Blue Springs with Manatees by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Manatees Booking It

While William describes Manatee Spring in Florida, I found manatees at Blue Springs Florida. Blue Springs is the furthest point South in Florida that William traveled. About 400 to 500 manatees spend the winter here. A warm spring, the manatees need warm water to survive. They leave the spring on forays for food into the colder waters of the San Juan, then book it back to Blue Springs to get warm again.

Manatee Booking It by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Learning to be a Manatee

The young manatees don’t know this; that they have to stay warm. Therefore, they spend 3 or 4 years with their mothers, learning the ropes of being a manatee. This is why the motorboats in Florida are so devastating to the manatee community, because if a mother manatee is killed by a boat’s motor, then often the young manatee dies as well.

Manatee with Young by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

What if there were no manatees?

I wondered what would happen if we hunted and ate all the manatees? What is their ecological niche? They are highly endangered, but nowhere online could I find a projection of what would happen in Florida ecologically if there were no manatees.

Manatee Portrait by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

I think there is a clue in the Native American name for manatees, Big Beaver. As the management of Yellow Stone Park led to the extinction of beavers in the park, and changed the flow of water through the park forever, so the extinction of the Big Beaver, the Manatee, would change the flow of water through Florida forever.

Manatee Food by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Manatees eat 10 to 15% of their body weight daily. They eat vegetation. So a ton manatee would eat 100 to 150 pounds of vegetation in Florida waterways daily.  I don’t know how fast vegetation in the waterways grows in Florida, but it’s fast enough to keep up with 400 to 500 manatees that need to eat in a small portion of the San Juan River around Blue Springs. So if we ate all the manatees, the waterways of Florida would become hopelessly clogged with vegetation, which, upon dying, would fill up the rivers and creeks, allowing the trees to move in. Rivers would be impassable, swampy, and inhospitable places.

Manatees and Trees by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Poisoner!

As it is, we humans are spraying poison into the rivers to control the vegetation. I caught them in the act in this picture, our guide was mad too, as he said they were killing manatee food, not weeds. I doubt that even these efforts would be enough to keep up if all the manatees were gone.

Poisoner by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

We own our art and culture to the Manatees….

So it is in part thanks to the Manatees that both William and I were able to venture down the San Juan River in Florida. He did not know it at the time, nor did I. But, putting it all together now, I can see how interconnected all the beings of earth are. While animals and vegetation do not have literature, photography, digital art, or blogs, much if not all human inspiration to create these things would be lost forever without animals and vegetation.

Manatee Spring Possible Perception 6066 by Beth Thompson

San Juan Vegetation: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Seemingly Serene…

The water seems so serene, the vegetation sheltering the trout so lush and green. Its hard to imagine what lies beneath the surface.

Purple Galinule by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Laughing Coots…

On my journey down the San Juan with Blue Heron River Tours in DeLand, Florida, I saw William’s laughing coots for the first time. But my photographs of a related bird, the Purple Galinule (pronounced Gal I Know) were the best. So I give you both the photograph and the call of a Purple Galinule.

From Serene to Monstrous and Terrifying….

Did William truly observe this massive gathering of alligators? All feasting on fish? For years there were reports of such things, but not until recently did anyone “prove” it.  William’s was perhaps the first written account. Our guide Chip at the Okefenokee told us the alligators herded fish against their dock when the waters were low. Finally, a hunter in the Okefenokee motored through just such a swarm, and took this video on YouTube to prove it.

Alligator Nest!

On my journey down the San Juan River and into the Okefenokee, I was lucky enough not to observe such a terrifying sight. However, our guide on St. John’s River Tours  drove our boat right up into a nest of baby alligators.

Mama Gator by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Confronting Mama Gator:

The Mama Alligator was there, guarding her brood. She plunged into the water beneath our boat, and we all held our collective breaths, our boat was not that large. Our guide had told us last time she banged into the side of the boat. But either she was getting accustomed to the intrusion, or realized that we meant her babies no harm, for she merely submerged beneath the murky waters in displeasure and we saw her no more.

