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Buffalo Break Rocks!
Buffalo have a well-earned reputation for being tough animals. Under the right circumstances, several different parts of their bodies...
Ian Thompson
Dec 4, 20225 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Oct 18, 20226 min read
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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,...
Ian Thompson
Sep 17, 20225 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Aug 21, 20226 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Jul 17, 20227 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Jun 12, 20224 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
May 29, 20226 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Feb 21, 20226 min read
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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,...
Ian Thompson
Feb 5, 20224 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Jan 23, 20228 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Jan 2, 20226 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Nov 21, 20216 min read
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Braintanning a Buffalo Robe
A traditionally tanned buffalo robe is something pretty special. If any single thing can embody the connection between people, the...
Ian Thompson
Oct 29, 20219 min read
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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,...
Ian Thompson
Sep 26, 20214 min read
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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...
Ian Thompson
Sep 16, 20214 min read
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Code Red - Humanity
Gideon Lincecum was a naturalist, healer, and free-thinker. In 1819, he moved his family to Columbus, Mississippi, on the border of the...
Ian Thompson
Aug 15, 20216 min read
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Chahta Nowvt Anya: The Choctaw Journey
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma recently opened its cultural center in Durant. Through it, the Choctaw people completed a dream that...
Ian Thompson
Aug 4, 20213 min read
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Taking Out the Trash - A Life-Affirming Experience?
From my earliest memory and again today, Sunday evening is the night to take out the trash. I've gotten to take out the trash while...
Ian Thompson
Jun 13, 20213 min read
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It's Not Too Late
One of the joys of fall when I was growing up was getting to experience the monarch migration. With the first hint of cool in the air,...
Ian Thompson
May 21, 20214 min read
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Electrify Us
Tomorrow is Earth Day! We'd like to honor the day by sharing our household's experience of trying something new in '21 that was a little...
Ian Thompson
Apr 21, 20214 min read
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