1
50
28
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PDF Text
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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/3e9189ae1600329a1984e9503b662c4a.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
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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 5, Autumn 1984
Description
An account of the resource
The fifth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on topics such as Cherokee sculptor John Wilnoty, Celtic heritage, issues surrounding protecting wilderness areas, and ginseng's role in the mountains. Authors and artists in this issue include: Barbara Reimensnyder, Barbara Singer, John Wilnoty (Wilnota), Phillip Daughtry, Thomas Rain Crowe, Robert Zahner, Marnie Muller, Robbie Gordon, and Chuck Marsh. <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.
<p>Harvest.......1</p>
<p>Cherokee: The Old Days, The Old Ways.......3</p>
<p>The Work of John Wilnoty.......4<br /><br />Our Celtic Heritage.......6</p>
<p>The New Celt by Philip Daughtry.......7</p>
<p>"You Must Go Home Again" by Thomas Rain Crowe.......8</p>
<p>Wilderness, Appalachian Style Part III by Robert Zahner.......10<br /><br />Nuclear Waste in Our Mountains?.......13<br /><br />The Politics of Participation by Marnie Muller.......14<br /><br />Good Medicine "The Healing Darkness".......18<br /><br />Ginseng.......19<br /><br />Mountain Agriculture: a series by Chuck Marsh.......20<br /><br />Bioregionalism: Past, Present, Future by J. Linn Mackey.......22<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
Cherokee art
Cherokee Indians--History
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachians (People)--History
Radioactive waste disposal--Appalachian Region, Southern
American ginseng--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)
Agriculture
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Cherokees
European Immigration
Forest History
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Katúah
Permaculture
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Stories
Turtle Island
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/4d450fedff98db51d827ad2d6b6eb05e.pdf
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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 7, Spring 1985
Description
An account of the resource
The seventh issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on the culture of economics and work. This issue features an essay on economy by poet, novelist, and environmentalist Wendell Berry. Other authors and artists in this issue include: Donna Obrecht, Elizabeth Squire, Becky Wellborn, Sparrel Wood, Mark Friedrich, Rick Murray, Thomas Rain Crowe, Chip Smith, C. B. Squire, Robert Penn Warren, Barbara Reimensnyder, and Michael Hockaday. <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
1985
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Looking to the Future.......1<br /><br />Sustainable Economics.......1<br /><br />The Great Economy by Wendell Berry.......3<br /><br />Native Village Economy.......4<br /><br />Hot Springs.......5<br /><br />Worker-Ownership.......6<br /><br />Busy Needle.......7<br /><br />Working in the Web of Life.......8<br /><br />Spring Creek.......12<br /><br />Self-Help Credit Union.......13<br /><br />Responsible Investing.......15<br /><br />Madison County.......16<br /><br />Wild Turkey.......18<br /><br />Update: Forest Service Plan.......20<br /><br />Nuclear Waste Update.......22<br /><br />The Gift Economy.......23<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
Regional economics
Sustainable development--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cooperative societies--North Carolina, Western
Barter--Appalachian Region, Southern
Investments--Moral and ethical aspects
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 Definitions
Book Reviews
Children's Page
Economic Alternatives
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Glossaries
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hunting
Katúah
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Turtle Island
Villages
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/962957d2fbc58ba3d1a81a382fb3c3bc.pdf
cc384e642678c5ef0ae41167bc6ca93f
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 8, Summer 1985
Description
An account of the resource
The eighth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on the theme of celebration of life and community. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Dan Pittillo, Bill Oldham, Hilda Downer, Donna Obrecht, Barbara Reimensnyder, B.J. Bach, Jay Wentworth, Lowell Hayes, and Thomas Rain Crowe. <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
1985
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>Celebration: Way of Life.......1<br /><br />Katúah 18,000 Years Ago.......3<br /><br />Poetry by Hilda Downer.......6<br /><br />Cherokee Heritage Center.......7<br /><br />Farmers Ball.......9<br /><br />Celebrating Folk Arts in the Schools.......10<br /><br />The Simple Tools of Healing.......12<br /><br />Paintings by Lowell Hayes<br />Poetry by Jay Wentworth.......13<br /><br />Good Medicine: "Summer Solstice".......14<br /><br />Sacred Sites Project.......15<br /><br />Sun Cycle, Moon Cycle (Centerfold).......16<br /><br />Wild Turkey Part 2.......18<br /><br />Natural News Update.......20<br /><br />A Children's Page.......23<br /><br />Reviews: Minstral of the Appalachians<br /> Who Owns Appalachia?.......24<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
Cherokee art
Turkey Hunting--North Carolina, Western
Folklore and education--North Carolina, Western
Cherokee Indians--History
Appalachians (People)--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)
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Children's Page
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Health
Hunting
Katúah
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Sacred Sites
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/b43bdfc4e48d9084d720074c3f532000.pdf
f6e1b33862bc826e4229a0a73d43e38b
PDF Text
Text
~JOO
PubU6he.d Qu.o.JLt.eJtl.Jj
l.6.6ue. IX
Fall, 1985
�'--
CONTENTS
THE WALDEE FOREST .......................... I
THE TREES SPEAK. ... .......................... . 3
MIGRATING FOR~TS .. ......................... 4
"HOG KILLING SATURDAY" - A POEM ......... 6
HORSE LOGGING ................................ 7
THE NUCLEAR SUPPOSITORY:
WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT! .... .. ....... 8
GOOD 'MEDICINE .............................. . 10
STARTING A TREE CROP ............ . ......... II
NATUBAL WORLD NEWS ....................... 12
URB.AN TREES .................................. 15
ACORN BREAD ................................ . 19
MYTHnID .................................... 20
THE CHILDREN'S PAGE ...................... .. 27
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�!Jf;,, laid- his hand 'f"lt tk tr~: ~ ~ Jzad, Ju
'7un so s~ and ~ ~;f & _fut mu:l -/Jzxmreya;vqU
.1~ and tiz£ ~!fit;
n4iilzv a:s
_fa~ nor a:J" ~; it wa:s ik
~lrb_f &
liP1::f -kw ii-45-
A WALK IN THE
WALDEE FOREST
Near the top of Cowee Mountbir. in
Macon coun ty ju&t below the national
forest boundary, hes an 150 acre
tract of forested mountain slopes that
is a living testament to the life ~d
work of a pair of reJ11arkablc people .
oee Leather111c1n Smith ii' the fourth
generation of her family lo Jive on
the family homcsite. Her husbantl,
Walton, is a forester of 35 years '
rxrerience ~ith thP U. S . Forest
Ser~ice, anc !6 010re year6 a6 Q
private consultant . In tl.ejr 47 years
n1ana9in9 the property, they have
realized a vi&ion of what a fJroduclive, habitable, ecologically
l·t!althy section of the Appalachian
forest could look like.
There is " small SaW!!'i 11 on the
plo<"f ar.c ~od- ..orlting shops that can
turn tr<:cs ir.to saleable, finiEhec
wood products nght there on the land.
There are ale;o bec•hives, a trout 1>0nd,
< Email garden plot, and o greenhouse,
r.u t c.n l»<cursioro irto the Walcee
Forest is fitl:'t clllC !Otl'r•CSL d jovrney
1rot<• a livir.•J n.<eodel o: tlie prir.t·i ples
of all-aye, all-species forest manage~' nt: a n1.ir111qer1ent plan <ippropriate lo
tlat. l'articul<1r c·onditions oC the
;.ppalachum hatdwood (orPSl. The key
a• tt.i~ tt>chnique, accor<.inc; to Walton
~:r.ith , is an (!t(·hasis oi• st>lecti"e
I ir•l".rr hcorVN•t inc;:.
We waHea tllf" lano ~·itl> OPl• and
Wallor. one cl<1y , .ind he Sl•OkE' first
a~out the histor) of tlw place .
"['e<0 • c l;re,.t-src.ndratt>nts <"co~IC
I•.-:• ~ot•I. .. 1 CJ ! (•• <,ol<" . Tiwy \<<ci to«pp<dr.tE-cJ "l ll 1o t , SC.> lhC) tlirneo
:o sol'letl lr.y tl1<:y kr....,., olld tlidt ...~
f,1rni119 .
"\;l1H I lol1)' Ci.lit•(: t<:ll, thif. l.lnd
, .... s t.l'Vt it<l J..y v1r<,ir forest. Thf're
·n•tt poi, 1111 t t!'<'s ar.<.! otli111 ~.recies,
0
K.n{AH - page l
but largely it was a mature
chestnut trees, 3-6 feet in
gro.. ing closely and forming
so dense that nothing could
btand of
diameter,
a canopy
grow under
try one thing, and if it doesn't work,
I try something else. I've concluded
that what I want is a mixed, all-age
stand, meaning a diverse variety of
lt .
tree species o! all ages froa1
"Chestnut w4s not then considered
desirable as a timber tree, and these
people were farmers, so they had to
clear the land, and grub out the
stumps , because chestnut sprouts
profusely . To them, the forest of
great trees was seen only as a
detriment to their way of life.
"As they began to till the land,
they built stone terraces to make
snall areas of level land to raise
crops . They raised small patches of
corn, sorghum, and buckwheat; apples
on the slopes; and free-ranged cattle,
geese , h09s, and sheep for wool. It
wos a l1ard way of life.
seedlings to large, mature trees
growing t09ether .
"It will take tin.a to achieve
this, because l started out with an
even-aged stand, but now there is a
variety of trees here--poplar, maple,
hickory, oak, white pine, ash, walnut,
an uoderstory of doqwood--and I will
pick my select trees and thin around
them, sOllle from below and some from
above.
"What I hope to get 80 years from
now is trees of all ages, all species,
and all size classes and ll>OVe strictly
into selective, uneven-aged forest
management. This is the start of it.•
Walton led us up the road. It was
a hot day, but the woods were cool and
green--a pleasant place to be. We
stopped in a grove composed primarily
of tall, straight poplar trees.
"The poplars on this five acre
tract are 50-60 years old now. They
have been thinned fro111 below," Walton
explained. "We picked out our best
trees and took 5 cords per acre of the
rest. This freed up those high quality
trees so they could get ample soil
n.oisture and a certain a!':ount of sunli9ht to keep putting on n1aximur::
9rowth.
"We dicn't take out anythir.g we
didn 't need to. We leave theGt.> understory trees--these d09woods, thi~ red
ciaple--for 'nurse trees.' They "1<t~t.'
the poplars gro~. shed their lower
limbs, and ihoot straight for the sky.
Those bi c, t l"t:'l.'S have de-1 in•bc-c. them-
:..:--~
•1•0 like to show you this place
arod some of the things we're doing
t:f'rf' ." Wal ton set out up a srr.al 1
IO<Jgins ioocl ~i th a stride that denied
hi5 7~ yo~tt of age .
"MC..t>t ,,r my forest iG expriP1er·tal, • he raid ovet hi1> s!.ouloer . "I
(continued on p. 22)
Fsll
198~
�.( 2!2·,1.·.
·!1·
1
·,·
. ...
Il il#ll(lll 1\QP1114tmnt10....,_
.
EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE:
David Reed
Scott Bird
Ba r bara Rein•ensnydE r
Richard Ciccarelli
Chip Smith
Thomas Rain Crowe
Sarah Jane Thomas
J . Linn Mackey
Martha Tree
Michael Red Fox
David Wheeler
Marnie Muller
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Korey Goldsmith
Cindy Kiger
Joe Roberts
Weogo
Mark Yancey
EDITORIAL OFFICE THIS ISSUE:
Long Branch Environmental
Education Center
Leicester, NC
PRINTED BY:
CORRESPONDENCE TO:
Sylva Herald
Katiiah
Publishing Co.
llox 873
Cullowhee, NC
Sylva, NC
28783
TELEPHONE: (704) 252-9167
Special thanks to Tom Schulz, Larry Tucker,
and Sparrel Wood
~: Great poplar and chestnut trees photographed at
the turn of the century by the Whiting Lumber Co. to
impress their stockholders with the wealth of timber
available in the Appalachian forestlands. Fortunately,
the trees pictured here escaped the saws, and the two
poplars in the center may still be viewed in the Joyce
Kilmer Memorial Forest area in the Snowbird Mountains
of Graham County, NC .
,, ~
()
He.ite. .&t .the. 6ordhe.itn-mo6.t he..a..ir..U.and 06 .the.
Appa.la.clUan moun.ta.ln.6, .the. oldu.t mowi.tiLln Mnge.
on oWt con.t.&te.n.t, T!J.4.tle. l6lo.n.d, a 6ma.U but gMw~ .9-:-0"P ha6 be.g~n ~ ~e. on a 6en.t.e. 06 .llUpon6-<.b.U.Uy 60.ll .the. .(.1"pU.c.a..ti.on6 06 .tha..t 9e.09M.ph.i..c.a.t
and c.u.Uwutl. heJl.Uage.. Thi..6 6en.t.e. 06 .lle.6pon.6i.bil..lt.y
ce.n.te.lt6 on .the. concept 06 Uv..<.ng wlth.&t the. na.tu..llal.
11.c.a.l.e. a.nd balance. 06 un.lvvwa.l 6yi..te.m6 and l.a.w6.
We. be.g.&i by .&ivolWtg ~he. Che.itoke.e. name. "Ka.tii..o.h" 46
.the. old/ne.w name. 60.ll .thiA a.Ile.a 06 the. mo~ and
6O.ll .(,u j OU.llnttl 46 we..ll.
The. e.d-U.o!WJ.1. plt,(.oll.U:A.u 60.ll 146 a.11.e. .to coUe.et and
d.i66e.m.i.na.te. in6oltllla.tWn and e.ne.itgy whlc.h pe.Jt.ta.in6
"pecl6.<.ca.lty .to .thiA a11.e.a, and .to 604.teJt the. ai.ooJt.e.ne.66 .tha..t .the. l.a.nd .iA a Uv..<.ng be..&tg du e.itv.lng o 6 oWt
l.Dve. and .lle.6pe.et. U.ving bt .thiA manne.it .U. .the. onl.4j
Ull.Y .to e.Jtl>Wte .the 6146.ta..i.nabili..tll o ~ OU.ll b.io6phe.ite and
a l.a.6.t.&tg p(.!tce. 6011. oWt4e.lvu .<.n .<,u c.o~ e.vo!.Li.U.orwty plt.OCe.64.
We. "e.em .to have. JU>Ache.d .the. 61.t!Cll.Wft point o 6 a "dD
d..i..e." 6.i...ti.uz.t.i.n .<.n .ttW!l6 08 a coniln.u.e.d qu.o..Uty
6.tand41td. 06 U.6e. on .th.l6 plo.ne.t . It .U. .the. ai.Jn 06
.thiA joWtnttl to do .<.a. pcut.t .<.n .the. .lle.-.&ihabita.tion
and M.-cu.Uwt.iz..t<.an 06 the. Ka.tU.a.h plt.Ovince. 06 .the. Sou.the.itn Appa.la.clUan6. Th.l6 plt.OV.&tce. .u. .<.nd.i..c.a.te.d by U4
natWta.l bowtdaJt.i.e.6 : .the. Ne.w IU.ve.it vi..c.i..n.lty .to .the.
no.ll.th; .the. ~oothil.l.6 of, .the. piedmont a11.e.a .to .the.
eiu.t; Yol'lll Mowi.t.<Wt and .the. Ge.o11.g.itt hil.l6 to .the..
i.ou.th; and .the. Te.rute.t.He. IU.veJt ~·aUe.y .to the. we..&t .
O.ll
JRV0Clll':I0R
We are not a people who demand, or ask anything of the
Creators of Life, but instead, we give greetings and
thanksgiving that all the forces of Life are still at
work. We deeply understand our relationship to all living
things •• ••• Our roots are deep in the lands where we live.
We have a great love for our country, for our birthplace
is here . The soil is rich from the bones of thousands of
our generations . Each of us was created in these lands ,
and it is our duty to take great care of them, because
from these lands will spring the future generations of
the Ongwhehonwhe, We walk about with a great respect,
for the Earth is a very sacred place.
from: A Basic Call to consciousness:
'nle Hau de no sau nee Address
to the Western World
i<ArtAH - page 2.
Humbly , 46 i.a6-appo.<.nte.d 6.t~ with 6acJte.d .i.A6.tll.tlctlon6 46 "new na..tlvu •· .to p1t.O.te.et a.nd ~uMVe
.U6 64Clte.dne.66, we. advocate. a ce.n.teJte.d applt.Oal!h to
.the. conc.e.pt 06 de.ce.rWu:LU.za.t.ion a.hd hope. .to be.cog Cl
6uppo.ll.t 61J6tem 6011. .thoH acce.pt.ing the. c.h.a.Ue.nge 06
6cu..ta.Utab.u.lt1J and .the. C.lle.a.t.i.ort 06 luvurtort.q and bell.cu1ce. .&t a J:./Jt.a.1. 6 en.t. e., he.ite. .<.n .thiA plo.ce..
�I.t l4XU> 0nl.y a. ,()ho/Lt :ti.me. a.g 0' iu. .:the.
new .6 p!Llng le.a.vu we11.e. be.g,lnn.lng .:to
ma.Ile. .:theNe.lvu e.v.<.de.n.t iu. .:they cove11.ed .:the. h.tvt.dwood.6 a.nd .:the. .60 6.:teJL de.c.lduoUI> tlt.e.u down a.long .:the. bo.:t.:toml>
a.nd neM wa.teJL, .tha..:t my wl6e. a.nd I ma.de.
oWt wa.y up .:the. U.llpe.n.:t-Uke. .6pine. 06
.:the. 8.tueJl..i.dge. Pllllb.way .:toWMd OWL dutlna;t(.011 06 M.t.Mltche.U ( '8la.ck Mowr..:ta.ht '
iu. known .to .:the. tlt.a.cli.tlom:ii. CheJtoke.e.
people. 06 .:the. .1te.g.i.onl. We. we.Jte. on a
pi.tgJL.i.ma.ge. o6 ' .:tha.niu. g.i.v.i.ng ' - - - g o.i.ng
.:to .:th.i..6 .6a.CJte.d moun.ta..i.11 popula..:te.d by
.:the. .6 p.iJLULu:t.t. a.ncu.:toM o 6 .:the. Che.Jtoke.e.
.:the. ' Nunne.hu', .:to e.xcha.nge. 'tha.niu. '
and pJta.yeJL 6Oii. .:the. g.i.6t o 6 mo n.i.u .tha..:t
ha.d g.1ta.c.loU1>l.y be.en p11.ov.i.de.d .:to U4 .:to
do me.a.n.i.ng6ul. a.nd .i.mpolLta.nt wo.ltk .:toWMd
.:the. p11.o.:te.ctlon 06 I .6a.CJ!.e.d .6.i..:tU I he11.e.
.i.n .:thue. old mounta..i.n.6. To o66eJL the
mon.i.u up .:to thue. a.ncu.:tolt.6 iu. a. pledge. 06 OWL .6e.Jtv.i.ce. .:to .:th.i..6 'ca.U.6e. ' , .tha..:t
U be. done. .i.n .the. Jt.i.gh.:t wa.y a.nd .ln .the.
6p.(/vU 06 Wl4e.l6.l4hne.6.6 and he.a.Ung . To
o66e.Jt .the. gJte.en g.i.6.:t up .:to .the..6e., 'the.
wll.e. onu', .:tha.:t .:they be oWL 'gu.<.du'
a.long the. pa..th.6 06 .:the. woJtk wl.:th .:th.i..6
p!l.O j ec.:t wh.i.ch la.tj ahe.a.d • ..
A..6 we. dJtove. .:tfvtough the. ' ga.:te.wa.y' .:to
the. p.i.nna.cle. 06 the. mounta..i.n: "CJulggy
Galtde.M", a.:t a he..lgh.:t 06 oveJt 6,000 6.:t.
we began .:to not.lee. how the. we.a.:the.Jt--.:the.
tll.lnd.6, .the. 6.:totr.m1;, .:the. e.x.tlt.e.mu 06 he.a..:t
and cold, and .:the. .:th.i.nne.Jt a.Ui.-- wa..6
'we.a11.b1p away' (a.lmo.6.:t iu. .i..6 .:the. wlnd
we.Jte wa.te.Jt wa..6hb1g a.wa.y Mck, only .i.n
.:th.i..6 caoe.: /tock. .:that had .:ta.fle.n .:the 6oJtm
06 tlt.e.u) a.:t the ve.ge,t.a.:t.lon .:tha.:t cove.Jte.d .:the. .:topo o 6 thue. old hUl..6, Ufle
.:th.lnn.i.ng old ha.a. 8u-t along wl.:th .:the
e.v.i.de.nce 06 na.:tuJtal .1te.ge.ne.Jta.:t.i.on, the.Jte
we.1te .lnCJte.ao.i..ngl.y , iu. we. ma.de. oWt wa.y
.:towa.Jtd .:the. top 06 .the mounta..i.n, .6ma.l.l
a.Jte.iu. o 6 dea.d a.nd dy.i.ng tlt.eu .:tha.:t
4:tJt.ucfl U.6 a..6 be..lng unna..tuJta.l.ly 'bUgh.:te.d'. Smail 6.ta.nd.6 06 6-Ut. and pine-gJtOupe.d toge..:the.Jt and 4.ta.nd.lng out 1>.ta.Ji.k~
l.tj 611.orn .the 11.e.o.t-.i..n-fl.i..nd o 6 hea.l.:thy
g11.ee.n and .:twl.6.:te.d '6a.m.i.ly' --iu. .i..6 do.i.ng
1>ome gho1>.:tl.1J gne.y dance. 06 6ubm.l.66.i.on
.to .:the. e.te.me.n.U. The. whole. a.Ji.ea. l.oofl.i..ng
iu. .i..(.. U ha.d come down wl.:th a ma.l..i..c.loUI>
o 66-whUe ca.oe. o 6 .:the. 'me.Miu' --a d.i...6eiu.e. U.6ua.lf..iJ only acqu.i.11.e.d by the. tJOung
... "Sbtange.", 1 .thought .:to mtj6e.l6, ".:tha.:t
.:theoe mountai.n.6 • .60 old, would have
.ta.ke.n 0tl .:th.i..6 we.iu.e. 06 1Ch.ll.dJten If"
we. moved 6l.cwly up .:the. moun.ta..i.11 . . .
The clo1> <>A. .to .the .6Ull!l'llU we. 90.:t, .:the.
l.aJi.g <>A. and g11.e.ve..1t .thu e a.11.e.ao o6 dy-i.ng
eve.JtgJt.een.6 became. On bo.:th 6.<.du 06 .:the.
11.oa.d and -i.n eve.Jty d-Ut.e.c.t.i..on---So bl.e.a.fl
On Mount Mitchell, a few miles
north of Asheville, NC, Robert Bruck,
associate professor of plant pathology and forestry at NC State University, is investigating the devastation
of trees on high mountains in Katuah.
According to Dr. Bruck, the red
spruce and fir above 6,350 feet are
in a severe state of decline with most
trees 45-85 years old losing 90% of
their foliage. The trees are shedding
t~ir older needles and leav1ng only
a small clump of chlorotic new growth
on branch ends .
Bruck' s findings indicate that
the trees are being killed by pollutants. To confirm this suspicion,
core samples have been taken from the
dying trees with a bit and auger. The
borings have reveaied a 50% reduction
in tree ring growth since the early
1960's, yet rainfail data shows no
evidence of drought.
Aware that tree dieback has been
occurring for two decades in the nort h-
eastern U.S. and western Germany,
au ala:tllldd Dr. Bruc k and other s c ientis t s have visited aud studLtd these
f orests hopiug to find c lues as to
the c!Xaet c ause of tree diaba ck in
K
atUah.
M
ost data reveals that symp toms
of diebac k vary from region to r egion
depending on tree s pecies, soil t ype,
and climate. Rowaver Dr. Bruck has
f ound c orraspouding s ymptoms exiat
betweeu "lilaldsterb n " (trae death ) in
West Germany and spruce-fir dieback
in Kat~ah. Evidence bas been mounting
in West Germany that ozone, a pollutant produced by a reaction of sunlight and auto exhaust, bas combined
with acidic fog. These pollutants are·
leaching magnesium, an essential element, from living trees .
It is becoming increasingly clear
(continued on page 27)
continued on page 26
Fall 1985
..
~ll.hll
- '.}f;. ·C'.o.
�,
J;
From within its borders , the forest
looks old, permanent. Yet the timelapse views of the eastern forests provided in these maps compiled by Paul
and Hazel Delcotirt's team of paleoelologists give a different story.
Plants do indeed migrate, and in
geological time the climatic changes
that resulted in the formation and
dispersal of the Laurentide ice sheet
brought on drastic changes , causing
whole forests to move from one area
of the continent to another.
The mops given here are from the
Delcourt's article " Vegetation Mops
for Eastern North America " in
Geobotony ll{Plenum Publications,
1981 ); R. Romans, Editor.
MAP KEY
0
Laurentide Ice Sheet
•
Tundra
Boreal Forests
Q
Spruce
@
The t.aurentide (ce Sheet covered the continent north of
vhat la prHontly known n the Crdt Lllke1 Rqion. Tundra condition• prevailed ln the viclnity of the glacier •nd at hi&h
elevatioftl tor soo ailu .south or th• lee front.
Spruce .and jack pii>e fou1t1 held the territory ..,uth and ust
of the alacl•rl .JdV&DCO- The cl1-t• vamed quickly .and dr•aat ic;oll:•
b.lov thb belt. eo that an oalr.-hlclr.ory-eouthern pine auociat!on
doainat•d the Atl&ntic and Gulf Coaot plains.
The aixed .. Hopbyc1~ hard...,od forut that today inhabits the
covH of Appalachia vas rutrlcted u this ciae to "refuaul •rus·· the blufflanda dong the IUuiHippi Rlvor Valley •nd ujor rlver corridor•
U\ the southeast. A eypre••-auai. assoe:iacton lived in the ..,et
~ululppl boctoaa. ;and the ~lorf.de hninsub vaa covered ~Y .. nd
dune scrub - including wild ro111a.1ry .and iaolaced 1tande >f .crub o.ait.
Spruce-Ja ck pine
Q
@
Jac k pine - Spruce
Mixed con ifer-norther n hardwood s
Deciduous Forests
Q
@
G)
Oak-Hickory
Mixed mesopbyt ic
Oak-Chest:n ut
Southeastern Evergreen Forests
<2'.)
@
@
Cypress- Gum
0
Subt r opical Hard woods
Oak- Hickory- Southern pine
Southern pine
Open Vegetat ion Types
Q
Q
<:::>
,
~:\ n;.ur
'l
Oak savaruiah
Prair ie
or
'fhu .,,h1cJcr • lwd Ct:lt+.:.til'-!d LO l ht.: lat J.Lud\$
thu Ch:Ul Wk~¥ I
raJ.elna th• tiUa luvcl soou.!what . und Liu: bc1lnning» of l ...akt.! •. rh Wt:h:
vt11tble. thu Saint Lawrence fltv~c w.11 u•\d~r J~<!. Jnd lh"' \;.ould ail .. ctul
w.itcre 1ttl1 draln-.d down thu Hi•111l-.111lppt 1 "'be.re the \lll1lc a.Jtruc.l: cuv-.:r
peulatL.J.
Th-. •pruce-Jac.k pin~ fote•t
cr~cpln¥ \!.il•tw.atJ fro. th..: plalos.
The w r • ..v\:ollth41er cMk-hfckory-.outh-.:.ro •v~rgl"-:t...-n ••~ l;,1t Ion w..a• •t J l t
rc.atrlctcd to th~ •outhurn c.;,.a;t.al vL1dn•. Tb-.: 11lxt-od •.:»0phy1 h.
8pf..'Cie*I Mlntaha.-d tlwic fuoll1vlJ ln the 8lu{fl.,nd21i ,uuJ WJC.\:f t1Vt:t
W••
corridor•.
Sand Dune Sc r ub
'- page 4
Tundro •tlll i;rlµp"J
th~
AppJl .. <ltlJn h.:Jghl•.
Pall 1985
-.
I'
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . wt ..... rOMSTDWILLllll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .
Mt~Rt-\TING
Thia V"r1uJ w••
~h«ncl~rlz1:J
by a D11ld waralng tr.,nd.
Th.:
1l•clera retr~•Led .oa..,W'hat. and ll.ic1al a\tll raletd Lho levt:l ot thtt
ocun•. pushing th~ cont lncnL.al coast I lne:1 cloatt to Lhtotir prt::t:d'tl
po1lt1oos.
J•ck pint:-11f'rUC~ ••»OC:J•tlc;.n.> still do.lnatvd (r-oa th.c: •1Jvt;:,t.t to
thu ccntr•l coa~L. A thin IMnJ of tran-.tclun..1 con1ft:r-oortltt.:-ro
l1Jrd,,,..,.,,d fott.:..lit dtvtd"J th-.: ptnu-1pru~e bdt fro•• \l.&t11-cllailtt1 o•lhh:kury .-....oc:J .. t lvn wt1h: h c· uvi.:r ...J App.al.achh1 wnd lhl.t ur-.w th..at I • ''''"
r-.-1uh:•¥t.:.11.:
kfv,c v ••dli.:y
s~~IJy.
fOREST
The 4.cu 1huct reached ita aouthernmoait li•it during thi• time .
extending the coa11tltne out appr oxlaeL"ly 50 •iles beyond it_.: pr.ute.nt
bouodar1ea. Spruce-jack pine cov~r ud thu are.at pl•in• we1t of tht
H.Jasi11;stppt. Jack ptne-spro.ctt covt:r dc>t1lnat.:d the ea.atcrn half o( the
continent eouth to the preaent-day borJtrr• of AlabaaJ and Cwraf•.
Claci"r aultw•tec cool"'1 the Hl11luippl River Valhy, which prob.ably accounted for the anOllll&Joue eppura.nce of \tbite spruct1 tn.~••, a
boreal opocl .. noca•lly not found
rar 1outh. The enllre AppalachU.n
b.oge wi1s creetcd by tundra, vhU.: colJ-wuthe.r spruce and fJr dOlll-
"°
naced lh" foreau on the 90uncnln ulopca.
Thu WJ.Ulfni; li.:dlfh:tMluru• or j 1,000 - 12 ,000 yt:1.1r• 3¥,0 1.,rouaiht
dvlu&"-tf of naln In Lhu w411c.u or tht: gtu~i1:re. Clacfol 111~1t was drulnJni rapidly thruuyh thu SL. l.awc.n ..
-ncu RJvur h.•Mvln" the pruy,~nhor
unwl Iona of the t;r~Jl l..Jk'-'•·
Th~ apruct: .1nd J•c .. pint.: ••ao..:IJLJon1 covtar'--.J c-.:ntr.. t c.,twJM ttntJ
tl-.1 Nev EnK,l»nd St•lu•. Th .... coo lC '-'r-ntr.>rthtir n tt.rJwood for ....$t 114>\l' ....J
nurth and vest Into .J 1rwlly -=•paGdcJ tcrrltot'y. An Odk-hlckory
{ot'~vt arose ~•l i>f th-.: 'll11owl••lppt i.1nJ wa111 .avln& -=-•tv.arJ, fo1low'".J
by the d~v'1loptn, pr... Ir 1.... v"""-'l"'l fon.
The aht:J •"llOphyt le for\.!t.l Jdvdnc'--.J fro. th~ r lvt.::r corr tdor., l->
tak• ov~r a tors'-' part of th~ central are:a. Ook-hlclt.ory ... southern
..:versr\!cn cov-:r ¥Lill P'-'ndwtcJ ln thi.: cudvtul ploSna Jr'-'as, but u
CYJ•rl.•1:11• gum usatocl11tlun lc>uk uvvr th~ 11oouthufn <nJ ot Lhc ~lf~11da1adµltl
1
klvur t.::1Hridor. olt\J "'" uuk .. uvw.nndh LYt•u w.ft. uv~t In¥ un the ._.lur1JJ
l''"·nnJn.111...l.
Thb wu tho puk of tile "heplithano&J. • var1111ng period, and t ... parat u r u ware h1&her th<ln in the prHe.ot d•1· The land and fora1t
conf1guration• bqao to tllte"" tho th&pu va ... r..ui.ar vith today.
The: conUer-oortbaru ba.Tdvoode foreat covered a vast area fro.
the Creat I.eke• rasioo to tbe coa1t. Tha oak-blclcory and aixed aHophyt lc hardwood !orut• occupied euentWly the • .,.. aru1 they do at
prueat, wtu.la conditioas c.au.sed an oak-chutaut forest to ti•• to doeln&nce on the u1tuo 1lopes of the Appelacbi.ans, vbil1 spru:a •nd !lr
still clung to the colder, biaher elevatioo1.
Southern pine arose to doain.anc• over auch of the aru lt occupies
todly.
�Hog Killing Saturday
BY H. M. SPOTISWOOD
The red sun was waiting for me, round
as the washpot that would be the center
of my day. There I would chop the kindling,
feed oak to the fire, stir the black water
while they worked silently under the cedar.
Grady was always there by seven, in his hard
overalls, paid dollars for his sweet brutality.
I knew the one they picked, had fed him rinds
and the saved ends of Tuesday's cornbread.
His grounds were avuncular in the sweet stench
of Friday's dusk, his hide hard as a gritty
July watermelon to my finger poking through
the pen. Once I'd run the mile to Clara
for a Nehi and some vanilla extract with screams
following me through the pines as they cornered
him to clamp the rings in his nose. Painless
gristle, they called his snout, when I fingered
the steel points like barbed wire spikes.
For sure he'd rooted up three fences, ripped
the small south pasture to a knobby moonscape.
He knew me for peach seeds and rusty coffee cans
full of Pa's rich, hard-bought cottonseed me.al.
I still feel the guilt for the erotic rush
of glee that lasted a second. And Grandma,
the painful endless picture of her scraping
his boiled nose with a paring knife. Grady
I hoped, would hit his mark the first time
with the scarred steel butt of the old axe.
I listened too hard over the frantic steam,
heard only board sounds and birds in the oaks.
The afternoon was easier, foul and logistical.
The mail ran at one, and Mr. Hardee waved.
Bayree, the cats, and the thoughtless chickens
were underfoot for items they could find. I
created a parable for the high-stepping rooster
mincing his spurs among the leafy entrails.
The coarse salt did not hurt my bitten nails
when we rubbed the bacon and hams to hang.
I knew the bowl and Limp grey mountain
of entrails would be waiting on the table.
Pa brutalized my city taste with family
ridicule for not tasting. He hadn't shaved.
The hairs were coarse yellow in the light
of kerosene. In the window curtained with gay
feedsack the sun was an oblate orange yolk
--·~-·s,epuating into the black <~eek~
'
f
�HORSE LOGGING
Fall 6.11.0m be.Utg a qua.Utt ruuicJvum.i.6m, togg.<.ng wlth hOJt6U
.l6 6t.iU pMv.<.ng .it6 u»ILtlt a6 .the. method mo6t o.pp!tOplLi.a;te. 6011.
«»JtlUng moun.ta.in 6l.ope.6 ldte.11.e. .the. togge.11. .l6 de.a.li..ng wlth a
11.0ugh Olt 611.agile. .teNUU.n 011. a 1U.9hl.y 6e.l.e.c:Uve. .ti.mbe.11. Cl.Lt.
It .l6 al.60 6.Qrd.<.ng 6a.vOll. wUh l.a.ndowne.11.6 ldto hold coMe.11.-
vat.i.on me.a6Wl.e.6 a.nd a.u.the..UC6 a6 h.i.gh p!l)..oM.t.lu .
Holl.6e. togging a.l.60 luu. economic a.dva.n.ta.gu 6011. togge/1.6
ldto do n.o.t have. a. tot o 6 capUai. tc 6.talt..t a. bU6.<.ne.66 Oii. c.dio
w.i.l.h tc ke.e.p the.ill. oveJtlie.a.d tow. With holl.6u , to~~e/1.6 ca.n
ma.k.e. up .ui Mull c.diat they ta.ck. .ui 6-Uia.ncla.l.. ba.c/U.ng.
John Va.v.U,, Ve.nn.i.6 Hotde.11., a.nd holl.6U Tony a.nd Flt.e.d «»11.k
.Qr a.nd cur.ou.nd .the. Nan.taha.l.a Na.t.i.ona.t FOll.u.t. The.y a11.e. a. .tlgh.t
.team, a.n.d tlte..i.11. e.xpe.11..le.nce. 6hoWA . The.y make. .the. ha.11.d woll.k 06
w.tt&tg a.nd ha.u.Ung .ti.mbe.11. took a.l.mo6.t e.a.61J.
John: ' I started in on horses when I was four . My daddy
started me. I worked some other jobs, but I ' ve al.ways kept
my truck, regardless of what I've done . I like being in the
woods. You don ' t make a lot of money , but if you ' re satisfied,
that ' s what counts :·
Dennis: You ain't gonna make nothing but a living, whatever you do. Anything you go after, a living ' s all you 're
going to make out of it:
John: •r•ve got a garden, my horse and my truck- I 'm
never going to starve ."
photos by Martha Tree
Dennis : "Horse don't got to be a big one, i f he'll pull.
I can take Fred, and he'll pull horses weighing 1800 lbs .
When I call on him, he'll go out there, and he ' ll hang. He
won ' t back back up . A lot of horses pull against it too hard,
and they'll back back up. But I could hook Fred to that truck
right tncre and call on ' im, and he'll stand on and pull 'til
he dies .
"!wouldn't cake n thousand dollar bill for ' im just like
he stands there I ain ' t got that in ' im, but I wouldn't take
it . He ' s paid for himself ten times over I could give him
away today and still wouldn't go in the hole .~
K.\Tt:AH -
page
7
Fall 1985
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MAlllFOIUTDWIWM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
By Michael Red Fox
The U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) has just announced plans
to site and construct a Monitored
Retrievable Storage facility
(MRS) in Eastern Tennessee.
Three possible sites have been
chosen. The Clinch River Breeder
Reactor site at Oak Ridge is the
preferred site. TVA's H:lrtsville
nuclear plant site and the Oak
Ridge Reservation have also been
included for further study.
In January 1986 the DOE will
announce which one of the three
"semi-finalists" will host the
MRS. DOE documents describe
the MRS as a processing facility
for spent nuclear fuel. The
processing will include consolidation and packaging of high
level wastes for delivery to
permanent suppositories. The
MRS will also serve as a backup
facility for storage of spent
fuel and high-level wastes
from all commercial nuclear
power plants, all foreign
subscribers to the "Atoms For
Peace" program, and U.S. nuclear
weapons production.
All three East Tennessee sites
are upwind of Kat~ah. Several
of the main transportation
routes to the MRS site pass
through our region including
interstate 81 and interstates
26 and 40 , which conjoin at
Asheville. If you thought
Asheville was a "hot town" before
this, just wait ... . •..
According to the DOE, the MRS
candidates were chosen on the
basis of cost efficiency, risk
of accident, and the geographic
relationship to the potential
underg~ound suppository.
It
must be noted that the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act of 1982 declared
that no one state may get both
sn MRS and a permanent waste
dump . The relative prox1.mity
of Kat~ah to the proposed MRS
can lead to no other conclusion:
Katuah is under siege! Not only
does Katuah become a transportation corridor for nuclear waste
from all over the world but, she
also becomes a leading candidate
for the sweepstakes nobody wants
to win: permanent waste dump!
The MRS is considered to be
the "front end" of the permanent
suppository. According to the
"Mission Plan" being peddled by
:<.n{.ui - page 8
the DOE, wastes processed at the
MRS will travel across the
country to the first geologic
suppository. Currently stiff
opposition, environmental problems , and legal fights are
stifling DOE's plan to select A
site in the western states,
The agency cannot fail to
notice that it might be sinpler
to l) speed up selection for
the ~astern suppository or 2)
change the Waste Policy Act so
that both suppositories wil l
be built in the F
ast. In fact
Paul Kerns, a DOE front msn,
bas recently said that if all
of the candidate sites under
consideration in the first
round turn out to be losers
the DOE may turn to the crystalline states for both suppositories.
I
I
..
·.
I
.\
"
• I
:i
I
\
I
~.
Crvstalline (granite) rock
formations are being considered
for nuclear waste disposal
because they are uniform
throughout and have qualities
allowing them to dissipate heat
from nuclear materials. However in a blistering analysis
of their own three year pilot
study (1981-1984) called the
"Climax Project" in Jack Ass
Flats,Nevada, DOE noted serious
problems. Not only did the
expensive stainless steel cannisters leak, hut the te9tin~
caused cracks in the granite
and the testing mechanisms
failed so they could not
determine how much leakage
occurred!
Among the crystalline
suppository states, the Southeastern Region (includin~ Katuah)
is perhaps the most vulnerable.
Ginger King, of DOE's Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management,
conf inned this suspic ion when
she said, "the most likely 9lace
is the Southeast since 85i o f
the nation ' s nuclear plants are
east of the Mississippi." Much
of the Northeast will be eliminated because of population
density and distribution. Although the North Central Region
has crystalline rock formations
whic h are among the n~ tions
most stable, Wisconsin, ~ichigan
and Minnesota have erected legal
and political barriers that may
outweigh potential geologic
suitability.
Politics is the name of the
suppository game according to
Dave Berich of the Environmental
Policy Institute in Washington.
Unlike the North Central States,
North Carolina, which contains
most of the prime sites in
Katuah, has no siting laws.
There are no nuclear waste
education programs, no citizen
advisory boards, and no public
surveys. North Carolina has not
even one employee working fullt ime on our response to the
suppository site project.
What North Carolina does have
is a governor who bas said he
would not veto a site selected
here. Every other governor in
every state under consideration
has promised a veto. A governor
veto of a site mean~ that a
full congressional review and
approval is necessary before
wastes can be implanted. A
veto would force DOE to do the
proper scientific studies to
find the best site - not just
follow the path of least
resistance. Incredible as it
may seem, at a public "infor111ation seminar in Boone, NC,
DOE publicity man Kerns warned,
''What 1 can do is encourage
you guys not to trust us; take
us to taok." Dave Berich of
EPI ar,roes. He has said.
Fall 1985
" Si"~q - t-.J..J . /J;
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WEAMFOM:~OWEWlll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .
"There needs to be s whole new
science developed for each
repository site, nnd the DOE
is unwilling to spend the
necessary money and time to
adequately study all the potential reek bodies for the best
possible site."
The rext step in the selection process is for the nuclear
energy junkies at DOE to reduce
their list of 236 crystalline
rock sites down to 20 possible
sites this November.
TRANSPORTATION OP NUCl.EAR WASTES
The llOE goes to gceat lengths
to assure the public that the
shipment of spent fuel is safe .
It distributes films showing
dramatic full-scale crash tests
of spent fuel casks propelled
by rocket sleds into a massive
concrete wall at speeds up to
80 mph. The DOE fails to point
out, however, that the casks
were eaptY. though they implied
otherwise, by calling them
spent fuel casks. Upon testing
the survivability of casks after
a railroad accident with fire,
the DOE failed to say that on
the avera~e most railroad fires
Nuclear
Shipment Routes
N\ TfaH - page 9
THI l/11ct1.t1 11111P1J11101r,
WE'il i/OT t;O/NfJ 11 TANE 11/
last twice as long as the test
fire. The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission reported that the
tests on Transport Cask<1 "wPre
interesting but not particularly
useful."
The most definitive work to
date on the possible results
from a real transportation accident spilling real plutonuim
has been done by Sandia
Laboratories in New Mexico.
Their analysis indicates that
a "large quantity" shipment of
commercial plutonium released
in an urban area could result
in nearly 4,000 latent cancer
fatalities, 952 early morbidities (non-fatal health disorders) and scores of early
fatalities. The cost of
cleaning up such an accident
could range as high as two
billion dollars. The Sierra
Club has estimated that there
will be 9,000 shipments per
year of high-level wastes
from constipated reactors co
t~ N~, i~l~i.
W
~i~
ments per day to the
suppository .
The continued push towards
a nuclear technocracy offers
us no guarantees except the
production of more nuclear
waste.
The time has come for the
people of Katuah to form a
solid core of diasent and
stop this technological
train wreck. We must demand
that the governor veto any and
all sites within his political
realm. We must convince our
congresspeople to invite DOE
officials to come and experience our opposition.
We must form affinity groups,
like Ben Drake of the Highlander Center in :-:ew ~larket,
Tennessee, who is organizing
folks along tranooortotion
routes.
The nuclear waste suppository
means degra~ation of the land,
de~radation of the water, degradation of human health,
radioactive particles in the
air , and probable ~enetic
damage and mutations among all
living things in the area. We
do not want to be known as the
generation that let it happen
here. The situation requires
nothing less than our best efforts to shut this menace ,,,, #
down!
,P"'
Write to your political representatives expressing your
opposition to the MRS, transportation of nuclear waste
through Katuah, and the planned
suppository.
The Honorable James Martin
State Capitol
Raleigh, NC 27611
House of Representatives
Washington
2463 Rayburn House Office
Building
Washington, DC 20515
Write to these folks for
current information and join
them in the battle to save
Katuah!
Blue Ridge Enviromental
Defense League
P.O. Box 1308
West Jefferson , NC 28694
Western North Carolina
Alliance
P.O. Box 1591
Franklin NC 28734
(704) 524-3389
Mr. Steve Conrad
Director of Division of
Land Resources
Department of Natural
Resource and Community
Development
P.O . Box 27687
Raleigh, NC 27611
Highlander Center
Rt. 3 Box 370
New Market, Tn . 37820
Fall 1985
c;
~2.&q
- H, ••
J
�The message the plant people give to us: from the sourwood's early
red leaves, the beautiful multicolor of the saw briar, the
yellow of the poplar, the rust of the oaks, the pinks and
reds of the red maple·· all these differences create beauty
that moves the inner part of ourselves and prepares us
for the great rest.
We are told it is the i:iiver of breath's plan that we may have differences.
All of the giver of breath's creation lives in harmony and
peace with one another with the expection of man.
We are told that we have completed a circle of life by this time of year.
Let's look at ~he lessons that have been given to us in this
circle. It is alright what you are. It is alright what I am.
Let's take and move evenly together with our differences and give our
unborn and their unborn yet to be a chance to go
through this same circle.
Communities
We are told these are the oldest mountains upon the earth. Life has
been here longer than any place else on the great
mother.
We are told this is one of the few places upon the earth where spirit
still dwells, in the deep rich coves where the seng grows
and the voices of water are talking to someone. All the
life forces talk to the spiritual aspect of ourselves, the
real part of us.
We are told that all through our mountains··from northern Georgia all
the way up the Appalachian trail, from the moon eyed
people to the native people to the European people's
spirits have been attracted to the power that these
mountains place upon us.
We are told that people come here with their spiritual and relisious
ideas because they seem to fit with what is here. ·1 hey
start their own communities-- healing communities.
spiritual communities, communities based on a_pamcular philosophy or political point of view. But a mistake
that our brothers and sisters make causes them to miss
the power and the gift that the mountains give to us all.
Their communities develop an ego just as an individual
would develop an ego.
We are told that now the time of great rest comes upon the mountains
again, as it has for thqusands of years, the time when
trees lose their leaves and evergreens get greener. Let's
listen to the message that the mountains and the streams
say to us.
We are told that the differences aren't enough reason for us to be
separate. We should strive to pull our communities
together, to work together to preserve this spiritual
oasis for us all. We can work with people who are
different without having expectations for them to follow
our path.
i<Ai~Af! - .eW!e 10
Fall 1985
11
Io
�The publications listed below are
available from Appalachian Regional
Office, I.T.C.I.U.S.A,. lnc., Route
I, Gravel Switch, KY 40328. Prices
listed include postage and handling
within the U.S.
PROPAGATION METHODS AND SOURCES FOR
UNCOMMON PERENNIAL FOOD PLANTS: A
LITERATURE REVIEW IN TABULAR FORM
Gregory Williams, 1983 (slightly ;.:vised 1984), 49 pp ., $6.00 .
by Brian Caldwell
We are trying an lntercropping
system that might be of utility on
other fal"lls. On an 80 ft. by 90 ft.
test plot, we have planted raspberries in rows 15 feet apart (about
Lwice the usual spacing). In the rows
with the berry canes, we set young
Chinese chestnut trees every 15 feet.
The chestnut trees are mulched, weeded and fertilized along with the berries, which are allowed to grow close
beside the trees. Beds of vegetables
about 5 feet wide run between the
raspberry-chestnut rows.
This system is an attempt to
care for a succession of crops with
the least effort, while making good
use of space . We suspect that the
raspberries. grown without the use of
pesticides, have fewer problems with
fungal diseases due to the improved
air circulation of wide rows. It
seems reasonable to use the extra
space for vegetables. Because rasp-·
berry plantings typically last only
about 5-7 years because of virus problems, the chestnuts provide a crop
to "take over" after the berries.The
young trees require special care
(particularly weed control) for about
3 years after planting, yet bearing
begins only after about 5 years or
more.le does not make much sense to
invest the special care and space exclusively for the non-bearing trees
so we put them right in the berry
rows! They will not seriously compete
with the berries until the berries
are on the way out. The berry mulching and fertilizing are ideal for the
Lrees, and competition from the berries doe~ not appear significant.
Note that. with the use of mulch, it
is important to protect the tree
trunks from rodents with some sort of
guards.
Eventually . we will have a grovt·
of chestnut trees on a 15 feet by 15
feet spacing. This is too close for
mature t recs. However, these a re•
~eedllng trees, not ~rafts . and iL is
11ko.!ly thoc some will be poorer beorl'rs thun OLhers.After about 15 venrs,
Lhey will be Lhinned out, leaving
onlv the best. The area formerly occ-
upied by raspberries and vegetables
will be sheep pasture . And the chestnut yield in the early years will
have been much improved over the
yield for trees originally planted on
a recommended spacing of 30 feet by
30 feet.
This system is appropriate for
many kinds of trees . Strawberries
could substitute for the vegetables,
but blueberries, gooseberries, asparagus, and rhubarb all last so long
that their total production as "raspberry substitutes" would be seriously
reduced by the trees.
Areas used for this system
should be free from perennial weeds.
to our plot, we have had problems
only with the tarnished plant bug
and, at first, coo low fertility for
high raspberry yields. An organic
fertilizer (about 20 pounds of N per
acre) placed beneath the mulch the
last two springs resulted in much
better growth of the fruiting canes.
The berries also benefit from vege• table fertilization.
Reprinted from ~&~~estry Review.
Back issues available from:
Inte rnational Tree Crops Institute,
Appalachian Regional Office
USA
Route 1,
Gravel Switch, Ky. 40328
--
~-(;& i.ist : tyu <N'O~
AGRISILVICULTURE FOR APPALACHTA: A
BIBLIOGRAPHY, Gregory Williams, 1979,
9 pp .• $2.00.
ACRISfLVICULTURE : A NECESSARY RENAISSANCE, Gregory Williams, 1979, 4 pp.,
$1.00.
TREE CROPS FOR SMALL FARMS IN APPALACHIA: PRELIMINARY PROPOSAL FOR RESEARCH, Flip Bell. John Pohlman,
Gregory Williams, 1977, 24 pp., $4.00.
ENERGY-CONSERVING PERENNIAL AGRICULTURE FOR MARGINAL LAND IN SOUTHERN
APPALACHIA: FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT
Gregory Williams, 1982, 52 pp. , $8'.oo
HORTIDEAS, Published monthly, Subscriptions $10.00/yr. (U.S.)
SOME SOURCES OF HARD-TO-OBTAIN SEEDS
AND. PLANTS FOR TREE CROPPING
CHESTNUT HILL NURSERY,Rt. 3, Box 477,
Alachua, Fl. 32615. Hybrid AmericanOriental chestnuts. Price list free.
DOUGLAS, Earl, Red Creek, NY 13143.
Hybrid American-Oriental chestnuts.
Send SASE for price list.
HIDDEN SPRINGS NURSERY, Route 14, BOX
159, Cookeville, TN. 38501. Seedling
and grafted fruit and nut trees, including honeylocust. Price list free.
---
l!<?Q_KS ABQ.l!l'_!REE CROPS:
TREE CROPS: A PERMANENT AGRICULTURE,
J. Russell Smith. Devin-Adair, New
York, 1953. Founding work for the
tree crops "movement"; somewhat dated, but worth reading to get excited
about the idea of a tree-based agriculture .
TREES FOR THE YARD, ORCHARD, AND
WOODLOT, Roger Yepsen, Jr., editor,
Rodale Press. Emmaus, Pennsylvania,
1976. Introductory chapters on landscaping. orcharding, nut trees. propagation, pest control. useful wild
~pecies, maple sugaring, and woodlot
rianagement.
NUT TREE CULTURE IN NORTH AMERICA,
Richard Jaynes, editor, NNGA, Hamden,
Connecticut, 1979. Very thorough and
authoritativt• reference--" the bible"!
ITCIUSA APPALACHIAN REGIONAL OFFICE,
Route l, Gravel Swi.tch, KY 40328.
Seeds and graf twood of select honeylocust, black locust, and American
persimmon. Price list free.
JOHNSON ORCHARD & NURSERY.Route 5,
Hox 325, El1jay, GA 30540. Manx peach
and nectarine cultivars, also graftc-d apples. Catalog, $1.
LAWSON'S NURSERY, Route 1, Box 294,
Ball Ground, GA 30107. Many apple and
pear cultivars. Catalog free. ~
Special thanks to Greg Williams of
t.T.C.l.U.S.A.
Fall 1985 . ~
�·-----------------------·Wl-R>MSTDWILUM_____________________......
o~
NATURAL
WORLD
-(
NEWS
.,,/
~':;:{<'!._ :
bCac~ buws :
a ~uestion
of
survivat /
Black bears have well developed
instincts for self-preservation and
a reputation for taking care of themselves. tncreaslng human pressure,
though, has seriously reduced their
numbers to the point that they may
not surTive!
Recent research trom N. c. State
University and the University ot
Tennessee shows that over 12! ot the
breeding tema.l.e black bears in the
Pisgah Bear Sanctuary, and over~
ot the total. population under study
there are being killed! This devastating kill rate casts serious doubt on
the ability ot the Pisgah Bear Sanctuary to 1D&inta1n an effective breeding nucleus.
In the Harmon Den Bear Sanctuary, on the edge of the Great Smoky
National Park, over 80% of the bears
under study were killed. With the
present black bear habitat a scant
5-10% of the species original range,
serious questions arise as to whether
or not the black bear may be completely extirpated from Katuah.
Poaching is the major ceason
the bears are disappearing. But
dwindling range, periodic food short-
Six endangered peregrine falcons
took fl i ght from atop Grandfather Mount·
ain, N.C. this summer. The restoration
program, now in its second year is part
of the ?lorth Carolina Wildlife Resource
Commission's Nongame and Endangered
Species Program. Most of the funding
came via checkoff contributions on the
~
ages and an inadequate management
plan al.so contribute to a dwindling
bear population.
Black bears reflect a medicine
tradition long valued by our earth
based cultures. The Cherokee believe
black bear is a descendent of the
human tribe and he left the villages
to seek his own way in the forests.
A Healing Management Program
would include a moratorium on bear
hunting until stable reproducing populations could be establisheP .
North Carolina which has the
longest bear hunting season in the
southeast would do well to shorten
the season by scheduling opening day
later in the year. This would protect
females since they go into dens sooner and would thus discourage their
extinction.
Other suggestions include, discontinuing use of radioactive iso·
topes for scat monitoring, ban hunting with dogs, ban 2-way radio hunting, protecting old age timber stands
for their den trees and hard mast
(oak & hickory) and expansion of
habitat areas and sanctuaries.
state income tax form. A similar program is underway in Virginia with releases scheduled lo begin next year in
the high mountains of Tennessee.
Peregrine falcons are native to the
high mounts ins of Katuah and will be
sharing the air streams with 6 golden
eagles released this summer from th e
Shining Rock Wilderness. The restoration project is administered and
staffed by the TVA and the N.C. Wildlife Commission.
SG
_, ,
"
...,.. _,;Jt
Because of the urgency of black
bear survival, it seems important
for all of ua to begin to pool information on bear sightings and to document incidents of use of dogs, 2way radios , poaching, and other
kills. This documentation will be
decisive in influencing the Wildlife
Resources Commission to shift its
policies from species eradication to
species conservation.
To participate in the Bear Action Network, please call or write
Paul Gallimore, Long Branch Environmental Education Center. Big Sandy
M.lsh Creek, Leicester, NC 28748.
704/683-3662.
To voice your conservation concerns, write NC Wildife Resources
Commission, 512 N. Salisbury St.
Raleigh, NC 27611. Please send a
copy of your letter to each of the
Commissioners: M. WoodroWli'rice,
Dr. Richard Adams, David Allsbrook,
Jack Bailey, Cy Brame. F.ddie Bridges,
Joe Carpenter, Dr. John Hamrick,
Henry Kitchin, Stuart Paine, Donald
Thompson. Jerry Wright. and Vernon
n ~vill, Executive Director. ~
'\.
�The Western North Carolina Alliance, the Cowee Community Development Organization of Macon County,
Alark.a Laurel Limited, and Walton
Smith, a professional forester,
have officially filed an administrative appeal with the U.S. Forest
Service opposing clear- cutting,
poisoning and burning on public
lands in the Nantabala National Forest. The jolnt appeal argues that
selective cuttin~ and all-age management are far superior to the proposed clear-cutting in the Little
Laurel timber sale. It is argued
further that the sale violates the
National Forest Management Act
(NFMA), the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act, and the National
Environment Policy Act (NEPA).
Clear-cutting requires very
little professional skill to implement and SU?ervise a timber sale.
In the shore run, it produces the
greatest mo~etary return and is
thus attractive to administrators
working on a limited budget. However, the method imposes adverse
environmental conditions on an
otherwise diverse and self mainttaining syst em, precluding the
multiple use and long- term productivity of the southern Appalachian hardwood forests.
A summation of these violations are as follows: The appeal
maintains that in its Environmental
Assessment (EA), the Forest Service
fa Ued to consider selective cutting as an alternative. The appeal
states that the EA "sets a precedent and represents a general policy
~·
..,-·
~-
choice in silviculture techniques,
a choice that should not be made
in the absence of a 'systematic,
interdisciplinary' analysis of
long-term environmental impacts.·•
The NFMA of 1976 was designed
to restrict the extent to which the
USFS incorporates clear-cutting in
its overall management plans. The
foundation for the enactment of
NFMA was the Church guidelines
which state that clear-cutting may
only be used where "silviculturally
essential" and after "multidisciplinary review" has been completed.
The appeal states that the "EA
contains no finding that clearcutting is 'ailviculturally essential'. The USFS's primary justification for clear-cutting is the
allegedly high cost of selective
cutting, a justification which violates Congress' Jirective that the
'greatest dollar return' is not
sufficient reason to clear-cut.
Section 4(a) of the ~ultiple
Use Sustained Yield Act specifies
that "some land will be used for
less than all of the resources,.,
and that the best use is " not
necessarily the combination of
uses that will give the greatest
dollar return or the greatest
unit output."
The appeal supports the position that "each national forest
must be managed with the goal
of enhancing its unique inherent contribution to the entire
system." Th:fq ... should not be
(cont'd on p.14)
~
Champion International recently
celebrated "75 Years of Excellence"
but to the Pigeon River Action Group
(PRAC) of Haywood County, NC, it represents 75 years of effluents. Recently, Champion's permit to dump
wastes into the Pigeon R\ver came up
for renewal. The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission (EMC)
( a state commission in charge of issuing permit renewals) issued a new
pemit, called "toothless and vague"
by many citizens, and submitted it to
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for comments, according
to federal guidelines. Earlier, the
EMC had rejected suggestions by the
the director of the NC Division of
Environmental Management (who ultimately has to approve the permit , on
the state level) to str engthen the
(cont 'd on p.14)
'(AttAl! - page 13
---~=:..:...:,,,,:::....::===-=-....;~
----ae-
r
..
In a time of misguided "Superfunds"
and continuing "Studies" it is encourging to know that grass root efforts are
still effective.•The snow balling movement to save the Horsepasture River is
such a story. (See l<.atuah issues 16 &
18) .
Since the spring of '84 the
"Friends of the Horsepasture" have
fought a proposal by Carrasan Co. (an
out - of state investors tax write-off)
to dam and develop the river and her
five waterfalls. Hore than eleven hundred dues-paying members have contacted
their elected officals in Raleigh and
encouraged them to support N.C. Senator
Hipps and Rep. Crawford's legislation
that would include the river in the
N. C. Natural and Scenic Rivers System. The bill wuld also direct the
N.C. Dept. of Natural Resources to develop a management plan to qualify the
Borsepasture for inclusion into the
National Wild and Scenic River System.
On June 7 the N.C. House and Senate
voted unanimously in favor of this legislation. It is now up to Govenor
Martin to request the U.S. Secretary of
Interior to admit the river into the
national system. Appropriation of
funds to the U.S. Forest Service from
the Land & Water Conservation Fund by
Congress will be needed to purchase
land to accomplish complete protection of the tract which includes 3 of
the 5 major falls. U.S. Congressperson Rendon is exploring this possibility.
. Hore info:
FRIENDS OF THE BORSEPASTURE
P.O.Box 272
~~
Cedar Mountain,NC 28718 ~
�~
' ?,
no! ..• clear-c utting
(cont'd from p.13)
compromised in order to harvest
a fixed quota of timber on an
annual basis.'' Cutting for pulpwood and replanting in white
pine while neglecting the diversity of native species shows
that the USFS is pursuing the
"greatest unit output" and is
in direct violation of this Act.
The appeal is now being considered by Regional Forester,
Joe Alcock. The Alliance has
won a "stay'' on this sale and is
advocating a moratorium on clearcutting in the Nantahala National Forests, until the contents
of the revised 50-year forest
management plan are revealed.
CORPORATE
FORESTRY
PRACTICES
Hello,
A friend haa suggested that I write
a letter to Kat6ah about my experiences with the forestry practices in
the southeast of our country. I ' ve
worked the trees (treeplanting) in
the southeast for five seasons now,
the last two as a foreman for a large
treeplanting outfit.
Most of my experience has been on
land owned privately by large paper
companies. If you study maps of the
southern states , you'll see many
large areas with minimum development.
These are often paper company lands.
Corn and cotton farming devastated
much of this land, rendering it useless for farming and enabling the
big companies to acquire it quite
cheaply.
Forestry, as practiced by the paper companies, means pines, generally genetically improved stock of the
loblolly species. This inhibits local varieties and leaves little or
no room for hardwood varieties.
Once, while riding to a site with
a young forester , I remarked about
the nice big oaks in someone's yard.
The forester smiled and said, "That• s
two words that you don ' t hear in the
same sentence in forestry school:
' n ice' and 'oak'. If it ' s not pine,
it's weeds."
Practices vary from company to
company, and even from forester to
forester within the same company,
but generally the only areas left to
hardwoods sre wetlands and drains ,
KA TG.\H
-
page 14
.....::
permit guidelines. One commission
member stated," I would hate to see
a threat put on a company that has
really broken their back (to improve
water quality on the Pigeon River)."
EPA, within the 90-day comment period, responded to the EMC by insisting that the permit contain tougher
language and specific action. Ignoring EPA ' s review comments, EMC
went ahead and issued the original
weak permit, anyways.
Historically, the EPA has never voided a permit that a state has
issued. However, in an unprecedented move, EPA voided this North Carolina permit in August. As indicated
by EPA's comments to EMC, the permit did not comply with the required
federal Clean Water Act guidelines.
Now, the EMC has 90 days to draft a
new permit or the EPA will take over and issue its own. James O. Sheppard, Jr., a spokesperson for the
NC Division of Environmental Management has stated that the EMC might
not have the statutory authority to
implement the recommendations.
Meanwhile, Tennessee is suing
North Carolina and Champion stating
and that often reluctantly. Even
steep hillsides get replanted in
pine. A few companies seem unwilling
even to leave the drains i f they own
land on both sides of a creek or river.
Champion International - "largest
paper company in the world" - also
probably the largest landowner in
the eastern US, is still doing clearcuts of a phenomal size: up to 2,000
acres in a single tract. Of course,
clearcut ting doesn't eliminate hardwoods, as we ' re well aware. This
means that the land must be further
prepared for treeplanting by either
rootraking and piling, chopping, and
burning the brush; or even disking
and double-disking the soil. These
techniques eliminate hardwoods, as
well as rootmats, groundcover, and
most of the topsoil that's managed
to reform onto what was often mediocre land at best.
A technique rising in popular~ty
that effectively eliminates the hardwoods and saves the topsoil is the
use of massive quantities of herbicides. This can effectively wipe out
the hardwoods, but it tends to hove
very detrialental effects on wildlife, as well as on the foresters
and technicians doing the applications. Aerial spray and burn is being
utilized on a large scale. I've been
on sites that were over 600 acres
and devastated by application of
herbicide and thorough burning.
Some major problems arising from
this approach are: overspray onto
str eams and rivers and onto "innocent" land (including crop fields)
and residential wells and springs.
People directing the spray are often soaked by the stuff.
Once the land is prepped, tree-
; .•
~
...._:
~11111.·.-::~...'t. - _.,,.;r - '"'~ •
e5cont 'd from p.13)
that the mill should be required to
clean up the river and thus meet
Tennessee clean water standards. A 1980
N.C. state analysis showed that the
water was so dark that sunlight could
not penetrate and nurture the aquatic
life required by most fish to live.
Champion has recently installed a
small scale ultrafiltration test syst
to explore the feasibility of removing
the color from the effluent. But, Dick
Mullinix, chairperson of PRAG, points
out that since 1973 Champion has held
patent on a sy:;t:em that could clean up
to 90% of the colored effluent but it
was ignored, and only recently has
public pressure forced the company to
begin testing.
PRAG and its legal backers, the
Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation (LEAF, Knoxville,TN) and the Con
servation Council of North Carolina,
rallied support and urged EPA to take
up this issue. Further legal action is
expected.
Hore info:
,_ °'
""'
Pigeon River Action Croi '
p
P.O.Box 105
h
Waynesville, NC 28786
/.
planters come in and set out the
pines in a grid designed to close
off a canopy in 5 to 7 years. This
keeps out new growth and eliminates
the diversity of plant life and
habitat so necessary for wild things
to prosper.
"How about some solutions?" you
say. The best solution is, of course,
the people getting the land again,
rebuilding homesites and gardens, and
developing wells , springs, villages ,
and communities. But these are quite
complex and difficult issues, especially as forestry in the private
sector is first and foremost an economic undertaking. Perhaps some
grassroots "forest watch" operations
will develop, which might provide
some means of regulating the use of
the land and eliminating its destruction. lllaybe by restricting the size
of some of these logging operations
and giving local people some recourse to deal with abuses by their
corporate neighbors. ln the meantime, l will suggest that, while
travelling, you get on some "blue
line" highways and see for yourself
how the land is being cared for.
Tom Franko
Rt. 1, Box 243-8
Floyd, VA 24091
~
P'
Fall 1985
C.
fl
cc - AA
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111!11!!11. . . .!lll..... WIAMJORUTDWO.l.IN~. . . .~. . . . . .11111. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .
After three months of discussion and
R-5 the only trees that will requir~
Ur' Gr¥ftc£s
by Gus Radom
"Thtn• arc tides in the affairs of
humankind and we are at a low ebb."
Preclsely at the moment requiring the
Krcalcst leadership we have the least.
This region, Asheville in particular,
ls going through dramatic change:
change that will touch our lives dircct ly and daily, whether or not we
choose to be involved.
Thg city of Ashevi11P fAcPs ~er
ious problems. "Asheville," according
to former city manager, Ken Michalovc,
"is literally rotting away . " The infrastructure that supports our urban
way of life is rapidly falling apart.
But the deterioration that I
wish to address is on the surface of
the land. As our natural environmenl
L•rodes, so does the quality of our
lives .
Cotn111ercial development is rapidly transforming the landscape and
lhus the character of our city. The
standard approach has been :o cut
down all the trees, level the site,
and pave everything . Once the process
begins it snowballs . The development
tragedies on Merriman Avenue have
diminished the value of every home in
North Asheville. Trees buffer our
neighborhoods from the harshness of
the street and the collllllercial districts. When they are gone we lose a
part of our heritage. Our sense of
place, our peace, and our solitude
are diminished.
Our homes constitute the largest
investment most of us will ever make.
We spend our entire adult lives paying for that investment. That purchase provides us shelter and offers
us community . Collectively, our homes
create our neighborhoods,our major
place in the world . Our neighborhoods,
under normal circumstances, pass from
one generation to the next providing
the same healthy environment year
after year. Asheville has long provided all the South with a wonderful retreat. But how long, at the present
rate, will there be a cool, green Asheville? We have oo coaprehensive plan of
development. We have no blueprint to
guide us. We are stumbling expensively
into the future.
A few private citizens, including myself. observing the damage snd
seeing no established leadership addressing the issue of tree destruclion,
have been trying to turn this around.
KATCAH - page 15
research (gathering tree ordinances
and advice from all over the South)
we produced a tree ordinance unique
to our situation. We consulted two
members of the city council, seeking
their support and advice. They suggested that we first gain the endorsement of the Tree Conunission and allow
the commission to present the ordinance to council. We did this . For months
we pressed the Tree Commission for
their support of an ordinance t~at
they should have initiated years ago.
Thanks to the self-serving leadership
of several members of the commission
this ordinance was weakened by numerous amendments and delayed for more
than nine months. The ordinance finally passed the Tree Commission , but
the leadership of the commission has
done nothing to promote this o rdinance before city council.
The proposed tree ordinance is
by no means assured to pass City
Council. It is controversial and will
cost the City some money to enforce .
It will pass only if the members of
the Council believe it has strong
support from a majority of the people in the city.
The proposed Asheville Tree
Ordinance is designed to prevent the
indiscriminate pruning and removal
of trees in the City , but without
denying the reasonable use and economic benefit of real property.Although the emphasis in this Ordinance
is on protection, the authors intend
this to be only a first step in a
comprehensive program to preserve ,
maintain and replenish Asheville's
green environment.
The Ordinance has five essential
components:
~~ ARBORIST
First, it calls for the hiring
of a CITY ARBORIST: a tree specialist who will help the city make informed decisions when tree removal
is requested, and to help formulate
policies to properly care for the
City ' s own trees. Most importantly,
the CITY ARBORIST will design an educational program to make the general public aware of the value of our
own trees and to give technical information on how to care for them.
PERMIT FOR REMOVAL
-- -Seconcf,--c-heOrdinance requires
any person who intends to remove any
tree over 12 inches in diameter to
obtain a permit from the City. The
only exception to this requirement
is trees within the setback lines of
property zoned residential. ln other
words, for property zoned R-1 thru
a permit to be removed will be thost·
within a certain margin around the
perimeter of each lot .
If a developer or landowner lntends to remove a t ree during the
development of any land in the City.
a lree removal permit will be required along with other building
permits, and the City will have the
power to rescind all the permits if
the provisions of the Tree Protection Ordinance are not followed. The
Ordinance also includes guidelines
for the protection of existing trees
during construction.
A lree removal permit will be
granted in any case where the applicant can demonstrate a good reason
for removing the tree. Specifically ,
a permit will be granted if the tree
is dead, diseased, or otherwise dangerous or obstructive, or if removal
of the tree is necessary for the
proper development of the property,
or for the benefit and health of
other trees.In some cases permits
will be granted on the condition
that new trees are planted on the
property.
Special provisions have been
made ~n the Ordinance to regulate,
but not impede, the pruning and cutting done by the public utility companies in the course of maintaining
utility lines. Other special provisions have been made for emergencies
such as severe storms,and for the
appeal of permit denials.
PRUNING AND TOPPING
A third section of the ordinance requires that any pruning of
trees be done according to standards
set by the Tree Commission. Although
no permit will be required for pruning, excessive pruning that cause
the death of any tree will be treated as if the trees were cut down
without a permit. The purpose of
these provisions is to stop the unsightly mutilation of mature hardwoods in the name of •topping~
PENALTIES
~-Tht?°penalties section of the
Ordinance makes both the lsndowner
and the person who actually does the
cutting subject to the penalties.
The criminal penalties that may be
imposed are $50. per tree, or 30
days in jail. Civil penalties can be
up to $10,000 .
PLANTING ON CITY PROPERTY
-- Finally , the Ordinance encourages any citizens of Asheville to
plant trees on City property in accurdanc .. with the City Tree Plan adopted by the Tree Commission.
cont'd on p.21
·•
~~~ ~
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" Fsll~l985
�t .•
A
Fall 1985
•
t~
�Fall 1985
.... ~.
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�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WEAM,OIOUTDWD.UM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .
DRUMMING
LETIERS TO KATUAH
Hello Ka tuah !
Just got done reading Gary Snyder's interview
in The Mother Earth News and will use that reinspiration to write. Bioregionalism does nothing but make sense to me and I have discussed
it with lots of folks since my introduction to
it through ex-Co-Evolution Quarterly. I am
drawn to the idea for ecological(moral) and
political(decentralization) reasons. I do not
consider myself a pessimist, yet I cannot see
the institution of such "radical" politics in
my lifetime. Still, given my personal reality
and witnessing a growth of spiritual awakening
in .. this country, it is time to promote sanity
and cOllDDunity . The establishment of bioregionalism would be, to me, nothing short of mass
enlightenment, the birth of human beings • .. ••
We are capable as a species. May we rise to
our potential through creative insight and
courage.
Please send me any and all necessary info to
better educate me so I may pass the truth along
to others. I'll thank you in advance for your
kindness and help and your loving work for the
earth and its creatures.
·
One woman, trying to walk in balance- Cotton
Willis, Va.
"one does not give over to alternative realities
without summon ing up forces of nature and mind
which urban-industrialism was designed to exclude,
never to contain"
Theodore Roszak
Where The Wasteland Ends
Dear Katuah,
I ' m writing to request that you publish a correction to an article published in the Spring 1985
loouc of KotWih. The article was on Socially Responsible '"ii\veBting (page 15).
The problem is simply that you screwed up our
address in the "Resources" sect.ion. The address
given is "28 Montpelier, VT.05602" . The correct
address is: 28 Main St . ; Montpelier, VT 05602.
While I have your attention, I just want to let
you know that I think your publication is absolutely first-rate; it' s the strongest, most coherent publication I've seen yet from the bioregional
oovement.
Thanks for your help and support.
Sincerely,
Larry Lewack
Marketing Director
GOOD MONEY
:<ATf. - page 18
.\H
Dear Friends,
I'm writing to express my feelings of how meaningful I think your paper is for the times we
face today. I think Kat6ah represents an emerging awareness and networking of peoplP with many
basic concerns. beliefs and philosophies.I
think that i• is part of the global consciousness that is striving for peace, equality between peoples and nations, and an expression of
feelings of love for the Mother Earth.
~et me tell you briefly of our goals and current
function here at Northwoods Center for Natural
Health. One is to network out info=mation to
people in every way that we can . We do this
through newsletters, talks, newspaper articles,
etc. A second ts to begin a Center for networking with individuals that can help teach a selfsustaining way of life and a respect for the
earth. With that we want to instill a greater
degree of planetary consciousness in people by
bringing them in contact with guest lecturers.
Thirdly , we will have health retreat weeks for
those interested in regaining health in a European rejuvenation setting. And fourth, we provide personalized health programs and back and
neck pain therapy for any individual coming to
our Center in Brevard.
With Warmth and Light,
Or. Frank Trombetta, O.Sc.
Ro list ic Health
304 Water Oak Suites
Brevard NC 28712
Hi Good People,
The SU11DDer issue is great but the second part
of Lowell Hayes' painting is upside down. The
reservoir flooded up the valley covering the
homestead as It rose.
Touching gently our Mother Earth,
Karl Yost
Willis, Va.
KatU'ah,
On my 10th birthday, spent here in these mountains, I announced to my family that one day
this would be my home. I knew even then that
these maternal nurturing hills would cradle me
and I would live a life close to the earth. Nowfinally-1 am home! No other place ever felt like
home-only these mountains. So if this is my home,
where are my roots, my past knowledge of gener.
ations. my life cord?
Katuah is just that ... connecting me with relatives living and those who have gone on before
me. It is my anchoring roots-so that I may concentrate on producing nurturing fruits.
Suaan Claese
~
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WlAlllfOllUTOW'IU.EMI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
AS 1 sit beneath the towering
white oak, I feel the coolness of
it's breath on this hot SU11111er day.
I lay my palms upon the base of it's
trunk and feel it's life blood courslng beneath the bark. Earth-breath
stirs the leaves gently and I am reminded that where there is breath,
there is spirit I remember the
breathing of the oak and try to make
my breath juat as silent. Leaning
against the oak, I place my hands
'and bare feet against the bare soil;
illlagining them to be roots, 1 push
them into the soil and draw the
Earth Hother's healing and growing
power into myself The oak's abundant fruit has fed me, and now it's
strong spirit nourishes me. I feel
it's plentiful power flooding me
with strength, vigor, and endurance
I open my eyes, give my thanks to
the white oak and realize that when
I need these things, the oak will be
there for me. 1 will protect and
preserve it as long as I shall live,
and I will pass the task on to my
children, who inherit the stewardship of this land. With my newfound strength, I run up to the
ridge and down to my valley home.
FRIEND TO HUMANS
The oaks have been known as
sustainers and healers for centuries . A variety of species of oak
(spp. quercus ) are indigenous to
Turtle Island (N. America) and their
gifts have been well known to many
native tribes. I have been told that
the old-time Cherokee runners earring messages between the different
clans travelled only with extra mocassins and a pouch of acorn and corn
Meal on their belts. The runners
would keep a pinch in their mouth as
they ran for an hour or so, then
swallow and take another. This sustained the runners as they covered
up to 100 miles in a loping, 20 hour
trot through the rich woodlands of
Katuah.
All acorns are edible and all
contain bitter tannin in varying amounts 'Ille oaks are divided into
two groups by botanists: the white
oaks, whose leaves have rounded
lobes, with sweeter acorns and more
tannin in the bark; and the red oaks,
whose leaves have pointed lobes, with
bitter acorns and less tannin in the
bark. ~~st desirable for food are the
chestnut oak (quercus prinus) acorns.
The nut meats are the largest I know,
so less time is spent shelling and
they are very owcct
The whicc ook
(quercus alba) is so sweet that a
light roasting will render them edible, with a bitterness comparable to
that of coffee. Gather the acorns
as soon as possible after they fall,
as most become infested with weevils
within a week. Green acorns are fine.
The bitterness is removed by a leaching process. First, grind the shelled acorns in a flour mill into course
acorn grits. The moist acorns will
not pass through if the mill is set
too fine. Put the grits in a cotton
On Tall Trees
O mighty oak
Long in silence I look on you
And draw power and renewal
from your aura.
Often I wonder
of your making,
Gnarled in places,
How slowly,
slowly
do you grow,
How long
how many years
in the making!
Controller of climate and
rainfall
Protector of top soil,
protector of the earth,
Inspiring of strength
Favorite of ancients
of Druids,
of religious groups.
How mighty in sinew,
Inspiring in strength!
0 to stop the crime
Of wasting you!
What mystery radiances
breathe you in
and breathe you out?
You are of the tall trees,
The friend of owls,
You are old .•. so old!
You are the acorn,
You are the oak!
©
W. Walters
oock, tic it closed and place in cold
running water; a creek or in the sick
under a slow, steady stream. White
oak acorns will leach in 4-8 hours;
some red oaks take as long as 14-16
hours. Just taste the grits to see if
all the astringency has been removed.
Then spread the grits in a thin layer
on a flat surface (a stone heated by
the sun or fire, or on a cookie sheet
in a 200 degree oven) and dry thoroughly. Grind the brown grits into a
fine flour. You now have a food that
is approximately 6.5% protein, 68%
carbohydrate , .1% fat and for each
100 grams, you get 12 mg calci11111, 314
mg phosphorous, 2 mg iron, .02 mg
thiamine, .40 mg riboflavin and .5 mg
niacin - not to mention all your body
will tell you about its food value.
ASH CAKES
Traditionally, acorn flour and
corn meal are mixed with water and a
small amount of sifted oak wood ash
(which makes the protein more accessible to our bodies) to make a stiff
batter After your oak and hickory
wood fire has burned for 1 hour, remove wood and coals, dig a large,
bread loaf sized pit in the hearth
and line it with red hot coals and
ashes. Pour the batter onto the coals
then place more ash on top, then more
coals, then build the fire back up on
top. After one half to one hour (depending on the size of your ash cake) I
take out the bread. The blackened
outer crust has formed an "oven" for
the sweet, moist bread inside. Thia
is a very sustaining food with a
complete, balanced protein content.
When you're in the kitchen, try
this recipe for the most delicious
corn bread you've ever had:
I
I
cornmeal
le
l/2c acorn flour
I/Jc soy flour
l/4c w/wheat flour
2tsp salt
l
egg
l}i;c milk
3tbsp honey
Jtbsp oil
optional:
le chopped
black walnuts
le toasted
sunflower seed
mix all dry ingredients , add liquids
and beat until smooth. Pour into
muffin tins or cake pan and bake for
20-30 minutes until a toothpick comes
out clean .
Medicinally oak bark is a powerful astringent - antiseptic with several applications A decoction made
(cont'd. p. 24)
198S
�ed together to form a starry patchwork quilt of colldctive being . Feminine power is once more on the ascendant; the summer lion of personal
will d:lssolves in the glory o f transcendent love ••• "
" Feminine power is activated in
the fall as vital energy descends to
the roots of our beings . It is through the feminine aspect in human nature that the purifying fire of M
ichael can rightfully be wielded. Justice, a feminine fi gure, watches over
and weighs the spiritual harvest ••• "
"In the first half of autwun, we
gather in the harvest and clear away
the 'chaff ' . In the second half, we
integrate the spiritual fruits of the
past year cycle. The 'sword of trut h'
and the scale are symbolic of the first
psychic process, which is inspired and
facilitated by the observance of Michaelmas, the Great New Moon C
ere1110ny,
Yom Kippur, and Hallowmas. The mysticas
al union of spiritual fruits is symbolized by the Jewish suka (four-sided
hut), the Native American medicine
wheel and World Tree with four roots,
the Chr istian Ad ven t wreath , and the
Chanukah dr e i dl .. . "
Fil.Om the I n-tltodu.c,Uo n
to .the Calendalt :
"This calendar j ournal
is intended to demonstra te
t hat the celebrations of all
racial and r eligious cultures
represent complementary aspects of one gr eat world cult ure and are r eflected in the
diverse psychic elements that
m
ake up each individual . Holy
days and all notable historic
events can be viewed in the
context of the annual cycle
as phases of individual and
collective development. According to an old Dakota song
' t he year is a circle around
the world '. The myths of all
cultures can be meaningfully
pr ojected on the mandala of
the annual rhythm. "
"Fall is the time to reap the
psvchic as well aa physical fruits of
th.a groving season. Each of us is a
ray which goes forth 1o spring t o embr ace a particular aspact of crdation
and r•turns i n fall with a ~rsonal
harves t to share wit h our COlmllWlity.
Individual •xpcriancea are now joinK.\TCAH - page 20
"Fall is the season of complet ion,
of 1110ving toward mystic wholeness when
diverse states of consciousness may be
brought into h8rlll0ny. In the Gnostic
view, Christ is the soul of the Earth
(the incarnate solar principle). The
soul of the world, the center of the
circle cross of the Earth symbol, can
be approached only by man.Heating within ourselves the essential nature of
every religion and cult ure. The most
important message of the fall is that
all faiths are essentially bas.sd on one
great body of truth of which each world
religion and culture is an integral
part.
The medicine wheel is a primary
Native American symbol which defines the
four parts of the human psyche, provtd.ss
a path to the integration of these psychic elemenes and indicates how the individual may best be integrated into the
tribal community. A person first experiences each of the four directions
before balancing i n the center o f the
circle cross. Then all four states of
being come alive at the same time and
the medicine wheel begins to turn.
The medicine wheel of Native Amer-
ica and the Great Pyramid both symbolize the procciss of psychic transformation through which the formative elements of human nature are aligned
and integrated by the fifth principle
(the quJ.ntessence}, spiritual awareness. This transformative process is
also the purpose of the Cherokee
"s quard ground" which is used for ceremonial dance in this season. It is
the basis for celebrating the four
we4*. Advent period which culminates
in the ligh ting of a f ifth candle in
a "medicine wheel" circle of greenery .
Fall is the season to create a
new state of being, a more inclusive
form of consciousness, aud it is the
time to consciously let go of the old
form, to ring in the new year. Creative meditation and rational fasting
have a place in this process and so
do singing, chanting , and dancing .
Let's recall the words of Lame D
e1:1r:
'Dancing and praying-it's the same
thing', when w1:1 celebrate Advent and
include a little enlightened Saturnalia, for its purpose is to break up
psychic patterns from the old year, to
help us open our hearts to the ligh t
of a new star ••• "
(f
'1e~v ts~ c1vc- le~v-oV1noL the wov\d~
the
"The New Moon of Libra , the
first following the Fall Equinox ,
marks the spiritual New Year in the
New World Cycle of Celebrations ... .
This is the time of the Great New
M
oon Ceremony, the New Year celebration commemorating the world ' s
creation in Cherokee and Iroquois
tradition . Immersion in a pure body
of w
ater at sunrise followed by
crystal ga zing co perceive the future year is a traditional aspect
of the ceremony."
Advance o r ders for The 1986 " New
W l d Cycle of Celebrations Calenor
dar Journal" a r e now being ta ken .
Send $8. 00 to :
New Wo r l d Celebra tions
P . O. Box 6054
Charlot te, N 2820 7 ~
C
!!". • --FaH l91f5
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WEAMFOFIUTOWlii.ERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11111!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
Review
M)UNTAINEERS AND RANGERS: A HISTORY
OF FEDERAL FOREST MANAGEMENT IN THE
SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS 1900-81
Shelley Smith Mastran and Nan
Lowerre (U. S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D. C. 20402)
$7.00
The federal government, particularly in the form of the U. S. Forest
Service, has been a strong force in
the development of the current
were mounted knights carrying the
conservation message into the wilds.
Now, since the political tide has
turned, a new chapter in the history
of federal involvement in Kat6ah is
being wcitten. The DOE is threatening to dump nuclear waste on the
mountains. The Forest Service is
meeting considerable popular opposition for undertaking large-scale
clear-cutting operations, and has
been implicated in offering the
lumber interests large hand-outs
in the form of below-cost timber
sales. But that is to be read in
the future. At present, MOUNTAINEERS AND RANGERS offers an illuminating look at one of the powers
that helped to shape today .
VRDAN Tl\EES
(continued from p.15)
Recently at a conference on
Buncombe County ln the 21st Century,
Ian McHarg, noted author and landscape architect , emphasized the importance of incorporating the natural environment into the design of our
cities. Approximately 76% of Americans live in or near urban areas.
This figure will rise. As we purchase smaller homes on less or no land,
we instinctively turn to our urban
forests for that occasional respite,
for the reflection and solace we
sometimes desperately need in our
often crowded and hectic lives . Imagine New York City without Central
Park. Urban forests offer city folks
a wide variety of delights and benefits. In spite of unrelenting pressures for urbanization, 30% of the
surface area of an average U.S. city
is covered with trees. This is a
larger portion of forest cover than
is found in the typical countryside.
The proposed city arborist in the
Ordinance would facilitate the crucially importa:it integration of
sound urban forest planning and management with commercial and residential development.
In conclusion, as private citizens we have a responsibility to act
when there is no action. If we fail
to do so, we become the victims.
Your help in the passage of the tree
ordinance is critical. We need your
influence, your letters, your phone
calls . This is but a first step. We
can turn this thing around. ~
economic and cultural realities of
the Katclah province. Under contract
to the U.S . Forest Service, researchers Shelley Smith Mastran and Nan
Lowerre have docu~ented the federal
***
presence and the changes it has
"In the early days, only the largest
brought to Southern Appalachian
forestry and forest lands in the
and highest quality trees were cut:
course of the 20th century .
cherry, ash, walnut, oak, and yellowUnlike many goverument public(tulip) poplar, often as large as 25
ations, MOUNTAINEERS AND RANGERS
feet in circumference. Although it
is not a monotonous litany of
is difficult to imagine today, trees
alphabet agencies or a selfwere felled that were larger in diajustifying array of statistics
meter than an average man stands. Some
designed to def end an agency
portable sawmills were brought into
budget. Rather, the authors have
the mountains in the earlier years,
produced a book that is interesting
but logs from these enormous trees
and readable because they have
were usually transported to a'mill,
given attention to the existing
some miles distant, by horse, oxen,
forestry practices and cultural
or water . Typically, log splash dams
patterns in the area and, for better
were built on the shallow mountain
or wors~, the profound effect the
streams so that many logs could be
federal agencies have had on land
moved at one time. Logs were rolled
use and the mountain way of life.
into the lakes formed behind the dams,
UndLCStandably, they linger in
and with a buildup from rain or
the golden days of forestry in the·
melting snow, the.dams were opened to
Appalachians: the days of Teddy
let the logs cascade down the mountains.
Roosevelt, Carl Schenck, and
Prom wider places on the river,
Gifford Pinchot, when the Forest
Gi.1.6 Hado11.n, a ~i.den;t; 06 At.hetrees - as many as 40 to 120 at a
Service was young and "the district
ville, NC, htU> be.e.n a p!Llnci.pal. i.ntime - were lashed together to form
-ltla;to11. ht de.ve.i.op.ing a comp11.ehe.nranger • •• was the backbone of forest
rafts, which were piloted downriv~;~~
administration . " Forest rangers
1>i.ve Vi.ee. oJr.di.nanc.e. 601t hi.6 ~.
to the mills."
,P"'
at that time were crusaders - messengers bearing tidings of the young
science of forestry, of conservation and enlightened land use
to the mountain people. The days
of the CCC, when thousands of people
were gainfully employed at useful
conservation work during the
depression years is also emphasized,
but the book does not neglect discussions of the social impact of the
Forest Service's land acquisition
policies, the economic effects of the
federal government as landowner, and
the controversy surrounding the
RARE II proposals of the early
1980's .
The federal government has figured
so prominently in the history of
Katuah since the turn of the century,
that MOUNTAINEERS AND RANGERS offers
a good overview of the history of the
province and its forests during this
period . The book is extensively
annotated, and the bibliography alone
is an excellent guide to readings on
Southern Appalachia during this period.
There is a certain admiration and
nostalgia for the days when issues
were simpler, before Forest Service
"Aw, sheee-iit"
ethics became entangled in the
economics of the international
timber market , and when the rangers
Fall 1985
OS sgaq - Hf.~1/J.
�The publications listed below are
available from Appalachian Regional
Office, l.T.C.I.U.S.A,, lnc., Route
I, Gravel Switch, KY 40328. Prices
l isted include postage and handling
within the U.S.
PROPAGATION METHODS AND SOURCES FOR
UNCOMMON PERENNIAL FOOD PLANTS: A
LITERATURE REVIEW IN TABULAR FORM
Cregory Williams, 1983 (slightly
vised 1984), 49 pp., $6.00.
;e-
by Brian Caldwell
We are trying an intercropping
system that might be of utility on
other farns. On an 80 ft. by 90 ft.
test plot, we have planted raspberries in rows 15 feet apart (about
twice the usual spacing). In the rows
with the berry canes, we set young
Chinese chestnut trees every 15 feet.
The chestnut trees are mulched, weeded and fertilized along with the berries, which are allowed to grow close
beside the trees. Beds of vegetables
about 5 feet wide run between the
raspberry-chestnut rows.
This system is an attempt to
care for a succession of crops with
the least effort, while making good
use of space. We suspect that the
raspberries. grown without the use of
pesticides, have fewer problems with
fungal diseases due to the improved
air circulation of wide rows. It
seems reasonable to use the extra
space for vegetables. Because rasp-·
berry plantings typically last only
about 5-7 years because of virus problems, the chestnuts provide a crop
co "take over" after the berries.The
young trees require special care
(particularly weed control) for about
3 years after planting, yet bearing
begins on l y after about 5 years or
more.It does not make much sense to
invest the special care and space exclusively for the non-bearing trees
so we put them right in the berry
rows! They will not seriously compete
with the berries until the berries
are on the way out. The berry mulching and fertilizing are ideal fo r the
trees, and competition from the berries does not appear siRnificant.
Note that, with the use of mulch, it
is important to protect the tree
trunks from rodents with some sort of
guards.
Eventually. we will have a ~rove
of chestnut trees on a 15 feet by 15
feet spacing. This is too close for
mature t rel'!1. llowever. t hcse a re
seedlin~ trees, not ~rafts. and it is
likely that somt• will be poorer bearPrs than others.After about JS vears,
they will b~ thinned out, leaving
onlv the best. The aTea formerlv occ~
:'-\;'~'AH -
?ag~
ll
upied by raspberries and vegetables
will be sheep pasture. And the chestnut yield in the early years will
have been much improved over the
yield for trees originally planted on
a recommended spacing of 30 feet by
30 feet.
This system is appropriate for
many kinds of trees . Strawberries
could substitute for the vegetables,
but blueberries, gooseberries, asparagus, and rhubarb all last so long
that their total production as "raspberry substitutes" would be seriously
reduced by the trees.
Areas used for this system
should be free from perennial weeds.
fn our plot, we have had problems
only with the tarnished plant bug
and, at first, too low fertility for
high raspberry yields. An organic
fertilizer (about 20 pounds of N per
acre) placed beneath the mulch the
last two springs resulted in much
better growth of the fruiting canes.
The berries also benefit from vegetable fertilization .
Reprinted from Agroforestry Review.
Back issues available from: - - International Tree Crops Institute,
Appalachian Regional Office
USA
Route 1,
Gravel Switch, Ky. 40328
------ r-e.so-~ i.is~ : tyu U"op~ - - ~KS
ABOUT TREE CROPS:
TREE CROPS: A PERMANENT AGRICULTURE,
J. Russell Smith, Devin-Adair, New
York, 1953. Founding work for the
tree crops "movement"; somewhat dated, but worth reading to get excited
about the idea of a tree-based agriculture.
TREES FOR THE YARD, ORCHARD, AND
'"'OODLOT. Roger Yepsen, Jr. , editor,
Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
1976. Introductory chapters on landscaping. orcharding, nut trees. propagation, pest control, useful wild
species. maple sugaring. and woodlot
management.
NlIT TREE CULTURE IN NORTH AMERTCA,
Richard Jaynes, editor, NNGA, Hamden,
Connecticut, 1979. Very thorough and
authoritativt• reference--" the bib le"!
ACRISILVICULTURE FOR APPALACHIA: A
BIBLIOGRAPHY, Gregory Williams, 1979,
9 pp .• $2.00.
AGRlSILVICULTURE: A NECESSARY RENAISSANCE, Gregory Williams, 1979, 4 pp.,
$1.00.
TREE CROPS FOR SMALL FARMS IN APPALACHIA: PRELIMINARY PROPOSAL FOR RESEARCH, Flip Bell. John Pohlman,
Gregory Williams, 1977, 24 pp . , $4.00.
ENERGY-CONSERVING PERENNIAL AGRICULTURE FOR MARGINAL LAND IN SOUTHERN
APPALACHIA: FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT
Gregory Williams, 1982, 52 pp. , $8~00
HORTIDEAS, Published monthly, Subscriptions $10.00/yr. (U.S.)
SOME SOURCES OF HARD-TO-OBTAIN SEEDS
AND PLANTS FOR TREE CROPPING
CHESTNUT HILL NURSERY,Rt. 3, Box 477,
Alachua, Fl. 32615. Hybrid AmericanOriental chestnuts. Price list free.
DOUGLAS, Earl, Red Creek, NY 13143.
Hybrid American-O r iental chestnuts.
Send SASE for price list .
HIDDEN SPRINGS NURSERY, Route 14, BOX
159, Cookeville, TN . 38501 . Seedling
and grafted fruit and nut trees, including honeylocust. Price list free.
ITCIUSA APPALACHIAN REGIONAL OFFICE,
Route I, Gravel Switch, KY 40328.
Seeds and graf t wood of select honeylocust, black locust, and American
persimmon. Price list free.
JOHNSON ORCHARD & NURSERY , Route 5,
60x 325, E1ijay, GA 30540 . Mltoy peach
and nectarine cultivars, also graft~d apples. Catalog, $1.
LAWSON ' S NURSERY, Route I, Box 294,
Ball Ground, GA 30107. Many apple and
pear cultivars. Catalog free. ~
Special thanks to Greg Williams of
LT .c.r.u.s.A.
Ea-11 19a5
�....................................llllllll........... Wl4MIOOIOTOWILWIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
"T<•c '""'Y of our forebt .. rs and
lut'.U<·•ncri ti uk u tern•s of o fl'"
Cf'le,·t<!d "l*C'1es--whot tl.cy eel l
' iorf!ft trt'd Sl>t-ClE:s '--so that IJy
el in in<>t ion ol l other tr<-es oecor ••e
1
'A t!(•d V.pt!tie!i ..
The
1
'Afl'l•O Sf>eClt-C'
ron•<-~t ~act•lct th•t • •orcsttr
sl.ou le CJl'l r io of any t t ee Veil i eties
bul thl' few thc>t are currently ld.<Jh on
th<> 11... ikPl. Tl.is rnov.-s low.;1d ,, 110110C\.ll ur ,. prnct ice . l·•onocul tu re y1·owiny
ovi:rtaxe& the soil, exposes tlie crop
lrees Lo dun9er fron insec ts, disease,
er fire, •rad pUtb the landow11cr at the
n·l'rcy of • consta ntly fluctuat inc;
lll<O ):et..
"Tl 1t: t. t t::..~ Ven
i ~Lieb kuowu
lW~y db
'wef'd s 1>C'cies ' .. re ~.ir>l'lY trcei. thdt
we do not know how to use. Ev1:r~
Sl'(•ci<•s of tr<>e has j ts own pot..,11tial.
As an exd~plE: the dogwood tree i s not
tighly desira~le today, but 20 ye&rs
ago do9woud wat• one of the mo11t
valuabl~ wood~ in the forest.
It was
used to no~k.e textile shuttles, because
the wooo would wear slllO(>th and would
not pick the threads. Ever~· small town
had a dogwood mill wh~-~ voltt'r &a,.s
cul d09wood blocks irto squdre lo be
roade :uoto i.huttles. Because textile
blin ttlei; are now nade of COlll[>rt-sbed
wood or ~yr•tl1E:llc l'ldterials, do<;wood
h ..1< no n.iket today . But tl1a1 doc-s not
~"' tht: ..OO<; is cseless.
rt su I l lb
on( cf t hi! l:'est woods growir.<J. we
s1rnr•lr llO:t'cl :o fir•c where it C"11n Ii<·
l: Pt t used.
"1'h<•H .:n~ othe r woods in birrdlar
C' l r t·1Jn1! t nnc<'s.
M
1..ll.t1r ry j s " .. pl vr•t J d
woc1d ll•r i11lryi; . Sassafra .. wooo bot
bf'iJUI If l: I l ones tJ11d ... ) J I yi V<· C1f j i Is
1 l• a1.i1 <J odor for 50 Yl"<•I>. Silv~·th<•ll
ii; io 1•lai11 wood, but 1 t firii::l.1·~ "ell
"r1u car1 l l• la.&ec.! 1 r
t\Jt ri1 r
y wood
; r oductt!. l'lM'I, t.Jl..n l l i " white wood .
•r Uti(d 10 te ~01.11>0 .r 11,,. lntcl11•r
t Joor <•f o;v«r~ nt>u1:tdit1 r.•! lt , t..< rul•s•
INhl·n 1 t h•s sc.-nhbec "ith ""' <·r, ll
t1.rni'c1 ,, lt11lli<11~t wJ·ite, c.lr•<bt J.ke
. .. 111•• ~ lN> le1.111· !"locu . Fae-ti k a.c! c·~
\ Ood !w. l l ' (•WI ' C"hi•tdL t t-d!ol iCS . I
Jtt.l J~Vl
<i~'\'•
ti
•
jCioc;! sr:ioll
~Ut'ilP!·t
('C'l\.d\.O lll·
lUJ<'<> growing Sl't·c·icl wo,•dt- fM
(to next page)
KATUAP. - page 23
l8ll 1 ill.
SIVILCULTURE SIMPLIFIED
There are two major silviculture
practices, even-aged and uneven-aged.
Ir even-aged silviculturt a for~st is
cut complet.ely to the bt1re ground and
a r.ew forest is started with seedlings
or sprouts from cul trees . An unevenaged forest contains trees of all age
and size classes a11d n• be of one or
ay
111any sJ,Jecit-s, as ir. the case with
hardwoods . It is harvested perioeically by cutting a portion of the
trees, usually the n~ture trees or
trees of poorer quality.
Even-aged s1l1;iculture is more
coll1Itl0n with tie pinet-, firs, spruce,
and other coniferous tr<·es, although
it has been practiced i r. recent years
on harc!woods.
Even-aged silviculture can be
accornplished by clearcut.Ling the
forest in blocks or in strips , the
latter bEing known ab the shelterwood
system . The size of the cuttings
varies from entire mountainsides to
sruall blocks of 20 to 40 acres, or
strips a few hundred feet wide that
run ir. parallel bands or wind with the
contour on steeper land. After clearcutlin9, a ne .. for1:st must be established. Nature will generally do this
by seedlings or seeds left on the
forest floor or from sprouts growing
Croni cut stems. Humans can change this
by planting sceolings of the tree
species thal lhey desire.
After a few yl'ars, the clearcut
area grows up thickly with thousands
of seeolings and sprouts and usually
needs a cleanir.g to release the
desired trees. This is usually done
mechanically with tools, but can be
done .. ith hArbicides th<at poi&on the
unwanted sten.s. Fire can only be used
after the trees gro..· larger, and some
speci E.'s can wHhstand heat that will
kill others. After 20 to 40 years a
thinning cut lb made to harvest some
pulpwood-sized trees while leaving the
Detter trees for the final crop. The
final crop of trees is harvested when
rnat ure, usu.;lly 60 LO 80 years, and
tt,en the cycle is repedted.
Unever.-ac;ec! silviculturE: maintains
a gra..ing forest o f all ages and size
classes at all tines . Jt is much CJOre
~ifficl.ilt to practice and necessitates
p1cfessic.nal i;k1lls t hat require a
ful. 1rno.. Jedg<' of trc•t species , soils,
,,nd tt>eir intt-rrf\lationbhl.f•S. It also
i-«qvire!- t he kno.. ledge to grade tree
•1u.,) lly .>ml o htl J undcrstondi ny o!
tla•
fut tlCI' lire.ducts .
al'l'l ic:.ltion o~ thu Silvi-
noarkE·t~·
Tl e
cultural r.iethod is by ha rvesting ,
preferably for sale, bu~ sornt.ti1u~s as
a non-commercial operatior. to improve
a forest 1otand.
Harvesting can be by the single
tree selection method or by 9roup
selection. The latter is more practical and often rl turns the highest
product dividends .
Jn sin9le tree selection, the
!ore1oter marks individual trees that
are mature, or trees of lower quolity
thot ahould be removec for the im
vr~ved growth of better quality trees.
Removing these trees must be done very
carefully to avoid damaging the trees
to be left for future harvests .
In group selection, an attempt is
111ade to harvest several trees fairly
close together to open up a sizeable
area , letting sunlight enter to give
young trees a start . The area size
depends on the nature of the timber ,
topography , and other facton,, and
usually is not over an acre in size.
Group selection makes harvestin9
easier.
Thinning is a form of selective
cutting and is applied when forest~
become too thick and tree growth slows
down. "Thinning from above" means
taking out the more mature trees and
releasing the smaller ones . "Thinning
from below" is taking out trees that
have been suppressed or are of poor
form and giving the larger and better
quality trees less competition so they
can maintain a high growth rate while
adding on high quality wood .
Selective cutting can be a
coinbina tion of several of the above
methods, the main purpose being to
maintain a growing , viable forest of
many species (especially in bardwoods), many age classes, and several
size classes. Cutting cycles are
usually 10 to lS years apart .
In selective cutting , there is an
opportunity to favor wildlife by
leaving a certain number of den trees,
dnd trees producing hard mast, like
hickory and oak, even though their
product value may be questionable.
There is also an opportunity to
favor aesthetics and recreational
pursuits when selective cutting by
JUciciously leaving unusual trees
L~cause of size , species, or rarity .
--Walton P. Smith
�WALOEE FOREST
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ AMFOllESTDWBURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
cont . from page 23
Walton looked up at the young
poplars as if to check their yrowth
and then turned awa~.
"We recently had a little tornado
in here," he said as we wound our way
along the trail again, "and it blew
down six white pine . l wasn't aol~ to
get to them before, but we recently
built a road in here, and now J can
recover them.
"A road is the first thing that a
landowner needs to think about if he
or she is considering forest management . There has to be access , no
matter what kind of management practice one is going to undertake.
Roadbuilding has got to be done right .
Building the roads is wha t causes most
of the erosion damage and tree damage
associated with logging operations .
"I can now get to over 80\ of this
150 acres for thinning and harvesting
operations . This has cost me $4,000
over a period of 16 years . These are
not gr aveled roads; they are woods
roads with grassy banks . They have
culverts and are not eroding . AlJ J
have to do is go over them twice a
year with a bush- hog mower . J don ' t
think that represents unreasonable
expense or maintenance .
"Clearcutting on a larye scale
requires a road built on 6 inches of
rock and gravel to get in a cable rig
and a tractor-t r ailer to haul the
timber . That's why it cost the Forest
Service one-half million dollars to
put in a six mile road on the mountain
above us . I couldn't get a tractorACORN •••
cont'd
61tOm p . 19
by steeping l oz. of the inner bark
powder in l pint of water (dosage l
~sp. four times a day) is effective
for diarrhea and dysentery . It can
be used as a gargle for sore throat,
or as an external wash for cuts and
wounds and poison ivy, Jethro Kloss
(Back To Eden) reports that the unleachc'd""acorn powder resist the venom of poisonous snakes and spiders.
The decoction is also a good ingredient in ene.mas for colonic cleansing .
In using t he food and medicine of
the oak, let us always remember our
trees with gifts - gifts of thanks
trailer ng ir. on this roac!, but lhe
<lifference is thcrt 1 log ,.jt h a ch., in
saw and a wir.ch on I lie front. E111<l o!' /1
jeep. A Sl!lal l ldnclowner is workiny on
an entirely different scale."
As we continued our walk, Walto11
said, "We ' re goir.g by another s.Lc1nu of
young fraser fir 1 'rr 9ro1dn9 for
Christmas trees . I try lo h<tv., lt•..,Sf'
areas clean·cl by h<1nd rather tl1<rn
spraying then. witl• poisonous sprays .
Jf I went simply by economics, it
would pay to buy the chemicals ancl
spray poison to keep the sptct.>ts d(,wn,
but there ' s too niuch gooci Wdter up
here to do 1.hcrt . I'd rathE:r spf:nd a
tittle extra time ond effort a11a avoic
the poisons .
"l know of farms that have been
passed down in the same family for
generations . I ' d li~e to see forests
treated like that as well. It takes SO
and prayer for the spirit, the Creator behind the spirit and the knowlege to use these things wisely,
gifts of cedar, sage or tobacco to
nourish the body and spirit of the
tree that nourishes us . In doing so,
we may become like the oaks , the
standing people, with our feet firmly planted in the Ear tr. Mother, our
trunks strong and flexible in the
fiercest of winds, our branches
reaching for the heavens, accepting
the light and warmth of the sun,
turning it into food and medicin~
that our people may live .
y~ars to g~I. ever) t loir g "'orlur y t l<;hl.
We ' re jusl now <J"'ttin~ tlin<J& lO "'<a·k
.r.Hjht
bete . "
Thundttt rut l• l fd i r. ti<· wi;st.
Wal tor. qi.i cker1E'd tis E ...c< .. s 11E'
,. tc1 rl Eid up tie f i na J grc.ue towards the
hOUSE'.
"} f<ttt} thf-t(''li CJnt tlt~J ,y Wl' t'nVe
to offer," le SblO tloughtfully.
"\\e've wotkea 011 ll1J.!O vlace for 47
yc•s1·s now, anC: l ti ink we h .. ve
dev ... lopi=C: a n•ociel tv show sornt
principles lhat coUd be cc1rried out
on a
lary~t sc~le.
"Quite .. (e-. ~ tudents <:<Jr.•e h•·re . l
91"e th .. r. tl1i~ sa~1e tour, and tl1ey ,;e•
ti. is pl ii CE', ul\C: N1ny Of then Jl?dVC'
with the &onoe c;,ut fecd1n9 that ""
l.cive; that there ' s a .b~tttr way to
1.-.rnage lhis App.. lachian tinberland. "
Lat.er , as we &ot i" the l.ouse
Wdtchir.y the rain 1.>C•Und tl•e wirdows
out~ide, Walton said, "Jf son•l'Ollt- ii.
driviny by oro tt.e h\!,hwdy , Jookir9 al
the forest, it odght look dense , dark
und scart-y--full o~ bears and :maker; .
Th~ edqe of tht forest is like a
walled barrier that turns away mur•y
people who aren ' t fc101Jli1>r -.i1.h thtforest.
"But once one bn•oks throuyh tl:f:
edge anC: 9ets in .. mong the trr•es, one·
can see the forest. Jt can't be &een
from the out.Eide . Jt becomt>s "n
entirely different place con•pated to
loow it appenred from the ldyhw.,y . lt's
a place of beauty . A good 1.>lace to
be--a qood place to live. ~
Necorded by D. W.
...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•
~a~0
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hand screened in 5 colors
on the finest 100%
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rl
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Red-foiled Howle 0 Ecru Q Silver CJ Ton ""'" ' •: AqeA...,., N101nl•
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,,
KATUAfl - page 24
MALAPROP'S
BOOKSTORE/CAFE
BOOKS -
CARDS -
RECORDS
6 1 HAYwooO ST. ASHElllU.E. N C. 28801
704-2!14-S734
Fall 1985 .
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WlAMOOESTDWrUIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .
.
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A CHILDREN'S PAGE
Compiled by Karen Paquette
KATUAH KIDS TALK ABOUT THEIR FAVORITE TREES
l
Erin, age 7:
The Black Walnuts in my yard are mine
I like to climb them. Once I climbed
one and wouldn' t come down - I
ate my dinner up there until the bugs
bit me too badly. I felt safe up there it was like my mother.
Shane, age 11:
,
I like the big poplars on Standing
Indian and I would like to visit the
Redwoods . They both have a lot of
history behind them. Today some
varieties of trees are dying out
because of acid rain and bugs like
weevils.
Some people in the world are not
fortunate to have trees , like in the
African deserts and the Sudan region.
We need to share our knowledge of
tree culture as well as appreciate
our own trees mor e and take care
of them
Drawing by Savannah
Shinnah, age 7:
I like the Weeping Willow tree
because I like the way it leans over
with its branches and I like the name it tells what this tree is like . It
makes me feel good to look at it.
It likes to grow near water so its
roots can grow down into the ground
and get water from the creek . It
only cries in winter because it doesn ' t
get much sun and it smiles in the
summer time .
In Haiti they ruined all the trees and
it became a desert. Everyone in
the world must learn to conserve
trees and plant more like on t ree
farms . Clearcutting is not right if we don ' t have trees we will have
problems . Trees provide shelter
for birds and animals and prevent
erosion .
Emily, age 3:
I
like trees because they are pretty .
1 also like apple trees because they
have food on them. Apples have lots
of vitamin C in thero, they make me
happy.
Jason, age 8:
There used to be a lot of American
Chestnuts but they got the Chestnut
blight. I see them lying down in
the woods and I miss them . We still
have the Chinese Chestnuts though, only
they are different
Trees are good for people. They
give us firewood , boards , paper and
food . We ' ve got to save trees
~chuh
;
KATCAH -
Fall 1985
page :?5
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~aaq
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llhJ IAA
�..
----111!1--------~----.--- Wl-fOllQTDWW.OIS
____________________..
11
'~~~~~~11rr~1~t 1.~;~~i111~11:1l\~1·~~~~~~:!~:;~~~:i:~1~ ~,~~~~~~~~~~;~~~
1
I
j·\\h•I
lj I'l I
which i..tJt.uck me a.& be-Uig the. co.Ue.ct.i..ve
vo.lc.e 06 all. thohe. de.ad and dy.lng 6-iM
j~
and pi.nu , i.1Wt-g11.e.y wUh an anc.ie.nt
I mObb g11.owing 611.0m thW. bkel.e.ta.l 11.ema..i.n.6
I
like. a be.a1t.d would g.11.0W 611.0m the. clun 06
a 111C1n only Hcond.6 dead ... And w.Uh .the.
V1
aLUUte.nub 06 the. ' p11.uence' alt.o came a
'voice'-- a 6e.e..t.lng- which bpoke. .to me
w.Uh i.u.ch an au.11.a 06 c.a.lm and w<.bdom
continued from page 3
that goobebu.mpA (wha.t .the old moun.ta..i.n
6olli .LJt .thue moun.ta..i.n4 had call.e.d
and li.6 e.lub lln4 .the. land.6 c.a.pe. be.com.i.ng
"glolt!J bu.mP6" a.& 1 lln4 gllOIAl(.ng u.p, a
.tha.t OUll. CJJJVi..ob.(,ty bee.a.me., Ve.Juj quickly, boy . .. I JU1lt all. u.p o.n.d down my CZIU!l4, a.&
mo11. 06 a 6e.el.i.ng 06 oveJr.Whe.lm.lng btlll.1 walke.d 611.om .the. p:WWtg lot up .the.
pll.iA e. and conce.11.n a.& .the. •ha.iJILi.ne.' o 6
h.lU and .<.n.to what had once. be.en '.the.
.the. 6Olte.6.t !00.6 not only '.th.lnn.lng ' , but,
wood6 '. . •
.LJt 6ac.t, 'bal.d.lng' a.& we. 11.eache.d .the.
What .th.iA 'voice o 6 M.che..typa.t knoiulng '
.topl
UXl.6 .te.U.lng me UXl.6: .that .the ex.tent 06
Reaching .the. bu.nmlt 06 .the moun.ta.i.lt, a.&
.the deva.&.t.a..t.lon I UXl.6 He.i.ltg and 6eet.i.ltg
we. .twtne.d .thoi.e la4.t couple. 06 be.nd.6 .LJt
i.o deeply lln4, in 6ac.t, a v.iA.lble 'b.lgn'
.the. 11.0ad, what !CXt6 tu«tU.lng tL.6 «n4 - and i..t.a..te.me.nt made by .the i.p(.JL(..t 06 .thue
Jtathe.11. .than a .tlvume. -like. v.iA .to. IJ.lttLi,t.tll.eu 1 ~ be.e.lng a.& 'de.ad'. That .th.iA
.lng .the. ll.e..ttLll.n 06 ' .the. god.6' -- a .6Ce.ne.
baCJte.d and ve.11.y publi..c. place had be.en
06 de.va.6.t.a..t.lon only compaJt.D.ble. .LJt my
choben by .the. bpi.JL(..t6 06 human, bea6t,
m.i.11d .to .<.magu 06 NagMak.l and H.lll.oi.h.ll!ICl and vege..ta.t.lon, to lllClke. a bold bta.teme.n.t
1 had been in 6.llm6 and p(.c.twte booki. .
to .thobe. human be..lngi. i..t.Ul ~ng
He.11.e. on .th.U powe11.6ul and baClte.d mouna.11.Dund .LJt .thobe. holUlU .the.y ca.Ue.d
.to..i.n we. we.11.e. being g11.e.e..te.d by an a11.my
'bod.lei.'. That .t.lte dev.uta.t.lon 06 .th.iA
06 g11.e.y-ghob.te.d boul4 06 a d.iAembod.le.d
9e.og11aph.i.c landmo.11.k v.lb.Ued by .tholUland.6
'11ace.' ... TholUland.6 06 de.ad .tll.e.u! "The.
06 toUll..iA.t.6 and na.t.lvu each yeJVr., lln4
Cltown 06 CJtea.t.lon", I .thought bMCa.&.tall.owed a.& a b.i.gnboall.d, a.& a tlWUl.i.ng, o 6
.i.call.y .to mYJ>el.6. "So .thiA .iA .the. gi6.t
.the. be.ve.11..ittj 06 .the. .imbalancu .that ex06 'WJ.jutJ.1' bu.towed upon .the. g11.e.a.t
.l6.te.d .LJt .the. na..twi.a.t woltld a..t .the. ltandi.
'k.lngb' 06 .the na.twt.a..t kingdom! How .the
06, a.& a 11.uuU 06, .the. bhoJLt-i..lgh.te.d
EaJLth be.kn.i.g h.t6 heA 'IUVIJl.ioll.6', .thob e
.th.i.ltk.lng and VXJ.Yb o 6 .thob c now living
.that Stave 4tlltv.i.ve.d and Jt..i.6e.11, .i.n pl!..lde. o6
accompU&hme.nt, .to buch g11.e.a.t 'he..lgh.t.6' ! " on .the. eall..th. So cle.M !00.6 th.iA mu Mg e. 1 !CXt6 11.e.ce..lv.i.ltg .tha.t U al.mob.t
A6 my .11.ational m.i.nd .took ove.11. 611.om my
We.11.all.y began .to .to.Ile. on both vo.i.ce.
emo.t.lo ~ , .tll.y.i.ltg to .<.n.te.Ue.c.tuaU.z e. .the
and language. a6 1 11.eache.d .the. .top 06
pou.lble. c.a..u.6e.(b I, .tlte. 1tea6on6 'why' ,
.the. mountain and a be.cl.u.de.d .lUtt.e
6011. ~ 'gho4.tltj clea11.Cut', .th.iA 'unclea.IL(.ng whe.11.e. T .&t.te.nde.cl to do a
na..twi.al' d.iAa.&.te.11., me.mo.IL(.u 06 bto.IL(.u
i..<.mple. Uttle. ce.11.e.mony 06 .thankJ>g.i.vand newh-11.epoll.U I'd heall.d, about how
.i.ltg:
.the. 'acid IUlht' UXl.6 beg.i.lt~ .to .to.ke.
"The. i..lgn6 he.11.e. been by a.U
U4 .to.fl. on .the. .tlt.e.u .i.n .the. h.lghe.11.
wU.l i.how .thobe. cuJL(.olJJl people 06
el.e.va.ti.on.6, c.a.me. .to m.i.nd. And iulthout
bc.ie.nce. .the. widup11.e.ad e.v.ldence. 06
any o.thvr. known pobb.lb.lUt.lu a6 1te.Mon6 ,
.the. e.x.te.nt o 6 .thw own du .tJt.uc.ta6 c.a..u.6e, 6011. all. .th.iA 6011.u.t laid to
.lon. 06 .the. compounded nc. lui.e 06
l\n4.te., the. I Jta..in I e.a4il.lj and qui.ckty 1
1
~ ~
1
I
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I
I
liQJIC
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KA n'AB - page 26
I
I
S
I
1 1
JIUl.t a.& poW.y .u, the he.al.Utg
a.&pec.t 06 language, i.o .iA .U .<.mpoJLtan.t people. took to .the.ut bod.lei. and
m.i.nd.6 wUh 11.egall.d .to he.alih and 1
be..ing. To 6oCIUl .thW. pe.11.6onal and
co.Ue~ve goal.6 on the. qu.a..Uty and
longe.v.Uy 06 eu'.4.te.nce, and the.ut
o.IL(.ginal an~ na..tWl.al b.lll..th.IL(.gh.t, be.yond death. It .iA he.11.e., .ln .thue
WOJJ4, .that .the heaUng a.&pec.t6 06
'.the Cltea.t.lve' i.e.11.ve .to .ln6u.11.e. you.11.
H11.6e. 06 pe.11.6e.ct.i..on, .thll.Ough tonge.v.Uy, o.11d .the con.t.i.ltua.Uon o 6 an
a66.i.ltm.Utg and v.ltal 6u.twt.e.! The.
jou.11.ne.y 06 hwnank.lnd a11.ound .the
baCJte.d c.iltcle. 06 U.6e. w<.U b.IL(.ng
a.U, 6.lnall.y, .ln.to .the. 6M.u.t o 6
.the. 11.eg.lon 06 un.lve.11.6al. con6c.io1Ul· nub and awa11.enu.6. A place whe.11.e.
.the b.lg .tll.e.u gll.Ow. The hiding
placu 06 .the unknown, and .the
'be.yond'. What one. dou he.11.e. among.6.t '.the. o.11c.ient onu' depend6
upon what one. ha.& done t\IUh idte.11.e
one. ha.6 been be.60.lte.. How one ha.6
bu..i.U and completed tlte 'g11.oundwo11.k', .the. wo11.k iulth 'boil' , in
.the. pllev-i.olUl expe.JL(.encu 06 one' .6
'joU11.ne.y'. He.11.e. among the old
.tll.eu , one bll..lngb one.' b IUIWl.e.nub o 6 who one. .l6 .i.ltto JL(.gh.t .'leta.t.lon6h.lp 1
\IUh the. un.i.ve.11.6al
bcale. 06 .the bp.lll.(.,tua.l-ph116.<.cal
rnall./L(.age bha1te.d .lnhe.11.e.ii.tf.tJ -<.n .the.
concept 06 .the. God-11.e.al.lze.d One.nub among all .th.lngi.! lri bO do.i.ng one. comu 6u.U-c.lll.c1e. .to one' b
.tJt.ue beg.ltuU.ngi., and .iA 'Home.' .
GODack now, and .te.U th.iA to all.
IJOU know... "
Th.iA th e.n, .iA what 1 have. be.en . Th.iA
1 ha~e. been -told. To i.hall.e. w.Uh IJOU.,
a.U, whom 1 know. Th-IA mui.age. 611.0m
.the. vo.lce. 06 .the 'acid Jta.i.n' ••.
- - -Thoma6 Rain CMwe.
Fall 1985
�................................................Wl""'"*"DWILLllll................................................
Milw~ukee
• C,leveltm::l
continued from page J
thac thc1 causes of tree dicback h.src
in K
atuah as wc1ll as in thc northc1rn
Appalachians and the Black Forest of
Wast C.sn:iany (where JO of all tr•n
ra ~ardlc1Ss of elevation are dying)can
be attributed to two general claa$i
ficatioos of anthropogenic(human-madc)
pollution: acid rain and at1D03phcric
dc1position.
Acid rain is arbitrarily defin.sd
as any precipitation having a Ph lass
than S.6 (7 i s n.sutral), since this
is thc1 Ph wh.sra atmoshperic C02 combines with water in the air to form a
dilute solution of carbonic a cid .
Human mad.s sources o f acid substances
are a r~ult o f t he living standard
of highly industrialized countries.
'Ibey include auto exhaust, industrial
c<mmissions from s~lters and fossil
fuc1l c1adssions from c1lcctrica l gc1narating plants. Some of the acidic compounds arc sulfur dioxide (S02) , nitrous oxides (HN03) , hydrogc1n chloridc1,
and hydrogen fluoride.
1besc1 compounds arc rc1laased into the atmosphc1ra and are widely disP•rsed by continental air fl<M. According to Or. Bruck and others, the
mountai •. foraats of Katliah , acting
like giant "scrubbers " , c harly racc1ivc very high ratci.s of acidic deposit ion. 'Ibis is largely due to t he
geographic c1ffect of increasing ratll!I
of p rc1cipitatioo as air masses are
forcc1d to go up aud over high mountains. fin additional source of acidic
deposition is simply cloud water interception by trees, as the tops of
the mountains are often bathed in
clouds passing by . Studies of these
clouds and precipitation rates in the
northern Appalachians show chat mow1tain tops receive four times more
acidic deposition than lower elevations.
11l•r• a r e many effc1cts of acid
rain on treclS and the soil in which
they livc1. 8v overwhclminr th• natural soil Ph balance and causing a
more acid soil, aluminum, a metal
which is toxic to trees, is released
and mad¥ available for uptake by
trc1e roots.
Atmospheric deposition can be
defined as the combined anthropogenic (human-caused) pollutants falling back on Mother Earth. It is composed of assorted noxious effluvia
includin~ ozone, heavy metals such
as lead (from gasoline combustion
and lead arsenate pesticides) , coppcr
from smcllters and nitrogen compounds.
According to those study in~ the
dlehacks , there i s not enough data
to c learly point fingers and say that
a particular pollutant coming from a
1'..a rti cular source l s caus in~ apec l K.Arl:AH - page :'.!7
fie damage to tra•a in Katiiah.
It is Or. 8ruck's contention
that there may be a "stress syndrome" whereby various combinatioos
of these toxic substances may be
causing t he diaback . Experlmentall~
in the lab Or . Bruck has studied the
affects of acid run from nitrogen
and sulfur sources. He has discovered severe suppression of the symbiotic fungi known as mycorrhizae
which help the trees' roots derive
nutrition from tha soil . Bruck believes that the suppression of mycorrhizae (up to 50%) has led to severe supprassioo of tree root growth
which may be causi.n g th• retarded
growth obs erved in the trae ring borings. Alandog as these reductions
appear to be, the question still remains: Is it reducad ring growth that
is causing the trees to die?
Exploring f urthar under the
soil mantle where the treas' roots
are bound inseparably with the lifegi ving mycorrhizae Bruck has found
an extre~ly high accumulation of
lead, particularly on slopes which
face into the predoadnaot winds. Levels of lead ara three to seven times
higher on top of Ht. Mitchell than in
urban Asheville soil. Studies revd&l
that there is alraady as much as two
grams or 1DOre of lead per square met-
Sources of Sulfur Dioxide (SOJ ~nd Nitrogen
Oxides (NO,) In North Caroli~
so,
620,000 Ions/yr.
-
Ublot•
WIND ROSE for Asheville, NC
er in the forest soils at high elevatiooa ! Most studics on the toxicity
of lead have focused an human beings,
h<Mevar some studies have bean performed on microorganisms and planta.
These studies clearly indicate direct
metabolic effects in all life fora111.
These studies also shOW-a marked reduction in species diversity of adcroorganisma in the soil and on leaf surfaces . When lead and acidity (under
Ph 5) vars combined in ooa study, a
profound effect oo the mobilization
and utilization of lead was noticed.
Certain species of mycorrhizae ware
inhibited in soils that ware acid and
contained lead while those same sp•cias of lll)'corrhizae ware present in a
lass acidic soil with lead.
Like the canaries used by miners
to warn of impending danger our treas
are a kind of environmental litmus.
lbat litmus is giving an acidic reading threatening life as we know it.
The. e.nv.ili.onme.n.ta.l co114e.que.nct.6 oG
tong .teMI col!4wnption and ~.te. aJLt
combtg home.. Whil.e. the. 1>~.t4
plod c.au,Uo1J.1;.t.y .in mowita.01 cemeteJt.tu 1>t11J1.Ch.ing 60.11. 1>pec..i.6.ic knowledge
o& .the. IUU.t11. m.i.l>.t, we. 46 ch.i.J.dlte.n
o 6 Motht11. Ellll.th mlJ.4.t l>eaAch de.tpllJ
wltkin 60.11. a "p.Ur,Uua..t. d.U:tg no1>.l6 46
we.U. T.11.e.u M.e. OU.It gucw.Li.all4 and
OWi. .te.acheJt.6, .theq g~ve com6oll-t and
wl.6e. cou111>ei and .the.y aJLe. ca.lUng
out .to each 06 IJ.4 NOW 6.11.0m de.adt.IJ
1>IV1.Du.d4 06 m.i.l>.t. We. can no tongtll.
ign0.11.e .tlte. de.g1U1.d.Utg e.66e.ct 06 oWt
14UIJI> o 6 Uv.ing.
OU.It Uvu 111tt bound i..n.6e.pa11.abty
.to .the. .tli.e.u. 1n .th.U. c1.c1> e.d. e.cotog.ic.al. 1>y1>.tem we. Uve. .in, the..<A du.tJW.ct.i.on .inl>Wtu oWt du.tJwcwn. Tl1e.
1>e.aJtch 6011. knowt.e.dge. and a ".te.cltnotog.ic.al. 6.i.x" w.Ul ne.vt11. .11.e.place. 1te." pe.ct a.t. we. .intt11.t1ct w.i..th Moth eJt
Ellll.th.
by Michael Red ~
Fall 198)
~ >:)J.·F. -
~ 1,~
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MA~fOIOUTDWEUEllS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .
26
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Patrick Ball (Celtic harp)
McDibbs
12 Cherry St.
12
ASHEVILLE, NC
Asheville Ethnic Festival
Montford Park
Call (704) 253-3714
28
I
CULLOWHEE, NC
Mountain Heritage Day
(traditional music, country dancing, crafts, exhibits, tobacco spitting)
Western Carolina University
12
UUFF MOUNTAIN
SEPTEMBER
A REGIONAL EXHIBIT
PRODUCED BY THE MEMBERS OF
111E APPALACHIAN CONSORTIUM
MUSEUM COOPEBATIVE
Opening night: September 12
Talk by Wilma Dykeman
Founders ' Auditorium, 7:00 pm
Public showing:
September 13 - Januar y 23
Western Carolina University
13
13-15 TOCCOA, GA
Earth Stewardship Seminar
Christian perspectives on
ecology. $95
Elevent h Colllllandment Fellowship
540 Oakland Ave. SE
Atlanta , GA 30312
14
October - November
CHEROKEE, NC
" Cherokee Sculptor" - Carl
Lloyd Owle
Center of Cherokee Heritage
20-22 BLACK l()UNTAIN, NC
Black Mountain Pall Festival (traditional music)
Grey Eagle and Friends
Call (704) 669-2456
21
Fall Equinox
~- ·"-'TUAll
-
page 28
CHEROKEE, 1~C
Cherokee Indian Fall
Festival (Indian dancing,
stickball, chestnut bread,
crafts , exhibits)
Ceremonial Grounds
2
WILLIS, VA
" Native American Teachings" AmyLee, Iroquois teacher and
apprentice medicine woman
Indian Valley Holistic Center
Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis, VA
Willis, VA 24380
4-8
ASHEVILLE, NC
" Rel ping Women Win : A Candidate Training School for
Women" - League of Women
Voters
Call (704) 258- 8223
5
BONAS DEFEAT GORGE
(Jackson County)
Day hike with NC Nature
Conservancy. $5. 00
Ann Mciver
130 Carr St.
Chapel Rill, NC 27514
MOSHEIM, TN
First Annual Organic Harvesters ' Festival
Call (615) 422-7769
20-22 CLAYTON, GA
NATURE'S DOLLAR WORKSHOP:
A look at the real price of . .
.• forest, soil, watershed &
wildlife management, land
use, pollution, etc . •• translating these key mountain
issues into the language of
nature's dollar.
"Comparing human accounting
with nature's accounting, the
monetary dol lar is an incomplete and unrealistic measur e of the value of things."
Friends of the Mountains
Rt.2, Box 2306-A
Clayton, GA 30525
(404) 782-2657
Asheville, NC
CropWalk against hunger
Call Sally Bridenstine,
(704) 254- 5072
13
DEEP CREEK Swain Co. , NC
Katuah Fall Gathering See notice next page
14
BEAR HUNTING SEASON OPEijS
Beat the bushes ! warn Yona
of the danger
OCTOBER
1-5
"In exam.ln.<.ng .the meanlng~ 06 .the
6oJl£4t, we JLeaUze .tha.t. .the Appa.ta.c.h.la.n 601Lut .iA not jUJ.t a. na.twta.l
.to.ndl>ca.pe, ,U .iA a. cuUwu:il ta.nd.6c.a.pe. • • • • In .6.tli.dy.Uig .the 6oJLUt,
we .f.ea.ltn a.bou.t oWtcS e.lvu . . . • . "
(Avery County)
Day Rike $5. 00
NC Nature Conservancy
See 10/5
5-6
BRASSTOWN, NC
12th Annual Fall Festival
(Craft s fair, performances)
John C. Campbell Folk School
Rt. l
Brasstown , NC 28902
Call (704) 837-2775
. ..
a:
·~·
18-20 Willis, VA
" Our Stories - Ourselves Louise Kessler, storyteller
Indian Valley Holistic C'tr.
Pre-register. See 10/2
19
ROAN MOUNTAIN
(Mi:tchell County)
Fall color hike. $5 . 00
NC Nature Conservancy
See 10/5
19
BANNER ELK, NC
Banner Elk Wooly Worm
Festival
21
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
" Forests and Trees of the
Smokies" - field school
Non-Credit Prograns
2016 Lake Ave.
Knoxville, TN 37996
11-13 BRASSTOWN, NC.
Fall Craft Weekend
(workshops)
also
Chamber Music Houseparty
John C. Campbell Folk School
See 10/5-6
12
SPRUCE PINE , NC
8th Annual Art Auction
(includes tour of craftspeoples ' studios in Celo area)
Toe River Ar ts Council
Call (704) 682-7215
12
ASHEVILLE , NC
Visit of delegation of
Soviet women - sponsored by
Peace Links
Call (704) 258-8223
•••
~·
17-20 Highlands, NC
. •
Fall Landscape Workshop
(photographic exploration of
Highlands area) Tuition $100
Highlands Biological Station
P.O. Drawer 580
Highlands , NC 28741
25-27 BRASSTOWN, NC
Fall Dance Weekend (workshops
in English country dance including Garland and Northwest Morris, also contra and
square dancing)
John C. Campbell Folk School
See 10/5-6
26-27 GRF.AT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
Mt . Leconte overnight hike
See 9/21
31
Samhain Celebration
�. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WlAMrollESTDWBUM. . . . . . . . . .1111111. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .
NOVEMBER
BRASSTOWN, NC
60th Anniversary Party of
the Campbell Folk School
See l0/5-6
2
"SWORN TO FUN"
9-lO WILUS, VA
Massage Workshop Libby Outlaw
Indian Valley Holistic Center . Pr e-register.
See 10/2
16-17 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
Winter Highcountry Camping
See 9/21
s,~..alJll {j De~ .J>luxk .J>(a.<. 1111·
~·1.(i 6 P<1fartr_11 Bal<v1<"1•· •
C...rfi..·d
'M:«j Dr'VujJl
Sol.·~
255-TQ~
t/.2~15.li
Special thanks to Judith Hallock
Nov . 2-3
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Learning to Focus on Life" - seminar
Dr. Scout Lee , part Seminole Indian,
author, therapis t, professor, lecturer, comedian, mystic visionary, and
master game player
Offering experiences to develop creativity, courage, power, love, and fun
Pre-register: Cat Gilliam
16 Lookout Dr .
Asheville, NC 28804
(704) 254-8140
3-16
9
BRASSTOWN, NC
Fall Craft and Rome Week
(Blacksmithing, tool sharpening, weaving, quilting,
ax handles, wind energy
turbine construction)
John C Campbell Polk School
See 10/5-6
Georgia Organic Growers '
Association Fall Conference
For information, contact:
Deborah Pelham
1185 Bend Cr eek Trail
Suwanee, GA 30174
l \\. BURLESO
N
November
I 3
October
4 6
Meditation in Action -
K.'""''
A
YO!!<' Weekend, With the
Southern Dh,,rm., St~rr
II
14
18 23
2S 27
A lfiking Meditation Wnkend foll Color l>oscm.oery. With JOHN ORR
An Intens ive Meditation Re trea t With JACQUELINE S. MANDELL
Yoga in the Iyengar Tntdillon W11h ULLAH SCHWARTZ
@
8 . 10
15 17
22 24
Joy and laughter · Finding Your
Inner Child - With HARRIET ELDER
A Weekend of Tibetan Buddhist
Meditation - With JON BARBIERI
A New View of Ancient Astro logy With HARRIET M1LLER
Neuro·Lin.guistic Programming -
With MIKE BUCKNER
Dec. 28 · A New Year's Meditation Intensive Jan. 4 With JOHN ORR
Southern Dharrna Retreat Center is located in a remote area of the Smoky
Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. For further information about
Southern Dharrnaorabout any of the programsabove,call(704)622 7112,or
254·1351. or wnte;
SOUTHERN DHARMA RETREAT CENTER
Rt . I, Box 34-H
Hot Sprmgs, NC 28743
~ &Co. ~
~~ . . . --<-._
~
he rbs, native plants, perennials,
flowers, fruit trees, bulbs,
bedding plants.
80 lake&ide Drive
8/ IOths of a mile from Hardee'•
in Franklin, N.C.
for informatio n call 524-3321
SOLAR HOUSE WITH
C~USE
area near Franklin. Passive
solar w
ith cedar siding and tria, win·
dow quilts, tromb wall. $68,500, negotiable financing. Call 524-3321
during business hours.
Fall 1985
!i - ~
�NICARAGUAN COFFEE. Delicious,roasted
coffee beans or ground coffee available for $6.00 a pound. Contact:
Steve Livingston (704) 257-3019
LEGAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION (LEAF) is a public interest law
firm which works with the public,private and governmental sectors to promote a quality environment. More info: LEAF, 602 Gay St. Suite 507,Knoxville, TN 37902
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED at the Laurentine
Shelter for the homeless to stay for
either the evening or overnight. Ic
Asheville,NC. Call Carol Lathuras:
(704) 252-2752
APPALACHIAN PEACE EDUCATION CENTER
(APEC) publishes APEC News, an informative peace newsletter for the
southern VA area. More info: APEC,
114 Court St., Abingdon, VA 24210
GREENPEACE has established the
Rainbow Warrior Emergency Fund to
provide funds for the care of the
children of the crewman who got
killed when their flagship was
bombed in July and to get the ship,
the Rainbow Warrior, seaworthy again. GREENPEACE, 1611 Connecticut
Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009
MADISON COUNTY PLOWSHARES PEACE
GROUP has postcards of their "Windows on the World" Friendship Quilt
available for $3.00 a dozen, ppd.
Contact: Karol Kavaya, 25 Back
Branch, Marshall, NC 28753
SELF-HELP CREDIT UNION has now opened a branch office in Western North
Carolina through the State Employees
Credit Union system. For more info:
Write: S.B.C.U., P.O.Box 3259 , Durham, NC 27705. Or go by: State Employees Credit Onion, 200 All Souls
Crescent, Asheville, NC/telephone:
(704) 274-4200.
SEAT WEAVING. Caning, rush, split
seats. Also classes available. Call:
(704) 253-6241
ONGOING SESSIONS in Raja Yoga for
beginning and continuing students.
Pre-registration required. Raja Yoga
Ashram, 272 Patton Cove Rd, Swannan
oa, NC 28778. (704) 686-3037
S.T.A.R., Space Technology And Research Foundation, is a non-profit,
tax-exempt organization which uses
monies to advance all aspects of
parasensory phenomena and psi research. For contributions or subscription to bi-monthly newsletter:
S.T.A.R. Fdtn, 448 Rabbit Skin Rd ,
Waynesville, NC 28786
RURAL SOUTHERN VOICE for PEACE
(R.S.V.P.) is a network of people in
rural/small city communities in the
Southeast who are working to build
the nonviolent alternative systems
and lifestyles that can bri ng peac e
to our world. Publishes RSVP Newsletter. More info: RSVP, Rt 5 Box
335, Burnsville, NC 28714
SO~H
A VARIETY OF
WHOLESOME BAKED COODS
704 293·5912
tiWV. 107
RT. 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
~Sl 1 - '...-"°"Bl RD
: cttd.. , £ rcd""ood
·""'
rR
gn~"~!~
WHOLISTIC HEALING SEMINARS in Barbados. For more info: Rita Li vingston,
% Loving, 1424 South Palm Way, Lake
Worth, FL 33460. (305) 582-7902
PRE '68 DELUXE SUNROOF VW MICRO
BUS Wanted. With good body; Not
running, O.K. Contact: We8go,
216 Botany Rd, Greenville, SC
29615. (803) 244-4786.
WRITERS WORKSHOP. Classes in
poetry, science fiction, technical writing,etc. At "ls Wall St.
Room 18, Asheville, NC 28801.
(704) 669-5471
WEBWORK1NG is free.
Send submissions to:
Katua h
P .O.Box 873
Cullowhee, NC
28723
PROOUCTS WATER ANAlYSIS
RANDALL C LANIER
c"';lom ""ood
I N 17th YEAR OF PUBLICATION, Akwesasne Notes is a Journal for Native
and Natural Peoples, covering world
events which effect indigenous peoples. For subscriptions or tax-deductibl e contributions: AKWESASNE
NOTES, P.O.Box 196, Mohawk Nation,
Rooseveltown, NY 13683-0196.
1
I
We. now
---+-I
BU ll::DING
&
NATURAL FOOD STORE
& DELI
r-
REM OD ELIN G
~liH:::E:~r- -- ·
residentia l
commercia l
h4ve. e.ue.n.s.ive. montht.lj
~pec.ia.l.6,
c.ui.th
4
cU6 6e1tent:
SUPER SPECIAL EACH WEEK
160 Broadway
Asheville, N.C. 28801
(704) 253-7656
Where Broadway
Meets Merrimon
.\nd 1·240
Open 7 Days A Week
Monday · Friday
9:00 a.m. · 8:00 p.m.
Saturday
9:00 a .m. · 6:30 p.m.
Sunday
1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m .
�GET BACK! ISSUES OF KATUAH
ISSUE ONE -AUTUMN 1983
ISSUE FIVE - FALL 1984
Scotch-Irish Migratiof-lfit::? Meditations: Kat-·<-· 1(5"\~\J
~
Al+-~- ~ n
~tnl.CS • Old
Ti
\.?,. .tfioregioris • Chicken
Wi.c: uam • Poetry: George Ellison
Harvest • Old Ways In Cherokee •
Ginseng • Nuclear Waste • Our
Celtic Heritage • Bioregionalism
Past, Present, And Future • John
Wilnoty • Healing Darkness •
Politics Of Participation
®\Q.I
@
ISSUE TWO - WINTER 1983-84
ISSUE SIX - WINTER 1984-85
Yona • Bear Hunters • Pigeon River
• Another Way With Animals • Alma:
Poems • Becoming Politically Effective • Mountain Woodlands •
Katuah Under The Drill • Spiritual Warriors
Winter Solstice Earth ceremony •
Horsepasture River • Coming of
Light • Log Cabin Roots • Mountain Agriculture-The Right Crop•
William Taylor • Forest's Future
ISSUE THREE - SPRING 1984
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRING 1985
Sl.lstainable Agriculture • sunflower_, • Human Impact On The
Forest • Childrens' Education •
Veronica Nicholas: Woman In
Politics • Little People •
M d icine Allies
e
Springs • Worker ownership • The
Great Economy • Self Help
Credit Union • Wild Turkey • Responsible Investing• Working
In The Web Of Life
ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
ISS UE E I GHT - SUMMER 1985
Water Orum • Water Quality • Kudzu
• Solar Eclipse • Clearcutting •
Trout • Going To Water•Ram Pumps
• Micro hydro • Poems : Bennie Lee
Sinclair, Jim Wayne Miller
Ce lebration: A Way of Life •
Katuah 18,000 Years Ago• Sacred
Sites• Folk Arts in the Schools
Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle • Hilda
Downer • Cherokee Heritage Cen ter • Who Owns Appalachia?
KATUAH: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians
B0x 873i Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723
For more info: call Marnie Muller (704) 252-9167
Name
Regu l ar M
embership •.. • • $10/yr.
Spon sor .•..•.•.••• • • • •• $20/yr.
Cont r i b u tor ••••• • • • •.•. $50/yr .
Address
Enclo4ed
~~i4
C1 ty
State
Area Code
KATUAli -
Phone Number
page
31
i
r
sustainable Economics • Hot
Zi p
i4 ,
t66o ~~
$
to give
4n e~t~a boo4t
I can be a l ocal con t a ct
person for my area
f
I
I
I
i
ORDER FORM
Back Issues
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Issue 5
Issue 6
Issue 7
ISSUE 8
@ $2.06
@ $2.00
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TOTAL PRICE
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�
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 9, Fall 1985
Description
An account of the resource
The ninth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on topics such as nuclear energy, pollution and the forests, and other challenges with trees. Authors and artists in this issue include: H. M. Spottswood, Michael Red Fox, Brian Caldwell, Gus Hadorn, Walton B. Smith, David Wheeler, and Thomas Rain Crowe. <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
1985
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
The Waldee Forest.......1<br /><br />The Trees Speak.......3<br /><br />Migrating Forests.......4<br /><br />"Hog Killing Saturday" - A Poem.......6<br /><br />Horse Logging.......7<br /><br />The Nuclear Suppository: We're Not Going to Take It!.......8<br /><br />Good Medicine.......10<br /><br />Starting a Tree Crop.......11<br /><br />Natural World News.......12<br /><br />Urban Trees.......15<br /><br />Acorn Bread.......19<br /><br />Myth/Time.......20<br /><br />The Children's Page.......27<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
Acid rain
Paleoecology--Appalachian Region
Trees in cities--North Carolina--Asheville
Cooking (Acorns)
Animals in logging--Appalachian Region
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
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English
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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Appalachian Region, Southern
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<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>
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Acid Deposition
Agriculture
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Black Bears
Children's Page
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Permaculture
Pigeon River
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
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Text
---4
AT.U AR
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
ISSUE X
WINTER 1985 -86
Healing/ Earthplace
�MEDICINE TRADITIONS NEAR HOME . ... ... . .. . ... 1
KATE ROGERS AND HER MOUNTAIN MEDICALS . .. . 3
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N
CIRCLES OF STONE . ... . .... .. . . . ... .. .. ... .. .. .. 4
......
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INTERNAL MYTHMAKING:
AN INTERVIEW WITH MARLENE MOUNTAIN . . 6
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" THIS IS HERESY!" HOLISTIC HEALING ON TRIAL. .. 9
TWO POEMS by STEVE KNAUTH . .. . .. .. .. ....... 10
CHEROKEE MYTH IC PLACES ..... .. . . ............ 11
THE UKTENA'S TALE . .. .. .. . . ....... .. .. .. . . . . .. 15
CRYSTAL MAGIC ...... . .. .. . ....... .. .. ..... .. . 19
GOOD MEDICINE: "WHAT MAKES A PLACE SACRED?" 20
REVIEW: DEEP ECOLOGY ...... .. .. ........ .. ... . . 21
NATURAL WORLD NEWS . . ...... . ... .. ... ... .. ... 22
"DREAMSPEAKING" ......... . . ... . .. .. ... .. ... ... 24
.,
FALL KATUAH GATHERING . ........ . ..... .. ...... 27
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�ISSUE X
WINTER 1985 - 86
MEDICINE
TRADITIONS
NEAR HOME
eaU.ng ..iA an Olf.ganic., e.ve1tp11.uent p11.oeu6---
:w..i~~not jU-6t 06 the. human body bu;t 06 ail .U6e. 60~
'°'
011 OWL plana . WouncUi, qu.i..te. m)JuJ.cu1.oU-6ly, he.al-- e.ve.n wouncUi in.6Uc.ted on OWL e.aJl:thplacu .
The. Jt.oo.t 06 'he.al' and 'he.ali:h' ..iA 'whole.'. To he.al
lite.ILD.ll.y me.an.\ '.to ~ke. whole. 011. Liound' . Whole.null comu
not jU-6t 611.0m phyLi.i..cal well-bung bu.t 611.0m the. w.i..de.11. Li.ta.te.
06 one' ll be.in.g---one. '" Liell6e. 06 .tlw.e, .i..Me.11. LipiJr.,Uu.a.1. balance. an~ 06 Motednuli. lloote.dnMli comu 6AOm a Lie.Me. 06
conne.ctlon- -.to place. and to corrrnun,.Uy. So the. w.i..de.11. c..bt.cle.
11.ee.cUi to be. gJt.Ow.lng .tollXIJl.<U whole.nuli a.6 well a.6 the. in.d.i..v.i..dutd..
Wlwle.nuli o 6 'place.' ..iA v.Ual .to .in.d.i..v.i..dutd. he.ali:h.
Th~ q~y 06 a..i.11., the qua!Uy 06 tOO.te.11., .the. quatuy 06
Lio.i..l ~IJ e.66e.ct the. weU-be.in.g 06 ail the. in.habaan.th 06 tha.t place. Whole.nuli alho comu 6Jt.Om a Lie.Me 06
licale.---a Lie.Me. 06 JU.ght 1te.la.t.i.on to the. 'ou.t.6.i.de.' 6am.i..l1J
611..i.e.ncUi, ~ce, all owr. 11.e.la.t.i.ollh. Not llo laJt.ge. tha.t one. '
cannot phyl>A..Callyr0
e.e.l' .the. conne.c.t.i.on, a b.i011.e.g.i..on ..iA
~he. '~ght Li.ize.' t~ 11.e.la.te. .to • •. be.in.g 91te.a.teill"hanone. '"
,(J)l!71e.d.i..a.te. llUM.owtd.i..ngli bu..t not a.6 oveltWhe..fm.lng a.6 a con.t.ine.n.t Olt the. e.n.t.iJte. planet.
Whole.null 06 'communUy' ..iA alho vUal .to .i.nd.i..v.icfu.al
he.al.th. 1n olde.11. cul..twr.u, a C!Oll'lllun.i.ty 'Li Jt.Oo.te.dn.uli ""1.l>
ce.lelJJta..te.d .thltough M,tual. and U:.6 un.i.ve.Jt.6al conne.ct.i..on IAl'U
.11.eme.mbe.1ted ~ugh myth. My~a.IU.ng hah o.1.wayli be.e.n a g.i6.t
06 .the. .6peuu--a way 06 1-0e.av-<.ng owr. de.e.p-Lie.a.te.d inn.ell. con.6c.i..oU-6ne.6ll w.i..th that wh.lc.h ..iA 'ou.t.6.i.de.' o 6 OWl.6 e.lvu. Commun.il.y Jr1.;tu..ah, alho encompa.Med the dll.e.amwolli.d .the. n.i.ght
.the. ~null, -0e. 6e.aM. Thue Mpe.c.U 06 :the ~ye.he. we.1te.
~~ -<.ncluded ,(.11 .the ~u ' heali.ng p11.ac.t.<.cu. V11.e.am6 ,
v-<-6.Wn.6 would o6te.n b1Ung he.ali:hy hOlu.t.i..on.\ 60.ll. .i..nd.i..v.icfu.al
a.6 well ah C!Ornmu.n.i.tlj a.i..lmen.th. The g1te.a.t :te.mple. a.t Ep.i.da.wr.U-6 in liouthe.11.11 Gft.eece. ~ a place whe.11.e people came .to
4f.eep, dll.e.am v..iA.i..on.\, and be cUJLe.d.
He.al.th alho a.t t.Unu 1te.Uu on ' me.d.i..c.ine' and aga.in
'place.' ..iA .impoJt.:tan.t. •'Place' hah p11.0v.i.ded plan.th 'c.l.ay.6 '
~~ 601t .me.cl<;c.in.al 11.emed.i..u 60.11. .thoU-6and6 06
.
P.fo.ce. hah ,(.rthP<)l.ed .60ngli. 06.te.n U-6ed .i.n anc.ie.n.t t.Unu ah
'me.d.i..c.i..ne '•• ._.and hah p11.ov.i.de.d .image.Jty 6011. .the 'li.tu66' 06
dll.e.am med.i..C,,(.rte.
In .tli.i..6 ..iAllue 06 Ka;t{Ul}i---owr. w.i..n.te.Jt. .i.hllue.-- -we. .take
the. t.Une. .to colth.ide.11. the .i.mpoJt.:tance. 06 .the. heali.ng pll.OC!Uli
and owr. 911.a.t.i...tude 6011. U. We hope. U w.i..U move. U-6 de.epe.Jt
.into OWL cormiltme.n.t .to pll.Ue.Ji.ve. the. whole.null 06 .the.
'place' we. call Ka.:tdah .
---The. Ed.i...toM
1
ye.aM . '
People have always doctored
themselves. Archaelogists find traces
of plants that people used for medicine forty thousand years ago. Animals
doctored themselves with plants too.
Everyone has seen cats and dogs eat
grass to clean out their stomachs and
horses will graze through comf rey once
in a while for a tonic ...
Most people in the world today use
plants for medicine. And the 'wonder
drugs' of our westeTn world have saved
many lives in the last fifty years.
But these drugs are unavailable or
impractical for many people, because
of the high cost of pharmaceuticals
and because of the technology needed
to administer them (doctors living in
remote regions , or the technology
necessary to store them such as refrigerators for penicillin in Africa.)
Communities have always had medical specialists--someone who could deliver babies; someone who could set a
bone, pull a tooth; someone who could
straighten out a bent back, or doctor
the animals; someone who could talk
to the troubled--yet always , in our
history as humans, we have looked to
the world of the spirit for healing.
Monks in the Middle Ages said a
prayer for each plant they picked for
medicine. Native American medicine
people pray to the spirit of the plant.
People in hospitals pray for improved
health, and even have healing visions
on the operating table!
So what is 'folk medicine?' I believe that whatever people do to doctor
themselves and others is 'medicine. •
M.D. 's rely heavily on books, studies,
and statistics for information but
they also rely on oral traditi~ns
learned from the professors and from
other physicians. Illiterate mountain
herbalists expand on their knowledge-passed down through several generations
~by doing experiments on plants and
then analyzing the results.
As different as these approaches
might seem, it ' s all a part of the same
cont:inuum--using books and oral tradit .
ions in varying proportions; using
plants in their distilled, synthesized,
or whole forms; or calling on physical
(con.t.il'ILl.e.d on p. 3I
�~-·
'J\..ATUAH)
a
IMClifiliJ#MMiflllillMie!M'llMtlllllti!lfl dPP1!i d'#"j1&'hnz
EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE:
Scott Bird
David Reed
Richard Ciccarelli
Barbara Reimensnyder
Th011as Rain Crowe
Chip Smith
Judith Hallock
Brad Stanback
J. Linn Mackey
Martha Tree
Marnie Muller
David Wheeler
Michael Red Fox
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Cathy Danna
Jeff Fobes
Kathleen McLaughlin
Bill Melanson
Sally Roark
Sarah Jane Thomas
Mark Yancey
FIREKEEPER: Joe Roberts
EDITORIAL OFFICE
THIS ISSUE:
309 Kenilworth
Asheville, NC
PRINTED BY:
Sylva Herald
Publishing Co.
Sylva, NC
WRITE US AT:
Katuah
TELEPHONE:
(704) 252-9167
'ii0i'8'73
Cullowhee, NC
28723
Spe.c..i.a.l .tlw.ntu. to Va /wt Ma.I> 4 ~ 6°"- .the.
il.lLL4tlrJJ.ti.o n6 on
p:tg u
14 and 20
COVER: "The Blues Pass through" by Marlene
Mountain , painted in acrylics on 2' x 2' masonite
(Healing Series 15, 1983). Adapted by Martha Tree.
r-r
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~ JRV0CllT:10H
RAISE THE FRUIT
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In the. w.i.nte11. 4ol.4.t,lc.e.
.the. 11.e-twi.n.btg 4t.ln
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haltvut
In hunge.11. and dMkne.44
We. dM.nk .the. ccrmiu.na.l Ught
IU.4.ing w.Uh all. e11.e.a.twt.u ,
.into .the. peJt.pe.:tual.
ILU.ing .sun.
IU.4.ing .in ancu.tJta.t dU4t
611.om 6UMO'~ 06 rh.tfl9 and blood.
Out o6 @4 enc e.
TU.4.ing .in poUe.n
we. rum.it each o.the.11..
Ea/I.th 1t.OCL4ed wlU bll..Utg IL4 home.
.in 4e.etf and pollen.
Va.nee. .the. ceJU!mon.<al toge..the.11.
.in .the. e.n.ti.11.e. 4oltvt. Ug ht.
Swt 4 h.in.ing on all. 6Jt,.le.nd4 •
0 me.et me. .in the. unbombe.d vil.lagu
06 the. Wtth.
In cob4 06 coll.n
In the. du6t 6luh
In .the. 11.UUM.e.cted idiea.t
Fo11g.ive. the. Jt.Oot
and ..\4.i4 e. .the. f1r.ui.,t !
,.-
KA'[\;AH -
-Meridel LeSeur
page 2
HeJLe. .in the. .sou.the.11.11-mo.st he.a.11.tt.o.nd 06 .the.
Appab.cMP.n moun.t.aW, the. oldu.t moun.t4.in Jtange.
on OILll. con.t.inui.t, Tws.t/.e. l.sla.nd, a. .sma.U bu.t 911.0w.ing gMup ha.4 be.gun to .ta.he. on a .se.n..se. o~ Jte.4 po n 4.ib.<.Uty 6011. .the. .i.mpl.i.ctJ.Uonlt 06 tha..t ge.og11JJ.ph.U:.a.l
a.nd cu.ltuJLa1. heJL.ita.g e.. Th.<.4 4 e.rt4 e. o6 11.U po nlii..bil.Uy
ce.MeA.6 on the. conce.pt 06 Uv.ing wlthi.n the. lla.twt.a.l.
4ca.le. a.nd balance. 06 u.A.lve.Jt.4a.l 4q4tem4 a.nd la.W6.
We. beg.in by .invo/Ung .tlte. CheJtOlle.e. name. "Ka..W.a.h" 44
.th£. old/nw na.me. 6011. .tlt.i4 a.11.e.a. 06 .the. moun.t.a..i.n4 and
~ 011. it4 j olJllJltl.l. 44 wen.
The. e.d.U.o!WJ.t. p!ti.oll.Ulu 6011. IL4 a.11.e. to coUe.ct and
.i.tt6OJtma.t.ioR and e.rt'-/tgy wh..i.ch pe/lW.n4
4pe.c...i.6~ to tJi.i4 Melt, a.nd to 604.te.Jt .the. 1114W1.e.llU4 tha..t the. la.nd .<A 4 Uv.ing be..ing du eJLv.ing o6 olLlt.
ltJve. and 11.upe.&. L.i.v.ing .in th.i4 ma.nne.11. .<A the. only
'41!/ to e.1141Llt.e. .the. 41L4.to.i.nabil..ltl( 0 ~ OILll. b.io.Sphe.11.e. a.rid
a. la.4.t.ing place. 6011. ot411.4e.lvu .in U4 con.ti.ntWtg evocLi.64 em.i.na.tt
luli.oMJt.y
p'WCe.44.
We. 6e.e.m to ha.ve. 11.eo.c.he.d the. 6uWwm po.int 06 a "do
011. d.ie." 4Uua.t.lon .in .tVUll6 06 a. cont.inue.d quo..li.ty
4ta.nda.Jt.d 06 U6e. on .th.U. pl.a.net. It .i4 .the. a..i.m 06
th.i4 jolLlt.nal. to do it4 pall.t .in the. 11.e.-.inha.b.<..t:a.Uon
a.nd 11.e.-cultwi.a.U..on 06 the. Ka..tW:ih pitav.ince. 06 .the. Sou..the.Jtn Appab.cMP.114 . ThM pitav.irtce. .<A .irtdlc.ttte.d by U4
na.twr.a.t. bou.nd.alt...i.u : .the. Ne.w IU.veJL v.ic.in.i.tv to the.
nolt.th; the. ~oothil..t.4 o~ .the. ple.dmon.t a.11.e.a. to .the.
eJUt; Yona Mowita..ln a.nd .the. Ge.o11.g.i.o. hil..t.4 to .the.
.sou.th; a.nd .the. Te.rtnuHe IU.veJL Va.U~ to the. wut.
Hwnbl!f, 44 4e.l6-a.ppo.inted .ste.cm.Jt.d,t. IAlUh. 4a.J!Jl.e.d .into piwte.c.t and pllU'-11.ve.
it4 4a.J!Jl.e.dnU4, we. a.dvoca..te. a. cuite.11.e.d a.pp!tOa.ch to
.the. con.cE.pt 06 dtte.ntlla.l..i.za:t.ion a.hd hope. to becomE. a.
.suppolt..t 4!f4te.m 6011. .tho4e. a.cce.pt.ing the c.ha.lt.e.nge. 06
~IL4ta..i.na.bil.Uy and .the. e11.e.a...t.ion 06 ha.Jt.mony and bo.la.nce. .in a. to.ta.l Hll4e., heJLe. .in th.i4 pta.cE..
4.tJt.ILc..t,ion1t 44 "nw na..t.i.vu''
We. wdcome. aJ.1. COMUponde.nce., CJLi..tic.i.4111, peJl.t.i.nVl.t .in6o.\ma.Uon, OJt.t.<du, llJl.t.woltk, E..tc. wlth hopu
.tha.t Ka.Oia.h wlU 911.0w to .se.11.ve .the. but .inte.Jtt.4t4 o6
/
th.i4 ~ a.nd a.U .lt4 Uv.ing, blt.e.a.thi.ng 6"1fl.i.t.!/
me.mbelt.4.
- The EcLltolt.4
The Internal Revenue Service has declared
a non-profit organization under section
50l(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
All contributions to Kat uah ar e deductible
from personal income tax-.--
Kat~ah
Winter 1985-86
�•• • NEAR HOME
( cont.i.llued 611.Dm p. 11
remedies and spiritual powers.
The Native American people say that
medicine is everything: religion, psychology, politics, ecology, philosophy,
plants, ceremonies, community--all
things that we seem to need separate
words for, in English.
Here in the mountains, the Cherokee have evolved and still practice a
complex system of medicine. In their
practice , they use the plants--which
include over 75% of all the medicinal
plants in America~from tropical passiflora vines in the river bottoms to
tundra lichens on the high peaks. Cherokee medicine also uses a sophisticated
understanding of human nature, and of
our 'place in the world.' Ceremonies
address our relationship with 'the
whole '.
The white people--English, Scots,
Irish, and Cerman--wbo established
communities in the mountains about 150
years ago learned about medicinal plants
from the Cherokee. They brought their
knowledge of European plants and beliefs
as well--everything from ustng seeds and
root cuttings, to formulas for removing
warts, taking the fire out of burns,
and even putting a knife under the bed
to ease the pain of childbirth.
Today mountain communities have
hospitals, M.D.'s, chiropractors, ministers, psychologists, and other healing practitioners. And yet another
wave of newcomers in the mountains of
Katuah have been working to establish
healing centers, holistic health farms,
and centers for psychic research.
In the 1960's , throughout the
country, people began to take back responsibility for their own health care.
In the eighties it seems that perhaps
our greatest challenge is to take responsibility for the health of the earth!
Our mountains are threatened by acid
rain (what government agencies mildly
call "atmospheric deposition") ,
threatened by the deposit of nuclear
wastes , by clear-cutting and poisoning of the forests, by development that
erodes land and silts streams and
places burdens on water and sewage
treatment in those communities.
All of us who have felt the healing
power of the mountains, of the earth-if only the 'peacefulness' that comes
from sitting by the side of a mountain
stream--need to respond now to the mountains' need for Health. We must open up
and expand our definitions of ' medicine '
to include the earth and all peoples
as a Whole so that we cannot only survive, but BE WELL.
Barbara Reimensnyder, PhD
BaJtbaM Re.<me.nMtydeJL, a. 11.e.gulalt. contM.bu.to.11. .to Ka.ttra.h, ,(A 4 6ol.Jtt.OIW..t
who ti.vu .in"1iaCon Coun.ty, NC.
1n .tJi.i..6 nut <Vt.ti.c.le., 4 he. 4 ha.11.u
c.ui..th U4 4ome. 06 he.A .ti.me. 4pe.nt c.ui..th
Ka.te. RogeJt.b, one. 06 .the. ol.dut plUlC.uti.oneJt.b o6 6o.tk me.cLi.c.i.ne. he11.e. .in
.thue. moun.ta..in4 .
,
N\TrAH - page 3
KATE ROGERS
and her mountain medicals
The following exerpts come from a
book that Kate Rogers and I have
been working on for several years ,
Kate was born in 1905 in the Ellijay co111111unity outside of Franklin,
North carolina, where she grew up
and where she now lives, near her
large family. In addition to knowing and using over two hundred
plants for medicine, Kate also
sings old ballads and shape-note
hymns and takes an active part in
her church. She and her husband
celebrated their 60th wedding
anniversary last year.
When I first made a tape with
Kate, she started out, "Hy name is
Kate Minervy Rogers. I was named
after both my grandmothers, Kate
Henry and Minervy Moses--tbat was Dr.
Athan Hoses' wife. Hy grandfather
was a herb doctor, Dr. Athan Hoses.
And Mama used herbs; she knowed
everything we ought to do when one
was sick--just go and git this and
go and git that."
I asked Kate how she first began
to learn about plants. She said , "I
started in quite young. We bad big
fields, about twenty acres, and I
carried the water from a little
spring way over in the woods at the
aide of the field. I was the waterjack, I guess you'd call it. I
carried water to where they was
hoeing corn."
"See , on new ground , you can't
plow it and do too good. They laid
off a little first with oxen , but
part of the way was so rough they
had to dig boles to plant the corn.
So they'd dig up all the bloodroot
and may apples as they was agoing."
"And I would put them on top
of a stump, and then I'd run and
carry them, every bit , to the house.
I would run as fast as I could. It
was over half a mile to walk from
the field, and a lot of it was uphill ss ye come back. If I didn't
get to wash the roots then and
put them out to dry , why I would
that evening."
Kate's uncle , John Henry, had a
store where he sold general goods to
the co-unity , and in turn bought or
traded for beeswax, roots, herbs,
corn, chestnuts, and other natural
products. Kate said , "I could take
a pound of bloodroot, and Uncle John,
he sold five cent calico , so I would
get a yard of calico for a pound of
bloodroot and Mama could make me a
lc.ont.inue.d on nut page.)
W
inter 1985-86
�continued from page 3
dress out of it." Kate was five
years old at that ti.me.
"And then I learned about herbs
from Mama. She was Dr. Athan Hoses'
daughter, and she knowed a lot about
them. She knowed that poplar bark,
the root bark, was good to kill worms,
and she'd give it to us. One'd cry
with his stomach hurting, and Mama
would say, 'Go and get some poplar
bark, Kate.' (She always sent me, I
don't know why ). But I'd dig in by
them big roots that went down in the
bank of the road. And I'd get the
poplar bark and take it to the house.
And usually when I got in with it I'd
wash it and fix the tea for the
children."
"Kate digs plants
to make her own garden of
medicinal plants - 'medicals'."
Kate grew up collecting roots to
sell from the woods and newly cleared ground of her family and gathering roots and herbs as needed to
doctor her family. She has continued these two kinds of activities
ever since--she finds and grows herbs
to doctor herself and her husband and
others as needed. She also regards
medicinal plants as a source of income, digging them to sell at the
flea market and through the mail,
which she bas done for years. Her
grandfather too did a substantial
mail order business in herbs in the
late 1800's. In addition Kate digs
plants from the woods and gets seed
to make her own garden of medicinal
plants- "medicals".
Throughout the years she bas
worked as postmistress, in factories,
bas run ruby mines, taken in boarders, and done a variety of jobs
while raising three children, caring
for her extended family, making gardens, sewing, quilting, taking an
active part in her church , and doctoring anyone lolho needs help. Although she has always helped to support her family, Kate says, "Every
ti.me I pick something for somebody,
I just give it to them. Wben I tell
people what to use for medicine,it's
just free, gratis. One person the
other day, they didn't give me nothing, and I didn't expect nothing,
but I know they'll be good to me."
Kate continually adds to her
knowledge of plants by reading books,
experi.menting--mostly on herselfKAWAI:! - page 4
and growing new plants or bringing
them in from the woods. She said,
"They ' re a lot of herbs in these
mountains, but I ain't never found
out what they're all good for. I
know two hundred and fifty, but I
don't know where they're all at.
Two hundred and fifty that I've
used then around here close."
"I grow some, and I find some
in the woods, all along the roads
and so on. And some I bring back
and set out to where they'll grow,
it's like they're alive to me. Well,
they ate alive! But it's like they're a pet. I love them, each one."
"One day, when I was a child,
Mama done a good deed for me and the
plants too. I pulled the flowers.
I'd come in with everyone that I
could hold in my hands, the pretty
little flowers. And Kam.a said, 'I
want to tell you something.' She
said, 'Every one of them pretty
little flowers would have raised
seed if you'd a left them.' She
said, 'If everybody done like you're
doing, everybody could pull up
every flower, and when they got the
flowers pulled, there wouldn't be
no seed to fall back and come up.
That's just a-robbing everything. '
Well, now I'm so particular about
pulling things I want to make seed-I won't pu11 them just because
they're pretty. Because I want them
to keep coming, because they're so
many good plants. And the more I
learn about them, the more I want to
learn."
Kate's great granddaughter already makes tea for her brothers and
sisters using some of the plants her
great grandmother bas shown her. In
the last several years Kate bas spoken to garden clubs and 4-H groups
and participated in local festivals
like Mountain Heritage Day and the
Macon County Folk Artists in Schools
Program.
One day Kate said, "Hy tea, I
think that helped my arthritis, but
I'll tell ye: try to stay happy.
That's one of the best remedies ye
can find. One day there was a girl
come to me, and she was wanting to
know bow to stay young. And I said,
'Why are you asking me? You sure get
old, you can't do a thing about that.
And she said they had told her to
ask me. So I said , 'Well, just try
and be a happy person. Never do anything you know is wrong. If you know
it's wrong, just avoid it. You don' t
have to do wrong. ' You know there's
always things that will happen --none
of us ain't perfect. I've been sad,
and I've had trouble that made me
mad a few times, but it's all in
life. You just I.ave to let the
worst go and live for the better."
"I'm trying to live a natural
life, use the natural things. We're
just learning more about nature all
the ti.me. The Lord put it all here,
and put it here to work, and that's
nature."
Kate Rogers and Barbara
Reimensnyder , PhD.
© 1985
I.t .i.6 .the. moJuthtg o 6 .the. win.tVL
4 olJ..ti.ce:
New G.ltange., lite.land - A COll.e.6u.lty
du-4Jne.d wtde119.it.ound Ji.tone 6.tli.uetwr.e
Jiil.I. 6.il.e.nilq in .the. daJtk.ne.t.6, ~
.i.ng, 116 ..it luu. done. 6011. .thoiu.and6 o 6
60Jt. thM moJUl,(ng '6 6ttMMe..
I.t ha.6 be.en Cillle.d a ".tomb", 6011.
bod.i.u 06 .the de.ad weA.e C411..e.6u.ltq .i.nljllOJl.6,
.te.Me.d .the11.e., bu..t .the me.an.<.ng and pwi. po6 e. o6 .tlilt. dolmen, 116 .thu e. 4.tJr.uc .twi.u a11.e. Cillle.d, Me. 6M mO-'le .than
.tha.t, 116 .the. 6.i.Ju>.t 1t.O..IJ6 o 6 .the JL.i..6.i.ng
6wt 11.eveal.
They b!JIL6t .th.lt.Ough .the open en.tltancema.y and Uhun.i.na.te. .the. .twe.n.ty6oot-h.igh back c.u:tU 06 .the. 6.tone.Une.d pit, whi.c.h .i.6 COVVl.e.d with de.6'4Jrl6 and pe.t.Jt.Oglyph6 to.bo!Lloiu.ty
callve.d by Ji.tone-age 1111160116 .to ce.leblta.te. tlUI. VeJUf moment:, 601t .the. .light
.touchu .them 601t onl..tj a 6e.w hoWl.6 a
!le.all p.'l.e.c.iJ. e.ly a.t .the. time. o6 .the win.tVL 4 oU.t.i.ce..
Wha-t .the. 6ymbol6 mean 6pe.c..i.6.i.Cillly
.i.6 .the C4U.6e. 06 much conje.ctwr.e. and
debate, but .tJW. 6.Ue.nt ceJt.emony, 6011.
whlch .the 6.t4ge &a1.6 4 e.t 4. 000 !fe,a.Jtl,
be.601te. modeJl.n c..i.v.i..Uza.t.i.on, 6.i.ng6 06
11.UUM.tct.i.on and 11.e.b.iA.th.
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Ancient societies all across
the face of the Earth, but particularly in the British Isles and
the northwestern coast of Europe,
have left enduring remnants of their
presence 1n the form of earthen
mounds and barrows, stone structures, and great boulders raised on
end in patterns or standing alone.
The great stone circles in particular, such as the familiar Avebury
and Stonehenge circles, have caught
the modern imagination and are tantalizing clues to the minds of the
old ones, the "megalithic peoples,"
as these societies of builders are
called.
Living in the period from
5,000 to 2,000 B.C. before the
Celtic tribes overran Europe, the
megalithic peoples based their life
on a subsistence agriculture largely dependent on domestic animals.
Apparently the lands were sparsely
populated at that ti.me, and there
was plenty to eat, but their living conditions would have seemed rough
and crude to us, with little to indicate the extraordinary capabilities
required to transport and raise the
great boulders in precise patterns
and aligments.
Time bas shrouded the monuments
1n mystery , and there are many guesses--some academic, some psychic, and
some purely inventive--as to their
original nature and purpose.
Since Professor Gerald Hawkins
of Boston University discovered in
1963 that the Stonehenge circle was
used as a huge astronomical obser-
~,0,j@>~@ljOeJ~~~~
Winter 1985-86
�~~<@'~~~~,i@~~,~~S~@ijfbeJ@~~~~B~".W-~@~G(@W~'
vatory, it has become coaunon knowl edge that solar , l unar , and stell a r
sightings are a pa rt of th e f unction
of many of the megalith ic ston e figures . Yet as mor e is revealed about
this function of t he stones , astronomers marvel at t he knowl edge these
a ncien t people had of our universe,
and are amazed at t he a ccur a cy of the
observation s that are poasibl e with
the g rea t s tones , wh:Lch a t fi r s t look
seem so clumsy .
Enginee r s wo nd e r how t he bouldere were moved over long distances,
a nd how t hey wer e raised with the
tools these stone-age people had at
hand. Professor Alexander Thom,
Emeritus Professor of Engineering
at Oxford University, has demonstrated that a common unit of measure, the
"megalithic yard" as he calls it, was
the basis of the stone figures
throughout the British Isles. He
has spoken of the sophisticated
geometry evident in the design
of the stone figures, and the
mathematical precision with
which they were laid out
and put into place - by
a people of a rustic and
illiterate culture!
But while academics
can point out the astonishing accomplish·.
ments of this ancient
people, the attraction of the stones,
particularly to peo! ·
ple of Eur o pean descent, is a pers onal
one, for the stones
represent a part of
ourselves. They are a
· .;
part of our ancestral
peo-~
between t hem. The s uns ets are emphas ized because the smal.l val.ley
sight s west, giving a long view of
the western horizon.
Lylich i s descend ed from peo ple
who lived in Scotland and northwes tern Europ e . He fel t that bu ilding a
circle and experiencing the mind of
the builder s wa s t he best way to
understand their f eelings and motives.
"My primary reason for building a stone circle, besides wanting
to see what it was all about, was
to make a ceremonial area, just as
I believe my ancestors did . It's a
place to go and be serious, a place
set aside as sacred ground.
''Some people might think it
rash of me to meddle with megalithic
.·:: ·
•
'·
•·
...
··. ·
.:{::_.
.
•
American t r i bes , even the Chinese
pl e ha ve stone monuments in their c ul·i
tu ral his to r y . It is a t r adition that
i s found among ancient peoples all
over the world .
" I n this wa y i t i s a bridge be- ~
t ween us whit e peo ple and the na t ive (@))
Indians that we f ound l iving here
:ii
when we came. It is clear t hat among 'G
th eir oth er functions, the pre-Celtic ~
stone circles in Europe were calendare~
measuring the moon cycles and the
~
yearly solar cycles. The medicine
wheels discovered in this country werf ~
the same. We can trace the solstices ~
and equino.xes through them, so we
know th;lt they were calendar3 for the fl,
native peopl e of this continent.
'8
"The fire-pit at the center of
&
our circle i s one element that we
,
~
borrowed from the Native American
medicine wheels. It's a funny thing,
but none of the pre-Celtic circles
has a fire-pit. All the alignments
pass through the center of the
circles, but they left it un~
marked. I figure they left it
I~
clear for their ceremonies
or for sacred contests
· ···
and games.
"It is natural that
the old European
.
l
. ·; •
tribespeople com(@
· -_.. ·
bined the functions
~
..:·. ..
of sacred sites
if)
and sacred calen~
dars in their
···
circles. The peo··. · ·
ple obviously had
to know when a
celebration was
coming. They
~
sometimes had to
~
tTavel miles to get
there, and they
'4i>
li-
I
~~;:~~E~~~i:~:;~h~~ '·:-:~:~:\\?:~;<~Y}'~~~!r;~<'\~·~ '::~-;~.-:: ·.-.·:=:I.;·; ::~~~=~· -~-s:·?:}:~~ .:}!"~~:~:: :~~%:;~):fil.~C1. -~~~Ft!~:::~t~~:;~
~::!,'!:·~~! :.."!:
something we once
· '' · . <:~(?
c1.-.n·cLeS
were - something we
have lost. If we
~could only unravel
the mystery of the
·.
standing stones, we know we would be
face to face with ourselves at the
other end, looking into our own eyes
with new understanding.
One person living today in Katuah, who wishes only to be known by
his Celtic name, Lylich Crabawr, decided to do some experiential research to try to fathom the true
meanings of the old megaliths.
In bis small valley, close to
the center of his five-acre property,
he has erected a circle of stones.
The four largest ones mark the four
cardinal points of the compass and
are ins cribed with carved pictures
of the plant and animal kingdoms
c orresponding to the powers of each
of the four directi.o ns.
Beyond the circle, outlying
s tones mark the positions of the
sols t i c e s unrises, and the sunsets
f or the sols tices, the equinoxes,
and the
''\:~~;~;t,
a~
' ''>i('?F
sro
··
stone circles, but I feel that I have
an ancestral right to follow this
path . The bloodlines and the cultural
roots of the white people living on
this continent lie back in the tribal
homelands of Europe. White people
have only been a presence in the "New
World" for 400 years, whereas our ancestors have inhabited Europe since
antiquity and developed a long his- ·
tory and strong cultural traditions
there.
"I don't always feel comfortable
adopting some other people's ceremony.
It would be clearly out of place for
me to take up the Sun Dance. I couldn 't build one or run one of thos e .
But I feel that I have some authority
to do some thing in this area. We all
do. European people , Nat i v e Ameri can
1
thore •:.;•:,:::."!~of ;
They had to know
~~
~
in advance.
Y'"'\~ when the sunSo
was
~
I~~
almost in the
~
right place,
•
they would know
~
that there was about a week until
~
the solstice, and they'd go over
there and gather.
"It was also impor tant for an agricultural people to have a calendar. ~
They needed to know when to plant,
when to breed their livestock, etc. It
was a simple matter to set some stakes
or a few rocks in the ground, sighting ~
on some prominent feature of the landscape, and nove them every few days
until one day they didn ' t have to move
them again. With rocks 200 feet apart,
one can measure to within a few days
of the solstice. With sights five
miles apart, it can be done precisely.
"We used that method to l ay out
our alignments. Once we had a megalithic stone c ircle, it was easy to
(@J
s e t up outlying stones. Sighting over ~
the fire -pit at the center of the cir- if1J
'li-
I
I
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KATL<hl>' - •pa[i.<e
>
Wint~ L'9&5-8'6.
�111 (j,rcleJ
7owarJ f-/e.a/1n9:
mtwlene m~~ ~ wnttui "''/U.#t of h~ ~
f'r#wtl""J fh17Ct44 /Alfu°Vh- IJ,(.f,IJ#fa;n,lf4 hey f/Xkitn't .
''4W
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r
"Jw,.t a l..lttle. a6.teJr. he.U.o, he. 6a.IJ6 I 've. got
6ome.th.Utg " - -t®Lte.veJr. .U .U, .U hUILtl> Wl.e. 6.ilr.e..
Tlvte.e. thoMa.nd dothvi.6 woJLth 06 tu.a. 6atJ a tu .ion on .the. mtje.li.n 4he.a.th 06 mtJ 6p.i.na.l c.oll.d.. MS
6U6pe.c..t. (It taku .two lu.i..on.6 .to name. .U comple.te.ltj. J Mo.11.e. pa.ht, e.x.CJW.Wlling, hantU. a.ll.m6, ba.nd
a..11.~und c.hu.t. We.aknU6, c.an'.t d!Uve., l(l16h mlj ha.ur.,
pa.ht.t, no.11. hold .th.Utg6 ve..11.tj we.U.. Bad 6e.e.li.ng .ln my
leg6. Oh no. Con6U6.i..on. Fe.a..11.. D.11.e.o.d.
One. e.ve.n.lng a 6.!Ue.nd v.U.li.6. She. .U a m.i.di.ul6e.
a.nd I a.Ilk hell abou.t me.dUa..t.lon. She. 6li.6 on the.
bed, pu.tll he.11. hand on mlj 6011.e.he.ad, 6ay6 a 600.th.lng woll.d. 011. .two. I n6tantly mlJ m.lnd e.xpandl. a.nd
theJr.e. i6 a. 4.tllange. 6e.n6a..t.i..on I a.m ou.tll.lde. 06 my6 e.f.6. Some.th.lng ma.g.lca.l .U happe.n.lng, 40me.th.lng
handed down 611.0m .the. old day4 o 6 owr. 4.U..te.11.6 , .the.
w.ltc.hu/he.a.le.11.6. She. a.6/l.6 me. .to v.UuaUz.e. the. demon
(li. i6 an UfJly glob, a "b.ig e.a..te.11.," I a.m la.tell. .to
wtde.ll.6tandl , .to MU the. pa.ht bi.to a ba.ll (wh.ic.h
be.c.omu 40 l.tvige. a.nd he.o.vy I'm una.ble. .to U6.t .U
611.0m my c.hu.t, bu.t can 6Uc.k au:n.y pa.JLt6 o 6 .U I and
.to 6.lnd a 4a6e. ptac.e. (Hve..11.a.f. appe.a..11. bu.t a..11.e. nl,,t
.!Ugh.ti • By now I a.m .la.ugh.Utg, e.11.y.lng, talking, c.wr.6.lng. Eve.ntu.aU.y the. 6a.6e. pto.ce. be.c.omu the. loweA
pa.JLt o 6 a .t.11.e.e.. F
loa.t.&tg ne.a..11. me, li.6 11.0ot.6 a11.e.
e.xpo6 e.d and li.6 dangl.lng 11.0ot ha.cA6 a.tta.ch .to mtJ
a.ll.m6 • I .t appe.o..11.6 they a..11.e. .t.11.y.lng .to dJuwJ ou.t the.
pa.ht. Get ou:t .the. rne.o.n-6hli. 4.tu.6 6, I ca.ll ou:t.
Ove.11. a.nd ove.11., get out, go aJAXJ.y I
The. v.U..i..on 6adu and I a.m 6W1. m.iAe..11.0.ble..
Some.th<.ng, howe.ve.11., i..6 cU.6 6Vte.n.t. The. 11.e.leiu.e. 06
a.nge.11., the. mowr.n.lng 06 lo66 , the. nam.lng 06 e.vil.,
have. le.6t empty 6pac.u in.to wh.lch c.an c.om po6.Ue.
.ive. 60Jt.cu. A. .twuWlg po.ln.t. The. .t.11.e.e., tho1J9h,
t®Lt dou .U m
e.an, Jte..11.e. dou .U come. 611.0m'I She.
po.lnt.6 .to my .ta.6.t pa.in.t.lng, 611.0m a. 4 e.M.u o6 women' 4 anc.le.nt 6ymbol4, a .t.11.e.e.. A. 6.tyUz.e.d du.ign
6JLOm old Ca.naan 06 the. 6acAe.d .t.11.e.e.: the. body 06
the. goddU4. ( La..te.11. I l1lft .to 11.e.a.Uze. I had be.en
a.6Jt.a..id 06 #wJtU.ng the. .t.11.e..e., 06 luiv.ing my ptLi.rt go
in.to .U--how Wfte. did I unde.ll.6tand. J The. n.ighl:
i6 long and halt.6h, moll.rl.ing I 41Qlke. and the. e.xCJWc..Ut.tin.g pa.ht .U gone.. Gone.! V.ld the. .t.11.e.e. take. .U'!
You know .U d.id. The. pa.ht .t"4.t .U le.6.t .U be.o.Jta.ble.,
not we.lc.ome., bu.t be.a.11.11ble..
One. a.6.te..11.noon I a.m able. .to M.t.a.x dee.ply (.to
6.lnk .ln.to the. be.di, a.nd the.11.e. i6 anothe.11. v.U.i..on.
Fo.!t. 6ome. Jte.a.60n I unn.t .to be. .in my Uttle. gall.d.e.n.
I .t.11.y a.nd .t.11.y bu:t I c.an' .t get the.Ile.. I qu.i.t .t.11.y.lng
a.nd 6udde.nly I a.m the11.e.. That i6 , mlj leg4 , wh.i.c.h
luive. be.en hwr..t.ing, a11.e. the.11.e., ly.ing among the. we.e.d6
and with the. we.e.d6 glWwing out 06 the.m. W.ith .inv.U.i.ble. hand6 I beg.in to weed the. ga.11.d.e.n, and
oddly e.no1J9h, my l.e.g6. Iv:. e.o.ch we.e.d comu ou:t, 60
dou 6ome. 06 the. pa.in, 6ome. 06 the. 6e.a.ll.. 1 weed 6011.
a long t.ime..
It .U anothe.11. ba.d dD..y. I 6 e.e. my4 e.f.6 ly.lng .in
be.d, 6ull 06 bad 4.tu.66. I unn.t .U ou.t. The11.e. if, a
co1r.k .in the. 6ma.U 06 my ba.c.k. I pull .U out and the.
ba.d 4.tu.66 be.g.in.6 .to dfia..Ot. A ho6e. a..ttac.he.d .to a
(c.on.t.inue.d on next page.I
Winter 1985-86
�v151onJ · Jownfur,e-5
aff1rmatton5 ·;ournf!tj5
.tUllJ moon appe411.6 on mlJ bel.ly. The. moon ,(,/, 6ult. 06
good 1>tLL66 land ,(,!, dJuuuUtg Lt 611.0m a moon 1>1J111bol .i.n
one. 06 mlJ pa.i.nti.ng1> l . The. ho1>e. weMI> .it.6e.l6 .i.nto
mlJ Mvel and 6.ill.h me wlth good 1>.tu66. I am bet.tell..
Some. 1>ay MS doun 't h.ulLt, othe/Lb 1>a1J U dou.
MIJ le.g1> (though .the. tu.ion ,(,!, ne.M. mlJ ne.cld, ho.ve.
pa.i.n. 1 1>e.e. .i.M.lde. .th e.m. TheJte. ,(,!, a caJuiboM.d 1>.tM.p
.i.n e.ach. Slowl.IJ one. o 6 the. 4.tlUP" be.g.i.nl> to /LOU
.i.n.to a .tube.. A6 U 11.oli.4, U catchu up pa.in .i.'1.41..d.e.
U. In ano.theJt v,(,/,.i.on I 1>e.e. mlJ back, .the.n a wooden
table., and on U a ti.nlJ papeJt m.i.nt cup. A 4poon
appe.M.b. Some.how U 4COOpl> bad gunk 6/tOm mlJ 4p.i.ne.
and 6.il.lb .the. cup. Ano.the.IL cup appe.M.b, and 6.i.Ub.
Ano:tlteJt, ano.the.11., ano.theJt.
81J now rruch 06 mlJ 4.tll.e.ng.th, coolLCLina;Uon ,(,/,
back. A pa.i.ntell 611..i.end 4uggutl> 1 pa.i.nt .the. v,(,/,.i.onl>. Tho1>e. we.iAd :tki.Jtg4? lmpo1>1>.i.ble. 1 1>ay, IJU,
almo1>.t a4 .i.6 to .i.nl>,(,t,.t, .the. tlte.e. 11.e.appe.a11.1>--U
,(,!, 1uhole. th,(,t, ti.me.. Then U 1Le.p1t.odu.cu .U:.6 e.l.6
.i.n.to llldnlJ .tll.e.u • They tll.an1> 60M1 .i.nto a clwnp, a
g11.ove., and look "~ .to one. 1 pa.i.nte.d ove.11.
.twe.ntlj IJe.M.b ago. Ago..i.n, ha.i.11.li hang down and a11.e.
like. pe.a v.i.ne. te.nclllil.b. The.If be.g.i.n attac.h.i.ng to my
bodtj. 1 am not a6Jta..Ui 06 hull..tU1g .the. .tll.e.u. MIJ
mind pu.tb .the. ha.i.lll> .i.nto pl.a.cu that hUll.t, two 011.
tlvte.e. .i.n 4ome. pl.acu. Even .i.r. pl.a.cu that jUL>.t Uch.
I talk, olwy, now 1 am go.i.ng a4le.e.p, .i.6 1 move. oJt
.tull.n ovell .the. ho..i.11.4 will. 1>.tay .i.n place.. 1 wilt 6e.e.l.
be.tte.11. cdt e.n 1 <U1n ke.. Much o 6 .the. po..i.n and 6e.aJt go u
thllough .the. Motl>, .i.nto .the. .tll.unk, and out .thllough
.the. le.a.vu- -11.e.clJcle.d.
Somet.i.mu .the. bluu get to me.. 1n one. po..i.nt.i.ng
I am undellg1tound--.i.n 6ac.t, dcwn de.e.p .i.n a g.11.0und
hog de.n--unde.Jt mlJ hoUL>e./moun.ta..i.n la 1>ymbol .i.n p11.e.v.i.0U1> pa.i.nt.i.ngl> J . Thelle. 1 1>.tay 6011. 1>e.veMl da1J1> and
t«tU out :t.he. mood. One. da1J my Jtoom Hentl> .to 6.i.U
w<..th 6loa.ti.ng whe.e.lcha.i.11.li and 1 am 4Ull.Jtounde.d.
Sca11.e.d. Haunted. Ske..tch .the. .&nage., du<.gn U, pa.i.nt
U. Name. .the. 6e.a.1t. 1 am lu1> 1>CaJte.d.
1 look at my po..i.nti.ngl>. 1n mo1>.t 1 am llj.i.ng down.
What ,(,!, th,(,!,? 1 can w:tlk, ca"' .t I? I get m1J1>e.l6 up,
embJtace. the. moon, 1>he. pu.tb out hell aJIJl14 and g.i.vu
me. a b.i.g hug. I be.g.i.n a 1>e.Jt.i.e.1> 06 joUJr.11e.y1>, dJtawn
.in.to .the. pa.6.t, back to uiome.n '" anc.i.e.nt 1>ymboU. (The.
p!t.e.v.i.oUI> 1>e.Jt.i.u ha4 be.e.n 11.uume.d and «n.& 6.i.n,(,t,he.d,
Oil 1>0 1 ltad thought:. l Now 1 am llteMlllJ w<..th .the.
"1>ymbol6," bu.ld.e. .the.m, tallU.ttg w.i.th them, l,(,t,.te.n.ing .to them. 1 come. upon the. temple. 06 A6talt.te.; 1>U
at the. 6e.d 06 goddu1>u .i.n .the. Salto.Jta; 4tand at
the. al.taJt o 6 Mothe.11. Goddu1> .i.n C11.ete. and call. to
lte.Jt along w<..th one. 06 hell p!Uu.tu1>u; dance. and
1>.i.ng w.Uh o.the.11. women o 6 the. woll.l.d.
Back home. 1 6.i.nd goddU4U. have. taken up 11.u<.de.nce. to watch ove.Jt me.. One. n.i.gh.t I am 1>Uti.ng
on .the. poJr.Ch, Nut, .the. EglJp.t.i.an 1>k1J godd.u1> 4Ull.Jtound.i.ng . p11.ote.cti.ng. 1 be.come. <Ulnlte. .that the. j 0U11.ne.1J1> .i.nto .the. pa.6.t have. g.i.ve.K me. COUii.age. 6011. .the.
p.\Ue.nt, 6011. the. 6utUJte.. Me.h·Ull.t, a ve.Jtlj anc.i.e.nt
cow/4 kif godd.u1>, W'.lnde/Lb .i.n to v.i.l>U. All.Ound he.11.
ne.ck lb the. Me.na.t, a 1>ymbol c6 1>.tll.e.ngth, 1>e.xual.
ple.abUJte., and ph1J4.i.cal we.U-be..i.ng.
- Mall.l.e.ne. Mounta.i.n
:. ~
c
..
..- ~
U NE DllAWINO$ ADAl'TW aY MARTHA TllQ
'J '
r1'1
f
s
MOON FILL
f,(i9ht~
of~
"I don't even know what r&ade me sic.It," related
Marlene to us , "I think it was the stress and not
talking to people, being bottled up with pressures
and it came out ( in MS symptoms ) and I went through
a bad period. But maybe that was to be. I'm still
not able to settle down. I'm on fire. But I've had
a warning .•• and the healing. I didn't have anything
to do with it--it just happened and it was a major
healing process that I don't know how to explain."
We as~d Marlene to describe, as best she could,
her healing experience--"! don't even meditate
and that evening I said, 'Let's meditate tonight,
Cindy (midwife/friend) ' not even knowing really
what it was--it was a weird experience and it
happened several times afterward. And it basn 't
happened since (the healing) but it got me through
a period. I guess you could call it a miracle but
not in the old-fashioned sense. I'd love for it to
happen again but I don't know if it would be the
same form." Marlene continued, "What happened to
me ... I know it was from women's past--ancient
Goddess energy. I certainly wouldn't have known
anything like that would have happened or was going to happen. I don't have fantasies , I don't
have rituals, I don't have anything li~ that .. •
and then all of a sudden something absolutely abnormal happened to me . The midwife, Cindy, says I
did it myself. I don't think I could have ever
done it. But it was at the po:lnt that something
had to happen." From these visions, Marlene felt
compelled to paint the images in a series of healing paintings.( see 'In Circles', opposite page)
Throughout our visit, Marlene spoke of releasing her anger and her fears. In speaking of her
wheelchair painting, Marlene conJ:ided, "By the time
I was finished painting , I didn't have that fear
anymore and it has not come back. Maybe I just had
to deal with that fear and my being visual, it came
out visually. ~y fear and painting it through and
putting myself in the midst of it was empowering."
In conversing with Harlene, there is a strong
sense that the expression of rage in s creative way
and a positive vision of healing can co-exist. Some
of her 'outrageous' expressions include her series
lcon.t.i.nue.d on ne.x.t page.I
~<(]
KATUAH - page 7
Winter 1985-86
�WEEDING PAIN & FEAR
\:ifiiJ
\I
of paintings entitled: "a woman's non- commemorative
stamp collection". "They are 'stamps' which will
never be real stamps , " said Marlene. The 'stamps'
speak to the annihilation of native peoples , the
environment, rape, incest, war and nuclear extinction. One simply reads 'women and minorities'. "It's
incredible," continued Marlene, "that in America in
the 80' s that phrase should even exist . "
Besides creatively expressing through the
visual art of painting, Marlene is also a recognized poet of haiku. Conventionally, haiku is
viewed as an apolitical, pure/objective art form.
Marlene though differs with this view and creatively allows her 'grumblings' to come through
this mediUlll as well. She feels that haiku offers
a great deal to women in particular as an art form.
In terms of her paintings, Marlene ' s most recent series is called "Cross Words". The paintings ,
all 13 of them, are of crossword puzzles filled in
with words of what women are called ..• the animals
women are called .. . the food ... the slang body parts,
and so on. "I 'd say that most of my paintings are
for women, but I want men to be involved too. I
think they're called things that they don't want to
be called. If they could see what women are called
and start thinking about what they are called and
what they are supposed to be doing in life, it helps.
We all have to be in it together." Cross Words" allows us to see the disturbing words in a "playful"
and dynamically contained way, effectively taking
away their 'power'.
One of Marlene's older series of paintings
called "the Other" portrays ancient women symbols ,
which she spent a great deal of time researching.
Another series is a "female alphabet" which she
herself 'made up'. She felt the need for this kind
of alphabet and one night the images started coming to her, all except the 'y' and the 'n' which
came the next day. "For a while I would write letters in 'female ' and translate poems into 'female'.
The alphabet just c ame out of nowhere ... or rather
it came out of somewhere, I just wasn't aware of
it. I had to paint them."
IDher early days of being an artist , Marlene
was not aware that there was any avenue in art other than what she, for convenience, would refer to
as the 'male art of New York'. "I bad become dissatisfied with those attitudes." Harlene painted
ten years, got her degree, quit for ten years , then
started again . I n renewing her art again, there was
a period during which she painted a painting every
day for one month based on the theme of the mountain and the moon. The mountain wasn't a specific
landform--it was from within. "I just identified
with i t somehow. A f riend said, 'what 's the name of
~~ ~••<ain' and I didn'< know. I
g••••
i<
<•~••
out that it's me ... It was something that took a
long time. I wanted to change my name to that and
that's partly what the piece is about. ~hat's my art
name and poetry name. That's my real name (Mountain)''
Marlene is not interested in selling any of
her work. Seldom does sbe paint a ' single ' painting.
Mostly, her paintings are in a series of 20 to 40
pictures which need to be displayed together. In
asking Marlene how a ' series' develops, she offered,
"For the "stamp" series, I did a sketch in my sketchbook of a little perforated thing •.• ! don't know
where the image was ••• and then all of a S1.1dden i t
was a series. And t he alphabet just 'popped' out so
I don't know if there is a process. You have to 'go'
with it, you know."
Marlene's work and scope extend far beyond
her own personal realm. She in particular speaks to
women and their sense of wellbeing . "Women need,"
she insists, "to develop a collection of positive
images with which to enrich their art as well as
their psyche. For me, reference to the mountain and
the moon as female is a necessary element in building an aesthetic vocabulary as well as personal identification . Women have a tremendous amount of
underlying texture from which to draw, but due to
distortion, inversion and removal of archetypes, we
haves long journey of rediscovery and reclamation."
'
:;;
.!
.
..
.
"
i..
~
~
"
BENEATH THE SACRED GROVE
Harlene envisions a return of the Mother
Goddess qualities , both on a personal and a social
scale . This return which she feels is happening
("I feel I'm in the revolution, even out here") is
more a process of "searching for rather than giv!!!s .!!.P.· No doubt, though , there-must be a certiiTn
amount of sifting and sorting, declining and accepting, and balancing. There are many more concepts to discover and to embrace than there are
to negate."
"I feel", Marlene continues,"it 's quite valid
to call specific attention to what women create ..•
I'd say it' s very necessary until there is a truer
under s tanding of female sensibilities and her offerings--and, beyond that, of individuality. Today's
woman has much to offer and, I feel, has an obliga tion to give voice. Adrienne Rich aptly says, ' Women
have often felt insane when cleaving to the truth
of our experience. Our future depends on the sanity
of each of us, and we have a profound stake, beyond
the personal, in the project of describing our reality as candidly and fully as we can to each other'."
Marlene ' s journey of personal inner healing
s uggests an approach towards a wider community
healing where visions, dreams and sensations prompt
us towards health. Her organic imagery of mountain,
moon , roots , rock, s leep, sac red grove ..... and of
heslinQ , entering , passing throu gh .. . remind us that
,
we a r e all roo t ed deepl y i n t he natural proce~ '\fiN-;
-- M.M. S J. H.
_'\L_
© ~v
"
0
KATUAH :
~ eg~,e 8
ii ~
ex
c<JW
Winter 1985-86
- HA
~
�"This is Heresy!
HOLISTIC HEALING ON TRIAL
"The Constitution of this Republic
should make special provision for Medical Freedom as well as Religious
Freedom . . . To restrict the art of
healing to one class of men (people),
and deny equal privileges to others
will constitute the Bast1lle of medical science. All such laws are unAmerican Md despotic."
-Be.n.jamht RU6h, M.V., SW!fJe.on
Geneltlll 06 the. U.S. AlurilJ 6 a
6.lgneJL 06 the. Vec.ftvta,Uon 06
1nde.pe.n.de.nc.e. [7745-1813)
"Backed by vast sums of money and
the intellectual prestige of great
universities, decked in all the trappings of modern laboratory science,
and supported by an impressive record
of clinical success, allopathic medicine exerts an influence on our lives
and thinking equal to that of law and
religion. So dominant is it that
many of its adherents are surprised
to learn that other systems of treatment even exist."
-AndJtew WeU, M. V., .&t h.l6 boola
He..alih 6 ~: UndeJr..6.tancWtg
~o ~
Mecac:Lne.
-
AU.e11.na.:ti.ve
In a scene more reminiscent of the
Salem witch trials or the Spanish Inquisition than the informed and enlightened l980' s, Dr. George Guess of
Asheville appeared Dec. 2 for a hearing before the N.C. Medical Licensing
Review Board on a charge that his
practice of homeopathic medicine conflicted with his orthodox practice of
family medicine .
Three other physicians-Dr. John
Laird MD of Leicester, NC; Dr. Logan
Pobertson, MD of Canton and Asheville;
and Dr. Ted Rozema, MD of Landrum, SChave also been threatened with loss
of their medical licenses for practicing chelation therapy with their
standard orthodox techniques.
The unfortunate result of this investigation may be the loss of valuable health services to our communities and the loss of our right to
choose medical treatment that meets
our needs.
These four men are sincere, canpetent practioners devoted to the ideal
of healing others the most effective
way they can. But even being called
before the Medical Licensing Review
Board brings their intentions and
abilities into question. The four
physicians have already been pressured by their medical insurance
~ompanies into dropping their malpractice insurance.
George Guess, M.n., D.Ht . received
his medical training at the Medical
College of Virginia and Southern Illinois University. He was licensed
as an M.D. in 1978. Soon after entering family practice, he realized
KArUAH - page 9
the shortcomings of allopathic medicine.
Be discovered that attaining broad
knowledge, experience, and sensitivity to choose the appropriate technique for treatment offered the most
benefit to the sick. Following these
ideals he studied at the International Foundation for Homeopathy, completing their postgraduate course in
1980. Since then he has studied intensively with the renowned George
Vithoullu!s of the Athenian Center of
Homeopathic Medicine in Athens,
Greece.
In addition to his private practice in Katuah, Dr. Guess has also
served on the board of directors of
the National Center for Homeopatt.y
and as convener for the National
Council for Homeopathic Education.
He is a diplomate of the American
Board of Bomeotherapeutics and a
member of the American Institute of
Homeopathy, as well.
"Homeopathy," be says, "is a 200year-old science of healing that utilizes the healing properties inherent
in naturally-derived products to
stimulate the body's defensive mechanisms to overcome disease symptoms.
"The homeopathic physician utilizes non-toxic, gentle substances
adminiscered according to the 'law of
similars', which states that 'like is
cured by like' (or that bodily symptoms are cured by natural substances
which produce similar effects).
"A focal point for the homeopathic
physician is the uniqueness of the
individual patient. Typically, before focussing on local symptoms,
such as ulcers or arthritis, the homeopath concerns him/herself with the
total psycho-physical (mental, emotional, and physical) state of the patient.
"It is hoped as an end result of
homeopathic treatment that health is
restored gently, speedily, and permanently."
At the recent hearing, Dr. Guess
spent a grueling 8 hours defending
his practice . The hearing evolved
into a basic introduction to the
principles of homeopatlrl.c medicine.
At one point a board member, impatient with Dr. Guess's car eful and
complete descriptions of how he
treated his patients, lamented,
"You ' re losing me, I really must go
on to something else. I know you
understand what you are saying, but
I don't."
Throughout the hearing the Medical
Review Board displayed a total ignorance of the basis and the techniques
of homeopathic medicine, raising the
question that perhaps the Medical
Board is not qualified to judge a
method they know nothing about.
CHELATION THERAPY
Dr. John Laird, founder and director of the Great Smokies Medical
Center in Leicester, NC , is another
holistic healer threatened by the
II
Tho cadu.c~1.1•. the phr•icbft'• abln1
n ..
•111bot of .flnak._ cc.e• fta. • pr•Hd lanlc 1n1ke cult and oracle of ancient
Ct•..C•. hur taken ov•t by the cult of
M.c Jeplo1 1 vho h conaide:red the patTon
of at'dlclne.
Medical Review Board for his practice of chelation therapy. Laird
describes this technique as "an
intravenous therapy of prescription
medicines and nutritional supplements
that is known to inhibit degenerative
symptoms in the body, such as hardening of the arteries, arthritis, and
such."
Dr. Laird graduated with honors
from Dartmouth College in 1969 and
Dartmouth Medical School in 1976. He
·worked in the MAHEC Family Medicine
Residency Program in Asheville before
starting the Great Smokies Clinic.
He now specializes in nutritional and
preventative medicine. Be has directed a variety of national and international symposia on holistic approaches to health care. In addition,
be lectures to both health professionals an.d the non-medical public. He
is a founder and the executive director of the Raphaelite Institute, as
well as a member of the Amer ican Holistic Medical Association and the
American Academy of Medical Preventics.
In assessing the dis-ease of the
orthodox medical establishment, Dr.
Laird looks first within himself.
"I ask what I ' ve done to draw them
into my life. Part of my response is
to understand inwardly what is going
on, and the other part is to try to
figure out a way to reconcile the situation, because we are all One.
" In the course of all this, I've
learned a lot about arrogance. We
must express forgiveness without resentment so that we can be more free
ourselves. The need of this age is
tolerance and that is a function of
the heart."
intinued page 10)
Winter 1985-86
�(continued from p. 9)
Dr. Laird believes that there must
be a recognition that both sides of
this question have contributions to
make . The quacks and the unscrupulous
charlatans will always be with us, and
Laird maintains that there is a place
for an impartial panel of experts to
defend medical ethics and to set minimum standards to protect the public
from imposters who would take advantage of people's debilities for personal gain. But these hear ings, with
George Guess ' s careful and patient
presentation on the one hand, and
board members ' professed ignorance on
the other, calls into question the
competency of the Medical Boar:! of Re·
view more than the abilities of the
physicians called before it.
At present, the Board is composed
solely of licensed physicians who are
nominated by the North Carolina Medical Society, except for one lay member
who is appointed by the governor.
"The Board should be protective, but
not exclusive", says Dr. Laird.
The scope and techniques of medical
practice are expanding at an everaccelerating rate. The breakthroughs
in healing will come from those who
dare to pioneer new approaches and new
techniques. It would be a positive
step to have the Medical Licensing Reiew Board be composed of vell-educated, unbiased physicians familiar with
lternative techniques of healing as
ell as allopathic medicine. The
oard ' s composition could be balanced
to include practitioners of alternative medicine to better evaluate the
merits of different methods of nonconventional healing.
Ever since medical licensing was initiated in England in the 17th century,
the procedure has been used to maintain the hegemony of the practititioners of allopathic medicine. That
system has such a str ong hold on the
JOHN LAIRD, MO
minds and belief of the people of today, that medical associations have
taken on the nature and trappings of
a priesthood that will brook no
challenge to its authority.
But it apparently is time for a
change. 88 people attended a meeting
at the Unity Church in Arden, NC
cal.led to discuss "Medical Freedom of
Choice".
Chad O'Shea, church minister, sai
that he plans to convene a larger
meeting at UNC-Asheville somettme
during the winter to present a panel
of speakers representing both sides
of the alternative medicine issue.
"Our basic attitude," said O'Shea,
"is: 'Let's get together and share
some understanding. Let's look at the
facts' .
"I think that some people's preoccupation with money and material
things has blinded them to some wonderful medical methods that they perhaps should be not only supporting,
but maybe practicing as well!
"For instance, in the view of the
A.M.A., heart by-pass surgery is seen
as an acceptable risk, even though it
is known that 2 out of 100 patients
die on the operating table. It is
estimated that there will be 200,000
to 300,000 heart by-pass operations
next year. That means that there will
be 4,000 - 6,000 fatalities outright
as a consequence of this technique.
"That is not necessarily bad in
itsel f. Yet chelation therapy, which
bas not been known to harm anyone,
and which bas done a lot of good for
a lot of people, is not acceptable to
the A.M.A .. ~ is that?
"We need to explore hard questions like this one and bring them
into the light of day."
�A QUEST FOR
CHEROKEE MYTHIC PLACES·
By Douglas A. Rossman
Many European-Americans, long separated both
physically and spiritually from their own mythological roots, may find it difficult to comprehend
how mythically alive the American landscape has
been--<>nd, to some extent, still is--to Native
Americans. When the famous ethnologist James Mooney made his collection of Ea.s tern Cherokee myths
and legends just before the turn of the century,
more than fifty of the stories were associated
with specific locations in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Mooney's classic publication,
Myths of The Cherokee (1900) , provided detailed
descriptions of these locations but included a
photograph of only one of them, Nikwasi Mound, in
Franklin, North Carolina.
I first read Mooney's book in the late 60's,
was fascinated by the stories, and longed to see
the settings in which they had come into existence. The lack of time, finances, and adequate camera equipment prevented me from pursuing my personal quest in other than a sporadic and incidental
fashion until 1983 , by which time it had occurred
to me that other people in the region-both residents and visitors--might enjoy seeing and benefiting from learning about the significance of
those mythic sites that could still be visited.
Thus was born the idea for Where Legends Live : A
Pictorial Guide to Cherokee Mythic Places. Subsequently the project acquired a principal photographer, William E. Sanderson, and an illustrator,
Nancy-Lou Patterson. Bill, a former graduate student of mine, shared my interest in Cherokee culture, and Nancy-Lou, herself the author of a book on
Canadian native art, had previously illustrated my
dictionary of Norse mythology, The Nine Worlds
(1983).
How to present the Cherokee Names for the sites
and the mythical beings associated with them posed
a real problem. Cherokee was not a written language
until the early 1800's when the brilliant mind of
Sequoyah devised an alphabet of 85 letters to rep-
FORT MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, GA.
.
WH ITESIDE MOUNTAIN, N.C.
i
0
resent the sounds of spoken Cherokee. This system is,
unfortunately, unintelligible to readers of English,
for whom Cherokee names have inevitably been rendered phonetically . Over the years a number of phonetic
systems have been used (same without explanation) , but
no standard usage has been established . I decided to
go straight to the source, so to speak, and was extremely fortunate to obtain the generous cooperation
of Cherokee linguist Robert Bushyhead. He converted
the names given by Mooney into the phonetic system
devised by Bushyhead and Bill Cook, veri£ied or modified the translations of the names given by Mooney,
and provided translations for the "ames not translated by Mooney. Ris patience, enthusiasm , and good
humor were a delight and an inspiration, and the results of his efforts adtt inuneasurably to the usefulness of the book.
It is a measure of Mooney's thoroughness a.nd
preciseness that I was able to approximate the locations of the sites on detailed topographic maps and
subsequently go to these places and find something
that fit the appropriate description. In several
instances involving sites in or near Cherokee, North
Carolina, I was able to verify the locations with
either Robert Bushyhead or Tom Onderwood, a lifelong
resident of the area and a student of Cherokee culture.
For Bill Sanderson and myself, the quest for
mythic sites did not prove to be a routine, dispassionate cataloguing of spots on a map. Like all true
quests,ours had internal as well as external dimensions, and the places we experienced and the people
we met in our search for the sites contributed to
our own spiritual growth. Despite the disappearances
of many sites beneath TVA lakes and the alteration
of some by still other manifestations of "progress",
several of the places we visited still possess the
ability to arouse in a receptive visitor the sense of
(continued next page)
Winter 1985-,86
�CHEROKEE MYTHIC PLACES
being in the presence of sooething
outside the ordinary. 1 most vividly recall the visits to Fort Mountain
--home of the great Uktena-in the
path of an approaching thunderstorm;
T!!llSsee Bald- -home of the slant-eyed
giant Tsulkala-in early spring with
the golden leaves crunching underfoot; and Pilot Mountain--home of
K.anati and Selu, the thunder and
corn spirits, respectively--with a
golden eagle soaring past the summit
in the crisp October wind to help
(continued from previous page)
celebrate "Creation Day." It seems
almost inevitable that such places
would have myths connected with them.
Cherokee mythology has its share
of monsters and none is associated
with more places than the Uktena, the
giant horned (antlered?) serpent that
bears a magical crystal-the Uluhsati
-- on its head. There seem to have
been many different individual uktenas,
but the greatest of them lived in the
Cohutta mountains of north-central
Georgia, apparently at the site of
ULUHTU, THE SPEARFINGER
present-day Fort Mountain State Park.
One of the longest and most complex
of the Cherokee myths concerns a
"search and destroy" mission directed
toward this particular serpent. The
ensuing events are briefly swmnarized
in~ Legends Live: "Only one man
is known to have succeeeded in killing an Uktena and securing the magic
crystal. He was a war captive of
the Cherokee, a great Shawnee conjurer named Oganunitsi. The Cherokee were going to kill him, but
they released him when be pledged
to seek out and secure the Uluhsati.
He searched the entire length of
the Great Smokies and beyond, encountering a series of giant reptileR,
amphibians, and fishes along the
way, but it wasn' t until he reached
Cohutta Mountain . • • that he finally
found the Uktena be had been seeking. Oganunitsi built a circular
trench in the mountainside, set
fire to the pine cones encircling
the trench, and then shot an arrow
into the seventh spot on the body
pattern of the Uktena, which had
been sleeping on the mountaintop.
He evaded the rush of the mortally
wounded serpent and leaping beyond
the fire and trench, was protected
from the stream of venom spewed out
by the Oktena in its death throes.
After seven days had passed, the
birds of the forest had stripped the
carcass so completely that only the
Oluhsati remained. Oganunitsi carried the magic crystal back to the
Cherokee, who were said by Mooney
to still have it in their possession as recently as 1890. "
The 855 foot-long rock wall
that meanders across the southern
face of Fort Mountain does not fit
the description of the circular
trench within which Oganunitsi
took refuge, but some of the larger
"gunpits" along the wall might.
Although the surviving version of
the myth relates that the birds consumed the dead Uktena's bones as
well as its flesh, this seems unlikely and one wonders if, in an
earlier version, the wall might not
have represented the giant snake's
skeleton. The serpentine wall does
remind one somewhat of the Great
Serpent mound in Ohio.
No sampling of Cherokee mythical monsters is adequate that fails
to mention the infamous Utluhtu, or
Spearfinger; a shape changer who
usually appeared in the form of an
old woman. Utluhtu had a long,
bony forefinger on her right hand
with which she would stab and extract the liver from her unsuspecting victim, often a child who saw
her only as a kindly old grand-
--- - -
Wint_!?r )..98!)-86
�mother. Frequently the victim was
unaware his liver had been stolen
until he began to weaken for no
apparent reason, and by then his
death was inevitable.
Spearfinger wande.ed far and
wide through Cherokee country, but
her favorite haunts seem to be the
Nantahala Gorge and near the Little
Tennessee River, where it passes
around tbe foot of Chilowee Mountain.
On one occasion, to make her travels
easier, she started to build a bridge
of rocks up through the sky from
Tree Rock on the Hiwassee River to
Whiteside Mountain. She bad the job
well underway when lightning shattered the bridge, breaking off it's
foundation on the western end of
Whiteside Mountain. Apparently, the
thunders had taken offense at
Spearfinger's bridge, or her behavior
in general, or both. The Cherokee
eventually trapped and killed
Spearfinger, but the mythwise traveler still glances uneasily over
his shoulder when passing through
the Nantahala Gorge on a misty
morning. Or perhaps what he senses
is the shadowy presence of the
inchworm-like Uwtsuhta serpent as
it stretches from one rim of the
gorge to the other.
Not all mythic creatures that
threaten mankind are earthbound.
The Tlanuwa is a giant falcon capable of carrying off a man, a deer,
or even a bear. In Chattanooga and
on the Little Tennessee River below
Tallasee are cliffs where these huge
birds were said to nest . These cliff
faces are still marked with vertical
white streaks that resemble nothing
so much as bird droppings.
Most of the other beings associated with the surviving mythic
sites are more favorably disposed
toward the Cherokee; for example:
Tsulkala, the slant-eyed giant;
Kanati and the other thunders; and
the Nuhnehi, the usually invisible
'"those who have always been here",
who have a number of underground
dwelling places throughout Cherokee
country -- Blood Mountain, Shining
Rock, and Pilot Mountain are the best
known mountains that contain lodges
of the Nuhnehi. Nikwasi Mound also
contains one of their lodges and on
one occasion, when the Cherokee were
hard pressed by their enemies, the
Nuhnehi emerged from the mound to
rescue the Cherokee from their
attackers.
Nikwasi Mound is one of only
three Cherokee mythic places to have
been protected and identified with
a marker. Kituhwa Mound* between
Cherokee and Bryson City has not been
KA'rfae -
page 13
@ DOUGLAS A ROSSMAN
so fortunate. Although it probably
was once the principal ceremonial
center of the Cherokee (the "People
of Kituhwa" as they sometimes called
themselves), repeated cultivation
has eroded it very badly. Unless
16 lJOU. all.e. .i..nt:eJLU.te.d .(.n he.lp.i.ng
steps are taken iDDDediately to pro.to .lde.n:ti.6y a.nd p11.o.te.c.t CheJLoke.e. 1ncii.an ha.Cl!.ed hilU .in t<a..tU.o.h , c.onto.c.t:
tect what is left, the mound will
Thoma.h Ra..ln Cltowe., c./o Ka..tUa.h , P.O.Box
disappear altogether. I hope that
873, Cui.towhee., NC 28723
one of the things Where Legends Live
might accomplish is to arouse sufficient local interest and concern
that the "endangered" mythic sites/ .
such as Ki tuhwa Mound can be saved . _,,
* Kituhwa is another spelling of Katu~.
THE UKTENA
�\U' "'
..._ ,.,.
--- ..
�Esta'sai (pronounced es-TAB-say) was a beautiful
young woman of the ancient Cherokee Indian people. She
~was a cheerful light among the people of her village , and
many of the young men of her village , and from towns far
away desired her, but she had thus far remained unmarried .
~
That was what was bothering her this day, and was why
~ she had come to a forbidden place to pick the berries to
add to her dried pemmican.
She wanted to be alone, and so she had come to the
/ ~ cliffs high above the Nantahala, the "river of the midday
1
o/ sun , " called thus because _the gorge was so deep and the
cliffs so straight that the sun did not shine on the
waters of the river until noon of the day.
Somewhere, deep in that gorge, it was said, dwelled
a fearsome creature, the uktena, a great snake with a
horned head; massive jaws--;;ncasing huge , murderous fangs;
• a great body covered with scales that glittered like fire
./.~ --impenetrable to spear or arrow, except for one small
area on its seventh ring where its heart lay below a soft
spot, the one flaw in its armor. The beast's breath was
noisome and poisonous, and its eyesight was legendary.
1
/ It was from its keen sight that the monster derived its
name, uktena,"it examines closely ".
OntiieC°reature's head was a huge, transparent
quartz crystal, the Ulunsu'ti, the greatest of its kind,
of which it was said it would bring wisdom, foresight,
and great power to whomever possessed it. The crystal
had such power that no human's mind could stand before
, it, and whomever beheld the stone was drawn to it, wheth&j er by desire or enchantment, like a moth to a flame. The
bottom of the river gorge was littered with the bones of
hunters and conjurers who had attempted to kill the
uktena to win the Ulunsu'ti talisman for themselves.
k{j
All this Esta' sai knew, but she had never met anyone
r who had actually seen the uktena,and , in truth, she only
half believed the stories herself, although she had heard
them many times from old ones around the winter fires.
~
The stories did not trouble her that day, for she
~ was young, the sun was bright , and her heart was disturbed by thoughts of romance.
"I am as silly as a ten- year-old girl , " she thought ,
aimlessly flipping a few berries into her bark basket.
"Alitak 'wa , (pronounced ah-lee-TAK-wah) the strongest,
,- most handsome, and bravest young warrior of our village,
seeks me out, and I turn away from him with foolish
/11. words of dreams and visions that I have seen in my sleep"
She remembered him I panting hot and amorously into
her ear as he spoke, and she bad pulled her fur wrap
more closely about her and turned demurely away.
~
"No," she had said. "In a dream I saw myself married
· to a white-headed man, not to you."
'1:
"You mock me!" he had shouted, recoiling as if he had
been struck. Although be had said nothing more, she knew,
/}1. as he whirled and stalked away, that he had almost lost
~control of the passion and anger within him.
"Why did I say that?" her mind wondered . "The words
were out before I could think. They were a great insult
ft: to a young brave.
~:fr
"t would have had much prestige as the wife of such
a warrior, one who maybe would later be a war chief in
the village."
~
But in her heart, Esta'sai knew she did not desire
~
!
,, ---
A,
•r
"r
4.~
the warrior Alitak'wa. Re tolas overbearing and haughty,
and it seemed that all he could talk about were his own
grandiose exploits.
"But , " argued her mind , "the nice things be would
bring you ... "
Suddenly she was oppressed by the sun's brightness ,
the heat of the day , and the war going on in her own
body . She stamped her foot and gave a snort of disgust.
Over her shoulder she heard a chuckle , and from behind a rock glided the lit he figure of Alitak'wa , Esta'sai spun around to face him . The sun gleamed on his body.
Re was beautiful , to be sure, but the smile on his face
u,
was twisted and ugly .
~~
"So the young doe begins to feel some passion for her
buck," he said insinuatingly, as he slowly came closer.
"No!" she said firmly. Her fear gave strength to her
words. "I told you last night, and I tell you again:
there is nothing between us . "
"In a moment," he said , "there will be nothing between us, for one way or another, I am going to have you.
I came to you honorably, and you have tarnished my honor
and my reputation. Now I am going to have my way."
"No," she repeated, stepping away . "Someone will find
out. Someone will know. You will be punished,"
"There is no one here to know." Ris body was trem'f
bling as he stepped toward her again.
"No, no." Tears came to her eyes as she shrank away·
from him. Her foot felt nothingness. To her horror she
realized she was at the brink of the cliff. The world
went white and swam before her eyes .
"No-o-ol" she shrieked, and threw herself backwards,
away from his clutching hands.
Esta'sai braced herself for the crushing pain of
impact, but strangely enough , it did not come, The cliff
walls grew darker and darker around her , until she could
see nothing, and it seemed like she was falling through
~
a dream. Time slowed. Her body felt weightless. I t seemed 1-fj
that she would fall eternally.
Ber reverie was jarred by a sudden splash! into chill
ing water. But instead of the hard stones of a shallow
;f
j
river bottom that she expected, Esta' sai felt herself go- ~
ing deeper and deeper into the waters of a seemingly bottomless pool. Her mind rebelled. It was impossible for
such a deep pool to be in the shallow river bed. But by lft
instinct her body kicked and struggled upwards until she ~
bA
�reached
of air.
t~
surface, panting, faint from shock and lack
now, withholding nothing.
"I am out of my time. I am the last of my line, and
I know my doom is near, so I am going to tell you of my
She looked about her. It seemed as if she had fallen
kind that it may serve to guide your species, which has
into a different time, mournful and darkened by the shadcome to be dominant upon the Earth in this age."
J~ ows of a gloomy past. She looked upwards. Framed in the
In her mind Esta'sai felt a comnand to remain silent.
~narrow slit between the sheer walls, she could see the
She listened.
light of her own world. It was unreachable to her now ,
''1 am but a shadow of the greatness of my kind. Long ,
but it was still a comfort to see. Somehow, inexplicably,
long ago, before 'time' was, even, my ancestors, the
deep in the bright blue sky of full day, a single star
dragons, the greatest and most glorious creatures ever to
71 shown brightly.
live in this realm of being, swam and played in the eleThe sight gave Esta'sai hope. The slow current carments. At that time the elements were three: air, fire,
ried her against huge rocks, and she clung to one and
and water~and the dragons were the center.
~i lay across it gasping. Weakened and exhausted, she slept.
"The world was unformed then. There were no tides or
'f' In her sleep the single star still hung before her vision.
directions by which to order the world. The dragons were
She was awakened by a low rumbling like thunder. She
themselves, but they kept the sense of everything within
thought she could still see the star before her eyes ,
themselves. It was through them that the world continued
~ but then it began to wobble and sway as if it were movto exist. The world was theirs, and they were free to fly
~ ing slowly, ponderously , toward her. The cavern walls
through the swirling winds, dive into
boomed, and Esta'sai realized that she was in the presence fettered oceans, and bathe and play in the surging, unfree-burning
of the ~· Her eyes were riveted by the shining crysfire."
tal in the monster's forehead. She could not take her gaze
off of it. The creature's presence filled her mind. She had
The uktena's gaze withdrew behind its heavy-lidded
eyes. Its voice grew distant.
~~o~::~ses. Her own mind was laid bare to its probing
"They were magnificent to behold. Their every moveA
ment and their very being was an expression of freedom.
~
She could smell the uktena's foul breath. She could
They were greater, indescribably greater, and brighter,
o/ feel its strange, alien nature and the blood of the many
humans it had devoured. Yet, through all the loathing she
indescribably brighter, than I. It is impossible to tell
how they were, for they could change their aspect as need
instinctively felt, Esta'sai was drawn to the creature,
or desire arose. In the fires they would blaze brilliant
~ not only by the power of the Ulunsu'ti stone, but also by
ed
!fa sense of aloneness so deep i t had become a part of the
r
and orange, rising up huge over the flames. They
~· 9 very being. Esta'sai, born and reared in the prowould become long and slender, shimmering blue and green
tective circle of the tribe , always among her friends and
in their scales as they knifed through the waters. They
_a kin, felt a pang of sadness in her heart for the solitude could disappear into the skies in the lightest and pur~ the uktena had endured .
est of blues, or they could stand out sharply as a rain,
'fiie"iiiOnster dragged itself near her. Its great head
bow of bold colors arcing through the realm of the winds.
~ loomed over her, blocking out the surface world. The Ulun''I can imagine it: the sheer delight of my ancestors,
& au 'ti sparkled in the darkness of the chasm. The colors
dancing among elements that were completely wild and un~ Ofthe uktena 's thoughts swam hypnotically in the intertamed except for their unifying presence. They breathed
ior of the great stone , binding Esta'sai's attention.
the living dragon-fire, the breath of life for all of
She stood slack-jawed, staring at the jewel, not even
creation.
noticing the uktena 's breath, hot and rank, curling about
"In each of the dragons, the elemental knowledge of
her body like smoke. The great serpent slithered nearer
the world was joined, and therefore they knew everything
to her until its bead was quite close , and it scrutinized
in its purest form. Thus, I am able to know everything in
her closely with one baleful red eye--an eye that was
this world, even as you do now, because everything is but
cold, calculating, and completely amoral. The uktena
a combination and a transmutation of these basic elements.
hung its massive head over a huge boulder and iitiir';;(i at
"That is why the dragons were aware that they were
the maiden for a long time, as if looking into her
bringing about the downfall of their race even as they
thoughts. Then , almost casually, it lifted one of its
wer~ accomplishing it.
scales with one of the four long and deadly claws on its
"Their life-principle was the dragon-fire. It burned
.~right foreleg and scratched its own leathery skin, prowithin them, and was also their breath--shooting out in
ducing a drop of blood so red it was almost luminous in
magnificent streams of flame. Instinctively the dragons
the shadowy pit. The uktena reached forward and touched
knew that their fire and the water should not mix, but if
the reddened claw to her lips.
they flew low over the waters and shot down a burst of
Instantly Esta'sai's head was alive with visions ,
fire like a lightning bolt from the sky, they would feel
strange sights, sounds, and sensations that flitted by
a shock of intense, ecstatic energy that coursed through
so rapidly they made her head swim: great winged creatheir bodies as the connection was made. It was sheer
tures of beautiful, shining colors cavorting in the
pleasure, satisfying and fulfilling. Every part of their
skies; the rush of wind, the touch of cloud; red volbeing was renewed , and they would scream and moan with
canoes; pain, violence, and the stench of burning
delight. They knew that this was the beginning of their
flesh; and strangest of all, she could hear all the
own decline, but that was not a time for limits, for that
voices of her own world, distant yet iamediate, all at
was no 'time' at all, and limits were unknown.
once and yet each distinctly--rabbits thumping in their
"So it had to be. 'The seed that brings to birth
burrows ; the hawk calling to its mate; grass stretching
contains its own destruction,' it is said. Yet, if things
upwards in the sunlight; tree roots penetrating ever
had not been exactly so, the dragons might have continued
deeper into the earth; and the quiet, even song of the
to evolve in harmony with the world, and maybe the dominriver flowing through its bed~all these and everything
ant species now would have been beautiful, enormous dragelse she heard and knew. She was not surprised in looking
on-creatures ... "
into the serpent's red eye that she knew it as well.
The uktena's eyes glowed like embers for an instant,
"Yes-s-s," the creature's sibilant votce spoke in
the Ulunsu'ti flashed a defiant red and then faded.
her mind, although its mouth did not move, "the uktena"But it could not be so. For the stars are different
sense is yours now. You are connected to us who are--th'e
now, and the dragons have been bound like the other ele4:1 very roots of the Earth, and through us to everything
ments of the world.
of the Earth." The voice was even and unsentimental. If
For when the living fire of the dragons touched the
there was any pain in its loneliness, the creature had
waters, it created a new element and new forms of 1 tie
mastered it completely .
never before seen in the world. A new chain of evolution
"They say among those of your race that an uktena
was begun.
always speaks truly, but it only tells what it ~its
"Invisible at first, this new life wave spread. As it
istener to know, and there is always a purpose behind
spread, it began to coalesce. And as it came together,
~ the telling. This is true, but I speak plainly to you
the new element did what had never been done before: it
4.1
~-"'~~~~
-~
~~. ~ ~ -~~~'
~--~--~~
~
�-~><
~~~-
found its own center and began to define a shape.
"First, there was a p1ace to stand, aod then there was something
standing there. Something huge, dark, and forbidding--doom for the
wise, shining dragons. It was the first of the giants. The element
earth was present in the world, aod the giants were the embodiment
orrt.
"There was enmity between the Biants and the dragons immediately.
It was unavoidable. The sight of the bri1liant dragons pained and
blinded the giants, so recently emerged from the depths of the waters.
The dragon-fire touching the water jolted them with a painful shock,
so they would strike out in fear and anguish. When one happened to
hit a dragon , that creature would scorch him with a blast of hot
fire or rake hill with its claws. In this way , struggle against the
dragons became a part of the giants' very nature.
''As soon as they could stand upright, the giants would pick up
rocks of the new-made earth and throw them at the dragons. At first
they were clumsy, and their eyesight was poor, so they could not
see where they were aiming. But they acclimated rapidly to their
conditions. Their enmity for the dragon race was the impetus for
their evloution.
"Evolution," the uktena continued, "demands the presence of
time, and so the idea of limits came into the world. The limiting
factor for the dragons was the giants. Their blind flailing grew
more deadly, and in time they picked up the stone clubs that later
--carved , fashioned, and even crudely decorated~ became so much a
part of them that they were almost extensions of their stony bodies.
"They would stand waist-deep in the oceans and knock the glittering dragons from the skies. Eventually, they built themselves
continents to stand and move about on.
"They could never k:Ul the dragons. The dragon's immortality is
too strong for that. Their primordial minds are linked with the
basic elements of the world, and if the dragons should die, this
world would disintegrate until new elements of life appear in the
cosmos.
"But the giants did bring down the beautiful flying creatures.
They turned the Earth into a prison for the dragons. They put them
in deep holes, covered them over with earth, and sealed them with
the power of their earth spirit. The mountains of today outline
the sinuous dragon forms buried below. But the life-giving dragonfire is inexhaustible. It sti11 burns, even today , in the depths
of the Earth, I t turns the plain rock into caverns of beautiful
jewels. It flows through the Earth into all things that live, and
the dragon's mountain sepulchers are places of special power.
"Sometimes water flows to the surface from sources so deep
that it is warmed by the dragon-fires and comes from the Earth hot
to the touch. This water has special healing and rejuvenating
powers, because it has been touched by the vitalizing dragon-fire .
'Other water carries a sulphurous, fiery taste, and in other places
the Earth herself is on fire deep underground.
"The giants passed on in their time, never knowing why they
acted as they did or of their role in the evolution of the world,
But they prepared the land for the spirits that inhabit it today,
and now it is the time of the humans.
"The old ones of your people knew the Earth power that comes from
the dragons, and they revered my ancestors. In those times the northern star, the center of the sky, was in the eye of the dragon constellation. Things are different now, different influences are abroad, and
the people have forgotten.
"I am just a shadow of the great ones who were before me. Centuries of enmity and loathing have turned me into this creature who lives
in the dark, shadowy places of the world, resembling some worm more
than my own ancestors, the dragons of old, who sailed the free winds."
The uktena spoke flatly, without bitterness.
11
0ne of your kind is coming soon to kill 1te. He will rip the
Ulunsu'ti from my forehead. It is a11 over. I go now to Gahuti (Cohutta Mountain) to meet him. They will never know how things might
have been. We will never meet in council between our races. Never
will chosen leaders among the humans tsste the uktena blood, as you
have done, and know the secret lives of the things of the world." The
monster spat , and its spittle landed on a rock and sizzled as it
burned a hole into its core.
''The mind of the human species is a circle, just as the world is
a circle, and the combined mind of the human race encompasses the
being of the world, just as the mind of an individual dragon encompassed all its world. So you join together and live in tribes to make
your prayers stronger and to gain a wider understanding among you ,
and it is good for you to do this.
"There is another change being made which will be evident to you
soon, but it is not clearly defined as yet. It is not for you to know
�DAVID WHEELER
Drawings by ROGER STEPHENS
�ocigi.nal drawta.a by lichard Cicc.ar·e.111
Q.WVLtz CJt.yi..tai..6 a11.e. 6owu:C heJte. .in
Ka.ta.ah and had an. .i.mpoltto.n..t plac.e. .in
tlte. myt.h and i. p.ilt.l;tual .U6e. o6 tlte.
na.t.<.ve. pe.ople. heJte.. The. CheJtoke.e.
me.d-i.c-i.n.e. pe.ople., who had a t.tlt.ong
IWVl.e.ne.u and a clot. e. k.ini. ILi.p wUh ;th. e.
poweM and e.n eJtg.lu o 6 .th.l6 a11.e.a., ui. e.d
.the.m e.x.te.ni..i.vel.y .ln CeJte.mon.lu 6011.
c.le4M.lng, he.a.Ung, and cUv.lna.t.<.on.
The. poweJt 06 CJt.yi..tai..6 .l-6 t..tlU
ava4.a.ble. .to u.i. .toda.y. Tapp.lng t.h.a..t
poweJt dou not 1r.e.qu..iAe. i.pe.ciJLt .tlr.a..ln.lng oJt h.ldde.n, uo.teJl..lc knowte.dge.. It
t..i.mply 1r.e.qu..iAu .tu. .lng" - be.com.lng
n
6am.iU.alt wUh a CJtqhta.l and ope.n.lng
to ,(,U, 11.neJtg.i.U •
11
Quartz crystals are a natural formation resulting from a combination
of silicon dioxide and oxygen atoms
forming a solid unit of light. Clear
quartz has a natural ability to resonate with other crystalline structures that can enhance the function
of the human body, restoring natural
balance.
Quartz is considered the stone of
the White Light and the First Ray and
can serve better than any other mineral for balance and healing. They remove blocks in energy fields and can
be used in areas where negativity has
congested the atmosphere. Crystals
clear the way with light.
Used in meditation and healing,
crystals can bring on change by
their interaction with the psychi.c
centers of our beings. The crystal
has an effect on the physical body as
its subtle electrical energy vibrates
with the electrical pulses of the
body structure.
CLEANSING
A crystal must be cleansed before
being used. The simplest method is to
place the crystal in an uncontaminated, free-running stream for seven
days. Another method is to make a
solution of one cup of sea salt, one
cup of cider vineg'ar, and one gallon
of spring or distilled water. Soak
the crystal in this solution for ten .
minutes of more. Use only as much
solution as needed and reserve the
rest for another time.
"Charging" a crystal will advance
the frequency of the crystal and
allow the keeper to achi.eve goals
that the mind bas yet to discover.
When a planet moves into the area
of 26 degrees from any zodiac sign, a
galactic activation for the crystal
can take place. Check an ephemeris
to find when the Sun or other planets are at 26 degrees. Tllis degree
marks a frequency centered by cosmic
law.
The energy of the Sun is used for
magnification, so the Sun's midpoint
in the sky (noon) is the best time
for charging a crystal. Knowing
that the entire life force of this
planet depends of the energy coming
directly from the Sun, one will see
the significance of charging crystals
during the Sun's midheaven.
An hour is a good length of time
to leave the crystal to the Sun ' s
energy. After the process . is complete,
bring the crystal indoors and wrap it
in a soft, dark, cotton cloth.
sew ENERGY
Crystallography is a culmination
of a variety of sciences all interwoven. The 26 degree galactic activation point not only relates to
the angles of a crystal in its molecular structuring but also to the
dynamic point of the galactic center.
This in itself displays a triangle
effect, and capturing that pattern
in the crystal will allow the crystal to emanate a standing columnar
wave (SCW) energy. It is believed
that the technology of Atlantis was
based on the use of SCW energy, as
opposed to the technology of today
which is based on the Rertzian wave.
Wind funnels, elec~rical storms,
cyclones, and tornadoes are all examples of SCW energy patterns. Much
of the electrical phenomena of the
human body, such as brain waves and
nerve impulses, are also forms of
sew energy.
When using crystals for healing,
color and sound can be incorporated
into the stones to focus energy on a
certain area of the body, particularly the spinal chakras. The healing potential of charged crystals
can be maximized when color and
sound are added to the program.
The following is a method used to
program a crystal for a specific
purpose in the healing arts. Other
methods of progr amming will come to
one who opens the imagination to the
possibilities of crystals.
Take a set of seven crystals , and
place them one at a time in a pyramidal structure at the verg negatif ,
the area known as the " king ' s chamber" . This is the point of highest
concentration of sew energy .
Use seven colored transpar encies
in a proj ector or affixed to a desk
lamp to power the seven crystals .
As each crystal is lit , sound the
note that relates to that color. The
harmonics of a guitar or the sound of
a flute work well .
PRIMARY
MUSICAL
NOTE
COLORS
CllAKRA
red
root
c
orange
spleen
D
yellow
solar plexus
E
green
heart
F
blue
throat
G
indigo
brow
A
violet
crown
B
Each crystal should receive three
to five minutes of color and sound
programndng. Done daily for seven
days, this will insure that total
mergence of all the frequencies has
taken place. Once a set of seven
crystals is completed, wrap them indiVidually in dark cotton cloths,
using colored thread to code each
wrapped crystal.
By attaching a string to each
crystal with silicon glue, they can
be used as pendulums to heal by
opening and closing the energy centers. Use the crystal corresponding
to the chakra and hold it over the
energy center, allowing it to become
filled with the heali.ng frequency
from the crystal.
PRAYER AND MEDITATION
Quartz crystals may also be used
to advantage in prayer and meditation.
Crystals have a propensity to bend
light rays to a bO degree angle, so a
triangle of light can be constructed
using three quartz crystals, all facing the same direction. Focus can be
placed on the triunal formation by
establishing a connection between the
mind ' s eye, the light center, and a
Visualization of the projected
thought.
The possible uses for quar tz are
limitless. It would appear t hat the
quart z crystal is an opening door to
a new dimension in consciousness .
Through it one can see the many facets of exist ence and per haps discover the secr ets frozen in its light .
-excerpted from the bookl et Quartz
Crystals and Other Gemstones by
Diannah Beauregard
�;,_
I\
I•
I '.
WHAT MAKES A PLACE SACRED
Thi.6 .i.66ue.' l> "Good Me.cli.c.i.ne." .U. e.xeJtpte.d 6Mm a
lUteJt we. Ae.ce..lve.d 6Jtom a .tll.ad.U.iona.l CheJtoke.e. .li.v.lng
ht Ka.tifuh to the. U.S. F011.ut SeJtv.i.ce. conc.e.Jmi.ng theht
plan6 60Jt c.letlll.-c.utl> and t.i.mbeJr. l>a.le.l> .i.n Me.al> aJLOund
Ata.11.ka Fa.U.6 and the. Raven C.li.6 66 ht the. Cowee. c.omrrKJ.ni,ty 06 Mac.on County, N.C.
I'd like to say when I look at a tree I see it as
one of my own relations, and I se7 it's natural beauty,
and I see it giving me the ve:y air that I breati:ie· I
see a house in that tree, chairs and tools and firewood
for cooking and heating. 'PG we all have many purposes,
so does a tree . .And that's what makes things sacred.
The Cherokee people traditional~y see the :iver~
and streams as living beings. With it we had life.Without it we had death .. So that entity or energy in that
water that gives life we called a 'spirit'. 1\nything
that has a spirit is alive.We call it the 'long human
being' or the 'long person'. There are m~ny taboos
about the river. That's the reason the rivers were
clean and fresh when the non-Indians came here.
The 'long human being's' head l~es i~ th7se mountains. 'JIB it rushes down the mountains, it gives power
and life to all living things. The legs, the torso, the
arms of ' the long human being' are diseased, but the
head is still alive and reasonably disease free, due to
the Forest Service and National Park Service .
l\ATIJAH - page 20
What I would like to see, since
we can't do much about the rest of
the body, is to keep this part of
the body healthy and strong. When
the head dies, we all die. If all
I have said does not explain why
the head of the 'long human being'
is sacred, then I don't understand
the meaning of 'sacred ' ,
I look at it this way: The Indian people were placed in this land
as caretakers . I think that the
Indian people understood that and
saw that as part of their purpose,
or the Europeans would not have
found such a bounty when they came
here--a bounty based on their value
systems.
Now the Europeans are caretakers and a lot of our people have
forgotten that purpose and only
dwell on the wrongs that happen to
them. I think that our purpose is
quite clear: we are still c aretakers, but another burden has been
placed upon us, and that 's to teach
you to become caretakers.
The area of the Alarka Falls
("Raven Falls" or "Kalanu Falls" )
and the waterfalls i tself are sacred to us; as are the Raven Cliffs
("Raven Place" or "Kalanun'yi").
Those places have been used for
years beyond memory. The falls
were used as plunging and fasting places . The Raven Cliffs was
a place where bad stuff was taken,
buried, or was sent there ...
What makes these places sacred
to us is their personality. 1\nd
their personality is made up by
physical structure: by the four
leggeds, the two leggeds, the
wingeds , the roots, the insects
and water creatures. The combination of these things gives a place
its personality. Ind then these
personalities sometimes attract
spirits, which have their 'personality.'
When people practice medicine
and they need a certain personality to use in healing ceremonies,
conjuring, or just to help the
People, all the things above make
this place sacred.
/.lnd if you're a person that
needs to bring something bad--a
disease or the badness taken from
someone and buried there--if you
need to do the ceremonies that
make this stuff stay here, and you
go to this place and the personality which you sought is no longer
there, because some of the medicine
has been removed, where do you go
then? There are fewer and fewer of
these places for us to go.
Our places are narrowing every
day ...
,
Winter 1985-86
�REVIEW:
By
J.
Linn Mackey
Deep Ecology or Shallow Moralism?
Deep Ecology:Living As If Nature
Hattered:Bill Devall and George
Sessions (Salt Lake City, Ut;
Gibbs M. Smith, Inc.1985)$15.95
The very term Deep Ecology is
apt to send shivers of anticipation throuRh the bre.ast of a bioregionalist. It seems to prollise to
unite two bases which lie at the
heart of the bioregional movement.
One basis is the insight emerging
from the science of ecology which
informs our minds on both the dangers of a growth orientQd industr ial culture and points us toward
a practice of how to live in harmony with the structure and process
of nature of w
hich we are a part.
The second basis is a profound
spiritual union with nature which
deeply touches our intuition and
hearts so that we want to act out
of awe and reverence to preserve
the natural world.
Unfortunately, a great title
does not a great book make. This
review will argue that Deep Ecol~ does not deliver on the promise of its title. This is because
the authors both sever our deep intuitive communion with nature from
specific religious traditions and
reduce the complex and subtle interactions revealed by ecology to a few
moral principles. We end up then in
this book not with a deep ecology
but a shallow moralism.
Let me hasten to add that I
applaud the authors' radical critique of the antiecological practice and attendant "environmentalist"
rationalizations of the dominant
culture. I suspect that most bioregionalists would support the
authors' radical programs for preserving and expanding wilderness
and "letting nature be" in place of
resource development. Indeed , the
strongest part of Deep Ecology is
what the authors have to say in
their critique and on these issues.
Neither am I questioning the
depth and co111Ditment of Devall and
Session's personal stance toward
nature. What I am questioning is
whether the authors have delivered
on the promise of their title, i.e. ,
to unite a deep spiritual union with
nature with a sophisticated and
subtle science of ecology.
Central to the author's conception of deep ecology are the
ideas of holism, the interconnectedness of everything, and biocentric equity, by which they mean that
"all organisms and .mtities in the
ecosphere, as parts of the interrelated whole, are equal in intrinsic worth." Devall and Sessions
would have us believe that there
is what they call a minority tradition in history that emphasizes
these notions. In fact, there is
no single minority tradition; there
are only minority traditions. It
is not honest histography nor does
it give an accurate picture of the
way the world works to go bunting
through the past in search of certain concepts or key words and, when
finding such, to claim a significant or causal connection. Scientists (not historians, who know
better) have attempted to write a
hi~tory of science that way , searching back through the past for any
thinker, for example, who used the
word "atom", then arranging these
chronologically, as if this said
something meaningful about the development of the modern concept of
the atom. It doesn't!
Yet this is akin to what Devall
and Sessions have done. They have
searched through past and present
thinkers and movements looking for
advocacy of holiam and/or biocentricism. They find one or both of
these notions in a diverse group of
past and present thinkers sod movements. But what have we learned by
assembling such a collection? I
would argue very little indeed. It
does not tell us how these notions
of holism and biocentrism arise and
function within a belief or philosophical system or how the philosophical or belief systems arise
and function within a whole cultural matrix. But until we know this,
we have only meaningless juxtaposition and vacuous abstraction, not
real life. We need more, much more ,
than this if we are to move to a
culture that lives and develops
harmoniously with nature. We need
to understand the subtle dialectics between a culture's values ,
practices and the specific natural
world in which it is embedded. We
need a bioregional analysis.
Devall and Sessions seem to
believe that they can set up some
moral principles and change the
world. No doubt a society dominated by a biocentric value system
would treat wilderness and resource development radically different
than one holding homocentric (human centered) values. The problem
before us though, is how to move
from a culture totally dominated
by homocentric practice and ideology to a society dominated by biocentric values and practice. What
do the authors have to off er us
toward the solution of this absolutely crucial problem? They propose
that we ask "deep questions" and
that we cultivate "meditative experience" . The problem here is that
these approaches have been standard
in the Western tradition since the
time of the Greeks. While it is
true that they sometimes lead to
biocentricism, they more importantly have lead to our current bomocentric and profoundly antiecological society.
In the end then, Devall and
Sessions are proclaiming an abstracted moral principle of biocentricism in a society in which homocentricism and domination of nature
reigns and is procl aimed through
every organ, institution and media
of society. One suspects that Deep
Ecology is not going t o change the
world, offer any reali stic hope for
such a change, or even make any converts to a biocentric position, At
beat it is mo r alizing to the already
moral!
Deep Ecology suffers from diftuae and disconnected roots and a
lack of hard-beaded analysis. It
suffers from a double amputation.
Religion , philosophy and ideology
are first severed from the cultures
in which they are intrinsically embedded and then certain principles
like biocentricism are further excised from the religious and philosophical systems in which they are
intrinsically interwoven (a totally
unecological act). In so doing, the
heart 1a amputated from the body,
the spirit from muscle and sinew .
Deep Ecology takes us in the opposite direction from wh:ich we must go
to really change society. That direction is to reunite spiritual intuition and values with practice in
a specific place. This is the way of
bioregionalism.
Deep Ecology mentions bioregionalism favorably in several places
and would draw bioregionalism into
deep ecology. I would argue that bioregionalism has little to learn from
this book . Bior egionalism is a
movement to reconstruct culture
harmoniously within a specific, natural region. As such it is a practical hol1811. Culture means material
practice---providing the necessities
of food , clothing and shelter as
well as politics, customs, law, morality, values and religion. It is
human existence and meaning in its
fullness and totality, not simply
some principles abstracted from
religion or philosophy. As such,
it is real people in real life
embedded in specific place in real
day-by-day, nitty-gritty existence.
It is only here--in the totality
and fullness of practical living
in a place, not in some set of
doubly abstracted principles, that
an evolving and harmonious dialectic with nature can be constructed.
~
Winter 1985-86
- iL' rAA
�o~
NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
PROTECTING
SACRED SITES
Jla"'ral Vodd lew s....,k•
Elders of the Eastern Band of the
Cherokees have appealed to the USFS
to stop the Little Laurel Timber sale
in Macon County, NC as it will "desecrate" two sacred sites adjacent
the sale: the Alarka Falls and Raven
'Cliffs. Appeals 1570 asks the USPS
not to log or use herbecides near
these sites and justifies the request via the Native American
Religious Freedom Act. It was also
stressed that the USFS needs to
realize the importance of sacred
sites to all peoples and that the
issue here is not how a forest
should be managed but rather how the
integrity and power of sacred sites
should be upheld.
The Appeal was turned down by the
National Forests Supervisor for NC
and is in the hands of Regional
Forester John Alcock in Atlanta.
While the offical comment per iod is
closed, continued support is important .
Write: John Alcock
Regional Forester, USFS
1720 Peachtree Rd. , NW
Atlanta, Ga. 30367
KArUAR - pllgi! 122
DOE PLANS FALTER, COMMUNITIES ORGA NIZE
In Nove111ber of 1985 the Department of Energy was to have narrowed
its choice of Nuclear Waste Suppositor y sites from the 236 under
study to 20 "possible" locations.
Widespread public involvement and the
Department's own negative findings
have caused the DOE to postpone,
until January 1986 their annoucement
of selection. This is their second
postponement since November 1985.
While Oak Ridge, Tennessee is the
most likely site for the Monitored
Retrieva ble Stora ge facility (the HRS
is a way station for waste headed to
the Suppository). the associated transportation routes are still under study
and the DOE has admitted that they are
open to negotiation.
Strategy and organizational meetings along the "likely" routes are
becoming more numerous. The Highlander
Center hosted such a meeting for community action leaders from east ern NC
to western Tennessee. Over three hundred citizens of Madison County , NC
met this november, providing another
voice in this effort to stop the
DOE's part in this country ' s nuclear
energy policy .
EPA SEARCHES FOR ACID RAIN CLUES
~lnu.ral
WOl'ld Mew Strvic•
Rumor has it that the EPA has
contracted with private research
groups and other government agencies
to find where and to what extent
"Acid Deposition" is affecting the
Southern Appalachians. Similar
studies have recently been conducted
in New England and the Northwest.
The work here will be conducted
in 30 to 40 watersheds located in
east Tennessee, western North Carolina, north Georgia and northeastern
South Carolina.
This study consists of the
gathering of data in the following
areas: forest cover types, land use,
soil and water chemistry and the various climatic factors affecting this
area. This information will be comcompiled by the EPA , plugged into its
data base and analyzed.
While no public information is
presently available, it is speculated
that the results of this study will
be used to trace "Acid Deposition"
back to its source and later used
in court actions aimed at "cleaning
up" the problem.
ONLY YOU CAN SAVE THE BEARS
M.atu.ral *>rl.4 tf-"'9
Se.rvic•
According to biologists at the
North Carolina Wildlife Resources
Conmission, poaching and other
illegal bear hunting is an old and
intractable problem. The biggest
threat to bear populations, as for
most wildlife , is continuing habitat
destruction. Even if poaching remains at a constant level, it spells
disaster for the bears as habitat
shrinks due to increased clearcutting
and road building. The survival of
large predators and omnivores such
as bears requires vast,roadless areas
where contact with humans is kept to
a minimum. Forest Service logging
roads make bear habitat more accessible to poachers and slob hunters.
In North Carolina, the Wildlife ·
Resources Commission's primary means
of measuring the bear population is
the number of legal kills reported
each year. With shrinking habitat
and increased road access, the few
remaining bears are vulnerable to
hunting pressure. The effect of this
is that the kill level stays high
while the population declines, possibly beyond the point of recovery.
Using bait to attract bears is a
popular slob hunting practice that
has recently been made illegal. The
usual technique is to hang sacks of
food, sweets, or rotten meat on trees ,
attracting bears to an accessible area
where dogs can pick up the scent.
Hunters then monitor the dogs' posi-
tion from access roads using vehicles,
CB radios, and even radio collars on
the dogs. Hunters don't need to leave
the saftey and colD.fort of their
vehicles until the dogs ' baying indicates that the bear has been treed
and can be shot with a minimum of
effort and skill on the part of the
hunters. Baitin_Jt was often used at
the edge of bear sanctuaries to draw
protected bears out where they could
be letally killed. A new law that went
into effect October l makes it illegal
to use bait to attract bears on public or private land.
Wildlife enforcement officers say
it is impossible to control poaching
and baiting without help from concerned local citizens. Some states
have toll-free hotlines to report
hunting violations, and can dispatch
an enforcement officer to the scene
quickly. In North Carolina, call
1-800-662-7137, South Carolina 1-800922-5431, Tennessee 1-800-262-6704,
Georgia 1-800-241-4113. A number for
Virgina could not be determined.
To participate in the Bear Action
Network to document incidences of
poaching and other illegal bear hunting activities, contact:
.'aul Gallimore
Long Branch Enviornmental Ed. Center
Big Sandy Mush Creek
Leicester, NC (704)6e3-3662
..
Wintq.r _1985-86
�HORSEPASTURE RI VER TO FLOW ON:
SMOKE GETS IN
A GRASSROOTS SUCCESS STORY
YOUR EYES
Ntituu.J Morld Nev•
~ erv 1c.
Spruce Pine-Mitchell Systems Inc . ,
an incinerator plant owned by Charles
Foushee continues to burn hazardous
wastes. The smoke causes irritation
of eyes, nose, and throat. People
have developed "allergies" since it
opened five years ago. It has burned
corn crops nearby. The heavy metals
coming out of the smokestacks are
above permissible standsrds set when
its permit was reissued early in 1985.
Fores~ Service botanists have linked
the emissions to tree deaths surrounding the plant. Homes remain un-
Since the spring of 1984 a grassroots group, Friends of the Horsepasture, have rallied support for the protection of the Horsepasture River and
her 5 waterfalls from an out of state
invesbnent group, who plan to build a
hydroelectric dam. While this ill-fated tax write off has faded, further
public support for the Borsepasture
has brought about Natural and Scenic
River designation by the North Carolina General Assembly and most recently, appropriation of funds by the U.S.
Congress to the United States Forest
sold, land values are dropping, water
Service for purchase of the 350 acre
is becoming contaminated.
Because of these gross violations
of all applicable standards, Mitchell
Systems has been fined, has had its
air quality permit revoked and was
issued an order of compliance when it
was discovered that its environmental
liability insurance coverage was no
longer in effect. Since it did not
comply with regulations as of December 2nd, the N.C. Department of Human
Resources ordered the plant closed.
On December 5th a local resident
brought a $250,000 lawsuit against
Mitchell Systems alleging that discharges and odors f ran the plant make his
home unfit for human habitation.
Community response has been escalating rapidly. 150 people from all
over Mitchell county gathered at a
recent meeting to air their demands
and frustrations. Outside professional
consultants have been hired and they
are learning what program consultant
Millie Buchanan called "effective involvement." Citizens are bringing
pressure on state officials to release information, they are helping
the legal and technical consultants
collect data, and they have exposed
a large flaw in due process procedures
regulating waste disposal.
Why is the incinerator still
burning? No insurance, no permit,
and still the smoke settles on cars,
houses, children and streams. Local
people in Mitchell county are fighting
national problems: lack of control
and an inability to enforce laws
governing the disposal of hazardous
wastes. Charles Foushee has appealed
both the insurance compliance order
and the air quality permit revocation. Until these appeals have
been decided upon, Mitchell Systems
is free to burn wastes. "If be
operated a bar and served alcohol
to minors he would be shut down
immediately and kept shut during
the appeals process:• said one involved person.
Why is Charles Foushee still
allowed to serve emissions hazardous to the health of Mitchell
county?
Leder tract. This will allow for protection of Turtleback, Rainbow and
Stairway Falls (the others are owned
by Duke Power.)
Bill Thomas, Chairperson of the
Friends o f the Horsepasture, points
out that a special thanks goes to the
private conservation group, Trust for
Public Lands. The Trust, through its
own funds, secured an option to buy
the Leder property at a Forest service appraised price. This protected
K.\Tl'.\11 - !Mge :!3
the river from develo?11ent while Congressional appropriations were sought.
In doing so, Thomas says, TPL has incured a $70,000. debt primarily in
option costs, which will not be refunded by the Congressional appropriations. It is the hope that all the
"Friends" will continue their support
by sending tax deductable donations
to the Trust via FROTH so they can
continue their preservation efforts.
Most recently, the N.C. Department
of Natural Resources and Community
oevelopnent is preparing a management
plan to "preserve" the river in its
natural state and offer guidelines
for recreational use. This is the
first step in" placing the river under
the protection offered by the National Wild and Scenic River Systems. Gov.
Martin is expected to request Interior
Secretary, Don Hodel, for this status.
Hore info:
FRIENDS OF THE HORSEPASTORll
P.O.Box ·272
Cedar Hountain,NC 287lij
A QUESTION OF STANDARDS
CHAMPION WASTE PERMIT
){U'U.rAl
~ld
N...,. Suvi.c:•
As of mid-November, the EPA has
stepped in to resolve differences
between the states of Tennessee and
North Carolina and the color of water
in the Pigeon River at the state line.
Being contested is the NC Division of
Enviornmental Management ' s 1985 waste
water discharge permit for Champion
International ' s Canton paper mill:
the amount of color in its ef f ulent
and its affect on water quality down
stream.
