Chestnut Trees Replanted

Beautiful article about chestnut trees, nearly extinct in the U.S., being planted at the sites of strip mines in the Appalachian mountains.
 

Program ties mine reclamation with restoration of rare hardwood.

PIONEER, TENN. -- In a double-barreled approach to environmental restoration, Appalachian mountains scarred by strip-mining are being planted with American chestnut trees, a species that has been all but wiped out in the U.S. by a fungus.

For the past 30 years or so, federal regulations essentially said that once a forested mountainside was scraped open and the coal extracted, mine companies had to smooth the soil over and seed it with grass.

But recently, federal regulators have begun promoting the planting of chestnuts and other hardwoods to improve drainage, reduce erosion and return the landscape to a more natural state.

The project has the added advantage of helping to bring the American chestnut back from the brink of extinction.

American chestnuts "were a critical part of the forest and they are gone now, for all intents and purpose," said John Johnson, a former leader in the militant environmentalist group Earth First! and now an employee and student in the University of Tennessee forestry program. "So this in a way is like double research -- like, how to bring chestnuts back and how to reclaim these sites."

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 By Carol Perez Petersen

 Manataka Correspondent

Caddo Against Caddo -- Bureaucrats Inciting Trouble

Caddo Nation of Oklahoma tribal council recently demanded the state recognized Adai Caddo Indians of Louisiana remove the word Caddo from their name.  The Caddo Nation consists of a number of smaller bands (Nabedache, Nasoni, Hainai) of the Caddo Indians under the leadership of a larger group such as, the Hasinai, the Natchitoches, and the Kadohadacho. The Adai were not part of these groups. Sounds like so much bull ---- originating from federal bureaucrats -- who currently control the Caddo of OK.  This action is right out of the BIA handbook to create confusion and trouble between the people.

Indigenous Leaders, Citizens and Scientists Agree.  No Peace Out West -- U.S. Plans More Nuclear Weapons on Shoshone Land

God and the Spider

During World War II, a US Paiute marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades.

Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction.  Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and he would be killed.

As he waited, he prayed, "Creator, if it be your will, please protect me.  Whatever your will though, I love you and trust you."

After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close.  He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this one." Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave.

As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while, the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the cave.

"Hah, he thought. "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humor."

As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another. As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while.

"Creator, forgive me," prayed the young Paiute Indian. "I had forgotten that in you a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."

We all face times of great trouble. When we do, it is so easy to forget the victories that God would work in our lives, sometimes in the most surprising ways. We must be reminded  that in the Creator of All Things we will have success!"

And remember: Whatever is happening in your life, in the Great Mystery, a mere spider's web becomes a brick wall of protection.
 

Submitted by Jennifer Whitefeather Attaway