top of the heap to third world status in one generation

[Gry]

Randy Newman - Brothers
[youtubeif]IZWLpl9oQqs[/youtubeif]

 

[TychoMonolyth]

People are good. Very few would willingly watch someone starve to death as they put their leftover hot dogs in the garbage. It's the people who sucker us into letting them lead us who are evil. Not one of them are doing what we want them to do. They do what they want.

 

[buzzmobile]

Is this you, moose eater?

Alaskan Moose Hunter

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Moose hunter John Sturgeon serves as both inspiration and warning for anyone who has ever gotten worked up over a perceived injustice and vowed to fight it “all the way to the Supreme Court.”

An inspiration because Sturgeon took on the federal government and — not once but twice — beat the odds to get the high court to accept his case and rule in his favor.

Why a warning? Because Sturgeon’s 12-year, only-in-Alaska battle to travel on a forbidden hovercraft through national parkland to his favorite hunting spot cost well north of $1.5 million.

“I had no idea how much it was going to cost, but you start down this slide and there’s no stopping it,” Sturgeon said. “Not many people could do what I did, because they don’t have the financial resources, which I don’t either. But I did have a cause that really ignited people.”
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Sturgeon agreed to let The Washington Post examine the details of his costs and the donations to his cause to illuminate what it takes to bring a lawsuit before the Supreme Court.

Among his donors: the Alaska Wildlife and Conservation Fund, the National Rifle Association, the Alaska Conservative Trust, national and international hunting groups, hundreds of ordinary Alaskans and one very wealthy one.

Edward Rasmuson read about Sturgeon’s case, called him up and found him sincere, and then offered to help pay the legal bill. “I maybe gave $250,000 to $300,000 to $400,000 — hell, I don’t know,” Rasmuson said in an interview. “But I’m fortunate. I’m wealthy, I can afford it.”

The money covered things such as the $20,891.89 bill to print legal documents exactly as the Supreme Court requires. To reimburse the $11,063.25 in hotel costs for Sturgeon’s lawyers to hone their strategy at three moot courts in Washington. To pay for 3,691 hours of legal work at the law firms that have represented him since 2011.
Homes are seen along the Chena River waterfront during a fundraiser cruise for John Sturgeon in Fairbanks. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)
Homes are seen along the Chena River waterfront during a fundraiser cruise for John Sturgeon in Fairbanks. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)

At the end of summer, Sturgeon’s supporters boarded a stern-wheeler for a trip down the Chena River for one last fundraiser. It was billed as the “Thanks a Million Victory Cruise.” There were drinks and dinner, tributes to Sturgeon and a silent auction offering uniquely Alaskan items such as a gold nugget and several fur pelts donated by Willy Keppel of the village of Quinhagak, nearly 600 miles away.
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“Hope this helps,” wrote Keppel, who said he was strapped for cash but wanted to contribute. “Thank you for taking the fight to the feds!”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) was onboard to call Sturgeon a “hero” (and to submit the winning bid for one of the pelts). To show how broad the support for Sturgeon is, also along were several prominent Alaskans who have signed a petition to remove Dunleavy from office.

Sturgeon’s case resonated because it could bring a long-sought clarification of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), with which Congress set aside more than 100 million acres for preservation. Alaskans have argued that Congress did not intend for the land to be regulated like other federal parkland and preserves because the way of life is so different in the Last Frontier.
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Sturgeon said he only knew that he didn’t think National Park rangers had the authority to tell him he could not use the hovercraft as he had for years.

“I called the state of Alaska and said, ‘Aren’t you supposed to manage the state’s rivers?’ and they said yes,” Sturgeon recalled. “That’s when I kinda decided I wanted to, maybe, you know, sue the federal government. But I didn’t want a frivolous lawsuit.”

He went to an Anchorage lawyer named Doug Pope and laid out the situation. Pope did some research and came back with good news and bad news.

