The Ancient Art of Stone Tool Bison Hides
Bison hide tanning is a deep traditional art. It was practiced by Native American ancestors during the end of the last Ice Age, and the...
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Ian Thompson
- May 14
- 6 min
Sandy Seep: Managing Rare Habitat
Almost half of Nan Awaya Farm is made up of an uncommon and threatened habitat type. Known as an acid hillside seep, it's a unique kind...
125 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
- Mar 10
- 9 min
Clovis Point Challenge
This winter, I took on a self-challenge to learn how to make one of the most ancient Native American traditional arts. Through this...
193 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
- Feb 4
- 6 min
Choctaw Heritage on the Prairie
We've got a Choctaw friend who loves the ocean. Water is simply a part of who she is. She says that her ancestors must have come from...
243 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
- Jan 14
- 5 min
A New, Fun, Cultural Way to Recycle
At Nan Awaya Farm we're committed to making our operation and our home life as easy on the land as we possibly can. One part of that...
313 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
- Dec 4, 2022
- 5 min
Buffalo Break Rocks!
Buffalo have a well-earned reputation for being tough animals. Under the right circumstances, several different parts of their bodies...
231 views3 comments
Ian Thompson
- Oct 18, 2022
- 6 min
When the World is Running Down...
...you make the best of what's still around... This a classic rock title, released by the Police a short time before I was born. It...
217 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
- Sep 18, 2022
- 5 min
Bvnaha: Choctaw Comfort Food
The traditional 13-month Choctaw calendar is based on the phases of the moon. The season we are currently in is known as Hoponi Hvshi,...
526 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
- Aug 21, 2022
- 6 min
Chahto is the Choctaw Word for "Drought"
For people who depend on the productivity of the land for their livelihood, drought is a fact of life. When drought gets bad, life may...
271 views3 comments
Ian Thompson
- Jul 18, 2022
- 7 min
Forged in Heat
With hardly a cloud in the sky for the past month, the unstoppable summer sun has progressively dried out and heated up the ground. Then...
327 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
- Jun 12, 2022
- 4 min
Continuing an Ancient Harvest
It’s one of our favorite seasons at Nan Awaya Farm: the sand plum harvest is upon us! These colorful gems of bold, native flavor can’t...
266 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
- May 29, 2022
- 6 min
A Good Spirit Came to Visit Us
With COVID restrictions fully lifted, our work pace at Choctaw Nation has been frenetic this spring. That's left only a few hours...
211 views6 comments
Ian Thompson
- Feb 21, 2022
- 7 min
Our First Controlled Burns
Fire is one of the oldest and most effective tools that humans have for managing the land. The Indigenous peoples of North America began...
279 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
- Feb 5, 2022
- 4 min
Hvshtula: The Reclining Sun
Our part of the world doesn't get winter weather every single year. Over the past couple of days, though, we've been blessed with ice,...
190 views4 comments
Ian Thompson
- Jan 23, 2022
- 8 min
The Extermination of the American Bison (almost)
Warning this post contains some graphic content- This photo was taken by LA Huffman in eastern Montana in 1880. It captures one of the...
412 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
- Jan 3, 2022
- 6 min
Practical Prairie Rehabilitation - Little Bluestem
After record-warm temperatures in December, we're finally enjoying our first taste of real winter weather this weekend. First thing this...
455 views4 comments
Ian Thompson
- Nov 21, 2021
- 6 min
Restoring Little Suns in Our Prairie Pastures
For several years now, we’ve been actively working to restore the native landscapes of Nan Awaya Farm. One of the things the experience...
278 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
- Oct 30, 2021
- 9 min
Braintanning a Buffalo Robe
A traditionally tanned buffalo robe is something pretty special. If any single thing can embody the connection between people, the...
1,746 views5 comments
Ian Thompson
- Sep 26, 2021
- 4 min
Cooking Choctaw Sassafras Dishes
The sassafras tree, kvfi in the Choctaw language, has been a part of the American landscape for a very long time. 65 million years ago,...
1,144 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
- Sep 16, 2021
- 4 min
Those Bad Buffalo Blues
It was a little bit like the plot of an Alfred Hitchcock movie... We use an electric fence to keep the herd buffalo on our farm. An...
169 views4 comments
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