A few hours’ drive from my house, in the mountains of southern Idaho, we have a hot springs attraction. The pools are tucked into a niche between the town on one side and the highway on the other.
The photograph above was taken from the east end of the little canyon. Behind me, as I took this photograph, was something called “The Grotto.” It consists of paths and small garden areas winding along the lava-rock hillside. The rocks are basalt, but covered with mineral deposits from the days when the springs gushed out over here.
My husband and I went to the town of Lava, which is very touristy and has a lot of old-timey, cowboy-themed restos and hotels, back in September. I had never walked in The Grotto before. (Usually, I’m just either going in the hot springs or not going in the hot springs.)
But on this particular September, The Grotto was simply alive with the most Wooly Mullein I had ever seen in one place! Wooly Mullein are those plants you see with broad, pale-green, pillowy-looking basal leaves and (in some cases, not all) a tall spike of a flower.
I blogged about these plants a few years ago, when I had photographed one growing in a farmer’s field near my house. According to Central Rocky Mountain Wildflowers, “They are biennial plants, growing the first year as a round cluster of large radiating basal leaves covered with thick, woolly hair. The second year, they rapidly grow a 1 – 6′ tall stalk, crowded with yellow flowers in a spike arrangement. Then, with all its energy expended, the plant dies.” (p. 157)
“This introduced weed colonizes disturbed places from the valleys and plains to montane forests.” (ibid) Look at how many of them there are! They must love the dry climate.
But Wooly Mullein is not just a weed. “Dioscorides, the Greek physician to the Roman armies in the first century, used mullein to treat coughs, scorpion stings, eye problems, tonsillitis, and toothache. Today, herbalists value it as a medicinal herb for asthma, bronchitis, coughs, throat inflammation, earache, and various other respiratory complaints.” (ibid) My copy of Prepper’s Natural Medicine confirms this.
Hence, Lava is really the place to come if you’re ill in apocalypse situation! The Shoshoni Indians would bathe in and drink the hot-spring water to cure illnesses, plus there is all this mullein here. Still, it might be better to plan ahead.
I walked down this path and sat on a bench set into the rock wall. Lo and behold, up in a niche was Spiderman watching over me! Lava truly does have everything you might need!
You may notice that I have a large tag in my tag cloud called Native Americana. I’ve always been a sucker for American Indians. The second two books in my trilogy are a speculative exploration of what their distant ancestor’s lives might have been like.
This subject comes up every year because of the efforts to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I’m not in favor of this, but I do love all things American Indian. (Traditional things, that is. I’m not a fan of the cultural disintegration brought about by enforced socialism on the rez. For more on this, see the book review below.) Anyway, this is the time of year when I find myself annoyed yet again by Matt Walsh.
Walsh has done yeoman’s work fighting the forces of evil in our culture, but he just doesn’t know very much about American Indians. He’ll portray pre-conquest America as an extremely backwards place, full of “stone-age” people, who “hadn’t even invented the wheel.” This annoys me. There actually had been civilizations in the Americas (howbeit, without wheels), including astronomically aligned earthworks and pyramids, even in North America. The Americas suffered a population collapse about a hundred years before Columbus arrived, as documented by Nathaniel Jeansen of Answers in Genesis and in his book Traced. So, what the Europeans found were the scattered remains of civilizations. (Except Cortez. He found the real thing, and it was terrible to behold.)
Now granted, the American civilizations had not yet been Christianized, so they resembled Ancient Near Eastern pagan theo-states rather than European medieval kingdoms. It was probably this, in fact, that gave the Europeans the intellectual edge and enabled them to conquer the continents. Other things being equal, paganism tends to make people more passive. Fatalism, you know.
So Walsh is right that the Europeans conquered the Americans fair and square, as it were. Just like everywhere else throughout history. Now, the conquerors celebrating and romanticizing those they have conquered is a tradition that goes way back. See Homer writing sympathetically about the Trojans. See the beautiful Roman statue, The Dying Gaul. See the Romans commemorating the abduction of the Sabine women, but also celebrating Romulus and Remus, whose story is enough to curl you hair. So I am all for celebrating indigenous peoples (because I love ’em), but also Columbus (because there is no call to demonize your own culture).
That said, let’s not let sympathy turn into damaging infantilization. That’s what the United States government has done with the American Indians, as documented in the book below.
Book Review: The New Trail of Tears by Naomi Schaefer Riley
Life is very bad on our American Indian reservations.