“Not only do you have a case, but this could go all the way to the Supreme Court,” Pope told Sturgeon.

The bad news: A legal fight like that could take six years or more, and maybe cost about $700,000.

Pope advised instead: “Spend the money on your grandkids. By the time this is done, are you even still going to be moose-hunting, John?”

Turns out he is — he filled the freezer just a couple of weeks ago — and his grandkids will be just fine.
Supporters listen to Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) during the fundraiser in Fairbanks. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)
Supporters listen to Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) during the fundraiser in Fairbanks. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)
'Alaska is often the exception, not the rule'

The origins of Sturgeon’s case have been told now in two Supreme Court decisions. In the fall of 2007, he was trying to fix a steering cable on his hovercraft, which was beached on a gravel shoal of the Nation River, within the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.
Image without a caption

Sturgeon for years had used his hovercraft to traverse the shallow rivers to his favorite hunting spot near the Canadian border. But on this day, he was approached by National Park rangers who informed him that the craft was banned in all federal park lands. Not only was he barred from using it to get to the hunting ground, he was told he could not use it to get home.
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Sturgeon was forced to drag the hovercraft home, and by then he was ready to sue.

Sturgeon is a businessman, but he also knew how state and federal agencies worked; he was once Alaska’s state forester.

Pope, the lawyer, believed the only place Sturgeon could win was at the Supreme Court. There was precedent at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that made victory at a lower court unlikely.

Pope once before had taken a case to the Supreme Court. It lasted 10 years, and he wasn’t ready to do that again. So he provided legal advice throughout the process, but another Anchorage law firm, Ashburn & Mason, became Sturgeon’s primary lawyers.

The firm threw everything into it, said lawyer Matthew Findley.

There was an unsuccessful trip to district court ($149,694 in legal fees and costs) and then an appeal to the 9th Circuit ($82,023), where Sturgeon lost again.
Sturgeon checks his hovercraft outside the fundraiser in Fairbanks. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)
Sturgeon checks his hovercraft outside the fundraiser in Fairbanks. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)

Sturgeon acknowledges he was about ready to give up at that point, knowing that the odds of getting a case accepted at the Supreme Court range from about 1 to 3 percent.
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But the 9th Circuit’s decision about the federal government’s power managed to unite usual foes. The Alaska Outdoor Council, representing hunters, urged him to forge on, as did the Alaska Native corporations, which represent natives and their right to subsistence fishing and hunting.

“Alaska Outdoor Council is at this end of the spectrum and the Native corporations are at this end of the spectrum, but they each gave $30,000 and that’s what got me to the Supreme Court the first time,” Sturgeon said.

He spent about $10,000 to bring his whole family for oral arguments in January 2016. The grandkids recouped a little by shoveling walks on the Capitol Hill block where they rented a house for the hearing.

Three months later, the Supreme Court ruled for Sturgeon.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the 9th Circuit judges had gone down the wrong path in their analysis and ignored “vital issues of state sovereignty, on the one hand, and federal authority, on the other.”
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ANILCA requires certain accommodations — commercial fishing, the use of snow-machines and airplanes, for instance — reflecting “the simple truth that Alaska is often the exception, not the rule,” Roberts wrote.

But all the ruling meant for Sturgeon was that he got another chance at the 9th Circuit.

His legal bill at that point was about $700,000.
A silent auction offered uniquely Alaskan items such as a gold nugget and several fur pelts. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)
A silent auction offered uniquely Alaskan items such as a gold nugget and several fur pelts. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)
'He took on the biggest of foes'

Sturgeon is a low-key 73-year-old, though he’s got a harrowing story, which he tells matter-of-factly, about killing a bear that tried to invade his hunting cabin.

In a blue blazer with a Rotary Club lapel pin, Sturgeon traveled the state talking about his case and is now well-enough known that the governor wonders if he has a political career in mind. (He doesn’t, he said.)

