Duchess of Weaselskin

Bayfield, CO - Sadie wanted to know if you all got your clocks set back to Standard Time Saturday night (or early Sunday Morning) after the rumbling of easthquakes and aftershocks this last weekend in Oklahoma.

AND . . . What about those earthquakes that rumbled through central Oklahoma and Lincoln county near Sparks, Oklahoma this weekend? Were you one of many that felt the vibrations throughout Oklahoma, Kansas, northern Texas and Missouri?

Did you know that in 1952, April 9, there was an earthquake around El Reno that measured 5.5.

We hear tell the Saturday evening quake measured in at a magnitude of 5.6 as an aftershock of the Saturday early morning 4.7 foreshock, that began the Oklahoma quakes at 2:13am in the morning.

Those in Alva and Cherokee in the northwest part of the state felt the evening quake vibrations as their homes vibrated from east to west for about 3 seconds and even shook some in their recliners.

The 5.6 magnitude earthquake seems like a big one for the Oklahoma area. NW Okie remembers feeling a 1 magnitude quake that was felt in the northwestern portion of Oklahoma about 1995 when she was out at McGill Sisters West Lakes office, west edge of Alva, Oklahoma.

The aftershock at 10:53pm, Saturday evening struck shortly afterward OSU Pokes (52) won their College football battle with Kansas State (45) and viewers were leaving the stadium. Just joking . . . I knew that was a rough, wild game, but did the football rumble between OSU and KSU have anything to do with the 5.6 quake . . . NOT! By the way, that was a great game! Hope it moves the OSU Pokes up to second or first place at least.

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This Day In History (November 7)

America - On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky. Go to article.

On Nov. 7, 1867, Marie Curie, the Polish-born French physicist twice awarded the Nobel Prize for her work on radioactivity, was born. Following her death on July 4, 1934, her obituary appeared in The Times. Go to obituary>

On This Date, November 7:

• 1893 - Passage of a referendum made Colorado the first state to grant women the right to vote.
• 1911 - Marie Curie became the first multiple Nobel Prize winner when she was given the award for chemisty eight years after garnering the physics prize with her late husband, Pierre. (She remains the only woman with multiple Nobels and the only person to receive the award in two science categories.)
• 1916 - Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.
• 1944 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.
• 1962 - Richard M. Nixon, who failed in a bid to become governor of California, held what he called his last press conference, telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."
• 1962 - Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt died at age 78. 1972 - President Richard M. Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.
• 1973 - Congress over-rode President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act.

NW Okie's Corner

Bayfield, Colorado - While Oklahoma was rumbling with college football games and earthquakes this weekend, the San Juan mountains, in southwest Colorado near Vallecito Reservoir was getting eight inches of snow the whole day of Saturday, 5 November 2011. Wolf Creek Ski Resort reported getting another 12 inches added to their snow base.

OkieLegacy Slideshow Collection of Snowy weather, Southwest Colorado.


Also . . . Did you know that 7 November 1893 was a bright spot for women with the passage of a referendum that made Colorado the first state to grant women the right to vote. I knew Colorado was a great state, but did not realize it was the first state to grant women the right to vote. Way to go, Colorado!

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Foreshocks & Aftershocks Rattle Oklahomans

Oklahoma - Were you one of those Oklahomans that got rattled with foreshocks and aftershocks from this weekend's 4.7 and 5.6 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter around Sparks, Oklahoma?

Geologists believe a magnitude 4.7 earthquake started it all early Saturday morning around 2:13am. That was only a foreshock of a bigger aftershock 5.6 that followed later in the evening that was felt all the way towards Alva and Cherokee in northwest Oklahoma around 10:53pm.

By mid-moring Sunday and at least 10 aftershocks were recorded and they were expecting more. Since the systems east of the Rocky Mountains have not been studied as much as those in the West, pinpointing a fault line may be difficult is what researchers are telling us.

There was a report that the magnitude 5.6 earthquake rocked the stands at the Oklahoma State University (OSU) game at 10:53pm Saturday night. Were you there when the OSU Pokes rumbled with Kansas State for a 52-45 Win? Did you feel the quake shortly after the game? They say it was felt throughout the state and in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, northern Texas and some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin.

Afterwards, Sunday, 14 tremors measuring from 2.7 to 4.0 were listed on the U.S. Geological Survey with the most recent was a 3.3 magnitude earthquake located 10 miles northeast of Shawnee at 12:26pm, 37 miles east of Oklahoma City.

