1988.
•Myers, Nonnan Dr., Gen. Ed. Gaia: An Atlas of
PlaMtary Manageme/I/. New York: A(IChor Books. 1984.
•World Commission on Environmentand"DevolopmenL
Our Common Fui11re. Oxford: Oxford Uni.vcrsity Press.
•Nash, Roderick. The RighJs of NaJurt, A History of
Environmental Ethics. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1989.
•Taylor, Paul W. Rts~ct for Na111re: A Theory of
Environmtntol Ethics. Princeton: Princeton U. Press,
1986
•Berger, John J. Restoring the Earth: /low Americans
Are Working to Renew our Damaged Environmtnt. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.
•Register, Richard. Ecocily Berkeley: Building Cities for
.4 lleaJtlty F"""'°~· BcrJco!Qy, Nortll Atlllntic Books,
1987.
•Berg, Pe1er, et al. A Green City Program For San
Francisco Bay Area Cities & Towns. San Francisco:
Planet Drum Books, 1989.
•Tokar, Brian. The Green Alternative: Creating on
Ecological Future. San Pedro: R. & E. Miles, 1987.
•Renner, Michael. Rethinking the Role of the
Automobile. Worldwaich Paper #84, 1988.
•Todd, Nancy Jack and John. Bios/1e/1us, Ocean Aries,
City Farming: Ecology As The Basis of Design. Son
Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1984.
•Margolin, Malcolm. The Earth Manual: /low io Work
on Wild land Without Taming It. Berkeley: Heyday
Books, 1985.
•LaChapellc, Dolores. Earth Wisdom, 1978. Also Sacred
I.And, Sacred Sez-Rap111re of the Deep, 1988. Finn Hill
Arts, P.O. Boll 542, Silverton, CO g1433.
•Henderson, Hazel.The Politics of the Solar Age.
Alternatives to Economics. Doubleday Anchor, 198 I.
· Sale, Kirkpatrick. lluman Scale . New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons. 1980.
· Fulc:uolca, Masanobu. The Ont-Straw Revoluiion. An
ln1roduction 10 Natural Farming. Emmaus: Rodalc Press,
1978.
°:Meclter-Lowry, Susan. Econo1T11cs as If the Earth Rl'ally
Mallued. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1988.
•Sprctnalc, Charlene. The Spiritual Dunensions ofGrun
Politics. Santa Fe: Bear & Company, 1986.
•Seed, John, Macy, Joanna, et al. Thinking like A
Mountain : Towards A Council Of All Beings.
Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1988.
This regional EARTH DAY 1990 EVENTS section
is compliments of Kaluah Journal; Bioregional
Journal of /ht Southern Appalachians , P.O. Box
638, Leicester, NC 28748. Published Quarterly.
Subscription: $10/year.
�FOOD FROM THE ANCIENT FOREST
by Snow Bear
In all the seasons, these mountains speak to us of their
beauty and sacredness. But ln the springtime rebirth of the
plant people, that beauty is projected in vibrant colors,
awe-Inspiring forms, fantastic abundance, and incredible
diversity. It is a good time for human beings to go to the coves
where ancient trees stand, to rest and watch, listen, and learn;
there Is strength, healing, and sustenance to be found there.
Some of the richest soil on Earth can be found In these
coves; In one such place I pushed my arm into deep, black loam
up to my elbow. In such soil grows Incredibly nourishing, vllal
foods. As you gather food from these coves, remember that the
old forests are disappearing beneath the chain saws and
bulldo:ters of a nation hungry for lumber and profit. I have been
told to speak prayerfully and announce my intention to the
spirit running through the life of that mountain. Pass over at
least four plants before picking one. Restore earth and leaf mold
to any holes left from digging roots - in fact, leave no visible
traces of your plant gathering. Do not gather plants in a heavily
trafficked area, such as hiking trails. I have been taught to
acknowledge the taking of any life with prayer and a gift (of
sage or t. bacco).
o
•In April and early May, the flowers known to botanists
as the spring ephemerals blanket the mountainsides. Many of
them are choice edible plants that grow abundantly to allow
gathering for food. Some of these Include:
TR0UT ULY (Erythronlum americanum) A yellow lily emerges from between two green and brown
mottled leaves. The leaves have a sweet flavor and may be added
to salads or cooked as potherb. The leaves that have no blossom
are choicest; after blooming there may be a slightly bitter
aftertaste. The bulbs are edible when cooked.
TOAOSHAOE TRILLIUM (Trillium sessile) •
The young leaves before fully unfolded have a sugary, sweet
taste. Bitterness makes the leaves unpalatable when the
blossom emerges. This trillium (and T. erectum, T.
grandiflorum) are good raw or cooked, but harvest only where
abundant.
SPRING BEAUTY (Clayton/a virgin/ca and caroliniana)
and RUE ANEMONE (Anemonella lhalictroides) - can often be
found together in immense patches on wooded mountain slopes.
The pea-sized tubers are an excellent addition to soups, stews,
and steamed greens.
•The ephemerals described above grow, blossom and die
quickly. Their growth cycle ends when the trees leaf out. Other
edible spring wildflowers have a longer growing season. These
include:
INOIAN CUCUMBER ROOT (Medeota vlrgln/ana) This wildflower occurs in so many different plant tribes such
as: mixed hardwood climax forest, hemlod< glade, dry oak soils,
or moist creekbanks. It often grows in large patches that may
be thinned. Its root ls while, crispy, and watery, similar to
cucumber or water chestnut in flavor and texture. It is best
eaten raw.
(continued on next page)
Sprl.ncJ, 1990
Drawings by K.im S111dland
�SC FOREST WATCH GROUP
WINS APPEAL
Nlllnl World News Savico
The South Carolina Forest Watch group worting
foa.<£.sfia<f:e
-Jr.ill i u,m,
(continued Crom page 19)
SOLOMON'S SEAL (Polygonatum biflorum) Until the end of August, the leaves and roots may be harvested.
In spring, harvest only lower leaves to avoid disrupting the
flowering cycle; after seeding, the top leaves are more tender.
The leaves, like the root, are sweet and slightly mucilaginous.
The roots are often three-quarters of an inch thick and ten
inches long. Try harvesting the oldest (back) end of the root,
leaving two-thirds of the root undisturbed. The root Is a good
source of complex carbohydrates when cooked In soups and
stews.
RAMPS (wild leeks - Allium ttioocum) Ramps are the only wild plant still honored with festivals by
entire towns! At these festivals, people may saturate every cell
in their bodies with the pungent, garlic-like smell of ramps
without being shunned by family, friends, or neighbors. I have
found this mountain gourmet food in huge quantities in moist,
gravelly soils (subsurface springs) and in the yellow
birch-grass meadows of the high mountain gaps. Cream of
"potato• (Solomon's seal root) leek soup with bluff mustard
greens or ramps steamed with puffball mushrooms on the side
makes a gourmet foraging meall
The raw ramp bulbs are very strong and health-giving as
a blood purifier and tonic.
BROAD LEAF TOOTHWORT (bluff mustard - Dentaria
diphylla) - The white, cross-shaped flowers are abundant in
late April. The plant grows in shallow leaf mold on creek rocks
and banks. The leaves are available throughout the winter, but
the hot mustard taste gets milder in the spring. The
Interconnected roots of the bluff mustard patch taste just like
horseradish - finely grated with mayonnalse and vinegar it
makes a good hot sauce or dip.
To eat the food of the mountains where the beings of
nature live in the undisturbed patterns of the long-ago forest
attunes our bodies with the seasons and climate of Katuah, our
minds with the beauty of Katuah, and our hearts with the nature
spirits of Kaltiah.
May we walk In beauty and balance in these ancient
mountains.
in the Andrew Pickens District of the Sumi.Ct National
Forest in South Carolina has successfully placed itself
between the chain saws and trees of Compartment 43 in
the Chauga River walelShcd. The proposed timber sale
would cut three different timber siands tomlling 90 acres
in one of the two largest unfragmented mauue hardwood
stands in the Sumter Forest. fl consists of 300
contiguous acres of mawre hardwood irees and contains
the oldest hardwood sLBnd in the forest. The cul would
divide mature stands almost in two and would border on
lhe oldest group of uees on two sides.
Late in September, 1989, Forest Wa!Ch members
heard about the sale only nine days before Lhe appeal
period was to end. A flurry of activity produced an appeal
based on four factors: fragmentation of Lhe forest
resulting in deleterious edge effects on native forest
species. lack of a site-specific analysis, overcuning of lhe
site, and Lhe impact of the clearcutting on the water
quality of Crooked Creek.
The appeal was quickly sent o(f to the regional
forester's office in Atlanta, and four months later, the
Forest Waich group received a five page reply that
seemed to be almost a complete vindication of the Forest
Service's position. The only concession to the Forest
Watch appeal was a statement saying that the .district
ranger had not documented his cumulative effects analysis
on water quality. Therefore, the group was surprised to
read at the bottom of the last page, "For these reasons,
lhe appellant's claim is upheld."
However. tile victory is only a panial one for the
Forest Watch group and the forest. The appeal was
upheld on only one of the four basic contentions set fonh
in the document: the water quality issue. The regional
forester's decision said Lhat, as there was no mention of
Lhe other issues in Lhe Sumter Forest's Land and
Resource Management Plan, they were not legitimate
bases for appeal.
The Forest Waichers fear Lhal forest supervisor
Donald Eng, a hardline timber man, will quickly return a
revised timber sale plan for Comparunent 43, so the
saws are delayed as little as possible.
Undaunted, lhe group has decided Lhat by refusing
to consider the issues or forest fragmentation and
overculting, and other possible uses for the old timber
stand and Lhe forest as a whole. the Forest Service has
escalated the action. SC Forest Watch feels that since
such imponant considerations have been neglected, Lhe
forest plan ilSClf needs to be amended.
The Sumter Forest Land and Resource
Management Plan is up for a live-year review this year,
and the Forest Watch organization is requesting
amendment or a complete revision of Lhe plan. If the
Forest Service denies Lhat request, the group will then
appeal Lhat decision. SC Forest Watch is determined to
bring about a long-term change of policy in Lhe Sumter
National Forest..
Contact
SC Forest Watch
Box657
Wesaninster, SC
KatUah Province 29693
SNOW BEAR Is a herbalist, naturalist, environmental educator,
and director of the Pepper/and Farm Camp. He can be contacted
by writing to Pepper/and Farm Camp; Rt. 4, Box 255-B;
Murphy, NC 28906 or by phone st (704) 494- 2353.
Sp r1.n9, 1990
�..•. ................·.·.-.;.,.._..
··~-~.•••,,..
.;·•·•••······
..
.....
·;...
..
·····
DIOXIN vs THE ENVIRONMENT
~
;·
.t.l
~
NATURAL
~
(PART2)
Nani World News s.vice
~...
~
~
~
WORLD
~
==
.
l
·•
:.
..
~
~
!·
·-:... NEWS
. ..
r
~
·~.
~
l
....
..
...
·t~:.
·'!~~~.
....................
.
~
...
. !'!!'!"
.~'!:-~·
•.•.•.•!''!'··'!'··~·.
HELMS "STUMPS" NC FORESTS
As pan of an experimenlal pilot project, Ille Bush
administration recently released a list of southeasiem
national fon:slS where below-cost timber sales would be
slOppCd for two years.
North Carolina forest.s were mystenously
removed from that list. despite a Congressional study
showing that the Pisgah-Naru.ahala National ForeslS lost
$2.S million in 1988. h toter came to tight that,
although originally on th.at list. the Pisgah and Nanuthala
forests wcre om1ued aflcr sarong persuasion from Scnaior
Jcs.sc Helms.
A Nonh Carolina Forestry Associauon (NCFA)
newsletter article titled "Helms Helps National Fon:slS
in N.C. • reveals, "Helms used leuers from NCFA
members, Appalachian Multiple Use Council, and the
Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturcl'S Associauon to no1
only remove Pisgah-Nanlahala, but to force a review of
the whole below-cost initiative."
There arc 12 southeastern forests on the
below-cost liSt. including the Cherokee in Tenncsscc, the
George WashinglOll in Virginia, and Lhe Chatahoochcc in
Georgia. Bjorn Dahl, supervisor of Ille national forests
in North Carolina. was uncertain why Nonh Carolina
forests were rcrnoved Crom the program. "I know we
were on Ille original list." Dahl said. "We were advised
we were on, but when Lhe list came out we were off."
The proposal in the fiscal 1991 budget submiued
IO Congress in January would reduce the amount of
timber removed from the Wgeted foreslS by about 38
pcn:ent during a one-year test. One method of offsetting
the loss of pronts in timber sales was a pilot project that
will experimentally increase recreational use of the
forests. The prognun would mean higher fees for some
recreational uses and new fees for previously free
activities, such as picnic areas, boat ramps. and parking
lolS.
According IO the Forest Service the program will
have insignificant impacts on timber interest.s around the
12 national forests. Should the program continue for the
Delli five years an estimated S2S jobs would disappear.
Mary Kelly of the Western Nonh Carolina
Alliance poinlS out that the Pisgah-Nanuthala may have a
more sustainable future in recreation rather than timber
hqwdation. Kelly states, · we have a large number of
bade country and whitewaier outfitlCIS, and a large lOUrist
economy that 1s much more important than umber
resources IO our local economy, and it's unfortunate that
we weren't given the same chance to Lest out our ability
to manage for these resources."
Sowct: Asheville Citizen, Mat'ch 2. 1990
Spr L"'J. 1990
In the continuing saga of wa1et quality vs. dioxin,
we fmd owselves, once again, at a pulp and paper
processing plant. This time, we've moved over the
l1IOWllain from Canion and Olampioo Colporalion IO Lhe
Ecusta Corporation mill, on the Davidson River in
Transylvania County, NC.
The story is quite familiar. Chlorine is used as a
bleaching agent on wood pulp which, in tum, is used to
produce white paper products··m this case, lightweight
paper for bible pages and cigarette papers. Diollin. a
highly carcinogenic IOXin, is produced during lhis ~
and subsequently rclc.ased in the plant's discharge. In the
case of Ecusta, dioxin has been found in fish sampled
downstream from the plant in the French Broad River.
A considerable amount of wrangling has been
going on between Ille NC Department of Environmenlal
Management (DEM) and the EPA over whether or not
Ecusta's waStewater needs to be monitored. In February
1989. the DEM released a list of the state's toxic
discharge sites which would be required to clean up their
acL Ecusta was not on the lisl.
The EPA disagreed with this decision and 1n June
released ilS own clean-up list which contained Ecusta and
nine other Nonh and South Carolina mills. EPA then
informed DEM that Ecusta must also be included on the
state list, or they would overrule the state and seize
control of Ecusta's was1ewater permit, as allowed by the
Oc.an W31.Cl Act of 1979.
In July, the state capitulated and included Ecusta
on an amended but still preliminary tisL Finally, in
February 1990, the state released its final list, which
included both the EcUSta and Champion mills, and EcUSLa
was given a deadline of June, 1993 to comply with
newly developed state limits on dioxin discharge.
In a scenario familiar from Champion days,
Ecusta's parent company, the P.H. Glatfelter Company,
based in Pennsylvania, claims ii may be forced to close
the plant if required IO meet Ille st.aodards by 1993.
The EPA 's rote in pressing the state IO control
Ecusta's wastewater permit has been the focal point for
much of the prolCSl by those rallying to the side of the
county's largest employer. In a front page anicle io the
Asheville Citizen on 1/17/90, Esther Wesley, cxecutivc
director of the Transylvania County Chamber of
Commerce, was quoted as saying "Ecusta doesn't have a
problem-EPA has a problem. They rcally expect entirety
IOO much from a manuf.acturing planL •
The Glatfelter Company apparently agrees with
Ms. Wesley and filed a fcdcral lawsuit in January asking
US District Judge Richard Voorhees to prohibit the EPA
from invalidating OEM's original decision not to include
Ecusta on its cleanup lisL Much of the dissension among
Ecust.a, the state, and the EPA centers on confusion
about bow and where to measure dioxin in the river.
Fish sampled last year just below the plant had
up to eight times more dioxin than fish sampled 4.4
miles downstream. However, state and mill officials
point out th.at farmland and the town of Brevard's
wastewater treatmenl plant could pocentially contribule
diollin. To confuse mauers further. periodic samples of
Ecusia wastewater have not revealed mcasurcable levels
of diollin (although dioxin is more rctiably detected in
fish tissues than in waler samples).
In addition, there is liule agreement over how
much dioxin is IOO much. Despite insisting that Ecusta
discharge should be controlled, the agency has never
established wastewater limitations for l'lax·pulping mills,
or which Ecusta is one of two in the U S.
The DEM did not adopt a diollin standard until
October. It is not a uniform standard, but one based on
the quantity of a plant's efOuent and the receiving
waterway's ability to dilute iL
ract
Tbe one
which la 1101 coolusillg is that
dioxin is a very dangerous substance., especially when it
is on tbe loose in unknown quantities in the
envilOnmenL It is ""' acceptable to have communities
along Lhe French Broad River living in fear of dioxin
conramination.
The NC Division of Environmental Management
(DEM) is seeking comments on 1 proposal to identify
and set special proccctive standards for stmuns in the
SllllC iclcnliflCd as "High Quality Waiers." Over 900 miles
of streams in the western part of the state are up for
n:classificalion.
Write 10 the DEM in support of the High Quality
WalCtS rcclassifteation. Address comments to:
Greg Thorpe
NC Division of Environmental Management
Box 27687
Raleigh, NC 27611
THE DEFENSE OF WRIGHT
SQUARE
Nlllnl World News Service
Wright Square was a small green arc.a amid the
mini-malls in Highlands, NC. Sill 45 year old dogwood
trees and one old arbor vitae tree stood there until the
Town Board decided it needed additional padcing places for
downtown shoppers.
The November elections had brought some
changes to Lhe Lown. Voters had made their choices clear.
For the first time a woman and an
environmentally-leaning candidate were elected IO the
Town Board. The old board members saw that there was
going to be some opposition in their ranks, and decided
that before the new board was convened they would take
care or one tittle project: Wright Sqwirc.
Townspeople had thought th.at the square would
be one of Lhe fll'Sl topics IO be addressed when the new
Town Board was installed, so they were surprised one
Friday when bulldozc:n appeared in the square and started
to work demolishing the trees. Immediately women from
local garden clubs came to the defense of the bit or nature
left in the square. It was a school holiday, so they were
joined by some high school students, members of a
studen t environmental group, Youth Advocating
Planetary Improvement (YAPI).
Carrying a few Earth flags, the townspeople
stopped the demolition work for the day. Workers
lounged about their machines as the women clustered
around the trees, and a few of the students occupied the
branches of the dogwoods.
At the end of the day the workers left, and the
protc.slOrS also went home, congratulating themselves on
a job well done. However, unknown to anyone, during
the night Lhe bulldozers plus worters with chainsaws
were ordered IO return to the scene, and when morning
broke the town woke up to find Wright Square leveled to
the pavement.
The Town Board may have won a temporary
victory, but they stirred up a furor in the town of
Highlands.
As one woman put it, "Certainly we're concerned
about the trees, but it wasn't just about the uus. It wa<1
about a large number of people who cared deeply about
their environment not being liStened to by the governing
body of the town. It was also about the issue or
representative govcnwent.."
(continued on neut pigc)
Xat~
Journa£ pCMJ"- 2 1
�"~, '1051 ! P\R. ll~D. W ~"° 01111.
LUNCH "10 KEEP IT
(continued from page 21)
F~ESM
!"
Canoon by Docta 1)'
HAYWOOD COUNTY P ROPOSES
GARBAGE FEAST FOR BEARS
Na11nl World News Service
County and municipal govcmmenis lhroughou1
Ka1Uah arc wrcsl.ling with the looming specter of
mounlains of trash, and no place lO pul lhem. Haywood
Coun1y in western Nonh Carolina is no exception. The
prcsen1 IMdfill (i.e.• dump) 1s Casi approaching capacity
and will be closed wilhin lwo ycnrs.
Efforts by Lhc coun1y commissioners lO siie o
new dump in lhe CrabU'Ce community failed. Sirong
opposition, well-developed during Lhc "Siop Lhc Nuclear
Dump• efforis, derailed 1hc comm1ssionecs and lhe11
handsomely-paid "front man•. engincct Gary "Mackie"
McKay. Not lO be dclencd, McKay (who n:poncdly will
receive IO'h of the engineering COSIS LO site a dump)
proposed a new site in Lhc While Oak community on
Fines Creclc.
While Oak is lhe most isolated and leas1
populaled area in lbe county. It is adjacent 10 Lhc
once-magnificent Pigeon River. close 10 the Grea1
Smoky Mounlain National Parle, and lbe Hannon Den
Bear Sanctuary. It is here lhat McKay proposes a
IOO·acre dump. A representative of Tribble and
Riclwdson, lbe engineering company McKay h11ed lO
conduct groundwaicr lCSLS at lhe site, bas said, "We
couldn't have found a belier loc4tion for a landfill.•
The inhabitants of While Oak community
disagree. One residcnl, Bob Hessler, is worried aboul
pollution leaching from lhe proposed dump into lhe
Pigeon River. Hessler approached lhe county
commission wilh lhe idea of municipal trash composting
and was amazed lO find that no one knew what ii was.
Composting garbage reduces disposal problems
greatly. Through a biological fcnnentation process.
municipal waste producLS (liquid sewage, sludge. and
garbage) are Lransformed inlO a valuable, marketable
produce "Class r composL. Additionally, comp0s1ing
roduccs the built of garbage IO a mere 15% of ilS original
volume, which would require a much smaller landfill sile
for the remaining plastics and non-biodegradable wasteS.
As an al1cmative disposal method, composting a a
s
proven, eost-cffcctivc solution.
McKay seems oblivious to 1be fact thal
composting works. As County Commissioner Noland
put ii, "There may be a connict of interest with McKay."
There are olher problems with the location of the
proposed landfill. White Oak residents sought the
opinion of black beat researcher Mike Pelton, a professor
m lhc University Of Tennessee's Dcp:1rtmem ofForesuy,
Wildlife and Fisheries. In a prepared stalCment he swd.
"Landfills, garbage dumps, or any olber conccnLraled
source of human food or ~e serve as an awaction LO
bears. Throughoul Nonh America, wherever lhe two
occur in close proximi1y, problems have arisen. These
problems tend LO be particularly bad in or near zones of
protection for bears, such as national parks or designated
sanctuaries.
"The proposed landfill on Fines Creek in
Haywood County, NC meets all the criicria for being a
polential problem. Its proximily to lbe Great Smoley
Mounlains National Parle and the Harmon Den Bear
Sanctuary in lhe Pisgah National Foresl are of special
concern. ln addition Lo the above prollimily lO areas of
pro1ec1ed populaiions and high bear numbers, olher
factors add 10 the concern over lhe location of the
proposed landfill. One is its proximity to historic release
siu:s of problem bears by lhe National Park Service, and
the other is lhe vulncrobilily of bears attracted lO lhe site
while trying 10 cross 1-40.•
Because of lhe limited road system in the Park,
there are only lhree areas to relocate problem bears A
landfill adj3CCnt 10 lhe CaUlloochee area, where almos1 30
percent are released. could hnve sign1fican1 implications
regarding bear management. A majority of visLorlbcar
interactions occur on lhe central or wes1 end of lhe Park.
Therefore, ii is importanl lha1 a remOle rclocallon area be
available oo the easl end. Caialoochee is the only
reasonable area for consideration.
An ongoing study wilhin the Harmon Den Bear
Sanctuary suggests lhat lhe landfill as also wilhin the
reach of mosl snnclU31)' bcrus. Breeding-age fcrnales could
be drawn ou1 of lhe prolCCted confines of the sane wary,
where they would be exposed 10 much higher nsks of
mortality. Hunters frequent lhe borders of lhe sanctuary
area, and a ncarl>y landfill would encourage more bears to
aucmpl lhe dangerous crossings over lntctsta1e 40.
In response, McKay has suggested ughl.ly
bundling the garbage and wrapping ii in plastic--a la
Saran Wrap--to conlain the auractivc aromas.
Additionally, McKay proposes hiring a game
warden to patrol Lhe dump, to educate the local folks
aboul "dump bears," and 10 control poachers.
Presumnbly, this warden would also act as a traffic guard,
halting traffic on 1-40 lO allow bears to cross over from
lhe Hannon Den 8CM SanclU31)'.
Reahsucally, a composting opcrauon offers
Haywood County a much safer disposal mclhod thal
could be more centrally located on a smaller S•le tha1
would not present a danger lO the alrcady·abuscd Pigoon
River or to the local bears.
say, have been CSUlblished in geographic areas other lhan
lhe mountains and are not valid in lhe mounl3Jn locale.
Despite well-organized. suong opposition, lhe
Deep Gap generators will be buih if lhcy receive
approval in early March from the NC Utilities
Commission and lhc federal Rural Elecuification
Administtation. The "deep gap• widens ....
DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER
Nawral World News Servoc:c
Sedimenta1ion is the Kaiuah region's mos1
common form of waler pollution.
Until January I, 1990 state and private forestry
operations were exempt from any lcmd of sedimentation
cooirols • namely, the NC Sedimcniauon Pollution
Control Acl (NCSPCA) of 1973.
Now, even on privale and state con1111Cts, loggers
must adhere LO the following provisions 10 prevenl
sedimentation due to land-disturbing acuv1Lies:
I) Establish Bild mllinlain a sLrCWnsidc manage men I zone
along all bodies of waier.
2) Prevent any debris and wasies from entering bodies of
walCt.
3) Consuucl occess roads and skid trails so lhal
sedtmentation is minimized.
4) Apply pesticides and fcruliu:rs according to labeled
uses, and in such a way as 10 prevent adverse
impacis on water quality.
5) Leave shade over streams.
6) Provide erosion control for all large-scale din-moving
projcclS within 30 working days after ceasing
any phase of an operation or when bcgiMing a period
of inacuvity.
The NC Slllte Forestry Commission is
rcsponsable for reviewing loggang operations, writing
individual sedimentation conirol plans, and referring
CLOSING THE DEEP GAP
Na11nl World News Service
Moonlain People for Clean Afr (MPCA) and the
Blue RR!ge Envaronmcntal Defense League (BREOL) arc
leading the effortS lO s1 construction of diesel
op
generators in lbe Docp Gap area of Watauga Counly. The
generators are planned by lhe Nonh Carolina Electric
Membership Cooperative lO supplemen1 electrical power
supplied to lhe Deep Gap area by Dulce Power.
Opposition lO the proposal has been voiced for many
monlhs, and has included protests presented at public
meetings and picketing in fronl of the electric co-op's
Raleigh offices. The NC Division of Env1IOnmental
Management hlls altc3dy issued a pcrm11 lO the CCH>p lO
build the generatOrS.
Protesicrs state I.hat Ibey have nol received fair
representation from 1he state organi1.a1ion sci up LO
mediate between lhe people and the utili1y companies.
MPCA and BREOL have both taken the stand thal
lhcrmal inversions and fog common 10 the Occp Gap area
should prohibit the building of diesel gcncnuors and lheir
inevitable discharges of sulphur and nitrogen oxide acids.
The co-<>p has argued it will comply wilh state
emission standards, but the opposilion groups say lhat
these standards arc not sufficienL These regulations, they
non-compliant opcra1ions 10 the NC Division of
Environmental Management (DEM). Your assistance in
notifying lhe county foresicr or the OEM of violations
will malte lhis new "non-exempt" law work. Contac1:
NC Division of Environmental Man3gcmen1,
Land Quality Secuon
59 Woodfm Place
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 251-6208
Drawing by Rob MC$$iclc
Sprl.nq, 1990
�YOU OTTER BE THERE
Nlllnl World News Savice
"They're cu1e and cuddly. bul lhey're wild
animals, and they'll bi1e," says wildlife biologis1 Mike
Carraway. River OllcrS lllC once again making a saand in
the mountains and foothills of KatLiah's eastern slope.
Ouers have been released by b1olog1S1s mos1
rcccnlly in the Ca1awba River in Burke County. Plans
include future releases below Lake James near
Morgan1on. Oucrs were once bunted for lhe1r beautiful
fur eoais, and !hey have been absenl from Kn1uah since
lhe early I 900's.
Rcmuoduccd oners seem to be strongly
eslllblishcd in lhc Great Smoley Moun1ains. where they
have migrated over high ridges and through forests IO
slake oul new ierritones far from lhe1r original release
si1cs. As lite newly-rclcnsed ot1ers make !heir way
upsueam. 1bey wi ll pencira1e in10 01her mountain
wa1ersheds. Since Ibey are now proiecied from pell
huniers, ouers should be able to conunue !heir strong
comeback in K.aUiah·s walCrS.
Drawin& by Jomes Rhea
PROTECTING BLACK BEARS
OAK RIDGE ON TRIAL
NC SOLID WASTE BILL
N.nnl World News Savice
Nlllnl WOfld News Savice
Nllll.nl World News Scrvi<ie
On May 2, 1990 lhe NC Wildlife Resources
Commission will bold special public bearings on lhe
topic ol raising the minimum hunting limll for blaclt
bears from SO pounds IO 100 pounds. Thac will be two
hearings tba1 nigh!. one scheduled for 7:00 pm at lhe
Smokey Mountain High School in Sylva, Jackson Co.,
and anolhct at lhe same time a1 KinSIOll High School in
Lenoir, Caldwell Co.
The entire Sou1hem Appalachian black bear
population is estimaled a1 2000 bears. The number of
cubs born each year varies widely depending on lhe food
supply, bu1 averages approximately 200-300 cubs per
year. Given the legal kill of 300 bears each year and a
poaching ra1e llta1 is llto ugh1 10 equal lba1, lhe bear
population appears 10 be barely holding its own or even
declining at !his time.
Yc1 habi1a1 stresses such as loss of bard mast
production due to oak decline, damage from lite
oncoming invasion o f lhe gypsy molh, increased road
construction and use, and continued clcarcuuing promise
10 pu1 additional pressure on lhe existing black bear
population in lhc near fu1ure.
Research by wildlife biologists bas shown that
lhe average age of female bears being killed in the
moun1ains is between 3.5 and 4.6 years. The average
female docs no1 bear young until age four. For a creature
wilh a poiential hfe cxpcclllncy of 20 or more years, lltis
early age mortali1y drastically reduces reproductive
capabiluy and lltrcaiens lhe species' abilily 10 rebound
from babitn1 pressures.
There is much to be done to guaranlCC lhal lhe
black bear will forever roam lhcse mounLains. Raising
lhe minimum hunting limil for black bears 10 100
pounds is one measure lhlll is now up for deb:ue. Those
who arc willing IO speak up for lite black bear should
aucnd lhe special hearings on lhe evening of May 2.
Those who canno1 auend lite hearings can cornmunicale
lhc1r opinion to the:
NC Wildlife R~ Cornm1~~ion
S 12 N. Salisbury S1.
Raleigh, NC 27611
Renders may well remember lhe announcement
for the Hiroshima Day demonstration al Oak Ridge
(Ka1iiall Jow nal #2A). Over 700 people joined in diRc1
action io procesl lbc Oalt Ridge facili1y's manufacwring
of nuclear weapon components. Of lhe more lhan 700
demonstrators, 29 were ancsted for crossing lbc line a1
lhe galCS of lhe Y-12 plan! in a ges1ure of non-violent
confron1:11ion. Two of the 29 arrested, Bonnie Kendrick
and Kathy Brown, enlCICd a plea of "llOI guil1y• and an:
preparing for lhcir trial, which is scheduled for June 7.
The women hope their uial will successfully
ques1ion lbe morali1 of the manufac1
y
unng and
deploymem of nuclear wcnpons. They plan to focus on
lhc environmental problems associated willt bringing
these implemenis of ca1astrophic destruction into
The Staie of North Carolina approved new solid
wasie managemen1 policies a1 the las1 session or lite
General Assembly.
Legislation adopted SlalCS lltat lhe preferred
melhod for handling the swe's solid waste problems is IO
reduce waste volume al the source. Following tbal. the
nex1preferable mclhod is recycling and reuse. If malUials
caMOI be reused, then composting is lhe preferred
disposal SU'al.Cgy. The least-preferred melhods of disposal
arc ancincralion and landfill dumping.
The solid W8SIC managemen1 legislat.ion also SIClS
an objective for 25~ of the slalC's wasie IO be recycled
by 1993. Local governments lhroughoul 1he SIBIC are
required 10 institulC recycling programs by July of 1991
to help achieve this goal.
The legislation also stipulates lltal large plastic
containers will have 10 bear labeli ng indicating !heir
composition, in order to help in recycling. h bans the
sale of packag ing containing halogena1ed
chloronuorocarbons (CFC's) and polys1yrene food
containers effective Oc1ober I, 1991. II also stalCS lhai.
beginning in October 1990, used oil will noc be accepted
&1 landfills; by 1991, lead-acid b:wcrics will be forbidden:
and lh:ll, beginning in 1993, yard trash will no longer be
Sprl"'J, 1990
existence.
Kendrick and Brown will base !heir plea on the
grounds of necessily. and will bring up case histories
from the Nurcrnburg Trials. The defendants arc galhcring
evidence of Ibo radioactive and toxic dangers in lhe Oak
Ridge area. They also have cxpcn willlesses who will
verify lheir plea of lite neccssi1y for civil resis1ance.
Among the witnesses appearing will be Robert Aldridge,
who designed lbc missile delivery syslCm for lhe Triden1
11-05, bu1 is now an ardcnl anti-nuclear pcaoc activist.
Francis Anlhony Boyle, a professor of inLCmational law
and author of lhe book Defefldjng Civil RtsiJtanet Under
Inttrnaticnal Law will also take lhe Sland.
The women feel lba1 we canno1 afford to carry on
"business as usual" while industrial pollution and
weapons production lhrcaien lhe life cycles of lhe planet.
Unul the threat is stopped, !hey say, lhcre will be ever
more public ou1cry, and more trials lhal raise lhe
imponan1 quesuons of cnvironmentnl safely, communi1y
heallh, and moral responsibilily.
Anyone who i~ inLCrcslcd in rinding ou1 more
aboul 1h1S trial or wishCli to make a dona1ion to the
defense fund, please coniact:
Oak Ridge Envuonmenllll Pe:ice AllUlllCC
P.O. Box 1101
Knoxville, TN 37901.
8CCCplCd.
The solid was1e management bill also aulhoriz.es
suppon and training activity 10 help s1a1e agencies and
local governments fulrill lhe objectives of lhe new slalc
policies on solid wasLC. This will be 1mplcmcnLCd by the
NC Dcpartmenl of Environmeni. Health, and Natural
Resources and lhe Commission of Hcallh Services. II
also charges the NC Department of Economic and
Communi1y Developmen1 to assist in rinding and
developing markets for composlCd products and recycled
mmcria.ls.
Source: News/ti/tr of tht IVattr Resourcts
RtSearch lnslitutt of TM Unilitrsity <!North Carolina
�HEALING THE WHOLE SELF
These are the words of a traditional Cherokee medicine person...
Sometimes to understand something, it's necessary to
dissect it, to take it apan into pieces. Western culture does that
well. But they have become so expert with the parts that they
have forgotten how the pieces fit together as a whole.
Western medicine dissects people by seeing them as
spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical. But there is a unity
between those pans. If a person gets sick spiricually, and if he or
she ignores that, the imbalance will evencually show up in his or
her emotional and psychological make-up. And if that person
keeps building walls to avoid facing their problem, eventually it
will manifest itself on the physical being, where it will put the
person into such a situation that he or she can't ignore it
My grandfather used to say that what we call the common
cold isn't a sickness or a disease at all. It's the Spirit's way of
saying, "Stop! Slow down! Here's an opportunity to see what's
going on in your life."
When you have a cold, you feel too bad to go rush and run
about But if you take the time to sit down, examine your life,
and be really honest with yourself, as you come to some kind of
conclusions, that so-called "cold" or sickness will go away.
But not all sickness comes from the inside, because one
half of the world is eating the other half right now, and there's
viruses and bacteria and accidents that can happen to the body.
A part of well-being is to be spiritually strong,
psychologically and emotionally. You do that by not avoiding
things. You make peace with your mother and father, if they've
messed you over. You forgive them, and you forgive yourself
most of all, because of the bad feelings you had, because they
didn't meet your expectations, real or not real. You come to peace
with that You can come to peace with the other expectations that
have not been met in your life, and other people who turned out
to be not what you thought.
Then, if something attacks you, it's less likely to be
severe, and your recuperative powers will be much stronger.
We have been placed in this world to strengthen our spirit.
We are here to learn, to overcome, and to take responsibility for
being here. People who totally neglect their spirit, and do nothing
to carry out the purpose for which we are here are more likely to
be susceptible to those external things that attack us. They might
stop a bullet, be attacked by viruses or diseases. Of course
anybody who makes love continuously with someone who's got
AIDS is likely to get it. We still have to learn common sense, and
take care of our own selves on that basic level.
Then there's the mental part of ourselves that comes in two
pans: there's the up-front, linear/critical, intellectual mind, and
then there's the emotional part.
The linear/critical pan of our brain is very limited in its
function. Its job description is that it deals with problems. If it
doesn't have a problem, then it makes one. And 99 times out of
100, the problems that it creates are negative, because that part of
our brain only wants to solve things. The Creator gave us this
ability so we would have a better chance of survival, so we could
figure out how to keep a lion from eating us or how we were
going to survive this freezing winter. It's a gift The lion's got
his claws and teeth; we've got this conex. Solving problems is
what it does. So to be healthy, you have to present that pan of
your brain with a problem - a positive problem.
The other part of our mental self is the emotional part. This
pan contains all our emotional feelings, positive or negative. The
catch is that the linear/critical part of the brain acts as a
doorkeeper. It locks the door to bad news. It locks the door to
things it wants to avoid. If I mistreat someone, even if I know
it's not good to mistreat people and HnowT did it .wrongly, my
mind may not want to admit to that. lncidentstike thar stagnme in
my emotional mind. All the feelings that arose when other people
injured me or hun me, all the anger and frustration from incidents
that 1 have not yet resolved with myself, all of that is hidden
away in my emotional mind.
I cannot avoid those feelings, even if my linear/critical,
problem-solving brain doesn't want to hear about them. So if I
build walls around that stuff with my conscious mind, it waits
there until night-time when my defenses arc down, and then it
comes out through the back door, through my dreams.
To maintain spiritual health, resolve as many of those
things as you possibly can up front. That's hatd, but it makes it
easier if we recogniu that we are going to make mistakes in our
lives. All life is is an education. We arc here to learn from this
experience. But sometimes we punish ourselves our whole lives
for mistakes we have made.
As much as possible, we need to deal with all those
incidents and the feelings they raise consciously at the moment,
because what happens to us in our dream state is as real as what
happens in daylight, and it's just as important Deal with those
things and go on.
That is the way to be where your power is. Personal power
is when we stop and take responsibility for our own actions. We
have a tendency to blame other people for things we do or don't
do. We blame other people or events outside ourselves for most
of the things that happen to us - particularly the bad things.
Actually, most - not all, but most - of the good or bad that
happens in our life is dependent on our own level of attention and
caring. But as long as people relinquish their responsibility by
attributing events that happen in their own life to something or
someone else, then they will never have personal power. They
are giving it away.
Along with personal power go happiness, sadness, and joy
- all those things are our responsibility. They arc created
internally, not externally. My wife is not responsible for my
happiness or my sadness. rt is me. It is happening inside here.
This is where I create these responses to the circumstances of my
life.
SprLrM), 1990
I
�Most people walking around in the world are separated
from their power. Their power is far in the future, or their power
is the past dealing with regrets and pains, unfulfilled
expectations, a lack of love, or whatever else is troubling them.
The result is that, while they are right here, they have no power.
They are always ahead or they are always behind. because they
are waiting for a future opponunity that never comes, or their
energies are behind them dealing with yest.erday.
If those people had their power right here, they could deal
with things. The only place we can deal with things is in the
present. We cannot spend our lives behind or ahead. We have no
personal power if our power is not located in the present
Otherwise, life is a question of "Eat, shit, sleep, and die."
People like that are the same as one-celled creature. That kind of a
life is a waste of soil and energy. That kind of person can do
nothing.
The way of healing used by the old Cherokee medicine
men involved conjuring. Conjuring means manipulation.
"Manipulation" is a bad word in the dominant culture. You don't
say you manipulate people even if you do.
But manipulation is alright as long as it is used for the
benefit of the patient and not for one's personal benefit A good
conjurer never conjures for himself. If a medicine man conjures
for himself, avoid him, because he will manipulate a situation for
his own personal gain. If a medicine person charges you for
anything, he's profiting from the experience of another person's
suffering. Traditional native people won't have anything to do
with that kind of person, unless it's a maintenance-and-repair
doctor practicing western medicine. That's just the way those
doctors do it.
The old Cherokees used to say that the white doctors
caused disease. They knew it, because the doctors charged for
their help, and obviously they didn't wanr their patients to get
well. That was how they made their living.
There are three levels of conjuring or manipulation. People
use the elementary fonn of manipulation every day to get their
way. A man often uses bis manliness, bis male aggressiveness.
That touches primal instincts in women or children. When the
dominant male is rowdy, they have a deep programming that
prompts them to split for cover. If a woman wants to manipulate
a situation, she uses her feminine sexuality. Those are
oversimplified examples of conjuring. In actual life we do it
mucl\ more subtly.
There is a higher fonn of conjuring, and that is by using
knowledge. Understanding how things work allows one to
manipulate a situation. A lot of things that western doctors or
scientists do seem like magic to us, because we do not
comprehend the principles involved. It isn't magic to them,
because they understand how it works.
It operates in another manner as well. Everybody has
within themselves a force that I call the Physician Within. If a
healer or a conjurer has a deep understanding of people, he or she
can contact and activate the Physician Within inside their patient.
But it talces a great degree of understanding.
For example, I knew a young fellow once who fell off a
rock cliff and was badly hurt. He was carried to a bed and Jay
there, drifting in and out of consciousness.
A medicine man came and looked at him, and then came
over to us and said, "I don't think he's going to live. He's hurt
bad inside."
They called another medicine man, a really old guy. He
came over there. He talked with the first medicine man. Then he
went over there and studied the victim, looked him over. He
knew the boy well. knew his situation.
The old man leaned over and was talking to the victim for
quite some while. The young man started moving around a little
bit He moved his body, and after a while he sat up and was
looking around. He was weak, but that old man had provoked
the instinct to survive just by saying some words to him.
Spr""'J, t 990
It took me three years to find out what words the old man
had whispered to that boy. Finally the old man told me. What he
had said was, "Your best friend, Everett, is messing around with
your girlfriend. I know it. I've seen him slip in there a couple of
times, and before you die I want you to know that he's been
putting one over on you all this time."
It seems so simple when you know the secret. But that was
a powerful statement for that boy. It made him mad. The old man
understood that. He had a practical understanding of the laws of
nature. If he did not know what was said, a western doctor
would not have understood. He would have thought that the old
man had been using some form of magic.
We all have cenain requirements as human beings. We all
want warmth, we all require nurturing. It's just as imponant to us
as supper. We want that hugging, we want that gentleness. A
good healer understands these things. The better we understand
these instinctual requirements, the better we will be able to
understand other human beings, and the better we will
understand ourselves and why we do what we do.
The spiritual form of conjuring, which is the most
powerful and the hardest to explain, is when individual healers
pull their whole being together - they are not hindered by their
limitations, their human nature is not getting in the way, their
self-interest is not getting in the way, nothing is blocking their
potential - and then they arc able to hook into the power of the
whole universe, the One.
When it all comes down to equations, the answer is One there's but One, and we're a pan of that One. There is incredible
power in being able to move that energy into the patient. This
energy provokes the Physician Within to give the energy center a
boost when nothing else will. This is a direct transmission of Life
Force.
The old Chinese conception of the Tao is much like what I
call "medicine." In this sense "medicine" is something very
different from the way the western people mean it
There's yin and yang. We might be tempted to call them
"good" and "bad," but they refer to the pairing of any and all
opposite forces, whatever they are.
The two forces come together. They come close to each
other, but they never touch. One comes moves toward the center
and becomes dominant. It stays until it's fulfilled, and then it
pulls back. As it pulls back, the other one is pulled in. It's a
dance. Everything is moving. What moves that process is call~
the Tao. And the center, or the space between the two opposite
forces, is medicine.
When traditional healers study medicine, they study
everything in between the two opposite forces. Without that
action there is no life. My grandfather said, "God is the energy
that started movement Whatever started motion is God." And the
motion God started was this.
From that space in the center, we can tap into the energy of
the Whole. When we do it ceremonially, we can concentrate the
energy of a group of people on the healing process that needs to
happen. A group of people can create a powerful phenomenon
when they can stop their own personal self-indulgence, even for
one split second, and move collectively on the same issue. It
doesn't happen often anymore, but when it does, it is uplifting.
Things happen that defy the understanding of the rational mind.
There is an old saying, "Magic comes when all doubt has
been removed from the mind."
�DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
Dear KatUah,
I was reading in the Wildlife in North Carolina magazine
about the Chestnut trees and I hadn't thought about them much,
but I think it would be nice to have some big ones around. I
saw your address in there and they said that you had an old
issue of the Ka!Uah JourNJJ, which was about the Chesmut
tree. I would like to get one if you have any more.
I live out in the country about ten miles from Statesville,
a couple of miles from the small town of Catawba. It is across
the river though in a differen1 county. Let us hope that the tree
can make a comeback.
James Ford
Editors' note: We were pleased and surprised to receive over
75 requests for the ChestllUl Issue due to that menti()n in
Wildlife in North Carolina .
Dear KanJah,
I was recently adopted into the Seneca Nation, and I'm
seeking information on the Seneca People. Their language,
dress, spirits, and everything else I can find out. I would also
like to receive information on KatUah JourNJ/ to be sent to my
fianccC who got me very enthused in researching Native
People. She enjoys collecting artifacts or anything that
resembles Indian an woric. While I helped build her collection I
became interested in the reading of the history. She is part
Indian, but I forgot the People. I am now in prison and me and
her went our separate ways before my arrest, but I have not
stopped caring for her or sending infonnation I uncover to help
her. I get out of here in 5 months, and hope the Great Spirit
will rejoin us once again. I would very much like you to send
her a subscription of your Journal as a gift from me. Please bill
me for it and I will cover the cost as soon as I can. There is a
friend on my dorm who is starting to receive your Journal, so I
will be sharing his. Please send me any information you can on
real books on the American Indian. Than.le you for your time
and help in this matter.
Sincerely,
Robert Stigleman
Dear Kazuah Journa.J,
I am writing to lei you know about the establishmen1 of a
new organization in South Carolina, the Action Research Forum.
Our aim in founding this group is to promote peace,
justice, and environmental pro1ection through research,
education, and communi1y-based action.
We are currently compiling information about effons in
the deep south to achieve greater social and economic justice , ro
end racism, and to protect the environmen1. We hope that your
organization will send us some of your recent pubhcations and
reports, and that you will add us to your mailing list so that we
may receive regular news of your work.
Jn exchange, we will spread the word as best we can about
your organii.ation through our resource listings, and we will keep
you up to date about our effons (we plan to have a newslener).
We also plan to eventually have enough funds to make donations
to organizations such as yours.
If you have any questions, please feel free to write us or ro
get in touch by phone.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Bill Hall
Dear KanJah,
Recently, on a trip to Georgia, I came across an issue of
the KmUah Journal. I was very excited to find a publication
with such infonnation. Though I don't live in the area, rm
interested in the information you are compiling.
I eventually plan to move, and I may well move to the
Southern Appalachians. I am interested in self-sufficient living,
organic farming (which I am doing now), and similarly minded
people who don't worship the microwavable, plastic shrink
wrapped, computerized world.
I've enclosed money for a year's subscription and two
back issues. If you would kindly send me addresses about
organjc farming and small self-sufficient communities in the
bioregion I would be much obliged.
May the Great Spirit bless you for doing such work,
Daniel Shoag
Action Research Forum
P.O.Box 176
Starr, S.C. 29684
(803) 352-2757
Dear Kanlah,
Your statement of purpose tingled my bells, and
scanning the sample copy you sent clinched it. Now I'll go sit
in the garden and read every word of the issue. But first, here's
my SI0.00.1 want to see more.
Blue Sky
Sprlcn(}. 1990
�STONESCAPE
Dark morning tangled with the mind A labyrinth by wind designed.
But like a storm the window of the eye,
Shattered a depth beyond the will to cry.
Pale light littered the rooftops with our grief.
The wonder of it mirrored in each leaf.
We saw ourselves in shadows of a chill
Flickering the stonescape of our will.
- Sandra Fowler
.>ear Katuah,
We have been fortunate enough to receive your paper from
a friend who lives near Washington, D.C., where it is more
available than in our area.
I was so happy to see your issue on children and wished to
comment specifically on the article "Binh Power" by Lucinda
Flodin and Manha Perkins. The predominant misconception is,
in this piece and others like it, that midwives, free of the
sociological trappings of organized medicine will permit women a
more natural embrace of birth as a life changing force. It is true
that midwives often permit a couple to birth more in the setting of
their choice-what appears as untruth is that they give parents back
their power.
Birth is the completion of a circle, a psychobioecosystem if
you will, as fragile and complex as the Gaia. This circle, begun
in the embrace of conception, requires no orchestration or
observation by a 'professional", either in its beginning, or in its
completion in the act of binh. Do it yourself homebirth, as
presented by Marilyn Moran in her 1st book, entitled the same,
and in her collected birth accounts, entitled. Happy Birth Days, is
the tuest form of empowerment. It is no wonder, considering our
socially promoted birth norms (from hospital technology to
midwife at home) that the world is seeing more and more divorce
and breach of commitment. Instead of Poppa caressing Momma,
and assisting the life of their love into the world, the father is
assigned some minimal position behind mother while either a
doctor cuts, or a midwife massages the mother's genitalia.
Through the binh of our first child we experienced such
transcendental communion, such ecstacy, such fulfillment as one
in the universe. This would have been impossible should anyone
else have been present besides my husband and myself.
Midwives do not give back power by assisting binh - they
would empower by providing prenatal care and encouraging
fathers to fulfill their position as soulmate and companion in the
act of binh. True empowerment comes through accepting
complete responsibility.
I would love to see this view presented in your journal.
Marilyn Moran is a wonderful and eloquent woman, who I am
sure would appreciate the opportunity of presenting our
conflicting view - should it be your policy to provide open forum
in this way. Her address is:
Marilyn Moran
c/o The New Nativity
P.O.Box 6223
Leawood, KS. 66206
Thanks for all the wonderful work you do!
Praying for Peace,
Teresa A. Rasmussen
Nore: The editors would like to caUJion couples to be aware of
safety considerations when considering undenalcing an
unassisted birth.
Sprl.nq, 1990
The Fourth Turtle Island Bioregional
Congress (NABC JV)
will be held August 19-26, 1990
at Lake Cobbosseecontee,
near Augusta, Maine
in the Gulf of Maine Bioregion.
Faced with the developing ecological
crisis, the Congress sees its mission as
deciding whether the bioregional
movement is to become a ''visible
and viable social/political/ cultural
transformational movement" (and
creating the bioregional and
continental organizing strategies to
fulfill that goal) or to be primarily a
philosophical concept that permeates
other movements for change.
The movement does not need to
further refine its resolutions.
Rather, it is time to apply these
principles in practice in our
bioregions and across the continent.
People from the Karuah Province
will be attending the NABC IV, so
please contact the Katuah journal
(Box 638; Leicester, NC; KatU.ah
Province 28748) if you are going, so
that we may coordinate
transportation and consider how we
will represent our region at the
Congress.
Mail Congress queries or registrations
to:
Turtle Island Bioregional Congress
Gulf of Maine Books
61 Maine St.
St. Brunswick, ME
Gulf of Maine Bioregion 04011
Places for the Congress are going
quickly, so register immediately, if
you are interested in attending this
important event. Registration is $175
for adults, $100 for children.
�ENVIRONMENT-AL PHOTOS
WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL
LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM
The Spirit of the Wild
James Rhea's artwork that was the logo
for the "Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern
Appalachians" conference and the cover of Issue
25 of the KatUah Journal. is now available to all
as conference posters and T -Shirts.
The posters are beautiful, four-color 11 .. x
17" renditions of the native species portrait with
conference information below and are available
for $2.00.
The T-shins are heavy-d uty, all-conon,
silkscreened by Ridgerunner Naturals. Only
large and extra-large sizes remain. They are
available for $10.50.
Prices include postage. NC residents
please add 5% sales tax.
All proceeds from the sale of 1hese i1ems
will suppon rescue actions for native habitat in
the Southern Appalachian forest.
Order from: KRLRNU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
Katuah Province 28789
The Womens International League for Peace
and Freedom (WILPF) is 75 years old this year.
The group was organized in 1915 at the Hague,
Netherlands. It has been an interracial
organization throughout its history.
The League came about when more than
1,000 Women's Suffragist leaders from 12 nations
met at the Hague to mount a campaign to abolish
war. Jane Addams of the U.S. chaired that
Congress. The participants chose the name
'Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom' and resolved to work to end intervention,
promote disarmament, negotiate regional conflicts,
and work for peace and freedom by non-violent
means.
Those resolutions and our commitment to
undoing racism as an influence in our society still
form the basis of the programs of WILPF.
The Asheville Branch of WILPF meets for a
pot luck lunch on the third Saturday of each
month at 12:00 noon at the Friends Meeting House;
227 Edgewood Rd. (off Merrimon Ave). Join with
us.
For further information call Dorothy (704)
298-9082, Brita (704) 667-0287, or Mary Kay (704)
667-04630.
SEE "EVENTS" for details a bou t WILPF's?Sth
BIRTHDAY FUNDRAISER on APRIL 71
The Appalachian Environmental Arts
Center is issuing a call for environmental
photography to be entered in an Eanh Day
photography exhibit to open in Greeneville, SC
on April 22, 1990.
The exhibit is intended to bring attention
to abuses of the natural world as well as to
celebra1e !he environment
Complete details on photo categories and
entrance procedures may be oblained by writing
Gil Leebrick at !he Appalachian Environmental
Arts Ce nter; Drawer 580; Highlands, NC
28741 or calling (704) 526-4303.
THE BURNING QUESTION
...AND JUST WHAT IS A
YAPI??
A YAPI (Youth Advocating Planetary
Improvement) is a species of concerned and
aware high school student committed to making
beneficial changes on the planet.
The idea began in Highlands, NC. where
the Y API's have organized and publish their
own newspaper, Reflections, for others of their
ki nd. They stand for world peace, the
environment, and an end to world hunger.
Y API supporters or individual Y APl's
wishing to stan a new chapter can contact the
group at this address:
Youth Advocating Plane1ary Improvement
Box 2136
Highlands, NC
Katuah Province 28741
MYLES HORTON MEMORIAL
t!lti11ae .,4(11p1111e/11re
ul
Jler/111"1111 t!li11k
74 EAST OESTMJT SmEET
ASHEVIU.E. NC 29801
70t·251MIOIG
EU.EN Hlf'IES, M.Ac.. ~ M,
UC. .MU'UNCTURlST
HUMMINGBIRD
The career of Myles Horton, Jong-lime
radical activist and co-founder of the Highlander
Research and Education Center, ended with his
death early this year. Myles was well-known
nationally as well as regionally for his work in
the causes of labor organizing and civil rights.
Friends and admirers of Myles Horton will
gather at Highlander early in May for a memorial
service dedicated to his memory.
Any who arc interested in attending the
event may call Alissa Keny-Guyer at (615)
933-3443 for details.
Bulk I terbs, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supplcnwn1s lf?!~faw
WhC<ll. Sall & Yeas1-Frf'C
1-cxxfs
Dair} Subs11tu1cs
I lair & Skin care
Natural Food Store
&Deli
160 Bl'Olldway
Asheville, NC 28801
Wher'9 BroedWlly 11*ts
Mlrrlmon Ave• ~240
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday·Slllurd.y: 9 am·8pm
Sunday: 1pm-Spm
(704) ZSS.785&
_,
f]\iagei 'JWtt~r 'Natyr<\l~
130 N. Main Street
Waynesville. NC 28786 (704) 456-3003
'Tht' t\ft'';ffl';:
S~~~
Oldl'SI & Ull<WSI
N111urc11 FoocLs Gmn•n(
704-264-5220
200 W. Klng St. Boone, NC
3 Bloclts from Campus
SprincJ. l 990
�€V€0t'S
18-2 1
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
The Black Mountain Festival.
Traditional and folk music weekend with Tim
and Molly O'Brien, Ethel Kathy Austin (black
vocal), Liz Carroll (fiddle) wilh guitarist Daithi
Sprouce, Figgy Duff, Harry and the Cajuns,
The Buzzard Rock String Band, Summe.r
Puppetry Caravan, more. Ans and crafts
festival, 5/21-24; contemporary and international
music weekend, 5!25-Zl (see lhose dates). Cost:
$12/day on weekends (vehicle camping $5
extra); $40 for weekend w/ tent camping or
bunks; $5/day Mon.-Thurs. For more info;
Grey Eagle and Friends; Box 216; Black
Mountain, NC 28711.
MARCH
WESSER, NC
Nanl.3hala lnlCmalional River Rally. Paddlers
from the Soviet Union and Othct countries will compete.
Sponsored by Nanlllhala Outdoor Center. Call fOC' dclails:
(7().1) 488·217S.
I S-26
17
ASHEVILLE, NC
Shadow puppet workshop and demonsll'ation
for children 7 and up with Hobie Ford and the Goldenrod
Puppeis. 10:30-11:30. Free.
22-23
BROWNS SUMMIT, NC
Lex Mathews Conference on Theology and
EnvironmenL Keynote: Thomas Berry. $25. Call The
LMd Stewardship Council (919) 821-4391.
19
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Forests and Trees of the Smokies." Visiting
lhe various forest associations of the Great Smokies.
S25. Sec 4/21.
2A
ARDEN, NC
"Bringing A Course in Miroclts into
Application," workshop with Aliana Scurlock at Unity
Center of Arden. 10 am • 4 pm. $65. Write: Dr. Frank
Trombcua; 671 Balsam Rd.; Hendersonville. NC 28739.
25-27
25
SWANNNANOA, NC
Willaru Huayu, lncan spiruual messenger
from Cuzco, Peru, will speak on lncan prophecy and
spirituality at The Earth Center; 302 Old Fellowship
Rd.; Swannanoo, NC 28776 (7().1) 298-3935.
28
Brevard, j\IC
The Traveling Ecological Road Show
featuring lhe YAPl's, hjgb school students for the
environment, at Brevard Episcopal Chun:b, 6:30 pm. For
information, call: (7().1) 526-92482.
21-22
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Wilderness Wildflowers.• Two-day
instructional wildflower identilicat.ion. Easy 8-milc hike,
camping. $50. Coniact Smoky Mountain Field School;
University of Tennessee Non.Credit Programs; 2016
Lake Ave.; Knoxville, TN 37996 (800) 284-8885.
APRIL 22 IS EARTH DA y THROUGHOlJf
THE KATUAH PROVINCE· SEE SPECIAL
PULL-OUT SECTION, PAGE 15, FOR DETAILS
APRIL
7
JOHNSON CITY, TN
"Wizard of the Wind," an environmental
fairytale, and shadow puppet workshop on dental care.
Museum BClmission fee. For info, call: (615)928-6508.
7
ASHEV ILL E, NC
Fundraiscr Concert fOC' International League
fOC' Peace and Freedom with David Wilcox. Joe and Karen
Holbert, Womansong. Jubilee Center. S7. Call (7().1)
298-9082.
HOT S PRINGS, NC
"Daily Life as Spiritual Practice," four-day
Zen retreat wilh Cheri Huber. Sl60. For more info,
write: Southern Channa Retreat Center. Rt. I, Box
34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743.
23
ASHEVILLE, NC
The Tra veling Ecologicnl Road Show
featuring lhc YAPl's, high school students for lhc
environment.. at lhe Asheville School. For info, call
Evereu Gourley (7().1) 254-6345.
TUXEDO, NC
"National Forest Service Reform The Time l s Now!" Randal OToole, J eff
DeBonis, David Wilcove, Leon Minckler, Ned
Fritz, panels, field trips. Camp Green Cove.
Registration; $10. Meals and lodgi ng; $49. For
more info, call Western North Carolina AUiance.
(704) 258-8737.
2.S-27
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Block Mountain Festival contin ues!
Contemporary and international music with Leon
Redbone, Ephlat Mujuru (mbira player from Zimbabwe),
Aor de Gana (Latin band), Lucy Blue Tremblay, Stark
Raven wilh lhe Twister Sisters (folk rock), White Boys
in Trouble, Goldenrod Puppets, more. See 5/18-20.
26-28
MADISON, VA
"Woman/Earlh/Spiri1 • gathering on
feminine spirituality. $210. For info, contaec Sevenoaks
Pathwork Center. RL I, Box 86; Ma<lison, VA 22727
(703) 948-6554.
MAY
JUNE
4..S
17-22
HELEN, GA
"The River Cane Rendezvous," the
Eastern Eanh Skills Gathering for 1990. Jim
Riggs (wilderness skills advisor for Cla11 of the
Cave Bear), Darry Wood, Snow Bear, Steve
Wans, Scott Jones, Eva Bigwitch, and Eddie
Bushyhead and other practitioners of aboriginal
ans will teach flintknapping, firemaking, plant
lore, native hide-1anning, split cane basketry,
primitive weapons and tools, and more.
Pre-rcgis1er: $125. Contact Bob Slack; Unicoi
State Parle, Helen, GA 30545 (404) 878-2201.
Sprlnq, 1990
5
FRENCH BROAD WATERS HED
Clean Streams Day • clean-up effons
throughout lhe French Brood River wniershcd. For info:
Transylvania Co.· Rich Fry (7().1) 884-3156
Henderson Co. · Jim Volk (7().1) 684-1423
Buncombe Co. ·Quality Forward (7().1) 254-1 TI6
Madison Co.· Jane Morgan (7().1) 689-5974
1·3
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Non-Duality and Social Awareness"
workshop wilh Catherine Ingram. WOC'kfog for social
change while living in an understanding of non-duality.
SIOO. Southern Dharma Retreat Center. See 4/4-8.
5
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Geologic Evoluuon of the Great Smokies.•
Learn the language of the rock record to lnlCC the history
of the Smokies from one billion years ago. Dr. Don
Byerly, instruct0r. $25. See 4/21.
10
ASHEVILL E, NC
Matthew Fox of Lhc Center for Creation
Spirituality to spcalc ot Jubilee Center, 46 Wall SL. For
more info, call: 252-5335.
Drawin& by Susan Adam
NOTE: Tlie Founh North American Bioregional
Congress (NABC N) will be held August
19-26, 1990 at Lake Cobbosseecontee in the
Gulf of Maine Bioregion. Those who want to
attend should register immediately, as space is
filling up fast. See page 27 for details.
J{.Qt.Ucih Journot JXlCJll 29 •
�SUMMER
CAMP,
July
9th
thru
20th.
EnVironmeoaal ICtivitica sbated with die Eanh, plus
swimming, hilciq, bones, locs or run. Send
brochure to: Cllnp Wildlirc in the Meadow; lobo
IDd Dory Brown; RL l, Box 184-B; Hot Springs,
NC28743.
ror
DREAM TABLE GROUP on Western Carolina
University campus. Cullowhee, NC. Next meetings
Jn.2, 3/l9, 4/S. For more infomwlon, call Joyce
Prcwiu al (704) 293-5403.
RA WKWIND
RENEW AL
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES (Sunroots)
organically grown • to eat or as seed tubers for
spring. contact Sicvco Knopp; S06 Menimon Ave.;
Asheville, NC 23g04 (704) 2S8-2S86 or (704)
682-3573.
EARTH
CO-OPERATIVB • g7 8Cre primitive rweat IDd
working community rarm in northern Alabama
mountains, j ust 1 lS miles nonhwest or ~ta.
Classes on alternative lifestyles and Nauvc
American philosophies. Earlh Renewal gatherings
planned on a quancrty basis. Facilities availiible for
private organizational use. For craft catalog or
schedule of events, call (20S} 635-6304.
SPIRITUAL PERSONAL ADVICE. Correspond
with your Native Gnndfather. All questions
addressed Crom Medicine Pctspcctivc. No charge
ever. SASE with teuer to: Blue Sky; Box S387;
Largo, Fla. 34649.
ADVENTIJRES FOR EVERYONE· Backpacking,
canoeing llama ltddting in the NC mountains, SC
barrier ~lands. Congaree Swamp. Families wi!11
young children and seniors wclcoc_ne • ~ w~
cany your gear. For moce informatson wnte: Magitt
TrUs; P.O . Box 6876; Columbia, SC 29Ui0.
MIND MAPPING • on-going classes in wriuen
ICChniquc integrating right and lei\ hemispheres Of
the brain. Groups and organizations welcomed. Call
Catherine Faherty at (704) 298-0077.
BIODYNAMICALL Y GROWN Corn seed.
Mi.n i-pops to giant fallers. Varieties for no-till
without herbicides , and for compost rather lhan salt
fertilization. For caialog plcau send SASE to:
Union Agricultural Institute, Rt. 4 Box 463S,
Blairsville, GA 30Sl 2.
WOODSCRAFT • Seeking to correspond with
persons interested in primitive woodscraft s~ills
such as, bow/drill rirc-making, t rackang,
snarc/deadraJ I trapping, cic. Have auended Tom
Brown's basic class. l.T. Garrison; RL 4, Box 667;
Spring City, TN 373g1.
ORGANIC HONEY · Tulip Poplar, Sowwood and
Wildflower. From Palrick County, Virginia. For a
4-oz. sample of out premium sourwood and our
catalog, send $4 to: Wade Buckholts cl Megan
Phillips; Route 2, Box 24g; Stuart, VA 24171.
(703) 694-4S71
I AM LOOKING FOR A POSITION with an
environmental awareness/action organization in
Asheville or neaiby. Prefer pan-time, beginning In
summer or fall 1990. Please contact laneicc Ray;
RL I , Box 1gg.J; Quincy, FL 323S l (904)
442-6474.
CREATION SOAP- hand-crafled herl>al soaps from
the Blue Ridge Mountains. Rose IDd lavender soaps,
moisturizing bar, shampoo/conditionct bar. Contact
Anna: RL 1, Box 278; Blowing Rocle, NC 2860S
(704) 262-2321.
YOGA FOR AU. AGES- Ongoing classes in the
Asheville area, workshops for groups, and private
sessions. Give yourself the gin or wellness and
peace. For more infonnation call Bonnie Kelly
(704) 254-869g,
WHITE CANVAS MATERI AL • 42 yards of 12 oz.
unused canvas, 6 ft. wide. Enough ror a full-size tipi
or very large tenL Cost $380. Wilt sell for $220.
(704) 29g.7639, Asheville.
SEERSUCKER BABY SUNG, with colonul beads
auachcd for baby's tccthing pleasure securely nestles
newborn through young child. For immediate
delivery, send $ 12.00 and parental shin size (S·XL)
to COZY CRADLES; P.O. Box 514; Tahlequah,
OK 74465.
SKYLAND • tog on lO lhe computer bulletin boanl
of the Smokies. Networking, plus news on the
environment, nature photography, games, computer
utilities, much more. Coniact Michael Havelin,
sySOp, (704) 254-6700.
MOUNTAIN DULCIMERS • made of black
walnut, red cherry, or maple. Tops available in
wormy chestnut, butternut. sweetgum, sassafras.
western cedar and other woods. Contael: Miu
Dulcimer Company; RL 2, Box 288; Blountville,
TN 37617 (615) 323-8489.
MlNl-FARM with beautiful mountain views. IS
acres: tn. woods, ln. fenced pastures. Modem
2-story Log House. 45 min. to Asheville. Please
contact: Pat Palmer: 409 N. Trade SL; Tryon, NC
28782.
90 ACRE MOUNTAIN PARADISE • We arc
seeking environmentally conscious buyers lO share
and help protect a unique cl beautiful ttact of land.
Call (704) 258-2586 or (704) 682-3S73.
RHYTHM ALIVE • Handcrafted African-style
Drums, workshops, learning iapcs, drum bags • and
.
accessories. Please send SASE to Rhythm Alive!;
SS Phenix Cove Rd.; Weaverville, NC 28787 (704)
645-3911.
NEW AGE COMMUNITY FORMING on 57 acres
of land. Located on sacred Cherokee Stone
Mountain. Visions of healing the earth cl our
children. Contact Sue Ann Ritter; Rt 2, Box 314;
Vilas, NC 28692.
CONSCIOUS COUPLE cl infant, wish to
lcam/wolt on organic £arm for housing + stipend
OR Clrelake a ~dence on acreage. Very comrniled
and sincere. Contacc Dan & Bast> Umberger; 347
Sinclair Ave. N.E.; Atlanta, GA 30307 (404)
Sll-2971.
VEGETA.RIA.N
MASTERPIECES •
tacto-vegetarian cookbook designed to provide
recipes for Slandard rare as well as gourmet dishes.
Over 300 recipes. Spiral bound, 403 pp. $ 14.9S ppd
from: 2122 Forest Dr.; Owloltc, NC 28211.
ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE LANDSCAPING SERVICE • Lawn maintenance, trees,
shrubs, nowc.cs cl edibles. Organic. Patrick Clark,
254-8116.
NATURAL CHILDBIRTH CLASSES specializing
in the Bradley Method. Classes are small. and
include nutrition physiology, consumcnsm,
parenting skills, and relaxation and labor suPP?"'
techniques. For mon:: infonnation cal~ or wme
Maggie Sachs; 808 Florida Ave.; Bnstol. TN
37620. (6 lS) 764-2374.
ASTROLOGICAL CHART with aspect grid and
key to astrological symbols. Send SIO, SASE, and
birthdate (mo/day/yr), binhlime (00:00 AM/PM},
and birthplace (city, state} to Sw Charts; P .0. Box
18205; Asheville, NC 28814.
NEW AGE GROUP forming. Emphasis on spirit
and out coMection to Mother Earth, visualizing
positive growth and nurturing. Contact: Theresa
Carlson; 7501 Rule Rd.; Knoxville, Tiii 37920.
MOCCASINS, handcrafted of clkhide in the
traditional Plains Indian style. Water-resistant,
rcsoleable. and rugged - great for hiking! Children's
and infant sizes available. Contact: Pauick Clark;
Earth Dance Moccasins; Box 931; Asheville, NC
28802 (704) 254-8116.
RECYCLED PAPER! • Directory of products
sources for the southeast. Suggested donation S 1.00
to Western North Carolina Alliance, PO Box
18087, Asheville, NC 28814 (704) 258-8737.
WEBWORKING is free. Send submissions to:
Drawing by Rob M~slclt
KotUah Journal
P.O. Box 638
Leicester. NC
K:uUah Province 28748
Sprl.nq, t 990
�The KatUah Journal wan rs to communicate your thoughrs and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
to us as letters, poems, stories, articles. drawing~ . or phowgraphs,
etc. Please send your conrriburiollS to 1LS at: Kattiah Journal; P. 0 .
Box 638, Leicester, NC; Kattiah ProvirLCe 28748.
Issue 28 of Lhe Karuah Journal (Summer, '90) will take up
the topic of "Carrying Capacity" and the burgeoning impact of the
human presence and human technology in the mountains. lf we are
to continue after the last industrial smoke-cloud and past the end of
real estate, we have to apply this important ecological principle to
our own selves.
Articles deadline: April 25 - Editorial meeting: May 12 Layout: June 2 until...
"Water ls Life" is a principle with which we are all familiar.
Issue 29 of the Kat"'1h Journal will concern itself with water and
watersheds in the Southern Appalachians - the blessing of water,
how it affecLs the lives of all of us who live here, and what we can
do to protect iL
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE · SPRINO 1984
Sustainable Agncultutc - Sunnowcrs • Human
lmpacl on the ForcJI · Children.I' Educalion
Veronica Nicholu:Woman in Polilics • Liule
People • Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR · SUMMER 1984
W11cr Drum Wa1er Quali1y . Kudzu - Solar
Eclipse • Clcucutung • irout • Ooing io W11a
Ram Pumps · Microhydro · Poems: Bennie
Lee Sinclair. Jim W aync Millu
ISSUE AVE · FALL 1984
Harvest • Old Ways in Cherokee • Oinseog •
Nuclear Wu1c • Our Celtic Heritage •
Biorcgionalism: Past, Present. and Furure •
John Wilno1y • Healing Darkness • Politics of
Participation
ISSUE SIX · WINTER t984-8S
Winiu Solslice Earth Ceremony • Honcpasturc
Rivu • Conilng of the Light • Log Cabin
Rooca • Mountain Agricullurc: The Righi Crop
• William Taylor . The Furureoflhc Forest
ISSUE SEVEN · SPRINO 1985
Suslllnlblc Economics • Hot Springs - Worker
Ownenhip • The Orcat llconomy • Self Help
Credit Union • Wild Turkey • RcspoNiblc
Investing • Working m the Web of Life
ISSUE EIOHT · SUMMER 198S
Celebration: A Way of Life • Ka1l1ah 18.000
Years Ago • Sacred SilU • Folk Arts in lhc
Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle • Poems:
Hilda Downer · Cherokee HeriLage Center·
Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NlNE · FALL 1985
The Waldee Forest • The Trees Spcalr.
Migrallna Forais • Horse Logging • Starting a
Tree Crop • Urben Trca • Al:«n Bread - Myth
Time
ISSUE TEN . WINTER 1985-86
Kate Rogers • Circles of Stone • internal
Mylhmaking • Holistic Healing on Trial ·
Poems: Sieve K.nauth • Mythic Places • The
Uk1cna·s Talc • Crystal Magic •
"Drcamspcaking.
ISSUE EIOIITEEN . Winier 1987-88
Vernacular ArchilCCrure . Dreams in Wood and
Stone • Mountain Home • Earth Energies •
Earth.Sheltered Living • Membrane Houses Brush Shelter • Poems: Oc1obu DMSk • Oood
Medicine: "Shcl1cr"
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - Spring. 1989
Pisgah Village • Planet Art • Orecn Chy •
Poplar Appeal • "Clear Sky" • •A New Earlh"
Black Swan • Wild Lovdy Days • Reviews:
Sacred Land Sacred Sex, Ice Age • Poem:
"Sudden Tendrils"
ISSUE ELEVEN · SPRJ.NO 1986
Community Planning • Ci1ies and the
'Biorcg1onal Vision • Recycling - Community
Olldcrun&· Floyd County, VA • Ouobol •
Two Bioregional Views • Nuclear Supplcment
Fo.Uue Oames · Good Medicine: Visions
ISSUE NINETEEN · Spring, 1988
Pcrelandta Carden · Spring Tonics - Blueberries
WildOo wCT Oarden.s • Oranny Herbalis1 •
Rower Eucnces • "The Origin or the Animals;
SIOry • Good Medicine: "Power'" - Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR · Summer. '89
Deep Lis1ening · Life in Aiomic City . Direct
Aclionl · Tree of Peace • Community Building
Peacemakers • Elhnic Survival • Pairing
PTOp:t • "Baulesong" - Crowing Peace ill
Cllltures · Review: TMCMUceOJtd IN Blode
ISSUE THIRTEEN · Fall 1986
Ccniu For Awakening • Elizabeth Callari • A
Ocnllc Dealh • Hospice • Ernest Morgan •
Dealing Creatively with Death • Home Burial
Box • The Wah • The Raven Mocker •
Woodslorc and Wildwoods Wisdom - Oood
Medicine: 'Tlic Sweal Lodge
lSSUE FOURTEEN · Winter 1986-87
Uoyd Carl Owle • BoogCTS and Mummen • All
Species Day • Cabin Fever Univenity •
Homeless in Kalolah • Homemade Hot Water
Siovemaker's Narrative • Oood Medicine:
lnu:rspccies Communication
ISSUE TWENTY · Summer. 19&&
Prcsctve Appalachian Wildcmcss . Highlands
of Roan • Celo Community • Land Trust •
Arthur Morgan School • Zoning Issue - 'The
Rid8c" • Farmers and the Farm Bill • Oood
Medicine: "Land" • Acid Rain • Duke's Power
Play • Cherokee Microhydro Project
ISSUE TWENTY.ONE · Fall. 1988
Chcs1nuis: A Natural History • Restoring the
Chestnut · "Poem of Preservation and Praise"
Continuing the Quest • Forats and Wildlife
Chestnuts in Regional Diel - Chestnut
Resources - Herl> Note • Oood Medicine:
"Changes lO Come" · Review: Where ugmd.s
Uve
ISSUE AFT'EEN · Spring 1987
Coverleu • Woman Forester • Susie McMalw\
Midwife • Allemativc Contraception •
Biosexualily • Bioregionalism and Women •
Cood Medicine: Malri.vchal Culture · Pearl
ISSUE SlXTE.llN - Summer 1987
Helen Waite • Poem: VisioN in a Oarden •
Vision Quest • Firll Flow • Initiation •
Leaming in lhe Wilderness • Chcrokeea
Olallengc . "Valuing Trca"
~UAttJOURNAL
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Name
City
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Area Code
Spr LrMJ, 1990
State
Enclosed is$
to give
this effort an exrra bOost
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Phone Number
..
".,
....
lSSUllTWENTY..SDC- WINTER. 1989·'90
Coming of Age in the E<iotoic Eta • Kids
Saving Rainforest - Kids Tree.cycling CornpMy
• Conllict Resolution • Developing the Crcativ&
Spirit • Dinh Power • Dinh Bonding • The
Magic of Puppetry • Home Schooling • Narnint
Ceremony • Mother Earth's Classroom •
Oatdening for Childrcra
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO · Winter, '&&-89
Olobal Warming • f'tre This Time • Thomas
Betry on "Bioregions" • Eanh Excteisc • Kor6
Loy McWhirw • An Abundance of Emptiness
LETS • Chroniclea of Floyd • Oury Wood
The Bear Clan
Box 638; Leicester, NC; KatUah Province
Address
ISSUE TWENTY -FIVE • F.All., 1989
The Orcat Forest . Restoring Old OroWlh •
Regional Planning - Timber - Forest Roads
Poem: "Sparrow Hawk" - A Place for Bean
"There Fell the Rain Healing" · Eastern
Panther • Oak Decline • People and Habitat
Wild Sanctuaries · BllUI" Fair
28748
Back Issues
Issue # _ @ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $ _ _
lssue# _@$2.50= $ _ _ ·
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
18-26)
@ $40.00 = $_ _
postage paid
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 27, Spring 1990
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-seventh issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on holistic healing: personal and planetary. Authors and artists in this issue include: Richard Lowenthal, David Wheeler, Sam Gray, Doug Aldridge, Rob Messick, Stephen Wing, Lisa Sarasohn, Snow Bear, James Rhea, Kim Sandland, Sandra Fowler, and Susan Adam. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1990
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Personal and Planetary Transformation: A Holistic Model of Healing by Richard Lowenthal.......1<br /><br />The Healing Power by David Wheeler.......4<br /><br />Peace to Their Ashes by Sam Gray.......6<br /><br />Healing in Katúah by Doug Aldridge........9<br /><br />"When Left to Grow": A Poem by Rob Messick.......10<br /><br />"Calling to the Ancestors, Calling Our Relations": Poems by Stephen Wing........11<br /><br />The Belly by Lisa Sarasohn.......12<br /><br />EARTH DAY 1990!!: A special pull-out supplement.......15<br /><br />Food From the Ancient Forest by Snow Bear.......19<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />Good Medicine.......24<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah Journal.......26<br /><br />Events.......29<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cherokee mythology
Holistic medicine
Health resorts--Appalachian Region, Southern
Alternative medicine--North Carolina, Western
Mind and body
Wild plants, edible--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Cherokees
Ecological Peril
Education
Electric Power Companies
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Katúah
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Stories
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/9f2387ce382112b7b0a8bda018a48500.pdf
09fa3efa31f6a47dc90c3efbe5b45134
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 28 SUMMER 1990
$1.50
�~UAH JOURNAL
PO Box 638 Leicester, NC Kaluah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�Carrying Capacity ....................... 3
by David Wheeler
Setting Limits to Growth:
Interview with Dr. Gary Miller.......•.•.•. 5
Recorded by David Wheeler
What Is Overpopulation?................... 7
by Stephe11 Bartlett
The Road Gang ......................... 8
by Rob Barro11
The Highway to Nowhere ............ 9
Opening Pandora's Box:
The 1-26 Projec1 ......................... 10
by Rob Barron
"Caring Capacity" .................... 11
by Will Ashe Bason
People and Habitat. .................. 12
by Chip Smith and
Lee Kinnaird Fawcett
Designing the
Whole Life Communicy.............. 14
by Marnie Muller
Steady State ................... ........ 15
by .Tim llouser
Poems by Will Ashe Bason ............. 17
Good ~lcdicine........................ 20
Transportcrnativcs .................... 22
by Pmrick Clark
Imagining
the End of Real Estate ................ 23
hy Jlecrdire P. CotUic'Cllt
Naturnl World Ncws .................24
!\Jan and the Biosphcrc ...............27
Drumming ............................. 28
l.e11crs to Katuah Joum31
Review: Cohousing .................. 30
by Will Ashe Bason
Events .................................. 33
Wcbworking ...................... .... 34
----
,
A f': are blesL The Katuah Province
V V~f the bioregion of Appalachia is a
place of beauty with abundant rainfall,
verdant forests, rich bottomland soils
developed from the old rocks of the hills,
and a wide diversity of plant and animal
species. The highland forests have provided
well for a human population for 14,000
years. They have maintained sttong
populations of other animal species for eons
longer than 1hat. And they consistently
perform important life suppon services for
the entire planet.
Yet today the growth and
development of human culture in the
Southern Appalachians is threatening the
viability of the system as a whole. And we
do not seem 10 know how to conttol ii. We
cannot control it because the idea of physical
"growth" is enshrined on a cultural pedestal
and is considered to be among the ranks of
the holy - beyond question. Physica1
"growth" is the economic watchword of our
society, the one tactic that has never failed
us. It is the measure of our economic
success in the concept of our Gross
National ProducL It is seen as the panacea
for all our economic ills, local or national.
But now our concept of infinite
growth has collided headlong with the
physical Limits of our biosphere. We have
passed the point of diminishing returns, and
our response is to squeeze our environment
all the tighter, even as it becomes
increasingly apparent that our world can no
longer stand the strain. But we still seem
unable to give up our addiction to the:
concept of infinite increase. We mochfy the
word "growth" with the limiting adjectives
"quality" and "responsible," but vinu~lly no
one is willing to publicly bring up the idea
that here in the Katiiah Province we have
alreotly surpassed the ability of the l3nd to
suppon our great numbers and our grea1
enterprise.
This is because the idea of carrying
capacity is not widely known. Carrying
capadty means the extent of a habitat'~
ability to suppon a conunuously sustainable
population of a particular species. Any
aspect ofhabita1 can be the critical clement
that limits carrying capacity for a given
species, although food or water are usually
the determining factors.
Even 1hose human beings familiar
with the notion of carrying capacity are
reluctant to apply it to our own species,
feeling that it violates some unspoken
human ttusl to admit that we, too, are bound
by the inevitable laws of Oeation. The truth
be known, in the Karuah bioregional
province we need to work to lessen our
species' impact on the ecosystem that
sustains us. But instead our numbers and
impact continue to rise.
The two-headed bogey of growth
and development is going to be one of the
most crucial issues facing all of us in the
Karuah Province in the decade 10 come. In
the mountains, developmem is synonymous
with access. Access today means roads.
Where the roads go, habitat destruction
follows. In some ways, the futare of our
. region is as simple as that
"'for Cife. in t~ mountains
is fi'Tling in tfanger
Of too many people.,
too many macftine.s... •
S""8 {yriu 6y Jolin 'Dentler
To understand whaL is happening to
us and to our region we need to understand
the idea of carrying capacity. We need to be
able to wield that idea incisively in order to
communicate to others about what is
happening and to bring about change.
The solution is for us to redefine the
relationship between our species and our
mountain habitat We need to see that we are
the mountains, that we are the forest Our
model is the old-growth forest itself. When
a forest is in the early stages of succession,
i1 grows aggressively. using up great
amounl.'i of energy, producing great
amounts of biomass. This is known as a
young forest. In the study of anthropology,
a society such as ours that expands
aggressively into the world is also known as
a young culture.
A young forest is constantly
growing toward whaL is known as the
climax condilion. In the climax, or
old-growth. forest, the processes of growth
and decay are maintained in a precise
balance Lhat is sustainable indefinitely. A
forest in the climax stage is considered 10 be
a ma111re forest. Like a mature forest, a
mmure culture emphasizes conservation of
energy, makes less demands on the world
around it, and is capable of continuing
1ndefini1ely in a condition of sustained
equilibrium with its surrounding habitat.
We, at the height of our destructive
cultural adolescence. need to decide: are we
going to add yet another ecosy_stem to our
list of conquests, or are we going to grow
into maturity as a culture ~d come once .
again into balance with this beautiful land m
which we are blest to live?
Drawing by Rob Messick
-The Editors
�~LJAH JOURNAL
STAFF TI IJS ISSUE:
Susan Adam
Patrick CJark
Karen Lohr
Stephen Banlett
Jim llouser
Mamie Muller
James Rhea
Chip Smith
Tersh Palmer
David Wheeler
Manha Tree
Rob Messick
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Will Ashe Bason
Jack Chaney
Michael Havelin
Scott Bird
John Creech
COVER: by Rob Messick © 1990
BACK COVER illus1ra1ion by Joaquin Wlu1e Oak. a na1fre o/1he
Chumash tribe of the west coast. The Chuma.sh cul/lue has all but bun
destroyed- there are fl() full-blooded tribal memben, and 1he language and
sp1ri1ua/ traditions hU\/t1 been lost. All 1Jra1 remains is o/ 1he old ways of the
uibe is in tlu! art tradilion, which Joaquin and a few others carry on.
Joaquin and his family are currently li1•ing ln Black /.fountain. NC.
PUBLISHED BY: Katt'talr Jo11ntal
PRTI\'TED BY: The WayneSVtlle Mo11nrai11eer Press
ED!ffiRIAl. OffJCE THIS ISSUE: The Globe Valley
WRITF US AT:
Kattial: Joumal
Box 638; Lcices1er, NC; Kaiuah l'rovincc 28748
TEI EPllOl'l:E: (70-i) 754-6097
Kaniah Jaurnal is on Skyland BBS, Asheville, NC.
For infonnation, call (70-i) 254-6700.
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIORECION
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
/Jere 1n the southern-most hear1/and of the Appalachian mou11tains, the
oldest mounUJin range on our continent, Turtle Island· a small but growing group
has begun to 1alte on a sense of responsibility for the implications of tha1
geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of rcsp0nsibility centers on the
concept of living wit/Jin the natural scale and balance of univer.ral systems and
principks.
Within this circle we begin by invoking tht Cherokee name " Ka11lah"
as the old/new name for this area of the mountain.fund for us journal a.swell. Thr.
pro»ince is indica1ed by 11s natural boundaries: the Roanolc.e Rn·u Valley to the
nnrtl1; tl1e foothills of thr pit'dmont area ro the east: Yona MouMain and thr
Georgia liill.t to the south; and the Tennessee Riw~r \'alley 10 the wcs1
Thc cthtoria/ priori tie.< for us are to colleet and dinemina1e informn11on
and cnerJ!Y wliich J'(rtain.1 ,Tpecifica/ly /fl this region. and to foster tltr.11...,wenr.ss
tlt111 the land is a living bdng dcsl'rving of our lo»c and respect. LMng in this
manner is a way 10 ins1ue the .mstainabiliry of the bio.fpht:re and a /a.wns: p/au
for aurstfrc.f in its continuing tva/111t0nary proctss.
We sum to luwe reached thi: fulcrum {'<Jint ofa· do or die si111at1on in
terms of a quality .ttandard of life for all living beings on this planet. As a \'CJ/CC
for the rautllUrs o/ tht1 sacred land, K111"'1h, we advocate a rrnttrcd approach 10
th.: conupt of dccen1raliza11on. !1 i.f our hope to become a suppc•rt sy.flem for
thou accepting the challenge o/ .fu.flainab1/iry and 1he crca11on <if lwrmony and
balance in a total scMe, hetc in this place.
\l'e we/rotrU! all correspondence, criticism. pertinent information,
a.rticlcs. artwork, tic. w11h hopes tlrat Kattlah will grow to scr1•e the best 111urem
of this rtgion and all ils li\•ing. breathing trU!mhers.
.~
• The Edi1ors p-'
H
D1vcrs1l) 1s an tm(IOl'l:lnl dcmcnl of l:>1oreg1onul ecology, both
natural and social. In line w11h lh1s prmcipk. tho: J.'atWih Journal tries to
serve as a forum for the discussion of regioml JSsucs. Signed nttic k~ ~xprc!>.~
only the ormion of the authors and arc no1 ncccssar1ly the opinions or the
KatWih Journal tditors or staft .
The Internal Revenue Service ha~ declared Kattlnh a non·prolit
organizauon under sccuon 501(<:)(3) of the Internal Revenue Cod.:. All
contributions to Kat"'1h are dedoc11blc from personal income uu.
'LNVOCA.T'LON
The Wonder of lhc World
Nature's Beauty and Power.