This summer the EPA voided this
perlllit and informed the DEM that the
permit did not canply with the required federal Clean Water Act
guidelines . DEM countered by saying
it might not have statutory authority
to implement all of the EPA's recommendations.
Tennessee has filed suit against
NC and Champion stating that the 111111
should be required to meet their
clean water standards . It is here we
find the crux of the legal and political debate. Water quality in Tennessee is based on a "narrative
standard" which states that color
units in waste water shall not exceed
"background levels" which can be
treated by conventional methods. They
have further "interpreted" this color
standard and assigned a value of
50 ppm.
Paul Wilms, Director of the DEM
states that all of the EPA recommedations have been met except those that
pertain to the 50 ppm . color standard.
It is their feeling that Champio~'s
new Ultrafiltration test system and
oxygen enrichment equipment will
maintain water quality and thus cOlllply with the NC permit. They also
contest Tennesse's 50 ppm. color
standard stating that it has been
arbitrarily derived and not scientifically based and as a result no~
legally enforceable here in NC. At
present, NC has not assigned numerical standards for color levels in
waste water.
Champion is presently filling
out its EPA perlllit application and
is legally operating under the DEM
permit. They have also signed a
"Special Order of Consent" requiring further testing of color removal
technology with a review by DEM personnel this spring. EPA is expected
to draft a new permit this spring
with a public comment period to
follow.
(NWN continued next page)
Winter 1985-86
c
�. - - - - - - - - - - - - - . . . . , - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,W!@\Yf@\Vl@Wr@Wf@\Yl®\V!@\Yl@\YI@
O;t
NATURAL VIRUS CHALLENGES
CHESTNUT TREE BLIGHT
NATURAL WORLD NEWS
continued
PROJECT FIREHAT
AWARENESS
TRAINING
Each year, firefighters in
North Carolina risk exposure
to hazardous chemicals. As
first responders, firefighters
and other emergency response
teams are the front line in
dealing with hazardous materials.
They and their communities particularly need to be more aware
of potential hazards in households, in agricultural operations,
and at Slllall businesses.
The dangers these chemicals pose can
be reduced if firefighters ar e more prepared for specific risks and have appropriate resour ces available to handle
them. L8ck of information at the local
level has been identified repeatedly as
a problem in emergency response planning
for hazardous material incidents.
Project FIRERAT (Hazardous Awareness
Teamwork), funded by a grant from T.V.A.
to the University of North Carolina at
\sheville has recently been started in
WNC . It's aim is to assist Buncombe,
Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties
by collecting information on risks in
the COlllDunity. Through a series of workshops with local volunteer fire departments, FIREHAT addresses specific areas
of concern identified by local, regional ,
and state emergency response professionals. Some of the topics covered are:
laws governing handling of agricultural
chemicals, transportation of hazardous
materials and the new North Carolina
Right-To-Know Act. Future plans include
3 video to further inform f i r"ef ighters
and public alike .
For mor e information contact;
PROJECT FIREHAT
102 Tacoma Cir .
Asheville, NC 28801
Cam Metcalf
Millie Buchanan
254- 4414
253-4423
Scientists at Michigan State
University have discovered a virus
which inhibits the American chestnut blight. An estimated 3.5 billion trees died between 1904 and
the early 1950's. With the demise
of the chestnut came a decline in
bear populations due to a marked
decrease in available mast each
fall.
Being studied is a naturally
occurring virus which infects the
chestnut blight fungus. The fungus
damages the tree under the bark but
does not affect the roots. Keeping
the fungus in check allows the roots
to send up sprouts then allowed to
form healthy trees. The origin of
the virus remains a myster y.
"POST NO BILLS"
• n w ""ve' U • cva
c•l
S~
Billboard landscapes blocking your
view? Then write to your U. S.Senators
and urge them to support Senator John
Glenn's proposed legislation which would
in effect abolish billboards . The bill
would prohibit destruction of vegetation along highways in front of billboards, close loopholes in the current
law which allow for signs in rural
areas, and ban new signs from zoned and
unzoned co11111ercial and industrial areas.
It would also establish a 5-yenr moratorium on signs in unzoned commercial
or industrial areas made "non-conforming" by this bill and would require
them to come down following the 5year period.
Write: Senator
, U.S.Senate
Washington, DC 20510
NATIVE BEARS THREATENED
BY RUSSIAN BOA RS
Unchecked populations of wild
boar s in the Great Smoky Mountains
Nat ional Park are depriving native
animals (especially bears) from sixt y per cent of the acorns needed to
s urvive the winter months . In an
attempt to secure an ecological balance in the park , rangers trap the
boar and release them outside the
park wher e hunting is permitted.
Local hunting organizations and
some rangers would like to see the
trappings increase .
Alr eady five organizations have
co-signed an appeal against widening the present range of the boars
and thus keeping their destructive
ways confined. Raving received national attention has taken the appeal
to Washington. But the real issue is
back in the park where the ever increasing population needs definite
thinning .
Perhaps re-establishing a native
wolf population in the park would
allo~
for a more natural
Karen Paquette
"The Mo.g.<.ca.i. Chil.d" ht al.£ o6
.the chil.d who dlt.eam.6 a.uxlke oWt.
memo.11.y 06 whe.11.e ~ beg.in ... .the chil.d
tL6. • •
who
dJL~
aunke. the. g11.e.a.t 'comhtg
.to9e.the.11. place' on
owt
EaJLth Mo.the11..
HO/"
We a.11.e a.t.t. chil.dlt.en .to9e.the.11..
--Scout tee
How important is it to pay attention to dreams? Peoples from al.most
all societies and cultures on earth
throughout time have used dreams to
deepen awareness, explain reality,
and foretell the future. These have
been characterized by 'culture pattern dreams', visions, and ordinary
individual dreams consisting of cultural phenomena or subjective personal
experience. Much attention has been
paid to every physiological and psychological aspect: poets bespeak
dreams, mythmakers spin them, and
visionaries live them ••.
The importance of 'dreamspeaking'
is becoming more evident as creative
consciousness is accepted as a valid
process in a world where science and
mysticism are finding common ground.
If we look at the essence of what it
ia to dre11111 and not 'means', we come
closer to understanding the power and
the process of the dream's potential.
' Night dreaming ' is a bodiless
experience . It is a networking of dimensions unhindered by ear thplace exi stence . Here, we are guided by our
leaders , goaded by our 'monsters ' ,
and sung to by our muses ..• On the
other hand, ' daydreaming' is the experience of fantasy, of creative visualization, and of reverie. The former is usually receptive; the latter,
creative. If our 'somewhere over the
rainbow ' dreams are not coming true
for us, perhaps i t is because we have
'pu t aw the things of the child' in
ay
us too securely. As adults we must
learn ~o allow ourselves to be re-enchanted--to look to the child, the
one we once were who is still within
us, and to the child who walks beside
us as son, daughter or friend.
Can we rememher when the simplic-
preda~~
L---------;,.;.-...:~--:.&,.••ey-• --y s• em ._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _...,. Wl@\Vl@\Yf@Wl@\V(@\'(/@'r(f@\Vl@ WI@
pr • eco• s • t••
Winter 1985-86
�ity of our ' higher' visions were cloud
scapes changing with the breeze? When
our ladder to higher consciousness was
a tree limb? The abandonment of lying
face-up, open and vulnerable to the
greater expanse of the sky let our
imagination be free. It was easy to
absorb the knowledge of hidden things,
represented by clouds, into the more
imaginative parts of our being. Remember the joy? The Adventure! ...
If we can relive that ma&ical moment in time, remembering that the
child we once were is still there
(covered, now, by our layers of
'adulthood'), we can tap into the
'stuff that dreams are made of'
anytime. Remembering dreams not only
means remembering sleep consciousness but also means capturing the
essence of the creative proc ess (i.e.,
the 'magic momenta') that are the
energy structure of our visions.
Knowing we can still 'p13y' is essential to our life's work of manifesting
our dreams ss reality.
In structuring our future we must
also look to the generations to come-to the children. We can help our
sons and daughters stay open to their
creative processes by encouraging
their 'daydreaming'. We can do this
by way of a morning ritual: of sharing dreams upon awakening. Doing this,
we find it becomes progressively easier and more natural for our children to remember the nightland visited if we do it regularly with them.
This practice adds another d1mension
to the life we share with our children.
It is important not to dismiss our
children's nightmareil'With only reassurances. Children have a great ability
to understand symbols and inner meanings. If we complement their own fantasies with simple 'truths' we might
find that they will begin to look forward to their nightly adventures. In
this way we give our children a way to
experience and accept their 'inner
life ' in a way which m
any of us adults
were not allowed to do at a younger
age.
Perhaps John Prine, during a recent visit to our Katuah region (Asheville Music Hall, 10/31/85), summed
it up best in this way:
WE WERE TN A HOUSE WTTH BOTH OF OUR VTNTNG
ROOM TABLES PUSHEV TOGETHER ANV VAV'S HOUSE ANV
MOM'S HOUSE PUSHEV TOGETHER. WE WERE ALL GETTING REAVY TO HAVE SUPPER TOGETHER ANV ETHAN
WAS TN COLLEGE ANV GRANVIi.A WAS IN HER APARTMENT. I WANTEV TO FLY ANV GET THEM BECAUSE
WE WERE HAVING A BTG PARTY AT OUR HOUSE ANV
SO T WALKEV OUT THE VOOR ANV 1 FLEW TO
ETHAN'S COLLEGE ANV 1 GOT HIM. I HELPEV HTM
FLY BACK TO GRANVMA'S HOUSE. 1 GOT HER ANV
BOTH OF THEM VIVN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY ANV SO
I HAV THEM HOLV MY HANVS AS 1 FLEW. WHEN WE
GOT BACK TO OUR HOUSE WE SAT VOWN AT THE
TABLE ANV SAW A BIG CAKE ON IT. WE VIVN'T
KNOW THERE WAS GOING TO BE A CAKE THERE. WE
ATE THE CAKE ANV THEN WE WENT INTO THE LIVING ROOM ANV HAV A FAMILY HUG.
Ab.i.ga.il., age g, who4e
pa.II.en.ti. cUVOIJ..Ced
when
4he 11n.t> 6oWL.
"Dream in' comes easy,
Like the first breath of a baby~
Like sunshine feedin' daisies-Like the love hidden deep in your
heart.''
... as does the following dream by
this e ight year old:
A CHILDREN'S PAGE
~
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,
K.~ 7L
oil-
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8P 1 °J 1a.tW
~5
Winter 1985-86
�DRUMMING
,,
LETTERS TO KATUAH
•
Dear Folk Thanks for the latest KatGah, with
the pertinant articles on the threats
to this area's life. Acid rain and
nuclear waste are not metaphors for
apocalypse, they are part of it .
I am still stirred by memories of
the sullUller solstice ceremony at Sam's
Knob. The dominant image in my mind is
of a people-crystal hung in a rainbow
pouch above one of Gaia' a vital organs
now in need. The crystal is a little
chipped and sort of jagged on one end,
and it has cracks in it, but it works.
I don't know how it works, but I know
it works.
We had a fall equinox celebration
here involving sweats at Zephyr in
their huge blue sweat lodge. People
wove wreaths out of vines and flowers.
Each year people bring whatever ripe
fruits are on hand, and Bob AveryGrubel takes them and makes them into
wine. Around the fire this year we
drank wine from the two previous
years. We chanted all our chants and
sang a lot of songs. I read a poem
which went something like:
We are allies and
can ill afford
to fight amongst ourcellves
we can ill afford
to fight amongst ourcellves
Dear Katuah I have been thinking about the humans' connection
with nature, mainly because I am concerned about my
relationship with the Earth. The past two years I
have been able to begin fulfilling a dream - a dream
of achieving harmony with and awareness of the Earth,
her native spirits, muses, plants, and animals •....
the Great Spirit that breathes through all, beyond
tangible boundaries.
Last year and this past summer were especially
profound and strengthening, living in the mystical
mountains of Katuab with people who understood and
were striving to live i n harmony too . Working in a
garden, harvesting her fruit, feeling the sun, rain,
early morning fog and dew; sensing my emerging woman.
I found that the Earth is full of surprises boundless knowledge, unsurpassable strength. Waking
up as darkness rotated into dawn, meeting a companion
in the pasture by the saw mill as the Sun burst
through the trees over the mountains. Sleeping outside , sensing the roundness of the all-powerful
sphere beneath my body.
"Woman" is a powerful sense, I found, feeling the
cycles and circles and the bond between myself and
the Earth ...•• growing . Such strength and insight can
be gained from active involvement with Mother Earth!
Knowledge that can only be felt and inwardly heard,
beyond human words.
Now I sit in the morning sun upon the western part
of this continent. In this changed atmosphere , it is
easy to forget, easy to become passive and let Mother
Earth with her unlimited knowledge and opportunity,
her infiniteness, slip away.
I will continue to strive for my goal, which I hope
will always be just beyond my reach, forever expanding. My "environment" is wherever the River leads me.
A human being can be forever hopeful. I make sure not
to miss the new day's da~"!l ....•
Peace,
Celia Wissler
Central California
After seeing the cover picture on the fall issue
of K.atuah, my lady and I went to the Joyce Kilmer
Memorial Forest. We thought that i f those two poplar
trees in the picture were still there, then we would
find the bodies of the chestnut trees there, too.
Sure enough, lying behind those two old poplars
were three huge chestnuts. They were covered with
moss, and we could climb up on them and walk a long
way! It must have been amazing to see them standing.
Ralph Morgan
Webster, NC
There's plenty but there's
not enough to spill it
on the ground
when we work together
love will reach around
We are allies and
can i l l afford
to fight amongst ourcellves
we can ill afford
to fight amongst ourcellves
Take Heart ~
Will Ashe Bason
Travianna Farm
Check, VA
!<.ATl'..\H - page 26
Winter 1985-86
�On Swtday, Oc..tobe11. 13, 1985,
tfWi;ty-6.<.ve. people. came. toge.the11. 6011.
the. annua.l l<a.tLulh Fall Ga-theM.ng . We.
had a c.hanc.e. to .6 e.e. .6ome. 6ac.u be.h.<.nd
namu we. had known 6011. a long ilme ...
and we. had a c.hanc.e. to tatk wUh. ea.eh
othe11.. We. .&poke. abou:t oWtAe.l.vu .<.n 11.e.Wi.on to th.<..6 land:
_A._~:Jr
1t;~·~
.~-f
(J
":~'\
'
''
"I live down in Georgia. The land down there is so
poisoned, that we can't even be sure about the drinking water. I want to grow an organic garden , but a
garden can 't be certified down there, because there's
no telling what was put on the land when it was planted in cotton.
"We came up here to Katuah because the land seems
so much less disturbed. This seems like a powerful
place to get in touch with the land. 1 hope everybody
who lives here remembers how they are blessed and will
protect this land to keep it alive and healthy."
- Morgan
"For a long time I was looking inside myself for a
spiritual change and a spiritual experience. Now l
feel myself coming out, and I am moved by concern for
the Earth and her creatures. Once again I am feeling
earthiness. l think that now l need to bring my spiritual part to a practical level, working on the Earth,
being of service. In doing this, every thought we
think is important, because thought is creative . It
brings the spiritual down to the material level.
"Each of us has a purpose for being here. For myself, I want my actions to come from the heart. I
want to make permanent changes in others and in myself - changes that bring us toward unity, not separation.
"People and groups can teach each other. Every
little bit is illportant. I f we leave out anything,.
then it's not whole. I'• looking to see whole people
and a whole Barth. It's good to know a little bit
aore of ay purpose."
- Linda
"Looking around us we see ecological disaster, and
looking at our society we see a great spiritual void.
The two are interconnected. We can't ever be whole on
the spiritual level unless we are biologically well.
"For example: I don't like clearcuts. I heard once
that it takes 40 acres of trees to print one issue of
the N.Y. Times. Since then I haven't bought another
newspaper-:-r-go to the library if I want to see a paper. That may seem insignificant, but it's an exam;ie of an action moving from the spiritual to the
mental to the political realms."
- Donald
'
"This is an age of personal transformation. Our
personal change is a metaphor for the changes the
Earth and our universe are going through. l want to
learn and listen, a.nd translate these lessons into my
life and work. 11
- Les
"Those who care about life have to come together
to reinforce each other in a multitude of ways to make
us all strong enough to live through the coming changes. We must do thia if we are to survive as a species .
"We have to keep in mind that this culture is real.
It exists. It is not people, it is not a government.
It is an energy form, and it stands against everything we value.
"We need to be strong and dedicated . We need to
have the will to stay together, to keep our ideals,
and to make our visions happen. Otherwise it won't
happen. If we believe something, we have to eat that
way, think that way, live that way."
- Andy
" We need to have a positive dream, a positive
vision. We need to focus on that and head for it
straight as an arrow.
"Looking around me, I see others changing, and I
see myself changing. We need to take the world as it
is, the good with the bad, and, starting with this,
to make it new. We need to affirm a positive future
and our ability to create it. We need to affirm our
ability to dream."
- Judith
It
~
an .<.Mpi.11..i.ng da.y •••••••
Le.t' .6 aU 06 U6 ge.t .toge.the.11. 60.I!. the.
Katful.h Sp!Ung Ga-thell..<.ng. See. you the.n!
#"
"-~TUAH - page 27
Winter 1985-86
�cfReLes
cle, I began with small stones and
sticks that I stuck in the ground at
the right time on the right days.
Later when I found a good rock and I
had the time, I'd haul it back there
and stick it in.
"This is the most primitive way
of making the simplest types of observations. It is now known that the ancient Europeans could predict eclipses by watching the moon. This is remarkable, because the key to predicting an eclipse is a slight wobble in
the moon's orbit, and this wobble is
visible only every 9. 3 years when the
moon is at the northernmost and southernmost points of her orbit. These
people were considered illiterate!
Bow could they have kept that information long enough to establish a repeating pattern of observations?"
THE PATIERNS IN NATURE
The stone circles acted as a
bridge between the Earth and the sky
for the early peoples. l:lumankind is
ever searching for patterns. It seems
to be in our nature to seek out the
order in our ever-changing world. In
their role as astronomical observatories, the rock monuments_pass on to
us the excitement the ancients felt
in discovering the cosmic order in
the movements of the heavens.
"At one time," said Lylich, "when
it turned winter, people didn't kn.ow
if it was going to be spring again or
ot. But when they could look at the
sun, and see it turn back, they could
say, 'Look! It ' s following the same
pattern it did last year!', and
they'd know everything was going·
long alright.''
(continued from p. 5)
There is also a power in the
Earth. Whether physical and/or spiritual it is capable of turning dowsers'
rods or making an electromagnetic
charge measurable on a gaussometer.
The Cherokee Indians of Katuah were
aware of this and recognized sacred
sites that were sources of spiritual
•power here in this land (see page 11).
It is said that th~ standing stones
of pre-Celtic Europe were also conductors for this mysterious Earth energy,
sometimes called the "dragon power"
and symbolically represented on the
great stones by spiral designs chiseled with great care onto so many of
the monuments.
It is surmised that this power was
readily perceptible to the ancestors
through senses that we have lost to
civilization, and that generating
and using this energy was a central
feature of the ceremonies and rituals
held at the sites.
"I hear stories," said Lylich,
"of people who touch big standing
stones and feel a tingle or a shock,
or who ·lose their balance and fall
to the ground. There are also stories
of strange electromagnetic effects or
weird weather associated with them.
"No one has told me that they
have felt that in our circle. Mostly
what I feel is a solid, massive,
rooted-in-the-Earth, basic-type feeling. Maybe that's what we need today."
This could very well be so, The
movements of the heavenly bodies,
which so transfixed the old ones, are
now proven and documented to the point
of being commonplace. But the connection to the Earth that the old ones
took for granted is only now being rediscovered by Mother Ela's children.
Perhaps by helping us to remember,
the stones are helping in a healing.
"Making this megalithic stone
circle was slow, but it wasn't difficult," said Lylich. "The time was
right and it felt like we were moving with a flow of something already
happening.
"The number four is a sacred
number to the Cherokees, and it seemed to be important in the construction of this circle . I was 40 last
year when we built it, and that was
the 400th year of European settlement
in North America--dating from the lost
colony of Manteo. It was also the
444th year since DeSoto's expedition
in 1540, which was the first time
white people penetrated these mountains.
We have had our way with this con-·
tinent for 400 years.The four directions, the four seasons, the four
rounds of a sweat lodge; 1n many ways
the number four signifies a completed
cycle. I think it means that we've had
our time here, and that now it's time
for something else to happen.
"It's time for a change 1n our attitude. We've been screwing it up for
400 yef.rs, maybe now it ' s time to
straighten it back for 400 years.
That ' s about how long it would take to
restore the wild places the continent
had when we first approached its
shores."
RESOURCE READING: Earth Magic by
Francis Hitchings (Wm. Morrow &
Company, New York City, 1977)
- D.W.
Ly.Uch (;)[.(tba.wtL may be cont.ac.te.d
tlvt.ough Ka;tUah; Sox 873; CuLlowhee,
NC 2872;--
Pmvidin~ Pen<>n.1l Sttvicc
Allin~ Your Boal< N..,.U
704.264.5866
In Speciali:od Fields
Books Q,.J
ThingsL~ ...
GARY HEMSOTH
!loolutlJ..-
?08 Blowu>g Rock Road
Boone, Nonh Camlonn Ul607
A \'ARIF.TY OF
WHOJ.F.Sot!E BAKED
coons
SOI AH PllOUlJCTS WAIER ANALYSIS
RAN UAL l C lANIER
704 293 5912
:{AITAH -
page 28
llWY. 101
Rf. 68 BOX 125
CULLOWllEE, NC 28723
Winter 1985-86
�WINTER SOLSTICE-YULE The
longest night, light is born. This
is a time for community earth ceremonies and celebration. See Kat6ah
issue 06 for a suggested Winter
Solstice Earth ceremony.
CULLOWHEE, NC
"The G eat Forest: An Appalr
achian Story," ongoing through January 6, 1986. At The Mountain Heritage Center.
17
ASHEVILLE, NC
Dr. H. Ray Evers of the Evers
Clinic, Cottonwood , AL, one of the
most successful institutions offering alternative medical treatment
in the country , to speak on "Holistic Healing and Freedom of Choice"·
UNC-A, Humanities Lecture Hall· '
7:30 pm.
'
19
ASHEVILLE , NC
Christmas Caroling at Craggy
State Prison. Bring flashlights,
songsheets provided. Parking limited
Please carpool. (ABCCM Jail and
Prison Ministry). 7-8 pm.
HOT SPRINGS, NC.
Southern Dharma Retreat Center
will sponsor a 7-day meditation retreat, which will be led by John
Orr, a former Buddhist monk who now
lives and teaches in the DurhamChapel Hill area of N,C. The retreat
will cost $190., which includes all
meals and lodging. For further info
call 704-622-7112 or 704-254-1351.
28
3
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC.
David Wilcox-original and
traditional folk tunes. Exceptional
guitarist, storyteller , singer and
songwriter. McDibbs, $2.00 9pm ,
16
BLACK M1'N. 1 NC .
Harriet Witt Miller-slides on
Halley ' s Comet, McDibbs, $2.00,
9pm , Children free , No smoking.
18
ASHEVILLE , NC.
Martin Luther King, Jr. prayer breakfast. Key speaker-Shirley
Chisholm. Call 253-37ll
FEBRUARY
28
ASHEVILLE,NC.
A concert in the Great Hall
by The Community Chorus of UNC-Asheville. Free Admission. Grove Park
Inn.4:00-5:00 pm.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH For
event info, call Y,M.I. Cultural
Center (704) 252-4614
29
2
CANDLEMAS-the light quickens.
GROUNDHOG DAY
7
MARS BILL, NC.
ASHEVILLE, NC.
A concert in the Great Ball
by The Asheville Junior Symphony .
Free Admission. Grove Park Inn.
4:00-5:00 pm.
•
Opening night of The G e.s t
r
Forest: An Appalachian Story Exhibi
at Rural Life Museum. Public Showing Feb . 8-April 29.
9
HALLEY'S COMET reaches perihelion .•. its closest point to the
sun. Earth, though , will be on the
opposite aide of the sun from Balley' a Comet so it will be impossible for us to see it.
Dr. Robert A. Resnick
CHIROPRACTIC PHYSI C IAN
MARCH
..;....we/ve,, now
l'Y\oved to
01.At"' Y\CW
off1ve .....)(
NATURAL FOOD STORE
& DELI
CELEBRATING OUR 10th YEAR
'3'3S Me-vv imon Ave.
Ashe.vii le NG z~eo1
(704 ) 255. 6333
160 Broadway
Ashev ille, N.C. 28801
Open 1 Days A Week
Monday • Friday
(704) 253-7656
9:00 a .m. · 8:00 p.m.
Where Broadway
Meets Merrlmon
And 1
·240
9:00 a .m. · 6:30 p.m.
Saturday
Sunday
1:00
.m. · 5:00 .m.
2-15 WOMEN'S HISTORY CELEBRATION
Events at UNC-Asheville ( cal
(704) 258-6588) and A.S.U., Boone
( call (704) 262-2170) & elsewhere .
8-21 HALLEY ' S COMET. Look south
in the sky before sunrise.
18-25 CENTRAL AMERICA WEEK For
program info, call (704) 252-9167
21-23 BOONE , NC.
Appalachian Studies Conferenc
Center for Continuing Education ,
Appalachian State University ,
herbs , na tive pla nt s, pere nnials,
flowers, fruit trees, bulbs,
bedd ing pla n ts.
80 Lakeside Drive
8/ IOl hs of a mile from Hdrdee'!>
in Franklin, N.C .
fo r informdlion call 524·3321
M ALAPROP'S
BOOKSTORE/ CAFE
BOOKS -
CARDS -
RECOROS
81 H4YWOOO ST. ASHEVlllE. NC 29801 704-254-8734
KA7f A - pa ge 29
H
Winter 1985-86
£
�LIFE DESIGN: A counseling/consultant
service; addressing communication ,
cooperation and a centered, focused
approach to ENJOYING your life!
Group Workshops , Individual and Family Sessions. Located at 5 Ravenscroft ~. Asheville. Phone Cat Gilliam
at 254-8140 or Lorra Streifel at 2535575.
RURAL SOUTRERN VOICE for PEACE
(R.S.V.P.) is a network of people
in rural/small city communities
in the Southeast who are working
to build the nonviolent alternative systems and lifestyles that
can bring peace to our world.
Publishes RSVP Newsletter. More
info : RSVP, Rt 5 Box 335, Burnsville , NC 28714
NICARAGUAN COFFEE. Delicious,
roasted coffee beans or ground
coffee available for $6.00 a lb.
Contact: Steve Livingston (704)
257-3019
IN 17th YEAR OF PUBLICATION, Akwesasne Notes is a Journal for Native
and Natural Peoples, covering world
events which effect indigenous peoples. For subscriptions or tax-deductible contributions: AKWESASNE
NOTES, P.O. Box 196, Mohawk Nation ,
Rooseveltown , NY 13683-0196.
liEADWATERS: What is your experience with water? Would you share
your experience in your own means
of expression (poetry, story, dance, music) for a performance and
recording to explore and celebrate the beauty and purity of the
mountain headwaters? We will focus
on water in all its aspects-our
goal is harmony. If you would like
to be in a core group to create
this production, contact Bill Melanson, P.O. Box 628, Asheville, NC
28802
T'AI CHI , a philosophy you can
dance to. Mondays 7:30-9:30 pm
at 70 Lexington Ave . Asheville
with Harold Miller.
APPALACHIAN GINSENG COMPANY. Stratfiied Seeds, Seedlings, 2-5 year old
Roots. P.O . Box 547 , Dillsboro ,NC.
28725
ALTERNATIVE METHODS for controlling
garden pests- send $2 . 00 to Joe
Armstrong, Rt. l,Box 121 , Bardstown , KY. 40004 .
If you have experience with methods
of pest control that do not rely on
synthetic pesticides, send your contributions to the "Alternative Methods
of Pest Control" list being compiled
by Joe Armstrong. Copies of the list
available for $2.00 and a long SASE
from address above
SELF-RELP CREDIT UNION has now
opened a branch office in Western
North Carolina through the State
Employees Credit Union system. For
more info: Write: S.R.C.U., P.O.
Box 3259, Durham, NC 27705, Or go
by: State Employees Credit Union,
200 All Souls Crescent, Asheville,
NC/telephone: (704) 274-4200
We are makers of Bamboo Flutes, Each
of our flutes is capable of a twooctave range. They are electronically
tuned, burnished, and lacquered. For
prices and more information, write:
Wood Song
Rob Yard
Route 3, Box 120-3
Floyd, VA. 24091
BACKROADS TOURS - A 32 page collection
of self-guided motor tours through the
rural areas of the Virginia Blue Ridge
-$2.75
Laurel Publications
Route 1
Meadows of Dan , VA
24120
WEBWORKING is free.
Send submissions to:
Katuah
P.O.BOX 873
CULLOWREE, NC
28723
·waterman
ram pumps
Q
I
,t
•
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•
I
•
~age,
>
1\~ll~I
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'
I
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•
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I
T -SHIRTS
E:1c h ori11 i n;il
••
lf@~ia:n
hand screened in 5 colors
on lhe line~l 100%
pre-shrunk cotton
PaY
"why
to pump water when a
ram pump wiil do it for free ?"
Send for free brochure
C. Hollifield
355 Cedar Creek Road
Black Mountain, NC 28711
(704) 669-6821
~
'<ATI:..\H -
page 30
short a nd long sleeve t·shirts.
I
Sho11 Sleeve •1 ppcl S&P C/f£CJ<.H.a,"'41( I
0
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Ad dress _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
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Bloclc Beor 0 Silver 0 Ton 0 White Phone
Moslercord Viso t1
Red-Tniled Howle 0 Ec111 0 SilvN O Too Mallle· Rld10Rtmoodl•~"'''
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1033''> 911s... Rd w , ....111 •• lfr.7Al~R
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S·M· l ·XL
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or wnle for brochure
0
0
Winter 1985-86
�OUR ERROR
We neglected to put the by-line on
the excellent article on "Acorn
Bread" in the fall issue of Katuab.
The article was written by S~
·Bear - herbalist, counselor, and
co-director of the Pepperland Farm
Swi:lit.sfi 8 Degi .:l>l11xk .JJ(ai.."1;1'
~i~ 8 1'.Jfaril!J 13afa11ct1~/
Cerrffi£cl
Camp.
628-1537
GET BACK! ISSUES OF KATUAH
ISSUE TWO - WINTER 1983-84
ISSUE SIX - WINTER 1984-85
Yona • Bear Hunters •Pigeon River
• Another Way With Animals • Alma:
Poems • Becoming Politically Effective • Mountain Woodlands •
Katuah Under The Dril l • Spiritual Warriors
Winter Solstice Earth Ceremony •
Horsepasture River • Coming of
Light • Log Cabin Roots • Mountain Agriculture-The Right Crop•
William Taylor • Forest's Future
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRING 1985
ISSUE THREE - SPRING 1984
Sustainable Economics • Bot
Springs • Worker ownership • The
Great Economy • Self Help
Credit Onion • Wil d Turkey • Responsible Investing • Working
In The Web Of Life
Sustainable Agriculture • Sunflower_, • Human Impact On The
Forest • Childrens ' Education •
veronica Nicholas : Woman In
Politics • Little People •
Medicine Allies
ISSUE EIGHT - SOMMER 1985
ISSUE FOUR - SOMMER 1984
Celebration: A Way of Life•
Katuah 18,000 Years Ago • Sacred
Sites • Folk Arts in the Schools
·Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle • Hilda
Downer• Cherokee Heritage Center• Who Owns Appalachia?
water Orum • Water Quality • Kudzu
• Solar Eclipse • Clearcutting •
Trout • Going To Water•Ram Pumps
• Microhydro • Poems: Bennie Lee
Sinclair, Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE NINE - FALL 1985
ISSUE FIVE - FALL 1984
The Waldee Forest • The Trees
Speak • Migrating Forests •
Horse Logging • Starting A
Tree crop • Orban Trees •
J.\corn Bread • Myth Time
Harvest • Old Ways In Cherokee •
Ginseng • Nuclear Waste • Our
Celtic Heritage • Bioregionalism
Past, Present, And Future • John
Wilnoty • Healing Darkness •
Politics Of Participation
I
KATUAH: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalach ians
B~x 873;
Cul l owhee, N~rth Carolina 28723
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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
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<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 10, Winter 1985-1986
Description
An account of the resource
The theme of the tenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> is on holistic healing, folk medicine traditions, and sacred places. Authors and artists in this issue include: Meridel LeSeur, Kate Rogers, Barbara Reimensnyder, Marlene Mountain, Stephen Knauth, Douglas A. Rossman, Nancy-Lou Patterson, D. Massey, David Wheeler, Roger Stephens, Richard Ciccarelli, Diannah Beauregard, J. Linn Mackey, and Karen Paquette. <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
1985-1986
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Medicine Traditions Near Home.......1<br /><br />Kate Rogers and Her Mountain Medicals.......3<br /><br />Circles of Stone.......4<br /><br />Internal Mythmaking: An Interview with Marlene Mountain.......6<br /><br />"This is Heresy!" Holistic Healing on Trial.......9<br /><br />Two Poems by Steve Knauth.......10<br /><br />Cherokee Mythic Places.......11<br /><br />The Uktena's Tale.......15<br /><br />Crystal Magic.......19<br /><br />Good Medicine: "What Makes a Place Sacred?".......20<br /><br />Review: Deep Ecology.......21<br /><br />Natural World News.......22<br /><br />"Dreamspeaking".......24<br /><br />Fall Katúah Gathering.......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
Holistic medicine
Alternative medicine--North Carolina, Western
Art Therapy
Visions
Herbs-Therapeutic use--North Carolina, Western
Dream interpretation
Sacred space
Stone circles
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 Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Children's Page
Earth Energies
European Immigration
Folklore and Ceremony
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Katúah
Pigeon River
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Sacred Sites
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/cb0662a1107e02a736e92f90cdc2f90f.pdf
ef8b9a0b28d5d27d2222512b00b4eb12
PDF Text
Text
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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 11, Spring 1986
Description
An account of the resource
The eleventh issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on community planning for a sustainable future: what, why, and how. Floyd County in Virginia is highlighted as an example of a progressive community. Authors and artists in this issue include: Judith Hallock, Marnie Muller, J. Linn Mackey, Tom Hendricks, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, Jane Avery-Grubel, Katherine Chantal, Judy Cox, Rob Yard, Cotton, Colleen Redman-Copus, Michael Red Fox, and David Wheeler. <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.
Why Community Planning.......1<br /><br />Digging In: A Model.......2<br /><br />Cities and the Bioregional Vision.......6<br /><br />Recycling: Garbage in Transition.......7<br /><br />Community Gardening.......9<br /><br />The World Village: A Poem.......10<br /><br />Seeing the Future Village.......10<br /><br />Floyd County, VA.......12<br /><br />Gasohol.......14<br /><br />Two Bioregional Views.......15<br /><br />Earthquake: The Nuclear Supplement<br /><br />Natural World News.......18<br /><br />Good Medicine: Visions.......20<br /><br />The Children's Page.......21<br /><br />Review: Foxfire Games.......23<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
Community life--Appalachian Region, Southern
Community development, Urban--North Carolina, Western
Radioactive waste disposal--Appalachian Region, Southern
Community garden--North Carolina--Asheville
Floyd County (Va.)
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" rel="noopener"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
https://www.geonames.org/4759449/floyd-county.html
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
||||osm
Floyd County (Va.)
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" rel="noopener"> 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 Definitions
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Children's Page
Community
Education
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Turtle Island
Villages
-
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
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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
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LtUING 1 THE: GAPlOc(\)
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"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
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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
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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."
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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
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AH - page 25
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- 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
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Black Bear D Silver 0 Tan 0 While
Red-failed Hawk D Ecru
long
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flt.one
Silver 0 Tan
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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.
'?
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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,_, _
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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
/
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HMology
P•- . l l S -
WOQIXD1'8 w.a&Jll!a W%llX
Asheville, NC
Bele Cher Festival; Downtown
Asheville.
f(1
~
S""'"'9
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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
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Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
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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
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
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<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
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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/9c9bcfa84bab600d115a13527a96a8e5.pdf
ba44c7456e39946ba15dc380372c8e1e
PDF Text
Text
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ISSUE XIII
FALL 1986
Will the Circle Be Unbroken .....
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THE CENTER FOR AWAKENING.....................................................1
INTERVIEW WITH ELIZABETH CALLARl.. .................................3
REVIEW: A GENTI.E OEAru............................................................ 5
J-OSPICE...............................................................................................6
REVIEW: PEALING CREATIVELY WITH DEATH ........................7
INTERVIEW WITH ERNEST MORGAN...........................................7
J-OME BlJRIAL BOX. ...........................................................................9
THE WAK..E.........................................................................................11
STORY: "GOOD NIGHT FROM SHADOWS FALL"......................13
POEM: "THE RAVEN MOCKER".....................................................15
GOOD MEDICINE: THE SWEAT LODGE. ......................................16
NATURAL WORLD NEWS.............................................................. 18
REVIEW: WQQOSLQBE AND W!LDWOOQS WISOQM.............. 21
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�ISSUE XIII
FALL 1986
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Death is an
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.
•
..
i~ti,;,ate,
integral pan
of the whole Life cycle. Not just part of
the human experience, it is part and
:i parcel of a.ll life -- from the microscopic
to the macroscopic. The rhythms of life
and death pulse through every chord of
the universe...as the exchange of life
from one form to another continues and
continues. Death, then, is a process to be
appreciated and respected ...and even,
when held in awe, celebrated.
However, in this culture which
surrounds us, death is frightening to
many ...avoided by most. This culture
escorts us past the reality of death and
attempts to insulate us from its comings
and goings. Only isolated instances "pop"
out, every once in a while, and serve as
reminders of a greater Truth.
The "pushing through" from life to
death and beyond...the "pushing
through" from fetus to the birthing and
beyond...How different can they
be...how much the same.
This issue is devoted to sharing with
each other in a community exploration
into death and dying. It is also an attempt
to understand how we here in KatUah can
together tie the celebrated mystery of
death and dying back into our lives and
our human culture.
A
~-
.
..
VISIT TO THE
CENTER FOR AWAKENING
The Center for Awakening rests in fifty-seven acres of
rolling foolhills between the Brushy Mountains and the Blue
Ridge Mountains in Boomer, North Carolina. The Center
was founded by Elizabeth Callari, R.N. as a place where
people can "consciously live and consciously die". Herc,
tenninally ill people can come, when their life expectancy is
measured in weeks rather than months, 10 receive the
emotional, physical and spiritual suppon they need to make
the uansirion inro death. Whatever one's belief system, race,
sex, age, diagnosis - all arc welcome. The program of care
includes music as well as good food, beautiful rural
environment, meditation, massage therapy, use of color,
imagery, humor, and medication prescribed by the guest's
physician.
The emphasis is on death as "the final stage of growth"
(Kubler-Ross). It is regarded as a natural life experience in
which love and caring suppon plays a vital role.
A "tour" of the Center includes, first, a visit to the hill
where a grove of seven stately trees arc firmly rooted in the
earth, beaconing out to the whole vicinity. This is the "male
energy" spot, as Elizabeth describes it. Then, a visit to the
deeply peaceful Holy Hill where the "female energy" resides.
Here a towering oak greets you - it has been snuck with
lightning at least four rimes, but the scars seem only to add to
its strength and beauty.
Coming down from the hill, you see the beginnings of
the Gaian gardens which arc being nunured and humored by
Herb Appell, a volunteer. He plans to use biodynamic
methods which have been so successful at Findhom. A grant
from the Broyhill Foundation is helping to develop this
project.
Next is the old fannhousc where a large butterlly - the
Center's emblem - hovers on the second story. This old
- conlinutd on page 3
KATIJAH - page 1
Fall 1986
�EDITORIAL STAFF nns ISSUE:
Rob Messick
Scott Bird
Manha Overlock
Chip Smith
Manha Tree
Judith Hallock
David Wheeler
Mamie Muller
Michael Red Fox
Brad Stanback
EDITQRIAL ASSISTANCE:
Tom Hendricks
Brooks Michael
Jeff Fobes
Special thanks to Tom Schulz
J. Linn Mackey
Sara Jane Thomas
IIDITQRIAL OFFICE
THIS ISSUE:
Asheville, NC
PRIN'TED BY:
Sylva fu!s!Q
Publishing Co.
Sylva, NC
WRITE US AT:
TELEPHONE:
(704) 252-9167
KlnWl
Box 873
Cullowhee, NC 28723
SUJ1emen1 ofPurpose
The ln1emal Revenue Service hu declared~ a
non-profi1 oraanization under section SOl(c)(3) or the
lniemal RcYCnuc Code.
All contributions lo Kl1ftJ.h arc deductible from
personal income w.
JR\1E>C:lll'l0R
Here in the sowhern-most heartland of w ApJXJlachian
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
natural scale and balance of universal systems and laws. We
begin by invoking the Cherokee name HKatllahH as the
old/Mw 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 conti11ui11g evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum poim of a "do or
die" situation in terms of a continued quality srandard of life
011 this planet. It is the aim ofthis journal tO <k> itS part in the
re-inhabitation and re-culturation of the KatU.Oh province of
the Sow/tern Appalachians. This province is indicated by its
natural boundaries: the New River vicinity to the north; the
foothills ofthe piedmont area to the east; Yono Mountain and
the Georgia hills to the sowh; and the Tennessee River Valley
to the west.
Humbly, as self-appointed stewards with sacred
instructions as "new nativesH to protect and preserve its
sacredness, we advocate a centered approach tO the concept
of decenrralization and hope to become a support system/or
those accepting the challenge of sustainability and the
creation of harmony and balance in a rotal sense, here in this
place.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestation
These two spring from the same source
but differ in name;
This appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism, pertinent
information, articles, artwork, etc. with hopes that KIHfulh
will grow to serve the be.st interests ofthis region and all its
living, breathing family members.
• The Edirors
• The Tao Tc Cbinr
(as translated b;y Gia Fu-Feng)
KATUAH ·page 2
Fall 1986
�- continued rom p. J
homestead has been completely renovated and is where some
of the volunteers reside. Then, there is the new modular
home where staff person Greg Burazer and his family live.
Last year, the Center received a $63,900 grant from the Kate
RENOVATED FAR.\1HOUSE AT CESTER
B. Reynolds Health Care Trust Fund to help with this
building project.
On up the hill is a mobile home donated by an
individual as a volunteer residence. At the crest of the hill
overlooking the valleys arc Elizabeth's home, the Center's
office, the shared dfoing area and the guests' quarters - all in
one complex. It's a double-wide mobile home with an
addition. There is a large deck, bordered by well-cared for
garden an:as, laden with flowers. These flowers were put in
and cared for by Elizabeth's mother, Hilde Spittler, who is
able to come and volunteer at the Center for part of each year.
The guest area can accommodate up to three guests which is the total number for which the Center is currently
licensed. Outside the guests' quarters is a fenced-in area for
any pets that guests may want to bring with them. They arc
encouraged to do so.
The Center is more than just a place for dying. rt also
serves as a place for enriching the quality of life of those
living. Weekend retreats are held here by church groups and
study groups. Periodically, the Center itself hosts retreats
and workshops designed to heighten consciousness.
The Center is incorporated as a non-profit, tax-exempt
organization whose administration is supervised by a Board
of Directors. Board members include homemakers, nurses, a
banker, a clergyperson, a funeral director, a school teacher,
an attorney, a physician's assistant and o ther business and
health care professionals from Wilkes and nearby counties.
Elizabeth Callari serves as director of the Center and is
assisted by staff Shirley Brinks and Greg Burazcr and a core
of dedicated volunteers like Abbie Echerd (see photo, next
page). Volunteers arc invited to give hours, ~. years in
exchange for lodging and meals and the e sfaction of
working in such a rewarding environment. There are no
charges to the guests or their families for room, meals or for
nursing care. They are only responsible for the costs of
medicaJ, legaJ, funeral, and personal expenses.
Visitors are always welcome to come to the Center, but
it is imponant to call or write in advance: Center f or
Awakening, P.O.Box 46, Boomer, NC 28606; (919)~
921-2228.
,
KatUah editor Marnie Muller visited Lhe
Center for Awakening and shares with us
these two articles - one on the Center, the
other an interview with 1he Center's founder,
Elizabeth Callari. (photos by Mamie Muller)
CENTER FOR AWAKENING
An Interview
with Elizabeth
Callari
Elizabeth S. Callari, RN, is founder and direcwr
of the Center for Awakening. Here she tells the
story of the Center's growth in her own words:
Abou1 ten or eleven years ago, I met Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross - actually I was pushed into her path because I
had such a fear of death. It had interfered with my life to the
point where I could not function. I had experienced six
immediate family deaths within a two-year period and there
was no one to help me. I began to question - what is going
on in our country that we have such a fear of death, that a
clergyperson can't talk about it, a doctor cen ai nly can't talk
about iL Your friends don't want to talk about it because they
don't want to see you in pain and hurting so they choose not
to talk about it and pull away. What is goi ng on here that this
is such a fearful life experience? Then I spent a week with
Kubler-Ross and she helped me get some of these feelings
out on the table.
I was brought up in a family where your personal
feelings, you keep to yourself and you just "be good". If
someone dies and you're feeling sad, don ' t
cry ...everything's okay. Well, it's not okay. There arc
feelings that everyone of us has, no matter how deep or how
superficial the relationship is with that person. There arc still
feelings that need to be addressed and recognized and you
need to be allowed to express them.
So afte r I spent a week with Elizabeth she then
basically pushed me out the door and said "It's time for you
to stan a hospice" and I said, "How do you spell it?". That's
how basic it was.
I guess th at was a little more than ten years ago... well,
the hospice I started in the Tampa Bay-Clearwater area is
having its 10th anoiversary...so ten years ago . A group of
KA TUAH • page 3
LARGE BELL ON DECK AT CENTER
five of us got together and staned that hospicc--the first one
in Florida and probably the third in the United States. We
were very new at it and didn't really have anyone to go to for
guidelines ...so it was a struggle - but it was a wonderful
struggle.
In 1982, I knew I had to leave Florida but I didn't
know where I was going. I had started writing a book and
thought "Well, I think I'm going to try the mountains of
Nonh Carolina". I had never even been to North Carolina. I
- continued on next page
Fall 1986
�• continued Crom page 3
we.n t up there and found a nice little house to rent near
Blowing Rock and then returned back to Florida. The day
after Christmas of that year, I was visiting relatives on the
east coast of Florida. Driving back home, there was an
incredible rainstorm and a young man pulls out from the
other lane and hits me head-on. At the moment of impact, I
knew I had a choice -1 could leave or I could stay. And I
remember saying out loud, "Okay, God, here I come" and
then there was like a switch "No, I'm going to stay." But it
was such a profound experience. The next moment, I found
myself under the dashboard, almost laughing, saying "I
wonder what's waiting for me now". Nothing is
coincidence, everything has a purpose. And as confusing as
this whole thing was - being there and experiencing
paramedics, experiencing curious people, my leg being
crushed, my arm split open...going "you know, this is
interesting" - it was like I was watching everybody act and
react. Finally, I was brought to the hospital and went through
all the fear and pain that most people go through but yet
inside was very peaceful, very peaceful.
A few days later, the doctors said that I probably
would not walk again. A few years before that I was told that
I had cancer and probably bad only a year to live - and I
didn't buy into it. So I dismissed that statement immediately
and started to heal myself...with music .. and color and
imagery. I still have problems in this leg, but I'm walking!
So the next step was getting to North Carolina where
basically I wanted to retire - semi-retire - finish writing my
book and do mostly lecruring. No more taking care of the
individual person who was dying. That was the ego
speaking. As a result of the accident, the spiritual pan of me
became very real...and I got in touch with h ...and when I
was in the greatest pain one night going "Oh my goodness,
North Carolina, what am I going to do when I get there? I
have this little house in the mountains. It doesn't have a
ramp. What am I going to do in the snow? " All this, then my
mind became very quiet and I received a clear, audio message
- only one - and it was very clear that I was being given an
opportunity to do something else...but I had a choice. I had a
choice, and they said if you choose to do this work you will
get all the help you need. And that was such an incredibly
deep cballenge,1 didn't know how I could say 'no'. They
gave me the name for this place and the work that would be
done. And I simply put it down on paper so it was all written
down. The next morning 1 looked at it and I was just
amazed. You know, even now, I feel myself reacting to it.
So, I made a decision that yes, I would go ahead and start
this place which would be called The Center for Awakening
and it would be a place where people could live and die
consciously.
One of the most difficult things I've found in sitting
with people who are dying is being there and not getting
caught up in their space of "why did I go through life this
way? Why didn't I do the things I really wanted to do? Here
I am dying and I haven't even lived!" Consciously living and
consciously dying is what this center is all about.
With the help of some friends, I moved into my little
house in Blowing Rock in April and the next day we had a
six inch snowfall, which was really interesting because 1 had
just spent seven years in Florida and I thought it was
wonderful! As soon as I could get out, I mentioned to an
acquaintance up there that I was looking for some land. He
said that he had just put some land on the market in a town
called Boomer. So he took me on this land. It was the first
time I had been in a pickup truck and he put me on the
tailgate because my leg wouldn't bend enough to get into the
cab. He took me on the top of this bill and there were seven
trees ... and I knew. I was always asking "please show me
some sign" because here I am an urban person, having lived
in the big city, coming out here onto land that I know nothing
about. So I said "please show me a sign where I'll know
without any doubt that this is the piece of land that the work
is supposed to be done on." So there were the seven trees
and that to me was clear....and the land itself felt very good
tome.
The next day I came down here by myself and then I
talked with the owner about the cost and how to finance it
and be insisted that we have twenty thousand cash before we
could close on it. l knew I was going to be getting some
money as a result of the accident - that's really the main
KATUAH - page 4
purpose of the accident because that money helped Stan this
place. But, I didn't know where twenty thousand was
coming from. That night I got really quiet and the thought
came in, "call your brother-in-Jaw". Before my father died,
he set up a foundation, some 18 or 19 years ago. The monies
were to be used for non-profit organizations that served
humanity. I asked my brother-in-law how much money was
left in this foundation. He said, "we have twenty thousand
dollars." That was the second affirmation for me. I didn't
need any more. Seven trees and exactly the money that we
needed. So I went ahead and bought the land. I did a Jot of
paperwork the first year. I stayed in Blowing Rock because
the place was totally neglected here - the old farmhouse bad
been used for raising hogs, there was no water, no
electricity, and so on.
So I stayed in Blowing Rock and did the paperwork in
terms of becoming tax-exempt, getting the state's approval to
take care of the dying, and everything else you have to do.
And then three years ago, I moved our. Two and a half years
ago, we opened the doors to take our first terminally ill
VOLUNTEER ABBIE ECHERD ASSISTS GUEST AT CENTER
guest. And in two and a half years we have cared for
founeen dying people. Most of them have made their
transition here. One man got well enough and he went back
home. Another man who came here specifically to die
quickly rather than in a hospital died in four days. Except for
him, everyone who has come here has had a period of
remission that was not medically anticipated. And I can tell
you that that is a direct result of having caring people around
you. You change the environment and you'll change the
nature of the disease. There's no doubt in my mind. Even
though the medical doctors want to argue with me, I don't
argue with them. They want to argue with me and say 'that's
not possible'. That's fine. I don't have to prove anything to
them. I just know that people who have come here have lived
quality time that they would not have lived in another setting.
Let me back up a little and let you know how we got
water here. We contracted with a well-drilling company and
they came out with their equipment, which was astounding to
me. I had never seen equipment like that. I didn't know what
was involved in drilling a well. And they came out and said
to me 'where would you like us to drill the well?'. And I
said, 'anywhere you'd like'. And he said to me, 'Lady, it
doesn't work that way. You're paying us. You have to
decide. lfwe choose a place and you don't get water, you're
not going to want to pay.' How am I going to find a place to
drill the well? So I told them that I would be be back in a
few minutes. I drove my car up to that hill with the seven
trees and really received some remarkable guidance. I came
back down and I said to them, 'drill right here' almost where
they were - within a few feet.
And I still wasn't sure. You know, the guidance was
very clear but I was still very skeptical at that time. I was still
learning a lot about guidance - spiritual guidance. So I went
back up the hill and I said, 'are you sure?' and I closed my
eyes and I saw water gushing, just gushing over a rock ledge
and that's when the peace came. You know, I didn't
Fall 1986
�OAK TREE AT HOLY
mu.
understand i~ but I felt peaceful.
I had to leave because I had a dentist appointment so I
told Jay, who was here at the time, 'I'll call you around 4:30
and let me know if they get water.' They had told me that at
300 feet they would stop drilling. I called him at 4:30 and he
said, 'do we have water!'. At 268 feet they hit a rock ledge,
they had to change the drill bit, they went through the rock
and hit a vein ...and we now have 85 gallons of water a
minute.' And that's the way things have been happening!
Last year was a year of building. The old farmhouse
got refurbished, a new home for volunteers got built This
year is a time for developing the staff, time for pulling all
these loose ends together and really focussing on what we
want to do. I really believe that dying is only one part of this
Center.
I think birthing and healing is going to be part of it
also. So what you do is you welcome in the new soul and tell
them you're glad that they're here with us, then you help
them stay well, and then when it's time to drop the body,
you help them do that - and let them know that they're
waiting on the other side for you. And you do it with as
much love as you have in your hean. No judging. No
judging. no expectations.
One of the first things I tell people who come here
because they're dying is 'the doctor has said you have a life
expectancy of at the most three months. You don't have to
buy into thaL' Most of the people who come here have spent
their lives allowing other people to tell them what to think,
do, everything. They come here and we say to them, 'Here
is your autonomy. You're g(>ing to make the decision and
we're going to support you in whatever it is you will allow
yourself to do.' And I think this is one of the reasons, again,
why they go into this period of "remission", for lack of a
better word. 'If I want to be a dying person, I can be a dying
person. If I am a person who wants to live until I die - really
~. I can do that, too.' So that's the basis for it. Of course
the basis or bottom line of everything is unconditional love.
If you can give unconditional love. you will receive that back
tenfold, as they say.
When I came into this community for the first time, I
was told by many people here, 'you'll never make it' 'Who
are you coming in from a place like Florida... buying this
beautiful land and doing something so bizarre. It's not going
to work.' And I just stayed in my space and said
'someday'.. .'let me just do what I have to do and then see
how you feel about it' And so very, very quietly, I just took
one step at a time. And I let them come to me, rather than
going out and saying, 'okay, this is who I am, accept me as
who I am. I'm not uying 10 do anything to you people.' No,
I just did everything very quietly. And so they smrted
coming, one right after the other. rirst, they would get as far
as the porch. They didn't want to come inside. And then they
started coming inside. And then they started bringing me
produce from their gardens. And then, they started calling me
up in the winter saying,'it's supposed to freeze tonight. This
is what you need to do so your pipes don't break.' And it has
grown ...
We're supported through United Way of Wilkes
County. They give us some of our budget money to take care
of the terminally ill - not to be used for anything else. Then,
KATUAH - page 5
we're supponed through donations. There's a basket there.
People drop money in the basket. They send checks. I speak
and usually bring back money to the Center as a result of
that. I've just written a book and I donated the first hundred
copies, that I published myself, to the Center. Now a
national publishing company has picked it up, so now it's a
"real" book. It's called A Gentle Death (see sidebar), and it's
about my experiences in caring for the dying and my own
personal experiences that have brought me here. And it's
only personal experiences that have brought me here.
Nothing else.
I wanted to get away from death. I didn't want
anything to do with it. So when I went back into nursing, I
chose labor & delivery because that's a happy time, that's
one of the biggest rewards. The first delivery was a stillborn.
And there it was for me to face again. And that's really when
I stopped because I couldn't ignore it any longer - that that
was the issue. So coming from a labor & delivery nurse to a
person who takes care of the dying person has given me this
'whole circle' feeling.
The soul gets pushed out of the body in death just as
the fetus gets pushed out at birth. The body goes through
contractions. just as the uterus goes through contractions.
• continued on page 21
A Geotle Death: Personal
Careeivine Io The Ieaninally III,
by Elizabeth S. Callari, R.N.,
Tudor
Publishers
Inc.,
Greensboro, N.C., 1986, 123pg.,
$7.95 pp.
Death is one of life's most
mysterious
and
intimate
experiences. It is not "good" nor
"bad" and it is not an enemy, as the
medical profession would like us to
believe - death simply is an
unchanging fact, an experience for
awakening.
Elizabeth Callari has directed
her life's efforts to unveiling the
truth about death. It is, as she says, "important to remember
that dying is not an illness to be medicated, excised, and
cured; it is a process whereby the soul transcends the
physical plane for the spiritual one."
In this slim, easy to read (big print}, guidebook Ms.
CaJlari, an R.N. (Chemotherapy), reveals her personal
experiences of overcoming deadly cancer, the denial of her
beloved father's death, and the death of her marriage. She
explores the three grea1 fears: Pain, Abandonment, and
Helplessness, and gently reassures us that there is hope.
"What I do as a counselor for the dying is to give love.
Without conditions... .! open my heart and learn from the
dying."
"I leave my intellect outside the door and put my anns
around the person I'm worlcjng with and say, 'I've never
died before, so I can't imagine how you must be feeling. I'd
like to become more comfortable with death myself, and I
need your help to do this. Please share with me.' How the
doors open! The dying are often our greatest teachers; shon
on time but long on the will to speak straight from the heart.''
This healing book is more than a moving collection of
death experiences. It is a valuable guide for the "caregiver" to
overcome feelings of depression, worry, and anxiety which
accompany terminal illness and are often more debilitating
than the disease itself.
A Gentle Death offers simple rituals and practical
techniques to serve simply and with compassion. It outlines
methods for survivors to overcome grief and deal with guilt
Techniques arc suggested which allow a dying person to
keep control of their life and their dignity. There are
strategies to provide a total care program for the physical,
emotional. and spiritual needs of the loved one.
''This book offers new hope. Rather than experiencing
despair at the inevitability of physical death we can be
uplifted by the hope of an easy, conscious death for a loved
one.
"We can share thls hope with others surrounding the
dying person and thus be instrumental in their comfort and
growth."
-MRF
blfl'
,P"
Fall 1986
�HOSPICE
by Nena Parkerson
The definition of the word "Hospice" is a
community of people with a common
goal..... to care for travelers along the way.
The first hoSP.i~ w~re organized as way
stations for pilgnms m the !U'St ~nuy._In
medieval times they funcnoned in maJor
European cities as m?"85tic h~tages at
mountain passes and nver c:rossmp.
In the most modem context, hospice has
been defined in this way: "A program
providing palliative and support;ive
for
terminally ill patients and their fanuhes,
....an organiz.ed program of care for people
going thrc?ugh !ife's last stati.on. The whole
family is considered the umt ~f care, and
care extends through the mourmng process.
Emphasis is placed on symptom control,
preparation for death and suppon before and
after death.
The Mountain Area Hospice Program,
which serves Buncombe County, N.C.•
recognizes that the dyin~ and those clo~e to
them have special physical, psychologi~al.
spiritual, and practical n~s. The ~osp1ce
staff provides skilled medical, nursmg ~d
counseling care in the warm, supporove
atmosphere of the individual's home. When
persons cannot be cured, hospice offe~
care... .loving, respectful, tender care. Their
primary objectives are effective pain ~n~l.
management of other S)'.'Dptoms, allevta~on
of loneliness, and pracncal help and adVlce
with the business of life that must go on for
the families involved. The goal of hospice is
to enable the patient and family to retain
control over their lives and to maintain the
maximum quality of life possible. Hospice
can be administered within a facility but the
trend is toward home care nursing and
suppon. Also, although the program is
defined for those with terminal illnesses,
cancer patients are the usual recipients.
A team of persons - doctors, nurse~.
social workers, clergy, and volunteers, 1s
committed to these goals and objectives 24
hours a day 7 days a week. No one is ever
turned aw;y because of an inability to
pay..... hospice is based on need.
Patients are usually recommended f~r
hospice care by their physician when their
life expectancy is no more than six months.
Then a staff supervisor and social worker
visit the patient in the home to make an
initial patient/family ~s~essment .. A staff
nurse is assigned and v1s1ts the panent on a
regular basis. much like a doctor on munds
at the hospital, except the nurse often travels
rural roads
car:-.
The volunteers do whatever they can.
Perhaps they might sit with the patient while
the primary careg!ver ~andles n~e.ssary
business, or they might pick up medicine at
the pharmacy, mow the lawn, do errands,
read to the patient, or do anything else that
might be helpful to the patient and family ..
The medical team, clergy, and social
worker are prepared for their jobs ~rough
intensive education before actually being put
to the test through experience. Although the
footing of the volunteers is less sure, the
remainder of the team is always supportive
and tenderly leads the way by a series of 10
classes specifically designed to prepare them
for service as part of the hospice program.
Patients, family members and staff
come to see that all are both strong and
weak, givers and receivers, and that
strength comes from close bonds created
between persons as well as from one's inner
resources. Most decidedly, this is a team
effort.
.
In addition to the care given dunng the
patient's illness, there is also a bereavement
program after the death of the patient At the
time of death, a nurse and possibly other
team members, visit the home and attend the
funeral, wake, memorial, or other
appropriate service. Several days later, there
is usually a call or visit to give the family an
opportunity to revi.ew t~e de~th, .ask any
questions that may linger in ~tr llllnds, ~d
to assure the family that they did everything
possible. This is also an opponuruty for
hospice staff to detect any problems the
Hospice of Yancy Coun1y
2119 Hwy. 80 South
Burnsville. NC 28714
Coniacc Sally L Burrowes
Phone: (704) 675-5518
,,,.......-::
Appalachian Hospice
P.O. Box 647
Hayesville, NC 28904
Contact: William ff. Bell
Phone: (704) 389-6831
Hospice of Hcndersoo County
P.O. Box 2395
Hendersonville. NC 28793
Coniaci: Mary Ocary
Phone: (704) 692-6178
Hospice of Ashe Counly
P.O. Box 216
Jerrerson, NC 28640
Coniacc Roland Mullinix
Phone:(919)246-4542
Home Heallh Hospice
CJ. Harris Community Hospital
59 Hospital Road
family may have with ~h~ grief process.
Periodic calls and/or v1s1ts are made as
necessary and at ~ app~priate .time an
invitation to the survtvors might be issued to
anend monthly social gatherings. The focus
of these gatherings is on the bereaved
helping each other through the stages of
grief although staff will be present. The
famUy is assured that even after discharge,
they may feel free to call the hospice if
problems occur.
In a recent newspaper article, one of the
staff nurses of the Mountain Area Hospice
was quoted as saying, "My personal
relationship with G.od extends ~o my
patients. Whether 1 sit and pray wuh my
patient or not doesn't mean the love of God
doesn't flow through my touch and
presence." I feel sure that sentiment is
deeply shared by all of us.
Hospice.... the loving touch, to make the
path less lonely.
Nena Parkerson is a one-on-one hospice
volwueer in Asheville, NC.
KATUAH- page 6
Mountain Alea Hospice
40 CbW"Ch Suut
Asheville, NC 28801
Coruaci: Judith L. North, RN
Phone: (704) 255.()231
Sylva, NC 28TI9
Contaei: Maureen Hydaket
Phone: (704) 586-7410
HOISIC>n Valley Hospice
P.O. Box 238
Kingsport, TN 37662
Coniacc Barbara Gipe, RN
Phone: (615) 246-3322
SL Mary's Hospital Hospice
Oak Hill Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37917
Conl3CC David Balcer
Phone: (615) 971-7531
Hospice of lhe Soulh
993 Johnson Ferry Rd; Bldg. F
Atlanta, GA 30342
Conmci: Arlhur S. Boo1h, Jr.
Phone: (404) 252-0503
Hamilion Medical Center Hospice
P.O. Box 11.68
Dalton. GA 30720
Contact Florence Brem, BSN
Phone: (404) 278-2105
Fall 1986
�DEALING CREATIVELY WITH DEATH
"THE MANUAL"
Dealine Crearively with Death· A Manual of
Death ErJucatjon and Simole Burial
(Bumsville, NC; Gelo Press; 10th edition,
1984). Dealine Creatively with Death is
available for $6.50 postpaid from Gelo
Press; 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714
To many of its users Ernest Morgan's
book Dealin& Creatively wjth Death: A
Manual of Death Education and Simple
lkda.l is known simply as "The Manual",
attesting to its usefulness and the high
regard in which this book is held in its field.
This most poignant of "how-to" books
presents a topic that is of great practical as
well as psychological and spiritual
imponance. The theses of the book are that
it is empowering and spiritually fulfilling to
care for our own dead and that a sensitive
funeral process that involves the bereaved as
panicipants can do much to heal the wounds
of loss and grief. But under the tenns of
today's "funeral industry", a family could
also save itself from $1,000 to several
thousand dollars by following any of the
several alternative courses outlined in "The
Manual".
But the main point of the book, that is
emphasized again and again, is that
individuals and families should be able to
choose the method most satisfying to them
to care for the remains and the memory of a
loved one. In our culture, the standard
funeral is offered as a consumer item, a
spectator event, and laws, health
regulations. insurance, and advertising
work together to back a business monopoly
over this segment of our life circle. Funeral
homes offer service that is quick, efficient,
and as gaudy as the family can afford. The
only thing they do not offer is a choice.
Ernest Morgan in Pealing Creatively with
I2cal.b accepts this challenge. Tastefully, the
book first takes up death issues ("Living
with the Dying", "Bereavement", "The
Right to Die") to provide background to the
later discussions of the alternatives available
to those who want to panicipate more fully
in funeral services.
Options presented in the book run from
joining a memorial society, which is a group
of people organized to encourage advance
planning of funerals and to mediate relations
with funeral directors, to "simple burial", as
a funeral that Is organized and carried out by
the family and friends of the deceased has
come to be called. The book also touches on
the pros and cons of cremation, and gives
advice and help in planning a personalized
and effective death ceremony.
Care of the dying is also discussed, and
Morgan speaks of the emerging hospice
movement and home care of the dying by
family members.
Morgan comes out strongly for making an
anatomical gift of the body or individual
organs 10 a medical school or organ bank,
which may offend the spiri1ual sensibilities
of some, but generally throughout the book
he carefully takes the stance of advising the
- continued on p. 9
KATUAH - page 7
AN INTERVIEW WITH ERNEST MORGAN
"A human being is part of the
whole, called by us the 'universe', a
part limited in time and space. He
experiences himself. his thoughts and
feelings, as something separated
from the rest - an optical illusion of
his consciousness.
"This delusion is a kind of
prison for us, restricting us to our
personal desires and to affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task
must be to free ourselves from this
prison, to widen our circle of
compassion, and to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in
its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve
this completely, but striving for such
achievement is in itself a part of the
liberation and a foundation for inner
security."
- Albert Einstein
Ernest Morgan: I wan1ed to begin with
this quotation, because it has been very
important to me in reaching an
understanding of death and the death
process.
In Einstein's view we arc each a
particle, a thread in the fabric of life. Each
particular thread begins and ends, but the
fabric goes on, and the individual threads
give it color, strength, and continuity.
Without these 1breads, there would be no
fabric.
The threads give continuity 10 the
fabric; the fabric gives meaning to the
thread. I would like my life to add color
and strength to this fabric of life. Then my
life will have been a resource, an asset to
this process, not just a filler.
Through the experience of death we
overcome the "optical illusion" Einstein was
UllJcing abouL We realize that 'Tm not here
very long, either. What's it all about?" And
somehow we feel a closer identity with what
it's all about. In our daily lives, we tend to
take our family and friends for granted. We
assume tha1 they will be here permanently.
We see everything around us as permanent,
and we deal as best we can within this
circle. But nothing is permanent. It's all
temporary, and the best we can do is to be a
part of the on-going lluman life. This will
last. And what will last is what we do to
enrich human life, the quality of human life,
and of the environment., too. That's what
really helps to make this life wonhwhile.
Katuah: But i1 is hard 10 endure the loss of
someone we truly love. What help is there
for people who nave to make it through a
time such as tba1?
EM: My mother died when 1 was a few
months old. My dad, Arthur Morgan, was
totally devoted to her, and after her death bis
affection, caring, and gentleness found
other channels, because he transfonned his
emotional energy, his grief and his
suffering. and reached out in caring to other
people. He was a tremendou, ly caring
person. and this experience develuped that.
I bad a very warm and close relationship
with my father. and chat reflect in pan, 1
1bink, on my mother's death. for as my
father said, "When someone you love dies,
your love for them doesn't d1.:; it gets
redistributed." That is a very pos1dve aspect
of death.
After my mother died, I wao; cared for
and raised by my aunt. She dit:d when 1
was in my 'teens, and it was a very hard
thing for me. What gave me the most
comfon was a feeling of identification I felt
with her, which made me feel I could carry
on the things I admired most in her life.
I spoke of this once in a funeral talk
for a young man who had been a close
friend. His parents had come to church
crushed at the loss of their son, but they
wem out almost radiant with this feeling of
identily with all the young people in the
audience who were inspired to carry on their
son's life. This makes death a benefactor.
Katiiah: What is the role or imponance of
death in our society from a cultural
standpoint?
E M : As I said in "The Manual", l am
strongly commined 10 creative social
change, and this needs 10 be rooted in our
social and elhical concepts, our philosophy,
and our values. Social change is 001 just
changing the adjustments of a machine. We
are changing consciousness; we are
- continued on p. 8
Fall 1986
�- .;ontinued from p. 7
Katuah: What are some of the things a
family should remember to have the best
kind of ceremony for the deceased'?
changing motivation. We need to have a
whole new feeling. And nowhere in a
person"s life is one more prone to think of
values, of ideals, than when there's a death.
That's when we are realJy open to creative
change. "What am I here for?" we ask.
'What am I doing?" I consider it a rare
opponunity.
If we can deal with a deaih in the right
way, we will find comfon, inspiration,
strength, courage, meaning, and the
enrichment and refinement of life values.
All these qualities arc at the base of social
change. If we don't reach inside ourselves
and find these qualities at the time of a
death, that death is panialJy wasted. Don't
let death go to waste.
Katuah : It seems that it is most imponant
that the living experience a death, to feel it
personally when it occurs. Yet we shy
away from those who are dying and give
tremendous amounts of money to funeral
directors to insulate us from the experience
of death.
EM: That is what 'The Manual" is all
about, but one thing it's valuable 10 keep in
mind is: everyone needs to know the plans!
Get things clear ahead of time. There is no
substi1utc for advance planning and having
the people adjusted to the idea beforehand.
lf you have the idea of doing your own
burial, thrash out the idea while
everybody's healthy. Get around to visit
the county health office, and say, "We want
to do this arrangement, and we wanr to dig
the grave. What do we need to do?" Find
out what the regula1ions ahd what the
requirements are.
We had a young friend whose mother
died. He had her body cremated and
arranged for a memorial service. My wife
and I went to see him, and when we
arrived, he was cleaning house. Well,
when you go to visit somebody whose
mother has just died and they're cleaning
house, the proper thing to do is 10 grab a
broom. So we were cleaning house when
the mother's two sisters arrived. They were
EM: One thing l think is very important is
the matter of social involvement. At the
time of death, as in a marriage, we want
social involvement. This is partly for the
support of the bereaved, and partly an
affirmation of our social nature. It helps to
mature us. If we rorn our back on reality, if
we tum our back on committment and on
this kind of stress, we arc reducing life to a
sort of a game, and upholding a pretense
that death is the enemy.
Death can be a misfonune when it 1s
misplaced or ill-timed, but death js
necessary. Jessica Mitford (noted for her
investigation of the funeral industry • ed.)
once told me jokingly that her position on
death was: "I'm against it!" I said, "Don't
abolish death, or we'll have to have a
government permit to have a baby!" Death
is pan of the whole life cycle. It helps us to
remember that we are a pan of the whole
life cycle.
It is importanr that at the time of death
the bereaved persons have involvement.
Anything that they can do to help with the
fun~ral arrangements is good. The more
they can do, the healthier it is for them. It's
a spiritual exercise and very imponant. But
:t's also important not to push people into it,
but rather to encourage them.
When my wife died, I helped lift the
body into the box, I drove the vehicle to the
burial ground, l helped lower the box. and I
recited one of her favorite poems over the
grave. Then, when we bad a memorial
service, I talked for an hour and 20 minutes.
I wanted to. I needed to. In our culture
men don't cry easily, but we can talk, and
so I did.
We had another service for my wife
in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where we had
spent many years. At that time I only talked
for 40 minutes. I was gaining. I was
feeling better by then.
Viewing the remains is also desirable
for the immediate family. But again, they
shouldn't be pushed, they should be
encouraged. As for putting the remains on
public display and prettying them up to look
like they're taking an afternoon nap, I don't
think much of that idea.
KATUAH - page 8
business rather rhan a spirirual basis, and it
still operates on that basis roday.
Mosr of the funeral regulatory bo:irds
are composed of funeral directors, so they
set up regula1ions that are in rhe interests of
funeral directors. I'd say that most of the
laws regulating the funeral industry are
drawn up as much in the interests of the
industry as they arc in the interests of public
health and safety. That's how it works.
Law is a human instrument, and it is
subject to human interpretation and
enforcement. You can check on a law, but
don't be buffaloed by it.
Funeral directors don't have to know
much about the lav.. but when anything gets
our of the ordinary, they are quick to claim
that what is happening is illegal. For
instance, when some people were fonning a
memorial society in Dayton, Ohio, they
received a letter from a funeral direcror
which said, "What you are doing is strictly
illegal." But by accident his secretary had
enclosed in the envelope a memo from the
director's lawyer which said, "Tell them
anything that sounds good."
If you want to do a burial yourself
and you are a substantial citizen, obviously
honest and obviously sincere, and you carry
out the details of death certificates,
lransponation permits, and any other
necessary forms, they will think twice
before they begin any prosecution.
Katua h :
Do you see any changes,
beneficial or otherwise, in our society's
attitudes toward death, now tha1 it is
becoming more acceptable to talk about
death and its meaning in our lives'?
EM :
aggressive women. The first thing they said
was: "Where's Marie?"
"I had mother cremated, and we're
having the ceremony this afternoon," the
young man said.
"You did what? We wanted to see
her!" they said.
We didn't let him out of our sight, for
fear the women would tear him apan. We
took them all out to lunch. and afterwards
we went to the ceremony and had a nice
memorial. The sisters then left, and
everything was fine. But the lesson we
learned was to get those things cleared in
advance!
Katuah: How about legal arrangements'?
Aren't they major obstacles in carrying out a
simple burial'?
EM: OriginalJy, furniture stores used to
carry a coffin or two, and people would
sometimes buy a coffin instead of making
one themselves. Then 1he furniture store
man offered to help with the burial. and
after a while it became a full-time job and
the person who made the arrangements
became the funeral director The "funeral
industry". as It is call eel ~tarted on a
The general tendency in the
professions is still to regard dea1h as an
enemy and to regard any death as a failure.
They feel defeated by death. I have a
bookplate that was made in Germany for
doctors, and it shows the figure of a woman
doctor wrestling with a skeleton. That little
picture sums up the whole a1titude to me.
The hospice movement has come up
fast, and we've made some progress in the
area of bequeathal of bodies to medical
schools. Fewer of the schools are paying
tr3llsponation now. Apparently they're not
as desperate as they were to obtain bodies
for anatomical study, and I think "The
Manual" has had a definite impact on that.
On the other hand, one concern I have
now is that the forum for death education
and counseling is getting increasingly
professional. Professionalization is also
coming into the hospice movement more
and more.
Now there are licensing
procedures, and to get a license there has to
he a team available around the clock. etc..
etc., until they ge1 to where they are in
Asheville, where they are working with a
budget of something like $80,000 per year.
Nonsense! Absolute nonsense! That's our
culture cn:eping back in again.
The hospice in Yancy County
recruited volunteers, trained them, put them
in the field, and they went out and helped
families. Jn rheir financial appeal last year
the organization estimated they saved half a
million dollars in hospital costs in 18
months. This was done by the aid of
volunteers helping to keep people in their
homes. That is a good thing.
"The Manual" is to ... I don't like to
say "combat" professionalism, but to
counterbalance it. lt is a miniature
Fall 1986
�encyclopedia for non-professionals. There
is infonnation useful to professionals. but
the book 1s aimed at the volunteer
non-professional. ll emphasizes the idea of
family participation and srresses the ideas of
simplicity, dignity, and economy. I hope
that for some people ii will communicate the
positive potential of death, and maybe show
that a bereavement, if it is well-handled, can
be a creative experience.
recorded by D.W.
, .#
ff'
Ernest Morgan, now a continentally-known
authority on death and the dying process,
lives in the Celo Comml4nity near
Burnsville, NC with his wife Christine
Ml4ch of the profit from the sale of~
Creatively with Death has gone coward the
Artluu Morgan Sc/roof in Celo.
A
SIMPLE
- continued from p. 7
reader's choice rather than thrusting some
particular alternative upon us.
The result is a highl)' s.eositive,
compassionate treatment of a very difficult
subject. Detailed points of information are
frequently illustrated by stories from the
author's own experiences in death
situation'S, and the book is supplemented by
65 pages of appendices that are revised and
updated with each edition, making this a
current and practical reference book.
ln recent years a groundswell movement
has arisen to reclaim the birthing process
from the cold hands of the hospitals and the
medical establishment. This has brought
important feelings of empowerment to
individual women and communities. There
BURIAL :
has also been much criticism of the "funeral
industry", but Pealing Creatively with Death'
is the first book to show lay people in clear
and simple terms how they can get a hand in
the funeral process. This book is a first step
in reclaiming community control of our
dying as well as our birthing.
In its unobtrusive way, Dealing Creatively
with Death challenges the taboo enforced by
the major institutions of this society that
says that death is not to be touched or even
to be discussed. Ernest Morgan quietly and
effectively does away with the notion that
death is the enemy, to be hated and feared,
and shows the richness the presence of
death can create in our lives if it is
confronted face-to-face and accepted with all
the attendant emotions it brings.
MAKING BURIAL
excerpted from Ernest Morgan's book Dealing Creatively with Dr.at h
BOXES
A large end piece will be left over.This can be used to make
an extra top and side of Child Size for possible future use.
The following information is intended for families or
groups who wish to carry out their own arrangements
without a funeral director. Ordinarily, funeral directors
expect to provide a casket unless some understanding has
been arrived at to the contrary.
Inexpensive Plywood Boxes: We offer here
instructions for making four sizes of plywood boxes which
are inexpensive, compact and easy to build. These boxes are
not suitable for body ttansponation by common carrier or for
keeping an unembalmed body for any length of time. If used
at a funeral they may be placed on a low bench or other
support, covered by a cloth (pall).
Still Needed: The second side for the Large Size. If the
lumber yard has part of a sheet from which this can be cut,
fine. If not. a fourth sheet will be needed. [n that case, the
rest of the sheet can be cut into spare parts and stored with
the boxes for possible later use.
Also Needed: Two side scrips of 3/4" lumber for Large Size
(5" x 6'4 1/2").Two side strips of 3/4" lumber for Medium
Size, (5' x 5'10 1/2"). Two side strips of 3/4" lumber for
Small Size (4" x5'4 1/2"). (Side strips for Child Size were
included in previous cut.)
From the hardware store, get some 7/8" nails, and
some 4- and 8-penny box nails and six chest handles for each
box. The handles should be of the kind that hang down when
not in use and stay in horizontal position when lifted. Don't
forget to get screws for these.
SIZES Of IUAIAl BOXES
Nail a narrow strip to each side piece, flush with the
edge and the end, using 4-penny nails. The good side of the
plywood should be out.
- continued on p. 25
S!o!All SIZE
O•lllelt H .. •21 .. ll3W"
S'4Yl .. •20Vt"'
21" 11311..
S'4Vt""•'311 ..
$'6"121 ..
3'9Vt'"r1SVt"'
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)'9\11""110l4..
3'11 ..111
4' I
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nw aJ
lot'°' S'4\11 00 119" a1Z\11 00
CHllO SIZE
~3 " 11 .. llf"" all ""
I - J'tVt" 114"" a10""
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00
~
Instructions: These four boxes can be made from two sheets
of 3/4" plywood and 3 1/2 sheets of 1/4" plywood. Order the
necessary parts from the lumber yard, cut accurately to size.
Anyone moderately experienced with tools can assemble the
boxes.
__ ,,_.
---
CMGS... . .-
.I
!
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;
I
..
_
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1)\11"
!"10\11'
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Cutting instructions for 1/4" plywood (no diagrams needed):
Second Sheet: Top for Medium Size (6' x 21 "),and two sides
(5'10 1/2" x 13 3/4"). Cut long way. Two sides for Child
Size (3'9 1/2" x 10 3/4"). Cut from end piece.
'
!
,.y,.
Chart for Cutting Plywood Sheets: Two sheets of 3/4" 4'x8'
plywood, cut as shown in the two diagrams below, will
provide all the 3/4" plywood parts needed to build the four
sizes of boxes listed above. The 1/4" plywood is simpler and
needs no cutting chart, so we have simply explained below
how it should be cut.
First Sheet (4' x 8'); Top for Large Box (6'6" x 26"), and
one side (6'4 1/2" x 15 3/4"). Cut long way.
Top for Chlld Size (3'11" x 16"). Cut from remaining end.
_
8 $Ntt
1-----"8'-"
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-
-lJoll•
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Third Sheet: Top for Small Size (5'6" x 21 "), and two sides
(5'4 l/2" x 13 1/4"). Cut long way.
KATUAH - page 9
Fall 1986
�HOW TO HELP CHILDREN
HANDLE DEATH
others). When a loved pe1 dies, children
learn to mourr.. The mock funeral
ceremonies teach rituals and allow the
children to work out their feelings and fears.
But don't replace the pet immediately as
children must learn the deceased cannot be
replaced easily.
Death is universal, so no one remains
unaffected by it. Yet many people believe
that children should be shielded from it. But
since one out of 20 children loses a parent
before s/he finishes elementary school and
will inevitably face the deaths of friends and
family, there is really no way to hide death
from children. Experts are now advising
that children be exposed to the concept of
death befo re it occurs.
Often we think of children as too young
to understand the meaning of death. This
isn't always true. Children as young as two
and a half years old have been found to have
some idea of death. Sheltering children
often gives them confusing messages; if
they do not understand that death is a natural
part of the life cycle, then they'll have a
greater difficulty in coping with death in
later life.
How, then, should children be told about
death? And how can we, as parents and
friends, help the child deal with Joss when it
occurs? The following are some practical
guidelines that may offer help.
Produced by TO UFE, this article is one in
a series of articles which discuss how to
better deal with grief and loss. The author of
this particular article is Patsy Albrecht,
(1983). © TOLIFE
TO LIFE is a non-profit educational
organization in Charlotte, NC which
provides support services and counseling in
the areas of grief, loss and life
enhancement. Founded in 1979 by Alexis
Jay Stein and Howard Winokuer, TO LIFE
assists individuals in handling those
experiences that result in grief: death of
someone c lose to you, separation and
divorce, loss of employment, retirement,
physical trauma, and other circumstances.
Through regional and national workshops,
seminars, conferences as well as
publications and counseling, TO LIFE
concentrates on integrating the different
dimensions of life--physical, mental and
spiritual-which have become fragmented by
the experience of loss. TO LIFE, P.O.Box
9354, Charlotte, NC 28299. (704)
332-LIFE.
Don ' t be a fra id to men t ion d eath.
Disrant friends' or relatives' deaths should
be discussed so the child is gradually
introduced to the subject. S/he will then be
belier prepared to cope with death when it
hits closer to home.
W hen talkin g a bout death, don 't
u se e uph emis m s. Tell the truth. Any
beating around the bush can confuse,
frighten, or hann the child, because s/he
isn't able to understand the underlying
meaning of what you say. Consider these
examples from a child's viewpoint:
1. Grandpa died because he was sick.
"Will l die if I gel a cold? Mommy's going
to the hospital--is she dying?" Children
can't differentiate between serious and mild
illnesses, and can associate all hospital nips
and illness with death.
2. Aunt Sarah went to sle®. "When I go
to sleep, I might not ever wake up again."
Teach with animals. If a child sees a
dead bird or other animal, this is a good
time to explain what has happened. Pets are
also recommended for this reason (and
· continued on page 2.S
SUGGESTED READINGS ON DEATH
AND DYING
Than.ks 10 TO LIFE and HOSPICE and CENTER FOR AWAKENING
GENERAL READING:
Levine, Stephen Who Djes? Doubleday, 1982.
Ewens, James & Henington, Palricia
Ram Dass How Can I Help? Knopf, 1985.
Lewis, C.S. A Grief Observed, Bantam Books, 1963.
von Franz, Marie-Louise On Dreams & Death. Shambhala, 1984.
Westberg. Granger E. Gooc! Grief, Fonress Press.
Kubler-Ross, Elizabeth Death· The Final Stage of Growth, Prentice
Hall, 1975.
On DeaJh and Dying, Macmillan, 1969.
Working It Through. Macmillan, 1982.
Iibe!an Book Qfthe Dead. Ollford University Press, 1957.
Jampolslci, Jerry Teach Onlv Love. Bantam, 1983,
Le Shan, Eda I.earning to Say Gooc!bye When a P;ucm Dies. Avon,
1978.
Kushner, Harold S. When Bad Thin gs Happen to Goo!I People
Schocken Books, 1981.
~Bear
& Co., 1982.
Mowatt, Farley The Snow Walker, Little, Brown & C.O.• 1976.
FOR CHILDREN:
Miles, Miska Annie and the Old One, Little, Brown & Co., 1985
(1972).
Craven, Margaret I Heard the Owl Call My Name. A Totem Book,
1967.
Saunders, Cecily Beyond All Pain. SPCK. 1983.
Carter, Forrest The Educatjon of Little Tree, U. of New Mexico Press.
1976.
Moody, Raymond Life Afler Life, Bantam Books, 1975.
White, E.B. Cbnc(oue's Web. Harper and Row. 1952.
KAWAH- page 10
Fall 1986
�Old women are specialistS in those critical
moments when the designs of culture are
threatened by a breakthrough of nature binh, illness, and death - momenrs when we
are reminded of our animal origins and
human limits. Women of advanced age are
healers, midwives, dressers of corpses .....
r HE
Barbara Myerhojf
Parabola Magazine, 113; p.89
The wake, or "setung-up" as it is
called in the mountains today, means an
all-night gathering to mark the passing of a
friend or family member. The custom
originated in Ireland long before Christian
times. In the great migration from Ulster the
Scotch-Irish settlers canied the practice with
them into the Appalachian mountains.
We can imagine the wild revels
auending the death of a wanior who died in
battle in Celtic Ireland. This was seen as the
goal of life and was eagerly sought after, so
while the women would mourn, the men
would carouse in genuine celebration,
ccnain in their belief that their comrade had
auained a place of honor in a better world.
Warriors that they were, they were also
gathered to watch over the spirit of the
deceased to see that no mishaps occurred
during its voyage, for the dark spirits were
many who would want to steal the soul of a
warrior on its journey to the Fields of the
Valiant
The spirit of the original wakes lived
on in the Irish celebrations, moderated and
solemnified only somewhat by the Christian
church.
"The Church was suspicious of the
wake. It had strains of paganism, much
drunkeness. and frcquenc dancing - and the
Church was very suspicious of dancing,"
said Andrew Greeley in his book That Most
Distressful Narjon.
,
But "that national institution" of the
Irish could not be stopped. It was a crue
expression of the Irish character. It was "an
extraordinary phenomenon," as Greeley
described it, "both heartless and reassuring,
melancholy and rejoicing, unbearably
painful and stubbornly hopeful."
The wild ouipouring of emotion at the
wake served the family and the community
on several levels. For individuals, it was
cathartic and eased the pain of a loved one's
passing. By coming together in a wild
celebration, the grieving was confronted,
even accelerated, and not repressed, so the
survivors could work through it and resume
their everyday lives.
It was also an important community
event, for at each binh and each death the
community grows and changes. The
community would instinchvely encll'Cle the
family of the deceased and suppon them by
creating an environment in which emotions
could flow - whether they wanted to cry,
pray, drink, dance, or fight.
At the time of anyone's death, the
"veil between the worlds" is thin, and there
surely was an element of bravado in the
boisterousness of the wake. It was
unspoken knowledge that the community
came together to share courage in the
presence of the spectre of death. Light,
music, and laughter all helped to banish the
spirit of the Dark One from the world of the
living.
T hese times were definitely
"breakthroughs of nature" when the briule
veneer of civilization crumbled, and the
Irish people, who repressed so much in
their Jives, would nm tty to hold back the
rush of emotions. Death played an imponant
role in their lives simply by liberating these
feelings.
DYING IN THE MOUNTA.INS
The wake 1ook on a new importance
when the Ulster Protestants transplanted it
to the New World. Here in Appalachia,
shadowed beneath the forbidding ridges and
rugged cliffs of the mountains, death was a
real and close presence that made the white
settlers feel isolated, vulnerable, and far
from home. A1 all critical times the
community came together, and a
"seuin'-up" was an imponant community
function.
"The wake was intended to be a
gathering of sympathetic relatives and
friends in the home of" the deceased, for
paying respects to the dead, and to dispel
partially the gloom and loneliness that had
settled upon the members of rhe family, but
it came abou t that the all-night vigil
demanded a degree of amusement and
restrained gaiety. As time passed, it often
became, after a preliminary time of
solemnity, a period of song, laughter,
games, gossip, courtship, and
what-not..... " CNonh Carolina Mountain
Folklore and Miscellany, by Horton
Cooper)
During t he early years of white
settlement, caring for the dead was a
communitv resoonsibilitv. Undertakers
were out of the question then.
"Pally" Davis, who lives on Nation's
Oeek near Sylva, N.C., remembers how it
was:
"You don't know what it was like
back then. It seemed like folks was better to
each other. When someone got ~1ck, they
didn't go right into the hospital, like they do
now. No! The doctor'd come to their house.
They'd stay in their own bed, and people
would come over and help cook, and they'd
bring some food to cook, and do dishes,
and they'd set up with someone. There'd
always be somebody settin'-up with them
from the time they got real sick until the time
they died.
"And then people would set up with
the body until it was buried. Some people in
the neighborhood would dig the grave
where the family wanted it, and they'd bring
food, and everybody would gather around
the family. They wouldn't go to the
undenaker's back then. Nobody had the
money.
"When Daddy passed away, they
made him the nicest coffin. It was made of
oak - oak or poplar, one - but it was the
prettiest thing. Big, wide lumber - like this
(18"). And they lined it inside with cotton
stuffing and put a nice cotton cloth around it
with lace and a little pillow, and when he
was all washed and dressed, they put him in
iL
"He'd had that lumber all saved out
for his coffin, and enough for Momma's,
too, and so when he finally died, two
fellows back up on the hill there (pointing)
took that lumber up and made his coffin,
and set handles on it, and varnished it nice and, oh, it was the prettiest thing. Much
prettier than you can get now at the
undenaker's.
"Momma lived thirty years after him,
and by the time she died, they said that the
coffin wood Daddy'd saved out for her had
gotten wonny, so they had to get some
more for her.
"They're buried right over there in the
- continued on p. 25
�GOOD MGHT mot1
SHADOWS fill
by Turrin Keye
Sera Jean Samuels gently laid her
fingers to the withered brow, feeling for the
pulse that still trembled within the old man.
The wrinkled eyelids flickered open, and
she looked again into the increasing vacancy
which was overcoming the laughter she had
known.
"I'm going to leave you now, Gran'pa.
Is there anything you need?" she asked,
trying to find a softness in her voice while
increasing its intensity to cut through to the
old man's brain. The tired eyes only closed
in reply.
Thiny-six days. No ooe would have
thought it would take so long. But even in
death, there was no predicting the old man.
Sera Jean tucked the quilt up around him
and checked the steaming cauldron of herbs
to be sure there was water to last through
the night. She pushed the stick fire, piling
embers up against the cauldron's belly. It
was late September, and she felt no cold at
all, but she did not want him to want for
warmth. She gathered her things into a
basket and backed out of the small
srickhouse. She pushed the rickety door
shut, being less silent than she wished to, as
it flopped badly on its shoeleather hinges.
She made it fast against any wandering
animals that might bother the old man in the
night. She had not believed be would make
it through this day. But he had.
From where she stood in front of the
stickhouse, poplars blocked the view of the
far mountains. But she knew the distant
ridge lines could be seen from the rick
where they would lay his body. Hewn of
locust poles, bound with copper wire, there
was oo reason why it should not stand for a
long time. Longer than the guard they had
erected to frighten away birds. The
scarecrow had been her mother's idea, but
even Gran'pa had not cared to have his
body picked over by crows. Sera Jean
inspected the dummy, dressed in some of
the old man's clothes. She righted the head
which had shrugged down into its flannel
shin. All be had to offer in his shin sleeve
hands was a shon bun round of locust tree
with the old man's name burned into it
It had seemed no more than fun when
Gran'pa had brought her up here almost a
year ago and they had spent the most of two
weeks clearing the site, building the stick
house, and preparing the rick. He had
worked with patience and care, but still he
had joked about morbidity and poked fun at
Sera Jean's youth. Her father had
commanded her to help the old mao, mostly
to be sure he did not hun himself. She
stayed out of school a couple of days and
her mother had called it all foolishness and
said that it would come to nothing. But,
though the old man had presented it as
quirkiness, it was obvious to them all that
KA11JAH - page 12
he was deadly serious.
But then Gran'pa had fallen in the
winter, breaking his hip. The old bones had
refused to mend. His every movement had
become painful and his disposition sour. He
chose to die rather than continue toward
further dilapidation. No ooe supponed his
choice. He stopped eating and became
crankier still. But it was not until he began
spending every day trying to climb the ridge
to his stickhouse, that anyone took his death
wish to purpose. Sera Jean and her mother
had brought his frail old body there. It bad
seemed to Sera Jean that he could not, and
therefore would not, stay. But each time he
refused her gentle persuasions to come
down. He seemed more at peace, there on
the ridge, regaining some of his impish
laughter. But it was only a brief respite
before the old man bad sunk to the level of
the sleeping mat in the stickhouse, never to
rise again. He ate nothing, drank little, and
for the past two weeks Sera Jean had stayed
out of school, believing each succeeding
day would be the old man's last. It had
become an ordeal for everyone.
The last of the dying sun winked at her
through the foliage of the western ridge, and
it prompted her to continue on to her home.
She lifted her basket to her bead and staned
down the narrow, steep trail that wound its
way down from the ridge. She came out in
the upper pastures which joined the nut
orchard further down. The trees hung
heavy, and harvest was not far away. Soon
everyone would be up here where there was
no one now. There would be basket lunches
and calling between the trees, and she
would be climbing up the tallest chestnut to
put nuts in her shoulder sling and gaze at the
ridges in the clearest of fall days.
She \\ aS nl\ssing through the lower
fields now, where the tr.iii had become a
lane and the trickling water had grown into a
stream that sang a rhythm for the day's end.
The lane brought her down into fields in
succession of growth - some recently
harvested, some already fuzzy where the
winter cover had been planted.
Sera Jean turned to see a dark, tall
woman coming up the hill toward her,
flowing gracefully over the broken terrain
on bare feet
"Auntie Peg!" Sera Jean greeted her as
the woman pulled up before her, flashing
her warm smile.
"Have you been all day on the ridge?"
Peggy asked.
"l picked some mushrooms, some
greens. But mostly I stayed with Gran'pa,"
Sera Jean replied.
"I'm surprised he's still alive."
"I don't know why or how. He seems
to get no worse. But I.can't believe he could
ever get better."
"Perhaps he would not agree with you.
It may be hard for him now but I believe he
expects things to get better."
"Peg, what do you believe about life
after death?"
Peggy smiled. "Sera Jean, I don't think
that's something you need to bring to the
power of beliefs. Living things die all the
rime. There is stilJ the same here as before.
You shouldn't let it occupy too much
thought. Just accept what it offers.
"I remember," she continued, "when I
went to Malaysia as a rural nurse. I spent
some time with some of the mountain
people, the first I'd ever met. They would
wrap their dead in a rauan mat and secure
the whole thing into a special tree high on
the ridge. They would do intricate things
and leave specific reverences to the body,
but when I asked what ii all meant, they
replied, To get below the smell, as it
rises.'"
"It sounds like they just wanted to get
out of the way."
"Well, you may be right. To get in the
way of death would be a very foolish thing.
And that would get in the way of life."
"But it won't ever be the same without
Gran'pa."
Fall 1986
�Peggy smiled comfort for the girl's
anguish. In a voice feminine and strong she
asked, "And was i1 ever the same wi1h
him?"
Sera Jean slopped, puzzled by her
aunl's question.
"No-o-o ..... I don't know. I don'1
know wha1 you mean by 'same'."
"Perhaps you should look more closely
then. Think abou1 whar's the same and
wha1's differen1, and maybe you can sec
1ha1 what's really imponan1 to you hasn'1
changed al all."
"My love for Gran'pa?" Sera Jean
wondered about Peggy's question.
"Don'1 forget his love for you."
"Bui his love is dying!"
"Sera, are you no1 alive and well and
growing?"
The young girl's slale-blue eyes blinked
in assent.
"Then his love is not dying. His love,
your love, are one. Having grown ou1 of the
things you have shared. Those things are
gone. So is Gran'pa. But you embody it all.
Flesh and bone are different. They change •
1hey come and they go like the sun and the
wind.They mean almost nothing. But, Sera.
wha1 doesn't change? What is always the
same?"
Sera Jean screwed up her face, feeling
close upon a threshold.
"God?" she tried. "Love? Life maybe?"
"Maybe so," Peggy said seriously.
Then a shine of mischief glinted in her eyes.
"Maybe not. Maybe chicken soup and
sno1."
Sera Jean joined with her in reciting the
final line of the rhyme they had shared so
many times before. Their chant broke up
into girlish laughter.
"Come 10 supper, Sera. I've dug some
sweet po1atoes and Jerrell will build a fire."
Sera Jean smiled and looked up at the
cabin tha1 Jerrell and Peggy shared 10 see a
puff of bluish smoke rise from the chimney
and knew tha1 Jerrell was already hard a1
work on the season's first fire. And hard a1
work at being man to woman.
"No, 1hank you anyway, Auntie Peg.
I'd beuer go on home. I haven't seen much
of my own family these days."
They left each other wi1h brigh1ness.
Sera Jean continued up the trail. She 1urned
around a bend of hemlocks to catch sight of
the house, old now, grown into the side of
the slope, barely, seemingly just barely, not
a to1al part of il ..Started by Gran'pa so
many years ago, i1 was high up in the cove,
dangling on lhe end of a sometimes road,
sometimes lane, sometimes nei1her, like a
balloon on a string. II was se11led
comfonably now after turning over a
genera1ion of human beings.
Sera Jean s1epped over the worn s1ones,
through the doors, and walked the few steps
along the stone passage into the kitchen.
Felici1y, her mother, looked up from 1he
ccmcr table as Sera Jean set her basket upon
the big black cookstove. She sough1 1he
girl's face for an answer 10 everybody's
ques1ion and, knowing her daugh1er so
well, voiced tha1 answer back to Sera Jean.
"Hmph. He's still alive."
Her eyes broke away briefly in priva1e
1hought, bu1 flashed back green and quick
and omo everyday.
"Well, I guess ils for lhe bes1. You and
your father will be all by yourselves for
dinner tonight. I'm going over to Marjorie's
10 do a sweat for Elise. If you had come
KATUAH - page 13
down sooner, I'd have invited you along.
But I can't wait for you 10 ge1 it togelher
now. You'll jus1 have 10 keep Duane
company."
Sera Jean was a1 first a li11le
disappointed a1 missing an all-woman sweat
for a pregnan1 friend, but she knew that
Felicity had only said that to lessen lhe
harshness of denying her the chance to go.
By the look of her mo1her's light step and
the quickness of her fingers, Sera Jean
could tell !hat Felicity was feeling young,
excited, and ready to excite - girlish in her
flaunt, womanly in her bearing. She was
dressed in complements, and her
countenance was no longer at home, but
already out the door, before the public, not
telling all, but keeping a reserved depth of
femininity.
"Sera, I won't be back 'til late," she
said, pulling a flashlight from a drawer and
tossing it into a shoulder bag. She slung it
into place and turned to face her daughter.
"You tell Duane when he comes in, would
you?
Sera Jean nodded as her mother
brushed past her, starting down the walk.
"There's mung beans soaking and a
melon !hat needs to be eaten. Enjoy."
The telephone rang on the counter
beside Sera Jean.
"Oh, damn! Be not for me," Felicity
wailed to lhe plants of her greenhouse as
she spun to look back at Sera Jean, her
multi-colored skirt flowing wide about her
calves. "Get that Sera, would you? And,
unless il's a dire emergency, I'm gone."
Sera Jean lifted lhe reciever as it rang a
second time.
"Yes? ..... Oh, hello, Mrs. Benson
..... No, rm fine ..... He's still alive, yes,
ma'am ..... He's ... he's not at lhe hospital,
ma'am .....I..... " Her eyes came up to find
her molher's. "Just a minute, ma'am."
She pulled the receiver away,
whispering to her mother, "It's my teacher.
She wants to talk with you."
Felicity rook a deep breath. "Alright, I
have to be a parent sometime."
She dropped her shoulder bag to lhe
stone by a diffenbachia plant and stepped
near Sera Jean. Felicity coiled against the
kitchen counter, brushing against Sera Jean,
mother to daughter, as she rook the receiver.
Sera Jean reached fingers to touch her.
"Hello?..... Yes, I'm fine ..... No. My
falher has prepared us well for his
passing ..... Well, we're missing her, too,
ma'am. She's spending most of her time
with her grandfather..... No, I wouldn't say
she's taking it hard. I think she's doing very
well. My father and she are very
close.....He has no panicular ailment. He's
just worn out.. ... Yes, that's true, he's not
at a hospital. Is there a law that says you
must die in a hospital?..... No, we're not
doing everything to keep him alive. We're
doing all we can to help him die in
peace ..... Yes, I think Sera is very important
for that. Besides, it's her choice..... Well, I
can't say I agree wilh you. I think she's
having a learning experience that far
outweighs anything she might learn in your
school... ..I don't think I'm undervaluing
her education. I believe I've got it in proper
perspective. And no disrespect intended,
but I'm convinced her grandfather is a far
better teacher .... .! think Sera has proven
herself an adequate student of what your
school has to offer and I have no complaints
about her deveioproent....J lhink she has
lhe ability to choose where she wants to be.
I trust her to be responsive every day, and I
believe she does well. I don't think it's a
mauer of life or death if she misses some
school. If she chose to remain out all year,
no one would be happier than I.. ...Send the
truant officer, and he will be most welcome,
but l don't think he will change
things ..... Funeral? No, lhat would make no
difference eilher..... Where my falher will be
bur- laid to rest is no business of yours,
ma'am.....Excuse me !hen, but Sera will
not be encouraged to do anything more than
what she herself feels is right. ....! think I
can't add much more to that. Goodnight to
you, ma'am"
Felicity returned the phone to its cradle.
"Well, r didn't need that."
The woman, drawing a breath of
strength, turned to Sera Jean and pulled her
close. She pressed her lips to the girl's
forehead and Sera Jean ran an arm around
the slim waist, feeling her mother's breast
against her cheek.
"You be you, Sera." Sera Jean felt
warm breath against her hair. "Don't let
them push you somewhere you don't wan1
10 go - even if you're not sure there's any
be1ter place. Don't let them decide for you.
Be the best you can be - but you set the
standards. Don't let anyone else do that for
you."
They were silent for a moment before
Sera Jean's mother pulled softly away to
retrieve her bag and disappear on sure steps
over the worn stones.
Sera Jean sank down onto the wooden
stoop !hat led into lhe greenhouse. She
looked over her mother's garden and out
into lhe shadowy cove, dark almost all the
way to the top of the ridge where her
grandfather lay. There a rising moon had
just cast its blue-whiteness into lhe trees.
Rising, Sera Jean crossed the kitchen
and pulled open the door to the refrigerator.
She took from it eggs, red bell peppers, and
the soaking mung beans. She thumped the
small melon and made a face at the sound. It
seemed far from appetizing.
She washed the food, took down a
cutting board, and was placing a big bowl
before her on the table when she heard lhe
door open and shut and the tap of her
falher's step on lhe stone walk. His voice
drifted in, light and out of key singing a
little ditty.
The tall, drawn man entered between
stone and wood. His kind face brightened
into a sincere smile when his eyes met hers.
"Well, howdy, stranger."
"Hey, Duane."
- continued on p. 24
Fall 1986
�l;y
Martha
Lal4Tie
Overlock
n t e story that follows, I share wit you a persona
experience with death and transformation. Through this
experience I have learned more about trusting my i111uitille
wisdom and my inner voice. This experience may seem
surprising and somewhal paradoxical. I believe we are given
the information and experiences we need to live life nwre
fully. We are always changing .... always growing.
Manha l. Overlock
The season is Fall.. ... the time of change ..... of
iransformation.
I was on my way to get license plates for my car when
I saw Rick and Troy turning right onto Charloue Street As
they passed me, they stopped shon and threw it in reverse.
With an intense look on his face Rick said: "Ralph - you
remember Ralph? - He's missing! He went out in the woods
on Sunday and hasn't come back yet..... PRA Y!l"
At that moment my body turned ice cold. I did not
hear Rick say another word.....
Green light - oh yeah - I reached deep inside my being
and prayed with all that I am I prayed for life, for healing,
for strength and understanding.
My body was cold - so cold.... .I could not get warm.
I continued to pray, asking God to help Ralph, to
guide Rick and Troy in their search. To comfon me! To
wann my body!
I was unable to get my license plates because they
would not take personal checks. As I drove away from that
office I knew that I had 10 go out to look for him ..... I knew
I needed to drum.
As I walked into my apanment and phoned the office
to say I would not be in, my body slowly began to wann up.
I changed my clothes and scanned my mind to hear
where Rick thought Ralph had gone on Sunday. I heard
Town Mountain Road.
At this point in time I lived behind the Old Manor Inn.
I drove up the back roads to the Parkway. I got out of my
car and looked at the gravel to see if I could locate any tracks
from Rick's truck. I didn't know which way to go.....Once
again, I looked inside and asked "Where do I go?" I knew I
had to turn left onto the Parkway.
Driving.....driving .....higher and higher. I wanted to
be there already! I wanted to be in the woods looking for
Ralph .....I wanted to give that which be needed. I was
getting nervous and antsy. 1 had not seen anyone I knew and
I was already at Craggy-Gardens. I stopped and asked two
rangers, who were in their truck, if they bad any information
about a missing biker. They said they had heard some news
earlier in the morning and called the main dispatch 10 get
more details. They told me 1here was a car just past
Glassmine Falls that had been left since Sunday.
Instinctively I knew it was Ralph's car.
11 seemed an eternity to get 10 that tum-off. As I was
driving I reminded my self to remain centered and clear to
remain open to giving what is needed. I again asked for
strength and guidance. I asked for guidance as never before.
There were three men standing around their car talking
when I pulled up. I introduced myself and learned that these
men were federal and state authorities. I asked them if this
was Ralph's car. I did not know with my mind if it was or
not because I bad never seen Ralph drive .....in fact, I had
met Ralph only twice; once during the Summer Solstice
Gathering at Sam's Knob and once at the Nothing but
Natural store, just a few days earlier.
These men were a bit baffled by me. I could not tell
them what Ralph's last name was, where be lives, if that was
his car. Yet I knew deep inside that he was somewhere in
the woods.....alone.
I volunteered to go into the woods and start looking
for him and was told that it was necessary to wait for more
KATUAH- page 14
ople to arrive, so t at we cou
orm organize search
parties: that way, everyone would be in contact.
l felt frustrated .....I kept praying. I asked that the
people get here soon. I asked for patience and trust. I asked
for help.....
I got the feeling that these men thought Ralph had
committed a crime. Soon after I felt this they asked me if
Ralph was growing marijuana in the wa1ershed. My heart
screamed "NO!"..... my mind calmly answered: "No, I don't
think he was growing marijuana." Their reason for asking
was that three men were seen coming out of the watershed
area on Sunday. The watershed is off limits to hikers. The
men who were seen ran back into the woods and the ranger
never saw them again. He did see Ralph's car there on
Sunday and wondered about the connection. He said he had
spoken with some folks who had been hiking on the other
side of the parkway. They hadn't seen anyone all day. A
long time passed before I felt the au1horities believed that
Ralph just wanted to be in the woods.
I walked the trail with the ranger who had seen the
bikers. We both knew that he wasn't there. We also knew
that we had to look at all the options. While we were in the
woods, volunteer firemen and Forest Service people and
friends were gathering in the parking area. Formal search
parties were being formed. Rick and I were in the same
group. He could not believe I was there. He asked me how
I knew where to go. I told him I bad followed my instincts.
The whole experience of walking in the woods was
very grounding. In that grounded state I began to truly
understand the ebb and flow of life, nature, and my self. I
realized that everything and everyone has a purpose and it is
my responsibility to participate as fully as I am able.
I now understand why it was so imponant (or me to
know these truths. When we returned to the parking area we
were told that Ralph had been found. He'd fallen from the
waterfall. He was dead.
"O, Mother carry me. ....A chHd I will always be;
"O, Mother carry me.....Down to the sea."
One week Later, as friends and family gathered to
release Ralph's ashes and to say what they felt they needed to
say, I went back to the Parkway to play drums and pray
.....to say goodbye. I went to a place where I thought I'd
see the falls. It was so foggy that day that I could barely see
three feet in front of me. As I lit candles and bumed sage, I
asked for clarity. As I played the drums and sang, I asked
that my songs be heard. As I listened, I saw Ralph's energy
field dancing in the mists. He looked like "electric rain", free
and strong. He was seen on the same day in the same form
by another friend in Linville Gorge.
Months later I returned to the place where our
searching began. As I stood in the quiet of the night, under
e moon and stars, I listened. I could hear and feel the
ythms of life all around me. As I played my drum I felt the
ower of transformation sweeping through me. That feeling
was so strong I began to tremble. In that moment, I
experienced death being a part of life, a pan of the whole.
One is not possible without the other.....I respect life and I
live more fully; 1 respect death and the Crone does not bring
me fear. I did not know Ralph well while be was alive. Our
meetings were special and the connection strong. I learn
re about myself each time I think of him. I am grateful for
all the wonder-filled people I have met through Ralph. And I
pray for our ~cc.
~
~
//
Fall 1986
�The shape of all our fears
Turns fortune into dust
Our dreams into mist
Our grisly morlalily
Feeding on carrion hatred and disgust
Kalanu Ayeli'ski
Crunches the skulls of our desires
Its haunting cry
As ii tucks its wings
And dives into the darkness within
Congeals the blood
Stiffens the limbs
And shivers in the marrow of the soul
Kalanu Ayeli'ski
Darkness that makes light bright
THE RA VEN MOCKER
When of the Great Mystery
Motion was born
The world was
And because there was
There was not; One became two
And Kalanu Ayeli'ski
Spread its dark wings
The Raven Mocker
To keep the Balance
And give meaning to the au of life
In fear the greatest of conjurors
Cries out:
"Kalanu Ayeli'ski!" the shadow
Draws near, ruthlessly, sharp claws
Ripping out the truth
The dripping heart of the matt~r
And with a triumphant croak
Holding it l1igh for all to see
Kalanu Ayeli'ski
Greatest of teachus! Greatest of healers!
One day we will all
Life itself ordains
Peer into the malevolent dark eyes
And go shrieking down the blackness
That opens into the dauJing glare of manifestation
Kalanu Ayeli'ski, through you
"We are reborn!"
Say "KAH·la-noo
KATIJAH - page 15
ah·yell·LIH-sld" (Clltrokle)
Fall 1986
�The Sweat Lodge
We have been told that when the people of the
dominant culture came to this land, they subdued the native
people of Tunle Island in a very cruel way. They took away
the native people's land, and they took away their culture as
well. They tried to make over the native people in their
image, acting as if they were doing them a favor.
We have been told that when we speak of spiritual
things, "Religion" as it is called among those of the dominant
culture, it should be remembered that these are things of the
hcan and the mind - the only things the native people have
left. So when the native people open their heans and speak
of these things, it should be remembered that these are very,
very sacred matters. If anyone truly respectS the native
people and their way with the land, he or she should learn
everything they can about these ways and what these ways
mean to the Indian people before they try to practice them.
We have been told that 10 many of the native tribes of
Tunle Island, including the Cherokee of the Katiiah
province, the sweat lodge is a sacred thing. Its use is for
cleansing and healing, not only for the physical but also for
the spiritual self. At the same time it pulls people out of their
individualism.
Many white people are now going into the sweat
lodge, trying to capture that good experience. They wish to
come together; they wish to feel pan of the whole. When
that experience happens, people feel exhilarated and they
wani to hug their neighbors, and they feel good about the
spiritual things of the world. But we have been told that that
is only the external experience. Much goes into the sweat
lodge to make that experience happen. It is more than
hearing some rocks and putting them under a cover. There is
a lot more to it than many people know, and those people
should not take it lightly.
We have been told that among the Cherokees,
apprentices who were learning to lead a sweat lodge would
pull rocks, cover the lodge, dig fire pits, and tend the fire for
many years - often 15 to 20 years - before they could "pour
water" for a sweat lodge. During that time they were allowed
to sit outSidc the lodge and listen to what went on inside and
to what was said. Although they learned all the mechanical
practices very quickJy, this was to teach the apprentices that
there was more happening in the sweat lodge than the
mechanical chores of its preparation.
We have been told that the fire keeper, for example,
fed and cared for the fire in a very sacred manner. The fire
pit was used for no other purpose. To the Indian people the
fire was a very sacred thing. It was a little bit of the sun
upon tbe Earth, and it also attracted the spirits to the lodge.
We have been told that the one who "poured water,"
the person who was to lead the sweat lodge, would lay a
spirit trail from the fire, across the altar at the door of the
lodge, and into the lodge. That line was not to be crossed.
That person would use mixtures of tobacco, cedar, and sage
- medicine plants - to mark the spirit trail. He would ask all
the spirits to come. saying "We are doing a sacred thing; a
sacred happening is happening here tonight, and these
tw<>-leggeds are coming to join us all."
We have been told that if one was above the lodge
looking down at it with a spiritual vision, it would look like a
turtle - with the fire being its head, the spirit trail its neck,
and the lodge as its shell. If people go across the spirit trail,
they cut the trail, and the lodge will not work.
We have been told, too, that when the people gathered
the rocks to be heated for the sweat lodge, they would not
gather just a.ny rock. They would have a sense of which
rocks had power, which rocks had people in them. They
would bring only these special rocks to the fire pit. When
the rocks wCTC heated, they would be laid in a hole in the
center of the sweat lodge in a ccnain way. The first seven
were dedicated to the directions, with the one in the center
being for the Great Mystery. Each rock was "doctored"
specially, and laid in its proper place. Everything was done
for a reason. The rocks arc special people in the lodge
because they are carrying a bit of the sun with them. These
are all good things that come together to make the sweat
lodge a sacred thing.
We have been told that the one who pours the water on
the stones is a channel for the spirits and a guide for the other
people in the lodge. But at the same time this one should be
a part of the group. He or she should know that the power
they feel is not theirs alone. It is the power of the Spirit, and
the power of the group. ,If they become confused by their
own ego, then nothing will come through them.
We have been told that the one pouring the water
should know when there is something bad in the lodge, and
he or she should know how to get rid of it, because the sweat
lodge is a cleansing and healing place, and people often carry
a lot of negativity in there. Things come up in some people
that are dangerous to the others in t.h e lodge. The one
pouring water is responsible for the two-leggeds in the
lodge, and there is a real chance that one could be badly hun.
When someone is ca!Jing the spirits and docs not know what
he or she is doing, it comes back on them. Sometimes it
hurts people - and not by being burned on the stones, either!
The sweat lodge is strong medicine, we were told, and
the only thing it should be used for is medicine. People
should know that before they come into the lodge. It is not a
social function. People should come in there to have a
spiritual experience. Everyone who goes into the lodge takes
responsibility for what they are doing, and the one who
pours water takes responsibility for the energies that they call
down. It is a serious thing.
�To the Cherokee, we were told, all sacred things
happen in fours and sevens. So there are four rounds to the
sweat lodge. The first two rounds are to adjust to the place,
to adjust to the people, to see how hot it is, and to bring up
all the things the people want to be rid of. But the last two
rounds are to work with the power of the spirits and the
power of the people in the lodge. People should speak out in
the lodge and participate! The energy the people put into the
lodge is the energy they get ou.t of it. They should try to sing
the songs even if they do not know the words. It is the
people singing together in unison that caJJs the Spirit, not
their voices. We were told that the Spirit Likes singing.
The sweat lodge can do good for a lot of people, we
have been told. It does good not just for the individuals in
the lodge but for the people as a whole, for the sweat lodge is
a very powerful thing, and it puts a lot of power behind the
prayers that are made. It 1s a velucle tor common voices.
When people truly "drop their robes" in a spiritual sense and
join their energies freely, there is incredible power. Then it
is no longer one person. It is 12, 15, ...20 people, and if
they can all move evenly and not be self-indulgent, they can
have a Jot of effect upon the planet and the situations we face
today.
We have been told that the sweat lodge was also used
by tribal people in ancient Europe. The Finnish people arc
well-known for their use of the sauna, and this practice is
descended from a time when it was a sacred cleansing. The
German people had a form of the sweat lodge in their culture,
and the Jews also used a purification ceremony involving the
sweat. The sweat lodge has been a pan of many cultures
across the world. It has always been related to cleansing and
healing. Even now, the Laplanders that herd reindeer in the
far nonh of Scandinavia have a spiritual sweat lodge, as do
nomadic Mongolian people in the steppes of Russia.
We have been told to remember that native American
people are not trying to deny anybody their tradition when
they caution people of other races about using the sweat
lodge. The sweat lodge is a gift of the Spirit, and it should
be t.reAted as such. But the native culture of Tun le Island and
of Katilah developed in this way. It is the gift of the native
people to talk with the spirits in this way, and that is to be
respected. If a Cherokee did a sweat with the Sioux, he
would sweat m the manner of the Sioux. That kind of
respect was basic. It was a traditional thing. In the same
way, a white person should not take a sacred pipe into the
lodge without understanding it. fr is the wrong thing to do,
and it could be hannfuJ. One does not give a loaded pistol to
a child.
We have been told that women in their "moon lodge"
(during the time of their menstrual period) should not be in a
sweat lodge. This is hard to explain to women who come
from a culture that considers a woman's flow dirty, unclean,
painful, and inconvenient.
Women arc very powerful beings, we have been told,
and their mosr powerful rime is when the menstrual blood
flows. Why else are men so afraid of women? European
men have always suppressed women because they have
sensed the women's power and have seen it as a threat
instead of a sacred and glorious thing.
This we are told: we all suck the breast - man,
woman, and child. But we all cannot offer the breast.
Women are sacred beings. But in the dominant culture
women have nor been taught that. They have always been
suppressed, and having a period of flow was something
inconvenient to men, and somehow it came 10 be considered
unclean. lt has been this way for generations.
But we were told that a woman's moon time is not a
negative thing at all. The reproductive cycle is a very sacred
process. Women arc the mothers of everything. Everything
comes through the mother. The moon time cannot be
separated from ovulation time. During the moon rime, the
products of ovulation are discharged. It is a sign that a
woman has the power to create life, and it is a very sacred
thing.
A woman going through this time in her cycle, we
were told, is more powerful than the sweat lodge. The lodge
is a cleansing, healing process. A woman at this time does
not need to be cleansed. She does not need to be healed.
She is in a sacred rime - her most powerful and strong rime.
It is so powerful that it interferes with the power of the
lodge. She nullifies it It is self-indulgent for a woman even
to want to sweat at that rime. She should not do anything at
that rime. And she should not be interfered with sexually at
that time. Perhaps she should go off to fast, meditate, and
pray. When she is at her most powerful time, that
reproductive spiritual energy should be used for good things.
We have been told that one person cannot tell another
person what to do, because each one must follow his or her
own path and take responsibility for their own actions. But
the native sweat lodge must be seen in light of the whole
culture within which it grew. To take just one element of the
sweat lodge ceremony without being aware of the whole
context will lead to misunderstandings and mistakes.
Spiritual matters are affairs of the bean. As such, they
cannot be told, but must be experienced and felt. If one does
not know how to do a sweat lodge, he or she must find a
lodge someplace where they know the person is doing it in a
spiritual way. lf this is not available, they may take a sauna,
take a plunge in the river or creek, and when the time com~
to sweat, then it will be time to sweat.
(/
�....
·······-·········-············:·~./;.>
.....·· .:
·········· .... ·
......
NATURAL
....···· ........···.·.:::::<-·········.'
WORLD
:"'
.:·
NEWS
RNER OTTERS RETURN
by George Ellison
BAD NEWS FOR BEARS
N11unal World News Service
THE DROUGHT
N11unal World News Service
Was it because of holes in the Earth's
ozone layer reponed over the South Pole?
Was it the "greenhouse effect" caused by air
pollutants? Or was it simply a fluctuation in
the normal weather cycles?
Whatever the cause, the drought of
1986 was unquestionably the worst ever
recorded in the southeast.
TV A
measurements show that the rainfall for the
past year and for the past two-year period
were the lowest recorded in the nearly 100
years records have been kept In the upper
Tennessee Valley 71.5 inches of rainfall
have been measured in the past 26 months
out of a normal 112 inches of rain.
Throughout the whole valley only 32.3
inches of rain fell during the past year
compared to a norm of 51.7 inches.
The worst of the drought occurred
this spring and summer. In Asheville
during the time between January and July
20, only 11.5 inches of rainfall were
measured - less than half the norm of 27 .2
inches for that period.
Springs have gone dry in the
mountains that had provided water for
families for as long as anyone could
remember. In Jackson County, on the
Nonh Carolina side of the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, it was reponcd
that 1200 springs went dry and that
well-drillers were working o\>c:nime.
The dry weather has placed particular
stress on small farmers. Already threatened
by a poor balance of prices on the farm
market and unsympathetic federal policies,
for many family farms the drought has been
the last, dry straw. Particularly in the
Piedmont, farms have been closing out in
numbers unprecedented since the Grea"'
Depression.
·
fl
KA1UAH- page 18
As many as 200-300 black bear cubs
in the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park are in danger of starving this winter
due to a poor acorn crop caused by the
severe drought this spring and summer.
Black bear cxpen Dr. Mike Pellon of
the University of Tennessee and the
Tennessee Wildlife Commission repon that
acorns and other hard mast, staples of the
black bear's diet, arc in shon supply. The
mast shortage will cause both adult bears
and cubs to roam funher in search of food
this fall, tbus making them more vulnerable
to bunters.
In the mountains, Nonh Carolina's
bear hunting season is from October 13 November 22, and December 15 - January
1, making ii the longest bear hunting season
in the Southeast. Realizing that an early fall
bunting season jeopardizes the female bears,
both Virginia and Tennessee have limited
their hunting seasons to the last week in
December, after most of the females have
gone into their dens for the winter.
Warburton's 1981-82 study of the
Pisgah Bear Sanctuary revealed that of all
the bears being monitored there, 60% of
them were killed, and 75% of those killed
were females. Pisgah Disaict Ranger Art
Rowe has indicated that of the 15 bears
currently being monitored in a North
Carolina State University study, only three
are females, and only one is of breeding
age.
To express your concerns about the
survival of the black bear and to request that
the bunting season be limited or eliminated.
write to:
Paul Wilms
Dept of Environmental Management
NC Dept. of Natural Resources and
Community Development
Raleigh, NC 27611
For more information, contact
Paul Gallimore
Bear Action Nerwor:k:
Long Branch Environmental
Education Center
Rt. 2, Box 132
Leicester, NC 28748
Otters were once common throughout
North America, but by the late I 800's they
had become rare in the streams in western
Nonh Carolina and cast Tennessee. By the
time of the establishment of the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934,
the otters (or "oners" as they were called by
the native mountaineers) had nearly been
exterminated from the Smokies.
A group of three were reponed in
CataJoochce in 1927. One was trapped
within the park area in 1931, and a pair was
reported on different occasions near
Elkmont in 1934. Still another was reported
near Mount Sterling in 1936. But the last
reliable sighting was made in 1934, the year
the park was established.
In 1he ensuing years, the indigenous
otter population in Tennessee apparently
was eliminated. In North Carolina, they
have remained relatively abundant
throughout the Coastal Plain and sporadic in
the Piedmont
In a program under the coordination
of Jane Griess of the University of
Tennessee, 16 river otters were obtained
from a trapper operating in the New Bern
area for reintroduction into the Great
Smokies National Park. They were fitted
with radio transmitters, and on March 10
were released in five male-female pairs a1
intervals along Abrams Creek below the
Cades Cove section of the park. One of the
older females died after release and was
replaced with another female.
In all, there are about 80 square miles
of lowland streams in 18 drainages within
the Smokies that are considered potential
otter territory.
Abrams Creek was chosen as the
release sire because it represented the most
suitable habitat - pools, long stretches of
slow-moving moderately deep water,
waterfalls, riffies, and rapids.
Griess has been monitoring the
activities of the otters on a regular basis and
will continue 10 do so until July 1987. They
apparently are adapting, using old
groundhog boles for shelter a.nd feeding off
crayfish, frogs, fish, and snapping turtles.
If the project on Abrams Creek is
successful, similar reintroductions in other
suitable areas of the Smokies could follow.
-excerpted with permission from a reporl
In the Asheville Citizen
I
Fall 1986
�LOW-GLOW LOW BLOW
Narunl World News S~icc
"PINSOUTHERN GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION@IT/ON
THE DUMP ON THE CHUMP!"
5Pf0Al
$
-JUST CUTOUT THE
llAZAl1DQ.IS WASTE
o:wrAIWERS Bao,..t.
Now il's official. The eight states of
the Southeastern Low-level Nuclear Waste
Compact have met and have chosen to
award Nonh Carolina the honor of being
host state for all the low-level radioactive
wastes (LLRW's) produced by the member
states over the next 20 yea.rs.
The Nonh Carolina state government
will now begin the unsavory business of
finding some county to stick with a landfill
that would eventually receive 37% of the
nation's low-level nuclear waste. Five sites
in the Piedmont are among those under
consideration. And a popular movement of
citizens is gearing up to sec that some
county will not have to eat eight states'
low-level radioactive trash.
The Conservation Council of Nonh
Carolina (CCNC) is calling for a state-wide
ban on shallow burial of LLRW's and is
demanding that the legislature adopt location
standards for radioactive waste disposal
facilities. While state regulations call for
"engineered barriers" to control the wastes,
there is no mention of what these barriers
would be, and the CCNC is calling for
public definition of this term.
The group is also asking the state
legislature to require Nonh Carolina's main
nuclear waste producers, Duke Power and
Carolina Power and Light (CP&L), to take
responsibility for their own radioactive
wastes. These two private companies, that
m1xs~P1~.
IU~ATLEfT.
1'l>JU5T 8l.llJl>f()U)I
A11t> GO~ /T!.. ..
are turning huge profits, produce 97% of
North Carolina's LLR W's by curies
(radioactive content) and 87% of the state's
waste output by volume. State disposal of
their radioactive wastes amounts to an
enormous government subsidy to encourage
the production of nuclear energy and to
discourage energy conservation and waste
control.
The Jackson County group Citizens
for a Choice on Nuclear Waste has already
begun to circulate petitions calling on the
NC Legislature to 'either pull out
immediately from the Southeastern Compact
or to submit the decision to a binding
referendum by the state's elect0rate.
"The compact is a poor concept," said
Avram Friedman of CCNW, "because it
encourages irresponsible production of
nuclear wastes. We would like to do away
with the compact idea altogether, so that
each state will have to become more aware
of the effects of nuclear waste generation.''
Contact:
Conservation Council of NC
1024 Washington SL
Raleigh, NC 27605
for petitions:
Citizens for a Choice on
Nuclear Waste
P.O. Box 653
Dillsboro, NC 28725
··-
BUNCOMBE COMMISSIONERS CONSIDER COMPOST
N11ural World News Service
ln the past winter the Buncombe County
Commissioners were considering
mass-burn incineration as the method to
handle the county's solid waste (see KatGah
#12). They had contracted a $10,000 study
to investigate the feasibility of
co-incineration of sludge and solid waste.
To people concerned about Asheville's air
quality and the economics of waste
recycling things were looking grim.
However, through the effons of Paul
Gallimore of the Long Branch
Environmental Education Center, the
commissioners were introduced to Elliot
Epstein, a former researcher for the US
Department of Agriculture research station
in BeltsVillc, MD. On April 17 Epstein gave
a presentation to the commissioners on the
"static-pile" composting system he
developed and "refuse-derived fuel" (RDF)
systems. Both these systems are methods of
turning waste into useful and beneficial
products.
In the static-pile composting method
treated sewage sludge and solid wastes are
heaped into piles around a framework of
KATUAII - page 19
pipes through which air is blown into the
pile. This sets up conditions for microbial
action that quickly convens the wastes into a
soil conditioner rich in organic matter.
Refuse-derived fuel systems process
waste paper and cardboard into briquetS,
pellets, or "fluff' to be burned in boilers to
produce steam and/or electricity by
co-generation. These materials could be sold
to industrial customers, or, according to
local engineer Erik Nielson, it would be
profitable to build a boiler and sell the
trash-produced electricity into the grid.
The commissioners were impressed
enough with Epstein's vision and expertise
t0 offer him $15,000 to study the possibility
of developing composting and RDF systems
in Buncombe County.
Epstein announced the results of his study
to a meeting of the commissioners on
August 12. They expressed their approval
of his findings by extending his contract by
$38,000 to do preliminary market research
for selling municipal compost and RDF
materials and to design a composting plant
that would meet the county's needs.
The future for waste recycling in Asheville
looks brighter indeed. The city could now
possibly be the home for the first
composting and RDF plant in the
southeast.Yet citizen input is still needed on
this issue. It is imponant that people
encourage the county commissioners in their
decision, for, if they proceed on this path,
they will be breaking the trail for other
urban centers in the southeast. They need to
know they are acting with the support of
their constituents.
It is also imponant that the NC Dept. of
Natural Resources and Community
Development bold public hearings on the
disposal of sewage sludge by the
Metropolitan Sewer District Authority, an
autonomous agency in Buncombe County
regulated by the state and the EPA. This
may be requested by writing t0:
Nonh Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources
and Community Development
Division of Waste Management
/
512 N. Salisbury St.
Raleigh, NC 27611
Fall 1986
�NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
USFS 15 YEAR PLAN
Nallll'lll World News Service
The US Forest Service has developed
a revised 15-year management plan for the
Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests area.
The flood of commentS received when the
first draft of the 15-year plan was released
influenced the shape of the new plan.
"We're in a tough spot," said Larry
Hayden, ranger at the Wayab District station
who participated in the revision of the
15-year plan."We got a lot of feedback from
many different interest groups, and
somewhere in there is one tiny point where
we can balance all these different demands.
We are looking for that one tiny point."
The demands of local residents were
reflected in a reduced area of timber
production, a greater emphasis on
non-motorized recreation, better bear
habitat, modified logging methods, and new
management criteria 10 better protect running
creeks.
The greatest change was in the area
available for timber cutting. Where
previously 800,000 acres had been open to
logging, the modified plan proposes only
550,000 acres of timber production. This
means that 250,000 acres of forest would be
taken out of timber production altogether, at
least for the duration of the plan.
However, timber quotas were not
low~red, !Deaning that the areas open to
logging wtll be cut more heavily in the next
15 years. The acreage to be cut is set at
7,360 acres, which is acmally an increase
over the amount proposed in the original
draft. Of this area, 2,500 acres are to be cut
by the shelterwood method, whereby 60%
of the timber is removed in a first cut, and
the remainder is taken out in a second
cutting either 10 or 60 years later
depending on the management plan for th;
particular site. In some areas this is being
done to help regenerate the oonhern red
oak, a valuable timber tree which has been
losing ground in the national forests. In
other areas shelterwood cutting would be
done strictly to alleviate the ugliness of a
large clearcut in an area visible to the public.
Only 360 acres of the two national
forests are to be cut by the group selection
method, in which small groups of trees of
both good timber and cull grade wood are
removed to favor the growth of the next
generation of trees. In the public outcry
against clearcutting, most of those who
proposed an alternarive
had group
selection in mind. Allotting only 360 acres
could be seen either as political tokenism or
as an experiment that might lead to changes
in forest management in the future.
KATUAH - page 20
Another change for the better was a
substantial reduction in proposed road
construction. Instead of planning to build
156 miles of road per year from a $5.1
million transportation budget, the USPS
now plans to build 40 miles of road per year
and spend only $1.2 million on
transportation needs. However, the
reconstruction of existing roads is to be
doubled from the original proposal of 28
miles per year to 55 miles per year. That
again reflects the decision that areas already
in use will be worked harder, but that less
territory will be open to human incursion.
The establishment of new directives
for a riparian (running creek) management
zone was one of the major advances of the
new plan. These directives clearly state that
trout habitat is to be maintained in the
national forests. Specifically, there is to be
no logging for 30 feet on either side of a
year-round creek, and between 30 and 100
feet l~gging is to be done only by the group
selection method to lessen the impact on
creek life. This will remove a substantial
amount of land from timber production and
will do much to ensure that streams are
running clear as they leave the national
forests.
Five areas in the forest, a total of
26,920 acres, are under study as wilderness
areas by an act of Congress. The legislature
will decide whether or not these areas are to
receive a wilderness designation, but in the
new plan the Forest Service will recommend
that the Lost Cove, Harpers Creek, and the
Craggy Mountains areas be set aside as
wilderness. Also written into the new plan
was a promise that the Overflow and
Sno~bird ai:eas will remain virtually
u~d1sturbed 1f they are not designated
wilderness and left in Forest Service
control.
Under the modified plan, 75% of the
Nantahala-Pisgab National Forests area will
be reserved for "dispersed recreation" (not
open to vehicles). This is a higher
percentage than in the original proposal, but
the figure is misleading, because it includes
areas that would be clearcut and then closed
to traffic. It's not much fun trying to walk
across a new clearcut!! However, this does
ensure that the bears, turkeys, and other
wil~life will have a larger part of the
nauonal forest for their habitat free of
human disturbance, a very important
consideration.
There is no review period planned for
the revised draft of the ForestS Services
15-year plan for the Nantahala-Pisgab
forest. "We've already heard what everyone
has had to say, and this modified plan is our
best attempt to respond to that, "said Larry
Hayden.
The completed final draft of the plan
and an environmental assessment is
scheduled to go to Regional Forester John
Alcock September 15 for approval.The
public will have 45 days to file appeals once
the plan has become official, probably in
November.
. Despite the USPS plan to pass over a
review by the people, it is irnponant for us
to make our thoughts and feelings known.
A summary of the modified plan and a
description of the new management
catagories is available from:
US Forest Service
P.0.Box 2750
Asheville, NC 28802
USFS OPEN HOUSE
Natural World News Service
The US Forest Service held "open
house" presentations on the modified
15-year plan for the Nantahala-Pisgah
~ari?nal Forests on August 7 at the eight
distnct ranger stations. The sessions were
billed as "informative". Announcements
said that rangers would be happy to discuss
the P,lao ~d "any concerns you might
have , but tt was made clear that the review
period was over and the next chance the
public will have for input on the shape of
the next 15 years in the national forests will
be during the formal appeal period after the
decree bas already become official.
Nevertheless, delegations from the
Western North Carolina Alliance went to all
eight of the USFS district offices to make
themselves heard.
At the Wayah District station in
Franklin, NC, Clarence Hall of Sylva raised
the central area of concern to the
WNCA:"Why are there only 360 acres
alloted to group selection cutting? That's
only a drop in the bucket!"
Rangers responded by saying that
group selection cutting was economically
viable on only the best sites, and that the
practice of clearcutting would be modified
w~~~ver they c:onsidered it feasible by
util1zmg the pracnce of shelterwood cutting.
Where a second cutting would be
uneconomical at some of the sbellerwood
sites, the Forest Service plans to kill cull
trees by injecting herbicides to achieve an
even-aged stand of young trees. This plan
met resistance from the Alliance members
who favor all-aged management as being a
more natural method of silviculture. The
res.idents also objecied to the long-lasting
poisons that would be introduced into the
forest system and to the fact that the dead
trees would be left unused.
Rangers also avoided a question
about mining and mineral rights under the
new plan. "It's always been the law that if
mineral rights are privately owned, the
Forest Service has to provide access to the
mining site. That won't change," said a
ranger. "But mining is not a pressing issue
anymore " The WNCA members remained
skeptical.
The residents also criticized the Forest
Service for cutting back on road
construction and closing parts of the
national forest to recreational traffic. The
Alliance is in favor of more open roads in
the national forests, a sentiment not shared
by other environmental groups.
"Thirty-five years ago," Clarence
said, "I was out hunting squirrels, and I
came across some men up on Greens Creek
killing trees with those injection hatchets. I
begged and I pleaded with them not to do
that, but they said that's what had to be
done to manage the forest.
"Recently at a meeting I talked about
that day, and Lewis Kearney, the district
ranger, said at that time that killing those
trees had been a bad mistake.
"I'm afraid that years from now,
when ~ of us are g~ne, people may say the
same thing about this clearcutting. We don't
want to let that happen."
The Western North Carolina Alliance
can be reached by mail at: P.0.Box 117,
Murphy, NC 28906.
Fall 1986
�Review
THE WIT A~D WISDOM OF RA NGER
DOUG
Woodslore and Wj!dwooc!s Wjsdom by
Doug Elliott (Burnsville, NC 28714; Rt 4,
Box 137; Possum Productions: 1986) $7.95
This book is a savory stew of the
knowledge Doug Elliott has accumulated
during a dec ade of woods-stomping,
jungle-jumping, and tidepoo!-splashing
throughout eastern Tunic Island and Central
America. Woodslore and Wjldwoods
Wisdom is actually a compendium of Doug
Elliott's greatest hits, as much of the
material has been published before. But
although you may have seen the classic
"How to Use Road Kills" in the ~
Eanh Catalog of years past, and unless you
are a regular reader of Wildlife jn North
Carolina magazine, much or all of the
material in this Ranger Doug reader will be
new and fascinating.
lt's best, of course, 10 meet and to know
Doug and to walk in the woods with him,
getting the benefit of his knowledge or the
wild, his hilarious stories, his infectious
laugh, and the twinkle in his eye. But as an
introduction to Doug and whm he knows,
Wooc!slore and Wildwoo<ls W jsdom will do
j ust fine.
He covers a variety of topics from his
beloved possums through old-timey apples
and the infamous ramp plant of the Katiiah
hills. He tells us how to make a rope and a
basket from natural materials found in the
wild, and talks about herbs, orchids, bears,
ginseng, and millipedes. One feature is an
introduction to the wondrous underground
world beneath the forest excerpted from
Doug's book R22!1. And there's more .....
There is little rhyme or reason 10 this
book. Its topics are as varied and as
far-flung as Doug Elliott's wandering mind.
But Doug has a unique and deep perspective
on the world, and seeing it through his eyes
is always educational and fun. His new
book is a wonderful collection of some of
the high points of Doug E!liou's literary
career, fu!J of woods-sense, common sense,
and humor.
But ya still got to meet the boy.....
\Vood~/ore and Wildwaods Wisdom is
avai /able for $7.95 plus $1.00 postage for
each copy o rdered f rom Possum
Productions; Rr. 4 , Box 137; Burnsville,
NC 28714
Also still available is Doug's book B.Juu.s..:..
An Un<lererollnd Botany and Foraeer's
Gllkk., an excellent guide co identifying and
using the different roots of Katuah's field
and woodland plants, illustrated with
beauriful drawings. $8.00 plus $1 .00
postage for each copy ordered from Possum
Productions.
..-.
An Interview with Elizabeth Callari
continued from p. S
And then there is that period of rest right
before you go into labor...and it's very
quiet In dying, there's also that period of
res t before the work really begins.
Twenty-four hours before death. I notice a
shift in the person It's usually a hiatus and then, I know, aha, okay now we're
really starting.
I usually share it with the staff Watch this because this is what's really
happening. Notice thar. The last guest who
was here - her name was Geneva - that
morning that she died, I went in... it was
about 5:00 in the morning. I ran my fingers
over her arm - which I do a lot - and it felt
very strange. I had never felt anything like
this before. I thought to myself that her
body is just getting rid of the last of the
toxins in order for it to be healed. Death is
the ultimate healer, you know. And so, I
had everybody with the staff touch
her ...and feel rhat something was different,
very differenr. She died around 3:00 that
afternoon.
When I go into the room and I feel as
though death is coming close, we sran what
is called a vigil. The staff comes together those who can, you know - sometimes we
are there 24 hours, so we take turns. We
pu!J up chairs and sit around the bed, light
candles. and then do some meditative
reading. Sometimes we read aloud.
Sometimes we read quietly. It doesn't
matter, they still get the message. If people
like to have the Bible read, we read the
Bible. You know, whatever their reality is.
It all disappears anyway, but whatever they
can relate to during that time is fine. So they
move into this space in a very gentle way
and they're surrounded by people who love
them, who are not going to stop the
process. You know it's very difficult to die
when there is someone standing there
saying, "no.no.no, r can't live without
you."
Nobody leaves until it's time so don't
interfere, just don't interfere. If you 're
having a tough rime, it's better that you go
KATUAH-page21
into the other room just so you don 't
interfere with your thoughts. Just your
thoughts are going to stop what's
happening.
The vigil, I think, is very beauuful
and that time is so exciting. I know what is
happening and I know that incredible
beauty, that 'ahhh', that 'what it's all about'
is taking place. Careful of your attachments
as you go into your dyi ng process because
whatever attachment you have, that's what
you're going to be drawn 10 afterwards. So
release all your attachments while you're
living, be totally involved, but not attached
to anything, not even to your concept of
God because your concept of God is going
to change as you go through this process.
~'
And if you're attached to your concept of
God, the way it is right now, you're going
to put up resistance and resistance causes
pain - this is a kind of pain that no
medication takes care of.
In the first two years, I was pretty
much doing this work by myself. Now in
February of this year, the volunteers really
Started coming and I believe that it worked
that way because of all the issues I had to
work out Until they got worked out, the
volunteers weren't going to come.
Some of them came because they are
so afraid of death ...and I have to admire
them because most people step around the
issue and don't walk in. These people come
because they are afraid of death are walking
right into it and they're growing. We all are.
The guests who are here are our teachers.
It's not someone out there who has a book
in front of them who is our teacher. These
are our teachers. That's their gift to us. We
give them the gift of love and caring for
them and they give us the gift of life.
The food we prepare here is prepared
very consciously and I ask that no one
prepare it if they're angry because that goes
right into the food. If there is a day when
you're upset about something, it's best you
don't be in the kitchen. And when I was by
myself and I was upset for some reason, I
didn't cook either. It's bener 10 open a can
of soup or wh atever and hope that the
person who processed that soup was happy
that day. This is another reason that the
people get well for whatever period of time.
Food is lovingly prepared and it comes from
our gardens, when they want to eat that kind
of food. Now, also, people can eat
whatever they want to eat here but we offer
them a good, cleansing type diet. Usually,
they come to us with so many chemicals in
their bodies...it's like shovelling through a
whole pile of stuff to get to the essence of
who they are. Very often, people who come
here go off of much of the medication they
bring with them. They just don't need it.
You don 't need anti-depressants when
you're here.
We encourage people who come here
10 take responsibility for their life and their
death. And in taking responsibility for your
death, you make the final decisions. You
don't want somebody else to do that So we
sit down when it's appropriate. Intuitively, I
know when it's appropriate - when the time
is right There is that linle clue that they give
and so I pick up on it. 'What would you
like? Who would you like to have speak?'.
Details. We work on the details.
You know, when you are sitting with
someone who is dying, you don't need an
education in anything except to be able to
love...and not judge what's happening. It's
their game...it's their play. Let lhm..do it.
But be there for them when they need you.
And if it means crawling into bed and
holding them and rocking them while
they're going through this, then that's what
you do. If it means leaving them totally
alone, then ~ what you do.
Fall 1986
�DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KA TUAH
Dear KatCiah,
Here are some thoughts that arise when thinking about
the "Death and Dying" issue you mention in your note.
Death is a familiar aspect of our lives. At rimes death is
perceived as being especially "close" when a person or being
close to us dies. It is suggested that famiUariry and our
perceptions are not the same as an understanding of death.
We have rituals, stories, poems, and pictures to deal with
death, and still the mystery remains. These comments,
influenced by Krishnamurti and others, are offered with a
view of death as a necessary and integral part of life. In this
view, any aucmpt to separate death from life introduces
violence, a violence that may contribute to the fears and lack
of understanding that are commonly associated with death.
Furthermore, it is suggested that environmental, personal,
social and political conditions are subject to the same basic
considerations. That is, because of a lack of a realistic view
of the world and experience, we tend to deal with familiar
patterns as separace aspeccs of reality and experience a
kaleidoscopic world based on discrimination through
separation. When separation is recognized as being violent, it
is no1 surprising that violence is rampant in the world that we
help to create.
Divide and conqucr--a military maxim also applied
with dramatic results in the laboratory. What is conquered
with division? Wholeness seems to be "conquered".
However, all wars, every experiment, are conducted in a
context that remains whole. Division represents a local
perturbation in the fabric of reality, but the over·all context
prevails. Only those near the division experience the stress of
separating forces. The violence associated with separation is
a localized phenomenon. The impact of such violence can be
moderated by recognizing the more general reality in which
the localized separation occurs.
One might suggest that the violence associated with
nuclear war is not localized, that it includes the entire earth.
True, however, the earth is an extremely small part of the
universe and can be viewed as a highly localized
phenomenon in the general scheme of things.
We are somewhat familiar with the earth and have a
growing understanding of the connectedness of the many
systems on the eanb. Native Americans and ecologists
recognize this connectedness and the violence that appears
when we attempt to separate the many aspects of local reality
on Eanh. So it is with life and death. To consider death
"separately" does violence to the unity of life and death. We
not only breathe "out", we also breathe "in". To understand
inspiration fully, we must include expiration.
You may recognize the Taoist perspective in these
comments. Yang alone or Yin alone are out of balance. When
Yang and Yin are in balance, the Tao is realized and Yang
and Yin are no longer discemablc. The violence of separation
is expressed in classifications which emphasize Yangness
and Yinness without recognizing the Tao as transcending
these aspects of division.
As we consider death, or the familiar stories and rituals
that humans have developed around biological death, it may
be well to recognize the nature of the violence possible in
KATUAH · page 22
such considerations. As death and life arc blended, the
possibility of transcending the localized violence presents
itself. Poems, stories, rituals, and pictures can be useful
pointers to that which is beyond and in our limited
assumptions. HO.
Best to you,
John Artley
Karuah folks,
I am impressed and appreciative of the work you are
doing. Your journal is a backbone of strength and unity for
the bioregion and myself. I enjoy reading a journal in which I
am so consistently, practically, philosophically, and
spiritually aligned. I was concerned however, that J. Lynn
Mackey's review, "Deep Ecology or Shallow Moralism?", in
the Wintcr-86 issue might inadvertently have presented a
distorted picture of Deep Ecology as a movement
Deep Ecology, particularly in the western states, has
become a key concept in both the bioregional and radical
environmental movements. Deep Ecology, inclusive of
concepts of a deeper and deeper questioning of dominant
paradigm values, a lifestyle simple in means and rich in ends,
reverence for earth communities, and the interrelationship
and intrinsic value of all life (animals, plantS, rocks, rivers)
on all levels, is entirely conducive to the resacralization and
reinhabitation of bioregions.
Deep Ecology has been the name for a continuously
developing body of environmental thought coalescing in
front line direct action by bioregionally centered individuals
and groups like Earth First!. It has also functioned as a
difficult "middle groundn, a transf~nn~ve area of ideas, for
lhose reaching for a deeper connecaon wuh the Earth but soil
grappling with the misconceptions of the dominant culture
itself.
Unfortunately a bioregionaJly specific, close-to-earth
lifestyle by itself does not necessarily inspire a harmonious
relationshipwith nature. Our western pioneer movement is a
case in point. Neither does it necessarily, once tainted with
western paradigms, have respect for culturally rich, simple,
bioregional lifestyles. Ask the spirit of the Native American.
Anyone involved with bioregionally protective
activism and developing a spiritually richer community
recognizes the difficulty and necessity of the "middle
ground" where the peaceful warrior and earth-centered
culture meet the forceful domination of mass culture with
goal of peaceful rransformation.
Deep ecology assists with this space while lending
iLSelf to the open ended development of a rich, bioregionally
specific culture. Individuals and groups developing practical
lifestyles, ritual, thought-outreach, and eco-activism in
alignment with the spiritual center of a natural place, are
practicing both bioregionalism and deep ecology.
.
J. Lynn Mackey is right; bioregionally specific,
diversified culture is where it's aL We could use a
bioregional analysis. and I hope he or someone else takes up
that proJecl. Perhaps 11 will assist in changing the world. But
until that time, emergent bioregional culture needs to support
itS closest allies, and be supported by them, each contributing
to the other. Deep ecology is an ally, on all levels, for those
who face the full responsibiUty and reality of a localized
earth-centered lifestyle in a homocentric, domination oriented
society.
We draw our allies from vision quests in sacred
places, from the land, our friends, and the constant flux of
our creative connection with a natural place. We can draw
upon and consider Deep Ecology a valuable ally in the work
of our Ii ves.
Peace and Love,
John Morris
Chatham, GA
Fall 1986
�Dear Katliah,
Belief in reincarnation was nearly universal among our
pre-Christian European ancestors and was accepted by many
native Americans as well. Native Australians, Inuit, native
Hawaiians, and many Africans are among the people who
believe we live more than once. Perhaps we can call !ouch a
belief pan of our native intelligence.
According to a 1981 Gallup poll, twenry-three percent
of the adult population of North America believe in
reincarnation. This is panicularly impressive when one
thinks about the lengths to which the church went to stamp
out this and other heresies (a word which originally meant
"free choice"). Perhaps as many as 9 million people were
burned, hanged and tortured cruelly and publicly for
witchcraft in Europe over a period of 3 ccnruries. Why did
this happen? Perhaps it was a form of initiation for souls
who wished to learn Jesus' message of forgiveness
first-hand.
The experience of the burning time has left psychic
scars on many people. Such experiences, like ourselves, do
not die but arc transformed. So it is by the light of millions
of burning women and men that we are now able to see our
way clear of the stinking mess of a situation that our rejection
of death has caused.
Children fight sleep, grown-ups fight death, adult
humans light fear and ignorance.
Take Hean,
WiU Bason
Floyd, VA
OPENLETIER
TO MEN, HUNrERS Oh, it's alright
to send the slug at high speed
into the life of a dark bear
(faster than the red stain expanded
until globs of brain
splattered against the trees,
wasn't it?)
i would never say you had no right
to hunting, to kill
is something we need to know
("we could always live off game and wild greens")
to keep our place
strong and free in this land
and our boys
need to know when they are men
and we need to know
do we measure up to the measure of this land?
Do we measure up to the measure of this land?
Does it make the mountains proud?
to see one sitting in a new truck
360 horse, 4 x 4 to burn up the back country
drinking whiskey (even if it ii illegal)
Do the trees?
listen with quiet approval to the radio
"CCKKKKK!! It's coming to you, Luther"
What kind of a man?
eases his swollen gut from behind the wheel
picks up his rifle
that can keep a bear a quarter-mile away
and crashes through the woods
to a sure shot at a female
("scrawny - the acorns were bad this year and last")
the pack of dogs already had treed
the bear and itS ways
fast from food three days
before the hunt
plunge seven times
into mountain waters clear and cold
not touch a woman for a week?
How do you go about your business
taking a life
or is it all as casual?
as red globs of brain
splattering against the trees
The question remains
~ the fro~t of my brain, small and hot
'Why.....
in savage rage
i ask, roaring, bellowing
lips curling away from razor fangs
"WHY THE HELL
do you~
Jill.CH SQ MOCH
taking a measwe
we must read what we find
when that same bear
her entrails still dragging
the way you left her
returns for you
and finds you cringing
in a hospital bed
barricaded behind wires and machines
swallowing magic pills
superstitious charms against a death
so important simply because it's yours
that you think the world is finished why'?"
No one, not i, would stand in front of your gun
and say "You have no right!"
but when
did you ever?
give time to study, learn, and love
the hills, the forest,
drunken and blind, only we
could go into the forest
back among the hills
and still not learn
the truth about bears.
KALANU, TIIB POET
KA TUAH - page 23
Fall 1986
�GOOD NIGHT FAOM
SHADOWS FALL
• continued from p. 13
Sera Jean smiled in return and rose
from the table. Her father towered above
her, his tanned cheekbones healthy above
his beard, which was sunbright like his
wisping hair. His green eyes shone wannly
down, a large hand came to rest at her
waist.
"So, how's the old man?"
Sera Jean looked up to see his eyes
upon her, ttying to see in her more than she
could show.
"Hc's ..... he's no worse."
She turned back to her cooking, taking
a cast iron skillet, splashing in some
safflower oil. Her father spoke again.
"You'd think that old man was enjoying
himself up there.
"Guess I'll say hello to my big girl.
Where's she at?"
"Oh," Sera Jean replied anxiously,
remembering the message she really didn't
want to pass along. "Fe went to a sweat for
Elise. She won't be back 'ti! late."
The man seemed to sink in on himself.
The light in his face wavered, his step
became a Limp. He took a deep breath.
"Sweet lady Fe. She does love her
women."
He sighed with resignation, ranging
awa.Y toward the far end of the kitchen, to
the cedar bathtub which Gran'pa had set
into ,the floor before the big glass window
that looked up the cove to the ridge top.
"Did she leave any hot water? Think I
got time for a bath? These old bones could
use some warmth."
"Sure," Sera Jean replied, moving the
skillet to the fire.
She looked after the man as he steeped
in his disappointment. Slowly, absently he
saipped away his shirt while he sat upon the
squat, three-legged stool and stared out at
the trees where the line of moonglow could
be seen descending into the cove as a
quarter moon rose over the eastern ridge.
She came up behind him.
"Dad, let me massage your shoulder."
The man's head jerked around in
surprise at her offer.
"Why, Sera Jean, I believe your heart
has gotten bigger."
He leaned forward and started the water
in the tub, then rose back into Sera Jean's
waiting hands.She had stopped massaging
Gran'pa's cold body, afraid he would die
from her touch. Now she leaned her weight
into her father's hard frame, digging her
fingers into his shoulder blade as she had
seen her mother do.
"Duane, why does Fe go out so much,
but you hardly go anywhere?"
The man seemed to wait, holding
himself rcoeptivc to her fingers, and then let
his breath out as he answered,
"Hmmmmmmmm..... we all make our
choices, Sera. Then we are obligated to live
up to the responsibilities that go with those
choices. You might say I'm feeling lazy
these days."
"You? Lazy?" Sera Jean queried. "I
don't thlnk I could ever say that."
"Hmph," Duane replied, amused.
"Yeah, I'm k:i nd'a stuck on my ass these
days. But the freedom I choose by staying
home doesn't require whole bunches of
responsibilities. I just stay here and work.
KA1UAH • page 24
It's easy. But your mama, she's got to get
out there and talce it to the limit, just to see if
she can handle it, which is good. We need
her to handle it. As long as she brings it
back to us, I can't complain."
"But you don't want to go anywhere, to
do things?"
"Sera-girl, when I met your mother, I
was running on a ridge, just as fast as I
could, doing anything, doing everything doing il twice if it didn't kHI me the firs t
time. I thought I had to run faster, get
higher, fill myself right up, because that's
what I thought life was all about. But if you
never share any of that, it piles up, gets
heavy. And then I became afraid I would
always need more just to be never quite
satisfied.
"I really didn't believe your mother had
the speed to keep up with me. But she
brought me here, turned me loose inside this
cove, let me run circles around her, and no
matter how fast I went, she could always
catch me whenever she wanted me. Just
head me off at the pass. I've always been
amazed, y'know, how easy it is to run so
fast and free and good and not hun a soul in
doing what I pleased. So, I've got it all,
Sera. Right here and now. If I went
anywhere else, even with good friends, I'd
feel poor and alone."
"Even when mom's gone?"
Her fingers could feel the man
struggling not to lie. There was silence. He
looked away, drawing upon the shadowy
cove where the line of moonglow had
descended closer, getting the feeling right.
"Yeah," he said, "even without my
sweet lady Fe."
He moved, quick as a gentle breeze, his
great arms coming around her, Lifting her to
place her on his knee.
"You can't hang on to things, Sera.
Letting go can be hard, but things must
pass. You can't stop them."
"I-I guess I know that, Dad. But I'm
not strong like you. I'll always miss
Gran'pa."
"I'm sure that would make Gran'pa
very sad - to know that you will always be
missing him for the rest of your Life. Trying
to hang on to what no longer is, you'll miss
what Gran'pa has for you now.'
"But he'll soon be gone, and I'll ..... "
"Gone? Where's be gonna go? To get
free of that worthless bag of bones must
have him grinning ear to ear. Did you ever
thlnk, babe, that if it weren't for you still
putting energy into Gran'pa, he might have
been set free a couple of weeks ago?"
Sera Jean looked out the tall windows
and saw the line of moon glow ever closer.
"Y'see, Sera, the secret is to spend
every day gently impressed. If today comes
at you all thunder and lightning, then brace
yourself and take it on gently. Don't let it
get in the way of tomorrow. You never
know where it's coming from. but it's
always coming. Take ii on gently. and give
it b:ick gently. You'll be alright
"Why don't you pack up your sorrow
and set it on the rick? You don't have to run
on the ridge anymore, ttying 1 gc1 higher 10
0
see 1he last of a setting sun. ll'll still come
up behind you in the morni ng. But, if you
look right now, ru bet you can find
Gran'p:i down here waiting for you like he
never left."
Sera Jean's downcast eyes caught sight
of moonlight creeping over the window sill.
She looked up to see that it had set all the
cove to eerie whiteness and black shadows,
surprising her with a beaury she knew so
well, a gentle touch, impressing upon her
like Life holding her close. She felt the
rough, work-hard hand through the cloth
upon her back, and felt ic a comfon. She
looked into the kind eyes, old and
comfonable too, crinkling around the edges,
caring.
It was only fair that she should smile in
return for the gentle goodness that had
replaced the gentle sorrow that had weighted
her for so long.
"Duane," she spoke in a half-whisper,
"Get me up in the morning. I think I'll go to
school.''
"You got it, Ace," Duane confirmed.
"You and me for breakfast."
"What about Fe?"
"Well," he breathed, "I suspect Mama
will want to sleep in tomorrow. So, we'll
just have to do the best we can with what
we got."
"Maybe we should ask her to come
home," Sera Jean suggested.
"No," he shook his wisping, hairy
bead. "If we did that we wouldn't be living
up to our responsibilities. I think we should
let her go more often. She just might fall off
the ridge someday, and if we haven't let go
of her yet, we might find ourselves being
tom painfully hard.
"Hey, look, big girl. This water's
a'waitin' on me, and I think I'll be gettin' to
it."
Sera Jean rose and stepped away
silently, turning her back on the big man as
he stood and became a rustling of clothing.
She looked back from the summer stove
where she poked the embers tighter together
and a tiny flame leaped anew. She saw him
standing straight in the blue-white
moonglow, his hard body sharply defined
by shadow. He reached up behind his head
to pull the tie from his hai r and a
moon-bright radiance dropped about his
shoulders. He stepped into the bath, and the
gentle sound of lapping water came to her as
he sat and was silent.
Sera Jean Samuels could see rum, in his
silent sadness, staring out into the land of
her grandfathers, calling upon them to give
him strength, letting the moonlight give him
beauty, beauty to liken the womaness he
needed.
She thought she saw a tear sparkle in
the moonglow, heard it drop into the water
and be gone. But then again, it seemed only
right that it be the part of the man to let go
the woman.
lUustralions by Rob Messick
Fall 1986
�HOW TO H ELP CHILDREN HANDLE DEATH - conunocd from page 10
This can terrify children about bedtime.
never coming back). And the third is hope
(We're going 10 be okay even without
3. Mommy's gone on a long trip. "Daddy
is going out of town on a business trip--is
Daddy). Help the child work through these
he never coming back? Will I be left all
processes, and s/be ""ill be the healthier for
it, and stronger when faced with loss the
alone? Why didn ' t Mommy tell me
next time.
good- bye? Didn't she love me? Was I
naughty?" Children may think all of these
and also wonder, "If Mommy only went
Recognize anger, guilt, and
away, why is everyone crying?"
physical distress for what they are.
4. God took her becau~e she was good.
These are all normal reactions 10 loss. A
"Then I don·t want to be good. so I won't
child may say s/be hates Uncle Bob for
have to die. Are old people bad?" This can
dying and leaving the family. Or S/be might
develop into a fear and hatred of God.
say the doctor murdered a brother. Or why
didn't Susie's mother die instead of
Deceiving children is the worst course,
Mommy?
because eventually they'll learn the truth.
Guilt often results when children don'1
And deception will not help them to face the
understand the difference between fan1asy
inevitable fact of death.
and reality. They can think they caused a
person's death because they once said, "I
Help children to expr ess their
wish you were dead." h 's important to
grief. Encourage the child 10 let out his or
explain this can't happen and that the child
her feelings. It's okay 10 cry--you feel like
had nothing to do with the dea1h.
crying, 100. h 's okay to feel sad or
Many children feel physical distress
depressed. It's okay 10 not know how to
when faced with 1be shock of loss.
act. But emphasize that although the loved
Dizziness. nausea, insomnia, shonness of
one will never return, s/be lives on in the
breath, lack of appeti1e, and inability to
happy memories you all share.
concentrate are but a few of the symptoms a
The grieving child experiences three
child may experience. Reassure him or her
phases. The first is denial (Daddy didn't
that the feeling is natural and will disappear
die). The next is pain and despair (Daddy's
in time.
MAKING BURIAL BOXES
- continued from p. 9
Nail the side pieces to the bo11om, using 7/8" nails.
The strips should be inside and at the top.
Nail the ends, with the good sides out, firmly to the
bottom and 10 the side strips. using 8-penny nails, and the
job is done.
The handles may be stored inside the box and screwed
on when the box is used. Likewise, the top may be tacked
lightly in place until the box is needed, and then nailed firmly
down with 7/8" nails when the box is used.
The box, when loaded, should be moved with care to
avoid pulling the ends away from the box. After the cover
has been nailed down, however, the box is quite strong and
can be handled freely. By using screws in the ends instead of
nails, the box can be made quite strong without the lid.
THE
WAKe:
- continued from p. 11
graveyard. When my brother died, though,
they faid him over on Barker's Creek (on
1he other side of the ridge - ed.). I don't
know why they put him so far away. If I
had the money, I'd have him reburied over
here. But it seems like when someone dies,
it all comes so sudden-like and all. that you
don't have time to think about all that. I
don't know why. but it feels better 10 have
them buried close 10 you ....."
OLD CUSTOMS SURVIVE
Being a tribal people, the Cherokee
Indians probably had a custom similar to the
wake in ancient times. In any case, when
the Baptist missionaries penetrated the
reservation of the Eastern Band. the Indians
readily adopted the practice of "senin~up".
Baptist style, they held the wake in the
church, and for the Indians ii was a solemn
occasion. The Cherokees are a conservative
people, and the custom of "seuin'-up" is
srill maintained on the reservation today.
KATUAH - page 25
Allow children to attend the
funeral. Never force children 10 go, but do
encourage it. They are pan of the family
and, like other family members. should
panicipa1e in this significant event. Be sure
10 explain the details of the service before
you go. But remember children need 10
share their sadness and be with others, just
as adults do. This will help them 10 accept
the reality of death.
These guidelines should help to make
dealing with death a little easier. Keep in
mind that the grieving process (for children
and adults alike) takes time. But if, in a
maner of time, the intensity of grieving
does not abate, or if you have any doubts,
don't hesitate to seek professional help for
the child. In the midst of their own grief,
few people are able to give children
undergoing severe grief reactions the
suppon they need.
Day by day it will get easier. When
children understand the meaning of death
and are honestly dealt with, they can more
readily cope with loss and move forward to
maintain a positive attitude towards life and
living. And they realize human life is one of
our most precious possessions, and will go
on 10 live life 10 its fullest.
...:.-<:::
When the box is used, two handles should be screwed
to each end for ease in going through doors. They may be
removed with a screwdriver and brought home from the
crematory or cemetary for furure use.
When a body is taken to a medical school in one of
these boxes, it is customary 10 remove the body from the box
and take the box home.
To save storage space, these boxes are so designed so
that the medium size can nest inside the large size. and the
child size inside the small size.
Assembly Diaaram
Tom Underwood, a white man who
grew up on the reservation, describes the
tradition:
"Once the life was gone from a body,
it was never left until it was buried. Now, in
modem days, the body is taken 10 a funeral
home to be processed, but then it's brought
back, and as long as it is in the care of the
family and kin, it's never left alone. The
wake is usually held in a church, and here
on the reservation it's customary for people
10 have food to eat, coffee, and soft drinks.
They sing the deceased's favorite
songs..... Here, it's not a party, it's an
observance."
The isolation of the mountains played
a large pan in keeping traditional customs
alive after they had disappeared from the
sophisticated urban areas. But as the roads
came in, undenakers began to move out into
the rural countryside.
Tom Underwood said:
"What prompted people to change
over was just a feeling that the undenaker
could do a beuer job of taking care of the
body. Another reason was that in the hot
summenime it didn't take long for a body 10
begin to go!
"Having it processed meant that kin'
who lived farther away would have ome to
get there before the funeral. Then, too,
people began 10 have more ready cash to
pay the undenaker. At first, though, be was
paid with chickens, hams, produce, or with
work, if there was something he needed
done. That's what people had 10 offer."
Now, in most places, the undenaker,
a man, stands guard over the gates of death,
keeping the burial elaborate, efficient,
fonnal, and solemn - watching again~t any
threats co the "designs of culture".
But in small churches high in the
coves of Appalachia people still stay
through the night: talking, praying, crying,
eating, and singing the mournful old songs together.
/
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9:00 a.m. • 8:00 p.m.
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Where Broadway
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KATUAH ... page 26
Oavod Reed
258 1038
734 Town Mountain Rd
Asheville, NC 28805
Fall 1986
�A CHILDREN'S PAGE: ON DYING
I would like to be burned and have my ashes spread
over Riverflow (Community in Floyd, Va.). I think
after you die you go to another world and each time
you go to another world you would be sent there to
do something good. Like in this world some of us
possibly were sent here to stop war. Some people
think when you die all you are is a ghost and just go
around scaring people. But I think you go to
another world.
Asa-9
"Mum, when I get dead I want to be another man so I won't miss the rest of life!"
Dylan-4
"When you're dead do you get a birthday? I mean
an invisible birthday. When you're dead do you get
an invisible birthday?
Josh- 6
I think when you die your body disintegrates and
you can tum into a butterfly or something. And
God will call you and when its your tum he turns
you into a baby and puts you in a stomach!
Josh-6
0
"Yellow Dog" by Amy - 8
We had an old dog and it died because it was so old.
It died and we buried it. We put sage and other
kinds of herbs on its grave - and I found a little dead
bird. I was going to bury it where we had buried
our dog and I found little creatures and I went to
tell mom and she said, "I do not know what they
are." So, we buried the bird in our herb garden.
And almost every day after I found the little bird I
would go up to our yellow dog's grave and sit there.
Special thanks to Colleen Redmon-Copus
We welcome original drawings, stories, poems,
ideas, or comments by individual children or
groups for this page. Let us know what the children
of Katuah are doing! Send contributions to Katuah.
-cu KATUAH - page 27
�!9Bb
SEPTEMBER
25
Black Moun tain, NC
David Wilcox, Folksinger, at
McDibbs; 119 Cherry SL; Black Mountain,
NC (704) 669-2456.
26
Black Mountain, NC
Bill Melanson and Paul Fieldman
rockin' out at McDibbs. see 9/25.
9-26
Blue Ridie Parkwa y
Mountajnweet Talk Two-act
play by The Folktellers. Folk Art Center
Theater. More info: Mountain Sweet Talk;
c/o The Folktellers; P.O. Box 2898;
Asheville, NC 28802 (704) 2.58-1 113.
26-28
B oome r, NC
"Dyin g Into Our Lives"
Workshop with Dale Borglum, director of
Hanuman Foundation Living/Dying Project.
At the Center for Awakening. $75. More
info: (919) 921-2228.
27
Alum Ridge, VA
Nature Attunement Workshop
with Tom Williams. Commune with nature
spirits and the Devas. Bring lunch and stay
for the weekend. Cost $25; Pre-register.
Penny Royal Education Center; Rt. HC 67,
Box 171; Alum Ridge, VA 24051.
C ullow hee, NC
Mountain Heritage Day.
Traditional music, exhibits, puppets,
shows, food, crafts, more. WCU campus.
Brasstown, NC
Fall
Craft
Weekend.
Blacksmithing, silk screening, kaleidoscope
building, and woodcarving. see 10/3.
10-12
OCTOBER
27
Burnsville, NC
Folk Music Festival, $5, Patience
Mullendore Park, 6-12 pm. Toe River Arts
Council, Box 521, Spruce Pine, NC 28777
(704) 682-7215.
27
S p r uce Pine, NC
Western Nonh Carolina Alliance
Annual Meeting; workshops, business,
strategy meetings. $10 includes meals.
Contact: Ron Lambe; Rt. 1, Box 127-E;
Bakersville, NC 28705 (704) 688-2447.
27
27
3
B r asstown, NC
Jean Ritchie in concen, 8 pm.
Appalachian music, vocal and instrumental.
John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown,
NC 28902 (704) 837-2275.
3
Black Moun tain, NC
David Wilcox at McDibbs. see
9/25.
3-5
H ot Springs, NC
"To Leap Like a Tiger". Zen
Buddhist Meditation weekend with Barbara
Rhodes. Pre-register: Southern Dharma
Retreat Center; Rt. 1, Box 34-H; Hot
Springs, NC 28743.
Big Ye llow Mounta in ,
(Aver y C ounty) M oderate to
strenuous hiking. Spectacular views, rare
plants.
Pre-register: N.C. Nature
Conservancy, POB 805, Chapel Hill, NC
27514.
4
27-28
4
Willis, VA
"Balance Through Massage". A
weekend intensive with Libby Outlaw;
approaches to massage and balancing the
body energies. Pre-register: Indian Valley
Holistic Health Center; Rt. 2, Box 58;
Willis, VA 24380.
30-0ct 4 Che r okee, NC
Cherokee Fall Festival. Indian
dancing stickball, blowguns, basketry,
carving & other crafts; agricultural exhibit,
midway & food. At the Ceremonial
Grounds.
KATIJAH - page 28
Bonas Defeat Gorge, (near
C ullowh ee, NC) Nature
Conservancy Field Trip. Very strenuous
hiking. Pre-register: see 9/27.
Bluff M ountain, (near Wes t
Jefferson, NC)
Natu r e
Conservancy Field Trip. Pre-register: see
9/27.
Brasst own , NC
Fall Festival. Crafts, music &
dance. John C. Campbell Folk School. see
10/3.
4-5
W illis, VA
"Personal Integration: Past,
Present and Future". Exploring personal
history and past lives with Gaines Steer.
Pre-register: see 9/27-28.
Hot Springs, NC
"Meditation on the Mountaintop"
with John Orr. Pre-register: see 10/3-5.
10-13
15
Black Mountain, NC
Gamble Rogers, singer and
storyteller at McDibbs. see 9/25.
16-19
W heeling, West VA
Midwives' Alliance of North
America 4th Annual Conference. Speakers
include Susun Weed, Norma Swenson, and
Vera Keene. Workshops include therapeutic
touch and herbs for birth. Contact: Ruth
Walsh, POB 5, Linn, WV 26384 (304)
462-5617.
16-19
Highla nds, NC
Fall Landscape Workshop. A
photography workshop exploring the
Highlands area. Fee $250. Contact: The
Appalachian Environmental Arts Center,
P.O. Drawer 580, Highlands, NC 28742
(704) 526-4303.
17
Black Mounta in, NC
Dab Hand, music from Ireland,
Scotland and the Shetland lslands at
McD ibbs. see 9/25.
17-19
As he ville, NC
Highlands Oaft Guild Fair, Civic
Center.
17-19
C he rokee, NC
Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) Reunion, Qualia Community Center.
4-5
17-19
Boomer, NC
"Caring for the Caregiver"
Workshop at the Center for Awakening.
Info: (919) 921-2228.
Fall 1986
�OCTOBER 19, 1986,
NOVEMBER
11 a.m.
2-15
Brasstown, NC
Fall Crafts. Blacksmithing, log
ho me building, quilting, weaving,
enameling & drawing. see 10/3.
Hot Springs, NC
Meditation and work retreat with
Rodney Smith. Pre-register: Southern
Dhanna, see 10/3-5.
7-9
Hot S prings, NC
"Beginner's Mind" - An
introductory meditation retreat with Cheri
Huber. Pre-register: Southern Dharma
Retreat Center, see 10/3-5.
26-30
17-19
Zionville, NC
"Healing in the Wise-Woman
Tradition" with "Green Witch" Susun S.
Weed, herbalist and healer. Workshops
include plant identification, herbal
preparations, simple ritual. Sliding scale fee:
$75-100, barter, or work exchange.
Pre-register: Phoenix Productions; Rt. 2,
Dox 59; Zionville, NC 28698.
18
Roan Mountain (Mitchell
County} Hiking the heath balds
with The Nature Conservancy. Pre-register:
see 9/27.
31
SAMHAIN FESTIVAL
Celtic New Year (Feast of the Dead)
DECEMBER
31-NOV 2 Durham, NC
"Ecology - The Spiritual
Imperative" wilh Margot Adler, Peter
Borrelli et al. Sponsored by Center For
Reflection on the Second Law. Registration
$25; room & board $60. You may commute
or camp. More info: CFRSL, 8420 Camellia
Dr., Raleigh, NC 27612.
18
Black Mountain, NC
John McCutcheon, Hammer
Dulcimer music a1 McDibbs. see 9/25.
Hiwassee, GA
Old-Time Fiddler's Convention,
Georgia Mountain Fair, POB 444,
Hiwassee, GA 30546.
24-25
24-26
Brasstown, NC
Fall Dance Weekend. see 10/3.
Hot Springs, NC
"What Are You Expecting from
Zazen?" - Introduction to Zen Meditation by
Katagiri-Roshi, Abbott of The Minnesota
Zen Meditation Center. Pre-register:
Southern Dhanna, see 10/3-5.
24-26
Black Mountain, NC
Sally Rogers plays traditional
music at McDibbs. see 9/25.
5~
H~ Sprin~, NC
"Introduction to Sufi Meditation
and Dance" with John Johnson, founder of
Light of the Mountains Sufi Community.
Pre-register: see 10/3-5.
11-13
Brasstown, NC
Christmas Madrigal Concert and
Dinner. John C. Campbell Folk School.
see 10/3.
~ SOUTHE:RN DHARM~ RE:TRE:~T CE:NTE:R
\ 1'
FALL SCHEDULE
October
3-5
10-13
24-26
"To Leap Like a Tiger - A Zen Weekend", Barbara Rhodes.
"On the Mountaintop", with John Orr.
"Introduction to Zen Meditation (Zazen} - What Are You Expecting
from Zazen?", with Zen Master Katagiri-roshi.
November
7-9
26-30
December
5-7
27-Jan 4
"Insight Meditation and Work Retreat Weekend", with Rodney
Smith.
"Beginner's Mind - An Introductory Meditation Retreat", with
Cheri Huber.
"Introduction to Sufi Meditation and Dance", with John Johnson.
"A New Year's Meditation Retreat", with John Orr.
29
30-Nov 2 Berea, KY
13th Annual Celebration of
Traditional Music, Berea College. With
Doug Wallin, Betty Smith, Sparky Rucker
and many others. Info: Berea College, Box
2336, Berea, KY 40404 (606} 986-9341
Southcm Dharma Reireat Cen~ iJ loc.ied in a remote lrC& o.r the Smoky Mountains near Asheville, North
Carolina. For further ln!ormatioo about So11lhan DhlnDI or lbout ID)' of the pn>grmns above, call ar write:
SOUTHERN DHAltMA RETREAT CENTER RLI, Box 34-H; Hot Sprinp, NC 28743 (704) 622-7112
You Can't Beat a Woman! Contact:
Buncombe......................... HELPMATE, lnc................. (704) 254-0516
Cherokee I Clay I Graham....... R.E.A.C.H.,Inc .................. (704) 837-8064
Haywood .......................... R.E.A.C.H ........................ (704) 456-7521
Henderson ......................... MAINSTAY...................... (704) 693-3840
Jackson ............................ R.E.A.C.H ........................ (704) 586-8969
Swain .............................. SAFE, Inc ......................... (704} 488-6809
Transylvania ...................... SAFE, lnc ......................... (704) 885-7233
Polk................................ STEP TO HOPE, Inc............ (704) 859-9721
Rutherford ........................ PA TH, Inc ......................... (704} 245-8595
McDowell... ...................... F AMIL Y SHELTER ............. (704) 652-6150
KATUAH - page 29
Fall 1986
�APPALACHIAN PATCHWORK· Mouniain lales
and songs by the Appalachian Puppet Theatre.
Cassette tape $7.00 from: Appalachian Puppet
Theatre, 3SS Cedar ~ Road, Black Mouniain,
NC 28711 (704) 669~1.
APPALACHIAN GINSENG CO. • Cultivated
American ginseng, s1n1tlfied seeds. seedling roolS T-Shirts with ginseng logo. $9.00 ppd Crom P.O.
Box 547; Dillsboro, NC 28725.
CEN1C.R FOR AWAKENING needs a volunteer to
TI.JRNING lHOUGfff INTO ACl10N: Cen1et for
ReJlection on the Second Law. 8420 Camellia Dr..
Raleigh, NC 27612.
give advice and assistance in developing an
alc.emative energy system as well as an alternative
waste system for the Center. Contact Elizabeth
Callari: (919) 921-2228.
HEALTH and F11NESS SELF-CARE CENTER: A
private center offering comprehensive programs or
scientifically and medically documented approaches
to optimum health and fitness. Seminars,
WOtltshops and privac.e consultations for indivil!uals,
families and businesses. Contacc Jeffrey Brown:
HFSC; POB 278; Lexingron, NC 27293 (704)
246-4919.
APPLE TREES
GOLDEN SEAL PLANTS and other native and
exotic wildilowers. Descriptive ca181og Sl.00 from:
Appalachian Wildflower Nursery; RL I, Box 275-A;
Reedsville, PA 17084.
FRIENDS OF THE MOUNTAINS IS a grassroots
organiution involved in lhe conservation and
protection of the southern Appalachian hi&hlands.
RL 2. Box 2279; Clayt0n, GA 30525.
Old-timey and popular
conc.emponuy varieties on SWldard. semi-, or dwarf
stocks. Send SASE for price list: Jeff Poppen,
Long Hungry~ Nursery, Red Boiling Springs.
TN 37150.
CHEROKEE CLEANSING TEA • over 1 dozen
herbs (makes app. one gallon) • $7.50 from
Medicine Canoe Products; R1.2, Box 90-E; Old
Fon, NC 28762.
APPLE TREES Grafted old-fashioned and
contemporary. Send SO cents for catalog: Henry
Monon. Old-fashioned Apple Trees. RL I, Box
203; Gatlinburg, TN 3n38.
In1ematjonal l'mnacuhure Sce<I Year1look •• The
annual bulletin, directory. and resource guide for
permacullure practitioners; S 10.00; Box 202;
Orange, MA 01364.
Woman of Powec A magazine of feminism,
spirituality, and politics. Published quanerly. POB
827;Cambridge,MA 02238.
CRAFTS FROM SALVADORAN AND
GUATEMALAN REFUGEES IN NICARAGUA:
Cards. plitques, boxes, puzzles, paiches; This trade
benefits refugees directly. Brochure from:
Dry Crcclc Cooperative Trading
918 Jennings CL
Woodbury, TN 37190
a non-profit organization.
APPALACHIAN WILDFLOWER NURSERY •
Nauve and exotic wildilowers. Descriptive catalog
SI from: RI. I, Box 275-A: Reedsville, PA
17084.
ASHEVILLE I BUNCOMBE COUNTY SOLID
WASTE ALTERNATIVES PLANNING
WORKSHOP: A design for handling solid waslCS
in any urban context. SIS from Long Branch
Environmental Education Cenc.er. RL 2, Box 132;
Leicester, NC 28748.
DRUM WORKSHOPS • for children of all ages.
therapeuuc massage • Relaxes the body &
mind ...Call Manha for more info al (704)
258-0616
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS· herbal salves.
uno1wes, & oils for binhmg & family health. For
brochure. please write: Moon Dnnce Fann: RL I,
Box 72f>; Hampton, TN 37658
CUSTOM CELTIC HARPS • A'Court Bason;
Travinnna Farm; RL l; Check, VA 24072.
FAIRGLEN FARMS offers organic, biological
feniliz.ers for farm and garden. Send SASE for price
lisL Biologically-grown produce 10 sell? We are
interested in acting as cooperative marketing agents
with other growers. Write: Route I, Box 319;
Oyde, NC 28721.
Shares for sale in FLOYD AGRICULTURAL
ENERGY CO-OP; par valued at SIOO each. Will
Bason: Travianna Farm; RL I; Check, VA 24072..
·AS WE ARE" - Women's music by Pomegranate
Rose. a four-woman group playing lively original
music. Cassette tape available for $9.00 ppd. from
RL 2, Box 435; Piusboro, NC 27312.
BIG MOUNTAIN • 10.000 uaditional Navajo
people threatened with removal by US government
to make way for coal and uranium mines. Suppon
and donations needed. Write: Big Mountain Legal
Defense/Offense Commiuee; 2501 N. 4lh St.,
Suii.e 18; Flagstaff. AZ 86001 (602) 774-5233.
KATUAH ·page 30
HOLOGRAPHIC ASTROLOGY • Every p:irt of a
hologram contains all the info about the entire
hologram. and each cell in your body contains all
the genetic data about your whole body. Similarly,
every body contains all the information about the
entire solar system • you are lhe solar system and
each of your planets is one of your potentials. Chart
& Consultation, SS0.00 Harriet Wiu Miller (704)
689-4617.
AMRITA HERBAL PRODUCTS • Comfrey,
EuoalyplUS, or Golden Seal Salve, Lemon or
Lavender Face Cream. Made with narural and
essential oils and love. Send for brochure: RL I,
Box 737; Floyd, VA 24091.
ELACHEE NATURE SCIENCE CENTER •
dedicated to the undersrand.ing and appreciation of lhe
natural world. For membership or visiting info,
write P.O. Box 2771; Gainesville, GA 30503.
At ARTHUR MORGAN SCHOOL 24 Students and
14 staff learn together by living in community.
Curriculum includes creative academics. group
decision-makmg, a work program, service projcclS,
extensive rield trips, challenging outdoor
experiences. Write: 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville. NC 28714.
FOUR WINDS VILLAGE • health and spiritual
retreat; home for children in need. For visiting info,
write: Box 112; Tiger, GA 30576.
LIGHTWORKS • luminous fabric window pieces
by Cathy Scou; 734 Town Mountain Rd.;
Asheville, NC 28804.
WEBWORK.ING is free.
Send submissions to:
.KaWab
P.O. Box 873
Cullowhec, NC 28723
Fall 1986
�KJUW wants to communicate your thoughts and
feelings 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:
Kmiiflb; Box 873; Cu/lowhee, NC 28723.
The winter KatUah, Issue XIV, will focus on
"Keeping Warm". The deadline for all submissions for that
issue is October 31.
Please send your ideas for future themes for .Katiiih.
Medici11tL- Allies
GET BACK!
issues of Katuah
full color
T- sfJirts
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today are
only diminutive 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
ans:I exist yet in the world as we know it.
These beings are called with reverence
"grandfathers". And of them, the strongest
are Kaniui.. the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'nati. the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the earth plane; and
Yunwj Usdj, "the little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power from the underworld.
Each is the strongei;t 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 ofKatiiah 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 Kan"illlljournal.
"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 Karuah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE TWO - WINTER 1983·84
Yona • Bear Hunters • Pigeon River •
Another Way With Animals - Alma •
Becoming Politically Effective Mountain Woodlands • Katiiah Under the
Drill • Spirirual Wuriors
ISSUE TIIRBE • SPRINO 1984
Sustainable Agriculture • Sunflowers •
Human lmpac1 on lhe Forest - Chi.ldrens"
Education - Veronica Nichola.s:Woman
in Politics - Lillie People • Medicine
Allies
ISSUE NINE- FALL 1985
The Waldee Forest • The Trees Speak •
Migrating Foresis • Horse Logging •
Starting a Tree Crop • Urban Trees Acom Bread • Myth Tune
ISSUE FOUR · SUMMER 1984
Water Orum • Wa1u Qualiiy • Kudz.u •
Solar &lipse - Clearcutting • Trout Going 10 Water • Ram Pumps •
Microhydro • Poems: Bennie Lee
Sinclair, Jim Wayne Mille.-
ISSUE TEN· WINTER 1985.86
Kale Rogers - Circles or SIOne • Internal
Mythmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial
- Poems: Sieve Knaulh • Mythic Places •
The Uk1ena·s Tale • Cryslal Magic
'"Orcamspeaking"
ISSUE FTVE - FALL 1984
Harvest • Old Ways in Cherokee
Ginseng • Nuclear Waste • Our Celtic
Heritage • Bioregionalism: Pasi. Present.
and Future . John Wilnoly • Healing
Darkness • Politics of Puticipalion
ISSUE ELEVEN. SPRING 1986
Community Planning • Cities and lhe
Bioregional Vision • Recycling Community Oardening- Floyd County,
VA • Oasohol - Two Bioregional Views •
Nuclear Supplement - Foxfire Games
-Good Medicine: Visions
ISStJE SIX· WINTER 1984-85
Winier Solstice Earth Ceremony
Horsepa.sture River · Coming or the
Light - Log Cabin Roots - Mountain
Agriculture: The Righi Crop · William
Taylor - The Fu1urc of the Forest
Living in the Oard~~
Sacred Scarab •
Regular Membership........$10/yr.
Sponsor.......................$20/yr.
Contributor...................$50/yr.
Address
Enclosed is$
to give
this effort an extra boost
State
Phone Number
KATUAH - page 31
Herbal· Oood
Back Issues
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ _ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ _ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ _ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ _ _
Complete Set (2-11)
@ $15.00 = $_ _
T-Shins: specify quantity
oolor: tan
S_ _ M_ _~
L_ _ XL_ _
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Area Code
,. the Appalachian
.,~Woman
Sus1ainAble Economics - Ho1 Springs •
Worker Ownership • The Creal Economy
- Self Help Credit Union - Wild Turkey ·
Responsible Investing • Working in !he
Web of Life
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 252-9167
City
~t:fo\\,
<P'
ISSUE SEVEN. SPRINO 1985
KATUAH: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Aopalachians
Box 873; Cullowhee, Nonh Carolina 28723
Name
ISSUE EIOHT ·SUMMER 19g5
Celebu.tion: A Way of Life • Ka1uah
18,000 Years Ago - Sacred Siles • Folk
AIU in the Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer • Cherokee
Heritage Center - Who Owns
Appalachia?
@ $9.50 each............$ _ _
TOTAL PRICE=
postage paid
$_ _
Fall 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 13, Fall 1986
Description
An account of the resource
The thirteenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on the theme of death as a natural part of the life cycle and hospice. The feature story is on the Center for Awakening, a hospice founded by Elizabeth S. Callari in Boomer, North Carolina. Authors and artists in this issue include: Marnie Muller, Nena Parkerson, David Wheeler, Turrin Keye, Martha Laurie Overlock, George Ellison, Kalanu, and Rob Messick. <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.
The Center for Awakening.......1<br /><br />Interview with Elizabeth Callari.......3<br /><br />Review: A Gentle Death.......5<br /><br />Hospice.......6<br /><br />Review: Dealing Creatively with Death.......7<br /><br />Interview with Ernest Morgan.......7<br /><br />Home Burial Box.......9<br /><br />The Wake.......11<br /><br />Story: "Good Night From Shadows Fall".......13<br /><br />Poem: "The Raven Mocker".......15<br /><br />Good Medicine: The Sweat Lodge.......16<br /><br />Natural World News.......18<br /><br />Review: Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom.......21<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
Terminal care--North Carolina, Western
Terminal care facilities--North Carolina, Western
Hospice care--North Carolina, Western
Death--Psychological aspects
Children and death
Funeral rites and ceremonies
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
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<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>
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
https://www.geonames.org/4456695/boomer.html
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
||||osm
Boomer (N.C.)
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" rel="noopener"> 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
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Children's Page
Community
Death and Dying
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Recycling
Stories
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/c5f08e481824615d18c6f5c6bd8ddef8.pdf
ab8164d46d387f7db9c40c17d5a6eb35
PDF Text
Text
--~
ATUAH
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ISSUE XIV
WINTER 1986-87
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LLOYD CARL OWLE...........................................................................1
8()()(3ERS AND MUMMERS...............................................................3
ALL SPECIES DAY .............................................................................6
POEM BY WILL ASHE BASON.........................................................9
GOOD MEDICINE..............................................................................10
CABIN FEVER UNIVERSITY.........................................................12
POEMS BY OLIVER LOVEDAY ......................................................13
KEEPING WARM: HOMELESS IN KATUAH ................................ 14
HOMEMADE HOTWATER...............................................................18
A STOVEMAKER'S NARRATIVE. ................................................19
NATURAL WORLD NEWS..............................................................20
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ISSUE XIV
WlNTER 1986-87
ART AND SURVIVAL
Lloyd Carl Owle is a Cherokee Indian, a
descendent of Yonaguska. He is field
director of the Save the Children Federation
program for the southeastern Indian nations,
but he is best known for his powerful and
expressive stone carvings. His works are on
display at the Qualia Craft Co·op and the
"Miz-Chief' store in Cherokee. NC.
Su 'The Work ofUoJd Ctul Owlt~ pp. 16-17
There is an old legend that says there
are two people inside of us. One is young,
and the other is old. These two figures of
the legend represent two different
viewpoints: the young one th:u does not
discriminate, that sees the world as a whole;
and the old one that is linear, that picks the
world apart and focusses on only one thing
at a time.
This is 1rue for us. Kids have to be
trained to think in a linear way. They take
to the other way naturally. When I was a
kid in school, I enjoyed looking at a Little
bug with all its intricacy and detail more
than doing English or math.
Even now I have 600 things in my
mind at any one time. As I'm working on
one carving l have a lot of other things
going on at the same time. They are all
pictured individually in my head, but I can
only put a part of what I see into any one
piece. Even so, when I'm doing something
with maybe ten ants and six people, it gets
very intticate and complex. I have to keep it
all in my mind at the same nme. I have to
see a piece from several different sides at
once. Either a person can see in that way or
they can't.
Size has always been strange to me,
too. 1 play with that. Neutrons, atoms,
planets.....all arc equally important to the
functioning of the universe. So in my
carvings a little ant can be as big as a
person's face, or a snake will be larger than
a person's body.
When I'm working in my shed at two
or three o'clock in the morning, I feel tuned
in to a different time. h is a time or a place
in my mind that is very primitive. My
carvings reflect this. One might say that this
"primitive" art comes from a place of deeper
vision. From this place the activities of life
have more meaning than they do to a person
of the modem culture. This is because these
things arc seen as being connected. Life is
viewed as a whole, rather than "my life",
"your Life", "their Life". This is a special
way to see Lhe world.
This power of mind is a gift that only
some people have. Medicine men have this
power, but they don't "make" it, it's already
within them. In the same way, art is a part
of a person. h's in their DNA, or their
life-soul, however it is called.
It is less an ability to consciously
make something happen than to let
something work through us. Sometimes I
have the feeling l'm just watching my hands
do something on their own. I just let them
go. Often, afcer working late at night, I have
to look at a piece again in the morning and
re-identify with it. It seems sLrange and
foreign, not like something I did myself.
And, in a way, that is true, because a good
angel came through and helped me.
This reminds me of the legend of "the
little people'; The "little people" represent
the different dimensions of the mind. All
the dimensions are here, and sometimes we
slip into another time or another phase of the
mind, and we find ourselves seeing things
in a different way. It feels SLrange to us
only because we have become separated
from ourselves.
The 'little people' are a sense that has
been given us to help us survive and protect
ourselves. Native American people have
always listened to that other voice. It is
something that has helped us to survive.
Call it ESP, call it good judgement, or
intuition-it is a way of thinking, but also a
way of communicating. The basic power of
the native medicine person was the ability to
bring up the thought in someone else's mind
that they were going to ge1 well. The
medicine person would not do this by
putting a thought from the outside into
another person's mind. They helped their
patients communicate with themselves and
the Creator so they would be well. If their
mind was not whole, they lYm sick!
Some people might say, "Why is he
talking about things like that in these
modern times?"
But this deep
communicauon still works for us, because
on thac level of the mind everything is
connected. We are simuhaneously tuned
into different times in the history of this
world, faraway civilizations of long ago,
different people living in differenc places, or
even inco space.
In dreams I've seen bowls with
arrowheads and similar designs on them that
are still buried in the ground. I know
someday they'll be found, not only in this
country, but in South America, and even in
Egypt in places along the Nile. I've seen
visions of a sculpture of a head with an
elongated face that they'll dig out along the
Nile someday. l put that face in a carving I
did. Someday they may try to relate that
carving back to the ancient Egyptian culture,
to the art I do, or even to similar carvings
from South America.
ART AS LANGUAGE
Masks, myth, music, art--anything
that arises from that deep place is a
language. Whether it's "Indians" from
North America, Indians from lndia, or any
other people, we can communicate through
that language. In that deep place we are
already connected.
People have to protect themselves and
the ways they have learned and survived.
The Cherokee tribe protects itself, its
customs, and its beliefs. The Hopi and the
people in India do the same. But art cotcrs
people's minds through the back door.
Something pleasing to the eye relaxes
people. It releases them, whether they are
creating it or looking at it. People of any
race or any culture in the world can see a
piece of art, and, simply because they love
and appreciate the beauty of it, they are
taken to that place where they experience the
same thoughts or feelings the artist bad
when be or she created it. By seeing it or
touching it, they can grasp that thought in a
way no one could explain with words. And
they also grasp that thought in a way that
doesn't threaten their beliefs. Art is a way
to communicate the differences between
people.
I'm not a doom-crier, but we need to
communicate -- blacks, whites, Indians,
Russians -· all of us. Our beliefs may be
- continued on page 25
KATUAH-page 1
Winter 1986-87
�&
)lATlii-a )•
...
:1111il!ul!11m
1•1+11111wi111•1: 1 . 111:1amli'JP!li" •'"' "'"'•,.__
. 111
.
EDITORIAL STAFF THlS ISSUE:
Scott Bird
Sylvia Fox
Judith Hallock
Rob Messick
Mamie Muller
Manha Overlock
Michael Red Fox
Chip Smith
Brad Stanback
Manha Tree
David Wheeler
EDITQRIAL ASSISTANCE:
Tom Hendricks
Mark Kelly
Brooks Michael
Jeff Fobes
Sara Jane Thomas
Julie Gaunt
EDITOR CAL OEACE
THIS ISSUE:
Asheville, NC
PRTNIEQBY:
Sylva furalQ
Publishing Co.
Sylva, NC
WRITE US AT:
Katiiah
Box 873
Cullowhee, NC 28723
TELEPHONE:
(704) 252-9167
COVER: "Primitive Fear" by Lloyd Carl Qwle
The ln1cmal Revenue Service hu declared .K.a.W&h a non-pr
organization under section SOl(c)(3) of lhc Internal Revenue Code.
All con1nbu1ions 10 K.ni!Jh arc deductible from personal income
y
WI.
.K!n1lb wishes 10 thank lhc Salisbury Community Foundation
for lheiT generous cran1 in suppon of our work.
JRV0CllTJ0R
Enter within
The cave ckep dark
:Below mountains
IVhere ln slup
tjona, 9reat black bear
And we to9ether clream
New patterns of existence
New futu res for the world
Green, blue, and white
Lcoki~back
From w£thin infinite ni9ht
Our souls m~fe
:Bri9ht amo~ the crystal stars
KATUAH - page 2
Here in the sowhem-most heartland of the Appalachian
mountains, the oldest mou111ai11 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
na11ual scale and balance ofuniversal sys rems and laws. We
begin by invoking the Cherokee name "Karuali" 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
specijicafly to this area, and to foster the awareness thal the
land is a living being deserving of oiu love and respect.
Living in tlris manner is the only way to ensure the
sustainability of our biosphere and a lasting place for
ourselves in its continuir1g evol11tior1ary process.
We seem to have reached thefulcrtvn poim ofa "do or
die" situation in terms of a cominued quality standard oflife
on this planet. It is the aim of 1/ris journal to drJ its part in the
re-inhabitation and re-cultura1ion of the Ka1Uilh province of
the Southern Appalachians. This province is indicated by its
natural boundaries: the New River vicinity to the north; tlie
foothills oftlie piedmont area to tlie east; Yona Mountain and
the Georgia hills to the south; and tlie Tennessee River Valley
to the west.
Humbly, as self-appointed stewards with sacred
instructions as "new natives" to protect and preserve i1s
sacredness. we advocate a centered approach to tlie cor1cep1
of decentralization and hope to become a support system/or
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 Kmlttlh
wilf grow to serve the best imerests of this region and all its
living, breatlUngfamily members.
- The Editors
Winter 1986-87
�BOOGEAS AND MUMMEAS
While collecting material for his book
Cherokee Dance and Drama, Frank G.
Speck, on January 2, 1935, observed a
performance of the "Booger Dance" during
a social gathering at the house of Will
Pheasant in the Big Cove community on the
Cherokee Indian reservation.
He described the dancers as being "a
company of four to ten or more masked
men, occasionally with a couple of women
companions, representing people from far
away or across the water - Germans,
French, Chinese, Negroes.....Each masked
dancer has a personal name, usually
obscene, which is given upon request to the
host of the house party.... Europeans show
exaggerations of features--bushy eyebrows,
moustaches. chin whiskers, red cheeks, big
noses, ghastly white pallor, and bald heads.
Animal masks are occasionally worn by the
boogers when they desire to represent
themselves as hunters and then they carry
guns, bows, or clubs. Other equipment of
the boogers may be a dead chicken to
represent a wild rurkey, a dead lamb, or the
skull of a cow or a horse. Boogers may
distort their figures by stuffing abdomen,
buttocks, or shins. Some carry an imitation
phallus of gourd neck or wrapped cloth
concealed beneath a quilt of sheet, which
they expose when dashing toward women
and girls. Sometimes the gourd phallus
contains water, which is released, adding to
the burlesque."
The dancers would enter the house
acting at the same time clownishly and
violently--falling on the floor, swinging at
the men, and making rushes at the women
and girls. When questioned by the host of
the party, who acted as master of
KA TUAH - page 3
ceremonies, they said they wanted "Girls!"
and they wanted "to fight", but they were
mollified and introduced themselves with a
song and a dance solo by each member of
the cast.
The host then invited the group to
dance. Customarily, the boogers would do
one of the "winter dances", the Bear Dance
or the Eagle Dance. During the second
round of the dance, women from the
audience joined as the boogers' partners in
the dancing.
The boogers then left as boisterously
as they had come, some dashing into the
crowd of women and clumsily trying to
carry off struggling victims, amid screams
and laughter.
The Mummers
In lrcland, within living memory, it
was the custom for companies of young
men, called ''The Mummers" to go from
house to house during the nights after
ChristmaS wearing costumes and tall masks
of plaited rushes, performing a ritualized
drama of death and rebirth. The play was
ostensibly to raise money for a large
community dance, The Mummers' Ball, that
took place early in January, but the roots of
the custom go back into antiquity.
The mummers were led by a captain
who acted as master of ceremonies and was
responsible for the conduct of his tr0upe in
the kitchens of the community. In recent
years, the company consisted more or less
of eight basic characters: the Captain,
Beelzebub, Prince George (of England),
Oliver Cromwell, Saint Patrick, the Doctor,
Big Head (a musician), and Miss Funny
(the treasurer).
The captain requested entrance into
the house, and if it were granted, he strode
into the kitchen, proclaiming:
"Here comes/, Captain Mummer,
And all me men.
Room, room, gallant boys,
Give us room to rhyme.
We'll show you some diversion
Around these Chrisrmas times."
One after another the members of the
cast came into the lighted kitchen, declaring
in rhyme, and each introducing the next,
until the character of SL Patrick entered:
"Here Comes/, St. Patrick,
And tile reason I came
I'm in search ofthat bully
Prince George is his name.
And if I do find him,
I'll tell you no lie,
I'll hack him to pieces as small as a fly."
Prince George and St. Patrick then
had an altercation that ended when Prince
George drew his rapier (stick) and ran his
opponent through. The Doctor was called
for and entered, bearing
"...a wee bottle here in the waistband ofme
trousers.
Tlzey call it
Hokey pokey halicumpain.
Rise 11p dead man and jighi again."
the Doctor would say as he revived the
patient, and he would then call for Big
Head, who entered and played music for
two dancers to relieve the dramatic tension
of the perfonnance.
Miss Funny would then come in and
ask for money, "All silver and no brass."
At this point the show became more
- continued on next page
Wrnter 1986-87
�- continued
ijfonnal, and members of the household
were enco uraged to request songs and
<Wices, or to step in for a dance with Miss
Funny. At the conclusion of the event it
was customary for the people of the house
to try to guess the identity of the mummers,
and if there were girls in the house bold
enough, they might attempt to maneuver a
position where they could knock the mask
off one of the performers. The mummers
would defend their fellow by pushfog and
tickling, which frequently led to much
squealing and giggling. Then with a
farewell and good wishes the mummers
would depan into the night
In these days when people nightly
invite murder and violence into their homes
via their TV sets, the mummers' play may
seem bland and unconvincing. But it was
not as often seen in those days, and it was a
live performance: "Rhyme and action
render it all humorous, but the words are
clear. There are many young men, armed
with sticks, standing around your kitchen
who would like you to give them some
money," wrote Henry Glassie in his book
on the mumming tradition, All Silver and
No Brass,
Common T hreads
The two performances, boogers and
mummers, from disparate cultures on
opposite sides of the ocean, vary greatly due
to the differences in geography and culture.
Yet, even in such a superficial presentation
of traditions that had evolved through
centuries, certain srrong similarities stand
out.
First, the masks. These were the core
of the presentation. They lent a compelling
sense of presence to the dramas, and
plunged the audience, the familiar
household, and the players into a different
reality. This was a visitation from the spirit
world. T he masks were frightening, but
they could also amaze and delight. The
masked players were from outside the
bounds of convention. They could talk and
act in a way not permi11ed in ordinary
community life. They could speak of things
usually left unspoken. They could talce
deep tensions and transfonn them through
humor, song, and dance.
The second similarity was the time of
year. Both of these plays were done at
night as part of the winter season
celebration. Hayes Lossiah, who danced
the Booger Dance in Big Cove, said, "We'd
do it in the winter. It'd snow two, three
days, mebbe, after the dance."
"It was the performance of the
season," said Peter Flanagan of County
Ferman agh, Ireland of the Christmas
mumming shows.
'
KATUAH-page4
a• -
~-«¥ • I
t:llltec.,... ...._...,-.,.IT
The Booger Dance was sometimes
origins a nd the original purpose o f the
used by medicine men in the healing of the
Booger Dance-, for the Iroquois marked the
sick. These appearances would, of course,
transitidn between the old and new years
happen in any season needed, but: "In its
with <t winter celebration called the "festival
earliest form, the Booger Oilflce, 'strong in
of dreall'.IS~, which is. described by James
Frazer in bis book The Golden Boui:h:
magic', was undoubtedly ti mi ted to win ter
performance. since its association with
'The whole cel'cmonies lasted several
days, or even weeks, and formed a kind of
'ghosts', those of aliens, is believed to
bring killi ng frosts," said Speck.
saturnalia. Men and women, variously
The connectipn with healing shows
disguised. went from wigwnm to wigwam
smashing and throwing down whatever they
the original spiritual nature of the masks,
and should make us look closer to find the
came across. It was a time of general
purpose in the buffoonery of the winter
license; the people were supposed to be out
of their senses, and therefore not to be
Booger Dance.
The character and conduct of the
responsible for what they did ....On one day
mummers and th·e boogers is another
of the festival the ceremony of driving away
evil spiriis from the village took place. Men
similarity. In both performances the casts
showed highly exaggerated characteristics
clothed in the skins of wild beasts, their
of aggressiveness and clownishness. The
faces covered with hideous masks, and their
interplay bet ween the audience and the
hands with the shell of the tortoise, wem
performers contained an clement of the
from hut to hut making frightful noises; in
risque in both of the dramas, but it was
every hut they took the fuel from 1he fire
and scattered the embers and ashes about the
more highly ,exaggerated and exploited by
the boogers.
floor with their hands. The general
It is bold indeed to speculate on the
confession of sins which preceded the
origins of these two events of folk theatre,
festival was probably a preparation for the
when little p recise information is known
public expulsion of evil influences; it was a
about either. But the structure of the
way of stripping the people of their moral
mummers' play strongly reflects the old
burdens, that these might be collected and
cast out"
myth of the god of the new year killing the
god of the old that dates back to earliest
Clearly the booger masks of the
history in Europe and the British Isles. In
Iroquois were aiding in the exorcism of
other areas of Britain the same story is
demons - the pent-up emotions of the winter
enacted by the "wranboys" during the same
and the stale energies of the old year. This
could have been the original purpose of the
days after Christmas, who hunt and kill a
~n. the deity of the year past, in the name
Cherokee masks, as well, but as the
of "Cock Robin", who represents the
Christian missionaries inhibited the old
coming cycle of regrowth.
spiritual forms, and as European oppression
The Doctor of the mummers and his
anacked the Indians and their way of life,
"wee bottle" of "hokey pokey halicumpain"
the whites could have been given the
also provides a death and resurrection theme
principal role of devil-demon scapegoat to
act out and carry away the year's negative
symbolic of the regeneration of the year.
A solstice play would have had an
energies.
important role in an early agricultural
If we can accept, or even consider,
these intuitive conclusions as to the origins
community to teach the young and remind
of the mask dramas, we see that these two
the old that the changes of the year, while
cultures approached the challenges of the
dramatic and threatening, were a normal pan
of the yearly cycle.
winter season in very different ways: one in
The influence of the Christian church
an active, volatile way, and the other by
internalizing the energies of the season by
would have caused the substitution of St.
Patrick as the main protagonist, as it did in
re-enacting them as a story. But although
so many other holidays and rituals. But
very different from each other in their
original form, the two events seem to spring
then, as secular concerns became more
immediate, SL Patrick and St. George could
from a deep, common, spiritual matrix: the
need to maintain the community, first in the
have come to represent the relations between
Ireland and England, which had so much
changing flow of time, then of history.
bearing on the life of the poor Irish farmers.
That required that conventional social
This was of special significance in the
barriers be temporarily broken down to find
a new and basic starting point from which
divided communities of northern Ireland
the people could move together into the new
where those: tensions have continued at a
slow, smoldering bum for centuries.
year. It required exaggeration of the human
capacities for violence and foolishness, that
Wild Dreams
we normally do not wish to acknowledge,
that by laughter, movement, and song
The booger masks, it is currently
people could accept and come to terms with
thought, came to the Cherokee from the
their negativity and weakness.
Iroquoian culture of the northeastern
woodland tribes. This lends a hint as to the
u
Winter 1986-87
�rim
: . Al
look • mask plays ...,
ippc.r IO have bcea ~and iUJICiaiaiola4
pno..-doa1,;anachronisms from a primiliwi
put. Bus lookinJ
one misfit sec a
IOpbisaiCaled psycbolo&IW lbcnpy IO beal
. ,-
.....
*'ai"'
~DNA daal ~beck
the QDIDIDunity and ttansform the inner
demons that take shape in the world duriri1
the dadt winter months. We could extend
Land Roots
gradually faded away.
THE BOOGER D
ANCE
as witnessed by Tom Underwood
Tom Underwood is the proprietor of
the Medicine Man Craft Shop in Cherokee,
a long-time meeting-place for those
interested in Cherokee Indian artwork and
culture. Tom had tire rare privilege,
although he did not realize it at tlte time, of
being one of tlte few white people to see tlte
Booger Dance performed/or healing .....
I grew up in lhe Birdtown section of
the Cherokee Indian reservation. When I
was growing up, my dad had the only
automobile in that pan of the reservation, so
he was often called upon to be ambulance,
laxi, or messenger. I remember one day an
urgent message came for Bird Panridge, a
medicine man and a fine old fellow.
I was a boy, 12 or 13 at lhe time, but
I can remember it was getting dusky dark
when we neared old man Partridge's house.
My dad spoke a few words to a woman at
the door, and she motioned up the hill
behind the house. We walked up a rough
sled road through the woods. It was a pretty
good little climb, and when we got up there
we could hear people talking and chants
a'going on.
We followed a trail to a clearing
40-50 feet in diameter . There was a circle
of people around the perimeter of the
KATUAH - page 5
dwup
time from the deaceadanta o r die
Henry Glassie's statement that. "The
mummers (and the boogus) attacked the
forces that keep people ap:m."
The Cherokees and the subsistence
farmers of lhe Irish countryside shared the
heritage of a land-based small village
culture. Both groups came under the
dominance of the prevailing European
industrial culture. As their societies came
under auack, the conditions of life were
changed, and their cultures were changed as
well. The critical alteration was that, in both
cases, the strong, enduring ties to the land
that had nourished their people for centuries
were forcibly broken by the invading
culture. This was the crucial link. and when
it was severed, the masks, which
represented the spirits of the land, were
doomed.
Oppression became the primary
demon that haunted these peoples, and the
message of the masks changed. They
spoke about the invader. They spoke about
life and death in tenns the people could
understand. They were so strongly rooted
in the lives of the people, it took the
maskings 200 years to die, but once their
lifeline to the land was cut, their vitality
. \'ct.dle~-lhe---.
aiecblc.S
. . . . . . . . tlcllC .
' ia ~ . . . two eul1*'CS meet. n.
qirk ~ die .m1 •nmcn' .p1ay1 bas 4:0lne
acroa IM Waler oa the ·toa1 1trands".o(
And so, unfonunately, the last item
that these two traditions share in common is
that both are, for all practical purposes,
extinguished as meaningful communication
among the people. Although there are
elders alive who have done lhe Booger
Dance and the mummers' show, apparently
the dramas are no longer in use.
So it is relevant to question, "Why
even write about these traditions from two
culrures t hat are so distant from and so
unlike each other? Why pay so much
attention to old traditions that have already
passed away?"
It is tr ue. To study the mask
traditions, the kachjnas of the Hopi Indians,
which have been brought vinually intact
through the time barrier of modern
civilization, offer a much better subject for
study. There the myth stories of the land
and the e lemental beings still live in the
wbite-llci.nftcd immigrantS 10 lhcir anceslOR
in Europe. The booger spirits, too, lie
dormant in the mountain shadows. their
native home - sleeping, waiting to be
aroused once again.
The masks are looking for ne w
fonns, for new meanings, and for a new
generdtion to bring them alive . It would
require only that some of lhe hu mans
reconnect the vital link between themselves
and the land, and the masks and the spirits
they represenl would be resurrecled to chant
and dance and amaze the people in the
community circle once again.
They are old, litera.lly "as old as the
hills'', yet when lhe people call upon the
masks, they will arise and come, bringing
powers of invocation, communication,
liberation, and delight.
Resource Reading:
All Silver and No Brass: Henry Glassie
(Indiana University Press, Bloomington,
IN) 1975
Cherokee Dance and Drama: Frank G.
Speck and Leonard Broom (University of
California Press, Berkeley, CA) 1951
yearly cycle of mask celebrations.
clearing. In the center was a fire, and by the
fire lay a person all wrapped up, obviously
sick, and over him hovered another, the
medicine man. I didn't see it, but I suppose
the medicine man had given the pat.ient some
medicine.
Around this pair at the center were
about 15-18 people with masks of many
differenl kinds. Every one of them was
covered up with blankets or old raggedy
clothes, so no one could tell who they were
at all. They wore all kinds of scarey masks.
One was a hornets' nest - it was an old
hornets' nest with the eyeholes and a
breathing hole cul out. Most of the masks
were faces cut out of wood. The m:tsked
figures were dancing in a circle around the
medicine man and the sick person at the fire.
All of them were chanting. I knew the
medicine man was old Bird Panridge, even
though a mask covered his entire face.
That went on for a little while, until a
few of them noticed us, and then every bit
of it just quit. My daddy stated his business
and said that someone had an emergency.
maybe it was a death in the family, and that
he would carry the person back down.
The people in the circle never moved
another peg until we got out of lhe clearing
and over the hill. As we walked down the
hill, I could hear them taking up the chanl
again.
That was the only time I ever actually
saw the Booger Dance performed in
sincerity like it was done a long time ago. I
was just a boy, but I remember it very
vividly. My interest in it at the time was
very casual, but later l became much more
interested as I began to read and talk with
other people.
Masks were used in other ceremonies
as well, but the booger masks were usually
thought of as scarey masks. I have one at
home I've had for 50 years. My father
acquired it. It is very, very scarey-looking.
~
100-year-otd mask by famed Cherokee mask-maker
Will West Long
Winter 1986-87
�.
~LL SPtC~tS
DAY
by Marnie Muller
Ahead of the pageant, each person is asked to choose a
plant or animal that they feel closest to, that they would like
to represent at the celebration. Then there are mask-making
sessions with a great deal of storytelling going on during this
time about how individual creatures have helped the Earth
and how many indigenous peoples have regarded the Eanh
as the sacred being that it is. There are also stories of the
interdependence of all life.
"For more than 99 percent of human
history, the world was enchanted
and [humans] saw (themselves] as
an integra l part of it. The complete
reversal or this perception in a mere
four hundred years or so has
destroyed the continuity of the
huma n experience and the integrity
of the human psyche. It has ver y
nearly wrecked the planet as well.
The only hope, or so it seems to me,
lies in a reenchantment of the world.
Morris Berman
In his book The Reenchantment of the World, Morris
Berman explores the possibility of reawakening the integral
or participating consciousness of the human psyche through
a rich, sensual, ecological perspective of the world around
us. This visceral, int.ellcctual, full re-understanding of the
human connection with all life allows a deeper, more
ttuthful perception of our "place" in the universe and in the
specific place we inhabit
An exciting educational project which nurtures this
sense of "reenchantment" rooted in an ecological base is
The All Species Day Project. Successful as a school
curriculum activily or as a full-blown community pageant ,
All Species Day has provided both children and adults with
an opportunity to celebrate and become the myriad species of
plants and animal that co-inhabit _the place where we live. A_n
All Species Day event usually Ulcludes a parade, dramanc
presentations, storytelling, displays and a 'Creature
Congress'. The Congress is a rime when each person who
has represented a species can speak for or perform on behalf
of that species. During this time, species may dialogue with
each other in improvisational ways and can make requests or
pleas, for example to humans. The Congress is a rime for all
the species to convene and share a common vision of the
world with each other and to speak to each other about the
region they inhabit They can speak of its beauty and wealth
but they can also speak of problems they as a species may
face. All Species Day may also include a potluck picnic and
music and games as well.
With mask-making, movement and sound as well as
storytelling, drama and dance, the many plants and animals
and lifeforms that inhabit our world are able to "visit" and
share with us their stories and visions. The bear, the hawk.
the rainbow trout.... the cougar, the chickadee, the tunle... the
ginseng, the willow, the chestnuL..all can come join in the
festivities.
KATUAH ·page 6
"All Species Day offers an
educational fest ival in which
ecological r eality is brought to life
through a n organic, animistic
celebration wher e the ancient,
mimetic sense of identifying with
plants and a nimals is playfully
enacted in mask-making, parade,
storytelling and drama."
-Amy Hannon
The mask-making itself is full of fun and
creativity..and ingenuity. Some masks are made out of
"found" materials such as bark... while others are fashioned
from wood or gourd...and others from baling wire and paper
mache..or cloth or clay. Some paint their masks very
"realistically" while others superimpose images onto the face
of the mask of things that remind one of the creature.. .for
example, the trout mask may have a rushing stream pass
across its face. Also, costumes may be made ...and the same
motif may be used ... with clouds painted on the back of the
eagle.
Each person is given the opportunity to become
Winter 1986-87
�familiar with the sounds, movements and feelings of the
lifeform they are to represenL They are encouraged to caw as
a crow or sway as a willow or chauer as a jay. It is suggested
that their dreams at night may be helpful in getting them more
in rune with their choice.
In terms of originally selecting which animal or plant
they want to be, it is always helpful to first go on a field
trip... to a wild place... .leuing everyone "slow down" and
take a deep breath...and listen to the sounds around them.
Lemng them close their eyes and relax ...and settle in to the
place where you are helps to encourage a time for
daydreaming or reverie. It is in this kind of 'slowed down '
time that a choosing of "who to represent/ who to be" can
best happen. After each person selects their totem animal or
plant or lifeform, it is helpful, then, to consider the species'
relationship with the place where you are...the water, the air,
the wind, the sun, the night, the other plants and animals. If
it seems appropriate, everyone may be ready to "practice"
becoming/being their lifeform....through sounds, movement,
and imagination.
Afler masks and costumes are made and time is spent
getting prepared, it is then time for the celebration. It can be a
one-classroom event, a whole school event or an entire city
pageant. It can be splashy with full media coverage...or it
can be more intimate and less fuss.
All Species Day celebrations began in the early l 970's
and are now beginning to crop up in communities around
Turtle Island (Nonh America). The All Species Project,
located in Santa Fe, NM, assists groups and communities in
setting up an AU Species Day in their locale. This non-profit,
educational corporation offers several packets of materials
and information: Packet #I (sample press release, sample
poster, calendar listing, public service announcement, and
mayor's proclamation) cost: $7 ; Packet #2 (suggested
songs, some bibliography, short theater pieces, and
information on sets, materials.and costume making) cost:
$10 ; Packet #3 ( Newsletter/poster of recent events) cost:
$5. The address /telephone:
The AU Species Project
1349 Cerro Gordo
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-2768
About All Species Day
"We have to bring back the animals and plants, and we have to do it
through the children. I've been looking for this for a while."
- Roberta Blackgoat
Big Mountain Navajo Elder
• cononucd on next page
KATUAH - page 7
�~LL Sf£C~tS D~Y in Greenville NC
" Self-unfolding, self-educating
for the sheer joy of it ...The
students were inspiring the
teachers with enthusiasm. 'This
is what teaching is au about', a
teacher told me."
-Amy Hannon
All Species Day Coordinator
for Greenville, NC
All Species Day 1985
Greenville, NC
Site: Sadie Sa ulter Elementa ry School,
Green ville,NC
Scale: School-wide
Inspired by the Santa Fe, NM All
Species Project , Amy Hannon, a parent of
three, initiated this effort at her children's
school in Greenville, NC. The event was
endorsed by the school principal, the
Enrichment Program director and the school
librarian as well as others.
It was a day-long, school-wide
celebration. Each student chose 10 be a plant
or animal and studied itS habitat, behavior
and ecological relationships. Several classes
focused on the sea and others on lhe coastal
plain as a habitat. In the hallways and
classrooms, there were 16 "centers" set up
for students to visit
School projects included murals,
models, poems, displays, dioramas, and
puppet show s. There were games,
including tbe Food Web game, as well as
storytelling. Students dressed in their plant
and animal masks and costumes paraded
around the school, singing.
ALL
All Species Day 1986
Greenville, NC
Site: River Park North, G reem ille, NC
Scale: Are:a-wide
Enthused by the wonderful reception
of "All Species" at Sadie Saulter Elcmenmry
School, Amy Hannon felt that it would be
good 10 expand All Sp ecies Day imo a
communiiy-wide event. She contacted the
director of Greenville Parks & Recreation
who liked the idea very much and offered
River Parle North. In addition, she gained
the support of the Pamlico-Tar River
Foundation, and the local chapters of the
Sierra Club and The League of Women
Voters. By applying to the NC Humanities
Commiuee, Amy was able to procure a
SP£Ct£S
D..ty
In a ll the world or living creatures (birds a nd fish,
mammals and insects, algae and fungi, trees & flowers, etc.)
AC'J'LV'L'TY
grant to fund storytelling, mask-making and
drama activities for the Day. She also
contacted a number of school and
community organizations working with
youth groups who might like 10 set up
displays. etc.
The result: A tremendous success! All
S pecies Day 1986 took place on Saturday,
May 3rd. Many species themselves
attended the festival: Carolina Raptor Center
brough t a Golden Eagle, Barn Owl, Great
Homed Owl, Red-tailed Hawk and Kestrel;
the River Park's nature center had a
community of tunics living in the touch tank
including Spotted Turtle, Painted Turtle,
Musk Tunle and Yellowbelly Slider; the NC
Museum of Na tural History's outreach
program brought a variety of snakes; a
display prepared by a representative of the
US Soil Conservation Service included a
dozen perennial grasses. The trees and
wildlife of the Park were also present .
The day was filled with narure walks,
storytelling, displays, and games as well as
the celebration itself. There was a parade
with the sound of drum beat and flute ...and
then an improvisational drama, "The
Parliament of Critters". Amy describes the
day: " Animals and their powers came to
light in stories told to small groups all day
long under the shade of a large Loblolly
Pine. Tunic. Whale, Rabbit, Fox, Crow
and Mouse spoke through the mouths of
s1orytellers ...Each story invited the humans
present to entertain the world from a bird's
eye view, as it were, or perhaps a whale's.
"The next step in the magic of A ll
S p ecies Day was to move from the
enchantment of hearing stories to actively
assuming the perspective of a non-human
species by wearing masks or face and body
paint, representing the creatures. In
preliterate societies it is serious busrncss to
discover the animals in one's soul.
Elaborate ceremonies and endurance-testing
vision quests prepare the way before one
can wear the symbol of Eagle or Bear,
Salmon or Wolf. At All Species Day it was
largely a children's game save for some
mature humans who would not have all
playfulness relegated only to children."
- continued on page 22
1J01UGSK££'J
3) How long has your species lived on Ea rth?
choose one you would like to represent for AU Species Day.
My choice is:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
(common name)
(scientific name)
4) Describe your acti vities as the seasons cha nge from
spring to s ummer, fa ll and winter. (If your life s pan is
shorter than a year, describe your life cycle.)
belonging to the _ ..pl...,.a... l.........
nt.., a n jm,....a!...__ kingdom.
(circlt ont)
For the rest of this worksheet play the game: " If I were
a
" using the plant or anima l you have chosen,
and tell about yourself.
5) What is your place in the food web? (What food do you
eat? Who eats you?)
6)
Is your species in danger of ex tinction? If so, tell why:
1) Describe yourself. (Your colors, your size, your s pecial
features, your voice, etc.)
2) Where do you live? (Continent, geographical region,
habitat.)
4
KATUAH ·page 8
-
7) When all the other plants a nd anima ls, including the
humans, gather at the Parliament of Critters on All Species
Day to talk to one another, what would you like to say or do?
-
-
; " ' '
..
Winter 1986-87
�catkin, hair, scarab, pear, redwood, ragweed, lousewort, bear,
willow, leek, ear and cheek, euglena, spirolina, talon and beak,
raven, hemlocks, ginseng, volvox, stinkbug, rosebud, black widow,
hollyhocks, bluegill and kiwi vine, chestnut and pinion pine,
dolphin, sunflower, chinquapin and human kind, sagebrush,
endosperm, nectarine, arctic tern, onions, grunions, date palm,
bracken fern, orchid, grouse, sumac, mouse, rhubarb, baobab, lotus,
louse, lupine, lizard, fin and gizzard, phylum, xylem , trout and
wizard, wolf and whale, nettle, quail, earthworm, sycamore,
nutmeg, nightingale, elephant's eye, comfrey, rye, hawk's wing,
trillium, thistle, thigh, gland, goose, bark, spruce, panther, anther,
apple, moose, buzzard, knee, navel, pea, goat's horn, amaranth,
beaver, bumblebee, mushroom, fig, termite, pig, oyster, violet,
pigeon, maple twig, joe pye weed, alder seed, coyote, bluejay,
parsley and river reed, cannabis, petiole, oak tree, blue cheese
mold, salamander, rattlesnake, blackgum and oriole, large-mouth
bass and lemongrass, coral, laurel, sorrel, and sassafrass
Everyone who lives and breathes
With hide or feathers, scales or leaves
We invoke ourcellves in total range
To bring about the needed change
Poem by Will Ashe Bason
KATUAH - page 9
Winter 1986-87
�A Katuah Conversation with a Cherokee
native. Here a re his words about getting in touch
with each other, our world, and our own selves:
It seems to me that human beings probably do the
worst job of communicating of all other species on the
planet. We can't even communicate with one another. We
still have wars and such..... People who are sensitive and
conscious of the environment want to develop some kind of
communication with plants and animals. Since they're so
stuck in the mode of~. they try to communicate with
plants and talk with plants on that level. Our relationship with
the rest of the planet, though, is~ in most cases, and
so the communication has to come through .thnl level, not a
verbal sort of thing.
The human inability to communicate well with other
plants and animals comes from the fact that many of us have
separated ourselves from the very environment that provides
for us, living instead in an artificial, controlled environment.
We ~ in houses instead of using housing just as shelter.
When people are so completely self-oriented and out of touch
with themselves, it's hard to communicate with plants and
animals.
I had an experience when l was about founccn. There
weren't very many roads around where I lived. I was visiting
a friend who lived two mountains over. There was a
well-used trail going over there. Everybody had traveled it
for years and years; it was like a super-highway of trails. I'd
crossed this trail a hundred times - it was real familiar to me.
One time, it was dusk, "long shadow time", and coming
down the trail, all of a sudden I started to feel cold chills. I
was feeling something. The farther l went down the trail, the
more scared I got. All my instincts said to me: "Don't go any
farther, there's something down there that's going to hurt
you, don't go any farther." I ttied to push it a little bit more,
but then I just turned before I panicked. I walked away very
quickly, and it seemed that the farther I got away from that
place, the better I got. By the time I had come down the trail
a couple of hundred yards, I felt just fine. Then my rational
mind came over and said: "You're just imagining all this."
And I turned around and started back. The same thing
happened to me again. So this time I went back and took
another trail and everything was just fine.
Later on that night I came back through the traiL It
was dark, but nothing happened. I never again had that
experience, that fceling ...and I was looking for it when I
came back through. Well, when I got back home. I sat down
and talked to my grandfather about il, and he said that the
plants had been ta!Jdng to me. They had been communicating
with me in a spiritual sort of sense. He said that when we're
KATUAH- page 10
in harmony with things and meeting our responsibiltties as
human beings towards the other things, that the other forms
of life would be in communication with us all the time.
Things are coming to us all the time, but if we are so
self-indulgent within ourselves, focussing only on our own
ideas and thoughts, we block out everything else. He said it
all goes back to the separation ...our original sin is
separation ....and that the more people can hook into the
Great Life, the more control they will have over their lives,
and the more ability they will have, not only to communicate,
but also to listen. That was one of my first experiences
communicating with green things.
Since then, throughout my life, things like that have
happened to me. I have walked in the woods at night and
have stopped and had something reach out and touch me and
I'd look behind me and there would be nothing there. Then
something would touch me again, and I would look around
and sec that it was a limb from a tree. Now, my
rationalization would say that the wind had blown it and
knocked it down .....
Leaming to Communicate
My grandfather said every child should have a dog,
and I said, "Why, just because they're neat? " And he said,
"No, it's a way for a young child to learn to communicate
without talking." Even though dogs can't talk, they'll let
their needs be known, and so children can learn how to
communicate with them without talking.
Winter 1986-87
�When we communicare, it's imponant to pay attention,
to listen and to be conscious of aJl the communicating that is
going on. It takes practice. In this culture, communication
isn't valid unless it's words. Someone may be
communicating a message with all their being, but when
somebody else begins to act upon that communication, the
first person starts dropping back and denying that they said
that. It creates mixed messages. It happens all the time,
because we don't see that wider kind of communication as
reliable, trustworthy, and valid.
Animals like the dog species all communicate with
their noses. Everything's coming in that way. I was
watching a herd of deer the other day. They use their noses
and their eyes...and they use signals. The female of the
species flags, throws her tail up and waves it up and down,
and no one even considers discussing it, you know, like
"what'd you see?". They all leap and are gone, right now.
Signals..... As a boy I used to huni squirrels with a
blow gun. The nice thing about the blow gun is you could
miss a squirrel two or three times and it would not even
know you were shooting at i1. My hair was always long
then, and when they'd catch me or see me, I would make a
chattering noise with my lips and grab my pony tail and
shake it up and down, flipping it. Their response might have
been fear at first when they saw me, but I did the right
signals, and they stopped and we just went back and forth at
one another. hollering and waving our tails. It would get to
the point where I couldn't even shoot the animal because
we'd developed this communication, this relationship--even
if it was a little hostile on his pan because he wanted me to
get the heck out of his territory.
All of our hunting skills are from observation and
imitation of animals who are good hunters. That's where it
all starts. We've probably learned more from animals than
we have from each other. Imitation, though, is not a very
well-accepted thing in the dominanc culture. Everybody
wants to be original, and they won't admit that they admire
or wish to take on certain traits.
The Plant Spirits
It's our custom when we collect plants 10 give thanks
and 10 wait 'til the fourth one before we pick the species
we're looking for. And if it's a medicine plant, we circle it.
Someone can have lived in the mountains all bis life and
never found ginseng, although he has looked for it lots of
times. Then, finally, one day he may find it. My people say
it was hiding from him.
One time I went into the mountains with some people
that I was to show herbs to, and I wasn't doing it in the right
way. I should have stopped and explained how to collect
them. They were interested in ginseng, so I took them to this
particular place, because I had found ginseng there lots of
times - an incredible amount of times. It was like my "sure"
place to find it. r went there, and we walked up and down
that whole mountainside and never found ~plant. Well,
three days later my daughter came to me and said, "I wane to
find some ginseng, I've never found any". So we did all the
right things that we should do, and then we went out to the
same place, and ginseng was everywhere. It was a sunny,
fall day, warm and beautiful, but suddenly there was a wild
crack of thunder. I was still overwhelmed by that when my
daughter said, "Dad, here's a ginseng plan1." And that was
her first one.
I think attitude is important. If you go into the
mountains or the woods or the forest and you have a
"grabs-all" type attitude, where you're there to exploit and
there's no feeling, you may find some stuff, but you ~
will be successful. And if you're using it for medicine, it
may not work for you. You know what I mean.
The problem sometimes is tha1 people close themselves
off. They have c lear, defined lines of what reality is within
!hemselves. Some people are so strong about that, they inflict
u on other people as rules and such. So when 1hey hear
soo:icthing that is outside of their ordinary "reality", ii doesn't
register.
The western philosophy is almost desi~ned to separate
a p~rson from their environment. II is a war against the
environment. Look at what's happened since
industrialization. Western culture has changed the whole face
of the Earth, and it is destroying many of the plants and
animals. With that atcitude, it's hard to communicate with
plants .and animal~. The crux of the whole thing is
separauon. And until someone can come back and get in
couch with what's around them, it will be difficult to have a
right attitude.
The whole thing all comes down to the fact that
there's only one equation and that's ONE. There's only
ONE. And we're all pan of that ONE. We're not separated
from it. People suffer from intellectual separation - they're
not Wl1J.x separated, but they have a strong~ that they're
separated. The artitude of 'individualism' puts one at war
against their environment. So, it starts again. Everything
starts from where you're at. And so to get in touch with the
environment, you've got to get 2lll there, first of all. You've
got to start wilh yourself. And you've got to start serving,
being a servant You've got to help your own species in what
ways you can. All these things will chip away that
'individualism'. Trust, absolute trust, is what's needed.
Y'know, I've extended myself a lot in my life and
been whupped down, crushed, and badly hun. Well, there
was a point when I said, "I'm not going to do that anymore."
~n~ ~o I t?~ that tactic a while. I started becoming more
10d1v1dualisnc, and then I sraned to get more self-oriented. I
just didn't like the way all those things felt; I felt an
emptiness and a loneliness that I had never felt before. Then I
sat down and thought, "Well, it's better to extend myself and
be hurt than to feel this emptiness." So what I'm saying in a
simple way is: first of all, stan extending yourself...not in a
suicidal son of way, though. When your flags go up, when
lhe bushes say "Get the heck out of here" - listen. Or pull
back to a point where you can see that you're safe. and then
act. But it all starts with "self" and trust - and getting out
there and looking at plants and bushes and animals and
seeing how they live their lives. Start looking at your fellow
humans. Stan listening to what they say. And then stan
ruyfilg.
And then, all of a sudden, a plant is going to reach out
and snatch you, stretch out it's limbs and wrap them around
you or something. Or you may go for walk in the woods and
~et lost, and confounded •. when all of a sudden something
Jerks you and drags you nghc ou1. Then you will know that
the Earth has spoken to you. Because the Earth is not dead·
it's alive. Everything is alive.
/
KATUAH - page 11
vi
Winter 1986-87
1lAv 11\A
=>(!i>q •
�(.1l131N
What do horse logging, learning
disabilities, and the Sweetie Pie Bake-off all
have in common?
Answer: They are all classes and
evencs offered as part of Cabin Fever
University. Cabin Fever You is dedicated to
the proposition "that all seasons were not
created equal and that wQJ1llth and light gin
be found in mid-winter". If you are looking
to find that warmth and light....read on!
The idea for Cabin Fever University
came from Dick Kennedy, a resident of the
Cclo Community near Burnsville, NC. Dick
had participated in a similar project in
Detroit, Ml called "Open City". The basic
principle in both organizations is to facilitate
neighbors coming together to share skills,
ideas, laughs, philosophies, food, and
music. All the courses at Cabin Fever U.
are free unless someone's professional
skills and/or materials are needed. One of
the many positive benefits of the program is
that it promotes a feeling of unity within the
community during the winter months when
it is needed most
Seven years ago when Dick Kennedy
staned CFU, he bad to work hard to get 20
or 30 listings for that year. Now that most
people in the Celo area and others
throughout Yancey and Mitchell counties
know about the program, the work is much
easier, and the catalog has 80-90 listings
each year.
To organize the Cabin Fever
curriculum now, volunteers begin in
November to gather the listings from their
KATIJAH- page 12
DNIV€~SICY
neighbors and to print the catalog. Peggy
Tibbits, John Pence, Miki Rolett, Douie
Morgan, and Joanne Hodshon call all the
people who held classes last year and ask
them what they would like to offer this year.
Any new families who have moved into the
area are asked to panicipate also. Each
person making calls is responsible for
scheduling a two week period of time. Once
all the calling has been completed, the
schedule is checked for conflicts. The
catalog is then copied on Dick Kennedy's
copying machine. The entire job of
producing the catalog - including calling,
typing, layout, copying, and collating - can
be completed within a total time of 25
hours. They are sold for $0.75 each. Jn
1985 150 catalogs were distributed.
The classrooms for Cabin Fever You
are the homes of the people who offer each
course. All arrangements are made direclly
with the "faculty person" leading the course.
There are usually limits placed on the
number of panicipants allowed in each
class. Everyone in the Cclo area knows who
are the best cooks in the community, so
places at cooking classes are filled quickly!
The kitchen and dining room at the
Arthur Morgan School are used to host the
Dreams Die Hard Diner every New Year's
Day. Robin Dreyer opens for business at 9
a.m. as a New York City diner complete
with hot coffee, bagels, eggs, and an
occasional bag lady.
Sometimes the classroom is under the
wide-open sky as in the moonlight walk 10
Crabtree Falls offered by Sue and Lyle
Snider. Other events include printing on
clay with Catherine Brown, Contra and
Square Dancing (with live music and
callers), and Bad Food Night with Jan and
Beth Plummer - a potluck gathering
featuring the likes of macaroni and cheese,
frozen pizzas, and Boone's Farm wine.
The course offerings for CFU are a
blend of serious studies and frivolous fun.
If someone cannot find something in the
catalogue that sparks their interest, they
must be seriously devoted to staring at the
fire in the wood stove during the winter.
lf you do not live in Yancey or
Mitchell counties, you can stan a Cabin
Fever University in your own community.
Basically, all it requires is one person to
generate some interest in the project and a
small investment of money 10 produce the
catalog. Almost everyone knows a dozen
people. Call them and find out what their
interests are and what classes or events they
would be willing to offer. Usually people
are more than willing to get involved, and
oftentimes they have been waiting for the
opponunity 10 arrive. You would be
surprised what your friends, people you
have known - or thought you have known for a long time, are into.
If you have any questions about CFU
or are interested in staning a similar project.
call Dick Kennedy at (704) 675-5286.
- by Martha Overloc~
Winter 1986-87
�sequence: fire
sequence: dream
and winging the wind against the fog
sailing across the silence below; into the vision
and the atoms shirt
and the stars re-align
and the fog forms fractions
I the tea still gets cold before I've drunk it.
the heart's song resounds across the winds of time
there is no broken heart
there is love that is given through the shell that refuses
the circle of love is bigger than any wall of hate.
love is the loudest song of all
the path of love is like the mountain trail; stony, steep,
with many ups and downs
and getting from one place to the other that are only
a few steps across the gulf, but are many miles through reality.
and after the traveler has walked his last few steps
and has one last prayer to whisper
one prays that the path has led a full circle
to return from whence he came
to end as he began
a child created through love
"the path of love
is like the mountain trail.. ... "
Poems by Oliver Loveday
•
and should we have a moment to turn and reflect
no thought would be given to the trail blister
or the skinned knee, nor the moments of doubt and confusion.
time spent in the valley would leave memories of the tall trees,
the bright flowers, the laughter of children, and the cool,
clear stream.
and the high points would be moments of solitude and freedom
of far ranging vision and thoughts.
of seeing the eagle in flight
catching the first rays of the morning sun
and feeling the wind from far above.
sure the weary traveler would have a limp
with slumped shoulders
and a wind much too short to let his laughter run its full course
but there would be a twinkle in his eye
and a marked space in between his words that only the fire
of love could possess.
and there would be a strength in his manner of one who has run
his course, remained firm to his choice even when lhe path ran
the razor-sharp ridge top, when it would have been easier to
tum back to the lush son forest floor below.
the traveler has his moment of rest at the end of a race well run.
but when asked to run the next; a longer, harder trail.
the choicer stands to say yes and then is on his way
not even a glance backward. sequence: love. yes.
tonight, the path is well-lit
by a moon so bright it dims the stars
and reflects the clouds of steam
billowing from my nostrils.
As I drop into the cove the air
becomes colder, crisp, clear,
snapping with the intensity of ice;
but the only sound I hear is my own motion.
the cabin fire warms me as I recall
the walk down. Its hissing name breaks
the silence as smells of roast apple enters
my senses like the incense of a meditating Buddha.
I relax and listen to the clock reminding me
of my humanity while my time is measured by the
sound of boiling water for tea.
I breathe and feel my blood rushing through
my body like a million dreams cutting through
the silence. I smile as I lay down my pen
to listen closer. Outside a rabbit pauses
in the frost to curse the dogs and the Full Moon.
KATUAH-page 13
Winler 1986-87
�Keeping Warm in Winter:
Homeless in Katuah
All creatures need shelter ... a
home...a nest. As human creatures become
more and more dependent on the urban
economy, they become removed or
abstracted from the means to preserve their
own survival. No longer is it easy for a
human creature to be "native" with the
earth... to find shelter and gather food to
keep alive. One usually has 10 rent or own
"propeny" which may include a house or
apartment. No longer are community wells
or water sources available... usually one
must "pay" for the use of that very basic
many plant closings around here; others
never had a job to lose, nor the training to
get one. This brief look at this issue is
presented in hopes that a more humane,
viable, life-centered economy can be
developed in this locale and in this region.
The human "systems" here are not working
as well as they could ...families should nor
be financially forced off their
farms ... productive industries need to be
regionally owned so there is less chance of
multination,al-type plant closings... more
cooperative small businesses need 10 be
encouraged to start up in order 10 provide
steady employment. .. and on and on. Our
human "systems" need to be re-designed to
ensure right livelihood for .i!.11 inhabitants of
this area.
People who are homeless do not so
much need our sympathy but more our
empathetic push towards looking at
new/old ways in which our human
community can live comfonably and gently
within this land called Katuah.
At present, the three people
interviewed here are using the facilities of
the Laurentine Shelter in Asheville, NC run
by volunteers and the Asheville-Buncombe
Community Christian Ministries. Other
shelters in this locale include the Western
Carolina Mission, the Salvation Army
Emergency Lodge and a newly forming
independent shelter, the Hospitality House
which hopes to be able to accommodate
people during the day as well as evenings.
At present, uhere are not enough facilities to
meet the needs of the homeless people in
Asheville.
Here is the transcript of the interview:
element One may be fonunate enough to
grow a garden but often it only supplements
one's or one's family's diet. The truth is...
much of survival in the city requires
money-quite a lot of it.
The following is an interview with
three men in their 40's and 50's who grew
up here in the KatU'ah region who have no
shelter of their own to call home--no nest,
nor economic niche. Two of them grew up
in the country. For one of them, the city
expanded into the 'country' thus he became
urbanized by just staying put Another could
not make it by living in the country, so
moved into town. This interview is a
glimpse into their stories and their lives.
There are many more people like
them, men and women, who too are
homeless in this region. Some have lost
their means of livelihood because of the
KATUAH - page 14
K: Are you from around here?
AM: I grew up here in Asheville near Oteen.
K:What about your family; are they around
here?
AM: I have a mother living here now but I
can't live with her because she lives in one
of those low-income housing, so I'm out.
[Katiiah checked with the Housing
Authority and found that only families, the
elderly and the handicapped are eligible to
apply for housing assistance. Single
adults-male or female-are not eligible to
apply for any housing. A family can be any
two or more blood relatives living together,
so under that category AM. could apply for
him and his elderly mother to live together
as a "family"; however, there is a waiting
list. -Ed.J
K: When you were growing up, did you
live in town or out in the country?
JG:
Where we lived was out in the
country, still in Buncombe County, though.
K: Did y'all do any farming?
JG: Oh Lord, yes. All the time. Me and my
grandmother and granddaddy.
K: Was it tobacco fanning?
JG: No, just com and other food.
K: Did you sell any of it or just grow it for
your own use?
JG: Mainly, for our own use. We canned it
and used it ourselves. 'Had to back in them
days.
K: Can you share with us why you feel that
you need to use the Shelter.
JG: I was born and raised here in this
coun~ and you can't find a job nowhere.
K: Have you tried to find if there is any kind
of govemment way for you to get housing?
JG: Well, I don't have no income and you
have to have an income before you can do
anything like tha1. [Recently, the Housing
Authority has begun to accept applications
for people who have no income. However,
unfortunately, JG is not eligible to apply
because he is a single individual. -Edi
K: So, there's no way that the government
will help you to get housing?
JG: No. I know it doesn't sound right.
Winter 1986-87
�K: Have you been offered any possibility
for a work training program?
JG: No. I do know how to do bnckwork,
but I haven't been able to get work doing
that. [There is a training progmm available
in the area under the federal Job Training
Partnership Act, administered by the
county. -Ed.]
K: Did you grow up in this area?
DJ: Yes. In Asheville, right in town.
K: What has been your experience with
getting work-with getting by?
DJ: I haven't done much work at all in my
life, not at all. I've sold clothes. worked in
bars and banks. That's about it. A liule bit
of construction. I'm a diabetic and an
epileptic. I'm trying to get the disability.
That's why I cannot work at all.
K: Do you apply for disability through
Social Services?
DJ: Yes. For what good it does, I really
couldn't tell you.
K: How is it going?
DJ: Well, I was just turned down for the
second time. The first time it took me
basically about six months to even hear
from anybody. And I had at that time, the
first time, only one doctor who said I
should not work. And now this time, I had
three different doctors that told me I should
not work. And it took them about three
months to say 'no', again. So, now I am
going to appeal it, this time. Without the
shelter, really and truly I have no idea of
what I could have done. My parents are
divorced. My dad remarried and he just
recently rnoved back to the area. But he
doesn't even like to say hello. My mother,
she's basically in the same situation as JG's
mother. She's lives in low income
housing ... in Atlanta. My mom, she and I
get along very, very well but I only get to
sec her about once every two months
because of the regulations there about family
visitntion.
DJ: This area is a terrific place in the
summer but it sure gets cold in the winter.
K: What are the hours that you can be at U1e
Sheller?
DJ: Pretty much 6:30 in the evening til 6:30
in the morning.
K: Well, in winter, what do you do?
DJ: Just try basically to know somebody,
where you could go. What I've been doing I
go down to [a fast-food restaurant] and I am
lucky enough that they don't ask me to
leave.
K: It seems your choices are very limited.
DJ: I'm afraid a lot of days are like that.
K: Did you grow up in this area?
JM: Up in Madison County, out in the
country.
K: That's beautiful land up that way.
JM: Yeah, it's nice if you can make it. Some
folks go up as far as Tennessee for work.
K: All the way to Tennessee?
JM: Yeah, most of them do. You know, the
ones who've got steady jobs. Most of them
just farm down there.
K: Are there people who just stay and try to
hang on by the skin of their teeth?
JM: Yeah, a lot of lhem.
K: Do you think they're getting enough
food and keeping warm enoogh?
JM: Well, some of 'em is and some of 'em
ain't I guess. A lot of 'em sleep in old junk
cars.
K: Do any of them h:l\e land themselves?
JM: No, they're just out on the street.
K: Is there any place up that way where
people can spend the night?
JM: No, they don't have a shelter up that
way.
K: Are there any ch urches that informally
offer people an option?
JM: I don't think there are.
K: Are there any seasonal jobs available to
these folks?
JM: Yeah, chere're some jobs lhere in the
summenime. But it's like around here in
the wintertime, there just ain't nothing.
K: Well, what do people do in \~inter?
JM: They just do the best they can. There'rc
not lhat many really there, you know, most
of them are here in Asheville.
K: How many folks do you know that came
from Madison who need a place to live?
JM: Well, there's quite a few. There's a lot
of them around here and there's a lot of
them down in Greenville, SC. They just
stay around that mission down there as long
as they can.
"You set there, you stay
warm. If you've got money
to buy a cup of coffee or
something, why it's alright.
If you don't, they'll run you
off."
K: What's your story? Did you used to do
fanning?
JM: Yeah, we raised tobacco and stuff like
that. My daddy worked for the Southern
Railroad and we done farming and raised
tobacco, com and stuff like that. We sold
the tobacco and the other was garden
vegetables that we used.
K: Did your family stay up in Madison?
JM: No, my brother and sister both moved
to South Carolina.
K: What do you think needs to happen here
in the Asheville area in te rms of this need
for housing?
JM: I'd like to see them open up another
shelter so we can get some more people off
lhe street 'cause if it wasn't for the Shelter
I'd be out on the street myself. The Shelter
is one of the best things that happened here
in Asheville.
K: What do you do in winter? Do you have
to figure out how to keep warm from 6:30
in the morning til the evening, too?
JM: I sure do. Well, through the week it's
not too bad 'cause , you know, things open
up pretty early. Now, on the weekends,
there ain't a thing to do.
K:Hmrnmm.
JM: You know, you can't go in no cafe if
you ain't got no money to buy nothing. If
they don't sell you nothing, they're going to
run you out.
DJ: They don't appreciate that. Even at the
fast food resrourant I was talking about.
JM: Yeah, they don't appreciate it if you go
in there and just set. You set there, you siay
warm. If you've got money to buy a cup of
coffee or something, why it's alright If you
don't, they'll run you off.
K: What do you think wo uld be good,
particularly through the wintertime... would
you appreciate if there was a place, sav, a
church social hall, wher e you could. be
during the day...even have projects to work
on there?
JM: Yeah, that would be a good thing. For
people who ain't got no place to go during
the day.
K: If there were projects the.re, what would
you like to see there?
JM: Mainly, woodworking.
JG: Yeah, that'd be a good lhing.
DJ: Sure would.
K: When you moved to town from
Madison, did you have work for a while?
JM: Yeah, I worked last summer.
K: What were you doing?
JM: I stayed at lhe Mission down there [in
Asheville) last summer and people called in
there and wanted you to come out and
work. I worked just about every day.
K: Now this was at the Mission and people
would call up there?
JM: They'll let you work, you know, about
three days a week. They split it up between
everybody, so everybody gets a little bit of
it. Mainly, that comes through the
employment security office.
K: How long have you been in the county
here?
JM: Well, off and on for the last 15 years.
K: Before the mission was around, where
did you go?
JM: Well, mostly, 'fore they built that
mission I was working down in Greenville,
SC. You know, I had a preuy good job
down there and I could afford an apanment
and everything. But now, l ain't got
nothing.
K: What work were you doing down there?
JM: Construction work. And I've worked in
a lot of mills, too, you know, cotton mills.
K: And then, what happened to the work,
did it dry up?
JM: Yeah, they just started laying people
off, you know. They just kept the ones
who'd been there the longest.
- continued on page 23
photos by Mamie Muller
KATUAH - page 15
\\linter 1986-87
�the w
Lloyd C
Survfrol ofthe Clans
'This speaks of relationships, who our kinfolk are. The
names of the seven clans translate into the seven parts of the
world."
Tsali's Wife
'That woman is the center of the piece. All
to do with the matriarchal society.
'The strength of the woman: how strong she
can endure. She knows the dongers. She kno1
than tlie male's. You ca11't break her down."
Tsali's Wijj
The Family
'The mother, the father, the child. The mother's hand of
control, of survival, is close to the child. They learn from
her. The moving lines tie it all together, but the same themes
move through all my carvings. It's hard to speak of one
carving separate from the rest, because the ideas appear in
one fonn or another in all the different carvings."
�rR of ·
rl Owle
Releasing the Spirit of tlze Stone
'There's something in chat rock, and once I carve it, and you
can see it, the spirit is released."
life is going on around her. It must have something
How she can take care of the children, and how she
1ow to go on. Her system in a lot of ways is stronger
I
Tribute to Those Who Have Died
'The person is just barely there. Just a whisper, or a touch,
or a mention that she is there in the scone."
�-
--
Each line from the solar panel must have a gate valve
installed as close to the tank as possible. A boiler drain valve
must be installed at the bottom of the solar panel. Finally, a
vacuum breaker must be installed at the top of the panel.
by Avrarn Friedman
Did you know lhat more than half lhe electricity
consumed by the average American household is used to heat
water? If people employed alternative methods of heating
wacer, such as solar energy or wood heat, there would be no
rationale for the continued use of nuclear energy which
supplies only about 12% of the nation's elecnicity.
Unfortunately, many solar hot water systems on the
market today are "active" systems which depend on some
external source of energy to operate and which use
electronically operated pumps, sensors, valves, controllers
and elaborate networks of piping which leave homeowners in
awe and bewilderment. It is not uncommon for such
systems to remain inoperative for weeks, months, or forever,
because repair work requires so much technical expertise.
But solar energy systems do not have to be expensive
and complex. If the user is willing to play a small active
role, the system can be totally passive and all the fancy
gadgets can be eliminated. This article will outline how a
virtually maintenance-free system can be constructed
inexpensively.
Basic Principles
This type of system is called a "thermosiphon". It
requires that the bottom of the water storage tank be located
at least 18" above the beat source. In this case there will be
two sources of heat: a wood stove and a solar collector.
This system can provide 100% of a household's hot water
needs.
Since cold water is more dense, it falls to the bottom of
the system, displacing the less dense hot water to the top of
the tank. The cold water continually returns to the bottom
where it gains heat and rises to lhe top, etc. As more heat is
added, the tank "builds down" with hot water.
Components
The major components of the system arc a wood
stove, a hot water collector, a 40 gallon hot water tank. and
copper tubing.
Before any construction begins, a diagram of the
system should be shown ro the local plumbing inspector.
S/he can give you valuable pointers and steer you away from
possible dangers. Most inspectors are glad to help.
The Tank
Any available hor water tank can be adapted to use in
this system. It is best to use a new tank to be assured that it
will last for a good while.
Look for a tank that has at least two outlets on top.
The side outlets are for the thennosiphon loop pipes. The
top outlets will be used for the cold water supply and the pipe
carrying hot water from the tank to the house fixtures (sinks,
showers, etc.). The cold warer supply will enter the top and
travel down a "dip tube" to the bottom of the tank. Most
tanks already have dip tubes installed. Whenever hot water
is demanded in rhe house it will come from t.he top of the
tank where the water is honest, and is replaced by cold water
entering through the dip rube to the bottom of the tank.
Be sure to install a temperauue and pressure relief
valve at the tOp ofthe rank!
"Dielectric unions" at au outlets where copper pipe
meets the galvanized steel tank will protect both tank and
pipes from galvanic corrosion and extend the life of your
system.
Pipe Work
The next step is to insulate all the pipes and the tank.
ll is very important to maximize heat retention. Pipe
insulation and hot water "blankets" arc commercially
available and relatively cheap. The pipes should be secured
with pipe supports, clamps, or fasteners. Make sure there is
no stress on any soldered or threaded joints.
Maintenana!
If all work has been done carefully, the system should
be virtually maintenance-free. When the sun is shining or
when a fire is burning in the stove, hot water will be
produced and available on tap.
The only active role the user must play is 10 drain the
solar collector in the fall, before freezing weather sets in, and
to refill it in the spring, when all danger of freezing has
passed. This can be done by the operation of the two "loop"
valves and the boiler drain at the bottom of the solar
collector.
For more information, write: Friedman & Sun Design, Inc/
PO Box 657
Dillsboro, N.C. 28725
A PASSIVE SOLAB .\NO
~
Wood.stove Hot Water Loop
Virtually any woodstove can be easily adapted into a
thcrmosiphon system. There are several ways to do this, but
probably the easiest way is to coil ten feet of 1/2" copper
tubing and place it inside the firebox near the exhaust of the
stove. This requires that a hole be drilled in the side of the
srovc where the "intake" of the coil wilt enter from the
bottom of the tank. In addition a hole must be drilled in the
stovepipe, about 6" above the stove, where the coil exit.s and
runs up to the top of the tank- This creates a "closed loop"
between stove and tank. Whenever the stove is used. hot
water will be produced. One thing to remember is that the
pipe carrying hot water should run continuously in an
upward direction and about 3" from the rop. Never loop the
hot pipe above the tank and then down through the top of the
HEAT HOT \o/ATEP.
SV5TEM
tank.
Solar Loop
The solar panel is connected to the tank in the identical
fashion as the woodstovc. In this case the panel is the "coil"
and forms a closed loop with the tank.
If you are building your own solar panel, have the
intake at the bottom diagonally positioned from the exit at the
top.
The solar panel pipes may "T' into the corresponding
woodstove pipes instead of attaching directly into the tank.
KATUAH - page 18
~
.
l£='=
_..,..J'''~I " )
/
\
\
I \
I \
Winter 1986-87
I
�Homage to Prometheus:
A Stovebuilder's Narrative
I grew up with fireplaces and Warm
Morning heaters that burned both wood and
coal as a heat source during winter. As
ecological concerns became popular in the
late sixties, I became aware of several
air-tight, fuel-efficient wood stoves that
were available on the market. While they
offered a solution to one problem, they were
often beyond the budget of most of the
community in the area where I grew up.
There was also a cenain romance involved
in the "back to the land" folks who wanted
to be self-sufficient as much as possible,
which included building their own stove or
fireplace. The fireplace is considered the
most inefficient means of heat, but it is
unbeatable in conveying a sense of home to
a space in the winter.
During my college days I picked up
some welding skills in sculpture class while
at the same time learning a good deal about
fire and heating processes in pottery classes.
With lhis background, I was taking a
welding course at the local vocational school
when the need for a woodstove arose. This
offered us the opportunity to make a stove
as a class project By using as a model a
wood stove made domestically based on a
Finnish stove design, I developed a design
for a srove that utilized one-quarcer inch
steel plate, with three of the sides and the
bottom lined with regular fire brick. With a
baffle chamber and an air-tight door, this
stove offered many advantages that appealed
to my ecological attitude. While the welding
process is not the most balanced of
processes in the ecological spectrum, the
use of salvaged steel from scrap yards and
the ability to build a fuel-efficient stove that
could fit into the budget of most folks more
than balances this drawback. As more
people in my community became aware of
my stoves, there was a good deal of interest
in how to improve on the design. I received
a lot of practical advice and was given recent
articles and books about wood stoves.
The design I have developed offers a
versatile stove that can be customized to fit
individual needs while increasing the price
of the stove by little or nothing. By using
the size of a regular fire brick as the basic
unit of size for the box, I am able to offer
two sizes of stoves as a general idea of what
I can do. Recently I was commissioned to
build a large furnace using the same design
with simple modifications.