Baby Gator 250 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Baby Gators

Never-the-less, you couldn’t pay me to stick my hand in the water, or step out of the boat. But I could reach out of the boat with my camera and my vision, getting some pictures of the babies. Below is a Possible Perception of a baby alligator, an attempt to create the feeling of an alligator swarm. Online viewing doesn’t do it justice, just know that the dark gray shadows are actually the baby alligator.

Alligator Swarm 6065 by Beth Thompson: Possible Perception Series

Vulture Looking 151 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Hooded Vulture.

The Romance of Sky Burials….

Vultures are not the most romantic of birds. Most folks have a revulsion response to them.  Certainly William Bartram’s fascination with them is unique.

Yet vultures have an interesting place in the history of Man. In Tibet, there are sky burials, where a body is left in a high place, on top of a mountain, and cut open for the Vultures to devour.

I spent yesterday preparing pictures and the reading from Bartram for this blog. After looking at picture after picture of vultures I was well tuned in. When I drove to work, crossing a bridge, there was a single solitary vulture sitting on the railing, overlooking the highway below.

Solitary Vulture 863 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail

Death and Rebirth flowing into one another…

In all the days I have driven to work, I have never seen a solitary vulture, much less one sitting on a bridge. A shiver of awareness ran down my spine. Vulture energy was saying hello to me, as I had been saying hello to vulture energy all morning.

So, in curiosity, I looked up the symbolic meaning of vultures on my favorite website, Shamanism: Working with Animal Spirits. Death and rebirth, the cycle of life is one meaning, so deep in itself, recognizing that death is necessary to life. Certainly the vulture knows this well, embodies it even, as a vulture cannot live without the death of other creatures.

South American Vultures by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

King Vultures and Roasted Reptiles….

Its inherent in William’s writings about the King Vulture, now no longer found in Florida. (It died out in a series of freezes in the early 1800’s according to Francis Harper). The Native Americans burned the deserts to flush out the game, which they then killed for sustenance, for continued life. Then the King Vulture moved in to feast on the roasted reptiles left from the burn, for their sustenance, their continued life. So death and life are constantly flowing one into the other.

Vulture Wings 80 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

New Visions and Purification….

New Vision and Purification are additional meanings.  Since I am currently learning more about the business of my business, this makes lots of since to me. I am creating from my inspiration, as always, but channeling that more directly into how I am creating my business. I am creating New Visions for my work, and for offerings of my work, and getting rid of things that no longer work, a Purification.

Vulture Tree 83 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Prophecy of Encouragement.

Prophecy is yet another meaning. I have had no prophetic visions, or have I? After I saw the vulture yesterday, I dreamt I sold some art above and beyond what was available in my upcoming monthly offering. So I have had a prophecy of encouragement that I am on the right path with my New Visions and Purifications of my work and offerings.

How do you Perceive Vultures?

I offer here a Possible Perception of Vultures decorating a tree budding out in early spring. I took this image along the San Juan River, south of Lake George. From their perch, the can see afar, pulling in New Visions, Prophetic Visions. In their devouring of the flesh of the dead, they purify the environment, and take life from death.

Vultures Possible Perception 6064 by Beth Thompson

Pelican Alights 2 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Pelican Alights!

We took a ferry across the St. John’s river to reach Fort George’s Sound. The pelicans of which William Bartram writes were in great abundance along the dock of the ferry. We did not shoot and eat one, but nevertheless I got up close and personal looks at numerous pelicans.

Driftwood Tritych by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Dead Tree Beach

The grove of orange trees no longer exists along the high promontory of Fort George’s Sound, now called Nassau Sound. Instead, we discovered a beach full of dead trees, perhaps remnants of Bartram’s Orange Grove.

Dead Tree Beach 934 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

The driftwood beach was dramatic and lonely. Few people were out, and the day was dark and gray, threatening always to rain.  Still, the driftwood was wonderful fodder for my camera, so I happily took pictures to my heart’s content.

Driftwood Possible Perception 6063 by Beth Thompson

On a high promontory….

To reach the driftwood beach we (my mother, my aunt and I) hiked through a beachside forest. The views deep into the woods were dark and mysterious; the views through the trees towards the sound were dramatic and melancholy on such a gray day. We discovered bay, palmettos, pine, live oak but no sword plants that Bartram so lovingly described as growing here.