The shape of things
Their colors. lights. and shades.
111esc r saw.
Look ye also while life lasts.
- InscrlpUon on an old English gravestone
~
KATU~RlN·1Ht·YEf\~- 2022.?
Cart.oon b) Rob Messick
.. .
Summrr, 1990
�CARRYING CAPACITY
by David Wheeler
ln 1944 a small island in Alaska was
stocked with 24 reindeer. There had been no
reindeer previously on the island, and 1hc
animals had no natural predators. Lichens and
other na1ural foods were plentiful and 1he
reindeer prospered. They prospered ro the extent
that by r963 there were 6,000 of the animals
inhabi1ing the island. By then the island was
badly overgrazed, and the severe snowstonns
tha1 s1ruck the area that winier decimated the
herd. By the winter's end there were only 42
reindeer left, only one of them a male. all of
1hem probably sterile from nu1ri1ion deficiency,
living in a badly degraded environment.
This small tragedy was recorded by David
R. Klein in the Journal of Wildlife Managemem.
It is known today as a classic case of the
consequences of violating 1he carrying capacity
of a defined habitat area. The moral for 1he
wildlife managers reading the story was that the
reindeer herd should have been managed to stay
below a maximum density of five reindeer per
square kilometer, a level that 1he island could
have supported indefinitely.
In the natural world, when a species
exceeds the carrying capacity of 11s given
habitat, if it canno1 expand its niche, then 1ha1
species sufferi; a dicback, usually from
starvation, until its numbers once again drop
back wi1hin the limits or its habitat's carrying
capacity.
Although we recognize the
idea of carrying capacity, we are
reluctant to admit its relevance to
our own species. The concep1
arose from the observations of
ecologists. who apply i1 as a
mauer of course to any
popula1ion being "managed" to fit
into a particular human-dcfmed
habitaL But even though we have
reached the geographic and
resource limits of the globe and
human habitat is now limhed as
well, we still hcsi1ate 10 apply the
concept of carrying capacity 10
our own kind. There is a myopic
assump1ion that somehow our
own selves are exemp1 from this
natural law 1hat applies to every
species in Creation.
The na1ural area in which
to calculate carrying capacity is
the bioregion, as the bioregion is
the basic uni1 of habitation, for
the human as well as 01her
species. It is relatively
uncomplicated to estimate the
carrying capacity for plant and
animal species once their habiiat
needs are known. In nature all
creatures are closely linked 10
their habitat and when one crucial
clement of 1heir life support
system is ovenaxed, usually food
or water, the species begins to
experience dicback. It is
Summer, 1990
characteris1ic tha1 overpopulated animal species,
like the unfortuna1e reindeer herd on St.
Mauhcw Island, usually degrade 1heir local
environment 10 some extent, sometimes
irreversibly, as they anempt to scrape out the last
shreds of sustenance before the population is
pruned back 10 sustainable levels. The role of a
predator species is co srrenglhen lhe gene pool of
their prey and 10 keep the population of 1he prey
species within the limi1s of carrying capacity,
preventing this environmental degradation.
The classic equation for figuring the
impact of a human socie1y is: population size x
1mpac1 of technology =effect on the habitat.
These factors are modified by the spiritual and
ecological altitudes of 1he socie1y. This equa1ion
is no1 useful in arriving at specific number
values, but rather it illustrates relationships. II
tells us, for example, that a slight rise in
population among the people of Turtle Island
has a much greater impact on the planetary
environment than a large rise in population in
most Third World counties because of the
garganiuan appe1ite of our energy-iniensivc
technology.
Human industrial technology has
complica1ed the idea of carrying capacily as it
applies to our own species. A habi1a1's carrying
capaci1y can be s1ressed either by
over-occupation, by excessive resource
extraction, or by waste disposal overload.
Modem society, supported by our high-intensity
technology, can stress a regional habitat by the
sheer volume of resources i1 consumes, by
simply monopolizing much of the available
space, by turning out more waste than natural
systems can process, or by 1uming out wastes
so exo1ic or so toxic 1ha1 digesting organisms
cannot assimifate them.
Mos1 imponamly, however, we humans
have learned how to reach beyond our own
bioregions to import resources necessary for
life. Early human beings were dependent on
their immediate bioregion and the well-being of
the other species with which they shared iL
Today we can exhaust the resources of one
region and then put off the ecological
consequences of our ill-use by en1ering another
region and ex1racting from there the resources to
maintain, or even to expand, our bloa1ed levels
of consumption. Each time we reach beyond the
bounds of our own bioregions to find 1he
materials to suppon life or to dispose of our
waste products, we drain the vitality of the
victimized region and bring hardship 10 all its
inhabitants - plant, animal, nnd human.
We also are able 10 extend our reach
through rime. By drawing off fossil fuels
deposited in pas1 millennia, we have boosted our
numbers and our rares of resource consumption
to extravagant levels, c~ting an ecological debit
that will be lef1 for coming generations 10 pay.
For example, energy-intensive industrial
agricuhurc is "mining" soils, causing severe
long-tenn degradation by forcing them to feed
much greater numbers of people
and animals than their capabilities
allow. Another example is our
fossil fuel wastes, which for
centuries will remain toxic
momenioes of the brief flowering
of industrialism. While we have
all the fun, our dcscendents will
have to resolve all the long-term
problems crea1ed by our energy
bonanza.
It lends a sense of urgency
to 1he ques1ion of carrying
capacit)' when we realize that we
are driving 100 species per day
into extinction and habitats
world-wide are constantly being
degraded
by
our
Himprovcments." We seem quite
willing to sacrifice the existence
of any other species, even the
greatest and grandes1, rather than
relinquish even 1he slightest
aspect of our prodigal lifestyle.
When we drive other life forms to
extinction, clearly we have gone
too far. ln doing this we not only
diminish the present world; we
threaten the planet's evolutionary
future.
Carrying capacity is not the
only balance to which we have to
pay attention in this world, but
for the purposes of evaluating our
success as a species, it is a most
useful one. Predator species have
(continued on next page)
JGQtimh ) 01unm p1a9e 3
�Photo by Doug Woodward
CARRYING CAPACITY (conunucd from p. 3)
instinct~al popul~tion. controls that help them
keep t~e1r.~pulauons m ~ance ':""ith their prey
• temtonahty, no maung during lactation
periods, long gestarion times. In some cases
infant monality rates are helped by adult males
wh? will kill and eat young cubs in their
temtory. Predators "know" somewhere in their
make-up that il is to their advantage to keep their
populations Jean and spare.
Humans seem to have retained this sense
of survival while living as nomadic and
semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers. Tribal people
had a variety of contraceptive melhods: herbal
magical, and ritual. ln some tribes wome~
would nurse their children into their founh and
fifth year, thus decreasing fertility. In some
hunting societies when times were hard,
mothers would sometimes bury a child rather
than let it live to face possible slow starvation.
Even nomadic hunting societies had unspoken,
but clearly defined, boundaries to their
wandering. Primitive people bowed to the
nece~ities imposed by their role as a predator
species.
The development of agriculture is marked
as a turning point in our conception of
ourselves. Agriculture allowed much denser
le~els of population, and a large number of
children per family became a desirable goal in
most agricultural societies, as it meant help in
I.he fields and a buffer against the high infant
monality engendered in the more densely
populated, unsanitary agricultural villages. It is
accepted as a general rule that when peoples tum
to agriculture, their populations shoot up.
However,
on
Turtle
Island
agricultural/hunting societies contradicted that
rule. ~ere in the Southern Appalachian
Mountams che Cherokee Indians maintained
balanced numbers in chis region of abundant
resources for many generations. The Hopi, the
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tribes, and the
Man~an repf7sented other native people:> who
pracuc:ed agnculture yet kept their population
levels in tune with the ability of their regions to
provi~e. It ~s t><?ssible to have resources enough
and soll ma.mlalll a balance with the land.
Recent archaeological finds show that
Neolithic agricultural societies in Europe also
JGcitUah Jourt;'QL ~Cl~, 4
had achieved that balance. However, the
Inda-European nomads who conquered the
continent never learned that an. Europe was
already filled to overcrowding when Columbus
opened up the New World for exploration at the
end of the fifteenth century. The Black Plague
had diminished the population somewhat, but it
had quickly recovered. There was not land
enough for all, so under the primogeniture
system fathers gave their holdings to their oldest
son and the younger sons went viking , to the
Crusades, or to the monastery. They saw I.he
world as theirs to plunder.
Immigration to the New World vented the
building population pressure in Old Europe and
postponed the dire predictions of Malthus in the
late eighteenth century concerning the miseries
of a land overcrowded beyond its carrying
capacity. Conditioned by life in the Old World,
the white immigrants coming to Tunic lsland
saw the. cont~ent in terms of opponunity:
economic capual, untouched resources, and
productive land - opponunity, in other words
'
for exploitation.
Today, with world population at five and
one-quaner billion and the population on this
contin_ent.at 420.100.000, returning to Carrying
capac11y 1s, more than ever, a necessary goal.
Yet the etruc of today is "growth." Growth is
seen as being synonymous wilh prosperity. But
when cells grow without heed to the needs of
the greater organism, this is called "cancer."
And this is precisely the nature of industrial
society in the world today.
We need to regain the predator's sense.
As a species, panicularly here in I.he Southern
Appalachians. we need to reverse the growth
et~1c. and restore the balance. If we are not living
wnhin the bounds of sustainability for our own
bioregion. then we are leeching energy from
other people and other species in other
bioregions or from the non-human species of
our own reJ?;ion.
For 500 years on this continent the
dominant influence has been to direct our energy
outward. to change the world to meet our
perceived wants and needs. We are now
realizing that we are not greater than the world,
that we are part of the world. With that
realization comes responsibility. Now the wsk is
to change ourselves and our society to fit the
demands of the Greater Life, specifically life as
we find it in our respective bioregions.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to set aside large areas where native species can
find a home and the narural processes prevail.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to curb our appetites ("Live simply that others
may simply live."). It is imperative that we use
all appropriate methods to limit our numbers.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to c:ease. the productio~ of all slowly-degrading
rad1oacuve and 01herw1se toxic materials. Once
pr<>?uced, they inevitably end up in the life
chain, and the destructive influence of their
poisons accumulates in the body of the Eanh.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to honor and show respect for the process of
death as well as for 1he process of birth.
Although the fact is masked by the
of latter day civilization, we are
JUSt as dependent on our regions as our earliest
forebears. As stated above, bioregions are the
basic unitS of habitation. They are our sphere of
influence, o~r gift and our challenge. We may
venture out mto the world, but our bioregion is
always "home." When we are willing to
recognize our limits, we wilJ find them clearly
stated in the life offered by our biorcgion~
~omogeneity
~
JAJI. ADDITIOS
A EASURE OF PROGRESS
~~
Phow counesy or lhe N&1 Ri- Fru Prus
Su.m,mer, 1990
�SETTING LIMITS TO GROWTH:
ANINTERVIEWWITHDR.GARYMILLER
KaJ(talz Journal: How does carrying capacity work in
nature?
Gary Miller: The limits of a habitat's carrying capacity for
any given species come into play during what 1 call the "pinch
period," when one of the basic factors of that species' life
support - available food, proper conditions for reproduction,
growth space, water, etc. - becomes a limiting factor. A species
will reach carrying capacity when one of these limiung factors
stops population growth or causes population decline.
To carry that over to the human population, we are now
seeing clearly that certain areas - like Central Africa - are having a
very difficult time feeding themselves. Many pans of the United
States are now running out of water, so water availability is
becoming a critical limiting factor. There is no doubt that there is
a whole series of limiting factors that are going to affect human
carrying capacity, whether in terms of a region or in cenns of the
planet.
We don't know what the planet's ultimate carrying capacity
for human beings is. It's highly variable according to the
different parameters at work in different regions of the world.
Some ecologists are saying that the human population is double
the planet's long-tellll carrying capacity for our species. In other
words, the true biological, long-term, sustainable carrying
capacity for the people this planet can support is presumably
somewhere in the 2 1/2 billion range. We arc now approaching
five and one-quaner billion people.
KJ: Having fossil fuels available really complicates it.
GM: The fossil fuels that we are now extracting allow us to
exceed carrying capacity, because they offer an artificial way to
support great numbers of humans. However, that energy supply
is finite. Natural gas and oil will run out in the near future. Coal
will probably last some 200-400 years in the United States.
If we were 10 lose these fuel sources immediately, it \\'OU Id
cause all sorts of misery for the human population, because
vinually all the methods we in the West use to grow our food and
create our extrnvagant creature comfons arc based on fossil fuels.
Food production, one of the most important issues defining
carrying capacily for humans, is clearly now a function of fossil
fuel subsidies in the developed countries.
We live in a world agricultural economy based entirely
upon readily available and relatively cheap sources of fossil fuels.
The orange juice produced in Brazil, the apricots and strawbemes
produced in Spain. or the couon products grown in Egypt can be
shipped any place around the globe in a very shon period of time.
Water from the mountains of Nevada irrigates produce grown in
the San Joaquin VaUey of California. But try to accomplish that
when fossil fuel supplies are exhausted! That's when the real
issue of carrying capacity will be felt and understood by our
species.
KJ. Also for human beings. the qucsuons of values comes
into it, too. Right now we are continuing our own support at the
standard to which we are accustomed by sacrificing other
species' life suppon systems, thereby driving them to extinction.
GM: Based on our present population numbers and level of
resource consumption, we are basically incompatible. We have a
tendency to monoculture virtually everything, and once we take
out the native grasslands, the native upland forests, and wetlands
and replace them with monocultures, about the only thing that can
survive are the plants and the animals that are broad generalists
and a few parasites and predators that thrive off of those
monoculture species.
KJ: How about in the mountains? Arc there ways in which
it is evident that we are violating our region's carrying capacity?
GM: One thing 1 think of right away i~ the _rapi.d rat~ of
loss of flatlands the mosc suitable farmland 10 this b1oregton.
Those bouoml~nds are also prime areas for industrial and
Summe~,
t 990
•
Phoio by Rodney Webb
commercial s11e development, which means shopping malls and
all the things associated with malls and strip development.
Concentrated housing is also going up on relatively flat
land. The best farm lands available should be set aside for
farming so that we can support ourselves if and when we find
ourselves in a pinch period. If our supply lines are ever cut,
whether because of a war. or because we run out of fossil fuel
energy, or because of a natural disaster, we will have to rely on
our ability to produce food locally. But much of our prime farm
land is going under pavement and building structures, never to
be reclaimed. For all intents and purposes, that land is lost
forever, and with that land we have lost our ability lO cope should
any of these hypothetical disasters actually occur. Mu~h of the
bouomland habitat has disappeared, and as a result na11vc plant
and animal populations have declined. Very few mountain
wetlands exiSt today.
I question the quality of our present political leadership. It
seems like we need to call a moratorium on growth. There needs
to be time set aside to plan for the future. We need to plan now
how we are going to accommodate all species' survival. How
many people can we accommodate here before we do irreparable
harm t0 our support ecosystems and to the natural biota?
KJ What would be the most effective way to put a
moratorium on growth?
GM: One of lhe ways is for the citizenry to demand it. That
isn't likely to happen.
Another way would be for the lcad~hip of the community
to call for it, realizing, in their wisdom, that we live within finite
systems.
Another way is simply to not extend the ~ecessary
infrastructure services - such things as roads, electnc power,
water, and sewer.
KJ: Those items are presently thought of as services, but
they act in a much more aggressive way. Simply having those
layers of infrastructure in place guarantees growth.
GM: Absolutely. If you want an area to grow and dev~lop.
extend water lines, streets, power, and sewer. and ll 1s
guaranteed to develop.
There was an article in the Asheville Citizen on March 7,
1990 that told how the Asheville City Council approved a
subdivision by a 4-3 vote despite testimony from the fire
department stating that they would not be able to ~uarantee fire
protection to that development, be<:ause the slope 1s too steep to
get the fire trucks up under icy conditions.
What the city council said was. "We want to keep
growing."
�What the leadership should be saying is, "If we can't
protect the people who would be living there, then the developers
shouldn't be building there."
I think that in this case our leaders were shirking their
responsibility and cenainly not looking out for the general
public's best interestS.
KJ: But on the other hand, not having the infrastructure in
place effectively prohibits growth ...
GM: ...Or at least keeps it at a very low density, because
most developers are going to be wary of developing a large
project where they can't be guaranteed infrastructure.
Kl: So the infrastructure has a pivotal role as far as the
extent of development.
GM: Yes. One of the biggest problems we now have in
Asheville, NC where I hve, is is the controversy around
extending the water supply infrastructure. The first choice of the
city leadership was tapping the French Broad River. For various
reasons the public said no.
If the voters were to say forcefully, ''No, we don't want a
new water supply, let's make do with what we have," saying in
other words that conservation should be a first priority, that
would put a crimp in long-term growth here.
The same thing is true for the sewer system. The sewer
lines are continually being extended. We have hundreds of miles
of pipeline that arc in critical disrepair, with leaks showing in
different locations throughout the city and the county, and still the
only time the administration ever hesitates to extend the sewer
lines is when the state threatens them with a lawsuit saying, "You
already have too many leaks in that area and the manhole covers
are popping out whenever it rains. You can't possibly extend."
So the city calls an emergency meeting, and they give a
million-dollar contract, rush in and repair the immediate
problems, and then they can extend the line and add more houses
in that area. They repair the sewer system just enough so that
they can go further out, which stresses it all over again.
Kl: Then the new power lines that Duke Power Co. is
going to put through the counties south of here is not just a
neutral kind of thing.
GM: Any time you extend any major form of
infrastructure, it cannot be defined as neutral. Any time those
services are punched through, they definitely tend to promote
growth.
KJ: In the mountains one of the most imponant types of
infrastructure is roads, because in the mountains access is always
one of the major limiting factors. When access is gained to an
area, that means that the people come, and as the access improves
and becomes easier, that brings more people. It happens very
consistently Wt as soon as there is access, the maximum number
of people come in.
GM: Absolurely.
It's creeping incrementalism. Everyone assumes that this
linle road here or that little activity there really doesn't make any
difference. But this occurs hundreds or thousands of times every
single day in any given region, and when one translates it to a
world-wide scale, one can see that we are forcing lms of
organisms and the habitats that are required to suppon them into
siruations that are life-threatening. There are 5 1/4 billion humans
out there; each of them, every day, has some son of effect on the
environment.We all make decisions that are in our own best
interests. We rarely think in terms of the best in1eres1s of the
woodpecker, the salamander, 1he migrating songbird, or the oak
tree; yet all the creatures of the forests and of the waterways
perform critical activities that benefit us both directly and
indirectly.
Kl: In this region the major effects of roads would be to
ei1her increase the density of human beings in certain areas or to
bring human beings into areas that were previously uninhabited.
GM: An example is the proposed Route I-26, which is to
link Asheville with a Tennessee state highway to Johnson City.
AU of the areas through which this new route will pass are going
to experience a period of extremely rapid expansion, simply
because they are going to be accessible to an estimated 12,000
vehicles a day.
Any time a major interstate is put through a rural area
where there is relatively low-priced land available, there is a
likelihood that someone is going to buy up land for industrial and
commercial development. There will be a lot of strip development
and probably small mini-industrial parks will sprout up along the
route. As a result, an increase in air pollution will occur as
nicrogen oxide, a precursor for tropospheric (low altitude) ozone
formation, is formed by all the passing vehicles. We now know
that low-level ozone is a major toxicant to plant Life in the
Southern Appalachians.
But of course that is what the growth and development
people m this area are willing to settle for. They are willing to
sacrifice a high quality environment for a middle quality
environment
The wisdom of that approach is highly debatable. Someone
looking at the long-term sustainability of all species, not just the
human species, quickly comes to the conclusion wt we just can't
keep growing indefinitely in an area that has such very special
features. To my mind the Southern Appalachian Mountains need
to be recognized as the highest kind of bio-rescrve, as opposed to
just another location for industrial and commercial development.
The mountains have exceptional physical and biological
traits. Large sections of the moumain habitat should be set aside
as a major genetic reserve area. There should be guarantees that
this special bioregion is not subdivided into a thousand small
biological islands surrounded by human developments and the
resulting pollutants.
(continued on page 21)
GM: A big boom occurred here as a result of the opening
of the 1-40 interstate. It was a coast-to·coast route that brought
thousands of new people through this area each week. many of
whom found the Southern Appalachians to be delightful and
decided that in some form or other they were going to come back
here and spend more time. Many of them have returned to visit,
and many of them have in fact moved here as permanent
residents.
KJ: That principle works on all levels. l-40 meant that
more people came into the region. a road going up into a new
cove or hollow means that there will be an innux of people into
that hollow, and a road going out into 1he national forest, means
that more people use that pan of the forest.
G.\f: Any rime we humans can open up access, sooner or
later people are going to use it. and that leads to increased use of
the area where that road has been added.
KJ· So stopping roads and roadbuilding would be an
imponant pan of limiting human territorial expansion.
JGal.Uah JourrmL PR9& 6
Su.f!\ma-, 1990
�WHAT IS OVERPOPULATION?
Reflections on China and Karuah
by Stephen Bartlett
My Chinese friend had jus1 arrived m Madison, Wisconsin in order
to spend a year s1udying English. He was hom~ick and in culture shock.
If I had no1 spent two years wilh him in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. the
People's Republic of China, 1he commen1 he made 1hat warm July
evening would have been completely incomprehensible 10 me. We were
sitting on a lakeside pier when a family of ducks came circling around
overhead in the pink dusk and splashed down into the wa1er nearby, a
stone's throw from the towering University waterfront
Chen broke the silence with this innocent question: "Whose ducks
are those?''
After a stunned silence, I managed to reply "Nobody owns them.
They are wild ducks."
My words plunged Chen into a deep contemplation. Finally, be
said, "How marvelous! Bui who will eat them?"
Behind this cross-culmral schism there lies both tragedy and hope.
For China is not only a land where humans have devastated Nature, but
also a place where people have learned some profound ecological lessons
~nd p_u_t them int? practice.. Ah.hough the 240 million human beings
mhabmn~ ~e United States 1s su_ll a s~all number compared to China's
1,080 m1 lhon, we have a per capita environmental impac1 somewhere in
the range of 40-60 times 1hat of a common Chinese person due to our
s1unningly "afnuent" culture. We have been on 1his inherently rich
conuncnt only a very short time in Chinese tenns, yet we have already
managed to lay waste ro a vast area of our land and deplete resources at
astonishing speed.
What then can the Chinese teach us to allow us to avoid the terrible
des01Jcoon they have experienced over the centuries? Can we live beuer
wii~ less, live more fully on a smaller scale, live more humbly in our
bodies and on our lands?
Jiangsu Provin~e is a sophisticated humanized landscape. There
where deer ~nc~ frohcked perhaps two thousand years ago, 77 million
people_ now live 1n a well-watered'. canal-irrigated alluvial plain the size of
Georgia, on the ba~ks of che Hum and Yangtse Rivers. Seventy-five per
cem of th~ pe~ple live on uny rural plots of less than one acre per family:
the rest hve m crowded, bicycle and coal-powered cities encircled by
dense seulcmentS of truck gardeners who supply nil lhe produce the city
will consume. Despite a dense population, the rural landscape is relatively
diverse ecologically, and almost entirely edible.
Rice grown by hand in paddies is irrigated by canals and ditches
swarming wich fish which in tum feed Oocks of domesticated ducks and
geese who supplement Lhe rice/tofu diet of the humans whose wastes arc
returned to the fields, which yield bountiful harvests of grains. beans,
oils and vegetables, whose leftovers go 10 the family pigs. Travelling bee
keepers migrate northward in spring as the flowering trees blossom.
reaping honey harvests and cross-fcnilizing the crops and fruits along the
way. Water buffalo wallow in canals in summer and huddle behind hay
stacks in winter and resolutely turn the soil the rest of the time. They
endure extremes of temperature and live on both water plants and dry land
foods, making their upkeep easier. Wild birds are sometimes trapped, and
the bountiful rivers are fished for the protein foods they can provide.
Sunflower seeds arc munched by the ton in movie theaters and the husks
arc used as mulch the next day. Occasional woodlots and windbreak trees
between fields and along roads improve the microclimate, reduce erosion,
and supply wood produc1s for tools and other uses. Almost nothing is
wasted, but almost everything is put to human use.
Where we lived in Yangzhou--a small city by Chinese standards
wi1h its 350,000 odd mhab11ants, life was made bearable and even frutiful
due to these charac1eristics of the Chinese lifes1yle:
1) Bicycles arc the main source of transport and local shipping. Air
pollurion and noise from vehicles is minimized. People are fit.
Stephen Ban.km in a field in China
2) All. of the myriad vcgetnbles. fish, eggs. tofu and meat arc
purchased directly from the farmers themselves who, hv10g within a 2
mile radius of street markets, make their way by pedal power. Thus, Lhc
food distribution system is extremely efficient and avoids Lhc use of
fossil-fuels.
3) Farmers rely mainly on human wastes for fertilizing (ir being the
most abundant source!). They double as sanitation workers by collecting
all the "night soil" in "honey buckets", caning it to their fields to sit in
holding pits, and using 11 on their crops, most of which will in tum be
consumed by the city folk. The quality and tas1e of the food was
cxcelleni, as was the variety. The only drawback is the danger of the
spread of diseases such as hepatitis, a danger avoided mainly with the
technique of quick and hot stir frying of foods in fuel-efficient woks.
4) Shoppers go out daily carrying their purchases in straw baskets.
There is very little plastic or paper waste generated. Produce sellers
appear at dawn at almost every street comer in the ci1y where staples such
as cabbage, noodles and tofu can be boughL
5) People maintain healthful routines. They ride or walk to their
jobs which arc invariably near their homes. They arise early and enjoy
afternoon naps during most of the year.
6) A sophisticated, human·shaped ecosystem has been evolved
lhroughouc the countryside where many ecological niches are filled with
edible creatures. Frogs and other beneficial creatures nre protected.
Female fish at binhing age are thrown back. Fanners use land
intensively. double cropping rice in summer and reaping a winter harvest
of wheat or barley as well. Yields are on Lhe average of 2 to 3 times those
of American farme~. per acre. Humans rely mainly on vegetable protein,
thus enabling every acre of land to suppon at least JO people with basic
grains and soybean products. Sophisticated crop rotations are standard
practise.
7) People do not bum fuels to keep warm in winter but tum to high
energy foods such as pork fat. and many layers of flannel underwe:ir.
Even goose down stuffed co:tts and pants are common in rur.il as well as
urban areas. Air pollution from burning diny coal is thus minimi~d.
(Note: in the bitter cold of nonh China, coal burning is common and is
cause for terrible air pollution.)
Lest we anempt to idealize the Chinese way of life, we must be
awttre that they have arrived at such an ecological and egalitarian lifestyle
only after laying waste to much of their land, especially in the vast Yellow
River Valley in nonhem China, the cradle of early Chinese civilization.
So ~at has the destruction been that the majestic Yellow River 1hreatcns
to change course yet again and is perched prccariouslv behind dikes at a
height of 9 meters above the arable plain of Shandong Province. It is kept
m check only through the continual effom of millions of man-days work
to constantly reinforce the dikes with soil dredged from the mouth of the
River!
(conunucd oo pace 30)
Summ£T, t9!JO
Xlituah Journal pa!JC 7
�THE ROAD GANG:
PORT RAIT OF A STATE TRANSPORT AT ION DEPARTMENT
by Rob Barron
During the Depression years, when local
governments were going bankrupt, and the
economic fabric of the state was coming
unravelled. the s1a1e government of North
Carolina, in order to keep the road system
solvent and functioning, took over all the counry
roads and all the major city roads in the state.
Since that time, vinually every major road in the
state has been under the domain of the Nonh
Carolina Depanment of Transportation (DOT), a
proud and arrogant bureaucracy that wields great
political and economic power.
The DOT is responsible for maintaining,
and expanding when necessary, North
Carolina's 76,000 mile road system. The DOT
executes the will of the state Board of
Transponation. The Board numbers 25 of the
most powerful people in the state. Board
member~ include pre~idems of trucking
companies, an execuuve of a billboard
company, construction executives, and one
woma~, the daughter of a family that develops
shopp10g centers. They are all politically
prominent and won their appointments to the
Board through their valuable contributions of
money. and influence to the governor's political
campaigns. These are the people who make the
transponation decisions for Nonh Carolina.
To have control over roads is to have
political leverage within the state government.
The DOT has an enormous budget. It has a
dedicated source of revenue and does not have
to come back to the legislature every year to
plead for a budget and submit its workings to
legislative scrutiny. And DOT funds are
discretionary, meaning that the Board has
complete control over how they arc spent. Thus
road funds also act as political capital.
Lobbyist Bill Holman, who works in
Raleigh on behalf o f the Nonh Carolina Chapter
of the Sierra Club and the Conservation Council
of North Carolina, says that, "Paving
somebody"s road, or widening somebody's
road, or opening up somebody's propeny with a
road ~s one of the wa>'.s tha_t a governor can help
out h1s supponers. It is a rune-honored practice
in North. Carolina politics, spanning both
Democrauc and Republican administrations. The
building of highways is the single biggest pot of
discretionary pork barrel in the state budget and
it is almost tota ll y under the control of the
governor and his appoin tees. ..
'They are into more Political wheeling and
dealing than any other agency J know. The
amount of money and the amount of discretion
they wield is truly incredible. It's an
unbelievable hassle for the Division of Parks
and Recreation to spend several hundred
thousand dollars renovating a park - and it
probably should be that way, so that there is
some accountability for how public funds are
spenL But go over to the Highway Dcparunent.
and there is an enormous amount of wheelin"
and dealing going on involving projects i~
which millions of dollars are at stake.
"I don't think that there is much
out-and-out, undcr·the-table, illegal corruption
involved. There is a 101 of what I call "legal
corrup1ion," which is not illegal, but ii sure
Xatunn Jotnnal'. pnlJi: 8
does stink. There is a lot of politics in the paving
of roads. The location of a road determines that
some people make moot. on land use
speculation and others don't. Paving
contractors, the people that mine 1he rock,
consulting engineers, all those people wire
themse.lves into the political process with
campaign contributions. There's a lot of
patronage in the DOT. So, although it's not
illegal, let me just say that I'm not convinced
that it's public money well spent."
"I've worked wi th the
Forest Service before. and the
DOT makes the Forest Service
look like warm, fuzzy teddy
bears."
- Bill Holman, Sierra Club lobbyist
The Board of Transportation's greatest
power is control over the future of development
m the state. In Nonh CnroJina, it is fairly easy to
get a septic tank permit, a well permit, and a
building pennit. The state is notorious for its
lack of zoning regulations. Thai means lha1 the
only barrier to development is siting a road.
Since the counties lost control of their local road
systems, virtually all road decisions go through
the B~ai:d of Transportation. Local county
comm1ss1oners may, however, request changes
in their county's priority roads list, and the DOT
almost always accepts their amendments.
It is easy 10 see why roads are almost the
exclusive focus of the Board of Transponation.
Roads are power. Roads are money. Roads are
influence. Rai I roads, public transportation
programs, and energy conservation programs do
not offer such personal enhancement and
charisma.
The DOT believes in roads. Roads make
changes happen. Roads produce results. The
agency takes pride in doing itS job, laying the
pavement so that people can drive their cars and
trucks to get there faster, wherever they want to
go. They are engineers. Their task is to find the
shonest distance between two points. But the
agency also sees itself as the the facilitator of
economic development. 11 is a strongly-held
myth that highways bring prosperity. Around
the State House m Raleigh it is almost axiomatic
that, "~o~ds mean jobs." This is a corollary of
the prm?1ple .that, 'Gro~tb is good" - growth
almost mvanably meanmg the conventional
model of industrial factories and shoppmg
malls.
Since "growth is good," the DOT sees no"
reason why local governments should have
plans m place before new highways are laid
~own. :ro the _DOT, urban sprawl isn't ugly and
inefficient, tt s growth. And if developers are
geui.n~ rich because the people's tax money
subs1d1zes the sewers. w:1ter, and roads for their
projects, why. the people should be grateful.
llley arc gettmg growth.
As an agency. the DOT seems to think of
the environment as something that has to be
moved aside to get a road through. The National
Environmental Policy Act and the North
Carolina Environmental Policy Act now require
environmental assessments and in some cases
more thorough environmental impact statements
for highway projects. ll still is a :;truggle,
however, to get the DOT to follow
environmental regulations.
Road construction has massive direct
~ffec1s on the land. ~t best,. a new highway
involve~ eart~·mo.v1ng, soil turning and
compacuon, obbterauon of trees and other native
vegetation, fragmentation of forest habitat, and
of course habitat displacement in favor of the
usual pavement and grass highway landscape.
At worst, rondbuilding involves all this plus
stream siltation, filling of wetlands, and
destruction of rare and endangered habitats.
But unquestionably the most destructive
aspect of highway construction is the increased
human use and inevitable permanent
devel.oement that moves in along every road
once 11 IS in place.
An interesting dichotomy occurs here. Jn
selling their road plans, politicians and DOT
of!icials trumpet the amount of development that
will follow once road construction is completed.
They wax eloquent about the new factories.
malls, homes, and additional people the new
road will bring.
Once the road plan is adopted, however,
and it is time to prepare the environmental
assessments and impact statements, that same
development becomes completely insignificant.
It is a "secondary impact," implying that it is not
at all of primary imponance, and the public is
assured that this project (whichever project is
under discussion) has been carefully planned to
have little effect on the local environment. Jn the
language of the DOT, that same developmen t
that will have such a tremendous ecomomic
impact on the community wiJl be only a speck
on t~e local landscape, hardly enough to
menuon.
Up Aga inst a D·9 'Dozer
Environmentally-concerned citizens have
found the DOT to be an obstinate agency to deal
with, especially as the Depanment considers real
estate developers and contractors to be their
special constituency.
Holman says, "I've worked with the
Forest Service before, and the DOT makes the
Forest Service look like warm, fuzzy teddy
bears. The DOT is a relatively arrogant agency.
It is an agency that is used to getting its way. It
is an agency that is convinced that it is right, and
it doesn't take kindly to environmentalists or
anyone else proposing alternatives or criticizing
a particular route. So far, we have had very little
success in working with the DOT. They have
had so much clout, they haven't needed to
negotiate."
I low the DOT comes to have such clout is
apparent in the story of the Highway Trust
Fund, the $8.8 billion highway construction bill
that the Nonh Carolina legislature passed nearly
unanimously in 1989.
Eugene Brown. a political activist from
(contmucd on ncit p>.gl')
Summer, I 990
�THE HIGHWAY TO NOWHERF.
1he Durham area, tells 1he s1ory of the
Highway Trust Fund legislation:
"Jt was an example of the old saying I.hat
there are two things thar you should not
watch being made: sausage and state
laws. It epitomized the pork-barrel
approach to enacting legislation.
"When the legislators arrived in Raleigh
last year, most of them knew I.hat there would be
some type of a highway bill. Governor Manin
h~d promised that there would be a highway
bill. (Speaker of the House} Mavretic wanted it,
along.with some other key legislators. So they
esrablished a Highway Study Commission. This
commission traveled throughout the state and
held a long series of public meetings, basically
with the Chamber of Commerce people, elected
officials, developers, and bankers. The
commission came and basically said, "Well, do
you need any new roads here?"
"What do you think the response is going
to be from folks who fi1 into any of those
categories? h's going to be, 'Sure, we need
some new roads!' The Highway Study
Commission turned into a "gimme" session. h
was almost like asking fraternities if they wanted
free beer or asking the Pentagon if it needed any
new weapons.
."During the course of this study, very few
questJons arose about economic priorities,
cost/benefit ratios, alternatives to automobiles,
or mass transit. The politicians wanted new
roads, and they used the Highway Study
Commission to instigate what they called
"grassroots suppon" - but basically it was big
money support.
"Once the Highway Study Commission
report was in, the leading politicians came back
10 their colleagues in the I louse and the Senate
and said, "We need this road bill." So someone
from Charlotte said. 'Well. 1 know that you
need a few roads down east. but what can you
do for me?' and someone else said, 'What can
you do for me up in Winston-Salem?'
"It was a mushroom effect. ft blossomed,
not like nowers, like weeds. The strategy that
""'.as used to pass this bill was a very simple one:
give everyone what they want. And that's
exactly what happened - everyone got promised
everything they wanted."
. Almost all of North Carolina's legisla1ors
capitulated to the power of the growth ethic, and
the $8.8 billion Highway Trus1 Fund was
adop1ed wi1hou1 any serious opposition on the
noor.
Stalling the Machine
Bill Holman secs some hope in legislative
slrategies 1hat can chip away at the roads
package. "Remember," he says, "that one
legislature cannot bind another, and legislators
often change their minds, especially when they
hear from their constituents."
Even if the DOT received all the $8.8
billion allotted for roads, it would still be
impossible LO build all the roads listed in the bill.
And getting all $8.8 billion may be a problem.
The state government is already $419 million
overdrawn on its budget. All the other
depanmcnts of the state government arc feeling
the pinch and may begin to hover around the
smell of pork fat coming from the Highway
Buildinl? in Raleigh.
ln i1s eagerness 10 build roads, the DOT is
itself falling behind in its own maintenance
program and may have 10 divert construction
funds to care for roods already built.
Ed Harrison. Transponation Chair for the
NC Conservation Council and the NC Sierra
Club chapter. says that one lesson 10 be learned
i~ vigilance. He emphasizes that transponation
planning is a long·term process, going in seven
steps from conccpl, to proposal, 10 planning, to
Traveling slowly along a winding
secondary road I 0 miles from the town of
Robbinsville, North Carolina, drivers are often
surprised when they come upon a major
highway development that leaves the small
county route and strikes off into the far
mountains.
They have stumbled onto the entrance to
The Highway to Nowhere.
h is also known as the Tellico
Plains-Robbinsville Road. It extends '>i7 mil"S
through the Nant;ihala l'\ational forest bet\\ ccn
the two towns, one in Monroe County,
Tennessee and the other in Graham Count\',
Nonh Carolina. The tWO•l:tnc highway runs on
a wide, graded ro:idbed that cuts through terrain
that is steep, wild, and dangerous, disruptini: n
remote habitat area I.hat was once a sanc:tuary-for
the most reclusive of native wildlife. It is a road
that should never have happened. From its very
beginning the project "as ill-advbt:d, and its
history is one of destruction that has become
more Wld more expensive each s1ep along its
route.
The road was begun in the nurry of public
works spending during the War on Poveny
years. Residents of the two towns requested the
road, dramatizing their appeal with a wagon
train from Tellico Plains 10 Murphy, Nonh
Carolina 10 show the distance they had to travel.
The projec1 was authorized in 1962 to be
cons.tr~cted by the F~der~I Highway
Adm1n1strauon (FHA) as n 'scenic highway to
spur economic development in the two towns."
Construction began on both ends of the
road in 1965. On the Nonh Carolina side 4.6
miles of pavement were laid up Santeetlah Gap
along what is now the boundary between the
Joree Kilmer.Memorial Forest and the adjoining
Shckrock Wilderness Area. Work s1opped in
1969, however, wilh the passage of the National
Environmental Policy Acr (NEPA), which
required environmental impact SU1temen1s for
major projects throu~h sensitive areas.
Environmental groups successfully protested the
route through an ar~a soon 10 be designated
"ildemess, and a new alignment was chosen.
The roadway already buih was abandoned and
still can be seen. a monument to the folly of The
Highway to Nowhere.
Construction was resumed until 1977
when excavation in I.he Hemlock Creek-McNabb
Creek drainage on the Tennessee side uncovered
a deposit of pyriric rock material, which
releases a highly acidic leachate that kills stream
life. The short-term response was to release a
20% solution of sodium hydroxide, a highly
caustic but shon-lived chemical, that raised the
pH at the mouth of the creeks to 5.8. Then the
pyritic rock deposits were buried under topsoil
which wa~ limed and reseeded as a permaneni
control measure.
. li?wevcr, continued wa1er quality
mon11onng revealed that, although the addition
of the sodium hydroxide solution had
temporarily raised pH to levels tolerable to fish
nnd other stream life, as soon as these ll1:atments
were stopped the rneams had become acidic
again. The permanent mitigation measures had
failed.
(ccntilwcd on page 27)
(continu<d on page 11)
S\lmmn, t 990
,........
...
�It is 3!' innocu~us-seeming Listing among
the many in the thick TIP (Transportation
lmproveme~t Plans) book published by the
Nonh Carolina D~P!1f_tment of Transportarion
(DOT): NC D1111s1on 13 .. ID number
A-10..•. .30.4 miles from 1-240 in Asheville,
NC to rite Ten11essee state line a1 Sam's Gap
fo11r-la11e freeway, part on new
/ocation ... $136,700,000 .... But these few
simple_ phra~es spell more change for the
mountain region.
A1 present Route 19-23 leaves Asheville
North Carolina as a four-lane highway on th~
way to the Tn-City area of Johnson Ci1y
Kingsport, and Bristol. Tennessee. Just north of
\1ars I lill the route divides. with Route 19
veering east to Burnsville, and Route 23
continuing as a two-lane road, improved with a
passing_ lane on some grades, over Murray
Mountain and up 10 the Tennessee state line at
Sam's Gap on the Appalachian crest. On the
01her side of the mountains, 1he road winds
dow!l through the Cherokee National Forest,
passing t~rough massive earth-moving and road
construcuon before reaching Erwin, Tennessee
and 1hen continui~g <?n 10 Johnson City,
Interstate 8 1, the Ohio River Valley, and points
north and west.
T~e 15 miles of road construction
proceeding on the Tennessee side will widen the
route to a four-lane all t11e way to the state line at
Sam's _Gap. The Sme of North Carolina is
prepanng to do the same, either by improving
Route 23 along its present route (Alternative A)
or by creatin g Route 1-26, a contr0lled-acces~
freeway that would rake a srraigh1ercourse from
Mars Hill 10 the state line (Alternative D). Just
for the sake of discussion the DOT also offers a
"n<? ~uild" alternative 1ha; would leave the route
as It IS.
. . "Alternative A" would cos1 the state $48
null_1<?n and would cause the relocation of 77
faauhes and five businesses. "Alternative D"
would _cost $64,850,000 and would require the
relocanon of 52 families and six businesses.
The DOT, lhe "Chambers." lhe bankers,
~e truc.kers, .. and the developers favor
Al~emauve D, of C?u~. They promise 5,400
vehicles per day bnng10g money, Jobs. and
goods for the backward and impoverished
people of th~ moumain region. They say that
Route 1-26 will open the door of opportunity for
the So~thern Appalachians, connccling them
more directly to the eastern population centers
and the midwestem industrial centers.
However, I-26 is more likely 10 open
Pand~ra's mythical box of troubles.
H1stor:call}'._. new roads bring increased auto
polluuon, increased land prices. increased
mfrns~cture taxes, and increased crime and
congestion wherever they go. Most of all.
however, they ~ring more people. "ow quiet
rural areas. Madison and Yancey Counties will
never be t~e same after the opening of 1-26
channels inter-state traffic throug h their
m?untains and the side roads are upgraded and
"'1dcned to ex1cnd !he development.
As Ed Harrison, Transponation Chair for
the NC Conservation Council and ~C Sierra
Club Chapter, tells us. highway projec1s are a
OPENING
PANDORA'S BOX:
THE I-26 PROJECT
TO COLUMBUS
TO CHARLESTON
long time in the making. The idea of upgrading
Route 23 was first proposed in 1973 in the
Appalachian !-lighway Development Program.
Study began m 1977 and the alternative route
now touted as the 1-26 corridor was
~ecommended in 1978. The concept was stalled
m the early 1980's, but interest was renewed
wh~n T~nnessee began widening the corridor on
~heir. s1d~ of the state line.. Preliminary
1den11ficauon of the alternative routes now being
c?mpleted. 1he .DOT is now analyzing the
different a!1em~11ves. An environmental impact
statement 1~ bemg prepared by the J.E. Greiner
Co. of Raleigh. The final environmental impac1
statement is schedule~ 10 be completed by
August, 1991. The design phase will continue
until the spring of 1994, when the DOT will
begin 10 acquire right of ways. Consrruction is
scheduled to begin in the spring of 1996.
The environmental impact of the new
highway corridor would be immense. Thc:re is
no such thing ru. an environmentally-sensitive
four-lane highway project, and the DOT is
notorious for causing sedimen1a1ion problems.
The proposed 1·26 route parallels or crosse:; 15
stream~. The road plan calls for an interchange
on Big Laurel Creek, known as one of the 1en
best trout streams on the the French Broad river
watershed. The four-lane ..., ill make a wide
break i~ the Appalachian Trail at S:im's Gap.
There 1s talk of a welcome center on the
ridgeline of the Appalachian crest.
But Appalachian Trail hikers are nor the
only ones walking the mountains. The widt:ned
1-26 highway clearing will be a significant
b~rrier l? migration, particularly for
wide-roaming black bears. It will eliminate
native forest habitat for one-half mile on either
side of 1he roadway and cause further opening
an~ frn~mentation of the Pisgah National Forest.
which is already patchy, ragged. and poorly
conncc1ed.
~Vhcn a forest is broken open by n road or
other 1mrusion, interior-dwelling species 1ha1
pr.:fcr shade and larger trees lose their habitat
and rerrem 10 poorer habi1at areas. They become
more vu!nerable 10 more aggressive
edge-dwelling creatures that take their territory
and .raid th.cir food s~pplics: The gene pool
declines as II becomes increasingly difficulr for
shy, backcountry species to find breeding
partners, because the once-extensive habital has
been cut into smaller and smaller islands from
which individuals find it harder and harder 10
escape.
Biolo~is'ts propose various mitigation
sch~mes:_ using European "bridge and tunnel"
engineenng, as opposed to the traditional
American "cut and fill" method. Bridges and
tunnels leave natural wildlife crossings 1ha1 are
safe fro~ l~e highway traffic. However, they
funn~I w1ldl. fe traffic_ into lhesc few designated
1
cro.s~mg pomts, making them easy targets for
wa1ung hunters. To avoid this unfair advantage
hunting would have to be banned for one-half
mile on either side of the roadway. Leaving
c~ver and thick underbrush 10 the edge of the
n!lht of way would help protect crossing
am ma ls.
Th~ primary problem in highwa>·
c?nstrucuon, however, is what is termed by the
h1ghw~y department as "secondary effects.''
Essenually, these are lhe results of human
access. Because of the highway, there will be
more people traveling through. More of these
p~ople will stop and stay. Because of the
highway, more people will move funher into !he
ru:al areas of t~e counry - it will be easier to
drive 1.nto the cuy 10 w~rk. Land prices will go
up. srnctly because of highway access.
Those who live along the 1-26 corridor
now may not be able to afford to do so ten years
in the future. The area may not look the same,
and they may not want to live there ten years in
the futu!.~· The proponents of the 1-26 plan talk
of 1hc 101crchange developments" that will
se.rve as_centers from which economic growth
w~ll radtate ~ut 1n10 the county. They will do
this; there will be convenience stores. used car
lots, fa~t food restaurants, and shopping centers
extending along the roads away from the
1~1erchanges in every direction. The
"mterch~nge developme!1ts" will sci the pace for
growth in the 1-26 comdor, and they will also
set the style for growth : fast. cheap. and
dependent on automotive transportation.
F~land will be traded in for parking lots. and
Madison and Yancey Counties will begin 10 look
like every other area "along the slab."
-RB~
NO BUILD®
XatUah Journaf '>IMJe lO
S\&mmer, 1990
�THE ROAD GANG continued rrom ~c 9
program, to final planning and design, followed
by land acquisition. and then cons1ruction.
He emphasizes that the first stages,
concept and proposal. are where it is easiest 10
block road cons1ruc1ion: 'The planning process
gets voted on by local officials, and having
liason with local elected officials is really the
best way to keep IJ'ack of what's going on. I
find that what works is to keep them in office
and tell them, 'Anything that ever happens with
a road, tell us .. .'
"Catch a new road early when it's just a
sketch line on a map."
The $8.8 billion road bill may be an
expensive lesson for environmental activists and taxpayers as well. Bill Holman renects on
the lesson that hopefully has been learned:
"The highway bill has served 10 wake up
Lhe environmentalists about the imponance of
these transportation plans. We have played a
very small role in the transportation debate, but
trnnsponation is behind the sprawling kind of
gTowth we have in North Carolina. Now the
DOT has woken us up."
Because the behavior patterns of deer or
bear arc not likely to change greatly. it is possible
10 come up with a number which represents the
carrying capacicy of of a panicular IJ'aCt of land
for these and other animal species. People have
much more complicated behavior and their
numbers matter much less than how they choose
to live. What do they eat and where does it come
from? What do they wear and where does it
come from? What type of buildings do they live
in? What type of fuel, if any. do they bum, and
what do they burn it in? Are they spread out or
focalizcd in their habitation pauem? Where do
they shit? What are their recreational activities?
What kind of shoes do they wear? What kind of
pets. if any, do they keep? Where, how, and
how much do they travel? What is their water
usage? What is their attitude towards wildlife?
The number of people in any given area is only
one ~f many variables in a carrying capacity
equation.
We can imagine a community of people
who ride to work on bulldozers, cut trees all day,
and keep a gun with them at all umes for
shooting anything that moves. At night they
retreat to a nuclear-powered castle and cat several
pounds of songbird tongueburgers. What 1s
Katuah's carrying capacity for this type of
rugged individual?
It is also easy to imagine tribes of people
wirh a religious reverence for nature and their
own place in it. Their homes and clothes are
modest. Their villages are powered by the Sun
and by the people themselves. Bicycles are the
means of transportation. Amaranth and com
Summer. 1990
"CARING CAPACITY"
grown in river bottoms are the main foods. They
tend huge oak and chestnut groves and share
their bounty with all creatures. Their waste is
recycled so that there is really no waste. What is
Katuah's carrying capacity for these people?
What right do we have to say?!
"What is our carrying capacity for love?"
is a much more relevant question.
There will be n srrong tendancy to rry 10
form some simple equation such a~ "number of
people x level of technology
=
carrying
capaciry." ff rhis could be divided by level of
conciousness. ic would be closer to the truth, but
it leaves out the factor of land suitability, and
leaves me wondering what we arc trying to prove
with this son of argument anyway? Anyone we
talked into leaving with this line of reasomng
would be the very person we wanted 10 stay•
Overdevelopment and the degradation of
our natural environment is a terrifying disaster
and we are so frustrated in coming up with
solutions that it is very tempting to point to
human numbers as the root of the problem. This
is a dangerous oversimplification. It takes away
our own culpability, which i~ a considerable
factor in the case of everyone I know. With very
few exceptions we still use cars and/or plug into
the main electrical network. Few of us recycle
everything possible or use recycled products in
all the places which we could. Few of us, at
present. use composting toilet~. Few of us grow
more than a symbolic amount of our own food.
Our clothes f114ly be made of cotton and wool. bur
where did these fibers come from? What is
sprayed on the couon? What happens to the
lambs? What mills knit the fibers into cloth? We
are a culture in transition. It is, in some respects.
a forced march into the future in which we are
panicipating. A trail of tears where our own
sorrow at the plighr of our people and our planet
moves us ever onward toward simpler and belier
ways of living. To sit down now and cast blame
on others is not a very honorable thing to do.
Most of the people who are most vocally
concerned with the environmental quaJity of
Kauiah arc themselves transplants 10 this region.
This makes it especially hypocritical for us to
blame newcomers or the simple gro~th of
numbers for the area's problems. We should
concenlnlte instead on developing a satisfying,
low impact life-style which is so atlnlCtive that it
is irresistible.
There is no percentage for us in ma.king
people feel guilty for their existence. There is
everything for us to gain in maintaining and
spreading a positive vision of humans living in
harmony with Earth and Spirit. As we work to
raise our level of conciousness. our lifestyle
becomes sustainable and our population growth
stabilizes, not as a burdensome discipline, but as
willing and joyous obedience to our own besr
interests.
,
• Will Asht! Bason
X.Otulih Jou~n4' pa9c l t
--
�PEOPLE AND HABITAT:
An Historical Overview
the entire region before white comacL
The native people manipulated their
environment with a technology based on fire and
stone tools. Even though they had developed a
sophisticated system of agriculture before the
arrival of the first white people, it is clear they
never exceeded the ability of the region to
support them. They did not interfere with the
capability of the habitat ro provide for other
fonns of life; quite to the contrary, the native
by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawccu
This is a first. The Kan1ah Journal is
reprinting one of its own articles. This article
first appeared in a longer fom1 in Issue 25 (Fall,
1989) and was the seed rhar developed into the
current issue on carrying capaciry. lss11e 25 is
sold 0111 and no longer ll\lailable, and this article
provides valuable links in denumstrating how
carrying capacity works in our region, so
we are running this shortened and revised
version of the original piece to give a
complete treatment ofthe topic.
While many view the pastoral scenes
and remote majesty of the Southern
Appalachians as all-enduring, trends in
human population migration and unrelenting
resource extraction have had monumental
effects upon wildlife and the diverse flora of
their native habitat. Today little remains
unaltered by the effects of human activity.
The landscape we view today is a threatened
glimmer of what was once, but it srill exists
as one of the most diverse ecosystems on
the North American continent.
A historical perspective of human
manipulation of the Kauiah province will
help raise the question of the proper
carrying capacity for human beings in our
bioregion - the level that allows for the
preservation of wild habitat.
people relied on that capability for their
continued existence.
The arrival of the first Europeans,
however, changed conditions drastically. The
first immigrants represented the overflow from a
land already subject to conditions of dire
overpopulation. The Old World represented a
vinually inexhaustible well of humanity that
flooded over the new frontier. After the
Early Inhabitants and First lmmigrants
The Cherokee lndians and the indigenous
people before them lived in balance with their
world, utilizing the offerings of their Eden. Best
estimntes give the native population as anywhere
from 22,000 to 50,000 individuals throughout
mountain highlands were first penerrated by
DeSoto in 1540, the question of access was of
paramount importance in the development of the
Southern Appalachians.
The native culture, tied to the land and her
offerings, was rapidly overrun by the streams of
white-skinned senlers that moved m along the
major Indian trails through the Shenandoah
Valley and from the Atlantic Tidewater area,
widening the trails into roads as they went so
that others could more easily follow.
The first small communities sprang
up along the river valleys and larger coves
of the Watauga, French Broad, Little
Tennessee, and Hiwassee watersheds.
Although few and far between, their
presence was marki:d by the agrarian need
for cleared land. The bottomlands and
wetlands were cleared or drained first,
and then trees were felled on the side
slopes to make room for more fields and
pastures. As the first settlements became
towns, the clearings spread deeper into
the mountains following small and muddy
roads that wound along the river and
stream tributaries.
These first settlers lived largely off
the land, much in the manner of their
native predecessors. Like the Indians
'" before them, the white settlers annually
burned off the forest floor. However,
because of their greater numbers, this had a
much greater effect on the forest than it ever had
before. Even so, until the end of the 19th
century most of the mountain highlands
remained an impenetrable wilderness.
Daunted by the richness of the New
World, the Europeans regarded the productive
capacity of the land as limitless, leading them to
farm ard hunt carelessly and without regard for
(/)
0
Q)
(/)
c:
£
(II
:c
£
c: u
c:
0
~
(/)
c
.~
.D llS
llS ·-
.c:
£
c: llS
ns-
E ig_
:E ~
OE
Q)
Q)
u..S
c: !:I
Q) 0
~CJ)
as .!!!
'O ig_
.E a.
Q)
<(
~E
0 Q)
.... .c:
~ 15
-·0 0
0 (/)
c:
(/)
~
c:
e
.a
~::;
·- 0
>
Q)
Q)
~
c:
0
(/)
"(ij
c:
::>
CD
"O
0
"O
0
E
c:
c:
CD
E
(/)
<II
~
·c:
I
tl
::>
E
E
(II
c:
8
0
(.)
c:
c:
llS
QI
QI
·o
:e
!:I
a.
e
::>
w
(/)
~
u:
0
m
0
0
0
N"
.-
::> c:
0
....
M
ID
oo
oo
oo
N"o
C\I
1540
'°
-
1650
.-
HUMAN POPULATION
OF KATUAH PROVINCE~
1700
1725
1750
1760
(')
.....
1790
1800
1810
CD
"'E
• a.
co .Q
Ma>
~~
--o
~g
llS c:
CV QI
I-
a.
c;o
..!-
-~
I-
iii
0
ID
.,;
.c:
(/)
u:
0
0
0
-'-
llS
en
.0
C\I
CD
....
1820 1830
1840
Summer, 1990
�also arrived on the rails, and sanitariums and
luxury hotels offered all !he comfons a ~ and
ailing flaLlandcr could desire.
Commerce was the primary reason for
pushing through the railroads, and in the
Soulhem Appalachian region, commcrce meant
timber. Large tracts of land, often
30,000-200,000 acres in size, were opened up
to exploitation and soon surrendered their
bounty. Temporary company towns were built
at the base of major watersheds and railroad
lines extended into the highest coves.
The early timber barons were
industrialists, not foresters, and !hey neither
knew nor cared about the ideals of sustained
timber yields and forest regeneration. Their
the future. Because they were completely
ignorant of ecological balances, they
exterminated game species of animals and birds
and slaughtered the native predators so that their
domestic livestock could free-range in the
woodlands. Hogs and turkeys were particularly
well-adapted to the forest environment and
thrived on the fall mast provided each yea.r.
Once fattened, these were gathered into large
"droves" and walked along the "drovers' roads"
to markets in the piedmont.
Mountaineers also traditionally foraged
for medicinal roots in the forest. As commercial
demand for these natural remedies began to
grow, medicinal roots became a prime baner
item in town and at the crossroad country stores.
As wagonloads of ginseng and other
potent roots and herbs began to roll
down the twisting mountain roads to the
eastern ciries, the rate of trade began to
threaten the survival of ginseng and
other herbaceous forest plants.
The Industrial Era
Grinding mills and small saw
mills were the height of industrial
production in the highlands until the
mid-1800's. The baner system was the
usual means of exchange. The US
Census estimated the population in the
18 western counties of North Carolina
at 200,000 in 1890. The lifestyle was
still based primarily on subsistence
agriculture, hunting, and foraging.
However. in 1880. the first train
into the mountains pulled into
Asheville, and the Southern Appalachians were
changed forever. The railroads represented a
new degree of access. and they brought
exponential population growth, absentee land
ownership, and industrial commerce.
The population of the city of Asheville
(which today is only somewhat greater than
65,000 people) mushroomed from 2,000 in
1880 to more than 10,000 by 1890. Tourism
rainfall. and severe flooding occum:d in J896.
1901, and 1909, and periodically into cbe
1940's.
A mountain native, the Reverend A.E.
Brown provided first-hand insight in an
interview in lheManufacruru's Record in 1910:
"•.. these mountains were full of sparkling
brooks and creeks which required a rwo or three
week rain to make them muddy; today a few
hours of rain will muddy them.... Many of the
mountain streams are dry throughout the
summer and fall, while in winter. the waters
descend in torrents and do vast damage
rendering wonhless the bottom lands... The
sides of mountains have been denuded of their
topsoil and bottom lands h~ve been overflowed
and swept away ...
Shonly after the end of World
War 1, most of the timber barons had
rom up their tracks and moved on to the
Pacific Northwest. By 1930 only a few
companies, such as Champion
Corporation, were left. In the wake of
the timber rush, and at the onset of the
nation's worst drought and the chestnut
blight, litLle was left for human or beast:
T he Present-day Forest
or
(What You See Is W hat ls Leh )
mastery of the new steam technology gave them
access to the most remote reaches of the
mountain forest, and the destruction they
wrought there was unprecedented. The damage
to the species composition of the forest was
irrevocable, as was the damage to the soil. By
the early I930's 80 percent of the mountain
landscape had been burned over. Lmle was left
to shield the soil from the area's high levels of
Between the 1940's and the
1960's the population growth of the
Kaufah province slowed. The mountain
binhrate remained high. as it had in the
past, but many young folks left the
mountains to find wage work in the
cities of the cast and the midwest. The bumpy
roads offered a way out of the mountains to seek
the American Dream.
During the l 960's and the l 970's,
however, a change took place. The isolation of
the "backward" Appalachians began to look
appealing to flatlanders sick of noise, crowds,
and pollution. and perhaps sick at hean at the
(conanuod on page 32)
iii
E
Q)
:::
0
I'll
0.
E
I'll
(J
c oE
-;:; 0
0. c
(/)
c
' iij
c
::J
28(ii
.!Q
Q)
0
0
'0-o (J c
c
E
·- I'll Cl>
li
Q)
e :=
u;
~
<ti.":!'
Q)
E
5
OI
.!:
c
5
~
.,,.
.,,.
!::.
I- :.:
'O
>U
Q)
;C :l -
(il
c:
E
E
0
0
Ci>
D
(/)
I'll
al
_g
'iij
a:
C3
-c
<D 0
)(
'E
(J
0
,g (/)
CX)
>
Q)
~
N
<O
R
CX)
Ill
~ § >• E ~
'" E m
l'lloE
0
'O
Q)
>
0
~~
Ci>
u
CD
a.!~
I.I)
(/) 0
N
N
0
~
(!)
,...
It)
C')
O>
CT>
0
N
<O
N
N
-
M
~
O>
N
CT>
M
a>
C')
It)
<O
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
Summer, 1990
t: "O 0
r.l <D::
"O '- · .£)
c
~
>-
0
"
I'll
~~~
a. .... .c
~ - Cl
"0(5 -
E
0
.c
00
.,,.
.
N
'8 25
>-
Q) ....
(Jc
Cl>
Q)
.....
O>
u
00
0
N
O>
N
,__
1900
.,,.
<O
<O
O>
.....
a>
co
.....
It)
It)
N
C')
.,,.
.,,.
en
M
M
It)
Cl)
Cl)
co
O>
.....
.....
1910
1920
1930
1940
0
00
It)
C')
M
c -
CX)
ff)
.....
.
<O
.....
N
~
...
1950
1960
,...
1970
1980
�When we design our human systems, we need to
assure that we are not disrupting this flow of life,
which is integral to our own llie.
..
.: ..... .
.......
'' ,··.....
,,._., ..
•
. . ··.
.
• "' • ~ =:::. ·~ • ~ ~ •
. . .. . ,,,· .. ,... ~···.·
. ·· ~./.
. ·.. ....~•..~,{...:....:
·,;.
,,,,,-··:··.....---··-,·. ::
• • .i• ••
·~: :,,
_./
.;.:. ,
/, , ,
... , -.... ,.,,,,,,., ,
_,,.,,,.-. -
.
,.
••• •
/
,
Designing with the Whole Life Community in Mind
by Mamie Muller
The solely human<cntercd approach to design in which the
environment acts as in.1mmate baclcdrop lo human activity is n9 longcr
possible. It has resulted in disruption of the wider life community of the
planet and has begun threatening our entire biological life support systt>m.
We in this Euro-culture .ire finally beginning to realize that we al"t'
of the Earth. Advances in tht' scit'nccs are bringing to us the information
th;it we arc literally in the planet not on it and that our human activities
are intimately interwoven with the water cycle, tht' air cycle. the carbon
cycle. We al"t' beginning to rcahz.c that the way we form our :.culcmcnts,
our transportation routes, our commt'l're, and other hum.in functions not only
affect hu1rJ1n culture, but the whole ecological community of which we arc
a part.
At present. our contemporary capacity for accclerallon and
cxpont•ntiali1..:ition has brought the question of human impact on the
natural world out ol the rc:ilm of "a ni<e thing tu consid(·r· in dl'Slgn and
placed it squarely in front of u~. asa qul'Stlon 0f sur11h•al. Yet, our ability
to rL'-<.'Onstcllate our human systems m response to dirL'Ct fceclti.1ck falls
short o{ what is required.
One consideration In understanding this dih:mma ts to rcJlize that
wens n culture may not be fu/111 ugzstering the fccdb:lck wc arc n.'« 1vmg
as to the dcllllstation of the planC't. The mformatton coming in m.1y be
octually outpaang our oomprchtns1.0n of 11. It may also be th.it our
perimeter& of rcahty have become so limited that we arc not fully
"hearing" the natural world ~peak to us about this cruoal information.
Our insular patterning of urbamzat1on. including concrete pathways,
processed nutrihon, and televised m1lity m;iy bi! blocking us from this
information. We may simply be recording ~·hatcver is coming in a5 "noise"
or "static" and may not, in fact, be fully not1dng the drasllc d1m1rushmcnt
in quality of life.
What now-Those of us who arc catching ghmmcrs of the vibrant,
!unctioofng life communuy that surrounds us and co-exists with us need to
revive our capacities to sec, hear, taste, fccl ...beyond the "broadcast1xr
Kati'mh Jou!nnL PC19C 11
boundaries of the rontcmporary world. We need to discern what is
supcrfioal to our hfe support system and what is elemental We ncecl to
Ix-gin insisting on design models that describe to us the full reality of our
situation-both human as well as IX'Ological.
In our modclhng, we nl'cd to ac:knowlcdge natural boundarit'S, not ju5t
human-m.1dc boundancs, and to lillc.c into full account ecological systems
suc:h as watersheds, wind patterns, gcologiCll formations, etc. Our models
ncecl to incorporate ecological prindpf('!; such as entropy, renewal,
biological exch.1nge, canying cap.1dty, and appropriate scale in an
integral way We ncecl 10 be factonng m rra/ costs o( projects not just the
"set prices-. Rc.11 costs include environmental considerations, hc.ilth
considerations, as well as cumulahw affects and long·tenn conscqut'n<X?S.
A primary asp<>Ct of th<.> ecological modd is oni:? of orculatio11. The
cll'$1gn of hum11n routes needs to be done in the context of other kinds of
routes and patterns of orculation. The water cycle, the air currents. (even
the Eiirth m ll5 orbit, and the moon in us orb1t)".all circulate and h.wc a
tX'aring on each othl.'r. /II ignition routes or animals; routes of :5(.'(.<ds m the
wind, pathways or the sand-sharing dune s~k'ltl; animal route:, for Bl"CCSS
to water, tocxl, and for returrung to br<"Cdmg grounds; routes of bees
p(lllin.-iung flowers, etc. arc all ilspc<"ts of the ctmil:itory p.ittcm of thl'
\\id~ Life community. Human route~ arc ill tht context of thb symphony of
movement.
In this culture we tend to think ufthc farth nsa "noun·, but in
act1L1hty, a grt'at deal of Earth functions as "verb" And our models need to
reflect that. \\'hen we clcsign our human systtms, we need to as~mrc that we
arc not disrupting this flow oi hfe, v;hich is mtt'gt'al to our own life.
lntercstmgly, with our culture's sencral overall design promoting cxcc:;sivc
mobility. our chihzatlon is bl'\."Omlng "verb" as well, whether we like 11 or
not. Our nc:ccss to work, school, social ach\~tics, and so forth requires th.it
we "circubtc". The fact is that many of us arc conung to "dwdl" m our
automobiles as well as our homes. Poor or non-existent urban planning as
Summitr, t 99!1
�well as other physical and psychological factors have created forced
mobility and diminished the quality of life not only of humans but also the
rest of the Ufe community.
When conditions reach such proportlons as they have now, in tenns
of the welfare of the planet as well as that of humans and its other
inhabitants, what is required in our modelling and our problem-solving?
In order to develop comprehensive models, we need to be in touch with
what values we want to nurture as a culture. No culture is value-free. Form
informs. The forms that we craft to encompass and facilitate our human
activities inform and shape us at every tum. Form reflects values whether
we itttenlionally ascribe to them or nol IL is important that we bring into
consciousness the values we want to nurture and let them become an integral
aspect of our d1?Sign of human systems.
It is essential to understand what is elemental to the life support
system and what is superficial. We need in a public way to acknowledge
our community priorities and encourage policy-making and incentives to
support these priorities. We also need to develop comprehensive indicators
for ecological health.
In this culture we tend to think of the Earth
as a "noun"... but in actuality, a great deal of
Earth functions as "verb".
Also in our modelling. it is essential that we employ more than 1ust
linear logic. Linear logic gives us solutions such as "add a lane"' to deal
with population increase and the rise in motor vehicles on the highways.
Relying on this kind of logic, we end up with the solution of "44 lanes of
interstate traffic". Multi-dimensional logic is required. logic which
encompasses questions of scale, cumulative effects, appropriate use,
multi-level interplay of factors, etc.
And logic is only D7U! facet of our neurophysiological capacity for
perception and problem-solving. We have available to us whole ranges of
perception and creative interplay for interacting with the Life community
in which we live. We have the capacity for in-depth perception and
imaginative reflection as to how our human designs would interact with
and affect the whole...both spatiallyI physically, developmentally, and
psychically. We have the capacity to kinesthetically perceive rhythms
as well as the disruption of rhythms, and we have the imagination to
envision restoration.
Design can serve to obfuscate or reveal the natural world to us. It can
heighten or reduce our capacity to synchronize with other life rhythms
besides our own. A culture can actually design for symbiosis, CXH>peration,
mtegratton, and inclusion with the wider ecological Ufe community.
What is important in design is the reliance on fresh, attentive perception
regarding the nature of our multi-dimensional reality rooted in the natural
world.
This is a pivotal time in our planers history. We have the capacity
to witness whole ecological systems at work and to design our human
systems to comprehensively interlace with these wider processes. It is up to
us to renew our inherent capacity to "'listen" to the natural world...and to
act in concert with it. Only when we let its full reality be present to every
aspect of our senses are we capable of designing for our own well-being in'
relation to the rest of the Life community.
This paper was part of a presentation by Thomas Berry and
Marnie Muller at the Third Biennial International Linear P11rks
Conference held in Asheville, North Carolina, Katuah Prouinct, ~
~t~
~
Steady State
The Economics of 'Biophysical Equilibrium and Moral Growth
by Jim Houser
"Ecology means the study (-logy) of the home (eco-), while economics means the
management (-nomy) of the home. Accordingly, economics is merely a branch, or
discipline, of the larger study of ecology."
The coming of Spring makes me realize the KatUah region is quite
probably one of the last few paradises left on Earth. Perhaps, it is one of
the few places on Earth that have ever been paradise (or as close as we
on an earthly plane can get). Whatever the case may be, it is
undoubtedly a paradise now. The air feels clean to the lungs. It is crisp
and soothing. and fills one with a strength and a sen~ of well being. The
wat<.'r Is abundant and clean, making the soil rich and fruitful. The
flowers bloom everywhere in the Spring; a wild panorama of colors and
sublime beauty which I don"t quite understand why we deserve. But then
1 realize that we don't "deserve" it. It is just here, and so arc we. It ts
part of us, and we are part of ll There is no question of whether or not we
deserve it, we are simply here. The question 1s whether we can hve on
this land "'lthout ncccssanly destroying it. As Wendell Berry says in
the Gift of Co()J Land,
To live we must daily break the body and shed th!! blood of
creation. When we do this loVlngly, skillfully, reverently, it is
a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, grccd.ily, clumsily,
destructively, ii is a desecrallon. ln such dcsccration we
condemn ourselv1:s to spintual and moral lon<?hness, and others
to want.
There is a new group of C<"onomists who decry the lack of moral and
c!thical judgements in modem economics and cite this ddicicncy as one of
the reasons for our current economic: and ecological d~tenoration. They
arc led by Herman E. Daly, an economics professor presently employed in
the envtronmcntaJ section of the World &nk.
S"'mmcr, 1990
Daly maintains that modem economic thoory docs not concern itself
with ultimate endS- The standard textbook definition of economics states
that it is "the study of the allocation of scarce means among competing
ends, where the object of the allocation 1s the maximization of those
ends." But modem economic scsence has taken on the guise of an exact
science, like physics, and has, accordingly, made itself devoid of ethical
questions, focusing all of their attention on what Daly refers to as
Intermediate Ends, hke food, warmth, and education. Jn current economic
thinking, success is attained by achieving these goats, regardless of the
means employed, whether they be a tolilhtarian state, environmental
degradation, or destruction of life.
Daly likes to point out, however, that economitS began as a branch
of moral philosophy. T.R. Malthus m htS classic work the Pnnriples of
Politiazl Economy wrote, "Political Economy bears a nearer resemblance
to the soence of morals and politics than to that of mathematics." For
the early economists like Adam Smith, who wrote Tht Thtory of Moml
Sentiments, the most important test of economic institutions was thcir
effect on moral character.
For economists to cut themselves off from knowlcdgt' obtainC'd
through introspc-chon 1s a perversion of their dlidpline. What has
happened as a result is that economists have li\'ed up to the observation
of Oscar Wilde who pointed out that "an economist i5 a man <sic> who
knows the pnce of everything and the value of nothing".
In h1> three books, Strady-State Economics; Economics, Ecology,
Ethics: Essnys on iz Sltady State Economy (which he edited); and For
tht Common Good, wnttcn with theologian John Cobb, Daty attempts to
bring economists, and everyone else, back to a realm where they can
(ClOllllnll<d on ncitt pegc)
Ju.u.\+nh Journ~ ptUJC IS
�(oonlinued &om page IS)
discern the true value of things. He calls this realm the "steady-state
economy;" an economy consciously directed according to the laws of
ecology, as all economies should be, since ecology 1s the basis for
understanding the conditions under which economics and humanity must
function. Ecology means the study (-logy) of the home Ceco-), while
economics means the management (-nomy) of the home. Accordingly,
economics is merely a branch, or discipline, of the h1rger study of ecology.
Orthodox economists do not realize this, says Daly. He cites the
futility of considering a rise in the Gross National Product (GNP) as an
indicator of a healthy society. Obviously, any theory which espouses
unlimited growth in a finite biosphere 1s absurd. Modem economists get
around this by claiming that GNP is a measure of value. while ignoring
the physical aspects of this value. As Daly points out, the fact that
wealth is measured in value units (dollars) docs not negate its physical
dimensions.
We could place a higher and higher value on anything for an
infinite length of time, but the actual supply of any material is clearly
finite. To give raw materials "value" we must use energy, and, according
to the second law of thermodynamics, that total pool of energy 1s always
decreasing. As Daly points out in Stcady-Stalt Eco1wmics,
Daly calls the flow of production and consumption "throughput."
"Steady-state" implies equilibrium, in which the rate of inflow is equal
to the rate of outflow. A balanced rate of throughput is the key to
maintaining the equilibrium or the "constant stock," (the life support
capability of the natural world).
Daly uses the analogy of a lake to make this point clear. In order to
maintain the level of a lake, the amount of water flowing into the lake
must be the same as the amount flowing out. Ir more water flows out than
nows in, the lake would eventually dry up.
A constant water level can be maintained with either a high or low
rate of flow. However, a high rate of flow runs a great amount of water
through very quickly. Daly points that at the present time our rate or
throughput should be as low as possible, so we at the same time conserve
our resoun:es and minimize the amount of refuse. M<?asuring our economy
by GNP encourages mmumization of the throughput flow.
'A'hile the human household has been rapidly grow;ng. the
environment of which it is a part has steadfastly remained
constant in its quantitative dimensions. Its size has not
increased, nor have the natural rates of circulation of the basic
biog<.'<X:hcmic;il cycles that man e>.ploits. As more people
transform more raw materials per person into rommodihcs, we
experience higher rates of depletion; as more people transform
more commodities into waste, we experience higher rates of
pollution. We devote more effort and resources to mining poorer
mineral deposits and to deaning up increased pollution, and
then we count many of these extra expenses as an increase in
GNP and congratulate ourselves on the exlTa growth!
Thus GNP can increase every year without ever indicating a decay
of the ecological u nderpinning of the production system. That
ultima tely, is the main point: by overproducing we destroy our
production capability.
Daly likens the steady-state economy to a mature ecosystem. A
young ecosystem, like a newly growing forest, emphasizes production,
growth, and quantity (high production efficiency). A mature ecosystem,
such as a climax rorest, emphasizes protection, stability, and quahty
(high maintenance efficiency).
Daly claims that we have reached the mature stage of our system
and we need to emphasize quality over quantity, maintenance over
production, or otherwise, as we see happening today, we will bury our
life-sustaining ecosystem under a pile or our own garbage. He insists that
the flows of production and consumption must be minimized instead of
maximized as they are in the infinite growth economy.
This docs not imply, however, that Daly is advocating stagnation or
regression of human society. It 1s a grave mistake to consider a constantly
rising GNP as the mark of an advancing culture. As John Stuart Mill
said,
It is scarcely necessary to remark that a stationary
condition of capital and population imphcs no stationary state
o f human improvement, there would be as much scope as ever for
all kinds of mental, cultural and moral and social progress, as
much room for improving the art or living and much more
likelihood of it being improved when minds cease to be
engrossed by the art of getting on.
ln the steady-state economy the central concept must be the stock of
wealth (people and capital, in its widest definition which includes
natural resources and processes), rather than the flow of income and
consumption, as wealth is defined at present.
rn reality, the entire concept of generating income is an illusion.
Humans cannot "generate income", we can only take what is here. The
key is to not use up the life energy a t a rate raster than nature can
regenerate it. Obviously, we are not following that principle. In the case
of fossil fo<?ls, as E.F. Schumacher points out in Small Is Beautiful, we
continue to treat an ever-scarcer resource as income rather than capital.
Ecologically, we a re burning our "business capital" even as we proclaim
the health or our "business."
I.
One of the bases of a low throughput economy is a greater durability
or goods, which applies not only to how long they last, but also to how
easy it is to put them to another use (recycle). Our current economic
system encourages planned obsolcsccnC!!, since we have to maintain a
constant market for our ever-increasing production (which led to the
downfall of Detroit).
A low rat<l of capital throughput also means that we would spend
less time on production and create more leisure time. Under our current
economic system, we rear decreased production and leisure lime, because
that would mean people are out or work. Timc-int<?nsive activities like
rricndship, care of the elderly and children, meditation and reO<?ction,
are sacrificed in favor of commodity-intensive activities. Hence, we
ha,•c the Shopping Mall as the social center of the 90's (have run, meet
people, L.lkc the kids, and CONSUME), rather than social centers
which promote and help strengthen community and family values.
The steady stat(! economy also implies a low throughput rate for
population (the other component of the total stock), which would me>an a
balanced birth and death rate, and a long life expectancy.
Our society docs not seem to recognize that an ever-growing rote> of
per capita consumption for an ever-growing population is impossible. A
steady population depleting resources and creating pollution at a slow
rate is the ideal. The limits regarding what rates of depiction and
pollution are tolerable would be derived from our understanding of
ecology.
These limits address the question of how many people can live in an
area and still maintain paradise. The question is: at which point or
human population does the desecration of creation become unavoidable?
This limit is the "carrying capacity" of an ecosystem. It has been
demonstrated that when a population significantly exceeds the carrying
potential or its ecosystem, there then results a sudden die-off within
that population. So we need to reach an optimum population based on
the carrying capacity of our biosphere.
My suggestion Is to do away with the GNP and substitute a CNP
{Qlrryi~ fotcntial) as the true measure of our economies success.
CNP reflects the needs which Daly says our economic indicators
need to monitor. Rather than measuring growth Ilk<! the GNP, the goal
for the CNP would would be to maintain the population;CNP ratio at
one. In other words, H the goal is to maximize our population while
preserving ecological integrity, t he ideal would be to keep the
population as close to the determined carrying potential as possible.
(connnucd on page 29)
..
.
)(.Qtuah Jourrml. J>"ge 16
..
\'
... ~
--
Summer, 1990
�Hoedad
I throw my hoedad
into sandy loam, thinking
of my children's children as I
bend to plant a tree.
I throw my hoedad
into a rock and experience
more fully the pain in the
swollen joints of my right hand.
I throw my hoedad again
and again and again and again and again
in the strange and savage
dancing of the mad treeplanter
leaving lines of pines across
the hills of Tennessee
Eagerly i press my taproot
firm into dark moist
slit
gumbo, sand, rock, and churt
duff or dust or just plain dirt
Slam Barn Cram and jam
I throw my hoedad, stomp and scram.
I grit my teeth and throw my hoedad and
place a wimpy little pine tree in what
was recently a hardwood forest.
Covering a little piece of grid and a
bureaucrats ass for him.
Making sure there will be cellulose
for adult pampers for aging
baby boomers.
I throw my hoedad, pull
back on the handle and
am brought to my senses by
the powerful brown smell of wild
ginger and Here i am
on this Sunlit mountain in the
early Spring
I throw my hoedad and pray
the people will re member Earth
I plant a tree and p ray that
We will all remember.
Will Ashe Bason
Slimmer-, 1990
Compost
I'm composting my past
empty rinds of just deserts
broken shells of old barriers
the coffee grind
I'm composting my passed
bullshit raps and
chickenshit fears
111 throw them to the microbes
let lhem bum a little quicker and
hotter in the flame of living and
dying. Fork it all, i'm chunking
funky pumpkin headed notions on the pile and
turning over a new
leaf mold. Leaving my leftovers.
I'm composting my past.
Free carbon now!
break down all cellulose walls.
I'm not for getting it
i 'm just for letting it
rot
and when it's cool and
dark and doesn't even
stink, i'll shovel it up and
use it in my garden. I'll
grow roses and rootabagas in
re memberance that Here
i come, back again.
Will Ashe Bason
�I
1).)1
I
D~gn IJltd calligraphy l1y Marnie Muller
�•
l
'
I
�(l'bcseare !he words ofa traditional Olerolcco medicine person.)
Archaeologists estimate that the Cherokees first migrared into the
Southern Appalachians 6,000 years ago. They figured this by carbon-dating
potrcry that they found at the Old Echota village. The poucry was tempered in
the southern way, but it was lroquoian in design. That showed that it was
Cherokee. The Cherokee have lived here for a very long time.
Our population was always expanding. but very slowly. It was told to
me that there were about 50,000 Cherokee when de Soto came through. If
the white people had waited 200 years to make it over here, they would have
had to deal with just two lribcs in the east, the Cherokee and the Iroquois.
I think the people's effons to limit their population were quite
conscious. We weren't troubled by plagues, and life expectancy was better
than that of the white people when they fLCSt came here. The Cherokee chief
Junaluska, for example, was way up in his nineties when he died. We were a
healthier people than we are now. If children got past their first three or four
years, they generally lived to an old age.
There were several methods of birth control. Dodder is a
commonly-seen fungus. It grows in long, yellow strings and wraps itself
around other plants, because it's parasitic. As a contraceptive, it was given to
men. When it worked. it worked; but it wasn't that dependable. I wouldn't
trust it. But they probably had more faith than I do.
There was another method. When a woman had .a baby and the man
took away the afterbinh, he would cross one ridge for every year he didn't
want to have another child before he buried it But l wouldn't trust that
either. Thar's why it wouldn't work for me. Magic comes when all doubt is
cleared from the mind.
They had no sex when the women were in the moon lodge (during
their menstrual period), and a man would always fast from sex before
hunting and war. Those things helped. Every time people were involved in a
spirirual ceremony, they would fast from sex for three days before.
Young people got married any time after puberty. Girls could get
married after their first menstrual period. And they didn't wait long. But I
think that attirude made a difference. The native people didn't have all the
sexual taboos that arc a part of the white culture: that sex is wrong, diny, evil
and bad, and that a person has to have a piece of paper and a preacher to do
it. The native people had a different attitude about sex. And I think that made
a difference in child-bearing as well
It seems that people who were closer to the Eanh had natural
population contr0ls. Their populations always seemed to hold steady. That
usually hinged on food availability, but a.round here food wasn't a very good
control. The people grew crops, and there was a lot of game and wild foods
in the woods, like berries and chestnuts.
OC course they still encountered hard times when their crops were
short and there was no game. There could be late floods lhat would wash out
the com, or a late frost would kill a lot of the acorns, or it would be dry
when the chestnuts were supposed to blossom. Such things would happen.
Times like that would trim off some of the marginal people, some of the old
people and some of the babies.
The people had a different attitude about death back then, too. They
accepted it when it came. They didn't cry to hang on to life or to people they
were close to. When it was your time to go, it was your time to go.
In our tradition it was said that the spirit wasn't fixed in a child until it
was three or four years old, and no one was surprised when a young child
died or an old person died.
The clan system was an important pan of our culture. There were
seven clans in the tribe, and there were strict sexual taboos about marrying
within the clan. I was told by my grandfather that the tribe had capital
punishment for two. n:asons, and incest was one of them. 1!1cest meant
marrying anybody within your clan. Clan members were your kin.
You could travel to a small village 300 miles away, and even if you'd
never been there and none of your people had ever been there, if there was
one family of your clan there, you would be taken care of. Tho~c peopl.e
would not be biologically related to you, but they would take you m ~ thell"
family and treat you like family. But you sure couldn't mess around with one
of the girls. That would be like fooling aroun~ with your cousin. ~d ~ou
had no desire to ... well, maybe you had a passing moment, bur you d think
about that capital punishment and said, "Naaah."
The clan system didn't slow anybody down from getting married, but
it did keep everybody's genes spread our, so thar people could live in small
groups without becoming inbred. It made possible a smaller gene pool.
The people had different ideas about technology, too. It's like my
grandfather said, "We knew about the wheel, but if you make a wheel, the n
you have to make a road. If you make a road, then you have to build bridges
and keep it all up. So why bother to put yourself to all that trouble?"
He would always make that remark to me when I would tell him Lha t
one of the white people's justifications was that "we never used the land."
He was amazed by that. He was always quite upset about that, because the
native people used the land as much as the white people did, but they used it
in a different way. They left much less of a mark on it. But the white people
thought that the land was not being used unless it was used with the attitude
that it was for the humans, instead of seeing the humans as being a part of it.
We did slash and burn agriculture. We would use a stretch of
bottomland until it was poor, and the com wouldn't grow big anymore, then
we would move down the river to another patch of river cane, bum it, and
live there. Meanwhile, the first cane patch would grow up, and in a few
years we'd move back to that fLCSt cane patch. This is how we used iL
Passenger pigeons were part of our diet, and we'd eat as many as we
wanted. Even so, when the white people came here flocks of passenge r
pigeons still blackened the sky. We had bufffalo and elk and large animals
like that in the mountains and they were plentiful, and we had what we
needed. But we don't have any of those now.
Today, if your com patch gives out, you can't just move dow_n the
s
river, because somebody else owns the land downstream. Now there 1 the
concept of private property and so many more people.
It's hard to explain about a culture with a "non-propeny attitude"
toward the world. Trying to explain our attitudes toward dying, birth control,
and population control is like crying to explain the fourth dimension in a three
dimensional language. It's the same with the attitudes behind the taboos
about not pissing, vomiting, shitting, or throwing your trash in the river.
When I was a kid, going down the mountain roads I could sec outhouses on
logs out over the branch.
I'm pessimistic about the fate of the human race. It's hard to be an
optimist when I sec that no one is willing to give up anything. Our future is
going to require sacrifice.
It used to be that people didn't sec themselves as creatures that were
superior to narurc; they saw themselves as part of nature. To move evenly
with everything was the ultimate goal of the Indian's personal growth
spiritual and physical, and to be out of harmony meant that you weren't
moving with everything.
If you killed a deer, you said prayers and apologized. There was no
hostility. It was no personal thing. If a bear killed you, it was the same way.
The idea was to move in hannony with the planet instead of seeing it only as
your personal resource or as an enemy that you had to conquer.
Keeping the ceremonies was important to maintaining that relationship
The ceremonies were a way to pull the community together, and they wer~
also a means of seeking hannony with the environment
Summer, 1990
�{continued from page 6)
KJ: Do you think zoning
could be significant?
GM: I! seems 10 have
worked everywhere else it's been
tried. Unfortunately the people
here are notorious for opposing
zoning as an option for limiting
grow1h. Their general reaction is,
"Don't tell me whal 10 do with
my land," and that's where the
argument ends. There is generally
never any extended debate, and
there is generally never any
opponuni1y 10 consider voling in
something like this.
In areas of the country
severely impacted by growth and
development, people now
recognize that ins1i1u1ing zoning
is the only way that they are
going 10 reduce growth to sane
levels. Without zoning,
everything is done in a hnphazard
way, and industrial and
commercial sites grow up next 10
housing. and so fonh.
Florida is now making
zoning mandatory in almost every
community. Other states that have
experienced large increases in population in the past now use
zoning as an effective way to control development and to protect
cnvironmencally sensitive areas.
KJ: Another factor in 1he whole equation is loco!
transportation. Being an essentially rural area, the mountains lead
to a lot of vehicle traffic.
GM: Yes, that is correct. This terrain does not lend itself to
car-pooling or mass transit. because 1he population 1ends 10 be
somewhat dispersed. There are rew easy-access, straight-line
transpona1ion corridors, which means that mass tronsit is difficult
tO SCI Up.
KJ: On the other hand, 1hough, the s1eep terrain has made
it difficult for industrial developmen1.
GM: There is always going 10 be limited industrial
development here, because the region just isn't favorable for thn1.
In that sense our steep terrain is a saving grace.
We might be ove~m by shopping malls or hamburger
stands - we might be "Pigeon Forged" · but I don't think that we
will be over-industrialized.
KJ: But in 1erms of habitat destruction ...
GM: ...Having second homes and malls is 1he same as
having an industry. There will be continually more strip
development, de-centralized shopping in all directions.
KJ: As far as reacting to out-of-control growth and
supporting maximum habitat in the mountains, what do you think
people can do?
