Oldest European Inland US Fort Found In Appalachians

Spanish moat, corner bastion, entryway, looking north. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Michigan)

Oldest European fort in the inland U.S. discovered in Appalachians

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 08:37 AM PDT

The remains of the earliest European fort in the interior of what is now the United States have been discovered by a team of archaeologists, providing new insight into the start of the U.S. colonial era and the all-too-human reasons spoiling Spanish dreams of gold and glory.
Spanish Captain Juan Pardo and his men built Fort San Juan in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in 1567, nearly 20 years before Sir Walter Raleigh’s “lost colony” at Roanoke and 40 years before the Jamestown settlement established England’s presence in the region.

 

 

 

Advertisement

Wi n’ de Ya ho — Cherokee Morning Song — Walela

The songs are sung by the Cherokee group Walela.

The Cherokee Mornings Song is a traditional greeting to the Rising Sun.   Sunrise is a sacred time, the dawn of a new day.

Wi n’ de Ya ho —  Cherokee Morning Song — Walela

Wash Your Spirit Clean — Walela

~Wash your spirit clean~
Give away the things you don’t need
Let it all go and you’ll soon see
And you’ll wash your spirit clean
Wash your spirit clean
Go and pray upon a mountain
Go and pray beside the ocean
And you’ll wash your spirit clean
Wash Your spirit clean
Be grateful for the struggle
Be thankful for the lessons
And you’ll wash your spirit clean
Wash your spirit clean
Give away the things you don’t need
Let it all go and you’ll soon see
And you’ll wash your spirit clean
Wash your spirit clean

 

