1 50 12 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/bd92e4fbc33066336189ab94cb2cebd3.pdf faafa5c5af75e827adb96e85cb965890 PDF Text Text �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records Description An account of the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah Journal Index, 1983-1993 Description An account of the resource This document is a topical index to all 38 issues of <a href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/browse?collection=79" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</a>.   Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians,  later simplified to  Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. 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> Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1990s 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-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/2548901c8e81db0f1dc689fd56cb5e8b.pdf 491885735eda5ab93680a5efa814bbe1 PDF Text Text �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records Description An account of the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, Issue 4, Summer 1984 Description An account of the resource The fourth issue of the Katúah Journal focuses on topics such as water quality, hydropower, forest management, the 1984 Cherokee reunion in Tennessee, and the 1984 solar eclipse. Authors and artists in this issue include: Sam Gray, Robin Williamson, Michael Heron, Thomas J. Harshbarger, Jerry West, Margaret Kerr, Thomas Rain Crowe, Bennie Lee Sinclair, Clyde Hollifield, Paul Gallimore, Richard Hotaling, Avram Friedman, Jody Segal-Friedman, Jim Wayne Miller, Marnie Muller, J. Mackey, Chuck Marsh, and Robert Zahner. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Table Of Contents A list of subunits of the resource. The Waterdrum by Sam Gray.......1 Living Trout: Living Water.......3 Trout An Article by Jerry West.......4 Streamwatch.......6 The Annular Eclipse of the Sun.......8 "Lord of Springs" poetry by Bennie L. Sinclair.......9 Waterpower.......10 Homemade Electricity.......11 Clearcutting Part II by Robert Zahner.......12 Living with Kudzu.......14 "Shapes" by Jim Wayne Miller.......16 Good Medicine: Going to Water.......18 Voice of the Turtle: N.A.B.C. Report.......20 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina Subject The topic of the resource Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern Water quality--Appalachian Region, Southern Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern Small scale hydropower Kudzu Cherokee Indians--History--20th century Solar eclipses--1984 North Carolina, Western Blue Ridge Mountains Appalachian Region, Southern North Carolina--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Appalachian Region, Southern Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. <a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Journals (Periodicals) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1980s Agriculture Alternative Energy Appalachian Mountains Appalachian Studies Bioregional Congress Bioregional Definitions Cherokees Folklore and Ceremony Forest History Forest Issues Forest Practice Geography Good Medicine Katúah Katúah Organization Poems Reading Resources Stories Water Quality https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/c5f08e481824615d18c6f5c6bd8ddef8.pdf ab8164d46d387f7db9c40c17d5a6eb35 PDF Text Text --~ ATUAH $JOO ISSUE XIV WINTER 1986-87 Wintertimef Dreamtime �i, g ci N u G: z <o ... w A. .... - w ~~ igN ~f t:: Ct> • w_, OZA.:;) 11. 0 u z CONTENTS ("') N ,.... co N ~ 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 H ,..l 0 0 i5 a: en Ul ::> ~ u 0 :z: .. tll fZJ ~ ,..l s u ... ("') ,.... co II< i ~ 0 ~ z 0 ; 0:: 8 Cl) ~ 0 0 < �1111111111 ,.~:.u 1 1~tfl .1'!••@.:1!. .!:1~,11•·••:a~:1a1rn 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 Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _ Complete Set (2· J3) @ $18.00 = $ _ _ For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 252-9167 Regular Membership........$10/yr. Sponsor.......................$20/yr. Contributor...................$50/yr. Name Address Enclosed is$ I() give this ejf an exrra boost on City State Zip I can be a local contact person for my area Area Code Phone Number ... T-Shirts: specify quantity color: tan S_ _ M_ _ L_ _ XL_ _ @ $9.50 each............$_ _ TOTAL PRICE= postage paid KAWAH - page 31 $_ _ Winter 1986-87 � 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, Issue 14, Winter 1986-1987 Description An account of the resource The fourteenth issue of the Katúah Journal 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 A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-1987 Table Of Contents A list of subunits of the resource. Lloyd Carl Owle.......1 Boogers 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 Katúah.......14 Homemade Hot Water.......18 A Stovemaker's Narrative.......19 Natural World News.......20 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. 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 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 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> 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) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1980s 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-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e7f01928de6c753c09827e4dfd0aace1.pdf ef599a4389ecc1498b620fa99229c8b9 PDF Text Text --~ $JOO ATUAH ISSUE XVI SUMMER1987 Coming of Age �('"I N [" 00 N El ~ ~ ll.. INTERVIEW: HELEN WAITE. .............................................................3 POEM : "VISIONS IN A GARDEN"....................................................5 THE VISION QlJEST............................................................................6 FIRST FLOW .........................................................................................8 THOUGHTS ON INITIATION.............................................................9 ARCHETYPES OF MALE INITIATION.............................................9 LEARNING IN THE WILDERNESS................................................. 12 CHEROKEE CHALLENGE ..................................................................15 NATURAL WORLD NEWS................................................................16 VIEW FROM THE CORNERS: "VALUING TREf;:S"......................19 TURTLE ISLAND TALKING ............................................................20 YOUNG PEOPLE'S PAGE..................................................................25 ~ ~ . ... -. = ~ ~ :; ·. . • z .s, Ul (.) ~ ~ • ~ ti !; ~ ~~ g ..J St ~ a~ ~ so ~ ~ ~ 0 ~ E-1 CJ) ~ 0 ~ i::t:; z 0 H E-1 u ~ ~ u 0 CJ) CJ) ~ 0 ~ �---~ ATUAH ISSUE XVI SUMMER 1987 f'om time immemorial, aJ the onset of sexual maturity the young peopk would leave the tribe and go out, each one alone, into the world to meet the elements, be tested a11d taught, and find out who they really were. They would make a bond, often expressed in the form of an animal spirit ally, with their homeland that would be a foundation for their adulthood and a continuing source of strength. Thereafter, for all their lives, they would know with a deep and certain awareness that the waves from their every gesture rippled to the farthest reaches of creation and that the power that flowed through them was the force of the all of life. These expeditions into the wild te"ain of the soul were ritualized and became an important part of community life. The community was revitalized and the social bonds were strengthened as the old ones offered their wisdom to the young, and the young ones dedicated their exuberant life energy to the continuance of the tribe and the life ofthe world. In our times, the continuity has been broken. The land is still there • all knowledge lies just outside our doorway, just off the side of the road - and life continues to pulse in the bodies of the young ones coming of age. But that crucial connection in which these were joined is largely missing. Today we must drill into our intelkctual minds the message that was aJ one time a matter of cellular certainty: KATIJAH - page l that we are part of a wider community of life, and we need to take responsibility for our participation in the Earth family. But that urge to seek ourselves in the wild and to touch the wild in ourselves is instinctive and deep, and there are yet those willing to bring the young ones to the threshold of the world, to the edge of their own being, and say, "You must take the next step alone, but I will be here. I will wait for you, and I will be watching." Even without the benefit of the old traditions, these leaders of the coming generation are woking for new forms and new guidance to re-establish the old continuity and reunite the two circles, the circle of the world and the cyc/,e of our lives, and make them once more single and whole. In this issue of KatUah. some of these teachers and guides speak to us ofhow they are bringing young p eople out from civilization to meet the world and some of the lessons that are there lo be learned. In speaking of these things, they offer to us the same challenge that each young person meets when they stand on the brink of adulthood: to open to the world, to kt iJflow through the body into the soul, to feel its power, and by following that power back to its source, to once again come upon the essential nature of our existence and touch our deepest roots. Summer 1987 �H EDITORIAL STAFF nus ISSUE: Snow Bear Scott Bird Julie Gaunt Judith Hallock Rob Messick Mamie Muller Michael Red Fox Chip Smith Brad Stanback Manha Tree David Wheeler EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE: Sylvia Fox Than.le you again, Kathleen! Special lhanks 10 Bob Wiesclman EDITORIAL OFFICE nus ISSUE: Asheville, NC PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co. Sylva, NC WRITE US AT: Katiiab Box638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748 TELEPHONE: (704) 683-1414 COVER: "One must become chaos, ro give binh ro a dancing star....." (Picasso) - by Manha Tree Diversity is an important element of biorcgional ecology, both natural and social. In line with this principle, lWWib cries IO serve as a forum for discussion ol rcgiooal issues. Signed articles express ooly the opinioo or the authors and are n<ll oecessarily the opinions of the KaWab ediLOrS or Stlff. The Internal Revenue Service has declared Klu.Wih a non-profit organization under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. A II coniributions IO KA1UWi are deductible from personal income tax. CORRECTION We apologize to Milo Guthrie and to our readers for neglecting to put his name as author of the excellent article ''The Promise of Biosexuality" on page 12 of KruYfil! #15. 'Ult{VOC~TWN lHE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREGION AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS Statement of Purpose Here in the sowhem-most heanland ofthe Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on our continent, Tunle Island, a small bw growing group has begun to talce on a sense of responsibility for the implications of that geographical and cultural heritage. Tlris sense of responsibility centers on the concept of living within the natural scale and balance ofuniversal systems and laws. We begin by invoking the Cherokee name "KatfLah" as the old/new name for this area of the mountains and for its journal as well. The editorial priorities for us are to collect and disseminate information and energy which pertains specifically to this area, and to foster the awareness that the land is a living being deserving of our love and respect. Living in this manner is the only way to ensure the sustainability of our biosphere and a lasting place for ourselves in itS continuing evolutionary process. We seem ro have reached thefulcrwnpoinrof a "do or dieH sirnarion in terms ofa continued qU111iry standard of life on this planet. lt is the aim ofthis journal ro do itS part in the re-inhabitation and re-culturation ofthe Kamah province of the Somhern Appalachians. This province is indicated by its natural boundaries: the Roanoke River Valley to tlte north, the foothills ofthe piedmont area to the east,· Yona Mottntain and the Georgia hills to the sourh; and the Tennessee River Valley 10 the west. Humbly, as self-appointed stewards with sacred instructions as "new natives" to protect and preserve its sacredness, we advocate a centered approach to the concept of decentralization and hope to become a support system for those accepting the challenge of sustainability and the creation of harmony and balance in a total sense, here in this plaa. We are nourished by OUT Mother the Eanhfrom whom all life springs. We must understand OUT dependence, and protect her with our love, respect, and ceremonies. The natural law says that the Eanh belongs ro our children seven generations in the future, and we are the caretakers wJw must understand, respect, and protect E Te No Ha for all life. The faces ofthe future generations are looking up to us from the Eanh, and we step with great care not to disturb OUT grandchildren. from a mes.rage to the Unittd Nations GtMral Assemblyfrom the Navajo-Hopi Traditional Circle ofElders, August, 1982 KATUAH - page 2 We welcome all correspondence, criticism, pertinent inforrnaJion, articles, ariwork, etc. with hopes that Kmflah will grow to serve the best interestS of this region and all its living, breathing family members. - The Editors With the next issue, the K.WAh journal will be changing from a tabloid format to a magazine format. This will mean better quality paper and more durability, as welJ as a two-color cover. We're looking forward to the shift and we hope you will be pleased with it. Coincidentally, this upcoming issue, Autumn '87, will also mark the fourth anniversary since KfilYAh began publishing. Summer 1987 �The Eagle has always represented the soaring spirit..... Of all the birds who fly between Heaven and Earth, the Eagle ascends the highest..... But even the Eagle, born to fly, hatches from the egg into a nest ..... Now, on a bright day in the early summer of his life, the young eaglet crouches on the edge of the nest..... Until this moment, the woven circle of sticks has been the bounds of his world..... Within the nest.food came; all the young bird had to do was wait. Within the nest, it was familiar; if the young bird stayed, mother would always return. Within the nest, it was always safe; all the young bird had to do was not look outside. Now.for the eaglet, hesitating there, the nest is a center point in a much greater circle that extends to the horizon in every direction unknown, dangerous, exciting, and free. The young eagle spreads his wings and leaps into the boundless sky..... To the American Camp Association, Helen Waite is the director of the Eagle's Nest Camp near Brevard, NC, an accredited summer camp for boys and girls that is now entering its sixtieth year ofoperation and its third generation ofcampers. But during the summer months, to the young people attending Eagle's Nest Camp, Helen Waite is "Bending GrassH, medicine woman of the camp tri~. a leader and a ~cher by virtue of the love and respect offered to her. Helen Waite works confuJe111ly and capably on both levels of her life, giving the young people who attend Eagle's Nest an excellenl place in which to explore, grow, and change, and then e111ering with them into that special place and rime to help guide them through their changes. Helen: One of the important clements we utilize in camp is "myth-time". This is an underlying aspect of every camp activity. I see a summer camp experience as being about relationships: relationships between the camp members, relationships between ourselves and the Earth, relationships between our split inner selves, etc. In order to learn from anything or anybody, one must first acknowledge one's inter-relationship with that other. Once this connection is recognized. the relationship can be seen as the bonded space between the two. The speed of learning is the quality of lhat space. Camp is the connection field, and we put our attention into creating quality bonding. "Myth-time" is what makes this possible. It is "the time before time", the beginning of lhings. By being aware of the "myth-time" that always lies beneath the surface of our camp activities and our relationships. we create a circle, a tribal circle, within which our relauonships grow - honest, strong, and deep. We humans arc like gods and goddesses in that we can create prodigious amounts of constructive effort or prodigious amounts of chaos. I think we have to return to "myth-time" to relearn lhe true nature of things and to re-connect the two halves of our soul, before we can undertake "initiation", which is talcing a big step "forward" into the next stage of life. ~: How docs this sense of "myth-time" make itself felt in the course of camp life? Helen: "Myth-time" appears in some situations more clearly than others. All the campers do routine ch.ores as part of the camp flow. They learn to take care of themselves by making their beds and taking care of their cabin areas, but they also take part in camp maintainence, doing dishes, making bread, carrying out the compost, tending the gardens. These are tasks that simply need to be done, but they also build relationships. The campers arc learning to serve and to take care of others, and although they may not realize it, they are going back to beginnings. By baking bread they learn the basic nature of bread - the primary relationships that exist before the plastic wrap goes on. The gardens teach them that the Earth is a patient giver. By caring for the animals, the campers come to know them and learn the relationships between all species. By doing subsistence work, the kids learn basic things about the world with the right side of their minds, even as they are consciously acquiring basic skills with the left side of their minds. The presence of "myth-time" is more easily seen when we do story-dramas in the evenings. We start from old Indian tales, creation stories usually, but as the kids go from there and create their own stories, these dramas begin to present in mythic terms what is happening in the camp at the moment. The kids write their own scripts and make their own costumes. We encourage them to use natural music - drums, flutes, and sometimes guitar - to emphasize the basic relationship with the Earth. Katiiah: One of the main driving forces of the adolescent transformation is the awakening sexual energy. Do you deal with that at the camp? Helen: Very much so. First of all, groups are co-ed. We want to have the boys and girls interacting together. We want to encourage strong, natural relationships. In the greater culture young people usually follow roles that on the one hand deviously try to ensnare someone of the opposite sex, and on the other band domincerin&lv try to ensnare someone of the opposite sex. At camp and on field trips the kids are involved in real situations that often demand courage and physical stamina. When everybody is pitching in on a difficult task or talking openly together in a group circle, the sham tends to fall away, and they deal with each other more as individuals and allow each person to make their own, unique contributions. - continued on page 4 KATUAH - page 3 Summer 1987 �• COlllim.aed fiom NC 3 Relationships arise that arc based on friendliness and arc deep and enduring. We see big changes. The girls in particular become more assertive. Often in a group there is one girl, whom I call the "goddess" or the "queen of beans", who takes an active role in the other girls' lives and relationships.The "queen" takes confessions from the other girls - I'm amazed sometimes about how frank they are! - and negotiates relationships. Sometimes she gives her blessing; other times it's "Off with his head!" We talk about siruations like this in the girls' circle, and I ask them, "Do you like having her decide on your life and decide whom you should like?" Usually they say "No", but if they say "Yes", then it's out in the open, and we set up basic ground rules about bow to carry it on. Another approach is to act out the situation. I sometimes say, "Sarah, you be Betty. Jane, you be Sue. Now what would you say, if she came up and said this: ..... " It's often very educational for the kids to see how the others perceive siruations they're all involved in. There are also times when a boy will do something like go into a girl's trunk and snatch out her underwear, because be thinks that that is a powerful act. But it's actually an act of domination. The girl has bad something that's close to her, something very private and personal, exposed against her will. In a siruation like that, I might take the ones involved apart from the group and talk with them about the different levels and the different meanings of the word "rape", trying to be very frank and open so it can be seen as something manageable and not a dark sin someone will be condemned for. I might express it in terms of old stories of gods abducting goddesses, or I might suggest they act out parts of Troilius and Cressida or another story like that something so that the basic relationships are very clear to them. These arc valuable experiences .....if we confront them. So we always try to confront them when they occur. We spend a remarkable amount of time doing that. Of course we do horseback riding, swimming, and all the regular camp things, but we spend a great deal of ti.me in learning siruations like these. But to be learning experiences, there bas to always be someone there who is aware and understands the implications of the siruation in order to take advantage of it and bring it to a satisfactory resolution. In the evenings when we have our shows or entertainment, the kids will let it all out, and we'll see them really strut their stuff. That's great - that's up front and real, and if a camper does have some attra.ction as an actor/actress or a story-teller, that's quite valid. That's their real self coming out KllWlb: "Initiation" is used to mean peak moments that mark stages in a process of transformation that is acrually gradual and happening continuously. But at certain key points one can stop the action and say, "A change is happening here," by recognizing and celebrating the occasion with a ceremony or ritual. Arc there cenain ways these moments are recogniz.ed in camp life? Helen: The first major initiation is for a camper to leave home. This is "moving into the tribal circle". Our society is so fragmented that this sometimes is a major growth-change for a child and often the most important single event of the camp experience. KATUAH - page4 Every camper receives a camp name. I work with an Indian lore group, which is a "tribe within the tribe". They receive their names in a little ceremony which is held at a small waterfall. Each camper has already chosen their name, and they crawl through the waterfall into a small crevice behind, getting completely wet in the process. They are then called back out by their new name. I start with the campers to whom this is a challenge of medium proportions. This docs not make it seem like a light thing of no consequence, but at the same time it encourages those who are more afraid. Because the situation is a ceremonial one, the lcids all go through with it, even though it may be a big step for some. There is something about ceremony and ritual that brings out the deepest and truest aspects of people. The sense of "myth-time" gives meaning to the situation. There is also an element of sacrifice in the ceremony. That is one reason it is hard for some of the kids to go under the waterfall. Beyond just thinking about getting their clothes wet. there is a part of them that realizes that they have to give something up, that "something" being their old identity, to receive a new name and a new identity. For the older kids, we have a program called Hanre, which is roughly analagous to the "walkabout" or other ancient puberty rites in which the young people went out to seek power and to learn about themselves in the context of the natural elements. But while young people in ancient times who had grown up in the circle of the tribe went off on their own as individuals, our campers go off in a group of kids their own age. Hante challenges their physical abilities, which gives them a feeling of accomplishment; it gets them outside in close touch with nature; and, not least imponantly, it tires them out. They do activities like rock-climbing, whitewater kayaking, making a mountains-to-the-sea bicycle trek, and hiking. The "Odyessy Trek" is an 11-day, 100-mile walk along the Appalachian Trail. Being able to take care of yourself completely is an important part of that stage of life, and the Hante group provides for itself totally: they live in their own area, and they cook all their own meals. That means if they come back late from somewhere, and they decide they want supper, they have to decide to prepare it, too. They also prepare and pack alJ their own food for the "Odyssey" hike. We have two food dryers, which the campers built for themselves, and they dry food and make "pemmican" (which is actually my grandmother's fruitcake recipe with a lot more fruit and nuts added) to take with them on the trail. While they're hiking, each camper carries their own food and equipment for the whole 11 days in a 45 pound pack on their back. The group cooks supper together over a communal fire, but each camper is responsible for their other two meals each day. They have to ration their food for themselves. If they cat it all up before the bike is over, then it's gone. The mountains and the woods have an effect on the kids.The "Odyessy" is a journey back to our first home, the wild places. These mountains are very special. They are powerful teachers, and they will work on anyone who will make the effon to get off into the backcountry. Body movement itself is important Jusr the rhythm of feet on the trail can set up a meditative state that changes the kids' consciousness. On the trail we always have a sunset ceremony each day. We gather and pass a "talking feather" so that each camper - continued on page 28 Summer 1987 �Visions in a Garden A light green voice lihs my eyes from the leaves: the Goddess of Green Things is approaching me. Between okra and squash and tomatoes she comes smiling at the com rows through the green song she hums. She·s the mistress of mustard greens an oracle of onions proctor of pumpkins serenader of squash. She·s the governess of garlic enchanter of eggplants leading the lettuce in a growing symphony. With no written rhythms of the cycles and seasons she sings to tempt the turnips and beguile the green beans. With leafy green lyrics highlighting sunshine and rain she conducts the orchestra of my garden and fertilizes my brain. Tat& Andres �by Snow Bear Conirary to what others may say, the dominant culture has evolved cenain "rites of passage" for young people. Drug, alcohol, or toba.cco abuse; early sexual relations; and the thrill of fast and reckless driving are ways that our youth sometimes signify to themselves and to their parents that they are emerging into adulthood. These things arc glorified by the television, movies, and advertising that control the way children of the dominant culture think. I was initiated by my father into the world of men when I recieved a gun from him at the aic of twelve. This is still an imponant moment for many young men in this area. It is a statement of trust for a father to place a gun, and therefore the power of life or death, into his son's hands. It is a major responsibility to accept a gun, for if it is used carelessly, a human life could be ta.lccn. But hunting is also an excuse for the father and son to go out i.nto the woods together. It was a very meaningful time to me. When one is hunting, one is very quiet and sensitive to the presence of other living things. Of course there is the adrenalin rush of squeezing the ttiggcr and ending a life, but, for me, a large pan of the initiation consisted of being alone with my father, silent in the forest Today, I have come to feel that receiving a gun is not a good token of maturity. Our forests arc small and ovcrhuntcd. Where I live we can nor afford to continue killing the few remaining animals. I strongly believe that today our young people need a siitnificant emcrience i.n1Q. life; we should not place such an emphasis on taking life. Before, when hunting was a way of life among the native people, a successful hunt was a matter of human survival; hunters took the lives of their fellow creatures with a spirit of thankfulness based on revcrancc. Today the gun removes us from panicipation in the life and death of the animals we hunt. When someone shoots down a buck from 100 yards away, they do not have to know the animal as well as if they had to get within bowshot. They arc removed from the pain and terror in the animal's eyes at the time of death. I put down the gun at 14 years of age when I discovered I would rather sec squirrels jumping through the treetops, and the deer grazing peacefully under massive oaks. HELPING TROUBLED TEENS MAKE TIIE PASSAGE Part of my family's work is to reach out with understanding to youth at risk and adjudicated youth. In our Second Home Program we take young people into our family (my wife Khalisa, Jody (14), Leilana (6), Johanna (3), who is handicapped). For two months to a year, they arc part of our life and work. We tutor them in all their school subjects; if they are high school graduates, we do remedial work and indepcndant academic study. They learn agricultural and building skills, receive daily counsel, and extend their physical and emotional limits through wilderness challenge activities - backpacking, KATUAH - page 6 visioN QU£ST being self-centered to thinking of things ouLSide themselves and providing for needs other than their own. Another challenge is to see that whatever task they are given is done well. The kids that come to us often do the minimum expected of them at home or in school and make linle effon at personal achievement. In school, when a student "fails", it is assumed that they cannot do any better. Usually they do not~ to do better. In our one-on-one tutoring, we carefully go over every mistake made, and the work is redone correctly. The result of this has been that in a four hour learning day, kids who were labeled '1earning disabled" passed the achievement level of their peers going to school seven hours a day. We are also, literally, a "second family" to the kids. We live in a family context, and we spend most of our time at home. We grow food and make meals together, clean house and cut firewood together, and serve the people who come to the school group programs, seminars, and summer camp. Teenagers from the city are used to having school, the movies and hangouts be the setting for their lives. In our experience, the kids with the least family life are the most messed up. We give them membership in a family that is physically together. There is a feeling of having an extended family built on a foundation of understanding and acceptance, trust and love. It is something solid to move out into the world from, and a place to return to when things get hard TirE VISION QUEST whitewater canoeing, horseback riding, and primitive camping skills. Most of these young people have come from the urban culture and have been damaged by negative "rites of passage". We try to replace those negative rites with positive qualities that will serve them wherever they choose to live. The first order of business is to introduce them to the real world. Not the "real world" as they thought of it • which was largely concrete and fast action, but the living world that sustains us. Connectedness with the earth is healing to human beings, no matter where they are from or bow they grew up. When a person is surrounded by the beauty of living things and the songs of wind and water, the spirit begins to heal. no matter how wounded it is. I try to bring knowledge of the plants and animals to these young people, because it is easier to feel close to familiar things. Along with this, we present them with personal challenges: responsibilities successfully fulfilled, communicating honestly and openly, showing energy and initiative in all their work. We extend our trust to them unless they have betrayed it by being dishonest with us. Responsibilities successfully fulfilled usually lead to a feeling of confidence and strength. As teenagers become proficient at handling responsibility, we tum over to them more responsibility for their own lives, and with that comes more freedom, which is what they keenly desire. A good beginning is taking care of the horses. Keeping them watered, fed and exercised takes a young person beyond As a single rite of passage, the Vision Quest is the form I most strongly relate to, simply because of what it did for me and the influence it had on my life. My understanding of the Vision Quest is that it is a time of solitude in the wilderness, of fasting and prayer, of self examination; a time of discovering one's beginning gifts (strengths and virtues), and limitations, one's medicine name, and how to be of service to others. Two of the teenagers with us in the Second Home Program chose to go on Vision Quests. One boy tried to do a four-day quest fasting alone in the woods, using only water and sage herb. When he began, be thought it would be an easy thing to accomplish, but he returned after a day and a half in the woods. The fasting had been bard, but the "aloneness" was what had driven him back. He said he had been scared of what I would say, but I told him, "What I think matters very little. The important thing is not to be ashamed. The Vision Quest is a teacher. You thought it would be easy to be with yourself alone, and you found that it was not so. You learned something about yourself, and therefore the experience was not a failure." The other person to attempt the Vision Quest was a woman 20 years old. She had stayed with us when sh.e was 15, and had been visiting us regularly ever since, so she was truly "family" to us. She completed her vision quest, in the course of it facing up to some difficult things about herself, and came through in a very strong way. Nowadays few people pass directly Summer 1987 �into adulthood from pubeny. I know that was true for myself. My body was mature quite awhile before I was, and I am still not finished! I have had six people ask me to help with their Vision QuesL Most of them were in their twenties or thinies before they began even asking the 4uestions that led them to make the passage. In the old days when a girl reached the age of 13 or 14 it was time to begin raising a family, and she had to be ready for it. Now there are people in their fonies looking for answers and feeling that they have missed something. Whenever these people ask me, I tell them that they have not missed out, that this change does not come at a set time for everyone, and that it is never LOO late to go through the transition. Those people who come to me asking my help with their Vision Quest, come because they k:now me, and they know the effect my Vision Quest had on my life. The first thing I tell them is that there are other people who can help them better than I could. Then, if they persist, I warn them that, because we are not the Old People, what worked for them in one way may not work for us in the same way. I warn them not to expect dramatic, thunderous visions. Then, if they still want the experience, I make sure that they themselves choose the conditions of their quest. There are two main possibilities. One is a quest for a personal vision to gain better self-understanding and a purpose in life and to find a beginning place on the world medicine wheel. This is best helped by fasting, personal prayer, song, and selfcxamination. The other possibility is to fast for the benefit of all living beings. In this fast I encourage people to make a medicine wheel and walk, first LO the east where they make a song or prayer, then back to the center, and then to the south, where they make a song or prayer, continuing in this way around the medicine wheel for the whole day, or as long as their strength holds out. Several people have mixed the two ways, doing the first for two days. and then the second for two days more. PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY We prepare for the Vision Quest first by exploring the person's purpose in choosing to do the quest, agreeing to the conditions of it (how long, in what place) and passing on any necessary instructions, such as how to build a medicine wheel or how to bless the Vision Quest site. Then we go to the sweat lodge together with a few carefully chosen friends to help us. In the lodge we sing and pray to strengthen and purify ourselves for the healing work ahead. After the sweat lodge, we fill the prayer pipe in a sacred manner. If the person has their own, we fill it, seal it, and that person holds that pipe every waking moment of their quest. My prayer pipe is filled and scaled, and every sunset during the Vision Quest I hold it to make prayer and song to send my power to them. Also at sunset I leave water and sage for them at a place near the site of their Vision Quest At the end of their time I meet them, carrying my prayer pipe. We do not say anything until we have smoked in silence, then the person relates what has happened during the time of the Vision Quest. Of panicular importance to me is to KA TUAH - page 7 know what living things visited them in the course of their fast and what they thought and felt in the presence of these beings. Even the smallest messengers of the spirit arc imponant., and often they have very strong powers. I tell people, "Until you can receive a fly or an ant as one of your relations, you won't be able to receive the eagle or bear." One woman was visited by a spider that dangled just in front of her eyes. She watched it for hours as it went about its work. They became sisters and she learned much. drumming of the woodpecker echoing always there with the trees - yakking laughing i don't know where a feeling ifollow i am the forest around me the activity i am the creek the mus the violets and the bees i am the branches spreading into the sky the sun in your eyes which vanishes suddenly the clouds birds come around a rabbit Only after we talk of these things do the people tell me about their dreams. Even on a Vision Quest, most people's dreams that I have heard have been quite ordinary. I am not a spiritual dream interpreter, but I do give my thoughts and observations as a fellow human being. Dreams arc valuable because they arc often the battleground where peop.lc contend with the fears, doubts, and things they do not like about themselves. In consenting to aid people in their Vision Quests, I am not trying to set myself up as a teacher. I do this with people whom I feel arc my. brothers or sisters. I do this first as a friend. Today many people cannot find elders who know the way of the Vision Quest to aid them. Lacking thi.s , I consider that for them to have this experience with the help of a friend is better than not to have it at all. Everyone I know who has taken a Vision Quest has returned from it strcnghthcned, humbled, and deeply moved. On the Vision Quest we come to know ourselves and our world in a way words cannot express. they don't mind the rain somethingfallsfrom a tree and lands with a thud stay here long enough and you will know there are no secrets i can't describe whaJ i understand the entire meaning seems to be almost here coming from everywhere a/la/once i can't even see guided by the wind whispering in my ear - Patrick Clark Snow Bear has bun co·dirtctor of Farm Camp with hU wife Kh.alisafor niM years. lie is a naturalist, htrbologist. and / follower tf native Earth ways. Pep~rland Medicine s.h.i~ld by Snow Beu Photo by Rob Mcuick Summer 1987 �.. an experience that was hidden for them ...and where they can pass onto her, my daughter, in an atmosphere of empowerment, something that they will in a sense be giving to themselves that they have learned in their own time. I love any and all ceremonies. Do you have any specifics as to how or where you'd li ke to shar e this ceremony with your daughter? W h o would you invite? Where will you hold your ceremony ? Bonnie: When the event occurs, my daughter has requested that she would like to go out with the family for a special dinner at her favorite restaurant. We have quite a few younger daughtefll also and I think it would be beneficial to them co be a part of this celebration and to understand that this is a "big" day --their sister's special day. My daughter and I would then create within the following few days a ceremony for her and some women friends, mutual friends, and we would come together in our teepee. How do you feel about this? Hannah: A little strange... Bonnie: What is strange? Do you think this ceremony will help you to feel less strange? Hannah: Probably Do you feel this way because you know tha t other girls your age do not have this type olf ceremony? first flow We are here today 10 ta.l k about something very special Hannah: Yes Do you want to gather together with other girls your age? 10 a Hannah: No, grownups, but not girls in my class. Bonnie: Would you like to share with us an impression that you woman --her initiation into womanhood. Two friends are here got from the Amazon lndians? with me .. .Bonnie Freed, mother and her daughter Hannah, 12 years old. We've come here to discuss the celebration for this daughter's soon-to-come puberty. Julie Gaunt , interviewing for .Katu.ah Hannah: Yes, I watched this movie called Emerald Forest about this boy who got lost in the Amazon and these Indians kidnapped him and he grew up with them in their tribe and when he got old enough, they put ants all over him and this made him change into a man. Bonnie: That was the symbol of his passing into adulthood. What is it that has inspired you to want to celebr ate your stepdaughter's coming into womanhood? Would you like to go through that? Bonnie: I read a wonderful article in Mothering magazine about a community in California that celebrates the coming of age of the young men and women in their community, boys when they tum 13 and girls when they experience their first menses. It just really inspired me because I feel that whenever we put out or put in front of us an intention, it draws to itself 'like energy'. ln other words, if we choose to celebrate a certain time or coming of age and we do it with an energy, we draw in real positive energy and we give it emphasis. ln a loving and powerful way, my daughter will gain some of that strength in her experience. I believe that it is important, in whatever way we can, to acknowledge and reconnect ourselves to the rhythms of our bodies and also our Earth. These acknowledgements are powerful for us as human beings. There is a rhythm to our lives, our bodies, and to our planet . As a culture we have become very disconnected from these rhythms. So it is very helpful for us to create our own ceremonies from our own instinctive beingness and to empower each other to enact them. I felt very attracted to this particular ceremony as it is presenting itself in my life--having a daughter who is coming along very much into puberty. I feel this could be beneficial to all of us. I want to say though that we do not have to follow any certain ceremony. although we can draw from other ceremonies and learn from them. We should go ahead and create out of our hearts, our love, and our own instincts, ceremonies for passages so that all of us feel connected to our deep inner rhythms. I can re-affirm my own feminine wisdom, my own ageless womanhood, and bring my daughter this celebration that will create a groove..or a flow .. where her life can have a direction... where other women will also come together and affirm for themselves an experience that was difficult for them, or KATUAH - page 8 Hannah: No. (laughter) Bonnie: l think it's important to acknowledge that it is a bodily symbol of passage into adulthood. Hannah: It's scarey! Bonnie: Why do you feel it's scarey? Hannah: I don't know. Bonnie: Do you feel it will be less scarey if you share with other women about how they felt and what becoming a woman meant to them? Hannah: Yes. What 's often scarey is the unknown. We a r e talking abou t somethin g that you h ave not yet e:rcperi enced. This is something you've never been through, so it's na tural for you to be scar ed. Bonnie: So many adolescents don't have an acknowledgement of their passage and so they use other ways to try to establish it, like rebellion and pushing the parents away. Nothing they do seems right to them and they drive too fast, do drugs or whatever they can. If we as parents take that opportunity to acknowledge this passage, perhaps it will free them from these confusing times where they are trying to prove they are adults--if we allow them to become adults. Resources: "Self.(jenerated Ceremonies", Foster, S. & Little, M. in Molherlng. Winter 1986. The article is excerpted from an upcoming book by Foster & Little entitled Crossjng !be Threshold; Contrnrnvrarv 7 Rites of Passage and lnjtjation at SjgniCicant Stages oC !.jCe. Also Earth Wisdom, Dolores LaChapelle. Summer 1987 �THOUGHTS ON INITIATION In connection with the topic of initiations, I have been having thoughts, particularly in relation to young people coming of age, and, I agree, it's vital work. In the past year I've spent a lot of time growing toward an understanding of what's lacking for teenage kids these days and how to provide opportunities for them to find and follow their own visions in a positive cultural context. Today's adolescents are the Pluto conjunct Uranus generation born into the nuclear/mass media age of insanity and deep global transformation.• They need to develop the inner resources necessary to cope with the unbelievable stress built into our social environment. They don't need more information. They don't need dogma in any form. They need iniuanon mto their own private, collective mysteries. There's a fierceness of spirit in kids these days that demands to be grounded in timeless reality to enable them to find strength, compassion, and clarity within, while chaos and change rage unchecked about them. What is initiation? ft is a self- or group-induced experience that frees one to encoun1er one's highest self, one's deepest truth, and one's most expansive vision of reality. What are the functions of such an experience? To provide opportunities for people to find and trLtSt their own myths to live by and to aid them in all life transitions by leading them 10 their own connection with rhe Great Mystery. . l~IJI And ritual? Ufe is a ritual, wherein we learn to bring feelings and ideas into physical reality and to enjoy the process. Along the way, we are all constantly being initiatied into greater awareness and responsibilicy by every instant's dreams. Occasionally we take the time to recognize the miracle of the moment and to honor it: ritual. We need more of those moments of recognition and remembering. We need to do it for ourselves and for each other, and a group ricual provides a structure and context in which it can happen. It is exciting and comforting to be with others who are also daring to get back to their essential selves. It confirms the power, beauty, and reality of the experience we are all sharing. Someday I wish to do initiation rituals with young adolescents. I would ger them our into nature, let them go wild, and then bring all that energy back to Earth in grounded group mediui.tions. I would teach them how to focus all that fine cellular energy in healing ways by channeling it through their hearts. I would give them time, space, and encouragement to find their own deep connections with both the Eanh and the Stars. We would explore and share our discoveries through artwork, poetry, music, and dance. The initiation would be into our infinitely creative selves and into the healing power of love. Rituals would grow out of each person's dreams and awakenings, deaths and creations. The ri1uals would be each person's narratives of reality as experienced both inwardly and outwardly and would serve as bridges between the two. Thank you for existing Maggie Schneider ARCHETYPES OF MALE INITIATION by Rob Messick The first initiation of a human being into the world occurs at binh. At this sacred time an infant instinctively needs to bond with parents. As with other primates, this bond is made through touch and is crucial to the healthy and associative development of an individual throughout his or her life. Due to the large skull and brain size of our species, we are born somewhat prematurely, so that we can pass through the pelvis. The infant is helpless for many months after birth and must have support from parents or other adults for the survival not only of the body, but also for the transmission of human culture through language and other customs. Likewise in human evolution, puberty has also become premacure to the begetting of an adult into responsible life in a community. We can reproduce before our highly structured societies can accommodate the effect of this urge. Near puberty we need a bond slightly different from that required at childbirth. We seek relationships with other adults in the community and with peers of both the SlL!lC and the opposite sex. There are three basic themes in initiation rites of a youth into adulthood: sepfJation from parents and siblings; transformation of roles and attitudes; and integration into the village or community through apprenticeship. The main purpose of initiation practices for young men is to start them on paths into the community, away from the influence of their immediate families, yet still being in proximity to them. Many cultures of the past, and some today, recognize this coming of age time as basic to the health and longevity of a people. The industrial era, or "civilii.ation" in general, has created an environment where these essential bonds are easily jeopardized. It is deprivation at 1hese important junctures that can lead to isolation or disinterest in the cohesive contacts human beings need. Adolescence is basically a result of our descent into "civilization" and the hyper-industrialiw:I era which has created a kind of extended dependency. This period starts after puberty and can last into a young person's twenties. Through schools, jails, factories, and military posts we have institutionalized the spontaneity out of a boy's rite of passage until it hardly exists any longer. Instead of a sudden initiation near puberty, the process is dragged out over many years, which sets up obstacles that can block an individual's ability to integrate into a meaningful role within a community. It is doubtful that we will ever be able to give up adolescence and fully initiate young men into adult roles a1 puberty. There is much to be absorbed of what humans have learned about Universe and our place in it. Yet the initiation process must be started at or near the time of puberty t0 avoid confusion. Some cultural event needs to happen, so that a boy knows that be is accepted and that the other members of the - continued on page 10 KATUAH - page 9 Summer 1987 �"Initiation is a critical time in which the direction is set for the next generation of humanity." • :..:- .J.' J1.t;.' ... ~ - -- ---- ._..!_;i.}..:... lllusintion from a painting by Greg Smith ARCHETYPES OF MALE INITIATION corthJed flan precedlrG page community are ready for him to change. It can be done through tests or trials of strength or endurance, or through vision quests in times of fasting and searching. Initiation is a critical time in which the direction is set for the next generation of humanity. Adults in a village or community need to give great attention to young people going through these changes because the time of cultural bonding can pass swiftly, and for a youth the complexity of finding worth in the world is already frustrating. In these times of great emotional intensity, neglect is the root of misery for individuals and societies. The effects may be delayed for a time, but the response, assistance or abuse, that is offered to a human being in time of need shows the true health or illness of a society. If we mishandle these responsibilities, we cause suffering. For the initiation process to fully flower, a boy must find a role model or set of role models with which he can readily identify. The archetypes, or pre-existing forms., that manifest in these role models are basically those of the Warrior and the Husbandman. Throughout all human systems these complementary aspects exist An individual becomes a miniature of the whole human experience, re.fleeting into and being reflected by all that is good and all that is bad in it. Each person has the capacity to give life and to take life as well. We live out the full circle of our decision to die with peace or with killing. Either path requires great courage. The Warrior is partially represented in the range of de.~b1.lctive role models offered by the present dominant western culture. Militarism is the primary culprit in this psychological tragedy, not only in terms of wars fought among nations, but also in communities, the family, and especially within a man's soul. Militarism seeks to break the spirit and split the heart and mind of an individual and then call these powers back in the allegiance of a state or cause. This is done by manipulation through fear and rupturing or perverting lhe ties with family, peers, and community. There is a false discipline in this alienation from deep human bonds, which ultimately denies a sustentative initiation into life. Militarism also perpetuates the myth that the only evil enemy is somewhere outside the self, neglecting the necessary struggle to conquer the enemy within. A real initiation should clearly teach that the potential for doing wrong exists in everyone, but that the power of choice exists also. It is only through self-examination that the faults of our species can be clearly identified and transformed. KATUAH- page 10 The personae that arise from a long-standing tradition of militarism become deceptively enticing, and appear to offer roles that are important and economically worthwhile to those on the verge of initiation. These destructive male role models ultimately weaken and often tear apart the social fabric of human beings and the sacred web of life on this planet. There is a need for strong, alternative male example in this society. The archetype of Husbandman offers a vital option. The practice of Husbandry is defined as male caretaking, not only in helping to raise a family but also in tenns of growing food, caring for other species, and being a contributing member in a community. This involves a deep and spontaneous motion away from the trodden paths of destructive male energies toward those that plant good seed and provide a place for them to grow. Also "Sensitivity and the ability to love and be compassionate are essential to human survival, as are the qualities of being determined and forceful." involved in this creative process is the wisdom that recognizes the generations to come. Planting for the future joins the human path with other life in such a way that humans become a kind of permaculture, adapting and innovating within a bioregion as an interconnected yet distinct structure. The Husbandman attempts to integrate and heal within the human community. This does not mean that men should become effeminate and passive. It means that the strength of male energy can be expressed through beneficial roles within a community. It is important for a male to be in balance with the female part of his soul. Sensitivity and the ability to love and be compassionate are essential to human survival, as are the qualities of being determined and forceful The love within the heart of our species can flourish when we respect our connectedness. Initiation is a call to face the Wanior and the Husbandman. This initiation rite should exist to allow a boy to listen to his inner voice, with guidance and wisdom from elders, to determine what path he must take. Initiation for a male is successful when it evokes conscience even in the midst of fear; when it shows that both archetypes exist within him. Summer 1987 �Katuah Spring Gathering KATIJAH - page 11 Summer 1987 '( .,'.Lq • 111\U l IVI �ADVENTURES IN THE REAL WORLD: LEARNING IN THE WILDERNESS SLICKROCK EXPEDmONS and so perhaps our adolescent rites of passage should be less specific and less strucrured than in a deeply-rooted society. On the trips I lead, our goal is to learn about ourselves. I keep the groups small. There are five boys or three father-and-son pairs in each trip. The fathers and sons take a siit-day trip, and the boys take an eight-day trip, of which five are spent hiking and three in canoes. I supply the people taking part with everything except their clothes. The Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness Area is an ideal place for our exploration because it is high, rugged country and contains one of the largest remaining stands of old-growth forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. This is a portion of the Appalachians that remains unaltered, and with Lake Cheoah to the north for canoeing, I feel that this area offers a deep experience of the basic elements of the natural world. On the trips I emphasize survival skills blended with experiences of naturt!. I want the kids to learn how to make a camp, how to cook, and how to clean the site so that there is no trace of camp remaining. At the same time, I want them to learn to identify plants and animals and to know which plants are useful to the camper. complete the trip. After two or three days it is as easy to continue up the mountain as it is to go down, and each boy wants to keep up with the others. When we SW1 out, the boys have a hard time concentrating on any one thing. They are noisy, and their minds are going in 20 different directions at once. But when they get out in the deep woods among the mountains, there is a sobering effect. When we are camping out on Stratton Bald, for instance, which is a 5,000 foot high grassy bald, there are miles of unbroken forest all around us, and it gives a sense of the enduring strength of these Southern Appalachian Mountains. It is humbling to be up there on your own resources, so far away that the nearest town is just a small glow on the horizon and overhead is all of the immense, dark sky. lt makes one feel not quite so gigantic in the world, but more a part of the world. I would also like the boys to gain a sense of the world in and of itself. I hope that more than once on every trip each boy has an opportunity to forget aU about himself in contemplating some aspec1 of nature, whether it is a butterfly, a tiny flower, or something as awesome and frightening as being on top of a mountain and seeing a thunderstorm come in at eye level. by Bun Kornegay Burr Kornegay is an experienced wilderness guide, having led trips since 1971 when he started taking people into the Adirondack Mountains of New York Stace. Now he takes groups of boys 11-16 years ofage and f ather-a11d-son groups to explore rile Slickrock Wilderness Area in Graham County, NC. We visited and talked wirh Bun, and he told us how he brings boys to and through a particular rite of passage. This initiation helps the young adolescents to discover and work with a new, mature perspective. There is nolhing that one could call an "ideal initiation" as such. An initiation implies a very definite idea of the status that a person is being initiated into. There are some very elaborate and enduring initiation rites among tribal groups. The ceremony for boys who are passing into manhood in the Masai tribe of Kenya is an elaborate ritual that lasts several days. The Masai have, in the course of a long, unbroken tradition, come to a very clear idea of what a man is, and their initiation prepares the boys for that. Perhaps for them that is an ideal initiation, because it makes everything very definite. The boys know exactly what they are heading for, and are led there by a carefully defined procedure. The way our society is, I do not believe we can have that sort of thing. And perhaps it is not so desireable anymore to know so clearly what a man or a woman is, KATUAH- page 12 "Any kind of rite of passage slwuld be a challenge to the young people involved. It should test them to what they believe is their utmost to utilize both their mental and physical endurance and to draw out of them qualities that they did not know they had." At the end of the trip the boys will know a way of camping that works. The next time they go out, they can add their own ideas and do things their own way, but they always have the basic knowledge that they can live well in lhe wild. Any kind of rite of passage should be a challenge to the young people involved. It should test them to what they believe is their utmost to utilize both their mental and physical endurance and to draw out of them qualities that they did not know they had. While hiking, I have had boys say that they were going to literally die right at that moment at that very spot on the trail, but I have never yet had a boy who did not Summer 1987 �"It is humbling to be up there on your own resources, so far away that the nearest town is just a small glow on the horizon and overhead is all of the immense, dark sky. It makes one feel not quite so gigantic in the world, but more a part of the world." I want them to sense the age of these mountains. That is another aspect of learning their place in this world: to remember how long these ridges have been here. Another thing I hope to bring to the boys is some degree of organization and self-discipline. This is an important aspect of attaining adulthood, because another name for a teenage boy is "disorganization". Camping is literally an exercise in getting one's life together for a time. Trips demand a lot of attention to details, or else a boy might find himself unable to locate that poncho or that flashlight at a time when he needs it. When we are on the expeditions we do everything as a group. The boys do not carry their own rations or cook their own meals.We rotate duties, and the meals are packed so that in one package is everything for a complete meal for the whole group. I run a tight ship when we are in the woods. I do not allow the boys to run off this way and that, because that is taking a chance that they would get bun or get lost. The boys soon realize that they are going to have to work and play together to be both safe and comfortable in the woods. When I am leading these groups of boys I have to remember that I'm offering myself as an example to them. When I was young and in Scouts, I remember how I looked up to my Scout leaders. It's a natural thing. This is an imponant influence for a young person's behavior. Out in the woods I try to set an example of an "outdoorsman" in the fullest and best sense of the word: one who is not only a skilled camper, but someone who sees nature as more than just something to exploit KATUAH - page 13 I have to be a teacher, a guide, and a counselor, but sometimes I like to just be one of the boys. I like to swim and play "king of the mountain". I like to have fun too. J have had boys who were considered "problem cases". One boy who came the first summer had been diagnosed as hyperactive and was on two or three different types of medications. He had been in a lot of trouble at school, and the psychiatrist who was working with him advised me to not accept him on the ttip. He was an active fellow. It was hard to wear him out, but there was not a mean bone in his body. That first year, I saw he took his medicine every day, but he was still as hyperactive as any boy could be. It appeared that the medicine was having no effect at all He came out again the next summer, bringing all his medicines with him, but I did not remind him about it, and he did not take his medicine the whofo time we were out. He was so much better! Calmer, mvre responsible, much more pleasant to be around. I told his grandfather about this when he came to pick the boy up. The boy's mother later told me on the telephone that he bad not been on any medication at all since that trip. That was a kind of initiation weaning from Ritalin! Many of today's outdoor recreation activities reflect a desire to conquer or dominate the world, a trait that runs deep within our culture. The world does naturally present us with obstacles, and surmounting these obstacles as they confront us is very imponant to our development. But on my expeditions I downplay external thrills. There is a lot of challenge and adventure in living outside and exploring rugged, wild country. If someone goes out with the purpose of dominating or overcoming nature, they are using it to build up their own ego. There is a big difference between that and going out to humbly learn about oneself. For mQre information on Slickrock Expeditions, wntact: Burt Kornegay P.O. Box 1129 Cullowhee, NC 28723 -recorded by Stephaen De/or, Didier Cuzange, and David Whttkr Summer 1987 �more ADVENTURES IN THE REAL WORLD WOLFCREEK Wll.DERNESS SCHOOL by Curry Morris Wolfcreek Wilderness School in Blairsville, GA has been offering programs for teenagers for 15 years. The school recognizes the natural environment as the ideal locale for self-realization and offers a variety of outdoor courses to promote self-reliance and personal growth. The school also has mountain heritage programs that teach aspects of the land-based cultures of the Cherokee Indians and the early white setllers. "I'd like to leave you with a little thought I've been thinking about ..... it's about finding the "rhythm of life" .... .'The Rhythm oflife" is like truly good music: if you have to ask what it is, you'll never know. You and the people at Wolfcreek showed me how to find my "rhythm of life". Thank you." - C (Sclwol course) One of the school's most specialized offerings is a 26-day outdoor exploration program for teenage boys in trouble with the law. For many of the boys the program is a last alternative to long jail sentences. The program is not specifically therapeutic or rehabilitory, but is based on the premise that challenging experiences in contact with the world of nature can put a boy in touch with deeper and truer inner resources untapped in life on the urban streets, that can serve as the foundation for a new awareness of self and can lead to a new relationship to society. During the summer one- to three-week courses are open to individual youths of all ages. Wolfcreek Wilderness School Rt. I, Box II90 Blairsville, GA 30512 KATUAH- page 14 OU1WARDBOUND by Doug Silsbee Outward Bound was conceived when a British shipping magnate observed that, in several instances when his ships were torpedoed in the North Sea, it was often the older, more seasoned sailors who survived in the lifeboats, while younger, physically stronger seamen perished. Outward Bound founder Kurt Hahn began the program as an experimental approach to train younger seamen - not in survival skills per se, but in fully utilizing their own tenacity and inner resources in difficult circumstances. The program was continued in British private schools as a training course for adolescents. Hahn's vision was to strengthen society by improving the individual's self-concept, sense of responsibility to others, and awareness of Lhe potential to achieve seemingly impossible goals. There are now 30 Outward Bound schools in the world, one of which is located on Table Rock Mountain, NC. The North Carolina Outward Bound School runs wilderness-based courses in a number of places in Katiiah, from Linville Gorge and Grandfather Mountain to Standing Indian and the Chatooga River. The goal of the school is to create powerful emotional and spiritual experiences for the 2,000 students that take part each year. The programs offered by the organization are personal growth and values oriented, and wilderness is an important component of the training experience. Participants, many of whom have never slept outside in their iives, spend from 4 to 23 days outside with a group of 10 to 12 other students and two instructors. Courses take place in the wilderness because of its inherent spiritual value, and because it is a new and unfamiliar environment for most of the participants, and it is a much less complex emotional environment than civilized society in which to learn about oneself. fears: of falling, of not looking good in front of their peers, of being alone, of failing. By dealing with the external challenge of the activities, and the internal challenge of their own fears and perceived limitations, participants come to better know themselves. Other activities focus much more on the group, and impel group members to come to terms with conflict, to look hard at their own decision-making processes, and to find new and more effective ways to work together towards a common goal Outward Bound experiences are different from most initiation rites in that they do not occur at a set time in a person's life, and are (usually) not proscribed by someone else as a prerequisite for coming of age. There are special c-0urses offered for educators, adult women, people over age 55, corporate executives, alcoholics, and cancer patients, but a majority of Outward Bound participants are adolescents, and for these the course provides a powerful and meaningful "initiation rite" into adulthood. NC OurwardBound School 121 N. Sterling St. Morganton, NC 28679 ,y/1 p Course activities are designed to place people under a manageable, yet significant, degree of stress. Rock-climbing, a specially designed ropes course, whitewater canoeing, hiking. solitary time in the forest, and runs on mountain roads and trails are new and challenging experiences for most of the participants. Many of the activities require inctividuals to confront their own Summer 1987 �adventure, education about the tribe's cultural heritage, and community service. In 1979 Gil Jackson, head of the Family Services office on the Cherokee Indian Reservation, and Earl Davis, a former Peace Corps worker, began the Cherokee Challenge program in response to problems they saw among the youth of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees. "Most of the kids felt poorly about themselves," said Davis, "and that feeling arose specifically because they didn't feel good about being Indians. Any time they saw Indians portrayed, it was in a negative way - the image they had was that Indians were at best poor and slovenly and at worst public drunks. "Cherokee Challenge was begun initially because the kids needed to know that there was a lot in their Indian heritage that they could be proud of. We want the young people to feel good ~of who they are, not in~ of who they arc. "That was in 1979. Now the organization's concept has broadened somewhat, because we have found that when the kids think better of themselves, they do better in school, they're more fun to be around, and, in general, they're bener, healthier people." The Challenge groups from each township on the reservation and in Robbinsville are organhed into gru ups called"clans", after the fu~cient Cherokee clan system. Participants arc 11-14 years of age and mostly boys. One clan has a mixed membership of boys and girls. The others meet separately. Cherokee Challenge activities stress KATIJAH - page 15 All aspects of the Challenge program are group oriented, and the canoeing, rock-climbing, hiking, and caving eitpeditions, said Davis, "help the group members to learn about themselves and about each other. The trips get the kids outdoors, where they learn new skills and learn how to get along with others." On one caving expedition the group went to cast Tennessee near Craighead Caverns (now the tourist attraction Lost Sea Caverns), which archeological excavations have revealed was formerly used for council meetings or ceremonies by the native inhabitants. 'The group went into large caves near there," Davis related, "so they could experience the wonder of the caves and feel the annospherc their ancestors felt 200 years ago when they gathered there for an initiation or a meeting." Service work - picking up trash, splitting wood for the elderly, visiting at the old people's home, to name a few of the activities - helps the children in getting along with the community and points them toward worthwhile ways to fit in. "It shows them that they, too, have a role in the life of the community," said Davis. As a part of reclaiming pride in their native heritage, the children have been doing sweat lodge ceremonies under the tutelage of Nora Montelongo and her son, who is a pipe-carrier for the Cherokee nation. The sweat lodge is a sacred rite of bodily and spiritual purification that in fonncr times was practiced before any important mission was undertaken. In the lodge the children learn chants and songs in the Cherokee language, which otherwise is not widely spoken among the young people on the reservation. In speaking of the ceremony, Davis said that the young people are expected to approach it seriously and that "they are taught that the sweat lodge is a valid way to communicate with God, the Great Spirit, the Life Force, or whatever we want to call that part of ourselves." The Cherokee language has proven a stumbling block, however, in the cuhural preservation project "Fading Voices", which is an interview program fun ded by a foundation grant in which young people from Cherokee Challenge were to go among elders of the tribe to record their stories, reminiscences, and details of the way tribal life used to be. "We haven't been able to get as much participation by the kids as we had at first hoped," explained Davis, "because the old people are more comfortable speaking in Cherokee. It is their native tongue, and they can express themselves beuer in their native language. Since so few of the kids know Cherokee, many times they got left out of the conversation. "Since we have been under some pressure to produce materials in order to comply with the conditions of the grant, much of the work has necessarily been taken over by adults familiar with the language. However, I hope that later on we can turn the kids loose with tape recorders to get interviews in the way they want to. This oral history program is extremely valuable - any time one of those old people passes away, something irreplaceable is lost - but it would also be valuable for the kids to have the experience of communicating with the ciders, even if we don't get a foot of tape from it." "We want the young people to feel good because of who they are, not in spite of who they are." Material from the "Fading Voices" interviews will be printed in a special issue of the Journal of Cherokee Studies published by the Cherokee Historical Museum. Working on a shoestring budget and relying largely on volunteer help from the community, Cherokee Challenge has made strong beginnings in the formidable job of picking up the broken threads of Cherokee tribal tradition and reweaving them into a meaningful community life for the youth of the tribe today. / Cherokee Challenge P.O. Box507 Cherokee,NC 28719 Cheroue Challenge is a Mn·fJl'ofil organization. Summer 1987 �NATURAL WORLD NEWS THE BUTTERNUT IS DYING by Clyde Osborne The white walnut, another of America's great nut and timber trees, seems headed for extinction, says Bob Anderson, a plant pathologist at the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station near Asheville, NC. Better known as the butternut tree, this walnut species has been hit by a fungus disease known as the butternut canker. "And no one is doing.anything about it," Anderson said as he pointed out tree after tree in the Bent Creek drainage basin being devastated by the disease. "There's not a single scientist in the nation trying to find a solution to this problem. A pathologist at the University of Wisconsin worked on it for 10 years, but he retired three years ago, and no one has taken up his work," Anderson said. The disease was first found in 1967 and has spread rapidly. In 1966 a survey in North Carolina and Virginia found 7 .5 million butternut trees in the two states. A new survey which has just been finished found that there are only 2.5 million left, and almost all of them are diseased. Cankers spread around branches and trunks, eventually killing the infected trees, although each canker lasts for only one year and then heals over. Eventually the trees are girdled by canker after canker in the bark and the cambium "right down to the wood", according to Anderson. The chestnut tree, decimated by a blight disease, has continued to live because it continually sprouts from the roots left in the soil. But the butternut doesn't send up sprouts from the roots. And sadder yet is the fact that the nuts of diseased butternut trees are not viable. The disease puts the trees under extreme stress. The nuts produced are useless for propagation. "So unless some answers are found by someone, it looks like the tree is a goner," said Anderson. A pathologist in Virginia told Anderson that he had found a few butternuts which seem to have some resistance to the disease. If these resistant trees could be propagated, he said, they might be used to restock forests where butternuts have been eliminated or are being killed. The butternut tree is basically a northeastern American tree. Like many other northeastern species, it grows in the Appalachian mountains, but is uncommon in other parts of North Carolina. KATUAH-page 16 Butternut has been used for furniture, cabinets, fine woodwork, and panelling. Its wood is lighter than that of black walnut. But it has been an economically valuable tree just like its cousin over the years, although it has never been as prevalent . The black walnut seems to be resistant to the butternut canker, Anderson said, "although you can infect the tree manually by intrOducing the fungus into it" And occasionally, black walnut saplings, if under stress, will show signs of the disease. Still the disease does not seem to be a threat to the black walnut. Reprinted from the Asheville Ci1ill.l1 by permission. THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT Nawral World News Seivice The American Chestnut was the: most generous tree in the forest., giving nutritious nuts for humans, livestock, and wildlife. The wood was lightweight, rot resistant, and had a beautiful grain. The bark was an excellent source of tannin. The native chestnuts grew 30% faster than oaks, and even surpassed the rate of growth of Tulip Poplar. A mature American Chestnut tree could be over 100 feet tall and have a diameter of 10 feet or more. And furthermore, the chestnut composed 25% of the Appalachian forest trees, growing everywhere from deep rich coves to dry acid ridges. The American Chestnut is now extinct within its native range, except for the shrubby sprouts that grow from the old root systems. It is the victim of a fungus disease called "the blight" that was accidentally imported on some Chinese Chestnut trees around the turn of the century. The blight kills the trees by forming a canker just underneath the bark, which spreads until it eventually girdles the tree. The Cninese trees evolved with the blight for thousands of years, and are resistant to it, but the American Chestnut had no resistance. The root systems of the trees survive and continue to send up new sprouts, but the blight usually kills these before they grow large enough to produce nuts. Because of the American Chestnut's generosity and dominance of the eastern forests, its demise is considered the greatest biological disaster in recorded history. There have been many disappointing attempts to bring the trees back, but it seems that the time has finally come for a breakthrough in blight-resistant American Chestnut trees. The Chinese Chestnut is blight-resistant and produces large nuts, but it is a cultivated orchard tree and could not survive or reproduce in a wild forest ecosystem. The American Chestnut Foundation is undertaking a "backcross" breeding program that will result in a tree with the blight resistance of the Chinese Chestnut and the forest-type timber growth of the American Chestnut. The initial step in the backcross breeding program is to cross a Chinese with an American chestnut. This bas been done before, but the offspring usually resemble the Chinese parent in their growth pattern and only about half of them are able to resist the blighL With backcross breeding, the blight-resistant half of the Chinese X American offspring are crossed with a pure American Chestnut. Approximately half of the hybrid offspring of this cross are blight-resistant, but since they are 3/4 American Chestnut, they will exhibit more of a forest-type growth pattern. Working with only the blight-resistant half of each generation, the backcross step is repeated to bring in more and more of the American Chestnut growth pattern while retaining the blight resistance acquired from the original cross with the Chinese parent. If the American Chestnut Foundation can get the financial support it needs to continue the backcross program for 20 years, we should have a blight resistant chestnut tree that is almost identical to the native American Chestnut. (Then we'll have to get out our hoedads and stan planting chestnut trees on those Farce Service clearcuts.) There is yet another ray of hope for the American Chestnut. The blight, a fungus disease, has become infected with a virus disease in some areas of the country. The infected blight is known as hypovirulent, and even the non-resistant chestnut trees are usually able to survive infestation by bypovirulent blight. If the hypovirulent blight spreads and replaces the killing blight, then the old American Chestnut root sprouts that are already here in the forest will be able to grow to Summer 1987 �maturity. The drawback to hypovirulence is that there appear to be many different strains of the blight fungus, and each strain of the blight can only be affected by a compatible strain of hypovirulent blight The American Chesmut Foundation is sponsoring research on hypovirulence aimed at isolating hypovirulent strains that can spread naturally through the forests. The American Cllestnut Foundation publishes an annual joumal and accepts tax-deductible contributions. Contact: Dr. David French, Treasurer The American Chestnut Foundation c/o Dept of Plant Palhology University of MinllCSOla St. Paul, MN 55108 For more information on chestnuts, subscribe to: Cheslllutworks RL I, Box 341 Alachua, FL 32615 ($10 per yenr - 2 issues) NATIONAL FOREST PLAN: CONTROVERSY CONTINUES TIIB GYPSY MOTii COMETH Nalllral World News Service The "public input" meetings were well attended, yet an eerie silence persisted throughout. Most had already heard of the millions of acres defoliated in the northeastern states. Few came to debate or question the proposed treatments. AU came to find out just what was to take place. At stake was the fate of 11,000 acres of private and federal lands in Clay County, NC. The Fires Creek watershed bad become the site of a "spot infestation" of the feared gypsy moth and had received a personalized environmental impact statement and a custom-made "eradication program". The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar L., was imponed into this country in 1869 in an attempt to create a silk-producing moth. The rest is history. What the future bolds for us here in Southern Appalachia may come as a surprise, for the gypsy has arrived. The gypsy moth is more than an out-of-state transplant. It is a symbol of our mobile society. It is highly adaptable and has no natural predators here. The larvae spin silken threads and are carried by the four winds. The adult moth lays eggs on any object near at banct, thus hitching a ride to faraway and exotic places. Natunl World News Service The 15-year management plan for the Pisgah and Nantabala National Forests was made official in April and immediately elicited another storm of protest from both local and national environmental watchdog groups. At issue were three points insened into the plan in Washington after a compromise draft plan was submitted from the US Forest Service regional office. The first point said that if timber demand increases, the maximum acreage liable for cutting could be raised from 586,000 to 846,420 acres. The new plan also called for a study to assess that demand, although the last study was completed only two years ago. The new plan also called into question the status of three areas declared as wilderness in the draft plan. A brief statement insened into the final document said that wilderness designation for Craggy Mountain, Lost Cove (Avery Co.), and Harper Creek (Avery-Caldwell Co's.) would be subject to review and "possible modification by the Chief of the Forest Service, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the President." The Western North Carolina Alliance was already intending to appeal the plan because of the high level of clearcutting called for in the Pisgah and Nantahala forests, but the Wilderness Society, a national environmental group, said through spokesman Ron Tipton that the insertion of the three points into the plan would almost cenainly result in an appeal from that group as well. Tipton indicated that other environmental groups might join in the action. Its food source is primarily the foliage of oak trees, but it also feeds on hickory, poplar, birch, and cherry leaves, while a menu of 500 species of shrubs and vines is also available. Fruit trees, some nursery stock, and evergreens such as spruces, helmlock, and pines are selected as well by older larvae. The primary goal. of the larvae is to eat, and after the first molnng this becomes a twenty-four-hour-a-day obsession. The effects of defoliation are varied and depend on several factors. Dry sites with shallow soils seem to be more susceptible than protected sites where moisture and organic matter are adequate. Yet, slow-growing trees may survive repeated defoliation better than fast-growing timber. Healthy trees can withstand one or two consecutive defoliations while stressed trees and evergreens succomb after one attack. Even the healthiest tree will exhibit dieback and a 30 to 50% reduction in diametric growth. Defoliation weakens trees and valuable energy reserves are used to refoliate. Weakened trees are attacked by other opponunistic pests and usually die. Defoliated areas are subject to increased levels of runoff and sedimentation, increased temperature, and ultra-violet light levels at the forest floor and waterways. Larvae droppings are a stream pollutant Mast crops would be drastically reduced. The overall change in plant and animal species composition would be cataclysmic. It was obvious that some action had to be take.n. The Southern Appalachian region is considered to be more favorable than any other area previously occupied by the gypsy. Conditions in Clay County we~ shown to be more than adequate to sustatn very high population levels. AdditionallY, clearcutting to favor oaks, the current management technique iJn the National Forest lands, encourages infestation and timber loss while mixed hardwood stands are less susceptible. Unless remedial action against the moth was taken, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APffiS) of the US Department of Agriculture, acting on a congressional mandate, could quarantine all timber products, nursery stock, horticultural and agricultural crops, and regulate the movement of mobile homes, RV's, and any object that could harbor eggs and increase the spread of the insect The result of this quarantine would be socio-economic chaos in the region. Because of the large acreage of the Fires Creek tract, aerial spraying was accepted at the public meeting as the o.nlY viable method of attack. Several chenucal and biological alternatives were proposed to curb the infestation. Each came with its own dangers. The dangers of introducing synthetic, chemical insecticides are widely known, thus the treatment was not seriously considered. The idea of biological control was the preferred alternative. It was agreed that two foliar applications of a liquid formulation of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bl) and Dimilin (Diflubenzmon) would be sprayed 7 to 10 days apart at the onslaught of larval feeding. Bt would be used along waterwars and Dimilin throughout the steep mountatn terrain. Bt is a naturally-occurring bacteria which when eaten by the larvae, induces digestive paralysis and death by starvation within three days. It has a relatively small target group of insect species. EPA bas given it a "full registration" and has not assigned precautionary restrications for use over water. The Bt spores are degraded by sunlight in 3 to 12 days bot may persist in the soil for several months before passing into the food chain. It is "essentially nontoxic" to mammals, birds, fish and other animals. Treated areas may be re-entered once the spray has dried. . Dimilin is a harsher but more effecnve treatment. It belongs to a group of insecticides known as growth regulators. It targets insects having exoskeletons and kills by interfering with the molting stage of their life cycle. EPA considers Dimilin to be "moderately to extremely" toxic to insects and aquatic invertebrates and "slightly" toxic to mammals, fish and birds. lt has a soil half life of 1 to 3 years and "will not accumulate in organisms as it degrades and passes through the food chain." Research on the use of parasites and sterile male moths as natural controls has shown promise, but the methods are still oriented towards small "hot spots." It was the opinion of the expens that this treatment would control the gypsy moth with minimal environmental impact. A - continued on page 18 KATUAH - page 17 Summer 1987 �--------- ,;::II_.·. . w--- _i_ _ trca - cn - co-n- u _ i_ _l_ 8 4 8 5 - - -tsim lar _ -tm -t, - d -c-ted n 9_ --- . ---""""" .;~,~~~=·--------C- &_ - - E- -- -A - P L_RAT- S ARE over thousands of acres along the Tennessee-North Carolina line (cast of Johnson City and west of Boone), provided hopeful results. In early May spraying on Fires Creek was completed. Monitoring of the area will continue for several years. The local feeling is "what's done is done and it had better work." But the gypsy moth is advancing south at the rate of 6 miles per year. Rcgardlcssofthcdcgrccofcontrol achieved in watersheds such as Fires Creek, the gypsy moth will enter Katuah in approximately 20 years and within 35 years will become well established throughout the bioregional province. WASTE TRANSPORTATION Natural World Newi The Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility that the US Department of Energy wants to locate in Oak Ridge, TN may rum into a semi-permanent repository for all of the nation's high-level nuclear waste. Faced by widespread citizen resistance, DOE hopes for completing a nuclear waste repository by their 1996 contract deadline have faded into the distance. The MRS is currently the favored alternative as a storage place for the spent nuclear fuel rods that will be passed over to the government in that year. If the MRS were to be built, 13,400 shipment-miles of radioactive nuclear waste in railcars and 6,200 shipment-miles in trucks would pass through the Katiiah mountain area annually, according to figures released by the Southern States Energy Board. Without an MRS facility, 3,700-5,400 shipment-miles of wastes would pass through the mountains annually during the next few years. Responding to this threat, citizens from 13 states met in Maryville, TN in response to a call by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League to devise a strategy to counter the proposed MRS and the problem of nuclear waste transponation. The group coalesced into a new organization, the Southeastern Environmental Network and agreed to work on nuclear and hazardous waste transponation problems and to encourage alternative fuels and energy sources. The new organization represents a consensus that local people need to take the initiative in determining new directions for energy policy. The feeling was that if the people did not do it for them.selves, nobody would, and that local groups needed to make their needs clearly felt in the legislative chambers and, in effect, "lead the leaders" to better solutions to questions of energy generation and waste disposal. KATUAH- page 18 .[:\_f;~~; .·· ~:f-'"''".. . . ; ·'1:· .-:).:• ·~ ..,, • ".:!.: :.-. ,• .·!~·::··;-. ~, · ti· ·:.,.,.~.~ ;;~t:~Y · STATE ENDANGERED LIST ·z~;!:: .#~. NC Wildlife Resources Commission r"i ,.. !~J/_. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is seeking legislation that would create an official state list of animals that arc endangered, threatened, or of special concern in that state. A bill now under consideration by the NC General Assembly would allow the Commission's Nongame Advisory Committee to name members to a council of wildlife scientists. Those experts would develop and use standard criteria for identifying and placing animals and birds in the three categories. Debbie Paul, manager of the Nongame Section of the Division of Wildlife Management, said, "We have rare species of particular interest in North Carolina that aren't on the federal list. There are several unofficial lists of rare animals, but none developed under scientific review or using standard criteria." Some animals already considered endangered in Nonh Carolina include the peregrine falcon, the bald eagle, and th~ eastern cougar. • , MOUNTAINS GET THE SHAKES NUCLE A_ ....., - - _ R WASTE," SAYS DR. SMELLO Nauual World News Sa-vice How far away is the Shearon Harris nuclear plant from the mountains? As close as your electric bill, CP&L ratepayers learned at a NC Utilities Commission hearing in Asheville May 20 when company representatives told a stunned audience that they were seeking a 26% rate increase over the next two years. The revenue is largely to pay for the $3.8 billion Shearon Harris facility, which went into operation on May 2. CP&L spokespeople did offer to give customers a reduction in fuel rates and an overcharge refund, -which would panially offset the effects of the increase during the first year, if consumers agreed to swallow the proposed rate hike. Many of the people who jammed the hearing were elderly people on fixed incomes who may have remembered the exuberant early days of nuclear power when officials promised "power too cheap to meter". The Harris plant was criticized throughout its construction for consistently running over budget, but only later will consumers learn about the "hidden costs" of the Harris plant, which are not figured into cost estimates for nuclear power: the price of radioactive waste disposal and of "decommissioning" (tearing apan and disposing of the irradiated building structures) in 40-50 years when it must be taken out of service. Environmental coSts, of course, never show op in corporate accounting. Or. Smcllo, a colorful clown , attended the meeting wearing a sign saying, "CP&L rates are a nuclear waste". Smello accurately summed up the feeling of the meeting at the end of his address when he said, "I may look like a clown, but CP&L is areal joke." / Narural World News Service An earthquake registering 4.2 on the Richter seismic scale shook parts of Katiiah during the early-morning hours of March 29, 1987. Sheriffs' departments and rescue squads received several calls from alarmed residents, but damage by the tremor was limited to pictures shaken off the walls. The quake centered 30 miles southwest of Knoxville, TN, but the effects were felt as far cast as Andrews, NC. Katiiah is located in the Appalachian Seismic Zone. According to the Tennessee Eanhquake Information Center, this wne is a weak spot in the Earth's crust where two major tectonic plates meet and overlap.The two plates generate great stresses where they press together. The seismic rone is an area where that pressure is likely to be released in the form of an earthquake. The last major quake in the Appalachian Zone was a movement of 5.8 magnitude in 1897 that was centered near Pearisburg, VA. The March tremor was the first to register over 4.0 in 13 years. According to the eanhquake center, the Appalachian Seismic Zone is an active area, recording 25 to 30 shakes per year, but most of the activity registers under 2.0 on the Richter scale and is not perceptible to humans. NEWS The senate was held hostage today by strongwomen who fired brilliant bursts of metaphor over their heads and then escaped into a waiting Future. The Right Hemisphere Liberation Army has claimed responsibility. • Will Ashe Bason Summer 1987 �MONITORING TIIE 'CIDE SEASON It's summertime again in Katuah! Time for sunshine, birds, flowers .....and poisonous chemical sprays. Many farmers, companies, and government agencies use herbicides and pesticides for fast, effective, and highly tocic weed and insect control. Farmers spray pre-emergent herbicides to discourage weeds in their com and tobacco. Railroad companies and state transportation departments regularly spray railroad beds and roadsides, utility companies poison powerline right-of-ways to keep them clear, and the US Forest Service blankets selected areas in the National Forests with herbicide sprays from helicopters. Throughout the growing season, farmers protect their crops with pernicious, long-lasttng pesticides. Suspended particles of these liquid sprays drift great distances through the air. They enter the food chain by being inhaled or ingested in contaminated water and food. The sprays are highly foen, carbon-bound chemicals, so instead of being broken down, they accumulate in the bodies of humans and animals. Acute exposure to pesticides and herbicides cause a burning sensation in the skin, eyes, or throat, and forms congestion in the head and lungs. There may be swelling and aching in these areas and coughing. Sub-acute exposure may cause only a listless, achey feeling and a low resistance to virus. This level of exposure is possibly more dangerous in the long run, because the cumulative effects may result in cancer or other degenerative diseases years later when the cause is hard to pinpoint. A group in Floyd County, VA is surveying the effects of toxic sp rays among their community members and encourages groups in other parts of Katuah to do the same by keeping records of spraying dates and locations and watching for any apparent differences among family and friends. "If we all do this and compile our records," they say, "we may notice a pattern, and we will have more information with which to stand up and say that most spraying is unnecessary and unsafe." Contact: Nancy Barnhardt P.O. Box 417 Floyd, VA 24091 A VIEW FROM THE by Mchael Hockaday CORNERS Valuing Trees: A Thought Burl Had Nowadays I was thinking: what Is a tree worth anyways, In the year of its cutting, and in its lifetime, that being a history of everytime we change it? One half a tree becomes a stud framed In a wall as long as it stands, forever worth about a dollar twenty-nine. That's what you paid for it. Sure, it helps (or doesn't help) hold up a wall, a door, a window, but its inherent value as a stud has been fixed, done with, forgotten behind a layer of fabric, sheetrock, paneling. Done for. Gone. Another soldier of the forest bites the dust of anonymity. Other trees, or half-trees, quarter-trees, trunks, boards, cherished in their dead state more than when they grew alive, are used, touched again and again, changed, utilized in continually various ways; these have a life in history as various as many lives. This winter, after Christmas mostly, I started cutting up the gnarly little yellow pine poles a neighbor used some years ago to hang that season's crop of tobacco in my barn. I had mentioned in the fall he'd better come get them, else they'd be dust by spring. More nitrogen in the garden. Gone. Done for. I decided to handcut them to stove and hearth length with my bucksaw that's been hanging around doing very little since I made it more than a year ago. It's work, in-between, after-work, work that's harder as their girth gets bigger, but chainsawing them hasn't been a joy either. And it's quiet at least, a task more aimed at viewing and appreciating the winter sunsets, end as they may. These poles (trees) 1 was rendering into kindling had been grown, whether by God and nature or man 1 don't know, cut down, trucked around, de-limbed, nailed up to support a cancer-causing agent, left to rot, then taken down, de-nailed, dragged from the barn, sawed Into length, and carried again inside to quickly burn into ash. Makes a hot fire. Good start for winter mornings. Can't be used to hold up much anymore. Gone. Glad to have it. And what a store of time and labor went into the using of those trees, each one a part of the shade we love in summer, helping to sustain some forest's mystery. What attention we have given them.we who are In need of trees, maybe more attention than some people and animals get. So what 1 the worth of is those trees that cost the original user nothing but the time spent getting them? And another thing: the same parts of a tree that may be less than their worth to use them - a real waste of time twisty, doughty , unmanageable for building needs maybe the very material made into items that become collectibles - the life-size carving of a saint, a sparkling oaken threshold, or the delicate-colored, uniquely shaped panel, screen, or fan. What is the worth of only that sort of tree? How expensive is shade? So is it irony, fate, wisdom, or simply a matter of economics that the ugliest, most hard-to-get-to, orneriest trees become the survivors, landmarks, or sacred ones? Some trees are not made for studs, but mostly all wood bums if you get it hot enough. When summer came and that shade that is woven by a community of trees appeared, beckoning in its cool appeal, I left off the burning of deadwood to go and just sit under such a precious canopy of living wonder. I sat content awhile, having for a spell no further need to cut, change, bum. There, in those healing depths of forest - or was it a wood? who cares? - the creek chuckled as it sparkled along to the sea, and I could not but agree that things seemed fine in such a greenwood, while the sun blazed and wind shimmered the heatwaves. "What is the worth of these trees?" I was thinking. Gr1tphics by Rob Mcssiclt KATUAH- page 19 Summer 1987 �Resource Directory Hurrah! Plan et Dr um Foundation has just published A Bioregiona l Directo ry listing bioregional groups, publications and contact persons in Nonh America. The directory includes a brief description of each listing and it also includes a map of the represented areas. To purchase a directory ($2) or to fi.nd out about joini.ng Planet Drum ($15), contact: P lanet Dru m P.O . Box 31251, S an F r a ncisco, CA F oundation, 9413L Here are some selections from the Directory: Mattole Watershed Salmon Support Group, P.O.Box 188, Petrolia, CA 95558 (707) 629-3514 Restoring near-extinct native populations of Ki.ng and Silver salmon through the use of low-tech propagation techniques and habitat repair, MWSSG focuses on salmon as an indicator species in order to raise local watershed consciousness. Established in 1980, the group has released over 100,000 salmon into the Mattole River. Ohio River Basin Info rmation Service, 103 Gibson Lane; Wilder, KY 41076 (606) 781-5502 ORBIS gathers and distributes information that is pertinent to the health of both the natural and social ecology of the Ohio River Basin. It is concerned with water pollution, soil erosion, and ways in which the human community can promote healing the bioregion. ORBIS runs Sunrock Farm, a bioregional educational center, which hosts a program on "Fanning and the Natural World" including activities, tours, songs and hayrides for lhe kids. ORBIS will eventually publish a resource newsletter, "The Heartland Teacher", to promote bioregional education at the elementary school level. The Hopi Epicentre for International Outreach The Hopi E p icentre fo r I ntern ational O u t r each has opened its doors under the authority and auspices of the Hopi Traditional Leaders from the village of Mishongnovi on Second Mesa. Its purpose is to educate the national and international communities about Hopi culture, history and spirituality in relation to current events and how each individual must take personal responsibility towards the healing of the Earth and all her inhabitants. Directed by spokeswoman Marilyn Harris from Mishongnovi, the office is currently worlcing on a film project ba~ed on the "Hopi/Dine Neighborship Gathering". It is an effon to inform, educate and share important spiritual perspectives of Natural Law with the hope of stimulating creative solutions to the problems facing humankind today. Also, there is an effort to gain entrance to the UN as the Sovereign Hopi Nation to address an official meeting of the General Assembly in order to deliver the Navoti (Hopi prophecy and knowledge). To inquire or connibute: Hopi Epicentre for International Outreach, 22 S. San Francisco St., Suite 211, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. (601) TILTH Association, P.O. Box 218, Tualatin, OR 97062 TILTH is a non-profit association on the Pacific Nonhwest which links urban and rural people who support a sustainable, regional agriculture. Members include commercial organic farmers, small holders, market and home gardeners, landscape designers and many others who either practice or support biologically sound and socially equitable agriculture for the region. TILTH publishes a quarterly journal and periodic newsletter updates. TILTH ASSOCIATION/SEATILE 4649 Sunnyside Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103 SEATILE Til.,TH is an urban chapter within Til.,TH's regional network that is interested in city-based food production. Its office contains a resource library of books and journals devoted to urban gardening and animal husbandry. Seattle TILTH .aJso has a "Demonstration Garden" featuring raised-bed vegetable planting, espaliered fruit trees, composting demonstrations and a solar greenhouse. 