Looking Towards Sound 764 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

The Well from which William drank…

Down near the head of the beach I discovered a stream of water flowing into the ocean. Could the stream’s  source be the fresh water Bartram refers to during his camp on Nassau Sound? Perhaps it was. I feel it was. The well from which Bartram drank…

Stream into Nassau Sound 990 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

On the backside of Talbot Island, because it is indeed an island, not the mainland as Bartram reports, I found Sawpit Creek, which just might have been the place where Bartram and Mr. Egan camped. It has much changed.

Sawpit Creek 27 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Raucous roosting birds….

And I found the raucous roosting birds, mostly egrets, but with a great heron and some others promiscuously mixed in. The birds were easily startled, and flew from roost to roost, with some of my best pictures being of them taking flight.

Roosting 190 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series.

To the Great Tattoo Artist in the Sky….

Aunt Angie, Mom, and I re-crossed the St. John’s River via the ferry and stopped and dined at a lovely little seafood restaurant, before returning to Cow-Ford. At Cow-Ford the river is indeed a mile across, but it has much grown from a simple public ferry. Now called Jacksonville, the city hugs the water.

A couple of years ago my old roommate, Mitchell Atkinson passed on to the other side. A tattoo artist extraordinaire, I believe he was getting creative with clouds when I took this image of Cow-Ford, the great tattoo artist in the sky.

Jacksonville 309 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series

Florida Limpkin 368 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Ephouskyca and Tarzan!

The Florida Limpkin no longer flies in great groups about the San Juan River in Florida. Its primary food source has diminished, apple snails. So William Bartram’s Crying Bird struggles to survive. A rather lack-luster bird, the most extraordinary thing about it, it’s cry. So thus the Native Americans named it Ephouskyca, or Crying Bird, for its distinctive cry. According to my guide on the San Juan River, Captain Gary of Blue Heron River Tours, that cry made it into Tarzan, as a sound of wild Africa, but the Limpkin’s voice is actually a sound of wild Florida.

Crying Bird Possible Perception 6061 by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Spanish Curlews in Maple 222 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Juveniles and Adults

The two species of Spanish Curlews are actually one species, juveniles and adults, of the White Ibis. The juveniles are brown, as they grow older more and more feathers turn white.

Juvenile Ibis 102 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

These, still abundant in great numbers, I saw roosting in trees all along the San Juan, and flying about in great flocks as far north as the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

Spanish Curlews Possible Perception 6062 by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view  or to order prints.

Pensive, Melancholy, Wood Pelican…

Bartram’s description of the Wood Pelican, or Wood Stork as it is now called, is dead on. A very solitary and melancholy bird, we saw only one on my week of journeys down the San Juan. An endangered species, in some protected areas making a come-back of sorts however.

Wood Stork 199 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

The Pleasures of Solitude

I can relate to a point to the Wood Stork, in that I like to be solitary. But for me, being solitary is about connecting to inspiration, connecting to Source Energy, and myself. My times of solitude center and balance me, so that I can move with grace when I connect to the greater world about me. Not that I don’t think deep thoughts when alone, sometimes I do, other times I think happy ones.

Sparklers by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

My Favorite Thing!*

Lately I have been practicing thinking like a dog—My Favorite Thing! Getting to write this blog post—My Favorite Thing! I got pumped up after an inspiring call last night, and took pictures of myself with sparklers—My Favorite Thing!  While I was completely alone (except for Luna, my dog—My Favorite Thing!) these pictures are more about connection and joy and play and awe—My Favorite Thing!, than the Wood Pelican’s melancholy pensiveness—My Favorite Thing! Enjoy! My Favorite Thing!

Self Portrait with Sparklers by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

a poet reads William Bartram’s Travels, Part 2, Chapter 5, and then…

*

Okefenokee Gator by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image to view larger or to order prints.

…smokes opium?

Florida Barred Owl by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Kublai Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge happens.

What happens when…

a writer-photographer reads Kublai Khan on her iPhone in the Wal-Mart breakroom?

She contends that the poem sings not of Kublai Khan, but rather disguises…

…an ode to William Bartram and his Travels.