After building the furnace and several
examples of variations on the basic design, I
became interested in two new designs; one
being a wood cookstove that used the
firebox design and the second being a
modification of the barrel stove using large
pipe instead of an oil drum with its thin
walls. I began the wood cookstove three
years ago as a side project using whatever
steel was available at the end of other
projects. I spent as much time working out
the design on paper as I did actually
building the stove. This stove was recently
completed, but I have not used it enough to
be sure that a person can cook on it, bake in
the oven, and still not be run out of an
overly heated room. There are advantages
and disadvanrages in the design, but the
disadvantages should become minimal with
minor alLerations.
The second project proved much
easier to apply. After locating a section of
pipe two feet in diameter with half-inch wall
thickness, I designed a stove for a friend
who did truck farming for a living. He
needed a stove for his greenhouse that
would hold a fire all night and not bum out
after one season's use. The stove more than
satisfied that need. I used half-inch plate to
weld a "V" to the top of the horizantally laid
pipe to make a baffle chamber. With an
air-tight door, the stove was fuel-efficient
and easily adaptable to the space needing
heat
A current project is to modify my
original stove design to fit in the stone work
Weld a " V" of 112" plate in 2' pipe of
3/8' wall for a r ugged but effective stove
of the house a friend has built. The stone
was laid with vents for forced draft to
generate uniform heat. We are considering
separating the baffle chamber from the
firebox so that the forced draft can go
between them to increase the amount of
BTU's available. Being an anist, I am
interested in building stoves that are
customized to project an individual
statement for the home-owner, while
remaining cost-effective and fuel-efficient
I plan to explore the use of other fuels
and other building materials in the future.
Natural gas, while it is a non-renewable heat
source, is the most practical fuel for urban
residents. It would be easy to design
unique, efficient stoves of salvaged pipe
(cast iron sewer pipe, etc.) for this fuel.
Cast earthenware clay is another material
that has been largely ignored in this country
in recent years. While clay would not
withstand the shock of loading wood into it,
it could offer a lot of versatility in design as
a material for a gas stove.
l have fantasies of someday starting a
non-profit co-operative of stove builders to
meet the needs of the community and the
Earth Mother. While I would be glad to
share my ideas with others, I am also aware
of the need to get patents on som.e of my
original designs so I could continue to use
them without someone else gaining legal
control over them.
With all the advancement of the
innovative ideas, my favorite source of heat
remains the open-pit fire. I have done little
to improve on this design.
-Oliver Loveday
KATUAH - page 19
Winter 1986-87
I ,..1; I ,;'
�NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACITVE
WASTE UPDATE
Natural World News SCNicc
In the present winter session, the srate
legislature will decide whether or not Nonh
Carolina will remain in the Southeast
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact. If
North Carolina chooses to remain in the
compact, it wilJ receive all the low-level
waste from eight states in the southeast for
the next 20 years. If the legislature chooses
to withdraw from the compact, the state will
still need a smaller facility to accomodate its
own low-level waste.
State legislators and the governor arc
presently saying that the pros and cons of
both courses of action are being studied.
An underlying assumption of the
radioactive waste debate is that the nuclear
induscry will continue to operate its waste
generating power plants and perhaps even
add new nuclear plants to the grid in the
future. The debate, then, is presented 10 the
public as merely one in which we decide
where and how we bury the waste. The
idea of limiting our waste output is not even
discussed.
In this case, however, the waste
dump issue docs affect the source of a large
pan of the waste, the nuclear power
induscry. If North Carolina and other states
choose to handle only their own low-level
wastes, it creates a powerful incentive to
minimize the waste produced. It would then
become a problem each state must deal with.
It could not be passed on to "the other guy".
Electorates and governments would resist
the construction of new nuclear power
plants, and they might even press to shut
down existing plants.
This prospect terrifies the nuclear
induscry. This is the real issue at stake. in
the Compact debate. Nuclear industry
lobbyists are right now twisting arms in
~eigh, causing legislators to give indirect,
wIShy-washy answers to public inquiries
concerning their positions on Compact
m~mbership: "Right now I tend to favor
withdrawal, but I'm going to wait until all
the facts are in before I commit myself." lf
!cgislat~rs ~ait until the legislative session
is over, 1t will be too late to withdraw from
the Compact.
False issues are being raised to dilute
the public sentiment to withdraw from the
Compact. For instance, the fear is raised
that "if we go it alone we'll have to accept
waste from all other states", because we
won't have the exclusionary clause which
protects Compact members. But in reality,
KATIJAH - page 20
the Low-Level RadioacLive Waste Policy
Act of 1980 directs all states Lo either deal
with their own waste or to join a Regional
Compact. If every state complies with this
federal law by 1993, there will be no one
left to send waste to Nonh Carolina.
It is particularly disturbing that in this
process the will of the people of North
Carolina is being basically ignored. The
public is being "informed" of the situation
and "prepared" for what is to come in the
future. This is an arrogant posture for
public officials to assume on an issue that
the electorate is relatively well-informed
about.
Democratic government is only
democratic if the people realize their power
and exercise it. Legislators will operate
under the illusion that they can ignore the
p~blic until they arc proven wrong. The
V 1etnam War and Watergate are examples of
arrogant lawmakers learning about the
power of the people in this country.
le is obvious that the people of Nonh
~li~a don't want a regi~nal waste dump
rn tbetr state. But to influence their
legislat~rs l? act accordingly, the public will
have to msntuie a popular movement which
will r~nder the nuclear industry's massive
lobbying effon useless. We can not just
assume that the legislature will do what is
best for the public. Legislators must be
made to realize that their political lives
depend on voting to withdraw from the
Compact.
Citizens for a Choice on Nuclear
Waste (CCNW) has been circulating a
p~tition statewide demanding either
withdrawal from the Compact or a binding
referendum on the issue. To dare over 5000
signatures have been collected on the
petition, and it has been supponed by 20
legislative candidates. This is a good start
but it is not nearly enough.
'
All concerned people need to get into
action again, quickly. Circulating this
petition is just one of the iasks that needs to
be done. Legislators need to be called
written, and confronted directly. Publi~
demonscrations need to be organized and
well-attended.
In general, it's rime for us all to wake
up. If you live in Nonh Carolina and have
an opinion about low-level radioactive waste
being shipped into the state, call Governor
Martin at his toll-free number:
1-800-662-7952 and telJ him how you feel.
For copies of the petition, write to:
CCNW
P.O. Box 653
Dillsboro, NC 28725
MRS: BEHJND CLOSED DOORS
from Natural RigltlS Ncwslc11cr
The United States Coun of Appeals is
deliberating on the case of Tennessee v
Herrington. The lawsuit, initiated by th~
State of Tennessee to prevent conscruction
of the "temporary" storage and processing
facility for High Level Nuclear Wastes
known as the MRS (Monitored Retreivablc
Storage) which the Dept. of Energy (DOE)
wants to site in Oak Ridge. Meanwhile,
DOE operatives are quietly at work behind
the scenes to bring the nation's waste to Oak
Ridge irrespective of how the coun rules.
. Last F~bi:unry. District Judge Thomas
Wiseman enJorned DOE from submitting
any Monitored Retreivable Storage proposal
to Congress that was based on the "fatalJy
flawed" Oak Ridge siting study. DOE
appeale~ that injunctio~. arguing among
other things, that the Judicial branch has no
constitutional power to enjoin the Executive
bra~ch . from commu~icaring with the
Lcg1slauve .branch. As 1f to prove the point,
DOE conunues 10 engage in extensive
communications with senators and
con.gressmen in an effon 10 win suppon for
!h~1r ~RS plan, despite the court's
lnJUnCUOn.
Now it appears 1ha1 a bill to create an
MRS is being drafted by Senators Johnson
(D-LA) and McClure (R-ID) for
introduction as soon as the court
proceedings are concluded. Such a bill
wouJd shortcut the Nuclear Waste Policy
Act process and simply authorize DOE 10
construct and operate an MRS at the site of
the abandoned Clinch River Breeder
Reactor. 30,000 spent nuclear fuel
assemblies wouJd be rrucked to that site.
Suppon for the Johnson-McClure bill
is the trade DOE is offering the 34 senators
and 164 representatives in the 17 Second
Round Nuclear Waste Repository States and
the 12 senators and 53 representatives in the
6 states studied for the First Round
Repository. In exchange for help with
MRS, DOE is offering 10 slow First Round
studies and drop the Second Round
selection process entirely. By agreeing to
put an MRS in eastern Tennessee, these
senators and representatives could t:ruLhfully
bra~ about having kept nuclear waste out of
their home state in future re-election
campaigns.
It is not responsible waste
~anagement to put all the nation's
high-level nuclear waste in an open field
beside a waterway that flows through 8
states before washing into the Gulf of
Mexico. It is stupid and dangerous to truck
it~ over interstate highways; once to
Winter 1986-87
�Tennessee, t~e.n later to a final repos11ory.
But the. $4 b1lhon that the plan will cost is
~01 s~bJCCl 10 qramm-Rudman cuts because
It will be paid by electric ratepayers.
Hopefully. _those who worry about the
hazar~s o_f nvers and highways - and their
elc~~nc bills - will be powerful allies in the
pohucal battle ahead.
NUCLEAR FUEL SERVICES
AGAIN
'
from N1lu1"11l Righis Ncwslcucr
In the l 970's, Nuclear Fuel Services
Inc. (NFS) simply walked away from it~
reprocessing plant in West Valley. NY, and
left 10 state and federal agencies the
$400,000,000 task of cleaning up 560,000
gallons of _highly radioactive wastes leaking
from the sue. NFS moved its operations to
Tennessee, where it went into the business
of supplying nuclear fuel for submarines
and selling uranium bullets to the
international anns trade.
Congre.ssperson Edward Markey
(0-MA) studied the NFS plant in Erwin,
TN as part of a survey of nuclear waste
handling in this country. On September 18
1986 Re~. Markey !CP,?"ed to congress 1ha;
the. Erw1~ pla~t 1s a toxic nightmare,
ooi.mg rad1oacuve contamination into work
areas, into lunchrooms and other
non-working areas, and into the soil outside
work buildings. The plant has coniamina1ed
groundwater and off-site railroad land.
Even parts of vending machines had 10 be
disposed as radioactive waste.
In
addition. rndioactive waste buried on the
plant site linancially endangers state and
federal ta_xpaycrs". Markey is conducting a
congressional inquiry into union charges
1ha_t .NFS an~ NRC conspire to keep the
facility operanng despite safety violations.
/
. The Namral Ri2f1ts Newslecrer is
ava1/ablefrom tl~e ~atural Rights Center, a
non-pro/11 public 111terest law project of
USA; P.0.Box; Summertown, TN
';/MBJ·
EPA PIGEON HOLES CIIAMPION
by
Mi!Uc Buch•mlll
Environmentalists and friends of the
Pigeon River won a major legal battle this
month in the continuing srruggle to clean up
the long-polluted river.
U.S. District Judge David Sentelle on
Dec. I. dismissed a lawsuit brought by
Champion International Corporation against
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Sentelle ruled that EPA did not overstep its
autho_ritr _when it. took away North
Caroltn~ s i;ght. to write a _Pem1it governing
C~amp1on s discharge 111to the Pigeon
River. Champion was joined by North
Carolin.a in its .l egal challenge to the EPA
move; rntervemng on behalf of EPA were
the State of Tennessee, the Pigeon River
Acti~n Group (PRAG), and the Legal
Environmental Assistance Foundation
(LEAF)._ ~hampion has 30 days to appeal
the d~1s1on. If the appeal fails, both
Champion and North Carolina will have to
accept the terms of the permit currently
being drafted by the EPA.
. N_orth C~rolina's long history of
penmssive penruts has left the Pigeon River
below Champion's Canton plant
coffee-colored and nearly devoid of life, in
sharp contrast to the pure crout scream !bat
emerges from the mountains of Haywood
County above the plant. Efforts by PRAG
and the State of Tennessee led to the
unprecedented EPA decision to take back
pennitting authority from a state.
Key issues in the struggle are the
color of the river, which is still brown when
it crosses into Tennessee; and the elevated
temperature, which has consistently violated
Nonh Carolina water quality standards.
For more information, contact:
Millie Buchanan
Qean Water Fund
102 Tacoma Circle
Asheville, NC 28801
Pigeon River Action Group
P.O. Box 105
Waynesville, NC 28786
(704) 627-9774
BILLBOARD BLIGHT:
EYE POLLUTION SOLUTION
Natural World News Servu:c
. Recently, the meager efforts made by
legislators to deal with the advancing
onslaught of billboards grai.ing the
mount_ains have been compromised by hard
!obbymg on the part of the billboard
tndustry. To combat this unyielding
invading unsightliness, cicizens groups have
sprung up and are confronting the billboard
industry and its legislators. Carolina
Coalition for Scenic Beauty, with its 350
members in Hendersonville and chapters in
Buncombe County and Charlotte, has a
two-fold plan modeled after the new
Waynesville, NC sign ordinance: I) halt
ereccion of new billboards (there are now
over 17,000 billboards gracing the land in
Western Nonh Carolina and the NC coastal
tourist areas); 2) repeal laws which allow
cutting of crees to put up billboards.
f" ~inc m~mber governmental study
commission which held hearings for eight
months on possible sii.e reduction made no
recomendations to reduce the number
p_rotect i:ees, or meaningfully reduce th~
sii.e of billboards. Co-chairperson Senator
Bo Thomas was the only commission
member who recommended any meaningful
refo~ and he couldn't even get a second
for h1s_p~posals from the nine person study
commission.
One observer wryly commented that
she thought the commission was accing out
of self-interest when it was revealed that 2
members owned billboards, another rents
land for billboards and yet another member
uses billboards for his personal use.
Now is the time to get active! Write
your legislators, call them on the phone,
meet them face to face. Plant trees not
•
billboards!
For more info on ordinance guidelines &
legal advice, call:
Kay McNett
Southern Environmental Law Center
Charlottesville, VA (804) 977-4090.
I
Carolina Coalition for Scenic Beauty
POB 1433. Hendersonville, NC 28793
(704) 693-6776.
KATUAH- page 21
Winter 1986-87
�NATURAL WORLD NEWS - continued
BEARLY MAKING IT
Natural World News Service
Black bears in Katiiah are facing lean
times. In addition to the lack of hard mast
(nuts, acorns) resulting from the drought
this summer, Roger Powell (Dept. of
Zoology, NCSU, Raleigh) of the Pisgah
Bear Project reports that because of
increased hunting pressure bear "mortality is
outstripping reproductivity". Poaching
accounts for 50% of all kills, while legal
kills account for 30-40% of all bear
mortality. In addition, of the 15 bears
studied at the Pisgah Bear Sanctuary (one of
28 bear sanctuaries in NC) only one bear is
a breeding age female!
Previous studies reveal a history of
poor "population management".
Warburton's 1981-82 study of the Pisgah
Bear Sanctuary showed that, of the bears
being monitored, 60% were killed, 75% of
which were females.
~LL SftC~tS
D~~
22
• continued from page
In the drama perfonned at the end of
the day, Mother Nature expresses
"especially dear to me is Earth, the
blue-green gem io space, the watery Living
planet where I take delight in all of you and
in your spectacular diversity." Amy shares
with us, in her own words, the progress of
the play: "Then, one by one the critters
stood and named themselves. They told
each other about troubled times, poisoned
waters, disappearing forests, mass
slaughters. They confessed fear for the
future. They wondered aloud whether their
na.~Ln9
Pa.per n a.chi
rta.s~s
Making a head mask of paper mache
is simple in description, but often hard and
tedious in practice until, through much
repetition, some degree of skill is gained.
The fust step is to make a rough
frame of wire mesh to stiffen and hold the
paper mache as it dries. The frame will be
incorporated into the mask.
The best material for the frame is
regular chicken wire, which is both strong
and flexible. If the holes are too big to
adequately support the paper mache, two
layers may be used.
KATUAH - page 22
The N.C. Wild life Resources
Commission (N CWR C), whose stated
goals are to 1) maintain a stable viable bear
population, and 2) maimain an abundant
surplus for hunters is "not living up to their
mandate as wildlife managers" according to
Paul Gal limore, coordinator of the Bear
Action Network. T he NCWRC has
disregarded Powell's and Warburton's data
and maintains that although the bears are
facing hardships this year , the "natural
mechanics" are such that the bear population
normally fluctuates with mast production.
Fortunately female bears are denning-up
early, and the impact of hunting (legal and
illegal) may be lessened this year.
Recently, Tennessee shortened their
bear season to the last week in December
after research from black bear expert Dr.
Mike Pelton of the University of Tennessee
and the Tennessee Wildlife Commission
revealed that populations could be sustained
if hunting was restricted until after the
denning of females and cubs.
Clearly it is time to bring pressure to
bear on the NCWRC. The data is in and the
bears aren't going co be with us unless WE
take action.
young cousin s, the humans, understood
how all the world was alive, balanced and
beautiful, and how they were devastating
the entire planet.
"Meanwhile people playing 'humans'
sauntered in their midst, oblivious to the
creatures' plaints. Earphones covered their
human ears. The gaze of their human eyes
was fixed on television or computer screens
or o n literal mirrors. Mother Nature
assessed that they were hypnotized and so
wrapped up in thoughts of themselves that
they had forgotten their place in the magic
web of life.
"'But if we call Lhem, all of us in our
different voices, perhaps we can waken
them before it's too late,' suggested Mother
Nature. Three times a cry went up from the
The frame must be big enough to sit
over a person's head; sometimes it helps to
begin to form the wire frame over a log or
ball of adequate size. The frame must also
be formed so that the eye holes and perhaps
the mouth and nose holes will line up in
advantageous places that fit in with the
design of the mask, particularly if it is larger
than lifesize.
The frame needs only to give a rough
outline of the head shape, because the actual
contours can be filled in with layers of paper
mache. Bur the closer the frame is to a true
outline, the better, because building layers
of paper mache is slow work. Bend all wire
ends into the frame so that they do not catch
or poke.
Once the frame is constructed, strips
of newspaper I 1/2 to 2 inches wide need to
be cut. A lot of them! Paper mache work
demands a lot of newspaper, and the more
that is used, the sturdier the mask. The
major limitation is usually time and patience.
Call or write the NCWRC now. Ask
them to reopen Powell's data and restudy
his research. Ask for a moratorium on
killing bears. Ask for a shoner season (NC
has the longes t bear hunting season in the
Southeast). so the females and their cubs
have a chance.
Executive Director
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission
.
512 N.SalisburySt. ~
IWdgh, NC 27611
.Br"'
To repon poaching or other violations, call:
NC.......... 1-800-662-7137
1-800-922-5431
TN.......... 1-800-262-6704
GA .......... 1-800-241-4113
VA .......... 1-804-257-1000
sc..........
For more infonnation, contact:
Paul Gallimore
Bear Action Network
Route 2, Box 132
Leicester, NC 28748
(704) 683-3662
throat of Lion, Owl and Hawk. Three times
a call from Gull and Frog and Dolphin.
Three times a call from Heron, Snake and
Oak Tree, un til finally the humans
responded. Then all joined ha nds and
danced to the closing music of flute and
drum."
All Species Day-Greenville Coordinalor
Amy Hannon is a pioneer in the creation of
ceremonies and community riwals with an
ecological focus. She holds a PhD in
Philosophy from Boston College where she
taught for seven years. A Winter Solstice
earth ceremony based 011 Amy's a1mual
solstice ceremony for Greenville was
adaptedfor our Kat'iiah region and appeared
inKmfla.b..lssue VI, Wimer84-85. , ,
Then a large bowl of flour-and-water
paste needs to be mixed. This is a legitimate
use for the cheap, white, bleached flour.
Fill the bowl about 1/3 full with flour, and
then dip some of the flour into a cup or
smaller bowl. Add water (enough to make a
thin soupy mixture) and stir until the flour is
thoroughly dissolved. The resulting
mixture may be added to the larger bowl.
Mixing it gradually in this way (always
adding the water to the flour) insures a
smooth mixture with no lumps. Add water
to the mixture unril it is slick and wet and
slides off a strip of the newspaper when you
run your fingers down it leaving only a thin
film adhe.ring.
Construct the mask, first defining the
general shape and then building up around
the ridges and hollows to emphasize the
finer features.
Paper mache should
optimally be added only one layer at a time
- continued on next page
Winter 1986-87
-
•y
.
�W~11rm
KeeJl))fting
Wimiteir:
nmi
ftmi
IHiommeiless
OC11h1illbl
- continued from page 15
K : Do you talk to m any other people who
have the problem of no wor k, too?
JM: Yeah, 1here's a !or of 'em righ1 here in
Asheville. I know a bunch of 'em sleeping
down here in these old junk cars. r don'!
know how they can stand ir, it's cold.
K: Did they try to get in the Shelter?
JM: Well, some of them do. And, you
know, they come in, slay awhile. Then,
1hey migh1 ger drunk and miss a night or
two and somebody else gets their place.
And there they are again.
"Most of the time, I'm not
even hungry. Two meals a
day, I can make it on that."
K: What about food? Do you get supper at
the shelter, then an early breakfast?
JM: Yes.
K: What about a midday meal?
JM: Well, mos1 of the time, I can go down
to the Christian Ministry down there to eat,
if I'm hungry. Most of the time, I'm not
even hungry. Two meals a day, I can make
it on that.
K: Is that midday meal available aU the time?
JM: Just during the week, five days a week.
K: So on Saturday and Sunday what can
you do?
11.a.'-t.n9
Pa.pet" 11.a.ch.e 11.a.s'-s
- continued &om page 22
to allow thorough drying. In any case, do
not build up more than 1/8 inch wi1hout
allowing a drying time, so that no wet spots
(which may rot) are left between the layers.
Usually the inside of the mask. or at least
the top, is lined so that the wearer is not in
direct contact with 1he wire frame of the
mask which will poke or catch the hair.
Lining can be made with layers of paper
KATUAH - page 23
JM: Well, on Sa1urday and Sunday, you can
go down 10 the Mjssion and they'll give you
a sandwich or 1wo.
K: Let's see t here's t he Mission a nd the
Shelter, is there any other place in town?
JG: The Salvation Am1y, bu1 all you can
s1ay is three nights a month.
K : Three night.s a month ?? Have you stayed
over at the Salvation Army?
JM: Oh, yeah.
JG: I can'1 stay a1 1he Salvation Army,
'cause I'm a local and they wilJ no1 keep a
local there, so they 1old me. They won't
even~ a local.
K: Is that true?! [Katuah called the Salvation
Army and was 1old 1ha1 Lhe Lodge was for
"ttansienLs" and LhaL "locals" were
discouraged from using it]
DJ: The only way [ got in was someone
from the Sheller called down there and sfild
to let me stay !here.
JM: If he hadn't called, you wouldn't have
got in.
DJ: That's exactly righ1. fm aware of it.
They Lold me LO get lost the next morning,
LOO.
K : Wha t a r e the requiremen ts for the
Mission?
JM: Their reqllliremems are an ID.
K: What does that mean?
JM: A driver's license or something to
prove where you're from.
K: Can a local person go to the mission?
JG: Oh yeah.
K: Is there a restriction on how many nights
you can stay there?
JM: Well, they go1 a program down there. If
you get on tha1 program, if they let you get
on tha1 program, you can stay 45 days.
JG: But you got to be alcoholic [or have
drug-rela1ed problems -Ed.] to gel on 1ha1
program.
JM: Yeah, you have 10 be alcoholic to get in
the program. If you stay there long enough,
it'll drive you 10 drink.[Jaugh1er] Even if
you never touched a drop of ii in your life.
K: So, really the Shelter is providing a real
service in ter ms of offe ring you an option.
Is th er e a ny r est r iction on the length of
days? I n other words, if you don 't get
'bumped', you can keep coming back?
JM: Yes.
K : Do you have to p resent an y ID at the
Shelter?
JG: They ask who you are and where
you're from, then they sign you in. And
you get a ticket the next morrung to get back
in the next night.
K: And bow many beds are there?
JG: Twenty.
K: I asked about food, what about clothing?
Are ther e clot hes ava ilable to you if you
need them? Coats, etc?
mache laid on the inside of the invened
mask or by glueing in pieces of lhin foam or
fabric. (Too much foam, however, makes a
mask stifling and stuffy.) Sometimes
padding is needed for extra protection for
Lhe nose or chfo or where the mask rests on
the shoulders.
When the shape of the mask looks
right, it can be painted, or colored paper,
fabric, or ornaments may be glued on.
Oil-based enamel paints adhere best to paper
mache and leave the best finish, but la1ex
paints will work also. Water-color pamts
DJ: Basically, clothes are available through
the Christian Ministry.
K: What about basic spending money? You
know, you need som e mon ey to get
by...JM, have you applied for a ny monies
or any kjn d of thing?
JM: No, I haven't. Now and then, I get a
day's work so I've made it so far.
K: So, you 've at least had some pocket
money, ever y once in a while. J G, what' s
your situation, a re you able off and on to get
a day's job?
JG: Well, just now and then.
"I know a bunch of 'em
sleeping down here in these
old junk cars. I don't know
how they can stand it, it's
cold."
K: Is the Shelter able to help you find work?
Does the E mployment Commission call over
to the Shelter a t aU?
JG: I don'1 1hink. I never heard tell of them
calling over there on account of you can't
call over there during the day. It's after 6:30
in the evening and til 6:30 in the morning
that the Shelter is open.[The Shelter does
encourage people to go over to the
employment office, though. -Ed.)
K: Would that be good, t hen, for a shelter to
stay open longer and connect in wit h the
E mpl oyme n t Commisssion a nd other
sources so you'd know about possible jobs?
JG: Why, sure that would be about the best
thing that ever happened. lf we had a "day"
sheller here to do 1hat.
K : Let me ask you a nother q uestion about
t he possibility of a " day" shelter... what if
no salaried jobs came up, but say "volunteer
jobs" came up, for exam ple, to work on a
project or to hel p out in some way.... would
that be something you'd like to know about?
Particularly, during t he winter so you could
keep occupied, indoors.
JG: Well, tha1'd be helping somebody that
needed it. Cause I know a wealthy person
ain't going to ask you to do some1hing like
that.
DJ: Why, it would be great! I sure 1hink it
would. It would be something to do, just
ge1 away from the boredom.
JM: It would keep your mind occupied.
--interviewed by Marnie Muller
will not work.
Now the mask is finished. Put it on.
Identify with it Practice the animal's (or
element's) sounds and motions in front of a
mirror. Forge1 what is inside the mask and
be the creature that is visible in the mirror.
To aid in the 1ransference of identity,
practice doing things and makfog noises
(privately at first) that you would not do in
your own body. Gradually an empathy
between you and the crea1ure of the mask
_,
will arise.
Winter 1986-87
�DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
Hello Karuah,
Herc is a poem that I think you might find interesting.
Dark Ridge Creek is in Jackson County and I have walked
quite a bit of ii.
We are not down to the last trout yet. There are lois of
native speckles swimming around; a lot of rainbows, coo. If
you want to use the poem, feel free. Keep up the good
work.
11iE LAST TROUT IN DARK RIDGE CREEK
The only mate I have ever known
the only one of my kind to ever
swim beside me
lies on his side in still water
color fading like an autumn leaf
sinking to the stream's bonom
If I had voice
Dear Friends:
Your Fall, 1986 issue, centering on the subject of
death, is great! I especially appreciate the attention given to
DealinK Creatively with Death,
I would have liked to see more attention given to
memorial societies. There are nearly 200 of these societies
and they are the major consumer advocates in the funeral
industry. You might like to publish the name and address of
the Continental Association of funeral and Memorial
Societies and perhaps the names and addresses of societies in
the Appalachian area and nearby.
I was delighted to see you publish a detailed
description and instructions for building burial boxes. Along
this same line, a few paragraphs on dealing with the legal
details of non-professional bunal might be helpful.
Cordially,
Ernest Morgan
like the bird in the laurel
that can sing her young
from a tangle of twigs
and slow the sun's flight across the sky
I would not be alone
Our spawn
our children
once growing
breathing
wombed in a bed of gravel
lie smothered under a blankec of silc
as if dark grains of nighc
fell from the sky
and buried a thousand sunrises
Truly,
Thad Beach
Waynesville, NC
Many thanks 10 Ernest Morgan/or his contributions tQ
KarUah#J3.
The addresses of the memorial societies serving the
KatUah province are asfo/kJws:
ConJinelllal A.ssodalion cf FUMral aNl Memorial Societies
2()()1 s strtl!l NW (Suitt 530)
Washi11g1011, DC 20009
Dear Katiiah,
I so enjoy reading the Kllllahl I would like to lcnow
more about it, and if there is a group meeting, etc.
I have enclosed a poem about "A Place of Warmth for
Me".
Mtm0rial Society ofGeorgia
191 I Cliff Vality Way NE
A1/an1a. GA 30329
Blw Ridge Memorial Society
Bo;c2601
ArMvillt, NC 2/WJJ
East Tt1111essu Memorial Society
Bo;c 1057
KnoJC11illt, TN 37919
Memorial Society ofROQ/IOke Valley
Bo;clJIX)l
ROQ/IOke, VA 24014
As to the legal details of Mn-professional burial, all
sources say, "Consult Tlie Manual' (Ernest Morgan's book
Dealing C&tivefy wjth [)emh>."
-The Edif()rs
Keep up the journal; the reading is great!
A PLACE OF WARM1H FOR ME
rve searched for my own special place,
Where nature's views reflect in my space.
My very own plot of ground,
Where I could live year 'round.
A cabin, small, I'd build,
With flowers on the window sills,
A happy place, where I could dream,
As I listened quietly to a stream.
Then, when winter's full of cold and snow,
A log fire burning all aglow.
The smoke rising ever so high,
Like an Eagle in the sky.
I've wandered far and near,
My place must be full of cheer,
Where peace and Jove abide,
With God close by my side.
I'd dream, I'd sing, I'd write, I'd paint,
You'd never hear me say "I can't."
l'd look from my mountain top, oh, the beauty I'd see,
I'd be just as warm, happy. and content as I could be.
Sincerely,
Barbara Ann Satterfield
Sylva, NC
KATUAH - page 24
Wimer 1986-87
�INITIATION
Wrapped in buckskin
Anllercrown
the wind was her king
down in the grove
where the trees whisper.....
Shandoah ..... Shandoah
she runs with the deer
to her place of power
she sleeps on the Earth
Her Mother's heartbeat
in her ear
She receives her Mother's smile
knows what to do
She walks with the deer spirit
to the river of life
falling starS in her eyes
Moon bath
Swimming
She is born
She is rising
The river is sweet
She drinks from iis blood
She anoints herself
and lays in the thicket
full and ripe she falls
into the world of 1he undreaming
She forgets 1he meaning
of her Mother's tongue
of her Grandmother's sorrow
She wears the robe of shadow
She mee1s her test
with the promise
that she will live
in all that is
that she will awake from the dream
to be reclaimed
that lhe river flows on through
her body
and will always empty
into her heart
-Colleen Rcdman·Copus
More Thoughts On Death
ToKat6ah:
Dear Friends,
I enjoyed the issue on death, that
cheerful topic. h is something I have been
thinking about a lot recently, in connection
with my praccice of the "Tac Kwon Do"
karate technique.
The ancient warrior codes all pivo1ed
on !hat stark moment when the warrior was
face-to-face with his own death. that was
the focus of all their rules of conduct and
practice. Whether it was among the
Japanese samurai, the Celtic chieftains or
the American Indian braves, the key
principle was to meet death wherever it
came. or, even, 1n the words of Mushashi,
the 15th century Japanese swordsman and
philosopher, " If you have a choice, seek
your death."
The concept of facing one's death
was also central to lhe "spiritual warrior"
practices of, say, Tibetan Buddhism and the
classic case of Carlos Castenada's Don
Juan, the Mexican b.IJUQ.
The practice of the warrior was of
course concerned with facing death for
pragmatic reasons, but to a large extent it
was also because of the depth and meaning
it brought into their lives. Sometimes it
takes an encounter with death to wake a
person up to the richness of life. The
warriors saw themselves as examples to the
people, as well, teaching them to regard
death fearlessly. In those times, war was a
personal thing a point of honor. It was
fought as much for the glory as for the
conquest. The battlefield was a
testing-place, an initiation. Compare that to
the craven coward with his finger over the
nuclear button, who would sacrifice an
incalculable number of lives to achieve his
own ends. For these men, death is no
longer real. Their lives, and all of our lives,
arc diminished as a result.
For the warrior, living in close
proximity to death was the only way to live.
The teaching there is that this is the human
condition. It is the same for all of us, all the
time. Even if we do not make it so
graphically clear by seeking our own death,
"Death is always over your shoulder"( in the
words of Castaneda's Don Juan). We
would benefit greatly from having teachers
brave enough co tell us that 1he way to die is
the way to live.
Thank you for bringing the notion of
"death" into the Katuah Journal. This is a
much-needed discussion, as our culture
purposely avoids the idea of death.
Death is something to be swept under
the rug ...flushed down the toilet ... carried
out like the trash. Out of sight, out of mind.
The main reason for this, I think, is
fear. Our culture is scared to "death" of
death and tries to protect its people from
having to face the experience of death
during the course of their lives. And so we
as individuals are left to meet our own
demise unprepared and unfamiliar with
death. This only promotes confusion and
deepens the fear. and so the spiral of
alienation continues.
The results of this have been
disastrous, both for us as people and for the
planet as a whole. A tremendous amount of
energy and resources go into insulating
ourselves from lhe world and propping up
the fallacy of the individual ego. We would
rather sacrifice whole species of other
creatures than allow and accept our
individual death.
Our neurotic fear of dying has
contributed in a large pan to the
overpopulation of humans, the
degeneration of the planetary environmoot,
and our own alienated lifestyles. Of course,
the fear of death is not totally responsible
for this, but coming to terms with our own
monality and realizing the importance of
death in our lives would go a long way to
helping us change our attitudes and
accepting our place in the world.
Thank you for helping to lead us a
few steps in this direction.
Sincerely,
Ava Livingston
Roanoke, VA
My best,
E. Thornton
Charlotte, NC
>'I'
KATUAH - page 25
Winter 1986-87
U \IU\.., •••,.It
AC'.,.,..,, -
~ATITA ;f
�- continued from page 1
different, bm we need to take counsel
together. This was desirable before, but
since the splitting of the atom, this has
become a necessity.
I carve a lot of pieces with figures that
have what I call "visionary eyes". There is
fear in those eyes. Those eyes have seen
the bomb, and they're afraid. I guess I'm
afraid too. I ge1 the feeling I had as a kid
when I read in the Bible of how "They shall
have sores and splotches, and so many
wounded, and so many of the people will be
killed".
At the time of the Chernobyl accident
they said 1he Chernobyl plant was
unprotected and without containment, but
later it turned out that the reactor rug have all
of that.
There are lots of those
graphite-cooled nuclear plants within range
of us. If four or five of those were to have
a meltdown, it would change the nature of
life on this planet.
When I was in the siitth grade, I was
pro-nuclear. I was really for it. "What a
wondeiful ideal All that energy!" But we
didn't know about nuclear waste.
We're primitive when it comes to
dealing with our nuclear waste. We think
we can bury it in holes in the ground, and
that it won't go into the water, and
everything will be alright. Bm how delicate
the world isl
I guess everything is beautiful to me.
Everything has its own way. When I see
people out there, all together, by the
millions, it's beautiful the way that they
move. But again, speaking face to face is
beautiful because o( the way people are and
the ways they are different.
I try to communicate through my art.
I think of people touching my carvings
when I make them, because I know that the
love and affection I feel are not for me to
keep to myself. Any artist knows his or her
work is for all people. An is to help bring
out a lot of things about the Creator and
how we have come to be humans living as
we do. An is also about how to improve
ourselves to be better people. Through time
artists have helped us more than almost
anyone else to figure out who we are and
what we're doing.
h's a healing feeling to know that
God does give us the power to do all these
things to feel better or 10 appreciate life
more. I ask God to make or to bless each
carving that 1 do and ask that people can
appreciate and take care of ii. Bui it's just
art It should just be appreciated as art, but
I guess every artist does feel some
attachment to their work. I would like
people to understand the thoughts and
feelings I put into my carvings. Otherwise
they might use a carving for a doorstop. Of
course, that's o.k. too, I suppose. It's a
rock-it'll hold a door open.
But a rock is not "jus1 a rock". The
rock I carve is the old pipestone: s1eati1e or
chloride schist. It gets a nice finish when I
sand it, and it turns darker as people handle
it
Rock seems primitive, but one
wonders whether it's back in time or
whether it's in the future. Rock itself is
alive. Rock has been ~where and seen
~thing. Rock has traveled the tracks of
the stars. It has traveled through all of time.
Each time the Earth has gone 1hrough
another cycle, the rock has become more
condensed. There is an incredible amount
of history and eitperience condensed in each
chunk of rock.
I search out my own pipestone to
carve. I see things in the rocks: arms, legs,
faces, animals, spirits - all the things of the
universe. Sometimes where granite and
quartz come together r see designs.
When I carve, often I will leave some
of the rock in its natural state. Then, along
with all the other creatures I represent, the
spirit of the stone is in the carving, too.
PASSING IT ON
people and had no way to eitpress that. So
they got upset about it and went to war with
the world.
Maybe we could have at least a small
effect on the problems of the future--the
neglect and the abuse.
Maybe by
communicating or working with some an,
people could be more happy, more creative,
and perhaps they would be less abusive.
It's o.k. to use something, whether
it's land or a creative gift, as long as you
give something back. That's why l like to
show carving to a lot of kids: to give
something back.
Sometimes on Saturday morning I
like to have kids and their parents who are
really intcreSted come over here, and I show
them how to do some of the carving. Kids
are smart, y'know. Often I.bey know more
than adults, because their view of the world
has not been broken and fragmented. There
is as much or more in their minds than in an
adult's, bul they don't have the mentnl tools
to explain it. There are adults like that, too.
A lot of people in prison have seen the
world in a different way from the rest of the
Interview by Martha Tree, David Wheeler,
and Michael Red Fox
Joe Roberts
258· 1038
734 Town Mountain Rd
FRIEDMAN &
8
Asheville, NC 28805
~
DESIGN, INC.
-
ENERGY SYSTEMS
THAT PAY FOR THEMSELVF.S
AVRAM FRIEDMAN
OESlGH~TECHNICIAN
KATUAH - page 26
garmiN Water System
.........
Ul. IRAVIOl.U PURIFICAllOtl AHO FILIERIHG SYSIEMS
SOlAA PAOOUCIS • WAIER ANALYSIS
HWY. 107
PO BOX657
DIUS80RO. NC 28125
RANDALL C LANIER
704 293 51112
AT. 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
Winter 1986-87
�A CHILDREN'S PAGE
WHAT Wll..D ANIMAL
WOULD YOU LIKE
MOST TOBE?
Darby,8
Miles, 5
A mountain Jion...because I've
A rattJesnake...because I
like their colors.
always liked them...and
because I could run fast.
Jason,5
Tshu-Tshu, 5
A rattlesnake...because I like
how their tail is rattly.
A bluejay"'because I like
how they ny and how they drop
their feathers.
Karl, 7
Tyler, 8
A squirrel ....because they're
kind if you don't pick them up.
Being a squirrel, I can climb up
trees and I can run fasLand
I can live in a 'treehouse'.
An eagle. ...because I Jike to be
high....when you're an eagle it's
easier to hunt for food ....... .
ah, lunch!
Lars,8
A robin...because you're able
to fly ....you'd be free...you'd be
able to see everything•...
no limitations...
Amanda,7
A wild bird...a cardinal
I think it would be neat
to see how they live......
and because I could fly
above the sky•..
Sara, 7
Ariel, 7
A deer...they seem so quiet...
they look so nice...they look
gentle,too...
Jay, 8
A mountain lion...because
they like to roam in the
mountains...and so do I.
A squirrel....because they'd
be protected, not too many
creatures could get at them.
I would like to be a squirrel
because people can't climb trees
as well as they can.
We welcome original drawings, stories, poems, ideas, or
Thanks lo Rainbow Mountain School, Asheville, NC
KATUAH - page 27
comments by individua1 children or groups for this page. Let
us know what the children of KatUah are doing!
Wiruer 19116-87
�J.........
.,..~ -
'"'"'"'• A.Aov: .·
fO~ ·n•e.
atUGN0 ntE RULf.S:
' A NOTE ON NEW GRAMMAR .
\.
We all learned in school dw •a
pronoun must agree widl the object oi the
JP. RfN~ 3
G~T'N6RCNG
The Spring Gathering will be happening 7) Katuah ecology in the 80's
again in April. We would like some input 8) Drumming
from our readers on activities they would 9) Living outside & inside (dealing with)
like to have available. Here are some to
the 80's economy
choose from. Let us know if these 10) Dowsing
suggested topics or others would make 11) Sweat Lodge
interesting workshops for the gathering:
12) Community planning, etc.
13) Spirituality (individual and as a whole)
l) Herb identification and usage
Anyone interested in being on a
2) Tree identification
steering committee to bring this gathering
3) Primitive strucrure construelion
together please write to us at Katiiah; Box
4) Wilderness survival techniques
873; CuUowhcc, NC 28723.
5) Crystals
6) Wild food foraging and preparation
Thi powerful GOl..OEN EAGLE
nlH abon lh11iu.
tlus tull
•Mic••
co!0< dllllJ' , .._...,.11114
°" T·
~~RTS Of 100'<. NUHRUNk COT·
C4I011.S11Ytr.[cru, wi.tc
SinJ•Ad11111S.XL
$hor1SIHnT: AduK·$10.00ppd.
l ontSlunT: Adolt·S14.00ppd.
1\!age>
1
J
~
unnCJe
'Na
&~r~~l ~
~
All designs, except Golden Eagle. also available
in sweatshirts. Feather or tracks imprinted on
sleeve.
r ~1IOnl1t;:;:;~~;.;;;;.,N1;.1ls.,.....
w
:
103311, l1l11mRd..
I
0 Chtd
i
- ··-----
111. NC 281M(104)456-3003
M
ame
M11terCa~ NO---------t
: O M•••10nl••
O Vl$A
Eip. 0•1•1-- - - -- --1
I
Lens $1HW toc:l•dH dtlall• d pnlll of lta!Mr
°" 110 ... Sallllactioa 1 1 0< 1111JmWlull . - _
Addru•------ -------- --t
!,
~• When looking over the Kl1Uh
Journal. English teachers and sharp-eyed
proofreaders cringe and soflly curse the
KaWAh staff for the recurrence of sentences
such as: "The attitude of individualism puts
one at war against their environment."
The pronoun in that sentence is used
in a way that violates the precepts of
orthodox grammar. But the orthodox
grammar assumes that the basic unit of the
human race is the archetypal "he", an
assumption that we can no longer subscribe
to because it leaves the feminine half of the
population as non-entities - just one of the
subtle ways we are all taught 10 disregard
women and their role.
Trying to overcome this has led to
various complexities in the alternative
printed media. If we were to write out the
above sentence, for instance, it would
read, "The attitude of individualism puts one
at war with his or her environmenL"
Rather than encumbering our
sentences by writing out "his or her", "he
and she" each time, we have often chosen to
refer to them collectively as "their" and
"they", so that in fact that "someone"
potentially has become two, and the
pronoun agrees with this possibility. That's
not any harder to under~tand than it was in
sixth grade, is ii? (Or is it still just as hard?)
Some may be pleased at this change,
others may consider it th e rankest of
heresies, most probably could care less. But
language is a process and subject 10 change,
and there probably will be other changes as
we continue to modify our language to
conform to the conditions of our lives.
We welcome comments and
suggestions on this, as we do on all aspeclS
of the KluYah journal.
Changing our speech is another way
we can participate in creating ourselves a life
suitable to face the rimes we live in and the
times that are to come.
"'""'- ------------- - -t
i
i
'- CMck ......... FR(( COlOll CATAUKO ol all eur W1tdltt. Gl•pll••'OU.LU INQUllll[$ UMTlO
CIBII!NlE§IE
NAWRAL FOOD STORE
&DELI
~C1Un»1UNC'll'1UlilE
AM»
IHl~llllOLOGV
cn...nmc
107 Merrimon Avenue
Asheville. rt.c.
(704) 258·90 J6
KATUAH - page 28
MALAPROP'S
BOOKSTORFJCAFE
160 Broadway
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 253-7656
BOOKS - CARDS - RECORDS
Where Broadway
61 HAYWOOD ST., ASHEVll..LE, NC 28801
(704) 2S4-6734
Meets Menimon
Andl-240
Open 7 Days A Week
Monday - Friday
9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday
9:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Sunday
1:00 p.m. - 5 :00 p.m.
Winter 1986-87
�a
•
~
S
· 4.!'J!sv:t./J•.:.l
'Jf1-.Jh ,, 'J.i ~,1 ~~o
:rro ~,.,
DECEMBER
21
ASHEVILLE, NC
"A Festival of Lights: A Winter
Solstice Celebration" with Unity of the
Mountains. 6:30 pm. 70 Lexington Ave.
Donation. Call 669-9276.
MARCH
JANUARY
10 & AS HE VILLE,NC
17
Literacy Workshop to train
volunteers to teach people how to read.
10:00 am to 4:30 pm. Pack Library. More
info: (704) 254-3442.
"Parenting for Peace and Justice"
conference with Jim and Kathy McGinnis at
University Hills Baptist Church. Contacc
Joanne Frazier (704)372-9140.
16-17
tANCEL THE COUNTDOWN
17
27-1/4 HOT SPRINGS, NC
New Year's Meditation Retreat with
John Orr. Southern Dhanna Retreat Center;
Rt. 1, Box 34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743
COOKEVILLE, TN
Tennessee Alternative Growers'
Association Annual Conference at
Tennessee Tech Aqua Facility. For more
information, contact TAGA; Rt. 6, Box
526; Crossville, TN 38555
Major national action to protest
Trident missiles and "Star Wars" testing,
Cape Canaveral, FL. For more information,
contact Rural Southern Voice for Peace;
1901 Hannah Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC
28714
30-1/4 W AYNESVILLE, NC
New Year's Retreat at Stil-light
Center. $5.00/day. Pre-register: Rt. 1, Box
326; Waynesville, NC 28786
CHARLOTTE, NC
6·9
17
20-22
ASH EVILLE, NC
Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast. 8:30 am. Asheville Civic Cenrer.
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"Numerology" workshop with
Karol Kettering. $20. Stil-light Center.
Pre-register. see 12/30-1/4.
ABINGDON, VA
Teach Our Children Well Festival in
honor of Martin Luther King. 3:30 pm.
Washington County Library.
18
The Cente r for New Prioriti es is now
open, in Asheville, NC, for all groups
dedicated to working towards genuine,
life-oriented, change for the community.
Office space, small meeting space, and
kitchen facilities are available. The Center
plans to sponsor workshops as welJ as
provide a place for groups to network. In
January, there will be a meeting of all
groups-environmental, peace, social action,
spiritual, cultural, etc-who are interested in
participating in the formulation of the
"scope" of the Center's goals and activities.
For more infonnation, call (704) 254-4714
or write the Center, 54 Starnes Avenue,
Asheville, NC 28801. The Center
appreciates donations, large or small, to
help wilh its upkeep and activities.
GERTON, NC
24
Drumming Workshop/ African &
Haitian, featuirin~ Darrel Rose. Potluck
lunch & potluck dinner. $ 25. (partial work
scholarships available). Call (704)
625-9722 (ask for Martha) or wrire P.O.
Box 65, Genon, NC 28735
FEBRUARY
13-15
W AYNESVILLE,NC
Group study weekend: "The Yoga
Sutras of Patanjali". $20. Pre-register:
Slil-lighr Center. See 12/30-1/4.
Rainbow Family Tribal Gathering '87
By a council decision at the 1986
Rainbow Family Tribal Gathering in
Pennsylvania, the 1987 gathering of the
continental Rainbow people will be held in
the Appalachian Mountain Bioregion from
July 1 - 7.
The Rainbow Gathering currently
brings together 10-15,000 people during the
week of the event, although people arrive
long before and stay long after at the site.
They gather in remote natural settings to
promote and practice an alternative lifestyle
free from the constraints of the dominant
culture. Everything is free and shared
communally at the gatherings. The
temporary village takes care of its own
food, medical, sanitary, and security needs,
and prides itself on leaving behind a site that
is clean and green. The stated goals of the
gathering are peace, unity, love, and respect
for the Mother Earth. All are welcome.
Scouts are moving into the National
Forest lands in Appalachia to search for a
suitable site on which the Rainbow family
can gather in July. They arc looking for
1987 NEW IJOJlLt>
eyer,£ Of' e£L£BRAT'LON8
eAI..£N1>...t1t JOURNAL
about a 50-acre area of flat or rolling
meadows and open woods with a good
water supply. The site must be remote from
towns and paved roads, yet must have
adequate parking for 1,000 or more vehicles
somewhere nearby. T o discourage
unwanted interference, the site should be
accessible only by several miles of trail or
road that is closed to vehicles.
If there is anyone in the bioregion
who knows of a suitable site with a stable
ecosystem and soils that would not be
dislocated by a great amount of human
activity, please contact the Rainbow scouts
at the Rainbow regional center:
~ !ftl' ~
~
Rainbow Family of Living Light
Box 1097
Newport, TN 37821
8 1/2" x 1", 160 p ci9es, over 100 cfi.cin s
cind tUus trcitlons. r\vcilLci&te f or Sl l.80
ppcL. from:
For more information on the
continental Rainbow Gathering. contact
their publication:
All Ways Free
Box664
Bearsville, NY 12409
Cross-Cu t turat CaLe nr:!ar
Journat of Celebrations
New 1Jortc£ Ce!e&r citt.ons
L
P .O. Box. 6054
CfmrCotte , NC 28207
......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__.
KATUAH - page 29
Winter 1986-87
�Ridge mountains with facilities available to rent for
groups or individual retreats, either guided or
unstructured. Send for information and seasonal
calendar of healing, iransformativc events to: Indian
Valley Holistic Center: RL 2, Box 58; Willis, VA
SCIENCE CENTER dedicated to the understanding and appreciation of the
natural world. For membership or visiting info,
write P.O. Box 2771; Gainesville, GA 30503.
24380.
AMRITA HERBAL PRODUCTS - Comfrey,
Eucalyptus, or Golden Seal Salve, Lemon or
Lavender Face Cream. Made with natural and
essential oils and love. Send for brochure: RL I,
Box 737; Floyd, VA 24001.
HEROES CONCERT - Music and stories about
Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and other
champions of peace and courage. For mformauon and
bookings, contact: Meg Macleod, 160 Flint SL.
AsheviUe, NC 28801 (704) 254-6484.
APPALACHIAN PATCHWORK - Mountain talcs
and songs by the Appalachian Puppet Theatre.
Cassette tape S7.00 from: Appalachian Puppet
Theatre, 355 Cedar Creclt Road, Black Mountain,
NC 28711 (704) 669-6821.
HEALTH and FITNESS SELF.CARE CENTER: A
private centet offering comprehensive programs or
scientifiealJy and medically docwnented approaches
to opumum health and fitness. Seminars,
worlcshops.and private consult.a.lions for individuals,
famili~ and businesses. Contact: Jeffrey Brown;
HFSC; POB 278; Lexington, NC 27293 (704)
2464919.
ASHEVILLE I BUNCOMBE COUNTY SOLID
WASTE ALTERNATIVES PLANNING
WORKSHOP: A design for handling solid wasics
in any urban contexL SIS from Long Branch
Environmental Education Center. RL 2, Box 132:
Leicester, NC 28748.
TWO PAPERS - "How to Stan a Co-op" and
"Steps Toward Forming an Auto Repair
Cooperative" by Dr. Rodney S. Wead, PhD.
Available from Appalachian People's Service
Organization; P.O. Box 1007: Blacksburg, VA
THE LONE RECYCLER - Comic book adventures
of humankfod's early struggle to combat
wastefulness. $4.00 pp. from Long Branch
Environmental Education Center. Rt. 2, Box 132;
Leicester, NC 28748.
HOLOGRAPH1C ASTROLOGY - Every pan of a
hologram contains all the info about the entire
hologram, and each cell in your body contains all
the genetic data about your whole body. Similarly,
every body contains all the information about the
entire solar system - you are the solar system and
each of your planets is one of your potentials. Chnrt
&. Consultation, SS0.00 Harriet Witt Miller (704)
684-0810.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - hctbaJ salves,
tincnues, &: Olis for birthing & family health. For
brochure, please wriic: Moon Dance Fann; RL I,
Box 726; Hampwn, TN 37658
DRUM WORKSHOPS - for children of all ages.
therapeutic massage - Relaxes the body &:
mind ...Call Martha for more info 11 (704)
258-6016
FAIRGLEN FARMS offers organic, biological
fCltil.i7.ers for fann and garden. Send SASE for price
list Biologically-grown produce to sell? We arc
interested in acting as cooperative marlccting agenis
with other growers. Write: Route I, Box 319;
Clyde, NC 28721.
DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbecks &:
wooden medicine drums. CalJ Joe at (704)
258-1038 or write to:
Joe Roberts, 738 Town
Mountain Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804.
24060.Frce.
CUSTOM CELTIC HARPS • A'Court Bason;
Travianna Fann; Rt. I: Check, VA 24072.
•AS WE ARE" - Women's music by Pomegranate
Rose, a four-woman group playing lively original
music. Cassette tape available for S9.00 ppd. from
Rt. 2, Box 435; Pi1tsboro, NC 27312.
CRAFTS FROM SALVADORAN AND
GUATEMALAN REFUGEES lN NICARAGUA:
cards, plaques, boxes, puzzles, paiches; This trade
benditS refugees dittctly. Brochure from:
Dry Creek Coopemive Trading
918 Jennings Ct.
Woodbury, TN 37190
I CAME TO A MOUNTAIN - by William Walters.
A book about the Light Ccntet (in Black Mountain,
NC) and the power of prayer for peace in the world.
Includes a look at the Center's activities for peace
and their prayer tours around the world. Avai lable
for $9.00 pp. from New World Bookstore, WNC
Shopping Center, Hwy 70, Black Mountain, NC
a non-profit organization.
FOUR WINDS VILLAGE • health and spiritual
retreat; home for children in need. For visiting info,
write: Box 112: Tiger, GA 30576.
28711.
FLOWER ESSENCES - Harmony with Nature&:
SpiriL Gentle emotional support during transitions,
specific issues, relationships. Opens
communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic,
awareness "tools" for improving the inner quality.
Correspondence to: Elaine Gcouge, c/o Patchwork
Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So.. Burnsville, NC
28714.
"PEACE THROUGH MUSIC" - Ethereal &:
Tranquilizing Celestial Music tapes by Medicine
Wind/George Tortorelli. Plus exotic Bamboo
FluteS, rate scales. Send for free brochure: Medicine
Wind Music, 86 NW SSth St., Gainesville, FL
32601.
ACCESS is a fiee telephone information service on
peace issues including military spending,
environmental impacts of military activity, connict
resolution, etc. Your only charge is your
long-distance phone call. ACCESS # Is (202)
328-2323.
KATUAH • page 30
APPALACHIA 1987: THE SIMPLE LIFESTYLE
CALENDAR - Distributed by Appalachia Science
in the Public Interest to fund their work of
developing, an appropriate technology for
Appalachia Photos of the "Children of Appalachia"
by Warren Brunner. $6.00 pp. from ASP!; Rt. 5,
Box 423; Livingston, KY 40445.
"CELEBRATION SPACE: Songs to Celebrate
Life" - A cassette tape completely produced,
performed. and recorded by mem bets and friends of
the Floyd County community to raise money for
the Floyd County Community Hall. This audio
songbook contains IS original songs and chants and
3 traditional songs to learn and sing in your own
community. The sound quality is uneven, but the
energy, spirit, and joy shine through.
For the cassette tape with lyric sheet (ppd.), send
SI0.00 to the Floyd County Community Hall
Project; Rt. l, Box 735; Floyd, Va 24091.
At ARTHUR MORGAN SCHOOL 24 students and
14 staff learn together by living in community.
Curriculum includes creative academics, group
decision-making, a work program, service prop:ts,
extensive field trips, challenging outdoor
experiences. Write: 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714.
WEB WORKING is free.
Send submissions to:
KA1GAh
P.O. Box 873
Cullowhcc, NC 28723
Winter 1986-87
�MediciHt'-' Allies
K.IJJiilJ.Jl wants ta communicate your rl@ughts and
feelings I() the other people in the bi.oregi.onal province. Send
them to us as letters, poems, stories, drawings, or
plio~ographs. Please send your contributions to us at:
Kmfmh; Box 873; Cullowhee, NC 28723.
The Spring Klu.U.ah. Issue XV, will focus on Women's
Issues. The deadline for all submissions for that issue is
January 31.
Please send your ideas for future themes for Kaiiia.b.
ISSUE EIGHT · S UMMER 1985
Celebration' A Way of Life . Katuah
18,000 Years Ago • Sacred Sites • Folk
Aru in lhe Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer • Cherokee
Herit age Center • Who Owns
Appalachia?
BACK ISSUES
full color
T-.s6irt.s
ISSUE TWO · WINTER 1983.84
Vona - Bear Hunten • Pigeon River •
Another Way With Animals • Alma •
Bceoming Politically Effective .
Mountain Woodlands • Katuah Under the
Drill - Spirilual Warriors
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today are
only diminutive 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 K.ma.1i. the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'natL the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the earth plane; and
Yynwj Usdj, "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 power 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 tbe~joumal.
"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 Karuah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE NINE · FALL 1985
Tho Waldcc Forest · The Trees Speak •
M ia:rating Foresu · Horse Logging •
Star1ing a Tree Crop • Urban Trees •
Acom Bread · Myth Time
ISSUE THREE • SPRINO I984
Sustainable Agriculture • Sunflowers •
Humm Impact on the Forest • Childrcns'
Education • Veronica Nichotas:Wcmm
in Politics • Little People • Mcdicme
Allies
ISSUE TEN · WINTER 19&5-86
Kate Rogers • Circles of Stone • Internal
Mytlunatting • Holistic Healing on Trial
• Poems: Steve Knauth • Mythic Places •
The Uktcna's Talc • Crystal Magic •
"Drcamspcalcing •
ISSUE FOUR · SUMMER 1984
Water Orum • Water Quality • Kudm •
Solar Ecbpsc • Clearcunin& • Trout •
Going to W ater • Ram Pumps •
Microhydro • Poems: Bennie Lee
Sinclair, Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE ELEVEN· SPRING 1986
Communily Planning • Cities and tho
Bioregional Vision • Recycling •
Community Gardening- Floyd County,
VA • Gasohol · Two Biorcgional Views •
Nuclear Supplement • Foxfire Oomes
Good Medicine: Visions
ISSUE FIVE - FALL 1984
Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee
Ginseng - Nuclear Wute • Our Celtic
Heritage • Bioreg1onalism: Past, Present,
md Future - John Wilnoty • Healing
Darkness • Polities of Panic1pation
ISSUETWELVE - SUMMER 1986
Livmg in the Garden • Sbiitakc • The
SICRCI Scuab • NC Nuclear Rcfctcndum •
Sun Root.s • Aquaculture • "HILAHl'YU":
The Form ation of lhe Appalachian
Mountains • WISC Woman Herbal • Good
Medicine: Tobacco
ISSUE SIX · WINTER 1984-85
WinLCt Sobticc Earth Ceremony
Horscpasturc River • Coming of lhc
Light • Log Cabin Roota • Mountain
Agriculwrc: The Right Crop • William
Taylor· The Future of the Forest
ISSUE THIRTEEN· Fall 1986
Center For Awakening • Eliubelh
Callari • A Oenllc Death • Hospice •
Emel! Morgm • Dealing Creatively with
Death • Home Burial Box • The Wake •
The Raven Mocker · Woodslore and
Wildwoods Wisdom • Good Medicine:
The Sweat Lodge
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRJNO 1985
S11Stainablc Economics • Hot Springs •
Worlccr Ownership • The Orea! Economy
• Self Help Credit Union Wild Turkey •
Responsible Investing • Working in the
Web of Life
J<AIUAH: Bjoregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians
Box 873; Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723
Back Issues
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Complete Set (2· J3)
@ $18.00 = $ _ _
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 252-9167
Regular Membership........$10/yr.
Sponsor.......................$20/yr.
Contributor...................$50/yr.
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Enclosed is$
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this ejf an exrra boost
on
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KAWAH - page 31
$_ _
Winter 1986-87
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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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>.
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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
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
Type
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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
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<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 14, Winter 1986-1987
Description
An account of the resource
The fourteenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on varied topics such as the work of stone carver Lloyd Carl Owle, a comparison between the Cherokee Booger dance and the Irish Mummers dance, human beings' place in nature, and an interview with people who are homeless. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Marnie Muller, Tom Underwood, Will Ashe Bason, Martha Overlock, Oliver Loveday, Avram Friedman, Millie Buchanan, Colleen Redman-Copus, Martha Tree, David Wheeler, and Michael Red Fox.
Date
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1986-1987
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Lloyd Carl Owle.......1<br /><br />Boogers and Mummers........3<br /><br />All Species Day........6<br /><br />Poem by Will Ashe Bason.......9<br /><br />Good Medicine.......10<br /><br />Cabin Fever University.......12<br /><br />Poems by Oliver Loveday.......13<br /><br />Keeping Warm: Homeless in Katúah.......14<br /><br />Homemade Hot Water.......18<br /><br />A Stovemaker's Narrative.......19<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachians (People)--Social life and customs
Human ecology
Native American--History
Cherokee Art
Homeless persons--North Carolina, Western
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<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
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<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
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Black Bears
Cherokees
Children's Page
Community
European Immigration
Folklore and Ceremony
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Pigeon River
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Turtle Island
Water Quality
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/2eba56fdc00beaa31e7ec2362fbd5f28.pdf
b4508265c38b24f4f7d519e688f43aca
PDF Text
Text
--~
ATUAH
$JOO
ISSUE XV
SPRING 1987
Wo.men's Voices !
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COVERLETS..................................................................................... 1
POEM: ·MY MOTHER'S eves·..................................................... 5
LISLOTT HARBERTS: FORESTER............................................... 6
SUSIE l\AcMAHAN: MIDWIFE......................................................... 9
RESOURCES FOR WOMEN..........................................................10
ALTERNATIVE CONTRACEPTION ............................................... 11
BIOSEXUALllY................................................................................12
BIOREGIONALISM AND WOMEN ................................................ 13
POEMS..............................................................................................14
GOOD MEDICINE: MATRIARCHIAL CULTURE. ........................15
PEARL ...............................................................................................16
NATURAL WORLD NEWS.............................................................18
A CHILDREN'S PAGE.....................................................................21
KAlUAH - pagc 32
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�ISSUE XV
SPRING 1987
We, as women, live in a time
of uncertainty, and crossing
through this time often feels like
fording a river.
The bank looks far away, but
when we reach it we may find that
the cold, rushing water has
purified and cleansed us. We, as
women, are making those
crossings.
As well as being an uncertain
time, this is also a time of choice
for us. Pausing to reflect sometimes seems weak or indecisive,
but this time may be necessary
for making our choices.
Let us take time to listen to
our inner voice. Let us choose to
fill our cup full oflove, and let the
blessings of that cup spill over and
fill every other part of our lives.
It is imperative during this
time of making crossings and
choices that women support each
other. We need to listen to one
another, to continually take soundings. Where are we in the process? How are we doing? Where
are we going? Our inner musing
is sacred. Harmony arises as we
join our voices together in true expression of our heart's song. In
this time, women's voices need to
be beard.
Women are being born and
waiting to be born. In the release
of this energy of our transformations, we help to heal the world.
That is our success.
Francis Goodrich And Coverlets
COVERLETS:
WOMEN AND THE HANDICRAFTS
REVIVAL CHALLENGE THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
by Jan Davidson
By 1895 the coming of the railroad had already
brought the industrial revolution to the doorstep of the
Appalachians. It began a decades-long migration that lured
many families from their mountain farms to the fact.Ory gates
looking for a place in the new social order.
To observers during that period, it seemed that it
would be just a matter of time until every vestige of the rural
arts would disappear. Before that time people were thought
to be well-rounded, achieving individuals if they were able to
make everything for themselves - not necessarily well, but
able 10 do it for themselves. AU of a sudden those people had
become obsolete.
One hundred miles away from the heart of the
Appalachians in the North and South Carolina piedmont
were modem, automated textile mills where children eight
and nine years old worked 13 hours a day making and
weaving thread. The mills would send people into the
mountains to recruit families to work for them. They would
find a mountain shack, one almost falling down, and tell the
man of the family, "You're being left behind, buddy. You'd
better get in line. Come down here, and we'll fix you up in a
company house with electricity, indoor toilets, and good jobs
for you and your entire family."
Even now if you go look up the roots of families in
Gaffney, Gastonia, and Greenville, SC, you will find that if
you go back a few generations, a lot of them come right out
of the hills.
It was during this time that a woman named Frances
Goodrich moved into the mountains near Asheville, NC. She
was what mountain people call a "fotched-on woman". She
was from Binghamton, NY of an old and wealthy New
England family. She had attended the Yale Art School and
(continued on p. 3)
KATUAH - page 1
Sprin) 1987
�• JV\Tgi-H ,
.....
. . !U1i:J:CiilH:tdW l1li!:lt6'l1lMl#l4.itli il#l#1@f4U:@l 1tM#jM¢I......._
EDITQRIAL STAFF nus ISSllB:
Scott Bird
Michael Red Fox
Judith Hallock
Rob Messick
Marnie Muller
Tad Poles
Chip Smith
Brad Stanback
Martha Tree
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Will Ashe Bason
Chaquoia Mahaney
Kay Byer
Manha Overlock
Sylvfa Fox
Kathleen Mclaughlin
Julie Gaunt
(love and oookies)
Tom Hendricks
Raven and Minne
Kala
Emile Sawyer
Oliver Loveday
Sara Jane Thomas
..... and the light of children and Star Crystals
EDITORIAL OFFICE
THIS ISSUE:
Globe, NC
WBITEUSAI:
KlWBh
PRINTED BY:
Sylva~
Publishing Co.
Sylva, NC
TELEPHONE:
(704) 252-9167
Box 873
Cullowhee, NC
Katuah Province 28723
Speciat thanfts to ttichaet a.n4 ~on.n.i.e
Li.ebhout for thei.r i.n.va.Lu®Ce cissi.sta.nce to u.s.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared .Kalllab a non-profit
organization onde.r section 50l(c)(3) of lhe Internal Revenue Code.
All contributions to Kaliiah are deducn'ble from personal income i.ax.
JRV0CllT:l0R
Here in the southern-most hean/an.d ofthe 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 Jiving within the
natural scale and balance of universal systems and laws. We
begin by invoking the Cherokee name "Katftah'' 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 1ha1 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 to have reached the fulcrum point of a "di> or
die" situation in terms of a continued quality standard of life
on this planet. It is the aim of this journal to di> its part in the
re-inhabitation and re-culturation of the Katiiah province of
the Southern Appalachians. This 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.
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/or
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 ~
will grow to serve the best interests of this region and all its
living, breathing family members.
- The Editors
KATUAH-page2
: -· £~ing 1987
�COVERLETS (continued from p. I)
been to Europe. She was very much a lady of her time. She
was single, had no particular interest in raising a family, was
very smart, and very much of an achiever. What was a
woman with all these characteristics to do in the 1890's ?
One answer for that time was to do good works: be a
missionary, a social worker, a charity volunteer. The other
answer had to do with art - a nice, proper, rich girl was very
much involved with iL So Frances combined the two in her
life.
She came to Buncombe County, NC in 1890 to set up
a settlement house. An important model for her work was
Jane Addams' Hull House in Chicago. This was a new idea,
a very popular idea, and by 1890 most of the big cities in
America had at least one settlement house.
The first one had been started in London in 1884 when
Oxford and Cambridge students organiud a settlement house
in the slums. In that early manifestation of the idea, it was
almost as if they thought that by placing a person from an
upper-class background in a slum neighborhood, the effect
would magically transform the neighbors.
The model for a settlement house was a storefront in a
poor neighborhood where volunteers opened the door and
hung out a sign so that people passing by would see it and
drop in to get information on nutrition, sanitation, children's
education, money management - basic life skills that the poor
people did not necessarily have. In the absence of any
government social agencies, these settlement houses did a
tremendous amount of practical good.
In the settlement house movement handicrafts and
social work were already tied together. To support this aspect
of their work, the early social work volunteers drew largely
on the writings of John Ruskin and William Morris, two
Englishmen who were the spiritual godfathers of the
settlement house movement and the arts and crafts revival.
Ruskin and Morris proposed the movements as antidotes to
the demeaning life industrialization had brought to workers
and as a statement of the ennobling virtues of handwork.
Ruskin had warned that people were becoming little
more than parts of machines, and that they enjoyed no
creativity or satisfaction in theii labor. His disciple Morris
had early denounced the poor quality of machine-made
goods, and the brutal industrial system that produced them.
In time, be offered an alternative, setting up a workshop
where high-quality, well-designed items were made using
old methods of handwork. Ruskin himself had sponsored a
revival of the handmade linen industry in Langdale, Englamd
in 1885. According to Morris, "The beauty of handicrafts
comes from this: that the workman has control over his
material, tools, and time.
The followers of Ruskin and Morris called themselves
the Arts and Crafts Movement Their interest in old hand
methods of manufacture had led them to pay special attention
to those parts of rural England where, as in Appalachia, the
Industrial Age bad not yet prevailed.
The idea of the intrinsic value of handwork was a very
old one, but it was given a new expression here in the 19th
Century as the evidence of the evils of industrialization
became obvious.
(continued on p. 4)
Coverlets display, 1935 - the photo has been marked to identify patlems for sales plll]lOSeS.
Top row, from left: SL Anne's Robe, Blooming Flower.
High Criclc, Zion Rosie, Dogwood. Bottom row: Whig Rose, Rattlesnake, Pine Cone, Three Roads Trail, Double Chariot Wheel
KATIJAH - page 3
Spring 1987
�The Lealhuwood family. Coverlets were prized posessions and were ofien
used as baclcdrops for fonnal family phocographs.
COVERLETS (continued from p. 3)
Frances Goodrich began the first rural settlement
house in a cove near Asheville, NC. She was also
instrumental in initiating what is now called the Appalachian
handicrafts revival.
Being a progressive, educated woman, it is likely that
she was aware of Ruskin and Morris and the theoretical basis
of the arts and crafts movement, but as she later told the
story, the importance of the coverlets woven in backwoods
cabins by the mountain women came to her as a sudden
revelation when a neighbor woman brought her a
fifty-year-old coverlet for a gift in 1895.
Frances, with her artist's eye, was aware that this was a
very fine piece of work.
She knew that most of the women in the area had
looms around the house that were not being used. Her first
thoughts were:
"Could we produce the coverlets at a moderate cost?
And if so, could we find or make a market for them? At that
time there was in this country no general interest in such
handicraft, and little demand for hand-woven fabrics.
'The coverlet made a journey north, and the admiration
it received made me believe that if we in the cove could
produce the like, a market could be found It was surely
worth a try, and in the trying we would at least have a good
time." (Frances Goodrich, from Mountajn Homespun. Yale
University Press, 1931)
ON OLD BARN LOOMS
The weaving tradition extended back to Ireland where
weaving fine linens from flax was a very important cottage
industry for the women of lower-class families.
When the Scotch-Irish settlers came into the
mountains, they began to raise sheep to supply wool for their
clothing needs and built the old "barn looms", which were
large and heavy but serviceable, to weave cloth for their
families. It was on these looms that the techniques for the
"overshot" coverlets, an authentic New World art form, were
developed.
In the old Appalachian cabin culture wool was
processed at home, and the yarn was dyed with colors from
native plants, such as mullein, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed,
rock tripe lichen, the bark of chestnut oak and apple trees,
onionskins, and marigold flowers. A few "boughten" dyes
were also used: indigo, madder root, and cochineal being
among the most popular and most available.
The coverlets were woven from homespun, white
cotton yarn across which the colored woolen yam was
"overshot" to create the vibrant designs that carried names
like: "Pine Cone Bloom", "49 Snowballs", Governor's
Garden", "Star and Cross", "Sun, Moon, and Stars", "Lee's
Surrender", and "Cat Tracks and Snails' Tails". By the
I820's machine-made cotton had already begun to replace the
homespun, but sheep were a usual part of the livestock of
mountain farms to within living memory.
Draft patterns passed down from mother to daughter
within the family gave diagrammed instructions on how to
KATIJAH- page 4
set up the loom, push the pedals, and alternate the colors.
The coverlets were made for he.irlooms and were often
in a mountain girl's dowry when she went off to be married.
To the old mountain people the coverlets symbolized beauty,
warmth, and kinship. They originally had no commercial
purpose whatsoever. But during the handicrafts revival they
began to be made as something to be sold out of the region
that came to represent that region to the rest of the world.
Whether for good or ill, this made a definite change in the
relationship of the weaver to the piece of work and of the
piece of work to the land. The old coverlets stayed right in
the family. The coverlets made for Frances Goodrich went to
Chicago and New York.
One detail that exemplified that difference was the
seam between the panels that were sewn together to make the
coverlets. In most of the coverlets made before 1895, the
seam is not closely matched. After 1895 most of the coverlets
that were made for sale as part of the Appalachian handicrafts
revival had peifectly matched seams.
There were a couple of reasons for that. For one thing,
the eqwpmenf became better. One of the advancements of the
handicrafts revival was that during the 1920's the
cumbersome, old barn loom was replaced by a well-built,
streamlined loom that was smaller, lighter, and easier to
operate. The women could run a more even beat on these
looms, and the patterns came out more even.
A second reason was that the ladies who were leading
the handicraftrevival told che weavers, "Match the seams."
It seems very quaint to some people that the mountain
women needed someone to point that out to them. The real
reason behind that, however, was in how they thought of it.
A Yankee woman thought of a coverlet as a bedspread, and
or course she wanted it to look like a single piece of cloth.
B\lt the mountain women thought about it as a thing that was
taken apart at the seams once every year or two so it could be
W!lshed in the creek in a basket and spread across some
bushes to dry. Then the coverlet was sewn back together,
and if the middle panel looked like it was wearing out, the
pieces were switched about so that the wear was distributed.
The idea, after all, was to keep it clean, keep it in the family,
keep it forever, and use it
:
When Frances Goodrich gave her reasons for working
td begin the handicrafts revival, bringing money to the
people was about the third item on her list She thought of it
first of all as a way of bringing some color to the "drab
lives", as she described them, of the mountain women. That
attitude itself may have shown some cultural centrism.
Mountain women generally maintained a stoic demeanor, and
th~y certainly were not as expressive in their clothes and
personalities as people at an urban art school.
Frances Goodrich did not necessarily have a concept
of folklore in mind either. Although she recognized the
woven overshot coverlets as an old tradition, she was not so
m·uch interested in preserving that craft as she was in
px:oviding the women an activity.
But her Allanstand marketing operation, which first
worked from a rural location outside of Asheville and later
moved into a storefront in town, did provide money for the
(continued on p. 25)
COVERLETS is an exhibit of an authentic
mountain handcraft featuring 40 pieces woven
between 1840 and 1940. Special attention is given
to the mountain handicraft revival of the 1890's
with photos and documents from several of the
WJ:>men key to beginning the movement.
The exhibit will be at the Mountain Heritage
Center in the Robinson Administration Building on
the campus of Western Carolina University,
Cullowbee, NC through July, 1987. Visitors are
welcomed from 8-5 on weekdays.
"Weaving Wednesday" with demonstrations
on band looms by volunteers from the Smoky
Mountain Fiber Arts Guild is rrom 1-4 on
Wednesday afternoons.
A nine-projector, multi-image slide program
"New Threads in Old Patterns" accompanies the
exhibit.
Spring 1987
�MY MOTHER'S EYES
Mother, with your
Falcon's eyes,
I saw today in
Cullowhee an
Eagle which circled
Overhead and
Dipped its wings
In perfect freedom.
t•
Mother, I was alone,
Walking on a
Mountain path.
Mother, I was
Alone and saw
An eagle dip its wings and
,,,__
. ---
Draw a circle
Around the way
I traveled as if
My path was in the
Sky and, child of
Your falcon eyes, I
Saw the earth with
Eagles flying high.
Mother, its wings
Were dipped in
An azure sky.
Patricia Claire Peters
KATUAH-page5
~ing
1987
�-
-
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......
- .. -
~
..-....
LISLOTT HARBERTS
A Woman Who Cares For Forests
Llslott Harberts
by David Wheeler
It was summer when we first visited Lislott Harberts
why her forestry operation, FOREST CARE, was
making such a stir among people who knew something about
trees and about the timber industry in the Appalachians.
I remember that when we met her on the job site, she
came striding down out of the woods so confidently and with
such a wide smile, that when she drew close I was surprised
to see that she only came up to my chin. I also remember
that mostly what we saw of her for the rest of that visit was
the back of her green work jeans and the enormous chopping
knife strapped to the back of her belt, as we hurried up the
hill, listening to a description of the work in progress.
Ms. Harben's FOREST CARE company is different
from other forestry consulting firms in the Statesville, NC
area: the business of FOREST CARE is not to extract the
maximum profit from tree-cutting operations, but rather to set
up long-term relationships with landowners to create healthy
forests that are at once beautiful and profitable on a sustained
basis.
to find out
"We have carefully chosen the name of our company:
FORES!' CARE. In our complex English language the word
"care" has two meanings: the primary one carries an
emotional connotation. We at FOREST CARE care about
forests. The second meaning turns the feeling into action:
because we care, we have become 'caretakers'.
'Two basic rules make up the credo of FOREST
CARE. Rule one: WORK WITH NATURE. Forestry can
be defined as manipulation of living trees. Every species,
every grouping of trees follows certain biological rules. By
learning about these rules, we can encourage nature to do
what she is already inclined to do. We can induce natural
regeneration, improve growth, modify species composition,
and get her generous cooperation.
"Rule two naturally follows rule one: DONT
MANHANDLE NATURE. If you throw a si/vicultural
tantrum, expect to be spanked, because the lady has a way to
fightback!
"Don't expect trees to play roles they are not meant to
play, or they will go on strike. Shade-intolerant species
cannot regenerate in shade. Slow-growing species cannot
KATUAH - page 6
compete with fast starters. Shade-seeking trees sulk in full
sunlight.
'These seem like very simplistic rules, yet they are
conrinuously overlt>oked in routine industrial for est
managemefll."
The two points that set FOREST CARE apart from
other logging operations are, first, the differing goals of the
company's management policy and, second, the skill with
which they are carried out
Ms. Harbens relies largely on selective cutting
techniques to bring a forest stand to a long-term state of
health. She will use clear-cutting on a site that has been
"high-graded", where all the best timber has been removed.
leaving only the poorer species and smaller trees to propagate
a forest of inferior quality, but clearcutting is only done on a
site that needs a completely new start to produce high-quality
trees. The determining factors in the work of FOREST
CARE are the needs of the land itself and the management
goals of the landowners.
"Don't expect trees to play roles
they are not meant to play or they
will go on strike. "
"If a private landowner wants to manage a forest and
has ruled out a clear-cut, aesthetics is almost certainly an
important consideration in his or her management decisions.
'There is nothing more gratifying than to look at a
quality tree. People see those trees, and, yes, they know
there is money in that kind of timber, but there is also so
much pleasure in the aesthetics. That is a non-dollar value
that is very real in small woodlot managemem.
"We try to keep a realistic sense ofbusiness. Slow, caring
Spring 1987
�work tends to cost more than production-oriented logging, at
least up front. Stumpage prices that are qumed in any given
area are based on clearcutting, because that is the rowine
procedure in our region. We tell landowners not to expect
selective cutting for the same stumpage price. However, if
they opt for the more costly approach, they can be almost
sure that it is a good investmenl, since it is likely to lead to
improved quality in their timber.
"When we are called to a job, we submit our plan in
the form of a proposal. We tell che landowner: 'This is whac
we can do for you, this is what it will cost you, and this is
where le will be different from a standard job; plus you will
have a lovely place to walk in, you will have wildlife, and
srreams that were clear bejore will be clear after the work is
done. Then it is up to the landowner to make the decision."
Ms. Harbens is of Swiss descent, and so bad a deep
love and respect for trees instilled in her since childhood.
But she did not begin her forestry career until she was
already into middle age, and she and her husband wanted to
begin to manage pan of the forest on their own propeny.
"/got started because we could not find services for
our own land. We had forest land, and we knew what we
wanted done. We engaged a consulting forester who made us
a management plan and put all these approaches in, and we
said, 'Exactly whac we had in mind! Now would you please
get the loggers in and let them srart?'
"He said, 'Oh, there"s nobody who could do that!'
"At that point my husband said, 'look, the kids don't
really need you any more, so why don't you see if 'Y.f}JLCan
get this project done.'
"/ spent the next two years in the forest with the
logging crews, observing, learning, supervising, arid
participating where I could. The men showed me how to
hook up a log, how to drive a tractor, why to do this, and
why not to do that. We also tried new things together. I
learned abow good logging and bad logging, good clear-cuts
and bad clear-cUts. I realized that one ofthe biggest problems
in the logging world is that loggers have never really had any
basic skills training. And if you do not have the skills, you
cannot plan a job."
FOREST CARE got staned, as Ms. Harberts put.s it,
because "the neighbors looked over the fence and said
That's what Y& want."' Now FOREST CARE has two and
sometimes three logging crews working regularly, mostly on
custom forestry jobs for small landowners. The work is
coming in steadily, and Ms. Harbens says she has been able
to keep her crews working even during times when other
crews have been idle.
Llslott Ha.rberts is very aware of the contradictions of
her position as a middle-aged, former housewife working in
Lislott Harberts is very aware of the
contradictions of her position as a
middle-aged, former hou sewife
working in what is traditionally a
very masculine domain.
what is traditionally a very masculine domain. "At first
loggers thought it was preposterous. 'What? Work for a
woman who can't even speak English?"' Ms. Harbens
laughs. But she herself sometimes wonders how she came
to be out in the woods dealing with the pressure of work that
is physically demanding and requires const.ant responsibility
for estimating and decision-making. She often reflects on
bow strange it is that she should be one of those bringing the
message of responsible forest management to the
- continued on next page
Lislott Harberts:
ON SUSTAINED YIELD
"It's not that no one knows what good
forestry is. It's all there in the books. It's just
that it's not being carried out. FOREST CARE
does nothing that bas not been practiced before,
but some of our practices are not commonly
available in this region. Our goal is simple: we
want to help landowners become the kind or
stewards they would like to be.
"The ability of a site to deliver sustained
yield is very much a question of the size of the
tract and the species of trees involved. A tract of
several thousand acres can easily provide a good
continuing yield, but it would be hard to get 50
acres of oaks to produce a regular income poplars and white pines, perhaps; oaks, no.
"Sustained yield is also a question or timing.
It often means postponing immediate gain for a
greater gain in the future.
•••• •
"Deciding what techniques to use depends on
the condHion of the site and the goals of the
landowner. Everyone wants to get a good stand of
quality trees on their land, but what is the best
species for that particular site?
"The landowner also may have other ideas in
mind than just selling timber. Often with small
KATUAH - page 7
landowners aesthetic and recreational factors
figure strongly in any plan. We recently did a
stand that was being managed strictly as a wildlife
stand. A wildlife biologist was the first one on
the site. It was interesting. His management plan
suggested almost exactly what good forestry
would have demanded.
•••••
"I consistently am telling landowners that
planting trees is not the same thing as forest
management. If a landowner wants a particular
species of tree, and the soil is right, then he may
want to plant it. But usually it is much better to
start with the natural habitat and ask, 'What will
do well here? Let 's find out and help those
species a long. '
" Planting trees is an uphill fight. It is a
constant struggle to maintain the life of those trees
for the first 8-12 years of their existence.
" Yellow poplar, for instance, is a very
promising species for a timber tree in the future
that is very much maligned right now. There is no
need to plant poplar trees. Given parent trees and
some exposed soil, they seed themselves very
easily.
- continued on next page
Sprin;J 1987
�Llslott H11rberts
Appalachian foothills.
But, considering it objectively, is it so strange that a
woman should be especially qualified to work among the
trees? The new forestry (Llslott Harberts would simply say
"good forestry") requires, first of all, a rapport with naiure
and a sense of the needs of the non-human forest
community. The key to achieving a sustained yield of timber
on any forest site requires an attitude directed toward
fostering a healthy forest ecosystem in all its diversity rather
than demolishing it for immediate profit. The field technique
that fulfills that attitude is to regard each site, even each tree,
as individual and unique and to prescribe the particular
treatment ~ctated by each unique situation.
" That tree will need to come out,"
she said at one point, "and it's going
to fall right into the kindergarten
where all these young sprouts are
coming up."
Ms. Harberts speaks of the trees in her charge in a
highly personal way. As we went through the woods, she
said, "There's a cripple, poor thing," and she would speak of
"these gentlemen over here" or "Santa Claus over there".
"That tree will need to come out," she said at one
point, "and it's going to faJI right into the kindergarten where
all these young sprouts are coming up."
Drawing on her European heritage, Ms. Harberts is a
capable, exacting business-person, yet she loves the forest
for its beauty and brings a delightful sense of humor to her
work. She is a very refined person, yet, like the loggers she
ON SUSTAINED YIELD
continued
"Poplar is by nature one of the best-formed
trees, and it has a tremendous growth ra te. It can
be used for framing. The furniture industry favors
it because it takes any kind of color stain. It is
also the easiest species to manage for valuable
veneer wood.
•••••
"Selective cutting can be done only when
there is saleable timber in the stand. Otherwise, a
cut is a "timber stand improvement" (TSI) cut. A
TSI brings little if any income to the landowner,
but if I come into a mess, I will not tell the
landowner, 'I will take out your good trees.' I
say, 'Let's leave your good trees and take your
bad trees. You will make less, but you r good
trees wiJJ get better.'
"TSJ is a big investment for the landowner,
but in a promising stand it is a good investment
that will pay off many times over as the lot is
continuously managed over time.
"When we do have conditions for selective
cutting, there are many different ways to select.
Some tree species lend themselves to single-tree
selection. With white pines, for instance, we can
create wonderful effects where in a single stand
the grand-dad, the middle aged t rees, the
teenagers, and the babies are all growing together,
and this balance can be perpetuated. T his is the
classic uneven-aged management system.
It's
possible with white pines because the you ng ones
enjoy t he gentle light that is filter ed through the
shade of their parents, and they will take the place
of their elders when their grand-dad is taken out
by selective logging.
"Selective cutting with hardwoods is tricky
and the results are not seen so fast. One of my
KATUAH- page 8
works with, bard work in the woods satisfies something
very deep and basic within her. She is highly disciplined she has mastered the technical aspects of her calling
completely and has an impeccable knowledge of the forest
trees, their habits, and their needs - but she is also flexible
and learns from each new situation she encounters in her
day-to-day experience.
"A big problem in rhe timber industry of this region is
thar the loggers are over-financed and over-equipped. In this
area a cracr.or works better than a slddder for the smaller jobs.
But fo~ a larger job one of the smaller skidders - say, a
Franklin 134, a John Deere 450, or even a 500 - work fine.
A machine any bigger than that would be 100 hard to
maneuver for our type of work, and the job would actually
go slower because the operawr would have 10 be Sfl awfully
careful.
'Tracwr-1.oatiers serve our purpose much helter llwn a
truck with a knuckle-boom loader, because 1hey are so much
more mobile. Jf you don't have big jobs, il's a real project
moving a knuckle-boom from one site 10 another.
'We IUJVe a flying crew 1hat can leave one job and be a1
work again a1 ano1her si1e in two hours. When you have a
lot of big dinosaur equipmem, 1here's no way you can do
1/wt. Jfyour equipmem is big, you need a big job.
"/ 1hink it's bes1 10 buY the fines1-grade equipmen1.
/i's cheaper in the long run, because the good equipment will
hold together and produce, produce, produce, and you avoid
a fol of repair bills and down-lime, which can get very
expensive.
"We do not do subsidized logging. It is my
responsibiliry to see that/, the loggers, 1he landowner, and
the sawmill all make some ITl()ney. With my kind of crew
- continued on page 26
crews bas just finished selective cutting in 110
acres of hardwoods. This was one of the most
challenging jobs we have done. It took a year,
and we took out a million board feet of timber.
"We used two k.i nds of selective cutting at
that site. If we saw a mature poplar within a good
distance of two younger poplars, our very skilled
loggers wouJd take that big poplar out between the
younger trees. But there were other areas where
all the trees were big oaks with lopsided crowns
that had not been harvested 40 years ago because
they were worthless as timber trees. Literally,
taking two of these trees out made a one-quarter
acre opening in the forest canopy. This was not
big enough to provide ample light for young oaks
to grow, so we had to enla r ge these cuts to
three-quarters of an acre. Then a slow-growing
species like oak would have enough room to
regenerate. That was also a selection, but it was a
group selection.
"If understory trees are not in the way of one
of the 'stars', then leave them. These trees are
'trainers' for the next generation of the dominant
species. Ideally, we want to arrange it so that the
crowns of the best trees are unencumbered by
competition, but their trunks ar e protected.
•••••
"There is a tremendous need to educate
landowners about selective cutting - about the
methods, the cost picture, and the benefits. But if
it could be d one we could expect to see
far-reaching chan ges in the timber industry. A
well-developed p rivate timber-producing sector
would relieve a lot of pressure on the Forest
Service and would set an example that would help
change the forestry practices used in the national
forests. Conceivably we could, over time, move
gradually back into selling high-quality hardwood ~
timber."
pt'
Spring 1987
�- · .. .a. -
a• .. - ... _
-
...- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .
�W®mm<em 0 m IR<e~®lllllf<t~
<C~IDft~ll'
In response to the needs of women in its area,
the YWCA of Asheville, NC has set up a Women's
Resource Center. It is a place to share and exchange
information as well as to fmd out about resources
available to women. The Center offers one-to-one
peer suppon, educational seminars and the
opponunity to join an existing group or form a new
one. As a meeting place for all women, the
Women's Resource Center is a welcome asset to the
community. Topics of interest include: single
women parenting; juggling work and parenting;
traumatic birth experiences; employment and
widowing. Members and non-members alike are
welcome at no charge. Suggestions and input are
invited. For more info, contact: Ann Von Brock,
YWCA, 185 S. French Broad Ave., Asheville, NC/#
28801. (704) 254-7200.
I'
Until fairly recently, the problem of domestic violence
has been very effectively "hushed-up". It has been
traditionally dismissed as an individual or family problem to
be dealt with privately. This is changing thanks to a
sisterhood of domestic violence programs which have sprung
up across the U.S. Some courageous women, often having
escaped a battering situation themselves, started providing
shelters for their battered sistm. These first sheltecs became
models for later programs.
R.E.A.C.H. of Jackson County, NC is one of the
local groups in mountain communities that are reaching out to
abused women. Mountain women, who may be affected by
geographic isolation and economic stress, face increased risk
of domestic violence. Also, there is an increased incidence
of abuse in the "bible-belt" area
Already, in the few years of its o.-ation, R.E.A.C.H.
has supported hundreds of women in their process of
empowennent. It has become a major resource for women in
breaking the cycle of violence in an area where they
previously suffered in an absence of support.
Frequently, different forms of domestic violence occur
in one family. Furthermore, the self-perpetuating nature of
family violence means that children who grow up in a violent
environment will continue the pattern as adults.
How many more women need shelter or suppon and
do n()( seek it? They face economic, social, and
psychological obstacles in leaving the men who beat them.
They may be immobilized by fear, anger, guilt, or even
doubts about their own sanity.
KA TUAH - page 10
We live in a society which tolerates and to a large
extent encourages violence. This is a major cultural flaw.
Domestic violence is a symptom of a widespread disease.
It's time for men and women together to re-assess our
culture's propensity to violence. There are peaceful societies
where children grow up to love peace. We can surround our
children with loving and affectionate environments.
Conflicts can be negotiated without the use of violence.
Domestic violence can be relegated to the pasL Let's choose
peace in the home now.
There are about 20 domestic violence programs in the
Katuah area. For more information about the programs,
contact:
Georgia Network Against Domest.ic Violence
250 Ga. Ave... SB
Suite 367
AtWu.. Ga. 30312
404.524-3847
Norlh Carolina Coalition A&ainst Oomestic Violence
POBoxrn
Conc:onl. NC 28026-0877
704-786-9317
T - T u k Fon:e On Family Violence
PO Box 120972
Nashville, TN. 37212-0972
615-242-8288
Virginians Against Domestic Viol~
POBoxS692
Richmond. v &. 23210
804-780..3SOS
West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Fam.ily Refuge Service
~YWCA of wi-ling
Chapline SL
noo
Wheeling, WV 26003
3044IS-6334
graphic: Swain Co. SAFE. inc
Spring 1987
�IR~~ a7 !~ lh>®®lk~?
....~mm~ $llll!!~$~®1D~ ~a
W®mm~m 0 $ ~ftllll~a®~ ~
ffi®~®lllllr<t®~
lllft A~lU
A rich selection of Women's
Studies courses are available not only to
students at Appalachian State University
(Boone, NC) but also to anyone in the
wider community...women .and men.
Courses include such topics as: Sex Roles
In Cross-Cultural Perspective; Woman As
Image & Image-Maker; and Appalachian
Women: Myths and Reality.
Since 1979, ASU has offered
students the opportunity to elect a minor in
Women's Studies by taking an
interdisciplinary program of co~ taught
in various departments across campus. In
addition to the Women's Studies Minor,
other opportunities both academic and
non-academic are available including
academic and professional advising; a
speakers' bureau on topics related to
women; and non-academic services
available on and off campus.
An informative newsletter is
published six times yearly by the Office of
Women's Studies which lists events,
classes and resouroes. For more info on the
newsletter or the programs: Office of
Women's Studies, 107 D.D.Dougherty
Library, ASU, Boone, NC 28608/
Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside of Her Susan Griffin
Eartli Wisdom Dolores LaChapel/e
Always Coming Home Ursula LeGuin
In Search ofOur Mothers Gardens Alice Walker
Goddesses In Everywoman Jean Sltimcda Bolen
Fai Is A Feminist Issue Susie Orbach
Spiders And Spinsters Marta Weigle
Moon, Moon Anne Kent Rush
Women's Mysteries Esther Harding
Our Bodies, Ourselves Boston
Womens Health Collective
mid many others...
.. .,..· ·.• ··.•
.
Just before the first frosts make the
leaves tum, the Queen Anne's Lace comes
into perfect harvesting condition. The
umbels are brown, folded up, and dry, but
the seeds are not yet scattered.
Plants growing like this in close
proximity to our doorstep and in great
abundance are saying, "Use me. Use me
often."
Herbalist Susun Weed has shared the
information with us that Queen Anne's Lace
(or Wild Carrot) is possibly the best
contraceptive there is. Apparently Indian
women in the Far East have been using
Wild Carrot seed as the preferred method of
contraception for ages. In her book, ~
Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearin&
Year, Susun mentions these hairy little
seeds as a morning-after contraceptive. The
directions she gives are to talce one
teaspoonful the morning after a fertilizing
intercourse and continue for five days.
Queen Anne's Lace seeds work by making
the inner wall of the uterus slippery so that
no egg will implant. How beautifully
simple!
Since writing her book Susun has
learned of a group of white women in
Alaska who have been using Wild Carrot
seeds with great success for eight years.
They were eating up to half a teaspoonful of
the seeds everyday. They woul4 sprinkle
the seeds on their food and keep a bowl of
them sining on the table so they could take a
few seeds each time they walked by. Two
of the women decided they wanted to have
children while they were using this method,
so they simply discontinued using the seeds
and conceived promptly.
Hall women knew about this method
and would put the method into practice,
what a blow to the drug companies it would
be! Who would want to cal their pills and
suffer the dreadful. side effects (one of them
being the draining of money from our
pockets) any longer?
A very dynamic resource for
accessing women's music is
Ladyslipper's annual publication of the
most comprehen.;ive Catalog and
Resource Guide of Records and
Tapes by Women. This exceptional
annotated me catalog offers recordings by
an expansive variety of female musicians,
writers, comics and composers.
Ladyslipper is a regional,
non-profit. tax-exempt organizatioc
involved in many facets of women's music.
Begun in 1976, its main emphasis is to
heighten public awareness of the
achievements of women artists and
musicians and to expand the scope and
availability of musical and literary
recordings by women. To contact
Ladyslipper, P.O.Box 3130, Durham, NC
27705.
graphics: Rob Messick
KATUAH - page 11
am .,.,.,
,,
- Ise Williams
Spri.rv; 1987
�H ealing Our H earts
H ealing The Earth
The Promise of Biosexuality
"The flowering of human
sexuality is the untapped resource
for the evolution and healing of
the Planet."
The nature of my experience as a human being has
been such that I have spent a lot of time looking for deeper
meanings in my experience, and looking for the events or
feelings which give meaning to iL Probably the most
"disturbing" and enlightening type of energy I have worked
wilh consistently over the years is sexual energy. Over the
last several months, I have come upon information and
experiences which have allowed me to integrate my sexual
expression with my devotion to the earth. I call this
integrative sense "Biosexuality".
In a nutshc!L it is "experiencing the erotic energy of
the earth". It is also getting outside of the ego boundaries we
feel trapped in, and feeling our sexual energy as a flow,
rather than a "drive". While I have not been able to clearly
define what "sexual energy" exactly is, I know it when I feel
it, and I experience somewhat the same energy in erotic
encounters that I do when t am intensely involved with the
natural world. This experience has led me to conclude that
this energy is one that flows in, around, and through us,
which we can tap into and channel.
There has been a lot of information published by
cco-feminists on how the oppression of nature is linked,
philosophically and literally, to the oppression of women. I
acknowledge this work, and owe a debt to these writers.
What I am striving to do is to derive inspiration for healing
the earth from our experience in healing our separation from
our sexual natures. Western "rational" patriarchy has tried to
teach us that the earth is our enemy, and that our bodies are
dirty. The contradiction of either one of these false concepts
must lead inevitably to the contradiction of the other. This
process should be acknowledged and expanded upon, and
we will gain much wisdom and joy thereby.
These understandings about sexual energy, which is
the force which keeps life activated, are little known or
investigated in the Euro-American cultural reality. Various
ancient disciplines explored these energies, and the work of
Wilhelm Reich and Carl Jung did a lot to open up these
hidden matters. In the current era, as we get in touch with
our own feelings as well as ancient wisdom, there is much to
be done.
The basis of "Biosexualiry" is a holistic sexuality,
which strives to transcend ego boundaries, extending
throughout the body and beyond. It requires that one be
willing to look at the hidden parts of the psyche, and explore
the mysteries of the erotic. As a man, I can affirm that these
are difficult and important steps on the road to spiritual
liberation. Quoting Edward Whitmont, "The new holistic
consciousness perceives human existence as an aspect of a
unitary, cosmic organism. From that perspective, conscience
is an inherent potentiality which underlies existence, rather
than a quasi-accidental byproduct of man-made culture."
The legend of the Cirail includes a motif in which the
Goddess has been ignored or despised, and the land is
barren. It is the quest of the Grail Knights to encounter the
Goddess, and affirm her power so that the land may be
fruitful again. This is a very powerful metaphor for the
present ecological catastrophe facing civilization. A key
ingredient in healing the wrongs perpetrated in the name of
human sexual expression is the respectful validation of
female sexuality. We see this happening today in changing
panems of sexual expression, as well as the validation of the
Goddess through earth r ituals and scientific
acknowledgement of the Gaea Hypothesis.
The Feminine Principle must be restored to its pince of
power in the human psyche. The key element is not the
oppression of women, but the oppression of the feminine in
both men and women. The imponance of feeling values
must be restored to us all, and the sovereignty of women
needs to be respected in human affairs.
Our sense of alienation is created and bolstered as pan
of the patriarchal worldview. We experience a.lienation from
our own bodies, and alienation from nature. Young people
are frequently taught to fear both the earth and their own
feelings as evil, dirty, or poisonous. We are taught to fear
the destructive forces in nature, and to dread the
changeability of the weather, and our own (or another's)
emotions. We try to control that which we fear, and will
destroy that which we cannot control. This concept of
"power over" lies at the root of all oppressive power
relations, both among humans, and between humans and
other life forms.
We learn to separate all our experience into "good" and
"bad", black and white, life and death. If we see these as
opposites rather than as pans of the same thing, we are split
apan from our deeper nature; our minds can deny our bodies,
our thoughts can conquer our feelings. When we accept
death as a natural part of the process, we may truly begin to
live our lives. The denial of our sexual natures and the desire
to control nature are both attempts to gain power over death.
This is a needless effort; we cannot control death, but we can
accept our whole experience in all its beauty and power.
As we become aware of our animal/erotic selves, we
can use sexual energy as a bridge between action and feeling.
We are often unable to allow our work and emotional life to
be in harmony. They seem like two different things. Jn
erotic expression, action and feeling arc blended, and we
have a chance to experience this blend.. We can get used to
feeling our emotions and creatively acting on them. We can
learn to acknowledge our feelings without becoming their
prisoner.
The healing of the split between our emotional and our
acting selves is pan of the healing of the rift between the
"spiritual" and the "political" in our transformational work",,#
This is at least one of the promises ofBiosexualiry.
,ltY
graphic: Rob Messick
KATUAH - page 12
Spring 1987
�Bioregionalism/W estern C ulture/Women
Bioregionalism begins to tap the very heart of the
Western historic tradition by re-asking the question: "Whal
is our place in t he uni verse?"
Bioregionalism does this by squarely challenging the
error of hierarchical thinking as it looks at:
• the historic dogma of the male God's dominion (read
oppression ) over the heavens and the human (white) male's
dominion (oppression) over the Eanh
• the secular, ptolemaic system of anthropocentrism whereby all
of nalllrC revolves around lhe human race
• the more "liberal" concept of benign (read pa1ernalis1ic)
stewardship whereby humans "t.akc care or the Earth.
As if that was not enough in itself, bioregionalism has
also begun to challenge the very innards of historic Western
tradition by examining the error of body/mind dualism ..
This dichotomy has been woven into the very fabric of
Western culture for hundreds of years, and it will be difficult
to realize all the ways it has affected and lobotomizr,d us.
However, bioregionalism, with its emphasis on
in-corporating (literally) the sensual, the spiritual and the
mental in our relationship with our Earth means that healing
is occurring - that mind and body are beginning to grow
together once again. Praise to all of us in our efforts toward
this healing, for it is wi th this healing that our Earth will
become less tormented.
Another error of thinking underpinning Western
culture which bioregionalism challenges is the "trash your
homeplace... there's always a new frontier" mentality.
In light of bioregional self-criticism, I ask that we all
regard these errors of thinking in depth, in order to see how
they affect not only how Western culture relates to the
Earth bat also how it relates to the female. In the interest
of bioregional self-criticism, I suggest that we explore in
earnest how these two areas are vitally intertwined and
how, in order to deal with the treatment of Earth,
we must also deal with the treatment of Women.
Hiera rchical T hinking
For thousands of years we have been assured that God
is male; that the human male has dominion over the human
female; that the human female came from the human male;
that the human male has dominion over the female and
children; that the human male has dominion over the female,
children and animals, plants and the Earth itself. This
opinion has been the basis for overt physical, political,
spiritual and psychological oppression for centuries. Finally,
a number of males today have begun to "catch on" (many
females have known for quite some time), to realize that by
this system they too are entrapped. They have begun ·to
realize the perverseness and pervasiveness of this system, ~s
some people in the white population have begun to get a
glimmer of the oppression directed towards peoples of color.
Still, realization is only a first step. Pervasiveness is
insidious when it comes to actually changing an age-old
system.
Body/Mind Dualis m
By historically divorcing 'mind' from 'body', Western
culture was able to do away with a number of truths. This
KATUAH - page 13
by Marnie Muller
was accomplished by drastically reducing the human powers
of perception and declaring them to be false. Our perceptions
(not deceptions) had told us that the Earth was alive, that we
were pan of this functioning process...that che food we ate
and the air we breathed united us with this intimizing
process...that our children were born of this process...that
the Eanh turned from this process. Stars beckoned us.
Waters lapped us. Sunlight fell on us. Music/sound pulsed
through us.
Western culture untied us from this "process" - from
sensual reality. (By 'sensual', I mean all the aspects of our
being which allow us co experience fully, with all our
senses, the creation around us.) Western culture began to
emphasize mind and 'spiric' and to denigrate the sensual.
The sensual became "other'' - it was a source of enticement,
temptation, of sin, blame - something to be suppressed.·
Because the culcure was dominaced by male patriarchal
concepts which identified the male with 'mind', the female
was then identified with 'sensual', 'flesh', 'dark'. With
suppression came oppression. Objectificacion and use of the
female and objectification and use of the Earth occurred.
Perception of the full presence of the female and of the full
presence of the Earth was obscured because of this
objectification.
T he Homeplace
In bioregional thought, the homeplace is sacred. In
Western culture, it is the place "to get away from"; the
homeplace is the place where chores need to be done, where
children are, where the elderly need to be cared for. In a
wider context, the homeplace is boring, should be used up so
that new frontiers can be moved towards. At best, it is used
as a retreat.
Throughout cultural history, the female is associated
with the homeplace. It is here where we, as bioregionalists,
most need to look. Whether male or female, we need to
allow our homeplace to be resacralized. Our shelter (whether
nomadic or stationary) is our place from which we go out
and to which we return. It is our membrane - something to
be cared for, nunured with energy, loved. Sometimes we
have a shelter with someone else - a partner or friend.
Sometimes we have children - sometimes we have elders
with us - in our shelter. It is a place to be in, ~o relax in, to
prepare food in, to repair when necessary. It is situated in a
wider place - a homeplace of Nature - a place to know ...to
find out about water, animals, plants, trees, soil, wind
currents, seasons, migration patterns. Reconnecting with
our homeplace allows us, in a safe way, to begin
reconnecting with our inner selves. In tum, we Lhen connect
or reconnect with other humans.
In addition to Western culture's treatment of the Eanh
and of the female, we also need to look at Western culture's
treatment of the child. Our homeplace will not become
"breathable" again until we do this. Western culture treats
the child as though s/he is not really all the way there. It is as
though the culture's bounds of reality have become so
narrowed that no longer can the full presence of the child be
acknowledged. Within the child's psyche there is so much
crossover between the 'sensual' and the 'conceptual' that in
order to acknowledge and rejoice in the full presence of the
child, we as a culture would have to "un-atrophy" our
powers of perception and reincorporate the 'sensual' into our
lives. A step in our own healing process is to recognize and
nurture in children the gifts of "being" we are attempting to
reclaim for ourselves.
As we bioregionalists truly begin to locate ourselves in
the universe, let us, as females and males, begin to locate
ourselves in relation to each other. Then we can mutually
begin to work together on an equal basis to reform the values
of our human culture as it affects ourselves and ou~
homeplace Earth.
/:'
,,#
Reprinted wi t h pe rmiss ion from Raise The Stakes,
Planet Drum, Summer, 1984.
gnphicby Ta1aAndres
Spring 1987
�Graphic by Anne McDonald
MOTIIER MOON
by Linda Mathis
Mother Moon I have come
for your embrace. I begged
long and hard for the
Wind to bring me. My insides
Are in turmoil from the
pulling of the tidal wave.
The smell of the forest
fem has made my senses
drunk. My fingers have
raked the face of the great
rock cliff. Take my blood
Mother Moon. A sacrifice to
You. Wrap your white feathered
arm about me. Your helpenhe
Wind has chapped my skin.
He teased me saying my tears
Were biner like crab apple
and too salty to the taste.
I have tried so hard, but
the first night you were only
Quarter-moon. The Wind held
my wrists and hissed no...
Witches Moon. I tried to
sleep. Again I tried to find
You. The Wind had left me
And I had hope, but you chose
to stay behind the clouds.
Now at last I have found you,
Mother Moon, shining white
and Wise. The Wind laughs around
me. Hear your daughter, strengthen
me. The dirt between my fingers
is cold and hurts, the ground
under my body hard and uncaring.
Warm me with your beams of
star dusl Help your daughter,
Mother Moon.
- by Linda Mathis
/
Meditation
I entered the Medicine
Wheel and sat facing the North. I spoke my intention--to sing for the Eanh, for the people in my
life, and for myself. I sang to find our way home. I sang for illumination. I sang for ease in the
world and with each other.
My vision staned in the west when a strong male Native American Helper sat to the west
slightly behind me. The deer spirit came next and my song choked for her, because I hadn't
expected to be so honored by her prese.nce, and because I felt touched by her muteness.
My song had two sounds, one in the South which was feminine, and one in the North which
was masculine. As I moved around the circle my song blended into one sound and I could no
longer remember the first song.
I approached the East and felt no one occupying that space. Regardless, as I began to sing in
the East for whoever needed it, I felt a strong Native American Grandmother Helper move in. I
had felt her presence earlier over my shoulder, but she was reluctant to reveal herself then. As I
sang my song in the East, again my voice choked. This time I was literally moved into my own
hurt femaleness-the part of me that had felt silenced, as a child, in schools during my hospital birth
experience, and living as a woman in a "man's world." I felt the hurt part of me that had kept my
words in, thinking that I could protect others from their own pain. I felt the part of me that has
been untruthful and afraid to fully believe in my own power.
I changed the song in the East. I sang out my grief, and with my Grandmother attending me, I
was eventually able to sing my song out strong. My Grandmother and I exchanged
communication. I was given a direction to affirm.
I can say anything I want to. I must. I am cheating myself and others if I do not speak what I
am directed to. My Grandmother lives in me. I am her. She is me. I am healing the male/female
in myself. I am balancing those shields.
Colleen Redman-Copus
KA1UAH - page 14
~
,P-:..J
Sprir¥J 1987
�This is a transcription ofthe views of a traditional Cherokee
medicine man concerning the Cherokee matriarchal culture.
The Cherokee culture is matriarchal and probably comes
originally from our Iroquois ancestry.. because no other
southeastern tribe has a matriarchal culture. The matriarchal
culture with the Cherokee worked probably different than
other matriarchal cultures. We got our clan from our mother,
all of our lineage comes through our mother. An example,
the clan was almost Ii.kc your last name as far as
identification, etc.
In this culture, the women owned all the property, the
house and most of the stuff in it -all but the men's personal
stuff. Men preferred to have female children because their
lineage came through the female. A man couldn't exist
without a woman in the culture, he had no home ; if a conflict
came between them, the woman would throw the man's
personal possessions--his tools or his weapons, whatever he
had, out 1.11 the yard and he had to go home to his mother. If
his mother wasn't alive, he would go home to one of his
sisters and if he didn't have a sister, he didn't have a home.
So there probably was a little more 'harmony' in the home in
those days.
We also used to have an official and sort of unofficial
office..we had what we call "The Beloved Woman" or "the
Beloved One" and it was a woman that was chosen by
natural consensus from all the people.. based on the kind of
person this woman was. She was always helping and
sharing and giving and loving and wise in what she did and
made wise decisions and all the people would choose her to
be the Beloved Woman and she was in that position all her
life 'til she died. And the kind of influence she had over the
people was in several different ways. During the time there
was any conflict in our tribes, any captives that were brought
into the village -she decided what happened to them; if the
chief in the tribe decided to go to war, her influence was so
sttong that she could cause that decision to be changed.
I know that a lot of us ln.dian people are looking for our
ttaditional ways. Some of us think that perhaps we have to
go to extremes and wear buckskins and all that son of stuff.
That's not our traditional way anymore in a sense. The
buffalo arc gone and the freedom we had of moving around
the earth on the land like we did is all gone. That was a
different time. But we can look back at our ancestors and we
can see good things, useful things. One of these is the
matriarchial system. It seems to me that where there is a
sttong matriarchal culture, there is less conflict with our
neighbors, less war.
Women, it seems to me, arc not as 'aggressive' as men
and they mollify that aggressiveness. I think it is important
that women really look at themselves and try not to go into
cxttemes. They arc egg-carriers, and they are nurturers and
'taker-carer-of-ers'. And from the very existence of humans,
they've probably been in this role. So what I am saying,
women can be a nurturer and a taker-carer-of and still
express their natural talents as human beings--doctor,
lawyer, whatever.
I think if one studies that ancient matriarchal culture as
I have been describing, I think you'll find that women had
value--trcmcndous value. They had pride and dignity and
they didn't have to go to extremes and feel uncomfortable
about their womancss and their moon lodges.
Politically, we've always had women that were in high
positions within our tribe. During war, numerous accounts
of white people in battles with Cherokee describe that
afterwards they found many women painted and dressed as
warriors. Throughout our history we've had famous women
as warriors.
We arc what we arc and we should find the best of
what we arc... And the negativeness of myself as a male,
such as aggressive behavior, these are the sort of things I've
learned 10 lessen by observing women's ability to
instinctively know how to nurture and to take care of and
show outside affection.
Due to the extremely strong influence on the Cherokee
people, the matriarchial system has broken down. There's
sttong signs of a matriarchy still there. It still isn't as I
described it before because a patriarchial culture has enforced
some of their ways on them.
And I had to teach myself and work hard to pick up on
these qualities which I think are very desirable. And probably
if we had more of these qualities we could interact with not
only individual people but with individual countries. That's
1 l(
I
KATUAH-page 15
all.
')
Spring 1987
�EFFIE (1901-1918)
Come a day ~e now with the sumac burning fiery
on the mountain, and the poplar yaller,
I think on Effie and our time back yonder,
before the Kaiser's War where life was simpler,
us playing Jack in the Bush and singing songs,
or kicking the stick going 10 school,
till our high tops was scuffed,
and we got fussed at for iL
Effie and me was like sisters only bener,
for we was agreeable always and shared our thoughts,
and giggled and cried at a heap of things together.
And at the proper age, Effie turned to womanhood,
filling out, and hiding behind the privy door
at times 'till my womanhood come, too.
Then we ogled the boys and always combed our hair,
and pinched our cheeks for color.
We sneaked on face chalk and sported sooty lashes that run,
and laughed while we swished our sateen skins and flirted.
Then, the boys went across the waters and died in the war,
sometimes before our leners come, us feeling romantic
and not understanding sorrow, then, until
Effie come down sick and wasted before my eyes, in pain.
And time on end I sat and held her hand,
her singing, and giggling, and crying, not herself.
And no more'n a year gone by, Doc Allen come
and shook his head, sad.
'There ain't no manner of hope," he said,
and I watched her go, at fall-time, holding her hand,
and couldn't cry Ii.Ice the rest when Effie laid in her box.
And folks whispered and said it was onnatural,
but I said, "Leave her go, for Tdon't want Effie back
to hurt no more."
It's been nigh onto sixty year, since Effie left,
and it's been hard sometimes.
But I've bad her remembrance in my heart.
And after Carl and me married, later, come us a little girl,
and her name was Effie.
And I loved her, too.
Pearl
from the book by PATRICIA SHIRLEY
young and strong, while my tears run,
and Ma called, "Pearl, I need you!"
I stayed too long, till Aunt Juncy Ball,
dark and spiteful, come and whispered
in my ear, "If I was you, Pearl,
I'd get to Will's Holler before my man
didn't need me no more."
and I said, "What do you mean, Aunt Juney?"
And she said, "I've said my say."
Brother Pleas carried me and my babies
to Will's Holler after I'd kissed
Ma goodbye, her crying.
And I waited in my own house till the cock crowed,
for Carl who come Sll'Ong and handsome
through the door and stopped short, saying,
"What are you doing here?"
And I answered, "I can come home, if I choose,
I reckon, and were you with another woman?"
And Carl scringed and owned up.
"You were long gone, and she didn't mean nothing,
Pearl, but I was lonesome."
And I turned away, bitter, when he reached to me.
And I said, "Don't never touch me no more."
And Carl got down on his knees and vowed
he'd never look at another woman all his life.
It tore me up, as I couldn't hardly stand
to sec him cry, and I said, "I'll think on it,
but tell me who the heifer was."
Carl didn't want to but allowed
it was Iva Belle Gibson over the ridge,
that no account female who was easy with the fellers.
And I said, "Ain't you a'feared of the disease?"
And Carl said he was too strong for that
I put him off, and he worked in the fields
like his life dependod on it And soon I took
LIFEAINT ALWAYS FAIR, 1923
Go ahead and cry, girl.
Tears help when the pain bums deep,
and you'd as soon die as not.
You ain't the first whose man broke
her trust and wants it back
lilce nothing ever happened.
But you can build from mistakes, girl,
if you put your mind to it.
II ain't easy. I know.
My nightmare come before ever your
daddy was bomed, when Pa died.
With Pa in the ground that day,
I longed to go home with Carl
and lean on his strength.
But Ma plagued me to stay and comfort her.
So with a little'un on my hip and a knee-child
a'holt of my skirt, I watched Carl ride away,
KATUAH-page 16
my babies and went over to see Iva Belle Gibson,
and found her sitting on the porch with
a red ribbon in her yaller hair and a red dress,
and I said, "Iva BeUe, that color suits your kind,
and if you look at my man again in your lifetime,
I will put a stob through your hean
and call the devil up to burn you in hell!"
And Iva Belle looked scain and said,
she wouldn't, as she didn't want no curse.
And I said, "Do you have the disease?"
And she swore she hadn't never, so I left her
on that porch and went home.
And Carl begged me again to forget, and I said,
"I'm still thinking on it." And he said,
"Don't put me off too long, Pearl, for I treasure you
and won't never stray again."
So it was time to balance the partS for what come next
and believe in the Lord that things work out
to make us strong, and I quit thinking on it,
and took a chance on Carl,
geuing your daddy on the heels of iL
Carl kept his word, and we never talked it again,
but times I thought of him sharing
with Iva Belle Gibson what was rightfully mine,
and it was hard to take.
Life ain't always fair, girl, and I knowed
I'd remember it always, but you build from mistakes,
if you put your mind to it.
You got to lean on your faith.
Spring 1987
�THE SIMPLER LIFE, 1926
Ways have changed since Carl and me made crops
for a living on that steep ridge in Will's Holler,
with weekend farmers now-a-days planting a row
of this and a row of that, fertilizing and spraying,
turning bits of soil with little tractor-plows,
in their spare time from a job in town.
As they look back to "olden times," envying folks
that simpler life.
I recollect most, in that past time, the younguns
and me putting in the crop one year, Carl laid up
with shoulder and leg broke from cutting wood.
and he couldn't do nothing much to help.
And Carl cursed and beat his good fist agin the wall,
while I hitched Sal to the turning plow and snaked
rows around the ridge top, Herman and Ben rolling
the destroying rocks into Hope Creek.
And I kicked the plow at ever turn, letting the mule
drag it back into place, for it was the fourth month
of carrying Carlie in my belly,
and the going was hard.
TIIlNGS, THEY WORK OUT, 1924
Law, Hallie, I've been where you're at.
I recollect when there was just a handful of meal
and a tad of long sweetning between us and nothing,
with four hungry younguns to feed.
It was bad, me laying big-eyed of a night,
with the fifth one kicking at the knot in my stornick.
to say there was more to come, and I cried.
But I couldn't fault Carl when the com
warshed off the scrabbly ridge side in Will's Holler,
along with the garden stuff, down into Hope Creek,
while the cow died that year.
Carl, he didn't sleep much neither but tromped oatSide
of a'night worrying, working bone-tired of a'day
so we'd survive.
Ma come, sometimes, with food to help us through,
while Carl's head bent in shame that he couldn't provide.
And once I said, "Ma, we're pore as Job's last turkey,
with no letup in sight, and I'm near loony
with it all. Ma. what're we going to do?"
And Ma. she said, "Things, they work out, Pearl.
What you've got ain't no better or worse than most folks,
sometimes. It's hard! But your daddy and me,
we went through bad times and come out stronger
for the fight. Pearl, the Lord and Carl won't let
you down, and come later, that baby will be your delight."
Ma. she patted me and said, "Things likely won't come
as you pictured, Pearl, but they'll work out."
Next day, Carl come and said we was going
to the coal camp, while the baby got bomed and seed money
got saved for next year's crop.
And his back was straight and his head up, while he said.
"It won't be much, Pearl, but we'll eat all right."
And I went, for the Lord and Carl was doing their part,
when Carl, he'd always shunned t.he mine.
My little one was bomed in that dirty town,
with Ma helping out, and I said, "Ma, you're smart,
and I'm calling this one Will Hope,
for he needs his piece of home."
At planting time, Hallie, we was clawing at the ridge again,
then routed mulish weeds in com rows, while eyeing
new potatoes and coming beans in the garden patch,
and tracking our good milker down the holler by her neck-bell.
And like Ma said, your Uncle Will Hope was my delight.
We'd got through a terrible bad time,
but I fell a deeper strength for whatever come next.
The Lord don't give all good things, Hallie,
else we'd not have room to grow.
You place your faith in Him and do your best.
Things, they work out.
KAlUAH-page 17
I dropped com we'd shelled on a winter's night,
Herman and Ben covering it with the scrabbly soiL
And when the com pushed up, we hoed from daylight,
sometimes stopping to blow in a fence comer, going
on again, 'till shadows was as long on the ridges.
And at the row's end, we'd leave the babies to play
on a quilt, or maybe in the sled, for its sides kept
them from the ground and outen harm.
And Carl, clumsy, would sharpen our hoes, while
the boys and me routed the weeds, row by row,
around the ridge, backs tired and callouses hard,
readying to lay the com by and take a little rest.
Our last day out, we hoed and joshed in fun, at times,
Carl minding Effie on the porch, while Jesse stood
in lhe sled, throwing kisses at his ma, corning along
the row.
When I heared him giggle, saw him duck, to stand again,
laughing, there come me a feeling along the ridge,
and I run, yelling, with Herman and Ben behind,
Carl lurching offen the porch in fear.
And the ugly thing coiled to strike again, while Jesse,
he hung over the sled box singing, "Pretty."
But I hit first, cutting it plumb into with the hoe,
chopping till Hennan said, "You can quit, now, Ma."
And he flung it down the ridge like the evil rocks.
And I cried, holding Jesse, while Carl cursed some more.
Herman got hisself the rattlers to save, and then
we went back and finished our job, praying for
a tolerable rain that didn't warsh the soil, and for
a good crop to trade on younguns' shoes and whatever
else we needed through another year.
That was our simpler life.
I know my people.
for through time they've
handed down their stories
~lives through the stories of her life and the lives of her
ancesU>rs. fJ:flJ:1 is a tapestry of Appalachian life and history extending
from 1732 to the preselll.
The book is available for $5.50 postpaid from: Seven Buffaloes
Press; P.O. BoJC 249; Big Timber, MT 59011
~1987
�MSD: "SLUDGE CAN FLY"
MSD Boan1 oCDircctors
P.O.Box 8969
Natural World News Service
NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
THE BATTLE IS LOST, BUT.....
Natural World News Service
The administrative appeal filed by the
Western Nonh Carolina Alliance (WNCA)
to change the clear-cut prescription for the
Little Laurel timber sale on the south side of
the Cowee Ridge above Franklin, NC was
flatly turned down by the US Forest Service
(USFS) at the national level.
The appeal procedure on that suit
exhausted, the WNCA has conceded the
sale, as the group does not have the
resources for an expensive civil coun
action. The group will carefully monitor the
Little Laurel clear-cut, both to be sure that
proper logging practices are adhered to and
to analyze the effects of the clear-cut
technique on a typical section of
Appalachian hardwood forest.
In turning down the Little Laurel
suit, the Forest Service refused to consider
the validity of other forest management
techniques other than clear-cutting and
even-aged forest management Therefore the
WNCA feels that it would be wasted energy
to initiate suits on upcoming USFS timber
sales in the Greens Creek and Terrapin
Mountain areas.
The group's Forest Management Task
Force is, however, considering a challenge
of the USFS 15-year management plan for
the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests.
Clear-cutting is the predominant
management program in the plan, and the
Alliance feels that shelterwood cuts,
proposed for some areas as a compromise
measure, arc unacceptable, as they are only
"delayed clear-cuts" that still lead to
even-aged forest management, which is
inappropriate in the Appalachian hardwood
forest community.
The WNCA also plans to step up irs
edcucational campaign about the forestry
methods used on public lands, analyze
practices on private lands, and try to reach
small landowners to initiate selective cutting
and uneven-aged management on
individually-held forest tracts as a
demonstration to the Forest Service and to
the public at large of the method's aesthetic
and economic benefits and i1s long-term
viability.
For more information on the WNCA
Forest Management Task Force, contact:
Taylor Barnhill
101 Beech Glen Rd.
Mars Hill, NC 28754
KA11JAH- page 18
Despi1e widespread citizen concern,
Buncombe County's (NC) Metropolitan
Sewerage District (MSD) has announced
that it plans to build a sewerage sludge
incinerator to bum solid waste generated by
irs treatment facility. So far, no adequate
environmental assessment of various sludge
disposal options has been prepared,
although such an assessment is required by
law.
MSD responded to the need for an
assessment with a short, inadequate
document, stating that incineration would
have no environmental impacts. In fact, the
scrubbers planned for the incinerator will
not remove particles smaller than one
micron which contain the heaviest load of
heavy metals and dioxins. MSD does not
have an adequate plan for disposing of its
hazardous scrubber water. Also, MSD plans
to place the ash from the incinerator, which
will contain high concentrations of heavy
metals, in its existing lagoon. How safe is
that form of disposal? Full environmental
and economic assessments of all the sludge
disposal alternatives are needed in order for
MSD to make an informed decision.
Local citizen groups are calling for
MSD to compost its solid wastes and sell
the compost as a soil amendment for use on
non-food crop plantings. As an added
incentive, Buncombe County is open to the
possibility of setting up a co-composting
facility with the MSD.
Citizen input is particularly needed at
this time. Citizens groups are
recommending that a letter be sent to EPA
with copies to MSD, the NC Natural
Resources & Community Development
Depanment (NRCD) and elected officials.
EPA, Region IV
Harold Hopkins. Chief
Facilities Construct.ion Branch
Waw Management Div.
345 Courtland St, NE
Atlanlll, GA 30365
Asheville, NC 28814
Siephanie Rici:uutlsoo
NC Dept of Natural Resources &
Community Development
Consll'Uction Grants Section
521 N. Salisbury St.
Raleigh, NC 27611
For more info: Citizens for Clean ~ir.,#
(704) 628-1636 or (704) 658-0294p
EPA PROTECTS PIGEON
from Gary Davis, Knoxville. TN
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has issued a draft of a permit
for the Champion Paper Co. to continue to
operate on the Pigeon River in Haywood
County, NC. The EPA draft toughened the
standards for water color, one of the most
controversial water quality factors, saying
that the river must not be occluded more
than 50 color units 0.4 mile downstream
from the plant.
The pennit did not revise water
temperature requirements, but controlling
the water color would require recycling of
the water from the bleaching process, which
would effectively cool the water as well.
The Champion Company is expected
to appeal the terms of the EPA permit. As it
does each time compliance with
environmental regulations is required, the
company is loudly proclaiming that it will
have to shut down all its operations in
Haywood County if they are forced to bring
their plant operations up to an acceptable
standard
/
Spring 1987
�"They've Got Us Surrounded
.... And They're Closing In"
On the one hand, nuclear pollution. On the other, potemial disaster.
Karuah is surrounded by a nuclear noose of present dangers and planned
radioactivity sites. And the cord is being pulled righter about our throats.
1987 and 1988 will be years ofdecision for the mountain province.
Low-Level Waste Dump
The MRS
Oconee I, 2, and 3
On February 5, 1987 Frank Scanlon,
deputy attorney-general of the State of
Tennessee, submitted an appeal to the US
Supreme Court contesting a ruling in
December by the Sixth District Court of
Appeals that gave the US Department of
Energy (DOE) legal pennission to continue
the process of installing the Monitored
Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility in east
Tennessee. The MRS would handle
high-level radioactive nuclear wastes,
storing them temporarily and re-packaging
them for "permanent" storage in a nuclear
waste suppository. The MRS is presently
slated to be constructed at the site of the
defunct Clinch River Breeder reactor near
Oak Ridge, TN.
Tennessee officials contend that the MRS
should be halted because the DOE violated
the law by not informing the state and its
citizens before moving in to begin work on
the facility.
The Supreme Coun will rule in the late
spring or early summer on whether or not it
will bear the case. An injunction issued by
a lower court prohibiting the DOE from
continuing siting activities on the MRS will
remain in effect until the Supreme Court
gives its final verdict.
In the meantime President Reagan has
included $58 milJion in the budget he
recently sent to Congress for funds to begin
construction of the MRS. Debate on the
MRS will now begin in the national
legislature.
The DOE is not relenting in its search for
a first round nuclear waste suppository in
the west, but it is meeting passionate
opposition in the designated areas, and its
construction timetable is threatened. The
agency has already contracted to take reactor
wastes from private utility companies in
1996, and it wants the MRS to ensure that it
will be able to meet that deadline.
Residents of Katliah need to oppose the
MRS facility with every means at their
command. If the plant is installed, the
results will be devastating for the
Appalachian Mountains:
1) The high mountain forests downwind
of the plant. already dying from atmospheric
pollution, will be burdened by additional
toxic radioactive contamination. In the
event of an accident, the mountains will
receive the full brunt of the effects of any
radioactive release.
The crucial decision point in the
question of whether the state of Nonh
Carolina will stay in the Southeastern
Low-Level Nuclear Waste Compact will
come during the current session of the NC
State Legislature. The Compact is a large
game of Russian roulette in which eight
southeastern states have come together to
put all of their low-level radioactive waste
(LLRW's) for the next 20 years off on one
of the member states. If the NC State
legislators elect to stay in the Compact,
direct action by the citizens of the state will
be required to avert the siting of a low-level
waste dump in North Carolina that would
otherwise have to accept 32 million cubic
feet of radioactive wastes over the next 20
years.
Five sites on the North Carolina
Piedmont are among those deemed
"suitable" to handle the wastes.
These wastes are termed "low-level"
radioactive wastes, but because of
inadequate containers, careless handling,
and "disposal" by burying in shallow,
underground trenches, they are at least as
dangerous as high-level radioactive wastes.
.. It would be an ecological and financial
disaster for North Carolina to accept the
wastes of all the states of the Southeastern
Compact. To date, all facilities where
low-level wastes have been stored have
experienced severe leaking and
environmental contamination. All the sites
except the Barnwell site in SC have been
forcibly closed, leaving clean-up bills in the
millions of dollars for the taxpayers of each
state to pick up.
Shallow-trench burial has been proven
ineffective and should be banned. Yet it is
the disposal method of choice despite the
threat to the physical and genetic health of
nearby human and animal residents and
plant life.
Visible from the top of Whiteside
Mountain near Highlands, NC, the Oconee
I, 2, and 3 nuclear reactors sit in the lake
district of northwestern South Carolina.
These plants were designed by the
Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) company to
the same plan as the ill-fated reactor at Three
Mile Island that suffered a partial meltdown
in 1979. In 1980 the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) stated that eight B&W
nuclear power plants, including the Oconee
I, 2, and 3 generators, would have to
undergo safety modifications to prevent a
repeat of the Three Mile Island accident.
Yet today, due to negligence or
indulgence on the part of the NRC, the
Oconee plants are still in operation, their
basic design problems unchanged, despite
accidents at each of the reactors. While they
arc operating, the three nuclear power
stations constitute a significant threat to the
lives of all living things in their vicinity.
The Union of Concerned ScientistS
(UCS) last February filed a formal petition
with the NRC listing these conditions and
demanding that the eight plants in question,
including the Oconee reactors, be
immediately closed until the necessary
changes are made.
"The unique B&W design makes the
reactors extremely sensitive to even minor
failures,"said Robert Pollard, USC safety
engineer and former NRC official.
"Something as tiny as a blown fuse could
send a B&W plant into a tailspin that could
lead to a major accident with a large release
of radiation."
In 1
979 the Oconee 3 plant lost its
integrated control system. In a B&W
reactor, this could lead to serious
consequences, but fortunately in this
instance the situation was brought under
control. Other accidents have occurred at
each of the plants, underlining the concern
of the UCS that the plants be brought up to
minimum safety levels before a serious
incident occurs in the course of normal
operation.
The NRC has taken note of the safety
problems existing in all the B&W reactors.
They set two deadlines, first in 1984 and
again in 1986, for the built-in safety hazards
to be rectified, but hedged on both deadlines
when they expired. Why the NRC is not
fulfilling its responsibilities is not known,
but it is clear that while the NRC may be
watching out for somebody's interests, it
(conlimM!d on pqe 20)
(continued on page 20)
(continued on pqe 20)
Shaded areas rqweun1 po1ettliaJ dump siles
for IC1W'-levtl 11MCkar waste ill Nonlt CtuoliM..
Spring 1987
KA1UAH - page 19
; ,
• ·~ l
�MRS (continued from page 19)
2) The mountains will become the neck
of a funnel of radioactive waste pouring into
Oak Ridge from the east and southeast.
Unmarked 1rucks and trains carrying the
highly volatile and dangerous wastes will
begin moving daily through the KatGah
province. The steep, winding transp<>rtation
routes and unpredictable weather of the
mountains will make a catastrophic accident
very likely.
3) An MRS in Oak Ridge would be an
open invitation to the DOE lo implant a
deep-shaft nuclear waste repository in
Katuah.
The second-round waste
suppository has not been forgotten by the
DOE. It has only been delayed for the sake
of expediency. The close proximity of the
second-round repository site called the "Elk
River Site" by the DOE near Asheville, NC
and the Great Smoky Mountains National
ParJs would make it almost cenain that
Katuah would be designated the eastern
dump for the nation's nuclear trash.
Contacc
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League
PO Box 808
West Jefferson, NC 28694
or
Western Nonh Carolina Alliance~
Rt 1, Box 304
·
Zirconia, NC 28790
LOW-LEVEL WASTE
(continued from p:ige 19)
Transponation of the wastes also poses a
danger. It is estimated that one 1ruck per
hour will roll through the countryside
carrying hazardous material to the dump
site, endangering the lives and health of
living things all along the route.
Despite the obvious dangers and
disadvaniages of a low-level radioactive
waste dump in the state, NC legislators have
proven reluctant to demand that the state pull
out of the Southeastern Compact. This is
because the large utility companies in
eastern NC and throughout the southeast
have been exerting powerful pressure
behind the scenes to ensure that the state
government offers no resistance to the
Compact idea.
The campaign to pull out of the
Compact is being led in the state legislature
by Rep. Joe Mavretic in the House and state
Senators Charles Hipps and "Bo" Thomas,
who will introduce bills into the current
legislative session.
"I think the best option is for Nonh
Carolina to build its own facility, to go it on
its own or with one more state, maybe
South Carolina or Virginia, to work with
us," said Hipps at a meeting with members
of the Western Nonh Carolina Tomorrow
last February.
A strong popular movement to break
away from the Compact has arisen among
voters. A petition circulated by the group
"Citizens for a Choice on Nuclear Waste"
now stands ready to be presented to the state
legislacure bearing 9,000 signatures of
residents who wish the state to leave the
Compact. Work begun by the Western
Nonh Carolina Alliance in Polk County has
resulted in community meetings in
opposition to the dump that have drawn
hundreds of participants.
If North Carolina accepts the waste,
responsibility for the long-term effects of
the highly toxic waste products will be out
of the hands of the utilities and far from the
area where they are produced and
consumed. This helps keep up the
companies' profits and their media image
and masks the actual costs of producing
nuclear power.
In NC 87% of the LLRW's by volume
and 97% by curies (radioactivity) are
produced by the utility companies from the
generation of nuclear power. If the state
broke away from the Compact and made the
utility companies in the state assume
responsibility for their own wastes, only a
small facility would need to be built by the
state's taxpayers to handle hospital and
other low-level radioactive wastes.
NC residents need to make their needs
and feelings known. The only way to get
the sheepish legislators to act is to make
sure they realize that supporting the
Compact idea would be political suicide.
NC state residents need to demand Lt.
Governor Robert Jordan, House Speaker
Liston Ramsey, and their legislators to:
0
1) leave the Southeastern Compact
2) ban shallow-trench burial of low-level
nuclear wastes
3) require utilities to manage their own
wastes under state regulation.
4) begin phasing out nuclear energy in
the state in favor of more benign sources of
power.
For more information, contact:
Western Nonh Carolina Alliance
Rt. I, Box 304
Zirconia, NC 28790
or Citizens For a Choice on Nuclear Waste
POBox653
~~
Dillsboro, NC 28725
~
»MIL£ AAOtUS ""OM
I
.
-
<>COHEE UNITS •-3
I
·-
OCONEE 1, 2, and 3
(continued from p:ige 19)
certainly is not watching over !he interests
of those who live in the vicinity of the three
Oconee reactors.
Local residents are urged to join the UCS
petition and write to the NRC to request that
the Oconee plants be immediately shut down
because of their dangerous design
deficiencies.
Write: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
1717 H SL NW
/~
Washington, DC 20555
~
I LISTEN
I am a child of the mountains;
For when a whippoorwill calls from the
darkened Blue Ridge,
I listen.
And when I sit on a mossy rock next to the creek
And see a Cooper's hawk skimming the pinetops.
His cry as clear as the sky,
I listen.
And I listen to the ttain whistle moaning through
the valley
And the echoing rumble that makes me pull the
bedclothes close to my chin;
I am a child of the mountains and
I listen.
Julia Nunnally Duncan
KATUAH - page 20
Spring 1987
�A CHILDRENS' PAGE
T re_°'\- TYi e_
wor\ d .tQ''\'j
.,-
As a young girl, if you could do
or give something to this world,
what would you give?
!
(
/
o
0
~p D
:;
Annie, age 7 years:
1 would give love, and I would
tell them to treat people equally.
Drawings by Hannah Freed
Serena, age 5 years:
I would give love.
Abby, age 9 years
.
I would give a giant healing
crystal to the world.
~~
--
Leila, age 9 years:
I would let the world live, like the people who
are building highways, I would just leave it alone.
Samala, age 7 years:
I would give things to poor people, things that
they didn't have.
Hannah, age 12 years:
I would try to clean up this world and treat the
world nicely so that it doesn't become trashy and go
to waste. I'd also build houses for the poor so that
they could have the same amount of money as
everybody and live so people are so that there are
no wars.
KATUAH - page 21
We welcome original drawings, stories, poems, ideas or
comments by individual children or groups for !his page. The
children are our teachers! May their thoughts and dreams
enlighten us!
,
Spring 1987
�·r.
Trillium Cove
1·
- ,'"'\ I
DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
precious, perfect day
- a jewel clear 'midst sand and stones,
we plucked it from
the swift stream
passing by,
my cider friend and I.
white trillium stars
lighting still coves,
our rising spirits
from blue sleep ascended
the feast
of forest verdure sweet.
KatU'.ah,
Thank you for the letter and information you sent I
very much appreciate your concern and help. I am in touch
with another person who was active in the Allegheny
Watershed group, but it seems that this bioregional sparlc is
inactive for now. I am encouraged and will be contacting
both the Kindred Spirits Journal and the community
publication you provided.
I know there are many people like myself who are
searching for a better way of life. I know for myself, I often
feel a sense of despair and alienation living in the midst of the
dominant culture. I sometimes wonder if I am the only one
who hears the birds, the animals, all other life forms cry out
at the senseless and callous exploitation of the earth and its
life, for the gross profit and material greed of humans. Then
I read a joum.al like Karoah and somehow I feel better, I feel
at least a sense of hope, that I am not alone, and that my
beliefs and struggles are not totally crazy. It is of the utmost
importance that people who believe in bioregional approaches
to living somehow make contact with each other. I know the
frustration I feel at not being able to find other beings in the
Allegheny-Monongahela watershed to join together in
building a better life. We arc all pioneers in re-inhabiting
Turtle Island and need the support of each other. For
myself, I know that to continue to remain within the
modem-humanized industrial culture will soon destroy me.
It has already taken its toll. I don't know where or how, but
I must establish a closer relationship with the earth. I must at
least try. Your journal has given me much courage in this
struggle. Once again thanks for being there.
Most sincerely,
Ed Lytwak
30 Seanor St
. Jeannette, PA 15644
NOVA
After sixty years Rebecca tired of inventing
new qualities for stars. They grew fewer
as the city brushed her small frontyard, and those
few couldn't carry all her dreams in their sagging
tracks. So, ooe day when those old constellations
left for the other side of the world, she found
the deepest dry well in Harrodsburg, Kentucky,
shinnied down from the noon heat for
a new set of stars she could name
without mythology: the magnolia tipped
a careful question,
caring to soften the distance
of our years
I asked, "ls every Spring forever new?" as through newborn, greening eyes
our road ribbon'd
the passing majesty,
our hearts leaning homesick
toward the Mother
of all
hungry life.
shining his reply
from ancient, young eyes, as o'er the highway
our feelings unfurled like new leaves,
each mile beguiled by pale quiltings
of woolly hills
and valleys plaid,
"Oh, yes! Spring is eternally new!" eJCulting, we agreed
for its purity of promise,
for its tender, supple life,
for its pouring
and molding
to shape our dreams.
- Donna VanLear
Dear K.anl.ah.
I have been working 10 hours a day, seven days a
week, and I haven't had time to answer your letters promptly
or anything else.
The computer factory I work at (UNISYS) is being
closed due to merger of Sperry and Burroughs. Actually it
was a hostile takeover. Anyway, about 2,000 people will be
unemployed in Bristol. My job is being transferred to
Winnipeg, Canada, and as soon as they get a "clean room"
built there, I will be laid off. The other jobs are going to
Nogales, Meltico and Israel. The Canadians and Mexicans
are here now for training and are quarreling over which one
will get our test equipment
Last m<inth we shipped 15.9 million dollars worth of
computer products to customers, and the president of the
company wants one year of surplus to buffer the transition,
but it looks impossible to me. I don't know where I will be
working next, but perhaps I will have time to distribute some
v~ .r.~ i..·
.c.IWIJiUl s.
I will try to come to the Spring Gathering, if I don't
have to wodc then.
Blessed be,
Bia.kc Lawson
Bristol, TN
in dazzling dew; the red pair of possum eyes
met with headlights on the backroads; the north
quadrant, its promise changing with every hour, she
named after herself and the small things in her path.
- Marcia Hurlow
KATUAH - page 22
Spring 1987
�Dear Kanlah,
I write concerning a movement to create a 65,000 acre
MORE WILDERNESS!
wilderness area on the Virginia, West Virginia line in George
Dear Karuahans.
We dream of the day when large populations of the
Gray Wolf, the Eastern Cougar, and Yona, the bear, again
roam the wilds of the entire Appalachian Region. When the
Appalachlans are able to support healthy populations of these
and other indicator species, they should be able to support
healthy populations of all native micro-organisms and plant
and animal species. For this to happen, we need a large,
contiguous Wilderness uniting Florida with Maine and the
Maritimes, using the great Appalachian Trail as the
"backbone."
We are currently working on such a proposal for the
Earth First! Journal and Katuah which we hope to publish in
May. We need your advice and assistance in identifying core
Wilderness areas (existing roadless areas and wild areas
which ought to be quickly returned to a roadless state).
These areas need not lie directly on the AT; wild corridors
linking the core areas to the AT must also be identified.
Which areas in your region should we include in the
general proposal? (Think Big.) Which areas will need
Wilderness Recovery plans? What steps will be necessary to
reintroduce native species driven to or near extinction in
recent centuries (i.e., the Chestnut)? How can we recover
private lands in your region? What roads should be closed
today? In a few years? In the long-range vision? We need
descriptions of local bioregions. Are there special features of
the geology and ecology of an ecosystem which caU for
preservation? What are we overlooking? We especiaUy need
the guidance of Native Americans, Poets, Artists, and
Musicians.
Please send copies of letters to both Jamie and Roland
(who is designing a Wilderness Recovery plan for the
Appalachians).
In Wildness,
Roland A. Knapp
Jamie Sayen
Rt. 2, Box 433-A RRl, PO Box 132-A
North Stratford, NH
Frostburg, MD
21532
03590
Washington National Forest. This new Shenandoah
Wilderness would be the largest contiguous wilderness in
the Southern Appalachians. Perhaps more importantly, for
the first time a river valley with more than a large creek in it
will be completely protected by the wilderness system.
Many eastern National Forests, like George
Washington, are slowly dying because thousands of miles of
roads are being built along every stream bed. The biological
diversity and carrying capacity of the Forest are dropping as
more of the delicate riparian zones are invaded by roads. To
complement this pattern, our wilderness system is designed
to protect small islands of land that are usually too infertile
and dry to support the full range of a forest plant and arlimal
spectrums.
The designation of Shenandoah Wilderness is
definitely needed and entirely attainable. But the efforts to
create at least one large wilderness in the Appalachians are
approaching a major hurdle. The Forest Service is in the
process of finalizing plans to reconstruct a road through the
heart of the proposed wilderness area. The reconstruction of
the North River Road will do irreparable damage to the
primary waterway of the area, the North River.
If prodded by numerous letters the Forest Service
might slow down long enough to consider the benefits of
not rebuilding the North River Road, which was destroyed
by floods a year ago. It is the only major forest road in the
section proposed to be wilderness, so its closure would open
the door 10 wilderness designation.
Please write to George W. Kelley, Forest Supervisor,
George Washington National Forest at Harrison Plaza, POB
233, Harrisonburg, Va. 22801, encouraging him to study the
positive and negative environmental impacts of rebuilding or
not rebuilding this road. Letters to Virginia's Congressional
delegation would also help.
H you are interested in getting more involved in the
designation of Shenandoah Wilderness, write me as well and
I will send you some more complete infonnation.
"No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth."
John Hutchinson
c/oOAlnc
1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Dear Kattlah,
Thank you for your comments on creating a "new
grammar" and for your dedication to using inclusive
language in Karuah. The continued use of "he" and "him" as
the standard is one of the subtle ways we continue to be told
that the male is the nonn and the female is the deviation.
Thank you for doing your part in the evolution of our
language as it changes in respome to our changes.
Sincerely,
Glenda Neel Pender
Nature's Cellar
Dahlonega, GA
SWEET WILLIAM
Sweet William cut his plough into the earth,
Sweet William flared a thousand shades of pink,
The first my cousin, second it gave binh
To color as would make the dogwoods blink While one farmed in these hills for sixty years,
The other spread its wild-flower unde. foot r
They both are part of Appalachian tears ...
Where one's dug deep, the other's taken root
-John Grey
(DRUMMING continued nelll page)
KATUAH - page 23
Tata Andres
Spr.in; J.987
�I
DRUMMING (continued from p. 23)
lHE MOUNfAIN IS A WOMAN
1.
Dear Katiiah
You look at the evemng ridge;
it is a pan of you now,
Hearing that your next issue will be aboor women I
wrote down these thoughts. I hope there will be room for
them in that edition:
and wonder how
these things can happen.
"Woman lam
Spirit I am
I am the infinite within my soul
I have no beginning and I have no end
all this I am"
...we always chant to end the meditation in our women's
group.
''Woman I am." Yes. But what docs that mean? What
docs it mean to be a woman? Katherine's question "When
do you feel most like a woman?" had started me pondering at
the last meeting. Unable to come up with an answer right
away, we had decided to observe ourselves as "homework".
When do I feel like a woman?
As mother of a four month old, nursing and mothering
arc prime occasions. And the pregnancy, of course. What
couJd be more womanly than that? But I was 38 when my
son was born. Had I not felt like a woman before? Looking
back on my life (in those precious moments when he is
asleep) I realize I spent much time proving that I was a
non-typical woman. Woman as I saw her then was a weak,
submissive being, whose interests were restricted to
household matters, whose conversations were boring, and
who defined herself mostly by adopting and rendering her
husband's tastes, ideas and views. I did my best to turn out
the opposite. I pursued a career, participated in intellectual
discussions and chose hobbies where women were not
usually found.
Men were the scale I measured my worth on. I had to
be as good, daring, intellectual, skilled as they were.
After years of emotional healing I have enough
self-esteem today to know my worth as a person.
But as to my womanhood I am still puzzled, confused,
uncertain. The man-oriented history of our civilization is
frustrating. The perfectly masked female faces and girlish
bodies in magazines and films, offices and shops are
depressing.
I lack role models.
My body is the body of a woman. But what about my
mind, my soul, my spirit?
I am not alone in my search for identity within the
female. Most of my friends share these feelings.
We have been estranged from our essence for so long.
We need time. Time to ourselves. And space and
togelhemess wilh other women. This is how lhe idea of a
Women's Wellness Week was born last year: a week for
women to be together and explore !heir bodies, emotions,
spirits. To reconnect with their special female power and to
nurture those who usually do most of the nurturing for
Dreamers often do
The moon is as proud and distant in its rising
as her smile
this moon lifts proud
and brooding
somewhere inside of you
Drifting as siJent
and as singular
as Bu the owl
2.
Her daughter has touched you
She is heaJing,
she makes you bleed.
She has a boy,
her dreams are rcaJ.
The mountain is a woman
Once I made poetry
now I will make songs.
- Donald Morton
The Hawk Wjnd
There comes a day in the Spring of the year when
Eanh and Air interact to create a special wind, a wind that
allows the hawks to ride aloft on their great spring
migrations. This same Hawk Wind affects the soul of Man,
instilling in him - for at least this one brief day - a wanderlust
that will not let him rest. This intense longing defies
description, but once the Hawk Wind has claimed you, you
will never forget it.
The Hawk Wind is rising in the West,.
And with it I must rise,
Or be forever bound to Earth
While in this earthly guise.
@ Douglas A. Rossman
others.
We want to do all this again this year and have fun
together at Indian Valley Retreat in August. It would be
wonderful if many of you could join us for this special event.
Or maybe organize a wellncss week of your own.
I hope that all women will sometime be able to answer
the question "What docs it mean to be a woman?" with "It
means to feel good."
Michaela Schmidt
c/o Indian Valley Retreat
Willis, Va.
1UAH - page 24
Spring 1987
�COVERLETS (continued from p. 4)
mountain weaving women and did have an effect on the
conditions of their lives.
handicrafts revival was cenainly of economic benefit. It also
had a big effect on a woman's position in the family in the
cases where she provided the only source of cash and her
work enabled the family to stay on their land.
By the mid-1920's the mountains were dolled with
schools, co-ops, shops, and settlement houses. But Frances
Goodrich's dream of creating a market for mountain crafts
had only been partly realized. In a 1928 meeting of mountain
volunteer workers in Knoxville, TN, Olive Campbell
proposed to Lucy Morgan that a guild be formed. ln
December of that year another meeting wfls held in the
weaving cabin at Penland that led to the founding of the
Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild in 1931.
Frances Goodrich offered the new organization the
facilities of her Allanstand shop. Almost as soon as the guild
was formed, it began its long involvement with the Great
Smoky National Park and later with the Blue Ridge
Parkway, providing items for sale and demonstrations of
traditional crafts.
In the mountains there is a continuum that remains here
to this day. It consists of two overlapping traditions: the
pioneer cabin culture that is 200 years old and still survives
in some ways, and the craft revival tradition that is already
100 years old and is an individual as well as an intellectual,
social, political, and economic movement. These two
traditions blend together, and it is impossible to draw a clear
line between where one Stans and the other ends. Even today
new things are being discovered and other things revived.
Back in 1895 people were pessimistic about the furore
of the old, rural, mountain traditions. Today we can better
realize the resilience and adaptability of the mountain ways.
Mountain people are practical. They were never attached to
tradition for tradition's sake. They have always been eager to
find a better way to do things. But mountain people cling
tenaciously to the old ways "if it suits 'em" to do so.
MAINTAINING MOUNTAIN CULTURE
Lucy Morgan and Olive Campbell represent the second
generation of the Appalachian handicrafts revival. Lucy
Morgan was a native-born Appalachian woman who
founded the Penland School of Crafts in the early I 920's and
Fireside Industries to help mountain women market their
craftwork. Olive Campbell founded the John C. Campbell
Folk School in 1925. These second-generation revival
leaders had slightly different goals from their predecessors.
"First, I wanted to promote a revival of mountain
handiwork. Second, I wanted to add to their meager incomes
while not forcing them to leave their homes," said Lucy
Morgan.
In her work she was always conscious that in helping
mountain women get cash for their work, she was helping
them to achieve a degree of independence that they had never
had before.
She appreciated that mountain women were breaking
into the modem system by means of some of their oldest
trades.
''Thoughts danced through my head nights and days,"
she wrote in later years. "My mind wove fanciful visions
while my tired. sore fingers were weaving tangible materials.
I saw innumerable women in modest mountain homes,
happily engrossed in weaving beautiful homespuns in
delightful old designs, their worries vanishing and their
hopes brightening for their children's futures.
"I saw the education of countless mountain children,
even college educations, being clacked out on home looms in
the coves and valleys and along the slopes of the Blue Ridge
and the Great Smokies." <Gift from the Hills, by Lucy
Morgan with LeGette Blythe, Univ. of NC, 1950)
The mountain economy was largely outside of the cash
economy - particularly during times like the Civil War and
the Great Depression. The men could feed their families from
their farms, but, shon of leaving home, there were few ways
for them to bring in any cash. During the Depression the
Jan Davidson is locally well-known as a musician who
plays traditional mountain mu.sic, bw he is also curator of the
Mountain Center in Cullowhee, NC. He, his wife Nanette,
who calls a lively square dance, and their son, John Neil; ~
live in Webster, NC.
p
Landlines
~ mu.1(
Orac(es -
C6u~, <"1)5tc.Ur.,
Custom Mapping and
T
Geographic Information Management
yl~•r)Q wnls, l~rods
0
A ndrew W. Feonslem
CnrtOQropheT
T...,e
108 Chu•ch Rd.
A.h..mo NC 28804
(704) 254-9551
/
PruviJm11 Pcnanal ~rvlu
Fllhn11 Yc•n Boole Needs
In Speciallz.etl Acids
701-26+ 5866
tmor,
1"""E'
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601 Ca1t1p f((IOt'~c:L
$tat~"' Ol<llt1Ut)1 / (( .. 1g7 /I
c...t.J '• <'1".w.i~ .... r1, om.,.
Books Q.,J
Things L~- ··
l08 Blowing R..ick RQad
8unM, Nonh Carolina 28607
GARY HEMSOTH
~
Tho powotM GOLDEN EAGLE
ria.1 alloYe 1111 tluo Ri<ftt mltlis lull
.o1.. dos1111. h•ftd.scr....., ... r.
~~:,Ts Of 100'1. PRESHRUNK COT·
Colon:SilYor.fcrv.wi.•tc
Sinr;AdUlllS·XL.
ShottSIHveT: .lduft·SIO.OOppd.
1\jane,,
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Lon1Slttv1T: Adull·Sl4-00ppd.
All designs, except Golden Eagle, also available
in sweatshirts. Feather or tracks imprinted on
sleeve.
ULTRAVIOLET PURIFICATION AND FILTERING SYSTEMS
SOLAR PRODUCTS· WATER ANALYSIS
RANDALL C. LANIER
704-293-5912
..-----------·-----·--·------·
!
:
MIO! Ordtr To: Rl<lc• Runner H•M•I•
1033°h81ls1mlld.. Waynuvillt,NC 28785(7041456·3003
O MuttrClrdHo. _ __ _ _ _ _ __
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O VISElp.D•~------Name _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
I
•
AddttH _ _ _ _ _ __ __
1
Lona Sitt•• Includes d•ialled prom ot tuther
on slttvt. S..trsfaction auurtd
orrtlllmlortull refund.
_
_ _ _ _ __
:
FRIEDMAN &
.HWY. 107
RT. 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
8
DESIGN, INC.
ENERGY SYSTEMS
THAT PAY FOR THEMSELVES
'':
• Pt\on•- - -- -- -- - - - - - - - -
1
:JChtck her> tor rR££ COl0:~~~:~=~:;,~;.';.~~:~11 Gnphi<s.
PO 80Xe57
OIUSllORO. NC 29125
KATUAH - page 25
Sprin;J 1987
�using this kind of equipnumt, we can all go home with
money in our poclcets."
Feminine qualities would seem to be excellent assets
when supervising work among the webs of a complex life
community. It requires a sensitive hand to create a scene of
beauty while keeping the books balanced. Compassion is
needed to keep the life processes of a place in mind while
trees are dropping and bulldozers are moving across the
forest floor. And it takes a calm mind to clearly discern the
line between purposeful production and wasteful destruction.
"With my kind of crew using this
kind of equipment, we can all go
home with money in our pockets."
"When I got into this business, I didn't know anything
about logging. I was so disgusted IJy the clear-cutting issue,
that I wished I could do forest management without having to
deal with loggers. Needless to say, I soon found out there
was noway.
"So I first hired two men. I was told they were
excellent loggers. They came in at the given time, 7:00 am,
they tUTned on their saws, and off they went. They worked
for an hour without looking up, and trees were flying in all
directions. I thought, This is great. Within a day this will
all be cut.' But then I realized that all that material had to
come out. Unless you stop at the right moment, it becomes
rather complicated, and you have to climb over a lot oftimber
to pull the next piece out.
'This was the beginning of my learning. I told
myself, 'We need a plan. In order to know haw to finish,
we need to know how to start.'
·so I read some boo/cs and consuilld with some
penple experienced in harvesting, and 1111/lde a plan. I taught
the loggers. I said, '/nstead of felling everything left and
right, go a little bit more slowly and/ell them in rows. Then
between the rows will be spaces we can plant.•
"Now, every time we do a cut, we have a plan.
"loggers at the sawmill are like washerwomen at tire
public fountain. Wiren they get together, they yak. Tire
loggers all know who is cutting what for whom for haw
much. They know it all. And now I'm beginning to have
loggers who call us and say, 'I would like to work for you.'
I've had several crews I've worked with. Some could
change their ways, others couldn't. We say, 'We'll give it a
try, and if you find this is not the way you can work, then
that's too bad.'
The men who work with me are very responsive. I
love them. They work hard. But I mark every tree, I lay out
every foot of the skid trail myself. I always let them know
that 'mama is here'.
Seeing Lislott Harbens' excitement when she is in the
woods or talking about her work, observing her relationship
with the forest, and watching her chaoning, yet utterly
competent manner of doing business, it makes one think it
would be good to see more women earning degrees in
forestry school or going out into the woods to tend the rrees.
FOREST CARE may be contacted at 437 Walnut
Street; Sta1esville, NC 28677 or aJ (704) 873-5344 or (704)
872-1930.
Uslott Harberts has said, Hf would love to /rave a
FOREST CARE <XJmpany up in the high mountain area. It
would take an enterprising person with the rig/it
qualifications. It would take an initial investment, but we
would lend our name to the enterprise, if an entrepreneur
would be willing to subscribe to tire guidelines and standards
/
that we have set up for our company.
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"veil" is a membrane which sometimes envelopes the infant's
head at birth and is refened to as a "caul" in medical
tenninology).
When cars got more common, Susie remembers
stepping out of a car to go deliver a baby and sinking waist
deep in snow.
But weather never stopped her from helping those who
needed her. Lawrence was obviously behind her all the way,
for when she was away delivering someone else's child, he
kept their 11 children at home.
Susie said she was lucky she never had to deliver a
baby so small it had to be incubated. Back in those days, the
incubator consisted of a basket filled with wool to warm the
child, said Susie. Her babies were always five pounds or
larger, and the largest she can recall today was 12 pounds,
one of her daughter's children.
The Morgan twins (Harold and Carroll) stick out in
Susie's mind even today, because she had to fight so hard
and long to keep the babies breathing. Luckily she had some
help that day. While she breathed life into one baby, she said
the other one would stop breathing. She'd hand the breathing
child to her helper while she breathed life back into the other
one. For over half an hour Susie continued to breathe into the
infants until they began to breathe on their own, putting them
into wann water to help stimulate them.
"Th. ir mother tells 'em even today they'd better be
c
good to me because I saved their lives," said Susie with a
laugh.
Doc Nichols, and Little Doc Nichols. She said often Doc
Wilkes would stay until she could get there, and he would
then leave mother and baby in her capable hands. Susie
recalls the good doctor telling his patients, "I know Mrs.
McMahan can do as good as I can," before he left
When trials arose during a binh, Susie had to use her
instincts to save lives. After walking four miles out into the
mountains Susie thought a baby was not going to get born
because it was crossways. She got some help and held the
mother up on he.r head so she could tum the baby. The baby
was born safe and sound.
Often the families slept on bed ticks made out of tow
sacks and stuffed with cornshucks. If the baby was born
before she arrived, she often had to fish the infant out of
cornsbucks.
Susie had all her children at home, most delivered by
other midwives. When a doctor was available, she would use
him.
As a midwife, probably some of Susie's proudest
births were her own grandchildren, many of whom she
helped to bring into the world. Today Susie has 123
grandchildren,
great-grandchildren,
and
great-great-grandchildren.
uld Susie dretired asdahmid.walife in 1966il, whedn whomen
co
get to octors an ospll s more eas y, an s e was
no longer needed as desperately as she had once been.
"I thought I'd done my duty," she said. And no one
could argue with that statement!
,.~
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Reprinted with permission from The Sylva /h.rJJ.JJL. Sylva,
NC
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KATUAH - page 26
Spring 1987
�MARCH
23-25
CREA T SMOKY MTNS
"Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage". Auto
and walking tours to view the diverse vegellllioo or
the park in spring. Coniact Park Headquarters;
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
24
ASHEVILLE, NC
"LATINO·. highly acclaimed.
fcnturc-length film shown during Central Americn
Week. 7:30 pm. Humanities Lecture Hall,
UNC·A~ S2.SO
25
26
ASHEVILLE, NC
Acid Rain Panel Discuss1on.Wcnoca Sicmi
Club. Uniwian Church. 7:00 pm social: 7:30 pm
program.
ARDEN, NC
"Dreams" with Adrienne Quinn
<Dreams· Seem Mcssaecs [rpm Your Mind).
Creating and interpreting dreams. 9 am • 4 pm.
Love offering. Unity Center: Airpon Rd. (704)
684-3798
27-29
25-26
FARNER, TN
"Wild Foods, Earth Medicines" •
identification, preparation, cookery. Meals. bunks.
Pre-register: Pcppertand Fann Camp (sec 3128-29)
JOHNSON CITY, TN
10th ·Annual Appalachian Studies
Conference. "Rememberance, Reunion, & Revival:
Celebnuing A Decade of Appalachian Studies". Info:
Helen Roseberry; East TN Siate University: P.O.
Box 22, 300A; Johnson City. TN 37614 (615)
929-4392.
30
BOONE, NC
Paul Winier Concert. Farthing
Auditor1um, Appalachian State University.
SYLVA, NC
Gurney Norman, Appalachian prose
writer~ pjyjnc Rjghl's Trip>. reading from
has works :it City Lights Bookstore. 55 E. Main
St.. 7:30 pm
30
DUBLIN, VA
"LEAVING EGYPT" · The Rood.side
Thca1tc Info: (606) 633-0108
28-29
1-3
27
MAY
FARNER, TN
Caving Expedition with Snow Benr.
Instruction in snfety, geology, cave
formations.Pre-register: S6S includes meals,
equipment. Pcppcrland Farm Camp; Sw Rouie;
Farner, TN 37333
FARNER, TN
KATUAH SPRING GATHERING at
Pcppcrlnnd Farm Camp. Sec announcement next
page.
10
28-29
WILLIS, VA
"Natural Vision Improvement• with
Michaela Schmidt. Indian Valley Holistic Center;
Rt 2 Box 58; Willis, VA 24380. (703) 789-4295.
KNOXVILLE, TN
"Fundraising Workshop for Grassroou
Orpnil.ations" with nationally acclaimed consultant
Kim Klein. 9 1111-4:30 pm. $35. To rcgisicr (before
3(1.7): Community Shares; 517 Union Ave (Suite
203): Knoxville, TN 37902.
(615) 522-1604.
APRIL
SWANNANOA, NC
WATER FOR LIFE/ STREAMWATCH.
Siatewide gathering or citiicns concerned with
improving rivers .t streams in NC. Speakers,
workshops, activities for teachers. recreational
activities, ac. Info: Environmental Sllldics, Warren
Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC 28778
2
WILLIS, VA
Couples Workshop with Tom
Williams. Indian Valley Holistic Ccnl.CI' (see 3128)
2
BRASSTOWN, NC
Homesteading Workshops. John C.
Campbell Folk School: Brasstown, NC 28902.
(704) 837-2n5.
10-11
3-5
FARNER, TN
Spring Camping Trip into a virgin
hardwood forest. Wildflowers. foraging, tracking
with Snow Bear (see 3/28-29).
3-5
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Tilc Mystic Journey Retreat". Southern
Dharma Retreat Center; Rt. I, Box 34 H; H0t
Springs, NC 28743.
(704) 622-7112.
4
SWANNANOA, NC
3rd Annual WNC ENVIRONMENTAL
SUMMIT. A look at key environmenlal issues,
problems. solutions, and strategics. 8:30 am-5:00
pm., Kiuredge Center, Warren Wilson College.
Registration $5. Info: Environmenlal Studies,
Warren Wilson College, Swannnnoa. NC 28n8.
9-10
FARNER, TN
"Earth Skills Seminar" • staying
warm, dry, and well-fed with what the forest has to
give. Pre-register: $50 includes mcab, lodging.
Peppcrtand Farm Camp (sec 3128-29)
15-17
19-25
SW ANNA NOA, NC
"Swannanoa River Awareness Weck" with
Clean Streams Day, benefit square dance, etc. Info:
Joe L..acltey, Environmental Studies.. Warren Wilson
College, Swannanoa, NC 28n8.
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
1987 BLACK MOUNTAIN SPRING
MUSIC FESTIVAL. Claudia Schmidt. Trapezoid,
Tuin, The Folkiellers, Golden Rod Puppets,
Braidstream, more. S30 for the weekend. Wriie:
P.O. Box 216: Black Min., NC 28711.
• continued on next p1ge
10-12
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"The Sounds of Spring: A Silent
Meditation Retreat". Stil-Light Theosophical
Rctrea1 Center, Rt I Box 326, Waynesville, NC
28786. (704) 452-4569
~@(MJ~ft ~f!.IUJO~ ~~~
RECLAIM YOUR PERSONAL. POWER AT A NURTURING MOUNTAIN RETREAT
CHl.DCARE AVl>U8.I:
AUGUST 17 - 23
$285
HERBALIST, SUSAN WEED; BODY WORKER,UBBY OUTLAW
CAROLYN MOORE, M.D.
INDIAN VALLEY RETREAT
RT 2 BOX 58, WILLIS. VA. 24380 (703) 789--4295
KATUAH - page Tl
Spring 1987
�22-25
WILLIS, VA
Vision Quest with Dan Goodp:ith. Indian
Valley Holistic C.entcr (see 3128)
24-30
BRASSTOWN, NC
"Native American Week" at John C.
Campbell Folk School. Baskets, pouery, weaving,
woodC3t'Ving. (soc S/2)
7-13
30
NC~
ALERT!
19-21
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Geologic Evolution of the Great
Smokies•, "Spring Wild Edibles". and • Animnl Life
in Smoky Mtn. Sueams•. Smoky Mountain Field
School (see 4/4)
~31
HENDERSONVILLE, NC
NC Chapter Siemi Oub Annual
Meeting. Kanuga Conference Center. Regisuntion
fee. Info: Shirl Thomas (704) 885-8229.
BRASSTOWN,
JUNE DANCE WEEK, includes English
Country, Scouish Country & English Garland
Dancing. John C. Campbell Folk School (see 5/2).
The IRS has proposed regulations to
change the definition of lobbying. If
adopted, these new regulations could
d r astically affect what tax-exempt
organizations can do. The changes would
also be retroactive affecting the ww and
~ status of 501 C4 and possibly some
50 I C5 organizations.
THE IRS IS ACCEPTING
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THESE
PROPOSED NEW RULES UNTIL
APRIL 3, 1987.
Direct your comments to:
WAYNESVILLE, NC
• Flower Essences: Archetypes of
Consciousness". Stil-LighL (see 4/10}
21 SUMMER SOLSTICE GATHERING
and Seed Camp for National Rainbow Gathering.
Rainbow Family of Living Light: Box 1097:
Newport, TN 37821
23-24
JUNE
6
GREAT SMOKY MTNS
"Forests and Trees of the Smokies".
Smoley Mountain Field School
(see 4/4}
SWANNANOA, NC
ALTERNATIVE FARMING FIELD
DAYS. Sponsored by Carolina Fann Stewardship
Assoc .. Keynote: Dick Harwood, fonncr director of
Rodalc's Farm Research. Includes workshops,
displays, field trips, etc. Info: Ian Robertson,
Warren Wilson College, Swnnnaooa, NC 2877g.
(704) 298-3325, ext 256.
Commissioner of Internal Revenue
Aucntion: CC:LR:T:E-154·78
Washington, DC 20224
For more infonnation: contact your local
Sierra Club or Harvard Ayers, Blue Ridge
Sierra Club, 205 Anne Marie Drive, Boone,
NC 28607. (704) 264 4367 or 262-2295.
Join
a Circle
of
PEOPLE
WHO CARE
Cost if pre-registered by April 15:
Katiiah Spring Gathering
$20.00IJ.ri<
$10.00chlf
Cost al carll>:
"working for a viable future for the
Southern Appalachian Bioregion"
Friday evening
May 1 thru May 3 Sunday afternoon
PEPPERLAND FARM CAMP
wor1<shops on:
Communities, Herb and Tree Identification
Dowsing, Nukes, and Bear Action
Crystal Circle, Childrens' Activities
KA TUAH - page 28
$16.00 camping
$20. ()() ~
$12.00 chl:1
All money received pays for food and camp costs.
This Is a not·for-prof1t event.
Name - - - - - - - - - - - - Address - - - - - - - - - - - Phone
Enclosed is _ _ __
adults and
_ _ Camping
in payment for
children.
Bunk
Please return to Katuah:
Box 873: Cullowhee, NC: Katuah Province: 28723
For more Info, phone: (704) 586-3146
Spring 1987
�cefEBWO~
APPALACHIAN PATCHWORK - Mountain talcs
and songs by the Appalachian Puppet ThC4trc.
Cassette tape $7.00 from: Appalachian Puppet
Theatre, 3SS Cedar Cteelc Road. Black Mountain,
NC 28711 (704) 669-6821.
DRUM WORKSHOPS - for children of all ages.
Lherapeutic massage • Relaxes lhe body &
mind ...Call Martha for more info at (704)
252-2420.
CUSTOM CELTIC HARPS - A'CoW't Bason;
Travianna Farm; Rt. I; Check, VA 24072.
"AS WE ARE" - Women's music by Pomegrunatc
Rose, a four-woman group playing lively original
music. Cassettc tape available for $9.00 ppd. from
RL 2, Box 43S; Piusboro, NC 27
IN DEFENSE OF SACRED LANDS • Support the
rU'St Amendment lawsuit to stOp forced relocation
of lhe Dineh (Navajo) people. Buy a sacred lands
sweatshirt or long-sleeve T-shirt. SO/SO sweatshirts
- $20 postpaid, in grey, red. turquoise. 100% couon
long sleeve T-shirts - SI 5 postpaid, in black, forest
green, lavender. sii.es: S-M-L-XL Crom BMLDiOC;
2501 N. 4th St; Flagstaff, AZ 86001.
WINGED HEART HOMESTEAD - 283 acres in
Indian Valley district, SW Virginia. On lhis farm
we wam to start a selC-reliant communi1y of
families emphasizing orpnic fanning methods and
creative persooaJ and spiritu:il growth. Cootact:
Mulawir; Rt HC-67, Box 171; Alum Ridge, VA
24051.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - herbal salves,
lincturcs, & oils for birlhing &. family health. For
' brochure, please wri1.e: Moon Dance Farm; RL I,
Box 726; Hrunpcon, TN 37658
OAK LEAP WORKS - band-crafted futon
mattresses, :i:abuton floor cushions, yogamats, and
buckwheat hull pillows: standard 4 custom size$
available, to suit your needs. Write or call for our
free brochure: Oak Leaf Works; Star Route, Box
43: Aoyd, VA 24091; (703) 763-2373.
FAIRGLEN FARMS oCfers organic, biological
fertilizers for farm and garden. Send SASE for price
list. Biologically-grown produce to sell? We are
intcreSled in acting as coopc:rative ma.dceting agents
with other growers. Write: Route I, BOA 319;
Clyde. NC 28721.
COALITION FOR ALTERNATlVES TO
SHEARON HARRIS (CASH) - is working to
proiect the N.C. Piedmont from the Shearon Harris
nuclear reactor and a low-level nuclear waste dump.
Now, more than ever, they need financial support
and people's energy. CASH; 237 McCauley SL;
Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbeclcs &
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe at (704)
258-1038 or David at (704) 253-2846, or writc to:
Joe Robens, 738 Town Mountain Rd.; Asheville,
NC 28804.
ORIGINAL WATERCOLORS - Nina Anderson;
Box 888; CUllowhce, NC 28723; (704) 293-5670.
THE CENTER FOR NEW PRIORITIES - now
open, in Asheville, NC, for all groups dedicated to
working towards genuine, life>orient.cd, change for
the community. Office space, small meeling s113CC,
and kitchen facilities are available. For more
information, call (704) 254-4714 or write the
Center, S4 Starnes Avenue, Asheville. NC 28801.
The Center apprecia.t es donations. largCl or small, to
help with iis upkeep and activities.
FARM WANTED - young family seeks
owner-financed, low down payment (SSOO or less)
small acreage (10 acres or less) in lhe N.C.
mountains for home, gardens, fruit tree, and peace.
Also, we would appreciate info on jobs and/or job
offen in the area. We are young. hard-wating and
dependable. Please write Mr. cl Mrs. Jorge
Veluque:i:; 174 Countrywood, Cleveland, TX
TI327.
CUSTOM WOODWORKS &
HOME
IMPROVEMENT CO. - tables, cabinets,
bookcases, house repair. Gerald Ashe; (704)
497-9834: Whittier, NC 28789.
KA1UAH • page 29
PERMACULTURE ASSISTANT- "For five years
now I've been doing research and trials on
Permacnlturc candidate species for the interior
Soulhcastem Highlands. I need to find an
apprentict/research assistant. preferably one with the
potential to become a partner and/or eventual
successor. Gardening and writing experience would
be useful, but 1 will IJ'8in anyone with a sincere
interest." Adam Turtle; Nobody's Mountain;
Livingston, TN 38S70.
INDIAN VALLEY RETREAT - 140 acres in Blue
Ridge mountains with facilities availnble to rent for
groups or individual retreats. either guided or
unstructured. Send for information and seasonal
calendar of healing, transfomuu.ive events to: Indian
Valley Holistic Center; Rt 2, Box S8; Willis, VA
24380.
0.INCH RIVER EDUCATIONAL CENTER offers
counseling for individuals, couples, groups. Also
classes in personal growth and body awareness. P.O.
Box 993; Abingdon, VA 24210.
CREEKSIDE PRESS • Assistance for authors and
poets in editing, computer services, and submitting
manuscripts for publication. Lori Ward Hamm:
P.O. Box 331: Abingdon, VA 24210.
FARM FOR SALB • 43 acres, Calhoun C1y. WV;
S 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 cl Carol Freeman, (704)
264-S726. $30,000.
PEPPERLAND FARM CAMP - a unique summet
camp experience for children 6-16 years. Adventure
trips, riding, Indian lore, swimming, more.
Delicious vegetarian meals - special diets
accomodaled. Also seeking counselors and staff. For
info: Pcpperland Farm Camp; Star Route; Farner.
TN 37333 (704) 494-2353
FOUR WINDS VILLAGE - health and spiritual
retreat; home for children in need. For visiling info.
write: Box 112: Tiger, GA 30S76.
Sprin:J 1987
�MORE
cef€BW
OR/5efg
APPRENTICESHIPS - offered in large. organic,
market garden business and home subsistence/
preservation garden. Gardeners have eight years
experience teaching organic, biodynamic-Frcnch
intensive, labor intensive gardening. Housing.
Contacc Bob and Sandy Gow; Rt. 2, BOJC 51;
Zionvillc, NC 28698. (919) 385~.
"CELEBRATION SPACE: Songs 10 Celebrate
Life" - A cassette tape completely produced,
pezforrned, and recorded by members and friends of
the Floyd County community IO raise money for
the Floyd County Community Hall. This audio
songbook contains IS original songs and chants and
3 traditional songs to learn and sing in your own
community. The sound quality is uneven, but the
energy, spirit, and joy shine through.
For the cassette tape with lyric sheet (ppd.). send
$10.00 IO the Floyd County Community Hall
Project; Rt. I, Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091.
TWO PAPERS - "How 10 Stan a Co-op" and
"Steps Toward Forming an Auto Repair
Cooperative• by Dr. Rodney S. Wead, PhD.
Available from Appalachian People's Service
Organization; P.O. Box 1007; Blacksburg, VA
24060.
TECHNOLOGICAL
APPROPRIATE
COMMUNICATIONS - low-tech, economical
telephone systems for the alternative community or
farm. 2·100 phones. automatic or human-assisted
systems available. Write: TAC; PO Box 936;
Gatlinburg, TN 37730
ARCHITECTURAL ADVJCE AND DESIGN:
Adam Cohen; Rt. 2, Box 217; Check, VA 24072
DAYSTAR ASTROLOGICAL SERVICE - natal,
transit, comparison charts. Very accurate. Only
$3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason; Rt. 2, Boit 217;
Cbcck, VA 24072 (703) 651-3492
SOCK-A-DOOZ PUPPET PETS - Walk 'cm, talk
'cm, make 'cm fly. Wag their tails, you can try.
They will love you, hug you if you're blue. Now
PUPPET PETS can be your friends loo.
Handcrafted by Bonnie Blue; P.O. Box 65; Genon,
NC 28735.
ASREVll..LE I BUNCOMBE COUNTY SOLID
WASTE ALTERNATIVES PLANNING
WORKBOOK: A design for handling solid wastes
in any urban context. SIS from Long Branch
Environmental Education Center, Rt. 2, Box 132;
Lcices!Ct, NC 28748.
~OBS CONCERT - Music and stories about
Martin Lulher King, Rosa Parks. and other
champions df peace & courage. for information and
boo\.ings, contacc Meg Macl..eod. 160 Aint St.,
Asheville, NC 28801 (704) 2S4-64S4.
ELACHEE NATURE SCIENCE CENTER dcdicaled to the undcrslanding and appreciation o( the
natural world. For membership or visiting info,
write P.O. Box 2771; Gainesville, GA 30503.
WEBWORKING is lice.
Send subm~sions IO:
.
K.a.tGah
P.O. Box 873
Cullowhce, NC
KatUah Province 28723
THE SECOND NORTH AMERICAN
BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS was a
continental gathering of biorcgionalists held
in August 1986 on the shores of Lake
Michigan. The NABC II Proceedings, a
90-page quality paperbound book, conUlins
reports and resolutions from seventeen
committees, highlights and texts of panels,
workshops and presentations on such
subjects as eco-feminism, pennacuhure,
native peoples and people of color,
economics, and spirituality, as well as
biorcgional an, poetry, and photos. The
publication is an anractive and
comprehensive current statement of the
bioregional movement.
Price is $10 each plus $1.50 p&h.
California residents add 6% sales tax.
Wholesale prices available. Alexandra Han/
Proceedings; Box 10 IO; Forestville, CA
95436. ln Canada, contact Christopher
Plant, The New Catalyst; POB 99; LiUooct,
BC VOK IVO Canada.
Al ARTHUR MORGAN SCHOOL 24 students and
14 staff learn together by living in community.
Curriculum includes creative academics. group
dccision.maJcing, a work program. service prOJCClS,
extensive rield trips, challenging outdoor
experiences. Write: 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714.
FLOWER ESSENCES - Harmony with Nature &
SpiriL Gentle emotional suppon during transi!JOllS,
specific issues, relationships. Opens
communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic,
awareness "tools" for improving the inner qll31ity.
Correspondence to: Elaine Geouge, c/o Patchwork
Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So.. Burnsville, NC
28714
STIL-LIGHT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTER - a quiet space for personal mcdlllltlon.
group intcracLion through study and community
work, and spiritual seminars. Contaet Leon Frankel;
RL I, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 28786
..
CIBlllNI&SIE
ACUlPllJ~C1'1U!ilE
AMP
lllIIE!il!OILOG 'W
CILlIMIC
NATURAL FOOD STORE
& DELI
We now have. u.tVtA.ive. monthly
~pe.cial..6, wi.th a di66t1te.tit
SUPER SPECIAL EACll
160 Broadway
Asheville, N.C. 28801
(704) 253-7656
MALAPROP'S
BOOKSTORE/CAFE
342 MERRIMON AVE., ASHEVILLE. NC
704 -258·901 6
BOOKS -
CAROS -
wmc
RECORDS
61 HAYWOOO ST ASHEV1ll.E. NC 28801 70l·25<1-873ol
KATUAH ·page 30
Open 7 Daya A Week
Where Broadway
Meets Merrlmon
And 1·240
9:00 a.m. · 6:30 p.m.
Monday • Friday
9:00 a.m · 8:00 p m
Saturday
Sunday
1:00 p .m. • 5:00 p.m
Spriz¥J 1987
::.
�KJl.Jimh. wants to communfcate your tlwuglits and feelings 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: Kmlmh,· Box
873; Cullowhee, NC ; Ka/Uah Province 28723.
In the summer we will be considering an and music, gardens and growing,
and the process ofinitiation that ta/res place as we move through our life stages.
Medtrlnt'-' ."'111tes
Please send your ideas for futme themes for K.!uiiah.
BACK ISSUES
ISSUE 1WO • WlNl'ER 1983-84
Yona - Bear Huniers - Pigeon River· Anolhct Way
Wilh Animals - Alma - Becoming Politically
Effective - Mounlllin Woodlands - Katiiah Under the
Drill· Spiriwal Warriors
ISSUE THREE· SPRING 1984
Suslainable Agriculture - Sunflowers • Human
Impact on the Forest - Childrens' Education •
Veronica Nicholas:Woman in Politics - Lillie
People - Me<licine Allies
ful I color
T-s6irts
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today arc
only diminutive 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
arc KilWi, the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake , who
personifies the power of the earth plane; and
Yunwi Us<fi. "the little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in itll 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 Kawah 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 arc available now in
all adult sizes from the~joumal.
"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 Katllah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE FOUR • SUMMER 1984
Water Drum - Water Qualiiy - Kudzu - Solar Eclipse
- Clearcuuing - Trout - Going to Water • Ram
Pumps - Microhydro - Poems: BeMie Lee Sinclair,
Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE· FALL 1984
Harvest ·Old Ways in Olerokee - Ginseng • Nuclear
Waste - Our Celtic Heriiage - Bioregionalism: Past.
Present, and Future - John Wilnoty - Healing
Darlrn~ ·Politics of Pani<:ipation
ISSUE SIX· WINTER 1984-85
Winter Solstice Earth Ceremony • Horsepasture
River - Coming of the Light - Log Cabin Roots •
Mounraln Agriculture: The Right Crop • William
Taylor - The Future of the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRING 1985
Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs • Worker
Ownership • The Great Economy - Self Help Credit
Union • Wild Turlcey - Responsible Investing Working in the Web of Life
ISSUE EIGHr - SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life - Katllah 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 - Migraling
Forests • Horse Logging • Staning a Tree Crop •
Urban Ttt.es - Acom Bread - Myth Tune
KATUAH: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians
Box 873; Cullowhee, NC; Kanlah Province 28723
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 252-9167
Regular Membership........$10/yr.
Sponsor..........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Name
Address
Enclosed is $
to give
this effort an extra bOost
City
State
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Area Code
KATUAH-pue31
Phone Number
·-
- - - - - .. =---"'--•• --
ISSUE TEN - WINTER 1985-U
Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone - Internal
Mythmalcing • Holistic Healing on Trial - Poems:
Steve Knaoth - Mythic Places - The Uktena's Tare Crystal Magic - "Drcamspcaking"
ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRING 1986
Community Planning - Cities and the Bioregional
Vision - Recycling - Communily Gardening- Floyd
County, VA· Gaoohol - Two Biorcgionat Views ·
Nuclear Supplement - Foxfue Games -Good
Medicine: Visions
ISSUE THIRTEEN· Fall 1986
Center For Awakening - Elizabeth Callari - A
Gentle Dealh - Hospice - Ernest Morgan - Dealing
Creatively with Death • Home Burial Box • The
Wake - The Raven Mocker • Woodslore and
Wildwoods Wisdom • Good Medicine: The Sweal
Lodge
ISSUE FOURTEEN· Winter 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owle - Boogers and Mummers - All
Species Day - Cabin Fever University - Homeless
in Katiiah - Hommade Hot Water - Stovemaker's
Narrative • Good Medicine: Interspecies
Communication
Back Issues
Issue#_@ $2.00 $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.00 = $_ _
CompleteSet(2·11, 13-14)
@ $18.00 =$_ _
=
=
T-Shirts: specify quantity
color: tan
s__
~
L_ _ XL_ _
@ $9.50 each............$_ _
TOTALPRICE=
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: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 15, Spring 1987
Description
An account of the resource
The fifteenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on women: Francis Goodrich's settlement work, Lislott Harberts' Forest Care business, midwife Susie McMahan, the Cherokee matriarchal culture and various resources for women in general. Authors and artists in this issue include: Jan Davidson, Patricia Claire Peters, David Wheeler, Angela Griffin, Rob Messick, Ise Williams, Marnie Muller, Tata Andres, Linda Mathis, Colleen Redman-Copus, Martha Tree, Patricia Shirley, Gary Davis, Julia Nunnally Duncan, Donna VanLear, Marcia Hurlow, John Grey, Donald Morton, and Douglas A. Rossman. <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.
Coverlets.......1<br /><br />Poem: "My Mother's Eyes".......5<br /><br />Lislott Harberts: Forester.......6<br /><br />Susie McMahan: Midwife.......9<br /><br />Resources for Women.......10<br /><br />Alternative Contraception.......11<br /><br />Biosexuality.......12<br /><br />Bioregionalism and Women.......13<br /><br />Poems.......14<br /><br />Good Medicine: Matriarchial Culture.......15<br /><br />Pearl.......16<br /><br />Natural World News.......18<br /><br />A Children's Page.......21<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
Women-owned business enterprises--North Carolina, Western
Coverlets--North Carolina, Western--History
Midwifery--North Carolina, Western
Ecofeminism
Patriarchy
Matriarchy
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 Definitions
Children's Page
Community
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Good Medicine
Katúah
Pigeon River
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e7f01928de6c753c09827e4dfd0aace1.pdf
ef599a4389ecc1498b620fa99229c8b9
PDF Text
Text
--~
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ATUAH
ISSUE XVI
SUMMER1987
Coming of Age
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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
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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
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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«
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Book Nttds
In Spcclahzecl Fle!Js
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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""'
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GARY HEMSO'TH
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IN ADULT SIZES S,M,L,XL
We a/so have a /In• of aweanhlrts and kid• T-Shlrta
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Introducing the BOBCAT
This full color design Is hand-screened on
T-SHIRTS OF 100% PRESHRUNK COTTON
KAlUAH - page 30
Where Broadway mMts
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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
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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
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English
Type
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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
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<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
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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
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This gives you a user's manual and a free hour of
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If you are interested in finding out more about
PeaceNet, writeorcall:
PeaceNet
3228 Sacramento St
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(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
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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
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~ 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 ...
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SHORT SLEEVE T: $10.00 ppd.
Colors: Ecru, White, Sliver,
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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-._,
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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/3567a630be59b5496463f585671f2635.pdf
61f182d69dcedf09a39a622f12601af3
PDF Text
Text
f
~
.
CK._ATUAH >
....
$1.50
ISSUE 18
WINTER 1987-88
BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
._,,
•
�Photo by Paul Gallimore
(j~~-~-T-~H)
P.O. Box 873 Cullowhee, NC Katuah Province
Postage Paid
Non-profit Org.
28723
Note new address, inside/
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Permit #12
Cullowhee, NC
28723
�•
SHELTER IN KATUAH
Resource List....
.. ... .. .• •
On Bui.Jdlng andDulgn
Solar Compo ting ToileL.......... IS
October Qysk ............................. 16
P<>tms by Rlla Silns Qull,.n
Review by Ju/Ja N11111f411y Duncan
Good Medicine: 'On Sbelter"....... 18
The Future of the Black Bcar........19
COf(cnia Rqon
Natural World News.. .. ............20
CaldwdJ CtJlllfly I~
SlflOkia Wlldentas Bill
Poachers C.,lrt
MRS in CDngras
Forat Snvla Pba Al1Mll
Duh'1 Col~ Cred p;o}«t
AslwvUle R«,clJni CenlU
A Children's Page......................23
Drummang ......
Utltn to Kalllah
• ... 24
·A Bourn of Buds".. . .. .. .. .28
f'\ l'otm by Miclrod ffodtatlat
The presence of shelter
embodies much more than
just a building. It is a home,
a center around which
members of a family or
community emerge, travel
from, return to, and are
visited. Many of the most
important events in human
life find a place, time, and
meaning within the
structures we build. It is
here that we house or
integrate the activities of
our lives (birthing, growing,
eating, sleeping, playing,
working, dying...)
In many ways, "we are
what we build". Through this
kind of architectural mirror
is reflected the expression
of a cultural and personal
world view. We now greatly
attect the ecology of the
Earth by the impact of our
collective human existence.
The niches we carve out for
ourselves very often
intrude into the habitat of
other animals and
plants. Is it possible for us
to build our communities in
accord with the recycling
nature of the systems that
surround us?
Buildings are inherently
open systems that interact
with the forces of wind,
water, land, temperature,
season. and other living
things. Our relatedness to
the natural world can be
acknowledged through
designing shelter that is
actively aware of the flow of
energies coming into,
working within, moving out
of, and mingling among other
systems of the Earth, and,
particularly, of a bioregion.
By affirming patterns of
sustainability in the design
of our shelters and
communities. we foster
their existence and come
closer to being in harmony
with all that is.
-The Editors/
�......---..;~
(i.ATUAH)
EDITORIAL STAfF DDS J.s.s!LE;
Scott Bird
Sam Gray
Rob Messick
~1amie
Michael Red Foit
Manha Tree
David Wheeler
Muller
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Christina Morrison
Bob WiesellTl311
Sarah Jane Thomas
Hot Sauce
Cover: "Howie's Dome" ne:ir Bethel, NC.
Photo by Rob Messick.
Thanks lO Eart.hdanccr for the Invocation for this issue. which was
reprinted from lhe Educational Resource Ccmcr Newslcucr, P.O. Box
The Southern Appalachian Bioreglon and Ma1or Eastern River Systems
460; Floyd, VA 24091
EDITORIAL OFFICE THJS ISSUE:
Worley Cove. Sandymush Creek
PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co., Sylva, NC
WRITE US
AT:
TELEPHONE:
(704) 683-1414
KaWh...
Boit 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
01vcrsuy 1$ an imponant clement of bioregional ecology. both
ll.llural and soci.11. In lme with this principle, Katllah tries to serve as a
forum for the discUSSion of regional iSSlle$. Siincd articles express mly
lhc op1n10n ol the authors and arc not ncccuanly the opiruons of lhc
Kati.ah edit.ors or Slaff.
The lni.cmal Rc•'CllUC Servltc lw declared Kazuah a non-profit
organ11.ation under MlCtion SO I(cX3) of the ln=I Revenue Code. All
conuibutions io Katuali arc doducuble from personal income rax.
'LNVOCA.TWN
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Here in rhe sou1hern-mos1 heartland of the
Appalachian moU11Jains, the oldest moUnJain range on our
continent, Turrie Island; a small buz growing group has
begun to IOU on a sense of responsibility for the implications
of tltat geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of
responsibility centers on ti~ concept of living within ti~
narwal scale and balance ofumversal syswnr and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the Cherolcee
name " Katuah" as the old/new name for this area of the
mountains and for its journal as well. The province is
indicared by its natural boundaries: the Roanoke Rfrer Valley
to the nonh; the foothills of the piedmont area to the east;
Yona Mountain and the Georgia hills to the somh; and the
Tennent/! Rfrer i'nlley to the west.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this regwn. and to foster the awareness t/IDJ the
land is a living being deserving of our love and respect.
LJ1•ing in tltis manner is a way to insure the sustaillllbilicy of
tlte biosphere and a lasting place for ourselves in irs
continuing evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a "do or
die "siruarion in terms of a quality standard of life for all
living befogs on 1/iis planet. As a voice for rite caretakers of
this sacred land, Kawah, we advocate a ceruered approach to
tlte concept of decentralization. It is our hope to become a
support system for those accepting the challenge of
s1istainabi/iry and ti~ crea1io11 af harmony and balance in a
total sense, here in tliis place.
We welcome all co"espondence, criticism, pertinent
information, anicles, arrwork. etc. witlt hopes that Katuah
will grow to serve the best interests of tltis region and all its
living, breathing members.
- The Editors
KATUMI - page 2
WINTER 1987·88
�PROTECTING THE DREAMER:
Vernacular Values in H.cgional Architecture
by Sam Gray
ln his classic work, Poetics of
the French philosopher
Gaston Bachelard focused on various
levels of architectural meaning. He
suggested Lhat a basic feature of those
meanings we associate with the idea
of Lhe house is that the home protects.
It not only protects physically against
climate and weather, it protects
psychically as well. IL protects
thought, reverie, and dreaming.
That, perhaps, is its most important
function.
"The purpose of the house is to
protect the dreamer within," wrote
Bachelard. Evoked is the architecture
of dwelling - protective, sensual.
natural - grounded in a locale and a
time. In a word, vernacular, ar
adjective which connotes in buildint
economics, politics. cooking, or a
what it once described exclusive!
about language or poetry.
"Vernacular" is Lhe indigenou
the traditional, the homemad1
spontaneous, colloquial expression<
anything.
If a house of some order (tip
cabin. frame house, stone hous1
yurt) is important for huma
reflection and dreaming, it is littl
wonder that our psyches become s1
entwined with their architecture.
The house of our childhood i:
an architectural emity, a psychic
landscape and a context for memories
and understanding. So. too, is the
house of our plans, the house we
would build - the dream house of the
mind that we continuously construct,
revise, and renovate.
The dreamer. protected by the
house, dreams a house and fills n
with plans, voices, and ghosts that are
themselves protected by the house.
In our time, the architectural
space that shelters thought and
dreams has begun to fill with the
electronic dreams, projections. and
hallucinations of the national media
and markets. It is possible that the
traditional purpose of the house has
undergone an evolution. The
dreaming space, filled from within
~.
• continued on page 4
WINTER 1987·88
SM/ton I/oust. llaywood Coun1y. 1876-188(). Two-story frame howt
wl1h tngaged /WO-lier /'()rch bu1/1 by ConftlkraJt \'ttcran S~p,..tn J.
Shelton. 1he building now hawsts 1he Mumm1 of Nor1h Carolina
llaNficr<(rs.
Ap1'><11arl11a11 log cabin i11 uniikntifitd locale, circa 1900. Roofln~ is
chcstnUI or oaJc slt.:iks.
Jesst Cmp I/oust. Graham Counry. tarly 20th cen1ury. Two-s1ary
framt hou.~t of a "Y-p/an• foU!ld with some frequtncy in Graham
County bw rurt tl_.htWrt
KATUAH - page 3
�PR01 EC'Tll\\G THE ORl-:AMER
connnucd from J13gC 3
Gallaway llou.u l tanrylv'11lla CoUJtty, clrrn 1878 T'r<o•Jtaq
tOC!/
di
/armlil>~ '6ilh iabk
aJtd ~;iltrlDt r!ld bticl tldM11r11fr0111 '4 •
a 114 titr ~roe/p<nlt atTO.U UllW bay
Jlar
w lla1m. CllLrctLt Co1U1tv, IBSO 1882 f'Wo.srory britl /ttJllU
of lftDd 1td •t.i.p/an• ..~111 iltltTID! t1ii,,.J1tp Tl:e "'""'~' porr:h a TOIJ
tltLfa t ..idth t:ftM/.itilM ha.I s:mn ..wl lnacltts and balas:radt 71'~
brl
"' tbr bltJldint "~" mt:M on ilu
Cl111r ~11'1:1 loust lla¥>4'00d COIUIJJ lA:L I II UfllJl.1'1 r ...
•r plt111 brW: ho1<u •iJ/I
t l
l"lpcrtA aucw/att:tk/ta:J:nfll
tlt:fldr
un.n ..w1 balllft~
KATUAH p:igc 4
tic stCOnd Jnri.
\\uh the \\lute noise of the mas
dream. loses its cnp!lcit) to protect
nnd nunurc ubJCclt\C drenming
1 he contemporar1 mas
nrclutccturc of dv.elhng reflects th1
ero 10!1 Demographics, technology.
nd the market &re estabh hing n
stnndardized hou ing thai fills an
urb!lil or suburb:m topogrnph) \\hi ch
ha been stripped of all indigenous
populnuon!; and fe:iturcs.
1bc re uhing arrangement of
nrchitccturnl values lea,es the
dreamer (the subjecti\'e self)
unprotected, unjustified, and
nccidentnl.
What has been deleted from
contemporury mass architectural
expression of the house i the sense
nnd presence of the \'Cmaculnr, nn
element essential to the protection of
the dreamer.
There nre two architectural
clements of the vemnculnr house thnt
ore particularly impon:mt to the
protection of rc\erie and drcnming.
lbese arc the heanh nnd the porch.
Hoth v.crc corn istent features of the
vemacular houses of the Kn1unh
re ion an former times. ·1bc psychic
mean mg of the hearth go fnr b:tck m
time nnd the relationship of
henrthfirc and drcnm consciousness
have been discussed frequently in the
poetry nnd literature of architectural
meaning.
The porch or verandah is n
more regional nrchitectur:il feature.
Jn its grander, two-storied,
b:tlustraded fonns, it is derived from
the semi-tropicnl, colonial,
Canbbean nrchilecture or the 18th
Century. Yet it wns always n feature
of 1hc Southern Appalachian log
cabin. It is n medinting space situated
between the outside, the domain of
energies expended in agricultural
labor. and the cabm intenor, the
domnm of energies regenerated in
enung nnd sleepmg. h is n place of
repose, n place for dreaming.
The photograph oc:ompany mg
th1 text offer a sampling of the nch
leg C) of vemncul r hou es of the
Kntu h region. 1t 1s a lcgnc) that •"'
fnst d1sappeanng. These hou es that
have protected generations of
dreamer hn..·e themselves little
protection from the descendants of
the dreamers.
,
Wl~'TER
1987 8
�by Adam Cohen
pbns nuke 11 casa to csnmac materials and
to by out consttucuon sequence cffiaenlly.
My uplllTmion nf building 1n Ka1Wih
has been on a personal Incl as ...~11 as on a
professiolllll lr:vel. My aperienu rangt.s
from building for ma.timum economy to
building for maximum luiury BUI 1hLre u a
COmmJJn ft•cl111g I get from people n•eryonc
de.sires a spucc 111 KIUc:h ro l1vt./111ly.
To tmly e.rperitncc life means to live
on orhtr lt\•cls bcs1dct the phylical. A
/Mng Jpace llumlJ bt. bmh organic and
J1exihlc ·it mmt l>e oble w grow and chan~
ro mur all of our nuds. Ir IS rhur fuUng of
organic:, tccmorrucal arclurcc:turc rhar I strl~
f<1r 111 m)' wark, /n thu article I will 0U1l1M
tlui lxmc.r of bmldmg as rcmpcrtd by my
personal architectural phUosophy and
practical, professional ~rkncu.
But even 1hc best·latd plans run tnto
wiforcsccn diffaculncs. 1bc bes& ~-ay 10 deal
w11h this 1s 10 be flexible and to devise
cn::ulvc soluuons..
If you choose to have a house dra't•lll
for you, Rmcmbcr that 1he design proocss 1s
yours. One can move walls on papcreauly,
so 1akc dmc and uplore many options
bcfon: dccidin~ on I rmaJ plan.
To begin designing 1 dwelling,
oullinc the needs the suuaure should fulfill,
lis1 1he areas and livin& spaces desired.
1ncrc arc many ways to pu1 these spaces
1ogclhcr. Whal approximate square foocagc
is desired'? Is a linglc·unit or multi·unu
dwelling the best for the sile and the
inhabitants? Would you late IO hve in a
roundish, squarish, turtlc·baclccd, or
free-form dwelling? How tall should the
space be? Any lofts or second 5'0rics? Are
~J~n spaces « disunct rooms
A house rctain5 the energy put into
the builJ1ng. tnrusc the bullchn4 process
w11h good energy rrum 1hc be4mning to
stlllt the new dwelling off In the nght way.
smNG
Solar houses arc desirable in cvuy
biorcgion in the temperate zone. The sun as
hfc. Where I bvc in northern K.atiiah. I find
lhat we need house£ 1ha1 are flexible. Our
weather is iuch 1hat 1hc 1empcra1ure can
swing .SO degrees Fin a 12 hour period. We
can have snow on 1hc ground and 70 degree
F 1empcra1ures outdoors an r:ebruary.
1'hercforc. my emphasis h:is been on houses
1h:11 cnn be easily hCllted as well as cooled.
"Inc conditions in Ka1ii:ih indicate 1lu1 we
need house.~ 1ha1 heat up quickly :tnd 1hcn
rntha1c 1h:11 hc:i1 rapidly.
As u rule of 1humb, site n dwelling 10
fnce wuhin 10· 12 degrees or solar sou1h to
mnx1mi1.c solar uposurc. When choosmi; a
sue, consider 1hc direction of the prcvnahng
cold winter wands u well ns 1hc cooling
!iummcr winds. but keep 50lai orientat1on 11S
a domlnnn1 fnc1or because pl:tnungs and
olhcr buildings can serve as 1o1.1ndbrcaks as
the homcslead grows.
Water supply must also be considered
when choosing a she. A rchablc source of
clean 1.1.1ucr is csscn1ial for 1 homestead.
Gravity flow from a spring above the
building site is the ideal shu11ion and lhc
C3.Siest to develop.
W11cr from a well or another source
below lhc house can be pumped to a large
reservoir above lhc dwelling to crate a
gravity flow. Electric pumps nm bf AC
po"'cr from the &rid arc the least dcsuablc
way 10 accomplish 1his. Elccmc pumps
powered by solar cdls are better, but !hey
still arc high-1ech solutions. and they
depend on a high-1cch future. Some
appropriate pumping systems arc ram
pumps. micro-hydroelectric (stt KJllli.aJ1
#4 ), wind·powcrcd DC systems,
wind-driven compressed air sysacms, and
my personal favorite, the bicyclc·powcred
water system.
WINTER 1987-88
A chcmical analystS IS worth the pnce
dclcrminc the presence: or polluting
chemicals or organic m:ucnali in the waicr
supply.
IO
DESIGNING nm SITE
Having found a site with solar
exposure, wn1cr, and hopefully, 1
windbreak from the winier winds. m4kc a
rough site plan to help decide where to
locate the building. D111grnm 1hc she,
pencilling in essenu:lls like fruu 1rccs,
gardens. shop, sheds, animal houses, and
p:isturc. I like 10 1h1nk of hvmg structures as
p:in or cite landscape. connecting indoor and
outdoor space. A wcll·planncd,
m1CtCOnncctcd, outdoor IJllCC adds acsthetic:
qualuy 10 a homcsle.ad.
Our home is a central CCR lb1ICtUre
dlll we coaanually arc . ddiftl small aaians
a
onto. J b1ghly recommcncl dus way of
approaching design and buUdin1 lor the
owner-builder. Tbc inhial suuc:ture can be
C<Jm\'lcted durina the building 1C&10D to
provide shelter for the wima. Additions can
continue throughout the years following.
This also allows rime 10 change design. Jn
this
n:sidcntS can occupy lhcir home as
lhcy build It.
Once a general idea of the nccdcd
laving areas is clear, draw a "blob dll&rll1l"
{sec diagram I) to show 1he
1ntcr-rcla11onsh1p of the d1ffcren1 spaces.
The walls, floor, and roof mc~ly hold 1he
no1hangness 1ha1 is the living space.The
IClUal envelope which contains lhesc spaces
can be any shape or fonn. The following hst
of arc:tS, Starung from the loundatJon Ind
wortcin,1 up, gives some ideas which can be
used in design and bu1ld1ng These
simplified d1sc:un1ons an: meant only to
snmul11e and IO guide the reader's creative
war.
unagmanon.
DESIGNING A DWEU.JNG
Designing your own home is a
delight. As a general rule, lhc less
cxpcricnccd the builder and the mon: OUl5idc
help lha1 is going co be ailed on. the more
complete and thorough the building plans
should be.
A complcle sci of plans Includes
dimensioned fJoor plans, clcvanons, and
sectional drawings, IS well IS dc11ils ror
tricky areas and elccuical, plumbing. and
hcatin plans.
~o build a umber or ocher pre-cut
house. a farm plan is necessary. If much of
lhc consttuctlon is to be contnetcd out,
complete plans will make lhe work much
smoolhcr and much less expensive. Good
• Clllldmued oa ma1 pop.
KAn.JAH • PIF S
�FOUNDATIONS
In Katiiah the best foundation is
mnsonry. For lo ngevity, bug-proofing, and
structural 1megri1y, ~11he house on a stone,
0
block, or concrete foundation 16 1 24
inches deep. Unless the slopes arc very
siecp or the ground is very \Oft, this is
suflicient for this region.
Having said this, I will add 1h:11 a
time-honored Katuah foundation is
debarked, v. inter-cut, black locust posts set
about 30 inches into the earth with a n.11
stone m the bottom of the hole. This can be
a very effective method for n quick
beginning 10 a structure built to last 30 ye:in.
or less. (Of course. posts can be replaced 10
extend 1h1s lifespan.) llus would still outlast
most suburban hou~e~ constructed today.
for these arc built to a 25 year life
expectancy.
My favorite foundauon is stone.
Begin the wall 16 to 30 inches below the
surface and build to whatever height is
needed. Another easy foundation is the
"grade beam" as used by Frank Lloyd
Wright.
If the site is sloped, instead of making
one large cut, you might consider stepping
the foundation in small cut-and-fill
operations to save time and money (see
diagram 2).
Foundation insulation is optional, but
if it is used, it must extend at least two feet
below grade (ground level).
Proper drainage is imponant 10 a
lasting foundation. A foundation drain is
standard. The site must be graded, so that
water runs away from the house. If
necessary, French drains can be located a
few feet from the drip line in cases with
Clltrcmc runoff problems.
Photo by Adam Cohen
Wood floors arc quite cozy and
warm. Finished flooring can be laid on
rough-cut joists and subflooring material.
Planed tongue-and-groove finished floor is
the most desirable, but an inexpensive and
serviceable floor can be made by gluing and
nailing well-dried boards 10 the sublloor.
Should cracks appear between the boards,
they can be pointed with grouL
R..OORS
There arc many types of flooring
materials. If someone really wants 10 be
"grounded," the easiest floor is din. Din
and cement can be mixed for a durable
floor. A plain concrete slab can be used or
stone, brick, or tile may be laid on. Smooth
creek rock makes a pleasing floor surface. If
one spent one hour a day collecting small
creek rocks, in two weeks one would have
enough creek rock 10 do a large floor. If
desired, the perimeter of such a floor can be
insulated.
Soapstone is the best flooring material
for solar storage and radiance, in my
opinion, and is readily available in Katuah.
KATUAH - page 6
WAU..S
Sundard "balloon" framing is simple,
lightweight, and easy to cover. Use
rough-cut or recycled framing rru1tcrials for
the best price.
My favorite wood technique for
building wood-supponed walls is 10 use
large, upright members and fill in with
stucco, bricks, glass, bottles, stone, glazed
block, bone, or anything else you can set in
monar. Windows arc framed in with
rough-cut wood when using this method.
Masonry walls arc relatively
inexpensive, if stone can be gathered for
free. To speed up construction, a back-form
can be used to give a wall that has one side
stone and one side stucco (see diagram 3).
To construct frce-fonn structures, use rcbar
and plaster lath 10 create free-shaped forms
on which to lay cement I believe this offers
some of the freest expression available in
architecture.
It is important when designing walls
to think about windows. l cannot stress
enough how imponant it is 10 have as much
glazing as possible on the south side of a
home. The sun is vital, and the more of itS
radiance we can bring into our houses, the
healthier we and they arc. The north side of
the building is the darker side and takes the
STO!llE.--....
M~AP,
fcD~ fL'('tl<X(?
Z"4'
~- UP
fO~M
WINTER 1987-88
�The walls,floor, and roof merely hold the nothingness
that is the living space. The actual envelope which
contains these spaces can be any shape or form.
brunt of the cold winter winds, so
nonh-facing windows should be small and
well scaled. East and west walls also should
have windows, and these should be able to
open to welcome in the cooling summer
breezes from wherever they may blow.
Window quilts are easy to make.
They conserve wannth in the winter, if they
are put up when the sun sets to keep the
day's wanntb in and the night's cold out.
It is also important to know that
wiring, plumbing, and heating features may
be put in the walls. These must be
considered when naming. It is too late
afterwards.
1HEROOF
"Putting a roof over our heads" is not
just a figure of speech. The house roof not
only keeps rain off, but it can let light in,
hold solar equipment, and shape the interior
space. ln designing the roof, consider: Docs
the house want skylights? How will water
flow off the roof? Where should extra
bracing be put for solar panels? What shape
and how high should the ceiling be? There
nrc many possible combinations of answers.
I strongly believe roofs should not be
flat in Katuah. Even a sod roof should have
a slope for drainage. Flat roofs eventually
leak. Wood frame roofs can be built on a
flat or a curved plane. It is possible to frame
a curved shape out of suaight lumber.
Galvanized steel or shingles arc the
most common roofing materials. Both are
readily available and relatively inexpensive.
I have buih some roofs with rcbar and lath
using insulating cement covered with either
concrete or a strong cement scaler.
For a good discussion of roof shapes.
I suggest reading The Owner-Built Home
by Ken Kern and A Timeless Way of
Bu1ldjng by Christopher Alexander (sec
resource list, page 15).
Windows may be obtained from old
houses, a window factory may sell seconds,
or a neighbor might have a few old
windows stacked up in the back of the
garage.
Material hunting takes time, but it
does not cost a lot, it is fun, and it results in
a more individualized slructurc.
Heating with water in a wood-fired boiler is
the most healthy and practical system to
warm a house during Katiiah's cold
winters.
Catalytic converters arc a cheap way
to help the environ men" and I advocate their
use on all woodbuming stoves.
INSIDE OUT
SANITATION
I recommend the use of the passive
solar composting toilet (sec p. 15) in
combination with a grey water irrigation
system to process human wastes. I strongly
believe that the passive solar composler is
the most efficient way to take care of human
waste, cspccially in Katiiah, where the land
is generally mountainous, and septic fields
do not function well.
The time is coming when many
families in Katuah will handle human
wastes in a methane digester. It might take
the impetus of economic collapse to make it
common, but the digester can compost
waste and produce fuel as well. Septic fields
and waste treatment centers are barbaric
technologies and should be phased out in
favor of cleaner, better integrated systems.
The indoor/outdoor connection is
imponant. I suggest the use of decks,
covered areas, walkways, porches, living
trellises, and other connecting spaces to
draw inhabitants out into the fresh air and
sunshine. An outdoor kitchen, sleeping
areas, and living areas can be used most of
the year. The more exposure to air and
weather a person has, the more vibrant and
healthy that person's life will be.
All these aspects should be taken inlo
consideration in the design and conslJ'\Jction
process. What I have listed here is an
outline of ideas and techniques. tf the reader
is interested in further details and
correspondence on any of these or other
building ideas, please write me: Adam
Cohen; RL I, Box 217; Oteck. VA 24072
HEATING
How we get our heat is important to
our health. Wood or coal stoves arc drying,
dangerous, diny, and generally unhealthy.
MATERIALS
An important aspect of economical
building is materials. The way to build 11
house for $3.00 per square foot is to choose
a design that utilizes simple materials.
Check what is locally available for free or
for cheap. For example, in nonhc:m K:nuah
the population is one-third of what it was in
the 1930's. There remains a lot of empt}'
structures which contain materials that can
be recycled. Stone piles, brick, and glass
can also be found for free or for minimal
expense Local lumber mills have rough-cut
lumber and seconds at low prices. Local
building material factories may have
inexpensive seconds as well. Auctions
provide another source for che11p materials.
WINTER 1987-88
Photo t:sy Adam COhen
KATUAll ·page 7
�and interpersonal relationships develop. By reviewing a few
design patterns one quickly understands how shelter shapes
our daily life both practically and spiritually.
Consider the one room poplar log cabin built on a
stone foundation. When approaching this cabin one
immediately feels a cenain rustic blend of the canh with the
stone and log much as the mountain landscape itself. Take
this log cabin and set it into the side of a mountain so that the
earth covers the back wall, wraps the comers of the building,
and gradually slopes to floor level on the sides. The front of
the building is poplar logs on o stone foundatioon. From the
top of the hill one looks down and secs the cedar shingle roof
of the house and eanh. Walking around the front and sides of
the building one feels a sense of wannth. The cabin appears
to nestle into the mountainside. Windows on the front and
side walls let daylight and moonlight into the cabin.
We walk up the front steps 10 an open porch. It is
winter. PostS and beams cover the deck, but the roof panels
have been removed. The front wall faces due south, so that
winter sun passes into the cabin. The prevailing nonhwest
winter winds are blocked by a shelterbeh of white pines that
were left when the forest was selectively thinned before the
cabin was built.
poplar I"~ walls moder.Ile lhc comfon in the cabin as "ell.
Sp1mual nrchitccturc creates intu11ive space; ~pace
\lthere interaction between structural and human clements
takes place. Where the wall provokes new ideas, oot beC3use
the wall speaks to us, but because the wall speaks with
everything in the environment The ~r in the space is infused
whh hght, heat, :ind moisture as byprodu1."1S of the physical
surroundings. intensity of color, temperature, and humidity
all in1CI11C1 to create a unique ambience of space. I breathe this
ambience and it enters my bloodstream through my lungs. I
view this body as my cabin. A certain quality lives in this
cabin and the quality is a result of everything in it and around
it
A cool shadow wakes me.The late afternoon sun line
angles off of my body, as I sit up on the slate floor. I get up
and go wash my face in the kitchen sink in the southwest
comer of the room. I am splashing sunlight onto my face,
sunlight absorbed into tanks of water located off the
southeast comer of the front porch. Water enters the tanks
from a reservoir located about 100 vertical feet above the
cabin. Gravity pressure gives the cabin plumbing a sLrong
flow of water. An indoor shower is heated with solar energy
when available, and a large outdoor tub is heated by a wood
tire directly underneath. The overflow from the reservoir
empties into a small creek that maintains a steady flow of
water twelve months a year. Toward the bottom of the valley
a rom pump pushes water back up to a second reservoir near
cabin elevation. This second reservoir provides water for
irrigation of a fruit orchard, a terraced vegetable garden,
larger crop fields, 11 solar greenhouse, and assoned animals
and poultry.
Entering the cabin, one
feels a warmth shining from the
sunlight scattering across the slate
floor and glowing from the coals
of a masonry heater built into a
central chimney that passes up
through a cathedral ceiling.
The stonework on the
chimney is primitive and
beautiful, and as l walk over to
lean against it, l feel heat
radiating from the stone. I tum
and rest my back against the
stone and press my palms against
the warmth. The slate floor
attracts me and my hand reaches
for the sun-drenched gray. lt, too,
is warm to the touch. Walkin2
across the cabin, I find the nonh wall refreshingly cool, as
though the earth on the other side is touching me. I circle the
fireplace a few times and strangely miss the feeling of
comers in the cabin. An indoor-outdoor thermometer hangs
on the wall - indoor temperature, 72 degrees; outdoor
temperature, 15 degrees. The sun is high on this winter
noon.
Shelter can become more th:in just a place to stay warm
or dry It also can be :in experience of emotion stimulated by
our sensory responses.
When we speak of "appropriate" housing or
"appropriate" technology. the word "appropriate" has many
levels of meaning. I may feel lazy, like taking a nap in this
solar heat. That's appropriate for me. On a cold, winter day,
I set a one hour morning fire in the masonry heater 10 heat up
the chimney. That's it.
Let the contoul'l> of the land. the movement of the sun
and canh, and the shell of this mountain home follow their
natural course. That is appropriate, 100.
In my afternoon slumber on the wann slate floor, I
think of summer. The sun will not touch the slate floor then.
The roof panels will be in place so the south porch will be in
shade. The dense floor will remain cool just as the nonh wall
docs. Off the southeast and southwest comers of the cabin
the hickory trees are in full leaf and they block out the hot
morning and afternoon sun Windows on the cast. west, and
south walls allow breezes 10 blow through the cabin. Ilidden
an the ceiling framing is insulauon, the guardian of comfon.
Heat from the sun passes slowly through the exposed roof
and is vented through openings around the chimney. The
Waste products arc
disposed of in specific ways.
Human waste is taken care of in
an aesthetic, two stall outhouse.
Grey water from dish, clothes,
and people washing is drained
from the cabin into a gravel-filled
dry welJ just below the house.
Burnable trash is used in wood
burning, or incinerated. Plastic~
glass, aluminum, and other
recyclables arc collected and
delivered to tbe local recycling
center.
All of the energy systems
reviewed in this cabin so far
required no electricity for
operation. Electricity is a precious
energy form and should only be used where there is no other
practical substitute. Refrigerarion and cooking are the major
electricity consuming appliances, so in this house there is an
energy-efficient LP gas refrigerator and a gas stove. Beller to
use gns on site and utilize approximately 80 percent' of its
available heat thnn electricity, which, by the time it gcrs 10
your house. only provides about 30 percent of its available
heat.
The solar clothes dryer is a fifty foot rope suspended
between two poles. So the only major appliance needing
electricity is the washing machine. Other than the washing
machine, the house if outfiued 10 provide electricity for
lights, stereo, computer, blender, and other small
miscellaneous ncms.
The creek docs not have enough flow of water to
generate adequate electricity for a small hydroelectric system.
and wind pauems are too irregular around the house site for a
"'ind generator. The final choice for electricity generation is a
photovoltaic system that generates electricity. The solar
electric panels are mounted on the south facing roof pitch of
the cabin and feed into deep cycle batteries, where electricity
•~ stored and sent 10 the appliances ns direct current.
So we have a simple plan for a mountain homestead.
The basic energy needs have been met with appropriate
technology, but the technology is incomplete without the
human behavior to complement it. We live in an age of
plastic and steel. Many of our daily needs are dependent on
oil drilled on the other side of the world and automobiles
built and assembled on two or more continents. One way to
control the use of energy on the planet is to seek out ways to
A MOUNTAIN HOME
Wnucn lltld 11lustnlltd by
Greg Olson
Shelter is our tilter from the clements of wind, water.
and sun. It lS also a ~work that shapes our environment
The home is an enclosure of space where sensory experience
conunual on 1'"£C 211
KATUAH - page 8
WINTER 1987-88
�A LOOK AT SOME HOMEMADE HOUSES IN KATUAH ...
Madison County, NC
Pho10 by Paul Galllmore
Floyd County, VA
A$he County, NC
Watauga County, NC
WINTER 1987-88
Photo by Rob Messick
Photo by Rob Messick
Floyd Coun1y, VA
Joci<son County, NC
Photo by Adam Cohen
Photo by Adam Cohen
Photo by Rob Messick
KATUAH ·page~
�by Marnie Muller
In considering your bomeplace, it is
important to understand the earth energies of
the place you arc choosing. Cultivating this
sense of listening lO the primal energies of a
place h;u been practiced by many culture~
over thousands of years. Aboriginal peoples
still pay anenuon to these forces. There arc
people in China who still consult with their
culnue's t:raditionalftng-shui masters.
Here in these mountains ofKatiiah, some
oldrlmers and "newtimers" listen lo earth
energies by means of dowsing n0t just for
water but also for the more subtle earth
energies.
Presently, there is a call for a "new"
geomancy in order to design human systems
in alignment with earth systems. The ancient
I Ching ( The Chinese Book of Changes)
speaks of The Great Ham:>0ny. By
perceiving the wider rhythms and energy
nows of the living earth system in which we
participate, we can team to harmonize our
individual energy with the wider
'symphony' of place. In particular, in the
specific place where we choose t.o live, we
can find out about itS special
energies-wind, water, light as well as the
more subtle realms--and become pan of the
process rather than a blockage to it
"The id. a or movement of energies in
e
the earth, of the chl or the earth, and of the
possibility of harmonizing with such
energies is very old. Associated ideas of
blood, water, breath, chi, spirit, circulation,
machine, and organism figure here. A 4th
century tcXt speaks of the earth, 'flowing
and communicating within itS body as if io
sinews and veins' (Needham, Scitnct and
Civilization in China]. A 14th century text,
of interest for current thinking about
"universal planetary grid" or "earth
acupuncture", refers to a "mysterious
network" thus: (it) spreads OUJ and joins
iogtther evtry pan ofthe roors of dll!
tarth. ..Thousands and ttn thousands of
horiU>fllal and VtrticaJ lltins liJce warp and
wtft weavt lbgtther in muJual
tmbraet ...Taking all (including land and
sta) as earth, the stcrtt and mystery is thot
the roots communicare with tach other "
(Steven Post. Ralst the Stakes)
Perceiving the Earth as a living,
functioning being, our species can begin to
redevelop a symbiotic rel.arionship with the
specific eanhplace where we dwell
Reacquainting ourselves with the ancient
slcills of listening to the vibrant, subtle earth
energies is a significant step in lhis process.
Then as we live our lives, each aspect from
homebuilding to right livelihood to
ceremony... will more deeply reflect the
undercurrent Life patterns.
;
,,#
"In China, the dragon is a symbol of the electrically charged,
dynamic, arousing force that manifests itself in the thunderstorm. In
winter this energy withdraws into the earth. In early summer it becomes
actjve again appearing in the sky as thunder and lightning."
From I Ching, Tht Chintse Book of Changes
Description of terms:
Earth Htru: Energy emanatlng from Ille e:inh,
dcieclible by b1otogical means (cg. dowsing) and
physical means (with sensitive detection
ins1111mcnis (cg. geiger countcrS)) though not
normally obvious to the casual observer unless in
an especially sensitive state.
F1ng Shu/: A Chinese system which recognizes
energy Oows and forms in the landscape. It 1J1Cludes
mclhods of modjfying these forms 10 amclionue the
"eneray climate" of a site. Ljterally. means
'wind/Wald.
Grom1ncy: 1lie science of putting human habitalS
and activities into harmony with the visible and
invisible world around us. "Themes and concepts
from architecture, gcomcuy, geography, cosmology,
art, archaeology. mctrology, numerology,
astronomy, astrology. surveying, religion, and
mythology. all complex subjccis in !heir own right,
t<1J1 be seen to have a common root in cenaio
ancient pnictices which related them to a special
place, lime, cosmic position and purposc •. .EV1dcnce
from a great number of sources indicat.es that thclC
is certainly aomcthing linking all these enigmatic
fac.ts and universal practices, an age·old and
venerable science which may be called geom1111Cy."
~!ck)
Dowsiac: A means of delecting seemingly
imperceptible obJCClS or subtle encrcies by the
feeJjng of a rod Olf pendulum held m the hand.
Traditional wattt divining using a farted haul rod is
a form of dowsing which has provided evidence of
sublle energies present at sacred sites.
Gala: To the ancient Oreets, Oa.ia was lhe Eal\h
Goddess. In more recent times the name has been
utilised by James Lovelock to describe the entire
bimyslem or our pbnet - all !ho pbnis ..... imab and
fungi. plus the atmosphere. the oceans and the soil.
The Gaia hypothesis suggests that the Eanh's
biosySlem as ~-regulating; that. for example, 11 is
able to conllOI ilS aunosphcric tcmperawre as well
as the composiuon or the air, sea and soil so es to
maintain the optimum conditions for the survival of
life on the planet.
Chi: 'brealh of nature' : basic energy
~ Sacnd Sites: Special eanh pbcea ""h1ch have the
'-- ~
'- quality of bnnging an individual tO •more auuncd
state with Nature. Often associated wilh having an
abundance of "minus" (or negative) ions in the
elccuanagnctic field.
Eartb Acupuncture: A way of regarding earth
energies whereby the living Earth is seen es an
equivnlent of the human body m acupuncture terms,
with the flows of energy along the meridians and
with special energy centers or "ac:upuncture points".
(Most of tltac tuwu Jul•c M•1t d~fuud ilt £.,11t;
MJSUrlu: Alt l!J1plorator1 l11tro4Mttl.,. l1y BriDn
lorkmms illtd Plul'P lfLUluHt.. P"'14'Md by IM Nortlt
Eortlt/.fµ:.eriaCl'Ollp.)
Suggested Reading:
The Earth Spirit: Its Ways, Shrines and
Mysteries. John Michell, Crossrond Publishing
Co., NY, NY. 197S.
The Ancient Scltnce or Geomancy. Nigel
Pennick, Thames llld Hudson. Ud., London. 1979.
Earth Wisdom. Dolores LaChapclle, Finn Hill
Arts, P.O. Box S42, Silverton, CO 81433. 1978.
Shu/: The Sci,nce or Sacred
Landcape In Old China. Ernest J. Eitel with
oommenwy by John Michell. Syoergctic Press, 24
Old GIOOCCSICr Sttt.ei. London WC I Engl:ind.1984.
Feng
"Geomancy: A Tawny Grammar", Steven
Post in Raise tlr.e Stakes, Sprint. 1984 . Plllnet
Drum FoundalJOll, P.O. Box 3t2SI, Snn Francisco,
CA 94131.
Gain: A New Look at Life on Earth. J.E.
Lovelock, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1979.
Tbe LMn1 Earth Manual of F•n1 Sh11I.
Su:phc:n Skinner OUt or print.
Nttdtcs or Stone. Tom Graves, Granado
Publishing Ltd., NY, NY.1978.
Tbe Divining !land: Tbe 500 Year Old
Mystery or Oowslnc. Cllristophcr Bird, New
Age Press. P.O. Box 1216. Blaet Mountain, NC
28711. 1979, 1985.
The Ley Hunttrs Manual: A Guide to
Early Tracks. Alfred Watkins, Turnstone Press,
Ltd., Wellingborough, Nonh Hampton~ire. 1927, /
1983
/
~----
"
•
14
~~----~;;.uonbyM~M~l~-~
KATUAH - page JO
)
I
~,~,
\\\
WlNTER 1987-88
�Earth-Sheltered Living
by Scott Bird
From prehistoric Limes to present, human beings have
lived sheltered by/within the Earth... in caves, within rock
wwls and cliffs. and in earth-covered lodges and houses. In
some pans of the world, members of tribes have gathered
toge1her to build their homes in common, underground.
Ciries housing thousands have been builL
Stone age cave dwellers who used nruural cave
forma1ions for shelter, pro1ec1ion, and temperature
moderation, benefiued from 1he even tempero1ures of living
within the Eruth. For example, the year round 1empera1ure in
the Mammoth Cave in Kemucky is 54 degrees F.
In many pans of 1he world today earth-sheltered
homes are a common way to build and live, especially in
China where over 10,000,000 people live in earth-sheltered
spaces in the provinces of Shensi, Shansu, Kansu and
Henan. Their earth-sheltered population has numbered in 1he
millions for generations, where schools, workplaces,
temples and shrines have been part of the underground
landscape since the 5th century BC, complete with gardens
on the roofs.
The mountain village of Matmara in Tunisia is home to
between 5·6,000 people where most shehers are
underground. An open counyard connects the individual
homes. Pedestrian tunnels connect different families of the
tribe to the main social group. Rooms are built with curved
walls and ceilings. In the center of each courtyard is a cistern
which is used to collect and store water with a system of
water pus.
In Cappadocia, a mountainous, barren region in
Turkey with severely exLreme temperatures, villagers have
lived continuously in 41 under~round cities since the 3rd
century. Some cities are built on as many as 10 levels and
house 30.000 people.
On this continent, the Pueblo Indian ruins at Mesa
Verde in southwestern Colorado were hollowed-out cliffs
built around 300 AD with rooms up to 80 feet in diameter.
Other native peoples of the southwest built earth-covered
winter homes and kivas.
Here within the Katuah province, the Cherokee
lndinns constructed earth-covered winter homes and lodges
(see "Good Medicine," page 18 of this issue).
Pioneer dugouls were built in the Great Plains in the
late 19th century as white people pushed wesrward. Building
materials were scarce, so grass and s:>il becl:me the simple
materials with which the pioneer families made their homes.
Though most of the structures were free-standing sod
houses, which were vulnerable and shon-lived, some
families actually excavated dugout shelters in the earth.
Today within the area of the United States. it is
estimated that there a.re between 4-5,000 earth-covered
homes and an undetermined number of earth-benned or
eanh-sheltered homes, that far outnumber those totally
eanh·covered. Once again, it seems that eanh-covered and
earth-sheltered houses are being accepted by the mainstream
population.
Eanh-sheltered homes today qualify for immediate
financing and immediate insurance, and they have gain~ a
high level of consumer acceptance. Earyh shelters ai:e ~mg
built by many .ltl"OUPS of people: the punsts, the surv1vaJ1sts,
the environmentalists, and ordinary citizens, who might
live, for example, on the Great Plains, which are subject to
tornadoes and proirie fl.res. And th~n there. are !hose who
simply want to tower their home heanng/cooling bills.
Earth·benning or eanh·sheltering means simply
bringing the earth as high as possible around a structure on
the nonh east, and west sides, leaving the south completely
open to 'accept the w~th of the sun. i:tie Tf'Of is of
conventional construeuon, though heavily insWa1ed.
Earth-covued homes, however, entail significantly more
expense to provide for extra load-bearing capaciry for the
roof, complete waterproofing, and the expense of
eanh-moving.
People who choose to live sheltered by/within the
Earth, do so for many iusons. In a house protec~ed by
Earth, both winter winds and summer heat have less impact
on the interior. The house takes advantage of the more even,
moderate temperature changes of the Earth. Earth-sheltered
buildings require less heating fuel and, therefore, relieve
pressure on our over-extended biosphere and pocketbook. If
planned carcfutJy, eanh·sheltered homes provide all the light
and ventilation of an above-ground home. Eanh·protected
homes are quieter, require less upkeep. are safer from natural
and human-made disasters. They arc also less of an
imposition on the life around them.
EARTH SHELTER UNDER CONSTRUCTION NEAR
BLOWING ROCK, NC. Dalaaed and built bJ Scott Bird.
- continued on next page
photos by Rob Musick
WINTER 1987·88
KATIJAH - page 1 l
�...................·.....·.................... ········· .... .
·continued from page 11
As you begin on the canh shelter path, the best place
to start is your library. Begin reading about earth-sheltering,
subscribe to a journal or two. Talk to others who have buil1
earth-sheltered homes in your area. Look for the pros and
cons of each design.
When you finally choose a home site, spend as much
time there as possible. Get 10 know 1hc sun's path there, 1hc
drainage patterns, c1c. Also spend time observing what
wildlife lives there in order to determine how you will share
the habitlt. Observe the wind pauems for your locale.
Also begin an inventory of your land. Arc there natural
wind fences on your land that will help to protect your
homesite? What is your soil composition? The soil rypc will
significantly effect the buildi~ process. What water is in the
immediate area? Engaging a local dowser may prevent a lot
of trouble and heanache down the road. Besides locating a
drinking water source, a dowser can also detect shallow
water veins as well as other complications that may be
present to your possible homcsite.
Resource List
for Earth Shelter Construction and Design:
Tiie llandbook of Earth Sl1elter Design. Make
Edelhart. A Dolphin Book, Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
Garden City, NY 1982.
This book is highly recommetUledfor purring you in touch
with the Earth Shelter movement. Very clear and inclusive,
lists earth shelter organizations, earrh shelter periodicals,
articles on earth sheltering. books, films, as well as earth
shelter designers, solar infonnarion by state, etc.
Ear th Shelttred Housing Design : Guidelin es,
Examples, and References. Underground Space Center,
University of Minnesota. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.• Inc.,
During the energy cns1s of the I970's, people were
drawn cowards 1he lower fuel costs of solar, superinsulated
and earth-shehered homes. As the fossil fuel economy
rebounded, in1erest in earth·sheltering slackened as was
evidenced in a major earth shelter journal falling from over
18,000 subscribers to a present 2.000 subscriber b:ise.
People once again misiakenly believed thal the fossil fuel
supply was endless. Now as our economy faces 1hc
possibilily of a major collapse, reliable, energy-efficienl
earth-sheltered housing will once again offer an attractive
op1ion.
At the turn of chis century, Baldasarc Fores1iere spenl
38 years constructing/sculp1ing 65 rooms, courtyards,
grouos. 11nd gardens beneath 7 acres 10 Fn;sno, California.
The work was complete with atnums and rooms designed to
catch 1hc sun. The rooms contained many forms of plant life
including one tree 20 feel underground that was grafted with
7 differen1 kinds of citrus fruil. As Baldasare Foresticre's
cffons within the Eanh were aesthetic as well as func1ional,
we 100 can develop 1hc sensitivity to create a form of Eanh
sculpture with our earth-sheltered home designs. h is also
time in our hist0ry for us to re-establish a spiritual
communion with the planet, and living in an earth-sheltered
home is literally "close to the Earth."
As a professional homebuilder, the best advice I can
give prospective owners of earth shelter homes is to stay
closely involved throughout the entire home construction
project. Paradoxical as it may seem, special sensitivity is
most needed during the initial excavation of the home site.
This can make the difference between a site that looks as if it
has been cleared for a shopping mall and a homcsite that has
been carefully carved out of the Earth with respect and care.
You, the owner/dweller, will be the one to know how the
Earth looks and feels after the whole building process is
completed.
The solar warmth pcnncating a structure sitting in the
protective lap of Mother Earth can make each day a joy whe~~
one chooses to live with/within the Earth.
P"
Scott Bird is a professio11al residential designer
atUI builder of conven1ional atUI earth-sheltered homes in
the Katiial1 region. He works with Appalachian Building
& Design.
I
Earth -Sheltered H abitat: llistory, Architecture and
Urban Design . Gideon S. Golany. Van Nostrand
Reinhold Co., Inc., 1983.
Notes and bibliography in back of boolc are rich in research.
The $50 and Up Underground House Book. Mike
Ohler. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., Inc., 1981.
Ear th Shelte red Homes: Plans and Designs.
Underground Space Center, University of Minnesota. Van
Nostrand Reinhold Co., Inc., 1981.
Construction information, plans and energy data for 23
successful earth-sheltered I~
A real bible/or ti~ Eanh Shelter fTl()vement, will help quiet
fears and insecurities concerning earth shelter planning,
design, building and living.
Untluground S poc•
Dept. of Civil & Mineral Engineering, University of
Minncsoia, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Bi-fTl()nthly journal of the American Underground-Space
Assoc.
Natural Solar A rchitecture: A Passive Primtr.
David Wnght. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., Inc.. 1978.
Wonderful. sensitive design with Earth, sun. and
environmenl working rogerher
Underline
Underground Space Center, 790 CME, 500 Pillsbury Dr.
SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Qiurerly
Underground House Book. Stu Campbell. Garden Way
Publishing Co., Charlotte, VT, 1980.
The favorite of many.
E n ergy Inform
3528 Dodge, Omaha, NE 68131
Complete bibliography of earth-sheltered writings. $5.00
1978.
KATUAH - page 12
WIN'ffiR 1987-88
�..............·•• ••••·• .·~11 •• ••••••••••••••••.• •·•·• .......... •·•·•••••• •••••••••·••·• •·•·••• ..... ........................................... •·•·• ........ •·•·••••·•·•·•••·• •·••• •••••••••••••• -•••
•
..::··
Through the whole spectrum of
living systems, from planet Eanh to a living
cell, the natural world is abundnnt in
rounded fonns. Within this synergetic order
the organizing principle of a covering, or
membrane, that meets 11self around a
nucleus is the basis of any regenerative
structure. Found in anim31 bodies and the
homes they build, as well as in the shnpe of
plants, their seeds and the housing for their
seed$, is this dynamic pnuern of a
membrane with inward and outward curves
being strong, insulative, protcctive, and
interactive with environments.
With this example human beings can
build sheller that is in tune with these
patterns and can rejoice in this resonance.
Ovoid, spiral, polyhedral, and branching
designs are a practical and pleasing
alternative to many of the dull rectangular
schemes we now employ. These ovolo lend
themselves 10 many styles and uses as a
way of dwelling wirhin surroundings.
.
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·:
::
..
.•
·:
..
.·
(conUll!JCld on s-sc 18)
..
:·
..
·.
.
'
'
'~
..
.:
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':...
© Drawings and Text by Rob Messick~
•/
wn-(rnR.. i'9s7:sil .... ········· ···· ·.. ··· ··· ··· ...... ,... ,. · ···· ····· ... ···.··· .. ······ ·......... ·· ····.... ··· ····· ··· ·.... ·.......··· ·· ··· ··· ···KA.ru.;.:1:i :·p~.&~ 13
�BRUSH SHELTER
by Snow Bear
As I.he autumn chill deepened into the sharp cold of winter,
it was important for native peoples to have a place to keep
wann when they were out hunting, away from their villages.
By watching how squirrels kept themselves andtheir young
warm and dry, native peoples learned the lesson of how to
build a stick and leaf nest It was a good way to keep warm
and dry without a fire. Here is a description of how to make
a temporary, primitive brush hut similar to those of the native
peoples here.
The brush hut provides warmth and shelter from rain and
snow, requiring no cordage or canvas in its construction. I
have spent a comfonable 15 degree night in such a hut with
no sleeping bag. When well made, it will shed heavy rain;
snow laying upon it becomes additional insulation. It takes
about I 1/2 -2 hours for a single person to make a shelter.
Unden;iand, however, it is not a home or a workplace when
made 10 cap1u~ body heat. An additional lean-co srrucrurc
can fill the need for workspace; it can be made using the
same method.
The idea is simple: to construct a low shelter framework
with dead and down branches and cover it thickly with leaf
liner from the forest noor. Essential to the Structure is a
strong ridge pole, at least nine feet long, placed wilhin the
fork of a living tree, three feet off the ground. In the absence
of a forked tree the proper height, I have used a strong, three
foot forked branch leaned against a tree trunk and secured
wuh long stakes pounded into I.he ground with a rock.
Staning at the end of the ridge pole that lies upon the
ground, stack branches up against the ridge pole. As you
place branches, alternate from side to side of the ridge pole;
the tops of the branches will interlock to keep the branches
from sliding off the ridge and serving to anchor the leaves at
the ridge. Remember to make the shelter at least twice as
SfAKE
'flALL
wide as your body: this will make a low, wide framework
that will keep its leaves in heavy wind. Less heat will escape
if your door opening is narrow and low. You can make a low
door after leaves have been put inside by using two forked
sticks to support a stout branch for a door lintel (see
dingrJm).
KATUAll ·page 14
Begin covering by using dry leaves. Always put leaves on
the top of the side you are working on; they will settle in to
the pince they are most needed. O>ver in dry leaves so thnt
when you push your hand in to touch the stick framework,
the leaves come up past your elbow. This is essential for n
brush hut that will shed rain. Then, if available, use leaves
(from beneath the dry, crackJy leaves of the forest floor) that
are maned and compressed. These can be lifted off the
ground like shingles. Start at the bonom and lay them in
rows, overlapping each row. If any funher anchoring is
needed, you can use branches. laying them upright as you
did to make the frame.
To stay wann in winter weather, further insulation is
needed. Fill the inside with dry leaves, then wriggle in and
roll side to side until the leaves are compressed into a
"mattress". Do this at least four times to get a mattreSs that
will stay 8"-10" thick when you lay upon it. Then fill it once
more with leaves (pack them in!) and crawl in. To funher
retain heat, you can weave a door plug with thin green tree
branches. After you crawl in, pull the door plug closed from
inside and pile leaves against it You may need to leave a vent
:11 thc top or the door plug.
Spend many hours in practice before you rely upon your
skill for your well-being. This is true of any primitive
camping skill It would be good to make at least six shelters
before testing your skill on a subfreezing winter's night. The
consequences of a mistake in building your brush hut could
be hypothermia and death.
Building a brush hut is bu1 one of many vnluable
skills the old time Cherokee practiced; they were a people
who could stay warm, dry, well fed, clothed, nnd
comfonable with nothing but a knife as their basic tool. May
we keep these skills alive, that our people may live in,,.; #
strength nnd well being.
,P'
Wll\.'TFR 19R7-811
�Resources on Build ing & Design:
Books:
I.ow-Cost, EntrtY Cfllcltnt SMltu for
tht Owner and JJulldtr, Edited by Eugene
Ecch. RO<ble Press lnc , Emm3us, PA 1~9.
1976.
Furoctmtnt: Bulldlnt with Ctmtnt,
Sand. and \Virt .Hnh, Sunlcy Aben:romb1c.
Sc hockcn Books. NY. 1977
Tht /Jousts of Mankind, Cohn Dul y.
Thom:is and Hudson, NY, 1979
Arrosanti, An Urban Laboratory, Paolo
Solen. Avant Books. 191!4.
Natural Solar Auhltuturr: A Passil'r
Primtr, 03vid Wright , Environmcnul Architect.
Van :>;osunnd Reinhold Co.• 1978.
Tht Tao Of Archllutuu, Amos th T1ao
Chang Princc10n Univ Prc.~s. 1956.
Tht Tfmlftu \Vay of Building
A Patttrn longuagt
Tht Oregon Expufment
ChrislOphcr Alexander, Cl al. Oxford Unrver.ity
Prc..<;,<;, NY.
From Tht Ground Up, John N. Cole and
ChNI~ Wing. L1Ulc, Brown and Co.. 1976.
Tht Stcond Old llou1t Catalogue, compiled
by Lawrence Grow. Universe Books. NY, NY,
1978.
&mh Shtlttr, David Martindale. E.P. Duuon,
NY. 1981.
Passive Solar ArC'hlttcturt- Loglc a nd
Btauty, David Wright and Dennis A.Andrejko.
Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982.
An Agt of Barns. Enc Sloane Ballantine
Books, NY. 1967.
l.og Bultdtrs l/andbuok, Drew Lang~ncr.
Rod31e Press, Emmau~. PA 18049
Shelttr, Shelter Publications. Mounuun Boot..s.
P.O. Box 4811. Santo Barbara, CA 93103, 1973.
Tht
Vittait
as
Solar
Ero loty,
Procttdings of Tht Ntw
Alrht1t11
Thrtshold Gtntrir Dtsign Conftrtnrt,
E.Wlc.d by John Todd and 1':inc)· Jack Todd, The :'\cw
Alchemy lns111u1c. 237 Hatchvillc Road. East
Falmouth. MA 02536, 1980.
llandmadt 1/ouscs, A Guidt to /ht
Woodbutchu's 1t r1, An Bocricke and Barry
Shapiro. Scnm~haw Press, San Franci"Co, CA.
1973
Tht Compltte LOI I/oust Boole,
Do le
M;inn and R1ch:ird Slmuhs. McGraw-Hall, 1979.
Building tht lltwn I.of lloust, Charle~
McRoven Thoma~ Y. Crowell Publishers, NY.
1978.
llandcrafted Doors and Windows, Amy
ZolTarano Rowland. Rocblc, 1982.
Mud, Spac1 and Spirit: 1/andmadt Adobe,
Virginia Gray, Alan Macrae, & Wayne McCall
Capra Press, Sllllta B:irb:lra. CA. 1976.
A Goldtn Thrtad: 2500 Ytars of Solar
Archittcturt and Tuhnoto11. Ken Buui and
John Perlin. Cheshire Books, 19n.
Fantastic A rchlttcture: Personal and
Ecctntric Visions, Michael Scboyt and loost
Elfers. Harry N. Adams, Inc. NY, 1980.
Tht Owntr Built llomt; Tht Owner Built
Homestead ; Th t OM
•ntr Built Homtsttad
Rtvisittd, Ken Kem. Scnbners, NY.
How lo Malet Eltctrlcily from Wlnd,\Vattr
and Sunshlnt, John A. Kucd:en. Tab Boob,
Inc., Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214, 1979
Rtin habltl ng
CitltS
a nd
Towns :
Dtslg nin1 for S us1ainability, John Todd
w1lb George Tul.cl Planet Drum Foundation,
P.O.Boit 3 I2S I, San Francisco. CA 94 131
Ptrmaculturt Ont. Bill Mollison and Da-.d
Holmgren , 1978. Pumaculturt Two. Bill
Molljson . 1979. Tagan Books, P.O. Boll 96,
Sunlcy, Ta~mania. 7331 Austmlia.
Dwtlting, by River, FrceslODC Publishing Co..
1974.
Pe r iodicals:
Adbbt Ntv. s, P.O. Boll 702. Los Lunas. N\1 87031
Ntw Shtlttr Magaunt, 33 Ea~t Minor Street
Emmaus, PA 1!!049
Altunatiw Sourcn of Energy. 107 S. Ccntml Ave ..
Milaca, MN S6JS3
New England Builder. The Journal of Light
Construction , P.O. Boll 278. Montpelier, VT
0.5(,02
FiM llomtbu1ldin1. Thc Tauton Press, Inc., 63
South M3in StrccL Newtown, CT 06470
Fine Wood Workin1. lllc Tauton Press. Inc ..
63 South Milin Street Newtown, CT 06470
Thi! Solar Collector (Soon to be The South/ace
Journal of Energy and Building Technology).
Published by the Southfnce Energy Institute. P.O.
Box S506, Atlanta, GA 30307
PASSIVE SOLAR COMPOSTING
TOILET
The typical live gallon flush IOilet consumes
approitim3tcly half of a household's conswnpl.ion of
water. This is about 12,000 gallons of waier / pu
person I pu yea to carTY 165 gllllons or body waste
co the place or disposal . What rcsulis is:
• Large amounis of valuable and sc:arcc pure
drinking Wlller is used
• Ground water and surface water is polluicd
• A useful, natural fertilizer is lost
• Energy-inicnsive nnd costly waste
ucatmcnt plnnis must be constructed
• The disposal of sewage sludge cau~
further pollution problems
We assume th:lt by nushmg and forgetting
we have solved the problem, yet in l'C3lity we have
only created several new ones. The watcrlcu
composting toilet is 11n alternative to these
problems. ll uses no water. thus chmmatlng
massive consumption used with Oush L01lcts The
<;i-lf.eonUlincd sy51Cm protects ground Md ~urface
wai.ers from conLDmmat1on. and valuable nu111ents
arc coo,·cncd into a s:in1tary nch humus lhal can be
applied directly to the orch:ud. MUmCnl3ls. and the
garden. With solar fC3llltCS, 11 needs no additional or
outside source of enctgy to complete the
decomposition, nnd there arc no mechanical or
moving parts. Because of thi~. 11 needs very hule
ml\inlCD311CC nnd l'CqWICS no additional Cllpcn5CS after
the original mst11llauon .. Watct conservation equals
energy conscrvalJOn m that no energy is nocdcd to
pump. store, or purify waste.
Compo5ting toilets arc a part of an
appropriate technology m that they renect a
low-cost soluuon to local problems. They are
simple co build and mam1:11n: nnd can be constructed
from locally available materials.
WINTER 1987-88
Scx,.b.\>I
:5 .·.
·
C.IW11'E:Y ·: " .:
lllc toilet conslSls of a c:oocreie block vauh
with a sloping "air s11u-case• system (sec diagram).
The org:lllic was1A:S move down the St:lll'CISC at a rate
that will insure aerobic dccomposlllon by the time
they reach the final storage chamber. Aerobic
decomposition means th:lt the ocg:inic materials a.re
breaking down in the presence or oxygen. The
compost pile is aerated in three ways: Fir;t, the
incoming air stream 1s prchC3lcd by the flat plate
sol.3r hot air collcc10r (eliminating the noed for an
adcbtio1131 power $0UtCC). and brought undeme:llh the
"steps" of the air ~talrcasc so th31 the au can
Cll'Culate from the bouom and on up through the
center or the pile. Second. the air is conducted
through the slotted and perforated four inch PVC
pipe ducts that run through the center of the pile.
Third, air nows over and across the pile, ovnpor:ating
citccss moisture and pulling olT the carbon d1oudc.
The solar chimney drives off the air c1rculat1on
system for the compostct by allowing the sun to
heat the air in the black vent si.ack. thus causing a
n3tural draft . The warm air rises by natural
convection and in tum pulls more air through the
colleci.or and through the compost pilc... the cycle
goes on.
Also. u's 1
mponant to lldd af1tt C3Ch U5C a
scoop or "dry Oush" materi31 nch in
carbon, ~ch as &Tl.~' cilppmgs. sawdu~1. leaves.
peat. and 111ood ch1J>l' You're building a working
compost pile here so you need enough fibrous
mlllCriJIJ to miit with the wastes to keep the pile
loose so n1r cnn circulate through. All odors arc
released through the solar chimney which ensures
the bathroom is free from odors at all tim~. The
humw; which is remo"cd 1s ooly live to ten percent
of the original volume as 9Q.9S percent will be
transformed 11110 carbon dioxide and water ,.apor and
rcle:iscd through the 'cnt. It will l3kc 3J'Pr0llma1Cly
two ycatli for the f~t decomposition pcnod, then
with the continuous proce.~s. three to icn gal Ions or
humus will be produc.xl per pcrsonfpcr year.
generou~
Dct:uled blueprints an: available for
SIS.OOfrom
Long Branch Environmental
l:ducanon Center
Route 2. Boit 132
Leicester, NC 28748
(704) 683 3662
KATUAH ·page 15
�Review of Rua Sims Quillen's
October Dusk
JULIEANNA
Bi' Timber, Mon1:1113; Sc•cn BuIT:lloc:; Press; 1987. 26 p:igcs
This collection of twenry-thrcc poems is as invumg a.s
a cool front porch in summcnimc Md opens to the l"C3dcr a
~orld of Appalachian place, culture, and ritual.
In Quillen's poems we arc rooted in a place of apple
buucr IT\:lking and calf binhing; a place where people look to
the seasons to tell them what work needs to be done. Herc
arc hard laboring people who draw such conclusions as 'The
potatoes from the garden/ lie scattered in the grass./
Tomorrow we will son them I and store them for winter."
This dedication is an intimate and loving gesture which leads
the reader to assume the couple in the poem, who sit on their
front steps after a hard day's wcrk and whose "eyes meet in
the fading light," arc lhc poet and her husband on their own
fann. Such intimacy is typical of Quillen's poems and is
neither offensively confessional nor self-indulgent, but rather
comfonablc and interesting-a glimpse into a panicular
Appalachian family's world.
ln these p<>cms rich in Appalachian culture, we notice
the effects of ume. Sometimes we sense the new imposing
itself on the old, as in "Time To Go". Here an old woman
sees a countryside overtaken by "multi-level
houses"-symbols of the new "American dream". But she
also observes young people taking over an "aged" farmhouse
and "trying to live in another time": ... solemn young
women in earth-colored clothing I chop wood and raise
chickens." She realizes that people !Oday arc facing a "hard
time," perhaps too hard, and she knows she has lived long
enough.
We often see old generations passing, as in
"Julicanna", in which "Mamaw" sits by the window and
recalls her past, not sadly, but acutely: "She can still smell I a
hot kitchen full of men I after a hard day ...." She sits with
her granddaughter, sometimes thinking she hears her late
husband "Paw I saying 'Julie' I and she almost answers."
Such moments in QuiJJen's poems are poignant, tender, but
rarely, if ever, repetful.
They are ultimately not regretful because Quillen sees
renewal in the passing of time and people. The poem
"Sunday School Lesson" (dedicated to the poet's son)
investigates the notion of new generations replacing the old,
as the mothet' ponders "how each of my children I resembles
someone long dead .•.. /The boy is my father I reborn I
with red hair." I find this poem comforting and a beautiful
and quite appropriate conclusion'° the collection.
My favcrite poems, however, are those that deal with
Appalachian ritual, as in "Revival", a poem which depicts a
child's perception of an old-time church revival, an event
filled with ta1Jc of fire and brimstone and infused with the
Holy Spirit ("Many moaned, cried I said Yes Lord"). The
child is confused and " [runs] out of the shadow into the
clean nl&ht air". The poem doesn't pass judgement on the
revival, but certain! y captures the mystery of the ritual as
seen through a child's eyes.
A second of Quillen's poems set in the church,
"Meeting House," offcis a touching glimpse of another
country ritual: counship. In this poem we find z.ekc Bays
riding his "spooked" mule into a church service. It's not the
event itself, despite its quirkiness, that gives this .J>OC:m its
reason for being. Instead, the hean of the poem lies in its
theme: the discovery of love. While Zeke apologizes fcr his
actions, he keeps his eyes on Anna Compton, a young
woman in the congregation, and this gesture signals to
everyone, including Anna. what Zeke feels for her. They all
know that "Zc.ke [will) be the one I to teach her about loving,
I sing little songs to her in the dark." These "little songs" arc
the essence of romantic love and will be as sweet, no doubt,
as that dark countty night when Zeke will sing them.
What I ultimately find most appealing about QuiJJen's
poems is her use of the concrete, her interweaving of crisp
illlllges that l can visualize and metaphors I can savor. In her
poems is a mngible world where one sees a "spring burst of
white blossoms", and smells "A musry sweat smell" of a
crowded country church, and hears "little chimney sweeps I
(that! cry in the blackness". This is a living world, the poet's
own, J suspect, that she has opened to her readers. We are
invited in for a while, and here we can discover, ponder,
and, I think, enjoy ourselves immensely.
Mamawfin1Jlly swps 11Jlking
She siis birdlike by the window
on a green vinyl chair.
Her toothless mourh opens, closes
collapses right inlo the face.
Her hands circle slowly around and around
as she talks,
every ~·ein dark bltl.t and swollen.
I warch and wait
can'r take my eyes off her.
Siu: keeps glancing ar the clock on the mlllllel
then back at me.
Eyes dull like old window fXJlll!S
stare oUJ the window 01 yestudays
w/u:n she worked wirh Ju:r /'1llJll
in steamy fields.
She remembers her babies,
rwo alive and grown,
rwo dead at birth
blood coming out their ears.
She can stifl smell
a hot ldtchenfull ofmen
after a hard day,
feel her own light, quick srep
move sure through ti~ gardi!n.
Someti~ she thinks she hears Paw
saying "Julie'
and she almost answers.
We sit together while
the old 1111J11Je/ clock ticks loud,
louder.
Ouiside the quaner moon,
the least lighl ofall,
hangs in the air
resting lighlly then
like that last spoken word.
OCTOBER DUSK
The evening dark
falls all around me,
iJs warm bl'eaJh
casts a shadow on my face.
Sitting 011 my front steps,
I am a candle flame
drawing moths and moS41'iu>es,
holding the mo~nts in my cupped hands.
He sils quietly /:Ty~.
memories ofthe day's work
swift moving cowr shared
lilcefall leaves in the yard.
The pol/JJQes from the garden
lie scanued in the grass.
Tomo"ow we will sort them
and store thunfor winter.
His hand rests on my neck
as he slowly stands.
He off the other dirty hand
us
to help me up.
Our eyes meet in the fading lighl.
We go inside,
surrendtring to nighl,
d1t: sm411 ofeanh still strong.
- Julia Nunnally Duncan
KATuAH ·page 16
-------------------.,WINT;-;-;::;:-=E=:R:--:1~9-:::87::-·:-:88
�October Dusk
by Rita Sims Quillen
MEETING HOUSE
When Zeke Bays rode his mule in10 church
the sweating preacher froze
open-mol.UMd
in the middle of a Bible vuse
and the sranled men rtoched in rheir coaJS
fo r tlu! guns they left at home.
Aunt Becky Summey fainted 011 tlu! women's side,
a crowd rushed around her
as Zeke struggled wilh the mule,
its flat hooves senin~ up a deafening echo
on the rough plank floor.
H
What in tlu! \'.'Orldr S1Jmeone said.
Zeke meanJ co answer
bw the mule walked sideways
and jarred a pewfull of deacon's wives.
Anna Compron hid a s17Ule
untkr a~ whit.e hat
when ZekefiniUly managed
to steer the mule toward the door.
She watclied his hard, dark anns
pull aJ the rope.
noticed that full and STllOOth mouth,
tlu! long eyelashes
that made people say he was too pretty
fora man.
Pausing at the door,
Zeke apologized/or himself
and his wild, spooked anUnal.
said lu!'dfu the door.
Everyone tw7red to sr.are QI Anna
becm.ue he looked QI her as he talked.
She ~d red as her 111/)tWs tinnias.
She knew;
he did, too.
Now everyone probably saw ii:
Zeke would be the one
to reach her aboUI loving,
sing liltJe songs to her in the dart.
COLLAGE
TIME TOGO
Tire old woman
spits amber StilT$ in the dust
standing on a long road leading nowhere
except Elmwood Hills Subdivision
where ""'1ti-level houses stand mtJSt/y empty
save for the Nnuican dream
<fwe.r bars, color1V, and pool tables.
And on down the road a piece
a lane mOlk l1y VW buses pressing down tlu! grass
leads wan agedfarmhouse
where rusty bu.eke.rs carch waur from the roof
and solemn young women in earth-colored clothing
chop wood and raise cAfcAzns:
living, walking memories
trying w live in another time
while the old woman
keeps si/en1 waJch
She holds lu!r breath, st.anding and ware/ling
between the IWO
there in the stardusr rood,
pocks her jaw with more tobacco.