First reports had Saturday night's quake listed as 5.2 magnitude. It struck Oklahoma at 10:53 p.m. The epicenter was located four miles east of Sparks, eight miles south of Davenport, nine miles north northwest of Prague, and 45 miles east of Oklahoma City. The earthquake was only three miles deep.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey report that the earthquakes have occurred on the Wilzetta fault, also known as the Seminole uplift. They are now referring to Saturday morning's 4.7 magnitude earthquake as a foreshock.

For a list of earthquakes mapped and centered at 36°N, 97°W, as updated November 7, 2011, CLICK HERE. Here is another website, Oklahoma Geological Survey to show recent earthquakes and to report feeling an Oklahoma earthquake. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Native American Legends

America - With the Oklahoma earthquakes this weekend, we decided to search for some Native American legends that have a hint of earthquakes mentioned. Have you heard this Wyandot (Huron) Legend of the Big Turtle?

A Wyandot (Huron) Legend of Big Turtle -- Many years ago the world had two parts. Animals lived in the lower part, which was completely covered in water and had no land or soil. Above was the Sky World, where the sky people lived. The Sky World had lots of soil, with beautiful mountains and valleys. One day a girl from the Sky World went for a long walk and became very tired.

"I'm so tired, I need to rest," she said. She sat down under the spreading branches of an apple tree and quickly fell asleep. Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound like thunder and the ground began to crack. A big hole opened up next to the apple tree.

"What's happening?" screamed the frightened girl. She tried to move but it was too late. She and the tree slid through the hole and tumbled over and over towards the watery world below.

"Help me! Help me!" screamed the girl. Luckily two swans were swimming below and saw the girl tumbling down from the sky. "Come on!" yelled one swan. "Let's catch her before she hits the water." "Okay!" yelled the other. The swans spread their wings together and caught the girl on their soft feather backs. "Whew! That was lucky," said the girl. "But what do I do now? I can't get back up to the Sky World and I can't stay on your backs forever."

"We'll take you to Big Turtle," said the swans. "He knows everything." After hearing what happened, the Big Turtle called all the animals in the water world to a meeting. He told them an old story about soil being found deep under the water. "If we can get some of that soil, we can build an island on my back for you to live on," said the Big Turtle.

"Sounds good to me," said the young girl.

The Otter, Beaver and Muskrat started arguing over whom would dive for the soil. "I'll go," said the sleek Otter, brushing his glossy fur. "No! I'll go," said Beaver, slapping the water with his big flat tail. "I'm the best swimmer," said Muskrat "I'll go."

"Aaaachooo!" sneezed the young girl." Guys, guys, would just one of you go. These swan feathers are getting up my nose and making me sneeze."

"Sorry" said the swans.

"That's alright," said the young Sky girl.

Then Toskwaye the little Toad popped up out of the water. "I'll go. I can dive very deep," she said. The other animals started laughing and pointing at Toskwaye. "You! You're too small and ugly to help." Cried the others, laughing.

"Be quite!" said Big Turtle in a loud, stern voice. "Everyone is equal and everyone will have a chance to try". The sleek Otter smoothed his glossy fur, took a deep breath and slid into the water. He was gone for a long time before he came up gasping for air. "It was too deep," he said. "I couldn't dive that far."

"Now it's my turn," said Beaver. He slapped the water with his tail as he disappeared. After a long time he came to the surface again. "It's too far" he gasped. "No one can dive that deep." Muskrat tried next and failed.

"Aaaachoo!" sneezed the young girl. "This is not looking good."

"Now it's my turn," said little Toskwaye the Toad. She took a deep breath and jumped into the water. She was gone a very long time and everyone thought they wouldn't see her again.

Suddenly Otter pointed at the water, shouting, and "Look, look bubbles!" Toskwaye's small, ugly face appeared through the water. She spat a few grains of soil onto the Big Turtle's back, then fell back into the water - dead.

The Turtle ordered the others to rub the soil grains and spread them around on his shell. The grains grew and grew, until a large island was formed - big enough for the girl to live on. It grew into our world, as we know it today. And the descendants of the Sky girl became the Earth's people.

Today, some people say the whole world still rests on Big Turtles back. When he gets tired and changes his position, we have earthquakes.

Toad has not been forgotten either. American native Indians call her "Mashutaha", which means 'Our Grandmother'. No one is allowed to harm her. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Swan's Daughters Marry Earthquake's Son

America - Have you heard this Native American legend of Swan's Daughters Marry Earthquake's Son?

Swan's daughters marry Earthquake's son is a Seneca legend that goes something like this: One day Swan said to her two daughters, "My daughters, I have had a great deal of trouble in rearing you. For a long time I've eaten nothing but mushrooms, I am hungry for meat. You are old enough to marry. Earthquake Old Woman lives near here. Her son, Split face, is a good young man and a great hunter. You must go and marry him."

The girls pounded corn for the marriage bread. The mother baked twenty cakes in the ashes, wrapped them in corn husks, and put them into a basket. She painted long red stripes on each girl's face and combed her long hair.

Then, giving the basket to the elder, she said, "Don't stop till you come to Earthquake's house. Don't ask the way of anyone, or speak to anyone."

The elder sister took the basket and the two started. About midday they saw a middle-aged man of the Owl people. He ran across the trail and called out, "I have lost my arrow! I shot at a bird and the arrow went so far that I can't find it."

"I will help you hunt for it," said the elder sister, putting her basket down on a log.

The younger girl didn't want to look for the arrow. She said, "Mother told us not to stop, or to speak to anyone," but she followed her sister.

The man ran around the girls, seized the basket and carried it off. When the girls couldn't find the arrow, they went back to the log where they had left the basket. It was gone, and right away they knew that the old man had fooled them. They went home and when their mother asked what had become of the basket the second sister said, "We met a man who had lost his arrow. While we were looking for it, he stole our basket."

The mother scolded the elder sister, and said, "You don't care for me. You know that I am hungry for meat, yet you disobey me. We will make bread tomorrow and your younger sister will carry it to Earthquake's house."

The next day the mother made marriage bread, got her daughters ready for the road and gave them the same command as before.

The girls followed the same trail. Again they met Owl and this time the elder sister asked how far it was to Earthquake's house.

"It isn't far," said Owl. "It is right over there," and he pointed to his own house. They went to the house and going in saw Owl's wife and his little boy. They put the basket of marriage bread down near the woman.

Owl told his wife to go to the other side of the fire and pretend to be his sister. He sat down between the two girls and when the little boy called him "Father," he said, "He is my sister's son. His father died yesterday, he is calling for him," and Owl began to cry for his brother-in-law.

Someone was heard coming toward the cabin. Then there was a kick on the door and a man called out, "O'Ówa, they want you at the long house!"

Owl said, "My people always call me by a nickname. They are holding a council and can't get along without me. I must go. I'll come back soon," and he went away.

The younger sister said, "This isn't Earthquake's house. If we can get our basket we will go home."

When Owl's wife fell asleep, the younger girl took the basket and said to her sister, "Now we must go."

They started for home. Soon they came to an opening and in the center of the opening was a long house. They crept up cautiously and looking through a crack saw Earthquake and near her sat her son, a nice looking young man. There were two fireplaces in the house and many men and women were sitting around them. Owl was dancing and as he danced people threw pieces of meat and of mush into his mouth. The girls recognized him and knew that they had been fooled again. They went into the house and putting the basket of bread near Earthquake, they sat down, one on each side of the young man.

The mother was glad; she liked the girls. When Owl saw them, he dropped his blanket and ran out of the house.

Swan's daughters lived with Split Face and were happy. He was a good hunter and they had a plenty to eat. After a while their mother-in-law said, "You must carry your mother some meat, she is hungry."

Earthquake took a large quantity of meat, made a pack of it, made the pack small and giving it to the elder sister, said, "Have your mother come back with you, I will give her a fire to live by."

When Swan had eaten enough and was glad, she went home with her daughters. And she lived with them ever after happy and contented. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Search For Middle & Hardening of the World

America - This is another Native American legend of the Zuni's and is entitled, The Search for the Middle and the Hardening of the World. A Zuni Legend -- As it was with the first men and creatures, so it was with the world. It was young and unripe. Earthquakes shook the world and rent it. Demons and monsters of the under-world fled forth.

Creatures became fierce, beasts of prey, and others turned timid, becoming their quarry. Wretchedness and hunger abounded and black magic. Fear was everywhere among them, so the people, in dread of their precious possessions, became wanderers, living on the seeds of grass, eaters of dead and slain things. Yet, guided by the Beloved Twain, they sought in the light and under the pathway of the Sun, the Middle of the world, over which alone they could find the Earth at rest.

