The Daily R-r-r-ibbit

Indians v. The US Department of the Interior, Or, The Horse Who Couldn’t Read | ReligionDispatches

What pulls together the Cobell lawsuit, my great-grandfather Moses Bruno, and a horse named Champ is the fact they were all considered incompetent in the eyes of the US government. That’s right, a Blackfoot Indian banker with a college degree, a Potawatomi who was given his own land to become a farmer, and a plow horse named Champ are all incompetent to handle their own affairs according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Eloise Cobell went off to college, came home to Montana, and eventually ended up as a banker. One day she went to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tried to find out how much “Indian Money” she had in her individual trust fund account and was told that no one knew the amount, but to “trust” them, since they knew.

That was a lie.

via www.religiondispatches.org

A great story with a personal twist by Johnny Flynn (Citizen Potawatamie) writing about the historic December 8th Cobell v. Salazar settlement.

Astronaut Gordon Cooper Talks About UFOs

via www.youtube.com

I've spent much of the day tweaking all of my blogs, and thus have had many occasions to reflect on the many issues I feel passionate about. One of those is a strong desire for the day of "first contact" in these modern times.

I've had a dozen or more sightings and experiences with objects that I believe to be extraterrestrial in origin. I've been thinking about including these in some of my "close encounters in the holler" posts -- though I don't have any actual pictures.

Here's a link to the report I filed with NUFORC on a significant sighting here in Frog Pond Hollow back in December of 2000.

If you've had -- or hope to have -- contact with space brothers and sisters, here are a couple of links to my friend Motah's blog posts on Contacting Life in Our Solar System:

Part 1

Part 2

First Snow in the Holler

We had our first snow of the season on Saturday the 5th. By Sunday much of it was gone, but here's a few pictures from my walk with the pups and kitties...

Icecircles on the lane...

Snowy log and cold water in Hudson Branch...

Shadow was too scared to cross the snowy railroad ties on the bridge. This is as far as he would go today.

Hawks in the Holler

Lots of hawk sightings in Frog Pond Hollow lately -- other than me, that is.

Today I watched one circle around a little before it disappeared into the forested southeastern slope of Sexton Mountain. Just a few seconds later a whole bunch of crow noises erupted. The crows cawed out for 2 to 3 minutes straight before I heard a hawk voice in the middle of it all. I didn't have my field glasses so couldn't really see anything even though most of the trees on Sexton have ditched their leaves.

After several more minutes of what sounded like a substantial avian disagreement, the hawk flew out from the direction of a tree that still had leaves -- very red ones. He did kind of a parallel side-hill pass, never rising above the ridge line, then flew back in toward the same tree, at which point the crow sounds increased in amplitude, never really having stopped.

The crow rant continued several more minutes, with occasional hawk voice counterpoint. Even Shadow was staring up toward the mountain by then. Eventually the hawk came out again but this time resumed intentional circles overhead, each pass shifting a little more to the east. He was close enough that I took a chance on catching some images.

The one of him (or her?) below is the best one I got of this week's multiple sightings. It's not great but it is fairly clear that it's a red-tailed hawk, a species with which this human Hawk in the holler has some affinity. So I decided to put it in.

A Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) circles above Hudson Branch, Campbell County, Tennessee (Photo by Cathie Bird)

mental floss Blog » Dogs Welcoming Home Soldiers

via www.mentalfloss.com

Hawk's Notes: I can't think of a better way to celebrate veterans on Veteran's Day than to share the unconditional love of dogs for their soldier buddies. There are several videos at the link below the video or go here...please check them all out.

It's a laid back day in the holler

I'm just hanging out in the holler today after a fun time in Knoxville last night for the showing of Coal Country at The Square Room...my first experience there and a really good documentary, plus good music and a good-sized crowd. The post-film discussion gave me some ideas for how I want to focus my future blogging on coalfield issues.

I got home around 11 and the moon was so bright I didn't need a flashlight to find my way back into the house. Both dogs came out to greet me; Celie went down to the creek and barked for awhile. I'm sure there were lots of critters out in that moonlit landscape.

Here are some dog photos from our walk today. Leaves are about 80% dropped up here...it was cool and sunny and the dogs were loaded with energy.

Still experimenting with doggie action shots...here's Celie running toward me...

and here she is on the bank of Hudson Branch, sniffing the breeze, though it almost looks more like she's getting ready to howl.

Shadow finds sticks for us to play with every day.

Later I caught him in handsome prince mode.

Last night I experimented with images of stars and moonlight, but none of them came out. The star ones were streaky as I don't have a tripod or cable release, and the moon ones looked like the Eye of Sauron or something very un-moonlike. Here's another image from our walk today...sun coming through a poplar leaf: