At the height of the Cascade Mountains, at the lip of the North Pacific Rainforest, two rivers rise: the Skagit, which flows on through a dam system to provide water for Seattle and seeps on through […]
Chopaka: the Holy Mountain
Return to the Snake River at the End of Time
High above the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers, in the southeastern reach of my plateau homeland, the Camas Prairie catches the sky. The camas once bloomed in blue fields here. […]
The Secret That Everyone Knows
Imagine taking a drum, lifted into the sky at the heart of a people, a place of woman’s power for 800 generations, where women and girls gather bulbs in the spring to see […]
What Exactly IS Global Warming Anyway
The earth is warming, globally. There are many factors for this warming, including carbon emissions, methane emissions and urbanization (which changes light absorption patterns), among others, likely even including long-term non-human cycles, but […]
Let’s Get Serious About Global Warming
Sure, the story of carbon emissions is the global warming story, but there’s also the story of the warming that comes from urbanization, and there’s the story that comes from the warming […]
Alien Architecture in the Okanagan
Here’s a trail in the grasslands. Note the old house to the right of the trail. Ya, the round brown hillock. You got it!Here’s who lives there. Weaver ants! Thatch, in the earth, […]
Native and Settler Apples on the North West Pacific Shore
Welcome to the fuscas! Malus Fusca: Pacific Crab 110% of life size. Here’s a domestic apple, descended from Caucasian stock, for comparison. Liberty (Macoun X Purdue 54-12; Geneva, New York, 1955) 40% […]
By These Fish We Take Our Measure
From the shore where fresh water mingles with salt …. …and the tide comes in and out and humans erect the stories of themselves they have always lifted into the sky… … […]
Houses Made of Grass
Old Growth Bunchgrass. Nimiipuu long house. The canvas was a modern addition. Traditionally, these communal houses would be made of reeds. Perhaps you can see the model? Look again? The […]
Loons in Trees
Trees in the lake … … and loons in the trees. That’s good. ~ Otter Marsh, Big Bar Lake
Okanagan Okanogan 