Legal Treaties Should Be Honored

Legally signed, agreed upon, and ratified Treaties bind the signatories to compliance.  A Treaty is Law.  It is only Right to Honor these Treaties. — Bear
 WORLD’S PEOPLE: REJECT AND ABOLISH ILLEGAL GOVERNMENT ACTS
http://flyingcuttlefish.wordpress.com/  alerted me to this petition
This petition will be delivered to:
1851Treaty.com
World’s People
N/DN/D/LAKOTA OYATE OMNICIYE 1851 TREATY OF FORT LARAMIE TERRITORIES  GREAT TURTLE ISLAND – INDIGENOUS HOMELANDS Whereas, the N/DN/D/Lakota (Nakota Nation, misnomer “Sioux”), Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara Indigenous Red Nations are signatory to the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which was unanimously agreed upon by each of the seven Indigenous nations surrounding the Very Sacred Big Horn Black Hills Mountain, Black Jagged-Rocky-Mountains (misnomer “Black Hills”), and Sacred Red Stone Canunpa Regions, through their respective Oyate Omniciye “General Council” mandate and principal chief representation thereof, with the government of the United States of America on September 17, 1851, ratified by U.S. congress in 1853, and Whereas, all lands, water, air and resources of our Grand Mother Earth and Grand Father Sky of the Nakota are necessary for any physical and spiritual health and well-being of the sovereign people of the Nakota nation, and Whereas, the Nakota nation maintains and is clearly defined as the holder of INDIGENOUS TITLE to Nakota 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie Territories, which include, and are in no way restricted or limited to all land, water, and air resources within said 1851 Treaty Territories, and Whereas, Article VI of the U.S. Constitution states, “treaties made with Indian nations shall be the supreme law of the land”, and Whereas, the L/D/Nakota nation is aware that the government of the United States has finally adopted and passed into law the “Genocide Convention Implementation Act (Proxmire Act) of 1988”, ratified and signed by the president as Public Law 100-606 on November 4.1988, which outlaws any and all forms of “mental anguish” and “physical and mental torture” committed upon Indigenous “Indian” nations and peoples by the government of the United States (offenders punishable by up to a million dollar fine and life in prison), and Whereas, all alleged “claims/deeds/titles and/or transfers thereof” by the government of the United States, upon the territories of the Nakota nation are based upon false assumptions and are hereby maintained and reaffirmed as null and void as defined in this resolution and as maintained by the legal existence of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and Whereas, the Nakota Nation and peoples can no longer tolerate third party intrusion into and upon their jurisdictional territories by the government of the United States and their so-called “states of South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and their agents, in the form of limited liability corporations, municipalities, state, county, city, town governments”, and Whereas, the following legislative, judicial, and executive “acts, treaties and/or agreements” are adverse, contrary to and otherwise violate the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, Article I and Article VI of the U.S. Constitutions, United States Public Law 100-606, the United Nations doctrines of human rights and the international covenant on the prevention and prosecution of the crime of genocide: 1. the 1871 appropriations act 2. the Manypenny commission act of 1876 3. the Dawes (general allotment) act of 1887 4. the 1889 agreement 5. the citizenship act of 1924 6. the Indian reorganization (I.R.A.) act of 1934 7. the Indian claims commission act of 1946 (basis of the illegal so-called “Black Hills Sioux claim settlement”) 8. the Indian religious freedom act of 1978 and amendments – which fall short of recognizing 1851 Treaty Territories in entirety as a sacred site, with total undisturbed and unlimited access to and use of said territories by the Citizens of the 1851 Treaty Signatory Nations 9. the mni wiconi water projects of 1988 10. the Indian gaming regulatory act of 1988 11. the Indian agricultural resources management act of 1993 (H.R. 1425, S 410, March 18, 1993, Daschle/Inouye)  12. the 1999 omnibus water act (Daschle’s mitigation act”), and Whereas, the total unlimited and undisturbed access to and use of 1815 Treaty of Fort Laramie territories, and the authority and jurisdiction over, upon and within said territories, remains with the people of the signatory Indigenous Red Nations to said 1851 treaty, through their respective ancient and traditional “Oyate Omniciye” Circle Meetings of The People”, who are guided by the instructions through the visions and dreams of Grand Father Sky and Grand Mother Earth – the Great Mystery, the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Canunpa of the N/DN/D/Lakota Nation, the Four Sacred Arrows of the Cheyenne and the various sacred possessions of the signatory nations to the 1851 Treaty. Therefore be it resolved that all false assumptions of sovereignty through “claims, deeds, titles, jurisdiction, occupation, and transfers” thereof by the government/citizens of the u.s. upon territories of the N/DN/D/Lakota Nation are maintained and reaffirmed as null and void as defined in this resolution and as maintained within the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie of September 17, 1851, and Be it further resolved that the N/DN/D/Lakota Nation and people can no longer tolerate third party intrusion into and upon their jurisdictional territories by the government of the United States in the form of limited liability corporations, and state government agencies, and Be it further resolved that the twelve (12) legislative, judicial, and executive “acts, treaties and/or agreements” listed previously are adverse, contrary to and otherwise violate the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, Article I and Article VI of the U.S. Constitutions, United States Public Law 100-606, the United Nations doctrines of human rights and the international covenant on the doctrines of human rights and the international covenant on the prevention and prosecution of the crime of genocide, and Be it finally resolved that the total and undisturbed access to and use of 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie Territories, and the authority and jurisdiction over, upon, and within said Territories, remains with the people of the seven Indigenous signatory nations to the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, as authorized and agreed upon by and through their respective ancient and traditional “Oyate Omniciye”, “Circle Meetings of The People” (“General Council”), guided by the instructions though the ancient visions and dreams from Grand Father Sky and Grand Mother Earth – the Great Mystery, and of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Canunpa of the Nakota, the Four Sacred Arrows of the Cheyenne, and the various other sacred bundles of the other signatory nations to the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. We the undersigned, hereby proclaim as null, void and condemn and reject all unilateral, arbitrary, u.s. congressional “acts” concocted by the u.s. against the N/DN/D/Lakota Nation after the year 1853 and the theft of, and encroachment upon, sacred N/DN/D/Lakota ancestral homelands and territories. We believe the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie is the last legal document between the government of the u.s. and the N/DN/D/Lakota Nation, having been developed and adopted through the ancient, female-inclusive Oyate Omniciye “Circle Meetings of The People”. We understand that the many illegal “acts, treaties, agreements” are violations to the following; Article VI of the U.S. Constitution which states, “treaties made with Indian nations shall be the supreme law of the land”, Public Law 100-606 the “Genocide Convention Implementation act of 1988”, Article 1, Section 2, Part 3 of the u.s. Constitution which states, “Indians not taxed”; and the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. We demand that the aforementioned and continued acts of genocide against the N/DN/D/Lakota Nation hereby immediately cease and the u.s. government officials and their states immediately comply with the above laws, convention and supreme law Treaty.