GM: It is going 10 be dirticull to do anything abou1 it,
because usually all the people in power arc growth boosters. My
suggestion is, if people want 10 understand the dynamics of 1he
politics in their area, they should look into the backgrounds of 1he
Jl'Ople who hold public office. Check out the people on the water
boards, on the sewer boards, and see if there are corporate or real
es1a1e affiliations. Voters should look at the people on the town
councils, on the county board of commissioners, see who lhey
are, and ask about their environmental agendas before returning
14em to office.
Summer, 1990
a
The next thing people
should do is to encourage people
with views similar 10 their own 10
run for public office and then
work hard to have them elected.
lf people want to decrease the rate
at which growth is tal<lng place in
their area, they need to seat
candidates representing lha1
viewpoint on the governing
boards of the sewer districts or
the water authorities {or the
transportation depanment at the
state level), so that biodiversity is
a priority for those key agencies.
At present virtually all the
infrastruc1ure boards arc
controlled by pro-growth people.
Those people who want to
expand this area's role as a
sanctuary for biodiversity need 10
ge1 cracking politically a1 all
levels, because right now their
message isn't getting through.
KJ: One of the reasons the
message isn't gelling through
politically is because people are
thoroughly convinced that our
economy is based on growth, and
1ha1 the success of our sylilem is
Phoio by Rodney Webb
measured by the amount of
growth, rather than by water quality, clean air, and ample habitat
for all species.
What kind of opnons do we have in a situation like that?
How can we change people's consciousness about ii?
GM: In this coun1ry we do not have mnny good models of
communities or regions that have a long history of no-growth
development.
So l guess 1he thing to do is to point out examples where
communities - even entire regions - have ta.ken the "grow at all
costs" direction and have ruined what were fonnerly nice places
to live. Florida and Sou1hem Calirornia are examples of large
regions lha1 once had exceptional qualities which were lost in a
very short period of time. That is why Floriclians are now
moving here, and Californians arc moving to Oregon and
Washington.
Tl all goes back to 1he whole mind-set tha1 says we have 10
keep growing, growing, and growing. Somehow people believe
that growth is for everybody's good.
Yet in thiny years people look back and ask, "What did T
loser'
The answer is, "You lost everything."
"What did I gain?"
"You gained one problem arteranother."
Dr. Gary Miller has been director of the Environmental
Smdies Program at U11iversil)' of North Carolina Asheville since
the fall of 1983 Ar that rime the program had one majoring
smdent; now it has almost 100.
Miller holds a BS in biology. a masters degree in
botany/zoology, and he received a doctorate in plant ecology
from the Uni\'ersit)' ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For 15 years he lfred in New York State where he was
primarily interested in research on vegetation in freshwater
bodies. lie still spends his summer months exploring rlwtfield of
research.
lie and Ids wife have a daughter, who gradumed with a BS
in biology from UNC-CJiapel Hill, and a son. who is majoring in
biology and chemisrry in his last year at Chapel Hill.
• lnttrvlew rtcordtd by Doi# \Vhttltr
I
\
�TRANSPORTERNATIVES
By Patrick Clark
NaturaJists Henry David Thoreau, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, and John Muir all knew the
secre1 long ago. They saw the senselessness of
going around in motorized vehicles, when the
feet do just fine, thank you.
Why spend time cooped up in a box on
wheels when you could be our 1hcre gcuing
around by foot, with the birds and fresh air, and
getting good exercise? These words of Thoreau
from Walden arc as true today as they ever have
been: "We do not ride on the railroad, the
railroad rides on us ....If we stay at home and
mind our business who will want
railroads....Why should we live with such hurry
and wns1c in our life?"
Automobiles give the illusion of being a
fas1 means of cransporration, allowing users
more free time. Yet after considering the time
spent to finance, operate, and maintain an
aiu?m~b~e (nor to mention time for building and
mamtammg roads and traffic regulations), rhe
automobile doesn't seem to get us anywhere any
faster than our own two feet.
The auto has been and is a needless waste
of the environment and rhe human spirit, bur
we've gouen ourselves into a fix. Our entire
economical system is built upon fossil-powered
transponation. Roads have desecrated the "land
of the free". Noise. pollution. accidents, and
vi~ual decadence (i.e. America's transponarion
system) are woven into the fabric of American
society.
The need to get around will always exist,
but perhaps our society travels more 1han is
necessary. There arc ways to i;1ruc1ure our
communities and lifestyles to eliminate much of
the traveling we do. Where do we go? Work,
s~hool, rhe sto~. library, movie. pany, dance,
fnends house, Sierra Club meeting, conference.
the beach. What 1f mosc of these destinations
were closer in--lct's say biking di~tance. (The
conferences and the beach would require either
carpooling, public transponarion, or extended
time off for bicycle touring). Roads would be
narrow soips of concrete or gravel with flowers
JC.awQ(~
Journa( pca«Je 22
and 1rces on either side, raking us through
pleasant countryside and neighborhoods. No
cars or ttucks roaring by with fumes and smoke.
By slowing us down 10 a human-powered
speed, self-propelled uansponation connects us
to the Earth and 10 ourselves. It is a link to our
past and could be an integral pan of our present.
Grecnways (linear parks with hike/bike paths)
are catching on all over the country. Hiking and
biking paths arc being constructed to ger us all
around the continent
Today a person can walk the length of the
Appalachian Mountains and beyond on the
legendary Appalachian Trail. Throughout
Karoah arc numerous n:crc.ational trails built and
maintained by groups such as the Carolina
Mountain Club, including the new Mountains to
I.he Sea Trail (which has 260 continuous miles
already completed). While the tourism industry
is promoting aesthetic and recreational values in
this area, roads arc still more numerous than is
compatible with the forest Recreational walking
is fine, but it is not going to stop the acid rain,
noise poUution. and the habitat disruption/
destruction caused by the millions of vehicles
driving through the Kanlah province each day,
some of them 10 get to the hiking rrails.
The bicycle is Jess impacting than most
other forms of transportation on the
environment. With it, one can get to places
mostly unreachable without a car or a lot of
rime. And yet bicycling is still slow enough for
face to face human contact and cnjovmenr of
birds, flowers, and sky. Costs· to the
environment arc minimal and monetary expenses
are a fraction of those needed to own and
operate a car. So stress is lessened in more ways
than one.
Enlightened engineers are working on
solar-powered vehicles. These will be great, and
J'll be the first to invest in one, but the need will
still exist for walking and biking. What can a
person do 10 adopt a more self-propelled
lifestyle right now while in transition to our
bikeways/walkways society?
Getting to work is one of rhe most
imponant aspects of self-propelled rranspon·
0raWll1g by Rob Mcuick
ation, because this is a trip most people take
almost every day. There arc tricks to doing it
right such as dressing for the weather, carrying
items needed at work, and being presentable
once you get there. But once in the habit, this
commute is quite satisfying and relatively
stress-free.
I know bicycling works. ln metropolitan
areas. people commute many miles by bicycle,
contributing to clean air by reducing oil
consumption and lessening traffic congestion. I
joined them for awhile when t lived in
Washington, DC, and biked eighteen miles
round-trip through the Rock Creek Park
Greenway. There I met people who decided cars
were not for them. With sidebags and trailers,
even families were getting around without
difficulty. Some third world countries have
never had auto-caused problems because
bicycles have always been a necessity.
Herc, bicycling can be more challenging.
Bike paths haven't caught on much ye4 distances
arc greater, roads arc narrower, the terrain is
rugged. and !here are blind comers. Still, it can
be done. We need to keep pushing for bicycle
facilities and educate city planners and
motorists. (Join your local bicycle club.)
Recycling and organic vegetables and solar
energy arc fine, but wi1hou1 sustainable
transponation they will remain futile anempts a1
environmental restoration.
Resources:
Worldwatch Institute
P.O.Box 6991
Syracuse, NY 13217
For information on the Bikcways Task Force.
contaet Mary Helen Duke
(Transponation Coordinator)
Land of Sky Regional Council
25 Hentagc Drive
k;heville, NC 28806
(704) 254-8131
The Bikcways Task Force needs
volunteer help for a bike route mapping project
and bikeways legislation.
Summer, 1990
�IMAGINING THE END OF REAL ESTATE
by Hectfilre P. Condeau
There arc munncrs about, for those intuitive and sensitive enough to
hear them, that our relationship with Biosphere as in need or profound
reconsideration and even rc--invention. Many of our current attitudes about the
Earth and its capacity to sustain life arc reflected in the continuing musty
precepts or Feudal "tenants" and practices. By such methods land is to be
held as property by those in power. It can be bought only at a price by those
who h.:ive the means to pay olf others in power for the right to "own" the
land. Military service is required by the "lords" of thl:' kingdom in order to
protect its sovcreignty and to maintain obedience to the kingdom. If
Feudalism ended with the creation or a declaration that stated "all people
are created equal" why arc there still Landlords that relish in raising prices,
Corporate Castles in far-off lands, and Kings of Business that wear crowns of
excess profits on their heads while "vassals" must suffer through the best
they can· with little opportunity to get past class structures designed and
maintained by those unable 10 relinquish their grip or economic power over
other people in human society?
What is called for is the crcation of different value systems m
mediating the relations within human societies, and particularly in how
human societies rclate to the Biosphere. By maintaining systems of
lnduslrial Oass (ie; capitalist or socialist) where money and resources are
"bottlenecked" by the State, Corporations, or privileged classes, those who
arc not involved with such 'elites· are often lert out of the primary
decision-making or the society. Then a dangerous situation can develop in
which there is a lack of communication in the society, and it becomes
fragmented
This fragmentation is easily transferred onto our relations with
H~hit"'" •·thcr than our own, and the many forms or life that inhabit them;
from bears to bugs to bacteria. What would be the consequences or human
beings regarding the health or ecosystems other than their own as crucial to
the viability of all life including its own? I think ii would mean th.it
individual ownership of the land would come under intl'OSC scrutiny, and that
for human beings to be able to "settle·· or live in a particular area they would
have to be able to prove their worth as caretakers or 'friends' of the land.
This would have to be done in the context of the inhabited region, and also in
light of current awareness or lhe complex inter-relationships among many
fonns or biota that make a region of the Earth what it is.
Ultimately, It would mean that our basic models for economics,
business, industry, and even our own day-to-dny existence would change from
that of a rigid dominancc-<!ulogi%ing system of Real Estate, Development for
the? sake of bloating growth, and Factories dispersing contaminants into vital
air, water, soil, and biota or the planet. The models would change into
Ecosystems· With multiply mixing long, medium, and short duration
circulation patterns, or feedback luop~. 'These cycles moving through the
Biosphere int~atc the ingestion, absorbtion, and excretion or various forms
of chemical and radinnt energy from multiple Types or organisms and the
solar wind.
We exist in a complex array of feedback loops, within the region we
co-mhab1t. The C5SCntlal inter-rclahonsh1p between organisms and
l'nvironmcnts at various SCOJ'L'S of the Earth is the basis for a difforcnt kind ot
undcrst.lncling than thl! prevailing ''bch.lve as though machines arc the only
model of reality that matters" kind of athtude that we h.:ive been fed by the
bulk of modem science. The emphasis now shifts from co~ntrating on
lnch\;dual kinds or ~y~tcms thcmsch-~ to the energy or mrormatlon that is
moving between many kinds of s~tcms.
In this spirit let's focus on the relationship between human
communities, institutions. neighborhood,, hou~holds, ramih(.'S, and
indh'lduals in the context of the broader and more ecologically diwrsc
Bion.'t;10ns they inhabit. In this century our emph.1sis ha~ been on the
mtel\Slve "h.1rVC$ting" of energy in the forms of ruel, building materi.ils.
rrunc-rals, foods, water, and other n.'-sourccs from the greah'r hfc community
or the region. Our paras1uc tendencies as a spccics have ortC'n been
ewer· looked because of ingr.11ncd habits through which "profit" ramcd m
this way from ecological .1nd geological sources became 1 HE way to <'nsure
that our families or communiues would survive. This was p.uUally due to a
past of scarcity and harsh~s, and our relative 1Mbility to undcr:>tand and
change the basic patterns of susta1n.1bihty in the planet. Now thb has
changed, and so h.1s our rclallon with all other living beings.
The lndustnal era with all its far reaching efrccb or cont.lminahon
and 1labitat d~lruclion has paradoxically come around to face us with a
~ery mto our own values as a 'body" or humanity. The "power" put into
mdu~~ 1s now showing a potential or rar Jess scarcity than previously
c;xtsted m the ~lk'Cllve h_uman endeavor. Yet the "price" for being able to
bve m some kmd or rdnllvc harmony with non· human Pabilats and have a
Summer, 1990
''THE IMPACT OF liUMANS
IS NOW MATC\llMG 'fHAT Of ME.TEORS''
technology th.it is able to be efficient and does not drastically interfure with
the basic morphology or health or a given rcg:on 1s this... We need to
regulate our numbers because our impact is proving unsust.lmable not only for
ourselves, but also in regard to the diversity of habitats around us which are
the source or potential well bcmg for such complex creatures as mammals. The
main predators we now have to worry about are Ourselves, colliding
asteroids, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, some micro-organisms and
viruses, and our own industtatcd excreta such as bombs, plutonium, dioxin, and
a plethora of other toxic chemistries cookcd from petroleum. Thus we ne«! to
create ways of internalizing, with our minds and hearts, some fonn of species
population limits.
One question that comes to mind when thinking about the potential
'carrying capacity' or human beings in this Mountain Bioregion of l<atUah is:
What arc we to do with thl! Feudal Legacy of economically unjust and
environmentally unsound concepts and pmcticcs that have bcC'n accepted as
the only way or "doing business" in the region? What if the "upper classes"
can afford to buy land or houses and arc unable to make sound decii;ions about
its destiny and the destiny of the people living there? Is there any real Sense
to be found In a rash of second homes being built in an area where wages are
low and there is homclcssne!.57 There will need to be some 50rt of sy~tcm of
mediation and justice m working through the relations within the hum.1n
community and th.lt o( the many communilic:. or lifo that su~tain the human
community. This appears 10 be one of the great challengl'S to the pol(!ntial
maturity of human beings Into a non-scl£ish role within the Biosphere.
To ch.:inge our attitudes about the land around us from treating ii as a
machine, deshned to be both our "raw fuel" and our scwl!r, to that of
<'ClllogiC'al or inter-recycling modes, would change both our thinking and our
everyday experience of how our hvcs can be organized. Ry slowing the
overall flow of energy through our community systems~ maybe nblc to
reduce some or the conlusro ambitiousness and ch.1os that 15 b«oming the
norm for many people on the North American continent. We exert stress on
biogrogr.:iph1cal cnvironmcntS around us by extracting too much from th('m
and sluughing off too much of the energy we can't recycle onto them. This
energy takc:; th•" forrn or i;asrous compounds :.uch as carbon dioxide, nitrous
oxide, and sul(cr dioxide exhau,;tmg from po\';L'f "plants" and automobiles. It
~1kcs the torrn of finite '\lrcams of once-US(' packaging around many
"products" from foods to motor oil. It also takes the forrn of fluids such ns
solvents. rCB's, dyes, and pcst1C1dcs..
Our 'work' now seems to be that of re-Inventing our technologies and
the effect~ of our tcchnologi~ on the greater ecologies or the Earth, so that
the rollccttve and personal force of our Impact can be reduced without
continuing lo use "props" as ever more l'fl\1l'Onmcntally expensive energy
slaves such n~ automobiles and coal burning power 'plants'. Who dcadcs
what is environmentally appropriate and what ls not? Would it go to a
Global type consensus, or would the people of each Biorcg1on be nblc to fine
tune their practices in .1 :>pcctrum of specific areas from Humanlcss Preserves
to concentrated human actil.-ity?
(continued on ~ell)
Cazto0n by Rob Messick
JGntimh )ournci( pcuJe 23
l
�REQUIEM FOR OAK RIDGE
Nanni World News Service
HOW BIG IS A LEGAL BEAR?
Nanni WC>rld News Service
More than 350 people jammed the bleachers 111
the Smoky Moun1111n High School in Sylva, NC in one
of two bC<lliogs called by the NC Wildlife Resources
Commission (NCWRC) io hear opinions on a proposal
lO raise the legal hunting limil for black bears 10 a
weight of 100 poun~. Many oC those m the gym wen:
bunters who wanted 10 keep the present 50 pound weight
limit. but approx11na1ely 50 people aucnded the hearing
In support of the higher limiL
Unifonncd wildlife offiCCIS were slBtiOllCd a1 the
enlr.lllCcs lO the hcanng. hnodtng out a s1:11emcnt by the
s1a1e chap1cr of lhe Wildlife Socic1y. a biologisis'
organiui1ion, lhat staled tha1 group's opposition 10 a
higher weight limit, and a program printed for the even1
by the NCWRC that also contained a statement saying
that such a change was incffcc1ivc, Biid lha1 habit.al was
Ille primary factor in block. bear survival Several of !he
speakers vehcmcn1ly sugges1ed 1hnt 1h1s acuon
compromised the impaniali1y of Ille NCWRC 111 the
hearing.
Discussion at. the hearing wa~ heated, fueled
mostly by dwigrcemcnt about the si1,c and statu~ of the
bbck bc3r population.
Proponent<; of 1hc higher weight lunit argued 1ha1
at the prcscm 1ime 1he black bc:it population was
reproducing cilher just a1 or below the minimum lc\•cl
ncces"'1ty for continued viabili1y. They s:iid that an
occurring o:ik dcxlinc, atmospheric polluuon, and the
advcn1 of Ille gypsy moll! "'ouJd put further pr~sure.~ on
the black bear popul:11ion, p~urc.s 111:11 the bears could
not ~usl3in . Raising the weight limi1, they said, would
ulklw female bears more years m which 10 breed nnd odd
lO the populauon
Humers defended 1hcar ethics and pracu~ ;,ind
S3id, "Besides, there'~ hclb of~ ou1 lhcrc.•
h wns no1 ~urpnsang to those who attended the
llC:ltlng tha1 one momh later the NCWRC voted ll-0 10
!'Clain the pound we1gh1 l11ni1 ror Ille black bear.
Paul Gallamore of the Sou1hcm Ap113lachian
Bl.lck Bear Federation. wh"h lud been a major force
behind lhc we1gh1 change proposal, said, "This as
d1scouragmg, however. considering 1hc runount or mpu1
1he commission rccch·cd. We know 1ha1 they go1 more
than 1,000 lcu.ers m favor of r.usmg Ille hm1L"
so
Xatuaf1 Journat
pn~
24
11 was a damp dawn 1uming slowly into a mis1
y
Sunday morning - Earth Day, 1990. Seventy mourners
gathered and held hands in a circle at the ga1es of the
Y-12 N11Clcar Weapons Componem Plllnt in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee. The sad strains of Moian's "Requiem•
played in Ille background.
"We begin Earth Day with a time of mourning
for the Enr1h in O:ik Ridge. Beyond this fence. in these
buildings, the brightest of human minds have overlooked
Ille most profound and obvious iruth • that our place in
creation is 10 be p3t1 of it. in rclntion.~hip 10 the Earth
and all crcatwcs, and to care for Iha! which susuins us."
the Rev. Ralph Huichison told the black-robed circle of
friends with foces p:ain1ed whiic.
"This morning we acknowledge that the
rclmionship be1wcen humankind and lhc Earth is broken.
Jn this pbce we have abused the Enrth from which all life
comes-· twisting the gift of life into forces of death. In
what was once the gentle f:itming communi1y of Whe:lt.
we have beaten ploughs.hares into swords. Md we have
lost our priorities.•
Following the brief ceremony, a young maple
tree was planted in front of the Y -12 sign. Ney Pinedo, a
Pcruvirul Indian in 1hc United SUllllS raising support for
the Amazon rain fores1, spoke "in Ille nnmc of 2,000
tribes" and gave a blessing 10 the sapling. "This is a
symbol of life away from death." Pinedo said.
REPRIEVE FOR ALARKA
Nanni World News Service
The NOrth Carolina Dcpar1mcn1 of Environmenllll
f\.13nagcment (DEM) made a political compromise :ind
decreed that the waters of Alarkn Creek arc no1
"Ouisl31\ding Resource Waters." as biological tesis show.
but •High Quality Waters." a sligh1ly inferior
classification. However. that ruling was still enough to
hold off developers inicrc.~tcd in turning the well-known
na1urnl area inio a golr resorL The developers decided not
to citercisc their option IO buy the propcny. and Alarka is
safe· temporarily.
Opinion in lhc three counties coniiguous lO Ille
property was mixed. At a public hcnrmg in Swam
County in November of 1989 the reaction was
overwhelmingly m favor of the dcvelopmenL Of the
lcuers received by the DEM, however, I IS were for
prolccting lhc crcclc, while 25 s1ood opposed. Two
hundred and eighty-seven people signed petitions
supponang proLCCtion and 195 signed agains1 ii. Most of
!he opposition was cenlCted an Swain Coun1y, •vherc Ille
Citizens Against Wilderness group has organized voters
io oppose any fedcrnl or suic land protecuon programs.
WHAT WOULD THE TREES SAY?
N11un.J World NcwJ 5.,.....,
Two hundred acuvists from the soulllcasl and
01hcr regions across the conuncnt came ioge1hcr f\.by
2S-27 10 131k aboul S3\ ing Ille 1hrcatencd l'orcsts or this
land.
Tiic fifth · Nnuon:il Reform lhc ForeM Service
Pow-wow" mc1 a1 Camp Green Co,·e an Tuxedo on 1he
Green River in North Carolina.
A maJOnl)' of 1he group agreed on a statcmcm
called "The Green Cove Pl;itform" lha1 outlined wa~s to
return native d1vers11y 10 1he fore.\! and create mccntivcs
for a more ecological rcla1ionsh1p wuh na1ural
forc.<llanch.
Ned Frit1. of Texas. 3 leading elder in the
movcmcni to resist clearcu1ting, :<p<>ke to 1hc conference
:ind led discus.<aons.
Jeff DcBonis, a founder of the Association of
Focesl Service Employees for Environmental Ethics,
which agiuuc.s for ecological forest practices from wilhin
the Forest Service ranks, spoke about the sllltus and
program of the AFSEEE organization.
Dr. Roben Zahner, professor emeritus or forestry
at Clemson University, outlined the steps necessary 1
0
restore the eastern old-growth forest; Walton Smilh , a
retired forester and membeT of the Western Norlh
Caroli na Alliance, spoke abou1 lhe system of
uneven-aged forest management he has developed al his
Waldce Forest in Macon County; and David Wheeler
urged auendccs to approach forest Issues from an
ecologically realistic rather than a politically •reatistic"
standpoinL Bun Kornegay, a wilderness expedition leader
lllld president or the Bartram Trail Socie1y. offered
valuoblc insighis as he considered what Henry David
Thoreau would think aboul today's environmental
movcmena.
Bill Oliver and Glen Waldeck rocked the house
with their songs of Ille movement that were al once
inspiring and emcrtaining.
FREE THE FOREST!
FREE THE BEARS!
NAnnt World New1 Service
In a daring daylighl raid, six nmja commandocs
from the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). lhe Kaulilb
chapicr of the group Enr1h Firs1!. rescued and released
Smokey the Bear from the Nantahala-Pisgab National
Forest hcadquan.c:rs in Asheville on April 17
The rescuer$ approached lhc building and rc1umcd
with the Conner hosuge, who, when asked about his
condi1ion, said, ·rn be alrigh1 when l get ou1 of these
damn panis. • before 1clling of the horrors of captivity and
Ille brainwaslung techniques used in a vain effort to erase
his innntc mcmoTics of hfe in Ille wild.
Not to leave the Forest Service wilhout 11 mascot,
I.he group inuoduced the prcn to Stumpy, lhe paper
mach€ stump. their cllJ'ldidatc to more accur.iicly rcprcscm
Forest Service policies 10 the public at latge.
As black-su11cd commandocs esconed Ille bear to
safety, Ran,gcr Fred and Rangercltc Fredericka came on
the scene, evidently io pacify the crowd and 10 1um the
unscttling event to the advanlllge or the govcrnmcnL
Ranger Fred fim gave a discourse on silvicultural
economics for those present: "We in the Farce Circus
manage the nauonal forests in a muUiphtudc of uses 10
maximize profiL Got a question? Keep 11 '1il Inter.·
He then regaled the nudiem:e with folksy, friendly
siones m the warm, caring manner of a Ir.lined publicisL
"Some day you here arc gomg to take your young
ones out inio the fonner forest slump communi1y, and
you will be able to impress lhcm wnh your knowledge
of woodslore. 'Now that over there; you can tell them,
'is a popl:ir siump. And over !here is a hemlock s1ump.'
And they will listen for hours to en1cr1nining and
educauonal stories abou1 our r1:11ional stumpland.•
Jeff Smllh then re;id the "Ecological Manifesto
for th~ Katliah Province" (5CC Kt11UJth Journal #26).
which "'as complcicly ignored by 1hc media, who focused
!hear coverage on the more frivolous pans of Ille action
and tttillatcd their public w11h occnsional mention.~ of
"trcc·~p1king" in relation to 1he ELF group.
One month la1cr, on May 21 , in ano1hcr vain
a1tempt to focus media aucntton on the ecological needs
of 1hc fores1 hab1ta1, 1he ELF group and members of n
new group, Rescue Rangers, returned 10 the Forest
Services. Two members of Rescue Rangers, Da,·id
Wheeler and Rodney Webb. posted copies of 1he
"f:eologacal M;imfc~IO for the Kaufah Province• and !hen
ch3incd themselves 10 the orricc doors, complc1cly
blocking them for onc·h:!lf hour unul taken into cus1ody
by federal marsh;ils. Dcmonslr:ltors on the sidewalk sang
3nd charalcd.
Swmmcr. l 990
�"Stop the logging! Close lhe roads!
The hardwood f~t has to grow!"
as lhc two resistors were lllken away.
"The US Forest Service has lost 11S mandate."
Wheeler told lhe press. "It has shown itself incap:ible of
caring for lhe forest lands entrusted IO 1L The ngcncy sees
iL~ mission as representing human interests in lhe
forests, rather lhan serving the ecological nctds of lhc
forest 11.SClf.•
The "Ecological Manifesto for lhc Ka1uah
Province" calls for lhe public lands in the Southern
Appalachians 10 be cons1i1u1ed as an evoluuonary
preserve IO keep nauvc species from exunclion as a result
of the present ecological crisis. All further logging and
roadbu1lding would be prohibited in the evolu11onary
preserve, and human use would have 10 confonn to 1he
nctds of habitaL
The program also calls on the people of the
province to stop atmospheric pollution. 10 adapt their
lifc.~1yles to fit within the carrying capacity of the rci;ion,
and 10 cultivate an ou11udc of respect for the natural
world.
For their act of civil disobedience, Wheeler and
Webb face 30 days in jail and a S50 line, and an
additional S5,000 fine under a special government law.
Cont.1CIS:
Rescue Rangers
Box 282
Sylva, NC 28779
Earth Liberation Front (ELF)
Boit 171
Alexander, NC 28701
For copies of the "Ecological Manifesto for the
Katunh Province," write 10:
KmUahJournoJ
Box 638
Leicester. NC 28748
CLEAR CUTTING:
WAY TO GO? OR GO A WAY?
RETURN OF THE RED WOLF
MIDDLE CREEK FALLS
Nanni World Ncwl SCl'licc
Natural World News Service
In March, I990 three pai~ or red wolves wen:
released on the Tennessee side or the Gre:u Smoky
MountaiM National Park. If this rein1todueuon IS
suecc.~sful. n permanent population of SO 10 100 woh·es
will roam this pan or the red wolf native hab1U11.
Just over ten years ago lhc red wolf 11.·as extinct
in the wild. Forty wolves along the Gulf coast were
captured by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and placed
ll1 captive breeding programs. Originally the program
was at Point Defiance Zoological Park m Tacoma
Washington, but it wa~ later expanded IO include six1ccn
other facilities. By 1989 the populauon had grown 10
105 animals. However, it is only through reintroduction
10 a free eitis1ence that they can regain the vigor as a
specie.~ that millcnia of evolution hnvc given them. The
Fish and Wildlife Service released a drnf1 Red Wolf
Recovery Plan in 1989. which aims al establishing a
tollll populauon of 550 animals, v.•ilh 200 animals living
m wild rar"s and other protceted areas. The Great Smoky
Mountains National Park 1s considered a pnme
inuoduclion site.
By reintroducing the wolves 10 the Smokies it is
hoped that the smaller coyote. which has migrated 10 the
Smokies since 1985. will be driven out. This logic is
somcwruu skewed, however, since the coyote, through
the process of interbreeding, was considered one or the
major thrcais 10 the small surviving population of red
wolves on the Gulf coast. Why this phenomenon would
not occur again is not uplained.
If the first release proves successful. a second
stage will be implemented in which twenty wolves will
be released in the more remote areas or the the s17.000
ocro part.
The last wild wolves in the Smokies were killed
m 1910. A shy animal, the loner red wolf, which docs not
hunt in packs. is absolutely no thrcal IO humans.
The Middle Creek Falls lie n0t far from lhc rood
between Scaly Mountain and the town of Otto in Mlcon
County, NC, but not many h:ivc seen them. However.
they arc well·known :ind wclf.Joved by those who ha"e
clambered down 10 visit them. Since 1916 they have
been public propc.ny as pan of the N:intahala National
ForesL
Now Dudley M:inning. a resourceful developer
who has acquired property around the falls, wants lhcm
for the crowning jewel and main selling poml for a
residential development he is planning for the site.
The US Forest Service h;is a practice called
land-swapping, in which they publish 11 list Of private
lands that they f.:el are stra1cg1cally important 10 the
completion of the national forest, and offer 10 swap for
these parcels with other Forest Service land of equal
value but less Slrotegic imponance.
Manning has bought 1wo parcels of land on the
Forest Service swap list, one a 1.252 tract along the
French Brood River m Madison County, and 1he other a
157 acre traet along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Jackson
County. He is offering IO trade both these properties for
the 665 acre~ comuinmg the Middle Creek Falls.
Local people are upset. Jonathan William~. a
writer and publisher from Highland~. t\C, says, "There
:ire sacred phlccs here and there on the Earth, where a
person can develop depth of feelings . and this is one of
lhcm ... I want ii left alons. Change around these pans too
often mcansrumation.· And Keith Day. a member or the
Bartram Trail Society, has begun an active grassroots
campaign on behalf of the falls.
These people and their neighbors arc asking
others lo write to Gary Benneu; lligblnnds Ranger
District; RL 2, Box 385; Highland~. NC 2874 1 asking
that the US Forest Service raise additional funds IO
acquire necessary lands and not uade off beautiful scenic
places like Middle Creek Falls.
NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued p.26
Nalllral World News Service
Three recent announcements by the US Forest
Service give a comment on lhe agency's forest
management policies.
On April 23. the day after Earth Day, Forest
Supervisor Bjorn Dahl announced 1ha1 as a part of the
revised forest management plan for the Nantahaln-Pi.~gnh
National Forcsis clearcutting would be dc-empllllsizcd as
the Forest Service method of choice for timber cutting.
He cited public opposiuon 10 the prac tice and
instructions from Forest Service Chief Dale RoberlSon in
his remand of the Nanlahala-Pisgoh I S-ycar management
plan.
"We can change, and we are changing." Dahl said.
There is good reason for skepticism. Less than
one month after this dcclaralion, 1he Forest Service
announced anol.her timber sale, called the Bee Tree Sale.
in the Pisgah National ForcsL E:o:ccp1 for a ~moll area
close 10 a creek, the entire sale tract is to be clearcut and
hauled out by cable-logging equipment, which L~ rc-.crved
for work on steep slopes.
Envtt0nmcnt.11is1S arc up in arms about the sale,
and the We.stem North Carolina Alliance, which has led
1hc oppos11ion 10 c:lcarcutung in the mountain province,
plans lO appeal the sale.
The Forest Service made ilS own comment on its
ctearcutting policies when it revealed that clcarcuuing 111
the Nation:il Forests in Nonh Carolina had cost lallpaycrs
S2.64 million in bclow-cos11imbcr sales in 1989. The
losses in the N:uuahala·Pisgah National ForcsL~ were
grc:ucr th:m that, bealuse the Uwharrie l\'a1ion:1l l"orc~t in
the piedmont area milk.cs a profit on its timber sales.
Summer, 1990
b
~Limh
Journm Pa1J"- 25
�(ocmlinucd &om pege 25)
on them the invisible stress and reductJon in lifcsp:in
continue to be a plague and consequence of our excessive
human over- depe:ndancc on fossil fuels. rubber, and
mined metals from far away places. From this we
structure our socicocs, from this they may also become
dcsUucl~
IT MUST HA VE BEEN THE
ROSES
Narural World News Sc"'ice
Orawmgs by James Rhea
EASTMAN CO.:
WORLD-CLASS POLLUTER
Nanni World News Savicc
The Tennessee Eastman plant, ~dqWlltcn; and
the largest production plant of the Eastman Chemical
Corporation has been r:mkcd as the l(>p air polluter in
Tennessee and 14th in the Uni1ed Swtes in a study
recently released by the Environment.al Protection
Agency and the cnvll'Onmental group Citizen Action.
The Eastman plant rtlC.'.lSCs 40 million pounds of
1oxic chemical~ into the air each ye.v. 1l1e chemical
ace1one makes up 80% of the annual COilie release. Kodak
reported tnfornuuon nbout its polluung ncliv1ues in
accordance wuh lcgist::uion en11llcd 1he Emergency
Planning and Communi1y Right 10 Know Act.
The Kodak plane employs 11,000 people and
makes fibers, chemicals, and plas1ics. II has been caJlcd
co cask bcf<>tt by cnvironmenlal groups who documented
tha1 plant emucn1.s were also polluting the Holston
River.
CAN WE SA VE THE DEVIL '?
NllUral World New. s~.,.,
On Marth 14th 1990, the TruSI for Public Lands
(fPL) decided to purchase 828 acre.~ in Macon Count)'
known locally as the Devil's Courthou;;e. which is
loca1ed on the upper wa~ed of the Chattooga River.
The Devil's Courthouse as composed of sheer granite
cliffs which drop from the height~ of Whiteside
Mounlain to the cove below. Al~o an this upper
watershed 3.l'Ca of the Chatcooga River are =kb und a
wnter fall named Silver Slapper.
This upper aru of the river (five miles west of
Cashiers, NC) ha.~ been thrcaccned by developcmem for
some ume. The lower pas..<:;iges of the ChaltOOjµ are well
known and tm1·elcd by river raftc~. who paddle and slosh
throug)I what is dc•ignaled by the federal government as a
"Wild and Scenic River."
The US Forest Service attempted 10 acquire the
lands 111 the upper water \hcd or the Ch:mooga earlier this
yenr for inclusion in the Nantahala NatJonal Forest.
Fund.~ for protecung this enllle wa1crshcd have not bocn
fonhcomrng from Congress. The area has now become
the cop priori1y land acqui~ition of the USFS. The Tru.<t
for Public Land~ is encouraging the public to support
Congressional fondrng necessary lO conscrvc thi5 viwl
11.-:ucrshod. By 5paring u from the ravages of the l'C$0rt
Xatiuih Journa( pll!JC 26
market. perhaps its bcau1y and integrity can still be
enjoyed by ooming generations.
LIFE IN THE OZONE (revisited)
Nanni World Ne~ Scrv""'
Most of us do it every day: get in the car and
drive to the store, or to work, or to drop off the kid~
somewhere. The effects or doing this are generally not
apparent to our senses, except for perhaps the smell of
exhaust or a p:lUl in the wallet when the car needs rcpall'.
Bui the foct is that every tJme we ignite those
flaming engines of au1omotive "progress" we create a
brew of gasoous cxhnust thm ha~ far more effcet on the
current atmosphere than we at first rcali1e. One of the
gases created in the "ake of the.~ comb1m1ve cauldrons
is ozone • a deep blue, explosive, poisonous, and
pungent gas th:l1 exists as three combined oxygen atoms
(OJ).
The existence of 01.one in the outer "1rnle>5phcrc
is essenual 10 screening excessive ultraviolet radintaon
from the surface or the Eanh. Yet iL~ cooccntmuon m the
inner atmosphere causes rcsparruory problems an
mammals, and mh1b1ts the growth or sortwood trees and
flowering plants. For human bcmg.s 11 is the elderly and
the young that are the mOlil adversely affcclCd by life in
the 01.one. 1lydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, which are
emitted from puttering cars and trucks. come into
chemical rc~c:tion in the presence of sunlight and create
these insidious tt1unc molecules. Cnrs and truck~ arc the
primary source of o~one in these mountains.
Summcmme can find us with levels of this molecule
exceeding the 113tion.:il ~L:lndards of public health.
A nauonal study mto the sources and effects of
OlOne contam111a1ion wa.~ ordered ten year ago by the
Congress or the United States. As the study nears
completion, it has cost 5 million dollar~ and included
over 1,000 sdcntJsts and engineers. Final rcpons on the
01one in the air of the inner atmosphere over western
North Carolm3 are due later this year. What the rcpon
found 1hus far 1s tha1 ozone 1s the worst form of air
contammataon an the Katuah Province. Acid rain, a
related problem, affects higher clevauons primanly, and
according to James Mahoney 11 as the concentration of
acid~ m wa1cr..hcd soils and forcsL~ at these elcvauon~
thJt i~ currcnuy causing the gn:.-ucst concern, The lower
elevations have yet to show damage as seven:.
Our strCCts and highways appear as s=t trac:ks
of 1numstve chcm1cal conversion and d1Spcrsion. For the
pcclesu'iln moving across them, or the passenger passmg
A rcpon recently released by the Swte of Nonh
Carolina showed that the Champion paper mill in
Canton, NC is responsible for some of the dirtiest air in
the enure swte. From January 10 June of 1988 the
concentrations of particulate.'\ in the air of the area
exceeded state standards five times. These cases account
for all but one of the major violations of air QW1l11y in
1988. Suspended particul::ucs or this area were the hig)lest
of 74 site.~ studied statewide.
The state standard for these aerial molecules is
150 micrograms (mg) per cubic meter. The average at the
Canton site was 78 mg, but it reached heights of 216 mg
during that y<::Jr
A spokesman for Champion International
attributed the increase or partieulmcs to a new road built
for carrying lime thnl was not watered down tO keep ll1e
dust from nying off. A tack or rain that year also
incn:a.o;cd the potential for moving dusL They claimed
that the problem diminished when they increased effons
to keep the lime powder down. Since then the ambient
air conditions have cleared somewhat and the slate now
consider,; Champion to be an compliance with the Stllte
Slalldartl.
The dan:ctor or the Western North Carolina
Rcgioru:il Air Pollution Control Agency, which is an
independun1 group that monitors air quality for State
officiaJs, claims 1hat conunucd hii;h levcls of particulllte
would be a "nuisance· anJ did not ncceS!>arily indicJtc o
danger to anyone breathing it. However, the report they
produced also claimed that extreme exposures to
panaculate-fillcd rur c:ll1 cause aggmvation of heart and
lung dascru;c, and e<m increase the likelihood of cancer and
other respirn1ory problems.
A broken filler ma ltme kiln at the Champion
plant was also cited :is a concributing factor to the
increased concentrations of particulate. As complaints
"filtered' m from local residents the lime kiln was finally
rep:ured in 1989. How muc:h airborne pollution is IOO
much? Ask not for whom t.he smokestack fumes. n
fumes for thee.
TURNTI\G DOWN THE POWER
Nanni World News Smlicc
The board of directors or the NC Electrical
Membership Corporation (NCEMC) voled on May 29 to
drop all plans to construct a diesel-powered peak
generating system a1 Deep Gap in Watauga County. The
board also made it clear that it would not undertake any
further plans for building diesel-generated power
St:ltions.
The board cited licensing delays, public
opposauon to the project. and "respect for the wishes or
the BREMCO (Blue Ridge Electrical Membership
Cooperative) board." which in a face-saving gesture had
requested an end IO the prOJCCL
ln spite of a loud public outcry. NCEMC had
been aggressively pressing ahead with plans for the
generating stauon until the Rural Electrificauon
Adm1nastra1ion. which had yet to approve the proposal,
made a public announcement that it had questions as to
the Stalion's effect on the local environment
Oppo:;1llon to the Deep Gap swtion was led by
the group Mounutan People for Clean Mountain Atr and
the Blue Ridge Environmcnt.ll Dcfcno;e League.
Summer, 1990
�SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN
NlJl"f.7 Ai lD Tl..J:E B10SPFJEit.:E !PROGRJ11Vl
The Man (sic) and the Biosphere
Program is an international program started by
the United Nations Educational, Cultural. and
Scienrific Organization (UNESCO) in 1971 to
work in particular habitat areas "to build a
harmonious relationship between man (sic) and
the environment on a scientific basis." The
international MAB program has identified a
network of biosphere reserves in characteristic
biomes (natural regions) around the world.
Each biosphere reserve is based around a
core zone, a wild landscape which contains as
much of the representative diversity of the
region as possible. Outside the core zone are
various special use areas to promote
preservation and study of rraditional land use
techniques of indigenous people, in-depth
rcsean:h into the ecosystem, and demonsr.ration
and study of habitat restoration methods.
Surrounding these inner areas would be a
multiple-use zone, or what is called an "area of
cooperation," where sustainable human use
would be practiced.
The project is regional in scope. This is
shown in the Southern Appalachian Man and the
Biosphere (SAMAS) project, which has
outlined an area almost identical to the Katuah
Province as the Southern Appalachian Biosphere
Reserve.
SAMAB was created by the agreement of
~even government agencies in 1988. Southern
Appalachia was chosen by UNESCO as one of
the first biosphere reserve areas because of "the
region's unique and globally significant
ecosystem" and because "the Southern
Highlands, like many other regions of the
world, have been subjected to largely
uncontrolled growth in population and auendant
development, particularly in the past two
decades." UNESCO recognized the Southern
Appalachians as "one of two areas in the United
States which best exemplifies biosphere reserve
concepts."
The SAMAS organization already has
several projects already underway. Among these
are:
- developing a computerized ecosystem data
base for the region,
~ training specialists to inventory biological
diver.;ity (planned are links with Latin
America to monitor migratory bird
populations).
- detecting and chaning climatic changes and
ecosystem responses,
- developing environmental education programs
for elementary schools,
- encouraging an environmentally-compatible
tourism industry,
- and creating a coordinared resource managrnent
plan that could be offered to developing
countries.
The basis of SAMAB is cooperative
regional planning. While the regional model
being promoted by the organization is excellent,
and the project goals arc largely laudatory, the
project now consists only of the regional
divisions of six federal agencies - the National
Park Service, the USDA Forest Service, the
Southeastern Forest Experiment Srnrion. the US
Fish and Wildlife Service. the Economic
Development Administration, the Department or
Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency,
and the Tennessee Valley Authority - the same
federal agencies now watching over the rapid
degradation of Kattlah's natural habitat
The SAMAS concept is still in its infancy.
Optimistically, the organization could renect a
new outlook and a new commitment on the pan
of its member agencies and the organizations,
public and private, who join subsequently. The
possibility is there. But SAMAB could just as
easily be "business as usual" under another
guise, if operating policies and power
relationships remain unchanged throughout the
region.
~
The organization is also interested in
beginning a program to tally the botanical and
pharmaceutical values of Appalachian plant life.
lndrdefeinr lte / " bo
f
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
/
\.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
"Multlple Use ArH
(Alea of CooP41ratoon)
Human senlements, forests and
rangelands. and other us4s m11nagad
lo ach•ove greillost possiblq hnrmony
with tha porpose of th11 biosphere
"'
Rohabllllallon Ar11
Demonstration of m11tll0ds
lo restore degraded
landscapes
\. 18591119
,
......,;.;;.:.;....:__ _ _ _ _~--_..,1
"Core Zone
1
""
Conservation or natural
&eosyslams and biological
drvars•ty, baseR111>
,
9COlogical monrto11ng
,)
,
Tradlllonal Us. ArH
Experimental Auearch Area
Conservation Md study ol
Manipulative rese;irch
twmomous land uses,
Ion managed ecosyslems .
1y.p.,ally by 1nd9nnous
~
,)
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
~----~~~-----~---------J
HIGHWAY TO NOWHEREwnunucd from p. 9
FHA planners returned to the drawing
boards. After locating other deposits of pyrilic
rock ulong the proposed route, they reloca11:<l the
roadway 10 another alignment lhat avoided much
of the acidic rock deposits. They then let ne''
construction contracts for the revised route plan.
Smee the new contracts have been h:t, pyritic
deposits have been encountered in one of the
four segments built in Tennessee and three of
the six segments in "ionh Carolina.
Where pyritic deposits have been
uncovered, they have been "encapsulated" in an
effort to prevent :mv contact '' ith water. which
brings the acidic con1ponents into solution. The
rock is excavated, placed over constructed
drains, covered with agricultural lime, and then
capped with concrete. The success of this
method is being evaluated by a research te.1m
from the University of Tennessee. and .stream
monitoring is being done on a regular basis in
cooperation with the US Forest St:rvice.
St4mmet, 1Q90
The highway project has also suffered
slumps and slides that have added to the expense
of the work. David Govus is a grading
contractor in Ellijay, Georgia who goes
frequently to the wild country below I looper's
Bnld to hunt grouse. He says, "It's an
unbuildable site...They arc hanging the road on
a very steep ridge just above Santeetlah Creek.
It's getting close to a 45% gradt: along in there.
There are places you can hardly walk up.
"They're having to gouge out the ''hole
side of the mountain, and they've already had
several major slides. Pan of the road coming
from lhe Robbinsville side just slid off the
mountain. It came 300.400 feet down and
wiped out a Forest Service road that ran parallel
below.
"This was last December. even before \\.'C
had the big rains in February."
Repair work on lhe slides are currently in
progress. and one more contract for the final
eight miles of road is due to be let this year. The
section 10 be completed passes over Wright's
Creek, known locally as one or the finest native
trout streams. The road plans call for the
highway 10 cross over the creekbcd five times.
This threatens the stream's survi\'al. as the
headwaters area of Wright Creek contains some
of the steepest slopes and some of the largt:st
deposits of pyritic rock along the entire route of
the new roadv. ay.
Da\'id Govus says. ''If somebody could
go up there and look at it, it would make them
sick enough that they would understnnd how
stupid it is. Somebody who appreciates the
Southern Appalachian Mountains and who
undernands the pressure that's on them can see
that the Forest Service land is the last bit of the
landscape that's not being totally developed.
And here is a wild chunk of !:ind lhat ~hould be
a wilderness area, which instead is having this
useless highway pu1 through it."
,
)(.Qt~
)owncal pmJeo 27
�Dear Sirs.
Your spring number is a bi1 difficuh to accept as good Ecology.
I refer to Snowbird's illustration and write-up on edible wild
flowers! We need to protect them - as they are disappearing as
development and poor foresU')' practice ruin their habilllt and areas of
growth - Why eat wild flowers? • Better way to conserve.
•
Yours truly.
Miles L. Peelle
Brevard, NC
DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
To Whom It Concerns:
Howdy there! I mec1 David Wheeler at the Environmental
Summit at UNC-A Saturday. He mentioned that Kat1u1h JC1urnal had
a write-up in your last issue on the black bear in regards to the White
Oak Communi1y and landfill.
This community is my home. I've been working real hard to
stop lhis siting. I gave David information regarding this. My concerns
are grnve as r feel the noise will ~isrupt the nesting pil~at~d
woodpecker and other birds ·the red-tailed hawks, etc. that reside m
my mantre hardwood forest that will never be disrupted.
I love the sounds of the birds. I really feel for the black bear,
the ones 1hat will be poached and the young who will learn an
un-natural way of being. The situation was o~e of politics. If th.e
bear could vote instead of people, they would wm. My community 1s
remote and small · only 90 households. The black bear will be
severely affected and the damage permanent. We need help from all
who love this wilderness species. I do know without help from the
outside, our politicians will win. They're determined. We do have
. .
people allying with us now, ~ut we need ~verybody. .
Enclosed is money, of which l would hke the last issue pertammg
to my concerns with the siting of a landfill in White Oak. I'm very
active in the light to stop it, your resource might should of sought me
out. The rest is for the cause. Thanks.
Editors' Note: People on th~ editorial staff had some questions abow
this initially, bm after smne discussion we decided to go ahead and
prillt tire article. Thank yo11. though.for voicing your concern.
WIU7t Snow Bear tells us is:
"\Ve certainly don't want to drive wildflowers to extinction.
Tire particular plants I chose co write abolll grow in large numbers
where. the\' occ1tr in this area.
"I also ga~·e specific instr11ctions for gathering the plants ill a
respectful ll'a)' The whole point about writing abo11t the wild plams
and their 11ses is to com·ey a respect/or those beings.
~1 think that people lfring their lil'e.1· i11 harmony with rite
mo11111ains. knowing rlre edible and medici11al uses ofthe native wild
plants. would be more inspired 10 preserve the plants and their wild
habirat. I don'1 tlii11k that the number of people who go inro wild
areas and pick a salad are going 10 mean the end of the wild native
plants. b1u if a species becomes rare, we certainly should not gather
it. The major threat is in the wholesale destruction oflzabitac."
?lie Sinners
"ITU sun gives tfie 'East a ji111J{ slupy norf
am{ slips away 6eliina a rosy fii[f.
'IHiife I, at peace for once, suting on my [1".rcft,
'lfien, 'Listen,· a cric~t sfui{(y calfs. 'Listen!'
.?l.na tfte evening gossips 6e9m.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Gann
Rt. 4. Box 191
Waynesville, NC 28786
'?(aty tfU{, • a malicious tattfttak si119s out.
·x..a1y aU!n 'tr a wyalf nemt replies.
'?(p.ty aitf.' '?(p.ty aitfn t.' '1(.aty tfit{.' ''])itf11't/'
Cfiarges am{ counter ones tftstur6 my soul
'Ofi, Lori{,' I 9roa11, 'ls tfrere no e111f to si11?'
Dear People.
.
I discovered your fine journal while staying at the Hot Spnngs
Inn last weekend.
T was so taken by your issue on "Children" that 1 intend. to
incorporate some of the ideas into the environmental educau<?n
curriculum of my school · The Montclair Coopcrauve School 1n
Montclair, NJ.
... Also (please send) a back issue on "Forests". I became
concerned with the clearcutting visible from our hike on the
Appalachian Trail and would like to get your views.
Thank you,
Lora Cooper
Berkeley Hts, NJ
'Stop it!" I sliout into tlie noisy crowtl
'/won 't liave s(anaer in my own 6ac~arti.'
Yet as I speak_! 6fusfi for ptrfuly
Jts my tfissem6lin9 mina ~eps wontfering too ·
'!JUI s(u.?
· Marie 'Woori
Dear Kauiah Folk,
I live in the New River Valley, which ha5 become grist for the
DEVELOP • DEVELOP • DEVELOP mill, indiscriminate and
insntiable. A green Conservancy has sprung up, but oh so tentatively.
unfueled by the real estate busine$$. I hope for ideas from Ka11lalt, as
well as good company. Many Thanks!
Sally Spangler
Rt. 2. Box 4
Christiansburg, VA 24073
Union Acres
An Alternative Community
-SrrwJr;y Mcnmtain living
Ulilh a focus on spiritual and te0logiC11/ 1JOluts•
Acreage for sale/ Beautiful lrnCIS of prh'lllC land available for
homeSICllding. Approxim:ucly eigh1y :ic~. surveyed into 24 lots
of ooe. two. or four acres each. ~vcn acres of common land
including cn:dc, meadow. playground, and scenic views.
Common property managed by communily conSCl\SllS.
Eartb sttwardsbip/ consensus democracy( organic gardening! noopoUuling
ttebnolocia/ atttrnalhe children's schoolf rttyclini: «Dier/ retrtalS and
.. orkshops/ aod other rooptrali"t tndtu·or~ 5uch as food co-op, etc.
For more infonnauon· C. Gmnt. RL I Box 61 J, \\'hittier. NC 18789 (704) 497-4964
•
The editorial staff would like to extend a special thank
you to Thomas "Breeze" Rums for his donation of a 10%
lit11e lo Ka11ialz Jownal.
P.Jd AdvcrtlSCmCDI
JCnltmh Jatnnul P"9C 28
Summer. 1990
�STEADY STATEcon11nucd from p.9
CNP also satisfies the missing ethical
component in modern economics which Daly
foments. The CNP of an ecosystem can be increased
depending on the amount of care, concern. and
respect the indinduals within tt m;imfcst for
their hfc community. Carelessness, dii.dain, and a
lack of respect lower CNP.
The Spirit of the Wild
James Rhea's artwork that was the logo
for the "Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern
Appalachians" conference and the cover of Issue
25 of the Kaulah Journal. is now available to all
as conference posters and T-Shins.
The posters are beautiful, four-color 11" x
1 renditions of the native species portrait with
7"
conference information below and are available
for $2.00.
The T-shirts are heavy-duty, all-couon,
silkscreened by Rldgerunncr Naturals. Only
large and extra-large sizes remain. They are
available for $10.50.
Prices include postage. NC residents
please add 5% sales tax.
All proceeds fror;n the sale o_f these .itcn:is
will support rescue acuons for nauve habitat in
the Southern Appalachian forest.
Order from: KfllflNU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
Ka111ah Province 28789
Ultimately. all of lids investigation and
discussion has to do with choosing a quality or life
in Katuilh. However, as Daly writes, "quality
involves difficult judgements. and imposes
self-definition and respons1b1ht;-•.. quantity (the
CNP measuring stick I involves merely count mg and
arithmetical operations that givt' everyone the
s.Jme answer and impose no responsibility". It is
easier, but not necessarily more accurate, to
measure progress by the quantity of concrete,
buildings, parking lots, people, and/or dollars in
an area.
But is this real progress? Cannot progress of
society occur without physical growth of structurus
and/or people? The building of a home, or of a
community, is more than just the erection of
structures.
It is the creation of a living
environment which will help meet, in a
sustainable way, the needs of those people who
live there. Arc not improvements in the quality of
food, air, water, justice, and community relations,
progress? Could not the successful maintenance of
ecological diversity, and the support systems
which are the foundation of this diversity, be
considered progress?
This is the supposition of the steady state
economy "Progress" is the maintenance of the
"best" conditions - in a word, quality. In the
growth economy, "progress" is the ever-increasing
growth in quantity of physical goods and services,
leading to the destruction of production capability
and life support potential.
(cost) $24 milhon in state and students money, and
promote the growth of the univer:>ily. An increase
in the quantity of dollars to an areil is by
ddinit1on .1 ~good" thing for that area.
But would the present supporters of lhe
construction project still be clamoring for the
government money if the dollars were being
offered to build a radioactive w.Jste storagc
facility? Of course not. In th.JI instance they could
easily see the difference between quantity and
quality.
John Stuart Mill put it \'cry simply and
clearly over 100 hundred years ago when he spoke
of a steady Stille economy:
If the earth must lose a great portion of
its pleas.1ntncss which 11 owes to things that
the unlimited increase of wealth and
population would extirpate from it for the
mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger
but not happier or better population, I
sincerely hope for the s.ike of posterity that
they will be content to the stationary long
before necessity compclls them to it.
,
RESOURCES
Berry, Wendell. 1987 Tht Gift of Good Lo11d. Nonh
Poinl Press, San Fransisco
Daly, Hcnnan E. 1977. Steady Stott Economics. W.H.
Freeman and Company, San Francisco.
Daly, Herman E., editor. 1980. Eco110mics, Ecology,
Ethics· Essays on a Steady Stott Eco110my. W.H.
Fn:cmnn, S::111 Francisco
Daly, Hcnnan E.. nnd John B. Cobb. Jr. 1989. For the
Common Good. Beacon Press, Bosion.
Schulll3chcr, E.F. 1973. Small is Bca111iful: Economics
os if Ptoplt /ltartertd. Perennial Library, New York.
MOO N
D ANC I NG
The proposed regional activities center at
Appalachian State University is a good example
of this conflict between quantity and quality. In
the minds of many, the proposed coliseum is
"good" because it will increase seating capacity for
events to 11,000 people, create a number of jobs
(mostly temporary) for local workers, bring in
Gift• of Cdebrauon
(EARTll WA\1 bOOKSTORE)
<!
Books • New Age MU$ic
Wildaafted Htrbal Product~
Gmutones • Unrqul' Card.i
Maga~mcs
• & Mort
(704) 264-7242
1 IOB Wc..>!>t King Street, Boone,
NC 28607
by Jomes Profitt
Down in Sylva
bear claws haunt the while clapboard town
~rung briefly between two mountains,
and the breathing or wild Appalachia moves
m and out of the mill's steam spirals
up into the sky.
A creek dribbles half-heartedly
through the edge of this pince.
Cherokee lies twenty miles west.
There, a hundred Indians ride the bed
or a red Chevy pickup with a cooler of beer,
lawn chairs, and ancient, laded Levis.
Al lhe trading post a small, stunted bl.Jck bear
p.1ces his days evenly.
Oh-God-am-l-immort.11-never-to·melt-my-bonesand-fur·a nd -hot-brca th-into-I he-stone-of· thisplacc?
cries a wee; disgruntled bear soul into quiet hillsides.
In the summds fading. men move into those hillside~
carrying nfll'S and trailing dogs
lhJrsting for blood in the ho.trsc,
secret l.mguilgc of hounds.
S\&mmcr, 1990
e1ti11ae ,At11p111ttl11re
WILDLIFE
"'
Jlerbp/gl/I e1i11it
T-SHIRTS. SWEATSHIRTS
'l\iage, 'JWfl~I 'Nat!Jraj_s
'''"
~~
~o'~ ~ C/~~ 130
ILC IAAJEBE. I.I. S, Ac..O
UC~T
v•~
0
,
vo'f.t,·,;p'>
~~:C,o·"
Dept. K
N Main Street
Waynesville. NC 28786
(704) 4~~3..Q03
,.~
........ ~·"
�Review:
Cohousint A Contemporary Approach I• Housing Ourselves
This is a book about bringing tile small community back to
modem society. The authors, Kathryn McCamant and Charles
Durrett, are a husband and wife design team who visited 46
cohousing communities in Denmark. the Netherlands and Sweden
before writing this book. They lived at many of these communities
for days or months and this gives their book depth and autnenticity.
This is a nuts and bolls guide to gathering a group of like-minded
folks :ind building a community.
The communities the authors studied in Europe were all quite
different from each other, but they also shared important features.
The groups were all democratic, and there was a refreshing absence
of charismatic leaders. They all had various amounts of resident
participa1ion in !he design process. AU of the communities provided
private dwellings for families as well as common space for group
activities. Some of the groups were cooperatives, some had owned
units, some rented units, some had both owners and renters, and
many had ownership similar to condominium arrangements.
The communities varied in size from 6 to 80 households.
There was a scrong consensus from both of these extremes as well
as from the middle ground that groups in the range of 15 to 30
households is optimum.
Some of the communities were buih entirely by hired help
while in others the residents did various amounts of the cons1J'Uction
work. Some of the communities were very poUlically-mindcd, some
very ecologically-minded, some didn't seem to mind at all.
lbe advantages of a small community are almost too
numerous to mention, but lower cost of housing, children's
playgroups, music ensembles, protection from crime, teenage
music rooms (Most of the communities had them!), greater energy
efficiency, laundry rooms, saunas, soccer fields (or baske1ball
courtS), workshops, walk-in freezers, darkrooms, and any other
resource one can imagine being shared profi1ably, make a good
beginning of a list. My own favorite advamage is enelly efficiency.
Through a cen1r.1l heating sys1em and co-generation, a small
community can have wannth and power at a small percentage of the
ecological and monetary cost 1hat a comparable number of
independent houses would use! Small communities can take
advanrage of the solar, wind, and water resources which would be
beyond lhc reach of one family and beneath lhe notice of a 1own or
city. Efficiently congregating humans in small communities leaves
much of the land for other species.
All of this makes basic good sense. The quesuon left is
"how do we get there from here?". Colw1ising is a very good guide
for this journey. It is a beautiful as well as a practical book with
plenty of color photographs and thoughtful architectural drawings.
It is published by Habitat/fen Speed Press and well wonh the
$19.95 it costs. If you are interested in living in community, you
~
should read this book.
·reviewed by Will Ashe Bason
Cl-ONA conlinucd !Jom p. 7
China's remaining 12% of forest cover is threatened by population
pressures and by the demands for wood of the industrialized areas of the
country. (One day I saw a 100 foot long log of Washing1on State
Douglas Fir being caned down 1he street by straining peasants!)
Modernization and rising expectations funher threaten this evolved system
by polluting the supplementary sources of protein foods found in the
waterways, by acid rain, and by the loss of prime arable lands to urban
sprawl, rural industry and private house building in the countryside. The
lure of modem lifestyle now projected on millions of TVs is a powerful
destabilizing force throughout China.
Dut the lessons of China seem unequivocal. If we are to avoid her
terrible mistakes and if we are to find harmony with the Nature of our
own continent, we can learn from intelligent observation what the Chinese
have had to learn by dire desperation. We can avoid China's plight by
applying the solutions the Chinese (far too late perhaps) have developed
to deal with the ecological challenges they face. We can ignore China (or
Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, etc...} nt our peril.
Consider then for a moment what life in Kaniah would be like if we
could emulate the present resourcefulness and humility of the Chinese.
The intensively farmed prime lands of a few valleys around Asheville
could feed the entire population without strain. Thousands of acres of
pastures could be returned to forest/woodlot, since we would be eanng
soybeans and grains instead of beef and pork. These could provide fuel
for home heating and cooking (not to mention vigorous exercise for axe
wielders). Since we would be a low energy society, we would have to be
doing crafts, farming and domestic arts close to home. We could dispose
of our automobiles.
Noise, carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning and the mental
stress of the modem lifestyle would deminish. Our communities would,
of necessity, be closer knit and less mobile and would thus be stronger
sources of social solidarity, so lacking in our ultramobile, treadmill
"American life". We would require less things to have as we begin to be
farmers, craflSpcople, musicians, artists, woodsmen, poets. Our forest
lands would become less accessible and therefore more wild. Old growth
forests would come into their own again, since our economy would be
one of sufficiency, not cancerous growth. Nature could move closer to
us, even as we become more natural people at home. The artificial
demarcation between the Wild and the Civilized would fade and the two
would intermingle and fuse. An economy of small farms, sm.111
businesses, and mutual interdependence would blossom.
People would look on their surroundmgs with a keener eye to the
deeper rhythms, functions and mystery. Like the Chinese. we would
11lways know at a given moment which way is nonh and which way is
south. We would be closer to the we;11her and be in tune with the seasons
at a deeper level.
XRtt".nh Journot pnl)G 30
Summer would last longer in our minds and be sweatier. Autumn
would be more poignant and festive with community harvests. Winte1
would be leaner, more intimate and contemplative. And Spring would
simply mean more.
When Spring came to Jiangsu Province! It meant an end 10 the wet
and cold with no cenrral heating. nn end to 9 layers of clothing, 1
0
jumping jacks and pushups at dawn, to sponge baths. to turnip soup, to
grim faces. Spring meant new life, hope and comtort. The first
cucumber never tasted so good as ii did in Jiangsu Province.
Let's try to avoid the kind of situation where someone will have to
ask this question, "Whose ducks are those?" Let the ducks remain wild in
a healthy wilderness. Let a lone hiker ask permission to kill it and give
thanks for eating it. Let the mystery of isolated bears return to our
psyche, as we tend our gardens of plenty gazing at the distant mountai ns.
The Way. the Tao, exists. Let us follow it.
Stephen Barrleu c1urefllly lives on the campttS of Warren Wilson College
in Swamwnoa, NC where Ire leaches and directs the International Smdent
Program lie and his family plan to move w land they have purchased in
the Dominican Republic, where they will farm and encourage rural
development.
~
-
....
· ~
:'litm 1r1
I
.,,. ,, , ,,,JCf'IU
704·264·!)210
200W. KlngSt. Boone. NC
3 Blocks Crom Campus
Sumn~cr.
1990
�END OF REAL ESTATE coru.inued l'rom p 23
CurTCntly, much human attention 1s put into designing ever more
effective ways of killing each other. In many governments this approach has
proven disastrous to the ecology o( their regions and to their own economies.
By diverting even a fracbon of the now of human 'money', attention, and
concern involved with 'destructo-tcchnol9gies' into those forms which work
with the timing and material energy cycles of the sun and livmg bJO'Phere it
is possible that we can d~1gn basic humAn scale systemS which fulfill the
needs of housing. food, he•lth care, travel, tcachtng. and rommunicauon
without thrusting our energy discard'! he; pollutants) onto the hfc sustaining
environments around us. It means our new "job~ will be to monitor the flow of
many fonns of energy •nd make sure 11 is ~cLlble or reusable "ithm the
human community, and that what 1s released into the habitat of other
animal, plant. and microbial communities is d1Scstabll' by thl'm. PCB's for
instance are vl'ry difficult for bacteria and fungi to decompose, while some
other chemicals such as organic 50aps are degradable. II would mc.1n
adopting a similar kind of energy respos1bihty as we would find in a forest, a
creek, pond, or meadow - not allowing a valuable form of energy "go to
waste". It would mean de5igning stores and industries with systems and
containers that are re-usable. Also worth considering arc food producers that
work directly in a villagl' or town in which foods arc made fresh and the
need for wrappers and containers would be minimized. Our
"ncw~mploymcnt" would also mc.1n finding and using 11\dteri.als that arc
more organically digestable by the rest of the biosphere, or at least
digestablc in a more reasonable time range.
The utterly ironic process of going away from the home or homestead
to earn money from someone else to be able to purchase land and housing that
some great day m the future you hope to live in and enjoy (perhaps with a
family) is a sad •nd telling story of the lack of clear prionhes in modem life.
ln a region where Real Estate was NOT long (or queen), there would be
encouragement in finding a "house and land" for people who are, or are to
become good stewards. One responsibility of the Village would be to keep
track of lhe turnover (le; births and deaths) of lhe population of the vlllage
and relay this informabon to young couples for example, who are awaiting
ho~. Within local Village agn.'Cmcnl!i about the canymg capacity of a
farm or pan:cl of land their payment would be in the eifort and skills they
applied "on sight". It may abo be appropriate In such contexts to have LETS
trading 5)'5tl'IT\S (sec Katllah Issue 22) far goods and services not e)!Changed
through cuh or precious metals..
Banks charge "intCl't$1" to thO!>e who 'have not' now for the chinc:e
that the)' may possibly 'h3ve' later. This *interest" has traditionally been
coming from the workings of the Sun and 81o~here through pLtnts, animals,
rung;, and bacteria Now we have replaced these renewing forms of Interest
with numbers and the Earth's storage of fossil fuels- which were placed
there inadvertantly by the death of living organisms - perhaps in order to
keep carbon atoms from contnbuting to the over-concentTation of greenhouse
gasses in lhe atmosphere.
Could a system be created through which land or a house would be
"worked" and taken are of by a person or a family and "paid for" by the
work they actually do while living at the residence? It would certainly
assist the effort in reducing the now of harmful and mundane molecules (such
as automobiles spitting out their weight in carbon-dioxidl' m one year) which
is creating an enVJronmcntal crisis for many of the larger multi-cellular
organisms like ouselves. The overarching context of the present economy
prescribes that there must be a middle person involved to retail, or scoop-off
some extra money m the transaction between a human family and the land.
Most of lhe "monitary profit" from someone actually living on the land they
are trying to acquire goes off to someone else wllO is free to walk off with it,
through the craft of law and Instituted customs. By giving value to what the
source of wealth is; the know-how, plants and animlls, materials, tools,
hulTWl and other than human relations, and the capacity of human bciilgs to
be adequate stewards in this process - we could possibly find ways to g;ve
back to the land the attenhon that is being taken away from ii l?.Y 'Working
Jobs' that •re often meaningl~ (or ha\•c htllc to do with actual hfe support)
and become nearly purpo$Clcss to the attempt of finding harmony in human
relations. and within the relations of the region they inhabit.
Mind you. there would h<l\'C to be some stnct prohibitlons to people
that would abuse such a woy of "eamfog a living". No ultimate guarantee
exists that ways of hum.ln fundamentalism. trickery, commcroahsm, and
"nus-m.11"1gcment• that have been C\idcnt In our past will not find l~ wny
into such a Re-'"ISiomng or the basic pnnciplcs of Real Estate. At the same
time, how could we prevent such regulation from becoming too rigid and
burcacratic7 One s11ggcs11on comes from Anthropological studies showing that
groups, or etrclcs, of "primitive" people numbering only as many as 40, were
able to communicall' about b.151c assumptions mtlsl clearly and clfoctivcly,
e\-en though the ways they organizl'CI their affairs were not always linear or
Summer, I 990
'rational'. Perhap; this kind of organizing in the context of non-lethal
technologies would aid in decision making more than large, overly
cumbersome 'bodies' of people haggling over agendas and policies for long
periods of ttmc, •nd insi5ting on rigid heirarchical fonns of order.
There would be hard work involved for those choosing to be a ~rt of
such an ecologically minded approach to human hre support in the greater
contCl<t of H•bitat rreservatlon. A justice syMem that involved inhabitants
other than human, along with the repo0$ib1lity or human caretakers And
the carrying capacity of the land would be one very different from the
primanly urban and l'llCdlJlmainy mdustnal slate as it exists now. Such a
system would involve biology as a cruelal aspect of such an intcr-spcoes
JUStire. The main problem With this would perhaps be find mg Agreements
about what such a fonn of justice v.ould ~n. and how offenders to it would
be dealt with. Would we samply rccapttulatc our CWTent shamefully
inadequate ways of "lmpnsoning" people an an Ecological State, or would
there be community service penances?
An l'COnomk system of accounting the direct work done on or from a
"peace" Of i.nd for housing. or the ability to hve ma given plare and obtam
life suppprt in a VJllage ronk'ltt, ls also quite foreign to our way of life now
(though II has rc-ci.1~ted many tim..'5 through the human past). Instead of
proving you are Worthy to an employer, perhaps you could prove 11 to a
council within a community or village <or group of villages). Would such
villages be patterned afkr collccllve socictil'S m which crucial lands, tools,
and foods arc distributed more l'Venly among the populace? Or would it be
fashioned after market l'COnom1cs 1n which what a person or fAmily is able to
create and sell on a market dl!tcrm1~ their wealth and status in lhe
community? The collective notion seems to prove too uniform in character with a sti!fiing of diversity and often of helpful innovations as well.
Capitalistic notions appear to be too diverse - the markets fill with multiple
products that require specialized means of repair and the pooling of capital
becomc?S paramount to overall ecological health. I thtnk there will be some of
both ol lhesc ways of cultural organizi!ll; involved 1n an ecological approach
to human commumhcs, much as in th~ practice of Land Trusts (see Ka!Uah
lsue 20). In a Land Trust the foundcn determine 'guidelines' whlcb
pcrchascrs of land in the rommunity must agrre to in order to '1nJy" anto IL
The land is removed from lhl' "frre market" of busmess. and IS open to the
decisions of loCal residents who are in rlttd of maintaining the land's
integrity ~or their own survival.
Our current lnduslrial Chaos in ~l contributes to the stiffHng of
human CMrgf cs and experiences in finding collective and perso~I ways of
M<lture (or climactically stabalizing> ecological relauol\lhips with the
many cycles of energy and form found in the ·nch" and rare environments of
this Uving Planet. To find an order now, that is not a throwback to a
supposed order of long ago, is our current challenge. An option for ecological
in~ty, an which industries would perhaps become Tnl '"plants", is not an
absolute proposition, however. An astcrlod rould collide with tliC Earth and
throw the Earth's living systems into a chaos far more inteMe than what we
are doing with our bombs and industries now. Can we retrieve from the
self-Initiated chaos and fear from whicli we have been building Into
"mlhtary industrial complexes" for hundreds of years? C..n we create a
polity that does not seek to manipulate and scavenge the lives of the
•common people" thay proport to support?
The expericnct' of human corruption. greed • .and power struggle5 for
social positiorung cannot be left out of consideration when. imagining
ecological villages. Yet if the bulk of Non-roal estate societies revesred
women, m1nontics, relative honesty and ea>logical health, apprenticeship.
•nd non-partici~hon in militarism more than It does the previou!lf
mcn11oncd "attributes", the chances or more JUSI social ~ems rould have a
greater potent1<1I of cof!Ung Into existence. In ~· there ili now a.c1oler
mutual ronsistcncy brtwecn our own ~II being .and that of the enVlronmcntal
context of the Earth
Unpredic;tabillty and tunnoU arc likely to percolate in human
societies. Even (r we can design villages that are ecologically sound there arc
no guaranl1?6 that OUT social and personal Ills "'ill be cured. Such secnunsly
"fmrretenal" concerns as conflicts of assumpuons. violent behavior, drug
addiction, croWding. lying and dcrual, romantic relatio~ gone sour, ~ge
rebellion, disfunctlONll famihcs, ond other maladies of the human coru:huon
are os mbmatcly ln\•ohro with these so called 'Green Technologies' as the
design of the systems themsclvcs.
It may be true that by Cl'l'attng a more healthy context between
oursdn.-s and the blola uf 1hc rq;lon we Inhabit :;ome or ou~ current social
malaise C'an find a plare to heal old wounds, yet it is too easy to think that
there Is some •fix" that we can put on our soctelli.'S that will heal this once
and for all. There must also be an nccompanying inner ab1hty of the
personality to become 1nll'g1'.tll'CI into a group larger than Itself, v:·h1le
.
rcuunmg the self-assertiveness nl'Cl'SSlry for identity and protc<:non. , .
JCatUah Journat pa9e 3l
�PEOPLE ANO KABITAT ccnlinued &om p.13
manner in which they earned !heir wealth. The
very isolation that bad protected the mountains
fro!11 induslrializatio~ for ~ long now proved
their strongest attracoon. City-dwellers realized
that they could "have" that isolation - all they
lacked was a way to get there. Thus began the
era of the four-lane. The Appalachian Regional
Council brought in federal money to help state
governments upgrade old roads and build
modem expressways.
. During th!s same period agriculture
dcclmed sharply m the mountains • and with it
declined the traditionally high birthrate that had
always characterized Appalachia in the minds of
outsiders. With the construction of new roads
in-migration became the driving force in th~
population growth of the Katuah province.
Today the rate of biological growth (the ratio of
the bmh rate to the death race) remains at flat
zero or in fractions of a percentage point (0.07
percent in 1984), while the rate of in-migration
continu~ to rise dramatically, putting the overall
populauon growth of the Southern Appalachians
we.11 above the national average. The number of
reurces tr3nslocaling to the mountains raises the
percentage of monality and skews the biological
growth rate somewhat, but a look at the figures
shows the dominant influence of migration on
the regional population.
Lack of access has always been the
limiting factor on growth - the growth of human
popul~tic:>ns'. ec<?nomic development, and
mdusmahumon • m Appalachia. Lack of access
protected the wild nature of the mountain
habitat. Now the cork is out of the bottle. The
sporadic stream of in-migration has turned into a
flO<?d. As ov~r-populatcd Europe once offered
an mexhausnble supply of humanity to fill up
the New World, the large eastern cities now do
the same for the mountains. as the interstate
highway system offers an easy means of travel.
Along with the increase in new residents,
there has been a tremendous increase in demand
for recreational opportunities in the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park and the
national forests. Today. human management and
hullllln use penetrates to the deepest reaches of
the forest on 4,900 miles of forest roads and
touches every aspect of life on vinually every
acre of the mountain forest habitat.
Meanwhile, wildlife has been pushed
back to the most remote areas of the forest in
search of food and safety due to the clearing
necessary for roads and development and the
associated noise.
The Norlh Carolina High~ay Bill
(or Come One, Come All! )
. l n 1989 the North Carolina state
legislature passed a $8.8 billion Highway Bill.
Go~emor.Jim Martin's plan is to place "every
resident m the state within 10 miles of a
four-lane road," build by-passes around seven
urban centers (including Asheville). pave
10,000 miles of ~e~ondary gravel roads by
1999, and the remaining gravel roads in the state
by 2006.
To hear the road boosters talk. the new
roa?s are g?ing to bring in all 1he good aspects
of 1 n~ust~al culture and none of the bad.
There s big bucks in it for everyone, we are
to!d, an~, because we live in 1he mountains,
thm~s will be as nice as they always were. The
Envaronment Committee assures us th:it all this
development can proceed with no impact
k:otMm ) 0 1.0 ·\iQL pJ9 e ~i
whatsoever on the "beautiful mountain scenery
that is so important to all of us" • in fact, it'll be
even better, because there will be m()re people
here to enjoy it with us.
THE FOURTH TURTLE ISLAND
BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS
(NABCIV)
In reality, the greatly increased volume of
traffic that will pass over the new highways will
h~ve a tremendously damaging effect. New
highways mean more use, more commerce
more in-migration, and more human demands
on the already over-stressed habitat.
Since the 1960's the word "access" has
taken on a new and more sinister meaning with
the widespread use of the television set. The TV
has had a rapid and unprecedented effect on
mountain culture. With a TV in almost every
home, the cultural isolation of the mountains is
at an end. The greater society comes right into
the living room almost every night of the week.
The cultural model is no longer local, but is
broadcast from New York and Los Angeles. and
the image now permeating the minds of the
mountain people is the same as that being
received by the rest of the population of the
continent, wherever they live.
There are no regional distinctions in this
model, it is bland and homogeneous. It is also
urban in nature. as most of the dominant culture
is urban-based, and it causes dissatisfaction in
the minds of rural viewers, who begin to feel
that they are being left out of the American
Dream when they see urban consumpuon
patterns and urban lifestyles on the flickering
screen. The TV has caused great changes and
great contradicrions in the Appalachian way of
life. With Lhe powerful weapons of the TV and
the automobile, the cultural conquest of the
mountains is nearly complete.
will be held August 19·26
at Lake Cobbosseecontee, near Augusta,
Gulf of Maine Bioregion
As access opened the mountains to the
ravages of unrestrained technology at the cum of
the century, so now is it bringing in an outside
culture and unrestrained numbers of human
beings. We are the greatest threat to habitat in
the Southern. Appalac hians. Rampaging
development will be our greaiest local concern in
the decade ahead.
We long ago overshot the capacity of this
region to support the weight of our population
and our induslrial technology. Now, rather than
manage the forest to meet our unending
demands, we need to manage ourselves, our
numbers and our way of life, that the forest may
continue. In the long run, this would be the best
for all the inhabitants of the mountain
forestlands. ourselves included.
This process requires values that arc at
once new and at the same time very, very old.
These values are the subsmnce of the bioregional
vision. We need to learn/remember them and
pass them on. Only then will we be able to
approach a reasonable carrying capacity of
human beings in the Katuah province of the
,,
Appalachian b1oregion.
S pecial thanks to Tersh Palmer a nd
Karen Lo hr for their contribulion.
The fourth continental Bioregional
Congress is convening to plan strategies and
share energy to meet the challenges of the
coming decade, which is shaping up to be a
crucial one in the development of the present
world culture.
The species of life on this planet are being
hard hit by the weight of human numbers and
human technology. The future of planetary
evolution is at stake, and we cannot waver or
hesitate in defending the other creatures of the
world and their habitats. They are disappearing
rapidly, and once gone, they are gone for good.
But our actions would be in vain if we did
not establish new and different cultural styles ways of living that are specific to the natural
regi?nS that support them ... ways of being that
tap m10 the deepest roots of their natural living
plaee...these are what will endure.
The potential of the next ten years is
tremendous. Let us come together for the sake
of the world and all that is wild.
If you arc interested in at!Mdiog NABC lV from
lhe Katuah Province, conl.3Ct the K a1uah Journal (Box
638: Leicester. NC; Kalu3h Province 28748) to
coordina1e transponation and consider how we will
represent our region at the Congress.
Rcgis1rn1ion for NABC IV is SJ75 for odults,
SIOO for children. Mrul Congress queries or rcglstrntions
to:
Turtle lsland Biorcgio113I Congress
Gulf of Mnillc Books
61 Mainc SL
New Brunswick, ME
Gutr or Maine Bioregion 04011
.r!!J'
,te:.-'
WNC ALLIANCE
HIGHLANDS-CASHIERS CHAPTER
A new chapter of the Western North
Carolina Alliance has been formed in the
Highlands-Cashiers dismct, the uplands of
southern Jackson and southeastern Macon
Counties on the Blue Ridge Divide.
This area comprises the headwaters of
some of the most important water sources in the
southeastern quarter of Turtle Island. The
Cullasaja, Cha11ooga, Tuckasegee, and
Whitewater Rivers rise here, as well as
Tessentee and Middle Creeks, important
tributaries of the Little Tennessee River system.
The new Alliance group states its purpose
as being an effective grassroots organization
promoting a sense of stewardship and caring for
the mountain environment. Their goal is to
protect and preserve the quality of the land,
water, forests, and air through education and
public participation in policy decisions at tll
levels of business and government.
For more information about the group,
ca!J the WNC Alliance office at (704) 2588737.
.,(4m'mU, 1990
j
�27-29
JULY
SWANNANOA, NC
Vision Ques1 wi1h Morgan E:igle Bear.
Offerings. Those wishing to paruc1pa1e, write Morgan
C/o The Earth Ccn1cr Sec 6123-24.
HOT SPRINGS, NC
~ Cherokee Law and Holy Land: Leaming
About Row to Live in Nonh America..• Woricshop with
Dr. Robert Thomas, raised in a traditional comunity m
the Eas1em Ozarks. Storytelling. fasting, discussions,
Sacrifice to the Fire, Salu1c to the Sun, Pipe Ceremony.
$95. Pn:-regis1cr. Southern Dhanna Reuca1 Center. sec
7/13-15.
4-8
12-15
Asheville Anisis' Markel & Fes1 on Lexington Ave
Downtown Asheville. NC. Thru 1he summer on Fri,
Sal, & Sun, 10 am • Sunset Exhibi1or.; will include
local anisL~. environmental, educational, & social
concern groups, food. Local musicians pcrfonning and an
open slllgc daily. For info. call (704) 251-2313.
in
Full Moon Sweat Lodge every Saturday closest
to the foll moon at the Eanh Center, Swnnnanoa. NC.
Call (704) 298-3935.
JUNE
21
SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEURA T ION
23-24
SWANNANOA, NC
Drum-Making Workshop with Pal Slark.
Building a medicine drum. S150. supplies included. The
Eanh Cemer; 302 Old Fellowship Rd.; Swannanoa, NC
28776. Call (704) 298-3935.
24·30
TOWNSEND,TN
"Teacher & Naturalist Weck.• "For classroom
tcachen, nar.uralists, and anyone intercs1cd in learning
3boul the natural world." With Doug Elliou. Eustace
Conway, music by Lfa and Lynn Shaw. Sl50. Contacl:
Great Smoky Moun1nins Ins1itu1c al Tremont;
Townsend, TN 37882 (615) 448-6709.
U..27
KNOXVILLE, TN
Economic Dcvelopmcn1 as ir Women Maucred
Conference. Co-sponsored by Levi Strnuss Foundation,
Tennessee Valley Authori1y, Episcopal Diocese of Eas1
1N. Info: Vicki Creed, Community Aff3ll'S; Levi Strnuss
& Co.: P.O. Box 15906; Knoxville, TN 37901.
27-7/1
tu GH LANDS, NC
"Landscape Photography in the Blue Ridge
Mountains" with Gil Leebrick and Dan Rohn.
Dcmonsuations, field trips, and darkroom session.~ S200
includes lodging. Appalachian Environmental Arts
Ccn1er; P.O. Box 580; Highlands, NC 28741 (704)
5264303.
30-July 8 CELO, NC
Rural Soutticm Voice for Peace Office Building
Workcamp. A specu1I week for volunteers. skilled and
ull$lt1llcd, 10 come help build RSVP's new orrice
building on the Celo Community Land Trusl Info:
RSVP: (704) 675-4626.
\I
LI NVILLE, NC
35th Annual Grandfather Mountain Highland
Games and Gathering of Sco1tish Clans. Pag3entry. pipe
bands, Scottish athletics ceilidh. For more informa1ion,
wruc Box 356: Banner Elk, l\C 28604 or call (704)
898-5286.
HOT SPRI,GS, NC
"Po1n1ing at the Sun; Holding Up the Moon:
The Five Ammal Frolics" w1rh Jay Dunbll' and Kathleen
Cusick. Workshop on ancient exercises from China used
to prepare mind for both martial arts and meditation. $70.
Pre-register: Southern Dharma Rctrea1 Center. RL I, Box
34-H; Ho1 Springs, NC 28743.
26-8/5 FOLKMOOT PERFORMANCES
Folk Performers from Austria, Bulgaria,
France, Greece. Hunmgary, Indonesia, Ireland,
the Ukraine, Phillipines. and possibly Haiti.
Performances in Haywood, Buncombe, Macon,
Henderson, and Madison Counties. Call the
Folkmoot office for schedule and prices: (704)
456- 3021.
13-15
14 15
SWANNANOA, NC
"Women's Ceremonial Mask-making"with
AniLD Maloney. teacher wuti the Bear Tribe. Free
per.;onal power through the use of ceremonial masks.
S 100. The Eanh Center, see 6123-24.
AUGUST
2
SWAfliNANOA, NC
Buck Ghost Horse at the Earth Center. Open
talk. Love offering. See 6{23-24.
2-4
HELEN, GA
"Mountains or Imagin:uion" Puppet
Fesllval Helen Festc Halle Pavilion For info.. call Pat
Minnaugh (305) 925-6833.
3-5
16-22
WILLIS, VA
WOMEN'S WELLNESS WEEK ·
Nurture and Heal Your Body, Mind and Spirit.
"Womerls Wellness Week gives us the time,
energy, and gifts of our sisters and the E.anh to
help us heal ourselves, our species, and our
planet home". Pre-register: $350. For more
information write or call: lndian Valley Retreat
Center; Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis, VA 24380
(703) 789-4295.
WEAVERV ILLE, NC
The Golden Rod Puppets perform! with
friend Hobey Ford. Weaverville Library 11 am.
SWANNANOA, NC
"Sacred Teachings of the People." Buck
Ghost Horse (uadluonal Sicangu-HunkpaJD Lakota). The
Coming or the Sacred Pipe, Pipeways. Arrival of the
Seven Sacred Ceremonies, HlstorY of the Sioux People.
SI 00. The Eanh Center. Sec ~3-24.
19-26 LAKE COBBOSSEECONTEE,
GULF OF MAINE
The Founh Nonh American Bioregional
Congress to be held this year in the Gulf of
Maine Bioregion. (sec facing page)
19
22-27
HI GHLANDS, NC
Workshop on "Sexism and Peacemaking"
featured as pan of "Mountain Great Escape" wcck a1 the
Mounlnin. Pre-rcg1stet in advance for wcrk.<hop or fer the
whole week. See 7/1·6.
26
WVTHE\'JLLE, VA
The Golden Rod Puppets pcrfonn! wilh
friend Hob<.:y Ford Wylhc·Grnyson Libraries. 11 om.
Drawings by Suwn ~
24-26
LOUISA, VA
"Celebrating Our Diversity• • Women's
Gathering. At Twin Oaks Community. Sliding scale
S35-S95. Info: Women's Gathering, Twin Oaks, Louisa.
VA 23093. (703) 89-1-5126.
SEPTEMBER
11-12
UlGHLANDS, NC
"The Political Landscape" with Roben
Dawson. An with a purpose - the photographic image in
the environmental movement. $200 includes lodging.
Appabchian Environmental An:; Cen1cr; sec 6127-7/1.
�wwrac~~.~O~
unused can,·as. 6 fL wide. Enough ror a full· size TIPI or
very large tenL Cost S380. Will sell for $220. 298-7639,
Asheville.
Living Wheel Herb Company.Ceremonial and culinary,
wildcrafted and organically grown herbs. Send for a fn:c
cat31og. P.O. Box 427 Tonasket. WA 98&55
WOODSCRAFT - Seeking to correspond with petSonS
mterestcd in primitive woodscraft skills such as.
bow/dlill fire-making, u-.ick.ing, snan:/dc:Utlfall uupp1ni;,
etc. Have attended Tom Brown's basic class. J.T.
Garrison, RL 4, Box 667. Spring Cuy, Tn 37381.
Wicker Worker. Wicker fomilure restored. Cane. spht.
and rush sealS woven, ba.~keL~ repaired Experienced SC3l
weaver. "If you can't, we cane." Andrea Clll!kc: 27 MaJt
SL, Asheville, NC 28801. (704)253-624 l.
MOCCASINS, h311dcrafled of clkh1de in the tnld1tionsl
Plains Indian Style. Waicr resiSlant, resalable, and rugged
• great ror ltilcing! Children's and infant si7.C.~ available.
Wntc: Earth Dance Moccasins; Bo-.. 931: Asheville. NC
28802, or call Patrick Clnrlc at 254-8116.
The Infinite Light Fellowship is opening a Meditation
Center which will offer mid-day medi11u.1ons, as well as
evening and Sat. worlcshops on spiritual growth, dreams,
healing. Open IO all. Ant Iron Bldg., 20 Bauery Parle
Ave., Asheville, NC. Info: Al Bouchard, (704}
254-2080.
CIRCLES RETURNING • a new cas~cttc by Bob
Avery-Grubel! This 1s music to touch the soul and heal
the hcalt. Lyrics included. To order send SIO per casseue
to: Bob Avery-Grubel: Rt. I Box 735: Aoyd, VA
24091.
