Patriotism…..Yes? … No?
wolf killers
Historians teach us that we need to look to the PAST for us to understand the PRESENT……
So here are two photos…one from the PAST and one from the PRESENT~
First of all, both photos are taken of very violent people who HATE someone they do not even know. The Klu Klux Klan …our African Americans ; The wolf killers who hate all carnivores
Second…neither of these violent people want to show their faces why????
Third….instruments of their violence proudly displayed~ the Past…the noose, the Present…the gun
Fourth…as an American citizen I find it intolerable that they stand behind our FLAG….THEY ARE THE FURTHEREST THING FROM A PATRIOT…THEY ARE THE VIOLENT EXPRESSION OF HATE IN A WORLD LONGING FOR RESPECT AND PEACE.
It is time…..that Americans cease to tolerate this violence to our wildlife.
What kind of world do you wish to hand down to your children? Speak up to your legislators! Let them hear your voice.
Klu Klux Klan
Our Native Americans and Coyote
photo by Janet Kessler
“We shall take your Land…and you will soon disappear.”
This is how the white man that came to the American continent thought and spoke regarding our Native Americans here in Maine ~ the Penobscots, the Paasamaquoddy, the Micmacs and the Maliseets (and Native Americans across this continent).
They did steal their land, but our Native people did not disappear. And here in Maine, our Native Americans lead the way to a rebirth of their people in the last quarter of the 20th century.
And it just so happens that in that last quarter of the 20th century, Coyote expanded their range to Maine and beyond. The white man had said the same of our carnivores, “That we will take away your habitat, and we will kill you, and you will disappear.” Sadly many of our carnivores live on the brink of existence due to this continued behavior of the white man.
But not Coyote! Coyote is a great symbol of the rebirth of our Native people in Maine…..together they have survived and will not disappear. So Coyote is like the New Wolf for our Native people who once lived with wolf here in Maine. In fact, Coyote may be carrying the wolf genetics of the descendants of those who once lived here….picked up on their journey through Canada.
Coyote is a great symbol of REBIRTH of our Native People…… and if we are open…. a rebirth for each one of us……
Read MoreOur Declaration of Independence
photo by George Gove
IN 1775 … OUR FOREFATHERS WROTE
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The central words in declaring their independence from the oppression and violence of the English monarchy were “Our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”
They based these rights not on any law of any government, but that these rights were bestowed on all men by Nature (or another might say..God) The reality of slavery in the colonies at that time was brought up as well. If all men had these rights, why was slavery allowed. They understood that back in 1775, but not until 1865 were those rights given to the slaves. The evolution of our consciousness to ACT.
Out Native Americans still lack these rights in this country…that was founded on those rights. When will we evolve to that consciousness?
And if all men were given the right to life, liberty, and happiness from their Creator or Nature….. are these rights not also given to all living beings who live on our planet? WHY DO WE SEE THOSE RIGHTS RESERVED ONLY FOR OUR SPECIES?
These Coyote pups……do they not have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? When will we as a species and a nation evolve to include all life in OUR INALIENABLE RIGHTS?
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Biodiversity and Native Peoples
Native American
I would like to alert you to a NEW BOOK I have added to our booklist: Biodiversity and Native America edited by Paul Minnis and Wayne Elisens
As our Summer growing season comes close to an end and we are moving closer to September, it is good to take a break and sit down in our fields and be grateful for another year of the earth’s abundance. That is why I thought this book to be a good one to read for this time of year. Let me warn you that it is a scholarly manuscript with a number of contributing authors, but nevertheless quite intriguing to read.
And why would I recommend this book on Coyote’s website? Well, as I have so ofen said, Coyote is about many things! So this book is about how our Native people related to the landscape, how they used the land, how they grew their food, and how they related to the animals. It gives us a broader view of our humanity …how our human species has lived in the New World for the past 12,000 years….how they evolved in their relationship to the land and how they saw themselves in relationship to the land.
Author, Enrique Salmon, writes “Cultural Models” suggest and determine how a culture and individuals from that culture, will interact with the natural world. These models influence culturally shared thought, reactions, actions, and understandings.” So our native peoples had a rich cultural model that greatly affected their actions toward the natural world. So what is our Cultural Model…what way of seeing our world guides us? Does this not heavily influence our behaviors and relationships with other life…and here in Maine…Coyote?
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Buffalo for the Broken Heart
- Wild Bison
I would like to alert you to another excellent book that I just placed on our website’s booklist: Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O’Brien. So why have I recommended this book on Coyote’s website ~ well it has everything to do about Coyote, because Coyote has to do with everything!
- Bison being slaughtered
I will have you note that in his book he not only speaks of the Bison but of all the wildlife that live on his ranch, and he speaks of Coyote …with respect…understanding that Coyote has always lived with the Bison and has every right to be there now.And so do the wolves. He sees his role as that of bringing back the land to health and recreating all the life that was once there.
Returning to our Origins
Where ever you are right now …take a Moment…Look out the window. What do you see? Do you all not observe a tiny expression of our Earth’s amazing life? How connected do you feel to what you observe?
E.O.Wilson, a leading Ecologist has written, “We did not arrive on this planet as aliens. Humanity is part of Nature, a species that evolved among other species. The more closely we identify ourselves with the rest of life, the more quickly we will be able to discover the sources of human sensibility, and acquire the knowledge on which an enduring ethic, a sense of preferred direction, can be built on.”
And so I would suggest that our generation is on the Threshold of deciding the direction we wish to take. So I could be writing about any number of topics here, right? But no matter what topic I am writing about, it is really all about only One….and that is our relationship to the life of our planet. E.O. Wilson again speaks of our sharing an ancient language with all life….that is DNA…we are all connected in a remote and complex ancestry. And our futures are all bound up with each others.
Carnivores are our Teachers, or I would say our Mirrors into ourselves and where we stand in our relationship to all life. How do we treat them? Why do we treat them in the way we do? Why does our society allow the slaughter and immense cruelty to continue for over 500 years on our American continent? How do we see the interface between the Wild and our Domestic world? Are we willing to share the Land with them?
Coyote is a great Teacher ….they always have been. Our Native Peoples have always known this, and thus Coyote was the major character in their myths used to teach their people. So Coyotes have expanded their range, filling the empty niches of our once great wolf population, and healing the wounds of our Maine landscape. How does it feel to you to live in proximity once again with one that is wild and free? How does it feel to be privy to the language of a wild being?
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