She's thin/clng what a hard time
they will all have
and congratu/ares herselffor living just long eno11gh.
WINTER 1987·88
I hold the dl.m picture close to the light.
The background ls faded:
an old man's silhouette on a barnwall.
black On 8rtl)'·
a shaft of white sun slashing his face.
He holds a bale of hay on his left shoulder,
expruslon dirta
dueEast-
overlapping with the tiny grantlson
in the foreground
lying Ill the crib,
seemingly soulless
in that sl«p beyond remembrance
known only to the M\'.born and rhe dead.
Yet surely there nwsr /lave been
ho~d puffs ofair
passing through rhose he.an-shaped lips,
the soft body rising with eoch breath..
The missing lin/c
is the old man's son the baby'sfarher out ofthe picture somewhere
where f Qlhers always are,
leaving me to wonder about JUm,
impatient wilh my owA curiosity.
Ile is1ust another man,
seed bearing seed.
Why do I go begging for meaning
in rhe accidenUJI double - expos11re?
KATUAH - pa!!,e 17
�In the old days "shelter" meant just
that: a place to sleep and to get out of the
weather. A building or a structure was
not a place where people spent their
·whole lives, as it is today.
Jn a modem city, people go from one building - where
they live, eat, and sleep - by car to another building where
they work, and then go back again. They even exercise in a
building! Only incidentally do they get out into the open air.
These people live in a completely anificial environment. They
regard the natural elements as inconveniences to be avoided.
When I was a boy living with my grandfather and
grandmother, we would take all the doors and windows off
the house in April. By the end of May we had moved the
wood cookstove outside under a liule shelter, and my
grandmother would cook out there. We also slept outside.
We did not have tents or sleeping bags, so we slept under a
liule brush arbor we built to keep the dew off us. We slept
there until thunderstorms or a wet spell of several days
would make us go back inside for awhile.
We lived oucside and did everything under the brush
arbor and under the O'CCS until the last pan of October. Then,
when the leaves fell, and it swted to get cool, we would put
the windows and doors back onto the house, move the
cookstove back inside, and Stan 11 up again.
But even in the wintertime we would use the dogtrot,
which was a wide, covered passageway between the two
pans of the house, as a place 10 shell beans. whittle or carve,
make baskets, or work on other projects. We would eat there
in summer when the weather was rainy and we had
company. Folks would always visit and socialize there. Out
there it was alright 10 smoke or chew tobacco and spit.
When my grandfather was a boy, his grandfather
was living with his family. The old man was a strong
influence on the boy, telling him many siorics about how the
Indian people used to do things. That is why my grandfather
always liked the idea of houses with cane mat walls, the way
they were built before the white settlers came. He used to say
that building a structure that lasted beyond one's lifetime was
a burden on the Earth.
Back before they were all cleared, the river bottoms
were full of thick-growing river cane. The cane was an
incredible material that was used for many purposes. One of
the main use:. was to m:ike $iding for the houses in the
villages along the river bouoms. The women wove the split
cane into mats that '"'ere ~even feet tall and six to ten feet
long. These were hung on a framework of poles stuck into
the ground in a circular pauem. Other poles were lashed
across for bracing and 10 suppon roof rafter;. The roof was
made of bundles of broormcdge grass. which is waxy and
oily and repch water. These were bound in place to make a
thatched roof. In this way the people could build a dry
structure 1n a very, very shon time. If the mats were still
good in the fall, they might roll them up and use them again.
In some of the larger, more permanent villages like
Peachtree or Old Echorn, they would daub the cane mats with
clay. In the smaller villages they would replace the mats
every year and never daub them. One time when we walked
across the field where Old Echota was formerly located, we
found chunks of hard clay that bore the imprints of whole
cane leaves and stalks that had been pan of the old houses.
They also would build small towers in the fields
among the com and squash plants. Kids would take rums
standing watch in the small buildings 10 head off marauding
animals and 10 throw stones at the crows.
The old com-cribs were also built off the ground.
They were made of thin poles and were well-daubed with
mud. Every crack, even around the doorway, was tightly
sealed to keep rats and mice out of the gnin. They put up
com, beans, and dried pumpkin in pots and checked their
stores frequently.
The only permnnent structures were the town house,
which was built on a mound at the center of the village, and
the asi 's, or hothouses. An asi was a family storehouse,
guest house, sweat lodge, and winter shelter. They were
eanh-covered structures that were built on the surrounding
hills above the fertile bouomlands.
The asi was low and na1, usually constructed on a
slight rise to help the water run off. They were made of
wood, usually locust trees. Medicine people often made their
asi's with seven sides. the sacred number, but families
usually nude them square, 12 by 12 feet or JS by IS feet.
according to the size of the family. The: basic log structure
was covered with mats, then broomsedgc would be placed
on top of that, and then soil would cover that. Some of the
older asi's had grass growing on top of them, but the locust
never roued, and very rarely would they ever leak.
In the summenime the asi would be used for storage
or to house guests if the family had clan \isitors. although
the town house was also used for overnight lodging.
The asi would also be used for sweat lodge
ceremonies. A family would move its thi~gs out, and they
would heat up a pile of big rocks in a large fire outside and
carry them into the asi. A lot of people could crowd in 10 sit
around the steaming rocks. The sweat lodge was one of the
- continued on page 28
KATIJAH - page 18
WINTER 1987-88
�'The Grear Spirit did not give man
the right to destroy this great life."
(ucuptsfrom a ra/A: ta the bled btar conftrtnct by
Kay Littfr)Ohn. a Chcr'1Ut Indian}
My fotlu!r 011d grandfather and their
grandfathers before were asked to speak on
behalfof our animal relatives, which were
rapidly disappearing in their times: the snail
darter, the ivory-billed woodpecker, the
passenger pigeon, ti~ CoroliNJ parrot, and
1.lte list goes on and on and on.
Each one of my ancestors wlro spoke
om against the destruction of our relatives.
saw that tire native people of this country
were placed here by the Great Spirit as
caretakers. We see this great gift of mind
011d creativity as something we use 10 share
witlt all those two-legged, four-legged,
winged, water, and root creotiues.
We see ourselves as something not
set apart from our environment, but as a
pan of the whole .....
There is hope in me tltat thest people
who hove removed us as caretakers will see
the responsibility that we all share. I om
responsible/or pollwion, the disappearance
of the animals and plants, for hate, and
prejudice, as eoclt and every one ofyou are.
Our people were swept aside with tire
j11stijicotion of "manifest destinyH. This
archaic expression was used in tlte post to
ju.rtify cruel and unjust acts. This some
plulosoplty exists today, when it comes to
the nvo-legged, four-legged, roots, and
insea creanues
Let's not let "manifest destinyH be the
ckstruction of al/ life. The Great Spirit did
not give man the right to destroy this great
life
Great Spirit, my prayer is for Yonoh,
01u brother, ti~ black bear.
Concern for the black bear (Ursus
omericonus) in the Southern Appalachians
drew over 200 people to the Owen
Conference Center at the University of
Nonh Carolina al Asheville on September
29 10 hear a schedule of speakers presenting
different perspectives on the present and
future condition of the black bear and its
mountain habitat. The conference was
sponsored by the Environmental Studies
Program at UNCA, the Southern
Appalachian Black Bear Federation, Long
Branch Environmental Education Cenrer,
and Klu.UBh.
The presenting speakers agreed that
the black bears had survived intense
pressures, but that the species faced even
more difficult times in the near future.
caused primarily by the ever-expanding
human population. Opinions differed widely
as to the nature and the projected impact of
these pressures, but the mood of the
conference was one of guarded optimism
that if people of different points or view
could work together, the problems facing
the black bear could possibly be averted.
As Dr. Michael Pelton, professor in
the Depanment of Wildlife, Fisheries, and
forestry :11 thc Univer.;ity ofTenncssec said
in his keynote address. "We are sitting on
the last major long· term population of the
WINTER 1987-1-iR
THE FUTURE OF YONAH,
THE BLACK BEAR
black bear in the Southeast."
He said that the indigenous black bear
population had by its remarkable
adaptability overcome the threats posed by
the massive deforestation of the
Appalachians by the timber industry in the
early years of this century and the chestnut
blight, which wiped out the American
chestnut tree, the bears' most stable and
abundant food source.
"Diminishing habitat has without a
doubt been the single most imponant factor
that has impacted these animals," said Dr
Pelton.
"It is unlikely that any new habitat
will be created," he said, and called for
policies to proteet and maintain large blocks
of forested lands in the Appalachians for the
far-ranging black bear species.
"More miles of open roads and forest
management policies that decrease hard mast
(acorn and nut) production will lower the
carrying capacity of the forest for black
bear," said the biologist. "Roads affect
bears either through direct monality or by
bears having to shift their habitat to more
marginal areas, making them more
vulnerable to monality. A road policy must
be clearly defined and strictly enforced. That
is very important to the long-term stability
of the situation.
"We also need a management strategy
to perpetuate and stabilize hard mast
production in the Appalachians. This means
long tree harvest rotations to allow oalc trees
long-term mast production when they reach
maturity."
Roben Zahner, professor of Forestry
at Clemson University, underscored the
need to encourage the different oak species
in the mountains.
"At this point," he said, "When we're
talking about bear habitat, we're talking
about acorns.
"Oak trees are showing signs of
decline in different areas, and there is some
reason to believe that atmospheric pollution
is an influence."
Zahner also warned of the approach
of the gypsy moth, whic.:h has the capacity
to defoliate whole forests and is moving
toward the Southern Appalachians. There is
no way to predict what the elfcc.:h of the
moth infes1ation will be on the black bear,
but the larvae or the insect prefer green oak
leaves, and it will have a strong negative
effect on the mast-bearing trees, he said.
In light of these pressures to come,
Zahner advocated extending the roration age
of trees; implementing a strong oak
regeneration program; and keeping large
blocks of forest land intact to cushion the
effects of future pressures on black bear
habitaL
Lauren Hillm3n, wildlife biologist for
the US Forest Service, said that "population
management is a second critical factor for
the future of the black bear."
Citing population studies in the
Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest, she said
that "monality is at or approaching its
maximum sustainable limit..... Population in
the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest is
probably not declining, but the population
appears to be characterized by a
preponderance of animals in very young age
classes."
This affects the availability of
breeding females necessary to keep the
reproduction rates up to the level of
occurring mortality. Shortening the bear
hunting season or pushing it back later in
the year tends to protect females, who go to
den earlier than the males.
A bright spot in the conference was a
report by Kei1h Langdon, resource
management specialist for the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, who spoke of
promising results in the the breeding of
blight-resistant American chesmut trees that
one day might be able to reinhabit the
species' former range. New genetic
techniques developed by researchers
affiliated with the American Chestnut
Foundation have produced encouraging
results in eitperiments in Minnesota, said
Langdon.
John Stokes, storyteller and
musician, and the dancer Zuleika presented
on Iroquois Indian story about the bear. In
closing, Stokes said, "We have only one
statistic to offer you. That is that we arc
100% sure that the sumval of the black bear
is not a question of number-s, but a spiritual
question."
pfll'
KATUAH- page 19
�NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
FIGHTING THE BIG BURN
IN CALDWELL COUNTY
by Barbara Kirby
(from a talk before t~ WNC A//iQJICe)
For nearly 1wo ye:irs the people of the
Mt. Hennon Community near Hudson in
Caldwell County, NC have been involved 1n
an intense fight to get rid of a hazardous
waste incinerator on nearby Lick Mountain.
The history of the incinerator goes
back 13 years to 1974 when the county
decided it would purchase the equipment
to burn hazardous wastes trom t.:aJClwell
and surrounding counties. Caldwell is a
m.'.ljor furniture producing area, with a lot of
noxious wastes as by-products.
In 1975 a fire in the incinerator plant
forced its closure, and the county officials
decided that they were not qualified to
operate the facility. It was leased it to a man
named Charles Foushee, who began
Caldwell Systems, Inc. (CSI). Charles
Foushee is the man who operated the
Mitchell Systems incinerator and was
unceremoniously thrown out of Mitchell
County a year and a hnl r ago.
In 19&3 the county commissioners
agreed to renew the CSI lease for 25 years.
There had been complaints of odors,
smoke, and pollution, but they were
low-key, and few people had been
involved.
In 1985 a man named L. C. Coonse
began serious opposition to the waste
incinerator. Following his lead, a group of
people organized as Caldwell Concerned
Citizens for a Clean Environment. Their
first act as a group was to ask the county
commissioners to form a study committee to
investigate the incinerator and determine if
any health hazards did in fact exist
Since that time we have met with
continuous obstruction. The study
committee was started eventually, and they
have done an excellent job with the aid of
hired legal and environmental expcns.
The study committee found several
instances of unsafe operation of the
incinerator planL As one example, the
manufacturer of the incinerator reoommends
that it bum no more than 1,882 pounds of
hazardous waste per hour. But the operators
go by the state regulations, which allow
them to bum 4,018 pounds per hour. The
incinerator bums 22 million pounds of
waste per year.
Halogenated hydrocarbons, a very
serious health hazard, are burned at the
plan1. On August 22, 1987 phosgene gas
(also known as mustard gas) was released
into the air. Several Mt. Hermon residents
were stricken by the vapors.
KATIJAH - page 20
Numerous employees have been sick,
and one person is probably going to die
from injuries sustained there.
Caldwell Concerned Citizens has
continuously pressed the county
commissioners to do something. We have
pressed the state. The state has been very
reluctant to work with us. They have started
studies and refused us access to the data
generated. Our group has raised $5000.00
to do our own soil and water studies, all of
which have shown contamination.
The county commissioners have been
under tremendous pressure from the state
Natural Resources and Community
Development (NRCD) and others to lceep
the incinerator open, because since the
closing of the Mitchell Systems plant, it is
the only commmercial hazardous waste
incinerator in the state.
We have found that part of the
problem in regulating a hazardous wa~te
incinerator is that there are very few
regulations. So tho incinerator operators can
truthfully say, "We meet all regulations,"
but that does not mean that they are not
hurting anythUig.
In October, 1987 the srudy comminee
finally recommended that the Caldwell
Systems incinerator be closed. At a meecing
on November 2, the county commissioners
said that they would ask CSI to leave. The
announcement was met with cheers from the
more than 400 people in the audience. The
commissioners continued by saying that
they would allow CSI to sell its business
and equipment to another company. They
did not set a deadline for when CSI had to
be ouL They did not tell us who would be
the new buyer. They did not say anything
about cleaning up the area, which in
Mitchell County was a job of several
months duration.
A near-riot ensued after that
announcement. and the commissioners left
under the protection of lhe sheriffs
departmenL
The outcome of all this is still not
clear, but there is cause for hope. At a
special meeting on November 9 the county
commissioners voted to temporarily close
the CSI plant. The final result still remains
to be seen.
Citizens is an orRanization of mountain
people just like all of us Their experience
shows us that we can learn what we need to
learn w deal with these issues. Ir's as simple
as chal.")
SMOKIES WILDERNESS BILL
PASSES THE US HOUSE
N.wnl World News Service
A bill co-sponsored by Rep. James
McClure Clarke of NC that would officially
declare 90% of the Great Smoky Mountain
National Parle a wilderness area has won
unanimous approval in the US House of
Representatives. Wilderness status would
protect the greater part of the Park from
road-building or any olher development.
This bill formally ratifies the past
management policy of the National Park
Service and gives it the force of law.
The House bill authorizes a payment
of $9.5 million to Swain County, NC and
forgives a $1.6 million loan to the county by
the Farmers' Home Administration to
redeem a promise made at the Park's
inception for a road to a family cemetary
located at Deals Gap within the Parle limits
A similar bill, S. 963, has been
proposed in the Senate, sponsored by NC
Sen. Terry Sanford and Sens. Sasser and
Gore of TN.
Sen. Jesse Helms has proposed
countering legislation in the Senate that
would cut the amount of land to be put into
wilderness and authorize the road to the
cemewy to be built through the Park.
Congressman Clarice expressed
optimism about the Sanford bill's chances in
the Senate, saying, "I think this is the best
chance we have to get this controversy
behind us. Everybody, even Senator
Helms, feels that the 23 mile. $400 million
road to the cemetary will never pass the
Congress."
(Taylor Barnhill ofthe Western Nonh
Caroli/Ill Alliance says, "Barbara Kirby is
not an environmental ex:perr. She is a school
librarian ar Maiden Elementary School in
Catawba Coulll)', NC. Caldwell Concerned
WINTER 1987-88
�CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
ON THE MRS
Nlllllnll Wmld News S.S-.a
POACHERS CAUGHT;
POACHERS CONVICTED
Acting on an anonymous tip, NC
wildlife officers caught and charged seven
men with bear baiting on Mackey Mountain
near Manon, NC.
The seven appeared in McDowell
County Oistnct Coun on Nov. 9. Four of
the men pleaded guilty to bear baiting,
which is illegal in NC, and were given a
minimum fine of $250, a suspended jail
sentence, and lost all hunting privileges for
two years.
Two others contested the case, but
were also found of guilty of the same
charge. They stated their intent to appeal the
decision.
The remaining case had not come to
!rial by the end of the day.
The poaching !rial was monitored by
the Southern Appalachian Black Bear
Federation, which is initiating an active
program to discourage poaching in Katiiah.
'This is the most flagrant case I've
ever seen. They've been doing it all
summer." Frank Pennell, enforcement
officer for the NC Wildlife Resources
Commission (WRC) in McDowell County
told the Charlotte Observer.
Responding to the tip, wildlife
officers investigated the baiting site, which
was just outside the boundary of the
Mackey Creek Bear Sanctuary. The officers
found enough snack cakes at the site to fill
two bushel baskets. Cellophane wrappers
from hundreds of other snack products
littered the ground around the area. The bait
was placed by the poachers to lure the bears
off the protected sanctuary lands, so they
could set dogs on their trail and run them in
unprotected parts of the Pisgah National
Forest. When the bears would finally be
shot, they would miles from the
incriminating bait site.
The actions of poachers threaten the
stability of the black bear population in the
Southern Appalachians. Poached kills go
uncounted in bear population management
statistics, and poaching from the state bear
sanctuaries violates areas that are set aside to
provide females a safe breeding ground for
a core population to maintain the numbers of
black bears in the mountains.
Defend the bean! Write to:
Ass'L District Attorney Sandra Pugh
P.O. Box 2143
Marion, NC 28752
Tell her that you arc watehing the bear
poachers' appeal case and that you care
about the outcome.
If any signs of other poaching activity
are seen, one may call the WRC "Wildlife
Watch" number, 1·800-662-7137, to repon
known or suspected violations.
Confidentiality is assured.
It is dangerous to personally intervene
with poachers and far safer to call wildlife
enforcement officers.
Compiled 111 patt from o uport ur tlw CharlOlu
Qbrmz,
The US House of Representatives
and the US Senate are on a collision course
on crucial high-level radioactive waste
legislation.
ln the House. a move toward a
momrorium and independent review of the
nuclear waste management program is being
led by Rep. Morris Udall (D-Utah) and
Rep. Jamie Clark of the NC Ninth District.
The vehicle is HB 2967 which would
institute a study commission to review the
actions of the US Department of Energy
(DOE) and halt any funher site selection
work for the two planned high-level nuclear
waste dumps and the MRS (Monitored
Retrievable Storage). which the DOE would
like to site in Oak Ridge, TN.
Senator Bennett Johnston (D-LA) is
pushing Senate Bill 1668 (the
Johnston-McOure bill) that would authorize
an MRS. The MRS would store 80-90% of
the nation's high-level nuclear waste.
If Johnston were to succeed in his
efforts, Karuah would not only be
threatened by the MRS, but would be one
giant step closer to receiving the second
high-level nuclear waste dump in the Ellc
River geological formation, just outside of
Asheville, NC.
Congressman Jamie Clar.Ice; US
House of Representatives; Washington, DC
20515 deserves thanks for sponsoring HB
2967, and NC Senat0rs Sanford and Helms;
US Senate Office Building; Washington,
DC 20510 need to hear from people in the
region who do not want the MRS and 1hc
high-level waste dump.
fA
PAC AGAINST THE
COMPACT
••
Nlllnl World News Service
The NC Political Action Committee to
Dump the Compact has been formed to elect
legislators to the NC Senate and General
Assembly that will withdraw the state from
the Southeast Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Compact, which plans to dump 32 million
cubic feet of radioactive waste in the state
over a 20 year period begiMing in 1992.
The group is planning to mount a strong
campaign around the state's May 3 primary
and November 8 election in 1988.
Contact the organization at:
P.O. Box 26071
Raleigh, NC 27611
FOREST SERVICE PLAN
UNDER APPEAL - AGAIN!
NllUnl World News Service
The Western North Carolina Alliance
(WNCA) and the NC Chapter of the Sierra
Oub have both entered fonnaJ legal appeals
of the Pisgah-Nantabala 15-Ycar
Management Plan to the Chief of the US
Forest Servicein Washington.
The WNCA is filing on the basis of
several violations of the Forest Management
Act of 1976. The act requires that forest
management be done on a site-specific
basis, that management promote biological
diversity in the National Forests, and that
multiple-use management (which includes
water, wildlife, and recreational needs as
well as timber harvesting) be practiced.
The WNCA in its suit says that the
Forest Service is not considering
management practices based on conditions
at individual sites, but rather is making
blanlcct prescriptions for clearcuning in all
pans of the forest. They cite the Forest
Service for managing the forest to promote a
few selected varieties of trees, rather than
promoting the wide diversity of trees found
naturally in the Appalachian hardwood
forest.
The suit goes on to say that the
widespread practice of clearcutting destroys
protective cover, old denning trees needed
by many mammal species, and
mast-producing trees necessary for many
species' survival.
The WNCA favors uneven-aged
timber management by means of selective
cutting.
The WNCA suit also protested the
extensive use of prescribed burning by the
Forest Service, calling the practice
"excessive and environmentally damaging."
The suit mentioned in particular the
controlled bum that was triggered by
dropping napalm in the Mica City Creek
watershed.
Both the Sierra Club and WNCA
suits called the Forest Service to task for
making many below-<:<>st timber sales.
saying that the agency did not, in the words
of the USDA, "accept a considerably greater
burden of proving that a below-cost timber
program is necessary."
The Sierra Oub lawsuit also charged
the ForcSt Service with projecting excessive
road building into the 15 year plan.
• continued on next page
WINTER 1987-88
KATUAH-page 21
�- continued from page 21
RECYCLING CENTER OPENS
AT ASHEVILLE LANDFILL
Nannl World News Scrviee
DUKE POWER MOVING IN
ON THE MOUNTAI~S
N-1 World News Scsv..,..
Duke Power Company is planning to
scour and nood 1,200 acres on Coley Creek
in 1hc heart of the Jocasscc wa1ershed 10
build a reservoir for a pumped s1oragc
hydroelectric project
The watershed is in the sou1hcrn
reaches of Transylvania Coun1y, NC, jus1
above the South Carolina st111c line. The
Horscpas1urc River, which was rccen1ly
inducted in10 1he National Wild and Scenic
River System, and the Whuewater,
1 hompson, and Toxaway rivers now
through the area.
The Jocassce Watershed is currently
undeveloped and unspoiled. The
well-known Foothills Trail crosses I.he area,
and it is home to the endangered Oconee
Bells flower and several types of rare fems
that grow on I.he north-facing sides of some
of I.he many waterfalls in lhe drainage. Two
colonies of lhe green salamander, rare in
this re~ion, live on Coley Creek. But the
high nunfall and abrupt chan~cs in elevation
that malcc this a unique area m the East also
make ii a prime area for hydroclectrical
development
Duke Power has submit1ed a draf1
application 10 I.he Federal Energy Regulation
Commission fora 2,100 mcgawan pumped
s1orage facility that will cost $3.3 billion to
construct. Plans call for a dam to flood the
main valley and two or three side valleys
and coal-fired electric plan1s that will
produce energy 10 pump water back uphill
during slack pcnods. A new road is
proposed from NC Route 281 10 the cast
side of Thompson Ridge - a 1,000 foot drop
over nine miles - to transpon heavy
equipment to the Coley Creek sile and to
maintain the project.
The Jocassec Wa1ershed Coalition
(JWC) has been formed to oppose the
flooding of Coley Creek and to press for
inclusion of the Whitewater, Thompson,
and Toxaway rivers in the federal Wild and
Scenic Rivers System. The JWC is
comprised of citizens' groups,
cnvironmcn1al groups. and individual
landowners and hunters tha1 use the
watershed. They arc being aided by the
Sou1h Carolina Wa1er Resources
Commission, which, fearing damage to
tr0u1 fishing waters, is urging protection of
I.he rivers in I.hat state.
'lhis is going 10 be a mon:: difficult
taSlc than saving the llorscpastun::," said Bill
Thomas, co-chair of the JWC, "because
Duke Power has owned the land since the
1960's."
The JWC is suggesting to Duke
Power I.hat providing incentives for energy
conscrvarion 10 reduce overall electrical
consumption would be a cheaper alternative
that would possibly obviate the need for I.he
Coley Creek dam.
Utility companies, par1icularly in
New England and the Pacific Northwest
have been using this option to avoid
installing nuclear power plants or other
unsightly and polluting electrical generating
facilities. Research has shown I.hat it is twO
to four times cheaper to invest in energy
conservation in preference to energy
generation.
At a meeting with Duke Power, JWC
representatives proposed tha1 1he company
hire a consullant 10 do preliminary research
into the possibility of invesung in energy
efficiency as a possible option. The
company refused.
"It seemed like a prcuy good idea to
us," said Thomas. "parucutarly since a
consultant would only cost $30,000 as
compared to the $3.3 billion budget for I.he
Coley Creek project."
The JWC 1s requesting that Katiiah
residents wrire to:
Tommy Rhodes
NC Depanment of Natural Resources
and Community Development
P.O. Box 27687
Raleigh, NC 2761 I
to ask that I.he 1hree rivers of 1he Jocassce
Wa1crshed be placed immediately under
state prorection.
To contact the Jocassec Watershed
Coalition, wricc:
Gil Leebrick
c/o Highlands Biological S1ation
P.O. Drawer 580
Highlands, NC 28741
Duke Power is also deepening its
involvement in the mountain region be
buying out the Nan1ahata Power and Ligh1
Co., which provides electricity 10 1he five
wcstcm-mos1 coun1ics of NC.
Veronica Nicholas, a county
commissioner of Jackson Coun1y. NC and
tong-time activist in citizen struggles with
Nantahala, calls this process "changing
masterS."
She observes, "By adding
Nantahala's area and resources and
developing the pump storage facility in
Transylvania County, Duke Power is a-ying
to create an in1cgrated generating system. I
think they're loolcing to a time when they
won't be able to rely on nuclur power."
The Buncombe County Board of
Commissioners, with the support of Quali1y
Forward, has opened a recycling cen1er at
the Asheville landfill, located seven miles
north of Asheville on Highway 251. Clear
glass, colored glass (brown and green
separated), newspaper. corruga1ed
cardboard, and aluminum cans may be
recycled. The cenlcr is open during regular
landfill hours: 8:00 am-4:30 pm,
Monday-Friday and 8:00 am- I :00 pm on
Saturdays.
The usual landfill tipping fee of Sl.25
is waived ror up 10 10 bags of garbage for
!hose who bring four bags of recyclables.
II has been estima1 that up 10
ed
one-lhird of all solid waste can be recycled.
Recycling to this cxtcn1 in Buncombe
Coun1y would depend on other recycling
1echniqucs as well as 1hc recycling area at
the landfill. Curbside pick-up, on-si1c
separation, and small, local commercial
recycling businesses would all make
recycling more convenient and profitable.
The remaining two-thirds of the
genera1ed waste could be composted, 1umcd
into fuel pellets, or compacted and
landfilled. All lhesc methods arc currently in
use elsewhere.
The Asheville landfill recycling center
is a response on the pan of citizens to the
idea of mass-bum incineration, which is one
waste-disposal technology under
consideration by the Buncombe County
Commissioners.
The major advocates of incinera1ion
arc mega-industries trying 10 comer 1he
SIOO billion spem annually in I.his country
on waste disposal.
Incinerators arc the most expensive
solid was1e management technology a
community can choose. They arc expensive
to opera1c, involving massive inputs of
non-renewable fuels, and repairs have
proven 10 be devastatingly expensive.
There are also major heahh and
environmental problems involved in
incineration. Fine particles of lead,
cadmium, mercury, manganese, antimony,
tin, and other heavy mc1als arc released in
the incinerator smoke. Dioxin, the mos1
highly carcinogenic of the synthc1ic
hydrocarbons. has been identified in
significan1 amounlS in incinera1or gases and
ash. The ash i1sclf is slated to soon be
designated a hazardous waste by the US
Envtr0nmcntal Protection Agency.
Although a small s1cp, the recycling
center at the Asheville landfill is a start
toward bet1er waste managcmen1 practices
and deserves resident use and support./
WINTER 1987-88
�A
CHILDREN'S
PAGE
Underground House - Abigail Bird, Madison County, NC
Under Water House
Sarah Reany
Floyd County, VA
I would have a big house under the
ocean and you got there by going through a
door in a house on an island. My house
would be shaped like a big mushroom. I'd
have a big window on lhe top or lhe ocean
to get sun power. And I'd have a fire at the
bottom or my house and a boot and I'd have
a bumblebee for flying away. I'd have a big
flower so the bumblebee can drink.
j
J
(
11..i
Mn
1 .:
.....
h" (; .m ifJ
v
f 11t 1.1t1 ~
,t
u1~t -t11e
9n"vtn../.
ti! ..>.
t.l.."l'OU..9"'
Ofltr( 5LiJQ
-
....
flJ1Jl. lC
j()(:;.o h 1..s B
td
__ _
Underground House - Michael Flowers, Madison County, N /
WI NTER 1987.:88
KATIJAH ·page 23
�Dear Friends •
DRUMMING
LETIERS TO KATUAH
Ko.lWth 1s still a\ good as alway\, but I do agree it
Y.ould be a i;ood idea to keep the old format. I'd hate for
~omc folk~ to i;et left out becau~e the price Y.Cnt up. Ju\t
some or the feedback I've also heard from some people who
enjoy looking forward to the ne:itt issue. Keep up the good!
Tara Cla)1on
Rougcmc:nt. :\C
.....Thanks for a great fall issue. In response to your
question: I'd rnthcr sec )oU mainl3in the ine:\pcnsive,
rccycleablc newl>print. Keep up the good Y.Ork.
Jeanene (Cabanis}
Cashiers. t\C
Dear Friends •
Let me tcU you what I feel is important in my life:
I stan a fire by spinning a wooden spindle. In doing
this, r re-enact a ritual that transcends the bounds of time.
Smoke curls from powdery, hot, black dust, and I am
re-establishing my link with nature through an act of
primitive humanity.
I skin the gift deer with a stone knife I made, and
butcher this friend who has given life for continuation of life.
Eating this sacred food cooked on my fire, I realize that the
deer is inside me and becomes pan of me, and I become pan
of 11. I wear clothes made from this deer's skin, and. as I
move, the deer moves with me. We arc one.
1 bathe in the stream, and the life blood of the Mother
Eanh cleanses me, and again I sec the connecting link
between my being and all of the universe.
By panicipating in a primitive life, in immediate
contact with the natural (real) world, I find comfoning,
meaningful relationships with all of my relatives in this
universe. I have lived outside for over eight years, nunurcd
by this primitive exi~tencc. During thi!> apprenticeship with
nature, a chief activity has been the use of natural materials
for appropriate "Earth Skills" technologies to make a lhing,
following techniques that natives have used in this area for
over 12,000 years.
I feel I have learned something valuable. and I want to
share it. I have found how useful "Eanh Skills" arc in
connecting humans and nature and stimulating spiritual
insight, :ind I te.ich these methods to others.
"Earth Skills" are life suppon activiucs through which
people involve themselves in nature, primiuvc technologies,
and primitive thinking processes.
In the barren realities of modem American life and
thought, "Eanh Skills" arc an avenue to understanding
another way of perceiving the world and developing a
foundation for spuituality based upon interaction with the
natural world.
On the surface, making a bucket of tree bark seems
practical only because it provides a wild woods container.
But in our day and culture, the experiment has a much more
valuable benefit: we gain a very strong perception and
understanding of a connecting linlc with the foreSt and with
the primitive skills that our ancestors depended upon. By
experiencing the physical connection, we arc opened to
appreciate the spiritual value of the event.
Leaming "Eanh Skills" relates an individual with the
na11ual world to produce a craft or ~riml!nr that brings a
person to the awareness of the connectedness of all things,
humans included.
•Earth Skills" lessons arc inherently spiritual. I never
need to mcnuon the word "spirituality" or to scare
conscrv:mves with phrases like "change m world view." The
latent revelations, connections. and meaningful guides need
never be anicul:ued. They just happen.
"Ennh Skills" give a strong, practical foundation for
under.;tanding spiritual realities by sharing Y.ilh the spirits of
the wild places.
Eustace Conway
602 Deerwood Drive
Gastonia, NC 28084
KATUAU ·page 24
Durable magazine format vs less durable newspaper
format · I'll opt for qunlity in either presentation. One awaits
Katuah eagerly each season because of hannonious weavings
of philosophy, issues facing our Mother Eanh, teachings to
share, verse to stimulate ponderance, etc. For me the present
format works!... ..
Bern Grey Owl
Raleigh, NC
I'm making a prayer
I'm gathering the kindling
I'm making a prayer
I'm clearing the way
I'm making a prayer
I'm striking the flint
I'm making a prayer
Lhat will illuminate
that will warm
or cedar and oak
Of maple and pine
Of coming Logether
I'm making a prayer
because iL is time
• Colleen Redman
Dear Editors:
We have high praise for the Fall 1987 K1IiiA!L and its
excellent anicles on the black bears of Southern Appalachia.
No bear species anywhere on Eanh can survive without local
and regional suppon, and that suppon depends primarily on
what people know about bears and their needs. Your issue
on the bears of the Kau.iah Province is a landmark step
toward meaningful protection of bears and their habitat in
your region. As planet Earth becomes less inhabitable as a
result of traRically misplaced national and international
priorities, the b:mle to keep p3tlS of Earth, habitable for wild
bears will help prcscIVC the health · and life - of the planet as
a whole. Keep up the fine work, because we arc all in this
together.
Sincerely,
Lance Olsen
President, The Great Bear Foundation
Missoula, MT
W1NTER 1987-88
\!
�Dear Editor -
While on a hurried
VJSll
Alar. your l.J.NJfturtd !M.
At tlir" bthtst )IOll btc~ my ad\/Usary
BtctJJ<U )'Oii .,.f:rt blood brotJo.u IO myfo~r llibc
I Ww -,Ollr tlto1111w GS )'Oii p11rswd IM,
I could 110t li111u to std 110rvislrmt111.
011 ONl on. yo11 pllTswd IM.
Soon I 1rtw wtak, nut to tartlt.
Ytt wht11 -,011 slew this body. I did llOI dit.
My soul tlldiutrlt.
to the new
library at Appalachian Suue this past week, I
chanced to see the notice of the upcoming
symposium on the black bear in Nonh
Carolina. It occurred to me that you might
find the enclosed poem, "Nemesis,"
appropriate at this time.
You will recall that Wilburn Waters
was noted as the famous hunter and hermit
in the White Top section of Nonh Carolina.
He was credited (?) with killing 108 bears
as well as many wolves and other animals. J
became interested in his story when I
learned he was my great-grent-grc:11-uncle.
Rev. M.D. Han raised the funds and built
the monument with the imposing black benr
on top. I visited the graveyard where it
srnnds this past summer, and it is still
standing in good condition and has numbers
of visitors each year. It is located near
Lansing, near Tuckerdale.
The symbol at the bottom right of the
poem is the Cheroke word for Yo-nu, the
bear.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ruth Trimble
'----------------~-~"""' E11t11tually )'Oii too. my bro/her. wtrtftlltd
by rht inaor~ 1umd of mortality.
NEMESIS
Once./ was as you wert. A m1Jn tal/ and proud.
Ordained by the GreaJ Spirit 10 toll OJld :t'*'l!al
so 1ha1 I mightfted upon 1/itfruits of my labor.
In thtfv.l/nessoftlme I beCDml! ll'l!Oritd
by tht constant struggle 10 sustain lift.
Encwnbtrtd by fau.• I langtd 10 be
lilt:t tht Btar • frtt to roam DI will.
gathtring the berrits and mast.
I grnv faint with my disconttnl .
Tht GrtaJ SpiriI ltntw my OJlguish.
Maniftstiltg I /is arcant power I It
gra111td my heart's dt.wc
OJld cJiangtd mt into Btar,
c/ollting me in long si/Jcen hair.
I was Yonu, mighliesl of tht crcaturts.
None challengtd my right 10 bt
Yo11 lit tnto!nMd high on this /ouly kMll.
Mtnftlt ltd to trtet an effigy of me· froztn
ill rime • ovtr your grave 10 show rtsptct for
your prowess. They tOd /IOI perceive thtir efforts
wert dirtcrtd by tht Great Spirit and nor of
thtm.ttlvts.
I. too. ha11t rtsptctfor -you, mybrothtr. but
I SIOJld htrt not to honor you.
Rathtr. I stOJld guard 10 OJlChor your spirit
firmly ill rhe tarth until Yonu rerurns
unw his own 111 rht secret dtpdis and NXlows.
Ohly thtn w1/l I relinquish my vigil so thal
your spirit may ristfrom its fc11us and
soar .,.;,h """'
111 the etastlw harmony of rhe Uniwrse.
Ulllil )'OIL
We reprint two ofthe pomufrom the Drumming section of last Issue. A typographical error
changed the meaning ofone, and two verses ~e inadven0t1ly lef1 ow ofthe other. Our apologies
to the poers and to our readers. Ajirs1 rule of survival in any region is to stay on 1he good side of
your IDcal poetS!
The Lessons of the Hunt
Persimmon seed, I am•...
let me glisten in the sunlight
to paint you colours,
gold, bronze, amber forever.
let me be free 10 grow
to bear....
to w3tch my young sway,
to grow, to bear.
let me not lay
on the cold, damp ground
trample me not
for the Earth is my food
and the sunlight my wonderment
Persimmon seed, I am ....
betraying no man.
- Bun Grey 01111
Wouldst learn the lessons of the Hunt
From those who know them best?
Then one must go to marsh or wood
Where hunters seek their prey.
"Patience" says the stately Heron
As it stands in the shallows,
Waiting for a fish or a frog
To obligingly swim by.
"Concentration" says the Heron
As, one slowly moving foot at a time,
It stalks
A shining minnow.
"Patience" says the tiny Jumping Spider
As it dans along a vine,
Its huge front eyes alert
For an insect's telltale twitch.
"Concentration" says the Jumping Spider
As, forelegs el(tendcd,
It takes aim
At a foolish fly.
''Patience" says the coiled Rattlesnake
As it lies beside a log,
Waiting for an unsuspecting mouse
To follow its accustomed path.
"Concentration" says the Rattlesnake
As the mouse scampers closer,
For there can be
But a single strike.
"I see and understand," say I
"And thank you for your gifts.
Now I can tre3d the inner paths
To seek my own prey, Truth."
© Douglas A. Rossman
WINTER 1987-81!
KATUAH · page 25
�An Appeal
At the turning of this new year, we
would like to express to you some thoughts
and feelings about the Katuah journal at this
point in its existence.
We have been gratified at the
expressions of love and support that have
come in from readers and friends from all
over. Our primary goal is to have KatUah be
read and used. We see the journal as a way
for each of us in the region to share our
learning experiences, as we all try to find a
balanced, harmonious way of living in these
mountains. This element of sharing is very
important in the ongoing process of us
growing together and growing into the land.
Katuah is produced as a collective effort
of folks from around the region. ( Most of us
live several hours apart from each other.)
While some of the original members have been
continuously involved, the editorial circle
still opens and reforms after each issue of
the journal. Doing Katuah is a demanding task
that requires a lot of time and offers little
material recompense (but, oh, such rewards to
the spirit!).
Most Katuah jobs are volunteer (though a
few arduous tasks like bookkeeping are
compensated). Katuah does offer expense
money like gas and telephone calls, but simply
getting to the various meetings and to layout
is a big demand on people who are working for
a living. This is taking its toll on the editorial
collective.
We would like to be able to maintain the
journal at the standard it has come to reflect
in the course of the last few years. By
breaking the job list up into smaller pieces,
we could make it easier for everybody, while
bringing more variety and excitement to the
pages of the journal.
Opportunities are available to
participate in the Katuah adventure. With
added input, the journal could not only
continue to exist in its present form, it could
expand its functions in any direction the
participants wish to take it.
Besides help with actual production and
lay-out, Katuah also needs writers and
artists (and, of course, cartoonists!) to
work with the journal or to submit material
relevant to the region. The more submissions
there are, the more variety and interest in the
pages of Katuah. Even if submissions are not
about the selected theme for an issue, they
could fonn the nucleus for a future issue of
the journal.
Also needed are:
- An advertising manager. who could bring in
needed revenues for the journal, but also help Katuah
consciously encourage a regional marketplace by
spotlighting biorcgionally beneficial business
enterprises.
- A "Webworking" editor, who could work to
encouraie trade and barter between people, help oottage
industries to develop, as well as ftnd interesting and
creative additions to mnlce a Lively individuals' ad
section.
- A distribution manager, who could help get
Ka11iah out onto new store shelves and magazine racks
and help keep up the network of community contact
people.
- Additions to the poetry committee that evaluates
submissions and guides them into the pages of the
joumiJ.
- There is also a niche for a person or a committee to
keep track of the Katfiah T-shirt sales and offer
books, tools, stickers and other bioregional
pamphemalia through the mail order system.
- A calendar editor, who could compile a definitive
events Iii.ting and perhaps transfo"" the "Calendar"
section into a sun-moon-forest-garden-people almanac,
creatively showing the upcoming cycles for each season.
- Someone to be Natural World News editor, one
of the vital sections of the JOumal. At present it is a
patchwork of material picked up as we go along. This
section needs an on-going editor to stabilize news
presemations. keep in touch with contacts, add depth and
continuity to our coverage, and become kno""n as a
regional news conduit.
This is a position that could become an important one
for shaping news coverage 1hroughout the region. We
have ulkcd often about expanding NU/Ural World News
beyond the p3ges of the journal, but it would lllkc a
person or a group with vision and commitment to
actually make ~mething happen in this area.
�1"tNttR. TRAVEL tNG
"R.OUNDAJJOUT ~'JUA1l "
It has also been a fond hope that Katuah
could develop interest groups 1n areas of
importance for b1oreg1onal life. People
sharing a common interest 1n certain broad
areas could meet independently, at first to
see that their area of interest gets adequate
and incisive coverage m the Journal, but
developing into regional "think tanks" to
develop and deepen bioregional thought on
their chosen topics and perhaps to publish
independently of the journal. Forestry and
Wildlife, Water, Energy, Agriculture and
Regional Diet, Healing, Education and
Personal Growth, Sustainable
Economics, Shelter, Bioregional Theory,
and Spirituality are topics that have
already been suggested, but any aspect of the
new Appalachian culture could be treated in
this way.
Thinking bioregionally opens up new worlds
to our mind's eye and our heart's touch. It's a
participatory experience. If you think KatUah
as a journal or as an idea is a useful form
that helps you relate to life in the the Blue
Ridge Province, help us help it to grow. If you
can see your way to doing it, jump in. Share
the excitement of a group venture, and join us
as we seek to better understand the
mysteries of this place.
Blessings upon you at the turning of the
year's wheel.
- The Kstush sta"/
11as wt.nter t wifl he traveling tlirou9l1
Xatunli to botli broarfen anc! aeepen tf1e
biore9ionnf network tl1ougliout the province. t
wi([ travel as extensi.vely as time and
rcsotuces permt.t. 1he purpose of the trip is to
hudd up tfie Xatuah
cli.stributwn/local
contact people network. and to strengthen tire
two - way communication between the
journal cma the communities of the reljion.
tf you woul'cl like me as a representative
of Xatuali to visit your area, q you woul'cl
like to arrange a m eeting (!ar9e or small,
pubUc or private) to talk about our region, if
you can offer a floor to s~p on as t 'm
passing through, please write and let me
know, so we can taa. specifically about the
trip 's timing and schduling.
We can tf,o mutings or discussion 9roups
about b!acft, bears, nukes, !and use plans, or
any of the sugtjeSud "special interest areas ".
We could hole! beljinnf.ng semf.nars on the
meantn9 of the wore£ "biorel]f.on " and our
own unique area. IVe could tell stories about
clra9ons and the Uttk people. IVe could p!alJ
drums. IVe coulc! tf,o sweat Coclljes. IVe could
mut wi.th school 9roups or 9arc!en. clubs. IVe
can tf,o whatever is rUj/Jt for SJOUr weak.
Tfsi.nlt- about bei.ng a Xatuab contact
person for your area. 1he contact system is
tlie basic frameworF., of the XotUoh networft-.
IVe would Uke to 9et more local news, local
i.nterviews, local pi.ctures, stories, and
opi.nLons from around the regf.on. Let me
know, and we'{! get totjether to talk about U.
Hope to hear from you.
1hese are excULng times to Uve in. Let's
maft-e the most of them/
.Jlfl"'
c Io
-Davie! Whakr
X.aUiah BLorUJional Journal
Box ~8
Lei.cester, NC 28748
KATIJAH • page 27
�9004 nuttc£ne
continutd from pace 18
A Mountain Home
conunucd from page 8
As well as being above 1hc valleys,
the asi's were always si1ua1cd on 1he
wanner south- or west-facing slopes of the
nearby hills. When the weather got cold,
wc1, and nasty, the villagers would retreat
up the hillsid~ 10 spend the winter snug and
dry in their asi 's.
The opening into the asi was so low
that one had 10 crawl on hands and knees 10
enter. There was a wooden wall inside the
doorway Lo cul off Lhc wind. so one entered
by crawling in and turning to the right. The
wooden partition cut off most of the light,
too, so a bright fire of pine knots was kept
burning inside to provide light while the asi
was inhabited. Sometimes there would be a
smokehole, sometimes the smoke would
drift out the door. From time to time the
people of the family would smoke their asi
thoroughly with fragrant cedar or hemlock
to ex1ermina1c insects and vermin.
It must be remembered that the asi
was intended only for a sheller and not as a
living space. On nice, sunny days, even in
winter, the family would work in the
sunlight out of the wind in the warm,
protceted area in from of the asi. The men
might be carving or making arrowheads,
and the women would weave mats for the
walls of the summer houses.
Weaving the walls for your house
each year would seem like a long, tedious
job to people today, but the lndians would
sit together and talk while they worked,
sharing ideas and gossip. It was
communication; it was a social event, and if
one was raised knowing that the mats for
the walls of the summer house had to be
made each year, then it was just one of the
realities of living and was not seen as a
burden.
The asi also offered a place safe from
the spnng floods that came down the river
each year. The people could s11 on the
hillsides and watch the river sweep away
everything on the old village site except the
townhouse, which remained safe above the
waters on its raised mound.
When the weather warmed and 1he
waters subsided, the people returned to the
bottoms and built their summer dwellings
oriented around the townhouse.
The floods also deposited 11 layer of
fertile silt over the planting fields, so when
the houses were reconstructed, the people
set out seed for new gardens for the new
growing season. It seems like an easy and
practical way to live.
bencr utilize local resources for energy
production for our shelter. As we implement
appropri3te ways of living, we become
continually more aware of the spiri tual
nature of shelter.
The soil is the flesh, the water is the
blood, the rock is the bone, and the wood
is the sinew. For a person to experience the
energy of his/her daily lire within and
without IS II gifL
Greg Olson tksigns passive solar and
energy-efficient homes and teaches courses
in the E11viro11mental Swdies Program at rile
U11iversity of North Carolina at Aslrevi/le
His course "Environment, Design , and
Solar E11ergy" is offered every fall semester
and focuses on tlie use of alternate energy
systt!TTIS i11 building design. Write Greg at
211 Stoney Knob Rd.; Weaverville, NC
28787 or call (704) 658.()834.
MEMBRANE HOUSES
continued from page 13
Here are some specific LCChniqucs for creating
thcJc: pod-Idec houses 111 KatU3h:
•Build ribs or metal or plastic 1ub1ng on a
saonc or c:cment foundnlion. Sttttch wire mesh over
I.his frame and, by band, fcrroccmcnt lhe shell in a
numbet or I.ayers leaving openings and shuL-offs.
Pigments can be added 10 cement mix1urcs along
wilh ol.hcr mnrkings put on the membrane for a
mote involved blending with the land. It can take
around 28 days for a sl3lldatd cunng or cement in
Lhis process yCI there is a method of 7 d3y mois1urc
0
cur111g.
A Bourn of Buds
With an eye to woe and one to wonder,
I regard late January daffodils just
budding from the bare warm ground beside
my tilting woodshed, a way too early
to convey the full flame to the greentime.
Near them I stand, a little tilted myself,
feeling in the dawn sun some lightened sadness.
- Michael Hockaday
•con)truc1 fiberglass (or even cardbo3td)
molds, with horiwnaal scnms for casting purposes,
1111d blow a dry miiuurc or sprayed cement cnllcd
gunnne at high prCiSUrc onto the mold and
connccuvc mesh. The mixture as dry enough IO
suck 10 ceilings and can be shaped soon aftcr
spraying. Adv111113gc) to this method arc lh31 a mold
can be reused, and the curing umc for gunnue i•
only about 3 dnys.
•Malec a frame in which to inOa1e a I.hick
l»lloon lh3I can then be covered with wire mesh and
fcnoccmcntcd on the out:;adc. Also. in a m11Ch more
m1t1caie process. steel fibers can be added 10 the
concl"CIC mix - as a strenglhcncr • and sprayed al
high PfC.\'iUl'C ona.o a I.ayer of 11\lulation from the
inside of a I.hick balloon. The 51CCI fibers being put
in the mix itself arc a replacement for the ribbing
and meshmg of fcnoccmenL Air pressure can be
wed as a 1113in suppon during lhe spraying process.
•A grcnL mnny combinations of lhC$e
LCChniqucs can be used. along with canh henning
and adding on IO exilUng suucaurcs.
Rob Messick is a graplric artist and an
avid student of synergetics and whole
systems. flis work with mandalas,
m£mbranes and other organic forms portray
a wide spectrum of enviro~nts from tire
macrocosm 10 tire microCQsm.
sraphic by ChriotJna Mormon
KATUAH- page 28
wrNTER 1987-88
�Green
B..gcr Kin&)
Boont,,C
(704) l64·5866
• • • • • • • • • • • •
K"'-"r'UAfi
l\oa-\E
[) £.SIGl"I
~,p;::
-c t.•J ;::,,;\•'t'R.M~~.i,,·_
1~£!..:...~rJ ·4-)E..? ~, ,\t_·, 11..f: h
.. ;..:...- l:.
->
\
,- ..,. '~ .. , •"v:--~.
( 1:.l~ 1
:~ :-. .
~a .. _,
·=----
Green Line, lhe newsletter of the
Western North Carolina Greens, has just
published its second issue! Conceived as a
project in solurion-~riented, ecology·~as~
journalism. Green Line began pubhcauon 1n
Occober, with a well-received four-page
issue.
"Respect for diversity" is one of the
ten key values of the US Greens, and the
current issue, now eight pages, has further
expanded its already . diverse mix~ure of
local, regional, and n:monal news to include
political cartoons and essays that aucmpt to
penemue beneath the surface of the issues to
the core beliefs, values, and elhics of Green
philosophy.
"Decentralization" is another key
Green value, so the content of future issues
of Green line is very open to our readers'
contributions. Karzlali's readers are
welcome to submit reports, essays, poems,
graphics, or anything else that fires the
imagination.
Charter subscriptions are available
for $5.
The Gretn Une
WNC Greens
P.O. Box 144
Asheville, NC 28802
noon• llrli:his
Shopplna C•nl<r
(h.:hind
. "
. e Now " On Lme
L10
... ....) ... ' t.ii•\J
...4:;.. • ~ ~ (iL
7 ..:: .....-...., ",.. t"~4 o 1L
(70~)
Chinese
Acupuncture
and
Herbology
Clinic
Natural Food Store
& Deli
160 BroadWay
Ashevllle, NC 28801
253-5383
Where Bro.c!wri meets
Merrlmon Ave & 1-2.0
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday·Saturday· 9am·8pm
Sunday 1pm·Spm
<1>$5'.ffl~~cn WJ~
ll'JlD'.K§@
©~~
!l
The Elk River Coalition asks people
throughout the mountains to tum off all
electric lights in their homes and place a
candle in the front window from 7:30-8:00
pm on Sunday, December 6 as part of the
Sunday Nuclear Boycott (SNuB).
.
Boycotting nucle3;1"·ge~erated elec~
city for that shon penod 1s a symboltc
protest of the federal government's nuclear
waste policy and its implications for the
mountain region and all of the natural
world.
For further information, contact:
The Elk River Coalition
c/o Madison County
En vironmental Defense League
Mars Hill, NC 28754
J im Wayne Miller
LITERARY FESTIVAL
Emory & Henry College
February 4-5, 1988
More info: John Lang, English Dept, Emory &.
Henry College, Emory. VA 24327
Rt One With lbe Earth is a 1ounng
collection of Native American art on cxhib11 al Ille
Museum of lhc Cherokee Indian now through Dec.
14, 1987. Located Highway 441 N al Drama Rood.
Cherokee. NC. Open daily 9am-Spm. (704)
497-3481.
(704) 683-1414
68:M795
342 Merrimon Avenue Asheville, NC
{704) 258-9016
(704) 253-7656
'J\i(lee, 'lt~f 'Na~r~
BOBCAT
T-SHIRT
SHORT SLEEVE T: $10.00 ppd
Colors: Ecru, White, Sliver.
Sufoam (II. grHn) THI
LONG SLEEVE T: $14.00 ppd.
(lnclut»1 P•w Print on SIHv•)
ColOl'I: Ecru, Sliver, Te•I, White
S•tlsf11etlon •~red or ,.tum for full ,.fund.
Ple•u Indicate size, color,
sleeve length, qu•ntity.
........,.
r'I ~
Introducing the BOBCAT
This full color design Is hand-screened on
T-SHIRTS OF 100% PRESHRUNK COTTON
We •l•o
IN AOUL T SIZES S,M,L,XL
h•v• • tine or 1weetshlrt1 •nd
WINTER 1987·88
kids T-Shirts
I -...
=.::::.~.,........
~-
......c... ..
I:."""
.•
,.l.110414t6 a.l
"'-
ccaoca_,,,,.,_u1o111111•---·
'--==~=---1
.
IUUl_.-111
Village Hands
or
llandm:ide Objects Beaut)
rrom :ill O\er the world!
•ptciatWoi: in ile.m~ rrom llotp:il
&Tibtl
Open Dail,> 11:00am-6pm
43 Broadway
Ashcvllle, NC
(704) 252-4336
Located across from Stone Soup
KATUAH - page 29
�vf€BW0Rl51t§
APPROPRIATE PASSIVE SOLAR DESIGN,
blucprinLS and foll working drawings for homes,
shop$, and sheds. Creauvc dnlftina - your idc:is or
ours. Harmony Sunbuildcrs; P.O. Box 194; Sugar
Grove. NC 28697
NC FARMERS can gel 75~ reimbursement for
conservation m11113gement practices from NC Soil
and Water Conservation Comm. Cropland
conversion, tcmices, gm.•>s«I waterways, and other
erosion prevention measures. ConUICt locnl Soil and
Water Conservation District officci..
STARSPAN ASTROLOGICAL PROFILES:
Relationships, lire chart, forccasL~. Charts and
profc«101Ul taped readings also available. P.O. Box
10413; Raleigh, NC 2760S
GUATEMALAN REFUGEE SEED FUND: help
refugees in southern Mexico maintain lhcir culture
and d1i;nity by shirring a variety of •-egct:1blc o;eeds
directly to farmers. Write to: 2292 Grant Si..
Vancou,cr, BC, Can.:id.1 VSL2Z7
EUSTACE CONWAY· Guule and Teacher of
pnmitive Emh Sl1lls with cmphasi~ on fire
building, hide tanning, shelter, and foraging. He
ieachcs at public school~. parks, cnvll'Onmcma.I
centers, and classes of all lands. For mocc
information CODl.1Cl him at: 602 Deerwood Drive,
<i~ 1'Ci280S4 u call Allcm Stanley al (704)
1918 SIMPLE LIFESTYLES CALENDAR •
Photos of "Cnf1SpCOplc or Appabchia" by Wam:n
Brunner and suggcs11ons for simple h"mg for each
day. S6.00 from App:ilachia-Scicncc m lhc Public
lnlCrcSl; RL S, Box 423: LivingslOll, KY 4044S.
All prOCCCds bcnc!il lhc WOf'k or ASPI, a llOll·(llO!il
corpomuon.
ROSE AROMATICS - csscntilll oils have been
healing body, mind, spirit, since ancient Egypl. A
most pleasant therapy! Dabney Rose; Rt. 3. Bo~
286-A; Candler, NC 2871 S
CHEROKEE INDIAN LANGUAGE clnsscs. For
info, write Robcn Bushyhcad; P.O. Bo~ 70S:
Cherokee, NC 2871
ROCKTN' WITH BILLY B • Do lhc DO!lct of I~
Dragonfly or the Roel 'n Roll of PhotoS>nlMsis in
lhe "Music and lhc Natural World" work•hop.
Avnilablc for bookings for schools or local groups,
fan. 29-Feb. 4, 19gg, Great mouvalicin for kids!
Call Ken Voorhis (615) 448-6709.
FUTOl'S by Simple Pleasures • afford:ihly priced.
Send SASE for info ID: Simple Pica.sum;; Rt. I ,
Al TERNATIVE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL· At
Arthur Morg:in School 24 students and 14 staff lcnm
1ogether by living in community. Curriculum
includes crcnl.ivc ocndcmic:s, group dccision-maling,
a work program, scrncc projccis. extensive neld
uips, challenging outdoor experiences. Wri1e: 1901
Hannah Branch Rd.; Burnsville. NC 28714 (704)
675-4262
CUSTOM CELTIC HARPS • A'Colltl Bason:
Tra"ianna Farm: RL 1: Cbcck, VA 240n.
DRUMS • CllSIOID bandaafi.ed ceramic dumbc:cks &.
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe Robcns at (704)
258-1038 or write to: 738 Town Mountain Rd.:
Asheville, NC 28804.
Box 1426; CbylOll, GA 30S2S (~) 782-3920
A\tERICAN l!'.'DIANS of 1/16 blood. any tnbc,
accepted as mcmbcn of the Soulhc:lstcrn Cherokee
Confcdcro<:y. For application, wore: Chief Wilham
"Ratll<:.'>nakC" facl:son: RL I, BOJt 111: Leesburg,
QA 31763
sn-79n
graphic lilt to express and enhance our hvcs. l..ogos,
brochures, boou, porua1ture, window and wall
hangings. ConLict Manlui Tree (704) 7S4-<i097.
ASHEVILLE I BUNCOMBE COUJl<'TY SOLID
WASTE ALTERNATIVES PLANNING
WORKBOOK: A design for handling sohd w:ll>lCS
tn nny urban context. SIS from Long Branch
Env1ronmcn111I Education Center. Rt. 2. Box 132;
Leicester, NC 28748.
BARTERING NETWORK forming. Call Peter al
(704) 926-6250 for 1nformooon.
Am&.· stone.~ from folk uuditions till around the
M. TREE DESIGNS· lllustrauons and Design •
Beyond the p:igcs or lhi~ JQum:il, I work. in pencil,
colored pencil, inl, cul paper, :ind b31.ik. Fine and
AND THE EARTH UVED HAPPILY EVER
world chosen lo help protccl all living beings by
bringing the world society a few steps clo,cr to
pc:icc and respect for all life. Edited by Floating
Eagle Fca1her. S7.00 ppd. (All profiis go to
Greenpeace and the Peace Museum). Order from :
Wages of Peace: 309 Trudeau Dr.; Mellirc, LA
70003
DA YSTAR ASTROLOGICAL SERVICE· natal,
transit, companson chans. Very accurate. Only
S3.00 each. Chris and Will B11.wn: R1. 2, Box 217;
Qie(:k, VA 24072 (703) 6Sl-3492
STIL-LIGHT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTER - • qu1c1 space for personal mcd1uuon,
group interaction through study and communuy
work. 8lld spirit.u.11 semi run. Conlatl Leon Fr.llllr.cl;
RL I, Box 326: Wayncsv1Uc, 1':C 28786
CRAFTSPEOPl.l'i • send pncc l1rungs 10 Ci/t~d
/lands of NC, 331 Bl.lie S1; Raleigh, l"C 27601
(Att'n: Bern Orey Owl) • unique shop prucnling
35-40 crahcrs' works in R.ilc1gh"s C11y M.utcL All
a:lfl~ coosidcrcd.
FLOWER ESSENCES • H.vmony v.alh Na1ure &.
Sp1ri1. Ocnllc cmOOC>llal ~ppon during lrnll~itions,
specific: hsucs, rcla11onship~. Opens
communication~
Sclr·OdJUSling, non · lox1c,
awareness "U>Oh" for 1mprovmg lhc inner quality.
Correspondence 10: F.b1nc Geougc, c/o PDtchwork
Castle, Cclo, 3931 llWY 80 So.• Bum!IY1llc, NC
28714
MASSAGE/BODYWORK THERAPIST 1mcrcsicd
m c~changmg trcatmcnL• for other 1CtYICCS/produc1S.
Call Peter 11 (704) 926-6250.
KATUAll - page 30
MEDITATION CUSHIONS from Carolina
Morning Designs. Traditional and inflatable .c.afus.
For free brochure, write: RL I, Box 31-B: Hot
Spnni;s. NC 28743
(I? GRAFICKS • I u~ lhe media of rcncols,
colored pencils, gouachc, pen and mk, aaJ
pltolognlphy in creating unique !inc and gralicl art.
I can make diagrams, logos, finished pnnLS, and
dc$igns for brochures, calendarJ, Cllrds, books. cte..
Mandalas and symbol> arc my tendency among
other styles. Concact Rob Messick (704) 754-6097.
THE APPALACHIAN HERB NEWSLEIJ'ER:
exploring lhc potcniial for herbs as ca'h crops 1n
Appalachfo. Subscriptions S 12/yr.. Wruc:
Appal3cbjnn Herb Ncwslcucr - ASPI; Rt . S, Box
423; Livingston, KY 4044S
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS herbal salves,
tinctures, & oils for b1nh1ng &. family hc3llh. For
brochure. please wri1e: Moon Dance Fnrm; Rt I,
Box 726; Hampton, TN 37658
SAMADHJ FLOAT TANK for sale. Spcalcers and
pump. Foe back pain, medaation, relaxation.. Sl2.SO
(nc:goci:lble). Call (704) 68'.l-1103.
CAROLINA MTN. MACROBIOTIC CENTER
ortcn natural foods cooking classes, diewy
counselling, cducauonal lccUJn:~ ror a healthier life.
Torn or Debbie Alhos. Call (704) 254-%06.
WEB WORKING l~ free.
Send submissions to:
KaJ.ua.h
P.O. Box 63g
LciCCSICr, NC
Kaliiab Province 28748
WINTER 1987 -88
�Mtdfcfn,.. Alllts
Kil.IiJJJh wants to communlcace your tho11ghcs and feelings to the other people in the
bioregional province. Send chem to us as letters, poems. stories. drawings, or
photographs. Please send your conrribiuions to us at: K1lnJIJ.h,· Box 638; uicester, NC;
Karuah Province 28748.
There has betn a profusion of topics proposed for articles for the spring issue. Send
in ':iJ1W ideas! January 16 is tire submissions deadline/or Issue 19.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE TWO · WINTER t983-84
Yon.ah. Be.- Hunlal Pigeon River . AnOlher
Way Wilh Animals • Alma • Bccomln1
ful I rolor
T-s61rts
ISSUE TEN· WINTER 198.S-86
Kile Rosen • C1tclcs or Stone • lruc.mal
Mylhmakin1 • Holistic He&lm1 on Trial •
Poans: SICYe Knal>lll • M y1hic Pbces • The
Uktena'• Tale • Crysral Maalc •
"Dlelnwpealana"
Politie&lly Effective - Mounlaln Woodllllds
K&lah l.1nder lhc Drill Spiritual Wrnwm
ISSUE THREE· SPRINO 1984
SUJl.wble Asnculnn. sunnowen • Human.
lmpacl on lhe Forui • Childrau' Ed11ea1ion
Veronica Nlo:holu:Woman in Politic. • Ullle
People· Medicine Alliea
ISSUE ELEVEN· SPRINO 1986
Community Planrun1 • Citiu and Iha
BicnaionaJ Vision • Recyelill& • Community
Glldcn&na· Floyd Col.ay. VA · Ouobol •
Two BiorePonaJ VMwl • Nudec Supplemau
Fo11"1tt Oamu. Oood Medicine; Visions
ln the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today arc
only diminuitive 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 Kanati, the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'nati, the raulcsnakc, who
personifies the power of the earth plane; and
Yunwi Usdi, "the littJc man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in irs 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 Karuah have
been depicted in a srriking T-shin design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen
by Ridgerunncr Naturals on top quality,
all-cotton shirts, they arc available now in
nil adult sii.cs from the Kan!:ID 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 txililnce here in the
mountains of Karuah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE FOUR ·SUMMER 1984
Wauz Orum • WIU# ~ • Kudzu • Solw
Eclipse • Cturcuuma • TJ'OUI • Ooin& ., Wala
R11n Pimps • Micl'oll)'dro • Poems: Bennie
Lee Sinclair. Jlm Woync Miller
ISSUE EJGKT - SUMMER 1985
Cclebn11on: A Way or Life· Ka1u.ih 18.000
Yeat11 Ago Sacred S11es • Folk Atu in lhc
Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon C)lolo • Poems:
Hilda Downer Chtrok.ec Hcnlige C.-nu:r •
Who Owns Appalshui?
ISSUE NINE· FALL 1985
The Waldce Foru1 • The Trees Speak •
Migra11.n& Fore.ts • Horse Louin& • Startma a
Tree Crop • Urbln Trea • Acom Bread - Mylh
lune
Address
Enclosed is $
to give
this ejfort 011 extra boost
WINTER 1987-88
Phone Number
ISSUE FIFTEEN • Spring 1987
Coverlets . Woman Forester • Susie McMahan
Midwife
Ah.emaltvo Contraception •
81osuuali1y · Biorcaionalism and Women •
Good Medicine: M.in.tcharial Culan ·fad
...,.......
ISSUE SIXTEEN· Summer 1987
Helen Waite · Poem: Visiona in a Garden •
Vision Qucsl • Fant Plow
lnitiaLion •
Leamin& in lhe Wildcrneu · Cherokee
Ollllcnge • ·va1uin1 Tn:cs·
,~----
ISSUE SEVENTEEN - Fall 19117
Glady • Bear Su.y • M1chad PellOn • Boan
Good Medic-inc: •findina Albcs• • Bcai
Hun1.1n1 • Champion • "8C&I"." Poem • Grecns
"Old Oaluics:" Poem. ·uuering"
Back Issues
Issue #
.@ $2.00 = S_ _
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Complete Set (2-11, 13-17)
@ s20.oo =s__
T-Shins: specify quantity
color tan
s__
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Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Arca Code
Siovcmake(s NanaU..e • Good Med1"1ne:
lnlalpecies Commurucauon
Regular Membership........ SlO/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
State
ISSUE FOURTEEN· Winsa 1986.87
Uoyd Carl Owle · Booaen and Mummas - AU
Spcciu Day • Cabin Fever Univeniry •
Hamel- in Kan.ah • Homemad& Hot Wall:l
ISSUE SEVEN · SPRING 1985
Sustainable Economics • Hot Spnnp • Worker
Ownership • The Creal Economy · Self tlolp
Credit Union . Wild Turkey • Re1ponsible
lnvcstul& • Wcn1Un1 m the Web or Ufe
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 683-1414
City
s,.._
ISSUE SIX • WINTl!R 1984-85
Winsa Sohlicc l!&ttl> Caemony • Hancpun.n
River • Comins or lhe UgJu • Loa c.btn
Rooca • Mounwn Ap;culnne: The Rill>' Crop
• W-llliam TayI«· The FD!ln or lhe l'oml
J(AilJAH: Bjoregional Journal oflhc Southern Appalachians
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kauiah Province 28748
Name
ISSUE THIRTEEN · Pall 1986
Cenler FOT Awahnin& ·Elizabeth Callari· A
Gentle Dealll • Hospice • Eme.1 Morgan •
Dcalin& Crarively wilh Death • Home Bmial:
801 • The Wake • The Raven Mocker •
Woodllorc ud Wild"'OOC!a Wisdom • Good
MDC!iciroo: The
Lod&e
ISSUE FIVE· FAU. 1984
HltVest • Old Waya in Cherokee • Oinscn1 •
Nuclear Wuie • Our Cd11c Hcritaae •
Biore&ianahsm; Pu1, Present. md Fulllre •
John WilllOIY • Hui.in& ~ • Pohta or
Participalion
@ $9.50 each........... .$_ _
TOTAL PRICE=
postage paid
$_ _
KATUAH-page 31
�
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
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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 18, Winter 1987-1988
Description
An account of the resource
The eighteenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on vernacular shelter: log, frame, stone, yurts, earth-shelters, and membrane houses. Authors and artists in this issue include: Sam Gray, Adam Cohen, Greg Olson, Marnie Muller, Scott Bird, Rob Messick, Snow Bear, Rita Sims Quillen, Julia Nunnally Duncan, Michael Hockaday, Rob Messick, Martha Tree, Barbara Kirby, Colleen Redman, Bern Grey Owl, Douglas A. Rossman, David Wheeler, and Christina Morrison. <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
1987-1988
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Protecting the Dreamer: Vernacular Values in Architecture by Sam Gray.......3<br /><br />Dreams in Wood and Stone: Building Your Own Home by Adam Cohen.......5<br /><br />A Mountain Home by Greg Olson.......8<br /><br />Homemade Houses in Katúah: A Photo Feature.......9<br /><br />Listening to Earth Energies by Marni Muller.......10<br /><br />Earth-Sheltered Living by Scott Bird.......11<br /><br />Membrane Houses by Rob Messick.......13<br /><br />The Brush Shelter by Snow Bear.......14<br /><br />Resource List: On Building and Design.......15<br /><br />Solar Composting Toilet.......15<br /><br />October Dusk: Poems by Rita Sims Quillen | Review by Julia Nunnally Duncan.......16<br /><br />Good Medicine: "On Shelter".......7<br /><br />The Future of the Black Bear: Conference Report.......19<br /><br />Natural World News: Caldwell County Incinerator | Smokies Wilderness Bill | Poachers Caught | MRS in Congress | Forest Service Plan Appeal | Duke's Coley Creek Project | Asheville Recycling Center.......20<br /><br />A Children's Page.......23<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24<br /><br />"A Bourn of Buds": A Poem by Michael Hockaday.......7<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Owner-built houses--Appalachian Region, Southern
Dwellings--Energy conservation
Vernacular architecture--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cherokee Indians--Dwellings
High-efficiency toilets
Geomancy
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
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<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
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
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<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
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Children's Page
Earth Energies
Electric Power Companies
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Shelter
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
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
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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/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
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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.
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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
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Poem of Preser\'ation and Praise
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for the /-lemlock!Canadice Watershed
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by Stephen Lewandowski
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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.
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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
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Agric:uhurc an the Finger Lakes and Ten Tilousand Y~ m
Ten Mmu1c:1. a shon na1ur:il history of the Wc~tcm Finger
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KATUAH - page 7
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�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
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AUTUMN - 1988 '
Where l!lroadwly ~
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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
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Title
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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.
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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>.
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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
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
Type
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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
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<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
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
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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
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<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
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
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<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
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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
�.. ..., ...
·~
•
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. . . . . . . 'N.
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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
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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!
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WORLD
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"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~
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�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 $90 per person, which includes two
night's lodging and five meals.
For registration information, write to:
The NC Natural Heritage Foundation
P.O. Box 11105
Raleigh, NC 27604
or call
The NC Natural Heritage Program at:
(919) 733-770 I
'.M-'.EDlClN'.E ALLl '.ES
In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief.
the creatures in the world today are only
diminuitive forms of the mythic beings who
once Inhabited the world, but who now reside
in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest
heaven. But a few of the original powers broke
through the spirilual barrier and exist yet m the
world as we kno w ii. These beings are called
wilh reverence •grandfathers·. And of them,
the strongest are Kanatl, the lightning, the
power of the sky; U/sa·nati, the rattlesnake.
who personifies the power of the earth plane:
and Yunwi Usd1, "the lit/le man·. as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies. who draws up
power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their energies
complement each other to form an even
greater power. As medicine allies, they
represent the healing powers of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powetS of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 4-cofor silkscreen by
Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality, all- cotton
shirts, /hey are available now in all adult sizes
through the Kalanu bioregional mail-order
wpplier.
Order shirts from: KALANU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
Katuah Province 28779
Please specify size: Sm.. Med., Lg.•
X-lg.
~~
~ WINGS WAY CONSULTANTS
Multi-Level Wellness
Nutrients for Body, Mind, Spirit
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Mnklon. NC Z8734
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Ashiko Dr ums
738 Towu Mou.nl&i.A Rd.
Aabnille, N.C. 28804
(704) 258-1038
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Natural Food Store
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Ou111bcc.k$ ...
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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/0d9900eecbaa84dc53b477e07072e743.pdf
fa0c060dc360f4bcedc42ca0ae593baf
PDF Text
Text
Postage Paid
Bu._M~
Permil 118
LeiceS1er, NC
28748
ISSUE 24 SUMMER 1989
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Life ~~I::rr~~~~
Hiroshima Day 1989 .............................7
Direct Actioo! ....................................... 8
T'AI: PEACE
by Patrick Clark
Planting a Tree of Peace.......................9
Community Building and Peace......... IO
by Richard Lowen1Tial
Peacemakers: A Resource Listing....... 11
Ethnic SurvivaJ. ................................... 14
Black Mountain Pairing Project.. ........ 15
"Battlesong" ........................................ I6
A Poem by Heather Pirrillo
Growing Peace in Cultures................. 18
by Mamie MuJ/er
Review:
The Chalice and the Blade..................20
Natural World News...........................22
P eace. As we cxplon: the meaning of
this word in the Kanlah pro,·ince. we find as
many subjective definition5 as there are people
working to manifest lhem. Yet, is there an
underlying sense that ties together the different
perspectives and the work all these people are
carrying on?
The answer for us came very lute one
night while we wen: gathered to prep3te the
spring issue of the KatUa.h Journal. Someone
by chance called up from the I Ching the
hexagram T'ai, entitled "Peace." The sign was
composed of three yin lines over three yang
lines--illusuating n smte of vibrnnr balancing.
The yin energy, which represent<> the
receptive or yielding quality of nature, is above
the yang, moving downwnrc.1; and the yang
energy, which represents the active or creative
principle. is below the yin, moving upward.
Abovt
IMow
The Receptive Eanh ( K'un)
The Creative. Heaven (Ch'lcn}
A Children's Page...............................25
The ~I reads•
Drumming........................................... 26
"111is hel<agram dcnotc.s ;i urne m nature when
Heaven seems to be on E:lrl.h. Hc:ivc:n has pixed
11sclf bcnCJlh Ille Eanh. and so lhcll' powers unite
Events Calendar..................................28
\Vebworking....................................... 30
in deep h:lrmony. Then ~and blc..~'illlJ;S dc.lecnd
upon :Ill living lhmg&."
In this hexagram. the I Ching emphasius
that peace is not a sunk .st.:ite but r.uher one of
dynnmic balane"C, alway:. changing as conditions
change. Jn the world of nuture and m the world
of the human, everything is in motion. It is in
the midst of this swirling interplay of forces
which create this Life. rhat we begin to feel n
sense of hamiony, of communion, of
rightness...that could be: identified as peace.
When "'e do not cultiv:ue this hannony,
then Life becomes •·our of b:ilancc." Finding
balance and maintaining b.·llancc-, both
personally and culturally, is a process of
continuous exchange. When the exchange is
balanced. simple 1hough it sounds... peace
brings peace.
In this world of diversity :ind disparate
value systems. peace does not depend on "an
absence of con0ic1", but rather on the way we
get through the e-0nnic1. II is 1he embracing of all
the life forces. even those in apparent
opposition.
As we strive to preserve the habitats tha1
maint..'lin life and ro bring about specific political
and economic changes. we come to recognfae
the connec1cdncss of all things. In 1his way, we
produce changes rhat are Sll'Ong and enduring.
People like those listed in the pages of
this issue of Kattwh Journal, nnd many others in
the region, arc an lnspinuion to all of us In tl1eir
ded1ca11on. The way they go about workin~ for
change ii. itself crearing new ways of relating.
And the new rcJ31ionships 1h3t are now
incubating llJ'C the Ir.Isis of a new culture.
Eventually chc insti1u1ions of society, which are
simply renccuons of the basic relationships
escablishcd :1mong ourselves and other living
1hmgs, will be transfonncd.
"May the Spirit so stro11g in the ~hadow and
stmm
Hold fast 10 what is righ1,
A11d S!irt!ly as JOU breaJlre the gentle air of Peace
This ia11d shall shefur in the light of love
Tlzis land sl:all shelter in the light "
Blessed beThe Ednors
(l'w fn>m I CIU11g "'T~
BooJ;. o{CiuJntu.1ranslllle<l sn1et
ClcmwJ by Richard Wilhdm Uld ill1o Engluh bt Cory F.
Ba)'llCJ. Sons l1ria from "l.a:id ol l.i&Jil" ias ro:orded 11) 1~
Ta-vtdtil/Weawrs)
�STAFFTHlS ISSUE:
Scott Bi.rd
Patrick Clark
Andy Half-Baker
Rob Messick
Marnie Muller
Mart.ha Tree
Richard Lowenthnl
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Susan Adam
Abby Bird
John Creech
WiJI Ashe Bason
Jack Chaney
Jim Houser
Christina Monison
PiCllllte
Rodney Webb
Chip Smilll
Morgan Swann ...and !honks IO Jake ror lnte-nighl brownies
COVER by Martha Tree
INVOCATION from "Meditations with Animals"
by Gerald Hausm:m
PUBLISHED BY: Ka1U1Jlr Joumal
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREOION
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mou11raineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE THIS ISSUE: Globe Valley
WRITEUS AT:
TELEPHO.'IE:
(704) 683-1414
KarUtiii Jour11al
Box 638
Leicesier, NC
Kaufah Province 28748
Divemty is an imponant clcmcru of biorog101Ul ecology, bolh
lllllUral ond social. In hne w11h I.his principle, lhe Kotuah Journol lrics
io serve a,~ o forum ror lhe discussion or regional issues. Signed anicles
cJtpn:ss only lhe opm1on of the 3uthors and are 001 ncccss:irily lhe
opimoos of lite KotUah Journal editors or sulff.
The lnierrutl Revenue Service h3S declared Ka1uah a non-profil
SOl(c)(3) of lhc lntem:il Revcnu.: Code. AU
contributions 10 Ka1U1Jh ore dcdLICllblc from pcrsont1I income twt.
orgnnl~tion under section
_,
SPIRIT FEATHERS
Death feather of the crow
puts my enemy
to sleep
Crow feather
Crow feather
Life feather of the Jay
makes my mind
awake
Jay feather
Jay feather
Peace feather of the crane
turns my enemy
into me
White crane
White crane
(Creek Indian)
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mouni.ain range on
our continent, Turtle Island, a smaU 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" Katuah" 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 hllls 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 pertain
specifically 10 this region, and to foster the awareness
that the land is a living being deserving of our love and
respecL 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 qualicy 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.
IL 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 aU correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information. anicles. artwork, etc. with
hopes that Katliah will grow to serve the best interests
of this region and all its living, breathing members.
-The Editors
Su mmer. J989
�DEEP LISTENING
by David Wheeler
"We cannot make a change. We musr be rhe change
we wish I() create."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
There occurs occasionally a unification of spiritual belief and
political activism in which the literal applica1ion of a spiritual
principle becomes a potent lever for social change. The resulting
techniques are so powerful that they arc a1 once a tactic for solving
a problem a11d also lhe solution 10 the problem. It might be said tha1
in that situation the means and 1he end are one and the same. But m
ac1uality, when those si1uations occur, there no longer arc
diffcre.ntiated "means" or "ends." There is simply a continually
unfolding process of change.
The mos1 prominent case in modem times is non-violent
direct action as pr.tcticed fim by Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa
and India and then later by Martin Luther King, Jr. on th is
continent. The principles of non-violent direct action have
revolu1ionized the role of social protest in the world 1oday. F.ven as
people pro1est specific instances of injustice, they also set a positive
example of how to resolve social conflicts and raise a posi1ive
spiri1ual consciousness a1 1he same time.
Today ano1her method known as "deep listening," is
curren1ly being developed even as it is being applied. It, 100, will
also be noted as one of those powerful unities of spiritual and social
practice.
Herb Walters is a founder and presently a s1aff worker with
Rural Southern Voice for Peace (RSVP), a small group of
dedicated activists promo1ing peace issues throughout the southeast
from a base in the Celo Community on the Soulh Toe River near
Burnsville, Nonh Carolina. From his experience as a counselor of
disturbed and delinquent adolescents, as a member of the Society
of Friends (Quakers), and as an insrructor in the principles of
connict resolution and non-violent direct action, Herb has come 10
realize the power of the Quaker tenet of "listening."
The basic principle of deep listening, as practiced an
"Listening Project!>'' organized by the RSVP staff, is simple in the
extreme: it is listening - without opposition or judgement - to the
emotions, wishes, and fears of ordinary people living in ordinary
communities. Ye1 the simple act of listening holds great potential
for organizing political movements for social change,
Listening Projects are often held in communities which a.re
facing a crisis situation or divided by a controversial issue.
''Listening Projects are basically a process for geuing activists 01Jt
into a community," says l lcrb. On a political level there arc two
reasons for getting organizers into neighborhood~. One is tha1 an
order for a movemcn1 to expand its base, i1 must reach out to ney.
segments of the population - people who mtty fed hopeless or
powerless 10 bring about change or people \\hO may be ovenly
hostile 10 ch:inge.
Listening Project volunteers go to the homes. of people in a
target community and approach them dircclly about ll1cir concerns
on issues as 1hey are felt wilhin that community. The volumeers
often find that If they are successful in drawing people out, they are
breaking new ground in exploring feelings about issues thnt the
people themselves may never have examined before. Responses
vary from door lo door. Sometimes people fall into the standarJ
modes of thinking. But in many cases. by examining their true
feelings about maucrs they had never considered deeply before.
people find themselves identifying or accepting entirely new
uppro:iches to old problems.
The second reason for getting organizers into neighborhood~
1s the basic organizing principle, "start where people are at." Pa!it
experience has shown that if organizers go into neighborhoods with
the mtenl lo conven residents to preconceived ideas on issues.
however log1c:tll)' devastanng these arguments might be, they meet
with limited success. The Listening Projc:GIS are based on the
wisdom that if activi~ts are willing to listen to the people, the people
themselves will tell about how the larger issues directly affect their
lives.
Often people respond to the issues in a more immediate
manner than acuvists' in1ellee1ual formulations. A Lis1ening Project
in St. Mary's, Georgia found that local rc-~idents fell the presence
of an atomic submarine base as an abridgement of their fishing
rights. Another Project with the Shenandoah Peace Co:iJuion in
Virginia found that people's pnmary C-Oncem was the lack or yoULh
activities or programs, which related to problems with drug./alcohol
abuse and vandalism. By responding to this concern. the Coalition
is ov~oming the isol:ition that many peace groups feel from their
communities as well as pointing out the social effects of excessive
military spending.
But tnere 1s aJw a third and more profound rctlSOn for going
into 11 community and becoming involved with local people's
concerns· deep lis1ening is a powerful tool 10 bre:ik down
stereotypes - on both sides of 11 conversation - and to thereby
overcome polarization.
Herb states that, 'The fact 1s that a 101 of people out there in
mainstream America don't join the pe:tcc movement because they
don't trust us. They sec the peace movement in terms of
stereotypes. A part of the listening process is to overcome that
barrier by letting people's common humanity come through and
finding a common understanding. Oftcn a real truth does arise, and
we lind that people do care. They re-.iJly care; they ju~t don't know
what rodo."
But people in the cuhural mainstream arc not the only ones
who arc limited by n:mow thinking. "Acrivbt~ in the peace
mO\'emcm have a 101 or fears and sterco1ype:; of the \'cry people
the>: arc trying to rench," says Herb. "At 1he same time a.~ they are
talking about 'outreach,' movemcnt people distance themselves
from the majority of the population by working in the safety of their
own liule groups and using the media to convey their rn¢ssage.
"I see listening as direct action, because through 1he
Listening Projects we go right 10 1he people. they don'! like )'OU
and what you are doing. that's all the more reason to go right to
them. That's non-violence: go right IO the people who are against
you and find out why. Find wh:u you can do to change the
pol:uiz:llion thac's happening, instead of always keeping your
disl:Illce from !hose people."
rr
In a Listening Project. organiz.ers :ire first trnined in a specittl
session with a RSVP staff person in "111.:h they draw up a survey
questionnaire. learn communication skills with which 10 approach
{con1mued on peg~ 4)
Su.mnu:r, 1989
Drawmg by Rob Mc.ssicl;
>C.'1tiwf1 Journal p119e lS
�peop e, and le.am Lhe crucfal djffercnce bet ween ordin:iry and
''deer u listening.
"Normally," says Herb, "when another person 1s speaking,
we .ire thinking of ways to put our own point across. Deep
listenmg calls on us to let go of our own egos for awhile. We
suspehd judgement. We try to become that other person so that we
can really understand their fears and hopes. We listen, and we
accept the fact thut they are different, that they have different ideas.
and we concentrate our attention on their esscmial humanirv, that
p:in of us that we all share."
·
This is called "seeing the light in the other person" in the
Friends' way of speaking. II creates its own kind of magic.
Opposition dissolves without opposition to foed on, and people at
first hostile or indifferent often feel encouraged to open to deep
feelings and emotion~. A relationship of l111St is begun that can
cross the b:irriers of stereotype and polarization. Differences are
"starting points" and come to be seen as interesting pcrspecuves on
shared problems and common simations.
"lnilinlly there 1s mistrust or some retuctance," says Herb.
"but when the person realizes that the volunteer isn't there to
conven them or to judge them, they begin to say what they acrunlly
think. Wha1 often develops is a relationship of openness and trust,
:ind the person speaking often opens to change in a way that they
never have before.
"They feel safe. They might talk about their fears. They
might say, 'We need mon: nucle:ir weapons.' But instead of giving
a reaction. the volunteer ju.st says, 'Why do you feel that'?' and
really listens to them and draws them into talking about their deeper
feelings.
"Listeners often find themselves in the position of being
facilitators for an internally motivated conversion, as the person
they are talking with begins to think about questions like the nuclear
arms race or the local bomb plant on an emotional level. In the
course of one conversation real change can happen in people \.\ho
would never have gone to a peace group meeting. it's a fascinating
process."
Groups contemplating undenaking a Listening Project art
warned that they must be willing t0 make a long-term commitment
to the community they are about to enter. Experience has taught the
RSVP staff that a Listening Project evokes a mong and often
unexpected response. People are "hungry to be listened to," as
Herb says. and, although volunteers may start out expecting
rejection, interviews more often than not end up with the resident
saying, "Do you reaUy have 10 go? Can't you stay just a little
longer?"
Many people feel hopeless and powerless. They have a sense
that they are being manipulated a.nd swept along by forces far
beyond their ability to controL They often feel that wishing for
change is only causing themselves needless pain. Having someone
actually want to hear what they have to say is an empowering
experience. h is an offer of hope. It makes them feel that perhaps it
is wonhwhile to do away with the psychic numbing in which they
taken refuge. But if visitors offer that hope during a visit and then
never return again, lhe result is detrimental, and people could be left
in a position worse than their original condition.
A group muSt be prepared to offer avenues for action that fit
the concerns and abilities of the people of lhe community. It may be
~legislative network thnt contacts elected reprcsenl!ltives on specific
lSS~es. It migh~ be a church meeting or a fund-raising project. The
ob;ect of entenng a community and taking the time to listen is to
rea~h_people so they might find 1heir power and take leadership.
This 1~ a long process and requires a corresponding degree of
commument, but it offers its own rewards for activists willing to
muster the patience to see it through.
Drawing by C"'la YllOlll'll' f,f1llsaps. I /111 1rtu1~. Smi,Ley .\11.11V11a1n llltlt School
Ollr) In thL lad.son COMnI) P~~ /llttwork's /(}/Jr! · ~·1swn of Pcau" conu.rt
/J/I
In our society, contr0ver:.ies arc customarily settled by
deb:ue. One side is suppo~d to overcome the other with the weight
of logic. The format is argument, and the focu:. is on differences how "we'~" right and "they're" wrong. In deep listening the
interviewers focus tirst on the common ground. the opinions upon
which they R$fee wnh the person with whom the)' are talking. In
Lisfening Pro;cct training se_,sions it is said:
"You may disngree with ninety percent of" hat a person h
telling )OU . If so, focus on the :ucas of agreement first. Build a
relationship of rrust: then you can look a1 the differences."
.
In deep listening. disagreements have a place, but tha1 p13ce
1s way do""n the scale from the primary position they custom:uily
hold in political discourse, and lhey are never allowed to dim the
vision of "the light within."
What could be gender than the companionable acr of
listening? Yet practittoners have found it to be a technique of grear
power with far-reaching social effects. The source of that power
lies in going beyond the ego and getting down to lh:u place where
lhings change.
. O~e experience invol~ed lhe Piedmont Peace Project (PPP).
a. b1-r~c1al g_rou~ of lo~-rncome people, which undenook a
L1stemng Project Ill the mill town of Kannapolis. Nonh Carolina to
broaden community participation in their program. lmerviewers
!'Cwmed with a.wealth of infonnauon about the concerns of people
!n the communny and how to express these concerns as organizing
issues.
Members of the PPP, including a couple int.rocluc:cd to the
group thr~ugh 1hc Listening Project, attended the 1988 convcnuon
of the nauonal SANE/FREEZE organization. SANE/FREEZE was
~.ungry f~r commun~ty ~ontact and welcomed the PPP delegates.
I he low·rnco~e. mrnonty people from Kannapolis brought the
conce~s oftheirc~~unity bi.:fore the policy-making committee of
the na11onal organ_1zauon and helped influence SANE/FREEZE to
stre_ss the conn~cuon between military spending and human needs
dunng the conung year.
.. Bui _for this group the rewards were not all in the realm oi
poh11cal mnuence. The PPP hai; found that deep listening
empowers member:; of< 1hc g~oup as well a:; the people of the
~ommumty. ~e L1liten10g Pro;eet offered a ~cn~c of involvement
m the ~~1unHy. that PPP member:; felt h:id been lacking.
.
.. It exc111?.g and P.<>wcrrut to ~ircc1ly experience ~eople's
lives, says Herb. ~s a Lllitemng Project volunteer. you will meet
people for the ~JI'St umc who will open their lives to you in a way
some of your fryends never have. Tiu:se community people will calk
ro you about things that will move you and touch you deeply."
:s
(C()lltinued on p:ige 24)
Summer, 1989
�LIFE IR I TOIIC CITY
wrirten and compiled b!J Juclith I la/le >Ck
The city of Oak Ridge is located in eastern Tennessee.
near 1he regional hub of Knox\'ille. Its two primary
industries are nuclear technologies research and m(lnufacturing
components for nuclear warheads, which are carried out on the
government-owned Oak Ridge Reservation. Over 15,000 people
work on the 37,000-acre site, which is man1gcd for the Depanmen1
of Energy (DOE) by Martin Manetta Energy Systems, lnc. The
ciry's location in the heart of TV A's electrical power empire and its
proximiry Lo 1-40, a major east-west expressway, make Oak Ridge
well-suited for its role in the nationwide US nuclear weapon!>
complex. An estimated 680,000 people live within a 50-mile radius
of the nuclear producuon facilities at Oak Ridge.
The Oak Ridge Reservation is located in an area of rolling
hills in the Clinch River drainage system of !he Tennessee River
basin. All the sireams in the reservation flow into the Clinch River,
which joins the Tennessee 23 miles downsiream.
Oak Ridge is an integral pan of the national nuclear weapons
complex which is controlled by the Depatunent of Energy. The
Oak Ridge Operations (ORO) office of the DOE oversees a uranium
production empire that includes the Oak Ridge Reservation and
oi.her nuclear facilities in the midwest.
There ore three primary weapons production facilities at Oak
Ridge:
The Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Component Plant fashions the
internal componems of H-bombs and plays a pan in the production
of every major nuclear weapon in the US arsenal.
The sprawling Oak Ridge N:uional Laboratory specializes in
energy research, pnnicularly with nuclear technologies, and in the
production of radioisotopes for commercial sule.
The Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plunt hjs been on
standby since 1985 because of a decreased demand for enriched
uranium. The plnm currently serves as a waste dump for Y-12 and
ORNL.
Approximately half of Y-12's 7,000 employees do
production work, processing, fabricating, and assembling
uranuium and lithium compo111mrs for t/le nation's nuclear
warheads. For example. Y-12 receives deuterium (heavy waJer)
separatedfrom river warer at DOE's Savannah River plam in South
Caroli11a, combines It with lithium and shapes the compound into
tablets thllt are sent co warhead a.{sembly facilitit!$ near Amarillo.
Texas. Y-12 also recycles e11riched uranium cnmponents from
mothballed warheads that have been 10ken apart i11 Texas And it
makes precision equipme111 and weapons-testing components for
DOE weapons labs in California aJUJ New Me:dco.
--Our Own \Vorsi EMmy • p. 111
Secrecy and Control
From us inception nnd in
large pan 10 the present, 0.1k
Ridge, the firs1 atomic city, has
been a "secret city.'' In the name
of n111ional security, its deadly l~l!'4~f;~JA;J-'tll~~:!~
workings have been kept hushed.
This is wha1 drives the "see
nothing. hear nothing, say
nothing" attitude that has allowed
the present· day problems of
nuclear we.ipons proliferation.
cnvironm1:ntal destruction, and
dcterior:iting public health 10
evolv.:.
In early 1943 the residents of
\\'hen l, a small turnu ng
communny 1n enstcm Tenne~scc..
were ~mddenl\ 11prl)otcd,
/Jarl)el! 1111.:.fc11ce and a serle.1 of
scc1mry gates .mung up around
Summc• , 1989
their land. and crude houSinl tlvown wgetlu:r for a di/ferettt ldnd
of conununity. Thllusands of construction workers - their 11umber
1Nenmalty reached 47 .500 - heaved up enormous experimemal
srructures in which tlwusan.ds of scie111i.Hs arul production workers
would make maJerialsfor the first aJomic weapon.s."
-·Old 01rn Wom Ent1rry. p.112
111e nev. community, Oak Ridge, was k.epl under strict
government control. Its citi.rens, under the jurisdiclion of the
Ma.nhauan Projec11 set into motion production of the nation'~ first
atomic bomb. On August 6, 1945, the secrecy was broken when
the "Linle Boy" bomb devastated Hiroshima nnd led to 1he end of
World War ll. The enriched ur-.inium-235 that fueled that honible
explosion was produced at Oak Ridge. 11uec days later, Nagasaki
was dei;troyed by a plutonium-produced bomb, another kind of
nuclear weapon that had been re.~carched at !he O.tk Ridge Lab.
Nearly 200,000 city 1'C$idems died in the two blasts. These bombs
changed the nature of war by changing the technology of weapons.
Humankind now had the capability to destroy the world.
"In 1948 the AEC'sfirst chairman, David Utienrhal, urged
that the atomic (ndustr)' 'enlist a widening area of our economy,•
by sending its roots deep and wide into the same soil that /uls
nourished the auionwti11e and other industrial gianlS, the soil of
competitive private ittdustry."
-OurOwn Worst Enemy. p.116
T he commercialization of the ruom in Oak Ridge came when
Union Carbide was installed as lhe sole contractor. At about the
same time, 1he AEC cook steps that seemingly decreased
governmental control or Ouk Ridge. In 1949, after seven years of
total control, the city was opened 10 the public and passes were no
longer needed to enter. In 1959, residents voled 10 incorporate and
established their own municipal government. This communi1y
autonomy was a farce, however.
In reality, "the institutional changes made Oak Ridge a town
run by two companies--Carbide and tire governme11t- eaclt
bufferi11g the other from various forms of acco1111tabiliry and
e.wctirig a deep measure of comrol "
·--Old Ow11 Wor.rt £ntmy. p.116
Worker safety and health at the Oak Ridge Reservation nlso
fell prey to the policies of secrecy and control. 'T11ey wen: almost
c-0mpletcly neglected in the interest of greater bomb production.
lnjured and exposed workers were examined and treated
exclusively by a special team of radiologists, who kept comple~
control over the employees· medicOLI record!i. Losing coun cases
were prevemed. sometimes with hush money, and only winnable
ones were brought to trial. The AEC both set nnd enforced the
rudiation standards, and kept sccrct unpublicized medical research
on the effects of radiation. In 1956, Carbide and the AEC raised
the plant's allowable limit for
radiation levels on clothing and
h:inds to eight times the
previously existing lmut. This
wus part of an aggressive
111!.:e-back \:ampaign launched
after the Oil. Ch1:micll and
Atomic \Vorkers union local had
advanced
numerous
n.:commcnd.111ons tor safety
improvements.
The fu:.t aucmpt 111 outside
regulation of the cnvironrncnl tit
Oak Ridge was m 1975 when the
l!nv1ronmcnU11 Prorection Agency
(EPA) first gr.mtcd :\ational
Pollution D1sch:ugc Ehmin3tlon
SysL pem11ts to Oak Rtdl:e
cm
facilni es The permits \\t:re
(rommllell on ~gc 6)
00 l'hoco
'Kiltunr, J ournnt pu
5
�Burial Grounds: A Legacy of Hazard
(continued rrom page 5)
diluted by exemptions, however. For example, the pcnnils did 001
monitor mercury, PCBs, and other toxics, or waterborne
radioactive wastes. Still. between 1975 and 1983, Union Carbide
monitors reported 740 violations. The EPA "canied" DOE in spite
of itS non-compliance, and in 1980 renewal pennits were drafted.
Poisoned or Protected?
After World War 11, there was a surge of activity 10 build
H-bombs. From that time to this, the US and USSR have each
produced arsenals of nuclear weapons numbering in the tens of
thousands to "murually deter" each other. Now large areas of both
the Soviet Union and the US are unlivable due to excessive
radioactive contnmination. Cancer monalities are increasing. Money
has been squandered, and local economies have become
bomb-dependent. "National security" has lost its original meaning.
And lhe bomb-1n1cks keep rolling.
The H-bomb project involved the handling and disposal of
huge q11anti1ies of toxic and radioactive materials. When lilh1um
was detected in lhe annosphere after the test explosion of an early
Soviet ;i , imic bomb, research centered around separating the
lithium isotopes. The process finally adopted used massive
amounts of mercury to make electrochemical cells. Oak Ridge's
Y-12 Plant was the site chosen for this activity. In this second
surge of activity :u Oak Ridge, most of the US markelS for mercury
were bought out.
Burial grounds at the Oak Ridge Reservation are shallow
unlined t.renches in 1he eanh holding toxic and radioactive wastes.
They contain everything from "low-level" radioactive waste
(meutls, gloves, clothes, rags, e1c,) to chemicals in drums, solvents
and depleted uranium. Incoming, off-site waste shipments have
been buried with records of their contents inaccurately kept or lost.
Most are covered with earth now, but during waste dumping, they
were left open. Of1en the crenches filled with water during periods
of heavy rainfall.
The contents of some of the burial grounds are classified as
Steret because of the kinds of radioactivity they contain, which
places chem outside of state and federal jurisdiction. All the
dumping are;is were originally sited for accessibility, and scam
attention wos paid 10 I.he geological and hydrological characteristics
of the area. Since the rainfall is 60 inches annually, there is a
shallow water table and an extensive surface water system.
Contamination, i.e. sirontium-90 and uranium, leaks into the water
table in all directions, and is carried by water runoff into streams
during times of henvy precipitation.
'7he leakage from the burial grounds has contaminated not
only nearby rocks and soils, comprising a large surface area, but
has carried a tremendous amo11111 of radionuclides, thereby
conian11naring stream beds a long distance from the si1e.
Considering the length of 1he radioactive half-lives contained in the
waste, it is doubtful 1/Jat the reserva1ion itself or its surrounding
areas can ei·er be returned to a natural s1a1e." -Deadly Dc/t nse. p. 112
"/rt low doses. radiation causes lung, bone and other kinds
of cancer, leukemia. premature aging, birth defects, sterili.Jy, blood
composition challges and caiaracts ofthe eye. Because radiation
ltas the highest impact on growing cells, yowzg children,fe111ses
and embryos are the most readily affected. Radiation can also
cause genetic mura1io11, the complete effect of which will 1101 be
known for gener.a1fons. The likelihood of developing cancer.
disease or generic effecis is related tO the OJ11ow11 received by 1he
tndivid11,a/, lhe rart ofexposure and the rype of rudiarwn. "
Oak Ridge Reservation
Wltn Nearby Towns and Strums
--Deadly 011/tnst. p. L25
Dams and SetUing Ponds: Last Line of Defense?
N
t
1
J
•
'
"' ....
"/Ji the excitement, Y-12 misplaced a huge portion of
mercury. A J9n Union Carbide audit. compiled largely from the
memories ofoperaiing perso1111el, estimated char 2 .4 million pounds
were losr between 1950 and 1972. Of 1hi.f anwunr,Jederal officials
could not accou111 for I .9 million pounds (they speculated that
much of ii lies w1dernea11t rite Y-12 buildings used for lilhiwn
separation): 475,000 pounds wound up i11 one Oak Ridge creek;
and 30,000 pounds were lost through airborne vapors."
--Our Own Worst Enemy, pp.129
Mercury contamination has been just one environmental
problem 1n Oak Ridge. After 46 years of "haste and waste"
production schemes, the extent of environmental destruction has
been shocking.
"With a col/ec1ion of unlined pits, unfiltered stacks, lifeless
streams and a willingness to use the Great Ouuioors as their
filtration system, ORO's waste managers have wagered that
dilution is the pollurum solwio11·-tluu a Jwrde of migrating wastes
will grad11a1/y dissipote their toxic quali1ies as they meatUier around
a11d ojf1he reservaJion."
However, "Former Oak Ridge health physicis1 Karl Z.
Morgan says tlwr ORNL 1estsfow1d radioactive con10mi11an1sfrom
Oak Ridge Reservation 111 river sediment as far away as the
Mississippi River."
-·Ow Own Worst £Mmy, pp. J32, 136
Xau'.ulfi Journat pa9e 6
"The restrvaiion's three major facilities were built virtually
top offour lfibutaries of the Clinch River in order 10 exploit
1hem as sewers. White Oalt. Creek carries ORNL's wasces, Poplar
Creek receives ORGDP's and £as1 Fork Poplar Creek and Bear
Cr1rek carry Y-12 's."
--Ow Own Worst Enemy. p. 133
Ofl
Two of the creeks, White Oak and East Fork Poplar Creeks,
were dammed, according 10 the DOE, 10 create a "last line of
defense to keep ORNL and Y-12 pollumnis from exiting the sites."
These and other small dams "...have a rwo-fold function
fim, the highly contaminated water in streams becomes di/wed in
the large impowzdme11ts created by the dams; second, impounding
the water allows time for radionuclid& UJ bind U) particles and seu/e
otu, thus creating settling ponds. Both functions are supposed 10
serve to lower the total radia1ion co11111 in wasu! streams eman01i11g
from 1he facilities In tliis way 1hefacili1ies try 10 use tire primitive
and inexpensive method of dilulion to reduce the concemrations of
radioactive co11tami111Jtio11 to 1/te level required by lax federal
Standards. Those sra11durds do not limit the total 01n<1111Jt of
polluwnt.f tlw1 could be disposed of each day.
HSe\·eral problems have resu/!edfrom rhis practice ofdil111i11g
waste. First, during heavy rainfall the system fails: the lakes
behind 1he tlams can IW longer act as set1lin11 ponds. their waters
rise a11d become turbulent, and largt amounts of radionuclides
t1W\'e over rite dam and into the Clinch Rfrer. Second. rite beds of
these se11ling ponds, over time, lrave become so filled with
radioacti-.:e sedill'.en1 1ha1 1/ie process of binditig a1ui sc11li11g om
ll'hicli is supposed to occur becomel less possible."
--DeadlyD~feJUe.
p. 107·108
SumttWT, l 989
�Air Releases
For fear of their enemies, humans have unleashed powers
have already caused great destruction and threaten co destroy all
life unless they are curbed. Governments seem blind to the fa't lhat
our greatest enemies are the weapons used to Lhrcaten our human
"enemies."
. Our paranoid fc:ar of o~er ~umans has doomed us to a path
that, 1f we connnue to follow H, will lead to the certain desuucrion
of all life - not in a grand holocaust, but as vicrim to a slow toxic
wasting disease.
'
t~at
A study done by rhe Office of Environmental Audit of the
DOE in 1986 found 1hat, at 1he Y-12 Plant alone, I.here were 233
b!-lildings with 350 s1acks thn1 rekased one or more pollu1ants to thi:
au. Only a few had filtration controls. Eighty-six of the s1acks
e!llined U-23.4, 235 or 238. "Normal operational releases'' of
airborne uranium had come to 12,870 pounds during Lhe plant's
history. Accidents and spills at the Y-12 plant have released
unknown quantities of uranium.
"EPA Sraiistics show tlUll the Oak. Ridgt Reservation and the
Fernald Peed Marerials Producrio11 Ce111er lead all DOE facilities in
rel~asiflg radioactive particles 10 the atmosphere Oak. Ridge area
resulenrs are exposed ro airborne radio11uclides measuring 50
mremfyear 10 the lungs and 8 mremslyear to the bone--jive times
gremer than a proposed EPA limit.''
-OivOwn
1Vors1E~emy,p.137-138
A new i.tlcinerator, slated to go on-line in the summer of
1_989, will increase the risk of air pollution. This incinerator,
ltcensed by the EPA. will bum radioactively contaminated PCB's.
Another incinerator in the Oak Ridge area has also been licensed to
bum low-level radioactive waste. (sec KattJalt Joivnal, Issue 23)
"Incineration releases radionuclides such as tritium,
carbon-14, and iodine inro tlte air, and can also create the potent
car~inoge11 dioxin.This radioactivity is carried by prevailing winds
wl11ch blow northeast and southwest along 1he valley without
crossing the ridges."
-Deadly Defense.pp. 115.74
For 1he r.akc of evcry1hing I.hat lives we must resist this
destructive impulse in ourselves and stop our slow slide into
oblivion by stopping the production of all nuclear weapons now.
References:
Our
01t111
Worst Enemy. The lmp()CI of Military Production 011 the
Up~r
Sow/I • wriucn by Tom Schlesinger with John Gnventa and Jullet
Merrifield and published in 1983 by The Highlllnder Research and Educnuon
Center (RL 3, Box 370: New Market, TN 37820).
D11adly Defense: Military Radioactive la!ld/llls - wnuen by Marvin
Resnikoff. Lisa FiM.ldl, 11t al.• and published by I.he Radioncuve Waste
Crunp:iign (625 Bro:idway, Scc:ond Floor: New York City, NY 10012)
IF '\'1~ J)()N''I1 S'l'() 1>,
'1111l~lll~ '\'II.1I.1 JJJ~ N<>
ONJ~ 1 1~:.~r<ltllJ~\Jlhis
6
By BriJNJINs FirUtin., Grade Jt,S"'°""JMOW!lmn JllgliSdwol An En1ry 11t w 1989
"\/LnonofPeace" <:onJl!SI spcnwr~dby 1neJOl:UoltCowd1ptauNtrwort
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace
Alliance (0REPA) and other co-sponsoring
groups are orga.ni~ing the "NEVER AGAIN:
March for Peace and the Environment" action on
Hiroshima Day, August 6. 1989 in Oak Ridge,
TN. You and other individuals and groups rrom
the region and the nation arc invired to aucnd.
This action is seen as a major event in this "Year
of Resistance." People from diverse
backgrounds and understandings will come
together to create a large, compelling turnout,
which will non-violently demonstrate that the
issues surrounding peace and the environment
can no longer be ignored.
The focus of this action is lhc Y-12
Nuclear Weapons Pinnt managed by the United
Stares Department of Energy in Oak Ridge. The
goals of the march and weekend activities arc to
make a statement for:
· the cessation of production and
deployment of nuclear weapons.
- the environmental restoration or the
weapons production facilities, and
• the use of the talents and money now
being wasted in weapons production to be used
for goods and servic.~s which meet human
needs.
March for Peace and the Environment
Hiroshima Day
August 6, 1989, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oalc RUJgt E11~/ronmental Ptau Alliantt
P.0, Otn llOJ. Kno1CVill6. TN 37901
(615) S7l-2322
Si.unmu, 1989
During the days between Jliroshima Day
3nd Nagasaki Day, a Peace Caravan will
proceed from Oak Ridge to the Sav:inn:ih River
Bomb Plant near Aiken, SC. to Warner Robins,
GA, ending up at the Kings Bay Submarine
Base in Sl. Marys, GA on Augusi 9.
Free camping 1s available Saturday and
Sunday at the peace camp. It is a primitive
camping situation and campers should come
prepared. The camp is 30 minutes east of
Knoxville JUSt minutes off Interstate 40. Please
pre-register for maps and information.
./~
P'
Schedule or Events
Saturday, August 5:
12:()()..6:00 pm· Check-in at Peace Camp
5:00-7:00- Check-in and Potluck Snacks,
Laurel Theater, Knox.ville
7:()().8:00 • Premiere of the ftlm 811.iltling
Bombs. Laurel Theater
8:()().12:00 - Social, music, Laurel Theater
8:30-9:30- Ecumenical cnndlelight vigil at Y-12,
Oak Ridge
10:00-12:00- ''Dan~ Against Destruction•
Sunday, August 6
12:00-3:00 pm · Regisuarion, Alvin K. Bissell
Parle Oak Rid;;e
I:00-4:00 - Non-violence trrumn~
4:00-5:00 - Aflinity groups meeung
3:00-6:00 - Music, speakers, "Uranium: Tm.ii of
Tears"
6:00-6:30 - "NEVER AOAIN: M:irch for Peace
and the Environment• 10 the Y·I 2
gates
6:30-7:00 - Rally nnd non-violent civil
diso~dience
7:00·8:00 - Jail vigil
8:00-9:00 · Community 5h:iring
Monday, August 7
Morning - Peace Caravan depans Oak Ridge
�''Do
by Patrick Clark
The Oak Ridge EnvironmenUl.l and Peace
Alliance (OREPA) began in June, 1988 for the
purpose of organizing a rally at the Y-12
Nuclear Weapons Components Plant in Oak
Ridge, Tennessee. This very successful
non-violent demonstration on Hiroshima Day,
August 6, 1988 saw 170 people march on the
plant to oppose the processes of nuclear
weapons-making. Five people were arrested in
1he first cases of civil disobedience 10 occur in
Oak Ridge, a major clement of the national
weapons production complex.
Since the 1988 Hiroshima Day event
OREPA has continued to be active as well as
producuve in its research. uncovering and
presenting before the public spotlight the
realities of the Y-12 operations and the nuclear
industry t1t Oak Ridge. OREPA participated in
emerging "Green" world vision looks at issues
not as isofaled and separnte, but as co-dependent
nnd interrel:i.1ed. The Bomb, a deadly monster in
itself. produces a trail of devastation from the
mines where the raw uranium is taken from the
ground, along the route by which it is shipped to
the plant, 10 where its by-products are buried or
released into the environmcnL
This process, supposedly vital to national
security, involves mine tailings, highway spills.
accidental releases, and radioactive waste. Is it
in 1he imeres1 of "na1ioual securily" for our
governmem to poison the environment and hllrnl
the local people? Bomb production is causing
this environmental destruction constantly,
whether the final products are detonated or noi.
Oak Ridge is a cenier of highly
concenttated nuclear activity. It is "a disgrace to
Katuah" and "a blight on the countryside," says
Smith. ''What they do at Y-12 is repugnant. The
bombs are produced to kill men, women, and
children. The whole operation is laced with
secrecy, illegitimacy, and intimidation.
Employees are threatened with loss of their jobs
if they discuss what they do. There is noihing
resembling a free exchange of ideas. This runs
counter to the values our country was
founded on and how humans should treat
each other. Thepublicdoesn'thave
access to what's going on there.
The DOE produces a noxious brew
of chemicals that is released into
the surrounding airand
water. Hidden in their
~
fog of secrecy, they
use 'national
~
security' as
justification
for all this."
engages in periodic31 tracking of
nuclear weapons shipmen is) in the
~
foll of 1988 and has testified at
scoping hearings at Oak Ridge.
The group was the guest of lhe US
Dep:mment of Energy on a tour of
the various Oak Ridge facilities. ft hns
also developed a slideshow uboul the
situation at Oak Ridge and actions taken to
correct itThe presentation has been shown
to over 50 church, school, and environmental
ln the arena of nuclear warfare, human rights,
groups.
peace, and environmental issues go hand in
The group has also joined the Miliwy
hand.
Production Network. This is a coalition of
national and local groups concerned with nuclear
OREPA was founded on direct acuon.
weapons production facilities thro1.1ghout the
"Direct action is people raking responsibility for
country. Delegates from the member groups
protection of their offspring and the planet.
meet periodically 10 generate strategies for
Direct action is not letting those in power decide
developing public opposition to the production
wbat is best for us. This involves sincerity,
of miliu'lry weapon.~
dedication, t\lld, at times, risk. Direct action is a
Because of its involvement with the
very powerful personnl sutement of one's
nuclear weapons industry at Oak Ridge, OREPA
values."
has become a fairly credible counterweight to the
Smllh says that bis experience in 1he
government operations there. The group has
Y-12 demonstration was a moving and
become known as a voice: for alternative views
empowering one. It made him realize thnt one
of Oak Ridge.
person can make a difference. "There 1:> no
reason to feel helpless and like you're not being
hurd. Direct action shows you this."
Whal is lhe conne~tion that prompted
Oak Ridge is 45 years of environmental
OREPA to adopt both environmental and peace
debL Heavy me1als, PCB's, and toxic organic
issues in LO its title? According to Steve Smith, a
chcmlcnls have constantly been release-0 into the
founding member of the group. the peace and
surrounding creeks. and rndioactivity is
environmental is:;ues are inseparably linked. The
~tUafi
1ounml Ptl941 8
dispersed into the air. Deadly wastes which even
the government has no1 tabulated have been
buried around the city. P-01luted radioactive
groundwater is carried in10 the creeks during
periods of heavy rainfall .
"Many questions remain,'' says Smith.
"What is the migration of the deep-well
injections. for instance? We're not getting
answers. There are obviously lots of serious
problems there."
OREPA's immediate goal is to curb
weapons production ac Oak Ridge. Uhima1ely
the group is seeking a complete halt to the
production of nuclear weapons and a timely
clean-up of the military mess. This requites
exposing the rationale behind nuclear armament
to the general public.
"Let's stan a debate on what's fueling the
arms race," says Smith. "What are the economic
realities hidden behind the facade of national
security? The money tied up in the rums race is
phenomenal. Part of OREPA's goal involves
funding other work for the people employed
there. Suggestions include research in solar and
other
renewable
energy
alternatives.
as well as clean-up
of the exisung damage.
They are not presently fulfilling
any useful function, anyway.
"The Sovieis are ""illing 10 negotiau::
the people in Europe don't want nuclear
weapons. The US cannot continue to Justify
its arms production within this current world
situation."
The next eight months are important ones
for world peace. Vital decisions arc being made
in Washington which will set the nuclear policy
agenda for the next 50 years. The government
can go 1wo ways according to OREPA: it can
continue 10 build more nuclear weapons for the
fu1ure, or it C3II clean up what it hns done so far.
Whal will decide !his is people getting involved.
How can people get involved? There nre
three main ways:
I) by becoming informed and informing
others;
2) by taking pan in the political process.
Write letters. attend public forums, call your
representatives, demand 1hat our opinions be
hew-d and our money shifted away from nuclear
weapons bujld-up; and
3) be in Oak Ridge on August 5 and 6 for
the 1989 Hiroshima Day March for Peace and
the En\'ironment.
Dr""'"'I "1 F.dJiL l/aJJ, 9111 ~rodL Jtlltk111 a18ht& Ri~ lllgh
School, Gl#nvil~. ftltXtlt Caro/111(J, an ollry '"rite 1989 • Visfo>i
tJf P~~· COflldl •poN<Jritd by w lad.son COIU'oly P~ocr
,,. #
,
NdWtlTt
~
Summo.;r, 1989
�PLANTING A TREE OF PEACE
by David Wheeler
In the spring of 1987, a group of parents
and peace people in White County, Georgia
went to the Superintendent of Schools to ask
thnt some pan of the school curriculum to be
devoted to peace education. They wanted to
balance the unrestricted military recruitment
activities that were being carried out on the high
school campus. l11e superintendent sent lhe idea
on to a committee, declaring that he was a
veteran of the Kore::in War and ''a patriotic
American." Needless to say, the idea was stifled
in 1he bureaucratic framework.
Months latl!r the parents returned with
another proposal. This time they sugges1ed
involvmg the students in a llaudenosaunee
(Iroquois} Indian ceremony called "Planting lhe
Tree of Peace." At the original Tree of Peace
ceremony, the Six Nations {lroquo1s)
Confedcrocy was formed; and pans of the US
Constitution were actually modeled on 1hat
confederacy. The proposed latter-day ceremony
was planned to coincide with the observances of
the bicentennial of the signing of the US
Constitution... ~ well as remind studencs of the
Indian heritage of this land.
Within this historical context, the second
suggestion was accepted, and the group
contacted Jake Swamp, peace chief of the
Iroquois Nacion, who has brought this
ceremony to many places around che world. He
Q£l'CCd tO conduc1 the event.
Weeks or publicity and preparation
preceded the ceremony. School children wrote
invitations to 1heir local and national elected
representatives asking them to auend. A local
journalist helped the children write a press
:innouncement to be released to community
newspapers.
When Jake Sw:1mp ;UTived. he fir:;t spoke
to the eigh1h grade children at their school. He
opened his Ullk by giving 1hanks 10 the spirits 01
all things 1kn live and the Grc;it Sp1ri1 over all,
and told the children that 11 was imponani tel
open C\ery gathering by recognizing the: spirits
of the '' orld.
He nlso spoke to high school soci:il
studies cla~ses and gave a presentation at an
assembly in the elementary school. At 1he
assembly fifth grnde children presented him with
gifis they had made..
When he ~poke to second-graders in their
classroom. some of !he children were frightened
of h.im at first, but Swamp calmed their fo:irs by
telling them of lhe tradition of the peace chief
among his people. He said he never fought, as
that would bctr:iy his trust to his tribe. but r.uhcr
worked to promote peace amoni; his people and
in the world.
The next day, Swamp wen1 wuh his ho~ts
to the S:lutee-Nacoochee Presby1
erian Church
and spoke to the younger children. His message
in the children's sermon was that we should
remember to give thanks for all things. and lhnt
every gathering should open with a prayer of
thanks.
Summer, t 96C}
prophecies that the day will come when the wild
strawberries will rcrnm no more, and all that
will remain for the people will be the leaves of
the plant. It will be lhat way for everythmg.
Swamp said. The day will come when most or
lhe living beings of creation will be gone 10 a
beuer place where none or this pollution and
destruction is happening. Yet, even 1hen, we
must sull give thanks for what remains to us.
Afcer Swamp's presentation, lhe group ai
Sautce placed a white pine tree donated by a
local landscaper into :i large hole, nnd the
children present covered the roots with dirt.
Then four children. representing the four
directions and the four races or the world, tied
four ribbons· red. black, white. and yello\\ - to
1he tree to mingle together in the wind. Other
children came forward and also deconued the
tree with ribbons.
Traditional lndian dancers from the
Cherokee Indian Reservation, led by Richard
Crowe, then performed craditional Cherokee
social dances. A group of women from the local
community presented Jake Swamp wnh ll
beaded bell lhnt they had m.nde depicting the
White Tree of Pence surrounded by a.II the
peoples of the world. The ceremony was
completed with a gigantic pot-luck feas1.
Tree or Pence Socic1y
That afternoon the Tree of Peace
Ceremony was held at the Sautec·Nacoochee
Community Center. Over 100 people attended
the gathering. Elected official~ who Wt.'TC present
were recognized and given a chance to speak.
Girl Scouts paraded around the site carrying the
fings of many nations. symbolic of international
uniry.
When Jake Swamp ~poke, he cold the
story of The Peacenu1ker, who first brouglu
peace. to the constlltltly warring tribes of the St.
Lm~rcncc Rivcr-ca'1em Grc:u Lakes :irc.i nnd
drew them together to form the lroqu<us
Confederacy. In the \\'hite Tree of Peace
ccrcmony, lcgc:nd s:iys that the Pcncc:makcr tore
a t?reat white pine tree from the ground. Ile then
bid Adodarhoh, originally the licrcest of the
tribal W;lf chiefs, to be the fin;1 of the warriors to
thro\\ his weapon!' into the hole which opened
into an underground river and carried them
away. The tree was replaced in the holt:, and
The Peacemaker declared lh:u, "The Y.hi1e roots
of this tree will go out in nil 1hc dirc!Ctions, and
lhe children of filJ 1.hosc present will be able to
gather together under the shade of this Tree of
Pcl::icc for all time to come."
fake Swamp again emphasized the
imponance of giving thanks :ind :.aid that no
matter hov. bad things might seem 10 be, it is
imponant 10 give lh:mks for what we have. Ile
gave as an example the wild strawberry plant,
which is very sacred to th1: lribcs of the
Huudenosaunce. It 1s said among the
Haudenosaunce that thing~ migh1 indeed be bad
now, buc !hey know th;u someday things will be
worse. because it is given in the tribal
The Tree of Peace is thriving in Soulhc:m
Appalachian soil The white pine pl3nted in
Sautee was surrounded with wildflowers, set
around its base the following year. Oo New
Year's Day, 1989. bulbs were planted around
lhe rrce, which bloomed later in the spnng. The
tree is kept mulched and tended by the children
and aduhs of lhc community. It il> ;i focus of
e:1ch year's New Year celebrauons and the
annUjl community fo~1ivals which :in: held at the
cen1er.
Because it wns positi\'c nod nonconfronianonal in ns nature, 1hc Tree ol Peace.:
ceremony softened 1he members of 1he school
bo!l!d They cnme to ~c-e that to 1he loc:il group,
"pence·• meant brillgb.g pc•ople :oge1/1a rnther
than splimng the rommunny apart. l11crcfon:. in
191)9, community members w.:rc allowed to
perform ti peace pl.1y at the sd1ool. T/ie Peace
C/11/d tdls the story ot nn American girl and a
Ru~siun boy who become tricnds and evcnrn:illy
bnng 1hc:1r countric<>' leaders 10ge1ticr to discuss
di~armament (sec: p. 15). The piny was also
presen1cd in a pubhc p¢rfonn:ince. which was
:mended by the whole school board, 1he county
commissioners, and other eh:cted officials. The
play was supponed in pan by local businesses.
It was filmed for TV by the CNN Networl.;, and
the t0\\11 enjoyed the "idesprcad nucntion it
received.
11lc :.pirit of peace has brought changes 10
a small, rur.1.l 1own in Kaniah.
(prepared v.11/i tlic 11.:tp ofJ(}{JJmt Steele)
Rc:.aun:c; r/:( Grwl law of Pc.:JU and TN! Co11.1111ui1on
0/1/11: UrnudS1aus of./tr111:nca. Tr~ ol Pc!ICCSocicty,
c/o Jake Swump. Box 188·C Cook Ro.1!1: Mohawk
Nauon: YUi Hogamburt. NY 13655
�.
Community Building and Peace:
The Vital Connection
A look oJ The Fou11datio11for
Commu11ily E11courageme111
by Richard Lowenthal
Most people, ii questioned, would say that they deeply
desire peace and a sense of community in their lives. Yet, despite
this longing, most people usually have very little idea of how to
creartt pe3Ce and community, and thus end up fceHng stymied and
hopeless about it - which le~ incvitabl y to resignation and
apathy (two of the of1-dei;eribed hallmarks of the 80's). We need
only to look at the course oflhe "peace movement" over the pasr
two dCQndes, 10 sec this discouragement and disempowcrmcnt at
work. Ccnainly, the peace mov.:ment has had an important
impact on many lives and on our social consciousness, but in
some crucial respects the movement has been remarkably
ineffective. ls our -planet really nny more peaceful now thnn it
wns ten or twenty or thiny years ago? ls meani11gful disarmament
(as opposed to the token disnnn:uneot now being righteously
touted by the superpowers) any closer to becoming a reality?
Despite all the efforts of varied peace groups and peace-minded
citizens, we are all still churning out more and more nucle:ir
weapons. every day of every year - and movement toward la..~ting
peace and improved intemationru relations has in most respects
been negligible.
Why is this? Why has lhe peace movement had such
difficulty gaining headway and achieving tangible results? And
why do many people srill dismiss the goal of peace as an
impractical, visionnry dream? For that matter, why is the peace
movement often exactly that· unrealistic and impractical? As we
prepare to enter the last decade of the second millenium, it is vital
thnt we understand these questions and seek to nnswer them - for
the answers we seek may well be crucial to our survival.
Ooc oflhe most positive and provocative approaches to
these questions is that taken by The Foundation for Community
Encouragement (FCE) in Knoxville TN, a non-profit
organiiation based largely on the seminal work of Dr. M. Sc0tt
Peck and his most recent book Tiie Different Drum: Comn11111iry
Making and Peace. The book's introduction begins with a
deceptively simple yet astonishing statemcni: "In and through
community lies the salvation of the world." It is astonishing • and
not at all simple - because the dist.resSing truth is that "most of us
have never had an experience of true community." Thus saying
that community will be our salvation is like crying "to describe the
taste of artichokes to someone who has never eaten one." Until
we can truly experience ond savor the taste. texture, and feeling
of community, there is simply no way to comprehend Dr. ~1.-ck's
opening stntemem. Then four paragraphs into th~ inu-oducuon to
·.
.
.·
.
this amnz.ing book. Dr. Peck very mildly expresses his views
about peacemaking - in the procC£S answering the questions
expressed earlier in this article. His words are wonh quoting 1n
full: "... initially. r thought this book should be entitled
'Peace-Making and Community.' But that would put the can
before the horse, for I fail to see how we Americans will be able
to communicate effectively with the Russians (or any people of
other culrures) when generally we don't even know how to
communicate with the neighbors next door. much less our
neighbor.; on the other side of the tracks. True communication.
like the charity it requires, begins :1t home. Perhaps peacemaking
should start small. I am not suggesting... that we should abandon
global peacemaking cffortS. I am dubious, however. as to how
far we can move toward global corrununity • which is the o111y
way to achieve intemntional peace- until we learn the basic
principles of community in our own individual lives and personal
spheres of influence."
The book goes oo to explore the essence of community,
and the process of community-building through sharing,
vulnerability, communication, and real relationship. Dr. Peck is
careful 10 explain the difference between "pseudo-community"
and the experience of true community, and an understanding of
this differece is crucial to understanding FCE's mission and
philosophy. While community is characterized by openness,
inclusivity, risk-taking, and genuine appreciation of the
differences of personalities and opinions, "pseud~community" is
based on rigid expectations and beliefs, exclusivity, maintaining
an appearance of community, and the squelching of confrontation
and differences. As FCE puts it, ''Through the power of genuine
community, we seek to offer opportunities for people to bridge
differences and reconcile conflicts with authenticity and
integrity.''
In practical tcnns. FCE's focus extends into several
different areas - all, of course, related to the an (or science?) of
community-building. Its primary focus is to share the experience
of community through powerful weekend programs called
Community Building Workshops. The effectiveness of these
workshops is made evident by the fact that in 1988 over 50 were
conducted throughout the United States, just three years after the
first workshop was offered • which happened to be the 011Jy one
presented in 19&5! In 1986. twelve were conducted. and in 1987
lhere were thirty. These weekend workshops are exll'Cmely
cxpericmial in narure, as well as participatory - there is very Httle
intellectunl material presemed, and no lecturing at nil.
This does not mean. however, that intellectual awnrcne:;s is
discounted ·quite the contrary! In fact, one of the strengths of the
workshops is that awareness nnd community grows ouc of
evc:ryone's total experience within the group scning, and not out
of some framework or organiwrion imposed on the group (a.~idc
from some basic ground rules for the weekend). Since there is
very little to grab on LO in order to pigeon-hole or intellectualize
what's happening, and the group leaders are not teaching. or
lecturing, or giving directions (with a few exceptions),
(c:ontinuol cm Ne Z.:J
Drnwing by Rob Messick
Su.mnu:r, 191t9
�Peacemakers
for the Katuah Bioregional Province (a partial listing)
American Friends Service
Committee
Asheville Aikikai
Pc<JCe Program
92 Piedmont Ave. NE
AtlllllUI, GA 30303
(404) 458-0460
939 Riverside Drive
Woodfin. NC 28804
(704) 258-1330
Dan P:ilmcr, lnwuctor
Amnesty Internntioruil
The pltilos()phy of rukido 1s much different from
that of rnt>il f/llJl'tial ans; rather than mttting an Oltachr
head-on, studl:nts of aikido lrrarn first how 10 get ow of
the way. Then we are 1augl11 l10w to capture an Ollachr's
energy and redirect /J, so thr amounJ of tnugy pw fnto
the a111Jck. is returned 10 the aiiacku.
In a1kldo practice an attQ(.ktr is immobl/iud Ira
such a way lhnl, t'Vtn if ht dou11'1 know how to fall, he
is brouglll 10 the ground "'ithDUI bting hurL Tht idea is
lo immobilize him. The purpose of aikido is 10 ruolv~ a
violent conflict without harm 10 one's st.If ar to an
auacktr. Practitioners of aikido do 1101 considtr an
attacking person as an t11emy. An attacker is simply
pr&rcflting us with on opporruniry 111 practice Instead of
ignoring an attadc. we learn ID embrace iJ and use 11 as an
opportunityfor personal spiritual ~w:lop~111.
Tht! most Important thing a/Jou.I nikido i.f Ml
self-defense. but self-control It is necessary IO learn to
control one's own tnergy o.!ld one's own balance before
one can control SOPU!ane. rlsc'J tnergy and balance. Once
on4 lia.r mastend st/f-conlral. con1101/ing someone else
is no1 so dlflicult.
The physi.cal practice of nikido techniqUl!s
enhances Jht: developmMt of the spirit. Bodily
txptrltndng tlu! principles of nikido 111 training, one gets
a btJlt!r feel/or 1he ~truual D$pt:CIS of ti~ practice than a
reading of tlte p/tilosophy could give. Then agam. one
canMtjust practice, <1ne OIJO has 101hinJ.. l1 worlcs both
ways.
· Da11 Palmer
Soul.hem Region
730 Peaclurce (#982)
Atlllll1.3, GA 30308
ConUICt Judi Hom
Appalachian Peace Educalion Center
114 Coun Sll:'CCl
~~\.ACJf1.
Abingdon, Virginia 24210
(703) 628-4366
~~
.
~4-
...,
/.
1g:
~
(')
q:
'."
~0Nc~,~~
The Appalachian Ptact Education Cl!llttr is a
coalition of~Q(;e groups in the southwestern Vlrginin
area as wall as a membership orgallizatio11. Tht! coa/i1io11
i11clu1Us Jhe Sou1liwes1 Peace 1'111e /11 \Vise a11d Lu
counties. Pellplefor a Just Pt(l(;e in IVytltcvillt:, S1wkms
fur Pt(l(;t and Environrrwt1al Concerns 01 Emory and
lltnry College, and the Ctn1raJ America Group.
Beyond War/Peace Tree
RI. 3, Boit 30-E
Clntksvillc, GA 30523
ConW:t: JllllCl Schaller
The Center for Peace
.Re. 11. Boit 369
Scvicrvillo, TN 37862
Central America Resource Group
Box 7411
Asheville, NC 28802
Coalition for Justice
in Central America
Box299
Blacksburg, VA 24063
(703) 951-7953
ConlllCC N:111cy Qcnlhncr, Nik Jones
Cumberland Center for
Justice and Peace
Scwancc, TN 37375
(615) 598-5748
ConUICc John M. Gcssell
Ecumenical Project for Int ernational
Cooperation
734 w Locus1 Sc.
Johnson Ci1y. TN 37C)()J
Ecumenical Peacem:ikers
Bo~66
Swllllllllll03, NC 28778
Fellowship or Rt'cundli:iliun
f'. 0 Bm 2-71
Nyad, NY IO'JC.O
A Ieng t1~ peo.I' or ani:u11< n 11 fuel QJ11(Jn11
0tlv acu,1t1u has pr1Jll'ded sll(lport ond drc:ft CG.w IIille
ID pc.ople conmkring (MS cr.llor::roly t1on.
s .. nunar.
1989
Foundation for Communily
EncouragemenL
7616 Gleason Rd.
Knoxville, TN 37919
(see article page IOJ
J ackson County Peace Network
P.O. Box 1872
Sylva. NC 28779
(704) 293-9230
Conmtt Cynlh13. Gnlltngcr
A VISION OF PEACE
Tht Jackson Coumy Pear:c Nt1work fJCPNJ
brings M.ar.e issues into tht Iota/ .1hcools through the
Vi.tiofl of Peace Con111s1, a y~arfy e»cnt 1ha1 awards caslr
prius for the moJt ~anmp/ul siattmenu on pcllet
1/it1~ by high ~chool 111iJcnu worJUnK in tire. wrmen or
visual arts. Tht contest is hi!ld wrth the pu11UJs1on of
the Board of Edurm1on ulUJ l 'mc-11 of Ptut"c projtCf.f art
uqu1rM rla.u><-ork In some '" ' t:laJJ<'S. Thi! a>nlt.JJ tr a
gerttle. rwn-a>n;ront•ulon:il wav 111 tnCO«T<l,Ef. mulaiJS to
respQ/1d 10 t/w prewng ls1 .. c oj1hc nut;lcm tlvcut, ,,.hJch
t.t a Jiron£ uifl:.u:1m! 011 J"Wll ptoplt"s 1lunJ.mg.ye1 u a
sub;cct tluu lS f11r..:elJ taboo 111 tire /;nots or 1n an
dulfo ut i.1/hadults
In 1987 JC!'N i. f one of11> IDcol orgw: • tans
w #"ft e.vt: 1he NC Go.cr11 1 " " rd for Ouuumding
\ufunr.. Ser.rec Theuwardwusli-tllte1cd1abtdur1n
large nwzsive II) ti.I! su us of w 1 uion of />ca t:
Cc.r.11'..si
• l'ar Mor.• t 11111! Cynllua G ,/11111;tr
Hand$ In Outreach
BoxOne
Pen!Md, North Carolina. 28765
Hands In Outreach is a Yancey Counry-ba..rcd
educational sponsorship progr(llll for "third world"
child.rtn Now in iu sixth ~ar, it is "'"ently
responsible for the tducatian of 68 indfrldJUJJ cllildren
undtr sponsorship and has ht!lped 10 form a rural
wo11~n.s· kniJ1i11g ctn/tr which today has frained !Mre
than 50 formally illittra/e girls. \Villi a membership of
only 140 sponsoi-s. this .rmall and very pusolllll ouirtach
has substantially con1ribu1ed not only 10 r,ons1ruc11ng
rwo uw schools, bw a/$0 rwo complete school llbraries.
Hands In Outreach is l:ome-bostd and is directed by
author Don Willcox andfiber artist Louise Todd Cope.
The Highlander Cenler ~
RL 3, Box 370
New Markel. TN 37820
{615) 933-3443
Con1ac1: John Gavcnw. R~ Din:clllr
Sinu 1932 Tht lllghlandcr Ct!ntcr has s.en'ell us
an tducatialllJl umcrfor 1h11 30uiheas1 on issues such as
civil rig/Its, labor ISS~S. tllt tnvironllft!ll/, 'll'Ol"Ur saftty
and hlalth The Ctnter i.1 noi.•l:o$ling the STP Schools
10 encourage grassroots s1ra1egits 10 counter 1ndu.strial
pollution ond programs 10 help communil)' ITU!m~rs
understand tht local and global pokier srrw:tures that
infl~ue their lives. EMange progranr.r art. being carried
on with groups i11 Indio. NicaragUJJ, Sowh Afrit:a, an.d
other countries around tht! globe.
·John Gavtnta
Ellie Kincade, M.A.
(Conffic1 Management)
21 Hillcnd31c Rd.
Asheville, NC 2880S
(704)1Sl-6St5
"We have so often liMed htroiJm wi1h warfare,
bottling, conq~st, and victl)ry. t/taJ a difftrurt notion of
huoism, OM that allows us 111 su nurturing and
sustaillin1 as ltvoic activiries, is difficult 10 develop. Yet
1his rs whal must ht! doM Wt nud ta vol~ actions Ira
"1hu:h one i~nll/its with, raihtr than opposq, another
bt!1ng or way ofbl!111g The idea of bottling or fiahlU.g is
only one of 1ht: ways of dealing with /tar. Ci!r/llct, alld
difftrtncc. Of1en that which we rtjtct and oppose is tht
w:ry ~rson or position 1l:a1 w.- 11ted lo 111c/ude in our
tn:brau. Acctptance 1s tl:t:' art of making the obstacle tht!
pa1h: thtrefore tmbrace tJ~ tncMy.
Thi~ 1s lht ltrson of thi! rivu guldt, Fact the
dangtr, mow toward 11 ThaJ's where t/r.t: currtn1 u tl:t
stro11ges1, and 111<·i// CJJrry ,vou around tht obstaclr. Uu
II.
Ir: 31k1do, a Jup1mcu numt.il urr , tht tea. hu
turn from your auacJ.trs. Move
rrght in ~r.u 10 rlielfl, See tliz "'vrfdfro"' their po1111 of
M.'Ou/d sm;, '"Blend Ntlltt
ltkntih w1tli 11'.e U.l"IJ and llrqnu:lrlJll;for~d.
Oppcfl(IUS arcl1i:d), ti"nt :tar; u-.crgy A Upl W lift
Tr.at'~ are Mil p:issne. 1ilkcr. fr m ai1:1do./r m
l.t11 11 m 11'.e 11wr 1kty Ja~:nd i:n alcnnts.s an on
abuuy 1 uspond tlllJ1 u co1 :plrtt Our fir I 11ul Is lo
ht Ill' 1 lr:adu
OU( (fi.n lives the /st' t r;j ""'
"'" sto·icJ Ir. /ac.t w au )' art "'" hi:> on! 10
dJsaJ~tT wla.J: tfJPl tr.;'®1
Women m 11"' W1I~ b CJ.w; Ga!l:md
{[rem EJ1k Kinca:dtJ
Xotunh Jo .. uw[
pmii:
t1
�Peacemakers
Peacemakers
Peacemakers
Peace Room
'V Madison County
The World Grune lnstituie
Uruvcrsity City Science Cemcr
3508 Market SlrCct
Phihdclphia. PA 19104
(215) 387-0220
The Peace Room is structured sa tlllll row dmo and
"inretligcnce reports" from all ovu the p/Olltt CD!l bl!
collected. proccssl!d and applkd by its rl!starch staff 10
dl!\list crtoti~ stratl!giesfor solving basic human riud
problems. The rcstarch is 1htn madt a1'Uilablt 10 world
leatkrs and tht general public through rl!SCOfch rqx>rts and
cxpu1tntiJJ/ World Game Workslwps.
90 Mill Ctt.ek Rd.
M:trshall, NC 28753
(704) 656-2280
Contact: Drew Langsncr
Mnrtin Luther King, Jr. Center for
Non-violent Social Change
449 Auburn Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30312
Plowshare Peace Center
Box 1623
Roanoke, VA '24008
(703) 985·0&08
ConlllCl: Pul Prat;ilJ
Plowsharl! Peace Center is on education and
rts0u.rct cemu on issu.ts relating to social ju.slice, peace,
and non·violtnce. Plowshare wa.r ts1ablished by pcoplt
of various rtligiDu.s D!ld philosophical persptctivts who
sh,art a commi1rmi111 10 nonvioltncc as a way of life.
This commitmtnl flows jrom the spiritual Olld ptrU>rral
conviction tho/ active lovt is rht only power by which
evil is overcome O!ld tlu! only suflicic111 /xJs1s for human
society.
Blacksburg Adopts a Sister
Mountain Light Nelwork
RL 1Bo~229
Dillard, GA 30537
(404) 746-2454
COllUICl: M:srinn McCracken
"The Mountain Light Netw0rk. is an intuuional/y
unsuucwrtd asstmbfagt ofgroups D!ld indi>'iduals i111l:e
IYNC and North Gtorgia ana who havt a dup
ct>mmitmenJ to 1ndivuiuaJ and global peace ··
New Providence Peace Committee
70'3 W. BroodWQy
Maryville, TN 37&01
Contacc Jean Myers
North Carolina
Educalion
Peacemakers
Center
for
Peace
214 Piusboro SL.
Chapel HiU, NC 27514
(919} 929-9821
Offering work.shops and courses on education in
w 1111Clear age ond confliCJ resaluiion.
Northeast Georgia Peace Council
Rt. I. Box 319
Baldwin, OA 30511
(404) 778-0579
Com11cc Patsy Gailey
sec
"Wt short a commitment to a peaceful world We
we IJ.lliud in aclcnowltdgmg that Peop~ Evtrywhut Arc
Crta1al Equal (PEACE)."
Peace Links:
Women Against Nuclear War ~~
!:e~~.
Blacksburg, Virginia hos become the 78th US
corntnJJ!lity to join the US.Nicaragua sistu city program.
Tiit link became official on April 11, 1989 l<'licn 1ht
Bladcsbu.rg J'own Council decided (in o 4~3 ''Ole) to odop1
San Jose de Bocuy, Nicau.ragu.a as 1rs s1Jttr Cit) Tlit
srsru city program btrween the US and Nicaragu.a is an
offshoot of Sisur Cities ln1ernatlonal, a program
initiated b)' Prts1de111 Eist!llhower ur 1956 to es1ablish
greater fricndJlup (Jlld u.ndcrst011durg 1Ntwtt11 the people
of the US and other nationJ thl'ough ptrsonal conUJcl ...
Mcmbl!Ts of the Si.tttr City Co1t1111111u (SCCJ
told the Council 1ha1 they hove vizcd to avoid politici:ing
rht issue. But, givim tht current mood of the country,
thi.t 1s very difficult to accompltsh. According 10 Rev
IVoody Lta1:h. Virginia Tech Pre.sb)'ttriOll minister,
fom1er Council member, aJUJ chair of the SCC. "IVhat is
intended 1s for one human contlTlu.nity, Blacksburg. 10
a11emp1 10 build bridges offri.:ndJhip and u.nderstonding
with D!lOther humon cammu.ni1y, San Jose tk Bocay. It is
the hope of 1he Co1M1f1tu thDl the Town Council will
be able 10 htlp the town transcend po/11ical differtnccs
through this project. It is one way 1ha1 we CDfl say 10 tht
children of the town and to 01hu UJwns; We believe thal
hurrta11 beings CIUI work 0111 differtnccs when thtir
go11crT11M111S COllllOI .• '"
Al leas/ two
mambers have already visited
San Jose tk 8ocoy, and childrtn from Margaret Becks
Elementary School in Blacksburg are currently engaged
1n a ptn pal pro;cct with srudt!llJS in Bocay The
Commillte haptS these exchanges wll/ ltod ro regular
tducational and cultural exchanges bttwun the 1wo
conurnuuties~.
• by Mariann Caine
(tu.trpttdfrom the New River Free Press)
~f~·'~
I• Wf •I
NC 28802
(704)684-mo
.~
Contacc Jennie Eblen
Peace Links is a non·projit, non-partisan
orgoniumon commllltd 10 increasing awartncss of and
Cl)nctrn aboUJ the issues of world peace and IN 1hrt!a1 of
llJIClt!llrwor.
Irr Asheville, Peace Links hos1t!d three Soviet
In 1985. promottd o "Kids S~alc Thtir
Pt!DCt" program in 1he public Schools. and sponsored
"Rock 'n Rtgister, • a musical concl!r/ for voltr
rl!gistrotion Far "Peace Day 1989." tht group will
sponsor 1he childrtn's play "PtfJU Child.· (sup. 15)
• )CMit £b{e11
wa~n visitors
Peace Links
• 3509 Kcstetwood Rd.. Knoxville, TN 37918
- Box 566, Mountain Home. TN 37684
• 235 Hamburg Rd., Bake~ville, NC 28730
• 734 W. Locust St., Johnson Ci1y. TN 37604
Credo of /lie Peaceful Traveler
Gr01cfu.1 for the opportu.nily ro travel and to
uptritllct the "l>'Orld and be~ ptau begins w11h
the indlvr'dual, I a/flmt my personal rtspollSlbiliry
and conunitmtlll IO:
• journey wilh Oil opui mind and gelllk heart
.at:ctpt wilh grace and gr01ilud41he diversity I
Coniacc Judy Sheclccl, Hetb W3ltcts
Rural Southern Voice for Peace (RSVP) was
fou.ndi:d 111 198/ in response 10 a m:ed on /ht part of
people w/lo /tit o call 10 worlc for peace and 1us1ict and
against raci.rm. bu.J were i.toloted in snwll. and often
coflSl!rvarive, rural comm11.1U11u scattartd 1hrougl11Jul IN
sowheast.
The group ~gan in a cold ba.s11111tnl room with a
$4f)/) donation and o oorrowtd zypewmu. It has grown
1n10 a well·known and respected regional peace
orga11ila1ion with thru paid staff people, filling an
important niJ:h4 in the spct1rum of social change work. in
the South and providing hope and insp/raJion to
volu.nttcr aciivisrs Md local citizens.
RSVP provides o monthly newsleucr 1ha1
amplifies tlit of1err small, and ~t significant, activities
that local people are organizing in their own
commu.nitics and connects these events within 1/tt
context of change that is beginning at the grassroots in
the rural Sowlt.
In 1984 RSVP began lls Rural Ntrworking a.nd
Training Program in which RSVP staff people visittd
small 1owns and solllhern cilic;r providing training O/ld
suppon for organi:crs. As a result of this program, 12
new group$ have bttn formed and 20 l!Jds1ing groups
h11Vt bun rtvitaliud and Strtnl{thtncd. This wori.
eumplifits 1ht commi1me111 ro commu.n11y organizing
and citizui empowerment tht.u has cl1aracttriud RSVP
tinl:e its inception.
A recent brtak1hrouglt in neighborhood
COmmJJnications is the Ustcning Project idea, which is
bwtg dtvl!foped in procriu by I ltrb Walters ofthe RSVP
staff. (Sec report on page J) RSVP offers training and
conStd101ion for groups who wan/ to initiate Luttning
Projects in their area.
Peace Advocacy Network
8945 Sh:illowford Drive
Knoxville, TN 37923
t/ICOll.ll/Cf
• revere and protect the flQ/uroJ tnvironnt(n/ which
sustains al/ life
• opprcclOl.e all cultures I discover
- respect and tllallk nry hosufor their welcome
• offer my hand ln/rlendslrip (() tvtryon.e I meet
- support rrovtl services 1h.o1 short these views
aJUJ act upon 1ht1r1. by my spirit, words and
actions
• encourage 01htrs to travel tht world ln pttl«.
• from The First Global Confcrcnoc on Tourism:
A Vi1al Force for Peace (October 27, 1988)
x.atl.iah Journat page 12
~ura.f Sou//, cm Uice fo,. Pea.ct
1901 Hannnh Bmnch Rd.
Burnsville, NC 28714
(704) 675-5933
Peace and J ustice Committee
3219 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37919
Peace TreeJCovenant
Box82
Snu1ec, GA 30571
Peacemaking Committee
Nacoochee PresbylCrian Church
Box 87
Sa111ee, GA 30571
S'4mm4lr, 1989
�,
Peacemakers
~t:'3s
Peacemakers
in the Nuclear A . , g e
Warren Wilson College
Swannanoa, NC 28778
(704) 298-3325
Coniact: Doug Banleu
· options in the Nuclear Age l!XistJ 10 ma/cc
wt:ll·informed uniw!rsity faculty members available OJ
spcakers (free of charge) for well·establisht!d conununlty
groups on topics pertaining to national security • the
arms race, 11urorism.1111ervenJion, t/te economy. etc.
1'he aim of Options is ({) hrlp p~ople learn the
issues and develop .rophistica11'on in analysis of the
complu questions uwolved. It is our belief 1ho1 people
ore ~st ab/t to ll!orn and arrive at their own conclusion
afttr hto.ring a range of opinions on policy choi<:es. The
Options program does not take an advocacy role. The
program strives 10 provide the comprehLnsrvenns.
openMss. and integrity on which any substantive
cducatio!IJJ/ exanunation of the iss11ts depends."
Pax Christi - Virginia Tech
Peacemakers
Soviet-American Video Exchange
for Children
Vagabond Globetrotling:
State of lite Ari
(S.A. V.E. fotCh.ildtcn)
Boll 1838
Cullowbee. NC 28723
(704) 293-9534
Conmcc Howw-d lUll
by Mru'Cus Endicou. A book on conscious iouring,
tMlilnblc from lhc publisher.
S.A.V E wrll coordinate the exchange of
student-produced vidto tapes hl'twecn Russian and
American schools at tl:t! ;unror high fevel Tilt' principal
objective is. of course. 10 foster awareness • awcvencss
that Strips awoy tire fear of the unblown. A11 added bonus
wjff be the St/f·owarene.ss that comu from ezpfaining
one's own situation w others
The undulying intMt of tht pro;rer goes beyond
fX!OCl!. Peace is o gfrcnfor surviwd's sa/ce, but there ts a
more subtle and/ar·rtat:li111g aware11<1ss that may also be
engendered: the consc10u.rntss ofs/:ared space, ofshored
r(J:.fponsibility for the globof tnvironment, When
friendship replaces r1ustrust, 11 is much easier to see that
tire health of the planet a/fem us all.
• /foward /fi/f
Transylvsnians for Peace
Box 451
Brevard. NC28712
(704) 884-1633
Con1$t Connie Nash
Coniacc Cale O'Hare
20/20 Vision
"Encmyof1/1e Week''
"My command!Mnt 10 you is this· love your
enemies. Pray for those who persecme )'OU.• Paz Christi
has a custom of praying for an "Enemy of the Wetk" at
l!acl1 meeting. The custom arises from our desire 10
follow Christ's command to love tvuyoM, evt'n those
who oppose us or hate us. A prayer lealkr chooses a
person. gtoup. or organization that is in some sense an
entnry. The praytr leader explains in what sense that
person. or group ls an entmy. and then leads a Sincere
prayer for tht wt/I-being of that entmy.
• RL I, Box 1037, Sau.tee, GA 30571
(404) 878-3459 Conuicc Joan King
• 20/20 NC I I th Congressional Dis1I1c;t
P.O. Box 5855, Ashevrllc, NC 28813
The 20f20 Project is a national, grassroots
lobbying organ11ation 1ha1 works thro14JJr Ct>ngrtssional
districts. Any cilutn can becor1ll! pclitica/fy involved at
trucial points i1t rk political syntm by paying S20 per
year and taking only 20 minutes per month to wrrre a
letter to a Congression11/ reprtst!nralive about a cho~n
pofitical issue.
Through the 20/ZO Projea people's effortS can be
maximiud. and they can become poliucalfy involved
with very li11/e t!J!ort
· Krtty BoniSkl!
71 Woodbury Rd.
Asheville, NC28804
Contact: John Sicvens
Enchiridion lntcmation:il
Box2589
Cullowhce, NC 28T.l3
Vietnam Vets for Peace
840 Marion Ave. SE
Atlanw. GA 30312
War Resisters' League • Southenst
©l W Chapel IUll SL
Durham, NC 27701
Wnr Tax Counseling
.t15 Kmharine lane
Wood:llOCk, GA 30188
(40-l) 928-8"..52
Conl:ICc Robert R:mdall
Women's International League
ror Pence and Freedom
• 28 Queen Rd.; Cruidlcr, NC 287 I5
203 01cy SL
Blaclc.sburg, VA
(703) 95 I-0032
Peacemaking Task Force of I be
Asheville Presbytery
Peacemakers
Conlllct: Mllry K!ly uutd
• RL 5, Box 694; Franklin. NC 28734
·Rt. I. Box 486; MotglllltOn, GA 30560
Conwc Barbara Newell
Earth Quilts/ Regional Project
Norma Bradley
296 Monlford Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 25J· 079 I
"Designed from the elements of the Earth and
crt.ated within the Earth"."Combinlng the traditional an
of quiltmakmg with lqvt of the mountain environment,
Norma Brod/ey, arusrlsculptor, assists school groups and
others in crealing their own CtJmmw11ty 11ar11t S(u/ptJVt
using nntivt materials.
Physicians for Social Responsibility
• 5 Alpine W:iy, Swnnnnnoa, NC 28778
- Box I 15, Moun.run Home, TN 37684
SANE
- Box 11274, Asheville. NC 28804
• 108 N. Blue Ridge Rd .. Black MounlaUI, NC 28711
- 108 Morchc.'ld SL, Morganton. NC 28655
Southern Dharma Retrea t Center
RL I, Box 34-H
Hot Springs, NC 28743
In Sanskrit, the c/aJsical language of l11dia.
dh31'ma is the word for wisdom. /or mtnd tSstnte or
11atural low, It is bl!lit•ed 1/mt greed. hatred, and
ignoranc:e (or our 1nab1/ity to su ourst/1-rs a.~ we really
are) art states of11Und that hinder the growth of wisdom
and undtrstanding, rJnd art the fundamt11tal caures of
hultlilfl sulfcrlnlJ It is also believtd thar through 1h.practret of llU!diwtio11, a focu.rtd a11en11011 , tltest states
may be dmoNtd und replaced with more politr~'I staks,
such as con".passton and /cJndness.
Tiit goal ojthe Southern Dlwnr.a Retu Ctn/tr
.<11
is 10 pro•ide a ,·01nfortub/t 11<11hmng pluct, rtmo•ed
from tht t\·cryd/JJ dwractions of lift, and to crtatt' <Vt
atmospliue of quut r(flect1on where one can nurture a
stnse of~Iler and wu:o1-er till' 1tmhs w11Jiin 11'.e heart.
x.ntuurl Jo ... rnat pa9c 13
1i~ JeconJ anncw/ Peactfest, ~ponsurcd b) PO;( Christi · \'irgiflla 1'ech 011
Su.n.;fuy April 16, 1989, il!lr.ia,,d hwulrtds OJ srwknt.t and /o<al r~.1idr111110 a
brr.rfit conurt cdtbraJrnf /J('a <'. • photn by MariJnn Ca111<'. COW1C$)' of the
.Vt" Rrvtr fru Press
�'.PEACE CWLLD
0 ne of the most familiar peace quotes IS
Gandhi's "If we wish to create a lasting peace.~. we w1U
have t0 begin with the children." This autumn, the
children of the Asheville, NC community will share !heir
own vi~ions for aunining world peace in the mus1caJ
fanwy.Peact Cliild.
The Ptacr Clrild play taltes place m the ycur
2025, when the world is already at peace. I! uses the
device of a s1ory1cllcr to cxpl:un how children helped
bring peace 10 the world. The script and music ha"e
incredible power as the children unfold their wisdom on
life, wur, and peace.
This play which has been produced iniemmion.11ly
since 1981 and is unique in that the author invites t.ach
producer 10 rewrite the ~ript to lit the community. the
ume, and especially the cast of children of their particular
selling. The members of the cast arc involved m
dlscu.~sions on peacemaking throughout all rehearsals and
ate given the chance to have their own ideas put into the
script. The priority is 10 involve community children in
the Peace C/rild process, so that •the central experience or
Peace Cliild comes when the children performing 11 feel
that they themselves are the pc3CC children of the story."
The Peace Child Foundation administers all the
Ptact Child activities. They supply communities with a
Study Gujdc and necessary production support as well as
coordinate national and intern:11ional tours. Peace Child
was the first production to use the •space Bridge"
program, a satelliic link between the US and USSR. Jn
1985 Peace Child toured the world with a special
Soviet-American Ptact Child tour in 1986. For mo.re
information,conuicc
Peace Child Foundation
39n Chain Bridge Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
(704) 3854494
The Peace Links' producL is scheduled for
ion
September 30, October 1 (Pence Links' "Pence Dny.
1989") as well as performances for schools. If anyone is
interested in volunteering, in buying advertising in the
production's program, or in general information, please
call Jennie Eblen at (704) 684·5530.
Ethnic Survival
The Frie11dsllip Quill
~rh.: frimdship qwlt is n tradition in this COU/llry
that camt witll 1/u: peopl~ wlio Stllll!d l11ut/rom 01hu
plaC Wt wonted 1 find d luimef or our friendship qui.ft
t!S.
0
in the Sovw Uman in a place somewhat 11/te our own
lrome It 1/V.lkl!s Tnl! glad 10 1hinfc af 1/rL long journey that
our quilt offriendship has had and thaJ 11 hasfound you
The quilt has marry/11n11y and sad and 1111eru1ing
stories. The pa11trn aroUlld 1J:e edges is a traditional oM
ca/ltd 'Flying Gttse'. 1'hey artflying around /ht world ro
brillg us 1oge1htr 111 growing UJ;l}erstanding so that we
con becomt/ri11nds/rom our distant places In this way
we can bring peace to our lands, our children, ourfriends,
and ourselvt:s...
In tht corntrs ofIlle bordl!rs where tht gttst ort
flying art tht phases of the moo11. May sht help us to
renwmber 1 change wil/mgly and gracefully, to become
0
wll/ll is ntctssary to bring our /ropes and visiollSfor
ptoCt to lift.We /rope 1his quilt of/ritmdship has brought f rom
us to you the living thoughts and patltml /ropes with
which it was made. Thalllc you/or receiv111g it and giving
it a lromt 1n your llvt:s.
·from The Book of Quiltmnkers
H
Thmy women and mui wlro are members and friends
o/ tht Ctlo Commu11i1y in 1he South Tot River Valley
crtartd 1ht quilt. ft now li\•es in a school in Klrosta by
the Black Sta. For mort lnforma1ion. con1ac1 Kori Loy
Wildrclcindt; Box 340. Rt. 5: Bur/IS\lille. NC 28714.
Ribbon Around the Earth
crc:ue, on pieces or fabric, images or personal meaning
In 1985, thous:inds of people gathered in
Wash1ng1on, D.C. to lie a RIBBON AROUND THE
PENTAGON on the 40th anniversary of the bombings of
Hiroshima tllld Nagasaki. The Ribbon was compost<! of
27,000 pJCCC:> of fabric on which people from every iiate
and many nauons had placed symbols of "what 1hey
could not think of to be lost forevct" in 1he event of a
nuclear Wllt. S1te1Ching 15 milcs-3/ound the Pentagon.
on to the Whiie House and around the Capitol, the
Ribbon bcc:unc a gentfo remmdet th:u the earth and all 11.s
peoples are vulnerable in this nuclear age.
Since lhc 1985 event. the Ribbon panels have
become pan of local events and have traveled worldwi~
10 be in major displays. "Making ribbons" has Dc:en
adapted as a peacemaking acuviLy in such places ;u Sri
Lanka, Israel. and South Africa to addresS conOict.s m
lhcsc regions.
Today there is a new mission--10 tie a Ribbon
Around The .Earth in 1992. Conunuing in our cffon.' of
~lf.Cll{lrc~sion , we "ill expand our original vision to
representing our concern not ju~t for nuclcar war but
other pressing global issues mcluding hunger, poveny,
human righlS, and the environment. lmagme an
abuncL1nce of colorful ribbons in simultaneous displays
around the world m nauons' cap1Ulls. across borders, 1n
political hotspots, and m ~crt.d pl;ice~
You can begin your own scgmenl showing what
you cannot think of as lost forever. A p;inel of sturdy
cloth, of any color, finished size l8"x36". including a 2·
top:.11tchcd bordct. Embro1Jery, appliquc. bauL., quilting.
knitung, needlepoin t. weaving. paanung. c1c. ~y be
u'itd. Finished scgmcn~ should h:ivc 9" ues or bias wpc
sewn mto each comer so they may be ucd together
C3$ily. On the bad; a piece of "pcllon" mterfoc1ng coultl
be used to write in pen, matkCI"S, or Lyping 11bou1 you and
your Ribbon SC&Jllent
JCcituah Jou1 nu( p«IJC 14
Ribbon Around the £:.anh iti 1992
8SS tv'. ltjfrrso11 St.
M lingron. VA 22205
Elnh bas approxim:uely 5000 ethnolinguistic groups...and only 159 UN members.
M oM of these nations' boundaries were cn:ated
nnd are m:tlnt:i.ined at gunpoint Mo~t of the
world's wars are civil ww-s being waged by
ethnic groups fighting for their cultures' sur.ivitl
against hostile nation states. The prOQ:sS of
colonization has left Africa. Asia and pans of
Latin America in nearly arbiir.uy political pieces.
War is bOLh the cause and I.he result of this
siluation.
How can we revolve our Planet into a
place tha1 honors and fosters diversity?
Educating ourselves about the problem is a good
pince to sl:lrt. We need 10 put pressure on our
eleci<!d representatives to end our military nid to
nations which use these weapons to abuse their
ethnic minorities who rightfully desire their
independence. We can bring our vision of One
Planet peacefully shared by many peoples into a
world m:1de more and more receptive to such
ideas by the realization of the magnitude of our
common problems and the absolute necessity of
our cooperation for survival. We are in need of
a second wave of decolonization. The first
wave saw the breakup only of the European
global empires. The second wave will see the
breakup of the smaller empires which they left
behind. There will be no real peace here until
we see our planet as a whole and end our
wasteful and violent defense of artificial
boundruies.
The Eanh's healing Chris1s is the
ecological disaster we are fast waking up to.
We will have to cooperate to survive. We are
one pl:l.Det. and this simple fact is n million times
more imponant than any demarcations we have
theorized and armjed into being. The age of
nations is ending and a new age beginning.
What good is a Kalishnnkov against I.he
pollution of the Oceans, what good are jet
fighters against the greenhouse effect. We will
cooperate or we will cease to operateentin:lyl It
is stone cold obvious thm the way out of this
mess is by learning 10 look at this world as a
unity instead of as meaningless political
frogmenLS and in pooling our resowces and
intelligence instead of using them to confound
each other. We will survive by becoming more
reasonable, and become more reasonable ns we
survive. The Earth is becoming one
community. We are building a true planetary
culture. This does not mean an end to our ethnic
differences, rather we are building a community
of communities, n culture of cultures in which
we will provide each other wilh a safe pince to
prosper. The EmplTCS have had a vested in1erest
in etimimuing differences but the emerging Earth
community will have an interest in protecting
cultuml diversity as a valuable asset.
,,
-Will Ashe Baso11
Suggcstbi Res<iurcc: Cultural Sur~iviJJ Ml.ig:11jnc. 11
D1vin11y Avenue Cambridge. Ma:.
~huscts 02138
�In 1984 rhe glasnosr ("openness") policy
was as yet unheard of in the Sovic1 Union. But
during that year people from !he small mountain
town of Black Moun1ain on lhe Swannanoa
River in Buncombe County, Nonh Carolina sent
a lecter to another small town, the Sculemenr of
Krasnaya Polyana in the Caucasus Moun tams of
Black Mountain residems made the first
Russia, suggesting the two townships open
exchange visit to Russia. They were wannly
relationships wilh each other to promote peace
received and returned with gifts and good
and goodwill between their two nations.
wishes for the people of lllack Mountain from
Miriam Willey of Black Mountain said,
the people of Krasnaya Polyana. Two more
"We stancd the Pairing Project because we saw
Black Mountain residenLS journeyed to the
that the nuclear arms race depended on our fear
Soviet Union in June of 1987. They returned
of the Sovie1 Union, which was inflamed in the
with a large :,;Iver samovar and four originul
e:irly Reagan years to support the military
pain1ings as gifts for the town.
build-up in 1his country. We thought 1hat the
Then in December of 1987, while Reagan
only way 10 end 1he anns race was 10 get to the
and Gorbachev were holding meeungs in
rooi of that fear, so we began to develop direct
Washington, DC, Chairman Kulii and Elena
coninct with the Russian people. And it has
Filonova, a school-teacher, visired Black
proved successful."
Mountain for five days. The meetings were
The letter from Black Moun1ain to
warm and cordial nod the people of Black
Krasnaya Polyana was one of 1,000 sem from
Mountain had no doubts th:u Chamnan Kuli1
American cities to countcrpnn cities in the Soviet
was most sincere in his "wi,;hes that the
Union under the auspices of the Ground Zero
American and Sovier people would collaboro1e
organization. Black Mountain wac; fortunate in
in friendship."
being one of 65 towns which received a reply
"His deep dedication 10 peace mruches our
from the Soviet Union. The response was an
own, and we see this relationship continuing to
enthusiastic leuerfrom Valentin Kulii, Chauman
flower in furure yeurs," in the word.~ of Miriam
of the Executive Commiuee of the Soviet of
Willey.
Krnsn:iya Polyana, which is comparable 10 the
During the visit Chairman Kulii was
position of mayor. The relationship between the
presented wilh a mou111ain dulcimer and a peace
two towns was officially initiated in November
quilt as gifts for the people of his town. Plt1ns
of 1985 through a letter 10 Chaimmn
Kulii that was signed by tJ1e Mayor, the
Board of Aldemien, and 100 residents
I
of Black Mountain.
"When Reagan :md Gorbachev
were holding their fin.1 summit meeting
in Geneva in 1985, we fell that we were
recapitul:uing :tt the grassroots wha1
was happening there at the national
level," said Miriwn Willey.
More than 50 Black Mountain
residents began the work of exchange
by preparing a packet contajni_ng
photographs and a 22-pagc descnpuon
of their town, leuer.; from high school
slUdents, and a copy of the local
newspaper to send 10 their Russian
sister city.
Throughout 1985-86 the Black
Mountain group held educational
lectures on the life and culture of the
Soviet Union, sponsored a film festival
of Soviet films. and celebrated the
1,000th anniversary of the Russi.an
l'ltcto, top: Am~ricuflJ (left It> flghl) l'otly Cod.v, D1t111t! and Claudell(!
Orthodox Church with a community
Iii/I :.hare u ml!JJJ witli R11.u1(1fl/nr.r.d.r 1n Kra.1na)'a fo/yana
worship service. In 1986 a group of 16
Above W/llu Wt:olh(tford, prts1dtnt of thl' Blad:. /lfoun1a111 l'umng
l'rojcct, (/ef/J muu Chairman \'altlllm Klllii of Kru.~naya 1'11/yana.
were also made to co-sponsor a sisrer cities
friendship calendar, featuring photographs of
Black Mountain and Karasnay:i Polyana and
notations of both Soviet and American holidays.
A 1989 Sister Town Calendar was produced,
and I, 150 copies were sold in this country. The
$3, 150 raised will be used to sponsor future
exchange delegations. A 1990 calendar is
planned, to be produced by the people of
Kmsnayu Polyana in the USSR.
ln September of 1988 n delegauon of
visitors from Black \fountain visited Kmsnaya
Polyana for 1hree days. This was the first time
foreigners had been allowed 10 siay overnight in
the town, as there arc no lntourist hotels there.
Instead they shan:d facilities used for
vacationing military people and found
thcm.o;elvcs around a night bonfire with members
of I.he Soviet Defense Department and their
families.
There are plans for more el(ch:ingc
delegations between Black Mouniain and
Krusnayil Poly:ina. Yuri Filonov, a te.1cher of
Englhh and German. will teach at Warren
Wilson College in rhe neighboring town of
Swannanoa this summ..:r. More lcctun:s
and educational progr.ims have been
held 111 the Black Mountain Libr:iry.
High SC'hool and middle school :.tudc;n~
in Black Mountain are now
<."Om:sponding "'ith their counterparu in
Krasnay:i
Polyana, building
relationships that will extend into I.he
nel(t generation.
Ag:tin, Mmam Willc:y spe.1h for
the J>t!Oplt: of Black Mounlllin: ~we feel
we have overcome the enemy image.
We no"' have a totally different
conception of the Russian pe~1ple 1h:1n
we did before we Marted the project.
We didn't reali7.e "'c'd have so much
fun, and we couldn't h3ve received a
bener reception from I.hem
"The Pairing Project 1s our
statement th:11 we Jive in :in
inu:rdependcnt world, :ind \\C can't
have enemies in a nuclear age. There's
100 much at si.:1kc.
"lt's slow, bur n's very
exciting, because it's working."
~
Da>1dWIW'tla
Summer, 1989
�•
•
''lalua."
"H1nm?"
"Do you know why I brought ;yo1t lzere?"
"Mm-ll!Ylm. Same reason as alwa. s: you have some big, bad
y
1iews to 1ell me."
"Yeah ... Well, db )'OU know what it is, then?"
"I think so. You've been drq/1ed. haven't you?"
"... How'd you know?"
"Easy. Logic. We J1ave11't liad a fight, a11d you've not met
any girls •.J dbri't tlti11k-·so it couldn'1 have been w say that you
want to break up. Your family never figlus, so it couldn't be
domestic problems. And you just got your job, so I didn't really
t/1ink you could have lost it already Anyway, you're nineteen, and
there's a war. \Vluu else could there be?"
"I see. All riglr1. Madan/I! Fortune-Teller, so whm had I
planned to say next, if you're so smart?"
"Mmmm .. I don't know. What?"
"Just this. Laura: I'm going. I'm really going. Arid, l.Altra
... I want you to know. . it's/or you that I'm going. J'd hare
myself ifI didn't go, if I backed out, if I leJ (/()w11 my f<Jmily and
my courury--..as I very easily could, you know. J'm scared of
dying. Bur because ofyou, I ca11't risk hating myself. God!
I.Aura, I'm going to war!''
•
*
sining ml)bile in rhe quiet night hush, rich leaves rustling ow
beyo11d our embrace to caJch the wind-1his is love
a liglu glows from 1/ie parlor. so/1 frosted glass with the
vague shadow ofa pail11ed rose mu1ed 011 tlie lilce curtain
no one sees
kiss me quickly
this is love
the lwing chains have ceased squeaking.
a faraway distant train swells ils terrible /Ul111U)ny--tlie
sadness of le(IVing brings us yet closer w each other, an excuse,
like 1he non-existent chill ofperfiuned sow/tern June 11igh1
to draw a tender breaJh
as one···
a11d we'll do a.u:tthingfor each oilier?
•
f shl)u/d have see11 tlte missiles. the bombs. the um:rdesola1e
co11/1tSion when i looked into those eyes ofyours.
bw i only saw the stars.
•
•
•
(Jrruneas11rable)
--Do you care?
(Doi)
--Can you see?
(Wiry (/() I brood)
·-Anytlli11g wonhwlule?
(About the world's injZLrtices)
Child Why Q1'eslion
Healthy Respect Fot: Metaphysics, Papa
Bui Do You Love Me?
Son Were/ In A BcUll)•sphere Wi1/i Bebe
•
Circu.Jaring
In The Vomit Of Armageddon
Yes
/Do
•
*
i was watching my feet, wa1clii11g the light pass over them an
su11day: the leaves like cookie-cutters split a11d nfracted the light
illlo animal images on the sidewalk aJid on my shoes.
the day was calm, perfectly.
to fall u1 love.
i /liNer imended
i should have seen
tlie ripples in tire s1uuigli1-
bur 110 alas (a lass!) i,
afool, glancing up from 1n)•feet,
tripped
over yow sJw(/()w into the glorious pools of
your eyes,
wo swift to hear your liglu "helloH
or t'Ven to liear my ow11 splash.
i came gasping to the surf as soon as
ace
l could--dripping, rivuletS coursing dbwn my back-bw yow smile sunned me automatically
dry.
•
•
•
•
•• •.• yes. but are you cluvalroLtS? Do you not recognize
your duty to your Lord God and ro llis ~oyal Jligh11£Ss your
appointed Mas1err
"Yes, yes. yes; pleose stop it, Chloe, I want to sleep. dear"
A pause. "Gaah--wai11, do yo11 /01·e mt!? I don 'r think su.
realfr. Gawain, tllere ts a war ou1side our "indow. A war.
Ga\\YJin, t/,.) yo111Uldcrsta11d what I say? Ga11ai11. Please, Gawain,
go fight Jn U! You're fW1 gelling too old, are you. dl:ar heanr
"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe, Cltloe, do I lia~e to suffer to make
you huppy? Jlave you no faith 111 me? Ridiculous woman-gojeed
your peacocks!"
•
--How much?
Wlsen 1 look irr your eyes, i seem)' own reflection.
•
•
•
*
•
•
oops. the shell ofthe earth, it's a li11le cracked, spi1mi11g,
flingi11g hurtling, off-bala11ce-.,get the/at kid off
our ml!fT)"go
·ro1u1d
A1id ill Chicago, at 2:00,
the s1111 setS i11 six mimttes and ti~ buildillgs break aftto
reveal a sub1trb neighborhood benvixt gre1mspring hills
Time lriccough.s
-my black-eyed susan, you are. my sun, my soul. m.y self-··
(tire plw1ie rings.)
111/ien i look into your eyes
(the phone rings.)
when i look--". . a singing telegram/mm a mr. martin 1111/ier kiflg,jr.
will .\'Oil acceprtlte cluuges?" wiry- "we shall 01/er come, we
shaDover
come, we shall over come .•• ~
four niliety-five p/1~ tax.
i love you. susan!
romeo and juliet lli!Ver intended JhiI..
i had a dream once, too, in teclmicolor.
The transient w1frerst•
swells and re1·olves. Stars wing by, rlie Rock of 118tS
and splrere 11msic •.•
hear ii."~ sliall! overcome.
•
•
•
UNICEF is selling cl:ancc:s r/us Christmas 011 o clwi,i:: one
peace or a milliM pieas. A wlwppcr ofan honor. Bl4t ir's lb(>
bad. Thi") 're Mt making any mu11ey offit .•
aml the W1t1e11burghers a1 I! making a mint peddlfng pardnns,
�•
•
*
they are fighting for love.
*
well, my first dJlly is as citize11 of the universe. but what I
wanr to k11ow is, why i'm me and not you ... have i got a special
mission or something? it's weird to think that i'm alt there is. what
if i'm11tst imagi11iflg the whole thi11g? rw. i dbn't really believe
lhaI.. bm, you know, i could think: "i'm the whole u11iverse.'' and
chen, i'd be a citizen of myself.
•
•
it's because he's a truck driver. momma. you know that.
the only tiling i11 che world that could part /Um from that
eighteen-wheeled swee'/iean of his is Iris draft card. if uncle sam
yells for him. he's there, one mad rush to the from line where he
.na11ds,for all the world like a devoted sclwolkid saying 1/ie pledge:
perjealy composed/ace, heels together, hand to forehead in salute.
i ca11 just see Jtim. but if i_calt him. 111>w, if it's ll.llt that's yelf/11g
for him to come save one of his own babies from drowning in t/11!
plastic swimming pool, he says, "you get him out casey, i'm
working 011 the tra11smission." the transmission! my God!
momma, iin tl()t really bitter oranythi11g; i'm 1w1 lotally jealous
of1ha1 gas-guzzling baby ofhis; ; jus1 /01·e him, tnQnuna •••
•
•
•
•
They really love me. They 0011'1 wa11t me to die. U11cle Sam
j11S1 don't carry no weight with me. I c011'11uulersrand why tltis
di.s1an1 relatio11, unknow11 kin, who I never seen before, should all
a s1"1de1t turn up, just when he needs me, and ask me to up and die
for him. When I got family andfrle11ds who loves me more1n him,
who cares about bein' gold-placed in God-thick glory? Thb Uncle
Sam ofmine is askin' 100 nwch. Besides, I love my cou.mry. She
don't need any more murder on her record than she's already got.
•
•
•
~mommv!"
"ah,j11si a minwe. gail.--wlzat jimmy?"
"mommy •
·)-est'
"mommy, wlw ls Godr
"God is love, jimmy. don't pull on monuny's skirt-·!
mommy's on the telepho11e: let's not talk to mommy now, okay,
jinuny? we ca11 talk about this later.-excuse me gait go ahead."
"mommy, where is God?"
"i11 htave11,ji1runy. now go play ouwde 011 your big wheel
for a while."
"mommy; how come God does11't come to the world a11d
give people hugs sometimes, mommy?"
"oh, gall! your kidding me. no! i k11ow you can't just suy
that in a resraura11t.---i don't k11ow,1inu11y. jimmy! look at
mommy wizen she's talking ro you now, i asked )'OU to go
nwside, didn't i, young man?"
•
•
•
God is Love, love is God, God is love •. .
•
•
•
the h11ge11ess of the earth
smothers them
they are caug/11
ben11ee11 the growul
and the infini1e ozone-bl~
b1a their love is deep and great mul hean-crescenooing.
they are
fighting and loving blindly, passionately
(ca11 you see it?)
look imo their love-shot eyes.
just look
•
*
•
wlllll js tlie worrh of this love? they dje like
•
•
•
mes
•
•
romeo and ju/fez never imended JhiI,
i should have
k11ow11 when i went to ba11le for you, dear,
i should ltave k11own,
•
•
*
standing 11p in too-shon sluule
eyes sweatiflg salt--the sky
U>O blazing clean w cry
•
Yet oo they k1ww
how whar when where why they go?
screaming, Jitavillg blood to
rouge the barre11 dust,
•
•
so.
shall i die for you, the11?
shall i die for you?
and kill a thousand
because i love and serve one?
one God, one Belief, one Way, one Cou111ry, one
Mother, 011e Child, one Man. one Woman,
One anw11g miflio11s?
given time. i could team ro love them all.
•
•
•
i should have known, swinuning up from 1Jwse pools that
how easily I could h/1\le drowned there. had you
are your eyes,
asked me 10 pick up
a sword.
a dagger,
a bayonet,
a machine guri,
a bomb
a11d prove my love co you·-·
well. i should liave k11own,
as you knew. didn't you,
a/Id wisely showed me
that somebody's blood could prove nobody's devotion
and thlll w lo\·e t)fll!
is to love all.
is11't that what you mea111?
looking into your eyes.
i see tlU! reflection of the universe,
don't i?
oon't i?
*
•
•
one more time/or the time, J;e steps inside the frame,
Md out again.
and looks back ar d~ impressio11 he has left-·
see tire image ofa yowig soldier
, young sol·
, young
my mother lived i11 hiroslrirM.
•
• )'Oil·
•
•
rlu.• men, the lleros. the womcm. die cowards, thtt cowbays,
tiil' soldiers, a11d the priesL\, the rabbis, a11d the martyrs, the
be11ei;oh111 dictarors, till! politicians, and sumebody'l dog
and the childro1!
Photo by Rob Mc5Sltk
�Reflections On
Growing Peace in Cultures
by Mamie Muller
The universe irself can be turbulent,
tumultuous...so whatever peace is, it needs 10
acknowledge that dimension of re:ility. Binh
and death and dying...:md composting..and
change exist in the universe...so that, too. needs
t0 be included in an imaging of peace. Female
and male exist in cite uaiverse...other spt'cics
exisr...the eanh itSelf wanants our anention...so
peace, if it is possible. needs co acknowledge
and honor all those relations.
And dreams ...cx.ist in this universe ...and
memory...and our interior psychcs ....nnd
love...aml absence of love....Can peace
ace-0mmodate the ranges of all th:it? When I
stretch r.he boundaries of my mind and hean and
each time- say "that, 100"...somehow peace stnys
with me, and so I wonder as to ir.s nature and
origin.
As l d.:lve into my concep1/h1ngu:ige
reservoir, the closest thing tlr.n l can say peace
is---is "to be intcgro.1 with". Being integral with
someone, something, some element... means
that in some way I participate in a .rlwred
existence witl1 I.hem and appreciation of that
shared existence contains in it, for me, I.he
possibility of shared pence.
For peace, though, to be more than just a
personal experience or an event between two
entities, ii is essential 10 look to 1hc scale of the
sodoc11lmral. h is here that our human stories
unfold. Culture, 1 r.hink, is best thought of in its
most hteral. biological scn~--as a medium in
winch to grow something. such :lS bacteria. It
seems that th<: tendency towards culture is
i11here111 in our very make-up. I !ere we are...a
spccies...h:wing grown in communily-fonns for
hundreds of thousands of year.. That occurencc:
was preceded by an even more ancient fom1ing
or single-celled organisms imo mulu-cellcd
ones. We seem to be truly crcnturcs of culture.
Thomas Berry talks nbout trc111sge11etic
mlwral coding, The passing on of "deep
mformation" is an essential aspect of the
function of any culture. Divcr.>ity among
cultures can Ix: ~tounding---language, foods,
color.;, designs. sounds, songs. in~trumc:ms,
dances. ceremony, ::m:hitecture--but the:
fl'arufcrc11ci: of i11fomw1icm---is a comrm)n tr3it
Does, as Thom;1s suggesl'i, our cultural coding
pasi. on infonn:11ion ...i11 as clt:111c111al a 11ay a.r
c/1ro11u15omes do?
Doe~ our consciousness have no active
part to play in the process of evolution?'! Cm
we in fac1 nunun: or crarl imentional cultures
that cnfumcc our panicip:nion in the planct:iry
prt>Cess? Thomas speaks or the universe as
having a psychic dimension...from ib very
inception. Not an ntlditivc nor an extra
ingredient, it is rather. he insi~ts. an elcmcmal
facet of our phy:.i..:al universe. So lei us say th:u
the universe, from the beginning, ha:. been
psychic 10 itself--through itself. Then, the
question becomes: can hununs pltticipatc in this
elemental dimension? Can human culture:;
consciously allow for the recognition,
utilization, and celebration of this full rcnlity?'!
It is at this level that we begin im1uiring
about thC' possibil11ies of peace. The univer:;e
constJnt!y infonns itself. Can we luunm~t be
1nfo1111Cd? h :.cem) that one of the roles of an
organic functional culture is to enhance 1hc
indi\ id11als' ability t~) he.-u· rhc "infonn.11ion" of
the univc.rse.
Our relations amongst ourselves nre
intimately interwoven in U1c fabric of the
universe. Unless we explore and 11ckno~ledgc
!he univcri-e in a// the dimensions in which 11 is
preseming itself to us, we remain isolated and
enelol>ed.. .in~'ap~blc of the exuberance required
for ongoing "re!Juonship"...of any son,
whether human-co-human or human-to-earth.
Western culture's dcufness and myopia
tO\\,ird~ thi:. "inlorm;uion" scern 10 h.we
occum:J b<!cause of it:. limited recognition of the
depth of 1he naturul world*.dcscribing 11 as
nll!re landscape and inanimate treasure uove.
The pos:.ibilily for communicauon... much less
for communion has thus become practically
impos:.ible. Yet ironically 1t is here whc~ a great
deal of cultural healing mus1 take placc....1n the
re:i..lm of hum:1n-eunh relations. Our p:;yches
need t0 reconnect in a one-to-one
correspondence with these deep psychic
inl1uences of the universe and renew a sense of
bondedness with the n:uuml world.
The infomu1tlon or the universe reveals
ltself 111 many \\ ay~ ... but ont of the sirnple)t,
closest ways 1s to listen to one's homcplac.e--to
1hc c:nurc ecological life community in whi~h
onc·s human community b immersed. "Bcmg
integrJl with .. suggests 1hc need to pcrcdve a
sense of the natural scale 01 things so that we
can more appr<1priatcly and fully be able "to be
integrJI w11h" all the varied levels.
In 1enns or ecological sc.1lc, it seems that
human culture can bci.t relate to the natur.tl
world ar. the lc\'el of the regional scale. Going
beyond the neighborhood or covc.. beyon<l the
li:>cal ...one comes to the n:gionnl. It is here: lhnt
Summ1:r, 1989
�one can notice whole ecosystems at v.ork (or :11
play). Watershed, geolo~ic:il form:mon,
similarity in plant nnd unirnal spccles...all these
11.rC best comprehended nt the rcglon:tl
level...\\ hich h3s us distincl though "soft"
n:itur:tl boundaries. A region is wulknble,
know:ible -.nnd in crnfting hulll:l11S)Stems10
interface \\ith the ecological systems, this as the
sc:ile nt \\ hich 11 ts ntikcs the most sense 10 ..be
integr:ll v. ith".
Encouraging nccurntc, full pcrccpuon of
reality is cntical in developing cuhural model111g
~ystems that will funcuon ru.lcqu:ucly. 11lc m:irk
of a :.tiflmg culture, 11 seems, is one in whicl1 the
range of sh:ued perceptions of reality remains
quite restricted; one in which, for exnmplc, the
many ranges of red arc referred to only as "red",
thus ignoring the myriad hues of thlll family of
color. A restrictive culture relegates drcamtime
to the realm of the subordinate and gmnts
nonexistence to ull bUl n mengcr spectrum of
sounds and senses. An nlivc. functioning
organic culture. on the other hand, nurtures
individuals' facuhies of perception and
encourages their scn~c of rootedness in a shared
realiry--both in terms of the human :ind natural
\\Odd.
EncoUt3ging the development of :iccurate
feedback mcch:inisms within I.he infrastruclurc
of a culture is also essential. lf a culture does not
3llow for appropriate fcedb3ck, then 11 W:k of
internal vibrancy occurs...promoting
fossilization of thought P,:tttcms. activi1y, and
environs. Spedfie nurufestations of culture
such as archuecture, roodbuilding, commerce,
food producuon, communications, b:lnking.
govern~ e1c. become highly rigid and unduly
reinforce the status quo.
How can a culture allow for a sense of
fluidity as well as solidi1y? llow C3l1 we come
iogether in community-forms without
domesticating ourselvei; to death .•.ns \\ell ns the
planet? How c;in we, not just individually but in
a socio-cultural sense, a~·knowledge the whole,
rich, diverse range of the dep1hs of the naturJI
world as well :is the human psyche? It seems
the more in 1ouch we arc with our sense of
bondedness to 1he wider Lifo conununity. the
more access we have to resolving thc:.e
questions.
Exchange between humans onJ the
nalural world t.ak~ pince nt evcrv level whether
we acknowledge it or not. Our fuc:uhing in 1111d
our breathing out ••. our intake of food nnd our
rele:isc of wnstcs as \\ell ~ mnny other
fimctions clc:irly icll us 1h:l1 we live In the pl:mct
not on it and we arc a part ofthe dynnrruc
process nOl apan from it. I low c:in we nurture
the growth of cultures \\hose infrasuucturc
designs acknowledge this in1mute ongoing
exchange?
Cultures usu:illy reflect 11 com:munny's
sense of its human hentnge but u is esscnu:d thni
they rcllcc1 a sense ofthctr ecological hcniage :is
well. 11115 mtim: ey of hum:in CXISlCllCC Wlth lhc
n:itUr.J.I world needs 10 be recognized not JUSt on
the biolog1cal, chemical level bu1 on the
psychic/l>pirltunl level us well Our very sense
of personal nnd cultural idemi1y needs to
incorpom1e 1he ccolog1cal l111ncnsion. Only
\\hen we begin to undcr&iand and l'ncour.igc
these "conditions" fur pcncc...cun we come
closer to growin~ pe11cl! 111 c11lturcs...
Summer, 1969
Some concepts to consider for growing peace in cultures...
res~ct for dhe~ty ~UllC:llOO of SJ!CCICS llS w..11
a:s e.uemun:uJOa of ethiue peoples has become :i StVCtC
thrc:u throughout lhc pl;inct. ID add1uon to etbic:al
constderau~. bomoccnuy and d1m1msh~nt ol
m:uufcsuuaos o( hfe llIC 21so blologlc:ally un,.1se. 1be
lolth lllld ~bihty of rmy sy m wh.:tha hum;in Of
ccologd. rest m a gcnumc rcsp:c1 lllld cclclKatmn or
bhluc as u.ell cultural diverS1ty
beyond dominanrr Mmy culturtS lll\e become
c:nucn:bcd m:i • domiruon °'er" JWod J:m 11.' u C'.'ld.."ll:cd
m term, of gender, rllCC. ctlum: hcn1Jgc, species lllld/Of
cge. This dom1n1on pi)Sturc c::iuscs ph)'MC:&I,
psychologlc:ll, sp1.ntu~1. cc-011omic: lllld cnvaronmcntnl
~ufflX':lllOO, A mocc babncc:ll. cqu1ubli: dyn:umC' mo.tel a
n:qu1n:J 1n which mu1uality is 1hc b:is1~ r~1hcr than fol\'e
Of co.:rccmcnL
tuvp,rntion No longer does rul\lieJ 111d1v1du:ihsm or
Da.rw11w111 compc11t1on pro-.Jc tm ulllm:UC mo.let fOI'
suN1val. Cooper:.11on 1111d symbio11~ nrc now being
recognized as csttr4i:il nspccts or our biologknl hcntasc.
Coopc:3lion. CQ-C1.1si.cncc. and conlUcMcsoluuon need w
be 01 the bc3r1 or :a "'br.uu culture. Vclucs iUCh u
cmp:ithy and imporuncc ol ie:im"ork !so need w be
rccbimcd.
11ppropri:ue 'cale Dimensions or sale occur
l!uougbout lbe Jl:l1.Ur.ll 11.-orld Crom die microscopic to die
lllXtOSIX>pic. Sak ~ :also 1111pon;u11 in terms ol hummJ
11ttavity. In f:ict. ii is an csscnlbl dcmcnt tn dcsl,nmg
for qu:il1l)' ol we-.11;hc1bc.r an tmns or technology.
c:cooomks, archi1cc1urc Of 1111y odlct l1lU Emplmlzing
appropri.ale sc::ilc CDCOU1'3btl the shlfl rrom D bi&flly
c:crunhzcd and bicrnrcluail mode IO one lh3.t IUPJIOIU
clivcrsificntioo mid dccenlr.l.liution It also nud,cs us to
rc-cv:Wi:uc the b:lsic :ugumcms ol ccntr.1h1.:111on such o~
ns110113l sccuri1y, cconom1e &t:ibahty tluoush
coloni:llism, homogcncny anJ eullur:il supcr10111y. We
begin to recognize the l!eW to oplorc hum:in 'c:ilc,
\•illage·JJ:llk 1llld rcgion·sc:ile modcls.
ao••crnancc All mhnb11:rn1~ <>f M
communny h:ive nghL~ 11m.J nrc cnu1lc<l 1<1 panlc1p:11c 1n
appropriule
dccision·making lh31 concerns their \HI! lleint
Governance. in particular, is directly uffctlCJ by sct1lc.
We arc n:llcctcd by nruJ reflect our $WTOumhntt. II lhc
boundario:.s 11re defined 1n IOO large 11 l!Qlc, 1hcn It Is
d1ffirult for 1nh:lbi1.'.lll1S to ~nsc: thr.mselvo n.s a p:ut of
and p:uucip:uang an 11 self.governing process
lktcrnlm~ ~ scale: the level 111 v. h1ch dce1S10nS
shooW be rn:Uk (commumty-lmcd. rcgton:ll), and the
type ol pnxcss to be ~ {m:ipuy rule. conSCISLIS. etc:..)
11rc all pan of a culture's re trcttunng towtirds
sclf-go~
=
opportunlly for rlgbr lhelaaood All uihab UlnU
entitled to the oppanumty for i«Unng food, $hella.
jCqXl1diung thclt owa 11;'Cll being.
clothing. et:.
"''llioul
ol thl:ir fellow mhab1lllllH Or that or l~
en• arorunem. Ernplmis oa co:nmun11y ~ cconomu::s
c:m c:tlCQ<lilll!C this kind ol rcspocmblc dcsJin and
~lsion-nul:u...- Dc\'CloplRgllll CCOllOm) \tr4 I
gJIJUS
1u dependence on the "anh cc<momy" allows fur
pcn:cptlOll or rc:al cOStS. 11Us llllJUSU llJC l<b of progrc.u
and dc•clcprmnl to encompass •be 11;cll being nr lhc
CIUICC Life rommunuy.
lhlll
1uillllnability The ccologial life 5)5tcms vmhill a
region lltC p31t of lh: 11.-t:ict sclf·susuitihlg pbncWy
system It as auc1Jl th:u ow hum:m sysums begm to
rcf1a:t and support tbiJ sitstmmb•luy principle. \\c need
to develop "'11)'S to ev;iluatc our hum3tl ICliVIUCS
(qnculturc, forestry. ~th eve. tr.111q>0rl:lt1on.
banhng. u.'21Cf use.. Clelgy use. cu:) an lh3t ~ We. In
la=t. need to k:lm how 10 "rcillh:lbil" the boal!>CCgiOn m
wludl we h\C, to accumcly lllldusund JtS ccol0£ical
c:irr) 111g apxuy. and to design l01ro"lltds rcgion:il
suffi 11.!llCy.
inlrrdcpt"ndrncc Acknowledgement ot 1ntcrdcpcndcnt'C
entoulllges the bioccntnc dc5ign of hum:m sysians. nus
1ccoJ:nh1on nl~o allows for a creative :iwro:ich 10
n.:s1hcuc nnd £unc1101JJI uspccis a.> wcll. i;uch ns opumurn
cap~c11y for rc.~ancc and cnh:lncc:mcn101 st1troundinv,
mcorporauon oC 11. md, w.:itcr, .sunlight 1n de~tgn:
CORS11.kn.H10R of gcogtaphfcal/Sp;IU:ll rtxcmcnt: Dlld
llcs1gning with illtcr.spccics communion In mmd.
lmpOrllnCf
uf
rccdbotklre~poos" circuits A
10 receive infonnauon lllld
cullure needs 10 be :ible
respond to 11_.through reflccuon, cvllluauoa. 11nd
pou:ruill! lld;ipt3U00 or ch:mgc. CIC. Prcscnlly. u o~s
lh:ll COlllempallt)' cultures do not 113\'C lldcqu:i:e response
CtrCUllS bw1t m. Far ~. cuhur:ll dqlcndencc Oil the
DUtomOblle JCSUllS in anordinalc consmnptJoo or bumm
ll me and fossil Cuc.I. Yet. bccmlsc of 1111 cntrtllChtd
u:insporution industry th:u is rcinforctd by p"Cl'lllncn1
m 11;'Cfl 11S pnvau: indastry. crcah-e options ror eulwnl
rcconstclbuon arc
not lldcqu:ucly supponed...sucb 11J
cL'Slgnlng urban vilbges wt= u.ukpbce ll1ld bolncpbcc
tile nc:ucr to cXh other, prodllciog cnvironmcnta:lly
Slb12lll;lble \'Cllicles. etc.
meaM ror transrcrcoc" or illfonaatlon All culwrts
have ways for the passing oa ol infonn:uion and wisdom
rrom gtOC1111J011 IO gcnc:rauon. The xcumulatcd opericncc
or o eullUIC am be siurcd Uirough suirytelling. an,
llC'lldemics, child-rearing, education, ~. It is impllfWll 11>
OJ1Jll'C:Cl3LC and parUclp:iLC in the craf'ung of this orpnlc
ronn Of "i.torl1l:C lilld rctncval".
:!»lCrtdntY or ur~ The Dddrcss or 1he tbu De No Snu
Nee N:111on 111 the UN Conference of Non-g1wcllllllCnul
Orgunlrntions m Geneva 111 1977 voices ttus concept
n~ eloquently: '"The origmal 1nstJUaaon1 dilCCt lh3l \\C
.i.ho ,.1111: 11bou1 on the E:ulh arc IO apn:.ss a grC3t
respect. rm nfk.cuon. ll!ld a grauiudc toward all lhc spmts
v.1rich Crute 11114 support life-Our roocs 11n: d«p Ill I.he
btidJ 11;'hae 'll'C hYC.-The soil 1s rich from Che bono of
thousmJs ot our gcncn1lQnS. E:i::h or 11S 'll'CfC crated 111
1hoic l:uu1s and ii u our dU1y to u1.c grm c.c ol
them We wtik nbou1 11.ilb a pCl1l respect. for the f.:rth
Is 1 '":tY SXtCd plxe." Eadl cuhurc can help 1his srnsc
ol the~ of W'c 11ourisb bolh Oii lhc ~ _,
,.'Cll as euliunl level.
crlrbrali!ltl Dnd renectioD Culnuc Hau lijJCCttS'
medium
sh.lrcd ~ ~wen llS shmd actlcr:lncc.
I
tlOCll. n:ltural cckbr.1lioD as v.-cll as c:ultwal mod:s
of rdlcaion cnh:m:c our cupxtl)'
commU!UOll v.1111
the rcsa of the unhcrse-aot jtlS1 on lhc pcrsoo;il ~I
bul on t.'ic mnmumty-widc level. Comcaous rct ruuon
n::d llrprccllllion of llll1113t!/caltur:ll as \llCll lll coolotial
hc11mgc."both "3SarW and h1Uor~I .JS II rorm Of
ckmentnl nourishment Ulllt c:m only come m 1 Slwcd
ror
ror
form.
-Mamie Muller
�The Chalice and the Blade
Tht wor.t of Muri1a GimbUJas (The Gods and Goddtssts of
Old Europt, 1000 to 3500 BC: Myths, Ltgtnds and Cult
/mag1t), Mt:rlin Stone (AnciMI Mirrors of 1Yomanh11od) and others
haw! pionurtd tk uplora1ion ofour species' trut: cultural origw. Now with
tk publicalion of The Clullce anti lhe Blntlc ( 1988), t~ tvitk11ct of this
research along with Eisfcr's f4peful inttrprttmions Is[Ultllly r'ttzeliing brQOder
rtaduship such that Ashley Montagu calls it "the IMSt impottant book sinct
Darwin's Origin of Specit.r". llrre are two rtsf)OllSts to its t:iJllltlll.
Emoft.e B'r<lCZ:
Tlte Chalice a11d rite Blade confirms my long-held belief
that ''once-upon-a-time" there were peaceful societies
(partnerships) in existence on this planet. This gives me hope that
we can muddle our way into a personal and global peaceful
coexistence. After two readings of the book, the following
points su>0d out:
•Tue scientific and 1eehnologicnl advanccmcn[S of this century
have allowed us IO ~amine nnd re.evalU11te e.arlia a.rchcotogical
findings. The initrdisciplin:uy upprooch or t.ntcrprctlng "finds". lhe
bte:ikthlO\lgh in es.rbon-14 d:ltlng, and \he dendrochronological
dating method yield a diffetCtJl body or work and data on out
histOry.
••conqu~1· of noturc h:is no1 always been the prime mover of
Out species.
• PoJytheislic religious life does not equal anti-christinn ccvility.
•Art is a form of symbolu; communkmlon, and much depend.~
on who is interpreting the symbols.
•The "might mllkes right" philosaphy is 1111 abbenu.ion. ..not the
nonn.
• tntultivc knowledge ls a part or the sciences.
• "That's hisiory..•
1nd lluu's a fac1· is nn unncccpiable answer to
quesliOllS asked.
"The domuwor (JX!triltehal) mode or socw order is 111opproprinle
nnd dangerous tO our further e11olvcmcnL. edSICOcc and fulW'C,
Riane Eisler believes that we are presently al a crossroads.
We can continue as we are...and it is inevilable that we will
destroy ourselves...or we can try to emulate and rebuild the
peaceful societies which did exist. After reading Tile CIUJ/ice and
the Blade. I was convinced that peace is possible. The number
of role models for us to identify with has been widened
immeasurably by this book, There can be a choice for pence and
equality even within the confines of our civiliuition. History
goes in cycles, und unlike what we've learned in school, it is
never a fiJCcd point. It is forever changing, evolving. It is our
responsibility and challenge to investigate, to question, and to
look at presented ''facts" with an unquenchable thirst nnd
unending enthusiasm.
I would like to share with you some of the books. in
addition to The Gita/ice and rite Blade that have made me yearn
for and ponder the idea of peace:
General Readers hi p: Think on These Things by J. Krlshnamurti:
Too of Ltodarslup by J Header; Grt!ui Politics by C. Sprcm:ik; Grun
Alternative by 8. Tab:: Going Out of Our M111ds by S. Johnson: IOOth
Monhy by K. Keyes; Johnny Got lfis (iun by D. Trumbo: Da1:u of
Angtr by H. Lance: Peace Pilgrim by A. Pilgrim: St:t!1fs of Pt:ou II)' J.
L:irson; Gandhi on Ptaet by M. Gn111lh1; Jlov.· Can Ont Sell th( Air.
Edit.:d: Chop Wood. Corry \\'attr by R. F'aclds.
Chi ldren 's Books: W.tlwm Wants A Dolf by C. Zolo1011:
Friend.r by H.Hcmc; Quarter-Note Cow Pou byJ. Poucr. Mrnou by H.
Bmgham: Chu:ktn Stew by K. Kasla: Kuper.I oft~ Earth by M.
Cuduto; Tru II Niu by J. Urdy; lJ-.< B.imb and tht General by U. Eco:
BuJll!T Boule Dool. by Dr. Seuss.
Emou B'rar:. an a'td reada t1nd sr.J10lar. 1s the ot<na
of frf.Jfuprop'.J
Boo*stor~ and Cofi ill AJMvillt. NC. Si:t 011gina1td tlu! suhutft "A11othtT
STt111/I Bus111t.fS for Pcau# tmd uwitl!s otkr smafl b1131nes1: ow11as to 11•1n
kr 1111tS111g iI on clttir logos and ad•·~rflSt'mtlllS.
tt.Uo Clu thr i.e:
The Chali ce and The Blade was given to me by a
woman-friend juSt after this past Winter Solstice, and it has llad a
profound effect on me. Scrangely enough, it had b<:cn shown to
me several months before, but I was not aurncted to it. l think
when I saw it the first time I thought it was another
mytho-psychological analysis of "feminine" versus "masculine"
values. I was in a spa.cc of trying to explore my own sense of a
ne\li masculine ethos and I didn't want to read what I thought
would be a book on women's archetypes or psychological
explorations. I needed a more grounded sense of what 11 means
to be human n.t this time in history.
When I finally opened up the book, and actWllly began to
rc~d it, I couldn't put it down. Instead of being t.he psychological
or mystical volume I expected, I found a remarkable CJCploration
or "our history, our future." as ii says on the cover. Riane Eisler
has taken a look at the entire sweep of human cuhurnJ evolution
from a new perspective. that of t.he pannersbip, or "gylanuc"
viewpoinL Her central thesis is that all the bases of human
culture, arts. and civilizntion were developed at a time in which
women and men were both respected, in which sexuality was
free, and where the technology was of nurturance, not
destruction. This is, in shon, the lost "golden age" of myth and
legend. It really happened! I Our dr~ms of 1he future have their
firm b:isis in a past which has been denied to us because of
:indrocratic m1sinterpre1ation of both human nature and the
archaeologicfil record. For example, we carry with us the image
of early "man" holding a club with which to hit something over
the head and kill it; in actuality the fin;t technological invention
was probably ll vessel of some kind, either for ga1henni
vegel!lble foodstuffs or for cradling children. These were. of
course, invented by early women.
The implication!> of tJ1is viewpoint are ~taggcnng: this book
is justly receiving gre:u acclaim from a wide range of ~ources.
The concept of n lost · m:m1archal golden age" is central to 1he
more spiritual trends in feminist thought, and i!> a heartfelt belief
Summ..:r, 1989
�or wish of modem 01anic neo-p:igans. In fact, Feminist
Spirituality is frequently criticized by more materUlist viewpoints
for not being grounded in an historical rcal11y. Tltt! Chaliu ar.d
tht! B~adt! J?UlS t~e lie to these doubt~ about the vnlidity or
Feminist Spintu:ihty by scrupulously an:ilyzing the historic:ll and
an:h:ieolog1cal record to suppon its premise
A lot of emphasis is placed 1n the book on the imponance
or Cretan or Minoan Civilization to the development or Western
culture, This highly technologically advanced civilization, which
":is at its height about a thousand years before Class1c:ll Greece
(ca. 1400 B.C.E.), honored both women and men equally. was
nol3bly non-warlike. and "orsh1pped the Great Goddess. Who
has not marvelled at pictures of the bull·leapers, the
Snake·Goddess statues, or the dclic:ue painung or lilies and
dolphins which adorned the walls of the grc:it J13lace at Knossos'?
And let\ not forget the Labrys. or double-axe which is today a
prominent iron of Lesbian/Amazon cuhure. 'fbe origin of this
symbol b m the Goddess· religion of Crete,
The Clzaltee and tlit! Blade ts an inell.pcnsive volume,
published by Harper nnd Row. It h llVilllable in your local,
regular bookstore (if it's not sold out), or m the library. Since
it's inexpensive, it doesn't have glossy color photos of the
Minoan art treasures mentioned in the text. I found it useful to
have a couple of an or nn.:hacological books by my ~idc 10 be able:
to :.1~e lhe wonderful scenes of young Mino:in men with flowers
in 1heir h:mds, of priestesses performing the rites of the Gre~ll
GodJess. My dreams have not been the sanu: since!!
Another imporum1 fe:11urc of I he Chaliu and the Blade is
its e:\plorntion of the ":.tuntcd morality" (>f b1bhcal law in reg:ird
to \\'Omen. Quoung Eisler: ~we have been taught ttul the
Judeo·Christian trndnion is the greatest mornl ndvnnce of our
species. The Bible is indeo.I primarily concerned .,.. ith what is
right and \\tong. But what is right and wrong in a dommator
society is not the same as what 1s right and wrong in a
pannership society. There nre...many teachings in both Judaism
and Christinnity suitable for a panner!>hip sy:.tem of human
relations. But to the extent that 11 reflec1s a dominator society.
biblical morality is at best stunted. At worst, it is a
pseudo-morality in which the will of God is a device for covering
up cruelty and barb.1ri1y."
When I learned ancient hhtory in gmde school. the
assumption was that law and moraJ11y began with the code or
Hammlll1lbi or the Mosaic Laws. ln reality, these dominator law
codes were set up after the overthrow of legal and moral systems
which valued all human life, female and male. and which
governed peaceful, not warlile, wcieties. ln addition, the
classical Greek ideas of libcny and democracy (for free men
only) were but watered·down versions of the earlier tr.1ditions
which had their origins in pre-androcrauc societies such as
Minoan Crete. In fact, Pythngonis and Socrnte~ were pupils of
women Thcmistoclcn and Diotema, respectively.
Much of myth, classical, Biblical, and othcrwi~. rccounis
how the Goddess was ovenhrown, r.ipcd and murdered. These
myths developed as justifications for the continued
dominator/;indrocratic rule following the dcsll\ICtion of the earlier
pea~ful, agricultural societies by wnrhke. pastor.ii peoples from
the more margmal area:; or Eurasia. Riane Easler also recounls
how the partnership or gylanic mode of society has periodically
resurfaced, only to be suppressed again. Some or the teachings
of Jcsu~ reflect a loving vision of peace and hannony; the later
church fathers supplanted this with 3 warlike and hierarchical
"Christianity." 1·hc very word "hierarchy" W3S coined to
describe the organiution or the c:irly church.
The word "gylany" or "gylanic" has been formed by Riane
Eisler to describe the type of society which flourished in ancient
times and toward \\hich v.e must move today if our species is to
survive; it is a combination of "gy." denvcd from the Greek root
word gyne, meaning woman, and "an." from andros, or lll3II.
The letter ·1· between the l\\O is for linkin&. and is derived from
the Greek lytln or Iyo. This verb has a double meaning: to
resolve (as in analysis) or to dissolve or set free (as in cul3.lysis).
This word and its origin sum:. up the m:un thesis of the
book: that how a society organizes the relation~ between the two
hnlves of humaniry (men and women) hn~ a profound effect upon
all its ins1i1utions and vnlues; and the direction of its cultural
evolution, pllrticulnrly whether it will be peaceful or warlike.
tmmer, 1989
Needless to say, in a technological era where the "bl:ide" is a
thennonuclcar bomb or a nerve gas canister instead of a S\\iord or
slingshot, this is a matter of the very survival of our species.
While The Chalice and rite Blade focuses m:iinly on the
w3ys rcl:uions between \\Omen and men are constructed a~ a
gauge of how totalitarian or warhke a society is. there are
abundant references to way:. in which men, particularly
"sensiuve" or "effeminate" men arc oppressed by androcr:lcy. As
we know. and as Eisler points out, these warlike and t0tali1arian
wcietie~ (H111c:r's Germany, Khomeini's lran, etc.) arc the most
opprc:.sive 10 women and to peaceful tendencies in men or 10
:>pintual m1nori1i~ (Jew , B:iha'is. etc.).
• Iow a society organizes the relations
bcl\\CCn the two halves of humanity (men and
women) has a profound effect upon all its
ins1i1u1ions and values, and the direction of its
cultural evolution, particularly whether i1 will
be peaceful or warlike.
ln regard to the issue of maleness and warlike values, nerc
1s Easler· viewpoint: "For 1mllcnia men have fought wars and
lhe 8l:1de has been a male symbol Bul this does not mc:in men
arc inevnably violent Md w:irhkc. Throughout rcconlcd hif.tory
then: have bcc:n peaceful and non-violent men. Moreover,
obviously there were both men and women in !he prehisiorico.1
societies v.herc the po\\ er to give and nunurc, v.hich the Olnlicc
symbolh:C! , was supreme. The underlying problem is not men
o.s a sex. The root of the problem lies 1n a social system in v.hich
the power of the Blade 1s idealized - in \\hich men nnd women
D.1'C taught to equate true lll3sculinity with violence and dominance
and to see men who do not confonn to this ideal as 'too soft' or
'effeminate'."
It IS apparent thllt the vision or I gyJanic SOCU:ty is thal of
crcauvc dynamic interpersonal relations \\rit large: the vision of
gentle loving \\Omen and men living in harmony \l.ith nature 1s
\\hat \\e offer for the reemergence of the future partnership
society which must be the p:ith of humanuy's future. The basis
of any society and culture h the way one person relates to
another. This is true for woman to woman, man to man or
mlln/~oman relationship:.. Now i~ the time for us co carry our
vision forth mto the new world which is being crcrued by all the
human vi:oionarie!> nnd poets who sense the turning of the cosmic
wheel.
The human species is obviously facing a crucial period in
history: either we will full b:ick into a kind of androcratic
tcchnofascism in which women will be slaves. free sexuality will
be suppressed, and the organisms of the planet will choke on
human filth or be incinerated/radiated in a nuclear holocaust; or
v;e will somehow develop :a new culture which values
nunurance, h:is respect for life and hum!lnlly in all its variety :md
sc:icual flowenng, and rinds ways to meet its material needs
without ciitinguishing other species and tenninaJly fouhng it
nest. Khomeini and the Morul Majority understand how
Feminism. civil rights. free SCltunlity. ecology. and peace nrc
linkcJ, and they oppose them all with a vengc.ncc; we who reali7.C
how these values are pan of our vbion and hold the key to our
~urvival must continue co become \\hat we want in the world and
create the myths in our laves which will be the stories for our
people to live by.
The Cho.lice and rlie Blade has given me hope. In this time
of rc-<lcdic1uion to the principles wh1ch l have cherished in my
heart for years. this book has mengthcned my "·ision and
nllowed me co feel pan of a past and a future or joyous. loving,
harmonious women and men, liv1ng in deep commimion \\ith the
Ennh and iis creatures. Wbo could ask for more'?'?
M1hJ Gwlvu: u a co-/oWllkr of 11il ClllnNrl.JNi Grtt11 ColAl!Cil aJlJ a/rt~111
con111bMtor to its publicat1on g1«nhgh1 Prcst111ly. lw spuids hls 111r11 both
in DMrham NC and NOJhv1//t, JN whtft /ormaliz1n1 his 1ra1111ng 111
bctanical stiul1es. This revi~ 1.f rtpr111ttdfrom grccnlighL
�Lhcm: conscrva1.1on: improving and rtp:tirmg Lhe
city/cowuy d4uibution system; and coop:nwng with the
towns oi Woodfin and WcavcrvtlJc 111 developing the Big
Ivy River v.'aler supply.
ALAR • A • LA MODE'
poUutanis. These regubtlons wtll be dlscusscd 8l public
hearillgs on August 4 m Rllle1gh Md Augu.st 9 in
Owlott.c.
Chemical mduStrics were the l:lrgcst &OW'CC of
polluwus. Olhcr lasge cooLObutors we.re furniture,
tcllule. pbsucs and rubber, p1per. nnd prmlln& and
N..unl World Ne•1 ~ace
publishing industries.
C:.,111wba and fors)th counties were the wont
Even as Federal health officials tty to calm
growing concerns about aJar sprayed :apples, Ilic
En · lronmcmlll ProlCCl.ion Agency d«idcd to Ill lcw
t.empomnly remove Abt from 1 h$t or acccpublc
chcmk:al sprays.; During a sub<ommauce hearutg on the
Al:ir-m. Scru!tor John Wamcr of Vqmia Wied Prwdens
Bush, • to cxcrc:asc some cri~iJ control" to PfOLCcl lhc
apple indusuy dependent on Abt spraying. while other
sen310ts suu.ed thcu ()\\.Tl hes11.ancy IO fccJ their children
Haywood C:OWU) wu next, and was the only westertn
county to cxccod 2 million pounds, th3nks mostly to the
Champion Paper mill ""hicb reported rclC4Sing 3.S
million pounds of tolic air pollution, mcludmg 810,000
lbs of the carcinogen chloroform, 660.000 lbs or
hydrochloric acid, ll!ld 66.000 lbs of sulfuric acid whach
conttibut.cs 10 :.cid rain. D:iyco reponcd 1.7 million tons.
Figures for other Western counties ase:
Ru1bctfonl - I IO 2 milljoo lbs.. Primary so~ - Reeves
Brothers, l.S million lbs. and Broylull Furniture
lnd~Lties. Transylv111u.11 • 500,000 to I million lbs.
Primary source - Ecusta divisiron of P.H. Gl3dfcltcr.
Buncombe - S00.000 to I million lbs. Primary sources •
Chnsc Packaging, 270.000 lbs; Chcnuronic~ (Jct
Research Center), 263,000 lb$: Andre11 lndus111es.
110,000 lbs or tcLtacbloroethylcnc, a carcinogen.
Mitchell " S00.000 t0 I million lbs. Primary sourccHcnredon Furniture lnduSl!ies, 600,000 lbs. Burke S00,000 IO I million. Hcndc™>n - 250.000 10
apple products.
CHAINSAW BANDIT
STILL AT LARGE
Nat.uni Wockl Newt Servico
As of lhLS rcporung, Beech Mounuin Town
Police and the Avery County Sherirrs Oc:p:inmcnt still
have no wspccis in tl1c ~11uct1on or lhrc:c b1llboan1s.
TOO signs we.re allegedly toppled by a chain-saw on
Wcdllcsday, r.tiy 17. Appal\:lltly, lllCIC was some public
SUpporl ror thl~ 3Cltion.... l~e pa.id odvcrtise~nt,
llunking Ille Wlkoown pcrpcuntor. appeared an a local
pgpc:t soon a!W. ll tC1Cmr as if 111311)' n:sidenls were llJl1ICl
wilh the "•sual pollution c:cale4 by the b1llboords. and
I.bey wished to COQ>lil'QllC people to frequent only those
rnctCh:inis who do noc use b1llbootd.s. IL is believed th.1t
the absen.:e or 111mcit:m legal tcguWion concarung
billhollnb drove lhlS 1nd1..idual IO tcek ~ oulSidc of
thc law ro lddreiS a c:ammunuy concem.
FORCES OF NATURE
Naunl WOl'ld Ncwa Scnlu
On April 6 we were all rcrn1nalcd or the inoltOtllblc
atnCtion or gravity. This point was espcclllly brought
home 10 three ttookcrs on l_.O near the Tcnnc.ssce SIALC
line v.llo r«ea"ed l'lllhct lur11c bouldct applicauon~ 10 the
side or their llllCtOMrnJIClli u huge rock slabs ri]!pCd o/T
from the su:cp wall of rock Fonunrucly, no one was
h1111. A retaining wall mode a vnln attcmpt to Slop lhc
slide, but was~ crushed. The rock~idc clO!iCd lhe two
westbound lallC$ roe su ~as an cstim111Cd IS,000 to
20,000 cubic yanls or d111 and rock had io be movod;
dyn.wit.e c:hlllgC$ were 5Ct to dislodge uruubk! 11111LCriol;
and steel mc..'h nets were wung on cables between rock
bolts set m the chff r11ec..
Every lime U'\IC.k 11ec1dcn11 hliic 1'11~ h;.ippen. 11
~minds us: 11 c:ouJJ ha•e been nukes!
SEWAGE WITH YOuR SUPPER?
Nall.nl Worll N
Sa>ioc.
In Alhcvalfe. No1tl1 Carohllll •octn dttc.iued by 1
1..m-to-onc m:irgm a bcm1' muc lh;it v.ould ll3•e h:ld
them drinkma 11".c w:iiu of the French Broad Raver.
Supporters of the bond ruuc Cb!llltd WI the French
Bro:id 11o :ii.ct 11 .ufo, but opponcn11 ll01Cd ih:n the rc;tl
l>S:la WllS that n:ssd.:nts "''CfC nol ready ID dnn\; poll~
hvtf"'1lla IO lh:u bus 11CD proplc !Ind dc'-elQpcri coul'1
CXINI\
I profi OP Wllllll cd llfOV. II
U~m from A
vii looau th
pbn , II pos.s
5
fund
hclp
"'"'""--""•ill.~
Thea ... dlC othct ~able
meet ~ 11tc;1 • w11 r n
~tu1~1
Journ"L pC•(I 22.
rTll1I \
\1lltiblc IJ)
Ill lbc fuwrc among
School disuicu from New Yori.: lo Los Angeles
LO Miami ha"e sioppcd serving AIAMaintcd apples in
their cafeteri:ls. Alar h:is fOI' )'C4rS bcc:n linked to aincc.r in
11nillllll LCSLS, but recently when o report by the Nuturul
Resources Defense Council recc1"cd n lot or :itll:mion,
public opinion pushed tbc EPA mto nct1on. The
company which mtlkes Alar cont111ues IO msbt the
product is snfe and has plans to shin their market to
owside the us.
500,000 lbs.
CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF
NORTH CAROLINA PROMOTES
PESTICIDE LEGISLATION
NaNRI World Ne"'• S..lYk:e
Myo11c 1111ereswJ can ob1a111acopyof1hl' rtpc
>rtfor $20
from t~ North Caro/ilia Envirollh:tlllal Dtftnst Fwul
clo StepMn L(llitus: 128 llargtll St . Raleigh. NC
27(J()J.
NEW RIVER SCENIC
DESIGNATION IN JEOPARDY
The Conservation Council or Noni! Carolin:a has
joined forces with Lhe Agrac:ultur3J Ra:soun:es
Cenier/PESTcd to publish I pcsttctdc -ic:nda for 19S9.
Some of the bills they arc promoting in the NC
Legislature are HB-389 ""hach would increase the atri:il
application buffer which 1s cum:ntly only one hundred
Uodu the state-federal pLln of 1976 which
declared 26.S atilcs of the New River a Scenic:
foci (1'11111111 OCC'41•ed bwk11ng, and S8·274 whk.h wuulJ
require all pcs1icidc applicators to J>O$l notice of thcu
Waa.crw11y, Nonh CAtolina wiu to 11cqui1c; i>C<lnn;
e:tsemenis «land along Ille nvcr. Howcvct. since 1976
activities. For furlhcr information conL:lct Nonc:y
Barnhardt, Legisbuve Agent, Pcsllc1dc Project of lhc
COll3ervatJon Council or NC, Ch~pcl Ifill. (919)
942-8991.
"STATE OF THE AIR" REPORT
Natuml Wotld New' Sa-vice
Last year. ror the first time. more than 800 North
Carolina 1ndus111cs were required to file with tho s1111e
rcpons on releases of the 328 cbcnucah mdiC41cd m the
1986 fcdcml "right-«>~know" SWtUIC:;.
The NC Envi.ronmentlll Dclcn~ Fund ( NCEDF),
compiled Lhcsc: reports and found th~t. <tatcwadc.
indusUlcs emutcd nearly 100 ma Ilion pounds of lhclit air
polluunts. 12.7 million or which arc Cllrt1nogcll$.
According lo the NCEDF, these cm1WO<U arc cnurcly
legal, and therein hes a probkm. "Touc au polluuon an
l'onh Carolina is aJrncm tolollly unrc11ul.'l1Cd." according
IO NCEOF dltl!ClOr S~vcn J. U..1ta,, 1andl unlcs§ we
dose the skic.s io polJw.c:l'l, lilt cnu-;.siODJ wdl n:rnui the
e:isiest way for Noctl1 Ouolma 1nduwic:s 10 get rad or
ll:at.:irOOus w.wc."
Nawn! World News Sez\.icc
only 33 acres or scenic cascmenLS have been ~wrcd by
lhc s:wc. In the s:imc umc period the number of priYDte
lwldowncrs on the river h3.s jumped 300%. anJ iowns of
Jcrterson and Wcs1 Jefferson, NC are currently
considering opening a one million gallon per day v.ucr
Lreattncnt plant which would utilize lhc river LO dispose
of IJ'elUOd discharge.
Nllkcd Creclc. a Lribur.:uy of the New River and a
disch!lrge sllc for treated water, "wns named :is n •toxic:
hot spot' an 1111 EPA repon just rele:i.~ by lhc Oivi~ion
or Environmcn1.11I Manngc.mcnt,• according lo Jonct
Hoyle or the Blue Ridge Envaronmcn111I Defense l..caauc
(BREDL). Ms. Hoyle fears that, though the move
unprecedented. Congl'CSS could revolcc lhc design;won ot
S<:cnic Rivet. •sCC3U111 lhe \ollu.:s for which (Lhe nvcrl
wa.~ protected arc not being prcserved,. .. wc fear
WICOntrollcd dcvdopmcru tluc:liens the dcsilJl.ltion".
In resJ!Qnsc to this threat. Rep. Judy Hunt
(0-Walilugl) has mt.roduccd legisl:ation IO speed 11p Ilic
aqumuon of c~scments ami began in ~nest lhc
tmplcmcnwtJun of the scc11.1c nvcr pbn drawn up for die
l,
New )'l:O.ll'S a.go. The measure~ nx:c.-cd house approval,
and a·.. 1uu 11e11on 1n the Senate Envuonmenul
Comnuuce.
In :a pMSibly re.bled m31tct, SCllOl.IC Bill 119!\ lhc
N:nural Hm~ Wll!Ct bill 1nll0dllffil by Scn:uor
MIUC Blilllghl 11ofll 1ncn::isc the e.\CISC Slllmll l:l\ from
Sl.()()/1000.00 tO $2.00 pct $1000 00 Under lhe new
bill, COU lleS would rceei•-c S0.50 of a:h doll:ir of Ul
me.om- SO.ZS WO'Jld go tO 11.':llU nnd .rcwcr do\'dapmcnt
wh ' 11noL'r.:r SO 25 would go io tic: Rec~uon lllld
Nat I He
c Tr Fund to buy !And for g.un.bnJ
f
and
p.uks. 1111 b II
tn rt Cl
lCtl S2.S mubun doll.in per )C 10 l1C
d lor land aqui uum Flori , S .:!h CarollnA
Summer, 1989
�Tennessee :ind Maryland :uc altcody succcsi.fully using
1l11s 1cchn1quc for preserving 1hcir nalurJI an:a.~.
IfNC rtsllitllJS urr 1nltrts1td in wntawng their Stnat(Jrl
rtgarding this bill, the addresJ ts: Lrgtslu11~t Building,
Raf~1gh 2761 I Phone; 733-11 JI Fot r1wri! tnforfniltiOll
call Jim Stt•ens (9191782-2686 or Btll Jlof""m·
(919)7.Sj.J)Zi}
Tt:
TRANSPORTATJON
I MPROVEMENT PLAN?
maHers
PUBLIC SERVANTS
IGNORE PUBLIC
Nirural Wotld Newt Scrvic11
Residcnis or Buncombe County were ou11agcd 10
discover that a suue highwoy improvement., p;ickagc
included a plan for a four lane loop to run through
SwannanO.'.I, lhrough Recms Creek and Ox Creek
Valleys, to lhe Enka-Candler aren. Trnnsporiauon
Secre13ry James Harrington said in a leuer 1.ha1 a loop
around Asheville would be needed IO lmndle the mcrenscd
1n1mc from nn upgraded US 19-23. John Hill.11 resident
of Ox Creek Vlllley. voiced lhcdcepconccm or oVCT 100
people who attended a planning meeting about the issue:
No one asked [u:;J, or 1he people in Mudison County,
wbclhcr we wnnlCd lhcir lives changed forever, or hcuvy
lrucking brough1 in from the Ohio Valley, or 1f we
w.inlCd rapid dcvclQpment as in lhc urblln 31'.cas.•
The public feeling is that sUJtc officials could
~vc trouble and cmbanassmenl if lhcy would consult
wilh locnJ rcsidcnLS befotc uying 1 force 1hrough new
0
1~ for developmea1.
Natunl World News Scrvacc
On April 3rd lhc state Utilities Commissmn ruled
thar Duke Power Co. cnn go ahead wu.h plans for a
transmission line through lhc bc:lutiful Pru11hert0wn
Vnllcy in Jackson County. lhus dissolving a Scpicmbcr
1988 reslr.lining order, and ending a hard-foughl balllc by
lhe Jocasee Watershed Coalition. lhc WNC Allinnce, ond
the Conscrvnuon Council of North Carollnn. Thc~c
groups fonnnUy prolcsltd lhe roulC lilSt year, s:iymg thal
Dulc hnd not eumincd altcmativcs LO their planned route
lhrough die "Yosem11e of the E.c.1", und Lhnt a proposed
offer from the Tenncsse Valley Au1homy might be
the:ipcr nod elunina1e lhe need for lhc tin~
Hun1cr Lovin~. co·foundcr or Ilic Rocky
Sununer. 1989
own llands
BeflCll Mountain We co no• wea~ l:i<
1t11ery resioen1 uomeowrl!!• or 111s1tor 10
Beech Mouniaon. however a grOWtng numoer
01 ~ .vould l1•e to 111ank you tor aoklg ,•,hal we
llavP .van1eo 10 co ro1 some time bul door t ha~ 1110
nel"e
You have macie our moun1a1n a more 1Jeau111u1 r.1 .. ~" '£> u.. t.
vL1•1 HQO<lh;lly oaver:•sers will nave lll(lre 1cmkc' I - u oeau!ilul
mo..in1ain" 11 t" .. lulure & \\ II 001 POLI.DTE th~ " 1" btl'tlOlilOS
DELP STOP BILLBOARD BLIGHT
Frequent only merchants who DO NOT use billboards
Mounuin Institute with her husbnnd Amory, ~'Uggestcd
a conference held lllst fall al Warren Wilson College
t.h:i1 lhere was no need for adJitional energy cnpacily lllld
lhn1 all encrllY n«Wi could be met by practicing least-cost
planning and cfhc1cncy improvements which would
acwally increase the profiis of the power comp:uues
without incurring lhC S36 m1lhon pnce Lag of lhc line,
wltich will surely be passed on to consumers.
The Commission disngrc.:d wilh this :1SSC5Slllcn1.
saying ·11tc evidcoce clearly ~hows that Duke c:ucfully
and diligenlly planned !his projccl by examining a wi\lc
:irea of Western North Carolinn, n:irrowing the poi;s1blc
route nli.cmati\'CS, lllld sclccung J rou1c which m1rum1ud
1hc impact on the en11ironmen1 and cus1ing
dcvelopmcni". The Commilision decreed lha1 allcm:ile
roulCS suggesltd by lhe cnvironmenw.I groups were too
long and 100 c.itpcnsivc. They nlso d1smi!iscd the TV A
proposal, elaammg lha1 lhc TV A did not prcscn1 a
pe.rsua.'ilvc :irgumen1 that its proposed rotes for Naniahala
customers would be lower fl13n Duke's.
A bill has been introduced 1n10 lhc NC Ocnet:ll
Assembly by Rep. ~1arie Colton (D-Buncombe) which
would give lhc Commission authority to review power
line siung plnns.
01
SAYING "NO! " TO THE DUMP
Niawrat World Ne'Nj Sav"'~
0
CUTIING A LINE
you for t~~ ino
arid e 1rnma:an9 tl".e I>• !boards on
Natunl World News Scrvk<
Thci SS.6 billion Transporboon Improvement
Plan (TIP) being heavily pushed by Govenor Jim Manin
iOIS II leystone of bis "good rQ.ad$ for progress• Slll!C
1m11gc, passed 1he House of Rcpresenuuvcs. and is
upec1ed 10 p:iss lbrough lhe Scruue wi1hout effcclivc
oppos1lllln. The Bill culls for a massive road-building
progr.lm Wilh the CVl!lltlUll goal Of bringing 0 rruuor four
l:ine road "within ten miles of llny North Carohn:i
n:sidcnl.• nod paving many or ttic din roads.
A fow represcnt111ivcs hnvc e.xpr~d concern
bccuuSj: 1he bill IGClcs lln)' mention of mnss 1rw1Sil ns n
means of ll'!illsportauon unprovemcm, and lhc lawmakers
may :111cmp1 t.0 block p:issage unul su!:h wording can be
included Proponcois of TIP sny 11 is 100 ln1c for an~
StK:h coosidcruuon :llld l'1osc concerned should have r.uscd
their objcc:tilons long ago, allCmplJng IO change lhc bill
now could posslbly kill iL
The bill would Ix\ fonded by a five ccn1 gas lll!I.
Millly rcsidcnis. especially m Ille Kaulah region.
rear lhe bill is :i prune cxrunple of ovcr-dcvclopmcru..
The ncw 1ra~-port.alion scheme would strongly mcrcnse
access 10 nnd lhrough lhc mouniains and have a profOtJnd
environmcnw.I and soeiul impacL
l•
iu~ You!
Trees 1,000 feet awny from a WllStc dump :u Oak
Ridge, Tenncsscc were cut down and c:imed away.
because I.hey were emiuing to~ic amounts of rad1odon.
Under prc.~t rcgulntions, !heir hobiull would no1 be
C:OO.\idcred ll.~ ~
A1 a pubhc hearing in Madison Count)', a
woman loll! lhJS sw~ and lhcn posed some simple
questions 10 lhe panel of four pale men in dark suiis and
one dnrk-sktnned woman repre~ung lhe North Cwobnt1
Low Level Rodio;icti~e Wasic M411agc:men1 Aulhomy.
"Would you drink wai.cr from a ~pnng 1000 feet
from d1t Oak Ridge nuclC3t dwnp? Would you offer this
water 10 your child?" Every head on Ille panel nodded
affinmllively.
TI1e woman gestured IO 1hc panel and faced lhe
crowd, •1 give you the cxpens on low level rndiu.'ICtive
wnu: dumps!"
Over 600 people, many of them obviously cld\!rly
fanning couples, showed up for the forum on u
Wednesday evenang, ll'lldiuonnlly church naght in Ibis
predomuuntly Baptist c:ounl)'.
G1'11SS roolS politics mov~ like o pr.ime lire when
3 hot ~p.irlo; wikc.s. In this- caie lhe networl 1h111 fonned
lhc Cbme of public 0111.n1gc wus lhc local min1stty,
Voluni.ccrs from 1.lie Mud1.;on Em·ironmcn111l Allfonce
contacted muusu:r.1 who cnllcd other preacher; nnd urged
ll1c1r congregaLions to exercise I.heir duty of E3flh
stewardship, one of lllC precepts of lhe soulh.un Baptist
cn:cd.
Earlier 1n April :ing.:r flared in Jl.lacoo and Polk
Coun1.ics as The Aulhomy's 1rnvcling road show,
designed IA.'I soothe fcars.lllld cool u:mpcr~. found i1SClf in
an equally unplc:a.'l:lni hill S.:lll. The meeung in Polk
Counly dlcw more than 1,000 ouendec.s..
Local residcnis no1cd Lhe impact of lhcse
meeung.s - never before had lhcy seen so ITlilllY people of
hke mind a1 one l~lion. Said Polk County $hCriffs
deputy Chris Abul, "I guess everybody just WDnl'I to say
'no' to lhc dump."
J11nc1 Hoyle, director of Blue Ridge
EnvironlllC1ll.al Defense l..cque, calls North Carolina "I.he
chump of lhc SE" for staying m lhe SE Comp:icl. lhc
c1gh1 SL:ltt organWiuon lhal picked Nonh Carolinn to be
the recipient or lhc rcgt0n's radioactive WllSIC for lhc next
20 yC81'$.
Jonci reminds us 1h.:11 some or lhe w11S1C will
remain toxic for 117 million years, EnvironmCllllll1sis
lhink lha1 wch state $hould h3tldle us own waste.
lnsu:<ld or conuunmrumg a new aren, lhe siate's low-level
mdiooctive was1es should be stored nbovc ground al
nuclear puwer plnrus. which produce ~ of lhcm. nu~
way they could be monil(Jl'Cd until a va:iblc long-u:nn
waslc disposal technology is developed. To dll1e, all
existing dumps in lhe rnin-ricll east have lc!lked, even lhe
ones drat meet r;um:nt regullltions.
The Aul.horily 1s 10 come up with at least two
cundid:ue locauons in Nonh Cnrolinn lau:r lhis year and
to have picked a "preferred siie" by Nov, 15, 1990.
Hopefully tbe loud "No• from Katuah wlll no1 only
JcOec1 the dump. bu1 will also prod the ·cxpcns· to
rcthinlc their nuclear policy.
SOUTH CAROLINA BANS
NORT H CAROLINA WASTE
Natural World Ne"'s SG\'lc:c
By cucutiveorder of Gov. Carroll CampbeU. as
or Morch I, 1989. the •U!IC of South Carolin" has
prol1ibitcd 1hc di.~~1 or was1e from :my Sllltc &hat
refused ID di!i:p()S(l of the WtilC 11.scl[ The b:in elfoc:ICd 32
~Ulles and Puc:t10 Rico. Hans1ll Truesdale, heud of the
SOUlh Carolina Dcpanmeo1 of Hcallh lllld E.nvi.ronmenml
Controls H:uardoUJ Wasic Division say~. "WG hope our
ac;IJoos will encoUl3gc other sutcs IO move toward
developing their own h:u.ardous was1e managcmen1
pro~·. In 1987. Nonh CAroht13 gcnerultd 2.8 billion
pounds of l=dous wute, most or which w11S sent to
ou1-0f-Slal.C disposal Cac1litles.
JCotu~\
Jo1.1rna( PIMJlll 23
�(~ fmlll P11C4l
Wh:it is then: 10 keep someone from •1ctung go• nnd
•becoming the olh11r person~ so successfully tl\31 !hey come away
from a Lls1ening Projec1 full of rc:icrionary nnhudes? Again. m
Herb's mind the answer goes back to thn1 shared essence of
humrurity, which is deeper than any dogma or se1 of idc:is, but i~
expressed rnther in 1em1s of vnlues.
'111c antidote 10 polariz;uion :ind separation," he say~, "i\ to
recognize 1he oneness or all life and oi all hum:inity. We in soc111I
chMge work need to recognize that all of us, even those people
1iliho are racist or militanst or $eem like they are ou1 to desuoy the
l!ruth. are a pan of the great ltfe, and within us au is !he potcnual 10
ch:inge :ind 10 let go ot old iJcas that are destr0ying life. There h
definitely that potential.
The source of lhat power lies
in going beyond the ego and
getting down to that place where
things change.
'The way I en\ 1sion 11, 1s to look 111 11 person :ind 1111.a.gine
them just coming out as 11 new born inf.int, That h3by isn't a r.1ciM.
th:11 baby 1sn 1 n milu:inst, that b:iby doesn't w11111 to destroy the
\l.Orld. Tb:11 new baby is allvc. lbnt's the essence of hum:mny
Thst's in every p;:rsoo in society,
-nu11's what we: arc listening for, b:i~iC31Jy. We: ;ue probing
through all the cr.iziness. all the accumul:11ed ideas. th:it may h:ivc
made a person into a m1l11ans1, or a r<1cis1 or an environment·
destroyer, 10 find 1he essence 01 who that person is. f'or 1hc
essence is good."
The idcolog1cal content 1s pare, but only a pan, of .1
convers:uion. In deep listening the: process of communication 1!> the
major emphasis. If a listener 1111d a resident cnn reach a poin1 where
they arc each staring right into I.he other's bare and unadorned "'1111,
then together they arc atl3ckm& racism, mil11arism. and 1he other
1te1J,:1tive aspects or our i:oaety for the r11C1Gm, the: nulit11nsm, iuid
the rest an: the mdv.clhng fear m people's bean~ raised to a
pcrm311ent place m the mstituuons of society.
Hezb ~ys that, "Underlying all the problems is fear. Our
b:lsic fear IS one of rejection. We \I.ant 10 be loved and rc~pcctcd. If
we don't gc1 llu11 in !lie wuy we need 11, \l.C use power to get it.
That's why it gets back to spiriwa.I values. h gets back to people's
need to experience love, communny. caring. nnd connection. Those
:ire the fundmnental needs of :ill hum:inity, lllld if we can find w:iys
to make that possible for 311 people, I think all the problem~ we: ~cc:
would stan d1ssolving.w
"Love, community. canng. and connecuon." Herb defines
his peace work in tenns of the~ values... When be speaks of
·peace; he spc:ik. of the concept in the broadest po)siblc: \Cose.
He decries the divisions tha1 sometimes arise bc1ween people
involved in promoting non-violence:, doing soci:ll justice work, or
helping IO prc::.crvc the c:nvirunmem He fet'ls that :ictiv1sts would
help their cause by ~tressing the connec1cdness o[ 1hesc 1s~uc' lie
considers the penod he wotl:cd ns a youth counselor as being part
of his "peacework" an.I whhes :ill people involved In 1h:u kind of
healing worl.: would realm: 1hc conncction lhc:y share v.1th the pence
niovcmcn1. He .s.iy!( he 1~ ''~)rkmi: for peace v.h.n he is weeding
hb garden.
or
Poliucs is usuully perceived 3\ II sc:nes c:intpaigns 10 be
c:uncd on unul the foe is vanquished and ,;dory is ~chievcd l·or
llcrb, polincs 1s process .und the process 1~ nevcr-endmi;,
whelhcr 11 is tor empowerment or tor he:iling.
In an mfomul moment he slid, "Yeah, you know, hstening
ts an incredible procc)s. I'm still trying to 1ncorpora1e 11 rr.ore
d~ly in my person:il lire. 11·~ easier IO v.ork it on the political
level in some ways.
"What was it someone said? 'Listening is the rim let or
love.'
"In a sense the Listening Project actually says. 'I love: you.
No mauer who you nn:, no mauer what you're doin~, l love the
essence of who you nrc.' You may hate wha1 a person 1s doing, but
wha1 you !lfe basically ~11y111g is 'I love yo11.' That's where
listening is non-violence, too."
~
{tontillued rrocn page 10)
p:1rnc1panii; m1m n:ly on 1iicinsd• ~ • thc1t own mner n:sourccs
nnd ability to share llnd 'Communicate. In a very~ ~. the
~etpant... create the "orklihop ·and isn"1 this \\h:!t community
1s about anyway? Lc:anung to t;1p IOlCI our iruhv1Ju:il and group
r ·sources, and to be co-crc:uors rnthcr th:m ·koocrs" nnd
followcn; "?
As a group rntwcs out of "pseudo-c\'lmmunny and IO\l.ard
real community. it tends to pas~ through scverul d1\1Jnct phases,
which Dr. Peck and I·CI.! ro:fer 10 ns "i:haos" :ind "cmpuncss"
After the supcrf1Ci:1h1y nnd f.:ilsern:ss of pscudo-communny
begins to \H::U- thin, conflicts begin 10 emerge, nnd pe<.>ple usU11lly
lil:ln irymg w fa, convert. or ch3.0gc each Other. The rc:sulltn!l
rcscnnnent llild nngcr. nobody likes being "faro"· des1ro>s nny
feeltngs of group harmony (illusory as 1hcy may h;i\ e bet'n). nnd
the group descend~ into confusion nnd "cha()>'".
Then llfter a period of turmoil and soul·sean:hmg. group
members gradually lc:im ·"uh the tacditntors cxcnsion31
guidance • 10 let go or lhcir prcconcc1vcd 1de:i~. expccunons, IUld
pcrsonal agendas. They begin 10 emp1y themselves of these
b.'lrriers and blocks, which have kept them lt:cling ~p!lr.lte :ind
un:lble 10 Just be tlrere with the others. Thh cmpcying process cnn
be d1fl icult and painful . but on the other side of this "valley ot
the: shadow of death" lies the cxpc;ncncc or Peace. ot JUSt Being.
,1nd listening, and sharing m co11unun11y ·an CKpenence that
seems to eocomp3Ss all oppo~itcs and embraces joy and sorro''.
nll kind) of religious ei1pn:ss1on anJ 11thtism. activity and
rcccpu-.ity, love and feat. Although a panicubr group m3Y noc
rellCh a sustained c~pericncc of genuine community (qwic ~!ten.
groups tend to re' en b3clc 10 cha()) 11ntl/or pseudo-community
~incc these modes ol rc:bung 11re more familiar and, in a sense.
~fer· though not really), every group goe.1. throug~ an emptying
process and at least touches on, or Wp!> into, the Bemgncss of
commum1y. ( Having auended one of thei.c v.eckcnd worhbops,
thi' "ritcr can auesl 10 the :iccur:icy of 1he abc)\'e dcscripuon I
Xa1uiU1 Journn! pCUJC 2·1
"Through 1he power of gewune
commzmity, "e 1ccl to offer opportumries
for peopfo 10 brufgc tliffcrc11ces mid
reco11cilc c·miflzcts u uh a11thr11ucit) anc/
111tegrity "
ln :idd111on to 1has pnnury fe>..--us, FCE 1s alw m the
process of elp:uuimg its focus on comm11nily 11etworbng nnJ
refcrra.I servu:c:s. The gwl 1s to pre.wide n~sht11Kc and d1ra
"t1on
for people v. ho an: seeking to lmk up wtth other; for a ~ctlic
purpose, or arc 1C:UChing for community organiz.iuons or groups
that c:in asSJSI 1hem m their hc:lling, le:1ming. grov.th, nnd/or
sharing. The unllcrlymg recog11lt1on here IS thM rcr~ "1s not 311
1sol:11ed phenomenon, but nithcr a pan of what might be called
the community movement" • 11 movement initiated by such group~
as Alchoholics Anonymous nnd ib t\\lelve siep program, the
growth of social :tc1ion groups, and the women's movement.
l'CE i~ thu~ engaged 1n su:ad1ly bu1ld1ng new links· and
sm:nglhcnlng e)tl,Ung ones· in the hv1ng mterconncctcd chllin of
community "·hic.h may prove to be.-, m truth, our s;ilvauon.
For funhcr mform.1uon about FCE
and its umnnunuy Building Wort..~hops, cont.1ct:
The Fouo<hltion for Community
Encuun1gemenl, Inc:.
7616 Glc:iwn Road
KnO%\ille, T~ 379l9
-~
(615) 690-43~
p ·
Summtr. t 989
�We had some visitors from
the Soviet Union. They wanted to make
friends with us. We wanted
to understand them... Crystal
Peace means that
I am loved ...Alyson
from a drawing by Alyson and Crystal
Peace is love
peace is caring
peace is sharing.
If I didn't have any
peace,
it wouldn't
be any peace in my
heart .......... Beth
1
I
Peace means to be
a friend to me
Peace means to be
kind to others
Peace means to be
nice to others
Peace means
harmony to me ....Virg1
nia
Peace is like
Flying in
The sky ........Justin
Peace means not
hurting animals.... Sefton
Peace
is loveing
and harmony and
careing for others
and animals.
I love cats........Star
These are some respo11ses w the l.lhat. ls Pce1ce?
Coruest held ar Aslievil/e Altemarive School, an
experimental public school in Asheville, Nc>rtlr Carolina.
Organized Olld compiled by Abby Bird. age 11
Kstuah's Cliildre11's Page Editor
l<.At1.1uf1 )01.lT!'lUt p!UJ~ 25
from a drawing by Virginia
Summc.r. 1Q89
j
�TIP/ F.ROS
Your womb wraps around me,
encloses II.lid holds and keeps me,
nnJ lets me come
nnd co. in and out.
DRUMMING
Gomg out, away from your bcanh,.)our embrace
I JOumcy 1n ecstasy, and I live in p;im.
lETIE RS TO Kt\ TUi\H
I am Earth walking on Earth, worlds I am
or micro :ind rtl3CTO cosmos. wali.ing through.
I glimpse the dn:3m - enthralled. in awe. 1n rapture •
then lose 11.~aod wander about. .. lost
in Isolauon - desolation - despair.
Dear Katuah,
L011JS OF Tiil! HEART:
Coming soon to a mounuun valley near
you - 8.6 billion dollars worth of road
consuuc1ion. Thats right, Nonh Carolina
Governor Jim M.utin wants all of his c11iunry co
be within 10 mile$ of a four·hnc wpcrh1ghw:1y,
and. 1f by chance you're hindered by a du!>ty ol'
travel road - don't worry - he want) to pave
those, 100. Access 1s but a n1ckel·a·gallon
g:u-tu increase away, so h11 saving North
Carolina's reputation as a ·good roads for
progre~ sta1e• is a freebie.
Say you're not sure about all th1\'>?
Ughtcn up. Those who ~tanJ 10 profit the most
politically and financs:illy (our mayors, our
county comnuu1oncrs, and the independent
Chambers of Commerce) have been lobbying
your state legisl310~ to push h:ud for the
passage of the new slllle •Transponauon
Improvement Plan (TIP)."
Why, shoot, 11's already p:issed the
Uouse and with :ill the hand shakm' and back
~lappin' between this country club governor and
the aforc·mcnuoncd 5pccial 1111en:,ts. the Senate
will surely figure that the: whole \Hile i~ bclund
TIP,
Slow down? Come oft 1t. Secretary of
Tran5portation Jim llumngton and h1' \hop arc
alrc;idy two Mcp:. ahtlld. Not only dOC$ he kno~
the governor personally. but he's had m:ips
pn:pmd that will prevent confusion 1 the lcx:il
dcclston-m:lling level. :o;o need to worry about
\\'ho's gomg where \\ith this TIP!
So, \\Ith this much 1ns1ght into )Our
future. don t lose another nlght s sleep Raleigh
lus once again grasped the moment and fulffiled
our needs: our need for a hl&h gas w; our need
for greater DCCeSS for more and mon: outlandCIS;
our need for mon: highway traft11c, Including
hazMdous waste b~ed ea.~t. and our need for
increased development prenurcs along sull
unpubllcir.cd hii;hway comdors.
Why, r.hoot, there's no need 10 fuss' r.;o
need 10 look ror a bus' C1vthwion rn all ih
urb:ln glory v.ill soon be as close as the nc:1:1
ex11. Your Valley, KAtlWI Province, Southcm
Appalachb. USA.
01' Rl1Stus
Kutw1h )ourn"t p119e 211
To go naked on thh ~.
To m3kc a soft bed
In the fragrance of pmc needles
To open an eye
To the d.uk cool of night
And the brilliance of ~13.J"5
To "'-:ilk m the sun's cares:.
On bare ~houldcr.t.
To cat wild strawberries
And golden com.
To drink
Of pure, cold mounun stre~.
And bathe tn tumbling occ:ms.
To wau:h and wonder.
To be a pan of this hvmg E:i.nh.
So v.hy
Do I measure out my hfc
Jn shOpPmg malls anJ ban~
Jn hosp11..tls and cars
And air-conditioning,
Jn the v1olcncc ol ciucs '!
The wisdom or 1hc uboriginc,
The Pcn:in, the Kuna, the llopr.
• ,\fury d~ /,a \'ulet1t:
Government
lsnnold nun
Onhts knee,:,
With dry, shn~ cited bps
Then I enter you again:
I come in.•.seeking... nccding
your c:mbrncc,
renewal-rcdi:.covcry-rebinh.
Your womb encloses me, holds me tight,
indulges me in bliss. in sleep, in
cirummg I awake still within you,
lounge !>wec1 moments in between,
then slip OUI of you i;emly, bravely then 10 face·
perhaps cmbnce - the new light
- ktnr
Dear Ka11Wl.
Ple:ise include my name on your m3iling
hst for the • Biorcgional Journal of lite Southern
Appalachians." I am a firm ?el1~ver 1n
bioregionnli:.m and hope that by JOmrng your
cnu~e that I can help deliver a message that so
urgently needs to be heard.
I um n graduate from Texas A&M
Un1vem1y with a degree in Forc~try and I am
currcntly a member of the Green Party. I would
hkc 10 sum a correspondence with other
concerned pcnons living in the Asheville area,
and tf 1 can be of any assistance to your
orgnm1.:111on please let me know.
Sincerely,
, W. Eric Becker
7408 LunilllS Lane (1132)
Pcrry~rg. OH 43SS1
Rcce~scd
To R:\'e.tl thc roots of h1~ teeth.
He kneels
At the hc:Jld 01 some SU!Jl'S
Which lc:id up to a place or sancwary
And sells wind up sold1cn
To a young boy
Bothcm:I by the old nun's
Gummy smile.
• 11111
llouser
C/984
Dear Kaulah,
Sure have missed getting the Kau'i:lh.
Thank you so much ror your enlightened onJ
rn1clhgcnt coverage of our region. Such a
blessed rehcf lrom the nightly news,
newspapers and such. Lo1.-e the idea of cictcndal
wildemcs~ areas. and .,.ouldn"l 11 be neat and
umcly 10 have bicycle and toot paths 10
crisscross all the mt~ ("'here po~blc ?)
Love,
Kalinda Wycoff
Sumrtlct, 19811
�HELLO? HELLOl
Poems
offering
seldom
have I lhought
about
this
by Charles Rampp
begins with M e -
everything
seems
gift
for Me.
enjoyment
but
it
also ends
here
unless We
make
it
rules.
real
I
by
touching
ever so gently
its
opposites.
harmless
sparks
matches
fingers'
air grip and l'rn
dancing
light ,
joyous.
to see that we nre doing an issue on Peace what it means and w~t ii can mean. 1
would like to add a note of tl1anks to all the
people who have resisted the contagious call
to wnr most dirc4ldy by not becoming
soldiers. Either by doing an Alternative
Service to military "service". by deciding to
dissociate from military "service" while in
it, or.refusing 10 panicipate with it in any
way 10 the first pince, Conscientious
Objectors deserve a song of gratitude wbich
springs from some of the deep, moving
pools of integrity that can flow from the
human psyche.
If an individual hears from an inner
voice that "militarism is wrong" or that it
"denies the sacredness of life" or "the
enemy is us" or "violence begets violence"
and acts on this voice by doing nothing, or
not participating in the further disruption of
life, or by doing something to try, beyond
violence, to change the medium of forces
that createS the disruption - perhaps, we are
permitting oun;elves to accept responsiblity
for tlte horrors we have made for each other
and allow conflict resolution to happen. Too
often we have let the chaos of wnr, or
suspected war, determine the rest of the
pauem for human and non-human being.
There is also a sea of great sorrow to
be recognized for the many people who
have died in the ebb of violent authority and
its many manifestations. Those who hnve
protested or objec1ed to brutality ll!'ld
discrimination and come to futal blows with
ils way, the innocem who have been killed,
and the unconscionable wru.te of human life
to attempt to prove group or individual
power all have something to teach us: we
are coming to a climax ns a species. from
which we must find decisive ways of social
order that acknowledge diversity.
symbiosis, ond the human shadow as
panners within the biosphe~ and ii:;
1en11city.
- Rob Messick of Peace First!
•
Oy,
cold
,whisking
light's
compassionate malh
like
a matador"s
cloak
across
a turtle's
nose
It is a joy ...
Summu, 1989
IN o. WC>l"k:I \~v.£.-lo QJT LAW
u.>o.r,-t.o rv'\QM. pto..cd'
peace
lntely.
suddenly My
hand
finds
emptyness in pockets
\
If +hut. 1$ Q.""i ONt. LE.ft A LIV£'
ID LtKE tc u.ntu wt*.h ~
To Lhe &iitors:
.In reac~ion to Exxon's role in the recent
oil spill, I d~cadcd to return my credit cards and
to. boycott JtS products. J run hoping that this
might become a mass tactic if enough consumers
~ill ~~ow ,th.c~r rejection of corporate
111sens1uv11y by JOming.
Enclosed is my letter 10 the president of
Exxon.
For ecological snn11y,
rreside111.
Daniel Gruham
Ex.xnn Company
Chapel Hill, NC
M.Qma 's SoNiJ
.
P.O. 80:1: I 322
llou.sron. TX 77251
Cl!orl..es of Zacfu:.rlJ movi."'} f o nvard. lnto raln ,
stn9ln9 cta.morol.ls marches of oCcf. hu0\1S,
a nc! thunder i;rl.es 0 1.lL n&r tra9tca£ name
wni!~ lM drops p ta.IJ a j anci.f uC LUM ,
a nd fuird. they com e down to JaU. upon u s aCC w asps anc! mop~s .
c!andcli.ons , d.ai.s i4:S,
tetri.ers , t4b&i.es, &ws, co1vs, f;eans ,
otd. roof s, odd. st.ones, a ncl you!
Get w e&., my son,
I had bun looking forward 10 rtuiving my
E:uon credit cord, l>ur ofter rhe slwmrfu/ way :f(>Uf
company ucred in tltt u cenr oil spill. I co11 M longer
acctpr ii . It lws becomr: r/cal' from \larlous m:wJ uport.,
1/uu
company was not rtady for o spill thr.f JIU, an.I
/uu cut bad on vuaf emergency plans, This 1111111
disregard fur l>/J/' comuwn licrirwgt is poor c111rr:nship
and 1/are111e1u rlre frog1lt lltl.tJSl<:m iLwlf.
I am returning my cudir curds aJ11.l 1<ilt urge 1lll
my ftithds and organua110MI t ontcurs to do till' same
1U11il your comp1111y realius that 1hr comnwn gtiod of tht
planet i.s much more 1mponan1 1l:m1 the rlror1-1crm
prr.'fits t{ your l.QtporUJwn
)'<I'"
f i.nd JOY i.n the downpo ur I
tkaven s:ends iL, ca.rt.Si n:cc~ves U.,
so w a c!r Lnfl. LL, w ash uur &ocCLe$,
quench our s plrHs, and. &y the 9L 9, tt.ve.
vi.n
GeL Lir~. m y d.or(lnCJ. a nd keep LL wLth
you Ln l.M dri.u wtUU:rm:ss of C19e.
a rcmcm&ue.c! surnm u·s 1£ci11 w hen you were
Le•~ ancL w l th you r rtothu and she saM!, "Yi.sl"
llo ouL and. pta.y W\ a.he r a\.n, ln a spouL
of Ci£luld. 9Cor 1J thaL f or9Lv"5 our sl u&&ornesio.
Say "Ycsl- . ~r Zac:fmr 11,
us you S~"'J yo'4r warn.or 's SOnlJ•
sa11 ··yes!" a nd "Yi:sl ~ C19uin.
M1gh1y smuuly,
(.flgn~)
- 1'Lcf.anl• Bridl)~
Drawing on tins page by MIOILina Herring, drawmg on prcc;cdtn& poac by Chll<ld
Hugey. Both for ·v,.,ons of Pc.ooio" con'"'- Jackson County p......, Nc1..,01k.
Kutuah )ou.rna.t pa9.; 27
�eveors
JUNE
18
FRANKLIN, NC
Oury Bonnelle specking on •The
Ascension Principle.• Mounuun l.igbl Network. 2 pm Dl
M:icoo Community Ccnlet. Hwy. 441. For more info.
call: (40l) 746-2454
llOT SPRJNGS, NC
'Wind Swirls lhc Low.~ l...cuvcs: 1':u Chi
lnterptay• with J11y Dunbar and K3Lhlecn Cu!rick.
Exercises for mdividuals nod partn¢rs m r11i Chi Ch'Ullll,
a Chlne:ic mn11inl Ml end moving mcduallon. No
experience, no pnnncr needed Prc-regisicr. SOO. Soullicm
Dharmo Rcll'Clll Ccn1a, see 6(.30.7(1.
21·23
HIGHLANDS, NC
Workshop, •Techniques for Nature
Phoiograophcrs" with Gil Leebrick. Bm Len. wildlife
photographer, and bomnist Sill Wylde. S250 includes
accommodations. Appalachian Environmenl!ll Ans
Center. Box S80: Highlands. NC 28741 (704) .526-4303.
26-30
GOODE, VA
Chllnnnel Mel&Y at vortexes 1111d sacred
sites in the northern Blue R1dic w11h Rev. Daniel
Chesbro, Tom Williams. Pilot MounLllin, Peaks ol
OllCr, New River, Fairy Stone Parl.. "lmportnnl work
ioward cxp:inding lhc Light." Confon:n.::e, lodging S225.