Sl<lNFOODS • ftelih, hand-made hcrtxll skin prcpar.11.ion~
at n:a.o;onable pnces. Send for pncc hsc 106 E. Main St.;
Johnson C1ty, 11'1 3760
RSVP is building an ofllcc home of our own and asking
for your help. Half of the S25.000 cost already raised or
pledged. Solar design and help wnh appropriaic tcch :iJso
doll3tcd. Labor will be by Volunteers for Peace and
regional voluntccrs. Please join us in making big ~tcp
into future.
CREATION SOAP· hand-crafted h~rbal soops from II~
Blue Ridge Mountains. Rose and lavender soap$.
mob1ur1<.ing bat, •hampoo/condi1ioncr bar. Comact
Anna; RL I, Box 278: Blowing Rock, NC 28605 (704)
262-2321 .
Wanted: Home & Shop Space for Light Woodworking.
(400 sq. fL+). For rent or exchange: would prerer within
IS miles of A~hcv1llc. NC. Needed 9/90. We are
responsible and caring. Md would love C3J'lhconscious
neighbors. Brce1.c Bums, Janc1cc Ray &. Silas, Rte.l.
llo1188-J. Quincy, Fla 32351, (904) 442-6474
I AM LOOKING FOR A POSITION with an
cnvironmcnl.'ll awarcnc,s/acuon organi:i.alion m the
Katfuh region located m A~hcv1llc or nearby. Prerer
pan·llme, beginning 1n summer or fall 1990. A
writer/ncwslencc editor by trade, I have cxpenence in
lobbying, rccruttmg and tr.umng volunteers, leading and
organi7.mg cvcnis. Please contaet Janc1ce Ray, Rt. I,
Box 188-J, Quincy, FL 32351. (904)442-6474.
J(.Qt®h Jo,muaf. pa<]& 34
SPIRITIJAL PERSONAL ADVICE. Concspond with
your Nauvc Grandfather. All qucsuons addressed from
Medicine Perspective. No clurge ever. SASE with letter
to: Blue Sky, Box 5387, Largo. Fla. 34649.
ADVENTURES FOR EVERYONE • Backpacking,
canoeing, llama trekking m the NC mountains, SC
barrier islands, Congaree Swamp. Families with young
children and seniors welcome • llamas will airry your
gear. uam MINIMUM IMPACT
rr.chmque.~.
r.cology,
plant and animal identification, rockchmbmg, whitewater
C311oemg. etc ... Emphasis on perlOllal growth. For more
information write: Magik Trek~. P.O. Box 6876,
Columbia, SC 29260.
GRE.ENll'G CARDS • correspondence and advocacy
cards for people who care. Onginal an reproduced in
color. (I 091: of proceeds donated to proJCCIS for pc.ace wid
justice.) Write IO Ginny Lco12. LovEarth Creations; Box
1445: Black Mountain, NC 28711.
ENVTRONMEl\'TALLY SENSITIVE l..Ai"IDSCAPL'lG
SERVICE- Lawn maintenance, trees. shrubs, Oowcrs &.
edibles. Organic. Patrick Clark. 254-8116.
WORK FOR PEACE. STOP PA YING FOR WAR! For
informauon about conscientious resisl3occ to war Ulllcs,
including resources. local contaCts, phllosophy, how-1o·s.
and consequences, contact the National War Tax
Resistance Co-ordinaung Commill.CC, P.O. Box 858 IO,
Seattle, WA 98145. (206)522-4377.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS • herbal salves,
unctures, & oils for birthing &. family health. For
brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm; Rt. I, Box
726; HWTlpLOn, TN 37658.
Spiritual Knowledge shared. advice given 10 those who
are seeking or m need. Always personal and strictly
confidential. Contnbutions acccptod, but never required.
Send SASE 10: Circle Communications, Boit 412,
Dillard. GA 30537·0412
NATURAL CH1LDBTR1ll CLASES speciallLlng in the
Bradley Method. Clas...cs are small and include nuDition
physiology, consumerism, parenting skills, and
rclaxauon and labor support techniques. For more
informa11on call or write Maggie Sa.ch~: 808 Florida
Ave.; Bristol, TN 37620. (615) 764-2374.
NEW AGE COMMUNITY FOR~IJNG on 57 acr~ of
land. Located on sacred Cherokee Stone Mountain.
Visions or hc.:iling the c.:inh & our chi ldren. Parcel~
avadable. All Southern Exposure, strong creek runs
through middle, with little creeks on either side. Many
springs. gentle land. Contact Sue Ann Rmcr, Rt. 2.
Box 314, Vila~ NC 28692.
SKYLANO • log on 10 the computer bullcun board of
the Smokies. Networking, plus news on the
cnv1ronmcn1, nature photography, games, computer
ullhtics, much mate. Contact M1ch.:Jel Ha,·chn, sysop.
(704) 254-6700.
ASTROLOGICAL CHART with a.~ct grid and key to
astrological symbols. Send SIO, SASE, and btnhda1e
(mo/day/yr), b1rthtirne (00:00 AM/PM), and birthplace
(cny, Sl.3.te) 10 Star Charts. P.O. Box 18205, Ashev11le,
NC 28814-0205.
HAWKWrND EARTH RENEWAL CO-OPERA11VE is
an 87 acre primitive retreat and working community
farm.. Located in the Northern Alabama mountains, just
115 miles northwest of Atlanta. Classes on altcmauve
tifcstyles and Nau"e American philosophies nre available
on a regular basis. A schedule or events is 0\'311.lblc upon
requCSL Healing Arts and Ean.h Renewal gatherings arc
planned on a quarterly basis and facitilJCS are available for
private organizational use. For infonnntion or catalog of
Native crafts & products. call (205)635-6304.
MOUNTAIN DULClMERS • made of black walnut, red
cherry, or maple. To~ available in wormy ches1nu1.
buttcmut, swcc1gum, sassafras, western cedar and olhcr
woods. Contact: MU.e Dulcimer Company; Rt. 2, Box
288; Bloumvillc, TN 37617 (615) 323-8489.
SPECTRE OF THE WITCH • Call for slides. Artists
within a 200 mile radius of Asheville, NC arc invited 10
submit work exploring images of the Witch, from
goddess power through feminism. Deadline for reception
of slides is September 10th. Send to: "Spectre of the
Wnch:" 37 Baltimore Avenue: Asheville, NC 2880 I.
ORGANIC BONEY • Tulip Poplar, Sourwood and
WildOower. From Patrick County, Virginia. No
chemicals, no white sugar, no heat, ever. Strained
through cheesecloth and p:ickcd in heavy glass ammng
jars. For a 4-ol. sample of our premium sourwood and
our catalog, send S4 10: Wade Buckholts & Meg311
Phillips; Rouie 2, Box 248: Stuan, VA 24171. (703)
69-i-4571
STIL·LIGllT THEOSOPlllCAL RETREAT CENTI:R •
a quiet ~cc for personal mcchtallon, group interaction
through study, and communuy work, and spintual
seminar.. Contact Leon Frankel: R1. I, Box 326;
Waynesville, NC 28786.
Let MEDICINE WIND blow through your mind! Exotic
handmade Bomboo FlutcS. rare scales. fine tuned. Free
hrocurcs. Wntc: Mcdicl!IC Wind Music: 86 NW 55 SL.
Gainesville, FL 32607.
RHYTHM ALIVE • Handcrafted African· Style Drums,
workshops, learning tapes, drumbags. 311d accessoncs.
PIC.1SC send SASE lo Rh)thm Ali\'c!: 85 Phenix Co\·c
Rd.: Wcavcrv1lle. NC 28787 {704) 645 3911.
V..'EBWORKl?l:G is frtt Send submL~sions to:
Ora"'1ng by Rob Mu..ck
Kat1illh Jour110/
P.O. Box 638
Lciccster, NC
Kattlah Province 28748
S"mmu. 1990
•
�Tire Katuah Journal wams ro comm1111icme your thoughts
and feelings to the other people in the bioregional pro,•ince Send
rlzem to us as /euers, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or
photographs. ere Please send your co11tribwio11s to 11S or: Katuah
Journal; P. 0. Box 638; Leicester, NC; Ka11iah Provillce 28748.
"Water is life" is a priflciple with which we are al/familiar.
Issue 29 of 11te Katuah Journal will concem i1self wil/1 wa1er and
watersheds in 1/ie Sowhern Appalachians - the blessing of water,
how it affects 1/ie lives of all of us who live here, and what we can
do to protect it. Ariicles deadline - July 20: Edi1orial meeting August 4; i.A)•oUJ - September 8 until...
"Jobs" IS a word tha1 is ust!d like a club to silt!nce dis.uni and beat dO\\n
tht! impulse for creutivl! living. In tht! .~ense of "right l1velilwod," worJ; ho~ on
important place in our lives, and we nud 10 acknowledge its role while
questioning how it is used as an instrument of oppre.rsion by the dominant
culture. The regional economy is the physicol /oundalion of the l:>ioregionol
vision. /low is it being realized?
BACK ISSUES OF KATVAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE- SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agriculture • SunOowcrs Human
Impact on the Fo!C$1 · Cltildrcns' Educa1ion
Veronica N1cholas:Woman 1n Politics • Liulc
People - Medicine Allies
ISSUETEN-WINTER 1985-86
Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone • Internal
Mythmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial
Poems: Steve Knauth • Mythic Places · The
Uktcna"s Talc - Crystal Magic ·
'1)rcomspcalUng"
ISSUE FOUR SUMMER 1984
Water Drum • Water Qualily • Kudi.u • Sow
Edipse - Cliwcuning · Troul • Going 10 Watet
Ram PwnJll Microhydro Poentt: Bennie
Lee Sinclair. Jim Wayne. Miller
ISSUE FIVE - FALL 1984
Harvest - Old Way• in Cherokee Omscng
Nuclear Waste
Our Ce.Ilic Heritage
Bioregionali1m: Past. Prescn1, and Future
John Wilnoty - Hc.alutg Darkness - Poliuc:s of
Paniclpation
ISSUE SIX WINTER 1984·85
Wmtcr Sobticc Eanh Ceremony • Ilorsc!""'lutc
River • Corning of the Light • Log Cabin
R00te - Mountam AS""ul111"'; The R1i;ht Crop
• Willi= Tl)llnr . The Furur< or th~ Fore.-i
ISSUE SEVEN SPRING 198S
Swtamable EconomK• Hot Spnng• Woikcr
Owmmh1p • The Orcat Economy - Self llclp
C"rcdn Union • Wild 1 urkcy • Respo1U1ble
Investing • Working m the Web of life
ISSUE EIOIIT · SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life - Katliah 18.000
Years Ago - Sacred S11A:S • Folk Alu. m the
Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle Poc1m:
Hilda Downer ·Cherokee Hcntagc Ccrucr
Who 0wm Appd111:hi11
ISSUE NINE· FALL. 1985
The Waldec Forut - The Treu Spe.ak
Migr&11ng Forests - HO<$C Logging SWhng a
Tree Crop - Urban Trees . Acom Brc.d • Myth
ISSUE El.EVEN SPRlNC 1986
Community Planning • Cities and the
Biorcgion.al Vision • Recycling - Community
Gardening· Aoyd County. VA - Oasobol Two Bion:gional Views • Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Carnes - Oood Medicine: Visions
ISSUE THJRTEEN Fall 1986
Cent.er For Awakcnmg Eliu~th Callan - A
Oentlc Death - Hospice • Ernest Morgm
Dealing Ctcauvcly with Death Home Burial
Box • The Woke • The Raven Moeltu Woocblorc and Wildwoods W1..tom • Good
Med1cmc: 'Ilic Swc:.it l..udgc
ISSUE FOURTEEN · Wm1er 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owlc • Boog= and Mummers • All
Species D•y • C•hm Fever Un1vcrS11y Homcleu in KatUAh - Homemade Hot Water
Stovemakct's Narrahve • Cood Medicine:
lntenpec;11!r. Communic:1tion
ISSUE FIFTEEN Sprmg 1987
Co•crleu • Wom1111 Forester - Susie McM""4n
Midwife
Ahcmauvc Conuaccpllon •
Bio..:xuali1y • Biorcg1onah•m and Women Good Medicine: Mattim-chal Culture · PCtJrl
ISSUE SIXTEEN - Summer 1987
Helen Wlitc • Poem: Visions in 1 Carden •
Vision Quut • First Flow - IJlitlalion •
l..caming in the Wildemcss
Cherokee.a
Challenge "Valuing Trus"
ISSUE EJCIITEEN Wintu 1987-88
Vernacular An:hitcc:ture Drums in Wood and
Stone . Mountain Home Elll'1h Encrgiu
Earth-Sheltered Living - Membrane Houses •
91U5h Shelter Poems: October Dw:s:k • Oood
Medicine: "Shelter"
ISSUETWENTY-TIIREE-Spnng, 1989
Pisgah Village • Planet Art Crccn City •
Poplar Appeal • "CIClll" Sky" •A New Earth"
Bio.ck Swm - Wild Lovely Day.t • Reviews:
Sacred Land Sacred Su. Ice /\g«' • Poem:
"Suddai Tendrils"
ISSUE NINETEEN - Spring, 1988
Perclandra Canlcn - Spnng TonK:S Bl114bcmcs
WildOowcr Gardens - Ormny Httbllis1 •
Flower Essences · "The Origin of the Animals:
Siory. Good Medicine: "Puwcr" - Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR· Summer, '89
Deep l..is1cning - Life in Alorruc City • Direct
Action! Tree of Peace Communily Building
Peacemakers • Ethnic Survivll - Pairing
Project - "Baulcsong" • Orowing Pc111:c in
Clllllll'Cll Review: TM Chaliee and IN 8/4de
ISSUE TWENTY • Summer, 1988
Pr_..., Appabcli1.,., Wildcmcs:s Hight.nds
of Roan Colo Community 1..and Trust •
Arthur Morgan School · Zoning luue • 'The
Ridge' - Farmcrs md lhc Farm 8111 - Oood
Medie1nc: " l..md" • Acid Rain • Dukc"s Power
Play · Cherokee Microhydro ProJl.-.:1
ISSUE TWENTY ONE - Fill. 1988
ChcsUluts: A Natural Hmory - Rcstorin& the
Chestnut - .. Poem of Preservation and Pr.uc"
Continuing t11c Qu.:.st • Forc•ts and Wildlife
Chestnuts in Rcg1oruil Diet • Chestnut
Resource' • Hctb Note - Oood Med1c1ne:
"Ow>gc• to Corne" • Review: W}we vgpiJs
Uw1
-
- - - - - --- - -- --- - --- - -- -
Box 638; Leicester, NC: KatUah Province
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Nrune
Regular Membership ........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
City
Area Code
Summer, 1990
State
Phone Number
Zip
ISSUETWE.NTY.SEVEN • SPRIN0, 1990
Tr1U1Jformohon - llcahni; Po11.cr • rcxc to
Their A•hes • Hcalins in K111uah P~m:
''When left to Crow" • Poems: Stcphrn W'm&
Tl>< Belly • Food from the Ancient f'arcst
ISSUE TWEJIITY-TWO • WintcT, '88419
Global Warming • Fi"' ThiS Time • Thomu
Berry on "BiorcglOI\•" • EaJ1h Exctcuc • Kod
Loy McWhiru:r - An Abundllncc oCEmpttness
LETS Chronicles of Floyd - Oany Wood
Th<> Bear Clan
rune
~UAH JOURNAL
ISSUETWENTY.SIX WINTE.R, 1989.'90
Coming of Age in the Ecoro1c Era • Kids
Saving Rainforest · Kids Trcccycling Compau~
. ConOict Resolution - Dc•clnping tl1c Creative
Spirit - Birlh Power • Binh Bonding The
Magic or Pupp:uy H<>m< Sci-ling • NllllUllf
Ceremony Mother Earth's aassroom •
CardC'ning for Children
Enclosed is$
to give
this effort an extra boost
I can be a local con1ac1
person for my area
28748
Back Issues
Issue#_ .@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue # _.@ $2.50 = $_ _
rssue # _ @ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue#
.@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# ~ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
18-26)
@ $40.00 =
s__
postage paid
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 28, Summer 1990
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-eighth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on "carrying capacity:" growth, development, and population of human systems in relation to the environment. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Stephen Bartlett, Rob Barron, Will Ashe Bason, Chip Smith, Lee Kinnaird Faween, Marnie Muller, Jim Houser, Patrick Clark, Hectáire P. Condeau, D. Goode, James Rhea, Marie Wood, and Susan Adam. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1990
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Carrying Capacity by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />Setting Limits to Growth: Interview with Dr. Gary Miller | Recorded by David Wheeler.......5<br /><br />What Is Overpopulation? by Stephen Bartlett........7<br /><br />The Road Gang by Rob Barron.......8<br /><br />The Highway to Nowhere.......9<br /><br />Opening Pandora's Box: The I-26 Project by Rob Barron.......10<br /><br />"Caring Capacity" by Will Ashe Bason.......11<br /><br />People and Habitat by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawcett.......12<br /><br />Designing the Whole Life Community by Marnie Muller.......14<br /><br />Steady State by Jim Houser.......15<br /><br />Poems by Will Ashe Bason.......17<br /><br />Good Medicine.......20<br /><br />Transporternatives by Patrick Clark.......22<br /><br />Imagining the End of Real Estate by Hectáire P. Condeau.......23<br /><br />Natural World News.......24<br /><br />Man and the Biosphere.......27<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah Journal.......28<br /><br />Review: Cohousing by Will Ashe Bason.......30<br /><br />Events.......33<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville</em> <em>Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Human ecology--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachian Region--Population
Regional planning--Appalachian Region, Southern
Transportation--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Community
Economic Alternatives
Electric Power Companies
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Pigeon River
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/c5ee330c977312a17d828d214a7916e6.pdf
05640bd372243437e62e080e13bbb8ac
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 32 FALL 1991
$1.50
�Drawina by Rob M~siclt
~UAHJOURNAL
PO Bo:,,. 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Printed on recycled paper
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�CONTENTS
Bringing Back !he Fire................. .
by David Wheeler
A Bil of Mountain Levity.................
by Barbara Wickersham
5
Climax Never Came.......................
by Henry Wender
7
ls the Southern Appalachian
Ecosystem Endangered?..................
by John A. Freeman
9
'Talking Leaves": Sequoyah............ 10
by Tom Underwood
Green Spirits: Seed Saving .............
by lee Barnes
12
Walking Dis1a11ce.........................
by Will Ashe Bason
13
Angle: Environment......................
by lvo Ballentine
13
Good Medicine: ..........................
14
Poem: "A Rotting Log"..................
by Brownie Newman
15
THEGRANOLAJOURNAL..........
16
Livin' By Their Wits
recorded by Rob Messick
An Old Family Tale
by Bess Harbison
BRINGING BACK THE FIRE
The Slide
by Rob Messick
Recorded by David Wheeler
How Can You Lose Anything as Big
as This Ego?
by Maxim Didge,
Paintings: "Mountain Stories".......... 18
by Robert Johnson
Natural World News.....................
20
Dying Soils, Dying Waters.............
by Emmelt Greendigger
22
Songs in lhe Wilderness.................
by Char/011e Homsher
24
500 Years of Resistance!................
by Emmell Greendigger
25
Save James Bay..........................
25
Drumming.................................
26
Off the Grid: Solar Ovens... ,...........
by Dennis Scanlin
29
Events.....................................
32
\Vcbworklng..............................
34
Ka11fah Konfusion.......................
35
foff, 1991
While Walker Calhoun is II/JI the only
person working ro keep alive the old
Cherokee practices and values, he is
definitely one of the people most dedicated to
restoring the traditional ways. When he
speaks of "the Fire," he means the spark of
life irself. and also the spirit behind the
Cherokee spiriwal life • so strong in this
region until even JOO years ago. But, like the
Cherokee white flour corn that was
cross-fertilized with the white people's
Yellow Dent \•aricty, Walker's spiriwal way
also shows traces of the white people's
Christian religion.
\Vhen I drove 11p 10 Walker's house, he
was sitting by a small fire in the side yard.
He had a ra1: wrapped around one pa111/eg,
and he was Ito/ding lo11g pieces ofriver ca11e
over rite blaze until tltcy became pliable. then
s1raigluenin1: them across his leg to make
blowgu11s.
lie stood to greet me. He was a slight
111011 with a ready smile that showed the worn
nubs of a few teeth.
"let's sit 011 the porch," he said. "It's
too hnt to work around this fire anymore."
I showed him a copy of rite Kattiah
Journal and, ofter consideri11g it a mmure.
without further prompting he began talking ..
Walker Calhoun: Katuah - that's the
name of the tribe. We're not the Cherokee.
When lhey wrote a history, they called us the
Cherokee, but really we're the Katuah tribe.
They've got the Katuah Band in Oklahoma,
and lhe Katuah Medicine Society out there.
That's our religion· lhe Cherokee religion·
the Katuah Society.
I'm supposed 10 put the sign up at our
stomp grounds we have just a.cross the river
up here in Big Cove... the name is the Raven
Rock Nighthawk Ceremonial Grounds ·
Katuah Society. We have dance there every
month on the last Saturday. In August we
have a big celebration • a Green Com
Celebration. We have a big time.
I was chosen to bring lhe Everlasting
Fire back here to the Eastern band. The
reason they picked me was because I was the
only one keeping our culture and heritage
from disappearing. That's why they chose
me to bring the Fire back where ii belongs.
I didn't know much about the Fire until
three or four years ago. Two men from
Oklahoma came and told me. We were sining
right here, and these two men came. They
mentioned Katunh. One asked me about it,
but I didn't know what he meant. It was later
when I learned what they were t.1llcing about.
Now, the Fire... people misunderstand
the Fire. At the ceremonial grounds we've
got a mound where the spirit is. We build a
Drawing by Rob Messick
(con11nucd on page 3)
X,ntunf, Journo(
pn9c
I
�~
LJAHJOURNAL
A BAD CASE OF EDITORTALSTAPH:
Susan Adam
Jim Houser
Lee Barnes
Anomal..ee
Heather Blair
Rob Messick
Emmett Greendigger
Mamie ~lullcr
Charloue Homsher
David Wheeler
EDlTORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Chris Green
Scou Bird
and Li'I Matthew...
Mountain Gardens Family
COVER: by Rob Messick
©1991
PUBLTSHED BY: Kart'iah Journal
PRTNTED BY: The Waynesville Mowitaineer Press
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
EDITORIAL OFFlCE THIS ISSUE: The Globe Valley
WRITE US AT: Kat(iah Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
TELE Pl IONE:
(704) 754-6097
Divcrsi1y is an imponam clcmcm of biorcgaonal ecology, both nntural
and social. In accord with !his principle Katuah Journal Irie.~ to serve as n
forum for lhe discussion of regional issues. Signed :iruclcs expross only lite
opinion of lite aulhors and arc no1 ncccss:irily 1he opinions of lhc Katuah
Journal editors or stllT.
The Internal Revenue Service hns dcclnred K01uah Joivnol a non-profi1
organizntion under sccuon 50l(c)(3) or lhe lnicmal Revenue Code. All
contributions to Ka,uoh Journal an: deductible from pcrson3l income l:lll.
Aniclcs appearing m Ka1uah Journal may be rcprimcd m 01hcr
publications wilh permis.~1on Crom lhe Ka1uah Journal slllff. ConUlCl lite
journal in writing or coll (701) 754-6097.
CORRECTION: m our las1 isssuc (Summer, 1991) lhcrc was an
error in lite article •Jack-o-Lanicms, Acid Ram, and the Elcctncal Life of lite
Earth." Brown Mountain is aclllally IOC3lcd in Burke and Caldwell Counues
of North Carolina.
Wltat would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wilderness? Let them be left,
0 let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Here,
in the Katuah Province
of these ancient Appalachian mountains
where once the Cherokee Nation lived in freedom
between the Tennessee River Valley and the Eastern Piedmont
between the Valley of the Roanoke and the Southern Plain
on this Tun le Island continent of Mother Ela, the Eanh
I lcrc,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our deep
connection LO the spirit of the land.
We bring this connection into the being and the doing of
our daily lives
When the land speaks, we listen and we act
We tune our lives 10 the changes, to the seasons
We respect the limits of the land
We preserve, defend, and restore the land
We give thanks for all that is good
Hannony with the land is no longer an ideal; it is an imperative.
The land is a living being. She is sacred.
As the land lives, so do we.
As the spirit of the land is diminished,
our spirits are diminished as well.
Ka11iah Journal sends a voice...
with articles, stories, poems, and anwork
we speak to the spirit of all the living, breathing
inhabitants of these mountains
in hopes that we, the human beings,
may find our place in this Great Life.
The Editors
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
KATUAH JOURNAL wanes ro communicare your thouglus and
feelings ro the 01/zer people in the bioregional province. Send them ro tlS
as lerrers, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or photographs, ere. Please
send your contribwions ro us at: Katuah Journal; P. 0. Box 638;
Leicesrer, NC; Kar(ltlh Province 28748.
OUR NEX:r ISSUE is concerned with the role of the element Fire in
the life of the mountains...forest Fire, how humans changed the
landscape with Fuc, Fire in the heanh, Fire as tool, Fire of the spirit.
Please submit all material by October 30, 1991.
JC.ati!Qn )ournat pa«Jc 2
THE SPRING, 1992 JSSUE will be concerned wilh "Sustainable
Agriculture and Regional Diet." We need your input on topics including:
sustainable agriculture (alternative ag., low input, appropriate ag.,
pennaculturc, biodynamics, etc.); seed-saving techniques; wild-foods
and medicinals; regionaVcommunity food production and marketing;
seasonal diet and recipes; food preservation; green manures and
composting; agroforestry; and especially recommended resources,
guides, and contacts.
Please send material to Lee Barnes; Box 1303; Waynesville, NC
28786. (704) 452-5716.
Ta(t, 1991
�(con1inucd !'tom page I)
fire on top. A lot of people misunderstand it they think that we worship the fire. That's
not it. The spirit of Fire is in that mound. The
Oklahoma people fixed it (put it there). They
said that was !he sll'Ongest Fire they had ever
fixed.
It came from the Redbird Community in
Oklahoma. That's the original Fire. They've
got some more at other stomp grounds, but
they get the spirit from the main one, at
Redbird, !he same one that this came from.
We've got the seven clans of the
Cherokee. We've got seven arbors around
the fire, each clan sits in their own arbor, and
when we start dancing, each clan comes from
their own arbor, and when they quit, they go
back to their own arbor.
We went a lot of different places to get
that place fixed. We went up to Clingman's
Dome to get a piece of dirt to put over here.
That's where the wisest medicine men of the
Cherokee had their meetings. I guess they
would go all the way to Clingman's Dome to
talk with God.
People forget about their culture and
heritage, they're going with the rest of the
world. The Green Com Dance has been
handed down from our forefathers, but it
almost went out of existence. It was going
down slow. They hadn't done it for about 50
years, until last year.
I was just a young boy when they did
the lllSl one 50 yean. ugo. 1 remember how
they danced.
The women would be dancing away
from the men, while the menfolks were doing
the Green Com Dance. When the men got
through, the women came over, and they
would stan doing the stomp dance, and then
the women would join in.
When the menfolk were dancing, they
would carry shotguns - each one would have
seven shots. They would go around a singer,
I believe they'd go around seven times first,
just walk it, and then on the eighth round,
they'd Stan singing, they'd go completely
around, and the second time 'round, at each
side the men, they'd shoot, each one. That's
the way we did it.
When we dance, that's the prayer co
God. We've got the Fire on top - smoke
takes what we're saying up to God. What
we're saying, God is the only One who can
understand it. We can't understand it
ourselves.
Sometimes in Oklahoma they dance all
night. That's when there's some reason, like
the Green Com Celebration or the Fire's
birthday. There was one time at the stomp
dancing in Oklahoma, it was broad daylight,
it was still going. They ran out of songs, they
started singing "Old MacDonald."
0L:J.l:J~
f'n{t. I 99 1
The leader sang, "Old MacDonald had a
fann."
They answered, "Hee yi, hee yi!"
I tell you, when they get warmed up,
tlleY_'re airing th~ Fire as they dance, making
mouons. They sing songs about God while
they're dancing, how they appreciate God.
Our Fire's birthday is September 29.
That's when it was lit, September 29. The
man who lit it, his name was Hickory Star.
He was the one who wanted the fire brought
back here, he said that this is where it
belongs. He just barely made iL He lit tlle
fire, went back home - he died there last
February. He brought the fire back, and tllen
he died.
Karuah JourMI: Do you sing old songs
at the stomp dance?
WC: Yeh. I don't know how old. This
was done before white men came to America
- way before. That was the way they
worshipped.
Kl: I'm glad you are starting it back
again. It would be a tcnible thing if we lost
that.
WC: Yeah. They've got a lot ofit back
now. Some of it they have in Oklahoma.
They know more about it tllan us, of course.
The Eastern Band, we just came from the few
who escaped and hid in the mountains. When
they came back. they didn't have nothing.
They took the Fire with tllem out west.
The Fire, that was their religion. That's the
spirit - it was within 'em. They carried the
Fire of the spirit.
They staned back doing it. To begin
with they did it in secret, because the
government didn't allow tllem to do that. But
they kept it up. Then the government passed
a low about freedom of religion (Native
American Religious Freedom Act), and then
they came out with it.
When I was a boy, I guess about 12 or
14 years old, I always heard my motlier and
some of the older people talking about the
Fire - the Fire in Oklahoma. l thought tllat
they had taken the name of the real fire with
them when they lefL That's tlle way a lot of
people believe yet.
Up at the Mountainside Theater (in
Cherokee where the drama Unro These Hills
is performed), they've got a name burning,
that they bum by gas, I guess, so that's the
not the Eternal Flame, for when they want to
clean it, they put the fire out. That's a
commercinl fire.
When they brought it back from
Oklahoma they actually carried the fire back.
I don't know exactly how they carried it,
somehow they kept it burning until they got it
to Cherokee. They called on a man in
~
Oklahoma to give them the Eternal Fire. He
didn't know what to do. They wanted the
Fire, so he gave them a name to bring baclc.
He didn't know what to tel1 them.
There's a lot of people interested in
Indian religion, I don't know why. I guess
that they think that they (tlle native people)
might be more right The Indians respect the
Mother Earth. They respect just about
everything in nature. You don't hear of any
Indians inventing something to kill people
with. They don't even talce part in inventing
everything. 1 guess they're thinking it's not
right. I believe it's not right, the way white
people use their inventions. The first thing
!hey do with an invention is they make it into
a war material. That ain't right. The Indians,
they're not involved in that. Maybe tllat's the
reason (white) people think that they (the
native people) might be more right.
God didn't intend it for that way, when
He created Man and the Eartll. We were
supposed to share the Earth and get along equally.
Everything that the Indian goes by, it
makes sense, even the legends. It makes
sense, all of it.
There's a lot to it. Back when I was a
kid, it seemed like they kept everytlling. They
kept the culture and the herirage, but it
gradually went down. When I found out, I
had to decide to bring it back. Nobody was
trying.
YJ: It's important to save whatever you
know.
WC: We are trying to keep the
ll'llditional way. We don't allow alcohol at the
stomp dance - no alcohol, no drugs, and a
woman that makes her period (who is having
her period) can't take part.
KJ: Now why is that?
WC: That's just traditional. They can't
eat with the rest of the family. they have to
have their own plate. And a married couple,
staying in the family way, they can't take part
in the dancing, either one of them.
KJ: Is that the way you do in your
house?
. WC: No. Like I said, it's going out of
ex1Stence.
The old-timers said that kept a lot of
sickness away. I believe it, because Indian
people were bigger people than they are now.
Now you see a lot of shon, fat Indians, they
used 10 be tall - tall people. So 1 believe that.
You don't hardly see a big Indian man
anymore.
(continued on pa,., 4)
�(c:ontinucd from page 3)
KJ: Will it help the young people in the
tribe to bring back the old traditions?
WC: We can't drag 'em. The drunks
know that they can't go there (lo the
ceremonial grounds) unless they're sober. I
believe that's going 10 work out slow.
They'll be wanting to go there, but they can't
go unless they're sober. I think that's the
way it's going to work.
J know that there are a lot of 'cm
peeping around there. They've been
drinking. You can see them way out in the
weeds, peeping out. They can't come in,
though. Within four days, if they've been
drinking, they can't go.
KJ: It's good work you're doing,
Walker.
WC: The first 11me I went 10 Oklahoma,
the head man explained 10 me all about how
that Fire was kept. While he was explaining
it, he said, "As long as you are doing God's
wiU. that's all that's required."
Well, that's all that's required for
anybody anyway. As long as you are doing
God's will and believe in Jesus Chris1.
KJ: How about the white people,
Walker? The Ind fan people have been hcrc a
long time, and they have old traditions that
they can get back in touch with. But the white
people haven't bt-cn here so long, and they
don't have such old traditions. ls there
anything they can do 10 get back in touch?
Cartersville and Albany. Georgia. Instead of
having Fire, they had a bale of hay.
KJ: That takes the power out of i1. ll's
hard to think about in the same way after it's
been commercialized.
WC: There's another thing: we can't
build the Fire unless we use a spark out of a
rock. My son's a fueman, he builds fires. A
man gave him a striker, it makes a big spark.
You can·t use a match or a cigarette lighter.
KJ: Do you ever use a bow and drill?
WC: No. This man said it wouldn't be
right. That's somebody's invention. The
spark was 1he real tradiLional thing.
KJ: Are you teaching somebody to
come after you?
WC I don't have to. The spirit's there
forever. If I die, 1ha1 won't bother i1. The
spirit 1s still there. they know 1he spirit is
there, so I don't have 10 Lc:11 1hem how i1's
done. lt's the Everlasting Fire.
KJ; What else are you trying 10 ,~ach
people?
(remedies). I'm not a medicine man. A lot of
people call me medicine man, but the
Medicine Man is down in Cherokee (referring
to the Medicine Man Gift Shop). 0aughs)
KJ: So these are plant medicines. You
don't do any conjuring.
WC: No. I don't go for that, it's against
my religion ConJuring and religion don't go
together. Just like alcohol.
KJ: llow did you learn the remedies
that you know.
WC: From my mother, she taught me.
Someone can teach you the different
medicines, but even if you understand what
kind of medicine a person gets, and you just
went and got that same kind of medicine for
everybody, it wouldn't be any good.
We've got to put our Creator first,
because we ain't got power ourselves unless
we put God in front. Then we can do it.
Thc medicine is just a point of contact.
Goel is the One who heals you. I understand
that. The medicine is just something 10 get
you closer 10 God. If you don't believe in the
medicine· no good, it won't do it. You've
got to have faith in the medicine, too.
/
WC: I'm trying to teach medicine, "hat
little mcdidnc I know. I ju$t know a few
WC: Well. I don't know. They're
supposed 10 keep up their tradition. their
culture, of whatever they arc. Each
nationality should keep their own.
KJ: It's hard for white people because
they have been away from 1he land for so
long. h's been hundreds of years.
WC: Thar's like these two men who
came from Pennsylvania. They were curious
about what l was doing.
"Our people ain't got nothin'," 1hey
said. "We're just here, that's all."
KJ: I think that's why a lot of white
people are interested in the native religion,
because that's how they feel. It's imponant
for everybody tha1 you keep the old customs,
the s1
omp dance and all of 1ha1.
WC: That's a religious dance, and we
can't do Lha1 dance away from the ceremonial
ground. The only place is down around the
Fire.
We can do the other dances 10 honor the
animals, the Bear Dance, the Beaver Dance
the Quail Dance. But the stomp dances we '
have to do around the Frre.
There's one big bunch from the Creek
tribe that has commercialized theirs. I saw
them do their stomp dance down at
Xatuah Journat page 4
WrUTEPATII
Moving in10 my solitude,
he wrestles me from stolen moments of peace
among the grand green pines, golden poplars,
and brawny. brown oaks
or rides a <1uie1, sure-footed mount along 1he ml.ii
that conscience leaves
into my sleep ChiefWhitepath moving his people from Georgia.
I le doesn't speak, but I can hear others weeping,
and often there's a scream of death
that deepens his frown.
ln his eyes I can read the desperate question
"How can so many people rest on the carcasses
of murdered souls, and not be thought
savage?"
· Dtborah J~s
ran, 1991
�A Bit E)f Mo~ntain Levity
"Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old eanh must borrow its minh,
But has trouble enough of its own."
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
In the minds of each of us, there are
worlds which no longer exist and which we
can visit only in memory and in i;haring with
others. We cnn not walk the same trail twice.
It has been my good fortune, however, to
have some of the people of Roan Mountain
share their hidden worlds of yesterday with
me, especially those of the Depression era. I
discovered therein a fascinating culture of
isolation, independence, and great good
humor.
They refer to the Depression years as
"hard times but good times" and their
wonderful sense of humor seems to have
been the glue that kept heads on straight and
held families together during those "hard
times." Banter, affectionate teasing, story
telling, and practical jokes were a way of life
. .. and still are.
I remember one day when I became
hopelessly lost in my ramblings around Roon
Mountain. I stopped at an isolated country
store. A porch rnn the full length of the small
building lllld held a number of ladder-backed
chairs. In one of these, tilted precariously
against the wall on its two hind legs, sat a
very old man eyeing me a bit suspiciously. I
C:lrCfully explained my predicament and
asked for directions. Without changing
expression, he surmized "You can't get there
from here." He paused, looked very stem,
then a big grin broke his face. A little levity
goes a long way toward turning problems
into laughter. I must have seemed really
uptight.
The language of their stories is filled with
subtle and not so subtle humor, sometimes
even a bit caustic, sometimes it bruised a bit
but served as a gentle reminder of what path
was allowed. Admonitions such as "Do
something, if it ain't nothin' but carry water
out of the branch and put it in the creek. It'll
keep from wearing the rocks out," indicating
that laziness was simply not allowed. For
children too young to work in the fields but
not out playing, "You're as lazy as a pet pig.
If your breathin' didn't come and go by
itself, you'd be to0 lazy to breathe." At the
table you might bear "Let your vittles stop
your mouth" when children got a bit too
rambunctious. About someone who got up
"feelin' poorly," "He got up cranky and
hasn't gotten over it." Then there's "You
look like the hind wheels of hard times" and
"You sure took your time. You'd a-been a
good hand to send for the doctor if the devil
was sick."
Oaildren were the target of much good
natured teasing, a son of initiation rite. Jim
Street tells of one such incident when he and
his brother Aoyd were on the receiving end
of a bit of "funnin'." Will Garland, a close
friend of the family, had brought Sam
Brinkley to talk with the boy's father about
:Foff, 1991
buying some property. Now Sam Brinkley
was famous for his long beard that reached to
the ground and which he kept carefully stored
in a pillowcase tucked inside his shin. The
boys, aged four and eight, had never
experienced that beard. "We were playing
head and beard. h skeerd us so bad we run
and jumped in the hog pen with the hogs. We
couldn't find no place else to hide. Daddy
then came and got us out and said Will, quit
skeering these boys: they're already crazy
enough.' Garland was always aggravating
and making cornstalk horses," Jim said.
us, telJing us these big stories about what
was going to catch us and everything. Ever
time I seen Brinkley auer that, he'd laugh,
but Floyd never did like him much."
Floyd was a born prankster himself. Hear
this one: Visiting preachers, especially during
camp mecrin's, wen: regular visitors at the
Street family table. One day when there
see~ 10 be an especially large number of
them and the children were having to wait
second table, the fried chicken seemed to be
disappearing at an alarming rate. Young
Floyd peered around the dining room door
and called to his mother, "Don't let 'em eat all
the chicken, Mom!" Turning, he ran out into
"We'd cut off a long piece and make his head
and we'd use a little stick or a slip off that
comswllc and make his neck and stick it on
that and then put on his legs and tail and his
mane and everything and we'd have cornstalk
horses. That's what we were busy a-doing
and we didn't think they was anybody
around. So Will Garland talked Brinkley into
sticking his beard around an apple tree and
a-scarin' us. We didn't know they was
anybody in a mile. He was about maybe fifty
feet away. We didn't sec him and he stuck
his head around that tree and Garland said
'Oh yes, I've got you this time' and he was
hid and all we could sec was the old man's
(COlllllluod on page 6)
Xnti1af1 Journat page S
�(coounucd l'rom piigc .S)
the night. 1 don't know if he go, a~y chicken
or not!
Humor was not always up front, and as
Malone Young so aptly put it, "Old time lying
wasn't really a vice. Land Sakes! Life would
have been dull as a froe if people didn't
stretch the truth," Storytelling was a real an.
Old men would sit around the country store
and see who could top the next one or swap
stories at bean stringin's or com i;huckin's.
During interviews, I was not always sure if
the story I was hearing was true or not. One
day I asked, "Is this really a true 5tory?" The
answer came quickly "Honey. if I'm a-I yin'.
I'll tell you." He didn't say when.
Sometimes the story would be quite true,
such as this one told by Howard Shell, but in
order to make them interesting they might end
with a funny questionable twist. Howard was
sining in the swing on his front porch when
I askc-0 him about witches. Ile immediately
got a mischievous linlt: twinkle in his eye and
10ld me his mother was a great believer in
witches. The story goes that she was having
difficulty geuing the milk to chum and
decided chat her cow was bewitched. She and
her son built a big bonfire. Then she went to
the woods and got two haw branches.
stripping the thorns to make a good handhold
but leaving them on the ends. She put her
daughter on one side of the fire and her :;on
on the other. As she poured the milk into the
fire. they beat it with the haw br.inches and
the cow wa.,; cured. Then he told me their
chickens became sick nnd his mother decided
they were bewitched. Again she built the big
bonfire, put one of the sick chickens into a
bag and threw it onto the fire alive. I waited
expectantly for the rest of the story which
didn't come. Finally I asked warily, "Well.
did they get un-bewi1ched?" "I don't
remember," he replied wilh a sly grin.
One charming lady has taken practical
joking 10 a long-running high. We'll call her
Anna 10 pro1ec1 the innocent. Anna is married
10 a very serious, reserved, channing
holiness preacher. bm ,his did not deter her
yen for fun. Let's call her husband Joe.
Every year, come April Fool's Day, Anna
auempted 10 play a joke on Joe and much 10
his chagrin, she always succeeded. Joe
logged and farmed, was generally hardworking and steady as you go. His horses
were of much value and importance to him
and were greatly cherished. Early one April
ls1. Anna slipped ou1 of bed early,ju~t :11
daylight. went outside and came rushing back
into the bedroom screaming that the horses
were tangled in the barbed wire and were
cuuing themselves badly. Joe, who slept only
in his wherewithals, rushed out into the
frosty. cloud-heavy morning, only 10 find
1ha1 he had been taken again.
The next year he threatened 10 whip the
children if they helped their mother play her
linle game. Anna had been after Joe 10 move
a hig pile of logs stacked in !he yard because
she was afraid the children would get hun
playing on 1h·em. but 10 no avail. There they
were. stacked 100 high for safety. Before
anyone else was up. she wen, 0111 into the
yard. pushed 1he logs over so they rolled in
every direction. then carefully maneuvered
herself under two of them in a way 10 appear
badly hun. When one of the children peered
out the window and saw her, he screamed for
his father. When Joe saw what he- thought
had happened, he leaped through the window
10 run 10 her rescue. only 10 have her sit up
when he go! there and say "April Fool!"
Could you live with a woman like that? He
has for some 60 years!
Another one of her delightful stories
in\·olved "siuing up with the body." The
custom was when a person died, the body
was kept a1 the home until it w~ interred.
During 1ha1 time. even a, night, friends and
relatives "sat up." One such night Anna was a
bit bored and she looked around for some
mischief needing to be done. She saw two
very pious women sining in straight chairs
leaning against the wall - sound ash:ep! She
took some soo1 from the chimney, mixed in a
The air is fine
for it gives me
what J need to live
••
.~·
$'
~:
:::
.•.
\
·
The water is my mother
for it holds me
as she would in dream
~
.•
Fire is my pride and foe
for when it snaps it says
it will overtake me
...
.•.
·• .
.•.
And stone, stone is my best friend
for it shows me the hardness of the world
-1.smanl Cirino
JI I
I h
•,.
.
-~.
•
Hard Scrabble
.!.
the ground I stand on
I
by Barbara Wickersham
.• ! .
as it prepares
I
The judge could no! solve ii and the man
went free. It was later solved: 1-Ie had killed
his wife, dug a hole 10 put her in, and his
name was Fox.
And then chere's the story about the man
who had 100 much moonshine anti killed his
cat ... bu1 we'll save that for another time!
They still remember, these people of 1he
mountain~ and they laugh and share their
funny stories. I love 10 laugh and r did so
enjoy listening - hope you did 100.
/
•
••
.•·
The earth is good
t 1 \'
Riddle 10 my riddle to my right,
Guess where I srayed las, Friday night.
The wind did blow and my hean did ache
To see what a hole that fox did make.
.. ·· ·· · . ....
.•..~·......-.:•:•:•:•:•:•:·........·•..•....
..·•·
....•.
...
The Elements
Xotimf, Jou1 nnC pn9c 6
little water, and painted their faces lndian
style No one would betray the culprit v. ho
had done the dastardly deed! Recently Anna
1old me she asked one of the women if !hey
wanioo 10 know who did it. The lady replied
"No, not now. I might get angry all over
again." So Anna didn't tell - and her secret is
cenainly safe wi1h me.
Long hours of plowing. hoeing com,
chopping wood, washing, cooking, etc. se1
these very bright people of devious minds to
crca1ing riddles. An nnicle about their humor
would be incomplete without a, least shanng
one nddle with you. Here is my favori1e
story of riddles shared (supposedly a true
story). The wife of a man who lived back in
the deep woods had disappeared without a
1rnce. Her family became concerned and there
was an investigation. The man was brought
before a judge and accused ofkilling his
wife. Apparently the judge musr no, have
been ahoie1her sure of his guih and he 10ld
the man if he could make a riddle tha1 the
judge could not solve. he could go free. Here
is the riddle:
·•
.•..•.
...
............
·•·
•
·~
•
Appalachian mountainside,
more rocks than grass.
Three cows graze sideways round,
short legs up hill, long legs down.
Farmer says there's green enough
to put milk in their faucets,
and maybe there'll be milk enough
to put green in his pockets.
{
._.
:::
~:
}
•.
~
•.
.•·
..
·•·
..
.....
·•·
-Mlba Barr.
e
.
.......·-•:•:•:•:•:•:•·.........,;.•·
.
•·
.• • ·
•
..
rnff., ,.19!1 I
1 . '1
�CLIMAX
NEVER
CAME
have ever been in an old-growth forest thm
contains tulip trees, you can see that they
have a Iarger crown than other species, Like
hemlock, sugar maple, or beech. And as tulip
trees fall over. they create an open patch that
is bigger than a gap left by one of the other
tree species. Intermediately tolerant or even
intolerant ttecs that wouldn't come up in the
space left by a sugar maple or a beech, come
up in the gap made by a fallen tulip tree. So
even in an old-growth forest you can have a
(OMlinncd on~· 8)
by Henry Wender
The idea of a "climaxfores1" has been
an appealing one w sciemists interested in
validating the idea of a 1111mral order in the
world. It has also been a term usedfrequelll/y
in the pages of the Katuah Journal to describe
the old-growth hardwoodfore.\'l.
Now it appears that n111ybe there has
never been a climax forest in the Southern
Appalachians, that the theory is too restrictive
to accurately describe the dynamic processes
of na111re in the mowuain highlands. JIere is a
report on the controversy
Scientists looking back at the
magnificent hnrdwood forest that once
covered the Southern Appalachian Mountains
felt a sense of awe at the splendor of the big
trees. The old forest had a feeling of
permanence and "rightness" I.hat was justified
by the observation of "succession" among
forest plants: after a disturbance smaller,
fast-growing plants repaired ecological
damage and prepared the site for larger tree
species and their accompanying understory
vegetation. The dominant uces and the plants
associated with them were termed the "climax
forest," for these trees were shade-tolerant 10
some degree and succeeded themselves in the
forest canopy. It seemed that unless an
outside disturbance threw the forest back into
an earlier stage of succession that the
dominance of ccnain tree sP-CCies was
inevitable. Certain species appeared 10 be
ideally adapted 10 the conditions of the region
and. unless interrupted, could maintain their
reign perpetually (or at lea.st until the
conditions of the cnvironml!nt changed).
Succession, the scientists said, always
reached a climax: "a self-reproducing 1cm1ina
community."
As with almost any abwlute statement
in science, contradictions began 10 appl!ar
within the idea of the climax forest. During
the 1970's, scientific questioning turned into
open revolt. One of the leaders of the
rebellion was Dr. Peter S. White, then a
researcher for the National Park Service at th
Uplands Field Research Laboratory ,n the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
White is now the director of the Nonh
C-irolina Botanical Gardens maintained bv th,
University of Nonh Carolina at Chapel I iill.
In a conversation in his office. he spok,
about how his observations clashed with the
climax theory:
" 11tey (the climax thcorhts) would
pn.-dict that in time a cenain cove site would
become a hemlock forest or a beech forest.
But th:it ~ocs nor happen everywhere without
interruption.
"Fire is an example in many
ecosystems. but 10 use an even subtler
example, tulip trees (locally known as yellow
poplar) are shade-intolerant, early
successionaJ trees. They colonize where there
is on abundance of resources and nutrients
and light and water.
'Tulip trees have a large crown. If you
:ft1CC. 1991
Phoio by Rob Meutck
Xatum, Journot PCIIJe
7
�of climax. They_
inU'Qduced "Polycli~cs," a
mosaic ot different climax situations across
the same landscape, and even "dis-climaxes,"
climax situations based on recurrent patterns
of disturbance. Others referred to climax as
an ideal situation that was valid for an
(ainunucd frum pqc 7)
persistent succcssional tree, just because of
their great size.
"So the ultimate progression towards
climax would occur only in some rare
situations. It docs happen. In a deep ravine, it
CARIHEAN ISLANDS
GIJ'
MOOE LS
,-,.......
$MALL
WATERSHEDS
DOMINICA
CUBA
' '
r--"---,
RECREATIONAL FOREST IN
SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
1
.. 111*
C
C
w
~
•
C
~
,,. ----,\
1010
C
,r,
0
OIUIIRICANES
HITTING
CIRCULAR
ISLANDS
I
/
\
EFHCTIVELY
NONEOUILtlRIUM
LANOSCAl'ES
E
. . -1"----
\
--
/
I
""'
C
10•
}
AUSTRALIAN
~REST
FIRES FIIQM
1954 ,.,,
IIY YEAR
.
__ ...,
}
}
)
IJ''ALACHIAN
WILDFIRES
AREA IN THE 11.tlNGES OF
COMMERCIAL A\ISTIIALIAN
~IYSl'ECIES
Sc.le of dinurbonce and ICale of bnclscapcs for •umple ecosyslefflS. The hne between lhc
dTcctive.ly nonequihliriwn and 111c quai-eqwlibri1m 1.-,d,apcs is based 011 a SO: I ratio of landsape
cn:a to diJllllt)enu au. Cornbina&ions of disn.wbance and laidscape scales illu.waied uc: (a) Trerfalls
Oii imall W111Cn!w,ds; (b) W'llcl!n, on ama11 walaShcds; (c) WildfiRS on reaeaiioml foruu: (d)
AIISlnliln Corua ms on I.be nmie of Auslnlli111 £colyp1i,s specie$; and (c) Hurtian<s OC1 Carribc:m
hllnds. (from A Theory of Forest Oynamies by Herman H.Shup.rt)
might just be shady enough that hemlock is
able to exclude any intolerant plants
eventually, providing there is freedom from
fire or hurricanes. So in a cenain sense there
could be dominance by a few of the most
shade-tolerant species. But in most other
cases, I think thar that end-point of
succession was still a mixed forest which
never quite got to climax."
Key to the idea of climax was the
qualification "unless interrupted... " In climax
theory, disturbance, even natural disturbance,
was looked on as "endogenous," something
that came from outside the system and
interrupted the "normal" progression 10 a
stable climax. White and his scientific allies
maintained that disturbance was a natural
occurrence in the life of most forests and
needed to be included in any theory of forest
dynamics.
'There was a certain sense that
evolution creatcS ctiversity," White said,
"There is a reason why early-succession
plantS such as birch, pin cherry, or
blaclcberrics evolve in a system. and that
reason is that there is periodic disturbance, so
it felt that 10 look only at the end-point was
the wrong focus."
In nature, it is said, "change is the only
constant," and trying 10 deny disturbance an
integral role in the forest ecosystem seemed
10 be setting up a Static model lhat left out the
clement of change.
Scientists defending climax recognized
this, and they began to redefine the concept
Xawan Journat
- • , J. ".
h. t
P™Je 8
environment whether it actually occurred or
nOL
There came to be so many "climaxes"
that, in the eyes of White and his cohons, the
concept lost its meaning. "Every species is
climax in that it evolved within some
environmental setting and is extant within that
setting," he wrote in 1979 (emphasis added).
A nonhem hardwood forest setting
provides an example. The dominant species,
such as beech or sugar maple, depend on a
shady, liner-covered forest floor to germinate
their seeds. They are slow colonizers but are
very tolerant of shade and play a waiting
game. sitting as small saplings in the
understory until an opening appears, when
they use their height advantage and leap 10 fill
it.
While these species arc clearly
dominant, other early-succession species
persiSt. Yellow birch has light seeds which it
disperses widely, starting many seedlings on
I.be forest floor. But these seedlings arc
completely eliminated, except for those which
manage to take root on disturbed soil or on
moss mats covering rotting logs or rocks
from which they drop trailing roots 10 the
forest floor.
The fire cherry has persistant seeds that
live a long lime in the soil, waiting for a
ctisturbancc 10 open a gap in the upper
canopy. By such strategics, these
"early-succession" species, although never
dominant, keep their place in the the northern
hardwood forest. When larger gaps open up,
the "climax species" arc out-competed by
stands of the fas1-growing, light-loving trees.
Rather than a linear model always
approaching the goal of a final climax, 1his
appears to be a shifting balance of different
species competing amid a constantly
changing set of conditions.
"Dynamic equilibrium" or "patch
dynamic equilibrium" is how White describes
this continuing process. He mentions the
work of Herman Shugan, a professor at the
University of Virginia. ln his book A Theory
of Foresr Dynamics, Shugan modeled a
forest with disturbance patch size (maybe a
burned area plus the gaps opened by fallen
trees) on one axis and the total landscape siz.c
on the other axis.
If the total siz.e of the disrurbanccs was
one-fiftieth of the size of the forest, Shugan
said that the forest was in a state of
"quasi-equilibrium." If the disturbance area
included more than one-fiftieth of the forest,
Shugart said that the forest was in
"disequilibrium."
Shugart also drew some conclusions
about habitat ctiversity by examining patch
sizes on a landscape over time. ln his model,
maximum ctivcrsity was obtained when
one-fiftieth of the landscape was stirred up by
small, concurrent disturbances. On the other
band, a single massive disturbance, like a
hurricane or a large fire, would not produce
that same diversity of habitats, because the
character of the whole forest would be
altered.
This analysis is more relativistic and
flexible than the traditional climax model
because it incorpocatcs disturbance as pan of
the picture rather than trying to exclude the
influence of change. It can also give a picture
of relative stability. While there is constant
change and constant activity happening at the
local level, seen from a wider viewpoint a
forest's rate of food production, the average
amount of biomass, or the average size of
animal populations may bold steady over an
extended period of time.
'That equilibrium." says Peter White,
"since it has changclessncss within change,
could be seen as a climax landscape. It's a
big landscape with lots of inctividual local
dynamics, but they're all canceling out over
the whole. One could call that climax.
"Historically, the tenn 'climax' would
not have been applied 10 the patch dynamics
equilibrium, but given freedom from people,
and a constant equilibrium on a larger scale,
there is a stable landscape configuration that
could develop."
Change is constant The key is balance.
This viewpoint frees our minds from a linear
and goal-oriented perspective. lt integrates
the forest species and the forces that influence
them together into a larger whole. In this
view of evolution, the cycles of successfon
yield stability in its time while providing
necessary diversity to meet the challenge of
unceasing change.
Thuw to Or. Peter White for I.he infonnation ror this
arti<;lc. For more in-depth infonnalion. - his article
-Pattern. Process. and Natural Diswrbancc in Vcgctation" in
The Botanical Rrv~. Vol. 4S, No. 3 (Swnmcr. 1979) and
TM &oleo ofNOlrval Distrvbana and Pasch Dyll(tlflia.
edited by S. T.A. Piclcca and Peter While (Academic Press,
1985).
f"n(L, 1991
�..
1
IS THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN
ECOSYSTEM ENDANGERED?
by John A. Freeman
The Southern Appalachian area is one
of the beauty-spots of Earth. Yet there are
signs that this ecosystem is in trouble, that it
is breaking down, perhaps much more
rapidly than we are used to thinking
ecosystems can.
There is ample evidence that
ecosystems break down quite rapidly due to
stresses from overuse or abuse. Ln early
classical Greece, trees were so abundant that
the land was basically forest with isolated
clearings. Yet within two centuries trees were
uncommon enough that travelers mentioned
individual trees or small groves as guidepost~
along their routes
ln the American West 130 years ago,
travelers described the grasses as reaching
halfway up 1he sides of their horses. Today,
some of these areas seldom have grasses
more than a few inches tall and the carrying
capacity forcanle has been reduced by
perhaps 98 percent.
But surely our beautiful area wi1h its
forests is not on tha1 slippery slope,. Or is ii?
Fifty years ago, as a graduate student at
Chapel Hill, I chose 10 use three common
aquatic snails in a research project. One basis
for the choices was that they were readily
availnble in nearby srreams - I could collec1
1he seveml dozen of e;ich that l neede.c;I in a
matter of minu1es. Fifteen years later, in.
Piedmont ponds two of the snails were
common. The third, always found in small
streams and pi:eviously common throughout
these mountains, was rare. In 1956 r saw the
last one I have seen in this area. Six or seven
years later, the pond snails had almost
disappeared from the ponds where 1 once
collected them in large numbers.
By 1he mid-'60's, even superficial
observation showed that stoneflies and
mayflies were much reduced in the areas r
visited. Except for fishermen, most people
would not be concerned about the decimation
of these insects. However, the fact that they
are major sources of food for trout gives
them significance. Their loss has been
responsible for the need of frequent stocking
of trout streams 10 enable tr0u1 fishing in
most of the area. Other small creatures nre
rare in many areas wbere they were once
common. Some that come 10 mind are snakes
and other reptiles, and a wide range of
amphibians (frogs, toads, and salamanders)
which, as a whole, I estimate have been
reduced in numbers by perhaps 99 percent.
Many songbirds are also much reduced in
recent years.
Taking a longer historical perspective,
the top predators were reduced 10 only token
levels many years ago. Wolves, for example,
were once important in the balance among
animals in our area. Now, in an effort to
restore some semblance of balance. red
wolves are being reintroduced. The predatory
birds (eagles, hawks, owls, etc.) were once
reduced to small populations but fonunately
with some suppon by humans are makmg
comebacks.
:fa(£, 1991
In recent years, among the most
conspicuous changes have been among trees,
especially Fraser firs and spruces at higher
elevations, such as Mount Mitchell. As yet
less dramatically affected arc various oaks,
pines, dogwoods and 01her trees extending
thing of the past, possibly within decades and
almost surely within a century.
What can be done, if anything, 10 get
our beloved area off the slippery slope?
Unfortunately, about the only rhing we
can do locally is 10 apply as many "bandaids"
down into the valleys. That we have some
explanations - or tentative explanations - of
the changes we sec docs no1 reduce the fact
or significance of the.c;e changes.
Based on my own per;onal, though not
systematic, observations, I conclude that our
Appalachian ccosys1ems are under attack.
Once the slippery slope of ecosystem
degeneration i.~ reached, ecosystem
breakdown can be rapid. It leads 10 a nc:w
and different system that develops rapidly
unless remedial steps are taken promp!ly and
vigorously. The new ecosystem has a lower
tot.ill life suppon capacity than the original
from which it developed.
My conclusion is qualitative, not
quantitative: based on my observntions over a
lifetime in the Appalachian and nearby areas,
our ecosystems are already onto tha1 slippery
slope leading to dramatic changes, including
towered productivily. Just when sharp and
dramatic changes will come is unccnain, as it
is uncertain just whru the changes will be.
Unless dramatic steps are taken soon, the
ecosystems we know and enjoy will be a
as possible, for the basic causes of the
problem are much more widespread. Any
steps which lower the pollutants known as
acid rain or acid precipitation will help.
Global wanning and the depletion of
stratospheric ozone are widespread problems
1hat require more than local actions.
Fonunately, there is developing wide intereSt
in this country, especially at
non-governmenllll levels, in these problems.
Accords and bws mandating changes are
ei1hcr already in effect or arc being
developed.
Grassroots activists instinctively ask a
crucial question: "What is there for me 10
do?" Fonunately, there.arc several
overlapping areas in which we can be
effective.
Foremost, in my opinion, is increasing
awareness on the pan of the public and of
government officials that the mauer i~ critical
and that we cann0t afford to wait until all is
kTiown about such matters as what causes
damaged vegellltion.
Drawing by Rob Messick
(COIIIIIIUed on page 24)
1Gatuah Jo1..rnn£ PCMJC 9
�uTalking Leaves"··
1
,,,
The Life and Influence of Sequoyah
based on an interview with
Tom Underwood
Sequoyah was unquestionably a
genius. He developed an 86-character
syllabary of the Cherokee language that
enabled his tribe to become the only one of
the North American Indian tribes 10 become
literate. Sequoyah's invention allowed the
Cherokees to publish a tribal newspaper and
preserve many of their old teachings and
beliefs in written form. He is the only man in
recorded history known to have devised a
system of writing without knowing how to
read or write in any language.
Sequoyah was born in eastern
Tennessee sometime around 1776, the
half-breed son of a while man named
Nathaniel Gist and a daughter of one of the
Cherokee chiefs at the village of Echota.
There has been much discussion among
historians about his parentage, but today
there is little doubt that Gist, the son of a
prominent Virginia family, was Sequoyah's
true father.
Gist was a friend of George
Washington, and it is said that he was
working secretly for Washington, looking for
purchasable land in Tennessee. He lived with
the Indians for quite some time at the Echota
village. He did not leave there until the
Revolutionary War, when there was
discussion in the Virginia legislature of
d~laring him a traitor because he was living
with the Cherokee who were actively aiding
the British.
Gist traveled to Virginia and presented
himself before the legislature. He told them
that he was not a British sympathizer and that
he would recruit Cherokee to the colonial
cause. He brought 14 Indians to fight for the
colonists, but he did not return with them to
E~hota. After the independence was declared,
Gist settled in Ohio, and his family became
respected leaders of their time - one was a
congressman, another became a well-known
innkeeper in Washington.
After Sequoyah had invented the
syllabary and was on business in
Washington, he visited the Gist family on
one occasion, evidently at their invitation,
and was accepted by them as Nathaniel's
son, George Gist.
Some of the best written information on
Sequoyah is included in an odd collection of
documentS on the Cherokees compiled by a
white man named John Howard Payne.
Payne was a contemporary of Sequoyah and
transcribed first-hand n:collcctions of the
man.
"The Payne manuscript," as it is
known, says that Sequoyah's family on his
mother's side "was of high rank in the
nation. The famous John Waus was one of
them. Two of his uncles were men of great
distinction - one of the two was named
Tah-lon-tee-skee (the overthrower), and the
other Kahn-yah-tah-hee (the first to lcill).
"Kahn-yah-tah-bee was the principal
X.Otuah Journal
pac.,s 10
chief of Old Echota, the ancient town of
refuge, over which he presided, He was
called The Beloved Chief of All the People.'
1t was his exclusive duty and delight 10 be a
peace preserver.
"During some public assembly, there
was an onset of the whites, notwithstanding
it was a time of profound peace, and all the
Tndians fled, excepting Kahn-yah-tah-hee and
another chief, of whom there was some
distrust in the nation. They were both in the
square where the ceremonial had been gone
through. Kahn-yah-tah-hce arose from his
scat, and with a white flag waving, met the
marauders as they broke into the square.
Both chiefs were murdered brutally on the
spot.
"Some days subsequently, the invaders
having withdrawn, the people returned.
Carrion birds had devoured the body of the
one chief, but that of the other,
Kahn-yah-tah-hee, the Beloved of All, was
untouched, and unchanged even in death. His
hand still grasped the violated Flag of Peace,
and upon his dead lips lingered a benignant
(sic) smile."
Se.quoyah grew up a Cherokee and
identified with his tribal heritage. He never
learned to speak English. He had no wish 10
learn the white people's language. Even after
~eh~ invented the ~yllabary and was being
interviewed for a sencs of newspaper articles
!n Washington. he spoke through an
interpreter.
The boy and his mother lived at Echota
until he was 11 years old and then moved
down to Wills Town, in nonheas1ern
Alabama.
He never showed signs of his genius
when he was a child. He was 100 busy
helping his mother find a means of survival.
She ran a small trading post and outfitted fur
trappers on credit. Young Sequoyah would
go out in the forest 10 pick up the furs owed
to her for payment. He was alone much of
the time. He learned self-reliance and
supplemented the family's meager larder by
hunting.
When he was older, he learned several
trades. He was a silversmith for a time. The
Cherokee loved 10 decorate themselves with
fine jewelry - ear and nose rings, armbands,
bracelets, gorgets, and chains, and Sequoyah
became proficient at creating these ornaments
out of silver. He prevailed upon a white man
10 write his name in English and engraved his
signature on each piece of his work. He also
began 10 draw and was highly regarded
among the tribespcople on this account. He
latertumed to blacksmithing. But he was
never much of a farmer; he never could get
interested in hoeing com.
It was also said of Sequoyah that he
was "greatly considered among all the
handsome women." The Payne manuscript
tells us:
"...when he discovered that he was so
greatly considered among the handsome
women, he began to pay less attention to his
employment He neglected his silver worlc
and his drawing and went about visiting one
and another, and every day he had more and
more friends. The young men were always
pleased to see him coming where they were.
When he would arrive at any place where a
number of them were assembled around their
boule, they would call out to him, 'My
friend, my friend, let us drink whiskey
together... '
"But at that time he drank only water;
though he would. when thus invited, always
go fetch a quart bonlc of whiskey. and give it
10 his friends and then wait and let them drink
it by themselves. He went on thus for a long
while, but was at length tempted now and
then to taste a little with his friends - and
soon, a little more: until at last. he would
often get tipsey (sic) with his friends:
whereupon his friends increased upon him so
fast, that instead of a bottle, he would have to
bring a three gallon keg for their supply, and
he would make them all drink with him, until
the keg was empty."
One night Sequoyah and a couple of his
friends went to a Bible reading. They
listened, and going home that night they
talked about how wonderful were the "talki.ng
leaves," as the Cherokee described pages of
paper. To them the pages of a book sounded
like leaves rustling in the wind.
Sequoyah's friends said, "This is a
wonderful gift of the Great One to the white
man. We could never have this."
He said, "1 could do this."
They laughed at him. "No, you
couldn't do that," they said.
He said, "I can do it I can find a way
to make the talking leaves speak in Cherokee.
They laughed again and said, 'You're
crazy.'''
That set him off. Sequoyah went to
work. He first tried 10 devise symbols to
make sentences, then symbols to make
words. Everything wound up too
compli_cated. He started over again trying 10
figure It all out. From when he began, until it
was completed, Sequoyah worked off and on
creating his syllabary for over 20 years. He
eventually broke the Cherokee language
down into 86 basic sounds and assigned a
symbol for each.
He could not devise enough signs 10
designate the different sounds. so one day
when he found a discarded newspaper, he
picked symbols from the pages and adopted
them into his own system. That is why some
of the characters in the Cherokee syllabary
appear familiar to English-speaking people.
Sequoyah would become absorbed in
his work and retire to a small outbuilding on
his propeny to ponder on the syllabary for
long periods of time. He abandoned his farm
fields completely and left the raising of crops
and family entirely to his wife. She became
infuriated about this project that was taking
her husband away from his responsibilities.
One day, when his work was almost
completed, she burned his little building with
all his notes while he was away from home.
But he would not quit He staned over.
No one else in the tribe believed in his work.
The other members of his community
disrrusted his long periods of solitary labor.
The word began to go around that Sequoyah
was engaging in witchcraft He was losing
the respect that he had gained in the
community. Finally one day a friend named
fo(t, 1991
�tribal council, Sequoyah received wide
recognition. Now a famous man, he
remained quiet and withdrawn. The Payne
manuscript described him as follows:
"His manners were never forward and
are now become somewhat reserved. lt can
be seen that his mind is always busy within
him, and, especially when smoking, he
seems absorbed in thought. He is thin and
above the middle heighL 1n dress he :idheres
10 the old costume of the nation, but without
ornament; wears the turuc and robe, leggings
Tunle Fields came ro visit Sequoyah. The
Payne manuscript recounts what to0k place:
"'My friend,' Turtle Fields said to him,
'my friend, there are a great many remarks
made upon this employment which you have
taken up. Our people are much concerned
abour you. They think you are wasting your
life. They think, my friend, that you arc
making a fool of yourself, and will be no
longer respected.'
"Gist replied, 'Lt is not our people who
Cherokee Syllabary
Da
-$-ga t ho
'Vha
W,a
,/"ma
Re
l"ee
T.
rhl'
.oh,
f ,e
Ctme
f ,,
H m,
0 n l.hnaGnah J\.n
a
e
Yii,
Iln,
Q Que
'fqu,
l::fsa OUs
4 ,e
h s,
W,..
d1a .Ct1d
i
G,.a
G.wa
tDva
~ mo
J'mu
,,,. . , 4 nu
O'nv
quo le}quu f; quv
½$0 If'$, Rs.,
Z no
~ qua
t da
.
Ou J..,
A eo J gu .Egv
J.lho r hu &-hv
G,o M,u 4 1
v
o)o
I
Sde't1e .,L ] ,, Vdo Sdu I ~ do
L ,,p C,11
,J ,,o -'i'P 11u P 11v
lr,s,
K ,so cJ,su C ,sv
'J',se
/Jwu 6w
v
4£JWL'
J3ve nv fi vo Gvu Bvv
have advised me to this, and it is not
therefore our people who can be blamed if 1
nm wrong. What 1 have done I have done
from myself. If our people think lam making
a fool of myself, you may tell our people that
what ram doing will nOl make fools of them.
They did not cause me to begin and they shall
not cause me to give up. If I am no longer
respected, what l am doing will not make our
people the less respected, either by
themselves or others; and so I shall go on,
and so you may tel1 our people."'
We sometimes call Sequoyah's
symbols an alphabet, but 11 is actually a
syllabary, which correctly describes a system
of signs for the sy11ables of a language.
lf one knows Cherokee. it is fairly
simple to learn Sequoyah's symbols and
write the words of the language. Not many
go 10 the trouble 10 do it anymore, but the
fin;t person Sequoyah taught was his six year
old daughter. She was the one who
demonstrated his system to the governing
council of the Cherokee nation.
When Sequoyah t0ok his syllabary to
the council, the members refused 10 believe
it. It was 100 complicated, they said. There
were too many sounds. They would never
learn it.
He said, "h's so simple 1ha1 that I have
taught my six-year old daughter to use it."
They put him to the test. She wrote
down what they said while he was out of the
room, and when he came back, he read ii.
After the syllabary was accepted by the
rnrt, 1991
~
WI
~ WO
sometimes of buckskin, sometimes of blue
cloth - moccasins instead of shoes - and a
turban."
By this time there was intense pressure
on the Cherokee from white people who
wanted their land. Sequoyah left Alabama
with a group led by Chief John Jolly and
settled in Arkansas. He worked some salt
springs and taught the written language 10 the
Cherokees there. At one time, there were
more literate Otcrokees than there were
literate white people in Arkansas!
When the first Cherokees forced to
travel The Trail of Tears arrived out west m
1839, there was much resentment among the
earlier settlers because "the newcomers" were
talcing up the land. There was violent
dissension that threatened 10 destroy the tribe.
and Sequoyah turned his talents and
reputation toward the causes of peace and
tribal unity.
The tribal leaders met and decided 10
write a constitution that all factions could
abide by Sequoyah was elected president of
the group, and if not for his presence, there
probably would have been much more
trouble, because he was a man who did not
take sides and did not harbor grudges. He
was a leader and a man of peace, and it
turned out that he had great powers of
diplomacy.
When the constitution was negotiated,
the Cherokee moved all their belongings 10
Oklahoma.
Scquoyah's final trip was a mission to
Mexico undenakcn when he was about 67.
He journeyed the<e to bring a whole village
of Cherokee people back to Oklahoma.. The
group had starte.d west without a guide
during the Removal, and had wandered down
the wrong river and ended up across the
border. ln seeking for them, Sequoyah died
in the small town of San Fernando, Mexico
in 1843.
•••
Words become only insO'Umencs,
expressions. The written syllabary
significantly changed the world of the
Cherokees, but it is difficult even now to give
a definitive analysis of the impact that
Sequoyah, singlehandedly, had on his tribe. I
think that will have to wait for future
historians.
But one thing is clear: Sequoyah
wanted his people to be able to read and write
like the Europeans, and through his genius
and his efforts he allowed the Cherokees 10
have their own written language. It gave them
a chance to read, and many Cherokees
became better informed than their own white
neighbors. They took pride in that. and they
took pride in the fact that it was their
tribesman Sequoyah who had made ic
possible.
Once the syllabary was widely
circulated, the tribe installed a printing press
in a log cabin office at the tribal capital at
New Echota. It was set with specially cast
type and printed documents and a bilingual
tribal newspaper. TIie Cherokee Phoenix.
There followed translations of the Bible,
hymnals, and prayer books in10 Cherokee.
After the Removal, literate Cherokees sent
leners back and forth between Oklahoma and
the Eas1. Directly or indin:ctly, the printed
word broadened the horizons of every
member of the Cherokee tribe.
It gave the Cherokee a significant
advantage over other Native American aibcs.
Because they could read their own language,
they were able to become acculturated ro
white society easier than the other native
people. That gave them a better chance of
survival in the world they had to face.
Of course, this acculturation had its
negative effecL~. 100. In some areas the new
literacy increased the jealousy of some of the
Cherokees' white neighbors. And at the same
time that it was increasing the Cherokees'
pride and sense of tribal accomplishment,
literacy was also helping to destroy traditional
foundations of tribal society. lndividual
Cherokees became confused about who they
were and turned their back on their native
heritage. As the Cherokee Bibles and prayer
books helped to gain convcns to the Olristian
religion, the power of the medicine people
was eroded and the ages-old spiritual life
withered away.
But because ethnologiSt James Mooney
found small journals in which Cherokee
medicine people had ~ e d their magical
formulas, he was able to preserve a written
record of ancient lore that was lost to many of
the other tribes. Other valuable information
wrincn in Cherokee was preserved as well.
There are medicine chants written by Bird
Partridge in the Museum of the Cherokee
Indian that were written in the native
language, and I am sure I.hat there were other
items of the same natuTC.
(0l>lllinlled <lll P-'CC 24)
1'ati1 fl Jour nd.
a
po(JC
11
�GREEN SPIRITS:
Human societies, cultures, and cuisines
originally developed around the ecological
cycles of plant growth and dormancy. seed
set and tuber development in their regions.
Today it is still highly desirable for each
bioregion to be more self-sufficient in its own
food production. Diet should become more
regionally localized and more seasonable,
with different foods available at different
harvelit periods. Produce .,,. hich is storable
or dryable (potatoes, winter squash, etc.)
would come to be of greater imponance in the
regional diet.
Regional food production (especially
production utilizing low-input organic
methods) would act 10 stabilize regional
economics by decreasing our dependance on
foreign inputs, especially oil and
pem:x:hemicals. Any region can become
more self-sufficient in its food production,
distribution, and marketing.
Critical to the successful development
of regional agricultural economies is the
preservation of the dwindling amount of
remaining world-wide plant genetic diversity.
Thousands of locally selected vegetable and
fruit varieties have been lost in the last
century due to the change from growing
predominantly local, open-pollinated varieties
to the almost exclusive use of F1 hybrid
varieties. Modern hybrid plant varieties have
been developed for characteristics such as
high yield, case of production and uniform
harvest, but not for the generic diversity
which serves as biological insurance against
disease or insect attack.
Hybrid crop varieties have the
disadvantages of (1) genetic uniformity, and
susceptibility to major insect and disease
attack; (2) seeds produced from hybrid plants
cannot be saved and replanted, since their
offspring would not produce a uniform or
stable crop; and (3) hybrid crops require
massive amounts of outside inputs, such as
fenilizers and pesticides, to achieve high
levels of yield. With the loss of genetic
diversity in our food crops, we are losing the
diversity which has developed over millions
of yea.rs, the same genetic differences which
allow plant populations to survive climatic
changes.
PlanLc; which have diverse genetic
backgrounds are generally termed
"opcn-pollinnted" varieties (also called
"non-hybrid," "standard," "heirloom," or
"old•timey" varieties ). Open-pollinated
varieties are more or Jess, randomly
pollinated from genetically diverse parents,
resulting in unique offspring with a wide
range of physical and biochemical genetic
expressions Seeds from open-pollinated
plants contain a great deal of genetic diversity
from which agriculturists can select for
features such as taste, disease resistance, and
suitability of use. By selecting parents with
desirable characteristics. and by crossing
them in selected combinations. improved
varieties, which are more adapted to local
climates, soils etc., can be isolated. Another
major advantage of open-pollinated varieties
is that they retain their genetic diversity,
preserving genes which may be more
:Kcit.i'.w h Jo1.m mt pQCJe 12
Seed Saving to Preserve Biodi:ver~sty,
adaptable to changing environments. II is of
grem practical value to be able to produce and
save one's own seed. 1hereby being able to
gradually selec1 for desired improvements
and bcner local adaptability (i.e. better gene
combinations for a panicular climate or soil).
while retaining genetic diversity.
SEED SA Vl~G REFEREI\CFS
Robm Johnson. Jr. 1983. Growing Garden
Seetlr: A Manual/or Gardeners and Small
Farms. Inexpensive and easy to understand.
Available from Johnny's Selected Seeds;
Albion. Maine 04910. $1.95
Peter Donelan. 1986. Growing ro Seed. A
more detailied presentation. Ecology Action,
Self-Teaching Mini-series# 13. Order from
Ecology Action: 5798 Ridgewood Road:
Willeis, CA, 95490 $3.50.
Suzanne Ashworth. 1990. Seed ro Seed
Seed-saving techniques for over 160
vegetable crops. 240 pp., $20.00 ppd. Order
from Seed Savers Exchange (sec address
below).
SEED SA VJNG ORGANlZATIONS
The Flower & Herb Exchange (FHE)
Rt. 3. Box 239
Decorah Iowa 5210 I
($5.00 annual membership)
Fonunately, there is a growing number
of individuals and developing organizations
which recogni1.e the imponance of preserving
natural genetic diversity in agricultural crops.
The most widely known is the Iowa-based
Seed Savers Exchange, which is a loose
organization of people committed to seed
saving and exchange. The Seed Savers
Exchange believes that the best way to
preserve historical varieties is by propagating
them and distributing them to a widely
scattered number of seed savers. The group
publishes lists of available varieties and
addresses of members with panicular
varieties for exchange or sale. By keeping
open-pollinated plant varieties in the public
domain, the Seed Savers Exchange ensures
that they will be widely propagated and
distributed.
We highly encourage Kan1ah plant
caretakers to identify and promote the
preservation, propagation, and distribution of
local "follc-roce" varieties of vegetables,
ornamentals, and fruits. Local county fairs
can be better orgnnized to identify local
varieties still grown by the old-timers. Talk
with dedicated seed-savers to identify their
favorite varieties and then offer to purchase
or trade for seeds when they arc available.
Multiply these varieties and be sure to further
distribute and "spread the wealth" to help
prevent the loss of these natural treasures.
Secondly, interested gardeners should
seek out open-pollinated varieties and
encourage their use and distribution. Try
growing these varieties and selecting for
plants with improved qualitic:;.
Lastly. plant caretakers need to produce
extra seeds to pass along to other seed-savers
to encourage their increase and serve as
insumnce against the loss of these
irreplaceable heirlooms.
Seed saving can be a simple and
economical hobby. General and specific
information on saving vegetable varieties can
be gained from the books listed below.
Seed Savers Exchange
Rural Route 3, Box 239
Decorah Iowa 52I01
($25.00 annual dues, with reduced
r01esfor "reduced income" membership),
specializing in plant listing ofvegetables and
fruits.
Native Scc<VSEARCH
3950 West New York Drive
Tucson, Arizona
Specializing in S011tllwest
indigenous crops, such as peppers, beans,
dye plants, etc. Dues $10.00 per year.
COMPANIES SPECIALIZING IN
OPEN-POLLINATEO/HEIRLOOM SEEDS
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Box 158-N
Nonh Garden, VA 22959
Caralog $3 .00, credited to first
order.
Redwood City Seed Company
PO Box 361
Redwood City, CA 94064
Caralog $/ .00
Bountiful Gardens (Ecology Action)
5798 Ridgewood Rd.
WilliL~. CA 95490
Abundant Life Seed Foundation
Box 772
Pon Townsend, WA 98368
Seeds Blum
Idaho City Stage
Boise, Idaho 83706
Caralog $3.00.
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Albion, Maine04910
Dr•wmg by Rob Mc.nick
- by Lee Barnes
1'nrt, 1991
�Walking Distance
Our transpotation addiction is
responsible for massive ecological and social
damage. Our society is built around the use
of Lhe automobile. It is now necessary for
most people to use a car or bus to get to
work, school, to buy groceries or see most of
our friends. This is a very expensive situation
in currency oflife, money, environmental
qualiLy and in social disruption. Our highest
priority should be to establish villages and
re-establish neighborhoods in which the day
to day needs of the people can be met within
walking distance.
A pattern of local self sufficiency would
have many good effects on our lives and on
the environmenL Fuel use and polluLion
would be cu1 dramatically and people would
save a 101 of money. People be/long in a
walking based society. Children grow up m
greater sccuri ty, and oldt:r folks can live
longer in their own homes when supported
by a caring community. In local economy we
empower each other as we disempower huge
political and industrial cartels. Wal.king and
biking as means of rransponation reintegraLc
people with their environment while
providing a moderate and appropriate
execrcise schedule. People would live longer
and be happier. Inter actions with actual
people would tend Lo replace video reality.
We live in a world designed for cars instead
of people. In a world designed for people,
kids can find enough other kids for a
ballgame any day with decent wcaLher, and
adults can either have the solitude of the
woods or the compt1ny of friends within
walking distance.
Native peoples the world over have
almost always chosen to live in villages.
Synergy is the reason for this. a village is
more than che sum of its pans. In a village
there is more protection from wild animals
and violent people, cooperation in labor, the
sharing of resources such as ox and plow,
GASOLJtlE
JS A
DAJ\JGEHOUS
CHE},JJCA!.
ADDJc·r JON.
and there is the possibility of specializing for
greater efficiency. Even as rteenily as the
1960's most of the people of che world lived
in agricultural villages with forest and field
out the back door and friends and neighbors
out the fronL
One of the reasons people moved to
cities was that the rural villages were cultural
backwaters. This has changed in an era of
satellite communications and U.P.S .. Now
the ideas and goods of the world are readily
available in the wilds of anywhere.
ANGLE: ENVIRONMENT
Fifteen years ago I wrote in my journal
that l had three jobs. The first was for money
so I could keep a roof over my head, eat. and
function in society \\ith a grasp on
self-reliance. Having been a Boy Scout and
raised with respect for nature and a vision of
caring for it, I wanted my job 10 be a pan of
an ecological wlution and not more of the
problem. 8111 I remember thinking at the
same time that "Job One is for money 10 pay
my bills." 1 had to begin wi1h my
self-reliance and forge my conscious ideas in
the marketplace as l went along.
Working as a mechanic. I sometimes
wondered if cars weren't one of our major
problems. Eventually realizing that it was
true, I also had 10 keep in mind that I had
learned to make them run more efliciemly. So
I was able to organi:r.e my thoughts and ideas
with the security my paycheck gave me to
work on Job Two.
For Job Two I recycll!d cars. This was
more of a hobby than a job-type job. I did not
do tt for money, bu1 for the environment. If I
made money that was line, but I figured tha1 I
would do this job as part of a solution. It was
a feeling l kept in my private heart, but I
knew my work muse feed it. If I wns to grow
and strengthen and become a man in the
business world, I had to help in designing
that world for health. I was looking for my
own true man rather than the businessman and trying to keep the roof over my head. So
roff. 1991
ii was my goal not to let this work tax the
environment in nny way, but to engage me in
part of the cleanup. My own system of Earth
first.
In the college town where I lived,
students abandoned cars everywhere. It
didn't seem to mailer how simply they might
be fixed, with their own studies and
graduation on their minds. and maybe sights
set on soon buying a new car, off into the
field the old cars went. I fixed cars man>'
times by putting in a new bauery. Other times
I took two cars and made one good
one...feeding them back into the
:,ystcm... seeing that no good pans were
wasted.
Though technology might give belier
fuel economy from year to year, we must
consider the "Bic Clic" mentality in the
throwaway car industry, keeping in mind the
horsepower it takes and the 1ax on our
environment to keep up the new car cycle.
Seeing the rate at which so many of these
'"dead" cars got crushed, only 10 create a
demand for another ne\\ one, made Job Two
feel very good environmentally. It seemed 10
go out and out. if only in my own thinking,
towards my goals.
My third job was solely for the
environment. 1 would not use fuel nor
generate money: I picked up trash.
II felt so good when money was not my
motivating force. People around me thought I
Photovoltaics can give electricity to the most
remote community. A modem rural
community is an atttactive idea in a time
when cities offer more in the way of crime
and less in the way of cultural attractions. It
is now possible to have the best of
civilization and the best of rural life. The
village is an idea whose time has come again.
The industrial revolution has brought us
great progress in many areas but the pattern
of social disintegration and ecological
degradation that it has fostered must be
changed. Consumerism must be replaced
with a more broad minded philosophy that
cares about the welfare of the entire system.
In a localil.ed economy there are
micro-<:conomic niches for pan time bakers,
appliance repair people, haircuucrs, chicken
keepers, cow milkers, etc. The industrial
revolution separated and scheduled life, work
came to mean job, education came to mean
school, and all of society came to revolve like
a gear around the needs of industry. People's
lives took on the same scheduled and
sequenced rhythms as the assembly line.
Extended families shrank into nuclear
families and then to one parent families.
Prosperity came to mean economic growth
instead of a state of well-being.
Now there are other trends at work, and
these will eventually produce an age of
self-sufficient villages that produce much of
their own power and food and at the same
time can choose co be active members of a
global civilization. The world needs models
for this new generation of rural community.
/
by Will Bason
Drawing by Rob MC$~ock
must have really tlipped. And though a1 fir..1,
1admit, ii did feel a little crazy, I had begun
to realize "new profits" and decided 1hnl
linering was indeed crazier.
I also pickl!d up aluminum. There were
liuer baJTCls up and down both sides of the
street from my home all the way across town.
So every day after work r walked and picked
up paper and cans. The barrels came up like
clockwork, and in them I found an aluminum
mme. There was a can buyer along my route,
so that was my "bank" right on my path. If I
thrcatencd anyone's sensibilities, f soon
didn't care. Because of the social nature of
the work, I was discovering more of what
mnde what tick.
Before long I added up what it was
costing me to go to Job One, and realized I
couldn"t afford ii anymore. Since that time
I've found that I cannot afford 10 work for
money as my chief motivaung force. The
things I do, I do for different reason5. I get a
strong feeling that a lot of the problem~ in the
world, the ones we inherited and the on~ \\e
perpetuate, began and continue because we
have been so busy making money. And as
we start 10 find the things that rc3lly can
s:uisfy us. we also find we don·t need so
much money anymore.
I've learned that sclf-n:liance actually
begins with me - and not with the roof ove~
myhead.
,P'
by lvo Ballentine
x.ai.urui Joun\OL
page 13
�SERYING TI IE OREAT LIFE
These are the words of a traduionaJ Cherokee
medicint ptrson:
1 have said that there are three levels of
conjuring: the personal levt>I, the level of
knowledge, and the spiritual level. (See
Kartfoh Journal #27.)
The first fonn of conjuring is the ways
we know to persuade acquainmnces or people
we are intimate with - every day sort of smff.
The next level is conjuring by
understanding how things work. what I call
the laws of nmurc. The more knowledge one
has at this level, the more ability one has to
conjure.
The highest form is the spiritual fonn or
conjuring. This level requires more than
lenming 10 accomplish it. One can learn how
to do 11, one can completely understand how
it works, and still not have the ability to
make it work. The reason a person may not
be able to do it is because his or her
individual self is in the way.
The whole key to working the higher
fonm of conjuring is to get one's self out of
the way. That's the hard pan. To be a
conjuror requires a personality that 1s strong.
willful, and persistent. Tt takes super courage
10 confront one's own self. That's the biggest
enemy. the biggest monster that ever existed:
our own ego.
The equation for conjuring is One.
There is One Spirit that flows through us all trees, plants, animals, the Eanh. That is our
connection to all things. Getting our
individualistic self out of the way allows us
to hook into that One SP.irit. which is moving
all the time. It is very difficult to get one's
self out of the way, but someone who can
accomplish that may use the spiritual power
for conjuring.
Conjuring, as I know it, corresponds
most closely to the western concept of
"manipulation." And in the dominant culture,
manipulation has bad connotations, because
people don't like to feel like they have been
manipulated, when actually we arc
manipulated all the time. We are manipulated
by our culture. The German people were
manipulated in World War Il. Americans are
manipulated by capitalism and glittery,
materialistic things. Many of the Jewish
people a.re very tied in to their own culture
and their history as a people. We arc aJI
constantly being manipulated.
In a world in which we a.re manipulated
all the time, conjuring can be very useful.
The conjuror can heal people. The conjw-or
can heal people who might otherwise be
dead. The conjuror can interfere with their
fate.
For instance, in this culture it's
absolutely terrifying 10 be told, "You have
Xotuan Journal p!MJC 14
cancer." Cancer is known to be so bad and
usually fatal. When a doctor tells a patient he
or she has cancer, it's devastating. ln some
cases people stan dying right away. They
surrender and relinquish them~elves to the
disense. The will dies.
Doctors can't usually do much about
cancer. But the mind and the spirit together
are so powerful that somerimes they can
make a cure. Sometimes they can provoke the
spirit of the Physician Within to heal a
person, And one does that through conjuring.
If a conjuror is successful, it's amazing
what can happen. Sometimes conjuring on
the third level produces results that seem
impossible 10 people who arc looking at it
from an conventional viewpoint. What they
see cannot be explained in a rational, linear
way.
''Magic comes when all doubt is cleared
from the mind." I don't see events th:11 occur
on the spiritual levels as magic. I see them as
facts - events that can happen all the time.
They only seem extraordinary to people who
are caught up in the physicaJ, materialistic,
self-oriented culture.
Healing may appear to be magic and
mystical, but it isn't. It's a law of nature.
Everyone has the capacity and the ability to
do this if they can get their own self out of
the way.
A conjuror can also do terrible things.
He or she can do absolutely hideous, horrible
things to other people. The same energy that
can heal someone can be used 10 make
another person to sick - just by reversing the
process. But in my experience of watching
people who had the ability to use that power,
the majority of them never did horrible or
terrible things. The simple reason was: the
consequences. There is karma, and it affects
one's spirit. Misusing spiritual power is one
way to destroy the spirit, kill it. How could
that not affect someone spiritually?
Sending a sickness used to be called
"spoiling the saliva." The old peoRle believed
that the spit was the secret way to a person's
spirit. They believed that by spoiling the
saliva they could make a person's spiri1 sick,
and then, since everything is connected, the
biological or emotional being would also
become sick.
The conjuror used to concentrate on the
saliva. using it as the focus point for a strong
meditation. When a conjuror is using a
spiritual form of conjuring, he sees himself,
his real self. He then visualizes the Whole,
and sees himself dissipate into the Whole.
The thought that he takes with him is of the
saliva of the person he is conjuring. When he
rerums with the saliva spoiled, he sends it
back 10 the person, and the person gets sick.
Using the spiritual fonn of conjuring is
definitely interfering with fate. It is the fate of
all of us to die, yet 1 know people who were
healed from their cancer after being given up
for lost by the western physicians. That's
interfering with fa1e. There are consequences
10 interfering with fate, and the consequences
could be positive, or they could be negative.
Conjurors don't feel that the spiritual
burden of interfering in someone's life rests
on thcm. When they are asked to do things,
they do just what somebody asks them. The
person who requests the conjuring is the one
who picks up on the good or bad
consequences of the act, not the conjuror that's our reality. Conjurors consider
themselves to be like the pistol in a murder,
and, by asking chem, their diem pulls the
trigger. h's not the pistol that goes on trial,
it's the trigger-puller who goes on trial.
In tribal times the conjuror was
honor-bound to carry out any fequest. The
tribe used to set apart people to be good
hunters, chippers of arrowheads, or com ~
planters. That was their task in life. A
medicine per.;on was set apart 10 conjure, LO
be a healer, or to be a priest - and there could
be no personal limits set on ii.
The only request a conjuror could
refuse was one lhat would require him or her
to hurt the Great Life, the Whole. lf someone
asked me to conjure the State of Nonh
Carolina to let them dump their toxic waste
along the highway or 10 poison the river, I
would be injuring the Great Life. I could
refuse. Otherwise. a conjuror relinquished
his responsibility.
Still, there were ways to get out of
conjunng acts that one considered distasteful.
One way was 10 get the client to participate in
the conjuring as much as possible. A
conjuror could drag it out for several days to
test their will. Often a person would change
their mind in two or three days.
Or the conjuror could have the person
do some things that didn't absolutely
necessary need to h:lppen.
"Get me a cenain plant up on
Clingman's Dome. There's a li1t1e rock up
under there with some moss that grows on it.
You have to be there in two hours, and you
have 10 hop in from the north on one leg,"
and when they brought that, he would say, "I
need this one other thing. You need to wade
across the river and..." There were always
means 10 slow people down and make them
think about their actions.
As a lasl reson a conjuror could say,
"My will is not going to be into this, and I
don't know how effective this is going to be.
I suggest you go sec another medicine
person."
Because conjuring is manipulation, the
'Fn(l., 199\
�11
idea seems negative and threatening LO many
people of Lhe western culture. But who is 10
tell what is positive and what is negative?
One would have to have a seer in order 10
know before the fact.
As an example, neighbors often do
Lhings against neighbors when they have bad
feelings and resenonems. A medicine person
could do mild fonns of conjuring which
would relieve them of their bad feelings
toward their neighbor, because they felt that
they'd taken action. In the long run, it could
possibly be more positive to do some
superficial conjuring than to let those people
sit around with their resenunents festering
and their bad feelings gening stronger and
stronger. It's a psychological and emotional
pressure release. It's hard to try to justify that
to western people.
It could conceivably be a positive action
to cause somebody 10 get sick. In the culture
that we live in, there is no excuse to
relinquish responsibility to go out and smell
the flowers and just be. Sickness is the only
valid excuse. And sometimes there's so much
stress and pain in the lives of people involved
with the dominant culture that they will create
a sickness just 10 meet that need to relinquish
responsibility.
A good healer shouldn't limit him or
herself to biological matters; a good healer
shouldn't limit him or herself to social
matters. A good healer should understand
that there isn't anything in this culture that
will let us relinquish responsibility but being
sick. He or she is a priest A healer should be
able 10 say, "Listen, take a week off. Go to
the beach, do what you like 10 do."
Conjunng • manipulation - is good
when it serves the Great Life. That's the
governing principle. Through the whole
process, the conjuror has 10 keep the ego out.
Of course, it is true that "Where I go, ego."
There's a very fine balance there. I am
constantly asking myself the question, "Who
does this serve? Who does this serve?"
Because if l felt I was acting just to serve
myself and my ego, I would stop
immediately.
Conjuring puts one in a position of
power, but it has to be done without a sense
of power. Working on the spiritual level is
powerful, bul if the conjuror is receiving a
sense of power, rhen he is manipulating the
situation for his own individualistic intereSt
One of the ways you can tcU a good
healer or a good priest is that they just act
They do n0t think that ii might be benefiting
them. They accept it as pan of their individual
spiritual path. Things just keep happening.
Each incident could be a challenge, a test. a
blessing, a joy, or ail of these things.
Myself, rm not special. rm a human
being, trapped in a body that eats, shits,
suffers, and die~ just like everyone else.
And sometimes it's a curse and sometimes
it's a blessing, but that's just the way it is. I
accept iL
This role of medicine person has been
something that I needed spiritually. It's been
an ego challenge for me. There have been
times in my life when I've wanted 10
manipulate people for my own gain - and
known that I could have done it. Without the
slighiest bit of doubt, l knew I could get what
I wanted from these people simply because I
understood things that they didn't
understand. But I felt that doing that would
damage me in some way. It wasn't worth the
immediate gratification. It just wasn't worth
it.
People who are conscious, really
conscious, cannot be conjured or manipulated
in any way. But most people can be conjured
because their mind is someplace else constantly.
I have yeL to run across one person
whom l couldn't conjure 111 some time in their
lives. I have met gurus and ail other sons of
people, and at some point each of them
would slip into self, or imponance, or "my
trip," or some other negative state.
Yes, it would be wonderful ro live in a
world where people were so clear that they
could n0t be manipulated or conjured. That
would be the ultimate goal. But we are going
to have to be more advanced than we are,
much more advanced. I hope that we can
reach that point. It's one of those things that
are possible for the future.
Things wiU be different when people
stan seeing that we are pan of a living
/
organism, the Great Life.
A Rotting Log
Call ii a waste. Call it a shame.
And you are numb to this other life.
1lusoldoak
has barely had lime to die.
Alre.idy mushrooms grow through mosses
against hues of amber, brown, and gold.
A snake is rurll!tl up in a hole
beneath her weight.
A bear will winter ,n the heart
twelve feet h11,h
where lhe trunk broke off from the bottom.
To build a ncsl
a woodrat crawls into the ca,,ty.
To her life and dl'alh smell the same.
And arthropods th:it h\'c nowhcN! else
arc mo\'ing through the 50h wood,
laying eggs.
Thl'Y too arc dymg.
Ra,pt,crrics ,ind gr.ire:, grow up around
for slw ha!> falkn
hgh1 1s ll't into the for<.'SI.
Four years from now t"-o nroms
will fall to grow
on this rothng log
I win trees c,f the same mothc-r.
This de.ith 1s so ferule.
The fc,rcst keeps its promises.
PholO by Rob Mcss,cl.
rnrr.
1'191
J(ntunh Jou111n[ pnlJC 15
�i., , ..
• vJ -,,..f...,.,.
..i.:J •• . J - \ ,
•
••
•1 . ,, •--1r, .,~;..,,
._
... .
•••\,,11,io.., .. .... ... ;., . . . . . . .
,
•
"
..
/2,. .....,.,.~')·. .·," :, ·'·' r.
.,,,. -:J.l·
.
'
•
f
~
CT
••
..
'
~
~1/8 , \
. ~ ..'!:,.•jl':t'tt._-t:.
.1•
..
.,,.
•
,..
.·, ...
4'J,-·~,. I.. • t.'·..1 r 1
•r
•
RANOL~f}tu>URNAL
·:·t· ,,. ·~• 4J,.
G
.... .
·-~~
.
,.......
,/'I
;,.~···"'",.
BIOREGIONAL BURNABLE OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
Livin' By Their Wits
It sure is a stitch watchin' all these
"back-to-the-land" people and the tourists
come to the mountains lookin' for serenity
and a good life. Those poor young folks
come here with these notions of raisin' a
family and havin' a piece of land 10 work.
while at the some time they're in need of a
high payin' job to get the land and the house.
Why the prices those tourists can afford are
enough to drive anybody whose been here a
while right through the roof!
Not only do they come with these high
minded ideas about doin' everything the
organic way. like that was some kind of
religion or somethin'. half the time they don't
even know the basics of tendin' a place and
they st:ut belly•achin' cause the works too
hard, or the bugs are drivin' um crazy, or
they can't get things happenin' the way they
wan't um 10 in the first couple years.
I know dern well we can't go back to
the old subsistance days like they were when
my folks grew up here. I guess I have to give
some of these young people a little credit for
tryin' to find a good way 10 live with the
land. But they always seem to be squablin'
amongst themselves about somthin' or
another. One wants to live on a piece of land
with a bunch of other people. while another
is satisfied to stick it out where they are.
Most of um can't figure out where they want
their kids raised either. and there's hardly a
school they feel is fiuin' 10 send um to.
h seems like when I was raised it was a
little clearer where a person stood. Livin' by
your wits wasn't just some nice thing to do
on the weekends, it was your bread and
butter. Usually it was our of necessity that
cenain people did ccnain things so a family
could survive. Nowadays theres all these
splinteriud groups like feminislS,
environmentalistS, pro-business factions, and
government people tryin' 10 tell everybody
what they think is besL I think they're all too
big for their britches if you ask me. Men sum
beho.vin' like women and women start
behavin' like men; the timber people and
these self-appointed environmental rescue
squads go at each other; these dem franchises
come in and pay people next 10 nothin' while
the money moves off to far away places; and
college trained officials from down in the
piedmont come and show off the version of
zoning 1ha1 seems to suit um best.
It all seems like some big jumbled mess
to me. As long as everybody is in it for
themselves I don't see how we are ever goin'
to conduct ourselves in such a way that
families survive, and schools can be places of
leamin', and govemmenlS don't have their
hands in everybody's business. It's like
there's too many vultures buzz.in' around
these mountians and not enough decent folk
to talce care of um and protect um.
1(.Qtuar~)ou.rna1 p09e 10
Some of these back-to-the-lander types
are more than a linle spoiled 100. They come
from cities where things seemed to be fed to
um all the time. They kinda remind me of
tourists thar hang around a little longer till the
money dries up. or their kids move away, or
they get tired of it and they leave. rew of um
have the backbone 10 make it through hard
times, but some of um learn how 10 li<aen to
the mountainside and how it can provide
medicines, food, warer. and materials for
shelter if they don't me~s around 100 much
with its own state. There's a lot of leamin' in
store for um if they take a likin' to it, but
most of um get huffy and impatient.
l just hope that if the cities start havin'
more problems and geuin' more congested
that they all don't keep comin' here thinkin'
there's some easy life just waitin' for um.
Maybe its good that mountain life is hard.
But that ain't goin' 10 stop um from comin' 10
have a look. that is as long as the price of gas
holds out.
recorded by Rob Messick
An Old Family Tale
My mother's youngest brother, James
Francis Dresenbury. came 10 Conway, SC 10
visit his sisters and brothers when I was a
linle girl. One day he gathered all his nieces
and nephews together and told this tale of a
happening when he was a little boy.
He began by praising his mother for her
thrift and saving ways. made necessary by
the ume just after the War Between the
States. Then he told us it wa.,; the time of year
when cherries were ripe. The trees had a
bumper crop and a bushel or more had been
seeded and made into cherry preserves. The
seeds had been left on the back porch for
several days. One morning my grandmother
told a little helper boy 10 empty these seeds
into the chicken ya.rd.
The next time anyone noticed the
chickens they were all lying prone around the
yard. Grandmother was not only sorry to
lose her prized chickens. but since she did
not know what had kilkd them. she could
make no use of the meat. But she decided she
would not have 10 lose the feathers too • so
they brought the chickens in and plucked the
feathers to use in pillows and feather beds.
The chickens were thrown our into the
yard to be buried later. About an hour after
that, someone exclaimed, "Look at the
chickens!'' They were gawking and walking
around stark naked. Their little tipsy spell had
worn off! The sun was beaming hotly and 10
keep them from getting sunburned, the girls
took some calico and made clothes for them.
by Bess Hwbison
The Slide
lt was a hot day in nonheastern
Tennessee. Leslie had been bugging her
parents for hours 10 take her and her little
brother to a campsite with a water slide. After
driving for hours, the family finally found
one and pulled in. Leslie's dad paid the fee
and made some small talk with the rotund
female auendant.
After they chose a spot and got the
camp ready for the night Leslie's mom let her
get her swimming suit on. At long last she
took her younger brother by the hand and
\\Cnl over to the big double tunneled water
slide that emptied into a cool pool. Her
brother wus more than a little scared at the
idea of whizzing around in these coiled
slippery runnels. so Leslie 1old him to stay at
the pool while she went to the top where au
the action got staned. She saw the water
gushing out of the pipe when she got to the
top. and the excitement was growing inside
her. The man watching the entry instructed
her 10 lean into the curves and off she went.
She squealed with excitement around
the first bank. Then aU the sudden the people
at the pool noticed a distinct change in the
pitch of her squeals. They had transformed
into blood curdling yells, as her brother and
some other grown-ups watched her come 10
the end of the ride twirling a large copperhead
above her head like a wild laso rope. As she
hit the water her grip on the snake loosened
and it was flung into the woods, where
presumably it got away unharmed. That
water slide has been closed ever since.
by Rob Messick
How Can You Lose
Anything as Big
as This Ego?
Back in my formative years. Actually a
little after what is considered the normal
formative years in terms of physical maturity.
but 001 in mental maturity, or emotional or
spiritual or whatever you want to call that
other pan of us that isn't the meat. Of course,
I'm still in my formative years for that other
thing. or stuff, and probably always will be.
Hopefully. a1 least. I wonder how many
parenthetical thoughts you're allowed 10 hnve
in a row? Sometimes I think all of my
thoughts are parenthetical. And so on.
Anyway, back in my formative years
during college, when r became exposed to a
world of ideas and the evolution or revolu110n
of the human being.
Being human.
f vowed 10 become a better person. By
God, or nature. or whatever, I was' going to
become a near perfect human being!
raft. 199 1
�No one is perfect.
The fust step on that evolurion, I
learned, was to lose your ego. r should have
seen it coming. The idea of striving to be
perfect and at the same time losing your ego
is, to put it lightly, a quagmire. Perhaps the
contradiction is obvious. The closer you feel
(your ego feels) that you (your ego) is
corning closer 10 perfection, the beuer your
ego feels. In fact, it's damn pround of itself.
And the bigger it grows.
I suppose that is the pitfall the mystics
always talk abouL 111ey always warn amid
their other mumbo jumbo that all of this
mumbo jumbo, and ego losing, can be
dangerous. I never understood that. Sitting,
contemplating one's navel, or chakras, or
marimbas or whatever. Never seemed very
threatening to me. It now occurs to me, that
what is really dangerous, and what they were
probably talking about, is thinking, or
suffering from the delusion, that one is
actually losing their ego. That's because,
while you think you're losing your ego, it's
actually growing. And your life becomes a
hypocrisy. In other worlds, you think you're
o ne thing but you 're actually 1he
opposite. Which leads 10 lots of embarrassing
moments when you're suddenly acting unlike
the perfec1 person you arc supposed tO be. As
a matter of fact you're acting like a perfect
asshole, but you're ego's so big that it's in
control and won't let you blame it. As a
ma uer of fact, it's telling you that it doesn't
even exist. A clever subterfuge to keep the
rest of your meat ignorant of the fact that
everything it's doing is to feed this ego that's
grown so large it needs constant nourishment
to keep from collupsing into a stinking rotten
heap that can be smelled by anyone within
visual distance.
So it blames others. It couldn't be
because you're selfish. Only people with
egos are selfish. You don't have an ego so it
must be them. It couldn't be because you're
not envious. Only people with egos are
envious. You don't have an ego. So they
must be assholes. Eventually. everybody
becomes an asshole, except yourself, of
course, and the world no longer deserves
your unselfish administrn1ions of good
works. Actually, 1he whole damn world can
go to hell in a handbasket, for all you care.
because you have your own world which is
your ego, which by now has grown 10 the
size of a small plane1oid. I measured mine
recen1ly, when arter ten years I found i1
hiding behing the nas1y remarks I was
making 10 my wife in order, I have since
learned, 10 make pillars for my enormous ego
10 rest on since it had grown so large that
even in the airy netherworld of egos, it could
no longer suppon its own weight. It is
currenly the size of Pluto.
How did all this come abou1?
rnnocently enough, at least if you were 10 ask
FausL It was initiated by a commendable
desire. I wanted 10 become an enlightened
individual who would nunure the
splendorous miracle of life and make it reveal
its most beau1iful aspects 10 me and those
around me, and eventually the whole damn
world. Yes. l was going to improve the
general lot of humankind through the exercise
of my perfec1ed egolcss will. Of course, it
would take me a few years to reach this state.
The method by which I would reach it was
meditation and aceticism. Hedonism,
raCC., 1991
ac.rually. We!I, a[rcr all, I wasn't going 10
nuss out on hfe JUSt because of this ego crap.
And soon.
Actually, just pure naked experience
was my goal, and women. I was actually the
product of a damaged ego. Damaged by
was doing. Of course, it probably assumed
from past experience that if l did know I
would have stepped in somehow and
screwed up the whole process. Which I think
is the whole point of meditation - gcniog
yourself out of the way so that you can just
constant female reJection during those
aforementioned formative years, meat and
01herwise. So I strutted my naked experience
among the dregs of society. Playing wi1h
1hem. parrying with them, but always (of
course) somehow feeling above it all.
Superior.
Each day expanding my awareness
through mcdiiation ... consciousness
expansion (i.e. ego expansion). Whal is ;1
human being without ego? Whom am I,
anyhow? A boneless chicken. And so on.
All throughout my stru1 I was doing
great acts. Or so I thought. Trying to s1op
nuclear weapons by having a conference of
six hippie college students in West Virginia,
and sleeping with the best looking one after
she played wilh my knee under the.: table.
Didn't do much to stop nuclear weapons, but
it did wonders for my ego. More fuel for the
fire Very linle effect on world peace.
But a great person (i.e. perfect human
being. Don'1 forget, that was my destination)
must do great things. Or at least things with
the stamp of greatness to feed 1hnt giant ego
which I was supposed to be losing. What I
was losing, was my meat. I staned 10 gel
quite thin. This ou1sized ego, which I had
convinced myself. was diminishing, drove
me 10 do all kinds of ~trnnge things. II used
my intellect to r.itionaliz.e every ego foeding
acl as a philanthropic act. It used my meal 10
take it places where it could feed . But it
didn't feed on organisms, ii fed on ~piri1s.
As I said, I now realized 1hat this was,
all along. the pl:in of a severely damaged ego
(an ego which had been victimized and
punished again and again for no apparent
reason, by a very confused piece or meat), to
save icself. First, confuse the meat with all
types of inscrutJble mysuc mumbo jumbo
and convince it that you are leaving entirely.
Next, make the meat go into self-induced
comas periodically so it won't be aware of
you as you sneak back in and take con1rol of
nerve central. Then make the meat go ou1 and
do all kinds of things with the veneer of
goodness. no matter how ineffcetual the acts
are. Make the meat think it is on a Godly
mission, maybe even a messenger or disciple
of God, so that it's willing to put up with all
kinds of nasty physical deprivations, while
the ego feeds, and feeds, and feeds.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not
saying this is all bad. My ego did need
fixing. I just wish it had let me know what it
take over. But now it really has gotten om of
hand. My ego has grown much to large and
has become an independent agent which
seems 10 care little, if a1 all, for myself, and
only keeps my meal around so tha1 it can
have corporality.
But I chink its beginning to be
confused. For instance, it can't understand
why world leaders haven'! noticed its
magnimity and come to it for advice. Of
course it probably has something 10 do with
the fact that it has ignored its meat to the point
that it has got it working in a sewer plant.
Maybe tha1 is all pan of its mas1cr plan. It
stuck me in a sewer plant shoveling shit, and
gave me a beautiful little boy and wife, to
show me, finally, that it really isn't gone, but
is actually the.: size of Pluto. Really much too
big 10 ever be s:uisfied. It needs to trim itself
down. Get back to fighting weight. Big egos
are seldom happy. They're always hungry.
Maybe I really can lose it this time.
Maybe the stink of the plant will drive it
away. Maybe I need to meditate, not on my
connection 10 the cosmos. but on the true
insignificance or my acts 10 the world at
large. and the very real significance of my
acts 10 one very litulc boy and one very
~pccial woman. The only good things my ego
ever did for me.
Actually working at a sewer plant has
probably done more to help me lose my ego
1h.in all the meditation and good acts could
ever do. Not JUSI because of the work, but
because of the male bonding of 1he work
crew, which consists of the mutual
destruction of self-wonh. Maybe it's due 10
an inherent understanding 1hey have of the
immensi1y o( the male ego, and they practice
this form of humiliaton 10 keep it in check.
While we of the enlightened new age SIJ'Oke
each others ego. until they devour our very
relationships.
In any evem, my ego is now shrieking.
Ifs starved, and it has revealed itself. It can
no longer hide (amazing that something as
big as Pluto could hide all that time).
Though, actually, I think everyone else could
see it. Everytime I looked around, however,
10 see what they were looking at. it ducked
··
out of the way.
Preuy nimble for such a big fellow'/'
/J!f
by Maxim Didgct
�..
,J.''',•
' ,
....
-
Mountair
t
.u
Near Todd at a bend on the New
Rh·er there is a spot b-.nown as Peggy's
Hole. It was named that because of an
incident that occured there at the
beginning of the 1800's. An elderly
woman named Peggy Clauson \Vas
going to church on Sunday morning
when she saw a dog run a bear off a cliff
at that spot. The bear landed in the
water and was stunned. Peggy waded
in, grabbed the bear by the ears and held
its head under the water until the bear
was drowned .
~ .... T..-.i. ,.,; .. ~ ... 'lb. 11- .-11... ... ... ~ . _
- p"'!!:'I,> !>..lo li-.,.._......1:Do.t..,__.,_-,..:,:-».t~
°" ~-----' r~ :.,_....,
.. """ ,._ .. ~...
... ~ c!-i<iDo1t..,.t11.i-'l....w
-.i-.J f-m
p,....z11oo.~.jt>.-..
-
.....-i,;1:)-i, - ~ ~ ... -
i.. • - - - ~
:u. ..... L\~ .... .....l ~J.l. a.;.~-..
.,.J:;,.. ....:;r..l,1>.i..o.....-.i..-...J.
~tJfl..-
...i..t
I,.. -~
•
An old lady near Canton told me
her grandfather was hiking near
Shining Rock when he was a young
man. A panther started following him.
I Ie started running and the panther
sped up. To slow him do""'ll, lhe man
took off his shirt and threw it down.
The panthc>r stopped long enough to
rip it to shreds, then started chasing
him again. The man kept throwing his
clothes down as he ran down the
mountain. By the time he got home, he
was completely naked.
This series of paintings came about while 1 was hiking and drawing in remote
areas of the mountains of Western North Carolina. There I met mosUy older people
who had grown up in the Southern Appalachians. Many of these people were very
friendly and once a conversation started, they would communicate their knowledge
of an area by telling stories.
These paintings are not meant to be illustrations of the stories, but a freer form
that incorporates commentary, associations, my own subjeclive reactions, and
elaboration on the images provided by the story and its place of origin. I'm attempting
to develop a fonn between illustration and pure painting.
As each day passes, we tend to lose our intimate connection to the Earth, and also
�n Stories
..",
,
I
1,
by Robert Johnson
At Cranberry when the old folks
there ~ere young, the parents used to
tell them that the pools of water in the
iron mines didn't have a bottom. If
they ever became unstopped, all the
water would go rushing out and take
the children, all the people and the
whole town of Cranberry with it.
I asked a young man how Standing
Indian Mountain got its name. He said.
"1 don't know. I guess an Indian just
stood there."
I asked a middle-aged man. He said,
"During the Civil War a band of
Cherokee Indians fought bravely here
and stood up to the enemy."
I asked an old man. He said, "Before
white men came here, Lhere was a
monster who lived on Lhe mountain
and would carry off people. So the tribe
posted a brave up on the mountain to
keep watch. The thunder spirit saw Lhe
monster creeping up on the brave and
sent down a bolt of lightening,
shattering rocks, destroying the
monster, and turning the brave to
stone. Today one can see shattered
rocks and a stone Indian on top of the
mountain."
stories like these that come from the pre-industrial culture of the Southern
Appalachians. These simple but powerful stories have an almost mythical quality,
and they embody a connection between the land and oral knowledge of the land,
which is a culture that is dying out. This project is my attempt to get to know Lhese
stories and to keep them alive a while longer.
Robert Johnson's paintings of ''Mountain Stories" are on display until September
27th 1991 at the Blue Spiral I Gallery; 38 Biltmore Avenue; AshevilJe, NC 28801 (704)
251-0202. The paintings will later be shown in the six counties from which the stories
came: Yancey, Macon, Haywood, Ashe, Avery and Rutherford.
�, ~~TER~HEQ.JWI..J?.S" ,,,.,.,t.
NIIIUnl World News Service
In 1989 the Water Supply Watershed
Protection Act sailed through the Nonh
Carolina legislature. The bill w~ passed
unanimously in the Senat~ and 1ll .~e House
there were only six votes ~ opposmo~. !he
legislation enacted protecnons for mumCJpal
drinking water supplies so that n~w .
development did not endanger Lhts basic
resource.
. ,
In August, 1991 North Carolinas
Deparnnent of Environmental Management
(DEM) held public hearings across the Slate
on the implementation of the new water
regulations. Public reaction was
.
unprecedented. Across the state the heanngs
were long and stormy. Each of the eight
meetings drew more than l.~ people. The
hearings in Asheville and Hickory were
anended by more than 1,500 people each.
The state was completely unprepared for the
surge of public interesL In Hickorx, the .
meeting site was changed 10 ~ locan~n with a
larger capacity, but after heaTlllg tesumon~
for one full day the speaking roster ~s soil
only one-half completed and the heanng had
10 be continued at a later date.
There was clearly-defined, and
sometimes biller, controversy at the
watershed protection hearings. The theory of
the Watershed Protection Act is that
development must be contr0lled in
.
watersheds that provide drinking water in .
order to protect the purity of the supply. This
raised the boogie of land use management,
the "Z word - zoning," in the mind of many
traditionally conservative landowners and
farmers. Some saw the bill as a direct threat
10 their property rights. Others saw it as the
first step in an insidious government plan to
gradually enact a full set ofland use
management contr0ls. As ~'lolly Di~gins of
the state Sierra Club orgamzauon said,
"Where locru governmcntc; should be seeing
'protection,' many are seeing only
'restriction."'
Development interests played on these
fears with a concencd public outreach
campaign, and aroused a strong opposition to
the w:uer protection measures. These . .
interests see a loss of profil in any rcstncuon
of development
The opposing pole at the public
hearings were environmentalists who
supponed the protective regulations and
protested that they were not strong enough.
Agricultural and silvicultural opcr.itions
should be regulated as strictly as
construction, they said. Presently the rules
provide water bodies only a IO foot buffer
against agricultural activities, which often _arc
major sources of erosion and wnter polluuon,
whereas buildings have to be outside a 100
foot buffer around protected streams.
There was also concern that
"grandfather" clauses. under which existing
buildings and projects would be exeml)t from
the provisions of the watershed protecuon
measures, would weaken the regulations to
the point of uselessness.
Also supporting the regulations were
town residents who did not take a supply of
pure drinking water for granted and wanted
10 ensure protection of their !Own wa_ter
supplies in the face of ever-encroaching
X.Otuof, Journal'. poge 20
development.
This round of the drinking water
protection fight is not yet over. ln light of the
controversy generated by the regulations, the
DEM has extended the public comment
period on the watershed protection
regulations until October 31. It is particularly
imponant that the DEM hears from the people
of the mountain region.
Direct co=nt.f 10:
Sttvt Zoufaly
Division of Environ~IUQI Management
8ox29535
Raleigh. NC 27626.
YES MORE WILDERNESS!
N1111r.il World Nev-s Sa-vice
Saturday, July 6, one of the bu~iest
rafting days of the year, there mystenously
appeared across the Nantahala River a long
banner saying "Yes More Wilderness! Save
Cheoah Baldi"
Rafters taking out downstream were
met by activists from the organi1ation
SouthPA W requesting responses for a
"Forest Service Evaluation Sheet."
.
"Did you know that the Forest Service
is planning a timber sale only 1/2 mile above
the Nantahala and within sight of the river?"
More than 95% did not know
"Do you think that the Cheooh Bald .
area, the: largest unprotected roadies.~ area in
the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests should
be allowed to return 10 old growth?"
99% thought it should.
"Do you think that the Forest Service
should stop logging in the national forests?"
98% thought they should.
South PAW struck again at Forest
Service credibility at the agency's Reanalysis
Checkpoint meeting concerning the
re-evaluation of the Land and Resource
Management Plan for the Nantahala-Pisgah
National Forests. South PAW calJed for a
boycou of the meeting, saying that the Forest
Service refused lO consider the relevant
ecological issues in its planning.
The meeting was billed as a scoping
meeting, but a SouthPAW handout said
"Wrong End of the Scopel" declaring that
the Forest Service had its priorities reversed,
since it seemed to be more interested in
sellin-g,tirpbgr:,tJw!,pwJe:C~Jlll~~// i,
diversity o( the forest. In the flier the group
reiterated their position that the national
forcstS in the Kaninh Province should be
habitat areas free from roads and commercial
exploitation.
There were about equal numbers of
people inside and outside the Owen
Conference Center at the University of Nonh
Carolina Asheville where the Forest Service
meeting was held. But in C<?n~st _10 the
restrained and orderly mcenng ms1de the
building, those out on the lawn boisterously
chanted, laughed, and played drums and
kazoos.
At lunch time the activists congregated
at the student open forum in the lobby of lhe
university center to hear Buddy Newman
read lhe alternative forest protection plan he
authored for SouthPAW. Nantahala-Pisgah
Forest Supervisor Bjorn Dahl was among the
audience listening 10 the proposal and later
invited South PAW representatives to a
meeting with Forest Service personne! to
discuss 10 their ideas for the Appalachian
forests.
To take action on behalf oftlu: Appalachian
forest habitat. write:
SouthPAW
Ba:d/41
Aslu:ville, NC 28802
KILLING Lm'LE FISH
NIIUnll Wodd News Scrv,cc
A series of five different spills over a
seven month period last year that dumped
untreated wastewntcr, oils, and concentrated
foams into the Pigeon River will cost the
Champion International paper mill in Canton,
NC $60,000. These are the first fines ever
levied against the company by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)..
According to Champion .~pokespe:Son David
Craft the mishaps were the first m recent
mem~ry" at the plant. The ftrst spill, of an
unknown quantity of untreate~ wast~":'ater,
was evidently the most damaging, killing,
according 10 Craft, "270 little fish." Croft_
maintained th:u neither the foam nor the oils
were hazardous to human or aquatic life.
Champion had originally faced a
$125,000 fine from the EPA;the m~imu~
allowed by law. However, after meeung wuh
mill officials last February and March, t11e
agency downgraded the fine. The company
representatives maintained that Champion
should not be assessed the full fine because
the spills were caused by malfunctioning
equipment and not by human error or
deliberate neglect The EPA seemed to agree.
Craft said that another reason for the reduced
fine was evidence that "Champion has taken
steps 10 mitigate the damage," from
skimming escaped oil off the nvcr banks to
closing the malfunctioning valves that
Champion maintains caused four of !he
spills. However, the EPA also penalized
Champion for failing to file a formal repon of
one of the spills within the required five
days, an oversight Craft blamed on an
"administration problem."
Oaft said that Champion would
probably not appeal the fin 7 "~e.~o bel!eve
that the amount of the fine 1s fair, he said,
calling the accidentS "a series of unintentional
and unrelated failures within the mill."
1'c:afL, t99l
�NEW PERSPECTI•VES 0N TRE "~'·
CHATTOOGA ..
Natural World News Sctvice
EnvironmcntaJ groups from three states
and three national forest administrative areas
have combined 10 form the Chanooga River
Watershed Coalition (CRWC).
The Chatto0ga is a beautiful river, one
of the most popular recreational rivers in the
Karuah Province. Pan of itS length has been
designated a Wild and Scenic River, and a
large tract in its headwaters area beneath
Devil's Courthouse near Highlands, NC was
recently bought by the Trust for Public Land
and transferred to the US Forest Service 10
preserve its pristine character.
The CRWC has wriuen an alternative
Land and Resource Management Plan for the
watershed which they are requesting the US
Forest Service 10 adopt. The plan is
important, first of all, because it proposes a
unified forest management program based on
watershed boundaries, rather than along state
or national forest tines. At present, the
Chauooga watershed is managed under three
different, and somerimes conflicting, national
forest management plans.
"A landscape with natural ecological
integrity is the desired future condition of the
watershed," says the CRWC proposal. The
coalition suggests a new, standardized
management unit, the Ecosystem
Management Area, 1hat would base
management on complete forest habitats
rather than on timber sale companmems.
The CRWC is requesting a meeting
with Forest Service supervisors and regional
and national personnel to discuss
implementing their plan in the Chattooga
watershed.
interest. the DO.Ii e11ct&fup with nver four
days of testimony which they scheduled
concurrently in auditoriums in two different
locations over a two-day period. ("Divide and
conquer," said one activist. "It's an old
tactic.")
Attendance at the hearings ,vas about
equally divided between opponems of the
plan and workers from Oak Ridge nuclear
facilities bussed to the hearing from work.
Although the workers, wearing T-shirts
saying "Complex 21" superimposed over n
map of Tennessee. made their presence felt,
of the 376 speakers more than 68% were
opposed to the pluronium plant, in the
estimate of the Oalr. Ridger newspaper.
The testimony was sometimes brilliant,
always heartfelt. Speakers talked about
cancer risks. damage 10 the environment, the
possibility of nuclear accidents, and the need
for disarmament now that the primary
adversary had dropped out of the game.
In the afternoon of the second day
srudents from Oak Ridge schools testified a1
the hearings. One student presented a petition
with 65 names of students against Complex
21 in Oak Ridge or anywhere else on Eanh.
Several high school students also testified at
the hearings, all opposed to the planL
The DOE will ruei~t written comme111s 011
tht Rocky Flats pluto11ium plant rdocatio11 until
Ocrotn~r 30. Mail r.omme111s to the Dtpartmi!fll of
Energy. clo:
Oak Ridgt E11vira11111t11tal and Ptace Alliance
Box 1101
KnoX\/ille. TN 37901
T~ Chattooga Riw!r Wattrs~d Coalitio11
Box368
Clayton, GA 30525
PLUTONIUM OR. .. NO!
Narun! World Ne..,, Service
"Please let me introduce myself. I am
Plutonium, the God of unnatural death and
suffering."
The black-robed figure with the grisly
skcleial face stood before the impassive
bureaucrats presiding at the "Reconfiguration
of the Nuclear Weapons Complex" hearings
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At issue was the
future of the nation's nuclear weapons
program, specifically the plutonium
processing facilities at Rocky Flati.,
Colorado. The plant has contaminated its site
in Colorado and has to move. The DOE is
considering locating it either at Oak Ridge or
the Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas.
For the first rime ever, the Depanment
of Energy (DOE) had called for public input
on the future of the program. The agency
scheduled 15 hearings around the country.
TheorericaJly, they would listen 10 what was
said and consider the opinions offered in their
program and policy decisions.
People responded, aroused through the
effons of area peace groups spearheaded by
the Oak Ridge Environmenuu and Peace
Alliance. The hearings were scheduled to last
one day. Because of the outpouring of public
Tai(, 199 1
"WE DON'T BUY YOUR LINE"
The Appalachian Power Company
wants to build a 765,000 volt power line
through southern Wes1 Virginia and
southwestern Virginia. The tine is ostensibly
10 provide extra power in Richmond and 1he
eastern pan of the state of Virginia.
To sell their idea, the ucility company
se1 up a series of hearings along the line's
proposed route. They met with solid
opposition aJI along the way.
The company came to the meetings
well-prepared. They brought a 30 page
handout, coinplett Willi ~li~.'gl-Jphs:'~d
maps. They also distributed a report. "Faces
on EMF' (electromagnetic fields) to dispute
scientific evidence that high volrage Lines
cause genetic damage and degenerative
disease.
But the people were not buying it More
than 50 people opposed to the power line
showed up at the meeting in Giles County,
VA and 300 people attended the meeting in
New Castle, VA. Another meeting in Hinton,
WV also brought out strong opposition to the
line. A meeting in Monroe County, WV was
canceled because hearing officers feared
violence. The meeting was rescheduled,
however, and 300 people peacefully declared
their strong opposition 10 the power line.
As well as health concerns, people
attending the hearings feared that herbicide
spraying would contaminate their water
supplies, and that the power lines would mar
the scenic beauty of their area, which they
considered an imponant asset. Critics also
questioned the value of the plan, saying that
the new power line would encourage higher
levels of energy consumption and sidetrack
attempts to promote energy conservation.
Baud 011 a report ill the New River Free Pre,;.,;,
available from Box 846: Blacksburg. VA 24063.
1165 MEGAWATTS OF
POLLUTION
Nawn.I World New. ScMc:e
The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League (BREDL) is warning thar Duke
Power Company is planning to build a 1165
megawau electric generating plant in
Lowesville, NC in the piedmont county of
Lincoln. The plant would be fined to operate
on either diesel fuel or natural gas, but the
primary fuel source would be diesel. When
running on diesel fuel, the plant would tum
out 4,278 pounds of sulfur dioxide per hour,
according to BREDL director Janet Hoyle.
Sulfur dio,ude is a main component of the
complex of pollutants that produces acid rain.
The plant is proposed as a peak power
generating plant. meaning that it would only
operate at times of peak power demand when
electricity is most profitable. Duke originally
asked that the plant be allowed to operate
3,500 hours per year, but later reduced their
request 10 2,000 hours per year.
The proposed site for the plant is 56
miles southeast of the Linville Gorge
Wildeme:.s .Arca. Data collecred by Duke
Power and the NC Department of
Environmental Management (DEM) show
that prevailing wind patterns would bring the
acidifying pollution directly into the Class I
wilderness area. In their initial application.
Duke admitted that operating at 3,500 hours
per year, the plant would inetcase acid
deposition in Linville Gorge 400-500%.
Even at the scaled-back operating time, acid
pollution from the plant would be
considerable. The US Fore.st Service will
have the right to review the plant to see if it
would adversely affect the air quality of the
gorge.
For mare information·
Bl~ Ridgt E,wironmenra/ Dtfe11St uag~
Box8JJ
Gltndalt Spr111gs. NC 28906
�DYING SOILS, DYING WATERS:
Natural World r-iews
SPECIAL REPORT
Pollution, Collusion, and the Future of the Eastern Forests
by Emmett Greendigger
The 1990 Clean Air Acl seemed to
many citizens to be a sign that lhe federal
government would finally begin to rectify a
decade of willful neglect of envirorunenlal
issues. Now, however, little more than a year
after the act's passage, scientists are
beginning to conclude that the reductions in
atmospheric emissions mandated by the bill
will not be sufficient to protect sensitive
forest areas or mountain streams.
Resean:hers are discovering alarming
damage to forests and streams, damage that
to a great extent was ignored or soft-pedaled
by the government studies that led to the
Qean Air Act, and many scientists and
environmentalists charge that the research on
the effects of acid precipitation carried on by
the Reagan and Bush administrations was full
of design flaws, done in collusion with
industry, and guided by politics more than by
objective science. They charge that the
research was, in effect, rigged in favor of
"business as usual," rigged to such an extent
that many feel that the Oean Air Act is merely
a baby-step toward protection of the natural
landscape.
Scientific srudies of atmospheric
deposition began in earnest in the late l 970's
when the governments of US President
Jimmy Carter and Canadian Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau initialed cooperative research
of the freshwater acidification that was
beginning to appear in eastern Canada and the
Adirondack Mountains of upper New York
State. The bilateral rcseareh was carried out
with the understanding that by 1980 an
agreement to reduce sulfur emissions by 50%
would be in place in ordec to protect
freshwater bodies in eastern Tunic Island.
But the regressive environmental policies of
the Reagan administration delayed nnd diluted
the bilaternl rese~. and several imponam
US researchers were fired from the study and
replaced by scientists who were willing to
tolerate the new administration's stalling.
Throughout the I 980's, to deflect crittcism,
Reagan's people pointed to the $570 million
National Acid Precipitation AsS¢ssment
Program (NAPAP) established by Congress
in 1980.
By 1982, the US-Canada project had
been terminated. [n its place was I\APAP.
whose smted purpose was to gather a
database of information about the effects of
atmospheric deposition to guide Congre~s
through the rewriting of the Clean Air Act.
llowevcr. throughout NAPAP's history,
scientisis of both the public and priv:11c
sectors ha~·e tried to \\1lm environmentalist,
of collusion between government and
indwmy on the study. Funds from electric
unlity companic~ and the papc-nnaldng
industry - obviously not dis1nten.:stcd
observers - backed large portions of the
study, ,, hteh intlucnccd the condusions
brought in by the NAP AP research. These
charges are based in part on the otherwise
inexplicable w:iy that NAPAP nam)\\t!d thc
Xn111nf1 )0111110{
ne:::
==
scope and range of acid-induced forest
decline studies. Vermont's camel's Hump
and Hubbard Brook in New Hampshire were
omitted as study sites, despite the fact that
these rwo eastern sites have the longest
record of soil changes related to acid rain.
Until 1986 forests in the Ohio River Valley the source of many of the pollutants that
cause acid rain - were not studied, simply
because there had been no papers published
in scientific journals suggesting that there
was a problem in the region.
Scientists also assen that the results of
the research were manipulated by a design
flaw: NAPAP's forest studies were limited to
a single measurement of the nuaieru content
of the soils at study sites, rather than a
methodology developed in Europe which
measures the rate of change in values over
time. Again, it is difficult to figure out why
NAPAP researchers chose the older method.
when a study of true rates of change would
have been far more useful to Congress.
Not until 1985, halfway through the
research period, when William Ruckelshaus
replaced Anoe Gorsuch Burford as
administrator of the EPA, did serious
research into forests and soils begin in
eamesL But by then it was too late. There
was little time for the imponant "reality
checks," field work, or the peer review and
publication required by NAPAP of all its
researchers. Consequently the Clean Air Act
was rewriuen while important new findings
about acid-induced forest decline were still
being evaluated.
Nonh Carolina State University
pathologist Roben Bruck received NAPAP
funding for seven years lOstudy forest
decline in Kalllah's high-altitude spruce-ftr
forests. I !is findings were largely omitted
from NAPAP's final repon to Congress
(despite the fac t that they were completed,
tested, nnd reviewed as specified by
NAPAP).
The final repon asserted that an
invasion of aphids was responsible for
spruce-fir deaths on some of Kaufah's
highest peaks. According 10 Bruck, this flies
in the face of the research he submitted 10
NAPAP, which showed that only 35% of the
dead trees at such sites as Mount Mitchell,
Grandfather Mountain. and the Grc:u Smokv
Mountains National Parl.. were infested with
aphids. What Bruck found were soil pH
levels as low as 2.7 and 2.8 and rampant
aluminum toxicity levels in the forest soils.
(See Kattialt /()11mal #9). This kind of data,
for obviou~ reasons, is not pleasing to
electric utilitr and paper companic~. and
evidently the .government shan.:s the corporate
distaste for emissions reductions. a~ it chose
rather to blame nature for fon:M decline in
Katuah.
Bruck and other scientist~ now tlclie,e
that one of the m:ij(.)r cause~ of fir die-back
and forest decline in eastern Turtle lslnnd 1s
the change m soil nutnents that occurs a~ lhl"
soil becomes increasingly acidic. Nurogcn
compounds found in acid min an: 1hought to
be a primary culpri1. Levels of nitrogen
exceeding by 20 to 40 times the wnounts that
soil could assimilate have been found in
declining forests all over the East. These
findings correspond to research results in
Germany, too, where nitrogen deposition is
thought to be a primary factor in the
catastrophic waldsrerben ("forest death") in
the Black ForesL Recent European findings
also indicate that in order to halt the damage,
nitrogen emissions must be brought down as
close as possible to the levels found in
unaffected soil communities.
Despite all this, NAPAP still seems
determined to understate the problem. In a
position paper published last summer,
NAPAP officials stated that Eastern forests
do not show any "widespread problems," a
position that seems unforrunatcly consistent
with their apparent lack of concern about
forest decline. Already, the much-ballyhooed
Clean Air Act begins to look like nothing
more than a "first step" toward reversing the
acid-induced damage to the forests. Scientists
now believe that nitrogen emissions must be
reduced by 75% (rather than the 15-25%
required by the Clean Air Act) to halt the
damage from atmospheric pollution.
In contrast, the NAPAP repon to
Congress stated that fonnerly "nitrogen
deficient" soils in commercial pine forests in
the South were being "enriched" by nitrogen
deposition, and its comments about the
effects of nitrogen compounds on other forest
types is so rife with qualifying phrases like
"might ...could...potentially" that it seems
bent on dismissing or discounting the
findings of many of its own researchers.
It seems that it will be quite some time
before we will see any tightening of the Clean
Air Act's controls on nitrogen emissions.
Meanwhile, concerned researchers believe
that eastern forests will collapse within fifty
years, as undernourished and weakened trees
give in to insects and disease, not to men1ion
a newer nemesis: lhe stress from climate
changes associated with the "greenhouse
effect."
As if the sl)\.-Clre of forests thinning,
browning, and dying were not enough, it
also appears chat Kauiah's seemingly pristine
mountain stream.\ are also extrJordinarily
vulnerable to the effects of acid pn.-cipitation,
A spate or recently released studies shows
thc11 extensive damage has already been done
to manr headwmcrs and streams in the
Central and Southern Appal,1chians,
including heavy losses to native brook trout
popula1i(.)ns. Like the forest rescar\:h, these
studies indica1e that the emissions reductions
mandated by the Clean Air Act \\ill barely
begin 10 solve 1hc problem. 111c dire
condi1ion of Appaktchi,1n mountain \\aters
has been rnost thorough!)' documentL'<l by Dr.
James Gallov.uy of the Environnk'nt:il
Sciences Dcpanmcnt at the University of
Virginia. who since the mid-1970\ h~s
published widely nbom Lhe many ,1spccts of
the acid precipitation problem. In 1979,
rnrr.
1
in9c 22
-
1991
�Galloway and a research team began the
Shenandoah Watershed Study (SWAS), a
;om1 project undenaken by the University of
Virginia and the National Park Service 10
"understand the processes that govern
b1ogeochemical cycles'' in the streams of
Shenandoah National Park (SNP). Since the
SNP receives the highest sulfur deposition
load of any national park. the SW AS turned
out to be a far-sighted study of the potential
effects of acidification in freshwater aquatic
ecosystems in the Southern Appalachians.
After a decade of research, the final SWAS
repon indicated "a poor prognosis for aquatic
watcrsystcms in Shenandoah National Park,
due to a combination of watershed sensitivity
and elevated acidic deposition."
The Galloway team concluded that 1hc
dcposi1ion of sulfur, hydrogen, and nitrogen
had increased as much as tenfold from
preinduslrial levels. The SW AS process of
sampling streams on a weekly basis over the
ten years of its research enabled it to make
three primary conclusions: "1) that a large
number of SNP streams were poorly
buffered against acidification; 2) that the
acidification process was being temporarily
delayed by sulfate re1en1ion in v.a1ershcd
soils: and 3) that the acidification of SNP
streams was an ongoing process.''
SW AS researchers predict that some
38% of 1he streams will end up with pl I
level~ below 6.0, the "biologically critical"
level for such streams, while the pH levels of
25o/i: or the streams will decline 10 a pl I level
of 4.7, near-total acidity.
In 1987, 10 broaden his study area,
Galloway and his researchers and a crew of
volunteers from Virgioiu's Trout Unlimited
organization began to monitor 350 streams in
Virginia's mountains. Preliminary repons
were alarming. The researchers found that
93% of the streams were sensi1ive to acid
deposition, and that some 49% of those were
extremely sensitive. Only 7% were found to
be adequately buffered by watershed soils.
Additionally, 10% of rhc streams were
already found to be acidic; in a natural s1ate
3% or less would be normal.
Galloway then chose 65 of those
streams for further monitoring. In June 1989
his research team reponed its findings,
concluding tha1 in spite of the fac1 that the
state's mountain streams drain "relatively
TnCt, 1991
pristine catchments proteeted from direc1
man-m.'lde impacts," they were ''receiving
heavy loads of sulfur from man-made
sources." They predic1ed that, assuming
l 990 deposition levels, at least 32% and
possibly as muny of 88% of the states 450
native trout s1reams will become acidic, with
pH levels 100 low 10 support the forage fish.
trout, amphibians, and aquatic insects who
presently live in and around these streams.
We can expect to see che same here in
Kaufoh, and soon. The Great Smoky
Mountains National Park receives the second
highest level of acidic precipitation of any
region of the eas1~rn United Srntcs. While the
lower deposition levels in Katuah have
delayed the kinds of effects seen in Virginia,
as early as 1978, NacionaJ Park Service
researchers had no1ed 1he poor buffering
capabilities of the streams in the park\ higher
elevations. And in 1984, EPA researchers
found the Davidson River near Brevard in the
French Broad River watershed had a pH level
of 6.55, dangerously near the biological
threshold of 6.0, placing it in 1hc "extremely
sensiuve" range.
According to scientists. this rrcnd will
worsen with 1ime. Among them, conscrva1ive
estimates hold that sensitive streams in
Kattiah's watersheds will undergo coipplete
alkalinity loss within 40 to 50 years. Since
levels of acid deposition follow a nonh-south
gr.tdient along the Appalachian chain, we can
look to moun1ain s1reams farther nonh to
predict our own future. In the Pennsylvania
highlands, researchers found no living trour
in 20%.ofthe
headwater streams
and concluded that
"the streams having
no fish as a group
had significantly
lower pl-I and
alkalinity and higher
dissolved aluminum
than those with
fish."
More ominous
evidence comes
from West Virginia.
According to Don
Gasper, a fisheries
biologist with the
Wes1 Virginia
Department of
Natural Resources,
the Cranberry River
rqrinllXI rrorn TMG/acu,J E.rr01ic
in the south-central
pan of the stale is
already "lost." Fish
population data for the Cranberry have been
kept since 1957. making it one of the few
eastern rivers for which historical change can
be documented. Over the past 30 years, fish
biomass in the Cranberry has decreased from
15 pounds per acre to less than five pounds
per acre, and 1he number of fish species in
the river has declined from 15 to eight. Since
the Oanberry drains one of the largest
wilderness areas in the East, Gasper believes
that "the only disturbance in that watershed is
that acid rain has been falling on it for 40
years."
The higher deposition levels in the
north account for the rapid changes and
drastic losses, but Katuah's lower acid
deposition levels do not mean that we will not
see similar effec1s. In fact, the reduced pH
and alkalinity levels found now in our
streams are familiar 10 chose who have becm
tracking the nonhem streams for the pasr
decade. According to Mark Hudy, a fisheries
biologist who studied the St. Mary's River in
Virginia as it died from acidification, "The St
Mary's may be a precursor of things to come,
what we'll all be looking at in 10 years...the
water quality on the St. Mary's when I
sampled the river 10 yean; ago was like what
we have now on rivers farther south."
Whal can be done 10 reverse the
acidification of Katuah's streams? Can we
learn anything from the damage to northern
streams? Most scientists arc pessimistic.
They lament that the region's streams were
neglected during the I980's as the Reagan
and Bush ndministra1ions stalled essential
environmental research. And, like their
colle,igues in soils and fores1 research, the
freshwater biologists do not feel l_ha1 the
reduc1ions mandated by the Clean Air Act
will be able to reverse the damage done. They
believe that a 70-80% redui;tion in emissions
might begin 10 restore acidifying streams.
According to Rick Webb. professor of
Environmental Sciences at the Universi1y of
Virginia, the n:quired 50% reduction in sulfur
emissions will mean that "only a small
number of the strea,n~ will incrca-.e in
:ilkalinity; most will still decline."
The state of West Virginia and the US
Forest Service are trying mitigation measures
- adding limestone to streams and lakes to
bolster their alkalinity - to reduce lhe damage
done by acid precipitation. But this method is
costly and strictly temporary. It is not a
means of rcs1oration for mountain streams.
Most biologists feel that the the money and
effon devoted to mnigation would be better
spent on funher research, and they believe
that only one thing will begin 10 save
freshwater ecosys1ems in the East: drastic
reductions of acidic emissions.
Political analy~ts think it unlikely that
there will be any funhcr emissions control
measures from Washington for at leas, a
decade. They point out chat even the Clean
Air Act levels represent a compromise, that
allies of the coal and u1ili1y industries
auempted to drive sulfur emissions
reductions as low as si:it million tons, from
the original call for a 12 million ton
reduction, and did succeed in having the
number sliced to 10 million ions in the finnl
version of the net.
This does not leave many scientislS
optimistic about the future of forests and
streams in the East Aske.cl if he 1hough1 that
Southern Appalachian streams would ever
recover, Jim Galloway replied, ''Some will
recover," he said, .. but not most"
It appears that after the long twilight of
environmental neglect in the 1980's, the
Clean Air Act is a case of "roo little. too late"
- a political pacifier too rife with compromise
and collusion to address in any honest,
meaningful way the damage already done by
acid min and atmospheric deposition - not to
mention the damage not yet e1,ident and the
damage still occurring.
An old maxim says tha1 politics is the
an of compromise. But unless politics can be
put aside, dead forests and dead streams will
bear out another U\lth: nature bas its own
bottom line. And nature bats last. /
X.Otuaf, )ournn( poCJC 23
�SONGS IN THE WILDERNESS
From the time I was two years of age J
spent most or my childhood summers on my
grandparent's farm in nonhem Colorado. In
the small town where I lived I was
surrounded by a warm extended family.
There was plenty of activity and always
another child to play with. But on the farm
the days dragged on. l can remember walking
up the dirt road away from the farm, acutely
aware of my loneliness, feeling overwhelmed
by the vastness of the rolling hills and
endless grasslands that extended for miles in
every direction. It seemed that I moved
aimlessly through a landscape which had
nothing to do with me. In this
self-consciousness of monality I became
aware of myself as separate from nature. It
was a moment of primal loneliness such as
everyone must face.
This modem human condition is not
that far removed from the tribal legacy. We
still require a personal initiation, a way for
each person to make peace with the natural
world. We have separated ourselves by our
ability to create worlds outside the cycles of
nature, yet ii is our creauve abilities that offer
us ways back in - into wholeness, communication and love. The pathways, the links, the
mediations, the magic needs to be made at a
personal level. We must ovcreome our animal
fear of isolation and death, and reach out with
our consciousness if we are to mature as
human beings. IL was at this moment of acute
loneliness that I first began to sing to the
Eanh and the sky.
I found that the ttan~fonnative power
of song was miraculous. From that day on,
there was a connection for me between the
Earth and my walking on the Earth and the
song. I remember walking down that same
din road in a state of bliss, singing my heart
out in thanksgiving for yet another spectacular sunset I found that when I sang, the
world seemed 10 light up and lighten up.
Phenomena that was of n transitory nature,
such as a cloud shadow passing over a
rolling hill, was suddenly revealed to me in
breath-catching splendor. Sometimes I sang
loud, sometimes soft. Sometimes r skipped
and sang, or danced and sang at the same
time. Special evencs, such as the bright
crispness after a summer thunderstorm called
for celebration songs. There were songs
waiting for me everywhere; songs in the elm
grove in the pasnm: and dJffcrcnt songs
down by the river.
Singing is a great protection. It sets up
vibration which cuts through time and space.
With our voices we extend the boundaries of
our bodies. In metaphysical terms, singing
causes the aura to radiate, which strengthens
the body.
In ancient primitive societies, everyone
danced and sang their feelings about the
inevnable passages of life. There were min
dances and war dances and songs to help rhe
com grow. There is evidence that the use of
music as transforming was much more
sophisticated than the simple melody, lyrics,
and rhythm format that we use today. ror
instance, at many ancient sacred sites the
acoustics arc very unusual. Circular walls
and passages can warp, bend, and amplify
sound. ln such a place, a single voice could
have created modulations, ovenoncs, and
vibratos. Add on the possibility of a chorus
with echoes, a drum or two, and a flute, and
the sound must have been magnificent. What
these sounds were used for, whether for
healing, initiation rites, or simply for the
sheer joy of creation, we no longer know.
The Peace Chamber being built by
Joseph Rael, at the Earth Center in
Swannanoa, NC and scheduled for
completion this fall, is a modem example of a
Native American sound chamber. Joseph's
vision of an oval shaped sound chamber has
resulted in the construction of 17 of these
chambers worldwide. The purpose of each is
to amplify chants for world peace. I visited
the roofless building at the Earth Center in
spring. Even without a roof, and possibly
because of the circular walls, the acoustics
were already unusual. Also worth noting is
that the chamber is on a very potent earth
energy site. The combination of sound, eanh
energy, and architecrual design should pack
some real power into songs for peace.
Looking back at my childhood songs
from the adult perspective, I realize that the
singing put me into an extended altered state,
that it was magic at its height. ft pulled me
completely out of the depression of loneliness
and gave me practical tools for survival. It
taught me to appreciate solitude. It is only in
solitude that songs come to me again. If there
is a song waiting for me, J try 10 leave my
adult cares behind and enter into the woods
with the innocence of a child. I make no
judgement about the quality of my voice or
how ridiculous I might sound if someone
should happen to hear me. There is a great
joy and freedom in this.
by Charlotte Homsher
Dnawmg by Rob Mcs,ick
/
(<ontin~ rram l"'i• 9)
We must convince the public and our
officials that a healthy environment is an
absolute requirement for a healthy economy
and not the other way around. The measure
of what should be done 10 protect the
environment is nor a mailer of good
"business as usual" economics.
We must work ar the local level to do
whatever is possible to move toward a
society that protects its ecosystems.
We must lower as quickly a.\ we can the
strains society places on our ecosystems.
This includes land use practices, development
of less damaging and less energy intensive
transponation, protection of enough critical
area 10 suppon all native species, and
controlling our population within geographic
areas so that the carrying capacity of the area
is not exceeded or is balanced within a larger
regional complex.
Finally, we must lead in an accelerated
movement to lower the environmental impact
of human habitation on Eanh. This involves
limiting the numbers of of humans Earth is
.
JCnt.i'mfi Journnl pQ(Jc 24
asked 10 suppon, making marked
improvcmcnis in our use of natural
resources, and bnnging human activities
down within a safety buffer set by the rates
of geological, geochemical. and biological
processes.
John Freeman is 1he chair of the Pisgah
Group of the Sierra Club. lie was a
profcs.'ior of billlogy at Wimltrop College fnr
30 years. He is al.w uwhor of 1he b()<J/c
Survival Gardening, which he and lu"s 11'ife
Grace self-published. The Freemaris are
presemly retired in Brevard, NC i11 the
headwaters of the French Broad River
waterslted.
This article 11-as reprimedfrom
Foor notes. the 11cws/e1ter of the North
Carolina Clwp1er ofthe Siella Club. The
11ewsletfer is al'ailable to Sierra Club
members ill the Stale For membership
i11fonnatio11, write the Sierra Club, 530 Bush
St ; San Francisco, CA 94108.
(conllnucd from P"te 11)
Overall, I think it was Sequoyah
himself who best evaluated thi: impact of his
\\1'lting sy:acm: ''What I am doing will not
make our people the less respected."
- r«orded by OW
Tom Undi'rwood. a liftlong rt.<id,·nt of the
Qua/la Boundary Rt.<en•aJion has always been
rnlt!rtsred ,n tht Clu:rol.Lt! cultural and arti.<tic
traditions. lie 1s a con1tnuing .rouru of knowledge on
the old wuys oftht tribe (stt Kn1tfah Journal 115) as
wdl as be1n11 a mo1or suppoNu of conttmporary
Indian arnsu.
1'om had ,.,;urn a manuscript for a hworical
booklet on tk lift qf St!quo>·ah which was,,, his
Mt:d1cint: Man Craft Shep the night tht! building was
thstroycd byjirt!in 19..~Z. llt: has since bun
rebwlding hisf/lt!s on the nativt! gcmus. llt! is ._·ell
acquaintt!d With thl' life of ti~ man who brought 1k
Chuoktt 1ht ,.,illt!n "'ord
:Fa(f., 199 I
�S00YEARS OF
RESISTANCE!
In October of 1492, as we all learned in
grammar school, Christopher Columbus
sailed the ocean blue and landed in the
Antilles to become the first European to
record his encounter with the land and people
of the Tunle Island conrinent.
Of the land he found, Columbus wrote:
"Large and very green trees, and great
lagoons, around which the trees stand in
marvelous groves. Flocks of parrots darken
the sun and there is a marvelous variety of
large and small birds, very different from our
own; the trees arc of many kinds, each with
its own fruit, and all have a marvelous
scent."
Of the native people he met in the
Antilles, who later were named the Taino,
Columbus wrote: "They are so affectionate
and have so little greed and are in all ways so
amenable that there is in my opinion no better
people and no better land in the world. They
love their neighbors as themselves and their
way of speaking is the sweetes1 in the world,
always gentle and smiling."
Within a year of Columbus' landfall,
the "miraculous groves" were gone, cleared
to make way for the rancheros and
plantations that would make the large
contingent of Spanish seulers wealthy, and
mining had spoiled the "great lagoons," not
to mention rivers, mountains, and native
farmlands. Within that year too, several
thousand Taino were shipped 10 Europe as
slaves, marking the beginnings of the slave
trade. Those who remained fell victim to
European diseases against which they had no
resistance, and to the barbarism and tyranny
of the colonists.
Thus was set the pattern of ecocide and
genocide which has been the dominant force
in the modem history of the Americas. As the
500th anniversary of Columbus' "discovery"
of the "New World" approaches, it appears
unlikely !hat the myriad official festivities
sponsored by governments of Europe and the
Americas will expose the darker legacy of
~uropean conquest. What they will offer
instead is a "QuincenteMial Jubilee" marked
by all the hoopla, pride, and patriotism that
modem technology can stir up.
fo!C, 199 1
r However. a grcA1nd weft qf publi{ ,
opposition. led by moigendus groups in
Nonh and South America, is gathering force
to assure that the celebrations do more than
glorify the ecocide and genocide wrought by
Columbus and the other colonists and
missionaries who followed him. In July of
1990 representatives of 120 indigenous
nations, tribes, and organizations met for the
first time in Quito. Ecuador to discuss their
peoples' slruggles for self-de1ermination and
10 organi1..e a unified lndi:tn response to the
official 1992 Jubilee celebrations. Their plans
call for alternative gatherings 10 celebrate 1he
resistance chat has enabled Indians 10 survive
the centuries of genocide and opprei.sion chat
1hey have suffered at the hands of the
Euro-Americans.
The coali1ion is also recalling that many
myths and prophecies of native peoples
throughout Turtle Island say 1ha1 chis period
of oppression would la.~t for 500 years, when
it would be replaced by a period of change
("Pachakutek'.) that will lead ro a better life
for the people, a life lived once again in
harmony with Molher Eanh.
At a time when the Euro-American way
of life is threatening lhe survival of all
peoples and of the planet itself, we all would
do well to listen and 10 follow lhe example set
by the indigenous people of a more
harmonious way of being.
It is up to us to make 1992 the first year
of Pachakutek, not the 501st year of
colonialism.
Resource pacuis for those inttrtsted in
organiting local alttrna1i11ts to the official/ts1111i11ts
art availablt from the following:
- Scarborough Fortign l,fiS$ion; 2685
Kingston Rd.; Scarborough. 0111ario. Canada MI M
IM4. Jnclude a nwney donotion 10 CO\ltr prillting ONJ
postagt.
- Cltrgy ONJ Lairy Concerned; Box /91J7;
Decatur, G~ 3003/ for $5.00 postpaid
The Sowh and Mtso-American Jndim,
Information Ctnttr. which strvts as a liason betwun
Indian people of the sowhcrn and the northern
con1intn1s. Is a good sourct of1nforma1io11 aboUJ the
alttrnativt ac1ivi11es plan11td throughow the
Americas. Write to SAJJC: Box 7550, Berktlty, CA
94707.
1/'Jf)U art illltresttd in helping 10 organiu
ahernativt 1992 t~nlS in Kataiah, write Jeff Smith at
207 Coxt A~.: Ashevillt NC 28801 or call (704)
259-5333.
- by cmmtll Grundiggu
Save James Bay
Stop Hydro-Quebec!
Ancestral lands of the Cree and Inuit
cultures as well as the entire James Bay
ecosystem are being threatened by a
mega-hydroelectric project known as the
James Bay Project James Bay, a shallow salt
water bay which forms the southern tip of
Hudson Bay in Canada, is the largest
nonhcrn river drainage system for Tunic
Island. Fresh water from vinually every
major river in the hean of 1he continent flows
into James Bay where it mixes with the Bay's
snit w:lter over marshy tidal flats to create a
vast and diverse ecosystem.
'These rivers make the Bay a rich
ecosystem teeming with caribou, moose,
:i: ~;wer as wellbearseals.1he manyl3cluga
as
walrus,
whales, polar
and
anadromous
fish that return from the ocean 10 spawn in
the fresh water rivers of James Bay. This is
also the nesting and s1aging ground for the
'central flyway' for most migratory birds
from geese and ducks to some shore birds
who may carry ou1 a migrncion that brings
them as far south as Tierra del
Fuego.....(Thc land around James Bay) has a
dclica1e ecology of coastal mmhes, muskeg
and pinelands that provide a rich garden in
which the animals and Native people have
lived for tens of thousands of years."
(Winona l..aDuke)
The fames Bay Project is a
mega proJect of Hydro-Quebec. Quebec's
Premier, Robert Bourassa. sees 1he entire
province as "a vase hydro·elcctrie plant in the
bud... ". Phase I (1971-1985) of the Project
has already destroyed a great deal of habiUlt
and lands. Phase II and Phase lll are even
more massive undertakings. Phase II would
impact an area greater than New York State
and New England combined and would
destroy 15 major rivers.
However, Phase III is the most
extravagant. h is a $JOO billion scheme to
build a 100 mile dike across the mouth of
James Bay so that freshwater from 1he Bay
can be pumped (possibly by nuclear pumps)
to the Great Lakes, and then to the Midwest
and Southwest United States!
This project if completed would cause
devastation of the entire James Bay
ecosystem which is the hean of the largest
remaining wilderness in Tunic Island as well
the cultural genocide of the native people
who would lose their traditional means of
subsistance through hunting, trnpping and
fishing.
Already ten thousand migrating caribou
have drowned crossing the Caniapiscau River
during a 1984 Hydro-Quebec water release.
If all the dams proposed by Hydro-Quebec
arc built, 350,000 square kilometers will be
directly impacted, Over 25,000 ~uare
kilometers \I.ill be flooded. Countless lakes,
ponds and temporary ponds will be
drowned. Critical wildlife habitat will be
fragmented and migration routes destroyed.
Destruction of chis habicat will doom
thousands of migratory bird~.
In September of 1990. the Canadian
National Energy Board approved the expon
of Hydro-Quebec electrici1y 10 the US. There
are formal efforts in Maine. Vermont, and
New Yorlc to call for the cancellation of any
contrnc1s with Hydro-Quebec. lndividuals
and organizations around North America art'
joining the fight to save James Bay.
For more informa1ion. contacr:
Northeast Alliance to Protect James Bav
139 Anrrim Street
/
Cambridge, MA 02139
..
(617) 491-553 I
•
X.Ot uc:ih Journot J>CIIJC 25
�. ",
DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KA TUAH
Dear Kmualt,
This kulwie says that idle hands arc the devil's
wockshop when iJs preuy damn obvious IO anyone
who sits down and thinks about it that idle hands nrc
definitely not a workshop and that the devil's
worbhop has m1111y many busy busy hands. Ovec
achiever type A workaholics with hyperactive
thyroids have predictably lllken over at the throUle of
neatly everything and ate proceeding to make the
world a miserable place to be for anyone who likes to
go fishing or read a boolt or simply to do her pan in
the effort to conserve energy by silLing down and
bcmg quiet.
Motorboats chum our lakes into oily froth.
AirpLllles arc aJmo:.t always whining in our cars. All
terrain vehicles defile the America others pass by.
shnttcring silence and leaving ruts that open into
gullies lhat are geo logical re minders of the passing
of some busy idiot who wos out SpiMing his wheels
and wasting all sorts of resow-ces when he should
have been home playing with his luds or l:lying in a
hammock.
Poople in general and rncD m particular QJ'C
taught that Ill order to be respected we should make
our mark on a world. The world is nlrcady llWkcd up
with graffitti-like doings of the do-do culture and what
we now need 10 learn moSt is s10pping. Don't just do
something, Slalld there.
Will Ashe Boson
Floyd, VA
DcarKmuoh.
Vour article about dowsing slruck an
inu:rcsting chord with me. I have been fortunate 10
get to hike with a group of Retired Citi,..cns or
Gatlinburg over the past sevcml months, and because
of that have met some very fascinating people not the
least or whom is a man named Herb Oabo, a real
mountain man who gi-ew up in the Roaring Fork
section of what is now the Great Smoky Mountnins
National Park:. He now lives in that same area about
two houses from the Park bouod:IJ'y. He still climbs
the mowitnins and walks the ridges almost every day.
At 80 he is still ahead of the pack except when he
siops IO share a bit of history or a talc of sons. It i.~
one of t!lcse talcs that came tO mind when I read your
article. Herb can divine for bodies! • and find them.
The rods arc held loosely in the hands and when he
comes IO the grave. they tum in. I have watched him
do this and it is exuemely fascinating.
The Parle Service asked him and Frank Cart.er,
another dowser. 10 help them with a cemetery in the
Roaring Forlc section which had been badly damaged
by tourists - roc:ks which were really old grave
m:utcrs had been knocklxl over and some even canicd
out of the cemetery. With 1he1r dowsing rods, Hcrb
and Frank were able to rcnlign the graves, replace the
m:IJ'kcrs, and arc now c:nrrying fill din to cover the
IOOlS and ftll in washouts caused by the he.Ivy lrllff'ic
of many feet. For the umc being. the ccmelCI)' is
fenced off and will be unul the n:pciiring and =ding
arc compleled. In that ccrnclct)'. thctc iS a grave for a
leg. A man lost his leg in a logging occident and
Xnti1af1 JounmC p119c 26
insisted on having it buried with a formnl funeral.
Herb u:11s another inlelCsting story about
finding the grave of Jasper Mellinger. Years ago
Jasper had "l:ud-by" his com crop and was going to
Nonh Carolina 10 work a few days tn a blacksmith's
shop. Instead of walking the long way around, he
took the "nigh" way through the hills. Art Huskey
had a bear uap set and Jasper got caught m 11. On
finding him there. it is alleged, Art or his son
knocked poor Jasper in the head with a pine knot and
buried him m a shallow grave. Herb was detenmncd
to find lhnt grave. long since heavily overgrown. He
walked the hills for about a year bcfo,e he loaltcd the
grave only 10 discover there were four bodies buried in
the =e area. He ha.~ cleaned out lllOUlld the graves
• and a path lending 10 them and 1s now placing
mnriccrs for t!lcse people. He has deccnnincd who
three or the bodies arc and will mark the other
"unknown: Hero is a real storehouse of knowledge
and mountnin lore.
Barbara Wickersham
DcarK01111Jh,
I read with great in~t the interview with
Tom Hendricks, "The Responsibilities of Dowsing,·
in the Summer "91 issue of Kmu.o.lt JournLJI.
Hoving recently writu:n IO the Amctic:ln
Society of Dowsers expressing concern at the
non-holiSllc actions of some dowsers, I found Tom's
comments cncoumging. I have been dowsing for a
number of YeaA, mostly locating with L-rods. More
recently I hnvc been conccntroting on trying to
undcrslll.nd Eanh energies. I rend, and dowse., and find,
but feel the need to work with someone who really
knows what they arc doing. Look forward to hearing
from you.
Yours sincerely,
Joy Doheny
DeatKmuah,
s
Something a wrong with the U.S. Forest
Service le:idcrship. They can't 11\llnage our forests
properly due to a spurious pl31l they adoJ)led 25 years
ago. h can be likened 10 a disease in its effccL Call 11
"clcarcuHLtS." Ever since they've been obsessed with
denuding our forestS. They promoted the spread of
this infection to colleges and univen;iucs th.It prcp:ire
future foresters. Certain limber interests, long
affiicu:d with th IS dlSCaSC. have wdcd and supponcd
the Fore.st Service leadership m iL~ addiction and arc
confusing us with a SS0,000.000 misinformation
campain. Their purpose: 10 cut the 5~ left of our
ancient forests at huge profits to them.,;elves within
the neitl 5 to 10 years using the befuddled Fo~
Service leadership to gnm their end.
Once it was the people and the Forest Service
versus timbcrers. Now it is umbcrcrs and the Forest
Service versus the people. A tide of public concern is
rising IO stem this disease in its devnsiation with
powerful mcdicruion to be pn:scribcd by Congress.
Previous prescriptions have failed because the Forcst
Servioc leadership refuses 10 swallow the medicine
that would return it to its fonner stnte ofhc:llth. The
"Santa Claus syndrome." of practically giving away
our trees hntvesu:d at our expense. is also of gi-eat
concern to people.
tn lodinnn 120,000 people signed petitiOns and
wrote thousands of leuets, including congressmen and
lhe governor, ealling for protection of biological
diversity and regeneration of old growth. A poll of
voiers 31'0und the Hoosier National Forest showed
69% are so upset they want to bnn all logging. The
entire congressional delcgnuon or fllinois is
demanding the Forest Service Stop being Sania Claus
with below-cost sales. Arl<ansas and Texas have asked
for a halt 10 clearcutting. South Carolina people arc
asking for a ch411ge m mn~cment. In North
Carolina over 16,000 people and over a thousand
businesses signed pctiuons in a shon period of time
10 halt clearculting. A number of Forest Service
employees and supervisors, not willing to allow this
disease to reach epidemic proportions. are organizing
and asking thru the infected leadership accept
prescribed congressional medication so that the Forest
Service can survive.
I must add that a number of private forest
growers with large and small forc.~ts arc not infccu:d
with "clenrcu1-1tis." They arc surviving low prices
caused by Rnst Service leadership direction. These
forests are a JOY 10 visit compared with the shambles
pre.sent m our ll3tionaJ forests. These many growers
arc not liqu1d3tors. They believe in a tomonow for
themselves and their children. Why can't this be true
for the nntional forests?
Grandfather and Grandmother, we have the
time. We love this land and want 10 leave it beucr for
our children and grandchildren. We've seen the umber
locuslS consume our forest before. It doesn't have to
happen to the Inst gr.md trecS standing. Th.rec bills in
commitu:c need support; HR 2S01, HR 1969, and
HR 842 to help k.ill the infoction. Three congressmen
10 reach arc Harold Volkmer. Eda la Gana, Goorge
Miller (House of Rcprcscntativcs, Wnshington. DC
20015). There arc also three senators; D.ile Bum~,
Pntricl; Leahy, and Wyche Fowler (Scn.,tc Office
Building. Washington, DC 20010). Even though our
hands arc tired and weary, \YOn't you pick up a pen
and write? Let's inspire them in Washington.
Bob Gerry
Franklin, NC
Drawing by Rob Messick
rnrc., 1991
�Dear Ka1uah.
A friend gave me his copy or your Summer'!) I
Ka1uah Journal. nnd I am impressed by lhe imcgri1y
of lhe journal. One of my grcn1-grnndmothcrs wns a
full-blooded Cherokee, plus my family hns roois in
1he Miami Nation. Sadly, I never paid any heed to
this heritage until the last yenr or so. though I have
always been an enrth person. ever drawn 10 nature fascinated by forcsis, ~ueruns, wild Iire, lightning. I
rc.ili:u: that this is pan of my being, and am
beginning 10 look more closely at the wisdom of
thOl,e who came before me.
I would hkc 10 know if a publicauon s1m1lar
10 your; cxisis in the Indiana region. I would be
interested in lellming more about my foreflnhcrs, but
I'm n0t too sure where 10 start. Thank you for :iny
help you can offer. and 1100k forward 10 hearing from
you soon.
Since my return home I have fell myself often
"losing focus· with nil the technology nnd
matcriohstic vibrations that surround me. I h3ve
found th3l one thing I can do 1s make my way to a
stnnd of treeS very ncnr here and allow myself 10
recapture lhc feeling of the Smokies, the •me·
I am working with the Appalachian Women's
Guild on the Monteagle Mountain ~lion of the
Cumberland Platc3u. It seems lO me, thot this
mountain could be an exemplary bioregional
devclopmen1 - it cou.kl become self-sufftcienL ll is at
this lime extrcmdy depressed economically which
Respectfully,
Jeff Zaclulry
Dcar Ka1uah.
IC I h:id closed my eyes and envisioned the
perfect. most harmonious appro:ich 10 life in the
Soulhem Appalachians I could not have crentcd :i
more beautiful image than lhc people who conlribute
10 your journal and those who arc the rtal members of
the Katu:ih Province. I think I hove found my venue,
and my only regret is that Tdid not have the courage
10 head such a wonderful movement myself.
I'm a graduate student at Appalnchian State
University in Boone, NC studying and working lO
preserve the biodiversity and ecology of these great
mounlllins. I have struggled with 10lerance of the
modern, dcvelopmcn1-00nsumcd elite of this town and
this region. I am so happy 10 find the power in your
numbers.
Please let me know more about your cause.
your people, and your apparent passions 10 prcscrvc
the way of the conscious man and womnn. I wnnt 10
be a part of the movement, and be counted among
you.
God Bless,
J1mmy Bnrbcc
-=----
Dear KaJuah,
I was recently introduced 10 your wonderful
publication and would like 10 know more about
K01uah and how I can become involved.
In the past it seems I made less lime for myself
10 read or enjoy the beauty or life nround me.
However, due 10 a recent car occident I've found
myself with the time lO do anything and the physical
ability 10 do almost nOthing.
So I n::id.
I probably never would have come 10 know my
world, or Katuah, if it were not for the accident and a
special man in Lake Toxaway who lOOk the time 10
talk 10 me about life, healing, and Ka1uah. For th:11 I
am very thank:ful.
I thank God as I grow physically and spiritually
stronger everyday, and look forward 10 living as I
never have.
Seize the Dayl
Paula Flanks
Dear K01uah,
I live in a very popul:itcd, "built-up· pan of
Florida. and decided in June to e,;plore the Smoky
Mounuiin.~ with my friend 10 Slill, nnd re-center
myself. We had a wonderful, amazing, and
lr.lnsforming lime • and while there I discovcrcd your
publication.
Tm!, 1991
Paintina by S\1$111 Adam
rediscovered there. The Olhcr is 10 open Ka,uoli
Journal lO any page and begin IO~. The
commitment :ind dedication to Life of your writcts.
people like myself - puts me back on my chosen
pnth. Thank you for sharing and afrummg.
Yours in light,
Susan Rueter
To the Editors:
I was given a copy or lhe Kaiuah Journal.
Spring, 1991. by a friend, Cicio Myc1~k. I have just
this morning read II and am moved to find such an
enlightened group ru work. II IS like finding a pan
of your family that had been ml$mg. r want to
connect with you as projects in which 1 am im,ol ved
p:irnllcl yours in this issue.
I include my story which r have JUSt wriuen
for the Episcopal Chwch. (see excerpt below) The
opposition to a hazardous waste incinerator (three
limes the size of any existing facility which promised
to take haw-dous waste from at k:asl 20 sta.ics)
which I organized, changed my whole life. I now
work full lime on establishing a true grassroots
environmental nerwork m Tennessee that will connect
with other similar networks nationwide. (Thank God I
hnve a husband who C113bled me lO give up my
gainful employment in order 10 do this volw:uecr
work.)
I attended the Episcopal Church Envaronmenlal
Conference ,n Kanuga. NC in April llihcte I met
Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Grecnho~ Crisis
Foundation in Washing10n. He invited me to auend n
conference in Wa.mington at the end or Scp!Clllbcr
lhnt will plan a grassroots Conunental Congress for
May of 1992. I Ulke great hope that this Con tinenlal
Congress will have sufficient impact on the political
paities to change the t.otal disrcgrud for the
environment (my opmjon) that both parties have been
exhibiting.
gives llS fcrtilc ground for movmg in lhc direction of
interdependent living.
I also work with a group which ,s creating a
vision of community when: physicnlly and mentally
handicapped and non-physically handicapilcd can live
in an interdependent relationship where the arts and
celcbrauon oflife you spcalc of will be an integral
part of our circular community. We will have a
biodynnmic farm, a gteenhou~. woodworking shop,
Appalach1311 cmfis, design and making of allcmative
clOthing for the physically challenged, a printing
operation. and opportunities and encouragement for
all 10 develop their individual spirituality in an
atmosphere or love.
In fighting the evil of the inciDCnllOr, people
were brought together who have the underlilanding and
cnprabililics or making the Biorcgional Economy or
the whole mountain IOP work along with the special
community.
I celebrate your enthusiasm, your dedication,
and your Being.
Light and Love 10 all of you,
Marilyn Williams
Chau.anooga. TN
~rpttdfrom Marily11 Williams' story:
Morion County LS an economically depressed,
rural county comprised of a long valley swrounded by
mounlllins, indented wilh coves traversed by the
Tennessee River. This topogniphy results in a
phenomenon cnlled thermal invCTsion. Very often,
tempcroturc changes will force the air down and hold
it against the floor of the valley so that it cannot
escape over the mount2ins. Any kind of smoke-t;toct
indu.«ry would be unusually bad ror the area. I blcr
lcamcd that lhcnna1 invcnion was ·no problem· for
those who warued to site a haz:lJ'dous wastt
incineralor on lhe TenllCS5CC River in our county.
(c:auinued on I"'&" 28)
JC.Qtuah 1oumnl
J)(IQe
27
�(continued from pa,:c 27)
I alt.ended a meeting of our County
Commission and heard lhe president of a commen:i:il
hllzardous was1C incinerator COfflJXUlY IC.Jl lhe
commission and all present he did nOl care whwier
we voted to have him there or nol; he certainly
wouldn't icll us he wouldn't be the.re. We later le:uned
the same group had been defeated in four olhct
counhcs through use of the Local Veto Option which
we voled to hnve him there or not; he ccnainly
wouldn't tell us he wouldn't be there. We lat.er learned
the same group had been defeated in four olhcr
•
counties through use of the Locnl Vct0 Opuon which
was a Tennessee law. We knew quiic well that our
legislature had jus1 removed this law that gave
citizens ~ right to protect their property ond lhe
health and welfare of lhcir children. This 1s a
constituuonnl nght bom of n Ocmocmcy.
I C:lmC from Ilic rooeting angry. I was angry
tlmt in a land where freedom was supposed IO nng
from every mounlllln IOp, a man could siand before us
and arrogantly icll u.~ he 11o us - in so many words •
gomg 10 force on us something that we knew would
dcsll'Oy our property values and endanger our
children., lives - and for what? For profit
• My anger 1ncrenscd with the rcalm1tion that
the citizens of this Staie have every right to expect
thc,r elcc!Cd, paid official\ to make laws to protect Ilic
Jives and property of lhe people of their Staie, I snw
ourselves in the posiuon of bemg forced to do the JOb
for ourselves.
I called a meeting or friends to organv.e n
protesL I sent announcements 10 both the
newspapers, but they did not print 1hcm, We had IS
people ai the rll'St meeting. We each IOOk
rcspons1bili1y or getting others at the next mccung,
and we prepared notices to be ID.ken to the papers. At
the ncxt meeting we h.ld 26 people to plan a town
meeting to discuss the opposition to the incinerator.
At that meeting we had press from lhe city of
ChatUlnooga and 400 orderly people. After that we
had the attention of the clcclcd offici.l!s and the loca.1
press and radio stations.
Two months later, at 7 AM over 3,000 finn,
but orderly, infonned people gathered in the .square at
South PilL~burgh to confront the rcprcsentauves of
FTI who came with armed Pinkenon gu:ll'ds, The
people with their children wore T-shirts reading,
"Two, Four. Six, Eight; WE WILL NOT
INCINERATE." Cars had bumper stickers saying
"DANGER - NO INCINERATOR." Posters staung
firm opposiuon were held high. Many wore gas
mask.~. A-:. representatives of the incinerator company
Milked into the building where they had come to
conclude the mlc or the propsed incinerator site, m on
orderly fashion. the crowd began to chant, "Two,
Four, Si~. Eight - WE WILL NOT INCINERATE!"
The day b.:forc the mlly a UPl reporter who
knew the area, called me and a.,ked me how mony
people J thought we would have a1 the rally. I said
that if--.c did 001 have 01 lcai.t 2,000 I would be
sorely disappointed. He laughed, saying, "If you ha\'c
2,000 people in Marion County come out for
anything, I'll be greatly surprised. Those people luve
never been togcthcr on anything."
When I arrived m South Piu.sburgh shortly
be~ 7:0Q that morning on June 14. 1990, I lil!w
people coming "in droves; as we say. They were
commg from all over in large numbers, and icars
rolled down my race because I knew m my hcal1 that
weh3d won.
Four d.lys laicr, F11 announced they would
not build in Marion County or "any of the
surrounding area."
... I saw interesting and miraculous things
happen in this united effort. I saw shy young mo°'.crs
come forward and tell me, "l"ve never done an),1hmg
like this before. I just Silly home and talce care of my
family, but I'm not Slllying there and watching this
Juppcn."
I saw them transformed into outSpOken,
tireless worker.; who conducted meetings in their
communities to get the word ouL Some or them
called me and cried at the heanless roccplion they
encountered sometimes in the bcgiMmg when they
called on bu.'ilnesspcople to put petition~ in stores or
to tallc at city council meetings; but they never guve
up. They went right back, and !hey bccnme StrOngcr.
as they were empowered b)' the love lhey had for thi:,r
children. It occurred to me at lhc time, if the Earth i.s
10 be saved, 11 will be by mothers and those who
share the feelings or mothers.