Sunny Spot of Greenery by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

A Stately Pleasure Dome…

Let’s start with “a stately pleasure dome did decree”. William, some years prior to his Travels, had a plantation on the San Juan in Florida. Whether Coleridge knew we know not, but if he did, a plantation transforms easily into a pleasure dome, and if he didn’t, the opening extract from William Bartram on the Isle of Palms could easily decree as a stately pleasure dome.

Caverns Measureless to Man…

Measureless Cavern by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

… from Coleridge, and William Bartram’s description of Salt Springs: “which incessantly threw up, from dark, rocky caverns” the waters of the fountain.

The Sunless Sea of Lake George…

The Sunless Sea, or Lifeless Ocean of Coleridge describes Lake George, a vast inland sea with no tides. I photographed it sunless as well. Lake George has no tides, therefore, Coleridge describes it as lifeless.

Lifeless Ocean by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order  prints.

Perspiring their mingled odours…

The “incense-bearing trees” of Kublai Khan come from William’s “balmy Lantana, ambrosial Citra, perfumed Crinum, perspiring their mingled odours.” A few pages prior to my reading, Coleridge’s “sensuous rills” make their appearance as Bartram’s “serpentine rivulet, meandering over the meadows”.

Flowering Tree with Ibis by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

The “sunny spot of greenery” of the first verse echos Bartram’s description of the Isle of Palms: “blessed unviolated spot of earth”.

Blessed Spot by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

A savage place!

William Bartram’s “stars twinkling with uncommon brilliancy” recall the dark, waning moon, and made it into the following verse from Kublai Khan:

A savage place! As holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By a woman wailing for her demon lover!

Gator by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Terrifying Screams…

What on earth? What women populate William’s book—wailing or otherwise? Oh, but the terrifying screams of the Florida Barred Owl, awakening Will in time to fight off the crocodile, bent on dragging him into the water! I would contend that the Barred Owl becomes Coleridge’s the wailing woman and his demon lover, Bartram’s crocodile.

Upwelling by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Vaulted!

A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail,

All of which clearly describes Six Mile Springs, as seen by William Bartram, now known as Salt Springs. Unfortunately when I witnessed Salt Springs things had much changed. While the “caverns measureless to man” exist still, and the water welled up, it did not rise 2 or 3 feet above the surface, indeed it did not rise above the surface at all.

Concrete girder…

The most disconcerting change in the surrounding environment, instead of surrounded by a grove of Illisium Floridanum, Oranges, Palms, and Magnolias; concrete girded the spring.  Yet the springs were still large enough for large shallops to sail in, in fact a yacht moored just outside of them.

Concrete Girder by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

And what of

Mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

Well, Willam traveled to the Southeast between 1773, the year of the Boston Tea Party, and 1777, returning to Philadelphia 2 years after the first shots of war fired. Distant voices at the time prophesied the American Revolutionary War.

Xanadu Timeline: Shows key dates for Coleridge, Bartram, and the world. Click on the image for a larger view.

Ambrosial Citra…

Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes in holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Orange Tree by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Here in the south at Christmas we make a dish called Ambrosia, from William’s “ambrosial Citra”, Nectar of the Gods, the food of Paradise, made from oranges (honey-dew) and coconut (milk of Paradise). As William reports many a meal of oranges throughout his Travels in Florida, I would contend that this last passage refers to this dining upon ambrosia, the nectar of the Gods, oranges and Cocos nucifera (coconut palm) mentioned on the first page of the Introduction of William Bartram’s Travels.  Indeed, Bartram mentions Palms throughout Travels, so Coleridge may have associated Palms with coconuts. Coconuts, which grow in Tropical Island Paradises as all know.

Tribes of Fish in Cerulean Ether…

Fish Tribes by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

But what of William’s “amazing and delightful scene, though real, appears at first but as a piece of excellent painting; there seems no medium”? The fish, who dive into the “caverns measureless to man”; then re-emerge from the “cerulean ether”?

Cerulean Ether by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Porlocked!

What can I tell you? Coleridge got Porlocked. In other words, while writing Kublai Khan upon awakening from his opium-induced dream, a man from Porlock stopped by and interrupted his creative process, and he never recovered his train of thought. Unlike this author, he obviously didn’t practice having ideas while working an unrelated job and repeat the idea in the mind so it is not forgotten.