774-2644 Earth Island Earth Island Journal, An International E n viron m en tal N~ws Magazine is an invaluable resource for keeping in touch with the ecologicaVcultural health of the planet--including rainforests, sustainable development, indigenous peoples, appropriate technology, etc. Earth Island is a network (computer and otherwise) of individuals, projects, ideas, and places that promote ecological consciousness and action. Ea r t h Island I n stitute, 13 Columbus Avenue, San Fran cisco, CA 94111 KATUAR - page 20 NABC Il Proceedings The NABC II P r oceedings from the North American Bioregional Congress, 1986 is now being published. It is a 90-page quality paperbound book which contains highlights of the week-long Congress, including reports, resolutions, and summaries of presentations as well as photos. The topic areas ran;l:e from alternative economics, eco-feminism, permaculture, nauve peoples and people of color to bioregionaJ envisioning and poetry. Price is $l0eacb plus $1.50 p&h. Contact: Alexandra Han/ Proceedings, P.O. Box 1010, Forestville, CA 95436 Summer 1987 �m Big Mountain "Our way of life is our re ligion, and our teaching. If we are r elocated by force, we will all die slowly. The people wo uld not be in bala nce with Mother Earth and Father Sky and t he spirit ual people. In ever y way, he re we are connected to t he la nd. We belong here." Ma ry T. Begay, Dine elder Background: Just south of the Peabody Co:i1 Company strip mine at Black Mesa (AZ), the U.S. government is forcibly relocnting 10,000 Navajos (Dine) nnd 100 Hopis in what has come 10 be known as the Navajo-Hopi land dispute. In 1974, Congress passed Public Law 93-531, which crcntcd n Relocation Commission and declared that Navajos and Hopis living on I.he wrong side or Lile panition hne c1rawn by Congress would have to move. Native leaders charge that the relocation is designed 10 facilitate access 10 minerals, primarily coal, underlying the disputed lands. Relocation is cwrently being accelerated by livestock seizures, fencing by government crews, a housing construction ban, and harassment of Navajos resisting relocation. Nnvajos who hove voluntarily moved to nearby cities have fallen victim 10 fradulent real estate deals and loansharking. (frotn Th e Workbook, Southwest Research & Information Center, P.O. Box 4524, Albuqucniue. NM 87106) Big Mountain suppon groups around th~. contin~nt continue to renew their effons to suppon the traditional Dine (Navajo) and Hopi peoples in their struggle against forced relocation from lheir homelands. Currently, a lawsuit is being filed which challenges the constitutionality of forced relocation by demonstrating the inseparable relationship between the land and the religious practices of the traditional Dine. All attorneys involv_ed a;e donating their services, but funding for offices, etc. is sull needed. Both the US House and US Senate arc planning to conduct field hearings this fall in the Joint Use Area (JUA) and Hopi Village Nations, concerning this issue. In the House, the commiuce which will be conducting the hearing will be the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. Three representatives from around the Katuah arc~ are on this committee: Clarke (NC); Darden (GA); and Lewis (GA). These hearings could possibly be an imponant way for ~c traditional Hopi and Dine voices to be heard. If you want to wntc to express your concerns, write: Rep_ _; US House; Washington, DC 20515. Although the Dine arc usually self-sufficient, government harassment in recent years has created a serious need for food, clothing, wool, and tools. A slide show "In Defense of Sacred Land" (30 min w/ tape) is available for sale ($65) or rent ($20/wk). It offers a close·up look at 1he traditional Dine cult~re at Big Mountain and features the complex reasons behind relocation and the people's acts of resistance. A video "The Wrong Side of the Fence" (VHS, 60 min) is also available for sale ($50) or rental ($20). For general information on Big Mountain and to make contributions, contact: Big Mounta i n Legal Defense/Offense Committee, 2029 N. Center St., Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (602) 774-5233 Prophecies The coming of great eanh changes ( canhquakes, upheaval, polar shifts, etc.) in this period of our canh history has been spoken of in the prophecies of many cultures including_ Hopi, Mayan, ~s wcli as Christian. In the Mayan tradition, this August, 1987 is regarded as an extremely significant time. In all the traditions. great emphasis is placed o~ the period lc_ading up !o these changes as an important ume for conscious cleanng a_nd hcaling... a rime for getting in _balance with the Earth an~ w11h oncsclf...a time to make a special effon to walk evenly With one anothcr...a time to acknowledge and live within the ways of the Great Spirit ... to remember the Great Mystery. Even now, Tunle Island and the whole planet is experiencing great stress. It is imponant that we listen keenly to what is occurring. Ho! KATUAH-page21 Green Politics "Throughous our country aNJ our region there is a deep Med /0 reclaim tht word 'politics'. Politics does /IOI hove 10 conjure up images of special illteresu. corporOle affiances aNJ short·range vi.sum. It can begin 10 mean self-gowrnance, day-kH/ay ciliunshipaNJ long-range understanding. Politics can begin 10 reflect and align itself with nature and tht Earth instead of actively defying it. Wt can begin to see pofilics.. .as if people mal/ered...as if tht biotic community mauered...as if tht Earth mO/ttred. from "Tht Politics of Participation" ~ Autumn, 1984 H Currently, there is a thrust towards a new/old dimension to politics...one that speaks to ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy, and personal & social re5P0nsibility. It promotes regionally-based cultures as well as community-based economics. It encourages an envisioning of the present and the future, in terms of bioccntric sustainability. The movement here in North America and around the globe is called "Green Politics". In North America, both in Canada and the United States, the activity and focus is more regional and local rather than national. In the United States, though, there is a Committees of Correspondence Clearinghouse which serves as a national networking center for local and regional groups and individuals in the country. Groups around the continent are working on many levcls--some arc running local and regional candidates, others arc drafting political platforms, while others arc forming study groups, addressing specific environmental and economic issues, etc. This summer 1987, Building the G reco Movement will be the first open national meeting of the Greens in the US, and will take place July 2-7, 1987 in Amherst, Massachusetts. It will be an educational conference rather than a gathering to make decisions for the Green movement. Sponsored by the Committees of Correspondence, it is open to all Greens and activists in kindred movements. It will include plenary panels, workshops, and group discussions as well as music and celebration. For conference infonnarion and general inquiry: Na ti o n al C learinghouse, Comm i ttees of Correspondence, P.O. Box 30208, Kansas City, MO 64112 The ten key values which have been drafted by the Committees of Correspondence and are being discussed and stmtcgiz.ed by local Green groups around the country arc: *Ecological W isdom •Grassroots Democracy *PersonaJ & Social Responsibility •Nonviolence •Decentralization •Community-Based Economics •Postpatriarchal Values •Respect for Diversity *Global Responsibility *Future Focus & Sustainability Richard Harrison, from the Katiiah region, is planning to attend the national conference as well as assist in forming a regional ·11oca1 Green Discussion group . The first meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 22 at the Pack Library meeting room in Asheville, NC from 7:00 -9:00 pm. For more information: Richard Harrison, 183 Edgewood Road, Asheville. NC 28804 (704) 254-6910. Resource reading: Green Poli!ks. The G(obnl Promjss:, Capra and SprellUllc. Bear & Co, S:111t:1 Fe, NM, New cdir.ion t986; Secjo g Green; The Polj!jcs or Ecology Exp(pjncd. Porritt, J. Basil Blackwell, Inc. NY 1984 ; The Sojrilunl Dimcosjon or Green Po(il!cs, Spretnak. Bear & Co, 1986 ... periodicals: Green Lfllrr. ed. Jerry Gwnthney. P.O.Box 9242, Berkeley, CA 94709; New Options , ed. !'.tuk Satin. / P.O.Box 19324, Washington. DC 20036 Turrie Island is the native name for the continent of Norrh America. Summer 1987 �DRUMMING LETTERS TO KATUAH Following are portions of a letter sent to the editors of community papers in Georgia and Tennessee as well as to Katuah: Dear Editor, In order to keep my family off food stamps, I've had to leave my home in southwestern Virginia for the past three winters and set pine seedlings on clearcut National Forest land in the Southern Appalachians. We use an axe-like tool called a "hoedad" and get paid by the tree, so we hustle over mountainsides and through briars, bushes, and the tops of fallen trees. It is hard work, but the pay is good. The land we plant has usually been clearcut of any vegetation over three inches in diameter and then burned over so that when a planter looks up from planting the view in the distance is often like a picrure postcard, while the closeup Looks like a scene of nuclear devastation. At fll'St I thought that the government must make a lot of money doing this, but in truth it costs tire taxpayers a lot of171()ney to clearcut National Forest land! In the fll'St place, the timber or pulpwood is usually sold cheaply because of the remoteness of most National Forest land. Then there is the cost. both environmental and economic, of the roads that the Forest Service puts in to the site and the cost of a new gate and Ioele to keep the public out. Then there are the salaries of various people who mark the boundaries, bum the site, replant pines, people who oversee the people who replant pines, and often people to cut away or poison competing hardwoods a few years later. The cash from the timber sale only barely begins to pay the money price and could never pay the environmental price of the cuttings. Replacing the mixed hardwood forests with rows of pines reduces the food resources available for many animals. Cutting the hardwoods also reduces the brilliance of the fall colors in the mountains. The new pine forests are made of trees genetically similar to each other, which are more likely to fall prey to insects or disease before they are scheduled to be cut When this happens, the Forest Service sometimes sprays large areas with insecticides, and this has a large economic and ecological cost The Appalachians can never really compete in growing pulpwood with the deeper soil and warmer climare of the nearby Piedmont or the Coastal Plain, and in the misguided and federally-funded attempt to do this we will lose priceless mountain topsoil into our streams and lakes and also lose a lot of money. rm not advocating an immediate end to clearcutting, rather a slowing down to think it over and an end to automatically favoring pines over hardwoods. The policy of clearcutting was begun in a sincere attempt to help our local economies. 11 is certainly true that I need the money I make at my job. So let's invent some more wholesome employment for ourselves: - Perhaps we could pay people to replant ginseng on suitable mountain sides in the national forest. This could KATUAH-page 22 conceivably make more money than timber sales with vastly less environmental impact. Harvest could be by permit or by free foraging. This could greatly benefit all kinds of local people and even earn needed foreign eithange, as Appalachian ginseng is esteemed the world over as the very best. - Perhaps people could be employed seeking out the surviving American chestnut trees and helping them survive. Perhaps some of the new blight-resistant hybrids of American and Chinese chestnuts could be planted. - Perhaps the Forest Service could hire more people to extend and maintain hiking, bicycle, and horse trails. - Perhaps the Forest Service could help local people set up more efficient sawmills, solar kilns, and small woodworking industries to make better use of the hardwoods we do log. - Perhaps the Forest Service could establish small, local nurseries for treeS and shrubs that benefit local ecology and economy. - Perhaps the Forest Service could do more work educating itself and the people about the terrible realiiy of acid rain, which has already killed the trees on the tops of the highest peaks and is threatening the entire forest. - Perhaps the Forest Service could foster the development of a few small, viable, village communities within the National Forest which use local energy sources and are built to suict environmental standards to teach us how to live with the forest instead of off it, and offer the people wholesome alternatives to living in trailer parks at the bottoms of mountains or in cabins in beautiful bu1 lonely hollows. If any of these ideas seem far-fetched, remember that we could save taxpayers a lot of money by deciding 10 give the land back to the Cherokee Elders who, after all, did a very good job of land stewardship here for thousands of years and would probably take the job at no pay! The Forest Service is composed mostly of fine outdoor-loving men and women who hate the bureaucracy that siymies them more than any outsider possibly could. They have been caught between a rock and a hard pince with a charter that demands economic benefit of the local communiry, the reality of local timber economics, and the the basically similar needs of sponspeople, conserv:uioniStS. and tourists. Remember, only you can prevent runaway bureaucracy! The Forest Service was set up to nuke policy based on feedback from local people, and when we don't offer this feedback, we short-circuit a very good and idealistic system. Please write down your ideas about National Forest land use and send them to: Chief Forester, US Forest Service, USDA P.O. Box 2417 Washington, DC 20013 Help return the Forest Service to the service of the forest. Will Ashe Bason Check, VA Summer 1987 �Dear Katiiah, rocks only by shoring their silence ond solitude or e we invi ted into their deep time their woy of being before god whot they do they do well keep time w eor w eother guard secr et s mark the eorth whot we see them d o is nothing our senses ore too human their shopes t oo eternal t he life t hat flow s too hidden for all our owareness we have little understanding of how such life Is sacred so they fall split open sit p atiently until w e come ond hear the universe w i thin them groan Its sacred groon - Thom as Dal e Cowan Pho10 by Rob Messick This information is im~t! Can you include this, in pan, in the 'Solstice' issue of Katiiab? Please try to find room! (Excerpts from material senr in) The canh operates as a resonant function of the interface of two metaprograms, the solar and the galactic, whlch together comprise a single field. A resonant frequency phase shift (RFPS) is scheduled to occur August 16/17, 1987. The RFPS will alter the molecular resonance patterns of all living phenomena. By their plasmic nature, most biological fonns will be able to absorb this shift and adjust to the new frequency pat1ern. However, much that has been artificially constructed according to stress specifications not accounting for RFPS may well be disintegrated. In prepara.tion for Phase Shift '87, it is important to reactivate spirit guides and human-to-human bonding programs; to reactivate biopsychic maintenance of planet nodes and crystal gridwoik so that new frequency imprinting can be received by the earth itself in order to activate and monitor the new phase. This is to be accomplished by groups of people in common attunement attending to all planetary nodes-power points, shrines, sacred sites; to alert people by whatever skillful means possible concerning what is about to occur. Ultimately this means the evacuation of the cities. since their artificial structures will be largely destroyed Therefore, plan a crusade--a phase shift crossing--that is a completely hannonic operation, one that can synthesize the old frequency into the new. The Crusade should be in motion by Summer Solstice, 1986. (transmission) 1987-- 144,000 Sun Dance enlightened teachers will totally awaken in their dream mind bodies. They will begin to meet in their own feathered serpent or winged seipent wheels and become a major source of the light to help the rest of humanity to dance their dream awake. A Sun Dance teacher is any human being who has awakened, who has balanced their shields, who has gained the dream mindbody and who honors all paths, all teachers, and all ways. (from Prophecies of lntenribal Medicine Societies of Native American Indians) Beginning at Dawn everywhere on the canh on Sunday, August 16, 1987, 144,000 humans arc being called upon to create a complete field of trust by surrendering themselves to the planet and to the hlgher galactic intelligences which monitor the planet At that time and continuing through Monday, August 17, the higher galactic intelligences will be transmitting a collective planetary vision as well as messages of personal destiny to and through these people, the rainbow humans. (Open letter) Harmonic Convergence: World Harmony Days Aug 16-17, 1987 Join in the Celebration of Harmonic Convergence, a conscious bonding of people to support an evolutionary shift from separation to unity and from fear to love. World Harmony Days include celebrations at local, regional and international levels which will focus healing energies to the earth. At the core, 144,000 people will gather at sunrise on Aug 16 at sacred sites around the globe. They will join at these Earth "acupuncture points" to create a resonating link between Universal Energies and the Earth. For info: Harmonic Convergence, P.O. Box 6111, Boulder, CO 80306 (303) 443-4328. Anonymous DRUMMING -conlinuedpage24 KATUAH- page 23 Sammer 1987 �Dear Follc- 1 really enjoyed the latest issue of KatUah. Il continues to give me great joy to think of the time, energy, spirit, and blood that is cycled through each issue. It is a great labor oflove and work. I liked the "Coverlets" anicle a great deal. I learned much. But the letters on "More Wilderness" in the "Drumming" section seemed to me to be shon-sighted. Sometimes I am confused by what most people think of as being a "whole system", since the word as it is commonly only used often seems to have little to do with the world of good science. (I'm ralkjng about responsive scientists who care about the land, and there are more than a few out there.) I wonder if those writers have any idea how complex a proposal it is to suggest that cougars could once again roam "the wild areas of the Appalachian Region"? Let them take a trip to south Florida and take a look at how hard it is to support a couple of dozen cougars in an area as large as .illl of western North Carolina! Who knows how common cougars were in this area? They are primarily "big package" predators by preference, which would suggest that white-tailed deer would be a major food source. The scat of healthy cougar cats consists of 90% "big packages" and 10% small game. So maybe to establish a Fe/is concolor population in Katuab, we should put them in Cades Cove instead of in a "wilderness area". Like Henry Thoreau, I feel now is the time to stop building castles in the air and start putting in a few foundations. I'd as soon see us use our energy to create a "working community" of people, plants, animals, land, and life in the Appalachians with what we have now. We already have a wonderful predator moving into our area: lhe coyote. What"s wrong with a few coyotes? I would suggest that people who care about the wildlife in our area go out with a good .410 shotgun and kill every feral housccat in the region. These "wild" cats take a huge toll on songbirds and small mammals. John Lane , fKJl iffl)J~(}={f !NJ!ElfWO!RlK ~fPJflOfli1@~ ffrr©m @~qfhl@rrnfli1@Jrq Over 125 adults and children gathered at the Pepperland Farm Camp in Farner, TN for the Katiiah Spring Gathering. It would take quite a while to describe in depth the things we learned, the experiences we shared, and the spirit we felt there. But we can say that, there, the beginnings were set to help the Katuah bioregional organization grow and become more firmly rooted in our daily lives and in our local communities. A network of local contact people is developing... to help nurture a bioregional vision in their communities, to help bring the Katiiah journal to more people, to encourage more local input into the journal, to pass around the word about events and actions, and to sponsor bioregional speakers and events in their local communities. Write to the Katiiah journal to find out what being a local contact per son means. Volunteer, if you can. People are also coming together into " speci fic interest" groups to discuss particular areas of bioregional life and culture. The emphasis is on educatin g themselves as to the most a ppropriate strategies for living in the mountains. It includes keeping up with news, events, and new developments in that particular interest area as well as lively discussions of how it relates to this r egion. Hopefull y, it will also mean submitting articles on that topic so that each aspect of mountain life is represented in the Katuab journal. to "Specific interest " topics include: Forestry and Wildlife, Agriculture and Regional Diet, Water, Sustainable Economics, Healing, Education/Personal Growth, Communities, Ene rg y, Spirituality, Bioregional Theory, Regional Politics, and Shelter. Luke Staengl of Floyd County, Virginia agreed to coordinate a Katuah regional phone tree to be used as a networking tool for issues that require immediate attention such as environmental defense issues, legislative action, and other special events. Luke emphasized that when an issue comes up locally and yet receives regional attention and response, it is much more likely to be taken seriously. He encourages all of us to make use of this kind of networking. Already, there are over 70 names on the phone tree list. Some people have agreed to simply receive a phone call and act on it (write a letter, etc.). Others have volunteered to call others in their community, as well. If you would like to participate in this important regional phone tree send name, add ress, phone number to: Luke Stacngl, Rt.3, Box 120·2, Floyd, VA 24091. KA11JAH - page 24 Write to the Katiiah journal if you have an interest you would like to discuss with other people in the region or if you would like to participate in this budding regional network in some way: Katiiah , P.O.Box 638, Leicester, NC 28748 Summer 1987 �TRANSITION The hawk flies over me and up it sings silently soaring; "Spring!" I have died from lack of flight from lack of green it grows. I see the new and turn my head the old has clasped my soul strength welling up and tears that are not wet but fall like acid rain, scorching emotions and stunting growth. The hawk flies over me and east. I turn to see what it sees - taking on the sorrows all around and shaking and testing my new wings I cannot fly yet. I turn east, thirst overcoming, I long for water. Mirages appear in front of me and I think I have found what I am looking for but it is not water in my mouth, it is stars. The hawk flies over me and up singing, silently soaring, springing from ashes and into lightning. I am becoming light free as the clouds, soaring..... I am learning to love with the intensity of fire. Hawk, energy condensed, shadow threatening those like me who laugh and put if off. Shadow comforting those like me who cry, and my tears are sizzling like hot oil on the water of transition. Wustration by Misha Wilson - Mara Bradburn LESSONS IN PEACE Young Pe op I e's Page Wanted: a world of peace. I say peace - easily, freely, the word stems out and perhaps is used too often. Wanted: Peace. I crave it. Freely. I create it. Sometimes. Peace is when my anger turns back on itself and cries for wisdom. When anger thinks logically and knows it's not worth it. Anger, mushrooming, exploding in my body, turning, facing, understanding ..... Wanted: A peaceful world. The earth is crying. Peace is when my sorrow grows into the trees the leaves absorb it and say; :"rejoicer· When sorrow is channelled the tears become song Peace is when I ache but I walk, singing, in the woods anyway. Wanted: Peace. I say peace as if I know what it means. But when I listen, instead of talking, Peace says that no one knows. No one. Peace is when my resentment lets loose its harsh ties and becomes forgiveness. Wanted: a world of peace. I dance. I talk. I laugh. I act. I create. Peace is when you're doing everything you can and the only one listening Is Peace. - Mara Bradbu, KATUAH- page 25 Summer 1987 �f't't~'t'f'f't'f'ft'tf't'f'ft'f't't'f't events ~:::~::r~JUNE 9-8/16 ASHEVILLE, NC 19-21 CULLOWHEE, NC Appalachian Writers' Association meeting. Contact: Jim Nicholl; Dept. of English; Western Carolina University; Cullowhee, NC 28723 21 SUMMER SOLSTICE Local gatherings everywhere! 21-27 BRASSTOWN, NC Music/Craft Week. Contact: John C. Campbell Follc School; Brasstown, NC 28902 (704) 837-2775 JULY 1-7 G R AHAM COUNTY, NC Continental Rainbow Family Gathering. For information, contact: Rainbow Family of Living Light Box 1097 Newpon, TN 37821 Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. For ticket info., write: The Follctellers, P.O. Box 2898; Asheville, NC 28802 10 CELO, NC Full Moon Gathering. Mount.ain Gardens, 6/24. See 11 HIGHLANDS, NC "Nantahala Week". Education, exploration, raft trip. Contac1: The Mountain Retreat Center; 841 Highway 106; Highlands, NC 28741 (704) 526-5838 21-27 23-24 SWANNANOA, NC Second Annual North Carolina Alternative Earmin& Fjeld Days. Workshops: Marketing Green Manure Crops Spccialiry Crops Grceobousc Management Tools..... more. Exhibits, demonscrations. At Warren Wilson College campus. Contact: Dr. Greg Hoyt; Mountain Horticultural Oops Rescareh Station; 2016 Fanning Bridge Rd.; Fletcher, NC 28732 2-7 AMHERST, MA "National Conference for a New (Green) Politics" - workshops, strategy, principles. Write: New England Committees of Correspondence; P.O. Box 703; White River Jct., VT 05001 3-5 WAYNESVILLE, NC "The Bliss of Freedom" meditation retreat. Stil-Light Theosophical Rc1rcat Center; Rt. 1, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 28786 11 ROAN MOUNTAIN Roan Mountain Day Hike. See Nature Conservancy, 6111 11-12 LINVILLE, NC The Highland Games. Scottish piping, dancing, Highland athletics ("tossing the caber", "putting the sheath", more). $7.00. McRae Meadows (US 221 two miles north of Linville, NC) 13-18 ~",r ,-....,.,..-, CELO, NC "Building and Planting Stone Walls" workshop. Joe Hollis; c/o Mountain Gardens; 3020 White Oak Creek Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714 24 ~" ,£~ HOT SPRINGS, NC A Rinzai Zen Retreat. Contact: Southern Dhanna Retreat Center; Rt 1, Box 34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743 24-28 MARSHALL, NC Timber Framing Workshop. Contact: Country Workshops; 90 Mill Occk Rd.; Marshall, NC 28753 (704) 656-2280 15 CELO, NC "Building and Planting Stone Walls". Mountain Gardens, sec 6/24. GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. "Mosses and Related Plants". Smoky Mountain Field School, see 6127-28. 18-19 22 27 BAT CAVE, NC Day bike. Contact: NC Nature Conservancy; P.O. Box 805; Chapel Hill, NC 27514 CELO, NC "Art in the Gnrden" - drawing and painting class. Saturdays through 8/1. Rhea Rose Ormond; Mountain Gardens, see 6/24. 3-12 HOT SPRINGS, NC " Breathing and Meditation". Southern Dharma, see 6124-28. ASHEVILLE, NC Formative meeting for Green Politics Discussion Group. 7:00, Pack Library. Contact:. Richard Harrison; 183 Edgewood Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804 (704) 254-6910 5-11 27 T ROUTVILLE, VA "When Modem Medicine Fails What Then?" Exploring alternatives. Rainbow Chapel; Rt. 4, Box 87-A; Troutville, VA 24175 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. "Research on Wild Mammals of the Great Smokies" workshop with Dr. Michael Pelton. Smoky Mountain Field School; Dep't. of Non-Credit Programs; 2016 Lake Ave.; Knoxville, TN 37996 CULLOWHEE, NC "Landscaping with Native Plants" seminar. Contact: Jim Honon; Dept. of Biology; Cullowhec, NC 28723 (704) 227-7244 BRASSTOWN, NC Black smithing Summer Craft Session. JCC Folk School, sec 6/21-27. 25 HIGHLANDS, NC "Folks, Lore, and Truth". Sec The Mountain, 6/21-27. 23-25 5-18 BLUFF MOUNTAIN, NC Day hike. Nature Conservancy, sec 6/27. 27-28 8 CELO, NC "Dancing on the Deck" - morning and evening dance classes. Wednesdays through August 12. Rhea Rose Ormond; Mountain Gnrdens, see 6/24. MARSHALL, NC Ladder-back Chairmaking Workshop. Country Workshops, see 7/13-18 27-31 f't't'f'f'f'f'f't't'f'tf't't't't't~'t't't KATUAH - page 26 Summer 1987 �AUGUST 1-2 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. "Mushroom Identification" weekend and "Big Game Observation" backpacking trip. Smoky Mountain Field School, see 6/27-28. 2-15 CELO, NC Full Moon Gathering. Mountain Gardens, see 6/24 9-14 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. 19 "Forests and Trees of the Smokies". Smoky Mountain Field School, see 6/27-28. 23-30 WA YNES VILLE, NC "What is Theosophy? " seminar/retreat. Stil-Light, see 7/3-5. 19-20 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. "Research on Wild Mammals of the Great Smokies" with Dr. Michael Pelton. Smoky Mountain Field School, see 6/27-28. 24-28 MARSHALL, NC White Oak Basketry Workshop. Country Workshops, see 7/13-18. HOT SPRINGS, NC "Vipassana and Hatha Yoga". Southern Dhmna, see 6/24-28. 8 NORTH WEBSTER, IN "The North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology". Write c/o P.O. Box 14305; San Francisco, CA 94114 BRASSTOWN, NC Blacksmithing, Knife Making courses. JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27. 7-14 19-22 26-30 HOT SPRINGS, NC "Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation Retreat" . Southern Dharma, see 6/24-28. 29-9/4 BRASSTOWN, NC "Eanhworks" (Fiber and Clay Week). JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27. MARSHALL, NC 20-26 BRASSTOWN, NC Blacksmithing and Early American Crafts. JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27. 25-27 WA YNES VILLE, NC "An Introduction to Spiritual Astrology". Stil-Light, see 7/3-5. 29 ASHEVILLE, NC "Is There a Future for the Black Bear in the Southern Appalachians?" conference. $5.00. 9 am - 6 pm.Owen Conference Center; UNC-Asheville. See ad this page. Windsor Chairmaking Workshop. Country Workshops, see 7/13-18. 10-15 FARNER, TN "Backpacking Adventure" (ages 11-18); tracking, foraging, primitive camping with Snow Bear. Pepperland Fann Camp; Star Route; Farner, 1N 37333 "IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE BLACK BEAR IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS?" SEPTEMBER 3-7 FARNER, TN "Touching the Earth Mother". Retreat with Shahabuddin Less. See 8/10-15. ~~~tt RECLAIM YOUR P£RSONAl POWER AT A NUA1\JRING MCM.NTAIN RETFtEAT °""""" - AUGUST17-23 $285 am. U 81Y OUT\.AW, UIT, MICHAEL.A&CHMlOT CHR1$TIHE 9YRD. C.H.C.. HERBALIST PAM MONTGOMERY, 4-7 BRASSTOWN, NC Labor Day Music and Dance Weekend. JCC Folk School, see 6/21-27. CAROLYN MOOR£, INOIAN VAUEY RETREAT 6 CELO, NC Ill 2 eox sa. WI.US, VA. 24390 fnl3l .,...295 PleMt tMJ.11• 04/I bfocAn ICW oet.MI Full Moon Gathering. Mountain Gardens, see 6/24. 14-16 ELKINS, WV Augusta Folk Festival. Augusta Heritage Center; Davis and Elkins College; 100 Sycamore St.; Elkins, WV 26241 11-13 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. "Spiders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park". Smoky Mountain Field School, see 6127-28. 16 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. "Summer Wildflowers of the Great Smokies". Smoky Mountain Field School, see 6/27-28. 16 HARMONIC CONVERGENCE Join with others at sunrise and share your vision of world peace and harmony. 16-19 HIGHLANDS, NC "Dare to Explore". Rock climbing, whitewater canoeing, hiking. The Mountain, see 6/21-27. Issues Facing the Black Bear and Mountain Habitat Its TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1987 Owen Conference Center, UNC-Asheville 11-13 WAYNESVILLE, NC "Henry David Thoreau and the Tao of Simplicity" seminar at Stil-Light. See 7/3-5. 16 CELO, NC "Dividing Perennials and Making a Flower Garden" workshop. Mountain Gardens, see 6/24. 18-20 ASHEVILLE, NC New Priorities Conference on Peace, Social Justice, and the Environment. Contact: The New Priorities Center; 54 Starnes Ave.; Asheville, NC 28801 Invited Speakers Include: Dr. Michael Pelton (University of Tennessee) Dr. Roger Powell (NC State University) Ms. Lauren Hillman (US Forest Service) Dr. John Collins (NC Wildlife Resources Comm.) Jim Noles (NC Bearhunters' Ass'n.) Admission: $5.00 Sponsored by: Dept. of Environmental Studies, UNC-A Bear Action Networlt Kal(iah �gets a chance to speak. They talk about things they are feeling, experiences of that day, or whatever they want to speak about The simple ritual of passing the feather puts a lot of meaning into that little gathering. It makes it ceremonial, and I find the Jcids often talk of very deep things that are on their minds. Again, it's the power of the mythic that seems to bring out people's deeper selves. We always try to have a fire in the evenings when we're traveling . It's not just for the practical necessity of cooking our foocl. nor only because the fire is a center for the group circle, but we make a fire because it is in itself such a basic, important element that I want to invite it into our circle and introduce the Jcids to it. And fire is a teacher. In mythic tenns it says to us very starkJy, "That which would give light must endure burning." ~: Besides the external recognition, there is also an initiation that happens within the adolescent at this time of change. These private initiations are perhaps the most important Do you run into examples of these at the camp? Helen: Kids want to be heroes and heroines. They will do a lot to achieve a victory. And they want to be good grown-ops, so they will respond to a challenge to prove themselves. Kayaking and rock-climbing provide a different type of challenge. Rather than testing endurance and encouraging a reflective, meditative state, they bring the campers very much into the immediate moment They have to extend tlleir senses and concentrate on putting all their energies 10 the task at always some point where they have to meet that fear and overcome it to be able to continue. At that crisis point there is a sudden sensation of becoming very calm and objective. As the Hopi Indians say, "The soul comes out of the top of the head" through the fontanelle and looks down on the body clinging there with a single, perfectly clear eye that transcends all fear or questioning. Kat\Jah: So these experiences actually coun that fear to generate energy for an initiatory experience. Helen: They inevitably do that, but they also demand total physical exertion which often exceeds what the camper believed to be his or her physical limits. The world is perceived very clearly when one is hanging on to a finger-hold crevice, and a single climb can shift the terms in which a young person defines his or her identity, creating a new acceptance of self. And all these elements together add up in some way to a spiritual connection with the God force, which, while it is not readily defineable, is the strongest source of personal power. Bot we don't have to seeJc these situations out. They are a naturally-occuuing part of camp life. One time I was with a group of the younger campers. The thing we were going to do that period was to climb trecS. They all started going up, except for a mentally disturbed boy named Jimmy. He was standing on the ground malcing climbing motions with his hands, ~oing "Uh, uh, uh," like a monkey. I thtnk it's very important for the kids that, once we say we're going to do something, we do it. I realized that this was an important moment for him; it was very imponant that he at least got to the first branch. So I called the other Jcids around. Some of them were already way op in the tops of the trees, but they all gathered around, and we talked about this. We made it a group project. Jimmy didn't mind the group talking about his problem, in fact I find that the kids seldom mind having the others talk about them in the circle. We talked about it, and then with a lot of reaching, hoisting, and encouragement, Jimmy made it up into the tree. It was a group effon, but it was also a personal victory for him. hand. 11 The river is a good teacher of humility, because in a kayak, the ldds have to recognize and use that force. 11 Groups go k.ayalcing in the fast rapids in several of the mountain rivers. On the water, the kids have to concentrate on their movements, their techniques, while always being aware of the rapids coming up ahead. They have to be constantly sensitive to the river. It's an immense, strong force. The river is a good teacher of humility, because in a kayak, the kids have to recognize and use that force. TI1ey have to flow with it, if they're going to avoid being thrown under. Rock-<:limbing is another challenging activity that tests the kids' abilities. When they're pulling themselves up the side of a cliff, the campers have 10 rely on their own strength and have to watch their own motions in the same way as on the river. They have to control their fear, so their body can be completely relaxed, and they can continue 10 climb. There's KATUAH - page 28 These experiences come up, bot for them to have a positive effect, there must be a teacher present who can interpret and resolve them. "Education" in its Latin beginnings derived from educatus, part of the verb educare, "to bring fonh from within". Education does not mean to superimpose knowledge that belongs to others on top of the initiate. It means to bring out the eternal truths that lie hidden in every relationship. So there must be relationship and it must be experiemial. Now that's a school! ,, - Recorded by DIV Summer 1987 �w€BWO~ ENVlRONME.NTAL IN'raRNSHIPS available at Long Branch Environmental Education Center in pcnnaculllR. wildlife ad'JOCIC)', 80lid and ha%ardous waste issues, appropriate technology. Room and board. Coruacc Paul and Pal Gallimore; RL 2, Box 132; Leicester, NC 28748 (704) 683-3662 ORGANlC FERTILIZERS, herbs, and organically-grown, local produce at the WNC Farmers' MJutetl Look for the Fa.irglen Farms stall, uniis F and G in the wholesale area of the Farmcn' Market: 570 Brevard Rd.; Asheville, NC (704) 252-4414 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, cenified, creative, self-motivated, and organized needed at Valley School, a parent-governed alternative school in Monongahela National Forest, WV. Resume, refeicnces to: Teri KulSko; I Kirk St.; Elkins, WV 26241(304)636-2979 THE APPALACHIAN HERB NEWSLETTER: exploring the potenlial for herbs as cash crops in Appalachia. Subscriptions $12/yr.. Write: A!)J)a!acbjan Herb Newslcttcr - ASPI; RL 5, Box 423; Livings100, KY 40445 acres near Boone, NC sccting families with SIJ'Ol1g visions and resources to manifest a peaceful place for our children to grow in love and to survive the corning of the new age. Paul and Susan Del Rios; RL 2, Box 314; Vilas, NC 28692 (704) 297-4937 LAND TRUST in the forming on 57 PURE HONEY - unhealed and unfiltered. Poplar, locust, and sourwood. One of nature's blessings! Price and ordering info from Jimmy Holladay, the Beekeeper; P.O. Box 908; Black Mt'n., NC 28711 (704) 669-9788 INDIAN VALLEY RETREAT- 140 llC(CS in Blue Ridge mountains with facilities available to rent for groups or individual retreats, either guided or unstructured. Send for information and seasonal calendar of healing, transformative evenis to: Indian Valley Holistic Center; RL 2, Box 58; Willis, VA 24380. "AS WE ARE" - Women's music by Pomegranate Rose, a four-woman group playing lively original music. Casseue tape available for $9.00 ppd. from RL 2, Box 435; Pittsboro, NC 27312 A Bil.L is under consideration in the NC legislawre that would affect lhe future of homeschooling in the state. For info, call: Candy Boehm (704) 667-8826 or Tricia Sommerville (704) 658-0809 Tiffi CENTER FOR NEW PRIORITIES - now open, in Asheville, NC, for all groups dedicated to wort:ing towards genuine, life-oricnl.cd, change for lhe community. Office space, small meeting space, and ltitchen facmties are available. For more information, call (704) 254-4714 or write the Center, 54 Starnes Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801. The Cenier appreciates donations, large or small, to help with iis upkeep and activities. PEPPERLAND FARM CAMP - a unique summer camp experience for chi.ldrcn 6-16 years. AdvenlWI: trips, riding, Indian lore, swimming, more. Delicious vegetarian meals - special diets accomodated. Also seeking counselors and slllff. For info: Pepperland Fann Camp; Star Route; Farner, TN 37333 (704) 494-2353 WINGED HEART HOMESTEAD - 283 ICl'CS in Indian Valley district, SW Virginia. On this Cann we want IO start a self-reliant community of families emphasizing organic farming melbods and creative personal and spiritual growth. Contaet: Muzawir; RL HC-67, Box 171: Alum Ridge, VA 24051. APPRENTICESHIPS • offered in large, organic, m3Jket garden business and home subsistence/ preservation garden. Gardeners have eight years experience teaching organic, biodynamic-French intensive, labor intensive gardening. Housing. Contact: Bob and Sandy Gow; Rt. 2, Box SI; Zionvillc, NC 28698. {919) 385-6606. CLINCH RIVER EDUCATIONAL CENTER offers counseling for individuals, couples, groups. Also classes in personal growth and body awareness. P.O. Box 993; Abingdon, VA 24210. FARM FOR SALE - 43 acres, Calhoun Cty. WV; 5 room older house, deep well, 30+ apple trees, indoor hot water and bath, outdoor toilet, FREE NATURAL GAS, hilltop. 1/4 mile well-maintained access road. Allan &: Carol Freeman, (704) FLOWER ESSENCES - Harmony with Nature &: SpiriL Gentle emotiortal support during transitions, specific issues, relationships. Opens communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic, awareness "tools" for improving the ionCl quality. Correspondence to: Elaine Geouge, c/o Patchwork Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So., BumsvWe, NC 28714 At ARTHUR MORGAN SCHOOL 24 studenlS and 264-5726. $30,000. KA11JAH - page 29 SOCK-A-DOOZ PUPPET PETS - Walk 'cm, talk 'em, make 'cm Oy. Wag their tails, you can try. They will love you, hug you if you're blue. Now PUPPET PETS can be your friends too. Handcrafted by Bonnie Blue; 78 1(2 Patton Ave. (#10): Asheville, NC 28801 "CELEBRATION SPACE: Songs to Celebrate Life" - A casset.te tape completely produced, performed, and recorded by members and friends or lhe Floyd County community to raise money for the Floyd County Community Hall. This audio songbook contains 15 original songs and chants and 3 traditional songs to learn and sing in your own community. The sound quality is uneven, but the c:ncrgy. spirit, and joy shine through. For the cassette 1ape with lyric sheet (ppd.), send $10.00 to the Floyd County Communi1y Hall Projca; RL 1, Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091. CREEKSIDE PRESS - Assistance for authors and poctS in editing, computer scrvices, and submitting manuscripts for publication. Lori Ward Hamm; P.O. Box 331; Abingdon, VA 24210. PARM WANTED - young family seeks owner-financed, low down payment (SSOO or less) small acreage (10 acres or less) in the N.C. mountains for home, gardens, fruit tree, and peace. Also, we would appreciate info on jobs and/or job offers in the area. We are young, hard-working and dependable. Please write Mr. &. Mrs. Jorge Velazquez: 174 Countrywood, Cleveland, TX 77327. ARCHITECTURAL ADVlCE AND DESIGN: Adam C.ohen; RL 2. Box 217; Check, VA 24072 14 staff learn together by living in community. Curriculum includes creative academics, group decision-making, a work program, service projccis, extensive field trips, challenging outdoor experiences. Write: 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714. Shell gorget llJlelJ1hod 11 IM Orcat MoWld. ScvieiviUe. TN WEBWORKING continued next page Summer 1987 �WEBWORKING cootinucd ASTROLOGICAL CHART S. 7-page interpretations of planets in signs and houses with planetary aspects. Easy to read. Great gift for the newly-born. Send SIS, name, date. time, and place of birth to TouchslOOe; Rt. 2, Box 314-K; Vilas, NC 28692 OAK LEAF WORKS - hand-crafted futon mauresses, zabolOO noor cushions, yogamats, and buckwheat bull pillows; SUllldard & custom sius available, to suit your needs. Write or call for our free brochwe: Oak Leaf Works; Star Route, Box 43; Floyd, VA 24()1)1; (703) 763-2373. DA YSTAR ASTROLOGICAL SERVICE - niual, transit, comparison charts. Very accurate. Only $3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason; Rt. 2, Box 217; Check, VA 24072 (703) 651-3492 ROSE AROMATICS - cssentiai oils have been healing body, mind, spirit, since ancient EgypL A most pleasant therapy! Dabney Rose; 108 Church Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804 (704)2S4-9SS I WEBWORKING Is free. Send submissions to: Ka1W MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - herbal salves, tinctures, & oils for bitthing & family health. For brochwe., please wrire: Moon Dance Farm; RL l, Box 726; Hampton, TN 376S8 P.O. Box638 Leicester, NC Katliah \ Province 28748 SCOTT BIRD GREG BLACK (704) 683-1414 683-4795 Mebtcltte of tne farlfJ ~Spirit Ul.TIIAVIOLET PUAlflCATIOH AHO ALTElllMG SYSTEMS cus~m beabeb nystal MCklaces SOLAR PRODUCT'S · WATER AHALVSIS RANDA~ C. 704-~5912 LANIER _.._.. ~ 131 r.,_ -..,..,, 1111. - l l o. N C. 2*4 . HWY. 107 RT. 88 BOX 125 CULLOWHEE, NC 28723 (1041 291-103' Chinese Acupuncture and Herbology Clinic NaturaJ Food Store & Deli 160 BroadWay Asheville, NC 28801 MALAPROP'S BOOKSTORE/ CAFE BOOKS - 342 Merrimon Avenue Asheville, NC (704) 258-9016 CARDS - OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Monday-Saturday: 9am·8pm Sunday: 1pm-5pm RECORDS 61 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801 (704) 253-7656 (704) 254-0134 'Jlja!?~ 'J\!1~1 BOBCAT l'ruvoJ1na PttM>nol ~<Vt« Fllloni Book Nttds In Spcclahzecl Fle!Js 704-264-5866 'Nat!lr<\ls y,.., T-SHIRT SHORT SLEEVE T: $10.00 ppd. Colors: Ecru, White, Sliver, Seafoam (It. green) Tea/ LONG SLEEVE T: $14.00 ppd. (Include• Paw Print on Sleeve) Colors: Ecru, Sliver, Tea/, White Satisfaction assured or return for full refund. PleaH Indicate size, color, sleeve length, quantity. B ~)OkD Q""' Thin(s L, .. . GARY HEMSO'TH 8ooludrr IN ADULT SIZES S,M,L,XL We a/so have a /In• of aweanhlrts and kid• T-Shlrta Boone Bel&bts Sbopploc Centu Boone, North CaroUna 28607 t-----------------t FRIEDMAN & Introducing the BOBCAT This full color design Is hand-screened on T-SHIRTS OF 100% PRESHRUNK COTTON KAlUAH - page 30 Where Broadway mMts Merrlmon Ave & 1-240 8 DESIGN, INC. ENUGY SYSTEMS THAT />AY FOR THEAISELVF..'i I ..- - ~-- -,.. -.., ~-=..,.,ca=-=-.,:-:.=-.-=-= - -=::-::....,..==. l(AWI~- P O llOXlll7 OIUS80AO. H C 21125 Summer 1987 �Kmflal1 wants to communicate your thoughts a11d feeli11gs to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories, drawings, or photographs. Please send your contributions to us at: K.atiJ11.b; Box 638; Leicester, NC; Ka!Uah Province 28748. For fall, Katflah is looking for facts.feelings, and amazing tales about Yonah, the black bear, totem spirit of the Southern Appalachians. In the winter issue, the focus will be on "Sheller". Please send drawings, designs, thoughts, or ideas on what is appropriate she/1.:r in the mountains. Medfclnt" ;illfes BACK ISSUES ISSUE NINE - FALL 1985 The Waldee Forest - The Trees Spealc Migrating Forests - Horse Logging Starting a Tree Crop · Urban Trees Acom Bread - Mylll 'Time ISSUE 1WO- WINTER 1983-84 Yona - Bear Hunters - Pigeon River Another Way With Animals - Alma Becoming PoliticaJly Effective Mountain Woodlands - Katiiah Under the Drill- Spiritual Warriors full color ISSUE TEN - WIN11'ER 1985-86 Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone : Internal Mythmalting - Holistic Healing OD Trial Poems: Steve Knaulh - Mythic Places The Uktena's Tale. - Crystal Magic "Dreamspcaking" ISSUE THREE - SPRING 1984 Sustainable Agriculture - Sunflowers Human Impact on the Forest - Childrens' Education - Veronica N"icholas:Woman in Politics - Lillle People - Medicine Allies T- s&frts In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief, the creatures in the world today are only diminuitive forms of the mythic beings who once inhabited the world, but who now reside in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest heaven. But a few of the original powers broke through the spiritual barrier and exist yet in the world as we know it. These beings arc called with reverence "grandfathers". And of them, the strongest are Kanati, the lightning, the power of the sky; Utsa'nati, the raulesnake, who personifies the power of the earth plane; and Yunwi Usdi, "the little man", as ginseng is called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws up power &om the underworld. Each is the strongest power in its own domain. Together they are allies: their energies compliment each ocher to form an even greater power. As medicine allies, they represent the healing powers of the Appalachian Mountains. The medicine powers of Katuah have been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen by Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality, all-cotton shirts, they are available now in all adult sizes from the Katfiah journal. "To show respect for this supernatural trinity of the natural world is to in turn become an ally in the continuing process of maintaining harmony and balance here in the mountains of Katuah." To order, use the form below. ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRING 1986 Community Planning - Cities and the Bioregional Vision - Recycling Community Gardening- Floyd County, VA - Gasohol - Two Bioregional Views Nuclear Supplement - Foxfire Games -Oood Medicine: Visions ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984 Water Drum - Water Quality - Kudzu Solar Eclipse - Clearcuuing - Trout Going to Water - Ram Pumps Mierohydro- Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair, Jim Wayne Miller ISSUE FIVE- FALL 1984 Harvest - Old Ways in Cheroltee Ginseng - Nuclear Waste - Our Celtic Heritage - Bioregionalism: Past, Present, and Future - John Wilnoty - Healing Darltness - Politics of Participation ISSUE THIRTEEN - Fall 1986 Center For Awakening· Elizabeth Callari - A Gentle Death - Ro.spice - Ernest Morgan - Dealing Creatively with Death Home Burial Box - The Walce - The Raven. Moelter - Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom ·Good Medicine: The Sweat Lodge ISSUE SIX - WIN'IBR 1984-85 Winter Solstice Earth Ceremony Horsepasture River - Coming of the Light - Log Cabin Roots - Mountain Agriculwre: The Right Crop • WilJiam Taylor - The Future of the Forest ISSUE FOURTEEN • Winter 1986-87 Lloyd Carl Owle - Boogers and Mummers - All Species Day - Cabin Fever University - Homeless in Katuah Hommade Hot Water - Stovemaker's Narrative - Good Medicine: Interspecies Communication ISSUE SEVEN - SPRING 1985 Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs WOTker Ownership-The Great Economy Self Help Credit Un.ion - Wild Turkey Responsible Investing - Worlting in the Web of Life ISSUE FIFTEEN - Spring 1987 Coverlets - Woman Forester - Susie McM.ahan: Midwife - Alternative Contraception - Biosexuality Bioregionalism and Women - Good Medicine: Mauiarchical CullUl'e - "Pead" JSSUE EIGHT - SUMMER 1985 Celebration: A Way of Life - Katiiah 18,000 Years Ago - Sacred Sites - Polit Ans in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer - Cherokee Hcriiage Center - Who Owns Appalachia? Celebration KAWAH: Bjoreruonal Journal of the Southern Appalachians Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748 Regular Membership........$10/yr. Sponsor..........................$20/yr. Contributor.....................$50/yr. Name Address City Area Code K.AWAH- page 31 Enclosed is $ to give this ejfort an extra boost State Phone Number Zip I can be a local contact person for my area Back Issues Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue#_@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $_ _ Issue#_@ $2.00 = $_ _ Complete Set (2-11, 13-15) @ $19.00 = $_ _ T-Shirts: specify quantity color: tan S_ _ M_ _ L_ _ XL_ _ @ $9.50 each............$_ TOTAL PRICE= postage paid _ $_ _ Summer 1987 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records Description An account of the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, Issue 16, Summer 1987 Description An account of the resource The sixteenth issue of the Katúah Journal 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. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. 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 Poem: "Visions in a Garden".......5 The Vision Quest.......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 Trees".......19 Turtle Island Talking.......20 Young People's Page.......25 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina Subject The topic of the resource Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern Puberty rites Outdoor Education--North Carolina, Western Camps--North Carolina, Western Youth development--North Carolina, Western Cherokee youth--North Carolina, Western North Carolina, Western Blue Ridge Mountains Appalachian Region, Southern North Carolina--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Appalachian Region, Southern Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. <a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Journals (Periodicals) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1980s 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-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/7e7d24eb4270ddd2fe219a5da68fd1f1.pdf f88274a18bcfefc1226b5e712085a2fb PDF Text Text laueXVD Fall 1987 $1.00 BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS THE MOUNTAIN BLACK BEAR �(uTiJAR, P.O. Box 873 Cullowhee, NC Katuah Province 28723 Note new address, inside! ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Postage Paid . Non-profit Org. Permitt12 Cullowhee, NC 28723 �The Life and Death of Bear #87.... 3 Glady and Tire Pisgah Bear Project Bear Story...... ......... ................. 6 bySam Gray Issues (and a Few Answers) for che Black Bear:..................... 8 An lmerview with Dr. Michael Pelton The Challenger: ......................... 11 The Wild Boar in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park cougar...................................... 12 a poem Good Medicine: .......................... 13 "Finding Allies in the World" "Me and My Walker Hounds"...... 14 by Robert McMahan "Smells Like Money to Me:" ........ 16 a report on Champwn l lllUnlJJional by Jay S. Geru Bear ................. ........................ 18 THE BLACK BEAR IN KATUAH Exactly four years ago this autu!IUl, Katua/1 began publishing. Our first issue spoke to the sacredness of these mountains and to the journal's intent to explore how we humans could better understand our relationship to this region and how to more sensitively inhabit this place we call home. Because the totem spirit is the living soul of a region's natural life community, in the second issue of the journal, we searchingly asked "Who is the totem spirit of the Karuah region'? Which is the species most closely connected to the spirit of these IDOWltains?" The black bear, called Yonah by the Cherokee, answered: "/am a mountain in my body. Dark like the hills at midnight. Fur covers my back As the darkjirs clothe rhe ridges. l am massive. Rock is in my bones. My growl is the thunder, voice of the mils... a poem /Jy Scott Bird Green Politics in Katuah .............. 19 by Richard Harrison Natural World News ................... 20 Modem Science Restores Ancient Indian Maize Prt>tecting Our Mountain Werlands DOE Hot Meals Program No Problem with Tobacco Showdown ar Flat Creek NC Legislators Want Dump Peregrine Nesr Discovered Turtle Island Talking.............. .... 23 Al.ookatPeaceNer Old Galaxies:............... ............. 23 a poem by Michael Hockaday Drumming: ............................... 24 Letten to KatllQh Littering: The Same Old Story ..... 27 /Jy Michael Hockaday Fa11 Calendar of Events ............... 28 Webworking....................... .... .. . 30 So in that issue we began our quest co meet one of the most ancient inhabitants of these moumains--the black bear. The cover of the issue displayed Martha Tree's powerful drawing of the black bear spirit gazing up at the vision of the golden eagle. Within the pages of that second issue was a story-myth of the role that bears played in creating the human race and there were tales of encounters with the animal world by Snow Bear. Also there was a story about the exploits of two old bearhunters, Charlie and Russell, now both passed on .... and other black: bear lore. Now four years later, we find ourselves coming full circle. Again, we are asking "Who is the Black Bear?" and "What is our relationship to Yonah?" In this issue we are investigating in particular the future of the black bear here in southern Appalachia and the chances of its survival Concern for the survival of the black bear is not just an isolated case of kindness to a single animal species. The health of the entire Katuah bioregion is reflected io the health of the black bear. What is at stake is the present aod future existence of the bear's forest habitat -- the old, spreading trees capable of providing nuts and space to den; the herbaceous plants that grow up in their shade; the fertile soils rich in leaf-mold and teeming with micro-organisms that suppon their growth; the clear running streams that spring up among their roots; and all the other creatures that depend on and at the same time create the conditions of the climax growth stage of the Appalachian forest This is the balance that the mountains have been growing toward for millenia. The bears were not put here to be our teachers; the welfare of the human race is immaterial to them. But if the humans would humbly respect and learn from Yonah, the black bear would show us that the conditions of the climax forest are in the long run the best living conditions for us all. The life of the black bear is not only closely linked to the spirit of the land, but, as the Cherokee legend in this issue's "Good Medicine" column indicates, it is also joined in some deep and mysterious way to the spirit of the human inhabitants as well. Feelings about Yonah run deep, andlike any deep feelings-they are complex and inextricably mixed with emotion. TI1e bl:ick bear takes many forms in the minds and emotions of humans.... ..... Yonah as rhe mother bear, the Great She-Bear of the night sky, a cult figure in ancient times, the spirit of the great Mother Earth, massive in stature and a bountiful provider, warm and comforting, yet quick UJ anger and ferocious in her rage. .....Yonah as a funny, playful clown wlw entertains the tourists as they motor through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, drawing them out of their cars to cadge snacks and goodies. .....Yonah at the heart of the chase, the hunt, the annual tracking of wildness by the domestic llllmans. ..... Yonall as the shadowy figure, dark and savage, that takes shape in our fears just outside the safe boundaries of the setrlement clearing. waiting to maim tile unaware and steal tire fruits of civilized living ...... Yonah, the medicine animal, who, like the land, sleeps away the winter in a cave or a hole, dreaming powerful dreams and returning with knowledge from the underworld within the heart of the mountains. .....Yonall as the wise one who can show how to live close to rhe true spirit of these mountains. The black bear may take any or all of these forms within the human mind io our quest to know this ancient creature. Like any proper spirit, Yonah is elusive and impossible to pin down. But if we are to continue for long here in these mountains, we need to look inward and touch outward to learn the wisdom that the black: bear holds. . -·~ - The Editors pr �fi,ATUAH, EDITQRIAL STAFF nus ISSUE: Scott Bird Mamie Muller Rob Messick Michael Red Fox Martha Tree David Wheeler EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE: Judith Hallock Sylvia Fox Jeff Fobes Anne Muller Arjuna Cover: Blue Mountain Printmakers New Sharon, ME 04955 Back cover drawing: Laurie Pierce EPITQRlAL OFFICE rms ISSUE: Worley Cove, Sandymusb Creek The Southern Appalachian Bloregion and Major Eastern river systems STATEMENT OF PURPOSE PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co., Sylva, NC TELEPHONE: (704) 683-1414 WRITE US AI: K1JJW1h Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748 Here in the southern-most heartland of the Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on our continent, Turtle Island, a small bw growing group has begun to taU on a sense of responsibility for the implications of that geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of responsibility centers on the concept of living within the natural scale and balance of universal systems and principles. Within this circle we begin by invoking the Cherokee name Kattiah" as the old/new name for this area of the mountains and for its journal as well. The province is indicated by its nanual boundaries: the Roanoke River Valley to the north; the foothills of the piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountain and the Georgia hills ro rhe south; and rhe Tennessee River Valley to ti~ west. The editorial prioriries I or us are to co/leer and disseminate information and energy which pertains specifically to this region, and to foster the aware11ess rlwt rhe land is a living being deserving of our love and respect. living in rliis manner is a way to insure the sustainability of the biosphere and a lasting place for ourselves in its co11tinuing evolutionary process. We seem to lwve reached the fulcrum point ofa" do or die " sitttation ifl tenns of a qua/iry standard of life for all /i11i11g beings 011 this planet. As a voice for rhe caretakers of this sacred land, Katiiall, we advocate a cemered approach to the concept of decentralization. It is oiu hope to become a support system for those accepti11g the challe11ge of sustainability a11d the creation of harmony and bala11ce in a total sense, here in this place. We welcome all correspondence, criticism, perti11ent information, articles, artwork, etc. with hopes that Kauiah will grow to serve the best interests of this region and all its living, breathing members. H Diversi1y is an imponant elcmen1 of bioregional ecology. bolh n:uural and social. Jn line wilh I.his principle. ~h tries IO serve as a forum for I.he discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express only I.he opinion of I.he aulhors and are not necessarily I.he opinions of I.he KatUa/J edil°" « slalT. - The Editors the other galaxies... You open the way. In the last issue of Kattlah, we mentioned that with this current issue, we would be changing from our traditional newspaper formal to a new magazine format As you can see, we are in the process of reconsidering the wisdom of that change. We would appreciate your inpu1 as well in this decision. Would you rather have a more durable, but more expensive maga1ine format or a less durable, but less expensive newspaper format for Kari/ah? Please share your ideas, suggestions and preferences with us. We appreciate your feedback. The lnicmal Revenue Service has declared KJJtilnh a non·proli1 organilnlion under section SOl(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All coniribuuons IO KillHPli are deductible from personal income l!lX. �THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BEAR #87 by David Wheeler "Poachers Tune In On Sleeping Bears" declared lhe page one headline in lhe Asheville Citizen on the morning of January 17, 1987. Poachers had shot and killed an older female bear in her winter den site in a hollow cree within the confines of the Pisgah Bear Sanctuary below the Blue Ridge Parkway. The bear was number 87 of lhe bears who had been radio-collared for radio telemetry tracking by members of The Pisgah Bear Project, a research program being carried out by Nonh Carolina State University (NCSU) scientists and students. The radio collars emit a sustained signal that is tracked by directional antennas to plot a precise location of the animal to give a picture of its range area and its daily movements. People all through the mountains were shocked and angered that the poachers had located the helpless bear by monitoring the signals from her collar. When the poachers found her location, they had climbed her tree and shot her between the eyes while she was asleep, and then had cut down the tree to rettieve her carcass. People were particularly outraged because Bear 87 was about to give birth when she was killed. "Glady" was the name The Pisgah Bear Project researchers had given Bear 87. At the time of her death she had just turned 11 years old - a remarkable age for a bear in a region where few bears roam the woods for more than six years before they are shot Glady had been trapped and collared in June of 1984 and was well-known to the staff of The Pisgah Bear Project, who had "Glady" was the name The Pisgah Bear Project researchers had given Bear 87. At the time of her death she had just turned J1 years old - a remarkable age for a bear in a region where few bears roam the woods for more than six years before they are shot. monitored her movements almost daily since that date. In the subsequent two and one-half years of contact, she had been recaptured five times and had provided a wealth of data on her habits and movements. In the June previous to her shooting she had been caught, measured, and released. She was 125 pounds in weight, 148 centimeters (58.25 inches) in length, and 79 centimeters (31 inches) in chest circumference at that time. Glady had lived the life of any wild sow-bear for the first eight years of her life. ..She was one of the two cubs born that winier of 1976 in the warm darkness of her nwrher's den, and rhat small space was all she knew for the first four nwnrhs of her life. Jn the <kn she nursed and grew from one pound to four or five pounds by rhe rime her nwrher climbed our of her den bringing her cubs with her. Even beneath rhe rrees, the lighl of rhai April sun mu.st have been intensely bright to Glady's young eyes. Her mother continued ro stay near the den site for another monrh, nwving little and gradually beginning to eat rhe tender young grasses, branch lertuce, and squawroot (Conophilis americano) C()ming up through rhe leaves. As rhe spring progressed, Glady and her sibling followed their mother down to her spring range area, and, as food became more abundant, their mother put on weight, and rhe cubs continued to grow and gain in StTengrh. That first summer was a tklighr for rile young cubs. They stayed close to rheir - continued on llCll page Phoio: NC Wildlife RC50un:es Commission KATUAH- page 3 FALL 1987 �._....___....,._...,. ·=-- .. ........... - • --.-... - ... -·· _._.... mother and are buckberries under the tall trees, blackberries from the choked jungles along the open streambanks, and then browsed the open hillsides and forests for the succulent moL1ntain blueberries. They also raided yellowjacket nests for their larvae, and ate ants and grubs from rotten logs their mother tore open with her long claws. Once they watched from the groL1nd as their mother robbed a bee tree, slopping ow globs of the sticJ..y honey and delicious larvae, oblivious to the stings of the enraged bees And, if they \Vere lucky, they would occasionally find carrion th.Ill was not too spoiled lying in the woods. Mother ta11gh1 them to climb trees, to hide, and to wait motimilessfor her return. Tirey developed short. powerful legs 10 climb the mountain slopes and, although their eyes were never very useful, their noses became keen and sensitive as they became accustomed to the seems of the forest. Then in the fall, they joined their mother in gorging themselves on ripe acorns and hickory mus to build up fat to insulate and feed them during their winter den time. The cubs contented themselves with scooping acorns up from the ground with their front paws and dextrous lips, but their mother often went high into the oak trees, bending and cracking branches to bring the acorns, rich in protein and oils, within reach. Dllring this time the cubs and their mother were moving almost constantly, While male bears sleep lightly. often lying on the grou11d with 011/y a laurel thicket or broken brush for cover.female bears put more energy into finding a warm, secure den and sleep deeply, stirring little duri11g rheir whole rime of dorma11cy. using every possible minme to fortify their bodies to endure the winter's fast. The young bears were tired and, when at tire beginning of November the food supply declined and their mother started for tire high country to find an isolated den site, they were glad. They did not enter the den immediately, but for one month they lingered in the vicinity ofthe den site, eating what they could find, b111 not going far to forage for food. Finally, however, their mother showed them how to ingest a fecal plug of old leaves and twigs to stop elimination, and they followed her into the den. Their first year was over, While male bears sleep lightly, often lying on the Rro1md with only a laurel thicket or broken brush for cover, female bears p11111wre energy into finding a wann. secure den and sleep deeply, stirring little during their \\ihole time of donnaney. Tiie small family of bears did not leave their den to defecattJ or urinate during their four-momh denning period. By a miracle ofphysiology not duplicated in the animal world, bears recycle their 1-.aste water through their kidneys a1ul mrn the nitrogen from urea waste compounds back into protein. So, although Glady was gaunt and disheveled 1\'lren size emerged from the den in the sprinR. the remarkable metabolism and amazing endurance of her species had brought her through the wimer with no unus11al stress. Yet she was h11ngry, grumpy, disoriented, and in no mood to appreciate tire beauties of spring in the mountains. 8111 as food magically appeared in the forest, she grew in strength and confidence. She became eager for another year of roaming the slopes with her mother GLADY'S RANGE (South and cast or Mt. Pisgah. straddling lhe Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah N:irional Forest) KATUAH - page 4 FALL 1987 �and hu sibling. Glady thoughl the summer to come would be a repetition of the last, and so she was dismayed when in late June their mother drove the two cubs away with fierce growls and threats, when an amorous male bear began to move close to her feeding area. The two yearling bears stayed close together for companionship during that summer and fall, but they separared into individual dens ar the onset of winter. Glady was on her own then, but she stayed close to the familiar areas of her mother's home range. She saw her mother several times. but as long as it was not mating season, her mother did not seem to mind her presen~. It was two or three more years before Glady went into estrus, but as soon as it became evident that she was sexually ma11ue, another large male began w stay close to her and eventually mated with the young sow-bear. Glady continued to roam her range and feed during the summer and the fall, while, unknown to her, another unique adaptation was taking place within her body. The two fertilized blastocysts that were to be her first cubs did not implant to the uierine wall, but instead floated free in the uterus while blueberry season moved into acorn season, and Glady began intense feeding to gain weight for her winter dormancy period. The acorns were plentiful that year, and as Glady moved uphill to la11guish in the vici11ity of her den site, the blastocysts implanted themselves to her uterus and her cubs began to grow inside her, perfectly timed to emerge within her den in the dead of winter. I/Glady had notfoundfood enough to bring her up to a weight that would support reproduction and /actarion, through the "delayed implantation" process, as it is called, she would have passed the fertilized blastocysrs and terminated her pregnancy with little trouble and at a very slight physiological cost. Although she did not know she was pregnant, Glady took unusual care in picking a den site that year, and finally found a tree of wide girth with a decayed core and an opening, small and safe, high up the trunk. Glady bore two cubs in the den thaJ winter, although she was hardly aware of the fact. Even their insistent nursing did little to disturb her winter sloth. But when she awoke again that spring, she found she was the mother with two cubs looking to her to introduce them to the world. So life continued for Glady lhrough good yC3l"S and bad until June of 1984 when Dr. Roger Powell of the Zoology Dcpanmcnt of NCSU and other members of The Pisgah Bear Project research group caught her in a leg snare trap baited with odiferous sardines. The project was three years old al the time, and Powell and his crew were trapping, collaring, and releasing bears in the Pisgah Sanctuary with several specific KATUAH-page5 objectives in mind. Telemetry studies were providing data on the bears' movements and range areas. Trapping operations and the co!Jars were also aiding in collection of information on monality and reproduction statistics, to be used in evaluating the bear sanctuary and in drawing up guidelines to help determine state management policies and set hunting regulations. Simultaneously, bait station surveys (sec p. 9) were providing population indexes, and work had begun to determine exactly how much food for bears the forest does provide, which will shed additional light on the findings about the females' home range areas. The study has also shown that almost half of the human-caused mortality among the study animals has been a result of poaching. Now, although the study is not yet completed, some results are beginning to come clear. The bait station surveys show a population decline in the sanctuary from levels in the late 1970's. The decline seems to have halted, "and," cautions Powell, "that technique gives only a rough index, so I would hesitate to say how significant that decline is." The study has also shown that almost half of the human-caused monality among the study animals has been a result of poaching. "1be Project has been in the press a lot lately because Glady was shot in her den," says Powell, "and our findings on poaching have been what the press bas emphasized. There is no question that we have documented poaching in the Pisgah Bear Sanctuary, but there's a lot more to the Project than evidence of illegal hunting. "From the habitat work that graduate student John Zimmerman is doing, for instance, we're getting to the point where we should be able to predict bear use habitat and develop models for what is good bear habitat here and what isn't. That could be very valuable to the Forest Service and the Wildlife Resources Commission. "We arc also developing a probability curve that will tell us for a bear of any given age what the probability is that it will live longer. I feel good about our reproduction data - it appears that the standard litter size here is between two and three cubs - but we're still missing some critical survivorship data on cubs and yearling bears, so we can't say for cenain whether survivorship is greater than or less than reproduction." The Pisgah Bear Project's best work has been in what it has found out about bear spacing patterns and social organization. The study has determined that although female bears elsewhere often guard an area to protect food sources, there is apparently no territoriality in the Pisgah Bear Sanctuary. By following the interactions of neighboring females, masters candidate Peggy Horner demonstrated this by showing that they used the same areas at the same time without conflicts. Project members are now considering the hypolhesis that male bears define their territory, not by food avaiJability, but by Lhe availability of females. "What the bears appear to be doing is predicted by most behaviorial and ecological theories," says Powe!J. "But these theories were mostly developed for smaller creatures with shon life·spans, like hummingbirds and anolis lizards, which give a lot of data in a shon time. Bears have different time spans, but they appear to be working on basically the same rules. Thar's exciting to me. That means we don't have to rethink a lot of our behavioral and ecological theory." S incc food availability is a basic factor in the female bears' social organization, The Pisgah Bear Project is also measuring food production levels to see how they compare with levels in other study areas and what behavioral effects derive from this. This is done by loeating marked study sites in different areas of the sanctuary, which a.re then visited regularly by Project workers and every bit of food material of three major indicator food species (squawroot, berries, and acorns) arc gleaned and weighed. "The habitat here is tremendous" says Roger Powell. "When I get out there and actually sit down and pick berries at one of these sites, I'm impressed by how productive they are, and I can sec how, if you found a good berry site and ate berries all day, you could get faL" 'That's why I was enraged when I found out about Glady's killing. Had she been killed legally, I would have been sorry, but I would have accepted it. But to have tracked her down by radio, inside the sanctuary, inside her den absolutely enraged me. There's no sense to it." Until the time of her death, Glady played an imponant pan in the NCSU reasearch. Erran Seaman, a graduate student working with the project team, said, "Bears can live on toward 20 years if they're not disturbed. However, Glady was the oldest female we knew of in the sanctuary. They simply don't survive to live out their full life span. We don't have many that ate over five and one-half now. "That's why I was enraged when J found out about Glady's lcilling. Had she been killed legally, I would have been . continued on page 25 FALL 1987 �Bear Story by Sam Gray She was nuzzling and pawing at a spikenard root as big as her face when she first heard the hounds. Hunger was not the motive for grubbing in the dirt. She'd eaten well for the past month. The aroma was the thing. A discreet peace and a clear mind were hidden there in the array of smells released from the bruised starch of the rhizome. Reluctantly, she raised herself up into the October dusk to KATUAH - page 6 FALL 1987 �listen to the baying orison coming to her from another world. She could make out two separate packs of dogs and an indeterminate number of hunters. They were way down the mountain, working back and forth across cold traces, getting their bearings. Some of the voices were familiar; old hounds that knew her ways, ancient choruses that cried, "We've come." There were young, strong voices too. It would be a long race. She left the aromatic peace of the spikenard, made her way into the violence of the night. She moved upslope and to the northeast, leading them away from the tree where her cubs were perched. Her body and mind were quick and clear - water moving among stones. By the time she sprang from the upper timber into the wet grass of the Old Field Bald at the summit, her strategy was shaped. She paused in the shadow of a laurel clump to pant and listen. 111e bald was lambent and still, except for an owl cruising among the ash trees hunting rodents. From the clangor in the distance, she beard an old hound announce fresh scent. The other pack had diverged and was moving to the west. She snorted, sighed, and plunged down the north slope, gaining a deeper darkness and in moments a tiny rivulet that offered a quick drink and possibly some effacement of her trace. Further down, the creek was joined by a tributary and between the two streams was a quarter acre of doghobble bushes. She leaped into them, using her body to plane down the entangling mass, gain a foothold, and leap again, until she had crossed it and stood panting and listening. The dogs would be an hour getting through it. On previous chases, she bad, from this point, worked her way around the massive side of Cold Mountain, weaving back and forth from stream to doghobble patch to boulder field until the dogs were beaten flesh. It was her mountain. Tonight, however, something or everything was different. Something beckoned downslope and to the west. She had gone but a little way in that direction when she pitched forward, tumbling among rocks and moss and mud, moaning uncontrollably. The bear had been struck down by an insistent, sharply certain knowledge that reached her across the great heart of connectedness: her cubs were gone. By what wings or winds !his message had come to her cannot be told, but it was the truth. For at that moment, under a tall tree a mile away, a man, exulting in the certainty that she was elsewhere, was triumphantly holding aloft in each hand a squirming, mewling bear cub, grasped by the nape of the neck, bathed in torchlight and terror. With a single thrash and roll of her body the bear massaged her anguish into the moist earth beside the watercourse - and quickly left it there. The game was changed. Before the capture of the cubs, her strategy was determined by the need to protect them, even sacrificing herself if necessary. Now she must survive to breed again. And in another place. For nothing held her to Cold KATUAH-page7 Mountain now. For the remainder of the night the bear moved with unobstructed intention and speed down the great slope of the mountain. At first light she was lumbering along a gentler slope miles from the dogs. the hunters, and the pain. Ahead of her were a few apple trees, a meadow, an ancient fence, and beyond these, indistinct in the morning mist, the outlines of a cabin. It was his habit to rise early and in good weather to sit on the porch to watch the light gather. For half a century, be had done this in all seasons, liking best to sit in autumnal silence, reading the sun's progress among the hickories, red oaks, and maples of Lickstone Ridge - the leaves taking the light inside themselves and then giving it back, changed and revalued. He was an old man sitting alone, lost in early light and dreams, when he saw something moving out among the apple trees. His first thought was, "It's Trudy." Trudy had gotten up early, before him even, and was out there in her old black coat picking up the last of the apples. He slowly and unwillingly Jet go of this notion along with the brief joy it had borne him and forced himself to acknowledge that it wasn't Trudy. She had been dead now for over a year. The form emerging from the mist was not his wife, but a bear, and it was coming closer. The bear covered the ground between them quickly and darted under the cabin at a point where the sills were raised on rock pillars two feet from the ground. The unnailed puncheon floor inside the cabin began to rumble and raise as the bear moved around underneath. The old man stood in the doorway and watched the tremors until they ceased and everything was still. The thrum of cicadas, jarflies, and gnats pulsed in his ears. He felt strange - alive, but unsteady. Ile turned, groped for his chair, sank into it. The dreams in his head began to swirl together, and the images superimposed themselves on each other and over the mountain landscape before his porch. He opened his eyes. Two men were standing at the bottom of the porch steps. One of them was calling out his name: "Quill, Quill! Wake up, Uncle Quill!" A haze suffused everything and through it, as if from a great distance, he recognized bis neighbor. Vance Callahan, along with bis son, June. The old man struggled to his feet, and, leaning on a post for support, stared blankly down at the apparitions below. "We been huntin' bear all night. We're roundin' up the dogs now. You seen any, Uncle Quill?" The old man continued to stare, then cleared his throat as if to deliver some oratory. But all he said was. "No. No, I ain't." Vance Callahan said something the old fellow couldn't quite make out, and then the two figures were gone. The old man continued to lean against the post and stare out into the warm October afternoon. , FALL 1987 �ISSUES (AND A FEW ANSWERS) FOR THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BLACK BEAR: An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton by Paul Gallimore and David Wheeler indicate that just prior 10 that time few bears were seen anywhere. They had been killed up to the most remote areas. The historic sites were Bone Valley up Hazel Creek and under Thunderhead Mountain on the west side. But it wasn't too many years after 1934 that the black bear population began to climb. The black bear population in the Park has been in the range of 400-600 bears for many years, and this breeding nucleus supplies the surrounding national forest areas. Dr. Michael Pelton has been studying the blac/c bears of the Guat Smoky Mowttains National Park. and the Cherokee National Forest/or 17 years as part of his job as professor in rhe Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee. In the course of his research he has trapped, tagged, and released more than 1,000 bears. He has helped to develop research methods that are now standard techniques in s111dyi11g bears and other mammals worldwide. He is an iruernationally-k.nown authority 011 bears, and travels to o ther countries to advise research efforts. In talking with him, he is relaxed and friendly, a person appreciative of wildlife, who just happens to have an extraordinary knowledge of the creatures of the forest around us. Katuah: We've heard an estimate of 2,000 bears in the Southern App:ilachian Mountains. Did that come from you? Pelton: That is a rough estimate that we came up with when we were puuing together the Tri-State Black Bear Study back in 1978. It's based on a combination of things: what we know about actual population density in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, bait-station surveys, and kill data. Historically, state game and fish commissions have taken the number of bears reponed killed during hunting season and assumed that number is 20 percent of the population, and as long as the sex and age ratios stay about the same, they assume everything is in a steady state. When the Park was set aside in 1934, the repons I get from those early records KATUAH - page 8 I say 400-600 bears, because they have dramatic population fluctuations depending on the hard mast (acorn and nut) situation. A crop failure sends the population way down, but then all the females are ready to breed the next year, so that with a good harvest, it soars right back up. It's a boom and bust cycle. Last summer during the drought everyone was concerned about the mast crop. We all thought it was going to be serious, especially following the poor mast crop of 1984, which set the stage for a tremendous number of cubs to be born in 1985. That whole generation was in jeopardy, but the shonage never developed. The harvest was spotty, but it wasn't disasttous, and a lot of young bears should have left their mothers and dispersed this summer. Kat fiah: It seems that if the times were hard for the bears, the percentage taken during the hunting season would go l!J2 instead of remaining steady. That would make kill data an unreliable estimate. It would seem that they would need to have some hard figures to actually know what is happening to the population in the region. Pelton: Estimating population is complicated. There are a lot of variables. The sex and age ratios have been holding steady, but it would be good to know more than the age srructure and the kill data to be able to tell what's actually going on. People who work with populations can take age structure statistics, and they can prove to you that a population is heading toward extinction; then the next minute they can prove that the same population is expanding fantastically. Censuses arc tough. That's what we tried to do for so many years in the Smokies: capture/recapture using various techniques, anything we could think of to count bears. It was a very intense research project on a small area. It's totally unrealistic to talk about doing something like that on a regional basis even one time, much less year after year. Ideally, I would like to do what they are doing in Pennsylvania: there they trap a lot of bears - a good percentage of the population - in the summertime, and then when the hunter kill data comes in during the fall, they compare the ratio of tagged/untagged bears. They feel like they are right on in terms of the bear population in Pennsylvania. The bait station index is the best method we have right now (see sidebar). It's rough, but it gives us more information, and it's a feasible method that could be carried out throughout the whole Tri-State bear range. We've gotten good correlations between bait station results and what we actually know about population density in the Smokies. For instance, for a long time we figured that the density of bears in the Cherokee National Forest was one-half that in the Park for a lot of reasons - road access, higher than usual poaching, and so on - and when we got in some bait station data, it indicated that the bait station talce was about one-half what we were geuing in the Smokies. It told us what we thought we'd find out. A friend of mine Died the bait station technique out in Idaho, and it correlated very well to what we found in this area. They're using it in Michigan and are very optimistic about it out there. Georgia Died it in the Chattahoochee National Forest for three years, and they are now going to make it a permanent part of their inanagernentprogram. It's a general index, and it works very well, if you don't expect more from it than that. Katuah: When you say the Tri-Staie area, what does that encompass? Pelton: It's basically the same as the area known as the Blue Ridge physiographic province (Katuah) in the states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. The bear range is basically the federally-owned lands in this area. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a focal point for this range. We can call an area a discrete range as long ns there are connections between its various pans, and the Park is connected to all the major national forest areas surrounding it. But there is a very definite line of human habitation between the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee and the George Washington National Forest in Virginia that cuts those two bear populations apart The assistant head of the wildlife department in Virginia called me last year to see about meeting at the state line to discuss reconnecting the national forest areas by means of wildlife corridors or conservation easements. FALL 1987 �Katiiali: Wouldn't corridors make bears more liable to poaching pressure by concentrating their numbers in a narrow saip of land? Pelton: This is a new idea, and I don't know exactly how wide a corridor should be to protect bears in this kind of country South of here we've seen black bears dispersed down hardwood corridors along riverbanks that are just a few yards wide. They are very vulnerable in th:u situation. The best survival habitat is~ of cover, and the wider the corridors can be, the better. I don't have much hope for anything outside the federally-owned lands. The rest is gone. Down in Louisiana they are reclaiming some abandoned farmland and putting it back into bear habitat, but I don't think that will be the case in Southern Appalachia. Once the second homes and the strip developments are there, they're there forever. K atua/1: Is the region approaching its carrying capacity for bears? P elton: I can't speak much for the North Carolina side of the mountains, but from what I can tell in the Cherokee National Forest. it's not near the carrying capacity. The mast production there cenainly is not optimal. A lot of these forests arc 40-60 years old now after being essentially wiped out during the '30's, and they're just beginning to reach mast production capability, so there's room to grow there. Wit h more control of illegal hunting activi ries. the density in the national forest could approach that in the Park, which is approximate!y one bear per 1,000 acres. K at fiah: What do you think arc the cumulative effects of human habitation on the bears? Pelton: "Cumulative effects" is a specific term for a relatively new idea tha t has already been applied to the grizzly s.ituacion our west. It means to take all the bits and pieces of impact and put them together to see how they fit in terms of an overall effect on the species you arc looking at. They are doing that in a very sophisticated way for the grizzly, and a Forest Service employee is going to develop a cumulative effects model for the Chauahoochee National Forest as a case study for the Southern Appalachians. That will involve him looking at all the population parameters he can dig out of our data base and adding up all those factors: roads, timber management, number of people, bunting, and so on. Essentially, he is going to t.alce each of those factors and index it with some son of value system that is weighted in terms of its assumed impact. Pe lton: I don't think it's going to be that sophisticated. This is just a one-person project. My personal concerns are, first, sustained, long-term mast production, and, second, access and how that's used. My first question is: is the clearcut technique setting into motion a situation where they are going to be perpetuating non-mast-producing species for eons of time? If there is a marginal cove hardwood setting where there was a good oak component, and it is clearcut , then that oak component is lost forever, either because it is replanted in white pine, or because it comes back in poplar, and they return in 60 • 80 years and cut it again when the poplar is large, but the oaks haven't had a chance to get started. f ve been ta.king the Forest Service to task for that. They argue that the oaks reach maturity in 80 years and start downhill after that, and that they need to be cut at that point. rm not convinced that the data would support them on that, particularly with white oak, which is the most important one. I'm not a forester, but from all the data that rve been a ble to dig o ut, they do not reach maturity until 120-150 years, when they arc reaching peak acorn production. O ur second poi nt is that the trees should be allowed to sustain their peak for a c:untinued on nCXI page TENN. N.C. s.c. GA. BLACK BEAR RANGE IN THE "TRI-STATE REGION" (Source: Tri-Stntc Block Bear s1udy, 1978) KATUAH-page9 BAIT STATION SURVEY K at uah : Will it take atmospheric deposition into account? The bait station survey was developed as a relatively inexpensive method that is easy to implement and provides a standard data base of relative density, distriburion. and activities of the black bear that could be easily implemented throughout the whole of Katuah. The bait, three panially opened cans of sardines, is hung at least 10 feet high in a small tree, so that it is necessary for a bear to bend the tree over to get at the cans. These stations arc spaced a1 one-half mile intervals along routes selecte d to systematically cover the chosen sample area at the density of one bait site per mile. Baits arc placed during the month of July, when bear activity is highest. The s lope; aspect, ele vatio n; oversto ry and unders tory vegetation ; d istance to the nearest road; timber c::= - ..,.ne....t; nmal past. 1u4 disllDce to die 1lle or bear sanctuary bat, boundary are noted for each bait site to aid in analysis of bear habits. movements, and habiw preferences. Each bait station is revisited five nights after it is set. Marks of tampering arc very clear, and the percentage o f baits taken is used as a comparative index value to give an idea of the bear population in different areas over the course of time. The more widespread the usc of the bait-station method and the higher the degree of consistency that can be achieved in its usc, the more value it will have as a research technique in the Southern Appalachians. The bear range in Tennessee and Georgia is being monitored with bait-station surveys c onducted by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the Georgia Depanment of Natural Resources. The National Park service carries out surveys in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Isolated surveys are being done as pan of research projects in North Carolina bear sanctuaries. An annual, region-wide bait station survey is immediately possible and dcsircable as a means to provide uniform data among the differe nt p o litical jurisdic tions and agencies of Ka tuah. Coordina ti o n by a n i ndepe nde nt organization or the US Fish and Wildlife Service could enhance the value o f such a survey. All that is lacking is a committment from the US Forest Service and 1he NC Wildlife Resources Commission to make a region-wide black bear management swvey a reality. ~ FALL 1987 �• oonunucd rrom pm·ious page period of time to get the best mast crops. So I've been pushing them to increase the rotation time to 120-150 years. There is also a problem regenerating oaks. foresters just haven't been abk to work that ouL Some of them are certainly interested, but all they have been able to do is to go into a stand before they cut it and see if there's enough advanced regeneration (oak saplings) beneath it so that there will be some oaks coming back. If they cut too early the oaks will be out-competed by tulip poplars and other sun-loving, pioneer species. "It would help immediately also the effect of gener:il use of the ro:id forcing individual be:irs to shift their home range to another are:i. A be:ir chooses :in area for a home range because it's a good habitat :irea. :ind if he has to shift it over. he will either have to shift over to land that is not as good for habitat or he will push another bear over to poorer land. The more marginal the situation, the more vulnerable the bear becomes. I've said before that road development should be restricted where there is more than one-half mile of road per square mile of forest. Kai1ial1: But gating roads would if the Forest Service defined its job as more than just timber management. Like the Park Service and the state game and fish agencies, they need to play a tripartite role in managing the forest: biological management, enforcement, and information/ education." "MARK TREES" MYSTERY For many years naturalists have speculated on the meaning of the trees found in bear habitat area that have been purposcfulJy scarred with clawmarks. As ; yet, no one has been able to decipher the meaning oflhe "mark trees". Marie trees are not randomly scattered through the brush. They arc always on a trail and usually on a ridgetop along a very distinct game trail. Any species of tree may be marked. They are always live· although sometimes a tree may be killed by extensive marking. The marks arc definitely made by bears. They are always head-high, and sometimes bear hairs can be found caught in lhe b:irk of rough-skinned trees. The marks can be vertical or horizontal, but arc most oflen horizontal ns differentiated from the venical marks they leave \\hen they are climbing a tree. There are several theories as to the meaning of the m:irks. One thought is that it is females and males signalling to one another during the breeding season. Another idea is that the marks signify the dominance hierarchy among the males, panicularly during the mating season when they are competing for fem.1lcs. They could also be territorial markers placed by an adult female to warn away other females from her range area. Whatever the interpretation, the marks are of great imponancc to the bears. Tree marking appears to be highly ritualized. Some trees are marked once and never marked ag;1in, while others :ire marked year after year. But if a tree is marked repeatedly, the bears - even different bears - wiJI walk in the same footprints to get to the tree. Trappers used to take advnntage of this and set their traps around a previous footprint close to a mark tree. They knew that if a bear returned to the tree, he would follow the cJ<.isting footprints and be a sure ca~ help. Pelton: Cenainly, unless they use that road to make a clearcut..... It would help immediately if the Forest Service defined its job as more than just timber management. Like the Park Service and the state game and fish agencies, they need to play a tripanite role in managing the forest: biological management, enforcement, and information/ education. They don't do much enforcement. For example, they only have one man on the whole southern Cherokee National Forest. One person can't do anything in an area like that. They also don't do much educating of the local people about what the forest means and how it serves them. In the northeast people are more accepting of bears. Up there if a person killed a bear out of season, he'd get reponed. People would gee irate about it! Here you don't see that. It's a long-tenn educational problem. People need to learn about the animal. The Forest Service has not been fleJ<.ible enough about alternative silvicultural methods that might be applicable in cenain areas. They tend to generalize and say that they don't have the time or the personnel to try some other alternative Conn of cutting. The second concern is roads. We are finding that road density may not be as imponant as how the road is used by vehicles over time. There are two effects of roads. There's the direct effect of hunters using that road to kill a bear, and there's - Mike Pelton KATUAH - page 10 FAI.t 1987 �Attirude is very imponant as well. In Vennont, the Forest Service didn't have any trouble getting their mar.agemcnt plan for the Green Mountain Forest accepted. There they staned out on the right foot. Their approach was to question, "What's unique about this forest, and what docs it provide that won't be provided any other way?" The black bear was one resource they mentioned. Another was large saw timber grown on a long rotation. That just isn't available outside the national forest anymore. We have the opponunity to provide that as well Vermont also has some very strict land use and zoning laws. I saw them in action, and it's impressive. When anyone wants to do anything to change the land, especially above a cenain elevation, they have to appear before a board and justify their planning, even if they own the land. Pel ton: A lot. ....I have a lot of respect for the animal, more and more as each year goes by. I am constantly amazed at what it is capable of doing. There's a special relationship between humans and bears that has existed through time. There's a theory floating around that says it is because of the bears that we are here. As far as we know, the only place in the world where there hasn't been ttaccs of pre-historic bears is in central and southern Africa. and that's the focal point of the development of primates, and the thought is that had there been bears there, the primate species would never have been able to develop and evolve as they did. Bears were always imponant to the early culrurcs, but even in the present, there is an instinctive attraction that people have to the animal. Perhaps it's its human-like characteristics. I don't know what. Today I think people are drawn to the bears because they are symbolic of our remaining wild lands. Katuah: The black bear has been a major pan of your life for the last two decades. From your long experience with them, what have they come to mean to you personally? Resource Reading on the Black Bear: -The fragmented Forest, Larry D. Harris (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1984) - The Sacred Paw: The Bear jn Nature, Myth. and Literature. Paul Shepard and Barry Sanders (Viking Press, 1985) - The World of the Black Bear, Joseph V. Wormer (Lippincott, 1966) - Mammals of 1he Grea1 Smoky Mountains National Park, Alicia and Donald W. Linzey (Univ. of TN Press, 1971) - The Mammals of Nonh America, E.R. Hall (John Wiley & Sons, 1987) - Bear Crossjn~s: An Antholoc of Noah American Poe1s, Anne Newman and Julie Suk, eds. (New South Co., 1983) - The Tri-State Black Bear Study (by university faculty and government agencies in TN, NC, and GA - available from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission; 512 N. Salisbury St.; Raleigh, NC 27611) THE CHALLENGER: THE WILD BOAR IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK There is competition between the black bear and the wild boar ... The stiffest competition is in years of a poor mast crop, for then both species are trying for the same acorns. In the early 1900's George Gordon Moore, a wealthy English businessman, decided to entenain clients by creating a game preserve in the area of Hooper's Bald in the Snowbird Mountains. He built a huge enclosure of split chestnut rails and brought in a variety of big game animals - bear, buffalo, elk, and the European wild boar. The game park was a miserable failure. The fence broke down, the animals escaped, and vinually everything was shot in the open woods .....exccpt the wild boar, and they have been in the mountains ever since. Boars (Sus scrofa) are shy and secretive, so they are not often seen by humans, but they are impressive-looking animals. Average adult weight is 120-150 pounds, but individuals close to 300 pounds have been captured. Their long tusks are vicious-looking and can produce terrible wounds, but boars are generally shy and avoid humans whenever possible. The wild boar species is native to Russia, eastern Europe, and western Europe. In their native territory their major predator was wolves, which had already been exterminated from the Appalachians when the boars were first imported. A bobcat or occasionally a bear will kill a young piglet, but otherwise they have no natural predators in the mountains. After their escape, the boar population readily naturalized itself in rhe Appalachians, and in time the animal became a high-profile big game species in both Nonh Carolina and Tennessee. People from all over the country came to bunt wild boar in the wild mountains. At that time it was still legal to free-range domestic bogs in the forest. The two breeds had a lot of contact, and at one point hog cholera almost wiped out the wild strain. The two strains are of the same species, so they interbred freely. Even in 1973 ttappers caught two or three black and white spotted boars - the sign of mixed breeds. None of those have been caught lately, so it is assumed that the domestic hog characteristics have been eliminated. Inevitably the wild boars moved into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The first sightings were on Parson's Bald and Gregory Bald at the west end of the Park. The Park administration immediately recognized the threat from the wild boars and began a trapping program to catch the animals using hogwire enclosures. It was a futile effort. The hogs spread eastward, and now the entire Park is occupied by the species, although they favor continued on next page KATUAH - page 11 FALL 1987 �- continued Crom P&&C 11 the western end. On the Tennessee side of the Park hogs can be removed by trapping or shooting by a special team of hunters. They can only be trapped on the Nonh Carolina side of the Park. In 1986 over 1,100 wild boar were trapped or shot within the Park boundanes. Officials have no guess whether that is 10% Or 90% of the boar population. Whether or not the wild boar can be eliminated from the Park is no longer in question. The Park is a huge area over 500,000 acres - of which a large pan is only accessible by foot trails, and a large pan of that can only be reached by climbing cross-country through the thickest kind of brush. These inaccessible areas harbor a breeding nucleus of boar that multiplies exponentially in years of a good acorn harvest And immediately bordering the Park, the Nonh Carolina and Tennessee wildlife agencies are developing and promoting the wild boar as game animals. Wild boar do an incredible amount of damage wherever they go. Their rooting can tum over great areas of the forest floor as if it bad been tilled. They are a great threat to the many endemic varieties of plants that are found in the Great Smoky Mountains and exist nowhere else in the world. There are rare plants here that are in great jeopardy. Wild hogs will root up salamanders. They will wallow in the only water sources at the higher elevations and silt them and foul them, so that the water is undrinkable. They spread diseases to other wildlife species. The damage they are creating is serious, and much of it is permanent There is competition between the black bear and the wild boar. In a direct confrontation a grown bear will kill an adult boar, but these occasions are infrequent The stiffest competition is in years of a poor mast crop, for then both species are trying for the same acorns. Bears have an advantage in that they can climb into the tops of the oak trees and feed on the acorns before they drop. Bears arc also safely in their dens during the cold winter months, while the boars have to continue to forage for food in all weather. To make a dent in their population levels, the best time to hit them is at the end of a hard winter. They are in poor condition then. The wild boars' biggest advantage is in their remarkable reproduction capacity. Under the best conditions female bears, when they become sexually mature at three and one-half or four and one-half years of age, can have only two or three cubs every other year. Female hogs become sexually mature at six to eight months of age. After that time they can have two litters of four to eight piglets each year! The boar population is dramatically affected by the acorn crop. In a poor acorn year, rhey do not reproduce, but when the acorn crop is good, the boar population mushrooms. In that kind of situation the piecemeal control being practiced in the Park is not effective. . - Mike Pelton KATUAH - page 12 cougar thick velvet fur rippling bone muscle sinew moving eyes sharp clear piercing you pulse through the dense night air. lithe fluid lean slipping through pathways known only to your kind you stalk life itself in the still luminous forest. /# fr gn(ilie: Martha Tree poem: Mamie Muller �Finding Allies in the World We have been told that the Indian people native to Turtle Island saw the world differently than the Europeans do. They saw the world as a spiritual place, where Spirit took shape and existed in the many forms of the Creation. We have been told that the Indian people believed in power, and they sought power, but the power they sought was spiritual power and not power over others, such as the white people seek. We have been told that every rock and tree, every bird and every animal, each living thing in the world is an ex:pression of some aspect of the spiritual energy of Creation. Each entity has its own spiritual personality, so to speak. The native people saw some of these personalities as particularly good and desireable, and they would seek out these spiritual beings and ask their help for the tribe and the people so that they could get along in the world. They called these beings to become the spiritual allies of the tribe. We have been told that an individual could also seek a spiritual ally to strengthen some pan of his character and balance his personality. Preparation was an important part of this. Just because someone wanted an ally, it did not mean that the ally would come. First that individual would go to a medicine person. The medicine person would give them medicine to attract the ally - a feather, some hair, or perhaps a bone from that animal. And the medicine person might give that individual some advice on what to do and how to act and give that person a song with which to call the desired ally. Then the seeker would go off alone into the forest and fast and pray for that spirit to come. Sometimes, we were told, an ally comes to someone without that person even asking. A Cherokee man in the generation of our grandparents' parents was knocked into a river by a bear, who then pursued him into the water and slapped him down several times and clawed him. The bear went away leaving the man with scratchmarks and bruises, but did not kill him. The medicine people in the mans' village told him that Yonah had chosen to be his ally and would help and protect him. The medicine people said that it was apparent the bear had followed the man into the water to be sure he was marked. Always after that the man was called "Man-Who-Bear-Knocked-1nto -Water". One does not have to be mauled to realise the presence of a spirit ally, but people today are so domesticated that some have allies and are not even aware of it. We were told that once a connection with the spiritual realm was made, that people then spoke to their spirit allies in a tone of command. The Creator, and the Sun, the Moon, and Fire (which is the power of the Sun on Earth), are primary Jl9Wers, and these were always asked very politely to share their power. But other spirit beings were told what was needed, not arrogantly, but in a way that ex:pected their cooperation. We were told that even Kanati, the lightning, must sometimes be taunted and mocked before he will bring rain. Someone could speak to him in such a way, saying, "Kanati, you are considered a great power, yet there you sit, while I.be humans and all living things here below stand in great need of rain. Ha! ls this the best you can do?" But when speaking to Kanati in that way it is a1 ways wise to stand in a place where one can take shelter quickly. KATIJAH-page 13 We have been told, however, that although it would not work to beg a spirit ally for its help, one must always thank an ally sincerely for coming and lending its power. And nothing is given for nothing. A human must always serve an ally and think well of it to keep the spiritual connection strong. Yonah, the bear, we were told, is a spirit representing great physical srrength and endurance. The bear is strong in the ability to survive, because it can eat almost anything. It is also moody, and its temper is ferocious. In its build and its appearance, the bear shows it is closely related to the mountains. And since the red wolf, the elk, the panther, and !he woods bison are gone from the mountains, Yonah is the last symbol of animal strength remaining here. But, we were told, a spirit does not need to be large and physically strong to be a powerful ally. The dragonfly is a very small creature. It is not fierce. It is very delicate and beautiful, but the dragonfly is a very strong power in the world. We have been told that the golden eagle is a strong power both in the physical body and in spirit. The eagle could fly so high into the sky that he would disappear from the sight of those watching from the ground. When he returned and sat on a branch, he had such a regal look about him that the old ones would say,"Surely, he has spoken with the Creator." But, we were told, the Cherokee people did not consider the bear to be one of the str0ngest powers in the mountains, because they knew where the bears came from. The bears, it is said, were once humans, a clan of the Cherokee tribe called Ani-Tsa'guhi. One boy among them would spend a lot of time in the forest, until one day his mother noticed that he was starting to grow hair all over his body. "Stay in the village with us," she begged. "You spend all your time in the woods. You hardly eat with us anymore." "I am going to go to the forest to live all the time," the boy replied. "There is plenty of food to eat there, and I like wild food berter than com and beans. Why don't all of you come with me? There is enough for our whole clan to eat." The clan met in council, we were told, and they decided to go with the boy to live in the forest. He told them that first they must fast for seven days. So they did that, and after that time, they went away from their village. We were told that on their way, they were met by a group of messengers from the other villages, who had come to beg them to stay in their homes. But the Ani-Tsa'guhi could not be persuaded. In fact they were already starting to grow hair on their bodies. "We are going into the forest to live forever," said the Ani-Tsa'guhi. "There is plenty for us to eat there. But when you hunger, come into the forest and call us, and we will offer our bodies to you that you may eat our flesh. Do not be afraid to kill us, for we will live forever." And we were told that the Ani-Tsa'guhi taught the messengers the proper songs and told the messengers how to call them. Then, singing and dancing, the clan went away into the forest. As the messengers started back to their villages, they turned around for one last look, just in time to see the last of a line of black bears disappear into the trees. Therefore it is said that Yonah, the bear, is Cherokee, but is not Cherokee. The bear is considered a brother, bur there are stronger allies, like Fire and Water, and the trinity Kanati~ rattlesnake, and ginseng, living in the mountains. #- Tlu!se words are spoken by a traditional Clu!rokee. FALL 1987 �"ME AND MY WALKER HOUNDS:" An Exposition on Bears and Bear Dogs by Robert McMahan When I was seven years old, my daddy would take me hunting. He didn't force me to go. I went because I wanted to go. I'd say, "Daddy, you goin' bunting tonight?" "Yep." "You care if I go with you?" "Nope." Well, I'd go with Daddy. He'd lay out aJI night long. I'd make it 'til about midnight. They'd always cook a hot dog or fry some bacon on a stick about then, and I'd stay up for that, but lhen I'd go to the sleeping bag. As I got up to 10 or 12 years old, I got to listening to what they were listening to: the dogs. I got to be able to tell which dogs were leading, which dogs were behind, how long it was going to take this dog to catch up, or how far ahead lhat dog was from the pack. I started possum bunting when I was 14 or 15 years old. I'd borrow a certain redbone hound dog from my uncle. I lived in the very last house on the paved road, and I'd walk down to my uncle's house on lhe highway, borrow that dog, and walk back up to the top of that mountain. I enjoyed doing that. I caught some possums using a .22 and a two-cell flashlight. Most of the time that little two-cell flashlight wouldn't shine more'n three or four limbs up on the tree. If the little possum wasn't there, I'd grab my dog and go. l didn't pay no attention to walking three miles in lhere to that tree. Finally I got enough money to buy my own dog. A good dog cost $50-75.00 back then. It made it real big for me to know that !hfil dog belonged to~I started out bear hunting with an older man namedWade HaJl. I was about 22 when I first went out with him. The whole first year I hunted, I never saw a bear. We - oonlinued on ne.<tl page KATUAH - page 14 FALL 1987 �had some good chases, and we had some good times, but the bear just didn't show. I start breeding and training Walker hounds in L976. The United Kennel Club (UKC) recognizes six breeds of hunting hounds: blue tick, English, redbone, Plort, black-and-tans, and Walker. Walkers are making their mark in the bear hunting world. They're coming along. The reason these Walker dogs are coming along is that people are breeding them carefully. They're wanting to get the best. and they'll go where they have to to get the best. But anybody with a hound dog will tell you, you can breed the best to the best. but your wodc is still cut out for you, because you still have 10 train that dog. You're going to wear out a lot of shoe leather to make those pups into bear dogs. There are different things to look for in a dog. Myself, I'm looking for a good, medium-nosed dog. I don't want a real cold-nosed dog that can trail a track two days old. Sometimes that pays off: I've seen it happen that a dog will start on a cold trail he could just barely smell, go over the ridge, and a bear will be laid up there. If a bear gets in an area where there's mash (mast), he'll stay there 'til the mash is gone. But you can waste a lot of time that way, too. I also want a dog that'll go when I tum him loose. I don't want one hangin' 'round my feet. He's got to go 'ti! he strikes. The mouth is another thing. I like a dog to have a good bay mouth when he's trailing or running and just "hammers every breath," as I call it. That way I know right where the bear is at. And when he comes into the tree (trees the bear), he needs to change over to a good, hard, chop-mouth sound. You can tell when a good one does tree. Color is imponant too. I don't want no ticks in a Walker. I like big spots. If I find small spotS about the size of a quarter all over the dog, that tells me that's not a pure-bred dog. What's color is color, and what's aint, ain't. Before I go out there and breed to someone else's dog other than my own, I just about have to see how M's bred and raised his dog. I have to see what that dog does when it trees a bear or a coon. One thing to get straight: the dogs are the main factor in bear hunting. The greatest pan of the sportsmen in this area, all they want is to hear their dogs run, hear a good race, and see a good fi_ght The grea[er pan of them is not interested in killing a bear. We carry a rifle. We're legal - we don't believe that's illegal - but killing 1he bear isn't the main thing. To get a good gun dog, now, you do need eo gee him on a bear kill. You kill one to him, because chat really perks a dog up. He feels like he's accomplishing something then. He's got a taste of what he's supposed to be doing. But you don't have to kill every bear that a dog gets after. You could take one bear a year for a pack of dogs, and that pack will go in next year and run you anol.ber bear. Some people say. "You get more game from a bound dog." Well, that's not true. We hunt with our dogs, because that's KATUAH- page 15 what's important 10 us. I don't see any :;pon wha1soever in still hunting. That's why I don't deer hunt. You go up there early of a morning, get behind a tree, and sit there about two hours, and wait on a deer to come up. That deer doesn't even know you're there. He's grazing, and you stick that gun barrel out from around that tree, you shoot that deer, and he's a dead deer. He never knew what hit him. I could see doing it for I.be meat, but in this area here there's nobody who has to depend on deer meat or bear meat to survive. There's no point in going out there and just shooting it. 1lle way we bear hunt is in a group. It takes at least seven men who get along to make a good group. l could go bear hunting by myself, but more than likely I'd be fighting a losing battle. I couldn't stay up with the dogs, because when a bear is jumped, he'll turn and run. An averaged-sized native bear, a 100-200 pound animal who's been born and raised in these mountains, can run eight to ten hours or even longer. There's no way one man could stay up. But if you've got a good group of seven men, you get someone on one ridge, one on another, and one on another. There might be three dogs after the bear, and then when he comes my way, I'll turn my dogs loose to see what they can do. .....you could tap Sam on the lzead with your foot, and everything in him would just rattle. He was broken ruJ. to pieces. When a bear is jumped up and running, he might be a mile ahead of the dogs, but they can run him then with their heads down. A bear hunter can tell every one of his dogs by its bark. The whole rime he's listening to the chase, he's got that sound down pat He can tell which dog is which, and he can tell what it's a-doing. You can't tum a young pup on a track, because there's so much other game in these woods. You loose the well-trained ones first. Ihu'll stay on the bear. But if you go ahead and tum out 15 dogs, you're gonna have 10 that don't even know what they're out there after. They're going to be ahead of your dogs trailing the bear, and they're going to jump a deer or whatever, and - wham! - there's a big blow-up. You don't want more than seven dogs on the chase up to the point where they stop him. Then you turn your young dogs in on that. That's the way you make bear dogs. I've known limes when somebody saw a bear cross the road, and ~body got excited, and J<Ymbody jerked their dogs out. Ir didn't take that bear l 0 minutes to get tid of che dogs, but it took us three days to find chem. Not one dog got after the bear and we'd~ 1hat bear! You can put as many dogs as you like on a bear that's 75 pounds and up, and they'll never kill that bear. That bear's gonna take care of himself, he's dangerous, and he'll kill a dog. Everybody's got their own opinion about breeding and raising dogs, but I believe that if you're going to get a bear, you've got to have dogs that'll fight. You've got to have dogs chat'll nip at his heels and let him know that they're there and not be scared of that bear in no way. If you have dogs that'll fight that bear, that bear's gonna have to do one of two things: he's either going have to run and get the bell out of there, or he's going to have to get into a tree. A bear will kill a dog - he will, there's no doube about it A bear'll slap a dog, but his intention is 10 get the dog pulled into him, to get a mouth hold on that dog. If he gets a mouth hold on that dog, that's a dead dog. You can make it up for that dog, he's gone. We turned out one last year named OJ' Sam - as good a dog as I've ever seen turned after a bear. He was an English dog, and while I've been acquainted wi1h some dogs that were as gQQd as that one. but as far as being any better, they're hard LO find. This wasn't but an averaged-sized bear, and we turned Sam and the rest of the dogs on it, and in 15 minutes that dog was dead. What happened that panicular time was that we turned the dogs on one bear, but a bigger bear had crossed this other one's path going another direction. The bigger bear didn't run; he wailed for the dogs, and by the time we made it up to there, you could tap Sam on the head with your foot, and everything in him would just rattle. He was broken all 10 pieces. Personally, in my opinion, a bear's a beautiful animal. If you are out in the woods, and you happen to see one, chey look real pretty just because you so very seldom get to see one. But once you put the dogs on a bear, it's different. It's a fact of me saying, ''l'm going to stop you," and him saying, "No, you're not." If I win the battle, I've got him; he's mine. Then he's not so good-looking. I mean, he looks good, but not near as good as he was standing somewhere all alone, no dogs, up there. But if he kills or injures one of my dogs, when we finally get enough dogs on him to get him stopped, he's not good-looking at all. Once a good dog gets on the trail of a bear, he'll be there. He'll be there 'ti! he just totally gives out. When a dog like that gives out, he'll be two days before you find him, unless you know tight where to go gee him. because he's going to go out there somewhere and lay down. I'v.: carried several out of the woods. Even afeer two days, they'll walk four or five s1eps and fall down, walk four or five steps and fall down. It wasn't that the bear hu·: them in any way, it was just 1hat the dog I 1d, as the old saying goes, "busted a gut." When a bear is shot, we Lake it to someone's place, Clarence Hall's or maybe mine, and we lay him ouc and chop him up, and we take the meat and put it in10 liule piles, one for each man who's hunted wilh us. Each pile has the same amount of each part, and we put those in freezer bags, and carry that meat home. I like bear meat in the fall of the year, but I don't like it frozen too much. Several people down here call me every year, asking if I've got any bear meat. If I've got it, they're welcome to it. le does me good 10 see them eat it. - continued on page 26 FALL 1987 �Onphic by Rob Messick ~ "SMELLS LIKE MONEY TO ME" by Jay S. Gertz The campaign to get Champion International Paper Company to clean up the Pigeon River is not a new one. This long-term crisis has currently been reheated by a groundswell of opposition downstream, fanned by recent federal concern, and fueled by Champion's incendiary ultimatum: 'We cannot afford the pollution controls necessary to clean up our wastes, and we will close down rather than clean up!" By putting the people of Canton and Haywood County under the fear of widespread joblessness and the subsequent spectre of economic collapse, Champion has amassed quite a constituency of vocal proponents. Many residents believe that the environmentalists, the citizens of Newpon, TN, and all others who just happen to want a clean river in their backyards are black-hearted scoundrels pushing poor, little, old Champion to the brink of bankruptcy and ruination. Nothing could be further from the truth. Champion International, a huge, multinational corporation based in Stamford, CT, does have the resources and power to return the Pigeon River to its former crystal clarity. For Champion to bold the citizens of Canton economic hostage in this matter is patently unfair. Champion's claim that they cannot meet their own clean-up costs tarnishes their corporate image and philosophy. It is also KATIJAH - page 16 Other industries and individuals now see the Pigeon River as a potential resource again, not only in economic terms, but in terms of its former g Lory as a free-flowing, living stream. ironic, because Champion Corporation was a major factor in crearinft the economic structure prevailing in Katuah today. Champion Fiber Co. came to the mountains as the brainchild of Ohio-based industrialist Peter G. Thompson in 1905. At the height of the timber boom, Thompson and other nonhem industrialists purchased 400,000 acres of steep forest land, built a pulp plant on the banks of the Pigeon River, and began construction of a mill town, which he named after Canton, Ohio. Thompson showed great foresight in his undertaking. He shrewdly profited on a rural, unindustrialized area with an abundance of timber, a constant source of water for pulp processing, and a cheap and unlimited native labor supply. By 1914 the Canton mill employed 1,000 people, and the population of the surrounding area had jumped from 400 to 8,000. There was not a diversity of interests in the new company town of Canton. As in the other towns that sprang up ar that time, the single-interest economy was dominated by the controlli.ng industry in the area, the timber interests. In Haywood County, Champion become the guiding force for the entire locale. Following the pattern of industrial development then current in Appalachia, the company controlled the jobs, the political system, and the surrounding natural resources. The people of Haywood County were hard-working members of an isolated, agriculturally self-sufficient, indigenous mountain culture. Like other mountain people, many of them sold their land for ready cash and forsook the hardship of farming the difficult terrain for the promise of steady work and wages. This migration to the mill towns and industrial centers denoted a turning point in mountain life. It marked the beginning of the modem era, in which mountain people gave up their independent ways and became a part of the cash economy. By 1930 the Champion operation in Canton was the largest in the United States. Today Champion International is the founh largest company in the forest products industry. They are ranked as the 86th largest company in the world. Their sales in 1986 FALL 1987 �topped $4.3 billion. Champion is the second-largest private landowner in the US with 6.5 million acres of timber. They also own oil and gas fields with reserves of 2.5 million barrels of oil and 2.2 million cubic feet of gas. From mills in the United States, Canada, and Brazil, Champion produces 3.3 million tons of pulp, 815 thousand tons of newsprint, and 2.5 million tons of paper annually. Champion's six chief and 15 executive officers receive $6.25 million per year with additional incentive compensation of$2.8 million annually. Canton and Waynesville's 2,300 Champion also uses 43 millio11 gallons ofthe Pigeon River daily. This constitutes 90% of the total stream. Champion employees contribute a mighty share to the wealth of that international giant. They make one-third of the country's total of coated papers (including duplicating paper and most of the nation's dairy-type containers). In 1982 the Canton mill used 2,162 cords of wood and 956 tons of coal per day to make 1,620 tons of paper and board per day. Champion also uses 43 million gallons of the Pigeon River daily. This constitutes 90% of the total stream. The wastewater is extremely discolored by tannins and filled with other organic compounds. This "din". although not dangerously toxic, renders the Pigeon River unfit not only for aquatic life, but for commercial and domestic use as well. Champion Fiber was once the sole lord of a tremendous mountain fiefdom. The Pigeon was its personal river - itS chief resource, its sewer, and its ttansportation system. Other industries and individuals now see the Pigeon River as a potential resource again, not only in economic tenns, but in terms of its former glory as a free-flowing, living stream. Prior to 1900, the Pigeon River was as pristine a mountain stream as one could find in eastern North America. One could see the bottom through ten feet of water. Bass were prevalent, and upriver the speckled trout were plentiful. Sun perch, borneyheads, mullets, and hogsuckers could be caught by the string in a matter of hours. Mud tunics and muskrats could be trapped by the water's edge. Other riparian species lived by the Pigeon in great numbers. Now highly-colored tannins and other compounds enter the Pigeon at Canton. From this point on into Tennessee, the Pigeon River no longer has the natural vitality necessary to suppon typical aquatic life. The sparkling clarity of the Pigeon bas given way to a murky, smelly, and sometimes foamy brew. Above Canton the Pigeon River is designated a Class A-ll trout stream, and the water can be used for drinking or food production. Below Canton the river supports some atrophied "garbage" fish, like carp, goldfish, and suckers. The municipality of Newport, TN finds the Pigeon so noxious, that although the river flows through their city, they get their drinking water from the French Broad, six miles away. The Southern Appalachians of the late 1980's are home to a greater variety of corporate interests and economic livelihoods than ever envisioned by the early timber and mineral barons. One of them is the recreational industry, which includes fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, white-water rafting, kayaking, etc. A study recently published by two professors at Walters State Community College estimates the direct recreational benefit of a clean Pigeon River at $7.3 million per year. This does not include a projected increase in agricultural use or productivity along the river. or new industries. or a rise in real estate values or development Yet the river cannot be any sort of asset to anyone, as long as Champion views the Pigeon as its own and refuses to clean its wastewater any further. Champion lntemational, with annual assets in excess of $6 billion, claims it cannot afford to clean up the Pigeon River. Over the past ten years, Chamfion has earned $1.28 billion, paying $62 million just to stockholders. If Champion spent $60 million in colorant removal, their projected earnings would be reduced by $7 .8 million, which is only a loss of 8 cents per share. Champion's corporate philosophy is summed up in a document entitled l l i Champion Way. According to this document, "Champion wantS to be known as a company which strives to conserve resources, to reduce waste, and to use and dispose of materials with scrupulous regard for safety and health. We taJce panicular pride in this company's record of compliance with the spirit as well as the letter of all environmental regulations." In the mid-1960's Champion did begin instituting pollution abatement on the Pigeon. At that time only sludgeworms could live in the river. Gradually other life-forms returned to the water, but not in vast numbers or in the great variety of former times. Champion no longer provides the only source of livelihood in these mountains, and they can no longer dictate a single use for the river. Today, Champion's North Carolina wastewater permit docs not meet up with the stricter federal standards of the Clean Water Act, and Champion claims that it is economically impossible to bring the river up to legal standards. For Champion to claim that a fouled river is necessary to its business operations should be an outrage to all the citizens of this region. Presently existing waste handling technology could reduce the color pollution by 95-99%, and with 23% profits last year and 40% profilS projected for this year, Champion can cenainly afford to be cleaner. Another statement from ~ Champion Way points out the vast gulf between the corporate ideal and the hard-line stance of the Canton management: "Champion wants to be known as an open, LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM CANTON'S PLIGHT Despite financial headlines proclaiming a bull market on Wall Sacct and a rosy financial picture, the national economy has been sluggish throughout the 1980's. Champion Paper Co. has maintained a dominant place in the national financial picture by a drastic streamlining program begun in 1983. Shut-downs and layoffs arc pan of that program. They have laid off27,400 employees nationally in five years. They have divested huge scgment.s of their industry, such as brown paper packaging, envelopes, cardboard boxes, a distribution network, and an insurance company. Andrew Sigler, Champion CEO, plans to "meld remaining business and boost return on equity from single digits into the top quaner of US industry." The only way to grasp this potential 16% leap is to cut costs and raise productivity. The company intends to save $400 million (or 10% of its costs) annually. This may explain the company's bard-line stance on the Pigeon River plant. The Canton mill is already 79 years old, its rate of return is dropping as newer plants with more modem technology arc built, and it is obvious even to the plant management that it has outgrown the river that feeds it Champion will very soon, perhaps already, be faced with a choice of expensive modernization at the Canton mill or closing the plant and moving to greener J>3StureS. The decision, in fact, may already have been made. Champion will finish planning on a state-of-the-an mill in Halifax, NC in 1989. They could decide to close down in Canton and write off the capital loss in corporate wees. In that situation, they could only win by taking an uncompromising stance on pollution abatement. They would either force the EPA to knuckle under and maximize profits from the last days of the Canton mill, or they would provide themselves an excellent cover under which to pull out of Haywood County: it would then appear that it was the EPA and the "damn environmentalists" and not the profit motive that caused them to leave. Whether Champion chooses to squeeze Canton or to leave Canton, the outlook for that mill town, whose whole livelihood depends on the outmoded Champion plant, is bleak. Hindsight, of course, is 20/20, but it is obvious now that Canton should have begun years ago to diversify itS local economy, preferably with smaller, locally-owned businesses. It is also in times like these when the value of a strong agricultural sector is clear. Hopefully other towns will learn from Canton's plight. The temptation is great to give over to large outside business interests, when it seems that they have the power to make local residents pan of the American Dream. But the end result is inevitably economic peonage. The giant corporate interests do not come here to give money; they come here to taJce it, and they will stay only as long as their profit interest is served. In these times it may seem like bucking the economic tide, but stability in - continued on nexl ~&•· - continued en MJCI page KATUAH-page 17 FALL 1987 �continued from prcv ious page 1ru1hful company. We are committed to the highest standards of business conduct in our relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, communities, and shareholders In all our pursuits, we are unequivocal in our suppon of the laws of the land, and acts of questionable legality will not be tolerated." This sta1ement from a company that threatens 10 sink an entire region inio a depression if its excessive profits margins are not upheld. Champion no longer provides the only source of livelihood in these mountains, and they can no longer dictate a single use for the river. Champion must begin to accept the variety of commerce and the multitude of changes that have come to the mountains in recent years. If Champion would uphold its values of corporate excellence, it must stand by words like these: "If change has a most valuable lesson to offer, perhaps it is that we need not be victims of it, if we can accept it as an opportunity to grow and achieve. In this sense, we believe that the best companies are the ones with operating styles flexible enough to make necessary changes ..... " (from the Champion International 1986 Annual Repon) ~ -wntinued from previous page the long run is best maintained by making decisions locally about the land, its resources, and the economic sustenance that is based on them. Perhaps now it is again time 10 reclaim part of the mountain tradition of self-sufficiency disrupted by the arrival of industrialism to Appalachia. The days of an economy based on subsistence farming are past, but the more people who move into locally-based, basic production, such as producing food or finished wood products; or who serve the need for healing that draw people 10 the mountains; or who pioneer new, more appropriate occupations, the less catastrophic will be the corning changes in Haywood County and elsewhere. Canton and its individual residents would do welJ to de-emphasize their dependence on the Champion plant before the Champion company does the same. Local governments and far-sighted banks who would like to keep 1he local area functioning and in1ac1 could begin now to inventory local resources and opportunities and begin making money available for training and business loans to put the Canton economy on a firmer footing. An inventory of goods and materials imponed into Haywood County would also indicate needs that could be locally filled. The hope that Champion Paper can provide continuing security for the area is a strong one, but in the end a strongly diversified local economy will best withstand the ·vagaries of the industrial economy. Corporate interests are not always the same as local interests. Champion Company is a huge business complex and responds 10 changes in the economic winds far distant from the Southern Appalachians. To Champion executives in S1amford, there are many thmgs more important than the welfare of a small, isolated mountain town. To someone who lives here and sees their job threatened by shifts in corporate ~ economics, there is not. KATUAH- page 18 Bear In the core of the thing is darkness It is our final judgement While we sleep it paces outside our door It is the first time It has been around us So closely. Steaming shit in early morning. Maybe our private poems will never leave our heads, Thoughts about confrontations. Fear of opening that door. Maybe our pirate poems will leave our books And enter into our nights And bring us Interrupted dreams Of half knowing and fear until we awake And wonder over ignorance. It is the current tracking we must be Concerned with, tables turned. Hunting signs that read Know Me or Keep Out. Except for untamed few of us, We know only edge of mountain forest Home to the black bear. The word now is totem The word out is guns and dogs down Radios, cages, baiting - unholy The apparition before us is round Ginseng, Raccoon, Kanati, Bear, Wind, Earth gathered With one place empty, Us. - by Scott Bird FALL 1987 �/ GREEN POLITICS IN KATUAH Wlien Ille animals come to us, askitlg for our help, will we k11ow what tliey are saying? When the plants speak to us iii their delicate beautiful language, will we be able to answer tllem? When tlie planet lierself sings to us in our dreams, will we be able to wake ourselves, and act? -Gary Lawless, Eart/J First! can developed countrjes contrOI and dictate nctions to 'underdeveloped' nations. All people, no mnucr of what sex. color. creed, sexual oricnta~on or heritage must be empowered 10 have conLrol over the decisions which nffect their own lives We must live with a dedication for nonviolence in all aspects of our lives. Green panics are growing ~roughout the world today. Most notably are the West Germon Greens who during the lasl election won 8.3~ of the national voie and the same proportional number or scats in the Bundestag. Other pmies exist in 1131y, France. England, Canada, Cosu Rica, Brazil, Sri Lanka and Spain. It was an incredible evening. lhlll night in Amherst. MassachWICUS siuing with several hundred other people listening to G:iry rc:id his pocuy. We had already spent three days and nights discussing our ideas on wh:it the green movement is and what is happening in our own areas th:it is 'green'. Gary's words soothed our spirits and connected us all with our most fundamental belief-th:it we must live in harmony with all of nature. We have to develop a new p;irodigm for our world, one which follows a love and understanding for our role within nature as equals tO all other species, not as dominntors. We arc not, as our indus1.rial society purports, doing 'battle with' nature. As we recognize this fact. then we can see better how to reorder our lives nnd rcl::uionships with each other and the planet. This new paradigm must begin in our own local communities and regions, be it Katuah, the 01.nrks, or wbcrcvcr. During the I950's the civil rights movement began as a struggle by the peoples of color to empower themselves and take their n:uuro.I and equal place in a white dominated and contr0lled society and to change th:it society. This movement later IJUnsformcd into a celebration or peoples' or color bcrilllge and history and contribution to our world in freedom and oppre,sion. Later an lhe sixties. the emphasis v.'35 on community control. anti-war, feminism; and then in the seventies, aw;in:ness of en\·ironmcntal concerns and problems. l':ow in the eighties all or these concerns and energies for change arc drawing together into the grocn movcmenL Many people throughout the world are becoming awnrc Ihm specific io;sue activism, though icrribly necessary, doc.~ not change the root causes of the problems. Green politics is a holis11c view of life on Eanh. ft is based on the premise th3t we cannot pursue growlh for growth's sake without regard for its impacL It insists on the necessity tO chnnge our foc11s from quantity to quality of lifestyle. No longer can men dominate women; nor KATUAH- page 19 There are now over 75 gnssroot gTCCn organizations throughout the United StateS. They are networked togelher under an orgooization based in Kansas City. Missouri called the CommittteS of Correspondence. named afru the original grassrooc movement agnirul colonial rule in America. As l lhink of my community witlun Katunh I see many 'green' activities, though they may not Ten Key Values Ecological Wisdom Grassroots Democracy Personal & Social Responsibility Nonviolence Decentraliuition Community-based Economics Postpatriarchal Values Respect for Diversity Global Responsibility Future Focus have been labeled as such. Take, fer instance, the Stone Soup Restaurant in Asheville, NC. A worker-owned business, it is celebrating its tenth-year anniversary this year. 'Thue ue also the small business incubators located ii Waynesville and Marion, NC which provide a location and technical small business assisiaace to infant businesses for two years each. After this time the businesses move out into the community and new 'babies' move in. The Self-Help Credit Union is another example. This organimtion h!lp<; employees buy businesses which are closing, as well as sun new ones, throughout the state. The Swnnnanoa Valley Project 1s a case or local people taking contr0l of the direction of their community's growth and doing som~thing positive to unite them all. Through meetings with the local residents, they found what people liked about Swannanoa; what they didn't like: w~nt they wanted to change; where the investments of the people were used by the banking institutions whether within or out of the area; where did their community's garbage and waste go; and where do the valley's youth go when leaving school for good. This gave lhc people of lhe Swannanoa community a power to move in ways which they could truly affect their area's life. After reluming to Katuah from the conference in July, I helped tO set up an initial meeting to sec who in the area was interested in green politics. Over SO people auended from all around this area - Brevard, Hendersonville, Asheville, Madison County, NC. Since then we have organized a group called lbc Western Nonh Carolina Greens which has adopted the JO key vat ues or the Commiuees of Correspondence as its philosophical foundation. At our August meeting we filled out a questionaire to find out each person's views and ideas about how they would want the regional organization IO be involved politically, i.e. field Green Party candidates, support 'green' Democratic candidateS, or present green positions on specific issues IO the voters and traclitional candidaies. There was overwhelming interest in working on cnvironmen131 issues as well as presenting a 'green' position on local issues. Other interest arens are: organizing a town meeting or open forum with minutes being submitted 10 city/county government; promoting voter registration/ participation, particularly people of color; assisting local government and group recycling efforts; giving auention to low-income housing with a view to appropriate residential development in order tO avoid growth which forces people out or their ncighbolhoods and communities; and adding support to ongoing community groups and organll.ations. Monthly meetings are planned as well as separate 'green' value study groups. Times and dates will be announced in the Western Carolina Coalition for Social Concerns Calend:lr (always on display at Pack Library in Asheville, NC); on WCQS: Malaprop's bookstore in Ashe,·ille. as well as uca newspapers. For more information call 704/2.54-6910 or write: W.N.C. Greens P.O. Box 14-1 Asheville, NC 28802 Next Meeetlng: Sept 30 (see calendar p.28) Thi.r article was wriuen by Richard llarri.fon who has returned from a national grun conftreru:e which took place this swnmer (see Katilah Jssiu XVI). I/ere he shares his report with us as it relates to our bioregion. FALL 1987 �PROTECTING OUR MOUNTAIN WETLANDS NATURAL by William 0. McLamcy, PhD WORLD NEWS MODERN SCIENCE RESTORES ANCIENT INDIAN MAIZE For thousands of years the Cherokee Indians have had a distinctive variety of maize, or "com" as it came to be called by the European seulers. Ii was derived from the Harinoso de Ocho strain of maize found in northwestern Mexico, and it has long been a scientific mystery how the variety made its way to the Appalachians without leaving a trace of its passage between Mexico and the eastern mountains (see Krufuill. #3). In 1981 Dr. William Brown, retired president and general manager of Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. of Des Moines, Iowa, the world's largest producer of hybrid com seed, was visiting his friend Dr. H. F. Robinson, former professor of biology and at that time chancellor of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. During that visit, Brown noticed that some Indian farmers on Lhe Cherokee Indian Reservation in Cherokee, NC were still growing the old flour corn, although it had been contaminated by cross-breeding with varieties of commercial yellow dent com, commonly grown for s1ock feeding. The two decided to collaborate on a project to restore the Cherokee white flour corn, develop an improved, pure seed, and give it back to the Cherokee fanners for their own food supply and for distribution as ground meal outside the reservation. The project was begun in 1982, and the first two years were directed at making a basic improvement in the Cherokee flour com. Test plots were planted and seed that had the characteristics of the original maize white kernels free from indemations, or "dents" - was selected from the harvest. The second stage of the program was begun in 1984 and is almost completed. The objectives of this pan of the project are to purify the seed by eliminating all of the characteristics not found in the original Indian maize and to improve the yield. Brown and Robinson are working to derive flour com with shorter stalks; more ears of com per stalk; ears with eight or ten rows of kernels; and com free of tillers, or extra stalks. Taller com, or stalks weakened by tillers, may fall over and rot. The native Indian maize typically grew on stalks much taller than modem hybrid varieties. Among the techniques used by the scientists was the creation of "selfed one-generation" plants. In this process, the silks of a forming ear of com are dusted with pollen from the same plant, a kind of forced inbreeding to help eliminate foreign characteristics. KATUAH - page20 Plantings in fields in Cullowhee and Bryson City were harvested last fall, and the superior 10 percent of some 200 tested plants was saved to provide seed that was planted this spring to create the superior variety of flour com. The seed from that crop will be harvested this fall and will be given in carefully measured quantities to 20 Cherokee farm families for planting in 1988. Thus, after five years of work, Brown and Robinson will be able to return to Cherokee farmers a seed that will produce Cherokee maize in its historic white, smooth, flour kernel form. The Cherokees will be able to grow the maize for their own use as cornmeal, hominy, and grits, as they have traditionally, and it can also be ground into meal for commercial sales. The scant supply of it now available stays in demand at a premium price. The appeal of the pure com meal could make it an important product for tourist sales. And for the scientific world and the rest of us, the result will be the preservation of a locally-adapted species of native Indian maize that can continue itself here in the Appalachian Mountain region. (Source: Western Horizon: May, 1987) One of the least appreciated resources in Karuah is our wetlands. While we do not have environments as extensive or immediately impressive as the floodplain forests, cypress swamps, or salt marshes of the coastal plain, our own mountain bogs, pocket swamps, and beaver ponds are important pans of the uplands ecosystem and all the more precious for their scarcity. And they are under the same pressures as the lowland swamps - mainly dredging and filling for "development." Section 404 of the Clean Water Act states that anyone who wants to do any modifications of a wetland area must first get a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers. lf that seems to you like setting the fox to guard the henhouse, your instincts are sound. In fact, no agency of the federal government has a worse overall environmental record than the Corps. On the other hand, to make any sense at all out of our dealings with the government, we need to understand that it does not function like an ecosystem. !1 is often at cross purposes with itself. From a practical point of view, what matters is lo identify the good individuals and the useful offices. Recently, a two-acre swamp just upstream from my house came under assault by crews using bulldozers. chain saws, and fire. It was a spot I have to pass on the way to town, and I have delighted in watching the maples be the first trees to tum red in the fall or scanning the edges for colorful or unusual birds - redwing blackbirds, yellow warblers, and perhaps an occasional teal. I would prowl the edges noting where the deer (so scarce in this pan of the mountains) had taken advantage of the protection of the thick growth and had found a small, dry spot in which to bed down. During spring and summer evenings the frog concert would entertain me as I went past, and I would sometimes see the muskrats and beaver who lived in the vicinity of the marsh. The tiny swamp even offered downstream residents like myself a modicum of flood protection. Local rumor had it that this delightful lµ'Ca, so full of natural life, was destined to be a trailer park. I wasn't happy about this. Since I knew the law, I phoned the Corps Regulatory Branch in Wilmington, NC to report the situation. I was dubious abouc what the result of this action would be, but, to my amazement, a biologist from the Corps was on the scene within two days time. While my reaction was not fast enough, nor the law tough enough, to save all the swamp, the owner was forced to modify bis plans and the habitat hangs on. More importantly, that visit was the beginning of a series of Corps actions in the mountain area that are enhancing the prospects for the survival of our mountain wetlands. In some cases itll has been removed and landowners ordered to carry out restoration work; in other cases filling has been prevented. FALL 1987 �Neither the law nor the agency are perfect. We have much better control over filling than ditching. Small projects are sometimes exempt. There are questions of interpretation, and the answers have not always made me happy. Nevertheless, contractors and developers in Karuah can no longer claim ignorance of the 404 permit process. So we have a tool to use. One of its limitations is that all of North Carolina is administered from the Corps Wilmington office some 400 miles away. With this in mind, a number of people in organizations in North Carolina have been trying to get the Corps to establish a regulatory office in Asheville. If you would like to help, write: Col. Paul Woodbury US Corps of Engineers P.O. Box 1890 Wilmington, NC 28402 Tell Colonel Woodbury that our wetlands need protection, that it is the Corps' job, and that you are not sarisfied with the service we are getting. Suggest they open a permanent regulatory office in the mountains. Not all of Katliah is in North Carolina, but the situation is similar in other states. The bulk of the Corps' traditional work - the damming, dredging, canalbuilding and ditch-digging for which the Corps is so infamous - is in lowland areas, and so are their offices. Before residents of other states call on the Army Corps of Engineers to intervene in I.heir local sicuations, they might want to check with local conservation groups. The regulation branch in Wilmington, I am told, has a good reputation for dealing with conservation issues, and I am certainly impressed with the integrity of the individuals l have dealt with. Other district regulation branches may be equally conscientious, but I do not want to be blamed for loosing the proverbial fox into anybody's henhouse. Ecologically, our high-elevation wetlands are our most critical habitat. They are imponant stopover points for migrating birds whose flyways pass across the mountains. They are home for endemic, marshland plant and amphibious species that are found nowhere else. Other animals pass through the micro-marshes, some feeding on the rank growth, others preying on the smaller animals, and all taking advantage of the protection afforded by the swamplands' dense cover. If you see what looks to you like a wetlands violation, call Bob Johnson at tfie Wilmington office at (919) 343-4641. If you want to learn more about this, ca1l me at (704) 524-8369. Oraphic by Rob Messick D.0.E. HOT MEALS PROGRAM Natutal World News Sct"icc Natural World News has recently learned that the US Department of Energy (DOE) has finally come up with a solution to the bothersome nuclear waste crisis: we're going to eat it! The vehicle for this dramatic breakthrough is the Byproducts Utilization Program (BUrP). This seemingly innocuous scheme is the cover under which the doebo1s plan to recycle nuclear waste into the private sector. An early plan was to resurrcc1 "low-level" contaminated metallic hardware from nuclear plants as dinnerware. Now the doebots are planning to irradiate food with cesium 137 to help the food industry control spoilage organisms and give fresh food a longer shelf life. Developing cesium 137 food irradiation facilities (there arc plans calling for 1,000 such facilities) would serve the DOE in two ways: First, if the doebots are allowed to create an artificial market for Cesium 137, then they can put pressure on Congress to repeal a 1982 ban on the hazardous reprocessing of civilian spent fuel rods, which have accumulated in dangerous amounts in temporary storage pools at the nuclear plants. Congress originally institu1ed the ban to prevent circulation of the material to keep i1 secure from terrorists. Secondly, reprocessing would allevia1e the waste problem by reducing radioactivity up to 55%, thus encouraging the use and production of more nukes and more waste, and would generate plutonium enough to satisfy the Pentagon's appetite well into the 21st century. The food irradiation plan is being continued despite knowledge of potential health hazards as cited in the Congressional Record, S1788, February 4, 1987: "The application of ionizing radiation alters or damages food cells. It also creates reactive chemical intermediates known as free radicals, which react with food constituents to fonn potentially new compounds in the food called 'radiolytic products' or RP's. Some of these compounds, called 'unique radioly1ic products' or URP's, formed during radiation exposure are no1 known 10 exist previously in foods." In the US House of Representatives, Rep. Doug Bosco has introduced "The Food Irradiation Safety and Labeling Act of 1987" (HR 956). Senator George Mitchell has introduced a companion bill in the US Senate. The two bills would stop food irradiation plans until safety studies are completed and contain strict labeling regulations for irradiated food products. Unless you would like to be served up a plutonium/cesium 137 economy, you might want to write your Congressional legislators and express your support of the bills. Cesium 137 - all you care to cat! BURP! NO PROBLEMS WITH TOBACCO Nanni World NeWl Savice "We do not have a problem of pesticide use on tobacco," said NC Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham, as he announced that an NC Department of Agriculture (NCDA) task force of inspectors has been specially trained to detect the use of herbicides (particularly Dicambra and 2,4-D) on smoking and chewing tobacco. The toxic herbicides kill the tobacco plantS prematurely and yellow the leaves, making it appear that they have been cured in the field. The herbicides are highly poisonous, and their use is illegal on tobacco and food plants. According to a report in the Agricultural Review. the official publication of 1he NCDA, the specially-trained inspectors will fan out to every tobacco-producing county in the state to stamp out any traces of illegal herbicide use on tobacco bound to domestic or foreign consumers. The inspectors will visually check tobacco crops for signs of illegal herbicides and will pull leaf samples for lab analysis. Offenders, who endanger the health of consumers and the reputation of the North Carolina tobacco product, will be hit with strict penalties, Graham promised. Commissioner Graham also sent letters to all of the major domestic and export tobacco companies to explicitly assure them that the North Carolina tobacco crop is uncontaminated with poisonous chemicals, and that there is no problem in the North Carolina tobacco fields. - NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued K.ATUAH- page 21 ®Xt page FALL 1987 �- NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued SHOWDOWN AT FLAT CREEK NalUnl World News The signs appear all around the Flat Creek Community on billboards, telephone poles, and motor vehicles: STOP VULCAN QUARRY! Vulcan Materials Company, a national corporation headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., has leased 99 acres and plans to blast 400 feet into the Eanh to mine the granite substratum below the Aat Creek Community. The angered community residents are not going to let it happen. Vulcan says there is enough granite to work. three shifts a day at the quarry for 55 years. How does that weigh against the risk to the health and well-being of Aat Creek, its watershed, and its people? Aat Creek itself would suffer. Any water that leaks into the 400-foot-deep pit during quarrying operations would be pumped into Aat Creek. That water would be laden with sediment, wastes, oil, chemicals, hydraulic fluids, and other debris from the mining operations. Vulcan is required to maintain only a 75 feet buffer strip between their operation and the waters of Flat Creek. "Seventy-five feet? That's the same as for my septic tank!" declared an irate residenL "What do they think they are doing here?" The ground water beneath the Flat Creek watershed would also be heavily impacted. A letter received June 24, 1987 from the North Carolina Dept of Natural Resources and Community Development listed four impacts a quarrying operation could have on ground waters around the site: 1. When the overburden above bedrock is stripped away, the water storage for the underlying fractured rock aquificr is removed. This can affect the flow of water in nearby wells and springs. 2. The blasting of bedrock can disrupt the flow of water in the fracture system supplying bedrock (drilled) well sand springs. 3. Dewatering the open pit could lower the water-table in the vicinity. 4. The exposure of fractured bedrock in the quarry can result in contaminated water entering and contaminating drilled wells in the vicinity. Constant blasting and the noise and dust from the cavalcade of trucks and heavy machinery will affect the two hundred homes and the two schools that are within one half mile of the quarry site. Vulcan already operates a quarry in Enka that blasts six days a week. The noise and the residues of the blasting dust are impossible to conttol. The new Enka High School, only two years old, is already starting to show cracks. Vulcan Materials Company has leased the 99-acre propeny in Flat Creek rather than purchase the land. Leasing relieves a company from any liability if water, air, propeny values, etc. are negatively affected by their panicular use or misuse of the land. A public meeting was held at the Flat Creek Elementary School August 6 in response to the announcement of the quarry plan. Over 600 concerned citiz.ens ancnded. KATUAH - page 22 For an area such as Flat Creek to become a "community'', a petition has to be submitted bearing the signatures of at least 20% of the citizens. Within four days 60% of the people of Flat Creek had signed a request for community status, and within one week Flat Creek formally became Flat Creek Community· a voice united. The concerns among the Flat Creek Community residents arc valid and immediate. With threatened water and air quality, daily explosions, increased traffic flows, and potential lowering of property values, it seems safe to say that Vulcan Materials Company would be more responsible and wiser 10 choose an area that offers less risk to humans and the environment than within the Flat Creek Community. NC LEGISLATORS WANT DUMP Nlllnl World News Service The North Carolina General Assembly bas decided, at least for the time being, to remain a member of the Southeast Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact and to receive all the low-level nuclear waste from the member states for the next 20 years. In both the House of Representatives and in the Senate motions to table withdrawal legislation won overwhclmi_ngly by margins of 66-32 and 39-IO respecuvely during the last days of the session. Most of the western representatives voted for withdrawal. The three weeks of the legislative session saw an intensive campaign by paid utility company lobbyists to influence legislators. Their cffons apparently had effect, as the legislature passed RB 35, which calls for a Siting Authority that is not accountable to either the public or the legislature to decide on the location of the radioactive waste dump. If there is any positive benefit from these votes at all, it is that the roll calls indicate which legislators deserve to retain their posts and which need to be replaced in the primary election next May. Then we can try again next session. Our work is cut out for us. For more information, contact: Citizens Concerned about Nuclear Waste P.O. Box 653 Dillsboro, NC 28725 or Ron Lambe, Nuclear Waste Task Force WNC Alliance P.O. Box 157 Spruce Pinc, NC 28777 PEREGRINE NEST DISCOVERED NC Wildlife Reaowces Commission Thirty years ago the peregrine falcon, the fastest of the birds of prey, was wiped out of the Southern Appalachians largely due to damage from the pesticide DDT. For the past four years NC Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC) staff and volunteers have been "hacking" young peregrine falcons at several l<?Cations i.n t~e Katuah province to re-establish the bird m this pan of its native range. The program seems to be paying o~f. A pair of the peregrines have made a nest ~n the Pisgah National Forest. The female ln1d two eggs in the nest, one of which hatched a young chicle, who only lived for three weeks before dying of unknown causes.. Nevertheless, Allen Boynton, project leader for the WRC, was exuberant. "This is the first nesting pair of peregrines in the state in 30 years," he said. "All the people in the project arc thrilled." When biologists learned the sole falcon chick had died, they quickly sent for another peregrine chick that had been born in captivity. When the chick arrived, it was placed in the nest, a mossy area on a rock ledge. "When the adults returned, they flew aroung the nesting site, looking at the chick," said Boynton. "The chick staned begging for food whenever an adult peregrine would land on the ledge. After a couple of hours, the birds settled down. Several days later when I returned, I saw one of the adults feeding the chick. "We put the foster chick in to hold the adults at that nesting site and to give them experience in raising a chick," said Boynton. "We'll continue to watch for return birds, as well as releasing more falcons in future years." The peregrine project has released 45 young falcons in the state of Nonh Carolina in the four years of its existence. The project is funded by the Peregrine Fund, a national organization dedicated to re-establishing the peregrine in its native range, and taxpayers who marke<l the Non-game W1l<llllc Checkoff on their state income tax returns. The US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have also provided funding and personnel for the project. ~ FALL 1987 �PeaceNet In tenns of networking continentally and globally, an invaluable resource is PeaceNet. PeaceNet is computer-based communication system helping the peace movement and the environmental movement throughout the planet cooperate more effectively and efficiently. With a large minicomputer based in northern California connected to Telenet, a common carrier, PeaceNet can facilitate letting subscribers communicate globally, usually through a local phone call. PeaceNet is compatible with virtually any personal computer or computer terminal outfiued with a 300 or 1200 baud modem. P eaceNet has more than 1,000 subscribers including the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy as well as Earth Island Institute. PeaceNet now also serves EcoNet. PeaceNet has an electronic mail system which allows one to send and receive messages to and from the other PeaceNet subscribers and from Telex and University systems around the world. It offers easy-to-use tools for posting events on international bulletin boards, preparing joint projects through electronic conferences, and finding out the latest information on environmental and peace issues. In addition, PeaceNet can provide computer conferences, like specialized bulletin boards. By using this conference tool, a geographically spread out organization can carry on frequent and responsive communications. Some organizations use it to facilitate group decision-making and task sharing processes, long distance. Conferences can be set up in private fashion for a small group of users or they can be established as a public resource. PeaceNet also has databases which provide easy access to large quantities of information and allow for custom searching and output (printing) fonnats. Databases include: lists of speakers, organizations, and foundations as well as bibliographic, legislative and project infonnation. PeaceNet is a non-profit project of the Tides Foundation, based in San Francisco. So far, PeaceNet has been funded primarily through grant and gifts. Soon, though, fees from users will help it become financially independent. PeaceNet's rates arc extremely reasonable. Fll"Sl, you pay a $10 one-time sign-up fee. This gives you a user's manual and a free hour of off-peak computer time. Then you pay a monthly charge of $10, which gets you another hour of off-peak computer time each month. Every additional peak hour is $10 and every off-peak hour is $5. Sometimes, initial fees are waived and sometimes discounts arc available. If you are interested in finding out more about PeaceNet, writeorcall: PeaceNet 3228 Sacramento St San Francisco, CA 94 I I 5 (415) 923·0900 , Oacc it caac to ac j1st after the leans had catirely flllca ia the forests, whca cn1 loacsoac whip-poor-wills had goac, that s1rely it is c111g• jHt to breathe aad be, or take nothcr's h11d i1 Inc, sighiag to behold the old Milky Way dastiag the hcucas with a t&gae woader. Why do we aeed sach passioaatc delights whca we may fi1d aew streagth ia elder aightsT S1rcly te feel preaeditated s11 wara oa yon sh11lders all the S1aaer, or to gaze 1po1 fresh saow i1 wiater, is charge enough to wholly fill our days. So whcace comes the dark mysteries we breed, huiag to s1ffer, or at least astond the world, and her followers arouad usT We hue forgottca what we oace beheld: that life is what we make ef it: ao more. Tho1gh sickless cater as ia awcfal forms, our lowed oacs die eatirely, lcuiag aoae, aid weights of tragedy 11chor fi1e joys, of 11 iastaat we may feel sweet gladacss, seeiag though it fades, that it still eadares. So wherefore the sad, regrettable maaT Builg oace drau such sercadipity, 10 time is left to sorrow or coaform. Each murmur of aatare souads iHiolate. by Michael Hoctadag ~ • ,. ~ ~ 'furtlt ls/Olld is tht o/dlnew nativt namt for North Am.:rica KATUAH - page 23 Old Galaxies Cnpluc by Rob M~s1d: ~ �DRUMMING LETIERS TO KATUAH Persimmon seed, I am .... let me glisten in the sunlight to paint you colours, gold, bronze, amber forever. let me be free to grow to bear.... to watch my young sway, to grow, to bear. let me not lay on the cold, damp ground trample me not for the Eanh is my food and the sunlight my wonderment Dear Katuah, I am writing you I.his leuer because while visiting wiLh our new friends Ann and Michael at the Rainbow Gathering here in neighboring Graham County, we were given a copy of your paper. During our visit lo the gathering, my wife and I found I.hat our love for the mountains I.hat we live in was revitalized and reinforced by Lhe people's love and respect for nature and their desire to preserve our planet for generations to come. They also helped to remind us to judge only a person's deeds, not his looks or possessions. My wife and I both work at Mountain Park Medical Center in Andrews where we live. Some of our co-workers were quick to judge the Rainbow brothers and sisters by looks alone, never trying to understand what they stood for or believed in. I am 37 years old and can still remember what the sixties meant. I may have served in the Navy during that time, but I always believed that everyone should follow their own hearts and not be absorbed in the masses. We must remain individuals, yet not do anything to hurt any other living c reature, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant they may seem. My wife and I both stop for animals when driving, getting out and carrying turtles to the side of the road in the direction that they were heading. Getting back to why I am writing this, we would like any information pertaining to groups or activities in this area that we could attend or help at. We would like to help preserve our bioregion for all time. Also, please let us know about subscribing to your journal. Kelly (Kelly and Deborah Jones Andrews, NC) Persimmon seed, I am.... betraying the man. Bern Grey Owl Raleigh, NC Dear~ Dear Katilah, Someone showed me your summer issue and I noticed that your next issue, in the fall, is going to be on the black bear. As a bear hunter, I may have something in common with you. I want to see the black bear population flourish in these mountains. Here are some things that concern me about the present state of affairs: Jllegal hunting. In some areas in these mountains, poaching is rampant. What we need is good enforcement of the hunting laws. There needs to be enough personnel to do this. Illegal hunting doesn't do any of us legal hunters any good. Huntini: season in NC. The hunting season here in NC actually opens too soon(@ Oct 12). You see, female bears need time to get in their dens; they go into their dens earlier than the males. For the black bear to reproduce, it is very important to protect the females during this time. Also, they may still be caring for cubs at this time, and the cubs need the protection, too. Other states around here don't start up their season 'til later. That's what we need to do in NC. Although it's illegal, I have seen hunters shoot a female bear with cub. Radjo Collars. Some hunters rely on tracking bears with radio collars on their hunting dogs. To me, this takes the sport out of it .B.fil..l:ill. Although it is illegal, some hunters bait for bears. The law against this needs to be enforced as well. Having good hunting laws and the personnel to adequately enforce them is our best bet in ensuring a healthy black bear population for these mountains. anyone, - HELP! The word has been out long enough about scarab beetle larvae (see .K_illiiM. #12). After getting sick at yet another Rainbow Gathering, I'm pissed. The time for pondering has passed. It's time for Rainbow people to quit scratching their asses and produce a large enough crop of these critters to eat all the shits of a gathering. The larvae can be scooped up at the end and returned home. If it's a very cold gathering, a few candles in jars should keep their appetites stirred. The shitters won't fill up, and dysentery will become history. If not the Rainbow Family to lead the way of the future, who? 'Cause the larvae are coming to the world to clean up one of man's (sic) greatest problems with or without the Rainbow Family (unless the poles shift first... ..) I am but one person at a lonely Rainbow outpost, who can only do so much, like write you and send a few starters for new colonies. I kept them alive all winter! They are ready! Let's go! The time is NOW! Sincerely, Corry M.C. Rutherford County, NC KATUAH - page 24 FALL 1987 �The Lessons of the Hunt "Patience," says the stately Heron As it stands in the shallows, Waiting for a fish or frog To obligingly swim by. and isn't he contained in she? (She wishpered) isn't he in herand here and male in side of female? Isn't man in woman, prince in princess God in Goddess? Isn't Ibis a very narural thing in a very natural world Yes! i said (an excited fool now) Yes! HE is in HER! Yes! HEARE H*E*ARE "Patience," says the tiny Jumping Spider As it dans along a vine, Its huge front eyes alert For an insect's telltale twitch. "Patience, "says the coiled Rattlesnake As it lies beside a log, Waiting for an unsuspecting mouse To follow its accustomed path. "Concentration," says the Heron As, one slowly moving foot at a time, It stalks A shining minnow. HE*R HER And i saw this planet as a veiled cruxible of pressured light and She laughed and said even the Y chroma some's an X standing on one leg and i laughed too. "Concentration," says the Rattlesnake As the mouse scampers closer, For there can be But a single strike. "I see and understand," say I dr.iwing by Troy Settler Will Ashe Bason Check, VA "And thank you for your gifts. Now I can tread the inner paths To seek my own prey, Truth." e Douglas A. Rossman - continued from page 5 In his normal tone he resumed, 'The sorry, but I would have accepted it. But to have tracked her down by radio, insjde the sanctuary, inside her den absolutely enraged me. There's no sense to it. Someone hunting, even poaching, outside the sanctuary is likely to pick up transient males. But invading the sanctuary means a poacher is likely to get one of the females, which are the breeding element of the population." To protect the other bears, all radio collars have been removed, except for three bears the Project team has been unable to catch. Removing the collars has hampered the study this year, but Roger Powell says, "We're fairly confident that we have figured out a way that we can continue to collect data that will put the bears in no jeopardy of poaching - but we're not talking about it yet "Our project's handling procedure has one of the best safety records for least bear injury and monality of any large mammal study in North America. I feel good about that. We've put a lot of care into handling lhe bears promptly and safely, so that it has minimal impact on them. It seems that all that care has been worth it." bears have to live with people. We need to "Those of us who want to share the world with other creatures need to learn as much as we can about them ....." learn as much about the bears as we can, because I've got a feeling that most people are not ready to immediately stop changing the world to suit themselves. "Those of us who want to share the world with other creatures need to learn as much as we can about them, because there are a lot of people out there who don't care. "We need to get to the good things and keep them good, before other people get to those things and change them." c .. CD And, when asked if he thought that the bears had anything to teach us, he replied softly, "The whole world does. "I don't see the bears out there trying lO change things. They're living with the world the way it is. It seems that every time we change it, we mess it up. We're better offleaving it the way it is." KATUAH - page 25 ~~E.'11.~~ c ::> ~ ::> :~e:~~~ I 3 ~ .;..;~ri:l:lllL.IC~ ~~;;s;.::.::..;;...;;;..:;:c;::i;z..;:m:;~.a.:.;..l:ll;;L...:;~-=---':.;._.::.:...:::::=::......11..;:,;.;;.:.;...J ; FALL 1987 �- continued from page 15 Every year our club has a bear supper. Our wivcs'll cook bear meat. They fix ii about five different ways - baked, barbecued, stcwed.....any way you like it. And they make potatoes, bread, coffee, all the side dishes. It's a fine time, and it doesn't cost nobody a dime. You can cat bear meat 'til you can't eat no more. At the first part of the season when our club gets together, we take up a donation. Everybody pitches in $3-5.00, whatever they can afford. We put that money in an envelope, and one guy hangs onto it. If anybody's dog gets hun, and has 10 go to the vet, that money pays for that dog, no matter who's dog it is. A group of guys sticking together can 1113kc up that bill, where one guy can't afford it. We depend on Forest Service land to hunt. Bears like to go back into the deep woods. They always have, and, as long as there's a mash crop every year, they always will. For the last five or six years the mash has been spotty. If you go back deep in the mountains, you might find a big, bumper crop of mash on one mountain and none at all on another mountain. But I believe that as long as the Forest Service controls that land, and keeps people from building summer cottages there, we'll always have bears. They'll always be here. The hunters aren't going to destroy the bears, but the poachers nre something else again. They arc something the Wildlife Commission doesn't like; the sponsmcn don't like them; and the ochers don't like them either. But as long as there's man and womnn on the face of this Earth, there's going to be murders, there's going to be robberies, and there's going to be poachers. Hunters themselves are going to have to protect the wildlife. And they can do that, because they are out in the woods, and they can report any violations that they see going ~ on. l'nwiJona Ptr1Mal S..rv1ct Fill,,,. You< 8oolt Netds In 5r«1ahzed fjelJa --=~ UlTIIAVIOlET PUlllFICATIOH AHO FILTERING SYSTEMS SOlAll PRODUCTS · WATER AHALYllS OAJtY HEMSOTM 8oola.ltr ~ Htleh«is Sbopplq Ctntu ~ Nar1b c.rouna 28'07 RANDAU. C. LANIER ~2 .HWY 107 RT. 68 BOX 125 CUUOWHEE. NC 28723 Chinese Acupuncture and Herbology Clinic SCOTT BIRD GREG BLACK (704) 683-1414 683-4795 342 Merrlmon Avenue Ashevllle, NC (704) 258-9016 •.,.(notli«r Small lluslnut Jor IJorCd P£ACe ... '1\iilee, 'ltUll~I 'Na~rcm BOBCAT T-SHIRT SHORT SLEEVE T: $10.00 ppd. Colors: Ecru, White, Sliver, Se.foam (It. green) Teal LONG SLEEVE T: $14.00 ppd. (Includes Paw Print on Sleeve) Color1: Ecru, Sliver, Teal, White Satisfaction assured or return for full refund. Please Indicate size, color, sleeve length, quantity. --t<c.,_._ _ l :::I ICIU ........_M,w . , -.IC-!lO'I-._, ~a.. Introducing the BOBCAT This full color design Is hand-screened on T-SHIRTS OF 100% PRESHRUNK COTTON IN ADULT SIZES S,M,L,XL We •I.a have a line of sweatshirt• and kids T-Shlrts KATU All - page 26 c~•-..;::=:=:=:=:=: C WSA ~I Natural Food Store & Deli 160 Broadway Ashevllle, NC 28801 Where Broldway1Neta Mamnon Ave & 1-240 OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Monday-Saturday: 9am·8pm Sunday: lpm·Spm (704) 253-7656 FALL 1987 �Littering: The Same Old Story ~ by Michael Hockaday I think it happened by accident, but it's hard to decide about some things. I'd bad it with a bag of fruit left aging on its own too long. It was time to go, so I brought it with me on my morning walk over along the pastures where the creek doglegs toward the big oak mountain. I stopped to toss those too-juicy pears toward a neighbor's cows clustered at the far end near the cornfields, leaving the bag by the wayside. I'd get it on return. Which I did, and found myself colJecting bottles, broken mostly, and cans: glass, plastic, aluminum. Beer cans were understandably the worst offenders, especially Budweiser, the King of Beer. Obviously Bud isn't wiser, and I still didn't understand. How quiet it was late Friday morning just coasting into the noon daze .... .leaves falling together in little groups or spiraling away one by one. Crickets caroled their tiny insect syrunphonies, or were they lullabies being put sleep by the vivid sunshine? Crows were growing less raucous, but the bluejays sure were arguing. I kept on with it, listening and cursing some. It was hard not to have bad thoughts against those who offhandedly dumped some of their junk on ~ nieghborhood, this stretch of public, county dirt road to boot! But I thought: I too am a litterer, though I don't break bottles against treetrunks or creekrocks, or cast my cigarette wrappers where all the world will see. Call that pride, ability? Ignorance? Carelessness? KATIJAH - page 27 No, I don't litter like I used to . Yet, as a consumer, I do my share of littering, for to buy and to throw away is interwoven. So there I was collecting garbage in my own neighborhood, which seemed at first a little embarrassing. I'll admit to being stubborn, but I didn't get it all. And I'm glad no one drove by. Those candy wrappers left seasoning for the last few weeks in the autumn sunshine had dried, melted, and broken into slivers that stuck to the blades and stalks of grass and weeds. I really couldn't pick them up without being quite meticulous, and it's true: the shade of my own front porch was calling me. Pausing in the road in the hot noon light, I remembered why I fear walking barefoot through these countrysides, crossing creeks at random, drying my feet in the cool shore sand: broken glass, jagged tin. Sparkling like mica under current, hidden under soft fall leaves. Dragging it all back home, I found out one thing: within an arrowshot of this old farmhouse I call home, a large grocery bag had been filled with that dirty stuff: garbage, junk, waste. Nowadays our roads are becoming dotted with more silver, red, black, orange, and less natural greens or the clear, plain color of the dirt of a Georgia country road. Why? I felt confused and very ignorant. It is more than a process of becoming an adult. A lot of conflicting thoughts and new questions came and went in my mind. Was littering a form of possessing, of exercising the right to litter the space around you, especially the place you grew up, the land you claim as yours? At first I believed the stuff I carried home was left by people driving through, or were my own neighbors littering? Could someone pay me to do this? Do I want to be a waste disposal unit? Hello, Mr. Dumpster. Or free to walk the woods and forest paths like I did the first year I arrived from a dirty city, going barefoot through the upland meadows, moving casually through deep grass, not finding any hurt but vinerash or stonebruise to my naked soles? And I would love to have those days again, though the past won't be reclaimed. But in the present, in today's world, does it seem too much to expect strolling barefoot through these hills, or to thoughtlessly race and dive into these lakes becoming clearer, yet thus more poisonous? Do you know where the honeysuckle clusters around that locust comerpost where the roads meet and the pavement starts? I found a pile of broken bottles there. And you know along the creek where the bitter, purple ironweed prospers in the low spots - I am finding layers upon layers of old junk: tractor tires, glinting slivers of old mirror glass, red velvet dance shoes dampening to tatters and dust Old garbage, family trash. The same old story. Quite usual. But still I feel a useless, impotent sense of despair as I see the simple, local, beautiful places marred by littering. Society at large won't solve it. Neither can I. That night I spent more time gazing on the feather of the grand Milky Way, appreciating clear, silver, tremulous stars. A cool wind stirred and freshened me. FALL 1987 �evenrs 3 WILLIS, VA "Healing the Family in the Wise Woman Way" - finding and preparing herbal medicines with Kathleen Maier and Sherry Willis. Indian Valley Holistic Center, see 9/19-20. SEPTEMBER 12-13 ASHEVILLE, NC RIVERFEST - "C'mon down to the riverside!" for the grand finale of French Broad River Week. Call (704) 254-8131 far more information. 18-19 3 ZIONVILLE, NC "Whole Brea1h Bodywork" workshop at Polestar Re11eat Center with Ginny Wright; 604 Mt. Vernon Ave.; Charlotte, NC 28203 ASHEVILLE, NC New Priorities Conference on Peace, Social Justice and the Environment.. 3-4 Includes featured speakers, workshops, panels and fellowship. Sponsored by Katifah and many other organizations. Asheville High School. $10 registtation, includes lunch; childcare $2. Info: (704) 252-3036 Is There a Future for the Southern Appalachian BLACK BEAR? 4-9 18-20 TOWNSEND, TN Tenn. Environmental Education Association Conference at the Great Smoky Mountains lnstitu1e at Tremont; Townsend, TN37882 GREAT SMOKY MT'NS. "Research on the Wild Mammals of the Great Smokies" with Dr. Michael Pelton. $40. Smoky Mountain Field School; Department of Non-credit Programs; 2016 Lake Ave.; Knoxville, TN 37996 A Wlldllfe and Habitat Conference September 29, 1987 WILLIS, VA "Health and the Human Mind" - the fundamentals of body electronics with Richard Lowenthal. $95 + $20 room and board. Indian Valley Holistic Center; Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis, VA 24380 21 FALL EQUINOX BREAKS, VA Stage productions "South of the Mountain" and ''Talcs" by the Roadside Theater. For more info, write: The Roadside Theatre; Box 743; Whitesburg, KY 41858 22-27 BRASSTOWN, NC Coker Creek Anists' Creative Clothing Workshop. John C. Campbell Folk School; Brasstown, NC 28906 9-11 Owen Confemice Cent.er UNCA, Asheville. NC 19-20 19-20 STAUNTON, VA Earth First! Appalachian rendezvous and action against clearcutting in the George Washington National Forest Meet at North River campground, GW NF. For more info, call Roland Knapp at (606) 259-0252. Sponsored by: Environmentlll Studies Program. UNCA Soul.hem Appalachian Black Bear Fe.dcnltion Long Branch Environmental EducDtion Center KAWh.Biorcgio03l Journal 27 WILLIS, VA "An Afternoon of Personal and Planetary Healing" - circle on Mother Mound with Tom Williams. Donations. Indi~ Valley Holistic Center, see 9/19-20. 30 ASHEVILLE, NC Green Politics. Regional meeting of the WNC Greens. Montford Community Center. 7pm More info: (704) 254-6910. OCTOBER 15-18 HIGHLANDS, NC "Fall Landscape Photography Workshop" with Sam Wang - exploring and photographing fall in the beautiful Highlands area. $250. The Appalachian Environmental Ans Center; P.O. Box 580; Highlands, NC 28741 BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC The Black Mountain Fall Festival. Traditional music, dance, and stories by Gamble Rogers. the Houseband, Peter Ostrousko Band, Wild Asparagus, David Wilcox, Golden Rod Puooets and others. $30 for the weekend. Write: Grey Eagle and Friends; P.O. Box 216; Black Mountain, NC 28711 16-18 2-4 ZIONVILLE, NC "Healing Wise," a weekend seminar on herbal healing with Susan S. Weed. $125 or daily, includes camping, meals. Sun.- "For Women Only". Contac1: Phoenix Productions; Rt. 2, Box 59; Zionville, NC 28698 25-27 WA YNES VILLE, NC "Spiritual Astrology: Symbols of the Self" - using the birthchan as a mandala to center the Self among the various roles we play in life. Michael Thurma.n at Stil-Light Theosophical Retreat Cen1er; Rt 1, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 28786 (704) 452-4569 25-27 KATUAH - page 28 HIGHLANDS, NC "Elders' Circle of the American Indian Council - elders from the Six Nations, Hopi, Pueblo, eastern and western Cherokee will speak at the Mountain; 841 Highway 106; Highlands, NC 28741 (704) 526-5838 WA YNESVnLE, NC "The Modern Woman and Spirituality" with Elisabeth Peryam. Discussion, group work, ar.d worship for women at Stil-Light. See 9/25-27. FARNER, TN "Wild Foods and Medicines" expedition into the woods with Snow Bear. $50. Pepperland Farm Camp; Star Route; Farner, TN 37333. (704) 494-2353 2-4 HOT SPRINGS, NC "Courage, Kindness. Commitment, and Humor" retreat with Bo Lozoff. $50. Sou1hern Dhanna Retreat Center; Rt. l, Box 34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743 CEDAR MOUNTAIN, NC Sierra Club "Outing Skills Workshop" - essentials of backpacking, knots, food drying, map and compass work and much more. $20 includes meals. Write for info before Oct 1 to: Shirl Thomas; P.O. Box 272; Cednr Mountain, NC 28718 17-18 WILLIS, VA "Introduction 10 Pennaculture" principles of cultivation with Thelma Snell. Indian Valley Holistic Center, see 9/19-20. 17-18 2-4 23-25 FARNER, TN "Primitive Camping Skills" learn to stay warm, dry, and well-fed wilh what lhe forest has to offer. See 10/2-4. FALL 1987 �- .. ' 21 KNOXVILLE, TN The Roadside Theatre presents "South of the Mountain''. See 9n.2·27. 25-29 WAYNESVILLE, !'liC Good cookin' at Stil-Light! "A Vegetarian Thanksgiving - The Role of Diet on the Spiritual Journey." $20. Sec 9n.5. 27-29 HOT SPRINGS, NC "Medicine Wheel/Mamlala The Circle of Peace" with Louise Sunfeathcr and Jennifer Gordon See 10/2-4. 14 Rob Messick 23-25 YELLOW SPRINGS, OH Conference: "The Self-Reliant Community" with Jeffery Bercuvicz, director of Rodale's Regeneration Project; Sue Jackson; William Berkowitz - identifying local skills, talents, and capital and using them to take the community's future in hand. $50 + $20 accomoclations. Prices include meals. Contact: Community Services; P.O. Box 243; Yellow Springs, OH 45387 WILLIS, VA "Rebirthing Weekend" Michael McDowell. $50. Indian Valley Holistic Cenier, see 9(1.7 24 W ILLIS, VA "Healing Old Wounds" rele:ising the past. Tom Williams. Indian Valley Holistic Center, see 9n.7. UNICO I ST. PAR~ GA "Earth Skills Workshop" for the whole family with Eustace Conway. Contact: Linda Rigell; Rt. l, Box 1426; Clayton, GA 30525. 28-29 DECEMBER 7-8 13-15 FARNER, TN Caving expedition. See 11/6-8. 5-6 SMOKY MT'N PARK Winter High Country Camping. The Smoky Mountain Field School. See 9/19-20. 11-13 14 GREAT SMOK Y MT'NS. Winter Field Botany. Smoky Mountain Field School, see 9/19-20. 23-25 BRASSTOWN, NC Fall Dance Weekend. JCC Folk School, see 10/4-9. WILLIS, VA "Trusli ng In tu it ion" following the inner voice. Tom Williams. $60. Indian Valley Holistic Center. See 9n.7. 14 RADFOR~VA "Leaving Egypt" - stage production by the Roadside Theatre. See 9/22-27. 20-22 CHAPEL HILL, NC Economics As If Earth Mattered Conference with Herman Daly and Paul Wachtel. Center for Reflection on the Second Law. (919) 847-5819 WAYNESVILLE, NC "Intuition: Gateway to Knowing" - "Intuition is not psychic phenomena.... It is the Soul and its expression in form" - Joyce Keane. $20. Stil-Light, see 9n.5-27. HOT SPRINGS, NC ''Tibetan Buddhism: Traditional Methods for Spiritual Growth" - the Ven. Tubten Pendey. $75. Southern Dhanna, see ion.-4. 11-13 BRASSTOWN, NC 18 Olde Follcs Party. 19 Children's Pany. JCC Folk School, see 10/4-9. 30 HALLOWE' EN (Samhain) the ancient Feast of the Dead. 30-11/1 HOT SPRINGS, NC ''To Leap Like :i Tiger: A Zen Weekend" with B:irbara Rhodes. $86. Southern Dhanna, see lOn.-4. NOVEMBER 1-14 BRASSTOWN, r\C "Log Cabin Building" course with Peter Goit. JCC Folk School, see I0/4·9. 6·8 FARNER, TN Caving expedition to Cloudland Canyon. Basic safety. geology instruction by Snow Bear. Pepperland, sec IOn.-4. 6-10 HOT SPRINGS, NC "Meditation Retreat for Women" with Anna Douglas. $112. Southern Dharmn, see ion.-4. KATIJAH - page 29 FALL 1987 �STIL-LIGllT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT CENTER • a qu1el space for personal mcdiLntion, group interaction through study and community worlc, and spiritual semin:lrs. Contact Leon Frankel: RL I, Box 32.6; Waynesville. NC 28786 CRAFTSPEOPLE -send price listings to Gif1td /lands of NC, 331 Blake St; Raleigh, NC 27601 (Au'n: Bcm Grey Owl) - unique shop presenting 35-40 craflers' worlcs in Raleigh's City MlrkcL All aafts considered. ROCKIN' Willi BILLY B • Do the Dance of tht Dragonfly or the Rock 'Roll of Photosyntthsis in the "Music and the Natural World" workshop. Available for bookings for schools or loc3l groups, Jan. 29-Fcb. 4, 1988. Great motivation for kids! Call Ken Voorhis (615) 448-6700. FUTO~S by Simple Pleasures • affordably p1iccd Send SASE for info to: Simple Pleasures; Rt. I, Box 1426; Clayton, GA 30525 (404) 782-3920 I HA VE ACCEPTED the responsibility to participate m a powerful and imporunt cetemony to be condut1Cd in Nov. '87 inside the Great Pyrnmid in Egypt. I believe this wo1k will help uncarth ancient and new information crucial to the well-being of our planeL I h:ive received guidance Lhm in order to go on this mission. I would have to be sponsored. Plc.ise send don:itions t0: RL 2, Box 58; Willis. VA 24380 (att: Journey to Egypt) Tom W illiruns.. ...AnJ I/it £11r//1 limf APPLE TREES • grafted old-fashioned and contemporary. Send 50 cents for catalog: Henry Monon: RL I, Box 203; Gatlinburg, TN 37738 ASTROLOGICAL CHARTS. 7-pllge intcrproLntions of planets in signs and houses with plancwy aspects. Easy to read. Great gift for the newly-born. Send SS. name, date, time, and place of birth 10 Touchstone; Rt. 2, Box 314·K: Vilas. NC 28692 ORGANIC FERTILIZERS, herbs, and organically·grown, local produce at the WNC Farmer.;' Market! Look for the Fairglen Farms stall. units F and G in the wholesale area of the Farmers' Market; 570 Brevard Rd.; Asheville, NC (704) 2524414 ELEMEl'.'TARY SCHOOL TEACHER, certified, creative, self-motivated, and organized needed at Valley School, a parent-governed 11ltcmati"e school in Monongahela National Forest, WV Resume, references to: Teri Kutsko; I Kirt St., Elkins, WV 26241 (304) 636-2979 THE APPALACHIAN HERR NEWSLETTER: explonng the potential for herbs as ca.\h crops m Appalachia. Subscriptions $12/yr.. Write: Aopalnchj3n Herb Newslwcr • ASPI; RL 5, Box 423; Livini;sion. KY 40445 LAND TRUST in I.he forming on 57 acres near Boone, NC ~king famihcs wiLh strong visions and resources to manifest a peaceful place for our children to grow in love nnd to survive the coming of the new age. Paul and Susan Del Rios; RL 2, Boit 314; Vilas, NC 28692 (704) 297-4937 ROSE AROMATICS • essential oils have been healing body, mind, spirit, since ancient EgypL A most plcasa.nt therapy! Dabney Rose; 108 Church Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804 (704)254-9551 PURE HONEY • unheated and unfiltered. Poplnr, locust., and sourwood. One of nature's blessings! Price and ordering info from Jimmy Holladay, the Beekeeper; P.O. Box 908; Black Mt'n., NC 28711 (704) 669-9788 .. ANQ THE EARTH LIYEP HAPPILY EVER AEJ.El.· stories from folk U11ditions all around the world chosen lO help protect all living beings by bringing the world society a few steps closer lO peace and respect for au life. Edited by Floating Eagle Feather. $7.00 ppd. (All profits go to Greenpeace and the Peace Museum). Order from: Wages of Peace; 309 Trudeau Dr.; Metaire, LA 70003 ALTERNATIVE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL - At Arthur MorgJll School 24 students and 14 staff lc:im together by living in community. Curriculum includes creative academics, group decision-making, a work program, service projects, extensive field trips, challenging outdoor experiences. Write: 190 I Hannah Branch Rd.: Burnsville, NC 28714 (704) 675-42.62 DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic-dumbecks 8c wooden medicine drums. Call Joe at (704) 258-1038 or David at (704) 253-2846, or write ta: Joe Roberts, 738 Town Mountain Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804. TECHNOLOGICAL APPROPRIATE COMMUNICATIONS • low-tech, economical telephone systems for the altcmntive community or farm. 2· 100 phones, a.utomatic or human-assisted systems available. Write: TAC; PO Box 936; Gatlinburg. TN 37730 MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS· herbal salves, tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm; RL I, Box 726; Hampton, TN 37658 PEPPERLAND offers a vericty of outdoor education for church, school, or civic groups year-round. We will help you design a program for your group. Send for information packet to: Pcpperlnnd Farm Camp: Star Route; Farner, TN 37333 program~ 1988 SIMPLE LIFESTYLES CALENDAR • PhOlos of "CraftSpCOple of App:il:ich1a" by Warren Brunner and suggestions for simple hvmg for each day. S6.00 from Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest; Rt. 5, Box 423; Livingston, KY 4~45. All proceeds benefit the work of ASPI, n non-profit corporation. CHEROKEE INDIAN LANGUAGE classes. For info, \\rite Robcn Bushyhc:id; P.O. Box 705: Cherokee. NC 28719 APPLE TREES • Old·timcy and popul.1r contcmpor.uy varieties on sumdanl, semi·, or dw:irf stock. Send SASE for prices: Jeff Poppen: Long Hungry Creek N~; Red Boahng Springs, TN 37150 ARCHITECTURAL ADVICE ANO DESIGN: Adam Cohen; RL 2, Box 217; Check, VA 24072 SOCK-A-DOOZ PUPPET PETS • Walk 'cm, talk 'em. make 'em Oy. Wag their tails, you can try. They will love you. bug you if you're blue. Now PUPPET PETS can be your friends too. Handcrafted by Bonnie Blue; 78 1/2 Pauon Ave. (#10); A.~hevillc, NC 28801 FLOWER ESSENCES • Harmony with Nature & SpiriL Gentle emotional suppon durmg tr.lllsitions, specific issues, relationships. Opens communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic, awareness "tools" for improving I.he inner quality. Correspondence to: Elaine Gcougc, c/o Patchwork Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So.. Burnsville, NC 28714 DAYSTAR ASTROLOOICAL SERVICE· natal, transil, comparison charts. Very accurate. Only S3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason; Rt. 2, Box 217: Check, VA 24072 (703) 651·3492 KATUAH ·page 30 APPALACHIAN GlNSENG CO. - Stratified seeds, seedlings, roots. Send for price list to: P.O. Box 541; Dillsboro. NC 28725 WEBWORKlNG is free. Send submissions to: Kil.l.uAh P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748 FALL 1987 �. /¥IDJ1lh wan~s to commtmicate yoiu· thougltts and feelings to the other people in the b1oreg1onal province. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories, drawings, or photographs. Please send yo1u contributions to 11S at: Ki:Wklh; Box 638 ·Leicester NC Karuah Province 28748. ' ' ' "Home" is shelter....."llome" is the heartll....•"Home" is conun11nity. Share yotu plans, sketches, and dreams with the others in tlie bioregion in the winter issue ofKm.tklh. The deadline/or conrriblllions is October 3. What does spring make you think of? Send your ideas to us for the spring isme. Mtdfrfnt- Alllts BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE ISSUE lWO- WINTER 1983-84 Yona - Bear Huntus - Pigeon River Another Way With Animals - Alma Becoming Politically Effective Mouniain Woodlands - Katiinh Under lhe Drill - Spirilwtl Warriors full rolor T-snlrts In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief, the creatures in the world today are only climinuitive forms of the mythic beings who once inhabited the world, but who now reside in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest heaven. But a few of the original powers broke through the spiritual barrier and exist yet in the world as we know it. These beings are called with reverence "grandfathers". And of them, the strongest are Kanati, the lightning, the power of the sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake, who personifies the power of the eanh plane; and Yunwi Usdi, "the little man", as ginseng is called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws up power from the underworld. Each is the strongest power in its own domain. Together they are allies: their energies compliment each other to form an even greater power. As medicine allies, they represent the healing powers of the Appalachian Mountains. The medicine powers of Katuah have been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen by Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality. all-cotton shins, they a.re available now in all adult sizes from the Kanfoh journal. "To show respect for this supernatural trinity of the natural world is to in turn become an ally in the continuing process of mnintaining hnnnony and balance here in the mountains of Kau.iah." To order, use the form below. ISSUETHREE-SPRING 1984 Sustainable Agriculture - Su.n nowen • Human Impact on the Forest • Childrcns' Education Veronica Nicholas:Woman in Politics - Linle People - Medicine Allies lSSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984 Water Drum - Water Quality - Kudx.u ·Solar Eclipse· Clearcutling - Trout - Goin& to Wal&¥ Rom Pumps - Microhydto ·Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair, Tun Wayne Millet lSSUE FIVE. FAU. 1984 Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginsen& • Nuclear Waste • Our Celtic Heritage • Bioregionalism: Past. Present. and Futute - John Wi!nol)I • Healing Darkness - Politics of ~ ISSUE SIX· WINTER 1984-85 Winter Solslice Earth Ceremony • HcrKp&Slurt River - Corrung or the Ugbl - Log Cabin Roota • Mountain Apiculturc: The Ril!lt Crop - William Taylor ·The Future or the Forest ISSUE SEVEN · SPRING 1985 Susiainable Economics - Hot Sprinas - Worker Ownership· The Great Economy - Self Help Credit Union - Wild Turkey - Re'J'Onsible bwesting • Working in the Web of Life lSSUE EIGHT· SUMMER 198S Celebration: A Way of Life. Kauiah 18.000 Years Ago • S6Cred Sites • Folk Aru in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer· Chcroku Heritage Center• Who Owns Appallchla? lSSUE NINE· FALL 1985 The Waldee Forest - The Trecs Spcalt • Migrating Foresu - Horse Logging • Starting a Tree Crop· Urban Trees • Acom Bread • Myth Tune ISSUE TEN· WINTER 19&S-$6 Kate Rogers - Cin:les or St.one • lntemal Mylhmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial • Poems: Steve Knauth - Mythic Places • The Uktena's Tale • Crystal Magic • "Omu-nspcalcing" ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRING 1986 Community Planning • Cities and the Bioregional Vision - Recycling - Communil)I Gadcning· Floyd Counly, VA • Gasohol • Two Bioregional Views - Nuclear Supplement Foxfire Games - Good Medicine: Vasicns ISSUE n«RTEEN - Fall 1986 Center For Awakening· Elizabeth Calllri. A Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest MoTgan • Ocaling Creatively with Death - Home Buri.al Box • Th" Wake • The Raven Mocker • Woodslore and Wildwoods WiJdom • Good Medicine: n...s..-Lodge lSSUE FOURTEEN. Winier 1986-87 Uoyd Carl Owtc - Boogcn and Mummc:n AD Species Day - Cabin Fever Un ..cnlty • Homeless in KatUah - Homemade Hot Wall:r Stovcmakcis Narrative - GooJ Medicine: lntmpeci"5 Conummication ISSUE FIFTEEN -Spring 1987 Coverlcls • Wom:m Forester · Susie McMahan Midwife - Alternative Contraception • Bioscxuality - Bioregionalism and Women Good Medicine: Mlllriacharial Culwn: - ~ ISSUE SIXTEEN - Swnmcr 1987 Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden • Vision Quest - First Flow - Initiation • Leaming in the Wilderness - Cherokee Olallenge- "Valuing Trees• -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------KAJVAH: Biore~jonal Journal of the Southern Appalachians Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748 For more info: call Marnie Muller (7().1)683-1414 Regular Membership........$ IO/yr. Sponsor..........................$20/yr. Contributor.....................$50/yr. Name Address City Area Code KAJVAH -page 31 ~ess! t1ot£r.t"' Enclosed is S to give this ejfon an exrra boost State Phone Number Zip Back Issues Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#_@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#_@ $2.00 = $ Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ _ _ Complete Set (2-11, 13-16) @$19.00=$_ _ T-Shirts: specify quanticy color: tan S_ _ M_ _ L_ _ XL_ _ @ $9.50 each............$_ _ I can be a local contact person for my area TOTALPRICE= postage paid $_ _ FALL 1987 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records Description An account of the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, Issue 17, Fall 1987 Description An account of the resource The seventeenth issue of the Katúah Journal 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. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. 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 Bear Story by Sam Gray.......6 Issues (and a Few Answers) for the Black Bear: An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton.......8 The Challenger: The Wild Boar in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.......11 cougar: A Poem.......12 Good Medicine: "Finding Allies in the World".......13 "Me and My Walker Hounds" by Robert McMahan.......14 "Smells Like Money to Me": A Report on Champion International by Jay S. Gertz.......16 Bear: A Poem by Scott Bird.......18 Green Politics in Katúah by Richard Harrison.......19 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 Turtle Island Talking: A Look at PeaceNet.......23 Old Galaxies: A Poem by Michael Hockaday.......23 Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24 Littering: The Same Old Story by Michael Hockaday.......23 Fall Calendar of Events.......28 Webworking.......30 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. 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) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1980s 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-test.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. . '. ·: :: .. .• ·: .. .· (conUll!JCld on s-sc 18) .. :· .. ·. . ' ' '~ .. .: ' ':... © 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_ _ Issue # @ $2.00 = Issue#_@ $2.00 = S_ _ Issue# .@ $2.00 = S_ _ Issue # _ _@ $2.00 = S_ _ Complete Set (2-11, 13-17) @ s20.oo =s__ T-Shins: specify quantity color tan s__ S_ _ M_ _ L_ _ XL_ _ 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, Issue 18, Winter 1987-1988 Description An account of the resource The eighteenth issue of the Katúah Journal 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. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. 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 Dreams in Wood and Stone: Building Your Own Home by Adam Cohen.......5 A Mountain Home by Greg Olson.......8 Homemade Houses in Katúah: A Photo Feature.......9 Listening to Earth Energies by Marni Muller.......10 Earth-Sheltered Living by Scott Bird.......11 Membrane Houses by Rob Messick.......13 The Brush Shelter by Snow Bear.......14 Resource List: On Building and Design.......15 Solar Composting Toilet.......15 October Dusk: Poems by Rita Sims Quillen | Review by Julia Nunnally Duncan.......16 Good Medicine: "On Shelter".......7 The Future of the Black Bear: Conference Report.......19 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 A Children's Page.......23 Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24 "A Bourn of Buds": A Poem by Michael Hockaday.......7 Webworking.......30 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. 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 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 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) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1980s 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-test.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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah Journal, Issue 19, Spring 1988 Description An account of the resource The nineteenth issue of the Katúah Journal 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. Beginning this issue, the title of the journal was simplified to Katúah Journal. 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. 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 Interview with Carolyn Port......10 Flower Essence.......13 The Origin of the Animals: 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 Katúah.......22 A Children' [sic] Page........25 Events.......28 Spring Gathering.......29 Webworking........30 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina Subject The topic of the resource Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern Herbs--Therapeutic use--North Carolina, Western Plants, Edible--Appalachian Region, Southern New Age movement--Appalachian Region, Southern Wild flowers--Blue Ridge Mountains Heirloom varieties (Plants) North Carolina, Western Blue Ridge Mountains Appalachian Region, Southern North Carolina--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Appalachian Region, Southern Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. <a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Journals (Periodicals) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1980s 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-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/3bb540dcdbeaaaf1f14ddae1dc0e4557.pdf a36e851f2b8b17710f0753e60cf20014 PDF Text Text Postage Paid ~UA~)OURNAL Bulk Ma~ Permit #18 Leicester, NC P.O. Box638 Leicester, NC 28748 Katu ah Province 28748 ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED ISSUE 20 SUMMER 1988 $1.50 BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF TH E SOUTHERN A PPALACHIANS �THE TRACKS OF THE PANTHER Will Mark the Length of the Appalachian Range ..... and Beyond CONTENTS The Tracks of the Panther............... 1 "Wilderness is not a land-use designation!" Alphonso Lubek Highlands of Roan ..................................6 Celo Community: 50 Years on the Land ..................... 8 Celo. lnterview.................................... 1O Land Trust: Tenure for Our Time.. 11 Learning Community......................... .12 Mountain Landscapes at Risk ......... 13 Rest in Perpetual Wilderness ....... 14 "The Ridge"............................................15 Farmers and the Farm Bill... ........... 16 Good Medicine: "Relating to the Land" ............. 17 "It Comes in a Mist" ...........................18 Duke's Power Play.............................. 19 Cherokee Micro hydro Project... ..... 21 Drumming: Letters to Katuah ........ 22 by David Wheeler Photographs by Gil Leebrick Leave for awhile this world of damaged and broken life cycles, and step into a different time frame. Leave the deranged pace of our society - the quick buck, fast food, the instant replay - and move to another rhythm. In this time perspective, forests and glaciers flow and recede. Slowly and ponderously the mountains breathe, inhaling and exhaling through the ages. Species migrate across the face of the Earth, through time in which there is no time, only an endless procession of seasons and the stars circling overhead. This is evolutionary time. From this time space we can see indusaial society as a sudden wound that tore open the Eanh's flesh and let in dangerous poisons, diseases, and putrefactions which threatened our planet's very existence. But the wound is now slowly healing over. The last traces of infection and sick, decaying tissue arc now disappearing. See a new race of human beings, few in number, their bodies strong and sensitive to the world, their intuitive faculties awake and aware to every shift in the energy patterns around them. These people are not driven by goals or guilt from artificial motivations or formulations of good and evil. They live simply, keeping their senses unencumbered to fully receive the greatest delight: the gift of existence in a world that is whole, that informs and provides every motivations or formulations of good and evil. They live simply, keeping their senses unencumbered to fully receive the greatest delight: the gift of existence in a world that is whole, that informs and provides every facet of their lives. These people live in small tribal circles surrounded by the powerful forces of the natural world. They see themselves as the eye at the center of the world - the part of the whole that can look back on itself, see itself jn its entirety and delight in the intricacies and movements of the life pattern mandala. The camps of these humans are small islands in the midst of the flow of the world. Wilderness to them is not a rare and specialized category. Wilderness is their reality • sometimes fearsome, but never alien or forbidding. Wilderness is the central fact of their existence. It provides for them. It shapes their consciousness as well as their physical existence. And when the time comes, wilderness takes their lives. Wilderness is habitat is home. Life at the center of the world can be sustained forever, if the people think and live in evolutionary time. The step into this vision of the world may seem like a long one to us, situated as we are in this time, but in actuality it is not so far. We are only 400 years removed from it on this continent. And we need to think in these terms, for this is ecological reality. This is a vision of the world in balance. We need to think of it, aspire to it, before we can achieve it It is from this perspective that we are offered the proposal "Preserve Appalachian Wilderness" (PAW) authored by Jamie Sayen of Stratford, NH and first published (continued on page 3) KATUAH- page 1 SUMMER- 1988 �CARRYING WATER: Scott Bird Christina Morrison Chip Smith Rob Messick Marnie Muller David Wheeler EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE: John Morris Jack Chaney Michael Red Fox John Lang Colleen Williams Will Ashe Bason Judith Hallock Michael Hockaday Oliver Loveday Cover Photo by Gil Leebrick of the Environmental Arts Center, Highlands, NC Invocation by kore loy mcwhirter STATEMENT OF PURPOSE EDITORIAL QFFJCE nus ISSUE: Worley Cove, Sandymush Creek PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co., Sylva, NC WRITE US AT: Katuah Journal Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748 TifE SOlll'HERN APPALACHIAN BIOREC!ON AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS TELEPHONE: (704) 683-1414 Diversity is an imponanl element or biorcgional ecology. bOth natural and social. In line with this principle, the Katuab Journal lries to serve as a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed anicles express only the opinion or the authors and arc not nccessnrily !he opinions of the Katuab Journal editors or stare. The Internal Revenue Service has declared KatiJah a non-profit orgnniMtion under section 50t(c)(3) of !he Internal Revenue Code. All contributions to KatUah are deductible from personal income tax. 'LNVOCA.TWN summre solstice songe I speake forre the darke forces I amme the seede the light-mongres have forgottenne theirre purpose we gathre ande growe no one canne live withoute oure beinge evenne the sma!Jeste glimmre is made greate inne oure presence a!Je muste returne to us you maye dance ande dragge atte youre sbadowes wishlnge themme awaye whenne you wearye of the battle forre supremacye and separationne you wille come to reste inne oure annes we wille rocke you to sleepe to the songe of the moones' darke face she singes of youre memorye thatte we are one Here in the southern-most heartland of the Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on our continent, Turtle Island; a small but growing group has begun to take on a sense ofresponsibility for the implications of that geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of r~sponsibility centers on the concept of living within the natural scale and balance of universal systems and principles. Within this circle we begin by invoking the Cherokee name "Kantah" as the old/new name for this area of the mountains and for its journal as well. The province is indicated by its nawral boundaries: the Roanoke River Valley to the north; the foothills of the piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountain and the Georgia hills to the south; and the Tennessee River Valley to the west. The editorial priorities for us are to collect and disseminate information and energy which pertains specifically to this region, and to foster the awareness that the land is a living being deserving of our love and respect. Living in this manner is a way to insure the sustainability ofthe biosphere and a lasting place for ourselves in its continuing evolutionary process. We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a " do or die " situation in terms of a quality standard of life for all living beings on this planet. As a voice for the caretakers of this sacred land, Katuah, we advocate a centered approach to the concept of decentralization. It is our hope to become a support system for those accepting the challenge of sustainability and the creation of harmony and balance in a total sense, here in this place. We welcome all correspondence, criticism, pertinent information, articles, artwork, etc. with hopes that Katuah will grow to serve the best interests of this region and all its living, breathing members. - The EdiJors KATUAH - page 2 SUMMER - 1988 �(continued from page I} in the Eanh Firsr! Journal. The PAW idea is simply to create a continuous wilderness or habitat area from the Florida Keys to the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec, using as a foundation the present protected route of the Appalachian Trail. The idea seems outrageous in the present social context, but it is actually a modest transitional step toward ecological sanity. A continuous wild habitat the length of the Appalachian Range could provide the first requirement for wilderness, space, and in time enable the return of unique plants and large animals - panthers, bears, wolves, moose - that have been exterminated throughout all or parts of the mountain chain. lf the PAW plan became a reality, plant and animal species could migrate freely from Karuah to the Gulf of Maine bioregion to the north, and likewise to the Aorida Peninsula bioregion to the south. "The 'backbone' for this wideranging habitat," says the PAW document, "already exists, albeit plagued by slipped discs and cracked vertebrae. The Appalachian Trail runs for over 2,000 miles from Mt. Katahdin in nonhem Maine to Springer Mountain in northern Georgia. "Wild areas along the Appalachian Trail must be expanded, buffered, and protected in perpetuity as wilderness. Only then will the backbone suppon the weight of the massive wild areas throughout the C3Stern reaches of Tunic Island which will be joined to the Appalachian Trail 'wilderness backbone' by means of wild, natural corridors. In this way the Adirondack wilderness (in NY) can be linked co the Appalachian Trail in the Green Mountain National Forest (VT) via Lake Champlain and other riparian and terrestrial wild corridors." KA1UAH - page 3 A continuous wild habitat the length of the Appalachian Range could provide the first requirement for wilderness, space, and in time enable the return of unique plants and large animals - panthers, bears, wolves, moose - that have been exterminated throughout all or parts of the mountain chain. Of the Katuah province, PAW says: 'The Southern Appalachians.....are home to the most varied deciduous forest in North America. Due to the extraordinary range of plant habitats and climates, 2,500 tree, shrub, moss, and lichen species occur there, 1.500 of which are flowering. There are over 200 endemic species, including 40 wildflower species. 'There are more than 25 wilderness preserves in this area, but, unfortunately, most are of the usual variety, i.e., less than 10,000 acres. Almost the entire length of the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain to the northern tip of the Shenandoah National Park traverses National Park, National Forest, or designated wilderness. There is enormous potential for 'big wilderness' in the southern Appalachians. "This is the good news. The rest of the story is more familiar. Roads parallel or bisect much of the Appalachian Trail. National ForestS and Parks are not managed for wilderness, and most designated wilderness is fragmented and confined to mountain tops with spectacular views. The lower reaches, drainages, swamps, valleys, and less scenic areas - in shon, the areas with the greatest biological diversity and species richness - are generally unprotected." The proposal also mentions re-establishing the American chestnut tree, once a dominant species in the Appalachian woods and a major food source for the large wildlife populations that inhabited the mountain forests. PAW activist R.F. Mueller and olhers in Virginia have proposed a 65,000 acre "Shenandoah Wilderness Area" in the northwest corner of the present state boundaries. The PAW proposal states that, "This proposal is PA W's highest shon tenn priority even though the Shenandoah Wilderness lies approximately 30 miles from the Appalachian Trail. Appropriate buffering and connecting corridors in National Forest land will connect it to the backbone. It should be noted that in the long run PA W's vision calls for greatly expanding this core area..... "The Cranberry Back Country in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, fifty miles as Raven flies from lhe Appalachian Trail in Virginia, will also be joined by natural corridors to the backbone..... (The Cranberry Back Country) offers promise of supporting a healthy wolf population which could begin to radiate to other wild areas such as Shenandoah Wilderness, and then up and (continued on page 4) SUMMER- 1988 �(c.ontinued from page 3) down the Appalachian Trail Wilderness network. "The Cranberry Back Country is composed of the 35,000 acre Cranberry Wilderness and the 45,000 acre Cranberry Back Country which merits immediate wilderness designation. Surrounding the Cranberry Back Country is a large block of roaded, but wild, Monongahela National Forest and other public and private lands which provide good buffer to the core wilderness..... " The northernmost of the large, protected habitat areas would be a Northeast Kingdom Wilderness Park and Biological Preserve in the northeast quadrant in the present state of Vermont. The PAW document says that this area is particularly important, because "For four of the most wilderness-dependent species - cougar, lynx, wolf, and pine marten - blocks of 400,000 acres or more in wilderness are needed to maintain viable, stable populations. For the cougar, a 400,000 acre wilderness is needed specifically in Vermont to assure thriving, interbreeding populations elsewhere in the Appalachians, because this species has a country-wide distribution and prefers mountain realms." Below Springer mountain the habitat zone would continue south to link up with a proposed habitat area for the Florida panther and other native life forms that would comprise most of central Florida. "One possibility," mentioned in the proposal, "would be to continue the Appalachian Trail southwest from Springer Mountain into eastern Alabama's Talladega National Forest and thence eatsward to the Chattahoochee River south of Columbus, Ga. "A similar priority exists at the northern end of the Appalachian Trail A route north of Katahdin, hopefully incorporating the St. John's River and the fabled Allagash in Maine to the Gaspe Peninsula region must be devised The goal is to ultimately reach the Canadian tundra. Then the tropical will be truly rejoined with the tundra, just as migratory birds have KATUAH - page 4 continued to keep them joined throughout the centuries of ecological fragmentation and destruction." "We must consider the natural history of the region and the ecological needs of wild/ife and the landscape, rather than continuing to ask, "What is politically realistic in the context of industrial . A merzca.?' . . . . . we must consider the whole system, not what sort of a compromise we can sneak through Congress." "Our basic strategy," says the PAW manifesto, "is to identify large, core wilderness areas which are to be protected in perpetuity as federally-designated wilderness. Surrounding these cores will be buffer zones. The inner buffer zones will be managed as mature forests, thus increasing the effective size of the wilderness core. They will mitigate the impact of civilization on the core areas and will mitigate the depredations of wildlife species on humans and their possessions. Appropriate benign human activities like canoeing will be permitted. "Outer buffer zones would border on human settlements. Primitive hunting and long-rotation forestry might be permitted in the inner portions of these outer zones. The outermost sections, which actually border on developed areas, might permit more intensive forestry, including tree farming, recreation, and possibly low-density housing. "These buffered wilderness cores would be linked by wild corridors to other nearby cores. These corridors must be wide enough to permit the flow of species, individuals, genes, and energy, and to provide space for habitat patches." Elsewhere in the PAW document author Sayen explains the need for massive, undisturbed habitat areas: "The issue of predation points out the importance of large wilderness preserves, preserves of 400,000 or -more acres. As is well known, many plant and animal species undergo periodic fluctuations in population and range. During periods of unusually favorable weather, species tend to expand their ranges and populations. When conditions change adversely, range and population contract to below-average numbers. "Herbivores like moose and deer feast off early successional plant species that colonize natural disturbance areas. But after a number of years the plants mature and grow out of reach of the herbivores, or the SUMMER- 1988 �browsing pressure causes a decline in vegetation locally. Large moose and deer populations can no longer be supported. and they either decline or go localJy extinct and move on co another, more hospitable locales. The decline of the herbivore population affords plant communities a chance to recover. "Meanwhile, the decline in prey base causes the wolf population to decline or go locally extinct, as it follows its shifting prey. Gradually, the herbivore population builds up in favorable new feeding areas and the wolf population follows. The cycle goes on endlessly, and in time herbivores return to the first site, whicb by now has recovered from earlier overbrowsing. It is essential that wildlife and wilderness managers recognize this cyclic phenomenon and that a wide range of ecosysteµis in differing states of succession be inclulied in a wilderness preserve to insure chis dypamic process. This requires that we manage for processes rather than for individual species." The PAW proposal is a challenge to us to dare to break the boundaries on our thinking imposed by the current social order: "We must consider the natural history of the region and the ecological needs of wildlife and the landscape, rather than continuing to ask, "What is politically realistic in the context of industrial America?'.....We must consider the whole system, not what son of a compromise we can sneak through Congress." The vision embodied in PAW is also a challenge to our society as a whole, because "Merely setting aside large wilderness preserves will be fruitless if we continue to generate acid rain; nuclearwaste; pesticides and herbicides; overpopulation; and a violent. exploitative attitude towards others (human and non-human)." Can our species live up to the standards of wilderness? This question is crucial to the success of the venture to "Preserve Appalachian Wilderness," but it is also the ultimate question of our species' continued survival in the world. KA TUAH - page 5 Jamie Sayen, the author of the PAW manifesto, is also tlu! author of the book Einstein in America. lie is a member of Conneeticut Valley Earth First! and was a spawner in the Salmon Revival Run up the Connecticut River this summer. Gil Lubrick is residenf plzofography teacher and workshop leader at the Appalachian Environmental Arts Center in llighlonds, NC. lie has fought of Honolulu Community College and NC Cenrral University. His landscape photographs hove been nationally exhibited and reside in numerous public and private collections. Copies of the complete PAW proposal are available for $3 .00 ppd. from: Gulf of Maine Books; 61 Maine St.; Brunswick, ME 04011 In addition to the outline of the wilderness plan, the paper also contains valuable background information on the formation of the Appalachian mounrain chain, a brief history of the Appalachlan Trail, thoughts on the importance of wilderness and the need for large, wuJisrurbed habitat areas, and more specific specifications for wilderness in the nonheast. THE POSSIBLE WILDERNESS For more information on the importance of large-scale wilderness habitats, read The Fragmented Forest by l.Arry Harris (University of Chlcago Press, 1984) Potential Wilderness Areas in Appalachia SUMMER-1988 �Xnown as the Highlands of Roan, the Roan Mountain massif is a magnificent isolated mountain mass of 23,000 acres located in Caner County, Tennessee and Avery and Mitchell Counties, North Carolina It is a vast high country with huge grassy areas that roll and undulate in every direction. Winds, averaging 25 miles per hour year-round, ripple the tall sedges and hair grass ...like seaweed in a great tide. l n late June, Catawba rhododendron blooms color the ridges purple. Flame azalea and mountain laurel splay orange and pink against blue-grey backdrops. In winter, the winds pile snow deep in the protected valleys while rime ice clings to exposed twigs on the summits. Unaka, the Cherokee word for "white", gives the range its name. Season by season, almost moment by moment, the Roan reveals itself, always displaying a wide spectrum of mood and ecological treasure. The Roan provides a haven for an extraordinary diversity of plants and animals, many of which are rare and endangered. Each year researchers, teachers, and amateur ecologists come to the Higltlands to study the many species and seek new finds. Throughout the nineteenth century, botanists from around the world visited the Roan in their studies of Appalachian flora. The quote (on next page) from Elisha Mitchell, for whom the East's highest mountain is named, is indicative of the high regard these botanists held for Roan Mountain. The balds are treeless areas of sedges, grasses and wildflowers covering several hundred acres along rounded KATIJAH - page 6 ridges and peaks from 5,400 feet to 6,100 feet above sea level. Wild, yet tranquil, rugged yet fragile, this place is not like any other. Great rocks, weathered and timeworn into strange and fascinating shapes, jut from knee-deep grasses. Wind-wracked, rocky crags edge the balds. Ancient many-colored lichens, centuries old, creep across the rocks at the rate of only 1/16 of an inch every 25 years. Season f>y season, almost rnom.ent f>y m.om.ent, the '.R.oti.n rnvealS i-tsd f , alwa y s d:i-spCa.yi-fl-9 · a wi-d:e sp ectrum. of mood: and: ec0Co9i.cal t r easure . For fifteen of its 2,100 miles, the Appalachian Trail traverses the Higltlands of Roan. It crosses the great balds and moves into the conifer-covered Roan High Knob-Roan High Bluff area, providing hikers with some of the most striking natural vistas along the entire Trail. lo season, wildflowers carpet the Highlands. Acres of white fringed phacelia cover the ground in May, accented with splotches of may apples with white and purple violets, trout lilies and many other early spring flowers. A month later the balds are streaked yellow and red with hawk weed and other sun-loving flowers. ·. SUMMER- 1988 �'Lt ts the most &ea.u.ti.fut and will & r epay the Ca&or of ascendi.~ i.t of est aU ou.r h.i.qh. mou.ntai.ns. 1Ji.th. the except w n. of a & oc:Cy of roe~ Coo~i.~ [ ilt,e the rui.ns of an o[c:C casUe near i.ts sou.th.western. ex.t remi.ty, the top of th.e R oan may & c:Cescri.&ec:C a.s a vast e meadow wi.th.ou.t a tree to obs t r uct a prospect, w h.ere a person may 9a.[[op fl.ts fwrse for a m ile or two wi.th. North. Caro[i.na. a t fl.ts f eet on one si.c:Ce and Tennessee on. the other and a 9rea.t ocea.n of mou.n.ta.i.ns ra.tsec:C i.n. tremendous &tllows i.mmedia.tay a.rou.nd h.f.m . 1.t t.s the eLyst.u.m of the southern &ota.nt.st, a.s a. nu.m&er of From a boianist's perspective, the Roan Mountain massif is superlative because of the outstanding diversity and the exceptional quality of plant communities found there. Over 300 species of plants a.re found on the Highlands, including the very rare Gray's lily (lilium grayi) as well as spreading avens (Geum radiatum) and Blue Ridge goldenrod (Solidago spithamaea). There arc more nationally or regionally ranked rare species on the Roan massif than any other site in the high mountains of the southern Appalachians. Roan Mountain also has varied and abundant wildlife, a fact which can be attributed to its exceptional habitat diversity-a product of latitude, altitude, geology, vegetation, and even history. At least seven of the thirty rare mammals listed in Endangered and Threarened Plants and Animals of North Carolina have been reported in the Highlands. The Ronn massif is a vast, high altitude island surrounded and isolated by low and narrow valleys and rolling hills. Because its slopes vary in steepness, soil composition, orientation, and drainage, it suppons a mosaic of vegetation types and microhabitats, and these are of sufficient total area to sustain substantial animal populations. Ice Age History Roan's dynamic Ice Age history transformed the 18-mile ridge into a fauna! melting pot of northern relics, southern invaders, and local isolates or endemics. The Roan was left a northern island in a sea of southern deciduous forests. These factors as well as the low level of human activity have created the living space for a spectacular array of animal species. Roan Mountain's major habitats arc generally described in terms of their dominant vegetation. Distinctive attitudinal plant zones, from the spruce-fir forests, grass balds, and rhododendron heaths at high elevations, through northern hardwood and oak forests to valley hardwoods and old field sites, largely simulate the Latitudinal sequence of habitats from southern Canada to southeastern US. Thus a few species, such as the New England cottontail and the bog lemming, arc at or near their southern limits and may be relics of a past ice age. Others, like the opossum and southern flying squirrel, are warm-climate species which periodically invade the upper slopes. Some species arc confined to one type of habitat on a pennanent or seasonal basis. For example, meadow mice inhabit the grass balds, a habitat used by the rare snow bunting only in winter. Other species occupy the adjacent pans of two vegetation wnes: the threatened northern flying ~----.1 pCa.n.ts a.re fou.nd 9rowt."9 t.n th.ts co[c:C and h.u.mt4 a.tmosphere wnicn a.re not seen GCJGt.n. u.n.tU we ha.ve 9one h.u.ndrecls of mUes fu.rther north." - EUsh.a. M.t.tcheU, 1839 squirrel frequents the lower spruce-fir and upper northern hardwood forests. Still other animals-shrews, jumping mice, salamanders and many invcncbrates--require ccnain micro-habitats within a zone to provide special foods or refuges. Finally, active carnivores (least weasels, spotted skunks), large species (bears, bobcats, and foxes), and fliers with special needs (owls, bats, hummingbirds) must range widely over the mountain and, in fact, would probably not survive if confined to a single area. The Roan also provides a haven for over a hundred species of birds during nesting, migration and wintering. Bird sitings include the bald eagle, golden eagle, peregrine falcon, snow bunting, raven, alder flycatcher, and saw-whet owl. Need for Protection This whole extraordinary area is in great need of protection. Fortunately, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy is working to preserve it. The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1974 with two goals in mind: to ensure the means whereby the Highlands of Roan wiJl be protected in perpetuity against development and other incompatible uses and to establish a continuing program of stewardship for these lands. Efforts to protect the Highlands were begun under the auspices of the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) in 1966. Most of the initial preservation work of the Highlands was directed toward the proteetion of tracts along the Appalachian Trail in preparation for their purchase by the ForeSt Service. Conservation efforts were carried out by the Roan Mountain Preservation Committee of the ATC, with the cooperation of The Nature Conservancy. In time it became evident that the Highlands of Roan project would require a greater cffon than could be accomplished through a committee of an organization concerned with the entire Appalachian Trail. As a result, the SAHC was organized to take responsibility for fund-raising, land acquisition, and land management In the mid 1960's, the US Forest Service, cooperating with the ATC, instituted an acquisition program on Roan Mountain. So far, SAHC has assisted the US Forest Service in acquiring 4,300 acres. When combined with the Forest Service's previous holdings, a central core of 11,800 acres has now been acquired as public lands. The remainder of the protection effon is focussed around this core area. As most of the Forest Service's planned Appalachian Trail corridor acquisition work has been completed, it is now up to other organizations and individuals to complete the mountain's protection. (continued on page 2.S) pho10graphs councsy of SAHC KATUAH - page 7 SUMMER- 1988 �C 1981 John M. Morgan CELO connu.Nt'Jy: 50 YEARS ON THE LAND by Marilyn Cade While fireworks were exploding for the bicentennial anniversary of the United States Constitution, in a small valley at the feet of the Black Mountains in Yancey County, NC another anniversary slipped by quietly, almost unnoticed. 1987 was the fiftieth year of existence for the Celo Community, the oldest land stewardship community in the nation, but life flowed on as evenly as the South Toe River, which winds through the valley. Celo Community, Incorporated (CCO is an eclectic, occasionally eccentric, collection of people who all unite on the idea of saving and preserving the land. They are painters, carpenters, architects, glass blowers, poners, weavers, and farmers by trade. Some are staff at the Arthur Morgan School, an alternative junior high located in the community. The school grounds are also the location of the Celo Press, a small publishing firm. Rural Southern Voice for Peace, a newsletter published by members and non-members of Celo Community, has its offices on the campus as well. The Barrus family runs a summer camp for children with an emphasis on interlinking with handicapped children and children of different races and socio-economic backgrounds. The Celo Community land base is owned, not by individuals, but by the CCI. An individual or family cannot purchase title to any of the community land, but rather leases a "holding". The price is actually a "deposit", calculated according to the local price for a similar piece of land in the surrounding area. But community agreements govern the use of the land, and land speculation, subdividing, clear-cutting, abusive agriculcure, etc. are not available options. If a member withdraws from the community, the amount they paid as a deposit is refunded, without regard to any appreciation in land value since the original holding was taken. Any buildings or homes are treated separately, with refunds equalling the cost of replacement value including depreciation. For members, the advantages of community landholding outweigh the loss of traditional ownership. Residents are attracted by the concern shown for the present and future well-being of the land. They want to live on a protected large tract, where certain areas are kept wild. And they enjoy sharing the community life. Cooperative ownership is contrary to the notion that KATUAH-page 8 hwnans arc given dominion over lhc Earth. It is based instead on the idea that we arc given stewardship over it, that we are accountable for our actions. This principle is now being advanced in the land trust concept, a new model for land tenure currently being practiced in Lhis country. Ernest Morgan, a community member and son of Anhur Morgan, says, 'The land trust is designed to avoid the exploitive nature and abuses of individual land ownership...The land trust concept is something lhat western society urgently needs to face up 10." Celo Community advocates the establishment of more land trusts and cooperative ownership arrangements in the region and beyond. The population of the community bas stabilized and they are no longer actively seeking new members. They hope that their role at the present time could be as an inspiration and a model for lhe development of other community experiments. Depression Roots The Depression and the t 930's were years of great economic and social turmoil. ELhics in daily life seemed desirable and even practical. People, especially young people, were ready to experiment with new ways of living and working outside the failing mainstream economy. W illiam Regnery, a Chicago philanthropist, at this same time sought suggestions for new charitable causes from Arthur Morgan.Then Presidc.nt of Antioch College in Ohio, Morgan had been an engineer who built successful flood control dams, later becoming Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority. He was a Quaker who had already thought a good bit about the difficulties of leading a fulfilling life in the modem world. He felt that there should be an opportunity for young people to try new approaches to making a living. Morgan told Regnery of an idea conceived in conversations during 1932 and 1933 with Clarence Pickett, the Executive Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee. They wanted to somehow provide a situation in which the young people then seeking answers from them could instead work out their own solutions to leading a fulfilling life. With the general industrial collapse of the Depression, they decided a rural piece of land suitable for families to develop into individual farms would be most practical. This whole idea appealed to Regnery, and he agreed to finance the land if a suitable spot could be found and if Morgan and Pickett would serve on the board of directors. Morgan envisioned a small community situation. He SUMMER- 1988 �wanted the land to be located in an area sufficiently isolated that the settlers could pursue new goals without the distraction of old habits reinforced by the wider world. A small community would have more influence on how its children grew up. A small community could support positive values and beliefs among the adults. If Morgan sounds utopian, that was not his intent. He denied being io any way a visionary. He stated from the beginning that there would be no religious, political, or social code binding the community together. In a memorandum for the community written in 1937, he said, "It takes more than economic need or craving for congenial society to hold men together. Set religious or political dogmas tend to be a dividing influence. Above all other reasons for living and working together, there needs to be a strong common purpose..." As to the land itself, Morgan desired a location that was arable, affordable, had wholesome neighbors, and was blessed with a natural beauty. After several months of combing the Southern Appalachian Mountain region for such a site, the search ended in the valley of the South Toe. ln 1937, 1200 acres of woods, somewhat exhausted farmland, streams, and pasture were bought in the Celo area of the valley. Land-sharing was not a clear objective when the community first began. The earliest residents were renters who were already living on the land when it was purchased by the community. One of them was appointed a manager. The goal of encouraging young families to be self-sustaining was the primary object. However, most of the first families who came had no financial resources. The struggle for simple swvival prevented them from taking a larger view of the community and its future. Managers succeeded one another in frequent succession, each one recruiting different kinds of people to pioneer the community. Tenant farmers, socialJy troubled families, bible colJegc graduates, and ex-missionaries came for short periods of time between 1937 and I 945, with largely unsatisfactory results. The community tried and then gave up farming, dairy herds, a sawmill, timbering, and a nursing home. By 1945, only five families remained in the community. Community Revival 1945 was clearly a watershed year for the Celo Community. After some early members withdrew their membership but kept title to their land, the first steps toward community ownership were taken. Conscientious objectors moved to the community after the war, bringing with them a new idealism about the community and land use, and they supported the land cooperative idea. It was also in 1945 that the land manager system was finally abandoned at Celo as well. It was replaced by a steering committee of fi vc people, one from each household. The committee met once a week, and the whole membership met once a month. The meetings have continued without interruption since that year. Members regard the meetings with varying degrees of enthusiasm. One of the ongoing problems for the community is maintaining a much higher level of group involvement than most people have previously experienced. But since all decision-making power rests with the meetings, they arc an indcspcnsable part of the Cclo Community life. There are also four standing committees: Finance, Membership, Property, and Land Use. It is evident that half the specific concerns arc about land. Sara Smith, a daughter of a Celo family, wrote in a college paper that "the single common bond for CCI members now is the land they hold in trust". During the 1950's more people came to Celo and swelled the population to 20 member households. The "back: to the land" movement and disaffection with prevailing political and social conventions in the 1960's brought still more members. Others came after being introduced to the area while resident craftspeople at the Penland School of KATIJAH - page 9 Crafts in nearby Mitchell County. As the new members came, they tended to build their houses in tucked-away comers of the woods. There was a strong sense of wanting to pioneer and to feel self-sufficient. However, the spreading population could quickly have made the forest into a suburb. Realizing the danger, the community about 17 years ago began to set aside land for a wild area. Of the community's 1,200 acre land base, at least 300 acres arc now in forest preservation. Within this wild area, overseen by the Land Use Committee, arc examples of the usual and unusual wild flora of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. There are plant communities that date back to the time of the glaciers. There are endangered species found in some of the coves and bogs. Use of the proteetcd area is limited to bikes and nature walks. Much of the community is bounded by National Forest land. At ti.mes this has been seen as an asset, as for years at a time there is no activity in these areas. However, the National Forest is managed land, and the Forest Service builds new roads and marks off timber sales for clearcuttlng. Community members sec these actions as a threat to soil stability as well as destruction of valuable forest. They lobby the government and the Forest Service co limit this manner of land use. They arc concerned 001 only with the land they hold in trust, but with all the valley and the wider mountain area. Many members of the Cclo Community are active in various organizations and strongly support local efforts to preserve the environment, such as the Friends of the Toe River. Bob Johnson, a wildlife enthusiast who is on the Land Use Committee, has observed that "this is prime condo country". AU around the county there is unprecedented growth. County political leadership has expressed little concern with curbing this development, and in fact probably encourages it. The Southern Appalchians were economically deprived for many decades, though chere has been much improvement over the last 20 years. Still, it causes leaders to sec any growth as a good thing. Arthur Morgan, 50 years ago, predicted that decades of upheaval lay ahead for the nation. Among his many concerns he included land conservation, endangered species, alcernative living opportunities, animal rights, and the need for a new cornminment. He once remarked bow much he would relish being a 25 year old starting ouc life in the Cclo Community, ready to take on the challenge. Morgan had some final thoughts on Celo when he wrote a brief history of his experience with the community: "It seems co me that Cclo Community and the surrounding neighborhood is a favorable setting for an interesting human adventure lasting through generations, which will not be a retreat from life, but an adventure in living." C 1981 John M. Morgan SUMMER- 1988 �r--~·-·-- 1 I A Conversation Ruth Ostrenga and Rio Alden have Jived in Celo Community since 1985. In February of this year they became official members of Celo, where they now run a plant and flower business called High MoUnJain Greenery. Christina Morrison of rhe Katuah Journal spoke with them one afternoon about how it feels to belong to a land stewardship community. with Ruth and Rio of Celo Community Katuah: What does living on a land cooperative mean to you? Ruth: I've lhought about it a lot lately and I've realized that its so much about relationships. It's preserving a large piece of land and looking to see what's the best use for lhe land with people who have pretty common values. And that requires working lhings out in a community fashion where you come together and have to really communicate and see more sides than just your own. I value that a great deal-growing and moving through my stuff by being in relationship-so what better place to be than in a community where I'm pressed with it a lot? K: I understand that the. Forest Service doesn't actually sell the land; they sell lumber companies the right to clear-cut And then the Forest Service builds the roads for them and reseeds the land and actually ends up losing money on the deal. And we all lose the forest Ruth: Exactly. Those are the kinds of things we really have to take a look at. And I know that lots ofus he.re don't approve of this mis-use of government land and feel we don't have the say we should have in it. Ruth: I've had a dream for a long time of growing good food for a large number of people. And now that we're here it's starting to seem feasible ...The idea is to put up several composting greenhouses that can grow food al l year round. They're self-heating and also create C0 2 for optimum growing conditions. I've already asked to lease one of the open fields so we may soon be growing enough food for the whole area. Fresh vine-ripened tomatoes in January! I know I'll need more energy than mine to make it work, but I also know there are others here who'd get excited about it too. /(: Sharing land seems to open up so many possibilities. It's surprising that lhere aren't more communal projects going on that utilize th~ land. Rilth: J ~c;e Ce!o,as )c.ind of divided iMo two spaces--there are long-time members who've.already figured out bow to make it and then there are young ones wilh families wJ\o are t;trusgling to 9uild houses and take Qare of kids...so there's not a lot of' extra energy for even things like stopping. the clear-cutting. People are still doing things they'd be doing anywhere and that is getting their acrs togeiher. K: How about your relationship wilh lhe land itself? Ruth: That's something lhat took a while to sink in... that it's my land--all of this is my land--yet it's not. A big thing is that I have a voice in deciding anything that happens in regards to it. That feels really good. I feel the importance of taking responsibility in all respects for what we're doing right now to the Earth...and if I have a band in a pretty good size chunk, then that feels good to me. Also, because we're a community, we have a wider influence than just within the land trust. We can be an example to others who want to do the same thing - preserve large pieces of land. We can also help to influence what happens to other areas around us. Most of our land backs right up to the National Forest. land that the ~Forest service has control over (that is actually ours too - only not as directly), and they're going to be selling off parcels to the lumber industry for clear-cutting not far from here. That feels really awful K: Any dreams of what you'd like to see here? Rio: T here's been a lot more cooperation lately about almost everything though .... childcare, building projects-it seems like a growing trend to give here and take there and trade. So....and this is kind of a wild idea, but I thought perhaps the community could buy rights to that land instead of the timber companies. What better use for a chunk of money? And if we bought the land they wouldn't have to build a road or any of that - so that could be subtracted from what they'd normally charge and they'd actually end up owing us money! (laughs) I can't wait to run this by the land use committee. K: So when you take care of a piece of land you realize how connected it is to the whole area.... Even though I'm not a member, it's great to live near Celo and have so much land to walk on with fewer roads and fences and no "No Trespassing" signs. It's a real feeling of freedom and welcome. Living here, you can even forget what it's like out in the "real world" where land seems so arbitrarily divided up. Rio: I think I would call this the real Ruth: We've started a small garden club of organic growe~--and there's even a local person down the road who has joined. It's a real nice thing to be connecting wilh others in the area-feels like starting to reach out and cover the whoJe planet in terms of cooperation and doing things in a good way.... Hey, there's the osprey! (points above river) They've stayed around for three weeks now--they might be raising babies. K: Are there any areas where you'd like to see change? Ruth: Some members would like 10 see more things done communally. We have workdays once a month for 4 hours and they're a great way to get things done and help each other out. They'd really been fizzling out, lately - like 2 people showing up. But the last workday was really good, Rio: I think it was partly your enthusiasm... Ruth: Yeah, I got really fired up at lhe last meeting and presented it as a wonderful opportunity for everyone. world. K: What was the job? Ruth: I bet the trees would agree. (continued on page 24) KATIJAH-page 10 SUMMER- 1988 �LAND TRUST: Tenure for Our Times Among primitive tribal societies the world over, the Earth was seen as a living being, as alive and conscious as we. There were no "resources," but the mother planet gave her children what they needed to live. The natural forces were potent elemental beings. The idea of "owning" land or "resources" never came to mind until the development and spread of European society. lo our western culture land is parcelled out and sold, and once money has changed hands, owners assume it is their right to have their way with "their" property, whether or not it is in the interests of the land, the wider human community, or the life community as a whole. In 1945 the members of the Celo Community saw that individual land ownership threatened the continued existence of their community, and put their land base into common ownership. Members of Celo now lease a "holding," which grants a holder the right to live on and the right to use the land within guidelines set up by the community's Property Committee. This arrangement was a forerunner of the land trust concept, which was developed by Roben Swann and Ralph Borsodi during the 1960's. A land trust is a corporate entity (usually incorporated as not-for-profit) which is empowered to hold land. Land trusts are set up for a variety of purposes: - in rural areas they can be used to make homes and fanning land available to community people as the Community Land Association is doing in Clairmont in nonheast Tennessee. - in cities they are a powerful t.ool for resisting gentrification and making homes available to low-and moderate-income people. The South Atlanta Land Trust, which is restoring a declining neighborhood in Atlanta, GA is an example. -Conservation land trusts put Large tracts of undeveloped land into trust to preserve them in perpetuity The Ozarlc Regional Land Trust of Canhage, MO is an umbrella organization worlcing to foster all three approaches in the Ourlc mountains, as well as initiating educational projects in ecological land use and farming practices appropriate to that bioregion. In each of these situations the essential purpose of the land trust is to remove the land from the speculative marketplace so that. for whatever reasons, it can no longer be treated as a commodity. In a conservation land trust, human access to the Land is strictly limited. In rural community Land trusts, pans or alJ of a tract are made available for human residency and appropriate use such as ecological agriculture. In an urban setting, land trust holdings are dedicated to uses most beneficial to the community, whether for residences or community service areas. The non-profit land trust corporation retains title to the land and leases rights to community people, subject to land use KATUAH-page 11 Drawing by: Laurie Pierce guidelines of varying strictness depending on the purpose of the land trust. These leases are usually long,term contracts that may be passed on to descendants. Leaseholders who wish· to terminate a lease are allowed to sell the equity they have earned (i.e., the value of buildings and other improvements). Often tbe land trust reserves first options on these equities and buys them to re-sell to the next leaseholder. Land trusts can slow down runaway developmenL Land trusts can enable farm families to gain access'to agricultural land where Land speculation (as on vacation home properties) has caused highly inflated land prices. Land trusts can also preserve wild areas far beyond the lifetime of an individual owner. It is now a widely accepted principle that we cannot own ~nother of our own species as propeny. Someday we may evolve to the point where it would be incomprehensible to own an individual of any species as propehy. And someday, someday, we may progress to a stage where we once again regain the primitive sense of a free and living Earth that cannot be cut into pieces, cannot be bought or sold. The land trust, then, is a stepping-stone to the re-sacralization of the natural world. It is a legalistic mechanism suitable to the complexities of modem society, but it offers a way forward into a new and ancient relationship with the land. RESOURCES to help in unch:rstanding and implementing land trust: BOOKS The Community Land Trust Handbook by the lnstitwefor Community Econormcs (Rodale Press; Emmaus, PA; 1982 - available for $6.00 from ICE, see address below). "Through land trusts, co171171Wiities can regain control oflocal land and Jwusing. This book tells how.for both nual and urban communities." New OrJaniutional Prospects for Community and Conservation Land Trusts by Gregg Galbraith (available for $12.50 ppdfrom the Ozark Regional land Trust, see address beww). "A legal study of the nl()tUI of a regional land trust to assist the development of other regional land trusts." PERIODICALS Communit1 Economics - quarterly newsletter with articles abow develo~nts in community land trusts, community revolving loan funds, and other community development issues. Available by donation from ICE (see address beww). ORGANIZATIONS Jnstituiefor Communil)I Economics 151 Montague City Rd. Greenfield, MA 01301 Oz.art Regional Land Trust 427 S. Main St. Carthage, MO 64836 Solllhe.asr.un Land Presuvali,on Trust 305 Buclchead Ave. NE Atlanta, GA 30305 The School ofLiving (land Com11Uttee) do Common Ground Rt. 3, Box 231 Lexington, VA 24450 The Katuah Regional Land Trust is looking for charter members. This new organization is dedicated to "serving first the land, and then the life nourished by the land" by "reserving and restDring narural habitat areas; the ancient sacred sites and places of power; and a land base, whether rural or urban,for humans to conduct their lives in accord wilh the conditions of nature as found in the KatUah Province of the Appalachian bioregion." Please respond to: KatUali Regional land Trust; Rt. 2, Box 108-A; Whittier, NC 28789 ~ SUMMER- 1988 �LEARNING COMMUNITY by Judith Hallock Arthur Morgan School is a unique boarding school for 24 girls and boys in grades seven through nine. Named after an innovative American educator and activist, the school is based on the principles of Maria Montessori, Mohandas Gandhi, Arthur Morgan, and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The stated central aim of the school is to help each student grow into a confident and responsible young person. The school property is part of Celo Community, an intentional land stewardship community. The 100 acre campus consists mainly of woods and meadows and is largely surrounded by national forest. Elizabeth Morgan, Anhur Morgan's daughter-in-law and founder of the Arthur Morgan School, did not go to school until she was the age for eighth grade. She had been lightly tutored by her parents, but she had mostly played around her home, helped her mother, read books, and made music. When she finally did start school, she found it exciting and raced through high school in three and one-half years as an honor student Elizabeth oommeoted that the amount of time children spend in school is usually out of proportion to what they learn there, and that most schools are a great waste of children's time. School, she said, is mainly a gigantic baby-sitting operation designed to keep children out of circulation in a society in which children no longer have any meaningful function except to grow up. It was her experience as a public school teacher that inspired her to found the Arthur Morgan School in 1962. She felt that adolescence is a particularly crucial time in the development of the whole person. Patty Keene-Windsor, school clerk, a central administrative position at the Arthur Morgan School, defined some of the special needs of puberty-aged young people: "The years between 12 and 15 are KATUAH- page 12 crucial years for developing a sense of self, and to do some brt;alcing away from family. It's a time of questioning habits and ways of doing things, challenging the way your family does things. It's a time of change and rebelling." In meeting these special needs, the Arthur Morgan School offers a community-based response. "The main focus of the school is for staff and students to create this community together," said Patty. Through conscious commuoitybui lding, the school becomes a working/living/learning/caring place. in educating the whole person, a whole life approach is taken, and the loving, healthy oommuoity becomes the core of the learning experience. At the same time, a I :2 staff-to-student ratio suppons individual needs. Values, which have been largely separated from education in the public schools, are an integral part of the Arthur Morgan School, and are directly related to community ideals. Cooperation, respect, openness, sense of self, responsibility, and interdependence are all qualities of a healthy community, and are learned by participation in the school oommunity life. ''By creating this oommunity, we are teaching community skills. We are giving the students an experience and a model that they can carry always. If they have experienced hearing each other, working on problems, being interdependent, in a small oommunity like this, they will Temember that when they move into a bigger community, or when they start thinking about the world," said Patty. Housing at the school is in family groups, with each composed of several students and two houseparents who share housekeeping functions as well as teaching and/or other staff duties. These families live in wood-heated homes on campus. Margot, a houseparent at Arthur Morgan School, wrote of her experience, "Ideally the job of a houseparent is to create a harmonious family environment for the students dwelling under her roof. We try to offer the students a secure and supportive place to return to after their school day. Since many of our students are seventh graders leaving home for the first time, we strive to maintain a family setting. The boarding houses are not dormitories, rather individual homes with structure and rules varying with the different houseparents. "What I find unique about houseparenting these young adults is that I can give them both support and positive criticism in a more or less objective manner. Their exposure to other peers of different backgrounds expands their universe and encourages social responsibility. The houses reflect the philosophy of the school in microcosm." Breakfasts are cooked and eaten in the houses, as are weekend lunches and two dinners each week. All other meals are eaten together in the school dining hall. The diet is largely vegetarian, with an emphasis on fresh whole foods, natural sweets, and organic produce from the school's large organfo garden. Weekdays begin with a short community gathering to share songs, skits, and announcements. All students attend classes in four core subjects - English, social studies, science, and math. Though individually designated by grade levels, students are grouped in these classes only by ability and interest. Class sizes are small, so teachers can focus on individual needs. Students are encouraged to see connections between their classwork and the outside world. Academics are supplemented by an electives program. Each student can choose up to six classes a semester from such offerings as music, drama. arts and crafts, shop, languages, sports, and dance. Neither electives nor core subjects are graded. Students and parents receive instead periodic written evaluations of the student's work. Leisure activities include special Saturday night activities such as a dance, talent show, group game, or sweat lodge. In addition, weekends often include soccer games and housefamily outings. Much time, both on weekends and weekdays, is spent outdoors. The mountain forest surrounding the Arthur Morgan School provides students with a wide variety of outdoor experiences. Extended trips in the fall and spring are supplemented by periodic day hikes and overnights. Patty said, "We provide challenges in this area that we are pretty sure the students can meet: like being able to stay out in the mountains for six days, or walking or canoeing certain distances. At this age, when these kind of physical challenges are met, and the students feel they have succeeded, there is a great feeling of exhilaration." Each spring the students explore the world beyond Katuah on a three-week field trip. In recent years they have put on a travelling show, canoed the Florida Everglades, and assisted at a refugee camp on the Texas-Mexican border. (conlinucd on page 26) SUMMER-1988 �Land Use Planning in Buncombe County, NC by Carol Lawrence Whether or not it is mentioned by Asheville promoters recruiting new businesses, one of the attractions of Buncombe County - along with the clean air and water, year-round temperate climate, and stunning natural beauty - is the freedom to develop land outside the city in any way the owner sees fit. There is, in other words, no overall counry zoning plan. The last attempt at county-wide zoning was made in 1973. It was not successful. Johnny Robens, a Flat Creek resident who worked against the recent zoning proposal there, remembers that attempt. "It went down like the Titanic," he recalls. Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chairman R. Curtis Ratcliff recalls it the same way. "When commissioners held hearings on that proposed zoning plan, the further we got into the county, the more opposed everyone was." "I doubt that there is currently enough pro-zoning sentiment to revive the county-wide plan," says Jim Coman, County Zoning Administtator. "There is not a consensus among the commissioners on county-wide land use planning and regulation. Undoubtedly, some are more in favor of it than others. Among residents, there's certainly limited desire for zoning out in the rural areas. What I hear over and over is 'We don't wanr anybody telling us what to do with our land_"' As a result, land use in the regions surrounding Asheville is a matter left up to each individual township. And the recenr events in Flat Creek point up exactly how difficult it can be to develop land use planning on a local basis. Earlier this year, the Vulcan Materials Company of Birmingham, Alabama took out a long-term lease option on a 99-acre parcel of land in the Flat Creek area. Their intent: 10 quarry granite and produce crushed stone. Controlled blasting would open up a large pit, eventually going down some 200 to 400 feet. The granite in the substrata would be extracted, crushed, and hauled away in trucks. In compliance with procedures established by the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Community Development (NRCD), Vulcan sem notice of its plans to all Flat Creek residents owning adjacent land. Upon learning of this intended development, area residents became concerned. In fact, they were so concerned that when the NRCD sponsored a public bearing in the elementary school on the hot, muggy night of August 6, the auditorium was packed with 400 area residents. Another 400, unable to fit in, remained outside. Overwhelmingly, those attending disapproved of the proposed quarry. Together, they began to investigate what they could do to prevent the coming of the quarry. Thar's how Flat Creek residents started what is called a community planning program. This option, open to any KATUAH - page 13 AT RISK Photo by: Chip Smith Buncombe County township, allows residents to establish a community planning council, which, in tum, can draft land use (zoning) ordinances. On October 17, after two months of work by a 15-member planning council and community input at the Buncombe County Planning Department, a comprehensive zoning ordinance was presented to the Flat Creek residents for approval. As evidence of the interest sparked by the zoning question, 1,560 residents - 600 more than cast ballocs in the last Presidential election turned out to vote. The proposed land use ordinance was defeated by a margin of nearly 3 to 1. Manha Claxton, an Asheville pediatrician who lives in Flat Creek, served on the community planning council and continues active volunteer work against the proposed quarry. She explains the move toward zoning this way: "We started looking at zoning because of that quarry. We were concerned about things like the effects the quarry would have on the fragile water table, whether the blasting would cause basemenr walls to crack, how safe the children would be in school buses that share roads with large rock 1:IUcks, not to mention the nuisance of noise, dust, and blasting vibration." "We knew, even in early August, that passing of the zoning ordinance would not necessarily keep Vulcan out; they started the application process before we started the zoning process. We proceeded because we hoped that strong anti-quarry sentiment combined with a zoning ordinance prohibiting quarry expansion might cause Vulcan to rethink that particular site." Johnny Roberts, a 43-year resident of the Flat Creek area and owner of a local store, agrees that local sentiment ran against the quarry. Yet he, like many others, voted against zoning. "The main thing is that people here own their land, they pay for it, and they don't want people telling them what to do with it," he says. "The County has very strict rules about building and construction and people just feel that's enough." There will be no zoning in Flat Creek. And Flat Creek residents - who by and large still oppose the proposed quarry - have not solved the problem of persuading the NRCD to refuse Vulcan's mining permit application. Further, Flat Creek citizens could find themselves in this sicuation again, should another company announce plans to build an asphalt production facility, for example, or open another tavern adjacent to the elementary school, or develop a multi-acre mobile home park. In every case in Buncombe County where there has been interest in community-based zoning, it has been in response to unwelcome development. The two communities in the county that enacted local zoning, Beaverdam to the north and Limestone to the south, did so out of concern, the former about housing development and the latter about a junkyard. IUnkVard. Currently, residents of an area on Goldview Road are investigating zoning because they do not want the new Craggy Prison located in their neighborhood. They approached the Commissioners for help in developing prohibitive zoning. The Commissioners responded by asking them to try to establish a community planning program for the whole French Broad Township, rather than just the Goldview Road area. Given strong anti-zoning sentiment present in rural Buncombe communities, it may be impossible to do that "Because of the differing opinions, zoning is a difficult question," says County Attorney Keith Snyder. "For the most part, where there's interest in zoning is in portions of townships that are highly urbanized. In the outer perimeters of the county, they are against it. "Rather than have piecemeal, partial zoning, I recommended to the Commission that they do a comprehensive analysis of the county. We know which areas are becoming urbanized. We know where the large tracts of undeveloped land are. Looking at all those things together, the Commission could then develop policy on where industry should locate and where there should be shopping centers and where there should only be residential building." In the meantime, county residents though in favor of protecting their community's water supply, clean air, and propeny values - may have little say in what happens in their neighborhoods. Reprinted from the Winter, 1988 issue of Dircovery News a publication of Asheville-Buncombe Discovery; 46 llaywood St. (Suite 336); Asheville, NC 28801. ~ SUMMER - 1988 �REST IN PERPETUAL WILDERNESS by Billy Campbell In the densely popula1ed highlands of the island of New Guinea in the lands of the once cannibalistic Fore ( pronounced "!or-AY") tribe, there are still pockets of untouched wilderness. These are the sacred groves, or pies masalai, near which the bodies of their dead are buried. The Fore regard these areas with/ear, believing that here the ghosts of the dead are waiting to possess the bodies of any who enter. Because of their fear, beamif11l, wild, untouched stands of the original forest still exist in the midst ofagricultural lands and a teeming human population. When my father died, the funeral director, a decent person and a friend from childhood, steered us toward his top-of-the-line casket It cost more than a lot of cars do. We settled instead for the only wooden model that he had. He cautioned us that it was not "watertight," but consoled us with the fact that Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright on the TV show "Bonanza") was buried in an identical casket could we not put the money that is spent on expensive burials and sterile plots into the purchase of natural settings that could also act as protected habitat areas?.....Sacred groves, certainly. The money that we invest in funerals and "perpetual care" today is considerable. The Wall Street Journal stated in May of 1985 that there is more than $4 billion invested in funeral trusts in this country. I live where the mountains drop to the piedmont in South Carolina. Land here goes for $800 per acre. Together, one thousand members of a memorial society, each contributing $1,000 (which is only one-quarter the cost of my father's burial) could purchase l,250 acres of land: a The pies masaJais of the Fore inspired me with a different idea. I would rather have laid my father's body to rest in a wild setting, full of the quiet and peace of nature...a place reached by a trail instead of a road, where trees would stand guard over my father's remains and in turn be nourished by him to stand tall in his memory. Why is this not possible? Why While some might want their remains cremated and their ashes scattered, others would want a marker designating a specific place of interment. Instead of the usual tombstones, more natural markers would be appropriate. ln keeping with the concept of creating vigneues of wilderness, living plants, or colonies of plants, might be best. A particular burial site might be graced by a colony of orchids,for example, or perhaps trilliums. Living memorials could be coordinated by a resident restoration ecologist in areas that have been heavily impacted. ln such a setting, an American chestnut tree might make a particularly good memorial. Because of the continuing blight problem, native chestnuts will probably need human help if they are to survive outside of orchards. The setting would offer a rich source for ritual. Imagine a communion ceremony using chestnut bread and muscadine wine. Limited harvesting of stunted rrees from the forest would yield materials to make heirloom baby cradles, marriage beds, or even caskets. While it is consistent with most religious beliefs, the practice of using funeral parks could be transforming, "greening" Christianity, Islam, or other spiritual practices. Next he showed us the vaults. The first was Italian scrolled, guaranteed not to leak for 100 years and able to withstand thousands of pounds per square foot of overpressure. I cold the director that it all seemed silly. First of all, who was going to check to see if it leaked, and who cared if it did? Such strength might come in handy if we were trying to protect the corpse from a direct nuclear strike. but otherwise it seemed pretty useless. I suggested that we not have a vault. The director seemed aghast at the idea. "Billy, the casket you picked is not watertight. If you don't get a vault, in a few years the ground above will.....sink. in. Family members would have to deal with the fact that din and water are.....going in .....on the loved one." Ultimately, my father's body was pumped full of toxic chemicals, placed in a casket, which was placed in a vault, buried in an over-manicured graveyard, and covered with pea gravel. The whole affair cost $4,000.00. parks are hazardous waste dumps, filled with small, sealed capsules of toxic chemicals, the grass abpve artificially maintained a perfect green with another assortment of toxic materials. significant parcel of land that would serve as a lasting (and, to my mind, a fitting) legacy for furure generations. Large undeveloped tracts near towns would be the first sites to be considered as memorial forest areas, especially those unlikely to be protected by government or other private programs. Unprotected Indian mounds, especially those in proximity to extensive woodland areas, would be prime sites. The membership in a given area might sponsor a survey and biological inventory of significant sites. Burials in this memorial forest would have to be simple. Bodies could not be preserved, and any containers would have to be built of easily degradeable materials. Formaldehyde, with which bodies are preserved in standard practice, is a poisonous material. Present-day memorial I wish my body to nourish a part of the Living forest, marked only by a colony of trilliums or a chestnut tree, in an area that would be pleasant and rejuvenating for others to visit, in which they would be reminded of life's continuing cycles of growth and death, decomposition and rebirth. This would be truly a sacred place. Any others who are interested in joining a memorial forest society may inquire (send no money, please) of: Dr. Billy Campbell P.O. Box 152 Westminster, SC 29693 or write to the: Katuah Regional Land Trust Rt. 2, Box 108-A Whittier, NC Katuah Province 28789 ~ p (see page 11) Dr. Billy Campbell practices family medicine in Westminster. He is a good Scot and true to his clan. Drawing by: Wes Wyau KATUAH - page 14 SUMMER - 1988 �r THE RIDGE There is a ridge in southern Virginia over which I enter and leave my farm. Deer leap and call on this ridge, ground hogs scurry to their holes, wild turkeys range. An almost white skunk lives in an old pile of handmade brick, which I would like to use were they not his home. I've seen a silver fox on this ridge, and thought a 'possum really dead, and sat spellbound as deer walked close and looked at me. Here the moon rises damp and close and the stars seem near touching. The unseen life of night lingers in the early dew and the sun rises with ringing echo from two ridges and a river over, where a farmer calls his cows. Unless fog has quietened the world, a blue line of distant ridges separates the sky from all the fields and tree tops that lie before it. The day's last color slips westward behind a mountain that humps large and green, protective. Breeze skips up the pass to this high place or shifts to wind that rushes in from the woods to the north. An unmaintained road cuts beyond those woods down to the house, too steep in ice or mud for my jeep. I park atop the ridge and climb a split rail fence. Pasture grass nods as I walk, and halfway down the familiar path, cool air from the spring dampens my face. Grouse flap the air as they rise. I glimpse my house in the hollow below. The ridge is more than passage to my home and place where I walk at each days beginning and end. The land itself is a friend to talk to and the animals answer. Here I learned to stand alone and discovered myself joined to all life. It is my place of beginning and entry to a larger world. © 1988 &y Nancy Bcir nharcit KATUAH - page 15 SUMMER-1988 �FARMERS AND THE FARM BILL By Chip Smith Late in 1985, the U.S. Congress passed into law the Food Security Act, or "Farm Bill." According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the administrating agency, the intent of the bill is to "reduce soil erosion, minimize the amount of wetlands and grasslands being converted to cropland, and reduce surplus commodities, which in rum will strengthen the overall farm economy.'' The impetus for this bill was the realization that the governme.nt has actually encouraged soil erosion and loss of wetlands by allowing farmers to include highly erodible lands and converted wetlands as part of their "base acreage" for a variety of farm support programs. This policy contributed to the crop surplus and falling commodity prices which have fueled the recent era of unpaid loans and farm forecloswes. To Congress, "farm" means the corporate superfarms of the west, midwest and coastal regions, but agriculture in Karuah is affected as well. Legislation passed in Washington cannot afford to be sensitive to special problems and paradoxes on the local level. But in Kanfah, implementation of the Farm Security Act is rife with paradox. While the goals of the act are necessary and valid and the principles on which it is based are admirable, the sweeping generalizations in its provisions are causing hardship and loss and may force more small farmers off their mountain landholdings. In Katuah, agriculture is a small-scale industry that is no longer the major contributor to soil erosion problems. A "Land Development Security Act" or a "Road Construction Security Act" would be more effective in controlling soil loss and stream siltation. Yet, the conservation provisions of the Farm Bill state that fields with a slope greater than nine percent are "highly erodible land" and are to blame for excessive erosion and lost productivity. Furthermore, if farmers are to receive the benefits of the various farm support programs, they must submit approved conservation farm plans by 1990 and have them implemented by 1995. The locaily governed Soil and Water Conservation Districts, with assistance from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, are in charge of plan approval. The Conservation Reserve Program has also been established for those who wish to be subsidized for retiring croplands to pasture or tree farms. At the head of Long Branch in Yancey County, North Carolina two old timers, Raines and Eugene Hughes tend burley tobacco. Their farm is an original version of small-scale mountain agriculture. They bought it as a gullied-out and overgrown depression farm in 1936. KATUAH-page 16 Today, the pastured hills, neat garden, and "baccer" patch reveal much of their independence and stewardship. Proud and outspoken, they resent what they feel is a judgment passed on their farming abilities. "Well, I tell you - I don't think too much of that Farm Bill myself," said Raines. "You don't have much freedom anymore, do ya? Somebody telling you something what to do all the time, seems like. "Anytbing's gonna get eroded, if it's not got a cover on it" And Eugene said, "We've always farmed that way, ever since we were kids. Our dad was the first man to start that in this section here. It looks like a plan to cut us small farmers out, is what it looks like." Today, the conservation provisions of the Farm Bill require the installation of erosion control practices such as terrace systems, grassed water ways, field borders, and/or alternate year crop/cover crop rotations. For mountain farmers already short on tillable land, conservation compliance means fewer crops, smaller profits and a questionable future. Tobacco has been a staple of mountain agriculture for generations, because tending burley is a labor intensive, family operation. It requires very little mechanization: a borrowed tractor and planter and the garden tiller will do. The labor needed for weeding, cutting, hanging, and grading the leaf is provided by family members. Tobacco growing is possible with resources mountain people have, and a productive season can bring a profit of at least $2000 an acre. "To fellers like us it means a lot," said Eugene. "It goes right back on the farm, what we get from tobacco. That's what we set aside to pay our taxes, buy our fertilize, and such. "People here in these mountains depended on tobacco until these factory plants came to town. We're one of the few who still live off the farm." Raines and Eugene realize the good intentions of the Farm Bill, but as Eugene put it, "Those fellers haven't been outta Washington in a while: "lf we was younger we'd kick more. We always looked forward to farming all our life. People say anymore: Well, I may farm this year and I may not next year.' Nowadays a feller will just get him a job at the plant." Raines said, "It's a haphazard way to farm. It's just turned around from the way it used to be." Realizing an too well the consequences of noncompliance, Eugene lamented, "We're gonna try to comply with the law. Take two fellers that's 75 and 77 years old - we've not got too many years to grow, have we? We're Appalachian paupers, but proud of it." In the midst of renewed interest in stewardship and small-scale mountain agriculture, many of our teachers are packing up shop. These mountains are no longer a barrier to the fast paced "outside world." An inflated land market has pushed propeny values out of the reach of local Plant jobs are pulling family people. members off the farm, and discount stores entice them away from agrarian values. Tobacco abuse kills, but an alternative crop to fill the place of burley in mountain agriculture hasn't been found. In short, while the Farm Bill may help clear the streams, in the Appalachian mountain country it is inadvenently contributing to the demise of a way of life. SUMMER- 1988 �"Relating to the Land" (These are the words of a traditional Cherokee medicine person) My grandfather told me that one day when his grandfather was sick and they knew that he was going to die, he called together some friends and the members of his family and spoke to them. My grandfather was jost a boy at the time, and he could not hear what was said, but his grandfather got up and he looked strong and healthy. The old man gathered a group of men and boys, and, though he was young, my grandfather was allowed to accompany them. They walked and camped for a month through western NQitb Carolina and parts of eastern Tennessee. They carried his grandfather some of the time, but most of the time he walked by himself. They went to places that, seen through a boy's eyes, seemed insignificant to my grandfather. They would go to a rock and his grandfather would look at it and rub all over it, and then maybe he would tell them to take him to some little creek up in a cove someplace, and he would peer around in there. He was tcliving bis history. These were places that were familiar to him, that represented part of his life, and each place was important to the old man. To him, the land was personal. These places wetc a part of himself. They were alive as the world was alive. Western culture sees the world as dead. But the Indian People know the Earth as a living organism. The screams are the Earth's blood. The soil is the flesh. The plants and the leaves are the hair. The rocks are the bones. The wind is the breath. The Earth is one living organism, and the human race is part of that organism, not something set apart. Everything has a spirit. Everything that is living seems to be an in. ividual entity, separate to itself. Each of us seems d to be an individual. bot actually, we are each made op of trillions of parts - things that can be seen and things that cannot be seen. And all those pans are dependant on one another. The planet is the same way. It is the same kind of life just larger. And the human species is just one of the pans of the Great Life. Collectively, the individual spirits of everything that lives make up the Great Spirit When you conjure, and you hook into power, that is your power. But you have to feel part of it first. We get our power from being able to move evenly with the other pans of the Great Life. There is no trick or magic to it, other than knowing yourself as a pan of this life. KATUAH-page 17 Our gifts of intelligence and creativity were given to us so we could be caretakers, so we could perpetuate the Great Life. It is our role, our pan of the plan, to be conscious. The side effect of that is ego. Some people call it lust or sin, but it's separation from God. It's true, because what we have here is God, whatever it is. At some time the human race reached a point in its developement where our ego overrode all the innate understandings we had held since we were primeval slime, or whtaever we first were. Now, our biggest conflict is to concrol our intellect that has grown by such leaps and bounds in such a short period of time. Our shortcomings are reflected in the culmination of European or western culture, which is highly individualistic: Western culture makes people believe that the Earth begins when they are born, and is over when they die. They have the most incredible notion that there is a God up in the sky that serves us alone and, the ultimate of ego, that we are created in his image. He made everything on this planet for our use, and if we can't use it, it's a weed or crash. The best story my grandfather ever told to show the difference between European and Indian ways was to say that when an Indian man bunts the bear, and be kills the bear, be gives thanks, and promises the bear to use all the parts of his body, for that is the bear's gift to us. If an Indian man goes out to hunt the bear, and the bear rips him down and eats him, there is no hostility against the bear. It wasn't the bear's idea that be was to eat meat The Creator.put this notion in him. . ., The people would mourn the man and grieve for him, but there was no anger toward the bear. It was just the creature's nature, just like it was the man's nature to be out hunting him. There was no separatiQn from the bear at all, If this were to happen to a white man, the others would go out and comb the mountains and kill any bear they saw. We arc all predators. But western man cannot tolerate another predator. Wolves, mountain lions.... white people don't want them out there as competitiou. They don't eat them. The only other predators western man eats are fish. They aren't going to eat a wolf, but they will kill him off. If a creature can be domesticated, controlled completely, and made useful to humans, then it's from God. If it can't be made useful, then they eliminate it God made a mistake there. · For European culture there. is no concept of balance, no concept that we are pan of a greater whole. It is alien; it's like they arc from another planet. Look at how they throw their crash and litter around! Would they do that at home? It all goes back to the ego that says we are made in the image of God and all this was created for us. In the body of the world, we are cancerous cells. Cancer is when a group of cells in the body goes crazy for one reason or another. There are environmental reasons for why we are acting so crazy, reasons which we created ourselves. But there are still some deeper reasons why we are susceptible to this disease of the spirit. After all, we are the product of millions and millions of years of evolution, and everything else is evolving along with us. We m responsible for ourselves. We may not be able to stop accidents, or something somebody else does to us; but the sickness and disease, we are responsible for all that. The world was not made for us alone. My grandfather's grandfather said that we are mainly observing what is happening in our own lives. We can dodge things a little bit to the left or to the right, but the major aspects of things we are just observing. Observation....tbat's what we are doing. SUMMER - 1988 �- Soil acidification could release bound aluminum in toxic amounts. - Nutrients could be leached out and lost from acidified soils. - Excess nitrogen, acidification, or released heavy metals could deplete or destroy soil microorganism populations or the mycorrhizae fungi, which Live in a beneficial relationship with the roots of the spruce and fir trees, causing nutrient deficiencies. NATURAL WORLD NEWS REPORT "IT COMES ON A MIST..... " "The bottom line is that someone at some point has to make a decision as to whether or not the evidence is strong enough to do something about acid rain ..... "We have a lot nwre informarion now than we did two to three years ago. The nwnality of trees has increased tenfold over the past five years. But we could spend another 50 years studying this issue and never gather enough proof to slww that A plus B equals C." - Roben Bruck, to the AsbeyWe Ciifilul, March 5, 1988 Since 1983 Dr. Robert Bruck has been coordinating a team of field scientists from North Carolina State University (NCSU) investigating the mysterious dieback of the spruce/fir forest that was once a grand mantle draped over the shoulders of Mount Mitchell and the other peaks of the Black Mountain range (see KatUah Journal #9). Using the most sophisticated equipment, the researchers have been testing the soil, soil microorganisms, and the trees themselves, to determine the amount of airborne pollution the mountaintops are receiving and the effects of this pollution. Their field work is supported by experiments in climate control chambers and greenhouse tests to determine the tolerances and parameters of the tree species. Another team of NCSU scientists funded by the Environmental Protection Agency doing intensive studies of the chemistry of the orographic (associated with mountains) cloud cover that shrouds Mt. Mitchell and the Blacks for 250 days of the year. The data these scientists have produced are chilling. During the year 1986-87 Ml. Mitchell received approximately 122 kilograms/hectare (roughly equal to pounds per acre) of acidified sulfates. Ouring that same period approximately 65 Kg/ha (lbs/a) of nitrates were deposited on the mountaintop. Ozone, when in the lower atmosphere, is a gaseous pollutant panicularly damaging to plants. It is formed when nitrogen oxides are combined with the hydrocarbons produced by auto exhaust in the presence of sunlight. Ozone is frequently present at concentrated levels at the top of Mt. Mitchell. Of 3,000 readings taken during 1986, one quarter approached or exceeded a level of 80 ppb (parts per billion), which was shown in greenhouse tests to be acutely toxic to young fir and spruce trees. At the same time the mountaintops are bathed in an acidic mist which registers a 2.5-3.4 pH level. Because pH is figured KATIJAH - page 18 Cm.tree logarithmically, the clouds' lowest pH levels are 1,000 times more acidic than normal atmospheric conditions. Precipitation, which is more diluted, ranges from pH 4.0-5.0. Those clouds, so gentle in appearance, are panicularly threatening to the upland forests. They are formed by moisture-laden air, which, as it rises over the mountains, cools and condenses into fog. In the process it attracts and bonds with particles of airborne, water-soluble pollutants, and this concentrated, poisonous broth settles on the tree needles, where much of the toxic payload is absorbed before the droplets fall, branch by branch, to the soil. The variety of chemicals in the mist solution could affect the trees in different ways at each stage of their journey to the eanh: - Acidification could damage or destroy foliage, as was observed after one highly acidic cloud covered the mountaintop. Forty-eight hours later the rips of exposed spruce needles were brown and dead. - Acidic oxides, alone or in combination with ozone, could leach nutrients from the foliage. -The chemical pollutants could interfere with the tree's metabolic processes. - Excess nitrogen could increase susceptibility to frost and freeze damage. Pollutants can also work through the soil. In one experiment. seedlings were planted in soil taken from the top of Mt. Mitchell to a lower elevation. 