Sturgeon said he never really had to ask people to contribute to his cause — they just offered — and he directed them to send the money directly to a fund set up by the law firm.
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His lawyer, Findley, says people react to Sturgeon’s authenticity.

“I had a lot of friends on the left saying, ‘Oh, what are you doing taking this federal overreach case?’ ” Findley said. “And then they meet John and they say he is one of the classiest, nicest people they’ve ever met. I think his personality came through in the suit. He was asking to restore the balance. That’s a theme we had. It’s way more complicated than we’re just fighting the federal government.”

His supporters are a bit more fiery.

“For 12 long years, John Sturgeon has fought for something he believes in, something that is bigger than himself,” said Craig Compeau, who sells boats and ATVs in Fairbanks and became one of Sturgeon’s biggest supporters.

“He took on the biggest of foes, the United States federal government.”
Boaters along the Chena River wave to passengers on Sturgeon’s victory cruise. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)
Boaters along the Chena River wave to passengers on Sturgeon’s victory cruise. (Kate Wool/for The Washington Post)

Dunleavy agreed. Alaskans found Sturgeon’s case appealing because he was fighting the idea that “folks thousands of miles away know what’s better for Alaska than the people who live here, the idea that folks thousands of miles away believe that we don’t know how to live in Alaska, that we don’t know how to take care of Alaska, we don’t know how to appreciate Alaska and that we need to be managed.”
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Sturgeon’s second trip to the 9th Circuit ($56,412 in legal fees and costs) yielded another loss. But by then there was no question that he would try again at the Supreme Court.

Rasmuson, a former president of the National Bank of Alaska and a former University of Alaska regent with a family foundation well-known in the state, was game.

“I’ve found over the years that if you have the money and you have the willpower and you have good legal advice, you can usually beat the bastards,” Rasmuson said.

The Supreme Court was game, too, accepting Sturgeon’s petition ($155,000 in legal fees and costs) to review the second 9th Circuit opinion.

Oral argument was Nov. 6, 2018, and on March 26 the court overturned the appeals court and ruled for Sturgeon.

Congress intended for Alaska to be treated differently, Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the unanimous court, and some rules that apply elsewhere do not apply there. (She noted the court was not disturbing lower court decisions on subsistence fishing and hunting for Alaska Natives.)

“For that reason, park rangers cannot enforce the service’s hovercraft rule on the Nation River,” Kagan wrote. “And John Sturgeon can once again drive his hovercraft up that river to Moose Meadows.”

At the fundraiser cruise, Sturgeon told the crowd his own lawyers couldn’t have written the court’s decision any better.

“It reads like a book, and Justice Kagan did a really good job,” he said, adding, “and she’s a kinda liberal member of the court.”

As the guests disembarked, many ignored the light rain to pose for pictures with Sturgeon’s hovercraft, which was in the parking lot. It has been refurbished and renamed to honor the unanimous rulings. It is now the “9-0.”

That took some big money for justice.

 

[moose eater]

Nope. I don't have the money to be THAT assertive where it concerns putting down governmental over-reach. Personally, I've always figured bullets and caskets are much cheaper. But fortunately for all parties, I can't even afford too many of them. ;^>)

You can by a LOT of them for $1.5 million, though.

But not sure his crowd and I would see eye-to-eye on any number of issues, to include the premise or primary theme of this site, but you have to admit that he's a gung-ho fellow when it comes to standing up for something that'll drain his wallet for generations to come, so he can successfully thwart the fed's demonstrated sense of 'omnipotence.'

Me? I hope to have enough jing to cover my deductible and max out-of-pocket costs for care re. medical insurance... 2 years in a row, take a trip or 3 with my son each year,(and maybe even my wife), and keep enough vehicles maintained and fuel oil in the tank to tell people next spring that I had a comfortable winter.