Pre-register. Rt. I, Box 310·A: Goode. VA 24556
'30-7n
26-30
21·25
HOT SPRINGS, NC
·seven Day Zen Soul Recharge• with
Sandy Oentai Stewurt. abbot of Squifrel M1'n. Zcndo,
Piusboro, NC. Prc·regrsu:r: S 160. S1;>u1hern Dbarma
Retre111 Cenicr: RL 1. B()lt 34-H: HOt Springs, NC
28743.
HI G ll l.AN DS, NC
"Landscape Pho1ogrnphy m 1hc Blue
Ridge." large f01tOa1 camera workshop with 0111.c.ebrick
:md Sllln Tomi la. S2SO. See 6'21-25.
28-30
HOT SPRl NGS , NC
Vipass:ano Mcditntion with Cirol Wilson
Pre.register: S70. Southern Dhnrma Rc1rt:at CcnLCr, see
6/30..7fl.
JULY
ASli EVlLLE, NC
"Mounlllin Sweet Talk; a 1wo-ac1 play
fe:uuring The Folktellcrs, Barbara Freeman am.I Connie
Rcg:lln·Bhuce. The play feriturcs stories and music of
Appalachia presented by two very accomphshcd
pcrfom1ers. 8 pm ThUl'Sll:iys through S:uurdays. 3 pm
Sundays a1 lhc Folk An Center Theatre, caM of
A!ihevillc. milepost 382 on lhe Blue Ridge Parkway.
Ticket\ SlO, S8 in advance at MalJprop's.
l-8/13
6-8
LINVILLE, NC
J41h Annual Grundfother Mountain
Highhmd Games. Piping and drumming, lhghland
dancing. S~ottish alhlctic$. harp, fiddle. tr:lCk and field,
ttilidh For more info, wrilC Grnndfa1hcr Mounw.in; Bo"
128; Linville. NC 28646
7-9
NEW MARKF.'r, 1 N
STP (Slop the Poisoning) School uL the
H1ghland.:t CcnlA:f. Tactics. strJlcgy, 1111d nc:twurkini; for
lh05e wocking LO stop industrial polluoon. Prc-rcg1su:r.
C:!ll Highlandu 01 C6JS) 933·3443.
12-16
lll Ci ll l.Al'\OS, 'llC
"Edible V1s1ons· worksho11 un food
pl101ogniphy. Wild foods lor:ig1ng. Mllrlha Strawn. Head
of Phologr.1phy. UNC·ChJrluuc. S250 Sec 6/21-~5.
19.23
lllGHLANDS, !\C
"l.lllld 3nd l'cuplo: A Dcs1g" AppnXll:h•
pho1ogm11h> worl.slmp wi1h Jay Dus:ird S2!i0. See
W.Zl-25.
~•Luuh
)ounmt
JHlfJC
28
AUGUST
llOT SPR INGS. NC
Vipassano McdiLJtion with John OrT.
Prc·registcr: S60. Soulihlm Dhnrmn Rcttc:it Center, s.:c
6/30-?n.
4-6
LAUR INUURG, NC
The Summer lnsu1u1c on ·Tc:iching
ConOict Resolution. sponsored by Ptofcssional
D<l"clopmcnl Team. "Conflict i.s fXl" of living /1 can /Nd
IQ ~10/mu and ck11ruc11on Or, 1hrougl1 rraming and
pracuu, -..·~can /tarn IQ wtluc conf/ir1 as an opportumty
for clwngt and i:ro-..ith." S:J.10 1ncludcs room and
tioard.Wrnc to: NCCPE/NC-ESR. 214 Piiuboro St..
Ch:lpcl Htll, NC 27516.
Dr:iwing by Rob Messick
WAYNESVI LLE, NC
·Techniques
for
P-crso"nl
Sclf·Transfonnntion" with Bing Esaudoro. S1il-l.igh1
Rcucnt Ccn1cr; RL l. Box 32~: Waynesville, NC 28786
(704) 452-4569.
23·27
25-27
NEW MARKET, TN
STP (Stop lbc Pois0ning) School 3t the
Highlander Center. Tactics. str:11cgy. and nc1worklng for
those wor¥ing lO stop mdusltial pollution. .Prc·cegistcr.
Call Highlnndern1 (61S) 933-3443.
HlGHLANDS, NC
•women's Adventure Weekend" •
bnck.·packing, visuati1.0tion. relPation wllh Nnncy
Shaw Discussion; lier Mo1hu·~ Daughter For info,
write The Mount.1in; 841 Hwy 106; H1~hla11ds, NC
28741.
25-27
f>.11
9-13
lllGUl.Al\OS, NC
"Ahcmattvc Londscapc· • pho1egn1phy
wo1kshop with M;anlyn Bridges. author/photogr.apbct of
Morlm1gs: AeTlal t'ic11 $ oj Sar.red lAndscupa.
Tran~cending the u~u:il w;iy of pcri:civing the
environment IO :irrwe aJ new way$ UJ whicli 10 view the
Earth. S250. See 6121-2S.
18·20
uo·r
SPRl ... GS. NC
Three I.ilks on "Zen and Western
Philosophy" by l..ou f'ior.h1rom. PhD. ord;uncd Ztn
monk formerly wi1h the Ztn C"111m11n1I) ol NY
l'rc·rcgutcr: S.7.5. S ;u1hc:1n l>hQrll\ll Rc1rca1 Ccnttr. $<.'C
fi/30-7(1.
SEPTEMBER
1-4
ll OT SPRINGS, NC
Mindfulnc~s Mcdiution and Everyday
Life: Rclntionships and SeAualily wilh Sui;an
AugcMtcin. "MinJ/Mfncs, m~diturion endbl~s u..• to src
life IJJ II (ICllUJl/y is Ill ,,, IOtality • Ptc-rcgi~ti:r: 590.
Southern OharmJ Rcirc.a1 Center, sec 6/30-7n.
1.5·17
WAYM-.SVI LLE. "C
Thc Pr.ii;11cc of ·n1Ct:1pcutic Touch" with SuL1
Ccrmak1~. S11l-Ught Rc11ca1 Center: Rt. I. Box 326:
Wa)111:svillc. NC 28786 (70-IJ .!52-4569.
0
1'1·'22
,\Slll,VILl.1~,
NC
tn1crn11tu>n,1t C1111fu, nu en l'mlcways,
Gr(tntH1J1. or.ii R1vcr..c1ys l lit 11'.-v \fort Btriu11jul
llihon Inn f're·regmrauon r~q111rcJ fill more mfo, Cllll
t\pp::il;1,h1an Con~nau1n ('7Qel) 2C.2·2CJ6.$.
Su1111nc1, 191}9
�~Water Sys1em1
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PRODUCTS
Mamber NC Waler Ouallly As50C1a11on
HWY 107
RANDAL!. C LANIER
RT 68 BOX 125
704·293-5912
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
(704) 26+-7242
31 S E. King Street, Boone NC 28607
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-'-~~~~
Clti11ue "''11p1111ct11re
DESIGNS
b~
"'
n t:D'LC'LN'.E A.LL'L'.ES
Jlerllgiglll Cli11it
Rob :'.. l~s~ic k
lllustmlion & Dt>~1~n
in Pen & Ink and color«< l Pc·n•il
Mil llARY
RADIOACI IVE
LANDFILLS
This c1l11<•n g111dt• I~ 1h1 htst compl"l'hcrwve
wn cy ol tht rud1<>il(Cb\·c (ontaminallon •••used b>
th' pn>du<l1<>n .,1 m1dl'1r ''"~P•ln'
Vr1111/y Urfrnst nplJms h<Jw nu<l.:Jr weapoM
4t< madl' hl1W rddh»lrh\'<.' "'~''" '' gt·1wra11-d, Jnd
whl'rc lhl' ronlJm1nJtl1111 I• >prc,1d1ng; the 16
pnnMn nudcar \\ ,)..trcm-.. JJi.,litic,. •re ,•x.01m1rh..J tn
•
d1•t.11I
In dddlunn tu ttu murt· than bO mdP", di.,gr.im'
phoh._, and 1o1bl1» In th1~ li't}.p.1gcbt1<.1lo., t>Mh 11r.:kr
".l«ompan11"ll "' a dr.1ma11c ~-«ulur II" 22 m.tp
shl1wtni; lran•p.. r1,111t111 mu It's u<t.J in lh•• m.111Ufo(·
tu r, u1 nucl"·.u \\ .:apon'
To ordt•r, >•.'0•1 :>I~ lo L•lt•r.ilurt· Pepi , K.1d10.I•
W,,_t, ( ollllj'.llJlll,
N'"' Y<or~ , ='' IXll2
Ill,.
!>~5
llJ'UJd\\'d\ , 2nd floor
"''-=....
.=..,~
'I
I~
~~ BARE.ESSENTIALS :J
....
Natural Foods
....
Organic Produce
Biodegradable Diapers
•: Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grains :.
Vitamins & Supplements
Wheat, Salt,
& Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy Substitutes
•: H air & Skin Care Products :.
lu 200 West Kini! Street. Boone NC 28607 Ill
~ \....
~~"="
704-264-5220
~·
In 1bc 11adiuonal Cherokee Indian belief, the
cremurcs in the world 1odny an: only diminuiuvc fonns of
the mythic beings who once inhabilcd the world. but
who now re$idc in Galuna'li, the spirit world, the hlghCSl
hca~cn. Bui a few of the original powers broke lhrough
lhe spirilU31 bamcr and .:itlSI yet ln lhe world as we know
•L These beings 111e c:lllcd wilh revcn:nce "grundfathc.rs"
And of 1hcm. the suongcst 111c KQl\Qti. the lighllling, the
power of the sky; Uis:i'na1i, I.he raulesnake. who
personifies the power or the earth plane; and Yunwi Usdi,
"the liule mnn", as ginseng is culled in the sncnd
ceremonies. whodr.iws up power from lhc underworld.
Each LS the sllongest power m its own domwn.
Togclhcr they arc :iUics: their cncrg.ies complement each
other to ronn an even grca1tr power. As medicine allies,
they repl'\!SCnt the healing pQwcrs or the Appalnehian
Mount:iios.
The medicine powers of K!!ltiilh have bctn
depicted m 11 striking T-shirt design by Ibby Kenna.
Printed in 4-color silkscreen by Ridgcrunner Naturals on
top quality. all-couon shins, they~ &\·ailnble now in
311 odu.11 si1.cs through the Kalanu bio.regioWll mall-order
supplier.
Onler shirlS from: KRL RNU
Box 282: Sylv;:i, NC
Ka1Uah Province 28779
Plc:ise specify ~1.e: Sm., Med., lg., X-Lg.
_J~
Cost: S9.50. 111Cludcs ~ge
(NC raidcna plo:ae .xi S~ ulC$ LU.)
-~~~
'PJ~e,, 'JWJ\!WI 'Naty.r~
KRLANU
T·SHIRTS. SWEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
BIOREGIONRL BOOKS
ANO TOOLS FOR LI UING
IN APPALACHIA
ORIGINAL HAND·PRINTED
NAT URE DESIGNS
CALL or WAITE IOI'
FREE COLOR CATALOG
Natural Food Store
& Dell
TI11: bc$t ICJlt on 0.:Cp Ecolo y.
Saacd Land Sncred Sex.
Rapture
160 Bl'OIM1Wsy
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Whef'9 ~ tNeta
t.llrrlmon Ave & J..2«>
or Lbe Deep
by o,iton:s l:lOrnpcllc
wt' ~lror:.Jd bf! glad 1/wrw<' l'.a•cJ uuchcrJ.Judi as
Dolum iAG/iapellt • • Kli!Ual1 J0111ll3112J
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-s.tulday: llam·Spnt
Soodsy; lpm-Spm
P. Q
S\4rn rner, 1989
S23.00 (l'ricco lncludcsJIOlb£<!)
r.:a
OrJu[rom: KflLRNU
Bo~ 182, s,l•a, NC, KDI~ Pr"'·'nt:"
~'C ,~,,/Lille ..,t,f j~ .~Ja
28189
�DRUMS· Custom handcrafted ctramic dumbccks &;
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe Roberts al (704}
258-1038 or write to: n8 Town Mountain Rd.;
Asheville, NC ~-
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY on beautiful land
nc:lf Cherokee, NC scclr.ing families dc.<;iring gr;:41cr
cooperauon and sclf-wfficiency. Based on Spiriwal
and ccolog1cal values. Propcny now av:iilablc. Call
(404) 778-8754 ror info.
Tht
NatiqnQ/
Dlrtclor;y of Hollmc
Practi1ion.tr1. llt!oltrs, Schools. Centers, and
Rttrc.its is looking for listings. Make your skills
nv:ulablc. Prices and more info on re11uc~t: MichJcl
Rosenblum: The Notional Directory.... ; P.O. BoA
I'.!733; GaincsviUe, FL 32604
FOREST BIOLOGIST • PhD. to teach
corw:rv:ulon, pllllll i.:u<onomy, gcncrlll biology,
wpcrvisc work crew (studenlS) m mo.nugemcn1 of
600 acres of college foco:i;L Rescarclt with undergrads
encouraged Send resumt io: V. Collins: W11rren
Wilson College: 701 W11min Wilson Rd.:
Swannanoo. NC 28n8
THE VITAL CONNECTION
WANTED. LANO in We$tem NC. Family seeks 5
or more acres. preferably ni:ar Cullowhcc, m
preserve :uid eventually inhabit If you have or know
of al!ord:iblc lmld, con1ac1 Bob wid Mary 0Jvis; 213
Wcsunoreland Ct.; Ccorgetown, KY 40324 (502)
863-4267
Long Bn1nch
Center needs
~olurucctS{mtcrns 10 help w1111 orc:h:1rds. gllrdens,
farmwock, rainbow trou1, cncrgy-cfficienl bwlding,
cnvironmenuiVwiJdlifc/pcrmacuhure issues nnd
orgamring. Room and board negoti3ble. Paul
Gallimore: LBEEC; Rt. 2. Box 132; Lcic;c:;ter, NC
28748
rituals, roles, :ind relationships from I.he on:hctypul
memory of the pnst., present, and future. S3 to
Colleen Redman: One Song Scribe; l;loic 634;
Floyd, VA 2A091.
M. TREE DESIGNS:
lllustrauo11~
and
Dc~ign
•
Beyond the p:ige> of I.his JOU!nill, J worJ. m pencil,
colored pencil. ink, cul p3pcr, uml batik. Fine and
graphic :ut IO express and enhance nur lives. Logcx,
brochures, book.,, portraiture, window :md wall
h:ingings. Contact Manha Tree (70-1) 754-«>97.
SUMMER CAMP· June 19·30, ages 6-10; Jul)'
1(}.22. ngus 11+ in th~ mounwms o{ MaJ1"°n Co..
NC. Raising the ccolog1Clll consc1ousncss or ruiurc
gcncr:mons. For info, wnlC: John or Dory Brown;
RL I, Boir. 84·B: HOI Springs, NC 28743.
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY m lhe Smoky
Mt'nt. of east TN. 10 acres wi1h creek. springs,
views, good nc1ghbor$. Be 11 p-.irt for S8500. Dill
Leslie (615) 4S3· IS38.
STIL·LICHT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTER • a quic1 space for Jll!tSonnl mcdi1111ion,
group inu:rocuon lhrough study, and communit)·
work. and ~-pirituul semlll!ln>. Contacl l..eQn Fcankcl;
RL I, Box 326: W11> oesvillc, NC 28786.
ECO-HELP NEEDED
Environmental Educa11on
Tl/£ PEOPLE OF Tl/£ ONE SONG • booklet or
SlOrieS and poems that tell or the people's dreams,
EUSTACE CONWAY· Guide and teacher or
primiuve E:uth Skills with emph:isis on fire
building, ludo tanning. ~helter, nnd foraging. He
lenchcs at 11ubhc schools, park~. c:nv1ronmcnwl
centers. and classes or ntl kinds. For more
1nfom13ll0l'I contact him ill: 602 Deerwood Drive,
G:i."lonia, NC 280114 or c:n1I Allcin St:llllcy :it (704)
872-7972
ADVENTURE FOODS • dehydrated foods for
people who work or play 1n 1he groat ouldoors.
Entree> and Jide dtsli~. Send for menu and prices.
Jemi's O:irden Greats: tu. 2, Box 276; WhittiC!l", NC
28789 (7CV.) 497..4113.
MOTHER'S BREATH HERBAL PRODUCTS high quali1y herbal cxll'tlcis. ointments, and oils,
lovingly created. Send for free brochure 10 Rt. 2,
Box 251: Vila.~. NC 28692
JOURNEY INTO THE SUCK.ROCK Wilderness
Arca. Boy~. fo1.her-son, rau1cr-<bughiu ellpcditions.
Learn obscJValJOll and woodcraft in the deep woods.
Burt Kornegay, C><pcricnced guide. Slickrock
Expeditions; Box 1214; Cullowhcc, NC 28723.
MOON DANCE PARM HERBALS· herbal salve.~.
tincture~ . .t oils for birthing &; family health. Rlr
brochure, plea~ write: Moon Dance F31m; Rt I,
Box 726: H.lmpt0n, TN 37658
FEEL EARTH beneath yoor feet - wear moccasins.
Custom, r.mdilion:ll Plains lndlan style of ellcskin.
S50 adull: S35 chlldtcn; SIS baby. Send foet tracing
to: P<1tricl Clark.: 47 Panol:i: Asheville.. NC 28801
or co.II 2S t !!250.
ADOPT-A· TREE. Trees are the gte:lt consc.rY!ltors
of the pllntL The Adopt-A·Tree program will bc:lp
mnkc the viUll connection ~wC(ll individual people
and mdividwl ttccs. Don:itioru acccpied. For more
mfo, wnte to Box 144. Sugar Grove, NC 28679
SKINFOODS • fresh. hund-mado herbal skin
prcp;u-:uions a1 to:01$0nable prlc~ Send for price lbt:
106 E. Main St.: John~ City TN 37601
LEAD TESTS • h yuur plumbtng leaching
IClld into )"Our dnnlingwal.C'r? Find out
for sure • lcad·testing Int from the non-profit Clean
W::ucr F~nd or NC. All you nc.;J for 512. Send a
check w/ nJmc and address to CWF; 138 E.
Chcstnul SL: Asheville, NC 28801
poisonou~
HAND-CARVED WOODSPIRITS, mystical
hilung staffs, ;ind w:tll hangings by St.eve DullClln.
For br«hurt, plca.-;c write Wb1ppoorw11l Studio;
Rt 4, Box 981; Marion, NC 28752.
FOUR WINOS VILLAGE • health and sp1t11ual
rctre11t: home for chd.Jren m need. For VlSiting mfo..
write· Box 112; Tiger~ CA 30S76.
ORGANIC FERTILIZERS. herbs, and
organiClllly-gruwn. IDC:il produce 31 the WNC
Farmc~· ~1.id:ct! Look for the Fairgkn Farms sun,
uniL~ F and C 1n the wholc-<ak area ol lhc Farmrrs'
M;irket: 570 Brevard Rd.~ A~hcvillc, NC (70.l)
252-4414
NEEDED: CHILO-LOVING PERSON who loves
lO cook to be a nanny and housekeeper for my four
children. Hows, wages neg01iable. Rm. t1nd bd.
available. Asheville are<1. Cnll Morgan (704)
689-5382.
RM DESIGNS · I use the media or pencils. colored
gou::iche. pen and ink, and photography m
cre:itmg unique line :md grnphic nn I cnn make
di11gr:1111~. logo!<, fini~hcd prints, nnd dei;igns ror
brochures, <:alcndcrs. cards, book.$. eic. Mandal!ll nnd
symbuls nre my tendency among OLhcr s1ylcs.
Contacl Rob Mess1rlc (704) 7>1-6097.
pencil~.
ARTS CAMP • nn intcgrutcd ;in c~p¢ricncc for
cluldrcn 4-14 at Marshall Primary School monungs.
Chiltlrcn's Ans tn lhc MounuuJl.'I. For schcdul~ mro.
call BclSCy StllQChaJ ut {70-1) 689-4699 or El11..:ibcUI
Roberts :u (70l) 2S!l-8647.
EARTH REACH EDUCATION ASSOCIA TIOI'
ltJching prin1111ve skills to c.bildNn and adulLS.
Robert Marun, Jr. 11nd Jeanne Moore: Rt. I, Box
178-A: Fcrrum, VA 24088.
GREENS BIBLIOGRAPHY over 800 entries on
tho: intcmimonol Green pntt.ies 11nd movcmcru. SS
{domcst", include! postage) w J;iy Michael Ochs:
443 Mnrkc1 SL: Williamspon. PA 17701.
WE.BWORKING 1~ tree. Sent.I submissions Ul:
Kotc<ah Journal
P.O. Boll 638
Lc1cc.~1cr, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Si.unmt:r. 1989
�The KatUtih Journal wants 10 communica1c your thoughts and
feelings 10 the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
10 us as letters, poems, stories, anicles. drawings, or pho1ographs,
etc. Please send your contributions to us at: KatUah Journal; P. 0.
Box 638: Leicester, NC: Katuah Province 28748.
ISSUE THREE- SPRING 1984
Siutainabl4 Agricul1111c. Sunnowcts • Human
lmp•cl on th1t Forc!l'.I - Childrcns' Edue&1lon
Veronica Nicholu:Wonum in Politics • Uulc
People-Medicine Allies
Wild habitat is disappearing. The wild creatures are
disappearing and wilJ be gone unless brave humans Ulke note and
act. The imponance of habitat to biodiversity and the effect of
human beings on the natuml systems in Southern Appalachia will
be the topic of the foll issue of the KatUah Journal. For aUthings
wild!
Topics for funher issues include Children; Wellness; and
Crealing Nurturing Cultures. Please send ideas, suggestions,
anwork, and possible anicles on these and other subjects.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE SIXTEEN· Swnmcr 1987
Helen Wal10 • Poem: Vls1ons in a Oudcn •
Virion Qucn • Fini Flow • lnilutlon Lctmina in !he Wilderness • Chciolcec
Challcngi: - -Valuing Tn:ca"
~LJAH JOURNAL
ISSUE FOUR SUMMER 1984
ISSUE El<lHTESN - Winier 1987-88
Water Dnlm Water Quality • Kudzu . Sow
Ech!'S¢ . Cl411'CU1ting Trout - Ooing to Wallu
Ram Pwnps • MictQhydro · Poems: Bcnrut
lee Sinclair. Jim Wayne Millet
Vc:mamJlu Aichiiecllll1' DrCfnU m Wood and
Stone - Mouniam Home Earth Energies
EanJt.Shcllered Llving • Membrane Houses
Brush Sheller • Poems: Octoll£r Ou•k • Oood
Mcdlcinc: "Shella"
lSSUE FIVE FALL 1984
IUNefl . OW Ways in Chctolcec - Oinscng 'luclcill' Waste • Our Celtic Heritage •
Biorcgionalism: Past, Prcunt, and Futuro •
John Wilnoty • Hc31ing Dllllcncss - Politiei of
ISSUE NINETEEN · Spring. 1988
Pcrlcaodra C.nlen • Spring Toma Blucbcrrics
WiWOowcr Gardens - Cranny Hi:rbalin •
Flower Es~ -rbc Origin of 11¥: Animols·
Stary Oood Mcdlcme. "Po,,.ct" Be ATn:e
ParucipnllOn
ISSUE SIX· WINTER 19114-SS
Winier Solstice Eanh C=rnony • Ho11Cp3S1111c
R1vcT Coming ol the Ught - Lo11 c.hin
Rooca - Mountain Agra.:ul1urc: The Righi Crop
WiUiAm Taylor The Fuwr" of the F~
ISSUE TWENTY - Summer, 1988
l'racrvc Appa!Khian WI.~ • Hlghbnds
of Roan • ~lo Communuy - Land Trust •
Arthur Morpn School Zonma Luue - '1'bc
Ridge• • Farmers and the Farm Bill . Ooocl
Mi:dicmc: "Land" • Mid Rain Dukc'J Pov.er
PIAy • ChclOk.ec Microhydro Projoct
lSSVE SEVEN · SPRING 1985
Sus1Jlinabl4 Economic$ · Hot Spring$ • Worker
Owncnhip - The Cn:al Eeunomy - S~lf Help
Credit Union • Wild Turby · Responsible
lnvcsung · WQtbng"' tho Web of l..ifo
lSSUE EIGHT · SUMMER 1985
Cclcbnuion: A W~y of Ufc • Kiuuah 18.000
Ycan Ago . SIK"Rd Siles Folk Ans "' the
Schools Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle PO<lllls:
Hilda Downe: - Chcralccc Heri1J1gc Cenlto:f •
Who Owns Appaladua?
ISSUE NINE- FALL 1985
The Waldcc l'orC1t The Trus Spuk Migrating Porests • Horu Logging Swting a
Tree Crop· Urban TYCCS - Acom Bread - .Mylh
ISSUE TWENTY.ONE · FAil. 198ll
Ch4Stnu1.1: A 1'111Ural Histmy • Rt11or1t1g the
Chulnut ·Poem of Prcsctva&IQO and Prai""•
Continuing !he QuCSI • Forests and Wildlife
Cllcsmuu in Reaional Diet
Chu1nut
Re.sources Hotb Note. • Oood Medicine:
•Changes 10 Cmnc" - Review: W/lu41 uimdl
Li~
8IOREGIONAl.J0oRNAl OF ™E SOUTMERll APPA~IAN$
ISSUE ELEVEN SPRINO 1986
Community Planning • Cities and Ille
Bi.mgional Vision • Recycling . Community
Oindenlna· Flo)'d Counly. VA. Oasohol Two Biorcaional Views Nuclear Supplement
Foar11c 011111C$ - Oood Medicine: Visions
ISSUE FOURTEEN- W1111er 1986-&7
Uoyd Carl Owlc Boogcrs and Mununas - AD
Species Day - Cabin Fever Un1vcrsil)' Homclcu in Ka1uah • HumCl!Ulde Ho1 War.c
Siovcmatcr"1 N11tTa11ve • Cood Mcd1cmc:
lnicnpcc= Communicallon
ISSUETWENTY-'IWO-Wintcr. '88.S9
OlobaJ Wamnng • Fire Thi. Tune Thomu
Bcny on ·sioreaio#J" - Eu1h Ellmi.sc • Kon:
Loy McWhinu An Abundlnceof£mp1incss
L£TS • Chton1clas of Floyd • Dany Wood
lSSUETIURTEEN. Fall 1986
Ccn1er For Awakening- E11Wicth c.Jlm - A
Ocn11., Du.th • Hospice - Emc.11 \foraan •
Dcalin1 Crc•tively with Death • Home Burial
Bo~ • The Wake - The Raven Mocker Wooclslorc and WIWwoods Wi<dcm - Good
Medicine: Thai Sweat Uxfl:"
ISSUE FIFTEEN -Spring 1987
Covcrlets • Wonu.n l'or-CSlct -Susie McMalwl
Midw1(c • Ahemalivc Contraccpuon Bioscxualil}' • Biorcgional1SJJ1 and Women
Ooocl Modicme: MJllriachuial Cultuni • ~
ISSUE TWENTY-TIIR.E.E ·Spring. 1989
Pisgah VUlaac · Plmcl At! - Orccn City Poplar Appeal "Clcu Sky" • "A N"w E.vtl1"
Bbc:lr. Swan - Wild Lovdy Ou-µ • Rov1c:w1:
Soucd Land. Sacud Sa, Ir• "'" - Poem:
truavtes . The a-Chin
T111111
ISSUE TEN - WINTER 1985°86
Kate Roac:s - Circlet of S101111 • ln1cmal
Mythmaltilt& • Hoh•lic Hco.ling on Trial Poems: Sieve Knaulh • MylhiQ PlacC$ • ~
Uk1ena·s Talc - Crysial Magic: •
"On:.mspcaltina-
~U AH JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Mamie MuJler (704) 683-1414
Regular Membership........ SlO/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Conmoucor.....................S50/yr.
Name
Address
City
Area Code
Summer, 1989
Enclosed is S
ro give
this ejf an extra bOost
on
State
Phone Number
"Sudden Tmirils"
Zip
l can be a local contact
person for my area
Back Issues
Tssue it __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue 4# _ @ $2.50 = $_ _
rssue # _@ $2.50 = s__
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Complete Se1 (3-1 J , 13-16,
18-23)
@ S35.00 = $_ _
�
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 24, Summer 1989
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-fourth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on peace in the mountains: settling controversies; a look at the Oak Ridge Reservation; and promoting peace through community building. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Judith Hallock, Patrick Clark, Richard Lowenthal, Heather Pittillo, Marnie Muller, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, Marnie Muller, Milo Guthrie, Mary de La Valette, "kent," Jim Houser, Charles Rampp, and Melanie Bridges. <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.
Deep Listening by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />Life in Atomic City by Judith Hallock.......5<br /><br />Hiroshima Day 1989.......7<br /><br />Direct Action! by Patrick Clark.......8<br /><br />Planting a Tree of Peace.......9<br /><br />Community Building and Peace by Richard Lowenthal.......10<br /><br />Peacemakers: A Resource Listing.......11<br /><br />Ethnic Survival.......14<br /><br />Black Mountain Pairing Project.......15<br /><br />"Battlesong": A Poem by Heather Pittillo.......16<br /><br />Growing Peace in Cultures by Marnie Muller.......18<br /><br />Review: The Chalice and the Blade.......20<br /><br />Natural World News.......22<br /><br />A Children's Page.......25<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Events Calendar.......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
<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
Peace movements--Appalachian Region, Southern
Community life
Oak Ridge (Tenn.)
Sister Cities
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
Children's Page
Community
Ecological Peril
Electric Power Companies
Glossaries
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/1f2e1b45f5e29afd5e7816d6d6f26b51.pdf
e62be1d7412c88f48ec27a25918ab429
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 26 WINTER1989-90
CHILDREN
$1.50
�~LJAt-t JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Pa1d l
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�Coming of Age in the Ecozoic Em .............. l
by Tlwma.1 Berry
Kids Saving Ratnforest................................4
b) Sama/a l/ir.H
Kids' Treccyding Company............ .......... 5
ConOirt Resolution and the Family............ 6
by Ellie Ki,,cade
Developing the Creative Spirit. ...................!i
h\· /.i1uia J1c1mer
The Balloon is a Unicom ............................9
b) Art.1p1ri1 Swdio
Birth Power.................................. ............ 10
b) luc111da Flodin amt .Wanlru Pnk111s
Birth Bonding........................................... 11
b\ Jan \'erJiaexhe
Coming of Age in the Ecozoic Era
The Magic or Puppetry:
An Interview with Bonnie Blue................ 12
by 111omas Berry
by Chriltinll \.forri.w11 uiul Karc11 n mk1m
Horne Schooling..................................... 15
II) 001111 Wnmiward and Trilli Scver111
Ceremony................................................ 16
Trailin/llud
Mother Earth:
The i\atur;1l Classroom.......... ..... .. ... . •IX
111 Sma11 Grie.mwicr
Bmdegradable Diapers............................ 1R
lw Al'l\'a .Ill/ Romm
Resources............ .................................. 19
Gardening Tips tor Children ............ ..... 19
by T<>m )'n1111gblood-Pe1er.e11
\
i\atural World News............................... 20
"From the
Diary of a ~1odem Child".......... .. 24
by Roh Messi< k
Pocket Culture::.......................................24
by \Viii A.1/ie Basm1
Drumming......................................... ..•. 26
Fon:st Rescue:
An Ecological Manifesto.............. 29
Webworking.......................................... .30
We are now at the end of the Cenozoic
Era of the planet Eanh's 4.5 billion year history.
During the Cenozoic time which has been
occuring for the last 65 million years. most all of
the lire fom1s with which we are familiar came
to their foll development. The Cenozoic is nlso
when we humans came into being. I lowever.
this era is rapidly being tcm1inated.
Not only the human, but even more so.
1he functioning or the entire planet is being
altered. The climate, the chemistry of the
atmosphere. 1he wa1er and the soil, our relation
to the sun, all the bio~ystem' of the planet, e\en
the geological structure of the planet: all 1he'e
are being altered in the most extensive
transformation that has ta.ken place on the planet
Eanh in the last 65 millicm years. So extensive
is the d1ssolu11on of the life systems of the Earth
during the past century that the viability of the
human cannot be taken for gr-Jnted.
T he long-term survival of our children
depends on understanding the depth of what is
happening to the planet at present--it is essential
to admit that what b occuring 1s nothing less
than biocide. It also depends on rekindling a
relationship between the human and the natural
world that is far beyond the exploitive
relauonshi ps of the industrial mode. A different
kind of prosperity and progress needs to be
understood which embraces the wlwle Life
community. All our human institutions,
professions, all our programs and acti vities need
to funcuon now m this wider Life community
context.
It is time to evoke the emergence of a new
E.'Uth period which can be identified as the
Ernzoic era. Even now the shift is beginning to
1;ike place in which a relationship or mutual
enhancement between humans and the naturnl
world is being regarded no1 only as possible but
essential to planeiary survival. I low do our
chtldrcn fit in wilh 1his change . .
Hea/1hy £111"irm1me111
Our children need a healthy Eanh in
which to live. A sickened planet is not
conducive to healthy children physically, or to
their emotional or psychic security. Continued
conu1mination of water, soil, air and other life
syMems by unnecessary and unsound
production practices is jeopardizing their future
existence ao; well as that of the planet.
Children need pure air and water and
sunligh1 and fruitfu l soil and all those living
fonns that provide the context in which human
existence can be properly nunured. Only if this
context is kept intact and an appreciation of it is
passed on will we fulfill our obligations to our
children and to the planet.
Membership in the l ife Community
Our children need 10 be able 10 see that
they are members or the whole Life communiiy
of the natural world about them, not just
members of a local or even global human
community. Human society as such is an
abscraction. The only real community is the
entire community of the natural world. No pan
of this integral community has either existence
Dra1< tng by Rub Mo.nick
t 98S
c:ontu1ucd an p. 3
�J<eLlAHJOURNAL
~STAFF THIS ISSUE:
Andy Half-baker
Rob Messick
Marnie Muller
Rodney Webb
Chip Smith
Richard Lowenthal
Christina Morrison
James Rhea
David Wheeler
Heather Blair
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Stephen Bartlett
Will Ashe Bason
Susan Griesmaier
Michael Havclin
Scott Bird
Jack Chancy
COVER by Zack Brick, age 6, of Floyd Community.
Reprinted from the Blue Mountain School Calendar
(for sale from Colleen Redman; Box 634; Floyd, VA 24091)
THE SOUTHERN APPALJ.CHIAN BIOREGION
ANO MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
PUBLISHED BY: Kanlah Journol
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
EDITORIAL QFACE nus ISSUE:
Worley Cove, Sandy Mush Ouk
WRITE US AT:
Ka1Wih Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
TELEPHQNE: (704) 683-1414
Ka/UahJournaJ is on SkYland BBS, Asheville, NC.
For information, call (704) 254-6700.
Diversity iJ an important clcmeot or bioregional ecology, bolh
nalUral and social. ln line wilh !his principle, the Kataah Journal tries
io serve m a forum for lhc discussion of regional issues. Signed aniclcs
express only the opinion of the authors and arc not necessarily lhe
opinions of lhe Kataah Journal edilOl'S a staff.
The ln1U1181 Revenue Service has declared Kataah a non-profit
organiulion Wlder section SOl{cX3) of the lnicmal Revenue Code. All
contributions IO Kataah are deductible from pcrsooaJ income tax.
'LNVOCA.TWN
I think ouer ogoin my smell oduentures,
My fears,
Those I thought so big.
For ell the ultol things
I hod to get
And to reach,
And yet,
There Is only one greet thing The Only thing To Hue,
To see the greet doy thot downs ,
And the light thot fill s the w orld.
- Inuit song
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on
our continent, Turile 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 " KatUtih" 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 Mountai11 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
periuins 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 " situalion in terms ofa quality standard
of life for all living beings on 1his planet. As a voice
for the caretakers of this sacred land, Kat"'1h, we
advocate a cenlered approach to the concept of
decentralization. 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 thaJ Ka/Uah will grow to serve the best interests
of this region and all its living, breathing members.
-The Editors
~
k)t,nt.er ,1989-90
�Coming of Age in the Ecozoic
E r a-continued from p. 1
or life apan from the other members or the communiry.
We arc awkward at this manner of thinking because many
of our religions as well as humanist traditions carry a cenain
antagonism toward the natural world. But now the refusal to
acknowledge the intimate membership in the corrununity of Earth
is leading to their own destrucrion as well as that of the planet.
The next generation can survive only as functional members of
this larger community. Our children are instinctively aware of this
wider sense of identity. We need only foster I.his awareness.
Earth Literacy
Our children also need to be literate about the Eanh. They
need to learn not only how to read books composed by human
genius but also how to "read" the Great Book of Nature. Again,
absorbing this Great Book is natural to children. Alienation from
this primary educational experience has been, in our generation,
the source of unmeasured disaster to every aspect of human
existence.
A true prosperity requires being able to understand the
language of nature. Native peoples know this language. II is
primarily the language of the Earth, a language of living
relationships that extend throughout the universe. We have here
within this Nonh American conrinent a superb natural setting in
which our children can become Eanh-literate, capable of
undemanding what their world is telling them.
Energy Awareness
Our children need to understand how to function with the
energy of I.he sun and wind and the water rather than with the
energies of fossil fuels or of nuclear processes. Our inabilny to
use these other energies properly has led to a situation in which
the planet Earth is covered with grime and poisons. These toxins
are not only eating away with their acids the very stones and
structures of all the great cities of the world, but they are also
harmful to the planet itself.
The understanding of more benign energy forms and the
skills to interact with them effectively are absolute necessities for
the survival of our children in a sustainable life context. In
addition, it is imponant 1ha1 these energy systems be designed
with sensitivity and a sense of appropriate scale.
Our children also need to understand the healthy limits of
their bioregion's capacity to provide energy and to suppon life.
They need to be encouraged to envision a way of life that can be
compatible with Lhose natuml limits. Helping children get in Lhe
habit of conservation as well as recycling is an imponant step tn
encouraging them to co-exist with the rest of the life community.
Food
Our children need to learn gardening. The reasons for this
reach deep into their mental and emotional as well as into their
physical survival. Gardening is an active participation in the
deepest mysteries of the universe. By gardening our children
learn that they constitute, with all growing things, a single
community of life. They learn to nurture and be nunured in a
universe Lhat is always precarious but ultimately benign. They
leam profound reasons for the seasonal rituals of the great
religous renditions.
More immediately, however, i'> the question of physical
survivaJ. With the ever-increasing loss of soil on which
food-growing depends, with the rising innaiion in the economic
sphere, with the need for food grown in a proper organic context,
and with the crowded situation in our urban centers, the capacity
of our children to grow a significant umount of their o~n food on
very limited areas of Eanh will become an increasing urgency.
Elementary education especially might very well begin and
be developed in a gardening context. How much the children
could learn! A language related to life! Emotional responses 10
blossoming and fruitful plants. social cooper:11ion, death as a
source of life. They could learn geology and biology and
ascronomy. They could learn the sources of poetry and lner.iture
and the ans. They might even be saved from the sterile and
ephemeral world of Atari.
WUller. 1989- 90
Participawry Role
Our children need to be prepared for their role in the
fruitful functioning of the Great Earth itself, the first and greatest
of all "corporations". They need to learn that the underlying role
of all human corporative enterprises is to enhance the functioning
and meaning and value of this primary corporation, the planet in
which we live. If the Eanh becomes bankrupt there is no future
for anything that lives within the Earth.
The remarkable achievement of the Earth in its natural state
is its ability 10 renew itself and all its living forms. There is a
minimum of entropy in the Earth system_ Energies arc cycled
recycled indefinitely. The infrastructure renews itself. No
human process can do this. NeiLher automobiles nor Madways,
nor subway systems, nor fossil fuels, nor railways, n..ir power
plants, nor nuclear generating plants renew themselves_ They
Inst but a few years and then rust away and the resources of the
planet arc no longer sufficient 10 renew them.
A completely different role of the human in relation to the
Earth begins to identify usclf. One which functions in a different
fashion and with different ideals from the highly entropic,
exploitative manner in which our culture functions at present.
Recognizing our intimate membership in the whole Life
community and becoming literate in its wisdom and language,
our role becomes that of dynamic panicipator. ln recognizing this
intimate connecLion, we begin 10 understand and align ourselves
with 1he natural world's capacity to be self-emerging,
self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing,
and self·hcaling.
Experience of the Sacred
Our children need to understand the meaning and grandeur
and sacredness of the Eanh as revelatory of the deep mysteries
and meaning of the world. Rather than teaching them to disdain
the natural world as unwonhy of their concern. it would be most
helpful if our religious traditions would move toward a stronger
emphasis on the glorious phenomena of the universe about us as
modes of divine communicauon.
In a special manner, through celebration and ceremony,
our children need to observe and esteem the spontaneities of
nature in our own bioregions here in the different areas of Nonh
America; spontaneities that give expression 10 genetic diversity
which is the most precious endowment of the living world.
Without 1he marvelous variety of living forms that swim in
the sea and live and move upon the Eanh and ny through the air,
our own human understanding, our emotional life, our
imaginative powers. our sense of 1he divine, our capacity for
verbal expression; these would all be terribly diminished. If we
lived on 1he moon, our sense of the divine would reOcct the lunar
landscape: our cmouons. sensitivities and imagination would all,
in a similar manner. be through a lunar mode of expression.
So with our children, they are what they are and have such
remarkable expansion of life because of that share in the natural
world that they have here within the Nonh American continenL
The radiance of their surTOundings is even now reflec1cd in the
radiance of our children's countenances.
Sc11se of History
Our children need a sense of their historical role in creating
this coming ecological age. 1hc F..cozoic. This future world is
something that has never existed before within the context of the
whole planeL We are involved in an irreversible sequence of
planetary developments. For the first time an integral form of the
planet Earth wi1h all its geological contours, its living forms and
us human presence has become possible as a vital, functioning
plane1ary whole expressing itself in its unbroken sequence of
splendors tn movement and song and an infinite variety of color
in the sky and throughout the continents.
There 1s truth in the expression--· The Dream is at the heart
of the Action. The greatest gift we can give our children is to
assiM them in their dreams of a planet of pure air and water and
sunlight and soil. where the community of all living beings can:.,;l!I'
~·
nourii.h in the celebration of existence.
A
Thomas Berry noted geologian and awlwr of The Dream of the
Earth (Sierra Club Books, 1988), is presently collaboraring with
physicis1 Brian Swimme on a new book, The Universe Story.
l'lb •'lnoenu Reny
�~iftFJ. §trfilkT~ ~ftfp
$11~~ ~ ~~T:P41
in
'!8~&11.
illus~uon
by Jermain Mosely
Mrs. Woods' science class at
Asheville Alternative School has
been studying forests and
rainforests in particular. We went
to the "Discovery Place" in
Charlotte to see an exhibit on
Rainforests and have studied
about forestry in class and at
Holmes State Forest.
We have learned that if all the
rainforests are destroyed then our
oxygen will decrease a whole lot.
We have also learned that the
rainforests are ancient. They are
very special and important to us.
They give us many products as
well as 1/2 the world's animals
and plants.
Our class is getting together and
making money to help save these
forests So far we have almost
made $300. With that we will be
able to buy 10 acres of land out of
a rainforest in Belize .
Jc.iiWcih Jo1Ul1Q( pllc:Je 4
'
•I
We have been raking people's
leaves in our neighborhood for
$1.50 or more if the yard is really
big. All of the people's yards we
have raked, have given a little bit
extra. One boy in our class raked a
medium size yard with his friend
tor a man and got $30.00.
We have worked very hard on this
project and hope that we will
encourage other people to pitch in.
We put pictures in the halls of our
school. A few nights ago we had a
woman named Mrs. Jeanne
Cummings come to our school to
show some slides of her
'Earthwatch' trip to a rainforest in
Borneo. We had live entertainment
and refreshments that night. It
was very exciting for all of us.
Do whatever you can to help save
the Rainforests, it is important to
all of us and we hope that these
Rainforests will survive.
/
By Samala Hirst
kll-ntcr, 1989-90
�Ph""'' b~ Karen W•tkin'
Hey, all you people out there,
have you heard of the new business Kid's T reecycling Co.?? !!
It all started when our teacher started talking about
how imponant trees and recycling are. We think 1hat
this is a great Saving-The-Trees business and a grea1
class project.
We sell all sorts of recycled paper producls like paper
1owcls. rissuc and 1oilet paper. On 1hc lirst day we
only got two orders. Then we got more and more
orders every day and week. We have $65.00 so far.
Do you know when we get older there won't be many
trees lefl? There won't be hardly any paper. Don't let
1hat happen! We all need to recycle. S1art now at
Kid's Treecycling Co. We are in third grade at
Asheville Alternative School. South French Broad
Avenue. A ... hcv1llc. NC 28801. Ourtcacheris
Victoria Maddux. You can call her in the evening at
{704)- 645-4593. Call now and become a "Recycling ..
Ci1i1en"
-·-hy: llana Craig. l.arJ Weaver, Ken;. Wahcr,\Vill lknnen.
Molly Ru ... h and Alesia Summey.
l./UlU:t, 1989-90
�Conflict Resolution
and the Family
Conn1ct. Every family has it. Household chores,
homework, messy rooms, schedule connicts, ~pace invasion~.
values collisions, power struggles, and scape-goating have all
been long-srnnding and universal sources of stress in 1hc
American family. The quality of family life. though, is
detennined not by \.\hethcr or not a family has conflict but by
what they do with it.
It is commonly recognized that parents have a great
innuence on the overall process of dealing "'ith the inevitable
conflicts that plague families. What is frequently overlooked.
however, is the contribution that children have 10 make in the
conflict resolution process. Children are our greatest source of
inspiration and creativity; they have internalil.ed fe\.\er rules and
limitations and "yes--bu1--tha1 wouldn't work bccause"s and have
a natural spirit of discovery that can set the stage for new and
more expansive ways of thinking.
This article is based upon my own experience as a par.:nt
and as a conflict management consultant and educator. coupled
with the perspectives of my daughter Dana. age 14, and my son
Nick, age 10. We will citplore three imponant variables which
operate to affect an individual\ or a fomily'~ response to conflict:
Spirit, Personality/Well·Being, and Skillfulnes5.
by Ellie Kincade
Spiritff he Spirit of Possibilit)
Spuit is the auitude with which we approach problems and
conflicts, and is the foundation of the process of resolution.
Thomas Crum, author of The Magic of Conflict. makes two
imponant points about the nature of conflict:
ConOict js a na111ral phenomenon. We see it everywhere in
nature - the magnificent beauty of mountains, canyons, beaches
was formed by eons of connict. In our human relationships,
from the intra- and interpersonal through global levels, the
choices we make determine whether the intense energy inherent
in conflict will be a del.tructive force or as Crum says. will be
"the best sandpaper around for smoothing out our lives"
ConOict js noi a comest. Winning and losing are goals for
games. 001 for connict resolution. Resolving connict is rarely
about \.\ho\ right: it's aboul the acknowledgement and
appreciation of differences.
Dana's summary of a positive spirit toward conflict is:
*Trust one another.
,. Approach problem situations with lo\'e. (Y?u can
love someone and be angry at the same nme.)
t.n.rtrt'r',~90
�•Be flexible and willing lO undersl:lnd another's
point of view.
Nick adds:
•Take responsibilny for your own "stuff' and
realize thal whal you do affects others.
•Anticipate your own and others· needs and try to
prevent conflicts from happening.
•Have a sense of humor, even when there are
problems!
Every family has to find its own unique way of
discovering and fo:.tering a spirit of possibility for dealing with
issues. Families who creatively integrate faith, hope. charity. and
love, and playfulness into their everyday lives develop the
flexibility. willingness and perspective to change gracefully and
powerfully over time. They bring this creative power 10 every
conflict or advei;ity they face.
The family who believes that it is possible to find win/win
solulions (rather than win/lose solutions) to their conflicb. finds
them! A fringe benefit of lhis philosophy about confl1c1 1s that
children (and eventually 1heir parents too!) learn that what they do
and say makes a difference, thnt conflicts can be resolved v. ithout
baules and that problems lhat seem "impossible" to solve arc
really just challenges to human flexibility. compassion and
creativity.
Dana defines respect as the wtllmgness to allow each
person the freedom to express their true and unique self.
Affirrmng differences, making allowances, and building on those
differences facilitate conflict resolution. We've grown up with
homogeny as an ideal. Think about the all-American metaphor of
the "melting pot" where cliversity becomes lost ma kenle of drab
glop. Consider, instead. 1he image of a salad where each
ingredient maintains its discrete qualities while adding volume,
texture, nourishment, variety, and beauty to the whole.
Each individual's personality de1ermines their preferences
and style in dealing with conflict. Nick emphasizes that often he
needs space and wants to be left alone when conflict arises; when
he "cools orr· he is better able to talk about it. Dana usually
wants to talk things out nght away, bu1 sometimes wants time 10
think things out alone. She stresses the importance of asking one
another for what we need and being considerate of our different
needs. Individual differences rue, in fact, one of the greatest
resources in problem ~olving. Division of labor conflicts can
often be easily resolved by having family members volunteer for
their "favorite" chore. For example, Dana and Nick bo1h like to
cook: I much prefer the mindlessness of cleaning up afterward.
Dana likes carrying in the firewood and Nick builds and tends the
fire. or cour.;e those preferences and inclinations do change in an
evolving household, so frequent communication and negotiauon
arc a musr.
In a favorite 'Peanuts' car1oon. Sally is complaining, "I
hate everything! I hate the whole world!" Charlie Brown
responds. matter-of-factly. "I thought you had inner peace."
Sally replies. "I do, but I still have outer obnoxiousness!" We all
have outer obnoxiousness. the level and intensity of which is
directly relatec.! 10 our general state of well-being. One's state of
well-being (or lack 1hereof!) may be lhe most significant factor
affecting the individual's ability to respond to conflict with
tolerance, flexibility, creativity and a "Spirit of Possibility."
The three of us agree thnt a bad day at school or work,
exhaus1ion. pressures of upcoming events, or a general sense of
malaise is often the root of our outer obnoxiousness which can
lead 10 conflict. Here are several things families can do to
enhance 1he well-being of individuals and the family unit:
Herc are some fun ways families can develop and exercise
the "Spirit of Possibility":
•Play games like, "There's Not Only One Way 10 Do Anything".
Discover throogh brruns1onnmg the many f>O"-s1h1l111cs m a snuauon.
How many different wa)'~ arc there to m:ike p<1ll<!akcs? To plant a tree?
To w~h a window? Wc"vc ycl IO find an acuvity lhal can he done m
JUSl one way. Make the jOlhl)' or brrunstonnmg commonplace. so tl1'1l
11 occurs more na1urally in connict snuauons.
•Keep 1rnck of "Impossible Things• that happen an the world Read and
d1SCus.s news s1orics, historical evenL~. sporting accomplishmenb.
amazing inventions, ulcs of survival and raniaslic JOumcys, and mo~l
1mporwuly, personal life cxpcncnccs m lhc accomplishment or "The
Impossible". For example:
Remember when ...
..."Nick almost gave up finding a shark's t0olh at the beach-and then
found live!"
·~"Grandma 105t her diamond ring m lhc gnx:cry ~iorc parking 101 and
wcnL b:lck lhat nighl and found 1L"
..."Dana though I she'd never be able to afford her trip to the Soviet
Union and !hen raised all the money for tile lrip by selling hct pocll)
books."
Our true contcmpornry heroes arc ordinary people in ordinary
cin:umslallCCS who occomplish cx1100td1nary tilings.
• Acknowledge. and celebrate seasonal changes and cytlical
llllnsfonmuions, e.g. watch 1hc moon wax and wane. gardcM grow.
birds migraic. cocoons spin and haich. seeds di\-pc.rsc. Notice and honor
developmental changes in ram1ly member;: e.g. have celebrations m
honor or landmark events. bcginnmgs. endings. and annavcrw1cs-·
there's always something IO cclcbrutc, rrom lo<;t w:cth to maJor rites of
passage. American l1'3d1tion I\ lacking in mual. Look to other cultures
and uad11ions and creaic your own! Gncve the losses and welcome the
new growth !hat rollows
Personalil~ Factor~
and Well-Being
(I) Eyeball the week ahead 10 alert one anolhcr abou1 high ~lre5' limes
and ask for cxlr'd supJ10n, e.g. Nack mak<:S school lunches when Dana
has a track meet so she can get some cxtnl rest: Dan3 covers dinner
when I need to prepare for a worlc'\hop. Communic~ning m advance
•Experience and affinn your conna:ledn~ to tile world·•ll·latgc Mike
family dcc1s1ons about what contnbuuons io m:t.lcc 10 commumty and
global service projects. The needs, a~ we look around u•. arc
overwhelming. Learning lO make choice~ aoout how to u<c: our
personal energy and rc~rces 1s a b;i~1c hfc skill for hvang m th" age.
Remember the story of 1hc person at the edge of the '>Ca, tossing
beached si.arfish back mto the occan. A man appro:1chcd und '"I.ell,
"Why arc yoo bothering to do tha11 Then: arc so mnny. Whm d11Tcrcncc
docs it make io save a few?" 11ui person p3uscd. thought. smiled nnd,
tossing ano1hcr \lllffitj\ mto 1hc sea, replied •1t make' a diffcrcnc.: to
that one:
•explore mull1-cuhurnl perspectives by cncuuragmg c~changc~
through pen.pals. ho,11ng mtcmauonal ''i\ltOrs, or travel D.> your
g1fl·shopp1ng lhrough catalog., that \upport collage mdu\trlC\ 1n
,·nrious cuhures around the world. Dana involved our cnurc famil)·.
from C03Sl to coast, in her ci111..cn-diplnmacy trap to lhe Soviet Union
lhis past summer She enhanced our ·spirit or Po~1l>1hty" by making
her own dream come true and ~he created a network of connectedness
bctwc:cn many Sovic:ts and Americans \\ho share the larger dream or
world peace.
&.>Lnte.r, 1989-90
about schedules 1\ connic1 pn:vcnuon!
(2) Milke \tree;,; mnnagcmcnt a family alTair. Take walks. have joint
"temper tantrum'· 10 let off sicam. talk about your drc3111s, give one
anolhcr massag~. have ·,1op-:icuon hug~· (prionty hug> can mltrTUp!
any ac11vi1y, C\cn an argument). Plan healthy menu.' together, hsien lO
music. dance. LAUGll A LOT! llavc nightly snuggles before bed.
Every f;tmily ~ds to discover and invent 1ts own 'tlC'' managcmcn1
plan Suppon one another's mdl\·1du.al \l.l'CSS marugcmcnt programs,
IOO. Dana ruid Nick ga>c me space for mcd11auon, racqlldball, or naps.
Tran.•;pona110n to tllcir 'JX>rb. academic and ~ul cvcnL~ is a pnoruy
for me.
(3) Learn w1lh your ch1IJrcn wmc tools for ccn1ermg. n:laxauon 8lld
sp1r11ual renewal Pra)'Cr. mcd1ta.t1on, visunli1.ation, brealhmg, }Oga,
dance. ~ns. and CCr1ilm man1al JI'\.\ (p:llllCUlllfly the nuid, powerful
and non-v1oleni ans suc;h as a1k1do and T11.1 Cha). arc all ways to
develop a relaxed, Oc.ublc. balanced. aucnuvc, and strong poMllre.
From tl11$ ccnicrcd siate at is easier to move with confidence and care
through life's ngors.
(oontiml<d an~ 23)
�Developing the Creative Spirit
by Linda Metzner
Imagine a warm, lazy summer's day, sky very blue.
You are on your back watching clouds roll by. What do you
sec there in the clouds? How docs it sound to you? Can you
move the way the clouds move?
What are the possibilities? Can your imagination take
you places you've never been before? Are there new ways to
get there?
If we are not utilizing the body-mind's creative
capabilities, we are allowing ninety percent of the nco-conex
--the largest and most recently-developed pan of the brain--to
go unused, an ocean of untapped potenrial. The work of a
lifetime, in tenns of mind evolution, is to make new
connections, to use the heart-mind, the whole brain and the
nervous system, to crave! to new realms on new paths, 10
envision and create ever-greater inter-relationships among
things.
A deeper goal of the teaching of creativity. and of an,
is to offer a starting-point, a vocabulary of the spirit, tools
for climbing through the changing terrain of the mind. The
dilemmas of our lives are dealt with by looking not just or the
problems but with them, around them, inside and outside of
them, and beyond them.
Imagination, "the ability to create images not present to
the sensory system;· involves the creation of thousands of
physical connecting links between neurons in the brain. If the
neurological structures for creative thinking are allowed to
develop in childhood, regardless of the end product of the
imaginative thought, then the resulting system of abundant
connecting links will be available to the adult as well.
Joseph Chilton Pearce, m his book The Magical Child.
speaks about a cenain point in childhood, especially between
the ages of seven and eleven, where vmually any suggestion
can be adopted and utilized by the child, if it is given without
doubt or ambiguity. Wnlking through fire, healing ~·ith the
hands, clairvoyance, many typ;!S of "paranormal" abilities arc
really extensions of creative thinking exhibited by children
given "pennission" to experience them.
Here are a few travel tips for the lifelong journey of
nunuring the creative spirit within ourselves and others:
Play. relax, go slow. New ideas will come from places
that are beyond your conscious control. Make time for
them.
Listen to your dreams, your flashes of insight, your
intuition. Try not to label mind processes as weird or
useless. Don't be shocked if you hear of other sounds,
colors, or beings a child is conscious of. You arc tapping
into a world Edith Cobb calls "common-plus-cosmic".
Give yourself guidelines for creative activities.
AJlow the mind to play with one or two small features,
and explore all the possibilities: a few colors. a few
textures, a musical interval or timbre.
Try to have material that presents ever-increasing
challenges, but stay grounded in past work. In teaching
music, try to stan with the body, with movement. for
every new idea introduced.
JC.Qiiuih
Journat p1t9e 8
"Compe1itions are for horses, not anists" (Picasso).
Don't compare, rate, evaluate or "improve" anyone's
work. Ask the anis1 to tell abou1 ii and get some insight
into her/his thinking.
Have some open rime, some open space, and some
open materials. Keep a box of bright colored papers,
scissors, glue, fabric. markers, pencils; loose clothes for
movement: a variety of sound-makers; typewriter or tape
recorder for stories.
Study and learn. Be aware of how others are taking
new leaps and exploring new territory.
Look for examples in life of an going outside old
boundaries: murals, mobiles, architecture, pantomime,
storytelling. This is the same evolutionary process found
in frogs, flowers, and blue-footed boobies.
Look at how it's been done in other places. In Africa,
animal forms become patterns on cloth; in Bali, girls
dance as goddesses in a trance state; in China, a five-note
scale played on bamboo pipes forms an orchesrra. Other
cultures have already transcended some of the artistic
boundaries that we've inherited in ours.
After working alone, try working with one or two
others. Your ideas may expand synergbtically, way
beyond what you had alone.
Learn simultaneously to respect others' crearions as
you create your own. Sometimes this calls for quiet
listening or watching others, or spending time with
someone else's finished work. What new ways does
he/she open up 10 you?
A mind that craves new solutions, new paths. can leap out
of trenches of conditioning and make miracles happen. This.
after all, is how the Universe 1s being created, even as we
speak!
RESOURCES:
CATALOGS
• Animal Town CoopcraU\'C Ventures
PO Box 2002. S:tnlll Barbara. CA 93102
• Chmabcny Book Scrvice
2830 Via Orange Way Su11.c B, Spring Valley, CA 92078
• Geode Educational ()pllon~
PO Box 106, We.~1 Che.qcr, PA 19381
• Music For Lillie People
PO Box 1460, Redway, CA 95560
• Suzuki Musical lnsuumcnis
PO Box 261030. San Diego, CA 92126
• World Music Press
11 Myrtle Avenue, PO Box 2565, Danberry, CT 06813
SUGGESTED READING
Adams, James. The Cart 01ld Feeding of Ideas. Addison· Wesley. 1986.
Amabile, TCIC.~ Growing Up Creative Crown Publishers, 1989.
Cobb, Edith. The Ecology of lmDgina11on in Childhood Columbia
Umvcrs11y Press, 1977.
Gardner. Howard. Frames of M111d: Tht TMory of Multiplt lnttll1gtncts.
Basic Books, Inc. 1983.
Pearce. Joseph Chihon. TM Magical Child and TM MallU;al Child Matures.
E.P. Dunon, New York. 1977
Piening, Ek.lcchan:I and Lyons, Nick. Educating as an Art, The Rudolf Si.cincr
Mciliod. The Rudolf Si.cuicr School Press. NY. 1979.
Reck, David. TllL Music of tM IVholt Earth. Charles Scribncr'5 Sons, NY.
1977.
~
lmdo Merzner reaches Orff music and co.directs Anspirit, a
srudio of creorive orrs in Asheville. NC. She is a composer 011d
arranger and direcis rlie choral group, Womansong.
H.l~nter, 1989-90
�The :Balloon Ls A. Unworn
These ukas /or cJ.vfik>plrJ.9 c:reattvit!I i.n mlldrcn '""
s!Jared U'ith us from A.rtspu1t, 11 i;reato-e art..s studio 1n
Asm:i•1Jle, NC. 1'!4:mbcrs 1nc{Ulk: 1'frls A.rrwld. (day). 'BarrU:
'Barron (m<wcment), Norma 1Jradky (paper), Vicki.
aadh~UIJ (ft/x:r ), and lmdu 1'f4Urwr (musu;).
Xak.e a sefJ-portrait with pieces of coCored.
paper. Choose the coCors that
you.. IJorr.. as smaU:
' - mmn the most to
or as i.ur9e as ~ou Llke.
1.nter , 1989- 90
�by Lucinda Aodin and Martha Perkins
We need co recognize how imponant it is that women
take back their power· the natural power of creation is ours.
While a woman feels most in concrol of the birthing experience
in her own home, it is most important that she be able to
exercise her power wherever a binh should happen.
Women often do not realize the tremendous reservoir of
power that is theirs to tap into when they are delivering a
newborn. Birthing a child is the most powerful activity that our
bodies can perform, and a woman who can binh with power
will be a better mother and a stronger woman. No matter where
a baby is born, the mother should be able to accomplish it with
the full power that is inherent in the act and with the dignity of
womanhood.
We recently viewed a slide show of binh as represented
in an throughout history from cave glyphs to modem
obstetrics. Traditionally women are shown birthing upright,
strong and confident. A woman helper ·or sometimes a man •
is behind her; a midwife is below and in front of her. Paintings
and drawings from around the world and throughout the ages
of history all depict this trinity of birth... until modem times.
As the picrures draw closer to the present, the woman
sinks fanher and farther back into the images until she
disappears from the picture altogether. In recent photographs of
operating room situations the woman giving birth is not even
visible. She is flat on her back. her whole body draped except
for a gaping vagina, which usually has been cut. She is not
mother or a person, but a thing. Watching those slides brought
home instantly what has happened since our birth power has
been stripped from us.
functions of her body, mind. and spirit, and she is delivered.
She is not giving birth, or delivering her new-born life. She is
being delivered, which implies that she is being set
free ... "Deliver me from this childl" ... who is then taken away
to the nurseries, to the bath, to be re-warmed after its small
body is chilled.
This separation creates much emotional hardship for both
parents and child. But the love of a mother and a father is
amazing. It reaches beyond the hardship and bonds in love
with their child • but childbirth and bonding does not have to
be so hard.
We tend co think of power in terms of its mis-use rather
than thinking of power as being healing and strong. A
woman's birth power is power in its pure sense: power that is
not manipulative, not selfish. Birth power is selfless. Labor is
a series of overwhelming surges of energy, powerful waves.
Binh is a power act. It is one way in which a woman quests for
a vision and finds her pince in this life. In giving birth a woman
must exercise the ultimate strength of yielding. In yielding to
her labor she draws on the energy of the life foroe. Our culture
tends to consider yielding as an act of weakness. But in giving
birth, yielding is the strongest act. h is the strength of the
whole uruversc that brings a baby into chis world.
When birth is a narural act of power, a woman is not
delivered. She embraces the power of her womanhood, yields
to the strength of her body and her spirit, and gives her baby
passage into his or her own life. Watching births we have
learned that a midwife's job is to guide a woman into her
power· to work with a mother, to educate her, and to help her
to use her innate knowledge. It is amazing to watch the change
in a woman as she comes into her power.
Entering a hospiial a woman feels small and
insignificant, like a pebble amid the looming technology. It is
unnerving. The situation is out of her control and her mate's
control as well. Every intervention tells her that she knows
nothing about the procedures of birth and that her instincts arc
not to be truSted. The hospital staff is in command. She is not
IO yield tO the power of birth. Rather, anaesthesia takes over the
We arc successful as midwives when at the end of a
birthing the woman says, "I did it. Thank you for helping me."
If a woman says,"I couldn't have done it without you," we
have not done our job well enough. The mother deserves the
credit. After all, she has done all the work. If someone were to
ask us, "What is the job of a midwife?", we would reply, "To
give back chc power."
.
~t.UA.h
.
.
JounwaC p"'.JS 10
�•
To rcali1.C the binhing power we must first relearn the
birthing process. It is an ancient process, a wise way, and
generations of humaniiy have proven that it works. Then,
anned with our knowledge, we must demand 1ha1 our
institutions change with us. Our hospitals. doctors, nurses, anJ
midwives have to allow us as women to have control over our
own health - no, we as women must take control.
Families will never be srrong until we take back the
power of birth...and until we have power and strength in the
family. we will never truly heal the Eanh.
Lucinda Flodin and Manha Perkins art both motlU!rs a11d
work togetlier as a midwife team in the area s11rrn11ndi11g their
lwmes in the Doe River watershed.
by Jan Verhaeghe
Midwives nuending home binhs know the success of
their calling-the welfare of the mothers and babies in their
care-depends in pan on the special time immediately after
birth. No midwife worth her salt, excep1 in a m.iner of life or
death, would take a b:lby from the mother.
What exactly is binh-bonding? Birth-bonding is the
uninterrupted time immediately following binh when 1hc
mother and baby establish the foundation for their
relationship by re-connecting in every aspec1 of their now
separate lives. The most intense and the most important
period for birth-bonding is the firlit two hours but cenainly
Iasis until the baby falls into 1he deep steep infants experience
St!Veral hour.; after binh.
During bonding, mother and child becollll! linked
psychically in a way that defies our ability 10 analyze the
experience. The newborn is extremely impressionable and
everything that happens during this period leaves a deep
imprinL The natural longing of 1he baby is to re-establish i1s
cquilibrium--to be wann, 10 be held, to suck. to hear a
familiar heartbeat. To be separated from the mother at this
time must leave a la.sung and discressed memory. I believe
bonding is visual, tactile, aural, oral, olfactory, and
hormonal and occurs most easily when the mo1her holds her
baby and interacts wi1h it through the senses during 1hc
sensitive period immediately following birth. The "en face"
posilion--touching and being touched, hearing and being
heard, feeding and being fed. learning each others
smells-are complex interactions that occur with case when a
baby is placcd--and left--in its mother's arms.
The mos1 immediate person to bond wiih a newborn i~
the mother, but it is very important that fa1hers also bond
with their infantS. Fathers who have had 1he opponuni1y to
bond with one child but not with another 1ell 1he same storie_,
as the mothers of these children. Fathers of C-sccuon babies
often are better·bonded with their infants than the mother
simply because a woman who has just undergone major
surgery cannot give her full allention to her infant Siblings
bond wi1h an infant v.ith outsianding positive results as .... ell.
Many well·mcaning physicians and hospnal personnel
feel tha1 a mo1her's holding her baby for a few minuies on
!he delivery table constitutes "bonding". However, true binh
bonding means mother and baby are nm scpara1ed for hours
or even days following 1he birth. While the imponance of
binh-bonding has caugh1 the auention of many hospitals, us
~,it.er,
l 989•90
specific meaning and significance has often become sacrificed to
hospital routine. For citample, the widespread use of anaesthesia
in hospiial binh.s continues to be common practice.
My first three binhs in 1hc 60's were under Demerol
and Scopolaminc, an amnesiac. With "scope;• a mother
"forgets" the birth Cltperiencc and is too drugged to look at her
baby who is also drugged. Twenty-four hours later, I was given
my first look at my baby. I had no memory of the binh, and the
baby seemed a perfect stranger. Having missed out on sucking
during the minutes following birth, the baby seemed not to know
what to do the first times at the breast, and I invariably felt
rejected by each of my babies. I also felt inadequate as a mother.
With each baby, a kind nurse suggested trying again later and
went off to the nursery to give the baby a bottle. As a result I and
many other women often questioned our ability not only to
breastfeed a baby but to care for an infant. Later on many of us
found little satisfaction in raising our young children.
b:lby but to care for an intan1. Later on many of us found
linle satisfaction in raising our young children.
I am fonun:11e to have had another chance at childbinh
and an opponunily 10 experience birth-bonding with two
babies. With these babies or the 70's, one born in a hospital
but with no drugs, the other born at home attended by a
midwife, 1 breastfed with ease and confidence. In addition, I
never felt any alienation from my babies, never knew
post-partum depression, and experienced child rearing as a
joyous and fulfilling experience--in my 40's.
As a result of my mid-life binh experiences. I became
a labor suppon person, childbinh educator. and activist.
Undoubtedly the most important a.~pect of my las! 1wo binhs
was the binh-bonding I had with my babies. Meeting and
observing many mothers and babies over the last eigh1 years,
I am convinced 1hat bonding has a profound effcc1 on how
we parent and on how our children grov. spiritually as well
as mentally and physically.
When I first became nctive with childbinh in the RO's,
I could not help bu1 noiice that mothers who expressed joy
and who had an air of serenity about them as they dealt with
their children were mothers who had drug-free deliveries and
who were not separated from their newborn. ln 1nlking and
corresponding with moihers who had experienced binh
bonding with one child but no1 with another, I found the
same story over and over. There were many more
difficulties of every kind where there was linle or no
bonding. These babies had problems feeding, cried more,
were often unhappy as toddlers. The mothers often fell
rejected by the babies, were frequcnily depressed, and
questioned their abilities 10 mother Where there was
bonding, the opposite was true.
While no one wants a mother to experience any more
pain than is necessary, the use of anaesthesia in whatever form
is 1he factor most likely to prevent bonding. While an epidural
anaesthetic (injected between the layers of the covering of 1he
spinal cord) allows a woman 10 be awake, it canies with it
many risks that make funherintervention likely. With an
epidural, a woman mus1 lie almost motionless for a long time
which compromises the baby's oxygen supply often making a
C-section necessary. Even if she avoids surgery, she has no
control over her body from the waist down and often
experience~ headaches which further inccrfen: with the bonding
process.
Natural childbirth may seem an impossibility 10
women v. ho have been taught 10 fear the experience.
However, with preparation and loving suppon. the great
majori1y of women experience childbirth a:; an exhilarating
even! with binh·bonding the a.\pcct that has the most positive
long-term effect.
Jan \'erliaeghe lives in tlw Hendersonville, NC are.a and
provides c/Uldbirrh prepara1im1 for ho~ and hospilJl/ bin/~
XcltUM )o"-rt1.GL PIMJC
l
l
�The Magic of Puppetry
An Interview with Bonnie Blue
by Christina Morrison and Karen Watkins
Karuah: How did you become a professional
puppetee11 You said it was a gradual process?
Bonnie: J used 10 be an extremely shy,
sensitive, unself-confident person. And going
from 1here 10 an outrageous puppe1eer... you
could ask why such a change?
Kanlah: Was it the positive response to your
gift with puppetS?
Bonnie: I didn't have the confidence to see my
gif1s. ll was playing with children. And by
doing voice exercises, breath exercises, mime,
developing charac1er, realizing what my body
was doing when I was hunched over and
covering my hean. And just grokking those
things, understanding them, made me open
up. That's all. I just got to break my own
rules.
Katuah: And do all those things your puppets
were doing!
Bonnie: Yeah, through the puppets I got to do
them. And I got 10 realize how fun it was to
run around my universe smashing my rules
and "supposed to's." And then I got to see
this whole new person in here that I liked!
You know, self-likin~. It's so much fun
teaching self-liking. Kids like themselves...
they say, "I made rhis puppet and irs great!
Bonnie says it's great. I know it's grear!"
Kau1ah: Do you make your own puppets?
Bonnie: Yes. Snooge was the first puppet I
built. He's a three foot tall abominable
snowman with a 2 year-old personaJity. So he
says things like, "You! Come! Give me hug!
Oh ho, that tickle Snooge; that make me
happy!" (laughter)...That kind of lovable
fella. And the show was a take-off on
Scrooge; that's bow we got his name.
Ka!Uah: How do you manipulate them? On
strings?
Bonnie: I know ... well, I'm glad you're here.
(laughter)
Frog: You know, its a funny thing about
peoplc--thcy'll laugh al anything, won't you?
AHAHAHA!! Oh, look at that- there's a gnat!
Bonnie: No there's not ...
Frog: No wonder I've got a headache...
Frog: Right up thcre ...comc on you liule
guy...(hystcrical laughter) HUSH! You
might sea.re him away! ... bcre be comes!!
(buzzzzz·---slurp!I) 1 LOVE GNATS!!
Bonnie: And the other hand makes your ann
move, and T don't have more hands to rn:ike
your feet \lr'alk.
Katuah: Oh that's great! The kids must go
wild. I bet they can talk to him for hours and
cell him all their feelings...
Bonnie: Yeah, they do. and I.hey wanna touch
him a loL.
Frog: Get their hands in my mouth ...
Bonnie: These arc moving mouth puppets so
they·~ not on strings. I play with Mr. Frog
most often in the classroom- he's a good lap
puppet. Snooge is hard lo put on my lap, but
Frog here...
Bonnie: He does a series, Frog here. He comes
to the classroom and helps me teach. First of
alJ, l teach three forms of character. Physical
character-when they build their own puppets
they think about how we look and our
differences, like hair color, etc. The second
fonn is vocal cbaractcr-nol just talking but
sound effects:
Frog: Hi! (deep, froggy voice)
Frog: .... Nyaat...... ncooow .....secceccuurp! !
Kawah: HL Frog!
Bonnie: And the third form is movcment--how
lo move their hands when they're making it
talk. And within moving character you have
the concept of gravity. For example, you
Frog: Hello...about time I got outta my basket.
);:Q Li4an
l
''
( .
don't let a puppet float because frogs don't
float - they jump up, they come down. So we
do this and he helps me teach gravity. The'
way I do it is he begs me 10 make him walk:
and I say, "I can't, I only have one hand-one
hand's in your head, see?
Frog: Aaarrghhh!!.... But I wanna walk!
Bonnie: I'll make you hop!
Frog: I don't wanna hop. I never liked to hop.
I wanna WALK!!
Bonnie: So then he'll say, "Hey. haven't you
been teaching these kids how to use puppcts7"
And 111 say "Yeah". And he'll whisper to me
-and I love making puppelS whisper cause the
whole class is listcning·--hc'll say...
Frog: ...Maybe a couple of them could help me'
walk ...??!
Bonnie: So we do. A couple of kids come up
and each takes one of his sticks and I say.
"Now before you sum, remember we have lb
exaggerate everything with a puppet. We're
gonna lift each leg high in the air, bringing It
far forward ... "
Frog: Jllicelegs,huh?
Jomrm! pa«Je 12
I
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1\:
Winter, t 989-9l
' f
I
1
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�Bonnie: And then down just a linle in front of
the other leg... And then I get them going
really fast and Frog'll say, "Oh this is so
exciting! So exciting! I get 10 walk!" And his
legs are going everywhere and he goes
"AAAHHHHI!" and falls down! Major
crash!... And then he goes:
Frog: .... UUUUHHH ..... .AAARRRGHHH!!
....(painfully pulling his legs up) How long
have you two been walking, anyway? Don't
you know you don't pick up both feet at the
same time? That's hard on the old frog belly...
(J1ysrerica/ laughter)
Bonnie: (to us) Are you alright? h's a
wonderful way to show teachers how 10 use a
puppet to teach a concept.The kids don't even
know they're learning about gravity... they'rc
having fun.
try, even when it comes to folding a piece of
cardboard. Third graders will say, "I can't; do
mine!" And I'll say, "Silliness!, of course you
can! If r gave you a snowy hill and a piece of
cardboard you'd bring it back to me loonng
like a rag!" And then every time, no mauer
what it looks like, I'll say, "Perfect!,
wonderful!, you guys are so good!"
Katuah: Do you stage any productions in your
program?
Bonnie: No, I don't have time. First I do a
demonstration of puppet types. I bring in
shadow puppets, string puppets, rod puppets
and scenery puppets--trccs that talk. And full
size body puppets like Momma and Baby
Dragon.
Ka!Uah: And they're getting their bodies into it,
so it's not just this abstract concept.
Bonnie: According to Dr. Joseph Chilton
Pearce, who wrote The Magical Child,
children ICMn best when rhey use their bodies.
That's why they'll be banging, clicking,
rocking ... and then they're told to sit ~till! But
a lot of rcachers now are using this idea. They
say,"When r reach syllables, we drum!
Katuah: And your kids also make their own
puppets, right?
Karuah· They must love having a puppet to take
home.
Katuah: And do their kids get out of hand when
they're with you ... because they need to let
loose?
Bonnie: No, actually they don't. The thing is
that Lhcy're not very creative - they're afraid to
try. In classrooms where the teachers are
saying "very good," "good for you," "my
class is so great!"-- the kids can't wair. They
Slllrt throwing their voices right away, they're
anxious 10 explore new ground. But where
the teachers are afraid and need to have
"proper" behavior, the children arc afraid 10
Wlnter, 1989-90
Bonnie: I encourage the teachers to follow up.
And after creating and learning to use I.heir
puppet I let each one come up and do
something wilh their puppet for the class. So
they really discipline themselves and focus on
it and create an imaginary friend ... and. you
know?, its not really imaginary anymore.
Katuah: Most kids are taken out of their
imaginations and into "reality" way too soon.
And all the creative potential that's losL..
Bonnie: It's true. The imagination is a preuy
special space. C first learned this watching
mime anists. Totally blank scage and they
create imagcs...pulling ropes, falling in love,
picking a flower. And the audience secs the
flower, a yellow flower and it smells like a
daisy ....
I do a story called "The Fishes' Wishes",
where puppets are by a nver, going fishing
and there 's a troll under a bridge and all that.
And once a 3 year old came up afterward and
said, "How come your feet aren't wet after
standing in that river all that time?" So there's
a magic that goes on between audience and
performer... that realm of imagination where
you can walk without your body and be there
with other people. And it's a place of extreme
pleasure.
Katuah: It's also unportam for kjds to work
through their feelings with fantasy. Like dolls
--it's play therapy. But \\.hen they get past
second or third grade they get messages that
it's not ok to pretend. they're not supposed to
play dolls (especially boys). And puppets give
them that okay.
Bonnie: Yes. They bring in an old sock,
knick-knacks, buttons, lace, etc .. and I
provide the furl) hlllt and moving eyes.
Bonnie : Oh gosh, they love these puppets.
First they glue the fabnc mouth pieces
together, which 1s prcuy challenging, and I
take it as an opportunity to affirm them.
Number one, when you're working with
puppets you cannot fail. Anything you do 1s
brilliant, and the more you do of it, the beuer.
So they make brides, punk rockers, little
girls, a lot of dragons. Then I say, "Go home
and empty your junk drawers!" And the next
day they bring in all kinds of stuff to decorate
them. Fabric, nut shells, boule tops, yarn ...
and we lay a big pile on the table and I insist
that the children do all the choosing.
And some teachers just can't sra11d it. They'll
say, "Red and orange don't match". So I say,
"But it doesn't maucr with a puppet- the
wilder the beuerl Let's see what it looks like."
Its just the "shoulds" we all learned as
children that they're passing on ...
Kaniah: So you leave them t0 create plays on
their own.
Bonnie: 1 think kids are pretty willing to
pretend up until third or fourth grade. Mostly
sixth grade is the oldest age I work with.
People are afraid to try puppets with older
kids.
Kauiah: Why?
When I introduce Momma Dragon I
say, "One of the things we're going to study
is character- physical, moving and vocal
differences". And while I'm doing that I'm
putting her head and hands on and I say, "Has
my physical character changed, by the way?"
And they say, "Yeah!" And I spread my body
out and start breathing really deep and take a
big, slow step. By then they're backing up,
staning to squeal. Then I slowly tum around
and make her look at one of the kids who's
not backing up 100 much. And then I come
forward and swallow that child!
Katuah: Oh my Goddess! You're kidding!
Bonnie: No--the head is so big it could
encompass your whole body. And then she
stands up and says "YUMMM• " And that's
how I begin the program.
Then they stan thinking about what they want
to make, and the second day, we glue the
mouths of the hand puppctS together. Then the
third and founh days we finish the puppets
and the fifth day we do skills ... breathing,
talking, eye contact, gravny, moving. sound
effectS.
Bonnie: In America, people think puppets are
for children ... in the European countries
people know puppets are for all ages. And
puppetry is also fairly new here, whereas it's
thousands of years old in Europe and the
Orient.
I love the origin stories. I know there used to
be puppets of Jesus that opened and closed
their eyes and mouths, and most of these were
burned during inquisition times--and I
imagine so were the puppeteers! And in Java
the puppeteer has been their spiritual teacher
for cons. He goes from village to village and
sets up his scrim and docs a shadow
production for 2 or 3 nights ... and of course
they don't have lights, so they use the fire. In
India and Java they call the veil of the shadow
scrim the "veil of the worlds".
Kauiah : There arc so many ways to use
puppets that most people aren't aware of. I
taught French 10 a kindergarten using a puppet
who only spoke French. He'd tell me he was
embarasscd cause he couldn't speak English
and was afraid the kids wouldn't like him. So
immediately the children said, "tell him we'll
continued on next page
JC:ol.UM Jo14rnoC pcaqe 13
�speak in his language!" And they all wanted to
learn French so they could talk to Giuseppe.
Bonnie: How perfect. I'd really like to work in
the depths of the education system and give
teachers the tools to usc ...altcmatives. Most
are so frustrated with all the paperwork. They
say, ''I used to be able to do art work with the
kids but I don't get to have fun with them
anymore."
gone into ans. And their parents have grown
up with very little ... but through this program
they meet so many different kinds of artists. It
gives them an idea of the world other than
T. V. and their own backyard.
When I first staned "'ith Mountain Ans I was
just going to perfonn and teach abou1 puppets.
And then I gor the idea for having kids make
1he1r own puppets and so much has come out
of it--all the characters- I had no idea.
Katuah: Do you ask teachers to stay in the
room while you're there?
Karuah: Getting the kids involved ... expressing
rhemselve~. Thar's the magic of i1.
Bonnie: I like the teachers to be there and pick
up on it and help our. And I've also had
teachers inhibit the class wnh their "supposed
to's". Especially with the sound effects. That
drives teachers crazy 'cause they've spent all
year teaching the kids not to do those things.
And then I'll say,"Lct's hear your voice. let's
hear it loud!", and the kids arc going wild and
the teacher's looking at the door...(laughs)
But they've got to realize they can let it all
loose. They can take a puppet and be fun and
make the kids laugh and they won't lose
conrrol or respect, they will gain it. If they
dare to share with a child in their realm, then
they've gotten inside and can teach much more
effectively. If they'll go into the child's world
rather than criticizing the child for not being m
the institutional world ...
Bonnie: The primary value is definitely
expression--in every form. in any form--and
the accep1ance of that expression. Self
acceptance: teachers accep1ing their
self-expression, children accepting theirs.
teachers accepting children. and children
accepnng teachers.
At the end of my program when the kids
introduce their puppets 10 the class. every
once in a while I'll get a teacher who'll do it,
too, and the kids love it! They'll say."Wow!.
she made a voice for her puppet"' And I know
the teacher might feel like an idiot. especially
when she's supposed to be a standard in a
group and she's asked to do things that are
real weird and silly. So going through and
daring to feel that sillinesi. and create an
expression--daring 10 do that is. I think, the
greatest transformer. I've seen it first of all
with myself, ho11. brave I've gouen, and I've
seen it with the cluldren.
In 1his process I've taken a close look at life
and how we hold ourselves, the way we look.
our hean area. With a puppet. if the bean's
covered you know how Lllat feels • it's sad.
And with love you're throwing it out. With
anger, you cover it, tum it away. look down
the long nose. I teach those types of
expression.
Katuah: Their world ...
Bonnie: It's not even the teacher's world - it's
the 'supposed to be' world. And they were
taught 11 and they're still trying to be very
good at it. But there are lots of exceptions...
like Mrs. Thompson in Brevard. She takes her
lcids out and teaches them to plant trees and
grow seeds and mke care of animals. She
teaches respect for nature. And she docs ii on
her own.
Katuah: What's your feeling about the
Mountain Arts Program?
Karuah: You're reaching a 101 about human
relations and the self--much more than just
"puppets".
Bonnie: h's wonderful. The thing I love about
it is we're touching the really rural
communities. If it wasn't for Mtn. Ans those
kids wouldn't be gelling hands-on contact
with artists very often.They have strong
spons programs but not a lot of funding has
Bonnie: Teachers will say, "Kids that never
talk have their puppets talking!" Or, "I learned
so much about this child from his puppet and
what it's saying."
Sometimes I see children who might be abused
at home and they'll punch their puppet or the
JC.citiwh Journa! pciqe t 4
puppet 1s very aggressive and wants 10 chew
and bite. So I might say to the puppet,
"What's your name?" And the puppet says.
"None of your business". And I say, ''Well
aren't you glad to have a boy like this?" "No.
I hate him." And I say, "But he sure did a
good job making you. that I can say for sure".
And the puppet gets quieter, softer ... So I
plant a little seed of positive. It's all I get ume
to do but it could be taken so much funher.
That's why I encourage them to hug the
puppet...
Katuah: And make friends with their puppet.
Bonme: Yes. Because they're expressing to
themselves, talking 10 themselves. Another
1hing about problem children ... If you have a
class of twenty-eight kids and one or two are
hyperactive or disruptive, the teacher usually
puts them in the hall because she doesn't have
1ime to deal with them. So I know that child is
lacking love. Love really heals a battered
child. So the disruptive child I find. which
doesn't happen much 'cause with puppets
even those children arc usually pretty
engrossed ...
Karuah: They just want a little more attention
from you.
Bonnie: Exactly. And that's what I give them. I
give them what they wanr. I make them come
up front and hold my hand. I'll pat 1heir hand
or put my hand on their shoulder if they'll let
that happen. And I'll say, "you need to hold
my hand, that way if you don't hear my
message with your cars, you'll feel it from my
energy". I reach them about communication
without words. I'll use gesture and mime and
rouch because the problem children need to be
touched.
Katuah: Do you wish you had more time to
spend wnh each group?
Bonnie: Definitely. It'd be nice to teach
puppetry as a full time cumculum. If you have
a good puppet teacher you can have art and
thearre in the same school. .. and you don't
have to use only puppets. You could combine
creative writing, theatre and an .•. And you
might be doing Midsummer Nigl11's Dream so
conum:cd on p. 28
WLntcr, 1989-90
r
�by Doug Woodward and Trbh Severin
There arc many different reasons pan:nts
might want to teach their children ut home. As
parents, the two of us panscularly want to
nurture in our children the 4u.1lities of love
crcativuy. mdcpendcnr thinking, enthusiasm for
learning, a po~11ivc ..elf-1mage. and a spim or
co-opcra11on (rather than compctiuon) with
others.
As there is no altcmauvc school in Macon
County where we live, we at one point were
seriously considering moving to an arc:1 that
offered a good choice in alternative education
Then we heard mention or homeschooltng and
decided that maybe the quality education we
sought could best be provided right here at
home.
The "social problem" often mentioned in
connection with homeschooling gave us pause.
however. We were afraid that our young one>
might become isolated at home and not have
enough interaction with other children. Our
worries were needless. We found that there
were many other families involved in
homeschooling m our area, and that there were
plenty of activities planned to bring the
homeschoolers together. The more we read and
the more we interacted with other families, the
more assured we were that the "social problem"
of homeschooling was not a problem at all. As
we watched the children interactmg in small
groups, we could not help but think it was a
favorable co.1trast to the usual social experience
found in a classroom of 25 or 30.
If, like us, your family is interested in
homeschooling, you might find that you are not
as alone as you might think at first. Even in rural
Registration
The suuc of North Cnrolina requires that 11 child
be registered by age seven for public, private, or
homeschooling. For informauon on Ille requ1remcnis f0<
regis1ntlion of homcschoolcrs, wmc:
Staie of North C..olma Division or Non·Public EdllCllltOn
c/o Ron Helder, DIJ'CCtor
532 N. Wilmingion SL
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919) 733-4276
The states of Virginia and Tennessee regmcr
homcschool children through the county bonrd$ of
education. Contact your local board for mfonnalioo.
areas the homeschooling population h
significant, and chance~ are that the.re will be a
support group dose by.
Homeschooling support groups can serve
1heir member' in a number of ways. l.c:r's loClk
at the children first ·1 hough it\ true that the
parents can direct the kids toward rradit1on:d
mu~ic cla;scs, sports activities, and classes for
special skills. socializing with other
homcschoolers has benefits all its own. When
families get 1ogc1hcr, the age grouping is vertical
and scattered. not horii.ontal as is found in an
onhodox classroom. A ~ix-year--0ld might learn
1he needs of an infant. share thoughts with a
teenager, and deal with adults on a personal
level r.ither than as authority figures. Harmony,
tolerance, and cooperation are fostered.
Even wuhin the fun activities,
opportunities for learning abound. For example,
our group pressed apples this fall. Children
involved in the ga1hering, washing, chopping,
pressing, and bouling of organically grown fruit
are likely to come away with more than just the
mste of juice in their mouths!
Adult members of a support group always
have their own skills 10 share, whether they use
these skills in the course of earning a living, or
whether these are activities that they just love
doing. And do not forget the emerging skills of
the children. They, too, have something
imponant to teach the adults. if we will listen.
Family activities • planned so that bo1h
spouses can panicipate - are the heart of the
social opportunities in a support group.
Potlucks, field trips, campouts, and service
projects are but a few of these.
On the other side of the coin, mcntorship
Finding Help
for Your Homeschooling Program
Magazines
llomt EdJ<c011011 MogortM
Box 1083
Tonaske!, WA 98855
programs offer a one-on-one growing and
learning experience. Here a child can select an
adult who offers a skill m which he or she 1s
interested. The child makes the contact and
together the child and the adult work our a time
when that skill is being used and the young one
can ohscrve or participate.
Support groups also offer the parents
infoimation to help them get staned and to aid in
dealing with legal requirements. The group can
also provide curriculum help, creative ideas,
workshops, connection to state or national
homeschooling organizations. and plain old
empathy!
We greatly appreciate the nexibility and
choice involved in homeschooling. The
children's love and enthusiasm for learning has
been fostered by studying subjects in which
they are most interested and when the readiness
is there. We srudy subjects in an integrated
manner. always making it "hands on" as much
as possible. If the children become interested in
Indians, we get involved in native dance,.music,
cooking, crafts, st0ries, and more. Since we
continue to be actively involved in bicycle
touring, canoeing, and ,backpacking, we just
take the cllildren along. We can spontaneously
take off on an adventure withowt the hqsS'le of
school schedules. A family field trip is a highly
educational expcriem.:c:! •
Leaming togettier continues to be exciting
and challenging as our falJlily-continues io.make
its own path into eCluca[lpn'. No longer do we
~lk about relocating to anoiher ~a in S8anfh of
an education that fits our children's needs, for
we've found it right here ~t home.
A Bcka Book Publications
Box 18000
Pensacola. fl.. 32523
Calvcn School
IOS Tuscany Rd.
Bnllimorc. MD 21210
Oak Meadow School
Bol 712
Blacksburg, VA
24060
Gr11wing Witlwut Sclwo/111g
2869 Massnchuscus Ave.
Cambridge. MA 02140
The Sycamon: Troe
Ttaching Books and Matt rlals
CoSta Mesa. CA 92627
Rainbow Resource Center
The loc:al library is a good place to begin your
search for aYllllable homeschooling mrucrials. Some local
libraries have worked with homeschooling groups in
pun:hasing books, petiod1cals, and assisting in the
Organlu t ions
National Homeschool Assiocialion
Box58746
Seattle, WA 98138
(SOO) 486-135 I
(S<rvius: o quarterly newsle11u. teoclttng rt-'Ourct
file, homuclwol trove/ directory, tttn·IO•lttn program,
apprtnticeslups and mtntorships for homtschooltrs.
student uchan~, oN1 o 11twslt11tr digest ~rviu.)
k'lnwr, l 989-90
Box 365
Taylorville, lL 62568
2179 Meyer Place
John Holt's Book and Music Siorc
2269 Massachuseus Ave.
dcvelopma11 or vcrucal files on homc.schoolmg.
Cambridge, MA 02140
lnrorma tlonal Book1
Educational Spccuums/
JltNnlSdtool RtDtkr
Bluestocking Press
Box 1014 (Dept. AF2)
by Mad: and Helen Hegener
Ttaclt Yowr Own by John Holl
Pliurvillc. CA 95667
�-If! 1' SUI., J11,,t'J1, Sf
(If/ ye fl1•f -nt•i/e ~ ff, , -Ae"
·Ceremony
/ 6it1 rP'U -Aeor ,,,, e.t
/1t fo r~11r 11'1/t(f (
~I J
Ct1'>Ht.
c'"'J'"' ye, I httf /.rL
1v?Ake 1~~ pt1fh $wt"o'/I, tf,.f ii
fhe br~w 'J' ffte f 'r jf ,
1
ff! f: M~Js, CJ,"Js, ~,>t, y;,,.Jf
fJ/ f' lf,.f
111 ftt.
I /;/II rtsf "'",...;-...,I
/h'/o 1""" >tt/J$f 1ft4J
e '14W '4/e..
On f ye, I iyl"re,,.
Sf,lf
11
/11'1v1
Cini
4 ir
Q
11J4~t Ifs?"#, Sht~"1, tf,.f if '114 r,4d
'!
ifte hnnJ "/ /(,e se<n.J hill
~! ~t
Jf lls Valle~s, 1?.ivtrf, L~s,
1
7fe,~, C/r4'~eJ; 1df
r of 7'e f4rft.
e
/ /,/&/ r,#11 ftear n.e !
/hfo 'f""4r m//{ff ~o au..~ ti '1e~ /,(~
Ohse,,f '/'' I iH>tff.,rc..
"WJii<~ ii~ /'"'It, SmooH,1 f/,o/ if Jn'!J read
-/4t br~w 1 /f,e
tJ,1 hi//
rJ
tk Omalia 1"£an prayer Urtmtm!J introtfucine a
new6orn dsi!tf to tk natural worUf.
Ofun, in cqnttmporory cultuns, tk new5orn is fo~
introtfuutl w tk fiuman cOtlflflunity and to tk tfiviru
orrftr··out not spu.ifially to tk natwTJl ul0rl4.
!Here in tliis urem.ong, tk naturof wo& is atftfresstd
rllrectly in anrwuntin9 tk arrival of tk diilrl into tk
mUfst of tk wfwfe Lift community.
'Ifijs is
Illustration by James Rhea
.t, '
==
........
Q .,,,.
��Mother Earth The Natural Classroom
Early one morning, I sat outside with my
dnughtcr reading a children's ~tory .. h "'as a
story dealing with bircb, habitat, animal
adaptations. predators, and camoullag_c. In the
middle of the story. we nouccd the 11n1est bare!
dan under the eaves of our garage. How did ii
get lhrough? It :.queaked underneath such a
small space. !low hard to believe. More careful
observation ~howed uo; there was indeed a
hidden nest. We could h.'lrcly see the bits of
l\\igs showing through. What a pcrf.:ct
accompanimem far the story we were reading.
It was one of those wonderful examples of
~ynchronici ty. One 1.hat Nature is so famous
for, if only v.c arc patient and obscrvan1
CnOUl!h .
~ If only classroom tC.'lching could h:ivc
more moments like that in science or
environmental studies. In my teaching
experience, I have noticed how attuned to nature
students become when they arc allowed. More
often than not, experiences like that arc reserved
for "field trips," and those occur too
.
infrequently. We are usually forced to bnng
natural science inside the classroom rather than
r.ake the students directly to the Eanh.
Twenty years ago, when l first read Si/enc
Spring, 1 was amazed nt how we were S?
closely intenwined to the Eanh. Why didn't we
pay nuention back when it was written?
Couldn't we have avoided many of our recent
environmental pitfalls? Now, as we enter the
L990's, having had some very harrowing
cnvironmenrol disasters, it is clear that schools
can no longer ignore the imponance of teaching
and providing hands-on experiential
cnvironmenlal programs. Leaming has to extend
beyond the boundaries of the classroom.
For the past three years, I have been
involved with the Nonh Carolina
Adopt-A-Stream Program which is part of lhe
National Save Our Streams Program. The
Strcam Program activities are primarily
bands-on, very environmentally conscious
lessons. Since our school is a five-minute walk
from a stream, we are able to rcgulnrly take
advantage of the opportunity to visit the stream.
The children considered the activities
wonhwhile and fun - and could see that they
were making a difference. The program
integrated well into our second and third grade
cwriculum by including science, social studies,
languuage ans. creativity, and problem-solving
skills.
In order to allow children to realize what a
unique and precious place our Eanh is and to
understand their participation in it, we need to
step outside of our classrooms. Mother Eanh
can teach us about our home, but we need to
make provisions for being th.ere in direct contact
with her. Students need to be outdoors ·
observing, listening, sensing - when Mother
Eanh shares her synchronistic lessons with us.
Second grade .mlllem Quinn \Vardin andpre-kindergarrner Anna Srein cleaning a srream ne.ar rhe_r
1
scltool on Clean Streams Day, 1988.
Photo by Tun Reid
Biodegradable Diapers:
Not What They Say They Are!
It sounds like a dream come true disposable diapers that are environmentally ~fe.
"Degradable is a wann and fuzzy word, hke
organic and natural," said R.A. Denison, a
senior scientist at the Environmental Defcnst:
Fund.
Unfonunately, "These plasucs are being
sold as a way to reduce waste and that is a
hoax," says Jeanne Wirka of the Environmental
Action
Foundation.
A truly degradable material breaks down
into basic constituents like water and carbon
dioxide through natural pr~esses. The n~w
diapers do indeed break down 1mo...smaller b11s
of plastic. But in the dry, oxygen·~tarved
environment of modem landfills, they might not
break down much at all.
"Li11lc is known about what happens
during and after the degradation process to
chemical additives, toxic heavy metals. and
other plastic ingredients," said Ann Beaudry in
an anicle in Motlutring Magazine. And "even the
eventual breakdown inr.o small pieces of plastic
offers no solution to the landfill capacity crises
because the breakdown of throwaway diapers,
disposable or biodegradable, take up just as
much room in the landfill as the original."
Large amounts of human waste arc also
- Susan Schneider Gries~!# deposited in the landfills possibily b!'Ceding
virulent strains of pathogens such as poho virus
fr'
Suggested Rtadint:
which may find 1.heir wny to underground water
SltariJtg Nt111Ut with Children by Joseph Bh3tat Cornell
sources. Toxic chemicals also follow the snme
Keepers oftlu! Earth by M. Caduto
route to the water sources.
Streamwalkingfor Kids by Gwen D1ehn and Susan
There has been a large eco-marketing
Gricsmaict (NC Stn:am Watch Program, 1988)
campaign for single-use "biodegradable diapers"
C!IMtcling people ONl nlJIJVt, Lesson plans. (Great
targeted at natural food stores and environmental
Smoley Mll\S. !nstirute at Tremont, Gre:u Smoky
catalogs, aimed at reaching environmentally
MlnS. National Park. Townsend, 1N 37882)
conscious parents.
Xl••Unh 7ournnt PIUJ'- 111
For four and a half years our family has
"recycled" cloth diapers in the wnshing machine.
You can use 1.hem from one child to the next,
tum them into rags when they're worn out, and
let them truly biodegrade when they're no longer
usable.
Of course cotton production often uses
pesticides, but there is little comparison betw~n
that and the daily disposal of 5 to 15 plasuc yes, PLASTIC! · diapers.
Most kids are in diapers for 2-3 years.
The cost comparison is nbout $84 per month for
disposables, $26 per month for clor.h through a
diaper service, or a one time cost of about $50
for a few dozen cloth diapers if you buy and
wash your own.
"Each family that chooses natura l,
recyclable conon diapers for their child prevents
I ton of waste from entering the solid waste
stream each year," wrote Benudry.
I hope this makes you reconsider whether
f
you want to buy into this fal~e dream o_ the
disposable diapers or the reality of creaung a
healthy environment . Let's stop trying to take
the easy way out.
For more resources and infonnarion on
how and why to use cloth diapers, feel free to
call me at the Traditional Binh and .Natural
Family Health Colleccive; 36 l Sterling St.;
Atlanta GA 30302 (404) 880-9172.
'
- Aviva Jill Romm
"Doubts are Voices on Dcgracbblc Ptasuc: W3SJ.c." NY
Tim(S, 10/25~9
"B1odcgr11dablc Diapers: A Pseudo Soluuon." Ann E.
Beaudry. Molhtring Magam1t, Fall. 1989
•
"The Ethics or Diapering," R.W. Hollis, Motltering
MaglWM. Fall, 1989
~
Wi.nt..er , 1989- 90
�RESOURCES
Tips for
Gardening with Children
Parenting
from Tom You11gblood-Pe1erse11
.\lo1huU1J: \lag;vmc
P.O. Bo~ lo'IO; Santc Fe. NM 87'>0-l
Start i.mall - a 6' x 10' garden can be a perfect ·
size for a liule one.
N11n1inng Tf>d.1~
187 Cao;clh Ave.: San Fmnc1S1:0, C,\ Q-l 11-l
Have fun! I put this toward the top of the list
because remember, beauty b in the c:yc of the
beholdl.'r. This means no garden is perfect, and
it's as much the proceH as ii is the results, for
children.
Education
/'h(' C)t 11/The Chtld., Rulh \fueller
(!'le" Soc1c1y Publishers)
The best garden layout is narrow beds - no more
lhan three feet wide so the children can work
from the edges - and wide paths that can fit two
willing and eager workers.
Ch1ldhodd- l lu. l\'aldorf Pc·r.1{1('Cli>-c, by ~ancy Aldri.h
R1. ::?. Bo~ :!675; We>.iford, VT 05-19-l
Grc:en J~ic/Jcr
c/o Tim Grant: 95 Robcn Succt; Toronto, Onwrio
M5S 2K5, Canuda
What to plam? Whatever the children like toe.at
and nibble. lf that list 1s shon, you can
supplcmem wtth vegetables and flowers 1ha1 are
especially fun to grow. Like cherry tomatoes,
sunflowers, ever-bearing srrawbcrries and
nastuniums. All of 1hese can be nibbled
fresh ..... tmmedia1e gratification is one of the
easiest ways to keep children interested in the
garden.
National Dirtctory of Alttrnative SchocfJ, National
Coahuon of Al1crnauve Community Schooh
R.D. I. Bo~ 378: Glcnmoorc. Pa. 193-l 3
1lorne ~1wn Magaw11:
P.O.Box IOIB: Tona.tj{e\, WA 98855
\1t:rlyn s Pt!n
P.0.Box 1058: Ea~t Greenwich, RI 02818
Skipping Stones
80574 H:11.c1ton Road: Coungc Grove. OR 97424
Our Fwur<' al Stake: A lunugtr's Gwck 10 Stopping the
Nuclear Arntf Rare, Melinda Moore & Laurie
Ol'i<:n, ti tJ/ , (New Soe1e1y Puhfohcrs)
l.111/e Fritnds for Pt!aa
4405 29th Street; Ml. R.1n1cr, MD 20712
Kid'IArt Nt!WS
P.O.Box 27-l: Mt.Sh:lsm CA 96067
Nauonal Home School Assocwuon
P.O.Box 167; Rodeo, NM 88056
American Montcsson Sococty
ISO Sib Ave.: New York, NY 10011
Waldorf lnstilutc
260 Hungry Hollow Road
Spring Valley, NY 109n
Stop War Toys Campaign
C/o Wur Re''-'lCrs' Lcaguc - NE
Box 1093: Norv.•11:h. CT 06360
Who's Calling tilt Sho1.1: /lo" to Re~nd £f/wn·tly 10
Children's Fascina11on Kllh Illar Play and War toys
by N311ey Crls.<oon-Pa1ge and Diane Levin
(New Society Publishers)
Stopping Abuse
Nallonal Child Abuse HOl Linc, l-800-4AC-HILD
National Association for I.he
Educ111ion or Young Children
1834 Connccticul Ave. NW
Wa~ing1on, D.C. 20009
Children's Defense Fund
122 C St NW; Wa.'>hingion. DC 20001
The Nalionnl Association for Mediation 1n Educauon
425 Amity St.; Amhcrs1, MA 01002
Child Welfare League of Amcnca
440 First SL NW (Suue J 10)
Washington. DC 20001
Nnlional Coaliuon or Altcrnouvc Community Schoch
58 Schoolhouse Rd.: Summertown, Tn. 38483
End Violence Agamst lhe Next Gcncruuon, Inc.
977 Kcclc1 Ave.; Berkeley. CA 94708
Changing Schools
Teacher; College 918
Ball Struc l.inivcrsity
Mu11cie, IN 47306
ramily Violence Research Program
Family Rc=h UiboralOry
Univcr~11y of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824-3586
Peace and No n-viole11ce
An OutbrC'alc of fi:aci:. Sarah P1nlc.
A "fanual on Nonv1oltnci: and Childrtn.
compiled ancJ edited by SitphanicJudson
(New Society Publishers)
,,li..n t.er, 1989-90
Kidsrights
3700 Progi:c~ Blvd.: Mount Dora. FL 32757
N3UOnal Chtld's RighlS Alliance
P.O.Box 17005; Durham, NC 2no5
National Commiu.ce for the Prevention or Child Abuse
332 S. Michigan Ave.; Chicago, 0. 6060
Get real 1ools. (small ones), not toys for your
children. No matter how young, don'1 waste
your money on flimsy plastic 100ls in toy stores.
Purchase smaller-sized good quali1y tools for
$4-$5.00 from hardware or garden shops.
Have the children wear old clothes and shoes.
I telp the child clean and put away all tools when
finished.
Again, HAVE FUN!
Tom Youngblood-Perersen ls director of
the MAGIC Commu11iry Garden programs in
A!iheville. NC. fie and his wife Berh eat
11aswriw11 buds in their own garden with their
five year-old so11, Evan, and plan to imroduce
the1r newbofll. Campbell, w rhe fun of it, as
well
Childre11's Media
Four Arguments for tht Elimination of Television
by Jerry Mander
Action fat Children's Television
20 Unh·ersity Rd.; Cambridge, MA 02138
Council on lnitrracilll Books for Childn:n
1841 Bro:idway; New York, NY 10023
Lollipop 'PoWCJ Press
30S £.Chapel Hill St.; Durllam. NC 2no1
Much of I.he information for these resoiuces came from:
lloliftic Educa1ion Rt!'oli<"W,
P.O.Box 1476; Greenfield, MA 01302
'Ifuml;s to X/n.!JO'l 'Xlfl9for fufp in cmnpili119 tfiis
resourus listintJ.
/
X4ti4ah ) o'4rnat palJtl 19
�HOSTAGEPANTHERTOWN
FREED
ACTION FOR BEARS BRINGS
RESULTS
Nlllrll World News Savice
Nlllrll Worid News Service
With the aid of the Nature Conservancy and
national politicians, negotialions for a major hostage
release wcre compleled Monday, No~cmber 27 when
6.295 acres of the Panlhcnown Valley in the headwaters
of lhe Tuclcascgcc River WllletShcd were tnWfcrrcd IO the
US Forest Scrvke.
The valley has been the sub.)CCt of controversy
since 1988 when Duke Power Company bought Ille l.r1ICt
as part ol ilS land acquisition program for a high-voltage
11811Smission line IO go lhrough the hcan of Transylvania
and Jackson counties In North Carolina. Much
opposition IO the pawer line cenicrcd lllOWld lhc idea of
"Save Panlhcnown Valley."
Oulte bought the propeny suddenly in 1988.
Ownership of the whole property was a powerful
negotiation IOOI 10 help Duke secure 11S preferred route
for the power line. Once the route was established.
selling the propcsty to the Nature Conservancy was easy
for the ginnl energy corporauon, as 11 only required an
800 acre comer of the land for the tmnsm ission line
right-of-way. The sale softened some opposition 10 the
power line, which 11"ill cause ml1JOT habi1a1 disruption
along its route and spur damaging development in its
service area, nnd gave Duke ihe appearance of being
syrnpnthetic IO cnvironmcnial issues.
However, Panlhcnown is a unique and scenic area
and home IO several rare plant species. IL~ future appcnrs
10 be much more secure. The Forest Service will
temporarily manage the land under a 4-C land
management classification, which restricts use 10
non-motonzod recrcauon and favOlli black bear habil31,
and promised IO preserve its 'ICCnic beauty and unique
geological and biological features. The publrc attention
the valley has received will most likely be a strong
guarantee for lhn1 promise.
A demonstration on behalf of black beats cag
on the Cherokee lndioo Reservation for tourist auraction
bas apparently brought results. The September
demonst.ration, led by PETA (People for the Ethic
Treatment of Animals) and allCnded by 100 maJChers
including many Crom the rcserva1ion, wallccd from
Oconoluf1ce Visitors' Center 1n the Great Smok
Mountains National Park to the infamous Saunooke'
Bear Land, cited as providing some of the wors
conditions for animals among CAhibits tn this country.
Chief Ed Taylor mcl the group and told them no
ID meddle with internal affairs on the reservnlioo and
go home. The response to this was a chorus of shou IS
"We are home!" from many of the dcmonsi.nuors wh
were residents of the reservation. The Chief then told lh
group ihat Indians were tired of outsiders telling the
what lO do, app:ircruly forgetting lhal. the exhibit owners
on whose behalf he was speaking were all while pcopl
who hnd leased space on the rcscrvntion IO cash in on lhe
summer tourist now. Muuenng, Taylor then got into hi
car and retired from lhc scc.ne.
But Taylor was affected by the dcmon~tration.
The following month he brought a resolution into th
Tribal Council thnt wou Id hnve required that bears
kept in "natural habitat areas" on penalty of SI ,000 fo
''iolallon. The Council. however, replaced this rcsolu tio
with one that said the caging o( bears 1s "presenting
problem• and nuthorized the Council 10 invcs1ig:ue th
pol>~ibility of the habitat area.
BENTON MacKA YE TRAIL
After nine years 3 dedicated group of volunteers
has comptcu:d a 78.5 mile hiking trail from Springer
Mountain, Georgia Lo the COhuua Wilderness Arca on
the Tcnncs.'iCC "lllle hnc.
The hiking p:ith is called the Benton MacKaye
Trail after ihe founder of the Appalachum Trail system.
Pans of the trail follow an early fll3n for the Aflll3l3chian
Trail. which was later ch311ged IO ilS prcscn1 route.
The remarkable aspect of the Benton MacKaye
Troll is that it was constructed entirely by voluntcc~.
who have worlccd steadily over a nine-year period to
complete the uaJI through the Goorgia mounuuns. Much
work still needs Lo be done 10 bring the path 10 11s
proposed termination po101 in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, but trail votun1cers were
jubilant to have completed lhc first ~uge of the route.
Officials of the Southern Region of the US
Forest Service agreed early rn the llllil's hisiory Ihm they
would back the propo:;ed route if the Georglll segment
were completed.
A Tennc.'iSCC chapter of the trail volunlecrli has
been formed IO extend ihc trail nonhwan:t through the
Unicoi MounUlill.\ IO reach the Smokies.
• scurce: article by John llarmon (n 1hr Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, October 14. 1989.
FOREST PLAN REMANDED
Narlnl World News Service
The Chief of the US Forest Service, Date
Robenson, on September 28, 1989 sent back the
bclcllgucrcd Land and Resource f\.lanngemem Plan for the
Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests, saying in panicular
Ihm the plan places too much emphasis oo clC31CuWng
as the method of choice for lumbenng and 3Jso allows
projected umber sates that would fail 10 recover their
CO~ts.
While not spcc1ficnlly outlawing clcarcutting or
any limits on its use. Robcn.o;on dircctcd the N-P
National Forest staffs 10 research altcmauvcs w the
clcarcutting technique and to be more nex1b!e m their
thoi~ of logging methods. His denial Ytllidatcd yc:ITS of
work by conscrvation groups, parucul:irly the Western
North Carolina Allianc~. to convince the Forest Service
to stop 1ts smgle-minded reliance on the clcarcuumg
ux:hnique.
The Chiefs directive also said the rorcst rtan did
not adequately JUstify proposed timber sales Lha1 would
have resulted in the loss of additional tax money IO
subsidi1.e clcarcuts in the Southern Appalachians. In
1987 the Nantahala·Pisgah National Forests lost a total
of S2.5 million in bclow-<:ost limber sales. (l1lc For~l
Service accounung procedure was changed in 1988 lO
make it more d1fficull 10 dctcnmnc the economic swtus
of timber SJlcs 1n indl\·1duat rorc.sts. hut 11 Is csumated
that tosses held steady or rose slightly in that year.) A
rccelll study author11cd by the Forest Service, Tiie
Southern Appalachian Timber Study. documented a
decade-long price drop in hardwood lumber in the
Southern Appalachians. Robcnson's memo duected the
Nauonnl Forests ndm11ustrauve siaffs to incorporate these
more recent figures m their review of timber ~les
policies and umber qUOlaS.
Chief Robertson's remand order showed most
clearly the political nature of the US Forest Service. for
the issues of clcarcutung and below~t salcs that he
dealt with in his administrative order were drawing much
negauve publicity IO the agency. However, the Chief,
white urging caution in the construction of fore.~ roads,
did noc suggest any specific changes in road pohc1e.s in
the N3ntahala-Pisgah Na11onal Forc.,ts. Alw, white he
called for specific plans 10 provide hab11111 for 12
threatened and cnd:lngercd ~pccics, he did not cnll for a
forests-wide roadlcss areas survey IO determine the noed
for wildcmcss areas and undisturbed habnat. as called ror
m particular by the rcgion:ll office of ihe Wilderness
Society. Thc.sc 1s~~ arc as 1mponan1 as lhc clcarcumng
issue. but 11 ~med th31 ihcy were neglected m ihe
Chiefs repon because they had not aroused a vociferous
public outcry ag111ns1 the For~t Service as h3d the umber
policies.
The message is clear; 10 bring chnnge to the
nauonal forests, stir 11 up.
~uing
II
WE BRING GOOEY THINGS
TOLIFE II
Narunl World Ne"'• Service
South of Hendersonville Nonh Carolina, in th
below the East Flat Rock comm unit
where some I 50 peorle draw their drinking water
concentration~ of a canccr·causing mduslnal solvcn
exceed the siatc stnndard by at least 3.500 times
The General Electric lrghting fixtW'Cl> productio
plant in lfcndcr,on County has ~ixu:cn undergroun
Storage t.anks, two waste water trcaunent ponds, and
sludge 1mpoundmcn1 on land owned by the plant. Tw
landfills. a recently reported le:tlcing drain pipe, and
1983 chemical spill arc all contribuung factors to lh
!isling of this s11c by the Nonh Carolina Clean Wate
Fund as one of the 22 WOrsl groundwntcr contaminatio
site.~ in Nonh Carolina.
The Fund has also C!\llmaled ihat 35,000 peopt
in lhe stale arc drinking water w11h some degree 0
contamination. Nonh Carolina has the c;ccond highcs
number of household wells in the United States
(822,000) as there is a ready supply of gruund water
SOlllil of which is working 115 way to the sea from lh~
mountains of the Katuah region. It appears iha1 we Ill'
playmg a dcm11I game of "chemical do-or-dare" wnh
untamtcd war.er, esscnunl to our health and lhnt of lhc
groundwntc~
b~hcre.
A~ one of the "toxic 22" shes of sever
contamination in Nonh Carohnn, General Elcctri
contmucs to release poisons inio the underground wnters
which participate in lhe cyd1c now of water through Lhc
E:uth. It tna)· seem like these chemical ·sotu11ons' are
gone from 'sne', yet when they rc.•wface will G.E. really
be bnnging good things 10 life?
. To register comments concerning G.E.'s
you can ca.II the G.E. coMumer products
IOll·frcc number 1-800-626-2000.
praeucc~.
�PICKENS DISTRICT
FOREST WATCH
Nanni World News 5cr'1ice
WHAT'S H.A.A.P.-ENING??
Narural World News
ELA (Ecological Living Ahemativcs), a broad·
based eco-forum rccenlly ronned in East Tcnncs.'ICC, is
addressing some local problems lhal threaten the Holston
River 00..tjn and area rcsidcncs' heallh. One of the group·~
firs1 ac1ions was an 1nformnuonal demonslra1ion to
promoic press coverage of an upcoming pubhc bearing
concerning a permit rc-issunl for the was1e-wa1er
1tCalmen1 facility or 1he Hols1on Army Ammuniuoo
Plani (H.A.A.P.). located in Hawkins and Sullivan
counties. The plan1. managed by Easunan Kodak,
manufactures RDX, Composiqon B, HMX, HMX·TNT,
RDX-Plaslicv.cr and other spe(:1fteally ordered exple>sive
compounds used m the U.S. and sold on the in1cmational
weapons markc1. The action consis1ed or 15 ELA
members cxh1b111ng signs reading "National Dcfen~ al
Whose Expcn~?" and "Don'1 You Wish You Could Ea1
The Fish?" as well as posters promoung the lime and
d:llc or Ille publt<: hearing. Mcmbcts handed OUl lcallclS
to employees ond mo1ori~1S pa~smg through I.he busy
faciory inu:rsccuon.
!\.lost hearings m Ille o.rca receive small aucnd:ulCe
and liU!e or no public eommenL However. the heanng.
held Nov. 30. auracicd approx1ma1ely 30 people,
indicating the success of the group's action. Al the
beanng, comments were scheduled 10 be limi1cd to
subject maucr rclevan1 lO NPDES Permit #TN0003671
only, relating specifically to water polluuon control
guidelines. Activ1s1S speaking, though, insisted on
citing several problems at the plant which contribuLC 10
water pollution. even though they were not included 1n
the pcnniL
Among these problems is a huardous waste
landfill at the plant that has recently been re1llrflCd to
service. ft is feared that leaching from this area. as well
as other runoff from the 5800 acre plant, could cause
additional accumulauons of 1oxins in the river. Among
the elcmenis seeping from the munilion~ plant are vinyl
chloride, chromium, cyanide and nickel. Some IOxins Ind
heavy metals occur m the daily discharge crtlucn1 in
amounts grca1er than one pound per day; some occur in
ci1cess of 10 and 15 pounds per day. All discharge goes
inlO the HolslOn River which must absorb other wastes
as well. Eastman Kodak's PET plastic factory lie.:; just a
rew miles upstream. On Nov. 15 Easunan cxpcnenced a
"typical" spill loosing 36,000 pound., or acetic acid in10
the Holston. These accumulations, as well as ogncuhural
run-off, together contaminate the river which is the
source or lite Ci1y of Morrisiown's drinking waLCr
supply.
1f you would hke IO register comments on Ibis
and other problems concerning water pollu11on in
Tennessee, wri1e to: TN Dept. or Heallh and
Environment (Div. or Water Pollution Conttol); 150 9th
Ave. North: Nashville, TN 37219, or call (615)
741-7883.
If you would like IO know more about ELA and
upcoming activiues, write to: ELA; P.O. Box 851;
Jonesborough, 1N 37659.
k'i.nur, 1989-90
1
1l
'.'
While the "Up State" may be viewed as ju~t a
smllll comer or South Carolina. it holds a promineni
place along 1he cas1.em cscnrpment of the Soulhcm
Appl3chain Mountain Range. It is 31so home 10 a
growing number or bioreg1onal folks actively involved'"
the "public input" process of the Sumter National
Forest's Andrew Pickens Dislnct.
South Carolina Forest Wa1ch is presently
appealing two comparunen1 plans in the Chauga River
watershed. 1xlscd on the lack of a prcharvcst "hydrologic
survey•. which would have addressed the prot.cCtion or
two brook trout sucams and the conversion or the forest
IO a pine plantation. Additionally. the planned umber cut
was based on a study conducted in the piedmont and not
on steep mountain slopes.
"Those who arc only good with hammers sec
every problem as a ruul." Quoting Abraham Maslow.
Forest Wruch ttca..~urcr Richard Cam eqilamed that the
1985 Long Range Pinn for the district reveals a narrow·
minded approach to muluplc use. "The Plan relics
heavily on the conversion or milled hardwood and pine
forests to pllllltations or hybrid pines plan1ed on ten by
ten foot spacm~ Wildlife received very llUle auenuoo .•
"In order 1ha1 we might co1ribu1e to the
re-educa11ng of the Fores1 SCfVicc, we've done a 101 or
Sllldy on our own. Aside lrom our meetings with the
USFS and private timber interests. our bimonthly
mce1ings host a variety or speakers and lcanung
experiences. We also manage 10 gel out and cruise
management companrnenL~ in the Picltcns Oistr1c1."
For more information on the South Carolina
Forest Watch, wntc:
P. 0. Box 657
we.,tmmstcr, South Carolina 29693
CLEARCUTTING
HAS ABAD DAY
Natural World News S..,.jc.,
Research findings reported at a US Forest
Service-sponsored work.shop in September di.o;putcd the
notion that clcarc:utling provides crucial forage for cen.ain
species of wildlife. The audience at the "Wildlife
Considerations in lmplemcnung the Land and ReSOUtce
Managemcn1 Plan" mccung was addlCsscd by =hers
from various soulhcastcm universities.
Recent work Bl the Univen1ty or Georgia has
shown that deer appear IO be very adaptable 10 a wide
variety or forest types. Contrary to popular belief, deer
depend less on the type of browse found in clcarculS than
they do on a variety of hard mast (acorns and nuts)
provided l'y mature forests. Turkey research 11 Clemson
h:l.s also revealed tha.l 1urkeys make liulc use or clcarcuts,
needing a variety or hard and soft mast.
Similarly, Univcrsi1y of Tenncsscc reseateh ha~
shown that bears make very ligh1 and seasonal use of
forage in clcan:uts. depending more heavily on a good
selection or hard mast. Furthermore. the roads as.<;0eiBICd
with logging have proven IO have a severe impact on
bear populatlon.s. Bears have been found to use rough
woods roads and skid lnlib as they LrBvel in scarth or
forage, but they avoid ~ystcm roads, whether open or
closed to vehicle traffic. Thus, roads affect bear
populations by effectively reducing Ille size of their
range. as well as by providing easier access for hunLCr.>
and poachers.
Representatives from the NC Wildlife
Commission also spoke and indicated their concern
nbouc the effect of the Forest Servicc·s !'03d·building and
harvc.qing practices on wildlife population<.
THE CASE OF THE
DISAPPEARING TRJTIUM
Natural World News SetVice
The US Dcparuncnt of Energy (DOE) has again
suspended 311 commcrciai ~hipmcnts of 1ritium. the
radioacti"e ~ used in nuclear wlll1lc::lds, after significant
quantities of it turned up missing. Tritium is used in
biological and energy research and in making luminous
lights, signs. dials and w:u.ches as weU es being used to
increase the power or nuclear warllcads.
The halt in tritium shipments was 111nounccd in
July or 1989 after an inconclusive search for: five grams
or the element that laboraiory records said had been
shipped to commercial customers. bu1 which buyers said
had never arrived. ln August. the DOE said it would
resume mosi shipmcnis after bilS or the missing malerial
were found. The dcpartmcnt discounlcd the likclihood or
theft at that time. Only a few special shipmenis have
been made since then.
An in1emal lab rcpon said d~pancies in the
shipping records d:lted at least IO 1985. In some cases.
customers reportC<I they h3d received 40 percent ~
tritium lhan they had paid for.
A copy or the confidential July 20 report and
rclalcd Oak Ridge documcnis were obtained through a
legally enforceable request under the Freedom of
Information Act. lnvesLigators for Martin Marien.a Energy Systems, wtuch nms opcr311on:; at the Oalt Ridge
nuclear complex, said in the report that a significan1
amount of 1r11ium had been losL m a lest shipment
bc1 ween buildings. It appeared lhat Ille I~~ amounted to
abou1 two grams. approxima1ely half thc amoun1 used in
a smglc aiomic warhead.
According 10 the conliden1ial rcpon, workers
loaded the Lriuum into a container, which was sent to
another bu1ldmg. There pan of the contents of the
coniamer was unloaded for sampling, then repacked and
scn1 back 10 11.s ong1nal locauon. Thrcc-qW111CrS of the
tritium was lost in that round trip. Leakage and
procedural jXUblcms wcte ruled OUL
Reprcscniative Edward J. Markey (0) or
M3ss3chusctts swd, "You have IO \l/Olldct what kind of
Keystone KOJl!I operntion the Dcpanment or Energy ha!.
down at O:ik Ridge. when they lose more than 22,000
cunes or tntium in a I.Cl;! designed IO find out why DOE
keeps on losing l.nlClt or tritium."
DON'T CROSS
DA GREAT PUMPKIN
Nuunl WorldNcwsSavlcc
The WCSICnl North Carolina Alliance undcrsoc:ml
lhe gTOUp's opposjuon to wide.~ead clcarcu1ting in the
na1ional forests by staging a Halloween day
dcmonsLretion in front or the US Forest Service
headquaners m Asheville. The action specifically
protested a proposed clearcut near thc popular Craggy
Gardens area on thc Blue Ridge Parkway. The clcen:ut
would be in full view or tourisis at the visitor cerucr.
"Even the Great Pumpkin says, 'Don"1 cu1
Craggy.'" rc3d a sign held by young David Gilmour of
the group. The Alliance noted that lhis panicular cut.
which would be 12 acres in $tlC and less than a mile
away from the visitor center, is especially mappropriatc.
(Other acuvists were of the opinion. however, that the
Forest Service should be required 10 do oil their
clearcutting within sight of major IOW'i.\t auractions.)
As a result or the aucntion the Craggy clearcut
has received, the Forest Service is re-evaluating the
!ituauon. lrutcad of allowing the ll'BCt IO be clearcut, the
agency may n:quuc selective culling. which would lca.-e
~ or the trccs standing • or 11 may spare the enure 12
11CrtS. The decision is yet 10 be announced.
JC.at~
, l
Jo\&rnaL p1i9t1 21
...
'
�Natural World News
SPE C IAL REPOR T
ALARKA CREEK
CONTROVERSY
by David Wheeler
The headwaters of Alarka Creek rise high on the
Cowee Ridge, where !he North Carolina counllc.~ or
Swain, Jackson, and Macon comer. The creek\ origins
are on !he Alarka Laurel properly, l1lOtC than 2,000 :icre.~
of IJlnt.I which includes 35 :icre.~ of a unique red
spruce-bog association. The creek runs lhrough 2,000
acres or watershed uninhabited by human bemgs, along
!he way wmbting over the Alarka Falls. once a place for
fasting and p111ying held sacred by lhc native Chcrokcc
people. Until 11 reaches the Alarb Community in Swam
County. lhe wate.rs of lhc croelc are clear and support a
nallll'lllly-reproducing populntion or brook IJ'Oul
However, Alarka Creek is in clanger. The Alarlc.:J
LaW'Cl propcny, owned as an invcStmcnt by a panner.;hip
or land speculators, has been on the market for years.
Only now is a developer showing <iome interest in the
acreage. The identity of the developer is a catefully-kcpl
~ret. but it is known lh:lt plans for the Almb Laurel
propcny include a golf course and a luxury resort.
At the request of William Mcl.amey, an aqu:ttic
biologist living in Macoo County, biologists from the
NC Dcpruuneru of Envuoruncntal Management {DEM)
visited Al:uka Crcd: and ~led the wnu:r.;. Biological and
chemical tcsL:i confirmed that lhe wntershcd met the
stringent standards for qualirica1ion as a state
"OulSlanding Resource Water• (ORW). Streams 11ut
11\CCI ORV/ standards arc lamentably very few. and.
clearly, Alarka Crock is an lllca worlhy of protection.
But omcu1J efforts 10 preserve Alarka Creek have
run Into an ob!<lllCle. There is still resentment in Swain
County towards the insensitive acuons or big
government, which m the mid-1940\ condemned !;ind in
Swain, OSl.CllSibly for the citpans1on of !he Great Smoky
Mountains Nauonal Part, but which in ac1U3!11y lumcd
OUI IO be largely for lhe bencn1 of lhc Tcnnc.'--« Valley
Authority for lhc creation of Fontana Lake.
The focus for 1hc ire of 1his generation of Swam
County citi7.cns is a promise made by the govemmcm i.ll
the time of the land acquis1tOl1$ for a road that would p;is~
on the north side of 1hc lake. now within lhc Park
boundaries. That promi~ was never fulfilled, althoogh
lhc infamous North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms ha,
blocked a bill lhal would have finanC13lly compcnsalcd
the cow11y.
The uprc_o;s1on for 1h1s anger 1s a group called
"Citizens Against Wildemc.~~: which ha.~ a siorcrrom
office in Bryson Ci1y. lhc Swam county _,eat. The group
owes 1l1 existence and probably much of 1L~ crroc11vcncss
to the slrollg wppon of Senator Helms Alway' on the
lookout ror a political situation IO man1pulau: 10 has own
advantage. Helms took the "Ci111.cn~ Against Waldcmc.s"
under his ••mg and has fanned 1hc fires of their
rcscntmcnL The group's baule-<:ry 1s; "We are ltvmg
poorly because 85% of our county 1s under federal
control."
Abrka Creek lw been caughl rn the whirlwind
This ,.."a$ clc;arly revealed when a reprcscmauvc from the
Trust for Pubhc Land journeyed up tO lhe mountains to
look at the an:a at William Mcl..amcy's !QQUCSL
"He thought he was coming up to look at <1 pn:Uy
creek with a waterfall," said Mclarney. "Bui when he
51,.. the area. he said. ilus )!)ould be a national priority
fo •ur organi1.ation!' When he communicated h1~
lin1' "I'' IO the nntional office. they agreed w1lh hi$
II.\
<r.lcnt and gave cooseru 10 the project Bui to make
a lnJnsfcr, they needed sponsorship from some
appropriau: n:itional political figure. such as a senator or
a congressional reprcscn1J11Jve but none was to be found.
The reason: Jesse Helms. So efforts by the Trust for
Public Land to help A!arlca Creek have been stalled:
The Alarb Creek issue came to a head when lhe
DEM held a public hearing on lhe ORW classification 111
the Bryson City courthouse on the evening or November
2. 1989. The district couruoom was p3Ckod. Over 250
people aucndcd the hearing, mos1 of 1hem on short
notice, because the public announccmcn1 or the mceung
h:id nol been published in the county newspaper until the
week before the hearing dale. Mosl of lhe speakers
present were from Swam County, and m~l expressed
strong opposition to an ORW classilicauon for Alnrka
Creek. Regnrdless of the ickology behind 11. local power
is a fonnidablc force and noc to be underestimated.
The proposed development on Cowee Ridge
seemed to be synonymous with economic pro~rity m
lhe mind.~ or most or those who spoke agams1 the ORW
classific:iuon. Several dccned the opinions of "oul'idc~·
from ncighbonng M:lcon and Jackson counties when they
spoke in support or prou:cuon for Alarka. "You're JUst
saying that because !'.iacon alre.ady ha.' six malls." called
a woman from !he audience at one poim.
"!l's very ironic." eommcnlCd William Mct..amcy.
"They were calling people who laved 20 miles away
'outsiders.' while a California developer who ha..,n't even
revealed his name 11nd was rcprescnicd only by 1wo
Georgi.i lawyClS is considered one of lhcir own.
"PCISOllally. I would l\OI favor any ~lution to the
ultimaic fate of the Big Laurel lh:11 would lock Swain
County people out. and a big development would do lh;al
more effoctivcly than nnything else anyone could do. The
kind or people who would frequent that place don't want
locals around Swain County rcsidcnis couldn't afford to
buy a membership. and even If they were w gc1 m !here,
they wouldn'l find whnt they were lookmg for . 1 don't
think any or lhc.<;c people play golf.
"There would be short·lerm jobs building lhe
resort complex and a few permanent JObs taking care or
!he buildings and lhe grounds. Bul by all acounLs 1he
m3m access rood is more than likely going LO go down
!he Macon County side of the mounuun. Until 1t reaches
the Alarka Community. the road into Swnin Cou.nly is
cxuaort.11nari!y ~lcep. A four-wheel drive vehicle can
make ll prcuy casily...whcn lhc roat.l's dry . However, 11
would be a tremendous JOb to put a first-<:lass. paved
highway in lhcn: th:11 would be comrorublc anti snfc ror
expensive car;.
·1 feel SltOngly that lhe economic benefits ror
Swain Counly are being grcally exnggemte.d. Swain
Coumy would receive an addition to their tax base and a
few minimum wage jobs, bul lhen lhey would also gel
all the run-off and all the golf course pcsuc1dcs, and lhe
county would have a 101 of add1t1onal costs for
ma.inu:nance and county service.~.
• Anolher element of irony 1s lhal dcvclopmcnlS
arc rrcqucnlly ralionnlizcd wi1h lhe argumeni lhat
property values arc going to go up (which in lhis cnse I
am sure 1s true), as if that were a good thing. For a
l'C311or or person who has a piece or property and is
interested in selling ii, a rise in property value.~ is a good
lhmg. Bui for an)•onc else who is Uying 10 hold property
or 1s m the market to buy property. a rise m costs is an
unwelcome development These people may not be able
to alTord to buy land or may lose propeny they already
own v.hen the land values go up. The grca1 majority or
people from Swnin who spoke up in favor of
development arc acwally ca.~ing themselves out the door
by calhng for big monc) IO move mto thcll'county."
The hcanng in Bryson City did not tell the whole
story. When they heard of the Alarka Creek dilemma.
other local people, largely from Jackson and Macon
coumies, responded with a massive leuer-wnting
campaign to tho DEM c;ilhng for protection or 1hc
watcr,hcd. Apparently Alarka Creek is well·known and
:ipprcc1111ed as o spccanl place by many people in its
\·icinuy.
There was also $0me reaction 10 1he strong
pressure exercised in Swam County by the Ciuzens
Aga1ns1 Wilderness group. One local woman lOOk lhc
swnd a1 the publu: hC.lling and lCMfully told the audience
to pay aucn11on 10 what they value and be cautious about
what they would lhrow away. It was obviously a great
effort of will for her to male such a swtcmcnl, and she
wns the only speaker m support of the ORW mc:isure
who received applau:;c from the crowd.
111crc were othcn; who did not dare 10 lake 1h:11
courageous suind. Wilhom Mclarney said lhat he
received phone calls after 1hc mecung from Swai n
County nntives who had attended the h.:aring, but felt too
mumidated IO publicly voice support for Alark.a Creek.
"It's a complicated issue." s:iys Mcl.amcy. "The
people of Swain County have real grievances.
parti,ulatly in rcgnrd to Fonwl\3 Lake. Unfortuna1cly,
these gricvanres arc being man1pul3tcd.
"The wider issue to 'TIC. which gives me pause
when I lhmk about it, ts whnt has the greater soc1cly
done lO the...: people 10 create the situation 1hu1 c;cpn:.. \Cd
...
1lo;elf at th;it hcunng?"
~
Or1wmg by Junca Rhc•
�The synergy that 1s created when each family member take!)
responsibility for their own well-being and suppons the
well-being of others, is another resource that serves the process
of resolution when conflict docs arise. And of course, the greater
the level of well-1>¢ing in the household. the less obnoxiousness
and conflict there is!
Skillfulness/ Talking it Out
According 10 Dana and Nick, "talking it out"--and
sometimes over. under. around and through--is the main process
for conflict resolution. There are three aspects to that
communication process: lisrening, Expressing, and
The quality of family life is detennined
not by whether or not a family has conflict but
by what they do with it.
Problem-solving.
lisrening. Although the most powerful communication
skill, listening remains underused by us all. It is still much easier
to give advice, preach, argue, moralize, lecture, or change the
subject than it is to reaJly listen 10 what someone else is saying.
"We listen with our answers running," a colleague of mine said
recently. Reflective or ac1ive lis1ening, on the 01her hand. is
listening with your heart, listening for the unique essence of the
speaker's experience, and letting the other person know that they
have been heard by repeating back to 1hem their message as you
heard it.
It is particularly challenging to lis1en to another person's
point of view in the mids1 of a conflict situation; i1 is, however,
the cornerstone for resolution. Listening acknowledges and
validates (not necessarily agreeing with) the other person's
perspective and encourages important data in the conflict to
emerge.
Expressing. The other side of listerung is expression statements about perceptions, interpreta1ions, thoughts, feelings,
wams, and actions. In conflict situations, it is helpful to state
your experience in a way that gives specific information that can
be clearly understood by the other party. Such direct expressions
arc commonly called "I Statements," (as opposed to accusatory
"You Statements.")
Nick is the resident expert on "I Statements" in our house
these days. His fifth grade class is studying conflict and its
resolution in a Mediation Center program called "Fuss-Busters."
Through the guidance and modeling of a gifted and committed
teacher, the students are learning to express their anger and
frustrations in an "l feel
when, _ _ __
because
" format. The objective of the "I Statement" is
to communicate your feelings in a way that does not put down or
attack the other and engages their assistance in resolving the
conflict. Nick explains that if the other person does not respond
helpfully, then it's time to ask the teacher for help. As the year
progresses, trained student mediators m the classroom will be
available 10 help resolve those conflicts.
Dana reiterates that being assertive and letting your family
and friends le.now what you're feeling and what help you need
from them prevents conflict from building up. Communicating
immediately and specifically and in a non-blameful style opens
the door for positive resolution.
Problem-Solving & Conjlicr Resolurion. Frequently, the simple
expression of feelings or needs and a chance to vent or be heard
dissolve would-be conflicts. Just as often, however, living in
these bus~, high-stress, complicated times, family members need
to put their heads together to solve problems. We've noticed that
unsolved problems become conflicts to become resolved· if
Confl~CtS arc ~Ot fCSOlved, they re-emerge, often growing in
magrutude until .a blow-up occurs, or, worse, family members
separate and distance themselves from one another in an
avoidance pattern.
.
. Consider these typical modes of responding to conflict
snuanons:
I. Competition - "I win,• J get all rrry needs !Mt; you get 110thi11g.
2. Accommodation - "You win," I give ui; you get everything.
3 Avoidance - Neithu of ws geu a.ny1hing.
4 Compromiu - EtUh of ws gi11es a /i11/e fJJld gets a li11le.
.S CollDbor(JliJ)n - "Win - Win,• we wief111t IN probum aN.i
fwJ a crtasive sollllion that sat4fies both of our Mtds.
lollnter, J 989-90
~!though each o~ these a~proaches may be appropriate at
some umc, ~oU:iborauo~ provides the m~st longlasting and
mutually sausfyang soluuons. In collaborauon. the problem is
auackcd - not the people! And what would it be like if the
problem were embraced as an opportunity to fine-tune family
functioning, rather than attacked?
In the process of collaborative connict resolution, a critical
stel? is for ~II concerned to clearly define the problem in terms of
their own interests and needs. After carefully listening to each
person verbalize their side of the conflict. then all can come to an
agreement on the definirion of the problem.
In their book Gerring To Yes. Fisher and Ury recount che.
example of t~o sisters fighting over one orange. Finally, in an
effort to be farr, they compromise and cut the orange in half. One
sister takes her half, peels the orange and cats the orange. The
other sister takes her half, throws away the fruit and uses 1he peel
to bake a cake. Clearly, a far superior solution would have
emerged had they identified what each person's interesis were.
The more accurately the problem is defined in terms of basic
interests and needs, the more easily and quickly it can be solved.
The process of creatively managing conflict, stress and
change in families is a dynamic and continuous one. The more
enriching, supportive, compassionate and fun that process is. the
less resistance we feel coward it. When conflict is approached in a
"Spirit of Possibility" toward healthy change, when individual
differences and personal well-being are protected and honored,
and when families are committed to using the skills of open
communication and problem-solving, conflict becomes a resource
for growth rather than an clement of disintegration.
Ellie Kincade 1s assisrant director of 1he Counseling Cemer ar
UNC-Aslll!ville. She is also a consulranr in t/11! Aiki approach 10
creQlive corf/lier resolutwn. conducring workshops in the fields of
edµcarion and human services.
SUGGESTED BOOKS
Ct11ing 10 Y1.s Roger Fisher and William Ury
TllL Magic ofCofl/liCI Thomas Crum
Parent E/ftctiveness Traimng Thomas Gordon
Swttl D'eamsfo' Lillie Onts: Btdlimt! Fan/IJJks
10 Build Self Estum Michael G. Pappas
RESOURCE ORGANlZATJONS
Childrcn"s Ctcativc Response to Conflict
c/o Fclbwship ofRcconcili.11.IOn
Box 271, Nyack. NY 10960 (914) 358-4601
Na-th Carolina Ccn1e1 for Peace Education
214 Piusboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919)929·9821
The Eanh.stcwanis Network
cto The Holycatth Foundation, PO Beu 10697
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 (206) 842-7986
The Mediation Cciucr
408 County Court House. Asheville, NC 28801
(704} 2S 1-6089
The Nauonal Association for Mediation in E.ducation
425 Amity Sueet. Amherst. MA 01002
Parents llld Teachas for Social Rcsponsib.ility
PO Box St7. MOtCIOwn, VT 05660
�From the Diary of a Modem Child
How can I find a moral sense
when falsehood lives
protcetcd in governments?
\\'hen playing false becomes the norm
kids begin 10 wonder what's the form?
Our role model> have been S10len
our culture hns been stolen,
corponue bored rooms determine
our feeding, our clo1hing,
tnmsp<>rting, and :;chooling style
A way of gathering in council
has been stolen by govcming images
or faces we never see
Menning ha:; been
~laced
by scllini;,
polling. and man ipulaung ...
Waste bas been accelerated
a~ we consume resources
and spil out the remains
on pi lcs of rock idols.
profiteering religions.
and streams of vidio Ulpc
Is then: any way we can reclaim our live.~
from corporate and industrial wastelands
or pictures that lie,
jobs that don't work, :ind 'inter uiinment'
tha1 teaches escapism a.~ a way of life
that rcsponsibilily is boring·
doesn't move fast enough •
requires too much undeNanding ...
Who is more immature
the grown or the growing?
At times it is in·sensing 10 think and feel hov. much and
how quickly some aspects of human ~ociety are vanishing. It is
as though the forces of our ungainly comple~ evolution arc
usurping our ability to Ulke the time 10 recognize 1he v.onder and
POCKET CULTURES
by Wtll Ashe Bason
When we look seven generations away we first sec ourselves
and our children and then the grandchildren that are on tne Way.
This is where our impact on the future is. I low arc we raising
ourselves and our children and prepanng for our children's children
Now? How can we restructure our lives so as to bener nunure
ourselve:. and our children and our children's children? What sort
of environmcm is best for growing whole and healthy humans?
How do we bring this environmem into reJlilV in Katuah?
Many of us "grew up" in the false commumries of modem
amcrican cities or suburbs. These were and arc cnvironmenL<; which
foster alienation. Almost everywhere is owned hy someone. People
are "at home" only at home! lllc streets arc the only common
ground around, and they belong 10 cars. There 1s relatively dense
population without the community spin1 which would make such
density bearable or even pleasurable. In reaction against this, some
of us have chosen to live in rurul areas. We have tned to isolate
and insulate ourselves from the dominant culture. Our children
don't really underswnd this but they do understand that they want
to be able 10 sec their friends more often then they do now, living at
lhe end of funky driveways at 1hc end of long din roads. Fulfilling
this need usually means school and spons and other activities
which are driving us to drive. But the driving is not the worst of it,
How can we build a new society, one without the faial dis eases of
the old, if we send our children during their fol'TTl.llive yC41l'S to
institutions whose very nature fosters competition, where
s:icredness of place and being arc not even on the graph. Modem
)C"I
uon Jo~r~
pn9~ 24
necessity of simple enduring cultural bonds. Child "forwaroing"
in the context of a dominating culture, or absence of culture, can
be a very unsettling, frustrating, and paradoxical experience. Do
we re-invent human cullurc again to satisfy the need to bring
rights and meaning through the symbols we put into practice? Do
we attempt some kind of symbiosis with a decaying power
structure that needs a dose of creative innovation? Or do we just
open the floodgates and let the grimy warer of predigested images
and infonnation come into our senses without any sense of
becoming in-sensed?
The ad-age of images and sounds coming across screens
and speakers 10 thousands of people each day may seem "cool"
and scintilating but what arc their effects on the long-range
accretion of mind, feeling, and decision for a child? Is it possible
10 create a suppon network that promotes family healing in the
face of squashing pressures from a society that apparently
doesn't represent or value many of the vital aspecb of its own
being? Some of these impon-ances are sustainability, care for
those less privileged. more extensive ecological well being,
relevant work. a sense of the biological region we inhabit as
home, and a healthy supponive extended family.
What is the c:ltect of poverty on families m the Katuah
region (and not just for us SCRUFFIES or Smanemng
C:1retakers, Rurally Urbane, Fueled For Impoverished Ecological
Survival)? What is the real effect of turbulence in 'broken
homes' and 'instant familes' full of conflicting and compromising
inrerests between close relatives and step-relatives on the gcner.il
patterns of society?
Perhaps 1hese questions arc 100 deep, yet these are the
kinds of far-reaching ques1ions often coming to awareness these
days. A major difficulty in trying 10 summon the context in
which our vitals can flourish, wilhou1 being continually
smothered in stress, manifests in the allure of electTOnic media,
and its exrensive computer manipulation of visual and acoustic
"space" that we all share. As this auruo/video gaming sucks in
more and more attention it is essential io realize that it is not a
clear expression of the whole mind of our species. The complex
whole fields of human life encompass far more than movies.
sit·coms, ads. and canoons could ever fuUillingly u:mslate.
Commercial media is IJ'Uely an aucmpt by the few to dominate or
falsify for the many. The right of choice in the means and content
of any particular kind of media hypnotism should be considered~
primarv to essential responsible hum:in freedom .
~•
Corporeally. Rob Messick
American public schools are lhe melting po1 lef1 on 100 long to boil.
They arc tee vec reali1y. At their best. they are only capabk of
teaching the parts. Meaning lcs> lhL~ of wurds and dead f~g.
organ:.. Our children only choose them because we haven t given
them an alternative. We have presumed and pretended that
providing an ahemative to school was mostly a mauer of legality
and academics. In fact tt means providing a commun11y in which
children can find friends as well as intellectual stimulation and
emotional security.
11 is no1 enough 10 m~ulute ourselves from the dominant
culture. We have 10 create new culture. Not another candidate for
dominam culture. but hundreds and thousands of pocket cultures.
Pocket cultures that anfully represent unique hum:in ad:ipiarion to
unique and sacred places. Cultures m harmony with their
environments and thus in harmony with each other. A iangihle
culture of l'C.'.11 relationships between people and animals and plants
and water and din and stone and architecture and real stuff hke that
there and not a culture of tapes and magazme.~ and books and
workshops and videos and seminars and full-Oedge~·n8J'$. etc. The
culrurc that we have built m each other's heads is beautiful and true
and meaningless unless it leads to way of life, which it will.
The world is changing rapidly. Humans arc very. very
numerous and on the move almost everywhere. Everyday we hear
about more refugees and more homeless people. Earth's cities are
overcrowded and choking on their own waste. It is a world of
villages that will emerge from this nigh1marc. A world in which
people once again know their neighbors.!'- ~orld ~ sobered by the
environmental con sequences of our unthmking acuons. that respect
for and worship of nature will once again be no1 the dommant bu1
lhe only religion.
(c:on11nucd on ncxc P•&•)
kllnter, l 989 - 90
�I know lll3Jly people of good ecological conscience who have
bought land and wish 10 have a comm~nir_y. yet insist on living
miles from each other. If a person ts wishing to move 10 one of
these communities. about the fauxcs1 pas one could make would be
t0 pick a house s!~t I~ near 10 a!1 ~i~ting home, ~nd 100 near
usually means vmhin sight of. This 1ns1s1ence on d1s1a~ce seems .
downright unfriendly when J_udged by '!ie Cherokee. T1beun. Thai.
Dogon, Greek. Zulu, or Zuni (to name 1us1 a very few) standards.
There is a very good book called A Pmtern Language by
Christopher Alexander and some ~f his friends: and this l?ook i~
very highly respected among arch11ecrs and designers for its radical
and coherent approach to archi1cc1ural planning. There is a paucrn
called "connected play space"' and the book goes on to cite
information to the effect that there is a direct corm;pondencc
between neurosis and the number of friends that a child has
growing up. Alexander and company used some statistics on family
size and average 11ges of children and came up with the figure of 64
families as the number needed 10 insure that all children would have
a good chance to find friends. They suggest that what children need
is a community of this size in which each home borders on a
continuous play area. In such a place, children would do much of
the work we now call childcare. This is a much more time-honored
and natural arrangement than the pauems we sec non-functioning
around us at present. Children learn responsibility in taking care of
other children. They also generally have a whole 101 more fun
tllnte.r, 1989-90
hanging ar&ind with other kids. Saner and happier kids could help
spread these virtues 10 the older folks.
Adolescents have a compelling need to be around their own
kind, which suits the rest of us just fine. This is sure easier 10 bring
about in a small community than in isolated fanns1eads. Young
people have a terrible SIJ'Uggle just trying to exist economically
IOday. In villages and small communities young people can get
good jobs and sec their friends regularly without the expense of a
car. The ttansition from child 10 adult can be more gradual and
na1ur.t.l 1han the current IJ"Cnd which is usually to move away from
parents and friends who can function as a suppon group. Perhaps a
101 of suicide and depression is related to fear.; of nor being able 10
"make it on one's own'.' In a village or small community \\C: make
it on our own 1oge1her, a much more reasswing and slllblc
arrangemem.
Perhaps future generations will look back at the dominant
culture's concept of land ownership with the same horror with
which we now view slavery. Up until fairly recently most of the
\\Orld's people lived an agricultural village communities in which
some or all of the land was owned or used in common. This
common usage certainly more clearly reflects the basic biological
reality of 1he planer we share. Children growing where some of the
land is ~hared have a bener chance of learning ro see land as an
en111y in it's own right.
�Dear KatUah,
Another excclltnt issue (Fall, 1989) ·But I mu't Like exception with
lhc statement m Pnmck Clark's otherwise Cine arucle on the Eastern
cougar/panther/paint.er. He wn1es: •Although it seems fitting and right for
panthers tO be inh:lbiung the southern mountains. not one official sighting
has been made. Until lhcn, panther ad"ocat~ have no basis for demanding
protection for cougar habita1.0 (p.18)
Wrong. The burden or proof is on the government to "prove" !here nr.:
no pamhcrs. Until then. we must err on the side or lhc cml:ingcrcd cnt1er :llld
manage as though lhcrc arc cougnrs.
Curr.mil)· wildlife managers go by the dictum, •Extine! until proven
ext.anL • We must rever<;e this: "Extant until pro"cn e~tincL • 01hcrwise,
unscrupulous and/or incompetent managers c:in ignore even the best
sightings. awruung the day someone brings in a cougar carcass to prove ther~
1ll'C (oops, wue) cougan here.
No compromise,
Jwmc Saycn
Prt.ltnJt Appoluchian IVildl!l'MSS
DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
Yts, wt agru. f hanks. Jamie. ·eds.
Dear Kaui3h.
At first. thank you for sending me a copy of the Katlinh Journal and
the U.N. Charter for Na1Urc.
I agree wilh your "StatemenL or Purpose·'. I enjoyed about all lh.:
Joumal's articles, you're really on the right way; I wish every 81oregions
should have a journal like yours.
Herc in ltaly, the BiOregional Movement is ju.st starting. That's fine.
but I lhink. they're sull a bit humon-ccnu:rcd.
I. as member of lhe Italian Wilderness Association's D1rec11ve
Council. am trying hard to spread an ccoccnuic awarcncSl; among i~
members..
O.K. Happy llllils tO all of you.
Cioo,
Morcul Giuseppe
Mantova, Italy
Dear Folks,
Congratulations on your grc:it "For All Things Wild issue!
I, IOO. am deeply concerned nboul the "Norlh Carolina road binge."
The same insanity grips Virginlll. We need 10 form a coohuon ag:Unst the
most environment.ally dcslIUCtivc clement in technology. (I wrote an article
about it in lhc earth First' Jow-nal, Vol. IX, No. II. 1988).
The on-going and looming cnv1ronmcnuil destruction is truly
pl:inct-shalung and i~ the mojor clement in lhc "grccnhot1~ effect" when the
infrastructure is considered
Unfortunately there seems to be a strong block, e"cn among
cnvironmcntahSlS, r.t. the automobile. We need t0 overcome lhis nnd tach
individual mu.it act to reduce dependence drastically
Tunnies ngoin for a great issue.
Enrlh Firstl
Bob Mueller
Dear Kaltiah,
I have enclosed several pamphlets explaining lhc Na11onal Peace T3X
Fund Bill. This bill 1s designed to allow !hose persons consc1cn1iou.~ly
opposed IO war IO have thc military ponion Of their taxes dirccled toward
peace rclaled proJCCl.S. Over onc-lhird of our 1ru1 dollars arc going for current
military expenses, 10 say nothing or lhe add1tionnJ 19% t0 take Ct11e of past
military expenses.
Fof mon: inform:iuon aboul lhc Peace Tax Fund Bill, please write io:
National Campaign for 11 Peace Tax Fund
2121 Decatur Pt. NW
Wa-.hington. DC 20008
(202) 483-3751
Mrs. llarold Sir.Idler
Dear Ka.Wah People.
I think you JUSt keep geuing better and bcuer! Congrntula11on~ on
puumg t.ogethcr an cons-1stently fine JOUmal.
But I'm upset! I can't believe Kataah of all plaec.,. lhousht 11 wns ok
to pnnt a want ad for "Christions Only." J really gOt goosct>umps when I '1111\
that ad. I wonder why none among you removed 1t from pnnt Did you think
it would offend no one? (Why?)
l~s so out or your charnctcr 10 print something discnmin:itmg "'h1ch
could only be painful to members of our emerging community I'm sure you
won't do u ngain. bu1 I want to let you know how I feel.
Sincerely.
Randee Brenner GoodslJl<h
Thanh for )'011.r kind words for 1~ Kaulah Journal. l\'t fttl that
inc/1Uw11 of 1~ ad is not 11uusarily n11.1 of choracta for ·1\'eb,.·orl11111"
which fr 111tt.ntkd to h('/p connect people cf t~ rtgwn with rach mhu. Thll.S
ii rtfkcu the divusity ofpeople and 111tuc1.11111~ rtgio11.
To i11dicatt that a f1U1ctio11 is "for chrwians 011/y" dot.< not
necessarily co1Utit11.1t discrimlflaJiDn. bw rather Is 1ntt!ndtd to connut
"'.t:mbus cf a s~cijic interest group. • tds
JC.a• ah Journm ptu)e 26
l.ltnlcr, 1989-90
�Hau Kauiah,
I am wriung lh1s lcllcr to you m reference to our ncwslcucr called
'echoes of lhc drum'.
I am interested m pulling 11 m the wcbworkmg section of lhc Katllah
Journal. Bui I wlll explain a liulc about ii before I go any further.
'echoes of lhc drum' 1s no1 your onlinnry ncwslcucr. It is not hke the
of the ocwslcucr~ that only put news in 11. The news thnt we put in the
newsleucr revolves around und1tional teaching or the Ntui\'C American
Indians and lho1r Sacred Red Road. h eamo 11bou1 as a need to be able to get
1r.1du1onal tcachmgs m10 the iron houses (prisons) throughout Tunic hlJlnd.
rcs1
I was a member of the Thunderbml Pmon Alliance. but when I saw
that their goal was ne>I to tench but to become an acthl't sort of group. I
separated myself from thc organi1.a1ion. And followed the mcditmc teaching
thu1 I was brought up in. As a Lakot.a and descendent of several medicine
icachers and trad1uon;ll leaders of my people, I left the radical a' u vi st ways
behind and chose 10 seek a more aauvc involvement in gcmng the trnduional
tcoch1ngs ms1dc the 1ronhouscs. And since money wns a big factor 111 not
being able to buy books frQm publishers. I <;ought a \•isie>n "hlte I was
inside lhc solitary confinement MX"llon of the Staunton Corrccuonal Center.
As I fasted and prayed to Wnkan Tan~a. the vision came 10 me. And m the
vision l saw the Ancestors calling out 10 me 10 tca.:h the teachings of all
indigenous tribes. and not just only the Lakota way,. Because 111-.dc the iron
houses there were more than JUSt Lakol<ls and behind the iron doors. The
vision told me 10 remember bad. to when the drums sounded out with
messages 10 the different villages. To become one with th•· 'ound of lhosc
drums. And Ihm was the bcgmmng of the' ision or which I now follow. And
1hal 1s where the ncwslcucr got 1lS name from. II h called 'cch<X!s of 1hc
drums'.
The hardcM pan afterwards wa.~ to spc.ik to the Eld.: rs and TClKhcrs of
the different tribes, to help me in this end<'.a,·or. And they saw the sUlt'Cfll)' in
whal I wa.~ doing. And th.:y have all come 1ogcth.:r and pro' id~ me 11. ith
teachings I will cnclo'e a copy of the ncw,lcuer. The next part was 10
resolve the issue or nm to wruc each and every warden of the different iron
houses 1hroughout Turtle hland. So I went to the Lihrary of Congress m
request for an I S S.N permit. And u 11.as granted. and therefore clc;mng
another step m getung the teachings inside the iron houses by way or a
ncwslcucr
And from the initial 75 ncwslcncrs that were sent lo 1hc guys and
women 1hroughou1 Turtle hl:md, the ncwskncr has grown to a ma1l111g l"t
of over four-hundred and flfiy now. And 1hc 1mponan1 thing 1s thal 1hc
ocw~lc11er 1s free or chargc. This is in ;icc;ordancc wnh the traditional 1c:11;hcrs
that I have gi,cn my word to, that I would m no way ~II what 1~ given to us
by th.: Grl'lll Sp1nt. And therefore I have done so. And II will be the pohr~
thal th.: newsleucr will never be sold, nor will then> Ile a -.uhscripuon r.i1e ror
ll.
The one message " 1hu1 the ncwslcuer is nQI onl) for 1nmale<. bu1
for ull who wisll to lcum from the teaching th:u arc in the newsletter>,
We don't a.sk for any donation for the ocw~lcncr. we asi.. that 1f
anyone wishes IO receive the ncwslcuer, tha1 lhcy help with the postage of it
We give to all that Wl.'h 11, whether they can aHorJ to send postage or not. It
will not be denied to anyone that wants 11. And our mo1lm1t hst 1s growing
daily. So 1f an)·onc who wishes to rccc1\'C it. they c311 do so by writing the
following people and they will be pul on the mailing li\t.
I.) Thundcrhawk, 157372, Editor
Rt.2Box Ill BIWld, VA 24315-9616
2.) Moonyccn Scay, Publi:>hcr
P.0 Box 860; Vcron;i, VA 2441!2
3.) Zandc Griffith, AsM. Editor, 'echoe.~ of the drum'
R.R. 1; Box 11 l·B: Pamphn. VA 23951!
From v. hat I ha\'c 11. riucn you may lake anylhmg oul of 11 and put 11
the Wcbworkmg scc1ion. Or 1f you choose 10, you may me and wnt.:
nhou11hc ncwslcucr once you have read 11. I will do~e thi' lcuc-r for now.
lllld m clo~1ng I Jlf8Y that th.: Four Wm<;h do grant you the People of Kat~1
Jllany of beautiful 'iOngs of joy. \\'akan Tanl;a ntCI un wclo.
I rClld your wonderful papcr and was cxcucd by it. You arc really
doing a grea1 thing by pubhshmg the kind~ of things you prin1. One
cmicbm: 11.hy nOI prim on recycled p:ipcr'!
Sintetcly,
Lonna Richmond
Kno~villc, Tcnncs.~
Good question! Ont wt've often cn11sidertd. With all our local
pruittr.<, rtcycltd paper would nu:an tlrat 1<-e would havt to bu}' o full roll of
rtcyclt:d new.<print UI an enormous prirt wt cll!lnot anywhere near afford.
Rccytlahlc f'<ll'e.T u tht be.ft wt con dQ riRht now. ·eds.
Dl:ar KatU.lh,
I just had 10 write and express appreciation for your summer '89
issue. It 1s a very thorough message mspinng all who read 11: to act rather
than to ri:act. JOin wilh others for peace, listen mlhcr th.an shove. Welcome
messages to a world or people rc.idy to run if we ,,lightly scno;c a hmt of
bcm!l pushed. And lhcn ...as I looked for your address I saw a book review on
/hr Chaliu arid Tiit Bladt--an incredible book I'm currently rtadmg Some
things ju,1 fall in place, don'1 they!
My heartfelt th:inks,
Brcc1.e Bum.\
Quincy, Florida
in
Visual comments on tefc~·ision by Thom Preston (left)
and Rob Messick (above).
Muakyc Cya.,m.
Thunikrhawk
1t K.Ul®n • 1.1 nDI paqd 27
;r.
''
Jour r '~
ft
�New ELF In Town
For six years Franklin and Susan Sides
have been head gardeners at the Mother Eanh
News demonstration gardens in Hendersonville
in the upper reaches of the French Broad River.
Now they have taken the first steps to distill their
collective experience into a self-published
newsletter that, in their words, "chases the soul
of gardening."
Rather than emphasizing the "how-to"
aspects of gardening, their small publication will
concern itself more with the delights and fears,
the successes and mistakes, the small revelations
and moments of humor that gardening brings.
The Sides are asking for help for their
infant publication. Quotes, shon articles, humor,
poems, prayers, leuers, diaries are all eagerly
solicited.
And, of course, chan er subscribers are
also welcomed. The first issue of this infant
publication is scheduled for March, 1990.
To contact Franklin and Susan Sides with
submissions or inquiries, write them at: Rt. I ,
Box 57; Fairview, NC 28730.
continued from p. 14
The increasingly critical planetary
environmental situation has led many activists,
both young and old, to the conclusion that polite
protestations are not enough ro solve our present
ills and that means of direct action arc necessary
to save life on Earth in all its many
manifestations.
This holds true for the Ka1uah Province as
well. A core group of fifty activists has fonned a
Southern Appalachian chapter of Earth First!, a
continental group known for its srrong stands
and creative actions on behalf of the planet and
all its species. The local chapter has taken the
name Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
The new group is action-oriented. At its
first meeting the chapter decided to make its
initial focus the controversy over cleareutting in
the watershed from which the city of Asheville
draws its drinking water and took 11 field trip out
to the area the following week.
"This is only a beginning," said one
activist, identified only as Roadkill, "The
natfonal forests are being decimated by roading
and habitat destruction, and rampaging
development is taking over more and more
available habitat area. Our goals are to bring an
awareness of the ecological law of 'carrying
capacity' to the human population he~ and to
restore wild habitat hy creating a large biosphere
preserve in the Southern Appalachians that
would be linked by connecting corridors to other
preserve areas up and down the whole
Appalachian Range "
To jom ELF in its effons as pan of Eanh
Fu-st! or for more information ahout the group,
write them at Box 17 I: Alexander. l\C; Katuah
Province 28701.
'-''=
'I $
~~ BARE
.~
..=.,.;
11'
:J
ESSENTIALS
Natural Foods
.~
..
Wine Making
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 K011iali Jmmw/. is now available to ;ill
as conference posters and T-Shins.
The poster. are beautiful. four·color 11" x
17'' renditions of the native species portrJll with
conference information below and are available
for $2.00.
The T-shins arc heavy-duty, all-cotton.
silkscreencd by Ridgerunner Naturals. Only
large and extra-large sizes remain. They are
available for$ l 0.50.
Prices include postage. NC residents
please add 5% sales tax.
All proceeds from the sale of these items
will support rescue actions for native habitat in
the Southern Appalachian forest.
Order fmm· KALANU
Box 282; Sylva, 1\C
Katuah Province 28789
•: Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grmns
Vicamins & Supplcmcnrs
Wheat, Salt,
& Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy Substitutes
•• Hair & Skin Care Produus
•
I11 200 west Kini! Street. Boone NC 28607
.. \....
~\)-=-
:c
:c
111
__)~
704-264-5220
~·
=4'..
1
124 broadway
ashevJlc. nc
28801
]04-252-8..(04
carolina costume
compa11y
Katuah: Approval - giving 100% approval so
there's no failing involved - that's what's
lacking in our schools and why there's so
much fear. It's incredible when you see how
receptjve kids are to approval • 'cause Lhey
have so much to give.
Bonnie: It's attitudes. As the teacher walks
through that door - how the children respond
as a group is directly related to her attitude.
Directly. I've seen it so many times that l feel
it's an absolute truth. If the teacher is
affirmative and listens to the children and
inspires creativity then the children are eager
to learn.
Teachers all have to take psychology but if it's
not their interest they may nor use it. But
everybody's interested in what's fun and
funny. They say people learn 80% mo~e
effectively when they're laughing! Ev~~ tf
you're not using puppets you l'lln be pos111ve
and have joy in th.: classroom more often than
not.
Katuah: Could you say what you love most
about your work?
Ilonnie: h 's fun' I have a great time. ll's
definitely not something I cho:,;e - the puppet:;
chose me.
/
~
Beer &
Supplies
you could get literature in there, 100. But
there's so much specializing in schools that
you don't get to put things together. And
puppetry puts it together.
I'd like to see the<ltre become a standard pan of
elementary education ... for teachers to have to
take puppetry in order to be educators. I've
created workshops where I teach teachers how
to use puppets in the classroom and Textend
that to counselors and therapists ... anybody
who works with people. I'd like to get rid of
some of the rules and standards and replace
them with imaginative, affirmative attitudes
and teaching methods... then you're right on
the crux of the whole problem in the
institution.
801111ie Blue ca11 he camacted a1
PO Bo.\ lo57.
Asltcville. NC 28802 (7()./) 6./5-9918.
l\10LNTAIN ARTS PROGRAM
C'rc.1w.I 1n I IJ1!3, lh~ Mouniam Mts Progr-dm
(\!AP) ha." 'J'O!Nm.'d hundred' of ani,t·m rc,11kncc
rrogram< for sd1ool • in wc,tcm 1'C. \' isu;il anisl< .
dr~mall\IS, Jugi:lcr'. clo" ns, rn1111~'· mu,1cians,
crafl<Jl<.'Of>l.: and wr111 ""orl. in >ehool\ r11r a wc.:I••11
;i umc, 1yricall> '11<.·nJmg al kasl l\\O week' In a
rnun1v. Rcs1Jcnc1c' i:"c -iudcms an opponuniL}' 10
r:it1ic,1patc m tfifktcnl an forms With \\Or~ing
profc""onJh who ha'c ll tugh lc,cl of energy :inJ
,111hu,,..1.,m for their a.t. An) one intcrcslCJ m ha•mg
.1n ar11s1 1n their .s<. hoot may coma< I a "chool
.1dm1ni,1talor :ind rcq11~,I a 'l.tAP rrogr.un C'urrcntl)·
\IAP 1s .;cr,·mg 14 coun11c' with 27 .ir1""· An"tlrom ;ill d1sc1pllnc\ arc cnrnuragcd 10 a[>f>I). For
inronnouon or to reqllr\l llll ap1•ha111.. n, ""tc \11\P.
no, 11611. Bumw1lk:, ;-;c 21!71.!, (7(>1) f.8~·721'
t.>rntlr . t 989-90
�FOREST RESCUE IN THE KAT UAH PROVINCE
(An Ecological Manifesto for the Southern Appalachian
Bioregion)
These are program ideas drawn from the discussion at the
forest rescue action workshop. "For All Things Wild," held on
Saturday, OcLOber 28 at Warren Wilson College. The workshop
was held on the day following the conference "Restoring
Biodiversily in the Southern Appalachians: A Strategy for
SwvivaJ" and drew heavily on the ideas and analysis presented at
the conference.
All human use wirhin the biosphere preserve area must
conform to the demands of old-growth habita1 10 maintain ample
numbers of all native species. A grassroots initiative will be
needed to bring this issue before the federal Congress.
2) There can be no funher road construction within the
regional biosphere preserve, and we must begin clo~ing exi~ting
roads that in1erferc with the needs of old-growth habuat species.
The context for these proposals is the Preserve
Appalachian Wilderness proposal envisioned by Jamie Sayco of
New Hampshire. Put simply, the PAW proposal calls for a
system of large evolutionary or biosphere preserve areas along
the AppaJachian Mountain Range connected by wide mignuion
corridors to enable the movement of individual species and
genetic information up and down the length of the mountain
range. The preserves would maimain a variety of viable habitat
areas and characteristic ecosystems in protected landscapes large
enough to suppon the largest native carnivorous predators and
diverse enough to maintain all representative native species. (For
a more detailed explanation of the PAW proposal, see Ka11iah
Jour1111/, Issue 20.)
The "Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern Appalachians"
conference clearly demonslTated the necessity for profound and
immediate change. The Appalachian hardwood forest is being
severely compromised by human activities It may soon be unable
to fulfill its integral role in local and planetary life support. We
arc already in a crisis situation, and we need to think .and act
boldly to meet the ecological demands of our time. The current
political and social realities are self-serving and irrelevant due 10 a
distorted world-view which values the continued dominance of
Lhe human species al any cost. To conform to these present
realilies would only lead us further along a suicidal course. A
bold new vision based on ecological reality is required instead.
To correct the imbalance beLWeen the human inhabitants of
these mountains and our natural habitat, and to preserve the
original inhabitants - the native species - we must act. These arc
necessary first steps toward ecological sanity in the Katuah
Province:
l} A// the 3.5 million acres of public lands in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains shall be mandated to be a regional
biosphere reserve. AU inholdings need to be incorporated a~d the
national forests shall be extended to the purchase boundanes to
complete the biosphere preserve area.
'lljaee, '1\!tllngl 'Na@raj,s
T-S HIRTS. SWEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
ORIGINAL HAND·PRINTED
NATURE DESIGNS
3) Commercial logging in the biosphere reserve area must
cease. This would not be an undue economic hardship for the
region, as only 10% of the wood cut in the Southern Appalachian
region comes from the areas presently in national forest.
Compared 10 the ecological and social value of a large preserve
area, the dollar value of logging in the national forests is
inconsequential!
4) The Southern Appalachian Biosphere Preserve must be
connected to other natural areas. To this end:
- create a wide, viable wildlife corridor between the
Cherokee National Fores1 in Tennessee and the Jefferson
National Fores1 in Virginia
- re-define all major waterways as aquatic habimt corridors
from the mountains to the sea
- and create a corridor connection between the Southem
Appalachian bioregion and the Florida Peninsula biorcgion.
5) Bring human population lo a level within the ecological
carrying capacity of the bioregion - a size which does not
interfere wi1h the integrity or functions of the natural life
community in the Southern Appalachians.
,
Rather than promote accelerated growth, we must work to
decrease human numbers and impact to bring our species to its
proper level of influence within the region.
6) T ake a leading role in efforts to end atmospheric
deposition/air pollurion that is destroying the Southern
Appalachian forest and contributing to global warming.
7) Change our individual and social consciousness and
lifestyles to harmonize more closely with the natural conditions:#
the Southern Appalachian bioregion.
p
..
- David Wheeler
t!lti11ue At11p1111t/11re
all
Jler/J111D111 t!li11it
CALL or WRITE for
FREE COLOR CATALOG
DE..5 1GNS
by Rob \lessic.k
Jllus1ra11011 & Design
in Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil
Natural Food Store
& Dell
160 Broedw9y
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Wher9 Broedw9y ~
Mmmnon Ave & ~40
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Mond.)'·S.un:lay: lllim-8pm
Sund.y; f ptn-Spm
(704) 253-7656
Wl.ntcr, 1989- 90
~t.Uah )ournGt P'"Je 29
�RECYCLED PAPER! - Directory of products
sources for the sou~ Suggcsacd donation S 1.00
ao Western Norah Carolina Alliance, PO Box
18087. Asheville. NC 28814 (7~) 258-8737.
HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES gaaher on a
weekly basis. weather permitting, at Lake Louise in
Weaverville, NC on Wednesdays from 11:30 am
until 1:30 • 2:30 pm. We arc a small group, very
mfonnal, and open to anyone who wanas to join us
to exchange energy, infonnauon, ideas. and
playume. For more information, call Alice
Coblcnu (7()4) 6S8-2676.
BIODYNAMICALLY GROWN Com seed.
Mini-pops to giant fillers. Varieue.~ for no-aill
wilhoua hclbicidcs • and fOf compos1 ralher lhan salt
rcnilization. For caaalog please send SASE 10 •
Union Agriculwral lnstituae, Ra. 4 Box 463S,
Blairsville. GA 30512.
MOUNTAIN DULCIMERS • m3de of black
walnua, red cherry. or maple. Tops available in
wormy chestnut. buuemut, swcctgum, o;o~fras.
western cedar, and other woods. ConlllCt: Mize
Dulcimer Company; RL 2. Box 288; Blounaville,
37617 (615) 323-8489.
GREENING CARDS· concspondencc and advocacy
cards for people who care. Onginal an reproduced m
color. (10% of proc;ccds don<lled ao proJCCLS ror peaoc
and jus11ce.) Wriae to Ginny Lentz. LovEanh
™
SEA KAYAKfNG ·Come enjoy peace and solitude
llllvehng wiah lhe rhylhms or lhe sea. Classes. day
trips, overnight aours, cusaom charters.
Kayal;/Sallboat tours 10 lhe Bllhamas. Knyak tours
to Cosaa Rica. For more informntion contaca:
Charlie Reeve:;; Sea Level Inc.: POB 478; Tybee
Island, GA 31328 (912)786-S8S3
Creations: Box 144S: Black MounaaJn, NC 28711.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS· habaJ salves,
tincaures. &: ojls for birthing cl family health. For
brochure, please wriac: Moon Dance Fann: RL I,
Bolt 726: Hampton.
37658.
™
SCffiNCE TEACHER, ecologically aware, dcsm:s
land in KatUah, preferably E. Tenn. or W. North
Carolina for evenaual il\Mbiaauon. Mu.~1 lie well
w/ road fronaage. Conaaca: B. Bicmullcr: Soulh
Brunswick H.S.: Mammoch JcL, NJ 08852.
AUTHOR SEEKING RECIPES for wild fOOds
10 comribuaors JR book
upon publication. Recipes needed for fi'lh. game,
wild plants. Thomas K. Squier, N.D.: Ra. I, Box
216; Abcrdc<:n NC 28315.
cookbook. Will give c.rcdia
CONSCIOUS COUPLE & infana, wish 10
learn/wort on organic farm for housing + slipcnd
OR carelake a residence on acreage. Very comm1aed
and sincere. Wana to leave ahc cuy and profcss10ns
to work IOW8rd scU sufficiency. Can rcloc:ue Cllrly
June '90. Open to Options. Please Con13c:1; Dan &
Barb Umbcrget: 347 Sinclair Ave. N.E.; Allanm.
GA 30307. (404) S21-2971
SKYLAND • log on to the computer bulletin board
or the Smokies. Networking. plus new~ on the
environment. natwc photography. giuncs. compuaer
utilities, much more. Conaiiet Michael Havelin.
sysop, (704) 254-7800.
NATIJRAL CHILDBIRTH CLASES 'PCCiali1mg
In Lile Bradley Method. Classes arc small and
include nutrition physiology. consumerism.
parenting skills, and rclaxaaion and labor SUJll'O'I
techniques. For more informaaiOn call or write
Maggie Sachs; 808 Florida Ave.: Bri~tol, TN
37620. (61S) ?M-2374.
"THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT" • a complete
report on our changing cmironmcna for lhc ncxa 60
years. $17.00 po~tpaid, or write for more
information. Lorien House; POB 1112; Blac~
Mountain, NC 28711-1112.
•
PURE SORGHUM - and sorghum based dcsscr~
toppings and chocolates. Handmade m the
Appalachian (OOthiUs. Free sorghum recipe bto.:hure
send SASE. Candy sampler (2-KY Buckeye~ &
2-Bourbon Balls) S2.00 J>Cl'\lpaid. Golden Kcntuc:ky
Products; POB 246: livmgslOO, KY 40445. (606)
453-9800.
X.Oti&ah Jo\4rno! p"'Jl' 30
WANTED: HOUSE TO RENT. Profo..
"S1onal ccllha
and arust with one child are IOOking for a country
house. m lhC SUITOUn<ling A1.hev1llc, NC area from
June I, 1990. Please conuact Ron & Rachel
ClearfielJ: 7800 Colhn.~ Avenue; Miami Beach Fl..
33141 (305) 86S-048 I.
CIRCLES RETURNING • a new cassette by Bob
Avery•Grul>cl' This JS music 10 touch lhc soul and
heal ahe heart. Lynes included. To order send SIO
per casscuc to: Bob Avcry·Grubcl; Rt l Box 735:
Floyd, VA 2400 I
St..~FOODS • fresh. hand-made herbal skin
prepwaaions at '="able onces. Send for price list~
106 E. Ma111 SL. Johnson City. TN 37601
REMEDY FOR rnE COMMON COLD?· I've
found one; it\ natural and 11 works Send S3 and
your SASE to: Heaven on Enrah; 482 Whue Oal.
Cle Rd.; Burnsvlllc, NC 28714.
RENEWAL PROGRAMS· I prov1Jc mdiv1dual and
corporate renewal programs for bus1ncsse~ &
organi1.ations interested m hcahng thcmsclvc~ and
providing cmpowcrmcna 10 oth.:~. Wrote· Kalh1c
Pieper c/o Pieper A~~oc1ntcs: Ra I, Box 238:
Waync.~v1llc, NC 28786.
CREATION SOAP- lund·crnfacd herbal soaps from
the Blue Ridge Mounwn.~. Rose and bvcndet soaps,
mo1>1uri1.mg bar, slumpoo/cond1t1oncr bar. Contnet
Anna: RL I, Box 278; Blowmg RoU, NC 28605
(7™) 262-2321.
YOGA FOR ALL AGES- Ongoint; cla.<;:;C.S m the
Asheville lllC;l, workshops for group~. aml rnvaac
sessions. Give your..clr the s1fa or wellness and
peace. For more 1nfonna11on .:all Bo~ Kelly
(704) 2.S4-8698.
ORGANIC HONEY· Tulip Poplar, Sourwood,and
Wildnowet. From Patrick Counay, Virginia. No
chemicals. no white sugar, no hC11t, ever. Strained
through cheesecloth and packed JR heavy glass
canning J31'S. For a 4-oz. sample of our premium
sourwood and our catalog, send S4 10: Wade
Buckholas & Megan Phillips; Route 2. Box 248:
Stuart, VA 2A 171. (703) 694-4571
STIL-LIGHT THEOSOPHICAL RETR EAT
CENTER • a quiet sp3Ce for personal mediaalion,
group inaerneaion through study, and community
won:. and ~p1titual '1Cm1rnir;. Conmca Leon Frankel;
RL I, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 287116.
MOCCASINS, bnndcruftcd of elkhide in ahc
trlld1lionnl Plains Indian style. W:ucr rc,~iswna,
resoluble, and rugged • gtC<lt for hiking! Children's
and infana sizes available. \'/rue: Blue Feather
Mocca~ms: Box 931: Asheville. NC 28802, or call
Pollick Clark Bl (7~) 2S3-5<};7.
NATURE LOVERS' COMMUNITY • Chrisainns
only. S1000 gives you hfctimc owncl'>h1p righlS on
.S acres. Whole propetty consists of -is acres of
wooded calm and privacy. Write: Gospel Ministry;
P.O. Box 6S4: Clinton, TN 37717.
RHYTHM .6LIVE • Handcrafacd African- Style
Drums, workshops. learning tapes, drumbng_~. and
aacssoncs. Please send SASE IO Rhythm Ahvc!;
SS Phaux Cove Rd.: Weaverville, NC 28787 {704)
645-3911.
NEW AGE · group forming. All mtcrc~aed m
\haring about spirit to spirit commun1cotion,
channchng. v1suah1auon, hc;ihng, chokrns, IMOI,
etc. Emphasis on spmt and our connccaion to
Mother Earth, v1suaH1mg po~11ivc growth and
nurturing Conaact· Thcrc"a Carlson; ?SOI Ruic
Rd .. Knoxville. TN 37920.
WJ:BWORKING 1s free. Send submLssioos to:
Kattlah Journal
P.O. Box 63R
Lc1.:.:,acr. NC
Katllah Province 211748
Wint.er, 1989- 90
�The Kan1ah Journal wanrs ro communicate your thoughts and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
to us as le11ers, poems, stories, articles. drawings. or pliowgraphs,
etc. Please send your comributions to us aJ: Kati/ah Journal; P. 0 .
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kati/ah Province 28748.
The Spring 1990 issue of the Ka11foh Journal will be
focusing on "Wellness in the Mountains." We are looking for
information and aniclcs on !hose who contribu1e to the heahhful
quality of life in our southern mountains; especially through
activities which promote self-responsibility and a high level of
wellness as the normal living state.
Issue 28 of the KatUa11 Journal (Summer, '90) will take up
the topic of "Carrying Capacity" and the burgeoning impact of the
human presence and human teehnology in !he mounrains. The issue
will look beyond the last induscrial smoke-cloud and past the end of
real estate, when we apply !his imponant ecological principle to our
own selves.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE · SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agricuhure • SunJlowcn • HWTWI
Impact on Ille Fon:st • Cltlldrcns' Education
Veronica Nicholas:Wom1n m Poli11cs • Linle
People • Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR · SUMMER 1984
WateT Drum • WalCT Quality . Kudzu - Solu
Eclipse • Clc.vcuuing · Trout • Going IO Waler
Ram Pumps - MICIOhydro - Poems: Bennie
Lee Sinclair, nm Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE . FALL 1984
Hll'Vcst • Old Ways in Cherokee . Girucng ·
lofuclear Wu1e • Our Celtic Heritage ·
Bioregionalism: Past, Pre""t, and Future •
John Wilnoty • Healing DatlaiC$S • Politics of
Participation
ISSUE SIX · WINTER 1984-&s
Winier Solstice Eanh Ceremony • Horsepastur<
River • Coming of the Light • Log Cabin
Rooia • MO\llll&in Agiculture: The Right Crop
- William Taylor ·The Future of the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN · SPRING 198S
Sustainable Economics - Hoi Springs • Worker
Ownership - The Great Economy . Self Help
Credit Union - Wild Turkey • Responsible
Invuting • Woricing in lhc Web of Life
ISSUE ElGIIT - SUMMER 198S
Cclcbntion: A Way of Life · KauW. 18,000
Ye«n Ago • S-W Sites • Folk Arts in Ille
Schools • Sun Cyclr./Moon Cycle • Poems:
Hilda~ . Chuobe HaUa&e Cenll::r.
Who Owns Appilachia?
ISSUE NINE· FALL 198S
The Waldu Forest - The Trees Speak •
Mi&ratin& Forata • Hone Louina - Swtini a
TrecCrop • UtbanTrea -AQQQI Bn:.od . Myth
Tmo
ISSUE TEN · WINTER 198S-i6
Kate Rogers • Circles of Sionc • Internal
Mylllmaking • Holistic Healing on Trial •
Poems: Steve Kmulll • Mytltlc Places • The
Uktena's Tale • Crystal Magic
"OrcamspW.ina"
ISSUE TWENTY ..ONE • Fall, 1988
Chutnuts: A Natunl Hwory • Restoring the
Chc:AAut . "Poem or Preservation and Praise"
Continuing the Quest - Forests and Wildlife
Chestnuts in Regional Diet - Chestnut
Resources • Herb Note . Oood Medicine:
"Changes to Come" • Re•iew: Wliuc legmds
Live
ISSUE ELEVEN · SPRINO 1986
Community Pl1nning - Cities and the
Bioregional Vision - Recycling • Community
Gardening· Floyd County, VA - Gasohol •
Two Bioreglonal Views • Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Games · Ooocl Medicine: Visau
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO · W°U11er, '88--89
Global Warm.ing • Fire This Tune - Thomu
Berry on "Bioregions" · Earth E.xcrc:is4' . Kort
Loy McWhiru:t - An Abundance or Emp<inea
LETS - Cllroniclea of Floyd • Darry Wood .•
TheBIOlltClm
ISSUE THIRTEEN . Fall 1986
c - For Awakening • Elizabelll Callari - A
Gentle Death • Hospice • Ernest Morgan Dealing Creatively with Death • Home Burial
Box • The Wake • The Raven Moc.ku •
Woodslorc and Wildwoods Wisdom • Oood
Medicine: The s.._ Lodge
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - Spring, 1989
Pisgah Village • Pl111e1 An - Orcen City Poplar Appeal - "CllOllt Sky" · "A New Eulh"
Black Sw1n • Wild IAvcly Days - Reviclwa:
Socred Land Socr«d Sa; Ice "6«. Poem:
"Sudclcn Tc:ndrits"
ISSUE FOURTEEN . Winter 1986-87
lJoyd C.rt Owle • Boogers Ind Mummcn • All
Species Day • Cabin Fever Univonity •
Homeless in Kaulah • Homemade Hot Wat..Stovemalter's Narrative - Oood Medicine:
Interspecies Communic:alion
ISSUE EIOITTEEN. Winter 1987-88
Vamcular Archilecture • Dreams in Wood and
Sione • Mountain Home • Earth Energies •
Euth-She.llcred Uving • Membrane Houses •
Brush Shelter • Poems: Octobu DWJt. • Good
Medicine: "Shell.Cr"
ISSUE FlFTE.E.N • Spring 1987
CoverlelS • Wom1n Forester - Susie McMahan
Midwife • Alternative Contraception •
Bioscxuality • Bion:gionalism 1nd Women Oood Modicinc: MAlriudW Culture - Petarl
ISSUE NINETEEN · Spring. 1988
Perelmdra Cl~ · Spring Tonics • Blueberries
WildOower Gardens - Cranny Herbalist •
Flower Eucnces • "The Origin of lhc Animals:
Siory. Good Modlcinc: "Power" - Be AT"'°
ISSUE SIXTEEN · Summer 1987
Helen Waite • Poem: Visions in a Garden •
Vision Quest - First Flow • lnitillion •
Leaming in the WUclemess • Cherokee
OWJcnp - -Valuing Trees"
ISSUE TWENTY · Summer. 1988
l'luave AppaJacru.n Wildr:mw · HiaJ!landl
of Roan • Cclo Community - l.IDd Trust Anh11r MOf1111 School - Zonin1 luue • .,,,_
Ricl&e" • Farmers and \he Farm Bill • Good
Medicine: "lMld" - Acid Rain - Duke's Power
Play · Chaokee Miaohydro Projoc:t
ISSUE TWENTY ·FOUR - Summer. '89
Deep Listt:rting · Life in AIOmic C"lly - OiftlCt
Actlonl · Tree of Pe.ce • Commuruty Buildlftg
Pcaccmaltcrs - Ethnic Survival • Pairing
Project • "Ba.tllesong" • Growing Peace in
Cullurea · Review: Tltc Clta/iuOlld IN Blatk
ISSUI! TWENTY-FIVE· FALL. 1989
The Gn:at Forest • Resl.orina Old Orowtlt •
Regional Planning • Tunbcr • Forest Roada
Poem: Sparr- Hawk. · A Pl..:e f« Bun •
'7/uu FLU 1/tc RtWi HLaElfl" • l!utern
P1nthcr • Oak Decline • People md Habiw
Wtld S--n.s - Daner Fair
- - - ---- - - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- ---- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - ~UAtt)OURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
Formo~info:
Name
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
City
call Mamie Muller (704)683-1414
State
Zip
Enclosed is $
to give
this ejfon an exua bOOst
I can be a local contaet
Area Code
loll.mer, 1989-90
Phone Number
person for my area
Back Issues
=
Issue# __@ $2.50 S_ _
Issue# _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.-59= $_ _
Complete Set (3-1 J, 13-16,
18-25)
@
S3s.oo =s__
1
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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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>.
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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
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 26, Winter 1989-1990
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-sixth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on children and parents: their roles in family and in the bioregion. Authors and artists in this issue include: Thomas Berry, Samala Hirst, Ellie Kincade, Linda Metzner, Lucinda Flodin, Martha Perkins, Jan Verhaeghe, Christina Morrison, Karen Watkins, Doug Woodward, Trish Severin, Susan Griesmaier, Aviva Jill Romm, Tom Youngblood-Petersen, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, Jermain Mosely, Marnie Mikell, James Rhea, Martha Tree, and David Wheeler. This issue also features an interview with Bonnie Blue, puppeteer. <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
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1989-1990
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Coming of Age in the Ecozoic Era by Thomas Berry.......1<br /><br />Kids Saving Rainforests by Samala Hirst.......4<br /><br />Kids' Treecycling Company.......5<br /><br />Conflict Resolution and the Family by Ellie Kincade.......6<br /><br />Developing the Creative Spirit by Linda Metzner........8<br /><br />The Balloon is a Unicorn by Artspirit Studio.......9<br /><br />Birth Power by Lucinda Flodin and Martha Perkins.......10<br /><br />Birth Bonding by Jan Verhaeghe.......11<br /><br />The Magic of Puppertry: An Interview with Bonnie Blue by Christina Morrison and Karen Watkins.......12<br /><br />Home Schooling by Doug Woodward and Trish Severin.......15<br /><br />Ceremony: Traditional.......16<br /><br />Mother Earth: The Natural Classroom by Susan Griesmaier.......18<br /><br />Biodegradable Diapers by Aviva Jill Romm.......18<br /><br />Resources........19<br /><br />Gardening Tips for Children by Tom Youngblood-Petersen.......19<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />"From the Diary of a Modern Child" by Rob Messick.......24<br /><br />Pocket Cultures by Will Ashe Bason.......24<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Forest Rescue: An Ecological Manifesto.......29<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville</em> <em>Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
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Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Puppeteers
Conflict management
Natural childbirth
Child rearing--Appalachian Region, Southern
Home schooling
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<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>
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Appalachian Region, Southern
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<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
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Community
Education
Electric Power Companies
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
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.
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�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
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DIOXIN vs THE ENVIRONMENT
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NATURAL
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(PART2)
Nani World News s.vice
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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
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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
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OF KATUAH PROVINCE~
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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)
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�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.
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,
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
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/
\.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
"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
~
,)
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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/e8b264ef4ec25f6e96204d3ae515c995.pdf
da3b1c41e52d67bec48c8df227746edd
PDF Text
Text
/-�
�UAWURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
Postage Paid
Bulk Mall
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�FromMountains to the Sea
uy uafMyczack........................•....•
1
Profile of a Southern Appalachian Watershed:
The Little Tennessee River
(An Interview with Dr. William Md.amcy)
rtcortkd by David Whttlu.....................3
Freshwater Canaries: The Spotfin Chub
b y William Mclarney.........••.•.........•..5
Mudwatch and Fmoount: The Environmental
Survey of the Little Tennessee
6
by William McLarnq.......................••
Headwaters Ecology and Blgh Quality Habitat
by Mary Kelly.........................•.••....?
"It All Comes Down to Water Quality"
by Mitlit Buchanan............................8
Water Power: Ac.tion for Aquatic Habitats.... IO
Dawn Watchers
uySncw Bear ................................ 11
Adventures on the River
uy uaf Myaack.............................12
Accessory toMurder: Watts Bar Lake and the
Public Trust
uy LeafMyczadr........•.........•......••...14
Poem: "Country S10re"
by Witliam MU/u...••.......•........•......14
The Nonh Shore Road: Environment or
Development in the Great Smokies
by Pmrick Clark..............................15
The Long Branch Composting Toilet
by Paul Gallimore ..•...............•.....•... 11
GoodMedicine: The Long Human Being....18
Katuah Sells Out!!
by Bud Young and Rodney Webb............ 19
Watershed Map of the Kauiah Province......20
Namral World News. ...........................22
Green Spirits: Karuah Rains
by Lte Barnts................................26
Off the Grid
uy Jim lloustr ...............................21
Drumming (Letters (O Katuah) .................28
Early Warning: The Gypsy Moth ls Coming!
uy Ed lytwack..•......•....•............•...30
Poem: "Unbound"
by Gaston Siniard............•........••.....31
Events.............................................36
Webworking.....................................38
TaUMint.u, 1990
FROM MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
by LeafMyczack
It begins as dense, moist clouds riding
the prevailing winds 11p from the Gulf of
Mex.ico. Meeting the Corest updrafts from the
AppalachianMountains, the clouds release their
wet cargo over the rich forest below. The rain
drips to the ground through the leafy canopy,
seeps into the dark soil, gathers, and begins to
triclcJe down the mountain slopes. Ct is here
where the River is born. SmaJJ riwlets become
streams, splashing and tumbling down rock
strewn beds. When enough of these feeder
streams converge, creeks form, and Lhey in rum
•
receive additional aibutaries.
From the slopes of the old mountains of
Kanlah, the growing rivers bring their watery
gifis 10 the valley lands. But rivers do not lend
themselves to arbitrary beginnings. The health
of a river is the culmination of an ongoing,
cyclical process. The health of rivers depends
on atmospheric as well as ground conditions.
Sulfates, nitrates, and toxic gases are washed to
eanh in the form of acid rain. Here the
contaminated water combines with herbicide
residues used by forest abusers and with din
paniclcs from bulldozed land. The first stream
f ormed is already poisoned. Add industrial
chemicals, silt from road construction, salt
fertilizers, utility company herbicides, raw
sewage, and the result is a river much
diminished in itS capacity 10 suppon life. Even
before the rivers leave the Appalachian foothills,
their health is often severely compromised.
Most humans have forgouen that we arc
dependent on the interplay of all life. We think
we can clear the forest without harming the
river, or that we can diny the atmosphere
without harming the forest. Even when
confronted with historical evidence of
environmental impact, ecologically destructive
patterns continue unabated, especially when
there is money involved. Greed seems to be the
engine of destruction. Cut, rape, slash - "How
much money are we making?"
Rivers, in order to be healthy, must have
a healthy watershed. The atmosphere and the
ground must be clean in order to maintain the
aquatic environment. To protect the life of the
river, steep slopes musr be closed to logging
and development. The less roads, the better, for
roads only promote the migration of ecologically
abusive people and materials. Rivers are
intended to be pathways for rich organic
nutrients leached from the mountain slopes to
feed the diverse aquatic communities living in
the estuaries. Damming rivers inhibits this
cycle. In place of nutrients, rivers now carry
water-soluble toxins that are deposited in delta
and estuarine habitats.
This Katuah region, sacred in all its
biodiversity, is in great danger. The forest ones
and the river ones call out for help. The scream
of pain is almost constant among them. But their
voices are not going unheard. Joining these
voices are human voices - Lhe voices of
caretakers, poets, Earth defenders • aU
advocaLing a respect for all of'life.
Ycs, brothers and sisters, trees and rivers
do have rights Lo life and good health. Let us
sing and dance to life in aJJ its many forms. The
dance of life must supersede the chant of death,
for without our relatives we are diminished in
spirit, mind, and body. It is not a political
struggle we are engaged in, but a spiritual quest
to find the wellsprings of our soul. Listen
closely, and you will hear great wisdom from
Karuah. Be creative with your work and your
life. for these are your honor song.
- illustration by Cielo
(canlinucd p, 12)
XAtuah Journot � t
���������������������������������������
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 29, Fall/Winter 1990
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-ninth issue of the<em> Katúah Journal</em> focuses on water quality: the Little Tennessee River watershed; Watts Bar Lake; development in the Great Smokies; and solar composting toilets. Authors and artists in this issue include: Leaf Myczack, David Wheeler, William McLarney, Mary Kelly, Millie Buchanan, Snow Bear, William Miller, Patrick Clark, Paul Gallimore, Buck Young, Rodney Webb, Lee Barnes, Jim Houser, Ed Lytwack, Gaston Siniard, Rob Messick, Bob Clark, Marnie Muller, Marlene Mountain, 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.
From Mountains to the Sea by Leaf Myczack.......1<br /><br />Profile of a Southern Appalachian Watershed: The Little Tennessee River (An Interview with Dr. William McLarney), recorded by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />Freshwater Canaries: The Spotfin Chub by William McLarney.......5<br /><br />Mudwatch and Fincount: The Environmental Survey of the Little Tennessee by William McLarney.......6<br /><br />Headwaters Ecology and High Quality Habitat by Mary Kelly.......7<br /><br />"It All Comes Down to Water Quality" by Millie Buchanan.......8<br /><br />Water Power: Action for Aquatic Habitats.......10<br /><br />Dawn Watchers by Snow Bear.......11<br /><br />Adventures on the River by Leaf Myczack.......12<br /><br />Accessor to Murder: Watts Bar Lake and the Public Trust by Leaf Myczack.......14<br /><br />Poem: "Country Store" by William Miller.......14<br /><br />The North Shore Road: Environment or Development in the Great Smokies by Patrick Clark........15<br /><br />The Long Branch Composting Toilet by Paul Gallimore.......17<br /><br />Good Medicine: The Long Human Being.......18<br /><br />Katúah Sells Out!! by Buck Young and Rodney Webb........19<br /><br />Watershed Map of the Katúah Province.......20<br /><br />Natural World News........22<br /><br />Green Spirits: Katúah Rains by Lee Barnes.......26<br /><br />Off the Grid by Jim Houser.......27<br /><br />Drumming (Letters to Katúah).......28<br /><br />Early Warning: The Gypsy Moth is Coming! by Ed Lytwack.......30<br /><br />Poem: "Unbound" by Gaston Siniard.......31<br /><br />Events.......36<br /><br />Webworking.......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</em> <em>Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Watersheds--Tennessee, East
Watersheds--North Carolina, Western
Watersheds--Virginia, Southwest
Human ecology--Appalachian Region, Southern
Water quality--Appalachian Region, Southern
Gypsy moth--Control--Environmental aspects
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" rel="noopener"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
https://www.geonames.org/4666185/watts-bar-lake.html
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
||||osm
Watts Bar Lake
||||osm
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" rel="noopener"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Book Reviews
Community
Economic Alternatives
Education
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Health
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/598a93ab849d56cc32fb22505a37f177.pdf
35ca04365bb9bc976cdc8ee253cc5a52
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 30 SPRING 1991
$1.50
�=·
- ·
=
•
Drawing by D.avid Opalccky
~UAt1 JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638
Leicesler, NC
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
28748
�lONTENT5
Econorny/Ecology...................... " .............. l
by David Whulu
Avoiding Lhe Passive/Helpless Approach
to Economic Developmcnt.........................4
by TlwmllS Power
Ways 10 a Regener:uive Economy.............5
by Rob Messick
Sacred Oconomy........................................6
by Will ~c Bason
"Money Is 1he Lowest Form of Wealth":
lnt.crv1cw wilb lvo Bnllcn1ine Bnd Robin Capc.....7
by Rodm:y Webb and llcnry EcJJcr
The Clarksville
"Miracle".......... ........................................ ]O
by Gri.rcom Morgan
Self-Help Crt!dit Union............................ IO
The Village......................................." ...... 11
by Snow Bear
"1hrough dreams, through magic''............ 12
Poc,m by Gary l;awler.t
Food \-1overs.............................." .. .......... 13
b) DU!lul II hul.-r
Poems hy Jim CJark.. ..... " ........................14
Life\Vork .................................................. 15
by Ernr.rt Wom1c.l; and Mtlflt. Sundstrom
Green Spirit,;: "Kntuah Pl:inting
Calendor".................................................. 19
by I.Le Barnt.S
Good Medicine: "Villogc Economy".......20
On Eco-cconomics...................................21
by David llaellke
Thoughts on Work, Productivity,
and Development.....................................22
by Richard Lowenthal
Natural World News................................23
Shelton Laurel. .........................................25
byRodneyWeJx,
Off The Grid: ''Regional Fuels"...............26
by Jim Houser
LETS..........................................." ...........27
Rtsources................................................. 27
Drumming................................................28
Eanh Energies: 'The Great
Lover"...................................................... 31
by Cha.rlo11e llomsMr
Events.......................................................33
Webworking.............................................34
Sprtng, 1991
by David Wheeler
"Economy" means the basic, natural
processes lhaLsupport life in the world. This is
where we begin. The wind in the trees rain
dripping through the leaves, mounrain~ silen1and
tal.11 the moon sailing 1hrough the sky - these are
basic factors of life in Lhe mountains.
These elemental powers are refined and
individuali~ed int~ a~oms ~nd whirling poplor
seeds, lwmnous cnlhums, insect larva crawling
un?:r strea~ rocks, a .grouse thrumming in the
twilight - beings 1hat live and die, eat and are
eaten, closely bound to the web of existence.
Thi~ is the living economy of lhe Soulhem
Appalachian Mount.ains.
The human "economy" is how we live in 1he
W?rl~. It is simply an accounting of how we live
within the greater economy and utilize itS energies
to support our own existence.
Tn conversation, human economy is of1en
contraI?Osed to the natuml ecology, as if they
were dtfferent and antagonistic 10 each other. But
both words share a common root from the Greek
word oikos, ·•household." This is not a
coincidence; this is observation of a fundamenral
~ity. The two conceplS are simply clifferent
views of lhe same system seen from diffcren1
perspectives and on a differem scale. The first
principle of Lhe human economy is "preserve the
system that gives life to all."
The human economy. being a smaU
er
segment of the natural economy and working
through the same laws, mirrors the health of the
greater economy. Once human economies were
dependen1 on the health of the regional
ecosystems from which they grew. Then some
humans learned to expand their sphere of
infl_uence, so lhat by drawing energy from other
regions they were able to maintain artificially
healthy economies in the midst of failed
environments.
The Southern Appalachian Mountains know
this process well. The human economy we know
as the industrial growth system has not been
good ro the mountains. The relatlonship of the
~ rull? Province lo the central economy has
histo~cally been tha1of a colonized territory,
exploucd for raw materials and cheap labor;
always for the benefit of the same urban elites
who rule the economies of Uruguay and
Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines - and all
the other miliLarily weaker and technologically
less-developed countries.
1n the Soulhem Appalachians, the timber
boom of the early pan of the nineteeolh century is
the clearcs1example of the "rape and run"
mentality of resource extraction. And though lbe
tech niques nave been refined, there is little
difference between the mentali1 of the old-time
y
timber barons and the current-day land developer.
But the industrial growth society has
reached rhe end of ils rope - or, more aptly, the
bollom of the barrel. There are no new bioregions
to conquer, and any funher expansion and
growth only weakens lhe condition of the
already-stressed global ecology. The industrial
growth sysLem has taken a terrible toll on !he
world - !he ecologicnl collopse is underway, the
economic collapse follows.
The planetary economy of human hobitation
i~ once again a retlection of Lhe planet's natural
ll.fe suppon system. We are now going lO have to
give attention 10 the first principle of human
economy and make a rcaJ commitment 10
"preserve the system that gives life to all."
Change is happening. Ahhough waning
govemmenrs srill dominate the headline news
their struggles over the dregs of ao obsolete '
energy source are only the dea1h agonies of the
industrial grow1h system.
The recent war, recessions, and depressions
are ~e symptoms of change. Like continenLS in
moo?n, me forces actuaUy driving this change are
moving slowly, ponderously, deep beneath the
surface - jusl as powerful and jus1 as inexorable.
The planetary life system is moving lo preserve
iLSelf.
While we can see the shadow of the
approaching change, we cannot see i1s shape, and
we know only that the future will be like nothing
that has gone before. We need to prepare.
That we are aware this transition is coming
does noLmean that it will be easy or comfortable
for us; in fact just !he opposile appears more
likely to be the case. It will help to rell1CIIlber thai
we are in the midst of a monumental
transfonnacion, and although it will be diffi.cuJ1, it
offers an opponuni1y for us to supplant the old
ioduslrial growth system with one much more
suilable - one that is ecologically viable and more
spiritually fulfilling.
During the throes of tra.nsi rion we need 10
remember that the second principle of eoonomy is
"the survivaJ of species." This refers not only to
the human species, although our kind is included
as well, but the survival of all species - each
constantly growing, changing, making its own
conoibution to the continually creative process
we call evolution. "Survival of the species•· also
does not require the survival of every individual
of a species, for that would in fact be
counter-productive. It refers instead to the life
(conlinucd on ~
3)
:l(.Qtuah Jotu"nm pa'}&
�i<eLlAHjOURNAL
EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE:
Susan Adam
Patrick Clark
Oiarlotte Homsher
Lorraine Kaliher
Rob Messick
Jeff Smith
Rodney Webb
Lee Barnes
Andy Half-baker
Jim Houser
Richard Lowenthal
Mamie Muller
Manha Tree
David Wheeler
COVER: by Rob Messick © 1991
PUBLISHED BY: Ka1ualr Jo1unal
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PRINTRD BY: The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE Il::0$ JSSUE: The Globe Valley
WRITE US AT:
Kat(I/Jh Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Karuah Province 28748
TELEPHONE: (704) 754-6097
Katuah Joiu110I is on Skyland BBS, Asheville, NC.
For information, call (704) 254-6700.
Diversity is an important element or bioregional ecology, both
natural and social. In line wilh this principle, lhe Katuah Journal tries 10
serve os a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express
only the opinion of lhc authors and are not necessarily the opinions of the
Kat~Jaurnal edil0!'$ or ~taff.
The lnlCmlll Revenue Serviu h:is declared Ka1dah Journal a non-profil
organization under section 50l(cX3) of the tn1emal Revenue Code. All
conliibutions 10 Katitah Journal are deductible from personal income tax.
Articles appearing in Katuah Journal may be reprinted ill olher
publications with permission from the Katuah Journal slaff. Contocl the
journal in writing or call (704) 154-f:,(1}1 or (704) 683-1414.
Here,
in the Karuah Province
of these ancient Appalachian mountains
where once the Cherokee Nation lived in freedom
between th.e Tennessee River Valley and the Eastern
Piedmont
between the Valley of the Roanoke and the Southern
Plain
on this Turtle Island continent of Mother Ela, the Earth
Here,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our
deep connection to 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 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 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.
'LNVOCA.T LON
In a house of bones we
call down the spirits.
and the plants grow.
and the animals move freely.
We light candles, calling for the return,
and the flame of life
burns through the buildings,
nothing but ash,
and the plants grow,
and the animals move freely.
The Katiwh Journal sends a voice...
with articles, stories, poems, and artwork
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.
- Gary Lawless
The Ka16ah Journal wants to communicate your thoughts
and feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send
them 10 us as le11ers, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or
photographs, etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Katuah
Journal; P. 0. Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kattuih Province 28748.
,.
,i
- The Editors
The summer issue of 1he Katuah Journal will feature
stories about the sub1le energies of the Appalachians and the
Eanh - those invisible forces that, whether we choose 10 be aware
of them or not, exert such a powerful influence on our lives.
Please send in .your stories, drawings, or poems of
dowsing, eanh changes, sacred sites and their legends, vonexes,
and other accounts of encounters with the pulsing heartbeat of the
world by April 30 to Ka11wh Jotunal; Box 638; Leicester, NC
28748.
Spr tmJ, 1991
�(COminued &om pqe I)
and health ot the species as an organism unto
itself.
Pictured as an individual organism, our own
species, at this point in time, is in deplorable
health. We an: gluuonous and grossly far,
physically soft and out of shape, ridden with
cancer and other degenerative diseases, subject 10
numerous natural resource addictions, beset by a
severe attitude problem. and (among the more
advanced sectors in panicular) badly neurotic.
One of the side effects of the transition now
underway appears to be that Mother Gain as drill
sergeant is about to shape us up. In order to
maintain its place in the world, the human species
and the human economy of the future will
necessarily be lighter, quicker on its feet, more
alert, and more aware of its surroundings.
Technology will not be able to effect this
change for us. In fact an increased dependence on
fancy technology would be n debilitating
influence at this point. This change is going to be
made inside our collective psyche - in our mental
condition and our spiritual values.
Because the third principle of economy is:
''Do it well."
Consequent to redefining our idea of
"economy" is redefining our criteria for the
success of that economy in maintafoing its place
in the biosphere.
For one example: the phrase "quality of life"
as used in these mountains at one rime referred to
the health of the streams, the health and number
of the animals, the health of the forest But today,
even as the world about us is being degraded and
destroyed, we are constantly told that our "quality
of life" is improving
For a second example: what is meant by
"living well?"
At one time "living wcll" meant the manner in
which a person carried himself or herself in the
world • what a person said, what a person did, in
other words, the quality of their actions. In these
days "living well" means what and how much a
person eats, drinks, and owns • in other words,
the quality of their consumption.
ln order to correctly judge the success of our
economy, we need to revise the standards by
which we detennine our basic needs - not in
terms of goods, services, and the medium of their
exchange, but in terms of the purpose of our
daily transactions: health, satisfaction,
fulfillment, and happiness.
Here m the Southern Appalachians we are
lucky: we have a model for change. For as long
as humans have inhabited these mountains, the
removed from a time when people lived by
hunting, gathering, and small-scale agriculture.
One hundred yCtlrS ago the majority of the people
here lived a pastoral, self-sufficient lifestyle.
The Appalachian culture of that time gave rise
to the image of the "independent mountaineer."
That stereotype is still cherished today. but it is a
joke in these rimes when we buy our food from
supermnrketS, borrow money from urban
banking canels 10 buy vehicles from Detroit or
Yokohama, are dependent on job wages, send
"It's a sad situation whe11 humans in a
society like ours find thnt they can
survive only by destroying the basis of
existence.
''The basic goal of our economy is to
take the greatest possible amount of
natural materials as quickly as possible
through the consumer economy to the
junk heap. The main idea is to mnke
junk. All our jobs are keyed to making
junk...
''I'd like to say just a word about jobs:
we don't need jobs! We need food, we
need clothing, we need housing, we need
education, we need health care, we need
all these things. Now my proposal for the
Southern A7JPD.laclriat1s is to get out of the
whole consumer economy and establish
014r own internal economy based in
bioregion.
"There's no reason why we can't build
an economy here and a culture here
independent of bringing all this
extravagant consumer economy and
technology and productivity into this
region. We don't need those! All we need
are food and clothing and fun and
celebration and necessities like that.
That's wl1at we need, and there's no
reasorr why Katuah Province can't
provide it."
- Thomas Berry,
tu the 1990 "Em·ironmtntal Summit
Confertntt," UNC Ashtvilfe
monthly insurance premiums to Hanford, power
our commerce on fuel that is carried halfway
around the world, and absorb our culture from
TV programs that come to us from big-city
broadcasting stations through giant satellite
receivers. Our regional economy presently is
flaccid, lame, and unsmble.
To be independent means t0 take
responsibility for one's self. We need to
re-examine our situation literally "from the
ground up." How are we going to provide the
clean air we need every minute, the pure water
and good food we need every day, shelter,
healing, education, nns and entertainment that are
enriching and fun, and a spirituality that
recognize:. our place in the Creation?
We will provide for these needs by getting
together with friends and community, doing for
ourselves, and trusting in the land. We will
restructure our economy by methods that will be
sustainable in the mountains for many
generations to come in a variety of different living
situations. And we will renegotiate our economic
contract with the land, the foundation of all our
existence. If our relations with the land are not in
order, then we will not survive to see what the
next era will bring.
In the rimes to come, although conditions
may seem hard and the shadow of oppression
may loom large, it is important that we keep our
spiritS up and do not give in to fear or
depression. We cannot wait for someone else to
give the orders or someone else to fund the
budget We have to worlc together for our
communities and for the life of our region.
There will be a strong temptation tO "simply
survive," "get by." or "muddle through." But we
have a responsibility 10 the future and to those
who will follow us to "do it well," for we are at a
· cusp in the planet's history, and the techniques
we use to bring ourselves through the maelstrom
of transition will be the foundation for the
regional economy to come.
We need to keep compassion - that our
knowledge might be used to better understand
this world and find our place in it. We need to be
guided by wisdom - that our technology more
closely mimic the biological than the mechanical.
We need 10 keep our spiritual center - that our
vital drive be directed to care for our community
(human and natural), rather than strive to place
the individual above all.
This is a rich land. lf we embody the real
values of the natural ecology in the economy of
today, Kauiah will provide well for the needs of a
lean and healthy human population.
r.8"
fact of Appalachia as a region has dominated the
local economy. We are not two hundred years
Rob Messic~
Sprttig, 1991
Xat.i«ih Jouma( Pa«Je 3
�Avoiding the Passive/Helpless Approach
to Economic Development
Advocates of extractive uses of the
national forests have defined an approach to
economic development that has become widely
accepted. In fact, advocates of preservation have
largely accepted the developers' view of the
mechanism of economic development.
The approach I am concerned about might
be called the "pass.ive-helpless" approach.
According to lhis view, we and our fellow
citizens follow passively and helplessly the
geographic pattern of job creation provided by
commercial businesses. The commercial
business community, in tum, is seen as an
outSide force over which we have linle control
and of which we are not a pan except as passive
employees or consumers.
This should all sound familiar: In this
widely held view of the economy, the business
community creates jobs for us and we
lhankfuUy, even gratefully, take them. Once this
view is accepted. the primary economic question
raised by the conflict between extractive
development and the preservation of
environmental quality on national forest lands is
simply one of figuring out which businesses
create the "most" and/or the "besl" jobs. The
advocates of ongoing extraction tell us that it is
the timber or mining industries, while advocates
of preserving environmental quality insist !hat it
is me tourisr/recreation industry.
1.r:11Howeven thit•oppmnclr.mi~\arleau .,,rr
half of the economic reality. Moreover, it may
miss more than half of the political and social
reality that we ought to be trying 10 create. To
explain lhis, let me present four basic principles
or facts about the economies we live in.
First, people care about where they live.
The quality of the natural and social environment
is a dominant force in determining where people
locate. The evidence for this is all around us.
Consider the move to the suburbs. to the deserts
of the Southwest, to the Sunbelt, or to the hill
country of the South. Initially these mass
movements of millions of people represented
movements away from both jobs and
commert;ial centers. They also represented
movements from high wage areas to relatively
low wage ar~ People took significant risks
and made :.ignificruit sacrifices to obtain the
living environments they wanted.
Second, most jobs involve "taking in each
others' wash" or "scratching each others'
backs". not scratching at the Earth to extract and
make valuable lhings which are then exponed 10
the rest of the world. In recent years, 70 to 80
pen:ent of American jobs are in locally-oriented
(as opposed to export-oriented) service jobi;, no1
manufacwring. There has been a long term,
ongoing trend which constantly increases the
dominance of this type of economic activity.
The third principle is tha1 people can and
do crea1e jobs for themselves and their
neighbors by engaging in small-scale
entrepreneurial activity. In fact, this has been
one of the primary so~ of job creation in
some of the states most heavily hit by the
recessions of the 1980's. In Montana. for
instance, during the first half of the l 980's wage
and salary jobs shrank by tens of thousands
Xotiulh )ournat pO<JC 4
by Thomas Power
while total employment increased. All net new
not be available. Passive communities of
jobs were self-employment jobs. In North
helpless people who do what large corporations
Dakota. small new businesses were also the
tell them to do don't survive the inevitable
dominant source of job creation.
decline that accompanies shifting business
The final principle is that 40 10 50 percent
winds. "Company towns" are never dynamic,
prosperous places.
of all personal income flowing into our
Finally, it must be kept in mind that a
communities doesn't come in the form of
growing number of residents are "foot-loose" in
wages, salaries, or profits. It comes from return
the sense that a substantial source of income
on past investments. including pension and
follows them no matter where they choose to
retirement plans, and from transfer payments
live. Retirees are the most obvious group. Their
from government programs such as social
residential choices can be guided almost entirely
~urity. This flow of income into our local
by their preferences for natural and social
~nomies is far larger than any single industry
or combination of industries, but is NOT caused
environments. They bring with them major
0ows of income that support the economic
by current employment.
activities of others. In dollar terms, a single
This is a dramatically different picture of
retiree who chooses a panicular community as
the local economy than the one we are usually
his or her new home is worth hundreds of
given. People choose to live in places they like,
tourists streaming lhrough the community. In
where they support themselves through jobs
addition, rather than disrupting the community
they, themselves, create. These jobs primarily
as tourists do, the new resident's productive
serve the needs of their neighbors, much of
activities are likely to make a contribution 10 the
whose incomes are not tied to local jobs. Taken
vitality of the community.
together, these factS have imponant implications
Based on these ideas. T would suggest a
for how we view local economic development.
few rules for those concerned about both
For instance, maintaining and creating an
attractive social and natural environment for
preserving environmental quality and enhancing
residents is critical to the future of our
the economic well-being of their communities.
"forest-dependent" communities. Butcher the
narural environment, and we lose the qualities
Firs1, don't give away the store to
~
that draw and hold people and economic activity
outsiders, whether those outsiders be extractive
here. This iuffltical poim: we-protect the
u
' industry or tourists. That will only destroy lh~
natural environment nor for 1ouris1s and outside
things we have going for us.
r1•
recrearionalists but for us. the people who live
here. We do it so that we and others will find
Second. siop talking about tourists.
lhis an attractive place to live, work, and do
Nobody loves a touris1, no1 even tourists, and
business. The natural environmem created by
no one looks forward to cleaning up after
our forested mountains contributes to our
1ourists. We do 001 impress our fellow citizens
ecomomic well-being first and foremost by
\\ith talk about putting them to work making
being available for us to enjoy directly.
motel beds, cleaning toilets, and washing
dishes. Talk instead about ourselves. why we
If we are interested in attracting more
are here, and what is imponant 10 us.
people, we have to ask what we have to offer
that sou them California or the eastern
megalopoli do not. We clearly are not going to
Finally, as we work co protect the nationaJ.
compete by providing stripped and rdvaged
forests, Ice's take back the economic argument
from those who see our forested landscape only
mountainsides. silted streams and polluted
as a source of raw material for shipment to the
rivers, and noisy, dirty plants belching
res1 of the world. In taking back the economic
foul-smelling gases into the air. It is the general
argument. we must be careful not to buy into the
ugliness and pollution of our largest population
centers from which people are seeking to
vision of ours~lves as passive. helpless folks
completely ckpcndent upon outside forces. That
escape. Our economic development stra1egy
position is dangerous to 1he spec1acular beauty
muse be built around asking what it is that we
of our region, as well as destructive of the
have that is special and attractive. Our forested
political and social fabric of our states and our
mountains and the environmental quality they
comrnunjties.
provide cenai.nly are central 10 answering that
Instead we should view ourselves as
question.
creative entrepreneurs, contributing 10 the
There are important implications here,
economic resources and the well-being of our
100, for what a good "business climate'' is.
communities. We all have co find a living, and
Since we largely create our own jobs rather than
forest protection rather 1han forest extraction
wrutirig passively for gifts from benevolent
outside corporations, the business climate that
may be the best way for many.
~
counts is that faced by local, small
Thomas Power is professor of eco11t>mics
entrepreneurs. A productive business climate is
and chaiml(lll of the Eco,wmics Department at
not one tha1 gives outside businesses anything
the Universiry ofMomona ill Missoulo. His
they ask of the community! Rather. it is one that
recent book, The Economic Pursujt of Quality
encourages and supporlS residents as they create
(ME. Sharpe,1988) develops ill more detail rlre
economic opportunities for themselves and their
ideas presented here.
neighbors by pursuing opportunities 10 provide
goods or services to their neighbors chat
This artu:/e is reprintedfrom the Ottober 1989
otherwise would have to be imponed or would
issUL of Forest Watch, which is available from Box
3479: Eugene, OR 97403.
Spr L119, 1991
J ,i"'-'i
�,
...
WAYS TOA
REGENERATIVE
REGIONAL
ECONOMY
Nature does not require that any of its
intercomplmrmting mmrbers ·ear-n a /it,ing·.
R Buckmlnstcr FullC!I'
We all eat from the Earth, brea th from the
Earth, drink from the Earth, and exchange energy on
the way to rclurning it in augmented molecular forms
to the Earth. The movements of energy through the
many organismic forms of the biosphere creates a
kind of metabolism, a kind of economy, that is both
ancient and alive as we participate in its elaborate
ways of clean-burning combustion. Micro-organisms
first found ways to perpetuate themselves on
compounds like methane and sulfur. As different
cellular forms engulfed and rejected each other the
pattern of using solar energy emerged as a strong and
usefu I means of tapping into the flows of energy
coming to the Earth from the Sun. This
photosynthesizing ability came about through
millions of years of evolution, and the oxygen it
produced eventuaUy led to the creation of a
protective ozone layer· enabling life to lnhabil the
continents. It also came as a great shock to the
ancient anaerobic bacteria, who cannot exist in the
A Region Regen • crativc Primer. Involved in each of these basic requirements are questions about
Values and Ufostyles, which tend to tran,ccnd the mere fulfillment of material needs (•.. In nonlinear order).
presence of gaseous oxygen.
As dynamic plant forms began concentrating
their energy in fruits from pollinating flowers, and
edible (and inedible) seeds, along with developing
cellulose to incre~ lhe strength of their cell walls,
they began to take on more of an energy harvesting
role on the continents. Converting radiant energy to
chemical energy, they also began to aid In regulating
the flows of water, the contents of air, and the
distribution of some minerals. Animal cells which
thrived on the energy flow created by the existence
of plants also began to flourish and diversify into
multicellular forms. Through millenia this ever
renewing. turbulent, and resilient cycle of energy,
being used and reused through the lives and deaths
of uncountable organisms and whole species of
organisms, has continued despite the catastrophic
impacts of asteroids hurlllng in from the solar
system. The visceral movements of volcanoes and
plate-shiftings have also been a major factor In lhe
ability of this planet to mend from such great events.
Until human beings came along, there seemed
to be no multicellular form or life that could
interrupt these magnificent biotically guided cycles
or radiant and molecular energy as drastically as
meteors, volcanoos, and plate tectonics have. When
our coordination of social activity began we had
neither the numbers nor the skill to drastically
interfere with the vital regenerative nature of the
Biosphere. We simply participated in the flows of
energy that were swarming around us and inside us.
Particularly since an ice age was coming to an end,
there were other regions and habitats we and
related primates could move into and explore if need
be, to find food, shelter, and waler. We burned wood,
ate the plants and animals that were herding,
mcadowing, and foresting around us, expressed
ourselves though various languages and spiritual
practices, and found cures for some infections. Many
of these infections are due largely to the great
ancestral microbes and viruses who arc still doing
much of the most basic work of the Biosphere. Our
immune systems exist as an attempt to maintain
identity in the "sea" of microbes and viruses we live
prlng, 199 1
in.
As our social systems became more complex, and
the basis for human technology and industry began to
be discovered, we eventually eame to a critical
phase. The control of major regional energy Aows
that human beings hlld contact with were being
maintained less and less by a naturally diverse
Biosphere, and were co-opted more and more into our
own growing tribal intellect and infrastructure. Much
has come from our early inluitive grasps for wisdom.
However, these were relatively inexperienced
guesses al how natural systems work. The fine
details of recording and mapping our experiences soon
began lo open our species into realms or knowledge
thllt were as unexpected as they were at times
frightening.
As the experiences of our species with natural
systems expanded, so did our methods of control. This
was true not only of energy flows outside the core of
human culture, but also with the basic internal
relationships of gender, spirituality, and the
introducing of children to the dynamics of a Universe
at large. Conflict among various cultures (or
infragroups) within our species. over the economic
Aows of food, know-how, tools, minerals, and power
etc, soon inflamed into t he existence of hostile
sovereign states. One form of human cul lure would
try to assert its dominance over another (due perhaps
to its mihtary rrught at a given time) and a process
of intimidation would spread like a dlscase.
Delusions of a different culture being viewed as a
completely "evil other· only added to the
turbulence. Unfortunately, this kind of projection
often fails to recognize the evil that exists in all
dominator societies.
There have been m.1ny human cultures that
have exhausted the biodi verstty of lh!! ecosystems
surrounding them. A$ the life-cycle of some of these
cultures came to an end they somctimc!S paid the
price for this exhaustion with their survival. Early
ht.UlW\ hunting and agricultural practices could
deplete the carrying capacity for human beings in a
given region. This is supported by evidence from a
number of early human cultures that turned forests
into meadows and croplands, w hich in him could
become infertile deserts in some areas of the world.
The effects of sucll. practices however; extracted far
less from the whole Biosphcric Context than do
relatively fast changing industrial societies. For
much of the span of human existence there was
abundant habitat for other large multicellular
organisms lilce ourselves to con tinue in the Great
Energy Cycles of the Earth. As we extracted some
seeds and animals, domesticating and breeding them
for greater yield, a process began that infringed
further into forest, prairie, and coastal ecosystems.
By the lime some human cultures began pushing their
way into a dominating posture toward other human
cultures, and toward the uncountable millions of
species that were continuing to evolve, we were not
only losing these habitats· we were also beginning to
lose contact with deeper mysteries within ourselves.
As we found ways to use lhe petrified remains
or life from eons gone by (le; coal, oil, and ear thly
Aatult?nce) as add itional sources of fuel, the
virtu.-illy clean-burning fuel cycles of microbes, fungi,
plants, and animals were infused with a differmt
kind of pervasive combustion. The eicplosive
introduction of fossil fuel burning engines which arc
inefficient relative to the organic (or more readily
recyclable) combustion of living systems meant that
human beings were developing a potential for
by-passing many of lhe limits that existed earlier in
the Biospheric Context. Such a context, of energy
exchange bet ween organismic and molecular fonns
that created fossil fuels from marshes over vast
spans of geolog,c time, 1s now able to be *burned" by
human beings in the span of centuries. The effects of
this wave of fossilized-.?nCrgy-dcpendence and the
consequent existence of elaborate technologies and
populabon increases. has created a new kind of
threat not only to our human cultures but also to the
very existence of larger multicellular organ
communities llke ourselves.
As we release more greenhouse and ozoneOraw111g by Rob M cmclt
(cominuod on aut p1ge)
xatuah Journot
~ 5
�(continlllOd &om page S)
depleting gases than the Great Energy Cycles of the
Earth can accommodate, produce myriad synthesized
chemistries derived primaril>· from "cooking" oil in
petrochemical refineries, interrupt the now of vital
habitats, and till away topsoil at an alarming rate,
we can sec the evidence or an economy that has
strayed from the roots of its existence. It could be
said that when a species of multicellular organisms
grows too fast, outpacing the rate of energy now
created by millions of years of conflict and conflict
resolutions between the needs of a species and the
needs of the overall integrity or ecosystems in a
bioregion, then some feedback in the whole system
might seep in to correct the flow.
Perhaps we as a species will recognize in time
that "fooling around" with systems this large and
complex can lead to a partial or contagious collapse
of many types of biosystcms. By using methods of
accounting that do not regard the subtle nature of
whole systems, and their inability to susla.in
themselves when 'broken down' into incommurucable
parts, we open ourselves further to such risks.
Ignorance of these kinds of feedback processes became
evident in Katuah when disastrous floods occured as
a result or excessive rainfall after large areas of
forest were felled. The qualities of soil structure that
could move and absorb water through the work of
vegetation, earthworm, and microbe scale organisms
was lost in this method of industrial extraction.
A Regenerative Economy for human beings
would involve a recognition of some of the ancient
patterns of microbial relationships that have been
worked out over eons of geologic time. Huge
consequences have come from some of those
relatively "small" decisions or adaptations. In
developing co-operative and predatory behaviors,
biosystems have come to live within limits of scale
and tolerance that are 1mplicit to being abve in the
context of the Great Energy Flows of the l3iosphere.
It has now become an essential aim of humnn beings
to hve within the population and resource limits of
such solar initiated regenerative flows.
SACRED 0CONOMY
.,
There's a huge old apple 1ree on the fann
we live on that gave over a dozen bushels of
apples this year. The apples made good
applesauce and we put up about a hundred
quans of iL Thick, yellow and brown, sticky
sweet summer in Mason jars on the pantry
shelves. When the apples fell faster than we
could handle them, we called up Ed and Randye
and their family came over and picked up four
bushel~ to make themselves some sauce 100.
This was what the land afforded us, it was what
was freely offered and though it was a busy time
of the year, it felt like something of a sacred
duty to see that the apples were put lO good use,
to accept the offering of this place and our place
in the magic transfonnation of Sun and Rain and
Soil into Tree and into growing Human
children. The tree was planted and probably
grafted by an African-American fanner a half
century ago or more in the fertile Little River
bottomland. Its apples have become a lot of
children over the years, and I feel like we honor
the fanner as well as the place when we use
these apples.
When we lived at Travianna there were a
lot of wild grapevines that grew next to the
creeks, using the alders and willows there for a
natural arbor. Most years there would be a
couple of bushels of fragrant wild grapes for the
easy picking. Going 10 pick the grapes really
XQti&afl Jourtiai pa9e 6
Efforts such as energy conservation through
more efficient technologies that require less of the
dreaded noxious belching of fossil fuel engines will
be of great service. However, the invention and
practice of human systems that tap into regenerative
energy flows - such as solar ovens, heaters, collectors
and batteries, along with hydrogen and possibly
alcohol fuels, bioshelters, composters, wind
generators, and microhydro - will aid more clearly in
healing our relationship wilh the Sacred Flows of
the Earth. Many primal skills of living in balance
with local habitats and being able to flll many
human needs from healthy forests and mrodows
will also be important to this effon. Reforestation,
good husbandry, and soil conservation could be seen
as a form of "currency" in allowmg these potentially
heallhy ecosystems to sustain themselves. Such a
renewing economy could also explore ways or
integrating sustainable agricultural sysll.'l'T\S into
homes, offices, ponds, gardens, villages, and counties
within the Biorcgional Ptovincc.
A rcgen1?rative economy would guide us into
concentrating more on the local qualities of supply,
demand, and re-use of provisions, and less on the
push to generate more and more products without
regard to the effects on children, landfills, and
overall costs to the environment. Instead of insisting
on "continual growth" (a.k.a. greed) for the human
economy, a regenerative perspective would manifest
as more of a Steady State Economy; one in which the
now of energy and provisions would be used and
regulated for the good of the whole society and local
environments by councils of members living within a
given Shire, or county, of a Bioregion. Qualities of
durability, thrift, and attention to the needs of
systems larger than the human economy would be a
major focus of this approach.
I
The just involvement of other life forms in the
human economy would also be encburagcd. An
example or this can be found in the process of
Biorcmediation, in which microbes and other
organisms are used in specific ways to digest and
disintegrate many forms of organic and metallic
activates the hunter/gather memory banks and it
is sometimes a very good thing to do with kids.
It is sometimes a very good thing to do alone.
The chinquapins ripen about the same rime as
the grapes and we would find these and gently
pry them from their prick Iy husks and eat them
on the spot, spitting out their thin shells and
swallowing the sweet mini-chestnuts. This land
is so generous.
In our present lifestyle, the gathering of
the offerings of the wild is mostly symbolic, but
I think we long for a return 10 a more basic level
of relationship with our local environment lt is
sad I think, for the offerings of so many
blackberry thickets, grapevines, and apple trees
to go disrespected. ft is sad for busy humanity
that can no longer find the time to enjoy the
natural fruits of the place we live. r think we
kick ourselves out of Eden every morning. I
think we can walk back in any time we will. r
thank this planet and these mountains, the Little
River and an apple tree for the life they
generously and patiently afford. This place is
sacred. This place is beautiful. This place is
home.... So, how do we get to this place and
stay there? We can look at the examples of
Native People everywhere for an answer. We
see that native people are a whole lot simpler in
their lifestyles. We have become a nation of the
needy, needing all sorts of things that we would
be better off without. We can also see that we
need to cooperate with each-other more fully.
Tribes, extended families, bands and villages are
much more stable and powerful than our nuclear
contaminants in water systems. A regenerative
economy would act In ways to stop the now of such
contamin:iting agents at their source. This could be
done by using non-toxic replacement chemistries, or
bioremcdiation, or dehydrating techniques to
de-toxify or prevent some specific compounds from
being released into water, soil, biotic, or atmospheric
systems. However, the best way to stop
contamination is lo not produce it in the first place.
Better sbll, embody less of a need to use toxic agenl5
in creating proviSiqns.
Monitoring flows such as those of minerals,
nutrients, and re-usable wastes through settlements,
forests, living soil, and life-giving waters would
become a basis for this circulatory economy.
Involvement in these geological movements can
engender a kind or respect through familiarity,
similar to that which potentially exists in the
qualities of our own customs, know-how, emotions,
and mediations. Both of these living patterns are
necessary for human culture to sur,tivc.
Hopefully it will become possible for us to
envision the material form of a complexedly
regenerative human society. Perhaps it would live
and grow as a squash plant: keeping information in
the seeds and feeding them with the "meat" of our
hearts and minds; creating structures on which to
extend energy collectors with the sun, soil, waters.
and winds; diversifying enough so that each cell
phlys a specific role in contributing to the survival of
the plant, yet working together enough that.these
cells are sustained by the s tructure of the whole
plant. One thing aboul squash plants, though, is that
they need ''rich" soil. The price to be paid is
providing a kind of compost - a compost that tends
not to equate well with the way most human beings
think about and account wealth. Wealth comes from
partidpaling in lhe sustenance of the Great Cycles of
Energy of the Earth. To maim this source is to maim
the source of our own economy. One has no life
without the other.
Rob Messick
families and much better in touch with location
than our governments and bureaucracies which
can't deal with blackberry picking or anything
near that level of real. Our families arc hard
pressed to "cover all the bases" in this game we
are playing now, driving kids around and
driving ourselves around trying to earn enough
dollars to keep driving kids around. We forget
the sacredness of the place we rush through.
We let our share of Eanh's sacred gifts go 10
brown rot and yellow jackets. A tribe is seldom
this wasteful, even an extended family has
members who are free to put up food and fuel
from the local environment. Real cooperation
on a local level brings the focus of the
community home 10 here and now and
reintegrates us into the web of life. Sacred
economy is local 8conomy. This is certainly
not to imply that there is anything wrong with
trade, just that we will profit by looking closer
to home for the basic elements of our
sustenance.
A collapse of the present world economic
"order" would necessitate a return to local
economy all over the planeL We can envision
a new world 8conomic order in which
communities trade directly with each other from
aJI pans of the Eanh, assisted by a UPS, a
global, reality based 1rading system without
money or middlemen ..... These are good things
a person can dream about while making
apple.~uce.
.,,.
~
fr
- Will'Asbe 811.~on
Sprlnq, 1991
�Robin Cape and lvo Ballentine are literally
buildir,g a life for themselves from the waste
generated by our society. Tire pair mah! a living
salvaging, recycling, and finding creative uses
for "refuse'' - literally, those things t/rarsociery
/ras refused. Using mostly salvaged materials.
they restored a small, mndown lwuse near the
end of a small street in the city of As/reville,
where they live with their infant son Django.
This family is nor just surviving - they are
living well. They /rave found a richness in the
goods t/rat others have discarded: a life filled with
love, well-being, and a sense of meaning and
purpose.
As a result of their unique perspective, tl,ey
have valuable insights on our society and a clear
sense ofpriorities t/rat most people overlook in
the /rustle and bustle of accumulation.
"Money is the Lowest Form of Wealth"
An Interview with lvo Ballentine and Robin Cap e
Kat(iah : How do you go about your work?
Robin: It's just keeping our eyes open and
finding a place to put lhe things lhat come. In a
sense, it's a matter of doing what you can with
what you have. We go out and see what we can
find, and then we think of the best uses for the
things we have found. With practice. we have
gotten better at it.
Ivo: It's awo.reness, and stepping out of our
way a little bit to ask, "Hey, is that thing gonna
get thrown away?" My route is my day, and what
I come up with is whatever I find along the way.
I just look in on my streets, and it's new every
day. Somebody else has thrown something else
away that we can find a use for. that somebody
would buy, or somebody somewhere else would
want. We think of ourselves as "re-routers,"
because recycle has gotten so overused.
Robin: And recycling isn't necessarily the
best use for an item. Re-using is the best use,
because that saves the most energy, and geis
away from the idea that 1f we just throw
something away, it's somebody ebe·s job to
recycle iL We have 10 be responsible for our own
stuff. We can't just throw it away.
When we re-use an item, or we re-route it to
a person who wiU re-use it, we are saving the
object iiself and also countering the whole
concept of this thing as "trash," That action says.
"This isn't LrnSh. This still has value."
lvo: [ think everyone should start a
relationship with "the mill": che paper processing
plant. the metal processing plant, or even giving
their cans to the fire depanment.
When you take stuff to the mill, you learn
about what's going on. You start 10 think about
the transmission of the goods.
Kat(llll1: 'The mill" being the existing
reclamation system. and "transmission" meaning
moving stuff 10 where it belongs.
lvo: Yeah.
Kar1iah: Your equipment is basically a
pickup truck and some trailers.
lvo: We pull the trailers w11h an old 1929
Model A Ford, but not with the pickup. l did this
with my Model A when I didn't have a Lr.tiler,
and the Model A did fine for me.
We don't have a junkyard, so
"IT3llsmission" to us means keeping things
organiLed and keeping things moving. We have
trailers for metal, aluminum, and glass, and we
,.
Spr,-n41 ,l99 I
have to be caretul about not ovenoawiit
ourselves. We don't gather any more than we can
put right back into the system.
We don't go out of our way. either. When
we are going to the grocery store. we're looking
out for things we might be able to pick up along
!he way. We wou!9,n't hav~ a warehol§e way~ut
m the county to sllish aU this stuff, because that
would just be a waste. Our warehouse is right in
the same liule central area.
Katua/r: And stuff always turns up?
Roblll: We teamed a lot gathering the
materials 10 build our house. first, you get the
idea and make the plans. Then you have to get
out and get started on the work. By actively
looking for the things, we've found that often
what you want comes to you.
Like windows. We knew we needed $Orne
windows, and just when we needed them. we
were asked to clean up n remodeling job at a
church, and they were throwing away all these
old-style, hand-le.-idcd windows that you now see
in the house. These and man}' more. A lot had
been broken before we could reach them, and a
101 more we have sold or given away. Now we
have more windows than we could ever want.
Robin: If you make a clear enough plan in
your mind, oftentimes you are going to
materialize it. Bue then you al~ have 10 be able to
build your house or complete your plan using
whnt comes, rather than having to have
everything custom-mndc.
Looking for this propeny, we looked and
looked and looked, and I kept having the feeling
that what we were looking for was out there. The
action of looking helped us 10 clarify in our
minds what we really v.antcd to find.
Kar1iali: So being flexible helps when you
are doing n:cydmg and salvage. You get an idea.
but tl1en when you get the stufT you change the
idea. too.
Rohin: Yes. ll's t.TI;alivc.
AWtlUII. l'\JIUUlel pan OJ tnat creativity is
being able to make stuff out of things that people
have already discarded.
Robin: We have such fun making our
"Compost Cards." They are postcards that we
make using pjctw-cs from mag\\7,ines we ij.uipl
the dumpsters backco v.ith cardboard from cereal
boxes. They're not production cards. They arc
each one-of-a-kind cards.
We don't make any money on them 10 spe3.k
of. We figured out that we might make $4.00 an
hour for the time spent.
Ivo: That's lhe whole thing, though: we find
other profits. There are so many profiis other
than money. Jreally think that money is one of
the lowest forms of wealth.
With the cards, there is the fun and there is
the togetherness of doing it. beyond any money
involved. And when people see them. the cards
get everybody talking.
Robin: And I make jewelry out of old
linoleum 0ooring. It looki. very nice after il's
been refinished and hung with beads, I buy some
beads at lhe nea market, but l also make long
beads out of the insulation on electrical wires.
The jewelry sells very well in the citie.s. l call
it "composite materials," because ritzy ladies
don't like 10 think about hanging old floors from
their ears.
I used to make an. I used 10 do ceramic:!' and
weaving, and I was always buying expensive
materials trying to make my an. A lot or my worli.
was about the Earth, but at the same time I was
using energy to keep an incredibly hot kiln going
for days at a nme to produce my l>tatcments about
the Earth.
For me, it's a bcucr statement to make :irt out
of smff that ii. already here. It's fun, .and people
go, ''Ohl You made thh is from that old stuff1 l
\\Ould never have seen that."
It rcqu~ looking a1 something th:11 may
seem to have no value and then changmg it to
make it into something of beauty and worth. I
Phoio by ltodncy \\ cbb
(. ontinued oq D<,\l 1'"4")
c
D ,Wt\lpfi J o \ t ~ 7
�(conunucd from page 7)
have more fun now making linoleum jewelry than
1 had creating my art before.
Kauwh: lt is interesting what you said earlier
about "materializing," bocause our society is very
materialistic. Even though they have so much,
people are always wanting something else and
putting aside what they already have in order to
get it. It feels like you are crearing the life you
want our of the discarded fragments of the
American Dream.
Robin: From time 10 time. of course, we
have to take a load 10 the dump. We always bring
recyclables along with the garbage. That saves us
the tipping fee, and we can get in for free. Once
we're in there. we can poke a.round. We find
aluminum, copper. batteries. antiques...it's
amazing how much valuable stuff is just being
tossed away. Lately it"s been slimmer pickings,
but for awhile we'd be coming out of there with
$50 worth of stuff almost every time.
I hope that the new dump is going 10 be more
efficient. They say that they are going 10 call it a
Robin: Last year 1 picked up a book by Alan
WattS. He made the point that although we
constantly talk about America as a materialist
society, that is not what America is at all. We are
a concepmal society.
Americans in general don't take care of their
material goods. They say, "Oh if I just could
have that, then everything would be great." But
it's not actually the thing they want, h's the
striving for something. As often as not, when
!hey actually obtain an object, it goes out in the
back yard until it rusts, and then they throw it
away.
Americans don't take care of material things,
and I've come to think that really being
materialistic may not be so bad. If we were really
materialistic, we would take care of our material
things better.
We're symbolistic. The symbol of good taste
is imitation cheese. It's not the good taste. IL's the
symbol of good taste.
Kattwh: When we buy stuff, we think "I'm
,uying mushrooms," not "I'm buying
nushrooms, and I'm buying a mushroom
.ontainer." Some things are garbage even before
ve buy them.
Ka11wh: So a lot of recycling has to do with
being able to tell when something is valuable.
Ivo: To my mind, everything has value.
There is not much that is nOt worth something in
some way. We just haven't figured it out yet. The
whole process is figuring it out.
For instance, our bathroom floor is made of
solid mahogany. A lumber company in town getS
plywood from Honduras. It is packed in crates
made of mahogany wood. They take the plywood
out and throw the crates away. We picked up the
crates, took all the nails out of them, and now we
have a mahogany floor.
All that tongue-and-groove siding on the
gazebo was given to us at the lumber yard - right
on the day we needed it. It's being in those
alleyways that puts you in touch with those
goodies. That wood was going to get wasted,
even though it was very valuable. Now look at it!
Robin: We have a small warehouse where we
store things, and we find after making the rounds
of the flea markets that then: is some stuff that we
cannot seem to put back into society. It may be
because the person out there who wantS it
probably lives in Colombia, and we can't get the
stuff to the places where people would take the
time 10 take the screws out and re-use them someplace where people would see these items as
goods rather than as waste.
Ivo: When there's something in our
warehouse that we don't know what 10 do with,
we just look at it in a different way. We sec it as
pans and strip it down. Maybe there's lots of
screws or nuts and bolts in it that are perfectly
useable, or maybe there's a piece of wood that
could be used for something else. A lot of what
we do is 10 strip things down. We don't have 10
go shopping for hard wan:, for one thing. We just
go down to our bins and boxes and find ii.
"4tiulh JoumaL rm9c 8
belong. One thing we c-0uld easily live without is
~e "throwa~ay society" concept that says. "I'll
JUSt throw this away and forger the other five and
one half billion people's opinion on it."
We all need a metal pile, a glass pile, and a
paper pile, and we all need to take care of them
be talking about them, and getting stuff to whe~
it belongs. One might not make much money
from it, bur it's a mauer of tucking it in, of taking
care of the future.
The best thing would be to change our
a1ticude about things from the instant we acquire
them. We need to think, "Now I'm the steward
of this. How am I going 10 take care of this?
What am I going to do with this?" And then
follow it through.
When we buy something, do we think about
where it came from? Do we think about what it
?Ontains? Do we think ~bout what it is packaged
tn? Maybe we shouldn t buy the mushrooms in a
,tyrofoam container, for instance, unless we have
1 specific use for that styrofoam container. Even
hough the styrofoam container of mushrooms is
mly 89¢ and unbagged mushrooms are 99¢, the
ost of the container · the living cost - has to be
dded in, even if it doesn't come directly out of
,ur pockets.
Photn by Rodney Webb
"Reclamation Center." 1 hope that means that
we're not going to throw away something like
$30,000 wonh of ready recyclables per day,
which is what they say is happening now. Thar's
why someone can go in there now and find $100
wonh of stuff in one visit - and that's just ready
recyclables: metals, glass, and paper. That's not
even mentioning antiques.
lvo: Some things are garbage, and some
llings are just difficult 10 use - like aluminum
;creen doors. We get 10 of them a month at least,
all different sizes, all custom-made for different
houses. There are no real Standards. Aluminum
windows are the same way. There's very little
chance that we'd find another space that would
exactly fit them. so we strip them down and
recycle them.
We wish that someone would Stan a small
forge that would take aluminum and make some
worthwhile thing out of it. We could make a little
money selling to them, and they could save a
whole lot of money.
Kar1lah: That's a good idea: spin-off
indusrnes.
100?
Robin: The Smith and Hawken Company
sells aluminum cast benches, very small benches.
for $795. They contain maybe 50. maybe 100,
pounds of aluminum. We sell 50 pounds of
aluminum for $14. rf we could provide their
stock, we could get maybe $20 out of it, and the
company would keep a lot more of tl1at $795.
lvo: I've hauled things to the dumpster for
people, and they've said "If you see any hinges
around, I'll buy them from you." Several times
I've stripped pans off items they have given me
and sold those parts back to the same people.
Once they see stuff as "tra.Sh," they're blind 10
what might be in there.
But if we're hauling aluminum and there's a
piece of steel in there. even though 1 may not
need that piece of steel, I take it anyway and
throw it on my steel pile. which is continually
going to the scmpyard. I call the steelyard the
"the no-pay mill," because they recycle it, but
they don't pay me anything for it. In the
meantime, though, I get to use it if 1need it.
This is an example of "dumpster karma." It's
not only a mauer of making a li\'ing. It's trying to
take care of things and putting them where they
Ivo: We've been doing building salvage and
demolition clean-up work. It's really helped us
while we were working on our house, but more
and more people doing building projects an:
calling us because they need these goods, 100.
Now thnc we're finishing up our own place. I
want 10 put together a crew that's made up of
people who want wood and other building
materials to take over these jobs.
And t want 10 learn more about wood thi~
year, because people who really know wood are
telling me that the wood being thrown away i$ a
thousand times better than the wood wl! are able
to buy today. We need to save that old wood.
We are completely into the practice of cutting
down more and more trees and driving the price
up. whereas what we really need to do is to go
back and have a new understancling of wood and
Kattlah: Do you sell things from your stash,
Spri.f\9, 1991
�figure out that this is really wonh something.
These old boards remind us of our
grandparents' lives. Our grandfather might have
cut this tree. This is the tree, the wood, wood
like this doesn't grow anymore. This is
something really, really imponant
Old joists can be new furniture. It doesn't
matter what we make out of iL It just matters that
the wood's not wasted, and that it is used over
and over. It's a renewable resource, but not in a
way that we can waste it
disrurbs me that some people look at re-routers
and recyclers as n-ash, like "Oh, you're in the
dumpster? You're trash."
There are several responses when people
come on us at work. One response is, "Alright!"
and the other is, "Uggghhhh." And it huns
sometimes when people look at me and go
"Ewww, you're trash." I have to keep reminding
myself, 'Tm not" It's easy 10 buy into that when
you're climbing in and out of dumpsters.
lvo: Once I was going from one litter barrel
Robin: Several times while doing salvage,
we've run into a situation that bothers us greatly.
That's when the person in charge of a building
demands a payment to allow us 10 retrieve stuff.
That's fine as long as those people are
willing to salvage what they can, because if they
set the value on it, then they are responsible for
getting it out. But it's not right for good materials
to be wasted.
It would be better for the people in charge ro
honestly embrace the idea that a building is
coming down, get out what they can, then let go
of the rest, and be joyous about other people
going in and getting what they could.
We have to be more honest about our
commitment to our own labor. If people are not
willing to do what needs to be done, then they
need 10 move out of the way and open those
opportunities for others.
Robin: Part of it is 10 release and
acknowledge and hope that there are other people
out there who arc doing the work, too, and that
people will pick up what they can use. For awhile
we were feeling like it wasn't getting picked up,
and maybe we'd beu.cr eick ilup, so that when
someone's ready for it. it's here. Well.'wc can·1
do that for everything. Everybody has to help.
Katuah: It is kind of underground. It's a
sub-culture.
Robin: I suppose it's inevitable, but it
Sprlnq, 1991
Ivo: Or that's going to break and they're
going to throw it away'!
But moving metal the way we do. and
thinking about everything in this way, that can
get real hlll'd, too. It's not easy work. Help
would be great. To know that more people are
doing it would be real good, because we could
feel like, "OK, maybe I can't get that particular
item. but it's going to get taken care of."
lvo: It drove us nuts, because there is so
much waste and it really hurt us, seeing it.
Robin: The flea market is one. It's a great
place • kind of like an underground marketplace,
except that it's not underground - where people
rrade stuff off: "Iley, rm not using this any
more, can you use this?" ''Yeah, I can use that"
lvo: The world slows down a bit, and you
make friends with it. It's a different way.
Robin: And who wants to worlc a job 10
hours a day to get this stuff that they don't know
what they are going to do with?
Robin: For awhile we did try 10 do
everything. But we can't do everyrlting. Like one
pc11ion can't save the world. You can try but
you'd blow out in the process. We're having to
learn that. Living in the city, it's pretty
mind-blowing how much gets thrown away, and
for awhile we were just all the ume husding,
hu.srling, lmstling!
Karuah: Precisely. That's another case when
the symbol of value has come into conflict with
real value. It comes down 10 the question of
where our commitments really are.
I'd like to know if there other options for
re-routi ng items.
Robin: lt is. And a lot of people our age
disdain the flea market and look down on that
class of people. That seems funny 10 me. because
the flea market is a place where people value this
old scuff and seek it out
The flea market, the mill - they are there. and
there are real people working those places. We've
become very good friends with the people at the
metal mill in town. They give us Christmas gifts,
and they gave us baby gift~. They're our friends.
We see each other regularly; we have a
relationship with those people. They're part of
our community.
Living in a community includes alt the people
we come in contact with, whether they are our
groovy friend~ or not Living in community
involves knowing the names of I.he people in the
stores or the lumber yard we go 10 and letting
those people know who we are. If we are
friendly to those people and accept them into our
community, then they're more open to sharing
with us the stuff that would otherwise get
wasted.
Ivo: We try to be non-consumers. We try to
offset the waste in this country. We're trying to
do more with less, and use what people throw
away, and a lot of times we find that those goods
arc better than what we can buy.
Phoio by Rodney Webb
to another with my bag, and a homeless person
came to me and asked to borrow money. I just
said, "Hey, it's laying everywhere!" And he said,
"I'm not going to pick up irash."
Where did he think my money came from?!
All l do is trade my trash for money, so my
money must be rrash too.
People never seem to think of money as
being dirty. We never even think about that We
play with our money, and then we sit down to
cat.
Robin: Someone asked me one day what we
do for a living. I said that what we do is try to
keep a low overhead. That's a big pan of being in
the salvage business: keeping a low overhead.
That's sometimes hard to believe when the bills
come due. Then l am reminded that I am still
tapped into this modem-day society. But for the
most pan we do pretty well at staying out of the
monetary now.
We don't garden as much as we want to, but
we've been working on our house and preparing
the gardens.
I saw a video recently about some tribal
people in Africa. All the women do most of the
day is pound millet 10 feed their families. They
don't have much, but their needs are very small.
lt made me wish I could discover the joy in such
a simple life.
lvo: We want to change the way we can
change. The way we can change is not stopping
and staning up again. It's working slowly and in
truth and in power with what we have and what
we know, in the spirit of trying to let it occur. All
we can do is work at it. We all need 10 suut by
asking what we can do.
We hear all the rime about what's bad and
what's killing us, but people need to know about
what we can do and what ideas are working what heals.
People tend to think that they are basically
helpless and that because the world's so big that
their little pan doesn't matter. This is death. We
want 10 teach people that the little pan that we
each play is what mancrs; that those little pieces
add up in a big way. and that is all there is. It
empowers us. That's life.
lnien,iew recorded by
Rodney Webb and llenry Eckler
Robin and /vo's "Compos, Cards" and
Robin's "Collaborations" jewelry are/or sale ar
1he "What Do You \Vant?" store on Luingu,n
A~·e. m Asheville. Tlae two also have a boo1h 01
the Asheville Antique Mall at the corner of
\Valnw Sr. and lexing1on Ave. where they sell
valuable pieces that 1hey J,avefound in their
salvaging.
�THE CLARKSVILLE "MIRACLE"
by Griscom Morgan
Once we undersl.'.llld the cause of the
decline of rural communities, many
opponunities and resources are at hand for
canying out corrective action. One example is
the story of William Bailey, who was the
president of the First National Bank of
Clarksville, Tennessee during the Great
Depression of the l 930's.
Bailey made a habit of visiting local
farmers to stay in touch and to check on the
condition of their operations. During one of
these visits a local fanner named Peter Barker
spoke frankly to the b:inker saying, "I am a
good fanner and have plenty of food in
production, but I can't sell the food, because
you have all the money, inste:id of it being the
hands of the people who need to buy what I can
grow.
"You won't lend the money, except at an
in1e~t rate which is higher than the people of
lhis county can afford. Since the local people
can't afford to borrow it, you're investing your
bank's money outside the county. Because of
this. the whole economy of our coun1y is at a
Sl.'.llldsrilJ!"
William Bailey saw the point. Agricultur>!,
labor, and enterprise were quite sufficient for a
successful economy in Mon1gomery County. lie
saw the county was suffering because it had
little money in circulation. He saw that he had
been acting on a banker's first impulse, which
was 10 follow the highest interest rates and
invest where they could be found.
Bailey cared about the people in his
community, and he saw that if the county's
economic woes were 10 be solved. there would
have to be a good supply of money in continual
circulation. He knew if he offered low-interest
loans, the local people would borrow the capital
and keep it circulating. He also knew that he
could guide lhe loans to see that they were
invested where they were needed in the
community. But it would be up to the people
themselves 10 mount a campaign 10 buy locally
10 keep that money from leaving the county.
Bailey began loaning the bank's available
capital as low interest loans to the people of the
county, and borrowed money from outside the
county 10 augment 1he available capital.
He analyzed the county economy and
suggested ways to shore up the weak points, as
well as responding 10 people who came 10 him
asking for loans. Always his main emphasis
was 10 keep money circulating in the county.
Money in an economy is like the blood
circulating in the body: if it bleeds out, then the
body dies. One reason Bailey was successful
was his ability to make the local people realize
that finance was like the crucial role of the
blood, and that everybody in the community.
nor just the bankers, must feel responsible for it.
!he morale of the community was very
tmportant.
But the crux of the whole mauer was that
William Bailey was not just looking out for his
institution and for his own individual profit. Ile
saw his firs1 responsibility as being 10 the
community. His policies met with success.
Mon1gomery County rose from being one of the
10 poorest counties in Tennessee to become one
of 1he IO most prosperous counties in the state.
What happened in Montgomery County
became widely known at the time. Some thought
Xotuah JoumaL pa!JC 10
that what happened in Clarksville was close to
the miraculous. Later, William Bailey was the
first small-town banker to be chosen president
of the American Banker.; Association. He
always said, however, that he was never able to
convince American bankers or American
businessmen to accept the basic perspective of
their social responsibility as bankers.
The Clarksville "miracle" was no miracle.
It was just common sense.
What happened in Clarksville, Tennessee
was very similar to wha1 happened in a small
town in Austria at about the same rime. Austna
was aJso suffering from the Depression of the
1930's. The small mountain town of Woergl
was in economic collapse. and its people were
starving. The mayor of the town remembered
that 100 years earlier, when the town had been
without roads and was isolated from the rest of
Europe, it had been prosperous. It therefore
seemed absurd that they should be starving
when they clearly possessed the conditions
necessary for full employmenc and prosperity.
Work needed 10 be done, and they had in the
local area aJI the resources necessary to feed and
clothe themselves.
The mayor persuaded the people of his
community to exchange their Austrian currency
for a local currency, which would be subject 10
an annual tax 10 discourage people from
hoarding it out of circulation. Three monihs after
the)'. began circulating the taxed money, lhey had
full employment in the community, in
comparison 10 the desperate unemployment they
had been suffering earlier.
By the end of the yeauhe town was once
again prosperous. and the mayors of other
Austrian towns began to follow suiL But the
Bank of Austria had the government prohibit the
practice because it was driving the national
currency out of circulation.