When the tremblings grew still for a time, the people paused at the First of Sitting Places. Yet they were still poor and defenseless and unskilled, and the world still moist and unstable. Demons and monsters fled from the Earth in times of shaking, and threatened wanderers.

Then the Two took counsel of each other. The Elder said the Earth must be made more stable for men and the valleys where their children rested. If they sent down their fire bolts of thunder, aimed to all the four regions, the Earth would heave up and down, fire would, belch over the world and burn it, floods of hot water would sweep over it, smoke would blacken the daylight, but the Earth would at last be safer for men.

So the Beloved Twain let fly the thunderbolts.

The mountains shook and trembled, the plains cracked and crackled under the floods and fires, and the hollow places, the only refuge of men and creatures, grew black and awful. At last thick rain fell, putting out the fires. Then water flooded the world, cutting deep trails through the mountains, and burying or uncovering the bodies of things and beings. Where they huddled together and were blasted thus, their blood gushed forth and flowed deeply, here in rivers, there in floods, for gigantic were they. But the blood was charred and blistered and blackened by the fires into the black rocks of the lower mesas. There were vast plains of dust, ashes, and cinders, reddened like the mud of the hearth place. Yet many places behind and between the mountain terraces were unharmed by the fires, and even then green grew the trees and grasses and even flowers bloomed. Then the Earth became more stable, and drier, and its lone places less fearsome since monsters of prey were changed to rock.

But ever and again the Earth trembled and the people were troubled.

"Let us again seek the Middle," they said. So they traveled far eastward to their second stopping place, the Place of Bare Mountains.

Again the world rumbled, and they traveled into a country to a place called Where-tree-boles-stand-in-the-midst-of-waters. There they remained long, saying, "This is the Middle." They built homes there. At times they met people who had gone before, and thus they learned war. And many strange things happened there, as told in speeches of the ancient talk.

Then when the Earth groaned again, the Twain bade them go forth, and they murmured. Many refused and perished miserably in their own homes, as do rats in falling trees, or flies in forbidden food.

But the greater number went forward until they came to Steam-mist-in-the- midst-of-waters. And they saw the smoke of men's hearth fires and many houses scattered over the hills before them. When they came nearer, they challenged the people rudely, demanding who they were and why there, for in their last standing-place they had had touch of war.

"We are the People of the Seed," said the men of the hearth-fires, "born elder brothers of ye, and led of the gods."

"No," said our fathers, "we are led of the gods and we are the Seed People."

Long lived the people in the town on the sunrise slope of the mountains of Kahluelawan, until the Earth began to groan warningly again. Loath were they to leave the place of the Kaka and the lake of their dead. But the rumbling grew louder and the Twain Beloved called, and all together they journeyed eastward, seeking once more the Place of the Middle. But they grumbled amongst themselves, so when they came to a place of great promise, they said, "Let us stay here. Perhaps it may be the Place of the Middle."

So they built houses there, larger and stronger than ever before, and more perfect, for they were strong in numbers and wiser, though yet unperfected as men. They called the place "The Place of Sacred Stealing."

Long they dwelt there, happily, but growing wiser and stronger, so that, with their tails and dressed in the skins of animals, they saw they were rude and ugly.

In chase or in war, they were at a disadvantage, for they met older nations of men with whom they fought. No longer they feared the gods and monsters, but only their own kind. So therefore the gods called a council.

Changed shall ye be, oh our children, "cried the Twain." Ye shall walk straight in the pathways, clothed in garments, and without tails, that ye may sit more straight in council, and without webs to your feet, or talons on your hands."

So the people were arranged in procession like dancers. And the Twain with their weapons and fires of lightning shored off the forelocks hanging down over their faces, severed the talons, and slitted the webbed fingers and toes. Sore was the wounding and loud cried the foolish, when lastly the people were arranged in procession for the razing of their tails.

But those who stood at the end of the line, shrinking farther and farther, fled in their terror, climbing trees and high places, with loud chatter. Wandering far, sleeping ever in tree tops, in the far-away Summerland, they are sometimes seen of far-walkers, long of tail and long handed, like wizened men-children.

But the people grew in strength, and became more perfect, and more than ever went to war. They grew vain. They had reached the Place of the Middle. They said, "Let us not wearily wander forth again even though the Earth tremble and the Twain bid us forth."

And even as they spoke, the mountain trembled and shook, though far- sounding.

But as the people changed, changed also were the Twain, small and misshapen, hard-favored and unyielding of will, strong of spirit, evil and bad. They taught the people to war, and led them far to the eastward.

At last the people neared, in the midst of the plains to the eastward, great towns built in the heights. Great were the fields and possessions of this people, for they knew how to command and carry the waters, bringing new soil. And this, too, without hail or rain. So our ancients, hungry with long wandering for new food, were the more greedy and often gave battle.

It was here that the Ancient Woman of the Elder People, who carried her heart in her rattle and was deathless of wounds in the body, led the enemy, crying out shrilly. So it fell out ill for our fathers. For, moreover, thunder raged and confused their warriors, rain descended and blinded them, stretching their bow strings of sinew and quenching the flight of their arrows as the flight of bees is quenched by the sprinkling plume of the honey-hunter. But they devised bow strings of yucca and the Two Little Ones sought counsel of the Sun-father who revealed the life-secret of the Ancient Woman and the magic powers over the under-fires of the dwellers of the mountains, so that our enemy in the mountain town was overmastered. And because our people found in that great town some hidden deep in the cellars, and pulled them out as rats are pulled from a hollow cedar, and found them blackened by the fumes of their war magic, yet wiser than the common people, they spared them and received them into their next of kin of the Black Corn.

But the tremblings and warnings still sounded, and the people searched for the stable Middle.

Now they called a great council of men and the beasts, birds, and insects of all kinds. After a long council it was said,"Where is Water-skate? He has six legs, all very long. Perhaps he can feel with them to the uttermost of the six regions, and point out the very Middle."

So Water-skate was summoned. But lo! It was the Sun-father in his likeness which appeared. And he lifted himself to the zenith and extended his fingerfeet to all the six regions, so that they touched the north, the great waters; the west, and the south, and the east, the great waters; and to the northeast the waters above. and to the southwest the waters below. But to the north his finger foot grew cold, so he drew it in. Then gradually he settled down upon the Earth and said, "Where my heart rests, mark a spot, and build a town of the Mid-most, for there shall be the Mid-most Place of the Earth-Mother."

And his heart rested over the middle of the plain and valley of Zuni. And when he drew in his finger-legs, lo! there were the trail-roads leading out and in like stays of a spider's nest, into and from the mid-most place he had covered.

Here because of their good fortune in finding the stable Middle, the priest father called the town the Abiding-place-of-happy-fortune. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Zuni - Native Americans

America - The Zuni people were/are a tribe of Pueblo Native Americans in the United States.

The Zuni Pueblo is nestled in a scenic valley, surrounded by the enchanting mesas, located about 150 miles west of Albuquerque. The main reservation, is located in the McKinley and Cibola counties in the western part of New Mexico. The estimated number of acres encompasses about 450,000 acres. The tribe has land holdings in Catron County, New Mexico and Apache County, Arizona, which are not adjoining to the main reservation. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Wyandot (Huron) - Native Americans

America - Huron (hyoor'än"), confederation of four Native North American groups who spoke the Wyandot language, which belongs to the Iroquoian branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock. Their name for themselves was Wendat, Huron being the name applied to them by the French.

In the early 17th century they occupied the region between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay in Ontario and numbered some 20,000. Their culture was substantially that of the area of the Eastern woodlands. They lived in palisaded villages and cultivated tobacco.

In 1615, when Samuel Champlain visited the Huron, they were at war with the Iroquois. The long-standing enmity between the Huron and the Iroquois reached a climax in 1648, when the Iroquois, armed with Dutch firearms, invaded Huronia and subsequently disrupted (1649) the Huron confederacy.

The Huron who had fled to Quebec ultimately received a small reservation at Lorette, where many still live, but the remnants of the Huron and Tobacco Nation went, under pressure from the Iroquois, first to Michigan, then to Wisconsin and Illinois, where the Sioux attacked them. The Tobacco Nation and Huron eventually settled (1750) in villages near Detroit and at Sandusky, Ohio.

In Ohio they became known to the British as the Wyandot and as such fought with the British against the Americans in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. After the War of 1812 possession of their lands was confirmed by the United States, but by 1842 they had sold their tracts and moved to what is now Wyandotte county, Kansas. In 1867 they were settled in Northeast Oklahoma, where they reside as citizens, their tribe having been terminated in 1959. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (1 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe