[Geysers] Old Faithful scoping document

[Jweix at aol.com]

Friends,

I don't often comment on the various posts on this listserve, prefering 
just to listen to the chatter and enjoy the excitement when Giant erupts, but 
this time I feel I have to comment in order to take exception to The 
Curmudgeon's concern about the following quote in the "Old Faithful Area 
Comprehensive Plan."

       -- And really, have these "resources" ... "provided... human... 
inspiration for      THOUSANDS of years." I mean, really, thousands?

I would like to point out that this quote is derived from my Master's 
research in Yellowstone back in 1992. The native elders I spoke with, discussed 
their traditions (dating back at least seven generations) and these revealed 
such inspiration. That is of course an English word for an indigenous 
sentiment, but nothing else quite captures the meaning. In fact, my informants 
(Crow, Shoshone, Blackfeet, Assiniboine, Nez Perce & Lakota) chose this word or 
similar words (awe, wonderment, spiritual upliftment) when they 
communicated with me.

Comments included:

       "It was one place where the Great Spirit existed and we could bath 
the body       and spirit directly."
       - Nez Perce

       "The Indians wasn't scared of it. This was a valuable place for 
them. This was    more of a spiritual [place]. It was something cherished by 
them . . . It was
       something they cherished and they valued. They valued it in 
spiritual ways"
       - Shoshone

       "The pre-eminence of the Yellowstone basin as a site of particular 
spiritual
       potency invoking awe, wonderment and spiritual upliftment for 
thousands of
       years is indisputable."
       - Lakota

The archaeology of Yellowstone including an arrowhead found by Marler in a 
hot spring, the well-known Obsidian mines above Obsidian Cliff, and numerous 
trails that Demetri Boris Shimkin (in "Wind River Shoshone Ethnogeography") 
reported throughout Yellowstone including one along the Firehiole through 
the geyser basins, implies at least a fascination with the thermal features.

Therefore, it is not at all a stretch for the Park to make the claim.

If you would like to know more, I invite you to read my article, "Fear or 
Reverence?: Native Americans and the Geysers of Yellowstone," in _People and 
Place: The Human Experience in Greater Yellowstone_. Edited by Paul 
Schullery and Sarah Stevenson. (Yellowstone National Park: Yellowstone Center for 
Resources, 2005).

Sincerely,

Joseph Owen Weixelman





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