Surviving Winter: Now and Then

It's mid January here in Chicago, the temperature has dipped to something-teen and we're digging out from a snowstorm. I'm tired of winter already. But when I go inside my house with central heating I can forget about it for a while. Also if I have to go anywhere, I have a car which also has heat. In the event I'm running low on food, I can take my warm car to the supermarket where someone has thoughtfully loaded shelves with food I can select and take home. So, I have the luxury of escaping the cold. Survival is more a matter of keeping up my spirits.
But what about the peoples who had to live through winters on the frontier? Keeping warm and planning ahead was a matter of survival. How did they do it?

Some of the Native Americans picked up and moved to more hospitable winter locations--like some retirees today. For the Plains Indians this meant moving the tipis. At a first glance, the tipi doesn't look like a thing you'd want to hole up in for the winter, but in actuality they were quite cozy. The buffalo hide is an excellent barrier to the wind (It worked for the buffalo too.), and the openings at the ground and hole at the top create an updraft for the fire blazing in the middle. Inhabitants slept together under buffalo robes to share body heat.

Indian camp in winter

Not always as weather resistant was the frontier cabin, could be drafty by comparison.  If you were lucky enough to live in a sod house (and that's not a sentence I'll probably ever use again), you'd have the advantage of being better insulated from the cold. But, in either case the frontiersmen tended to build small one or two room cabins, which are easier to keep heated by a fire or stove. Families gathered together in front of the fire to wait out winter evenings. Some of these cabins had sleeping lofts for the children, and heat rises so it would be warmer up there. The children would bundle up in one or two beds under layers of quilts and blankets.

Togetherness in a frontier cabin, Iowa. 

Means to transport the heat from the fire to help warm beds, or to make the carriage ride more pleasant were developed. We've all seen the long handled bed warmer that was filled with hot rocks and slid under the covers. Similarly, metal boxes fitted into a wood frame or heated soapstone wrapped in rags were used as foot warmers in bed and in the carriages.

Ride in a one-horse open sleigh, brrrr. (oil painting by Cornelius Krieghoff)

One common winter survival trait to both Native American or settler families: togetherness. In modern times we have central heating, but that also allows family members to retreat to separate rooms in the house. I wouldn't trade my modern comforts, but I do wonder what we gained and what we've lost. How different would family life be? Would such togetherness bring everyone closer under trying times bring us closer? Or would the lack of privacy and personal space wear everyone out? Would they even been aware of such concepts?
What do you think? Can you picture you and your family hunkering down together in an isolated, one-room cabin?

PRE-FRONTIER; PRE-WEST

Post by Doris McCraw/Angela Raines

We love writing about the West, it seems to be in our blood. But what was the West before it was the myth we love? I'm talking about the world before the year 1,000. Of course as a teen I was fascinated with the Aztecs, Toltecs, and then the Olmecs. Then I had the gift of visiting the Cahokia mounds. Now of course we talk about the Anasazi, Chaco Canyon. So who were there peoples? How did their stories impact our lives and our own writing?

Timelines:

Cahokia peoples settled the Mississippi/Illinois river area around 700.

Anasazi people settled the Four Corners area around 200

Chaco Canyon in use by 850.

All three were in decline by around 1200-1300.

Both the Cahokia and Anasazi are the subject of much speculation. They both build amazing civilizations. Were they cannibals? Did they have human sacrifice? One of the hardest parts of archeology is putting yourself in the 'shoes' of the inhabitants of the area you are studying, much as we authors do when creating our characters. It is not easy to be historically correct, especially when you don't know all the facts about the time you are writing.

The following quote from the Cahokia Mounds website gives a hint of the influence the inhabitants had on their area: “One of the greatest cities of the world, Cahokia was larger than London was in AD 1250. The Mississippians who lived here were accomplished builders who erected a wide variety of structures from practical homes for everyday living to monumental public works that have maintained their grandeur for centuries” For additional information the following links will take you on that journey.

http://cahokiamounds.org/, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/cahokia/hodges-text , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia I really encourage you to read all, but if you only have time for one, the National Geographic article is a good overview.

en.wikipedia.org

The Anasazi are more widely recognized, mainly because of Mesa Verde and the history of the Pueblo people. Still what became of them? Why did they abandon the dwellings that they are remembered for? We may never know, but what a history these people have. The following quote from the Mesa Verde site shows how important the preservation of the history is: Preserving the “Works of Man”

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from AD 600 to 1300. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. Additional information can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_Puebloans , http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/ahc/who_were_the_anasazi.html ,http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/riddles-of-the-anasazi-85274508/?no-ist I love the BLM site, it allows you to follow a question and answer format.

en.wikipedia.org

Lastly there is Chaco Canyon in the Southwest. This area also contains more from the Anasazi culture. Many think it may have been part of the 'highway' through which trade goods traveled. For more on this site: http://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm ,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park ,https://sacredsites.com/americas/united_states/chaco_canyon.html

en.wikipedia.org

That these peoples influenced future generations is without question. Still, so much is not known, or is speculation. Mesa Verde, Cahokia Mounds and Chaco Canyon are still mysteries in many ways, but oh the stories they can inspire. Did the Anasazi and the Mississippians at Cahokia know and trade with each other? So many questions but so many stories to be told, so many myths and mysteries.

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris also writes haiku posted five days a week at - http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com and has now passed one thousand haiku and photos posted on this blog. Check out her other work or like her Amazon author page:  http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL

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"A COWBOY CELEBRATION"
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HOME FOR HIS HEART
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SHARING CULTURE THROUGH TALES AND MYTHOLOGY..... BY Gail L. Jenner

Yurok Tales

With a degree in anthropology, I've always found it fascinating to study the tales and mythology of other cultures. I thought perhaps I'd share a couple regional tales here. These are tales from the Yurok who live along the northwestern coast of California, along the lower Klamath River.  These enterprising people lived in and around the great redwood forests and along the coast.

"Yurok" actually means "downriver" -- which came from the language of the Karuk who are the Yurok's inland neighbors. Today the Yurok are the largest tribe in California. Sadly, as in the case of so many many tribes across California and the nation, the Yurok were attacked by the miners and settlers who rushed west. 

Indeed, a little known fact reveals that more than 90% of the native tribes of California were killed or died from disease during the 19th century.

As writers, looking to myths and historical tales can provide inspiration as well as insight into cultural traditions. Since many historical romance writers find incorporating Native American heroes or characters into their stories, that's all the more reason for those doing historical research into a tribe's important mythology.

One of the most important ethnographers and anthropologists to study the various California tribes, and, in particular, the Yurok, was Professor A. L. Kroeber.  He collected the tales and stories told by the Yurok during the early part of the 20th century. A professor at UC Berkeley, these writings are an important collection and continue to give writers, historians, and readers a real glimpse into the lives and culture of this important coastal nation.

The tales Kroeber related were called tales of the woge [woe-gee] times -- that time when mythological heroes lived on earth.

This first tale was related by Johnny Shortman, who was born circa 1840, and related a story about why payment had to be made whenever a killing occurred. This is what he said:   

                They [the woge] made it that when a man kills a person, he pays for him. And if the one that killed the other has a sister, he must also give her as part of the payment. And if he who was killed has relatives, one of those relatives will marry the sister. As a result, any children will be like those of the “man killed”, and it will be as if he were alive again. They do this because the woge left these instructions “that everything might go well.” 

                And if they do not pay, it was believed that others would think to themselves,“I, too, will kill.” But since they must pay, everyone is afraid. “Therefore few kill.”

*******

Here's another tale:

How Thunder and Earthquake Made Ocean

Thunder lived at Sumig. One day he said, “How shall the people live there is just prairie there? Let us place the ocean there.” He said to Earthquake, “I want to have water there, there so that the people may live. Otherwise they will have nothing to live on.” He said to Earthquake, “What do you think?”

Earthquake thought. “That is true,” he said. “There should be water there. Far off I see it. I see the water. It is at Opis. There are salmon there and water.”

“Go,” said Thunder. “Go with Kingfisher, the one who sits there by the water. Go and get water at Opis. Get water that is to come here.”

Then the two of them went. Kingfisher and Earthquake went
to see the water. They went to get the water at Opis. They had
two abalone shells that Thunder had given to them.
“Take these shells,” Thunder had said. “Collect the water in them.”

First Kingfisher and Earthquake went to the north end of the world.
There Earthquake looked around. “This will be easy,” he said.
“It will be easy for me to sink the land.” Then Earthquake ran around.
He ran around and the ground sank. It sank there at the north end of the world.

Then Kingfisher and Earthquake started for Opis. They went to the place at the end of the water. They made the ground sink behind them as they went. At the Opis they saw all kinds of animals and fish that could be eaten there in the water at Opis. Then they took water in the abalone shells.

“No we will go to the south end of the world,” said Earthquake.
“We will go there and look for water. Thunder, who was at Sumig,
will help us breaking down the trees. The water will extend all the way
to the south end of the world. There will be salmon and fish of all kinds and seals in the water.”

Now Kingfisher and Earthquake came back to Sumig.
They saw that Thunder had broken down the trees.
Together the three of them went north.
As they went together they kept sinking the ground.
The Earth quaked and quaked water flowed over it as Kingfisher
and Earthquake poured it from their abalone shells. Kingfisher emptied his shell and it filled the ocean halfway to the north end of the world. Earthquake emptied his shell and it filled the ocean the rest of the way.

As they filled in the ocean, the creatures which would be food swarmed into the water. The seals came as if they were thrown in handfuls. Into the water they came, swimming toward shore. Earthquake sank the land deeper to make gullies and the whales came swimming through the gullies where the water was deep enough for them to travel. The salmon came running through the water.

 

Now all the land animals, the deer and elk, the foxes and minks,
the bear and others had gone inland. Now the water creatures were there. Now Thunder and Kingfisher and Earthquake looked at the ocean. “This is enough,” They said. “Now the people will have enough to live on. Everything that is needed is in water.”

So it is that the prairie became ocean. It is so because Thunder wished it so. It is so because Earthquake wished it so. All kinds of creatures are in the ocean before us because Thunder and Earthquake wished the people to live.   

 

**********

Here's a third simple tale: 

Once upon a time, the Foxes were angry with Sun. They held a council about the matter. Then twelve Foxes were selected - twelve of the bravest to catch Sun and tie him down.
They made ropes of sinew; then the twelve watched until the Sun, as he followed the downward trail in the sky, touched the top of a certain hill.
Then the Foxes caught Sun, and tied him fast to the hill. But the Indians saw them, and they killed the Foxes with arrows. Then they cut the sinews.
But the Sun had burned a great hole in the ground. The Indians know the story is true, because they can see the hole which Sun burned.

From:  Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest
Compiled and Edited by Katharine Berry Judson, 1912  

 ***********

Why Coyote Has a Scraggly Tail....

Long ago, at a council meeting, the animals decided to ask the Great Creator for tails. He agreed and promised to give each animal a tail the next morning. The first animal to get up would have first choice. Coyote built a big fire and tried hard to stay awake all night, but, at last, he fell asleep. In the very early morning, the animals awoke, and each picked a tail; Gray Squirrel, Beaver, Deer, Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, Raccoon, Fox, Skunk, and Rabbit. Then, Coyote awoke with a start. There was one beautiful tail left. But Coyote was so angry about sleeping late that he dragged his tail through the fire. And that is why Coyote has a scraggly tail.  

**********************

Gail L. Jenner, a past history and English teacher, began writing at age 9. Inspired by so many writers, one of her greatest thrills is having WON a WILLA Award for Best Softcover Fiction from Women Writing the West, for ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS, re-released by Prairie Rose Publications in 2013.    For more, visit: www.gailjenner.com OR: http://www.amazon.com/Gail-Fiorini-Jenner/e/B005GHR47O Her newest releases from Prairie Rose include JULY'S BRIDE and JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS! She is the author of several stories that have also been included in the PRP anthologies, PRESENT FOR A COWBOY LASSOING A BRIDE, and COWBOY KISSES. She is the coauthor of 5 regional histories and edited and contributed to ANKLE HIGH AND KNEE DEEP, an anthology of Western rural women's stories. 

Shamanism

By Kristy McCaffrey

Shamanism is a term for a range of beliefs and practices related to communication with the spirit world. Shamans—sometimes referred to as “medicine men” or “witch doctors”—are the keepers of ancient techniques used to achieve and maintain well-being and healing for themselves and members of their communities. They are considered intermediaries between the human world and the spirit worlds, entering a trance-like state during a ritual to practice divination and healing. A shaman moves between an ordinary state of consciousness and a non-ordinary state of consciousness. Shamanic methods are strikingly similar all over the world, and are believed to have been in use for tens of thousands of years.

A rite of passage commonly initiates the training of a shaman. This could include a physical illness or a psychological crisis, pushing them to the brink of death. This prompts a crossing over into the underworld and a deep understanding of sickness, which can then be used to heal others suffering the same maladies. They can also be called by dreams or signs.

Shamans frequently work with spirit guides while in the spirit world. They help the shaman navigate the non-ordinary realms. Shamans glean information through dreams and visions, and through direct dialogue with spirits of all kinds: human, animal, and inanimate (such as rocks, trees, and plants). Spirits help to remove excess negative energies, often from sources beyond the injured person.

Shamanite (Black Calcite) is a high vibration stone of the ancients.
Native American tribes considered it a powerful protective talisman.

Shamans engage in soul retrieval, returning lost parts of the human soul from wherever they may have gone. A portion of the soul is free to leave the body, and will often do so when dreaming; soul pieces will also flee during traumatic events as a way of protection. In this instance, the soul piece will not return of its own accord and a shaman must intervene to assist in the recovery.

Rock carvings would often mark places of power.
This symbol signified a shamanic portal.

All forms of shamanism share several common beliefs: spirits exist and play important roles in individual lives and human society; shamans can communicate with the spirit world; spirits can be benevolent or malevolent; shamans can treat sickness caused by malevolent spirits; the shaman can employ trance-inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy and go on vision quests; the shaman’s spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers; the shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers; the shaman can tell the future, scry, throw bones/runes, and perform other varied forms of divination.

Mongolian Shaman wearing a ritual gown and holding
a drum with the image of a spirit helper.
Photo courtesy of National Museum of Finland, circa 1909.

A shaman enters a supernatural realm to bring guidance to misguided souls, and to alleviate illnesses frequently caused by foreign elements in a person’s spirit.

Shaman with spirit helpers.