Somehow in the land of the free, the amount of money we have on-hand, seems to dictate the depth of that freedom, and the size of our mental musings... in very real ways.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

The only season I watched. This dude was top shelf and overflowing with integrity. He could have taken the prize, but in his words, fulfilling a promise - "I'm fulfilling my obligations"


RIP Rudy.

 

[Microbeman]

Is this you, moose eater?

Alaskan Moose Hunter



That took some big money for justice.

I don't think it says in there how far he went with the hovercraft but since he had to drag it home, I assume it was not too far. In this case, I commend his victory.

I am really opposed to hunting outside one's territory. We filled our freezer every year with local game and fish. To hunt a large elk, one just need wait in silence off a well-worn embankment trail with ole 'betsy' in hand. Some of this could be traded to the valley natives for sockeye.

A friend recently paid a wad of cash to be flown into the bush with a hunting partner in northern BC to hunt. He lives in southern BC. He had tags [permits] galore as he bragged before hand. As it turned out they shot one little bull moose, smaller than I've seen on my farm in southern BC.
IMO, this is the silly kind of shit that gives hunters a bad name.

 

[Gry]

Poor Teeth

If you have a mouthful of teeth shaped by a childhood in poverty, don’t go knocking on the door of American privilege.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/poor-teeth?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

[moose eater]

I don't think it says in there how far he went with the hovercraft but since he had to drag it home, I assume it was not too far. In this case, I commend his victory.

I am really opposed to hunting outside one's territory. We filled our freezer every year with local game and fish. To hunt a large elk, one just need wait in silence off a well-worn embankment trail with ole 'betsy' in hand. Some of this could be traded to the valley natives for sockeye.

A friend recently paid a wad of cash to be flown into the bush with a hunting partner in northern BC to hunt. He lives in southern BC. He had tags [permits] galore as he bragged before hand. As it turned out they shot one little bull moose, smaller than I've seen on my farm in southern BC.
IMO, this is the silly kind of shit that gives hunters a bad name.

If I recall correctly, he was in or near the Yukon Charlie Nat'l Preserve, or that vicinity, which means he'd have had to tow it a decent ways if that was required.

Alaska's a HUGE area, and it's not uncommon for many persons to travel for fishing, hunting, etc. The First nations folks were originally nomadic at least a part of the year, and some coastal First Nations Bands, both Inupiat/Inupiaq and Tlingit, traveled inland for caribou harvest, and had primary habitation on the coast, where sea food of various types, including mammals was a primary resource.

The best of all worlds... out of necessity, sometimes.

In a recent trip up the Taylor Hwy, up toward Boundary, between the Community of Chicken, and ~20 miles north of there, toward Eagle and Boundary, we saw no fewer than 4 hover-craft. Probably more of them we missed.

A friend once used a hover-craft to get through shallow rapids up a river he had a gold claim off of, north of the Yukon River bridge a bit, off the Haul Rd.

For some they're a neat toy, and for others they're an alternative type of transport that accommodates topography that might be more problematic otherwise.

Yes, we get lots of people for whom big game hunting is a macho sporting activity and a good reason to get shit-faced. Some of them spend a small fortune, and I'd hate to calculate what their final price per lb. is on a moose hunt.

Then we get suburban quasi-subsistence hunters like myself, who use everything they get, and hunt as cheaply as possible, even if it involves charter aircraft to friends' places in the bush, either splitting charters, or dead-heading.

And we get the full-blown subsistence folks who live in more remote areas, and eat their foods locally that they don't have flown in, boated in, or hauled in with a snowmobile in the colder months.

 

[Microbeman]

If I recall correctly, he was in or near the Yukon Charlie Nat'l Preserve, or that vicinity, which means he'd have had to tow it a decent ways if that was required.

Alaska's a HUGE area, and it's not uncommon for many persons to travel for fishing, hunting, etc. The First nations folks were originally nomadic at least a part of the year, and some coastal First Nations Bands, both Inupiat/Inupiaq and Tlingit, traveled inland for caribou harvest, and had primary habitation on the coast, where sea food of various types, including mammals was a primary resource.