93% of the seedlings died. Examination of the soil showed that it was highly acidified and low in the nutrient elements calcium and magnesium. Toxins in the soil could damage trees by some or any of these means: To come to grips with the problem of the airborne pollutants, " ..... the scientific and policy-making communities wilJ have to find common ground in dealing wich 'imperfect knowledge,"' wrote Dr. Bruck. He is warning us that, although his team and other scientists will be keeping up the intensive investigations they have maintained for the last five years, it would be a mistake co postpone decision-making until a clear and simple cause-and-effect relationship is proven. The situation is simply too complex. That the high-altitude boreal forest is being subjected to massive doses of airborne pollutants is clear. But it is impossible to isolate a single chemical compound or a single process as being the sole culprit for the forest decline. The different chemical permutations and possibilities are endless, as would be the wait if positive proof of the reasons for the tree dieback were required. It has been clearly shown, however, that a great percentage of the sulfates being carried on the air currents are produced by coal-fired utility plants and smelcing industries. It is also known that most free nitrates are put into the air by automotive exhaust emissions. There are sophisticated scrubbers presently on the market that, if installed in the tall industrial smokestacks, could remove much of the sulfates now being spewed into the air. Catalytic converters are now being developed that could reduce the level of nitrates produced by automotive traffic by 85%, according to Bruck. Nothing is going to avert the need for a basic change in the way we live our lives, but we are not going to have the chance to effect a change, unless we take steps to alleviate the ecological catastrophe we are creating. And, meanwhile, we are sacrificing other species daily to our wantonness. Again quoted by the Ashcyil le ~Bruck said: 1: 0 300 j 200 E £ "The technology is available today, right now, to clean up the vast majority of the problems I am showing you the daJa on. Tlrat is what can be done if you decide as a society that this is a problem and that we need to do something abouz it." 100 5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95 1~ 115 125 0.-IPl>DI SUMMER- 1988 �NATURAL WORLD NEWS REPORT Duke Power Company of Charlonc, NC, intends 10 purchase the Nantahala Power and Light Comany (NP&L) in Katuah Province. The Linc is proposed 10 carry bulk electricity from Duke installations on the piedmont to Nantahala's service area in the mountains. But scratching away the surface reveals that there is more, much more, at stake in this project than the needs of a small rural utility company. The Linc is 10 be 26 miles long, strung from hilltop to hilltop on towers that would range from 125 10 175 feet in height and 100 feet wide at the base, costing at least $30 million to construct. It will carry two 230 kilovolt (KV) high-tension lines from Duke installations in the Jocassee watershed to a point near Cashiers, NC, from which point a single 161 KV line would continue on to tie in with a sub-station planned for construction in the small community ofTuckascgee in Jackson County, NC. The Line would climb out of the Jocassee Watershed, leaving an ugly scar through the basin of the Toxaway River. Along its route The Line would march up the sides and over the top of Toxaway Mountain, marring the face of that mountain beloved by residents and summer people alike in Transylvania County, NC. It would stretch along the sides of the Pamhcnown Valley, a spectacular area that harbors sights of sheer cliffs and rare vegetation not 10 be found anywhere else in the cast. The Linc would bisect imponant wild habitat areas in the Greenland Creek drainage and the Tuckascgee River Valley, which arc large areas of uninterrupted forest that would be cut in two and laid open forever after to disruption by humans and their machines. Fanher down the valley, The Line would swallow up property and homes and heedlessly push aside families who have lived on the same farms and homesites for generations. One evening in May representatives of citizen and environmental groups and residents of the NP&L service area came together to talk about The Linc. As the conversation moved around the table, and each participant spoke of his or her own perspective or fears on the issue, the pieces of the giant jigsaw puzzle that is Duke's master plan for the Kauiah Province, fell into place. Ripped Off by Alcoa Veronica Nicholas, a county commissioner in Jackson County, told of a decade-long struggle between a group called Citizens for Low-Cost Power and the Alcoa Aluminum Company, the industrial giant that presently owns NP&L (sec Katuah Journal #3). Originally, Alcoa had set up hydroelectric generating facilities on the TV A lakes in the Tuckasegee River watershed as a public utility, which meant DUKE'S POWER PLAY that the company had certain privileges in acquiring land and setting rates that went along with the obligation to provide power to the residentS of the area. However, soon after the generating facilities were completed, Alcoa split its holdings into two companies, Tapoco Company and NP&L. Tapoco, although it was originally established as pan of a public utility, was kept to feed Alcoa's voracious energy appetite. NP&L remained a utility to provide for the area residents, but it was clearly a "neglected stepchild" of the parent corporation. When Tapoco was a utility, almost all of the area's electrical needs were met with hydroelectric power generated in th.! mountains. After the split, NP&L's generating capacity had to be supplemented by power purchased outside the region. This resulted in the ludicrous situation of Alcoa siphoning cheap electric power from the mountains, while ratepayers in the hiUs paid to have nuclear power "wheeled in" from the Tennessee Valley Authority. Not only did the nuclear power cost more, but it had to pass directly through the Alcoa plant on its way back to the mountains! NP&L ratepayers finally rebelled in 1977 and began legal motions to regain the use of Tapoco's generating power and 10 recover the money with which they had been subsidizing Alcoa. The case went through extended litigation, until the ratepayers were flatly denied by an unsympathetic conservative bench on the US Supreme Court in 1987. "II feels that (with this sale) we arc simply changing masters," said Nicholas. "It is becoming increasingly clear that we are losing our power to determine the use of our natural resources. That's what my main input will be tonight: Tapoco is not included in thjs sale to Duke Power. Alcoa is trying to relieve itself of itS public obligations, just as it did in the l950's when it tried to sell its transmission lines to Duke. If this sale goes through, Tapoco will be supplying the power Alcoa needs for smelting aluminum, and our ability to provide for ourselves will be forever gone." Biology professor Dan Pittillo, chairman of the Western North Carolina Alliance and a resident of Jackson County, added, "NP&L has never been funded properly, and it has not been able LO keep up with their maintenance as they should, so that there is S40 million in maintenance that needs to be done in the next ten years. "Duke promised us that when they purchased the company, ratCS would remain stable for five years. rm thinking, though, that after that time the rates we will have to pay will go up from the 4.5-5 cents per kilowatt/hour that we arc paying now, to 8-9 cents per kilowatt/hour, which is about what Duke's rates arc at present" Pittillo also displayed a copy of a Duke Power annual report, published in February, 1988, which boasted that, "If regulators approve the acquisiton, we expect that NP&L will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Duke Power. The company (continued on next page) KATUAH-page 19 SUMMER- 1988 �HOLD THAT LINE! WHAT'S ON THE OTHER END OF THE DUKE POWER LINE? - HABITAT & SCENIC AREAS DESTRUCTION? - NUCLEAR DEPENDENCY AND NUCLEAR WASTE? - RATE HIKES FOR EXPENSIVE IMPORTED POWER? - MORE DAMS? ENERGY EXPLOITATION OF THE MOUNTAINS? )! ~; - .. c: • ·c LET'S GET THE FACTS BEFORE DUKE BUYS OUT NANTAHALA POWER AND LIGHT S! • - Write to the public staff of the NC Utilities Commission. Support their request to postpone hearings on the Nantahala sale until, September. Address: Antoinette-Wike, Public Staff, NC Utlltltles u c • 2 S! ,, > c( .Cl Commission, P.O. Box 29520, Ralelgh, NC 27626 M ,... fOf ttf HO\.D THAT llNIJ l o• - Otll• "°" NC tUU (continued from page 19) will in turn supply bulk power to supplement NP&L's hydroelectric generating system. To deliver that power, Duke will build a transmission line to the NP&L system and gain a direct link.for the first time with the 7VA, which serves more than 3.1 million customers in seven states. That link will create the opportunity for other bulk power sales to the west." (emphasis ours) Showdown at Coley Creek Sitting near Pinillo was Bill Thomas, public lands chair for the NC state Sierra Club chapter and a co-chairman of the Jocassec Watershed Coalition. Duke has nlready damaged a pristine wilderness area in that basin with a pumped-storage project on Bad Creek. Thomas said, "The Jocassee Watershed Coalition is tied up with this transmission line in some fashion, because Duke is considering putting a second 2100 megawau pumped-storage facility on Coley Creek at a cost of $3.3 billion dollars. We thought aJI along that they were jiggering their electrical demand forecast to make it appear as if they would need a 5,000 megawatt output in their service area by the year2000. "What I'm thinking now, when I sec this NP&L move, is that there is no penalty co Duke for over-forecasting if they have this pipeline to the west. What we are seeing is the use of North Carolina resources being used for Duke's profit, as they extend their tentacles to the west. That's a matter of public policy that needs to be debated quite fiercely." Thomas continued, "Jim Hendricks, principal engineer of Duke's design division, and others have told us that the ultimate plan is to put in a 500 KV line. That means that any route that is chosen will have two sets of towers and a 1,000·1,500 foot right-of-way. "500 KV lines are up in the voltage range where possible adverse health effects are something you can't just brush off. I don't know much about electromagnetic KATIJAH - page 20 radiation fields, but it has been brought up as a possible cause for health problems in other places." "Why, western North Carolina is being set up like dominoes!" someone exclaimed. "If they can get that line in, then they can justify Coley Creek. And, while they've been saying they need it to supply NP&L, all along they've been wanting to sell power to TVA and even further west!" ''What we are seeing is the use of North Carolina resources being used for Duke's profit, as they extend their tentacles to the west. That's a matter of public policy that needs to be debated quite fiercely." "We Didn't Want to See lt" A woman resident from the Sapphire Community, located along the route of The Line as it passes through Transylvania County, said, "It would have been just above our house. We didn't want to see it, but we didn't know what effect physically living under those lines would have. So we sold our house because of it "Duke gave us a very good price. We asked them if we should price it without our furniture, but they said that they wanted co keep the furnishings, because they were going to use the house for an executive retreat. That doesn't sound like a public service company to me." Dan Pittillo said, "A main issue in this discussion is the attitude that Duke is taking. Duke is working like an aggressive business 1hat is interested in selling power and keeping people working on their projects. They are doing what is good for business. Their interest is not the people whom they are supposed to be serving. They are not interested in conserving energy. Why, if Duke were on a conservative bent, they would have no need for this whole system whatsoever!" Others in the room spoke as well. Several Jackson County residents were unalterably opposed to Duke Power's nuclear record and the company's lobbying effons to bring the Southeastern Compact's low-level radioactive waste dump to North Carolina. They wanted 1he NP&L sale stopped completely. Some of the most vigorous opposition came from members of a property-owners' group around Lake Toxaway, whose main interest was in maintaining the value of their area as a vacation spot. They complained of Duke's high·handed methods in not consulting with local people as The Line was being planned, buying the right-of-way propenies under false pretenses, and announcing the project only after the property was purchased and the company was already commi11ed to a specific route. Although Duke's publicity said alternate routes were being considered, the propeny-owners said that the company could produce no alternative plans when asked to do so. The group gathered together that evening represented different people from different points of view, but each piece added co the puzzle made the whole picture of Duke Power Company's plans for the "development" of Katuah become more frighteningly clear. David Wheeler SUMMER 1988 �Tiffi CHEROKEE MICRO-HYDROELEC1RIC DEMONSTRATION PROJECT: An Appropriate Community Energy System (Readers are referred to the article "llomemade Electricity• by Richard llotaJing in Ka11jah Journal #4 concerning the value, simplicity, importance, and •how-10• of micro-hydroelecrric power gtner01io11.) Tucked away in the shade of a cool mountain holler on the Cherokee Indian Reservation is a prototype of an advanced technology still little-known to the world. It 1s not made with circuits and capacitors, but rather with concrete, plastic pipe, and common sense. It is a micro-hydroelectric system that taps the kinetic energy of the Galamore Branch, a small creek flowing down from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park into the Raven Fork in the Big Cove Community. Electricity produced at the site powers the Big Cove Head Stan Center, the Big Cove Community Center, and the Big Cove Volunteer Fire Department building. The project has been developed through the cooperation of Appalachian State University, the Energy Division of the Nonh 01rolina Depanment of Commerce, and Save the Children, lnc .. by Michael Red Fox With its abundant water supplies and steep slopes, the Katuah Province is ideally suited by climate and topography for micro-hydro power production. It is hoped that the Cherokee project will serve as a model that will help increase popular awareness that micro-hydro is a benign, narural, and renewable energy resource and will encourage the development of micro-hydroelectric sites in other areas of Kan1ah. The site on Galamore Branch was located in an early study of micro-hydroelectric si1es in Katuah. The study found 1,950 suitable micro-hydro sites in the mountains that would be capable of producing a combined potential output of 34,000 kilowaus of energy if developed. Fifty-three of these sites are on the Cherokee Indian Reservation and represent a combined potential output of970 kilowaus. The Big Cove micro-hydro system divens a design flow of 1.2 cubic feet per second through a six inch diameter PVC penstock (pipe) for a distance of 2,500 feet 10 develop a net head (drop) of 210 feet The intake structure is located at a point where the streambed is less than six feet wide and consists of a poured concrete dam, which divens water into a concrete seuling basin. The energy generated by the falling water is convened by a Pelton turbine wheel into a design power output of 12 kilowaus. The small turbo-generator is located beside the Head Start pre-school building, which is the primary load center that utilizes most of the electricity produced The maximun load for lhe pre-school is 7.4 kilowatts, which is currently being reduced somewhat through load management devices and more efficient lighting. Under federal law, small electricity producers have a right to be connected into the commercial power grid. However, the Galamore Branch project is too small for interconnection to be cost-effective. Operating on a "stand-alone" basis (not connected to the larger utility grid) requires a ballast to prevent the electrical generator from over-speeding when the load is low. Currently the ballast load is divened into two three-kilowatt resistance space heaters mounted on the basement wall of the Head Stan Center. However, plans call for an integra1ed system in which the micro-hydro plant will complement a passive solar greenhouse to be built on the side of the school building, which will include water containers for a solar algae pond aquaculture operation. The water absorbs solar heat directly and will not need backup heating in the winter. But electrical resistance coils buried in a bed of sand below the containers will act as electrical ballast for the micro-hydro system and will provide additional heat for the tanks. It is fitting that the Cherokee people are developing this energy alternative. By utilizing lhe natural products of the ever-circling environment, they are following the traditional values of their culture in a modem context. Micro-hydroelectric power is a liberating technology. lt is a technology scaled to living and working in place. It has minimal negative environmental impacts and could be a significant resource in developing the new, land-based economv of Katuah. Micro-hydroelectric power production is site specific: each unique stream site determines a different configuration for a micro-hydro system. But the principles are everywhere 1he same. The Galamore Branch project provides descriptive exhibits and workshops on micro-hydroelectric power generation. For information on visiting the project, contact: Save the Children Box33J Cherokee, NC Ka/Uah Province 287I 9 or call (704) 497-6092 Michail Red Fox Is a whitt person living on the Cherokl!e Indian Reserva1io11. fie was involved in the design a11d construction of tht micro-hydroelectric instal/Olion 011 Gal.amore Branch aN1 is now head opera/or of the project. KATIJAH- page21 SUMMER-1988 �spruce mountain song DRUMMING LETTERS TO KATUAH ~ If I could take this broken world and give it back it's trees it's gentle healing summer rain f ~ it's clear, cool, autumn breeze then I could rake the magic of the wood the magic of the mind and spread it then to ail my kin to all of humankind ~ ~ .i And yet I know even as I speak that this cannot be done J. I feel the earth through every pore my healing bas begun we start out as a candle flame we will become the sun ~~i ~ ~ ~ ::°'b::::g: ~ethe ~ l ~. - earth Mara Bradburn, 16 ~ Robert Stough Deny.PA '..t :rl· ~~ ;~ ~ ~ 4 ~ ~ ; ~.g ~.~ i· ~ ~ .... .It's funny how I picked today to read this issue of Katuab, because I took a long walk through the woods today with my neighbor (I live in the mountains of north Georgia). We walked an old road that runs by Sharp Mt. Creek I often stopped to wonder what life was like here in these woods hundreds of years ago and how peaceful it must have been to be one with nature, in this sacred land. I will be looking forward to bearing from you. Valerie Ansted Jasper, GA ~ ~ ~ kt. ~ !§ t~~~~~~~~~.\t:19~..~~~~ . Dear Kattlah, We're busy in this area trying to repel the Superconducting Supercollider the governor of this state thinks should be in Durham, Granville, and Person counties. We're talking forced relocation of (at least) 100 or so families, some who have lived here for 5-7 generations already. The SSC is an atom smasher (53-mile underground circle), that will produce particles of energy called muo.ns, that will penetrate soil, rock and groundwater tables. It will only be used for 25 years, at which time they have no idea bow they will deal with the leftovers (our children). Please help us pray for the Eanh and our children here in the flatlands. Tara Clayton Rougemont, NC KATUAH - page 22 summer morning dew, the nightclouds gone, dawnlight glowing on the old sugar maples, tree-snails stiJTing in its thick moss-fur, i take the deer-trails through soaking meadows, thoughts flowing with the yellow swallowtails over hucklebeny meadows bumming with bees, past moccasin orchids, young ferns in the sun, through flame azaleas and wind-twisted birch into deep spruce shadows, mossy and still, then down a ways along a faint grassy trail to a cool spring among ancient spruce/sages, and rested there awhile. a stone for a pillow, a feather in the hair of the wild old nx>untain, then wandered on, sailing with the ravens over jwnbled rockfields and tangles blowdowns, by flowering witch-hobble, snow-petaled comets, sparrows chatting in gnarled gray hawthorns, a lone swallow skimming the crest above the broken wing of the old wrecked plane, i a thoughtless seed drifting on the wind, each moment a cosmos sprouting, waves of gn:cn mountains rolling me home, soaring free, clear blue sky in all my mind Dear KatUa b, Thanks so much for the time and interest you are giving to help make our vision become a reality. Without such concern of kindred spirits we know that very little would ever be accomplished. As I mentioned to you, we need any useful donations of building materials, hand tools, garden tools, heavy farm equipment. livestock, and even workers to help clear and build shelters on over 18 acres, recently purchased to provide needy people with a "farming community home"! Thanks again, Cherie & Tom Lowry Rt.#5, Box 216 T Ellijay, GA 30540 (404) 838-4636 SUMMER- 1988 �APPALACHIAN SLEEP In sleep, each tree becomes the one cree, each flush of rhododendron, color for the cheek oflhedream I rub with dozing fingers, each mountain, something to climb without thinking, to soar above it effonlessly as a brash-feathered bird. I do not leave the glorious ou~lde as I slip beneath , the sheet but bring it w\tb me, to wearcomfonabJy, to wrap round the child's soft body. John Grey C RMDESIGNS Spring Equinox Dream 1988 There is a group of us out on a kind of platfonn and we are watching a performance: dancing and farting around. It feels more like a show than a performance. There are some of the kids among us participating in the performance that is going on to music. It is a kind of trapeze they are playing on that is pulling them over humps in the straps etc. They seem to be having fun playing on it, though the apparatus does not seem to be working very well. At some point we realize that !here is an authority that is about to impose a soning on us. We each have numbers and are seated on these smooth rounded pebble like soners that glide easily on the floor surface. As we are being sorted we go through openings in which we can not see the ends or where they come out. I realize that I do not have a number, and begin to also realize that I am being sorted toward the low end of the numbers. People with low numbers or no numbers are soned for extinction by the brutal authority. As I am finally sorted into this category 1 become restless and begin to search for ways to get over to the groups with higher numbers, such as 8 or 9 and find it very intimidating and difficult. There seem to be no physical police yet their presence is still felt. I have with me a metallic object that has on it a symbol like a planet or a rounded form and a there is a feather sticking out of it It becomes a spirit guide to me as 1 get a rush of energy from it and find my way to survival. This magic symbol in metallic form spoke to me with wisdom and 1 easily made it to the group that slipped past the authority. It showed me that I had my own energy with which to escape the trap that was made. Later we are walking through a passageway and I am so amaz.ed that we made it through alright. I remember the spirit guide and its assistance. Together some friends and I realize that this is all a movie of ourselves that we are watching, and we are walking out of a kind of theatre in the earth. Soon we are all together in the yard of our house around a fire. There is a friend who is burning huge sticks of incense and we are talking, and eating, and laughing. RM You know Sometimes in the quiet cool of summer dusk I sit oo the porch after a rain has washed the dark mountains and covered them with quiet mist a restless dream rising and rolling and the still hum of a million trees lulling to the milky sky like This moment as the river murmurs in its sleep a hot tongue of lightning licks a distant ridge the husky voice of far off thunder sends a shudder through the bedded earth she turns and breathes a long green sigh and in her subtle sleepy way Whispers the answer - Tony Fisher KA TUAH - page 23 SUMMER- 1988 �A Conversation with Ruth and Rio of Celo Community continued from p. 10 Ruth: It was one of the worst things! -the worst! How to deal with multiflora rose. K: lt seems that people here have very different lifestyles and interests that keep them busy and not as involved with each other as they might be. That may make support difficult. Yet diversity can also be a strength ... the dark. Someone put a flashlight in the middle of the circle and there were just shadows... and there was such a difference in the way people were sharing! That was when I talked about the next workday...and I was able to be real vibrant and alive 'cause everyone wasn't staring at me. It was like I was in the dark by myself talking to I don't know who. Ruth: Yeah- I really value the large age diversity here. You have the wisdom of people who've been here so long and have been through all the processes and then you have the young sprouts wilh new ideas and energy--it's such a nice mixture. K: Because some want to use herbicides and some don't? Ruth: Yes, and some don't even care if we get rid of it Rio: What's neat about the older members is how open they are to new ideas. And how they can even joke about themselves and the community and how crazy it is here. Rio: And some say, "We've been fighting it forever and it's getting away from us so let's have careful use of chemicals and just get rid of it "...and it's become such a touchy subject people don't even want to bring it up anymore. Ruth: I remember hearing an older member talk about the process in the meetings being just like in a family--how you're certainly going to have disagreements so you just go ahead and have them and move on. And you still love each other because you're a family. Ruth: So it took some new people to say, "Let's go folks ... those who wanna do it, come on out - we'll have a great time!" K: So what'd you do? Rio: And knowing that the difficulties not only pass but that they're useful. And that new energy is coming in and things are moving constantly. Rio: We cut and grubbed... and got rid of a Jot! .~ Ruth : Life would be like that E anywhere, only there are more rewards and Ruth: And the same day a big group also cleaned up the river. People were really enthusiastic and had a fun time together. I'd like to see that trend continue. ~ more possibilities here than I can imagine :i d Ruth: People not being open with how they feel. Rio: I tend to say very little in the meetings because I'm often intimidated. Ruth: But you're loosening up. Rio: I have to-I'm secretary of the Property Committee so I have to read my minutes and if people think I didn't do it right I have to go through that. K: It's great you're doing it. Rio: It is. I do see it as a good process for me. Ruth: One of the best meetings we've had recently was last month's. There was a thunderstorm and the lights went out and three-fourths of the meeting took place in KATUAH-page24 K : Making a commitment to land is .9 Rio: Some of the complaints now are about how group process in the meetings is so difficult. .. K: Because of communication problems? having anyplace else. seems to give a blessing to whatever happens there. It almost assures success because the land is so giving in return. 1i' such an important thing to do these days .. .it ! K: Sounds like you should hold all of them that way! You mentioned relationships before and how important they are in communities ... yet some people probably came here panly to avoid deali.ng with others as much ...aod suddenly find they're as close as ever! Rio: That reminds me - Billy Bernstein wrote a hilarious song after he'd been here awhile -·it goes something like "I thought I was dropping out but it looks like rm dropping in"! Ruth: Celo is also getting fairly large and that makes group process all the more difficult Rio: And there arc so many opinions and the aim is to reach consensus on everything. It also seems that with groups in general it's hard to make commitments and follow through on what you say you'll do. It really takes supporting each other. Ruth: That makes me think about owning land. We owned some land in Minnesota and I never even felt like I owned it even though it was in my name. Holding land as a community feels much closer to true ownership. I want to call it stewardship. It's about taking care of land the way it needs to be taken care of and not about saying, "I can do whatever I want with it!" That doesn't even make sense to me. I'm really grateful to Arthur Morgan and the others who started this place - and all the work that's gone into it over the years. And the longer fm here, the more I appreciate it. It's such a healing place... there's healing going on, and you can't even put your finger on it - it's just happening. SUMMER - 1988 �The "'i4Jhtan4s of Roan continued from p. 7 The SAHC is leading the way in securing this much-needed protection. Examination of a broad range of alternatives has led SAHC to conclude that protection can best be accomplished through a blend of federal, state and private ownership. SAHC encourages governmental protection where appropriate, receives gifts of land and buys land from willing sellers using donated funds. To date, SAHC has protected approximately 900 acres through private means and has partially funded a 693-acre acquisition by the state of Tennessee. Approximately 9,500 acres still remain to be protected. SAHC's protection strategy Involves four approaches: I. Receive gifts of land, including conservation easements and other partial interests. 2. Encourage additional acquisition by Federal and State agencies. 3. Purchase lands or interests in lands with donated funds; own and manage such lands. The bulk of the protection will be accomplished by this means. 4. Register lands under the respective Stare Namral Area Registry programs; since registry is nm binding upon the registrant, it may be considered only temporary protection. Cooperating with SAHC in saving the Highlands are state agencies in North Carolina and Tennessee as well as the US Forest Service. Endorsing the program are the National Audubon Society, the Garden Club of America, the Appalachian Trail Conference, and numerous state 8Jld local organizations. Without an active plan for preservation, it is likely that much of the area now unprotected would eventually be purchased by developers. In the early days of the preservation effort, a part of the area was purchased by developers. Fortunately these tracts were since acquired by the US Forest Service. To date there have been two kinds of development pressures: 1) second homes and 2) high density recreation. Development activity bas been particularly strong o.n the North Carolina side of the mountain. The largest stngle development is on Beech Mountain, about 10 miles to the aonheas1 of the Highlands of Roan. A particularly controversial development is that on top of Sugar Mountain where a concrete ten-story condominium is visible from many points. Public outcry against this intrusion was so great that the NC Legislature passed a "ridge law" restricting construction on mountain tops; however, there is no equivalent law for the slopes. Numerous smaller developments are in the vicinity. Throughout the Newland-Linville-Boone area, second homes are appearing on many ridges and in rural areas. The high density recreation developments have so far been primarily oriented toward skiing. One large tract within the preservation project boundaries was earlier surveyed as a possible ski resort and determined to be among the top ten sites in the southeast. (The same tract was considered as a site for a Tennessee Regional State Prison.) There are large ski developments on nearby Beech Mountain, Sugar Mountain, Big Bald, and at Seven Devils. If skiing business increases, development pressures will escalate. The adverse consequences of developments within a unique natural area are worth recounting: First, developments limit accessibility by the general public. The owners of second homes want privacy. Other facilities may be limited to club members or pacrons. Second, it is clear that the health of the animal populations within the Roan massif depends upon an adequate range over which they can roam and feed. The entire massif provides protection for certain species that individual tracts a lone cannot provide. Rare plant and animal species are more likely to survive in a large area of protected tracts. Third, the views from the higher summits depend absolutely on the absence of incompatible development on the massif itself, particularly within the project boundaries adopted by SAHC. High density recreation facilities, public or private, could be so heavily used that the present naturalness-would disappear. KATUAH- page 25 'lt is cCea.r that the health of the ani.mat poputati.ons wi.thi.n the .Roan massi.f depends u.pon an adequate ran9e over which they can rnam and feed. The enti.rn massi.f prnvi.des prntecti.on for certai.n. speci.es that i.ndi.vi.du.a[ tracts a!on.e cannot provi.de. SAHC realizes that the task of land protection cannot be accomplished simply by acquiring lands and conferring on them a certain conservation status. A continuing stewardship program must be exercised to prevent damage from ever-present threats to existing natural values. SAHC's plan is to keep the Highlands of Roan the way they are: to maintain the balds, to leave the forests undisturbed. to encourage retention of fanning and other rural activities on the lower slopes, and generally to let the lands be available to the visitor on foot. The overall goal of SAHC's stewardship program is to accommodate nondestructive scientific, educational, and recreational uses of the Highlands of Roan while protecting their biological and physical features. To assure survival of the rich fauna and flora of Roan Mountain, SAHC is keenly aware that management plans and preserve boundaries must consider both habitat diversity and t he total size of the a rea to be protected. Boundary and acquisition decisions based on the narrow distributions and requirements of individual plant species and a few special plant communities will not suffice. A broad view of the protection zone-·one which considers wildlife habitat, animal mobility, and critical population size--is more likely to ass ure preservation of both the flora and the vast wildlife legacy. Vital to the success of SAHC's plan to preserve the Highlands of Roan is a strong and successful fund-raising program. SAHC has launched a major effon to raise the approximately $10 million needed to complete the private share of the protection plan. Nearly $1,000,000 has been raised so far mainly from individuals. Individual memberships in SAHC are available from a $10 minimum Subscribing Membership to $1,000 or more as a Life Member. Currently SAHC bas approximately 1800 members in 40 states. SAHC also receives donations. The project is an excellent vehicle for individual tax-deductible giving. Appreciated land, securities and other property may be donated without payment of capital gains tax; donors may take a tax deduction on the market value of the gift as well. The donation goes into the land fund and is used for the acquisition of tracts within the project. SAHC also maintains a perpetual register of memorial gifts. Also a number of members have named SAHC as beneficiary in their wills; no estate taxes are payable on bequests to tax-exempt organizations. Another common form of giving is to take out a life insurance policy and make SAHC the beneficiary and owner of the policy. Such donations are tax-deductible as well as the premium payments. Becoming a member of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy and volunteering time and skills is an excellent way to participate in the protection of this excraoidinary treasure-the Highlands of Roan. ~ Southern Appalachian Highlands Conser vancy P.O. Box 3356, Kingsport, TN 37664 (615) 323-3677 This ar1icle was compiled by Marnie Muller of Katuah Journal Crom SAHC materials, panicularly the SAHC Case Statement. Special thanlcs to Stan Murcay of SAHC. SUMMER-1988 �LEARNING COMMUNITY -Arth ur Morgan Schoolcontinucd from p. 12 'The reason we have such a variety of experiences and such an openness about giving the students choices is because we know that there arc things that each student can do well. We make an effon to help find out what they are, and we let them know in a sincere way that they arc good enough," said Patty. ttEvery situation is approached slightly differently. We try to give everybody involved a chance to talk about their perspective. We try to clarify all the specifics of any problem. We might use the chalkboard for writing 'this is his problem with the issue, and this is what he would like to see happen' and 'this is her problem and what she would like to see happen' to get everything clearly out 'This can be done in a small group, or in the all-school meetings which happen weekly. It is a consensus process and deals with the issue in a way that can satisfy everybody. Discipline often comes in the form of a proposal that is carried on during a trial period, such as from one all-school meeting to the next. and then re-evaluated." In this way students have the opponunity to participate significantly in making decisions that affect them. Cooperation is another quality needed in a healthy community. This means sharing the work as well as the play. Students arc involved in all phases of community responsibility - cooking, cleaning, wood gathering and spli11ing, and gardening. Wor k teaches responsibility and interdependence as well as practical skills. Patty said. "If a student doesn't want to do their chore at lunch, and their job is to wash dishes, then that throws everything off. It means that whoever is drying and potting dishes away can't do it, or has to wait In practical ways like that we try to poi.n t out that each student's personal actions affect everyone dse. "This isn't the right school for everybody. We want to be clear about what the school is. We're flexible in trying to meet each student's needs to an extent, but if a student has a problem with stealing things, for example, we're not willing to lock everything up so that ccnain student can remain here. If a student can't cope with the 'freedom within a structure' that we offer here, we're not going to change our whole philosophy." Elizabeth Morgan in her notes referred to a quote from Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi that summed up that philosophy: "A school should be built by the children, should seek to be self-supporting, and should never be finished!" , DE.SIGNS by Rob Messick 1 1tus1ra1lon & Design in Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil P.O. Box 2801 • Boone. NC 28007 • (704)7~; 111.TMVIOLET l'UWICATIOtl AHO fllTBllMO IYITfMI GM PlflODUCTI • WATSI AHAL\'Ill .HWY. 107 RAN~ C. LANIER ~2 RT. II IOX 125 CUL.1..0WHEE, NC am T-SHIRTS, SWEATSHIRTS For ADULTS and CHILDREN 15 ORIGINAL HANO-PRINTED NATURE DESIGNS EACH COWRFUL DESIGN IS PRlN'IED ON QUALITi T' s AND SWEATS Chinese Acupuncture and Herbology Clinic M. C. Majebe Licensed Acupuncturist 78 East Chestnut St. Ashevllle, NC 28801 (704) 258-901 6 KATIJAH - page 26 S~R-1988 �. ........ NABC ill From Aug 21-26, 1988, Lhe Third North A meric an Biorcgio na l Con gress (NABC III) will draw Turtle Islanders from all over the continent to Vancouver, British Columbia, for a five-day celebration of their varied cultural forms and their commitment to the restoration of ecological harmony on this pan of the planet NABC Ill will adopt a cultural focus, encouraging panicipants to express their bioregional identities by telling their stories, presenting displays and mapping projects, exhibiting their arts and craflS, and sharing their cerebral and ceremonial activities. For more information, write NABC III, Box 99, Lillooet, BC, Canada VOK !VO. Individuals or groups wishing to contact other NABC participants from Katliab may phone (704) 683-1414. For a copy of NABC ll Proceedings, a 112-page report on the 1986 Congress, send $11. 50 (p & h included) to Ha.rt Publishing, Box 1010, Forestville, CA 95436. Cry, Sacred G round: Big Mountai n U.S.A. (© 1988) by Anita Parlow js a compelling oral testimony of Navaho sheepherders who describe the religious beliefs that underlie the impressive resistance to stop a disinheritance from their sacred ground. The Navahos who share l11eir stories do so to make certain that what is happening will not be forgotten - and that it be stopped. As one Medicine Man told the author, "our children will know that we knew how to live.as' Navahos and we knew, too, how to die as Navahos. Cry, Sacred G ro und, produced by the Sacred Lands Project of the Christie Institute, includes 50 photographs and artwork by award-winning artist William Franklin. , . The Sacred Lands Project of th.e Christie lnstiuae, 1324 North Capitol Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20002 Who Owns North Carolina is a 420-page guide to the largest landowners in the state's 100 counties, tile result of the most exhaustive land ownership investigation ever undertaken for a state or region in the U.S. Maps, charts, data analysis, and interpretative essays offer statistical details and comparative ranlcings of each county's largest landowners, data on forestry and farming in each county, rankings of the counties by 25 different social, economic, and political characteristics, and discussion by the project's investigators of the cultural significance of their findings. The book is available for $30 for Katuah readers (mention our name). Write: lnstitme for Sowhern Studies, P.O. Box 531, Durham, NC 27702 The International 4th World Assembly will hold its seventh assembly this summer, July 31-August 4, 1988 at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. The 4th World is an informal group of people from all over the world who affirm the right of urban neighborhoods and rural villages to make their own decisions abopt their own Jives. The theme this year is "Community Economics As If the Earth Mattered". Registration is open to all. Full conference fee including meals, lod ging and proceedings is $150. For more info: School of Living, 7th assembly; 3030 Sleepy Hollow Rd, Falls Church, VA 22042. Economics as If the Earth Really Matte r e d is the first in a new series of books from New Society Publishers exploring the possibilities for creating an accountable economy. The book by Susan Meeker-Lowry offers hundreds of suggestions of how average people can invest their money and/or their time in building a new economy in harmony with life-affirming values. Subjects covered include boycotts, shareholder action, socially responsible investment funds, small-scale investing, projects i n local economic control and worker-ownership, new community economics, tools for reinvestment and.revitalization, alternative exchange systems, and seeds for the future. Dozens of names and addresses and resource lists round out this unique and exciting book. Meeker-Lowry, publisher of Cara/yst-a quarterly newsletter for those interested in small-scale socially responsible investing, offers us new glimpses of ways in which people are using their participation in the economic system as a vehicle for the expression of consciously chosen values: living in harmony with the earth, fighting poverty and injustice, combatting feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, and building lives which combine diversity and synthesis, integration and balance. New Society Publishers, P.O. Box 582, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-0582 The Ca r olina Associa tion fo r t he Ad va ncement of Midwifery (CAAM) is a grassroolS organization whose goal is to remove the current legal restrictions that prevent direct-entry midwives from practicing in North Carolina. CAAM's goal is to promote competent and legal midwives to serve the women and families of North Carolina. CAAM wants members from all over North Carolina. Membership ($10/yr) entitles one to receive future issues of Midwifery News as well as contribute to the effort to make North Carolina a state where parents have real choices about giving birlll. CAAM, Rt.1, Box 201 M, Durham, NC 27705 A unique summer comp uduenture Natural Food Store & Deli 160 Broadway Asheville, NC 28801 {704)683-1414 68:M795 Where &oadWay rMets Merrlmon Ave & 1-240 OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Monday-Saturday: 9am·8pm Sunday: 1pm-5pm ror young people 6 - 18 years old Woods, water, trail experiences, horses, crafts, Indian lore free brochure available Pepperland Farm Camp Star Rout e Fiimer, TN 37333 {704) 253-7656 KATUAH - page 27 SUMMER - 1988 �€V€0t'S 7-10 LINVILLE, NC The Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain. Caber toss, sheepdog trinls, Highland dancing, bagpipes. $8.00/day. For more info, call (704) 733-2013. 9 HELEN, GA ·Appalachian Mountain Music Festival" at Unicoi State Park; Helen, GA 30545. Call (404) 878-2201. GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS "Big Game Observation." S4S. Smoky Mountain Field School Sec 6/},5-26. 9-10 JUNE 19-2S BRASSTOWN, NC "June Music and Dance Week" at John C. Campbell Folk School; Brasstown, NC 28902. SUMMER 20 CELEBRATION SOLSTICE 22-26 HIGHLANDS, NC "The Art of Landscape Photography" workshop with Gil Leebrick and John Scarlata. $2SO incl. accommodations. Appalachian Environmental Ans Center; P.O. Box 580; Highlands, NC 28741 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS "Wild Mammals of the Great Smokies" field instruction with Dr. Michael Pelton. $45. Smoley Mountain Field School; 2016 Lake Ave.; Knoxville, TN 37996. 25-26 29 Full Moon 29 RABUN GAP, GA "Wild Fems" expedition with Marie Mellinger. $8 incl. lunch. The Hambidge Center; P.O. Box 339; Rabun Gap, GA 30568 or ca1J (404) 746-5718. 13 New Moon 13 RABUN GAP, GA "Materializing the Shadows." Investigating stream life with Dr. William Mcl.arney. The Hambidge Center, SQC 6(29. 17-23 m G HLANDS, NC "Transcendentalism on the Mountain" seminar at The Mountain; 841 Highway 106; Highlands, NC 28741 29-31 CELO, NC "Midw i fery in the Mountains" conference. Workshops on "Herbs in Pregnancy and Binh," "Medical Questions," "Body Work," "Tricks of the Trade," more. With Lucinda Flodin; Barbara King, MD; Lisa Goldstein; Pat Roy; others. $55 incl. meals. Lisa Goldstein; 823-C Hannah Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714. (704) 675-5316. 30.31 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS "Mushroom ldcntific.ation," for beginners. $45. Smoky Mountain Field School, sec 6/2S-26. 22-24 HOT SPRINGS, NC "Rhinoceros Glances at the Moon: The Art of Movement as Meditation.• Tai Chi weekend with Jay Dunbar. $75. Southern Dharma, see7/l-4. 22-24 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS Family Weekend at Great Smoley Mountains Institute at Tremont. Hiking, siorytelling, music, more. AdultS:· $4S. Children: $35. Write at Townsend, TN 37882 or call (615) 448-6709. RALEIGH, NC Fourth World Conference ("break down all the big powers into their ethnic or bioregional areas") - bioregional sp~ers, including Jim Berry, Peter Berg, Susan Meeker-Lowry, and Mamie Muller. At Meredith College. $150. For more info, write School of Living; 3030 Sleepy Hollow Rd.; Falls Church, VA 22042..or call (703) 237-7507. 24-29 JULY 1-31 ASHEVILLE, NC "Mountain Sweet Talk," a two-act play with The Folktellers, Barbara Freeman and Connie Regan-Blake, at the Folk An Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Advance LickctS: S8.00. Call (704) 258-11 13. GREAT SMOKIES PARK "Teacher and Naturalist Week" (and anyone interested in learning more about the natural world). Joseph Cornell (Sharing Nature with Children), guest instructor. "Learn about the natural history of the Smokies and ways of effectively motivating people toward a deeper appreciation of the natural world." $145. Great Smoky Mpuntains Institute at Tremont. See7/22-24 31-8/4 24-30 1-4 HOT SPRINGS, NC "Writing Down the Bones." Writing, meditation and yoga retreat with Natalie Goldberg and Frances Kean. SJ20. Southern Dhnrma Retreat Center; Rt 1, Box 34- H; Hot Springs, NC 28743. ROANOKE, VA "Celebrate Love• conrerence sponsored by Visions or Tomorrow at Hollins College. Cllls.<:es, events, conccrtS. Program: S165; w/ food, acc. $290. Contact: Jan Settle; Rt. I, Box 310-A; Goode, VA 24556 28 AUG.UST l LAMMAS FESTIVAL 1-28 ASHEVILLE, NC "Mountain Swee1 Talk," sec 7/1 -31. 1-31 C HEROKEE, NC "The Art of Cherokee Fingerwcaving" cxhibil at the Cherokee Heritage Museum and Gallery; Box 477; Cherokee. NC 28719. 5-7 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS Naiuro Siudy Workshop fOI' adults. $45. Grct1t Smoley Mountains Institute al Tremont, see 7/22-24 Full Moon 12 KATUAH- page 28 DAY ( Mid s ummer ) New Moon SUMMER- 1988 �27 ELKrNS, WV August.a Fcs1ival - 11adilional music and dance wilh all the 11immings. Write August.a Hcriiage Ccn1cr, Davis and Elkins College; Elkins. WV 26241. Full Moon 12-14 22-28 WILLIS, VA "Women's Wellness Week" with Libby Outlaw (massage therapist); Carolyn Moore, MD; Katherine Chantal (herbalist); Christine Byrd (nutirtional counselor); much more. Pre-register: $295 incl. food and acc. Indian Valley Holistic Center; Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis, VA 24380 26-28 LOUISA, VA · women: Cclcbra1ing Our Divcrsily - A Multiculiural Galhcring• wi1h workshops, performance, dance, culwml sharing. S35·75 sliding rec. Wrile Women; Twin Oaks Communi1y; Louisa VA 23093 (703) 894-5126. 10 New Moon 1-30 CHEROKEE, NC "Ayun'ini (Swimmer): Cherokee Shaman" exhibi1 al Cherokee Hcrit.age Museum and Gallery. SceS/1-31. 2-5 BRASSTOWN, NC "Labor Day Music and Dance Weekend" wilh Pelc Sulhcrland, Karen Billings, Marlha Owen, olhcrs. John C. Campbell Folk School, sec 6/19-25. 3-5 HIGHL ANDS, NC "Pinhole in lhe Landscape," pinhole camera workshop wilh Eric Renner. "/ use no viewfinder or exposure meter; I rely upon the passion and the timing within myself and the belief that it will worlc." Environmcnllll Aris Ccn1cr, sec 6{22-26. 17-18 HARRISONB UR G, VA "Restoring Wilderness in the East: A Deep Ecology Perspective" conference featuring Dave Foreman (Eanh First!), Gary Lawless (Gulf of Maine Bioregion), Jamie Sayen (PAW), Barbara Dugelby (Earth First!), David Wheeler (Kataah). Sponsored by Virginia Earth First! and Virginians for Wilderness; co-sponsored by Karuah. At James Madison University in Harrisonburg. Registration: $10 advance, $15 at door. For more info: write VA EF!; Route 1, Box 250; S1aunton, VA 2440 I or call (703) 885 6983. 17-18 HE LEN, CA "Native Americans of lhc Soulheast• a1 Unicoi St.ate Park, see 7/9. 4 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS "Wild Mammals or lhc Grcal Smokies," see 6125-26. /' TU~ f~LL GATME~NG RND THROE FRIR SEPTEMBER 30 • OCTOBER 2 , 1988 in Floyd County, VA Actiuitie s, Music, Dancing, Workshop s Bring: camping equipment, musical instruments, trade goods For more information, contact: Katherine Delauney Will Ashe Bason Travianna Farm Rt. 1, Box 217 Check, VA 24072 (703) 745-2708 (703) 651-3492 Need a ride? Share a ride? Call your local Katuah contact person or: Eastern slope (NC, GA, SC): David Wheeler (705) 586-3146 Tom Hendricks (704) 689-5382 Western slope (TN): Sariah Loveday (615) 688-7408 KATUAH - page 29 SUMMER- 1988 �STARSPAN ASTROLOGICAL PROFILES: Relationships, life chans, forccastS. ChartS and proCcssional taped readings also available. P.O. Boll 10413; Raleigh. NC 27605 WANTED: LAND in western NC. Flllllily seeks 5 or more acres, preferably near Cullowhee, to preserve and evenwally inhabit U you have or know or affordable land, contaeL Bob and Mary Davis; 213 Wesunorcland Ct; Georgetown, KY 40324 (502) 863-4267. MOON DANCE PARM HERBALS - herbal salves, tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm: Rt 1, Box 726; Hampton, TN 37658 FUTONS by Simple Pleasures - affordably priced. Send SASE for info 10: Simple Pleasures; RL. l, Box 1426: Clayton, GA 30525 (404) 782-3920 FREE CATALOG - Our books cover solar energy, natural foods, mCUlphysics, fiction, and poetry. The latest project is Black Mountain Rtvitw, with !hemes on lhe individual vs. society. Write: Lorien House; P.O. Box I 112; Black Mountain, NC 28711 EUSTACE CONWAY- Guide and 1eaeher of primitive Earth Skills with emphasis on fire building, hide tanning., shell.er, and foraging. He teaches at public schools, parks, environmenlal cen1ers, and classes of au kinds. For more information contact him at: 602 Deerwood Drive, Gastonia, NC 28084 or call Allein Stanley al (704) 872-7972 POLE STAR RETREAT CENTER available for rental. Days. weekends, or weeks. Conferences, workshops, CIC. in privalC, rural setting. 30 ft yurt, camping, swimming. Localed near Boone, NC. Contact: Rt 2, Box 59: Zionville. NC 28698 (904) 385-2071. GARDENERS are encouraged to visi1 our Paradise Garden for instruction and inspiralion (free) and/or perennial plan1 sale (cheap). ArtistS are inviied. IO come and crealC in lhe garden - painting, drawing, and photography are encouraged. We also have a cabin available in exchange for working in lhe garden. Mountain Gardens; 3020 While Ouk Crock; Burnsville, NC 28714 (704) 675-5664. M. TREE DESIGNS: Illustrations and Design Beyond the pages of lhis journal, I work in pencil, colored pencil, ink, cul paper, and batik. Fine and graphic an to express and enhance our lives. Logos, brochures, books, portrailure, window and wall hangings. Contae1 Martha Tree (704) 754-6097. DAYSTAR ASTROLOGICAL SERVICE - natal, transit, comparison chartS. Very accurate. Only S3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason: RI. 2, Box 217; Check, VA 24072 (703) 651-3492 ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY in the Smoky Mt'ns. of east TN. 10 acres with creek, springs, views. good neighbors. Be a part for $8500. Call Leslie (615) 453-1538. STIL-LIGHT TREOSOPHJCAL RETREAT CENTER - a quiet space for personal meditation, group inLCraction lhrough s1udy, and community work, and spiritual seminars. Contact Leon Frankel; Rt l, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 28786 WOMANSONG - ongoing choral group forming. Songs of bcau1y, meaning spiril, fun, peace. cooperation, sisterhood. Come and sing! Mon. evenings, 7:30-9, Asheville, NC. (704) 254-7068. CRAFTSPEOPLE - send price listings 10 Gifted /lands of NC, 331 Blake S1; Raleigh, NC 27601 (Au'n: Bern Grey Owl) - unique shop presenting 35-40 craflers' works in Raleigh's City Market All crafts considered. HAND-CARVED WOODSPIRITS. mys1i:al hiking staffs, and wall hangings by Steve Duncan. For brochure, please wri1e Whippoorwill S1udio; Rt 4, Box 981: Marion, NC 28752. ASTROLOGICAL CHARTS - natal. progressed, or solar re1um. 4-page prin1ou1 includes wheel wilh planetS and houses, aspecLS, midpoin1s, and keywords. Specify name, binh time, date, place, and chart type. StO 10 Phoenix Productions; Rt 2, Box 59; Zionville, NC 28698. RM DESIGNS - I use the media of pencils, colored pencils, gouache, pen and ink, and photography in creating unique fine and graphic art I can make diagrams, logos, finished prints, and designs for brochures, calenders, cards, books, CIC. Mandalas and symbols are my 1cndency among other styles. Contact Rob Messick (704) 754-6097, LAND TRUST in lhe forming on 57 acres near Boone, NC seeking families wilh slrOng visions and resources to manifest a peaceful place for our children to grow in love and to survive lhe coming of lhe new age. Paul and Susan Del Rios; RL 2, Box 314; Vilas, NC 28692 (704) 297-4937 LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP AND SUPPORT would be appreciated by incarcerated brothc.r. Write 10: Rick Whitaker #85670; Box 2000; Wartburg, TN 37887 DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbccks & wooden medicine drums. Call Joe Roberts at (704) 258-1038 or write LO: 738 Town Mountain Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804. ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY now forming in the mountains of norlh GA. Join olhers seeking greater cooperation and self-sufficiency. Based on spiritual and ecological values. Properly is now available. (404) 778-8754. BLIGHT RESISTANT CHESTNUT - hybrid American/Chinese Dunstan chestnu1 trees - blight resistant, timber growlh form, productive orchard crop with large, swee1 easily-peeled nutS. Chestnu1 Alli Nursery; RI. J, Box 341-K; Alachua, FL 32615 (904) 462-2820 BLOW YOUR MIND wilh "Medicine Wind." Finc-1uned bamboo nu1es and soothing musical recordings masterfully 1rancemit1ed 1hrough "Medicine Wind"/Gcorge Tortorelli; 86 NW 55 SL; Gainesville, FL 32607 (904) 373-1837. ORGANIC FERTILIZERS, herbs, and organically-grown, local produce at the WNC Farmcss' Markell Look for the Fairglcn Farms stall, unitS F and G in lhe wholesale area of lhe Farmers' Markel; 570 Brevard Rd.: Asheville, NC (704) 252-4414 "ESSENCE" - the all-one skin/dress/ jumper/pantaloons wilh nursing pockCIS. Earlhwcar; ROI, Box 75-CI; Carl1on, PA 16311 SMALL HOUSE on land trust in rural NC mountains in exchange for pan-time farm chores and occasional companionship to creative, joyful, mentally handicapped adul1 (or olher labor, such as carpentry). Quaker Camily. Meeting nearby. Write: Bob and Dot Barrus; Cll!llp Celo: 1349 Hannah Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC 28714 ARCHITECTURAL ADVICE AND DESIGN: Adam Cohen; Rt. 2, Boll 217; Check, VA 24072 "TREASURES lN THE STREAM" - a casset1e tape of songs by Bob Avery-Grubel. SIO to Rt. I, Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091. WEBWORKJNG is free. Send submissions to: KatUah Journal P.O. Box 638 Leices1er, NC Kauiah Province 28748 ORM DESIGNS KATUAH - page 30 SUMMER - 1988 �Mtdlcln,.. The KatUah J ournal wants to communicate your thoughts and feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or photographs, etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Kat:Uali Journal, P. 0. Box 638, Leicester, NC, Katuah Province 28748. .?tllfts In the fall, Katuah will look at Castanea dentata, the American chestnut tree, and its importance in restoring Appalachian habitat. Any information about this great tree's past and future will be welcome. "Hand Made," exploring the benefits of living simply and creatively, will be the focus for the winter issue of the Katuah Jo um al. ·BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE ISSUE THREE - SPRING 1984 Sustainable Agriculture - Sunfl~wers - Humm Impact on the Forest - Children.s' Eduution Veronica Nicbolu:Woman in Politics - Little People - Medicine Allies full C'olor ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984 Waler Drum - Waw Quality - Kudzu - Solu Eclipse - Clearcutting - Trout - Going to Waicr Ram Pwnps - Microhydro - Poems: Bennie Sinclair, Jim W ayne Miller T-sfilrts w In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief, the creatures in the world today are only diminuitive forms of the mythic beings who once inhabited the world, but who now reside In Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest heaven. But a few of the original powers broke through the spiritual barrier and exist yet in the world as we know it. These beings are called with reverence •grandfathers·. And of them, the strongest are Kanati, the lightning, the power of the sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake, who personifies the power of the earth plane; and Yunwi Usdi. "the little man•, as ginseng is called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws up power from the underworld. Each is the strongest power in its own domain. Together they are allies: their energies complement each other to form an even greater power. As medicine allies, they represent the healing powers of the APPalachian Mountains. The medicine powers of KattJah have been depicted In a striking T-shirt design by Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen by Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality. all-cotton shirts, they are available now in all adult sizes from the KatUah Joumal. "To show respect for this supernatural trinity of the natural world is to in turn become an ally in the continuing process of maintaining harmony and balance here in the mountains of Katuah." To order, use the form below. ISSUE AVE - FALL 1984 H:irvcsl - Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginseng Nuclear W ute - Our CeIlic Heri111ge Biorcgionallsm: Put. Present. and Future John Wilnoty - Healing Dlllkncss - Politics of Participation ISSUE SIX - WINTER 1984-85 Winier Solstice Earth Cct'cmony - Horscpasturc River - Coming of the Light - Log Cabin Roota - Mountain Agricul1ure: The Righi Crop - William Taylor - The Fururc of the Forest ISSUE SEVEN - SPRINO 1985 Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs - Worker Ownership - The Great Economy - Self Help Credit Union - Wild Turkey - Responsible Investing - Working in the Web of Life ISSUE EIOHT - SUMMER 1985 Celebration: A Way of Life - Katuah 18,000 Years Ago - Sacred Sites - Folk Ans in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems: Hilda Downer - Cherokee Heritage Ccnicr - Who Owns Appalachia? ISSUE NINE - FALL 1985 The \Va.Idec Forest - The Trees Speak Migrating Forests - Horse Logging - Starting• Tree Crop - Urban Trees - Acom Bre.od - Myth rune ISSUE TEN- WINTER 1985-86 Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone - lnicmal Mythmalting - Holistic Healieg on Trial Poems: Steve Knauth - Mythic Ploces - Tbe Uktcna's Tale - CryJtal Magic - I'" ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRINO 1986 Community Planning - Cities and the Bioregional Vision - Recycling - Community Ocdcning- Floyd County, VA - GllSOhol Two BioregioMI Views - Nuclear Supplement Foxfire Oames - Good Medicine: V'tSion.s ISSUE THIRTEEN - Fall 1986 Cenicr For Awalccning - Elizabeth Calllri - A Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest Morgan . Dealing Creatively with Death - Home Burial Boit - The Wake - The Raven Mocker Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom - Good Medicine: The Swea! Lodge ISSUE FOURTEEN - Winier 1986-87 Uoyd Carl Owlc - Boogen and Mummers - All Species Day - Cabin Fever University Homeless in Katuah - Homemade Hot Wau:r Stovema kcr's Narrative - Good Medicine: Interspecies Communication ISSUE FIFTEEN - Spring 1987 Coverleis - Woman Forester - Susie McMahan Midwife - Alterna tive Contraception Bioscxuallty - Bioregionalism and Women Good Medicine! Maniaclwial Culwie - ~ ISSUE SIXTEEN - Swnmcr 1987 Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden Vision Quest - First Flow - Initiatjon Leaming ie the Wilderness - Cherokee Challenge - "Valuing Trees" ISSUE EIGHTEEN - Winier 1987-88 Vernacular Architecture - Drums in Wood and Stone - Mountain Home - Earth Enc.-gics Earth-Shch•m'<I Living - Membrane Houses . Brush Shelter - Poems: Oc1obq Dusk - Good Medicine: "Shelter" ISSUENINETEEN-Spring 1988 Per!eandra Garden - Spring Tonics -Blueben:ies WildDower Gardens - Granny Herbalist Flower Essences - "The Origin of the Animals: Story - Good Medicine: "Power" - Be A Tnoc "Dreamspcaking" ~~' ~UA~URNAL For more info: call (704) 683-1414 P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28723 Back Issues Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _ Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _ Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _ Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _ Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _ Complete Set (3-11, 13-16, 18-19) Regular Membership........ $10/yr. Name Sponsor.........................$20/yr. Contributor.....................$50/yr. Address Enclosed is$ to give this ejfon an extra boost City State @ $25.00 = $_ _ T-Shirts: specify quantity color: tan S_ _ M _ _ L_ _ XL_ _ @ $9.50 each............$_ _ Zip I can be a local contact person for my area Area Code KATUAH - page 31 Phone Number TOTAL PRICE= $_ _ postage paid SUMMER-1988 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records Description An account of the resource Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah Journal, Issue 20, Summer 1988 Description An account of the resource The twentieth issue of the Katúah Journal focuses on preserving wilderness in Appalachia with a look at land trusts, the Preserving Appalachian Wilderness (PAW) proposal, and Cherokee perspective on relating to land. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Gil Leebrick, Marilyn Cade, Christina Morrison, Laurie Pierce, Judith Hallock, Carol Lawrence, Billy Campbell, Nancy Barnhardt, Chip Smith, Martha Tree, Michael Red Fox, John Grey, Rob Messick, and Tony Fisher. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988 Table Of Contents A list of subunits of the resource. The Tracks of the Panther.......1 Highlands of Roan.......6 Celo Community: 50 Years on the Land.......8 Celo: Interview.......10 Land Trust: Tenure for Our Time.......11 Learning Community.......12 Mountain Landscapes at Risk.......13 Rest in Perpetual Wilderness.......14 "The Ridge"........15 Farmers and the Farm Bill.......16 Good Medicine: "Relating to the Land".......17 "It Comes in a Mist".......18 Duke's Power Play.......19 Cherokee Microhydro Project.......21 Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......22 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina Subject The topic of the resource Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern Human ecology Wilderness areas--Appalachian Region, Southern Celo Community--History Land use, Rural--Appalachian Region, Southern Land trusts North Carolina, Western Blue Ridge Mountains Appalachian Region, Southern North Carolina--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Appalachian Region, Southern Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. <a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Journals (Periodicals) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1980s Acid Deposition Agriculture Alternative Energy Appalachian Mountains Appalachian Studies Bioregional Congress Community Economic Alternatives Education Electric Power Companies Geography Good Medicine Habitat Katúah Katúah Organization Poems Reading Resources South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness) Turtle Island Wilderness Women's Issues https://omeka-test.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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah Journal, Issue 29, Fall/Winter 1990 Description An account of the resource The twenty-ninth issue of the Katúah Journal 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. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. 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 Profile of a Southern Appalachian Watershed: The Little Tennessee River (An Interview with Dr. William McLarney), recorded by David Wheeler.......3 Freshwater Canaries: The Spotfin Chub by William McLarney.......5 Mudwatch and Fincount: The Environmental Survey of the Little Tennessee by William McLarney.......6 Headwaters Ecology and High Quality Habitat by Mary Kelly.......7 "It All Comes Down to Water Quality" by Millie Buchanan.......8 Water Power: Action for Aquatic Habitats.......10 Dawn Watchers by Snow Bear.......11 Adventures on the River by Leaf Myczack.......12 Accessor to Murder: Watts Bar Lake and the Public Trust by Leaf Myczack.......14 Poem: "Country Store" by William Miller.......14 The North Shore Road: Environment or Development in the Great Smokies by Patrick Clark........15 The Long Branch Composting Toilet by Paul Gallimore.......17 Good Medicine: The Long Human Being.......18 Katúah Sells Out!! by Buck Young and Rodney Webb........19 Watershed Map of the Katúah Province.......20 Natural World News........22 Green Spirits: Katúah Rains by Lee Barnes.......26 Off the Grid by Jim Houser.......27 Drumming (Letters to Katúah).......28 Early Warning: The Gypsy Moth is Coming! by Ed Lytwack.......30 Poem: "Unbound" by Gaston Siniard.......31 Events.......36 Webworking.......38 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Katúah Journal, printed by The Waynesville Mountaineer 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) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1990s 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-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d6750f94c0a18f40bca5af30e17a5990.pdf 5e1986979bd6644b0725bad9148dd445 PDF Text Text ISSUE 36 FALL 1992 $2.00 ,.·········~···-..... ...,! ........ I" ? . ~-- -- '··~---.. ..,..•.... •r.--,.•,.--... ···-···_;:) WORKING WITH WOOD �PO Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748 New Address Inside! Postage Paid Bulk Mail Permit #18 Leicester, NC 28748 _. "1''e o,. .,,,. C, () I' Printed on recycled paper ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED �Using Wood............................... Appalachian Logging..................... 4 by Lee Barnes Old Logging Days......................... 7 by Frank Hodgin Working the Woodlands................. 9 by David Wheeler Wood Products and Western Nonh Carolina.................. 10 by Dr. John Wade 13 USING WOOD Logging with Horses.......·-··········· 15 'Thi! ecoMmic base ofthe area is rapidly changing from agriculture and primary industry 10 service-related indJAS1ry. especially tourism." Natural World News..................... 16 Invasion of the Giants.................... 19 Depletion for Dollars...................... by Harley Wessman by Nancy McIntyre • The Dra!I Land and Rcsouroe Management Pl.an for lhe Nanlahala-Pisgah National Forests by Buzz Williams From Industry to Endeavor.............. 20 by David Wheele.r Pioneering A New Human/Nature Relationship.............. 21 by Robcn T. Pershcel Forest S1ewardship Programs........... 22 by Jesse Jones Ecological Foresay for Renewable Forest Values................. 23 by Leon S. Minckler Drumming.................................. 25 The Chair in the Tree...................... 27 by Tucker Windover Reading the Grove........................ 29 by Charloue Homsher Events....................................... 32 Webworking............................... 33 Drawing by Hope Walker f'a(L, 1992 Fanning and logging were the traditional mainstays of the mountain economy. Working with the land was for a long time the only way to live in the remote mountains. Isolated from the national economy more by poor transportation routes than by distance, the white mountaineers lived independently, each family deriving their own living from the fields and forests of their inherited cove lands. The fields grew food; the forests provided additional food sources, as well as a source of wood. The white mountain folk almost literally built their lives out of wood. As well as fuel, it was also used in the making of shelter, tools and utensils, storage containers, and wagon bodies. 11 was even necessary in the manufacruring of the leather that harnessed the horses. The arrival of the railroads changed all that. A flood of ou1side capital rode into the mountains on the rails and the primary objec1 of the corporate desire was the wood growing on 1he mountainsides. Many mountain people drew their first paychecks at the logging camps that sprung up in the hills at lhe tum of the century. The logging boom was in lhe voracious style of capilalism that characteriz.ed that era - it was short and intense, and lhen it was over. The great trees were gone and so were lhe timber barons with their paychecks. But the lives of the mountain people were irrevocably changed. They were integrated into the cash economy and could not go back. Many people left the mountains to follow the logging companies to the Pacific Nonhwest; others migrated to the Piedmont to work at the textile mills. Logging continued, but it was once again small operations cutting primarily for local use. The fanning lifestyle persisted into the 1940's, but once the region was opened to the flow of cash and goods, people increasingly preferred to buy food with wages than to scratch the ever more crowded hillsides for their living. Another transportation breakthrough brought another influx of oucside money and culture and tightened the bonds that held the region into the dominant national economy. The construction of the interstate highways opened the mountains to throngs of people attracted by the region's natural beauty. People came 10 visit, as tourisls and second-home owners, or they came to live, like the many retirees and professional people who found it was much more pleasan1 to live in the mountains than in the crowded cities. Service jobs, taking care of the needs of the visitors and the well-to-do new arrivals, rose sharply and are stiJI climbing. Employment in service occupations is th. e dominant factor in the region's economic picture. Farm employment has dwindled. Most of those who call themselves farmers now work the land only part-time and make the bulk of their living at wage jobs. About the same number of people are employed in the wood products industries as were 30 Drawing by Rob Messick (continued on page 3) "4tuah JournaC page 1 �' ""' ~/ ,, ,I MAST HEADS THIS ISSUE: Sherman Bamford Becky Barwick Charlotte Homsher Steve Lee Pegi L- - - - - -- - - - '/ ,, - ., ./ .•.. COVER: by Rob Messick ©1992 PUBLISHED BY: Kat1mh Journal PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mowitaineer Press EDITORIAL OFFICE THIS ISSUE: Billy Home and Gardens, Asheville, NC (love that basil!) WRITE us AT: Kanmh Journal Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC Katuah Province 28645 TELEPHONE: (704) 754-(IJ97 Diversity is an imponant element of biorcgional ecology, both natural and social. In accord with this principle Ka1uah Journal tries to serve as a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express only the opinion of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of the Katuah Journal edil.OlS or staff. The Internal Revenue Service has declared Katuah Journal a non-prolil organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All contributioos to Katuah Journal are deductible from personal income mx. Articles appearing in Ka1uah Journal may be reprinted in other publications with permission from the Katuah Journal siaff. Contact the journal in writing or call (704) 754-6097. ..... . ...,.... ,.. ., ,<'o .,..l.\..,,>" o'\J\),~ ...,to-~ ., ~~'"' .,... ( _., ... ~· ,,,.:~ ,.. . .,._ • ... . .r••••· · .. ., t: · --t··-------- --'.••! I - J. - - - - - - - - - - "" - .,.,,•., . •: , 6';-,. \- . ' I 1,....._··,•• _,,.A: ~..,·:·.....J..,·. .. · .. . -, .... ... ••• ••r'f'· . , .., •..->4·· , - .. ,' ,..,_ ,., •_.... _ _ . •~.. ..;-•.._....,_ -- , ;•• .,.•.~····:!,-" · ... .,__.. , · . --: ' .•... ..,/.:-=---- --- ----:-:,...-i~- ----- - ,.,-::..· : _ ---- Lee Barnes . -~· ,,,- ' ... ~ - -.. . -.. . ,_,.,, ,-' . .••_....;.• ••--!· : .;.;J Heather Blair Jesse Jones Rob Messick David Wheeler ( \ -------- ---~, STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Here, in the Katuah Province of these ancient Appalachian mountains where once 1he Cherokee Nation lived in freedom between the Tennessee River Valley and the Eastern Piedmont between the Valley of the Roanoke and the Soulhem Plain on this Tunle Island continent of Mother Ela. the Eanh Here, In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our deep connection to the spirit of lhe land. We bring this connection into lhe 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.'JWN Oh, trees, Dear sisters and brothers, We stand here To honor you. We acknowledge our kinship to you. We are because you are. You are a part of us, And we are a part of you. We revere your life-giving gifts, Your beauty and your chemistry, Your stability and flexibility. We cherish your life And feel blessed to live with you. Karuah 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, lhe human beings, may find our place in this Great Life. The Editors KATUAH JOURNAL wants ro comm1111icare yo11r tltoughts and feelings 10 the other people in the bioregional province. Send them to LIS as leuers, poems, stories, arricles, drawings, or photographs, ere. Please send your contribwions 10 11s at: Kafliah Journal; Rt. 8, Box 323: Lenoir, NC Karuah Province 286-15. OUR NEXT ISSUE will be on "Bio-visions" or graphic art representations of what the bioregion is and what it could be. Images will be the language of this issue. Your contribution is requested. Deadline is November 15th, 1992. Send to Rob Messick; Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC 28645. THE SPRING ISSUE will be dedicated to sustainable tourism and transport, including green alternatives to uavel. The deadline is February 1st, 1993. OUR LAST ISSUE will be an index to the 38 issues of Katuah Journal, and a listing of bioregional organizations. '.Katimh Journa! pti9e 2 f'aU:, 1992 �(c:ontinUc4 flOltl pqa I) years ago (and to a great extent they arc members of the same families), but the relative percentage of those working with forest products has shrunk as the region's population and employment in other sectors has increased. Today the land-based occupations have faded from their former prominence in the regional economy. The rapacious timber barons arc gone, but the logging companies still arc often seen as the villains in local national forest land use controversies, as logging is the primary on-the-ground activity destroying the old growth forest and degrading native habitats. Logging frequently causes environmental damage on private lands as well. At best a logging site is messy and ugly for some years after the wodc is completed, but poor silviculture and careless cutting practices can leave a poor mix of unhealthy ~ . compacted and eroded soil, herbicide poisoning, and silted creeks. However, we cannot simply wish away wood use, one of our primary land-based occupations. Mountains, forests, rocks, and clear running water are what exist naturally in this place. If we arc going to grow a society that is bioregional, tied closely to the land and based on natural cycles, it will be nourished on food grown in our own fields and orchards. If we arc going to build a regional economy here, it will be built - like that of the early white mountain people - largely of wood. We must restore these "primary industries." Our central challenge in finding our place in any region is: can we live in a good relation with the land? In the Katuah bioregional province, this increasingly comes back to us as the question: working in a right way, can we use wood? In this issue of the Katuah Journal we look at how we arc using the mountain hardwoods. We will examine the wood products industry working in the upland forests today, partly to gain a better understanding of a powerful force in the region's economic and political landscape, but also to sec what changes we must make to create a beneficial and harmonious forestry that could be of benefit to all. The first school of forestry was founded here in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. It would only be right for the Southern Appalachians to be the place where we start over and create another school of forestry practice, this one based on the region's native vegetation and natural patterns of growth. Such a field - or forest - of endeavor, done rightly, could be of positive ecological benefit to the bioregion. It could also be a paradigm for a healthy society. "Putting down roots" is the first prerequisite of biorcgional consciousness. When we arc really here, truly aware, we live with future generations in mind. The trees grow from 150 to 500 years in age, or five to 16 human generations. Thinking in those terms would cenainly transfonn our relationship with the land. To people measuring their lives in this time frame, it would be absurd 10 degrade or destroy their - and their descendants' - natural TaCL, 1992 Phoro by Rob Messiclc life suppon processes for the sake of shon-term gain. They would be as unlikely to "high-grade" the forest (cut the best trees and leave the inferior stock) as to pave it over for another shopping mall. To these people, it would also be patently obvious that they should defend the life web from all hann, whether it be the insidious intrusion of atmospheric pollution or disruptive activities . by their fellow humans. When we arc really here, truly aware, we also see the breadth and depth of relationships that keep this land alive. Biodiversity, this is called. The trees arc not the forest, but they arc the greatest plants that grow there. It takes a balancing of myriads of lives, many of them great, many more of them infinitesimally small, to create each living tree. An ecologically realistic viewpoint would see each tree as a culmination of these dynamic relationships. Tall buckeyes and stout beeches are not isolated phenomena that can be divorced from their surroundings. They are integral partS of their life community, and true forestry nunures the health and balance of the whole community to promote the health and growth of its trees. We can learn from true foresters what they learn from the trees: stand tall, grow slowly, develop strong roots, be open to both rain and sun, be green, be of service. Gregory Bateson, who combined careers in biology, anthropology, and psychiatry and is thought by many to be one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, was fond of retelling this story from England: "New College, Oxford, is of rather late foundation, hence the name. It was probably founded around the late 16th century. It has, like other colleges, a great dining hall with big oak beams across the top. These might be eighteen inches square, twenty feet long. "Some five to ten years ago, so I am told, some busy entomologist went up into· the roof of the dining hall with a penknife and poked at the beams and found that they were full of beetles. This was reponed to the College Council, who met in some dismay, because where would they get beams of that caliber nowadays? "One of the Junior Fellows stuck his neck out and suggested that there might be on College lands some oak. These colleges arc endowed with pieces of land scattered across the country. So they called in the College Forester, who of course had not been near the college itself for some years. and asked him about oaks. "And he pulled his forelock and said, 'Well sirs, we was wondrin' when you'd be askin'.' "Upon funher inquiry it was discovered that when the College was founded, a grove of oaks had been planted to replace the beams in the dining hall when they became bcetly, because oak beams always become bcetly in the end. This plan had been passed down from one Forester to the next for four hundred years: 'You don't cut them oaks. Them's for the College Hall.'" "A nice story. That's the way to run a culture," Gregory Bateson would comment . ne F.Alitrrs New Colugutory q/lQlff wllli pm,tissionfr- / ~Nes1 Whole Eanh Catalog (1980). x.at.i&ah Journal pMJe 3 �APPAL?\CHr~N , by Lee Barnes The original forests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains contained the greatest diversity of hardwood trees on the con?nent. The majority of the Southern Appalachian trees are hardwood species, with interspersed stands of softwoods, primarily hemlock and pine. These forests occur in natural associations: Upland Hardwood Forest (oaks, hickories, and other species), Cove Hardwood Forest (yellow poplar, ash, red maple, basswood, and other species), Oak-Pine Forest mixtures, Boreal Hardwood Forest (Birch, beech, sugar maple and associated species), and high-altitude Spruce-Fir Forests, which occur in almost pure stands at elevations above 6000 feet. The Spruce-Fir forests are currently under rapid decline due to insect attack and atmospheric pollution. Prior to the twentieth century, the American chestnut was a dominant species in the mid-elevation forests. In 1909, American chestnuts were estimated to compose an average 27% of the trees in the entire Appalachian forest. As late as 1925, 43% of the trees in Buncombe County, NC were chesmuts. Following the introduction of the chestnut blight in the early 1900's, chestn~t trees were eliminated during a 30 year penod as a dominant forest canopy, timber, and important mast tree (one producing wild nuts of acorns). While chestnut root sprouts and seedlings are still occasionally seen in the forest understory, lhese only grow for 10-20 years and then die. Historically, Native Americans used wildfires to modify the forest by clearing shrub tinderstories 10 increase habitat and browse for game animals, especially deer and bear. Fire was used to clear harvested com fields of weeds and insect pests, and to return nutrients to the stream-bottom fields. Forest trees provided the native inhabitants with edible fruits and nuts, medicinals and ceremonial and construction woods. Th~ natural properties of individual woods were well known and utilized by the Indians. For the Indians, each tree, each plant had its parpose - its blessing. Several types of wood were sacred to the Indians, and were not cut or damaged except for ceremonial uses. Ceremonial prayers, gifts, and thanks always accompanied the "taking" of plants and animals. The noted anthropologist James Moody recorded many of the uses and rituals associated with plants native to the southern Appalachians, noting that eastern red cedar was the most.sacred tree to the Cherokees. European settlers entered Western North Carolina forests in large numbers between 1790 and the 1820's. The dense forests were considered as a hindrance by the Xatt'.uin Jou.rnaf; page 4 early settlers who needed sunlight for their domestic crops. Small fields were prepared for planting by killi~g the trees by_ "~rdling," cutting through the mner layer of livmg cells all around the trunk. First season crops were often planted between the leafless girdled trees, which were later cut for household fires or burned in field-side piles. The first settlers had only hand tools such as falling saws and falling axes, and perhaps, a broad axe for trimming and making rough boards. Early homes were built of logs or rough timber, with sawn lumber used primarily for coffins. The surrounding forestS provided.the settlers with wood for fuel. timber, utensils, bowls, and baskets. The settlers quickly learned from the Indians which woods were best for particular purposes. Metal tools were rare and . expensive, so many of the parts for sunple tools and machinery were made from wood. The original forests provided abundant"mast for free-ranging hogs and game animals. Hog and bear meat was best in the fall after the animals browsed on the nutS and acorns, particularly chestnuts, scattered on the forest floor. After clearing lands for homestead and agricultural parposes, the early settlers "high-graded" (cut the best of) the more valuable hardwoods for their own use and the local market. Woods such as black walnut, butternut, white oak and cherry were cut and dragged out of the forest by oxen_ and ho~es. The most desirable trees, those with supenor characteristics (size, straightness of trunk, freedom from excessive lower branches etc.) were cut first from the forestS, with no thought to the loss of gen~tically s~peryor seed-parents. This early ~1gh-grading 1 _s believed to have resulted in a decrease 10 genetically superior or "select" trees, while inferior trees were often left to release their seeds to create the next generation forest. Logging and lumber production in the Southern Mountains was accomplished using only hand tools until the late 1700's, when small-scale water driven "sash" or "gate" saws were introduced. These, too, gradually became obsolete after the introduction of steam-powered circular saws during the latter pan of the nineteenth century. Wood was dragged from the forest by horses, sometimes along constructed "pole roads" made of small diameter poles laid across the path. Logs were also "b~ooted," rolled and tumbled down the mountains, which was very damaging to the understory plants. Later, the horse dragging technique was modified to include specially constructed V-shaped troughs or water-driven flumes. Horses were used to start the downward momentum of the logs, but were hitched so that when sufficient momentum was gained, they could step aside onto "side-out" paths, and the logs would continue sliding down the mountain. Many logs were floated out o~ the . mountains along streams above wh.tch special "splash-dams" were constructed. The dams were built to entrap sufficient water to be quickly released through special flood-gates to flash-flood cut logs down streams where they were collected behind floating booms and then fed into sawmills. The splash dam technique was inefficient and very destructive to plant and animal life in the stream bed. But a shadow was looming over the mountains. Industrial progress was at hand. By the 1860's, the great forests of the northern and middle Atlantic states had been felled to build and fuel the rapidly developing Yan:, 1992 �t;OGGING COUl'IU)' Joraboro Museum. Washington Co1tt1ty TN East Coast cities, and large commercial steam-driven sawmills were slicing up the virgin forests of nonhern Pennsylvania. They were expanding into West Virginia by the 1870's. By the turn of the twentieth century, the original forests in Maine and the Great Lakes states had also fallen before the saw. In 1855, the North Carolina Legislature granted a chaner to the Greenville and French Broad Railroad Co. (GFB RR) to consm.ict a rail line into Western Nonh Carolina. Actual track laying from Greenville, SC to points nonh and west began in 1873. The line reached Asheville Junction (then named "Best") in 1880, 10 years after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The imponant timber and pulp town of Canton, NC was established in 1883 following the extension of the railroad from Asheville. A new age of technology had arrived. Timber interests had spent the last decade buying up lands in the mountains. Now they lost no time in connecting their properties to the main railroad lines. In I 873 Ephraim Shay of Ohio had invented the Shay engine. This railroad engine had horizontally mounted, gear-driven wheels which allowed greater traction to pull heavy loads and climb slopes of nearly 60°. The Shay engine was reported to be able to pull itself back onto the tracts following minor derailments. This unique gear-driven engine was soon nicknamed "Sidewinder." With the introduction of the Shay engine, railroads could now access huge are3S of the mountain forests which had previously been closed to logging. The narrow-gauge logging railroad lines were never safe. Train wreaks were common, and were widely reponed and photographed. Many lives were lost due to :fa[L, 1992 run-away engines and major derailments. But they enabled timber barons to make fortunes in the mountain coves and hollers. To cut the logs coming off the little trains, the well-financed timber companies also installed large steam-driven band saws, which were capable of producing over 100 thousand board feet of lumber per day. Once, long ago, two men had typically sawn 100 sawn board feet in one day and water-powered mills had produced 1,000 board feet per day. The late 1880's saw the beginnings of the US Forest Service. The US Division of Forestry was created in 1881, at the urgings of forest specialists Charles Sargent and Gifford Pinchot, by President Grover Cleveland. The first "forest reserve" (predecessor to our current national forests) was established in 1891. The Organic Administration Act of 1897 defined the purposes of the forest reserves as "securing favorable conditions for water flow, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of the citizens of the United States." In 1911, the Weeks Acl authorized federal funding to acquire "forested, cut-over, or denuded lands within the watersheds of navigable streams..." The first national forestland in the east was the Pisgah National Forest which was established in 1916 from the land holdings of George Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt's widow sold the denuded land for $5 per acre, after previously selling the timber rights for $12 per acre. Several associated railroads and logging companies co-developed in the Appalachian forests in the early 1900's. Numerous northern and foreign-financed logging companies quickly established themselves in the Southern Appalachians including Suncresl, Crestmont, Bemis Lumber Co., Ritter Lumber Co., Little River Lumber Co., Scottish Carolina Timber and Land Co., Champion Fiber Co., and dozens of smaller companies. Their output was tremendous. An estimated 1 billion board feet of lumber were cut by the Little River Lumber Co. at its Townsend, TN mill; 200 million board feet by a Ritter Co. mill at Proctor, NC; Champion produced 5 million board feet a month at Sunburst in Haywood County, NC; and The Perley and Crockeu Lumber Mill near Black Mountain, NC cut 250 million board feet. Wood too small for lumber was generally used for pulpwood - especially the softwoods, spruce and white pine. Champion Fiber Company's Sunburst community boasted the largest double-band sawmill in the region. Buih along the west fork of the Pigeon River above Canton, NC, the company town consisted of the sawmill, houses, pose office, schools, churches, and had rail passenger service lo and from Canton. Interviews with retired workers from that mill repon thal between 140,000 and 160,000 board feet of sawn lumber were produced daily during typical work days, with a one-day record of 250,000 board feet. The mill burned once in the early i 920's and then was completely destroyed by a massive fire in 1925, along with most of the railroad bridges, logging camps, and the surrounding mountainsides. Not only were the forests and mountainsides forever changed by the industrial logging, but so were the mountaineers, who in the three or four decades of the logging boom grew accustomed 10 steady employment and living a more contemporary lifestyle in the newly consm.icted milltowns. The mountaineers were introduced to electricity, phones, regular health services, community theaters, motion picture theaters, barber shops, and even soda fountains. During this period, a unique private School of Forestry developed. The Biltmore School of Forestry, founded by Dr. Carl Schenck, was the first organized school of modem forestry in the United States (informally founded in 1898 prior to the nation's first Forestry School at Yale University). Dr. Schenck based his lectures on forest management upon his experiences as a student in European forestry and his hands-on experience as the Chief Forester of the Vanderbilts' Pisgah Forest. Schenck was brought to America by George Vanderbilt to manage his newly acquired 125,000 acre forest. Schenck was a student of Sir Dietrich Brandis, one of the first modem European foresters, and succeeded Gifford Pinchot as Chief Forester at the Biltmore estate when Pinchot left to guide the political changes (continued on next page) :K.ati«m Jou.mat page S �were cut, the industrial timber interests set out for the west coast to continue their rampage. For decades after the boom was over, timbering in the Southern Appalachians was canied oo by small, local logging operations who picked over the scraps of forest the big companies had inadvertently missed. Through natural growth and the stewardship of the public lands by the US Forest Service, the forest is returning. Now it faces another crisis as it nears economic maturity once again. ln summary, our region's current publjc and private forests have been greatly modified by humankind, resulting in woodlands greatly changed in composition and character. Our philosophies on forest and wood-use must be expanded to encompass all the values of the forest - sustainability, lum1?Cr, habitat, species diversity, water quality, recreational and spiritual values. Historical destruction and modification of the original forests have resulted in our present forests which continue 10 be damaged by our over-consumption and lack of empathy with the forest's inhabitants. Photo US National Archive (continued from page 5) needed to establish the United States Division of Forestry. Through trial and error, Dr. Schenck discovered that modem forest management D?USt be unique to each specific forest and cucumstance. He continually not.ed that forestry techniques were lightly linked to the availability of inexpensive transportation. Schenck was the first teacher to link classr~m ~eo!Y with hands-on, practical expenence tn different forest settings, and took great care to establish and monitor e~erimental management techniques on different forest plots. He realized that forestry manage!Dent must include not only timber producnon but also mineral, wildlife (hunting and fi_shing) and recreational (hiking, c~pmg) management. Early studentS of The B_ ll~ore Forest School were soon widely clistnbu1ed among the Forest Service and held leadership roles in developing forestry programs for the state universities. About 1914 the steam-driven, "Clyde Overhead Skidder" was developed. This machine consisted of a reinforced. stationary tower-boom with huge cable reels connected to a movable double cable trolley system. Mile-long, 2 inch thick cables could be positioned to "skid" four or five logs up to 40 feet long nearly one mile through the woods to a loading area where they could then be loaded onto railroad cars for transpon to nearby sawmills. The steam-powered McGiffert Log Loader was capable of loading huge logs onto train cars. and even had the ability to "lift iLSelf by the bootstraps." Huge areas of forest were cut using these machines, which carelessly wreaked havoc upon small crees and other vegetation in the drag-lanes. It was reported that one skidder remained working at the same site on Sam's Knob above Sunburst for two years. While huge quantities of timber were >Cat.uah )ournm page 6 removed using overhead skidders, these foreslS were often later scarred by huge forest fires, _often started _by SJ?arks from the heavy machinery, or by lightmng, or deliberately set fires (caused by displaced bootleggers, it was sometimes said) which raced through the slash left behind the logging operations. The massive grassy balds in Shining Rock Wilderness Area, along the Blue Ridge Parkway above Canton, are the result of skidder logging followed by a great frre in 1925. There are reports of fires burning continuously for three weeks. One logger stated that "they burned up more timber than they ever cut." The great fires of the industrial logging period influenced to this day the plant and animal associations found in the Southern Appalachians. When the last stands of the great trees We must see our southern forests as more than a timber base in order 10 realize th~ir full value. Our remaining public and pnvate forests are not just timber and mineral resources. These forests are the biological reservoirs of the land. Woodlands are the lungs and kidneys of the planet, producing oxygen, and cleansing the air we breath and the waters we drink. The forests are our region's greatest biological asset. They need to be managed for the benefit of all species. The living forests shelter us all. They must provide for our need for wood, but they must also proteet the biological diversity which can never be replaced. The sustainability of o ~ forests is everyone's responsibility. ~ Lee Barnes is a botanist and an avid backpacker who has hiked over a thousand miles in the Smokies, including over a hundred miles along trails which were once railroad grades (although he prefers trails through old growrhforests ). �OLD LOGGING DAYS by Frank Hodgin When I was young we lived on Canoogcchayc Creek in Macon County, NC, My daddy was gone, and my mother took care of us children. She never took a job. She just took care of the house and helped us in the fields. We all worked. There's no mistake about it. We all had a job. After school, we'd go to the corn field and work there until dark. If we got behind in the hoeing, I would stay home from school for a day or two and get caught up. That's the way it went. When I was about 14 years old, I swapped our mule for a horse, swapped that horse for a yoke of cattle, and went to work in the woods. I got a wagon, and I hauled telephone poles, "acid wood" (wood like chestnut or red oak from which tannic acid was extracted to use in tanning leather - ed.), and pulp wood. I had to haul it eiiht miles. The other kids and I would go up into the mountains, cue a load in one day, get it on the wagon, and bring it home. The next day I would drive it into town. I'd get back late in the evening and the next day we would cut another load, unless we had quit a few days to work a crop. That was how we bought our coffee, sugar, and the other linle things we needed. When I turned 15 years old, I went to work for a man who had bought a boundary of telephone poles on the government property up in the mountains above our house. l was making $1.25 for 10 hours of work a day. Lord, I thought I was making money. The owner had three yoke of cattle, and not long after I started working for him, the man who was driving cattle for him quit. He let me try driving 'cm, and those cattle and I got along real well together. I got in some tight places, but I never let one of his animals get hun, and I got his telephone poles out. He had a man doing the cutting, and that man would help me rig 'cm. I drove them out to the main road, where they were loaded onto a wagon and hauled to the station where they would put 'cm on railroad cars. I could make two trips a day, carrying five or six poles in each load. When I was 17 years old and of pretty good size, the Blackwood Lumber Company started cutting timber here. My brother and I went to work for Blackwood. We worked for them for years. I worked for the company longer than he did, off and on. I worked through to the back end of "Canady" (Little Canada - the headwaters of the north fork of the Tuckasegee River - ed.), and all over Rough Butt and Piney Mountain. We stayed in their logging camp back up in the woods. It was a big camp with 75 or80 men. Most of the time I drove a team for 'em, skidding logs. We'd get up at 5:30, feed the horses, put the harness on 'em, and at 6:00 a gong rnng for breakfast. At 7:00 the camp foremen turned us out into the woods. We worked all the time. If you didn't work, you didn't stay. We worked differently than the way they do now. There weren't any coffee breaks. We worked from 7:00until 12:00. We had until 1:00offfor 'FPCL, 1992 lunch, and then we worked until 6:00 that evening. It usually took about an hour to get back to camp. We would cat supper, and then the teamsters had to water their horses, curry 'em down, and put in plenty of hay. We Counuy of lhc Atchives of Appaltchia. ETSU didn't have time to relax or do anything after supper, we just went to bed, because at 5:30 the next morning they rang a gong to get the teamsters out of bed and back to the barn again. They always turned us loose at 4:00 on Saturday. They gave us two hours off on Saturday, and we didn't work on Sunday. It took a whole day to travel to Macon County, so we would usually stay at camp for a month or six weeks at a rime before we would go back home. Lacer on, I got married, and we moved to Caney Fork. Then I would walk home through the mountains every weekend. There were trails all through these mounuuns then. In the camp, we lived in long wooden shacks. They had double bunks on each side for the men to sleep in. The kitchen was built off one of the shacks. It was a long building with two long tables running the length of it. Most of the time the tables was just as full of men as they could be. They had good cooks, and whatever you wanted to eat, they had it on the table. For breakfast, they had ham and eggs, and biscuits. They'd have flapjacks, and they made gravy every morning. They'd make fried 'taters, and that gravy would go over 'cm, and there was applesauce on the side. They had peaches, they had jelly, and all kinds of meats on the table. It was good food, but it cost $1.00 a day. Of the $3.00 I made every day, I bad to pay $ LOO for board. That left me $2.00 in wages. Of course, if we stayed in camp on Sunday, we still had to pay for board, so when I stayed over, I made only$ 1.00 for my work on Monday. At lunchtime, if we were close enough to the camp we would go back for lunch. But up on Caney Fork, when we were away from camp, they would load the lunch on a railroad car and a "cookie" from the kitchen brought it out and set it all out in the woods - just like we were having a picnic. After everybody had eaten, he would gather up the dishes, and 1918 after they had loaded the car, he would set all his equipment on the back and ride out. Or perhaps he would walk out, because they ran those trains fast, and sometimes they would jump the track. It was dangerous driving one of those narrow-gauge trains. If one went off the track, it would tear up creation. Sometimes I drove oxen. Sometimes I drove horses. I'd drive six of them - three yokes. The biggest log I ever skidded was a 14 foot log that had 2700 board feet of lumber in it. It was bigger around lhan I was tall. There used to be some big timber in these mountains. I usually hauled a seven-log rig. I'd set the logs up in a line behind the teams. The front log had two J-grabs on it, so that if the logs started to run, you could turn your horses out of the road, the spread hooks would slip off, and the logs would go on by. Sometimes they'd leave the road, and it would be a time getting 'em back on if the ground was slick and icy. They'd get all tangled up, break loose, spread all over the mountain. That was some "rough doin'." I have seen it foul up - logs. horses, and all - and go over the bank. That didn't feel good when I saw what happened. It hun the horses. Some of 'cm got skinned up pretty badly. Some of 'em would get crippled, and they would have to kill 'em. Of course the company didn't care, they had insurance on 'em. I've been in lots of close places. A lot of times the logs would crowd me against a (continued on next page) X.Otuc:an Journot pOCJ", 7 �(continued from page 7) tree or a rock cliff. I had just one chance then. We wore cork boots (with sruds on the bottom - ed.), and I'd jump up on a log and jump off on the other side. Then when I got past the bad spot, I could cross back. It never got too rough to slow down. It didn't matter how deep the snow was or how thlck the ice was, we went out just the same. The foreman would turn us out on a rainy day just like on a good one. We could come back in if we wanted to, and he Most camps weren't as big as ours. Camps usually bunked 30-60 men. There weren't just timber cutters and teamsters. There were a lot of other jobs to do. Back then, they didn't have a bulldozer to make the roads, they made 'em with manpower. They took picks and shovels and dug 'em out The men who worked on the roads were called "road monkeys." They all had manocks and shovels. Where there was rock, they had to blow it out with dynamite. They had one crew that did the drilling and the shooting. Cowtcsy of the Arcluves ol Appal&ehia; ETSU wouldn't say anything about it; it was his job to turn us out, but if we wanted to work, that was up to us. It never got too muddy or too slick to haul the wood out. The railroad would run in any kind of weather. I skinned logs many a time when the road wasn't anything but a sheet of blue ice. It was dangerous. Back then, 1 was young, and didn't pay any attention to it, but looking back on it now, I can see those dangerous places, and it makes me tremble sometimes to think of some of the places I got into. I drove cattle and horses nearly all my life. I've been in some of the roughest places a man can put a team, but I never did get one hurt l guess 1 had enough practice at it. I followed 'em for years. I've worked some real good horses, and I've worked some that were as mean as they could be. Of course, if I got of one of those bad teams, I wouldn't stay long. I'd just move out. I'd go somewhere else, or I'd stay out a day or two and come back and get a different team. I'd haul the logs out of the forest to the narrow-gauge railroad where they would pick 'em up. The narrow-gauge train pulled about five cars, and it would bring the logs down to the top of Indian Camp Branch, where there was a big skidder. They called it the "drop out machine." It would book to one car at a time, and lower it down over a waterfall to the main line. They would unload the wood, give a signal, and the skidder would pull the empty car back and book onto another load. The wood went down the main line to East LaPone, at the bonom of Caney Fork where it joins the Tuckasegee River. Blackwood had two band mills down there. Each of them would cut 30,000 feet per day. That took a lot of logs. Xotiuih Journat p~ B Back at camp there was a saw filer who stayed at the saw-filing shack. In the evening, the cuners took their saws to the shack, and the next morning he gave them sharp saws to take out. There were cooks, and one feller caUed the "lobby hog" who would make up the beds in the morning and would get the wood in and keep the fires burning in the winter. He would get up early in the morning and build a fire to get everything warm before the men got up. They would generally run about five or six sawing crews. They would cut those big trees with that old cross-cut saw, the "misery whip." That's some rough work. Back then they just took the best timber. It had to be number one material. They would get two logs off some trees, but most of the time they would just cut one good log off and leave the rest to rot That's just the way they logged back then. They wasted more timber than they cut. They liked yellow poplar and what they called mountain oak. Of course, they would cut everything big enough to make a log white oak, black oak, basswood, maple, whatever it was. There were a few white pine trees and a linle hemlock up that way, but the yellow poplar and the mountain oaks would bring more money than any other kinds. Working in that big timber was dangerous, no mistake about it Sometimes a man would get bun, and every once in a while, a man would be killed, but not often. It was usually somebody who didn't understand how a tree was going to bust We had a few killed. Someone cutting that oak timber had to know just how to put a lead in it and how to saw it. Otherwise, it would " slab up," break off way up high, and part of that tree would head straight for the ground. If a man wasn't out of the way, it was just too bad. Three men worked on each cutting crew. One man did the "chipping" and the "measuring off." The other two didn't do anything but saw. Almost every tree leans just a little. The chipper had an axe, and he kept it sharp as a razor. He would cut a big notch in the tree right under that lean, 10 or 14 inches deep in a big tree, and then he would stand back and keep watch while the others began sawing behind the notch and cut the tree down from behind. When the tree hit the ground, the chipper measured off the logs they could get off it, and the cutters would saw them off while the chipper started chopping a lead in another tree. People were killed by falling limbs, too. Sometimes while they were cutting a tree, a dead limb would come off and would catch somewhere high in the branches. If they were lucky, they could go cut another tree, and it would come loose and fall. But they couldn't walk off and leave a tree. Eventually they had to go back and get it. The chipper would watch out for the cutters while they sawed the tree and got out. Sometimes, though, it wouldn't be five minutes before the dead limb would fall, and the cutters would have to dive out of the way. People got killed that way, not getting out from under a limb. They had a timber foreman, a road foreman, and a foreman in charge of the whole camp. The big bosses stayed down in the company offices at East LaPone, where the mill was. There's very little down there now, but East LaPorte was a mill town back then. There were more than 100 houses for the people who lived and worked there. The houses went up to the top of the ridge. They had a store down there, but they also had commissaries all up Caney Porlc for the working people. We would buy goods with scrip notes that the company issued. They would give us as much scrip as we wanted and then take it out of our checks down at the the main office. The commissaries had groceries, tools, shoes, boots, clothes - anything a person wanted. It was like a general store. They weren't more expensive than the Sylva Supply store in town. They were just about like any of the stores. Logging has changed a lot since my time. They don't do it now like we were doing it. It used to be an old cross-cut and "get 'em the hard way," but now it's all done with bulldozers, skidders, and chain saws. Chain saws started coming in during the forties. I bought my first chain saw in 1951 or 1952. Early on, some of 'em worked, and some of 'em were mighty sorry. Most of the early ones were two-man saws. They were big ones. They worked pretty well, but they were hard to carry through the woods. We used that kind until the companies put out the one-man chain saw. They were heavy when they first came out, but the loggers still thought they were bener than pulling on the cross-cut all day. They have improved on them a lot since they first staned making them. Things have gotten a little easier, anyway. Those old loggers, they sure had a time. ~ 1'aU, 1992 �WORKING THE WOODLANDS by David Wheeler Western North Carolilltl is abour 76% forest. What we do, how we manage these f oresrs - or how we mismanage them determines our destiny. We can't drill for oil; we can't catch sabrwn; we can't grow wheat. Forests are what we've got. - Charles Woodard,foresrer Looking out from over a high cliff in Katuah Province, one's vision moves across sweeps of green-mantled mountains flowing out to the horizon. Trees in such number and such variety are seen in few other places in the world. It is clear that lhe natural growth in this bioregion is forest. If left to grow, the old hills would be covered almost completely with a bewildering variety of tall trees and the wide diversity of other plant and animal species associated with them. Great and small, each species contributes to the health of lhe forest and makes it what it is. We are positioned between the warm Gulf air currents to the south, and the cold Canadian air currents to the north. The land climbs more than 5,000 feet in elevation change. In some parts of the region rainfall is 40 inches per year, while in others it is more than 90. The wide variety of influences causes a wide diversity of species. More than 140 species of trees are known here. There are, of course, all grades of sites, but on good sites many species of trees find their highest expression in the Blue Ridge. In 1901, H.B. Ayres and W.W. Ashe were sent by the federal government to inventory the Southern Appalachian forest. Of the area around the Great Smoky Mountains, they wrote: "The forests are chiefly of hardwoods, with a large amount of coniferous growth around lhe higher summits and in the deep, cool hollows. On the drier slopes, and especially on the south sides, oak and chestnut form the greater part of the timber, with some black and yellow pine on the ridges. The timber in the hollows is more varied and the stand is heavier, poplar, birch, Jinn, and buckeye being associated with the oak and chestnut. The finest and largest bodies of spruce in the southern Appalachians occur here, along the crest of the ridge and the north slope... " Just as the trees are a central feature of the ecology of the area, they have also historically been a central feature in the lives of the people who lived close to the land. And if we are to re-establish a balanced habitation of this area once again, our relationship with the trees will again be a primary fact of our ex.istence here. Seventy percent of the Southern Appalachian lands are still in forest. Some people hazard the guess that more land is in forest now than 100 years ago when each family had to clear off the acres they needed to grow all their own food. Many of the trees growing in the mountains are hardwoods. f"aU, 1992 Photo US National Archive Since the loss of the American chestnut from the forest canopy, yellow poplar is the most common species, though it does not dominate the region as the mighty chestnut once did. Sixty-four percent of the region is considered "timberland," which is technically defined as sites that would suppon timber utilization. By US Forest Service estimates, there are 16.7 billion cubic feet of "growing stock" (trees that are of a size to produce sawtimber) in the region. There is an estimated 54.6 billion board feet of sawtimber growing in the region according to the latest Forest Service surveys. With the mild climate, abundant rainfall, and dark forest soils, this bioregion is well situated to produce quality sawtimber. For the region, that is a blessing and a curse. For as long as they have been here, people have used wood from the forest trees sometimes carefully, sometimes in a manner that was wantonly destructive. The forest is only now recovering from the onslaught of industrial capital which ravaged the area in search of precious big timber at the turn of the century. The timber barons looted the region both economically and ecologically, and when their plundering was done they fled with their wealth to pillage elsewhere. The timber industry of today is making a positive economic contribution to the region, but often at the expense of environmental integrity - an expensive price. Logging and roadbuilding in the national forests penetrates into the last old growth stands left in the mountains and cuts t0 the bean of the last great habitat area left in the southeastern forest zone. Papennaking pays some of the highest wages in the region, but the Champion mi11 in the town of Canton is killing the Pigeon River with a toxic effluent that contains the deadly chemical compound dioxin. According to latest Forest Service surveys of the region, the industry is annually cutting 747,520,000 board feet (bf) of sawtimber, 1,851,000 cords of pulpwood, and wood for manufacturing 24,332,000 board feet of composite board. Wood is also cut for poles, fence postS, and a resurgent firewood trade. According to North Carolina State University's College of Forest Resources, the value of the timber cut in western North Carolina alone equals $129,231,000. This timber, according to Bureau of the Census figures for 1988, supported 51,354 employees in lumber and wood productS, furniture, and paper-making occupation's in the region. This was 7% of the employment in the whole region. High-grade hardwood sawtimber from the Southern Appalachian forests goes mostly to making furniture, lumber, facing veneers, and ornamental moundings. Some is exported overseas, largely to foreign furniture plantS. Lower-grade hardwoods go into the inside layers of plywood, flooring, pallets, railroad ties, and mine supports. Chips from small or poor quality trees are used in making oriented strand board and pulped for paper, paperboard, and coated stock. (continued on page 11) :K.cituan Journat PCMJe 9 �,,,l:1 'PhtIT ..:rmi1 1:,3wl '{d Juo lllguod ~-J,f 1''tti ~, T" ~;J•, :,~iif·... & n.- bid ru;:i 1ol1C1J11o:J lli:.m?. 11 '{t.UOJ n~•,, bna '-· ., .. ,.. .,,, ;. ,.. , with employment and earnings in the lumber fon:ed to zero. Lumber was chosen since it provides the raw material for fumilUIC and paper. Furniture and paper were not forced to zero values in the Model This is a well established Slalistical teehnique for answering "what ii" types of questions as the one posed here, but it should be in no way taken to mean that the author advocates the elimination or the lumber industry in any way. • On average, lOl3I earnings in the region would decline by over one percent if the lumber industry were losL Disposable per capita income would decline by almost as much. The most affected industry would be paper with losses in earnings and employment in lumbt:r on other industries as captured by the Model, Lotal employment in manufacturing in Western North Carolina would decline approximately two pcrcenL While these losses may not seem great, they are the stuff of strong recessions if comparable losses were to occur at the national level. br" ,f:,n,i,'\ qv Ilg, ri->ti! bl"JI ?Ir,:>.,.,,.,..,.,,, Wood Products and Western North Carolina by Dr. John Wade (about 200) over this time period. (In other words. the increase in fumilUrC (300 jobs) and lumber (400.jobs) arc more than offset by the losses in paper industry jobs.) A beuer picture of job trends in these throe wood products industries can be had by looking at the relative position of these industries to the toial picture in Western Nonh Carolina, as seen in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows the disparity in job growth in the wood producis industry (lumber, furniture and paper combined) and agricultural occupations with the rest of Wesiem North Carolina. The numbers used in the graph do not represent actual numbers of jobs. Rather. the sectors have been indexed, so they all sharc a common starting point in 1969 that is set equal to one. This is done so that change in the different sectors can be pictured on the same graph. · Total employment in Western Nonh Carolina and employment in the service industry is much greater than in agriculture and wood producis. For example, in 1988 there was a total of slightly over 400,000 jobs in the region of which 16,240 jobs (or 4%) were in the wood products industries. The values on the vertical axis show the percentage change in employment over time. Employment in the service sector has grown by almost 70 percent between 1969 and 1988. Toial employmenl has increased by about 55 percent. In comparison, wood products jobs have been quiie stagnant, evidencing no growth during this time Depanmenr of Economics and F'JNl'IU, School ofBu.rincn, Wcsran Carolina University The trend of the~ few decades towards growing environmenial awareness in the United SUIICS has engulfed Western Nonh Carolina and made some of iis lnldilional industties controversial. An excellent example is in the wood producis area whose lumbering practices have come wider increasing scrutiny from environmentalists. Here we take a two-fold look at the wood producis industries (which are comprised of the lumber, fumitwe and paper industries). F'USl, historical data for employment &om the WNC Ecooometric Model at Western Carolina University and which is fwided by Tennessee Valley Authority is presented to place these industries' role in Western North Carolina economy in perspective. Second, simulations from the Model arc used 10 answer some what if type of questions such as what impact does lumber have on the Western North Carolina economy? EMPLOYMENT TRENDS Figure ] depicts employment in the three wood products industries in Weslern North Carolina Io all three, employment is quite cyclical or sensitive to downturns in economic activity, although paper is somewhat mOR stable than its wood products couoterpans. Although paper employment is stable, it shows a Sleady decline in jobs from over 5700 in 1969 to slightly more than 4700 jobs in 1988, a loss of approximately 1000 jobs. The loss of jobs in paper is economically significant since jobs in the paper indusuy are some of the highest paying manufacturing jobs in the area In fact, none of the wood i-ooucts industries in Weste.m Nonh Carolina could be characterized as a growth iodusuy as far as number of jobs is concerned. The entire group experienced a slight loss in jobs CONCLUSJONS Wood products are a significant pan of the Wesiern North Carolina economy, although their importance is slowly diminishing as fastu growing sectors of the regional economy continue to expand. The regional economy bas already been hun by the loss of jobs in the paper industry which arc among the highest paying in manufacturing. The source of dala for lhis article is lhe Western North Carolina Economclric Model maintained by Professor Wilk al We5tem Carolina Univemty under conlJ'aet &om lhe T"'11\C$SCC Valley Aulhority. The Model cons.isl$ of over 80 equations designed lo show lhc interrelationships among seciors in Western North Carolina Ind between seciors in Wutem Nonh Carolina and lhc TVA md nalion.aJ economics. The UNWlCC of Edward Su=u is grarefully period. "WHAT IF?" CONSIDERATIONS aclcnowledgcd. The views md conclusions in !his article do not nccasarily rellect lhosc of lhe TVA. The Western North Carolina Econometric Model can also be used to answer "what ii" typeS of questions. To further ascertain the value of the wood products industries to Western North Carolina, the Model was used to simulate the regional economy WNC EMPLOYMENT For lhe pwposcs of lhis article Western Nonh Carolina is defined u the fiftu:n counties of Nonh ..,~ Carolina in lhc Tcnnasee Valley watershed. fr INDEXED WNC EMPLOYMENT FURNITURE, LUMBER & PAPER: :1969-1988 BASE YEAR 1969 1.1·~-----------------------, 1.o+-- - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - -7"--i 1.5•-+--- - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - --:7':~--1 1.4.l----- -- - -- - - - ---------,,....,11:-----1 1.3+-- - -- -- - -";p;'e:.i!i::::~~~=--- ----l 1.2+ - - -- -- ---1iil~~~~- =----=:::::::ra,;:----I +--- -~~~--1--~ __.,l!l:::ll!~~ ~---=-'""=-..llb.--Di 1.1 0.9·+ - ..?:::.;,j:.......::..__ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ --1 0 .81.J......-.--,---,--,--,----,---,,--,-,---r--.--..-----.---,--,.--,---r---.--.-' 1969 1972 1975 1978 1981 YEARS Figure I. Xat-1'.iah Jou.mat pQCJe 10 1984 1987 1-- 1972 SERVICES 1975 1978 YEARS 1981 1984 1987 - - TOTAL EMP. ---- WOOD PRO. -e- AG~I. Figure 2. 1-"0U., 1992 �(continued mxn page 9) Nearly 50% of the furniture manufacturers in the United States and the same percentage of the hardwood plywood and veneer manufacturing operations are located within the five states that include the Katuah bioregion. Much of the furniture-making activity is concentrated on the North Carolina piedmont. That location was chosen because it was close to the mountains, which supply 65% of the industry's raw materials, but still on flat land and accessible to major trade routes. Columbia-Carolina Corporation located a plant in Marion. NC specifically to gain access to Appalachian yellow poplar for plywood manufacturing and now uses 28 million board feet wood per year. AFG Industries in Knoxville employs a large workforce making wooden containers. The Champion International plant in Haywood County is a major purchaser of pulpwood in itS area, and there is a Bowater Southern paper plant in McMinn County, TN and a Mead Company paper plant in Kingspon, TN. Federal Paperboard and a large Westvaco plant in Covington, VA utilize pulp to manufacture paperboard. Abitibi-Price Corporation makes hardboard siding at its Roaring River plant in Wilkes County, NC and Weyerhauser Company turns out more than 50,000 board feet of oriented strand board per day at its factory in Elkins, NC. Most of these companies are on the periphery of the Southern Appalachians and draw only part of their raw materials from the mountains. The smaller sawmills like the large operations for the added markets that they create for lower-grade material. Sawtimber companies, for example, do not like to cut puJpwood; but if they have to cut it, they want to be able to sell it. Charles Woodard, director of the industry group the MuJtiple Use Council, said, ''When we heard that Columbia Carolina was building a facility, everybody said, 'Hallelujah!' because they came for exactly what we were having a hard rime getting rid of - the low-grade poplar lumber." It is obvious that the pulp and chip sectors of the forest productS industry are dominated by the industrial giants. Reducing wood to biomass and processing it into productS is a question of moving huge volumes of material efficiently. This is a job best suited for large-scale, automated, energy-intensive machinery. The investment is substantial, and a high degree of regularity is required. This is the scale of economy at which the giant, centralized corporations like to keep their operations. Most of the smaller, independent companies cut and process sawrimber. This is less complicated and does not require large investments in sophisticated technologies. Sawtimbcr is still an important component of the mountain wood economy, and the wood products industry still retains much of its traditional autonomy and independence in the region. Of the 521 lumber and wood products companies listed for the Southern Appalachian region in the Department of Commerce's Counry Business Pa11erns, 66% employ less than 10 people, 92% employ less than 50. A small logging operation requires less capital than most business operations, J'tlft, 1992 and even today a small contractor can bid a timber sale and then ca1J up friends and family members to help cut it There still are part-time sawmills back in the hills that start up operation when the price of lumber is good, sell a bit, and then cease operation bought out by larger fums. "It's just like anything else. Those who do a good job, keep up with the technology, and keep track of market trends are going to do alright. "There probably some people who can Counesy Jone.sboro Museum, Washington County TN when the price goes down. The mountain forest produc1s industry seems to be generally in good health. There is stiff competition among furniture company buyers for Appalachian hardwood, and no company seems to have an undue advantage in setting prices. The timber industry in the mountains is itself quite decentralized. Most sawmills, for instance, are small to medium-sized by national standards. Many of them are family-owned. A sawmill that supports l 00 workers is viewed as a large operation in the Appalachians. For instance, among the biggest buyers of timber stumpage east of the Great Smoky Mountains are the Parton Lumber Company, T & S Hardwoods, and WNC Pallet. Parton employs 75 workers at the mill and works 80 loggers in the forest. T & S has 54 millworkers and 50 loggers working on contract WNC Pallet employs 120 people at their mill at Candler. AJthough they are independent and fiercely competitive among themselves, the Appalachian loggers and mill owners arc cJannish and as a group wield considerable economic and political power in the region. But changes arc happening within the forest products industry. Dr. Larry Jahn, associate professor in the Department of Wood and Paper Science at Nonh Carolina State University, says: "There are still many small, independently-owned mills operating in Nonh Carolina. However, th.e trend over the last 10-15 years is that operations which are inefficient or which don't adapt to new technologies either go out of business or are cut just for the local market and be successful at it, but the business has become more sophisticated. Operators have to keep tabs on what is happening, always be looking for market niches, and must keep a constant awareness that they are dealing in an inrernational market and must be producing the best product that they can. Because it's much more competitive than it was years ago. h's a tough business. It's very competitive." Loggers, too, arc feeling the same pressures. "It talces so much invesunent in this modem, mechanized equipment, the little feller can't afford to get into it. They are pressed to move a certain volume of wood, because insurance and mechanization costs are putting them in a real bind," says Frank Norris, publisher of the market bulletin Timber Mart South and a veteran forester of 50 years experience. "It's becoming more sophisticated all the time. It's surprising how many loggers...the wife runs a computer and does the bookkeeping for 'em. They don't do it off a paper sack anymore. "They have to go further for wood, and to run the highways now they have to have better trucks. So their costs have gone up quite a bit. "They're being squeezed between their costs and what they can get for their product, so they're going to have to be more efficient or more of 'em will go out. Both of those things are happening. That's the reason you see fewer of 'em in it There's quite a few less than there were 20 years ago." (continued on next page) X.cu:uah ) O\U'nCIC paCJe 11 �t I'• f":. ~ t•• • I • .... -·... l i;""!! (continued (mm page 11) Other changes are going on outside the industry that also affect its future. One of the most influential of these changes is in the growth of the population in the region and the shift in its composition. Currently, most of the growth in population is the result of in-migration from outside the bioregion. The newcomers bring with them new attitudes and different ideas - including different occupations and different approaches to land use. One of the strengths of the independent operators has been that, since the depanurc of the early timber interests in the 1930's, forest products work has been locally controlled. The people working in the industry today arc not the offspring of the timber barons, but arc much more likely to be descendants of the people who worked for them. In fact, the timber industry has become a bastion of economic support for the local people of the region. If the industry were to die, a lot of the local culture would die with it. Today, the strength in this stabiliiy may turn out to be a handicap. The regional economy is changing. As the graph on this page shows, regional employment is rising. The rise in employment in the service occupations is on the same curve, which suggests that it is this sector which is driving the upswing. But while total employment and employment in service jobs arc rising, the number of people working in the wood products jobs is holding steady. And while workers are more likely to be operating a band saw than pulling a crosscut saw in the woods, they arc likely to be members of the same families who have traditionally worked with wood. Thus, while employment in wood products jobs is staying even, their percent of influence in the changing economy of the mountain region is declining. "This change is oocwring panJy :l(otuah JournaL p<M)e 12 because of the changing mix of population ...Fewer people are working in agricultural jobs; more are employed in the government, service, and retail trade sectors. The number in manufacturing has increased slightly in the last decade, but it is a much smaller percentage of the total number holding jobs. There is now less employment in jobs dependent on forest products, such as wood, than in the past. Tourism, however, is an increasingly irnponam pan of the economy," wrote the authors of the Draft land and Resource Management Plan/or the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests in 1985. Another aspect of the change in the region's population profile is the change in land ownership. The newcomers arc buying ll_P the land. Unlike the timber and pulp • 'c3rporations on the coastal plain who own their industrial forests, the mountain sawmills cut mostly on other people's land. In the past the landowners were fanners who depended on their woodlots to provide extra cash and so were glad to have them cut as soon as they were of sawlog size. Now people arc moving in who wish to escape from the industrial madness to a forest retreat. They arc well-to-do and want trees, not stumpage payments. This is sure to tighten the supply of timber in the region. What about the future? The agreement is unanimous that over the long term the demand for hardwoods, and thus their price, will only increase. High-grade sawtimber is especially desired. In the broad outlook. conditions are quite advantageous for the forest products trade. Locally, however, forecasts are that the amount of forest products operations that the region can suppon will shrink somewhat. And the shrinkage will take place in the number of the smaller companies that do not have strong financial backing. The corporate style of operation is not suited 10 the mountains - or anywhere in the natural world, for that matter. The smaller, more flexible timber companies have the potential for working in a way that is much more appropriate. The only question is whether the people in forest products occupations arc willing to adapt to the changes that are currently taking place. Replacing local people with newcomers who embody the new corporate attitudes is no solution. Working with wood offers a cultural reference point and a way local people can keep their place on the land. But exploitative attitudes toward the land, particularly when tranSlated into exploitative ways of working in the forest, will no longer suffice. It is not sustainable to support our species' life at the expense of the life of the land. Let us hope we can learn the lessons of ecology and put them to work. We want people to develop, not tum their backs o~'# their ties to this place. fr J'Alt, 1992 �Jj' ! 'J,1 DEPLETION FOR DOLLARS: THE ECONOMICS OF CHIP MILLS . · . i _ -·. ~J . . ( . .,,.:-_ • , :t... ,_ 1· ...,,-~ ., •l-Ao:~ . , ••.,.:-.~ ,..~_:,,;_ . '-!< • • -- . .: ~ . 1r-· · --- -- _-:.r.- The chip mill issue can be framed as a question of how to utilize the Tennessee River Valley region's forest resources to the best advantage of its residents. One option is to maintain the health of the established hardwood industry by keeping out the remote chip mills. This existing option can be characterized as an environmentally acceptable and sustainable system whose market demand is based predominantly on regional economics. A second option, that of bringing in remote, high capacity chip mills, can be characterized as a mechanized, unacceptable, and regionally non-sustainable system whose marlcet demand is based essentially on global economics. Backlf'OUDd To understand the chip mill issue it is essential to understand the forest products industry structure and the resource base upon which it depends. There are basically two divisions of the industry: the solid wood segment - which requires a continuous supply of mature trees to supply lumber for manufactured goods; and the paper segment • which requires a maximum volume of wood fiber to manufacrure paper products. In order to insure a continuous supply of mature trees, the solid wood segment uses the environmentally sound practice of selective harvesting in which only the older trees are harvested from a site, and many middle-aged and young trccS are left for the next harvest in 15 to 20 years. The selective harvest method can be abused by "high grading," a practice in which only the best trees are taken and no cull cuts are made to insure that commercially valuable species will be available for the next cuL On the other hand, chip mills, in order to obtain maximum fiber volume at minimum cost for the paper industry, generally use the environmentally degrading clearcutting method, clearing all protective cover from the land. If reforestation is planned, it is done with bulldozers and herbicides to insure that f'aU, 1992 the new crop of commercial trees are "released." All chip mills are not the same. There are chip mills associated with sawmills and manufacturers which process mill and facrory "residues" so that they can be utilized as "residue chips" in the manufacture of paper. There are "whole tree chippers" which can be carried from site to site and process whole trees. And then there are high capacity chip mills, sometimes called "remote" or "satellite" chip mills, which are set up to supply a primary facility (pulp or paper mill) that is in another region or country. These "high capacity chip mills" are the chip mills that have applied to the Tennessee Valley Authority (IV A) for permits to locate along the Tennessee River at South Pinsburg, TN. Any further mention of chip mills will refer to these remote, high capacity mills. High capacity chip mills cost approximately $3 million to $5 million, excluding site preparation. They have a mechanical life expectaney of three to ten years, depending on how heavily they are used They generally employ eight people or less. Advocates of chip mills usually try to claim that new jobs are created by log harvesting employmenL However, it is documented in both North Carolina and Alabama that much of the harvesting employment already exists and is occupied supplying established regional industries. Because of the high volume contracts, the lower handling costs, and the high value for the commodity on the world market, loggers and haulers often abandon existing industries and go to work for the chip mills. Harvestin& Impacts Comprehending the purpose, the nature, and the amount of tree consumption by the chip mills is essential to decision making because the region already has a very large manufacturing economy based upon the hardwood resource. The fundamental purpose of the chip mills is to supply fiber for pulp and paper mills ourside our region. TVA estimates that landowners will be paid a $1 to $4 per ton "stumpage" price by the chip mills for their timber as it stands. Following estimates by Charles McGee in the article "Low Quality Hardwood Stands," this is not enough to pay for reforestation. High grade hardwood timber is noc likely to regenerate without management costs. ff the owner is not willing to reinvest funds the resulting stand will likely be suitable only for use as pulpwood. Trees are harvested and delivered to the chip mill (for $18 per ton in my Alabama study area), and then chipped and sold for around $23 or $24 per ton. At that point the resource will be gone from our region with little value added. A ton of hardwood chips brings approximately $122, delivered to Japan. Contrast this "regional chip mill resource return" with our established, value-adding hardwood industries. The landowner is first paid a stumpage price for the timber, the logs are delivered to a mill which saws them into rough lumber; the rough lumber is made into finished lumber, marketed, and transported to a manufacturing facility where it is made into a wood product; this is then marketed and transported to a wholesaler or retailer, who markets it one more time. Value is added at each stage of the process. It should be obvious that when compared to the established hardwood industry "multiplier" for employment, the chip mill employment "multiplier" becomes a tremendous employment "reducer." It is also obvious that there is no value added in the region. Another point is that the chip mills are going to utiliz.e a much greater amount of wood than has been previously estimated. TVA stated that each mill would consume 300,000 tons of chips per year per mill. However, Steve Loveland of Georgia-Pacific Corporation in an article entitled "South Atlantic Chip Supply," said, "Any chip mill (continued on nCJ1l page) xawah Journat poc,e 13 �(continued fro;;. ·page 13) l , f t ,l 1, ,,a .. ; ' can double or ttiple irs chipping ourput by adding shifts and can be virtually run around the clock, seven days a week if necessary." This Statement shows that the figure on which TV A is basing its calculations is a minimum figure. Acrual production for one chip mill could easily be three times that much if economic conditions warranted. In other words, if TV A chose to permit only one chip mill, it alone could consume as much as TV A's predicted level for three chip mills. Another factor that skews predictions of ecological and economic impacts is that the chip mills are committed to providing a steady volume of chips regardless of local prices. There is a large capital investment involved in each of the mills, and many of them are owned by paper mills or are under binding "take-or-pay" supply contracts, meaning that they have to pay cash if they do not meet agreed-upon supply quotas. This artificially-maintained production depresses the price of residue chips produced by sawmills in the region, and is also inconsistent with wise resource and environmental management. Chip mills can also serve in a secondary economic capacity: that of liquidating the regional resource into readily available capital for transnational corporations that are sttuggling to keep their heads above water in troubled economic times. In simpler terms, the chip mills are to provide ready cash to their troubled corporate parents by trying, as rapidly as possible, to tum trees into money. This is particularly devastating to the established regional industries and the local environment. The chip mills do not care if "the regional resource"is liquidated because their mechanical life will essentially be over by the time the trees are gone. The Boise Cascade Corporation is one ~xample. Like most of the paper and pulp mdustry, before the recession hit Boise Csacade made large capital invesnnents to increase their capacity. Now the corporation is saddled with high interest payments in the face of a decreased market demand. Furthermore, due to the tremendous amounts of chip exports from the Nonhwest 10 the Japanese, they are being squeezed by chip prices in their operations in the Pacific Nonhwesr. (Condensed from The Value Line). In fact, according to the December, 1991 PaperandPu/p, Boise Cascade suffered a "$32.6 million loss in the second quarter" of 1991, and third quanereamings sank "to a $49.4 million deficit." As a solution to their predicament, Boise Cascade plans to sacrifice the region's hardwood forests, upon which many local people have depended for decades. Many foreign nations have a labor advantage over the United States on the open international market. The United States maintains its competirve position because of a superior supply of resources. It is clearly a good economic strategy for foreign companies to cur as much pulpwood as possible. If they can use much of the United States' resource, the United States will be that much more vulnerable on the open market By chipping our trees, foreign competitors are improving their long term X-citiuih JouTna£ page 14 I exporting market position. American business and government should be thinking ahead. Our competitors are. tnnuence of Market Conditions Developments in the regional and world markets helped 10 create this confrontation in the Tennessee River Valley between established regional wood producrs industries and transnational corporations. The first was a rise in the domestic demand for hardwoods. Because of a slowdown in the growth of softwood trees, overharvesring, an obvious supply of cheap hardwoods, and the development of new technology for using hardwoods in the making of pulp, the paper companies staned using a significant amount of hardwood chips in the mid-eighties. (The current mix is approximately 31% hardwoods and 69% softwood.) The overseas demand for hardwoods has also boomed. Several deepwater ports, like the Pon of Mobile in Alabama, invested heavily in chip exporting facilities during the 1980's. The federal government also invested $2 billion of the taxpayer's money 10 build the Tenn-Tom Waterway to create a direct route between the Tennessee River and the Gulf. It is ironic that the foreign corporations would be much less competitive with our regional industries if the government had oot subsidized their transportation system. Also during this time many well-meaning foresc industry people decided that they needed to "create" additional markets for our low-grade hardwoods by developing expon markets. They should have known better than to think that they could tamper with the market without creating serious repercussions in the existing hardwood economy of the region. This confluence of trends adds up to a radical market change which today could devastate the resource base upon which the sustainable, labor intensive, value-adding, regional hardwood industries of the Tennessee River Valley depend. Nature of the Chip Mil! Harvest The nature of the chip mill harvest is symptomatic of the market demand that drives it. The original intent behind the chip mills was to create a market for low-grade hardwoods. However, clearcutting for the chip mills takes all the hardwoods - poor ones, deformed ones, plus the well-formed young trees that would have grown up to make high-grade sawtimber. If extensive areas in the Tennessee Valley are clearcut, as they have been _in Alabama, it will be at least 70 to 80 years before any hardwood sawtimber matures. No one seems concerned about what will happen to the small local operators in the meantime. On a more immediate note, the low-grade sawmills and pallet makers find themselves shutting down or operating at a loss because the world chip market demand has driven low grade timber prices out of their reach. A sawmill owner in a nonhwestem Alabama county, where chip mill resource depletion has occurred and the sawmills have been shut down, said ruefully that any sawmill owner would be committing economic suicide to allow a hardwood chip - mill within theit ~ . A visit to the areas of Alabama already clearcut is probably the most convincing economic or environmental argument that can be made against the permitting of the chip mills. Competition for the Forest Resource Does our region have plenty of hardwoods to spare? AU the numbers presented by TV A say that we are growing twice as much as we are harvesting. But there is also the question of availabiliry: all the growing trees are not available for industrial consumption. How much of that volume is actually available for harvesr after figuring in operability factors such as steep slopes and year round water problems, and landowners who do not want to sell their limber? Thomas R. Reed of Champion International Corporation in his article "Industrial Perspective on Hardwood Use," said that roughly 50% of the hardwoods are available. This estimate is considered high by some observers. But TV A neglected to do any kind of availability discounting. They assumed in their calculations that all the hardwood trees in the region were available. The regional hardwood industries already depend on those growing trees. The bottom line is that although we may be growing a lot of hardwoods, we are not growing enough to supply the existing hardwood sawmills, the existing regional paper mills, which are increasing their use of low-grade hardwoods, AND the remote chip mills who are here to harvest the hardwoods of the region for the rest of the world. The domestic paper companies are large and well-financed and will probably survive the crisis, but the small milling operations, which employ roughly 85% of the Valley's forest products workers, will inevitably be sacrificed for the chip mills that will siphon off the region's wealth for huge transnational corporations. In terms of the eovironmeotal impact, or the economic impact oo tourism, the region will be trading the incredible scenery and diverse ecological community that accompanies a selectively harvested, mature hardwood forest for a pulpwood lot checkered with constant clearcuts. If one considers aesthetics as imponant, the impact ori southeastern Tennessee is going to be devastating. The scenery will be a politician's nighnnare: graphic evidence of a bad decision that gets worse, and becomes more visible to the public, with every passing year. ~ - Harley Wessman lnforma1ion for this article was provided by Robert Mitchell. coordinator of the Tennessee Valley liardwood Alliance. a coalition of small hardwood lumber manufacturers whose livelihoods are threatened by the chip mill operations that are seeking permits to operate in the Tennessee River Valley. Contact the TeMessee Valley Hardwood Alliance; clo R.C. Mitchell; 2850 McCa//ie Ave.; Cha11anooga, TN 37404. For more information on how to stop the chip mill invasion, c<>ntact T.A.G.E.R.; Box 764; Souih Pi11sburg, TN 37380. 1"aU, 1992 �LOGGING WITH HORSES by Nancy McIntyre "It's a win/win solution," says Jason Rutledge. He is talking about horse logging, a low-impact and sustainable timber harvesting method. Environmentalists call for timber harvesting to stop on public lands. The timber industry pushes ro cut marketable trees and to harvest them in the cheapest way, preferably clearcurting. Logging with draft horses offers another choice that addresses concerns of both groups. Conventional timbering requires building logging roads, often at public expense - roads that are large enough to accommodate tractor-trailer rigs and which damage the environment. Horse logging needs no road building and leaves minimal disturbance, even in steep or remote areas. Rutledge describes horse logging as a superior technology, "an evolved approach that marries science to culture." He goes on to say that "cUITCnt horse logging is a modem effort that employs specifically-bred heavy draft horses that are harnessed with nylon components and work in multiple hitches with several teams in tandem like the Budweiser Clydesdales, except that I use horses of the Suffolk Punch breed. The teams pull a steel log arch, which has high flotation pneumatic tires that provide front end suspension of long tree stems. This log extraction technique, along with directional felling, creates extremely low environmental and visual impact." Environmentally Sensitive Logging Company, started by Rutledge and based in southwestern Virginia, has harvested over 200,000 board feet of timber from national forests in Virginia. Using "real horsepower," Rutledge and his parmer John Thornton have removed trees from the Jefferson National Forest by the single tree selection method. Defined as balanced, uneven-aged management, this least-damaging, sustained-yield harvesting technique cuts a few peak trees per acre. Tree age, species, site, soil type, grade exposure, remaining growth, and wildlife habitat are among the aspects considered in tree selection. Rutledge explains that "this method of harvesting closely imitates nature's own selection process. Each tree is recognized as part of the interconnected whole. Top wood from cut trees and some trees of undesired species are left lying on the forest floor, while desired species remain standing in varying ages and become dominant in population and size." He adds that the Forest Service and agricultural colleges have many expens who can mark timber for this type of harvesting. "Modern conventional logging equipment does too much damage to the environment to go into the forest on a 10 to 20 year harvest rotation to remove a few peak trees per acre. With horses you can do this, and everyone wins something," Rutledge emphasizes. "Tunber is harvested without clearcutting, and there is never removaJ of den treeS or the total destruction of the forest canopy. Therefore, wildlife habitat is preserved while the forest is still contributing to immediate human needs of building 1-"aU, 1992 materials, furniture, paper, etc. "A healthy forest is maintained and helps to protect water and air. yet jobs in the logging business continue, and forest products still enter the manufacturing channels, though coming in smaller loads from smaller tracts and smaller operators. With horse logging, there is less ground for resistance and appeals from environmentalists and a bener opportunity to avoid below-cost timber sales. Governments in other parts of the world have already recognized the extensive knowledge and teach others," Chaffee says. Rutledge offers formal instruction and apprenticeships, but cautions, "Logging is one of the most dangerous occupations in the country." To learn chain saw use, he strongly recommends the Soran Erickson Game of Logging School, sponsored by the Stihl Company. (Inquire with local forestry deparunents for this nationwide instruction.) "Such instruction can save lives, countless Counesy of lhc Archives of Appalachia, ETSU benefits of animal-powered skidding techniques and have chosen this timber harvesting method for a portion of their timber removal." "Draft horses have other uses in the forest," Rutledge adds. "My first Suffolk, Forest Spring Red Samson, and his brother Forest Spring Bill, under the steady hands of Mr. Thornton, recently pulled materials deep into the national forest for the consauction of a rest area and overnight shelter on the Appalachian Trail." David Chaffee of Pittsboro, North Carolina, a commercial airline pilot and farmer who also breeds Suffolk Punch horses, says, "All you have to do is take four photographs. Take one of an area just logged by horses and another six months later. Compare them with photographs of an area timbered with large equipment, now and six months later. You're going to see erosion with the conventional timbering using large machinery. "In regard to jobs,"Chaffee continues, "horse logging involves more people, noc only the Joggers themselves, but also those raising draft horses and raising feed. These are internally-generated jo~s. whereas with conventional timbering, the heavy equipment is made outside of the United States and the energy is imponed. Jobs in the timber industry can be sustained by logging in a different way." Chaffee has twice stayed at Jason Rutledge's farm in Floyd County, Virginia to work with him and learn horse-logging skills for use on his own land. "Jason seems very willing to share his hours, and many bills," Rutledge says. Jason Rutledge is writing a book on Beginner's Use of Draft Horses for the Twenty-first Century. In articles recently printed in The Small Farmer's Journal and The Draft Horse Journal, he tells that he was raised by his illiterate grandfather "who was a hoss trader and, without an outline or agenda, taught the dignity of what a welJ-tended pair of work animals could do for a man who would work too." Jason adds that he is "determined to maintain the dignity of work animals and working man." Rutledge describes himself as an environmental actualist who has spent most of his life working toward the restoration of a cultural ethic or stewardship. "This ethic of planetary stewardship has to translate into everyday life and, for most folks, into the economic reaJity of making a living. Faith is the bridge between belief and action, and I'm going 10 cross that bridge/# with a horse!" fr For further infonnation: Environmentally Sensitive Logging Company Jason Rutledge and John Thornton 2050 Blue Ridge Turnpike Fincastle. VA 24090 Nancy Mclntyre lives on a beauliful ridge-top farm in Floyd County, VA. She is an energetic clean air and water activist and recently spent time educating people to the harmful effects of chemical biocides as part of the Agricultural Resources Center/ Pesticide Education Project. �ROADTHREAT AN APPEALING ISSUE·· ·· N--1 World Ne... $erYice N--1 World Ne... S.-,ice The Forest Service decision on the abolition of limber sale appcalJ bas noc been released 11 press Lime. In the inlerim, Congress has gouen involved with the appeals question. On July I, Sena10r Wyche Fowler (D.QA) introduced a bill co-sponsored by Pat Leahy, Al Gore, and Olhm that guaranu,cd the right to appeal Forest Service decisions. This bill passed in the Senate by a margin of 57-38. The strength of the Fowler bill indicaics that the,e is support for the appeals process as a chcclc against poor decision making. Laier in the summer, however, Larry Craig (R-ID} inuoduccd a v.akencd substitute for the Fowler bill The Craig measure was passed successfully early in August Under Craig's bill, the lime limit for filing appeals and for the Forest Servtce ~iuon of appeals would be shoncncd to 30 days apiece. It would force appellants to travel to the vicinity of the forest to make their case. The Craig bill would also require appellants to make comments in order to have s&anding. These appear to be minor changes, but the biU is in1e11lionally vague on many points. For example, the,e is some question as to whether or nOI the person who reviews the appeal can be the person who made the initial decision, thus creating a conflict of inrcrcst The changes proposed by the Forest Service are far-reaching and go beyond appeals. Acconting to the Sierra Club Legal Deteme Fund, the new appeals regulalions would eliminale the right to know about and comment on sates of lllllds affCCICd by insects and diseases. The lwldling of insect• and discae-relatcd sales has been subject to abuse in the past. In addition, the proposed changes would make it impossible even IO team about limber sales if one does noc sub!lcribe IO a variety of small newspapers. These and other consttaincs would make it much harder to conuibule meaningful comments or even stay informed about activities in nearby lllllional On May 21, the Virginia Transpor1alioo Board announced the prefen-cd IOULC for U.S. RL 58, a new fow--tane that would spai the southwcaem edge of Virginia between Maninsville and Cumberland Gap. The route would bisect the ML Rogers National Rccl'Cllion Area along Corners Crcett. a cascade-filled IIOUl Slmllll Pond Mountain and Hurricane Mountain. The Mount Rogers area is home to a number of rare animal species, including endangered mussels, rare salamanders, bog turtles, gray bats, and northern flying squirrels. Funher east, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VD01) would have Rt 58 cross the Blue Ridge Mountains berwcen Meadows of Dan and Stuart, Virginia, an area that Includes two waterways that are eligible for scenic river status. Highway consuucuon will destroy ll\3lly homes and farms along the way. Some cilizens con1e11d that the project will be the death knell for downtowns in small communities along the way. In order to respond to the threat to the ML Rogers area (and perhaps 10 ocher threatened areas), the Mountain Heritage Alliance has been formed. Members have begun a national letier wriling and petition drive. The group wishes 10 arrange a meeting with VOOT since VDOT has recently met with backers of a popular but desuuctive altcmalive passing through the highlands around Straight Branch, Whiietop l...aurel, and Grems Cove Creek. The group will iqe VDOT 10 IOUIC the highway along existing highways 1-77 and 1-81. They cite a Virginia Depanmenl of COllltlValion and Recreation recommendation against the highway and the findings of a Virginia Tech cconomiSl who predic1ed thal few CCUICllJlic baldiU would be derived from the road. forests. At the same time the Depanrnent of Agriculture is lobbying Congress to end judicial review of Forest Service decisions. Secretary of Agriculture Madigan told Congress. "We could manage bencr if we were free from the inletference of the caur1S [and] we urge Congress IO do that expeditiously." A few such bills have appeared before Congress but they have been unsuccessful so far. BAN CHIP MILLS Narura1 Wotld News Service Residents of the Tennessee Valley spoke overwhelmingly against pcnn1ts for chip mill facllities along the Tennessee River during two summer public hearings. SpcaJc.crs asked that TV A , stop Donghac, Channel Ch1p/P:lrker Towing, and Boise Cascade from construcung loading clocks and facilities along the upper Tenn-Tom Waterway, which TVA comrols. They told TV A th:11 the ini.cnsive clcarculting associated with chip manufacturing would result m a decline in the biodiversity and hardwood manufacturing economic base of the region. TV A omcials repon th:11 they are "swamped with tcuus· responding 10 the permit issue. The baule may have just begun, however. Boise Cascade Company announced shonly after the hearings I.hat they would open a chip mill without a pcnnit and ltUclc the chips overland to port. For more information, contaet TAGER; Box 764; South Pittsburg, 1N 37380. Xatuah )ouma£ PQIJ"- l 6 CLOSING IN ON CHEOAH NIil.ira! World News Service In a decision notice released lasl month, District Ranger Glen McConnell announced plans to log the Checab Mountains again. Over the past live years, the lofty mountain range that surrounds Checab Bald has seen more than its share or roadbuilding, road-indllccd landslides. and clearcutling. Exrensive logging bas tatm its toll on the forests around Oicoah's Shell Stand Creek, Stecoah Gap, Simp Oap, Grassy Gap, Wesc, and lower sections of Ben Creek. McConnell now plans to penetrate further into the wa&cnhcds of Bert and Franks Creeks to the southwest of Cheoab Bald. According 10 the environmental assessment for the Ben Creek Timber Sale, the Forest Service would build 1.2 miles of roads and harvest limber on more than 300 aaes. Even-aged logging is the silviculrural method of choice for most of the sale unit Activists an: concerned that the limber sale will cause further fragmenlalion of habiw in an area · thal is prime black bear babirat Over one thin! of the stands robe cul are over 100 years old. Fragmentation is also a pocential threat to the cerulean warbler and the goshawk. IWO Endangered Species Act candidates likely 10 be found ll the Bert Creek site. SIUdies have shown Iha the cerulean warbler needs at least 1600 acres of contiguous forest Other rare species at risk include the Indiana bat, East.cm wood rat, and hellbender. An additional issue of concern is the possible occurance of pyrue, a substance that produces a dangerous acid when leached out or a roadcut or log landing by rainwater. Oak decline, a phenomenon that causes a die-off o{ malllre oaks due to drought, infcsta.tJOn, and other su-esscs, is the pretext for the sale. but acuv1stS say the Stands are quite healthy. They claim that few loggers would bid on the umber if they had to share the full costs of F.S. 208 and other access roods built at LUpayer expense a few years ago. During the late 1970s, the RARE D Study recommended the Chcoah Bald area as one of the prem ier road.less areas in the Southern Appalachians. lt has since been opened to developmenL The arc3 still has tremendous beauty and tremendous wildland potential One has only to loolt out from the high ridges above Ben Creek to the Great Smokies in the distance to see what the future could hold. To procest the Ben Crnek Tunber Sale, write Glen McConnell, District Ranger; RL '· Box 16-A, Robbinsville, NC 28771. In order to become part of the national petition drive 10 save ML Rogers, write: Gary Stemp: Mountain Heritage Alliance; Rt 3, Box 589; Marion, VA 24354. TRANSREGIONAL POWER Nwral World News Service Attempts to build a high-voltage powerline through West Virginia and Virginia have hit a snag. Appalachian Power Company (APCO), a subsidiary ofthecoal-fued giant, American Electric Power (AEP), asked for a pcnnit to build a 765 kilowatt powcrline Crom southern West Virginia to a substation outside of Roonokc, Virginia, but it hns been forced to withdraw its applicauon with the We~l Virginia Public Service Commission until an acceptable environmental impact statement is p!'Cllll'Cd. Elsewhere, in a hearing before the Vi.rgini3 Utility Commission, expcn witneSSCS for Citi.zcns for the Preservation of Craig County (Virginia) said that APCO should not be given the right of eminent domain for a transmission line built solely for the purpose of ~ling off unusable excess power at a profiL The powerline would transfer power from the Midwest to the urban crescent of CllSLCm Virginia. Opponents say that the powerhne would cul across the Jefferson N31J01131 Forest between \.1ounuun Lake Wildcmcss and two wilderness areas several miles to the east They claun that the powerline will pass through hundreds of ocres of forest and farm land, lowcnng real CSlllle vallleS and conl8lllJll8lJllg springs with herbicides along the v.;3y They worry about the health effects of elecu-omagnetic fields, citing recent medical research on the subject J"aCL, 1992 �APdH &a'iler'f.~'•-tiftini envuonmenl3l siewardship reicon1. Many residenlS or the Southern Appalachians remember APCO's effort to dam the New River in Nonh Carolina. A few years ago, Appalachian Trail club members discovered dw APCO had built an unapproved access road lhrough the Appalachian Trail corridor. The club concluded that APCO was unable IO - g e their own utility corridor, so it reached an agn:anent with thc utility to manage pan or the power corridor themselves. In lhe meantime, APCO has begun a million dollar program promoting thc use or elecll'ic heal pumps. The figbl against the powertine has reached lhe national level U.S. Represeniatives Nick Rahall (WV) and Frederick Boucbcr (VA) have sponsored a bill that would pro!CCI federally-owned land along lhe New River, blocking access to one of the only f~ible rou1CS. The bill ha1 had sll'Ollg suppon in the House or Reprcsenwives. Hearings on the issue will begin SOOD in thc SenalC. Wrice Cilil.cns to Preserve Craig County; Box 291; New Casile, VA 2A I 27 and lhe National Commilltle for thc New River, Bluestone Project CommiUtJe; Box 103S; Athens, WV 24712. Also wrice your legislalorS. DECISION ON BIG IVY Nlhlnl Wodd News Savice In I.ale July, Ranger Paul Bradley ol the Toecane DiSlricl or thc Pisgah Nllional Forcsi. issued a decision oo the controversial Sugarhouse Cove Timber Sale, proposed for thc Big Ivy arca in BU1100111be County, nordleul of Asbeville.. Big Ivy is III an:a oC unusual circumneutral soils, rare planl communities, and excellent examples of old growth foreaa (see Ka,/Jalt JollnlOl 134), and lbe proposcd sale was bigbly CClllll'O¥a1ial. Bradley was leaning IOWll'd a decision 1h11 would have deVll.1Ulled a unique roadies., area conraining in:es measuring four feet in dialnder and examples of many rare plant species. ScienlislS and IIClivislS r.niliar with the sea rushed to ils defense, informing the Forest Service that die proposcd logging and road building would resull in unaccq,18blc damage. The eovironmeulal group SoudlPAW initialed a teuer writing campaip that brougb1 hundreds of lcuers and petition signaiurcs opposing the sale. Womansong, a choral group from Asbeville, 1111g for the forest outside die Forest Service otricea. garnering media coverage for Big Ivy. In response, Bradley scaled back his logging plans for the waaenhed. He eliminal.ed four of thc five areas scheduled IO be cut and reduced the timber sale volume by 80%. The remaining sale unils are in an abandoned homcSICad, an area that is already relatively degraded. Surprisingly. the Forest Service ~ the Sugarhouse Cove portion, after which the limber sale was named, as a Rcsean::h Natur81 Area. The analysis process resulted in designations of large pans or Big Ivy as either old growth habitat or as "unsuitable for umber producoon." Bradley dampened a poccntially explosive si1ua1ton. Many cnvirorunenl31istS feel lhal the Bag Ivy wau:rsbcd should be scqucsu:rod as a biological rc.o;crve. ActivistS are divided as to whclher to nppcal the timber sale or to turn !heir aucntion to other assaults on Kaluah's biodiversity. JUSI lhree weeks lalcr, Bradley allayed coocems that his districl might llOI meet its timber wgel by issuing a decision to log another scelion of lhe Toccanc. The sice is near Seven Mile Ridge along lhe Blue Ridge Partway. 1'cdl, 1992 1-26 HEARING HEATS UP Namnl World News Service Oo Joly 21, more than a hundred area citizens packed Mars HiU Elcmenwy School to give the NC Deparuneot ol Transportation (001) officials their views oo the proposed Inu:rswe 26 segment between Mars Hill, N.C. and die Tennessee border. Although opponents of the project were in thc minority, they represented about half of those speaking. One of lhe most moving prcserualions was a slide show by Bruce Oarlt showing whole moumainsides deliberalcly logged. deooded. and gouged away on the Tennessee section of the project, which has been underway for more than a year. To dace neither of the SlalC DOTs have fully considered the impaa or the projecl beyond swe borders or oulSide the immediate project area despi lC the fact that the projecl would increase tralfx:, cause displJlcemcnt, and destroy CICCS)'Slel!IS lhroughou1 the • region. Area citizens warned lhe DOT of the pol.Clltial for erosion, runoff, and wucc disposal problems associaled with large-scale "cul and fill" operations. They said lhal the project would disturb wedands and black bear migration corridors along the way. They suggested thal DOT explofe alremative uansponation sys1CRIS like freight uains and mass transiL networts before it embarks on a COSIiy projecl that the swe and federal governments, both in debt. canno( affonl. One speaker ciled a tcuu lhal the DOT sent to Monce Cunningham ol thc WNC Alliance. The 1cucr said lhal U.S. 23 is 1101 dangerous enough to justify mating expendilurea for Ind sand trapS and other safety improvements that Cunningham suggested.. In spice or this the DOT proposes spending nearly a q11111er of a billion dollars on a four-laae projec1 tbll will have no al«y benefilS until it is completed n1111y years bc:nce. The,e and other glaring inconsislmcies ha"VC 1od many citizens to believe that the DOT is • agency that plays by no rules except ilS own. WORKING FOR ALARKA Nanni World News Service Efforts are Slill underway to pr0ICCI the Big Laurel ttact in Swain County, a piece of land also known as AJaita Laurel. The Trust for Public Lands, a foundalion dial buys land and uansfers ii to government agencies. is hoping that ii can facilitate the purchase or the trac1. Officials II the 1JUS1 say !hey want people from Nonh Carolina to decide how bes1 to use the Big Laurel lJ1ICI. The llUSI has negotiated an option to buy the land. Local rcsidenlS have used the Alarka Crcelc watcnhed for horseback riding, camping, picnicking, SCOUl outings. and hunting for generations. According to resident Carl Queen, most or the people in the area "would like 1 see it kept in the pristine 0 Sl3ce that II is in.• The 2,080 acre traet contains a spruce bog. a wetland along Alarka Crnck, and a hctbacoous bog. The red spruce forest in Big Laurel is arguably lhc soulhcmmost on lhe continenL It is unusual because 11 has no1 shown any decline, as m Olher locales. and ii appears to be expanding in10 an area lhal was previously logged. Bag Laurel is also known for populations of brook uou1, pigmy salamander, and other rare ~ies. The Natural Hen1age Program has yet 10 do a survey of lhe area. According to Dr. William McL.amey, lhe area is I crucial mign11ory corridor. It is ~ible to descend from Big L.aurel at 4,600 feet to the LiUle Tennessee Gorge, then proceed to Wesser Bald on the olhcr side, and remain under foresled cover throughout lhejoumey. Shape Notes This little curl of smoke shows where some wood was. From thick tree trunk right down to tiny twig all gave up this cycle's shape to keep those beings in the cabin warm. Now this gray smoke stains the blue sky. It floats up up. Maybe someday in a different cycle those beings in the cabin will do some singing, some shape changing for the wood. Julia Vansclow Mutat Aliquid Ergo Sum (For Dylan-September, 1989) More often, now, the fog at dawn seeps deep into the hollow; creeps up the rodcy Eastern slope with a silent hint of Fall. It settles over everything, so near and distant hills are out of focus, dreamy, and hushed. 1ne first few leaves are spinning down; the Walnut's dropped its fruit. I hardly remember Spring at all when Summer's so dose to Fall, but Winter's hazy memory sits chill on the still night air that drips and drops a sparkling sheen in the haloed morning sun. 1ne last of Summer's fullness fills cicadas, crickets, tree frogs, until late morning melts the shade, dissolves the rainbow dew The Goldfinch canary yellow is dimmed. The last of the Hummingbirds are migrants navigating South. It's a lime we know there are no words that thought can fonn in mouth to really sing the song that sings the music of change, the IIWQTtneSS of things Frank Vogel Drawing by Michael Thompson x.atilah Jownat JJQ9"- 17 �Natural World News THE FOREST PLAN IS OUT! SPECIAL REPORT The US Forest Service bas just released its proposed Draft Suppleme111 (() the Final Environmental Impact Statement (DS-FEIS) for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests Land and Resource Management Plan. When the original plan was released in 1987 there were four appeals of its provisions, and the Chief of the US Forest Service remanded the plan back to the region for changes, specifically those concerning questions about old-growth forest areas, clearcutting vs. uneven-aged managemen1., protection of unroaded areas, below-cost timber sales, and protection of biodiversity. The proposed amendment is controversiaJ, arousing opposition from both environmentalists and the wood products industry. Public comment will be received through December 16, after which a new plan will be developed. The draft supplement describes the amendments to the Forest Management Plan and how the various alternatives were developed, giving more details concerning the affected environment and environmental consequences. The lengthy document is the result of much work, but it falls short of addressing public concerns about the mismanagement of the public forests. In the short "Highlights" of the Plan, rhe Forest Service statements appear to offer positive solutions to environmental concerns, but further investigation of the "fine print" does not support this initial impression. Much of the discussion focuses on the allowable sale quantity (ASQ) of timber to be cut each year. The ASQ has always been a ceiling for timber cutting, with the actual timber targets falling well below that level. For instance, the present ASQ is 75 million board feet per year, but the agency actua!Jy cut onJy 55 million board feet in the past year. In the draft, the annual ASQ in the Forest Service's alternative is reduced by an impressive margin, from 75 million board feet to 45 million board feet However, subsequent statements by Forest Supervisor Bjorn Dahl assure industry representatives that the amount of timber actually cut wouJd not fall very much, because "45 million board feet is not that much below 55 million board feet," intimating that the ASQ is no longer going to be the ceiling, but the target for each year's annual cut (CHAGRIN IS IN) trees are left standing on the site only to be removed in a second cut 15-20 years later. The Western North Carolina Alliance, a citizens' group which has vigorously opposed clearcutting in the national forests, is bitterly disappointed by this move. Members point out that they have consistently campaigned for uneven-aged management of the forests for years. Shelterwood cuts, like clearcuts, are a form of even-aged management. which yields a stock of trees that are all of the same age. To Alliance members, the agency's change is simply a change in rhetoric. "Shelterwood is simply a rwo-stage clearcut,'' observes one member. Only a very small pan (about 12%) of the total acreage 10 be cut would be logged by single tree or group selection to produce true uneven-aged management. To lessen the problem of below-cost timber sales that has plagued the agency in past years, the Forest Service promises timber interests that they will offer more lucrative sales containing large sawtimber trees and fewer sales containing pulpwood (undesirable trees that bring a low price). These custom-tailored sales still would not turn a profit for the government; at best the Forest Service could promise only that they might break even. Figures elsewhere in the draft show that the Forest Service plans to increase the profitability of their sales by increasing environmental costs. Despite earlier assurances, only 3.3% of the national forest lands would receive additional protection from road construction and logging. Some 44,000 acres of unprotected roadless areas (called "semi-primitive, nonmotorized areas") and nearJy 45,000 acres of land inventoried as possible old-growth would be opened to logging under the preferred alternative. Instead of treating below-cost sales as a signal to improve forest management by saving old-growth and potential old-growth habitats, the Forest Service is using below-cost sales as an excuse to sell those areas off! The Wilderness Society also noted that the Forest Service showed that their interest is not in stopping below-cost timber sales by putting into the timber base over 100,000 acres of land which would not tum a profit, according to agency analyses. Much effort was made to identify and inventory old-growth stands, but the criteria for determining old-growth presence were vastly oversimplified. In the draft supplement, the mere presence of trees older than 100 years indicated old growth. And the old-growth inventory was an empty gesture; while 133,456 acres were identified as old growth, only 5% of the total forest acreage wouJd be reserved for "future old growth values." Wood products industry representatives are expressing great concern about job losses, lower profits, and potential changes in logging techniques. However, the draft supplement estimates that the preferred alternative would offer only 100 less "jobs'' (actually hourly equivalents) than the number offered in the original plan. The new draft supplement shows that the Forest Service has indeed changed and become more skillful and sopb.isticated in its management techniques - it has changed its techniques of managing numbers and manipulating language to more skillfully cover the fact that out in the forest, it's business a.s usual! • by Lee Barnes and David Wheeler Copies of the Draft Supplement to the Final Environmental Impact Suuement of the Nanlahala-Pisgah Land and Resource Managt!mellt Plan can ~ st1e11 al most public libraries ill westt1r11 Nor1h CarolillO or may~ reqllt!sted by phoning (704) 257-4200. Send comments ~fore December 16. 1992 to Nantalrala!Pisgah Planning Team; Na1io110I Forests ill North Carolina; Box 2750; Asheville, NC 2 ~ .....-::::::==:::::-.___ The draft supplement proudly announces a significant reduction in the acres of national forest to be clearcut annually: from the 4,500 acres called for in the original plan to 1,500 acres, one-third of the original amount Substituted for clearcutting was the shelterwood method, which in the preferred alternative would be practiced on 2,320 acres of the forest. Under this method, part of the Xatuah Joumat p09e 18 Drawing by Timbcrly Ashe :fa{!, 19112 �INVASION OF THE CORPORATE GIANTS by Buzz Williams Like many others who have chosen to make my home in the province of Katuah, I am keenly appreciative of the incredible beauty and diversity of the native Appalachian hardwood forest. But after living here for some time, one soon becomes aware that these forests, which are the cornerstone of our ecosystem, have been severely impacted by the human presence. For me, the fulfillment of finding my "sense of place" has been tempered with a kind of sadness when I think of what we have lost. But to lament over the past is certainly not productive; nor is the popular notion that further degradation of our environment is necessary for the well-being of our species. On the contrary, recent scientific studies tell us that the maintenance of healthy ecosystems is more than simply leaving a bener place for future generations - it is the key to our future survival. We are learning that a healthy economy is dependent upon a self-sustaining environment. Aldo Leopold stated it this way: "...a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly lopsided. It tends 10 ignore, and thus evenrually to eliminate, many elements in the land commurury that lack commercial value, but that are (as far as we know) essential to its healthy functioning." Leopold's extension of our concept of ethics to include the protection of all plants and animals, what be called the "third element," must now be embraced if we arc to prevent the further degradation of our forests. After devastating the Southern Appalachian forests, the big timber companies moved to the Pacific Northwest. They acquired huge tracts of territory, and the timber supply from that area was instrumental in meeting the increased lumber demands during World War II and the decades of prosperity immediately following. During those years, the US Forest Service became increasingly timber oriented. From 1950 to 1968 timber harvest volumes from our national forests increased from 5.6 to 12.8 billion board feet. Several theories have developed as to why the Forest Service has so willingly become an ally of the timber industry, but the most plausible seems to center on a process called "logrolling." The timber industry financed and helped to seat CongressionaJ legislators who won positions on strategic subcommittees which govern Forest Service activities. including budget appropriations. These lawmakers have been in office for long periods of time and have built up strong concentrations of power in the halls of Congress. Their close connections to the timber industry are not hidden. Sen. James McClure (R-ID) went straight to a seat on the board of the Boise Cascade Company upon his retirement from the Senate. The press statements of Sen. Mark Hatfield (D-OR) read almost exactly like industry statements from the corporations in his state. This year Senate Majority Leader Tom Foley (D-WA) effectively stopped consideration ofH.R. 1-"all, 1992 1969, a bill which would have outlawed clearcutting in the national forests. Power such as this has brought the l!S Forest Service into line with the policies of the timber industry. Pacific Nonhwest. Io addition, the Appalachian hardwood forests were recovering from previous over-cutting. With recently-developed technology that allowed the use of hardwood fiber for making paper products, the Southeast was once again ripe for pluckin~. Cheap land and non-union labor costs m an area closer to their markets were further inc.entives to the timber giants to move south. As early as the 1950's, Georgia Pacific Company was already buying up land in the South. In 1982 it moved its headquarters from Portland, Oregon to Atlanta, Georgia. Others followed. The Forest Trust recently reponed that since 1978, seven of the largest timber comparues in the Pacific Northwest had increased their mill capacity in the South by 121%. They are coming from other directions as well. Bowater Corporation, the largest newsprint producer in the country, announced in Marcb,1992 that it would move its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to Greenville, South Carolina. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, local conservation groups arc currently fighting applications for barge permits by three chip mill companies which would produce over 1.7 million tons of green chips per year. One of the companies, Donghae, is based in Korea, and all the companies plan to expon their chips directly to the Far East (see page 13). The addition of these powerful competitors for timber in the Southeast is In 1990 the fate of the threatened spotted owl became the focal point of the battle to save the remaining 10% of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest The timber industry screamed that protection of the owl would cost thousands of jobs, but investigative studies found that they were using the spotted owl issue as a smokescreen to cover their own activities. One study found that, even before the owl was listed, 26,000 timber-related jobs had been lost to automation in Washington and Oregon, and, further, that between 1980 and 1989 the practic.e of log exporting had cost 19,200 timber workers their jobs. Closer scrutiny of the timber industries revealed that they were making huge profits at the expense of their employees and the loggers who supplied the mills. Their long-term strategy was obvious: they had overcut their private lands, just as they had done in the Southern Appalachians, and were now liquidating their timber "assets" to produce the capital to relocate to the Southeast, which had begun to recover from earlier exploitation and was out-producing the Pacific Northwest. Acre per acre, the southeastern coastal plains were producing about 1.7 times as many board feet in a 65 year period as the Dnwing by Michael ThompsQn (continued on p,tgc 26)' Xatuah Joumat page 19 �FROM INDUSTRY TO ENDEAVOR .:Forestry is the one area where the inappropriateness ofboth large-scale technology and the slum tenn prof11 motive is most apparent. For this reason, it may be an ideal place to begin to tlUn the tide." - Robert Brothers Timber extraction as it is presently accomplished is a primary cause of ecological degradation in the Karua.h bioregional province. Given that a land-based economy in the forested mountains will depend heavily on the use of wood products, how much wood can we use and how can we use it in a beuerway? Changing the way we think about the land and our conceptions of our role in the bioregion would change our relationship to the land and the way we use the products of the land. New definitions and new values would lead to new institutions and new ways of working. The first and most basic recognition is that we are pan of the natural oommunity and that the needs of the natural community must come first Aldo Leopold, a forester who truly cared for the natural world. stated it thus: "We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." In the Katuah Province, this means first and foremost that the public lands are held as a bioregional reserve, inviolate from logging or other intensive commercial use. It must be understood that all the forestry proposals that follow are for the lands surrounding and buffering the bioregional reserve, and that the reserve proper is to be left as habitat for the native plants and animals, wild and free forever. In its proper place, a buffer zone which includes large areas of sensitively managed timberlands would be a positive ecological benefit, extending the forest cover and protecting the core habitat area from disturbance. Even outside the core reserve area we must constantly remember that "the land is a community to which we belong," and that forests are complex and heterogeneous life communities. In the upland hardwood forests in particular, industrial forestry is not an appropriate practice. We must change the model of forestry 10 one that follows a biological panern rather than a panern of mechanical_production. Forestry is not farming. It is, as the local wisdom puts it, "living off the increase" of the natural forest community. Recognizing this, !t is clear that sustainable forestry does not Sllllply refer to the number of growing trees, but concerns the integrity of lhe forest community as a whole. Continued sustainability of the forest requires that biomass be returned to the soil to maintain soil fertility and site quality. The Institute for Sustainable Forestry in Redway, CA bas defined sustainable forestry as "forestry that can safely be practiced while X.ntuQft. Jou.mat p1i9e 20 by David Wheeler ensuring that the forest's needs are met before any biomass is removed in the form of harvested trees." Silviculture would then mean, as it is supposed to, the art of caring for aforest; not "growing trees" as it is currently defined. A Southem Appalachian Sustainable Forestry Association, designed on the California model, could promote this awareness. Like its western counterpart, it could draw on a wide variety of experience to devise standards for ecologically produced lumber and other forest products. Trained and accredited logging ooottactors and foresters could be given eoological cenification for timbering practices that are both ecologically and eoonomically sound. The group would also do public education, research and development of sustainable forestry practices, restoration forestry, and research on marketing, value-adding processing, and wood product ideas. At present, the greatest hindrance to a sensitive forestry in the Karuah Province is the notion that the land is a oommodity for speculation. Rising land prices and increasing fragmentation of landholdings are discouraging private landowners from becoming involved in forestry. If the land market will not support forestry, the only solution is to remove large areas of land from the market. Non-profit farmland and forest mists allow habitation and use for land-based activities, but free the land from oppressive tax burdens and protect it from the threat of development This arrangement would offer a strong economic incentive to those who wanted land for use and enjoyment rather than for speculation. ~nother neces~ conceptual change is to revise our ooncepnon of a demand-driven market to one that is based on the ability of the forest to provide. Measures to moderate the use of wood products (not including the substitution of plastics or other synthetics for natural materials) could help to lessen the demand. Companies could also utilize the wood that is available more efficiently and more C(:Onomically by ensuring the highest value uses and creating new ways to use pieces that might otherwise be wasted. At the other end of the process, consumers could help to lower demand through the re-use and recycling of wood. "Adding value" is another key concept that could change the face of the timber business. Supplying the furniture industry seems appropriate for the bulk of the timber cut in the mountains, but the growing export market threatens to draw timber- away from the region. It would be of the greatest benefit to the regional economy to emphasize wood products rather than wood as a raw material for a faceless global market Specialty products - hand-crafted wood furniture, wood carvings, boat lumber, musical insttuments, wooden toys and gifts, etc. - offer opportunities for creative entrepreneurs and support small shops that employ only a ~w people each. individually, they seem to be inoonsequential, but studies in the Pacific Northwest are showing that the cumulative economic impact of specialty shops is substantial. Another key word that oould SJ)C1ll great changes in the region's timber trade is "cooperation." Small loggers could oombine to sell their products. They oould thus reach bener markets and sell their wood for highest value. By pooling their capital, they could be more competitive and stay better informed about market conditions. They could also cushion expensive bonding guarantees and equipment repairs. By lightening the money pressure, they could afford to do a bener job in the forest. If the cooperative owned a sawmill, they oould eliminate cheating at the scales, could pocket the increased value of their product, and could provide work hours during periods when they could not go into the woods. Such ventures would be prime targets for community eooaomic development efforts. Another approach would be to organize landowners into cooperative groups, as forest management is organiz.ed in Switzerland. Lislott Harbens, a forester of Swiss extraction, said, "I know of two or three cases where larger landowners are considering pooling their resources and employing somebody to do their work for them" The changes listed above foreshadow a wood products market that is oomprised of smaller businesses that are more decentralized and more individualiz.ed. In light of present Ta(t, 1992 �~ • L by Robert T. Perscher ~ ~ I' • • .._ r.. ,1 f I ~~ • ..._ Pioneering a New Human/Nahµ'e- Relationship ~- - ~ (Thefolwwing is uzlunjrom a report commissioned in 19')() by the New England Section of1he &>ciety ofAmerican Foresters as part of ti~ process ofdrafting anew tnis.sion stare~ntfor the group.) The ex.isling forestry doctrine focused on wood production no longer serves our profession, society, or the Earth. The profession, therefore, needs to develop a new doctrine/philosophy embracing a land ethic and philosophy of ecosystem managemen1. This approach necessitates a reassessment of the adequacy of our ex.isting scienllfic foundations. Our mission must be expanded to the widest possible cooteitt: the preservation of life on Earrh. As foresters we are charged with this mission because we have accepted the role as stewards of what is perhaps the most critical 30% of the Earth's (land) surface. Our srewardshlp responsibility includes some of the most exuberant eitpressions of nature: the trends, this seems to be the direction in which the industry needs to move in the Southern Appalachians to be mon: sustainable over the long term and more regionally responsive. These changes would be only part of a necessary ongoing social and economic shift in the n:gion. Any economy, particularly in a forested area, that is growing faster than the trees can grow is moving too fast. An economy that kills its biological suppon system with toxic chemical pollutants needs to find new methods of production. Any area in which the local species cannot find secluded habitat is overpopulated and overdeveloped. These ills are obvious when our society is compared to the forest, the self-supporting, biological model for growth in our region. A sustainable forest products trade will not be attained immediately. The transition stage is critical. We can take immediate steps toward a more sustainable forestry: 1) Invest in the growth of high-grade hardwoods. This move appears risky in terms of the present economic climate. But the present economic climate is notoriously short-sighted, and long-term trends appear to justify this investment Landowners, however, do need to be educated about the value of improving timber sites and stands, as welJ as more careful logging in order to attain a sustained yield. 2) Provide tax relief for timberlands. Land that is currently being used for agriculture or forestry should be assessed at lower rates than development propenies. "Highest use assessment," in which land is assessed according to the most expensive use to which it could be put (usually subdivisions), virtually assures that the land will be put to that use. At present rates of interest., the only method that pays in the short term is to climax ecosystems of a green and .flowering world. They tend to suppor!_greater stocks of bi?mass and harbor a grea~er number of species than any other ~logic!'1 zone. ~orests play a ~Jor role ir· planetary recycbng of Carix?n, mtrogen anc.l o~g~n. They help detenrune temperature and nuofall. They constitute the major gene reservoirs of our planet, and they are-the main sites of emergence of new species. Life on_ Earth as we know it, human or non-human, IS dependent on our forests. And we, who call ourselves foresters_. are the . protectors of the ecosystems which make this incredi~le l~gacy of ?iversit)'. (>?SSibte. Ir [that protccnon] 1s our ulumate llllSs1on and, as such, must define and embrace all that we do as professionals. To fulfill this expanded mission we must rise to the challenge of recreating our relationship with the forest. We must now establish, as nearly as possible, a direct contact with our place within nature and begin to make our forest management decisions from that place. To accept this quickly clearcut all the young trees in a stand before they have had a chance to make their full growth. In the long run, careful and ecological logging that produces a sustained yield will pay off, but the initial returns are lower as the landowner improves the site and conditions the growing stock. Long-term, low-interest government loans or a capital gains tax differential for income on timber produced by ecological methods would help to make those methods competitive with industrial forestry practices and would make timber investments more competitive with other long-term investments for private owners. 3) States need to train and certify loggers. Two states in the bioregion are taking hesitant first steps in this direction. ~~ - ,.. challenge means that each of us must refuse t.o iux:ept.the least common dcno,;ninaror the loweit level of awareness of the forest that all membc;rs of our society can agree to, for this stifles change and persona) expansion. We must be willing to move beyond th.e comfortable and generally accepted doctrine the profession still clings to and forge a new _relationship that will permeate all levels of the profession. -. To accomplish this change wemust draw on the elemental energy within each of us _th~t originally drew us to this profession. Wuhin the SOlll"Ce of this energy some of us will find a fierce compassion and a true affection for the entire forest ecosystem. These are the fundamental fotees that will now drive our profession. The old doctrines of profit, fiber production, and primary loyalty ro employers will not disappear, but will be subsumed and integrated in their rightful place within the far more expansive vision of preserving life... • Excerptedfrom the April, 1991 issue of1"4 Journal of Foresuy. th4 publicauan of the Society of American Foresters. ~ Tennessee is one of several states that has received funding through the federal eittension service to start pilot logger education programs. Two one-week instruction courses run by the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service in cooperation with other groups and government agencies will provide training in ecological principles, best management practices, forest management, and safety practices. The North Carolina Forestry Association is also considering co-sp0nsoring training workshops for loggmg contractors with the state Division of Forest Resolll"CCs. Attendees would receive certificates of training and their names would be made available to landowners inquiring about responsible loggers. 4) Forest workers must defend the forests. Said Dr. George Weaver, head of the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee, "The forest products industry, like anyone else who has a stake in a resource, has to be responsible for maintaining and perpetuating that resource." Although he was speaking in a different context, his words ring true. Foresters should be some of our strongest environmentalists. Trees are pan of the forest community (or ecosystem); it is only logical that to protect the trees, one protects the forest that produces them. In the mountains, foresters and loggers should be vigorously "protecting the resource," in particular from the dangers of atmospheric deposition and the pressures of continuing land development. Forest scientists in the piedmont areas are already concerned that atm0spheric pollution might be affecting the growth·of softwoods there, and several studies have tested that connection. Other studies have (continued on page 22) :Fa£!, 1992 :Katuah )ournat p09e 21 �{continued from page 21) documented a connection between atmospheric pollution and spruce decline in the high-elevation coniferous forests. A clear cause-and-effect connection has not been conclusively proven between atmospheric deposition and Fraser fir die-offs, oak decline, dogwood blight, butternut blight, and hemlock decline. However, there is a common suspicion that pollution is implicated in the widespread and severe forest die-back. Other ecological macro-events, such as the gypsy moth invasion, global climate change, and the orone hole, are going to affect the condition of the forest, and foresters need to feel responsibility for these issues as well. . Aldo Leop<>ld spoke of our relationship with th 7forest m terms of "love and respect." Todar It would seem incongruous for a prominent ~orester to use such tenninology. What pracncal value could notions like "love" and "respect" have in forestry? Upon reflection, however, it can be seen that these are of the utmost value. They are, in fact, the very f~undation of a forestry that is truly sansfying and truly sustainable. The First People had been living in these mountains for 2,000 years of unbroken OC<:upation when they were discovered by the w~te settlers. Eve_n though it had supponed the1r culture for millennia, the forest still stood with a grandeur that awed the whites who centuries ago had sacrificed the ' European forests as "resources." There were - intentionally - less of the native people inhabiting the mountains, but that was not the sole reason for their longevity as a people. Their culture was based on love and respect for their bioregion and the other "nations" or species that shared the land with them. They directly addressed the spirits of the other beings tllTough song. Before hunting they addressed their prey in song, and after making a kill, they performed a brief ritual and offered a song of thanks. Recently the environmental group SouthPAW caused great amusement in the timber industry because they suggested in a Forest Service timber sale appeal that singing to the trees be used as a forest management technique. The group protested that the puiyose of their proposal was, of course, sanncal. They wanted to show that, whatever loggers thought of singing to the trees, it was preferable 10 the destructiveness of clearcutting. However, the South PAW proposal, so gleefully ridiculed in timber trade publications, hits directly home. Unless we have that sense of love and respect for the forest and the trees, well communicated by singing to them as the hunters of old sang to their prey, we wiJI not be able to develop a truly sustainable way of using wood in the Southern Appalachians. The day yet may come when loggers stand before a tree and, either silently or aloud, offer thanks for its life. We will know then that we are in balance with the forest and that we are well on the way toward a long-lived human culture here in the southern mountains. ~ Rick Parrish of the Southern Environmental Law Center is investigating the possibilities for initiating a Southeastern Institute for Sustainable Forestry. All those interested in supporting this effort may contact him at 201 W. Main St. (Suite 14); Charlottesville, VA 22901 (804) 977-4090. Forest Stewardship Programs # Two new programs offi:J help 10 landowners who wish lO mana11c their Corests wisely. The Forest S1ewardship Program helps landowners to devel~ s1ewardS.hip management plans for their folCSiS. The Siewardship Incentive Program offors financial help 10 enable Jandowntrs to carry out stewardship plans. Bolh programs wc,e created by the federal Fann Bill of 1990. and are supervised by SJ.ate forcsuy ai:encics, so they vary slightly from state to siate. Federal and sta1e forestry assisl311ce 10 pi:iva1e landowners is not new. What is new abont the Foresl Stewanlship/lncentive programs is the increased emphasis on non-timber val~. the degree 10 which these programs seek IO enable private landowners to ~cvc:lop and implement c0111prehensive plans to conservu wide range of land values, and the dcgteC of commitmel)L requ~ o! landowner.: participating in I.he programs. The new programs ~led in past from the growing controversies over public Jan4 managemt111 in the US. The public lands cannot meet all of our needs for wnber, wildlife (including non-game and endangered spocics) habitat, ~igh quality water nows, recreation. and beauty. Much or~ mosl potcnliaUy productive forestJs he.Id by priv.io landowners. This land could be bcuec managed. ~stewarclsbip -progrnms arc predicated on the bcijef lhat ll\ally privalC landoW!MJ.S will take good ¥ ol their f01C$1S it'they are given educatiollll, ,echnlcal, a,'ld financial help,~ some.recognition. .Landowners owning forested l!ICtS of Oan 10 to 1,000 a~ m a y ~ in ~stcwar~ programs;tQ ~ allllldo"1'tf mukt.naati: some senous comm~: • eqdgrsing tJfc ).)'Sign the •sie~ip aieecr s t ~ i p ~ti;! pledge tO Collow lbeir .slO'l¥8[~ip plan. ~L Z) Commit co improving at lc:&9l dne ol rou I"' ,d vp categ()qi:s ( wildlife_. soi.1/wAJet: timli<:r, '.& a,e f ~ ) and ~ n Ql'Pf1'{cct (l«ber values, ~) ~ i t ;t~d land w)Lfiin the tract~ Sl~ship.1118118~t. ' 41 Actively patficipate in sLe'IYirdsblp jlr.n develQl)llleru. 5) Abide by S1ale and (edc,:al JaW$ affcttin1 for~ activities. , In exe1iangc, for IIJ¢ sicw~blp comrnitmellt, Jhe atate will~ ~wnci, il'I clcveloping a st~dship plan lbat reflCClS thcu- desires fur thcit land. The plan would bedc-vel()pCd either by g(lvemment l1)SOIJroC' mQMgers or by private consuhanis, tunded through the: Stewardsllip l1*:nlive Program. °Tht" foreSUtef,'lltdship program.,; lll'O in &licit in(ancy, and it is diJTieulr tojudge wha{ the loilg-torm lmpaet,w1II be. &tate foresters in TCMe$SCC, North Carolina, South Carol:i'na, and G ~ reportlhat 110 10 l!ID sm-warw:liip plans ha~ been ~l&ed in each of lhesc sillies, and more are bcing-prcparc(1. -Je~JontS For /'/l(Jre informacio11 on 1/te;Fote,-1 Stewardship Pro_grams1n your arta. contacr-yowr stare Jor.estry dBenq, f"n(t, 1992 �,-- -.~ ·----·· ECOLOGICAL FORESTRY FOR RENEWABLE FOREST VALUES by Leon S. Minckler First, what is forest management? Traditionally, it has meant an array of practices designed to produce the most and cheapest timber products. The Society of American Foresters describes silviculmre as the science of "growing" forests. Unfonunately, this concept is widely prevalent. However, true forest management must encompass the whole forest ecosystem, including all its biological and physical factors. Forest management also needs 10 be sensitive to the preservation of the natural rhythms of the earth and the environmental and spiritual values desired and needed by mankind. The key word for forestry should be ecology: an awareness of the interconnections of species, site, climate, soil and soil organisms, water, topography, stress factors, and biological diversity. The real "products" of the forest include commodities and non-timber environmental values. The first objective of forest management must be the sustainability of the forest ecosystem itSelf. This is known as "land ethics." It's not a new concept, but it appears to be one many in forestry profession have drifted away from. Toe land ethic means that we do not "own" the land and waters. Instead, in a very real sense they own us by making life itself possible. The adulteration of natural processes and the overuse of natural resources impinges on our basic needs and desires and gradually renders the earth unlivable. Thus, forest managers can no longer afford to separate environmental and long term economic concerns. ON THE VARIABILITY OF FORESTS Ecological forestry is composed. of the following treatmentS: weeding, thinning, improvement cutting (fSI) and final harvest or regeneration cutting. When used sensitively, these practices are compatible with land ethics and can be implemented to attain biological diversity, aesthetics, water recreation, wild.life habitat, and spiritual benefits. Most foresters make timber production the prime objective of their forest management operations. Often, these foresters are only concerned with maximizing immediate economic returns. Unfortunately, many industry and public foresters confuse short-term profits with long-term sustainable economic returns and therefore ignore environmental valoes. How much is six inches of topsoil worth? How much is two weeks of forest recreation worth? Can aspects of Jove and enjoyment in a natural landscape even be tranSlated into dollars? We have reached the point in our industrialized society where these so-called amenity valoes must be thought about by the people who manage our forests to achieve these multiple values? Well, there is no one way to manage all fo~ts. This should be f"af.t, 1992 obvious, but contemporary production forestry has taken a different path: clear-cutting or single-dimension, one-shot forestry. The relationship between a patient and a doctor is a good metaphor to illuminate the way a forester should approach the management of a forest ecosystem. We must study and evaluate the forest's vital signs - its hydrology, productivity, and climate. We must think long and hard about the forest's internal structure and how we want the forest to appear now and many years into the future. We must decide what we want the forest to provide. And, most importantly, we must carefully consider how to preserve its longevity and natural health. Forests are heterogeneous, not homogeneous. Forests are vibrant and diverse, not streamlined plantations. Forest type, climate, elevation, aspect, past history (natural and human), soil-site, age class, and ecological interconnections are just some of the variables that distinguish each forest from another. CLEARCUTTING VERSUS GROUP SELECTION "Good silviculture emulates nature, but on a different scale." The ecological truth of this statement is borne out by long experience in the woods. By the practice of managing a forest for multiple objectives. By the careful cultivation of the environmental and commodity values of the ecosystem. My experience is mainly with the management of central, southern, and Appalachian mixed hardwood forests and I will focos on them; however, these same principles apply everywhere. Western and southern conifers, and pioneer species like aspen, poplar, and mid-west northern pines, have different ecological characteristics. They each have different ecological requirements and different responses to disturbance. Therefore, our silvicultural treatments must be individually tailored. Simply put, clearcutting does not emulate nature in the mixed hardwoods. These forests are naturally uneven-aged and highly diversified. They contain a wide range of species, age and size classes. They grow in a variety of site conditions. Group selection, however, imitates natural mortality and windthrow. Oearcutting advocates argue that clearcuts replicate wildfire bum patches. This statement is questionable in the arid West and almost irrelevant in the humid East where large, high-intensity forest fires rarely occur. More problematic is the fact that the nature and species composition of completely clearcut stands cannot be accurately predicted. On some sites pioneer species may regenerate. On other sites regeneration may be dominated by coppice sprouting from the root systems of the harvested trees. Still other sites may be entirely covered by maple or tulip poplar seedlings spread by the wind from a single source tree. In the end, however, clearcutting means conversion. It means that the species composition of the regenerated stand will be greatly altered by the end of the next rotation. It means the stand's native diversity and internal structure will be simplified and streamlined. While clearcutting may seem to be the cheap way to go, its long-term costs are excessively high. In order to control composition and growth, clearcut stands most be entered several times. Investments must be made for intensive forestry, fire protection, and intermediate cuttings. Moreover, the end product of clearcutting is a homogeneous forest with few large, high-quality trees. In the East, the Forest Service, and some other land managers, seem to be moving away from large clearcuts toward smaller patch cuts where two to five acres are harvested. Some may call this "group Drawing by Pegi (continued on next page) Xatuah Journat ~ 23 �(continued from page 23) selection," but in reality patch cutting is just a variation of clearcutting. Control is by area and the sites are cut without regard to tree size, species, or stand condition. This is an entirely artificial technique with no basis in ecological concepts. Wide-spread application of patch cutting will result in very peculiar forests. THE PRACTICE OF GROUP SELECTION Group selection is based on the same general concepts as single-tree selection. However, group selection is always combined with stand improvement cuts and efforts are consciously made to make small openings for new regeneration. The key word for the practice of group selection is flexibility. In preparation for group selection management. an inventory of the stand is made and trees are classified as growing stock, financially mature, low quality, undesirable species, high risk, unmerchantable culls, and wildlife trees. The growing stock (rotation potential) trees, from saplings to immature sawtimber and special wildlife trees, are left behind to grow. The others are cut or killed. Foresters base the size and spacing of the harvest opening on the condition of the forest. not mechanical, pre-determined patches of area. In general, shade tolerance, the ability to reproduce in the limited sunlight of the understory, is greater for northern hardwoods: American beech; birch; maple; and hemlock. Appalachian and central hardwood species (oaks, hickory, yellow-poplar, ash, and cherry) exhibit an intermediate level of shade tolerance. Often they require more sunlight for successful regeneration than the northern species, but they will regenerate and grow vigorously in openings that are at least as wide as the height of the swrounding residual trees. Larger openings, one and a half to two times the size of the surrounding trees, produces better early growth. It is better to make detenninations of the opening widths based on the heights of swrounding trees, rather than arbitrary acreages, because it provides a more accurate means of measuring how much light is received and how large an opening will be required for adequate regeneration. The novel structure and ecological character of eastern mixed hardwoods makes it easy to create openings in one or two cutting cycles that favor the regeneration of native, site-adapted species. After harvest the whole forest, including the regenerated areas, is then subject to intermediate treatments, such as weeding, release, thinning and stand improvement, for example, scarification of openings on good sites by tractors can result in abundant yellow-poplar regeneration if seed sources are or have been present THE KASKASKIA EXAMPLE In my experience as a research forester on the Kaskaskia Experiment Forest, in southern Illinois' Shawnee National Forest, the worst of the forest's thirty-eight compartment's was a twenty-one acre tract of "poor farm woodland." It was a central hardwood forest with a history of two or three partial cuttings-- mostly what we now call "high grading" with no stand improvement If this stand had been clearcut in 1952 it would have yielded 3048 board feet of sawtimber per acre. However, instead of clearcutting this tract, as many contemporary production foresters no doubt would recommend, we chose to apply a series of ecological group selection and improvement cuttings. Drawing by Michael Thompson In 1952 and 1959, group selection volume cutting on the tract yielded a total of 1762 board feet per acre and killed sixty-seven cull trees (five inches in diameter breast height and larger) per acre. By I967, the forest- now a diverse mix of oaks, hickory and yellow-poplar-was a fully stocked stand of good growing poles and small sawtimber. Fifteen yea.rs after the first intensive group selection and stand improvement treatments, this poor farm woodland tract contained 3167 board feet of sawtimber and fifty-nine good growing stock pole trees five to ten inches in diameter per acre. Obviously, the role of in-growth was very imponant I returned to this stand in 1988 to find a beautiful forest of mixed hardwoods. Diversity was high and quality was unusually good because the poor trees had been eliminated. The differences between a silvacultural clearcut and the intensive group selection from the original stand are easy to calculate. Clearcutting would have yielded a total of 3048 board feet per acre and would have had no market for the many five inch to ten inch diameter poles trees cut Intensive group selection, on the other hand, yielded 1762 board feet ofsawtimber per acre harvested in 1952 and 1959 and left behind by 1967 a volume of3167 board feet of sawtimber per acre. The total volume for the fifteen year group selection was 4929 board feet per acre (1881 board feet more than the cleaicut would have produced), plus many healthy saplings, and living and dead wildlife trees. After forty years, the differences between the two alternative treatments in terms of non-timber environmental values would be astonishing. The group selection cut stand will provide a tall canopied, diverse forest, while the clearcut will be covered by twenty-five to thirty foot tall saplings and poles. The group selection stand will be managed as an uneven-aged forest with volume and diameter distribution controls, while the clearcut will be managed as even-aged stand with area controls. In the long run, clearcutting mixed hardwood forest ecosystems seldom can be justified for amenity, environmental, or timber values. Let me emphasize again that different forest ecosystems should not be treated in exactly the same manner. But foresters must make a choice. They can follow ecological laws and care for the creation or they can disrupt the ecological trends of the forest ecosystem for quick profits and ease of operation. The best regional example of this type ofcareful forestry is Walton and Dee Smith's Waldee Forest in Macon County, NC (see report in Katuah Journal #9). Leon S. Minc/cler is a consultant in tnvironmental fortstry from Blaclc.sburg, Virginia. Dr. Minckler spent 33 years with the Forest Service at four eastern Forest Expuimtm Stations doing research in the silvicuiture and ecology of hardwoods. ExcerptedfromForest Watch magazine. Nov.-Dec., 1990. Forest Watch is published by Cascade Holistic Economic Consultants (CHEC): 3758 SE Milwaukie; f'ortland, OR 97202. I 1 1'"a££, 1992 �DearKatuah, I was musing the other day on the fact that billions of people refuse to see that we're all one big group, and the verse ~mposed itself which, in tum brought to Ol.l.Od the inte~ined lines which should represent our goal of coming together, of a common mind, to begin to heal Ela, Mother Earth. I'm an incurable optimist- it will happen, sooner or later, when enough caring people wakeup. Keep on the path, Jeffery R. Zachary DRUMMI NG What the Big Trees Say Come. Don't be afraid. We were once small and skittish too. Now we have lived so long, stretched our arms so high, loved intensely our own piece of land, loved it so much that we stay fiercely, intimately attached to it, never leaving. Fidelity is an important value in our community. Stay true to your lovers, the sky, the sun, the Earth. We watch over the young things, bearing our leaves, giving them time to grow before we sprout our spring. We don't let young things grow too fast - we shade them from the sun after a while. We know that growth, the best kind of growth happens slowly. We grow just the way you do our hearts expand year after year as our trunks get wider. That's the real growth, you know. Our roots mix more with the Earth while our tops stretch more toward the sun. We span and measure the distance between the sun and the Earth, between the darkness and the light. The gift we bring you is the gift of growing beyond youth, the gift of being in one place so long that your heart spreads wisdom wide, each_ year encircling more and more. We bnng maturity, a sense of deep belonging to an environment. We bring the courage to stand strong and alone as individuals, yet work together with the other plants, animals, rocks, soils and trees in our community. We can teach you how not to become stunted jn your growth, how to seek out the light places where the sun lets you grow. When you cut us down you remove that wisdom we hold for you: Maturity, Depth, Growth, a Widening Heart. Susan Klimczak Dear Katuah, Only just recently have I ~me aware of your flourishing ex_istence - picked you up on a table at the Tunle Island Bioregional Congress V near Hunt, Tens - didn't meet the folks who brought you there. Then a few days lacer I met one Billy of the Billys (of "Billy Home and Gardens, Ashevi~e") - but just briefly. Issue #34 was a hum~ger sustainable agriculture is a hot topic on my personal agenda. Articles by Bane, Hollis, Barnes, et al really cut to the core of the matter. I'm excited to imagine how much more material you have coverd with a similar depth of understanding and presentation. I want to take you up on your offer of back issues - find check enclosed. I'd like to bob with the ripples you're sending across the pond. Truly, Hal Strickland Johnson City, TX Drawing by Jeff Zachary ran:. 1992 Dear Katitalt, Is prescribed burning really best for our forests? I question this. What is the real answer? Sam Booher • Is prescribed burning best for our forests? That is still very much an open question. A careful reading of Karuah Jour_ nal #33 will reveal that it appears that the species composition of today's forest has been influenced by excessive human-caused ~s. particularly in the wake of the greatloggmg boom. For species such as Table Mountain pine, that is not such an i?'1pon~t . consideration. One of their specific ecological functions is to recolonize areas burned by fire. But how about oak trees? There is . accwnulating evidence that their presence 1s somehow linked 10, or at least encouraged by, fire. If fire were removed completely, ii might inhibit the presence of oaks considerably. Since the loss of the chestnut, oaks are a critical mast producer; many (continued on next pagcl �}ccrlllnl*I fmm pea• 1S) wildlife species, including black bears, depend heavily on acorns for their livelihood. Until the chestnut returns. we need to mainmin the oak trccS, and it might require fire to do it This is just one prominent example among many. So, while we all lOYC the feel of deep humus developed under a long-standiJ?g grove of old-growth trccS, we cannot issue a blanket condemnation of fire and its role in the forest. Naturally derived or not, the forest may have come to depend somewhat on fire. We may have to utili2.c fire 1 make a . 0 ttansition to a more narural system. It 1 also s possible that we will have to maintain it indefinitely. . What is narural? A provocanve question. There probably is no final answer. READING RESOURCES LOGGING Books raw stumps jut up through layers of autumn, ! Bwuon, Barry, and Malinda Cruu:htidd, eds.; The Great Fou st: An AppalachiDII Story (The Appalachian Consortium Press; Boone; 1985) whole~han$ in potential falling throufl' live limbs sttairung to break, board-length ttunks cut clean of appendages lie in parallel murder wounds Japing from chain teeth Clary, David; Timber and the Forest Service (Univeisity Press or KllrlsM, Lawrence, 1986) de Steigucr, J.E.; L.W. Hayden; D.L. Holley, Jr.; W.G. Luppold; W.G. Manin; D.H. Newman; and R.M. Shelfield; Southern AppalacNOII Tunbtr Sru.dy, (US Forest Service, Soulheasicm Forcs1Expcrimcn1 Station, General Technical Report SE-56) Susan Parker Weatherford -OW Eller, Ronald. D.; Miners, Mil/hands, and I THINK OF THOSE Mountai~ers: /ndu.srriallzation of the Appalachian Souih, 1880-1930 (University or Dear Karuah, Hello and Thanks! Please keep me on I think of those who have lost the luck your mailing list. I read both issues from They will never sec again, cover to cover. I am in the process of How the hours dwindle down to so much dust simplifying my life. I wan_t to.live i!' hru:mony And the evenings arc stow and labored with nature and your pubhcanon will bring Like a dying man's breathing, me much needed information along with a How the morning comes tacking promise sense of connectedness with others of like With sunshine hidden behind clouds. mind. l lhink of those who have tried to break The life-long spell of neglect; Thank you, I think of the conquered, Blessing and Light The ones who sought the prize and were lert, . MacClarlc Solitary performers, reciting thei r lines to an audience of air. .. Tennessee Press; Knoxville: 1982) Fri12, Edwo,d C.; Clearcutting . A Crime Against Nature (Eakin Press, Austtn, 1989) I Hllrris, Larry 0.: Tht Fragmented Forest: ls/Md Biogeography and the Preserwmon of Biotic Diversiry (Universi1y or Chicago Press: Chicago: 1984) Jackson. Laura E.; Mo11111au1 Treasures at Risk. The Fuiure ef the Southern Appalachian National Forests (The Wilderness Society, Washington, DC, 1989) ' Leopold, Aldo; A Sand CounJy Almanac (Od ord University Press; Cambridge: 1949) (continued &om peg• 19) causing political and economic friction . ~ nee again, as in the Pacific Northwest, the big companies are victimizing the small operations which are more dependent on the national forests and are caught in the squeeze between greater competition for timber and a growing concern for sustainable forest management As they did bef~ the large~ companies are employmg scare tactJcs by lhrearening massive job reductions and making accusations that conservation groups are advocating socialist control of privllC lands. Their aim is to use these claims to detraet from the true issue: that new scientific evidence is showing that current forest management of both public and priva1e lands is not sustainable and lb.at swiu:hing to a more natural form of management. such as selection silvicuhure, would create new jobs for smaller companies while at the same time protecting our native ccosysaems. Fonwwely, we in the Southeast have an advantage against cuporatc effons to divide our people. For ~ l e , in T ~ an alliance rl 40 hardwood timber comparues has organized to fight the chip mills. Indications are that the communities are realizing that if we are to ldcqualely proccct our forests we must accomplish tw0 things: we must embrace a new land ethic, and we must support our neighbors in the timber business who along with the environment have been the real p= ~JoumaL palJB28 victims of bad management policy. We must push f~r posi~ve incentive~ for our local industnes until they can adJust to a form of forest management more compatible with our environment I Minckler, Leon S.: WoodlaNI Ecology: Envirorrmtlll4I Forestry for the Small l.aNwwnu. (Syracuse University Press; Syracuse; 1975) Perlin, John; A Foru t Jouniq: TM Role ef Wood in In conclusion, we must listen to the words of Leopold, who once said, "~n ethical obligation on the pan of the pnvate land owner is the only visible remedy for these situations." Stated another way, the key to good forest management, w ~ it be~ ~blic or private land, will ulbmalCly be individual involvement The evidence of past abuse and the conclusions drawn from recent scientific research combine to support the case for a revision of policy based on a shift in values. We must change our priorities from a focus on short term commodity output to an emphasis on sustainable commun~ : The remedies we use to correct these policies must include choosing the wisest I ~. treating our land with respect, and abstaining from oven:onsumpcion. The choioe is a matter of ethics. Buzz Williams was formerly employed as afortst technician/or the US Forut Service but lost his job wlten lte protested excessive timber salu. He is now working as rite Southeastern Program Director efthe Association of Forest Service Employees f or Eff'llironmelllDl Ethics (AFSEEE). , tht Dtvtlopment ofCivilizalion (Nonon: 1989) Robinson, Gonion: T/te Forest a1ld tht Trtts: .4 Gllidt to Excellent Forestry (lsland Press; 1988) Schenck. Cart A.: TIie Birtli ef Forutry ilt "1Mrica · TIie Biltmore Forut School 1898-1913 (The ; Appalachian Consortium Press; Boone; 1974) Sloane, Eric; .4 Rtvtmice f or Wood (Henry Hoh & Co., l990edilion) Te,cll, Hugh and Bedlel Jr. High School Eighth GradeClals. SoNJ1110:ValleyofthtMoon: • Sut&btust (historical interviews with former woatas • the Sunburst Lumber Co., 1978) Articles Brothers. Robert; "Respectful Forestty," in In Con/Ul, Winter, 1984 ·ean Foresras Romance a Land Elbie?". theme of April, 1991 issueoClheJollTMl efForestry. L...-------------Falt, 1992 �THE CHAIR IN THE TREE There is a special advantage to working with green wood in doing joinery, the assembling of the chair. I use mortise and tenon joints. The mortise is simply a hole partway through the vertical post and the tenon is a tongue on the horizontal rung that fits into the hole. I put the rungs into a small 1ciln for a couple of days to get them bone dry befOl'C I make the tenons. To form the tenons, I have a cutter that works on my brace. The ten0n cutter is matched to my drill size to give an extremely close tolerance. It forms a tenon that is oversiud by about 1/U)() of an inch. I make the mortises while the post is still green. Green wood shrinks as it dries, so after the pieces are joined the mortises dry around the tenons and lock them into place. That makes a tighter joint than anything that can be done with kiln dried lumber. Assembling the chair can be tense, but it is satisfying. I use a rawhide mallet ro . 1moclc the pieces into place. It's a fine feeling to watch all those pans that I made laboriously one by one come together to become a whole chair. I protect the finished chair frame with a few coats of tung oil. I like the natural colors of the different woods, so I don't use any stains. The chairs darlcen slowly and evenly as they age. by Tucker Windover I live now in Madison County and I have been working wood for nearly two years. For me, interest and somc~s inspiration come from the wc:><x! 1~lf - from walking in the woods, from sphnmg firewood. or from seeing a fine table or cabineL Different woods have their own smells and textures. When you become curious about wood, and begin woodworking with a ttcc, you can never be sure exactly what you are getting into. Any piece of wood could contain hidden knots, a twisted grain, or a beautiful curly figure. There is wide variety, even within the same species, so you can't know what to ex~. The cha.irmaking process stanS with finding wood in the fo_rcsL ~u~ting wood reminds me of fly-fishing - n gives me an excuse to be out in the woods. I find myself wandering around looking for tn:CS, or sometimes just wandering around. I remember those moments as I go through the process of buil~g ~ chair. -ro ~p that connection in mind 1 very sansfying. s Like any logger, I am usually looking for trees more than 14 inches in diameter. I search for oak and hick<X')'. Occasionally I have found ash in this area, but I have never used iL Black walnut is always a nice possibility, if you can luck into iL I don't saw the logs into boards. Instead, I split the log into four even sections or qlWterS with wedges and a sledge hammer. Every time I open up a log, I feel anticipation as I drive in one wedge after another until it spliu apart. Ideally tl';C log. splits into two perfect halves. Sometimes n snaps open with a sharp "crack!," and.the two halves roll apan as ncally as opemng a book. Sometimes I fight and tear and cuss and finally have to haul out the axe to get the stubborn log to spliL So~ are hopes and disaPt>Ointments. I never know what experiences lie inside a given ~. and I n~ know bow many chairs a log will make until all the pans are shaved down to their final sizes. Finding good chair legs and rungs in a log is tricky business. To get my "rough stock" (wood which is roughly the siz.e of my finished chair pans), I split the quarters by a process called "riving," which is carefully CO!'trolled splitting. Trees such as oak, hickory, and ash arc called "ring porous woods" aDC;1 are the easiest to split this way, due to their pattern of annual growth. Their spring and early . summer growth consists of large-por:ed. airy cells. while their late season growth 1s dense. The ttcc thus becomes a wrapping of well-defined strong and weak layers. Splitting along these layers is controllable and reasonably predictable. I ming this rough stoelc to the shaving horse - a low bench with a jaw that grasps the wood just below the c~ lev_l of someone c sining on the horse. The Jaw is opened and closed with a foot treadle. With the stoelc held Falt, 1992 steady in the jaw, I carefully shape out the chair pans with a drawlcnife and a spokeshave. A spokeshave is a small to0l that has a mounted blade with a handle on either side. It is designed especially for working rounded surfaces. lt was first used to make wagon wheels - hence its name. I work the wood while it is still greeg. Wood is much softer when it is green and thus men suitable for working with hand tools. I measure and mule my pieces. but I also have to rely on my hands and my eyes. To get a really fine finish on my chairs. I use a finely tuned spokeshave. Sandpaper abrades wood. To get a clean finished surf~ on wood most chainnakas use a lcecn-cutbng hand plane or spokeshave. A good spokeshave can cut a shaving that is thinner than tissue paper. It is simple in design. but it is a remmbblc IDOL Wood shaved by hand has a texture which 1alhcd wood lacks. It sometimes rcuins curves or pccutiarim that are reminiscent of the ttcc's original growth. There might be a tiulc knot, a little bit of twist, or a wormhole. Different woods feel different in your hands when you arc working th~ They give differently under the drawknife. Some are troublesome and can be a challenge ro shave down to a clean surface. Red oak can be very coarse, while hickory shavings tend to be more even and smooth. You can 1eam to recognize green woods by their smell as well as by their feel. Walnut is a favorite wood of mine. It has a wonderful smell It's greaa to have a ~e of walnut shavings in the shop. Red oak lS sometimes called "piss-oak" because of its smell. But it never bodlcn me. I like bow wood smells. Hickory bark is my favorite ma1eria1 for making chair seats. The bark must be harvested in the spring or early summer. At that time of year, when ~ is rapid growth and lots of moisture in the tree, the bark is tender and easy to wark. I choose a sapling (CClllliaad cm Mlll pap) �~continued rrom page 27) make any sense. I recently saw a videotape of an old man from Switzerland, a cooper. He was obviously a master craftsperson. Although he had great dexterity and technical expenise, what impressed me the most was how completely this man was absorbed in his work. While he was working in his shop, he was in his place. This clement of crafunanship - this combination of composure and concentration - is what work is about. If that element of lhe craft is lacking, lhen our labor is incomplete. Fine craftsmanship requires complete attention. But to achieve lhis level of attention, a woodworker needs to understand - to see and to experience - the whole process of lhe object he has wrought, from the forest to the finished piece. There are times when I feel at home with my work. Of course, some days it just feels like hard work. But there are other days when it is sweet, so sweet, to listen to and shave off the outer bark, exposing the inner bark, which is quite pretty. I score lines one inch apan the length of the tree with a jackknife, and peel off the inner bark one strip at a time. I use this inner bark to weave the chair seat. Any woodworker learns quickly that in order to make a living, the hand tool must be dropped at some point and the electric powered tool needs to be used. The process of building a single chair is simply too labor intensive. For myself, however, I am not sure how to define the line where handwork drops off and machine work begins. Machines make production many times easier and faster; but what good is there in having so many cheap mass-produced objects? The real concern is: to what extent have machine tools improved crafrsmo.nship? Here, we need to understand what craftsmanship really is, which is hard to do because there are so few craftspeople around any more. To find someone who can take clay or glass or wool and turn it into something that is beautiful and functional as well, that is a truly wonderful thing. Machines have not made better craftspeople; they have eliminated them, which does not sh,viog, ,,.., off <he woode/ ~ Drawing by Hope Walker Plwto by Elmu Holl "The area's oldest and latgcst natural foodsgroo?fY " c.o"'°'illG- •oo~ Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grains Vitamins & Supplements Wheat, Salt & Yeast-Free Foods Dairy Substitutes Hair & Skin Care Products Beer & Wine Making Supplies CA.~~s ,ao &6~ aaoc,. C"-\\~~lt,N.C. 2.1-,,r Ill l)•llc,c234 -NC287J9 200 W. King St, Boone, NC 28607 ~)6934>l35 speaking f2.r..the earth. whole earth grocery dclcr of Big Cove 1pealu of tndiliom and 1inp the Booger Dance, Crcco Coro Dance and ' ·, .·. '\ I r1 .. NATURAL MARKET WHOLE FOODS • BULK FOODS • VITAMINES • HERBS • FAT PREE FOODS • TAKE OUT FOODS • SNACKS • NO SALT, NO CHOLESTEROL 265-2700 823 Blowing Rock Rd. Boone. NC 28607 Xotilah Jou.mat page 28 ~ NATURAL ALTERNATIVES FOR HEALTHFUL LIVlNG 446 e.parkway aaft center • suite 11 gatlinburg, tennessee 37738 615-436-6967 ~ 14,\ othen with drum and rattk. WHERE THE RAVENS ROOS1 .:.: f'ril (704) 264-5220 Cherokee traditional tongs of Walker Calhoun Sn£Cnsx> AS Ml OOl"STAl,'l)fl,IQ RlUt R£coaDrNQ 8Y THE UIIMltT 0/F• Talking Leaves is a moothly journal of deep ecology, inspired penoual activism rooted in wthm spirituality. Past issues have featured articles by Gary Snyder, Swbawk, Jobo Seed, Joanoa Macy, Bill Devall, Looe Wolf Circles. Barbara Mor, etc. Ta/Jcing Lea,-a speus for the oannl world and for the rekindlioa of our own wild spirit COH(IJIBSS CMmn AND IIOOICLIT S 12 Moul<TAIN HDITA<lt CDrn:ll WIS"lnN CAllOLIN,\ UNTVtUlTY Cuu.ow8i:!, NC 28723 Subscriptions arc $18.00 one year/ SZA.00 outside U.S. Ta/Jcing Lea,-a 1430 Willamette 1'361 Eu,-, OR 97401 503/342-2974 Taft, 199rz �Reading the Grove by Charlotte Homsher These are some of my observations on how to study trees in a grove with an eye to recognizing che invisible forces at work. In order co find a grove, the first thing you have to do is gee off the main trail. Hiking trails are almost always arbitrary cues that slice across the forest. Exceptions to this are the Indian trails which were the original animal runs or bison trails. Trees do eventually accommodate the presence of the artificial trails, but this is a process that can take several generations of human lifetimes. To get to a grove, I recommend walking barefoot to minimii.e the impact on the forest floor and also to stimulate one's sensual awareness by immediate, direct contact with the earth. Finding a magic grove is something like searching for morel mushrooms. It requires quiet observation, stealth, and perseverance. The object is to find a grove where the trees have no particular relationship with humans but are primarily connected in a group with each other. A grove is defined by specific physical boundaries which may be water, rock formations, or an abrupt change in vegetati9n. The shape of a grove is usually circular. I can most easily recognize a grove if I am looking for a nature spirit home or settlement. To some there may be a question of whether the nature spirits created a grove in a particular way to accommodate themselves or whether a certain panem of tree growth attracted the nature spirits. I think it is co-creation of both the trees and the spirits or of the visible and the invisible. I do recognize a grove as having specific character which changes even a few feet away. A grove supports more variety of life than the trees immediately outside the grove. lfl want to understand the relationships of trees to each other in a grove, I need to stay very quiet and observe as a detached outsider. The tree itself is an interface of superimposed spatial realities. There is energy at every level of the tree, from the deepest taproot all the way up the trunk into the canopy and above the crown. These energies can be felt, or seen as color and/or shape. Those who can see nature spirits describe this creative energy as a variety of spirits which live on one tree. (I am thirucing particularly of Geoffrey Hodson who watched nature spirits change shape and size as they fluidly dissolved in and out of the solid mass of the tree.) Auras of trees blend with each other. Mature trees have expansive auras which bathe nearby younger trees in their light. l believe this is a generational nourishing and teaching process in which the older trees influence the younger trees. Like people, trees can take on a predominate level of energy which can be defined as chakra level or specific role playing. Native Americans referred to trees as the Standing Men because, like us, trees ThC£, 1992 stand upright between heaven and earth. A grove is a family group of separate beings that at the same time creates the one Standing Man represented by all the trees playing different pans to make the whole. What I call the grounded tree is analogous to the grandmother or grandfather and may be the oldest, largest tree. Much like the function of the feet of humiµ1s, this tree is particularly adept at bringing earth energy up through the roots and trunk and making this earth nourishment available to the plant life in the immediate vicinity. It helps in the nourishing process as does the binhing tree, the mother tree. The seeds from the mother tree are particularly potent. There may be more nature spirit activity around these trees, especially of the kind of nature spirit interested in seed saving and propagation. The mother tree supports an abundance of life of every kind. Birds and forest animals are attracted to the mother tree. Moss and growth of all kinds will be abundant on the trunk. The boughs of the tree may extend to neighboring trees in a nesting kind of way. Unusually lush patches of wildflowers or many sapling trees will grow close to the mother tree. The beauty tree is particularly graceful in form and is a joy and inspiration to all the other trees. The speaker rree is the communicator and the mediator. It understands the language of many life forms and relays information. Of all the trees in the grove the speaker tree is the one most likely to speak to humans. If one spends a long enough time under a speaker tree, the tree will begin to influence one's thoughts. It has listened to the stories of woodland animals and migrating birds. It knows about the health of its species and about trees in other parts of the world. The spire tree is the tree in the grove most resp~>nsible for bringu'!g in the cosmic energies. It is usually the talfest tree. It has the most far-reaching view. It helps open up the species or the grove itself into inter-dimensional reality. The reaching bough trees are the good neighbors, the loving trees. They intertwine their limbs with nearby trees and twist their trunks toward their neighbors. They extend the wannth and comfon of their being to the other trees. Not every grove will contain all these types of trees. This is only an indication of the outward form of what I think is an awareness of trees for each other. Young trees do not have enough character to have assumed importance in the relationships of the grove. But if a mature tree is destroyed, then a younger tree, even an understory tree, can be groomed by the nature spirits to replace the old tree. If this happens, the characteristic traits of the mature tree will begin to manifest in the smaller, chosen tree, which may be of a different species. I·know of one grove in which several prominent "trees" are actually old-growth ,,# rhododendron. p Drawing by Pegi �The North Carolina American Chestnut Foundation If the American Chestnut tree is to once again compliment the mountains of the Katuah bioregion, your help will be needed. This is not a hybrid tree. Planted here on a half-acre of land are some forty-seven true American chestnut seedlings. But they cannot grow on such a limited piece of land. They need many acres on which to spread their magnificence; where both human and animal can enjoy their fruits. This is a hypovirulent strain, and therefore blight-resistant. Such trees usually survive attack by the fungus Endotlua parasirica. These seedlings have come from old trees that have resisted the virus. By constant checking and proper nunuring, we may re-establish this tree in our moutains. Will you help? These seedlings must be transplanted into their permanent home no later than February or March of 1993. They are three year old seedlings. and doing just fine now, but they will need land to mature on. Money (for more trees and help in bringing them to maturity) is needed and so is a great deal of acreage. The more land available, the more of these special trees can be grown, and the more the land and wildlife will gain. Are there old farms no longer being fanned for whatever reason? ls their acreage unused? Are there landowners who have no children to leave their land to, who would rather see it go to something beneficial to the Earth and the many animals for whom the chestnut was a staple food? Would you be interested in supporting the chestnut rather than have your land go to the State where, too often, wealth or political power, permit clear-cutting and destruction instead of caring? This work is not for profit. Do you remember as a child the beauty of the tree, and the unmatchable flavor of chestnuts cooked in an iron skillet over an open fire? That beauty and the joy of chestnuts can be shared with today's young people, and tomorrow's. We must have a deep and abiding faith that God will touch the hearts of those who can help this effort to allow these trees their full potential. If you want to help and be a part of this worthwhile goal, generations to come will be forever grateful. Dorothy Diclcson The North Carolina Amtrican Chestnut Foundation l l ] Awumn lane llarri.sonburg, NC 28075 (The North Carolina Amtrican ChestnUJ Foundation is not offiliattd in any woy wirh the American Chestnut FoundallOn.) RARE SPEOES NEED HELP! The Biodiversity Legal Foundation (BLF) is calling on grassroots environmenral activists with a strong biological interest and legal orientation to develop comprehensive reviews of the biological status and distribution of inadequately protected rare and endangered species in the East. Information cpllected in these status reviews will be used to develop and implement effective administrative, legal, and public education programs on behalf of the species or subspecies. These are all species that the Biodiversity Legal Foundation considers to be biologically threatened or endangered. but that have not been added to the official list of federally protected species under the Endangered Species Act Species of special concern requiring priority status reviews in the Appalachian states include: Brachymenium andersonii Cy/indrocolea andersoni Psoralea macroplcylla (scurf-pea) Solidago plumosa lesquerella perf orata (Spring Creek bladder pod) Lesquerella sronensis (Stones River bladder pod) The Biodiversity Legal Foundation conducts biological research to identify species that are in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act and provide the necessary documentation to press petitions before the US Fish and Wildlife Service for endangered species status. BLF staff will cooperate in the development of conservation and recovery plans for petitioned and listed specie:s or will develop legal actions to compel federal and state agencies to comply with the laws intended to protect natural diversity, as is appropriate. Contact: The Biodivusiry ugal Foundation Boz 18327 Boulder, CO 80308 ~vl-~,~-,~ w -~ V' Alternatives ... The Dirt1ctnry of lntt-ntional ConfJ,wnlllt!. is lhe prod· < uct of two years of intensive research. and is lhe most comprehensive and accurate di.rectory available. It documcnis lhe vision and lhc daily ltfc of more lhan 350 communities in North America, aud more lhan 50 on olher continents. Each community's listing includes name, address. phone. and a dcsc,ip•Jon of lhc group. Extensive cross-rcfcrcnr,ni; and mil'-• ing makes lhe infonnation easy to access for., wide vancty of users. Includes maps, over 250 atldit.ional kesourcc listings, and 40 rclared articles. Programs to encourage self ond Earth oworeness. celeblolion. kinship ond hope. Covi~ffiN'i·1·11·~~ Perfcctbouud • Youth Camps • School Programs • Famlly Camps· Te&cher Tra,n,ng • Community Program• • Camp Slaff Training • Outdoot Program Consulting Octobu I990 ISBN Number: 0 9602714-1-4 .~°P P.O. Box 1306 Gon.,burg. Temessee 3n33 6 15--436-6203 328 pages 11-1/hll ~ • •L ~: w t $16.00 Add $2.00 postage & handling ror first book. $.50 for each aJdt1ionJl; 4u% <l rM:ount on orders of 111 w more. Alpha Fann. Deadwood. OR (509)~5102 REGIONAL RADIO Featuring Crossroads music, NPR news and music programs, regional news and information concerning health, education, government, recreation, and the environment. WNO/II· FM P.O. Box 804 Spindolc, NC 28160 (704) 287-8000 ,=-on, l 992 �TRANSFORM Transportation in NC The Four Directions: Native Literary Magazine The Snowbird Publishing Company of TelJico Plains, TN is owned by Native American Indians and publishes works by native people. Now !he company is offering The Four Directions American Indian literary Quarterly. The magazine will make available the poetry, short stories, anicles, historic narratives, and artwork of the native peoples. Tt will also fearure commentary on issues facing the native tribes today: education, health, women's issues, thefts of native artifacts ("professional" as well as "amateur), and environmental issues. The first two issues of The Four Directions Literary Quarterly are now on sale. Snowbird Publishing Company is owned by Joanna and William Meyer of Tellico Plains. Joanna is Cherokee/Navajo; William is Cherokee/Creek. Between them, the two have much experience in writing, editing, and publishing, as well as working in native communities on issues of concern to the native people. William has been assistant editor and reporter for the American Indian Historical Society and its newspaper Wassaja. He was also editor of publications for fndigena, Inc., an international organi7.ation of native peoples based in Berkeley, CA. With Burke Armstrong, he co-founded American Indian News Team, the first national Indian news agency. TM Four Directions A=rican Indian literary Quarterly is available for $21.00 for four issues from Snowbird Publishing company; Box 729; Tellico plains, TN 37385. CaU (615) 546-7001. POWER TO THE PESSIMISTS! "What's happ'nin'?" Here's how to find out - what's cool and what's not, what's drab and what's hot. lt's Power 10 the Pessimists, a rare glimpse into the mind of (some ot) today's young people, freely offered by the students themselves. The mystery publisher of P llJ the P is identified only as Monrovia, thought to be a student at the Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville, NC. The stapled newsletter is all '90's - xerographies, paper gra.fitti, poems, personal (very!) statements, random decorative art pieces (doodles), and lots of tenth grade wit and wisdom This paper even has "sensitive boy poets!" - and you thought they were dead! Young people will want to check out Power to the Pessimists as valuable communication. Older people will relish,the perspective it offers on the world as the coming generation sees it. (So, obviously, it's a publication for everyone.) Entertaining and insightful, P co the P is.. .is.. Js... fresh! And definitely worth picking up on. Contacl Power 10 IM Pessimists al: 1890 Hannah Branch Rd. Burnsville, NC 28714 (IL's only $5.00 for one year - bu1 !hey deserve better lhan lhaL) Spurred by a recent series of articles published in the North Carolina Independent, a group of North Carolina citizens gathered on the lawn of the state capitol in Raleigh September 10 10 announce the formation of the NC Alliance for Transportation Reform. The group consists of individuals from many different backgrounds. Some members are veteran road-fighters who want to protect their yards or neighborhoods from intrusive projects. Some are people who see our automotive lifestyle as one that the natural world cannot afford. Others believe they should not be paying the high tax rates that come with unneeded highway projects. The statewide group proposes that the the current system of political favoritism be replaced with <?ne that gives o~ary ci~ens, environmental1sts, planners, pubhc transit advocates, and the scientific community more authority. Transponation Reform would abolish the Highway Trust Fund (transponation funding would be subject to the same rules and budget procedures as all other state projects), and it would require the DOT to use environmental standards that meet or exceed federal regulations. The group will target gubernatorial and legislative candidates during the 1992 election and it will ask the two candidates for state auditor to commit to an in-depth performance audit of the DOT. For more information, write: N.C. Alliance for Transportation Reform; Box 1002; Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514, or call western North Carolina contact Rusty Sivils at (704) 258-8737. Drawing by Hope Walker 1492-1992: NEW VISIONS NEW ALLIANCFS Wbile many ,cc the issues ofColwnbus' invasioa u SOO )UIS in lhc past. llw:rc by ~ob Messick Get a set of 10 assorted folding cards with artwork as seen in I<atuah Journal. Send $11.25 ppd to: Rob Messick Rt.8, Box323 Lenoir, NC 28645 Tact, 1992 arc about 1.4 million original North ~ among us loday. They Olce • wide range or life and death issues lo which newer Americans ue o'14I blind. 1491,1991.- NEW VJSJONS, NEW ALLJ. AJ.K:ES provides insights Ullo lhe Europe from ~b Columbus Jmmcbed bis Y(Tj· ages, a mon: realistic portrayal of North American histoiy followmg lhe European mvasioa. and ccamplcs of lhc battles Native AmcritaDS musl still f'3hl lod3y. 30 pp. S4 each. Sl.SO for IS or more. ENERGY rooLS ·l·lfMJ~G, WAWDS· MtD ICIN€ BAGS C.RYSTALS•TI\Ll<INC:i STICl(S • DRU~.S • MEDI C.INE STAFFS•SiONES ANO MO~ ASHEVILLE. NC 704-158- tt'l~I Return to: Mobilization for SUrvival 328 Flatbush Ave., Suite 155 Brooklyn, NY 11238 Drawing by Michael Thompson '.K.atuah Jou.mat page 31 �events 'l WAYNESVILLE, NC Meditation Retreat gives you the chance IO spend the weekend with your reflective self. Leon Frankel, resident managet of Stil-Light Theosophical Retrea1 Center, will offer instruction in basic breath-awareness meditation toclmiques. Pre-register: $40 plus meals and lodging. For more info on this and other programs, contaet Stil-Lighl, Route I, Box 326, Waynesville, NC 28786. (704) 452-4569. ASHEVILLE, NC Reading the Inner Tree is a short course on tuning into tree energy. Learn to recognize special trees and magic groves with facilitator Oiarlotte Homsher. Pre-register. S35 for beginners' two-session class on Ociober 3 and IO. Advanced class will be Octobu 24, and cost $25. For more info, call (704) 253-5917. BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC Southeast Light Linlc '92 is a regional network gathering for those involved in planetary uansformation. The agenda includes large and small cucles to share ideas, resources, visions ... no workshops! Pre-register.$115 includes meals and lodging. For info, contact Anne Gillis, 4311 Harvest Hill Road, Memphis, TN 38141. (901) 761-3435 or (901) 362-8431. 27-29 CHEROKEE, NC Cherokee Fall Festival at the Ceremonial Grounds. Traditional dancing and costumes, dance competitions. For info, call (800) 438-1601. 6-10 30-11/1 WESSER, NC 10th Guest Appreciation Festival and Used Equipment Sale will include music, mini-courses and general family fun. For info on this and other events, CODll!Cl the Nantahala OuldoorCcntcr, 41 Hwy 19 West., Bryson City, NC 28713. (704) 488-2175. NORRIS, TN Tennessee Fall Homecoming is a celebration of traditional mountain culture at the }fuscum of Appalachia. Music, crafts and demonstrations of rural life skills, in addition IO the Museum's regular exhibits. For info, call the Museum at (615) 494-7680. 7-11 SEPTEMBER 18-30 WASHBURN, TN Intensive Pennaculture for the Southeast is an intensive course offering practical training in the design of agricultural ecosystems with the diversity and long-term sustainability of the natural world.Course will be held at Narrow Ridge Farm and will focus on strategies and techniques for the Katuah bioregion. Contact: Chuck Marsh; Box 1488; Highlands, NC 28741 (704) 526-3535. ASHEVJLLE, NC "Kituwah" - the second annual iniertribal Native American culrural celebration. Drumming and dance competition, traditional crafts sale, juried fine ans show and an educational program for kids will all happen at the Asheville Civic Center. Admission: $5-10. For mo.re info, call (704) 252-3881. SWANNANOA,NC Drum andRanle Making Wodcshop with Hawk Hurst. For more info about this and other programs, contaet the Earth Center. See 10/10. 23-25 3 ASHEVILLE, NC WNC Alliance Annual Membership Meeting is open IO the public as the Alliance marts its lCllth anniversary. Agenda includes workshops and legislative update. Pre-register. SIS includes lunch. For info, contact the AlJjance, 70 Woodfin Place, Asheville, NC 28801. (704) 258-8737. 3 1 7-JS NOVEMBER 6-8 10 SWANNANOA, NC Dance for the Ancestors will follow the monthly Full Moon Lodge at the Earth Center. All-night dancing, singing and drumming to honor the Native People, five hundred years after Columbus. Families are encouraged to come. For more info, contact the Eanh Center, 302 Old Fellowship Road, Swannanoa, NC 28778. (704) 298-3935. ~ GREAT SMOKIES PARK Appalachian Crafl Jubilee will provide an oppornmity IO learn traditional mountain craft techniques in basketry, pottery, weaving and other crafts. Pre-register: $100 includes meals and lodging. For info on this and other programs, contac1 Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, Rt I, Box 700, Townsend, TN 37882. (615) 448-67()() 7 SWANNANOA, NC Full Moon Lodge begins at noon each month, followed by a shared meal. cau the Earth Center for more info. See 10/10. 24-27 CULLOWHEE, NC Mountain Heritage Day is a celebcation of the music, dance, crafts and folklifc of Katuah. Shape-note singers, gunsmiths, storytellers. quilters and others will be on hand, in addition to the Mountain Heritage Center's exhibits. For more info, contact the Center at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723. (704) 227-7234. 26 11 FULL MOON/ HUNTERS MOON 10 FULL MOON/ BEAVER MOON DECEMBER HELEN, GA Falling Leaves Rendezvous will offer serious instruction in the ans and lifeways of indigenous people. Skills include making fire by friction, stallcing and tracking, tool making, plant identification. lnstuctors will be Darry Wood, Snowbear, and others. For info, contact Bob Slack, Jr., Unicoi Stare Part, Helen, GA 30545. (404) 878-2201. 15-18 2-6 HOT SPRINGS, NC From Confusion IO Enlightenment is the title of a meditative retreat led by Thubten Chodron. an American Tibetan Buddhist nun. Pre-register: S 150 includes vegan meals and lodging. For info on this and other programs, contact Southern Dharma Rcireat Center, RL I, Box 34H, Rot Springs, NC 28743. (704) 622-7112. S-6 OCTOBER JONESBORO, TN 20th Annual National Storytelling Festival will feawre the best yam-spinners and tall-tale-tellers from all ovet. For info, call the National Association for the Preservation and PerpctuAtion of Storytelling at (615) 753-2171. 2-4 Drawing by Rob Messick 16-18 NEW MARKET, TN STP School is a periodic weekend gathering designed to "benefit members of grassroots groups currenlly working on concrete environmental issues." This session will focus on environmental litigation. Pre-register: cost is low and negotiable. For info about this and other programs, coniac1 the Highlander Center, 1959 Highlander Way, New Market TN 37820. (615) 933-3443. GREAT SMOKIES PARK Winter Highcountry Camping in a backcountry shelter. For info on this and other field COl11'SCS, contact Smoky Mountam Field School, 600 Henley Street., Suite 105, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37902. (800) 284-8885 or (615) 974-0150. 9 FULL MOON ralC., 1992 �GOOD EAR1H .ORGANJ~ - in Asheville has a nctWOrk-~eting p~-wh)ch can provide a substantial part-time income. (Full time in 18-24 months). This is needed in any area, no training required. We provide !raining and all assistance needed to get you started in yoor own business. Contact Good Earth at (704) 252-7169. RAW. CHEMICAL-FREE HONEY • with comb or withoUL Tulip poplar and Sourwood honey from the foresis of Patrick County, VA. No chemical. no white sugar, no heal - ever. Strained through cheesecloth and packed in glass. Limited quantities. Call or write for prices and availability. Wade Buckholts - Bull Mountain Beelreepers; Rt 2, Box 1516: Stuart. VA 24171. (703) 694-4571. WISE WOMAN TRADmON • herbal healing workshops with Wh.itewolf. • Sept 12-13: Campout and weed walks, Waynesville, NC. • Sept 29 • Oct 4: Apprentice Week near Atlanta, GA. • Nov. 6-8: Fall Rootwork Weekend in NC mountains. Root digging, medicine-making, inner journeying. Sliding scale, work-exchange. Wolf, P.O. Box 576; Asheville, NC 28802. TI-IE ALTERNATIVE READING ROOM. is an unconventional library; free and open 10 the public. Our collection interests include the environment, social and political issues, the media and peace. We have over 200 magazine subscriptions. The book and video collections also emphasize the environment and political concerns. Books and VCR's can be checked out A video player is available for watch.ing films in the reading room. Located at 2 Wall St. #114; Asheville, NC 28801 (704) 252-2501. Mon/Wed/Fri 6-8 pm - Tues/Sol I0-6pm - Sat/Sun l-6pm BEGINN1NG CHEROKEE LANGUAGE BOOKNATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONIALS • include handcrafted Native American ceremonial supplies. Drums, Custom Pipes, Medlcine Bags, SweetgraSs, Sage, Feathers, Rawhide Raules, Tobaccos, Pipe Bags, Native Autes, and more! For lice catalog send to: P.O. Box 1062-K; Cherokee, NC 28719. TREE PLANTERS NEEDED - Men, Women, families. Hare! work (much done for paper & timber co's.) for great pay. December through March in the Southeast Mobile camper rt.quired (pick-up with camper, trailer, van, bus, etc.) Send resume to: Eclcerman Forestry Service; RLI, Box 290-D: Wam:nsville, NC 28693. (919) 385-6838. BACK TO THE SOURCE - is an advenwre in the spectacular beauty of our remaining wilderness and is the highest quality baclcpaclcing guide service available. We specialize in small group, minimal impact journeys into the most remote wildlands in America. For a brochure write: Back to the Source, Lee Mercer; 361 I White Ave; Baltimore, MD 21206. (410) 426-6016. - - life's n=essitiesfor less - - FRENCH BROAD Fooo supplemented with two cassettes. Stresses alphabet & proper pronunciation. The first textbook written for use in ieaching and learning the Cherolcee language. (346 pages) $39.95 plus $5.00 shipping. Calalog also available with tapes., books, pipes, dance sticks, drums, feathers, furs, buffalo products, and more. Craft supplies also available. (please specify). Send $200 to the Muskrat Trader, P.O. Box 20033; Roanoke, VA 24018. HAWKWIND EAR1H RENEWAL COOPERATIVE • is a 77 acre wilderness retreat located on Loolcout Mountain Parkway in northern Alabama Easy ~ . safe family camping, year round weekend programs featuring Native American elders and Eanh teachers from around the world. Strong spiritual foundation with Earth Renewal emphasis, membership discount co-op. There is no charge for Native American ceremonies; reservations required for all visits, please. Childcare often available. Write: P.O. Box 11; Valley Head. AL 35989 (205) 635-6304. For quarterly newsleuer and program updates send $10.00. • There is a charge of $2.50 (pre-paid) per entry of 50 words or less in Webworking. Submit entries for Issue #37 by November 15, 1992 to: Rob Messick; Rt. 8, Box 323· Lenoir, NC 28645. (704) 754-6097. • Co,op Kalmia Center, Inc. 90 8u.TMOR£ A ~ 00WIJTOVIN AsHEv!ui Sylva, NC (704) 293-3015 ('104) yr,,,r ammumity Custom tilling, organic fertilizers, kelp meal, colloidal phosphate & many more products and services for abundant gardening and healthful living. 255-7650 .....,.,,.,,.,_,,... groary stare ..... ~F--,•t .... •lpm. ......,.laa D f llffi. rl :Thu 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 fnll, 1992 NATIVE FLUTES Two styles made 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 Sa"'!)' Mush Herb Nursto/ WREATHS•POTPOURRI • HERBS • TOPIARY Complete Herb Catalog - $4 Describes more than 800 plants from Aloe to Yarraw Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road Leicester, North Carolina 2874S Phone for appointment to visit (704) 683-2014 �D ear Members of Katuah Journal, After nearly 10 years of service to the Karuah Bioregional Province, the Katuah Journal newspaper will be ceasing publication in the summer of 1993. We have not been able to find enough people able to take long term responsibility for a project of this scale on a volunteer basis. While we are stopping the journal, we will keep the non-profit organization "Karuah" alive in order to have the.option of carrying out future bioregional projects. The Board of Directors for the Karuah organization will consist of: David Wheeler, Rob Messick, and Lee Barnes. We will meet at least once a year to keep track of organization business and to discuss future options. Any member who has project ideas or is interested in participating in this process should write us at: Karuah Futures; Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC 28645 or call (704) 754-6097. The winter issue of Katuah Journal #37 will be on "Bio-visions" or graphic art representations of what the bioregion is and what it could be. In the spring we will publish an issue devoted to alternative transportation in the Karuah bioregion. The final summer issue will contain an index to the Katuah Journal, a listing of other bioregionally-oriented organizations in the province, and tie up loose ends. Thank you for your generous support of Katuah Journal over the years. Without your help the paper would not have been as vibrant or as vital as it has been . We d ecided to end the tradition of publishing the journal with some measure of strength, rather than watch it slowly fizzle out. If you have comments or suggestions for the future, we w ould like to hear from you. Sincerely, Katuah Journal Staff /1 I would like to order issues: #37 (Winter 1992-93) "Bio-visions" #38 (Spring 1993) Alternative Transportation #39 (Summer 1993) Index & Resources Name _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ For a total value of $7.50 Katuah Journal Rt. 8 Box 323 Lenoir, NC Katuah Province 28645 Issue #39 of the Ka Mah Journal will contain a resource guide to groups and organizations devoted to protecting and restoring the natural world in the bioregion and working to sustain the web of life and our human economic and social systems in Katuah. We have postulated the following categories of activity: Regional Economy Health and Healing Appropriate Technology Appropriate TranspoTtation Councils &: Decision Making Peace Issues &: Conflict Resolution Xatuaf, Jour naC page 34 Shelter Education Agriculture Spiritual Life Natural Ecology Drawing by Rob Messick Town _ _ _ _ _ State_ _ Zip _ _ __ The success of this project will depend on your participation. Please send us information about your group and other groups that are working in your area. Offer other categories, if you like. Use additional sheets of paper if necessary. Give name, address, phone number, a one paragraph description of their work, and possibly a brief quote expressing their purpose. Enclose a copy of the organizational logo, if possible, and any photographs or drawings of group activities or the products of their work. Please also enclose your name, address, and phone in case there is a need for follow-up contacts. Submissions must be received by April 31, 1993. Mail to Katuah Journal; Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC 28645. rau., 1992 �··:KAT UAH KON FU S\ON :.. b-:, Rob MessicK BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE ISSUE THREE-SPRING 1984 Sustainable Agriculture. Sunflowers· Human Impact on the Forest - Childrens' Education· Veronica Nicholas: Woman in Politics· Little People • Medicine Allies ISSUE FOUR· SUMMER 1984 Water Drum· Walef Quality. Kudzu · Solar Eclipse • Clearculling • Trout • Going IO Water • Ram Pumps· MicrohydJO. 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 Dnnmess - Politics of Participation ISSUE SlX • WINTER 1984-8S Winter Solstice Eanh Ceremony - Horsepasture River - Coming of the Light - Log Cabin Mountain Agriculture: The Right Crop - William Taylor - The Future of the Forest ISSUE SEVEN - SPRING 198S Sustainable Economics. Hot Springs· Worker Ownership-The Great Economy - Self Help Credit Union - Wild Turkey • Responsible Investing Working in the Web of Life lSSUE EIGI-IT • SUMMER 198S Celebration: A Way of Life- Katuah 18,000 Years Ago· Sacred Sites - Follc Arts in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems: Hilda Downer Cherokee Heritage Center. Who Owns Appalachia? ISSUE NINE - FALL 198S The Waldee Forest - The Trees Speak • Migrating Forests - Horse Logging - Slllrting a Tree Crop • Urban Trees • Acom Bread - Myth Time ISSUE TEN- WINTER 198S-86 Kate Rogers. Circles of Stone . lntcmal Mythmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial - Poems: Steve Knauth - Mythic Places - The Uklena's Talc • Crystal Magic - "Dreamspealcing• ISSUE THIRTEEN - FALL 1986 Center For Awakening • Elizabeth Callari • A Gentle Death • Hospice. Ernest Morgan • Dcnling Creatively with Death· Home Burial Box - The Wake· The Raven Mocker - Woodslore & Wildwoods Wisdom • Good Medicine: The Sweat Lodge ISSUE FOURTEEN· WINTER 1986-87 Lloyd Dr! Owlc • Boogers and Mummers· All Species Day - Cabin Fever University· Homeless m Kmiiah • Homemade H01 Wa!Cf • Stovcmakcr's N:ur.:ilivc • Good Medicine: lntcrspCCics Communication We have limited 11umbers of particular back issues. Order back issues soo11 lo insure availability. There are no more entire sets of KatuahJournal available. The near complete set of back issues will be diminishi11g as limited copies sell out. rtiCL, 1992 ISSUE FlFTEE.N • SPRING 1 987 Coverlets· Woman Forester - Susie McMahan: Midwife • Alternative Contraception • Biosexuality • Bioregionalism and Women • Good Medicine: Malriarchal Culture • Pearl ISSUE SIXTEEN • SUMMER 1987 Helen Waite • Poem: Visions in a Garden • Vision Quest • Fll'St Flow - Initiation • Learning in the Wilderness - Cherokee Challenge • "Valuing Trees" ISSUE EIGHTEEN· WINTER 1987-88 Vernacular Architcclure. Dreams in Wood and Stone • Mountain Home · Earth Energies • Earth-Sheltered Living • Membrane Houses • Brush Shelter Poems: Octo~r Du.sic· Good Medicine: "Shelter" ISSUE NINETEEN· SPRING 1988 Perelandra Garden • Spring Tonics • Blueberries • WildO.ower Gardens • Granny Herbalist • Flower Essences - "The Origin of the Animals:• Story. Good Medicine: "Power• • Be AT~ ISSUE TWENTY· SUMMER 1988 Preserve Appalachian Wildcmess - Highlands of Roan • Celo Communily - Land Trust - Arthur Morgan School • Zoning lssue. "The Ridge" • Farmers and the Farm Bill • Good Medicine: "Land" • Acid Rain • Dulce's Power Play • Cherokee Microhydro Project ISSUE TWENTY-TWO· WINTER 1988--89 Global Wanning • Ftre This Time. Thomas Berry on "Bioregions" • Earth Exercise . Kore Loy McWhirter • An Abundance of Emptiness· LETS • Chronicles of Floyd • Darry Wood - The Bear Clan ISSUE 1WENTY-THREE • SPRING 1989 Pisgah Village - Planet Art· Green City. Poplar Appeal • "Clear Sky" · •A New Earth" • Black Swan • Wild lovely Days • Reviews: Sacred !And Sacred Su, Ice Age - Poem: "S udden Tendrils" ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR - SUMMER 1989 Deep Listening - Life in Alomic City • Direct Action! • Tree of Peace • Community Building • Peacemakers· Ellm1c Survival • Pairing Pro.,ec1. "Baulesong• • Growing Peace in Cultures • Review: The Chalice and the Blade ISSUE 1WENTY-SIX • WINTER, 1989-90 The B:oroic Era· Kids Saving Rainforest • Kids Treecycling Company· Conmc1 Resolution Developing Creati vc 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 LO Their Ashes • Healing in Katuah • Poem: "When Left LO Grow• • Poems: Stephen Wing • The Belly • Food from the Ancient Foresl ISSUE TWENTY-NINE· FAU/WINTER 1990 From the Mountains to the Sea · Profile of The LlUle Tennessee River • Headwaters Ecology • "It All Comes Down to Water Quality" • Water Power. Action for Aquatic HabitaLS - Dawn Watchers • Good Medicine: The Long Human Being • The North Shore Road· Kaulah Sells Out. Watershed Map of the Kaliiah Province ISSUE THIRTY· SPRING 1991 Economy/Ecology • Ways to a Regenerative Economy· "Money is the Lowest Form of Wealth" • Clarksville Miracle • The Village • Food Movers Lifework - Good Medicine: "Village Economy" • Shelton Laurel· LETS ISSUE THIRTY-ONE· SUMMER 1991 Dowsing • Responsibilities of Dowsing • Electrical Life of the Earth • Katuah and the Earth Grid - Call of the Ancient Ones • Good Medicine: "On Aggression" · Time to Take the Time to Take the Time - Whole Science • Tuning In ISSUE THIRTY-TWO · FALL 1991 Bringing bac.k the Fue • A Bit of Mountain Levity • Climax Never Came · "Talking Leaves": Sequoyah . Walking Distance • Good Medicine: "Serving the Great Life" · The Granola Journal · Paintings: "Mountain Stories"· Songs of the Wilderness ISSUE THIRTY-THREE· WINTER 1991-92 Fire's Power - Whal Is Natural • Fire and Forge • The First Fire - Hearth and Fire in the Mountains • Good Medicine: "The Ancient Red" • Midwinlef Fires: poems by Jeffery Beam • Litmus Lichens ISSUE THIRTY-FOUR· SPRING 1992 Paradise Gardening· Community Sponsored Agriculture - Ealing Close 10 Home· Native Foods • Cover Crops. Katuah Cultivars • The Web of Life: A Katuah Almanac - Good Medicine "Medicine Training• • Poems by Allison Sutherland ISSUE THIRTY-FIVE· SUMMER 1992 Consensus • Problems with Consensus. Tribal Council - Elda • The State of Franklin - Regional Rainbow • Steve Moon: Shell Engravings • Good Medicme "Medicine Training rr·. A Look Back Back Issues: Issue# _ _ @ $3.00 = $._ __ Issue# __@ $3.00 = $._ __ Issue# __@ $3.00 = $,_ __ Issue#_@ $3.00 = $._ _ _ postage paid $._ __ Name Address City State Zip Near Complete Set: (3-10, 13-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26-27, 29-35) postage paid @ $50.00 =$,_ __ Katuah Journal Rt. 8, Box 323 Lenoir, NC Karuah Province 28645 • (704) 754-6097 '.Kati.ulfl Jourrn:1( pnge 3S � 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah Journal, Issue 36, Fall 1992 Description An account of the resource The thirty-sixth issue of the Katúah Journal focuses on wood and its role in mountain life: logging, wood products, and forest stewardship. There is also an announcement that publication of the journal will cease in 1993. Authors and artists in this issue include: Lee Barnes, Frank Hodgin, David Wheeler, Dr. John Wade, Harley Wessman, Nancy McIntyre, Buzz Williams, Robert T. Pershcel, Jesse Jones, Leon S. Minckler, Tucker Windover, Charlotte Homsher, Rob Messick, Julia Vanselow, Frank Vogel, Michael Thompson, Susan Klimczak, Jeff Zachary, Susan Parker Weatherford, Mark Anderson, Hope Walker, and "Pegi." Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. 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. Using Wood.......1 Appalachian Logging by Lee Barnes.......4 Old Logging Days by Frank Hodgin.......7 Working the Woodlands by David Wheeler.......9 Wood Products and Western North Carolina by Dr. John Wade.......13 Depletion for Dollars by Harley Wessman.......13 Logging with Horses by Nancy McIntyre.......15 Natural World News.......16 Invasion of the Giants by Buzz Williams........19 From Industry to Endeavor by David Wheeler.......20 Pioneering A New Human/Nature Relationship by Robert T. Perschel.......21 Forest Stewardship Programs by Jesse Jones.......22 Ecological Forestry for Renewable Forest Values by Leon S. Minckler.......23 Drumming........25 The Chair in the Tree by Tucker Windover.......27 Reading the Grove by Charlotte Homsher........29 Events.......32 Webworking.......33 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Katúah Journal, printed by The Waynesville Mountaineer Press Subject The topic of the resource Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern Forest products industry--Appalachian Region, Southern Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern Logging--Appalachian Region, Southern Animals in logging--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) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1990s Appalachian History Appalachian Mountains Appalachian Studies Book Reviews Earth Energies Economic Alternatives Electric Power Companies Folklore and Ceremony Forest History Forest Issues Forest Practice Habitat Katúah Katúah Organization Poems Reading Resources South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness) Stories Transportation Issues Turtle Island Western North Carolina Alliance https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/6242ad52b617091c87c9539ed560f662.pdf ceae3b1dd3f95de061a292ba6f7dcc7d PDF Text Text ,.-.c---URNAL ISSUE 37 WINTER 1992-93 $2 00 �Green Man (a.Jc.a. Joe Hollis) Photo by Nancy Herman / ~UAHiJOURNAL "- PO Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748 c, ~ New Address Inside! Postage Paid Bulk Mail Permit #18 Leicester, NC 28748 .ac.\C 0,,l * () ~ Printed on recycled paper ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED �eoNPENTr0 In The Morning.......................... by DcnnL~ Frederick Green Man and Green Woman........ 4 by Rob Messick Floyd 2020.... ............ ...... ......... 7 by Will Ashe Bason Ecology................................... 8 by Rob Messick Drawing of Sequoyah.................. 9 by James Rhea The Legend of James Whitehead..................... by 10 Bnrbaru Wickersham Raven1.................................... by Fran 11 Freudenbcrgcc Kid's Page............................... Rhea's Fairies.......................... . 13 Drawings by Lucile Morgan........... 14 Drawing by Bob Johnson.............. 15 Drawings by Pegi....................... 16 The Solitary Tree........................ 17 ... ,. ... 12 by Charlotte Homsher Wildwoods Wisdom.................... 18 by DougElliou Natural World News.................... 20 Mandalas................................. 22 hy Roh Messick Gourds................................. 23 by M1ch:icl Thompson Poem: A \lu~ Jmm Hawk'.r Nest. .. .. ... 24 by Gcr.tld George Economy................................. 25 by Rob MClisick Drummmg................................ 26 Rev11:ws: Beyond The Beaury Strip Reshapitrg Modern Culture.. ......... by Rob H Sleep well, my darling, Sleep we/1 my love. Srars in the heavens Are shining above. The labor has ended, The journey is done, So resc now, sleep now, My sweec one. 1 "Jack?" The old man rose and looked out the window at the lowering sun, the last rays of the day flowing golden over the ridges. It was so good to feel the spring again, to hear the bird.~ and taste the warm savor of the spring air. It had been a long winter, a hard biller-cold winter. Snow, storms. endless dark, and endless wind. It had been hard on him, harder on her. He looked over 10 where she lay, her profile softly outlined by the crossglow of the sun through the window and the candles around her head. He smiled. She looked peaceful, he thought Rested. "Jack, you 'bout ready?" That was Ethan. He was a good man • good friend and neighbor. I le had been for fony-three years, ever since he and Sarah had moved onto the f!Um next to Jack and Emma. "Yeah, Ethan, I reckon so." McssJCk Events.................................... 32 Webworking............ ... ,............. 33 W~1 1-tcr, 1992-93 © 1990 by Dennis K. Frederick She was so beautiful, so oddly beautiful when Jack first saw her. She was sitting on the other side of the room when the music started, and when he asked her to dance with him, it was all he could do to get the words out When she stood up and moved into his !UTTlS, he truly felt like he was holding an angel. She had dark brown hair and grey eyes and a smile that could outshine the moon. When she smiled up at him he felt like he was melting down and burning up inside all at the same time. And when they kissed for the first time • and every time after • it was ... complete. After they were married, Jack said the greatest joy in his life was waking up beside her every morning. He thanked God for that, every day. "Ethan, do you think that everyone who wants to come is here?" They never had children, Jack and Emma, not a one, not even a quickening. That made Jack some sad. knowing that after Emma died there would be no pan of her to carry on in the world, but then he'd look at her across the room or across the garden and he couldn't be sad for long, 'cause she was here now, and that was enough. And she said she didn't mind at all, 'cause she'd found a way to have all the children she wanted and not a one bother her in the middle of the night, for she became a school teacher. Now, Emma didn't run the usual son of classroom. Oh, she taught them their letters and numbers and all like that, and taught them well. But that was only on days when the rain or the cold kept them indoors. On other days she would have them outside walking in the fields or running through the woods or tromping up and down the creek beds. She said that God's world was the best classroom there was, and the only way to learn about it was to go out in it. And those kids? They loved it. And they loved her. You never saw a brighter, more sparlde-cyed bunch in your life. Drawing by Rob Mcuick (continued on page 3) lultimf~ Journot Jla<J"- �-, ' l<eLJAH JOURNAL -- , ,,-' " ..... .., -- ...,_,,, .... .. .....,,.... ~ · ~:/ I ,_, ,,,,,,.;"" - ~.r- ~·· . -~ ...... ~ . ____________ ,: --------- ..~-. ------/ -----.i'. I ._.,r·'!'· _ _ ,,,1"" ARTITORT ALSTAFFTIIIS ISSUE: Rob Messick (Coordinaror) David Wheeler Sherman Bamford Charlotte Homsher .,,,., ,)"\ .,...... ... ~ - ~~_,-.. , , ,r,~- . ~ .... ._/.. 'J _..c,~ .l· ....~ , - - o~~- ,,...: _.,jJ Pegi Heather Blair RheaOnnond Thanks to Marie Reilly for her inspiration... ................- - - - ~- _..;,._(l~ ~' _._,,..., • ;.·•· :l ~, I ~ ,~ .,... ....:." t -% -------- , ,. --.~,:-..· .- -~-------·-• 0-_,..•"' COVER: byRobMessick ©1992 '!•.b•-,•.t. PUBLISHED BY: KanUJh Journal EDITORIAL OFFICE THIS ISSUE: Backbone Spur Gardens< Globe Valley< Grandfather Ranger District< Pisgah National Forest < Katuah Province WRITE US AT: Karuah Journal Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC; Katuah Province 28645 TELEPHONE: (704) 754-fm7 Diversity is an imponant element ofbion:gional ecology, both natural and social. In accord with this principle K(J[uah Journal uies to serve as a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express only the opinion of lhe authors and are OOl necessarily lhc opinions of the Katuah Journal edi«n or slllff. The lntemal Revenue Service has declared Ka1uah Journal a non-profit organization under section 50J(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All coou,1>utions 10 Katuah Journal are deductible from per.;onal income w. Asticlcs appearing in K(J[uah Journal may be reprinted in other publications with permission from lhe Katuah Journal stalT. Contact the journal in writing or call (704) 754-6097. 'L'.NVOCA.TW'.N '-, I ---- - --- L~·.•._•. ,......_•./._..:f. - - *ttt!.. PRJNTED BY: The Waynesville Mountaineer Press ..-·!·· '.....,_ '. 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 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 10 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 preseJVe, 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 1he land lives, so do we. As the spirit of the land is diminished, our spirits are diminished as well. Katuah Journal sends a voice... with articles, stories, poems. and artwork we speak 10 the spirit of alJ the living, breathing inhabitants of these mountains in hopes that we, the human beings, may find our place in th.is Great Life. The Editors KATUAH JOURNAL wanis ro communicate your thoughts and feelings to the other people in the bioregional provillce. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or photographs, etc. Please send your contrib1uions to us at: Katuah Journal; Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC; Katuah Province 28645. TJIE SPRING ISSUE will be dedicated to sustainable tourism and transport. including green alternatives to travel. Be sure to include those wonderful drawings and photos on the subject! The deadline is February 1st, 1993. Send to Rob Messick; Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC 28645. Jose Arguelles Xatuah Journot page 2 OUR LAST" ISSUE will! be filled with your closing comments and contributions, an index lO the 38 issues of KattUJh Journal, and a listing of biorcgionally oriented organizations in the Province (see page 34 for details). AJI Things Must Pass... Wtnter, 1992-93 �(conlinued from page I) "I think they are, Jack, and she said we weren't to wait 100 long." That last year when she couldn't get out of bed, Emma had cried about being useless. until one day she figured out something she could do. She would have Jack bring in an egg or cwo every few days from the henhouse, and she would lay those eggs alongside her body under the blankets where they would stay warm until they hatched ouL Then she would talcc the chicks and put them in a box beside the bed and tend them there until they were big enough to give away. and then they would go to whoever in the community was in need. That made her smile again. She was quite a woman. "I reckon it's time, then." Jack pulled on his coat and turned to nod at the men waiting in the doorway. He stepped out ont0 the porch and was amazed at the number of people standing outside. There must have been two or three hundred of them. Somehow he'd forgotten 10 keep track of the growth of the community. The new stores, the good roads, the churches, the increasing number of children in Emma's classroom - all this had somehow failed to register in his reality, for Emma was all his world. To live with her on their farm in these mountains - this was all he needed. Just to work ha.rd and love her. The six men brought Emma's coffin out of the cabin and raised it to their shoulders. Up the hill they went. followed by Jack, Ethan, Sarah, and all those others, up to the top of the hill where there stood an old oak tree. Its branches spread wide to shade a little fenced-in area enclosing a freshly-dug grave. They set the coffin down beside the hole, and, wlten all the people had gathered around, Jack spoke to them. "Friends, Emma and I want to thank you for being here. She would have felt honored to know that so many of you came to see her off. We want to thank those who sat up with us last night, we thank the women who got her ready and the men who dug her grave here. She asked me to be sure it was this particular time of the day when she was buried. She loved tile evening. Said it seemed co her a fitting time for a funeral, 'cause this way she got a good night's sleep before waking up to the good Lord's glorious morning - her very words. So, Emma, you sleep now, and these folks and 1, we'll see you on that morning. I love you. Rest well." Jack nodded to the preacher, the service proceeded, the people sang Emma to her rest, the coffin was lowered, the hole was filled in, and the stone was SCL Everybody went back down the hill to the house where there was food and drink and they all stayed awhile. Then they began 10 cirirt away home, the lanterns on their wagons shinning like fireflies disappearing into the woods, until there was only Jack and Ethan and Sarah lefl. "Will you be alright, Jack?" "Oh, I'll be right as rain by morning, Sarah. I'm just going to sit here on the porch for awhile like she and I used to do. She did love it so." ''I'll stop by in the morning." 'Thank you, Ethan. Good night." ,, "Rest well. I'll see you in the morning." Ethan and Sarah's wagon moved off down the road and the musical stillness of the night sectled over the old man on the porch. His eyes looked up to the hilltop, then far beyond for a long while, then they closed. When Ethan and Sarah came by in the morning, they found Jack still sitting in that chair, past all waking in this world. Ethan found a wide boartl and they laid Jack out on it. They put Jack in the back of the wagon, put in a few more boartls. hammer and nails and a shovel, and they drove the wagon back up to the top of the hill to that oak tree. They spent the rest of the day digging Jack's grave, nailing his coffin together around him, and lowering him down to rest beside Emma. They filled in the hole and moved the scone a bit so that it settled down over both.Jack and Emma. They stood in silence for a long time and at last they turned for home. "Ethan?" "Hmmm?" "l've been thinking about it. and I do believe that yesterday was the longest time that Jack and Emma had spent apart since they were married." "I guess he just could'c live with the thought of waking up alone. Well, he won't have to, now." Drawing by Lucile Morgan Wtt1ter , 1992-93 Sleep well, my darling, Sleep well, my love. Srars in the heavens Are shining above. The labor has ended, The journey is done, So rest now, sleep now, My sweer one. The journey is over, The morning has come, So rest now, sleep now, Mylovt. "This su,ry was inspired by somtthing D()(; McConnt'II told mt a couple of~ars ago. and by the spirit of the mountain people who IIOW siuround me." Denn,s Frtduick was born on the sowh s,de o/Clucago in /950, grew up in the li11kfarm town of MuJdldJury. IN. and autnlkd Indiana Univtrsiry mtermi11t111ly for several years. lie moved 10 7ennessee rn 1979 IQ work/or a rouring 1mpro~isa1ional thttUrt company where ht mt/ his wife. Lucinda Flodin, l'hey tool up life together in 1984, and 111 1986 discovatd S/Qrytelling osa tandem pe,formmu:t art. They liw with tlrtv scns. Forts/ and Cody. on 28 acres of mo1,1111llln glory in Carttr Co1,111ry, TN and make 1htir living as uave/i11g storytellers. DeMis and UJ.CiNJa havt produced rwo audio /ape~. Strawberries m the Snow and Mounlain Sptrirs, each SIO 00, ppd from R1.J. Box 726; ~ llampton. TN J7658. ~ X-atuoh Journot page 3 �~tuah Joumal, ..' I pcuw;1,4 lr Orawmga by Rob Musick f _. Wlntcr. 1992-!13 �t.nter , 1992-93 "'1titmi. Journot PCUJC S �----E _ __ -~ :K.nt(~h Journal pa9e 6 Drawing by Rob Muncl< l.>i.ntcr, 1992-93 �FLOYD 2020 by Will Ashe Bason There was little doubt by the mid-90's that the superstonns were the result of global cllinate changes produced by inefficient and thoughtless industrialization. The frequency and severily uf the Sturms increased during the '90's making tens of millions homeless and completely destroying lhe electricity distribution systems of huge towers and wires. The US Army was put to work building communities which could withstand the intense winds of lhe superstonns. Each of these villages had several large underground storerooms in which people could talce refuge in a storm. Some homes and structures were built to wilhstand the high winds, and some were made to be dismantled and stored when a stonn threatened. The US Army built over 5,000 eco-villages housing over three million people during the '90's. Many other settlements were built privately. Jimmy and Rosalyn Caner were leaders in a movement in which poor people came together to build protected villages. Still, millions of people who had lived in beautiful homes wilh many • luxuries were reduced to living in shack.s built of tarps and broken lumber near hastily dug storm cellars. During the mid- and late '90's, refugees from the West Coast went out in waves, each bigger lhan the last, just like the quakes and eruptions that set them in motion. Many of the people who were most tuned in to the narur:il world were among the first to leave. In most cases, people had 10 sell their homes and non-movables for nearly nothing. They loaded up lheir mini-vans and hitched up their trailers and headed east - much as previous pioneers had headed west. Many of the people who had been involved in building cuilural alternatives were drawn to areas in I.he Blue Ridge Mountains where these 1,>lnt.er, t992- 93 alternatives already had a foothold. Floyd County absorbed nearly 3,000 West Coast refugees between 1993 to 1998. After the huge back-to-back storms of 1995, the old power grid was gone for good in Floyd County and throughout most of the southeastern US. About half of the people in Floyd and several surrounding counties were homeless. That year there were so many emergencies that US and UN services were unavailable. The radical restructuring of the world economy 10 our reality-based exchange system was not yet complete, and localities everywhere were reduced to their own devices. A team of local engineers and architects developed several types of buildings which were made of local materials and could withstand extremely high winds. Over the spring and summer of 1995 more than 2,000 people worked on 14 villages which by winter were homes to 5,000 people. These communities consisted of a large central building surrounded by cottages. The sites were picked for favorable water power and they all generated enough electricity for lights in the cottages and refrigeration facilities in the central buildings. The couages seemed like castles 10 people who had been living cooped up with friends and relatives in sometimes amazingly cramped and cold conditions in the winter of '94. Over the next ten yean,, many more small, sheltered, and self-powered communities were buill in the county. Today, Floyd's 14,000 people have 42 communities of more than 100 inhabitants, while in 1990 12,000 people had only one such community. This restructuring into small communities had many unexpected benefits, and today there are few who would trade our present life for the world that the winds swept away. The villages of the Blue Ridge upland plateau differ considerably from each other, as some were fonned by fann families who had been in the area for many years, and some were fonned along alternative lines. Many communities have a Native American feel to lhem, several are African-American, and two are Spanish-speaking. A village near Buffalo Mountain is a Cherokee-speaking community, the northernmost of their confederacy. These various groups all mingle in the town of Floyd, which is still the largest settlement in the county. The Saturday market in Floyd is colorful and noisy. The village of Marin is somewhat typical of the communities that were built in Floyd County in the mid-'90's. Fourteen cottages were originally built and served as homes to over 50 people lhe first winter. The village maintains a sizable herd of cows and sheep and cultivates orchards on gentle slopes. The village has nearly 10 hectares of good river bonom land on which it raises grains and vegeiables. Marin has a water-powered grain mill, saw mill, and woodworking shop. The shop produces several types of wooden flutes which have a good reputation and earn the village most of i1s rrnde credits. This is in keeping with the musical motif of the villages of the area almost all of the local communities suppon themselves most by manufacturing various musical instruments. The Blue Ridge area was one of the most "backward" regions of the old US economy, but it came through the economic transition in much better shape than most other areas. Literacy rates rose sharply and infant monality rates fell, exactly counter to corresponding trends in the rest of the country and most areas of the world. The self-reliance of the old farm communities of the area combined wilh the ideas for alternative economic and energy systems that newer residcntS brought with them to create a ., better way of life. Drawing by Pcgi X-Gtooh )our-nm pQCJe 7 �Xatuml )ournm piiqe 8 Drawing by Rob Mcuick Wrntcr , 1992-93 �Drawing of Sequoyah by James Rhea �...: ·•~ ..... ... ·.~.- :. t;. . ... =~ ::•.= ... •• :.¥_: •• • ... ..... ... :;· :.;:• .. :! : ·.•.· :~ :- ·.~.: ·.~.: .·,; : ... .. ... ..-.: .... ... .... .. . ... THE LEGEND OF JAMES WHITEHEAD by Barbara Wickersham Once upon a time a man named James Whitehead lived up on the head of Tiger Creek way back up in the mountains of Caner County, Tennessee. He had a right nice farm and he loved 10 fish and hunt One day while young James was ou1 huntin' something happened that changed his life forever. It was gettin' kinda late, near dark, and he was 1hinkin' strongly abou1 h~din' home for supper. Suddenly he happened upon a tiny cri1ter lying frigh1encd and crying in the grass. He stared in amazement figurin' as how it must be a new-born baby tiger. h was, of coun;e, a baby mouniain lion, commonly called tigers or painiers by people thereabouts. He quickly looked all around but saw no sign of mama so he picked up the liule fella, gemly wrapped it in his hand.kerchief, and promptly carried ii home for his wife to care for. Now it just so happened that his wife had recently given birth herself, and, since Xotimn Journal page 10 _. ,, I ,I r ,1, --- I tfj .~ fl"'•'t f .J\\~ · l1;.,1~•J:.{ she couldn'1 figure any 01her way to save the little critter· not owning nny tiny baby bottles or eye-droppers - she simply nursed ii along wi1h her own baby. The baby tiger grew quickly, was s1rong and healthy, and soon was returned to the moun1ains where ii belonged. Folks around there got to calling James "Tiger," and forever af1er he was known as Tiger Whitehead, the man who saved the baby tiger. Tiger's real claim 10 fame, however, wa~ his hunting prowess. He managed to keep meai on 1he table for his burgeoning brood most of his 86 years and during tha1 time he actually killed 99 bears. When he was on his deathbed, one of his sons brought a bear cub to him, saying "Kill this bear so we can say you killed 100 bears," bu1 he refused, saying he had never killed except when he had to. His gravestone proudly proclaims "He killed 99 bears." ... Since 1984, Barbara Wickersham has collabaraJe.d will, Ron Vance in gathering stories of the Roan Mountain area. Tile two are both native Appalachian people with a long-rime fascination for the history. fitera111re, and language ofthe white mmmtain folk. In February of /985 they applied for and recieved a University ofTennessee Research Grant to help in the contitu4(Jtion of their oral history efforts. Their primary objective is to co/leer historical facts, tales, riddles, expressions, old plwtos - anything rl111t will capmre the life of the Roan Mountain people just before, during. and after the Great Depression. To clme they have interviewed 62 people and are .Hill working. ifyou have riddles, old games, ghost stories, or a good tale you would like 10 share with them, or ifyou hll\/e a lead on a particularly good interview prospect, they would appreciate your help. Contact Barbara Wickersham at 7314 John Norton Road; Knoxville, TN 37920 or call (615) ...::All' 577-1072. Drawing by Rob Messick p �:.•. ·.•.•;::·.·:~::·:: ,·,·.: • • • '; :•r •• • • • ,,.._.,, ·.•••••••'ho,,••••'\•'*•. .. ... .. ···...... ...... ······ •. ,.u .... .. : ..... ,:·:! .. ·.. .·.:: :::···. ·''"· ; ················· ....·..... . ~ ............ ·. ... .. ..::.::·;... .·. ..·:::_·:·:::::···· ·:··' ·... ·::~~~-~~·-:·-·-... ·.: .... . ...:.,:..:..,.·· . .. . ., .... ': :. . . ....~. .,.. \ ! ... -~--- •. ······· . ····,... ........._ . ... .... , .. - ......... ,\: .... ..... ·' . . ·•···· . ·····-···· ··········"'······ ~· .... • ..... ·- .... ..·· ......... .... Raven! ····..,:,. ;-._.::·.r:?,•,,•::::.,.•, ,..,;::···· . !".::.-:•.. :... :.. ·:., ,, .-·········· .... ···'y··".:-·····.:···. . ··-... .:.....:·:·· . .. -. ························ ······· Fran Freudenberger 1 a storygatherer currently residing in the Crab s Community o f Katuah rro,1nre. For infomiation contact her at TH E O PEN CIRCLE, 1112 W,llow Street; Hcnderson~ille, NC 28739 (70-I ) 696-3659. . .... ........ . .,,,: ..._..:.: ..-·· ... _ Gazed out O\'l'r the charred stillness and thought .. 'This was once the Earth?" I le listened to the smoldering silence and thought ... "This was once Her Breath?" Then Raven raised his wings In Anger and new away. by Fran Freudenberger Drawu,g by Rob Memc:lr. •.•• ···? �KID'S PAGE ___,---=- - ' ,. ., "'J ., ,I Daniel Olson - ngc 7 r .,._.;.. l.. :-::..£,=-- ----.... " ~..• - . . '. ,. • . ~· .. ·~ A i . .' ~,,., ' . . .. , . .... \. . . __ ~-r""·' _.....,,.::.. . ' ........---'\{.' ....~ . .• . ___.... ·---·~("'" • •. t. '·· ..~ • ..-, ..._ -':'-'\~,.,,.., ',•. !-,;_ ••~ ..... i ~~,... . ·,·.. '-.: . ' • -- - .- ..-- lJ .. . . . . ... (~ . ,, .._, ·.... _·:.>•.. ... ·... _., ,. . .,, . ' Jeffrey Hollis - age 4 .· •'f ' ... "Drngon at a Croquet Game" '"7:'-- • ----~. ... .. __ ;,,--- . .. . • .. .,. ···i.l. , - . ., .,, r .. . -.. .. :. . ~ .. . • , ..• ~·-- / / .''- . - - ... . - ~ J'- - -· Desiree Cafaro - age 11 Juniper Myers Walters - age 10 ,C:amal\ Jotmmf paqc 12 Lane Raskin - age 7 . -- ,-l,. 1 a,l., . . ..--,1· Jade Alysen Kornegay - age 8 !.>inter, I 992-' �I, l grew up in Missouri and experienced the Ozarks. Friends of my parents bought some land by a mountain creek and built a shelter. "'rhey called it Rocky Branch and I do believe that was where I first encountered fairies. In my adolescence our family moved lO cultural Cleveland where my father's dream was realii.ed - to play his viola in the Cleveland Orchestra in the great Severence Hall. When I sat in the hall, I would gnze up at the ceiling embellishment and watch the fairies' wings flutter to the beautiful music. I later learned that the ceiling was designed from the lace on Mrs. Severcnce's wedding veil. (l have also found fairies on recent trips 10 the an museum and felt like a fairy while studying ballet!) After years of an school, universities, a teaching profession, and a marriage I realized that I needed 10 get back to the land. The early memories of Rocky Branch were still in my head. lvmtcr, 1992-93 I found some land on a 30 mile reservoir nonh of Amherst, MassachusetlS and began to build my dream, and to connect back to the great Mother Earth. I lived on this secluded land by myself and felt the closeness of all the plant and animal spirilS that surrounded me. My only fear was of the hunters who evemually destr0yed my dream, burning my house down. rt was nine ye-ars ago when I came 10 Kaulah Province from New England. I followed the ridge of the Appalachian Mountains south and landed in a parndise garden. As I drove toward the South Toe River Valley, a rainbow crossed the road and 1 knew that this must be the place where fairies live. At that rime Joe Hollis was looking for someone 10 help in his garden, and 1 enthusiastically agreed. He offered me a yun (Mongolian teepee) to live in which became my home for three years. The gardens expanded and I found fairies flinering about everywhere. Joe took me to beautiful wildflower coves filled with thousands of trilliums, and 10 the ridgetops of the Black Mountains where I first saw galax and other wildflowers that did not grow in the Appalachian Mountains in New England or anywhere else I've ever lived. These mountains have a magic about them that I never felt in any oiher mountain range. Lost and homeless for years, I had followed the mountains south, guided by the faith and hope that I would find a home where fairies dance. Mountain Gardens in Celo. NC is that home where now our son Jeffrey runs through the garden looking~ ~ fairies. p • Rhea Ormond Drawing by Rhea Ormond �Drawings by Lucile Morgan - Coffey's General Sion: in Edgemont �Drawing b~ Bob Joluuon �Xatimh Journat• pnge 16 Drawings by Pcgi l,) i.n«ir, 1992-93 �The Solitary Tree by Charlotte Homsher Nature is not static, but an ever-changing process. Water moves so swiflly we can not focus on the lines of the current. Weather can change abruptly. Encounters with wild animals are fleeting and unusual. Only trees remain accessible to everyone, sturdily rooted in place long enough for us 10 study them. In issue #36 of Kan,ah Journal, I wrote about the relationship of trees to each other in a grove. In this anicle, I address the individualistic trees who stand alone and offer us insight into difficult questions. We live at the close of a century of momentous change, in an era of transition from one age to another, in a time of tremendous challenge. Now as never before we hold the fate of humanity and of the survival of the planet itself in our hands. It is easy to forget, so quickly are events moving in the epoch sense, that the process of decay (which is the grandest transition of all) happens slowly enough within a human lifetime for us to grasp the meaning of the cycle. For instance, the era of the great American chestnut tree came to an end in the thirties, yet the skeletal trunks of the chesmuts could still be seen scanding upright on the Blue Ridge Parkway into the sixties. I believe that even in death trees still teach us. There is a lightning-charred hollow trunk still standing at Catawba Falls. My son, who was silt at the time, told me very matter-of-factly that this hollow tree was where the lndian spirits live. He understood perfectly that the hollow places are homes, protection; not only den trees for bears and possums, but empty places where creation of all sorts can take place. A hollowed-out standing tree would be a good place for a vision quesL Nearly every power place has a tree of this kind. Inside the pregnant darkness of a hollow tree, one can hear a sound, a distonion similar to what one hears from placing a large sea shell neltt to the ear. These trees arc like drums for the Earth. I call the sound that they funnel the roar of the Earth. Jn the Reems Creek area, there is a massive trunk of a dead 1ree that is unusual not only for its size, but also because of 1he way in which the trunk twis1s up from the ground in a spiral pattern. The spiral twisting is indication that the tree grew on a power spot. The tree was able 10 bring up this powerful Eanh energy which came up the tree in a spiral vortex movement, and makes this energy available to the plam life, the animals, and the humans in the vicinitv. I am sure that this was a council.tree, a meeting place, when it was alive. Now that the tree is dead, the Earth energy that comes up through the root system of the trees in that area is now spread out among several mature trees. What is left for us 10 see are the remains of lessons of the past. I have heard of people finding crystals and unusual rocks under these spiral-trunked trees, but 1 personally prefer not to disturb these trees which are, of course, still den trees. 1.,lnter, 1992-93 Even more poignant, arc the trees which are still living, still sprouting even when 1he heartwood is gone, and sometimes when nothing is left but half a hollow trunk. 1 consider 1hese to be medicine 1rees, or healing trees. These arc easy trees to step into, to put one's belly against the sapwood and release fears and sorrows. l have fell no particular grief within these trees. They are very noble. They have a breadth of experience which embodies all of the transitions between life and death, fertility and decay. They have opened themselves up entirely 10 the erosion of the weather and 10 causal examinauon or their internal processes. They continue life even wuhin the process of decay. Healthy, live trees also teach us about times of transition. Double-trunked trees which have grown 1ogether embody many qualities of duali1y. separateness. and blending. The sweet birch is a good example of this. The bark of the young sweet birch is smooth but becomes scaly and rougher with age. A double-trunked swee1 birch, which has one smooth trunk and one rough trunk, may appear to be one tree but is actually two trees of the same species at different ages of growth. This phenomenon of the double- trunked tree 1s even more obvious when trees of different species sprou1 at the same time, seed next to seed. It is common to see trees which have one character, one predominwn shape, yet which are combinations of beech and hemlock, for instance, or ironwood and maple. These are wonderful teacher trees. By studying t'he qualities of the two worlds, the crossroads of separate species, we can recognize ourselves at a crossroads and gain insight into ways of growing gracefully as individuals into the oneness of the greater vision of Iife. Trees have their own cycles and reasons for being that have nothing 10 do with humanity, yet we have intruded into the natural processes 10 such an elttont that O"Ces may not survive without our intervention. I think it is very possible that a time v.ill come when we will garden trees to keep a species alive just os we now garden vegetables. Until that time tllere is still the chance 10 persuade the ,,ild trees to prolong their lives, 10 keep the forest vibrant, happy, and healthy so that our children and our children's children can learn from the trees. We can do this by entering into the realms of nature with /;;!I' humility and genuine gratitude. fr Dr•wing by Pegi �. ./4 "The Serpent and The 1 J f I ,, .,__ / / / \ ,,'.~ In thls joyful compendium of woodslore, ancient legends, humorous !ales, and perceptive insights, Doug Ellion opens our eyes to the world of planes and animals and !he many ways of rediscovering our natural heritage. Wi!h !he easy voice of a storyteller, he shows how nature provides all our needs • not only food, clothing and shelter, but also the spiritual truths that can enrich and transform our lives. In !he pages of Wildwood.s Wisdom you'll view nature through !he eyes of many people from different walks of life, some who embody ancient wisdom, others with sc1cnufic knowledge, and still others who have been touched deeply by an encounter with !he natural world. You'll hang out with • Native Americans, Appalachian mountain folk. and biologists. And you11 hear stories of Pentecostal snake handlers, hoodoo root doctors, possum breeders, and even a New York stockbrocker, to Doug Elliott also adventures - hitchhikir sketching along the Re capturing snakes, colic walking softly in the b expound on plants and small with enthusiasm "This book is abl exploring, and dwellin of an ecosystem 1eemi1 and change. It is about dwelling place within , we interact with the en world at large." The be illusmued with over 01 by the author. Wildwo journey of awakening, world we may not ofte are forever joined. Doug Elliott is a �Egg" and Other Tales ... >name a few. o draws on his own ing across the country, :ocky Mountains, leering folklore, and backcountry - to d creatures great and ri and witty reverence. JOUt being home, about ng oo the earth as pan ing with life and death 11 finding that sacred 1OUllClvcs, from where nvironmcnt and the >OOK i~ abo beautifully ,ne hundred drawings ood1 Wisdom is a :, of being at home in a en sec but to which we 1 naturalist, herbalist, storyteller, and wildlife anist who has been ranging woods and waters since childhood. For the past decade he has lectured, conducted workshops, and performed storytelling in concert with various organizations including the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian rnstitution. Doug is also the author of Roots: An Underground Botany and Forager's Guide. He lives with his wife, Yanna, on a homei;tead in Kaulah Province, Rutherford County, North Carolina. To order Wildwoods Wisdom send $22.95 pl1Ls $2.00 shipping to: Paragon /louse; 90 Fifth Avenue; New York, NY 100/ l. To receive a listing of Doug's activities in your area you can contact /um 01: Rt. 1, Box 388; Union Mills, NC 28167 Drawings by Doug l!lliou �1• " ARSON! "I ,t",,t N.nnl World News Savic.: ArsoniSLs suuclc the Hennes.sec Hardwood Company of Franklin, NC early on the morning cl November 30, 1992. setting IWO foes that did more than SS0,000 damage and woonding owner Jack Hennes.~ee in an exch:inge of gunfire. The action was apparcnlly to discourage the logging comp:iny from carrying 0111 a contraCt on the Rich Mounuun umber sale m the Highl:inds Ranger Dl5Ulct of the Namahala National Forest. This was only the la~t in sabotage actions agrunst the Ilcnnessee Company during 1992: vandals dLo;ablcd equipment belonging 10 the company and nn indcpcndcnt su!KontraCtor while Hcnncssce was working the Rich Mountain sale last winter, and the Hennessee office was the target of vandaJig-n earlier in the month or November. In response 10 a threatening leticr, Jack Hennessee. the owner of the company, was keeping watch on the plant on the night or Sunday, November 29. He said lhat after dozing he awoke ai 4 a.m. the following morning to find that a large floodlight overlooking the mill was ouL He went oulSide IO check on the situation and saw that a 100tshed in !he debarlcing section of the plant was on fire. According to Hennessee, he saw what appeared to be a person runn111g around the comer of the shed. He fll'Cd on the person with a handgun. Al lhe same time he saw another fire flaring up ne:uby m the plant's chipping operation. At lhat moment he heard two shots and was knocked to the ground. When he roused himself later on, Hennes.sec called lhe county sherilrs department and lhe ambulance. At the hospital he ICM!ed he had been suuck by a bullet, which passed through lhe flesh of tus back, not wounding hun seriously. Hennessee is convinced that the attack was motivated by opposition 10 the company's logging the Rich Mountain Timber Sale, which 1s divided mto 15 units scauered arowid the town of Highlands in Macon County. Other actions against the company have been din,cu:d specifically against that timber operation. In a widely-publicil.cd incident during February of 1992, saboteurs tore the~ and cut hydraulic lines on skiddersand looders belonging 10 Hennessee that were parked m the Buck Creek area of the Rich Mountain umber sale. On lhe night of November 13, 1992 vandals cnlCl'Cd the Hennessee Company omces through an open back door, dumped drawers and files on the Door about the room. painted slogans Wee "Clcarcuuing Ba.~wds" and "You11 Never Cut Rieh Mountain" on the office walls. A drink machine was broken, and a smaJJ pis10I was also stolen from 11 desk drawer. One week lalllr, Hcnnc.=e emplnyu_~. on doing a routine check before morning sl3Jl-up, found th.11 someone had attempted 10 sabotage the chipper by putting a large p,pe wrench down the mouth of lhc machine where it would have done extcn\1ve damlgc to the blades. ll1en.on Fnday, November 27. 1992, Hcnnesscc h3d received an unsigned letter at the company offices staung that "the end is near." This was what prompr.cd him 10 set a watch on the plnnt and ll1e North Carohnn State Bwcau of fnvcstign1ion is assisting the Mncon County Sheriff's Department 111 the mvcsugation of the recent lll'SOn. OfflCCrS said that mal.Crials had been sent 10 Raleigh for annlysis, 001 that it was too C3rly in the mves1ig;ition 10 say anything about iL, progress. ~tuah Joumat· PmJ" 20 TRYING cmCUMSTANCES FOR CHAMPION Na1ural World News Sarvicc APPEALS UPHELD Nlllnl World News Sovicc In September, 1992, the US Congiess voccd 111 favor of a bill supponing the nghLof the public to appeal Forest Service timber sales. When it was signed by the prcsiden1 Im.ct in the fall. the legislation became law. Some were worried lhat pr0visioos added by Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) would unduly tle the hands of citizens. According to Peter Kirby, Southeast Regional Director of the Wilderness Society, most, but not all, or the problems with the btU have been resolved. Congress has added a section from Sen. Wyche Fowler's (D-GA) earlier measure that requires the Fores1 Service 10 inform the public about proposed actions and provide specific opporwnilics for commenung. In addition, ciw.ens still have 45 days in which to appeal. llOl 30 days as had been proposed in the Craig bill. The bill does add some new restrictions to the right to appeal, however. The Forest Service will only allow persons 10 appeal ifwriucn or oral commentS arc submmcd on the proposed action, or if the Forest Service is notified about the per.;on's mrcrcst in the activlly. The FOi'est Service will only be given 45 days to review an appeal, 001 100 days, as currently allowed. tr the Forest Service does not make a decision with111 45 days, the original decision will stand. Dissatisfied panics will then have lO talce the Forest Service to court or take Lo the uces. REAL BARTERING Nanni World News Scrvia: The Alarka Laurel saga continue.~. The 2,000 acre trael, which cootains a rare spruce bog and a scenic wa1erfall, was 10 be pun:hased by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission a~ a game refuge, bU1 lhc shifting winds of stale policies changed lha1 arrangcmcnL • The latest proposal is a bnd swap between the TruM for Pubhc Land (TPt.) and the US Forest Service, F ~ Supemsor Bjorn Dahl hlls proposed thal Al:u-ka Laurel be tmdcd for a t .SOO acre uac1 on Fontaf13 Lake. which would then be made available for priv:ue lkvelopmcnL The TPL 8"0!JP 1s agJcc.ible, and the Swam Coun1y Colnmiss10ncn; seem lO favor the idea. Appro,'DI by Swam County re.~idcnts hlls been a major stumbling block in resolving the fate or the Alarlca Laurel tracL Ncgoumions may be ex1cnclcd, and 1he arrangement would requuc a public hearing, which may be held in Bl)·son City as early as December, 1992, although the date was not available when this issue went lO press. A lawsuit brought against Champion Intemauonal Corporation by seven frunilies ftling on behalf of2.600 homeowners on the Pigeon River and Douglas Lake in Tennessee ended in a mi51rial on October 16, 1992 oficr one month of testimony before the US District coun in Greeneville, TN. The plaintiffs soughl S3.9 million m compens:tlion and S365 million in punitive damages for a decline in the value of their wau:rside propcnies allributable 10 the presence of the highly toxic chemical dioxin, which is produced m the chlorine bleaching process used by Champion in the papcmuwng operations at its Can10n. NC mill. Although the jury was hung on conflicting claims of the virulence of dioxin presenlCd by witnesses called by the plaintiffs and by Champion Corporation, the trial made public unponant infonnation abou1 the company and the way it doe~ business. One willlCSS called lO the stand was retired US Navy Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who ordclCd the release of Agent Orange, a dioxin-laden defoliant, dunng the war in Vietnam. Zumwal1 told how his son was killed by diseases conU'IICtcd from e,qiosure 10 the herbicide. Knowing whal we do aboul dioxin, said Zumwalt, "it is not only unethical. but reprehensible" for the paper indUSIJ'y to continue 10 produce the cancer-causing c:hemieal. Al Smith, a rcured deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency who worked closely with the Champion permitting process in 1987-88, also testified for the plaintiffs. He contended against consiant objections by defense auomeys for 90 minu1CS on the stand as he tried 10 tell in detail how Champion staged an elaborate campaign 10 manipulate public opinion on the issue of the Canton mill's operating permiL He said that he was convinced that Champion's threal to lay off 2,000 workers from the Canton mill for environmental reasons was "a ploy." Attomeys for the plaintiffs also introduced 11 memo from an executive with the Price-McNabb Advertising Company of Asheville, whicll was hired as a consultant for Champion's media campaign. The memo directed that Champion spokespeople should debate the permit "in a manner that tires the puhlic and the media of the ISSue." Phillip NC31, a rewed eng1IIC(I', added creditability to the clnim put forth by environmentalists that Champion was holding the area "economic hostage· to win its way m the permit ballle. During the permit dispute, Oliver Blackwell. then manager of the Canton mill, Slllr.cd rcpe31Cdly that ll was "technologically unfeasible" for the company to meet stale water color rcqu11emcnts. Neal 1esufied tha1 during the same period the company had held a patent on a proces.~ he had designed 10 remove color from the waia. The proce.s~ wa.~ ne,·cr alluded 10 anJ never used, Neal said. In the closing days of the tn31 a real esmte appraiser stated that the threat of dioxin h.ld adv~y affected land price.~ around the lake. S11ll the jury could not reach a clear decision. The plaintiffs declared emphatically thnt the lawsu11 will be brought to trial again. 1Ji1i.t~r, ,1992>"93 �BOISE CASCADE: "THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED! Narural World New, Service Boise Cascade Corporation. one of lhe companies proposing to build chip mill opua1.1ons that would denude foresllands in soulhea.s1m1 Tenne.~. has declared lhat it will proceed with its consu-uction vlans without waiting for a ~hipping pennit required by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). If they do not receive a barge permit, the timber giant would send the chips to port overland by truck instead of on the river. Because or overwhelming opposition to the dcstrucuve chip mills eitpre.ssed at public bearings, TV A has been "leaning against" offering the permits to the chip mills (see KaJuah Journal 1136). Boise Cascade has put off construction uni.ii January, and environmentalists are wondering if their move is nOl a bluff designed lO force TV A's hand. Local activist Bob Mitchell of the Tennessee Valley Hardwood Alliance was quoc.ed in the Chananoogo Times as saying, "They think that if they go in and destroy the beauty along the river ahead or time, there won't be anything lO argue abouL The whole region is against these people, and it's going lO be a continuous media event if they try to come in hero. "Even 1f it is a bluff, they will have destroyed that section of the river." The local group Tennessans, Gcorgit111s, ond Alabamans for Environmental Responsibility (fAGER), which came together over the chip mill issue, has raised the possibility of calling a national boycou of Boise Cascade if the corporation proceeds with its construetion plans. That decision, too, is on hold until Boise Cascade makes its intentions clC3l'. ART ROWE v. FREE SPEECH NIIIUnl Wedd News Service It seems that the Forest Service has been gerung testy about its image lately. Earlier this year, the Daniel Boone National Forest wrote threatening letters to activists, falsely claiming that the display or Smokey the Bear caricatures was illegal. Recently, Paul Myer.;, a member of the environmental group SoothPAW, attempted lO distribute a mer to visiior.i at the offices of the Pisgah Ranger District and posted a copy on the public bulletin bo:ird. The flier simply asks readers to comment on the draft amendments to the Pisgah/Nantahala management pion before December 16. ltencoumges support for formulating a plan alternative that protcets the Pisgah/Nantahala National Fore.sis as naturally functioning ccosyStems. makes ecological restoration a primary go31, and ends ta~payer-subsidiu:d logging on these public rorests. When Myers discovered that Dislricl Ranger Arl Rowe had taken down the flier, he contacted the district ranger, asking whal he needed io do to post and/Or distribute the Dier. Rowe advised Myers against even distributing the flier, saying that he was "not sure if there is any appropriate authormu.ion" and that "there are rules a.~ to what can and can't be distributed.· Recent coun cases do not suppon Lhis position. Alier the Foresl Service tried to censor signs in the wc.~tcm US. the Department of AgriculbJJC baned the Forest Service from interfering with the right of free speech. The Forest Service could only specify where the distributors could go. and even then, only when there was a clear danger to public safety. Fortst Wateh, a publication or'Cascade Holistic Economic Consul1811ts, observes that the Forest Service typically discourages activities that cast it in a poor light II uses intimidolion when this ploy docs DOl work. Myers believes that Art Rowe is uying to delay distribution of the SoulhPAW fliers until after the deadline for public comment on the plan amendment Stnd fellers on the Forest Plan to: SowhPAW; 3 CI/JXlcm Pl.; Aihe vi/It, NC 28801. They will be prtunttd to the Forest Suvict by December 16. GEORGIA EXPANDS LIST Nanni World News Service Georgia has added 135 species to the 79 species currently proc.ectcd under its suue endangered species acL The upandcd list includes a large number of threatened and endangered planis, birds, and mussels native lO the Appalachians, including the monkey-face orchid (PlaJanthera inlegrilabia), a rare plnnt found near wetlands. The list was expanded in sp11c of objections by a lobbyist for Sea Island n:oort, Union Camp Corporauon, and Georgia-Pacific Corporauon who claimed that the additions would interfere with priv:uc property rights. The Georgia Department ofNawral Rcsoun:cs did not find this claim plau.~iblc: the Georgia endangered species act applies only lO statc~ed lands and federnl lands managed through coopcmuvc agreements with the Sllllc. In addition, national forests typically protect state listed species under a "protcetcd" or "sensitive" species de..~gnation. (c:onlinuod on page 29) For more informo.tion or 10 help fig hi 1/te chip mills, contact TAGER: Box 764: Sowh Pi11sburg, TN 37380 SHOW SOME IMPROVEMENT Nawnl World New, Service North Carolinians are hoping that recent Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) hearings will be a springboard for saner uanspon.ation policy. Members of the newly formed NC Allillnce for Transportation Reform spoke at the hearings for the fina time, advocating a switch to lJ'lUns, buses, van pools, bicycles, 1111d foot-power. At a hearing in Morganion. member.; or the group chided the NC Department of Transportation for focusing single-mindedly on new rood construction while ignoring alternative transpOl'1lltion, better planning, maintennnce of exisung roads, nnd other mOfC cost-effective systems. They cited othct serious costs associated with rood-building, such as declines in wildlife populations and air quality. WNC Alliance Transportation Task Force member Jim Barnes, who came to speak against four-lamng portions of U.S. 221, noted tha1 the NC DOT seemed lO be acting on its own narrow pohucal agenda more than on the public's behalf. Barnes, a com bot veieran, quoted a swement by Secretary of Transportatioo Thomas Harrelsoo that implied that people wocking for transponation rcfOITll were pan or the "CCCP" (Russian communists) and told DOT lO stop the auacks. ~- ....,i ,./r.t_,,.,._ ......... ·~·...· ~ CLEARCUTS in Crandfoth<:r Ranger Obtnct Pi~g;th N•lt0Ml Fol'\'!\t 1967-1992 • • ~IS _ ... Wa1t-r,htrd-,. - - -Watrrway, --r,,g.i.o.w.s...., - , COUJ1171.J,,oo «:. _ _ US....,_~..._.,,__,,.,,,..,,lltrp•u-'""&MM-111,.._,111,,-, . ,.....__,t._&,__..W'ftt._Mll ... lWa. Send wrillen comments on tM TIP 10: Thomas llarrefson, Secretary ofTransP«tmion; J/ighway Building: 1 S. Wilmington St.; Rakigh, NC 2761 l To become a 1ranspona1ion reformer, write: NC AtlitJ11Cefor Transpor101ion Reform: P.O. Box 1002: Chapel Iii/I, NC 27514 ,,.,inter-, 1992,..93 This map was produced for the Foothills Environmental Alliance (FEA) by Rob Messick to document the extent of clearcutting on the "Grnndfathcr Ranger Desert" in the Ptsgllh N11tional ForesL The Allmnce i.1 calling for an end io clearcutting on public lands in lhe diwict, saying thal. so many acres have already been logged that the cumulative effects of so much cutting have affected the area as a whole. Fore.st Service Ranger Mike Anderson has refused to meet with the FEA, so lhe group ha.~ taken their map and their appeal to the media and the public. �MANDALAS by Rob Messick �Michael Thompson was raised in Kentucky and Indiana. His formal education was at Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Tennessee. Michael started his artistic career as a porcelain artist; his porcelain pieces are in many states and several countries. His pen and ink works have been published in Kat11ah Journal and Appalachian Heritage. He has illustrated several booklets and one book. He now lives in Berea, Kentucky where he works in aniques and porcelain restoration. !Ji.nter ,' 1992-93 �POEMS The sun of my mind rises Nourishing and encouraging The growing branches of my heart's wisdom With an enlightened mind And a heart as strong As an old oak tree My body can face the wind And call to joy. The View from Hawk's Nest Pegl 'Tire world's longest steel, arch bridge with a single span of 1700 feet opened on Oct. 22, 1977, as an integral part of West Virginia's interstate system." - from a post card text When the aliens came, they couldn't seem to stand it; They looked at it, some of them even admired it; Had said: "Overthere shall be a sanctuary for Whomever"? The huge gorge, the swift-running river below, the long ages of slow carving; Instead, they ran roughshod right over the canyon; But then they had to get somewhere else; So they spun long strands of steel, and spanned the chasm; they straddled it. What if, standing here for the first time, seeing it, they had decided instead to stop? Had said: ''No, this is it, we go no farther, this edge will suffice"? Had said: "No, what is over there will be theirs who have it"? (Mostly deer, sun-motUed trees, and rhododendron;) Had said: "Let that be the Overthere where we celebrate our restraint"? Xatimh Journot pngc 24 In hardly more than an instant they bridged all that had taken the water forever to open up; And hurriedly went on their way scurrying evermore west to the Earth's end; Then, lo, one particular day, they came back; "Bridge Day," they called it; They dangled ropes down and climbed up it; they put parachutes on and jumped off it; they raced their motorcycles over u; they laughed and then picnicked upon it; 'Once each year we'll come again and mock this gorge," they said; "Once each year we'll have 'Bridge Day'." by Gerald George l,.lu1 trr. 1992- 93 �... . . •. ... ... ~. .......................•.. .. ··•..... l.Jtnu r , 1992-93 . . .. . .. .. . .;~ �DRUMMING Ocnr Kataali, Hey Rob • way 10 go. Looks like you got your anal complex in ncwsprinL Most folks just pu1 it on 1hc outhouse wall or I.ell bath.room jokes to their friends. 111 bel you've grossed ouI half of Kauiah Province. P.Winklor Hickory.NC Ocnr Karuah, Re: lhe "CMOOn" in the Fall '92 Kauiah. "the b10-movcmcnt.•. it's as slow as a bowel movcmcnL• • now CRUDE I not lO mention inaccurate (rm sorry to learn Mr. Messick is constipatcd, but please SJXITC us, your readers, this kind of knowledge in your last 3 h.~c.~). Un<:igncd Charlouc. NC • Reply: Than! you for your commtnt.r. I suppou you tw0 think that art should ncvtr be ojftnsiw:. I don't agree with that. Man) comics and artists use the irracioMI 10 get a pomt acros.r. They also play with taboo sub;ects rtgularly. FrtJ/lltly I have mtt too many tnvirollflll!ntalists who haw: diffic11/ty laughing 01 tht:mstlvts. In the Fall, /991 issuto/Kat~nh Wt" pla}'l!d with tht sumingly sacrosanct KatuahJournaJ logo and it becamt Granola Journal/or this vuy reason Why is it that the sense of humor is among the most controversial of human pursuits? The "Ka1'1ah Ko,rfu.sion~ comic in isslll! 36 hod a play on words that was IIOl =ant to be 1~11 this seriously. I/you would liu to see m()Tt: ufmy 'anal comp/a' please re/t:r 10 Katuah Journal issut 1112 (Summn- 1986) 111 an article t!nlitled "The Sacred Sca,ab"for which I cartooned idtas the Kauiah edito~ hod aboui scarab beet/ts raking care of the sort of miff )'OIi fuul III ou1l,ouses. 1/appy body funcnons! · RM De.u-Katuah, I was inl.CrCSICd to read the review of Kattiah iffl!e #34 in lhc latesl issue of Anarchy mnga.,me. 1lle mrun reason I've written is bccnu.w rm fa1tly heavily involved with lhe UK Earth First! nelwork and am presently beginning 10 compile an nnicle on the Iheme of·Rcfon:sting the Eanh." My intent in producing this article for the UK Emth F'l/'SlJ magll7.ine called Wild is: I) Because a (X)lll~ve n:fon:stmion drive would go a long way to mitigaung many of the disasuous side cffeCLS.of our presenl way of life (who knows, it could even ushet m a ocw "modem primitive• golden age, and talce lhc l)fCSSW\l off our animal brothers and sisterS). 2) It means that us radical c:nvironmentaliStS can be proactive rather lhan reactive • seuing our own agenda rather than always decrying "theirs.• lt is not enough jUSl lO oppose.. A pc)Siti ve vision o( ours acts as a binding force and gives us something 10 strive for mthcr lhan fight agrunsL 3) Living in lhe United Kingdom I yearn for a wilderness, an unn:gulaled expanse. Seeing an American wilderness (of a kind) - Yosemite· had a profound cffCCl on me. XAt6bh. )outnat page 26 4) The planting of U'CCS seems 10 me lO be very life-affuming - a way 10 give somelhing back (or "pay the rent," as US EF! people say). It is a way to create something rather lhan prevent something rrom being desaoyed. I see lhc article as having two secLJons. 1lle fu;t will cover and promoli: groups already engngcd m reforestation - e.g. Trees for Life. Scottish Tree Trust, Sacred Tree Trust, Reforesting Scotland in lhe UK. Gccen Bell in Kenya. Si-A-Paz in Nie4ragua, clC. The second will promote the idea of a uec-based life itself and ex:imine lhc pr05pCCts for tl1is THE. LAST~F~~ l<ATUANS Dear Kataali, My deepest thanks 10 all of you for Ka16uh Journal. It was really good reading, and rm sorry nex1 summer it will be all over. Please, jf You plan 10 publish Katuah again in the future, or any other journal or books. le! me know. Good Luck To All of You, Giuseppe Moretti Man10va. l181y Dear Katuah, We are two historians Crom Austria. For about 1en years we worlt and publish on new spiritual and alcem:itive movements. At the same time we are p:in of lhese movements by ourselves. We are both acLJve in lhc non-prol'it association "For the Earth, for Life/Working Circle Hopi. Auslri3" which suppons traditional lnduln issues and promou:.s spiritual practices in the: Gennan-spcalcing an:a. After the decline of communism in Eastern Europe there is an increasing 1endcncy toward a new regionalism throughout lhc continent. We con5idcr the bioregionaJ,sm a~ a very tn!Cl'Cs.tmg alternative to the estabhshcd stau:-sysiem. We want lO inronn the public rn the German-speaking coonincs by means of sc1cn1ilic work about biorcgionalism which b unknown in Europe. So we request your help by sending us information material on your specific work and acuviucs, and by answering the following questions: • Is your vision of bioregionalism connected with an egaliianan, hierarchical, or other order of society? (which) • Arc foreign people wekome in bioregional areas or is it the aim of bioregionahsm that pc,ople 01 foreign cullll/'U - e11cluded? •There is a big con~uon of biorcg1011al idea~ with Nauve Amcncans. ls there any coopcrall<>n and/or do you SUPJlOll Indian land rights struggles cu:.? We are looking fOfWlltd lo hearing from you. Sinc:crely Yours. Dr. &luard Gugcnbager Dr. Roman Schwcidlcnka A-8984 Kainisc:h 29 Austria, Europe Dear Katuah. I fll'St read Karuah JourMI boci wilh issue 1127. I luld ;ust finished 1wo year. with the Peace Corps in the Philil'fl111CS, and had rclWllcd home 10 Ellijay, GA 10 visit with my Dad. The arucle by Richard Lowenthal :ibo1.1t personal and plancwy healing blew me away. I remember I sat on lhe public bench in front of the Dallon, GA pos1 office and read lhc: article by Lisa Sarasohn about the belly. "If we are lO heal the Eanh, let us st.art as close to home as possible, let us Stan with the ponion of the Erulh which is our bodies.· Since I.hen our wife delivered our fll'Sl child. as a future social model as oovocated by the Such words wri11en by lots of d1ffcrcnl people over Movement for Compassionate Living. George these past few years It.we helped me so much. Mostly French, permaculturists, and so on. I'm quiet, but I feel reassurance m knowing thal Your publication sounded like ii would be others feel things like me. worth reading in n:la!Jon lO this article. If you know What's most imponant for y'all publishing 1hc of any Cun.her relevant matuial, such as lhal I have journal 1s your own healths. Maybe if the journal is outlined above, I'd be very grateful 10 hear from you. diffic:ull to pull iogether using just volunteer input, Youn Sincerely, we could increase our yearly subscnplion to say Dominic Franklin twenty-Ii ve dollars, and then have a small stipend for Brighton,UK lhe core members of the SUlff. I think that Ka1uah semis out a really powetful voice, and I think lhlll ,n times 10 come we'll sec more and more people looking ror such a voice in lhelf search for lhclf place in this Great Life. In appreciation, Scou Richardson Baguio City, Philippines Drawing by Dous Ellioct JJi.ntei. 1992-~ �Dear Kan1ah, ...... ... ..r _; ~-· ... . .... I '·· ·-' (\ : ,fl., ... .. ,• ....~ ··· /-.: i·.. • ) _.: .... ~ \ ·.... ·.......... c::::~ Dear Katuah, 1 ••···: ·--.... l ! ~ { .-:;::> '·-.... ........ ·, ..........··......... ··--...· ILL MISS YOU! BIGTIME With Love, Peace, and Hope for the Future, HalWlllSOn M:ith The Noturt Con.m-wincy Minneapolis. MN _. Thanks C« all your work. We love Katuah Journal and will miss you! The Magic Fac10ry Rome.GA DcarKatuah, lwassoodcnedbytheannoonccmentto discontinue publication of Katuah Journal. Your contnl>ution lO bioregional awan:ncss and thinking has reached beyond K.alliah. The mspuation the joomal has provided for me will be missed• The best to all of you, Tom Hawkins Ravenna.OH Dear Ka1uah, So SrKry to hear you all are ceasing publication • this truly is tht btst biortgional journal in the country! Dear Kataah, Dear Katuah. We recently came to North Carolina to camp in the Sunburst area of Pisgah National Forest. We were there for a weelc and had an opportwlity to visit Cherokee, NC. On the way into the city we passed an interesting edifice which turned out to be Native Traditions, the non-profit organization which suppons experiential education for youth. We wmed in because I thought it was a herb shop and I have a great interest in herbs. (If you know the store perhaps you will understand my mistake.) I was delighted with the enterpnse, even though it wasn't a herb store. My two boys and I were fascinated with the items oCfered frK sale, along with the lending library and Sequoyah Trueblood's concept. While paying ror two crystals the boys had selected. I spotted a C-Opy of Ka111ah Journal on a nearby uibtc. I reached frK a copy 10 add 10 the purchase thinking it was a Cherokee local newsletter and that it would be intem.ting 10 road. The young Indy at the counter would take no payment for ill J wn.~ further impres.,;oo! However I was even more impressed when I finished reading that summer 1992 issue! So impressed that I would like lO ~ubscribe. I subscn'bc to Circlt Ntrworlc News from Wisconsin, Mymcal Realms"from Briton, nnd \Vild and Wudy from ldaho. Thi.~ Katuah Journal is a good counter JlOlnl . I enjoyed it! Thanks again , C. L. Mahoney Ros.~ford, OH "Now is tht Season of Dying Tht Long Dark Night A'bornin' Bui sh.hh! Usttn... The Trus Stand Tall A'gin the Bi11u Wind Awaitm' tht warm glqwA' Morniri'." DearKatuah, Your publicauon 1s right on targeL To me. ltving close to the L'l.lld is the most imponant thing we can do. I am glad 10 send you $50.00 for ALL of your remaining back l~sues. They will become a valued pan of my library as I learn to live hannoniously with my biacgion - The Mississippi River Delta. Long Live the E.arth, George Nctwcrlccr New Orleans, LA (The Forest's W/lll'ERSONG) I was saddened by your news. The passing of an important piece of all our lives - but I'm glad to have known and been a pan of Katuah for the time I was. Peace, Fran Freudcnbcrgcr Hendersonville. NC Thankyou, Dana Vandcr Els Winooski, VT Dear Katuah. Sad news indeed! Have you considered trying to get some foundation in the region to underwrite three years of an editor's salary rK wha1evcr expense is most critical? Send two copies of Katuah Journal with your proposal, and who knows, it might w«k. The Dirtctory of Foundalions is probably available at you local library. Keep Katuah Afloat! Ken Morrison Babson Park. FL Dear Ka1uah. Dear Katuah, Sorry 10 hear about KDluah's ceasing pubIic31ion. A line J()umal which will be hasd to top. I wish all of you well and thank you frK your years of service to the people of the province and the rest of us lucky enough IO come across iL Regard.~ Onwings by Rob Messick LccMcm:r Baltimore, MD Although l did expect it sooner or later I still hoped 1wouldn't sec the ad on Page 34 Fall '92 saying good-bye. It was through Katuah Journal that I rully wised up 10 natural resources • the w:iy they were, arc. and can be again - and I can't po~bly thank you all enough for that , At least you arc going out with dignity, aware that you did reach a lot o f ~ with your message of hope, expressed so beautifully in your "Statement of Purpose." It is my hope that you can, in the foreseeable future, once again send II voice. •• if not. you have accomplished much anyhow. In closing, for th,: benefit of anyone who IS interested in gaming good insight mto just how esscnual lltCS arc to human life, and how wonderous they an: up close, may I sugg~ a book cnlltlcd rhir Green World written in 1942 by Rutherford Plan. in reprint now through Dodd. Mead, and Company. Mr. Plait undcrnood ucts, and his love for them shows through. Though an amrueur Mtumlist. hi5 knowledge SUrplSSCd many "eitpertS" and This Grun World e:imed him the Burroughs Awanl as the year's forcmosi literary worlt in nature writing. I urge folks 10 get this book, if no others. (continllCd on ne,,1 P"&e) XA~,Jin.m9':, ~~. �Dear Katualt, It m:ilccs me snd 10 think about Kaluoh Journal being put to sleep! Fondly, B31tara Wickersham Knoxville, TN (continued from pa;;c 27) Again, lhank you :ill ror guidance when I mo5t needed n worthwhile dinx:llon an life • II won't be forg01ten ..• P.S, - I'd like 10 extend a "good day!" IO S:tm Booher, 'l'hcthcr he i, or isn't rcl31Cd lO the B«>hcrs in £ar Eastern Tennessee. A brother manicd into that clan fnr a while. Keep lhe Path, Jclfl.achary Dear Kllluoh, Thanks for all your good work through the years. Katualt has been 311 inspiration! Pcac:e and Slmhinc, Bob Fairchild E:l.slCmKenwcky Appropriate Technologies Oe.,r Kllluah, I nm oorry lO discover your journal jUSl as it is about IO cease publication. I am currently a graduate student in Foresuy a1 Notth Carolina S131e University. I hope to S1Jlr1 a homestead in the North Carolina Appalachian Mountains soon. Pcrh3ps some day we will meet? Peace, DcnnisOwnond Raleigh.NC Oeat'Klllu,Jh, I am sorry to hear that you will be CC3Slng publiaillon... Katuah 1s a ftl!C joumal and it will be sorely missed! Jennifer Brownlie Gulf B=.c. FL Dc:it Kattlah, We nre sorry to hear about KatJiah Jour11i1I eea~ing publication. especially ~incc we~ recently 1hscovcroo )'OU • •a voice in the waldeme."-'1.• I would also lake to order a near complete sci of lxK le issues. Good luck ond thank you. Cyntlua Maddo~ and Ben C.ampbcll Gn:cnsbom. NC Xoti,ah Journni patJC 28 De:irKotiiah. Sorry 10 hear I.hat Katuoh Journal will stop publicution. Best Wish<:s for the future. Bartxua WhiLCner Salisbury. NC Dear Katualt. We am very sad to hear you will cease publishing Katuoh Journal, We look forward IO each issue. it always lirts our spiriii; ro tCad the ankles and poems. Good luck 10 you all in your future cndca\'Ol'S. Peace, Steve and Jo Knight Allanm,GA Dear Kat(wh, I'd Ii.kc 10 obtain a copy of lhc l:iiest issue of Katiiah JourNJI fcawriog rorcsis, wood woit. and wood workers. Heard that this might be your final issue. ll<>pe it's 1101 true. Every issue I've seen has been absolutely lop notch • mieresting, relevant, cullurally and biorcg.,onally enrich111g. Please say 11 ain·1 sol Thanks very much. OaveKahnn Full Circle Foresuy Gaiberville. CA D.:arKatualt, We are compilmg and editing a ·Good Wood' guide that lisis source.~ of suruinably-h:u'vc~tild wood. and produclS mruJe thereof Do you have any leads for producers in yOllr area that might be mlCl'C6ted? Also, our new ncwslcucr 1s coming 001 an a week or two· would you like LO uchange? We all were 1mpr-cs,;ed by your journal, and were sorry to hear you're closing down. Thanks, Ken lll~titu1c for Sustainable Fon:s1ry P.O. Box 1580 Redway, CA 95560 Pnnt by Laura Braolt Janun • agt II DearKatwh, Over the years I've wriucn about the U.S. Forest Service. May I inlJ'Oduce the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE)? Among its members arc over 2,000 profcss1on:ils m the Forest Service. They am very upset with the polilici.iation of the U.S. Forest Scr.•ice wherein it no longer serves the best intcreslS or the public. Therefore they are sharing infonnalion to bring about reforms. He.re are quoc.ntions from information they have provided on how to save our National Forests from waste. "U.S. National Forests I) supply only 14% of U.S. wood producis 2) comprise only 8.5% or our country's land lllC3 3) contain SO~of rtffl3ining wildlife habitat in the U.S. 4) supply SO% of the cold-wrucr fisheries habitat in 1he U.S. S) provide abundant clean water and air 6) make up lhe I.isl remaining S% of our native forests in I.he conlinerual U.S. 7) and represent the la~t vestiges or functioning ccosysiems. critical for the preservation of remaining biological diva,;ity. These environr11Cnl:il value.~ eannoc be supplied anywhere else: they can only be found on our remaining public lands. The U.S. does 001 need more wood from the N;11ional f-orcs1s. Consider the following !.implc conservution and recychng ~ll'lllcgy. which would mon: 1han make up for lhecurrcnt 14% or wood products coming from U.S. National Forests: • Increasing the efficiency or our mills in the U.S. IO literally cul mare wood Crom each log. Technology aln::idy ovailnblc and being used in J:ipan would increase our "supply" a full 27%-. almost double what comes Crom National Forests. • Using mon: post-consumer recycled paper producis, making use of both sides of paper. reducing the use of di~lc paper producL~. and eliminating wood wa5te in lhc construction process. These steps m addiuon 10 mill efficiency would save us 50% of the trees we are cutting now • nearly four times the wood coming from National ForesL~. While AFSEEE is not necessarily advocating a halt to public lands devcloprl!Cnl and logging, we do advoe;ite a complete mor310nurn on any development of remaining roadless an::is or old growth. AFSEEE says unul we instJtutc a simple, rauonal conscrvuuon and recycling strategy, the public shOuld not have to give up the incredible cnvironmenllll values or our Notional Fore.,ts for a mere 14% of the wood prducL~ supply. Nor should we lose hundreds of m1lhons of our tax dollnrs m selling lhe heritage of our National Fore,, lands to tamber companies for lhesc unnCCCS'iaf)' wood producL,. • Oc:ir wise friend.,! Un51Crupulous Limber mtcre,L\ pn:,;cnUy conuol lhc admini~ll'lltion and Congreis and are quietly aucmpting to PG"-~ laws so tha1 they can loot our and our children's hcril!lgc. the b,1 rcinnining 5% or ancient forests. Subscribing to lnnrr Voiu (P.O. Box I 1615; Eugene, OR 97440) \\11l help ket'p you infonned. Our conccm:d western cousins need our help 10 save our ancient trees and the life tl1cy suppon. Congrcs~mcn who defer to such special unscrupulous mtcrc51., again~! the public good arc 1m:spoosiblc, de.~f\·ing or a hfe-long vacallon. :111d should be so informed politely. Won't you please help for the :sake of your grnnd.hlltlrcn? Yoo havi: the time and the means. Ancient tn:cs contJnuc to fall n~,ly. Z. Andrew Gerry FranJJan,NC lvint.cr, I qgz-93 I �(continued from page 21) BAD OPPORTUNITY TIMBER SALE APPEALED • BY INDUSTRY! Nllllnl World Nc,ws Sttvi« N•unl World News Set\<icc Following an order from lhe ccnuul office of lhe Southern Region of lhe US Forest ScN1ce. the Jefferson National Foresl has stopped issuing decision nouccs for Opponunity Areas (OAs). OAs average 7,600 acre.~ each on the Jefferson Under the old system, lhe Forest Service issued one-t,me decision notices for mosl ForesL Service ocuv111cs in 311 OA over a period of live or more ycru-s. Freed Crom the rcsLraintS of lhe old sySI.Cm, lhe Forc.~1 Service is planning a flurry or umber "3lcs. ll h:is begun using a rudimentary, nonbinding OA document lhat offers linle hope for expaod.ing nongame habiuu, special areas. or semiprimitivc recreational opportunities. Environmenial groups have nol been qwct., however. In October, represenialives of lhe CitilcrtS' Ta.~k Force for Foresl Management, the Appalachian Trail Conference, SoulhPAW, and the timber llldustry met with Ille Deputy Regional Forcsccr. Only lhe timber industry backed !he change. A second meeting is planned, lhis lime with Regional Forester John Alcock. The Cili,.ens' Tiwt Force ha. provided Alcock wilh a number of aises and materials on the OA system. The group has reminded him lha1 it was he who signed the f0test pl3n aficr lhe OA sysicm was worked OUL The Task Force argues lhat lhe OA system was designed 10 compensate for an otherwise deficient plan. Wilhout it, lhe Jefferson 1'ational FOfCSI is essentiBlly ·ptanless." and must begin opernting on imcrim guidelines until a satisfactory new plan is approved. To lhe nonh, !he George Washington National Forest has been operating on interim guidelines for several years. The C1tiicns· Ta.~ Force ha.~ enlistO<I lhe help of the Sou1hem Environmental Law Centec in preparing its If 1mit1tion is lhe sincetest form of noucry, then lhe Muluple Use Council JUSI /o~s Lhe region's environmental groups! ~timber industry advocacy group adopted an environmcnlalist iactic m Scpccmbcr, 1992 by entering an odmmistralive appcaJ wilh lhe US Forc.~1 SeN1cc on the Sugarhouse Cove limber sale. Sugarhouse Cove is in lhe Big Ivy area of nonh Buncombe County. Big Ivy IS known for us biolog1cal diversity and has been recommended 3S a biological reserve by a coalition of scientists and activists (Si:i!K01uahJourna/ #34). Ths substance of the induSLry appeal was an hi~1orical oulline or the Big Ivy area and a stand history of Lhe timber sale companmcnts. The h1~1orical oullinc went back JO J)IC-Columbian times and traced a history of human use up JO lhe present day. The comention or lhc appca) is lhat lhe umber sale should be expanded. The reasoning is that because there arc species of threatened pl.ants in Big Ivy and becaleiC much of Dig Ivy has experienced periodic human dislurbance, "lhe question might be raised" Ihm "site disturbance is necessary 10 lhcse plants and !he lack of site disuub:lnce may bar lheir recovery as a species." The obvious flaw in lhe logic of the appeal is 1h31 no cause-and-effect relationship is ~hown. Because there are lhrcatcned plant species in an area 1h31 experienced human disuu-bance does not mean lhnl the planlS arc dependent upon diSlurbancc. Much more prolxlble for species of native woodland plontS IS that they are continuing to exist in lhc area in spite of disuubances. The particular species in question were not named in lhc industry's appeal. If disturbance oncouraged lhrealClled plan15, lhc highly disturbed areas or human habilation all around lhc national forests would be rife wilh rare and endangered plant species. Unfonunately, this is not the case. Native species need nauve habitat.. which for the rare forest plantS is lhe old-growlh hardwood foresL For many speci.:s, the public lands are their los1 refuge, and i n ~ human use is lhreatening lheu last haven. Enlightening as is the dissertation on lhe history of the human use or the Big Ivy area, 11 in no way makes an across-the-board case that race plant~ require clcarcuis. case. For more in[ormarion. write: Citizens' Taslc Foret; 2753 Tanglewood Dr. SW; Roanoke, Va. 24018 ROADS CRISSCROSS PARKWAY Narura! World News Service It's lhe law! An obscure passage in !he 1989 North Carolina Highway Trust Fund Act bas cituens· groups and Blue Ridge Parlcway orrtcials worried. Tucked in among the other verbiage is a clause that requires the st:ite 10 rave all its roads - 17,000 miles wnhm IS y~. Fifty to 60 of lhese roads cross lhc Blue Ridge Parkway. When lhe Parkway wa.~ e~Lilbli!Jled as 11 nauonal park, the North Carolina and Virginia Dcpanments ofTran.,ponauoo (OOTs) n:ccived all nghtS of way foe inlefSCcung public roads. The Parkway administration is therefore Lrying to v.ork coopcrauvely w1lh lhe NC DOT. Accordmg to Ranger Jim Fox, lhc Patkway has an cxt.cnsive da1.1ba.o;c on rare plant communities and archaoological sues. It will urge DOT to avoid these are:is and to m.'lke changes whenever road plan~ CJlCOUl'3gc increased uuffte and high speed driving on the 1l3Jtway. Citi,cos groups arc also dismayed by the proposal. Paul Pritchard of the National Parks Md Conservation A~iation has exprcssoo concern about the project's potential to interfere wilh wildlife comdocs along the Parkway, In an Asheville Ciri1e11-Timn artlclc. he stated, "the moce we cut it up, lhe more difficult il is for nalllle to survive the acts of mon." lo>u1ter, 1992-93 OPEN SEASON ON COYOTE Natural World New. Serv,a, CO)'OIC 1, ptrSOfl(J flOfl grata in lhe Stale or North Carolina. The NC Wildlife Rcsoum:sCommis~ion 0.-/CWRC) has cl~ilied the coyoie as a •non-game wildlife specie.~· (hke a groundhog) and is proposing an open, urucstciclcd hunung = n on lhc wil>· canine. Since large nauvc preda10rs have been extcrmina1ed in lhe Sou1hcast. ll1crc has been an open niche in lhe area ecosystem, To fill Lha1 niche, the coy01e has migrated into Nonh Carolina from the wc~1 and has naturnli,cd itself in the Kaniah biorcgion and lhc wesiem piedmont Pockcis of coyoc.c i;culcment have also occurred 1n lhe caslCm part of the st.11e, probably as a rc~uh of human intrOduction. Coyotes arc opportunistic cau:rs. They are naturally prcda!Or'i, :ind will hunt animal~ as laq:e as deer down JO animals as small os rabbits, bird.~. rut.~, and mice. But coyoccs eat whatever is easiest JO find, which may perhaps be scavenged carrion or plant materials. They also will take domestic livC$tock - calvci;, turkeys. chickens, or pig.~. In doing so, lhcy rove run afoul of farmers, who ha\'C :i strong political VOICC. Whecc coyotes e.~lish lhemsclves, the red fox disappears - either outcompel.Cd or killed outright by lhe coyote. Foi1 hunters arc but a small part of the NCWRC con.~utucncy. but lhcy. 100, arc vocal and consti1u1e a strong lobbymg group for !heir aclivilie~. Thus an open season on lhis "undesirable alien." "Nobody believes lhnt lhe coyote population can be eradicated, but we don't want JO hinder anybody's cffons to conLrOI a specific situauon; says Peny Sumner of lhe NCWRC. The coyote may also have a damaging effect on nl!CmptS to reintroduce lhe red wolf, anolhec prcd:itor. The budget for red wolf remr.mduction includes money for indemni1ies to farmers who lose livestock lhrough red wolf predation. The small populations or red wolves presently loose III the wild are fairly easy IO moo11or. But if these populations grow, it will become more difficult to tell if a predation incident is caused by a wolf or a coyoie. Any pralation will lhen become "wolf predation" in lhe eyes of formers who will in~is1 on payment. "This could break lhe budget of the wolf progmm, • says Sumner, and could abort Lhc: whole reintroduction proje,cL TOO MANY DEER N&llltll World News Scrvia, In lhe late 1980s, eminent biologists William Alverson, Donald Waller, and Stephen Solheim reported lluu an overabundance of deer was damaguig ran: undcrsiory planlS in Pennsylvama. including some plants also found in lhe Southern Appalachians. Damaged plants were found even in the middle of a 4,07S acre virgin foresL Now a 1992N01ural A.rtas Journal on.icle by Sco11 Miller and Susan Brnuon documen~ lhc imrac1 of deer browsing on lhrealened and endangered pl.inLS across lhe United States. Based on a review of scientific literature on the \ubjcx:1 and interviews wilh 173 scientist..~. na1ural h~niage inventory bo1.0J11sts, Nature Conscrvoncy land stewanls, federal land resource managers, and US foh and Wildlife ci1pcns, Miller and Bratton compiled a list of 98 rare planl~ commonly disturbed by d<XC ovcrbrowsmg. The ~,udy found Lhat fedcrally lhre:itcned and cnd.mgcred plants like lhe Virgini:i round leaf bU'Ch, small-whorled pogonia, and swamp-pink are at ri~. Olhcc pfanl~ native JO Lhc Southern Appalachmn.s are affocled by deer as well: the list mcludcs over 40 Soulbem APJl31achian species IJlCluding spider-lily, gm,;cng, blazing star, Canada lily, Gray's lily, bog twaybladc, Appalachian 1woybladc, 1111d nonhcrn pitcher plont Miller and Brnuon llOIC Lhal deer populauons in many an:a1 are higbct than they have been hisl0rie31ly. They suggCSt that human disturbance, fragmentation. and a high proporuon of early suce. ~iOIUII gro"''lh are contributing 10 the problem. ... In addition, they nnc.1 that fragmentauon makes rare plant communities more a::ccssible to deer. �used cultum'struggling t6 be heard, Iather than being a pioneer on the fringes. Pathelic Art is not an expression of naive resignation, but an acknowledgement that irony, when you're getting gang-banged in an information orgy, is a pipe dream." Ceremonial chairlbcis 1/iie been for thousands of years by many cultures to provide a unifying force to help bond human beings together in a common spirit with shared values and attitudes. The rituals and ceremonies varied, but the basic principles of developing inner awareness and understanding of the Universe were similar. A oon-projir organiUllion called The Fo1111da1io11 For Earth's Ancestral Voices has been Ionned to work specifically on completing the Sound Chamber in Swannanoa, NC. The foundation is seeking donations in order to comp/ere construction of the dome. For more information write: The Foundalion For Earth's Ancestral Voices; 302 Old Fellowship Road; Swannanoa, NC 28778. - from Ralph Rugoff in tht catalog for a show in Los Angeles tilled "Just Palhdic. • Utne Reader, lpg 99) Noo/D« 1992 ~ SOUND CHAMBER IN SWANNANOA SEEKS HELP The World Peace/Sound Chamber being built at the Eanh Center in Swannanoa, NC is the eighteenth such chamber to be constructed. These chambers are scattered around the world in England, Sweden, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Austria, France Finland, and the United States (in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Connecticut, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Nonh Carolina). An unassuming man known as Joseph Rael or Beautiful Painted Arrow is the visionary father of these chambers. Pathetic Art Has Arrived "... although artists throughout history have been able to stand outside society, secure in their ability to define art and to offer social commentary, today they can fill no such vital role. Artists are more marginalized than ever - and these days, marginality means being trapped inside the media c.o~itlt. taoo~ CA.\'\.~ S ?066~ 1804 ~~bl.!:.~,tt.c . 2.8"7 l.5"' "The arc.1'$ oldest and large,;t natural foods grocery • Programs lo encourage self and Earth awareness, Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grains Vitamins & Supplements WJ1eat, Salt & Yeast-Free Foods Dairy Substitutes Hair & Skill Care Products Beer & Wine Making Supplies celebfotlon. ldnshp and hope. • Youlll Camps • School Programs • Family Camps· Teacher Training • Communery P,ograms • Camp 518/t Traln.,g • Ouldoor Program Consulting PO Box 1306 615-436-6203 whole earth grocery .,,..ka dda of Big Co.., of iradltloru and •Ing, 1bc Boow<-r Dana, Crttn Corn Dance and other, with drum and rank• WHERE THE RAVENS ROOS1 NATURAL MARKET WHOLE FOODS • BULK FOODS • VITAMINES • HERDS • FAT FREE FOODS • TAKE our FOODS . SNACKS . NO SALT, NO CHOLESTEROL 265-2700 823 Blowing Rock Rd Boone, NC 28607 Xatuan Journ<it page 30 • NATURAL ALTERNATIVES FOR HEALTHFUL LIVING 446 e.parkway craft center • suit~ 11 g;itlinburg. tcnncsscc 37738 615-436-6967 -r,; ~ ~ , "'~ 200 W. ~.ing St, Boone, NC 28607 GOHlnbt.rg, Temossoo 3n311 ~ Cherokee 1raJi1ional ,oni:, of Wallie, Calhoun Snrero, AS AN wrffM1>1NQ R)U( Rtco,u)jNI) ff T1U: UUAU o, co,:qun CAS<tTn ""° MoulJTAll< IIOOl!UT $ ll Clmu UNIVllUn'Y 1-IDITAG1c WEJ11XH CAAOUNA Cuuowm:r, NC 28723 (7~} 264-S220 TaDing ua,-es is I monlbly jow'na1 of deep ecology, 111SPiml persooaJ ac:11v1sm rooted in eanhea spnitualil)'. PU! iSSUC$ have feanwd art1clts by Gary Soyder, Statbawk, John Seed, Joaona Macy, Bill Devall, Looe Wolf Circles. Bartiara Mor, eic. Talhng UOW!S speaks for the oatural world aod for 1be rekindling of our own wild spu11. Subscriptions arc $18.00 one year/ $24.00 OUISide U.S. Tallci11g ua,-u 1430 W1tlamette 11367 Eu,aie, OR 97401 503/342-2974 Wtnter, 1992-93 �BOOK REVIEWS: Beyond the Beauty Strip: Saving What's Left of Our Forests - by Mitch Lansky This new book by Mitch Lansky has been touted as one of the most imponant books about the Stale of the environment since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Mitch is a resident of Wytopillock, Maine who has become known as a "premier backwoods rebel" challenging many of'the accepted assertions about the timber and wood producl'> indusoies. His book presents clear facts about what has happened to the North Woods and considers the economic, political and social influences that have added to the serious ecological problems there. A major event that spurred the author into action occurcd in 1976 when he watched as planes dropped pesticides on his propeny. rle later sued the company responsible and sraned the citizens group called PEST {Protect our Environment from Sprayed Toxins). PEST was successful in regulating existing spray progams by introducing the use of compunds such as Bt and creating buffer zones. The group disbanded in 1988 after pesticide spraying programs ceased in Maine. Beyond tire Beauty Strip offers a hard look at the effeclS of industrial forest management and the results of "bottom-line" liquidations of forests so prevalent in the I 980's. Mitch has brought together convincing information that points to changes thut must happen in order for business. human communities, and the forests to find a sustainable relationship with one another. As a man who has done many kinds of work in the lumbering trade, and who has thoroughly researched forestry issues, this book is yet another log of evidence in the clarion call for sane forestry! bioregional circles: "Two monsterS have ruined agriculture and country life, as they have ruined cities and city life. These monsters are private speculative ownership of land and the centralized overuse of the factory." It is reassuring to know that the bioregional movement has such able predecessors. "The School of Living is an educational organization dedicated to teaming and teaching the philosophy, practices, and principles of living that are self-empowering for individuals within the general aim of establishing decentralized, ecologically sound, self-governed, and humane communities. All of its resources, but most specifically the land it holds in trust, arc held in responsible stewardship for present and future generations." This is the mission statement of the School of Living which is remarkably similar to the cuhural side of many bioregional statements. The bioregional movement has sought to blend the preservation of regional biodiversity with the maintenance of human cultural concerns while revealing the impacts these forces have on one another. This inherently antagonistic mix.cure has proven 10 be very difficuh to resolve. to say the least. and has in some ways overloaded the bioregional movement to the point where its very wholism is what makes it vulnerable to exclusion as a "fringe idea" by the general populace. No maner how much a good idea appeals to common sense, those seeking social and ecological justice are not in power, and often don't want to be. This book shows again that grassroots groups and individuals acting on their own conscience must continue 10 insist on justice if justice is to manifest in the world. - reviews by Rob Messick THE INST11lJTE FOR DEEP ECOLOGY EDUCATION otrww A 2-Week Summer School in APPUED DEEP ECOLOGY ~f.14,1993 Shet!M R . - C . - , Philo. C4 sn Reshaping Modern Culture: The Story of the School of living and Its FoU11dtr • by Mildred Jensen Loomis lolitt~r. 1992-93 For a listing ofbooks published by rhe School of Living, including Reshaping Modern Culture ($17.50 plus postage), write ro: School of Living; R.D. I, Box 185A; Cochranville, PA /9330 or call (215) 593-6988. This IS I/IUJnsive tramrng for scwtsts, educators. thersp,scs. and community organizers The program will offer sklll bu,fdmg in eco-psychology. restoration ecology. communrr:y mcervention. end new educational tech111ques for transform,ngenv,ronmenr.alvelues end behavior. Join With our diverse faculty m bndg,ng the "gep· between culture end nature, UI' ben end wild, soc,af 1usace end deep ecology. Order from: Tilbury llouse Publishers; The Boston Building; 132 Water S"eet; Gardiner, ME 04345 ($19.95 plus postage). In 1934 Ralph Borsodi founded the School of Living in southeastern Pennsylvania. It soon became a place where advocates ofself-surlicient living and land trusts came 10 work, :.tudy, and live. The author of the book Reshaping Modern Culrure, Mildred Loomis, joined the school soon after its inception and was a leader in work done there until her death in 1986. With a lively inlroduction from Hazel Henderson, this work gives a detailed description of the history of the School of Living and its founder, but it also serves as an inspiration for relative newcomers to decentralization principles in the bioregional movement. The following statement by Borsodi lc.ipt out at me as a confirmation of the same problems we have come up against in Ralph Borsodi wrote prolificly about the errors of modem industrial society, and his argumencs against it are perhaps even more relevant today than when they were first wriuen. Today the School of Living continues his work with projects in community land trusts, permaculture, geonomics, and alternative education, and production of their membership newsleucr Green Revolution. Facu/tymcfude: Joanna Macy, Bilf Devall, Randy Heyes, Elizabeth Roberts, Ed Grumbine, Rechel CARDS byRobl\/~ Get a set of 10 assorted folding cards with artwork as seen in Katiiah Journal. Send $11.25 ppd to: Rob Messick Rt. 8, Box 323 Lenoir, NC 28645 Bagby, Freeman House, David Abrsm, Suphsnis Kiwi, Csrl Anthony, Ds l/id HHnks, Uu Faithom, Alan Drwngson, & ~ ers. Greduer.s credit end Continvin(I Educeaon credit IIVStlBbfe. For brochure ca/I or fax: (3D3) 939-8398 or write THE INST1TUTE FOR DEEP ECOLOGY EDUCATION, Bo.x229D, Boulder, Colorado, B03D6. ,C.Otuan Jolmia!. pn1JC 3 1 �DECEMBER FEBRUARY 20 SW ANNANOA, NC Chanting in the newly completed Peace Chamber held each Swiday at 5 pm. For info, contact The Earth Center; 302 Old Fellowship Rd.; Swannanoa, NC 28778. (704) 298-3935. 21 8 22-27 MARSHALL, NC Ladderback Chairmaking tutorial with Drew Langsner. Traditional woodworlcing skills and use of specialized hand tools. Enrollment limited to two students. $575 includes meals and lodging. Pre-register. For info on this and other tut0riaJs, contact: Country Workshops; 90 MiU Creek Rd.; Marshall, NC 28753. (704) 656-2280. Winter Solstice ST. MARYS, GA 10th Annual Peace Witness and Reunion at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. Sponsored by From Trident 10 Life. Contact: Metanoia Community; 1702 Hwy. 70 E.; St Marys, GA 31558. (912) 882-4820. 26-28 HOT SPRINGS, NC Annual New Year's Retreat. Meditation, chanting, and meditative movement to welcome the new year, led by Marcia Rose and John Orr. $295 includes vegan meals and lodging. Pre-register: Dharma Rettcat Center; Rt. 1, Box 34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743. (704) 622-7112. Full Moon MARCH 27-1/4 8 20 SWANNANOA,NC Fire ceremony offered ror the healing of Earth's waters, held on the 7th of each month. Contact The Earth Center. See · 12/20. 7 Spring Equinox SWANNANOA, NC Sacred sounds workshop offered by Beautiful Painted Arrow (Joseph Rael). For info, cont.act: The Earth Center. See 12/20. 20 8 Full Moon 8 JANUARY Full Moon SWANNANOA, NC Gathering of Tiospaye. Celebration and fellowship with the extended Earth.centered family. Potluck meal. For info, contact The Earth Center. See 12/20. Drawing by Rob Messick 21 SWANNANOA, NC Dedication of the Peace Chamber. Ceremonies will also include initiation of the elders and a Wopelia (''giveaway") of thanksgiving for the completion of the Chamber. Contact: The Eanh Center. See 12/20. - - life's necessiti.csfor kss - - FRENCH BROAD Fooo Co-oP KalmiaCenter, Inc. Sylva, NC (704) 293-3015 Custom tilling, organic fertilizers, kelp meal, colloidal phosphate & many more products and services for abundant gardening and healthful living. rJ ':Thu ~ Sarujy M,,sh 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 NATIVE FLUTES Two styles mode of cedar or wolnu1 woods In the traditional manner Hawk Littlejohn Sourwood Farm Rt 1, Box 172-L Prospect Hill, NC 27314 (919) 562-3073 WREATHS • POTPOURRI • HERBS • TOPIARY Complete Herb Catalog - $4 Describes more tha11 800 plants from Aloe to Yam,w Rt 2, Surretl Co,•e Road Leicester, North Carolina 28748 Plio11e for appointment to visit (704) 683-2014 lv!.ntcr, 1992-93 �•• ~ BEGINNING CHEROKEE LANGUAGE BOOK supplemented with two casseucs. Suesscs alphabet & proper pronunciauon. The first textbook wriuco for use in ieaching and learning lhe Cherokee langW!gc. (346 pages) $39.95 plus S5.00 shipping. Camlog also available with tapes, books, pipes, dance sticks. drums, feathers, furs, buffalo products nnd more. Craft supplies also availnblc. (please specify). Send $2.00 to the Musknu Trader; P.O. Box 20033; Roanoke. VA 24018. THE ALTERNATIVE READING ROOM · is an unconventional library; free and open to lhe public. Our collection interests include the environment, social and political issues, the media and peace. We have over 200 magazine suoocriptions. The book and video collections also emphasize lhe environment and political concerns. Booics and VCR's can be checked OUL A video player is available for watching films in lhe reading room. Located at 2 Wall St.#114; Asheville, NC 28801 (704) 252-2501. Mon/Wed/Fri 6-gpm • Tues/Thur l 8pm - Sat/Sun l-6pm 0 BACK TO THE SOURCE • is an adventure m the spcciacular beauty of our remaining wilderness nnd is the highest quality backpacking guide sctvice available. We spcciali7,e in small group, minimal ,mpact JOumcys into the most remote wildlands m ,\mcrica. For a brochure wnte: Back to the Source. Lee Mercer; 3611 White Ave; Baltimore, MD 21206. (410) 426-6016. \UTOI\OMF.: DISTRIBUTION - is a unique mail order nnd rCIJlil 0111Jc1, neither •1ef1" nor "right," th:11 cnme-s hanl to find books, magazines, bumperstickcr.., buttons, post cards, lapcs, posters, and ~hirts We rc:iturc items that encourage self-determination and commuruty rather than government or "partisan· !;O(ulions. We dare to dream of a future without o)1Jll'ession, where we aui live m harmony with nnture, while each having all that is needed ror personal dignity, happiness, and hbcny. If these goals interest you, send SI and one 29 cent stamp to receive our catalog: Autonome Distribution; P.O. Box 791191; New Orleans, LA 70179. ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, WATER.AND SANITATION - Dealcr/ill.5t.aller of photovoltaic, micro-hydro, and other independent electric systems, energy conserving bulbs and showcrheads, solar and wood-burning water heaters, cisterns and composti.ng toilets, water filtration, and more: Ekat/EcOIOICCh; 1.50 Gravel Licit Rd.: Dreyfus, KY 40426;phonc((i()6)986-6146. WISE WOMAN TRADmON • Spring Greens Weekend will be held April 30-May 2 in the NC mountains with Whitewolf. L.eam to identify and create med!cmes with the healing herbs or Spring and cclebrat.e the return or Green Life! Suggc.~ doruluon SIOO (~liding scale ror work cxchange): Whit.ewolf; P.O. Boll 576; Asheville, NC 28802. EARTI-1 KEEPER. a quancrly publication rediscovering Ancient Wisdom and ArL Earth Keeper is fcawring articles on native ceremonies, spirituality, crafts, simple living, relationships, an, herbs and plants, recycling, and much more! One year sub!lCriplion foe $14. Two years ror only $24: Earth Keeper; P.O. Box 242-K: Whiuicr, NC 28789. NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONIALS· feawres handcrafu:d Native American ceremonial supplies. We carry drums, pipes, mules, flutes, pipe bags, feathers, rawhide, swcetgra.Ss, sage, tobaccos, abalone shells, buckskin, cercmonial herbs, bead loom and bell lots. native maps, and more. Free catalog! Nauve American Ceremooials; P.O. Box 1062; Cherokee, NC 28719. HAYWOOD COUNTY - Are you tired or "uavcling" to workshops and "paying" for knowledge? Are you intere.sl.Cd in Mother Earth; bancring products and services; giving/auending workshops in herbalism, beekeeping, auto mechanics, ete.? Not a "club," a community. Call Dana@ (704) 926-8008 or 452-3538 with your ideas. FOUR DIRECTIONS PRODUCTION COMPANY • J>reSCnts the first program in the \•idco series, "Que.st of the Eanh Kccpcrs," a ,;cries on the ritual~. c:anh-hcaling pracuces, and ccremooics ol indigenous cultures around the world. Featured m the first producuon is •Sun Bear/ Vision of the Mcdic,nc Wheel." a video oo persona.I and planetary healing: Four Dircc:uons Producoon Company; P.O. Box 70; Valley Head, AL 35989. Alternatives ... The Dvectnry of lntentw11,,1I Conununitiet ,~ the product Of two years Of J01Cns1ve n:sean:h, illld IS the most comprehensive and occuraw direct.Ory avadal>le. ltdocu· mcnts the ,•1s1on and the c:btly h£c of more lhan 350 eommunillc.s m North America, and more than 50 on other contincnb. Each community\ hsung include.s name, address. phone, and 3 dcs.;npoon of the group. E~tcns1v,: cross-referencing and 111ll.;.<mg m:Jkc,, the information easy to accc.~li for a wick: vwicty of users. Includes maps, over 250 odd,tiorml RC)Ource listings, and 40 related articles. 328 pages 8-l/2xl I PcrfC<.'thound October 1990 ISBI'< Number. 0-9602714-1-4 Sl6.00 Add S2.00 postage & handling for first bOok, S.50 for each additional: 40% discount on orders of IO ur more. Alpha Fann. Deadwood, OR (503) 964-5102 LM'f BALD EAGLES - arc\tii~g ii; ~nncssee Valley in unu.~ually high numbers this year :is n result of rec«d cold ttmpenuuros in the northern states. The Ch:uunooga Nature Centi!!' IIMOWlCCS "Engle Wateh 1993," a film and eagle view,ng session prcscnl.Cd by the centcr's program coordinator Ray Zimmerman and members or the Emma Bell Mjlcs Chapw or the Audubon Society. Dale: Janua,y 10, 2 to 5 P.M. Cose S2 to $5. Contact Ray Zimmerman@ (615) 821-1160 for details. LAND TRUSTS - have saved over 2.7 million acres in America. In spite of this, most people do not n:allzc how land truSts operate or how lnnd truSts can help individuals and communities protect the land they love. A new video, "Land Trusts in America: Guardians or lhe Future,• is useful to anyone in the conservation community: Land Trust Alliance; 900 Seventeen.th SL NW, Suit.e 410: Washington, DC 20006-2501. THE APPALACHIAN TRAil. CONFERENCE its 32 alrlWlled clubs, and 5,400 members have been mairuaining the 2,143 mile Georgia lO ~-f.ainc footpath since its completion decades ago. Today dedicated volunl.CClll share in efforts U) ensure permanent protection of lhe footpath and surrounding grecnway. To find the club nearest you, writ.e: Appalachian Trail Conference; P.O. Box 807; Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0807. COMMON GROUND • the annual Journal where grassroots women speak from the heart. Our 1992 issue wa.s wriuen by indigenous women throughout North America. Our 1993 issue will focus 011 farmworker women of all colors and cultures. A second publication, "Groundings." is a !-ea'iOn:il newslci!ct which builds a 11Ctwork of solidarity. published by a community or people who experiment in non-violent v.-ay~ of doing justice: Common Ground; P.O Box 64717; Baton Rouge, LA 70896. THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED 3,000 intentional commun1ues m the United State$. "Follow the Din Road,· a new video by mdcpcndcnt filmmaker, Monique Gauthier, is an excellent introduction tor anyone int=tcd in the succci;.,;cs and struggles of con1cmporary int.eriuonal communities: Send S28 to Monique Gaulh1e{ - FTDR; I Evcrg,ccn Ct.; Landcnburg, PA 19350-9389. GANDHI, A PRACTICING ATTORNEY, once said that "the true function of a lawyer wa~ to un1t.e parues riven a~under. • A new organi.7.alion has been <:litablishcd to create a ncr.worlc or t.,wycrs, law students, and olhcr conflict resolution professionals. The group wdl explore ways to seek resolution of issues through mcdi:u.ion, using the courts only as a last resort. A guiding principle or lhc group is respect for the dignity of each person involved. Another goal is helping children of divorce by reducing the conflict between their parents. Wnie: lntcmauonal Alliance of Holistic Lawyers; P.O. Box 26; Middlebury, VT 05753. LOCAL ACCOUNTANr would like to assist cnvironmcnmlly-awu,c businesses in their accounting and booklcccp1ng wort: Sherman Bamford: 163 Beavetdam Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804. , Wtbworklng i.f available for $2 .50 (prtpai4) for eaeh entry of 50 words or lts.s. Submil tnlriesfor ISSUL 1138 by Ftbruary 15. /993. Mail 10 Katuah Journal; Rt. 8, Box 323; LtllOir, NC 28645. (704} 754.6()97, 1.littt«, 1992-93 Xotiiah Jour nal JXl(JC 33 I �Dear Members of Katu.ah Journal, After nearly 10 years of service to the Katuah Bioregional Province, the KJltuah Journal newspaper will be ceasing publication in the summer of 1993. We have not been able to find enough people able to take long term responsibility for a project of this scale on a volunteer basis. While we are stopping the journal, we will keep the non-profit organization "Katuah" alive in order to have the option of carrying out future In the spring we will publish issue #38 devoted to alternative transportation in the Katuah bioregion. The final summer issue will contain an index to the KJltuah /011rnal, a listing of other bioregionally-oriented organizations in the province, and tie up loose ends. Thank you for your generous support of KJltuah /ournal over the years. Without your help the paper would not have been as vibrant or as vital as it has been. bioregional projecls. We decided to end the tradition of publishing the The Board of Directors for the Katuah organization will consist of: David Wheeler, Rob Messick, and Lee Barnes. We will meet at least once a year to keep track of organization business and to discuss future options. Any member who has project ideas or is interested in participating in this process should write us at: Katuah Futures; Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC 28645 or call (704) journal with some measure of strength, rather than watch it slowly fizzle out. If you have comments or suggestions for the future, we would like to hear from you. Sincerely, KJltrlah Journal Staff 754-6097. D.. I would like to order issues: #38 (Spring 1993) Alternative Transportation #39 (Summer 1993) Index & Resources For a total value o/$5.00 J<atuah Journal Rt. 8 Box 323 Lenoir, NC Katuah Province 28645 Issue #39 of the Kati,ah Jo11rnal \viii contain a resource guide to groups and organizations devoted to protecting and restoring the natural world in the bioregion and working to sustain the web of life and our human economic and social systems in Katuah. We have postulated the following categories of activity: Regional Economy Health and Healing Appropriate Technology Appropriate Transportation Councils & Decision Making Peace Issues & Conflict Resolution Shelter Education Agriculture Spiritual Life Natural Emlogy .D111wing by Mic:haal Thompson Name _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Town _ _ _ _ _ _ State___ Zip _ _ __ The success of this project will depend on your participation. Please send us information about your group and other groups that are working in your area. Offer other categories, if you like. Use additional sheets of paper if necessary. Give name, address, phone number, a one paragraph description of their work, and possibly a brief quote expressing their purpose. Enclose a copy of the organizational logo, if possible, and any photographs or drawings of group activities or the products of their work. Please also enclose your name, address, and phone in case there is a need for follow-up contacts. Submissions must be received by April 31, 1993. Mail to Katuah Journal; Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, N"C 28645. ,.,inter, 1992- 93 �, -·~KATUAH KONFUSION:·- Katuah konfvs1 on has \>een canceled due to ,.e11 censo,.sn"i?. ihe c:ar"toon i st ha~ 'oeen fired because he. is oe,. full of *@* %. BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE ISSUE FOUR • SUMMER 1984 Water Drum - WalU Quality - Kudzu - Solar Eclipse - Clearculling - Trout - Going io Water - Ram Pumps - Microhydro. Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair, Jim Wayne MiUer ISSUE FIVE- FALL 1984 Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee • Ginseng • Nuclear Waste - Our Celtic Heritage • Bioregionalism: Past, Present, and Future - John Wilnoty - Healing Darkness - Politics of Panicipation ISSUE SIX· WINTER 1984-8S Winier Solstice Eanh Ceremony - Horsepasrurea River· Coming of the Light • Log Cabin Root • Mountain Agriculwre: The Right Crop - William Taylor - The Future of the Forest ISSUE SEVEN· SPRING 198S Sustainable Economics - Hot Springs - Worker Ownership - The Great Economy - Self Help Credit Union - Wild Turlcey - Responsible Investing Working in the Web of Life ISSUE EIGHT- SUMMER 1985 Celebration: A Way of Life - Katll3h 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 198S The Waldce Forest - The Trees Spealc • Migrating Forests - Horse Logging - Starting a Tree Crop Urban Trees - Acom Bread· Mylh Tune ISSUE TEN - WINTER 198S-86 Kate Rogers - Circles of Sione - Jntemal Mythmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial - Poems: Steve Knauth - Mythic Places - The Ulaena's Talc Crystal Magic - "Drcamspcalcing" ISSUE THIRTEEN - FALL 1986 Center FOi' Awakening - Elizabeth Ca.llari - A Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest Morgan - Dealing Creatively with Death - Horne Burial Box - The Wake . The Raven Mocker - Woodslore & Wildwoods Wisdom - Good Medicine: The Sweat Lodge ISSUE FOURTEEN· WINTER 1986-87 Lloyd Carl Owle - Boogers and Mummers - AU Species Day · Cabin Fever University - Homeless in Katunh - Homemade H01 Water • Stovemaker's Narrative - Good Medicine: lnl.Cl$p0Cies Communication ISSUE FIFfEEN • SPRING 1987 Coverlets - Woman Forester - Susie McMahan: Midwife • Alternative Contraception - Bioscituality • Bioregionalism and Women - Good Medicine: Mmrinrchal Culture - Ptarl We 11ave limited numbers of particular back issues. Order back issues soo11 to i11s11re availabilitlJ, TI1cre are no more entire sets of Katt,ah Jounral available. Tlte ,rear complete sets of back issues will be di111i11isl1i11g as limited copies sell out. ISSUE SIXTEEN· SUMMER 1987 Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden - Vision Quest - Fust Flow - lnitia1ion • Learning in the Wilderness - Cherokee Challenge - "Valuing Trees· ISSUE EIGHTEEN· WINTER 1987-88 Vernacular Architeclure - Dreams in Wood and Stone - Mountain Home - Eanh Energies - Eanh-Sheltcred Living - Membrane Houses - Brush Shelier . Poems: Octobu Dusk • Good Medicine: · shelier" ISSUE NINETEEN - SPRING 1988 Perelandra Garden· Spring Tonics - Bl11Cberries • Wildflower Gardens - Granny Herbalist - Flower Essences: - "The Origin of the Animals:" Story Good Medicine: "Power" - Be A Tree ISSUE 1WENTY • SUMMER 1988 Preserve Appalachian Wilderness - Highlands of Roan - Celo Commllllity - I.and Trust - Arthur Morgan School - Zoning Issue • "The Ridge" • Farmers and the Farm Bill • Good Medicine: "Land" - Acid Raio - Duke's Power Play • Cherokee Microhydro Project ISSUE TWENTY-TWO-WINTER 1988-89 Global Warming - rll'C This Time. Thomas Berry on "Bioregions· - Earth Exercise - Kort Loy McWhiner - An Abundance of Emptiness - LETS • Chrooicles of Floyd - Darry Wood • The Bear Clan ISSUE 1WBNTY-THREE - SPRING 1989 Pisgah Village - Planet Alt - Green City - Poplar Appeal· "Clear Sky" • •A New Eanh". Black Swan - Wild Lovely Days - Reviews: Sacred lllnd Sacred Sa, let Age - Poem: ·sudden Tendrils" ISSUE lWENTY-FOUR • SUMMER 1989 Deep Llsiening - Life in Atomic City - Direct Action! - Tree of Peace - Community Building Peacemakers - Ethnic Survival - Pairing Project · "Baulcsong" - Growing Peace in Cultures • Review: The Chalice and 1lu: Bfodt ISSUE TWENTY-SIX - WINTER, 1989-90 The Ecozoic Era - Kids Saving RainfOl'est - Kids Trcecycling Company - Conflict Rcsolul.ion 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 l0 Their Ashes - Healing in Kaulah • Poem: "When Ldt to Grow· - Poems: Stephen Wing - The Belly · Food from the Ancient Forest ISSUE TWENTY-NINE -FALL/WINTER 1990 From the Mountains to the Sea - Profde of The Liu!c Tennessee River . Headwaters Ecology - •11 AU Comes Down 10 Water Quality" - Ware Power. Action for Aquatic Hnbil1llS - Dawn Watehcrs - Good Medicine: The Long Humnn Being - The Nonh Shore Road • Kattlah Sells Out • Waiershed Map of the Katuah Province ISSUE nnRTY • SPRING 1991 Economy/Ecology • Ways to a Regenerative &onOl'ny • "Money is the Lowest Form or Wealth" • Clarksville Miracle - The Village - Food Movers. Lifework • Good Medicine; "Village l!conomy• Shelton Lawe! • LETS ISSUE nnRTY-ON'E - SUMMER 1991 Dowsing • Responsibilities of Dowsing • Elecuical Life of the Earth - Katiiah and the Earth Grid • Call of the Ancient Ones - Good Medicine: "On Aggression• - Time to Take the T!Dlc to Take the Time - Whole Science - Tuning In ISSUE nnRTY-TWO • FALL 1991 Bringing back the Fire - A Bit or Mountain Levity . Climax Never Came - "Talking Leaves": Sequoyah Walking Distance· Good Medicine: "Serving the Great Life" - The Granola Journal - Paintings: "Mountain Stories"- Songs of the Wilderness ISSUE THIRTY-Tl-lREE • WINTER 1991-92 Fire's Power - What ls Natural • Fire and Forge The rlfSI rll'C - Hearth and Fire in the Mountains Good Medicine: "The Ancient Red" - Midwinter rlf'CS: poems by Jeffery Beam - Litmus Lichens ISSUE nnRTY-FOUR - SPRING 1992 Paradise Gardening - Community Sponsored Agriculwre - Eating Close 10 Home - Native Foods - Cover Crops - Kalunh Cultivars - The Web or Life: A Kalll3h Almanac - Good Medicine "Medicine Training• - Poems by AUison Sutherland ISSUE nnRTY-FlVE - SUMMER 1992 Consensus - Problems with Consensus - Tribal Council · Elda - The State of Franklin - Regional Rainbow - Steve Moon: Shell Engravings • Good Medicine "Medicine Training ll" - A Look Back ISSUE 1HIRTY-SIX • FALL 1992 Using Wood • Appalachian Logging - Old Logging Days - Working the Woodhlnds - Logging with Horses - Invasion of the Giants - From Industry io Endeavor - Ecological Forestry - The Chair in the Tree - Reading the Grove Back Issues: Issue# _ @ $3.00 = $_ __ Issue# __@ $3.00 = $_ __ rssue # __@ $3.00 = $._ _ _ Issue# __@ $3.00 = $._ __ Name postage paid $ _ __ Address Chy Near Complete Set: State Zip (4-10, 13-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26-27, 29-36) postage paid @ $50.00 =$ _ __ Ka tuah Journal Rt. 8, Box 323 Lenoir, NC Ka tuoh Province 28645 • (704) 754-6097 lvLnter, 1992- 93 Xati1nn Journal p<llJ& 3 S � 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah Journal, Issue 37, Winter 1992-1993 Description An account of the resource The thirty-seventh issue of the Katúah Journal is dedicated to creative works that represent bioregionalism and biovisions: stories, essays, drawings, and local legends. An announcement explains that, while the publication is coming to an end in 1993, there are plans to continue the Katúah Organization which will focus on bioregional projects. Authors and artists in this issue include: Dennis K. Frederick, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, James Rhea, Barbara Wickersham, Fran Freudenberger, Lucile Morgan, Bob Johnson, "Pegi", Charlotte Homsher, Doug Elliott, Michael Thompson, Gerald George, and Rhea Ormond. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-1993 Table Of Contents A list of subunits of the resource. In The Morning by Dennis Frederick.......1 Green Man and Green Woman by Rob Messick.......4 Floyd 2020 by Will Ashe Bason.......7 Ecology by Rob Messick.......8 Drawing of Sequoyah by James Rhea.......9 The Legend of James Whitehead by Barbara Wickersham.......10 Raven! by Fran Freudenberger........11 Kid's Page.......12 Rhea's Fairies.......13 Drawings by Lucile Morgan........14 Drawing by Bob Johnson.......15 Drawings by Pegi.......16 The Solitary Tree by Charlotte Homsher.......17 Wildwoods Wisdom by Doug Elliott.......18 Natural World News.......20 Mandalas by Rob Messick........22 Gourds by Michael Thompson.......23 Poem: A View from Hawk's Nest by Gerald George.......24 Economy by Rob Messick.......25 Drumming.......26 Reviews: Beyond the Beauty Strip | Reshaping Modern Culture by Rob Messick.......31 Events.......32 Webworking.......33 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Katúah Journal, printed by The Waynesville Mountaineer Press Subject The topic of the resource Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern Human ecology--Appalachian Region, Southern Appalachian Region, Southern--Social life and customs--Miscellanea Legends--Tennessee--Roan Mountain Floyd County (Va.)--Fiction 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> 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) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1990s Appalachian Mountains Appalachian Studies Book Reviews Children's Page Community Earth Energies Ecological Peril Folklore and Ceremony Forest Issues Habitat Katúah Katúah Organization Pigeon River Poems South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness) Stories Transportation Issues Turtle Island Villages Water Quality Western North Carolina Alliance https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/8b28bad70c563af988d313aa9367f9f6.pdf 8097a88c117a588a76a65bf9c99a6059 PDF Text Text URNAL ISSUE 38 SPRING 1993 SUSTAINABLE TOURING $2.00 ��TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: Mountain Culture, Mountain Lives by Michal Smith I am Michal Smith, a writer, editor and researcher. I presently live and work in the state of Kentucky. Since the mid- 1980's I have specialized in workplace studies, including case studi~ of employee involvement processes in the manufacturing sector for the U.S. Department of Labor and the United Nations, a study of the safety implications of the petrochemical industry's growing reliance upon contract workers for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a regional economic development study for the state of Texas, and a study of the impact of tourism development. which I am here today t0 discuss. Specifically, my testimony is based upon a study, conducted from 1988 to 1989, of the impact of t0urism development on local people, particularly rural women, who routinely form the backbone of this industry. The study focused on rural counties in 12 southeastern StalCS, including North Carolina. h concluded that the presumed "opportunities" associated with tourism development are marginal and minimal. In fact, people who live and work in JCot.uah ~naL JX!9e 6 1\1 1 u nuoc ,, w,:,Ju 1 tourism economies suffer the ultimate irony, contributing tax dollars to help promote and support an industry that has done litde, possibly nothing to improve their quality of life. They have watched hotels, restaurants, highways, shops and amusement parks consume their communities while "human infrastructure" -- meaningful jobs, training, health care and child care - has suffered the consequences of government neglect and indifference. Funded by the Ford Foundation, its Aspen Institute Rural Economic Policy Program and the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, my study included a selected county-level comparative analysis of Census data from 1970 and 1980 and a case study of Sevier County, Tennessee, home of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, perhaps the most successful rural tourism development in the southeastern United States. The 84 rural counties examined in the study were selected based upon 1970 and 1984 employment data reponcd in Colllll)' Business Patterns as compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Census. These counties were identified as having experienced high employment growth in the hotel indusay, which is clearly associated with the expansion of a tourism or travel industry. Twenty-three of the "high-growth" counties identified experienced hotel industry employment growth in excess of 500 perccnL Broadly, I found that beyond the small pool of management and short-term, male-dominated construction industry jobs, tourism economics are sustained by food servers, maids and retail clerks. Traditionally held by women, these jobs almost invariably offer minimum wages, no benefits and virtually no opportunity for advancemenL Among the study's findings about these 84 booming rural tourism developments were: • Uncmploymentcontinued to rise steadily from 1970 to 1984 in virtually every county identified by the study. - Women continued to experience higher unemployment rates than men in rural tourism counties in spite of the indusay's heavy reliance upon a female labor force. - While overall poverty rates declined for families in general in the counties studied. poor families headed by women increased �� 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 Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.  The Katúah Journal 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. This digital collection is only a portion of the Katúah-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 Katúah Journal. 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 Katúah Journal Records 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 Katúah Journal, Issue 38, Spring 1993 Description An account of the resource The thirty-eighth, and final, issue of the Katúah Journal focuses on sustainable tourism and transportation that is environmentally and culturally responsible. Authors and artists in this issue include: Marcus L. Endicott, Michal Smith, Lee Barnes, Patrick Clark, Mark Schimmoeller, Billy Jonas, Renee Binder, Charlotte Homsher, Douglas A. Rossman, Robert H. Rufa, David Cohen, Brownie Newman, Jasper Carlton, Danielle Droitsch, Stephen Wing, Jan Adkins, Elizabeth Howard, Denise K. Simon, EarthStar, Wade Buckholts, and Rob Messick. Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, later simplified to Katúah Journal, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993 Table Of Contents A list of subunits of the resource. Toward Sustainable Tourism in Southern Appalachia by Marcus L. Endicott.......1 A History of Tourism to Southern Appalachia by Marcus L. Endicott.......4 Tourism Development: Mountain Culture, Mountain Lives by Michal Smith.......6 Camping & Touring Through Katúah Forests by Lee Barnes.......8 Bicycle Touring in Katúah by Patrick Clark.......10 Unicycle Revolutions by Mark Schimmoeller.......12 The Bicycle Band: Appropriate Road Mode by Billy Jonas.......12 Poems by Elizabeth Howard and Denise K. Simon.......13 Sustainability of Whitewater Recreation by Renee Binder.......14 Sacred Lands by Charlotte Homsher.......16 Cherokee Mythic Sites by Douglas A. Rossman.......17 Napping by Rob Messick.......18 Why Travel? by Robert H. Rufa.......20 Natural World News.......22 Drumming.......24 Events.......32 Webworking.......33 Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Katúah Journal, printed by The Waynesville Mountaineer Press Subject The topic of the resource Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern Sustainable tourism--Appalachian Region, Southern Outdoor recreation industry--Appalachian Region, Southern Bicycle touring--Appalachian Region, Southern Sacred space--Appalachian Region, Southern Tourism--North Carolina, Western--History North Carolina, Western Blue Ridge Mountains Appalachian Region, Southern North Carolina--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Appalachian Region, Southern Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. <a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Journals (Periodicals) Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1990s Appalachian History Appalachian Mountains Appalachian Studies Bioregional Definitions Book Reviews Cherokees Community Economic Alternatives Folklore and Ceremony Forest Issues Geography Habitat Katúah Katúah Organization Pigeon River Poems Politics Reading Resources Sacred Sites South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness) Stories Transportation Issues Turtle Island Water Quality Western North Carolina Alliance