In both these cases, although the actions
taken wen: different, the end results were
similar. When money becomes the medium of
savings instead of the medium of exchange.
people suffer, and damage is done to the whole
economy. When money migra1es from an area,
then that area sinks into depression and the
economy stagnates. Communities can take steps
lo ensure the health of their local economies.
Self-Help Credit Union
In 1980, the Center ror Communi1y Stir· Help
was founded in Durham, NC m order IO help low-income
people in !.he area gain ownership of lheir jobs and their
homes. The CCSH provided tcehnical nssislance to
worker-owned nnd othcT cooperative businesses.
In 1984. the Cemer saw need t0 start !.he
SelC-Help Crcdu Union ( SHCU) in order 10 provide
loans to these businesses nnd IO encourage the building
or low-income housing. The SHCU is a bona fuk credit
union, a regulated, fcdcrally insured depo~tory
insti1ution. The Center also. in 1984, began 1hc
Self-Help Ventures Fund, a non-profit revolving loan
Cund (RLF).
In 1988, lhe SHCU opened an office in Asheville
IO scrvc the mounuin region. This past ye.ir, the WNC
office provided more than 5700,000 in l(Xllls, including
eight business loans. fi\'e home mortgages, six 103lls
from iL\ Working Women's Fund, and one loan through
iL~ Self-Help Ventures Fund It also made 13 loans worth
over $50,000 through the NC Rural Center's
Microcnl.Ctpri~ Loon Program. In lhis program, business
spccialiru; at WarTCII Wilson College's Black Swan
Center and at McDowell, Mayland, and Isothcnnal
Communily Colleges work wilh emerging cnireprcncurs
who need small loans nnd technical assistance in ordct 10
get their businesses going. The SHCU provides the loans
from a pool or runds set up by the NC Rural Center.
Unfortun:ucly, the interest r:ue is quite high.
In the WNC area, lhe SHCU has helped finance
Stone Soup ResL1uran1, Nnntahal:i Outdoor Center,
Asheville Monicssori School, YMJ Cuhural Center,
ABC Recycling, and other small business \'Cnturcs.
Self Help Credit Union
12 1/2-A Wall Street
P. O. Box 3192
Ashe~ille, r-.c 28802
(704) 253.5251
Mountain Microtnterprise Fund
do Chris Just
701 Warren WIison Rond
Swannano:i, NC 28778
(704) 298-3325
Working Women's Fund
do nVCA Women's Re.source Center
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 254-7209
Griscom Morgan worked closely with his
father, Arthur Morgan. the visionary engineer
and rite first director ofthe Tennes.fee \'alley
Amltoriry. At his father's request Griscom
traveled 10 The S0111/iem Appalachians to find a
location for an in1en1io11al community. Griscom
found a beautiful spot in the meadows along the
Somlt Fork of the Toe River where the Celo
Comm1111iry still prospers today.
Bur Griscom could not .Hay in the
mountains. He fell there was work to be dnne ill
/tis native town of Yellow Springs, Ohio were
he rewrneti and with his wife, Jane.founded
Community Services, Inc., a "think tank" and
resource tenter for comnuu,iry living i11 ntral
area.r.
Commiuzin· Services can be contacted tlt
Box 243; Ye/lo"; Springs, OH 4538i.,
Drawinc by Rab Meuidl:
Sprtn<J, 1991
�The Village
by Snow Bear
Tlze village lzums witlz activity, all
cenJeri11g on providing for the basic luunan and
material needs of ics inhabitants ...
A circle ofartisans, including some
childreri. sit coiling. molding, and pressing wee
gray clay into fonns offunction and beauty that
wiff later be tempered in the open fire.
Others skin and butcher the carcass of a
you11g whitetail doe that han9s from a
chokecherry, using flakes offlint picked up by
the lodge where theflintknappers sit. The
rhythmic clacking ofthe toolmakers'
Juunmerstones striking theflilll cores is as
soothing as distant drums.
In the warmth of the spring sun, deer
hides are being scraped, rubbed with mashed
brains, stretched, pulled, and then smoked over
smoldering fires until ,heir traTLeformation imo a
soft, srrong fabric is complete. Skilled hands
thenfashio11 the buckskin into moccasins and
shirts. The remnants go into the making of
po11clzes and lacing. emphasizing the
preciousness of every scrap ofthe deer's skin
a11d every moment ofthe labor that cransfom1ed
it.
One man sits spinning a carrail stalk
between his pabns,pressing it downward into
the yucca stalkfireboard a11chored beneath /us
feet. Smoke curfs II{) in a thin plume. and in a
surprisingly slwrt time, he tenderly places a
small glowing coal 011to the cauail down and
cedarbark tinder. His breath brings the glow into
flame, and a group of young men begin working
with this gift offire, /,eating and s1raigl11e11ing
rivercane into bfowg1111s. Older, patient, steady
hands fletch yellow locust darr slzafcs with
thistledown.
Nearby, a wizened grandmother, with
uncanny deftness, peels and splits riverca11efor
her double-weave basket. She internvines splits
briglzcened with the orange juice ofbloodroot
with contrasting lengths dyed dark brown with
walnut bark.
looking up, the old woman smiles at the
children pounding dark red dent corn imo meal.
They use a hickory log that has been burned and
scraped inro a 11wrcar and a hickory sapling char
has been stripped and scrapt•d into a pestle.
At the cooking fire, a growrdlwg is
smjfcd with cornbread dough. wild ginger, and
peppcroot, wrapped in wet clay 011d covered
with hot coals to bake with cornbread ashcakes.
SpriWJ, 199 I
The cooks drop hot rocks into a rawhide pot
hanging from a tripod to bail a ve11iso11 stew
comaini11g wild leeks, choran greens, and
solomon seal tubers.
In the wooded coves above the
riverbonom village, a small, quiet scouri11g parry
lopes along at wolf-trot, sca11ning the
mo11nrai11sides for the gifts of namre 1h01 supply
their people with food, medicille, and row
mmerials that defi11e a cult11re. The J,erbman wlw
leads the scowing party scops, drops t0 the
ground, looks up to the sky, and makes a prayer
to ack11owledge with thanks the awesome forces
that have united to bring healing and sustenance
u, the people. He ties together a twist of tobacco
and a lock of his own hair 1h01 he mighr make a
gift ro the world, before his people gather
anything on this journey.
The scours res11me their wolf-trot, but
stop to examine every discernible sign. the
mushrooms that have bee11 nibbled by whitefoot
mouse and box wrrle; the core of a white pi,re
cone that has been neatly stripped ofits scales
and seeds by a gray squirrel; the greenbrier
shoocs browsed by a whitetail buck; rhe
meucufously picked a11d stacked crayfish shells
011 the rock next to the deep raccoon hind-tracks
in the creek.sand.
This is a world 10 be see11, heard,
u,uched, and smelled, a gift ofthe Earth Mother
and the Spirit-/11.-All-Things. To move through it
any other way seems 1mgratef11l. The scowing
parry remrns laden with the Mother's bo1mcy:
poplar bark to be twined imo cordoge; pitch
scraped from wounded pines/or a waterproof
glue made with powdered charcoal; resinous
pine/or starting fires in wet weather; cucwnber
root, solomon's seal, and bluff mustard,
sassafras, ginger, and sweet birch: a deer skull
and mrkey feathers - bur above all, kMwledge.
Knowledge of where to/ind the freshest spring
water, where the deer have been bedding down,
wlzere the turkeys have bee11 scratching and
roosting, where the large rro,u gather under
boulders in deep, shimmering pools.
Knowledge: that the people may live ...
This picture of village life is not, as it
might seem, ancient history. These were scenes
from the daily life of the Riverc;ine Rendezvous
held at Unicoi State Park in I lelen, Georgia in
April, 1990. This rendezvous was an outgrowth
Drawing b)- Manha Tree
of the Eanhskills Workshops held in
the same riverbonom meadow each
spring and fall for the last six years.
Darry Wood, Bob Slack, Jr., and
myself have had the privilege of hosting
and instructing these workshops with the help of
talented, accomplished guest insiructo!'1>. The
The 1990 Rendezvous, however, brought
together over 15 instructors and almost 50
participanis, many of whom we have i;r!!V.1l 10
know closely over the years.
One shared perception is that these
gatherings are much more than an educational
event. The skills shared there are of the eye and
hand, but just as imponantly, of the mind and
hean: knowledge and intuiriveness
complemented by patience and detennination, a
feeling of harmony with the things we shape,
and a vision of beauty, all blended into a
balanced whole. Some aspects of che sacred
work accomplished there can be described and
communicated; some of what happens there
must be felt and experienced. One becomes pan
of a small, temporary village, but in another
sense, we become part of a more pennanent
village of the ancients of all cultures, who lived
by these ways for thousands of years.
These skills can be used 10 create a
sustainable economy at iis purest - a wealth that
will last as long as the natural world lasts, as
long as the village is sensitive 10 the rhythm and
flow of the life of the land.
A nature-based economy knows both
bounty and shonage, but nature rarely produces
true poveny. Blue tongue disease may cause a
decline in the deer population, but the wild
turkey, also feeding on white oak acorns, will
probably increase. A decline in hard mast can
reduce the number of deer, bear, and turkey, bUl
the trout and beaver will probably be unaffected.
Of course, human beings arc capable of bringing
it all 10 an end; but there is a tremendous feeling
of security in knowing tha1 when the oil runs
om, when the money-ba.--ed economy collapses
of its own weight. one possesses Lhe knowledge
10 create and sustain a rich life, full of beauty
and bounty. The essence of this life, the element
that makes it fulfilling. is the village: people of
(IXll\linuod.., pai;e 12)
'.Kattmh Journal pn9c 11
�(cootinucd from page 11)
like mind gathering to pursue common
endeavors within the comforting
security of nature.
People return 10 the Eanhskills
gatherings as much for the village
experience as for the potential to
increase their knowledge. It is a basic
human need often denied by our
individualistic, companmentalized
society. In the village created by the
EanhskiUs gatherings. we Ullce
responsibility for creating our own
material culture, music, an, stories and
legends. rather than having i1 spoon-fed
10 us by an industrial society that
refuses 10 base itself on respect for the
One Great Life. In doing so, our minds,
hearts, and spirits grow stronger. I
know of no one who has not been
touched by the plaintive cry of the
Lakota flute in the pre-&.wn mist; no
one who is not deeply enriched by the
stories absorbed while gazing into the
hean of the campfire; no one whose
heart does not know a pure joy when
they have worked the magic of calling
fire from the bow and drill. As one
whose life is controlled by the pursuit
of money, my return to this (and other)
villages is always revivifying; it feels
like I reclaim, for a shon rime, my true
place in this world.
As h~mankind develops. this will
come: a life in which our "economic"
pursuits wi.11 not deny our need for
communal contact, spiritual growth.
cultural stimulation, and artistic
endeavor.
Snow Bear is an herbalist,
n.awralist, eanhskills instructor, and
storyrcller. He is a staffteam supervisor
at tlze 0111ckxJr Tlu:rapeutic Program i11
C/e-.,eland, Georgia and co-director with
his ll'ifc Khalisa of the Pepper/and
Fann Camp.
Snow Bear can be comacted by
writing c/o Pepper/and Farm Camp; Rt.
4, Box 255-8; Murphy, NC 28906 or
calling (7{},1)494-2353.
The 1991 RnvcOM Rentfewo11s will
rake pl&e on April 16-21121 Vnu:r)I Suue Parle,
/Iden. Georgia. Pre-rcgwr=n isSl.15 and
includes campzng, instrucrion. ond two meals
per day. Chew urt PtJy,able lQ "Earrhskills
ll'orJ:sl:op." For more informmion, call or
wriu:: Bob Sloe.Ir.. Jr.: Unicoi Sratc Par.Ir.: Box
1029; lfeltn, GA 30J45 (4()4) 878-220/
(£.rt , 282).
Insrructor Darry Wood with Eva Bigwirch
"through dreams,
through magic"
she says !ihe can fly. says she can fly
feathen; and wings. bones and Lhings,
says she can fly
she says lhe eanh feels like her body
sky feels like her home
she moves out over the water
but she always goes alone
says she can fly, yeah she says she can fly
feathers and wings, bones and things
lisLen to the songs that the spirits sing
she says she can fly
well once I knew a woman
now she's more than that
she flies up lo 1he scm at night
but she keeps on coming back
i;he says she can fly, says she can fly
bones and wings, feathers and lhingr.,
listen to the songs that the spirits sing
the ~now owl guides her journey
and the hawk knows where she goes
the eagle gives her life and light
but she travels with the crows
oh she says she can fly, says she can fly
feathers and wings, bones and things
listen to the song that the dark bird ~ings
feathers and wings. bones and things.
listen to the song that the spirit sings,
the spirit sings
"-atuals Journot J'"'J0 1:i
poems by Gary Lawless
drawing by Stephen Petroff
they read their stories in our bones,
heated by flame, cracks, sharp ridges,
fingers tracing futures etched by fire.
we carry your life in our blood, the p~se of
story begins in our marrow, a deep, nch red.
you read its traces in our bones.
hands in the fire:
"for the marrow is known to be
the dwelling place of souls"
when they wish to find us
they call to us in their dreams.
we answer them through bone, through fire.
(from "Ice Tattoo•)
When the animals come to us,
asking for our help.
.
will we know what they are saymg?
When the plants speak to us
in their delicate, beautiful language,
will we be able to answer them?
When the planet herself
sings to us in our dreams,
will we be able to wake ourselves, and act?
Por:ms and drawing from the book FITTI Sight of
Land by Gary Law/us, published /9')() by 8/aclt.btrr,
Boou. Aw1ilablefor $7.50 plus shippmgfrom the
publishtr at: RJl. I, Box 228; Nobleboro. ME; Gulfof
Maint Bioregion 04555
6prln(J: 1991
�FOOD MOVERS:
Ron Ainspan and Mountain Food Products
not show up in time. Theo, although a company
may be doing a great business, at the same time
it's bouncing checks all over the place or it's
running out of funds 10 do what needs to be
done. It's in trouble
I like being small. We've sacrificed some
of the closeness that we had. Personally I think
that it makes sense 10 grow slowly, so we can
maintain the kind or environment in which people
can keep a connection with each other. We hold
staff meetings every week to involve all the
employees in the operation of the business, 10
talk about personal relationships · whatever
comes up. It's like a family; we have our
quarrels, and we try to work stuff out, either at
staff meetings or in smaller personal talks in the
course of the day's work.
For years local food growers have said that
the lack of a developed market for organic and
locally-grown produce was holding back
alrerflQ/ive agricu/mrefrom raking itS riglefu/
place in our regional economy.
Ron Ainspan was one of those growers.
Seeing the problem clearly, he built a local food
distriblllion network thaJ now stands ready 10
meet the needs of those w/w produce and those
who wish to buy wlwlesome and m11ri1io11s
nwumain-grownfruit and vegetables.
The Mow11ain Foods plan is now nwving
into its second stage. With rite network secure,
Ron is now actively helping growers to organize
and to produce the food thaJ will fill the niche the
Mouruain Food Products Company has created.
Ron is an enabler. He is one who can bring
a vision inro physical manifestation. This calling
requires special skills.· patience, dedication, a
genius/or strategic maneuvering, and a clear
sense of purpose. And, as Ron re/ls us in the
following interview, those who set out to realize
their dream must walk the narrow tightrope of
inregril)' . keeping their principles while creating
a vessel that will stay a/u)OJ in the currents of
physical reality.
Katuah: Can workers participate financially
in the company?
Ron Ainspan: We started a profiL-sharing
plan that we made up ourselves. People get a
check every three months based on how the
company is doing, and on how much they work.
Full-time workers are eligible to receive a
half-share six months after they start and a full
share after a year. Part-time workers are eligible
for a half-share after their first year. It is an
incentive for people to stick around.
Kat(Ulh How did you get the idea that
being a food distributor was a meaningful avenue
for social change?
Ron Alnspan: I've been involved in
encouraging the local agricultural market for quite
awhile. During the early '80's 1 was growing
produce to sell 10 local markets, and during that
time, I helped to set up the Tailgate Market in
Asheville, which is a growers' market now
locared on Merrimon Avenue.
It was in 1984 when a small group of local
producer:; called some meetings, and we talked
about the idea of working toge1her to distribu1e
our producL\ • bakery goods, sprou1s, tofu, and
produce. l "as finishing my gardening for the
season. so I staned 10 coordinate the whole thing
and began deliveries. Mounta.in food Products
hns been doing it ever since, although now we
focus on produce almost exclusively.
After we had been going for two or three
months. I met a woman who was working in
produce at The Fresh Market, Debbie Thomas.
We became a pannership, and stancd LO contacr
restaurants and some grocery stores 10 notify
them that we were distributing produce. The
business really took off, and we have become a
good-:;ized purveyor of produce, selling
primarily 10 restaurants, but also to some retail
stores.
Karuah : How big is the company'!
Ron Ainspan: We have 16 or 17 people
and five trucks. We sell wholesale only, making
deliveries 10 Asheville, Hendersonville, and as
far west as Bryson City. Only one truck is
refrigerated; the rest are small delivery vehicles,
from Mandard cargo vans up 10 pa.reel-type
trucks.
We do a lot of shon routes. We shuttle
food in and out of here from 6 or 6:30 in the
morning to four o'clock in the afternoon. The
little intersection out~ide the office is a traffic jam
in the mornings · with people rushing back and
forth with pallet jacks and hand ltllCkli for several
Sptit1CJ, 19!.lt
Phoco by Rodney Webb
hours. It's a scene of half-organized
confusion ...trucks going out and coming
in ... people pulling food out of the coolers.
Panicularly during the summer season, it's a
constant hustle to get the food out to the people
the way they want it. when they wan, 11. But it's
fun.
Kattiali: How many coolers are there?
Ron Ainspan: We've got two walk-in
coolers. One is 12 feet by 30 feet. and the other is
a couple of feet longer, nnd then we have dry
storage space in the rooms. We're going 10 have
10 expand the smaller cooler. tx.-causc we've been
busring the scams out ofit this year. We have had
10 buy at least one vehicle every year and do
some kind of cooler e:,.pansion every other year
since we ~tarted. It doesn't seem 10 stop.
I would like ii if our rate of growth did
slow down. If a company grows too big 100 fast,
then it has 10 incorporate systematized
relationships 10 maintain standards of quality and
10 keep clear accountability for evcl)•body's
activities. It begins to involve very bureaucratic
systems, and everybody become:. subject 10 rules
that don't make sense to anybody except the
people at the lOp. everybody else becomes a
puppet 10 to the rules.
But if a company growl> slowly. and tries,
as we've tried 10 do, 10 involve everybody in a lot
of the aspects of the business, then people can
maintain a connection 10 the whole operation,
even as it changes.
Kau,ah : The finance~ change 100. don't
they?
Ron Ainspan: Yes. Under condi1ions of
fasL-paccd growth iL':. easy Lo run up large bills
for receivables, and the necessary cash just may
K01t'loli: How is all this helping 10 build
markets for locally-grown food?
Ron Ainspan: My concept. even as we
were growing, has been 10 provide a reliable
supply 10 the customers. Because l supply the
market all year round, we are keeping a market
open for the local produce when it comes in. That
gets us outside the regional economy 10 some
extent. because to keep up a consistent supply we
have 10 make runs 10 Atlanta. There we buy
produce that comes in from everywhere, but we
also take mountain-grown bibb lettuce, shiit.'.lke
mushrooms, sprouts, and produce in season to
be sold in the city. It'~ a two-way exchange, but
overall it works out well for the local growers,
because, locally or in the city, we are always
ttying 10 move local produce.
We've been able 10 be useful to local
growers as an outlet. There arc s1x or seven
people that we deal with all the time, some of
them year-round because more people: arc getting
into greenhouse production. Two regional
growers arc cultivating hydroponic bibb lenucc,
and Ed Mills of Sunshine Makers Sprouts in
Fairview is producing organically-grown alfalfa
and mung bean sprouts.
A basic operating principle of our company
is 10 buy our stock locally whenever we can. Our
original goals when we siarted Mountain Food
Products were to suppon the local economy, to
encourage small-scale production, and to keep
things on a pen;onal level. We still keep that
commiunent.
Kat1iah: Do you emphasize organically
produced food?
Ron Ainspan: We are just getting strong
enough 10 move into that. As I said, our first
priority was moving local produce. We learned
that in order to be effective in doing that, we hod
(eontinll<d on next 114ge)
Xntilnfi Jburnn(, r1QCJIS 1
3
�(c:auinu<:d fninl page 13)
to provide produce of top quality all year. As we
built that capability, helping the local growers
actually diminished in imponance, because we
were growing so fa~1 overall. Now we sell to
over 100 different accounts, and we have enough
rumover that we can mke the time and the energy
10 seek out local growers. Now we can
confidently say, "Grow food for us and we can
sell it." We can help people ge1 going.
It's puuing 1he two together: !hose who
need the food, and those who have it
Righi now we aze helping to organize a
cooperative of local organic growers. A group of
six to 1en local growers from the area around
Asheville is meeting every iwo weeks.
Mountain Food Products bas been able to
sell all the produce that has been offered to us by
the local growers we aze working with, but we
have not been able to sell ii as "organic produce."
We have often bad 10 mix it with conventionallygrown produce and sell u at the same price. So
we are banding together 10 promote the organic
concept and reach out more to the remil market.
We are offering supermarkets a package deal
~hereby, if we can get a small "organic" section
m the produce department, we will stock it and
promote it ourselves by pmting up signs and
making a lot of personal connections. We have
seen some interest in this among the local chain
stores.
Initially the co-op is going to work through
Mountain Food Products. I don't know what will
work best in the long run, but right now we can
offer !he trucks and the cooler space.
For the last two years - especially since the
Alar scare - more organic produce has become
available. More people are handling it, and more
people are asking for it, so we have been able to
carry it. We can get supplies reliably and we have
customers who want it
We can now support organics in the same
way that we suppon conventional local produce.
q,as.c; productio~ that-it'$ difficuh_ to compete as a ,...
small gro~er with most oflhe things that_ arc
grown: Its largely a qu~snon. of economies of
scale: if you can sys1em1ze th10gs, you can
produce them more cheaply. It's not as human a
syscem. because it forces people to do very
routine, monotonous jobs without much say-so
about what they're doing, and not much control
over their working conditions. And with
transportation being fairly cheap, a company C30
economically move a product great distances
from one place to another.
There's another reason, too. As the whole
system has gonen more centralized. it has become
harder 10 break into the distribution chain.
Kan1ah: What do you think needs to
happen to get the local market going?
Ron Ainspan: It's an on-going process of
making people aware of the importance of
keeping it close 10 home. Mass media advcnising
barrages and other market forces tend to make
people expect a product that is mass-marketed It
could be anything - from Big Macs 10 cars to
electronics.
I was talking to some people about the idea
of opening a "brew pub" here, a place that
actually brews its own beers. But a venture like
that would have 10 buck Michelob and Coors and
companies of that size.
Another of those market forces is access 10
capital - somethings take a lot of money to get
started. That's certainly another aspect that tends
to propel large-scale operations, operations that
make a product one place and distribute it
everywhere.
r think that the advantages of keeping
Kamah: It sounds like the whole time
you've been building the company, you've been
thinking of developing a regional agriculture.
Ron Ainspan: My guiding philosophy has
a lot 10 do with keeping things local and
maintaining personal relationships. I don't like
the coipOrate mentality and standardi7.ed ways of
doing things. Individual initiative is very
important, and that's something that in many
cases is threatened by the way the economy
functions.
The corporate mentality is lifeless. People
need to be alive and thinking. Then, even if they
screw up, at least they're trying and putting
themselves into what they arc doing. That has
always been important to me.
Ka11wh: Why do you think that there are
not more people growing food for sale?
Ron Ainspan: It's a lot of work and n fairly
low pay-off. So much of farming is large-scale
,c.aiuah Journal plUJc 14
Kar(tah: What are some of the reasons that
local production is advantageo\lS?
Ron Ainspan: To me the most important
thing is having a personal connection 10 what }'Ou
do jn your dnily life. Too many people just put in
their work hours so that they can play when they
are not working. Our work-life is the biggest pan
of our life, and we should do something that's
innately satisfying. We need 10 be able to give
our own personal input, to put our own personal
stamp on what we do. I think that's really the
thing.
There is also the whole question of some
geographic areas taking advantage of others, and
the dollars that are lost from a local area. If your
beer is coming from Colorado, 1hen your beer
dollars are going to Colorado. 1f your produce is
coming from western Nonh Carolina, then your
money is being kepi in the local economy.
That kind of concept is in contrast to the
prevailing "trickle-down" concept that says it's
efficient to produce on a large scale somewhere
far away and distribute over a wide area, and the
wealth that is created from doing that will
evenrually work its way down to everybody.
That kind of system creates an imbalance between
the people who are very wealthy and the people
who get just a triclcle.
Karualr: The reason we are able to dunk
and act that way is because of our tremendous
(continued Cll'I page 30)
POEMS
by Jim Clark
Katuah: Secure that market and then plug
in the local goods.
Ron Ainspan: However, the growth
potential for local production is still greater than
the growth potential of the local market There's
the possibility of growing more produce in
western North Carolina than the market could
handle, at least right now.
thing! focal, small, andpel'sonal nud"to bet''~._
continually put in front of the public. People tend
to go along with whatever the trend or the lates1
marketing campaign is.
LIGHTS
i
This is the body's land at home here
or nowhere.
Through deep-welled air
the magne1 moon
orients the singing
skin's cardinal points.
ii
In cedar hung silence,
through camp smoke and wave lap,
shards of stunned brighmess
speak
a language of light
iii
As from a great distance
patterns are seen
to shiver
suddenly into focus,
so these lights
flashing at the body's perimeter
connect
and in the vibmting darkness
chart our every step.
MOUNTAIN WALKING SONGS
i
Always the ancient air
finds its home in our lungs
and goes on
ii
AJways our feet
move lightly
over the charged ea.nh
iii
Always we are walking
in the mountains
singing
Spri.n9, 1991
�Going about the Business
of Building a Regional Economy
These are profiles. shorr sketches of what
some people are doing and how they are dcing it.
These are only aJew examples showing different
facets of a possible regional economy. Many
other enterprises and projects have appeared in
the pages ofKa1uah Journal, in both the ads and
the feature sections - parricular/y in issue #7, the
first time the jo1unal touched specifically on the
question of a regional eco,wmy
COUNTRY WORKSHOPS
(Drew Langsner)
90 Mill Creek Rd
Marshall, NC 28753
(704) 656-2280
When I.hey first bought their farm in the
nonheas1em c?mer of Madison County in 1974,
Drew and LoU1Se Langsner hope.cl 10 make their
living close to the land, doing the things I.hat they
loved. Foremost among these were farming and
woodworking.
The couple was already well-versed in
traditional woodworking and other folk skills
largely as a result of a trip to Europe taken during
the early 1970's. However, they spent "four lean
years" of minimum wage work interspersed with
some magazine writing and some craft projcccs as
they gradually figured out how to put their skills
10 work.
In 1978 Drew and Louise hi l on the idea of
a woodcrafts school called Country Workshops.
The school would offer students seven-day
courses on the Langsner fann to teach some of
the skills Drew and Louise had garnered in their
travels and studies. The Langsners saw the
school as a way 10 earn income by sharing skills
they knew well and loved 10 practice.
With $500 of their personal cash, Drew
and Louise set up the first session of Country
Workshops. Enough people attended 10
encourage them 10 continue the idea, and the
workshops have happened every summer since.
It was mostly love of the work and a belief in the
potential of the idea that kept the Langsners at it
for the first years. "Only recently," said Drew,
"have the ~eip½~ shown anything appro,dmating
even a pan-nme mcome."
To round out support for their famHy,
~rew farms, producing cows and hay, and sells
his excellent ladderback and Windsor chairs on
order. The fann emphasizes Red Devon cows an
historical breed that came over 10 Plymouth with
some of the first white seulers from England.
Sprl.ng, 1991
The businesses presented here must be
viewed from two perspectives: the economy as it
is now, and the economy as it could be.for tliese
are businesses that are working within borh of
these contextS simultaneously. They are working
enterprises within 01u present economic sen'{),
b111 they are also the inspiration and the
infrasrrucnue for a new, mtJre appropriate
economy - although in some cases the operators
miglu deny that as their intent.
To fwiction within 01u present economic
system requires compromise, and the businesses
presented are evaluated honestly in terms of
Louise grows excellent vegetables in her gardens
and prepares them for their guests during the
workshop season. They are also occasional
authors. Together they wrote a book on European
craftwork, and Drew has also written three
instructional books: A logbuilder's llandbook.
Country Woodcraft, and Green Woodworking,
all well-known and well- respected in their fields.
"We're not even close to middle class,"
sars D~w, "but we've moved away from being
poised nght on the edge. Our car died a few
months ago, and I was able 10 purchase a used
car without it being the major crisis it once would
have been."
At first the workshops taught only two
courses: Scandinavian woodcarving with old
hand tools, and log cabin building. Now the
curriculum also includes Swiss coopering,
Japanese woodworking, ladderback and Windsor
chair-mnking, and basketry. Drew at first spent
muc~ ?f th~ time teaching, but recently
~dm1m~trauve tasks have been occupying an
mcreasmg percentage of his time. "Wilh seven 10
twelve people here and the needs of the students
and teachers to attend 10. it wa,; difficult and
sometim~ impossibl<:; 10 see to everything while I
was teaching as well Drew also allows up to
two students to live with their family for extended
winter tutoriaV apprenriccship programs.
The students sleep in a building on the
property and Louise prepares meals for all. "The
food is excellent, but the sleeping arrangements
are still somewhat primitive," says Drew. "Still
only a few people have minded at all."
"While we don't teach saictly Appalachian
crafts per se, I think the surroundings here are
imponant to the people and contribute a lot to
their appreciation of the experience. Many of the
people who take the courses are folks who get a
two-week vacation each year and decide 10 spend
one _w~ek of it here at a workshop. That is very
gra11fy1ng to me.
"People get more out of the experience than
just 1he skills of woodworlcing. Students write
back to say that they have learned something here
ecological a11d economic impact and
s1istain.abiliry. Their collective experience is a
report card, indicating ro /IS as a region how we
are doing at this business ofb[tilding a
land-based economy. Admiuedly, we have a long
way1ogo
Bw rhe most impanant message rha1 these
people and these projects bring UJ u.r is that there
are things we can do, tlllll we can begin now,
even if conditio,rs are not perfect, even if rite deck
is stacked against 11s in the shon nm.
Profiles compl/i,d by
Ernest Womlck and Millie Sundstrom
about what is imponant to them."
The same might be said of Drew and
Louise, two talented people who are clear about
the life they wane and have found a way to live it
Their fann and their skills are important to them.
Rather tlJaP. move;c;>.the urban marj(!!IP!ace to.sci.~ ~
ineir ~k.ills foi: me higltest price, th~y Jiav• found>n.e:>
a way to balance their abilities to provide a
satisfying life in the countryside.
BRIGHT HORIZONS,
BRIGHT MOUNTAIN BOOKS
(Eric and Cynthia Bright)
138 Springside Rd
Fairview, NC 28730
Bright Mountain Books is a publishing
house specializing in Appalachio.n regional
material. Bright Horizons is a regional book
distributor. Boch companies arc the creations and
the present passion of Eric and Cynthia Bright
Says Eric Bright, "We wanted to strut a
publishing company. but to publish books you
have to sell them, so we first began distributing
books 10 make a marketing network."
Today their first ambition is still largely
unfulfilled. Most of I.heir business and most of
their income still comes from book distribution
sa!e~. Bri~ht Mountain Books has published four
onginal ntles, however: Keep 'Em loughing by
Bob Terrell, Disorder in the C()llrt by Bob Terrell
and Marcellus Buchanan, Two on the Square by
Bob Moore, and Poper Mansions by Bob
PadgeR They have also reprinted other works
that were out of print and would have been lost,
like Moun1ai11 SpiritS and More Mountain Spirils,
well-read books about the Appalachian
moonshining culture.
The couple has jusc invesccd in new
computer equipment and a laser printer that will
be reserved strictly for publishing work. They
hope that the new tools will launch them more
deeply into the publishing side of their business.
Or.win& by Rob Missick
(conlirwed on pege 16)
Xatl'.mh Journat PCMJC 15
�(CCII\UIIUOd &om page IS)
•
create our own markeL We've done that.
'There has been a ground swell in interest
Bright Horizons is highly successful. The
in herbaceous native plants. The interest
company sold one-third more books in 1990 than
continues t0 grow, and we arc optimistic, but I
it had any other year in the pasL !he o'Yncrs,
suppose I should have done a ~arket ~e)'. I
while feeling that their comp~y lS malcing a
would have sought outside capital and Just bitten
contribution to the understanding and
.
the bullcL
appreciation of the Appalac~s and. Appalachian
~we can see clearly in hind.sight that we
culture, see some weaknesses tn their sue~.
"We are very dependent on the tounst ll'ade should have been harder-nosed businesspeople
initially. If I could start over again, l would
righi now," says Eric. "That means that we have
educate myself to good business practices
to malce concessions to the demands of the
beforehand, because that end of the operation is
market and offer some books that we may not
not anractive to either Meredith or me, yet we
particuiarty like, but which are good sellers and
can't avoid iL I would say that we are right now
are important to our retail store customers. .
"I saw a book called White Trash Coobng, making the tranSition from be~g dedica~ed
hobbyists to becoming professional busmess
and my first reaction was that I didn't want t?
people."
carry that book at all, but customers kept calling
The two are confirmed plant-lovers, and
and asking for it. and so finally I gave in and put
they started their business from a desire tO spend
it in stock. We sold 2,000 copies in the firstfour
time doing what they love to.do the most ~oth
months it was available."
are knowledgeable about nanve plants. Ed ts a
Are they living well? "No," they say. "We
professor of botany at the University of
haven't had a family vacation in ten years. We
Tennessee at Knoxville. It is hard 10 imagine two
haven't made our material goals, but we feel we
people more qualified for this work, yet Ed says.
a.re following out our p!an, and we ar~ firmly
"if we were dependent on the business for our
committed to the direcuon we are taking.
livelihood, we would be in the poor house. . .
"When we get our daughters through
We're going 10 give it a few more years, and if ll
college, we will think more about our own
doesn't become more profitable, we probably
lifestyle."
will get om of it."
They see the greatest problem wi~ ~cir
Some of the plants growing in the Native
work being that they spend much of !hCU' nme .
doing mundane chores that they don ~ n~e~y Gardens have commercial uses as herbal
medicines or botanicals. Ed would like 10 develop
enjoy, but which are necessary to maintaining
that trade because botanicals are growing in
their business at this stage. They are, however!
popularity and commerc!al harvesting in the _
wild
satisfied with their present progress toward their
would put 100 much stra.tn on the plant spec1es,
goals.
many of which are endemic or rare.
"I don't subscribe to the idea that
"Producing botanicals probably has greater
companies have to necessarily grow and grow
potential than the straight production of , . .
and grow," says Eric. "When a company gets to
wildflowers for gardening,'' Ed figures. This lS
a manageable siz.e !hat fulfills the needs of the
already a big business in the Southern_
owners, then it is quite alright t0 ease off and
Appalachians, but it is not developed m the way
maintain it at that level."
that it could be. As it stands now, a few large
And the Brights agree c~mpletely ah?ut
companies pretty much control the market. They
one thing: "People have to rcaliz.c that i:unnmg a
contt0l the price, they control w~at_ they buy: and
business takes l 50% of your efforL It is a very
the guy out there on the mounl8lns1de doesn t
demanding task."
have any choice."
Ed and Meredith are conscientious in their
work. They started out with ~ highest stan~ds
of purity. Now they use pesuc1des and fungicides
"only if we have to, or if there are legal
requirementS for them." That was another le~on
learned. "If somebody is going to g~t into this
business and thinks that they are going 10 totally
avoid chemical pesticides, they're naive," says
NATIVE GARDENS
(Meredith Bradford-Clcbsch and Ed Clebsch)
Ed.
. d al.i.n
There are other issues of concern in e g
Rt. 1, Box 494
with native plants.
Greenback.TN 37742
"We ask questions about whether the
plants we buy have been propaga~ed in th~
Native Gardens, the creation of Ed and
nursery or if they have been du~ in the w)ld. For
Meredith Bradford-Qebsch, offers herbaceous
the first four years of our operauon, we simply
plantS almost entirely of native varieties and all
didn't deal in materials that were dug from the
propagated from seed and cunings, for wholesale wild. Lately we have bought rescued plants from
and retail sale. Most of the plants are sold m
situations where their destruction is absolutely
containers, although they sell some field pl~ntS 10 certain. But we are not yet at a point where we
landscape architects. Much ~f the company s
would tum around and sell those materials
business is mail orders obtamed through
directly. We use them for propagation pufJ>?SCS.
Meredith's tastefully-designed catalog. .
"I am also concerned that we are creanng a
Personnel consists of Ed and Mered1th an~ considerable mixing of genetic material, because
two part-rime helpers and another worker, who lS we often buy plants from other pl~es '.111d grow
full-time except for the winter months.
them out 10 maturity for sale. The dilunng of
Ed and Meredith started Native Gardens
genetic purity is something that ~onccrns 11s, and
with their own money.
we think it will become an issue m the next
"If we had paid for a pre-opening market
decade."
survey, we never would have opened," said Ed.
Ed urges people not to be idealistic when
"We inruitively knew that we were on the
staning a business.
, .
beginning of what we were confident was a
"We run into people who say, fd like to
rising trend, but we knew that we would have to
do that. It looks like so much fun.' It is, if you
Xatuah Journ.at pCMJe 16
..
are willing to work 16-18 hours per ~Y"The market is there. I wouldn t
discourage anyone from getting started, but I
would encourage them 10 go into it with their
eyes open. It is an enormous amount of work,
and it takes some knowledge up fronL The .
starry-eyed ideal of growing plants and having
them sell themselves automatically is not true. If a
person has that idea, then they would do better
not to get into the business at all."
FRENCH BROAD FOOD CO-OP
(Barb Acker)
90 Biltmore Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
The French Broad Food Co-op. the
member-owned food co-op in Asheville, NC has
made a move - a big move. Not just from ~cold
cramped quaners in the Old Chesterfield Mill on
West Haywood Street to a new address on
Biltmore Avenue, but a shift in policy that
involved borrowing $100,000 to change their
location and to expand the store, so the co-op
could serve the general public as well as the
co-op membership.
The co-op is run by a 7-person board of
directors elected by the membership at an annual
membership meeting. The board hires the store
manager and it was the board that decided to
undenak~ the $100,000 debL To raise that
capital $42 000 was borrowed from individual
mem~rs a~d another $60,000 was obtained
through the Self-Help Credit Union.
Barb Acker is the co-op manager, in charge
of supervising the day~t<Hlay OJ?Cration o~ the
store and its four full-ume and CJght pan-tune
staff people. She is encouraged by the response
to the move and feels it has revitalized the co-op.
'We are in the mainstream financial market
right now, deeply in debt., but. we fel~ that it was
necessary in order to make this leap in growth.
We are finding it to be money well-spent, and we
arc starting to pay back the loans on schedule."
"For the five years prior to November,
1990 while we were at the Chesterfield Mill, we
had a'bout 800 people from 400 families who
sustained the business. In the two and one-half
months since we've moved, our membership
base has increased to 1200."
Co-ops are different than most o~cr •
economic instirutions in that their goal 1s SCMCC
mher than profiL Co-ops depend heavily on
volunteer help; they keep a small rnar&;in of
overhead with which to run the operanon, but
they are not in the business of accumulating
wealth or making anyone rich. Co-ops generally
define their goals in terms of filling basic needs,
rather than using people's needs to reap pe!Sonal
and material benefits. Some co-ops see their
purpose as simply providing a cenain product,
but there are others that see themselves as pan of
an oo-going, overall social change.
The French Broad Food Co-op sees itself
as having a role in the changes ~at are happening
in the Asheville area and the region. Barb,
speaking of the grour 's long-range goals,
pointed out that "a trade magazine caJJ;d
.
Cooperarive Grocer ran a quote back m the spnng
Sprt.nq, 1991
�i~) l._ 't ' Jlt) :i :11 '"\) I
~ O I
t \~ If "' ..•ll
of 1990 that impressed me. (t reads, 'Food
co-ops n~ to be quality, profitable groceries,
but also pan of a larger social transformation.•
"1 think that's the essence of the
cooperative movement and also of the French
Broad Food Co-:op. Socilll change is very much a
p:ut of the C(),,()p's n1essnge in that we arc trying
to bring something different to people that is
better for all of us, beuer for the whole."
The co-op's first task is providing quality
food, but living in this world means making
choices and finding a workable balance. Barb
says, "We are providing the best physical
nourishment that we can in the food products we
offer, and we try 10 make equitable choices on
everything we buy to make sure that they have
the least environmental impact possible.
However, 95% of the food lhat we sell comes in
from outside the region.
"Produce is one area where we might be
able to change that Produce is 16% of our total
stock. Most of that presently comes from outside
the region. But it is a high priority for the co-op
to suppon local farmers, and we are now talking
with farmers to help them plan whar they plant
for the next growing season, knowing that the
co-op now is a much bigger market for them.
"We definitely do encourage our buyers to
buy locally whenever they can, but the reality of
the situation is that very little of our food is
locally-produced at this point. You just can't get
cashews from the Appalachians. One of the
realities of food distribution is 1ha1 it is
world-wide, and we have to provide what people
are u$ed to getting if we are going to stay in
business. We realize that shipping food all across
the world has a major environmental impact. But
I suppose things have to be W(;ighed in the .,
balance, and we see oun;elvcs as trying to 1
educate more people as to how they can eat bener
for less money."
The emphasis on eduC.'.lcion is another
imponant way that co-op members see their
business taking pan in social change. According
to Barb, "the next step we have to take, now that
we are settled down in our new loca1ion, and the
dust is settling from the transition, is that we have
to stan education right away. Folks are coming in
and saying. 'I want to switch from eating so
much meat, but I don't know what to do with this
tofu sruff.'
"People are more interested in eating food
that hasn't been poisoned. Even chain
supermarkets arc s1aning to carry organic food,
and it's making an impact on the everyday
person's consciousne.~s. We arc staning co see
that what we eat makes a difference in how we
feel, and how that makes a difference in the
health of the community and the health of the
world as a result People are wanting to cat
bener, and realizing tha1 eating good food fuels
the body much better."
"If we can't help people make that
transition, we aren't going to be here very long.
But the co-op staff people are qui1e ready 10 help
with that. They have been doing this work for the
last 15 years, and now they have a better
opportunity lo help 1he public learn how to use
good food.
"People are catching on about doing things
cooperatively, too. Thal':; another thing that we
have to teach. Worker-members have doubled in
number since we have moved here. Members feel
a real sense of belonging and contributing 10
some1hing: supplying decent food that they want
10 buy and are proud to offer 10 01hers.''
The co-op members arc also aware their
Sprtn(J, l 991
I
,fj
O!J
-,.//
1,11,
fl f /.., •,.t.. r)
4
J,.
business is making c.onlributions on tither levels.
"It's a physical sus1enance that we offer," says
Barb, "but it's also a social sus1cnance as well.
We want to promote a feeling of community. We
have one room that has been designated as the
community room, and we have a bench made out
of a rree that is just inside the door where people
can sit around and visit. That essence of
community is very central to the reality of the
co-op.
"We have a.water cooler, one of the
old-fashioned ceramic ones, that is filled with
spring water from up in the mountains, so the
co-op is also the watering hole."
The co-op also took a concrete step to help
people get through the recession. In line with
their policy of providing oosic foodstuffs at the
cheapest possible prices, the co-op in January cut
the mark-up on all the beans and grains in the
store to just above cost. Again, It was a question
of finding a balance.
,
"Right now in this co-op and in many
n:llural food stores and co-ops around the country
there arc a lot of packaged. fluffy foods that none
of us really need. but which we have become
used to," said Barb. "It's the fluffy alternative to
the products the supcnnarkets have. We have 10
answer that, so we stock them.
"People can choose whether or not they
want those expensive items. But the things they
need to live on will be here, and they will be
affordable."
But the co-op has also made a commitment
to quality. "Most of our produce is organic. so it
is somewhat higher-priced than produce a, the
supermarket," Bnrb explained. "We are adamant
about maintaining our support of the organic
fanning industry, so that it can c90tinue 10 grow
and flourish. To Mthdrawoursllpport ts&ause
I
conventional food is cheaper would oo 10
compromise our commitment 10 pure food.''
The co-op is moving forward. The group
is excited about the changes enabling them to
better carry out their original purposes.
tl'ltS . .ts,-it
.
GREG OLSON
211 Stoney Knob Rd.
Weaverville, NC 28787
(704) 658-0834
"In designing environmental homes, I am
basicaUy looking at three levels of impact," says
Greg Olson. "I try 10 minimize impacts on the
environment by designing homes that are
energy-efficient and rely heavily on alternative
energy sources. I try to look out for the
environment by using materials that have as linle
negative impact as possible in their production
and use. And then I pay attention to the health
impacts, which include things like electricity,
water quality, and how different spaces wi1hm
the house nre going to be used."
· Greg is an al1em:uive home designer who
is presently doing a brisk business planning and
overseeing the construction of environmentallyconscious shelters in 1he Katuah Province.
"My sole criteria for taking on work is
whether the people want an energy-efficient
home." he says. ''l don't look at the size of 1he
project, the money involved, or the building
f
"!i
,
r
•
, .....
, ~le. Jt could be an exciting project, btlt if it
looks like its not geared toward energy efficiency
I refer them 10 someone else.
'rrhe work I've been doing has varied
widely depending on the conditions of the site,
and the budget and desires of the people who arc
building the house. I have done passive solar
homes with solar water heating lhat is backed up
by power from the grid. I have done a middleground system that utilizes a solar-and-wood
system for healing and cooling. Right now I'm
working on a large house now that is completely
off the grid. All the electticity is produced by
phocovoltaic panels.
"lam constantly looking for materials that
are environmentally benign. That type of question
is constantly coming up: in doing the plumbing
should we use polybutylene or copper?
Polybucylene is a plastics product; but making
metal; whether it's siccl, a.lumitium, or copper, is
also nn intenseprocess;, •
J
J;tf
"We've dealt some \\ith the effect of
electromagnetic fields created by house wiring.
Where people want it, we've staned using
shielded cable lo neutralize that effect.
"We have also gotten to the point that we
don't use any plywood or any materials with
urethane binders unless it's absolutely nece.~sary.
"Contradictions are always coming up
between the levels of impact Insulation, for
instnnce, fulfills a very important function in the
house. But for a long time the best foams were
extruded or impregnated with air by CFC's in the
manufacturing process. Now one company has a
foam that they say is not a CFC, but which is
probably something else equally bad.
"Right now we are investigating setting up
a d~ership io the .area for air-enttaine.d.coocn::1e,
Vthicti ~s concn:te thal is,ini.vlaced.b>'.h.lvioa air
forced through it. That will llCl as a Sll'Ucrural
material and an insulating material at the same
time.
''The solar products are another example.
They are extremely helpful in their operation, but
as far as their original materials, they all have
their setbacks. Photovoltaic panels or copper
collector plates have a ttcmendous manufacturing
impact While the copper in a solar collector is
never going to return all the energy lhat was put
into it during the manufacturing process, it's still
better than just burning the energy.
"We're pursuing it all the time, but there is
also the cost factor: how much can we do on the
owners' budget?"
Greg says that there seems to be an
increasing concern about energy-efficient
building, perhaps generated by the war in the
l\1iddle F.ast. "My business all comes by word of
mouth; I don't advertise. Thar helps, because
people that seek me out are already thinking in a
certain way. It helps to filter my work out,
Nevenheless, I've been extremely busy.
"It's really picked up in the last year. We
are a culture that responds 10 crisis, and I thinlc
recent evenlS have been staning people to wonder
where their energy is going to come from."
Greg also teaches n class at UNCA called
"Environment, Design, and Solar Energy."
His business (and the rock-reggae band he
played wilb) was originally called "One Straw."
He doesn't use the name anymore, but he says
that be is still drawn to the quo1e in the book by
Masanobu Fukuoka from which lhe name
originated:
"With this single straw, I, by myself, will
begin a revolution."
.
�wltich are often indistinguishable, all are closely
clustered around the Gorge.
It is a vigorous athletic and cultural life
they share. In the same week on the Nantahrua
aaasoBElB oooosa BB BBB BeooBooooo
0
River, after wearing one's self out rafting,
c
biking, hiking, or rock-climbing, one could
spend the everting at a poetry reading, a loud rock O
Of Success and the River
c
'n roll pnrty, a modern dance workshop, a lecture ~
o
by a prominent nature writer, dining at a fancy
o
g
restawant, or .auending a friendly get-t0gether in o
The river staned it all. When Horace
c
one of the Center's private cabins.
gHolden bought the isolated motel on the
c
ln Payson's view of that enlightened
o Nantahala Falls, it had no profits and no future, g
community, it would be unfair to the Staff and the o only a good location on the river. Holden and
c
company alike to have anytlting less than full
Payson Kennedy provided the vision the location c
participation - economic and political, as well as o needed; they turned the location into a thriving g
professional and social. He first proposed the
o business and the NOC into a recreation industry o
employee stock ownership plan at a staff meeting g legend.
c
in January, 1987. The plan was at first rejected o
The best tribute to success is imitation, and g
by the employees.
"'I now 15 rafting companies crowd the banks of the o
0
Why would workers initially cum down a g Nantnhala. There would be more if the Forest
share in the profits and policy management of
o Service bnd not stepped in to limit the burgeoning g
their company and a greater measure of control of o whitewater industry on the river.
~
their day-to-day lives? The answer lies to a great ~
Whereas a total of 1.200 people rode the g
extent in the nature of the NOC and its staff.
o river in the NOCs first season, now more than 0
The raft-guiding and recreational work in o 6,000 people run the Nantahala on one good
o
which the Outdoor Center specializes requires
Saturday. In the 1990 season over 200,000
great expertise that comes from rigorous training o people took the river trip. The Nantahala is
g
and long practice - especially at the NOC. which o known as the most crowded rafting river in the o
rakes great pride in the excellence of its
gcountry.
o
programs. Thus. many of the Outdoor Center
o
The river continues to now along,
g
employees are highly skilled athletes, who could o seemingly unpenurbcd by all this uproar. But the o
easily find a job in other pans of the country.
g high rate of traffic is affecting the river. John
and often do. Recreational work is seasonal and o Burton, the president of the Nanw.hala Ourdoor g
is traditionally low-paying. Those who are
c; Center, says, "Up until five or six years ago,
c
attracted to it are willing to accept the lower
g resource degradation wasn't a serious concern in
wages because of their love for the work and the o my mind, but now it is. Human traffic along the
free-wheeling lifestyle it affords. Although the
o banks has been degrading the banks and wearing o
Outdoor Center is fortunate in having a strong
them away. People are trampling vegetanon that
core group of more than 70 people who have
o is needed to st0p erosion and exposing the roots 0
been on the staff for more than JO of the
c of trees. And there is the inevitable liner from the o
crowd and the cars that pass by on the two-lane
company's 18-year history (an unusual
percentage in that demanding business), many of o road that runs alongside the river."
0
0
the NOC employees are young and transient,
And surely the constant disturbance caused c
coming for one summer or only during cenain
by the high rate of river traffic is affecting the
times of the year. Even of the employees wbo
o aquatic habitat
0
consider the Nantahala area t!ieir ho~. a good . g
. c
number rake several months m the winter to "ski O
Ten years ago the NOC, aware of their
g
bum" or cravel.
o effect on the river, tried unilaterally to limit their c
O company's growth.
As a result, many of the Nantahala staff did
o
not want to risk their small salaries on stock
"All we did," said John Burton, "was to
investment and were wary of the long-tellll
o put a couple of competitors in business real fast, o
commitment and responsibility to the company
and we didn't do anything to limit the growth of a
that ownership requires. They were completely O the rafting business. Therefore, we felt we were g
happy to do what they did best and leave the
o undermining our own purposes, and we haven't c
hassles of management to the businesspeople
g tried that again."
o
hired for that job.
Being such a mnjor player, the NOC
g
0
Company president John Bunoo said, ''To o cannot suggest overall limitations on river us~ it o
many of these people, 'commitment' meant doing ~ would seem as if they were trying to monopolize c
the best job possible while they were here. To
O their own strong position on the river. Control is
Payson, it meant a long-term commitment 10 the o left up to the Forest Service, which limits only o
company. That was essentially the gap I h:id to
g the number of companies that can operate on the o
bridge."
0 river each season and mruces no attempt to
Burton was fonnerly a securities analyst
o regulate the size of those companies.
o
for the Philadelphia National Bank, as well as a g
"It's not the number of people who use the o
dedicated canoeist and one-time member of the
O river," said Ranger Bill Lea, ''it's the kind of
US Olympic canoe team. He understood the
o people who use the river that makes the
o
g difference."
o
problem from both sides. The KSOP
compi:omise was ms ~rainchild. 1ne plan's mix O
But o~ summer Sarurdays, the rafts come g
!)f opt!onaJ membership, and the handsome
o down, one nght after the other. River rafts are o
mcennve offered, seems to have met the needs of g not as deadly as dioxin, but the "invisible hand" 0
the NOC staff; 70% of those eligible are now
g
O of free enterprise is slowly choking the
member stockholders.
o NantahaJa.
o
O
Because of the closeness of the
a
community, the Outdoor Center's KSOP plan is
necessarily a social experiment as well. The NOC au sos uo oeeaeeeonooo Bes noooooa
is more like a rambunctious tribe than a
corporation, but in practical tenns that means that
g
THENANTAHALAOUTDOOR
CENTER
41 US Highway 19 West
Bryson City, NC 28713
(704) 488-6737
Rural Swain County is an unlikely place
for a phenomenon. But it is here, beside a low
waterfall on the Nantahala River, that a wildly
diverse crew runs the Nantahala Outdoor Center
(NOC), purveyor of rafting and outing
adventures and the corporate headquarters for an
operation that grossed $8 million in 1990.
The NOC is well-known in business
circles as a recreation-business success story. In
1972 when Payson and Aurelia Kennedy first
started the operation, everyone was waslting
dishes, and Saturday's profitS were spent
Monday morning for new paddles or life
preservers. The Center now comprises a
sprawling complex of three restal!Illnts, cabins,
an outfitter's store, and a fleet of buses, plus
outposts on four other rivers in the region. The
NOC employs 350 staff people at the height of
the summer rafting season and even sends
voyagers to exotic places such as Nepal, the
Grand Canyon, and New 2.ealand on an
Adventure Travel tour program.
But one of the most outstanding features of
the NOC is not noticeable 10 visitors coming 10
ride the river: the company is in the process of
transferring ownership into t.he bands of an
association of its workers.
It is a difficult process, and NOC staff
people are candid in speaking of its benefits and
t~ drawbacks. On paper what is happening is
this: the employees of the company are carrying
out a gradual and friendly buy-out of the outside
investors' interest in the NOC. An Employee
Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) now owns 50%
of the shares of the company stock. Workers are
gradually buying into the plan through what is
called a "40l(k) provision," which gives them the
opuon of deferring 5 to 8% of their salary 10 buy
stock. Whatever they set aside, the company will
match at a rate of 50 ccntS on the dollar for stock
purchase. Because of the 40 I(k) provision, the
NOC employees cal1 their hybrid stock
ownership plan a "KSOP." According to the
plan, the KSOP will have vinually complete
control of the company by 1998.
The KSOP is a compromise plan, the result
of several years of often intense discussions. The
idea that the Outdoor Center should be
employee-owned came first from founder Payson
Kennedy. From the beginning, Payson conceived
the ~antahala Outdoor Center, not solely as a
~usme;,s venture, but as a community of
like-mmded people. That community is alive and
~ppeniog _in once-isolated Swain County.
River-running and the outdoor life are the
community's Stock in trade, but more
i!flponantly, they are the foundation of a way of
life that the Outdoor Center shares with its paying
guests.
The staff live closely together. More than
100 NOC employees consider the environs of the
NantahaJa River as home, and the Cen1cr
provides ~bin space for the summer employees,
so that durmg both working and leisure times,
xawah Journm J>CUJC 18
g
g
g
°
°
°
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
5
g
g
g
g
g
(continuod on psgc 19)
8pri.tUJ, 1991
�the KSOP member/staff have to hve with the
results of their decisions as a company day in and
day OUI.
The NOC executive officers worked hard
10 be sure that the decision for cooperative
ownership was made by consensus. But the idea
came from the top and the transition is being
managed by the company officers.
The plan is 10 gradually tum political as
well as financial control over 10 the KSOP
members.
"We want it to mean that the KSOP
members on the staff are actively involved in
policy decisions, big picture kinds of decisions,
directional decisions... " said John Bunon.
The KSOP's power to vote in board of
directors' elections is allocated democratically on
the basis of "one member. one vote" (rather than
on the economic basis of one vote per share). The
KSOP controls half of the company's 16,000
shares of stock. That block of 8,000 shares is
voted proportionally according to the wishes of
the people in the KSOP.
"We seek consensus at every tum, if we
can. We take it as far as possible in that
direction," said John. "What the people in the
KSOP are learning is that it is in their interest to
be unanimous. lf they act as a unit they can
control the board of directors. We have board
~ectio~s every year. The politics are getting very
interesnng."
But beyond participation in the election of
the Board of Direccors, the traditional function of
stockholders in any corporation, the KSOP is not
set up to participate in policy decisions. The
group has no structure and no independent
leadership. Meetings are still called by the
top-level management in the company hieran:hy.
With characteristic candor, John said, "It's
up to the leaders of the company to nunure the
leadership of the KSOP, whether that means
putting together a social council or actively calling
meetings that are run by different folks.
"The lesson we've learned this first year is
that it takes active effort to get this KSOP group
involvcd...lt takes someone 10 call the meeting. If
the meeting doesn'c get called, then the issue
doesn't get discussed. It's a demanding process,
and we have a lot 10 learn about how to do iL"
The Nantahala Outdoor Center is a
dynamic place, and the transition to worker
ownership is dynamic as well. It is closely
scrutinized and widely discussed in very practical
and non-idealistic terms, signs of a healthy
democracy. John Bunon thinks that the KSOP
will be able to develop its own identiry and rise to
the challenges of leadership.
"If for no other reason," he said, "the
employees are beginning to come around to it
beca~se they are wondering why they have been
working as hard as they have for someone else's
profit."
GREEN SPIRITS:
KATUAH PROVINCE VEGETABLE PLANTING CALENDAR
Developed by Lee Barnes (1/10/91)
Based on an a"crnge 160day frost-free period a~ adapled from Jeavons et aL 1983, NCAES 1978 and others.
For high elevation or shoner frost-free period, start two to three weeks later for spring planting
and two to three weeks earlier for late plantings.
START INDOORS
February I
Cool season plants - broccoli, cabbage,
cauliflower, kale
Wann season plants - tomato, pepper, eggplant
SEED IN GROUND
TRANSPLANT TO SOIL
Win~er Chores - Soil ccsc, lime, prune trees and berries, 1urn compost,
IUm in cover crops one month prior to planting.
March 1
Most annual herbs, spinach, annual flowers.
mosc perennial seeds
April 1
<or when ground tl'mpernturcs are greater than
40-45° F. at 4 inches in depth)
Cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash, leaf INtuce
Beets, chard, po1a1oes, peas, turnips, radishes,
lenuce, bare-root fruit trees and berries
Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, mustard,
spinach, onions
Beans, carrots, corn, potatoes, radishes, beets,
turnips, squash, Cucumbers, Swiss chard
(Best after soil temperature is 65° F. at four
inchesdup)
Cucumbers, eggplant, melons, okra, peppers,
squash, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins
Beans, corn, field peas, potatoes, New Zealand
spinach, radishes, cucumbers
Cucumbers, melons, squash, tomatoes
Beans carrots, corn, potatoes. squash,
cucumbers, collard greens
Cucumbers, late t0ID3tocs
May 1
'(or when ground temperatures are greater than 60"
F. at 4 inches in depth)
(wail for soil lo warm, tra11splants require 2-6
weeks to grow to s11fficic11t siu)
June 1
July 1
Brussels sproutS
July 15
Broccoli, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, kale,
Mustard
August IS
Fall greens, radishes, lenuce, turnips, rutabagas
Radishes, letruce
Fall cover crops - winier rye, clover, buckwheat
Broccoli. Brussels sprouts,
cauliflower, leuuce, kale, mustard
cabbage,
Fall _Chores - Soil 1es1, plant clover crops. remove and compost garden refuse, lime (if needed),
tum m phosphorous and rock phospha1e/granitc sands.
Spn!UJ, 1991
Jeatu(lf1 Journnt J>G9C 19
�(These nre the wolds oC n tt:ldition:il Cherokee medicine person.)
"Vll,LAGE ECONOMY"
It was like the whole tribe was the torso of
the body of the people, and the clans were like
the extremities. The extremities did everything
they could to suppon the torso. :That was their
purpose. If the Wolf Oan was like the right
hand, !he Twisted Hairs would be the left hand
But the purpose of each of them was to suppon. 1
the torso, and the torso's purpose as a collective
body was to suppon the Grea1 Life.
The old pe0ple saw themselves as
caretakers. They used to say that they were the
first people on the Earth, and they were plnced
here to be caretakers - to keep the spiritual,
natural balance. We have the abiliry with our
~onsciousness to hook into the Great One, which
1s...l don't know what it is, maybe it's the spirits
of _all living things put together...and 1hey felt that
being caretakers was pan of our purpose, Like a
bcar's purpose is one thing, a deer's purpose is
another, and an oak tree's purpose is another
~ch_ thing is put here for a purpose. The Gre~t
Llf~ IS made up of trillion.s of beings, great treesl
• tu,tmy oolls, fllld; the .function of encll of those
individual llves.isto suppontheUfe:\lach in its!
own way.
. . The human way of supporting the Great
Life JS through our spiritual consciousness. We
were spiritually conscious of other living spirits
Like ~imals_. birds, and trees. No1 all the people'
were lake this, of course, bu1 people in general
were, and the people who weren't, understood it.
We we~n't domestica1ed by individualism and all
those things that are pan of the dominant culture
today. '!bat's why this society has a problem. It's
so mulu-<:ultured, that people don't have the same
h~ and the same mind. Everybody's doing
thetr own damn thing.
I
During those times, life was village life and
everyone saw lhe people they lived with every
day. ~hen visitors came through, they would
stay tn the town-house, and there would be a big
pot of food out there. Everybody would
contnbute to ?1at pot of food, so that strangers or
anybody connng through could have something
to eat. That was the people's attitude: their culture
was an extended family.
Generally, anybody in the tribe could go
alone out in the woods and take care of
themselves. The younger ones might have some
tr0uble, bur most people could. The women were
exi><:n at gathering; they probably were beuer
survtvors than the men.
And then a family, an extended family
would also take care of itself. The old peopte'
who raised the children. The uncles taught the
children. And while the old ones and maybe
some of the n:iother's clan ~le were taking
cnre _of the _c~ildrert, th~ mamed couple would be
making a livmg, fanning and hunting.
They had individual gardens, also clan
Xatuah ,aurnaL pnge 20
gardens, and there was a community garden.
They had storage places in the village to keep
food for those who needed it. Some of the
storage bins were built up on poles. Another kind
~ a small pole log structure that was sealed
~th mud to keep the rodents out. Com was put
10 there, and people were assigned 10 check it
~m. time to time to see if the critters were getting
IOIO ll
The white man Henry Timberlake when
he first came into the village of Echota the early
1700's! estimated a population of close to 2,000,
and said there w_ere something like 6(). to 70,000
bushels of com 1n storage. That was his estimate.
That was western attitude. Even if it wasn't that
much, it obviously was considerable.
i;
Most o_f th~ time every pan of the tribe, as
well as the mbe ttself, was self-sufficient But if
a family got in trouble, if they had their crops
washed out by a flood or something, 1hey would
first appeal 10 their clan for help, and then other
clans would ju~t naturally volu~teer to help,
beca~se the philosophy at that ume, which has
drasnc/¾P.-.r,pb,qn'i¢. w~ ~U)~ 'YI;~, !,!le helpless.
1,1µ1d !he ~1a firsi.. -l3ack,qi.c11 spjlii11g e.ni:I .giviµg
sniff' away was well 1ooked upon. Those people
who were the most generous showed their
commi~ment to the tribe and were given power.
The chief was the poorest person in the tribe, but
the smanest. However, that doesn't exist any
more. In today's society hoarding sruff and
amassing wealth is well looked upon. The old
way was son of nice, but it doesn't deal very
well with capitalism.
Food wasn't bought or sold inside the
tribe. Food or hides may have been offered in
exchange to people who could make beautiful
craflS or weapon-makers who knew how to make
really good arrows or blow guns, but no one had
10 buy food to keep from going hungry.
~ei:i. someone ,creates something, they put
power mto ll. h doesn t mancr what ii is. At the
very lcas1, one puts in their life/time. U someone
makes a flu1e, their intent is for the flme to play
and to free you up inside. You may not get that
out of the flute, but at the very least you get six
hours of their life • they put that much of the11
power into t~t object. They have put their full
10tent, all their experience, everything. into that
flute. Thar flute has power, and we recogni:ze
that.
. . We put power into everything we do. If we
do _11 _10 a bad heart, then .ii has bad power If we
do 11 1~ a good hean and 1n a loving way. maybe
say a httl~ prayer, then the power is a good thing.
If~ are Just neutral, if we just do it without
pumng anything into it, then it's not a craft it's
not a skill, it's just a repetitive motion.
'
. . Bae¥ then people saw that giving a gift was
g1v10g their power, so they didn't wait around for
admiration. They'd drop off a flute at someone's
front door, and that would be it. It was obvious
when a gift was given.
Some people were more skilled than
others, and it was a fine thing to get a gift from
someone who was very skilled. But the gift that
was the best was one into which some person
~ad put all their ~can. It _di~'t have to be good,
tf they put all their heart 10to u, then it was a
highly prized gift and would probably miss the
gambling exchange.
Betting and gambling was a wonderful
way of exchange. The men would play the
chunky game. It was definitely a macho game
probably the only macho game we had. One '
person would roll a round chunky stone and two
other men would be standing on either side with
spears with little red marks on them. They would
throw the spears underhanded and sec who could
ger the red mark closest to the stone. It required a
Lot of skill.
They would play right in the village
~uarc, big old males strun.ing around downtown
in front of the court.house. It was kind of like the
pool haIJ where the men could get 10gether and
talk rough.
They wouldn't bet food, just possessions:
crafts, weapons, things that they had taken from
other Indians, or trade goods. They would stand
there and throw down their bows and arrows
their loincloths. They would stand there naked
betting, and then try to calk a guy into betting ~o
or three days work in the cornfield. They would
always pay off, 100, because back then a
person's word was everything.
In lhe tribe auention was most important.
~e. cullu:e was built that way. Our way of
ra.1smg children wasn't to hit them, but to praise
~em when ther did well, and lO ignore them or
give them nothmg when they did wrong. So if
you were good in the chunky game or were a
" w81l}ol'1and did ~ t deeds, tllen you we~
admiicd lf you were a good fanm:r then you
~ere admired. But if you messed up, you were
ignored. The worst punishment was to be thrown
out of the tribe. Many people committed suicide
when that happened to them, when they lost that
connection with the tribe.
Although the tribe was self-sufficient, the
Chero~ees loved 10 trade. Some people think of
the Indian tribes as being isolated. but that isn't
true. The Cherokees could trade with anybody
from New York all the way to Florida and all
along the Mississippi and all the way along the
coast Everybody spoke the same trade language.
h was ~I~ the Choctaw trade language, and it
was a p1dgm version of Choctaw. All tl1e Indians
spoke it instead of using a sign language.
The P,crokee never actually used a
~ncy, like money. Everything was done
stnctly by baner. They used to make a lot of trips
to the coast to get "black drink" (a decoction
made from the leaves of yaupon holly - ed.),
shells, feathers and items like that, but what they
really loved was the dried root of the Venus
fly-trap, because it was considered an incredible
fishing chann, and all the fishermen would use it.
And then maybe they'd bent up a few Tuscaroras
on the way back from the beach, because that's
just the way the Cherokees were.
We had good flint deposits over in
Tennessee. and we may have carried that for
trade. We might have done some business with
soapsrone. We had soapstone here to trade. We
would trade mica to ihe northern Indians.
The Cherokee might have gouen turquoise
and stuff like that from the Chociaws and the
Chickasaws to the west. We traded horses with
the Chickasaws, who lived along the Mississippi
Sprtm.,, I 991
�On Eco-economics
by David Haenke
Instead of endwing a meaningless job to gei the
money IO buy necessities, real work should involve our
efliciClll production or bllSIC needs, or our dilcct
involvement in their procurement - e.g., by J)311icipaling
as wor.ting members or cooperatives. In an ccocconomy, the formal "work weclc" wherein we labor for
money might drop IO 20 hours or less.
The ec:o-«onomy would run as much as possible
on solar energy, just IIS cco-sysu:ms run entirdy on solar
gain. Jt would mnke judicious use of "capital" ~ources.
such as fossil fuels, which are used according 10 lhcir
most efficient application as in Ille "soft energy path.•
Basic cco-«onomics means doing the following
10 the giealCSl extent possible:
River around Memphis, because the Chickasaws
were lhe great eastern horsepeople - like the
Sioux or the Plains Inruans. They were
absolutely incredible horsemen, and 11\~y w~re
great allies of the Cherokee. The two tnbes Just
loved each other, God knows why. A whole
village of Cherokees would move over and live
by a Chickasaw village for a year. Then 11\e
Cherokees would go back home, and the next
year the Chickasaws would show up and live by
the Olerokee village for a year.
ArchaeologistS have discovered things in
Cherokee mcdjcine bundles that were found only
in South America. That shows 1he extent of their
trade and their communication. They weren't
isolated from one anoilier.
When 11\e white people moved in and
m.fluenced the Cherokee, they staned trading for
productS. They would trade bushels of com,
He jusL didn't fit in.
The couple left for two weeks. While they
were gone, their house burned down, a.nd it was
rumored that someone had done it on purpose to
get nd of him. They came back, and his wife was
so sad 1ha1 they had lost their house, that the
community got together and built them a new one
nnd just put up with the man.
That's an old Labor Brigade story.
The tribe was self-sufficient in every way.
The tribe satisfied the basic needs of human
beings. One of those needs is community. We
have a need for community that comes from
tribalism. On the intimate level people filled that
need through the extended family; on another
level, it was fulfilled through communal
ecrcmony, which was one of the foundations of
their culture.
dried pumpkin, deerskins, probably chestnuts,
They had feast days or holy days at
and ginseng to the western people, and 11\ey got
important times during the year. The feast days
teehnology in return. The clan system gradually
were held to celebrate the blessing of the com or
turned into a capitalistic system, but they sill!
ceremonial occasions Like lighting the fire or
maintained the community gardens for a long
putting the fire out, bu1 they were also a
time, until (Chief John) Ross created an elaborate connection people made with each other. The
central government that could tell someone what
people would get together, there would be betting
to do, and the government started a tribal fund and gambling, the exchange of goods. and people
money, y'know. IL son of worked its way over
would undoubtedly share some genes around at
from the baner system to capitalism, but at the
those big gatherings, and at the same time they
same time the Cherokees have always felt loyal to shared the spirit around the tribe.
"the torso," the body of the tribe, although
It was the cement that held the culture
·occasionally it's been pretty sick. Today the
together. When that started crumbling, it was real
tribe's like everything else in the world tough. But remnan1s of it still exist. You can still
everything's got cancer.
see it here and there: the Labor Brigades, people
The Cherokee Labor Brigade, which was
helping each other out, or sometime you might
going strong up into this generation, was a
hear somebody talking ihe old way. things like
remnant of the time when everybody lived in the
that.
village, and the clans were like the extremities of
Today we have less ceremony in our lives.
the body supponing the torso. The people of the
We need certain kinds of ceremonies. If we don't
Labor Brigade would get together on Saturdays
have them. we create them, because ceremonies
and go to the house of somebody who needed
are very imponant to human beings.
help, like an old person who needed firewood
Everything's a fonnula. When you're
split or someone who needed their roof fixed.
making a little cake. you go by the formula. You
they would all pitch in nnd do the job and then
need some flour from the field, eggs from a
have a big pot-luck. Nowadays it's only some of
chicken, some honey, and then the last thing is
the older men who still do it, but it's a part of that' some heat, which makes it change from five
culture, maybe it'll come back.
different things into this one sweet little brown
J beard a story once. There was a
thing, a cake. It's no longer an egg and some
half-breed married to a full-blooded woman.
flour - but it is. h 's made up of a!J those partS.
They lived in Birdtown a long time ago, like in
Everything's formulistic. There is a
my grandfather's time. He was a drunk and lived
fonnula for our way of living. We need the com,
in this community where nobody drank. Whether
we need the honey, we need the ceremonies, they
they were Baptist or traditional or what, they
are all the raw materials. The fire is our
didn't believe in his drinking. They thought it
spirituality, which heats il and makes our cultuIC
was a bad thing. He was a rowdy person, too.
the way it is.
~
'
Sprtng, 1991
.....
Drawing by Rob Lcvcrcu
•Participate In, invest in, and support local,
ecologically responsible production by locally owned.
opcralCd, and con1.rol1ed entctprises.
•Buy, trade, and consume locally/ regionally
produced goods and services.
•Keep resources, capital, and energy at home;
plug leaks.
•Use solar energy and other •renewable" energies
and resources..
•Be radically efficient in the use or nonrenewable
resources.
•Practice intense cooscrvat.ion and efficiency in oil
sectors.
•Do full-scale -- 90 to 1ooi.. -- recycling,
utilitiog local/regional enlelpriscs.
•Pay true. CCQlogically audited costs: intemalizc
"externalities". It may hurt now. but it will pay off lalu.
•Wodt coward a fonnol or informal local/n:giona1
trading sy~tem o.r cumney.
•Support a humane and socially responsible
economy.
•Do not support businesses that pollute Ot destroy
the cnvironmcnl.
•Wherever humanly possible. do not buy from
national or multinational corporations or their
subsidiaries.
Each localily, region, biorcgion oc stnte should
have an up-to-daie dat.nbase on what is being sold and the
ownership of the company selling, within its bounds.
This infonnation should be furnished IO the public so
lhat people can choose a tocallrcgional allCmlllive where
possible. Development of economic altem:uivcs 10
national and l18nSrultional companies should be a focus oC
each regioru
Lee every economic act be ecologically conscious.
�THOUGHTS ON WORK, PRODUCTIVITY, AND
DEVELOPMENT:
UNRAYELLING THE MYTH OF 'THE FREE MARKET"
The refrain has become all too familiar.
environmental proiection means loss of jobs. we are told,
and if we would only let the corporate "£tee market"
[unction without interference. lhen everylhing would
magically work out for lite best. The "invistble band" of
lhe market •aulOJ'llatically" mainlllins economic balance,
we arc assured, and competition keeps prices low and
SWldards high, as well as providing mucb·occdcd "jobs."
Our economic difficulties :uc lhcrefore lhe result of lOO
much regulation, not 100 liu!c; we are simply not letting
the system function properly...
Of course, !hero is some trulh to lhese assertions but not very much. If "mnrlcet fon:es• are reaUy th:11
benevolent, lhen why are lhey (we) creating many
lecllnologics and coosumption pauems which are bolh
socially and ecologically destructive. Why is energy
conservation seen as somehow benealh us? Why is our
society fallmg apan at lhe seams? (Wasn·1 it largely lhe
DE-regulation of lhc 80's lhat led to outrageous financial
excesses of every description - !he • gxced is good"
memality which, we're now learning, we're going to be
P3ying for over seveml dcc:ldes?) Why do most peoples'
"jobs" consist of boring, unfulfiUing work which, more
often Lhan 1101, has a dctrirnenlal effect . ranging from
slight to tremendous - on our world and our lives? We
need onJr /l)Fk ~l.!!Jc,P.:_9Jl:l~.w01"Jna in ~Pll!l~
indUSlry, Or ~..
"!9rkiria \lfilh~Jhcu U~_.,_, JU\j I J
"military-industrial complex· and ilS off!hoots, or all !he
common household products - solvenlS, painis, delClgel\b,
aerosols, polishes, etc. - whose creation simulUlllcou.~ly
createS a multitude of toxic industrial by-products, and
which are oflCII luu:ardous or toxic themselves...
Oearly, theie is something very wrong with a
socio-economic system which rapidly undermines social
cohesiveness ond destroys the very resources upon which
our supposed "prospctity" depends! The manic. or
mMliacal - functioning of our present economy reminds
meofthoseold canoons III which lhc "hero" is silting on
a high tree branch nnd is vigorously sawing lhrough it on lhe side closer to the trceJ Or lhttc's the classic
comedy routine in which the "hero" is sawing a circle
wound hunsclf in the !loor and soon completes it - only to
fall through to the !loor below. In both c:iscs, lhc end
result of all that hard work is 1111 unforsocn disaster though anyone eV\:11 remotely aware of reality could !rive
forcsccn iL These comedy routines arc funny precisely
because !he coming dis:ister IS so complctcly obvious yet when we promoo:: an economy that is leading 10
immincm social ond ecological disasw. we seem
oblivious to !he danger. Laughably, not only is it NOT
obvious 10 us, but most of u.~ mightily defend our "right"
10continue on the same "prolil:lblc" palh! But here we
should learn something from lhe C3rl00ns • or we will
continue sawing away until we and our environment are
dcsu'Oyai.
9f
···········
All around our nation and !he world, the struggle
10 save our environment and our societies is moving into
high ge3r • and the issue of'jobi' and ·productivity'
occupies a central pl.ice m this S11Uggle. In the Pacific
Nonhwes1, environmentlllists rue desperately trying to
save 111e spoucd owl and its habitat, lhe rcmnantS of
once-huge old-growth foresb, while angry loggers cloim
lh:u TIIEY are now •an endangered species", and logging
Xatuan JoumaL page 22
I
II
comp:inies claim to be patriotically serving vital
socio-economic needs. And in Norlh Carolina and many
other stales, obsessive road-building and "development" are
Cervenlly supponed by businessmen, cconom,stS, and
politicians (and, of course. !he developers}, on the
assumption lhat economic prosperity and job availability
depend on more roads and more rapid "growlh.• This trend
continues unsb:ued despirestrong evidence that lhc
prosperity thus gained is very shon-lived, if tndced the
•standard of living' for the locals - the actual inhabitants
- ever DOES rise appreciably.
The reality behind the dream of qu,ck, bsung
prosperity 1s this: once lhe p~pcrity boom
accomp:1nying !he initial devel0pmcnt and eonsuuclion is
o~r. the local inhabitanlS IISUa.lly tl1ld up getting shafted.
Most of lhc big money - from mnnufoc1uriog, rCJuals,
chain depatunent sl.OreS and superm:irkcls, and lhe glut of
fast-food rcslllUl'8lllS - is funnelled out of lhe kx:aJ area and
into lhe bank accoun1S oC distant corporations and
developers, while "!he locals" are left to race the tong-term
prospect of menial "setVice jobs" and socially and
ocologicatly disrupted lives.
TREND #1: Dcspitc intensive "development" and
an influx of new tcehnologics and induslrics over lhc Jr.ISi
IS yc.ars, Lhe "standard of livmg" of lhc average American
has ran,n durin9 that,J,lmc pi:\iOd, and feal income has
been steadily faJliog. ~p.y.is iltis l)CCwril)g?
TRF.ND 112: During' th,s same period lhe richest
(and smallest) segment of the American populllcc has
go11C11 much richer, while lhe middle class and the poor
have goucn poorer. 11 ,swell.known lhat lhe reign of
"Frcc.-markct Rc:lg:inomics" (and its sequel,
"Bushonomics") has created more millionaires lhan any
previous "growlh decade.· The trouble is. II also created
mounlllins of debt. a horrendous banking crisis, many
more families and children living in povcny, and legions
or homeless and hopclc.ss pcoplc... lhc grim "dart. side" of
lhe supposedly unbiased, accessible. and
soctally-rcsponsive "free markcL •
QUESTION: Is the market rc3Uy "value- free." as
us proponents claim. and docs it really encourage
dcmocrauc paruc,pation and bcallhy socio-economic
divcr~i1y . or does its implicit value-prefcscnce for proli1 ;it
any price drhc the market (panicula.rly 111duj;Uy} to be
free of ethical considerations and compassion,
free to abusr the public lrUJ,I, and rree to
lgnort as many !IOCiRI and ecological
consequences :is po5.<>ible?
QUESTION: b it po:;s1ble I.hat the TRUTII
underlying lhe "free marke1" is I.hat it suppons a very
small. scff.3ppo1n1ed elite in ransacking our environment,
exploiting oilier people. and raking in vastly
disproportion:ue monetary rewaril'i? Docli our society
actually reward those who can most convincingly con
lite public 1010 bclieviog th!lt all lhi$ cxplo1tation :ind
"development" 15 for lheirown good and lhc good of lhe
country?
......•••.•.•....•••..•.......
The qucsuon or cnYIJ'Ollmenl:1.1 prcscrvauon vs.
"development" and jobs is without doubl a thorny one and it IS made even lhom,cr hy a multitude of dangCl'OU$
and unquc:suoned assumptions about the n31ure oC our
economic/ ecological re31ily. Such assumptions include:
I) lhc belief lhat environmellllll prot.ection IS the
prilll3J'}' factor behind job loss in industries such as lhc
by Richaro Lowenthal
wood produclS indllSlry, clcij>ite lhc fact that lhc true
culprits in MOST job loss are managerial greed and
callousness. industrial automation, corporate
"strcamliniog." and poor "resource managcmcnL •
2) !he belief th:lt endless extraction and
consumption of resoun:es is good for jobs and lhe local
economy, despite lhe fact th:lt when these resources are
dcple1ed !here me then NO rc1alCd jobs left m that area and the exuactors simply move on, leaving behind a
legacy or heightened monetaty ~tations and the
bitterness of a 'boom-tumcd-busL'
3} lhc belief lhat wori( and productivity must be
~ SOL.ELY hy amounts of Dlllterials e:ctraeted,
~ . and sold, and NEVER in terms of conscrvar.ion
or restoration of vital h:lbil:us. Due to lhis belief, we are
still reluctant to commit ourselves • and our money - to
ecologically-sound economic practices, and we stubbornly
refuse to fac10r into our economic accountmg lhe true
social and ecological cosu of our vaunted "free mar1ce1•
system.
4} lltebclieflhat pcoplearedcpendcnton the
"gcnerosil}'" of industry fa their jobs, :ind not on
themselves. the value of their own labor, or personal
involvement in lhcir communities.
S) the belief that del>-pite meaningless and
mcchanic:ll work. worker's "productivity" cnn be increased
solely by mtre3Slng 'll'agcs, WlTHOUT anyfac- in
workers' intete..u. involvcmcn1. or sntisfacuon.
......•.•................
The deeper problem th.at we a.re just beginning 10
confront is lhat we have crcrucd a 'cuhwc" based on mass
consumption and "!he consumer mentality.' When
maximum profit and consumption are our highest goals.
we of course seek only SHORT-TERM "efficiency" in our
extraction, production. and dlslribulion processes.. Under
lhe prime direcuvo or maximum profit and consumpuon,
·emcicm productivi1y• MUST mean producing the
grcaics1 amount of good.~ m lhe least possible time ot the
least possible cost • and lhen selling lhem al lhe gn:atcsl
price lhc market will bear, This kind of "productivity"
would more approprinlcly be called "dC5tructivity"; it
ignores long-term consequences. create.~ "needs" where
there were oonc, and trc.ats both naLUre and human beings
as objocL~ to be e:cptoilcd, u.,;cd up, and !hen forgo1tcn.
For most worlccrs, lhis ovat cxploillltion is 111en
·compensated" via insulllngly low monetary rewn.rds.
which nevcnheless enable~ to consume more goods·
which requires 111at we produce more, of course. The end
resuh • our REAL •gross 113lional product" - is a vic:ious
downw:ird spirnl of producc-scll-consume-lhrow away,
produce-sell-ronsumc-lhrow nway.• and n never-ending
"need" toc~ploit ond "develop" new areas once the old
ones :ue ei1haustcd or become "unproliwhle" in lhc eyes of
our Glorious God. the marketplace.
But now we have nowhere to move on 10, and our
113bnual ·rron1.1er· mcnlali1y no longer makes even
economic sense (ii NEVER mode sense ecologically).
The biosphere we live m is suddenly changmg - ,n our
human awareness - from a lim,tlc.s~ collection or
exploi1abte ·resources· 10 a fragile and endangered ecosystem w1lh limited "resource avnilabtlny." So now
something has 10 give, somclhing has to change in our
way of RELATING to lhe Earlh and all her divctSC
hfc.forms.
(conlinued on pegc 30)
Spr tng, 199 1
�..
• • t .
\ t
,!:\~
.
"
.. , &
••
... '
APPEAL HELPS BEE TREE
OUTSTANDING RESOURCE
WATERS
Nawn! World Ne..-. Service
Nanni World News Sc,vicc
The NC Division of Environmental
Management has reclassified 14 bodies of water
in the mountain region as OutStanding Resource
Waters (0RW). putting them under special
protection to maintain their high water quality.
The newly-listed 0RW's are:
South Toe River (Yancey County), Gipp
Creek (Cherokee County). Fires Creek (Clay
County), Cacaloochee Oeek (Haywood
County). Upper Nantahala River (Swain
County). Chattooga River (Macon County),
Henry Fork (Burke County). the Mitchell River
(Surrey County), Elk Creek (Watauga County),
the upper South Fork of lhe Mills River
(Henderson County). Wilson Creek (Avery and
Caldwell Counties). Jacob Fork (Burke
County). Upper Creek (Burke County), and
Steels Creek (Burke County).
Nominated for possible future 0RW
designation are Bearwallow Creek (Transylvania
County). the New River and its South Fork
(Waiauga and Ashe Counties), Panthertown
Creek (Jackson County), Garden Creek (Wilkes
County), and Bullhead Oeek (Wilkes County).
After a bitter fight, Alarka Creek (Swain
County) has been classified as a High Quality
Water (HQW), a body of water that is somewhat
protected. allhough not as stringently as the
0RW's (see KaJuah Journal #26). Toe Nonh
Fork of the Catawba River (McDowell County)
has been nominated for future inclusion as a
HQW.
Although 0RW status is supposed to be
strictly a matter of biological criteria, experience
has shown that designations are often swayed
by political considerations, so it would help
classification of creeks nominated for 0RW
status if interested people would write letters on
the behalf of the water bodies.
Any state resident can also request
reclassification of a water body as an 0RW or
HQW. The Division of Environmental
Management requires a detailed description of
the area suggested. an indication of the water's
quality, and a list of the special resources that
need prorection. The agency will send a list of
.the standards and regulations on request. Call or
write Suzanne Keene at the NC Division of
Environmental Management: Box 27687;
Raleigh, NC 276ll (919) 733-5083.
"SOMETHING STINKS"
N,nnl World New, Savice
Development is the first priority for the
town government of Highlands, NC. And if the
town government gets its way, Highlands will
spur development with a 500,000 gallon-pcrlU!Y sewage treatment plant along the Cullasaja
River.
Spri.n9, 1991
The Cullasaja is a Class B trout stream
and a spectacular scenic attraction. Toe river and
its unique attributes would be th.reatened by
presence of the plant. Presently a treatment plant
half the size of the proposed plant is dumping
effiuent into lakes below Highlands. Toe lakes
help somewhat to maintain the river, but the
quality of the Cullasaja is srill deteriorating,
according to aquatic biologist Dr. William
Mclarney. Toe new $5 million plant would
discharge below the lake druns and would
severely compromise the water quality
downstream.
The town of Highlands is cager to install
the plant - so cager that they were ready to begin
construction without an environmental
assessment or an environmental iropacr
statement. They publicized the project with
notices in the local Highlands paper and the
Asheville paper, but not in the Franklin Press
which might be read by county residents
downstream who would be affected by the
plant. Highlands Mayor John Cleaveland
explained their actions, saying that Highlands
has been paying more than its share of the
county taxes, and they should get to do what
they want with the river.
The NC Division of Environmental
Management (DEM) seemed to be abening the
move to rush construction of the plant: they
refused to hold a public hearing on the matter
until confronted by a petition bearing 2,082
signatures collected by county residents
organi7.cd by Peg Jones of CuJlasaja
Community.
Resident Lee Hollins summed up the
community's feelings about the way they had
been treated when he said, "Sewage stinks, but
in this case I smell something a lot worse, and
that's rotten politics."
The new treatment plant is much larger
than the present needs of the town of Highlands
require. Residents downstream know that a new
treatment plant would be an open door to more
development in the reson town. They arc not
willing to let the Cullasaja be polluted for the
sake of mon: condos, second homes, and golf
courses.
Those who want to speak out on behalf of
the Cullasaja River can write to the DEM at: Boit
27687; Raleigh, NC 27611.
To help the river preservation effon or
offer support, call Peg Jones of Save Our
Rivers, Inc. at: (704) 369-7877
In response to an administrative appeal by
the WeStcm Nonh Carolina Alliance (WNCA),
Regional Forester John Alcock of the US Forest
Service ruled that the proposed Bee Tree timber
sale in the Pisgah National Forest was in
violation of the Endangered Species Act and
ordered the Ranger district to make a complete
biological evaluation of the area.
The appeal victory will delay cutting on
Bee Tree and, the Alliance hopes. will compel
the Forest Service to gather complete
information about stands slated to be cut before
beginning logging.
The Regional Forester, however. denied
other arguments the Alliance tiad with the sale:
that the Forest Service was not considering a full
range of cutting alternatives, that they had not
made a complete analysis of the true cost of the
timber sale. that they were not ensuring safe use
of herbicides, and that the sale plan did not
follow the principles of sustainable
management
MAKING STUMPAGE
Nanni World News Savice
The US Forest Service National ForestS
in Nonh Carolina has announced that it is
raising its timber targets 18% for 1991 - from 63
million board feet to 75 million board feet for the
year.
This announcement came shortly after a
much-publicized declaration from the same
office to the effect that there would be less
clearcutting in the National Forests. When asked
how the Forest Service planned to cut back on
clcarcutting while simulatancously raising timber
targets, Forest Service environmental planner
Pat Cook said, "we will try to maintain our trend
towards less clcarcuning in proportion to the
total harvest."
Translated into ignorant (they hope) lay
people's terms, Cook's statement reads, "we're
not going to to do any less clca.rcutting, but we
are going to keep raising quotas so that it seems
like we'll be doing less clcarcutting."
Any other questions?
Onwlnc by Jim HOUS('r
A(atuah Journn! JXl9C 23
�SMOKEY EATS APPEAL
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Nawnl World News Se,,,icc
HEARINGS
1990 TIMBER LOSSES
REPORTED
Nanni World NcWJ Scrvlce
After a four year wait US Forest Service
Chief Dale Robenson finally responded to
objections lodged by the Wilderness Society to
the Land and Resource Management Plan
(LRMP} for the Cherokee National Forest. The
LRMP is supposed co guide agency management
practices for a 15 year period.
The objections were pr~ntcd as an.
administrative appeal. The Wtldemess Society
stated that the Forest Service was not fulfilling
its responsibility to maintain biological diversity
the Cherokee Nauonal Forest, was selling
timber below cost, and was not providing visual
beauty.
Under the National Forest Management
Act of 1976 the Forest Service is charged with
maintaining populations of native ~ies in .the
national forests. Many of these species reqUlre
old growth habitat. Forest Service plans to log
58 percent of the cove forest habitat in the
Cherokee would drastically reduce the amount
of old growth remaining and would also cut into
the supply of acorn mast that is vital to the
survival of many species of wildlife.
The Wilderness Society appeal also
pointed to the fact that below-cost timber sales
amounted to a public subsidy of the
deforestation of the Cherokee forestlands.
Tennessee senators Albert Gore and Jim Sasser
supported the point, saying in a Jetter to
Robertson that, "It makes little sense to
subsidize timber production on public lands in
the Southeast when the private lands provide far
and away the vast bulk of the timber used in the
region."
The Wilderness Society plans to pursue
its objections to the Cherokee Forest plan in
coun, as a civil lawsuit.
Narunl World News Service
What would you say if the government
asked you if you wanted nuclear weapons?
Well, for the first time in history, they're
asking...kind of.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is
sponsoring hearings to gather opinions on their
plans for building nuclear wenpons in the 21st
century. However. they are disguising the
hearings as "Programmntic Environmental Impact
Statement Scoping Hearings on the
Reconfiguration of the Nuclear Weapons
Complex." And, although the hearings are
supposed co be open to the public, the DOE is not
disclosing the dates.
But sometime between March 20 and July
31 hearings will be held in the 13 locations
where nuclear weapons are produced, including
Oak Ridge, TN. They will constitute the first
national referendum on nuclear weapons
production, and it is imponant that. despite the
obstacles, people make themselves heard.
For more infonnation and updates on the
times and locations of the hearings, write or call
Ralph Hutchison of the Oak Ridge
Environmental and Peace Alliance: Box l 101;
Knoxville, TN 37901 (615) 524-4771.
The US Forest Service (USFS) has
reponed the 1990 losses from its timber
extraction program in the Southern
Appalachians. As well as destr0ying the
old-growth forest habitat, the timber sales
accually cost the agency more money to set up
and carry out than they recoup from the price of
the stumpage. The difference is paid br t~e
taxpayers in what amounts to a roadbwlding and
habitat desttuction subsidy for the limber
industry.
In the national forests in North Carolina
the Forest SeTVice reponcd a loss of $2.0 I
million for the year. Georgia's national forests
came out slightly in the black, bringing in a total
profit of $233 thousand in the state, due to profit
made on the Ocoee National Forest. The
Chattahoochee National forest lost money.
However, in North Carolina and Georgia the
Forest Service keeps its tallies on a state-wide
basis and refuses to disclose totals for the
individual forests, so that the more profitable
national forests in the piedmont cancel out
somewhat the losses in the Appalachian national
forests.
In 1990 the USFS timber program in
Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest cost
taxpayers $654 thousand, and in Virginia's
Jefferson National Forest the timber program
lost $969 thousand last year.
"YOUR GOOSE IS COOKED"
...Then there are the hot geese of Oak
Ridge. According to the August (1990)
Scientific American, geese on the 35,000-acre
Oak Ridge Reservation have been detected wuh
up 103,950 picocuries of cesium-137 per gram
of breast meat. "In tenns of Christmas dinner,
just one pound would deliver almost 100
millircms, which is the generally accepted
standard for nnnual exposure."
Rrprinirdfrom IM Watrrn ,Vu.-tlt Carolina Alttatlt!c Acc:mt.
Foll.l9'm.
FI:'\E WITH ~lE
Nmir•I World Jl:ewi Sef\'1cc
Draw111g by Rodney Webb
The J.L. Todd Auction C.Ompany, a
Georgia-b;tSed lnnd developer, has nccn fined
S206.400 for violations of the NC
Scd1men1a1ion Pollution Control Act.
"lbi~ is a landmark penalty, the biggest
sedimentation pollution line in the history of
North Carolina, " said Don Follner of the :-;c
Depanmen1 of Environment, I lealth, and
Natural Resources (DEHNR).
The company was fined $103,200 for
violating the sedimentation act on a site in
Jackson County five miles north of the Qualia
Bound.iry on Route 19, and J.L. Todd, as
owner of the property and director of the
company was assessed an additional $103,200.
According lhe state DEHNR officials, the
violations occurred \\hen Todd built access
roads on a 10 acre tract (part of 1,000 acres he
owns in the area) that had been ;1uc1ioned off in
small parcels for residential development.
Richard Phillips of the DEi INR office in
Asheville said, "h's fairly serious due to the
large tract involved and the proximity Lo
!itrcams."
"I DON'T WANT TO SEE
NO ORV"
The US Forest Service (USFS) is
proposing a five-mile extension to an Off-R_oad
Vehicle (ORV) trail in the Nolichucky D1stnct of
the Cherokee National Forest near Greeneville,
TN. The extension would tie the area into an
"extensive net\,ork." of ORV trails, according to
a USFS spokesperson.
Other forest users feel that there is already
entirely too much ORV traffic in the area and
that the noisy vehicles are a grave thrc:u to
habitat. There have nlready been c.ornplaints
about the OR V's from hikers on the Appalachian
Trail and residents of the Shelton Laurel area
.
just over the Slate line.
As planned, the extension w~ld pas~
between two bear preserves, greatly increasing
access and rcsulting disturbance: in an atCfi .
where building up the black bear populauon is
supposedly a t0p priority. Bears ~hy away from
human intrusion.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency has already voiced objections to the
proposed trail. ·,:·he more activity ~nd the more
access you have m there, the less likely you are
to have a good bear population," said Ron
Saunders, a biologist with the agency.
C.Omments on the potential threat of
ORV's 10 wild habitat in the Cherokee National
Forest can be addressed to the forest
headquarters at: Box 2010; Oeveland, TN
37320.
Contpil,:d 111por1frqm a rcp(JII III lhe A!hc•illc C,ti1en.
Spn119. 1991
�SHELTON LAUREL
Natural World News
SPECIAL REPORT
"The trees are so high so the legend goes
They grow all the way to the sky.
And they were here before you were born
And they'll be here the day that you die."
Waltzing with the Mountains
Shelton Laurel is situated in nonhem
Madison county, near the Nonh
Carolina-Tennessee state line. Shaped by the
high ridges and cascading slopes, gently
forested and filled with the sounds of rumbling
branches and streams, it is a beautiful and rich
land, special to the people of the community.
Things have come a long way since the
first white settler in the Shelton Laurel area lived
in a hollowed-out poplar for a season until he
got his cabin built. The forests have changed:
the people, the streami;, the wildlife, the way of
life have all undergone tremendous change. But
it is still evidem that there are people living here
who love these mountains and don't want to see
things change too fast or change for the worse.
There a.re recreational areas used for
fishing, and hunting as well as rugged wild
places in the portion of the Shelton Laurel
watershed that is overseen by the US Forest
Service (USPS). Although these areas seem
serene, they are the subject of controversy· a
controversy between two different interest
groups: those who want to extract the wealth of
the forest and those who a.re interested in having
it remain whole.
This difference of interests goes back
many years, and it currently centers on the
evolving role of the Forest Service. The Forest
Service once was seen as the protector of the
woods. Now it is now seen as an agency
protecting a financial invesanent A life-long
resident of Shelton Laurel, Haze Landers,
remembers a time when the Forest Service
wouldn't let anyone take so much as a single
tree for firewood . "I thought they were set up to
protect the forest.", Haze said. Now, after years
of poor logging pmctices and below-cost sales,
he sees the Forest Service in a different light:
"They don't love these mountains. If they did,
they wouldn't treat 'em this a'way."
The folks in Shelton Laurel have plenty of
other reasons besides poor timbering practices 10
dislke the Forc:.t Service. Back in the late
l 970's, when the RARE !I surveys were being
conducted, residents were told by Forest Service
employees that if the national forest in their area
were designated as "wilderness." they would no
longer be allowed 10 hunt, fish, or camp on the
land.
However, this is patently untrue. and
some of the folks in Shelton Laurel wish they
could have another opponunity to designate the
area as a wilderness, because now the forest
faces clearcuning. roadbuilding. and herbicide
poisoning - all the atroeities that accompany
timber harvesting.
-Sp ri.t,9·, t9 9 l
A CONSTITUENT'S LETTER
~anuary 24, 199·
Representative Charles Taylor Dear Mr. Taylor:
I hate roadbuilding on Federal Forest
Service land.
I hate clearcutting.
I hate below-cost timber sales.
I want all of these things to stop.
Yours truly,
Haze Landers
Marshall, NC
On January 24th the community held a
meeting in L'\urel School to discuss concerns
about preliminary plans for four timber sale
projects in Shelton Laurel. The meeting was
hosted by the French Broad Forest Walch
(FBFW). a citizens' group established two years
ago to panicipate in dialogue with the Forest
Service and make suggestions for the
management of the French Broad Ranger
District rn attendance that evening were about
50 people from the community, Forest Service
personnel, and Congressional aides.
Mary Kelly, Phd., ecologist, coordinator
for the Western Nonh Carolina Alliance, a
member of the FBFW, and a Shelton Laurel
resident. explained the four proposed timber
sales in Brigman Hollow, Little Prong,
Sugarloaf, and White Oak Flats in plaiin terms.
The Forest Service plans to cut 11 million board
feet of timber and build 6.8 miles of new road.
As the primary method of "harvest" would be
clcarcutting, that would translate into 805 acres
of cleared and roaded land in Shelton Laurel in
the course of the next three years.
The new District Ranger for the French
Broad District, Kimberly Brandel, said that she
is interested in listening to the concerns of the
people and is planning to do an "area analysis"
to look at the entire area as a whole instead of as
separate timber sales. She also stated that "no
decisions" had been made and thal the four sales
in question are "not even being considered at
this time." Meanwhile, the figures still reflect
the board feet quotas, the survey tape still flaps
in the breeze from the trees, and long-rime
residents remember, "We've been lied to by the
Forest Service before."
Pat Cook. a planner for the Forest
Service. tried for more than half an hour to
explain the need for management in the forest
and how the Forest Service is presently revising
and re-evaluating their views of timbering
methods such as clearcutting.
But Mary Kelly pointed out that the
projected ASQ (Allowable Sale Quantity for
timber) for the French Broad District for fiscal
year 1991 is expected to be 6.5 million board
feet (mbO. This is up from 5 mbf in 1990. And
now more recent infonnation indicates that lhe
ASQ for the French Broad could go as high as
8.5 mbf.
One local farmer spoke out saying, ''If
she's got to tum out six and a half million feet,
that seems to be it." But Ranger Brandel
answered that no matter what her ASQ, she was
first and foremost "committed 10 stewardship"
and that she W3S \'\1lling to "listen to what the
people want."
At that point, one member of the FBFW
called for a show of hands.
"How mnny people want to see Shelton
Laurel preserved the way it is?" The response
was almost unanimous.
"Well, that ought 10 tell you what we, the
people of this community, want."
Obviously the folks of Shelton Lautcl are
not interested in seeing the forest health
"restored" through resource management They
prefer seeing the land in its present healthy state.
As Haze Landers secs it, ''They say it'll grow
back to its original state in 250 years. So why
wait? It'll stay ihat way for the next 250 years if
they don't cut it down. We got generations of
kids between now and then who'll never know
what it was like if they cul it down."
The citizens making up the French
Broad Forest Watch can be proud of their effons
in staying ahead of the game with the Forest
SCIVice and infonning the community of what is
to come in their ranger district They are
definitely setting a precedent for what needs to
happen throughout the entire bioregion.
Their neighbors in the Cherokee National
Forest could learn much about the type of
recreation and forest activities that are
life-sustaining and non-desbllctive. Just over
the ridge, across the state line. in the Cherokee
National Forest, roads and ORV (off-road
vehicle) trails are being cxccnded deeper into the
bean of the forest. This is a matter of concern to
FBFW members, as they see the ecosystem as a
whole, and do not wish to see the habitat
disturbed.
When people in communities such as
Shelton Laurel take a stand and hold their
ground, it is like a breath of fresh mountain air
in the polluted wind.,; of change. Such effons
will take hard work. the kind of work that
people of the mountains know well. But the
effons to save these mountains do not go
unrewarded. As Haze put it, "There ain'
nothin', nothin' nowhei:c. that the Lord ever
created, I don't think, that can beat the looks of
these mountains...with the water in the streams
a'comin down betwixt 'em. I don't think He
built anything any better. Honestly, Tdon't
believe He cou1d'vc. I figure Ile thought we'd
be so poor, He'd have to give us somethin'."
- by Rodney Webb
�(H20). and carbon dioxide (CO2). This is why
t
OFF THE GRID
REGIONAL FUELS
by Jim Houser
- In Nownber and December I logged abo111 50 milts
driving my van around Boone on ethanol. -
Last issue, I said I would delve deeper into
the question of water power. Since !hat time,
however, there have been certain major tragic
events which pcnain directly to our dependence
on grid energy, in this case oil.
Seventy percent of all the oil used in this
country is used by the transportation sector, as
anyone, who has had the misfortune of driving a
car in downtown Boone on Friday afternoon, is
probably aware. We all depend a great deal on
our automobiles. They are essentially a necessity
if we want to get to and from work everyday,
especially in this region where mass transit is so
scarce.
The consequences of this dependence are
now painfully obvious. As a nation, a people, we
in the United States like to think we are in control
of our own destiny. But now, if you believe our
leaders. the actions of a single individual (and his
anny). left us with absolutely no alternative but
to fight an extremely costly and deadly war.
Docs this have 10 be so? Do we in lhc Katuah
region have recourse 10 other fuels besides
gasoline to drive our vehicles? Is it possible for
us to develop a regional supply of fuel which
would suengthen our regional economy while at
the same time free us from being economically
dependent on a bunch of countries many of us
would have been hard pre.~sed to find on a map
just a few monrhs ago?
The leader in the use of alternatives to
gasoline in this area is the Rural Public
Transponation Authority (otherwise known as
AppalCART}, headquancrcd in Boone, NC.
According to Chris Turner, director of
AppalCART,
In and of itself, public 1111nsponation, even when 11
uses gasoline. is a way to reduce our dependence on
foreign oil. A bus carrying 50 people uses a lot less gas
than 50 separate catS, as well as reducing traffic congestion
and air pollution, two problems which Boone i.~ beginning
to ex pcricncc.
AppalCART carries the conservative role of
public 1ranspona1ion one step funher by actively
experimenting with fuel aJtcma1ives. They have
eight vehicles which use propane as a fuel.
Being a fossil fuel like gasoline, propane is
also a grid fuel delivered to this area from Texas.
via a single pipeline. Nevenhclcss, it is a much
cleaner burning fuel than gasoline, due to 1he fact
lha1 it enters the engine as a true gas. ralher than
an atomii.ed liquid like gasoline. Liquids bum
(instead of exploding like gases), leaving behind
carbon deposits which foul oil and lead 10 the
deterioration of an engine. The complete
combustion of a hydrocarbon gas like propane
(C2H6) produces nothing more than water
Xntunfl Journot pmic 26
vehicles which must operate indoors. like
forklifts. use propane as a fuel.
Propane, however, is still a fossil fuel and,
clean as it may be, the carbon dioxide its
combustion produces adds to the Greenhouse
Effect, underscoring the reason why all fossil
fuel use must eventually be cunailed.
Propane would be a good vehicle fuel for the
coming transition period when we will have ro
switch to a non-fossil fuel trnnsponation system.
Its use would reduce smog, and it would
introduce society at large to the concept that
vehicles do run on something else besides
gasoline. In addition. a propane fuel system
could easily be modified 10 accept melhanc (since
they are both gases), and methane is a tested
vehicle fuel. The East Ohio Gas Company of
Nonh-East Ohio runs an of their company
vehicles on natural gas. The advamoge of
methane is that it can be of non-fossil fuel origin.
Methane (CH4), more commonly known as
natural gas, comes from oil wells, but it is also
found in swamps (swamp gas), septic tanks,
landfills, and biogas digesters (technology
specifically designed 10 harvest methane).
Actually, it is found anywhere organic matter has
been cut-off from oxygen. Bacteria which can
only live in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic),
consume the organic matter and "breath" Cll4,
instead of CO2 like oxygen (aerobic) organisms.
Non-fossil methane can be made in a few
weeks in a biogas digester or landfill. Biogas
digesters are very common in some countries.
China has an estimated 7 million diges1ers.
Communities are already required to vent
their landfills in order to prevent methane
explosions. Enlightened communities are
capturing and using that gas.
Bio-fuel, like non-fossil methane, is energy
harvested from a currently active and ongoing
biological process. Therefore, as long as there are
there are plants growing to replace the ones
harvested for fuel, the combustion of biofucls
does no1 add to the Greenhouse Effecr.
Another common biofuel is ethanol or ethyl
alcohol (com squeezens). Ethanol is harvested
from the fermentation cycle (yeast consuming
glucose and excreting alcohol). We can utilize lhe
energy in alcohol by completing the combustion
process begun by the yeast - turning alcohol into
carbon dioxide and water.
This process does not necessarily destroy the
food cycle, as many people contend The organic
remains left in the fermentation 1ank (stillagc) arc
a high protein foodstuff. Essentially all the com
grown in this nation's "com belt," goes through
the fermentation cycle at large industrial plants
(Archer Daniel Midland, and Staley). The alcohol
is sold to oil companies, the carbon dioxide to
soda companies, and the stillagc to livestoek
owners.
Dunng the 1980's AppalCART was actively
producing and using ethanol, thonks to a
Department of Energy grant from the Caner
administration's Alternative Energy Small Grants
program.
They have on-site a working still capable of
producing I0,000 gallons of ethanol fuel ( 180
proof) per year.
The program is not currently active for a
number of political reasons. and because they had
difficulty converting a vehicle to run satisfactorily
on their alcohol. 1l1is docs not mean that alcohol
is not a good fuel. Over half the vehicles in brazil
run on pure ethanol harvested from sugar cane,
and their vehicles are ma.de by the Ford Motor
Company and Volkswagen. In this country
manufacturl!rs are just beginning to introduce
flexible fuel vehicles which will run on a variety
of liquid fuels, including alcohol.
Since AppalCART experienced some
difficulties converting vehicles. I decided to srudy
up and do a conversion of my own. so that I
could beuer understand the difficulties they
encountered_
Fonunately, Talready had an old 1966 Ford
Econoline Supervan with a 240, in-line six
cylinder engine, which, luckily enough, was
essentially the same kind of engine AppalCART
had worked with.
l found that, as fuels, the essential difference
between alcohol and gasoline is that gasoline
requires a 15/1 air-to-fuel ratio for good
combustion while alcohol only requires a 9/1
air-to-fuel ratio. This ratio can be changed in the
carburetor by adding more fuel or decreasing the
air. For a number of reasons, the main one being
simplicity, I chose the air restriction method.
Appa!CART. and most conversions in the
literature. pursued the route of adding more fuel.
Mother Earth's 1979 Mother's Alcolwl Fu.el
Seminar is probably one of the best explanations
of this conversion scheme. However, a manual
from the State Fair Community College in
Sedalia, Missouri (816/826-7100 ext 220)
entitled Conversion of Gasoline Engines to Use
Ethanol as rhe Sole Fu.el points out that the liquid
systems in a carburetor arc precisely calibrat~
and independent of the operator. while the arr
flow, through the use of a manual choke. is
under the control of the driver and can be varied
for a wide range of speed and load requirements.
They install a metal sleeve in the carburetor
venturi to reduce the amount of air.
So I spliced a five gallon plastic gas can into
my fuel line before the fuel pump (plastic is
necessary because alcohol will rust metal). With
the simple rum of a valve r could switch from gas
to alcohol. This way l could start on gasoline (1he
way all Brazilian cars do). and then switch to
alcohol when 1he engine got hot. At the end of
my trip I would switch back to gasoline in
preparation for my next stan.
Even without the addition of a venturi sleeve
this system worked quite well. By simply closing
my choke a bit l was able to drive all over Boone.
My only real problem was speed on _lhe big hills,
which might be alleviated by advancmg the
timing and adding lhe venturi sleeve.
The best thing about the 50 miles J drove on
alcohol was they were relatively clean. With the
help of Bob Chandler who runs the power lab. r
checked my emmissions on an exhaust gas
analyzer at Watauga lligh School. On alcohol my
carbon monoxide emissions were reduced to
0.2% from the 6.5% of gasoline. Hydrocarbons
were reduced from 100 ppm 10 27 ppm. These
alcohol exhaust emissions are well within the
current guidelines.
The possibility or small farms generating .
their own fuel for on-fann purposes could easily
be a reality. This combined with the use of
subsidized energy crops for public transponation
could be the beginning of a truly regional energy
economy, helping 10 bring meaningful work and
economic security to our local communiti1/
A.nyoN 1nttrated"' a,,.,,,, "' <kpth look at the
A.ppalCA.RT a/£olwlf~I protram ~"" smd SS.00 to, OFF 11/E
GRID. Rt I , Bux J OO. 8/u,w,g Rod , NC 28605 f<>r a ror, of
my rrport A.ppalCART Alrohol ,..u~l l'rogrom
,hu~•mrnl Mis 20,0()() word rq,ort tlioroughly ro,·,rs tliL:
ph) ,u:aJ and admirustrotrw a.<per:u cf the program as "ell as the
baclrwnd rcwvdt I did an vehick ~on··~rstnrt Spn tUJ , I !l9 I
�LETS
What is LETS?
LETS Network 1s a Locru Economic Trading System
which helps people trade their goods and services so they
can get what they need without using cash. LETS is an
information exchange which through a computer or
bookkeeping keeps track of account holdcts' trading
ll1lllsactions.
The benefits of LETS arc:
I) Encourages sclf-confid;:ncc and initiative among its
u~. People who have previously valued themselves on
lhe employment market discover Ihm they ha,·e olher
skills and ways in which they earn money
2) Stimulates local trading activity, as the currency Clln
only circulate locally. In order to cam "emcmld dollars"
(the community currency), people must tr.we with local
p:ople
3) Transactions strengthen personal relationships and
goodwill w11hin a community, as trading always involves
a personru one.10-onc arrangement.
How did LETS begin?
LETS was established in 1983 by Michael Lin1on, who
was concerned about the high unemployment rat.e in
Vancouver, BC. He observed that while many local people
had ~kills and products to offer, their lack of money
prevcnt.ed them from trading with each other. By 1987, e
do,en LETSystems were opcr:uing in Canadn.
Who can join LETS?
AU members or the community can join. LETS docs not
discriminate on lhe basis of r.ice. sex, nationruity. age,
sexual preference, lilUlllcial staws, or political orientation.
RESOURCES
Books
•Berry. Thomas The Dream of the Earth (Sierra
Club Books, San Francisco, 1989)
•Berry, Wendell /Jome Economics (North Point
Press. San Francisco. 1987)
•Daly. Herman and John Cobb For lhe Common
Good. Redirecting the Economy Toward
Community, the Environmenl, and a Sustainable
Furure (Beacon Press, Boston. 1989)
How is LETS organized?
LETS Network has a Membership directory which lisLS
311 its members alphabetically. as well as their goods C1nd
services. Members needing goods or scr.·1ccs conLXt other
members who offer what they netd. Aftcr a tr.msac1ion has
been agreed upon and complcccd, :1 roccipt su11ing the
amount u-ansact.ed 1s scm 10 lhe LETS Network. The
network keeps track of lhe tmnsactions. Traansactions are
accounted for in ·emerald dolm" (the community
currency) which equals cash • dollar for dollat. Exchanges
can occur in a combination of emeralds or cash. Members
choose who they wish ID trnllsac1 with and for what
amounts.
How does LETS work?
The account holders of LETSysLCm lis1 what their wan&s
are and what they have 10 offer in a directory. for eimmple:
068-·StMPLE CAR MECHANIC
Rosie ~53773
069-·LA WN MOWINO
Dave 339-990S
07S··BUJLDING WORK
Andrew 442-9878
086-FRESH VEGETABLES
Jtll 776·2024
•Morrison, Roy Building the Road as We Travel:
Mondragon's CooperaJivt Society (New Society
Publishers, 1990)
•Power, Thomas The EcofllJmic Pursuit of Quality
(M.E. Shnrpc, 1988)
•de Romana. Alfredo, Tht Autonomous Economy:
An Emuging A/Juna1ive to Industrial Society
(Monchanin Cross-Cultural Centre, 4917. Rue St.
Urbain, Monucal. Quebec, C:tnada H2T 2\VI;
1989)
•Schumacher, E.F. Small is Beautiful: Economics
as if People Ma11ered (Harper and Row, New York,
1989)
•Eller, Ronald Mintrs. Mil/hands, and Mountaineers
(University of Tennessee Press. 1982)
•Elgm, Duane. Voluntary Simplicity: An
Ecological liftsryle tha1 Promotts Personal and
Social Renewal (Ban&am, 1982)
•Hacnke, David. Ecological Politics and
Bioregionalism. (The Biorcgional Projccr, New Life
Farm, Box 3, Brixey. MO 65618)
•Hau de no sau nee Nation, A Basic Call 10
Consciousness (Akwcsasnc Not.es. Mohawk Nation,
Periodicals
•Catalyst. Investing in Sot:ial Change P.O. Box
364; Worcest.er, VT 0S682
•In Busintss Box 323; Emmaus, PA 18049
•Katuah Journal (particularly Issue 7; Spring, 1985)
Audio Tape
Rooscvch., NY 13683; 1978)
•Philosophy and Economics in the Ecozoic Era
Conftrence with Al/rt.do dt Romana and Tlwmas
Berry, Tapes available from: Center for Reflection
•Hawken, Paul, Tht Nut EcofllJmy
on the Second Law: 8420 Camellia Dnvc; Raleigh.
NC 27612.
•Henderson, Hale! 11:e Policies of the Solar Agt'
•McRobic, Ocorgc, Small is Po.rsible
Projects & Organi,.ations
•Morgan, Oriscom I/ope for tht Future
(Community Setvicc, Box 243. Yellow Springs,
OH 4S387; 1987)
•Allernathe Economic Development Idea~,
MCED; University o( MO (628 Clark Hall);
Columbia, MO 6S21 I. Strategics. tools, case
studies for communily-ba.'iCd planning.
Spnm,J, 1991
++means "to offer" and - means "Wlllllcd.•
People get in touch with each other and negotiate a Lradt.
Rosie agr~ to pay Bob SO emerald dollar.; for five hours
of car mcchrulics, so Bob's emerald account goes up by
SSO and Rosie's account goes clown by SS0. No money is
exchanged. Bob sends a receipt to LETS which is
rcgi!;tcrcd in lhe books. The sum total or "acdits" in !he
system always balances ei,;actly lhe sum iolal of the
"debits." Account holders am take out "I0311S" simply by
spending cmemld dolllll'$ and running up a debit accounL If
a member leaves town. the sys1.em as a whole absorbs the
loss, ns shareholders and customers do with normal
banking losses. (This has never happened.) The more
account-holders there ore, the grcau:r the variety of tmde ts
possible. The LETSyst.em is a non-profit system. No
int.crest is charged on "ovcitlrafts.• and no interest given on
pos1 li vc account balances.
This inform111wn was exurptedfrom 1he "LE'fSNEWS~
article by Sarah F1111Sle.r itr News Crom Aprovocho.
Drawing by Rob M_,..jck
· Coalition for J obs and the F.m ironment
Working ror environmental quality and economic
ju.slice in NE Tennessee and SW Virginia.
• Bi-monthly newsleucr from CJE: 114 Court Street;
P.O. Box 64S; Abingdon, VA 24210 (703)
628-8996.
• E. F. Schumacher Society
Box 76, RD 3: Great Barrington. MA 01230
lnformauon on SHARE (Sclf·Hclp Association for
a Regional Economy) end "berksharcs•, an
alternative regionru currency.
•lnstilutl' ror Community Eco nomics
ISi Montague City Road; Greenfield, l\fA 01301 A
wealth of ideas and information including The
Community Loan Fund Manual and revolving loan
funds.
•Institu te ror Local SeJf.Reliance
242S l8lh Street NW: Washington, DC 20009;
(202) 232-4108. Provides ~ h , information, and
direct I.C(hnieal essisuince 10 citie.~ and towns.
V:iricty of pubbshcd papers available.
• LETS (Local Em p loyme n t Trad ing
System) Find out about lhis dynamic approach 10
regional currency. LETS; 37S Johnson Avenue;
Coutc03y, BC V9N 2Y2 Canada
•Rcgtneration Project
Rodalc Press; 33 E. Minor Street; Emmaw.. PA
18049, Promotes community regeneration,
particularly in the area of health, ctonomy. and
agriculture. Also publi.•,hes Regmeration magazine.
•School or LMng
RD I, Boit 1508 AA: Spring Orovc, PA 17362.
r-ocuscs on al1cma1ivc economic sy~1cms and
concepts: publi.~hcli Grun Revolution ncwslcucr.
Xaumr, Jo\&nmt
paqe z:,
�..
We must come to Ille understanding that the
amount of production possible is limited, llS the canh is
lim1ted in the amount of rcsowtes it is able to yield. We
should not treat Ille earth os a commodity, bul rather as a
community.
Adam Smith's concept oC the "Invisible Hand,•
which he claimed wiU guide our selftSh pursuiis of
supply and derrumd lO a 1111wral economic order, is (lawed.
As World Baok economist HetmM D31y says:
ShD11Td tltue IIO/ al lm1' be a mini"""" ,t~a,dsJ11p of
DRUMMI N G
To &he EditorS of KOJ@h Journal 1 read wilh inlCrCSt your Summer, 1990 number
oo "Canying Cap:lcity.• Very inlCrCSting matcrilll lhcrc,
and some very powerful ideas.
I was particularly intrigued by the graph oC
population coordinated wilh thc evcnJS or regional
history. Thal graph lod me into an interesting uain of
lhought.
Once iribal societies that lived off lhe land
regulated their populotions to what lhcir defined
ICl'ritories could provide. The economy of each group was
relaled to the available n:sowccs of !heir regioos. and
because lhe balance of population was aucial to survival,
it was a tnbal maucr, not a question of individual
preference. Things were very clear back lhen.
As was pointed out in lhe "Carrying Capacity•
issue, !he bioregion is sliU the n:uuml unil or human
hJbiution, however much we may au.empt to conceal
that by victimizing workers in other regions. importing
scarce resources, etc. tr we over-strcsS our bioregioru,
then that stress will only be passed on to other regions,
until lhe whole planet feels the suain. as is happening
now. Like those LribaJ people of yore, we once again
have to live within the economic limits of our
bioregion.~. The humM population still has to be
balanced to the re1,'10n's ability to provide,~ it was then,
which makc.s popufation conlli)I an ecological question
as well as a quc;;tion oS individual choice. It is up to lhe
people of each region to n:cognize how many people
!heir region could mainiain wuh external suppons, and
then accept !hat level as a goal to approach - gradually.
Bccnusc we over-consume so much, every
irutividual in this country counts for more in tenns of
rc,,()W'CCS, TI!en:fore, llS well as reducing our
consumption, wc must be very responsible about
keeping our number.. under control. Regional population
goots clccided by the people of the 111gion based on lhe
limiis of their regional economies seem like a necessary
ecological policy, b111 also one lhlll would grc:uly
11lCJ'C3Se the prosperity and wdl-bcing of the people or
each biorcgion. Thanks co Ka1uah Journal for the insight!
Sincerely,
Hoyt Wilhelm
N. Wilkesboro. NC
Dc.irKatUDh,
It is with sadness that l inform you that my
husband. Jack Combes, died of ()3llCre®C cancer in
Tampa, Florida on May 2 ISi, 1990. The world has lost n
long time dediaucd informed environmcnraliSI.
Jack supported your programs and your
publication, bu1 now you may n:move his name from
your mailing lisL
Wishing you continued WCCC.51;
Sancerely,
Nina C.Ombcs
De.Ir Ka1uah,
I read in the last issue that Ka1@h is going
lhrough difficult times. I wi.~h you all well - Ille jOurnal
is a bright $J)Ol in my life.
1M land. raJJiu tlian ltaving 1M •invisib/1/o«• nu, by theprofil
tJo, only t:onlrolling /1JC1or.
The invisible fooc in this case would be the
aftermath of poorly managed land. Daly poinlS out the
sukiJit "111vulbk liands", k
Dear Friends,
The Unil.Cd Swc.s oC America has a unique and
amazing culuue. It has provided a great many things 10
large numbers of ilS pOpublion. M:lss production has
produced not only large quMtiues of J¥0(lucts, but has
done so cheaply, due in pan 10 11 readily available soun:e
of cheap fuel, namely oil. What is our rcutionship 10
Ille production of oil? Clearly we are dcpcndem on ii,
but 10 what extcnt? With oil we run our ua111,-ponauon
sySICms, communications, heating and electricity. Oil
and its products enable us to produce linoleum tiles, latex
and acrylic paints, clothes, dyes, plnstic bottle.\ toys,
etc. Needless lO say, oil and ourculwre arc ine~tricably
in tenwined.
Problems arose when we bcgM 10 131c.e llus
resource for granlCd, conducting business as though there
were a constant and readily available supply. Oil is a
finite resource, and we arc using u at a ru1e fa.~tcr lhlln
natw-c is able to produce iL Evenwally we are going to
run out of it. and we are going to have to SUJ'l thinking
about 1C11ewablc fuels. Our society has become addicted
to instant gratification and Ille quiclc fut, plummeting
headlong into the fuaure wit.bout much forcthooght or
plnnning. Many of us have not truly considered Ille fact
1h31 the cycle of rcnewability with oil is hundreds of
millions of years. Oil dates back m time to a period 300
million 10 S00 million years ogo. As Jim Houser wri!Cl;
m l\fom~ntwn, I do not wnnt to sec our society, "Bum
as brightly as the sun
only 10 fmd lhat we "[grew)
while the growing was good, wid oow must die as Ille
dying is proved.· As Ille laws or lhetmodynamics Leach
us, "The star which burns twice as brightly only bums
half as long."
Due 10 our dependency on 011, wc have lost toUCh
with ourselves, our culture and the earth cycles which
ultimately suppon us. No longer have we an
understanding of the mechanisms, l.bcories and soences
which have produced our cultural anifaas, and we begin
to ta.kc !hem for grunted. We rely almost entirely on oil
to run our "Cree mnrkct" economy.
This "Cree mnrtct• ecooomy leads to an
overproduciton of goods. In ordct to com()CIC and still
mainiain a profit, priCC$ must drop and sales must
increase along with an maeasc Ill production.
C.Omp:inies are look.ing for low wage wortcers. which
help add lO their overall profits. A company may even
threaten 10 take ils business elsewhere (pcrtiaps to o lhinl
world country where the wages arc really low), unless
union concessions arc made. The employed worker must
worlc longer hours to make Lhe same amount of money
and maintain the same standard of living. Nevcrthelcs.~.
leisure ume and quality of life is sacrific:c:d, as wdl as an
understanding of the eanh S}'Slcrns which would
ultimately bring them security. We would be well
advised to listen 10 the word.~ of David Brandon in the
book Zt.ia in the Art of Helping, wherein ll is stal.Cd:
can:
COSl to our environment:
MUJtw•fortM .~ of1<nl11niudincreasuofwclJllll
and pop11/a,ion, atirpal, great """'1¥n ofsp«w ofrar, p/anls
and onimals and resources.
When wW our psychic incomes be satisfied?
Perhaps never. We an: IOO caught up in Ille economic
paradigm to be able to see past our.;clvcs.
Rachel Summas
Boone.NC
Fnends-
After reading more about tl1e matriarchal Ooddess
religions in The GrcOJ Cosmic Mothu of All, lltis sacred
symbol came lO me. I was thinldng how all the art and
symbols of pre-history were in honor of the
Mother-female-woman's body. While I am in reverence of
that, l also felt a lack of powerful male symbols in
reverence of lhnt aspect of mutu31 creation. C.Ombining
the spiral of life, often associated wilh women/birlh,
wilh the pointed arrow (obviously Phallic), lhis symbol
came to me and felt powerfully whole. When I showed it
to my lover, he immediately said, "Tum ii around."
Suddenly it was a sacred female symbol complete wilh
fallopian tube spiral, birth canal, and VI - a mirror image
• in balance - inner and outer - so different, yet so much
alike. It seemed appropriate, in this ca~. 1h31 the female
would see the male fertility in the symbol, and mnle
would see the female, honoring each other through o
unique humnlriarchlll symbol.
C.SacRcd
Only""""' who Is IIO/ itr.pr~d by IM Wbthl of his
po1.susions, and Jd not pcs~,sed wuli 1h• Med cQfllilwo,,sly 10
fwl.food and s~/1u ow, tu.l:oNJ live°"' vnporuw qlJtstibM
'11'1,o"'" 11 ll'Jiae""' I IOUlt? \\'hat u IM ll<JJIVC of life?'
Erika Schneider
Xatuafi JoumaC page 28
Spring, 1991
�Dc:itK01riah,
Enclosed is my check for S10.00 to renew my
subscription for anolhcr year.
I have debated and waited 10 renew wilh a reason.
For most of its publication lifetime, I have bought
Ka11ioh Journal over the counter. and subscribed when I
moved west a year and a hlllf ago.
It saddens me !hat Katuah Cor some 1.1me has
spoken wilh G voice increasingly shrill. I do not want
anolhcr cnvironmcntnl activist news organ-I have access
to many or lhese. What I want IO read more of in Katuah
Journal are aniclc..~ on the people, the h&Storie.~, !he
Native Ameriellns, spirituality (eitpecially NMive
Amenc:m and alternative), humor. poetry, music, nature,
self-sufficiency. rural living, cooking and n:cipcs, special
(and obscure) pl3ccs and events. the uniqueness. the
peculiarities, the gentleness, the quiet goodness, !he
sense of family and community so common 10 my kin in
Kauiah Province. To me, there's plenty of "diversity" in
!he abo\'C, both "natural and social" and intenclatcd.
Through !he years Kauiah has often l.OUChed my soul ,n
small ways, and to me !hat's the best kind of "education·_
Having lived in Kauiah Province for 47 years
before depaning, and with family "rOOIS" going b.1ck to
!he t 700's there in my Christian relations and even
longer in my ChocUlw relations, my heart remains in
K:miah as surely as my body will return 10 join it when
my Sedona sorjoum is completed- Now that I'm away
Crom "home." those words above speak of wh:ll I miss
most of all.
If Kauiah is headed toward a more angry.
confronUllional tone, or more "what's wrong• instead of
"what's right.• just send my check back, please.
Thanks for !cuing me have my say.
Judy Elizabeth Love
All of the elements /Ml you mention which rn.tJU
Ka1uah a bl'auliful and unique place, we all hold dear and
will conrinue 10 write about because they are a part of
our Ifft, bur so is the habitat which makes /his way of
life possible, and it is thrcattn.cd.
We live in the midst of the greatest evolurionary
catasrropl~ since the end of the Cretauou.t Period. 65
•million years ago. For those of u.s who liw: in and cart
Qbout Ka11ioh it would be irrespormble not to say
somcllWlg. Yt'/. we are aware tlwl when you livfl in the
midst of rhe .wciery largely resp0nsible/or the
catastrophe, whar you Junv: 10 say probably will ,wl
sound plcasa111 10 their cars.
• The Editors
Dc.itKatua/1,
Encl~ please find S40.00 for !he complete set
or b.xl.: issues. Also, please lind an addi1io113J S10.00 for
a foture subscription (after thi.~ one expucs).
We love you. The Kattiah Journal is a work or
spirit and artt I trust we'll answer your uppcal with
enough v!gor to give you new Ufe.
Warmly,
Ste\·e Qubcck
Or.wing by Rob Levcmt
Dear Ka1uah,
I love your journal and always look forward 10 it.
then treasure it until the neitL I really think it's
exceptional in many wayi;, but for me, thc spirituality or
!he Joumal 10uches my heart so deeply.
I hope you continue forever; and if you would
ever need assistance from someone outside !he Province
physically but lhcrc in spirit every day, I hope you will
let me know.
Bless each or yoo.
Nancy LignilZ
DcarKa1uah,
Thank you for sending issues of Katuah Journal
IO me, we've found them very interesting and informative
with beautiful art and open accessible layout. I'm so glad
we've discovered you! I'm including a check to cover a
subscription, but rn give you !he mailing information
'below so I do noc have to cut up the b.xlc: of one of my
issues.
David and Cindy Ort
To Katuah Journal:
Dear People.
I am a member of a Sydney-based group that until
recently was bioregional repn:sentative in an Australian
bio-rcgional network lcnown as Austtulian Association
for Sus1ainable Communities (AASC).
Though this network is no longer formally alive,
the groups of rural and urb.,n communities the
bio-regional mtsS11ge "stained" after cuuings Crom such
publications as Planet Drum Review and Akwas:isnc
Notes were circulated (via an AASC press cuuing
network) around thc countryside. are numerous and
mostly all locally active.
Recently in Sydney l met with Peter Berg and
friend Judy. Judy showed us many CJtamples or
bio-regionally inspired publications and pnnted creations,
one of which was your Mag37.inc Kotuah JourllOJ.
l was very unpressed wilh the breadlh in one
article or the Spring 1989 Edition by David Morris.
Could you please send me a copy of that edition or that
article if the.re arc none left? Or word of where I might
get a copy locally if my failure to enclose/forward any
money with this no1c discourages you? I would be
happy to send you wluucver the cost is in rc1um ma.ii if
you can get me a copy.
I look forward to hearing from your pan or the
plancL Over here il is (once again) mysteriously 100 hot,
and then just as mysteriously coo abruptly cold, then
again jUSt ~ radically windy without v.aming. Too
much change, 100 many extremes. all too often, to feel
comfonablc talking about !he wcalher - and the sun huns
your eyes and neck.
Right now it's I !pm night. and well away from
banks and money currency exchange venues, so I hope
you can bill me in the rewm mml.
Hope thi:. !cu.er finds Someone...
Regards,
Sieve Ward
.
Sprim.,, 190 I
'.J((lfuofl Journal J)O(JC 29
�(coruinued limn page 14)
fossil fuel draw. We may not be able to think that
way for tOO much longer. As the oil supplies
diminish, the gas is going to be getting more and
more expensive and it's going 10 be less and less
efficient to produce everything in one place and
ship it all over the world. Our assumption that the
fossil fuel supply is infinite dislons the price of
what is being made.
DW: What do you think the next step is for
local agrlouhlil'e? What's some of the stuff that
wt need to work on?
Ron Alnspan: We need to work together,
suppon each other, and promote the idea of the
regional economy. This involves on-going
education of the public. I don't think I have any
ideas that haven't been said before, but it's
imponam 10 raise the issue to the people, to make
the public conscious of the cosLS of gerring things
from far away. That way people can pull each
other up and build suppon for one another, so
they have the stamina 10 carry on.
My attitude about social change is summed
up in the idea that "you do what you can." I don't
know that ·we can ever expect to overcome all the
mon:: regressive or more reactionary forces, but
ic's imponant for everybody to live by their
principles and do what they can. Whenever we
win a battle, we can feel good about it, but then
we go_ on and continue the struggle. It's an
on-going proctl>s.
/
Ron Ainspan: If we were acting slI'ictly
from of our consciousness of global issues.
Mountain Food Products might not carry
products like Mexican tomatoes or O.ilcan
raspbenies in the wintertime because that
encourages the long-distance production and
disaibution system.
Kantah: That would definitely hurt your
business.
Ron Ainspan: Even though cantaloupes.
for instance. cost $30 a case in the wintertime,
whereas they go for $6 or $7 a case when they
are in season during the summer, people have
this seemingly insane need to be able to buy
anything they want whenever they want iL I
don't know what causes that, but it flies in the
face of efficient use of the world's resources.
For our pan, we push local produce and
try to raise the issues whenever we can, but we
try co be practical • I guess that would be the
word • and do what's necessary 10 be successful
and hope that we are getting some of our
principles across to our customers while
maintaining our own integrity.
(ca,linu':iS ~ 113i• 27}
lnttrvitw recorded and tdittd
by David Whulu
Photo by Rodney Webb
~
.
Growers or retailers who are interested in
?anicipating in the organic produce co-op can call
Wountain Food Producis at (704 J 255-7630, or
.1isit their location in rite Old Chesterfield Mill at
121 Wesr Haywood Street; Asheville, NC.
.
truer toilay. We do indeed need. despcrn1cly . to "step back
Yet our economic system is structured to pro1CC1 big
Md have a new look" at the world we are~ busily creating
business more than Individuals, so it's quilC likely that
• and the world we are destroying. But here's the rub: In
lllXJ)ayers will soon be asked - or ruther, told • 10 f00t the
order to ~,, cnvironmcntaVsocial preservation as
bill, as is already occurring wilh the mushrooming S&L
"productive work." we must stop relating producuvity
SC:lndal and other looming socio-economic disasters. If we,
only to shon-tcrm profits nnd mruumal consumption. The
the worl.crs, lllllpayers, and citizens wish to a"oid this fate,
ideA of "production for sale and con~umption" must be
we must rccogniz.e that a suong environmental sunax for
augmented by the vision of "productive prcscmumn for a
these nnd similar mdustrics is both necc.'IS.lry and jusL This
sUSUlinablc FUTURE."
nx:ognition must in tum be followed by social action, if 11
What will such a shift m emphasis mCM? In
is to have any effect • und then we'll face the long and
pr:ictical terms. it means that we mu.~l cre:itc new criteria
arduous UISk of bringing industry into line with ecological
for producuvity. and will have to pay people to preserve our and economic reality. Aficr all, the money to pay for
environment evtn though their work does not
long-term productivity and prc_~ervation hos 10 come from
create,, a "product" for imminent sate, and thus
some\\ h,re • :ind it should come from those who profit
brin~s in NO money In the short term. On this
the most from the rape of lhc Eartll. Equally imparuint,
most pracllcal level, it's obvious that the money needed to
our concept of ·work" simply HAS 10 shift into a more
IXIY these people will have to be justified by an cntin:ly
future-oriented and truly produclhe mode, a mode in
diflcrent rnuonale lhan that usually subscribed to by
which our finMci3J sul'\'i\'OI no longer depends on
industry ond by ~om1sts. This type of wort will have
personally, socially, and planet.1nly deadening "JObs." or on
to be e,•alumed and ,·ntued differently tlun work producing
incomes deriving directly or indirectly from ecological and
imrned1.1tc n:sults and profiis, and the woflcCl"S' P3Y will
social destruction.
ha,·e 10 come from olhcr public or private :,ource,-, since
their wurk involves on outlay of funds rJthcr 1h1111
producing immcduic income.
The logic:il source of such funds is the corporations
We now have the opportunity to refrnme our
and businesses which have been profiwng the most from
economy and our society so that they can be a
the cxploitntion and/or destruction of our environment •
source of pride and fulfillment ins1ead of shame
e,;pocmlly such COtJ)Ol'ate giants a, the trans-national 01I,
and despair... so that we can regain a sense of
banking, chemical, pla.5tics, beef, and wood products
identity beyond our roles as exploitive "consumindustries. THEY should be the ones 10 pay for
In I977, on the day before his de:uh, E.F
ers" and profiteers. There is so much more 10 the
cnv,ronmenUll prouXtion, not the beleaguered W<JXl)'Cl'S,
Schumacher h:ld this to :..iy ubow Wcstem lnduslrial
"American Dream" 1han we·ve been seeing, so
suicc nlOst of lhcse corporatioM have been allowed to •get
society: "Narurc canllOl Sl!lnd 1t, the resource cndowm~t or a11,-ay with (ecological) murder" for decades - in return r«
much we've apparently forgotten. The time has
the 11,orJd cannot stand it, and lhc human being c:innot sland the m30y ·benefits" they suPJX)Se(lly bring us. As
come to revi1alize that dream, 10 renew the vision
iL,.. lt 1, a kind of fruud. And so it c; necessary for us 10
Schumochcr put 11. we've boughL into •3 kind of fr.iud." and of a truly just and humane society... and to create a
step baclc and ha,e a new look_"
livable, sus1ainable future. Let's "seize the day"!
have been conned into supporting 3 fraudulent and
It is now 199 I, :ind Shunm,hcr'~ wool.~ nng even
disastrous economic systcm, This has got to stop; we
simply HA VE to redesign our economy if we wi~h to
~urvivc.
X.nti1ofi JounmC poqc30
n t '"- J1 ,1u, r ,1u. •nx
Oar response to this need for change has been
slow, but we arc sUll'ting to REDEFINE productivity to
Ulcludc lhe pr~rvation/ rtstoration of ecological
sysiems and "n:rourccs; since such prcser"auon alone c.in
guarnmoe a contmuing supply of valu:ible "products• (as
well as a functioning planet!). Eventu:llly, we will have
to recogniz.c lhat pro1CCting and n:smring nmurul
ecosySICms is ·productive work" wonhy of great financi:11
"COJnpcnsruion.• Thi~ essential mind-shift CIIII Blreooy be
o;cen in action in progr.ims such as the Federal
ConSCNntion Reserve Program, which pays furmen; to
NOT plant crops on eroded fields, and to pLlnt uces and
grow a forest iru.t.C3d. Th= farmers ·are paid to take the
land out of producuon fo,- IO years," and though the IJ'CCS
can be "han·ested" afier that time, "90% or the acres
planted m trees under the ooil bank programs of the SO's
and 60's have remained fore:;tcd • .Similar illCCllll, c
progrnmi nre being utiliz.cd m lhe SIJ"Usglc to save the nun
forests: for example, the SO<lllled "dcbt-for-ll3tUIC swap~· .
in which C011strvat.ion groups or governmental ugencies
·buy' pan of a trOpical ll3tion's debt food in exchange for
the preservation of a s«:tion of rmn forest.
These programs, and Olhcrs hke lhem, ~nainly
desctvc IO be viewed :is "productive." Indeed, lhe work.
they provide could be called the MOST producUvc work,
for u cn::itcs ecological health and economic
SU"'31nability, Md is NOT based on the economic.~ of
profit through ~pto,1a11on and destruction.
•••••••••••
···········
,
�EARTH ENERGIES
The Great Lover
by Charlotte Homsher
~
/~
' ~•
A t the deepest level we are all lovers of the
eanh and we are here on this planet to discover
this love relationship. It is like walking through
the woods, feeling the rhythm, feeling tuned in
'
~ and stepping lightly on the leaf cover, then
~
c:;
,J~
Drawing b)' Susan Adam
suddenly kneeling down and picking _up a leaf to
discover the marvelous, previously hidden world
underneath. The first time I recall feeling the eanh
energy as a distinct sensation, which literalJy
entered my body, was three years ago in the
Joyce Kilmer MemoriaJ Forest. I have aJways
loved big trees and I have attempted to
communicate with trees for years. Some of my
experiences with trees have included seeing
flashes of colored lightS and hearing sounds
within trees which I suppose to be the tree
elementals. Sometimes I received "messages"
from treeS. Any time interspecies con_imunication
is happening via words, thoughts or images,
there is translation going on. The tree doesn't use
words to experience life, therefore the energy of
the tree must be transformed into a cerebraJ
energy which we can understand.
At Joyce Kilmer, I chose the biggest, oldest
poplar I couJd find, grounded myself firmly and
put my paJms on the tree. 1did not expect
anything in particular except that I wanted 10
express affection and gratitude for the life of the
tree. I quickJy became aware of the tree as a very
powerful being. The energy came up the roots of
the tree from the eanh and emered my body just
as though I were attached to the tree as a sucker
root. The energy entered through the soles of my
feet. traveled up both legs, up my back on either
side of the spine and into my head. At the same
time it entered from where my paJms touched the
bark, traveling up my arms. The sensation was
pleasurable to say the least, and riveting. For that
quiet moment I was part of an ancient tree; I
knew cxactJy what it was like to be alive as a
poplar hundreds of years old. I stayed with the
experience as long as I could I noticed that the
energy which came form the canh into the roots
of the tree and into my rootS (my feet), came in
surges or waves of energy. Others have called
this energy pulses, or even feeling the rhythm of
the breath of the earth. In India, visceral energy,
when it travels up the spine, is called kundalini.
In any case, the knowledge of earth energy as
VJSCeral and real, a force to be reckoned with, is a
worldwide, if arcane, study. Witness the
worldwide distribution of sacred sites. Someone
or ones had co recognize the places of power and
then understand what effect these special energy
places would have on the people. One theory
now in vogue and mentioned in the book~
flaw by James A. Swan, is that the sacred sites
correlate to the chalaa system of man. For
instance, we go to a heart chalaa place and our
heart is heaJed or opened as our vibratory energy
harmonizes with the energy in that place.
I nearly always recognize vortexes as .
vibrations in visceral rushes of energy Wlthin my
own body. The intensity of energy might vary
with the power of the vortex or wilh my ability or
inability 10 be receptive at the time. For me. the
receiving of the energy, which of course is really
an energy exchange, is reason enough 10 pursue
the study of earth energy; it proves to me that our
relationship to the earth is not a static thing, but
creative and sensuaJ.
Many of the most powerfuJ vonexes in
Karuah are on public access. We flock en massc
to these places of pristine beauty ignorant of why
we feel so invigorated, why we wish to return
again and again. When you consider the
awesome power of the earth compared 10 the
puny life energy of a single human being. you
may wonder why the earth would bother to
respond to us at aJl The :t-nswer to t~is, in m_y_
opinion, is 1ha1 the earth 1s a lover with exqu1s11e
sensitivity.
~
GIRL'S SUMMER CAMP
'TURTLE ISLAND IS LOOKING
FOR A FEW TOUCH GIRLS"
NATIONAL
lNDlAN
FESTIVAL
JULY 7-13 1991
ACES 11-17
If you enjoy the challenge of
adventure then Turtle Island
ls the place for you,
100¾ Cotton Futons & Covers
No Rain Forest Wood Used
(615) 929-8622
Batik Clothing, Jewelry, Artwork ...
414 s . Roan St, Downtown Johnson City. TN 37601
For mon: infonnation write; Turtle 1'1.Jnd Pre..erve. Rt. I
Box 249-8 Deep Cap, NC 28618 (704) 265-2267
"CELEBRATING OUR
MOTI-IER EARTH"
MAY 17, 18, 19 1991
Highlights of Events:
• Native American Dancers
• Floyd Westerman ("Dances with Wolves")
• Thomas Banyacya - Hopi Elder
• Javier Alarcon - Aztec Fire Dancer
• Native American Flute Music Concert
• Demonstrations
• Native American Crafts & Skills
• Traditional Indian Foods
Thi$ cvl?J\t will be the l.lrg~ of its kind to date in
the Southeastern Unit-cd States! Camping is available
for the public al Chcllilw Parle Albany, ~rgla. $4.()() •
adults - S3.00 children. For More information call Velaric
Spratlin - Festival Coordinator, (704) 265- 1063.
Spri.ntJ, 1991
Union Acres
An Alternative
i
- - Acrtagt for Salt - Smoky Mounlmn Liuing
with o focus on spiritlllll 011d
ecologiall wluts
For more information:
Contact C. Grant at
Routt 1. Box 61]
WhiHitr, NC 28789
(704) 497-4964
Progrorrw to enco1.Xoge
sell aid Earth O\N0r808$$.
celetxol1on. klmhlp and hope.
• Yovfl Cempl • School ProgfWl!s
• Femily CemP* • Toachet Trumg
• Commurwty Progren,1
•~Stell Tr1lMQ
• Outdoot Prog111m Consulting
NATURAL MARKET
P0. 8al 1306
823 Blow,ng Roel<. Rd .
Gannwo. Teme- 3n3a
615-436-6203
265-2700
Boone. NC 28607
�----------------,
Floyd Co. Envitonmental Council
The Aoyd County Environmental Council
was formed out of a successful struggle to
prevent the county's participation in a potentially
expensive and dangerous regional landfill.
It is currently involved in trying to prcvent
massive clean:utting in an environmentallysensitive area of the county known as "The Free
State," where many people believe that cougars
survive.
People who want to get in touch with the
Floyd County Environmental Council or help in
their efforts can contact them via Donna
Whitmarsh at (703) 651-4747.
Staging a Bioregional Event:
The Piedmont's Haw River Festival
Beginning on April 19 and running for
four weeks, a volunteer crew of educa10rs,
performers, and river lovers will travel the
length of the Haw River, stopping 10 meet with
school children in each of the five counties the
river connects. At approximately seven different
riverfront sites, the festival crew will put on a
colorful learning celebration that will look at the
river from the perspectives of science, nature.
history, and fun.
A main goal for the Festival is to give
children a direct, hands-on experience that will
leave them with a greater awareness of the place
where they live, and how human choices affect
the natural world. Also along the way, the
festival will involve many other citizens within
the Haw River basin through scheduled events
in riverside towns. In all, approximately 3000
srudentS are expected to participate,
accompanied by 300 parents and teachers.
When children arrive at the site, they will
be clustered into small groups, which will rotate
among these teaching stations: Animals, People
Along the River, Good Allematives, Riverwalk,
Music & Stories, and Games. The Animals
Station, for example, will feature live animals
from the river and riverbanks and let the children
get to know these finned, furry, and scaly
neighbors - their relationship to each other
(food chains), to the place (habi1a1). and to us
(environmental issues).
To contact the Festival, write Haw River
Assembly; P.O. Box 187; Bynum, NC 27228
or call Louise Kessel at (919) 542-5599.
., '
RECEIVED
Elwiro~n1al Ad'IIOCacy: Concepis, Issues, and
Dilemmas by Bunyan Bryant (Caddo Gap Press, Ann
Arbor. MJ, 1990)
Communitits 1n Economic Crisis: Appalachia and tht
Sowh edilcd by John Gaventa, Barbara Ellen Smith, and
Alex Willingham (Temple University Press,
Philadelphia. 1990)
Audio Tape
Light ,n tht Wind a cappella chanis and circle songs by
Bob Avery.(irubel and lhe Celcbnuion Singers (Tribuia,y
Records, Aoyd. VA, 1990) - Spirited songs for holi<bys.
campfires, swcais. or whenever lho CltClc gathers.
REVIEW
From Walden Pond to Muir Woods:
Alternative Way.r Aero.rs America
Mary Dymond Davis (1990);
Foreword by Ernest Callenbach
Order from: ASPI Publications; Rt. 5, Box 423:
Livingston, KY 40445
For those who travel, Mary Davis' book
From \Vaiden Pond u, Muir Woods is an
ecological ttavel guide. For those who stay at
home, it is a local resource listing. Mary Davis
has compiled descriptions of a variety of
ecological loci throughout the continen1 that
would be worthwhile for a traveler to visit or for
a potential local activist to link up with.
Her descriptions cover a broad spectrum
of interests: groups and communities promoting
alternative and ecological ways of living, natural
areas, environmental education, recreation spots
and suppliers, and transponation help. Her
profiles are infonnative and her introductory
explanations show clearly the pan each caiegory
plays in the ongoing process of ecological
recovery on Tunle Island.
This is a book 10 have and to pass around,
a great resource for alternative folk or those who
want to find out "where it's at" on Turtle Island.
.ow
PLANTING CHESTNUTS
A very detennined woman, Dorothy
Dickson, has a vision of establishing an
American chestnut tree seed farm that could
supply viable seed to someday re-establish the
American chestnut in the wild. She is looking
for land and money to help with the idea.
Write her at: 113 Autumn Lane;
Harrisburg, NC 28075, or call (704) 455-1027.
Paul Gallimore of The Long Branch
Environmental F.ducation Center has initiated a
project to plant hybrid American-Oriental
chestnut seedlings in the wild to provide a
short-term hard mast source for black bears and
other creatures who will soon face mast
shonages from the oak tree decline and the
imminent depredations of the gypsy moth.
Membership in the project, including two hybrid
trees for planting, costS $25 to Paul Gallimo~;
RL 2, Box 132; Leicester, NC 28748
NATIVE FLUTES
Two styles made of cedar or walnut
woods in the traditional manner
Hawk Littlejohn
Sourwood Farm
RL 1, Box 172-L
Prospect Hill, NC 27314
(919) 562·3073
r/ r:rf.u
~ Saru}JMush
Htrb Nurse_y
,
WHOLE FOODS
VITAMINS
ORGANIC PRODUCE
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
WREATHS • POTPOURRI
• HERBS • TOPIARY
Complete Herb CataliJg - $4
Describes more tlum 800 plants from
Aloe to Yam,w
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
P1ione for appointment to visit
A.I.A., Resource Information Analysis
Neil Thomas and Andy Feinstein
(704) 683-2014
305 Westover, Asheville, NC
(704) 252-6816
Sprl.ng. 1991
�MARCH
20
"Oh, the May, the jolly, jolly May;
The leaves they spring so green."
SPRING EQUINOX
:8:ELT~:E
SWANNANOA, NC
Baba Olatunji Drum & Dance
Weekend. Spuitual teacher and cultural diplomat from
West Africa via the drum. Performance 8 pm, 3/22,
Kinn:dgc Auditorium, Wanen Wilson College, S 10.
Call 004) 645-391 I for mon: info. Sponsored by
Rhythm Alive!
22-24
and
APRIL
Katuah Spring Gathering
at Morningstar Fann on the Tanasi Ridge
5-7
AS II EVILLE, NC
Seminar on solar technology and a
tour of solar homes sponsored by the Buncombe
County Solar Communities Program. More info,
004) 255-5522.
30
FULL MOON - PASSOVER
30
WESSER, NC
"Cheoah Council" to talk
stm1.egies and tactics for the defense of the
Cheoah Bald area, the largest unprotected
roaclless area in the region, now threatened by
logging and roadbuilding. Bring food and
camping gear, be prepared to walk in along
the Appalachian Trail. For more info, write
SouthPAW; Box 3141; Asheville. NC 28802
or call (704) 586-3146.
April 26-28
5-7
22-23
Bring camping gear and food for yourselves and to share.
The site is at high clevnlion, so be prepared for changeable
weather. Bring colorful dress, musicm insuuments, toys,
mask matcn:ils, and other celcbl1\lory tools.
• .• t
11, I ,
NEW MARKET, TN
ST? (Stop the Poisoning! or Save the
Planet!) environmental acuon school at the Highlander
Center. Call or write for mfo: 1959 HighlMdcr Way:
New Market, 1N 37820 (615) 933-3443.
VALl,.Ef llEAD, AL
,
"Masculinity: Native Tcachmgs. Earth
consciousne.ss• workshop. Cieorgc Goodstrikcr
(Blackfoot elder), An Hom, Tarwater. Pn:-rcgisier.
S I75, includes 4 meals and camping. Hawkwind Earth
Renewal Cooperative: Box 11: Valleyhcad, AL 35989.
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Re-Thinking Democracy: Citizenship
in the Age of Mass Media," A Symposium for
Tcac.hcrs, PurcnlS, and Concerned CitiJ.cns. Speakers
include: Walter Trucu Anderson. Kathleen Hall
Jrunieson, Marie Crispin Miller. Free. University of
North Carolina at AsheV1Uc. For more mfonnation,
(704) 251-6526.
1 ••
,
n,
~
.(
•,
This is a bcnef4 celebration IO help ~ve sacri!d land:
SS d0113tion per pcison requesled
For 1r1vd din,clio115 and more info.rmJJlcm,
call (704)293-7013 or (70,1) SU-3146
11-13
28
FULL MOON
MAY
13
NEW MOON
NEW MARKET. TN
STP environmenl:ll action school for
young people! at the Highlander Center. See 4/5-7.
24-26
31
EASTER
13
SWANNANOA, NC
Dedication of the World ~ u n d
Oiamber ru. the Earth CcnlCI led by Beautiful Painl.Cd
Arrow (Josoph Rael). 30'1 Old Pdlo10sl11j, Rd.\• ,, •,110-x
24-27
14
NEW MOON
Spiritual Hcaltll." lnteyal yoga taught by Swami'
Vidynnanda. $145. Southern Dharmn Rcueat Center.
Sec 4/19-21.
28
Home! A Bioregional Reader
llome! A Bioregional Rt.adt.r, just published by
New Society Publishers, offers ·an CJtciting vision and
~tn11egy for creating ccologicmly suswinable
communities and cultures in h:umony with the limits and
regenerative powers of the Earth.· It has gathered articles,
stories. and poems of over forty writers and activists who
hnve comribuled both to defining bioregionalism as a
political philosophy and to lhc practice or "living in
place.• Contributor.. include: G4ry Snyder, Peter Berg.
Caroline Estes, Wendell Berry, as well as Mamie Muller
of the Kmuah Journal. Graphics in lhc book include the
worlt of Kmuah'.r Rob M~ick:.
The book Is a large-format paperback with 192
pages. including resources and a reading lisL Copies are
available by mail for $15.70 from: RM Designs: Box
UiOt: Boone, NC 28007. Pri~ of Rob Mcssick's
illustrations from the book are also available from the
same address.
Sprt ng, 1991
''"'.
jZ
16-21 HELEN, GA
Rive~ane Rendel.Yous with
Snow Bear, Darry Wood, and Bob Slack. Jr.
plus visiting instructors. "Ancient arts and
skills for the mind, hean, and hand..."
including fire by friction, making stone and
bone tools, tanning buckskin, plant
identification and use, basketry. blowguns,
and more. Pre-register: $135, includes
camping and two meals per day. For more
info, contact: Bob Slack. Jr.; Unicoi State
Parle; Box 1029; Helen. GA 30545 (404)
878-2201 (Ext. 282?· . \.,
HOT SllRINGS,rN<:'. h.'11~:Ktx·, am ~lri'I ,UI?.
........~~:M~~~.f9r ~1!,Yi;ic:il. Meot;i!J\~ •.., __
Sw:11\MnOa, NC .28nS.c31l.(704) 2!l8Tl!l3S. ~
FULL MOON
JUNE
11-15
JOHNSON CITY, TN
Changes, a play by The Road
Company at Down Home. Tickets 58.00 during week,
$10.00 weekend. For details call (615) 926-TI26.
19-21
HOT SPRrNGS, NC
"Hca\'en on the Mountain: Nine at !he
Top," divinauon with lhe I Ching taught by Jay
Dunbar. 'Through subtle movement and discussion we
will excn:isc the intuition and explore the language of
energy.• S75. Southern Dharma Re1Ica1 Center; RL I,
Box 34-H; Hot Springs. NC 28743 (7~) 622-7112.
21
25-26
EART H OAY CELfBRATIONS
II ENDERSONVlLLE, NC
Into the Heart of Healing" IC\'etsing hcan discas.c wilh vegetarian dict, cxe.tt:ise
and su-cs:; m.lllngement taught by Steven Oreer. MD
Md Lynn DcLuca. Shambala Institute. For more info,
write 118 Cumberland Ave: Asheville, NC 28801 or
call (704) 25.3-0509.
NATURAL
ALTERNATIVES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LIVING
p.o. box 1092 • winery square
gatlinburg, tenne.,sce 37738
615-436-6967
X.Otiw:lh Journot pa«Je a3
l ~ lQn,uor t Q.UnJl
�BUSINESS PAR1NER WANTED· Must have some
cspiLill IO help CSUlblish nn herb, orgnnic foods, and
0
possibly ecological and solar equipment business. Large
new building, half ac.re, in Ellijay Mt'ns. area. Please call
(~) 635-7009 or wri1e io: Wall Klimowiez; Rt. 5, Box
30-t: Ellijay. GA 30540.
omusu~ !:~ ~
challenge, of advenuue, lhe beauty and inspiration or
nature, the fellow~ip and sharing of lcindered spirilll, lhcn
Turtle Island is the pince for youl This one week camp is
open 10 gills 11-17, and runs from July 71h IO July 13th.
Tow cost iS $300.00. For information and application
call (704) 265-2267, or write: Valarie SpraUin c/o Tun le
lsl!lnd Pre:;ctve; RL I, Box 249-B: Deep Gap (near
Boone), NC 28618.
LAND FOR SALB • 32 acics, all or pan. 3 private coves;
2 large organic fields; sm311 solar ~lrUCture; 1906 rustic
fannhouse: barn. If interested, please wnic: Vicki Baker
and Tom Graves; Rt. 2, Box 108-A: Whittier, NC 28789
or call (704) 586-8221.
PIEDMONT BIOREGIONAL INSTITIJTE • For those
who live in the Piedmont ruca, lherc's a bioregional effon
well underway. Join us! We would appreciate any donation
or time or money to help mcel operating c:Jtpcnses. For a
gift of $2.5 or more. we will send you a copy of John
Lawson's joumru. A New Voyagt' 10 Carolina. Also, come
find out about the Lawson ProjecL PBI; 412 W.
Rosemary Strcci; Chapel Hill, NC 27516; Uwharria
Province. (919) 942-2581.
1WO FAMll.IES seeking neighborly folks 10 buy inco
130 acres of bcautlful mountru11S1de bnd near
Weavcsville, N.C. We are involved in org:inic gnnlening,
homeschooling, n:11.uml healing and spiritu:ility. 20 acre
share for $24,000. eau (704) 658-2676 or 645-7954.
LOO CABIN BUILDING CAMP· a three week.
hands-on, edueational retreat building a log house. Live as
an American pioneer and learn the ways of wood.
Magnificcnl involvement wilh hi.5tory and self· sufficiency
in na~ Towly hand-built Crom U'OCS cut on lhe sice in
the beautiful wilderness setting ofTunle Island Presesve.
A uniqueopp0nuni1y. June 23- July 13, 1991. For more
information call (704) 265-2267. or wrice Turtle Island
Prescrvo; RL I Box 249-B; Deep Gop (near Boone), NC
28618.
HAWKWIND EARTH RENEW AL CO-OPERATIVE is
an 87 acre primitive l'CU'Cal. and wocking community farm.
Located in the Northern Alabama mountruns, just 115
miles northwest of Allan ta. Classes on a!J.ernative
lifestyles and Native American philosophies rue available
on a regular basis. For inforrruuion or callllog of Native
crafts & products, call (1.0S)63S-6304.
MUSIC BY BOB AVERY.ORUBa available on lhrec
cassew:s. Treasures in the Stream and Circles Re1urni11g
a recent release of original chan1s
and songs. Ughl i11 the \Vind, is a cappella. Lyric sheets
included. Send $10 for each cape or S26 for o.ll lhlee co
Bob Avery-Grubel; RL I, Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091,
aie folk/roclt-jazz. and
GOOD STEW ARDS WAN"ffiD for rcmoce land. Approx.
IS acres for sale w/ house (2 bdrm., I bath). Organic3lly
fanned for 1.0 years, gravity feed spring water. High on
Tanasi Ridge, views. Raven and ~ Walker, Box 23:
Lake Toxaway, NC 28747 (704} 293-7013.
MOCCASINS, handcmfl.ed of clkhlde in the traditlonal
Plains Indian style. WaJet rcsisUlnt. rcsolable, and rugged great for hiking! Children's and infant sizes available.
Write: Eanh Dance Moccasins; RL 5. Box 341-B,
Burnsville, NC 28714 or call 675-594 I.
WICKER WORKER • Wicker fumitW"e reslortd. Cane.
rusb, lllld reed SC3IS woven - basJcets rcp:wcd. Expcricnced
scat weavu. "lf you ean'L we cane.· Andita Cwkc; 27
Mrut SL; Asheville, NC 28801 (704)2.53-6241.
SKYLAND • log on co the computer bulletin board of the
Smokies. Networking, plus news on lhe environment.
natwe phocography, games, computer utilities, much
more. Con1.aet Michael Havclin, sysop, (704} 2.54-6700.
HlGHLANDER CEN1eR • is a community-based
cducalional organization whose purpose is co provide space
for people co learn from each other, and co develop
solutions co environmcmal problems based on their own
values, experiences and aspirations. They also put OUl a
quarterly newslcucr, Hlghlandu Reporu. For more
infonnation contact Highlander Cci11er; 1959 Highbnder
Way; New Market.. 1N 37820 (615) 933-3443.
ADULT CAMP· a nawra1 living experience 1eJ1Cbing
primitive Eanh Skills and rughterung participants spirilU3l
awareness lllrough riwal This renewal rwe:11 olTers five
days of living in a teepee at Tunle Tsland Preserve wilh
master woodsman nnd &eaehu Eustace Conway. June 8 12. 1991 or Scpiember I • 5 arc the dates. For more
information call (704) 265-2267, or write TurUe Island
Preserve; RL I, Box 249-B: Deep Gap (near Boone). NC
28618.
EARTH SKILLS, NATURE AW ARE1''ESS
WORKSHOP • Reconoo:t wtlh the Earth • bow drill fire,
cordage, shelters, lOOlmaking. medicinal and edible plants.
nature observation, and much more. See and fed the Eanh
duough primal C)CS and primal :.kills Write: Dr. Guy
Jaconis; RL 4, Box 92: Beaufon. NC 28516 (9 I9)
728-2959.
BODY RIIYTJJMS from Pbnetary Molhcrs - a beautiful
and practical calendar for women 10 chart lhcir ·moonlhly"
cycles. Send S3.00 plus S 1.00 p0stagc 10: Planetary
Modicn Collective (c/oNancie Yonker): 5231 Riverwood
Ave.; Sarasot:i. A. 3423 I.
WISE WOMAN TRADmON APPRENTICE WEEKwith Whitewolf, near Asheville. July 25-31 (Weekend
opuon, 26-28). Foraging, wildcrafting, communicating
wilh plants, herb gardening. llllditional remedies,
Eanhkccping, woman's heallh care. women's wisdom
circles, Moonlodge, mllSSllgc, movement. and music.
Donation or work Exchange. Comfortable dorm, camping,
meals. Concacl Lcivan; Box 576; Asheville. NC 28802.
1990/91 DIRECTORY OF IN1'ENTIONAL
COMMUNfTIP.S • Just released, over 2 y~ in the
making. Names, addresses. phone nwnbets, and
descriptions of31.0 Norlh American communities, and
over 250 rcsourcc groups, plus 40 nniclcs. Maps,
cross-reference chruts, fully indexed. $13.50 postpaid from
Sandhill Fann; ROUIC I, Box 155-R: Rutledge. MO
63563. 40% discount available on orders o! 10 or more.
I am looking for land suitable for small scale farming
wilh a good source of war.er, preferably northwest
Rulherfocd or soulhW$ McDowell Counties. I am also
open to ocher areas within 45 min. of Asheville. Also
looking for people who would like IO develop a rural
community in lhc Kan1ah region wilh intereslS in org1111ic
gardening, environmental issues, lllld education. Contact
Frank Holzman: 537 Seminole Avenue; Atlanlll, GA
30307 (404} 688-4016.
RECYCLED PAPER! • Dll'CCtory of products sources for
the Southcas1. Suggested donation S 1.00
to Western Norlh Carolina Alliance; PO Box 18087:
Asheville, NC 28814 (704) 2.58-8737.
• 1Vebworkil1g hasclumgt>df There is nowafuof S2.50
per entry of50 words or less. Send 10: Rob Messick;
P.O. Boz 2601; BooM, NC 28f,/)7.
"The area's oldc,;t
and largest natural
food< grorery"
811fk Herbs, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supplements
Wheat, Salt & Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy S11~titutes
Hair & Skin Care Products
Beer & Wi11e Mnki11g S11pplies
200 W. King St, Boone, ~C 28607
• PrCll'ulmg I fealll:y Food Sitree 1975 •
COMMITTED
To COMMUNITY AND Gooo Fooo
255-7650
~
90 Biltmore Avenue Asheville, :-.:c
2 Blocks South of Dov,mtown
(70,l) 26-t-5220
Sprlt19, 1991
�BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THIRTEEN • FALi.. 1986
Cenn:r FOT Awakening - Elizabclh Callari - A Gentle
Dcmh • Hospice - Emes1 Morgan • Dealing Creatively
wilh Death • Home Burial Box • The Wake • The Raven
Moelter. Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom· Good
Medicine: The Sweat Lodge
ISSUE THREE • SPRING 1984
Susminable Agriculture - Sunflowers - Human Impact on
lhe Foe-est - Childrcns· Edu01tion • Veronicn Nicholas:
Woman in Politics - Lillie People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR • SUMMER 1984
Walef Drum • Waier Quali1y • Kudzu - Solar Eclipse •
Oca.«:ulling - Trou1 - Going to Waier • Ram Pumps·
J\.1icrohydro - Poems: Bennie Lte Sinclair. Jim Wayne
Miller
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO -WINTER '88-89
Global Wanning. Fire This Time· Thomas Berry on
"Bioregions" • Earth Exercise - Kort Loy McWhirter - An
Abundance of Emptiness - LETS - Chronicles of Floyd Darry Wood • The Bear Clan
ISSUE FIVE • FAU.. 1984
Harvest. Old Ways in Cherokee. Ginseng - Nuclcor
Waste - Our Ccluc Hcrimgc • Biorcgionalism: Past.
Prcscn1, and Fu1ure - John WUno1y - Healing Darkness·
Politics of Participauon
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - SPRING 1989
Pisgah Village - Plane1 An - Green City • Poplor Appeal •
"Clear Sky". "A New Earth" • Black Swan • Wild Lovely
Days • Reviews: Sacred Land Sacred Su, Ice Age • Poem:
"Sudden Tendrils"
ISSUE SIX • WINTER 1984-85
Winter Solstice Enrlh Ceremony • HorsepaslurC3 River Coming of the Ligh1 • Log Cabin Root • Mouniain
Agricuhure: The Righi Crop - William Taylor· The
Future of I.he Forest
ISSUE SEVEN • SPRING 1985
Susl3.i0llble Economics· Ho1 Springs - Worker Ownership
• The G~1 Economy - Self Help Credit Union - Wild
Turkey. Responsible Investing. Working in lhe Web of
Life
ISSUE EIGHT- SUMMER 1985
Celebrauon: A Way of Life - Katuah 18.000 Years AgoSacred Si1es - Folk Arts in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle - Poems: Hild.:! Downer • Cherokee Heri1age Cemcr
• Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE • PALI.. 1985
The Waldcc Foccs1 - The Trees Speak. Migraung Forests ·
Horse Logging • Slorting a Tree Crop - Urban Trees •
Acom Bread - Myth Time
ISSUE TEN • WINTER 1985-86
Ka1e Rogers - Circles of S1one - Internal Mylhmaking Holistic Healing on Trial - Poems: Steve Knauth • Mythic
Places • The Uktcna·s Tale - CrySUIJ Magic "Drcamspcaking•
ISSUE ELEVEN- SPRING 1986
Communi1y Planning - Cities and lhe Biorcgional Vision
- Recycling - Community Gardening- Floyd Coomy. VA·
Gasohol • Two Bioregionnl Views • Nuclear Supplcmenl •
Foxrll'C Games - Good Medicine: Visions
ISSUE 1WENTY-ONE • FALi.. 1988
Chestnuts: A Nalwal His10ry - Restoring !he Chestnut "Poem or Preservation and Praise" - COlllinuing lhe Qucs1
- Forests and Wildlife - ChCSllluts in Regional Diel •
Chestnu1 Resources • Herb N01e - Good Medicine:
"Changes lO Come•. Review: Where Ltgends Li-.e
ISSUE FOURTEEN • WINTER 1986-87
Lloyd Corl Owle - Boogcrs and Mummers - All Species
Day • Cabin Fever Universi1y • Homeless in Kaubh •
Romcmade Hot Water - Stovemaker's Narrative • Good
Medicine: Interspecies Communication
ISSUE FIFTEEN • SPRJNG 1987
Coverlets . Woman Forester· Susie McMahan: Midwife •
Alternative Contraception - Biosexuali1y - Bioregionalism
and Women - Good J\,tcdicine: Malriarchal Culture - Pearl
ISSUE SIXTEEN • SUMMER 1987
Hcfon Waiie. Poem: Visions in a Garden - Vision Quest·
F°l!SI Flow - µti1iation - Lc;iming in !he W i t ~ "Cherokee Challenge. "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN • WINTER 1987·88
Vernacular ArchilCCturc - D~s in Wood and Stone Mountrun Home - Eanh Energies - Eanh-Shellcred Living
• Membrane Houses - Brush Shcl1cr - Poems: October
Dusk - Good Medicine: "ShellCr"
ISSUE NINETEEN • SPRING 1988
Pcrclandra Garden • Spring Tonics - Blueberries Wildflower Gardens - Granny Herbalist • Flower Essences
- "The Origin or lhe Animals:" S1ory • Good Medicine:
"Power" - Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY • SUMMER 1988
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness - Highlands or Roan •
Cclo Communi1y - Land Trust· Arlhur Morgan School Z.Oning Issue - "The Ridge" - Farmers and !he Fann Btu·
Good Medicine: "Land" - Acid Rain - Ouke·s Power Play·
Cherokee Microhydro Projec1
ISSUE TWENTY·FOUR • SUMMER •39
Deep Listening • Ufc in AlOmic City - Direc1 Action! Tree of Peace - Communily Building· Peacemakers·
Elhnic Survival - Pairing Project - "Bnnlcsong• Growing Peace in Culwn:s - Review: The Chalice and the
Blode
fSSUE TWENTY-SIX • WINTER, 1989·'90
Coming of Age in lhe Ecozoic Era - Kids Saving
Rainfores1 - Kids Treecycling Company· ConOic1
Resolution. Developing lhe Creative Spirit - Birth Power
• Birth Bonding • The Magic of Puppetry - Home
Schooling - Naming Ceremony - Molher Eanh•s
Classroom - Gardening for Children
ISSUE TWENTY-SEVEN • SPRING. 1990
Transformation • Healing Power - Peace to Their Ashes Healing in Katuah • Poem: "When Left to Grow· - Poems:
Stephen Wing • The Belly • Food from lhe Ancient Forest
ISSUE 'TWENTY·EIGHT - SUMMER 1990
Carrying Capaci1y • Selling LimitS IO Growth - What is
Ovcrpopulntion? • The Road Gnng • The Highway to
Nowhere. The J.26 Project - "Curing Capacity" - Poople
and Habillll • Designing lhe Whole Life Community Steady Staie - Poems: Will Ashe Bason Ttansporte.rnativcs - Review: Cohausing
ISSUE TWENTY -NINE • FALL/WINTER 1990
From the Mounlains lO lhe Sea • Profile of The Lillie
Tennessee River - Headwaters Ecology and High Quali1y
Habitat - "l1 All Comes Down lO WBJN Quality· Wa1er
Power. Action for Aquatic HabilatS - Dawn Waichcrs •
Good Medicine: The Long Human Being • The North
Shore Road • Kalliah Sells Ou1 • W81erShed Map of lhe
Kalllah Province
- - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - --- - - - - - --- -- - - - ~UAt1 JOURNAL
Issue 30
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Name
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
City
Area Code
Sprlnq, 1991
Stale
Phone Number
Zip
Enclosed is$_ __ to give
this ejfon an exrra boos/
I can be a local contact
person for my area
28748
Back Issues
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
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Issue H_ _@ $2.50 - $ _ _
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Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
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�
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 30, Spring 1991
Description
An account of the resource
The thirtieth issue of the<em> Katúah Journal</em> focuses on regional economics, development, and ecology. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Thomas Power, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, Rodney Webb, Henry Eckler, Griscom Morgan, Snow Bear, Gary Lawless, Jim Clark, Ernest Womick, Millie Sundstrom, Lee Barnes, David Haenke, Richard Lowenthal, Rodney Web, Jim Houser, Charlotte Homsher, Martha Tree, Stephen Petroff, and Rob Leverett. <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.
Economy/Ecology by David Wheeler.......1<br /><br />Avoiding the Passive/Helpless Approach to Economic Development by Thomas Power.......4<br /><br />Ways to a Regenerative Economy by Rob Messick.......5<br /><br />Sacred Oconomy by Will Ashe Bason.......6<br /><br />"Money Is the Lowest Form of Wealth": Interview with Ivo Ballentine and Robin Cape by Rodney Webb and Henry Eckler.......7<br /><br />The Clarksville "Miracle" by Griscom Morgan.......10<br /><br />Self-Help Credit Union.......10<br /><br />The Village by Snow Bear.......11<br /><br />"through dreams, through magic": Poems by Gary Lawless.......12<br /><br />Food Movers by David Wheeler.......13<br /><br />Poems by Jim Clark.......14<br /><br />LifeWork by Ernest Womick and Millie Sandstrom.......15<br /><br />Green Spirits: "Katúah Planting Calendar" by Lee Barnes.......19<br /><br />Good Medicine: "Village Economy".......20<br /><br />On Eco-economics by David Haenke.......21<br /><br />Thoughts on Work, Productivity, and Development by Richard Lowenthal.......22<br /><br />Natural World News.......23<br /><br />Shelton Laurel by Rodney Webb.......25<br /><br />Off the Grid: "Regional Fuels" by Jim Houser.......26<br /><br />LETS........27<br /><br />Resources........27<br /><br />Drumming.......28<br /><br />Earth Energies: "The Great Lover" by Charlotte Homsher.......31<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 Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Economic development--Environmental aspects
Mixed economy--Appalachian Region, Southern
Regional economics
Ecology--Economic aspects--Appalachian Region, Southern
Salvage (Waste, etc.)--North Carolina--Asheville
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
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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 History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Community
Earth Energies
Economic Alternatives
Education
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Stories
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/78d9246223be9d0574b3bd2b5063d495.pdf
dd9e0daeaf638e3c9c89f1668668b7b7
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 31 SUMMER 1991
$1.50
�Drawing by Rob Messick
~UAt1 JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
:ic.\e
0 " ()
@
~
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
.,.
(I
Printed on recycled paper
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�Oowsing..................................................... 3
by David Wheeler
The Responsibilities of Dowsing:
An Interview with Tom Hendricks............5
by Madeline H. Dean
Ceremonies of the Moment:
An Interview with Joyce Holbrook...........6
"Jack-o-Lantems," Acid Rain,
and the Electrical Life of the Eanh............8
by Clyde Hollifield
Poem: "Old Houses".......... ,..................... 10
by Richard Nesrer
Kaufah and the Eanh Grid ....................... ! 1
by Charlotte Homsher
The Call of rhe Ancient Ones.................. 13
by Page Bryaru
"If the Eanh Is to HeaJ,
Our Heans Musr Be Broken".................. 15
by Richard lowenrlial
Good Medicine: On Aggression.............. 17
THE EARTH - SHE LIVES!
Poems by James Proffirt.......................... 18
Green Spirits: Sacred Forests.................. 19
by Lee Barnes
Off rhe Grid.............................................20
by Jim Houser
Natural World News................................21
"Jusr Doing Their Job"............................ 23
by Emmel/ Greendigger
Time to Take the Time
to Take the Time...................................... 25
by/vo
Drumming............. " .................................26
Whole Science......................................... 29
by Rob Messick
Tuning ln................................................. 29
by Charlotte Homsher
Review· Light in rhe Wind........... .. - ....... 30
Chestnut Grafting Project........................ .31
by David McGrew
Events......................................................32
\Vebworking............................................34
Su11u11cr, 199 1
Tradirional cultures around the world
have always had a close relationship to
the world around them. Dependent as
they were on their immediate
environment to meet all their needs, it is
not surprising that they were closely
attuned to the rhythms of their
surroundings and the messages that
came from the landscape.
The foundation of their spiritual
belief was that the world is alive. TI1ey
saw the Earth as a being, a Great Mother
who provided for all her children's
needs. With ritual, music, and dancing,
they conversed with the Earth and with
all the aspects of her power.
Here in the Southern Appalachian
Mountains, the native Cherokee
inhabitants accepted the forces of the
world as living beings and addressed
thern in their prayers and ceremonies.
They saw the mountains as great beings
of awe and grandeur, isolated and
imposing. At times of spiritual transition,
they went to sacred sites, places of
extraordinary power, to do their fasting,
praying, and divining, or to make a
vision quest.
As humanity turned toward
civilization and sought security by
insulating ourselves from our
environment, our former connection to
the world and the awareness that it
engendered slowly dissipated. Skills that
were once necessary for survival came to
be considered "folk customs" and
superstitions. In our minds the Eanh
died. As we relied more on our
intellectual brain and its offspring,
science, for our survival, we began to
see our world as a "system" under the
rule of "laws" that were mechanical,
linear, and absolute.
However, in the "backwater.. areas,
like 1.he rugged Appalachians, white
settlers from Europe kept alive customs
that dated back to pre-Christian times in
the Old World. They used the power of
wild roots for healing. They planted their
crops by the signs of the moon. They
would call on a "water witch," or
dowser, with a forked stick to find an
underground waler source. These
practices are with us even today.
(c:ontinucd on page 3)
Xatuoh Journat p09e I
�EDlTORlAL STAFF Tl ITS ISSUE:
Maria Abbruzzi
Lee Barnes
Christopher Davis
Charloue Homsher
Jim Houser
Lorraine Kaliher
Emmeu Grecndiggcr
Richard Lowenthal
Rob Messick
Mamie Muller
Rodney Webb
David Wheeler
We'd like 10 offer special thanks for the inspiration of Mounlllin Gnrdcns.
Thanks and fare well 10 John Creech. Happy trails, compadre!
COVER: by Rob Messick © 1991
PUBLISHED BY: Kau,ah Journal
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mo11111aineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFTCE THlS
JS SUE: The Globe Valley
CONTACT US AT:
Ka111ahJ011rnal Box 638; Leicester, NC;
Ka1uah Province 28748 (704) 754-6097
Diversity is an impon.am elemcm of bioregionnl ecology. both
nawral and socinl. In line will1 this principle. the Katuah Journal tries 10
serve as II fomm for the discu&;ion of rcgion:il issues. Signed rulicks
express only the opinion of the nuthors and arc not ncccss:irity the
opinions or lhe Katuah Journal editors or staff.
The Internal Revenue Scn•1ce has declared K a1uah Jo1u11al a non.profit
orgnniz.:ition under section 501(c){3) or Lhc lntemnl Revenue Code. All
contributions to K,uuah Journal are dcducublc from pcr!IOn:il income wx.
Aruclcs appcnnng in Katuah Journal may be reprimcd in olher
publications with permission from the Katuah Journal sulf. Com:ict the
journal in writing or call (704) 7S4-6097 or (704) 683-1414.
ApOW<Jlj
~
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
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 VaJley of the Roanoke and U1e Southern
PJain
on this Turtle Island continent of Mother Ela, the Earth
Here,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our
deep connection to 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 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
The photo of Darry Wood and Eva Bigwitch at Lhe R1vcrc;mc
Rendezvous on page 12 of Kauiah Jourl\ill #30 should hove been credited
10Jim Riggs. Jim is a photogrnphcrand 1c:ichcrofprimitive skills "ho
was also n guest insLructor at Lile cvcnL
'L'.NVOCA.'TW'.N
Ancient Mother,
Ancient Mother,
You who have waited so long.
You who have waited so long
for your children to return,
Your children are returned.
Here we arc.
-Swait lodge song
Ham1ony with the land is no longer an ideal; it is an
imperative.
The land is a living being. She is sacred.
As tl1e land lives, so do we.
As the spirit of the land is diminished,
our spirits are diminished as well.
The Ka111ah Journal sends a voice...
with articles, stories, poems, and artwork
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
Xatimh Journot pngc 2
....
�(continued from page I)
Bui as the urban commercial cuhure
penetrated even the isolation of the
Appalachians, for many people the moumains
lost their magic. They could see the old hills
only as another collection of available resources
to be taken out, totalled up, and rung into the
cash register. That unbroken connection 10 the
life of the mountains, the life of the Earth, has in
the last 100 years faded and almost died ...
But it is not gone. When the astronauts
took the photos of the Earth from outer space,
it became suddenly obvious that our planet is a
fragile round ball suspended in the vastness of
space. From tha1 new perspecrivc we can see
that the Earth is whole. comple1e, an organism
unto herself· and beautiful. II is also obvious
that she is part of an even grander scheme - a
cosmic ecology. We hove a place in the
universe: an alignment with the stars, planets.
and galaxies: a relationship 10 the cosmos.
When we touch the Earth here in Katuah
Province on this Tunic Island continent, we mp
into an in1erlocking web of energies 1hat
extends out into the fanhcst star galaxies.
Scientific breakthroughs like "the Gaia
theory" and the "new physics" seem revelatory
to our jaded intellcccs. The Gaia theory states
scientifically that the Earth breathes through ils
atmosphere and regula1cs its own respirarion not only is the Earth a living, breathing
organism, but ii is also conscious on some
level! The "new physics" theory sets fonh a
conception of the world radicallydivergen1
from Newtonian physics - one that seems
almost more metaphysical than physical, closer
to a study of consciousness than of matter. But
t11cse scientific concepts are acrually not new.
They were in the prayer of a Cherokee
medicine man standing with anns uplifted by a
waterfall. They were what an old woman could
feel through her forked dowsing stick as :;he
walked the land.
Tho medicine people and the dowsers
knew the geology of the mountains. They
knew the depth of the fault lines and 1hc deep
waterveins. They also could perceive the web
of energy encircling the Earth. But they were
not scientistS. They worked from their
intuition; their practice was handed down from
reacher to srudent as pans of long-standing
traditions. The Gaia theory, the new physics,
and the other recent departures from onhodox
scien1ilic thinking offer scientific evidence of
the life and consciousness of the world 1hat
these old ones felt so clearly, so long :igo.
There is still much mystery in this
round globe that looks so vulnerable and
beautiful from ou1er space. In this issue of the
Ka11uihlournal we invite the reader to learn. to
speculate, to begin to think of a whole world
mind, a unifying world energy that connects us
10 every other place, 10 every other being on the
Earth, and 10 the s1ars.
The Eanh 1ums, we tum; everywhere
we look we are one world.
-The Editors
Sl11t11ncr, 1991
DOWSING
A Briefe Treatise or Digression Concerni11g the Long Historic a11d Practice of tlu• Art
a11d Erstwhile Scie11ce of Rliabdo111a11cy
by David Wheeler
"All alike grasp tire forks of the twig witIr
tlreir hands, clenching tlreir fi.rts, it being
necessary tlrat tire clenclredjingers slumld be
held wward tire sky i11 order tlrat tire twig
should be raised at tlUJJ end wlrere the two
branches meet Then they wander hither and
tlritlrer at random through mountainous
regions It is said that tire moment tlrey place
their feet on a vein the twig immediately mrns
and nvists, and so by its action discloses the
vein: when tlrey nwve their feet agaill and go
away from tlUJJ spot the Mig becomes once
more immobile."
• from De,~ metallica. one of lhc ftN wnucn
rcrcrcnces 10 dowsing. by Ocorg,u, Agricola. 1556
This is the commonly conceived pic1urc
of the dowser, or "water witcht walking the
land looking for underground veins of water.
However. to be a dowser a person does
not have to walk the land, use a forked s1ick, or
even be searching for water. Dowsers come in
more flavors than ice cream • they e>.hibit many
different attitudes, abilities. and mind states.
In ilS purest form, dowsing might be
defined as the perception of intangible or
spiritual energies. Usunlly dowsers use their
ability in looking for some1hing. In his paper
"The Divining Rod: A His1ory of Water
Wi1ching," written in 1917, Anhur J. Ellis
says. "In tracing the history of the subject it is
found that divining rods have been used for all
of the following purposes: (I) To locate ore
Drawing b) Rob Meu1<k
deposits, (2) 10 discover buried or hidden
ucasure. (3) 10 find lost landmarks and
reestablish propcny boundaries, (4) 10 de1ect
criminals, (5) to analyze personal character, (6)
to cure diseases, (7) to tmce lost or strayed
domestic animal~. (8) 10 insure immunity
against ill fonunc when preserved as a fetish.
(9) 10 locate well sites. { I0) 10 trace the courses
of underground streams, {11) to determine the
amount of water available by drilling at a given
spot, ( I2) to determine the deplh at which
wa1erorores occur, (13) 10 determine the
direction of cardinal pointS. (14) to determine
the heights of crecs, and ( 15) 10 analyze ores
and w111ers."
Dowsers today also search for the
answers to questions; negative and positive
Earth energies; missing persons; and waywan:1
spirits. They da1e archaeological finds and
contac1 UFO's. As well as the tr3ditional
forked stick. dowsers use a straight stick;
L-shaped mcl41 rods; wire; a dangling
pendulum (usually made of me1al or s1one but
possibly of other m:uerials); their hands; or
pure perception 10 find the object of their
search. Dowsers do not have to be on the site
but can make contact through maps,
photographs, or a person's possessions.
Clearly. the general category of "dowsing"
covers a wide variety of experiences and
abilities.
But how does it work? Dowsing is
clearly an e,cuasensory experience that draws
(ccntmuodonnc,tpAJ:C)
JCatud, Jounuat P°'JS 3
�(c:crnmuai Crom pai;o J)
on a different pan of the brain than our intellect
and our everyday awareness. Walter D.1le. a
yeteran dowser in his eigh1ies Yiho hvcs
outside Ashevilk, NC, ~ayi. lh:11 there is encrg)'
evervwhere and that, "We are able tu iocus in
on iiin much the same v.ny that you might tune
in to channels on your TV ~r. Do\\:.eri. can do
very remarkable things, and v.e can prove it. 1
don't know how 1t's done, but II depcnds on
our abil1ty to use this energy thm is everywhere
- even though we don't ~ee it. We don't sec radio
waves, we don't see TV trnnsmis.\ions. It's very
much the same."
Ano1hcr dowser, Vern Peter.;on. says,
"Dowsing is puuing out an idea or a question
of what you want. and 1hb v.ill set up u
vibration. If you are looking tor water, for
insmnce, the vibration will correspond to water
under the ground that you can fed when you
get over it with the dowsing rod.
"It leads 10 an advancement of
consciousness., There's no end 10 where you
can go. The longer you smy in dowsing, the
more you learn. and the more that you learn
how much 1here is to kn6w."
Other dowsers speak of spiri1ual
influences, a direct channel 10 higher
intelligences or 10 the Supreme Intelligence, as
explanation of their abilities.
Dowsing is nor a new phenomenon. tr
seems 10 be an innate pan of the human mind,
and many practitioners maintain that dowsing
was at one time one of our ba.~ic sense
perceptions, and that ii is only with the advent
of civilization that this ability has atr0phied in
our brain. Animals seem to have the nbili1y to
find water, and it seems logical thm in more
primitive times we would have relied more on
this type of awareness to locate food and water
and be alen to dnnger.
There is tangible evidence that S1one Age
humans in Europe and the British Isles had
dowsing abilities. Modem-day dowsers are
finding 1ha1 the megaliths or "standing s1ones,"
However. as anything 1h01 can be
deeply veiled in mystery affords a good
opportunity/or swindlers, there can be
no reasonable doubr that many of rhe
large group ofprofessio,wl finders of
water. oil, or other minera/J who take
pay/or their "service'' or for the sale of
their "instruments" are cleliberatt>ly
defrauding the people, and that 1/te total
amount of nwney rhar 1hey obtain is
large.
- 0. £. Meinwr.
Uniwtl Staies Geological Sur\'c)',
1917
giam rock formmions erected by prehl!>toric
humans, are aligned with underground
wutercourscs or 1he 1;rid lines of the Eanh's
energies.
There nn: pictures of ancient Eg, pti:.i.ns
holding what appear to be forked divining
rods. There nrc various Biblical references,
such as to Aaron's rod, 1hn1 dowsers claim a~
evidence of their crafL In 1882 R.W. Raymond
wrote:
"'1ti1nh JournnC pnl).C ·l
Drawing by Ocorgc Agricola. I 556
'The Scyrhians, Persians, and Medes
used them. Herodotus says 1ha1 the Scythians
de1ec1ed perjurers by means of rods. The word
rhabdomancy, originated by the Greeks, shows
1ha1 they practiced this an; and 1he magic power
of the rods of Minerva, Circe, and Hermes or
Mercury is familiar 10 classical students. The
lituus of the Romans, with which the augurs
divined, was apparently an arched rod ...
Marco Polo reports the use of rods or
arrows for divination throughout the Orient,
and a later traveler describes it among the
Turks. Taci1us says that the ancient Germans
used for this purpose branches of fruit trees."
During the Middle Ages, when
me1al-working became common and
widespread. miners ~ought veins of ore by
digging trenches by hand. The amount of labor
involved mnde any shortcuts extremely
valuable, and, while there were physical
indications of the presence of ore, divining
came to be intel-'1"311)' associa11.-d with
prospecting, panicularly in the mining districts
of Germany. Divining rods came 10 England
with German miners brought in by Queen
Elizabe1h I to develop the languishing mining
industry in Comwnll, and they spread from
there throughout the Bri1ish Isles.
Dowsing has been controversial
thmughou1 the his1ory of civilized rimes. Since
it was often involved with the production of
weahh, there w-as alwavs the likelihood of
charl:11anrv and fraud. And since ii is conceme<l
with the deeper realms of the human mind.
dowsing holds 1he possibility of transcendent
consc1ousncss, but is olso fraught with
mystery, contradtction. and tear.
The church became interested in d0\\Sing
· some S3Y through jealousy, others say
through fear - and, although ecclesiastical
,1ttitudes and interpretauons were ne\er
con~istcnt, at least initi:illy the l'hurch e;,;hibitcd
an umbiv-.ilcnt auitudc toward the divining rod:
it was considered dangerous and discouraged
among the geneml populace, but its use Y.,ts
widely practiced as a priestly function within
the church. Church ti1uals and prarer;; were
superimposed on wha1 was obviously a very
pagan pracrice - partly 1 strengthen the di vine
0
influence, and panly 10 protect against eanhly
persecution, ii is supposed.
During the time of 1he Inquisition,
dowsing was associated with witchcraft and in
some areas became justification for torture and
a capital crime. There yer remains a legacy of
fear and secrecy lingering from that p.-iriod.
Practicing dowser John Shisler says, "Even
today, if I go b:1ck into certain areas of the
mountains, I'm a 'water witch.' A lot of your
traditional Bap1is1s will still say that 'witching'
is the work of the devil."
Dowsing came 10 Turtle Island with the
earliest colonists, where i1 met a people who
apparently still retained a basic anunemenr to
the land as evidenced by 1he eanhworks 1hey
created, 1heir many sacred sites, and the vivid
They call it psychic. I call it a gif1,
sir. I use it for /lis glorv anti mankind's
purpose. I do11'1 charge to go find water,
I'll ask 'em 10 come after me and bring
me back - if they want to donate a
penny, I appreciate it; if 1hey do11'1, well,
I'll go anyway.
I use it/or what I feel in my heart.
and I re.\{'L'Ct it for what it is.
- J.C. Ga::mvay, dowser
legends assoc1:i1ed with them. From the
beginning ~Willer witching" was p:111 of the
colonists' folk culture. Many of the wells still
used in New England were located through the
abilities of dm.. seri.. Early European
immigrants brought dowsing imo the Southern
Appalachians. At first, it was not necessary 10
locate underground water because of the
abundant springs, bur when people began to
need wells, they sough1 help from those v.ho
had kepi alive the traditional "witching"·
(continued gn page 28)
S1Un111cr, 199 1
�THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF DOWSING:
An Interview with Tom Hendricks
OK. But if they can't, then 1 don't think they
ought to do iL
Ka11ial1: People seem 10 be amazed that
they have the power 10 do these things.
111: It's a major responsibility. 1 1hink
that regaining power is OK. so long as there is
a balance. an understanding. Asking
permission is very imponant. I've always had
a strong intuition. J developed it in my
dowsing. Intuition tells us c,cactly what we
need 10 know.
Kat(,ah · When did you stan dowsing?
Tom Hendricks: About ten years ago. A
man T knew in Madison County at the time was
president of the Appalachian Chapter of the
American Society of Dowsers. I learned
techniques from the society. I slowly got to
meet everybody. I met hundreds of dowsers
from around the country and from across the
seas. J sroned off with the pendulum and
L-rods. l would use the pendulum 10 ask yes
and no questions, L-rods to find a water source
or whatever else l was looking for. At some
point. I started realizing l was getting the
feeling before either one of those tools worked
I started paying anention to lhe feeling and
didn't much rely on the tools. l preferred to
deal with the energy itself.
Kan11Jh: You could have the feeling of
where water was, for instance?
TH: Yes. Most dowsers hang onto the
tool forever. Some people have real elaborate
pendulums. When l was still using a
pendulum. I picked up whatever I had around
10 make one, a piece of suing and a rock.
l met an old guy from Tennessee who
didn't necessarily use tools. He just felt iL A
real good dowser told me how he was bringing
him back from Tennessee on interstate 40. The
old guy said that they had just driven over a
major fault. So they Mopped and checked with
their dowsing rods. He had felt a major fault
under a moving car. He was real sensitive.
But dowsing itself is filtering into all
kinds of things these days. It has been
incorporated into the whole new age
movement. I've noticed, not a total lack of
auunement, but only panial auuncment.
K01uah: From the dowsers themselves?
TH: Not all dowsers. A lot of dowsers
were being real exact with what they were
doing. But a few dowsers were into playing
with the energies, talcing things out or context.
ln the dowser's society we were never taught
to be concerned with looking at the whole
picture.
I was clearing our someone's house 1ha1
had a lot of weird energy lines running through
iL..
KalJJIJh: From the Earth?
TH: Yes. You can get negative energy
from water, from fault lines and other ways.
These energies arc disruptive to the human
system. In dowsing that panicul:ir situation. 11
seemed to be OK to move the energy. We
moved it around the house. Bue it staned me
asking questions: "Should this energy be
moved? Do I have the right 10 move this
energy?"
K01uah: Would it be a question of why
the cnerijy is being vented at that pan.icular
location. And what the reason is for it?
Summer, 199 1
Kam.ah: That requires a different
lifestyle than most people have.
TH: The energy needs venting, but docs
It need to be vented in this particular place? ls
it OK to move it?
Katuah: The Earth has allowed a lot of
manipulation.
TH: The Earth has allowed abuse. She
is regaining her will, yet we continue to abuse
her. Something l have learned is that when we
dowse, we should ask whether it is OK on all
levels.
One time l was out dowsing with an old
timer and his daughter and all of us came to this
tremendous flow, a major vein of water. Yet,
when they went to drill it, nothing happened.
Another dowser came over and said, "Don't
you sec the Indian spirits?"
Native American spirits were still
protecting the area and 1hey had interfered.
They were angry at white people for all the
abuse we have done, and so they were mixing
signals. That got to be another question to
consider: "Are there any entities here that may
interfere?"
With me it went further. I asked, 'Why
would they interfere? What arc their reasons?"
I ta.kc it as far as 1can.
There are plenty of eanhbound spirits that
are wandering around Josi. That is another
aspect of dowsing, sending eanhbound spirits
on their way. Dealing with spirits is tricky
business. You don't always know why they
arc there or what they are doing. There are so
many things involved in life and death that arc
beyond our understanding.
I haven't been dowsing in years. I'm
even beginning to question dowsing for a well.
Do l want to dowse for someone to punch a
hole? There are enough holes being punched
into the Earth.
The idea of mining crystals really bothers
me. I think people ought to leave crystals
where they arc unless those people arc 1otally in
tune, can sec or feel the energy, know where it
comes from, where it's going and why the
energy is moving. Crystals take on energy 1hcy need to be cleaned
I know a man who planted a garden with
crystals. He put in a center crystal, and then he
planted other crystals equidistantly all the way
around it at the pyramid angles and generated
heat. This guy was preuy tuned in, but I'm not
sure whether even he asked if he was
interfering with any other energies. I think if
people can contact all levels of Ufe and be sure
that nothing else is disrupted, then it would be
Orawu,g by Rob Messick
TH: Our culrurc is very sick. I've come
to rcali:ze that a 101 of dowsing that is done just
feeds the sickness. I know people who arc on
payrolls for oil companies. They dowse for oil
and gas. They are making money by telling oil
companies where to go punch the holes.
When l backed off from dowsing, 1
began a healing for the will. As I understand ir.
the will is the female energy, the mother
energy. It is the pan of the godhead that
moves, that feels, thm gives life. The masculine
energy is the spirit.
The will has been so far removed from
human understanding and consciousness that it
is barely there. To my understanding, it is
because of the loss of will that we are so out of
balance. The w ill, the female energy is thal
which feels, that which gives birth. I need to
use my will in order 10 understand.
Developing intuition is listening 10 the will.
Ka1uah.: Is this your self-healing? Or are
you trying to manifest this outside yourself in
your environment?
11 I: 1 believe that the personal healing
musr come first. The disharmony is within
ourselves. We need 10 get in 1ouch with our
own dilemmas and fears. There are lost
emotions that we deny. I also think that b) our
own dishannony, we allow things to hun us.
If we were in harmony with ourselves, the
negative energies from the Earth could pass
through us without finding a place to collect. I
think emotions cause blockages and tl"llp
whatever wants to be trapped in us.
So lately I have been focusing on
self-healing, rather than manipulating negative
eanh energies. We humans feel we have a
right 10 do anything that we want to do. We
have got to realize our shoncomings. We have
responsibilities 10 ourselves.
Ka1uah: Are you going to get back to
dowsing?
Tii: A friend of mine wants me to
dowse for a well and I should do it for him.
The healing I'm doing is leading me through
places I've never experienced before. pans of
myself that 1have never experienced before.
So l don't know what is going to happen. I
feel, in a sense, that I am still dowsing by
healing my will and strengthening my intuition.
I listen more, not with my cars nccel>S3rily. but
with my whole being.
;,
Ruorlkd by Madl!llrw II Dean
Xat ua h ) oun\Ot ~ 5
�CEREMONIES OF THE MOMENT
An Interview with Joyce Holbrook
by Charlotte Homsher
Joyce was born and raised on a/am, in
Wilkes Co11111y, NC. She taught in midwestem
co//ege.f/or 17 years before remrning u, the
mountai,is. She ,ww smdies and teaches Earth
energies throu1:ho111 tlie Southeast.
•
Kat(iah: What is the nature of the energy
grid on Eanh?
JH: There are many ideas abou1 chis. The
similarity in the ideas is tha1 the Eanh is
surrounded by nee working lines of energy in
1hc shape of a dodecahedron, a
three-dimensional figure enclosed by twelve
sides. Looking at the grid on a smaller scale, it
would seem to be divided into uiangles. The
triangle is fundamental to so many things; it is
the basic geometry of life. l would imagine that
. in accord with the hermetic principal of "as
above, so below" · there is triangulation
involved in the energetics. not only of the
human body, but in subsystems of the body,
even at the cellular level and probably at the
molecular level.
It is my opinion that it is the life force
energy, whatever that may be, that powers the
grid.
Katt'iah: What happens when the cosmic
energy hits the Eanh grid?
JH: When it hits the grid, i1 runs along
the lines of the grid.
Kacuah: The lines of the grid sometimes
being called the "Icy lines"?
JH: Yes, the Icy lines. We know that
there 1s cosmic energy coming into the Eanh.
Th.is has been verified scientifically. However,
as far as r know, it has not been verified
scicn1ifically that the Earth is surrounded by an
energy grid or that this cosmic energy runs
along it. These are theories of more recent
times.
Karual1: Does any of thi$ energy
originate from inside the Eanh, or is it all
cosmic energy?
JH: I think it is cosmic, bu1 it docs have
an aspect tha1 comes from inside the Earth. If I
stand on a vonex point, a high energy point. I
can feel an energy that comes up through my
body from the ground and then goes back
down in a spiral fashion.
I also feel thllt whatever hum:in
consciousness does affects the grid. So,
obviously, this war-like consciousness
impinges on the communication network of the
planet and goes out and affects the whole
planet
Katualr: Can you comment on what is
happening with the Appalachian ~Ids and
ridge1ops in relation to Eanb energies?
"My whole approach to working with Earth
energies is to get away from ritual and recipes, to
enter into the spo11ta11eity of life." J.H.
spiral. That I am sure of, because I have felt it.
In the newer theories of physics, the though1 is
that matter itself spirals in on a vortex inio
mamfestation out of pure consciousness. You
could say that vortices exist on every level,
even down 10 atoms. And they exist, perhaps,
within our own bodies nnd in the Eanh itself.
JH: My personal experience with energy
comes from the fact that I sense it and see it. I
see auras over mountains in the same way that
some people see auras around people, and I
feel the energy.
The Appalachians arc the Grandparents of
the planet. They are gentle. old, wise, and
loving. These things can not be measured
scientifically. This is sensing through the heart
and by feeling the energy of nature, rather than
through the ra1ional mind. Love can be felt
from nature, i1 truly can, when a person's heart
is open. And lhe Appalachians embrace you
very much like wise old grandparents. There is
a certain quality that grandparents lent 10
society, and there is a certain quality th:11
grm1dparent energy lends to the Eanh.
The Rocky Mountains have a youthful,
vibrant, rather masculine energy. There are
many people who feel that the energy of the
Appalachians is essentially feminine. But I
have also felt mountains within the
Appalachians tha1 feel very masculine. For
instance, the Black Mountains are masculine.
My cabin is on a flank of a mountain that is
ma~culine in essence. Pyramidal mountains
essentially feel masculine. The balds :-.re round
and smooth, and those feel feminine. They are
very healing. They wi II raise your energy. I
often see golden lines of energy over balds.
JH: It could, although r have seem a
similarity. 1 had a whole group of people 001
by the Missouri River at a location that wa.~
both in a vortex and on a grid line. The people
all felt the line, and everyone had the same
response as 10 how they needed to align their
bodies in order to feel best in respect to the
line.
Ka11ialr. Could you explain about the
different kinds of voncxes?
Kauiah: How is Katuah affected by wh3t
happens in another place on the Earth?
JH: They arc as different as people are
different. The dowsers repon that they see· ·o
exist where grid lines cross. They are definitely
associated with water activity, flowing water,
lakes. oceans, and underground water. There
arc people who say that there are male and
female vortices. There are also people who
describe them as either electric or magnetic or
electtomagnetic, which is balanced between
male and female. l'm not real sure about that.
Bui I have felt energy move in a vortex. It does
JH: Before the San Francisco eanhquakc
m 1989, I was driving with my sister, and I
Katuah: How can we beuer auune
ourselves to the Eanh?
JI(: By exploring feeling. Find particular
places, either by direct sensing or by using
dowsing tools, and then simply stand in those
places until you can sense with your body how
they feel. Your magnetic orientation is
imponant - whether you face north, east.
sou1h, or west.
Kariiah: Would this differ from person 10
person?
looked at the mountains. The mountains looked
like they were in so much pain. I 1 my sistc:r
c!d
that something was happening, and the quake
occurred within a few hours.
Katuah: So all the Eanh is feeling what is
happening in any one place?
JH: Right. But canhquakes are also a part
of nature, and so they arc not an anomaly.
Slfmmcr, t991
�w
#=fj
They are ad-jusanents in nature itself.
I think, in particular, mountains are
antennae to register what the Eanh is doing.
Also streams will register the Earth's pulse,
attitude, and vibrations in the same sense that
your bloodstream is going to register what is
going on in your body, the energetics of your
body.
Ka11iah: How do you do Earth healing?
JH: Places call to me. Roan Mountain has
called me many times, and Chimney Rock as
well. Killian Mountain has called me recently. r
believe narurc is a conscious being and
communicates wilh us. There is a thing called
the spirit of a place. there is an essence to Roan
Mountain, or essence to Table Rocle. that has a
consciousness to iL And consciousness
communicates with consciousness.
When I go 10 a place, I try to humble
myself and tune into just "being." I don't go
purposefully like some doctor or technician
trying 10 ''fix something." I just go there, and I
tune into the essence of the place. I always pray
in these places. I think it is very imponanL l
always pray for inner guidance in any particular
moment or situation. And then I may begin to
chant, a chant that is not a recipe. 1don't do
recipes. I do chanting, toning, and movement
for the moment. My whole approach to
working with Earth energies is 10 get away
from ritual and recipes, to enter into the
spontaneity of life. Life has its magic for the
moment, has its light for the moment, has its
peace for the momenL And that becomes an
experience that involves the movement of the
body, the voice, the bean, and the feelings. If
we allow these aspects of ourselves to blend
with the pince and the moment. then we can
unlock our bodies, unlock our voices, and
unlock our hearts. This is allowing divine love
to flow through us. from the place to us, and
from us to the place. Once connected, we
network out over the grid, over the pathways
that are, into the whole system, into the
universe itself, nnd into every other person on
the planet. Aod this is the healing. The real
healing in life is to relax, let go, and allow love
to flow, because love is, it is of God and it
simply is. We do not have 10 create it.
Ka11'iah: Do you go to places where the
Earth has been desecrated by humans?
JH: Yes. I have been led to places where
people have damaged the Eanh. I did this at a
whole workshop once in Kentucky. Several
people felt led to go this place where for years
people had dumped tmsh off the side of the
road, and it had fallen into a ravine. The
essence of that ravine was speaking to us, and
it seemed to be choking and poisoned.
We held hands in a circle, we prayed, and
then we moved 10 places where we felt
comfonablc alongside the ravine. We then
entered into silence. One of us began to tone,
and then another began to tone, and as it turned
out, there was a triad. There were three
women, including myself, coning in what
became a triangle. This was all spontaneous.
And the energy staned to flow down the
ravine. Another woman had visions, very
powerful visions, of an old medicine man who
came up and spoke to her. It was such a
-
powerful experience that many of us began to
cry. We could feel the Eanh saying thank you.
That particular day, there was no wind
whatsoever, yet single leaves on the trees
would just flutter, even though there was no
wind to flutter them. We were amazed at what
we saw in terms of narure physically
communicating with us. And she really does,
but people don't notice that.
This is my philosophy of healing. It is
love that heals. In the process of working with
an area, I may end up using some stones to
build a wheel, if I feel led 10 do this. But again,
I do not have a recipe where I say, 'Take x
amount of stones... '' I just go there and allow
myself to be pan of the totality of the
experience. In doing this with nature, we learn
how to beuer do that with each other. Instead
of building rigid ways of interacting in
families, we learn to flow with the spontaneity
of the moment.
,.
,.
-
JH: Yes, I think the time has come that
we have to reconnect with the Earth. We have
lost touch with her, and in doing so we have
lost touch with ourselves. To reconnect with
her is to reconnect with our own individual
souls and with each other. I sec it as the answer
to bringing love to the planet and to bringing
healing. If you go out and lie on the ground,
you will be comforted and the problems which
disturbed you wiJI just seem to go away. I
know some very powerful places that will just
wash away your troubles.
For information abo111 Earth Energy
workshops with Joyce Holbrook, write her at
Box 1095: Burnsville, NC 28714.
K(ll1iali: Could you say something about
the vision you had about making your own
medicine wheel?
JH: The vision was shown to me to make
it of olivine, but at that time l had not seen
olivine in nature. A friend told me about an
outcropping near an abandoned olivine mine.
When I went there. I did not just go in and take
rocks without asking permission. I was given
these rocks, and I took 12 home and made a
wheel, and they turned out lookingjust like I
saw 1n the vision. It is on my property. and I
go sit in it. Tt is very powerful, and it has
taught me that we are a wheel within a wheel.
The wounds in our lives which are not healed
are broken circles. Medicine wheels help us sec
what we need to release to come to full circle
again.
In going to power places, we can find
within ourselves what is s1ill wounded. If we
work with these places, things may come up in
our memory, emotions mny come fonh, which
can snow us what needs healing. Nature is of
God. Nature is full of healing, hannoniling
forces, just as we are. if we can come to see
thaL
h is a spiritual experience when I work
with the Earth. 1 go out by myself a lot. I do
this to bring harmony into my own life. If l
have not gone out for three or four days, l just
have 10 re tum to the Eanh.
1 was down in Stone Mountain, Georgia
recently. Stone Mountain is a very powerful
place. It has been contaminated with a lot of
materialistic consciousness. but there still are
places there that ~ very powerful, and local
people could use these places to :ttt!lne and
align themselves. Stone Mount,un 1s a power
point for the whole Southeast. lf we were not
so numb to feeling and sensing energies,
people would be able to sense these things.
My sister and I have done a lot of work
together in the mountains. One of us will say
that we should go to a cenain place. and we
will go and tone and sing and pray toge~hcr.
This has been very powerful for us as sisters.
It is a wonderful thing to do with members of
your family. It brings harmony into a family.
Go inside a stone
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger's tooth.
I am hnppy to be a stone.
I
From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how LO answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river.
The stone sinks, slow, unpenurbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come 10 knock on it
And listen.
I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill Just enough light to make out
The strange ,1tritings. the s1nr-chans
On the inner walls.
-CS
Karuoh. Do you have a vision of humans
and the Eanh hving together in a more
harmonious way?
Drav.,in& by RobMcmck
Sum nu:< , 1991
JCotimn )ournot pQ(JI!- 7
�"Jack-o-lanterns," Acid Rain,
and the Electrical Life of the Earth
by Clyde I follifield
The lights do not stay strictly on
Brown Mountain, but seem 10 occur
throughout the whole area. I have seen
them in Linville Gorge. We once saw a
light on Hawk~bill Mountain, which is the
next hill beyond Brown Mountain. It was
cruising up and down lhc mountain,
circling lhe hill, moving at abouL treetop
level. It was moving a too fast to be
someone walking with a light, and it was
not a vehicle, for there is no road over !here
on which a vehicle could travel.
S
rown Mountain lies southeas1 of
Grandfather Mountain near the Linville
Gorge Wilderness Arca in Avery County
II is an unimpressive, nondescript
mountain, little more than a tong low ridge,
but it is a focus of curiosity because of
strange phenomena known as the Brown
Mountain LightS.
There arc a lot of different ideas about
what the lights look like. Some people say
they arc a bright light. Olhcrs 53y that they
arc a faint glow. Some say they arc diMinct;
others say that they are diffu~c. Some
people have seen them in the summcnime;
others say that they see them best in the
winter. I believe that there are ns mnny
different opinions as there arc people who
say that they've seen them. And a lot of
people have seen them. The Brown
Mountain Lights have been known in that
area for generations. There arc old folk
tales about them. The local inhabit:ints call
them "jack-o-lantcms."
I have been interested in the Brown
Mountain Lights since I was a teen-ager.
Friends and I would camp out on Table
Rock on summer weekends and were
sometimes rewarded by a sight of the lights
at the foot of the mountain or drifting up the
ridges. They appeared ns Huie lights above
the treetops. They were not diffuse or
blurry, but were rather small, brig.ht ligh1s,
usually about the color of a mercury vapor
lamp nnd shining as brightly as n
streetlight. They usually ap~d late in the
evening nnd in the very early morning.
On one occasion about eight or ten
years ago, I snw little flashes of light all
over Brown Mountain, as if somebody hnd
set off thousands of flashbulbs all at once.
It was like ligh1ning, outlining the top of
the ridge. II only hs1ed for several seconcl~.
and then it was gone, bu1 it occurred three
or four times that night. It was like
elcctricnJ discharges popping off all over
the mountain.
Other times the lights are long-hvcd.
They may appear, move around up on the
ridge for several minutes, maybe go behind
Xotunh Journat pm.JC 8
the hill, and then come back out again.
Today it is hard to pick out Brown
Mountain from 1hc background of anificinl
lighis. If you arc looking at Brown
Mountain, you arc just as likely to sec
something beyond it, like Lenoir or
Morganton, or houses built on Grandfather
Mountain, Blowing Rock, or Boone. My
criteria are. first, 1h01 the lights have to be
against the side of 1hc mountain where I
know there's no habitation, and secondly,
that they have 10 be acting strangely •
moving too fast. shooting lilce a skyrocket.
or coming up over the ridge.
Scientists have initiated some smdies
on the Brown Mountain LighlS. but they
have found the tights to be elusive. Many
times when they have tried 10 make
observations. the lightS have not appeared.
Some of the studies that were carried out
tried 10 dismiss 1he occurrences as swamp
gas or other easily explainable events.
However. I personally have seen two lights
n~proach each other from opposite
dm:ctions. Sometimes they bump together,
sometimes they move apan. but when they
nrc moving in opposite dircc1ions, one of
them has 10 be moving against the wind.
Gases \\OUld have to move in the same
direction as the wind, so it is apparent that
the lights arc not gaseous in nature They
look like a specific object, rather than a
blurry. windy-blown name. Even when
they arc moving rapidly. they rc1:1in their
sh:tpc. A fast-moving gas cloud would tend
to diffuse.
1 think 1hat the lights arc simply
something that we don·t underMand. They
arc a natuntl phenomenon that is outside
our knowledge of physics.
I have spent whole weekends
watching for the lights and been rewarded
by only one sighting, or somcumcs even
none. The lights seem 10 appear randomly.
However, I have a feeling that they arc
excited by electrical :.tonns. When I went
"light-hunting" with my friends, we would
ay to go in August, on an evening after a
big_ electncal s1onn.
Also, the Brown Mountain Lights are
no1 the only electrical phenomena in 1ha1
area. One cold night in November LWO
years ago, some friends and I were up on
Tobie Rock looking for the Brown
Mountain Lights, and I kept seeing little
flashes of light nickering around the edge
of my vision. They were dim, but I could
sec lhcm moving, panicularly when l
brushed against a bush. It was subtle, but
when I opened the blanket Lhat I had
wrapped around me, I saw that the inside
of lhe blanket was sparkling with light. I
jumped up and called the olhers over, and
we examined it. Little sparlcs of light would
appear when I dragged the blanket on the
ground or rubbed i1 against the bushes. The
sparks did not seem like static electricity.
They did not give us electrical shock:..
They did not jump or crackle or make any
sound. They were just there. We never saw
any Brown Mountain Lights that night, but
this amazing new sigh1 gave us plenty 10
think about. We joked about how we had
come looking for lhc Brown Mountain
Lights. and they had been around us all the
time.
Maybe there is some connection
between the electrical sparks and the Brown
Mountain Lights. I did not know. but I
decided 10 check it ou1. A few weeks laLer
some friends and I went to Grandfather
Mountain, and we saw a lot more of th:tt
same kind of electrical spark. The lights
were in our blankets, on our clothing, on
the bushes. The Grandfather Mountain
swinging bridge was sparkling.
It looked like what is known as St.
Elmo's fire, which appears frequently in
sea stories. It was a cold. clear night, and
the "'ind was blo"' ing hard. Our clothes
were tlapping in the wind, and the lights
would appear on the trailing edge of our
co:tts. If I stretched out my finger near
another person's coat, the fire would jump
to the end of my finger. Jt was uncanhly.
We saw a great deal of activity there 1ha1
night.
My old blanket. which was made of
some blend of wool and acrylic, was
lighting up more than our other clothing.
and J got the idea that we could use it ns an
electrical indicator. Later that month. I took
that blanket up 10 the top of Mt. Mitchell. It
was another cold December night, nnd the
blanket lit up. I experimented as Jtame
Drawma by Rob Mcssicl
S111nn1cr, 1991
�down th': Parkway by stopping periodically
as I descended in elevation and trying the
blanket each time. The sparks diminished
until I got down to about 3,500 feet, below
which they did not reappear. I theorized
that the phenomenon was connected
somehow to cold nights and high elevation.
I went out on several other cold
expeditions that winter to different
locations, and we tried some other
experiments. I had heard that fluorescent
light bulbs would sometimes light up under
high-voltage power lines because of the
electrical emissions. So one time we carried
some fluorescent bulbs lO the top of Mt.
Mitchell. When we opened the trunk to get
them out, we saw lights nickering up and
down the shafts of the bulbs. They would
light up when we whirled them through the
air, touched them 10 bushes or to the
ground, or even when we passed them
back and fonh among ourselves.
We didn't see much of the St.
directly from the air. He said that they
receive as much as 11 % of their nitr0gen,
not through the roots, but through their
leaves.
These specially adapted nonhem
plants are built so that high levels of
elecuicity in the in the air around them
induces what Professor Aurela calls a
"coronal discharge" at their edges or needle
tips, which ionizes (or adds an extra
electrical charge 10) chemical compounds
containing nitrogen, so that the ionized
ourogen atoms can be fixed into the plant
tissues. The coronal discharge happens
often, but it only breaks over into a visible
state five or ten percent of the time.
However, because the air today also
contains sulfur and niuogen pollutants
(which we know as "acid rain"), these too
arc ionized, and the plants fix them into
their tissues as well, causing great damage.
Because the air is poisoned, this process
which was once vital for their survival is
Cl.08'1L ELECIIIICAL CIRCUIT
or
Schematic various electrical proc:csin O,c global clcc:lnc:11 circu,t
Sowce: the Earth', Ekctrical r:.n,iroMIUII by E. Philip Kinl,r and Raymond G. Roble
Elmo's fire that night, and we thought that
what we were experiencing was some type
of static electricity. 1decided that I would
find out. Rather than continunlly freezing
on mountaintops, l went over to the
National Oimatic Data Center office in
Asheville, which is pan of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of
the US Department of Commerce. I was
passed around between six different offices
and never found anyone who had heard of
these occurrences. I corresponded with
experts in Washington, DC: Boulder,
Colorado: and Fairbanks, Alaska before
someone directed my attention to Professor
Asko Aurela at the Wihuri Physical
Laboratory of the University of Turku in
Finland.
This man knew all about iL fie
amazed me when he told me that the
electrical phenomena we had been seeing
was connected with acid min! He explained
that in the nonhem latitudes, because of the
poor, thin soils, and the short growing
season, some varieties of plants - like
Norway spruce, Scotch pines, and lichens have evolved the ability to absorb nitrogen
Summer, 10!1I
now speeding these plant species toward
destruction.
Professor Aurela told me that coron.il
discharge is similar in nature to what he
called "the luminous pillar," a wide shaft of
light going straight up into the sky, and
another phenomenon named "low aurom."
The fascinating thing about these
occurrences, as he exrlained, is that they
are all natural parts o the: Earth's electrical
environmenL Thundel'5tom1s arc like big
generators pumping high voltages of
electrical current into the Earth's electrical
circuit. There arc thousands of
thunderstorms active around the planet at
any one time. sending 50-100 bolts of
lightning down 10 the Eanh's surface every
second. Thunderstorms do not occur
everywhere; it requires heat to produce a
thunderstorm. 11terefore, on each side of
the Equator arc thunderstorm belts that
extend from the tr0pics up to the middle
Latitudes.
The other side of this electrical system
is several hundred feel under the surface of
the Earth where there runs an energy flow
known as the Telluric current. Sometimes
the Telluric current disrupts transmissions
through oceanic cables, because it gets so
strong that it produces static on the wire.
Because the seasons in the Nonhem
and Southern Hemispheres are reversed,
during the winter, when we are seeing
electrical phenomena on ML Mitchell and
Grandfather Mountain, thunderstorms are
playing over the Amawn basin and in
South America. They send energy currents
up into the ionosphere, a layer of the
Earth's upper atmosphere. Thunderstorms
are instrumental in keeping an electrical
potential difference of about 200,000600,000 volts between the Earth and the
ionosphere. The ionospheric current flows
north across the Equator and comes back
down, 001 at the North Pole, but at about
«I' nonh latitude in central Canada. This is
the area known as the "auroral ring,• where
there is a lot of northern lights activity,
more even than at the Nonh Pole.
On the Canadian plains during nights
of a lot of electrical activity, people cannot
use the telephone, and sometimes the whole
power grid goes down because the long
wires build up so much electrical static. The
Southern Appalachians are at the southern
edge of this electrically active zone. If we
didn't have mountains here, we would not
experience electrical phenomena at all. But
mountains arc an imponant pan of the
Earth's electrical energy circuit. One-third
of the Earth's electri.cal current returns 10
the Earth at high mountain peaks. There is a
blanket of thicker atmosphere, called the
"planetary bound.µ-y layer." that extends
one mile above the surface of the Earth and
nets as an electrical resistor. As the air gets
thinner at higher elevations, it offers less
resistnnce, and electricity c;in now more
easily through it. High mountains like the
Southern Appalachians act like lightning
rods, or electrical receptors, that penetrate
the planetary boundary layer and conduct
the electrical energy back to Earth.
The Ea.nh's electrical energy moves
in a great circle. When a thunderstorm
occurs in the Amazon River Basin or in
South America, the energy travels to the
nonh, comes into a mountain peak, returns
to the ground, and travels underground
back 10 South America. When it is
summcnime in the north, the polarity shifts
so that the thundcl'5torms here gener.11e
current which is sent back through the
ionosphere 10 the south. It is like an
alternating current on a yearly cycle instead of sixty cycles per second, it's one
cycle per year - six months one way, six
months the other.
Professor Aurcla also has a gr.1ph of
the daily variation m electrical activity, and
the graph shows that here in the nonhem
hemisphere the highc.\t level of activity is
between l l and one o'clock at night. As
happens here, most of the thunders1om1
activity in the southern zone occurs just
before sundown, so the surge arrives up
here around midnight, and then activity
tapers off towards morning. There's a daily
variation, and there's a seasonal variation.
We just happened 10 be on Grandfather
Mountain during a period of peak activity.
(conttnucd CG po&< 10)
JGoti&ah Journot
pal)&
0
�Old Houses
Even exposed to all weathers
it takes many years
for a strong house, untended,
10 collapse of itself.
First the boards have to weather,
shedding even the little life
the ax lelt them.
The doors, swollen with rain,
must open, inviting owl and vole
and every creature at random
like a kind of ark:
men without money
and lovers at play
on the one brown mattress.
Boys in summer must stone
the windows to blindness.
then grow themselves
into sternness and silence,
assuming the weight of their lives.
The wine bonles smashed
in the oorner must gather dust
and the eaves go crazy with birds.
and the floors curl up
like sleepers grown cold.
Then the stones it sits on
must sink in the wet eanh
as they open at last
to the frost's slow demolition.
TIii tho whole house slumps,
a haven for snakes, so low
nol even the wind
caJ1 rattle it anymore.
II
No strata
of wills. deeds, papers,
stacked in the courthouse
can tell you
how it came to this,
why the rose bush runs wild
over the back steps,
and a rag doll is left
down cellar by a stack of books. No matter.
Today is one out of many
and you are happy.
Nothing here is haunted.
Squirrels skitter off like regrets
· as you enter their chamber.
a tourist, a snapshot.
The old boards give back the light
with a kind of joy, the rose
llght of evening, the sun's
dark laughter. For it takes.
it takes many years.
- Richard Nester
Drawing by Rob Memck
(aintinued 6om page 9)
ls all this related somehow to the
Brown Mountain Lights? Maybe it is!
Perhaps Brown Mountain for some
geological or physical reason is more
conductive. Perhaps i1 is positioned in such
a way, or iis roots go down to a cenain
depth beneath the Eanh so lha1 it aurac1s
more of this kind of activity.
Maybe not.
However, for whatever reason, there
are fireballs shooting around on Brown
Mountain. And in the Andes Mountains in
Peru, 1he highest mountains in the Southern
Hemisphere, where one would expect to
sec an elecaical activity center, there is a
phenomena called the "Andes LlghLc;":
mysterious lights that can be seen among
I.he mountain peaks. In guidebooks I have
seen references to lhe Brown Mountain
LighLS tha1 describe I.hem as being
"...similar to the Andes Lights in Peru."
They seem to be much the same. Bur who
knows? We just do not know enough yet to
be sure.
Xatimh Journot ptuJe t 0
Resource Reading:
The Earth's £/ecmcal E11viro11ment by E.
Philip Kirder and Raymond G. Roble,
co-chairmen (National Academy Press:
Washington, DC: 1986) .
lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal lights, and
Related Phe,wmena by W.R. Corliss
(Sourcebook Project; Glen Arm, MD:
1982)
Aurela, Asko and Risto
Punkkinen,"Atmospheric Nitrogen Dioxide and
Nonhem Plants," Report of Kevo Subarctic
Research Station 17: 1-6 (1981)
or
• Schematic diqiam ela:uic c:wn:i,15
in lhe ionosphere and inner magnctosphett.
Sowa,: the Eanli's El«tricol EnvirOMIDII
b)I E. Phibp Ki.rdcr and Raymond 0 . Roble
Punkinnen, R. and A.M. Aurela,
"Production of N02 and Sound in Positive
Streamer Discharges," 7th lnternatio11al
Conference 011 Atmospheric Electricity
(American Meteorological Society,
Boston, 1984)
Summer, 1991
�KA TUAH AND THE EARTH GRlD
"The Earth grid" is an energy
system that surrounds the emire planet.
Dowsers think of the grid as a network
ofelectric and magnetlc energies.
Meraphysicians see the grid theory as yet
atwther demonstration that 1/ze Earth is a
self-regulating system and a consciollS
being. There is a wide divergence of
viewpoints on the nature of the Eartlt
Grid and Katuah's place in the system.
Following are s1mu11aries of the opinions
ofa few of the individuals in Ka11,ah
who routinely work with Earth energies:
Joll11 Shisler is a biolocation
co11sultan1. Using a combinatio11 of traditional
dowsing techniques a11d scientific equipment,
he assis,s clients i11 choosing building sites and
construc1i11g buildings for optimum health. He
takes inu, accow11 Earth energies, climate, soil
rype, and also the surroundlng lu1111an-created
energy fields.
Theories about Lhe Earth grid began to
surface about 50 years ago in France and
Germany. Dr. Josef Oberback of Gennany
originated the lheory of two grid systems, a
cosmic grid which runs nonh to south, and east
to west; and an Eanh grid system which runs
northeast 10 southwest, and northwest to
southeast. The two grids lie in close proximity,
wilh the Eanh grid crossing points about seven
inches away from the crossing points of the
cosmic grid. There is constant energy exchange
and interaction between the two grids, and ii
can become difficult to separate the two when
mapping.
There is no mystery about the grid. It is
nothing more than vibration, or frequency. The
two grids can be mapped and measured
Superimposed on each other, the two grids
create what would be ca.lied in electr0nic
tenninology, a "2 x 2 memory core system" of
el~oical and magne~c fields. These crossing
points could be descnbed as "spiral vortex
energy."
Except in the event of earthquakes, the
Eanh Grid fluctuates very li1tle. The cosmic
grid fluctuates seasonally, expands and
contracts at sunrhe and sunset, and shifts
during eanhquakes. The Christian church
calendar, which bases its holy days upon the
old pagan holidays, follows the seasonal
fluctuations in the cosmic grid. On October20
near All Saints Day, the cosmic energy field '
begins to expand. By December 20, the cosmic
grid lines are as large as nine feet in width.
This i~ also the time of year when people
e,cpenence more heallh problems. By February
2, the day when the Christ child was
introduced to the church, the cosmic grid lines
have receded back to their normal size of two
and one-half inches in width.
Everything that we do 10 the Earth attracts
the magnetic flux in the Earth at the local level.
If we dig up tree roots, put in dumps, or place
huge culverts in the Eanh, as we are doing
now, we change the lines of magnetic flux.
The human adult is composed of70%
water. Every atom in our bodies is replaced
periodically. We lose two pounds of cells per
day. We have new skin cells every thiny days.
We are in a constant state of change. Every
blast of energy goes through our bodies,
whether that energy is from the Earth, cosmic
rays, magnetic s1onns, or human-made
electronic energy.
It is not only the gcopathic location of
one's residence that determines the debilities 10
which one is most liable. We arc changing !he
molecular structure of our bodies because of
the barrage of the horizontal electrical field
which we have created, as opposed to the
venicaJ field of energy coming down from !he
cosmos and the steady-state electrical field
coming up from the Earth. We arc affecting
ourselves at the cellular level so rapidly that we
have stepped up our own evolution by 50,000
years.
by Charlotte Homsher
Richard Crutchfitld, a dbwser from
Weaverville, NC works 1 ridgecops along 1l11t
Jte
Blue ridge Parkway searching for negative
vortexes and evldence of ancienc sacred sites.
Richard works with two basic grid
energies. The Curry grid of magnetism is the
Eanh Grid. It runs in lines nine co ten feet apan
around !he globe in a nonheast-southwcst
orientation. These lines are intersected by
peipendicular lines about the same distance
apart. The intersections have positive, neutral,
and negative energies which alternate along !he
lines.
. The Hartmann grid is the cosmic grid
which overlays the Earth Grid. The cosmic grid
has wider lines which vary in width according
10 where the Earth is in relation 10 1he sun, and
other factors. The fluctuations of the cosmic
grid influence our behavior.
{conunucd on nu.I page)
The new double pcntadodecahedron grid p:iuern now emerging
Summer, 199 1
• from Nrw Earllo Odystty by Joseph Robcn.JochmJJ1s C) 1989
Xatimh Journot paqe 11
�(conlil!ucd from pogo II)
Richard has found much evidence of
ancient sacred sites in the mountains. Of
panicuJar interest 10 him arc the many large
rocks which were cut and placed in the
landscape by the ancients who placed "walls of
energy" into the rocks.
Richard uses t11e tenns "positive.. and
"negative" to describe vonex energy as either
heallhy or unhealthy. Po:.itive vortexes are
generally found where the vege1ation is lush
and the area seems invi1mg. There may be fairy
rings in these areas. The negative vortex area.,;
can be recognized by scruffy vegetation and
fallen trees. The negative vonexes become
unhealthy for various reasons, possibly
including violence from old cultures or our
own negative thought forms. Using dowsing
tools, Richard reverses the flow of energy in
the negative vortexes. I le believes that he is
aiding the healing of the Earth by helping to
restore unblocked flows of energy.
• rn late winter, 1991, Richard perceived
with his dowsing rods that there were two new
energies on the ridgetops. The first was a
steady, unfluctuating su-cam of energy which
came from the nonhwest and blanketed the
mountains. This energy was of a very positive,
healing nature. There was also another kind of
energy which was moving uphill at knee level
with both negative and positive polarity flows.
Richard docs not think either of these new
energies is geomagnetic, nJthough they may be
related 10 the life force energy which comes in
through the node system of the Eanh Grid. He
believes that the energy may have been
activated by very sophisticated pre-planned
engineering on the part of someone or some
force, possibly by the ancients. When this
energy hits sacred sites, the siLes seem 10
spring back to life. Medicine wheels activated
by this energy are very powerful.
Bill Waften has smdied Native
American prophecies and traveled exrensivel>•
to sacred sires the world over. His eleventh
book, Pilgrimage, will be available this
summer at the United Research lighJ Cemer
near Black Mo111110i11.
The Cherokee Indians recognized that the
Earth energy in Katiiah was feminine/right
brain energy. They refe~d 10 Grandfather
Moon and Grandmother Sun until they were
forcefully reloc~ued to Oklahoma where the
prevalent energy was masc11line/righ1 brain.
The masculine counterpan 10 the Katuah
area in the United States is the Four Comers
area. The Hopi peace prophecy states that there
will be global peace when the Rainbow is
completed between the Hopi Four Comers area
and the Cherokee Katuah.
In 1984 Diana and Jim Gourc from the
United Research Light Center began prayer
group pilgrimages from Cherokee, North
Carolina to the Four Corners area.. They
believed that they had anchored the Rainbow
into the etheric. However, they were not aware
of the Cherokee interpretation of the prophecy
that called for extending the pilgrimages 10 the
Mount Shasta area and nearby Black Butte,
California. The prophecy also called for
prayers for all the people who lived between
these three power poinlS.
Pilgrims from Kntuah who wish to fulfill
the Hopi peace prophecies may travel the "Icy
lines," or lines of power, by way of the Grand
XatiUJh JoumaL pa<JC 12
811/ IValrcrs
Canvon, Southern California, Mount Whitnev,
and north to Mount Shas1a: or by an alternate.
route from the Four Comers area to the Gmnd
Teton Mountains, the Bighorn Mountains,
Yellowstone National Park, and then west to
the Mount Shasta-Black Butte area.
Mary arrd Joseph Jocllma11s recemly
moved to Sowlt Carolinafrom New
Hampshire. Mary is a karmic galactic
astrologer and Joseph is known/or his book
Rolling Thunder. The Coming Earth Changes.
The pair co,uittct 1011.rs 10 sacred sires aro1111d
the world and are co11sidered authorities on
ancient cultures arrd vortex energy. Together
they research what they call the "evolving
crystal grid." Their grid theory involves
complex patterns ofgalactic co11jiguratio11s,
ancient symbols, and sacred geomerry.
According to the Jochmans, the Earth is a
living evolving, crystal fonn. She has points of
power on her surface which increase in number
every time she moves into a higher energy.
Along with the increase of power points, there
is also a corresponding increase in the lines of
energy (the grid) between these power points.
When the continents were splining apan
about 220 million years ago. 1hey broke along
Lhe lines of a tetrahedron. Since Lhat time the
geomeaic configuration of this grid has become
ever more complex.
The Earth is now undergoing a massive
shif1 which will result in 1he most complex grid
yet. The new grid will be a double
pentadodecahedron. The power points on this
new grid will increase from the present 64 to a
~otaJ of 486 poccntiaJ sacred sites. The ancients
located their sacred sites and built their
monuments on or near the grid power poims.
Many of these old sites will be dying or
changing purpose as the new power points
emerge. The Harmonic Convergence of 1987
marked the beginning of these changes. The
new crystal grid will be in pin~ within 30
ye:irs. The energy now being anchored into the
Sou1heas1 is feminine, intuitive, hean energy.
Mary claims that the m.ijor power poini for the
Capricorn Compassion node will be anchored
in the Carolinas or Tennessee by 1996.
Compassion as defined by Mary means
"the ability to communicate one's compassion
for all of life," The old anchoring point for this
compassion energy was the ancient mythical
Allanth which is off the Florida coast. There
are manv Karmic connec1ions between Ka11iah,
Atlantis; and Lemuria. Remnants of the land
mass of the old Atlantis can still be found in Lhe
Southeast. In Peach Tree Rock, a heritage trust
site in South Carolina, there arc visible crusts
of rock from the original Atlantis.
The Elbenon quarry district in Georgia,
site of the largest granite deposit in the world,
is sitting on the edge of a huge mass of
crystalline rock 35 miles long. This same
crvstalline mass is connected to the
underground mass of Stone Mountain. When
the crystalline energy is triggered by the
anchoring of the new grid, many mountains,
such as Stone Mountain, will become
reawakened. Also the EJbenon granite, which
has been exponed around the world, will
become reac1iva1cd with the Compassion
energy.
According to Joseph, the Eanh will not
allow manipulation of these higher new
energies. We cannot force the changes, and
neither can we stop them We can delay the
anchoring of the energies for a time by our
resistance 10 change, bu1 the Earth will be
reborn no matter what we do. The Earth
changes do not have to be cataclysmic if we can
"allow the Eanh Mother to go through this
birth." We are the creatures with the greatest
po1entiaJ 10 lose everything in the Eanh
Changes, yet we are also the potential
midwives. "We are the Earth Changes
ourselves. If we change within ourselves first,
then we become a force of change to bring lrUe
co-creation to the planeL"
Those who wislifor information about
the Jochmans' Alma Tara Multi-versiry, the
Universal Magi Apprenticeship program, or to
subscribe ro their newsletter. may write them
a1; Jlox /0703; Rock Hill, SC 29731.
Mary & Joseph Jockmans
S11mmcr, l 99 l
�THE CALL OF THE ANCIENT ONES:
The Spiritual Re-Awakening of the Great Smoky Mountains
:Cl
has become increasingly evident over
lhe past decade lhat the Eanh is indeed
chan~ng. All around us rhe climate becomes
more unprediclllble while volcanoes awaken to
cast the earlh's blood heavenward in fiery
splen_dor. De~rts grow larger and areas of rich
and tillable soil grow smaller. Rivers and seas
continue to pound lhe continental shores,
carying their signarures into lhe landscape
while battles rage for the cleansing of their
polluted walers. UnnaturJl clouds block lhe
swlight from our cities, and the land groans
wilh the pain of greal quak<!S thal rend and tear
the fault lines lhal lay in lace-like patlems over
lhe plane1's surface. All the while, humanuy
wages war amongst ourselves, economic
siabi!ity wav_ers. and political, social, and
religious penis challenge our very survival.
Bui th<;se are the frightening negatives
regarding planetary change, for arnidsl all lhe
apprehension and uncenainty some
wonderfully positive global events are
(!CCUrring lhat are unprecedented in modem
umes.
These events will perhaps do more to
open the minds and heans of humans to a
greater awareness of the truth of the "living
E~''. theory than anything the academic or
s~1enllfic "".orlds could ever offer to prove or
disprove this age-old tnnh. An explanation of
these events spans lhe fields of geology and
geomancy, and encomp~sscs lhe perspectivCl;
of_l~e sa_cred ecology of Native American
spmtunlity as well as related beliefs and
practices of other ancient cullures.
The body of Mother Earth is dotted with
special power sites, bolh natural and
human-created, that were recognized and used
by our ancestors for lhe performance of their
~cred c~remonies. Balefires have lil up the
mght skies on the grassy slopes of ancient
Av~lon while priests and priestesses wound
their way through the stone circles at
Stonehenge and Avebury. Patient eyes have
awmted Grandfather Sun 10 make i1s annual
imprint upon the walls of Newgrange in Ireland
and Chaco Canyon in the American Sou1hwes1.
Sacred mountains all over the \\-Orld have
beckoned pilgrims to lhc1r summits and the
healing waters from holy rivers, wells. and
springs have blessed and repaired 1he bodies
and souls of the faithful who have lilied their
chalices with sweet waters, 1hc Earth Mother's
very source of life.
Yes, our forbears were clme to the Earth.
They called her Mother. TI1ey knew lhe
wholeness of Nature and lived their lives as 11
conscious relauve pan of all the planet'!> life
kingdoms. It was precisely because of tl11s
closeness that our ancestors could sense the
and potent _life force of the planet being
emmcd at specific sttes. It "'as to those pfaces
that they retreated for healing and
rcplenis~me_nt, and it was there that they did
ceremonies in honor and recognition of the
natural earth forces around them lh3t gave
power and purpose lO their hves.
ra"':
Since the latter days of the Allantean em,
Summer, 1991
by Page Bryant
Pun&al An by We. Wyan
humans have gradually moved forward in
evolution. Civilizations have come and gone.
Many spiritual traditions have sprung from the
Atlantean "root," presided over and preserved
down ~rough rime br Egyptian hierophanlS,
Delphic oracles, Celuc pneslS and priestesses,
My_stery Schools, and adepts and shamans of
vanous culrures. As evolution proceeded,
ho~~ver, modem times and society nnd new
religions pushed the Old Traditions into the
darkness of obscurity
This, like the Earth, is changing. Once
m<?i:e the Wisdom Teachings and the social,
sp!ntual, and ecological values they foster, are
being sought by modern aspirants. At thi~
panicular lime. a revival of interest in Native
American spirituality is spreading like wildfire
worldwide, due no doubt to its embodiment of
the principles inheren1 in the Earth Religions of
the ancienl past. These principles have a
tremendous bearing on our ecological problems
of today.
People are seeking lo learn about
ceremony and are using it as a loo! for gaining
a closer relationship with the planer. a
relalionship 1hat has long been lost and/or
devalued. As a result. the location of sacred
sites is of intere~t to thousands of sp1riwal
seekers worldwide, and ceremonial voices have
begun to resound, once again, within sacred
stone circles, medicine wheels, fairy rings. and
other cercmon1al grounds. Power spots or
vortexes. long dormant. have begun to awaken
during this time of planetary change and
ren~wal. Their power will once again be
available 10 empower humans and members of
other kingdoms to progress into a New Dawn.
While doing the re~arch and channeling
for The Earth ChanReS Survival Handbnok
some ten years ago, my Spiril Tc,Kher. Albion.
lor whom I have been the "mstrUment" for the
past twenty years, gave infonnauon aboot lhis
time of planetary change and mentioned ccn.un
pl3ces in Nonh America 10 "'hich people would
be drawn, some tcmporanly and others
permanently. The intense degree of natural
eanh power, the "energies," if you will, was to
be the reason why individuals would foci such
on attraction lo these places which would also
be where "Light Centers" would spring up.
designed to teach nnd guide spiritual seekers.
The~ places, which Albion called "way
slations," would ah.o be safe. in every way,
during the planetary changes. They would be
places where lhe land ilself would be tile
greatest teacher. One of these locations was
identified as the area surrounding Asheville
Nonh Carolina. Olhers were Sedona, Ari~na.
where my husband and l lived for eleven years;
southern Colorado; pans of Hawaii; and Santa
Fe, New Mexico, to name bur 3 few. While
trying to make a decision as to the proper
location for a move. due to a droughl thar
Albion predicted would become much worse,
and for olher personal desires, Albion brought
the Asheville area to our anention o.s the plac~
to which he would like l0 see us move. [a thal
~ession, ~e Teacher offered some interesting
infonnauon aboul the Great Smoky Mountains
lhat I feel is important to share with my
rea~ers,- I am, for the most part, using
Albion s exact words so that the reader might
get lhe "feeling" that the Teacher tried 10
portray:
"...The Great Smoky Mountains
themselves arc the Elders... the Ancient
Ones:.. whose voices have sung the Song of
Creauon on the North American continent
longer lhan lhe voices of any other mountain
range. They arc so very, very powerful, and
lhat power may be explained in lhree ways.
"First, because of lheir particular situation
geologically, and lhe powerful influence of the
ne3=1by sea. the~ mouniains arc magnetic in
thet.r charge of hfe force. Magnetism is of the
nature of lhe element of watt..-r. It is conducive
to helping one rum wi1hin, 10 tap the
subconscious and the Collective Unconscious.
Magnetism promotes ~nsitivity and awakens
the psychic and intuitive faculties wilhin human
consciousness. Magnelism is lhe feminine
force in Nature. These mountains are filled
with natural springs and underground river.,
and caves that have a sublerrancan water
source.
"Secondly, because we are labeling lhem
as "magnetic mountains," they are conducive: to
the energies necessary to assist Spiritual
Seekers \l.ith their Vision Quests more so than
any other mountains in the world at lhis umc
. 'Thir~ly. the Smokie~ hold the 'memory'
ol th~ breaking up of the continents dunng
previous planet.1ry changes and of the mountain
building procc.,s. They have 'recorded' the
ancient voices of Nature tha1 are unmatched on
your continent. Smee the l:m period of Eanh
changes, some len thousand year.; ago, these
great mouniuins have hecn 'asleep.' their
energy but a shallow breath. It was aho during
ll10se ancient times of upheaval that lhese
mountains were first inhabited by Allantean
m1grnnt, who spread throughout the \I.Orld
~eekmg refuge nnd ne\l. beg.innin~. To this
day. there arc ancient rock and b:trk scrolls and
SO!llC cave drawings that arc 1\tlamc.1n an their
on gin 1h:11 still exi~t wilhin various pans of
these mountains.
"This place has long been the site of
:m:ane ~ercmonies. Although man) of lhe
mountain peaks have been worn do"'n wnh
time. there were once seven summits in the
Smokies which were u~cd throughout the
centuri~ as ceremonial !;lit:;. The areas around
(aJlllurucd c,n llellt J>OS•)
Xotuah Journal JlCl()C 1'3
�(coniinw,d liom Pl&• 13)
them still comain n:mnaotS and artifactS of the
Old Ways. Some of 1hosc whom you call
Native Americans were born from these
Atlantcan ancestors, while others migrated
here from other continents and settled into this
land. For a shon time, the mountains remained
awake to their full energy potential before
slipping into an introvened slumber. Once,
through time, their power re-awakened for a
shon time, to embrace the native people who
fled into lhem for safety so that they and their
tradition might survive the thrca1 of the
invaders for later rimes. These who the
mountains hid were those you call the
Cherokee.
"Beginning in the middle of the decade of
the 1980's, the Great Smoky mountains began
LO awaken once again 10 their full power. This
process will be comple1e by the year I 993.
Between now and 1hen, many will be drawn 10
this area. They will come to live and to study
and to 'connect' themselves with Mother Earth.
Teachers will come 10 the area and some will
establish Light Centers. Ancient ceremonies
will be practiced once again on these mountain
slopes and the Native American tradition and
people will become stronger and more
irnponan1 to the natives themselves. Sacred
sites throughout the mountains will re-awaken,
sites such as Chimney Rock, Blowing Rock.
Mt. Mitchell, Wayah Bald Mountain,
Grandfather Mountain, Flat Rock, and Looking
Glass Rock will once more embrace Seekers
and emit their most potent power. The waters
of the Smokies will become more potent and
can be used for healing the body. They will be
rich for growth and fertility. The planis of the
area will increase in their potency so that their
medicinal value will be greatly enhanced. The
formation of 'brotherhoods' and 'sisterhoods'
will have their birth in these mountains once
again."
must be and what my future as a teacher mus1
be. It is here, in the Great Smoky Mountains
that I will live and work 10 awai1 and
experience the awakening of the Ancient Ones.
It is here that r will listen to 1he Voice of the
Earth Mother sing the song of Creation... of
Wholeness... and of Rebirth. And, it is here
1hat I will seek to add my ·ligh1· 10 the ·ugh1s·
that are already here... in peace and in harmony
with the Spirit Forces and the Greai Devas of
the Mountains.
So mote it be!
Page Bryant is a ttacl~r and p.rychic ofmany
years txptritnce. Shr has sludit'd atensivt'ly with
Nativt American mtdicmt ttachtrs and is familiar with
naJivt' prophecies abow the currtfll Earth changes. She
has wrttttn st11tral books, one of IM bt'st known Ming
The Earth Changes Survival Kandbook. fltr /WO nr:wtsl
rtkasts art. Tcrmvis1on, a pr~r on sacred sitts o/tht
world. and The Aquarilln Guide lO N;wve American
Mythology.
Page and l:t'r husband Sco11 Guynup, a visionary
artis1, havt optntd 1he Mystic Mowuain Rt1re_a1 and
Ltar,ung Cuittr and may bt' rtaehtd at -,07 8rUJIS\l,1C'Jc
Drive; Waynmillt', NC 28786 (704} 456-6714.
This article was reprinted from Eanh Walk, tht
ntwsltlltr ofThe Earth Ctn/tr, which is dedicated 10
personal <kvelopmtnt and Earth htaling by bringing
s1udtnts toge1/iLr with well-known Native l.!ru!rican
ltachus Olld holding regular spirltMDl ceremonies ill 1hr
narivt ,radicion. The Earth Center is mam«zintd by Zoe
and Jim Marun. Contact them 01 302 Old Ftllowship
Road, Swannanoa, NC 28n6 (704) 298-3935.
WIIEN THE MOUNTAINS A WAKE
Upon hearing the Teacher's words, I
knew, beyond doubt, where 1 must relocate.
knew what the next step on my path of life
(from a conversation wi1h Page Bryant)
"My spiri1 teacher Albion has repeated
numerous times in speaking of the Eanh
Changes, 'We don't wan1 you to limit
yourselves by thinking about 1he Earth in only
the physical sense. When we say Earth
Changes we are talking about geological and
climatic changes, but we are also talking about
social, political, and spiritual changes.'
RESOURCES
······~.
.... . .~~~~.1!·~·-· -
• Earth Ascending. Jose Arguelles (Bear & Co.
Publisher.i, Santa r-c, NM. 1988)
• Thi! Divining Jland: The 500 Ytar Old Mys1try q/
Dowsing. Chris10phcr Bird (New Age Press; P.O. Box
1216; Black Mounlain, NC 28711. 1979-1985)
•Ttmn•ision. Page Bryant (Hi1rpcrMd Row, New York.
1991)
• Anti·Gravity and tlu- World Grid Ed1tc.d by David
Hatcher Childress (Advcntwts Unlimited Press; Box 22:
Stelle, IL 60919. 1987)
~
/(:i;<-:;;~\
..:·
.
..
• •
•
·:.
.
•
......
,
_
~
··....
··.........'
.......
..... . .
,
··-
..........
.......... . l ....\ ... ······-.........
:
;
.,-..
••
I
jlll'"li~l.'i,,,__
.
'•
·..:.
-
....
..
.
.
,
• r(!C()rtkd by DW
• The Earth Sp,ril. Its Ways. Shrines and Mys1tries.
John Mitchell (Crossroads Publislung Co., New York,
NY. 1975)
• T~ Ntw Vi= Over Atlantir. John Mitchell (Harper
and Row Puhlishcrs, San Pranci51CO CA. 1986)
• Looking Gia.rt Univtrst: The Emogmg Scitnce of
IVhokMSS. F. David Peat and John Briggs (Simon &
Schuster, Inc., New York. 1984)
• Tht Ancitnl Srienu ofGtomancy. Nigel Pennick
(Townes & Hudsen. Ltd., London. 1979)
•
o!
••
• "Geomancy: A Tawny G111111mor; Steven ~ l in
Rais,: tht Sraus (Spnng, 1984 • Planet Drum
Found:11ion; P.O. Box 31251; San Francisco, CA
94131)
• Where ug1wi.f livt. Doug Ro~Jln (Cherokee
Publicnlions: P.O. Box 256; Cherokee, NC 28719)
• Black Dawn • Bright Day. Sun Bear & Wabun Wind
(13.e.lrTribe Pub.; Box 9167; SpocMc, WA 99209. 1990)
Wet England. 1984)
• Nttdlu o[Srone. Tom Graves (Granada Publishing
Lid. 1980)
:.
.:
d
~
• Ear1hmind. Paul Devereux, John S1ccle, and David
Kubrin (Harper and Row Publishers, New York. 1989)
• Ftng Shui: Thr Seitnet ofSacrtd Landscape in China.
Em~ J. Eilel wilh commem.:iry by John Michell,
(S)'IICJ'getic Pless; 24 Old Gloucester Street: London
-... ,
. . ~. .
"The sacred sites in the Appalachian
Mountains are coming into their power. 1993 is
a year tha1 I feel will be intense in every way.
Bui people are not going to be able ro
experience that power until they reconnect
themselves 10 the Mother Eanh.
'There are mnny ways to regain our
connection with the Eanh. One 1s 10 educate
yourself about the Earth. That is what my book
The Eanh Changes Survival Handbook is all
about.
'That is well and good, bu1 we need 10 go
a step funher. We need 10 learn from the native
people. and the most imponam thing we can
learn is ceremony.
"We have to get back into doing the
ceremonies 1ha1 honor the forces in narure.
We've jus1 become 100 sophisticated for our
own good. Jus1 try getting up in the morning
and greeting the sun. Take a handful of
cornmeal and throw it up toward the Sun and
say, 'Thank you, Grandfather. Thank you for
the new day.'
"Do that for seven days - ir you don·t feel
better, more connected 10 the Sun and 10 the
Earth, then don'1 do it any more.
"Something simple: we have a sign by the
water tap in the the kitchen tha1 says,
'Remember the water spirits.'
"People want to know what that means. I
ask them, 'When is the last time you gave
1hanks to the water spiri!S for being here?'
"They say, 'What?'
"Obviously it's no1 a question of when
was the last rime, because they have never done
it before. They've never though1 abou1 it 1ha1
way. Well, I lived in the desert for 12 years,
and r learned 1here 1ha1 it's really important 10
have a good solid peace with the water spirits.
'That's some1hing to think abouL We
lake these things for granted. That's the big
enemy: we lake all these things for granted.
No1jus1 the Eanh, the waler, and the air, but
also each other.. .life! If people can stop doing
that, then we've staned the ball rolling."
• TM Ages ofGOia: A Biography of our livin1 Ea,-1/t.
J:imcs Lovelock ry./.W. Nonon & Co. Inc. New York.
1988)
Orawina by Rob Meaick
• Sacrtd Pious. James A. Swan (Bear & Co.
Publishing. Santa Fe, NM. 1990)
• Ear1h Wisdom. Delores LaChapclle (Finn Hill Ans;
P.O. Box 542; Silvcr1on, CO 81433. 1~78)
Summer, 1991
�"If the Earth Is To Heal,
Our Hearts Must Be Broken":
Two Experiential Approaches to Reconnecting with the Earth
by Richard Lowenthal
Earth Dance
Since August oflast year I've been
deeply involved in the fonnation of an
innovative environmemal youth program called
EanhDance. There are two primary "guiding
lights " behind this program. First is the belief
that our youth need in-depth and experiential
knowledge about our environmental crisis - .
and about viable, practical solutions. Second 1s
the observation that young people are
.
disenfranchised in our society, and are growing
up feeling helpless and/or apathetic about their
future. They are desperate for guidance,
support, and hope. They are seeking a positive
aliemative vision.
In speaking with groups of young people
throughout the Asheville, North Carolina area,
EanhDance director Mark Fields and I have
been astounded and saddened to hear the
bleakness of many kids' vision of the future.
Even from nine and ten year olds, when we ask
them to imagine the world twenty years from
now, we hear responses like:
"In 20 years there won't be any eanh."
"1 see the whole planet covered in black
smoke."
"The hole in the owne layer will keep
growing, and we'll all be fried by radiation."
They have good reason to be frightened
Although our culture voices concern for our
childrens' future, it ii; simultaneously
devouring the planet and pirating the natural,
financial, and social resources essential 10 the
future of the coming generations.
Amazingly, environmental education is
still considered an educational "frill," and sits at
or near the bottom of the totem pole of
educational priorities. This error is a symptom
of OUT failed relationship with the natural
world. This massive failure in tum translates
into failed relationships with our children, since
we are initiating them inro a social system badly
out of touch with reality. And buying a child
off with a new computer or video game doesn't
change the underlying truth: if we really cared
about our children and the world they are
inheriting, we would be doing much more chan
we presently are ro deal. with t~e profo~nd
social and ecological cnses which cononue to
deepen around us.
Within our society and within each of us
individually, there exists a _pressing n~ed for
adaptive change and conscious evoluuon, a
need that we consistently refuse to recognize.
We need 10 honor the Eanh, to begin again to
nunure the awareness chat this planet is our
Home, that we belong here and are responsible
for caring for our Home place.
One way to promote this aw3:"!"CSS, an~
the sense of caring nunurnnce that n evokes. 1s
through planting trees. This spring,
EanhDance sponsored a tree ~ale and plan tin~
project for young people, wh1<:_h w:c: unique m
its multi-leveled approach. This proJCCt had
three interconnected goals:
1) To empower young people (age 9-18)
to act on behalf of their communities and their
S1nt111ia-, 1991
Planring trees al GrQ.NJ[Olhu Mountain
natural environment, and 10 literally get "in
touch" with che Earth by planting trees.
2) To teach kid5 that environmentalism
and money-making can coexist, and in fact can
In
suppon each other. _ this case, 40~ of the
money raised by selling trees went directly .
back to their environmental groups or classes m
school, 10 be used for other environmental
projects chqsen independently by each group.
(The remaining 60% of the proceeds covered
EarthDance's expenses in coordinating the
project.) One group donated its earnings 10
black bear protection work, while an~ther
chose 10 buy and protect an area of r:unforest.