The best of all worlds... out of necessity, sometimes.

In a recent trip up the Taylor Hwy, up toward Boundary, between the Community of Chicken, and ~20 miles north of there, toward Eagle and Boundary, we saw no fewer than 4 hover-craft. Probably more of them we missed.

A friend once used a hover-craft to get through shallow rapids up a river he had a gold claim off of, north of the Yukon River bridge a bit, off the Haul Rd.

For some they're a neat toy, and for others they're an alternative type of transport that accommodates topography that might be more problematic otherwise.

Yes, we get lots of people for whom big game hunting is a macho sporting activity and a good reason to get shit-faced. Some of them spend a small fortune, and I'd hate to calculate what their final price per lb. is on a moose hunt.

Then we get suburban quasi-subsistence hunters like myself, who use everything they get, and hunt as cheaply as possible, even if it involves charter aircraft to friends' places in the bush, either splitting charters, or dead-heading.

And we get the full-blown subsistence folks who live in more remote areas, and eat their foods locally that they don't have flown in, boated in, or hauled in with a snowmobile in the colder months.

It was pretty much the same where I lived in BC. We lived in the traditional hunting territory of the Similkameen First Nations, some of whom were good friends and stayed with me when hunting. Their home was about 40 miles by crow.

I lived in the bush for the better part of my life and hated money hunters and guides. We chased them off our land many times and destroyed the crossing the cougar hunter guide used.

Some friends who lived in the area, worked in Alaska periodically and noted the similarities of the two as far as way of life.

EDIT; I also lived for some time in Haida Gwaii for some time which is off the shores of Alaska. I have a god daughter who is Haida.

 

[Gry]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]You may not vote on any more threads today. [/FONT]

 

[moose eater]

It was pretty much the same where I lived in BC. We lived in the traditional hunting territory of the Similkameen First Nations, some of whom were good friends and stayed with me when hunting. Their home was about 40 miles by crow.

I lived in the bush for the better part of my life and hated money hunters and guides. We chased them off our land many times and destroyed the crossing the cougar hunter guide used.

Some friends who lived in the area, worked in Alaska periodically and noted the similarities of the two as far as way of life.

EDIT; I also lived for some time in Haida Gwaii for some time which is off the shores of Alaska. I have a god daughter who is Haida.

When I lived and worked on Prince of Wales Island (1989/1990), serving a large area (the WHOLE Island, to be accurate), I traveled to a Haida village regularly, and worked out of their clinic.

One of the few places where, when Alaska State Troopers went to enforce standard fishing regs on folks who perceived themselves to be subsistence-qualified, to include the use of commercial vessels in the process, and the Troopers showed up, the SUV the Troopers were in received a number of bullet holes, as I heard it, and retreated.

Lots of stories from that community; some staggeringly sad, and others enlightening.

An elder who worked at the clinic I used when in the village shared with me her recipe for clam fritters, as well as her best clamming spot on the nearby shore. Her recipe used Bisquick, so I never made them that way, but the clams were something that I rarely pass up. No fan of Bisquick, however.

She's long since deceased, but was a real sweetheart. The clinic there is now named after her, from what I'm told.

Not saying that Liz Warren's blood quantum was noteworthy, but the Haida would give pause to many who think you can tell a First Nations/Indigenous Native person by appearances. The Scandinavian and Russian influences there had many of the blood-quantum-verified Haida, young and old alike, presenting with blue eyes, and strawberry blonde (sometimes reddish) hair, defying many folks' stereotyping.

I liked the Islands, and worked a variety of places in SE Alaska, but some of the more closed communities could get pretty twisty. And no, I'm not limiting that statement to First Nations communities. Not by a long shot. In 1979, Wrangell Island had some pretty 'unique' informal and formal power structure with the old red-neck families.