Descent into the abyss…

Or he perhaps felt he could not improve upon this amazing reality. And perhaps he could not. I do know that the water still appears “absolutely diaphanous, or as transparent as ether” and that tribes of fish still move about in peaceful harmony, some laying beds, others descending into the abyss.

Salt Springs Fish Possible Perception 6060 by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Buffalo Lick Marker by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

Lost in the Sands of Time…

The actual location of Buffalo Lick is lost in the sands of time. Out of 4 possible locations for Buffalo Lick, I visited 2, and a third was lost behind a recent growth of young pines. Yet the land holds the memory, in a creek near the 3rd location I discovered creek kaolin; white, sweet clay that buffalo, deer, and cows like to lick.

Creek Kaolin by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

The land also still holds the beauty, perhaps the most dramatically gorgeous place being Temperance Bell.

Temperance Bell Trees by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

The Burning of Greensboro…

In Lexington, GA, at the artist cooperative, I found a little booklet about the burning of Greensboro when it was just a frontier town. This bears out William Bartram’s report that the Creek people were not very happy with the treaty signed with the colonists ceding away land the size of Delaware. For Greensboro is very near the Buffalo Lick area, which was the boundary of the land ceded in 1776. Sometime after that, when Greensboro had just been settled as a frontier town, the Creeks returned and burned it to the ground.

Dried Flower Heads at Temperance Bell by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

Treaty after Treaty, signed, then broken…

While the Creeks may have been the victors in that battle, the Native American people as a whole have lost out. The colonization of North America has had a lasting impact on the well-being of the First People, and not for the better. Colonist attitudes were racist and greedy for land. Treaty after treaty was signed and then broken, while the Native American people viewed and continue to view each treaty as a sacred contract.

Temperance Bell Possible Perception 6058 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

Appropriation….

Once the treaty signing stopped, the Native American tribes were made into Nations, legal entities that could then do business with other governments and corporations. This continued the appropriation of resources rightly belonging to the Native American peoples.

Desecration by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

The Loss of the Land: Impact!

The loss of control of their land has impacted the Native American people in a myriad of ways, none of them good. According to a report by James Anaya (http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/docs/countries/2012-report-usa-a-hrc-21-47-add1_en.pdf), the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples for the United Nations, there are a number of frightening statistics about the Native American population in the U.S. today. His notes on Justice Department Statistics include:

• The poverty rate among Native Americans is double the national average
• 500% more Native Americans die from tuberculosis than the national average.
• 514% more die from alcoholism
• 177% more die from diabetes
• 140% more from unintentional injuries
• 92% more die from homicide
• and 92% more die from suicide than the national average.

In addition:

• The overall level of education is much lower among Native American Peoples.
• Violent crime exceeds that of any other racial group at double the national average.
• Native American Women are twice as likely as all other women to be victims of violence.
• One in three Native American Women will be raped during her lifetime.
• 80% of the rapes are by non-indigenous men, who are not subject to indigenous prosecution due to their non-indigenous status.

Dogwood in Spring by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

To survive, women leave, abandoning their culture….

In order to survive, many women leave their communities. As one woman said, in James Anaya’s report, “when I left, I didn’t just leave my family. I left my culture behind…I ran away from my traditions, from my songs, my dances, my heritage.”

Alabama Flower 519 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

What would William do?

What would William think of all this? I think that the faithful recorder of the people and tribes that he met, the close observer, moved by the Chactaw song he asked to be translated, would be saddened, especially at the loss of culture and the suffering that continues today. I think that Puc-Puggy, or Flower-Hunter, as the Native Americans called him, would be especially saddened by the way that the powers of corporations and government are using the land, the very land that the Native American people hold sacred to them, against the people.

Puc-Puggy Possible Perception 6059 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

 Truth and Reconciliation without Vilification

James Anaya, in a talk at the University of Georgia, called for healing through Truth and Reconciliation without Vilification.  In other words, a national conversation about the actual realities of the indigenous peoples of the United States, and the historical antecedents, needs to happen, involving the media, school teachers, people at all levels of government and society.