Yet another group set its money aside to fund
the projects of the environmental club during
the coming year.
3) To conduct a liCientific experimen1 .
based on soil rcminemlizarion as a therapeutic
technique for healing both !;Oil and trees. In
coordination wilh Dr. Roben Bruck, a
nationnlly known expen on acid min and plant
pathology, EanhDance arra!'lged for tree
plantings on areas at Mt. Mi1chcll and
Grandfather Mountain that have been
devastated by a combination of airborne
pollution, insects, and fungi.
Using a na1urally derived mineral rock
dust study groups remincmlized half of the
where trees were being replanted, while
the remaining areas were left alone to serve as
controls.
Dr. Bruck expects 1he rock dust to
significantly im~rove th_e ~es' chances of
survival due 10 its alkahmzmg effect on the
soil and 'the concentration of irace minerals it
provides for the trees' nourishment In
.
Germany. large-scale remine:-l1iw.tion efforts _m
the Black Forest have been highly successful m
rejuvenating dying forest stands.
.
.
Herc m Asheville, another expenment 1s
under way on the Audubon Society's new land
at Beaver Lake, where kids planted 200 trees -
area;
~vcamores, hickories, pecans and hybrid
chesmms - and remincml1zcd half of them.
EanhDance is also planning future projec1i, to
explore whether reminemlization can, ns Dr.
Bruck suspects, minimize or perhaps stop the
damaging dogwood blighL
All the!">C effons arc imponant, yet the
crucial aspect of the EanhDancc approoch is the
focus on active involvement and experiential
education for our youth. Technical solutions
and temporary improvements will no~ suffice lO
insure a sustainable society and a habitable
planet. We need a drastit "change of hean"
even more than a "change of mind." We
already realize the gravity of OUT situation; th~re
is plenty of terrifying inf0rnl3tion oa that topic.
What we need now is courage, inspiration and
lwpe. We need hean-lcvcl inspiration to get _us
motivated, but inspiration never lasts unless 11
is convened into hope and encouragement
through direct personal experience.
As Mark Fields puts it, ''The problems of
our world ultimately spring from OUT sense of
separation from life and each other. The mos1
effective way to heal this sense of separateness
is through building connectedness and
community: actual involvement in life.
"In thinking 1his through, I concluded
that OUT children arc the most effective
"acupressure poin1" within human society 10
quickly tum things around. Most a~ults arc
either so busy or so shut down emononally that
they arc simply unavailable for intensive
involvement. Our kids, on the other hand, arc
desperate for involvement, for real participation
in life. And the kids have the most to lose, too.
They know we need to preserve the planet, but
they aren't seeing much real change; they arc
offered public posturing and "green" slogans
instead. This conveys a negative message to
our youth, and increases their frustration and
cynicism.
"If young people don't have a positive
oullet for their energy and youthful enthusiasm,
they tend to lapse into depression or apathy.
But if their potential energy is guided and
convened into activated. energy, then they can
work to change the direction into which our
planet is heading - and they can feel much
beuer about themselves and their future. Only
if a tremendous grasH'OOts movement arises,
among both children and adults, can we move
towards righ1 relationship, wholeness, and
harmony. I see this movement as one of the
bare essentials for the survival of humanity and
the planet - and it 1s happening. and slowly
growing, becau:;e II is so desperately needed.
We need more than anything 10 reconnect with,
and honor, our Source.·•
MurJ; Firld.r is aformrr busi11essman ondflowtr
farmrr who spent many )·ears living in the f<Jln/oresu of
Costa Rica lit rtlMTMd nnrth ,n 1988 fuling a dup
r.onu,11 for ow social and p/JJMUJry tn1v-0=111. and
rpent tM [WI two ~ors dew/oping the ideas bthilld
EanhDanct. Phone (704) 2.52.Jlll/8 or writ( to
Ca11hDa11cc htStllutt: P.O. Box 2155: Ashl!Vlllf. NC
28802.
(continuod on nm r•i:•)
�(conlinued rrom page 1S)
Children already have the connection.
Little kids know - they feel it. It's amazing
how much more they know than we do, how
much more they sense. They just need
encouragement.
Karualr: I grew up surTounded by deep
woods, arid I used to spend hours and hours
exploring them. That was important for my
growth, but most kids don't have that
anymore. Their feelings are intact when
they're very young. but without encouragement
to feel their relationship to life around them,
they start to lose touch. It's like autism, in a
sense. We withdraw into the "separate" self,
and cut ourselves off from reality.
ReCreation Experiences
Another Asheville-based program,
ReCrearion Experiences, was begun last/al/ U>
literally bring people "down to earth" through
wilderness skills and outdoor living training.
Based on the Native American ways 111ughr by
tracker Tom Brown and his staff. ReCreation
Experiences is led by founder Dave Torbett. I
spoke with Dave about the focus of his
reaching:
Karuah Journal: What was the genesis of
ReCrearion Experiences?
Dave Torbett: About 8 years ago I began
to envision developing a program to help
people "come home," as I call it. Our culture
has a built-in mentality that wilderness is "bad"
or "dangerous," so we insulate ourselves from
it. Backpacking has become very popular, but
even then we're insulated. We wear heavy lug
boots, we carry massive backpacks, we sleep
enclosed in tents. We pack in our stoves and
ice cbestS and lanterns, then go home feeling
we've been "back 10 nature"! Despite the big
wave of backpacking and outdoor recreation,
we still have not gouen back to the Eanh.
So I began 10 dream about an alternative
to those kinds of camping and outdoor
programs - a way to take people home, help
them feel corilfonable with the Ennh, help them
learn skills that teach them that our Mother
provides everything that we need. It's very
simple living.
There's an old Apache saying that as far
a.s humans' feet are protected from feeling the
Earth Mother, that's how far humans' hearts
will be from knowing her as M0ther.
lf people's hearts aren't broken again,
and they don't reawaken into a loving, caring
relationship with the Earth, environmentalism
will do some good, but in the long run people
will tire of it and go back to their "convenient,"
desrructivc ways. So I feel we have to woo
people back to our Mother.
Xntuafl JoumoC P<1CJC 16
DrawingbyRobMculclt
Katuah: It seems that the fundamental
problem is our separation from nature.
OT: Yes. A lot of it comes out of the
Puritan mentality, which maintained that
anything passionate was bad, including sex and
nature. Anyone who's spent much time
outdoors, or been out when the wind's
blowing and the sky is tom apan by lightning,
knows nature is passionate and alive, and not
some thing that we can control. But our
western mentality says, "If we can't dominate
it, then we will kill it" Thai is still how we
approach life: we analyze it, we do endless
scientific studies... but there is an clement to the
Earth that is spiritual, that is deep - something
unfathomable. There's something magical
about iL Our culture tries to obliterate that, to
w1pei1 out.
Karuah: Our obsession with conb'OI
seems 10 be a major problem_
DT: Making fire with a bow drill
provides a good example. If you don't work
with the wood, the cord. and the tinder - if you
try to dominate them - you may grind through
that fire-board, but you don't get a fire!
Once while we were doing a workshop
for a group of parents, the lead instructor,
Steve Ashmore, became very frustrated
because he couldn't get a fire. He wns
cranking hard on that bow drill, and nothing
was happening. Finally he just laid everything
aside and said "J quit." About 1wo seconds
later, he looked over. and the '>'ind had sparked
a coal in his tinder bundle. His tinder bundle
was 5moking, it was on fire. He got a fire by
saying ''OK. I give up."
This was a great spiritual experience for
Steve. As long as he had fought the energy
and tried to control it, nothing had worked.
But when he let go, the wind blew the coal
into a flame for him. Trans formative moments
like tha1 happen 10 people when they get back
to being a pan of nature. When we're willing
just 10 stop. put our bare feet on the Earth. and
listen to her speak and b~thc...thcn we arc
able 10 be transfonned.
DT: Yeah, Tom Brown uses this
example: imagine you've been lying in a
hospital bed for 10 years. Your muscles
atr0phy, and when you try to get up you can't
walk, you have to relearn how to walk. We
have innate awareness skills: we know how to
live in harmony with the Earth, we know how
10 be in balance, we know how 10 let the spirit
flow within us. But as our feet became
removed from the Earth, our awareness skills
atr0phied: all the spiritual awareness, the
e,cpanded vision, the sensing of the movementS
of our animal and plant brothers. All those
sensing skills became atrophied.
When people go outside, even for a little
while, you hear them say how good they feel.
Well, it's that reconnection. But since it's so
unfamiliar, we have to help people define what
they're feeling and realize that it's good.
Sometimes people ask me if I'm "New
Age," and I tell them, "No, it's a very "old
age" thing we're doing. It's pan of us, we've
carried a club a lot longer than we've earned a
pen. We're toolmakers and craftspeople.
We're more comfortable with creating, sensing
and moving with the Ennh, than with anything
else.
Katuah: How does that deep
rccoMcction with nature unfold inside us?
What can we do to nurture it?
OT: We have to gradually recover our
inner sense of being comfonable with the
Earth. This may mean starting with small
periods of time when you can go outside and
be alone and listen. You begin to rune your
senses once again. You listen for sounds. you
smell whatever's in the air, you begin to look
with expanded vision. If you lie down on your
stomach and look at one six-inch square piece
of ground, you could fiU a notebook with all
the things you see.
There's a wonderful, mysterious place
right there in your back yard. Take your shoes
off. stand in the grass, then step away and look
at your foorprint. That's the beginning of
tracking: observation. Begin to observe what
comes in and out of your yard, what lives
there, what grows there. Begin to research all
the plants that grow there. Take longer periods
of time to be silent, breathe. and let the Earth
speak to you. Let the spirit that moves in all
things speak and move in you, and trust w~3;,,.
t
you begin to sense and feel.
fr
RcCrtaJion ~ritncts. an &mh skills and
a/llllltlMIII program, offas work.tlwps and training 10
1/rt public. PhcM (704) 252-8688 or writt to
RcCrearionuperitncrs:46 Wall S1ru1: Asheville NC
28801.
SummcY-, t99t
�,
I
ON AGGRESSION
In 1838 Andy Jackson said that we
should move aside for "civilized man,"
meaning white people with their plows,
schools, technology, etc.. I think about the
thing that happened in Iraq and I think about
the wars carried on by "civilized man," and the
way that we think about them. For instance.we
consider ourselves "civilized" because we don't
indiscriminately drop nuclear bombs on our
enemies. But at the same rime it's "civilized" 10
thre:1ten people with nuclear weapons by
havmg thousands of them
To me this says that one of the things we
haven't addressed is our own aggression.
Looking around today, 1 see that spunking m
dny-care centers has become an issue, and the
argument is brought up that "the reason that
there is so much crime. is because there is not
enough spanking."
. Now how could a child not grow up
bemg aggressive when adulL'i hit him because
they assume that his behavior cannot be
~~lied in any other way? Spanking and
h11ung (as well as neglect) by adults is what
causes wn.rs and criminality • not the tack of
those!
r recently witnessed white kids having a
fight. One was an 11 year old boy who was
pounding on a nine year old. The older boy's
father came out with a big leather strap and beat
the older kid for hitting the younger1>ne. That's
how aggression and wars are perpetuated.
We learn by example, all of us, adults
and children. ln raising kids, it isn't what one
says that is important; it's what one does. But
in thi~ cul~urc ki?s are expected 10 respond to
what ts s:nd, while the adults think that they
can do whatever the hell they want to. And they
don't realize that the children are learning from
wh~t they are doing, not from what they are
saying.
The way to communicate non-violence.
to say that there are other ways 10 solve our
human problems than to nuke our enemies or 10
go aftei them with high technology weapons •
is 10 live that kind of life.
After awhile, we're expected 10 notice
when we're doing something that doesn't
~ork. ,:tie v:iay we measure how well a policy
1s working 1s by the results ...and we're still
slaughtering ourselves wholesale.
The native people never thought that
spanking was the right approach 10 dealing
with children. To us spanking seemed barbaric
- it was a barbaric, savage thing that dominant
culture men did to their children.
The traditional family was different from
the fa!11ilies. of today. F~r.one thing, they were
more inclusive. In a tradiuonal family the old
people were respected. They were the
caretakt:r.;, the nunurers, and the teachers of
the children. They weren't meaningless lives
best stuck off in a faraway house 10 die.
Today we don't seem 10 have time to take
care of our children or our old people. We're
100 busy making money 10 survive or 10 get
ahead. We often leave the ca.re of our family
Su111111cr, 1991
(These n.re the words of a IJ'Dditiorol Cherokee medicine ~n.)
members 10 "professionals." But most of these
"professionals" arc people who arc hired off
the street to work a menial job for a minimum
w~~e. Or we i:elinquish the responsibility of
ra,s,ng our children 10 the school system. It
ends up that frustrated, underpaid,
Lower T/uuvkrlwle
under-respected people have the responsibility
for talcing care of our families.
In a traditional family, the children were
indulged - their every whim was met. But they
we~ also made 10 feel like they were pan of the
family and welcome 10 panicipate in family
ac~ivi.ties. This ~esulred in a different way of
1h1nkmg, what 1s called a "cultural bias."
People's identity was defined first by the
family, then by the tribe and by the clan.
Everybody, when we get hun. wants
sympathy and empathy. r can remember as a
small kid falling and crying, and somebody
picking me up, hugging me, and raking care of
me. I can rcmembt:r that. But as I got older the
grown-ups just stopped reacting like that. They
gradually had me become more responsible for
myself. That went on up through the pubeny
and moon lodge ceremonies.
As I got older, if I misbehaved, people
would simply walk away and act hun. White
people call this rejection, but I don't see it as
rejection at all. When as an adult, if someone
violated cultural customs, but in a way that was
not too serious, people might not talk with that
person for a week. That was a powerful
reprimand. The need 10 belong 10 the family
and clan groups was so strong, that it was a
motivating factor in modifying people's
behavior. The most serious punishment was 10
be ostracized from the tribe. That was worse
than death. If someone was ostracized from his
family or clan, there was probably a 90-95%
chance thnt person would commit suicide.
That's a cultural bias. That wouldn't
work in this culture. People don't have that
tribal sense now. Today it's every man for
himself.
Just about every one of the native tribes
recognized that the tram,ition from childhood 10
adulthood was a very imponant stage in a
person's. life and marked it by some son of
c_elebrrmon or pubeny ceremony: Pubeny is a
t1~1e w_hen young peopl~ are having a variety of
b1olog1~I change:. commg over them. and it's
also a urni: when they are staning 10 question
and doubt the thing:. that have been taught 10
them by the older people. This is called "the
~bellious stage" now. h is a time 10 question. a
umc to a.\k: "Is there a God?" "Is Grandpa full
of shit?"' - important mauers like that.
Instead of trying 10 hold that energy
down, or lock it up, or conrrol it, traditional
people would encourage the young ones to
search and 10 :;eek out answers for themselves.
!'I~. one said, "This is the only way that there
1s, because experience taught them that if there
was any truth or goodness or sohdriess 10 the
philosophy that the young people were raised
by, they would come back home after they
were allowed to question, to doub1, and 10
experiment for themselves.
I sure as hell did it, and the older l get,
the more I find myself acting like my
grandfather. Every once in awhile I look in the
mirror, and I think he's standing there. And
when I hear myself talking 10 my children, I
hear his voice. I've gone in a big circle in my
life. That circle went way, way out there, but
now it's come back around. But that's fairly
nonnal - that is, if there's any basis 10 the ideas
one was brought up with.
We also recognized that there was
aggression in human beings. The white people
have always thought that we had lots of wars
among ourselves. but I think that our ''wars"
were more like long-1enn, off-and-on feuds.
We certainly weren't without aggression, but
w~ ~!so didn't ~eep armies and build up
m1l11ary s1ockp1les. In warfare and in raising
children we were several thousand years more
advanced than the dominant culture of today.
Instead of putting all our energy into
designing new weapons and military hardware,
we sho_uld be 101e_lligcnt or civilized enough to
deal w11h the basic problems of our aggression,
our selfishness, our self-centeredness - not just
with the symptom.-..
We have 10 face the fact that aggression is
pan of us. It's pan of our t:rue name. Uut the
dominant culture doesn't really address that.
The present society substitutes "the big stick
theory" - since we expect other humans 10 be
aggressive, we create a big military to proteet
our wealth and our ideas. c-un·.~ on ne11 pa1e)
- · _,
)(,(ltimf, Journal pa<)C 17
-.
�(c:o111inucd from~ 17)
The Cherokee people recognized our
muuml aggression. They would arrange
stickball games. Somelimes lhey senlcd
disputes with u game of stickball. The word for
"ballgame" was the same as the word for
"war." People. ;ot hun playing stickball;
somelimes pooplc even got killed.
We certainly didn't solve the problems of
aggression, but we had ways 10 deal wich
them. Jn the Cherokee way of thinking, for
example, there was no concept for cowardice.
When we were having a baule 1,1,ith our
neighbors, maybe the Creeks or somebody
else, and we felt that we were losing too many
of our people, even though we might be
winning the conflict, we would just pack up
our weapons and go home. We acted like 1his
because life was sacred m us. The loss of too
many people was more than we could handle.
Indebtedness :ind revenge were parts of
our culture in which we were nor VCI)'
advanced. The basis of the clan justice svstcm
was retaliation. Everybody knew thal if ihey
tre:ued a member of :1no1her clan badly, they
were going to get their ass kicked by all the rest
of the clan. It made people think twice about
mistreating someone, but the clans had 10 kick
a lot of ass 10 uphold their reputations so the
system would keep functioning.
In clan maners we weren't as much a
tribe a.\ a confederation. If someone was killed
who wasn't kin or a clan member, other people
often were not too concerned. Some Cherokee
villages fought with the Creeks for years, while
at the same time other Cherokee villagl!s were
friends 10 the same Creeks. But revenge was a
powerful motivation.
However, there were restraims. The
nation had what they called "red villages" and
Aging...Changing
Asheville, May.
Jordan's jus1 now learned
how 10 replace a pacifier between tiny we1 lips
curled sweetly beneath May's sun
while the new leaves of wild strawberries
and blue-purple briars discover
how it is warm and sad and odd
beneath a cloudless Appalachian ceiling.
And down the pebbled road
I know through the inference
of tre~ crashing through irees
and the sorrowed, bloody thud of wood to earth
lha1 the firs lll'TOSs the ridge
arc just now learning, too:
seeing how the cones shake and drop
through lhe popping, cracking, fibrous wrenching
of hot, oily metal teeth.
The blue twist of two-cycle oil breath
dissipa1es, quite satisfied, up and away
through a canopy of needles,
waiting in the silence of death
for the imminent drying.
The bridge has tumbled into the deep.
Below the sloshing, muddy torrents
!here are creatures calm and curious,
monsters bloated, white, and wide-eyed,
and between them somewhere in the murky stew
an understanding odd and unspoken.
Finned ~a1urcs stare at rare monsters queerly,
wondenng what purpose they've come to !,C!Ve,
To reclaim appliances, furniture, tires, boulcs, and else?
To 1emp1 with wonn, jig, or spinner?
Or perhaps only 10 say "l have driven submerged".
The monsters stare back, but do not see or question
• though lips are poised for speech.
Hair standing on end pointing downstream, body
slowly swaying, stiffening.
Above, quiet whispers of drizzle
beckon the sun's fading 10 hurry. And upstream
muddy banks doued with the living who stand among
red and yellow and blue s1r0bes, dizzy, pointing
downstream, are disappearing in the rising.
The living Stare also, blindly
into swirling eddies of death.
"w hi1e villages." Generali v it broke down th111
the aggressive people lived in the red villages,
and the non-aggressive people lived in the
white villa~es.
The "Beloved Woman" was another
built•in check within the syMcm. If everybody
got all excited about something 1he Creeks had
done and wanted to go make war right away, a
Beloved Woman could say, "Listen, there's not
going to be any warfare," and 1here wouldn't
be any warfare. We had cenain checks and
balances that developed through the centuries. I
don't know if it was ever consciously though I
out, but it fit in witb our cultural biases.
How the clan system of justice would
have developed in the future if it had not been
contaminated by an influence as strong as
western cuhure, J really don't know.
Poems by James Proffitt
Ancient, crude magnificence
evolving from distant overtones
to immediate, restless anger
low and .still and brittle.
Cracking pop splitting
flash of flashes
and flutter of an in splinters
sweet pine mood rain pouring hail
and sulphurous love of electric
kissing a nameless fir
clenched to the crest
of a trillion ton stone.
This is the beginning.
What if old age is a healing crisis? - the
harder old age is, the more healing is needed,
As we get closer 10 Spirit, we cleanse naturally.
Old unhelathy habits of body and mind come 10
the surface - we're more sensitive - more
unable 10 abuse ourselves without instant
repercussions.
~hat_ if we looked at aging as prosperity?
Prospcnty IS abundance. The more we have of
something, the more prosperous we arc. With
age our numbers build like money in lhe bank experience - wisdom - value.
When we age, we slow down so we can
notice more. We learn how 10 conserve our
energy, so that we can better become involved
in olher realms besides the physical.
Our culture has taught us that old age
often means sickness. Bu, these sicknesses are
probably only the accumulations of lifelong
habits that harden us when we do not face
issues and feelings in relation to ourselves and
olhers...When we are not willing 10 change.
The word change has age in iL It also bas
can. lf we can stay open and make the changes
we need to as we go along, the healing crisis
needn't be so hard. Don·, let lhc healing pile up
until 1he end. Ligh1en up your load. Count your
blessings and your years - and when you reach
I 00, it could be like collecting interest on a life
well invested.
• C Redmage
Rcprint.cd from !he Floyd ReSl)urce Cooperative
Muulrller; Bo~ 81: Floyd. VA 24091
A bear's nose quivers fur pointing
that way, buck's ears and tail twitching
water hissing steaming up and away
from charred wood
echo of a fading, wordless language.
Later earth whispers beneath a sagging
canopy wrecked foliage
heaving and sucking
expelling long ceremonious sighs
having wealhered one more
and only rhe foamy brown rnge
of a river below and subtle, renewed
spirit in flora to show.
D,_,,,, by f1t1 Graef,:
Xati«lfl Joumat pnge 18
(from IN CllMrttc Ught on tho Wind. .K~ p.
JO}
Summer. 1991
�SACRED FORESTS:
Recommended Guide to Old Growth Stn11ds
Green Spirits, our generous plant allies.
gifl animal-kind with food, medicine, and
counsel. While all animals consume 1he fiber
and flesh of plants, few seek out the counsel
and cures offered by plants.
My favorite way to immerse my soul with
plant and eanh energies is by entering and
communing with the old growth forests. I
prefer the 1enn "old growth forest" over the
romantic misnomers "virgin forest" or
"wilderness," which only exist in the minds of
civilizations which have left the forest. Old
growth forests are defined by many criteria, the
most obvious of which are: the relative freedom
of disturbance by humans; the presence of large
trees and an uneven canopy structure; an
abundant fungal component; and the presence
of logs in alJ stages of decay.
I gain reverence by day-hiking into these
wooden-cities of forest inhabitants, where I
temporarily become a citizen of these woods.
But the greatest spiritunl sensitivity'comes to
ptc after $pending three or more days in the
fores1s. Gradually. one becomes more "in
tune" to the subtle rhythms and energies of a
truly balanced ecosystem. Words poorly
describe this personal experience; I can only
encourage readers to directly visit and
experience these green energies first hand and
with open heans. One should enter the forest
with a sense of reverence and should "leave
nothing but footprints ... "
Katuah's Green Spirits are best felt and
embraced within the old(cr) growth forests,
especially within the protected areas of the
region's largest preserve, the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park (hereafter called "the
Smokies"). Detailed trail maps of the Smokies
can be purchased at any of the visitor centers in
the Park, or can be obtained by mail from the
Great Smoky Mountain Na1urnl History
Association (Grea1 Smoky Mountnins Trail
Map- GSMNHA; Rt. 2, Box 572-B;
Gatlinburg, TN 37738. $1.00 postpaid).
More detailed trail infonnation can be ob1ained
from the Sierra Club's Hiker's Guide to the
Smokies (Mur!less and Stallings), available at
libraries and bookstores.
Day-hiking is unrestricted in the Smokies:
however, you will need a free backcountry use
pcnnit (available from rangers and at several
self-service Backcountry Reservation Stations)
for any over-night stays in the backcountry.
Several of the backcountry camp~ites arc
extensively used and require advanced phone
reservations.
My favorite places 10 eicperience the
communities of forest beings have occurred
along the following hiking trails in the
Smokies:
(I} The Gabe Mountain Trail follows the
lower slopes of the main ridge crest between
Cosby and Greenbrier, Tennessee. East of
HenwaJJow f-nlls, the trail travels through
se_veral miles of undiscurbed original forest,
with _an exceptional diversity of plant and fungi
species of enormous age and siz~. There is a
Sunmier, 1991
beautiful backcountry campsite (#34- Sugar
Cove) located in 1he middle of this forest. This
trail offers easy access 10 some of the best
woodlands in the Smokies.
Joye~ Ki/~r M~morial Forest
(2) A few miles awny by trail is the
preserved Albrigh1 Grove, a small section of
prehi~toric forest, named after a former director
of the National Park Service. The trailhead is
locared on a short side-road behind the
Jellystone Park Campground on US 321
between Gatlinburg and Cosby. fn the grove
one may experience the immense presence of
several HUGE tulip poplars ("the Behemoths")
and record-sized understory trees and ferns.
These trees are friendly 10 u-ce-huggcn..
(3) A few stream drainages west of
Albright Grove is the Ramsey Cascades Trail,
an eight mile round trip day-hike. This tmil
leads through mature forests, but with a more
limited number of the exceplionally HUGE
trees. This is a m<X.lerately difficult hike due to
the distance and steady climb (a 1600 foot
elevation gain in four miles).
(4) One of my favorite trails is the
Boogerman Trail in Cataloochec Valley, located
off rnterstate 40 at the nonheastem end of the
Park. This relatively easy. seven mile round
trip trail leads the hiker through magnificent
trees of record-sized hemlock, oak, hickory,
and poplar trces ...rcalJy fine trees to hug!
CataJoochec Valley contains several additional
pockets of relatively undisturbed forest,
including (along the Big Poplar Trail) the
largest tulip poplars in the Park, each with a
trunk diameter of six to eight feet.
(5) A few trail miles west ofCataloochcc
Valley is the high elevation "perched valley" of
the headwater:. of Raven Fork. This is the
valley of the Cherokee Indian legend of
''Yona-unatawasiti'yi'' ("where the bears
wash"), a mythical purple pool where wounded
bears are healed .
Loc:ued adjacent to the Cherokee Indian
Reservation at Cherokee, NC, the headwaters
of Raven Fork nrc considered the most isolated
and rugged valley in the Park. No maintained
tmils lead through this area, bu1 the ridge above
it can be reached by hiking the Beech Gap Trail
from Roundbouom parking area, nonh of the
Cherokee Trout Hatchery. At the head of this
trail is the McGee Springs Campsite (#44),
from which a very primitive man-way leads
along Breakneck Ridge and then descends
through thick rh<X.lodendron and laurel to the
rushing creek. The forest around the campsite
is composed of huge spruce and oak trees. A
second and more frcquemly used campsite,
Enloe Creek Campsite (#47), is located
alongside an especially beautiful section of
Raven Fork
(6) Small, relatively undisturbed
"pockets" of the original forest, remain along
the eictreme headwaters of the many southern
streams which drain down from the ridgecrest
along the Tennessee and Nonh Carolina border
in the Smokies. Most of these watersheds were
heavily logged in the 1920-30's, but the
uppermost re.1ches of these valleys contain
magnificent forests. One of the more easily
accessible headwaters is that of Deep Creek.
This trail-head is located a1 a small parking :irea
on RL 441 about a mile south of Newfound
Gap in the center of the Park, TI,e trail drop:.
steeply into the impressive forest with its many
streams and beautiful trees. The tr.iii should be
followed for at least 1wo miles. Better yet is 10
walk the four miles to the campsite at Poke
Patch (#53).
(7) Another exceptional woodland in the
Smokies is found at the beginning of the lower
section of the Gregory Bald Trail. This
trailhead begins 01 1he start of the one-way
Parson Branch Road, leading out of Cades
Cove, TN. The two mile hike to 1he Forge
Creek Campsite (#12) leads beneath an
exceptional tree canopy. Continuing up to the
crest of the ridge (about a 2600 foot rise in
elevation), the hiker will reach the grassy
Gregory Bald, another Cherokee mythical siie.
"Tsisrn'yi'' ("the Rabbit place"}. Herc the '
rabbics had their townhouse, ruled by their
chief Rabbit. who was as large as a deer. This
open and grassy mounca.in bald is exceptionally
beautiful in mid-June when the native name
azaleas bloom in blinding red-to-orange colors.
1hls listing of exceptional forests in the
Smokies (and 1'm not telling all my secrets!) is
intended as a guide for personal pilgrimages
into some of the last old growth forest
remnants remaining in K.atuah Province. Go to
these places. and scclc the counsel and wisdom
of plant spirits there • you will gain greater
respect for even the simplest Green Spirits.
•
/
by Lee Barnes
Xatuaf1 Journal pngc I 9
�-
OFF THE GRID
When we 1alk about hydropower we are
really talking about mpping into the primary
power of the eanh... gravity. Water itself has
no power, it has mass. The power is due to the
force'of gravity acting upon the mass of water
and creating an energy flow,
The energy flow represented by flowing
water is naturally regenerative (as are all natural
cycles}. due to the sun's input. Star energy
evaporates water, allowing the wind to carry it ,
back to the top of the hill.
Organisms have been using flowing
water to help them do the things they need to
do, ever since water first flowed; whether it be
the micro-organism that needs it to bring food
within its reach, or the person floating
downstream in n hollowed-out log.
Up here in my neck-of-the-woods, the
Blowing Rock, people have been using the
many swift and swollen streams to U11nsport
themselves for, I imagine, IOOO's of years
(though now we just call it spon).
More recently, the people of this area
took to pu11ing large wheels in the path of a
stream's flow in order to change i1i. linear
energy in\Q circular mQtion.
At first, this 100k the shape of giant water
wheels running grist and lumber mills at places
like Cove Creek, Valley Crucis, and near
Beech Mountain on Beech Creek Road. In
fact, the Winebarger mill in Meat Camp is still
operational and the giant wheel (over three
stories high) that once powered the lumber mill
on Beech Creek Road is sull turning, though in
a different stream...
The first thing you notice when you enter
Edith and Ray Estes' small piece of land tucked
into a holler along Howard's Creek, is that
giant wheel turning slowly and inexorably like
some giant fenis wheel from a perpetual fair.
Along its circumference, every foot or so.
is a metal slat which caplllrCs a stream of water
directed to the top of the wheel from
somewhere higher up the holler, making the
wheel fall with ics weight over and over again.
Ray, who has been active for 83 years.
once used the wheel's spinning motion 10 spin
a 12 kilowa11 (kw) generator. Since then he
ha.~ scaled down his operation and uses a
smaller wheel nexr 10 his house 10 generate
electricity, but rhc big wheel still turns 10
generate memories of the pasL
Ray's use of the big ol' lumber mill
wheel to gcnerarc electricity, illustrates a very
recent use for hydropower which mos, people
associate with the term, electricity generation.
By virtue of its elevation a stream
contains potential energy. hs rate of flow is a
measure of this potcnrial being realized. We
can use these two simple truths to calcul:ue 1he
potential power of any stream:
P=HxQ
Xnti1<1h Jou rno t pngc 20
Which says that the power (P) of a stream
of water is equal to the height (Hor head) from
which it is falling multiplied by the speed (Q) at
which it falls.
The electricians among us may recognize
the similarity between this equation and the
basic power relation of electricity:
P= EX I
where P is power in waus, E is
electromotive force in volts, and I is current
flow in amps. According to More Orher
Homes and Garbage, the power of a stream can
be expressed in waus by dividing the product
of the flow in cubic feet per second and the
head in feet by 0.0118. This gives the potential
maximum power. How close one can get 10
that figure is a function of how efficiently one's
electrical power generating system translates
the linear motion of the stream to the circular
motion of the generator.
Before 1930, Boone got a lot of its
clccuical power from a hydroplant off the
Blowing Rock Ro:id on the South Fork or the
New River. The dam for thtlt system still
smnds.
Another large hydrosys1em in the area
still operates. The dam for this system which
crosses the breadth of the Watauga river
(ma.king it unnavigable at that point, which
would not be allowed today), was originally
built in 1890 out of hemlock logs, and the
stored power was used to grind com and
wheat. In 1905, Ben 0. Ward built a sawmill
which still stands, though in a state of long
disuse. In 1934 a larger dam was built and
Ward began to generate electricity. He received
a power franchise from the state und supplied
12 to 15 homes with electricity through a 35
kw synchronous generator.
The famous flood of 1940 wiped out the
plant (and just about everything else up here),
and before it could be rebuilt the Rural
Electrical Association (REA) moved in and
divided the countryside into regions within
which only one company could have a
franchise. fn this area that was BREMCO
(Blue Ridge Electric Membership Co-op).
Now, anyone generating power for more than
personal use must sell it 10 BREMCO, they
cannot sell it dircclly to their neighbors.
Currently, the si1e begun by Ben Ward is
maintained by his son Rick. It consists of two
3-phasc induction motors, one 100 hp and the
other 125. It is a 69 kw plant with a head of 16
feet forcing a flow which often exceeds 20,000
gallons per minute through the two giant
vertical turbines. Mr. Ward produces 50,000
kwh per month which he sells to BREMCO at
$0.03/kwh, so he makes about $1500 per
month from his hydropower.
Ward's system is an example of a
low-head, high-flow system. This area,
however, also contains a good working
example of a high-head, low-flow system. It
dams a small creek high arop the hill ii falls
down. Water is channeled from this dam down
1680 feet of eight inch diameter drainage pipe
(obtained 31 $2.08/ft from leftovers 31 the oon
to the generator 168 feet below the head of the
dam. A flow of 1200 gallons per minute spins
a vertical pelton wheel at 300 rpm, which is
geared down to spin a 18 kw 3-phasc induction
motor.
Like Ward's, this generator is induced by
the power company, which means BREMCO
supplies the power to the electromagnet within
the generator. Thi~ makes 11 unnecessary for
the person who is generating the power to have
a lot of expensive synchronizing and voltage
protection equipment. But it also means when
BREMCO goes down. so do they. Not exactly
off the grid. but they could be.
This micro-hydro system could generate
almost 13,000 kwh per month, enough to
provide up to 15 normal homes (energy hogs)
with electricity. The resuiction on selling
power to others could possibly be
circumvented by buying land cooperatively, or
having all the service homes on a single piece
of propeny owned by the power generator.
This is the situation which exists on Ray
and Edith Estes' estate. Resembling more a
riverboat than a house, the Estes' home is
tucked away high up in the holler alongside the
stream. From there it overlooks a little
community of homes and cabins which they
rent at very reasonable prices.
Ray built a dam across the little stream
which runs by his house, and created a small
pond above his house, teeming wi1h fish and a
family of ducks. He channels some of the
water from the pond to a srt13ll tmditional
wooden waterwheel which sits right next to his
house. adding even more 10 the illusion of a
riverboat as it slowly spins in the stream. Its
speed of six rpm's turns a giant flywheel which
is attached 10 the shaft of a generator by a
•
leather strap. The 5 kw, l lO V generator is
bolled to a workbench in the small wheelhouse
Ray built next 10 the waterwheel. Currently he
uses the power 10 nm his outside ligh1s, twenty
to thirty I00 wan light bulbs. During the day
when no lights are needed but a load is needed
to prevent the DC generator from burning up,
Ray uses the power to heat his hot water.
Ray's got a lot of hot water.
Ray's system is the best example of a
low-tech system which most anyone with a
little spunk could build. No exorbitantly
expensive turbine, pelton wheel, or piping is
required, and il's graceful.
Though I think Ray's dam and resulting
pond are beautiful, some people (not beavers)
object to micro-hydro systems because the
·dams destroy the stream's ecology. At the
developing Center for Ecological Living
(CEL). which would be Katuah's newest site
for investigation into self-sufficient community
lifestyles, Rob Messick. curator and local
genius, has devised a water delivery system
which is unobtrusive to the stream. I le placed
a preformed concrete culven, in which he had
driven a two inch hole and a couple of small
feed holes, i 010 the center of the small but
powerful ~tream which flows through the CEL.
A two inch nexible black plastic pipe runs out
of the two inch hole 250 feet to the pond which
sits beside the stream. The flow from the pipe
is about 45 gallons/minute, which could be
quadrupled by doubling the size of the pipe.
Besides using this hydropower to fill the
pond, it might be possible to generate electricity
as the water enters the pond. Hopefully, we
will repon more on this in future OFF Tl IE
GRTD columns.
Anyone interested at an in-depth look at
one person's small 7 kw hydrosystem should
refer to Katuah #4, the WATER issue. on page
11. If you don't have it, order a back copy.
There are still a few left.
If anyone out there i,; running a small
h)•drosystem, send in a description and w/''ll
print it in this space.
'
Big wheel keep on turning ...
Jim IJouser
S111mm.·r, 1Q91
�"I'M YOUR PUPPET"
NIIUn.l World News Service
ECOTAGE
The Cullasaja controve~ continues (see
Na1ural World News Ser-ice
Ka11wh Journal #30). At issue are plans for a
A series of inc1den1s in Katuah's national
forests is leading some fores1 officials and law
cnforcemem agencies to suspect 1ha1 there are
local activis1s commi1ting acts of "ecotage,"
damage to equipment that is damaging natural
environments.
On March 27, Leonard Cook of Cook
Bro1hcrs Lumber Company in Franklin
reported that spikes embedded in logs from the
Paroidge Ridge timber sale near the Namahala
Community in Macon County had caused over
$1000 worth of damage to his sawmiU.
Less than one month later T & S
Hardwoods of Sylva, Nonh Carolina reported
damage to logging equipment in the Avery
Creek area of the Pisgah National Forest.
Thomas Stanley, mill manager for the
company, reported on April 5 that dirt had been
added to the fuel tanks of the machines.
Stanley, whose company was also the target of
a spiking incident last March, does no1 believe
that April's incident was nn act of ecotage: "To
me, it looks more like vandalism than someone
trying to make a statement."
Pisgah District Ranger Art Rowe
disagrees. He considers the act "environmental
terrorism." The area where the equipment
damage occurred is located three miles behind n
locked gate, and Rowe said, "That's a long
way for somebody to go back into an area just
to commit casual vandalism," he said.
Rowe wonders if the possible ecotage is
in any way connected to an incident two weeks
earlier in the North MUls River area of
Henderson County, in which an un-named
group of people blocked a Jogging truck for
nearly three hours as it was attempting to leave
a logging site.
SAVING WATERSHEDS
Natural Wotld News Service
Two special places may possibly be
slated for federal acquisition this year. Work
continues to protect the Chattooga River, and
two tracts arc currently available for purchase.
$2.2 million is also being sought to buy 1,860
acres on the Horsepasture River. The
Horsepasture is designated a Wild and Scenic
River and efforts continue to guarantee
permanent protection of that status.
The Congressional Land and Water
Conservation Fund directs a portion of
government receipts from offshore oil drilling
and other resource depleting activities imo land
preservation. Write your Congressional
representatives about malcing these important
watershed acquisitions through the Land and
Water Conservation Fund.
Senators
US Senate
Washingion, DC 20S10
SAY NO TO PLUTONIUM
Nawn! World News Sctvice
The US government's Rocky Aats
plutonium processing operations near Denver,
Colorado are being shut down because of
plutonium contamination to the surrounding
area. Rocky Aats is looking for a home, and
the government would like to move the facility
either to the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly
plant near Amarillo, Texas or 10 Oak Ridge,
Tennessee.
Presently the Rocky Flats plant
reprocesses plutonium so that it can be re-used
in nuclear warheads and builds plutonium
•pits" which are used as a triggering method
inside the warhead. Plutonium has been
released into the soil, wr, and water of the
plant's surrounding environment. Studies by
Dr. Carl Johnson, health officer of Jefferson
County, Colorado, showed that people living
near the Rocky Flats plant had increased risks
of childhood leukemia, brain tumors, skin
cancer, and lung cancer.
Moving the operation to Karuah's
western slope would mean severn.l billions of
dollars in construction work on new
processing facilities and thousands of jobs,
Summer-, 1991
Rcprcsenlntive
US House of Reprcscntat.ives
WashinglOl'I, DC 205 IS
considerations that have the Oak Ridge city
government drooling. The town has already
signed an agreement - before even looking at
the operation plans! - that offers the Dcpanment
of Energy (DOE) 5,000 acres of free land and a
guarantee of five million gallons of water per
day if the agency would locate their supcrplant
in Tennessee.
The Rocky Flats faciliry would also bring
large amounts of plutonium, one of the
deadliest substances unleashed on the planet •
an clement so volatile that it instantly bursts
into flame on comipg into contact with oxygen;
a substance so concentrated that it requires only
ten pounds to make an atomic warhead.
Handling plutonium results in plutonium
waste that has a half-life of24,000 years and
which, as it decays, creates americium. that
gives off bone-penetrating radioactive gamma
rays. his impossible to safely handle or
pennanently contain plutonium waste, and
when it seeps or vaporizes into the environment
it collects in living tissue. causing degenerative
disease and genetic mutation.
The announcement about the Rocky Flats
move was contained in a DOE repon titled 'i'hc
Reconfiguration of the Nuclear Weapons
Complex," which outlines plans to carry
$5 million sewage treatment plant proposed by
the town of Highlands in Macon County,
North Carolina that would dump one-half
million gallons of treated effiucm per day into
tl1c Cullasaja River.
The NC Department of Environmental
Management (DEM), although ii was aware of
the controversy and has been presented wi1h
pmple evidence of the potential impacis of the
proposed treatment plant, signed a permit for
the facility in April, 1991 without even
requiring an environmental assessment for the
project.
The action set off a storm of protest. Save
Our Rivers, Inc., the Macon County Citizens'
group organized on behalf of the Cullasaja,
filed a lawsuit in civil court to require that the
state prepare an environmental assessment of
the treanncnt plant proposal. The US Fish and
Wildlife Service. the NC Wildlife Resources
Commission, and the Clean Water Fund of
North Carolina all immediately made public
objections to the plant. Senator Terry Sanford
sent a letter to the DEM asking for an
environmental assessment. Even North
Carolina Attorney General Lacey Thornburg,
who used to fish in the Cullasaja, sent a letter
of protest stating that an environmental
document should have been prepared before the
pennit was issued.
The DEM has turned a deaf car to the
uproar. Green LiM newspaper quoted DEM
Public Information Officer Debbie Crane as
saying, "We haven't heard any real
concems...Jt's just mass hysteria." Another
DEM spokesperson, Don Fullmer, said, ~we
applaud what the town of Highlands is doing."
Highlands is an upscale retreat for the
rich and powcnul - people who are used to
getting what they want. Apparently the
tentacles of their influence reach a long way all the way to Raleigh.
nuclear weapons production into the
1wcnry-first century. The report offers three
alternatives for future plutonium p.rocessing:
move Rocky FlatS to the Pan1ex site, to Oak
Ridge, or 10 close all the existing operations
and move them to a different (as yet
unspecified) location. The logical alternative,
to shut down plutonium production entirely, is
not offered as an option by the DOE. It is up to
the public to bring that alternative to the the
attention of the agency.
There will be public hearings on the DOE
report and the plans to move the Rocky Flats
opera.lion this summer. Hearings for this region
will be held in the Pollan! Auditorium on the
campus of the Oak Ridge Associated
Universities in the town of Oak Ridge on
August 28 starting at 9:00 am. The Oak Ridge
Environmental and Peace Alliance (OREPA) is
calling on all concerned people to participate in
the hearings, OREPA organizer Ralph
Hutchison emphasizes the importance of the
hearings for the whole region, saying, "If you
can only come to Oak Ridge once in your life.
come on August 28!"
For more ii,formaJion on the DOE:J plans and
the Rocl:y Flats move, call OREPA 01 (615) 524-4771.
Xoti1oft Journal P"'JG 21
�CHEOAH SET'l LED?
~OT QUITE!
BIG TOM'S LEGACY
Naruru World New. Scn-i«
NillW'lll World Ne,., Sena
The US Forest Service (USFS) and
several influential environmenml groups
reached agreement March 4, 1991 on 1enns to
senle an appeal of two disputed timber sales in
the Cheoah Bald area, the largest unpro1ec1ed
roadless area in rhe Pisgah and Nnntahala
National Forests. Under the terms of the
se1tlemcn1, the USFS will forego a one-half
mile pennanenr road into the Cheoah area and
will scale back the Wesser timber sale by
dropping one cutting unit which would have
required the road for access. In return, Lark
Hayes of lhe Southern Environmenml Law
Center agreed on behalf of The Wilderness
Society, the Sierra Club, the NC Wildlife
Federation, and ~e Elisha Mitchell Chapter of
the Audobon Society 10 drop the coalition's
appeal of the USFS timber sales.
Two other appeals of the controversial
timber sales had already been turned down by
the U~FS. One was by timber industry
lobbying groups demanding a higher timber
vol~, and ~e other was filed by SoulhPAW,
a regional environmental group advocaring 1ha1
the _Southern Appalachian national foresLS be
designated a roadless "evolutionary preserve"
for the benefit of habitat. The SouthPAW
appeal was refiled again at the regional and
national levels and wa.~ rejected at every stage.
Apparently the USFS did not lake kindly 10 the
group's suggestion that the Cheoah Bald area
be returned 10 pre-RARE n conditions.
This dates back to early 1983, when the
Chcoah area was a 21,000 acre roadless area,
under study as pan of the Roadlcss Area
Review a!1d Evaluation (RARE IT) program.
But later m 1ha1 year Chcoah was removed
from RARE It consideration, and the Forest
Service began a road-building orgy that within
only a few yC3I'S reduced 1he roadless
component to 7.000 acres, one-third of its
previous size. SouthPAW would have the
Cheoah roadless area returned 10 ils original
condition.
Peter Kirby of the sourheasrem regional
office of The Wilderness Society hailed the
apP?I senlement as a victory. "As well as
halung roadbuilding into this crucial roadless
area, by recognizing the importance of
protecting the roadlcss resource. the agreement
SCI a precedent that will be most useful in the
course of the upcoming land use and
management plan revisions," he said.
"
SouthP~W activist Rodney Webb said.
For s~ch an 1m~rtan1 ~abi_tat area._the only
eco_log1cally fea.~1ble pohcy LS very simple:
obhterare, revegcuuc - obliterate the roads and
allow them 10 be recovered by the natural
vegeuuion."
'This area is just across Fontana Lake
from the Great Smoky Mountains National
Parle. fl is 3:11 important stepping s1one by
which species can migrate from the parlc into
the southern reaches of the Nnn1ahala National
ForesL If we lei them, the Forest Service will
chop Oicoah up and carry it away in liule
pieces. We can't let that happen. We won't
forsake Chcoah. Whatever it takes - a lawsuit
in civil court, direct action whatever - we will
defend it as long as we~ able."
To cc111ac1So1111t n,w, writt to: Box J/4/; Askvillt.
NC288(}2.
Xatuah
Journot
~ 22
Big Tom Wilson was a legendary hunter
who roamed the Black Mountains during the
laie 1800's. He knew those mountains and ir
is said 1h01 he loved them well
'
In April, 1991, Wilson family
descendants gathered nnd donated a
conservation easement on 1800 acres or family
land that had been passed down intact since Big
Tom's day. The easement does not transfer
owne~hip of the property, but ensures that the
propeny will never be developed. The area will
hereafter be protected as the Big Tom Wilson
Preserve.
The event marked an important step in
maintaining unbroken hnbirar in the Black
Mountains, because the Wilson property makes
a strategic linkage between Mount Mitchell
Srate Parle 10 the east and 1he Big Butt area of
the Pisgah National Forest 10 the wesr. To the
south lies the Blue Ridge Parkway and the
Asheville Watershed area.
The easement was done under the
auspices of the American Farmland Trust. a
non-profit organization dedicated to protecling
farmlan~ from encroaching developmen1. It
was earned out at the request of the Cane River
Club, which is presently administering the land
for the Wilson family members.
team from Atlanta that invcsug;ired the incident.
"It's an ~xpcnsive joke, if that's what ii is. It's
pretty s1ck..,1oi.illy uresponsible." According
to 11u1hontie:,, fin11I costs of rhe hoax ran into
rhe thousands of dollars.
On May 8 an anonymous leuer received
by the Asltevil/e Cimen-Times signed only
"The Black f-1:ig'' rook responsibility for rhe
hoax, saying it was "executed in hopes of
illiciting (sic) p_u~l!c attention 10 the deadly
1hrea1 and poss1b1hty of nn actual toxic was1e
spill," FBI Agent E.K. Miller said he would
refer the lcuer 10 the FBl's agent in Charloue
that specializes in environmental mauers.
.
The n1:tion may have been expensive, bur
~1 was not fnvolous. According to the May
issue of Green Une. an independent
green-oriented paper in Asheville. a survey
conducted by the NC Division of Motor
Vchicles from December 1990 10 February
19~ I foun~ char 22% of rhe trucks stopping at
weigh srauons along 1-26 and 1-40 were
carrying radioactive waste. In addition, there is
a _re_ar th~t President Bush's five-year, $105
bilhon highway plan, inrended to facilitnte the
shipment of defense goods, will result in a
markedincrcasein1heamoun1ofhazardous
and radioactive waste being transported.
LET'S NOT LOSE LOST COVE
Narunal World Ne"'-. Service
. . . . -RADIOACTIVITY ALERT!
N.tunal World New, Service
Ar 5:00 nm on April 22. authorities
discovered what appeared to be the af1erma1h of
a hit-and-run accident near the junction of 1-26
and 1 near Asheville, NC.
-40
But this was no ordinary accident. At the
scene were four metnl bam:ls labelled
"radioactive" and a shanered wooden pallet. it
appeared ';h:11 the_ ~Is had spilled from a
ITUCk hauling rad1oact1ve materials. and the
Stnre Highway patrol immediately closed one
lane o_f traffic and ~gan 10 call in experu from
five d1ffcren1 agencies 10 look into the incident.
Investigators using Geiger counters
de1ennined thar the barreb did not, in fact
contain any radioactive substnnces and the
a~lhorities began 10 suspect thar th~ whole
thing was an Eanh Day hoax 10 call ancnrion 10
the dangers of mdioactivc waste transpon. "h
looks 10 be a set up." said Dora Ann Danner
coordinator of a US EPA emergency rcspo~
[)(.-ep in the nonhern Pisgah National
Porest lie the lands known as Lost Cove and
Harper Creek. Accessible only by graveled
Forest SCJVice roads, this area just south of
Grandmother and Grandfather Mountains
provides vital habitnt for a great number of
plant and animal species. The area is also
blessed with many scenic waterfalls and troll!
su-eams, along with an extensive network of
trails.
Curcntly the land is ser aside as a
Wilderness Study Area, and the US Forest
Service has recommended both areas for
wilderness d~ignntion. The proposed Western
Nonh Carolina Wilderness Prorecrion Act of
1991 (IIR 35) would protect 13.000 acres of
this land from industrial pressures.
The bill passed the House or
Rcpresenracives last year, but no action was
taken by the Senate before adjournment, and
the bill died. Cass Bnllengcr. a Republican
representing the 10th Congres.~ional District,
brought the bill back 10 life this January, and
the proposal has broad suppon in his home
disrricL
In the l Ith Con.,.... · . 11
r
west anothl'r 1-··:HE pRESSES, f{ep. faylo d
R,-.-- SfOP 1
press, .. propose
\\\ went 10. ding tus . 111a1idS
t<,.atu\\\'I 1011m was resc1'.1 ,, i11 ihe J·h& •n rhe
As ' ti 11ta1 he "h)'~tena , Jogging 1
aw\01ince . bill d11e ro ·s1bililY o,
i(derrieS)
the? pos
~· would
w_ trict ob0141
~-crtlow Creek
dis rf!oW area,
.• .,u'CI areas from srudy as
ove
•v wilderness areas.
Wr,u you.r rt'prtst'ntomve cto US I/oust of
Rtprtuntotil't!S, ll'o.shington, DC 20$/j.
(oontinuecl on J>ll:C 2S)
Summer, 1991
�Natural World News
I,
SPECIAL REPORT
..
by Emmett Greendigger
Once again, Bjorn Dahl, Lhe US Forest
Service's national forests supervisor for Nonh
Carolina is the focus of public outcry. This
time, Lhough, it's not jus1 a passle of forest
1eformers presenting a petition, or a couple of
renegade "Rescue Rangers" chaining
themselves to his office door, or a group of
activistS protesting ever-increasing
roadbuilding and timber harvesting levels on
the national fores1s. This time, Dahl is at the
center of "a scandal of the first magnitude."
The issue is the protection of threatened and
endangered species, and this spring Dahl has
attracted nationwide attention to the willful
neglec1 of his agency's threatened and
endangered species programs and to his
disregard for good science and professional
ethics.
This time, Dahl has enraged
environmentalistS, scientists, and 1he general
public by firing bo1anist Karin Heiman and by
causing the dismissal of Chuck Roe, director of
Lhe Nonh Carolina Natural Heritage Program, a
"(This) brings into serious question
the ability of the Forest Service to assess
the effects of timber management
programs on federally and state-listed
threatened and endangered plant
species." - Chuck Roe
state agency that works with other agencies and
the general public to identify and protect rare
plants. Heiman, the firs1 full-time botanist
hired to work in Lhe Nantahala-Pisgah National
Forests, was fired on March 1, af1er onJy nine
months on the job and only four months after
receiving a "superior" performance rating from
the agency.
When Roe learned of Ileiman's firing, he
tried for two weeks to express his concern to
Heiman's immedia1e supervisor, national forest
biologist Lauren Hillman. When these effortS
failed. Roe, who was very familiar with
Heiman's stellar work as a field botanist
surveying for threatened and endangered plant
species. wrote a letter on March 14 to Bjorn
Dahl expressing fear that "the dismissaJ of your
staff botanist at the stnn of the 1991 field
season brings into serious question the ability
of the Forest Service to assess the effectS of
timber management programs on federally and
state-liSted threatened and endangered plant
species."
On March 22, Dahl wrote to Roe's boss,
Dr. Philip McKnelly, Director of the NC
Division of Parks and Recreation, stating that
he was "di'imayed to receive the letter from
(Roe) expressing so much interes1 in and thinly
veiled threats over the dismissal of Karin
Heiman." Even a cursory reading of Roe's
leneneveals not "threats" but professkmaJ
Summer-, 1991
"Just Doing Their Job"
concern about the future of threatened and
endangered plant species in the national forests.
Despite that, Roe, who had 14 years of
experience with the Natural Heritage Program,
was immediately fired for "violating agency
procedures" and the "chain of command."
Directly, red flags went up in the
environmental and scientific communities in the
Southeast. At an April 2 press conference in
Asheville to publicize the firings, Bill Thomas
of the Sierra Club said, 'The credibility of the
Forest Service has slid right down around its
ankles." Mary Kelly, Coordinator of the WNC
Alliance (WNCA), said that the firings had
caused a "rapid, unfortunate, unnecessary, and
drastic deterioration in trust and relationships"
between the Forest Service and 01her agencies
and groups working on forest issues.
Scientis1s and aclivists had been
especially pleased when, after much pressure,
the Forest Service announced in June,1990 that
Karin Heiman would be the agency's first
full-time botanist. With the hiring of Heiman,
a graduate of Warren Wilson College with
several years of experience surveying the
state's plant communities, the Forest Service
seemed at last 10 be displaying a commitment to
the state's rich botanicaJ diversity.
Heiman did her work wilh diligence and
competence. While surveying the
Tellico-Robbinsville Federal Highway Project,
she discovered two rare lichen species,
Gym11oderma /ineare, an unusual Southern
Appalachian endemic and candidate for federal
listing, and Hydrotheria venosa, an extremely
rare and unique aquatic lichen found only at a
few locations in the Southern Appalachians and
the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. Heiman
helped 10 design a management program for
rare plants on Roan Mountain, and served as a
liaison with other federal and state agencies that
work with Lhe Forest Service to protect
threatened and endangered plant species. She
also perfonned surveys for rare plants on over
20 proposed timber sale projects in nine ranger
districts in the mountains and on the coast Her
effons did no1 stop or even seriously in1erfere
with a single timber sale, and she was praised
by Forest Service district personnel for her
competence and cooperation.
Roe, for his pan, was widely recognized
for directing one of the best s1a1e-run rare plant
protection programs in lhe nation. He had
organized Nonh Carolina's Natural Heritage
Program, which has protec1ed unique species
and natural areas on 630,000 acres in the stnte
and which has entered into over 300
"protection agreements" with public agencies
and private and corporate landowners. Roe
had acc-0mplished all this with a staff of 4 1/2
persons and a miniscule $164,000 annuaJ
budget
Why were Lhese two respected and
committed scientists fired? The official
justifications given were petty and largely
undocumented. In Heiman's case, neither Dahl
nor Lauren Hillman, her immediate superior,
were able to substantiate any change in
Heiman's performance that would account for
her performance rating falling from the "fully
successful" rating she received in October 1990
10 1he "negative" raring she received in
February that led 10 her dismissal.
11 seems apparent that Heiman and Roe's
only transgression was to carry out the jobs
assigned 10 them to the best of their abilities.
Unfortunately, competence in their work set
them athwnn of political interests that value
devastating timbering and roadbuilding
operations more than the rich biologicaJ and
botanical diversity of the native Appalachian
habitnl. And, aJso unfonunately. these interestS
control the strings that motiva1e Bjorn Dahl.
The supervisor remarked once to a group
of timber industry officials that during his
tenure in lhe nationaJ forests of the Pacific
Northwest, "we used 10 do 400 acre cleazcuts
before the spoued owl," and that "it could
happen here," implying that the discovery of
rare and threatened species in Nonh Carolina's
national forests could seriously hnmper timber
operations in the state.
Most observers believe that Dahl was
"I am in contact with several
Congressional offices who have said chat
they are already aware that this is just the
latest incident in what is clearly a national
pattern of intimidation of Forest Service
scientists. We hope and fully expect my
firing to get broader attention soon."
- Karin Heiman
!f'll~1{~Al~~~!,~~~k't~~~~':
Most observers believe that Dahl was
concerned that Heiman's trained and observant
eyes might discover a "spotted owl" that
would slow regional timber harvesting in the
Appalachians. Even the Asheville
Citizen-Times, normally a mouthpiece for the
region's timber industry, seemed to find the
firings suspicious. "The evidence offered thus
far by the Forest Service" for Heiman's firing
"falls embarrassingly shon," read the
newspaper's editoriaJ page on ApriJ 15, and
went on to say that "there is absolutely no way
Stale bureaucrats can come up with a credible
excuse for firing Chuck Roe."
Sad 10 say. it appears unlikely that these
ttnvestie.~ of administrative justice will be
righted by the agencies who committed them.
Both scientists have appeaJed their dismissals
within their own agencies. Forest Service
Regional Forester John Alcock has requested
that Heiman submit her appe& and all
supporting materiaJs to him in writing. In the
course of investigating Heiman's appeal,
regionaJ personnel officer Rudy Caruthers
traveled from Atlanta to Asheville to speak with
Dahl and Hillman about the firing but did not
infonn Heiman of his visit or give her any
opportunity to meet with him personally. Roe,
after what he felt was a "one-sided" hearing,
>C.Qtuaf,. Journat J)Q(JC 23
�has decided on a second-level appeal of his
case.
Since the firings, outraged citizens have
written hundreds of letters to legislators,
agencies, and newspapers in support of
Heiman and Roe. Several environmental
"watchdog" groups have responded to the
incident, including the Association of Forest
Employees for Environmental Ethics and the
Government Accountability Project, who arc
working with Heiman to get a Congressional
review of her tem1ination. Heiman has also
spoken with several concerned federal
legislators: "[ am in contact with several
Congressional offices who have said that they
are already aware that this is just the latest
incident in what is clearly a national pauem of
intimidation of Forest Service scientists,"
Heiman has stated. "We hope and fully expect
my firing to get broader attention soon."
Ultimately. however, the rrue victims of
these firings are the once diverse and
flourishing forest ecosystems. Without
advocates like Heim:i.n and Roe, they seem
doomed to be trampled into extinction. Before
Heiman was hired, it was routine for the
Forest Service to harvest constantly increasing
amounts of timber and to build thousands of
miles of roads in some of the finest forest
communities on the planet without ever
sUJVeying the sale areas for threatened and
"We might not be doing everything
we could to protect species, but we're
not willfully malicious." - Bjorn Dahl
endangered species.
All evidence indicates that this is how
Bjorn Dahl prefers it. The proposed Bee Tree
timber sale is a case in point. This area, near
Devil's Counhouse in nonhern Transylvania
County, was proposed as a timber sale project
in early 1990 by District Ranger An Rowe. In
June of thnt year, the WNC Alliance and the
Sierra Club appealed th.: sale. In their appeals
they pointed out that the Forest Service had nm
done adequate surveys for threatened and
endangered plant species on the Bee Tree site,
in spite of the fact thnt botanists consider the
area a "high probability site" for rare species.
Instead, the district had merely done a cursory
search of re.cords indicating the presence or
threatened and endangered :,pccics. Finding no
previous listings of threatened and endangered
species in the area. Rowe felt the "'ay w:l\ clear
to proceed with the sale. Dahl concurred, and
in October 1990 rejected the environmental
groups' appeab.
Unhappy with Dahl's decision, Wt-.CA
and the Sierra Club c:irried their appeal to
Regional Forester Alcock, who in J:inuary.
1991 decided in their favor. specifically citing
the lack of a thorough survey for threatened
and endangered species, 111c regional oflice
ordered Dahl to conduct a site-specific survey
of the area.
Even after Alcock's decision, Dahl
continued to maintain that he felt the records
survey had been "adequate," and that there was
no need for a site-specific survey. When
J{{\tunf~ JounlO! pn9c U
Heiman had offered to survey the Bee Tree area
in June, 1990, she had been stopped by
Hillman and Rowe. Then, after Alcock's
decision compelled the national forests
administration to make the survey, Heiman was
told 10 make the survey during the month of
February, 1991 - in the middle of winter when
many rare plant species are impossible to
locate.
Heiman did anempt the survey and
concluded that rare plants were likely to be
found in the Bee Tree sale area. It was only
days later when she received the "negative"
performance evaluation that led 10 her
dismissal. The survey was completed by a
substitute botanist, and last month, in its
Environmental Impact Statement for the Bee
Tree sale, the Forest Service reported its
conclusion that logging in Bee Tree would have
"no significant impact" on plant and wildlife
species in the area.
Unfomrnatcly the Bee Tree sale is not an
isolated example of Forest Service
manipulations and misdeeds in the name of
roads and timber. Heiman has outlined 15
other instances in which she says she was
stopped from identifying and protecting rare
plant species. When she reponed her findings
on the Tellico-Robbinsville Federal Highway
Project - which might have halted construction
of that infamous "road to nowhere" - her staff
officer supponed her findings, but she lost his
backing when he retired shortly thereafter.
While surveying a site near a proposed parking
lot expansion at the Oadle of Forestry, Heiman
expressed concern to District Ranger An Rowe
that the construction might threaten the rare
swamp pink plant. Rowe responded by saying
that he felt the parking lot, not the plant, might
be a better value for the American public.
In defense of the Forest Service, Julie
Tneciak, the agency's public relations officer,
maintains the agency is "str0ngly committed 10
protecting plants and animals." She said that
the agency has increased its Endangered
Species program tenfold since 1985, and that
there a.re 50 areas managed specifically for
threatened plants and animals. She also stated
the Forest Service buys land to provide habitat
for threatened species, and has entered into
agreements with the Plant Conservation
Program and the NC Natural Heritage Program
to protect rare species on the federal lands.
Chuck Roe was the lia.\on between the
Natural Heritage Program and the Forest
Sc1vicc on the agreements th.11 Trzt.-ciak ci1cs.
In the same leucr 10 Dahl i:xprcssing concern
about Heiman's firing, Roe pointed out the
problems his agency was having with the
Forest Service:
- the Forest Service had not drawn up
contracts to conduct surveys of rare plants on
national forest lands, although the funds had
been approved since December, 1990. The
delay was preventing the Natural Heritage
Program from hiring botanists in time to do the
surveys this growing season.
- the Forest Service had not responded to
nominations made two years ago for nearly a
doun sites in the Pisgah and Nantahala
National Forests 10 be designated "special
mterest management sites."
- The Foresc Service had shown no
interest in a one-day infonnational rare plants
seminar offered to agency personnel by the
Natural Heritage Program.
- the Forest Service had told Roe in the
fall of 1990 that a revised list of protected,
endangered, and threatened species on Forest
lands "would soon be put into use by Forest
Service personnel." This has yet 10 happen.
When asked about these delays, Dahl
replied that he was "perplexed" about them,
stating that the threatened and endangered
species programs are handled by Lauren
Hillman's office. Hillman has refused all
requests for direct interviews concerning the
firings and attendant issues, but said through
Tl7.Cciak that she believes "the programs are
right on track."
'The credibility of the Forest
Service has slid right down around its
ankles." - Bill 171omas, Sierra Club
Strangely, Bjorn Dahl seems 10 blame a
"lack of public input" for the firings and for his
agency's blatant unwillingness to establish a
vigorous program of protection for rare
species. "From these setbacks," he said after
the firings made the news, "I hope people will
join me in laying out their expectation~." And,
as if the flurry of letters, phone calls, and
editorials protesung the firings are not vocal
evidence enough, Dahl added, "They (the
public) should Jay out what they Wdnt more
vocally than before. We'll gauge our actions
based upon public expectations."
Th:11 sounds familiar. Throughout his
reign as supervisor of the Nonh Carolina
national fore~ts. Dahl has promised to alter
agency policies to meet "public expectations."
How then b he to explain items like these?
Although the puhlic has continued to ask
for less timbering on national forest lands,
1991 "timber target" levels are 20% above
those of the pre\·ious year.
Although the public ha,; conunued to ask
for less clearcutting on national fori:st lands,
and while the agency states that they have
reduced clearcuuing. they have merely
increased the number of "selective harvest"
units, which silvicultur:1lly are merely smalli:r
clearcuts.
Although the public. through the WNC
Alliance, the Sierra Club and other activist
groups, has expressed grave concern for the
fotc of threatened and endangered species on
(contmuod on page 30)
Craphic by Ibby Kenna
S11 lllt1IC1', 1991
�TIME TO TAKE THE TIME TO TAKE THE TIME
There's a new world 1ryi11g 10 emerge
from 1he hearts and hands ofmany...a world
of economy where was1c is sold as a resource
for new products - with a modern
understanding thar so-calli.:d "wasres" an: not
wastes unless they are wastcd...a world where
efficiency is in keeping wi1h nature and
heal1h ... new kind of fann...a more
purposeful kind of worlc ... a different feel for
our world ... a new day.
People are hungry for it. industry is
busy with it. But how docs it all really
happen? How, when the seeming immensity
of it all can so quickly boggle our minds to the
point where we throw up our hands and wait
for someone else to figure ou1 what to do, or
hope the solutions will come packaged for
sale?
Business in the past looked at money
profits as its main goal and let nothing stand in
the way of its claim, "If we don't profit, we
won't be In business." It had litrle vision of
the many more useful long-1erm profi1s such
as people, their lives, the food they eat, the
water they drink, and the secure alternatives in
learning about true wealth. And then with a
small sliver of that narrow-minded cash profit,
they proceeded to pa1ch up the damages that
occur with this sort of obsolescent
irresponsibili1y; or beat it in court. This was
a
the 1rcnd, bur now we are seeing businesses
wirh money-making as their chief nlOrh~
Jting
fon:e going out of business as thcv rhemsdves
predicted.
·
lt all really happens as we, in our
homes. and in our curs, and in our dailv
business, ask ourselves, "What docs \\'Ork?''
From inside our:.elvcs this goes out and out
and out 10 create the new, more real.
marketplace. Environmental problems arc big,
but we needn't be boggled, for as big as they
:ire, they are equally as small fractioned down
10 the responsibility of each of us. The
situation is then i11 our hands and no longer
"out of hand."
When we realize our own powerful pan
by beginning. our go the fears of what wasn't
working anyway. The answers then srart to
come with all the questions. When we're
acrually doing what we can do. the very
feeling empowers us and will soon replace an
old world built on false economy, and the
aging, tired concept of wealth thnt we know,
and bring newness • new forms of "profit."
From here we can begin to get on with more
of the real things.
bylvo
/
(NWN - continued from p. 22)
BUSINESSES AGAINST
CLEARCUTS
N4ruraJ Wo.-ld News Sttvicc
On May 15, 1991 the Westem North
Carolina Alliance (WNCA) presented the
results of its second anti-clearcutting campaign
to US Forest Service Supervisor Bjorn Dahl.
This new campaign gathered suppon from area
businesses and resulted in the collection of 930
names - a fnr greater response than was
expected - on a petition that called for an end to
clearcutting in the national forests.
WNCA targeted the tourism and
recreation industry, but a much broader
cross-section of businesses, including banks,
pharmacies, florists, and grocery stores, from
21 counties in western North Carolina chose 10
get involved.
The Southern Appalachian Multiple Use
Council, a timber industry lobby group,
attempted to manipulate the public by soliciting
signatures on a pro-logging petition that was
almost identical to the WNCA petition in its
fonnat. After complaints about this deceptive
tactic, the WNCA staff publicly accused the
Multiple Use Council of trying to "muddy the
issue and confuse people."
Upon receiving the petitions, Mr. Dahl
stated that he was "impressed" by the number
of signatories, and assured WNCA members
and participating businesspeople 1ha1 1he Forest
Service would be responsive 10 the public will.
Dahl said that, "[n response 10 public wishes,
we last year amended the Forest Plan to
Summa-, 1991
climina1c clearcutting as the preferred
aJ1cmative. The issue of clean::utting is
essentially behind us."
WNCA staff person Mary Kelly strongly
disagreed with this statement. as did others
present. She said that the supposed reductions
in clearcutting (from 87% to 48% of the harvest
over the past two years, according to Dahl)
merely reflected use of smaller, less obvious
clearcuts, not true selective culling.
Kelly stated that some forest expens
believe that the allowable sale quantity in our
National Forests is twice as high as it should
be, and noted that "the Forest Service has
historically treated the timber industry as the
only industry to consider We're asking them
to look at the big picture."
Drawings b)' Rob Mcuick
ROAD HOGS FIT TO BE TIED
Na11aral World News Service
There arc three departments of the North
Carolina state government that are prcsen1ly not
required to announce and hold public hearings
before setting poJicy: the Depanment of
Correction, the Department of Revenue, and
the Department of Transportation (0011. Of
these three, the Dcpanments of Correction and
Revenue hold fairly specialized responsibilities.
The Department ofTransponation every
months makes decisions rhat involve millions
of dollars of public funds and have imponant
implications for the future of every town and
county in the state.
It is a testament to the great political
power of the DOT that the agency still operates
only under the advisement of the Board of
Transportation, a wcalrhy and influential elite
who receive their appointments - a true
patronage plum - directly from the hand of the
governor in exchange for "seivices rendered."
Yet now when Senator Joe Johnson
(D-Wake) introduces a bill to require the DOT
to conform to public heanng guidelines
followed by all the other State agencies, rhc
howling and crying is tremendous. ''It's going
to cost too much." ··1t·s going 10 be too much
trouble." complain the road hogs. The "sacred
pigs" will no1 easily or gracefully give up their
places at the public trough.
Your state legislators need 10 hear your
opinions on the bill requiring the DOT to hold
public hearings.
Xatuafl Journnt JXUJC 25
�DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
To the Editors of the Kattiah Journal,
In the otherwise fine article by Thomas
Power, "Avoiding the Passive/Helpless
Approach to Economic Development" in the
Spring, 1991 issue, he mnkes a very erroneous
assumption when he suggests, "Jf we are
interested in attracting more people, ..." That
assumption is the same one that the
powers-that-be ascribe to so wholeheanedly:
that we have to grow in order to have a healthy
regional economy. If Tcaught the gist of the
Summer, 1990 "Canying Capncity" issue of the
Kau«Jh Journal correctly, then we already are
burdened by too many people in the southern
mountnins. We do not need to expand, we need
to shrink the number of people living here.
Beyond a certnin point, numbers or people
and the "forested mountains and the
environmental quality" Power speaks of are
antithetical to each other. We preserve wild
habitat for the sake of wild habitat and the wild
animals that live in it, not 10 attract more people.
These points were minor revelations to me when
I read them in the Kamalt Journal. Don't back
out on them now!
Sincerely,
Hoyt Wilhelm
N. Wilkesboro, NC
Dear Kalllali Journal Friends,
l am just writing to tell you how much l
have enjoyed reading several issues or your
journal that a friend lent me to read. I appreciate
your deeply considered opinions and the
viewpoint they come from.
I consider myself to be somewhat
perceptive, and in most Statements that are called
"environmental" these days, I can see that the
spokespeople are representing some interests
besides the environment, whether it be their
own career, their own profit, or some
philosophical or political ideology. Most of
what I read in the Katualr Journal seems to
come suaight from the hean, and that makes a
difference. There are not many publications that
would have the courage to speak out about t.he
''carrying capacity" for human beings or
propose that aU the national forest lands in the
Southern Appnlachians should be an
"evolutionary preserve."
1 have to admit that these ideas were a little
shocking 10 me at first, but on reflection r could
see that that they are just what is needed in this
"bioregion." Now it seems so obvious. I see to
what a great extent we are conditioned by the
business assumptions that motivate this country.
when what is just common sense can seem so
unsettling.
I wonder what is going 10 happen to this
country, and I wonder what is going to happen
Xntuaft Journot p119c 26
to Kat1wl, Journal Please continue to say what
needs 10 be said (even if it is a little shocking
sometimes!) and maybe we will see some1hing
change. I am always hoping for the best.
Yours truly,
Katherine Albright
Knoxville, TN
TLANUWA
Ho. Tlanuwa,
Spirit-falcon,
Your mighty wings
Blot out the sun.
Pear strikes all who
See you flying Fawn and bear cub,
Man-child, too.
Carried struggling
To your nest si1e,
On the cliffs they
Feed your ne~tlings.
Came a shaman
Then to thwan you;
Cast your nestlings
To the water.
There Uktenn,
Great homed serpent,
Swallowed down your
Precious offspring.
Great your sorrow,
Great your anger.
Vengeance wrought you
On Uktena.
Chunks you pulled our
or the serpent,
Let them fall down
From the heavens.
There upon the
Eanh his body,
Tom and broken
Soon did lie.
From your empty
Nest you fled then;
Leaving an
Unshadowed sky.
Your depanurc
Saved our young, but
Awe and wonder
Left us, 100.
Perhaps too high a
Price was paid, and
Wonder's presence
Worth some risk.
Ho. Tlanuwa,
Spirit-falcon,
My heart yearns
For your return.
- Douglas A. Rossman
To the Editor,
Back in April some political pranksters
threw barrels marked "radioactive waste" by the
side of 1-26 where it joins I-40 near Asheville,
NC. This caused a big sensation among the
officials who flocked to the scene. r read in the
Asheville Citizen that one woman from the EPA
called it "totally irre!iponsible" and "a sick joke."
The S Bl had fun telling the paper all lhe terrible
things they would do to the.tricksters if they
could catch them.
I thought that it was totally responsible to
do this. Trucks carrying radioactive waste ~
drive through that intersection. A lot of people
don't even know this; a lot of other people do
know this, but they choose to ignore it People
need to be woken up to what is really happening
around here, and somebody found a good way
todoit.
What is totally irresponsible is for the EPA
to grant permits for trucks to cany barrels of
real radioactive waste along the highways. lf
some barrels of real waste fell off one of these
trucks, there would be trouble and danger for
Asheville.
When I saw how indignant the EPA lady
got about somebody's trick, I laughed and
laughed at how backward it all was. But it was a
sick joke.
Sincerely,
Etta Bennett
Cullowhee, NC
(P.S. • I wroie a leuet lO the Ashevil/t Citizen about
this. bu1 r don't think they ever printed iL ~l's why I
wrote IQ you.)
Dear Katuah,
Recently, while visiting my sister in
Knoxville, I was handed a copy ofKatuah
Journal, summer 1989. I must say it was highly
inspirational reading. I applaud your work for
peace, justice, and ecological harmony in the
Katuah Bioregion.
Sincerely,
Michael Sosadeeter
Dear Katua/1,
Your Journal is so valuable - and
important. I'll be sending more suppon later.
Thanks for leading the way. May the Crow
Moon bring you growth, green, and peace in
these dark times.
Sincerely,
John King
Drawing by Rob Mfflic-.
Su mtt1CT , 1991
�Dear Katuah,
You are a real friend! Thank you very
much for sending me lha1 back issue (on the
Chestnut) lha1 I wanted, but even more for the
current issue, wilh itS wonderful article on my
old friend Mr. Bailey of Clarksville. When I
was assigned 10 the 12th Armored Division in
1942, a newly married first lieu1enant in field
artillery, I opened an account in Mr. Bailey's
bank and immediately became his friend, as
ev<:ryone_did: Your story 1ell~ i1 very truly; he
believed m his own surroundings and did all he
~ould 10 improve the lot of his people. His
influence was very grea4 and I think Mr. Bailey
was wrong in thinking that industry never
accepted his ideas. l also think Griscom Morgan
is wholly wrong in his disparagement of
savings, but that is another story.
I enclose a Case Statement for the
American Chestnut Foundation (P. 0. Box
6057, West Virginia University, Morgantown,
WV 26506). I think you will find it interesting
and encouraging. I am doing all I can 10 raise
the additionaJ funding they desperately need,
first from private foundations, because 1hat is
1he bes1 chance for early resulis. Later I want 10
identify and approach large landowners in 1he
Appalachian region, and especially people with
o family history of giving and the means to
make those gifts in substantial amounts...
When I was growing up the chestnut was
still the dominant iree in our forests. I remember
it vividly, and recall the distress which everyone
felt so keenly as the onslaught of the blight iook
those great trees from us. l am fully convinced
we will restore the ll'Ce, and after you read our
case statement you will understand why. Young
men plant flowers; old men, trees.
Sincerely yours,
WilHam G. Raoul
Lookout Mountain, TN
Greetings Kaiuah Journal Folk,
Thank you for your continued 1ime and
effons in pulling together Kaul ah Journal. l just
~anled 10 let you know how much reading the
Journal means to me, and the suppon ii offers in
living in a "mixed community" with its incessant
bombardment of media propaganda extolling the
industrial growth society. Even when the
in~i?i~us e~fe_cts ofT.V. are personally
m1nirruz.ed II is too oflen necessary to live and
work with friends, family and associates whose
mind and (sadly} values are shaped by 1.O.S.
media. Sometimes 1his "reality" seems
overwhelming. It is al such a time that a friend
like Karuah Journal (and perhaps some
wilderness) helps to restore my connection to a
"d~per renlity" and community of Jjving
bemgs. The real work you are doing is very
much appreciated.
For All Things Wild,
Ed Lytwak
I
I
Sumincr, 1991
Dear Brother & Sister Editors,
I have written a prayer that I hope is
wonhy to be printed in your paper. I have been
disabled for almost six years as rhe result of a
back injury. I have been diagnosed as clinically
depressed. Many people think I am crazy. Some
think I am a lunatic. This could be true but
since I became homeless a dear old fri;nd,
Danny Jesse, moved me into his old farm house
because I had nowhere to go, and I was
penniless. The old house has no electricity, and
the water is from a spigo1 in the yard.
Another dear friend, Charlie Dunaway
inuoduced me to Karuah Journal (summer 1990
issue) and 1realized there are s1ill some "real"
people left who really care about our Creator,
our Mother Earth, and each other.
Since l have been here (approximately 6
months) I have developed a close relationship
with my Creator. Had it not been for my Creator
sending my friend to rescue me I would surely
have committed suicide. However, here I am
very much alive and would like to share my
prayer with you.
0 Great Spirit open my eyes
that I will see you in each of your creations
0 Great Spirit open my ears
tha1 I will hear your voice in the words of
my brothers and the sounds of the Eanh
0 Great Spirit open my heart
that your good will flow through me
0 Great Spirit give me knowledge
that I will be one with you
0 Great Spirit give me wisdom
that I may teach my sons of your love
and to love our Mother Eanh
0 Great Spirit be merciful to my brothers
who in their greed have scarred my Mother's
flesh
who have poisoned her flesh and her blood
who have polluted her skies
who have hate in their heans
0 Great Spirit give me the coumge
when death comes so I will welcome ii
with the realization
that life comes with death
as death comes with life.
Sincerely,
RogcrOark
I
rhoio by Rob Mcoid<
Sometimes Tears Are Not Enough
We sang for peace.
Woke up this morning to find
they are still making bombs.
We acted for peace.
How, I said, and why?
What about our planet?
Whal aboul the children?
We wor1<ed for peace,
even as those surrounding us
filled lheir yards and minds
with patriotic slogans,
waved their flags,
called war "just"
·successful"
"deserved"
Woke up this evening 10 find
!hough we sing,act,cry,
or even protest they are making bombs now.
Singing peace
woke 10 lind
our songs aren1 enough
acting peace
how?where?
why do we live In such madness?
shouting peace
as hundreds of thousands or
innocent human beings
die at Hie hands
of our ·smart· precision bombs,
hands of boys trained and
distanced by video games
crying peace
woke in the dawn
wilh tears on our cheeks
from war filled nightmares
tears on our cheeks
knowing there are those
lor whom this war
is more lhan a media event
or a palriotlc slogan
dreaming of
singing peace acling peace
dancingshou1lngtovingbelieving
11\Jstingtrying peace...
concrete dreams cl\Jni>ling
to TNT, plutonium,
machine guns...
they are making bombs now.
A
child is crying for what she can·t be giving
I say, child, stop your c,ying.
Gather up your strength for living
because somewhere children are dying.
Our tears are not enough to chase away the pa,n
we cannot understand why war seems to never
cease.
Yet even as the sun shines bnlhant through the ram
we know that through the dar1<ness we must st,U
wor1< for peace.
(continued on nclll page)
�(Cfflllnutd {rQln pogo 27)
Dear Ka1uah,
I miss you in my life! Please re-subscribe
me. I've moved 10 the city and am surviving
well on one of the few din roads left in
Tallahassee. Bard owls (a couple) are mating
now. I wake at night to hear lhcm and it's like
manna from heaven. I know the trout lilies are
blooming back in Sycamore, and just knowing
they're there is not enough. Every day I
consider returning 10 lhe country, but life is so
much easier here with electricity, running water,
and acceptable child care. Still I grieve the
losses.
Thnnks,
Janeice Ray
Dear Karual,.
I've been thinking lately about what is
imponant to me. A few things come out
strongly: people I love, doing something I can
put my soul into, and encouraging a more ideal
world by supporting things I believe in like;
• the local baker
• organic fanning
• and publications that
communicate what is
important 10 me.
I don't live in Ka11111h, but I like feeling
pan of the soul 1ha1 is in this journal.
I want you 10 know that ideas from the
Kaniah Journal have helped me shape my life
philosophy and will influence the way I live and
impact the world. Thank you for your
dedication and work. May you be blessed with
strength and pel!Ce.
Dan Shoug
Bean Goose Farm
Dear Kania Ii Staff,
I was exin:mcly excited to read issue #30
of the Kan!ah Journal. This was my first contact
ru,d I om impressed with the anicles and the
overall JayouL The "economy" anicle was
eitcellem.
I hnve included a check for 3 back issues,
plus T wish 10 be a ~ponsor.
Thanks,
Todd Rohlsson
From lhc Floyd ERC Ncw,lcuer
(continued Imm page 4)
practices in their families.
The dowsers' "golden opponunity" came
during the eastern gold rush of 1828-29 that
centered on Dahlonega, Georgia. It offered
great reward for those who could sense the
presence of underground veins, but it also
brought on the inevitable swindling and
che:iting that accompanies the lure of sudden
riches.
Sharon Johnson of the Gold Museum in
Dahlonega said, ''There are people who believe
today that they can find gold dowsing with
certain rypes of stainless steel rods, and I'm
sure that there were people like that back during
the gold rush years.
'&hey also had what they called
'gold-finders.' These were instruments sold 10
people who were prospecting. I've seen at least
two of these, one that dated back to about 1890
and another came from the 1920's. One was no
more than a wooden rod which was filled with
gold, iron pyrite, and black -;and. It had a
compass-like instrument in 1he center. The
metal gold-finder was a long tube, prob:ibly
made 0111 of aluminum. and I think that came
also with a liulc vial of gold."
Dowsers do 001 think that theirs is an
eicclusive gift. They generally agree that, like
intelligence or any statistical curve, there arc
tho.SC: eicceptionally sensitive to the psychic
energies, many people mildly sensitive, and
those who do not perceive that level of
existence at all. Walter Dale says, "To learn
how to do it, you can get some ideas from a
book, but the very best thing to do is 10 have a
dowser who is really familiar with the method
to show you. Anybody can do it, but you have
10 really want 10 do iL"
But he does offer this idea as a way for
beginners 10 familiariz.e themselves with the
process: "Get yourself a five inch piece of
Xcatuaf1 )oun \Q( POlJC 28
saing and tie on a metal nut (used to screw
onto a bolt) that is about the size of a nickel.
This will make a simple pendulum.
"Practice with it by looking at it and
saying, 'Give men yes.' ft may lllke several
a11emp1s, but you should be able 10 get the
pendulum to move consistently in a cenain
way. Then ask the pendulum for a no, and after
awhile you should be able 10 establish a definite
motion for that answer.
"Once you get the communication paucm
going, relax and know that you can do it. It all
comes with practice.~
For additional mfonnauon on dowsing nnd help
for those who wi~h IO gci stancd:
American Society of DowSCl'I - A~luc;hi.111
Ch;iplCf Bob Barnwell Rd.
137
Fletcher, NC
(704) 628-2456
/ -;_·
The mountains are
slow moving waves
of rock and gravel
trees and microbes
on which we all festively ride,
meeting old friends
from other eras that stir anew
notions of supplanting the
demise of our kind ...
RM
Summer, 1991
�Whole Science
One need not tum only co metaphysical
explanations in working toward an
undeTStanding of how some perplexing
phenomena occur in Lhe Universe. There is
emerging a sound Ecology of Lhe Cosmos
which is based on repeamble experience.
recorded measurements, and an
acknowledgment of the role of human
consciousness in interpreting the work of
science. The scientists who are now working
through more comprehensive means of
collecting information, and creating theories
that reflect Lhis new infonnation, are finding
that the physical Universe is far more complex
and inter-related than previously Lhought.
Some of these new ideas in science go by
the names of Quantum Theory, Dynamic
Whole Systems approaches, Chaos, and Gaia
Theory. These ideas have in common a break
with classical scientific principles which
regarded the Universe, and all its constituent
pans, as a pre-determined machine which is
running down in a clear sequence of events.
When Lhe Universe is recognized as being more
dynamic and self-organizing, through its many
diverse scopes of whole systems and
environments, a different picture can be drawn
of the regenerative patterns of energy and form
that surround us.
In Lhe discipline of physics, Quantum
Theory has shown that what we as human
beings experience as "normal'' is not the same
as what other whole systems at other scales of
being would consider to be "nonnal." For
instance, at Lhe scale of an atom the instruments
used to detect an electron's speed or position as
it moves around the atom's nucleus interfere
drastically with the electrons motions and
potenuals. LI becomes impossible to separate
the experimenter from the experiment at this
scale, since the two are so intimately involved
with each other. In addition to this an electron's
position can be determined, and its momentum
can be determined, but the 1wo can no1 be
de1ennined together. Electrons fliner like
clouds around atomic nuclei, and Lhe best we
can do is find the potemial of either what phase
they are in or where they will be in this
entangled environment.
In the Life Sciences it has been found that
all life, in its amazing diversity, is composed of
the same types of chemical elements: Carbon,
Hydrogen, Nirrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus,
and Sulfur. These and the other kinds of atoms
found on the Eanh came together when the
planet began m accme in the interstellar
medium. It is very likely 1ha1 the atoms we are
composed of were strewn from an exploding
star, more massive than the sun, which
influenced the formation of the Solar System.
There are only 20 different fonns of amino
acids, which are the basis of all the different
strands of protein essential to all life on Eanh.
Every living organism came from previous life,
which in turn has a common ancestry 1h01
reaches back at least 3 l(l billion years. For
much of this history microbes were the major
fonn of life. lndependant microbes formed
alliances and antagonisms which evenrually
became the composite cells found in plants and
animals today.
Building on past successes, through this
kind of mutual advantaging, a strong
relationship also developed between living
systems and the magma, rock. soils, waters,
atmosphere, and magnetosphere of the Earth.
These dense-to-gaseous fluid mediums arc
cycling physical energy, much as other
plnnatary systems do; only for this planet there
existed the po1ential for active participation in
these cycles by Life. This is a dramatic
difference, because the range of circumstances
necessary for life 10 emerge on a planet of
sufficient endowment and proximity is limited
and very unique.
0..wmg by Rob Messick
II IIll II III II IIIIIIII II II II II IIIII II1111111111111111111111111111111111111 11 III IIIIIIII llllllllllll11111111111 II IIIIIIII IIIIIIINllllll111111111'I, IlII1111111111111111111 II IIIII III IIIlIIIIII IIIIII IIIIRlllllllll Ill III II Ill IIIII II llllllllllllllll 111111111111 I111111111 llllltllllll
TUNING IN
There are a number of practices that one
can do to increase the intuitive ability as it
pertains to the Earth. The exercises which have
worked best for me arc adaptations of yoga and
techniques from psychic healing. Nearly all
meditation techniques translate very well into
learning Earth attuncment My inner guidance
has been to remain flexible by borrowing from
many disciplines and then adapting the
techniques wbicb fit into my life in a natural
manner.
The big revelation for me came in a yoga
class when T learned that there are minor chakrns
on the feet. 1 suspect that the yogis can stand
transfixed in a difficult position, such as on one
leg, for hours at a time because they have
learned how 10 ground themselves so
thoroughly that they are temporarily auached to
the Banh through the chakms in the feet. The
importance of Lhe feet is somelhing that has been
ignored in western civilization. In the Mideast,
where lhe feet are ritually wai.hed and perfumed
with oils, they are considered sacred. and
recognized as one's most vital connection to the
planet. One can learn to dispel tired energy
through the soles of the feet, and ask the Earth
to replenish that energy. Yoga is excellent
practice for this. So is T'ai Chi or any of the
martial arts, so long as the emphasis is on
grounding and balance.
Walking meditation, as in Zen Buddhist
practice, in which one is very aware of body
rhythms, is an excellent way 10 walk through
S\1mmcr, 1901
the woods in a state of heightened awareness. I
have found that if I can match my stride in a
conscious way to the panicular terrain, I usually
break through 10 a quietness in which I am
aware of my rhythms blending in with the
larger, greater rhythms of life around me. This
is also a good way 10 become aware of the
variations in the lay of the land.
Since I live in town these days, I have
limited access to wild areas. Still, it is possible
to grow in sensitivity if one is willing to make
daily connections to the Eanh from a conscious,
aware state.
l recommend bringing home small
momentoes from places Lhat have special
meaning. This keeps the memory alive and
helps make emotional connections to one's
personal sacred places. I routinely bring home
pieces of gnarled wood, shells, or small rocks.
Do not take large rocks without pennission or
rocks that are part of a fairy ring. Usually there
is something · a feather, a rock - that stands out,
and that is what I take as a gif1. And J always
give thanks. ln my house, the kitchen window
sill is a great place for an altar, because I can •
automatically look at my nature gifts every day
when l wash dishes.
But the most important practice of all is to
get outdoors every day in a conscious way.
Usually the only time I can do this and know I
wilJ not be interrupted is when the supper
dishes arc done or when l am ready to close up
the house for the night. l step outside in my
backyard, and I let down my guard and open
up as totally as possible to whatever is
happening at that moment.
The Earth is always ready to respond 10
us. However, nothing "happens," to me at
least. until I have quieted my mind. When my
mind stops its chatter, then my senses literally
become more acute. I can hear birds, insects,
and 1he rustle of leaves more intensely and with
greater detail than I was able to do only a few
minutes before. When I do reach that point of
the quietness within, there is always something
amazingly beautiful and striking Lhat leaps out
at me. It may be Lhe full moom peeking out
from behind silver clouds, or the sudden
wafting of the fragrance of whatever flower is
in bloom. Sometimes my holly tree becomes
suddenly vibrant and animated. It is a
championship holly, and I am sure that a
powerful nature spirit lives there.
Along with this sudden insight into the
beauty of nature, there is always a caressing
breeze. I call it caressing, not only because of
iLS gentleness, but because it does not appear to
come from a specific direction, and it never
seems to be thcre until I reach a certain open
state of consciousness. I always wait for this
moment, because I t:lke it as a re.o;pon~e. a
confirmation from the Earth he~lf.
How much time does it take out of a busy
day to perform this simple ritual? Maybe five
minutes. The payoff in tenns of lifted spirits is
tremendous.
- Charlotte Homsher
X.Ot.wlh Journal pogc 29
�(FUUNGS-cool.inucd from pegc 24)
REVIEW
national forest lands, Dahl responded that the
records search on the Bee Tree site was an
'adequate' survey for threatened and
endangered plant species and then ordered a
survey when the ground was covered with
snow.
The clear and unfortunate conclusion one
must draw from all of this is that the "public''
Dahl listens to moSt closely is the timber
industry.
LIGHT IN THE WIND
chanrs and circle son-gs by Bob Avery-Grubel
(available from Bob Avery-Grubel;
RL l ,Box 73S: Floyd, VA 24091)
Bob Avery-Grubel is a founder and
mainstay of The Celebration Singers of a
closely-knit community of families inhabiting
Floyd County, Virginia. The group sings
up-beat, positive, spiritual music, all of which
is original, much of it contributed by Bob
Avery-Grubel.
The songs on l,iglu in the Wind arc
typical of I.he Celebration Singers: rhythmic and
unifying numbers meant for group singing at
evening circle, in the sweat lodge, or at holiday
gatherings. The credit sheet says that the music
is "dedicated to those moments when we let go
into uplifting song and come closer to the truth
of who we are," and surely this is so. The
songs are simple, as chants and community
songs should be, yet they are filling and
satisfying. However, the songs leave the
listener with a persistent feeling that they are
more fun to sing than 10 listen to - and they are!
(proven fact) The words are easily learned, but
for those in doubt a lyric sheet is available for
$1.00.
Bob Avery-Grubel's productions are
home-made craft pieces. Ught in the Wind was
recorded at Bohemian Studios, which are
housed in an angular building on a wind-swept
farm seven miles from the closest town. The
tape was engineered and mixed by
Avery-Grubel and A'Coun Bason (who also
plays penny whistle and catchy percussion on
several differem hand drums).
Light in the Wind: a valuable community
resource.
For tho.-.e who want more. Avery-Orubcl also
offers the benefit of his musical and community
experiem:e in "Breakthrough Singing" workshops: "a
lime and space IO experience healing through song and
voice." For information, write h1m at the address above.
-MT
THE TOE VALLEY CENTER
The Toe Valley Ccmer is being
established as a non-profit community resource
organization to promote and encourage ideas
for better living in the three-county area of the
Toe River Valley.
The Center will:
• act as an education and infonnation
source for the valley
• develop educational programs
• initiate meetings and seminars on issues
of importance
• distribute pamphlets, fact sheecs, and
other information
• promote I.he vision of a positive future
in the Toe River Valley.
For information, write or call:
Richard Kennedy:
849 JlalUlah Branch Road;
Burnsville, NC 28714
(704) 675-52S6.
ACUPUNCTURE~ AFFORDABLE !
We otter a sliding scale to get you
through hard times In good health!
Shortly after she was hired by the Forest
Service, Karin Heiman made a statement that.
in retrospect, turned out to be eerily prophetic.
"What makes my job so challenging," she said,
"is the fact that I must strive to find a balance
between I.he environmentalists and the timber
industry, who both have huge stakes in the
decision to harvest or not 10 harvest. And my
reports influence that decision."
By all accounts, Heiman - and Chuck
Roe as well - met that challenge and found that
balance. Unfortunately, in the eyes of her
employers an honest and thorough naturalist
without a political 8.l<e 10 grind is viewed as an
obstacle to timber sales rather than as a
concerned and commiued scientist dedicated to
doing what is best for the forest community.
How "vocal" must the public be for I.he
the Forest Service to recognize I.hat most people
believe that the incredible biological richness
they contain is the most valuable "resource" of
Southern Appalachia's national foresis? Dahl
has recently said, "I'd be the lirst one, if we
had an endangered species, to do somclhing
about it. I'm not om 10 violate the Endangered
Species AcL We might not be doing
everylhing we could to protect species, but
we're not willfully malicious."
Two fired scientists, an enraged public,
and we may never know how many rare
species would beg to differ.
Also Chi Kung (like Tai Chi)
every Wednesday 6-7 p.m.
at JewtSh Commumly Center.
Call to regisler.
Ellen Hines, M.Ac., Dipl.Ac. (NCCA)
Tradilional C hineSt Acupuncture & Htrbology
c:.i.rom... l&.w,.s......... s . - -
~
(704) 2S2-7491
rl :Thu
~ Sanr!J Mush
HerbNurse7
WHOLE FOODS
VITAMINS
ORGANIC PRODUCE
WREATHS • POTPOURRI
• HERBS • TOPIARY
Complete Herb Catalog - $4
Describes more than 800 plants from
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
Aloe to Yarrow
A.I.A. , Resource Information Analysis
Neil Thomas and Andy Feinstein
305 Westover, Asheville, NC
(704) 252-6816
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
Phone for appointment to visit
(704) 683-2014
~umnlci,
199 1
�CHESlNlIT GRAFTING PROJECT
by David McGrew
SilviculturalisL, French Broad Ranger Districl. USFS
Sarurday, April 27, one small step was
1aken toward nmoration of the American
chestnut tree to the Southern Appalachian
forest. A chestnut grafting workshop was held
on lands m.1naged by the French Broad Ranger
District of the US Forest Service (USFS) for
the purpose of grafting blight-resistant twigs
derived from native chestnut trees omo wild
chestnut rootstock. The workshop was joir..:y
sponsored by the USFS and the American
Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation, and served
as a uaining session for private cooperators 10
team the grafting technique.
The workshop group went 10 a grafting
site on a nine acre clearcut in the French Broad
District Lhat hod been prepared by the forestry
class at Haywood Community College. John
Elkins of the American Ches1nu1 Cooperators'
Foundation gave the group a brief overview of
the breeding and grafting work being done by
the foundation and then demonstrated the
grafting technique. Each member of the group
had a chance 10 perform the grafting operation.
and 20 twigs of the blight-resistant American
chestnut stock were grafled by the end of the
day. At the end of the workshop, all of the
private cooperators received 1wig material for
grafting in their home areas.
Elkins stressed that the twig material was
not from trees that were immume to chestnut
blight infection but from trees that were better
able to resist the infection. He said that a
20-50% survival rate for the grafted twigs is
expected, but that a 10% survival rate would be
acceptable.
A virus disease of the blight fungus,
called hypovirulcnce, will be imponant 10 the
survival of the gr.tfted trees. "Hypovirulence
weakens the blight, just as the nu or a cold will
weaken people." said foundation president
Gary Griffin. "Chesrnut blight nonnally
damages the growing tissues just under the
bark, so that Lhe tree can't pass water or
nutrients up or down the stem. If enough of the
living tissue is damaged, the tree is girdled and
it dies. Blight weakened by hypovirulence,
however, cannot damage the living tissue under
the bark, so the chestnut tree isn't killed, even
when heavily infected by blighL"
Union Acres
An Alternative
-
i
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with a focus on spirit1111l and
ecological values
For more information:
Contact C. Grant at
Route 1. Box 61/
Whittier, NC 28789
(704) 497-4964
Programs to &ncolXoge
self and Earth oworEIOeliS.
celebration. kinship and nope.
• Youlh Camps• School Programs
• Farruly Camps• Teacher TniinlOQ
• Commut'II)' Programs
• Camp Slaff Tre11ing
• Outdoot Progrem Consult.ig
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615-436-6203
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• FAT FREE FOODS • TAKE
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According to Elk.ins, blight infection
cannot spread as fast on twigs that are
genetically resistant to the blight as it can on
non-resistant rree$. The hope is that the
resistant trees will hold off the blight long
enough that the fungus will become infected
with the virus disease. Griffin explored the
graft.ing site during the workshop, and he
found five chestnut trees that had blight
infection sites that had been modified by
hypovirulence, including one tree where all
infection sites were modified. 'These trees give
us real hope that this grafting site will be
successful in producing large chestnut trees,"
said Griffin.
The French Broad Ranger District will
monitor this sile over the next year 10 determine
1he success of the grafting project. The USPS
will manage an area of three to four acres
around the experiment solely for chestnut, first
by maintaining the best growth possible on the
surviving gr.tfts, and second, by cutting down
all the saplings in the area except
naturally-sprouting chestnut saplings.
It is a gamble to try these techniques, but
it is well wonh the attempt considering how
valuable the chestnuts were to these mountain
forestS.
For more information or lO volWttter l~/p to the
American Chtstnut CooptrtJlors· Foundation. write:
Lucille Griffin; American Chestmll Cooptra/Ors'
Foundaiion; 2667 ForesJ Suviu Road 708; Newport,
Va 24128.
265-2700
823 Siow,ng Rock Rd
Boone, NC 28607
Shhh. Listen ...
~
by Rob W..essiclt
NATIVE FLUTES
Two s1yles made of cedar or walnut
woods in the traditional manner
Hawk Littlejohn
Sourwood Farm
RI 1, Box 172-l
Prospect Hill, NC 27314
(919) 562·3073
Get a set of IO assorted
folding cards with
artwork you see in
Katuah Journal.
(Envelopes included.)
Send $11.25 postage paid
1 Summer-,
1991
to:
RM DESIGNS
P.O. BOX 2601
BOONE, NC 28607
Ill l l .
ec. 2.)C
11a•oo- NC211139
!7041 $30135
speaking fQr.Jhe earth.
�evenrs
JULY
JUNE
14-23
CIT ICO CREEK, TN
Katuah Rainbow Family
Galhering Summer Solstice Galhering." ...for
the purposes of Peace and Healing, in honor of
the Summer Solstice" on Citico Creek in the
Cherokee National Foresl, TN. Directions are
recorded on lhe Light-Line (404) 662-6112,
from NC (704) 563-9218. HO!, Newslet1er of
the Kauiah Rainbow Family; Box 5455;
Atlanta, GA 30307.
•
21-23
ROAN MOUNTArN
Summer Solstice and Ent111 energies
workshop with Joyce Holbrook. SIOO. Pre-register: Box
109S; Burnsville. NC 28714.
22
SUMMER SOL'-TICE
22-23
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Wild Mammal~ or the Smokies"
field =-ch with Dr. M1
ch.1el Pelton. Hlllld.W>n study
or black bear, deer, b3t, and woodchuck populill.ions in
the Pork. For information on this and olher field
course:.. coniact: Smoky Mounuain F'icld School; c/o
Dr. Gayle D. Cooper; Univc:sity ofTcnne=: 600
Henley St. (Suite IOS); Knoxville, TN 37902 (800)
284-8885.
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
"Why Old Women Don't Get the
Blucs" with Alice Girard 31 McDibbs. I I9 Cherry SL
For info on this gig and summer schedule, call (704)
1A
9-11
AS HEVILLE, NC
Broom-making workshop with
Carlson Tuulc. For info on this and olher workshops.
conlJlCl the Folk Art Center, Box 9545; Asheville, NC
2881.5 (704)298-m8.
11-12
WESSER, NC
669-2456.
1A-27
CREA T SMOKIES PARK
''Family Ounp" - activities for
fomilies with children ages 6-12. Nature exploration,
slOrytelling. Appalachirul music. hiking, and
swimmmg. For info on this and other prognuns,
conU1Cc Great Smoky Mountains lnsti1u1c at Tremont;
T0Wll5Clld, TN 37882 (615) 448-6700.
National Whilewater
Championships on the Namahala River,
including slalom and wildwater race:;.
Nantahala Outdoor Center; 41 US Hwy. 19
West; Bryson City, NC 287 13 (704)
488-2175.
LINVI LLE,NC
36111 Annual Grandfather MoUJ1tnin
Highland Games and Gathering of the Scouc.h Clan~.
Papmtry, pipe bandi:, sheep herding. Scoui,h athletic
cvcntS, ccUidh. For info: Highland Game.~; Box 356;
Brumer Elle, NC 28604 (704) 898-5286.
11-14
24-27
CULLOWll EE, NC
"Landscnping with Native
Plants" conference. Lectures, workshops, and
field trips led by a host of experts, including
Dan Pit1illo, Roben Zahner, George Ellison,
and others. $45 + room and board.
Pre-conference field trips, 7(21+, are optional
and cost extra. For information. call Dr. Jim
Horton, (704) 227-7244.
25..S/4
13
ASII FV ILLF~ NC
Annunl membership picnic of the
Amcric:ln Soc1c1y of Dowsers - Appalachian Chap1cr.
Call President Jill1CI Shisler for dctruls: (704) 628-1758.
FOLK \1O0T
Foll.moot USA brings folk dllncers
and musicians from Grcccc. USSR. Fmllllld, Atgcnlina,
Holland, Spam, Rom;inia, Puerto Rico, lsr.iel, Turkkey,
and Thailand lO perform :u various location.~ in Katu:lh.
For schedule and price mfonnauon, conUICt Folkmoot
MOUNTAIN LAKE, VA
"In Search Of .JI"· ~ploring
"iMcr sacred space.• Mt.dicme wheel. dowsing, music.
mctliwuon, yoga. drumming, hiking, nnd ritullls.
Pre-register: Indian Valley Retreat; Rt. 2. Box 58;
Willis, VA 24380 (703) 789-4295.
23-27
27
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"lndcpcndcooe Weck Ztn Holiday"
WAYNF..SVILLE, NC
"Buddhi.gn nnd Meditation• with
John Orr. Explora1ion of the Buddhist path 10 sptri1UJI
Jjbcra.uon will include meditations, periods ol 5ilcncc,
and discussion. For mfo on this and other prognims,
con!Xt; Sul-Light Retreat Center. Rt. I. Box 326:
Waynesville, NC 28786 (704) 452-4569.
F ULL MOON
29-7/6
19-21
19-21
wnh Genie, Sandy Stcwan.. Working. chanling. sttting,
dharma talks. and keeping SJlcncc, culminating with a
walk up the mountain. For info on this and Olhcr
rctrcais: Southern Dtwm11 Rctrea1 Center, RL I. Box
34,H; Hot Springs, NC 28743 (704) 622-7112
USA; Box 523; Waynesville, NC 28786 (800)
334-9036.
26
FULL MOON
BLACK MOUl\TAIN, NC
Robin and Linda Williams al
McDibbs. Sec 7(24.
28
HOT s r RJNGS, NC
r-w
"Hand~ Sur lhc SIMS.
Tum the
Ellrth" Tai Oli Ch'uan workshop w1lh Kathleen cu.~ick
and Jay Dunbar. Solo nnd two-person play orrcr ins1gh1
inio classical principles of unified movement.
Prc-rcgistu. Soulhcm Ollllrma Retreat CcnlCI (sec
6/29).
30-8/1
MARSIIALL, NC
"Green Woodworking with Kids"
fOl'childrcn ages 10.15 and adult portners. Build a
r001S1ool from an 03k log · also swimming, hilting,
\l.·1ld plant i<lentificauon, campfires, ond SIOC)'tclhng.
Country Workshops: 90 Mill Creek Rd.: Marshnll. NC
28753 (704) 656-2280.
S111111nn. 1991
�AUGUST
1-J
16.l!i
c;nr:A'f S\IOKll:S r,\RK
·~J!Jvc Amcr1c:111s and the Easth"
pr0t,'fiu11 nnhe Grc:u Amoky Moum:am, Instil:.:!~ 111
Tr.:mont, S.:c: 1/:lA-21.
111c;111 ..,:-. ns. NC'
"Pinhole V1s1on" - low,tcch
pmhok camcm constnu:1100 and c~plur.ulon or crcati\c
1m:1gc-makmg wnh Pinky Ba,;s. For info on thi.~ and
111ocr pho1ogr.iph)· workshops, conl.1(1' App.1lachian
finvironmcntal Arts Center: Box 580: I l1ghfands, :-:c
211741 (70-I) 526-4303.
J Ul.1..\100~
26-31
MARSllc\U., l\C
-~,:ick Ch:11I111.1kmg•
work~ilop wi1h Dan Mayner. Bcgmning wuh a red oak
log, parucipants assemble a cluur ic,mg morme and
1cno11 jomcry, dr.i,..knh-cs, and spokeshaves.
Prc-rc:g1s1cr. Country Work,hors (sec 7/30-8/1 ).
30-9/2
IIREVARD. NC
Soull1cm Life Community
Ga1hcrmg • ncl,..Nking on issues of peace, jusucc, and
planci;iry protection. Family gathering, orcn IO all
.Music hy Cnnd1c and Guy Car:iwan, Contact Rur.d
Soulhcm Voicc for Peace (sec 8/2-3).
2-3
CF.1.O, NC
Onlhcring of commu111ty orgam,.crs
and ga.woots leaders who wish to sh.ire experiences and
network at Rural Soulhcm Voice for Peace office in
Celo Community. If interested m ancnding, plca.,c
contact RSVP; 1898 Hannnh Bmnch Rd.: Burnsville,
1'C 28714 (7o.1) 675-S933.
ASHEVILLE, NC
11 lh Annual World Gee-Haw
Whimmy Diddle Competition will include whimmy
diddle feats, lrlldiuon:il music, and clogging. For info,
conlllCt: Folk Art Ctntcr (see 7/9-11).
2.'i
SEPTEMBER
2-3
WILLIS, VA
6th Annual "Women's
Wellness Week"· an opportunity 10 become
part of a supportive women's community for a
week of renewing power. honoring spirit,
nurturing heart, and encouraging creativity.
Activities will include dance, clay sculpting,
drumming, tie-dying, healing work, and sweat
lodge ceremony. Children's program will run
concurrently. Pre-register. Indian Valley
Retreat Center (Sf.C 6/23-27).
5-11
17-IR
CHEROKEE, NC
Freeman Owlc, Cherokee
pipcmakcr stone sculptor. and storyteller, will
demoru;t.nue nt the Cherokee Hcn!llge Museum and
Callery. For infonn:uion on lhis and olhcr eppcara11ccs
by nauve cr:if1$pCople, conUJCt: Cherokee Heri1.1ge
Museum and Gallery; Box 477: Cherokee, NC 28719
(704) 497-3211.
OCOEE RTVER
1991 World Cup and
Wild water National Chamnpionshtps will
attract over 100 of the top wild water racers in
the world. Contact Nantahala Outdoor Center
(see 7/11-12).
HARRISONBURG, VA
PAW (Preserve Appalachian
Wilderness) Conference to discuss ideas and
Str'Jtegies for "evolutionary preserves" and a
wild habitat range the length of the Appalachian
Mountains. Sponsored by Virginians for
Wilderness/Earth First! and PAW. At James
Madison University. For info, write Virginians
for Wilderness; Rt. 1, Box 250; Staunton. VA
2440 I or call (703) 885-6983.
14 • 16
19-23
Send $ubmission~ f0t the Event~ page to: Kauiah
Calendar Editor; 300 Webb Cove Rd.; Asheville, NC;
Katliah Provmcc 28804. Listings for next is.~ue due by
Augu.~t 15.
"The area's oldcsi
and lugc,t natural
food~ gtoet'ry •
811/k Herbs, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supplements
VI/heat, Salt & Yeast-Fm~ Foods
Dairy Substitutes
Hair & Skin Care Products
Beer & Wine Maki11g Stlf'l'lics
200 W. King St, Boone, SC 28607
(704) 261·5220
-p,;,
~~\
Talking J.,,n,~ i~ a monthly
J('lutnlll of deep ecology, UISf'ired
pen,ooaJ RCIIVlbID rooted ID eMtben
'J'mlWlluy. Pa.,1 1!-!<ucs have
rurunxl ar11cles by Gary Soylkr.
Statba"J.. Jc>hn S~. Joanna
~facy, 81II ~val!, u•oe Wnlf
C1r¢1et;, Barham Mor, etc,
AH? NATBR Ml'l'fWl' BLICI'RlCITY
with a RAM pump! It works by
the action of flowing water
and can pump 120 ft. high.
Colllplele pump w/ guide -$125.
Call or send SASE for free
brochure.
NATERHAN MK PlJFS
355 Cedar Creek Road
-"'-...£.._....____ e1ack Mountain, N.c. 28711
(704) 669-6821
Summer, 19!J1
TnlJ.inl( J.,,111~ ~pew for the
n•tural world :and for lhe rd:.indlmg
!'I OW' OWII wtld ~JlU11,
Suhscnpt1ons arc S15.00 one
year/SI 8.00 outside U.S. S25.00
i...o )·ear'IIS36.00 outside U.S.
Send chock or M.O. 10:
Tn/J.i11x I.raw:,
1430 Willalllt'lle 11367
Eugrlle, OR 97401
5031342-2974
rFR~~,~~~'~:~~~P
COMMITTED TO C0'.'.1MUNTIY
AND ·cooo-FOR-YOU.FOOO"
255-7650
90 Biltmore AH•nu~ ,\,hevdlc ~C
2 Blocks South ol Downtown
Xatimh Journot PCUJC 33
�~BWoR/slt{g
• Webworking has changed! There is nowafee
of$ 2.50 (PRE-PAJD) per en1ryofjifry
words or less. Send b>•A11gust 30th 1991 I();
Rob Messick; P.O. Box 2601; Boone. NC
28607. (704) 754-6097.
GOOD STEWARDS WA/IITED for rcmotc land.
Approx. IS acres for sale w/ hou.,;e (2 bdrm .• I balh).
Organically rarmed for 2tJ )'Cffl, grnv11y recd spring
,,,:ner. High oo Tannsi Ridge. views. Raven ond ~fmnc
Walker, Box 23: Lal<c Toxaway. 1'C 28747 (704)
293-7013.
RAINFOREST BOTANICALS • from the ancient
hc31ing Ulldi11ons of the indigenous people. or SOUlh
America. The Life Force of Amawnui. now available
io you. Fn:e mformation ID Health Profes.,,onals. Call
Lei at l!OO-SJS-0503.
'!WO FAMIUES seeking neighborly follcs IO buy mlO
130 acres of beautiful moumainside land near
Wcavervillc.1'C. We arc involved in organic
gnro,:nmg, homc.~hooling. rwural healing. 1111d
spimuality. 20 acre sh3re for S2A,OOO. Call (7~)
658-2676 or 645-7954.
1990,91 DIRECTORY OF INTENTIONAL
COMMUNITIES · Just rclc:i~. over 2 years m the
nuking. Names, adrcssc.s, phone numbers, and
d=riptioos of 320 Nonh American communities. and
over 2SO resource ~ . phi., 40 articles. Mops,
cross-reference chan.s. fully indexed. $13.SO postpaid
from Sandhill Fann: Rt I, Box 155-R; Rulledge. MO
63563. 40% discount available on ordcn of 10 or
mate.
MUSIC BY BOB AVERY-ORUBELaVllilablcon three
casseu.cs. 1'reasuus in the Stream and Circles
Returnuig arc folk/rock·J3U. and a recent release of
origu1al chants and songs. light in the Wind. isa
coptMlla. Lyric sheets included. Send $10 for each tape
or $26 for ell throe to Bob Avuy-Grubcl; RL I, Box
735; Aoyd, VA 24091.
HIGHLANDER CENTER· IS a communuy-bascd
educaLional organ11.auon whol,C purpose IS lO provide
space for pcq,lo to learn from each other, and 10
dcvclopc $<llu1ions to cnvircnmcnllll r,roblcms based
on their values. experiences, 1111d a~iratlons. They also
put out a quanerly newslcua called Highlander
RcJ)OrlS. For more information conwcr Highlander
Ccnlel'; 1959 Highlander Wuy; New M.lrtkc1, 1N
37820 (615) 933.3443
A SMALL FMflLY COOPERATIVE. IS scckmg a
sw1Able ,;pace for homeschooling our children, ages
4,7. We are a responsible, conscious, ruid cxpcri<:nccd
a,oup. We 5"k a \l*iOUs house and yanl. away from
uafr.c. We prefer lO renr wil.h an Ofltlon lO buy. Call
(704) 628-3628 or (704) 252-8183.
RAW CHEMICAL-FREE HONEY. Tulip Poplar,
Sourwood, and Wildflower hooey from lhc forcstS or
Palrick County, VA. No chemicals, no while sugar.
no heat ever Slrllincd through ch=ccJoth and p;tekcd
in glass. Luni1cd quantities. ~11 or wntc for pnccs &
availalnlny. Wade Buckhohs • Bull Mountlin
Bcekecpcrs; Rd 2, Box 1S16. S1113r1. VA 2·H71 (703)
694-4571.
Xa1uwi JournoC p~ ~
NATIVE AMERICAN Fl.lTT'E MUSIC- Richard
Roberts. a well known west TN new age flutist (Ilk.a
Zero Ohms), is now availoblc tn lhe East TN/NC are.,.
For rcla:ting and uplifimg pcrfonnanccs nr tapes
contaet RIChard Robcns: Box 821; Norris, TN 37828
(615)494-8828-oc- RL I, Box 136RD; Lamar, MS
38642 (601) 252-4283.
THE DREAM CATCHER - C3tchcs bad dreams and
hold, I.hem, 10 be dcsttoyed by the morning sun. Good
dreams 0031 down the feather to I.he slcepu. Price: 11
dollars - spcc,fy color prefcrcnccs or nalWUI. Order
from Ch1ck:unaugan Fn:c C'hcrolcees: 1915 Buckky Sr
#8; Chawrnoogn. TN 37404.
I IA WKWlSO EARTII RENEWAL COOPERA11VE •
i.\ an 87 acre primitive rcl!C3t and working communily
fal!1l, l..oc:31Cd in I.he norlhcm Alabamo mountnin,111>1
11 S miles northwest oC Atlanta. Clas,;c,; on alrcmat1ve
lifestyles and Nill.Ive American philosophies arc
available on a rcgulor basis. For inform:ition or cnllllog
of Nauvc crofts & producL~. Cllll (20S) 635-63().1.
32-ACRE FARM for sale ,n Whittier, NC. Multiple
solor hom~ltS, pnvacy, creeks and springs, rwo large
orgamc fields. Includes rusuc farmhouse wil.h
gravil)'-fcd water and solar sys1em, born, 1111d small
solnr suucture. $90,000 for all. Wlll sell pan. Writc
Vicki Baker and Tom Graves: Rt 2, Box 108-A:
Whittier, NC 28789 or call ('704) 586-8221 or(704)
649-9266.
NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONIAL HERBS • we
offer a latge variety of sages, swce1 grass, ruuural
resins, 11114 everything ncccssiuy for smudging. Nnrivc
smolc.ing m1~tures, flulc music, pow-wow Lape:!, und
ceremonial songs. Essential oils, and incenses
specifically mode fo, prayer. offcriJlg, and meditation.
Forcawlog call or write: Esscncinl Drc:uns; Rt 3. Bo~
285; Eagle Fork, Hllyc:svillc. NC 2890i (701)
389-9898.
whole earth
grocery
•
NATURAL
ALTERNATIVES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LMNG
4~6 e parkway craft «-nt<'r • <ultc 11
gatllnburg, tcnn~ 37738
615-436-6967
PIEDMONT BIOREGIONAL INSTITUTE - For those
who live in lhc Piedmon1 area, !here's a biorcgionnl
e!fon well underway. Jom Us! We would nJlPrec13lC
any donnuon or time or money IO help moot operating
expenses. For a gifl of S25.00 or more. we will send
you a copy of John Lawson's journal, A New Voyage
10 Coro/mo Also come find ou1 about the Lawson
ProjecL PB!; 412 W Rosemary Slt0CI: Chapel Hill,
NC 27516; Uwbruna Province. (919) 942-2581.
WICKER WORKER· Wicker furniture rcs'U>red. ainc.
rush, and recd sc31S woven, D:sskcrs al.,;o repaired.
Expericncc:d scat weaver. "If you can't we cane.· Andrea
Clarke; 27 Mu Strc<:t Asheville, NC 28801. ('704)
253-6241.
RECYCLED PAPER I - Oin:etory or product sources
for the Southca~ SuggC$1.Cd Donation of S 1.00 10
Wcstcm Nonh Carolina Alliance: P.O. Box 18087:
Asheville, NC 28814 (704) 258-8737
BODY RI/YT/IMS from PIIIIICtnry Mothers • a
beautiful and paroctical calendar for women ID chart
rhcir ·moonthly" cycles. Send $3.00 plus S 1.00
[lOSWge to: Planetary Mothers Collective (c/o Nancie
Yonker); 5231 Riverwood Avenue: Saraso111. FL
34231
FAMILIES LEARNING TOGETHER - is a new
sutew1dc ho=hool group welcoming :inyone wirh
on i n ~ in home education. Our pulflOSC 1s 10
focili111tc the exchange or infonnauon, Ullcnt. nnd
n:sowccs. For more infonnauon contact: Trish Severin
(704) 369-6491
QUEST FOR SUR VIVAL/ JOURNEYS TO
SPIRITUALITY· 1s .i new program being offered in
the Kimlah area. The purpose of the Que.st for Sutv1vll.l
progroms 1S to 1C3Ch the sxrcd order of swvivnl
(Shcl1.cr, W111er, F,rc, and Food). and explore I.he roles
of ~urvival phllnsophy and spin1ulll1ty in 11113lning
b:ll:lnccd hannony wil.h ourselves, cai;h other. Qnd the
Eonh.
Two rnll'Oductory weekends will 111kc plxc in
l.Jlurcl Sp<ings, NC on Scp1cmbcr 27-29 for Women,
and Oc1obcr 4-6 for Men. Also ii wccl:long program for
men is planned for October 6-13 al Turtle hl.1nd
Prosct\·c near Deep Gap. NC. For information on any
of thc.o;e programs conU1Ct Tom Barnes: P.O. Box 166;
S3vcry, WY 82332 or call (307) 383-2625.
LAND FOR SALE - wil.h small house in beautiful
Spring Creek. 1'C; IS miles west of Hot Spnngs.
Pctfcct for the scJJ-sufficicn1 tire. One hour wesr of
Asheville. Call Linda Deyo (704) 675-9575.
S11tt11ncr-, 1991
�Katuah Journal wams w comm1111icare your 1/,ouglus and
feelings 10 the 01her people i11 1he bioregional pmv111ce Send
1hem 10 us as /e11ers, poems, sinries, articles, drawings, or
photographs. e1c. Please seridyour contrib111io11s w 11s at: Katuah
Journal; P 0. Box 638; Leicester, NC, Ka11'tah Province
28748.
The tall issue of Ka111al1 .loumal will be a·i*,tpouni featurhg
a strong emphasis on humor and fun. The titles and contents of Lhe
major depanments will tn1nsform laughably, and Katiiah Journal
will let its hair down: hopefully gcuing its funny bone tickled!
Deadline for anicles is July 31, 1991.
Our Winter issue will be concerned with Fire in its many
manifestations; from forest fires to the warm hearths of home.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE • SPRINO 1984
Sw;r.ainablc Ag,, iculture • Sunflowers • Human lmp:icl on
I.he FOfest. Childrcru· Education· Veronica Nicholas:
Woman in Politics Lmlc People· Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR • SUMMER 1984
W11cr Drum • We11:1 Quality. Kudzu. Solar Eclipse .
Clcatcuuing • Trom. Going U> Wiler. R'IITI Pumps Microhydro. Poems: Bemie Lee Sinelair. Jim Wayne
Miller
ISSUE FOURTEEN • WINTER 1986.87
Lloyd Carl Owlc • Boogcrs and Mummers • All Spooics
Day • Cabin Fever University • Homeless m Katuah
llomcm~de 1101 Water • Stovcmwcer·s Narrative • Good
Medicine: Interspecies Communication
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - SPRINO 1989
Pisgah Village • Planet Art • Oreen City • Poplar Appeal •
·CIC1t s1cy·· ·"A New Eanh". Black Swan • 11'/ld lt;vely
Days· Reviews: Sacred Land Sacred Sa, Ice Age • Poem:
··sudden Tendrils"
0
ISSUE FIVE • FALL 1984
Harvest • Old Ways in Cherokee· Oin.scng • NuclClll Waste
• Our Celtic Heritage· Biorcg1onalism: Past. Prcser1~ and
Future • John WUnoty • Healing Darkncs.s • Politics of
Participation
1SSUETW£NTY.FQUR • SUMMER "89
Deep Listening· Life in Atomic City • Direct Action! •
Tree of Peace· C.Ommuruty Building· Peacemakers.
Ethnic Survival. Pairing Projcc:t . ··Battlesong".
Growing Peace in Culturos • Review: Tiu: Chalice and lhe
8/ak
ISSUE SIX • WINTER 1984-85
Wintu Solstice Earth Ceremony • HorseJ>3Sturc:a River·
Coming or the Light • Log Cabin Root • Mountain
Agriculture: The Right Crop. William Taylor. The Future
of the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN -SPRINO 1985
SuslAlnablc Economies • Hot Springs Worker Ownership
- The Orea! Economy . Self Help Credit Union· Wild
Turkey - Responsible Investing - Working in the Web or
Life
ISSUE EIOIIT • SUMMER 1985
Cc:lcbration: A Way of Life. Katuah 18.000 Years Ago
Sacn:d Sites • Folk Alts in the Schools . Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle . Poems: Hilcb Downer· Cherokee Heritage Cenll!r ·
Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE • FALL 198S
Titc Waldcc Forest. The Trees Speak. Migtating Forcsu .
Horse Logging · Sllll'ling a Troe Crop· Urb:tn Tr«s •
Acom Bre3d • Mylh Tim,,
ISSUE TEN • WINTER 1985·86
Kate Rogers. Circles of Stone Internal Mylhmllking •
Hohsuc Healing on Trial • Poems: Steve Knauth • Mythic
Pieces • 11,c UJ(lena·s Talc • Crystal M•gic •
ISSUE FIFTEEN • SPRINO 1987
Coverlcu • Woman f-ores1er • Susie McMahon: Midwife ·
Alternative Contnception Biosexuality Biorcgion:llism
l1lld Women Good Mcdic111C: Matria,chal Culture. P~art
ISSUE SIXTEEN • SUMMER 1987
Helen Wlitc Poem: V1$ions in a Garden Visi<>n Quc5t •
First Aow - Initiation • Ltaming in the Wililcmei> •
Cherokee Challenge· "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIOHTEEN • WINTER 1987-88
Vem11CUlar Architecture Drums m Wood and Stone .
Mountrun Home • Earth Encrgi<:s Eanh.Sheltettd Llving
Membrane Houses • Brush Shelter . Pocmr. Octobu Dwk
Oood Medicine: "Shelter"
ISSUE NINETEEN • SPRING 1988
Pcrclandra G3tdcn Spring Tonics . Blueberries .
WddOower Gardens· Onumy Hcrl>1list ·Flower~ ·
""Inc Origin of the Animals:· Story · Good Medicine:
"Power• • Be A Trec
"Drt,:lnl$pMking"
ISSUE THIRTEEN • FALL 1986
Center For Awalccnmg Eli1.abclh Callan· A Ocntlc Death
Hospice Ernest Morgan • Dealing Crcotively with De.th
• Home Burial Box· The Woke The Raven MockcrWood.slorc and Wildwoods Wooom • Good Medk:inc: The
Sweat Locl&e
~UAtt JOURNAL
ISSUE TWENTY . SUMMER 1988
Prcsavc Appalachian Wildcmcss Highland$ of Roan •
Cclo Community • Land Trust • A.rthur M<><i;an School •
Zoning Issue • "The Ridge" • Farmers and thc Farm Bill
Oood Medicine: "Land" Acid Rain· Ouke·s Power Play •
Cherolcee Miaohydro Project
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Rob Messick a1 (704) 754- 6097
Name
Regular Membership......$ I0/yr.
Sponsor..........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
Ciry
Area Code
Summer, 1991
State
Phone Number
Zip
ISSUE TWENTY.TWO. Wl'NTER ·ss~9
Olobal Warmu,g • Fire This Time • Thomas Beny on
"Bion:gions" • Eanh Exercise. Kore Loy McWhiner. An
Abundance of Emplmess • LETS • Chronicles or Aoyd •
D:u,y Wood. The Beat Cl11n
Enclosed is $ - ~ - - u, give
this effort 011 ex1ra boos1
I can be a local contact
person for my area
ISSUETW£NTY.S1X . WlNTER, 1~89.'90
Coming or Age in the Ecoroic Eni Kids Saving Rainforest
• Kids Treecycling Company • ConOict Resolution .
Developing the Creative Spirit - Buth Power · Birth
Bonding. The Magic or Puppcuy . Home Schooling.
Naming Ceremony MOlhcT Eulh·s CIISS!OOO\ • Oardcnmg
for Children
ISSUETW£N'fY.SEVEN SPRINO. 1990
Transform•tion - lfoaling Power Pence to Their Ashes.
llealing in Kanlah Poem: "When Loft u, Grow·· • Poemr.
Stephen Wing The Belly • Food from lhe Ancient Forest
ISSUE TWENTY EIOITT SUMMER 1990
Carryu,g Ca~uy . Seu1ng Limit$ to Growth • Whu is
Overpopulation? • The Road Oang • Tru: Highway 10
No-.here • The 1.26 Projocl "Cuing Capacity"· People
and l11bitll • Designing the Whole Life Community .
Steady Sllltc - Poems, WOI Ashe B=n . Tnnsportcm.lbvos
· Review· COMUSlfl8
ISSUE TWENTY.NINE . FALl,JWlNTER 1990
From the MounLlllU to the Sea • Promc of The Little
Temt$- R1ver • Hcadwatcn Ecology • "It All Comes
Down 10 Water Quality. Wata Power: Action for Aquatic
HabitalS · Dawn Watchers · Cood Medicine: The Long
Human Being The Nonh Shore Road Kllllah Sells Out ·
Wllcrlhcd M"f) of the Katuah Province
ISSUETIURTY SPRJNO 1991
Economy/Ecology Rcsencrativa Economy • "Money Is
the Lowest Form of Wealth"· Claruvillc Mira:Je • The
VillJ,ge • Food Movers Ll/'eworlt • Oood Medicine:
"Village Economy·. Shelton Laurel. LETS
Issue 31
Back Issues
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Complete Set (3· lO, 13-16, 18-20,
22-24. 26-30)
@ $40.00 = $,_ _
postage paid
X.Otu.nfi JourrwL 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>.
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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
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
Type
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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 31, Summer 1991
Description
An account of the resource
The thirty-first issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on "earth energies" and humans' reconnection with the earth through dowsing; earth healing and Earth Energy workshops; and understanding the Earth grid. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Madeline H. Dean, Joyce Holbrook, Clyde Hollifield, Richard Nester, Charlotte Homsher, Page Bryant, Richard Lowenthal, James Proffitt, Lee Barnes, Jim Houser, Emmett Greendigger, Ivo Ballentine, Rob Messick, David McGrew, George Agricola (1556), Douglas A. Rossman, and Mara. <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.
Dowsing by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />The Responsibilities of Dowsing: An Interview with Tom Hendricks by Madeline H. Dean.......5<br /><br />Ceremonies of the Moment: An Interview with Joyce Holbrook.......6<br /><br />"Jack-o-Lanterns," Acid Rain, and the Electrical Life of the Earth by Clyde Hollifield.......8<br /><br />Poem: "Old Houses" by Richard Nester.......10<br /><br />Katúah and the Earth Grid by Charlotte Homsher.......11<br /><br />The Call of the Ancient Ones by Page Bryant.......13<br /><br />"If the Earth Is to Heal, Our Hearts Must Be Broken" by Richard Lowenthal.......15<br /><br />Good Medicine: On Agression.......17<br /><br />Poems by James Proffitt.......18<br /><br />Green Spirits: Sacred Forests by Lee Barnes.......19<br /><br />Off the Grid by Jim Houser.......20<br /><br />Natural World News.......21<br /><br />"Just Doing Their Job" by Emmett Greendigger.......23<br /><br />Time to Take the Time to Take the Time by Ivo.......25<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Whole Science by Rob Messick.......29<br /><br />Tuning In by Charlotte Homsher.......29<br /><br />Review: Light in the Wind.......30<br /><br />Chestnut Grafting Project by David McGrew.......31<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>
Publisher
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
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Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
New Age movement
Dowsing
Environmental education--North Carolina--Asheville
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<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
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
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<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
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Acid Deposition
Alternative Energy
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Earth Energies
Economic Alternatives
Education
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Health
Katúah
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Sacred Sites
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
-
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
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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..-
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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>.
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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
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
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Text
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Title
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<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
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1991
Table Of Contents
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<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
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
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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
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<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
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
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<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
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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/0791c74f61bfeccd6b0575a3e53240f5.pdf
e919144545b326bd6e557ea5b917f958
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 33 WINTER 1991-92
$2.00
�Drawing by Rob Messick
~UAHjOURNAL
PO Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
ti}
C,
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Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
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...
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Printed on recycled paper
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�Fire's Power..................................
by David Wheeler
3
What Is Natural?..............................
5
by David Wheeler
Do Clean:uts Mimic Fire?....................
6
Smokey and the Red Wolves................
7
Fire in Jeffreys Hell..........................
8
by Vic Weals
Poems..........................................
by Barbara J. Sands
9
Fire and Forge................................
by Jan Davidson
and David Brewin
11
The First Fire..................................
A Cherokee Legend
12
Hearth and Fire in lhe Mountains........... 14
by Barbara Wickersham
Good Medicine................................
15
Midwinter Fires...............................
Poems by Jeffery Beam
18
Natural World News.........................
20
Who Will Have !he Power?.................
by Veronica Nic/10/a.t
22
Litmus Lichens................................
by Rob Messick
24
Reading the Inner Tree.......................
by Charlo1te Homsher
25
Review:
Where rite Ravens Roost.....................
25
Around the Fire...............................
by lee Barrres
26
Drumming.....................................
27
Poem: "Sky Mangler"........................
by Mike Wilber
29
Review:
The Sound of Light...........................
31
Events..........................................
33
\Vcbworking..................................
34
Wlntcr , 1991 -92
Fire is one of the four Great Beings, the
elements !hat move Creation.
Fire is the catalytic spark of the life
essence. Living, we are warm and moving;
non-living, we are like ashes, cold and dead.
No wonder ancient wisdom associated Fire
with the directed passion of the will. It is
fitting that through the ages the spirit of life
has been depicted as "the sacred fire."
Fire radiates all around us in the
life-giving energy of the Sun.
Fire is at the center; in the slick and
sweat of love a spark is ignited between a
male and a female and life is born anew.
Fire in its many forms powers the
movement and the production of our societies.
The hearth fire is the center of the home.
Fire cooks the food, warms the dwelling, and
from the fireplace the old stories spring alive
into the family room.
In the heart of every green plant cell the
sunfire drives the process of photosynthesis,
upon which life on Eanh depends.
But ftre is also the changer, lhe
destroyer - a demon of voracious appetite that
gobbles indiscriminately all it can ignite.
Fire unleashed destroys the house it
warmed.
Under the power of drought, forest
becomes desert.
Fire is the nuclear terror, shriveling all
life to ashes.
The most terrible punishment the
bishops could imagine was to bum a witch
alive at the stake.
Fire in the hands of the invaders torches
Lhe village huts and razes the crops in the
fields. Old cities are bombed and guued by
Fire.
Wildfire, the major force of change in
!he forest around us, is capable of overturning
in a matter of hours vegetative associations
that have stood for centuries.
The four elemenml beings circle in the
Great Round, the world we know.
Fire needs earthy fuel 10 eat, oxygen
from the air to breathe. Fire and water are
complementary - at firSt look they seem in
total opposition, but upon a second glance
they are seen to be in a careful and delicate
relationship. There is fire on these mountains
only because there is water to grow the wood
that bums. Born of the union of fire and
water, life is forever suspended in that
balance.
But what is the role of fire in our human
lives and in the life of the mountain forests
that surround us? Where is that balance?
Fire flickers and dances...too quick, too
changeable, 100 close to the essence of life
itself for us to ever expect definitive answers
to those essential questions. But it is
worthwhile for us to begin the process of
understanding.
We need to know Fire, one of the great
powers that shape our being in these
mountains, on this Earth.
The Editors
Drawing by Rob Messick
XAtuah
J~mat PQ9"- l
�EDITORlALSLASH:
Heather Blair
Emmeu Grcendigger
Charlone Homsher
Richard Lowenthal
Rob Messick
James Rhea
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Acasia Berry
Christine Detweiler
John lngruss
Billy Jonas
Bill Melanson
Mamie Moller
Donna Stringer
Rodney Webb
Thanks again IO Mountain Gatdens for hospiUllily and inspiration.
Thanks to Larry Tucker for able computer assiSlBIICe.
As always, thanks to JH.
Thanks 10 Gene for the car, we couldn't ruive done ii without you!
COVER: by Rob Messick ©1991
PUBLISHED BY: Kattlah Journal
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE THTS ISSUE: Billy Home and Gardens,
WRITE US AT: Katuah Journal
Asheville
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kauiah Province 28748
TELEPHONE: (704) 754-6097
Diversity is an important element of bioregional ecology. both natural
and social. In acxord with this principle Katuah Journal tries IO serve as a
forum for the discussion of rcg.ional issues. Signed articles express only the
opinion of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of the Katuah
Journal editors or staff.
The lnlCmal Revenoo Service has declared Katuah Journal a non-profit
~anization undu section 501(c)(3) oC the lnu:mal Revcnoo Code. All
contributions IO Katuah Journal are deductible from personal income tax.
Articles appearing in Katuah Journal may be rcprinltd in Olher
publications wilh permission from the Katuah Journal staff. ConLaCt the
journal in writing or call (704) 754-6097.
'LNVOCA'Tto'.N
When my skull lies with yours,
Will you sing for me?
The long sleep heals.
We will find new life in the spring.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Here,
in the Ka1uah Province
of these ancient Appalachian mountains
where once the Cherokee Nation lived in freedom
berween the Tennessee River Valley and the Eastern Piedmont
between the Valley of the Roanoke and the Southern Plain
on this Tunic Island continent of Mother Ela, the Eanh
Here,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our deep
connection to the spirit of the land.
We bring this connection inro 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 limiis of the land
We preserve, defend, and restore the land
We give thanks for all that is good
Harmony 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 diminfahed as well.
Katuah Journal sends a voice...
with articles, stories, poems, and artwork
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 Editors
Doug Peacock - Criuly Years
Border by Ja.son TudlCf
KATUAH JOURNAL wants 10 communicate your thoughts and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them 10 us
as leners, poems, sroriu, articles, drawings, or photographs, etc. Please
send yoiu contributions 10 us at: Katuah Journal; P. 0 . Box 638;
Leicester, NC; Kattlah Province 28748.
OUR NEXT ISSUE will be concerned with "Sustainable
Agriculture and Regional Diet". We need your input on topics including:
sustainable agriculture (alternative ag., low input, appropriate ag.,
permaculture, biodynamics, etc.); seed-saving techniques; wild-foods
and medicinals; regionaVcommunity food production and marketing;
Xatimf~ )ournot J>°'Je 2
seasonal diet and recipes; food preservation; green manures and
composting; agroforescry; and especially recommended resources,
guides, and contacts. Send all material by January 30th, 1992 to Lee
Barnes; Box 1303; Waynesville, NC 28786. (704) 452-5716.
THE SUMMER, 1992 ISSUE will be involved with the continually
controversial topic of Councils, and how to create more viable methods
of decision-making in the ful\Jre. Possible topics include: Native
American sovereignty, the State of Franklin, Town Meetings, Council of
All Beings, Regional Rainbow Gatherings, Grassroots Groups, Conflict
Resolution, and more? Submit all material by April 30th, 1992.
,.,lnur. 1991-92
�FIRE'S POWER
The Influence of Fire
on the Evolutionary History of the Southern Appalachians
by David Wheeler
Thunder rumbles over the old hms. Ir is
just after dusk, and the nwtmtains steam in rite
humid air ofsummer. 011 the somlrwestem
lrorizo11 great cloudbanks roil up i1110 tlte sky,
arching over tlte land like a pouncing beast,
blotting ow the stars.
High in those clouds, invisible to the eye,
thermal fron1s meet and clash. creating turmoil
in the skies. The collision of hot and cold air
creates violent gusts and downdrafts of wind.
The clouds become enonnous electrical
generators. Humid air condenses into raindrops
then into ice crystals within the whirling
confusion inside the cloudbank. The electrical
forces generated by the clouds become
polarized. In the space of only tens of
milliseconds, there is a branched discharge of
energy within the cloud called the
"stepped-leader" that moves first horiwntally
and then downward at one-third lhe speed of
light.
The Eanh is also electrically charged. As
the tip of the stepped-leader approaches the
Eanh's surface, an answering discharge rises
from the Eanh. The two join and cause a "return
stroke," a surge of intense ionization that moves
back up the leader channel toward the cloud in
the brilliance ,~e see as cloud-to-ground
lil?htning. The whole process has 001 yet taken a
whole second, but there has been an elecaical
discharge of, on the average, 40,000 amperes although discharges of 340,000 amperes have
been measured. The temperature within the
leader channel reaches 30,000 degrees Kelvin.
After 40 10 80 milliseconds a new leader is
l.>i.ntcr, 1991-92
D,awmg by Jomes Rhea
formed and again the process is repeated. Most
visible lightning consists of two to four return
strokes. The rapid expansion of the
super-heated air around the lightning channel
produces a shock wave, so that shonly after
seeing the glare of lightning arcing through the
sky, we hear the booming sound of thunder.
Lightning strikes with awesome power. 011
a l11gh ridge a sta11di11g dead snag is seared by
the blast and explodes imo flame. leaves 011 the
ground ig11ire from the hear ofthe blaze, and the
fire is 011 tlte move, traveling uphill.fanned by
the wind.
The experience of a thunderstonn with
lighrning is intense, but it is a common and
completely natural process. There are about 40
million cloud-to-ground lightning saikes in the
United States each year. It is esumated that
around the world there are 50 10 100 lightning
discharges every second, although half of these
remain in the clouds. Lightning is one of the
great powers of nature.
In the Southern Appalachians lightning
saikcs are frequent during the summer storm
season, which lasts from April through August.
There are usually between 40 and 60
thunderstorm days/year. A review of the records
of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by
Lawrence S. Barden and Frank W. Woods
showed that between 1940 and 1969 lightning
caused 77 fircs wit.hin the park boundaries.
During the course of an eleven-year study they
recorded six lightning fires per year in their one
million acre study area.
In the conifer forests of the West. with their
dry summers, lightning strikes often start raging
holocaustS that climb into the high 1JCC1ops and
sometimes bum off thousands of acres. Our
image of lightning fires is based on that model.
But in the Southern Appalachians lighcning
saikes during the summer rainy season when
the deciduous leaves arc green and full of
moisture and the fuel on the ground is damp.
There are few dry lightning strikes in the
Southeast, and lightning fires usually are soon
extinguished by a drenching rain or subdued by
a steady rainfall. It has been estimated that the
average lightning fire burns five to 10 acres of
forest. Thus, the effects of ligh1ning fires seem
10 have been small, irregular dis1urbances,
localized on south-facing slopes and ridgetops at
higher elevations which would show the driest
conditions and be most prone to lightning
strikes. The deep coves and nonh-facing slopes
were so moist as to be vinually fireproof.
But if the effects of lightning fires were
limited, there was another source of ftre in the
southern mounm.ins that unquestionably had
more impac1: the human beings. The best
archaeological evidence we have uncovered says
that the first humans were present in this area
12,000 years ago. These were
hunting-gathering people. Fire was
unquestionably pan of their technological
toolkit.
Geographer Carl Sauer says in his essay.
"Man's Role in Changing the Face of the
Earth," "Speech, tools and fire are the tripod of
culture and have been so, we think, from 1he
beginning. About the hearth, the home and
workshop are centered. Space heating under
shelter, as a rock overhang, made possible
living in inclement climates; oooking made
palatable many plant product~; industrial
(oonunuod annul P'&")
X<ltuan Jouri!"f p ~ 3
�(c:onunued from page 3)
innovators experimemed with heat treatment of
wood, bone, and minerals. About the fireplace,
social life took form, and the exchange of ideas
was fostered. The availability of fuel has been
one of the main facton. determining the location
of clustered habitation."
Besides using fire in the village, the human
occupants of the Southern Appalachians during
the Paleolithic period also set fires in the
surrounding countryside 10 encourage the
growth of grasses and forbs and thus improve
the range for the grazing animals that were the
foundation of their diet The humans also used
fire as a hunting technique to drive animals
either wward waiting spear-throwers or over
steep cliffs.
Around 10,000 years ago the life of these
Paleo-Indians began to change as they moved
into what is called the Archaic cultural period.
As they became more familiar with the land and
itS inhabitants, they began to settle more into
sedentary villages. As we are told in the ''Good
Medicine" column (see page 17), they burned
the area around their villages to keep out pesrs
and for better defensibility, and burned up the
mountain slopes in the fall of the year for
hunting purposes, to encourage berries, and to
make nut gathering easier. Light burning every
year also kept down fuel loads, thereby
preventing the possibility of large, hot fires that
would harm the forest and destr0y their villages.
Keeping the understory clear greatly facilitated
travel, particularly on the ridges and along the
riversides, where the fires helped the beavers to
clear the bouomland meadows.
Between 800 and 1,000 AD the Cherokee
tribe adopted maize agriculture and became
firmly established in a mixed agricultu-m.1/
hunting lifestyle. They practiced a rotating
"slash and burn" agriculture, burning their fields
off annually and continuing lO fire the
mountainsides every year.
Unlike lightning, humans could start fires
in any season of the year, wet or dry. Autumn,
when a fresh layer of light, dry leaves covered
the ground, was the preferred season for
burning off the forest floor; spring was the time
to bum over the fields. Thus, human-caused
fires were of greater frequency, often of greater
intensity, and covered larger areas than lightning
fires. To be talking about the prehistorical
impacL of fire on the SouLhern Appalachians is
to be talking mostly about human impac1 on lhe
mountains - through their main tool for change:
fire.
Fire was the the most imponant disturbance
fa~tor i~ th~ Southern Appalachians; through the
rrullenma since the retreat of the last glacier it
has been a major shaper of the highland forest
communily. In general, the light bums caused
by lightning and the primitive people thinned out
young trees and opened up the forest floor.
When trees got to a certain age and girth they
became less susceptible 10 fire damage, so that
on fire.prone sites they loomed over an open
forest noor that struck the first white explorers
as "park-like," reminding them of Lhe carefully
tended parks of Europe. Generally, it was the
moist coves and north,facing slopes had the
shrubs, the herbs, and the ephemeral flowers
that we associate with the deep forest.
We will never know many of the ways 1ha1
fire ha.c; influencc.:d the forest around U5. It
changed the chemical and te,ctuml composition
of the soil; it altered lhe microbial populations of
Xat1&aW-Jou.rn«l ... p"4)v '-f ',
p~sJ genlo,...,--
the forest: it killed insect
and
infestations of parasites and disease where it
was present. Yet Lhere were visible signs of the
force of fire's impact.
Because of the abundant rainfall in 1he
southern mountains, the forest cover
recuperated quickly from burning, but openings
remained to testify to fire's passing. Professor
Kenneth L. Carvell of West Virginia University
wrote, "When the first trappers and traders
penetrated the Southern Appalachian
wilderness, they discovered scattered treeless
areas. These forest opemings were of several
kinds; some natural. some man-caused (sic). In
cenain localities these made up a considerable
acreage. Treeless areas could be grouped into
five categories: sphagnum bogs, resembling the
muskeg of the nonh country; grassy glades,
dominated by tall grasses; upland meadows, of
debatable origin, but perhaps the result of Indian
burning; "old fields," areas formerly cleared by
the Indians for agriculture and now starring to
grow up; and finally the high elevation balds,
dominated by shrubs and stunted tree cover, but
not a true tree line. Although obscured by the
dense forest. these openings were discovered
readily, since the first trappers and traders
followed animal trails, and these often led from
one glady area to the next. These openings,
particularly the grassy glades and old fields,
were sought out at an early date by the
homesteaders and settled first, since they were
spared the difficult task of clearing the dense
forest cover to provide crop and grazing land.
"ln spite of these scattered openings, more
than 90% of the land was forested, and in the
Southern Appalachians 90% of the forest was
hardwood."
The early European explorers spoke of
grazing animals like elk and a small woods
buffalo roaming the forest along with an
abundance of deer. Deer are leaf-browsers that
like forest edges; elk and buffalo eat grass,
which grows in the open, indicating that.
particularly in the bottomlands, there were
substantial areas that were open and clear.
The grassy balds were found at the top of
the highest ridges (see KattW, Journal #5).
They were thought 10 be created by extreme
climatic conditions during the last Ice Age, but
they were apparently maintained largely by fire
since the climate warmed. Since fire
suppression has caused natural succession to
overtake the open balds, they are returning to
forest cover. These bald areas con1ain species of
grasses more commonly found in grasslands
1hat fire ecologist E. V. Komarek says "did not
develop wilhout a history offire."
Fire has changed 1he species composition
of the tall tree canopy, exerting strong selection
pressure among tree species on dry si1es. There
are species of trees living in the forest today lhar
are completely dependent on fire for their
continued existence. There arc other tree species
that 1hrive on di:aurbance and are thus
pamcularly adapted to fire.
Dr. Roben Zahner, formerly professor of
forestry at Clemson University, tells us, "Most
of the oak and pine forest stands in eastern
North America were fire maintained. Oaks and
Pines are not climax type species. Without
d1s1urbance, they would have been displaced by
maples. basswoods, hemlocks, beeches. and
other cove hardwood species. In an area with
rainfall as plentiful as the southern mounuuns,
1~ese 'cove· species would do well on anr good
sne. However. they are not at all fire tolerant. so
they were restricted from the dry south slopes
.
•
I
I
~
ano ridgetops that wire liable 10 burning.
'The mature trees of fire tolerant species
can survive burning. White pines are the most
fire tolerant trees. White pines have a thick bark
and can withstand any kind of fire except a
crown fire. They can survive when every1hing
else is burned. Their seed requires an exposed
mineral soil to germinate. Burning creates a
good seedbed for them, so that when they drop
their seed the following season it regenerates
and produces a strong stand of natural white
pine.
"White pine does not have serorinous cones
that pop open in the presence of heat, but the
pitch pine and the Table Mountain pine do have
serotinous cones. These species, too, require
exposed mineral soil for seed germination. They
like a crown fire that climbs into the trees, kills
everything, and opens their cones with the heat
of the names. Within a week they send down a
rain of seed onto the newly cleared ground.
Pitch pine and Table Mountain pine are
completely fire-dependent for their germination,
and since fire suppression has become the
policy in the national forests, their populations
have been diminishing.
"Oak trees' reproductive strategy is to set a
lot of young seedlings and saplings in the
understory. The young trees are relatively shade
tolerant, so they just stand beneath the canopy
and wait for a disturbance to open up a hole for
them to grow into.
"Oak trees have tough roots, and are less
likely to root-kill than most other species. When
a fire comes through, it will kill the young and
medium-sized oak trees right back 10 the
ground, and then - with much of the competiuon
wiped out - they will resprout into vigorous oak
stands.
"Yellow poplar has a lot of weedy
characteristics and is another species that does
well in areas likely to be disturbed by rues.
Poplar has two major reproductive strategies.
First, the tree will sprout at almost any age.
Secondly, each mature cree will put out tens of
thousands of seeds every year. Leaves fall and
cover the seeds up. This process continues year
after year making layers of seed underneath the
leaf cover. Poplar seed can remain stored in the
litter for 8-10 years. When a fire - or a
disturbance of any kind - does occur, it strips
off 1he layers of leaves. Many seeds die. but the
seeds on the layer left exposed genninnte and
begin to grow.
"Black locust trees are not fire tolerant, but
they are dependent on disturbance for
regeneration. Locust seeds are generally not
viable. The tree has become so effective at
regenerating from root suckers that it has
virtually lost iri; ability to reproduce by seed.
But it doesn't need to seed itself. The extensive
root system of a locust cnn recover a
burned-over site almost immediately.
"Sassafras, too, is an early succession tree.
Like locust, it is a good sprouter, but it also
sends out lots of viable seed.
'The ericaceous plants, such as
rhododendron and mountain laurel, are also
fire-dependent. Like the pines. they actually
encourage tire by the fuel in their leaves.
Rhododendrons can survive for 3 long time in
the forest understory, but they can't bloom or
set seed in the shade, so they drop their leaves
each year and wait. When a fire does occur, it
bums fast and hot on the depo~ited fuel and kills
everything. including the rhododendron i1self •
but also opens up the canopy overhead.
(cor11111ood on pite 30)
,.,ultct,
1'!19 f.l-02'
�WHAT IS NATURAL?
The Fire History of the Mountain Forests
The
usual strategy for bioregionnl
reinhabimtion is to restore the narural life
processes and native species of a region while
simultaneously working ro change human
living patterns and limit the human presence to
lessen the impact of our species on the land.
We are largely unaware of the many
subtle relationships that maintain the life ofa
biorcgion, and we are usually ign_orant of_1he
nature and imponance of the mynads of uny
organisms that live around us and are so
necessary in keeping up !he vitality of the
community. In our ignorance, all we ca~ do to
heal a place is 10 restore the macro- species
and macro-processes of life support and allow
enough space and freedom from h:1nun
interruption that the land can find 11s own
natural equilibrium.
For rhe Kaufah Province this poses a
problem: what is "natural"?
It was hardly a "forest primeval" that the
first European explorers encountered on the\r
arrival in the New World. What they found JO
eastern Turtle lsland was actually - at least in
part - a managed landscape. Yet, particularly
during the ninereenth cemury, wrirers
continued to purvey the image of "a foresr so
thick that a squirrel could travel from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi without touching
the ground." Francis Parkman, writing in
1892, described a scene beneath an
impenetrable foresr canopy where "all is
shadow, through which spors of timid
sunshine steal down among legions of lank,
mossy trunks, ... maued bushes, and rotted
carcasses of fallen trees." While scenes like
!his did abound, today we tend to see rhe old
forest as a mosaic of different types, doued
with openings, due largely t0 the presence and
use of fire.
At anolherextreme was forester llu
Maxwell of the US Forest Service, who wrore
an article on the "Use and Abuse of the Forest
by the Virginia Indians" for the William and
Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine in
1910, when foresters were coming 10 see fire
as an unmirigated evil which had no place in
the forest
Maxwell had a decidedly
uncomplimentary view of the First People and
their fire habits. ''Though white men are rated
high as destroyers of forest, they arc not JO Lhe
same class with Indians," he stated. "...They
are wasreful and destructive, as savages
usually are, and the word economy had no
place in his vocabulary...The Indian \s by
nature an incendiary, and forest burning was
the Virginia Indian's besetting sin."
Maxwell described "open, park-like"
forests unencumbered by undergrowth. He
described lands cleared for agriculture along
the riverbanks, and also spoke of damage
done by unextinguished campfires. He quoted
William B>Td, who surveyed the
Virginia-Nonh Carolina line in 1728-29: "On
their way, the fires they make in their camps
are left burning, which catching the dry leaves
which lie near, soon pu1 the adjacent woods in
a flame."
i.>lnt«. 1991 -92
The 1n1th about the ecological impact of
burning by the First People lies somewhere
between the extremes of viewpoint contrasted
above. A multi-disciplinary research team
from the University of Tennessee, which
included archaeologists Jeff Chapman,
ethnoboranis~ Andrea Shea and Patricia
Cridlebaugh and paleoecologists Paul and
I foz.el Delcourt, investigated the environs of
old O,erokee village sites in the valley of the
Little Tennessee River, and found seeds and
pollen in stralified soil samples that enabled
them to deduce some of the narive people's
use patterns.
Samples taken around the village of
Tuskegee showed heavy use and burning of
the bottomland and the low- and mid-elevation
terraces by the Cherokee 1,500 years ago.
Samples from an upland site near the village
showed that the higher elevations surrounding
the Little Tennessee Valley were under
continuous forest cover for 3,000 years - fires
may have burned Lhere, but they did not .
pennanently thin out the forest canopy · unul
400 years ago, when weed seeds began to be
regularly deposited in the soil.
The team's research seems 10 support
rhe general conclusion made by retired
forestry professor Roben ?,aJtncr. "In valleys
like the Little Tennessee River Valley there
h.ad been conlinuous large se1tlemen1s by early
cuhures since Jong before the Cherokees.
When white settlers came into those valleys
they found the land already largely cleared of
forests by the lndian~. _The vall~ys and the
!ow!lr slopes surrounding the villages w~re
heavily and frequently burned. but the high
mountains were not, as a generJI rule. Some
balds \\Cre burned 10 maintain elk habitat, but
deer and turkey were largely found 31 lower
elevations, so that is where the bulk of the
burning occurred."
So what is the "natural" vegetative
,, .
pattern of growth in the South';_ffl
Appalachians? In !he sense of . natural _a.., ..
"growth unaffected by human mtcrvenuon,
Dr1w111g by J:«a1 Tuclla
we will never know. Twelve thousand years
of continuous habitation is a long time span.
There have been major climate changes during
the time the Fll'St People have been here.
Evolutionary adjustmenrs have been m~e in
that time, which must have included adJusnng
to the presence of the humans - and their fires.
Although their numbers were few, it
seems that the native inhabitants, primarily
through !heir use of fire, had a profound
impact on the natural history of the Southern
Appalachians. They did not dominare .
evolution in the mountains, but they did
influence the composition of the native flora in
certain areas by opening them to the sun and
encouraging fi~dependenr and fire-tolerant
associations. They influenced predator/prey
relationships by enhancing habi1a1 for deer,
elk, and other game animals, encouraging
their populations and thereby providing fo~
greater numbers of the other predator species
who also hunted them.
We will never be able 10 replicate the
conditions of 12,000 years ago, or the
changes that have happened since: But _we
know that, in spite of human modaficauon, .
this was still a magnificent land.i;cape when 11
was first encountered by the whites. The
human inhabitants were clearly a factor
influencing the process of change, but they
were only one factor among the many that
created the diverse mosaic of forest
associations scattered throughout the
mountains. While there were disturbed areas
that supponed the early-succcss1on, shade
rntolernnt trees, there were also nonh-facing
coves 1ha1 went without a major disturb3ncc
for hundreds of years at a time.
Fire was an influential force in this
region. Fire-dependent tree species have been
(cominocd 011 ,,. ., Jll&C)
Xat,101' Journm paga 5
�(canunued hom pqe S)
maintained in these mountains for many
generations. The grassy balds, that were
created during the last lee Age but were
apparently maintained by fire and grazing
pressure since, arc only now falling 10 forest
succession. The power of the element fire can
still be fell in the forest, even after 75 years of
fire suppression.
The Firs1 People, largely through their
use of fll'e, exened a strong influence on 1he
regional life community, but not a debilitanng
one. The First People found a balance, a
niche, within that community that 1he natural
life suppon systems could maintam. Unlike
the Europeans, the native inhabitants did no1
render their environment dysfunctional, but
only moved it 10 a different point of balance.
The region still had itS integrity; it still was
operating at full capacity.
Since it is impossible to recreate a virgin
mountain landscape, how then do we restore
an optimally adapted ecological community?
Clearly, fighting every fire is not necessary or
advisable. Lightning fires have been allowed
to bum for all but the last 75 years of human
habitation. They are a pan of the natural
landscape and should be allowed 10 return.
But do we have to bum off the
mountainsides every year 10 mimic the ruuive
influence? If so, how much should we bum?
How could we maintain the precious layer of
humus 1ha1 contributes so much to 1he growth
and health of 1he forest?
On the other hand, if we let narural
succession run its course, are we going to lose
DO C LEARCUTS MIMIC FIRE?
.
The current policy of the US Forest
Service is to clearcut lI"dCts of up to 43 acres
where all the vegetation over one inch in
diameter is removed and the cleared area i~
either replanted to ruws of monocullured
while pine (around which is sprayed ht.-rbicidc
to prevent competition from any intrnding
native hardwoods) or allowed 10 regenerate by
natural sprouting and seeding. This n:suhs in
large areas of ''even-aged" tree s1andli that are
easy and economical 10 cu1 when the loggers
retum to "harvest" the adolescent regrowth
60-80 ye:m; later.
~
This method "mimics natural processes
of disturbance, like fire." claims 1he Forest
Service.
But that is a hotly disputed claim.
"Simply put, clearcu1ting docs not emulate
nature in mixed hardwoods," declared retired
Forest Service silviculrural researcher Leon
Minckler in a recent anicle. "Oean:utting
advocates argue thal clearcurs replicate
wildfire bum parches. This statement is
questionable in the arid Wc:;t ond almost
irrelevant in the humid East where large.
high-intensity forest fires rarely occur.''
Minckler is reinforced by all the environmental
groups working in the Southern Appalachians
today.
"To begin with," says Haywood Greer.
a local activist, "fires don't bulldoze 15 foot
wide system roods that tear up slopes; cause
erosion and siltation in ~trcams: and open the
forest_ forever after 1 poachers, picnickers.
0
arsonists, campers, hunters, ORY'ers, and
whoever else has st.renglh and commitment
..
XotunI1 Joumot pCUJr. 6
..,
•
9
t
I
r t,
f
t.,fJ
valuable diversity and endangered species?
Can we afford that?
Two examples illusl!'llte the dilemma
posed by this uncenainty.
The first case centers around a concern
that communities of Table Mountain pine
might be eliminated from the moun111ins
because of changing conditions due 10 fire
suppression. Table Mountain pine occurs in
association with mountain laurel and galax.
All three species are fire adapted, and the
Table Mountain pine needs fire to survive.
The tree has serotinous cones. meaning that
intense heat causes them 10 open and spill their
seed. The species of the Table Mountain pine
association encourage fires hot enough 10
"crown," to bum into the tops of the trees.
Crown fires are hot enough 10 kill some large
trees, bum the cover off the forest floor down
10 bare mineral soil, and cause the serotinous
cones of the Table Mountain pine 10 open.
Those fires would regenerate the Table
Mountain pine association. which would then
work to perpe1ua1e itself by making ilS habi1a1
area more flammable.
Ftre suppression is clearly causing the
demise of the Table Mountain pine tree.
Existing stands are becoming old and decadent
and there is little regrowth of new stands.
Should we set intentional prescribed bums 10
preserve this fire-dependent species?
That depends on whether we consider
this species to be "natural." Lightning fires (as
we saw on page 3) tend 10 be small in area and
low in intensity. Lightning fires seldom
produced the crown ftres necessary 10
regenerate the Table Mountain pine.
enough 10 pul a vehicle in gear and gas
enough to make it up the hill.
"A fire doesn't come in with a chain saw
and a skidder cut all the tree~ and haul them
away out of the woods. Fires in the mounrnins
- depending on the time of ye:ir and the
dryness - arc usually cool and run lo,.., 10 1he
ground. burning off the leaf cover and 1he
underbrush. S11;all sarlings ;md understory
trees are someumcs killed. hut unless a lot of
fuel· like Jogging slash· h:i~ built up on the
forest floor, fires seldom get large enough 10
kill 1he biggest trees. If the big trees are ktl led,
they s1and n long time as dead snags, offoring
1he finest kind of den location for
over-wintering animals. 1l1e forest biomass
stays in the woods. Eventuallv the dead trunks
rot out and topple over. and their bodies
decompose 10 enrich the soil for the next
generations of trees.
"Also, fire~ around here don·t bum
everything in a 20 or 40 acre area. Most fires
hip-hop around and bum at random • maybe
heavily here, but maybe only slightly burned
over there. Fires tend m create mosaics of
disiurbance on these steep ridges."
Robert Zahner. formerly a forestry
professor at Clemson University. talks more
specifically about regeneration. ''The species
that rclllm after a fire arc somewhat different
than what comes back after a clearcut. l\aiural
eanh-healing species sprout up after a fire weedy planL~ mostly. 1ha1 gro"' from :;eed that
had tx.-en stored in the soil under the litter until
the liner was burned off and 1he seed was
exposctl. Most of the herbaceous seed that
germinates following a fire is quite different
from the seed th:il would grow follm, ing a
We do not know about the fires set by
the native inhabitanLS. There probably was
great variation in the intensity of the fires 1hey
sci, but generally, since they burned certain
areas often, it would seem that they would
keep the fuel loads down and have light, cool
fires every few years.
The great conflagrations occurred in the
mountains after the logging era. The loggers
left great piles of slash in the forest that, when
ignited, caused hot, destructive fires that
burned the whole landscape.
The Table Mountain pine could be only
minimally sustained by lightning fires. In the
moun1ains, the tree inhabits only the driest
sites or reclaims badly degraded areas. It
seems very likely that, while it has long been
present, the species came into its own through
1he over-burning of the white mountaineers,
and expanded its influence due 10 the logging
boom. h does not seem reasonable 10
perpetuate abuse in order 10 maintain a species
that to a great extent was a product of human
abuse. h seems that 1he ecological need for the
Table Mountain pine has largely passed away,
1ha1 it is not a naturally endangered species,
and that we do not have 10 talce special
measures to re1ain it, but could lei narure 1ake
its course.
A second case is the oak tree family,
widespread throughout the mountains and an
important source of mast upon which many
species of wildlife depend greatly. As we
were told by Dr. Robert Zahner (on page 4 of
this issue) frequent, light fires are influential
in the continued regeneration of oak stands in
(continued oo page 30)
clearcut
"I-ires also release nutrients in the
residual ash which change the soil situation.
Leaf liuer and sometimes foliage is burned in
the fire. Carbon and nitrogen arc given off,
but 1hc minerals stay on the site and oc·t as an
instant shot of fenilizer, which changes the
pH and the nutrient bal:lnce and generates a
different populallt)n of herb.,ceous plants.
''After clearcuuing, some sites are
prep:m:-d hy intentionally setting fires called
"prescribed hums." In tcm1s of the site, thai's
probably a better wuy of,.., orking than
clearcumng alone - unfortunately they bum a
site to prepare it for planting white pine tree~.
Thal negates nny advantage there might ha, e
been 10 1ha1 technique.
"Right now there arc plenty of open
areas con1aining early successional species.
We don't have to create them. By way of
immediate policy recommendations. I would
suggest we let present old-growth stands
continue to grow, keeping out uny fires except
lightning fires. Lightning fires we should let
bum. Because they bum during a rain,
lightning tires don't usually burn very much,
and they give a nke mosaic of disturbance.
''Why not just let lighming do it'! If we
are trying to maintain natur.tl systems and
narural biological diver.;i1y, then just letting
lightning fires bum would be the best and
easiest way to do it. Mo~t of this forest is so
disturbed. beat up. and cut over anyway. It\
a long. long way from being a natural syscem.
t would prefer 10 let lighming-ignited fires
burn wherever they are going 10 bum, and just
let them help the foreM 10 recover." , .
Winter, 199 1-92
- fr...
,__,, J
I
f
�SMOKEY AND THE RED WOLVES
For many years after white settlers
staned moving into the Southern
Appalachians, fire pauems changed linle from
the days of native habitation. The whites were
farmers, coming from Europe where the great
forests had long been leveled. They tended to
see the forest as an enemy 10 be overcome.
Wilderness equaled "wasteland" in their
minds, and they started out energetically 10
overcome the forest to make it produclive
fannland. But for their ally Fire, it would have
been a losing battle. The whites used fire in
clearing agricultural fields as the lndians had,
but the immigrants first girdled trees with their
steel axes, planted crops in the resulting
"deadenings," and then later felled and burned
the standing snags. Their numbers and their
steel tools made the newcomers more effective
at clearing land - and keeping it clear - than the
Indians had ever been. The forest began to
recede up the hillsides.
The white people also began to mimic
the Indians' practice of burning the forest
noor. At first they did it for identical reasons,
but as they became more settled and the
predator species were thinned out, the
Europeans began to free-range livestock in the
woods. At frrst there were only a few scrawny
cows and scattered bands of domestic pigs
roaming the forest, but as the numbers of
white inhabitants grew, they put more and
more animals out to forage on the mountain
slopes. And they staned more and more fires
to encourage grass and open grazing areas. As
old-timer Taylor Crockett of Macon County
has said, "fn those days people vinually
replaced the native wildlife with cattle, hogs,
and sheep." Firing the woods became an
annual ritual, supposedly economically
justifiable - but also exciting and fun.
The early white settlers found one
purpose to which the First People had never
employed fire: genocide. One example was
Colonel James Grant's raid of 176 I. In
retaliation for a Cherokee victory ai Fon
Loudoun, Tennessee, in which 50 white
people were kiUed, Grant was ordered on a
campaign through the Little Tennessee and
Tuckaseegee River Valleys. He rode with a
vengeance, destroying crops and every village
he found. In his journal Grant bragged that he
had torched fifteen towns (including the
principal town of Katuah): ravaged "l,400
acres of com. beans, pease, etc."; and driven
about 5,000 men, women, and children "into
the woods and mountains to srnrve."
As more and more Europeans flooded
into the mountains, the increased use of fire
became detrimental to the forest. Although fire
Winter, 1991 92
was still being used largely in the traditional
manner, its use was so frequent and so
universal that the forest was degraded in many
areas because it was not allowed time to
recuperate.
H.B. Ayers and W.W. Ashe, in their
repon on The Sowhern Appalachian Forest,
published in 1905 for the US Geological
Survey, wrote that, "More than 78,000 acres
of the region examined have recently been so
severely burned as 10 kill the greater ponion of
the timber. but the greater damage has been
done by light fires creeping through the
woods year after year. scorching the butts and
roots of timber trees, destroying seedlings and
forage plants, consuming forest litter and
humus, and reducing the thatch of leaves
which breaks the force of the rain. Evidence
of such fires is found over approximately
4,500,000 acres, or 80 percent of the entire
area."
At one study site in Cades Cove in the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
researcher Mark Hannon found that the mean
interval between fires on south-facing slopes
between 1855 and 1940 was 12.7 years.
Considering that observation, Peter White,
also of the Park research st.aff, said that in
Cades Cove, "During the period of
Euro-American settlement, fires were so
frequent that few treeS reached a size capable
of surviving even cool surface ftres."
The damage to the Appalachian forest
and waters began to be noticed by the late
1800's. People began to complain of the
erosion caused by the frequent burning and
the resulting decline in stream quality. A
history of the US Forest Service in the
southern mountains, Mountaineers and
Rangers, mentioned a survey of the Southern
Appalachian forestlands published in 1902 by
Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson and
Gifford PinchoL The survey said that "the
special hardwood forests of the beautiful
Appalachians were being destroyed by
lumbering, fires, and - perhaps worst - by
mountainside farming. These agents of
destruction were causing the soil 10 leach,
slopes to erode, and streams to flood their
banks with rain and melting snow."
It was not a coincidence that the tum of
the century also saw the beginnings of the
forestry profession. The Biltmore Forestry
School, the first forestry school m the United
States, was located in Pisgah Fore.\t, North
Quolina. It was begun by the German forester
Carl Schenck, who was brought over by the
Vanderbilts, and subsequently directed by
Gifford PinchoL Suddenly the mountain
forests were attracting professional imercs1.
There was a growing awareness that the
yearly burning was destroying a fonune in
timber, and, since the railroads had finally
penetrated into the mountains, there was at last
a way 10 get at it To the foresters a forest was
an investment, more than an ecosystem with
its own processes and priorities.
The newly-convened foresters saw
burning the woods as the utmost stupidity. 1n
1923, Nonh Carolina Forester J. S. Holmes
surveyed rural residents to determine the
answer to the "burning" question: why did
they ftre the woods? He fouod that some fires
were staned by ''carelessness" and others by
"negligence." "Locomolives," "hunters,"
"sawmills," and the blanket category
"matches. cigar stumps, boys, etc."
contributed their share. While the most
common reason stated for starting woodland
fires was "to improve the range," Holmes'
survey showed conclusively that by far the
greatest proportion of fires were sraned by
people "without much object, 10 see it bum,
etc."
The damage to the forest was
considerable, but the worst was to come. The
large timber companies followed the railroad
into the mountains. and the Appalachian
timber boom was on. The timber barons were
ruthlessly exploiting a resource. They lo;ged
widely and indiscriminately. Whole hillsides
were cleared. Yet the greatest descruction came
from fires that staned after the loggers had left
a site. ln their greed and carelessness, the
logging companies left behiod on the
desecrated slopes great piles of slash, the tops
of fallen m:es. This build-up of fuel caused
fierce, hot fires that destroyed the remaining
crces, burned up the organic layer of the soil,
caused massive erosion and siltation. and even
degraded the potential of the forest to recover.
1n the eyes of the foresters, and
increasingly among the general public, fl.l'C
began to be perceived as an unmitigated evil.
ln his book Fire in America, Stephen J. Pyne
quotes lines from a poem of the period.
'They are loosed from their hiding
And the red wolves are riding There is blood and blast and fury in their
eyes And their packs go a-crashing
There's a crackle and lashing
Breathing smoke and sparks and splinters to
the skies.
- Anthony Euwer, "Red Wolves"
(canunucd on next page)
x.atuar, Journat
pQCJe 7
�(continW'd from page 7)
The Southern Appalachians came to be
seen as a national disgrace, and a call grew for
the establishment of timber reserves in the
region. It seemed to be the only way to halt
the fires and the flooding.
The timber companies were agreeable.
They had already used the forested eastern
mountains. Now their sights were set on the
tall old-growth stands of the Pacific
Nonhwest. They were happy to sell out and
leave. Timber barons and politicians alike
found that it was sttategically wise to blame
the problems of the forests on fire. Fire
control enjoyed a political unanimity that
controversial initiatives to regulate logging
practices did not. "To save the forests, the
main thing is to make laws to stop the fires,"
intoned timber magnate F. E. Weyerhauser
before a congressional committee in 1908.
The Weeks Act of 1911 provided for federal
purchase of timberlands in the East, and the
US Forest Service was born to care for and
manage the lands.
The new Forest Service rangers in the
Appalachians saw their first task as stopping
fire. They consn-ucted a fire lookout system
and organized fire-fighting crews. They began
a large-scale enforcement and public education
program to convince local fanners to give up
the practice of firing the woods. Throughout
the l 930's and the I940's, as the forest
gradually grew back and began to repair the
scars of its mistreatment, firefighting and
prevention was a major focus of the rangers'
effons. In a stroke of advertising genius, they
recruited the aid of Smokey the Bear. The
national public relations campaign was
successful beyond all eitpectations, and as a
side-effect greatly enhanced the image of the
by Vic Weals
East Tennessee rivers were at their
lowest flow in anybody's memory, and the
15.38 inches of rain that fell in the first seven
months of 1925 were less than half the
normal.
The Knoxville weather station was in its
55th year, and 1925 was the honest a.nd driest
yet recorded, meteorologist J.I. Widmeyer
told the local newspapers.
The temperature for Monday, Sept. 7,
~ 925, is still the highest recorded on that date
in all the 109 years of the Knoxville weather
station. The official reading was 102 degrees.
Logging camps had their greatest exodus
of workers. Heat without letup and short
tempers had sent many a man packing.
Benha and Frank Coppenger were still
working for logging contractor Gold Millsaps
a1 the beginning of September in l 925.
Bertha remembers Saturday, Sept. 5,
1925, as a notably ominous, uncomfonable
day in Jeffreys Hell. There was smoke in the
air from the woods fire that had now burned
more than two weeks across the ridge on
South Fork.
Frank was working at scaling logs that
Saturday. He measured them as they were
brought to the rail landing, and kept a record
of 1he number and kind and size.
Frank brought Will Graves, the camp
foreman, home to the Coppenger quarters
after their work day ended in the afternoon.
~~lU\» J(!Uf~t pm.JC
8
Forest Service as the friends of Smokey and
all the forest crearures.
Smokey's massive propaganda
campaign did help greatly in the fire
prevention effon, but it also had some
negative results. Only in recent years has it
become once again acceptable 10 talk of the
positive and necessary effects of
' THEN JT HAPPENED! SOME CAREI.E55 PE.RSOIII
i'LIPPEO A LIGHTED MATCH •••
From 'TM Tr,u Story a/Smoky tM B~ar·
naturally-caused fire in some ecosystems. The
Tall Timbers Research Station in Florida, for
eitample, opened up new pathways in fire
research and for 20 years has sponsored an
annual scienrific conference on fi.re ecology.
ln 1963. the Leopold Report. presented 10 the
National Park Service, and th~ 1964
Wilderness Act both called on federal agencies
to recognize fire's role in wildlancrs. But
because of the degree of one-sided
conditioning, the general public is having
difficulty accepting the fact that fire is a
process that is natural and, in some ecological
communities. essential.
One guide to the future is the fire policy
in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
which has the avowed goal of maintaining an
FIRE IN
JEFFREYS HELL
Frank filled his homemade poplar-board
bathtub with warm water and invited Will to
take his first bath.
Frank told him to take his time, and Will
did, soaking for maybe half an hour in the last
great enjoyment he would experience on eanh.
Benha says they had dinner early
Sunday, and right after that, about 12 noon,
the men were called out The fire was coming
across the mountain into Jeffreys Hell itself.
"Frank left with the other men to tty 10
smn a back-fire and maybe save the camp,"
Benha says.
''There was nothing fo.r me 10 do but
1alce the children and ge1 ou1 of 1hcre,"
Bertha explains at this point 1ha1 her two
oldest daughters, Sylvia and Beatrice, had left
camp only a week before for the Stan of the
school term in Tellico Plains. It was the two
youngest daughters, Bessie and Lula, who
were in Jeffreys Hell with their parents on that
fateful day.
"I got my husband's suit and draped it
over my ann," Benha continues. "I put the
Bible into his front pocket. The Bible had all
the family binh records in it"
"I had a new dress from Sears and
Roebuck. I had never worn that dress. It was
still in the box that it had been mailed in. I
ecosystem similar 10 that present before white
settlement for the purpose of human
recreational enjoyment. Flawed though the
guidelines may be from the point of view of
habitat preservation, the Park still represents
550,000 acres of (nearly) de /aero
wilderness.
Under current laws, the Park is not able
to use prescribed bums and must suppress
every fire ignited within the Park boundaries.
However, a draft policy recommendation is
being prepared which will suggest that
naturally-caused fires be monitored and, in
some cases, be allowed 10 bum.
Under the new policy, the Park might be
able 10 use fire in cenain situations - to
suppress eitotic species invading the Park, for
example, or to reestablish habitat for species
like the red cockaded woodpecker, which
once inhabited the Great Smoky Mountains.
This bird likes open woodlands, and when the
undergrowth in its nesting area grows up
more than 10-15 feet in height, it abandons its
nesting site and moves elsewhere. However,
due to complete fire suppression, there is no
"elsewhere'' in the Park and little in the
mountains as a region. The woodpecker has
been sighted in eastern Tennessee. but the las,
confirmed sighting in the Park was in 1982,
although in recent years there have been
several unverified sightings of birds that could
be red cockaded woodpeckers.
Like the red wolf, a policy that allows
narurally-caused fires to bum may be
reintroduced in the Southern Appalachians vio
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Fire has a place in the forest, of that we are
sure. We are less sure of how 10 bring fire
back into its proper place in the scheme of
things.
~
took it out of the box and draped iL over my
arm with my husband's suit
ttWe started down the railroad toward
the town of Jeffrey. It was several miles, 1
forget exactly how far.
"We walked the crossties. I couldn't
make it very fast because I wasn't used to
walking on crossties.
"And my least linlc girl, I had to carry
her most of the way.
''And it looked like every few minutes
we were going to be cut off by the fire.
''The train came up the grade, but didn'1
stop for us. The engineer motioned us down
toward the town," she recalls.
She says the locomotive had been in
the repair shed and was taken our hastily that
Sunday to go on the emergency run. The
screen that should have been in place on the
smokestack to catch sparks from the fireboit
was not in place.
And as the engine scattered hot cinclerS
into Jeffreys Hell, it set new fires behind it.
Garfield A. Milsaps also worked for
logging conttactor Gold Millsaps, and lived
in the same camp with Frank and Bertha
Coppenger and Bill Graves, the camp
foreman.
He remembers Sunday morning.
September 6, 1925.
"Bill Graves told me to get the horses
out of there while I could. We had them fine
big logging horses • Nonnans and Percberons
(continued on page 10)
loJ\.I\WT, J99J-9'2 I
�Barbara J. Sands
In Less Than Ten Moons
A message for my Brothers at Lewisburg
In less than ten moons,
the moans of pleasure in a moment's quiet passion
flow steady as the river
into moans of labor.
The blending of two spirits in sacred dance,
in less than ten moons,
the creator weaves beneath my skin
into a new life.
Karuah
for Hawk
I listen to you deny your power to change,
to rise above the habits of self devastation
that have always held you back.
You tell me that you are too weak, that il is too hard ...
In quiet understanding, l smile...
Do you think you walk alone?
In these quiet hills
the swirling mist curls skyward,
Mother Earth offering her pipe to the Great Mystery.
It is easy to feel her in these ancient mountains.
My bare toes dig into the damp soil.
The breeze plays with my hair and shoulders.
I am invisible here, part of the whole.
My brother, when you can see the other road,
the birthing has already begun.
I grow roots, deep into the body of the Mother.
Her energy flows through me,
caressing me, warming me.
I join the timeless flow of all things.
Does it help you to know
that it is useless to tell me
what can not be done?
Three times, I have felt the swelling of life within my belly,
Three times, I have birthed between my legs a Jiving miracle,
Three times, I have watched the first breath of a warm, wet, newborn
And seen with my own eyes, and felt with my own flesh,
and known with my own heart,
the power of the Spirit That Flows in All Things
to change the world ...
In less than ten moons.
I dream.
I am a mountain lion. An eagle.
A rock in a swiftly flowing stream.
A leaf floating in the breeze.
A seed, waiting in the earth.
I am everything.
I am nothing.
The day breaks.
Father paints the sky with gold.
And I never want to leave this place.
k1lntcr, Hl91-92
Dnwin& by Rob Mmiclo.
�~
•
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--
...
..,. '
Drawing by Rob Levacn
(cantinuod &om page 8)
and ClydesdaJes and someoLhers. We had 18
head of horses.
"We tied them Logether single-file and
led them down the railroad track. Fred Allen,
George Robens, Oley Hooper and Jape
McClure (now deceased) helped me. There
might have been some others.
"We walked the horses between the rails
where the ballast between the crossties made a
smooth path. Sometimes there was a
smoother trail beside the railroad. We took to
the creeJc to get around trestles. Horses won't
hardly walk a trestle.
"We tied the horses below the store and
post office at Jeffrey. Then we all went back
up the creeJc to help fight the fire."
Walter J. Evans, wife Grace and their
first two sons, Leslie, about 4 years old, and
Bill, 15 months old, lived just up the track
from the Gold Millsaps' camp and within
sight of it.
"Me and Frank Coppenger and a bunch
of men went to the fire line along the top of
the mountain," Walter recalls. He says they
thought they had the fire controlled there.
"We got up there a linle ways and we
heard the train coming up the railroad.
"We ran back down and Frank was
ahead of me and got to the train, him and
several more of the boys did.
"'The fire cut me and a bunch of the other
boys off and we didn't get to the train.
"We had to go back 10 the top of the
mountain to where the fire had already burned
over and get out thataway," Walter recalls.
One of the people with Walter was a
young relative who was quite drunk. "He
was too drunk to be afraid of what was
happening to us," Walter says.
Walter himself was only 31 years old
but he said to the younger man, "Son, I ha~
to leave you here to get burned up. But I've
fooled with you till I don't know whether ru
get out or not. I'm going to have to leave
you."
Walter says he began to run, and left the
other man. "But in just a few minutes he
passed me running. He ran over trees and
rocks and turned somersets and outran me to
the top of the mountain.
"He wouldn't get scared until be seen
Xawan )oumat
I
4J t •:
1 )P'":
1t ,•
pQCJa
l
O JI
so
•
that I left him. He got scared then."
Garfield Millsaps, returned from leading
the horses down the valley, was caught
behind the fire in the group with Walter. The
men were running side by side when Walter
threw away his ax.
"What was that you throwed away?'"
Garfied asked him
"My ax," Walter said.
"Don't throw our cools away," Garfield
said.
"Where we're going in a few minutes
we won'c need none, and I ain't taking none
with me," Walter told Garfield.
"I was sure we were all going to die
right there and right then," Walter says. '
Everybody in that group survived,
though. And of !he dozens of men scauered
over the thousands of acres of Jeffreys Hell
that day, only Frank Coppenger and Bill
Graves died.
Fronk and Bill and the others !hat made
it to the train were able to load the household
furniture from Walter Evans' shanty car and
one other onto the train. Then they had to
leave, because the fire was moving in.
Cinders from the locomotive's stack had
set new fires down the creek and closed off
that escape. Engineer Dave Dockery started
the train on up the valley. There was no
alternative.
. Walter says there was a big, new log
landing beside the creek in a curve of the
railroad about 300 yards above the camp. The
landing was smned in March, and the teams
had been bringing logs in for six months now
and only one trainload of logs had been hauled
away from it.
Frank Coppenger and Bill Graves left
the train there. 'The men told me later that
they wet their handkerchiefs in the water of
the creek and started up over that landing "
Walter continues.
'
'They thoughc they could make it across
the mountain to Willis Tucker's camp to warn
him about the fire."
'They got up just a litde ways and had to
run out of the slddroad into a field of green
touch-me-nots. That's where they got burned
up," Walter says.
_The wind was up and updrafts were
carrying great masses of flame from ridge to
ridge by now. Frank and Bill were thought to
have died of suffocation before their bodies
bumed.
Big portions of both bodies were burned
a~ay; Frank's was identifiable by !he gold in
bis teeth. The buckles from Bill's overalls
were found under his corpse. Too, Bill had
on a hat and Frank didn't, and the hat
insulated Bill's head so that it was burned less
than Frank's was.
. All the people who stayed on the train
survived. They left the train on the first leg of
a double switchback at the head of the valley.
They were able to run to safety through a
hollow that had burned out two days
previously, Walter says.
Bertha sensed on Sunday afternoon that
Frank was dead. She waited beside camp
most of the night while searchers depaned and
returned. Her two oldest daughters came
across the mountain from Tellico Plains to be
with ~er. All four daughters, Sylvia,
Beatnce, Bessie, and Lula, were wi1h her
when word came that Frank's body had been
found early the next morning.
The watches of both victims, Frank and
Bill, had been welded by the heat and stopped
at 2 o'clock, two hours after their Sunday
dinner.
:;,
R~pri,1ud wi11t pumissi()nfrom /M Knoxville Journal
ofMarcJi 22, /979 and Marclt 29, /979.
At,: Fisherman/
(t:.~=
Fire Plevcntion Ad from 1923
Wlnur, 199 1-92
:r
IIJIH
i, ,•11 '•'
�'!Tif'"
.' •
•
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~
•
crossroads. These men worked iron for a
trade, but it also was common for
homesteaders to have a small anvil and forge
on their farm. Just as homeowners today
usually have a power saw and know how to
drive a nail, so fanners in those times knew
how to do many of the small repairs that wcrc
always necessary.
So, although the blacksmith was
important and respected in the community by
right of his skill, he had no monopoly on the
trade. It was a common, egalitarian line of
work. In that period, labor was cheap and
materials were hard to come by. The smith
provided a service, and so took whatever the
community could provide in trade for his
work. Iron was a valuable commodity. new or
us~. ~d the ~~y was also a salvage shop.
Sm1~mg and nulling were the high points of
!he village technology; but the smithy
probably looked more like a scrap yard than a
prosperous local business.
FIRE AND FORGE
by Jan Davidson and David Brewin
Just as the fire on the hearth was the
cemer of the home, the bl:icksmith's fire was
the center of community production in the
mountain villages of the European settlers.
Before the Southern Appalachians and the
other rural areas of the country were tied into
the mass market and che nattonal
manufacturing system, a simple local
technology was shaped at the blacksmith's
forge. Upon it was based a self-sufficient
rural economy.
The guiding principle was, "Figure out
how to m~e it and hammer it out," according
to R. 0. Wilson, of Speedwell Community in
Jackson County, NC. Shelter was the first
thin~ a frontier family_ thought of on arriving
at a likely locanon. With a double-bitted axe, a
broadaxe, a foot adze, and a square, they
could put a log house together.
The next necessity was food. The
blacksmith made the tools for food
production. Unless a fanner wanted to work
with a wooden plow, he went to the
blacksmith. The smith also made equipment
for handling the draft animals, not only the
horse shoes, ox shoes, and mule shoes, but
also the bns and rings of the harness.
The t00ls to cook the food with were
also made in the smithy, as well as the
wagons that hauled the produce to market.
~ot every blacksmi~ could make a wagon of
iron and wood, but m those remote mountain
villages, where people had to be self-reliant, a
lot of them could do the job. Any good
blacksmith's shop could fix a wagon and pUl
"tires" (as the steel rims were called) on the
wheels. The whole transportation system
depended on the blacksmith.
The blacksmith made all the edged tools
lo>tntcr, 199 I -92
Iron Work by David Bttwin
· knives, axes, saws - that a farmer took into
the woods when going to hunt meat for food
or to cut wood for building or heating lhe
home. The gun he carried was often made in
the same village he lived in. Guns were critical
to the early mountain families for food and for
defense, and gun-making was a branch of
blacksmithing.
The blacksrruth could make a loom. The
blacksmith could make a grist mill.
"You had to have hoes, you had to have
plows and horses, cradle blades, mowing
blades, axes, mauocks and wedges,
go-devils, all of these things," says long-time
mountain resident Mary Jane Queen.
..•And single-tree hardware, hinge
pintles, staples. naiJs, cooper's adze.-;, ginseng
hoes, bear traps, bullet molds, cowbells,
augers, barking spuds, pothooks, sickles,
post-hole diggers, froes. spatulas, ladles - all
of these were products of the blacksmith's an.
For food, clothing. shelter, and
tronsponation. almost every aspect of the
community except its spiritual life, people
were dependent on the blacksmith.
The smithy was a focal point for the
village. It was a center for the village
economy, but it also was a men's social
center. ln those days a person did not drop
something off and say, "!'II be by to pick this
up after J do some shopping." When a man
brought a job in, he and the blacksmith
worked on it together.
"They would go there, the men folks
would, if they had tools to have fixed, and
they would help grandpaw run the forge, and
they'd sit and talk· then they'd get up and
work a while, and then they'd talk awhile."
remembers Mary Jane Queen.
There was at least one blacksmith in
each town and often there was a smithy at the
Blacksmithing was always associated
with magic. For a srni!h to lake what looked
like ~lain rocks from the ground, draw out
hard iron, and transform that iron into tools
and weapons that gave their social group an
immense technological advantage must have
seemed magical indeed.
In Christian Europe when the
technology of ironworlcing had become
common, the blacksmith was still held in
some awe, but it was not the elevated stature
the smith had held in the early days of
civilization. Particularly in PoJand and Russia
blacksn:tiths ~ere thought 10 be in league with'
the devil. h 1s easy to see why. The smith's
sweaty, blackened face and torso dinied by
working all day at the sooty forg;; the forge
fire. hot and bright; the incessant ringing of
metal on metal; the showering sparks in the
smith's gloomy shop. which had to be kept
darkened so the smith could ·:iccurately sec the
color of the metal he was working: all the
images associated with Hell were drawn from
the blacksmith's trade.
The mountain story of "Wicked John
and the Devil" carried the connection over into
the New World in the tale of a blacksmith who
was "meaner'n the devil himself.~
Well-known mountain storyteller Ray Hicks
tells a "Jack tale" that relates how Jack
magically trapped seven devils in his sack.
Jack took his sackload to the blacksmith, who
pounded them 10 cinders on his anvil.
In a different tradition, iron was
supposed to defeat the magic of the fairies or
the Little People. In the British Isles some
travelers would wear an iron pin to protect
tl\emscl,ves from ~sfortune along their way.
The smithy, where iron was the stock in trade
was obviously a safe place, free of magic.
'
Other folklore followed the blacksmiths'
trade across the ocean. One custom held that
the water in which the smith quenched the hot
iron was a cure for poison ivy. There were
many others. Even today some blacksmiths
tap the anviJ three times at the end of the
workday to ''chain the devil."
In Europe, the basic tools of the
blacksmith • the nnvil, hammer, forge. and
bello~s - had all taken their classic shape by
the Middle Ages. Their design has been little
changed to this day.
.
The other primary tool of the blacksmith
1s fire. People do not usually think of fire as a
(a,ntinued OIi DCJCI ~ )
Xatilall Journa£ paqc 11
�which earned it into the forge 10 aerate the
f1re.
In the forge, lhe ore was formed into a
"bloom," a roughly spherical blob of
semi-molten iron, air bubbles. and impurities.
The bloom was beaten under the uip hammer
to remove air and foreign materials. When it
was done, it had been beaten into a nauene.d
"ham." The Hanging Dog Bloomcry Forge
turned ou1 1wo or three hams a day, each
weighing about 20 pounds.
The hams were shaped into b~ with
curved ends like sled runner,; so thnt a bundle
of them could be dragged behind a t¢.'lm or
oxe~ to local blacksmiths' shops within a five
or six county area.
This level of production me1 1he needs of
the area until the railroad came and tied 1he
region in10 the national industrial system. It
quickly became more economical to dig iron
Photo councsy of Ille Mountain Heniagc Center
(continued Crom page II)
1001 because it is no1 a solid objec1 that is
picked up and manipula1ed wi1h 1he hands, bu1
fire is crucial 10 every stage of the
blacksmilh's work. Woodworkers shape 1heir
ma1erial by removing some of it. bUL, while it
is hot, iron is a plastic me.dium thal can be
reshaped with li11le or no material being losL
The forge is the specialized fireplace that
holds the blacksmith's superheated fire. In
early times, blacksmiths used charcoal as fuel,
but shonly after the Civil War coke came to be
the most common fuel used in the mountains.
Coke is soft coal burned slowly at low
temperatures to remove the impurities., as
charcoal is made from wood. The bJacksmjth
made his own coke, healing it slowly and with
almos1 no air around the sides of 1he forge.
The blacksmith's fire was kept very hot
by the continuous ac1ion of a bellows. (foday
a blacksmi1h is more likely to use
anelecuically-powen:d blower.) For each
process perfonned by the blacksmith, the
metal must be a1 precisely the right
temperature. For some processes the metal
must be heated to over 2000 degrees
FahrenheiL
As the temperature of the metal changes,
so docs i1s color. The color changes arc the
blacksmith's thermometer, and the smi1h must
learn to distinguish the various gradations of
color in the heated metal. The iron changes
from pale yellow to straw yellow, purple,
blue, gray, dull red, sun rise red, cherry red,
light red, almos1 orange, and then white as its
internal rempe.rruure rises. More time in the
heat of 1he flames turns white heat to
incandescent white and then to a liquid
yellow, which indicates that the surface has
become semi-molten.
•
When the metal is hca1ed 10 the right
degree, the smith can flntten it or taper it, in a
process known as "drawing out." Or the smith
can "upset" the metal by drawing it back on
itself. If a tool needs holes, the smith can
punch them out. Two pieces of hot iron can be
joined together by ''forge welding,"
hammering them together on the anvil.
Blacksmiths' hammers come in a variety
of sizes and shapes. Some are swung, while
others are sci on the piece and StrUClc with a
sledge wielded by an assistant, "the striker."
In a small shop 1herc is usually only one
anvil, but it is capable of doing many different
jobs. The flat face of the anvil is used 10
hammer the metal into the various shapes. The
Xatunfl JOU-ma! page 12
horn is used in bending circles or arcs of
various sizes and can also be used to speed up
1he drawing out process, since the roundness
of the hom acts as a lens to focus the energy
of the blow.
Af1er shaping, the tool or part being
worked is heat treate.d to give either the
hardened metal of a axe head or the springy,
shock-absorbing metal of a saw. As in
forging, the color of the polished metal tells
the smith what kind of hardness, brit1leness,
or springiness the finished tool will have.
Axe heads or chisels can be treated to
vary the hardness wi1hin the tool. A cold
chisel tempered by a smith can be hard and
tough at the cuuing edge and relatively soft at
the baner end so 1ha1 the force of the blows is
cushioned and the chisel is less likely to
break.
Today the hardening and tempering of
tools is done in computer-controlled factory
ovens. Treating tools in large batches may be
economically more efficient, bul an old
blacksmith would consider the tools that we
use today to be of inferior quality.
Contrary to a commonly-held
stereotype, mountain life was not completely
agricultural and not all a matter of handwork.
Blacksmithing was pan of a sclf-rontained,
localized industrial process. Even the iron
used in the blacksmith's shop was produced
within the region at "bloomery forges," like
the two located in Hanging Dog, North
Carolina. Wood for charcoal and limonite,
iron ore, were found near 1he site, and 1he
operation was powered by wa1er power.
The ore was washed under a scream of
water and crushed to powder beneath the
weight of a 750 pound water-driven hammer
suiking at the rate of 100 times per minute.
The powdered ore was mixed with chan:oal
and healed in the bloomery forge. The forge
fire was kepi hot by the "trompe," a simple,
ye1 very sophisticated mechanism that fed a
continuous stream of air to the forge. Running
creek water filled a tank at the top of the
trompe. The water fell through rwo tubes,
which were pierced with small holes. The
falling water drew air through the holes into
the tubes. At the bottom, the water and air
entered what was known as the "wind box."
The rising level of the water forced the air
upwards and out through the wind 1ubc,
out of big pit mines, smelt it in huge blast
furnaces, and ship ii great distances.
By 1920 the local blacksmiths were
being usurped by large hardware companies
who were sending out catalogs by mail tha1
offered almos1 everything in the tool line.
Small-town country scores would keep a
catalog and make orders for their customers.
People became accustomed to purchasing
standard tools from the catalog, but there were
special tools that were never included, and
there still were people who would go to the
local blacksmith, because they did not have
the cash to order through the mail. But they
became fewer and fewer, and gradually the
local blacksmiths disappeared. When the
automobile was introduced, it was a natural
step for blacksmiths 10 move into mechanics,
body work, or welding.
Tourism provided one outlet. In Yancey
and Mitchell Coumies, for instance, 1he Boone
family succc.c;sfully made a transition to
ornamental and decorative ironwork. The
company still makes andirons, chandeliers,
flre sets, and other ornamental pieces for
customers on four continents. Their
succes~iul business means that in Spruce
Pine, North Carolina there is still a blacksmith
shop where a tool can be made or
repaired.Other small smithies still operate in
the mountains.
In recent years, 1he John C. Campbell
Folk School has been a center for smithing
instruc1ion. Students have come from every
part of the country to study there under Oscar
Canircll or the internationally known master
smith, Francis Whit1aker.
Ah.hough it may have been displaced
from itS position as the keeper of the village
fire, _the tradition of blacksmithing still
conunues.
p/a,J'
Jan Davidson is curaror of the Mou111ain
Heritage Center on the campus of Westem
Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC.
Dtn•id Brewin also works QJ the Cenrer.
bur blacksmithing is his first Jove.
The exhibit "lron.f in the Fire· is currently 011
display OJ tht MoU11trun lfrritoge Centu. Tht
prtse1110twn brings to life tht hinory of
black.smithing, shows m llll(l(lrlance 10 tlU! Europt0/1
stllltrs in the IIIOUntuins, and illustrates contemporary
app/ica11ons of the art. Tht uhibit includes a
20-minuu mu/ti-image slidt show and is open
Monday- Friday from 8 am 10 5 pm. For mare
informtJtion, call (704) 227-7129.
1.,1,n~r. t99t-92
�THE FIRST FIRE
out again at the same hole, but his 'body had been scorched black,
and he has ever since had the habit of daning and doubling on his
track as if trying to escape from close quarters. He came back,
and the great blacksnake, Gule'gi, "the Climber," offered to go
for fire. He swam over to the island and climbed up the tree on
the outside, as the blacksnake always does, but when he put his
head down into the hole the smoke choked him so that he fell into
the burning stump, and before he could climb out again he was as
black as the Uksu'lu.
Now they held another council, for still there was no fire,
and the world was cold, but birds, snakes. and four-footed
animals, all had some excuse for not going. because they were all
afraid 10 venture near the burning sycamore, until at last
Kanane'ski Amai'yelii, the water spider, said she would go. This
is not t.he water spider that looks like a mosquito, but the other
one, with black downy hair and red stripes on her body. She can
run on top of the water or dive to the bottom, so there would be
no trouble to get over 10 the island. but the question was, How
could she bring back the fire?
''I'll manage that.." said the water spider, so she spun a
thread from her body and wove il into a rusti bowl, which she
fastened on her back. Then she crossed over to the island and
through the grass to where the fire was still burning. She put one
little coal of fire into her bowl, and came back with it, and ever
since we have had fire, and the water spider still keeps her msri
bo~.
~v
In the beginning there was no fire, and the world was
cold, until the Thunders, who lived up in Ga/un'/ari, sent their
lightning and put fire into the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree
which grew on an island. The animals knew it was there, because
they could see smoke coming out at the top, but they could not
get to it on account of the water, so they held a council 10 decide
what to do. This was a long time ago.
Every animal that could fly or swim was anxious to go
after the fire. The raven offered, and because he was so large and
strong they thought he could surely do the work, so he was sent
first. Ile flew high and far across the water and alighted on the
sycamore tree, but while he was wondering what to do next, the
beat had scorched all his feathers black, and he was frightened
and came back without the fire. \Vahultu, the liule screech-owl,
volunteered to go, and reached the place safely, but while he was
looking down into the hollow tree a blast of hot air came up and
nearly burned out his eyes. He managed 10 fly home as best he
could, but it was a long time before he could see well, and his
eyes are red to this day.
Then U'guk.11, the hooting owl, and Ts/dli, the homed
owl, went, but by the time they got to the hollow tree the fire was
burning so fiercely that the smoke nearly blinded them, and the
ashes carried up by the wind made white rings about their eyes.
They had to come home again without the fire, but with all their
rubbing they were never able to get rid of the white rings.
No more of the birds would venture, and so the liule
Uks11'Jii snake, the black racer, said he would go through the
water and bring back some fire. He swam across 10 the island
and crawled through the grass 10 the tree, and went in by a small
hole in at tne bottom. The heat and smoke were too much for
him, 100, and after dodging about blindly over the hot ashes until
he was almost on fire himself, he managed by good luck to get
::!II'
Version collected by James Mooney inl>tywo{llutC/iuol<LeandSa.:r~
FtxmMlaso/llut CMrouu, published in 1900.
A tusLi bowl wos o cloy vt.r~I. scribed w11h o urtain design \l'ht her
was the vusel itselfor was the name of the po11tr11 of markings is n •I
known, but the IIISU bowl was o .wcred ium.
IUSU
'
1.i~nt~r. 1991-92
A Cherokee Legend
Drawings by James Rhea
�HEARTH & FIRE IN THE MOUNTAINS
by Barbara Wickersham
The Highlands of Roan is a place of
spectaculru- beauty. Seven1.een miles of the
Appalachian Trail cross the massif and are
reputed 10 be some of the mos1 beautiful
stretches of the 2,000-mile 1rek. Settlers started
moving into this tumble of mountains in the
very late I 700's and discovered vast forests
filled with big timber and abundant game; plenty
of fresh, clean water, teeming wi1h trout: and
possibilities for subsistence farming, "sona hard
come by." They brought wilh them to this
wilderness a strong need for hearth and lire.
. The hearth, called "hath" by the
ol~-~crs, was the cc~ter of f!IUCh family
acnvny and took prominence m the building of a
home. Much care and time was spent in its
creation since ii was not only 1he center of
family life, bu1 essential for survival.
. While I was in Roan Mountain recently, a
fnend and I smpped by to see my friend Jim. a
mountain man of great presence who is a story
teller quintessential, a natural historian, and a
philosopher of sons. He has survived many a
harsh fire-demanding winter in the Roan
Mountain Community and seemed to be a
perfect source.
His blue eyes squinted thoughtfully as he
peered out from under a shock of grey hair, a
work-worn hand resting gently on Joe, his big
Gennnn shepherd lying protectively at his side.
He leaned back comfortably in his grea1 chair
and agreed 10 share with us some thoughts
about the use and importance of heanb and fire
during his growing up years.
"First," he explained, "You built the
chimley to a house, and you jest got big field
stones and clay mud, and you'd lay up a rock
and then you'd lay up a bunch of clay mud, then
ano'1!er round of rocks and more mud 'till you
get high as you wanted, and then you built your
hearth."
His voice trailed off as he seemed lost in
another time, another place for the moment, then
sighed, remembering, and continued.
"You hunted as big a flat rock as you
could find to make a heanh out of. Gen'ly had
to build up small rocks under it to make it level
with the floor. What it was for was to catch the
fire 'till it wouldn't get out and bum the house.
They'd be three to four fec1 long and a1 least
about that deep back. Then you got a big
backstick that was to go in the back of the
fircplace ... throwed the heat out Sometimes hit
would be 16 to 18 inches through, sometimes
bigger, and jest half it, and il'd take two to pu1 it
on.
"Sometimes you'd have 10 roll it in, but
it'd last all day behind there, and you'd pu1
smaller wood in front. Then you had a fire, and
you usually never let ii go out 'til along after
April when they'd have an old cookstove
a'goin', and hit went through the summer 'bout
all day."
Matches to start the fire were not easily
obtained. [f available at all, a box of matches
cost about a nickel and "it took sometimes an
hour to work ou1 that nickel back in the late '20s
and early '30s. l can remember well when
people would borrow fire, bring a little old
bucket, come to borrow a chunk of fire. I've
Xatuah J?14n~t J1Q9lt 14
PholO coune,y of lbe Mounwn Heriiaac Caller
even know'd 'em to take the shot out of a
shotgun shell and put a piece of co1ton where
the sho1 was - the powder would still be in the
shell - and they'd lire 1ha1 into some real dry
kindlin' or punk and it would set that co11on
a-fire. Then you jest blow'd on it and you'd
have a good fire in jest a minute."
Punk is very dry rotten, crumbly wood
found inside some hardwood trees.
"You could get it beuer out of a hard
maple and usually ever'body kepi a little around
where it would be dry. Hit wouldn't blaze bu1
made big coals, and once it was a'fire, it s;ayed
a'fire."
Sparks from soiking cwo pieces of flint
together were also used to fire punk.
All the fireplaces had an iron rod built into
the chimney, usually made of wagon wheel
ir<?n. Double pothooks (S shaped) were hung on
this rod and meals were cooked in hanging pots.
.
''When Mom cooked beans or anything
hke that, she pm 'em on early in 1he mornin'
and let them cook 'till noon or she'd cook boiled
cabbage, lots of soup beans, or when she
cooked pork or beef, she cooked ii in a
three-gallon iron pot. That's what it took to do
us for 1wo meals.
"You had to have a fire, and that saved a
lot of wood and more time. Stove wood had to
be gonen in the mountains where it was dead
and dry. Sometimes, owin' to how long you'd
been livin' in a place, you'd have to go a puny
good ways to get it. You'd drag it in 10 the
woodyard with a horse, either on a sled or drag
the whole tree, and 1hen chop it
"Usually mother wanted dead locust hardest stuff in the world. You'd be three
minutes before you'd get one stick off, and 1ha1
would get a stove or a fire really hot, burnt
slow, and had a big coal with it, left coals in
there. You'd get one good fire, and it'd cook a
meal."
The cook stove had a bread oven, but in
the winter they often used a ponable, lidded.
cast iron oven that could be put among the coals
on the hcanh rock. They raked back the coals,
se1 the oven down, and 1hen covered it with
coals. The bread inside the oven cooked to a
fine tum.
"Mom could tell by the smell when it wns
done. Now tha1 was good cornbread!
Sometimes she made pone wheat bread, and I
have eat some rye bread made that-a-way."
Family life centered around the heanh.
The room that housed it was called 1he ftrero0m
(our present living room), and the mantle was
called_the fireboard. It was generally the largest
room in the house and held at least two big
beds.
Sickness was a real problem. since there
was little medical help available. and it was not
uncommon for a woman to be "sittin' under the
(sick) baby" by the hearth all day. Toothache
was trealed by putting hot ashes in a rag on the
jaw to ease the pain. Smoke was blown in the
car to soothe an earache.
"Hit worked. Hit was jest something 10
git it warm, I guess. rve had it blow'd in mine
many of a time when l was little. They'd jes1
puff it in their mouth, put their mouth right up
close to your ear, and blow right slow. When
they'd quit, you could see that liule curl of
smoke comin' out"
Colds were a menace; treatn)ent was
simple. Water was boiled in a cast iron 1calceule
and poured in10 a pan. Vicks salve was added
and the person with the cold leaned over this
with a quilt covering both the person and the
pan. It worked magic! Babies and small children
often had what they called croup. Ir was treated
in much the same way.
"Kids'd completely choke up and that was
the only way they had to break it They'd jest
quit breathin."
A person with rheumatism clid wha1 they
called "bakin' it" by putting a quilt on the hearth
and scooting as close to the fire as the intense
heat would allow, thus lcilling the pain.
A baby animal, unfonunate enough to be
born on a cold winter night or just rejected by its
mother, was brought in by the hearth and hand
fed.
Wlnter, t 99 t -9Z
�"We'd bring liule pigs in a lot of times,
and lambs, and I have brought calves in by the
heanh. I remember having baby pigs in a
confined place close where they could keep
wann when they would come unexpec1edly in
the cold time. If they could ever get to suck a
pig or lamb, you couldn't freeze it 10 dea1h. But
a weakly pig, sometimes you'd have to bring it
in and boule-feed it, or a weakly lamb that
couldn't get up. Once you fed it a time or two,
you bad a pet, and hit was a pest - a sheep or a
pet pig is the biggest pest in the world. An old
pig would trot after you all day long and squeal,
and it not a bit hungry. You've heard the sayin'
'Aggravatin' as a pet pig' - that's whur that
come from."
Before the advent of kerosene lamps, the
room was lit at night by bundles of small pieces
of knots from black pitch pines.
"They'd go into the mountains whur 1he
old black pine had fell over and the wood rots
out and leaves them pines a-layin' there. They'd
take a 10w sack and gather a big sack full of
knots, and they'd be about 1hree inches
through."
They wouW talce pieces a bit smaller than
finger diameter, split them to length, and tie
them in bundles "aboul what you could hold in
your hand." Rawhide ties were placed at
intervals down che 12 to 18 inch long bundles.
When needed for light, a bundle was carefully
secured in a hole among the chimney rocks and
lit. As it burned down, a tie was removed and
the next one down held the bundle together.
Some people had what they called pitch holders
which were made at a black:.mith shop. It, 100,
was stuck back among the rocks in the chimney.
Kerosene ushered in a new era wilh lamps
and lanterns. In the beginning, many of the
lamps had no globe and were made 10 be used
with wool rags pushed down into the lamp, then
covered with kerosene. A bit of the wool rag
was pulled through the opening and lit, sucking
up the kerosene as it burned. Lanterns soon
replaced pitch torches for walking to church at
nigh1, going 10 parties, or seeking a missing or
sick animal on the mountain.
Fire wa.~ used 10 make life easier in lots of
ways. Down by the creek 1hey would have a
30-gallon iron keule hung from a rack a fool or
foot and one -half above a fire. This was filled
with water from the creek and clothes were
boiled using homemade lye soap. If clothes
were especially dirty, after boiling they would
be taken to the creek and beaten on the rocks
with a bauling stick. Dry wood was used for the
fire, beech, sugar tree (maple), oak, "old apple
tree made awful good fire," and the coveted
dead locust.
Ironing was made easier by starching
clothes with a cooked solution made of flour
and water. There were no ironing boards back
1hen, and ironing was done using a whi1c clo1h
on the dining lable as an ironing surface. Fial
irons were h1!.1tcd on the cooksiove, two at a
time in order to switch when one got too cool.
Most v.omen quilted, and ironing small pieced
scams flat with a heavy Oar iron thai wa, often
too hot or 100 cold was no easy task. Trying 10
follow a soap or chalk-marked quilting line in
the light of a pitch pine bundle or a kerosene
lantern was a challenge as well.
And lhen...mcn's work. On the mountain
farm, neither men's nor women's work was
ever done.
1.i11,rcr, 199 1-92
On the evening before hog killing, the men
dug a big hole and layered wood and big rocks
in it. Very dry kindling was placed on top.
About four o'clock the next morning, they
would "lire that up, and them rocks would get
hot, and we'd fill up a 60-gallon wooden barrel
with water, and we'd lay that on an angle, kinda
tilted, and we'd throw them big red hot rocks in
there, and when you got it whur it would burn
you, it was ready.
"They would have the hog up on a
scaffold and it would take three men to put it
down in there and then they'd keep feeling 'till
they could tell the hair was comin' off. Then
they would tum it and get that side. Usually you
scraped it afler you scalded it. They would tum
it around and do the other end. You kept your
fire agoin', and the water would be gitlin' some
cold but not much, and you hung them on the
scaffold then, and take the entrails out and hang
them to drip, and then they'd git the next 'un.
Kept your lire agoin' and kept the rocks hot all
the time. Take the rocks out when the water got
too cold and reheat them. Would have more
rocks all ready 10 put in while the first ones was
gettin' hot again."
A special smoke house was used to smoke
pork. A lire was built in either a hole dug in a
dirt floor or smouldered in an iron pot. The meat
was hung above this.
"Jest let it smoke... had a place in the roof
for the smoke to go out...smoked it auer it was
cured with salt. Smoked it with hickory or
mountain ash wood 'cause they wouldn't black
none."
Two survival-related uses for fire simply
have to be mentioned here. Moonshine was an
important source of cash for these mountain
people, and fire was essential both for heating
water and cooking mash. Another lucrative
business was the cutting and sawing of wood.
Sawmill boilers fired with wood made the steam
that generated power for the big pulley wheel
Belts ran from !here to the saw and made it
possible to cut giant logs into lumber.
M,010 lalcn 01 lhc home of C. E. Willwns 111
Rom Mount.tut. TN by Sort.a Wickcrr.hun
There were for 100 many other uses for
fire to recount them all, but one more important
use was for agriculture. ~New ground" had to
be cleared for a garden about every chrce ~ Everything was cut from as close 10 the ground
as possible on rhree 10 four acres of land. The
brush was put in a big pile, and the log~ were
left for a big "log rollin'.
"This was a git-together, jest one man
a'helpin' another, have 10 or 12 men. They'd
roll the logs and the women would cook.
You've heard that expression "Jest like cookin'
for a log rollin' ...that's what it was. Now they
really cat!"
The logs werc rolled into piles and set
ablaze, burning sometimes four or five days.
Once "Old Man" Wes Miller got impatient
and decided 10 bum his logs by himself. He
rolled the logs together and fired them. As they
burned away in the middle, he pushed them
closer together to encourage them to bum
completely. While so doing, one big log
suddenly rolled over and caught his left leg,
jamming it tightly between two burning logs.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not
disengage his leg.
His axe lay about a foot beyond his reach.
He began clawing at the dirt until ftnally the axe
slid toward him. Then he chopped off his leg,
tore his overall pants leg into srrings, made a
tourniquet, found a crooked stick which he used
for a crutch and managed to get back home.
"He hewed out a wooden leg for himself,
the straight kind, peg-leg they called it. He was
real young when this happened and he lived to
be a healthy old man. He was a rough customer,
he was. He could walk on the mountain even
and talce care of his animals....They was tough,
back then!''
Jim suddenly fell quiet, a gen1le giant of a
man, his hand once again trailing Joe. Truly,
they "was tough back then," and !hey still are.
/
�signify the arrival of the new year, the people
would strip, bum their clothes, and then put
on fresh garments to begin the new cycle. The
mam purpose of that ceremony was 10 make
the connection between all the people.
The Ancient Red
These are tire words ofa traditional
Cherokee medicine person:
Let me st.an at the beginning. This is
what my grandfather told me. The 0:eator
made the Eanh and all things, and then the
Oeator set up the Jaws of nature to govern
everything - so that the wolves wouldn't eat
all the deer in one day, and so on. And the
Creator set Grandmother Moon and
Grandfather Sun in their places.
The Sun was supposed to talce care of
the humans. The Sun, being a bit arrogant.,
thought that some lesser being could talce care
of such a petty species. So he sent the Fire to
the Eanh to represent himself on the planet.
The humans were to communicate to the Sun
through the fire.
The element ofFlfC is known as the
A_ncient Red. Ancient Red always refers to
Fsrc, although there arc several spiritual
beings who are called by that name. The First
Man on the planet, Kanati, became the
spiritual essence of lightning and thunder so
be is called Ancient Red because of that '
conn~tion. In the formulistic language there
are different words for Fire that sigrufy Fi.re as
Kanati, as lightning, as the wood fire, or as
the Sun.
The color red signified Fire and was also
the symbol of Heaven. Our concept of Heaven
is called the Sun La.nd, Beyond the Sun and it
is in the East. Red is the color of the ~ t and
it is also the symbol of success. When th~
warriors went to war, they painted red and
black on their faces; red for victory and black
for death.
1n all the medicine fonnulas, the Ancient
Red is the most powerful being a medicine
person can call. The translation of the word
for medicine people is "the sacred fire bums
inside of them."
Hel_lt _was a prime element in doctoring.
The med1cme people would rub their hands
together rapidly before going to work to
provoke that sacred fire that bums inside and
move it into their hands so that they could
transfer it to the patienL Some would heat
mud daubers' nests and put them on their
patients' bodies to cure them. Fire was
brought into the sweat lodge in the heat of the
stones for healing. Fire is for purification. A
sacred pipe is purified over a fire.
There arc several taboos about Fuc.
People arc not to piss on a fire. Even if they
arc up in the woods where there is no water
close by, and they have st0mped out their
campfire except for a few last coals, they
should not piss on it to put it ouL One does
not throw anything in the fire that is unclean.
Cedar, rhododendron, and mountain laurel
woods arc not lO be used as firewood; they are
Xatuan )o"maL
pQ(Je 16
thrown into a fire 10 change its personality. If
rhododendron or mountain laurel are put on a
fire when they are green, they scream when
you throw them imo I.he fire. The old variety
of sacred lObacco is also put into fires to
change them.
This used to be important to the native
people, but to a great extent we have lost that,
and it's sad. I have been to stomp dances in
Oklahomn, and I have seen people showing
remnants of that former attitude around the
fire. It is rare to see that any more. Today
there are people who piss in the fire or throw
irash in it witho~t giving it ~ second thought.
The most 1mponant thmg to remember is
tha! FlfC ~s a living _
being - a living being with
an ~ncredible appeme. You can be frightened
of 11, or you can be respectful of it and at one
with i~. It will_not harm you if you do not do
anything foolish. But people have to recognize
Fire as a living being.
My grandfather told me that at the
Kaniah village there was a sacred fire that was
the central fire for the whole Cherokee nation.
lt was kept alive with the sacred woods. The
sacred woods were sourwood, hickory,
cedar, locust, yellow pine, white oak and
sweet birch.
'
Cedar and sourwood trees, which are
considered very sacred to the people, are both
connected to the color red. Sourwood is the
first red-leafed tree to change. The wood of
the cedar has red in it The cedar does not
grow in these mountains, but it is really
av~able in Tennessee or southern Georgia,
so in the old days people would just run over
there to get it.
Once a year, at the time of the Green
Com Ceremony, all the fires in the whole
Cherokee territory were all put out. The sacred
fire at the mother village was then relit by a
person who was designated as the firekeeper,
and runners would take the fire 10 all the
villages in the Cherokee nation.
The old people used lO say that the flfC
was the bond that kept the tribe together. It did
not matter that the people were members of
different clans and spoke different dialects: it
did not mauer that we might have different
enemies and different friends; the fire was the
same. Wherever our village wll!>, we all
cooked at the same fire and heated our lodges
with the same fire. It was the fire that held us
together.
. The Green Com Ceremony marked the
begmnmg of the new year. It was the tribe's
most powerful ceremony. It was the bonding
ceremony. When the fires were put out, the
people forgave all the crimes of the past year
and made resolutions for the next My
grandfather said that, after the sacred fire was
li~ and the runners were ready t0 leave for their
villages, the people would do a special dance
around the sacred fire. That dance had its own
particular songs about the fire-lighting. To
The Green Com Ceremony was
celebrated when the first roasting ears of com
became ripe enough to eat, sometime after the
eighth or ninth of July. No one could eat the
new com until then. In the last days before the
ceremony, it was hard LO keep the kids out of
the field. The adults used 10 satisfy the young
ones by letting them eat the com worms, and
the com smut off the ears. Com smut is
delicious! They would take it before it got
black, cut it up a.nd fry it. I understand that
among the Mayan Indians only the emperors
and the wealthy were allowed t0 eat com
smut. The com worms are good too when
they are fried.
'
'
After the Green Com Ceremony, when
the runne~ brought the fire to the villages,
they took It to the council house at the center
of the town. The grandfather of my
~n~ather told him about the ceremony at the
hghung of the fire. One person did a spider
dance and carried some smoldering embers in
a clay pot to each of the four directions in the
village because Spider had carried the FtrSt
Fire in a clay pot which she made (see page
13). Then they returned to the town house,
and the elder who was designated the
firekeeper brought the fire to a blaze with the
sacred woods.
That fire was kept alive in the council
house all year. Just as the One Sacred Ftre
was the focal point for the nation and the fire
in the lodge was the focal point for the family,
so the fire in the council house was the focal
point for the village. If a family's lodge flfC
went out, they went lO the town house, and
the firekeeper would light their fire, honoring
all the taboos around it, because Fire was a
sacred being.
The fire in the council house stayed alive
all Y:8'"· :nie _firekeeper was responsible for
keepmg u gomg and then called it up with the
seve~ sacred woods when they had council
meeungs.
James Timberlake, when he visited
Attakullakulla's village. went to a meeting in
the t?wn_
house. Although it was daylight
outs1de, tt was dark inside the building, but he
could see that the firekeeper had laid out short
piece~ of dri~ river cane, one overlapping the
next, m a spiral that stanc:d from the fire pit
and moved out in a great circle. The elder who
was the firckeeper started 10 chant a fonnula.
and at the end of each verse he clapped his
hands four times and rubbed them together. At
that, I.he fire ignited, and the cane started
burning. It seemed as though it was
spontaneous. Timberlake was amazed.
As one piece of the cane spiral burned
up, the one overlapping it would catch fire,
and the flame went around until the whole
sprral was consumed. The people sat in a
CIJ'Cle around the burning slivers of cane and
used them for liiht during the meeting. Toe
fire was also a nmer, because when it went
out the council was over.
. There was another com ceremony, but
thlS one was done at planting time. 11 involved
�Waiting;
Under the Wing of a Dark Hill
We are waiting to break every vow
We have made.
Hunting the butt-ends,
Smoking them under the trees,
Dra·wing closer to the lantern
We read
The razors
In bloodKin eyes.
We goin idle
Search of him,
Of the silver one
Who is only a flash
That crosses our path
From time to time
(But familiar
like the amber
And the spittle
Or the shadow that falls
on our dreams
Eyes wide.)
lighrning-srruck wood, which, if it was taken
from a cree that survived the blast, had the
Ancient Red in iL Before planting the com, a
large group of women would dance around
the cornfield, leaving a small group of women
at each of 1he cardinal points. Each of these
smaller groups would include an elder
grandmother who had a big splinter of
lightning-struck wood. When there was a
group in each of the four comers, they sang a
special song and rushed 10 the center of the
field. Al the center of the field, they would
plunge their lightning-struck wood into the
earth, like lightning striking the ground.
This was a powerful symbolic act. The
lightning-struck wood represented Kanari, the
First Man and also the lightning, and the
women represented Selu, the First Woman
and also the Com Mother.
That was to make the com grow. 1 think
it probably did. Com just grows beuer if the
women plant it and do things like thaL
Fire was of great spiritual imponance,
but it was also the people's most powerful
tool. Besides using it for basic cooking and
heating, I told how ii was used for healing. It
was also much involved in weapons-making.
The people used fire in making blowguns and
in flintknapping. To make arrowheads, they
heated up the pieces of flint and then poured
drops of cold water on them. And in the
earliest days, before they knew flintknnpping,
they would bum the ends of sticks and rub
them to harden them.
Outside the village, the people used
controlled fires to bum away the leaves and
woody debris around their town 10 protect it
from wildfires. When clearing new fields they
used fire 10 bring down the trees. They would
girdle a tree, and after it was girdled and
dried, three or four people working as a team
would stan small fires at its base. They would
just sit around and chat while the fires burned,
from time 10 rime geuing up to chip away the
charred wood with their axes, until the tree
fell. Jn this way they would also bring down
large poplar treeS 10 make their canoes. Once
down, the log was also hollowed out with
fire.
After the riverbonom fields were
cleared, the people would continue 10 bum
them off every year co get rid of the cane. My
grandfather's grandfather told him that he
remembered the sounds of the cane crncking
and exploding when they burned the fields. 1t
sounded like an army - Boom! Boom!
BOOM!!
They would also bum the mountains 10
gel the chesrnu1s. They would set fires at the
bonom of the mountain, and bum the leaves
off all the way up 10 the top. h made it easier
to get the chestnuts, easier to move around,
and it enabled them 10 gather honey.
Burning made hunting easier because it
100k away the brushy places in which the
animals would hide. Burning the hillsides
encouraged grass and sun-loving blueberries
and huckleberries to grow up underneath,
making better forage for the game animals.
From my grandfather, I got the
impression lha1 they burned the mountains
every fall. I think 1ha1 to a bird flying over this
area in the autumn 300 years ago, ii would
look like the whole Cherokee territory was
smoking.
Fire was an imponant pan of the old#
way of life.
fr'
We foam in the bowels
We shit and quake at the light
Of killing him.
(If we could dare
Or ferret him out,
Tell him apart
Prom us
While we slept ... )
If we could find
What we'd need,
We'd cul his green throat,
Dance on his green blood,
And bury him beneath the sodden
leaves
(Bury him in the mud and lime
Like us)
We'd bury himOnly an inch or so
Below the surface.
Mile and miles
From the black coal,
And just as far
From the
Warm,
Translucent
SKY.
David Earl Williams
Orn ing by Rob Messick
lolu1tcr, 1991-92
By God,
We cast pale omens
Into camp fire
And breath them in.
JCnti'mh )ounW J)QIJC 17
�MIDWINT
POEMS BY JI
MIDWINTER FIRES
All branches bare
Apple persimmon acorn
chestnut hazel
The peach gone
December the dying month
The cold sunken
giving up of ghost
By the fires your
moon-heat wrestling
spent harvest winds
A knock
Admit them
Admit them
Three keen-faced bulls
hindquarters manly
shaggy crouching bearing
mistletoe and holly
berry
THE HOLLY
Beads
of blue
Grieve not!
The golden bough and holly sprig
greet you!
blood
the air transfigures
crimson
A crown
of thorny
green
YULE
The sun does not die
The earth tapers
then savors
Let's make a fire
to cure poison
its shine
In the wood's gloom
a blazing
evergreen
We'll smolder a log
shoulder sorrows away
in brass buckets
of ash
Luck will be ours
The singing flint within us
Embers glowing
glowing
�ER
EFFERY BEAM
EATING THE GOD
Having been Ox
and Shamrock
Having been Queen
and Peasant
Having been Tern
and Blow-fish
This strange land
takes me
Restores my strength
The land's fleshy
length
Such was our custom
With jug and grain
I by thanks am given
SATURNALIA
I left the place l was accustomed to
COW-BORN DIONYSUS
Here you are again
Friend of the winnowing heart
Back from your far journey
I will help you work the
lath and hoop
to set the stars on
an unbitter loop
so your sacred frame
will hang low and succulent
like the eyes
of new calves
Where the rooster
ignites and hails
the sun
You find me
Agoat
with a black
beard
Drawings By James Rhea
Borders By la.son Tueller
�..... LOGGER -VIOLENCE!
••
' • ' N"1Uril W«ld Newr ~ice
On the morning of November 25 1991
Bruce Hare was in the Long Creek Ho~
Restaurant, the local cafe in the little town of
Long Creek. Hare had grown up in Long
Cre~k and presently owns the Chanooga
Wh1tewater Shop that offers rafting trips down
the nearby Chattooga River. And because he
cares about his home and the river, Hare has
also been filing appeals on timber sales offered
by the US Forest Service (USFS) near Long
Creek in the Sumter National Forest
Hare is a former president of the South
Carolina Forest Watch environmental group.
Forest Watch has been very moderate in
pushing forest management reforms, but the
group had recently assisted the Georgia Forest
Watch in filing several appeals in pans of the
Chatrooga watershed that lay in the state of
Georgia. This angem:l logging contractor
J~s Smith, who also lived in Long Creek but
did a lot of work across the state line in the
Chattahoochee National Forest
Smith came into the cafe with an
employee, David Phillips, who has made no
secret of his dislike of Hare and his work.
Smith was believed to have participated in
vandalizing Hare's business several months
before. The two loggers came over 10 Hare's
table, threw hot coffee in his face, tackled him
and started to beat him mercilessly. They brok~
a wooden chair over Hare's back and one of
the men held him while the other
hit him
repeatedly in the face.
. "Keep this up, and we'll kill you," they
said, refemng 10 Hare's environmental work.
They also threatened by name Dr. Billy
Campl?c:11 of Wesaninster, SC, a local general
pracnnoner and Forest Watch member and
:nan
Roben Alexandei- of !labun County,
GA, a
member of the Georgia Forest Watch. They
then walked out of the restaurant leaving
several shocked witnesses and a battered Bruce
Hare, who suffered multiple body bruises a
face that was described as "a mass of brui~s "
a di~located finger, a chipped tooth, and a '
spramed neck.
The two assailants were later picked up
by the sheriff's pan-ol and taken to the county
detention center in Walhalla They appeared
before Magistrate Becky Gerard on charges of
aggravated assault and battery and were
released on their own recognizance in lieu of
$500 bail apiece.
~arc's i:esponse to his bearing is simply
10 conunue his work on behalf of the forest
_"l hate 10 see this," he says. "lt's a
neganve turn of events. It's like the irresistable
force meeting the immovable object. They1I
have to kill me to stop me, and I'm afraid that
some of the loggers feel the same way.
"We're not going to get any help from the
couns or the government. It's a real world.
~hether it's Nicaragua or Ireland or right here,
its a real world we live in."
The reaction of the commercial media to
the beating of Bruce Hare has been subdued
even though the a~sailants made sure thm H:i:re
knew lha1 this was an act of intimidation.
The men who damaged Bruce Hare arc
now loose on their own recognizance. The
court's verdict on the seriousness of their
actions will be a clear signal 10
environmentalislS and loggers alike as to how
Xatuar, )ou1 not
PClCJC 20
·1-T-ENNESSEE·FIRES
'
Narural World N._,, Sc,rvice
Afl.C( lwo monlhs of unusually hght rainfall, the
<bys 111 the end of lhe monlh of October, 1991 posed a
great fire hazard. Wilh lhe rising of a dry wind.
conditions became extreme. All it took was a match,
and on the western slope of the mount.ains in the
Cherokee National Forest. arsonists provided the
matches on October 23. For the next lWO weeks
approximately 40 wildfucs burned in lhc Cherokee
scorching approximately 3.SOO acres of woodlands.
The Roclcy Top area was severely burned by
several fires, the biggest or which alone burned 1,700
acres. In Greene County, a fire in Polly Hollow burned
over such precipitous terrain thnt firefightcrs had to Jet
it bum for a full day before iL reached an accessible
location where they could begin to fight iL That fire
burned over no acres before it was contained. There
was a 300 acre fire on Green Mowuain and 225 acres
burned on LiuJe Pond Mountain, also in Gn,ene
th~ po~ers-that-be view "greenie-bashing" in
this region.
Not all loggers are like Smith and
Phillips, but as the national economy continues
to come unglued, people become afraid.
Non-violent environmentalists could become
likely scapegoats for the social ills that are
making some men angry and fearful Desperate
men are dangerous.
How are violence and intimidation to be
de~? Are the couns up to the job? The
reacaon to the aggravated assault on Bruce
Hare bears careful watching.
DISAPPEARING WETLANDS
Narunl World News Scivloc
Wlul do you do if o wetland area ge1.5 in lhe way
of )'QUT bulldoze(! If you arc President George Bush~
~. US Anny Corps of Engineers, you simply say it
1sn t there and keep on pushin'.
The 1989 edition of the Wetlands Dt1l~ation
Manual. used by lhe ColJ)s and I.he Envuonmental
Protec~ ~g~y to~~ wcllands qualifying for
protccuon LS be.Ing reviScd. However, the revisions are
more political lhnn scientific.
The proposals arc coming from the highest
echelons of lhc Bush administration, and they speak
more or lhe success of lobbyists for oil, gas.
development, and agricultur31 interests than of any new
breaklhroogh~ in scientific research.
In practice, the change has already gone lhrough.
ln the summer of 1991 the US Army Corps of
EngillC.CIS was ordered to go back to using a four year
old manual lhnt has less stnngcnt definitions for
wellands lhan lhc current manual.
"The '89 manual was lhough1 to be leaning a
lillle too much toward lhe wetlands side." Roben
Johnson of the Ashe vii le Corps or Engineers office told
lhe Ashtvillt Ciliun -T~s.
The chllngc in lhc rules will result in I.he lo.~ of
10 to 3~ of the wetlands in the country, according to
the NauOlllll A ~ Society. ~ly, "it is already
mnkmg ,;ome d1ffcrtnce," said Johnson. The Corps is
a~vm_ mon: construcuon, filling, and dredging
g
proJCCts m rucas that previously V.'OUld ha,-e been
COllSJdcred wetlands.
Commcncs on the change in wcdands policy can
be direcltd to:
Grtgory Pt'dt.
En,iron~nta/ Pro1ec1ion Agtncy
County.
The fue on Rocky Top seemed LO be the worst,
wilh flames reaching six feet in heighL Some of the
fires crowned, or burned into the tops of the trees, in
stands of Virginia pine.
There were no homes damaged or dcstr0yed,
although there were seveml close calls. During the
Rocky Top fire. firefightcrs at one paint abandoned one
home to the fire, but because of a sudden drop in wind
speed. they were able to retwn and save lhe dwelling.
Where possible, bulldoi.crs coostructed fire lines
cleared areas in front of which backfucs were set 10
'
consume fuel in I.he palh of the oncoming blllUl.
However, 80 J)Cl'CClll of lhe lines were cleared by 20
person crews working 16 • and sometimes 24 • hour
shifts to clear brush in rough rerrain. They were
n:infon:ed by air tanker$ thnl flew overhead, dropping
water-based chemical fll'C relal'dant on the b ~
Helicopters slinging large warer bucketS also cooled
backfires lhal looked like they might jump their J;nc
and patrolled the edges o( the fires, guiding !hem away
rrom buildings and ~ lhat looked like potential hot
Spots.
Al10get11er, counting fu'Cligluers on lhe line and
suppon personnel, more than 1,000 people fought the
blazes.
401 MSt SIi'
\Vashmgron, DC 2046()
Ciuioon by Andrew l.A,hman
,.,inrcr, 1991 - 92
�-
.-, -.s
WASTES TO BURN
USPS IS ARROGANT
NUii World~
(TIDS IS f'liEWS?)
Nounl World New
An article in lhe Sunday, November 10
Kno:cvillt Ntws-Stntind reported lhat the US
Department or Energy (DOE) 1w requested the Si:u.c or
Tenncssc:c to accept ..tupments or mll!ed hat.ardous and
radJoocu, e waste (o, bu ming at 00 R1dgc·s 'TSCA
incinerator' (so called because 11 1,1as established under
the Toxic Substance:$ Control Act).
The TSCA 1nc1ncrator came up to full burn in
April, 1991. J~is presently burning liquid wiutes stored
in the mile-square K-25 building 81 the Oak Ridge
Reserv:iuon. It is esumatcd lh:lt the facility w,11 be able
10 burn two million pounds or waste per year 81 great
eitpcnsc ond great d:ingcr to the cnvironmcnL Within
two yClll'S the mcincrnt.Or wiU be burning the solid
wastes scored in K-25.
The DOE ha~ permission 10 import wastes from
their facilities at Fernald and Portsmouth, Ohio, and
Padooih, Ken111Cky But the agcncy is oho asking to
bring 111 7S truckloads or-te from the fac1h1y at
Weldon Springs, Missouri as well, pleading that it
should have been included in the original wa~te hauling
COllll'OCL
The Oak Ridge Enviroomcnlal and Peace
Alliance (OREPA) is calling on Tcnncsscc governor
Ned McWhcrter 10 lllkc a st,ong stance against
acccptanee or ony addiuonal wa...ics over the contraeted
amounL The DOE ha~ no comprehensive v,1aste
management pl.an, and governors in Idaho, Colorado,
New Mexico, and Nevada have cited this lack in firmly
forbidding was11: shipments into their Slates.
OR EPA staff member Ralph Hu1cl11son says,
"DOE's waste is Wee elccll'icity seek.mg 8 ground - 11
will 1alcc the palh of lc.ast resistance, and where it finds
a ground, people will get burned."
People all over the K.atuah Province would be
affeclCd ,! Tcnncssce allowed extra loading al the TSCA
lncincl'8tor. OREPA is calling on people throughout the
region to write to:
Go~r""' Ntd McWhtncr
Stott Capitol
Nashville, TN 37219
asking him to prohibit extta twardous and radioactive
waste burnings in TcnlleSlitJC.
It would also be an opponunity to ~11ggcs1
closing the TSCA mcincrator entlrely, to stop it Crom
o;pewing toxic polluUIIJIS into the lllmOsphere.
US 01,trict Judge G. Ross Andcrion, Jr. issued a
temporary n:$tr.Uning order to 5IOp won in the
long-dispui.:d Long Cn:cl umber 'wile m the Picuni.
Ranger Disuict or Soulh Carolina's Su nter National
Forest. In deciding on I SUit brought by South C.arolin3
Forest Wau:h. the judge berated the US Forest Scrvioc
for its "unparalleled arrogance" in its handling of the
su~tion. The agency cleru'ly hod been trying to avoid
tails with the environmental group and had logging
companies poised to begin cuumg. even though the
cnse was sull m ooun.
The sale gained w i ~ ottcntion when, m the
spring of 1991, 1 protc~tcr who identified hu,uclf only
&s "Forest B. Green" s!OJIPCd work on the logging
project for five days by siu.ing in • tnle. At that lime
the USFS was di.rcctcd to come up with a new
environmental a.ssessmct1t 3nd discus:s 11 with the Forest
Watch group. The USFS did come up with• new
environment.al assessment· one which was complcl.Cly
unaccepmble 10 Forest Watch - nnd then piclccd up the
umber S31e cx.aclly where it had been lc!t off, directing
the companies who had previously offered the low bm
to begin cutting, meanwhile Slalling on meetings wilh
the Forest Watch group.
Thi., did IIOl lcnd credibility 10 the agency's
environmcn ta! assessment in the eyes of either the
Forest Watch group or the judge. The Gruntvi/le
News qoOICd Judge Anderson as saying, "I get the
impression your arrogance is unp81211eled. You jUSl
don't care 10 "' down and talk. 10 anyone except
yourselves.•
"I'm noi imprc.<t'icd by a governmental
agency_lh:11 lends IO forget who's paying its sata,y;
the judge said later m the procccd1ngs.
!~uatij: ~ USF11lg,ced., ~ihAia.... the s:ilc
contraets 111d hold moctinil,' with FotcSI Walth
manbcrs. They also agreed to notify Forest W81Ch 30
days before taking any action on the oralc, to prevent any
olhct blitwitg Jogging raids and allow the group ample
time 10 go to coan should they deem II ncccs.ury.
CHEOAH SALE NAILED
Nwnl "'\\tor U News Service
More than 300 spikes wen: found embedded m
ltt.cS slated 10 be cut as part of the Gra.~y Gap and
W=a umber -.;iJcs 111 the Chooah Bald area the
Nantahala National ~ On Scplember 23, 1991
or
US
Forest Service employees checked the urea arier
receiving a leucr postmarked in Olarlotte announcing
the !piking.
Oieoah B.ald, formerly• 21,000 acre roadlcss
area, ""'11.1111ack.cd quickly after being dtlistcd as a
RARE n (Roadlcss Arca Rc.cnrch and Evaluation) ~ite
and reduced to 7.000 roadies~ acres. It still is the !ariest
unprolCClcd road~ are3 m the N:uuah:lla Nalional
forest and on important link between the Great Smoky
Mountains National Pan; and the surrounding fon:st
areas. The Wildtrncss Society and the Siena Club lhis
summer came to an agrccmcnt with the Forest Service
th.It allowed timber cutting but no roodbuilding m the
W=r and Gl"3liSy Gap s:ilcs.
Chcoah District Ranger Glenn McConnell w:is
qootcd in the A ,lttvil/t C11iun-Tunes &s saying. "I
don't consider this (spiking) a protesl. This is
terrorism." The cry was wen up by the newspaper
1L,;clf in its editorial column. The charge was mu
because spikes can be dangerous to saw mill opcra1ors if
they arc working without safety procecuon when a 5Pike
is h11. Neithcl McConnell nor the newspaper unplic.iled
umber mmagcrs or logging company owners ,,.ho order
workers to continue cutting timber "31cs rcgasdless of
the known risk or spikes.
ANOTHER GE SUPERMESS
N uni World N •.,,
The EPA ha.~ recommended three locations in
Henderson County, 1'C for a single federal Supetfund
cleanup site - ~ith General Eloctric Corporation bemg
identified as f'C.\'J)Oll'ible for the contaminauon. GE now
has at least 48 Supcrrund sates to 11.S "credit" - more
than any OU1Cr corporauon.
GE opposes huing the lhroe locauons as a
~mgle site because, although the EPA ha~ found similar
contamination by organic compounds, PCB, 1111d
pcn:loroethylcnc (a su~I.Cd aircmogcn) 11 the various
locations, GE m1111win, lh:ll the propcrues arc not
connccl.Od and are underbid by SCIXll'3te bodies of ground
water. The cost of the cleanup, which would be borne
primanly by GE, has yet 10 be dtltrmincd since the
extent of the contaminauon ,~ sun unclear. The EPA 1s
"concerned about the potential for tong-term exposure;
and recently asked GE 10 sign a consent agreement so
cleanup or the site ll\JIY begin 1mmcdialcly, but so Car
GE has n:fuscd to do so.
Arca tCSldcnts have expressed concern lh:ll
property values m the adJOining areas will plummet ii
the site is placed on lhc National Prioritit.$ list.
Wtntcr, l99l -92
!1RTlOt'1.R. L 'FO'.KFst.S
Xawah Journot pa.c:,e 21
�Natural World News
SPECIAL REPORT
WHO WILL HAVE THE POWER?
Winners and Losers in the War to Control the Utilities Industry
At fm;r glance it looks like a dull and
confusing ''battle of initials": the war over
energy and the who, what. and why of its
production that is being waged in Washington.
If one says them aloud, the tenns FERC,
PURPA, SEC, and IPP, (or how about
EWG?) sound like body functions gone amok.
Rather, they are the initials of agencies,
processes, or classifications of electric power
generating organi1.ations. We need to include
these important abbreviations in the lexicon of
our lives.
Congressional baules or bureaucratic
brouhahas in Washington sometimes seem 10
be far removed from Ka1uah, and yet they are
of vital concern to us, because lhey often have
dircot effects on our lives. This "battle of 1he
initials" is no exception. rt is, quite literally. a
mauer of power and light, Duke Power and
Carolina Power and Ligh1 (CP&L) specifically.
and how those two companies (among those
that SCIVe our urea) have wound up on
opposing sides in what appears 10 be a
regulation dispute. Their split is indicative of a
split in the power indusu:y.
The battle is over whether or nor 10
change the Public Utility Holding Company
Act (PU HCA) of 1935. CP&L feels threatened
by the proposed changes; Duke feels that the
new act will benefit them.
Two years ago, Senator J. Benneu
Johnston (D-LA), who chain; the Senate
Energy and NaturnJ Resources Commincc,
ed
draf1 the Competitive Wholesale Electric
Generation Act of 1989, which was designed,
he said, "1 remove the obstacles to competitive
0
wholesale generation in the Public Utility
Holding Company Act of 1935."
This year, his "National Energy Security
Act," and specifically its Title XV, "would
open the energy generation market to a new
form of independent power producer ([PP),
called an 'exempt whole!>ale generator' (EWG).
that would exclusively marker power io utilities
and that would be free from regulatory
constraints imposed by the 1935 act" according
10 Leonard S. Greenberger in the April 15,
1991, issue of the P11hfic Utilities Fnnnight/y.
At the moment, Bcnneu's bill has
suffered death by filibuster, done in by its ties
10 legislation which would have allowed
drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic's Coastal
Plains. But there is a similar bill in 1he I louse,
and the Senate's Banking, Housing and Urban
Affairs Commiucc, which normally has
jurisdiction over PUHCA, is thinking about
redesigning the bill. President Bush's National
Energy Strategy focuses on PUI !CA as well.
It is clear that in 1992. PUHCA will undergo
some changes. This bodes ill for citizens and
rntcpayers.
To under.;tand what is at stake in this
ongoing debate, a brief history lesson is in
order, The Wheeler-Rayburn Act of 1935.
later 10 be called the Public Utilities Holding
Company Act, was passed as pan of 1he New
Deal legislation designed to break up trusts that
exercised monopolies over many aspects of
.
Xntimh Joun!a ~ p n~c 22
'
'
0
American life. Chief among these was the
utilities industry.
PUHCA was successful in making the
utility companies more manageable by
dismantling the layers of ownen;hip beneath
which they hid their assets. The result, as
James Cook describes in his Forbes anicle
"Camel in the Tent," is thar although US
u11Jirics continue to operate as monopolies in
their distribution areas, they are no longer so
large or powerful as those that existed prior to
the Great Depression, and their prices are
controlled by the PUHCA regulations.
During the energy crisis of the I970's,
there was anxiety about the availability of
dependable energy supplies :ind our
dependence on foreign sources of energy. As a
result of these concerns, Congress passed th.:
Public Utility Regulatory Policies Ac1
(PURPA) in 1978.
The act encouraged anyone capable of
producing energy 10 do so - using windmills,
water power, solar power, or biomass. The
inducement 10 create these al1ema1e energy
sources was this: public utilities were obliged
10 purchase whatever energy was produced ac a
price equivalent to the amount it cost them to
produce it. If chese small energy producers or
"qualifying facilities" (QFs) could produce
power more cheaply than the utility's cost then
the difference between the two prices was the
size of their profit margin.
lt was a good deal for small operators,
particularly at a time when pettoleurn resources
were uncertain and nuclear plants were
receiving bad press and worse repon cards. fl
was unwise to build new generating facilities
when small QF's might appear on the scene 10
supply the increasing demands for power.
Besides, the competition was viewed as healthy
- so healthy that big business and even the
utilities decided to try for a piece of the action.
Enter the Independent Power Producer
(IPP), a larger scale version of the QF. Some
IPP's are owned by non-utility industries,
others are run by utilities themselves. These
IPP's generate power and sell it 10 utihues m
the same way that the smaller QF's do, but
with this difference: they are subject to
regulation by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) under provisions of
PUIICA.
There are several reasons why this
arrangement 1s accep1able 10 the utilities. First,
il is attractive in the same way that the QF wns:
i.e .. it allows the energy supply 10 expand 10
meet the public need without obliging the
utilities 10 invest their own capillll. IPP's are
also allowed to operate on higher debt ratios
(80%, as opposed co 65% for utilities).
Second, the 3JT:IJ\gcment is effective.
IPP's now make up an estimated 12% of the
nauon'li energy supply.
Third, and most imponanlly, there is
money 10 be made. Cook describes the profit
motivation this way: "Because there is no
regulatory limit on their returns. the
independent power producers have plenty of
incentive 10 cut costs anywhere they can. For
an independent producer. a penny saved is a
penny earned. For a regulated utility, a penny
saved over the allowed rate of return risks
being returned to the consumers in lower
rates."
The present attempt at limiting PUHCA,
Senator Johnston's National Security Act of
199 I, proposes to create a new type of !PP
called an Exempt Wholesale Generator (EWG)
that would fall out.~ide PUHCA's scrutiny.
As Leonard Greenberger put it in an
anicle in Public Utilities Fortnightly in March,
1991: "Anyone could own an EWG. including
today's registered and non-registered holding
companies. Facilities now under construction
could only become EWG's with slllte
approval, while affilitatcs of registered holding
companies already in existence would need a
green ligh1 from the SEC."
n ,e new ruling would point the power
companies back toward the days before
PUI fCA regulation when the energy industry
was a maze of holding companies and
subsidiaries - a confusing tangle in which ii
was often easy to conceal hidden profits and
diffuse accountability.
Power purchased from EWG's would be
sold to consumers at a price regulated by the
state utilities commissions, or by the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission if the power
crossed state lines. But any profits realized
from the economical generation of power by
these EWG's would go back 10 the EWG or 10
the utility company that owned 1he EWG.
Savings would not have to be handed back to
the consumer.
While it was totally predictable that the
public consumers would be the last to enjoy
any benefit from this shift, there are also some
utilities that are skeprical about the impending
change - thus the squabble between CP&L and
Duke Power.
Spea.kjng for utilities like CP&L, Don D.
Jordan of Houston Lighting and Power states:
"Tampering with the highly evolved and
complicated s1ruc1urc of our nation's electric
industry is nothing shon of imperiling the
security nnd reliability of a vital part of the
nation's economy. The real test of reliability is
whether the power will be there when ii is
needed."
So they say. But the real issue for CP&L
is the balance of power within the industry.
Some of the uLilities. like Duke Power, have
been ambitious and aggressive, acting more
like Fortune 500 corporations than service
organizations. Other:;, like CP&L, do no1 share
Duke's appe1i1e for unmitigated competition.
They have relied more on the legal structure
that protected their 1erri10ry and their status as
regulated monopolies. They are afraid of being
carved up and eaten alive. They fear that bit by
bit their territory and functions will be taken
over by EWG's that are subsidiaries of
companies like Duke.
Another area of concern for this group of
utilities is the access 1ha1 EWG's will enjoy to
1he utilities' transmission lines. They fear that
the EWG's. should they be able 10 gain access
10 the public utility transmission lines and use
l,lmtc r
191Jl-92
�-··"'JI
energy that developed after the war. The
public, mindful of the burning oil fields in
Kuwait, will be willing 10 embrace Johnston's
new bill, the National Energy Security Act.
because it promises to create new supplies of
energy - a comforting notion 10 consumers v.ho
witnessed mass quantities of pett0leum energy
going irretrievably up in smoke. And it wa:;
definitely unsexy 10 join Jimmy Caner in
turning down the thermostat 11nd wearing a
wool sweater in the house.
The Gulf War may ultimately prove 10 be
our undoing - abroad and at home.
Veronica Nichnlas was formerly a cmuiry
commissioner in Jackson Counry, NC. For ten
years she lias dnne bartk with the Nantal,ola
Power and Ugh1 Company,fim 10 keep in 1he
moun1ai,is 1he henefils ofpower generated
from 11wU11111in lakes, and 1hen oi·er I~ siting
of a high-w,_lrage power line 1hro~1gh
~
Transyl\·0J11a and Jackson Counnes
r.'
NWN (con1111uedfro,n par, 21)
RATILERSENDANGERED
N:ll\lnl World New, Sc,..ice
In Scpccmbcr, 1991 I.he Biodiversity Legat
Foundauon or Bouldct, CO and IC$Cal'Cher Andrew
Wci.~burd fonnally pctilioocd the US F"ISh and Wildlife
Sernce 10 list the timber raulesn:ike (Crota!ILJ horr,diu}
3li .i tndangcrod ,;pccics unde1 the Endangered Species
Act .
them as they liked, would choose to do
business with only the most profitable
customers and leave the utilities with a base of
high-cost residential customers and small
business customers.
On the other side of the issue is Duke
Power, the leader of the coalition of utilities
advocating changes in the PUHCA and a
company anxious to gain a share of the EWG
business. In the withdrawal of PUHCA
oversight that the Johnston bill seeks, Duke can
expect a return to the good old days of
monopoly before the Great Depression when
the trusts were fTce to work their will. They
are looking for the day when once again "big
fish eat little fish."
Whatever the tum of events, we, the
rate-payers, will be the losers. Marie N.
Cooper, director of research for the Consumer
redcration of ArncriC3 put it this way: "Captive
consumers bear all the risks of deregulatory
schemes (like Senator Johnston's) that say 'let
the market work and see what happens'
because they (consumers) arc the weakest
actors in the market. If the market does not
work, it is the residential consumer who pays."
So, no matter what changes come to
PUHCA, the consumer stands to lose, because
utilities, no matter which side they choose in
the PUHCA debate, fail to understand that the
real key to their profitability lies not in
mcreascd production but in conservation.
For instance, in 1989 the 1ocassee
Wlnter, 1991-92
Watershed Coalition was organized to prevent
Duke from building a pumped storage .station in
the Coley Creek basin of South Carolina.
According to Bill Thomas. co-chair of the
group, "When we looked into the proposed
project, we rcali1.cd that energy efficiency was
an even bigger issue than Coley Creek itself."
The coalition hired the Energy Systems
Research Group of Boston to analyze
conservauon and mnnagc:ment programs that
could help reduce energy demands on Duke.
This investigation showed ulrimatcly that the
replacement of all the lightbulbs in the service
area with energy-efficient models could save as
much energy as the Coley Creek project would
produce - at about one-third the cost
If this is so. then the question is, "Why
arc the utilities persisting in their plans 10 create
more energy projects instead of pursuing
conservation tactics?"
The answer to this question is nor very
difficult when one remembers that it is the US
Department of Energy (the same people who
brought us Oak Ridge, TN and Rocky Flats,
Colorado), that is making the judgments about
our future energy needs. With this in mind, it
is easier 10 understand why utility companies
behave the way they do and why they fail to
realize that conservation can spell profitability.
We can understand even more clearly if
we put the expected PUHCA reforms in the
context of the Persian Gulf War. Energy
legislation has become sexy, in the wake of the
heightened national consciousness about
Orawina by Rob Mcssidi:
The timber raider once ranged from Minnesota to
Texas. from the Atlanlic C01$1 wes1 to the urpc1
reaches oC the MJssoun Riva. It occurred in brgc
number.; throughou1 the woodlands th:n once covcrod
the whole or eastern Turlle Island. Raum play an
imponant p.111 in the forest ecology, feeding prinwily
on ~mall rodcms. and young rauJcsnakes thcmsel,ea
being prey to hawks and owb.
The timber ratllcr was Utsa'nori in the liinguage
or the Cherokee Indian!!, who con~idctcd the aea!ul'c a
"grandfaihcr," or spintually powct(ul being. M.iny of
the naovc tnbcs coosiJcr the umber l'IIUla the guardian
or the Earth's sacred place$. The species was once so
common that the nauvc people s:ud that it ~ put oo
Earth to rem ind the humans 10 wau:h wbcsc they 51ep.
The lllllbcr rawer IS cxrn:mcly scns1bve to
human di sturbmcc and Cll'IDOt Ii vc rn I.be pro~un1ty of
human beings. The budding of roads and ORV traib
into previously isolaled snaJce h.lb1tat areas, incn:asing
resort and !ICCOlld home devclopmenr. commc:n:ial snake
hunung. I.he clearing ol bouomland forests for
agric:ulrure. and d11cet persecution ol timber nullen by
human beings in informal or govcrnmenl-sancboncd
raulcsn:lkc hunts and roWldups 1w caused the
near-dclnise or the species.
Tocby thcrc are on1 y a handful ol kx:atiom "'here
I.he bmbcr raulcsnake exists in numbers that arc
sufficient to aUow the species to SUtVivc. Most of these
critical sites have inadequate pro4«uon. Many other
popul3lions arc II a point where lddi6onal persecution
wall ~ult in ciu.irplllOO.~. In the SOlllhcm
Applllachllll\S, wnber raulets-,: n:stnctcd to the mos1
rugged and rcmoet locauons.
The F"I.Sb and Wildlife Service IS cxpccled 10
n:tum a finding on the Biodivasity Lep1 Found:u1011
pcbtion 'l0fflcumc in December.
For addition.al 1nformation, contact Jasper
Carlton or the BiodivcrsiLy Lcpl Foonda1ion: Box
18327; Bouldct, CO 80308 (303) 491).@9I.
(conllmll!d on paac 32)
�r
LITMUS LICHENS
The pages of Karuah Journal have
reponed eittensively on a well-known
indicator species known as the Black Bear.
The health and well-being of Ibis large
mammal has been shown to reflec1 that of the
mountain bioregion we inhabit. I recently
came across an article in the November 1991
issue of Discover magazine lhat brought to
light another form of life that directly reflects,
or indicates, the condition of a crucial clement
of any bioregion; namely the air. This form of
life is called Lichens, of which there arc over
20,000 species worldwide.