Mari Boine – Sow Your Gold — Goaskinviellja

Mari Boine – Sow Your Gold

Mari Boine – Goaskinviellja / Eagle Brother

Mari Boine, previously known as Mari Boine Persen, (born 8 November 1956) is a Norwegian Sami musician known for having added jazz and rock to the yoiks of her native people. Gula Gula (first released by Iđut, 1989, later re-released by Real World) was her breakthrough release, and she continued to record popular albums throughout the 1990s.

Boine was born and raised in Gámehisnjárga, a village on the river Anarjohka in Karasjok municipality in Finnmark, in the far north of Norway.

Her parents were Sami (Lapps). They made a living from salmon fishing and farming. She grew up steeped in the region’s natural environment, but also amidst the strict Laestadian Christian movement with discrimination against her people: for example, singing in the traditional Sami joik style was considered ‘the devil’s work’. The local school that she attended reflected a very different world from her family’s. All the teaching was in Norwegian.

As she grew up she started to rebel against being an inferior Lappish woman in Norwegian society. For instance, the booklet accompanying the CD ‘Leahkastin’ (Unfolding) is illustrated with photographs with racist captions like ‘Lapps report for anthropological measurement’, ‘Typical female Lapp’, ‘A well-nourished Lapp’; and it ends with a photo of Boine herself as a girl, captioned ‘Mari, one of the rugged Lapp-girl types’ and attributed ‘(Photo: Unidentified priest)’.

She was asked to perform at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, but refused because she perceived the invitation as an attempt to bring a token minority to the ceremonies.

In 2003 Boine was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize. She was appointed knight, first class in the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for her artistic diversity on September 18, 2009.

Her songs are strongly rooted in her experience of being in a despised minority. For example, the song ‘Oppskrift for Herrefolk’ (‘Recipe for a Master Race’) on her breakthrough CD ‘Gula Gula’, sung in Norwegian unlike the rest of the songs which are in Sami, speaks directly of ‘discrimination and hate’, and ironically recommends ways of oppressing a minority: ‘Use bible and booze and bayonet’; ‘Use articles of law against ancient rights’.

Her other songs are more positive, often singing of the beauty and wildness of Sapmi (Lapland). The title track of ‘Gula Gula’ asks the listener to remember ‘that the earth is our mother’.

She sings in a traditional folk style, using the yodelling ‘yoik’ voice, with a range of accompanying instruments and percussion. For example, on ‘Gula Gula’ the instruments used are drum, guitar, electric bass clarinet, dozo n’koni, ganga, claypot, darboka, tambourine, seed rattles, cymbal, clarinet, piano, frame drum, saz, drone drum, hammered dulcimer, bosoki, overtone flute, bells, bass, quena, charango and antara.

Inbreeding Not Such a Good Idea

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2009/04/royals-prove-inbreeding-is-a-bad-idea/

April 16, 2009

Royals Prove Inbreeding Is a Bad Idea

Those jokes about inbred royals might have some basis in fact, according to a  new study in the journal PLOS One .

The Hapsburg dynasty ruled Spain from 1516 to 1700, reigning over the height of the  Spanish empire. The dynasty ended when the last king, Charles II, who suffered  physical and mental disabilities, died without issue despite two marriages.  Inbreeding had been thought to play a role in the family’s extinction.

A young Charles II, c. 1673, via Wikimedia Commons

A young Charles II, c. 1673, via Wikimedia  Commons

A group of biologists from Spain developed an extended pedigree of more than  3,000 individuals over 16 generations so that they could calculate the  “inbreeding coefficient” of the Spanish Hapsburg kings. The inbreeding  coefficient is a measure of relatedness between two individuals. Here’s an example:

Take a first-cousin mating. First cousins share a set of grandparents. For  any particular gene in the male, the chance that his female first cousin  inherited the same gene from the same source is 1/8. Further, for any gene the  man passes to his child, the chance is 1/8 that the woman has the same gene and  ½ that she transmits that gene to the child so 1/8 X ½ = 1/16. Thus, a  first-cousin marriage has a coefficient of inbreeding F =1/16  [0.0625].

The six kings of Spain married a total of 11 times. Nine of the marriages  were “consanguineous unions in a degree of third cousins or closer.” There were  even two uncle-niece unions (eww). Over time, the biologists calculated, the  inbreeding coefficient rose from 0.025 for Philip I, the founder of the dynasty,  to 0.254 for Charles II. His inbreeding coefficient–0.254–is as high as that  expected from a parent-child or a brother-sister relationship (double eww).

In addition to the high inbreeding coefficients, the biologists cited two  other lines of evidence that inbreeding was the cause of the Spanish Hapsburgs’  demise: First, the family experienced a high rate of infant mortality, with half  of the children failing to reach age one (compared with 80 percent survival at  that time in Spanish villages). Second, many of Charles II’s disabilities and  illnesses–short stature, weakness, intestinal problems, sporadic hematuria,  impotence/infertility–could be explained by two genetic disorders, combined  pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis. The probability  that an individual would inherit two recessive traits would be extremely low,  but inbreeding made that much more likely.

This wouldn’t seem to have much relevance here in the present, except as an  interesting side story in the history books. However, the authors note that  consanguineous marriages account for 20 to 50 percent of all unions in certain  populations in Asia and Africa and reach as high as 77.1 percent among army  families in Pakistan. In those families, more than 60 percent of marriages are  between first cousins.

Read more:  http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2009/04/royals-prove-inbreeding-is-a-bad-idea/#ixzz2TaIXYT4H

The Lone Star — The History of the Short-Lived Independent Republic of Florida

 For a brief period in 1810, Florida  was truly a country of its own

May 2013,

Revolution

                     Revolutions come in all shapes and  sizes, but the West Florida Rebellion holds the record as the shortest.            (Peter Strain)
In the predawn fog of September 23, 1810, about 50 men, led by Revolutionary  War veteran Philemon Thomas, walked in the open gate of Fort San Carlos in Baton  Rouge. An additional 25 men on horseback rode through a gap in the fort’s wall.  Spanish soldiers discharged a handful of muskets before Thomas’ men let go a  single volley that killed or wounded five Spaniards. The remaining  soldados surrendered or fled.
Revolutions come in all shapes and sizes, but the West Florida Rebellion  holds the record as the shortest. In less than one minute it was over, setting  in motion a chain of events that would transform the United States into a  continental and, eventually, world power.
The nation’s expansion had begun seven years earlier, when President Thomas  Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. But Spain, which had  ceded the territory to Napoleon, maintained that it did not include the area  known as West Florida, which stretched from the Perdido River across southern  Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to the Mississippi River. For its part, the  United States believed West Florida was its own, but rather than risk  confrontation and war, Jefferson and his successor James Madison allowed Spain  to administer it until an opportunity arose.
Things were peaceful until 1808, when Spain appointed Col. Charles Delassus  as governor. The inefficiency and corruption of officials under him threatened  the prosperity of American colonists in West Florida, who presented demands for  political reform. Delassus pretended to go along, while secretly plotting to  arrest the ringleaders.
Learning of Delassus’ duplicity, the Americanos struck first. After  capturing Fort San Carlos, they declared the Republic of West Florida, replacing  the Spanish flag with their banner—a white star on a field of blue. Some derided  what one U.S. newspaper editor called “the little mimick Revolution,” but  President Madison knew that his strategy of passive expansionism had evicted  Spain at no expense to the United States.
On December 10, 1810,  the Republic of West Florida’s lone star came down and  the Stars and Stripes took its place. For the first time, the United States had  acquired significant territory from another sovereignty without war or  compensation.
It didn’t take long for other territories to follow West Florida’s example.  In 1835-36, Texas rose in revolt against Mexico, fighting under West Florida’s  lone star flag and voluntarily submitting to U.S. annexation in 1845. (The  five-point star had emerged as a symbol of enlightenment and defiance against  tyranny—and would remain a motif for the flag of the Texas Republic.)
A year later at Sonoma, a small band of American and Mexican settlers  declared the California Republic. The subsequent revolt against local  authorities lasted 26 days before the United States took over. In the ensuing  war with Mexico, the United States acquired all of California and most or all of  Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah and Oklahoma.
While much has been written about the U.S.-Mexican War, the event that  started  it all, the 1810 revolution, has largely been viewed as a footnote. As  a historian, it became clear to me that there was more at work here than a small  band of unruly, land-hungry American colonists. West Florida became the template  for Manifest Destiny—a near-perfect embodiment of the men and forces  that would  propel Americans across their continent.

Formosan Clouded Leopard Declaired Extinct

 

Clouded Leopard Declared Extinct in Taiwan

Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer –         May 01, 2013        07:53 PM ET
A Formosan cloud leopard, now extinct in Taiwan.

                            A Formosan clouded leopard, now extinct in Taiwan. CREDIT: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan)

The Formosan clouded leopard, a clouded-leopard subspecies native to Taiwan, is now extinct, according to a team of zoologists.

“There is little chance that the clouded leopard still exists in Taiwan,” zoologist Chiang Po-jen told Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA). “There may be a few of them, but we do not think they exist in any significant numbers.”

Zoologists from Taiwan and the United States have looked for the animal on and off since 2001, to no avail. To see if any of the animals remained, the researchers set up about 1,500 infrared cameras and scent traps in the Taiwanese mountains but found nothing.

Now, the only one left in the country is a stuffed specimen at the National Taiwan Museum, zoologist Liu Jian-nan told CNA. There are two live clouded leopards at Taipei Zoo, but they are an imported subspecies from Southeast Asia.

The range of clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) spans from the hills of the Himalayas to Southeast Asia to China. The animals are known for the patches on their fur that resemble clouds. They also sport fangs larger than those of any other feline.

In 2006, research revealed that clouded leopards found in the Sunda Islands of Southeast Asia — which which include Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Bali — were a separate species, now known as Sunda clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi).

Formosan clouded leopards, which were not thought to be a separate species, have been driven to extinction by habitat destruction and illegal hunting for their skin and bones.

The Snow Walker

 

 

When the plane carrying  a maverick bush pilot and a sick, young, Inuit woman, Kanaalaq, crashes hundreds of miles from civilization, they are at the mercy of nature’s worst. While search parties try to find the downed plane Charlie decides to trek over land, promising the woman that he will return with help. Despite her weakened condition, she follows Charlie and nurses him back to health when insects, cold and starvation threaten to kill him shortly after he leaves. Kanaalaq teaches him the skills he will need to survive and he comes to respect her wisdom and love her valiant spirit as they each set out into the wilderness. Each will finds a startling and solitary destiny in the beautiful and stark tundra.

Rabbit Proof Fence

1

Uploaded on May 25, 2010

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is based on a true story concerning the author’s mother, as well as two other mixed-race Aboriginal girls, who ran away from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, to return to their Aboriginal families, after having been placed there in 1931. The film follows the girls as they trek/walk for nine weeks along 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong, while being pursued by a white authority figure and an Aboriginal tracker.

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9