Autumn Pine by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

Return control of the Land

That and returning control of the land where it is reasonable to the Native American People, would begin the process of healing this nearly invisible issue.  In particular, he asked that the President officially extend an apology to the Native American People, by taking the steps outlined in an Apology passed by Congress in 2010.

Winter Crept Myrtle by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

 An Interview from the Frontlines of Relocation

Following is an interview with Swaneagle, who has worked recently on the very issue of relocation and loss of control of the land. She gives her perspective on the Apology from Congress. In the interview it becomes very clear that the Native American people hold the land sacred in a way that even Americans with an affinity for nature cannot quite fathom. In addition, it becomes clear that in taking the people’s resources, we are poisoning the land from out beneath them, and using the poisoned land as a tool for their destruction. In essence, using the very thing they hold most sacred to destroy them.

Summer Forest by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail Series. Click on the image for a larger view.

Shuffle Dance: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

The right to enjoy art…

The culture William Bartram describes is rich and beautiful. Its depth of meaning for the First People is clear too. A recent lecture by William Schabas at The University of Georgia explored the idea that the people have the right to participate freely in the culture and enjoy the arts as part of the Universal Bill of Human Rights.

To me as an artist, that’s obvious. I cannot count the times that art, either my own or others, has saved me from depression, grief, or ennui. I recently mourned the passing of my grandfather, who, in the words of minister Dr. Sam Henderson, caused “explosions of gratitude and collateral blessings” in everyone he met.

Grandfather: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

Yet the words to the Chactaw song:

All men must surely die,

Tho’ no one knows how soon,

Yet when the time shall come,

The event may be joyful.

brought my grief at Roy’s passing and also my joy of having had him in my life for nearly 40 years afresh again. Much as the slave girl was able to release her grief through this song some 250 years ago, the words have come to touch my heart and allow me to reveal my distress today through William’s faithful recording.

Imploding hearts…

The right to participate in culture and enjoy the arts can save our all too human hearts from imploding inside us. Perhaps too little is made of the emotional life of humans in our mechanistic culture today. For I see culture and art as ways to allow our hearts to heal from both the little losses of life and the larger losses that occur.

Tragedies facing the First People…

To me it’s a tragedy that control of the land  of the First People has been taken from them. Yet their dance and song has survived, perhaps has had to survive, especially in the face of the boarding schools of the churches (whose mission it was to take the savage out of the child and leave the man) in order for the First People to survive their many losses over the centuries.

The Beautiful Land: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

The Beautiful Land…

The land where I live here in Athens Clarke County, lying between the North Oconee River and the Middle Oconee River was known once as The Beautiful Land by the Creeks, before they gave it up to the Europeans in the hopes of retaining still other land.  Now a thriving college town takes up much of the space, yet the beauty of this land has remained, to inspire my art and my sensibilities from the earliest of ages.

Ocmulgee Land: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

The Ocmulgee Land….

Too, the land of the Ocmulgee Mounds is now controlled by the state, and the First People have only been invited back as the performers, the entertainers. It seemed so exploitative to me, yet I was assured by one Native American that the Indian Festival there was far more true to the First People’s culture than many of the Pow Wows that take place.

Plains Dancer: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

The Dancer’s motion and stillness…

The Dancer above was from the Plains, and was not described by William Bartram for he did not travel that far west. Yet his motion and stillness as he danced moves me, the colors of his dress so brilliant and vibrant, so I give you: Dancer Possible Perception:

Dancer Possible Perception by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view or to order prints.

The High Culture of the First People….

At The Push Pin Show in Atlanta Friday night, I realized that there is a Native American Mystique that will draw people to this image. Some of the dominant culture in the United States has come to associate the Native American culture with spiritual enlightenment and meaning. But personally, having listened to the talk about culture, and the idea of “High Culture” meaning Western literature, classical music, ballet, that the Native American Mystique would appeal to people did not cross my mind. Instead, I named this piece Dancer, as opposed to Native American Dancer, to indicate that this dance is part of the High Culture of the First People of the United States of America.

Stickball Tackle 99 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

GOOOOOOO DAWGS! SIC ‘EM!

Beth and Athena by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click image for a larger view.

This has been a year of watching sports for me, something I used to never engage in. It all started in September, when my dear college friend treated me to the first Bulldogs game of the season. I was pleasantly surprised, because instead of feeling traumatized when the crowd roared GOOOOOOO DAWGS! SIC ‘EM!, like I do when people yell at the game on a tv, I found it exhilarating, and I was cheering right along with them. Plus, the game was meditative to watch, the players flowing back and forth along the green of the field. And the game was delightfully mathematical and geometric as well, with the yard lines marking the players progress.

Bulldogs Faceoff by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

Displaced….

Then, in October, I returned to the Ockmulgee Indian Mounds for a Native American Festival. I found it rather sad that this beautiful land along the Ockmulgee River,

Land of the Creeks 377 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

and the majestic mounds,

Indian Mound 413 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

which all used to be the land of the Creeks, was now only inhabited by the Creeks by invitation of the parks system, for a long weekend.

Fast-paced and physical….

While I was there, I was treated to a game of Native American Stickball. It was only somewhat like the game Bartram described. Well, the game was the same. But only men played, not “the youth of both sexes” that Bartram describes playing in the 1700’s.

Stickball Ball Pickup 986 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

Unlike American Football, with its clear boundaries and marked yard lines, stickball is a free-flowing game. The group of players toned it down in acknowledgement of the crowds, but we were told traditionally people watch stickball from a great distance away, as the players go wherever the ball goes. Fast paced and physical, with no protective gear, the game was more reminiscent to me of rugby. And of course lacrosse, which comes from the game of stickball.

Stickball Run 97 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

Preparation for war…

Wikipedia states that stickball was a game played to prepare the players for war, among other things. I find that fascinating, as Bartram spoke of women playing as well as men. This to me implies that women were warriors as much as men in the Native American Tribes during and perhaps preceding William Bartram’s time.

Stickball Serve 189 by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

Redcoats and Revolutionaries….

Football to me too is reminiscent of war. But the more Western type, not fast in and out guerilla attacks that stickball implies, but the troops and a general type that recalls World War 2, even the Revolutionary War. I don’t think its any coincidence that The University of Georgia’s marching band is called the Redcoats after the British soldiers in the Revolutionary War.

Redcoats by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

In football, the players are the troops and the coach is the general, his lieutenant is the quarterback. The American football is far more hierarchical than the Native American stickball.

Troops by Beth Thompson: Beth’s Travels on the Bartram Trail. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

William didn’t think about this….but I did.

All of which has gotten me wondering about war. When did it start? Why has it become the chronic condition of the human race? And does the structure of war require a type of power that is about control, which has inspired some of the greatest social atrocities of history?  Would any of these oppressions even be thought of, much less be possible, in a world that did not value war, and thus allow the power structures of hierarchy and control that go with it? But what else good exists because of hierarchy and power over others? Could it exist otherwise?

Stickball Possible Perception 6056 by Beth Thompson. Click on the image for a larger view and to order prints.

Illusions that delight the senses….

I can only create these Possible Perceptions by having power over where each piece of the photograph goes in relation to the others, and total control over its positioning. Yet the creating of these defies my control and power over, as they never fit together perfectly, introducing an element of randomness that delights the senses.  In art as in life, at a certain point, all control is but an illusion.

Banana Tree Possible Perception 6055 by Beth Thompson Click on the Image to view Larger or to Order Prints.

I have also completed an Artist’s Statement regarding the Possible Perceptions Series.  It is available in the Possible Perceptions Gallery, but I am also republishing it here:

Possible Perceptions Artist’s Statement

Possible Perceptions convey a sense of awe, wonder and transcendence. The fine details of a piece remain a mystery until its completion. The process of creating Possible Perceptions allows me to become a channel for the Divine, a tool to express infinite beauty and love. Possible Perceptions push against the boundaries of every day human perception, broadening and expanding human apprehension; thus bringing into awareness not only new possibilities of perception, but by extension new possibilities of human ability and capacity. In this way, Possible Perceptions may change the world, one viewer at a time. Beginning with a solitary and personal act of co-creation, the work is to make the unperceivable, perceivable, the impossible, possible.