I saw children become awurc of somctl11ng
they hlld always Uken for gmntcd. School chil.drcn
made posters and wrote letters 10 elcclCd officials.
ng
They bccrunc int.:rc.,tcd in recycling. I saw a bondi_
of people joined by a common cuus.e. I sow a commg
together of people who would prohably never have
come 10 know each other. I sa--. a ri'i<! in the
consciousnCSli of people. Then: was an elevation of
sclf-e:;1ocm. Th.:se was a knowledge gamed thm one
person can still make a dilTerencc if the)' take the hand
of their brother/sister and slalld up for whal they
believe is righL Since the mc.mcmtor fight, I have
seen others tnke the mniaiive 10 sl:llld again.st other
1njustic.!s in their communit.lc.s. •
The People are Angry! A Monual on \Va.tre
llauvdou...t to tht Ilea/th of our Cllildren in itMetsu
i.s available from Tcnne:.scc Grassroois
EnvironmenUll Network; Boll 15038: Chaunnooga,
TN3741S
Get a set of 10 assorted
folding cards with
artwork you see in
I<atuah Journal.
• You1h Camps - ~ P,ogrem1
• Family Camps· Teach0< Tra.,,ng
• Communuy Programs
• Camp Slaff Training
• Outdo« Pn,gram Consulting
(Envelopes included.)
by Rob lJlessick
Send $11.25 postage paid
to:
RM DESIGNS
r.o. aox 2601
ProgomJ to encouoge
end Earth OWOl8'l8$$.
celebrol1on. ldn&Hp and hope
$611
PO 8oK 1306
Galltnt>,,,g, terY10lSee 3n38
615-436-6203
BOONE, NC 28607
whole earth
grocery
NATIVE FLUTES
Two styles mode of cedar or walnut
woods in the traditional manner
Hawk Littlejohn
Sourwood Farm
Rt. 1, Box 172-L
Prospect Hill, NC 27314
(919) 562-3073
•
NATURAL
ALTERNATIVES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LIVING
446 c p;arkw•y craft ~ntcr • •uilc 11
gatlinburg, tcnn~ 3n38
6 15-436-6967
Xat(iah Jou r not pn9c 28
'
,,
Union Acres
A,r Alternative
-
•
Acrt.agtforSale - Smoky Moun/111n Lrving
wilh II focus on spiri/114/ 11nd
«ologit:Jll valuts
For more informalron;
Contact C. Gran/ al
RDult 1. Box 61/
Whittier, NC 28789
(704) 4974964
NATURAL MARKET
WHOLE FOODS • OULK
FOODS • VITAMINES • HERDS
• FAT FREE FOODS • TAKE
OlTTFOODS • SNACKS • NO
SALT, NO CHOLESTEROL
265-2700
823 Blow,ng Rock Rd
lloonc. NC 28607
:fnfL 1991
�,
-
0FFTHEGRID
SOLAR OVENS
by Dr. lnnnis Scanlin
This issue's 01/The Grid 1ues1 collUMis1
is Dr. Dtnnis Scan/ill, Proftssor ofApproprialt
Ttchnoloo at AppalacNIJJI State University;,.
Boone, North Carollna. Dennis is cwrrently working
on a project sponsored ITy the Su.sklinablt
Dtvtlopmelll Center of ASU to bring so/Ju ove11
ttCM()/olJ to the rural pu,plt ofGllllUma/a. Solar
o - ttcM()loo is pani&ularly appropriJJu in Ct111ral
America wlttn thert is a lot of s1111 and a probltm
with defortSiaJilJ11 as ptoplt u.sc rht forests to prqvide
woodfor cooki/11.
So/Ju ovens could, obviDu.sly. N>t ~ u.scd as
freqUUlll)I hut in Katwolt as ill Ca1ral Amtrica, bu/
rhty could ctrtamly su,,e as All OMXillary tltUf1
source IO ~ wed whutevtr possible to / - , ow
demands 011 wood, proflOM, oU ONl/or tltcrricity.
DtfortSIJJ/k,11 is IU)t cwu11tly a probkm lwre (~sides
timber sales), bUI It col/Jd ~CO/fflt OM if rht opdollS
of oil, propane and/or tltcrricily _,., too expensive
or IINIWlilabk, as is Ille t.aU ill rwol CcfllrtJJ
America. As Dr. Scanli11 lius IO poilll 0111, "lhtre is
"" silltlt tMTlJ fXIIUIUO.. 1ht suslDiJsabh t11tro of
our fwurt will come from a ~ f J ofsourcu. Solar
OVtftS w{J/ be OM of IN>U. •
·td.JimHou.su
Solar Cookers have been receiving a lot
of attention recently in both the developing
and developed regions of the world. This
attention is well deserved because these
ovens are a truly appropriate technology.
First of all, they really work. They are
also cheap enough to be accessible to
virtually everyon~ easy to construct with
locally available materials; simple to
understand and operate; utilize renewable
energy; and reduce our dependence on
centrally supplied energy or, in the
developing world, diminishing supplies of
increasingly expensive fuelwood, wi1hout
having any adverse impacts on the
environment They can be a pan of the
solution ro the many problems facing our
world.
There are two basic types of solar
cookers. The first is the direct or focusing
parabolic dish cookers, which are usually
about 4 feet in diameter and reflect all the
solar energy striking them onto a focal point
which is usually about 18 inches above the
center of the dish. A pot of food would be
supponed at this focal point. Their
performance can be very impressive,
achieving temperatures over 600° F;
however, they can onJy heat one pot of food
at a rime, can be difficult to construct, need to
be focused every 15 to 30 minutes and don't
work very well on panly cloudy days.
Effons 10 market these cookers have
largely failed because of their tempennentnl
nature and because people don't like standing
out in the sun while cooking. The whole
TaU, 1991
SOLAR OVEN
Drawing by DoMis Scanlin
process of cooking with these cookers is too
different from traditional methods.
The indirect or box ovens have been the
focus of most of the recent interest in solar
cooking. An indirect or box oven is simply
an insulated box with a glass or plastic cover,
and one or more reflectors to increase the
amount of sunshine entering the box. Food is
usually placed in dark colored pots with
covers. The pots full of food are then placed
in the solar oven and absorb the solar energy
entering the oven. These ovens reach
temperatures between 250 and 450° F, can
cook several pots of food at the same time,
work on partly cloudy days. aod are simple
and inexpensive to construct
Many indirect or solar box ovens have
been designed over the last few years;
however, most fall into one of two
categories: single reflecror or multiple
reflector.
The single reflector type is the least
complicated variety. It is an insulated
rectangular box with a shoe box type lid and
a single reflec1or attached to the lid. It was
first developed in 1976 by Barbara Kerr and
Sherry Cole of Tempe, Arizona and is the
design presently being promoted by Solar
Box Cooker International, 1724 11th Street,
Sacramento, CA 95814. They have plans
available for $3.00.
Plans are also available from Kerr
Enterprises, Inc., P.O. Box 27417, Tempe,
AZ 85282, (602) 968-3068. They also have
complete kits for a well designed cardbo:ud
oven for about $55.
Kits are also available from Basic
Solar, Harvard Square Suite 67, 1430 Mass.
Ave.. Cambridge. MA 02138.
Kits or plans are not really necessary,
however, as one could easily be constructed
with either cardboard or wood. One good
source of cardboard boxes is Xerox paper
boxes found in schools and businesses.
Banana or apple boxes found in the local
grocery store are also quite sturdy, as are
cardboard file boxes which can be purchased
for about $3.00 at an office supply store.
These boxes could be covered with contaa
paper or painted for increased water
resistance.
The box could also be constructed from
large sheets of cardboard or with peices of
wood. Plywood and lxlO's or lxl2's have
been used. There may be undesirable gases
emitted from the plywood, which would
contaminate your food, but I'm not sure
about this potential problem.
The box should be large enough to
contain the desired size of pots which will be
used. but not much larger. The inside
dimensions of the Kerr/Cole cooker
mentioned earlier arel8"x22"x7". This size
can hold 3-4 pots of food and can cook a
meal for 4-6 people easily.
Insulation on the sides and boaom of
the oven wiU help it attain higher
temperatures by reducing heat loss. The
easiest is Thc.rmax foil faced insulation
secured with foil rape (not duct tape). There
may be hannful gases given off by this and
(continued on page 30)
Xatuah 1ourna! om1e ? Q
�(coniinutd from page 29)
01hers have objected to its use; however I
have not noticed any strange odors or tastes
in food cooked in an oven insulated with this
material, and when I called the manufacturer,
I was told there have been no problems
associated with ils use.
Another insulation scheme is 10 use a
smaller box inside the outer one and put
crumbled newspapers or fiberglass insulation
between the two boxes. Still another is to
fold cardboard so that trapped air pockets are
fonned and put these peices into the bottom
and on the sides of the box. With !he last two
Home Power Inc., POB 275. Ashland, OR
97520; and The Solar Coo~ry Book, Beth
and Dan Halacy, Peace Press 3828 Wilat
Avenue, Culver City, California 90230.
A variety of foods including soups,
stews, bread, chicken, cakes, rice, potatoes,
lasagna, and a variety of other vegetables can
be cooked in a solar oven. However, it does
involve some behavioral modification. One
needs to check the weather report for the day,
plan the day's dinner in the morning, put it
together and in the oven by around 10 or 11
and point the oven towards the south.
Obviously some foods will cook faster than
others. Baked beans and hot dogs can be
heated up in about I hour. Lentils, brown
rice, and soy beans will take substantially
longer. But just about anything can be
cooked in one good sunny day, or even a
panly cloudy day, if placed in the oven in the
morning and if the oven is reoriented towards
the sun a few times during the day. Around
noon is the ideal rime for solar cooking
because that is when we are receiving the
greatest amount of solar radiation.
There is no worry about burning foods.
Dark enamel, glass or ceramic pots work
well. TI1e dark-colored pots absorb more
radiation. Most cooking should be done in
convered pois.
Several solar cookbooks are available,
including Eleanor's Solar Cookbook, Eleanor
Shimcall. Cemese Publishers, 7028 Leesburg
Place, Stockton CA 95207 and Favorite
Recipes From Solar Cooks, Solar Box ,;,!!II'
Cooker International.
schemes the junction between the inside and
outside of the oven needs to be covered.
The reflector can be consmicted from
cardboard with a reflective material such as
aluminum foil, reflective mylar or a glass
mirror glued to it. Glass, plastic cooking
bags (available in grocery stores), or teflon
can be used for the glazings. Multiple layers
of glazing will result in better performance.
The glazing can be attached wilh aluminum
tape, wooden strips and nails for a wooden
box, and/or caulk. Multiple reflector designs
(fig. I) achieve higher temperature.\ (300-450°
F) but are more complicated to construct.
These cookers usually have a door on
the back side, but can also be constructed
with a shoebox type lid so the whole oven,
withou1 a bottom, fits over a shallow pan,
which would hold the pots of food.
Plans are available for $10 from Our
Sol.tr Systems, Box 55891. Tucson, AZ
85703. Two books with plans are also
available: Heave11s· Flame. A Guidebook 10
Solar Cookers, By Joseph Radabaugh,$ IO,
Complete ovens can also be purchased
from Clevlab ($15 - $275), POB 2647,
Liuleton, Colorado, 80161 and from Sunlight
Energy Corporation ($179), 441 lW. Echo
Lane, Glendale, AZ 85302 (602) 943,6492.
Figure 2 shows an exploded view of a smnll
p
muhiple reflector oven similarly inspired by
the Clevlab $15 Sunspot Solar Oven. This
same basic construction can be expanded for
a larger slant face type mulliple rcflcct0r
oven.
FRENCH BROAD
FOOD CO-OP
•• • Co05Umcr0wncd Since 1975 • ••
We Sell Food that Nourishes
I Iumans and Sustains the Earth
OPEN TO T l IE PUBLIC
Mond,,y· FriJay 8:30 AM to 8:00 r:--1
Saturdav 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM
SundJ)' I :(l(J P\I 10 6:00 PM
(704) 255-7650
Home! A Bioregional Reader
1/o,,u:! A Biorcgional Rtader, juit publi.\hcd hy
New Society Publi$hcrs, offcrs· nn c,ciung vision :uid
slOltcgy for creaung ('.enlogic.ii ly su~btn~htc
communnics and culture., rn hannony v. ilh the limiL~ nnd
rcgcncrauve powers or the £2th." It ha.~ gathered a.niclcs,
stories. and potnL~ of O\'Cr forty writer~ and acuvm.~who
have contnbu!Cd both co ddining biortgionalism a.~ a
J)Olitic;il philosophy and to the pracuce of "living rn
place.· Comnbutors mcluJ.:: Gary Snylkr, Pttcr Berg.
Caroline Estc,, Wendell Rcrry, a, well as Mnmie Muller
of the Karunlt l<mrnnl. Gr:ipl11cs in the book include the.•
\\Ort of Katuah's Rob Mcsskl..
The book is a large-format r;ipcrhack with 192
pages. includrni; resources and a reading list. Copies arc
available by mnil for S15.70 from RM Designs: Boi
Tnlhng Lto,~.s i~ • mor11hly
JOWMI nf ~ ecoloay, in.<rircd
p,,rwoaJ 11e11,·i= rooted UJ CNtheo
~piri11111iiy. Pu1 i"'-<;ues bnc
!car~ ani,lcs by Gary Soy<kr.
St.Vba"'k, John Sec:J, Joa.nna
Macy, B111 Dc\'all. Looc Wolf
Circle!'. Barhara Mor, etc.
Tnlki11g uo1n SJICU~ for the
narural "''-'"d and for the rdcinJliog
ot our own 'l-11d 51>in1.
Suh5COpUon~ an, S 15.00 on.)Ut/$18.000U1,1dc U.S. S25.00
two yc.tn/S36.00 ouwdc U.S .
~nd ch«k or M 0 . 10 :
Tnlkwg Lto,·a
1430 W1llamcuc #36 7
Eugene. OR 97401
503/342-2974
90 8i11m11rc Avcnul! A,hevallc, NC
2 Blocks South ol Downtown
rrutoNSETc:1
+.
•
0
~
I
.
.
- tl1c new al tcnmt.h·c
•
i
to tJ1c sleeper sofa
wiil1 OYcr 4,000 vcars of
customer ~atisfacH~n built in.
--
2601: Boone, NC 28007. Print,,, or Rob Mcssick's
illustrations from the book are also avnilablc from the
same llddn=
Taff, 1991
�The Bell: A Call to Peace
'The Bell
publishes
commentary and
news about peace
events and
resources. We digest
the best an1clcs
questioning war as a
solution 10 conflict
and exploring
peaceful alternatives
of foresight and reason. We continue to cover
the aftermath or the Gulf War, the policies that
brought us to that war, and the effect of
militarism on our country. our environment,
and our world.
"We accept contributions in the way of
writings, p<>cms, artwork, etc. The Bell is an
all-volunteer project that is dependent on
donations."
Issue #6 of The Bell, which contains an
interview with a woman who has maintained a
ten year, 2·1-hour-a-day peace vigil across the
srrcet from the White House, is currently
available.
TI1c Bell is published by Col/ten Redt1w11 and
Ah,yn Moss. To rrceivt The Bell, send a donmion to
Box 634; Floyd. VA 24091.
Permaculture Conference
The 6th Annual Eastern North America
Pennaculture Conference will be held
October 11-13 at the Standing Stone State
Park, near the town of Livingston m
nonhcast Tennessee.
Friday, October 11 • Field Day at Earth
Advocates Research Facility with an
inrroduction 10 Pcrmaculture.
Presentations on Saturday and Sunday,
October 12-13 - Keyline; Pcrn1aculturc and
Spirituality; Solar Power; Bio:.helters;
Low-income Community Development/Land
Tnms,
Monday, October 14 - Tours of nearby
Hidden Springs and Long Hungry Creek
Nurseries.
Costs are: Field Day - $20, Conference
registration (sliding scale) - $50-75 single,
$75-100 family. includt!s dorm lodging and
meals. Tours are free.
For directions and additional
infonnation, write: Eanh Advocates; Rt. 3,
Box 624; Livingston, TN 38570.
•
TURTLE ISLAND
BIOREGIONAL
CONGRESS
Mark the date!
The fifth
Turtle Island
Bioregional Congress
wm be held
MAY 17-24
at
Camp Stewart
Kerrville, Texas
(northwest of San Antonio)
Rl'g1strahon fet.-s hav<.> not b<.>cn set, but lhcn~
will bc r1.-dured rat<.>S for those who apply
bcfore0cccmbcr31, 1991
For funhcr infonnation on fees and
arrangements, contact the
Turtle Island Office
Box 140826
Dallas, TX 75214
(214) 324-4629
Bioregional Congresses
01.ark Area
The Twelfth Annual Ozark Area Community Congress, OACC
(pronounced 'oak") XII, will meet September 20, 21, & 22, 1991 at
Hammond Mill Camp in West Plains, Missouri. OACC has met for 12
years as a working congress (not merely a conforcnce) developing a
vision for the Ozark region based on nature's ecological rrinciples. They
focus on a range of issues including forestry, water, sustainable
agriculture. education. health, community economics, etc. This year's
congress includes a number of workshops as well as a barter fair. For
more infonnation. contact OACC, Box 3, Brixey, Missouri 65618. (417)
679- 4773.
Great Lakes Area
The Great Lakes Bioregional Congress will meet October 4, 5, &
6, 1991 in Hell (no joke), Michigan. The Congress promises to be a
celebratory, educational, fun weekend. Zones of discussion will include:
Water/Air (repon from International Joint Commission meeting, Great
Lakes Beach Sweep, toxic issues, aquatic intelligence); Eanh ( organic
farming, land use, restoration, tenure); Justice (social justice, people of
color, 500 years of resistance with dignity); Culture (alternative
economics, children, bioregional education, art, sacred sites); Habitat
(co-housing. sustainability); Nature (biodiversity, wilderness, forestry,
land defense). Scholarships available. Contact: Bearrice Briggs, % Wild
Onion Alliance, 3432 N. Boswonh, Chicago. IL 60657. (312) 929-5565.
Ohio River Watershed
The Ohio River Watershed Bioregionnl FestivaVCongress will be
held October 11-14, 1991. Entitled "Coming I Jome: Spirituality and
Ecology of our Region", the Congress is "open to all who desire to create
ways of life which are in harmony with the natural patterns and cycles of
the bioregion." All attendees are asked to panicipate in storytelling,
camping, sharing homegrown entenainment, produce, and seeds. The
Congress will be held at the fann of the Sisters of St Fmncis outside of
Oldenburg in southeast Indiana. $ I0/individual; $25/family. For more
information, contact: John Gibson, 3038 FalJ Creek Parkway,
Indianapolis, IN 46205; (317) 925-9297.
rnrc. ,.,
t!l!Jl
REGIONAL RADIO
Featuring Crossroads music, NPR news and music
p rograms, regional news and information
concerning health, education, government,
recreation, and the environment.
WNCW • FM P.O. Box 8().1
Spind,11~, NC 28160
(704) 287-8000
Xotimh Journot pn')C ~ I
�27-29
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Ecological Spintuafity.• exploring our
spiritual relationship to nmure. Topics will co~cr
theology or nature, 1'a1ivc American spir11uality,
stewardship responsibility. Pre-register: SSO. For info
about this and other programs. conUICt Great Smoky
Mountains Institute at Tremont; GSMNP: Townsend.
TN 37882. (615) 448-6709.
SEPTEMBER
11- 13
llLACK '>tOUNTAlN, NC
Black Mountain Mu~ic ~1ival, featuring
HorseOics, Metropolitan Blues Alls1ars, Dnv1d
Wilcox, Dr. Bubba and Ille O.K, Bayou Bnnd, and
other traditional and contemporary mu~icions. Will
also include African Drum Festival with Darrell
Rose. Cont:itl the Black Mountain FcsLi val Office.
PO Box 216, Black Mountain. NC 28711. (704)
669-4546.
Ongoing CIIEROKEF., r-;c
Exhibit: "The Beu in Cherokee Cultucc."
Cherokee Hcri1age Museum and Gallery, Hwy. 441
and Big Cove Rd.: Cherokee, NC 28719. (704)
497-321 I.
CULLOWHEE, NC
Mountam Heritage Day. n cclcbrauon or the
music, dance, crofL~. nnd folklife or Katunh. Cherokee
songs, shape,note singing, gospel, clogging. Life
skills dcmon.s1r.1tions and more. Mountrun Hcniage
Center, Western Carolina University. Cullowhce, NC
28723. (704) 227-7129.
SW ANNANOA, NC
Wnllace Black Elk, Lako1:1 Sioux mcd1cmc
mon. will lecture and conduct h<mling ceremomics 31
the Earth Center. Friday night: S25. Weekend: S150.
The Earth Center: 302 Old Fellowship Road:
Swannanoa, NC 28778. (704) 298-3935.
21
29
11-13
ASHEVILLE, NC
2nd Annual Organic Gro.,.crs Murkct Day
Organic produce, fruit, and growing ~upplics on sale.
8-4. WNC Farmers' Market; 570 Brevard Rd. For
more info, cnll Jim Smith (704) 252-4414.
20-22
HIGIILANDS, NC
"Cclebnumg Gay Spint Visions·
conference for gay and bisexual men. Spc.ikcrs include
poet James Broughton and author/healer Andrew
R:imer. Workshops on chakra b:ilancing, life ma.~k
making. n,e Warrior, and more. Music and artists'
m:irkcL ?re-register: S169 includes food and lodging
at The Mount:iin Retreat Center. For info, contact
Conference: 104 Trouer Place: Asheville. NC
28806. (704) 252-0634.
22
DUNCOM tlE COUNTY, NC
12th annu31 French Broad River Rafting
Cleanup. Tidy up the river from shore or from a mrt:
call Quality Forward a1 (704) 254-1776 for meeting
places and space on a rofL
WESTERN NOR1 H CAROLINA
North Cnrolino Fu-s1 Citizens Big Sweep
will coordinmc river cleanup~ in 18 WNC counties.
For events on your tribul3ry, com.act Pat Brinkley at
WNC Development Associn11on, (704) 252-4783.
28
ASHEVILLE, NC
Ellen O'Grady will speak about her
expcnenccs among Palestinians and lsrnclis during ten
months spent on o Middle East Witness delegauon.
Unitarian Universnlist Church, 2 pm, sponsored by
Rural Souihem Voice for Peace. For more info,
contact RSVP: 1898 Hannah Branch Road;
Burn.svdle, NC 28714. (704) 675-5933.
OCTOBER
Ongomg CHER OKEE, NC
Exhibit: "Coowccskoowcc (Chief John
Ross)" Cherokee Heritage Museum ond Gallery. Sec
"Ongoing" • Sept
1-5
CII EROKEE,
Cherokee Fall Festival 31 the Ceremonial
Grounds. Traditional dancing and costumes. dunce
competitions, weapons dcmonsu:uions. Chcrol.;cc
HcritJgC An Show running concurrently in the
Museum. For info. coll (704) 497 9195 or (800)
438-1601.
22
23
AUTUMN EQUINOX,
FULL MOON
4-6
JONESBORO, NC
l9ch Annual National Storytelling
Festival will feature yarn-spinners from all
over, including some of Appalachia's best.
For info, call the National Association for the
Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling
(NAPPS) at (615) 753-2171.
11-13
VALLEY HEAD, AL
Brooke Medicine Eagle at Hawk wind. (See
"Wcbworking" page.)
11-13
11,EW MARKET, TN
"Building Bridges 13c{woon Community o.nd
Educational lnstitulions" workshop. Designed to
show community activists how to make good use of
university and college resources. The Highlan~ r
Center. Sec 9/13-15.
I 1-20
HOT SPRI NGS, 1'C
"The Buddhist Prcccp1s for Daily Living"
silent rc1.rea1. guided by Cheri Huber. The 16
Bhodisatvn prcceplS as guidelines for deepening one's
spiritual practice. Pre-register: S325 includes vegan
meals and shared room . For information on 1hi5 and
other rc1rcat.s and workshops. contact Southern
Dharma Rc1rca1 Center: RI. I, Box 34-H; Hot
Springs, r-;c 28743. (704) 622-7112.
ASHEVILLE, 1'C
"The Solar Wisdom or the Incas· wilh
Willaru Chasqu1 from the Peruvian Andes. Gnosuc
wisdom of the central sun, imerplnnctary mission of
the E.T.'s, revolution in consciousness, universal
community, and the lnc:in calendar. 7:30 pm at
Jubilee, 45 Wall SL Free - love offerings accepted.
For more info. contact Valerie Naiman (704)
645-5110.
12
17-20 UNICOI STATE PARK, GA
25-29 ASHEVILLE, NC
"Kituwah" - an imenribal Native
American cultural celebration. Included will
be lifestyle ans demonstrations, competitive
dancing, juried fine arts show, traditional
crafts sale, and dramatic performances. All
events will be at the Asheville Civic Center.
Admission $2-7. For info, contact Kituwah,
46 Haywood St., Asheville, NC 28801.
(704) 252-3880.
HIGHLANDS, NC
WNC Alliance Annual Membership
Meeting al The Mountain. Open 10 the public.
Worlcshops, nature walks, lcgislntivc upda1e. Keynocc
speaker: James Blomquisl. head of the Public Londs
Program for the Siem Club. Workshops on
biOJcgions, mcdj:Juon, environmental effectiveness,
and lhe timber sale appeals. ConlJICt WNC Alliance:
B011 18087: A~heville. NC 28814. (704) 258-8737.
7
NEW MOON
10-13
NORRIS, TN
12th Annual Tennessee Fall Homecoming.
a cctebralion or lrlldmonal mountain cullure at the
Museum of Appalachia. Music, crafts,
demonstrations of rural life skills, in addition to the
Museum's regular cxhJbits. For info, call the
Museum of Appalachia at (615) 494-7680.
FnJI Ennhskills Workshop will offer
serious instruc1ion in the ans and lifeways of
indigenous people. Skills include making fire
by friction, plant identification, tanning
buckskin, stone and bone tools, stalking and
tracking, native drums and rattles.
Instructors: Darry Wood, Snow Bear, Scott
Jones. For info. contact Bob Slack, Jr.;
Unicoi State Park; Helen, GA 30545. (404)
878-2201.
18-20
27-29
ll-14
LIVINGSTON, TN
6th Annual Eastern Nonh American
Pennacuhurc Conference. Field day, nursery
tours, workshops: keyline, pennaculture and
spirituality, solar power, bioshelters, land
truSlS, more. Pre-register: Weekend - $50-75
(sliding scale), Field Day - $20 additional, to
Eanh Advocates; Rt 3, Box 624, Livingston,
TN 38570
SWANNANOA, NC
Dance, drumming, and teaching with
Brooke Medicine Eagle, healer and licensed counselor,
al the Earth Cen1er. S11ong emph3s1s oo women's
ways, but bolh men and women are welcome. Friday
night: $25. Weekend· SISO. See IWl l-13.
18-20
VALLEY HEAD, AL
"Women's Ceremonial Intensive" at
Hawkwind. (Sec "Webworking" p:1gc.)
Ta([, 1991
J
�SWAl'\ r-. ANOA, NC
"Rcncwmg Worship" Conference spon.sorcd
by Asheville Jubilee Community examinmg
Crcauon SpmlU3hLy through Lhc works of Ma11hew
Fo~. S250 1u11,on + S200 lodging. Jubilee: 46 W311
S1.: Asheville, NC 28801 (704) 252-5335.
NOVEl\IDER
21-25
23
F ULL MOON
NEW M ARK ET, T N
Appalachian Writers Workshop a1 1he
HighlMdet Center. Sec 9/13-15.
25-27
25-27
HI GHLANDS, NC
"Fall Landscape Workshop" with
photographer Sam Wang. Pre-register: $250 includes
lodging. For information about this and other
photography workshops, contact Appalachian
Environmental Ans Center; Box 580: Highlands, NC
2874 I. (704) 526-2602.
26
SWANNANOA, NC
Sweat lodge at th.: Earth Center Sec
10/11-13.
HALLOWE'l-:N (SAM ll AIN)
31
6
23
SWANNANOA. NC
Sweat lodge al the Earth Center. Sec
10/11-13.
NFW 1\100"1
7-9
G REENV ILL E, NC
6th Annu:il Altcma1ivc Farm Field Days.
Tours. seminars: aquaculture. markeung. compostmg,
cover crops, f>C$t mMagement, more. For info. write
Caroli no Farm Stewordsh1p A~sociation; Box 511;
Pittsboro. NC 27312 or call Jim Smith m Asheville
4.
at (704) 252-44 1
28-30
WAYNESV ILLE, NC
"Steps 10 Pc:icc" workshop with Sanderson
Beck. Inner ond outer pc:ice nnd the principles which
bring about peace. h3llllony, jusuce, and respect for
freedom. S60 includes vegetarian meals Md lodging.
For info on this and other program5, contact
Sul-Light Retreat Center; RI. I, Box 326;
Waynesville, NC 28786. (7~) 452-4569.
8-10
VA LLEY HEA D, AL
"A Weekend lnicns1vc on Lakota Ways• at
Howkwind. (Sec Wcbworking" page.)
9-10
SWANNANOA, NC
Dhyani Ywahoo 111 Lhc Eanh Ccmcr.
"Dhyani calls on u.~ 10 become Pcacckccpcr; in our
hearts and in the world." S200. Sec 10/11-13.
16-17
VA LLE Y II EAO, AL
Healing Arts Weekend al lillwkwind. (Sec
'Webworking" page.)
20-24
HOT SPRI NGS, NC
"Tam,ng the Monkey Mind" mcdit.ition
rctrc.it guided by Ven. Thubten Chodton, M ,\mericM
Tibetan BuddhlSI nun. Southern Dharma Retreat
Center. Prc-rcgi~tL-r: $170. Sec 10/11-20.
21
DECEMBER
5
NEW MOON
7-8
GREAT SMO KIF.S PARK
Winter llighcountry C.1mping. For info on
this and other field school comses. conlllct Smoky
Mounmin Field School: 600 Henley SL (Suite 105);
Univ. or TN; Knoxville, lN J7902. (615) 974-0150
or (800) 284-8885.
DO YOU ll'ANT YOUR IIAPPENINGS US-TED IN
HIE KATUMI EVENTS CALENDAR? listings arc
free. Mail tl~m to 1/rother 8/uir; JOO Webb Cove
Rd: A.fhtvilfe, NC 28804. l.isltngs for Issue 1133
must bt submilltd by Nov. 15.
FULL MOON
22-24
NF.W MARKET, TN
An11-Env1mnmcnt:il llaras.,mcm work.shop
at the fl1ghlandcr Center, Environmental ac1h·1sts
will learn how 10 dc0ccl harn,smcnt from the
polltic,1Vcorpor.i1e power st.nJCturc. Sec 9/13-15.
"The an!,.l°s oldest
.lnd l.ugcs1 natural
ioodsgnx.:,ry"
811/k l lcrbs, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supplements
Y.'11eat, Salt & Yeast-Free Foods
Dniry S11bstit11trs
Hair & Skin Cart' Products
Beer & Wi11c Makiug Supplies
200 W. King St, Boonr, :-:c 2S607
(70-l) 26-1-5220
l)r4wing by Rob Me;s.,d,
rJ
tJf.u
~ Sand_y Mush
Herb N ursery
WH OLE FOODS
VITAMINS
ORGANI C PRODUCE
WREATHS • POTPOURRI
• HERBS • TOPIARY
Complete Herb Catalog - $4
Describes more thn11 800 pla11ts from
Aloe to Yarrow
160 Broadway
Asheville, North Carolina
Open 7 Days a Week
Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm
Saturday 9 am - 6:30 pm
Sunday 12 pm - 5 pm
Tal.t, 199 1
A.I.A., Resource Information Analysis
Neil Thomas and Andy Feinstein
3 05 Westover, Asheville, NC
(704) 252-6816
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
Pltone for appointment to visit
(704) 683-2014
�0
•bwo~ ~,! ~
We
'
a fee of $2 .50 (pre-paid) per enrry offifty
words or less.
Submit entries for Issue 1133 by Nov. I5,
1991 to: Rob Messick; Box 2601; Boone,
NC 28607. (704) 754-6097.
Tl-IE MOUNTAINS - arc calling me home. I'll be
there in Spring of 1992. Nuds: {I) a place 10 put
a tipior s111411 camper (nc:ir a wruer source). (2) a
babysiucr between home and Asheville or
Swannanoa (ttansfering 10 school lhete), and (3 J a
JOb. Skills: (I J Organic Gardener {2) Vegetnri.an
Cook ( 3) Herbal Prcparatioos. Contact me ac
Kathleen Ashley; 1302 Two NO<Ch Road #17:
Lcitingt011, SC 29072.
MUSIC BY BOB AVERY-GRUBELavailJlbleoo three
casseues.. Treasures iii the Stream and Circles
Returning are folk/roclc-jaiz, and a JCCcnt release of
original chants and songs, Light iii tht Wind. is a
cap~ll.a. Lyric sheets included.. Send SI0 for each
tape or$26 for all thrce 10 Bob Avery-Grubel: RL I,
Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091.
'69 FORD VAN, high·l0P, very good condition. $900.
Call (704) 488-9347 (doc10r's office - leave message).
Kllty StOkely.
HlGflLANDER CEN"leR • is a community-based
cducaLion:11 orgnni:wion whose purpose is to provide
space for people to lcam from e.ich Olhcr, and to
develc,pc solutions to environmental problems based
on their values, CJtpcricnces, and aspirations. They
also put out a quarterly ncwsteucrcalled llishlander
R1:por1s. For more infoml!UJOII contact Highlander
Centu. 1959 Highlnndcr Way; New Mank.ct, TN
37820 (615) 933-3443
RAW CHEMICAL-FREE HONEY • Tulip Poplar,
Sourwood, and Wild0owcr honey rrom the forests of
Pauiclc County, VA. No chemicals. no white sugar,
no heal ever. Sunincd through chccsccloth and p:ickcd
in glass. Limited qU31ltities. Call or wnte for prices
& availability. Wade B11tkholls • Bull Mountllin
Beekeepers: RD 2, Boit I 516; Stunrt. VA 24171
(703) 694-4571.
WISE WOMAN TRADmON. Fall RooLWOtk
Wed.end with Wh1tcwolf. November 8-10. For
women and men. Dig roots, mnke medicine, I.cam
Eanhwisc healing through Joumeymg, drumming,
and dreaming. Wann donn and hearty vcgclllrian
meals. One hour from Asheville. Donation SISO 100. some worlt exchange avnilablc. Wh11ewolf; PO
Box 576; Asheville. NC 28802.
LAND FOR SALE: 10 actc privlllC cove. Large organic
field. rustic: farmhouse with spring fed water nnd liOlar
symm. SITl411 solar ,1ruc:wre. SS0.000. Call (104)
649-9266 for Tom.
NATIVE AMERJCAN CEREMONIAL HERBS • we
offer a large variety of sages. IIWCCI grass. natural
resins, and everything ncccssary for smudging. Native
smoking mixtures, flute mu.,ic, pow-wow mpcs. and
ocn:monial songs. Essential oils. and mccnscs
speciflcally made for prayer. offering. and mcdiuilion.
For catalog call or write: Essencial Drcnms: Rt 3.
Box 285: Eagle Forlt, Hayesville, NC 2890-I (104)
389-9898.
Xatimfl Journot pt19c 34
PlEDMONT BIOREGIONAL INSTITUTE • For those
who live in the Piedmont area, there's a bioregional
effort well underway. Jom Us! We would npprecillle
any donation of time or money to help meet
operating expenses. For a gift of S2S.OO or more. we
will send you a copy of John Lawson's journal, A
New Vo.)12ge 10 Carolina. Also come find out about
the Lawson Pro.,ect. PB!; 412 WRoscmnry Street;
Chapel Hill, NC27516: Uwharria Province. (919)
942-2581.
BODY R11n-,1MS from Pl311Clllly Mothers· a
beautiful and paraclical calendar for women to ch:irl
their "moonthly" cycles. Send $3.00 plus S1.00
poSUlge 10: Planclllly Mothers Collcctivc(c/o Nancie
Yonker); 5231 Riverwood Avenue; Saraso111, Fl.
34231.
FAMILIES LEARNlNG TOGETHER·
Homeschooling families organization. Discuss
issues, give mutual support. shllre ideas and
resources, and gnther for family activities. Write
Doug Woodward; 68 Lakey Creek; Franklin, NC
28734 for infonnation.
LOCAL RECYCLING CO-OP • crunched by glass
price cuts! rr you have any interest in the recent cut in
glim prices by the Owens-Brockway Company, and
would hkc to help do something about the flawed
economics of recycling, or just shale information,
please write BretNelson; 1578 Bow Hill Road;
Christiansburg, VA 24073.
THE LOVING WELL COMPANY • is a group of
people wooong together to suppon and promote what
worb 111 health and education. We arc building a
communuy dcdicrucd to pence and 10 livmg in a
healthy relationship with one allOlher. For more
infonnauon write Naomi Ross; 1433 Woodland HIiis
Drive NE: AllanUI. GA 30324-4627.
"BLOW YOUR MlND" • with the celestial sootlung
music of "Medicine Wind" by George TOCtorClli. Also
c.xouc fine-tuned bamboo nutcs in many keys nnd
modes. For more information send LO'. George
Tortorelli; 86 NW 55th Street; Gainesville, Fl.
32601. (904} 373-1837
LAND FOR SALE • Magnificent view with small
house m beautiful Spring Creek. NC. Ten miles
south of Hot Springs. NC (o!T Route 209), and one
hour west of Asheville. S25.000 f01 I.Ind and house.
Perfect for the sctr sufficient life. CaU Landa Deyo at:
(704) 675-9575.
NATJVE AMERICAN Fl.UTE MUSIC· Richard
Roberts, a well lcnown west TN new age nutist (ab
Zero Ohms), is now 3V3il~blc an the Ea!i! TN/NC
area. For rclaitiog and uplifting pcrfOrmMCC$ or UIJJCS
conlllCC Richard Robcns; Box 821; Noms, TN 37&2g
(61S)494-8828orRL I.Box 136RD;Lamar,MS
3~2 (601) 252-4283.
WE NEED. three families to complete our five family
community/neighborhood. Private south facing cove
with streams, sprangs. and views 1n Weaverville. NC
area. You get 5 to 10 acres for your home nnd equal
intueSt in I 10 acres of common land. S2S,000 to
30.000 depending on house site. Call (704) 658-2676
ror more infonnntlon.
~~
,"l' ~
HAWKWIND
Eanh Renewal Cooperative - invitcs you to
pan.icipate ma season ofctnsscs and gruhcrlngs to
tnke pince a1 our lush, 70 acre wilderness rctm1L
Ccnttally locnlCd to Georgia and Tennessee in the
Northern Alabama Mountains, our campground and
focilitics arc ava.ilablc to members, public gnthcrings
and private organizational use. Monthly prog,ams
range from Organic G:u-de'1ing, Native and Eanh
Philosophies, IO the Environment, Healing
Programs, Self Reliance, Women m Transition and
much more. Safe Family Camping. Send SI.SO for
oewslctu:r ond schedule of events to: 1-!Qwkwind; PO
Box 11; Valley Head, AL 35989. (205) 635-6304
BROOKE MEDICINE EAGLE • join this very special
Elllthlceepcr, healer. and teaehcr who has dedicated her
life 10 the people. Raised on the Crow Rescvailon in
Montana, she is a licensed counselor, and has been a
moving force behind the movement to ruum 10 the
traditional ways of honoring the Earth. Broolce will
shatc with us her lmditions, songs. dance and
drumming as well as her strong insight into the
"women's ways.• October I l-13th, $160 for the
wcelccnd intensive. For reservations & details contact
Hawlcwind at (205) 635-6304 (evenings best).
A WEEKENDINTENSIVEONLAKOTA WAYS·
Morning Star and Gilbert Wallcing Bull provide
ttaditional Lakota ceremonies 10 their community.
They teach Lakota tradiuons: the ceremony oflhc
Stone People's lodge, the S:icred c:honupa , lhe vision
qllC:il and the Sun Dance prcpru-ation. November
8-I0th, $160 for ru11 weekend. includes Clll11ping.
Ceremonies open will\ no fee. ConUICt Hawlcwind at:
(205) 635-6304 (evenings bcsl).
WOMEN'S CEREMONIAL INTENSIVE· The
Hawkwoman Cucle mvi1.es you to gather for a
wcelcend of song, dance, drumming. and ritual
ceremony for purification and crcat.ion of cen:mooiru
Loots. Together we will explore the many roles of the
Earth Women, and the ways that ceremony can be
used in everyday living. October 18-20, camping fees
and o love offering to cover materials and teacher
costs. Contnct Hawkwind nc (205) 635-6304.
HEALING ARTS WEEKEND· Hawkwmd brings :i
scncs of nawnil hc;iling systems together. Joan
professional mass3ge therapists, herbal healers, body
workers :ind join m purificntion ntU31s to remove !he
dis~ and bring the body m10 b31ancc. No,-cmbcr
16-17, S80 for lhe whole ...,eekcnd. Conuict
Hawlcwmd ac (205) 635-6304 (evenings best).
NEW MOON & SOLSTICE GATHERINGS •
Hawkwmd honors the Earth People and !he Natural
Native Rituals of clc.insing and renewal. We come
togcll1cr in lodge ocrcmony, singing, drumming,
dancing, and sea:;onal mcd1ui11ons. Native philosophy
classc~ and women's circle meet on Sunday.
Novcmb,;r 9/10, December 7/8, December 21/22 Pot
luck meals, camping fees. :ind love offering IO
suppon resource ccmcr dcvclopcmcm. ConlllCt
HawkwinJ ac (205) 635-6304 (evenings best).
rnct, 1991
�l'cl \i~e -to \We in "
5ociet_-J that )sn· -t
aysf.,nct1ona1
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE TIIREE- SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agricuhure • Sunnowcrs • 1lumnn
Impact on the Forest - Childrcns' Educauon •
Veronica Nicholas: Woman in Politics - Little
People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR· SUMMER 1984
Water Drum • Water Quality - Kudzu - Solar Eclipse
• Clearcutting - Trout - Going to Water· Ram
Pumps. Microhydro - Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair,
Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE· FALL 1984
Harvest. Old Ways in Cherokee· Ginseng· Nuclear
Waste. Our Celtic Heritage - Bioregionalism: Past,
Present, and Future · John Wilnoty - Healing
D:lrlcncss • Politics or Participation
lSSUE SIX - WINTER 1984-85
Wmter Solstice Eanh Ceremony • Horscpasturca
River. Coming of tile Light· Log Cabin Root·
Mountain Agriculture: The Right Crop • William
Taylor • The Future or the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN· SPRING 1985
Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs • Worker
Ownership. The Great Economy· Self Help Credit
Union • Wild Turkey. Responsible Investing·
Working in the Web or Life
ISSUE EIGHT· SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way or Lire - K81uah 18.000 YCD.rS
Ago • Sacred Sues - Folk Ans in the Schools • Sun
Cycle/Moon Cycle· Poems: Hilda Downer _
Cherokee Heritage Ccntcr • Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE · FALL 1985
The Waldee Forest • The Trees Speruc • Mlgral.ing
Forests • Horse Logging • Starting a Tree Crop •
Urban Trees· Acom Bread· Myth Time
ISSUE TEN - WINTER 1985-86
Kate Rogers • Cin:lcs or SlOlle - Internal
Mythmnking • Holistic Healing on Trial • Poems:
Sieve Knauth - Mythic Ploccs - The Uktcna's Tale CryslOI Magic - "Drc:imspcaking"
ISSUE THIRTEEN · FALL 1986
Center For Awakening - Eliulbcth Callari · A
Gentle Death • Hospice - Ernest Morgan • Dealing
Creatively with Death - Home Burial Box • The
Wake. The Raven Mocker - Woodslorc and
Wildwoods Wisdom • Good Medicine; The Sweat
ISSUE FOURTEEN· WINTER 1986·87
Lloyd Carl Owle - Boogcrs and Mummers· All
Species Day • Cabin Fever Univcrsi1y • Ilomelcss
in Kauiah • Homemade Hot Water· Stovcmnkcr's
Nrumtivc - Good Medicine: lntcr.,pccacs
Communication
ISSUE FIFTEEN • SPRING 1987
Coverlets • Woman Fores1cr • Susie McMahon:
Midwife - Ahemative Contraception • Bioscxuality •
Bioregionalism and Women· Good Medicine:
Mmriarchal Cuhure • Pearl
ISSUE SIXTEEN - SUMMER 1987
Helen Waite. Poem: Visions in a Garden - Vision
Quest. First Aow - lnitinuon - Leaming m the
Wilderness. Cherokee Challenge · "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN· WlNTER 1987-88
Vernacular An:hitccture - Dreams in Wood and Stone
. Mount.ain Home - Earth Energies - Eanh-Shchcred
Laving - Mcmbrone Houses · Brush Shelter·
Poems: October Dusk. Good Mcdicino: "Sheltcrff
ISSUE NINETEEN· SPR£NG 1988
Pcrclandra Garden. Spring Ton,cs • Blueberries Wildnower Gardens - Granny Herbalist • Aowcr
Essences . "The Origin or the Animals:" Story •
Good Medicine; "Power" • Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY· SUMMER 1988
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness - Highlands or
Roan • Cclo Community • Land Trust· Anhur
Morgan School - 1.oning Issue· "The Ridge" •
•
Farmers and the Farm Ball • Good Medicine: "Land
• Acid Rnin • Duke's Power Play - Cherokee
Microhydro Project
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO· WINTER 1988-89
GIObal Warming - Fire ThlS Time • Thomas Berry
on "Bioregions" - Earth Exercise· Kort Loy
McWhirtcr • An Abundance of Empuncss • LETS •
Chronicles or Floyd - Darry Wood • The Bear Clan
ISSUE 1WENTY-THREE • SPRING 1989
Pisgah Village • Planet An • Green City - Poplar
Appeal • "Clear Sky" • •A New Earth" - Black Swan
• Wild Lovely Day.f • Reviews: Sacred Land Sacrt!d
Su, Jee Age • Poem· "Sudden Tendrils"
Lodge
32
,
~
UA~OURNAL
PO Box 638 Leicester. NC Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Name
Address
Enclosed is $_ _".'""".'.'T":""'. ro give
this effort an extra boost
City
Ya!L, 199 1
State
Phone Number
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR • SUW.1ER 1989
Deep ListCning - Life in Atomic City· Direct
Acuon! - Tree or Peace - Community Building·
Pc:iccmakets - Ethnic Survival - Pairing Project·
"B:utlesong" • Growing Peace m Cultures - Review:
Tiu! Cha/iu and ihL Blade
lSSVE TWENTY-SIX • WINTER. 1989-90
Coming or Age in the Eco7.oic Era • Kids Saving
Rainforest • Kids Trcccycl mg Company • Connie,
Resoluuon. Developing the Creative Spirit· Birth
Power • Birth Bonding - The Magic or Puppetry •
Home Schooling - Naming Ceremony • Mother
Earth's Cl3S.$l'OOl!l - Gnrdcning for Children
ISSUE TWENTY ·SEVEN· SPRING, 1990
Transformauon. Healing Power· Pcoce 10 Their
Ashes. Healing in Katuah - Poem: "When Left 10
Grow". Poems: Stephen Wing - The Belly· Food
from the Ancient Forest
ISSUE TWENTY-EIGIIT • SUMMER 1990
Carrying Capacity - Setting Limits to Growth •
What is Overpopulation? • The Rood Gang • The
Highway to Nowhere - The 1·26 Project· "Caring
Capacity" • People and Habit.at - Design mg the
Whole Life Community • Steady State· Poems:
Will Ashe Bason • Tran$p0f!Crnativcs • Review:
Cohousing
ISSUE TWENTY·NINE • FAl.l./WlNTER 1990
From the Mount.ains 10 the Sea - Prolile of The
Little Tennessee River· Heodwatcrs Ecology· "It
All Comes Down to Water Quallty" - W:ucr Power.
Action for Aquatic Habitats - Dawn W:nchcrs • Good
Medicine: The Long Human Being • The North
Shore Rood - K:uuah Sells Out - Watershed Map of
the Kawah Provance
ISSUE THIRTY • SPRING I99 I
Economy/Eeology - Ways to a Regenerative
Economy • "Money as the Lowest Form or Wealth"
• Clarksville Mimcle - The Village· Food Movers·
Lifework. Good Medicine: "Village Economy··
Sheltoo Laurel • LETS
ISSUE THIRTY-ONE· SUMMER 1991
Dowsing • Responsibilities or Dowsing · Electrical
Life of the Enrth • Katuah and the Earth Gnd • Coll
of the Ancient Ones - Good Medicine: "On
Aggression" • Time to T:ike the Time to Take the
Time. Whole Science. Tuning In
Back Issues
Issue # __@ $2.50 = $._ __
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $._ __
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $._ __
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $._ __
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $._ __
postage paid $_ __
Complete Set
(3-10, 13-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26-31)
postage paid@ $50.00 =$_ __
:K.at ucih Journot. pa9e 35
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 32, Fall 1991
Description
An account of the resource
The thirty-second issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> is a call for humans to return to a simpler way of life, following in the ways of the Cherokee, or Katúah, tribe. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Barbara Wickersham, Henry Wender, John A. Freeman, Tom Underwood, Lee Barnes, Will Ashe Bason, Ivo Ballentine, Brownie Newman, Robert Johnson, Rob Messick, Bess Harbison, Maxim Didget, Robert Johnson, Emmett Greendigger, Dr. Dennis Scanlin, Deborah James, Leonard Cirino, Melba Bari, and Charlotte Homsher. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1991
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>Bringing Back the Fire by David Wheeler.......1<br /><br />A Bit of Mountain Levity by Barbara Wickersham.......5<br /><br />Climax Never Came by Henry Wender.......7<br /><br />Is the Southern Appalachian Ecosystem Endangered? by John A. Freeman.......9<br /><br />"Talking Leaves": Sequoyah by Tom Underwood.......10<br /><br />Green Spirits: Seed Saving by Lee Barnes.......12<br /><br />Walking Distance by Will Ashe Bason.......13<br /><br />Angle: Environment by Ivo Ballentine.......13<br /><br />Good Medicine.......14<br /><br />Poem: "A Rotting Log" by Brownie Newman.......15<br /><br />THE GRANOLA JOURNAL.......16<br />Livin' By Their Wits, recorded by Rob Messick<br />An Old Family Tale by Bess Harbison<br />The Slide by Rob Messick<br />How Can You Lose Anything as Big as This Ego? by Maxim Didget<br /><br />Paintings: "Mountain Stories" by Robert Johnson.......18<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />Dying Soils, Dying Waters by Emmett Greendigger.......22<br /><br />Songs in the Wilderness by Charlotte Homsher.......24<br /><br />Save James Bay.......25<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Off the Grid: Solar Ovens by Dennis Scanlin.......29<br /><br />Events........32<br /><br />Webworking........34<br /><br />Katúah Konfusion.......35<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em></p>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cherokee Indians--Social life and customs
Sequoyah, 1770?-1843
Appalachians (People)--Social life and customs
Ecosystem health--Appalachian Region, Southern
Acid Rain--Appalachian Region, Southern
Solar ovens
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Acid Deposition
Agriculture
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Cherokees
Community
Earth Energies
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
Electric Power Companies
Fire
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Permaculture
Pigeon River
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/5ac6c68fc9a4ef339c7624f779acbcb4.pdf
d9ea21ad706d54448902d9872b20ba5c
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 34 SPRING 1992
$2.00
�•·······.•.
..........
..............
\.
....
'····:
'•\
i
!
....../
_..i
...
;
.........
..···•·
....··
......··•··
.. ··~ ..... ;..-····
~UAlrljOURNAL
PO Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 287 48
G}
C,
Q:-
,.·..··
..··.··
•'
.....·
Drawing by Rob Mcssiclc
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
¢
...
(\
Printed on recycled paper
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�Paradise Gardening....................
3
by Joe Hollis
Community Sponsored Agriculture..5
by Hugh love/
"lfYouDidn'tGrowlt... "...........
by Ralph Garrett
7
Eating Close to Home.................
by Peter Bane
9
Silas McDowell's Vision............
by Perry Eury
11
Poems..................................
by Allison C. Surherland
12
Native Foods..........................
by Bear with Runs
13
Cover Crops..........................
by Mark Schonbeclr.
15
Plant For Tomorrow: Hemp........
by John Ingress
17
Katuah Cultivars......................
by Lee Barnes
18
Blowing in the Wind.................
by Charlotte Homsher
19
The Web of Life:
A Katuah Almanac...................
by Lee Barnes
and Rob Messick
20
Good Medicine.......................
22
Natural World News.................
24
"Whose Rules?"......................
by David Wheeler
26
Big fvy.................................
by Emmett Greendigger
and David Wheeler
27
Drumming.......... ..................
28
Saving Wild Seeds...................
by Lee Barnes
29
Resources.............................
31
Review:
"Apple Pie in Your Face" .............. 34
Webworking..........................
37
Events..................................
38
Sprl.nq , 1992
Sustainable Agriculture and Regional Diet
It is rrom the atoms of our bioregion's
soil, water and air that our cells are
constructed and renewed. Within many
unique webs of life, we become our physical
selves and thus must share responsibility for
our impact on the delicate systems which
allow us life.
Bioregions need to become more
self-sustaining, self-governing, and
self-healing. An imponant step in obt.aining
this goal is the development of regional
sustainable agriculture and greater utiliz.ation
of seasonal diet.
Agriculture must be more ecologically
sustainable and regionally specific, since each
bioregion is unique in its combination of
climate, soils, and adaptable plants for food,
fibers and fuels. Within each bioregion:
• Cultivaled crops should be
ecologically produced in harmony with the
Earth's gifts of sunshine, frost-free growing
season, am renewable cycles of soil fertility.
• Sustainable agriculture teehniques
must maximize soil regeneration and nutrition
produced per acre, rather than simply
maximizing yields.
• All materials and energies must be
more efficiently recycled within the biaregion
that produced them. We must blanket our
soils wilh greater gifts of cover-crops and
green manures .
• We must reduce our total dependency
on a dangerously narrow base of major food
crops and monoculture techniques, and
diversify our use of currently recognized and
potentially usable wild-food plants.
• Preservation of remaining genetic
diversity is critical to prevent the final loss of
irreplaceable gene combinations. We need 10
renew the use of genetically diverse,
open-pollinated seeds to retain variability in
our fields to insure protection from
catastrophic crop loss due to genetic
uniformity. Local seed-saving could allow
independence from extra-regional seed
sources.
• Most imponanlly, humans in each
bioregion must accept total responsibility for
their region's ecological health and
self-sufficiency in food production.
A regional diet should be nuaitious and
healthy; pleasant to eat; consumed more "in
sync" with regiona.V seasonal cycles of
production; and involve foods which can be
preserved using, low-technology food
preservation techniques, such as solar
drying, smoking, salt preservation and
pickling.
We need to review each region's
traditional diets, as guides to efficient,
non-destructive food production, and
carefully learn from each region's own
unique seasonal production of abundant
crops such as fruits (berries, etc.), nuts
(chestnuts, acoms,etc.), and wild seeds
(grains).
"Getting back to the garden," as Joe
Hollis tells us, will be no easy taSk.. We must
embra.ce the best featureS of current and
developing techniques and philosophies for a
sustainable future.
In this issue, we address the potential
for regional, sustainable agriculture and
regional diet by reviewing Katuah's historical
foods and agricultural cycles. We explore
new ideas for food production and marketing
systems, and provide some specific
information on wild plant seed-saving,
recommended vegetable varieties, and cover
crops.
We hope this issue will "seed" further
investigations into sustainable agriculture,
regional autonomy, and self-healing. We are
what we eat, and are ultimately responsible
for the heallh of ourselves and "all our
relations."
May we be more receptive to our
planet's council, and our mutual future.
Dr""'Ul8 by Pcgi
- Lee Barnes
�~JAH JOURNAL
EDITORIAL SLASH:
Maria Abbruzzi
Lee Barnes
Chris Davis
Charlone Homsher
John Ingress
James Rhea
Susan Adam
Heather Blair
Emmen Grecndigger
Jim Houser
Rob Messick
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Sherman Bamford
Jesse Jones
Bill Melanson
Pegi
Breeze Bums
Richard Lowenthal
Mamie Muller
Donna Stringer
Thanks 10 Celo Community and RSVP for hosting Xa,uah lhis time.
Special thanks to l<Alherme Adam and Staff of ATIRA
COVER: by Rhea Rose Ormond
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PUBLISHED BY: Karuah Journal
Here,
in the Katuah Province
of these ancient Appalachian mountains
where once the Cherokee Nation lived in freedom
between the Tennessee River Valley and the Eastern Piedmont
between the Valley of the Roanoke and the Southern Plain
on this Turtle lsland continent of Mother Ela, the Eanh
PRTNTED BY: The Waynesville Mouniaineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE THIS ISSUE: Billy Home and Gardens.
WRITE US AT: Kaniah Journal
Asheville
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kaniah Province 28748
TELEPHONE:
(704) 754-6097
Diversity is an imponant clement of bioregional ecology, both narural
and social. In accord with this principle Katuah Journal tries to serve a.s n
forum for lhe discussion of regional issues. Signed articles e.xpress only the
opinion of lhe authors and are no, necessarily the opinions of the Katunh
Journal editors or staff.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared Ka1uoh Journal a non-profit
orgnnization under section 501 (cX3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All
contributions to Ka1uah Journal are deductible from ))Cl'SOlllll income c.ax.
Articles appearing in Katuah Journal may be reprinted in other
publications with permission from the Katuoh Journal stnlT. Contact the
journal in writing or call (704) 754-6097.
tNVOCATLON
The Greatest Friend I have in life
Has brought me here to dwell
Awhile among these green, green hills
And by the watery well.
The water from that wondrous well
Has made my eyes to see
And loosed my tongue to sing with joy
That such a Friend could be.
Here,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our deep
connection to the spirit of the land.
We bring lhis connection into the being and the doing of
our daily lives
When the land speaks, we listen and we act
We tune our lives to the changes, to the seasons
We respect the limits of the land
We preserve, defend, and restore the land
We give thanks for all that is good
Harmony with 1he land is no longer an ideal; it is an imperative.
The land is a living being. She is sacred.
As 1he land lives, so do we.
As the spirit of the land is diminished,
our spirits are diminished as welL
Kacuah Journal sends a voice...
with articles, stories, poems, and anwork
we speak 10 the spirit of all the living, breathing
inhabitants of these mountains
in hopes that we, the human beings,
may find our place in this Great Life.
The Edit.ors
j
• The Incredible String BQ/ld
Bonier by Jason Tueller
KATUAH JOURNAL wanrs to communicate your rhoug/,rs and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send
them t.o us as leuers,poems, stories, articles, drawings, or
photographs, etc. Please send your coruributions to us at:
Karuah Journal; P. 0. Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katua/1 Province
28748.
OUR NEXT ISSUE will be involved with the continually
controversial topic of Councils, and how to create more viable
methods of decision-making in the future. Possible topics
include: Native American sovereignty, the State of Franklin,
JCQtuah Journat page 2
Town Meetings, Council of All Beings, Regional Rainbow
Gatherings, Grassroots Groups, Conflict Resolution, and more?
Submit all material by April 30th, 1992.
THE FALL, 1992 ISSUE will be about the role of wood in
the life of the mountains. Please send articles evaluating the
present timber industry, logging stories, and visions of ecological
and sustainable ways to cut and use wood. Please also send
pictures and drawings of wood and woodworkers. Deadline is
July 30, 1992.
Spri.ng, l 992
�PARADISE GARDENING
by Joe Hollis
W c wam 10 save the world, and we
want 10 save ourselves. It's the same thing.
The problems confronting us arc enormous
and at every level: personal, social, planetary.
l will spare you a list. My aim is 10 suggest
that they are all symptoms of one problem,
and to propose a solution.
The problem: 10 find a way to live on
Earth which promotes our health and
happiness, conducive to the full development
of our innate potential, and, a1 the same time,
is "democratic," that is, available to all, not
using more than our share, and harmonious
with the biosphere's evident drive toward
increasing diversity, complexity, and
stability.
Our world is being destroyed, in the
final analysis, by an extremely misguided
notion of what constitutes a successful
human life. Materialism is running mmpant
and WILL CONSUME EVERY11iING,
because its hunger will never be sated by its
consumption. Human life has become a
cancer on the planet, gobbling up all the
flows of matter and energy, poisoning them
with our waste. What can stop this monster?
Nothing. Just lhis: walk away from iL
It is time, indeed time is running out, to
abandon the entire edifice of "civilization/the
State/ the Economy" and walk (don't run!) to
a bener place: home, to Paradise.
J
•••
1) Paradfae is, first of all, a garden. A
garden in which everything we need is there
for the taking.
2) And Paradise Gardening is a way or
life which serves to maintain the garden, and
is in turn maintained by it. Ecologist Eugene
Odum calls this being the 'ecosystem
manager:' "an organism that utilizes a small
frac tion of the total energy budget and in
return provides a service which aids the
system in its funclion and continued
survival." (This concept "illustrates the ideal
which man should imitate in his auempts 10
manage a natural ecosystem.") Genesis, with
the characteristic compression of myth, says
we were put into the garden "10 dress it and
keep it." Same thing.
3) Parndise Gardening is not work.
Work is a subjective concept: one person's
play may be another person's work. h has
nothing to do with effon: tennis, for
example, is usually "play" (unless you're a
"pro"), sitting at a computer terminal is
frequently "work." Work is whatever you are
doing when you'd rather be doing something
else. Paradise Gardening is "not work" in the
same sense that what a bear does all day is
"not work." This distinction is the same as
that which the Taoists make between "doing"
and "not-doing." Genesis refers to the same
matter in saying that only outside the garden
do we have 10 earn our living "by the sweat
of our brow."
4) Paradise Gardening is not
agriculture. From chemical to organic
sprLr19, t992
agriculture is a step in the right direction, but
only the first step. Agriculrure itself is, after
alI, half of the one-two punch that knocked
us out of Paradise in the first place. Good
farmers, to be sure, love nature; but they love
her in the context of plowing her up every
year and deciding what to grow next. Our
addiction 10 annual species and disturbed
habitats has put us at odds with the main
thrust of the biosphere (and with ourselves).
Oh, Eanlt is patient and Earth is old
And a mother of Gods, but he breaks lier,
To-ing.fro-ing, wit!, tlte plow teams going,
Tearing the soil of her, year by year
Sophocles, Antigone
Every spring, nature begins again 10
clothe the Earth in beauty. It is the process of
succession, the initial strands of the intricate
web, the rebirth of the Tree of Life. And
every autumn we scrape it off, rake it into
barns, take it to market: we increase human
diversity and complexity (butcher, baker,
candlestick-maker ...) by appropriating to
ourselves processes which are meant to
benefit all
•••
Drawina by Rob Messick
Paradise is a habitat and a niche. Mircca
Eliade refers to the universal "yearning for
Paradise": Memories coded into our genes of
our place, our fit. How, after all, does a bird,
for example, select a place to build a nes1? So
many factors to consider (and such a small
brain!). It simply picks the most beautiful
spot available. It was born with a "template"
of paradise.
Concerning this the Book ofOdes
says, "The twittering yellow bird, the bright
silky warbler, comes to its rest in the hollow
corner of the hill." and Confucius commented
"Comes to rest, alights, knows what its rest
is, what its ease is. Is man, for all his wit,
less wise than this bird of yellow plumage
that he should no, know his resting place or
fix the point of his aim?"
Like any other creature, we are our
niche. By our physiology and behavioral
programming we arc born to live a ccnain
kind of life. Paradise is our birthright and our
duty,
Now, instead, we take up a niche in
civilization. The premise of civilization is that
if everyone is a less than complete human
being (''1'11 be the brains, you be the back"),
ii will be beuer for all of us. This insulting
premise has guided us for so long that many
of us are unaware of an alternative. We
(cnnunucd on next page)
Xotl'.wf, )ourlfflt pcu_,e 3
�(COlllinucd from page 3)
equate "making a living" with "making
money." Thus we spend the best hours of
our lives pursuing our careers, being pan of
the cancer.
But everything needful to be
completely human is available to us close by
in our environment - the garden and the
ocighborhod. We can rely on the truth of this
because "human-ncss" is a creation of the
environment, the most recent manifestation of
a coevolution between our genes and all the
other genes in the world that has been going
on since the beginning of life on eanh. Much
chancier is the possibility that everything we
need to be completely human is available to
us in the city, or through money.
population level, live and coexist as foragers
(ecosystem managers)? "Caught in the devil's
bargain " how can we "get ourselves back to
the garden"? (Joni Mitchell, "Woods1ock")
The strategy here proposed, Paradise
Gardening, may be described as :'in1ensified
foraging." David Harris, in a scnes of
papers has explored "alternative pathways to
agricul'ture." Particular!~ valuable is ~s .
distinction between "agncultural mampulaaon
and transfonnatfon ... agricultural utilization
•••
The last time we lived in paradise it was
as "foragers": hunters and gatherers,
omnivorous, opponunistic exploiters of a
variety of environments. Specialists, not of
disturbance but of diversity.
This lifestyle has attracted much
attention recently (at the very time that the last
vestiges of it~ being eradicated). Toe view
that foraging is an adaptation superior to
agriculture is now well established in
academia and the same theme appears in
popular literature (e.g. Bruce Chatwin, Tl~
Song/Ines and Vargas Llosa, The Storyteller,
both inspiring).
A revolution in the study of the human
niche was prompted by the realization that
foragers, far from living on the brink of
starvation, as previously imagined, actually
had more leisure than anyone else since (Lee
and deVore, Man the Hunter).
Boserup (The Conditions ofAgricultural Growth) suggests that there have
never been any "agricultural revolutions," in
the sense of a sudden invention of a great
new way 10 produce food; but rather that
increases in food production always come at
the cost of even greater increases in labor (or
fossil fuel) input, that the techniques were
always well known to the producers, but
resisted until finally demanded by rising
population (or the demands of the upper
classes for a surplus, a 'cash crop').
"Agriculture permits denser food
growth supponing denser population and
larger social units but at the cost of reduced
dietary quality [less diversity to choose
from), reduced reliability of harvest [eggs in
less baskets], and equal or probably greater
labor per unit of food ... agricuhure is not a
difficult concept but one readily available to
hunting and gathering groups ... " (Mark
Cohen, The Food Crisis in Prehistory).
Agriculture, in rum, allowed population
to expand more rapidly. Any attempt to live a
foraging life in the modem world would
seem to be onJy an interesting but ultimately
imlcvant exercise of the "historic village"
variety. That "there is no going back" is
merely a truism. What those who recite it
mean to say is that there is no changing
direction, progress can be only a straight line
- from an original home in natw-c 10 a world
eventually completely human, domesticated,
fanned.
At this point, I would rephrase the
"problem" with which this essay began: How
can we, with our contemporary tastes and
Xatuafl Jou~ P~. 4
"better" future. "No act is good unless its
goodness is seen in the innnediacy of the act.
An act which justifies itself by appealing to a
later good ... all appeals to reason,
expediency, and necessity, are appeals to the
very forces that wreck all ideals. One must
have courage and be willing to take risks."
(William Thompson, Evil and World Order)
Ecology teaches that a "pioneer"
(disturbed) environment favors life forms that
are fast-growing but shon lived,
wide-spreading, ''greedy" - designed 10
capture the maximum of sunlight and
unoccupied soil. But eventually they are
succeeded by the trees, which, because they
invest energy in making wood, grow more
slowly at first, but are more stable,
longer-lived, and finally faster growing,
more influential, the "dominant species,"
towering above.
We have spread ourselves over the
Eanh, and used or burned just about
everything that is easy to get The age of the
greedy ones draws to a close. (They don't
know it yet.) At last, we may hope, the
'competitive advantage' passes to the
practitioners of permanence, rootedness,
slow growth and steady accumulation, the
vertical expansion of the human spirit into
realms unchanecl, or long forgotten. A tree
derives its satisfaction from the view
achieved.
•••
may - and, if sufficiently intensive, usually
does - lead to the IJ'llnsformation of a natural
into a largely artificial ecosystem: lhe
replacement of a tropical forest by plantation,
of temperate woodland by whcatfields ...
But agriculture may also proceed by a
process of manipulation which involves the
alteration of selected components of the
natural system rather than its wholesale
replacement - a method of cultivation which
involves substituting certain preferred
domesticated species for wild species in
equivalent ecological niches and so simulates
1he structure and functional dynamics of the
natural ecosystem."
Harris has recently edited a collection of
papers (From Foraging to Fanning) which
further explores the emerging realization that
many "non-agricultural" peoples were in fact
engaged in intensive and sophisticated plant
exploitation, previously unrecognized
because their plant management practices did
not fit our idea of agricuhure.
•••
Our goal is to "naturalize" ourselves
in lhe environment. This will involve
changing ourselves and changing the
environment: convergence toward "lit"
Perfect fit means the free and easy flowing of
matter and energy between ourselves and our
environment: life lived as a complete gift from the garden to us, from us to the garden.
But that is in the future; what we need
now is a process, leading to that goal, which
is justified on its own terms. Focus on the
ideal Paradise Garden wilJ tempt us to ta.Ice
shoncuts, perpetuating the same old panem
of selling out the present for some imagined
The process of Paradise Gardening
involves:
- Extricating our life-support system
from civilization/the Economy (bluntly,
money), and reattaching it to the natural
world of garden and neighborhood. This will
be a gradual process requiring a real analysis
of our needs and expenditures.
Thus, for example, cars and gasoline
arc nor needs but only the means to the
satisfaction of needs. The solution is not
gasohol but reducing the reason for travelling
(usually the getting and spending of money).
Concerning this the TM Te Ching says, 'The
country over the border might be so near that
one could hear the cocks crowing and the
dogs barking in it, but the people would .
grow old and die without ever once troubhng
to go there." (sec Joseph Needham, Science
and Civilization in China, vol. D, ch. 80) for
a discussion of ''the political program of the
Taoists: the return to cooperative
primitivity. ")
The key 10 the self-justifying nature of
the process is this: things made or done .by
professionals or machines may be technically
superior to one's own efforts, but are
generally lacking in a quality which,
following Carlos Castenada, I will call
"hean.
0
Satisfaction from things bought usually
peaks at the moment of purchase and declines
rapidly. Needs which a.re met by the
interaction of ourselves and nature are more
deeply mer.. and there are wonderful surprises
along the way. The truth of this will be
evident to anyone who has ever made
anything "from scratch." What seldom occurs
to us (someone doesn't want it to occur to us)
is that an entire life can be constructed on 1h1s
basis.
(c:on11nuod on page J2)
Drawing by Mkhacl Thompson
SprLt1-9, !9!12
�.,,..
.
..
It ,
•
'
#
'
••••••
,
''•
,.,.
COMMUNITY SPONSORED AGRICULTURE
As lhe end of the century nears,
several things must be faced. Tho food
supply is not only tainted. it is devitaliz.ed. In
particular, foods lack nourishment for
integrity, uprightness and willingness. These
qualities depend upon individual attitudes,
but they require nutritional support
Things could get worse, and probably
they will. But, here and there people are
looking at their options and choosing 10 make
a difference. They want to suppon endeavors
that remedy the problems caused by lhe
bigger-is-better mindset. One of the worst
concerns is the loss of more than seventy
percent of the world's topsoil in the last
hundred and fifty years. Instinctively people
sense a need to encourage sound agriculture.
At the same time they want 10 buy food that
not only is free of pollution, but has an inner,
vital impulse toward life. The..-.e and related
faclOI'S motivate a trend toward agriculturally
based producer/consumer communities that
regenerate the land which feeds them.
The acronym CSA stands for
Consumer Supported Agriculture,
Community Sponsored Agriculture, or
Community Supponed Agriculture,
depending on whom you are talking 10. In all
cases it indicates a vertically integrated
agricultural operation.
However it may be done, the CSA
group provides what is necessary to grow
their food. Fortunately, not everyone has the
same things 10 contribute. Usually fanners
who can work the land successfully are in the
shortest supply. But, from these farmers'
points of view, consumers are in shon
supply <>r laborers are hard 10 find at crucial
times. The CSA is not functional until
farmer, farmland, labor, operating capital and
consumers arc lined up in cooperation.
CSA fanns vary. Some are located in or
near metropolitan areas where consumer
interest is high. Olhers involve more distance
between the land and consumers. Many sell
"shares" in advance of their year's
production. Others require an advance
deposit, refundable in everything from
produce, canned goods, eggs, honey and
cheese, to meat, flowers, herbs, firewood or
wool. Tn some cases consumers come 10 the
farm to get their food. In others, weekly
deliveries to distribution points may be
necessary. One CSA may have monthly
potluck dinners, developing strong core
groups and dividing up tasks between
mothers, accountants, farm apprentices,
lawyers, fixers, and fanners; while others
may be seat-of-the-pants operations stripped
to the bare essentials.
CSA's have several things in common.
[n one way or another they all encourage
farmers and consumers 10 understand and
suppon each other. They enable participants
to invest their resources in the land and ilS
beuennenL 1be means of production belongs
to both producers and consumer.;, as they
contribute skill, labor and capital, and take
responsibility for leaving the land better off
for their use of it. Nevenheless, in some
cases the land is owned privately while in
Spnnq, l992
by Hugh Lovel
others the CSA is organized as a cooperative,
a land trust or a research and training
institute.
Besides nutritious food and a healthier
environment there are many subsidiary
benefil!i. By having the moral and financial
expenses. In 1985 I was laid off as a bridge
carpenter in Atlanta, and in 19861 tried to
farm full time, selling produce to stores and
in pl!lking lolS. It was hardly a way 10 make
ends meet. I knew there had to be a better
way. The Biodynamic Association quarterly,
support of a community, the farmer has
backing for experimentation. Members may
want exotic items like Chinese cabbage,
Annenian cucumbers. Roquefon cheese or
Louisiana hot sauce, and the fanner has 10
learn how to produce these items.
The CSA can also be an educational
opportunity for young adults interested in
becoming farmers. By apprenticing on a CSA
farm they experience growing and preparing
a wide variety of products. Moreover,
members and their children learn how their
food is produced, and there .ue therapeutic
benefits in this especially for those growing
or convalescing. Lastly, the farm is a haven
from the vicissitudes of city life. Conceivably
it will provide alternatives 10 employment in
economic hard times.
The idea h that consumers support the
farm and the farm supports the consumers.
Biodynamics, ran an anicle on CSA's. I
drew up a prospectus with a copy of the
ruticle and distributed it to a few people in the
Atlanta area. They told friends, and for the
first season l had twenty-eight members sign
up.
r did not want to promise 100 much, so
I only offered breads, honey. pollen, eggs,
yogurt. and vegetables in season. I asked for
$100 deposits, refundnble in groceries. This
money got me through February, March, and
April when I planted but had nothing 10 sen.
A1 the end of April I had my first
delivery of spinach, lettuce, and seasonal
herbs. The season went on to green onions,
garlic, English and sugar snap peas, yellow
onions, potatoes, cabbage, beans, com,
summer squash, tomatoes, okra, beets,
collards, leeks, winter squash, turnips and
Chinese radishes. The garden was finished
by mid-November, though I made one last
delivery of pork after Thanksgiving.
Because che fann, Union Agricultural
lnsutute, Blairsville, Georgia, was 125 miles
from Atlanta, I made a Saturday run 10 three
Since the only CSA I can re.tlly
describe is the one I founded, I should tell
how it was set up.
During the 1980s I directed a fledgling
founccn acre biodynamic research and
training farm, working off the farm to pay
(QOl\linued on nut page)
Drawing by Pcgi
X.awah Journot pc:a(Je 5
�(OOlllinuod &om pegoS)
drop-<>ff points. Members received a weekly
newsletter and order fonn that 100k me rwo
hours a week at the typewriter and copy
machine. Bookkeeping was on index cards
with names, addresses, dates, and sums.
Mostly I concentrated on running 1he fann,
picking the number one vegetables, recycling
the residual vegetation through forty
chickens., twenty rabbits, and 1wo pigs for
fertilizer, and n:planting with the next crop in
the rotation. Although I kept bees, the honey
and millc for yogun came from nearby farms.
1brought in organica!Jy grown wheat and rye
for bread.
Out of26 weekly deliveries, I counted
on members to order at leas1 half the time
with average orders of twenty dollars, a
gross of $7,280. I believe I took in a littJe
more than that, but my bookkeeping did not
prove it. J realize lhis may not seem like
much, but my expenses were low enough 10
make ends meet All I had was the land and a
small pic_!cup truck, rototiller. lawnmower.
scythe, pitchfork, axe, scuffle hoe, claw
cuJtivator, wheel hoe, push planter, and
seeds bred for response 10 my methods. It
was a start.
Consumer int.crest was strong simply
from word of mouth. I could expand, but a
larger investment was required. The fann
needed woods, barns, fences, greenhouses.
pastures, orehards, and fields all in good
measure. none at the expense of the others. I
did not have to hurry things. The land
consisted of mixed forest slopes and
bottomland with good water bur not
especially good sun. There was plenty of
brush clearing, rock picking and hay planting
to be done. And there were only three or four
acres that could be added to the truck garden
no mancr how I adapted 10 having more help
and machinery.
At my organii.ationaJ meetings in
February and Man:h of 1988 I asked for a
S33 membership fee as a capital invesuncn1 in
the fann, plus the hundred dollar deposit.
Again bookkeeping was only sufficient to
show how much was paid and how much
was delivered. Picking, bnlcing, and packing
orders were changed from Fridays 10
Saturdays, and deliveries were changed to
Sundays. This allowed members 10 visit the
farm and panicipa1e in picking on Saturdays,
while I caught the least city traffic on
Sundays and still picked up organic grains
and supplies for the farm
An apprentice, Matthew Persico, cut
intensive beds into three acres of sod with the
rototiUcr. We planted a fourth of it in
potatoes, for which we had compost In the
rest we inu:rplanted com with soybeans for a
modest fodder crop. We built a smaJI barn
with three sta!Js, hay storage, and an
apprentice's apartment. I bought two calves
to raise in the small barn yard, and phased
out rabbits since the cows made more
compost and were easier to feed on a large
scale.
For fcrtiliu:r I brought in hay, com,
and soy meal for the animaJs while J cleared
~ I _pastures, arch~. and hay fields. The
m~bon was to achieve self-sufficiency,
WJth the £arm producing its own feeds,
s~, and ttansplants, breeding its own
livestock:, and producing its own compost
Starting its fifth year in 1992, this
Xatiloh Jouf'nQ( PQ«Je 6
CSA, UAI Coop, can service 80 households.
We have a reconditioned 35 year old tractor,
three or four apprentices, six aCICs of row
crops, cheesemaking, three bovines, eigh1y
chicke_ns, two pigs, and a smaJI transplant
operanon.
. O_u1side_ of i1s soil: the farm is 001 ye1 a
capuaJ mtenswe operauon, despite a $16,000
gross in 1991. Dynamics and momentum arc
a large part of the operation. Herc are some
derails:
Peas must be planted as early as
possible. In Union County, Georgia 1hat is
lat~ February or early March. Lenuce,
spmach, and onions may aJso be planted
from early March on. Lettuce, cabbage and
collards should be planted under row
coverings for transplanting as it warms up.
The early plantings are better able to stay
ahead of the weeds, though frequent
cultivation - weather pennitting - is advisable.
It helps considerably to have pennanent sod
around cultivated beds.
In winter and early spring the cows are
eating hay in the barn and every so often it
can be mucked out to make a compost pile.
With spring warmth, the rye and clover
covers on the beds shoot up and are cut for
fresh feed or for hay. The stubble is
cultivated two or three times over a three
week period, so that it is digested and mellow
before planting.
. I set out my cabbages and potatoes in
Apnl; followed by com, beans, and cucurbits
in May; and tomatoes, peppers and okra in
June. Garlic is planted early the preceding
October, so that it and yellow onions are
harvested in June and followed with bush
beans. Crops like spinach, lettuce, com and
beans can be staggered to produce a moderate
but steady flow of each vegetable, extending
the season. Compost is given especially to
the greens, while root crops like carrots,
radishes, and turnips do much better
following behind without compost.
Since my grassy borders around beds
an: level with the beds, both borders and
beds can be mowed simultaneously for the
cows, pigs or chickens. In May 1here is so
much to cut that haystacks must be made, 10
be fed in the winter when all the summer's
com stover is gone.
During the growing season the chickens
are fenced in a long, hillside coop containing
a thick stand of bamboo and a nesting house.
At the top of 1he coop, sawmill bark,
sprin.kJed with dust from the locaJ granite
quarry, is added for bedding. My
lawnmower has a rear bagging feature, and
every day I give the chickens a heaping
wheelbarrow load of grass, clover, and herb
clippings from around the beds, which I
mow on a monthly schedule. This keeps the
egg yolks yellow while adding to the deep
litter in the coop. Every so often this is made
into a compost pile.
I use a biodynnmic planting calendar for
working crops according to 1heir root, fruit,
flower, or leaf characteristics. For example,
while potatoes are actually a swollen stem
formation, they are plamed as though they
were roots because the roo1-like characteristic
is being emphasized. Likewise, cauliflower
and broccoli, although 1hey an: flowers, are
plan1cd as leaf crops because they have to be
held back to 1he leafy stage of development.
They an: eaten only as buds, not flowers.
l also apply biodynamic preparations,
which have profound nutritionaJ significance.
And I grow speciaJ crops that do not
contribute income but contribute to the overall
balance and heaJth of the farm. Finally. I
avoid faulty practices. Planting the whole
fann in cucumbers or semng off all the
compost, 1 would never do.
One of the goals of crop rotation is to
allow for a healthy nitrogen cycle while
cropping. Compost is given liberally to leafy
crops that need plenty of nitrogen, such as
lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and collards. It
may be given more sparingly to fruiting crops
which follow the greens, such as com,
squash, tomatoes, and okra. It is withheld
entirely from the roots, such as carrots,
radishes, and turnips, which follow the
fruits. Then I plan1 legumes such as beans,
peas and lentils to draw in new nitrogen and
produce rich compost as their vines are
digested by the farm animals. Then the cycle
begins again wi1h compost to the greens.
Another goal of crop rotation is 10 vary
as much as possible the kinds of plan1s
grown. Thus it may be a good idea to follow
lettuce with carrots, or collards with onions,
but it is a bad idea 10 follow le1wce with
spinach or carrots with parsnips.
There is aJso interplanting. Planting
com with soybeans, spinach wi1h garlic,
tomatoes with sweet basil, dill with cabbages
su_mmer squash with popcorn, and pumpkins
with field com, makes for a lively variety.
Nature has ways to create abundance.
Perhaps most imponantJy, the
pennanent grass and clover walking strips
between and around the beds keep the soil
fauna heaJthy and erosion to 1he minimum
regartlless of the weather. We need to think
abou1 these things.
Not so long ago all farms produced
food out of soil, water, air, and warmth
because there was life. Nature charged
nothing for her pan.
Orawu,g by Rob Mcuid<
(continued on p. 32)
Sprl.mj, 1992
�"IF YOU DIDN'T GROW IT,
YOU DIDN'T EAT IT"
Food Production on a Self-Sufficient Mountain Homestead
as told by Ralph Garrett
Way back when Twas a boy, I lived at
my grandma's and grandpa's up above the
Lown of Sylva in Jackson County, NC. My
grandpa was a farmer and a brick mason, and
he also made bricks.
I grew up during the Depression. IL was
a little worse than it is right now, but it's
going 10 get worser than this, I'm afraid.
My grandpa and grandma owned about
three and one-half acres around their house,
but we tended a 12 or 15 acre bottom that
was up in Addie where the band mill is now.
We also planted 10 or 12 acres up on Fisher
Creek in com and different things. It was
about 25 or 30 acres all told. We grew
enough for everybody in our family, some 10
sell besides, and enough 10 feed the animals,
too.
We raised cows, chickens, and pigs to
eat, and we had horses, mules, and oxen 10
help us with the work. With them we plowed
and planted com, beans, field peas, Irish
'taters, sweet 'taters, sorghum for molasses,
and all different kinds of cornfield crops.
And grains. We'd sow a great big thing of
wheal for our flour, as well as winter oais 10
feed the horses while we were workin' 'em
in the summer time.
Then in the garden we had carrots.
radishes, parsnips, rumips, and different
kinds of greens - leuuce, onions, collard
greens, and all those.
We also had peach u-ees. I got a
whuppin' many a time for getting in the Blue
Goose peaches - big, fine, pretty peaches.
They'd get to tumin' a little bit, and us liule
boys, we'd slip around and try 10 get us one.
J remember how we used to eat. The
usual thing of a morning when we got up,
we'd have side beef or ham - fried good and
brickle · brown-eye gravy, some eggs, and
some biscuits.
Some days we'd have homemade
applesauce for breakfasL We'd heat it up and
have some hot biscuits and butter, and put the
butter and some sugar in the fruit, and you
had a good break.fast.
We'd also cut com off the cob, and
have it fried with biscuits and homemnde
molasses. That's what we had a whole lot of
mornings.
Our big meal was at dinner time, 12
noon. Supper was the evening meal. Al
dinner we'd have cornbread, hog meat or
maybe beef stew with vegetables. You can
get beef stew now in a can in the store, but
we had big pois of it, homemade, with two
or three vegetables in it, and some vegetables
on the side, too. Or we'd have great big pots
of homemade vegetable soup. We'd make the
soup with okry (olcr.1), tomaters, beans, and
onions. We put every kind of vegetable in
there.
In the summerumc for supper we'd
usually have com on the cob, new 'taters,
green beans, cornbread, and biscuits.
Sometimes we'd eat supper without meal, but
Sprtng, 1992
usually we had meat at the table three times a
day, whether it was beef, pork, or chicken.
We didn't have desserts every meal,
like they want now. Dcssens came mostly on
Sunday or Saturday when there was family
coming. We'd have plain ca.Ices with
down there 10 get some flour, some salt,
sody (baking soda), balcing powder, coffee,
and sugar. We just bought small amounts of
sugar, until it come canning time. Then we
would buy whatevercanningjars and lids
that we needed and 50 and 100 pound bags
of sugar to put up jellies and jam. We
young'uns liked LO get old-time candy, like
wax candy, horehound candy, and all kinds
of stick candy at the store. But we never had
money to buy very much there.
A year on the farm went like this:
Winter was kinda slow. We'd be cutrin'
firewood, sittin' by the fire, and relax.in'.
DrawiJI& by J.,,.,. Rhea
applesauce spiced up and pu1 in between the
layers. They called that old-time fruit cake.
They'd pile four or five of them up in a
straight pack with the applesauce in between
each layer, then applesauce down over the;
top ofic. Now, that was a dessen! Today if
someone gets two layers of cake, they think
that that's 100 much, but we had.five layers
of cake! We ate what we wanted, because it
was simple.
Or maybe they'd make a cherry pie.
What they call a cherry pie now is just a little
ol' thing. What we called a cherry pie was a
big bread pan full of cherries with dough
through 'cm. They call 'em cobblers now,
but we called 'em cherry pie.
Grandma also used 10 make sweet
potato custards and sweet potato pie and put
sweetening on it - marshmallows or brown
sugar, good things like that.
If we didn't grow it, we didn't cat it.
That's right. There wasn't no supermarkets,
there was only an old country store. We'd go
We'd spend time a-shuckin' com and
thrashin' out the peas, Crowder peas and clay
peas, through the bad days.
We also had 10 get our harness and
equipment fixed up and in first-class shape.
We had to be ready. so that when the ground
got right we could go right to work.
We didn't use no fertilize (fertilizer).
We used compost, and we gathered that in
the winter, too. We'd clean out the horse
stalls and the cow stalls. We'd throw it in a
bin that was outside the winder (window),
and we'd mix leaves in with iL That would
cause it to heat in the bin. In the spring we
wouW haul out that compost. spread it on the
field, and plow it in. That enriched our land
and made our crops do better.
We staned plowtn' in February and
March, what we didn't already have plowed.
The first crop we put out was the
different kinds of greens - cabbage. collard
greens, you could do them early. Usually,
(canlinucd on nai pqe)
Xatuah Journal POCJI'- 7
�(cullinucd from page 7)
people around here would sow a bed of
turnips or rutabagas, too.
Irish pouuoes were planted next during
the dark of the moon in Man:h, and maybe
we'd put some green peas out in the garden.
Radishes, onions, and parsnips were early
crops, we could get an early start on them,
100.
We would s1an our own S\l,'CCt pouuo
sets. We'd get them bedded down between
April 10 - 15. Then they'd be a-comin' up in
May. Sweet potatoes was a big crop. We
used to plant big fields of 'em.
Around April 15 - 20, we'd plant the
first corn. It would grow up a linle bit, but
not enough that a frost would hurt it bad.
Unless there come an ex try unusual hard
freeze, com would grow on though.
Flour com, popcorn, and com for the
livestock: those were the main kinds of com
we planted. We also had a liule of what we
called llim com. When it got hard, it was
hard as a rock, but it made real good roasting
ears. When sweet com came along, we
started planting sweet com in the garden.
Now people plant fields of sweet com.
The biggest thing was to rotate the com
plantings so that they would come in slowly,
so we could harvest them and take care of
them, instead of having all the com oome in
at once. We would plant some com on April
15, some the first of May, and then again at
the last of May.Hit's not a dry year, you can
plant com in June. It's starting to get dry
then, but sometimes a crop'll make. It's a
short season up here in these mountains, but
some years I've bad three different spaces of
com comin' in.
We always figlftd the last frost would
come around the tenth of May. 1bcn we'd set
out OUT garden vegetables. Any kind of plant
that the frost would affect - like peppers and
tomatcrs - we'd wait 'ril after the tenth of
May, after the frost line.