The article by Edwin Kies1er Jr. poimed
001 tha1 lichens have no roots. They collect all
their water and food from the air. Through
their life processes they also absorb wha1ever
contaminants are in the air. Unselective caters
that they arc, they can soak up carbon dioxide,
sulfur dioitide, heavy metals, radiation, and
dust Lichens can hold on to lhese chemical
and radioactive contaminan1s even if i1 kills
them. Yct every form of lichen is not
susceptible to 1he same pollu1an1s.
There is a spectrum of sensitivity lha1
can be drawn for each lichen species, and
among lichen species in an ccosys1em, wilh
regard to accumulations of different
contaminants. For instance, some varieties can
tolerate relatively high concentrations of
sulfur, while it may only sicken some and kill
others. By using this kind of grading system
of the known tolerances of different species of
lichen to various contaminants, scientists can
make a record of a region's air quality over
time. Pollution sources can be uaced by
plotting prevailing wind patterns for ao area
and noting whether the species of lichen that
arc sensitive to a given pollutant arc cl3maged
or not.
This sensirivity of lichen hos been used
in European countries to study the paths of
aunospheric contaminants. Lichenological
studies are just beginning in the United States
and Canada, yet there arc some telling
eumples emerging from work I.hat has been
done so far. In the Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio
greater than 80% of lichen species have
disappeared since they were tracked by
naturalists I00 years ago. In the valley called
the Delaware Water Gap between
Pennsylvania and nonhcrn New Jersey, 60%
of Lichen species that have been recorded there
in the last century have perished due 10 the
effluvia of nonhcrn industrial cities.
Lichens arc actually a composite of two
different organisms known as fungus and
algae. The united organisms fonn a mesh
called a thallus in which a fungus threads itself
around algal cells and enclose them. The algal
panicipam provides sugars through
photosynthesis which the fungus uses in
making its own nutrients. The fungal
participant in turn gathers moisture and
minerals from the air that arc used by the algal
cells. One way 10 describe this symbiotic
relationship would be to say that the alga and
fungus arc eating from each other, only they
do not cat each other fast enough or in such a
way I.hat the whole organism tenninatcs.
Lichens are found in nearly every
Xoti«lrl Joun~ j~~c 24'
continental ecosystem on the planet. from
underneath the cover of ice and snow in
An1aretiea, to tundra, temperate forest zones,
and dcsens. They cling to stone statues,
rocks, and trees in the apparent shapes of
shrubs, disks, hair, and even as dashes of
brightly colored ink. Some of them can live
more 1han 4,000 years - think about lha1 next
rime you start up one of those sulfur-spewing
devices!
Lichens can provide a way of
monitoring the potcnriaJ for ecological damage
due 10 air-borne pollutants I.hat is far cheaper
ch.an using electrical gauges. Electrical gauges
can be spread out in a given area and linked by
computer 10 indicate when cenain pollutants
pass a safe level. However, the costs in staff'
and equipment are prohibitive 10 their
widespread use. A scientist studying lichen
can collect samples from specific sites and do
tests to find ow what contaminants arc present
and in what concentrations. These
lichenologists can also transport specific
lichens, on logs for instance, from less
contaminated sites to more contaminated sites
to monitor air quality.
One method of testing lhc chemical
composition of lichen is 10 heat it in a furnace
until it convens into gaseous oxide forms.
From there this gas can be piped into a
detector to read its chemical signatures.
Another method involves plasma atomic
emission specttometry in which the lichens are
liquified with an acid and injected into a
plasma (or hot ionized gas). This process gets
the chemical elements to emit distinctive
waves of energy that can be identified on a
specttomcter. This method can record over a
dozen different chemical elements in lichens.
When lichen dies it means that it:.
chlorophyll has been destroyed, and ii usunlly
turns white. Yet it is now possible for rates of
photosynthesis in the algal cells of lichen 10 be
measured for damage long before the lichen
turns visibly white. This has been discovered
in work done by Thomas Nash from Arizona
State University. He has discovered that in
Drawing by Rob Messick
Los Angeles one major reason why a species
of lichen known as Rama/itl(J menziesii has
died out is that the lichen absorbs nitrates from
car exhaust which impairs its ability 10
perform photosynthesis.
Human beings have used lichens for
dyes, as in the tweeds of Scotland, and the
Chinese have used a fonn of "old man's
beard"' lichen as an antibiotic. One of the most
well-known uses of lichen can be found in a
species called "cudbear". This lichen produces
the chemical erythrolimum which is used to
make lianus paper turn blue or red in the
presence of alkalies or acids. Their "liunus"
use now appears to be eitpanding to include
bio-geogmphical air quality testing.
Some kinds of lichen arc even edible;
but they have a bitter taste (which may not
mauer 10 you if you were starving in the forest
but for most folks it isn't anything of a
delicacy). Some deer routinely cat cenain
species oflichen. This proved particularly
dangerous in Finland, Norway, and Sweden,
as cesium 137 from the Chernobyl nuclear
accident drifted into the food chain there entering via lichens and passing on through
the deer and on to people. The return of
heallhy lichen 10 an area, however, will be a
~
harbinger of clean airs to come.
Rob Messick
FLAMES
The: spuit, its passion.
desiring imcns,ty,
WM!ing to feel the heat,
longing to iouch, to caress
the creative spark
The same heat tha1 wanns the
garden soil, opens the rlIC pine to
birth. and runs down the largest hem lock
scarring its majesty. this now, is the: force
you wish to call your own
With cnch step
the d::inger intre3SCS,
with each movement towards
lllere 1., no lhought of turning back,
or deny mg the allunng pull.
Own the flames •
Ille only wny through
Plunging inio the inferno
The pyre now asscns dominion
Thal long ago lhough1 of harnessing
Her power now seems ridieulous,
The: flames rise. the flesh scrcams 0111. each
cell bums as on ember
Tum back, hurry
before all is destroyed.
No! D:lre 10 face Hu,
IOUCh Her, become Her,
A gasp, a sigh. a surrender,
you are Home
LyMFink
Wlnter, 1991-92
�READING THE INNER TREE
by Charloue Homsher
There are many ways to get visual clues
from the inner 1ree, 10 recognize which trees are
more powerful or have a special function in the
area. Age and beauty are detennining factors,
but not the only ones.
Last summer I hiked the Shanry Spring
Trail on Gmndfa1her Mountain with a group
that included two women who "read" trees in
very different ways. The Shanty Spring Trail is
a very old Indian trail. The treeS there seem
particularly lively and aware. as though they
have been observing humans for eons. When
we crune 10 a large red oak with long branches
hanging over the trail and roots growing into
the path, one of 1he tree readers exclaimed
excitedly that we had arrived at a gateway tree.
She described gateway trees as guardians of an
area and enirance gates to the mysteries of a
specific trail. The second woman hesitated,
remarking that it was indeed a powerful tree but
that she saw sad faces in the bark. We
examined 1he red oak and found symptoms of
disease under the bark. The tree was indeed in
severe distress, and it was probably dying.
Farther up the trail, the woman who had
recognized the gateway tree pointed out another
oak which she identified as being the elf
throne. The seat of the throne was a large, flat
rock which was auached to the tree and
supponed by the limbs. This tree reader's
primary way of seeing rrces is to recognize
their function in the devic kingdom. We found
the queen's throne nearby and also the large
auached rock garden which was supposedly the
fairy queen's nursery. This mammoth rock was
covered with dainty, miniature flowers and a
variety of well-tended mosses and fems.
Between two layers of the rock was a delicate
crystalline outcropping. The gardener in
question would be a nature spirit or one of the
Huie people. Interestingly, there was a side path
from the trail all around this rock, made by the
many hikers who have been intuitively drawn
to that special garden.
My methods of reading trees visually
have changed over the years. One of the most
profound changes in sight and attitude was
after a brief encounter I had with an old man
who had studied various esoteric traditions. He
had offered to teach me a new way 10 see. I did
not have the foggiest idea what he was talking
about at the time. I was a college student taking
art classes and I defined the visuaJ world with
aesthetic j~dgments. His idea was that any kind
of value judgment was a limited way of seeing,
and that the only way to see beyond the outer
form was to look at an object with no
preconceived notions about what it should or
should not be. We spent the afternoon in the
school cafeteria practicing the technique with
coffee cups.
By applying this technique to narure I
learned to see in a deeper way. but I was not
entirely successful. Like most people. if I
describe a tree poetically, it is in anthropomorphic terms, which. of itself i_s :1 value
judgment - actually species chauv1m~m.
Probably the tree reader who recogmzed ~es
as fairy thrones is closer 10 the truth of seerng
the inner tree, since she is able to see the tree as
having a function completely outside the
similarities 10 human existence. The best I have
done as a purely visual kind of intuition is to
l'1mtcr, 19!11 -92
Drawing by Rob Mcniel
recognize that trees do have individual
personalities which may have something 10 do
with the growth pattern. I can sometimes sense
a tree's power, calmness. or distress. But it is
still the visual judgments which give me the
quickest and sharpest clues. This way of seeing
or judging a tree is based on outward fonn.
almost like classifying body types.
The Tanaic yogis in India still worship at
holy shrines inside pipal trees which have
cavernous openings reminiscent of the womb.
These huge trees are supposed 10 contain more
of the Shakti energy or female creative energy.
The yogis also consid~r trees_ sacr~d whic~
have female-like crevices or in which the hmbs,
burls or bark have grown 10 look like the
female torso. These are called the female yoni
trees. Determining the sex of a tree this way is
purely visual and has nothing to do with the
botanical function. There are trees which are
divided in10 male and female. Among these are
1he ginkgo, Kentucky coffeetree, and holly.
I see a lot of yoni trees. l think that they
are the teacher trees of our time. The male
equivalent of the yoni tree in the mountains
would be the giant hemlock trees. The
hemlocks are the sentinels of the woods. They
are like the antennae of the Eanh. They take the
cosmic energy and shoot it into the Eanh. thus
energizing the whole area around which they
grow.
There are guardian trees, gateways,
teachers, grandparent trees, and trees in which
spiritS or fairy people live. Trees also have .
relationships to each other. The natlll1!1 world 1s
an organic whole, and the larger the p1ct11n: we
can encompass, the greater our understanding.
l don't think anthropomorphic clues cnn tell us
everything, yet using them is a valid way (O
observe the inner tree. If trees nre the scnucnt,
aware beings that I suspect they are. then they
are quite cognizant of the crutches that we
need. They communicate with us, via a crude
sign language. They give us clues by the shape
of the trunk, faces in the bark. by 1he
mushrooms or rocks that have become a pan of
the tree, the animals that live inside 1he trunk
or on the branches, or any other obvious signs
which we can learn by observation. ~
WHERE THE RA VE!\S ROOST:
Cherokee Traditional Songs of Walker Calhoun
Will West Long was a well-known
craftsperson and spiritual leader of the
Cherokee tribe in the first half of this century.
He knew the old tribal traditions were dying
and worked to keep them. He passed much
infomuuion on to c1hnologis1 Jnmes Mooney
and also taught his family and other tribal
members who garhered at his home in Big
Cove on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
One of those he taught was his nephew
Walker Calhoun. Walker remembers tr.tiling
along after the dancers at the community
Ceremonial Ground 50 years ago. Walker,
too, saw that the dances and songs were in
danger of disappearing, and several years ago
he, as his uncle had done before, resolved 10
see that they were carried on.
Walk.er (as he told us in the las, issue of
the Katualr Journal) has revived the Green
Com Ceremony and the monthly stomp
dances at the Raven Rock Nighthawk
Ceremonial Ground. He is teaching the
traditional social dances to a group of young
people. among them several of his 23
grandchildren. who perform as the Raven
Rock Dancers.
At the first great convocation of the
Eastern and Western Bands of the Cherokee
nation at Red Clay, TN in 1988, Walker was
presented with the first Sequoyah A ward for
his service 10 his people. ln 1990 Walker was
a recipient of the North Carolina Folk Heritage
Award.
As part of his restoration effort, Walker
has recorded a tape of traditional songs (with
two Chrisrian spirituals as well) for the
.
Mountain Heritage Center of Western Carolina
University. The tape contains several of the
best-known Cherokee dance songs, as well as
short commentaries on the songs and the
stories and practices that surrounded them.
These are undeniably authentic - unbroken
traditions that extend many generations back
into the human history of this region. An
explanatory bookie~ with an introduction an~ a
complete transcripuon of the songs and stones
acoompanies the tape.
Jn Where the Ravens Roosr, Walker
Calhoun has given us an irreplaceable gift: a
glimpse at the native inhabitantS' a:ibal past
and an inspiration for 1he community of the
future.
Where the Ravens Roostfear11resflure
music composed and played by Eddie
Bushylread. Tire rape was rec~rded_ and edited
/Jy Michael Kli11e. Sou11d engmuring /Jy
Kevin FirzParrick
For a copy, send S/0.00 plus $/ .00
shipping and J,andlillg to the Mo_untain_
.
Herilage Center; Wesrem Caro/ma Unn·er.nry;
Cullowhee, NC 28723.
X.Otunh Jou.nm{.
p<l{)e 25
�; ........ w .,.,.. ., ,
~
,.11
I
x ··
AROUND THE FIRE
Wood Selection and Firemaking
by Lee Barnes
Green SpiritS gift humankind with the
captured warmth of sunshine, providing fuels
for warmth, cooking, and the luxury or
campfire stories. Campfires act as a center for
our human activity, a focus forlanguage
development. socialization, and srory-tclling
(oral histories).
Having spcn1 years backpacking and
building campfires, I offer the following
suggestions for reducing your impact on the
forest First, carry a one-burner camp-stove
for cooking - a stove will quickly provide hot
foods without depicting the local area of slowly
accumulated firewoods.
If you must make fire, keep it small and
efficient. Tfind most novice campers insist on a
campfire, even in summer, suggesting that
campfires wann our deeper selves. Large
campfires arc wasteful of Green Spirits,
releasing years of harvested sunshine in
seconds. Burning plant cells robs lhc local
canh of recycled nutrients and organic bulk
which would otherwise result in improved
topsoil tcxrurc and nuoient holding ability. In
respect to Green SpiritS, try to keep fires 10 a
minimum for your needs - build small
campfires which provide light and steady heat;
use them for as short a time as possible.
While backpacking during a hurricane,
and prior tO carrying a camp-stove, I learned
how to find dry woods for campfires.
Sufficient dry wood for small personal
campfires can be found after even a week of
hard rains. Wood collection begins with lhe
gathering of dry tinder, and sufficieni dead and
dry tree limbs. Gather "squaw-wood"
(historically named for woods easily collected
and broken by squaws) from young trees,
especially lower dead branches of hemlock,
laurel, birch-bark:. and "lighter wood" (the
"fat-wood" of resinous pine and many
evergreens). Laurel (Kalmia /01ifolia) produces
poisonous fumes and should not be used as a
primary fuel source for cooking.
The best tinder-woods are the resinous
conifers (pine, fir, spruce, hemlock) or the
easily-peeled birch barks. Collec1 only woods
which snap cleanly in two. Throw back any
woods which bend or twist.
I find that I can scout the camping area
and find sufficient dry wood for cooking and
campfires without carrying a saw or axe.
Select dry branches which can be easily broken
over your knee or by elevating one end on a log
or stone, then stomping oo the them to yield
firewood of uniform length. I generally look
for dead branches which arc supported off the
ground. Search the low branches overhead for
wind-fall branches and for small dead trees.
Ct's easiest to look for wood on the high
ground around the camp since i1 is easier to
drag an armful of branches down to camp
rather than up! Look for a variety of small to
IMget" sized dead bnmchcs, seeking a larger
supply of branches in the 1/2-to- 4" diameter
size.
In camp, sort your woods by breaking
the smallest twigs into uniform lengths. A
large handful of the smallest twigs (1/8-1/4 "
in diameter and 5-6" long) should be sufficient.
Xotiiah Journot p!UJ& 26
Break I.he remaining branches into longer, say,
12-20 inch lengths. I find it easiest to
progress with the smaller branches, breaking
up the same diameter branches into similar
lengths. Th.is process should result in several
piles of uniform sized twigs which will make
adding fuel to the fire easy and efficient.
Avoid collecting much "spit-fire" woods
which randomly "pop" and eject chunks of
burning coals. These woods are great as small
tinder, since they rapidly bum and ignite larger
diameter branches. "Spit-fire" woods to be
avoided include juniper (red cedar), hemlock,
fir, spruce, sassafras. soft pines, sugar maple,
beech, and hickory. Overall, the best fuel
woods for campfires arc hickory, chestnut oak,
black locust, dogwood, and ash. White ash is
considered one of the bes1 woods for campers,
since even the green wood catches fire easily.
Tulip poplar is abundant in Ka1uah Province,
but bums quickly without developing any
long-heating coals. Horace Kephan, a
well-published authority on camping and
woodcraft, suggests a rule of thumb: "Avoid
drift-wood accumulated along stream banks,
since most of the timber which grows along
streams are softwoods."
Small teepee-shaped piles of tinder arc
easily ignited. Once a small blaze is going, add
10 the it from the pre-sorted piles of dry
branches nearby. These near-vertical piles bum
quickly and provide maximum light. Build
your fires between 1wo rows of stones which
arc open on the windward and downwind sides
to allow better airflow. Staek additional wood
on the downwind side for better burning. Once
a good base of coo.ls have developed, lay larger
branches more horii.ontally over the coals,
allowing good air-spaces between branches.
Push the remaining unburnt ends of branches
into the fire so that all woods arc burnt and
only ashes remain. Before you leave your
campsite, remove lhe stones and spread (or
bury) the cold ashes so that there is no sign of
your passing. Leave nolhing but footprints !
Firewoods for modem stoves vary
greatly in their heat-values, both for absolute
stored energy and lasting heat. Air-dried
hardwoods average 5,800 British thermal unitS
(BTU's) per pound, whereby it is estimated
Drawings by Rob Mc.sick
that 10,000 BTIJ's are required to heat water
for an average sized load of laundry. The NC
Division of Forest Resources provides
estimates comparing energy equivalentS for a
standard cord of wood (a cord of wood is
defined as a stack of wood 4x4x8 feet or about
80 cubic feet of solid wood). Based oo
laboratory derived values for heating values of
wood, a cord of wood is roughly equivalent to
a ton of bituminous coal or 5900 kilowatts of
electricity or 143 gallons of#2 heating oil.
Preferred woods include hickory. oak, and
locust. Avoid softwoods such as pine. A
modem wood stove avernges 50% efficiency
whereas burning wood in an open fireplace is
only 10% efficient.
Home-grown fuel and fiber sources are
critical for the independence of au1onomous
bioregions. Homesteaders have estimated that
10 acres of Eastem Atlantic mixed deciduous
forest should be sufficient 10 provide for the
sustainable heating needs of an average
household. Sustainable fanns must promote the
production of renewable, locally produced fuel
resources, such as fast growing legumes and
other nitrogen-fixing trees planted as
windbreaks and hedges. The first step to
minimize your impact on the forest is to build
small, energy-efficient homes. It is imponant to
the survival of humans and our plant allies that
we no1 waste their wooden gifts.
12th Song of Venta the Naturalist
beneath the polished blue stone of sky
and suffering its ancient oppression
with ancestral stoicism
i slowly finger my rugged beard
and question the grass and ils idle greening
no major answers were given;
and no miracle of nanue
rolled forth on the lawn
10 bury my soul beneath mystical rebuttals
about unreachable conclusions.
beneath the polished blue stone of sky
and recognizing its ubiquitou.~ face
as a fellow freak of fate
macerated for lack of knowledge on a planet
where blue and intelligent things die.
bray
mcdona/d
t.,iotcr. 1991-92
�grabbing my old box guiiar and headmg mlO lhc forest
so nature and I could trade our songs with each ocher.
Nawre's songs arc far mo~ beautiful and comforting,
bul lhe Grea1 Gn1ndfalhcr spirit knows my healt. and
my small songs are acceptable. Often I leave the guitar
al home, so i1's one on one.
I lhough1 you mighl wan1 to consider this (which
is a form of worship lO me) os a possible iopic of
di51cussion. Keep up the faithful work, and Mr.
Messick. !hank you for the inspired and inspiring
DRUMMING
LETTE RS TO KATUAH
anwork.
Ught, Love, &. Life,
Jeff Zachary
Deru- Ko1uah Family,
This pan of Turtle Island cnlled home is the
ecoione of Kaulah and the Cumberland Green
Bioregions. The divide is here on lhe IOp of the
Cumberland Plaleau. We arc fanning a community
whose drainage goes inlO Kauiah Province. My wife
Joan and I have stayed in lOUCh with both regions for a
long lime. Ka1uah is home lO us. The people, plllces,
and energies arc alive and connected. I have passed on
many copies of your joumal over the yea.rs as I have
promoted the nelwork.ing of kindled spirilS. Keep up the
grtal work. Receiving lhe journal is always an exciting
evenL You do more than you n:aliu, and J wanted you
10 know thru your voice is heard far and wide. We feel
lhal we call Kau1nh home even though we rcsl on the
far weslem edge. I wanted you 10 know that we are with
you. Bravol
Namasie,
SanfOtd McGee
Tkfollowing is e.xu rpttdfrqm o longer ltllu.
Dear Fncnds •
Five years ago, K01uah Journol published an
anicle on the CenlCt for Awakening, described as a plllcc
where people can "consciously live and consciously
die." llS purpose was 10 provide termin!llly ill people
with the suppon they needed lO make the tranSition inlO
The Medilltion project has the mission or
"peaceful conflict resolution." HSE rccognius Ihm
mediation has a greater chance o( achieving hnnnony
than docs litigation.
There arc no J)(lid employees a1 HSA. There are
no fees for clicnl scrvtCCS. The Boord members each
votun10er more than 50 hours a month, and not a single
Board member has missed any or the Board meetings
since HSA came inlo being.
Volun!UtS are welcome regardless of their
experience level. HSA makes il easy for people with
children lO volun1ocr. Janice Ayers, a long-time
volumccr, says, "By volun1eering with your children,
you can teach them how 10 care about others." If a
volunteer shows an interest m a particular area, he or
she is lralned 10 be effective in lhal a,ca. Room and
boaro are provided, and the volunLCCrs come away with a
sense of being part of something grealer lhan
themselves, of having given sorn cthing back lO life.
The spark which embodies this service
organization has resulted in HSA's recognition by
Prcsidcnl Bush as one of the Thousand PoinlS or LighL
To see this sprutc continue lO grow, Board members
would be glad lo help others SUIJt their own facilities lO
serve humankind.
dcalh.
The spa,k behind the Ccnw for Awakening has
continued 10 grow inlO a sicady. burning rue. through
five years of tranSfonnation, lO wha1 is now called
Human Service Alliance (HSA). HSA is now localed
between Greensboro and Winsum-Salem, easily
accessible from lnterslate 40 and available lO an
expanded populruion of clients and voluniurs. II serves
clients in four diffcren1 programs: Respiie Care
Program. Center for the TC11T1inally Ill, Health and
Wellness Program, and the Mediation ProjccL
ln the Respi1e Carc Program, weekend crue in a
supportive environment is offered lO physically or
developmenlally disabled children, gavmg their parents a
break from lhe Slte.SSCS of dealing wilh special needs day
in and day OUL
A brand-new 8,000 square fool btulding houses
the Ccn1er for the Tenninally Ill (CTI). errs purpose
is lO give gucslS the personal a1ienllon and Jove lhat
they deselvc, IClting them know as they approach the
uansition from life IO death that they are wonhwhile
people. One volumccr observed once thru all Ullflie
Sl01>$ lO allow a funeral procession 10 pass, in essence
)Xlying tribule lO the deceased indJV1dual. CTI is here to
"stop lhc t.mflic" for a dying pen;on while he/she is still
alive.
The Health and WcUness program is alc;o housed
in lhe CTI facilily. Its goal is 10 help clients assume
responsibility for their own health. A !Cam of
votunlCCl's with a vocation or avocation an health-related
areas assists each cliem in gciting lO 1he underlying
cause of health problems, rather than jus1 ucaling the
sympioms.
lv~nt.er, 1991-92
t - t I 1. •
• ").'
Jo Ellen Ca,son
Human Service Alliance
3983 Old Greensboro Rd.
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Dear Koruah,
I loved lhe Fall '91 issue from fron1 lO back.
"Songs in the Wildcmcss" by Charloue Homsher (p.
24) brought an idea 10 mind, one I'm familiar with.
Native music. be il nute, drums, voice,
whruevcr - and its impon on na1ure (Bild vise versa)
would be an excellent focu.\ for a future Ka1uah Journal.
All my life, pe1.1Ce of mind has been as close as
Orawin& by Mane Moms
I
"
"
Dear K01uah Friends,
I think it's lime to renew my subscription. l
really enjoy all your issues, good articles and flllC
artworks. Someday I'm going to order a few of them
from Rob Messick.
WeU I'd fjlce to let you know lha1 Ills! September
I was a1 lhe "Shasta Bioregional Gathc.ring." I had a
greru time • deep feeling. I meet many beautiful people
there; from Judy and Peier Berg. Freeman House, Jim
Dodge CIC ••• and especially Ga,y Snyder, a vuy special
person. I wished to come and visi1 you loo, bul works
at home piesscd me lO jcl back early.
O.K., my daily ecoccntric practice is improving.
The llalilln Wildemcss Association has rccenlly
instituted two Wilderness Areas in nonh and south
llaly. The llallan Bioregional Movement is going fine.
Last month we had lhe "Founh Bioregional Camp." I
was there speaking for the wilderness.
Hope this lcuer finds you well and an good spirit
For lhe Eanh,
Moretti Giuseppe
ManlOva llaly
nott: lfey. Mort/Ii, don't wait t<>C Ions It> order
ort -work. Arri.SIS don't live forevu you luww! RM
Dear Friends,
WE NEED HaP ! 11
Despiie ever-increasing protest, a dam in
Czorsnyn in the Plcniny Mount.ains in Poland has been
under COIISltUClion since 1968. Since 1989 young
ecologists and annrchists have crganaed blockndes of
the dam. A geological cawuophc lhrealCnS 10 desuoy
Pleniny National Park's hisiorical relics: castles from
1hc middle ages, manor houses, churches, lnldilional
buildings, exceptionally inieresung villages, and
valuable natural clements.
There is no rational reason ror buildulg the dam.
lnlellcclUals oppose lhe dam; among these professionals
are nwncrous well-known scicnllSlS. This year's
blockade suutcd on July 1. The police action was
exceptionally brulal. II was an exueme show of foroe
and power. The following damages occurred from this
suong-a,ming (as of July 4 injuries): a girl with
concussion. a boy with a damaged kidney. The couns
have thus fa,imposcd f"ines of 40,000 • 800,000?1 on
the young ecologists.
A hunger strike was sWled in fron1 of the
Environment Minasiry on July 6. We REQUEST
HELP through lhe picketing and bloclclde of Polish
Embassies!
Members or the bloc:k.ade in Czo~1>11
6July 1991
P.S Please make these f.lcts known; ,;pread thi.~
infonnation further.
Pragowrua KulUU')' Tcay
Siowawyokeme
35--016 Kraslcow, uL Polcaiego Sf].1
Td 53- 772
I
Xatucin 1oumQ{. ooa& Z7
I " I ,, IJll1 I
rn·;_.,,, •
-
�Dc.KatUllh,
To tbc cdit0r.
r have just moo articles on lhe repeated violiuions
charged agrunst lhe Champ,on Pulp and Pnper Co. and
its continued indifference toward lhe honible c:ondil.ion
or lhe Pigeon River.
We don't expect the Slate of Nonh Carolina lO
enforce laws intended 10 prevent Oulmpion's flagrant
indiffcrcncc to lhc wishes of the people, but it would
seem lh3111llhet than plea-bargain the pclUllties for
turning lhe once beautiful river inlO an industrial sewer.
lhe Environmental Pro<cction Agency would apply the
full foru or lhe lnw Gt iis disposal fot lhc.,c vioouions.
Al the S111T1e lime I.hat Champion has been lClling
slorics about the great fishing in Clyde and au.empting
to beliulc lhc warnings of lhe known danger of dioxin
Lo anyone foolish enough 10 eat any fish caught in lhc
river downstream from Champion's decrepit old mill.
more and more people are becoming awurc of lhc
damage Champion bas done, and continues 10 do, IO
what could be one of God's greatest gifts co lhe people
and wildlife of this region.
I am expccung 10 hear any day that lhe famous
fish fry Champion puts on foe lhe newly decied
politicians in Raleigh will now fcalll!C fish from the
Pigeon River, probably lhe most dangerously polluied
sewer in this otherwise bcaullful area.
Because of the state of Norlh Carol.ina's
indifference to lhe Pigeon River scandill, we should all
be thankful 10 our neighbors in Tennessee for lhe
in!clliguru and courageous Stand !hey have taken to
clean up the river, from lhcoutfall 111lhc mill all lhc
way into Tennessee.
Thnnks and sinccrc appieciatiOn for lhc growing
support we arc getting from environmental groups and
lhc people in general.
Dick Mullinix
Pigeon River Action Group
Dear Ko/Uah,
We arc a group of students at the Arthur Morgan
School, and we'd like IO shllrc our feelings about lhc
milillll')' maru:uvcrs Iha! will be going on ID Yancey
County on November 4lh - 9lh of 199I. As u:enagc,s
of !his coun1.1y we believe !hat our opiniOns should not
only be IJlken into account, but should be rcspec:ICd as
well.
It's so peaceful bese. We really don'1 likc 10 have
our home turned 1mo a praclice wn, rone. I1 feels like
you arc really going to bomb us. Do you rcali7.e wh:11
you arc practicing for? Why docs lhere have 10 be a ncx1
time?
You arc crossing the line of our beliefs, because
we don't suppon the use of violence 10 solve problems.
Even if the miliwy got permission from some people,
!hey did not gel permission from us. We don't believe
lhcse mow11ains or any other land should have anything
10 do wilh war.
How is !his helping the people of Yancey
County work for peace?
Thank you foe list.cning,
David Barrett
Monrovia Van Hoose
Byron Eastman
MoUy Levin
Cedar Johnson
Rose Testa
Alice Delcoun
(The three social studi~ classes ot the Arthur Morgon
School ore studying contemporary issues. Similar
le11us were receivedfrom the rwo other closszs al tilt
school.)
DcarKotuah,
I am saying lhllnlc you to Cbarloue Homsher for
·songs in lhe Wilderness.· Again she has jogged my
inherent nature memory, awakening a beauty of my
own 1h31 s.hps inlO slumbers more often than n0t.
Among.st the many hardened facts and 1rulhs of
our reality on Earth today, it is mosi welcome and
healing to be strengthened and rcvitali7.Cd by Lhis kmd of
ruticle.
I'm looking forward 10 l110fC.
Sinccrcly,
a sister in voice
in Asheville
Dear Katuah,
Hello rrom up north! A few weeks ago a friend of
mme returned from lhc Pcnnaculture Conference in
Tennessee and brought back wilh him a copy of Kaulah
Journal, which I was excited 10 sec and read again. us1
lime I read Kauiah was in Washington D.C. a year ago
and since lhcn I haven't seen 1his WONDERFUL
journal anywhere in this Non.hca.uern region or the
sl.:ltes. I don't even lhmk a journal like ~umh exislS
here ID New H:unpshitt/Vermon1 area.
I write this !cu.er 10 you with lhMks. and wish 10
give you money for a year's membership. Thanks again!
For lhc Ennh,
Michael S1onc
Painting by Susan Adlm
Well l WIOlC "2" first drafis of a teuu 10 you all
hoping Iha! 1 could come up wilh a way 10 keep my
leuer from sounding dumb, but no such luck. So I
figured the best way 10 Lell you my feelings about
Katuah is 10 write 10 you all lhe same way you write 10
us in lhe journal. like we're old friends.
I was lucky enough to find Karuah in a used
book s1ore while my family and I were antiquing in old
downlOwn Asheville- I've never come across anything
as neru and infonnalive!
Florida jUSI doesn't seem 10 be interested in
Native American culture. l'm not sure if they're
iniercsted m IOO much more lhan m:ikmg money,
sending up lhe shuUle, and ripping our environment
apart so lhey can build more moc.els for the tourists. I
know it's supposed 10 be the mainstay of our economy
but why can't lhey leave some trees and wildlife for lhe
ones of us who enjoy them.
I guess thal's why I love lhe mouniains so much.
ll's scary to lhink !hat lhcy might be cleared off in a rcw
years too. I lhink that's why I lmve always admired the
lndiMs, lhcy used wlmt lhcy needed, and lhru was iL
Over lhe past yenr or so I've become vc,y
inlClCSted in lcarmng more about the Native Americans,
their culture. and heritage. Issue #32, Fall, 1991 was
full of great slllm Your interview about "Bringing
Back lhc rll'C" was wonderful!! Reading about how lhe
Cherokee's got so swept up in their stomp dance lba1
they went au night and bad to stan singing Old
McDonald because !hey ran out of songs was so
exciting for me! (Corning from a "stiff" southern
Baptist background, the thought of being able 10 praise
God with everything you can mUStCr malces me wan1 10
get up and do the same!)
From lhc little l know and have learned, the
Native Americans stnke me as a ru;h and beautiful
people who learned to live by faith and the simple lnlth
that God provided lhem wilh everything lhey needed
because they respected lbe earth and trusted in Him! If
we could ever stop and look at how !hey build and try lO
incorporate their ways into our evc,ydlly lives - man,
wouldn't it be great? I guess the best way IO start is
wilh ourselves. One person =hing 2 and in tum
those leaching 2 more. Maybe m time we could heal
the eanh, as well as ourselves.
I've also wondered, are there any books
comnining instrucllon on Native American languages?
Thanks for talcing lhe time 10 read I lcucr from a
young dreamer.
Peact Always!
Rebecca Hogan
Dear K01uah Joutlllll.
Last year I bough1 iwo of your issues from a
small bookstore in Ellijay, Georgia. I still have !hem
with me and they continue 10 help me understand thing$
as I guess I'm mean1 to understand lhcm.
Even though we live oversc35, I'd like to
1rubscnbe. Enclosed is money to cover a year's
subscription and the extra pos1age.
Also. th3nks foe lhe energy you all are releasing.
In spiril,
Scou & Miriam R1eh:lldson
Baguio City, Philippines
l.llnUr., l00kt92
�Sky Mangler, from silver halite
Image of thy snow twisting
The template of thy helix
Formed thee when a snot-throutcd
White trash lay down your passage to
subordinate thee with bullets
No permanent dwelling did thou build
Possessing no deed - au was the soil of thine own kind
The white Earth-mover claims his machine
has a mind of lls own
On account of falling drunk on oil overland
Thou art so praiseworthy for Earth skill
Thy impressionless path was purposeful by its
appropriate scale
The fire-harnessing soldiers executed policy
And have soldierly descendants who
have yet to conceive and deliver a
successful way of coping with the cold and dark
Thy way did peris h until the rost Industrial Tribe
picked it up
The disease of O,ristian Europe, mutated
By stresses in the underpinning rock
And brains of soldiers - the rotted, broken virulence
The settlements laid to waste
But for him thou wouldst have slept on the soil
of thine own kind
But for the war for white convenience of manufacture
For lines on maps
Dottering trifOcs
At the very length of history when
We could have gone thy way .. .
Lain claim to thy sustainable homelessness
Mike Wilber
Drawing by Marte Mems
Shhh- . .Listen ...
~
FUTONS ETC. ~
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Vitamins & Supplements
Wheat, Salt & Yeast-Free Foods
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Beer & Wine Making Supplies
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Htrb N urse. J
'
WREATHS • POTPOURRI
VITAMINS
ORGANIC PRODUCE
• HERBS • TOPIARY
160 Broadway
AshevilleJ North Carolina
Complete Herb Catalog - $4
Describes more than 800 plants from
Aloe lo Yarraw
Open 7 Days a Week
Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm
Saturday 9 am - 6:30 pm
Sunday 12 pm - 5 pm
Wi.nter, 1991-92
A.I.A., Resource Information Analysis
Neil Thomas and Andy Feinstein
305 Westover, Asheville, NC
(704) 252-6816
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
Phone for appointmerrt to visit
(704) 683-2014
�.,. ~r
(canunuod liom page 6)
the Southern Appalachians. A1 present, oak
species seem to be in uouble - they are
declining due to a root rot fungus and are no1
regenerating well in sites where they were
once strongly represented. Since oak lumber
is a valuable timber product, this situation has
been well-investigated.
Oak ll'CCS have always had a place on
drier. south-facing sites in the mountains, but
it is only since the demise of the American
chesmu1 that the oak IJ'Ce has become critical
as a food crop for so many species of wildlife.
Since the chestnut blight wiped om the
chestnut as a seed-bearing tree, oaks have
greatly expanded their niche, moving into sites.
formerly inhabited by chestnuts and filling at
least pan of that great tree's role as a
food-producer. Due to "unnatural"
intervention by human beings in the past, loss
of the oak species at this rime would be
devastating co the life of the forest.
What is to be done? If we were co
abruptly remove our influence without
ensuring the continuation of the oaks, we
might precipitate the loss of irreplaceable
components of the ecological community and
thus make the restoration of natural processes
impossible. This is a situation ~ degraded
that it appears human management may be
needed 10 neutralize past human mistakes.
This is a common <tilert'lma. Ecologist
Reed Noss says: "Conservation ecologists
unanimously rccogniu: the necessity of
scientific management in restoring and
perpetuating natural areas. Active habitat
restoration should apply the best srate-ofthe-an management techniques 10 mimic the
natural environmental regime, keeping human
intervention down 10 the minimum..."
The first step 10 reinstate a natural order
in the Katuah Province is 10 proceed with
effons to reintroduce the American chestnut
tree with all possible speed. Until those effons
literally bear fruit, steps will have to be taken
10 maintain the oak tree. Since light ground
fires seem to be instrumental in maintaining
oak stands, it may be the oak trees that give us
the ~swer, at least for the present; I.& t.he
quesuon of how much fuc is desirable. Doing
controlled bums to maintain habitat for the oak
family would also serve 10 restore the
macro-process of fire to the woods. The oak
irees could guide us to the proper balance for
fire use.
To restore natural relationships to a
community, the minimum amount of
!n~erference is the best, and only for as long as
11 ts necessary. In undertaking any restoration
policies, it mUSt be remembered that we are
"Irrespective of man's
viewpoint, change is necessary
to maintain a healthy
ecosystem."
crying 10 help the Earth heal Hen.elf. We
would be intervening to allow the recovery of
"natural" processes. Paradoxical as that may
seem, that may be our present situation.
The examples of the Table Mountain
pine and the oak family show us the level of
paradox we may encounter and the degree of
ecological understanding necessary 10 make
knowledgeable decisions. We know so little.
There is so much 10 be done.
While we can never return to a "natural"
condition as it was in a mythic past, it is still
valid as a guiding conc:epL The great old u-ees
of the ancient old-growth forest are still the
grandest testaments to the potential of this
region.
And, while ii would be fruitless to
mindlessly mimic the practices of the ancient
native inhabitants, they still can serve as a
guide for our present actions. The only
baseline we have for "original conditions" was
the landscape managed by the Cherokee
nation. lt was a beautiful landscape by all
ac~unts, and it was a stable equtlibrium, as
evidenced by the fact that the Cherokees were
able to maintain a consistent presence here for
~ore than 2.000 years. The experience of the
First People teaches us that humans in small
numbers, living respectfully and reverentially,
can integrate ourselves into a viable landscape.
Perhaps by pursuing these elusive
examples we may be able 10 anive at a new
and original equilibrium, one that will serve
the needs of the future. Perhaps by seeking 10
fulfill the unattainable mcxlel of a ··natural"
landscape free of human intervention, we may
be be able to reach an equilibrium that is
"natural" because ii proceeds from the forest's
own dynamic and follows the forest's own
needs. In aniving at that state of balance, we
would have to change ourselves so we could
live within those natural processes rather than
in conflict with them.
One way in which we could stan would
be 10 put our skills and our passion to the task
of serving the forest, deeming it an entity
greater than ourselves, that surrounds and
holds us, and recognizing that the quality of
the forest's life conuols directly the quality of
our own.
Our goal is the circle of life rejoined. We
can only sketch ou1 the elements of a
functioning natural communiry in broad
strokes, adjust our technologies and lifestyles
accordingly, and then fine-tune our
relationship 10 our environment as we gain a
deeper perception of human causes and natural
effects.
lf we are to continue to live in these
hills, we will have to strive 10 keep the life
community as close as possible to the
evolutionary optimum for this region. Our
work on behalf of the nawral life processes
and the native species as best we can know
them protects the integril)' - or ecological
wholeness - of the region. Our goal is a
community of life capable of sustaining itself
in the face of inevitable change.
~
David Wheele r
(continued from i-sc4)
Rhcx!cxlendron sproutS up quickly and in its
first year in full sun will set flower buds. The
followi.ng year the buds bloom and Lhen open,
producing an amazing amount of seed."
On rhe high ridgetcp, under new sun and
new rain, grass has grown over the charred
ground, hidfog it away from sight. It was
almosr as ifthefve never had been, except/or
the lushness of the new sprillg growth and rhe
blacuned suletons ofberry bushes and
rhod.Jdendrons reaching grotesquely imo the
air. Tiny, leafy shoots spring up from the roots.
In rlvee years, during the longest days, the
meadow will appear to blaze again in a
profusion ofpurple rlwdodendronf/owers.
later in that same s,unmer, the blueberry bushes
will bear fn1il, turning the fresl,/yfertilized soil
in10 a prodigious liarvest
Fire has brought change - and new life.
;,
--~Jo,.
-l'tr1 sorr'l Mr. J"ohnson. We found ~our
'llc.coJ'nt to be ·m arrears . "'"'
· ~1P'I
l.,intu, 1991 92
�REVIEW:
TRIDENT TO LIFE
SUPPORT CHUCK ROE!
"All nuclear stares are composed ofmaJ1y
11a1io11s, bw each is controlled by a single
nation that has the bomb. Britain's bomb is
English, not Irish; the Soviet bomb is Russian.
not Ukrainian; the French bomb is Parisian, not
Corsican; the Chinese bomb is Han, not
Tibetan; and the US bomb is White American,
not lakoran."
Each year during the Christian holiday of
The Feast of the Holy Innocents, people gather
in S1. Mary's, Georgia in opposition 10 the
Trident submarine base and in suppon of
peaceful alternatives to the militarized
economy.
This year the theme of the action is "From
Genocide to Peace: Celebrating the Conversion
of Our Economies." The marchers will
remember the native peoples who were
decimated during the 500 years of European
conquest and protest the presence of a modem
tool of genocide: the Trident submarine and its
nuclear weapons payload.
The event is scheduled from December
27-29 and will include a vigil, fellowship, a
Listening Project, and the march to the gates of
1he Trident base which will take place on
Saturday, December 28. St. Mary's is on the
South Georgia coast, so the scenery is
beautiful, and accommodations and camping
facilities are plentiful.
For more information, write:
Feast of the Holy /1111oce111s
Pla1mi11g Committee
clo Jody Howard
215 McDonough St.
Decatur, GA 30030
or call:
(404)377-7109
TURTLE ISLAND
BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS
V
May 17-24, 1992
A convocation of bioregional people from
across the continent and beyond
at Camp Stewan
in the hill country of the Great Prairie biome.
To register for this event, contact:
Gene Marshall
Realistic Living
Box 140826
Dallns, TX 75214
Upper Blackland Prairie Bioregion
hhntcr , 199 1 92
If. ' '
't
read by Thomas Rain Crowe
accompanied by Eugene Friesen, c:cllo, and Paul
Sullivan, piano
"Love is the perfect work"
Words on a page sometimes blossom into
meaning within the reader's mind. But poetry
read by the author is a three-dimensional
experience in space, time, and spirit. The
listener hears the words as they were intended
to be heard and touches the mind that binhed
them.
When the reading is accompanied by
musical instrumentation, it becomes another
experience. The woros are then the frame
supporting a work that is a collaboration of
influences altogether different than words
alone.
For those of us who were not al the
Jubilee Center on Valentine's Day evening,
1990, Thomas Rain Crowe has recorded
readings from that event and from another
evening at Furman University in Greenville,
SC on July 20 of that year. Accompaniment is
by Eugene Friesen, bassist for Lhe Paul Winter
Conson and a resident of Asheville, and Paul
Sullivan, pianist, who heads a musical
enterprise called River Music Records in the
Gulf of Maine region.
Since the recording was made live, the
quality of the tape is variable, but the meaning
and intem are clear throughout. Crowe,
formerly a Katuah Journal editorial siaff
member, lives in rural Jackson County, in the
Tuckasegee River watershed. He is a gardener
and a printer as well as a poet, but he is always
watching the interplay of opposites · sound and
silence, motion and stillness, the light and the
dark - in the seasons of time and of the human
hean. He writes of the changes he has seen honestly and deeply, yet always with hope.
The musical sounds interweave with the
verbal and offer their own meanings,
communicating with the listener on different
levels. The sensitive instrumentation adds
greatly 10 the depth of the presentation.
Together they present a pleasing work.
Nothing, of course, can match the subtle
exchange of energy that occurs at a live
performance, but the casseue Sound of light is
in itself a wonhwhile artistic statement, full of
sound and insight.
And knowing what love is, I
aw~. In this place in my body.
Full of dream 17WSic,
Full oflighJ!"
• reviewed by KO
near
Kerrville, Texas
• J
THE SOUND OF LIGHT
..
Selcctlons from lhe poem 'i1ie Pcrl'cc:1 Work" by Thomu
Rain Crowe
The Sound of Light was produced by John
lane and Tlwrnas Rain Crowe. The tape is
available for $7.95 plus $1 .00for shipping
and handling from Holocene Books; Box
10/; Wofford College. Spartanburg, SC
29303.
'- I
For years Chuck Roe worked 10
inventory and protect wild lands and native
species in the State of Nonh Carolina as the
director of the srate Natural Heritage Program.
On a shoestring budget, with linle suppon from
the state bureaucracy, Roe consolidated
resources and labor from a variety of sources
and not only kept the Natural Heritage Program
functioning, but made it into an effective force
for natur.11 preservation.
In the spring of 1991, Roe was fired
from his job by the Secretary of the NC
Department of Environment, Health, and
Natural Resources, William Cobey. The reason
given was that Roe had overstepped his
authority in writing a leuer to support Karin
Heiman, who had recently been fired as a
botanist for the US Foresr Service. The real
reason for both the firings is that lleiman and
Roe were being too effective in their jobs and
were becoming obstacles to the goals of the
powers that be.
Chuck Roe is appealing his firing. His
legal challenge is an important battle for free
speech, employees' rights, and environmental
protection.
"The costs so far for my legal fees have
been $5,000," Roe says, "which has not been
easy for my family to afford. Standing up for
principles is not only dangerous but expensive,
bm I did what was right, and I have no
regrets."
He is asking help from anyone who is
willing and able to contribute 10 his defense.
To help, send a check made our to the
"Chuck Roe Legal Defense Fund" to the
Western Nonh Carolina Alliance: Box 18087;
Asheville, NC 28814. Contributions are
tax-deductible.
FRENCH BROAD
FOOD CO-OP
• • • Consu= Ov.,wd Sinre 1975 • • •
We Sell Food that Nourishes
I Iumans and Sustains the Earth
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Monday-Friday 8:.30 AM to 8:00 PM
Saturday 9;00 AM lo 7,00 PM
Sunday 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM
(704) 255-7650
90 Biltmore Avenue Asheville, NC
2 Blocks South of Downtown
�NWN (co,uinllldfrom page 23)
HELP WANTED
amc:ndmcnl lh:il would allow logging in areas LO be
designated as recreation and stenic are.is.
CALDWELL COUNTY:
SAVED FROM THE SHAVE
Naturul World News Scivicc
A new chapt.cr of the WCSJcm Non.h Carolina
Alliance (WNCA) has fanned in ~'JIOn.se I O ~
limber sales in lhc Grandfalhcr Ranger DistricL The
Foothills Environmental Alli:ince (FEA) is lhc fll'Sl
organit.ed crron 10 appeal timber sales in CaWwcll
Counly. Hunt.crs, f1Shcf5, and ccologiSIS alike ruc
dis1wbed about loog range impaclS due IO excess
umbering.
Citing excessive cumulative cffcclS from
c lcarc:u1ting on both private lands and lhc Pisgah
National Forest, an nppc:il has been filed w1lh lhc
J"orest Service on proposed sales in the Wilson Creek
wau:rshcd. The habillll preservation group Sou1hPAW
also ~ubmiucd four appeals of sales on lhe Grandfather
District to prcvcnl foresl frogmcnuiuon. degradation of
sltC.'lm quruity, and ncg11tive imp:iclS on biodivcrs11y
from lhc logging. In November, 1991 siays were
granted on lhe proposed soles. and lhc WNCA is
prepared tO continue oppeals if R:inger Mike Anderson
decides to continue lhc logging.
In a meeting belwecn members of lhc WNCA
and lhc Forest Service, thc laucr admill.Cd !hat Caldwell
Coun1y has had more lluln its share of clC31CuUing. It is
lime to pf'Olcct Lhcsc valuable lands.
The Poo1hill$ Environmen1al Allianu mrtts al
the county library ,n unoir on ,~ ftr$t Thursday of
every monlh.
US REP. CHARLES TAYLOR:
FOE OF THE FOREST
One of the siJcs slated for release III Taylor's
so-called "wilde.mess" bill was thc Blue Valley area near
Hjghlands, NC. Taylor's acllon prompted a storm of
proccst from residents who loved lhc area and wnnicd 10
keep it as il is. In response he called an "cducaiional"
mecung in Highlands lhat con~ist.cd or a full program of
USFS personnel iclling why thcy want.cd IO delist Blue
Valley. The citu.cns who packed lhc hall were invit.cd 10
air their concerns by sending lctlet~ 10 Taylor after the
meeting. Residents howled. and Taylor bler wilhdrew
his bill from consideration.
His move agai1151 wildbnds in Georgia was
prompted by a bill proposed by Rep. Ed Jenkins
(D-OA) which would dcs1gn:ite lhe Blood Mountllln and
Mark Trail IIICa.~as wildctnc.-;.~ and add 1,100 acres to the
Bn&SSIOwn Wildemcss An:3. h would also create n 36
square mile recreation area oo Springer Mountain, lhe
head of lhe Appalachian Trail, and an 11 square mile
scenic area on Coosa Bald. Taylor's amendment would
have allowed logging in lhe laucr are.is. even lhough
Jc:okins took pains 10 mention lhat his bill would hnvc
liulc effect on timber quOlllS in the Chau:ihooc:hcc.
Jenkins' bill was =enlly passed lhrough
Congress SO/IS lhc Taylor amendmcnL
ll is 110{ surprising lhat Charles Taylor is so
ddigent in the service of lhe timber indusiry. Twcnl)'
pcn:cnt of his 1990 campaign contributions ($40,000)
c:amc from individuals nnd groups connected wilh the
wood producis indusuy. He himsel f is a dc\-clopc:r and
tree farmer in TnlllSYlvania and H:iywood Counties.
flfonnl Wadel News Service
for
BIODIVERSITY LEGAL
FOUNDATION
The Biodiversity Legal Foundation is a
non-profit organization dedicated to the
preservation of all native wild plants and
animals, communities of species, and naturally
functioning ecosystems.The group is involved
in li1igadon in the biocenaic defense of the
elements of natural diversity lhat other, more
mainstream groups are typically unwilling to
undenake.
The Foundation closely monitors the
programs of the US forest Service for
sensitive, threatened. and endangered species
and their ecosystems. It concentrates on
habitats across the country that are integrnl
parts of large, natural, diverse ecosystems. The
group's legal actions always stress a multiple
species/ ecosystem approach.
The Biodiversity Legal Foundation is
looking for help in the eastern foresis. They
need activists with a strong biological interest
to develop a comprehensive review of the
status and disaibution of the eastern wood.rat
(Neotomafloridiana) and the eastern
diamondback mnlesnake (Cota/us adamenters).
Both these species are believed to be in serious
trouble and require legal advocacy.
Those interested should contact:
Jasper Carlu,n
Biodiversity legal Fowidation
Box 18327
Boulder, CO 80308
The congressional reprcscnwivc from Nor1h
Carolina's 11 lh District has been busying himself wilh
aucmpts to destroy wild h:ibi1111 during lhe past tcnn of
Congress.
Rep. Charles Taylor this summer uuroduced lhc
Craggy Mounr.:tln Wilderness Act, a "w11demcss" bill
that released I l,700acrcs of wild lands lO commercial
cxploiiation while prot.ccling only 2,400 aacs that arc
alre:ldy heavily used as a scenic auraction.
He was one or lhc 24 sponsors in the House of
lhc "Family and Forest Protection AJ:1; a limber
indusuy bill designed 10 hinder ci1i1.cns who would stop
destructive n:iuonal forest timber sales.
Taylor also tried 10 weaken a forest
protection biU mitiau:d ror lhc
Chauahoochcc National Forest by Georgia
Rep. Ed Jenkins. Taylor proposed an
flti.
Programs to encolSOge
&elf aid Eorth OW01enes.1.
celebrotton. klrdhlp ond hope.
• You1h Camii- • School Programs
• Fa,my Cami,.· Teadler Training
• Commuroty Provam•
•~Sia~ Tra.,ing
• 0uldoor Program~
PO 8ox 130b
Go11r>tlL<g. reme- 3n3a
61~
1'otimfl JoumoC
J)n'}C 32
~\I',\
TaJJcin1 ua...a is a DlOlllhly
,JOUrUal of deep ecology, inspired
personal acuvmn rooted in earthen
sp,rirualny. Pasl i$SUC$ have
featured ar11cles by Gary Snyder,
Starllawk, John Seed, Joanna
M,cy, Bill Devall, l..onc Wolf
Circles. Bubara Mor, etc:.
Tn/Jnng
~ for the
natural wt'4'1d and for the rekindllOE
of our own wild 5Ptnt.
uo,-a
Suh:\cnpllOIIS an: S24.00 one
year/ $48.00 outside U.S.
Ta/J:JnglLm-a
1430 Willamette 1361
Eugeoc. OR 97401
5031342-2974
Dra'IVll!g by Rob Musick
REGIONAL RADIO
Featuring Crossroads music, ?\iPR news and music
programs, regional news and information
concerning health, education, government,
recreation, and the environment.
WNCW - FM
r 0. Box 804
Spand.ilc, NC 28160
(704) 287-8000
l.,L11tcr, 1991-,92 ,
�•·,I.I, I
FEBRUARY
€V€0t'S
DECEMBER
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Bill Melanson, reggae rock. at
McDibbs. $4.00. I 19 Cherry S1.; 28711, (704)
669-2456.
20
21
BLACK MOUNTA[N, NC
Pini and Gaye Johnson at McDibbs.
$4.00. See 12/20.
SWANNANOA, NC
Full Moon and Winier Solstice Lodge
a1 the Earth Center. Begins a1 noon. ConlllCl lhe Earth
Center: 302 Old Fellowship Road; 28TT8. (704)
298-3935.
27-29
ST. MARYS, GA
9th annual Peace Witness at
Kings Bay Submarine Base. Program
includes Listening Project training, direct
action, candlelight vigil, and shnred meal.
Pre-regisrration encouraged; donation
accepted. Contact Kings Bay Witness; c/o Joy
Howard; 215 McDonough St.; Decatur, GA
30030.
(404) 377-7019.
ASHEVLLLE, NC
"Breaking Barrier.;, Building Bridges.•
Workshop 10 focw; on brcalcing down barriers of
racism, sexism and classism, and on cswblishing
cross-cul1ural connection:; for more effccti,e grassroolS
organizing. Al W.C. Reid Center. Prc-rcgiSlcr. SS.
ConlaCl uwra Deaton, Western Norlh Carolina
Alliance; 11 Clock Tower Square; Frankhn, NC
28734.(704)S2A-3899.
l
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"A New Years Rcln:aL" Meditation lO
welcome the new year, led by John Orr nod Man:in
Rose. Pre-register. S28S mcludes vegan meals and
lodgmg. Contact Southern Dhanna Rctreal Center; RL
I; 28743. (704) 622-7112.
27-4
VALLEYHEAD,AL
Winter Solstice Celebration. ConlllCl
Hawkwind Earth Renewal Cooperative: PO Box 11;
Valley Head, AL 35989. (205) 635-6304.
22
Winter Solstice
2
SWANNANOA, NC
Foll Moon Lodge al lhc Enrth Center.
See 12/21.
MARCH
JANUARY
ASHEVILLE, NC
Tim Abell, ·songs and s1ories for lhe
young of all ages. Bring lhe kids. SS. 8:30 pm a1
Stone Soup Cafe, comer of Broadway and Walnu1.
(704) 255-7687.
4
SWANNANOA, NC
Full Moon Lodge al lhc Eanh Center.
18
Feile Oridghe or Candlemas
(01 id"in1er)
21
?l-23
.
....
~8
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Environmental Education and lhe
Arts" annual workshop. Sessions on slOJylelling,
dramatics, mum, puppetry and other cmfl.s ~gned lO
inspire new ideas for ieaching aboUI lhe narural world.
Fcalured gucsl is Denny Olsen.
Prc-rcgisitr. S80 includes meals and lodging. Conuict
Great Smoley Mounl8ins lnstitute at Tremont: RLl,
Box 700: Townsend. TN 37882. (615) 448-6709.
See 12/21.
ASHEVILLE, NC
Christmas uce chippers in locntions
Lhroughou1 Buncombe County. For locations, call
Quality Forward 254-1776.
26
ASHEVILLE, NC
Tree planting in Afion Parle
co-sponsored by Quali1y Forward and lhc Ashevillc,Buncombe Youlh council. For info: Quality F«wnrd:
Box 22; 28802. (704) 254-1776.
7
ASHEVILLE, NC
Jim Magill, plays mountain music in
Lhe Celtic tradition on a varic1y of instruments,
original music, and stories. SS. 8:30 pm al S1onc
Soup Cafe. See 1/4.
18
21
SWANNANOA, NC
Full Moon and Spring Equinox Lodge
al Lhe Earth Cenl.Cf. Sec 12/21.
Get a set of 10 assorted
folding cards 1Nith
artwork you see in
Katuah Journal.
28
ASHEVILLE, NC
Girl Scoots' 80th birthday tree planting
along Broadway. Public p:lrtieipa1ion inviled. Pisgah
~~~-~-'!!!~t~G~ir,;Sco Council and Quality Forward. Sec 3/1.
; I ~ ;,:ut
(Envelopes included.)
by Rob l/.:esskk
Send $11.25 postage paid
to:
Rob Messick
P.O. BOX 2601
BOONE, NC 28607
Drawing b} Rodney Webb
whole earth
grocery
Hawk Littlejohn
Sourwood Farm
Rt 1, Box 172-l
Prospect Hill, NC 27314
(919) 562-3073
NATURAL
ALTERNATNES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LIVING
446 c.p,ukway rr~h center • suite 11
g.11hnburg. tcnnCSS<"C 3n38
615-436-6967
W1Htct', l9!11-92 ' '
An Alternative
i
NATIVE FLUTES
Two styles mode of cedar or walnut
woods in the traditional manner
Union Acres
- - lscrtage for Sale - Smoky Mountain Living
with a focus on spiritual and
«ologicol values
For more information:
Cont ad C. Grant al
Roule 1. Box 61]
Whillier, NC 28789
(704) 497-4964
NATURAL MARKET
WI IOLE FOODS • BULK
rooos. VJTA!liflNES . HERBS
• FAT FREE FOODS • TAKE
OUT FOODS • SNACKS • NO
SALT, NO CHOLESTEROL
265-2700
823 Slowing Roell. Rd
Boone, NC 28607
�SAVE OUR RIVERS • CllSSClte album by Baro= and
Jolm DunC311 and Ille Foxftrc Boys. Onginal tunes by
Barb.ira DunclUI; old umll go.,pel lnllllS by the Fodirc
Bo),. S10.00 includes poswge .llld handling. All
profit\ go to Save Our Rivm, Inc. PO Box 122:
Franklin, 1'C 28734: or call (71») 369-7877, For the
Cullasaj:i.
• Webworking has changed! There is now a
fee of $2.50 {pre-paid) per entry of50 words
or less. Submit entries/or Issue #33 by Feb.
15, 1992 to: Rob Messick; Box 2601; Boone,
NC 28607. (704) 754-6097
PEN PA.LS WANTED. I am 30, single, a traditional
religious leader and Greenpeace acuvist. I live far from
town on a rivcrf'rom hom<:SIC3d. Bear's.Over-Rainbow:
HCR 77. Box 382; Cosmopoli.~. WA 98537
I W\'E 'f llE E.ARTII. a ca.~uc: nxord,ng of
MUSIC BY BOB AVERY-GRUBEL awilablc on three
casscucs. Treasures in IM Stream and Circlt!T
Rerunung are folk/rOCl.·,i:lzz, and a rccenl release of
original chants and songs, l1g/11111 1/~ Wind. is a
ca~Ua Lyric sheets includ..ld Send SJO for each r.apc
or S26 for all Lhrce IO Bob Avery-Grubel; RI. I, Box
735: Floyd, VA 2409 I.
IIIGHLANDER CENTER· is a community-based
educational org;inl7.alion whose purpo<;e is IO provide
SJ130C for people IO learn from each other, and 10
developc solutions 10 environmenUJI problems based
on thcir values. cxpcnences. and aspirauons. They also
put ou1 a qurutcrly ncwslcw:rcallcd 1/igh/andu
Reports. For more Info conlaet Highlander Ccn1et;
19S9 Highlandct Way; New Mnrtkel, TN 37820 (61 S)
933.3443
BODY RI/YI/IMS from Plancwy Molhets • a beautiful
and pnlCticnl clllcndar for women io ch3rl Lheir
·moonthly" C)'l:les. Send S3.00 plus S 1.00 pOSUlge to:
Plnnc&ary Mothers Colloctive (c/o Nancie Yonker):
5231 Riverwood Avenue: Snrasoin. A.. 34231.
"BLOW YOUR MIND" • wilh 1hc celestial ~Ing
music of "Medicine Wind" by George Tortorelli. Also
exotic !ino-1uncd bamboo nuics in many keys aod
modes. For more informauon send 10: George
Tonorclli; 86 NW 55111 Stttet; Gnincsvillc. A.. 32601.
(904) 373-1837
WANTED: FUNDRAISER for the Grassroots LislC.nlng
311d Organizing Program or Ille Rural Soulhcm Voice
for Peace. We provide uaining end organiring
assislllllCC 10 grossroots groups 111 the South worlting
on justice, peace, and environmental issues. Localed 111
micnr.ional community m Blue Ridge Mountams.
Modest salary. 30 to 35 hrs/wit., good benefilS. Send
lcucr and rcsumt 10 RSVP/GLO: 1898 H31lll3h Branch
Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714. (704) 675- 5933.
LAND FOR SALE • M:ignif1ce111 view wnh small ho1.1.~
111 beau1iful Spong Creek, NC. Ten males soulh of
Ho1 Springs, NC (off Route 209), and one hour west
or Asheville. $25,000 for bnd nnd house. Pcrfcc1 for
the self sullkiem life. Crul Lindn Deyo at (704)
675-9575.
SLASH YOUR HEATING COSTS· simple and
i001pcnsive method 10 locate and stop costly air leaks.
Send S3.00ond a SASE 10 M.J Olson: 816 Norlh
4Lh Avenue: Knoxville, TN 37917. Refund if
unsatisfied
JOIN US -111 lhe Olob:il CeJcbrauon oflhe um versa! day
of World Peace and Pl.lnctary Heahng Doo:mbcr 12th
1991. The universal silent rn>cr begins at 12:00
noon. For more infonnation conr.act PO Box 78813:
Tucson AZ, 85703 or call (()()2) 326-7522.
.
Xntu.afl Journot P<UJ'l- 34
.
'
cnvironmenial songs by lhc Oreal Smoky Mountains
lnsti1u1c at Trcmon1 in celebruuon of the 20th
annivcr.;ary of Earth Day. Includes ·scAT Rap," "The
0:lrbagc Blue.~." and more. $9.95 plus S2.50 shipping
for each ca=uc. Mail order plus check to Grcru
Smoky MounlOins Natural Hi);lory Association: 115
P-Jtl 1-!cadquancrs Rd.; G3tlmburg, TN 37738.
Alternatives ...
The Dirt:c1<>ry of fn1~n11onul Con1111w,111e.< 1s lhe prod·
uc1 or 1wo years or 1111en..1vc n:sc.m;h, .1nd tS lhe most
compn:hcnsive and 111:turate Jircclor) a,·ailablc. IL documents lhc: vi~1on and the dally hie or more lhan 3SO
commu11111c.~ 111 Norlh America, and more than 50 on
oilier conlinents. Each community's hsung includes
name, address, phone. and a dcsc11pwn of the group.
ExlClls1vc cro-s n·fercocmg nnd ,nJ..,1ng mak~ lhc 111formation easy tn act"C$~ for a wide vancay of user-1. Includes maps, over 2SO atld1uOOAI Resource listings, and
40 related aniclcs.
328 pages
K-lnxl I
Pcrfcc:1bounJ
Ocwocr 1990
1S81' Number.
0 96()27141-4
Sl6.00
Add S::!.00 poMagc
& handling for first
hook, s.:m rorcach
.i.Jd111onJI; 41l%
d1'>Coum on ordc~
of 111 c,r more.
Alpha Fann. Deadwood. OR
(503) 9'w-5102
LIV(NG OPPORTUNmES • Needed, Solar
Dcmonstrnlion CC111cr CoordinalOr by Spring, 1992.
Preferred retired and/or mdcpendcm mcome pcrson(s).
Hou,ing provided w11h op110n IO own within ien
years. Expertise in Ofi.llllic gaidcnmg and/or
appropriaie iechnology required. OJ,ponuni1y IO a.«-~t
low-mcome Ccnunl APJX1lach1ans. Wn1e; Appalachm
Science in Ille Public ln1ercs1: PO Box 298;
Livings1on, KY 4().145.
DOG • a chque of Pocuy, SJ)lril. God-is-Life not
God-runs-Li fc. Art. Journeys. IMer Powe11;, Munk
review~ and Zinc review~. Anlclcs, Dislribu110n of
Gypsy Music and more. Inspired 111 Asheville area of
NC and in Southern TX. Be positive and cnioy the
world arouod you. M:ul 10 Colouf!; or Monroe: PO
Box 18752: Corpus Christi, TX 78480. Cost S2.00.
VISIT MEXICO· in summer of 1992 wilh lhe
Exchange Program between WNC and S!ln Crist6bal
de las Casas, Chiapas. The purpose of lhe exchange is
10 build world peace lhrough personal conUICIS across
national boundaries. Spend 2~ weeks with a hos1
family, receive language ansuucuon and reciprocate by
offering hospiLllily in your home community
Minimum cosl IO permi1 wide panicipalion. For more
information write: Jenifer Morgan: 2050 Hannah
Bmnch Road; Burnsville, 1'C 28714 or call Becca
(70-I) 298-6794 or Jane (704) 625-5620.
NATIVE AMERICAN A..UTE MUSIC- Richard
Roberti, a well known west TN new age nutist (M:a
Zero Otims). is now av;ulablc an the Easl Tl'\/NC area.
For relaxing aod uplifling pcrfonnanccs or iopcs
con1JC1: Richan! Robcrtli: Box 821: Noms. TN 37828
(615) 494-8828 01' Rt I, Box 136 RD; Lamar, MS
38642 {601) 252-4283.
PEOPLE OF THE WEB· 224 page book (1990) shows
how lnwan mounds, anciem ritunls, magnetic
CJtJ)Crimentation on lhc: brain, neru-dcath c.~pcrience,
ll1!d UFO obduclions are rclaled. Wilh 94 piclurcs and
illustrnlioos. St9.95 sofl.back. S24.95 hardback- Eagle
Wang Books: Box 99n. Memphis, TN 38109.
NATNE AMERICAN CEREMONIAL HERBS· we
offer a large variety of sages. sweet grass, naiurlll
resins, and evcrylhing ncccs.,;ory for smudging. Native
smoking mixtures, 0uLO music, pow-wow 111pcs, and
ceremonial songs. Esscnr.ial oils. and incenses
specifu:ally made for prayer, offering, and meditation.
For caUllog call or write: Esscncia.l Dreams; Rt 3, Box
285: Eagle Fork. Hayesville, NC 28904 (704)
389-9898.
LOOKING FOR OTHERS • fOI' mutual suppon and
encou111gcmcn1 111 sc:udl of a bcucr life. Loolung for
~ l e formru.1011 of a rcsidenr.ial community. My
1ntcres1S and strengms are: feminism, pcrmllCUIIUrc,
commun11y supponcd agricul1urc, radionics, rot111111
he3ling, and much more. Write Peggy Price; 5807
Poplar Strcei: Doraville, OA 30340 or aill (404)
447-9829.
PIEDMONT BIOREGIONAL INSTITUTE· For !hose
who live 10 the Piedmont area, !here's a biorcgional
cffon v.-cll underway. Jom Us! We would 3pproc1ll1C
any donation of umc or money to help mce1 opern1ing
expenses. For a gift of S25.00 or more. we will !iol!nd
you a copy of John Lawson's JOumat, A New Voyage
10 Carolina. Also come find out about 1he Lawson
ProjccL PBI; 412 W Rosemary Su-cet: Chapel Hill,
NC 27516; Uwharria Province. (919) 942-2581.
MUSICIANS, MAGICIANS, ACROBATS, ACTORS,
jugglers, poets, roadies, cte. wanu:d to JOlll The
Bicycle B:ind, a iribal-foU. trnvcling musical
circus/medicine show. Must be 101ally self-propelled
(no gas-powered vehicles). Conlllct Billy Jonas; 31
Park A,·c.; Asheville, NC 28801
ROOM AV An.ABLE • in exchange for small odd jobs
and some cooking. To inquire please coniact Knrcn
W,ulcins at Rt 4, Box 389; Burnsville. NC 28714;
(704) 682-9263.
,.,lurer, 199 t-92
�BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE· SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agricullure - Sunnowers • Human
lmpac, on lhe Forest - Childrens· Educa1ion Veronica Nicholas: Woman in Politics - Lill.le
People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
War.er Drum • Water Quali1y - Kudzu. Solar Eclip.,;c
· Clcan:ulling • Trou1 • Going IO Waler - Ram
Pumps· Microhydro • Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair,
Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE - FALL 1984
Harvest • Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginseng - Nuclear
Waste • Our Celtic ReriLagc - Biorcgionalism: Past.
Present. and Future - John Wilno1y - Healing
Darlcness - Politics of Participation
ISSUE STX· WINTER 1984-85
Winlcr Solstice Eanh Ceremony - Horsepasture
Rjvcr • Coming of the Light - Log Cabin ROOI.
Mounuiin Agriculture: The Right Crop • William
Taylor - The Future of 1he Forest
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRING 1985
Sustainable Economics - Hol Springs - Worller
Ownership - The Great Economy - Self Help Credit
Union - Wild Turkey - Responsible Investing .
Working in Ille Web of Life
ISSUE EIGHT - SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life - Katuah 18,000 Years
Ago· Sacred Sites - Folk Arts in the Schools. Sun
Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems: Hilda Downer Cherokee Heritage Center - Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE • FALL 1985
The Waldoe Forest - The Trees Speak • Migrating
Forests • Horse Logging - SLBrting a Troe Crop •
Urban Trees • Acom Bread • Mylh Time
ISSUE TEN· WINTER 1985·86
Kate Rogers • Ci:cles of Sione - Internal
Mythmalcing • Hol.islic Healing on Trial - Poems:
Steve Knaulh · Mylhic Places - The Uk1ena·s Tale.
Crystal Magic - "Drcamspeaking•
ISSUE THlRTEEN • FALL 1986
Center For Awakening - Elizabeth Callari - A
Gentle Death • Hospice. Ernest Morgan • Dealing
Creatively wilh Death • Home Burial Box - The
Wake - The Raven Mocker - Woodslore & Wildwoods Wisdom - Good Medicine; The Sweat Lodge
;'.
33
Ke°UA~9URNAL
PO Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6007
Name
Regular Membership........$10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
City
Wl.ntef', 1991-92
ISSUE FOURTEEN· WINTER 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owle - Boogcrs and Mummers. AJI
Species Day - Cabin Fever Univcrsily - Homeless
in KatWlh • Homemade Hot Water. Stovemakcr's
Narrative· Good Medicine: ln1Crsp0Cies
Communication
ISSUE FIFIBEN • SPRING 1987
Coverlets· Woman Forcsr.cr. Susie McMahan:
Midwi~e • ~tcrnative Contraception - Biosexuality B1oregionalism and Women • Good Medicine:
Matriarchal Culture - Pearl
ISSUE SIXTEEN· SUMMER 1987
Helen Wai1e - Poem: Visions in a Garden • Vision
Ques, • First Aow - Initiation • Leaming in the
Wilderness - Cherokee Challenge - "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN· WINTER 1987-88
Vernacular ArchitCCtW'C - Dreams in Wood and Stone
• Mountain Home • Eanh Energies • Eanh-Shcltercd
Living· Membrane Houses • Brush Shelter.
J?oems: October Dusk - Good Medicine: "Sheller"
ISSUE NlNETEEN · SPRING 1988
l?en:landra Garden - Spring Tonics - Blueberries.
Wilctnowcr Gardens· Granny Herbalist - Aower
Essences • "The Origin of lhe Animals:" Story Good Medicine: "Power" • Be A Tree
ISSUE nVENTY • SUMMER 1988
Preserve Appalochian Wilderness - Highlands of
Roan - Celo Community· Land Trust - Arthur
Morgan School - Zoning Issue. "The Ridge" •
Farmers and the Fann Bill - Good Medicine: "Land"
- Acid Rain • Duke·s Power Play • Cherokee
Microhydro Project
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO-WINTER 1988-89
Global Warming - F"1te This lime. ThOIIUIS Berry
on "Bioregions· · Earth Exercise. Kort Loy
McWhiner· An Abundance of Emptiness. LETS.
Chronicles of Aoyd • Darry Wood • The Bear Clan
ISSUE 1WBNTY-THREE- SPRING 1989
Pisgah Village • Planet An· Green Ci1y - Poplar
Appeal· "Clear Sky"· "A New Eanh". Black Swan
- Wild Lovely Days· Reviews: Sacred Land Sacred
Sex. Ice Age· Poem: "Sudden Tendrils"
State
Phone Number
Zip
Enclosed is $ , - - - - - to give
this effon an extra boost
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR· SUMMER 1989
Deep Listening • Life in Atomic City - Direct
Action! • Tree of Peace - Community Building.
Peacemakers· Ethnic Survival • Pairing Project.
"Batl.lesong" • Growing Peace in Cuhurcs - Review:
The Chalice and the 8/Juk
ISSUE TWENTY-SIX· WINTER, 1989·90
The Ecoz.oic Ero • Kids Saving Rainforest • Kids
Treecycling Company - Connict Resolution •
Developing Creative Spirit - Birth Power. Magic of
Puppetry • Home Schooling - Naming Ceremony •
Mother Earth's Classroom • Gardening for Children
ISSUE TWENTY-SEVEN - SPRING, 1990
Transformation - Healing Power - Peace to Their
Ashes • Healing in KatWlh - Poem: "When Len 10
Grow· • Poems: Sicphen Wing - The Belly - Food
from the Anciem Fores,
ISSUE TWENTY-NINE· FALI../WlNTER 1990
From the Mountains 10 lhe Sea • Profile of The
Lltl.le Tennessee River - Headwaters Ecology. "It
All Comes Down to Water Quality". Water Power.
Action ror Aquatic Rabimis . Dawn Walehers . Good
Medicine: The Long Human Belng - The Nonh
Shore Rood - Katuah Sells Ou, - Watetshed Map or
the Kalliah Province
ISSUE THIRTY· SPRING 1991
Economy/ECOiogy • Ways IO a Regenerative
Economy· "Money is the Lowest Form of Wealth"
• Clarlcsville Miracle - The Village - Food Movers.
Lirework • Good Medicine: "Village Economy• Shelton l.aW'CI • LETS
ISSUE THIRTY-ONE- SUMMER 1991
Dowsing - Responsibilities of Dowsing • Elearical
Life or the Earth • Kaulah and the Earth Grid • Call
of the Ancient Ones - Good Medicine: ·0o
Ag&JCSSion" - Time 10 Take the Time to Take the
Time· Whole Science - Tuning ln
ISSUE THIRTY-TWO. FALL 1991
Bringing back the F"1te · A Bit of Mountain Levity •
Climax Never Came - "Talking Leaves": Sequoyah •
Wal.king Distance· Good Medicine: "Serving lhe
Great Life" • The Granola Journal - Paintings:
"Mouniain Siories"- Songs of lhe Wilderness
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, 26-32)
postage paid @ $50.00 = $. _ __
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 33, Winter 1991-1992
Description
An account of the resource
The thirty-third issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on Fire: its power and uses. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Vic Weals, Barbara J. Sands, Jan Davidson, David Brewin, Barbara Wickersham, Jeffery Beam, Veronica Nicholas, Rob Messick, Charlotte Homsher, Lee Barnes, Mike Wilbur, Jason Tueller, Rob Leverett, James Rhea, David Earl Williams, Andrew Lehman, Vince Packard, Lynn Fink, Susan Adam, Bray McDonald, and Mark Morris. <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
1991-1992
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Fire's Power by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />What Is Natural? by David Wheeler.......5<br /><br />Do Clearcuts Mimic Fire?.......6<br /><br />Smokey and the Red Wolves.......7<br /><br />Fire in Jeffreys Hell by Vic Weals.......8<br /><br />Poems by Barbara J. Sands.......9<br /><br />Fire and Forge by Jan Davdison and David Brewin.......11<br /><br />The First Fire: A Cherokee Legend.......12<br /><br />Hearth and Fire in the Mountains by Barbara Wickersham.......14<br /><br />Good Medicine.......15<br /><br />Midwinter Fires: Poems by Jeffery Beam.......18<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />Who Will Have the Power? by Veronica Nicholas.......22<br /><br />Litmus Lichens by Rob Messick.......24<br /><br />Reading the Inner Tree by Charlotte Homsher.......25<br /><br />Review: Where the Ravens Roost.......25<br /><br />Around the Fire by Lee Barnes.......26<br /><br />Drumming.......27<br /><br />Poem: "Sky Mangler" by Mike Wilber.......29<br /><br />Review: The Sound of Light.......31<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
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<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
Forest fires--Environmental aspects
Blacksmithing--Appalachian Region, Southern--History
Hearths--Appalachian Region, Southern--History
Cherokee Indians--Social life and customs
Cherokee mythology
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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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
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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
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Acid Deposition
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Earth Energies
Electric Power Companies
Fire
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Turtle Island
Villages
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/5ac6c68fc9a4ef339c7624f779acbcb4.pdf
d9ea21ad706d54448902d9872b20ba5c
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 34 SPRING 1992
$2.00
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~UAlrljOURNAL
PO Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 287 48
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•'
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Drawing by Rob Mcssiclc
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
¢
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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
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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
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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
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/501565e7337d54952a1f1a4f817e1d07.pdf
e2930310495291405c931b80c288e056
PDF Text
Text
$ 2.00
ISSUE 35 SUMMER 1992
..:··.:·'.
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······· ...... ....... ·..·······
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�Drawing by Rob Messick
~UAHJOURNAL
PO Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 287 48
Postage Paid
Bulk Mall
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
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ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�eoNrENTs0
Consensus........................
1
by Caroline Estes
Decision-Making Process....... 4
by Joyce Johnson
Problems with Consensus...... 5
by Rob Messick
Tribal Council....................
6
by Bear With Runs
Elda................................
9
by Lucinda Flodin
The State of Franklin............
11
by David Wheeler
Where the Trees Outnumber
the People....................
14
by Stephen Wing
In Council with All Beings..... 16
by Lee Barnes
Steve Moon:
Shell Engravings............
17
Good Medicine...................
18
Natural World News............
20
A Look Back.....................
23
by caroline Estes
by Will Ashe Bason
Are Bioregions Too Big? ....... 24
by Rob Messick
Practices for Full Self- Rule... 25
by Clear Marks
Drumming........................
26
Jury Nullification................
28
by Karen Fletcher
Review:
Beyond the limits...............
29
by Rob Messick
Events.............................
32
Webworking.....................
34
Summer, 1992
Consensus is based on the belief that
each person has some pan of the truth and no
one has all of it (no matter how mui::h we
would like to believe so) and on a respect for
all persons involved in the decision that is
being considered. ln our present-day society
the governing idea is that we can trust no
one, and therefore we must protect ourselves
if we are to have any security in our
decisions. The most we will be willing to do
is compromise. This means we are willing to
settle for less than the very best - and !hat we
will always have a sense of dissatisfaction
with any of our decisions unless we can
somehow maneuver others involved in the
process. This leads to a skewing of honesty
and fonhrighmess in our relationships.
In the consensus process, we start from
a different basis. The assumption is that we
are all truscwollhy (or at least can become
so). The process allows each person
complete power over the group. The central
idea for the Quakers was the complete
elimination of majorities and minorities. If
there were differences of view at a Quaker
meeting, as there were likely to be in such a
body, the consideration of the question at
issue would proceed, with long periods of
solemn hush and meditation, until slowly the
lines of thought drew together toward a point
of unity. Then the clerk would frame a
minute of conclusion, expressing the "sense
of the meeting."
Built into the consensual process is the
belief that all persons have some part of the
truth, or what in spiritual terms might be
called "some part of God," in them. and that
we will reach a better decision by putting all
of the pieces of the truth together before
proceeding. There are indeed limes when it
appears that two pieces of the truth arc in ·
contradiction to each other, but with clear
thinking and auention. the whole may be
perceived which includes both pieces, or
many pieces. The either/or type of argument
does not advance this process. Instead, the
process is a search for the very best solution
to whatever is the problem. That does not
mean that there is never room for error - but
on the whole, in my experience, it is rare.
This process also makes a direct
application of the idea that all persons are
equal. If we do indeed trust one another and
do believe that we a!J have pans of the truth,
then ac any time one person may know more
or have access to more information • but at
another time, others may know more or have
more access or bett.cr understanding. Even
when we have all the facts before us, it may
be the spirit that is lacking and comes forth
from another who secs the whole better than
any of the persons who have some of the
pans. All of these contributions are
impo11ant.
Decisions which all have helped shape
and in which all can feel united make the
canying out of the necessary action go
Oraw111g by Rob Messick
(contirwed on page 3)
Xatimh Journat page 1
�~UAHJOURNAL
EDITORIAL STAPH TIHS
ISSUE:
Maria Abbruzzi
Lee Barnes
Heather Blair
Chris Davis
Judith Hallock
Charlotte Homsher
Willow Johnson, lheQuwcctor
Thanks to Jim
Rob Messick
Nancy Odell
Michael Red Fox
James Rhea
Rodney Webb
David Wheeler
Houser for inspiring the "Councils" theme for this issue.
COVER: by Rob Messick ©1992
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 Tunle Island continent of Mother Ela, the Earth
PRTNTED BY: The Waynesville Moumaineer Press
EDITOR JAL OFFICE TI TTS ISSUE: Billy Home and Gardens,
Asheville, NC
WRITE US AT: Kattwh Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
Here,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our deep
connection to the spirit of the land.
We bring this connection into the being and the doing of
our daily lives
When the land spealcs, 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 lhe land
We give !hanks for all that is good
TELEPHONE: (704) 754-6097
Diversity is an important clement of bioreg,onnl ecology, both runuml
and social. In accord with this principle Karuah Journal irics to serve as a
forum for the discussion of regional isrucs. Signed articles express only the
opinion of the authors and arc not necessarily the opinions of the Katuah
Jounial ediun or staff.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared Katuah Journal a non-profit
organiuition under section 501 (c)(3) of the lntemnl Revenue Code. All
contributions to Katuah Journal arc deductible from personal income lllX.
Ham1ony 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.
Articles appearing in KaJuahJournal may be reprinted in other
publications with pcnnission from lhc Katuah Journal struT. Contact the
journal in writing or call (704) 754-6097.
Kattwh Joturwl sends a voice...
with anicles, stories, poems, and artwork
we speak to the spirit of all the living, breathing
inhabitants of these mountains
in hopes that we, lhe human beings,
may find our place in this Great Life.
'LN VOCA.TLON
-
Empowering the Cowu:il Feather
Great Spirit,
Divine Mother,
we know this feather
came to us from you,
we know it's first purpose
in lhe Oeation is to fly empower it
so !hat each of us
who talces it in tum
may look down as the great eagle
circling over our Council,
empower us
so that each may speak
as the wind speaks
from our own comer of lhe Creation,
looking down over the long shoulder
of the horizon
The Editors
KATUAH JOURNAL wants to communicate your thoughts
andfeelings to other people in the bioregional province. Send
them to us as letters, poems, stories, articles, drawings. or
plwtographs, etc. Please send your comriburions 10 us a1: Katuah
Journal; P.O. Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kan,ah Province 28748.
OUR NEXT ISSUE will be about the role of wood in lhe
life of the mountains. Please send anicles 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 trees. wood, and woodworkers. Deadline is
August 8th 1992.
- Stephen Wing/
'\'"'
.....
~
•1 \
•
•
t.,1 I
• I
••
J
'
..
...
THE WINTER ISSUE will be an assortment including
stories for good winter reading and possibly renewable energy
systems. Deadline is October, 30th 1992.
8
ti
b"• .\Jo/
I
~~~·/~~
�(continued from page I)
forward wiLh more efficiency, power, and
smoothness. This applies L persons,
o
communities, a.nd naLions. Given the
enonnous issues and problems before us, we
need LO use the ways thaL will best enable us
to move forward Logether.
The above is an ucerpt/rom an essay in
Home: A Bioregional Reader, tdittd by Van Andruss,
Christopher and Judith Plant, and Eleanor Wright
(New Society Publishers, 1990). (First printed in
The New Catalys1, 1tJ. Spring. 1986)
Speaking with
CAROLINE ESTES:
A Phone InLerview - May, 1992
Kanwh: When you are faciliLating, how
do you see yourself acting in the group?
CE: As a servant LO the group; to help
them come 10 the best decision they can make
wiLh those present.
Katlltlh: And 10 do that you have to be
assiduously neutral.
CE: That's right.
Katuah: But it also goes beyond that,
because when you are working at the
Bioregional Congress, I feel you are putting
out a lot of energy to...cemer yourself
spiritually, could you say that?
CE: Yes, you could say that. The way I
put it is that when I am doing consensusmaking facilitation r try to keep myself as a
clear stream. I am noL impeding; I have
nothing in me that is directing. and yet l am
there, in the spiritual sense, LO be as much
help as l can possibly be.
Ninety percent of facilitation is
knowing your group on that level. Only te n
percent of iL is knowing the subject matter
and understanding the words and all of Lhat.
MosL of what you are working wiLh is totally
subjective and understanding the "vibes." l
don't have all the new age tenninology
down, but it's definitely true that as a
facilitator of large groups. you have to be in
tune with the group. If you're not, don'L
facilitate.
Karuah: It's not a mechanistic thing at
all.
CE: Absolutely. That's the reason I get
slightly hysterical when people say anyone
can facilitate.
Katttal1: What is the most difficult job
you ever had LO facilitate?
CE: I can think of times when it didn't
work, bu1 the one thot strained the group the
most and we actually got the group Lhrough
it, was at the second Bioregional Congress at
Lake Leelanauw, Michigan when the group
tried LO pass a spirituality statement.
A resolution on spirituality was brought
before the group. Everyone was favorably
impressed and, I think, was preparing to
Sum mer, 1992
i\...)
.
adopt it, when two people who had been on
the fringe of the Congress all week moved
forward 10 say that they blocked it. That was
very hard 10 hear because they had not been
integral Lo the Congress, and yet they had
been there, and since the Congresses are
open groups they had the right 10 do this.
They were not articulate, so we could
not figure out easily what Lhey wanted or
why they were blocking it. I asked the .
patience of the group for two or three minutes
so I could dialogue with them directly, and in
doing so after a few minutes it started 10
emerge that the problem we were looking at
was the separation of church and state, which
no one up until that point had thought about.
Once that was articulated in a way that
people could understand it. a numbc!r of
people rose. including some who had been
on the commiuee, and said that they would
withdraw the statement. Others wanted 10
sign it in order to show support for it, but it
could not move forward in the group. It was
blocked.
That was one of the most di fficuh ones
in that we had a block from inarticulate
people who "'eren't integrally pan of the
group and were holding up a group decision
that until then looked like it had a "go."
l think that was the most lenmin& a
group has done on why we have blocking. h
also tested the paoence of the group the most.
It showed a lot of things. It showed that
sometimes Lhe facilitator needs 10 step in to
try to find ouL what is really going on. It also
tested the group in whether they re:illy
believed in the consensual process enough
that they allowed the time for it to happen
even when it was at the end of an incredibly
pushed day.
.
r,_
It got very emotional, but...the system
worked! We hadn't thought about that point.,
and we needed to think about it before
rushing into a decision that might have been
100 hasty.
Kattlah Whar do you think is the
imponnnce of the continental bioregional
congress doing its work by consensus?
CE: It's incredibly important. In a sense
we have been co-opted by the larger society.
Bioregionalism is now an accepted word. For
instance, California is now looking at
bioregionalism governmentally. They are
starting to look at how they could break
down the state into sub-regions, instead of
towns, cities, and counties. And part of it is,
1 think, the power that goes behind any
decision of any group that works
consensually. You just have a lot more power
behind what you say. Even if it doesn'L get
into the mass media, it intrinsically has more
power. when everybody in the group is
behind a decision.
Ka11tal1: That leads to the clincher
question: which is the most imponant., the
process or the result?
CE: (Pause) I'd say Lhe process...if
your process is flawed, your decision is
going to be flawed_
When people don't want to use
consensus it is usually because they are
attached to their position. And they are right:
if they are attached ro a position and unable to
see or allow a better position L be brought
o
Drawing by Rob Messick
(continued on next page)
Xat.uah )o"i-l'IQ[. P<J9C' ·3
�(ron11nuoo from p;,i;c 3)
resen·ations. Proposal is altered after
reservation:, are considered, or it is
accepted as is.
forth, then they can't work within a
consensus process. The resuhing position is
not going to have the ~ame power. bu! that\
what's going to happen. I understand It.
And I think that a second rea.~on that
people don't use consensus. and I really .
believe this, is that they don't understand n.
Every time I teach a course, I'm teaching it 10
people who have used consensus for years,
and they are just learning what it means.
So I think that lhose are two points that
people are blank about: they're attached 10 a
position and/or they don't know the process.
,1greement with reservation recorded -
Caroline Estes is a fo1utding member of
the i111entio11ai community Alpha Farm in the
Cascadia Bioregion of the Pacific Northwest.
She lwfacilitated al/jive Turtle Island
Bioregional Congresses held co date. People
watching her ac work are awed by her
strength and clarity. It has often been said
that the ability ofthe continental Bioregio11al
Congresses 10 operate on the basis of
consensus has been due to Caroline's ability
as a facilitator, a claim which Caroline
vigorously denies. This will soon be put 10
the test, however.for Caroline has said that
next year, when she 111rns 65 years old, she
plans to discontinue facilitating the
Bioregio,1111 Congresses and begin to actively ,,#
organize in her bioregion.
j7'
Disagreement or reservations arc
considered. Proposal is altered or is
accepted, and reservations arc recorded.
Unable 10 write - If one individual is unable to
unite with a proposal and is unwilling to
stand aside, then the chairperson must
decide whether to delay action on the
proposal or to ask the individual if he or
she would be willing to be recorded as
opposed. At the next meeting, very often.
agreement is possible after more time 10
reflect on the proposal.
Recorded by DW
CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING
PROCESS
by Joyce Johnson
Purpose: The group must have a unity of
purpose and must clarify the purpose 10 all
in the group. Everyone involved must have
a clear understanding of the group's
purpose.
Members of the Group: The group must
know and trust each other. That is essential
for trust-building.
Members must be willing to listen 10
each other with open minds.
Willingness to learn from each other;
participate in cooperative problem solving
and conflict resolution if necessary.
Members must believe in the consensus
process or be open 1 the process if
0
unfamiliar with it
Proposal: An individual or the chairperson
can phrase this for presentation co the .
group. Adequate time should be taken m
order to ensure thorough understanding of
the proposal. The proposal might not be
clear at the begiMing. It is the
responsibility of the chairperson to state the
proposal so that everyone understands it.
Responses to the proposal:
Agreement - Agreement without reservation;
consensus reached and proposal accepted.
Agreement with reservations - Proposal is
generally supported, but there are some
Xotuofl Journot page 4
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Possible Decisions on Proposal:
Accepted - Consensus with full agreement
reached.
Committee discussion - More information is
needed before a decision can be reached.
Those with strong opinions should attend
this discus:;ion. Sometimes a commi11ee can
be empowered 10 act. Usually it will then
bring the proposal back 10 the whole group.
Delay decision - Group not ready to make 1h1s
decision now. Discussion tabled to later
time.
Dropped - Not enough interest at this time by
the group 10 discuss this issue.
Chairpcr~on (or "facilitator" or
"clerk"): Good guidance is very
1mponan1 10 the consensus process. A good
chairperson is very often the difference
between a meeting working well or not
working at all. There are a lot of tools that a
chairperson can learn to use, but only
experience can tell a chairperson which tool
will work best in a given situation.
issue warr.ints, cspec1ally if making a major
policy change.
•
Discipline - Ask someone to cut shon 1hc1r
comments if they arc repeating themselves
or talking too long. Can also ask someone
who has spoken on an issue to wait until
others have had a chance 10 make
comments.
Diplomacy - Chairperson must be responsible
for dealing with a chronic objector. Deal
with this person considerately. This might
be the time to say that we are aware of your
disagreement, but it seems that the sense of
the meeting is 10 accept this proposal. Be
gracious but firm.
Dialogue - Members should speak 10 the clerk
and not dialogue with each other.
Silence - Allow time 10 pause after decision
before rushing on 10 the next agenda item.
Call for silence if there is need 10 pause
when there is conflict over an issue. This
gives members a chance to think of a way
to-.ephrase a statement or to cool off if
angry.
Clearness - It is sometimes important to ask
the recording clerk to read back the decision
to make sure it is clear to everyone what
has been decided.
Clearness Process - The clerk might
ask for individuals 10 meet outside the
meeting 10 resolve conflict or misunderstanding.
Judging What Is Important - Be careful not 10
be so goal-oriented that the decision
becomes more imponant than the process.
Some decisions might need more time.
After some discussion, the chairper~on
might say, "I feel that the group is ready 10
make a decision of this proposal." If some
feel that they arc not ready, this will give
them an opportunity to say so.
The Most lmporram Role of the Chairperson
or Clerk is 10 judge the sense of the
meeting. lt is the clerk's role 10 aniculatc
the unity that he or she discovers in the
community and to facilitate the formation of
that unity.
Consensus Does not Mean Unanimil):
Consensus means reaching unity or
concorda11ce. Tt has been described as a
pianist blending complemenrary notes into a
chord. It does not mean that everyone encl~
up on the same note, but 1ha1 complementary notes are blended into a chord.
Consensus is not reaching the "lowest
common denominator." It is instead the,_#
"highest collective consciousness." fr
Rt!.fources:
Judith Webb and John Olsson, A Consensus
Dccision-Makrng Model
Miduzel J. Sheeran. Beyond t\.1ajority Ruic: Vo1clcss
Decisions in the Religious Society of Friends
Responsibilities of Chairperson:
Agenda - Put issues in order; do not leave
imponant decisions until the end. Try lo set
time limits on each agenda item. Group can
aid this process.
Frame the question or proposal with
neurrality.
Elicit comments from silent members present.
Have show of hands so that those members
won't be intimidated by more vocal
members.
Poll participa111S - Go around the circle for
comments from each member present if the
Joyce Johnson is a ml!mbcr of the Ctlo
CommUJJity and the Ctlo Fritnds Mteting. She i.r
currtnily working a.rdevt!lopmtnt coordinator for tk
Arthw Morgan School. Slrt has/ocilitated many
meetings/or the Meeting and tilt! Arthur Morgan
School and help.r the students there practice the
consen.fu:r proce:rs 01 thtir sclu,o/ meetings.
Joyce conducts workslu,ps on the con.•tnsu.f
process/or inJtrt.fted groups She may be reached
through 1hr Arthur Morgan School: 1901 /JanMh
Branch Rd.; Burnsvillt, NC 28714 (7{},I) 675-4262.
Oraw.ng by Rob M~s,ck
Sum.mer, 1992
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�Problems with Consensus
I have finally found the major beef I
have with the Consensus Process of group
decision making. Namely il revolves around
the fact that consensus can too easily boil
down to Minority Rule, and this has a
specific way of frustrating the proceedings
wilhin a group or council. When one person
or a minority can block consensus, or in
effect decide an issue for Lhe group, then that
is Minority Rule. How does this differ from
Realms, which in truth are not councils at all
but Monarchies? The struggle in human life
between inLegrity and the corruption of power
has raged for centuries, and we have yet 10
find means of reconciling the two into a
process 1hat is both just and livable for all
concerned.
Consensus is often touted as a solution
10 the many problems of Majority Rule voting
systems, such as Congresses or Parliaments,
yet it seems co me tha1 this emphasis merely
replaces one useless fonn of council with
another. It is clear 10 me now that both
Majority Rule and Minority Rule forms of
council usually result in splintered groups. Is
there any way to maintain unity among
people or various groups in the human
family? Perhaps noL
It makes sense lo me that an oppressed
individual or group would be attracted to a
consensus form of council. Such people have
surely been under-represented in the politics
of the United States of America and
elsewhere. Thus they seek compensatioR in
small groups where they can insist that their
position be adequately represented. or in
some cases OVERLY represented.
_l d<? not think that rigid Majority Rule
or Minonry Rule systems of council will
work in the long run in human group
dynamics. I say lhis because we as a species
have nasty hisLorical habiLS of not being able
to share the power of decision making when
people's opinions crystallize. There seems to
be a much_ stronger potential for many people
10 ge1 behmd a mob, and get lost in it, than
there is for individuals to think for
Lhemselves or act on their own conscience.
Majorities have a tendency to disregard the
righls of minorities, often feeling justified in
de~9!uing those who contradict the majority
opm1on.
How then can people participate in a
form of Council that can accommodate the
multiple concerns that modem human beings
have? Scale becomes important to the
accuracy of the decisions being made.
Geographical size is also an imponant factor.
A council 1hat is too small may nol have
enough influence, yet a council that is too
large may be irrelevant l0 local concerns. The
village, which is composed of a limited
number of households, is one of the best
examples of an appropriate or workable scale
of human council. When Lhese village groups
are slable then larger councils can evolve that
involve a limited cluster of villages, such as a
county or shire.
Consensus may have worked better in
eras where villages were primary to a given
cultural way of life. The consensus process
may also have worked beuer when times
were not as complicated, or when there were
fewer decisions to be made. The
Summer, 1992
consequences of decision making in the
dislant pasl also were no1 as far reaching as
they have become in the industrial era;
wilness the existence of plutonium and
television.
It seems lo me that many small or
medium sized groups of today could benefit
from having a formal Mediator lo help guide
the process of decision making; panicularly
when difficulties emerge or when a group
becomes deadlocked. This form of mediated
debate would differ greatly from an ingrown
strain of politics that has stagnated due to a
few dominant inclividuals. Instead of
bec_o~~g compl~tel~ i_mmersed in battling
maJonues and nunonues, a good mediator or
facilitator would remind participanLS of their
common interesLS and emphasize the an of
compromise where it is appropriate.
Compromise is a learned skill that individuals
in a small or medium sized group can develop
to auempl to work out solutions 10 problems
in a wa~ 1ha1 does noL leave out any
responsible adult who wants to participate in
the decision making process. In the case of
family disputes a facilitator could assist in
clarifying the rights of children as well as the
rights of parems.
Issues of fairness in a setting where no
weapons are allowed would naturally become
an ongoing concern. A valid council would
not allow weapons a1 their proceedings. It is
clear lo me now, Lhrough a beuer
understanding of human behavior, thal there
are some approaches 10 forming council that
work beuer than others. Finding ways that
panicipants can let go of the spirit of
conquest and still be a pan of the group is
primary to working toward a successful
approach. There are cenainly no guarantees
that this process would work over time, yet
adequate spans of time seem to be necessary
to forming councils that link people at least as
much as they divide them. Most of the
politics of today are 100 rushed and
inconsistent to even begin to consider
susLainability or future generations.
Good facilitators would have the skill
of being able to suspend their judgements
enough, or be sufficiently impartial, to
mediale lhe vested interests within a given
group. A good facilitator would also be
skilled in ways of building truSt among
members of a group or council. Once such an
atmosphere of trust has been created the
various secret and obvious agendas touted by
people within the group can be identified,
slowly brought out into the open, and
confronted.
Even though solutions or decisions may
not emerge spontaneously, at leasl a good
faci.litator can provide a forum in which all
posilions are aired. Members can go away
from a meeting and contemplate the meaning
of these positions. which become imponant
lo dialogues in future meetings. Those
individuals who are most auatched to their
own agendas would probably balk the
loudest at having a facilitator or "outSidcr"
come into their group process. But, as is
often the case in human psychology, it is
those who refuse good medicine or good _
,#
council the strongcsl who need it most!
J!7'
· Rob Mes.sick
Dnwing by Rob Messick
X.Otunft Jouniat PIUJe 5
�TRIBAL COUNCIL
•
I n the center of each of the larger
Cherokee villages were the square and the
town house. In the larger villages the 1own
house was buiJ1 in10 a large earthen mound.
Seating areas were dug into the mound, so
1hat if you looked at ii from the top, without
the roof on it, it looked Like a spiral coming
up out of the ground. AI the bottom and !he
center of the spiral was the sacred fire and !he
seven poles that supported the building.
The visible walls were only four feel
high, and !he whole building was covered by
an immense thatched roof. Some of the town
houses at the major villages were enormous.
The town house at Old Echota, for example,
had 900 poles. Many of !hem were 18"
through. A lot of them were locus1. They
used the seven-pole construction all the way
around and made 1he building very strong.
But not every village had a town house.
The smaller villages used the square for !heir
mee1ing place. There would be seven arbors,
traditionally called ''beds," arranged around
the square, one for each of the clans. Four of
!he beds were localed at the cardinal poinis,
and !he others were loca1ed around 1hem.
During meetings, all 1he members of the clan
sat in their clan bed.
In each village there were people who
spen1 a lot of lime at the town house, in the
square, or n1 1he chunky (a popular gambling
game - ed.) grounds, which were locaied just
to the side of 1he town house. The old men,
in particular, spent a good deal of 1heir time
there just talking. Thus, 1here was an
ongoing meeting around the town house that
was happening more or less all 1he 1ime.
Sometimes the meeting got mor..: intense
when everybody came to the 1own house to
talk about some mauer of importance to the
village, bu1 01her times ii was just the old
men continually discussing the village affairs.
When the whole council met, the
meetings became more fonnal. Twelve of the
elders sat around the sacred fire at the center
of the town house. (In the smaller villages
there was one representative from each clan.}
The rest of the people of the viJJ~ge sat in the
seats by clans.
One member of the council represented
"The Unborn Yet To Be," and spoke for their
poin1 of view. II was important 10 the council
tha1 in decision-making The Unborn Yet To
Be were always taken into account. They
don'1 do that any more. I wish 1hey would.
They would talk about problems the
village faced, like a bad com crop that year
or another village which was requesting theuhelp to make war on the Creeks.
Consensus was the way decisions were
made. The old people in the center spoke
first They did not give commands. They
would make suggestions based on their
wisdom. And oflen the people would follow
that wisdom Part of their wisdom was taking
into accoun1 the Unborn Yet To Be.
Anyone could speak in the council, but
it was done respectfully. The old people
spoke firsi, 1hen the 01her people could
speak. They had to wait until 1he conversation at the center was done, then they would
Xati1nh Jo;ucnnfriP'-90i•i111X
stand and wait to be recognized by one of the
elders in the middle. They didn't scream or
wave 1heir arms, they jus1 stood 10 be
recognized. Women could speak in the
council. Even a child could speak. Everyone
had a right to speak their heart.
Once I was privileged to sit at the
ceremonial grounds wilh a group of old
Cherokee men in Oklahoma while they talked
about a problem in their village. l saw an
example of how lhe old tribal councils made
decisions by consensus.
There were 12 or 15 old men in the
group. The younges1 one, besides myself,
was about 73. These were the people who
used the Council House. They 100k into
consideration The Unborn Yet To Be.
The problem ai 1he time was not really
clear to me, bu1 I remember tha1 everybody
spoke. They sinned off with the younges1
man and went around the circle, each man
speaking his piece and saying wha1 he had 10
say.
It wasn'1 a "meeting" the way whi1e
people run a meeting. They didn'1 hammer
out a decision. In fact, 1hey did not come to
any specific conclusion a1 all. If any white
people had been presen1, 1hey would not have
known tha1 a meeting was taking place at all.
To a white person ii would have appeared
1hat some old men were silting in a circle
talking casually about a mauer of common
concern.
They just talked aboul it. Each of them
spoke abou1 the problem from his own point
of view. The world tru1h among these people
was the same, so they already shared a broad
agreement By 1he time they went around the
circle the silua1ion was so clear from every
angle tha1 the answer was obvious. and the
old men just got up and lef1. There was a
consensus. It was all over. It was decided.
I fell very fonuna1e 10 ge1 a glimpse of
something that rarely happens anymore,
With 1he advice of the elders, the
council chose the chiefs, called uku's, for
the village. There were two chiefs: a peace
uku and a war uku. A person was chosen as
an uku because he had a lot of personal
integri1y and made good decisions. He was a
person the people chose to follow and also a
role model for the young people. A chief held
his position until he made l01s of mistakes,
and the people would choose 10 follow
someone else. But if he made wise decisions,
he could be chief for life.
The war chief was probably the mos1
popular person in 1he village, bu1 he was also
the mos1 vulnerable. ff he used bad
judgmen1, his mistakes could cost many
lives, and his career would be ended.
The chief was a leader, bu, he did not
tell people what to do. h was no1 like "OK,
we'll all go 10 war 1oday," or "Everybody go
pick com." Like the elders, a chief could
only make suggestions. White people do not
know anything about democracy and freedom
until they know 1he way tha1 the native
culture worked.
by Bear With Runs
Another important person chosen by the
council was 1he Beloved Woman. She was
chosen for the same reason as an uku: 1ha1
her character, as a woman, was highly
regarded by the men and women of the
village. Like an 11Jr.u, she would have to show
in1eg:ity and personal power. At one time
every village had a Beloved Woman, un1il
after a 101 of white influence there came 10 be
only one Beloved Woman for the whole
tribe.
The Beloved Woman could no1 start a
war, but she could stop one. She decided
what happened 10 captives. She spoke up
when !he village was lllinking about moving
i1s location, and she had a say on 1rea1ies.
Other women came to her frequently for
spiritual advice and help with everyday
mauers.
The Cherokee are called a nation, bu1
the word "nation," in the Western sense of
the word, does not explain how the people
saw rhemselves. They saw themselves as
"The Human Beings" or "The People." In the
early days of white contac1, the "nation" was
only a very loose federation of individual
villages. Each village was a power 10 i1self
and could follow i1s own hean to a great
extent.
The tnbe had red villages (war villages)
and while villages (peace villages}, and there
were also special sanctuary villages. A
person 'Yho committed a crime of passion in
his own village could find safety if he could
gel to a sanctuary village before being caught.
He could s1ay in the sanctuary village without
being molested by anybody until the
following Green Corn Ceremony, when
judgments were decided, and compensations
were paid. People would have to make
retribution for mistakes they had made. They
might pay in com, or sometimes a person
would indenture himself for a time of service
to make retribution.
The sanc1uary villages and the "cooling
off period" were probably good ideas,
because they allowed people's personal
passions to wane somewhat, and judgments
were made out of reason instead of hot anger.
The Katuah village was a sanctuary.
and also 1he Nikwasi village in Franklin,
North Carolina. I believe tha1 the seven
oldest, "mother" vilJages of the Cherokee
were sanc1uary villages, although I am not
sure of the status of Echota. There were a lot
of warriors based 1here in la1er times.
While the villages were self-determining political unilS, it was the shared
ceremonies, lifestyles, customs, and world
view that kept the tribe together. And there
was also the influence of 1he clans. There
were seven clans in the Cherokee tribe
(ahhough a long time ago there were 14).
PeOple were born in10 their mother's clan,
and tha1 was 1heir clan for life. The women
kepi crack of the lineages.
Each clan had its own rules and i1s own
taboos. The clans 100k care of 1heir own
(tonhnucd on P•&c 8)
Suni'ttttr, 11992 "" ,
�•
DnWllli by James Rhea
�(continued from p;,gc 6)
members. They specialized life within the
villages somewha1 and k:PI people ~rom
marrying too close 10 theLr own family. A
person could not marry within the same clan.
Incest of any sort, eilher biological incest or
clan incest, was lhe worst crime a person
could commit The clan system kept out
inbreeding. It also helped 10 govern lhings.
Besides lhe family cornfields and lhe
communal aibaJ cornfields, each clan would
also have large clan cornfields. Any excess
com from lhese fields would be given to the
old and the elderly of that clan, if their
families could nor provide for them.
The clans also had somewhat dlfferem
functions. The Wolf Clan was the warrior
clan - the military and the police if that
function was needed. The Wild Poiato Clan
was more into agriculture. The Paints were
interested in crafts. And the Bird Clan was
probably hunters - birds, deer. Each clan had
different rules and different taboos,
depending on their function in lhe
community.
While the clan system did serve to
sepanue things and provi_de some stru~rure
within the village, on a different level tt also
served 10 hold the tribe together as a whole.
Clan members were obligated to care
for each other. This was the basic rule of the
clans. A traveler could go 10 a small outpost
village up in Kcnrucky that he had never seen
before and could find clan relatives who
would take him in and care for him. lt held
the people together. Even though the dialect
they spoke might be different, they would
still be clan relatives. They would still be
Cherokee.
And 1hen there was clan justice. This is
often misunderstood. Any time the rights or
person of a clan member were viol~ted, then
everybody else in that clan was obligated to
make swe retribution was paid for the cnme.
For instance, if someone murdered a member
of another clan, all the other members of that
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clan helped 10 hunt that perso~ down and take
his life in return. If the offending person ran
to a sanctuary village. he could stay there, but
if lhe clan members caught him first, it was
au over.
This was not revenge. This was the
clan being responsible for its members based on our reality. The clans kept a balance
between each other. That kept a balance
wilhin the whole aibe.
group - but at the same time they were ~iven
tremendous freedom. There were areas m
which an indjviduttl could get glory and
personal recognition. Someone who was a
great hunter was revered. and a gOO?
provider was sought af1er by the lad1~s.
There was glory for the young males 1n
warfare.
However, if someone did not conduct
him- or herself properly, they did not receive
any approval. People would just ignore them.
In most cases, their behavior would be
modified in a very short time. Native people
wanted at all cost 10 avoid losing face and
being shamed. Depriving someone of
attention or ridiculing him or her was a
powerful way 10 get a deviant person back
into accord with the group.
The ultimate threat of force was
banishment from the village. An action that
serious was carried out by the whole village
council, because it required the support of the
whole community. In that situation,
somebody was put 0111 of the circle instead of
into a jail or prison. The idea of cagin_ up
g
somebody's spirit was a totally alien idea.
The purpose of this village justice was
not 10 punish people, but tO change them.
The Cherokee did believe in vengeance, but
only against other aibes. fn the whi~e.
people's system, people who caus<: mJury are
punished. They are made to suffer m an equal
amount to the harm they have caused - either
by years of imprisonment or by ouaight
execution.
The dominant culture of today is
actually a lot of confused culrural biases
which share very little consensus as to what
is true culture. Within our culture it was
clear. There wasn't anything else. It was
either this or nothing. If you didn't belong. it
was terrible. The urge to belong was so
str0ng, it governed the people's actions.
Our consensus was based on a world
view that was shared throughout the whole
aibe. Because of that the Cherokee needed no
couns, lawyers, judges, or prisons.
We had very few laws. They were
mostly just rational, reasonable rules.based
on observation. There was a law agamst
urinating in the river. There was a Jaw against
defecating around the village. There was a
law against talcing 100 many deer, because
everybody knew thar if they killed too many
deer, there would not be any left the next
year. There were clear and obvious reasons
for laws like that They were based on
common sense rules that nature laid down in
front of us.
One of the biggest barriers between us
and the white people was that we did not
have any concept of privare property.
•
Possession meant that "when you were there
it was yours." But the white people did a
good job of teaching us differently.
The word "fndian-giver" came from the
fact that a white man would give some
Indians a load or goods for their piece of
land and the next day the Indians would be
back. The Indians had not realized they ~ad
sold their land. They had never had any idea
of owning it! They took the presents because
it would be rude to refuse gifts of friendship.
It is hard for white people to understand
our ways and how they worked, because
they do not understand how the old
Cherokees related 10 the aibe. The old culture
was holistic. The tribe was the whole, and
the loyalty toward the whole was very
strong. The desire to contribute to the whole
and to move evenly with the rest of the group
was ingrained by many generations of
cultural reinforcement ll was so much a part
of the culture that it was quite abnonnal to ~
an individual. Cooperation was t~e governing
force within the community, and m the old
days, before we were too muc~ influenced by
the whites. our personal integnty meant a lot
more 10 us.
People were rewnrcted for their
cooperation by approval and love from the
In the Cherokee aibe, spiritual life was
not split a pan from the political l!fe of the
village. It was always there. but It was not
recognized as something separate. Because of
the emphasis on character and personal
integrity, the elders tended to be te~chers and
spiritual leaders as well as leaders m the
council.
At one time there was a religion and a
priest society in the Cherokee aibe. I ~ave
heard stories about this from several different
sources. My own thinking is that in !he
tribe's early history when we first migrated
south, we encountered the late stages of the
deteriorating Mississippian culture. The
Mississippian culture "."as ~ on M_ayan
and Aztec beliefs. Tht1r pracoces, beliefs,
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(Continued on page 30)
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�O,.wing by Rob Messick
© 1992
by Lucinda Flodin
Maybe she's the reason I came to live
in the mountains. I know she's the reason I
swp when I'm near that panicular place.
Sometimes I stop nowhere near that place
because the feeling comes over me, and I
stop. After all this time I still fookfor Elda ...
In 1974 I spent the summer with
friends in Limestone, Tennessee, recovering
from a shattered romance. I would sit on the
porch watching the mountains, but more
often I would drive to the mountains and hike
through long afternoons. On one of these
hikes I became absorbed in following a liule
stream and lost track or time. When r stopped
to rest, I realized that it was getting late.
Night came quickly in the forest and I
found myself unable to negotiate the path, I
finally stopped in a small clearing only to
realize that r was now losr. Around me were
trees and darkness and ever-increasing fear.
A sound sent me into total panic. I had
visions of bears and mountain lions and
snakes and bugs! l tried 10 get a grip. I
smacked a mosquito who was definitely out
for blood. My hean started pounding wildly.
I'd probably have a heart auack before a bear
could even find me.
I was hungry ... so thirsty... but there
was no food anywhere... not a bite 10 be
found! I leaned over to drink from the
stream, but I had no idea where I was or
what the origin of the water was. I knew I
shouldn't drink any water in the wild unless I
was at a spring head. How thirsty I was and I
couldn't even drink the water!
1 sat and cried - no, yelled - at the trees
around me about the unfairness or it all.
Finally I ran out of energy and sat down. Just
then the.moon came shimmering through the
su-mmcr, 1992
ELDA
trees, and I rudn't feel so alone. As I looked
across the clearing, it seemed that if I just
walked around the big tree in front of me, I
could get a clear view of the moon's face. As
I pushed away the low branches to duck
around the tree, the Earth s11dde11/y fell away
beneath me.
There was nothing gradual about this
moment. One second I was on the ground,
the next I was in space - learning gravity as
I'd never learned it before - tumbling, falling,
rolling. It happened so quickly I had no time
10 fear as I bounced through bush and briar. I
tried 10 clutch the Earth, but I wasn't sure
where it was - sometimes above me,
sometimes below, pounding at me wherever
we met. Eternity was caught in a single
moment. Would it ever stop?
At last I became more of the eanh than
the sky, and I rolled into a resiing spot in a
patch or briars. Pain and eanh grJbbcd me
back from space. My last thought was
wondering if the spinning would ever
cease ...
Warm sunlight on my face, my bed felt
so good. The dream had been so real. I'd
never dreamt so vividly. I decided to grab the
journal at my bedstand and write it down .
before the memory faded. It was the reaching
for this journal that brought abrupt physical
pain.
I tried to open my eyes. How I hurt!
Oh, no! This wasn't my bed! This wasn't a
dream! Hope crashing, I opened my eyes to
the canopy of young tree growth above me. It
hun to look ouL lt hun to breathe. The
thought of moving hurt. Maybe I was dead.
lf not. I surely would be soon. A tear burned
down my face. I could feel my fingers. l
could feel my toes. Pain filled them all and
soon a strange sleep enveloped me.
A sense of not being alone brought me
back 10 consciousness. Was this the
mountain lion I'd feared? As l tried to move,
pain seared through my body. A voice like
music. or was it the wind through the trees,
said, "Don't move, young one, and don't be
afraid. I won't hurt you."
As I struggled tO tum toward the
sound, r felt movement around me until a
woman came into my sighL First I saw her
hands, veined like the gnarly roots of an oak,
yet wonderfuJJy supple. My eyes moved up
to a face which surprised me with itS
ancientness; somehow it didn't match those
capable hands. The face was an intricate mnzc
of lines and wrinkles - there were no flat
planes. Then our eyes met and I felt myself
falling int0 an ocean of blue clarity. Never
had I experienced eyes like those - clearer,
yet deeper, than a child's. Suddenly those
eyes and her whole incredible face broke into
a smile with more facets than a prism in
sunlighL And that music - no, it was her
voice. "You arc amazed, young one. Good,
that amazement will help you to heal
yourself."
"Are you an angel? Am I dead?"
Again that smile, followed by a laugh
that would have made me laugh, too, except
for how much it would have hun.
"No, young one. I walk an Eanh path.
Some call me Elda. I answered your
frightened call in the moonlighL"
I realiz.ed that I no longer was lying in
briars. Hadn't I landed in briars? My eye
caught a thiclcet of them a little way from
when: I lay.
(continued on ow page)
)(.Qtimh JoUf'tlat PQIJI'- 9
�(CQitinued f'rom pego 9)
"Briars don't make for sweet dreams;
soft pine needles and grass make for more
comfon. You'll rest easy in this baby forest,
and the Eanh will help your healing. You
have strong bones, none are broken. Your
muscles are strained. Only a few of your cuts
are deep. This gash is deep for it bleeds stil1,
but it has bled enough. Feel it closing and
healing in your thoughts, little one."
She reached into a pouch at her side and
took a pinch of some powder and blew it into
the CUI.
"What's that stuff?"
"A pinch of puffball to stop the blood.
It has bled enough now. You are curious?
That is good. I like curiosity. I will teJJ you
of the plants."
I grew anxious at all these answers to
unasked, sometimes uninfonned questions.
"And you are afraid. Are you always
afraid, little one? Breathe or hum a song. It
will help."
She took a bowl -1 think it was a bowl,
though it may have been a hollowed-out tree
gnarl - and with a feathery leaf began to wash
my cuts.
"This is yarrow, cooked in water in the
sunlight. It will numb your pain and let us
work on your injuries."
As she gently washed them. I could feel
the pain numbing, lessening.
"Th.is will allow us to bathe them
again."
With the numbness, I was able to move
to see myself. Everywhere I could see my
skin, it was covered like a roadmap with
scratches. The skin around the scratches was
deepening as bruises formed. I wanted to
throw up, but that would have required
movement.
"Skin mends, young one."
"I'm not that young, and my name is
Lucinda."
"To me you are very young, Lucinda."
As I looked at her ancientness, f felt
silly at having snapped at her.
Throughout the day as I moved in and
out of sleep. I felt her near me. Her words
wafted through my consciousness as she
washed my legs with chickweed, little star
woman, comfrey, burdock, more yarrow.
She helped me sip red clover from a bowl. It
all was like a confused dream. Sometimes r
would hear her talking. Actually, it seemed
that she was having two-way conversations
with the plants. / must be mad' And then I'd
doze again.
"Are you magic?" I asked in a moment
of lucidity.
"No, child... Lucinda. I am a child of
the Earth, like yourself. I've tended this
forest garden, and it has tended me, for
longer than 1 can even remember. We take
care of each other."
At dusk, a drink with a strong taste...
"Skullcap, 10 mke the pain for a deeper
sleep."
I did sleep - deeply - and without fear. I
could hear her voice as I drifted.
"You are safe under the trees, on the
Eanh, with the stars. Sleep sweetly. Dream
wellness."
I awoke to the twittering of birds. I stiU
hun, but I could move. Again I wondered a1
~~~ J?~~~. p~!Z ,10
~e.reality of Elda. then she stepped into my
v1s1on. Yes, she was really here. It was like
she was invisible one moment and there the
nexL Yet I knew she had really been there.
She was real. I was overcome by the wisdom
I sensed in her presence.
"Today you might feel hungry. I've
brought you food."
She opened a giant leaf which I later
learned was burdock filled with violets,
clover blossoms and sweet-tasting leaves and
berries. She would name them.
"It's so much. I'll never remember
them."
"You don't learn them all at once, dear
one. You learn one plant at a time. Each is
your teacher."
I contemed myself with the
nourishment I felt pervading my body. AU
that day Elda fed me and I told her of my
journey. She only laughed when 1 got to the
part of being so hungry and so far from food.
She found that delightfully funny, and I felt
foolish. But then r looked around, and I, too,
was struck with the humor of it. Somehow it
seemed that all the plants around us also
laughed, but I wouldn't swear to that.
Moving became easier as the day went
on and I was amazed at how much better all
my scratches were. Elda made a poultice (I
remember her using that word) of plantain
and elder for my bruises. I could feel the
soothing relief and the healing begin.
'Tomorrow you will be able 10 travel,"
she said as the sun was gold in the west. We
sat with a bowl of salve which tasted full and
thick as soup. "I will show you a shoner
route."
I didn't want 10 go, but suddenly I
thought of my friends, Dan and Ruby, and I
knew they must be panicking by now.
"I would like to know more about
plants, Elda."
"Well, talk to them, dear. They like to
be remembered."
I went to sleep imagining myself in
conversation with a fem and wondering
about my sani1y.
Walking down the mountain \l.ith Elda
in the morning was an adventure. It was a
completely different path, I think. I wasn't
really payiog much auention on the way. She
pointed out plants, talked to them as friends.
and treated them with re:;pect. Before I knew
it, we were at my car
She laughed, "Ah, just the friend you
need now." And she told me to pick the
sticky flowers growing around my car.
"Calendula. Make them into a tea to soothe
your wounds."
"How do I thank you, Elda?"
"You don't, dear one. You pick the
flowers and make yourself strong."
It seemed like just a moment later when
a state trOOper stanled me. I looked toward
Elda, but she was gone. My friends had
reported me missing. He had been looking
for me and had found my car.
"Did you see that woman?"
"No, miss. Just you here. No one Jives
up in these pans. I'll drive you."
I went home and healed up, though one
scar remained on my leg as a reminder of the
adventure. But 1 still thought about Elda and
wanted to see her again. Several times that
summer I returned to that area, but I could
never again find that exact spot where I had
met Elda. l asked campers and hikers, and I
stopped at every house in the area. No one
had heard of anyone sounding like Elda.
They sent me up 10 Granny Pierson
who was the oldest person around and who
reponedly became confused at rimes. We
talked. She drifted in and out of memory, a
sharp contrast to the clearity of Elda's mind.
She couldn't recollect much at first, but
finally she began, "There was this old
woman. What was here name? Something
like that, but, Lord, hooey, hit's bin since l
was a girl An old 'erb woman. She was old
when I was a child. Lord, she'd be in the
grave more'n seventy year now. J remember
her, though, but my mind's leavin' me."
My friends listened patiently, trying to
be supponive, but occasionally suggesting
that maybe I'd dreamed it. Maybe I'd made
her up to keep myself alive. I don't know.
Could I have made up the richness that
was Elda? Her wiseness? I couldn't have
made up her eyes!
Thar was sixteen years ago. I live in the
mountains now, in the same county tlwugh
miles from where I met Elda. I dan't ask
abolll her now, excepi when I meet old
people. But as I walk tliroughfields and
woods, gathering plants and learning abolll
them, Ida think of her. In fields where
flowers seem to be laughing, I sense her
presence. I feel tit.at if I could just turn more
qt~ickly, I'd see her there ware/ting me - her
wise face full oflife, giving nouris/unent. .
After all this time I still look for Elda.
#
P'
There are stories from cullurcs around the
world and from ns far back ns the Stone Ages about
lhc elderberry. UsWllly lhey involve o woman who
lives in the tree and ha~ powerful medicine 10 heal Iler
children. (I created the feminine fonn Elda for !hi.~
cho.roclCJ'.) But she con be dangerous at times when
she is not shown re,.c;pcct. Old supcn;lilions maimain
lhat cuumg elder without pennission or the plant
brings illnes,~ nnd/or death.
Lucinda Flodin lives with her family in Katuah
Province near Hampton, TN and is. among other
things, an herbalist and a Mory!Alllcr. The story "Elda"
is included oo a new audio tape cnlled Mountain
Spirits available for SI0.00 ppd. from: Lucincm
Flodin: Rt. I, Box 726; Hampton. TN 37658.
�THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
Land, Liberty... and Mastery
by David Wheeler
"A beautiful valley and the
almost boundless West lay before
them, beckoning all to adventure
themselves. The thing most worthy of
remark is the far reach and wide range
of the vision and the plans of the
people of Franklin, and the projective
power that gave them and their
descendants a very considerable
mastery of men and measures
througlwut the generations that /rave
followed."
- Samuel Cole Williams
in The Lost State of Franklin
they could hunt. They built their own log
homes, provided their own clothing, and
made their own whiskey. Work parties of
neighbors built and maintained what roads
!here were.
The presence of the tax collectors was
!he main evidence of the Norlh Carolina state
government. The settlers were poorly
represented in the state legislature. They had
to cross the mountains to find a court in
(1933)
In the years immediately following the
Revolutionary War the runnoil of the war
years continued almost unabated in the
former colonies. These were heady times the imperial power of England had been
defeated, new theories of government were
materializing, and a new continent lay open
for the taking. In !he new nation, talk of
politics was on everyone's lips, and "libeny"
was the watchword. But in the minds of
many people was the thought of land - land to
be the material basis for their hard-won right
to "the pursuit of happiness."
In spite of such lofty hopes and dreams
among the European settlers, however, the
new country was in a shambles. The
government of the State of North Carolina, in
particular, was pauperized. The war had
taken a heavy toll on !he personal resources
of the former colonists, and !here had been
much destruction and ill-feeling. The central
government was weak: and in debt for
promises made during the pressing struggle
for independence. By its original charter, the
jurisdiction of North Carolina extended west
10 the sea, but under the prevailing conditions
it was lit lie wonder that those closest to the
capital at Hillsborough received the most
attention.
The mountains of the Blue Ridge were
still a formidable barrier at that time. Settlers
following the Great Valley of !he Tennessee
River had established a bastion in what is
now the northeast comer of Tennessee.
During the war they had shown themselves to
be stalwan pattiotS, pro<ecting North
Carolina's rear from hostile attacks by the
Cherokee and Chiclcasaw tribes and turning
the tide of the war in the South by surging
over the mountains to play a decisive role in
the battle of Kings Mountain,
But now, not only were the wartime
claims of these soldiers being ignored, but
Nonh Carolina was levying heavy taxes on
au its citizens to rebuild itS shattered
infrastructure and restore its government. To
the settlers in the west, this was blatant
"taxation without representation" - just what
they had fought 10 end!
This feeling was justified. The lands
west of the mountains were self-supponing,
living off the crops they raised and the game
summer, 1092
which to setlle their differences. Although
constantly threatened by hostile natives, their
state government would send no ll'OOpS
across the mountains for their protection.
But the worst blow came in 1783. In
order to capitalize its recovery, the State of
North Carolina passed a law offering land
west of the mountains for sale to setllers and
speculators. The bill put up for sale the land
from 20 miles south of the town of
Jonesborough 10 the French Broad and the
Big Pigeon Rivers, conveniently ignoring the
fact that this land had been guaranteed to the
Cherokee in the Avery Treaty of 1777.
This made the natives understandably
restless, and in 1784, largely to avoid the
expense of sending a military force to defend
the western settlers from angry Cherokees,
North Carolina passed a bill giving up its
claim to the lands west of the mountains and
ceding !hem to the newly-formed national
Confederation Congress.
Congress was too weak and 100 far
away to protect the settlers over the
mountains. Nonh Carolina had reneged on
the task. The seulers were used to protecting
and providing for themselves. A decade
before, earlier settlers had even established
the Watauga Association, the first "free and
independent community on the continent," in
the words of Theodore Roosevelt On August
23, 1784 delegates from the counties west of
the Blue Ridge gathered and declared their
area a free and independent state.
Their declaration was immediately
challenged. Norlh Carolinians were surprised
and angered at this tum of events, and when
a new legislature convened that autumn,
North Carolina rescinded the C.ession Act and
restated itS cl.aim to the western lands.
It was a vain attempt. On December 14,
1784 a second convention at Jonesborough
decided to name the new state after Benjamin
Franklin and set about the work of drawing
up a constitution. The following March, that
work was continued, and John Sevier was
elected governor of the State of Franklin and
David Campbell was chosen as its chief
justice and given the task of setting up a court
system.
John Sevier (pronounced se-VEER)
had been at first reluctant 10 become involved
with the movement for independence, but
from 1784 he was a moving force in the
history of the State of Franklin. By all
accounts he was brave, charming, and
handsome · a charismatic leader. He was a
hero of the battle of Kings Mountain and was
a renowned "lndian fighter."
Instinctively, Sevier was a consummate
politician. He knew the value of diplomacy
and the power of force. In his dealings wilh
whites he could use a winning smile and
charming words to win his way; with the
native people he was rulhlessly violent
Although he was educated and
articulate, Sevier's strongest support was
always among the rough settlers on the
frontiers of the whites' territory. These were
his comrades in arms, the mythologized
pioneers. It was moslly from these people
that Sevier drew the militia for his campaigns
against the natives. The backwoods whites
loved and trusted Sevier. They counted on
him for their defense, and he never let them
down.
For three years Sevier led the State of
Franklin. In that turbulent era the exact
powers and role of a state was unclear.
Whether the states were to be
semi-autonomous republics or divisions of a
strong central government was as yet
undecided. One thing was certain: "Liberty,"
meaning self-government, was the overriding
ideal. During the three years that the State of
Franklin existed, it set up its own
govemrncntal scructure, electing delegates
and appointing commissioners. It established
a judiciary; minted coins; provided for
schools; and, of course, designed a "great
seal" and a flag. The frontiersmen were
already organized as a de/aero militia, but
that arrangement was officializcd. The State
also began collecting taxes - frontier Style.
"Be it enacted," decreed the state's first
General Assembly, "that it shall and may be
lawful for the aforesaid land tax, and all free
polls, to be paid in the following manner:
Good flax linen,... woolen and cotton
linsey,...good, clean beaver skins,...cased
otter sk.ins, ... rackoon (sic) and fox
skins, ... bacon, well curcd,...good, clean
tallow,...good, clean beeswax,... good
distilled rye whiskey,...good peach or apple
brandy,...good, country made (maple)
(eontinucd on nc:ll page)
Xati4af1 Journal: page 11
�(continued from page 11)
sugar,...deer skins, ...good, neat and well
managed tobacco, fit to be prized, that may
pass inspection,..."
In certain instances, Franklin also acted
like a national power. The state made treaties
wilh the native tribes, which in those times
with the central government so weak and ~
id~ of self-government so strong in the
mrnds of the people, was not unusual But in
1788, when the effort to maintain their
ind~~dcn~ was falling apart, Sevier began
a ~non wtth the government of Spain.
w~ch held the mouth of the Mississippi
River. To the Spanish representative
Oardoqui, Sevier hinted that the citiuns of
Frank.I.in might ally themselves with Spain in
exchange for protection, money, and
weapons. It was almost assuredly a bluff,
but. even in those times, it was a bold bluff
indeed.
•
The foundation of the "Liberty~ of the
white immigrants was the very material
~sidcration of land. From the beginning of
its history, the acquisition of land was the
other driving force in the remarkable story of
the State of Franklin. That the native
inhabitants had clear tide to their lands that
o~ten went back 1,000 years made no
~erence. The p~ure of the migration of
whit.e Europeans from over the mountains
was irresistible. Also, disagreements over the
authority of the different states, the
Confederation Congress, and the State of
Franklin to sign treaties and ma.kc agreements
added 10 the confusion (which was no doubt
exploited when convenient).
. Always ready 10 make agreements., the
whites did not prove so willing to keep them,
and the Cherokee in vain pointed to tteaty
)CQtuQn )oumQC PQ<Je 12
after broken treaty. On the Cherokee side the
Chickamauga villages, under the leadership
of the war chief Dragging Canoe, believed in
no treaties made with the whjtes and honored
none. Their disbelief was quite correct but
their actions gave the Europeans ample'
reasons for reprisals.
It was a war, 10 be sure, and each side
could point 10 outrages and depredations
committed by the other. But in this war the
treaties were meaningless; the real power was
in the superior numbers and weapons of the
European occupiers, and they would take
whatever their military strength could win.
A fine tract of land in the Great Bend of
the Tennessee (or "the Bent of the
Tennessee"), near the present-day city of
Muscle Shoals, Alabama was a lodestone to
white investors. In 1784, a company of
speculators, including John Sevier and
prominent men in Nonh Carolina, arranged a
"purchase" of the land from some of the
native residents, although the area was deep
in the territory guaranteed to the red people.
Fro~ then on Sevier's eyes were always
looking toward the south. It is felt that his
initial opposition 10 the establishment of the
State of Franklin stemmed from concern
about the future of his investment in the Great
Bend. When he came around 10 favor the
s~ssion, he began to think that the new
state could help his venture, and under his
leadership the policies of the State of Franklin
were always expansionist and pointed toward
the south.
Franklin encouraged immigration by
whites, even when the government knew that
the only available lands lay in Cherokee
country. ~igration meant profits, yes.
land speculanon was a booming industry in
the ne.wly-opened lands to the west. But,
more unportantly, immigration was crucial to
the very survival of the fledgling state across
the mountains. Cleared lands and dense
settlements were the best protections against
anacks by the natives.
The Nonh Carolina Act of 1783 had
violated the terms of the earlier Avery Treaty
by !f!OVing the boundary claimed by the
whnes down to the French Broad River.
However. the act strictly prohibited entry or
surveys by whites south of that line. But as
soon as the State of Franklin was formed,
settlers began 10 move south of the French
Broad. They were encouraged by the state
government. In fact, the State of Franklin had
a land office in Jonesborough that raised
revenue by taking purchase money for land
claims granted south of the French Broad.
Sevier felt that this siruation needed
formal recognition, so he called together a
meeting of Cherokee chiefs in May of 1785
and laid out the Treaty of Dumplin Creek,
~h~c~ moved .the ~undary south 10 the ridge
diVJd1ng the Little River and the Little
Tennessee River watersheds.
However, it was only six months later
that the United States' Confederation
Congress felt that the central government
should assert its authority and negotiated the
Treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokee. This
treaty moved the line back 10 the north . so
far nonh that the town of Greeneville, which
had just been named the capital of the State of
Franklin, was made pan of the native
territories! The treaty specifically repudiated
the Dumplin Creek agreement and the Great
Bend land purchase. It was intentionally
vague about the status of the settlers
occupying the lands north of the French
Broad River, but it clearly stated that all other
trespassers would have to leave in six months
or lose the protection of the central
government.
lt appears that the State of Franklin
simply ignored the Hopewell treaty. Certainly
their defense of the settlers south of the
French Broad was no less diligent. After
fruitless appeals to the national government,
the Cherokee took matters into their own
hands and in the spring of 1786 began attacks
on the settlements in ll)eir rightful territory.
The FrankJinites responded by burning the
Cherokee towns in the Hiwassee River
Valley. Later in July, Sevier and 250 men
revenged the killing of two other white men
by b.uming another town. They then camped
outs1de the central Cherokee village of P.chota
and called the peaceful chiefs Hanging Maw
and Tassel (Com Tassel) to make another
treaty.
Sevier minced no words. He told the
chiefs that the whole country nonh of the
Tennessee River as far west as the
Cumberland Mountains would be setded by
the whites who would take it "by the sword,
which is the best right to all countries."
Though the treaty contained ample references
to peace, love, and brotherly friendship, it
was obvious it was obtained under duress.
Wiuh such a large armed force outside their
gates, the chiefs had little choice but to sign.
The historian Williams says in his book: The
Los1 State of Franklin, "No act of the State of
Franklin is Jess creditable to her than this
Treaty ofCoyatee."
During this time, the Franklin
government was constantly pressing its case
Summu, 1992
�;
I I
for recognition as a s1a1e before the
Confederation Congress. Champion for the
cause was William Cocke, a backwoodsman,
marksman, and a fierce fighter, who had put
himself through law school and had found a
gift for inspired oratory. By all accountS he
gave brilliant. impassioned presentations on
behalf of 1he Sta1e of Franklin, bu1 it was no1
enough to shake the political support
mustered by North Carolina to block
Franklin's recognition.
By 1786 the strain of carrying on the
border wars single-handedly had begun to
tell, and the firm resolve of the Franklinites
began to waver. North Carolina cleverly
exploited this shif1 in sentimenL Under the
leadership of John Sevier's archrival, John
Tipton, North Carolina attempted to hold an
election 10 send representatives from "the
western counties" to the state legislature. The
Franklin government answered the move by
holding their own elections for the North
Carolina legislative seats. The Franklinites
won overwhelmingly, but this recognition of
North Carolina's authority proved 10 be the
first stroke of the wedge that split open the
Franklin government.
Tipton also sponsored North Carolina
couns, which operated parallel 10 Franklin
courts, often in the same county. Vigilantes
from both sides broke up court sessions and
took valuable papers. There were angry
public meetings, and some brawling took
place, involving Tipton and Sevier
themselves in one instance. The situation was
fast deteriorating into civil violence..
John Sevier made several valiant
attempts to save the faltering State of
Franklin. Knowing the unifying value of war
against the native people, he proposed one
idea that would hopefully save his
government, win the coveted Great Bend area
for the_whites (and his investment company),
and gain some respite for the settlers on the
southwest frontier.
At the time, the State of Georgia was
continually at war with the Creeks. Sevier
proposed 1ha1 in the spring of 1787 soldiers
from Georgia and Franklin join together in a
punitive campaign against th111 tribe, which
jus1 happened to control the Great Bend are-a.
Instead of cash payments, the soldiers who
undertook the expedition would be rewarded
with land grants in the Great Bend, which
they would afterward help 10 retain. The plan
never materialized, as Georgia made a
temporary peace with the natives.
Early in 1788 the sporadic hostilities
between the two factions in Franklin flared
up. John Tipton seized several of John
Sevier's slaves under a Stale of Nonh
Carolina court judgment and transported them
10 his home for safekeeping. Sevier was in
the las1 few days of his governorship and
was tired and discouraged, bu1 rhis was a
slap in 1he face that could not be ignored. The
separationists surrounded Tip1on's house in
force and, although Sevier urged restraint, a
melee erupted. Two men were killed and
Sevier's two sons were capiured. Tipton
wanted 10 hang the young men, but was
persuaded to release 1hem. Sevier
subsequently lef1 for the border wars on the
frontier, "where no writs ran and lhe rough
seulers were devoted to him," as John
summer, 1992
VIRGINIA
--------~.~~.r~ttf)lfWl~if1}r-------------..:::~-,.R-... 1-&KLiN·:·,::"' ..
NORTH
.-,::.\(}iY:.:\~f{/· CAROLINA
_, ~,-- - - - ·- -.,,
- - - - - - ------7,....
'
,
'------,...
'
',,
'
',
\
' ',
11SS Map
Preston Arthur commented. This is generally
marked as the end of the State of Franklin.
It was in 1790, with more wars with
the Cherokees looming, that North Carolina
finally gave up and ceded control of Franklin
to the United Srates Congress as part of the
"Southwest Territory." Franklin was finally
admitted to the Union as pan of the State of
Tennessee in 1796. The first elected governor
of the Staie of Tennessee was, no1
surprisingly, John Sevier, and he la1er served
as a congressman as well.
appeared as I.he stubborn independence so
admired in the Appalachian mountaineers. At
other times, however, it appeared as 1he will
for mastery, whether over the land, events,
or those who would oppose them. Even
today, we still see traces of this, the tangled
legacy left by the early while seulers of the
mountain region.
Special thanks to Barbara Wickersham
for the valuable research work she
contributed to this article.
Resources:
The wild Appalachian lands brought out
both the best and the worst in the firs1
Europeans to inhabit the Katuah Province.
They were fiercely devoted 10 ideals of
freedom and justice; they were at the same
1ime greedy and ruthless. A deep-seated
detennination drove them. Sometimes this
Gerson, Noel B.; Franklin: Atrurica·:r Lost
State: Crowell-Collier Press (New York, 1968)
Williams, Samuel Cole; Ilistory of the Lost
State of Franlclin; The Press of the PiollCCIS (New
York. 1933)
Cornstalk Dreams
Poverty is living in a shotgun house
with chimney bookends
Listening to rain tapping on a cheap tin roof
Huddling around the fireplace
like a dark medieval clan.
Poverty is running barefoot
through a maze of corn fields
Splitting open a watermelon just for its heart
Worrying until payday if we would be fed
at least with butter beans and cornbread
- Sandra McClinton
-
..
X.Otimh )ournnt page 13
�WHERE THE TREES OUTNUMBER THE PEOPLE:
I<atuah's Regional Rainbow Gatherings
In the Mtigical U1nd of the Rainbow, a neo-tribal culture is teacl1ing and learning the
arts of Cooperation and Commu,1ity
by Stephen Wing
"Welcome Home!"
The implications arc enormous.
Somewhere back in the mythical mists
of the Scvenries, a tribe of multicolored folJc
called the Rainbow Family began to hold a
"Gathering of the Tribes" every summer deep
in the wilderness, where the trees oumumber
the people. They were "Family" because they
considered all people brothers and sisters;
they were ''Rninbow" for the harmony of
their many colors; and they called out
"Welcome Home!" because wherever they
gathered on the Mother Earth they were home
again. Every Fourth of July lhey observed a
silence, praying for Peace and Healing, each
in their own way. They fasted and prayed
and danced and drummed, and many magical
stories have come down 10 us.
In the nco-Plcistocene Eighties, our
tribal ancestors founded the Katuah Rainbow
clan and began to bold a solstice gathering
every summer in the meadow below Sam's
Knob. Because pan of their inspiration was
lhe 1980 Rainbow Galhering in West
Virginia, it became one of the first of many
regional Rainbow gatherings. It carried on
the Family consensus to be free and
non-commen:ial, open to everyone, dedicated
to cooperative, ecological living, without
leaders or rules. It grew and flourished, and
Xatuah Journal Pac.Je 14
was known as one of the strongest and most
spiritual in the land of the Rainbow.
Now at age 21, the Rainbow Family
has grown into a large-scale, long-term,
worldwide experiment in living out the ideals
of the mythical Sixties: a full-fledged
al temative culture, woven of many different
spiritual, political, and philosophical strands.
Outwardly. perhaps it imitates the Nntive
American tribes; mwardly, it taps the
biological vestiges of one million years of
oi baJ ancestry.
Everyone involved in Rainbow has
their own vision of what it is and what it
could be. The vision that is crystallizing for
me lately is of a school.
Everyone has something 10 teach in the
magical land of Rainbow. And somcLhing to
learn. Many of us are teachers of something
already, perhaps, or know a special craft or
skill or even a livelihood worth passing on.
You learned your first rai chi step or
bcadworlcing stitch from someone. Why not
bring it 10 the gathering _and offer a free,.
informal workshop? Think of the gathenng
as a kindcrganen, not as a university. Even if
you feel you have nothing 10 learn there, each
of us has something 10 pass along to those
following in our footsteps.
But there's a deeper level of learning.
0..wUl&J by Rhea Ormond
Running away like a bunch of kids playing
hooky in the woods is like school turned
inside out - a space in which we can a.U enter
a kind of second childhood and re~ate
ourselves. We heal ourselves instinctively by
re-imagining society in a sane way, becoming
each other's long-lost extended family,
learning how to love and accept each other,
and feel loved and accepted in turn • some
for the first time our lives. It is incredibly
therapeutic just to be in a place where it is
okay to love.
But in order 10 maintain this magical
healing space, we have to work together 10
feed everyone, deal with sanitation, medical
needs, children, authorities, parking,
drinking water, and camp security. We have
10 make decisions that acknowledge
everyone's poinl of view, including the trees,
the streams, the wildlife, the genemtions 10
come. This is a yet deeper learning. We are
learning to come together as a community, a
circle, a tribe - rather than a collection of
self-centered individuals - and act for the best
interest of the whole instead of our little part.
Few of us had the benefit of a tribal
upbringing. Ninety percent or more of the
ordinary families out there arc dysfunctional,
studies now say, producing dysfunctional
people. Our tribe is made up of refugees from
that world; we cannot create World Peace
without some healing. Most of the problems
that plague the "national" Rainbow Gathering
are problems of scale. But a few stubbornly
show up al regionals, too. They are the
chronic dysfunctions of the dominant culture,
"Babylon": abuse of alcohol and drugs,
scamming, inflated egos, male-female
imbalance. These arc the things that we
cannot leave behind when we leave our cities
and cars.
l ust4 to worry about them. But then l
realized that it is okay. Rainbow is a school.
These are our assignmenrs. That is why we
leave all the civilized disu-actions behind: to
focus on what counts.
At the scale of a regional gathering we
can do that - but not without a conscious
commitmcnL I have seen miracles happen
when the wisdom and the will of the people
have been summoned to a serious council.
Through the magical ans of passing a feather
in a circle and listening, of communication
and compromise, I believe we can learn 10
resolve any conflicL But we have to practice.
And the presence nnd guidance of people
who have done some of the inner work
themselves is invaluable to those who might
otherwise stumble over the same mistakes.
Becoming a Tribe may not be an
idealistic fantasy from the mythical Sixties
forever. We are learning how to live without
money, lawyers, governments, police· even
gasoline - because it may soon be necessary.
We arc learning it, 1 believe, because the
future of our families down 10 the seventh
generation depends on our learning 10 live
together as a functional Family.
I hope we are learning it in time.
For dirtetioM to tM Ka11,ah Rainbows-,
Solstiu Ga1hviltg, JUM 12-22, son~p/ace where the
trees OUIIIUl1IMT IM people, coll the A1/a111a Rainbow
Ughllillc: (404) 662--6112 or write 10 /IOI. address
below.
To help out In adllOIICe, contact Katu.ah
Roillbow direc1/1 clo l.ulit Wagenheim: 996 Yellow
Breeches Rd.; Cosby, TN 3m2 (615) 428-4633.
Summu, l!IN
�warp ancl
"We Call It a Gathering..."
At first sight, it seems to be pure
magical anarchy in the woods. But there are
levels you learn to see.
Just under the swface is a layer of hard
wolk: people who are not immediately vi~ble
because they are in the kitchens, out hunnng
firewood, al the parking lot, on a supply run.
They carry lhe whole thing literally on their
shoulders, often to the point of straining. As
soon as we realize we are the tribe and
volunteer, the whole thing is easy.
Underlying everything we do is the
consensus of the council, a periodic circle to
pass a feather and listen 10 each person's
perspective in turn. Daily councils are a
chance to share what makes us different and
what we have in common. When something
comes up that requires a decision, we enter
that siate of unified undersianding called
consensus much more easily if we have been
practicing. (If ~ere is no co~~cil,just ~u.t up
a sign. "Main crrcle at noon 1s the tradit,ion.)
Invisible everywhere are the Shann
Sena - all of us who are conscious of health
and safety and alen for trouble, who have
learned to keep the peace in loving ways, deal
with emergencies, communicate with
authorities - and anyone willing to learn. You
can pretend the gathering is a free ride or a
carefree utopia; you can avoid the problems
and still have a wonderful time. But "sister"
and "brother" really begin to mean something
when you accept responsibility for the
well-being of the folks around you.
Then there are the people who are
praying. Our circles before meals, sweat
lodges and Sufi dances, ceremonies at
equinoxes and solstices, etc., carry the
natural sense of community one step higher.
Participating in the Divinity of each moment
helps focus the natural srate of awareness
called a tribe.
Underneath it all is the root-system of
our friendships. Slogans of peace and love
do not make us brothers and sisters; a Family
forms out of time spent together, real time.
Year after year we work, eat, council, and
celebrate together, between gatherings we live
and travel together. We gather in the parks
back home. Travelers come through. We
grow 10 know and to trust each other. The
Rainbow Family is a vast network of
relations. a fabric woven by the physical
s,unmcr , 1992
..
, 1 ,
~pfrhtlal ~efi-of our•~n& tOgethet.
.
ruo ~!1-nrr . .-.- {·n· ~ rr·,77-,v.z
We have over a generation of history
between us now. We are much more than just
a "counterculture.'' Traditions have
developed, a slow evolution of consensus
agreements, along with a tendency to keep
evolving. Naturally we have our elders of the
tribe - but in this tribe each one of us chooses
our elders. Listen for the voice of experience.
But don't take anybody's word for iL Look
under the swface, and watch who's doing the
work.
People will be noticing the same about
you. To some of us baby-boorners it's news,
but work is necessary to survive anywhere.
Babylon sacrifices the daily labor of millions
to feed a privileged few; a tribe shares the
work equally out of Jove for one another, so
no one has to do too much.
The people who created this magical
village in the woods are working hard,
making sure you will be safe, warm, and fed.
But many of us grew up in middle c~s
households where that much was a given we were the privileged few. Don't take it for
granted in the woods. Join the dinner circle,
pay attention to announcemenrs, spread the
word! Go to council; remember to listen
before you speak. Say your peace. And if
you want to join the tribe, just find a place 10
piteh in and help.
As for the panhandlers at our gate, the
ego-wrestling and ripoffs, the truckloads of
rrash, the bliss-ninnies and rainbozos - it's
helpful to remember that compared to most
tribes we're still in our awkward
adolescence. Most of us weren't born in the
Rainbow Family. We were,bom in Babylon.
A lot of us got pretty messed up out there
before we found our way Home. A lot of
Babylon's mess got tracked in on o~r heels.
Much of our effort to heal the Eanh 1s an
ongoing struggle to heal ourselves and our
relationships - to learn how to really be a
"Family" - and to raise truly.healthy ki~~Meanwhile for better or worse, Its our
Family. As Einst~in's mother put it,
"Everyone is a relative." Getting to know o n ~
another over twenty-one years of gatherings ,,:
has tended to substantiate the theory.
Council Fire
Pilgrimage to the old
power spot, our abandoned
council circle I meet all
the pilgrims packing out
their tents and trash-bags
I find
a giant fire-pit dug here
since we counciled
hard for three hours in the sun
to move the council closer
to the center of camp
Three pilgrims
rest here on a log:
they too casually join
the council of all vanished
tribes around the coals
of the original fire
- Stephen Wing
(E.xurp1ed. with "visions by the awhor.from
110!. a ~wsllove /mer to the Rainbow Tribes of the
Southeast, Spring 1992 iss~. Contact llO! at Box
5455; At/0/lla, GA 30307)
Sun, evening shadows, mist
that drifts to rain:
the food is ready and we join hands.
It's only the clear day's light
refracted through the wet nights
that makes this Rainbow on the
ground.
Our circle makes a hole in the
ground spirit rising like water in a well,
falling like the light on a po11d,
the round earth and the rolling sky
joined
in a circular kiss ...
The Circle makes us Whole.
Oraw,ng• b)I Ray Ramcs
Poems wriuen by Stephen Willg at tire
16th a111111ol Rainbow Garhering, Nanw/,a/a
National Forest, Kataoh Province, J11/y,
1987.
~ti1nfl )durnat pnqe IS
�In Council With All Beings
;,· , -,r,~ :: •. 3TE
by Lee Barnes
Human(un)kind's ability to council
with All Beings is limited by our human
egos, our historical fall from Oneness-WithAJJ. Several "en-Lighten-ments" have aided
my personal path towards council with All
Beings, including accumulated personal
experiences and insights from several books.
Council comes to me when I rest my
active brain and allow thoughts from All
Beings to enter my mind. (Term this as you
may - telepathy, insight, second-sight, etc.)
We humans have not evolved in limbo from
All Beings; rather, we have become
insensitive and unconnected from our
relations with the great Webs of Life which
sustain us.
From long experience, I realize that my
thoughts (and deeds) do not remain restricted
within my bony skull - we can and do touch
other Beings with our thoughts. managing to
interconnect, apparently without regard to
time or distance. Time, mauer, and space
appear to be complex illusions created by our
physical and spiritual perceptions, historical
and modem cultures, mammalian senses, and
personal experiences.
l totally accept the iraditional beliefs
that all things (All Beings) a.re alive and
interconnected. We can relate to the other
Beings of the world with either an expansive
or contractive "attitude." With an expansive
"attitude," we can expand our consciousness
and encompass All Beings within ourselves.
A series of physical and spiritual
experiences while hiking over 4000 miles in
Katuah forests (and in other regions) has
auuned my personal council with All Beings.
Usually after about three days in the forest,
away from modem "civilized" life, I find
myself more in tune with the "real" world. l
more closely follow changing day-lengths;
more carefully realize the moonlight's effect
on animals; better understand the words in
the wind; hear the many voices in falling
waters; feel the energy of metamorphic and
igneous boulders; and recognize the
individual tree within the con1ex1 of the
forest.
I am an unashamed tree-hugger, for
trees, especially the forest giants ("wooden
Grandfathers") do share energies, and focus
Earth energies (although l have felt
"indifference" from some trees... ).
I have (infrequently) attuned with
animal energies by watching hawks soar
above, and suddenly becoming "one" with
them, glicling over the valley. This was not
empathetic daydreaming, but rather I was
there in the sky, soaring on wings! I have
shared the scene of the land through the eyes
of another, equal Being!
A specific experience that occurred
within a guided group workshop influenced
my insight into council with All Beings.
During an early morning circle and council
based on guidelines from the book Thi11king
Like a Mountain: Towards a Cou,rcil of All
Befogs (by John Seed and Joanna Macy,
1988, New Society Publishers), I was
Xatuah Journnt pnge 16
greatly moved and led 10 a greater
appreciation and communication with All
Beings.
Tllillking Like a Mountain is an
inspiring collection of meditations, readings,
and most imponan1ly, a guide 10 interspecies
communications, which has led humans to
greater empathy and union with All Beings.
The workshop is usually led by a facili1a1or
who guides individual participants 10 "voice"
their (telepathic/etc.) thoughts from
whichever Beings enter their minds.
Typkally in these guided workshops,
specific Beings are allowed to voice their
cries and frusira1ions wilh human destrUction
of their environment and 1be lack of human
care about their council. In this particular
circle, a "Talking Stick" (brought by a
reacher and missionary from African cultures)
was passed and used 10 designate each
individual speaker. ln council, we heard from
several Beings · circling hawks, lowly slugs.
and even the voice of the Mountain bcnemh
us. 111ese Beings were in anguish, voicing
their ~uffcring at the hand of modem human
"civilizations" - spoiled waters, fouled air,
and their pained existence due 10
human(un)kind's actions.
This council would have aroused great
disgust towards our human selves, except for
the positive counsel offered as 10 how to
rcconnec1 with All Beings. While each
instance of this method is unique, depending
upon the specific seuing and the different
panicipants, it remains a powerful personal
experience.
We two-lcggcds muse seek better
council with the universe and with All
Beings. We must open our hearts to council,
reduce our wasteful over-consumption, and
halt the destruction of our fragile planet.
Live simply; use only what you need;
recycl~ and in all decisions think how the
next seven generations of All Beings will be
affected. Give thanks 10 the water spirit.~:
thanks to green spirits; thanks to the living
soil spirits! Give prayer and thanks to All!
And then you may learn through council witl1
AH Beings.
I encourage all of the two-leggeds,
especially the city-shocked brothers and
sisters, 10 go simply into the the depths of
your existence, leaving your egos (and every
restrictive training) behind. and 10 seek open
and unrestrictt.'<I council with All Beings. Be
open 10 new insights and experiences: be
rcspec1ful of all other Beings (whether,
stone, fire, water, air...); and offer thanks for
council with the rest of Creation.
Voice prayers, offer thanks, and
continue 10 seek council with All Beings.j - '
#
Drawing by Mich11CI Thompson
Ho.
Sum,ncr, J 992
�STEVE MOON
·1
,
"
SHELL ENGRAVINGS"
The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, a distinctive
culture of the native First People, flourished from the east
coast to Texas between 500 and 1600 AD. The culture was
marked by mound building and elaborate rituals and
ornamentation. Among the primary items produced were
carved ceremonial drinking vessels and gorgets (chest
ornaments hung around the neck) made of shell. Designs
were often engraved on the concave or inner side of the
shell, which is naturally smooth and glossy. They were
sometimes rose tinted. These anifacts are now highly
prized by collectors and many of the old mounds have
been looted by avaricious grave robbers.
Steve Moon is an artist and a defender of the native
grave siteS. Descended from a Cherokee-Shawnee
great-grandmother, he is proud of the native branch of his
bloodline and works in the spirit of the ancient native
artisans. He creates museum-quality reproductions of the
old shell engravings and also creates original designs
based on traditional motifs.
"I just sit around and things come to me sometimes,"
says Steve. "I don't know why, but things pop into my
mind, and 1 draw them on the shell and carve them.
"It's like closing your eyes and letting the tool do the
work. There's really no way to explain it. I just go down
into the shell until the color looks right, and r don't go any
further. Sometimes rcan control the color all the way
around.
"I may pick up a shell and it will look like an
ordinary mussel shell; another time I will be able to
acruaJly feel with my mind down into the shell.
The shell gorgets and drinking bowls found in old
grave sites were ceremonial objects carefully placed by the
body during burial.
'They are sacred objects,'' says Steve, "and it's
wrong for people to dig into graves to go after them. The
old people were put in their graves to rest. They were not
put there to be excavated.
"On my father's side, 1 had some ancestors who
served in the Civil War. I would be real mad if someone
went to Flat Shoals Baptist Church and staned digging
them up 10 get the buttons off their coats or something.
"In Spiro, Oklahoma during the l 930's, grave
robbers dug up a burial site. They were taking stuff out by
the wheelbarrow-load to sell to the private collectors.
When they found out that the State of Oklahoma was going
to stop them, they packed the central burial chamber full of
powder and blew it up. The chamber was made of cedar
logs, and it had preserved cane mauing, textiles, even
textiles made from woven rabbit fur. All of it was blown 10
smithereens.
"I've talked 10 looters who went in with burlap bags,
and I've talked to looters with doctor's degrees. What's
the difference? They arc doing the same thing.
'The bowls and ornaments from the ancient mounds
were grave goods. They were not lying around in a
plowed field. TI1ey were taken off a skeleton. I think they
should be left alone."
For Steve, this is a hean-felt commitment. Ile offers
10 donate his work 10 collec1ors who will acc~pt
reproductions in return for replacing shell artifacts in their
original burial silcs.
Steve Moon's reproductions and original carvings
arc things ofhl!auty. They shine with a luster and a depth
that photographs cannot convey. Their varying textures
satisfy the hand that touches them. They truly are
representations in tangible form of the spirit that moves
Steve Moon 10 his creative work. the spirit that inspires his
sense of mission.
Stev,· Moo11 can /,c co11tacte,J at
Rt. 1, Box 256; Cm,011, CA 30520.
-DWA'
~
Original from Moundville,
Alabama.
Carved in the shell of a lightning
whelk.
Originals with this design were
found in Tennessee, Missouri
Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Carved
in the shell of lightning whelk.
Original from Carthage, TN.
Carved in the shell of a lightning
whelk
Orig111al from Spiro, OK. (The
design y, as also found at sites
across Tennessee, Alabama. and
north Georgia ) Carved in Mankillcr
pearl shell.
�visiting my grandparents occasionally.
"MEDICINE TRAINING"
(PARTII)
These are the words of a traditional
Cherokee medicine person.
My gr.mdfather would direcl my
training by saying, "You need 10 go spend
some rime with this guy. You need to go see
him."
I would go sec that person. and he
wouldn't even know I was going 10 show
up. would have no idea at all why I was
supposed to be there. I would show up, and I
would jusl stay 1here for awhile. I would
learn just by being there. It w~n·l at all
structured, like lhis guy had Course Three for
me or something, but after awhile l could tell
when they were aclually going out of their
way to teach me something. Some people
were more theatrical than others, and they'd
make me do crazy things.
The strangest one was lhe chicken
house. J had gotten 10 where I thought I was
real special. I felt that I was really imponant,
thal everyone ought to bow and scrape and
just be honored lhat I was near them. J was
making an ass oul of myself, and. ahhough I
never recognized il, everyone else did. And
my grandpa 1old me il was time 10 go stay
with a man named George. He said that l
would have to stay there for awhile.
When I got to George's, I asked him,
"Where am I going 10 stay?" and headed
toward the house.
He said, "Hey! C'mere."
And I looked and said, "What d'ya
want?"
He said," You can't stay in the house.
We've got lots of guests, and lots of people
come by, and we need room for them. We
should give 'em the best we have. You stay
there."
Xatuah Journat page
to
And he pointed toward a funky old
sway-backed chicken house that had a
patched-up roof and was about to fall down.
r just looked on past it. All f could see was
lhc rhododendron thickel behind it, but I
thought maybe he had ano1her cabin or a
building back there.
He said, "Righi there. Goddamn
chicken house. Yeah,"
"Chicken house?"
He said. "Yeah. Lislen. that's all I can
do."
We walked over there. ll was about l5
feet long and about 10 feel wide, with big
cracks between lhe boards, and chickens
running all about
He said, "These chickens are renl
1mponant lo us, we get eggs and meat from
them, so I want you 10 use that pile of old
lumber out in back, put up a partition, and fix
up a room for yourself in the chicken house."
I just couldn't believe it. A person of
my caliber, my standing, in these conditions!
Then I thoughl to myself, "They're trying 10
teach me something," but it was nol until a
couple of months Inter that I actually realized
what it was.
Nobody lold me I was egotistical. I
found out myself that I was egotistical. r
found out after r had dug tons of chicken shit
out of there, put up a wall, split shingles,
fixed the roof, got lice. I was absolutely
inundated by lice. Sol made lye and covered
the whole chicken house with it to kill all the
lice. I fixed that chicken house up beuer than
it had ever been before. Heck, I didn't have
anything else to do.
In lhe process of fixing up the chicken
house, I became the world's greatest expert
on chicken conversation and habits. No one
knows chickens any beuer than I do. I spent
more than a year in that chicken house,
I did chores and helped out, and rhat
was the way I paid for my keep. Then people
started asking me 10 doctor - small things like
wounds and scrapes. After awhile, though,
they would ask me questions like, "Johnny,
he's off someplace, do you think he's okay?''
And I'd say, "Well, I need to think
about this.'' And J staned to give them
advice.
I had seen the other men do it. 1 had
seen Owl do it. I had seen how lhey lalked lO
people and consoled them.
I soon learned to separate true
knowledge from knowledge that you pick up
just by hearing things. True knowledge is
something that you intuitively know from
inside. My grandfather would call it "true
knowledge magic."
Knowledge that you hear on lhe side like you might have heard some other people
lalking about how Johnny was al some
whorehouse or in the county jail - thal klnd of
knowledge I call "side knowledge." And I
knew how Owl took that information and
used it to make himself more powerful. He
said that he only used medicine in one percent
of his work. He said information is much
easier to come by. He said that the more
knowledge, lhe more magic, and the more
power you have, lhe less you use it.
When the elden; who had been training
me thought I was prepared, they sem me out
10 spend time alone in lhe woods. When I
relurned, they beld another nnming ceremony
and gave me my true name, my medicine
name, my spiritual name, that l never have
told anybody.
It was done at a campfire way out in the
mountains, at sunrise on the new moon, a
beginning time.
We rook the black drink, vomited, and
then we plunged in the creek. They collecled
the woods and set the fire, smoked
everybody who was 1here, then they sang
songs and did different things.
Then my true name was whispered in
my ear, and I walked to each corner and the
elder called the relatives. They would come 10
me, and I uttered my new name in my mind.
It was hard lo remember, and I had to get
used 10 it.
These were men who had hand-raised
me. They were all of lhe same generation.
They were all old. I think the youngest
Sumrm:r, 1992
�pi:rson of th:it group was .50, and he was ai
I think that in anybody's hfe there is a
the bouom in the pecking order t)f age. I le
~en!ie that things arc se1 out for you. The
\\ns a fc1d1er and .i carrier.
people who raise you have cenain
They were very spiritual in the sense
expec1a1ions of you, and if you have a
that they followed the t.rndition. They lived
loving, caring. nurturing, mutual son of
everything that they believed. They had their
relationship. you want 10 do everything in
own son of reality, like they would leave
your power 10 meet their expcc1a1ions.
food for the Little People here and there, and
You might have long fingers, so mama
they talked 10 the spirits regularly. They
thinks you ought co be a piano player, so she
would all be holy people compared 10 the
drives you to the piano. If she goes about it
Cherokees of today, but they weren't like our
in a good way, you might end up to be a
Hollywood concept of a medicine man at au.
concen pianist. But you may have been belier
They were not what the anthropologists
suited 10 be a plumber than to be a pianist.
called "priests." They were a different group.
You could go on until you are 50 years old
The "priests" and famous medicine men lived
and srill playing in honky-tonks before you
closer 10 town. But these old people were all
realize that the piano is not your calling.
members of the Katuah Medicine Society. I
received a lot of my understandings about
Katuah from them, things that l am not ever
at liberty to talk about.
Because they were in the society, they
considered themselves better than most
people. They were actually arrogant about
tha1. They considered themselves the true
Ka1uahs, and there's probably pans of me
that still feel a lirtle smug, because I grew up
,-: - with that cenainty.
They had signs. Back then, everybody
~
wore a little feather in their hat. But the
\ \
~ )
Karoah people would take the marrow out of
1'
::,J\..... '•
the feather, so that when they walked, the
(
.r,,.,
feather would make a fluttering motion. That
-\.
was a sign.
\.,
\\~.
Another sign was a linle silver snake.
Owl said his snake was made by Sequoyah.
It could have been. Several 01hers had little
\.
silver snakes. They frequently wore old suit
coaLS, welfare clothes donated by white
people, and would carry the snake under the
lapel. When Karuah Society people from
Olclahoma would come, I would see old Owl
lift his lapel for the briefest second and let ii
fall back. And the other people would make
an acknowledgment with their eyes without
winking or doing anything obvious. I can't
tell you how they did it, it just was
I
acknowledged.
'
Then, without any other invitation, we
would go back to the creek. and soon four or
five of these people from Oklahoma would
just show up I.here. They'd talk and smoke
pipe and do Katuah ceremonies together.
This would go on all night. I would
usually fall asleep, because I was young
then. But l am amazed about how much I
learned by just hanging out.
"Be invisible," grandpa would say. "Be
invisible."
When I look back at the good and the
bad in my life, I always feel incredibly
fonunate and content. Despite the pains and
sufferings that everybody goes through in
Life, I have aJways believed that I have
affected my own destiny more than most
people do. Sometimes l interfered in the
process, and other times I just let the process
happen to me. 1 give credit for that to the fact
of my growing up experiences, all the things
I learned from that strong circle of elders.
If the spiriLS had not had another
intention for me, I probably would srill be
living near my childhood home among the
offspring of those old people who raised me.
I would either have been an alcoholic or
struggling inside the system.
'-I ·)
i''\,-,
~mmcr, 1992
Drawing:, by Troy Sc,ILlc:r
Jn my case, my grandfather saw ~omc
physic.11 signs and m:1de an interpretation
based on the sign5 and his knowledge. But it
was still someone else's in1erprc1.1rion.
Back when r was 10 years old, my
grandfather taught me how 10 carve little
animals out of soft basswood. I can
remember that l was fascinated with that for a
year or so. Then I went on to other things.
That was the extent of my early carving
career. The figures I made were crude, but a
seed was set for something 10 come.
The seed lay donnant until a few years
ago when ! saw a carving on a shelf in a
house I was visiting. I picked it up and held
it. It didn't feel right. It seemed
disproponionate and out of shape.
The man said. "Can you carve
anything?"
I said, "I used to fool with it when I
was a kid."
After I left the house, I said to myself,
"I can make something better than that."
And so I made a bear. It was 001 very
good, but it still was a little bener than the
figure I had seen. I fooled around making
different kinds of animals for a year,
experimenting with different styles and
expressions. The animals I made then aren't
anything like the animals I carve now. They
were somewhat similar in design, but not in
quality.
I went through the whole process. A lot
of the techniques I learned were already
known by people all over the world. I
probably reinvented the wheel several times
over. But I also developed a couple of ideas
that, as far as I know, no one else has
thought of.
And when J finally made an animal that
looked like it was alive, it just blew my mind.
I said, "Look at this!"
The next one I made came alive in my
hands, 100. ! said, "Look at this! 1 did this!
Mc! No one else! No one set me down and
taught me 10 do this. No one told me."
Now I am staning 10 get thunder from
my carving. Thunder is when other people
acknowledge your ability, and it's absolutely
wonderful.
But what has made all the difference is
that r feel an inward drive and detcnninarion
10 do this that I have never felt about doing
anything else. I have been detennined 10
accomplish other goals before, but this is
purely an expression of myself. II is a force
coming from inside of me. This was not/
preordained by anyone; this is the real
-:
person.
Xatuah Journat JIOIJC 19
�BAD NEWS AND GOOD NEWS
The j9b of t ~ government o(ficials is to
protect the health or citiuns and or the environmenL
At best. they have displayed an attitude or unconcern
about their responsibilities. Al worst, they have
wilfully misled lhe public about a matter of grave
danger. Such disregard or Ille lives lhey arc supposed
10 protccl is unconscionable. This 1s a Sillllltion thnt
needs to be thoroughly investigated at both the state
and county level. Such flagrant irresponsibility must
not be allowed to conunue.
Nanni World New, Service
The Burlington Industries CIIIJlCI plant at the
hClldwaa.ers of lhe Little Tennessee River in Rabun
County, GA is closing iis doors. That is bad news
and good news.
The plant employs about 425 people in Rabun
and Macon Counties. The plant closing is bad news
for~ people who will be summarily dismissed
and left wi 1h no means of li vclihood in an
increasingly competitive job marlccL
However, &ho Burlington pbnl has long been a
major polluter of lhe Liu.le Tennessee River, and Ille
factory's demise will mean beuer heallh foc lhe river's
aquatic ecosystem.
'"The plant has been a severe, but not an acute,
polluter," said aquatic biologist Dr. William
Mcl.amey. '"There have been no fish kills, foe
111s1811CC, but cit tensive sampling of both fish and
insect populations have shown that the plant has
definitely had a negative effect on the river."
If another company buys lhc Burlington plant,
it will be regulated by stricter environmental laws
than lhosc in effect when Burlingion staned
diacharging into the river. Also, a newly-initiated
citiun's monitoring group will be traclcing lhe wat.er
quality al lhe planL
"We will continue to lake samples above and
below lhe Burlington plam until there is no
noticeable difference between them.· said Mcl.amey.
As long as our industrial system operates
environmentally destructive means of production, Ille
closing of worlcplaces will be at once bad news and
good news.
RAPE PREVENTION
Natural World Newi Scrv,cc
For the first time in the Southern
Appalacluans, a federal lawsuit has been filed on
behalf of biological diversity, challenging the Land
and Resou= Manngerncnt Plan proposed for the
Cherokee National forest by lhc US Forest Service.
Representing a blood coalition of conservation
groups. the lawsuit nled by the Southern
Environmenl3l Legal Center (SELC) contcstS the
Forest Service practice of below-cost timber sales.
The suit also contends that Ille Jogging progrnm
outlined in the pbn would do urepruablc domagc to
native habitat and result an a corresponding loss of
biolog,ical diversity in the Cherokee.
D:ivid Carr or the SELC rcporis that the
CWTCnt plan opens up 60% of lhe national forest to
logging and ro:ld construction • much of it on steep
slopes and mac=iblc terrain. By FOfCSI Service
estimates, there arc presently 80,000 acres of
potential wilderness in the forest; more than half of
this vital lnnd b:lsc is open to desccr.mon under the
plnn.
By promoting rood building and cle:ucuumg,
the Forest Service 1s practicing t.hc ecooom1cs or
extinction. Peter Kub)', regional director of the
Wildcrnc!..s Society, note~ lhat the Chcrolcc Plan
threatens the extraO(dinary natur.il diversity or the
foreM. Kirby points out that tl1e Cherokee Nauonal
forest 1s home to 1,000 ~pccie., or flowering plants,
400 species or vcnebr-.uc,, and appl'oxm1atdy 13.S
sp<lC IC$ of (hh,
"[Ilic fore:,1 plan) calls for the logging of over
one-hair of the cove h:lrdwood forcsis. an ccol<'lg1cal
treasure trove in the Southern Appalachrnn,; he said.
The new Fore.,t Plan wuuld also va.,tly
mcn:..1~ rood density (which already exceeds lc(:111
guidelines) providing OC.CC.'i.~ for o greatly mclC:l.<cd
amount of commcrci.il and recn:;itional :ict1vi1y - not
to mention illegal poaching.
Th~ Asheville Citizen-Tunes and Green Line
- ~ r s provitkd ,nfor""11ion for this ortk~
USFS TO STOP APPEALS
Nanni World News Service
BUNCOMBE LANDFILL SCANDAL
Nanni World News
Environmental sleuihs from lhe Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League blew the cover olT
what was apparently a conspiracy of silence among
Sl8tc and local governmental officials about leaking
contamination from the Buncombe County landfill.
In October. 1991, investiga10rs from the
Environmental Protection Agency sent a rcpon io
Buncombe County saying th:11 u:st results showed
"elevated coneentmtions or numerous volntile organic
compounds and metals" in lhe groundwater around the
Buncombe 1.nndflll.
TheAshcvll/c Citiun-Timu reponed that
monitoring wells showed six to 3S times Ille legal
limit of live indUStrial solvenis - tnchlorcthylcne,
benzene, dichlorelhane. methylene chloride, and
dichloropropane. Water quality cxpen Richard Maas
of the University of North Carolina Asheville told the
newspaper lhat the contamination levels were "higher
than several Supcrfund sites in the area. In my
experience the.~ levels are surprisingly high."
An estimated l,125 people living within four
miles of the landfill site drink wnter from wells. Yet
neither the State nor the county government made any
public announcement about lhe landfull lenk or
possible hazards to residents' drinking water.
At an April 10, 1992 press conference,
BREDL activistS dlSJ)layed papers they had dug out or
state liles 1n Raleigh that proved that the l:mdlill wns
leaking. This W$ the first word given to the public
that anything wa~ amiss.
Why did government officials not inform
residents about the groundwater conUlmination1
County Manager Steve Metcalf blamed 11 on
M.uvin Waddey, who w:is Director of County
Engineering Service:. al the time. MclCOlf srud that he
ju.~t pas.scd on Waddcy's assurance that there were no
problems at the l:andlill. W:lddey has conveniently
moved out or ~cue.
Stale hydrologc.t Bob Lufty said that the ,utc
h.id not informed anybody of lhc trouble< because of
undcNtnffing. He wW Grun Line ncwspapcr that 1hc
st.1tc hrul a two-person hydrology \taff to monitor 150
landlills, Half or thc.sc on: leaking wor;c than
Buncombe's. he said, and the re.,idcnts of those
commumues do not know nbout the danger.;. either.
Now the ch~rn1cals arc moving toward the
Fn:nch Broad R111i;r. 'The C,11:en-lim,•., stated lh:n
l.ulty s:ud lh:11 lhe subl,unccs would reach the nvcr,
· 1,c diluted and evcntually dcSU'oycd."
llle solvents 111110l11cd are deailly and per:;islCIIL
It may be hundreds of yc;tr.; before they nre
·eventually de.woyed."
The US Forest Service has chosen to sell more
and more of the last remaining virgin and old-growth
fOl'CSIS to the timber industry. But concerned citizens
have bad the right to challenge lhese sales through an
adminis11'8ti..e appeals process.
Many people have fe:irs that to continue
ovctCUlting our forests will mean irreparable
ecological harm. The appeols process has helped to
bring some measure of accountability to the
management policies and practices of the Forest
Service.
However. on Morch 20. 1992, Agriculture
Secretary Edwnrd Madigan announced that the Forest
Service was proposing to eliminate the appeals
process. In ltne with the Bush administration's
announced plruls to eliminate "unnc.cded" federal
regulations, these appeals were deemed too time
-cor.swning and costly, and it was decided that lhey
would be replaced wilh a toothless •30 day
pre-decisional notice and comment period.·
The Forest Service is trying to ignore the fact
that most of the appeals filed have resulted in
improved dccisons, better management or the fOtcSts.
and often citposc inodequat.e environmcnllll analyses.
TI1e agency seems to think that any decisions it
makes should go unchallenged, and the public should
have little or no voice in how Ille Mlional foresis arc
managed.
ForesL~ arc more than vettical logs. It is insane
to continue to cut our last few old-growth stands of
timber and destroy native habitat communitlcs to feed
the ever-hungry saw mills. The Forc.,;t Service often
needs IO be remanded or this.
PROTECTING
AQUATIC HABITATS
Nmural World News Service
April 23. 1992, the Nonh Carolina Wildlife
Resources Commission (NC WRC) held a public
hearing in Boone, NC to consider a proposal
origill3ting within the agency to dc.~ignatc 33
wawrshcds m IO of Nonh Carohnn's miuor river
ba.~in.~ as critical habitat for species of mollusks and
fish endangered m the Slate.
The plan would offer protection a.s "High
Quality Waters" 10 portions or the New. Watauga.
Little Tenncs,;ce, Johns. and Linville nvcrs and the
Warrior Forl; 111 the mounlaln area of the si;uc.
Env1ronmcnt:1I acti'lsts present at the hc:iring
IO support the mca~urc, commented that 11 was a
pl~surc IO appear at a hC'..mng to compbmcnt the
m1ua11vc of a ,1a1c ngcncy tn\lC.'ld or nJ1P(Xing iL
llic comment J);nod on tl11! WIIJhfe
Comm1ss1on's proposal extends until July I. Lener.;
of suppon may be sent m:
North CtJro/1fld ll'i/dlife RcJo:,ru; Commimon
512 N Salisbury .St.
Raleigh. NC 2760-I
..
.
S11111111cr, lll!IZ
a
6 t
t
I
I
8
�.,. ..
• WOLF' FLUNKS PILOT TEST
Na.tural World News Service
One of the four led wolves (Canis rufus)
released in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park
in November, 1991 was recaptured and penned,
according to Park spokesperson Bob Miller.
Red wolf Male (#219) was recapwrcd in
JanWIJ')' because he showed undue tameness towards
humans, and because he caught and killed a chicken in
Cades Cove and several domestic turkeys just north of
the Park. The livestock owners were reimbursed for
their losses from an indemnity fund created
specifically for such contingencies.
Male #219 may have been a poor choic.e for
release s:inc.e he had spent seven years in zoos, where
he had become unnaturally tame. He was selected
because he was sterile 10 ensure that a bl'eeding
population was not established in the Park prior to
the completion of the iniual study. He w :J most
likely spend the rest of his life in captivi•y.
Two new adult wolf pairs arc cum:ntly being
acclimated to the area by being held in large pens for
the next six months, and may be released in the Park
in November.
Members of the IVesttr11 North Carolina Alfiance gagged by the US
Forest Service. The Alliance prot,:sted removal qJ the Forest Service's appeals
process at a press conference held outside the USFS Ashevitte offices on April
Phoio Laura Dcaton/WNCA
17.1992.
ONE H O NEST MAN
N.i1ural World Ncv,,s Sen ice
When Dr.William Reid signed on as
oncolog1st (cancer specialist) at tlic Mcthodi!il
Medical Center in Oak Ridge. 1N early in 1991, he
knew little about the production procc.-.scs al the
Department of Energy\ nuclear weapons plants and
less about the nuclear politics of Oak Ridge.
But he did know a sick p:iticm when he saw
one, and he saw four Cll'iC.'> of a rare kidney c:inccr, an
unusual concentration for such a small popul3tion
sampling. I le also saw a ~ignificant number of people
exhibiting auto-immune system disorders. Exh of the
p:mcnts wilh kidney disease h:id ~n exposed to
·major radiauon." Dr. Reid rcponcd. and the p:itients
with auto-immune deficiencies showed "n consistent
p.,ucm of blood irregularities."
In August, 1991 Reid approached Dr. Daniel
Conrad, the medical director for Martin-r-.1:uiCU3
Energy Systems, the priw1c conlJ'3clor for virtually
all the opcrauons at the Oak Ridge Rc.'iervauon,
1uking for access to c.lal.l about pos.~ible metal toxicity
al the Oak Ridge plants.
"Th<.,rc are no problems wuh Mattin-Marictl3
employee~." Reid was told 1111d 11,~1~ ahruptly shown
out of the olfice.
The young doctCII' wa~ surpnsed ut the
brush-ofr he n:cc1ved from Conrad, t>t11 he was more
surpnsc-d ,;everal months btcr m December, 1991
when he w1Ls called before a medical review board at
his 1nsu1uuon for "treuung pauent~ 100
aggressively," •spending too much money in the
treatment of cancer patients." and :illcgcd complaints
of incompetency.
A<; a rcsult of the review, Dr. Reid WIL~ served
ummcr, 1992
an ultimawm: either to pack up and leave Oak Ridge
or have his name entered on the national medical
black list known as the "National Pr'.icutioncr Data
Bank for Adverse Information of Physicians and Other
Health Pracutione11>."
Since the review hearing. the hospital has p:iid
to have another physician monuor all of Dr. Reid's
cancer ueatments.
Instead of caving in lO this blatant blackmail,
Dr. Reid filed a lawsuit challenging the allegations
agamst him and comc.~ting the consmutionaluy of
the National Pr'dctitioner Dalll Bank.
"Tilesc actions arc a ~ham," said Lewis Lcvm,
Reid's attorney, of the hospu.1J's measure.~. "The)'
were perpetrated again.,1 Dr. Reid only aft.er he refused
to be intimidated by threats."
And in the te.lt of I.he lawsuit, Levan st:ucd,
"He (Reid) opposes the prcvuilmg lct-them-d,e
attitude toward cancer puticnts. lie oppo5es dcni.31 of
treatment even when 11 1s nOt fully covered by
insurance payments. He oppose.~ those who refuse to
seek the c.auscs of bi7.arrc patterns in the quality and
quantity or cancer seen in Oak Ridge.•
The lawsull goc, on to say, "The physicians
and hospi111I who benefit from 1he generosity of tlJC
Martin-Marietw health c:irc pl.ln 11.ant him to lc:ivc.
1hs p31icnts want him to st:ly. •
Reid reports that he has nxc1ved many
fate-night pl1one tj1lh from anon>mous supporters.
Other caller.; have offered mfonn:iuon lo help llllCk
down people suffcnng from health problems clue to
radiation and heavy metals tox1C1l)·, His work· and
the late-night lips. have shown results. Dr. Reid has
found pockets of 1mmuno-supp,cs~ive disorders in the
Oak Ridge area and even downstream as far as
Kingston. TN.
A NOTHER ONE
FOR THE GOOD OL' BOYS
NawnJ World News Service
Yet another example of govcrnmenrav
bureaucratic arrogance and insensitivity: the North
Carolina Dcpanmem ofTranspocuuion (NC DOT)
decided in May to postpOne public hearings scbcdulcd
in May on the 1 Transponation Improvement
992
Program (TIP).
While this mecis the leuer of the law requiring
public hearings, it keeps citizens from having any
input on 1992 transponation priorities - in effect
canceling any value the hearings mighl have.
Without public hearings, citiuns arc
effectively blocked out of the decision-malcing
process. This becomes even more dist.urbing when
one realius that lhe Board ofTransponation iS
appointed by Governor Jim Martin on the basis of
political favors. It is the plum of state political
appointments. Noticeably missing from the Board of
Transpoltlltion arc tranSit advocateS, individuals with
rail background. environmentalists, and
reprc.senrativcs from communiLy groups,
neighborhood associauons, and minorities.
Perhaps the reason lhe DOT has decided to
dispense with public hearings is that the importanl
decisions have already been made. Journalist Barry
Yeoman has produced a thoroughly researched s1udy
publi.shed in the lndependem thal shows a close
relationship belween the sources of large political
contributions and where highway construction
projects are built in the Srate of North Carolina
Do you want the NC Department of
Transportation to hold public Juuuings? Write to:
Larry Goode: ChiefEngiuer (Programs); NC DOT;
Box 25201; Raleigh. NC 27611.
Reid ha.~ nlso received support from the 03k
Ridge Envll"Ollmcntal and Peace Alliance (OREPA),
which has accumulated experience in dealing with the
authorities and tmcl.ing tOxiC emissions nt the Oak 1
Ridge Rc...crvntion.
Stc,·e Smith ofOREPA and the Foundation
for Global Sustain1bili1y. said, "This is the first lime
a medical doctor within Oak Ridge ha.~ stepped
forward 311d begun to identify :idvcrsc h~th cffCC1S in
and around the Oak Ridge facilities.
"When Dr. Reid first saw these pntu:ms
emerging, he was acompletely di~inten:.stcd observer.
He had no axe to grind with the DOE. He had no
conccpuon of what he was getting mto when hc
~tarted work 111 Oak Ridge."
Under pressure from the St:ltc of Tennessee,
the DOE 113.S funded a panel of health e.\J)CttS to study
cxpo:;urc to radiation among people Ii ,·ing around the
Oak Ridge facilities. Dr. Reid has been appointed to
that P3ncl, and will reveal hi~ tull fi11ding.q in the
cour:.c of that invcsllgnti()n.
Hiscao;e i, also under scrutiny by Sen. John
Glenn's Government Affairs Commmcc and Rep.
John Dingle's lnvcsugauon Subcommlltcc m the US
I louse of Rcprc.'iCntJllvc.~. A rccC11t anicle in 1,me
magazme c•uvmg H11ppdy ~eat a NuclearTr.ish
Hc.ip," 5/l lfl2) ten1'ring on Dr. Reid nlso called
aucnt.ion to the situation al Oak Ridge.
Now thai the hd of secrecy 1s orr I.ht\ lode
history 01 the Oak Ridge Reservation, 11 seems likely
that dccJ)CI' probing will n:~ cal more c:uimplcs of
abu!iC of the health of hum:ins 11ml the envllQnmcnL II
L~ startling lO think that tl1is whole furor began
because one person v. 1th true compa..sion entered
unawwes mro the heart of the sordid nuclCJr we.1pons
industry. It shows the pov.er ol one honcsl man.
XGtuoh Jounmt pnqe 2 1
�REGION O'RAGIN' ,:
,. ..
•,
Nanni World News ServiClC
April 21st brought not only a healthy dose or
rain io 1.he region, but also a healthy dose of reality people in K:m1ah are outraged with the US Forest
Sc,vice! As p:in of a national Earth Firsll effort
honoring John Muir's birthday. protCStS organiz.cd by
the environmental grollP SoulhPAW and il.S cohorts
in Asheville, NC, Atlanlll. GA. and Oevel:md. TN
were among lhe more than 30 prou:sts held
ruitionwidc.
Activists at the Forest Service Regionnl
Hcadquaners m Allant.a mllied behind a 4S f00t banner
that read: "Environmenlol Assessment of the US
Forest Service- Finding of No Significant lnl.Cgrity."
Twenty-five dcmonstraoors gathered outside lhc
Cherokee National Forest HeadqumterS in Cleveland.
while in Asheville 50 people chanted and hollered
ouLSide the Pisgah/Nanlllhala National Forest offices.
In each city, the message rang ou1. loud and clear:
decision-making proc:essc$ which destroy thousands of
aaes of habitat come from little cubicles inside
concreie and Slecl office buildings.
//'you'd liu to wim your frusuaJions with IM
Fores, Service in a concerted effort, conJJJcl
SowhPAW: Box 3/4/; Asheville, NC 28802.
SENATOR WAFFLES
Nau,,al World News Scrvia
SenalOI' Terry Sanford is threatening lO give in
the mauer of
the Fontana road, the famous "Road IO Nowhere" in
the Great Smoky Mountains National Palk in Swain
County.NC.
Sanford bas ptOp0.5td legislation I.hat would
include aSl6 million payment to Swain County and
allow consuuction of the comrovcrslal road. The road
would destt0y the possibility of wilderness
design:11ion for the southern end of the Parle and open
the isolated area up IO possible (ulllrC developmenL
Sanford stalTer Alan Thornbwg said 1h31. the
Senat0r "just wanLS to pol lhis ITlllller behind us. He
is willing lO do w~ver lhe county commissioners
dcs1te in lh is local issue.•
Sanford apparently does llOl undel'Sland that it
is not jost a local issue any more. The s111tus of
several thousand acres of h3biw and an imp0Clllllt
wildlife migration routc are at stalce, and there are
many visilOrS co the Parle who each year apprcciatc
the qmet and rcl:ll.ive isolation of the north shore of
Lake Foruana.
Sanrord's move seems LO be an election year
ploy to brcalc Helms' enclave or powct in Swain
County. That he would scll out I.he future of a critical
habitat area for a palll}' handful of VOies shows a
skewed sense of values.
lO Senator Jesse Helms' inll'BllSigcnce in
To con1ac1 Stlllltor Ttrry SOft[ord abou, his
proposal, write him QI 716 llart Senate Office
Building: Washington. DC 20510.
WE PAY FOR CLEARCUTS!
Nlllnl World New• Serv~
Once again the U.S. Forest Servicc has issued
a report stating the amount trutpaycrs pay tO subsidize
timber sales on North Carolina na11onal foresLS. In
1991 U.S. citi7.ens paid $2.4 milhon ID order lO have
roads buih and plOIS of national forest land clcrucut to
the state. Even though less limber was harve.~ted in
1991 l.h:m m 1990 (there was a loss or S2 million in
1990), we paid even more to keep Congress nnd the
timber IDlcrestS happy.
Xnt(iari lournnt ,.,- r, l Z2
nmm lf ll
f •
If •r 6
t
=
• ~-WHEELERS ~AT POR&ST
Nanni World New, S<tvicc
All-terrain vehicles (ATV's) are a pcoblem in
lhe region's national forcsLS. In lhc view of the US
Forest Service. the desires of different human inteteSt
groups lake precedence over protcetion of the rorcs1
ecosysiem. Thus, ATV joyriding is seen as a
legitimate "mulitple use· of the forest, and the little
bull-bouncers are permitted whetc no mot0ri2cd
vehicles should be allowed co chum.
Case in point: lhe Wayehutta (locally
pronounced •worry-hut") Creek watershed or the
Nanlllhala National Forest in Jackson County, NC is
riddlcd witlt A TV irails. Sixtccn miles of old logging
roads have been given over t0 the mud-slingers for
their fun.
But that is not cnoogh for the wheel jockeys.
Now the Forest Service is considering a plan to add
20 more miles of ATV trails, pcneuating two more
water.iheds.
Internal combUSlion engines, especially
obno11iously loud ones over four knobby-treaded tires,
are incompatible witlt deep forest habiw needs. The
acres that woold be impacted by the noise, debris. and
massive erosion from ATV's are needed much IIIQle
desperalCly by wild animal and plant life as
homespace.
or
However, Uie ltanquillily lhis JX)rtion of
wild land is tltrca1encd. Adjnce.n1 lO the city uact is
the CliITs of Gla.\sie development, a 1,000 acre golf
rcson. The Cliffs wants to buy 134 acres of 1bcciLy's
propeny 10 expand their domain. The Greenville City
Council was agreeable to the sale. but when local
conservation groups he:lrd of the proposed transaction,
tltey unilCd in vehement opposition. The local
Bartram Group of the Sierra Club described the
property and revealed the details of the sale in a
televised press conference. The land had never been
inventoried, said the group, and lhey insisted 1h31. a
sludy of lhc area be done before any sale was
considerod to dcterminc if it was habilat for any rare
or endangered species.
The TV broadcast provoked a flood of letterS
from local citizens apposing the proposed sale. Under
I.hat pressure, the city council bacud off. TI1ey agreed
to inventory the 134 acres proposed for sale.
Moreover, they have decided to study the biology of
the whole watershed to consider a mnnagemcnt plan
for the entire traeL The city might still try to sell tho
area when the study is completed, but public pressure
has proved co be a powerful LOOI.
The Highlands Ranger District is scliciting
commurls on the proposed A7V trail expansion.
Write them 01: Rt. I, Box 247; Highlands. NC
28741.
BUYING BAD AIR
Namral World New. Scrvice
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is
baying 10,000 cons of coxic nitrate and sulfaie
compounds rrom the W l ~ Power and Li&hl
Company co release inlO lhe air over the Tennessee
Valley and the Soulhcrn Appalachians.
Docs that sound LOO bimrre to be true? Not at
all. Under a clause or the much-toulCd Clean Air Act
or 1990, companies that are in •over.compliance"
(companies that exceed the minimum smndnrds for air
cleanliness set forth in the act) can seU "pollution
credits" to polluting companies who don't want to
clean up their operations. This provision is a
safeguard bw11. into the law ID see that the air does
not get cleaned up beyond a minimal level apparently on the theory lhal if air geLS too clean iL is
bad for business.
Money can buy off the legal system, but it
cannot bring dead lJ'eeS back to life. nor can it make
polluted air any hcallhicr for those organisms who
have lO breathe u. "Pollution crcdiLS" may make TV A
think that it has license tO pollute, but 11 will only
worsen lite situation in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park where 96 plant species ore already in
doclinc from niuogen•gcnerrucd owne and other
atmospheric pollutanl.S.
The grealeSl irony may be that rai.epaycrs
puchasing power from TV A will now know tltn.t,
instead of investing in air pollution controls, they ore
buying themselves an extra helping of air IO~ichy.
Comnu!nls may be stnt 10 the Ttnntssu
Valley Aulhoriry; Norris. TN 37818.
GOLF DESERT OR WILD WOODS?
Nanni World New. Service
The City of Greenville. SC own.~ 25,000 acre.\
of land in nonh Greenville County. The ll'3cl is a
rugged and beauuful alC.'.l at the foot or the Blue Ridge
CSClllplll(nL Bought bad ID lhe l 920·~. lhe land has
not~ a bulldo1,er or a chain saw in 60 years.
i4
D
ACTIVISTS RALLY FOR CLEAN
AIR
N11unl World News Service
A raucous crowd of about 50 people and one
coswmed bear demonstralCd beforc the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park's Suga.rlands VisilO( Center
in GatJjnburg, TN on May 18. 1992. This time the
activists or the group SolllhPA W were not protesting
government actions, but ~ galhcrcd IO support lhc
Dep:inmcnt of the Interior's policy of opposing any
new insl.allations within 120 miles of the Great
Smokies lluu would add lO air pollution -particularly
low-level ozone - in the Park.
Signs welcomed curious visitors lO the "Great
Smoggy Mouniains" and decl3rcd "We Support the
No-zone!• The dancing beat grophically demonslt3llld
what happens when wildlife take on overlo:ids of air
pollution. Atlanl.8 folksinger Robert Hoyt serenaded
the Monday morning crowd with copical songs about
the state of the environment and our society.
The Soul.hPAW ac11v1s1.S wcce JOined by 20
eighth grade s1udcn1.S in the KARE (Kids Agamst
'Recking lhe Environment) Club at Bridgepon School
m Newport, TN. The studcnl.S, who live in the
watcrShed of Ilic Pigeon River, knew lin;tband about
lite effects of waler pollution, but came 10 learn what
air pollution docs co C(()~i.tems. They m:ide tl1c
connections quickly and were soon parudpat mi;
cntltus1asucally in 1.hc dcmonst.111tion.
Su mm.er,
){192 uu
�The first building constructed at
Sycamore Branch was the community center.
It had a large kitchen and dining/meeting area
upstairs and ample bathing and laundry
facilities downstairs. The next project was a
complex that came to be called "the
apanments." These were twelve good-sized
rooms, each with a couple of sleeping lofts,
arranged in two tiers going up the hill above
the river. Many families lived for several
years in the apartmenrs while they worked on
their houses. Today the community rents
them out to young couples, the elderly, and
visitors.
The people decided that most of the
houses were to be built in a cluster near the
community center. These houses were built
by the homeowners who organized
themselves into a masonry crew and a
carpentry crew. Some homeowners hired
replacements for themselves because they had
jobs that would not allow for the necessary
rime off. These clustered homes were
connected by a common water, electrical, and
sewer system. They were arranged and
landscaped for maximum privacy, set into the
hillside, and turned a little this way or that so
that each home could have a small private
garden. There were many outdoor decks and
patios. Another eight homes were built in
various places around the property. These
homes were simple and designed to be
low-impact, most of them lacking in
conveniences.
There was widespread unemployment
as the old international economy collapsed.
Many families who lived at Sycamore Branch
lost their livelihood and the community
started businesses to help. Soon after
forming, the village started a cooperative that
owned and ran a sawmill, a woodworking
shop, and managed the community's garden
and kitchen. People could belong to the
cooperative that ran the garden and kitchen or
they could buy meal tickets. Many people
from outside the immediate community
bought tickets and some joined the
cooperative. Members of the cooperative are
currently required to work 14 hours each
week. In practice, about one fourth of the
people chose to work these hours
themselves, one fourth chose to pay, and half
chose a combination, doing farmwork during
the planting and harvest seasons. This
arrangement allowed some people to make a
liveli.hood almost entirely from farm or
kitchen work.
The Village Cooperative kept a small
herd of cows and ran a small dairy that also
A LOOK BACK
by Will Ashe Bason
processed milk from local farmers. A village
bakery supplied fresh bread that was sold
locally. Tofu and tempeh were made from
beans that were obtained in trade from a
community in a neighboring county that had a
better season because of lower elevation.
Twelve acres of blueberries were cultivated
and most of the berries were dried and sold.
There is a blueberry festival at harvest rime,
and the entire community helps with the
picking. One hundred fifty acres were planted
to a mixture Lhal included chestnuts, black
walnuts, black locust, and bramble fruits,
and this has proved to be a very valuable
asset over the years, with chestnut flour
becoming a major source of income. Many
local farmers and landowners planted blight
resistant chestnuts that were supplied by the
village and brought tons of dried chestnuts to
the sheller and mill.
Toe village woodworking shop
produces drums, harps, dulcimers, guitars,
and flutes. These products have gradually
gathered a fine reputation among musicians
far and wide, and the shop employs about
one third of the people in the village.
Sycamore Branch was of vital
imponance to Floyd County during the
economically unstable rimes of the late '90's
and the primary years of this century. It
helped formulate the plan for the
decentralization of the county's schools and
social services. The community has set up
four small band saw mills in various parts of
the county and organized a crafts collective
that markets area crafts on a mail order basis
through the satellite communication network.
The community has provided blueberry
plants, nut trees, shiitake mushroom spawn,
and vegetable StartS at low cost (and
sometimes free) to local farmers.
Sycamore Branch gave technical
assistance to many local communities that
were creating their own power systems after
the breakdowns of the late '90's. They
powered several other villages directly and
gave assistance 10 many more. There were
many economic refugees in the late '90's,
and Sycamore Branch offered a plan by
which these folks could mostly house and
feed themselves. They were influential in
Habitat for Humanity's decision to build
ecovillages with their own economics instead
of isolated homes. The community produced
a video series tilled "The Owner-Built
Village" which was used by thousands of
new cormnunities.
The goals of Sycamore Branch, as
stated in their by-laws, included not only
being of service to the larger community in
Floyd County but also reaching out on an
international scale. This was accomplished
through a sister community program that
linked the village to other small communities
around the world. Especially close tics were
made with the Mayan village of Yonin.
Young people from the communities were
exchanged every year and sometimes older
folk would go down for a year or so.
Sycamore Branch marketed xylophones,
weavings, and dried fruit from Yonin.
Sycamore Branch has cooperated from
the beginning with the UN's efforts lo set up
international community-to-community
trading and cultural contacts. The village has
for years sponsored a team ofteehnicians
who work to help upgrade poor communities
by providing better water sources, waste
treatment, and health care. Villagers from
these communities are trained to run the solar
satellite link and to access weather, health,
and technical information in their own
language. This gives them access to world
markets within the limitations of the
distribution system. There is an emphasis on
self-sufficiency and the development of a few
trade items that can be transponed to the
nearest world irading center for shipment to
irs ultimate destination through the UNPS
network of freight dirigibles, trains, vans,
and donkeys.
The village of Sycamore Branch was a
leader in the move by small communities to
take over the economic role of the
corporations. We now take it for granted thar
small communities work together
economically for their common betrermcnt.
and we forget that there was a rime when this
was an unusual pattern. The breakup of the
corporate economy in the '90's left a vacuum
that was naturally filled by small
communities. The pauems developed in
Sycamore Branch and similarcommuniti~#
were a vital part of this process.
fr
Reprinted/rem Tek:iah newsleuer,
which is available from the ln.sritwe for
Sustainable Living; Windswept Fann; Rt. 1,
Box 35; Check.VA 24072.
Will Ashe Bason is a farmer and
visionary who lives in the Floyd County,
Virginia community.
Mountain Counsel
Blackberry bushes, heavily leaved,
Bow as I approach;
Offer bounteous gifts
Deep black, soft and sweet.
Yet remind me of the need
To pick with gentle care
Or else be pricked by thorns
That spring from everywhere.
And so it is with friends.
- Taylor Reese
DnlWUl& by Rob Mcs11ck
Summa- , t 992
Xatoofl Journa!
JIQ9C 23
�BUlTERFLY
In a lazy larval state
I ate
Everything
Fresh and green
That lay before me
Until I could consume
No more
DRUMMING
Dear KaJuah,
This is the sound of Nonh Carolina. ll
is the voice of Kilmer Forest - it is the New
River Gorge - it is the Haw River - it is ML
Mitchell and the Black Range. Little
Santeetlah Creek and the French Broad River
also speak here.
I am Native Choctaw-Scot-Nonh
Carolinian and l dare speak in their names.
From the mountains to the coast, I see areas
rendered unrecognizable due to overdevelopment and misuse. It huns - the street
lightS that ruin night vision, the litter, the
washed out sides of previously pristine lakes
due LO motor-boating. This is not the state I
grew up in. What was attractive then is now
the money maker of the day.
Why do those who come here to "get
away from it all" need LO "bring it all" with
them?
Back LO Nature? My family raised me
that way - my grandfathers and greatgrandfathers fanned • a Choctaw greatgrandfather was a proud man in his
community here in the Piedmont I still have
the land he farmed.
At age 37, I still practice what my
ancestors left to me - a guardianship of
property and the knowledge or how to do it.
I love this state, but not what it is
becoming. It needs help, and l feel we are
losing.
Last year I was a volunteer for the
Kituwah Festival here in Asheville and will
be there agnin this year. I would also like to
work wherever possible for your staff on
representing Katuah Journal - it has a place!
Thank you,
Nancy Odell
Dear KaJuah,
While I have enjoyed the Journal more
than I can say, I have not sent in my
subscription renewal because J feel you could
help me a bit more than you have tried lO in
the past.
My Llfe's goal is to help re-establish
the American Chestnut in the mountains, and
to that end I've been trying to locate acreage
on which to do this. I wortc with devotion on
anything undertaken, but my problem is lack
of money for purehasing the size acreage or
farm needed to plant, nunurc, and monitor
these seedlings to maturity. I sincerely felt
there must be, among your readers, someone
intersted in seeing this tree again reclaim our
forests: some who may not have the time or
inclination to do the work needed, but who
may be financially more able and who would
be willing to help. I would gladly give full
accountability for any funding offered.
I looked at Land last Saturday near
Spruce Pine. Bui I would need some
$26,500 to acquire it. along with giving some
inherited fine jewelry 10 make up the
difference. I'm willing to give everything I
have, bu1 cash is something I don't have,
unfonunately, and tha1 is what sellers wanL
Truely. l felt your interest in this was as
deep as mine. l am not some scam artist,
simply a person with a limited amount of
assets that will gladly give for the finacial
help l need. Some of these assets are quite
exciting, for instance, r have an original
printing of the very first meeting of the
Continental Congress (authenticated by the
old books department of UNCC); an original
copy of Washington's Farwell Address and
many very old deeds, etc. l'm not wanting
something for nothing, you see. I have quite
endless energy and much determination. This
determination would go into the raising or the
chestnut If you do wish to help me get
started (I'm looking at land from the Spruce
Pine area west through Madison Counry),
you will be proud of what l'II accomplish.
Fat and sleepy
I slep1 deeply
Safe from a hungry world
Alone in my own
Silk cocoon bed
That trembled and twirled
Suspended by threads
From slender limbs
Overhead
Waiting
Until the warm suns
Of summer come
And I summon the courage
To emerge
Transformed and renewed
Wings brightly-hued
To carry me
Free
• Rebecca Wilson Hicks
Sincerely yours,
Dorothy Dickson
113 Autumn Lane
Harrisburg, NC 28075
!f\ "he. 5UMe Y-
-th e -fiowe.YS
b\,oOM f- he beo.Y"
w i 11 'rOMe
VJ ; f\
'f"'e 5qVi1TelS
1 e ()\ t WQ'f K
°'WO\ifi "~
Wi "t e r
Cold
+or
C\
T\d
We+her
l'llolobyR.-lyBall
tre r 5
P\ in re~ Of
Jee cl ".f'or
the bi ue
TS v\ nJ
--fo'( -r~e
crow
-t~erf
Cor Y\ Pl , n teu
0-f +1'.o.-1-·
J
(poem by Tiyo)
age 9
Dear Karuah,
I'd like to subscribe to your journal,
finally. We love it most abundantly cover to
cover. Couldn't bear to slash the graphics on
#34, so I send this sheel of paper wilh this
message.
Beyond the garden, consensus decision
making, and bioregionalism, my interest and
vocation arc renewable energy systems and
sheller. Our house is off the grid and soon
our income will be, tOO. Please conac1 me if
you ever do an issue on renewable energy in
Ka1uah.
Blessings 10 ya'II Star and Otter
Summer. 1992
�Dear Kanwli,
Thank you for the flood of pleasant
!Demories evoked by your Spring, 1992
issue. As I pored through your pages, I could
see my father pointing out things as we
walked through the woods. I learned of wild
onions, greens, mushrooms, persimmons,
and beechnutS. Berries grew abundantly
where I was raised - strawberries,
blackberries, raspberries, and gooseberries. I
was fortunate enough to live close to a small
wooded area, an ecosystem all its own. To
this day, I can tell an Oak from a Maple from
a Birch from a Willow, etc.
'
I'm still fascinated by the life forms in
even a small creek. The fish, crawdads,
leeches - I even learned to make suckers into
a very fine substitue for salmon/mackerel
patties.
Thank you for bringing it back when
I'm ready to see the deeper meanings of the
Earth's give-and-take relationship with man.
Keep up the good works, Mr. Messick.
Stay on the Path,
Jeff R. Zachary
Dear KaullJh,
This is still the best bioregional rag I've
seen! Thanks for keeping me in touch with all
the real news from home.
Gene Dilwonh
Dear Friends,
I send to you all my thoughts of peace
and well being... I hope that this Jen.er finds
you all enjoying happiness and good health!
I appreciate all your hard work in
producing Ka1uali Journal and including
Stil-Llght in your calendar of events. ll helps
to keep us before the public eye. Thank you!!
I am writing to comment on your
recycle logo on the Spring, 1992 issue:
"Recycle or Die." Recycling in and of itself
and one hundred percent population will not
solve our problems and create a sustainable
economy. Recycling is at best a stop gap
measure, something easily understood and
do-able by the masses. Until we stop
consuming and u111il we stop having so 1111Jny
babies (especially in the more afj111e111
countries) we will continue 011 our collision
course with exrinc1io11 as a species as we use
up all our nomral resources.
I agree that we should continue to
reri:ind people to n;cycle because it helps, but
crying wolf and usmg scare tactics hns never
wo~ked. people only do that which is in
their own selfish best interest. .. a sad
commentary on human nature, but the truth.
Just a few thoughts ...
Your Friend and Brolher,
Leon Frankel
Summcr, 1992
Dear Ka11W1,
Well, they've done it to us again! Praise
be to the "Gcxl Squad" for overiding the
couns and sentencing more forests out west
10 lhe saw? The sponed owl may be
protected, but only by the edict of loggers
and the Almighty Gospel of the U.S.
Congress. r thought there was supposed to
be a balance of power between the three (to
name but a few) branches of our government.
Where is the justice in taking a case to coun
and then have the "Gcxl Squat" (sic) come
and say "Praise the Lord. we gonna Lord it
over every forest we can"?
Constance Birch
From the Groun d Up
"You gotta start from the ground up ... "
- That's what they've always said
- and lhat's it in a nutshell
- where civilization's gone wrong
"If you don't have yo~ feet on the
ground...
Then where are you?
How do you get sustenance without roots?
"We're all going so fast we're gonna crash"
- where?
- on the ground?
The Ground?
We've put that in the hands of
MEGA CONGLOMERATE
ii-?tJ~~Wo.MILLIONAIRE,
20TH FLOOR HEADQUARTERED farmers
- Who probably won't touch the
ground
even when they die
But are buried up to lheir necks
in their financial statementS
- the only thing they care about
And speaking of lhe ground...
From the Earlh's point of view
it must think we're made of rubber
for that's all that touches it when we move.
We're Gods of power...
We have bulldozers to move
mountains.
A river can't flow
without our permission
We've gOL landfill expens
- like our mission is to fill the land
"Landfill"
- like a free lunch for the Eanh!
(ns if it liked the encrees)
Many of the Earth's peoples
worship Jesus, a man's
creation of the universe
(or Gcxl, if you will...)
Who gave unceasingly
of beauty and healing...
even as he died slowly and painfully
in the hands of the Earlh's people.
If such as he were still alive
would we try 10 save him?
Or, would we treat him
as we do her, lhe Earth?
Dear Karuah,
I read awhile back the article on the
!-,ETS sy~tem and sent for the preliminary
mformanon. lam real interested in seeing one
get sra.rted in the Karuah region in rural
mountain areas. At this time I have not the
time, energy, and resources 10 start one by
!11YSClf - l wonder if you know of other
interested persons you could put me in touch
~th who have the whole study course who
might let me borrow it.
In the meantime I am starting a simple
bancr networking newsletter in this local area
(Bryso~ City, Sylva, Franklin). Perhaps you
would like a ,~·rue:-up for the summer journal.
The Spnng issue of Kauiuh Journal is
by far the most interesting one to me in a long
time - great articles intended for the already
some~hat informed. Erbin Crow's pissing
poem 1s a real gem.
Airin Green
P.O. Box 382
Whittier, NC 28789
Dear Karuah,
I have enjoyed recieviog your paper,
but there is one matter of deep concern l
have. I have noticed several times in recent
years the theories of Buckminster Fuller have
been mentioned in a positive light, as if he
were a worthy mentor for ecology-minded
people (see John Ingress in Spring 1992).
I recently went back and looked a1
Fuller's opus Critical Path (St Martins,
N.Y., 1981), and was alanned to find it was
even worse than I had remembered. In the
preface he introduces lhe notion that human
beings are so smart we can easily provide
an "unprecedented higher standard of living
for all Eanhians," and claims that "four
billion billionaires" would be a worthwhile
and admirable goal. Can you imagine how
shredded to ribbons the Earth's ecosystems
would with "billions of billionaires," a
concept Fuller warmly endorses throughout
his book?!
The rest of Fuller's thesis is well
known. High technology is the savior we
have been waiting for. lo the future, humans
will live packed in floating cities, space
platforms, nnd so on, in fully automaied,
controlled environments. On page 297 he
claims "lhe power of the Amaz.on warershed
will be harnessed and considered by
designers as an integrated moving assembly
line."
On page 251 he gets so carried away
he proclaims that man has now taken on "lhe
competence of Gcxl."
I could go on with such examples, but
perhaps the point is made. I disagreed with
the late Ed Abbey on some things, but in his
evaluation of Buckminster Fuller, l lhink he
was right on lhe money. ln the meantime
there are lOLs of other writ tings on technology
out lhere worth reading, such as Lewis
Mumford, Jacques Ellul, or Jerry Mandcr's
new book.
Best Wishes.
Bill McConnick
• Breeze Burns
Xorunfi Jottn«i( p09c 27
�Jury Nullification:
Democracy at Work
M ost of us have noticed that our rights
arc being whittled and chopped away as
surely and relentlessly as our foresis. But
there is a little known right which can be a
defense against an offensive government.
II is a right we have because we are
entilled to a jury trial. The Fourth Circuit
Coun of Appeals in U.S. v. Moylan (1969)
put it this way: '1f the jury feels the law is
unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of
the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is
contrary co the law as given by a judge, and
contrary 10 the evidence."
People on a jury have the right to free
people from laws they wouldn't want
imposed on themselves. The right and the
responsibility.
Jury nullification, as this almost-secret
right is known, goes way back. Back to
ordinary men. Some of the ordinary men
were the 12 who served on William Penn's
jury in 1670. The British king proved beyond
a doubt that Penn was "guilty." He had
broken the law against preaching a religion
other than that of the Anglican church in a
public place.
But the jury didn't wane to punish
William Penn. They thought it would be a
beuer idea to punish the law itself.
The king's agent was furious and tried
co convince them that the law was more
imponant than their conscience. The judge
did his convincing by imprisoning the jurors
in the Tower of London until they agreed to
convict Penn.
But pubUc opinion - possibly related to
the expense of imprisoning the jurors - forced
the judge to let them go, and to admit that a
jury had the right to decide not only whether
someone has broken a law, but whether the
law is just.
The right of jury nullification bas
consistently been upheld in British and
American courts. According to Alan Sheflin
and Jon Van Dyke in law and Concempory
Problems 43, No. 4 (1980), 'The repeal of
(prohibition] laws is traceable 10 the refusal
of the juries 10 convict those accused of
alcohol traffic."
And Hagbard Celine points out in
Trajecl()ries newsletter that "the anti-pot law,
the silliest of all our drug laws, could not
survive in a nation with at least 70 million
pot-heads, if juries knew that they had the
right of nullification."
So what's happened?
Back in the 1890's, the U.S. Supreme
Court was about as freedom-loving as our
current robes. They upheld Lhe right of jury
nullification - but simultaneously ruled that
Lhe judge not only doesn't have to tell the jury
Lhey have this right - but can prevent the
defense attorney from telling them that they
have ii!
power.
Only Maryland has a state constitution
which requires a judge to inform the jury that
they may acquit if the facts prove a defendant
technically guilty but the jury believes the law
is wrong. (Lots of states, though, have
elected judges.)
There is a movement in many states to
pass Fully Informed Jury (FU) Amendments
to state constitutions. For more information,
you can write to FUA; Box 59; Helmsville,
MT 58843.
Jury nullification is a secret that needs
to be told. I asked my son if he knew his
rights as a citizen. He looked at me and
exclaimed, "Mom, I'm in school."
Isn't the power of juries a fundamental
part of how democratic government - of the
people - works?
I wonder what would happen even
without an amendment if people knew that
juries have the right to judge not only people,
but laws? If the people knew the power of
juries, and the power we would have a
grassrootS movement - towards democracy?
I am indebted to Robert Anton Wilson
and Trajectories newsleuer (Vol. /, No. 8;
Awwnn /990)/or m11cli of the infonnation in
1/iis article. Trajectories covers many spheres
of interest. Write to them clo The Pennanenc
Press; Box 700305; San Jose, CA 95170.
- by Karen F/etc71er
All juries have the power 10 nullify any
law, but any government judge can do
everything in her or his power to prevent
them from knowing that they have this
I:
Reprintulfrom IM AuJumn, 1991 ,ssue of /.
green light, Mwsleuer of the Cumberland-Grel!II
Bioregional Counril; 2513 Essex Place; Nashville
TN 37212.
The Story of the Man Who Wanted to Become Moss
He tried very hard
he wore himself like French lace
and went to the core of cells
where the green lives
and pulled out chlorophyll
trying to reinvent his structure
to take in the sun
When he kissed his mother
that lay in the moss
When he washed his belly
that lay in the moss
When he sat outside himself
that lay in the moss
lay in the moss
lay in the moss
in the moss
in the moss
the moss
moss
moss
- Jenny Bitner
Sumtm:r, 1992
�BOOK REVIEW
BEYOND THE LIMITS:
Confronting Global Collapse
Envisioning a Sustainable Future
In I971 , a book was published called
The Limits 10 Growth by Donella and Dennis
Meadows and J(lrgen Randers. It was a
landmark in ecological thinking in many
ways, causing many people 10 debate and
question the whole idea of unlimited growth
in industrialized societies. The notion of
growth as a cure for economic problems is
deeply ingrained in many people, and this
book questioned the very basis of such an
assumption al its root.
By using the Systems Approach to
problem solving and taking a long look at
trends in escalating human numbers and the
subsequent pressures put on the Earth's
resources, these three scientists proclaimed
that if present trends continued within the
next one hundred years there would be a
steep decline in lhe ability of human societies
to sustain themselves. This catastrophe could
be changed, they argued, by creating a kind
of steady-state where human populations and
material needs would level off and a new
balance achieved between binh and mortality
and between extremes of wealth.
It's twenty years later, and these same
three folks have been working on the
Systems Approach regarding the choices we
have in creating a future that does not depend
on growth as a means of propping up our
economies. Their new book, Beyond the
Limits, states clearly that human societies
have already moved beyond the limits of
what ecosystems of the Eanh can handle. Il
does not make excuses in order to go lightly
on industrialized countries. It radiates respect
for the diversity of life in the world and
offers some much-needed perspective about
the human place in it. The authors are deeply
moved by the severity of the problems we
face, and yet in many ways they offer hope
by providing paths we can follow to ease
away from the trend toward collapse and
simmer down into a mode of human
economy that actS within the limits of Eanh's
sustainability.
I find that it is much clearer to use a
Systems Approach with thorough
explainations of feedback, exponential
growth, overshoot and collapse, and
planetary sources, throughputs, and sinks
than the ambiguous notions surrounding
human carrying capacity (as seen for instance
in Issue #28 of Kat(wh Journal). Human
beings are not exempt from limitS to material
growth or the perils of overpopulation by any
means, yet it is high time we recognized that
we have exceeded many of the regulatory
limits 1hat exist for other mammals and that
we clearly have the capacity to overshoot this
carrying capacity at any time.
Cultural knowledge may not be enough
to restrain our frenzied pace, but it can offer
us some of the wisdom necessary co pull
back and keep from overstressing life support
systems. Whether we will paractice this
wisdom remains to be seen. yet Beyond The
limits offers some hard-earned distilled
knowledge and should be read by those
interested in learning how we can panem
human societies within limits. We humans do
have the potential to be effective problem
solvers. Unfortunately we rarely choose the
right problems to solve.
Beyond The Limits is pub/is~ by Ch,!lsea
Green Publishing Company: R1. I 13, Box 130: Posl
Mill.f. Vf 05058. Please ccn1ae11km aboui ~
,P"
informtUion on the book.
Rob Messick
B~byJll!OIITucllct
"I
told
the
Prograns to encourage
self and Earth awareness.
celeblollon. kinship ond hope.
• Youlh Camps • &;hool Programs
• Family Campa· Tead!o, Training
• Community Programs
• Camp StaIf Tra111lng
• Ouldoof Program Conwtt,ng
Look. Y1111 Ill ill l ltld ISklnQ mt ti help kAI
• Oonch ot Pffllll down tlltlt I don I k"°"
Md I"m 11n ~ I did kMw u..m 1-lclnt
wt/I ti ~1111 ti their dNIJII forgd l l
TIii
an,_ 11 no
F«av11 no•··
-'Naly~lbon ..,_
Don ·t Pay Taxes for War
Fo ntnrm11.1on ,if'ld o, ,1 c.;i,
PO. Bo• 1300
Gotti'lburg. T
e<Y'lessee 3n38
615-436-6203
National War Tax R
esistance
C
oordinating Committee
PO Bo~ 774 Munroe, ME 04951
1
2071525-7774
Summer , 1992
la'O!\: •nrr 1 ,t -
REGIONAL RADIO
Featuring Crossroads music, NPR news and music
programs, regional news and information
concerning health, education, government,
recreation, and the environment.
WNCW • FM P 0. Bo" 804 Spind.ik•, NC 28160
(704) 287-8000
�(cootinuo,d from P"&C SJ
and decorations were very sunilar. They
carried out the same kind of sun worship. I
think they were priest-ruled.
The Louisiana nibes showed that
influence strongly, and there is much
evidence of that among the Creeks and
Cherokees, probably more among the
Cherokees. Because of that influence, we had
a priest society for awhile. We became more
sophisticated and more warlike and gathered
up more territory and more people.
But the priest society among the
Cherokees became so arrogant and so
barbaric that the people rose up against them.
I think it must have been about the time
when the clans dwindled from 14 to seven.
The revolt centered in the Katuah village. The
priest society was ovenhrown.
After that episode, the spiritual
functions of the nibe became more
decentralir.cd. There were ceremonial
medicine people, song keepers, and the
chiefs of the ceremonial grounds. There was
a medicine man who could give hunting
formulas, and that's all he could do. Another
one who could give fishing formulas. And
women who lcoew how ro deliver babies, and
soon.
The medicine people still had influence.
but they were not almighty. There were
,
definitely people who shone among those
groups, and they gathered some degree of
power, but that was because of ability, not
because of their office.
The people also gave more power 10 the
village councils and balanced the influence of
the clans within the villages. so that no one
clan became dominant. Thus, it came about
that when the white people came, they found
us to be a loose federation of villages, more
lroquoian in our government than most of the
tribes around us. But our power was
growing. I think that if the white people had
waited 100 or 200 years they would have
dealt with one or two governments in the
Southeast. We were definitely influenced by
the Iroquois.
As it was, we were eventually forced
by bitter expenence to adopt the white man's
system of choosing one civil leader who had
ultimate power. Then we got chiefs like John
Ross, who passed a law saying no Cherokee
could sell land. Until that time. each village
acted on its own, and we were overwhelmed.
/
In spite of his droll pen 11ame. Bear
Wirh Runs is a full-blooded member of the
Cherokee cribe. He Jives in quiet a,umymity
offthe Cherokee Indian ReservaJion.
FREE CHEROKEE
from Ahwi Brown
What is a Free Cherokee? That's an
honest question, and ru try ro give an honest
answer. Most often a Free Cherokee is a
person with a family legend about an
"Indian" grandmother or grandfather. While
these legends persist in famiUes throughout
the land, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
has made it virtually impossible to enroll
these Free Cherokees on federal rolls. The
Free Cherokees are seen by many of these
Xotuah JPurnat page ao
people as a way to go "home." We do not
seek BIA recognition or any other benefit not
available to other citizens. We do appeal to
our BIA "approved" cousins to join with us
in keeping our heritage strong and in
resurrecting Tsalagi as a spoken language.
It is the hope of this Free Cherokee that
the more affluent of the Free Cherokee people
talce advantage of the current recession and
low interest rates to acquire land parcels in
the Cherokee homeland, Katuah, with the
intention of establishing Tsalagi kibb1uzim
within the borders of the homeland.
To explain the meaning of the liebrew
word kibbwzim: the Jewish people used this
same method to reacquire their ancestral
homeland. It took them about 100 years to do
it. I hope we can beat that!
. . This idea may sound crazy, but so did
Z1on1Sm 100 years ago. J reel that this is an
idea whose time has come. I release it to the
Ancient Red.
Allw18rown
Chic.kamaugan Band of Fru C~ro/cus
19/SBudleySt
Clialtunoogo. TN 37404
Summer, l 992
�:BUN M-OU'.NTA.'L'.N
(b. 1979 • d. l 992)
It was over a dozen years ago that a
man named Jerry staned cooking small
batches of tofu in the back of a food co-op in
downtown Boone, NC and distributing it
around town. This effort was passed on to
others who tried to expand the tofu, tempeh,
and sprout market to the rest of the state. The
soy dairy was small, but it had a wide
distribution within North Carolina. A series
of owners found it difficult to manage, and it
was passed along until John Swan bought the
business in 1987. He sought to make Bean
Mountain into a viable business by moving it
from the slowly dilapidating building it had
been housed in for years to a new building in
Weaverville, NC.
The hope was that with bcner access to
distribution routes and better facilities, larger
contracts could be gained and the business
would nourish. We have recently learned,
however, that Bean Mountain could not
make enough money to survive in today's
market.
Bean Mountain tofu and tempeh have
been legendary not only in the southern
mountains but also in many towns in the
piedmont. h will be sorely missed by many
people.
Hats off 10 you, John Swan, for your
gal/am effons to revive this most useful of
services to the community. Thanks also to the
men and women who put in their sweat and
blood 10 keep it going. May the memory of
all that good food linger in our hearts forever.
- Rob Messick
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN
BLACK BEAR
REHABILITATION AND
RELEASE CENTER
Or. Michael Pelton, a wildlife biologist
from the University of Tennessee who
specializes in black bear research, frequently
receives calls from people who have found
orphaned bear cubs. Panicularly in the spring
when cubs are young and inexperienced, they
are at risk if they are separated from their
mother by poachers, free-ranging dogs, a
flood in their den, or any of a number of
other causes.
Until now, there have not been
adequate solutions for this situation. But a
dream long held by Dr. Pelton seems about 10
mnterial ize.
Under the auspices of the Dragonette
Society for the Preservation of Endangered
Animals, work is proceeding on the Southern
Appalachian Black Bear Rehabilitation and
Release Center. a facility specifically
designed to renccustom and relocate
orphaned, injured, or starving black bears
into the wild. The Center is certified as a
non-profit organization and has established a
board of directors. Backers have donated a
site for the project in Townsend, TN near the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Architect Tom Caldwell volunteered his skills
to draw up a plan for the facility, and the
Oragoneue Society is now preparing for a
fund-raising effon toward a $350,000
construction budget.
The institution's primary focus would
be 10 temporarily house and r.reat bears in
order to re-establish 1hem in the wild as
quickly as possible. "We want to do what we
can in a confined situation to enhance the
possibility of survival in the wild," said Dr.
Pellon.
Bears would be held for their protection
only with as little contact with humans as
possible. When they become strong, healthy,
and acclimated enough to function in their
natural habitat (a maximum of six to eight
months), they would then be released 10
remote areas of the mountains or possibly in
black bear reintroduction projects, like the
one proposed for the Big South Fork area in
Kentucky.
The Dragonettt: Society
for the Preservation ofEndangered Animals
Box669606
Mariella, GA 30066
to"'°'ifka. IOO'U
~t\~S
\ I
,-o &c>~ , a04
by Rob M,
..
0$.icl;
v
( 7041 69~1
Q.8"118"
An Alternative
NATURAL MARKET
WHOLE rooos • OULK
FOODS • VITAMINF..S • Hf:R!lS
• FAT FREE FOODS • TAKE
OUT FOODS• SNACKS• NO
SALT, NO CHOLESTEROL
265-2700
823 Blowing Rock Ad
Boone NC 28607
~
»
speaking fpr fhe earfh.
--,
Union Acres
Rob Messick
Rt. 8, Box 323
Lenoir, NC 28645
't
lllll • &.234
t1<nc1enonw,..,..c;ie1)!1
C~t\b~~, M.C.
Get a set of 10 assorted
folding cards with
artwork as seen in
Katuah Journal.
Send $11.25 ppd to:
/•j
i
- - Acreage for Sale - Smol.y Mountain Living
with a focus on spiritual and
ecologie11I values
For more informalio11:
Contad C. Grant at
Route 1. Box 61/
Whittier, NC 28789
(704) 497-4964
whole earth
gro~ery
.
·.
.;·,:
..
,,
r,..
~
NATURAL
ALTERNATIVES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LIVING
146 !.'.parkway craft .:<'ntcr • suit<' 11
gatlinburg, tcnncss"<' 37'738
615-436-6967
�JUNE
12-22
AMONG THE TREES
Katuah Rainbow Tribe Solstice
Gathering. Somewhere in the national forest.
sisters and brothers will gather 10 create a
magical village of love and light. Location to
be announced. For information, write to HO!
Newsletter; Box 5455; Atlanta, GA 30307; or
call Atlanta Rainbow Light Linc at (404)
662-6112.
€V€0t'S
BLACKSBURG, VA
Soc1e1y for Conservation Biology Annual
Meeting. Symposia on biodiversity issues. Contact
DepL or Fisheries and Wildlife: VPI & SU;
Blacksburg, VA 2A061
27-7/1
HOT SPRII-.GS, NC
"Jndcpcndcncc Week 7.en Holiday." wilh
Genlci Snndy Stewart. Medi1ation rcU'C3t held in
s1lcnce, culminating ma walk up lhe moum.am.
Pre-register: S225 includes lodging and vegan meals.
For info on lhi.~ and other rctreais, contact Soulhcm
Dharma Retreat Center: RL I. Box 34-H; Hot
Springs, NC28743. (704) 622-7112.
27,7/4
IS
FULL MOON/
STRAWBERRY MOON
19
ASHEVILLE, NC
• AFSEEE's Vision for N:lllon:il Foresis in
the Southeast," a public meeting with Jeff DeBonis,
founder of the Associalion or Fo~, Service
Employees for EnvironmcnU!I Ethics.
7 pm at Humanities Lccwre Hall, Univers11y of
North Cnrolinll • Asheville. For info, C31I Dr. Gary
Miller, UNCA. (704) 221-6441.
28
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
"Sunday m the Park," a moveable reast of
emenninmcnl, will be at Lake Tomahawk today at 2
p.m. Performers will include Jerry Read Smith, Lisa
Smilh, and Bonnie Blue's puppcis. For info on this
and other Sunday evcnis, call Quali1y f-orward. (704)
254-1776.
JULY
(INTER)NATIONAL
Day of Action for the 07.one layer. Don a
"radiation suit" and demand a ban on CFC's and
HCFC's NOW! Picket your nearest EPA office.
Local eoniacc John Johnson (615) 26S-67t3
ContincnUII comacc Rhys Roth (206) 943-7259
l
3.9
19-21
WILLIS, VA
"The New Dance." an exploration of
changing sexual identities with Dan Chesbro. Friday •
workshop for men and women IO hcal old wounds,
restore Ille balance of power and shnre our spiritwll
oneness. SaL, Sun.• a l'CIICal for men wilh music,
bodywon:, ceremony. Indian Val~y Rctrcat: RL 2.
Box 58; Willis, VA 24380. (704) 789-4295.
ASHEVILLE, NC
·wise Woman Tradition: Apprentice
W~." will explore herbal knowledge and women's
wisdom. For info, contact WhHewolf; Box 576:
Asheville, NC 28802.
LINVILLE, NC
371h Annual Highland Games and
Galhering or the Sc«lish Clans 01 MacRae Field
beneath Ornndfalher Mo11ntain. Scottish games,
dancing, uilidh, bagpipes, more. For information.
call Orandfalher Mountain Highland Carnes 01 (704)
898-5286 or write to Box 356; Banner Elk, NC
WASHINGTON, DC
First National Carrying Capacity
Issues Conference. Discuss the basic issues
underlying the CWTCnt environmental crisis
with leading thinkers such as Gaylord
Nelson, Herman Daly, Anne Ehrlich, Garrett
Hardin, Hazel Henderson, and others. $100.
Carrying Capacity Network; 1325 G St. NW
(Suite 1003); Washington, DC 20005 (202)
879-3044.
20
SUMMER SOLSTICE
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
Naturali51. nnd Educa1or Week is for
anyone who wanis 10 team more abou1 lhc outdoors
nnd pass lhc knowledge along. Hiking, natural
h1~tory, music, swunming... and Free Tune! Spce111I
gucs1 will be Doug ElboU, storyu:ller/ naturalisL
Prc-rcgisu:r: S200 includes lodging and meals. For
more info about this and other programs, contact
On::11 Smoky Mounlllins lns111111e at Tremont; R1. t,
Box 700; Townsend, TN 37882. (615) 448-6709.
22,27
"'1tt'1afi JournnC. pa9(" 32
18-19
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Great Pandas in Chma and Wildlife in the
Smokies" wilt use field lrips in lhc Park lllld group
discussions to mnlcc ecological, cultural and
conservation comparisons be1wccn Chinn and lhc
Smokies. For info about lh1s nnd olher courses,
con13e1 Smoky Mounlllin Field School: 600 Henley
Su-eel, Suite 105; Knoxville, Tn 37902.
1-800.284-8885.
18-19
SWANNANOA, 1'C
Anciem Sw Walke.rs" class led by Page
BryanL Included will be 1hc m:iking or a stnr bundle,
a Stnr Dance, 111lditional Native American siories nnd
sky watching. Pre-register. $85. For info about lhis
and other programs, eon1.1c1 The Earth Center. See
7/11.
19-25
SWANNANOA, NC
"Old-Time Music nnd Dance Week" of the
Swannnnoa Onlhcring 01 Wnrrcn Wilson College.
Weck-tong instructional workshops on old-time liddle
and guitnr, clogging and conu:i dancing, siorytelling,
and more. Ralph BliZ7..ard and lhc New Solllhem
Ramblers, David Holt, Don Pedi, and others. S220 +
Sl40 meals 311d lodging. Sec 7/12-18.
20
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Planetary Acupuncture: Power
Points and Sacred Sites and the Healing of
the Earth." Breath-taking sUdes and spirirual
insights by anthropologist/photographer
Martin Gray. 7 pm at Laurel Auditorium,
Asheville-Buncombe Technical College. $10.
9-12
28604.
19-21
W-ESSER, 11.C
ACA Open Canoe Nolionnl
Championsb.ips will feature racers from nll over the
U.S. in slnlom and wildwau:r courses on the
Nanlllh3!3 River. For info on these and other
whitewater evcnis. eoniact Nam.ahala Ou1door Cenu:r;
41 Hwy 19 West; Bryson City, NC 28713. (704)
488-2175.
15-17
10
BLACK MOUNTAJN, NC
Robert Hoyt, a radical voice for a New
Soulh, and The Billies, rhythmic harbingers or
post-mdusuial living, play 31 McDibbs; I 19 ChClT)'.
For more info, call (704) 669-2456.
MARSUALL, NC
"Toolmaking for Woodwoiters" is a class
for lhosc intuesled in u-aditional woodwor1cing
lechniques requiring IOOls no longer commercially
available. SIUdcnts will team IO mnke and modify
IOOls, including forge work, uiught by blacksmith
Frank Turley. Pre-register. S390 includes meals and
camping. with donn aceomodalion available. For info
on lhis and olhcr woodworking workshops, conU1c1
Counuy Workshops; 90 Mlll Cree.le Road: Marshall,
NC 28753. (704) 656-2280.
20-24
SWANNANOA, NC
Full Moon Lodge is a monlhly eveni;
begins 111 noon. Fo, info abou1 panic1pa1ing m
the sweat. conU1C1 The Earth Cenier. 302 Old
Fellowship Rood: Swannanoa, NC 2377g_
(704) 298-3935.
11
12-18
SWANNANOA,NC
"Scouish/Bluegrass Week" oflhc
Swannanoa Orubcring 01 Warren Wilson College.
Week-long instructional workshop on Scottish and
bluegrass music styles with Brian McNcill, Z;in
McLocd, the Lynn Moms Band, olhcrs. $220 + $140
meals and lodging. Wnu: The Swannano:i Gntbcring;
WWC: Box 5299: Swannanoa, NC 28778.
14
PULL MOON/UUCK MOON
Summer, t!l92
�.:!0-:!6 WILLIS, VA
Seventh Annual Women's Wellness
Weck. Sacred spat:c and mual, movement.
sound, storytelling. more with Jane
20
Avery-Grubel, Katherine Chantal, Louise
Kessel, Ise Williams. and mhcrs. Conmct
Indian Valley Retreat; Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis,
VA 24380_ (703) 789-4295.
-pericarp
--seedcoal
UUNCO\IBE COU:O,.TY. NC
Organic SmaU Farm Tour w1fl provulc an
orponunity to soc orgnnic producuon technique,,
green m.murcs and pc$! control~ on working farm, m
the al'l!a. Sponsored by Carolina Farm S1t:w:udship
Ass«ia11on. For info, call Allison Arnold :it (704)
255-5522.
FRANKLIN, NC
Cnmping. canoeing. rafting. hiking. first
aid instruction with a small group of bomcscboolcrs
in the Nnntaha13 Mountains wilh the Hcadwntcrs
Homcschoolcrs Outdoor Camp. S275. For more info.
contact He.id waters at (704)369-6491 or write lO 68
Lakey Creek Rd.; Franklin. NC 28734.
23-29
ASU1'; \'ILLE, NC
Broom Making Workshop. Go tic one
on with instructor Cnrt~n Tuule. For info on this
and other craft workshops, contact Folk An Center:
Box' 9545; Asheville, NC 28815. (704) 298-7928.
21-23
CULLOWII EE, NC
•1..nndscaping with Nauve Plants"
conference will offer lcc1urcs Md worbhops by
landscapers and horticulturists. Pre-register: S50
+ meals and lodging; rcgislCt separately for optional
field trips on 7(22. For info, call Sue DcBord at
West.em Carolina University. (704) 227-7397.
23-2S
23-8/2
SEPTEMBER
Fmuru: 2. -Cn•lot1rn dc11tato, Amoricnn ch•olnul: lonld·
ludinol ~ectlnn throu~h " nut, I.H x.
WF,STERN NC
Folkmoo1 USA brings folk dancers and
mus,cinns from Hungary, Jamaica, Belgium. MCllico.
Moldova, Panama. Sardinia. Ponugnl, Taiwan and
Uzbcldst:111 to perform m various locauons in Kauiah.
For schedule and price information, contact Folkmoot
USA; Box 523: Waynesville, NC 28786. (704)
457-2997.
CELO COMMUNITY, NC
RSVP Summer Celebration. Picnics,
tubing, hiking, dancing with Katuah's homegrown
pc:icc networking journal. For trove! directions or
more info, call Joseph Heflin a1 Rural Southern
Voice for Peace. (704) 675-5933.
7-8
ELIZABETHTON, TN
Appalachian Folk Medicine Symposium
will include lcc1urcs held al Sycamore Shoals Staie
Historic Sile in Elizabethton, lllld demonsr.rations and
hikes at Roan Mounlllin Siate Parle. For info. contact
Jeff Wardeska. Roan Mountain Society;
4 Bingham Court; Johnson City. TN 37604.
(615) 929-4453.
FULL MOON/HARVFSf MOON
12-20
AUGUST
12
WESTERN NC
River Week celebrates the French
Broad River in four WNC counties.
Community events will include a canoe trip,
raft race, hotdog kayaking, river safety
course, and riverside concert. To avoid- being
left high and dry, get a schedule from the
French Broad River Foundation. (704)
252-1097.
25-26
13
FULL MOON/
GREEN CORN MOON
The nrc.1'5 oldest
and targc..t natural
foods grocery "
Kalmia Center, Inc.
FRENCH BROAD Fooo Co,op
Sylva, NC
(704) 293-3015
Custom tilling, organic fertilizers, kelp meal,
colloidal phosphate & many more products
and services for abundant gardening and
healthful living.
(JOI)
.........
..
255-7650
your comnru1'1ly
groury,1ou
._.,., ...,.,., ......... .... .. ,,,...
,... ,...,
"'-
811/k Herl>s, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supphwents
W11eat, Salt & Yeast-Fn•e Foods
Dairy S11bstit11ti:s
Hair & Skin Care Products
Beer (.-f Wine Making S11J1plies
200 W. King St, Boone, NC 28607
(7(») 26-1-5220
r;f diu
W
WHOLE FOODS
VITAMINS
ORGANIC PRODUCE
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
Summer, 1992
t
·,.
~
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
Sam!JMush
Herb Nurse.~
WREATHS •POTPOURRJ
• HERBS • TOPIARY
Complete Herb Catalog - $4
Describes more than 800 plm1ts from
Aloe to Yarraw
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
Phone for appointment to visit
(704) 683-2014
�HJGHLANDER CENTER is a communily-bascd
educational orgnnization whose purpose is 10
provide space for people 10 learn from each olher,
and lO develop solutions 10 environmenllll
problems based on lhcir values, experiences, and
aspirations. They also pul oul a quarterly newsletter
called Highlantkr RtportS. For more info contacl
Highlander Center. 1959 Highlnnder Way; New
Mankct, TN 37820 (615) 933-3443.
FAMll.IES LEARNING TOGETHER exisls in
North Carolina as a ne1work or homeschooling
families who offer infonn:n.ion, experience, and
encouragemcnl 10 each olher. &nelilS of FLT
membership include a quarterly newslcllCI, fumily
di.roclory, fnmily galhcrings twice a year, media
resource file, and much more. If you would like 10
learn more about Ibis o~n group please contacl
Tnsh Sc11Cnn or Doug Woodward :ll (704)
369-6491 or write 10 68 Wey Creek Rd.;
Frank Im, NC 28734.
PIEDMONT BIOREGIONAL INSTITUTE· For
those who live m lhe Piedmonl area, there's a
b10reg1onal cffOfl well underway. Join Us! We
would appreciate any donation or time or money 10
help mee1 opera1ing expenses. For a gift or S25.00
or more, we will send )'OU a copy or John Lawson's
journal, A New \foyage to Carolina. Also come
fmd out about the Lnwson ProjccL PBl; 412 W
Rosemary S=t: Chapel Hill, NC 27516;
Uwha.nia Province. (919) 942-2581
THE ALTERNATIVE READING ROOM is an
unconventional library; free and open 10 lhc public.
Our coltecuon intereslS include the environment,
social :ind political issues, the media ond peace. We
have.over 200 mag3.1.ine substripiioos. The book
and video collccuo~ also emphasii.e the
cnvlltlllment and political concems. Books and
videos can be checked OUL A video player i~
available for watching films in the ~ng room.
Localed UJ 2 Wall SL (#114): Asheville, NC
28801 (704) 252-2501. MoQ/Wed/Fri 6-Spm.
Tuesffhur I-Rpm · Sal/Sun 1-6pm
A VIDEO ABOUT LAND TRUSTS has been
produced by lhe umd Trus1 Alliance 10 explain in
lay 1erms whal a land lfUSI is. 2.7 million acres of
land have been saved by non-profit land 1rus1
organi7.ntions in America This video docurnenlS
lb.is movemcm's successes. Cost is 521.00 for
individual and Sl4.50 for LTA members (include
S4.50 for posmgc). Con!3CI: The Land Trust
Alliance: 900 171h SL NW (Suite410);
Washing10n, DC 20006 (202) 785-1410.
~Jli,~ J~~'[.'IOL P0:9.': ~
HAWKWlND EARTH Rl:.NEW AL COOPERATIVE
is a 77 acre wilderness retreat located on Loolcou1
Mounmin Parkway in northern Alabama. Easy
access. safe family camping, year round weclc:end
programs featuring Native American cldc:G and
Eanh teachers from around lhe world. S1r0ng
spiritual foundation wilh Earth Renewal emphasis,
membership discount co-op. There is no chnrge for
Native American ceremonies; reservations required
for all vis11S, please. Childcnre o(lell avnilllble.
Write: P.O. Box 11: Valley Head, AL 35989 (205)
635-6304. For qU3flerly newsleuer and program
updates send S 10.00.
NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONlALS - including
handcrafted Native American ceremonial supplies.
Drums, cuslOm pipes, medicine bags, swee1grass,
sage, fcalhcrs. rawhide raules, IObnccos. pipe ~ .
native flutes, and more! For free calalog send 10:
Box 1062-K; Cherokee, NC 28719.
GOOD EARTH ORGANICS in Asheville has a
network-mruketing plan which can provide a
substantial prut·time income. (Full time in 18-24
months). This is needed in any area, no !raining
required. We provide !raining and all assistance
needed to get you slllrted in your own business.
Contact Good Earth at (704) 252-7169.
UFETIMES .re AGES· a new release from Bob
Avery-Grubel, full of new age vocal music
exploring I.he mystery of life . lyrics included. On
casseue only: send SI0.00 plus Sl.00 for shipping
and handling 10: Bob Avery Grubel; RI. I, Box
735; Floyd. VA 24091.
BEGINNING CHEROKEE LANGUAGE BOOK·
supplemcnuxl wilh 1wo casscues. Sll'CSSCS alphabet
& proper pronunciation. The first textbook written
for use in teaching and learning 1he Cherokee
language. (346 pages). S39.95 plus $5.00
shipping. analog also available wilh mpes, books,
pipes, dance slicks. drums. feathers. furs, buffalo
products and more. Crafl supplies also available
(please specify). Send S2.00 10 the Muskrat Trader,
Box 20033; Roanoke, VA 24018.
COHOUSING COMMUNlTY being formed in lhe
Asheville area. ResideoJS organu.e, plan, and design
a coopc:rntive community where individual homes
cluster around n common house wilh shnred
facilities-· laundry, workshops. children's room,
dining room, etc. Opportunities ror energy
efficient, ecologically sound land use. Inquiries
inviled. Coouict: John Senechal: P.O. Box 1176:
Weaverville, NC 28787 (704) 658-3740.
LAND SURVEYOR seeks land conscrvW1Cy,
community land trust. and other alternative
community and green proJccts. Licensed in LA,
ME, NC, NH, TN. Contact Rantbll Orr. RI . 3,
Boit 345; Sneedville, TN 37869 (615) 2n-0416.
HEADWATERS helps both individu:ils ond families
dcvcl0p their outdoor ~kills wilh an awurcness of
lhc value or our nmural world. We offer a diver.ily
of experiences, rncluding family advcnwrcs,
Homc!ilChoolcrs Outdoor Camp, mstruclion m
kayaking, canoeing, backpacking. bicycle touring,
nmwc ph01ogrophy, and wilderness rafung. For
program mformalion, COlllllCt Trish Severin and
Doug Woodward nt (704) 369~91 or wntc 10 68
Lakey Creek Rd.; Franklin, NC 28734.
ETHER IC ANALYSIS • most complete rcpon on
chak.ras and emouons as Ibey an:: effecung your
being. Include.~ pcrsooalii:cd Gem Elixer 10 balance
Auric Body. Mail five hai~ (plucked from your
head), name, address, and S55.00 10: Dawn: Rt. 3.
Box 9; Llncsvillc, PA 16424.
MAGICAL HERBS • planlS, books, and fTCC
newsletter. Send 10 Wi7.ard's Way; 75 Broadway;
Asheville, NC 28801.
Alternatives ...
The Dir«1 of ln1enrional Communities is lhc prodory
uct or two years of intenS"ive research, and is lhe most
comJ]fdlensive and accura1e dircc10ry available. fl documenlS lhc vision and lhc daily life of more lhan 350
communities in Nonh America, and more lhan 50 on
olher continents. Each community's listing includes
name, address, phone, ond a description of the group.
Extensive cross-rercrencmg and indexing male.es themfonnation easy 10 access for a wide variety or users. Includes maps. over 250 additional Resource listings. and
40 related aruclcs.
328 pages
8-1/2xl I
Perfcclbound
October 1990
ISBN Number:
0-9602714- 1-4
$16.00
Add $2.00 postage
& hnndling for first
book, $.50 for each
additionnl; 40%
discount on orders
of 10 or more.
Alpha Fann. Deadwood. OR
(503) 964-6102
RSVP SUMMER CELEBRATION - July 25-26th at
I.he home of Rum! Southern Voice for Peace in lhe
Cclo Comrnuruty. Picnics, 1ubmg, fishing, hilang,
dancing, fine food and music! Fnmily Cun for
childn:n or all ages. Mark lhe date on your calendar
now! Call Joseph Heflin at RSVP ror information
and schedule or weekend even is (704) 675-5933.
• Webworking costs: There is a
charge of $2.50 (pre-paid) for each
Webworking entry of 50 words or
less. Submit entries for Issue #36 by
August, 15th 1992 to: Rob Messick;
Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC 28645.
(704) 754-6097.
.
Summer, 1992
�BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
t
ISSUE FOUR-SUMMER 1984
Water Orum • Water Quality· Kudzu - Solar Eclipse
- Clearcu1ting - Trout - Going 10 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 - Bioregion:ilism: Past,
Present. and Future - John Wilnoty - Healing
Darkness - Politics or Parucipa1ion
ISSUE SIX· WINTER 1984·85
Winter Solstice Earth Ceremony - Horsepasture
River - Coming or lhe Light - Log Cabin Roots·
Mountain Agriculture: The Right Crop - Willirun
Taylor - The Future or lhe Forest
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRlNG 1985
Susia.inable Economics - Hot Springs - Worker
Ownership - The Great Economy - Self Help Credit
Union • Wild Turkey - Responsible Investing Working m Ille Web of Life
ISSUE EIGHT· SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life- Ko1uah 18.000 Years
Ago - Sacred Sites - f'olk Arts m lhc Schools· Sun
Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems: Hilda Downer •
Cherokee Heritage Center - Who Owns Appalochia?
lSSUE NINE· PALL 1985
The Waldcc Forest - The Trees Speak • Migrating
Forests - Horse Logging - Starting a Tree Crop Urban Trees - Acom Bread • Mylll Time
ISSUE TEN - WlNTER 1985·86
Ka1e Rogers· Circles of S10ne • Internal
Mylhmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial • Poems:
Steve Knauth - Mythic Places · 111e Ukterui's Talc Crystal Magic - "Dreamspcuking"
ISSUE THIRTEEN· FALL 1986
Center For Awakening· Elizabeth Callari - A
Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest Morgan· Ocaling
Creatively with Death· Home Burial Box - The
Wake. The Raven Mocker - Woodslore & Wild·
woods Wisdom· Good Medicine: The Sweat Lodge
ISSUE FOURTEEN· WlNTER 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owle • Boogers and Mummers - All
Species Day - Cabin Fever UniVCISi1y • Homeless
in Katuah - Homemade Hot Waw • S1
ovemaker's
Narmtive - Good Medicine: Jnu:rspecies Communication
The Chalice and the Blade
ISSUE TWENTY-SIX· WINTER, 1989-90
The Ecozoic Era - Kids S:iving Rainforest - Kids
Treccycling Company· Connict Resolution -
,
~UA~OURNAL
35
PO Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Name
Regular Membership........$] 0/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contnbutor .....................$50/yr.
Address
State
City
Summer, 1992
If
ISSUE FIFTEEN· SPRING 1987
Coverlets· Woman Forester - Susie McMahan:
Midwife - Alternative Contraception - Biosexuality •
Biorcgionalism and Women • Good Medicine:
Malrinrchal Cul111re - Ptarl
ISSUE SIXTEEN· SUMMER 1987
Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden - Vision
Qucsl - First Flow - lni1iaLion - Leaming in the
Wilderness - Cherokee Challenge - "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN· WINTER 1987-88
Vemncular Architccture - Dreams in Wood and S10ne
- Mountain Hoene • Earth Energies • Earlll-Shehcred
Livmg • Membrane Houses - Brush Shcltcr.
Poems: October Dusi,; • Good Medicine: "Shell.Cr"
ISSUE NINETEEN - SPRING 1988
Pcrelandra Garden· Spring Tonics· Blueberries·
Wildflower Gardens - Granny I lcrbalist . Flower
Essences - "The Origin of lhe Animals:• Story •
Good Medicine: "Poww-" - Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY· SUMMER 1988
Prc.c;crvc AppamchiAII Wilderness. Highlands of
Roan - Celo Community - L'llld Trust • Arthur
Morgan School - ZOning Issue - "The Ridge· •
Farmers and lhe Farm Bill - Good Medicine: "Land"
• Acid Rain - Duke's Power Play - Cherokee
Microhydro Project
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO· WINTER 1988·89
Global Warming - Fire This Time. Thomas Berry
on "Bioregions" - Earlll Exercise - Kor~ Loy
McWhirtcr. An Abundance or Empuness - LETS·
Chronicles or Floyd. Darry Wood - The Bear Clan
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE· SPRING 1989
Pisgah Village. Planet An. Green City. Poplar
Appeal· "Clear Sky"·" A New Earlll" - Black Swnn
- Wild lovely Days· Reviews: Sacred lond Sacred
Sex. Ice Age - Poem: "Sudden Tendrils"
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR· SUMMER 1989
Deep Listening - Life in A10mic City - Direct
Action! - Tree of Peace - Community Building Peacemakers - Ethnic Survival· Pairing Project·
"Baulesong" - Growing Pc:icc in Cultures - Review:
I
Phone Number
Zip
Enclosed is$._ _ _ _ 10 give
this effort an extra boost
Developing Creative Spirit - Birth Power - Magic of
Puppetry - Home Schooling· Naming Ceremony.
Mother Earth's Classroom - Gardening for Children
ISSUE TWENTY-SEVEN - SPRING. 1990
Transformation. Healing Power - Peace to Their
Ashes - Healing in Kauiah - Poem: "When Left to
Grow" - Poems: Stephen Wing • The Belly • Food
from the Ancient Forest
ISSUE TWENTY-NINE - FALl./WlNTER 1990
From !he Mountains 10 the Sea - Profile of The
L1ule Tennessee River - Headwaters Ecology· "II
All Comes Down Lo Water Quality" • Water Power.
Action for Aquatic Habitats· Dawn Watche:s • Good
Medicine: The Long Humnn Being - The North
Shore Road - Katu:lh Sells Ou1 • WatcrShcd Mop or
Ille KlllWlh Province
ISSUE THIRTY - SPRING 1991
Economy/Ecology - Ways 10 a Rcgencrauve
Economy - "Money is the Lowest Form of Weallll"
• Clarksville Miracle - TI1c Village • Food Movers Lifework - Good Medicine: "Village Economy"·
Shellon Laurel • LETS
ISSUE THIRTY-ONE - SUMMER 1991
Dowsing - Responsibilities of Dowsing· Electrical
Life or the Earth • Kaluah and the Earlll Grid - Call
of 1he Ancient Ones - Good Medicine: "On
Aggression" - Time 10 Take the Time to Take the
Time. Whole Science. Tuning Tn
ISSUE THIRTY-TWO - FALL 1991
Bringing back the Fire - A Bi1 or Mountain Levity Climax Never Came - "Talking Leaves": Sequoyah·
Walking Disianec - Good Mc.dicinc: "Serving lhe
Great Life" · The Granola Journal • Paintings:
"Mountain Stories" - Songs of the Wilderness
ISSUE THIRTY-TiiREE- WINTER 1991-92
Fire's Power - What Is Natural • Fire and Forge The First Fire • Hearth and Fire in Ille Mountains ·
Good Medicine: "The Ancient Red" - Midwinter
Fires: poems by Jeffery Beam - Litmus Lichens
ISSUE TI-URTY-FOUR • SPRlNG 1992
Pnradisc Gardening - CommuniLy Sponsoccd
Agricut111rc • Eluting Close to Home· Native Foods
• Cover Crops· Kou1ah Cultivars • The Web of
Life: A Kaniah Almanx - Good Medicine "Med_icinc
Training" • Poems by Allison Sutherland
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, 26-27, 29-34)
postage paid @ $50.00 = $._ __
Xntuoh )otimitt
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 35, Summer 1992
Description
An account of the resource
The thirty-fifth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on councils and consensus in governance and making decisions for the future. Authors and artists in this issue include: Caroline Estes, Joyce Johnson, Rob Messick, Bear With Runs, Lucinda Flodin, David Wheeler, Stephen Wing, Lee Barnes, Will Ashe Bason, Clear Marks, Karen Fletcher, James Rhea, Rhea Ormond, Ray Barnes, Michael Thompson, Troy Setzler, Taylor Reese, Rebecca Wilson Hicks, Jenny Bitner, and Ahwi Brown. <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.
Consensus by Caroline Estes.......1<br /><br />Decision-Making Process by Joyce Johnson.......4<br /><br />Problems with Consensus by Rob Messick.......5<br /><br />Tribal Council by Bear With Runs........6<br /><br />Elda by Lucinda Flodin.......9<br /><br />The State of Franklin by David Wheeler.......11<br /><br />Where the Trees Outnumber the People by Stephen Wing.......14<br /><br />In Council with All Beings by Lee Barnes.......16<br /><br />Steve Moon: Shell Engravings.......17<br /><br />Good Medicine.......18<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />A Look Back by Will Ashe Bason.......23<br /><br />Are Bioregions Too Big? by Rob Messick.......24<br /><br />Practices for Full Self-Rule by Clear Marks.......25<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Jury Nullification by Karen Fletcher.......28<br /><br />Review: Beyond the Limits by Rob Messick.......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>
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--History
Consensus (Social Sciences)
Tennessee, East--History
Folklore--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cooperation--Virginia--Floyd County--History
Human ecology--Religious aspects
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 Definitions
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Community
Earth Energies
Economic Alternatives
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness