I don’t have the details, but this photo charmed me. About 1910, Ireland. The little girls are busy playing though it must be winter, the trees are bare. Notice the unpenned chickens. A shoutout to my 3rd great-mother, Nancy Moore Suddeth, who left Ireland a century before this.
Robert Burns Day AKA Burns Supper is today, January 25, honoring the birthday of the great Scottish poet “Auld Lang Syne.” The supper is centered around haggis, a dish I am assured tastes great. A shoutout to my 8th great-grandfather, David Suddeth, who settled in Jamestown in 1630, hence me.
My grandfather, Lawrence Suddeth, moved when he was five (1888) to a farm between Henryville and Marysville, Indiana. In 1890, the next-door neighbors had a son born, Harland Sanders. He played with Grandpa’s younger brother, Charley. Harland’s father died young, his mother working in a cannery. Harland learned to cook for his 2 younger siblings. Years later, he opened a restaurant in Corbin Kentucky: Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Colonel Sanders could well have called it Hoosier Fried Chicken Captain Sanders? If my family taught him how to cook: Suddeth Fried Chicken. [On the farm, my great granny was Cherokee, my great-great granny Shawnee: Cherokee Shawnee Fried Chicken? Chief Sanders Fried Chicken?
Lozen (1840-1889) Chiricahua Apache, a warrior and medicine woman, sometimes called a prophet because she could predict enemy presence. In 1880, she left the Chihuahua camp of her brother, Chief Victorio, to escort a pregnant woman to safety on a US reservation—while she was gone, Mexican troops surrounded the camp, killing almost everyone. The following is a prayer she used to recite while they were fighting for freedom. Ussen is the Supreme God. (I follow with my version, meant to be more poetic than literal)
Upon this earth On which we live Ussen has Power This Power is mine For locating the enemy. I search for that Enemy Which only Ussen the Great Can show to me
Dahteste (1860-1955) was born into the Chokonen Band of the Chiricahua Apache. Despite having babies, she went on raids with Cochise, Geronimo, and Lozen, translating English and Spanish for Cochise. She spent about 27 years in confinement. She remarried and lived on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, never again speaking English.
Dakota Fire Hole (pit) used by the Dakota & Lakota Sioux when they lived on the Great Plains. A 12-16 inch fire hole was dug, with a second hole acting as an air shaft. This prevented causing fires during frequent high winds and was almost smokeless (very hot flames), helping to hide from enemies. Starting with the Vietnam War, the US military has taught recruits how to build these. https://www.wildernesscollege.com/dakota-fire-hole.html
In honor of Martin Luther King Junior, who preached non-violence, but violence ended his life. Though some progress has been made in his dreams, we still have a long way to go.
Alone in the darkness A Poem byCoyote Poetry Some people lose their way and can’t find real peace.
Alone in the darkness..
The chronicle of life are stages. We can act many parts. We can be soldiers, lover, abusers and takers.
Sweet Peggy called me and requested me to come to her home. She was alone and scared. In the many years of knowing her. I watched her grow from a carefree young woman to a drinking and desperate woman who confused lust with love.
Once we danced like free and content children. The world was ours to take. We were fearless and unbounded by the the challenges of our world. Today Peggy sat with booze and small dreams. She lost her great dreams upon the confusion of wrong turns and wanting too much.
She tried to blame everyone around her. I saw in her eyes. She knew she…
River cane (up to 30 feet high) once grew in vast canebrakes (cane stands) all over the southeastern USA though nowadays canebrakes are few. Indians used it as material for baskets, cane blowguns, fishing poles etc. It is also edible. I have never seen a canebrake but would like to.