Coyote Lives in Maine » Historical Perspective

Biodiversity and Native Peoples

admin — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:01:20 +0000

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?

Buffalo for the Broken Heart

admin — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 20:29:31 +0000

: 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!

An author I read a while back made the comment that every child that comes into this world sees their world as if it had always been there that way…they have known nothing else. And so our generation and a few generations that were before us see our world as the way it should be….we’ve known nothing else. We have NO idea of the amazing, rich, biodiverse land this continent once was…before the Europeans arrived. We have NO idea of the immense damage that was inflicted on the land and the native wildlife. We have NO idea of what it can become again.

As a society we just accept the fact that millions on non-native cows and sheep continue to destroy our land ….you have to make a living some how….or any way you can….right? NO, NOT RIGHT! So this book is about a man who used all his energy and talents to shift from a cattle rancher to ranching wild Bison. It is a very personal story of his Vision to live on the Great Plains in keeping with the true nature of the landscape and respect for all life there. He tells the story of what happened to our 60,000,000 Bison, and the tragedy of it. The Bison evolved with the landscape over hundreds of thousands of years…and then they were gone. Coyote lived alongside the Bison in the Great Plains for hundreds and thousands of years, and felt the thunder of their hooves. Coyote remains!

: 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.

So if we can teach our children to think like this …to RECREATE our American continent to the place it was meant to be by Nature… how rich our lives would be. There would be NO NEED FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF HUNDREDS OF OF OUR NATIVE WILDLIFE EVERY YEAR …..yes that many!

Then as Frank Dobie in his book, The Voice of the Coyote wrote: “When coyote is unhounded by man ~ civilized man filled with the lust to kill and with morbid righteousness against any other animal that kills ~ then Coyote can go about delighting in all the plays along his Broadway.” And along with Coyote’s freedom from persecution heaped on him by the Federal Agency that supports a way of life that is not in keeping with our American continent, our “abused and subsidized landscapes” (Dan O’Brien) will once again flourish.

All these thoughts that I have shared with you regarding our Great Plains absolutely apply to our Maine landscape as well. How do we live on the land, how do we keep domestic animals in a manner that supports a healthy ecosystem here in Maine, how do we share the land with ALL our wildlife … What are we handing down to our children?

Returning to our Origins

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:25:52 +0000

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?