The cornfield peas, we'd plant them
after we worked (cultivated) the com for the
first time. I'd wait until the com was up
around my throat, and then l'd plant the peas
in between the com. We did the cornfield
beans, like the White McCaslan bean or the
Kentucky Wonder, the same way. l would
plant big com where I was going to plant the
cornfield beans. Then the com would support
'em and shade 'em. Shade is what keeps the
insects away better than any of this spray that
we can buy today.
We'd harvest the wheat when the heads
bowed and tumed yeller. The timing
depended on what kind of wheat we had. and
when we had planted it in the fall. We
harvested it by hand with a cradle. We didn't
have combines like those that cut the wheat
now. We had to do it with a cradle.
At the end of June, we'd finish up with
the wheat and we'd sun our first mowing of
hay. We mowed the hay with a mowing plate
and raked it up with a pitchfork. We'd shock
it • put it in shocks or round piles - and then
we'd come through with the wagon or the
sled, and load it 10 the barn. and put it in the
barn loft We'd pct up great barns full, and
then we'd put up big stacks of hay around
stackpolcs. We'd sUtCk com tops and fodder
the same way around the Stackpole at the
XatuQf1-Journat PCUJe 8
barnyard, where we could jusr go get it to
feed the cows and the horses.
All summer, we were mostly hoeing. It
kept us busy. We'd start work as soon as it
got light enough to sec what we was a-doin',
and we worked 'til dark.
Now at dinnertime, right at the heat of
the day, we gave them horses a good full
hour to two hours to be at rest. And we done
the same thing. We ate, we rested, and then,
when we went back 10 work, we worked 'til
dinner.
ln July when the blackberries and the
raspberries came in, we'd pick berries. We
would take a wagon up on Fisher Creek, and
we'd pick washtubs full of blackberries!
w11.i)
J'"J~
Everybody went, everybody picked,
everybody washed - everybody helped with
canning berries for a few weeks. Some of the
men might be off working on a job
somewhere, but everybody up at the house
just flew in and got busy.
Pretty soon the com would start coming
in, and we'd stan getting roasting cars with
our dinner. And we'd start canning
vegetables. too. We'd can all kinds of
vegetables. We canned beans, 'matcrs,
peaches, fresh ok:ry (okra), fresh com - all
different kinds of food out of the garden.
In the fall of the year, we'd be pectin'
the apples, and pcelln' peaches. Them Blue
Goose peaches came in about the same time
as apples. We'd boil the fruit down and make
apple and peach bu11er.
We had an apple peeler. You just stuck
the apple on and tumcd the handle, and ii
peeled the apple and took the core out of iL
Then we just cut it and made bleached fruit.
Or we mashed it up, cooked it, and made
applesauce.
Bleached fruit is made by burning
sulfur. We'd put the fruit on a rack, cover it
with a cloth, light the sulfur in a sulfur
burner, and leave it all night The action of
the sulfur makes the fruit stay white, it
doesn't tum brown, and it will keep all
winter. Then we would put it in big 60-gnllon
oak barrels, and we'd put up so many barrels
of bleached fruit.
We also P.l!t up ~ I s ofp\cld~
beans. Wr:!d !\ii up big barrels of beans
broke up and washed, put water in there and
add salt to sour 'cm and make 'em pick!~.
The same way about roasting CaJ'S. That was
our pickling stuff.
At canning time we also fixed a lot of
jellies and jams. We'd make apple jelly and
grape jelly. And we'd make peach preserves:
we'd peel sweet, cooked peaches like we
were going to can 'em, and put sugar in there
and cook it down until it come clown like
makin' candy, and 1ha1 was good preserves.
Around that same time we'd also be
cuttin' the com and puuin' it up in the com
crib. We'd cut the tops, and pull the fodder,
and put that up to feed the cows and horses.
We didn't leave nolhin' in that field that a
cow could eat. We kept the com in the com
crib, and we kept the peas in big bags inside
in the house where they'd be getting drier and
drier from the heat, so they'd shell easier.
Whenever we got that done, it was
coming to frost, and we had 10 get them
sweet potatoes out before it frosted. If it
frosted on the vines, we had LO get the vines
off right quick before it rained. so that the
frost wouldn't run into the sweet potaroes
and ruin ·cm. When we got 'em up, we'd
wash 'cm, and take 'cm to town to sell them,
anywhere from a gallon to five bushels,
whatever people wanted.
After the frost was the time to cut the
sorghum and make molasses. We had to strip
the cane down. cut all the blades off it. and
cut all the tops off. Then we'd haul all those
cane stallcs to lhe cane mill and put 'em
through the crusher. The juice would run out
into a vat. and we'd cook it off in what. they
called an evap<ntor until it came out syrup.
Several families made sorghum. Some
had bees. We didn't have no bees, but we
had some people who had bees. We'd just
get some stands of honey from them.
We also used to go into the woods and
gather up chestnuts. I'd go bacJc yonder and
gather up a 75 pound short sack. all the
chestnutS I could carry, and bring 'em home,
and we'd eat on them. I also used to like to
get pawpaws and persimmons. Now I'm
tcllin' you, them old persimmons make a
good pie.
And there were always some bear
hunters who would bring in some bear meat.
l know I ate a IOl of bear meat. Back when I
was a boy, bears were just as common as a
milk cow. It was nothin' to see a bear down
at the settlement. But they just got to bang,
bang, bangin', killin' 'em all they wanted, 'tit
there was a 101 of waste.
Right at the first of November, we'd
have to go back into the fields and clean the
'tater patches off. The usually thing was that
there was late roasting cars and some late
beans in the 'tater patch, and after we
gathered them, we cleaned all that off, weeds
and all, so we could plow our 'taters out
After they dried good, we'd put 'em in the
root cellar. Everybody had a root cellar. Lots
of them were dugouts in the bank, but they
were still root cellars where we'd keep the
bleached fruit, the potatoes, and the lcrnut
Everybody also bad a smokehouse
where they'd smoke their meat. and they'd
(ainunlllld on page 33)
Ornwing by Miehkl Thompson
Spri.ng, 1992
�~, ... .. w ...
EATiNG · LbsE ro HOME
c
by Peter Bane
The Logistics of a Permanent Culture
Consider your next meal: It's
mid-winter and what can be found to eat
nearby? The supermarket offers Iowa beef
and Idaho potatoes, Cnlifomia rice and
broccoli, Mexican lettuce and tomatoes, salad
oil from Brazil or Dakota, Aorida citrus,
Washington apples. The Standard American
Qiet is a marvel of technical complexity and a
sad reflection of cultural banality. Divorced
from place and season, available nationwide
and year round, itS cosmetic perfection and
shiny packaging are a glamour concealing
enonnous unmarked costs and catastrophic
instabilities.
Lurking behind the plastic sheen are the
collapse of rural communities, bankruptcy of
farm families, loss of topsoil (an average 20
tons per ton of grain produced), poisoning of
farm-workers, toxic residues in food, air,
soil, and water, cruelty to animals,
destruction of wildlife habitat, deforestation,
and the cultivation of plagues and diseases
heretofore unknown.
Most of the food we presently eat is
seriously denatured (lacking in nutrient value)
by chemical destruction of soil life and is
funher degraded by transport over long
distance. Our diet, combined with poor air
and water quality and compounded by the
stresses of crowded and hwried lives has led
directly to an epidemic of degenerative
diseases: heart attack, cancer, diabetes,
hypertension, leukemia, AIDS.
Worse than all of this, if that is
possible, our food now requires from 10 to
50 times the energy to produce and deli vet to
the table as it returns to the eater as calories of
nourishmenL We couldn't continue this way
without a huge subsidy of fossil fuels. We
are literally eating oil. And when it runs out as we know it will in 30 to 40 years - we will
starve. Of course, long before that
eventuality, our agriculture will have
collapsed from a host of other problems: the
shortage of water, excess UV radiation,
susceptibility of our genetically-narrow
monocultural staples (com, wheat, rice, and
potatoes) to insectS, diseases, climate shifts,
war, and revolution disrupting trade. The
production offiber and timber is similarly
vulnerable and destructive.
If the Standard American Diel is insane
and bound for collapse, then how should we
grow and eat our food? Imagine, if you will,
the life of our predecessors in this land. The
Cherokee, the Iroquois. and other Eastern
forest dwellers cultivated com, beans. and
squnsh; hunted deer. turkey, and small game
which were abundam in the woods; gathered
wild berries, nuts and greens. They caught
fish in lhe streams and collected mushrooms
from the forest floor. Around their
seu.lemcnts they selected and planted fruit
trees. berry bushes, and other useful
perennials.
The world of global IT3de, of oil W:lJ"S
and industrial production is a world of
artificial surpluses and scarcities, of unjust
expropriations and moral decadence. Yet we
have a vision of living in Katuah with natural
abundance, and a dedication to libeny and
1
SprLng, 1992
Drawing by Rob Messick
justice for all. How then can we move from
this disturbed and troubled world into one In
which all our true needs and wants are met
without despoiling the earth and robbing
from our grandchildren and our neighbors in
other countries?
aim of producing the greatest sum of yields in
the least practical area for the murunl benefil
of all creatures. He was certain thal small
areas dedicated to human needs could provide
net surpluses of food, fibre, and energy
while augmenting both genetic diversity and
We need a new way of thin.Icing and
seeing and new tools for problem-solving.
And we need to address fundamental human
needs: clean air, water, and food in sufficient
quantity, shelter appropriate lO climate,
satisfying and useful work, meaningful
human contact, and immersion in a natural
world.
This search for a new paradigm in the
built environment and our interaction with
nature emerged as a response to industrialism
and gradually merged into the science of
ecology. Frederick Law Olmstead, the great
I9th-century American landscape architect.
realized that the growth of cities and of
industrial work threatened the natural
foundation of human sanity. He sought to
ameliorate the effects of both by renewing
vistas of nature in urban parks and
greenways. ln this century, Lewis Mumford
extended these considerations of human scale
and sanity 10 the choices we make about
technology, and Ian McHarg and his
associates projected a concept of design
based on intrinsic capabilities of landscape.
Aui.1rlllian ecologi~t Bill Mollison
transformed his own studies of
environmental psychology imo a practice of
landscape design and coined the term
"permaculture" from "~nent agrioonm:."
or "pem1anent culture" to describe a proce,;s
of assembling artificial ecologies of crop
plants and animals to mimic nature with the
wildlife and resource conservation.
Toe understanding and application of
permaculture design over the past fifteen
years has taken several main forms: the
restoration of degraded landscapes; the
creation of naturalized food foreslS as a locus
for human habitation; the building and
retrofitting of strueturtS to incorporate
climatically appropriate energy and water
harvesting, and to suppon food production;
and the design of economic and
communication structures appropriate to local
production and trading. The work may be
found on American homesteads, in European
municipalities, and among African villages.
New towns have been created in Australia.
and long-term economic decline reversed in
regions of Nepal and India using
pennaculrure principles.
Pcrmaculrurc draws 1tS models from
patterns in nature and embraces many
integrative disciplines: agricultural ecology,
urban planning. landscape architecture.
decent:ralist economics. and shamanism.
among other.. Key insights which apply to
all living )ystems include the following
principles:
I) Design by Relative Location place all elements {house. pond, road, plants)
so as to maximize beneficial relationships and
minimize antagonisms.
2) Select clemcntS to perform \lultiple
Funclions.
(contmual on nc,1 page)
Xotuah JounlO! page 9
t
�!'
)
(001Uinuod &om pegc 9)
3) Suppon every important function
with Multiple Elements.
4) Efficient energy planning through
analysis by zones of access and Sectors of
outSidc influence.
5) Use Biological Resources favor perennials.
6) Recycle Energy on site.
7) Use and accelerate Natural
Succession to establish favorable sites and
soils. Integrate animals, plants, humans, and
StruCt\Jl'CS.
8) Polyculture & Diversity of
beneficial species to promote productive,
stable, interactive systems.
9) Pay attention to Edges & Natural
Patterns.
Pcnnaculture rcstS on an ethical
foundation of care for the earth, including all
living and non-living things; of care/or
people, so that all people everywhere may
have their basic needs met; and the
contribution of surplus time, money, and
energy to achieve the aims of earth and
people care. Permaculture also has a Life
ethic, valui.ng life and all ilS multiplicity for
its own sake. Cooperation, not competition is
the key.
How then might a permanent culture
take shape in Katuah? We can begin at our
doomeps by cultivating a diet appropriate to
our region - one based on the planlS and
animals which grow here naturally and which
have acclimated following introduction - and
extend that process into gardening and
fanning those same species regeneratively.
We can learn to eat seasonally even as we
take advantage of other cultural IJ'ad.itions to
Xatuah Journot pQ(J& l 0
enrich our diet.
Anyone can fimd space for a few leafy
greens and herbs, vegetables which
pound-for-pound afford more nutrition than
any other food category. Grown within a few
steps of the back door in mulched soils, they
will survive almost year round if given a bit
of care against summer drought and winter
frost. Even apartment dwellers in the city can
grow in containers on a balcony or in a
windowbox. Cold frames against a south
wall, a small greenhouse, or even movable
cloches can supply a steady stream of salad
which didn't have to cross the Continental
Divide to grace our table. The familiar
European and Medilerranean vegetables:
lettuce, celery, carrot, onions, broccoli, and
many others, are adapted to cold climates and
may with protection, overwinter in the
ground. Root crops and brassicas (cabbage,
kale...) are especially well-suited to this
method. These same vegetables don't grow
best in our summer heat, but that is the
season when the tropical American and
Indian plants - tomato, corn, beans, squash,
melons, eggplant, peppers, and okra
flourish.
We arc blessed throughout Katuah with
generous forests whose dominant members
include excellent nut trees: walnut, chestnut,
oak, hickory, and pecan. We should
recognize these allies for the food resources
which they offer. Let us plant them in our
yards and parks; conserve and catalog elite
trees where they Stand; and take care in
harvesting to leave the best, tallest,
straightest, healthiest, most vigorous, and
most fecund trees for seed, and tnk:ing only
the lesser examples for timber and fuel wood.
Fruit trees too should be planted in
every yard, along roadways, in parks, and in
neglected spaces in lhe cities. Besides the
traditional apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry,
and apricot, many areas arc suited to ugs. We
have the native pawpaw, the maypop vine,
and the persimmon which holds itS fruit on
the tree well into winter. And the mulberry,
which is one of the earliest fruits in spring, is
hardy, easy-to-grow. and prolific. Members
of the Eleagnus family - autumn olive and itS
cousins, provide not only a shower of tasty
fruit, but improve soils by fixing nitrogen at
their roots, as docs the
juncberry/serviceberry/saskatoon tribe
(Amtlanchiet spp. ).
~~
By inrerpianting and stacking vertical
layers into the garden, we can achieve greater
total yields than is possible with single crops.
Our naturally forested region provides the
model for a productive food forest with crops
grown at the canopy, mid-level, understory,
shrub, herb, and root layers, and on vines
running throughouL These food forests
prpvide abundant wildlife habitat and make
excellent forage systems both for humans and
for domestic poultry, sheep, and pigs where
access can be controlled. In very small
spaces, even in the city, bees, rabbitS, and
pigeons can be tended co augment food
production and household income.
Even more important than the
establishment of food forests everywhere is
the organizing of food markelS. We need to
connect capable growers throughout the
region with networks of town and city
consumers to support the development of
healthy fanns and to increase urban-rural
exchanges. These community-supponcd
farms stand a much better chance of
implementing the diverse cropping strategics
needed for ecological restoration than isolated
fanners trying to outwit the commodity
traders. Subscription farming is a way to
create new jobs in agriculture and offer
alternatives to existing farmers.
Strengthening the farm economy;
marketing food locally; and cultivating our
natural suengths in uee crops, fisheries,
berry and bulb production, can provide the
basis for many new, locally manufactured
hand tools, farm implements, craft- and
housewares. These burgeoning local
economies need methods to augment local
trading, and to retain and recycle wealth
wilhm the community. Local currency and
baner systems work well. The L.E.T.S., or
Local Employment & Trading System, is one
such example. (Further infonnacion from the
Institute for Community Economics,
Somerville, MA.).
If we ask again about sustainable
agriculture and pennanent culture, "What is
to be done?", the answer becomes clearer.
1) Eat what you grow and what is
available locally and in season.
2) Grow things that you like that arc
adapted to the area, and which do not travel
well.
3) Plant and tend food forests
everywhere people live, especially in cities,
using public as well as private space.
4) Conserve genetic diversity and
excellence by nurturing elite specimens and
by exchanging heirloom seed and
scionwood.
5) Trade sw-pluses locally. You needn't
grow everything, or even anything, if you're
a good plumber, teacher, baker, or
candlestick maker.
6) Organize food production to suppon
responsible growers.
7) Make direct market links wherever
possible. Know ~here your food come~
from and where u goes.
,,P'
Peter Bane publishu The Pcnnaculturc
Activist. a fUJlional quarttrly journalfor North
A=rico Born in Illinois, M now lives with his
family in Middle TtnnLSst.t w~re Mis putting his
itkas inJo practice. For m«e information please
contact him at Route I, Bo:i 38; Primm Springs TN
38476
· Drawing by Dawn Shiner
Sprt119, t 992
�I,
Silas McDowell's Vision Of
Mountain Agriculture
by Perry Eury
"Amongsr rhe valleys of the somhern
Alleg/UJllit!$ somerimes winter is succeeded
by wann wearlzer, which, cominuing through
the months of March and April, brings out
vegetarian rapidly, and clothes theforests in
an early verdure. This pleasant spring
wearher is renninated by a few days rain, and
the clearing up is followed by cold, raking
winds from the ,wrrhwest, leaving rhe
atmosphere of a pure indigo tint, though
which wink bright stars, bur ,ftlte wind
subsides at nig/11, the succeeding nwrning
shQws a heavy hoar frost,· vegetation is
unerly killed, including all manner offruit
germs, and the la11dscape clothed in verdure
the day before ,ww looks dark and dreary."
- Silas McDowell
On the morning of April 28, 1858,
Silas McDowell encountered this bleak scene
when he went out to inspect his fann. The
Macon Coumy fruit grower hnd spent almost
thirty years establishing his orchard of 600
apple LreCS near the banks of the Cullasaja
River. However, this late spring freeze
"made nearly a clean sweep from mountain
valleys in Western North Carolina of lhe
richest promise of a fruit crop that we have
ever had." For anyone else, the incident
would have been a crushing disappointment.
For McDowell, it was another opportunity to
examine nature's mysteries and to find a
bener way of fanning in the mountains
McDowell had deliberately selected a
shehered valley for his orchard. Only a settler
too poor to buy bouom land would have tried
to grow fruit hiJh on the mountainsides. And
yet, on this Apnl morning, McDowell
realized his mistake. While his own aces
"seemed as if clothed in a black pall," he
observed on the mountains looming over his
orchard a broad horizontal band of vegetation
left unscathed by the freeze.
Around 1780, Thomas Jefferson had
witnessed similar temperature inversions in
the Shenandoah Mountains of Vtrginia. He
reported, "I have known frosts so severe to
kill the hiccory trees round Monticello, and
yet not injure the tender fruit blossoms then at
bloom oo the t. p and higher parts of the
o
mountain."
Silas McDowell understood that this
was more than a quirk of topography and
climate. He suspected that thermal belts could
be the secret to successful fruit production in
mountainous areas. By the summer of 1858
he wrote that "all description of fruit trees
which have the good fortune to be located in
this vernal region, are now bending beneath a
heavy crop of fruit." He began to promote the
value of this zone for fruit growers and
contributed a repon to the United States
Agricu/cural Reports Jor 1861.
In his articles on the "belt of no frost"
McDowell explained, "The beautiful
phenomena of the 'Verdant Zone' or
Thennal Belt' exhibits itself upon our
mountainsides, commencing about three
hundred feet vertical height above the valleys,
SprLng, 1992
and traversing them in a perfectly horiz.ontal
line throughout their entire length like a vast
green ribbon upon a black ground."
Born in South Carolina in 1795,
McDowell moved to Asheville in his youth
for training as a tailor. He practiced his trade
in Charleston and Morganton before settling
in Macon County's Cullasaja Valley, where
he gained renown as a fruil grower, amateur
Silas McDowt/1
naturalist and story teller. His articles on the
mountains were published in popular
magazines and caught the auention of leading
botanists, who sought his help in finding rare
plants of the Southern Appalachians. When a
visiting scientist asked which college he had
auended, McDowell pointed to the hills
surrounding his farm and replied, "These
wild mountains are the only college at which
my name has ever been entered as a sruden1!"
In a tribute to Silas McDowell, T.F.
Glenn remembered him as modest and
unassuming, and also "intuitive, impulsive
and passionate. His companionship with
nature was a marked feature to the most
trivial objects of beauty and sublimity. By a
native force of genius, by dint of fiery energy
of will, by persistent application, he
sunnounted obstacles."
McDowell's tenacious efforts to raise
winter keeping apples had earned him a
reputation among southern fruit growers even
before the thennal belt episode. When
McDowell and his bride, Elizabeth, moved to
Macon County in 1830 they brought a baby's
cradle filled with small apple trees from her
grandfather's orchard near Asheville. Being
especially fond of winier apples, McDowell
chose varieties recommended by northern
pomologists. His results were like those of
other southern growers. "I made a complete
failure," he confessed, "for when my trees
began to bear fruit, it matured and fell from
the tree long before the proper time, and
though they were an excellent collection of
Aurumn Apples, there was n0t a good Winter
keeper amongst them."
For fifteen years, McDowell struggled
to raise winter keepers. Then, the editor of a
farm paper in Athens, Georgia, suggested
that he lake grafts from native seedling
apples. McDowell followed James
Cannack's advice and searched the hills
around his home for fruit stock. His quest
was successful.
"Amongst old Oterokee seedling Apple
trees - as well as other Southern seedlings, I
have succeeded in conferring on Southern
Pomology a llist of names of Winter Apples,
which both as to their highly aromatic taste,
as well as late winter keeping qualities,
cannot be excelled by as many varieties of
Winter Apples in the United States." His
catalog of new apples featured the Carmack,
Nickajack, Bullasage, Mavereck Winter
Sweet, Royal Pearman, Hoover, Golden
Pippin, Buff, Kingrussen, and Neverfail.
"None but late keepers in the list," McDowell
n01ed with delight.
ln 1870, William Saunders with the
Agriculture Department concluded, 'There is
not a doubt about it, the fmest winter apples
in America arc grown on th.ese mountain
lands." McDowell could take much of the
crediL
McDowell, always concerned with the
region's economy, believed that vineyards
established within the thennal belt could be a
mainstay of mountain agriculture. 'The
Grape," McDowell predicted, "will never fail
to yield to the husbandman a rich and
abundant crop of its luscious and
hean-cheering fruit; and had the vine
locomotion, corporal and mental sense, I
would bid it to 'Tarry not in all the plains; but
flee to the mountains for its life,' and take
refuge under the protection of lhe Thermal
Stratum!"
Much as he had in his quest for winter
apples, McDowell explored the mountains to
find superior varieties of grapes. He
speculated on the potential of hybridizing
some of the specimens, "W e cannot well
command our risibles when, in fancy, we
anticipate the aspect of that monster Grape
that will be produced by the hybridal cross
betwixt the Hon. A.G. Semmes's eight
pound bunches and the Mammoth Grape
Prof. C. D. Smith and ourself measured
yesterday, the single berries of which gined
three and a quaner inches around."
Afler the Civil War, McDowell
continued to write on agricultural topics,
presided over the Fruit Growers Association
and pleaded for extension of the Western
Nonh Carolina Railroad. He was constantly
learning more - from natural phenomena, the
culrure of the Oterokees and the latest farm
journals. In his judgement, the climate and
the terrain of the mountains did not have to be
obstacles to successful farming. Instead, the
unique character of the mountains could
suppon a distinctive form of agriculture.
Diversity was one aspect of the
mountain agriculture he envisioned.
"Dairying, grape culture, bee culture, sheep
(continued on page 34)
�Mountain People
The grey winter sky hovers over the village,
threatening to swoop down with nightfall.
A woman carries burdensome logs to her cabin
and feeds them to the wilting flames in the heanh.
She wraps a moth-eaten quilt
tightly about her sinewy frame,
to shut out the icy strands of December
squeezing through chinks in the walls.
Her hands are weathered with time like the mountain, the palms
grooved like the tire tracks frozen into the eanhen road.
These are hands that once held warm lovers,
brought orphaned raccoons in from a storm,
angry, caring hands that spanked naughty children,
and comfoned them when frightened by distant coyotes,
and scratched their backs until they found the itch,
and opened the tightest jars of jam...
The people of the mountain are quiet,
one with themselves, one with the mountain,
but in the lines on their faces, in their strong hands,
in their calm way,
they tell how they work and breathe,
and brim with life,
like the woman rocking before the fire
in that small cabin on the hill,
her heart a smoldering ember,
warm despite the howling wind outside,
whipping through the firs on the mountainside.
- Allison C. Swherland
Quintessence
Never have I seen the sun like one winter's afternoon
late last February. The wannth was drenched into those
hills of the Blue Ridge, into the stalks of yellow and orange,
rolling back finally to the dark mountains, and the still
darker clouds.
We ourselves were engulfed in shadow, steadily
approaching that sunlit stretch of road before us, that
splash of quin1essen1 light.
A gentle warmth touched !he back of my neck.
and I turned, 10 see but a sliver of silvery white light
at the horizon, light which eked out from under the stormy
tumul t of blue-black clouds.
And soon we were immersed in it, bathed in Ught,
the light of spring, or almost summer. It glinted through
the strands of hair in my eyes, and I squinted to keep looking.
So I closed my eyes and breathed, and let it seep into my
veins, and warm my forehead and my cheeks and my shoulders.
And suddenly it was gone. We were in darkness. among the
mountains, and then just shadow. We meandered through those
hills of greenblack forests like a mountain brook in early
evening, now and again coming upon a splash of sunwashed
hills, searching for that light, until the sun went down.
- Allison C. Swherland
J(Qtu.!Jh Journal
p09e 12
Drawings by Mictu,,,I Thompson
Spri-119, 1992
�NATIVE FOODS
I was brought up in the remote
reaches of the Cherokee Indian
Reservation. My family were "a-aditionals."
That means that they stuek to the old ways
of the lncJjan people, believing them 10 be
the beSL We did some things in exactly the
same way they were done by our people
before contact with the white man. As a
boy, I used to go into the woods and hunt
squirrels with a blowgun, for instance. In
other ways, our life, while not exactly
similar 10 the ways of the anc~stors, echoed
the manner in which they lived and gave a
clue to how it was done before.
In the earliest times, our people lived
off the land. They hunted their meat and
gathered plant foods in the foresL Later,
agriculture became their base, that's when
their culture really blossomed, because they
spent Jess time in gathering food.
Agriculture was a stable way of
surviving, but they also hunted and foraged
food from the wild. A srnple food in times
past was chestnut bread. This represented
the Cherokee's mixed food supply: com
from the fields and chestnuts from the wild.
An abundance of both. And if one source
failed, they could fall back on the other to
carry them through.
I heard that a professor said that a.bout
the time the white man came here the
Cherokees were spending about three days
a week for survival. Most of my life in
modern society l couldn't make a living
working seven days.
In my life. I've spent a lot of time in
the woods, and l lcamed that the secret of
survival in the forest is to puc no limits on
what you eaL Like a bear, see everything as
a potential meal. Everything! Game and
fish, of course, but also crawdads, frogs.
bugs, worms, grubs in the logs. Hornet
larva popped on a hot rock are very good.
It used to be a kid's job to sit under a
holly tree with a blowgun stuck up between
the branches to shoot at the cardinals.
robins, or any other little songbirds that
came. People say. "How did you pluck
them?" but we never plucked them. We just
threw them into the fire and rolled them
around until the feathers had all been singed
off. We treated all the little birds and small
animals like that. We never skinned a
squirrel.
I remember one time I was out, and I
ate tent caterpillars that were feeding on a
wild cherry tree. I roasted them. The fire
singed the hair off - most of it. They
swelled up into little puffy morsels. They
did have a queer taSte, but I was hungry
and I ate all of them I could find.
But we did not have 10 eat insects
except in famine and songbirds were more
hunting trophies for the young. Larger
game was plentiful. In the older rimes the
people ate woods bison, deer. birds like
passenger pigeon and grouse, and
groundhogs.
Drawing by James Rhea
But they would not eat possums. The
Cherokees thought the possum was the
lowliest creature on the Eanh. When
DeSoto came th.rough, one of his company.
a man called The Gentleman of Elvas,
wrote that when they SlOpped at the village
that was near the present ciry of Asheville,
they demanded food for their travel-s from
the natives. He recorded that they were
given "several hundred dead dogs without
any hair on their tails." He did not realize
how the Cherokees despised the possum as
a food sourt:c and what a political sutement
this was.
Plant food was plentiful as well. The
people would gather berries in the
summenime, chestnuts in the fall. When
the che~tnut trees were alive. there was a
large chesmut harvest every year • bushels
and bushels of chestnuts. Properly dried
and stored, they would last all winter.
The people also ate chinkapins.
Chinkapins are related to chestnuts. The
by Bear W ith Runs
tree looks very similar 10 a chestnut tree.
The nuts were a little bit smaller than
chestnuts - somewhat larger than a beech
nut.
Acorns were imponanl, too. They
leached them in water to get out the tannic
acid and then ground them into flour or
roasted them in the fire. They probably
preferred the white oak acorns, because
those have !he least tannie acid.
My grandmother used 10 make little
cakes out of white oak acorn nour, com
meal, and honey. She would also add
persimmons, if we had them. Those cakes
were good! They were a heavy food • a
little bit went a long way
In the old limes. the people would eat
a lot of ,mnas, the wild potatoes that grow
:llong the creeks. And in the spring. ramps
and wild greens, like branch lettuce,
s/10-1011 (or so-chan, green conenower •
ed.). Indian cucumber, and nettles, arc
(cxmlinucd on nnt page)
:KAtuan Journot ~ 13
�(continued
rrom page 13)
plentiful. Mushrooms are good, if you
know what you are looking for, but they
aren't very filling.
It's interesting. One person can
forage really well alone, while foraging for
two people is difficulL But with three
people it becomes easier, because two can
forage and the other one can prepare the
food.
When the Cherokees smned planting,
they added some new foods to their dieL
Com, of course, was a staple, beans, and
"punkins," as they called them in my
family, meaning any lcind of squash.
We ate green com as "roastin' ears,"
dried corn was ground into flour and eaten
as cornbread. Everybody grew their own
corn, and everybody thought their own was
better than everybody else's.
The com we would keep in a com
crib. We put the beans in sacks and hung
them up in the barn or under the dogtrot
(roofed, but open air passageway between
two separate sections of a building - ed.) at
the house.
The early people built very neat,
efficient com cribs. They were raised off
the ground on poles, bad a tight thatched
roof, and walls made of panels woven of
bark or wood splits that were daubed with
clay or mud to keep varmints out. The com
was stored in there on the cob.
Mother trimmed the com husks and
packed them to save for cooking chestnut
bread, bean bread, or com dumplings. The
traditional way was to wrap them in com
husks and boil them. When the corn shucks
ran out, Mother would wrap them in green
oak leaves. That would tum the com blue.
Mother ground com a litlle bit at a
time as she needed it. She never ground
very much because weevils would get in
into ground meal very quickly.
Back long ago, before they had ovens
to bake in, they made mealcakes that were
either boiled or roasted. We used to do !hat
when l was young. We would call !hem
hoecakes. We always carried com meal
when we were traveling. To prepare the
cakes, we would mix the meal with boiling
water to "kill the com." Killing the com
causes the dough to stick together. Then we
would flatten them out, lay them on a flat
rock, and let them roast as brown as lhey
could be.
In the old days, lhc warriors would
carry parched com in a long bag by their
side when they were on the trail. They
parched shelled com by throwing it into a
hot fire and leaving it until it got brown (or
more likely black), and then grinding it into
powder.
On the trail, they would trot from
dayUght to dark, heading for Iroquois
country. When they saw a stream up ahead,
they would pour some of the powder into
their hand while they were running. As
they crossed over the stn:am, they would
bend down while they were still moving
and grab a handful of water and keep
trotting. That was the only food that they
would take alo11g their route.
Beans were important to us, too. The
elderi; told me that the originnl bean was red
and white, and it came from the south.
Xatuah J~rnoL pf.UJC 14
Pinto beans were my family's
favorite, and we must have raised one-half
acre of pinto beans every year. A visitor
could come into our house any day of the
week and find a pot of pinto beans on the
stove and bread in the warmer on top of th~
stove - cornbread, and later when l was
growing up there were occasionally flour
biscuits, but lhat was not often.
We had meals only once or twice a
day, but we ate whenever we got hungry.
That was the way I was raised. If 1 got
hungry in the middle of the day, l'd just
run in, take a bowl of beans, grab some
bread, and eat up.
When people found that
domesticating livestock was easier lhan
hunting, they began raising animals as well
as growing crops. My grandfather said that
the turkey was the first animal to be
domesticated, and it domesdcated itSClf.
When the Cherokees began raising com,
they would build litllc racks in the cornfield
and assign the kids to keep watch to scare
off the crows and wildlife. The turkeys
loved the com so much they just wouldn't
scare, so the people just penned up the
turkeys and fed them com in the pen to
keep !hem out of lhe fields.
The Cherokees ate turkey, but !hey so
prized the turkeys' feathers for making
ornaments and beautiful capes, lhat my
grandfather said, "We used to care more
about 'em for their feathers than for the
meaL"
Because we ate what was provided
locally, lhe diet of the Cherokee fndians
changed with the seasons of the year.
In the green com season, when the
first com turned ripe enough tO eat, besides
the roasting cars we would cat squash and
other vegetables, fish, and chicken. But we
never ate game in the summenime, because
we were afraid of a parasite we called
"weevils" or "foxes." (insect larvae, also
called "warbles" by white people - ed.)
This was a big wonn that got into squirrels,
rabbits. and deer. You could often see two
or three of them sticking out of an animal in
the late summer and early fall. IL was large
and black, pointed on one end. It would
bore into the skin and live off the moisture
and the blood of the animal.
We never ate game at all until the
worms were killed by the first frost. There
were taboos about killing animals until after
the weevils were gone.
But we ate chickens. And we caught
fish all summer long. The old way to catch
trout was with trout baskets. They built up
weirs in the stream made out of rocks.
They piled up rocks forcing the fish into a
narrow channel that flowed into the trout
basket. As kids, we used to build weirs in
Lhe stream, too.
We also ate frogs and any turlles we
came upon during the summer season - if
we came across a mud turtle, that was just a
didn't have any lard on them at all. But they
tasted really good. We fed them some
garbage 10 keep them around, and they ate
bugs and snakes, but we would kill them
right after the acorn crop was down, and
that's when they would be their nicest.
Hogs raised on acorns and com taste totally
different than the meat you buy today. Fall
was the fat time for everything that lived in
the forest - including the Indians.
Father smoked meat, and Mother
would can trout and other kinds of meat in
jars. She would boil them outside in a big
washtub that would hold 30 or 40 cans. We
ate a lot of meat in the fall and early winter,
and then we ate dried food until the spring.
ln the old days people would put
dried food in clay pots and carry them up 10
the asi, their dugout winter shelter. The
food would store there until the wintertime
when the people arrived and would live in
the asi surrounded by their food supply.
My Mother would dry berries,
persimmons, squash, any kinds of food we
could get. We had a tray about lhe size of a
screen door made of honeysuckle vines
woven into a mat. h was hung it over the
wood stove. We would lower it, she would
lay out all the slices, and then we would
help her pull it back up. When it wasn't in
use. we just pulled it up against the ceiling.
It always stayed over the wood stove.
I like to think that is how they did it in
the old times: hung a mat over lhe central
fire in the house under the smoke hole.
We had chestnuts, and we had com,
so no one really went hungry. The diet may
not have been nutritionally stable all year,
but we had enough.
The hardest time of year was late
February and early spring. By then we
were craving greens. Tobacco helped with
the hunger. Tobacco depresses the appetite.
But we were doggin' for vegetables. In the
meantime we drank teas: sassafras tea,
birch tea, pine needle tea, which had a lot
of vitamin C, and spicebush tea.
My mother used to make cough
medicine for me, anyway l think it was for
me, but Grandpa would drink a lot of it.
She'd catch him at it, and he'd go "Hunh.
hunh, hunh (like he was coughing)." It was
wild cherry bark and pine need.Jes. They
were boiled down and after all the needles
and bark were taken out of it. she added
honey until it was really !hick, and then she
cooked it down some more. It was nice. It
was really nice. It was good and sweet.
Then, a little later in the spring, the
sho-tan came in. Everyone would have a lot
of that. get the shits, and clean out their
bodies. My grandmother would also make
us a tonic from a gray lichen called
"turkey's tail." Later the ramps would be
ready, the growing things would be getting
green, and everything would balance out
/
again.
treat.
We were meat eaters in the fall, for
sure. We never did have any cows. 1 didn't
eat beef until l was 2 l or 22 years old. But
we did have some old skinny hogs. They
were as lean as they could be. l remember
my father complaining about how lhey
In spilt ofth.t: droll nomt he has odopttd/or
this articlt, Btc.r With Runs IJ a full-blooded
Chtroku Indian. lit livl.S in quiet anonJmity ofl
tht Cherolctt India/I Rt.str.•ation
Drawing by Pcgi
Sprl..™3, 1992
�COVER CROPS
On-farm, Solar-powered Soil Building
by Mark Schon beck
During my four years as an agricultural
researcher at the New Alchemy Institute, I
chose to focus on cover crops because they
perform so many different functions on the
farm, utilizing primarily solar energy. The
only off-farm input is the seed - a few
pounds to one hundred pounds per acre,
from which thousands of pounds of organic
matter arc accumulated through
photosynthesis. In contraSt, most soil
amendments entail imponing hundredweights
or tons of materials for each acre.
A cover crop is a crop grown not for
harvest. but to protect, maintain or enrich the
soil A green mallW'e is any crop (but usually
a cover crop and/or natural weed growth)
which is tilled into the soil to add organic
matter and feed the soil biota. Cover crops
and green manures protect soil against wind
and water erosion, suppress weeds, provide
habitat for beneficial insecis, add organic
maucr, add nitrogen (legumes only), and
make other nuoients more available to the
next crop. Most cover crops can also be
grown for grain (e.g., rye, buckwheat)
and/or livestock forage (e.J/ ., clover, annual
ryegrass, alfalfa).
Cover cropping is a cornerstone of
sustainable agricultural systems in most
bioregions, and this is cenainly true for
Kawah. Why do I make this claim? I'll Stan
with a brief digression into soil ecology...
In both natural and agricultural
ecosystems, plant growth depends on the
organic matter cycle in the soil. Soil
organisms continually break down soil
humus, thereby releasing nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients
for plant roots to absorb.
The carbon from the organic matter
appears in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Plants convert carbon dioxide b:ick into
organic compounds in photosynthesis. In
natural ecosystems, leaves, other plant
residues and animal dung thar fall to the
ground feed earthworms and other soil
organisms. These creatures change the
residues into humus, thus replenishing
organic matter reserves. Most of the nucrients
can cycle back and forth between soil and
plant almost indefinitely, except when intense
rains wash some of them away.
Nitrogen is more volatile, and some of
ii inevitably slips away into the atmosphere or
groundwater. Fortunately, there arc
numerous species ofbac1eria and blue-green
algae in the soil that can fix (convert)
atmoSpheriC nitrogen back into forms that
plants and soil organisms can use. The most
effective nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the
rhizobia, form a symbiosis with the roots of
leguminous plants such as clovers, beans and
black locust trees.
Sprl.fflJ, 1992
Agriculture disrupts this
nutrient/organic matter cycle in three ways.
First, clearing the natural vegetation exposes
the soil surface to sun, wind and rain.
Because humus is a lightweight and
finely-divided material, a disproportionate
amount of humus is lost when soil erodes.
Extreme temperature and moisture
fluctuations at the soil surface can also bum
up the humus and deter biological activity,
leaving a son of "dead zone" in the top inch
or so. Second, tillage accelerates the r(lle at
which soil organic manerdecomposes. This
happens because soil disturbance brings
additional oxygen into the topsoil, thus
speeding bacterial action. Initially, the
resulting burst of nucrient release promotes
heavy crop yields, but the soil wears out
unless the organic mauer is replenished from
other sources. Third, harvest removes
nuoients, and these must be replaced
regularly. Because synthetic chemical
fertilizers do not feed the soil life and tend to
upset the soil's balance, biological farmers
use organic and natural mineral fcnilizers,
such as compost, leaf mold and ground
limestone.
Organic fanning often entails adding
large amounts of organic amendments to the
soil. lf these materials are brought in from
off-fann sources, this is not sustainable
farming, as this removes materials from the
organic matter cycle on someone else's land.
Also, iransporting bulky amendments from
their point of origin 10 the farm consumes a
lot of fossil fuel. Composting manure and
crop residues produced on the farm is more
ecologically sustainable, but may be quite
labor·intensive. Often, the amount of
residues produced on the farm docs not meet
all the land's organic matter needs.
Cover crops use sunlight to produce
organic matter in place, and, in the case of
legumes, to fix nitrogen. In contrast,
manufacture of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer
uses a tremendous amount of fossil fuel.
Once a cover crop is established, its l"OO(S
bind the soil together, significantly reducing
erosion even before the foliage fully covers
the ground. As the cover crop canopy closes,
it effectively stops erosion.
Cover crops such as buckwheat
suppress weeds by growing rapidly and
casting dense shade, whereas winter rye, oats
and sudan grass release natural substances
that suppress weed seedlings (this
phenomenon is called allelopathy).
Legume cover crops often add 50 to
150 pounds of nitrogen per acre in a single
season, thus replacing the nitr0gen harvested
in most vegetable and grain crops.
Buckwheat, lupines and sweet clover have
roots that can absorb relatively insoluble
fonns of phosphorus that other crops cannot
access. When the cover crop is tilled in, the
phosphorus is released to the next crop.
Some cover crops and deep-rooted weeds can
extract potassium, calcium, or ccnain
micronurrients from the subsoil or from
insoluble minerals.
A mixed gra:.s/legume cover crop (e.g.,
clover/timothy, or winter rye/hairy vetch) can
produce three to four tons of dry organic
matter per acre in a year, and the proportion
of nitrogen to carbon in such a mixture is
often ideal for humus formation. A three ton
cover crop provides about as much organic
matter and nitrogen as a 10 to 15 ton manure
application, and the cover crop does not need
10 be hauled into the field, but simply mowed
or tilled in.
The biggest challenge in using cover
crops is allowing them enough time to reach a
good size without sacrificing a whole season
of vegetable or grain production. The
simplest approach is to plant the cover crop
immediately after harvest, but this is often in
fall, leaving the cover crop little time before
winter.
One altenullive is overseeding, or
planting the cover crop while the production
crop is still growing. In moist, fine•texturcd
soils, small-seeded cover crops like clover,
alfalfa and ryegrass can be broadcast on the
soil surface between rows of com. squash,
1oma1oes. broccoli or other widely-spaced
crops. Jn coarser soils or drier conditions. the
se.ed can be incorporated by light hoeing or
cultivation. The cover crop grows slowly
beneath the esmblished vegetable. then spuns
ahead after the lauer is harvested and cleared.
Another method is to plant a slowstaning cover crop such a.\ clover~ the same
time as a grain is planted. After gram harvest,
the clover is grown until the following
spring, then tilled in. Clover plus grain
(ciontinucd an p1gc 16)
Ora..,ing by Rob Musick
�stubble give excellent wintertime erosion
conuol, and provide a lot of organic matter
with a good c:irbon-nitrogen balance.
When a green manure is ,tilled into the
soil, a burst of biological activity occurs
which can be detrimental to crop seedlings
for a shon rime. Thus it is a good idea 10 wait
two or three weeks after turning the crop
under before direct-seeding vegetables,
especially small seeds like lettuce and carrots.
An alternative method is to mow the
aboveground pan of the cover crop, and
gather the clippings to mulch another bed or
build a compost heap. 11 is much easier to
spade or plow up the crop stubble withou1 all
that shoot biomass there, and the waiting
period needed before direct-seeding should
also be shoncr. Some cover crops can be
killed by mowing at the nght ume. Their
clippings can be left in place and vigorous
crop seedlings (e.g., cabbage, 1oma10)
lnlnSplanted through the mulch without
tillage. Success with this varies because the
mulch cools the soil and can aurac1 slugs.
Clearing an eight to twelve inch diameter area
around each seedling reduces these problems.
Different cover crops arc suited to
different purposes. A few specific examples
follow. The first six are non-legumes and do
not add nitrogen, the rest are legumes that can
fix niuogen.
Winter rye is very hardy, overwintering
as far north as zone 3a (annual minimum -35
10 -40 degrees F). In the Katt.iah bioregion,
rye planted by early October will protect the
soil and suppress weeds effectively. Rye
planted in early November will do well and
produce lots of organic matter in spring, but
there is a risk of winter erosion, as the cover
will be thin.
Rye is useful for talcing up and
conserving any soluble soil nitrogen left over
from the growing season. The crop can be
difficult to manage in the spring because it
rapidly gets very tall and tough. When grown
alone, it can also ccmporarily 1ie up soil
nitrogen and release allelopathic substances
that can inhibit growth of the nex1 crop. If ii
gets away from you, mow-kill the rye after
the heads have emerged and begun shedding
pollen. Or let the rye go to maturity and reap
some nice grain and/or seeds for next year's
cover crop. Seeding rate is 90-150 lb/acre
(note: one pound per 1,000 square feet equals
about 44 lb/acre). using the higher rates for
later plantings.
Win~r wheOJ can be used similarly 10
rye, though it is a little less hardy, somewhat
shorccr and later to mature. It may also be
easier to manage in the spring. Sow 90-120
lb/acre.
OOJS, another small grain, is much less
frost-hardy, and is generally killed the first
time the temperature drops to 15 or 20
degrees F.. Oats can be planted in early
spring and mowed or turned under in early
summer. They can also be planted in August
or early September and allowed to grow until
killed by hard freezes. This leaves a thick
protective mulch that is easier 10 manage in
spring than a live rye crop. though the
~um of organic matter will be less. Sow
90-120 lb/acre..
Annual ryegrass is marginally
winter-hardy in zone 6b (annual minimum -5
to 0 degrees F), and can either be planted in
early spring or in August-early September.
Ryegrass fonns an unusually dense root
sysiem that gives excellent erosion
protcccion, fosters good soil strUcture and
"mops-up" leftover soil nutrients so they
don't wash away. Unlike the three preceding
crops, ryegrass ca11not be mow-killed, and
must be spaded or tilled in. Rye and rycgrass
are often confused, bu1 they arc easy 10 tell
apart. Rye has the edible, wheat-berry sized
seeds, while ryegrass has fme, fluffy seeds
that look a lot like lawn grass seed. Sow
20-50 lb/acre.
Sudan grass is a fast-growing,
fros1-sensitive summer annual that can
produce a tremendous nmount of biomass. le
requires warm, fertile soil, and is well suited
to planting after harvest of early spring
vegetables like lettuce or peas. It suppresses
weeds through both competition and
allelopathy, and can be cut twice for mulch
(prized by strawberry growers), compost
mmerial or fodder (cawion: let it grow a1 least
24 inches tall, preferably more, before
feeding to livestock, as young sudan grass
contains toxic amounts of cyanide). The
stubble may be subl.tantial enough 10 hold the
soil over winter and add a li1tle organic matter
when turned under in spring. Sow 20-50
lb/acre.
Buckwheat is a mos1 useful green
manure for shon fallow periods in vegetable
culture. It can be planted any time after the
las1 frost, up to the middle of August.
Buckwheat emerges and shades the ground
rapidly, choking out weeds. It reaches 2 to 4
feet and begins 10 flower about 30 days after
planting, and should be mowed or turned
under at most 45 days after planting 10
prevent self-seeding. Two or three successive
plantings of buckwheat, followed by winter
rye, with each crop tilled under, reduces
populations of stubborn perennial weeds like
quackgrass. Buckwheat is also excellent bee
forage, and is good for mobilizing the
phosphorus in a rock phosphate applica1ion.
Sow 50-100 lb/acre.
Clovers are small-seeded legumes that
Stan slowly, but can fix 50 to 100 pounds of
nitrogen if allowed to grow a full year.
White clover is a low-growing (4-18
inches, depending on variety), long-lived
perennial, and is suited to "living mulch"
applications (be sure you don't confuse it
with white sweetclover which can reach five
to 10/eet).
Red clover is taller (18-30 inches),
faster-growing, shorter lived and very shade
tolerant. ll is we11 suited to overseeding into
established vegetables in August if moisture
is adequate.
Alsike clover is intennediate between
white and red clovers, and is more tolerant of
clayey, wet or acid soils. Unlike the 01hers,
crimson clover is an annual, which can be
planted in August or early September and wi11
overwinter in the milder pans of Kaniah (it's
risky here in zone 6b). h can also be planted
in early spring. ln addition to fixing nitrogen
and producing 3 t0ns/acre of organic matter,
crimson clover has spectacular deep red
blooms. Sow clovers in early spring or late
summer, 4-8 lb/acre for white clover, 8-15
lb/acre for red or alsike, and I5-25 lb/acre for
crimson. Clover seedlings don't like ho1 sun,
so it helps to plant oats at 35-50 lb/acre with
the clover to provide light shade, then mow
the oats at heading. Crimson clover can be
mow-killed just after 0owering, while the
other clovers cannot.
Hairy vetch is a legume which has
recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest. h is
a winter annual vine with small purple
flowers and can fix 100 to 250 pounds of
nitrogen per acre. Vetch is hardy to zone Sa
(annual minimum -15 to -20 degrees),
although frost-heaving can be a problem if
harsh freezes alternate wilh !haws. It can be
planted in September, either alone or with
rye, wheat or oats, at 20-30 pounds of vetch
plus 50 pounds of grain per acre. Vetch/rye is
an excellent combination because the rye is
strong enough tO support the vetch vines in
spring, 1he rye roots help prevent frost
heaving, and the combination is more
effective than either crop alone in stopping
erosion, suppressing weeds and building
humus. Also, vetch can be mow-kilJed once
it has begun to flower, which happens about
the same rime that rye sheds pollen. Other
vetches include bigflower vetch (hardy in
most of Katt.iah), common vetch and purple
vetch, both of which are winterlcilled at 10 to
20 degrees F. Their residues release nitr0gen
in the spring, thus these vetches may be
valuable planted in August ahead of the next
year's early spring greens.
Sweet clovers are biennial legumes with
very deep taproots that open the soil and
bring up nutrients. White sweetclover likes
rich, moist, somewhat clayey soil, and gets
very large in the second season, while ye11ow
sweetclover tolerates droughty, sandy soils
and is somewhat smaller, about 4 LO 6 feet
tall. Hubam sweetclover is an annual white
variety that produces lots of organic maner in
a short time, but may self-seed and become a
nuisance weed. Sow sweetclovers in April or
August at 12-18 lblacre. alone or wilh 35-50
lb oats/acre.
Alfalfa, the "queen of forages" can also
make a heavy nitr0gen-fixing cover crop and
provide a highly nutritive mulch. Alfalfa is
somewhat finicky, requiring deep, rich,
nonacid soils high in phosphorus, potassium,
and calcium. Under good conditions, it is a
long-lived percMial lhot can be cut for
several years for mulch, compost or forage.
Sow a1 15-20 lb/acre, pn:fembly with oats at
35-50 lb/acre and/or timothy or other
perennial forage gross at half its normal
seeding rate.
Mark Schon/Jeck Ph.D.•formuly a rcscarckr
with Ntw t\lchtmy. is now inll()/vtd with tht
fnstitutt for Sustainable Living. Wind.n..-ept Farm;
Rt. I, Box 35: Chtck, VA 24072 which products
{JII uctlltnt ncwsltlltr, TcJtinh.
Sprlll<J, 1992
�Plant for Tomorrow:
HEMP
by John Ingress
"Whal is c/wJ uncercainflush low on
the ground, tlwt irresistible rush of
mulci111di,w1LS green ? Aformigl,t later, and
the field is brown no longer. Overflowing ir,
burying it out ofsight, is the shallow tidal sea
of the hemp, ever rippling. With that in
view, all ocher shades in namre seem dead
and coUIII for nothing. Far reflected,
conspicuous, brilliant, strange; masses of
living emerald, saturated wirlt blazing
sunlight."
•from The Reign of Law; A Talc or lhc Kentucky
Hemp Fields by l=s Allen Lane (1900)
Although the Earth has always had
"environmentalists" - people and entire
cultures who respect the forces of Nature and
who try 10 learn from and work wirll those
forces - our industrial/scientific society is
coming 1ownrds environmentalism from the
opposite pole: by discovering how pollution
has disrupted the web of life.
The thread that binds these issues is
1he non-sustainable nature of our dependence
on fossil fuels (and u-ees, because forest
habitats cannot be replenished a1 the rate at
which treeS rue being cut). To dismiss hemp
as a possible solution because ii is of the
genus Camwbis with "marijuana" ( a
pejorative misnomer) is akin to dismissing
Galileo because "the world is flat." For the
moment, let's consider only those varieties of
cannabis referred to as "headache weed,"
containing little psychoactive THC.
Hemp is one of humanity's oldest
cultivated crops. The weaving of hemp fiber
as an industry began 10,000 years ago (see
Jack Herer, The Emperor Wears No Cloches,
1990). By the 27th century BC. the Chinese
cultivated hemp for fiber, medicine, and
herbal use. Since that time, cannabis has been
continuously incorporated into virtually all
the cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor,
India, China, Japan, Europe, and Africa, and
its uses for oil, food, and relaxation were
developed.
The first laws governing hemp in 1he
Americas were those requiring colonial
Virginia fanners to grow hemp. Violators
could be imprisoned. Washington grew i1,
Jefferson smuggled Chinese seed at great
peril; the first drafts of the US Constitution
were written on hemp paper. The Census of
1850 counted 8,327 hemp plantations of
2000 acres or more, mostly in the South.
In 1916, USDA Bulletin No. 404
reponed that one acre of cannabis hemp, in
annual rotation over a 20 year period, \\0Uld
produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres
of trees, requiring no polluting chemicals.
The hemp pulp technology wa~ invented by
USDA scientists in 1916, but awaited the
mvcntion of dcconica1ing and harvesting
machinery. These arrived in the mid-10-la1e
1930's. at the same time as the DuPont
Company was patenting processes 10 make
plastics from oil and coal, as well as new
Spn119, 1992
sulfate/sulfite processes to make paper from
wood pulp.
Coincidentally - some say
conspiratorially - the Marijuana Tax Act of
1937 effectively outlawed the entire cannabis
plant family on the basis of it's "reefer
madness" properties. No1 only DuPont
profits, but those of large timber holdings,
were wriuen into law. (William Randolph
Hearst, whose "yellow journalism" was
instrumental in the marijuana scare, owne-0
hundreds of thousands of acres of timber,
destined for newsprint).
A working definition of sustainable
agriculture might be those practices that
assure the means of survival - food. fuel,
fiber, and medicine. The mining and use of
fossil fuels. unless absolutely necessary. is
only "economical" in 1cnns of shon cerm
profits. As Buckminis1er Fuller poinis ou1 in
1he book Critical Patl1, it took millions or
years of pho1osyn1hesis, decay, and
accumulation of organic material 10 produce
the oil and coal we use today. By determining
replacement values. he calculates gasoline to
be wonh $2.'i million dollars per gallon! One
might say it's priceless. Or. since burning it
is killing the planet. one could say it has
negative value when removed from the
ground for applications for which a
renewable, sustainable resource, such :is
hemp. is available.
The cannabis hemp seed is a
complete source of vegetable protein, :ind the
USDA food comparisons found hempsecd
lower in saturated fats than any other cooking
oil. including soy and cnnola.The byproduct
of pressing hemp seed for its oil is a high
protein seed cake.
Hemp fiber makes fabrics that are
stronger. more insulating, more absorbent,
and tonger lasting than cotton. More than
half the textiles we use today are imponed,
due to environmental concerns and labor
costs. Hemp requires little fertilizer, and no
pesticides. Local industry could revive.
Hemp is the world's most prolific
source of plam cellulose, which is the basic
raw material used for plastics, fabrication
material, chipboard, fibelboard and other
construction boards.
For more than 3,500 years, cannabis
has been, depending on the culture or nation,
either the moi;1 used or one of the most
widely used plants for medicines. If legal, i1
would immediately replace an estimated lO to
20 percent of all pharmaceutical prescription
medicines and could be added, as extracts, 10
another 20 to 30 percent. From 1842 10 1900
ii made up half of all medicines sold, with
vinually no fear of its "high."
In 1937, the AMA and drug
companies testified against the Marijuana Tax
Ac1, because cannabis was known to have so
much medical potential and has never caused
any observable addictions or death by
overdose. It is known to be helpful in ca.~s
of asthma, glaucoma. tumors, nause:i
resulting from chemotherapy or AIDS,
epilepsy, back pain, and stress among its 100
or so kno\\ n applications.
If we would let it. cannabis hemp
could have a bright future providing
humankind with food, fuel, fiber, an~~
medicine.
fr
For addiuonol informaJu,n on w u.ses of
rhe MIii/i plan/, wme 10: Fnendsofllemp: Bo;(98/:
Mars /lilt, NC 28754,
x.cituah Journal. JJCllF t 7
�KATUAH CULTIVARS
Cultivated Varieties of Vegetable and Fruits
Recommended for Ka mah Bioregion
We received a handful of Kaniah
gardeners' lis1s of favorite fruil and
vegetables varieties. The resulting list is a
chefs' cornucopia. and generally includes
personn.l favorites for productivity, taste,
nuaition, and relative freedom from
problems. Codes for seed sources for the
more difficult-to-find varieties (when known)
are included at the end of the article. Happy
Gardening!
We invite Katuah readers to send us
your favorite varieties (esp. Open Pollinated
{O.P.) or non-hybrid varieties) and your
list of not-so-m:ommendcd varieties (this is
also imponant info!) for developing a more
comprehensive regional listing. Thanks for
your giving...
Perry Eury (Kalmia Center, Sylva, NC)
-rates Red Jewel sweet poiato as a
favorite! He continues to have problems
with disease on legumes. but has had good
luck with a crowder pea, Purple
Knucklehull (SH). He highly recommends
the recovered "Cherokee" Com, a delicious
white com with pinkish blush-- makes lhe
BEST cornbread! (from Cherokee Boys
Club).
Hueh Love! ( Union Agricultural
Instirute, Blairsville, GA) -- Hugh is a CSA
Producer, dedicated to regenerative,
biodynamic agriculture. He loves the English
green pea. Little Marvel which does not
require staking in his intensive, three rows
per wide bed spacings. Sugar Snap edible
pod peas are a favorite with his cus1omers.
He recommends Blue Lake Pole and
Yellow Wax Bean, as productive, but
recommends choosing "rust" disease
rcsistanL varieties. He recommended
Purple Top Tumips (greens and root multicrop!) and rape greens (Vates).
Cherry Belle radishe~ are recommended
for quick maturing spring radishes, and for
Fall planting, Chjna Rose radish.
Touchon is a great coreless carrot, and
Bloomsdale Spinach is recommended as a
standard. Hugh notes that spinach will last
longer in the spring (nor "bolt") if you grow
spinach with low levels of nuaients (esp.
nitrogen).
G}en Hubel (Certified Organic Grower.
Waynesville, NC) has done well with edible
podded pea Snowflake and Sugar
Daddy, and the english pea Knight. He
suggests the beans Easy Pie and the Yellow
Wax bean, Gold Crop. He likes the shon
season tomato Russian, but has had much
"Blight" disease problems with his tomato
varieties. His best crop is his potato crop
including Kennebec, Purple Peruvians,
Red Pontiac, Yellow Finn (SB) and
rates Butte average. He recommend!. agains1
Yukon Gold because of potato bug
problems (lururtm, might be a "trap-crop"! ).
He has had good yields with Black soybeans
and the edible at green-stage Butterbean
soybean. His best crops are his lenuces,
:IC4Nan JO\lf'nat PCUJe 18
recommending Red Oakleaf, Sangria,
Lolla Rossa, and Red Romaine
(SHP).
Will Ashe Bason (Floyd Co.• south.of
Blacksburg, VA) especially likes Lutz
Greenleaf Keeper (SESE) bee!li, as the
~ I keeping. sweetest and mos1 render. He
grows white, yellow and red po1a1oes, but
has had worst "Scab" disease on reds which
do 001 keep as well. He likes his yellow
poiatoes best! He notes broccoli and cabbage
do well. but need to be treated with the
biological insecricide, Dipel (B1). He
advises to plant fall varieties of cole crops
and plant these seeds in late spring. He has
found Sunroofs (the native sunflower,
Jerusalem Artichoke) easy 10 grow and s1ores
well in the l!:r0und over winter. He
recommends blueberries as a fruit crop which
tolerates warm early spells and l:11e frosts, but
recommends additional peal or organic matter
in the planting hole. Will states that Shiitake
mushrooms are relanvely easy 10 inoculate
int0 chestnut oak logs, but may require a year
to get going, but then may "fruit " for years.
He is especially happy with Scarlet
Runner Beans, which are best in flavor,
and make a ''preny good" dried bean. These
are most easily shelled when ''perfectly" dry.
He grows his beans in the garden space left
available after the spring crop of snap peas
(although this may eventually lead to disease
problems in time- ed.)
Mark Schonbeck (Instiru1e for
Sustainable Agriculture, Windswept Farm,
Check. VA) shares his favorite varieties of
"non-hybrid, good flavored, nuaitious, with
good keeping qualities, resistance to pests
and diseases, and ease of haJvest and
processing." (Whew! What criteria!)
Windswept Farm gardeners were
impressed by the grain sorghum.
Mennonite (SESE), yielding over 7 lbs. of
grain from a 100 square foot plot . The
cooked grain iasted somewhat between wheat
berries and brown rice (but had 10 be leached
of the tannins from the grain by boiling and
changing the cooking waters). Hickory
King white flour com, although it grew 10
feet tall, survived thunderstorms, showed
little earwonn damage, and had little mold or
maggot problems. They no1ed that Purple
Peruvian and Saginaw Gold potatoes had
less potato beetle problems than other
varieties. They had problems growing carrots
in their poor soil but Danvers U6 carrot
grew well withou1 becoming woody, and bad
little weed problem. They especially favored
Long Standing Bloo~dale spinach,
with its excellent flavor and winter hardiness.
They recommend several beans including
Chinese Red (SESE) azuki beans
(yielding equivalent 10 2500 lbsJacre), which
grew without any Mexican bean beetle attack!
Swedish Brown common bean had lower
yields (eqiv. 1500 lbs/A.) but have an
unusually good flavor. A local adapted
pinio-type October Bean, obtained from a
neighbor, yielded well and had slightly less
bean beetle damage than other varieties. A
Redkloud Kidney (SESE) bean was
badly chewed by beetles, but managed to
yield as much as the azulcis.
Barbara Duncan (Herb Enthusiast,
Franklin, NC) -- recommends her favorite
perennial Greek Oregano (SHP) which
she prefers for its ease-of-culture (although
hard 10 genninate) and strong, distinctive
taste.
Lee Barnes (Plantsman, Waynesville,
NC) - I've had repeatable success with
Peruvian Purple potatoes tender,
finger-sized and beautiful mixed with yellow
or white potatoes in Potato Salad! Early
Jersey Wakefield cabbage is more tender
and sweeter than other varieties. Celery
(Golden Self-Blanching and Giant
Red(actually pinkish) (SB) does well if
seeds are sown indoors early (60 - 90 days
prior to transplanting). Favorite superhot
peppers are Thai and Habanero (RCS)
(great for hot vinegars, too (()() hot to eat!),
which do best if transplan1ed after mid-May,
or when soil 1empera1ures are greater than 00°
F. My favorite eggplant is the tender
"finger-shaped" Japanese varieties, and I'm
currently addicted to the hybrid eggplant
"khiban". Can anyone recommend an O.P.
variety? Purple Top turnips are favorites!,
while ruUlbagas and kohlrobi do very wcJI if
sown 2-3 weeks earlier than for turnips.
SESE • Southern Exposure Seed
Exchange, P.O. Box 158, North Garden,
VA22959
SH - R.11. Schumway. P.O. Box
I, Graniteville, SC 29829
HA - Hastjng.s. P.O. Box 115535,
Atlanta, GA 30310
SB -Seeds Blum, Idaho City Stage,
Boise, ID 97333
SUP- Shephard's Garden Seeds,
6116 Highway 9, Felton, CA 95018
RCS- Redwood City Seed Co.,
P.O. Box 361, Redwood City, CA 94064
(See KJ # 32 Fall 1991 or master
Resource List for additional seed sources.).
By Lee Barnes
Drawing by Rob Messick
Spr\n4), 1992
�..
--BLOWING IN THE WIND
by Charlone Homsher
When 1 was growing up in
southeastern Colorado, my family hnd a
Sunday afternoon ritual. Every Sunday we
drove to the wheal fields south of town lo
check the moisture content of the soil.
There were usually live or six children;
sisters, brothers and cousins who piled out
of the pickup. My father knelt on the
ground and dug into 1he soil with his bare
hands as we surrounded him waiting
breathlessly. If the subsoil was moist Lhcn
he held up his handful of din, triumphant.
If it was dry, then the eanh sifted Lhrough
his fingers. We all goL a chance to look at
lhis little piece of eanh, wrenched up :IIld
turned over by the sweat of man, the inner
eanh which in some mysterious way would
either give us an ample crop or wither the
grain on the stalk.
This memory of my father, first
digging and than holding the soil in his
palm in a gesture of triumph, is stlU vivid in
my mind. More than anything else it
symbolizes to me the ambivalent
relationship he had to the eanh and 10 his
inherited occupation of farmer.
Before the Homestead Act of 1862
brought white seulers in hordes, there were
no towns or setdements on the prairies. The
Cheyenne and other Plains Indians were
nomadic hunters and gatherers. They found
an ample supply of wildlife sheltered in the
tal1 prairie grasses that grew as high as a
man's chest. By the I 930's the virgin
prairie grasses had been plowed under.
Everyone knew the plowing was out of
contr0l but no one could stop it. There was
always a new wave of homesteaders
detennined 10 farm. One of the excuses
used for plowing up the prairies was I.hat
the grasses were just weeds, after all; and
like weeds everywhere, they would thrive
on their own. Unfonunately the grasses
never returned. What did grow back was a
scraggly grass, euphemistically called
buffalo grass, only a few inches high, nor
high enough 10 sprout under the layers of
sill deposited by the high winds.
Not many people realize I.hat I.he
dusrbowl didn't stop with the depression
era. Even in the fifties, the fields were still
blowing. A dustsronn that would lai;L for
days could be sianed by one farmer. If a
fanner plowed his field in a dry spell and
the farmer next door happened to plow his
at the same time, it could stan a chain
reaction. The lifegiving topsoil from one
field could blow overnight into the next
county suffocating all vegetation in its path
and causing the hair 10 fall off the backs of
grazing animals.
Once 1he prairies were plowed there
was never a settled farm life. The eanh
simply could not sustain the population.
The first mass migration off the prairies
were the Okies of the dus1bowl era who
abandoned their small holdings for
California. The postwar era continued the
cons1an1 trickle of fanners into the cities.
SprtncJ, 1992
Since the land was no longer fenile and
intact as it was as a prairie, ii was the
evolution of fann pracrioe LO acquire larger
properties in order to make a profit This
me.int depending on ever more
sophisticated farm equipment LO handle all
that land, and borrowed financing to pay
for the whole operation. The foreclosures
and farm auctions of the seventies and
eighties where a result of the farmers'
inability 10 repay their massive loans.
Postwar govemment policies
encouraged expansion, as did the ever
burgeoning agribusiness industries. One of
the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the
American fanner was the postwar sentiment
that the American fanner was responsible
for feeding the world. This grandiose
responsibility with its heavy psychological
load, was just more fuel for the
expansionist fodder of big crops at any
cost. Politicians stressed the imponance of
the fanncr in protecting democracy, a
responsibility that reached beyond national
borders. (Empty bellies not only cause
suffering but foment revolution.) The
postwar farmer had a mission and a duty.
Fanning is a pan of the myth of
creation. The farmer is supposed to
understand things 1ha1 other people don't.
He works in cooperation with nature. He
knows when to plant and when 10 harvest.
The farmer feeds everyone. A land without
its local farmers soon shrivels up and dies.
or so the myth goes. Or at the very least the
food prices escalate. The farmer as
supposed to be the sail of the eanh, the real
backbone of America, the man who keeps ii
all going while the rest of the country runs
amuck in the cities. At the same time he is
expected 10 remain isolated, cut off from
the mainstTCam of society, a laborer whose
opinions are considered wonhless. The
fnnner is dealing with some heavy
propaganda from without and expectations
from within. The fanners of the fifties ond
sixties were nearly frantic in their push to
mtiinstream fanning into the standnrd of
living of the while middle class. Fanners
wanted cash in the pocket, brick ranch
houses and college education for their
children. The very idea of making fanning
a respectable profession is a historically
brazen tissurnption. ln every civilized
society the farmer is the low caste, the
ignorant, humble servant of the soil.
Here is another sticky contraclictlon.
Farmers were forced off the fa.nm that they
said they wanted 10 keep and lost a way of
life that they professed 10 Jove, yet they
pushed their children into learning skills
that would be of use only in the cities, thus
assuring that the way of life could not
possibly be handed on. This could be seen
as either a foresighted concern for future
generations or a disinheritance. I never did
find an easy answer 10 Lha1 one. When I
was about fifteen my father drove me to lhe
original family homes11:ad. We walked 10
the middle of the field behind the rock
house between Lhe apple ort:hard and !he
sandy banks of the dry creekbed. I hadn't
been 10 that field in years.
Dad pointed ar the bare eanh under
the stubble of lhe last crop. With great
solemnity, he told me that he had hired a
water witcher (a dowser) who had said that
there was enough wa1er in that panicul:!r
spot for a well. The drilling crew was
arriving the next day and he wanted me 10
know how things really stood. If they hit
water, I would get to go Lo college. If
no1 ... well ...1here was nothing worse for a
young girl than lO rot in some dying farm
town.
I Ils arrirude was typical of the worry,
fear, and despair of fann fathers of that era.
In contrast to this dreary scenario, I am
reminded of the description of small scale
farmers in Japan in the wonderful
philosophical treatise on nature and
fanning, The One Straw Revolution. In
that book, Masanobu Fukuoka describes
how fanners of old Japan, before
mechanization and before life got so
frenetic, took off for a three month holiday
in the winter 10 hunt rabbits in the
mountains. They also wrote Haiku poetry.
Fukuoka claims that there was even a time
when fanning was considered a sacred
work.
In my family, of all the children who
knell with my father in the fields and got
that first lesson of the harshness of the
Eanh and its potential fertility, lam the
only one who still owns land and I do not
own fannland. In an ironic cwist of fare it
was the sudden, unexpected sale of my
grandfather's ranch that paid for my piece
of mountain.
Over the years, l occasionallv run into
one of the ex-fannboys with whom I grew
up. Meeting them is very similar 10 how I
have heard Vietnam veterans de..~be
encounters \loith each other. Looking into
each other's eyes we recognize the vast
expanses of psychic space between our past
and our present, the bridges that we have
had 10 bum to travel such distances
00Cllinuod on page 32
Draw111g by Rob Messick
Xatuah Jo\4rnm pQ()e 19
�~
5
E
p
T
E
M
B
E
A
0
11th
• ~fore C.1ting wild
edibles, be sure or their com!Ct
Identity and proper preparation.
Times may vary in your area.
Native and naturaliud plant
listings rcncct average beginning of
�- .-
0
18th
~
-
C
r
�"MEDICINE TRAINING"
These are the words ofa traditional
Cherokee medi'cine person:
My grandfather was one of those who
believe that everything has a spirit - the
stones, the grass, Lhe soil, everything. To
him, it was apparent that anybody could
communicate and work with these beings.
He believed that no one was any more
magical than any other person. It was just a
pan of being human, and civilization
domesticated that part of ourselves, and
turned everybody's reality around to
whatever white man's reality is. Everybody
had to have the same reality.
As soon as I was born, he saw physical
signs on my body thOt told him that I was
destined 10 be a medicine man. One of the
biological signs that he noticed were simian
creases (sharply-defined creases extending
from between the thumb and forefinger
across the palm - ed.). I have two of them.
When a baby is born in the hospital,
western doctors look at it to see if it's eyes,
teeth, nose, mouth, etc., are all in order,
and then they check for simian creases,
because they are a sign of Down's
syndrome. Eight out of ten babies who
have a simian crease have Down's
syndrome. I had one on each hand.
Now my grandfather had no idea what
simian creases were or what Down's
syndrome was. But he did notice that they
were an unusual physical occum:nce on my
body. There were other physical signs, but
I don't know what they all were.
He took the matter up with other old
people that he talked with, and they all
agreed with his interpretation of the signs.
After that, r was preordained by my
grandfather 10 be a medicine person and
blessed by the elders.
They gave me a naming ceremony.
They held me up and called in all of
Creation from all the directions and
introduced me. Then they offered my spirit
to the Creation, saying, "This is your
relative. This is how he will be known."
When I was a child, I would "make
things happen." 1t was like fantasizing. 1
would see something happening in my
mind, and it would occur. I could make
somebody come over to my house. r could
find something in the woods. Little things,
but r was encouraged 10 exercise that
ability.
I was also encouraged in things that the
white culture would consider foolish. If I
came home and said that I saw some Little
People in the woods, the adultS would said,
"Well, that's great! What were they doing?
How were they doing it?"
In while society parents would say,
"You're a fool," "Don't do thaL Act like an
adult," or, if they were very liberal, "Ooh,
he's got an imaginary play friend."
Most of culture is just habits. If things
don't work for you, over and over, then
you drop them. If something works, over
and over, then gradually it becomes part of
your reality and then pan or your identity.
And as a child the fact that r had certain
abilities just became a fact of my life. I was
encouraged in special ways 10 follow a
certain direction.
For instance, one of the very first
memories I cnn remember was seeing a
baby push out of a woman. Kids were nol
normally allowed to be present for that sort
of thing. But the elders thought that I was
good luck, juSt by being the. '".~ause
people thought that I was special, they
reinforced it b) IJ>"..ating me that way. Of
course, it didn'l take much to convince me
that I was special! Everybody thinks that
they have a special destiny. That's
unders1andable, and it's true to a certain
extent, but it very seldom comes oue in the
way that we would like it 10.
That was the way they began my
training. It was the most natural thing in the
world. A lot of it was just being raised by
my grandparents and being around old
people a lot of the time.
Most of the kids my age grew up
around fathers who had been in World War
ll. My grandfather wns 69 years old when l
was born. And as a boy he had lived with
his grandfather, who had fought at
Horseshoe Bend with Andrew Jackson.
Through my grandfather, l had a direcl
connection to those times. In my childhood
adventure games I pretended 1 was hiding
in the mountains during the Removal,
eating grubs and bugs, and running from
white soldiers with tall hatS.
I lived in a world that in many ways
was quite archaic. The Cherokee language
that my grandfather spoke was an archaic
version of the language they speak today.
Growing up among these elders, pan of my
thinking was archaic. I don't know if it was
because of the way that I was raised, but I
was more marurc than most males my age.
r also had a sense of being content to be
with myself. When I think of my
childhood, r think of myself as being alone
much of the time. That leaves a mark upon
you. For one thing, it made me more
peaceful being with myself. I never seem to
need entenainment. l don't need diversion.
My mind is all the diversion I need.
My early training was just spending
time with those old people. We might be
out collecting sho-un or ramps, and we
would run across a woman whose specialty
was birthing. She would point out a plant
and say, "This is good for teeth, cutting
teeth, cutting teeth," she'd say. Or "Sore
mouth," or "This is good for white
tongue," (thrush). Another time we would
meet somebody who had a lot of
knowledge in another area. That was the
way I teamed. lt was structured, but it
wasn't a structure. It was spontaneous. Yee
I had a sense that it was importanL
The only les.wns r learned by rote were
hem were long, but
the formulas. Some of 1
they all have basic Structures and themes
that run through them that make them
simple to remember once you catch the
pattern.
The formulas were in a special
ceremonial mode of the Cherokee language
that was symbolic in its meaning and older
even than the speech my grandparents
used. A modem-day speaker would not be
able to understand it. When you say, "Way
up on high where the four black ravens
rest, r call you down here, and r ask you 10
pull the black smoke all over this," what
does that mean to a modern Cherokee? It
doesn't mean a thing. But II is incredibly
meaningful to me.
Sprt.119, 1992
�Most of my training was learning how
to learn. Leaming how to use my mind.
They taught me by giving me the answers
to questions· questions I hadn't even asked
ye1. I had the answers; I had to find om
what the questions were. h's a good way 10
learn. It talces a lot of patience.
1 might be walking with my gr.indfather
or one of his friends, and we would sit
down and build a fire, cook a little
some1hing, and, as we were sitting there,
he might say, "Ginseng." Or he might say,
"lt's inside yourself." Or he might say, "It
comes when all doubt is cleared from the
mind." Just out of the blue. It would have
no reference to any1hing that we were
doing. The first few times, l started to ask
questions, but after awhile I stopped asking
qucs1ions.
My grandfather would say, "You may
not understand now, but you will
understand. You're not ready for it. But
lis1en. Pay attention to everything."
"Don't trot around knowledge," he
would say. "Knowledge without
understanding is worse than tits on a boar
bog, so wail Ir will come to you."
And it has come to me. I have been
caught up in new experiences, when I did
not know what to do, and, all at once, the
answer would be there, clear as a bell. I'd
had the answer all along, and I had finally
ran into the question.
People talk to me about their life
problems. Often they are going through a
Jot of suffering. SomeLimes I feel like a
third person sitting there watching myself
talk to them and helping to solve their
problems. rm not egotistical. I know
where it's corning from. Still, T feel
absolutely amazed. rm not me any more!
That's the way my whole life has been:
I've had the answers, but I haven't had 1he
questions. fve been running into the
questions throughout my whole life. In that
sense, it has made my life easier. I don't
know if I have run into all the questions
yet. I'm still looking. though, because
sometimes the answers will fit many
questions.
•
canvas bag. He kept everything · absolutely
everything • in this bag.
I would be walking down the trail past
a clump of bushes or a blackberry thicket,
and all of a sudden he would sL,nd up in it.
He scared me every time. He \\Ould just
appear. And he'd grin. A1 that most people,
even those who knew him, would run. But
he was a boyhood friend of my
grandfather, and I think my grandfather
was his only friend. He never manied,
and, when my grandfather died. in his own
way he took responsibility for me for
awhile. This wasn·t much, because he was
very seldom around. But he always
appeared when I needed him · every time r
needed him.
Owl did magical things. He was the one
who taught me how to eliminate doubt in
my mind. And that's the best gifL he ever
gave me.
Eliminating doubt makes magic happen.
I was brought up with no limits as to what
my mind could do. but then, as I got older
and exposed to other people, they put doubt
in my mind. Owl taught me how to remove
that doubt.
He did not give me a set of simple
instructions like, ~stick your nose in your
ear, and this will all go away." It was a
combination of things. He said that 10 clear
the doubt out of my mind I had to go
through a rational, linear process. It was
something that one had 10 be taught over a
period of time. And with my formal
experience of magic, it didn't talce me very
long to learn it.
Talso learned how to focus. If I can
visualii.e something, and see it in my mind,
and hold it in my mind, and do it in my
mind • and drop it! - it never fails. When I
was a child, I could do it easily. But as I
grew to be an adult and developed doubt. I
had a more difficult time. The fonnulas
would help me to keep my focus, son of
like daydreaming.
*
One of the old men was a special
person to me. He was a medicine person.
People came to him for conjuring and
docroring, and he was good at it. I always
referred to him as Owl, but that wasn't his
name.
He was probably six foot four, if you
straightened him out, but as a child his leg
had been broken and badly set, and he
leaned over to the left. He also had an eye
that hnd been damaged, so that although he
could see ouc of it, it was puckered up into
a fearsome squint. He was a fierce,
mean-looking old man, but he was as
gentle, caring, and loving as he was
scary-looking.
He always had a long World War I
overcoat with him. I can remember Lhe big
brass buuons that went all the way down
the front. When he wasn't wearing his
coat, he would roll it up, tie strings around
it, and carry it over one shoulder. On his
other shoulder he would carry a funky old
1
I remember a scene that happened
repeatedly. Owl and I would be walking
down a trail, and I would be talking to him,
when suddenly he would grab me by my
shirt and pull me into the bushes.
"Stand still and be quiet," he would
say.
We would stand there, sometimes for
ten minutes. Then 1 would hear somebody
coming down the trail and look up. It
would invariably be somebody that Owl
didn't want to see.
After the person was gone, I would
say, "How did you know he was coming?"
Re would say, "You know it, 100! You
know it, tool But you're so goddamn busy
chattering and talking. Busy! Give yourself
a break."
He would say, "You know
everything."
faery time I would ask Owl weighty,
involved questions looking for profound
answers, he would just look at me and
shake his head.
He'd say, "You kMw I.he answer," and
I.hen "Goddamn it, you don't need no
teachers."
And it's true. That's the big lesson. The
minute we become leaders or followers, we
have lost our power.
Owl also taught me the imponant
principle that most things don't maucr, and
I don't have any place to go anyhow. When
1 somehow indicated that I had learned this,
he was delighted.
"You got it!" he said." That's
absolutely wonderful! lf I've never done
anything else in my life, this is the greatest
thing I have ever done!" /..;:.!Ill"
He was great.
p-
End of PART I
)
Drawings by Troy Scwa
Sprt.mJ, Hl92
C
�., ~
PROTECTING THE PARK AND THE BIOREGION
Nanni World News Service
Since itS dedication in 1940, the Great
Smoley Mountains National Parle has been the
crown jewel of the Southern Appalachian
ecosystem. The Park is protected as a de
facw wilderness throughou1 much of ilS
550,000 acres and is the keystone of the
natural habitat in the southern mountains. The
Parle occupies a cemral location in the region
and acts as a preserve for rcmnanlS of the
original old growth forest and many rare and
endemic species of plant and animal life. It is
a natural habitat large enough to accept
~introductions of wide-ranging mammals
like the red wolf and the ouer. It is a dispersal
poim from which species can migrate to
replenish the the three million acres of less
protected national forests that sWTOund its
borders. Eoologically, the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park is of great
importance as a stabilizing factor 10 the
natural life community of the Southern
Appalachian Mountains.
The Great Smokies Parle also stands as
the ecological standard by which we judge
the health of the rest of the forest. But
although the Park is pro1ec1ed on the ground
throughout most of its area, the Park
ecosy~tem is deteriorating from pervasive
polluuon that drops from the skies. Because
of the high altitude of 1he Park's highest
ridges, clouds carrying contaminants gather
a1 their creslS and drop their deadly burdens.
Thus, atm0spheric pollution that affects the
w~ole re~on tends to be concentrated at high
alntude s11es such as those in the Great
Smoky Mountains Na1ional Parle. The Park
acts as a barometer for the ecological health
of the region as a whole.
1:"10.w the Park is also sailing fonh as a
flagship in the defense of the regional
ecosystem. Under the provisions of the Clean
Air Act, most national parlcs and some of the
larger wilderness areas are defined as Class r
meaning that no significant deterioration of '
the air quality in those areas is 10 be
permiued. Yet continued indusaial
d~elopment constantly increases the already
senous pollution that is undem1ining the
ecological health of the Park and the
mountain forests.
Thus, in the fall of 1991 James M.
Ridenour, Direc1or of 1he National Park
Service ~S) of the federal Deparunem of
the lmenor issued a statement declaring that
proposed developments near the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park and the
Shenandoah National Park in Virginia would
have an adverse ecological impact and were
unacceptable under the tenns of the law.
ln Tennessee, Ridenour's s1mement
referred specifically to a proposed expansion
b%" me Eastman Chemicals Company in
Kmgspon that would include construction of
a new$ I00 million coal-fired boiler that
woul~ spew 1,542 tons of nirrogcn oxide per
year mto the atmosphere.
Ni~gen oxide is a precursor of
atmosphenc 01.0ne. Resource specialis1s in
the Park have already identified 95 plant
species that show signs of damage from
~mne contamination, indicating that pollution
m the Park already is extensive.
NPS researchers also point out that
since 1950 visibility in the Park has declined
40%, and the famous blue haze from which
the Great Smoley Mountains derived their
name has turned into a siclcly gray or a
poisonous-looking yellowish white pall
depending on the season.
'
Because of aonospheric contmination
"Soil and water resources are at serious risk "
wrote NPS Regional Director James Col~
in a letter 10 the State of Tennessee
expressing the Service's opposition to the
Eastman expansion project The NPS holds
that any debilitating influences within a circle
tha1 extends 120 miles around the Park in all
directions would adversely affect the air
quality of the protected area.
LICENSE TO DUMP
Nanni World News Service
. ~n E~vir?nroental Protection Agency
adm1mscranve Judge on February 12 struck
~own challenges.to the discharge permit
ISsued to Champion lmemational Co.
allowing them 10 put was1es from its Canton
papermaking plant in10 1he Pigeon River.
The primary objections came from the
Dead Pigeon River Council, an organization
of downstream residents. The group's ma.in
complaint is that dioxin produced in the plant
is affecting 1heir health and the health of the
environment below the mill. They are also
concerned about the color and odor of 1he
river\ "':'hich are evidence of the heavy waste
load It 1s forced to carry and are hurting the
economies of the towns below the Canton
plant
The five-year discharge pem1i1 has been
stalled in coun since 1989. Confident of
victory, the company has proceeded with a
$250 million modernization plan for the
antiquated paper mill, installing new,
non-chlorine bleaching lines and water
mwcrs for recycling water that may cu1 river
use by one-third. The company hopes 10
approach a 50-unit color limit that during the
~nnit c~ntt;?versy ~our years ago i1 &aid was
1mposs1ble 10 attain and would force
closure of the plant.
The Dead Pigeon River Council is
deciding whether 10 appeal the judge's rulmg.
ECOTAGE,
Nanni World.Newt Service
''
In what might be another case of
"ecotage" in Karuah, over $50,000 wonh of
damage was done to various pieces of
logging equipment in the Buck Creek and
Rich Mountain Areas of Macon County on
February 2, 1992. lnves1igators claim that the
incident is the worst recent example of
apparen1 ecotage directed at the timber
industry in western Nonh Carolina, stating
that virtually every piece of equipment on the
rwo sites was affected. The saboteurs
punctured truck and skidder tires, cut
elecaical wires on bulldozers, cut hydraulic
and air lines on other equipment, and placed
tacks on roads leading to the sites. According
to officials of Hennessee hardwood, one of
the timber companies hit, new skidder tires
will cost $1025 each, and the hydraulic lines
will cost from $60 to $400 apiece to replace.
Hilton C3bc. an independent logger whose
equipment was damaged, said he has no
insurance 10 repair or replace his equipment,
and Jack Hennessee, Jr. stated that the
deductible is so high on his insW'ance that
damage suffered by his equipment would not
be recovered.
No individual or group has come
forward to take responsibility for the action,
but the loggers are certain the sabotage was a
protest against logging in the national forcs1s.
"(lbe ecotage) is against the timber
industry," logging contractor Lloyd Cook,
also of Macon coun1y. told the Asheville
Citizen-Times. "They've started a war. 11
looks like we are going to have to defend
ourselves. They are not playing fair."
The Hennessee company plans to hire
security persoMel to guard their logging
sites. "They brought it to me," said
Hennessee to the Citizen-Times. "I didn't
take it to them."
Forest Service investigators and Macon
County law enforcement officers reported
that they bad found foot and tire prints at the
sites. On February 6 the Macon Coun1y
Chapter of the Western North Carolina
Alliance posted a $200 reward for
"infonnation leading to the arrest and
conviction" of the perpetrators. However, at
press ume no progress had been made in the
investigation.
CUB KILLERS ARRESTED
Naunl Wnrld N""'• Scr,,,cc
A mother bear and her three newborn
cubs were killed by poachers on January 3,
J992. Michael Lee Correll of Black
Moun1ain, NC was arrested and charged wi1h
the slaying. Another man and two women,
also from Black Mountain, were charged
with transponing a bear out of season.
The crimes are all misdemeanors and
carry a fine of at lea.,t $2,000 per offense
plus a restitution cos1 of $1,035 for 1hc bear.
The two men said that they were
raccoon hunting when their dogs roused the
mother bear. Apparently the mother bear was
denning on the ground and was awakened
and frigh1ened by the hun1er~. She died, nm
only a vicLim of poachers, bur also of a lack
of mature den rrees in which she could hide
during her winter dormancy.
Spr1.t19, 19!12
�RADIOACTIVE SURPRISE
Narunl World News Service
A congressional hearing held before
Rep. George Miller's Interior Committee
heard evidence that barrels of hazardous
materials sent from Oak Ridge Tennessee
came with a free surprise in every barrel radioactive waste!
The hearing was caJled after journalist
Peter Schenkel of the Stare-Times Moming
Advocate in Baton Rouge, LA collected
irrefutable evidence that the Martin Marietta
Company, contractor 10 the Department of
Energy (DOE) at the Oak Ridge, TN nuclear
weapons complex, had been mismanaging
radioactive waste. Since 1980 the company
has sent about 10,000 tons of hazardous
wastes containing small amounts of
radioactive materials to 16 commercial
incinerators not licensed to handle such
substances.
The company knew it was violating
regulations. All references to uranium were
whited out from shipping orders. Clyde
Hopkins, the president of Martin Marietta,
told the congressional committee that the
documents were altered for "national security
reasons."
Leo Duffy, specialist in waste handling
for the DOE, disavowed any DOE
responsibility, saying that if Martin Marieua
thought that changing documents was a
proper interpretation of DOE regulations, the
company was very wrong.
Martin Marieua's actions were not only
inappropriate, but also clearly illegal, in
violation of Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Environmental Protection Agency, and state
regulations. However, no criminal
investigations have yet been begun in the
case.
Ralph Hutchison, of the Oak Ridge
Environmental and Peace Alliance (OREPA),
said, "What happened was that Martin
Marietta unilaterally decided that there was
not enough radiation in the wastes to worry
about Although the toxic substances
contained more radiation than they were
allowed 10 bum in their own incinerator, they
still sent the shipments on to other private
facilities. The company in effect established
its own private BRC (below regulatory
concern) levels."
Journalist Schenkel was investigating
Rollins Environmental Services, a large
hazardous waste processing facility in Baton
Rouge, in January of 1991 when he
discovered documents indicating that they
may have received waste materials from
Martin Marietta Energy Systems that were
contaminated with radioactivity. As Schenkel
probed deeper, he began to run into the kind
of roadblocks that suggested that he was onto
a story that was bigger than he had expected.
llis persistence uncovered the Martin Marietta
activities. Fearing a scandal, the company
stopped all off-site shipments of hazardous
wastes during the summer of 1991.
Shenckel is not content that the full
implications Martin Marietta's actions have
been revealed. He was quoted in the OREPA
newsletter as saying, "I am not convinced by
any degree that they know the full extent of
radioactive material released."
Sprlf\9, 1992
He said that papers recently procured
from Oak Ridge give chemical analyses of the
shipments. They show the presence of
cobalt, strontium. and yttruim, which can
occur naturally but often arc radioactive
isotopes. The chemical analyses give no clue
as to their isotopic form. When Schenkel
asked, "Were any of these radioactive
isotopes?", company representatives admitted
that they did not know and no longer had any
way of finding out.
What is clear is the nature of Martin
Marietta management. Ralph Hutchison says,
"Martin Marietta took over (as the major
contractor in Oak Ridge) in 1983 after Union
Carbide was caught with mercury on their
hands, and Martin Marietta has supposedly
been doing everything right. Now in the last
month we find out that they have been doing
the same old stuff."
"A PATTERN OF ABUSE"
Natural World l',cws Savsu
The firing of Karin Heiman (see Karuah
Jour110l #31) as a US Forest Service botanist
was not an random incidence of arbitrary
authority. Repression against employees who
arrive at conclusions contrary to agency
policy has been a common occurrence in the
Forest Service.
This was uncovered in hearings held by
the Howse of Representatives Civil Service
subcommiuee, chaired by Rep. Gerry
Sikorski (0-MN). The comnunee found that
the Forest Service offered harsh punishment
to whistleblowers, even when they were
pointing out illegalities in Forest Service
activities.
At the close of the hearings on January
23. Rep. Sikorski said, "This needs to 1,c
investigated by the Depanment of Justice.
There is a pattern of abuse. There is a pattern
of ignorance. There is a pattern of delay and
retaliation."
NATURAL WORLD NEWS BRIEFS
NO RADIA TION...THIS TIME
The truck was wheeling down I-26 on
February 27 when just outside of Asheville,
NC flame spouted out from one of the
wheels. A Buncombe County sheriffs
deputy pulled the truck over and Sgt. N. K.
Goering of the State Highway Patrol
appeared on the scene. It was just another
breakdown.
"It appears that it was a just a truck that
broke down and this particular truck
happened to be carrying a radioactive
product."
What?! Yes, radioactive waste, going
from Northern State Power Co. in
Monticello, MN to the Barnwell Waste
Management Facility in Barnwell, SC.
"Until I obtained all my readings, I was
concerned," said Sgt. Goering. State troopers
carry geiger counters in their vehicles?
Apparently the possibility of a nculear
accident has become accepted as a
probability.
"You never know what kind of wreck
you might be called to," said Goering,
"because you never know who is going up
and down the highways."
Maybe this is something we need to
know.
The fire m the radioactive waste truck
was contained. No radiation was released. It
was just another day on the highway...this
time.
tnforma1ion from ,~ Asheville Ci1i1.cn-T1mca or
'1.mfn.
"Warh.tod WatcMrs" art o,-ganizing to monitor
move=nt of truck comY>ys carrying nuclear weapons
maJcriaJs on 1-40 and 1-26 /OWdl'd tht Trilknl
Submarine base in St. Mary's. GA. For in/ormolion
on becoming a Warhead Watcher, call Amy Mozingo
(704) 253-3854.
• To protect imperiled aquatic species
and their habitats, the NC Wildlife Resources
Commission has submitted a proposal to the
state Environmental Management
Commission asking that portions of 33
watersheds in IO of the state's river basins be
protected as High Quality Waters. Included
are portions of the New, the Watauga, the
Tuckasegee, the Linville. and the Little
Tennessee Rivers.
• The "Ballenger bill," proposed by
conservative Rep. Cass Ballenger, a
Republican from North Carolina's 10th
District, has passed the House and awaits
action by the Senate. The bill would protect
the Lost Cove and Harper Creek areas in the
Posgah National Forest.
Sen. Terry Sanford (D-NC) has
introduced a companion bill in support of
Ballcnger's legislation.
• Charles Taylor is the best friend the
local timber industry has in Washingt0n. It's
true - he said so himself before a meeting of
the Multiple Use Council, a timber lobbying
group.
• A Superior Coun judge in Wake
County ruled that the town of Highlands
needs no environmental impact statement 10
build a sewage treatment plant that would
dwnp 500,000 gallons of treated sewage a
day in the Cullasnja River. The citizens group
Save Our Rivers immediately appealed the
judge's ruling and asked for a restraining
order 10 stop work on the project until the
appeal is heard
• Ten otters were reintroduced into
streams arounci the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park last February. Six were
released into Cataloochec Creek and two
more pairs were released into Hazel Creek
and the Little River. Three of the Otters
released in Cataloochee were pregnant
females expected to bear young this spring.
NII/IJroJ World N~ws I, rdilrd •,
e-m Crundit,:rr.
�WHOSE RULES?
The Drinking Water Protection Controversy in North Carolina
"ll's the biggest cave-in in the history
of the Environmental Management
Commission. lt's remarkable that big money
overpowered science and public suppon."
This was the conclusion of Bill
Holman, environmental lobbyist in the Nonh
Carolina state legisl.nrure, about the change in
the watershed protection rules proposed by
the state's Environmental Management
joined the campaign after it got going, but the
finances and the strategy came largely from
big urban developers in the three metropolitan
areas.
The development consortium had paid
little attention to the 1990 public hearings. In
1991 they turned up the heat. They called up
association. Carla DuPuy was formerly a
eouniy commissioner in Mecklenburg
County.
Barnes is from Wilson, NC and Brady
is a lawyer from Lenoir.
. . ~Wc~s~ ~~~-~:f~~i~~f~:~
, . 'liearings on regulations adopted in 1990.
The original regulations, created in
1990 under a mandate from the Water Supply
Watershed Protection Act passed by the state
legisl:uure in 1989, were designed to protect
sources of pure drinking water for towns and
cnies across the stale. They basically set up
two areas around a lake or an intake point
from a river from which drinking water was
drawn: a critical area, one mile around the
water supply point, and a protected area, five
miles around the water supply point.
Watershed iypcs were graded according to
the amount and iype of development that
would be allowed within the critical areas.
A WS-1 watershed was the highest
grade. in which the entire area was essentially
publicly owned and development was not
allowed. Residential developmenr was limited
from one house per every two acres in a
WS-Il area 10 one house per acre in a
watershed graded WS-IV.
Industrial and large commercial
development, like large shopping malls, were
prohibited in the critical areas or WS-Il and
WS-ITI watersheds, which were designated
as primarily residential or agricultural areas.
These restrictions raised the ire of
well-monied and powerful developers. ln the
words of the Charlotre News and Observer,
''The developers realii.ed that the standards
the commission approved in 1990 were real
con1rols. They actually would protect the
water permanently - and thus could threaten
the making of forrunes of the quicker, dirtier
son."
The developers argued thru the EMC
had substantially changed the rules since the
public hearing, and therefore the commission
should hold more hearings.
Leadcrniip for the eonsonium came
from a development project in Durham called
Treybum. The two developers of that project
are Clay Hamner and Terry Sanford. Jr..
Also involved were the North Carolina
Homebuilders Associntion; Duke Power's
Crescent Land and Timber Company; John
Crosland, an intluential homebuilder in
Chnrloue; the Cornwallis Development
Company, which is a subsidiary of Coon
Mills textile company; the backers of an0ther
project called Watt Creek Park, an industrial
development in the City of Burlington's
watershed; and prominent developers in
Guilford County.
Most of the energy for this effort came
from the Piedmont. Some of the smaller
developers in the mountains, and some of the
agricultural interests - like the Fann Bureau :KatilM Journm pO<Jf 26
connections, pulled strings, and contacted
local builders and real estate companies
across the state to pack the local hearings. As
a result the hearings were divided · often
bincrly (sec Koruah Journal #32). Because of
the public interest, the EMC extended the
comment period. They received 2,652 leuers,
the most comment the commission had seen
on any issue except hazardous waste. Ninety
percent of the tellers were in favor of
retaining the stricter watershed conirols.
But apparently hearing rooms are not
where government policy is formed. The
developers pulled strings W1Lh the EMC and
organized a campaign to frighten local
officials about watershed regulation. lf the
watershed protection regulations were kept in
place, they maintained, economic
development in the Stale of North Carolina
would cease entirely. The members of 1he
EMC wilted under the heal. They repudiated
1he1r fonner conclusions and offeted up a
watered-down version of their own
proposals.
Of a panel of six hearing officers, four
supported weakening the rules. and two were
opposed. The four supporters were Virgil
McBnde, Doug Boykin, Robert Griffith,
Carla DuPuy, while Cllnrlic Brady and
Michael Barnes opposed the changes.
Boykin and Griffith are developers
themselves. Virgil McBride was fom1crly a
lobbyist. Although he never lobbied for
development intercsis directly, he worked for
industries closely connecting to development
and construction, primarily the trucking
Orawu,g by Midu,el Thompson
In the end, by a vo1e of 11-5 the EMC
cul the size of the critical area in half, from
one mile to one-half mile in radius. The new
rules doubled the amount of residential
development allowed in WS-JI and WS-UJ
areas, to one house per acre in WS-n areas
and one house per one-half acre in WS-m
areas. Under the new regulations industrial
development and shopping malls are allowed
in the WS-ll and WS-lll areas (only landfills
are prohibited), if they do not discharge
wastes directly into the streams and lakes
from which people will be obtaining their
drinking water. In a WS-IV area industrial
discharge is allowed directly into the scream.
The new, weakened regulations do not
go mto effect until 1994, so developers have
two years to begin projects that would not
come under the junsdiction of any watershed
protection rules.
Bill Holman's assessment is that, ''The
hearings were only for show. Big money
working behind the scenes gulled the rules."
Whereas the earlier watershed
protection regulations were drafted with
assistance from environmentalists, business
people, local governments, and scientists,
'"There was no technical basis in the hearing
record for the changes that were made.
There's nothing in the hearing record that
said it was alright to double tl1e density of
development in protected watersheds. There_
was n01hing in the hearing records that said u
was alright to have indusoial developmenL
The changes were totally political. h was
government behind the scenes," Holman
Sprl.nq, 1992
said.
�Observations by commission mem~r
Barnes seem to verify Holman's conclus10n.
"I never saw any facts and figures 10 change
what we passed in 1990 10 what we have
here today," Barnes Lold the Asheville
Citizen-Times.
Holman said that conservation groups
are going to appeal the EMC vote on the
watershed protection regulations and that they
are going back to the State legislature to ~sk
for more specific drinking water protecnons
10 be enacted inLo law.
The threat to people's health and
well-being resulting from inadequate
protection of drinking water supplies is real
indeed. However, the drinking water
controversy also brings to light broad
questions about how decisions are made in
Nonh Carolina.
The Environmental Management
Commission is the policy-making board for
the Deparunent of Environmental
Management (DEM), part of the Depanment
of Health, Environment. and Resources.
Many of the s1affo~the pEM have.scientific
credentials, but their acnons are gwded by the
EMC, which consists of lay people, chosen
for their influence and political orientations
more than their expertise. And chosen not by
the people of the state, but by !h~ go,vernor,
who appoints 13 of the comm1ss1on s 17
members, and by the lieutenant governo~ and
the speaker of the house, who each appoint
two.
The Environmental Management
Commission makes important decisions, as
the present controversy shows. These
appointed members of a government
commission have great power over sia~e
policy the future of the land, and the hves of
many people. Yet the~ 3:e insulated ~ro.m
informed scientific opinion and pubhc input.
rn effect they constitute a ruling elite,
ostensibly legal and aboveboard, duly
.
constituted by state law, yet more responsible
10 powerful special interest groups a_nd state
power brokers than to any democrauc
institutions or interest in the natural
environment.
The actions of commissions like the
EMC are shielded from public panicipation
and control, and are carried out largely
unnoticed except in cases such as the
drinking water proteetion controversy. The
public does not often get to see the degree of
power wielded by the members of _th:
Enviromental Management Comnuss10~ and
the others like them, much less to be pnvy to
the directives coming from the high officials
who appointed them. l~ their ~c~ons ~ere
more visible, the resulung pohc1es rrught be
quite different.
People need clean drinking water.
Aquatic habitats need protection from
development. And the power of "government
behind the scenes" must be broken.
- by David Wheeler
BIG IVY
The hiker moves quietly, in awe of the
great trees beneath which she walks: u_ntil she
is brought up short by a splash ofbnlban1
color on the forest floor. A small cluster of
the rare Gray's lily shine in the dim forest
light. A short way down the the trail her eye
is drawn by the bright yellow of broadleaf
coropsis, and, there! - t~e pale be~uty of~
bleeding heart plant. This clearly 1s a special
place. This is Big Ivy.
.
Located in the Black Mountains beneath
the much-visited Craggy Gardens, the Big
rvy area is less well-known but. in its own
way, equally as beautiful and scientifically
perhaps much greater in importance than the
popular scenic attraction above.
Big Ivy contains large areas of
old-growth forest and a long list of rare plant
and animal species. Thirty-two rare plants
(including 18 listed as "rare" in the State of
North Carolina and 14 species that are
"watch-listed" in the state) and eight rare
animal species inhabit the area.
The large patches of old-growth
forests, a disappearing habitnt in the Sou.thern
Appalachians, account in part for the vanety
of unique species in Big Ivy. But an unusual
geological formation has given to the area
soils that are "circumneutral," nearly neutral
in pH, compared to ~e aci<l;ic soils gene~ly
found in the mountains. This has resulted 10 a
number of plants and plant as~iati~>ns n?t
found in other areas of the Katuah b1oregion.
Big Ivy is critical to the overall biodiversity
of the Southern Appalachians.
But all is not idyllic in Big Ivy. Because
of its diversity, the area has c_ome under
much scientific study, and sc1enus1s feel that
conditions in Big Ivy are declining largely
due to timber sates, which have caused loss
of endangered habitats and rare species as
well as fragmentation of the irreplaceable old
growth forest. The area is at a critical
Drawing by Mich11el Thomp,on
Spri.NJ, 1992
moment: there are healthy habitats and
populations yet in Big Ivy, but each
succeeding activity in the forest m~es new
inroads into already-threatened habitat areas
and further tips the balance toward
irrevocable destruction.
The big trees, however, offer an
irresistable lure co loggers and the US Forest
Service which concrols the area. In July of
1991 th~ Toecane Ranger District rel~ a
draft environmental assessment for a nmber
sale in Sugarhouse Cove. The assessment
designated approximately 2,3~ acres of
timber in the project area as ''swtable f~r
cutting." Mentioned in the plan altem~nves
was the construction of about four miles of
new road into a previously undisturbed area.
The response from area scientists and
environmentalists has been blunt and
passionate. Local biologists and botanists in
particular, have offered Lhe USFS the
benefits of their research and learned
opinions about how a logging ope~tion.
would affect the rich diversity of this unique
area.
Among them is Jim Patrenka, a
.
biologist at the University ofNonh Carolina
Asheville, who in a scoping letter.to the
USFS informed the agency that his research
indicates that every acre that is clearc~t in
Sugarhouse Cove will mean the derruse of
some 3 200 salamanders, including members
of rare ~d threatened species. This is a death
rate, according 10 Patrenka, that will ~ a
chronic depression of salamander populanons
in the area.
Biologists in other specialties share
Patrenka's concerns. In the past, accord!ng to
local activist Haywood Greer, planned umber
sales in the Big Ivy area hav~ caused. some
friction between Forest Service officials and
scientist.s working with the Nonh Carolina
Wildlife Resources Commission, who
objected to the damage that would be done by
the logging activities. Other i:e~hers have
found lhm p1m timber upc:niu~~~ in the area
have decimated local commumues of
sensitive plant species, such as goldenseal,
whose recovery has been very slow, if the
species is recovering at all.
Right now the proposed lo~ing in
Sugarhouse Cove is on hold.~n~ng further
studies of the plant commumn~,; 10 tJ:ie
planned sales units. These s1ud1es will be
carried out this spring. Hopefully they,
combined with the weight of scientific_
opinion, will dissuade the Forest Se~1ce .
from carrying out their plans to cut umber m
Sugarhouse Cove.
AnOLher action being considered by the
Forest Service is the construction of riding
trails through Big Ivy for the benefit ~fa
nearby commercial riding stable. While.some
people would be able to have pleasant rides
through the old growth f~st areas, they
would unwittingly be cau~m~ severe effects
10 the forest they were enJoying.
Big Ivy does not need 10 be logged or
suffer rides-for-pay 10 be of value. The area
is of greater value as it is: This val_ue can be
maintained by only one sunple acnon: to
leave it alone. Big Ivy is just too special to
end up being just another timber sale.
• by Emmm Grw1djgger ond David W~elcr
~
�Wblz Wisdom (01' the Two Uggeds
DRUMMING
DearKatuah,
I found your anicles on the past
history and possible future desirability of
human use of fire to influence Southern
Appalachian ecology t0 be most interesting,
and l believe that fire could be a valuable tool
for ecosystem management At pxescnt we
have 100 much early successional habitat in
Kauiah, and we should, for now, lay down
the tools (such as fire) that reverse
succession.
Organic matter is a critical element in
the regeneration of new forest soil. The soil
organic mauer harbors the life of the soil. It is
where microorganisms live, grabbing
nutrientS and cycling them back into plant
growth, instead of losing them to erosion or
leaching. Microorganism.~ also attack rock
particles, breaking them down 10 create new
soil.
Organic mauer also keeps I.he soil
cool and moist, protecting plants' fine root
hairs and giving I.hem a fertile medium in
which 10 grow, thus keeping up plant growth
and production.
Burning destroys organic mancr, and
we should be encouraging and conserving it
to nourish the next generation of I.he forest
There is also I.he possibility that the
greenhouse effect will result in massive fires.
We need to protect the forest against that as
well.
Since the arrival of the white man,
cool, moist habitatS have been greatly
decreased, and xeric, hot sites have been
greatly increased throughout the region as a
whole. There arc plenty of overgrazed slopes
near human habitations which would suppon
pines and oaks. If we want pines, let's plant
them on overgrazed hillsides. If we want
oaks, let them invade our pines.
Cool, moist, habitats are under auack
in Katuah, while hot, dry ones are all too
abundant Don't play with fire.
Sincerely,
Jesse Jones
Asheville.
Swannanoa River Watershed
Dear Ka11lal1 staff,
What I'd like 10 know is this: how
do you do it?! lime after time you people
keep coming up with inspiring themes and
relevant materials and then laying it all out in
visually inviting spreads which seem to get
beucr and better all the time?
David Wheeler's anicles in the recent
Fire issue, as is usual with his work, speaks
so clearly and comprehensively. Rob
Mes~ick's excellent organic artwork produce
depth and flow. I can't imagine the
tremendous amount of work, much I'm sure
donated, going into the production of each
Katuah! What a sense of pride it must be for
all involved when it finally slides together
and goes to print.
Being an "outsider" from over in the
Ohio ruvcr Bioregion, I find the journal none
the less relevant and immediluely meaningful.
At our Solstice gathering l passed the latest
issue around and many jotted down your
address, so expect to hear from Lhem soon.
(Raves on Rob's tunle on the back cover).
Hoping the coming seasons bring all
of you much peace and contentment,
inspirations and joy.
Sincerely,
Dave Ort
Phoc,, councsy or lhc Mounl.lDI Hcriiqc Center
Dear Editors,
l discovered Ka111ah Journal at
Mountain Crossings in Blairsville, GA last
summer. That well worn issue has been
re-read on many occasions - its time 10
subscribe!
While I currently don't reside in
Katuah, this summer I'll be moving closer 10 Cherokee County, GA. r wani to rap into
the Kauiah spirit and become aware of the
environmental issues and concerned people
of the area. The Appalachians have always
been like home for me, maybe because I
spent my childhood summers there.
Keep up the good work and positive
efforts.
Piss not into the water,
nor on any mother, child, or father.
Water is not the proper medium
to relieve repeated bladder tedium.
Piss off the walk, path, pavement, or road,
piss not on flowers, birds, or toads.
Piss near, never on, the plants and trees
where no one cares, hears, or secs.
To kill poison ivy or athletes feet
join Latinos: peace on cet.
Never piss in the same spot twice,
not anywhere that h's not nice,
nor within the sight of prigs or wardens.
Piss near borders, hedges, gardens.
Piss on national, state,
jurisdictionnl boundaries
on conventional and nuclear weapons
foundaries.
Follow wolf and coyote
10 the reaches of your domain.
Piss on dogturds and cowpies,
mountain and plain.
Piss not on the trail, campflIC,
bed, or nursery,
nor writing cursive, cursorial, or cursory.
Piss not on any creature, especially fishes,
nor hasty love, slow rage, good wishes.
Piss not on tools, machines,
electrical devices,
electric fences, antennae,
nor ho1wire splices,
not TV sets nor video games,
tho' temptation may be great.
Piss on prejudice, injustice, hate.
Piss on all oil spills and spillers.
Piss on dream-, plant-, or animal killers.
Piss on soil and compost heaps,
never on sailers, flyers, or creeps.
Piss on dirtied or painted stones
on sca1tered or unburied bones.
Put piss little by little where it belongs,
nor in sink, creek, spring, or ponds.
Give proper pisscrs privacy and honor.
Piss on llfe-pissers, messers, conners.
Piss on anyone caught on fire
with anything less than true desire.
Piss not intO Lhe wind nor in the water
but on the idea that it doesn't mauer.
- version read at Coifee House one night,
Fall,1990
by Erbin Crow.from his legacy
SPRJNG
Sincerely,
Nancy Moreland
Kasuah Peoples,
Another tender, angry, beautiful, and
compelling year of Kamalr Journal! This last
year's writings and illustrations were
exceptionally insuuctive and reverent. In
what other publication does lhis combination
of an, education, acnvism, and prayer exist?
1 love you very much,
Nancy Ligni12.
Old winter has retreated
10 the nonh, her snowy remnants
wasting into pools that feed
the swelling bulbs and heave
life fonh • all bursting cells
and swarming molecules.
· Caroline Rowe Marrens
�SAVING WILD SEEDS
by Lee Barnes
Individuals should sttive to collect,
preserve and increase their bioregions'
remaining wild and cultivated plant genetic
diversity. (See "Seed Saving to Preserve
Biodiversity," Ka11,ah Journal# 32). While
the best means of protecting a region's
genetic heritage is by preservation of large
areas of natural ecosystems, we can collect
seeds and cuttings of useful wild plants and
further increase these plants in our gardens
and backyards. The most valuable,
irreplaceable, and exportable resource of a
region arc copies (seeds, cuttings, etc.) of its
unique genetic heritage, the value of which
far exceeds any mineral or energy wealth
which could be exponed. Talce care not to
collect over a quarter of an individual plant's
seeds, leaving plenty for wild animals and
natural seed disaibution and renewal.
Wild-plant seed collection and
germination techniques vary greatly from
those commonly used with normally
cultivated fruit and vegetables. Our cultivated
varieties have long been genetically selected
and modified over historical times by
gardeners who selected for ease of harvest
and unifonn germination. It is preferable to
collect seeds of wild-plants which grow
within one degree of latitude (about 70 miles)
and from similar elevations to which they are
to be grown. This is to maximize the
favorable selection of locally adapted genetic
traits which will result in winter hardiness,
and other adaptations to local growing season
and regional micro-climate.
Wild seeds commonly mature and are
released over periods of several weeks.
These seeds are genetically programmed 10 be
released, remain donnant through winter, and
then germinate irregularly over long periods
of time. This trait serves as generic insurance
by preventing all seeds from sprouting at one
time and perhaps be lost to a major natural
catastrophe, such as major drought or fire.
The simplest seeds for the wild
seed-saver to collect and save a.re the "dry"
fruit seeds (nuts, dry legumes, sunflower,
cattail, grasses, etc.). These dry-fruits mature
and release relatively "clean'' seeds which can
be collected and stored with a minimum of
cleaning and processing. Most seeds need 10
be cleaned of any remaining fruit pans (chafl)
to reduce disease and insect damage during
storage and germination. Most "dfy" seeds
need to be dried to six 10 ten percent
moisture, then stored at low temperatures and
low humidities. Plant seeds which are usually
"dry-processed" include apple, pine, spruce,
fir, sumac, and grapes.
The most important factors affecting
seed life are humidity changes and storage
temperatures. Seeds for planting should be
stored in moisture-proof (also insect and
animal-proof) containers. Save only "sound"
and firm seeds and nuts. Some seed-savers
place a bay leaf in their storage containers to
repel bugs. (Anyone know of local herbs for
~is purpose?). Storage in wide-mouth glass
Jars with rubber gaskets is ideal. Preferably,
store these at low temperarures between
Drawing by Rob Messick
Spri.nq, 1992
40-32° F. - each 9° F. decrease in storage
temperature below 80° F. (to 32°) will
commonly double seed longevity.
Plants which produce "fleshy" fruits,
(such as persimmons, berries,
jack-in-the-pulpit, etc.) require additional
cleaning and processing. Aeshy fruits
encourage natural disaibution by being
"tasty" to animals and humans. These seeds
often require additional processing by being
passed through an animal's acidic gut, or by
natural fermentation by microbes to remove
the fleshy fruit tissues. Fleshy fruits
(especially members of the Solanaceae plant
family) can be processed by a honicultural
process called "fennentation," whereby
mashed-up fruits nre allowed to fennent to
destroy pathogens and chemicals that inhibit
germination. Then the seeds arc separated
from the pulp, washed, dried, then stored.
Another technique to separate small
seeds from their fruit is called "floatation."
Small fruits are "mashed" and soaked in
water for several days, so that
microorganisms can Stan 10 soften and digest
the fruit pulp. This partially digested fruit
pulp is then mixed with additional water and
processed by being agitated in a blender
using short "pulses" (or by rapid whipping
with a whisk). Healthy small seeds then settle
to the bottom where they can easily be
collected by pouring off the floating "pulp"
(some plants have seeds which normally float
- look for whole, uniformly shaped and
colored seeds). For better results, replace the
steel blender blades with a shon piece of tire
rubber so as to cause less damage to the
seeds. This technique is successful with
fruits of dogwood, strawberries, persimmon,
holly, juniper, magnolia, and sassafras.
Most wild seeds of temperate zone
crops require additional handling to duplicate
the natural conditions of cold winters. These
seeds require a cold, moist "stratification"
period to overcome genetic and
environmental blocks to germination.
Temperate wne plantS have biological means
of counting time ("internal clocks"), and
measuring day-length and "chilling"
temperatures. These seeds will not grow until
their internal clocks are satisfied with a
sufficient number of genetically detennined
hours of effective chilling (for example,
requiring a minimum number of hours
exposure - hundreds to possibly thousands of
hours of temperatures between 4S O and 3S 0 ).
Examples of plant seeds requiring moist
stratification include beech, walnut, many
oalcs, and filbens. It is especially imponam if
you collect wild nut trees to be sure to collect
seeds from areas which have similar numbers
of chilling-hours as the location where you
plan to grow them.
Another factor to consider when
choosing to grow plants from seeds is the
mnturation period of many long-lived
perennial plants (esp. fruit and nut trees).
Perennial trees and shrubs must grow
through a genetically influenced maturation
period before they begin to flower and bear
fruit (a son of transition from juvenile to
sexually mature, adult phase). These plants
are usually propagated by asexual means (not
involving seeds, but by cuttings or grafting).
Most of these plants produce seeds by
cross-pollination, and do not reproduce
"true-to-type" (the offspring are not
necessarily similar to their parent-plants)
from seeds, and may hove long maturation
periods. By asexually propagating fruiting
trees (cuttings, budding, etc.), one can select
superior plants (such as with larger fruit, or
tolerance to pests) and produce genetically
identical rooted planrs. These rooted cuttings
from marure trees will usually produce fruit
in just a few years, thus skipping the I ~20
years (or more!) before fruiting if grown
from seeds.
Seed longevity (defined as the average
period during which seeds can survive and
then grow) falls into three categories slum-lived (need to be sewn immediately or
within days/weeks of collection, and never
allowed to completely dry out); medium-lived
(months to S-10 + years); and /011g-lived
seeds (which may remain viable IS to 100
years, and arc able to survive until
environmental conditions are favorable for
germination.
Shon-lived varieties (spring-seeded
maples, serviceberry, paw paw, persimmon,
and sumac) - must not be allowed to totally
dry or they will die. Some seeds must be
sown immediately upon release from mature
fruits to prevent funher development of
growth-inhibiting chemicals which affect
their ability to grow. This group includes
Franklinia, trillium and many
difficult-to-germinate seeds.
Most medium-lived temperate wne
plant seeds (most K.aruah native plants)
require cold, moist stratification, whereby
seeds are stored in moist conditions (in moist
peat or sand) at 32-40° F. for two 10 three
months to overcome internal blocks to
(continued on p. 30)
Xatuah
Journot
P°'J& 29
�germination. Ao easy way to treat these
species is by mixing cleaned seeds with i:qual
pans of moist sphagnum moss or coarse sand
(in a medium that is moist, but not too wet squeeze out excess water!) in moisture
retaining conrainers (zip-lock bags work
well) stored at normal refrigerator
1emperarurcs (40-45° F). Many long-lived
seeds (thick-seeded legumes, water lilies,
morning glories) require physical thinning of
thick seed coats by microorganisms, or
hastened by partially filing, or nicking
partially through the impervious seed coats to
allow passage of gases and moisture to the
donnant embryo.
Saving wild seeds for home
germination is the first step in establishing
wild-food gardens in your back yard. (avoid
trying to transplant mature plants from the
"wild" - this is rarely successful due to
massive root-damage, and also saips the
natural habitats of productive wildlife foods
and new plants). Native agriculturists first
cultivated wild plants which natu:rally
established themselves from seeds and
discarded roots thrown onto their trash-heaps
(original "compost" piles!) and disturbed
areas (fire cleared areas, etc.). ff one can
provide the proper growing conditions, the
low-input culture of these planiS will allow
easier plant gathering without excessive
demands on the diminishing wild
populations.
Earing wild and "semi-wild/
semi-cultivated" plants in "season" will
provide one with fresh, nutritious foods and
a "reunion" with the cycles of nature.
Eat weU and give thanks for 1he tasty
gifts of our Green Spirits!
C.S. Schopmeyer. 1974. Suds of Woody
Plants in tM United States Fon:st Service, USDA
Agriculture Hnndboolc No. 450. USDA. 883 pp. •
TIIE reference for seed handling and gcrmin3tlon of
188 genera of woody plants ruuive or IUIIW'lll'faed in
the U.S. Very detailed with additional rcfcn:nccs.
fbrry Phillips. 198S. Growing and
Propagating Wild Flowers. U.N.C. Press, 331 pp.
$14.95 • especially well-written !llld beautifully
illustraled rcforencc on seed nnd spore p~tion or
native NC plants. Includes calendar of blooming d:ues
and commercial plant production timetable. &ccllentl
BURNING BUSHES
Azaleas, with mouths aflame,
Plant Propagation References
Ignite the mountainside each spring:
Hudson Hanmann and D. Kester. 197S. Plant
Propagation: Principles and Practicer. 3rd Ed.
Prwlic:c-Hall, 662 pp.• the defmilive text-book on
plant propagation l The-Ory and practlcal inro.
cry out In tongues no man can claim,
lheir ancient message siuling.
Michael Dirr and C. Heuser. 1987. Tiu!
Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation: From
Sud to Tisiue Culture. A Practical Working Guide to
the Propagation of Over I 100 Spt1cies, Varietit!f and
Cultivars. Varsity Press, 239 pp. - TIIE guide 10
propagatlon or woody plants used in Nonh America.
Includes prcfcmd l)l'Oll0gation ICChniques (seed,
cuttings, cu:.}, as well as. seed treatmc,us and specific
rooting percentages, etc.
Caroline Rowe Martens
ddu of the Big Cove dance
tpeak• of traditions and tinp tb.c
Booger Danu,
Com
Dance and • dotCJI 01hcrt with
drum and ranle.
c...,.n
WHERE TIIE
Get a set of 10 assorted
folding cards with
artwork you see in
Katuah Journal.
(Envelopes included.)
byRobW~ck
Send $11.25 postage paid
to:
Rob Messick
P.O. BOX 2(,()1
BOONE, NC 28607
RA YENS ROOST
~
Chcrolcce traditional
tonp of Wallcc:r Calhoun
__,._...,...,
CA.11111'1 ANO IOC*UT
It WAIL Sil
....,..
ATTil&c:e,ru$JO
MOI/NTAJN tlurrAGl ~
Wll'l'Ul< CAIIOUl'IA Utll\llllSITY
Cuu.ow11D, NC l87ll
(704)227-7129
Spring, 1992
�I•:.,,.
tt•· r ,.
9
Sustainable Agriculture and Regional Diet:
Annotated Resources
These l'CS0W'0CS were nx:ommendcd by KJlumh
ConlribulOl'S as their favorites. Price estimates are
included for reference and may not be currcnL Most
are in print or available from Inter-Library loans. A
more complete liSt ( 11 pps. w/ 117 resowces) is
available from Lee Barnes (P.O. Box 1303:
Waynesville, NC 28786) for S2.50 ppd. or send five
or more annOla!Cd resources for a liee copy. Ho!
Sustaioab(c Agrirollocc
Trauger M. Groh and S.S.H. McFadden. 1990.
Farms ofTomorrow: Communiry Supporttd Farms;
Farm Supported Communities. Biodynamic Farming
and Gardening Associalion. Inc. 169 pp. About
$12.00 - begins with several essays on the
philosophical underpinnings of CSA's (Community
Sponsored Agriculture), then describes 7 successful
farms, and concludes with practical info on slllrting
and managing a CSA. Valuable to both CSA
growers and sharers.
Jeavons et al.1983. The BacJcyard llomuttad
Mini-Farm. & Garden I.A)g Book. 10 Speed Press.
196 pp., 58.95 • gives economic data about intensive
gatdening income profits.
Eliot Coleman. 1989. The New Organic
Grower. Chelsea Green. 269 pp., $19.95. excellent
guide 10 beginning mlltket gardeners, stressing the
8-ycar crop rotnlion developed by Coleman,
including inlClScedcd green manure crops, etc.
Robert Rodale. 1971. The Basic BOQk of
Organic Gardening. Rodalc Press. 377 pp•• a classic
(and inexpensive) inlrO to organic gardening
principles and techniques. If you buy only one Rodale
Book, buy this one!
Sustaioabtc Piel t FQQd PcrsccvaOoo
Cherokee, 19th, and 20th Century recipes used by
sculcr; on Hazel Creek, in Ille Cire.u Smoky
Mounmins. Includes information on historical
cooking Lechniqucs uulizing mostly regionally
produced foods.
Jerry Conner. 1991. Eats From IM Peaks
Carolina Mountmn lleritage Cookvy. Ridgetop
Assoc. Pubt.. 111 pp.• $14.95 - modern adap!Otions
of trndilional recipes by n mastcr cheri Delicious!
Mary Ulmer. 1951. Cherolc4!t Coolclore.
Self-publ. 71 pp.· tradilional Cherokee recipes. Great
mush!
Stephen Facciola. 1990. Cornucopia: A Souru
Book ofEdible Plants. Kam pong Pub!. 677 pp.
$35.00 • i.ncrcdibte botanically arranged guide to
edible plnnts, the best of its kind! Describes over
3000 edible plants Md lheir commercial .sources.
Extensive review of cultivars of over 100 major food
planlS. LislS 52 pages of domestic. foreign and
commercial sowces for these plants. Exten~ive
Bibliography and appendices. Chcclc It out!
Lee Peterson. 1977. A Field Guide to Edible
Wild Plants of Easttrn and Ctntral North America.
330 pp. $9.95 · illustrated with plant grouped by
habitat where they can be found.
Paul Hlltnel and Mary Chiltoskey. 1975.
Cherout Plants and Their Use.s • a 400 Ytar 1/istory
. Self-publ.. 65 pp•• reference to 450 plants used by
the Cherokee, including botanical names and uses.
Noc illustrntcd.
Tom Brown, Jc. 1985. Tom Brown's Gui.de to
\Vild Edible and Medicinal Plan1s. Berk.Icy Books.
241 pp. S7 .95 • another in a series of spiritually
sensitive guides to co-surviving with wildness.
H.ighly recommended!
Stanley Schuler and E. Schuler. 1973.
Preserving the Fruits of tht Earth; How to 'Put Up'
Almost Evuy Food Grown in the United States in
Almost Everyway. Galahad Books.· 234 pp.·
general chapters on methods or food pre.wvation
(drying. smoking. brining, etc.) followed by a most
complete encyclopedia of foods and tl1eir common
preservation methods.
USDA. 1977. Canning, Freaing, Storing
Garden Product. USDA Agric. Info. Bull 410.86
pp. Free· Excerpt from 1977 Yearbook of
Agriculture. Gardening/or Food and Fun. Ovczview
or canning and drying techniques • This is
representative of nU/ll(l'()us free publications available
through your Agricultural Extensioa Service. Be sure
to chock out other tax-paid resoun:es available.
Bcginnnl Cookbooks t wna-PJ;int Eocai:1011
John Freeman. 1985. Survival Gardening and
Survival Gardening Coolcbook. John's Press, 102
pp., $10.95 ea. · excellent guides 10 sustaimtblc.
healthy food growing and pre~n. Thorough
coverage of human nulriti011:1.I needs and how to meet
these using foods from the garden.
DW1J1C Oliver. 1990. Cooking on /laze/ Creek:
Tlit Best of Southern Mountain Cooking.
Sclr-publishcd. 261 pp., $13.95 • ll'lldiLionaJ
Spri.tuJ, 1992
Deborah Lee. 1989. Exploring Nature's
Uncultiva~d Garden. Havelin Pub!. 195 pp. $14.50 •
extmotdinary guide to wild foraging which deals with
eastern and west.em philosophy and sensitivity to
plants. Very highly recommended!
Nccessruy Trading Company: Box 305; New
Olstlc, VA 24127. offers wide vllricty of organic
glltdcning supplies, naturnl pest controls, cover crop
~.etc.
Sandy Mush Herb Nursery; RL 2, Surreu
Cove Rd.: Leicester, NC 28748 (704) 683-2014 •
extensive Iisling of herb plants, unusual perennials,
CIC. (Cat. $4.00)
Edible Landscaping; Box Tl; Arion, VA
22920 • specializing in locally-adaptCd, pest-resistant
varieties of common and unusual fruits.
Qcenoizatioos t Nmslcuccs t blaeazioes
The Mountain GardtfU!r Ntwslt!Jtu from
Organic Gardening Cooperative; Rt. 3, Box 409-N:
Sylva, NC 28779 (ncw/monlhly). sponsors
monthly moctings (3rd Wed.ncsdoy, 7:00 pm) at
Jackson Co. Library (Sylva).
Appropriate Technology Tranefu to Rural
Areas. ATTRA 1991. ATTRA l-800-346-9140 -a
fedemlly-funded resource organization aimed at tnilarcd
information-search for assisling commercial and
production-level clients (their funding limits their
ability 10 help backyard, individual growers). Have
helpful Resource LiSIS. "Videol:/Slides/Tapcs oo
Sustainable Agriculuue• (18 pp). "Sustainable
Agriculture Organizations and Publication LiSt (24
pp.), etc •• Also produce lnformation Packages on
diverse info such as "Green Crops and Gtccn
Mllnurcs; "Direct Marteting." CIC. Excellent
resource! Writennd thnnlc your officials forconlinued
funding of this experienced, J'eSOW'Ceful, enlhuswtic,
and dedicated group.
The Virginia Association for Biological
Farming; Box '252; Flint Hlll, VA 22627 •
non-profit organizalion, co-ocdimucs organic
cenificalion, seminars, Flltm Held D3ys, and
farmer-to-farmer networking. S25.00 year.
Carolina Frum Stewardship Association; Box
511; PillSboro, NC 27312 -organic ccnification for
both Carolinas. Involved in LISA grnnts, on-farm
demos, and annual Farm F'ield Days.
The U.S. Dispen.flltory. (any editioo prior
1930.) • invaluable info on plants, their makeup and
how olficially used at the tum of the century (avail.
for SS0-100 from used boolc dealets).
Tennessee Alternative Growers Association;
Rt. 2, Box 46-A-1; Indian Mound, lN 37079
Bceioool Sctd aoa r1001 Spoo(i«:cs
Georgia Organic Growers Association: 1185
Bend Creek Trail; Suwanee, GA 30174
Southern Exposure Seed EJtchange; Box 158;
North Garden, VA 22959 (804-973-4703) •
specializes in heirloom varieties adapted to the
Central Virginia Mountains. Recently founded "Seed
Shares TM: The Gardener's Seed Bank", a project 10
distribute extremely rare plant Cultivars. Also sells
Seed Saving Supplies. (OIL $3)
~
R.H. Shumway; Box I; Gmniteville, SC
29829 (C:u. $1.00) • dependable, well established
(since 1870) seed house specializing in traditional
varieties. Also southern ad:lpted fruit and nut
variclies.
Kalmia Farms: Box 3881: Chnrlotlc.sville, VA
22903 • spccialiJ.CS in multiplier onions. shallolS and
garlic,
)C.Qtuafl Journot J)O()C 31
�Parld~ Gardens
(con:linocd Crom p. 4)
- The (re)integration of needs: not to lhe
market for food, the spa for exercise, the
doctor for healing, theatre for entertainment,
school for learning, studio 10 create, church
for inspiration, etc., but to lhe garden for all
these ar the same rime.
- Enriching the garden with useful and
beautiful species and learning to incocporate
them into our lives. We begin, of course,
with the present and potential natural
vege1ation, to which may be added species
introductions from similar areas worldwide;
then sUgh1 modifications of the environment micro-habitat enhancement - and lhe resultant
possibilities for new species: a paleue of
plants, a Cornucopia• never available 10
previous generations.
- Hand labor. We all have two hands,
one lifetime, 24 hours in every day. These
are "democratic" factors. Working by hand
on a small piece of land we can create a
Paradise with relevance for all. Money, and
machines can not get us there any faster, in
fact can't get us !here at all. They only lead us
astray.
•••
We live during a narrow window of
opponuoity. Having come, at lase, to lhe
realization that a revolutionary shift of
consciousness and lifestyle is required, we
find that we have only a few generations in
which to complete the changes, before it will
be too late to make a ttansition (environment
degraded, resources depleted, species cxtinc1,
soils eroded/polluted, population doubled ...).
Our enemy is a paper tiger because it
cannot deliver the goods. The world waits for
examples: to be shown, llOI told, a better
way. Paradise Gardening is vastly more
meaningful than the 'biodomc' experiment,
and anyone can play.
We have been putting thls off for too
many lifetimes now.
Commuaity Sp(IIISC)ttd Agriculture
(continued from p. 6)
Blowing In the Wind
Now we arc told that modem farm
inputs make unprecedented levels of
production possible. Without heavy spending
on inputs lhe world supposedly could not
suppon all its people. We have absurd
quantities of petroleum and natural gas going
into food production, leaving an eroded,
salty, toxic wasteland behind. We should
know beuer, no matter what our twin "big
brothers" of government and industry say.
The most basic rule is balance. We
want balance between opposite polarities,
heaven and canh, silica and Lime, grass and
clover, bee and canhworm, give and take.
This also means balance between people,
plants, animals, microbes, and minerals.
With balanced crops and livestock, rhythms
and activities build up momentum within the
fann organism. This rule implies that the
greater the diversi1y the greater the health and
stability of the farm. That is something to
think abouL
In the past five years hundreds of
CSA's have sprung into being across lhe
continenL It is an idea whose time has come.
It is catching on. A few bits of land here and
there arc being turned into healthy farms
again. Wealth made at the expense of the
countryside is seeking its return. In half a
century we may no longer see com to the
horizon in a toxic cloud.
On lhe one hand we face slavery and
ruin due to our own hypocrisy and moral
poverty - giving ourselves up to the good old
new world order. On the other hand more
and more people are taking responsibility for
their own Lives by way of home birthing,
home schooling, alternative medicine,
recycling, edible landscaping, and building
energy smart, non-toxic homes. CSA's are a
natural developmenL We have a choice.
geographically and emotionally. Instantly
we recognize in each other a shared
experience that is purely American. intense,
evocative, and yet of which very few
people can speak.
In !heir eyes I sec bitterness, guilt,
denial and nos1algia all at the same time.
Many of these ex-farmboys are very
successful by city stanclards. They have no
more tie to the land than a vague frustration
of being tom without emotional healing
from their roots. I have often thought that
the way we, as a society, raise farmers is a
very good way to raise the kind of farmer
who so thoroughly hates the land that he
would wish to wreak vengeance upon il for
not giving him the life he wanted or was
told 10 wanL At the very least these
fannboys are suffering from heavy psychic
wounds.
War is a good analogy for what we
have done to ourselves and our land.
Clcarcuts and plowed prairies are
devastated, barren places. Modem,
environmental warfare, which threatens the
fertility of the land, extends the acts of
aggression to furure generations.
Some of us have begun to sec the
Earlh as sncrcd ground. We realize that
whatever our occupation, farmer or not, we
are sustained by lhe fruits of the Earth. The
real challenge of Earth stewardship is not to
rcrum 10 some slavish peasantry, wiling
relentlessly upon the soil, but to sec the
way (The Tao) in which the rhythms of the
needs of man, can fit into the rhythms of
nature.
My vision of the future farmers of
America is men and women who are able to
combine the very best of themselves with
the cultivation of the Earth. r would like to
see farmers celebrate the fenility of the
land. I would like to sec the balance
between the needs of an individual and the
getting of nourishment. I would like to see
the plowing of a field done with grace, as
an act oflove, quietly waiting for the right
moment, then turning the earth gently,,., #
reverently.
fr
llqh lo\lCI is a biodynamic and CSA/ar~r
maruting in the Atlanta. GA ar~ At his/arm, Unu,n
Agricu/11ua/ Institute; Rt. 4, Box"63S: Blairsvilk,
GA 30512, llugh restarchn rtgtntrarive ogricult1Uc
and is tk\lC/oping local cu/ti vars of ltafy g r ~
(continued from p. 19)
"You see the beauty of my proposal is
Jr needn't wait on general revolution
I bid you ro a one-man revolution
The only revolution tlUJJ is coming"
(Robert Frost, "Build Soil")
• Corn11COf11a. S. Facciola. Kampong Pub.,
1870 Sunnse Dr., V1SU1, CA 92084. Astounding new
pubhQltion. Three lhousand edible species, many
more lhousnnds of culliva,s, sourocs of supply .ind
infonnation for c.ich entry
ltH /loll,s mttnds 10 product anothtr amclt
dtalmg mL>rt wtth local practice. /It is also
dn<tlopmg a ~,.sfe11u b) and/or fJ<fJOnJ, engaged ,n
t!M! rtaliuuu,n cf Parodi~ os a gartkn PltOJt stnd
,a-nts. and sugg6tions UJ him at 3020 Wht1t
Oai. Cruk Rd : Burn.rvtllt.NC 287/4
l'ho4o COUJ1eSy of Ille Mo11n1ain Hcn1.1sc Ccnll!r
:>i:A\hmh Journot JXUJe 32
Spnng, 1992
�o.
(continued from page 8)
I
J
!4'1 ,
•ft -,
.,.
just keep the meat out in the smokehouse. It
was nothing to kill two or three yearlings to
make the beef. My grandfather, he know'd
how to blister beef and hang it up. He'd bum
hickory wood to where it would just be
a-making the smoke. We would cure hog
meat and smoke that as well.
We'd cook a piece of that ham down,
and it would naturally-born have brown
gravy. Yeah! Not guessed at. I know by
experience.
We'd always make sure to have greens
in the spring, greens in the fall. In August,
when we was plowin' the com for the last
time, we sowed late greens in amongst the
com. We'd sow turnips and rutabagas
mostly.
As soon as everything was put up, we
started fall plowin'. We didn't have these fast
tractors that can plow everything in a day or
two, so we'd plow whenever we got the
chance. We tried to get as much done in the
fall as we could. And we plowed in the
winter, if we were able. I've plowed many a
day and it was snowing.
It was a lot of work, back then,
growing all our own food. But everybody
did it. If anyone wanted to go out and do that
now, I'd have only one thing to say ro them:
"Get busy!"
Halph Garrell is 71 years old, still
working as a mason, and still living in his
hometown · Sylva, NC in the Tuckasegee
Rivu watershed.
This article was excerpted from a
conversation with Ralph recorded by David
Wheeler and Avram Friedman on Jarwary 29,
/992.
Painting by Susan Adam
Kalmia Center, Inc.
Sylva, NC
(704) 293-3015
Custom tilling, organic fe:rtilli:ers, kelp meal,
colloidal phosphate & many more products
and services for abundant gardening and
healthful living.
f'~.~11<\
"I
told
the
Talking ua,-es isa mon1hly
JOUfDA) of d~ ecology, inspired
pm;onaJ aeriv1sm roo1ed Ill earthen
sp,nruali1y. Pa.'il tSSUeS have
fea1ured articles by Gary Snyder,
Slarbawk, Jobn s-i, Joanna
Macy, Bill Devall, Lone Wolf
Circle!>, Barbara Mor, ecc.
Ta/Jcj11g ua,-es ,peaks for the
oarural world and for the rekindling
of our oWD wild spmt.
Subscriptions arc SI 8.00 one
year/ S24.00 outSide U.S.
Talking UOl't'S
1430 Willamette 11367
Eugene, OR 97401
503/342-2974
,prl.n9, 1992
I.lo~. you "' 1n lfflc1 ul!ol9 me lo bllp UI
tlluncll II ptOpitOOWIIUlnldol\1Alld I'm ""' ff I OIi lullw lllem I woutan I
•Ill IO QIIN'CU!t II 111W datllls f«91' 11
TIii ll\S- IS IIO , - no!''
_.....,,..._'"'-
Don't Pay Taxes for War
,fc,tlT'I It
I\ 11'\d '"•
0
I! l
National War Tex Resistance
Coordinating Committee
REGIONAL RADIO
Featuring Crossroads music, NPR news and music
programs, regional news and information
concerning health, education, government,
recreation, and the environment.
PO Box 774 Monroe, ME 04951
WNCW- FM r.O. Box804 Spindale, NC 28160
12071525-7774
(704) 287-8000
�Si.las ~tcDowen -~n1inucd from p. II ,
,
husbandry supplemented by a woolen cloth
fac1ory. Are these the only iu:ms of new
indusuies our moumain section is capable
of?"
He went on 10 suggest one more. "I
have recently learned tha1 a man studied Fish
culture, constructed him a lhree-acre pond
near the city of Atlanta, Ga., and then from
Florida procured a can of eggs of the Scaly
Trout species." After hatching lhe eggs and
raising lhe fish to marwity, lhe man realized
an income of fifteen lhousand dollars in one
year.
Wanting to anempt a similar venlUie
with mountain trout, McDowell had a small
pond build amid a grove of oaks near his
home. ',Oeir feed will consist of lhe waste
from the kitchen and table, with all small
animals tha1 come my way, chopped up fine,
supplemented by a lazy ca1, in an emergency.
1bere is nOlhing but lhe lack of a pure srream
and vim to hinder any man having a mountain
fann, to do the same thing, and have fat trout
for breakfast every day lbe year lbrough."
McDowell lived long enough to see lhe
impact of extractive industries on the
mountain environment. When Western North
Carolina's first corundum mine opened near
McDowell's farm in 1871, he turned a
disaster into a blessing.
Thiny years before, a flood had swept
across the best portion of his farm, "a fertile
bonom field of about 50 acres." McDowell
described the damage, " I found !hat field, on
which I expected to make forty bushels of
com to the acre, to be a miniature Sahara of
white sand, and would no longer pay lhe
expense of resetting and keeping up the
fences." The field had remained in !his
condition until the coming of the corundum
mine, which was polluting the Cullasaja
River. "As the mine was worked by means of
a hose-pipe, a red stream of clay and water
came running down the mountain's side
defiling our beautiful river and Cb8$ing away
lhe fish."
•"
• ·,•
ft occurred to McDowell that he could
protect the river and reclaim his field at lhc
same time. ',Oanks to Sir Samuel Baker for
his suggestions in relation 10 redeeming some
of the African desens by silting chem with the
muddy watc.rs of the Nile. And I forthwilh
applied to Col Jenks, who controlled the
mine, for leave to run a ditch down the
mountain from lhc mine to my sands - a
distance of three-fourths of a mile. The next
thing I did, was to throw up a dike on the
river side off the bottom, 10 hold on lhe sands
the muddy waters until they are absorbed - a
thing not hard 10 do, as the sands swallow
them up very fast and 'thirst for more.' The
water of my ditch performs the carrying
service of ten dump cans, and does the thing
for nothing and we may add, loads itself.
This enterprise I view as my last act in life's
drama, and I feel ambitious to do the lbing
well, and make my bes! bow to my
fellow-farmers as the curtain drops."
Silas McDowell died in 1879. His life
work, promoting agricultural practices
appropriate to the region, endures. McDowell
brought curiosity, ingenuity, perseverance
and humor 10 the task, qualities that would
enhance any effons to renew mountain
agriculture as we approach the 21st century.
01992
Perry Eury and his wife, Laurel, are the
founders of Kalrrua Center, Inc.. an org011iwtion
devoted 10 Sfl!Will'dship of the land in •die,u;e to
God Kalmia Center is a ,wn-profit organiu11ion
ojferiflg sv.ices and produasfor abundant gardening
and healthful living.
Perry is completing a btx,i, entitled
Appalachian Arcadia: Mouniain Fnrms and the _~
ProvidcnceofN31Un:.
~
HAWK'S HOOPS
A unique experience in
Designing, Creating, and
Learning to Play
your own Earth Instruments.
SPfCIALIZING IN
• OE.t}HS
0.:1oqon.,t .,nd Round
• f.ATTLE5 Gouto .ind l!••h""'
• ftUTE5 I!,,..,, am, and s.,mooo
• t.AINHAKEIS c. 11,_1~ Sound l'l.lkm
ttJWflUv,,t
Rt l So• 2411
O.q,G•, NC 28fila
'7041 26:11401
Jenti1ah Journal Pt196 34
REVIEW:
"APPLE PIE IN YOUR FACE"
as American as you
a cassette by Robert Hoyl
To paraphrase Edward Abbey, "lf
you're going to fight for your country, you
have to take on the government."
Roben Hoyt remembers one moment
that had a profound effect on bis life. He was
leaving nonhem California after combatting
corporate power and FBI harrassment as pan
of the effon to save the old growth forest
during Redwood Summer, 1990. A friend
met during lhe action gave him a hug and
said, "Roben, you're a good American."
This insight crystalliz.ed in Roben's mind,
and when he arrived back home in Georgia
he wrote it down as a song:
"All you good Americans
read between the lines
Help your siblings everywhere
w open up closed minds
Stand up to those who are ro blame
For crimes commi11ed in our name,
All you good Americans
Things can't stay the same."
Roben Hoyt "grew up a child of the
military complex," moving from base to
base. Yet somewhere along the way he found
a vision of hope for a different kind of
"American." His vision includes act.ion for
peace, racial equality, and the environment; it
involves compassion for animals and his
fellow human beings. lt also involves outrage
that lhe dreamkillers have a comer on the
national vision. Roben has launched a
personal crusade to assign a new meaning to
the word "American."
Robcn's original, guitar-driven music
is about that struggle against the powers both internal and outside - that want to kill lhc
world and stifle the human spirit. His
newly-released cassette, as American as you,
is a musical treat. The acoustic folk sound
provided by Robcn, David Ormsby (bassist),
and friends is fast-moving and crisp.
Roben's unique singing voice is elecll'ic,
charged with intensity and truth. His lyrics,
too, are charged particles !hat do not abide a
stagnant complacency, and if one harbors
secre1 staShes of illusion, prejudice, or
selfishness, they can sting. Yet to those
whose hearts arc open to the world, the
songs of Roben Hoyt arc energizing nnd
enlightening.
. The S~uth has a new regional pocL
W1th his guuar, a paraplegic cat, and a lot to
say, Roben is staning to travel more beyond
his home city of Atlant3. Lisicn fOr him!
We1I be hearing more from Roben Hoyt.
-DW
'as American as you" is available on
cassette/or $JO postpaid from Folk-the-Boat,
8 ox 2355; Decatur, GA 3003 I
Spri-n9, 1992
�Emergency Appeal for
European Seed-Saving Groups
Political changes in Europe have not
only upset govemmems. but have threatened
the survival of over a dozen grassroot
seed-saving and rare animal pre~rvation
organizations. Nancy Arrowsmith, a
well-published seed-saving promoter ~ow
living in Austtia, repons that the resulung
chaos threatens the survival of numerous
non-governmental organizations (NGO's)
involved in seed-saving projects and the
potential loss of irreplaceable varieties of
vegetables, grains and rare animal breeds.
In her article, "Emergency Appeal For
European Seed-Saving Groups"(l 991,
Harvest Issue, Seed Savers Exchange), she
outlines the activities of over a dozen
organizations and provides contact addresses
to which donations may be sent. These
groups are solely responsible for the
preservation and dissemination of
open-pollinated, non-hybrid plants and rare
animal breeds.
For more information contact Nancy
Arrowsmith, clo Noah's Arie; Postfach 139: A-3500
KreMU/ Donau, Austria. (DonaJions should bt! by
checks made out in U.S. Currency).
For a photocopy of the article men1ioned, write
to Lu Barnes: P.O. Bo:;c 1303: Waynesville, NC.
28786.
"The arc.i's old~
and larg~t natural
foods grocery •
Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supplements
Wlieat, Salt & Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy Substitutes
Hair & Skill Care Products
Beer & Wine Making Supplies
200 W. King St, Boone, NC 28607
(70-1) 264-5220
Listening to the Military
"Save Our Rivers":
The Armed Forces Listening Project,
created by the Rural Southern Voice for
Peace based in the Celo Community,
Burnsville NC is looking for "a few good
men and women" to survey active-duty
soldiers at miJitary bases throughout the
world.
The Listening Project (see Kanlllh
Journal #24) is an open-ended survey
designed to involve both the listener and the
speaker in a joint vemure of discovery. The
Anned Forces Ustening Project is designed
to stimulate nationaJ discussion about
alternatives to violence, bridge ideological
boundaries, and stimulate discussion about
issues of personal responsibility and national
ethics.
Topics for this Listening Project will
vary depending somewhat on the location,
but will include: solving intemationaJ
conflicts without violence; solutions to racial,
religious, and ethnic strife, civilian-based
defense, and especially questions generated
by previous Armed Forces Listening
Projects.
The Arnled Forces Listening Project
was begun at the US Marine base Camp
LeJeune, where conscientious objectors
to the Persian Gulf war were being
court-manialed The Project subsequently
traveled to naval bases at Norfolk, VA and
St. Marys, GA. The Listeners found
that sailors displayed "a strong streak of
pragmatism." They were surprised that half
the sailors interviewed were in disagreement
with the Gulf War. HaJf the speakers also
voiced suppon for nonviolent solutions to
international conflict But as important as the
stanling answers that they heard, were the
effects on the interviewers of personal
contacts with military personnel. Volunteer
Lois Miller said, "The Listening Project was
a revelation to me. I had no idea that I would
encounter such depth of feeling from big,
tough Marines."
To take pan in future chapters of the
Armed Forces Listening Project, write: Rural
Southern Voice for Peace; 1898 Hannah
Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714 or call
{704) 675-5933.
The Cassette Tape
The Town of Highlands, NC_ h!IS
obtained a permit to dump half a million
gallons of wastewater per day int~ the scenic
Cullasaja River. Appeals, both neighborly
and legal, have so far proved futile.
This river has always been used for
recreation. Since ancient times it has been
used for the Cherokee Indian ritual of Going
to Water. Since 1837 local churches have
held baptisms in lhe river.
Local musicians have rallied and
produced a tape containing original songs by
Barbara Duncan and gospel runes sung by the
Foxfire Boys. Barbara sings "Save Our
Rivers," the group's theme song; "You Don't
Miss Your Water Til Your Well Runs Dry,"
written years ago but unfonunately still
timely; "Go Fishin'," "the only real love song
she has ever written," according 10 her
husband; and the beautiful ''Rainbow
Springs."
The Foxfire Boys were recorded live in
a concen in Clayton, GA. The churches of
Macon County, panicularly the Baptisis,
have united in the effon to protect the
Cullasaja.
The tape "Save Our Rivers" is available
for $10.00 postpaid from Save Our Rivers;
Box. 122; Franklin, NC 28734.
FUTONS ETC. ~~
... the new al temative
to the sleeper sofa
with over 4,000 years of
customer satisfaction built in.
~
,.
r/ 'Thu
~ S aru!JMush
Htrb Nur-se,y
WREATHS • POTPOURRI
NATIVE FLUTES
• HERBS • TOPIARY
Complete I ferb Catalog - $4
Describes more titan 800 plants from
Aloe to Yarraw
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
Plione for appointment to visit
(704) 683-2014
Sprin<J, 1992
Two styles made of cedar or walnut
woods in the traditional manner
WHOLE FOODS
VITAMINS
ORGANI C P RODUCE
160 Broadway
Hawk Littlejohn
Sourwood Farm
Asheville, North Carolina
Rt 1, Box 172-l
Open 7 Days a Week
Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm
Saturday 9 am - 6:30 pm
Sunday 12 pm - 5 pm
Prospect Hill, NC 27314
(919) 562-3073
)(.ati&an Joumm poge 35
�The Katuah Tapes
TURTLE ISLAND
BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS V
POPULATION EXPLOSION
"ln the next seven years the population
of Nonh Carolina will explode. Are you
ready?
'The August issue of MaIUTiry Market
Perspectives predicted Nonh Carolina will be
fifth in the nation as a retirement choice. This
is in addition to the regular population
movement from Florida to North Carolina.
"Seeking to escape from a nightmare of
pollution, high crime, water shonages, and
traffic congestion, these re-retirees are
heading north ..."
This is not a warning to county
commissioners and planners to have their
1.0ning ordinances in place. This is a call to
action for developers and real estate investors
from Green Watch, an environmental
newsleuer for the real estate indusuy.
(Environmental? Yes, "the financial
environment of real estate." as the paper's
masthead proclaims in green ink.)
Another word of environmental
wisdom from Green W01ch; "Remember,
they aren't making any more Nonh
Carolina."
- - life's nec1:Ssitiesfarlas - -
Tara Clayton, a long-time friend of the
Kat1wh Journal from Rougemont., NC, is
May 17-24
Camp Stewart, Kerrville,
near San Antonio, Texas
Every two years people gather from all
the bioregions of the Turtle lsland continent
10 communicate and celebrate the bioregional
movement at the Continental Bioregional
Congress. This year the event is being held in
south central Texas.
The focus of the 1992 Congress is on
Circles of Change. These are levels of work
ar the gathering and in people's home
bioregions:
- Mapping and Organizing
- Links of Communication
- The BioregionaJ Story
- Living at Home, and
- Ecosystem Conservation and
Restoration
There will also be time devoted to
sharing biorcgional cultures, men's and
women's gatherings, and young people's
activities.
Admission will be by preregistration
only and all registrations must be received
before May l. Registration is $225-300 for
adults, $100 per child aged 3- 11. All food
and lodging are included for the entire week
of the Congress. Checks should be made
paynble to "Realistic Living· TIBC V."
now recording the contents of each issue of
the journal on cassette Ulpes "for the purpose
of reaching elderly Native Americans in the
Veterans Administration Hospital in Durham
and for nursing homes as well."
Others who are interested in procuring
recorded versions of the Katuall Journal may
be able to purchase tapes from Tara.
Anyone who would like 10 send n
donation to help this idea along is encouraged
10 do so, as funding for the project is limited.
ConlOCt:
TaraClayr.on
Box461
Ballama, NC 27503
Mail to: Realistic Living; Box 140826;
Dallas, TX 75214.
FRENCH BROAD Fooo Co,oP
90 Bn.TMOR£ A ~
~ AsKEvu.LE
(704)255-7650
your community
grr,«ry•tou
....,.,....,...... 10,_.. ....,....... ,,..
....................
EARTH KIN
Programs to 81'1COU'oge
58lf and Earth oworeoess.
celetl<allon. kl~p and hope
O~<::?Jto
c\....., S c ~ s
l'\UI\"\..$
to""°'itlG- t.ool(.S
CA.~~s
~086~ 1804
~-\)~'l, M.c.
Q.871$-
• You1h Camp& • School Program,
• Fam,ly Camp& • Teacher Tnalning
• CommUOlly
Union Acres
Programs
• Camp Slal1 Tra,n,ng
• Ou1door Prog,.m Conl\Jllong
An Alternative
j
PO 800C 130C>
Gottinbl.fg. Teme~ 37738
61 S-43o-6203
NATURf\L MARKET
WHOLE FOODS • BI.Jl..K
FOODS • VITAMINES • HERBS
• FAT FREE FOODS• TAKE
OlJT FOODS • SNACKS • NO
SALT, NO CHOLESTEROL
265 2700
823 Blow,ng Rock Rd
Boone, NC 28607
Acrolgtfur Salt - Smoky Mountain living
with• focus on spiritlllll and
«ologiclll tlQ/ues
For more information:
Contact C. Grant at
Routt 1. &x 61/
Whittier, NC 28789
(704) 497-4964
whole earth
grocery
•
NATURAL
ALTERNATIVES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LIVING
-146 c J>.lrkway cr~ft center • suite 11
g;,tlinburg. tcnn~
37738
615-436-6967
�ECHOES OF AVERY • a cassellC recording or songs
writlen and performed by Avery Q>uniy, NC
elementary school Sllldcnts with artis1 in residence
Thad Beach. Historical songs with II regional
flavor, lyric reciiaLion and singing. Casscuc liner
includes lyrics. Send $4 .95 (includes posiage} io:
Thad Beach; RL 2, Box 422, Waynesville. NC
28786.
THE RJVER CANE RENDEZVOUS 1992 • is on
April 28th - May 3rd a1 Unicoi Staie Park an
Georgia featuring in-depth canhskills training,
tools & techniques for living in the natural world.
Over a dozen top.ranked instructors including Snow
Bear, Dany Wood, Doug Elliot, Tammy Beane,
Jim Riggs, John & Geri McPherson. Scott Jones,
Sieve Wa:us and Oierolcee elders Walker Calhoun,
Eva Bigwiteh and Eddie Bushyhead. $145.00
regisualion includes meals. For more info eontac1
Bob Slack c/o Unicoi SLalC Park; Helen, GA 30545
(404) 878-2201.
BEGINNING CHEROKEE LANGUAGE BOOK·
supplemenled with two casseues. Slll:Sses alphabet
& proper pronunciation. The first textbook wriuen
for use in IC8Cbing and learning the Cherokee
language. (346 pages) S39.95 plus $5.00 shipping.
Catalog also available with ca.~ . books. pipes,
dance slicks, drums, feathers, furs, buffalo products
and more. Craft supplies also available. (plcaso
specify). Send $2.00 to the Muskrat Trader; P.O.
Box 20033; Roanoke. VA 24018.
HIGHLANDER CENTER - is a community-based
educational organization whose purpose is to
provide space for people to learn from each other.
and to develop solutions to environmenlal
problems based on their values. experiences. and
aspirations. They also publish a quarterly
newsletier called Highlander Reports. For more info
contact Highlander Cerucr; 1959 Highlander Way:
New Mankel, 1N 37820 (615) 933-3443
PCEDMOm' BIOREGlONAL INSTITIJTE · For
those who Ii vc in the Piedmont area, there's a
biorcg.ional effon well undc.way. Join Us! We
would appreciate any dooalion or Lime or money to
help meet opcra1ing expenses. For a gif1 of $25.00
or morc, we will send you a copy oCJohn Lawson's
journal, A New Voyage to Carolina. Also come
find ou1abou1 the Lawson Project PBI; 412 W
Rosemary S1ree1; Chapel Hill, NC 27516;
Uwharria Province. (919) 942-2581.
EARN $200-$500 • wcclcly mailing travel brochures.
For informal.ion send a siampcd 3ddn:.sscd envelope
to: Galaxy Travel, lnc.; P.O. Box 13106; Silver
Springs, MD 20911.
I WV£ TH£ EARTH - a casseue recording of
environmental songs by the GrcaJ Smoky
Mo110U1ins JnsLi1u1c at Tremont in celebration of
the 20th anniversary of Eanh Day. Includes "SCAT
rap," "Tho Garbage Blues; and morc. S9.95 plus
$2.50 shipping for each tasSellC. Mail Otder plus
check to Grea1 Smoky Mountains N&1uml History
Associauon: 115 Park HcadqWlltCrs Rd.:
G11Llinburg, TN 37738.
NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONIALS Hnndcrafled Native American Ceremonial supplies,
include Drums. Cus1om Pipes. Medicine B3gs,
Swcctgnw, Sage, Feathers, Rawhide R:ur.Jes,
Tobaccos. Pipe Bags, Native AuteS, and more! For
free catalogue write: P.O. Box 1062-K Cherokee,
NC28719.
• Spf1,n9, J992
NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONIAL HERBS • we
offer a lllrge variety of sages, sweet gross, natural
resins, and evcsything necessary for smudging.
Native smoking mix1urcs, 0ute music, pow-wow
tapes, and ceremonial songs. EssentW oils. and
incenses specifically made for prayer, offering, and
meditation. For catalog call or write: Essencial
Dreams; Rt 3, Box 285; Eagle Fork; Hayesville,
NC 28904 (704) 389-9898.
SUMMER APPRENTICE WEEK JULY 3·9 Weekend opt.ion, July 3·5. Wtth Wise Woman
Tradition leacher Whitewolf. Workshops, weed
walks, harvesting medicinal hetbs, Moonlodge,
Women's Spiri1uali1y. Beautiful location one bouJ
from Asheville. Cornfonable dorm or tenting:
vegelari3n meals included. Sljding scale.
work-exchange avai.lable. Write: Wolf, P.O. Box
576; Asheville, NC 28802.
THE ALTERNATIVE READING ROOM· is an
unconvenlional library, free and open to lhe public.
Our collection interests include lhc envll'Ollllleni.
social and poliLical issues, lhe media and peace. We
have over 200 magazine suMCripLions. The book
and video collections also emphasize the
environmcot and political concems. Books and
VCR's can be checked OUI. A VCR player is
available for watehing films in lhc reading room.
Located 812 Wall St #114: Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 252-2501. Mon/Wed/Fri 6-Spm • Tues/Thur
1-8pm • Sat/Sun l-6pm
COHOUSING COMMUNITY BEING FORMED·
in lhe Asheville area Residenis organize, plan, and
design a cooperative community where individual
homes cluster around a common hoUS8 with shm.d
facilities- laundry, workshops, children's room,
dining room, cu:. Opponunitles for energy
efficient, ecologically sound land use. Inquiries
invited. Contact: John Senechal; P.O. Box 1176;
Weaverville, NC287&7 (704) 658-3740.
A VIDEO ABOUT LAND TRUSTS • has been
produced by lhe Land Trust Alliance to explain in
layman's tcnns what a land trust is. 2.7 million
acres of land have been saved by nonproli1 land
trust organizations in America, This video
documents this movement's successes. Cos1 is
S2l.00 for individuals and $14.SO for LTA
members (include $4.SO for J)OSl3gc). Contact: The
Land Trust Alliance; 900 17th SI. NW Suite 410:
Washington, DC 20006 (202) 785-1410.
HAWKWIND EARTH RENEWAL COOPERATIVE
- is o 77 acre wilderness reucot locatcd on Lookout
Mountain Parkway in norlhcm Alobama. Easy
access, safe family camping, year round weekend
programs fealUring Nalive American elders and
earth teachers from around lhc world. Strong
spiritual foundation with Earth Renewal emphasis,
membership discoun1 co-op. There is no charge for
Native American ceremonies; rescrvali.ons rcqu.irod
for all visits please. Childcare often available.
Wriie: P.O. Box I I; Valley Head, AL 35989 (205)
635-6304. For quancrly ncwslcuer 1111d program
updlucs send S10.00.
TURTLE ISLAND PRESERVE· Summer Youth
Camps nre a unique cnvironmcnlal education
experience_ Learn primitive living skills,
Appalachian Mountain living skills. ond Eanh
awareness.
• Boys Camp (ages 11-17) June 28 -July 11.
•GirlsCamp(ages 11- 17)July 12-July 18.
• Junior Youth Camp (ages 7-10) June 14 • 20.
For more info conlaCt: EuslllCC Conway; RL I.
Box 249-B; Deep Gap, NC 28618 (704) 265-2267.
LIFETIMES & AGES - a new release from Bob
Avery-Grubel full of new age vocal music
~ploring lhe mystery or life - lyrics included.
Available on casseuc for SI0.00 plus :SJ.00
shipping, and oo CD for S 15.00 plus $1 .00
shipping. Send to: Bob Avery Grubel; Rt. I, Box
735; Floyd, VA 24-091.
DAVID & CATifY BROWN • known by lheir
friends as Ahwi & Wohali arc looking 10 network
wilh people who live in lhe Katuah area and who
wan1 to form o community along tradilional
Cherokee lines as closely as possible. They are
both of Cherokee-Scots hcricage. They have lhree
home-schooled boys who would like some pen
)'31s. If you are inierestcd in ne1WOrking conlllCt:
Ahwi & WohaU Brown: 1915 Buckley Sireet;
Chattanooga. TN; Chickamaugan D1striel 37404.
• Webworking costs! T~re is now a charge ofS2.JO
(pre-paid) per entry of50 words or lus. Submit
entries for Issue #35 by May 15th 199210: Rob
Messick; Box 2(,(JJ; Boone.NC 28607. (704)
754-«>97.
Alternatives ...
The Diuctory of ln1tntio11al Conumu1111e., is lhe product or 1wo years of intensive rcscarcil, and is lhe mosl
comprehensive and accuraic dirccLOry a,ailable. II documcnis the vi~ion nnd the daily hfc of more than 350
communi1ies in Nol'lh America, and more than 50 on
other continenL~. Each community\ listing includes
name, address, phone, and a dcscnJ)tlon of lhe group.
Ex1CDs1vc cross-rclercnc mg and imkxmg makes the information =y 10 access for a wide vanc1y of users. Includes mnps, over 250 addiuonal Resource listings. and
40 rel3tcd a.rucles.
32!1 P3gcs
8-1/]:,.l l
Perfectbound
Ocwbcr 1990
ISBt,; Number:
0-9602714-1-4
$16.00
Adil S2.00 postage
& h3Jldling for first
book. S.50 for each
additional; 40%
discount on orders
of 10 or more.
Alpha Fann. Deadwood, OR
(503J964--5l02
...
�18
GIU".AT SMOKU:S PARK
·Gourmc1 Gnvin' in Ille Great Smolucs·
class will le:leh edible pl.int ID and preparation
Pre-register S30. For mfo on this and other field
courses, comact Smoky Mounlain Field School,
Un1v~1y of Tcmiesscc, Non-Credit Programs,
600
Henley St.. Suite IOS, Knoxville, TN 37902.
(800) 284-8885.
21
ASHEVILLE/CLEVELAND
National Day of Outtage Against
the US Forest Service. Let the forests live!!
Demonstrations wiU be held at 11 am al
Forest Service offices in Asheville, NC and
Cleveland, TN. For infonnation about the
Asheville action, call (704) 299-0860 or
(704) 586-3146. For information about the
Cleveland action, call (615) 524-4771.
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
Spring WildOowcr Pilgrimage. G u,ded
walks to the bcs1 wlldOowcr Siu:.s in the Parle.
lntcipretative prcscnllllions each evening. Conl3CL
23-25
evencs
SWANNANOA, NC
Annual Western North Carolina
Environmental Summit will be hosted by
Warren Wilson College and include
infonnation on current issues, workshops
and a legislative update. Pre-register:
contaet WNC Alliance; Box 18087;
Asheville, NC 28814. (704) 258-8737.
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
"Facing the Automobile Crisis" cransportation issues conference will
examine NC's ttansponation priorities and
feasible alternatives. Man:ia Lowe, senior
researcher with Worldwatch institute,
keynote speaker. Workshops, panels. Ar
Camp Rockmont. Pre-register: $75-125
includes meals and lodging. Contact WNC
Alliance (704) 258-8737 or (704)
689-5988.
4
28-5/3
MARCH
4
18
FULL MOON/ WORM MOON
21
SPRING EQUINOX
21
SWANNANOA,NC
Foll Moon Sweat Lodge beg.ins at
noon. Fat info about participaiing, and dau:.s of
GSMNP; Gatlinburg, TN 37738. (61S)
436-1262.
24-26
Oilier monthly full moon lodge ccn:monies, con1a0t
The Earth Cenlcr, 302 Old Fellowship Rd.,
Swannanoa, NC 28n8. (704) 298-3935.
27-29
BOONE, NC
African Drumming Workshop, presented
by Rhythm Alivcl at H1l11Dp Haven Rctrc3t Center.
Prc-rcgi5uauon rcqwred: drums available eo rent for
lbe woricshop with advllllCC notice. Coniac1 Akal
Der Shatonnc 01 (704) 264-1384. for info on Olher
dlUmming workshops and events, con111e1 Rhythm
Alive!; Box 3331; Asheville, NC 28802. (704)
255-8020.
KNOXVILLE, TN
River Rescue - cleaning up the
fLTSt 50 miles of the Tennessee River. Help
the Clean Water Project clean up the river!
For infonnation, call the Center for Global
Sustainability at (615) 524-4771.
9
18-29
VALLEY HEAD, AL
ASHEVILLF.., NC
Forestry Commission Forum w1U
Seventh generation Cherokee herbalist,
Medicine Bear (D. Walt Burchcu) will :Juw
knowledge abou1 lhc use or plants during a 1wo diay
workshop. Pre-rcgisier: $125. For info on lhlS and
n~~.ct WOllcshops, comact Hawkw,nd Eartb Renewal
Cooperative; Box 11; Valley Head, AL 35989.
inv11e di5cussion of forest use and wildlands
preservation. Co-Sl)OnSOl'Cd by Sierra Club and
other group~. Contact Nick Stcfanou at (704)
685-3881.
(20S) 635-6304.
Environmental and Earth Skills Famil)•
Gruhcring, with Hawk and Ayal HW1'1. Fire by
friction, uacl:ing and $Ulll<1ng, sptnt animal
journeys, plant and medicine walks, llinllulapping,
cordage nnd hide 13ruling. Adults: $80, chi~:
S70. Contac:1 Long Bl'OIICh Environmcnwl
Education Center: RL 2, Box 132; Lc1ces1cr, NC
28748. (704) 683-3662.
APRIL
3-5
SWANNANOA,NC
ApprcntJce cias:; with Morgan Eaglcbcar
will e.tpl~ IJlc proper use of herbs and other
'1calmg tools from the Native American
perspective. First clllS.~ in a four-pan series. For
info on Lhii and other classes, con1ae1 The Eanh
Ccnlet. Sec 3/21.
Xouiah JournaL p~ 38
'
10-12
17
LEICESTER, NC
HELEN, GA
''Rivercane Rendezvous" is
Eanhskills !raining, tools, and techniques
for living in the natural world. Instructors
include Snow Bear, Drury Wood, Doug
Elliott, Tammy Beane, Jim Riggs, and
Cherokee elders Walker Calhoun, Eva
Bigwitch and Eddie Bushyhead.
Pre-register: $145 includes meals. Contact
Bob Slack, Jr., Unicoi State Park, Helen,
GA 30545. (404) 878-2201.
MAY
1-3
TANASr RIDGE
Bchane (May Day) Gatbc:ring BJ
Morningstar Farm. May pole, song, dancing.
Celebrate High Spnng! For informntion and
uavcl directions, call (704) 586-3146.
1-3
ROAN MOUNTAJN, TN
34th Annual Roan Moun111m
WildOowcr Tours and Birdwalks. Con111e1 Ro:in
Moun111in Sl3le Park at (615) 7n-3303.
Fl;LL MOON /PTNK MOOS
Drawing by Rob Mel.Sick
Spr~»9. 1992
�··:KATUAH
2
WFSTF.RN NORTH CAROLINA
Clean SIJ'Callls Day will involve
coordinated clean.up in Buncombe, Madison,
Henderson and Transylvania counties. For info
and lrnShbags, contac1 Quality Forward. Soc 4/6.
MARSHALL, NC
Spoon Carving WOl'kshop is an
introduction 10 lmditional woodworking IOOls and
rcchniqoes, iaughl by Drew Langsner.
Pre-regis1cr: SISO includes meals and camping
(dormilory also available). For info on this and
other woodworking classes. conU1C1 Country
Workshops, 90 Mill Creek Road, Marshall, NC
28753. (704) 656-2280.
KONFUSION =·
Rob Messic\<.
coniact Great Smoky Mount:1ins lnslltulc at
Tremoni; Rt I, Box 700; Townsend, TN
37882.
(615) 448-6709.
JUNE
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Taoist Medilation for Beginners" will
include instruction, group mcdiuuion, and periods
or silence. Led by Linda Gooding Md Sllaron Reif.
Pre-register: S145 includes vegan meals Md
lodging. For info on this and other retreats, conLaC1
Southern Dhnrma Rctre31 Center. RL I, Box
34-H,: H01 Springs, NC 28743. (704)622-7112.
5.7
16
FULL MOON / FLOWER
MOON
2·3
9-10
VALLEY HEAD, AL
Earth Slcills workshop with Darry
Wood. "Wilh a knife. on axe, and a saw, I can
mnke a life in lhe woods.· R~l and
undcrsianding are what allow us lO live ligh1ly
on lhe land. Hawkwind Earth Renewal
Cooperative. See 3/28-29.
14-18 CHEROKEE NF
Sou!hPAW Spring Council. Join
the region's biocentric environmental
group to plan forest rescue and !he
Kan1ah evolutionary preserve. USFS
appeals, paving moratorium, Earth skills,
non-violence training for direct action,
and more. At Jennings Creek area. For
travel directions and info, caJI (615)
543-5107 or (704) 299-0860.
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
Spring Naturalis1 Wccl(cnd is a chance
lO lewn about the natural hisiory oflhc park
Crom local cxpertS. lnstruciors will include Dr.
Mike PellOn, Dr. Fred Alsop, and Dr. Ed
Clebsch. Pre-register: S75 includes meals Md
lodging. For info on lhis and other progrnms,
15-17
KERRSVILLE, TX
The Fifth Tunic Island Biorcgional
Congress. Bioregional people from across the
continent will gather 10 celebrate and sll':llCgi1.e
an ecoccnlric way of living. Pre-register:
$225-300 includes meals and lodging. ConlllCt:
Realistic Living; Box 140826; Dallns, TX
75214. (903) 583-8252.
17-21
The Black Mountain Festival.
Four days of great music with Goose
Creek Symphony, Norman and Nancy
Blake, Ada Korey, The Chicken Wire
Gang, Brooks Williams, songs and
stories for children wiLh Bob Rosentahl,
Ian Bruce from Scot.land, Steelorama
reggae, the Flying Mice, other
performers, and more dancers than ever
before! $65 for the duration. For more
info, call (704) 669-2456.
CHEROKEE, NC
Sieve Moon, shell engravings. and Joel
Queen, s10ne sculplUl'C and pouery, in a
two-person show at lhe Musewn of lhc Cherokee
Indian.
30
WAYNESVILLE, NC
Bead Weaving workshop: me peyote
stilCh for medicine or spirit bag weaving.
Pre-register. $30 plus materials. For info on this
and olhcr programs, conl3Ct Sl.il-Ligh1
Theosophical Retreat Center; RL I, Box 326;
Waynesville, NC 28786. (704) 452-456
/,
-
Spr~. 1992
-
'
Kaluah Province 28748
For more info: call Rob Messick a1 (704) 754-6097
PO Box 638 Leicester, NC
Regular Membership ........$10/yr.
Address
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
State
Zip
FULL MOON
20
SUMMER SOLSTICE
AMONG THE TREES
Katunh Rainbow Tribe Solstice
Gathering. Somewhere in lhe national forest brothas
and sisters will gather 10 create a magical village or
love and lighL Location Md exact dates 10 be
annoWlCed. For information wriie lO HO! Newsle11er,
Box 5455; Allania. GA 30307, or call Allanta
Rainbow Light Line, (404) 662-6112.
17(?)-21
Enclosed is $::----- to give
!his effort an extra boost
12-14
MASSANETT A SPGS., VA
6th Annual National Forest
Refonn Pow Wow will include group
discussions, workshops and field trips 10
view several forest management
techniques. Pre-register: $76-122 includes
meals and lodging or campsite. Contact
Forest Reform Network; 5934 Royal Lane
(Suite 223); Dallas, TX. 75230. (214)
368-1791.
3-10, 13-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26-27, 29-33
- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -
Ke°UA~OURNAL
Name
15
23-24
- -- -- - -- -- - - -- -- - --- - --- -- - --
City
JOHNSON CITY, TN
"Places and the Displaced" is drama
inspired by lhe quinccntcnninl of Columbus's
voyage, written and performed by The Road
Company. Box 5278, Johnson City, 1N 37603.
(615)926-7726.
22-25 BLACK MO UNTAIN, NC
BACK ISSUFS OFKATUAH JOURNALAVAILABLE
34
9-13
----
Back Issues;
Issue# __@ $2.50 = s.--Jssue # __@ $2.50 = $•--Issue# __@ $2.50 = s.--lssue # __@ $2.50 = $____
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $_ __
postage paid $_ __
Complete Set:
(3-10, 13-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26-32)
postage paid @ $50.00 = $_ __
Phone Number
XA~ JournaL page 39
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 34, Spring 1992
Description
An account of the resource
The thirty-fourth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on sustainable agriculture and regional diet. Authors and artists in this issue include: Joe Hollis, Hugh Lovel, Ralph Garrett, Peter Bane, Perry Eury, Allison C. Sutherland, Bear With Runs, Mark Schonbeck, John Ingress, Lee Barnes, Charlotte Homsher, Rob Messick, David Wheeler, Emmett Greendigger, Michael Thompson, James Rhea, Dawn Shiner, Troy Setzler, Erbin Crow, Caroline Rowe Martens, and Susan Adam. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Paradise Gardening by Joe Hollis.......3<br /><br />Community Sponsored Agriculture by Hugh Lovel.......5<br /><br />"If You Didn't Grow It..." by Ralph Garrett.......7<br /><br />Eating Close to Home by Peter Bane.......9<br /><br />Silas McDowell's Vision by Perry Eury.......11<br /><br />Poems by Allison C. Sutherland.......12<br /><br />Native Foods by Bear with Runs.......13<br /><br />Cover Crops by Mark Schonbeck.......15<br /><br />Plan for Tomorrow: Hemp by John Ingress.......17<br /><br />Katúah Cultivars by Lee Barnes.......18<br /><br />Blowing in the Wind by Charlotte Homsher.......19<br /><br />The Web of Life: A Katúah Almanac by Lee Barnes and Rob Messick.......20<br /><br />Good Medicine.......22<br /><br />Natural World News.......24<br /><br />"Whose Rules?" by David Wheeler.......26<br /><br />Big Ivy by Emmett Greendigger and David Wheeler.......27<br /><br />Drumming.......28<br /><br />Saving Wild Seeds by Lee Barnes.......29<br /><br />Resources.......31<br /><br />Review: "Apple Pie in Your Face".......34<br /><br />Webworking.......37<br /><br />Events.......38<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable agriculture--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachians (People)--Social life and customs--History
Community-supported agriculture--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cherokee Indians--Social life and customs--History
Cover crops--Appalachian Region, Southern
Permaculture--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Community
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Health
Katúah
Permaculture
Pigeon River
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness