Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun
Showing posts with label Salinan Indians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salinan Indians. Show all posts

Monday, May 9, 2016

SPECIAL PLACES, PEOPLE AND TIMES

CATCHING THE CATS
    At home with the Catalyst and his buddy Blackwell. My longtime pal and mentor Bruce looks right, as his beloved Blackwell looks left. It is a special moment, being with dear old  longtime friends.
    
    The evening made even more special with this Indonesian feast prepared by Judy, aka SWMBO. We've been stealing recipes and food prep tips from Judy for a few seasons now. We are adding another page to the book.
     Bruce has blogged about our get together and you can find that to the right of this post in the Rich Blogs roll.

PRISTINE
      You are looking at a rare "pristine" culture of native species. This ledge, Arroyo Del La Cruz, is on the Pacific coast north of the Hearst Castle on route to Big Sur.
       It is one of the last patches free of non native and invasive vegetation. The shelf overlooks a secluded beach hidden to those who travel the famous Highway 1.
    It is an alluvium deposit patch of California begun in Lompoc some 95 miles south. Silt, clay, sand and gravel compressed and was moved by natural forces some 150 thousand years ago.

    Someplace near Lompoc there is chunk of earth that is a body double for this alluvium deposit.

    That mound in the frame below is a midden, a kind of refuse pile left by native residents centuries ago. Theories vary as to what tribe left the deposit-Salinan, Chalon, or Esselen. 

    See you down the trail.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

BUT THE MEMORIES SURVIVE AND A REQUIEM FOR OLD TREES

THEY CAN'T TEAR DOWN THE MEMORIES
Photo courtesy and copyright Rob Goebel-The Indianapolis Star
   It was jarring to see what is left of the administration building of the old Weir Cook, later Indianapolis International Airport, a place I spent a lot of time as a reporter. 
    It was there I met Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek,  had my first meeting with Fred Friendly of CBS News/Ed Murrow fame, caught my first glimpse of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and many other luminaries.
    The conference room was an easy spot for news crews to assemble and catch the famous he or she before they headed off. It was also the place I watched as directors began the process of dreaming the new ultra modern airport that doomed that very building.  
     The old giving way to the new, it is a cadence of life. 
        
REQUIEM
    Wilderness areas of the central California Coast are rich with ancient trees.
      Some are massive. As they come to the end of their sentry era, they sill afford visual power.





   As our pines reach the end, they go out with a last hurrah, creating a bonanza of cones.


    And in life or demise some of these giants play to the imagination.

  I wonder; as the old ad building held memories, do these old giants hold memories of the Salinan, Chinese or ancient explorers of this coast? 
  See you down the trail.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

OLD WAYS WERE BETTER & OBAMA IN TROUBLE AND SO ARE WE

ON THE ROPES
     The snarks, pundits and even credible analysts say Washington has turned on President Obama. The IRS targeting of political groups and the Justice Department intrusion on journalism has motivated not only the obstructionist Republican conservatives, but what is left of the traditional GOP, Democrats and the press corp. That's most of the players in DC.
      I have noted here previously the Obama administration record on Freedom of Information matters is troubling. Now the move on the AP's phone records puts him in a league with George W. Bush and adds truth to the cartoon characterizations of him being the new Tricky Dick Nixon.
     Frequent readers know I am a staunch supporter of the First Amendment.  The continual intrusions into our freedoms, born by the Patriot Act and the so called war on terror are part of what is truly a criminalizing of dissent. This administration now aids and abets this assault on freedom.
     As an investigative journalist I know how difficult it is to get people to talk, especially about government and most specifically about government wrong doing.  The Obama Justice Department's sweep of AP phone records will add to the chill.  Which is exactly what they want and which is absolutely dangerous for this democratic republic.
THE OLD WAYS MAY HAVE BEEN BETTER
    I was lucky to hear Dr. Kat Anderson, UC Davis and author of Tending the Wild thanks to a presentation sponsored by Green Space The Cambria Land Trust.
      A premise she advocates is that we are hunter/gatherers in our DNA.  She's spent years studying native California tribes and devouring anthropological research, notes and data. Dr. Anderson says that when Europeans entered the west they saw what they thought was wilderness, but was, in fact, land that had been tended and managed. In this area of the Central Coast of California the maintenance was done by Salinan Indians. 
      Dr Anderson suggests we'd be better off if we practiced what she calls ISM-Indiginous Stewardship Methods.
      -natural recycling
      -lowering  plant competition
      -reducing insects
      -reducing diseases
      -eliminating detrius 
      -keeping bush down
      -better water management
 Most of you probably never associate those practices with your image of Indians. But in fact the coastal Salinans practiced those and more to enhance food production. Knocking and pruning trees increased nut production, burning grass lands, beating grasses to gain seeds and tilling wisely were standard practices that improved yield and kept nature in better shape.
      Dr. Anderson would like to see areas set aside to practice the old methods, to mange the wild, to make it healthier.  The natives knew a lot more about caring for their home, than the arriving European based culture. It is never too late to learn.
     
SHORE FLORA








   See you down the trail.