<HTML><HTML>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 </HTML>