 

[Microbeman]

When I lived and worked on Prince of Wales Island (1989/1990), serving a large area (the WHOLE Island, to be accurate), I traveled to a Haida village regularly, and worked out of their clinic.

One of the few places where, when Alaska State Troopers went to enforce standard fishing regs on folks who perceived themselves to be subsistence-qualified, to include the use of commercial vessels in the process, and the Troopers showed up, the SUV the Troopers were in received a number of bullet holes, as I heard it, and retreated.

Lots of stories from that community; some staggeringly sad, and others enlightening.

An elder who worked at the clinic I used when in the village shared with me her recipe for clam fritters, as well as her best clamming spot on the nearby shore. Her recipe used Bisquick, so I never made them that way, but the clams were something that I rarely pass up. No fan of Bisquick, however.

She's long since deceased, but was a real sweetheart. The clinic there is now named after her, from what I'm told.

Not saying that Liz Warren's blood quantum was noteworthy, but the Haida would give pause to many who think you can tell a First Nations/Indigenous Native person by appearances. The Scandinavian and Russian influences there had many of the blood-quantum-verified Haida, young and old alike, presenting with blue eyes, and strawberry blonde (sometimes reddish) hair, defying many folks' stereotyping.

I liked the Islands, and worked a variety of places in SE Alaska, but some of the more closed communities could get pretty twisty. And no, I'm not limiting that statement to First Nations communities. Not by a long shot. In 1979, Wrangell Island had some pretty 'unique' informal and formal power structure with the old red-neck families.

I lived in Tlel in a log cabin in a Sitka and cedar forest. It was one of the most enchanted periods of my life. 6 inch deep moss, the colors of the rainbow carpeted the forest floor, strands of moss draped from tree branches that had little mushrooms gracing them. When the sun angled through it was pure majesty. The trees averaged 12 feet in diameter, young by the islands' volume of old growth. When I was there in the 70s they were hauling Sitka from the southern islands, 21 foot in diameter...a travesty.

I never went hungry there. Haida families would drop by with smoked fish, deer stew and gaw (the word I remember for herring eggs on kelp leaves/fronds - I fried it in butter - out of this world)

I was drinking beer with the hereditary chief of the Ravens in Charlotte one night and there was a Cree visiting, who was working as a logger. This was before all first nations were joined in solidarity and you probably know the Haida were fierce warriors in times gone by.

Anyway the Cree had beaten all the Haida guys at pool and I was up next. They told me that if I beat him, they would make me an honorary Haida. I trounced his ass. They sang a song and danced around me, presented me with a case of beer and pronounced me their brother Haida. I referred to this event often as becoming a dishonorary Haida.

I've had such a great life, it is almost unbelievable.

 

[moose eater]

Acceptance is acceptance. Rejection meant you got no where.

The Tlingit (specifically in the vicinity of Haines) were purported to be the ONLY First Nations group in SE to meet Capt. Cook's ships in war canoes, possessing little more than spears and hand weapons, in an attempt to repel ships possessing cannons and black-powder weapons.

But the Hiada were also known for warring when called upon.

We lived in what was then a tiny 100-year-old cannery cabin in Klawock (a Tlingit Village/Community), across the street from the oldest cannery in S.E. Alaska. The Village Council Prez told us we could stay there if we fixed it up, and could deduct our $300/month rent (cheap, even back then for a shack) from items purchased to fix it up enough to be livable. I could toss a stone into the harbor from the porch steps.

The cabin had been used by youngsters for illicit parties, and there was literally human feces, and any number of unpleasantries in the place when we began making it home.

Some of the Band were upset over non-First Nations folks being given access to the place (despite it not being lived in or livable at the time), but the Prez's word and decision was akin to law.

On recreational trips up the Island, we sometimes went to Sarkar Lake (spelling?) and would stay in a U.S. Forest Circus cabin there, using a Forest Circus-provided boat to row into the place. Got frozen in partly one day when we'd taken my mother-in-law in there. Chopped our way out sufficiently to row back to the road.

But yeah, many lakes with an abundance back then of cut-throat trout, a rain forest of old growth timber, esp. the Sitka Spruce you mentioned (sometimes huge where old growth stood), and the Hansel and Gretel scenery of the rainforest, with paths among giant ferns, varying colors of green, eagles, Sitka Black Tail deer, and more.

I told folks that if I could have stayed in such places, away from the in-fighting and BS that often went on in some of the communities, I could've stayed, but other issues wore on me quite heavily..

I used to stop in at Coffman Cove, and there was a fellow there folks called 'Bear,' who ran an oyster farm. If the weather was bad, and his packages of freshly harvested oysters couldn't get picked up by what was then Temsco Air (float plane), to be shipped further out from Ketchikan to high-end restaurants, he would have them all packaged up, at a seriously reduced price. Numerous times I was on my way up-Island to hunt black tail deer, and would stop in there and snag a nice box of awesome clean-water, farmed oysters, sit in the clear-cuts occasionally calling deer, while scraping oysters out of their shells.

Ate lots of oysters back then, but making that kind of sound, rarely saw a deer.

I did sometimes consider the effect (and lack of wisdom) of using a deer call that was reminiscent of a wounded fawn, while eating odiferous sea food, and scraping shells, but of the many black bear I encountered back then (there were no brown bear on POW Island), none were ever aggressive toward me. Luck of the draw, really..

 

[Microbeman]

Great experiences to fill an elder's mind. The warfare of the Haida were relayed to me verbally by stories passed down. There are claims of raiding down to California.

Regardless the following seems to show that they did indeed attack the European ships.

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/haida/havwa01e.html

 

[Gry]

What People Actually Say Before They Die

Insights into the little-studied realm of last words.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-people-actually-say-before-they-die?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

[moose eater]

Great experiences to fill an elder's mind. The warfare of the Haida were relayed to me verbally by stories passed down. There are claims of raiding down to California.

Regardless the following seems to show that they did indeed attack the European ships.

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/haida/havwa01e.html

Thanks for the read.

There was another lesser known (and more difficult to spell ;^>) ) band of indigenous folks who lived in Coastal B.C. and SE Alaska; the Tsimshian. Known some half-breeds of this area, and not sure if they are directly linked to the Haida or not. (And I do not use the term 'half-breed' in any derogatory vein, but the vein that indigenous folks use it themselves, in describing themselves). The one fellow in particular was SW American Indian, and Tsimshian by parentage.

The language maps show commonality between the Navajo language and the Athabascan (Interior Alaska), and that's been used as a basis to argue the legitimacy of the possibility/hypothesis that the debated land-sea bridge brought the First Nations folks from Siberia, via land raised above the water where the Aleutians now are located, and that some of them continued on, as far south as SW USA; the desert and prairie people of that area.

As wet as the Interior of Alaska seems to be headed toward, climate wise, the clouds of the Coast no longer seem quite as depressing or confining.

If you're ever up this way, we'll fix some halibut or some clam chowder. Maybe smoke some fish.

Thanks for the memories. And it -is- a small world.

 

[Gry]

Reading of the [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Haida [/FONT]has been too neat.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] The small amount that I have heard about the trade which went on down the West coast has always left me with the desire to learn more. [/FONT]

 

[Gry]

Led Zeppelin – No Quarter [1975/05/24 @ London, England]
A touching and powerful expanded version
[youtubeif]6xcOZghoZZY[/youtubeif]

 

[moose eater]

Lyle Lovett, Live, on Sound Stage

'If I Had a Boat'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4evzpIVnMVs

 

[buzzmobile]

Lyle Lovett, Live, on Sound Stage

'If I Had a Boat'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4evzpIVnMVs

My favorite LL song.