People on the reservations experience rates of corruption, unemployment, depression, drug addiction, sexual assault and child abuse that are as high or higher than any other place in the nation.
But why?
Those with overly simplistic views of American Indians tend to oversimplify in one of two ways: your average American Indian is seen either as Wise Noble Victim, or Worthless Lazy Drunk. My instincts have always put me in the Wise Noble Victim camp, but I recognize that neither of these oversimplifications explains conditions on the rez. American Indians are people, which means they are sinful but not worthless. As Schaefer Riley puts it, “Indians, just like all people, respond to the economic incentives and political conditions around them” (page 178).
I have occasionally spoken with people who seem to resent all that American Indians receive from the government. Tribal governments are “sovereign.” Tribes have the right to operate casinos on their land (in most states no one else can), and in many cases, tribal governments or even individuals receive direct payments of federal dollars. None of this is false, but what has been the effect of it? It has not led to a cushy life for tribe members; quite the opposite.
The Incentives
Here’s my quick summary of the “economic incentives and political conditions” created by the way the federal government has handled the tribes:
Law enforcement on the rez is a nightmare. Since Indians are not considered as being under the jurisdiction of the state in which they live, if there is a serious crime, it is considered a federal crime, and you could have three or four agencies involved. “He became especially concerned ‘with the lack of coordination between the tribal police and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI and the Justice Department.'” (page 164) Often, other law enforcement agencies defer to the tribal police, who often, because of nepotism, don’t prosecute. This creates a lawless situation on the rez, with high crime. It gives victims the impression that nothing will be done.
It is difficult for Indians to own land; or, if they happen to own some, to develop or sell it. Most land is not individually owned, but belongs to the tribe. A combination of tribal politics, environmental concerns, and federal red tape tends to block any attempts at development. This means that it is very hard to create or find jobs on the reservation … except jobs in tribal government.
While casinos provide some jobs, the linking of the casinos with tribal membership has introduced all kinds of corruption. Some tribal governments run their casinos essentially as cartels. The effect is that tribal membership is “commodified.” A common political move against a rival would be to get them declared no longer a member of the tribe.
Schools on the rez tend to be as bad as the worst inner-city schools. Schaefer Riley profiles a few schools that have bucked this trend, at least for a few years. One is a Catholic school. There are also Teach for American volunteers who are very motivated to give Indian kids a better education. But these people are usually met with mistrust and actively undermined or driven out because they are outsiders and because of the bad experiences that the older generation had with residential schools trying to forcibly assimilate them.
While it is important for Indian kids to learn about their traditional language and culture, “this is not a good first step.” Schaefer Riley points out that those tribes that have done the most to preserve their language and culture are those that have done the best economically. When no longer just struggling to survive, they use the money and the energy they now have to create museums and cultural centers.
In short, massive amounts of government money and regulations have had the same effects on the Indian reservations that they always have elsewhere. The red tape is at least tripled compared to the red tape faced by other Americans, which pretty much brings any kind of enterprise to a grinding halt. The infusion of government money through the tribal government incentivizes corruption. The lack of private property and actual employment makes people depressed. The white guilt (and the red tape) have made a lost cause of law enforcement.
Possible Solutions
Schaefer Riley ends with a call for American Indians to be treated like all other American citizens. She points out that American Indians have had very high rates of serving in the military.
Indeed, despite centuries of broken promises from the federal government, despite the bitterness that often pervades Indian communities, and despite years of being told by their own leaders and by Washington’s that they must remain a people apart, American Indians largely see themselves as Americans.
pp. 175 – 176
There has to be a way to ensure that Indian crime victims have the same rights under law as other crime victims … that Indians can own land and start businesses as individuals, not just as members of the tribe … that Indian families have access to a choice of schools that will prepare their kids to succeed. It has been suggested that the larger reservations be made into their own states. Then the people who live there would be considered full citizens who happen to reside in that state. This might not be feasible politically (although I think it would be really cool), but there are a few bands in Canada who are trying to get their tribal lands incorporated as cities. This would allow them to do development that they can’t do now, and the tribal leaders would be like city governments. Failing all this, a good step would be to drastically reform (or, ideally, eliminate) the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is known for being the one of the most corrupt and inefficient government agencies in a field where the competition is stiff.
I sincerely hope that Schaefer Riley’s book catalyzes a move in this direction. It should, of course, be read by anyone with the slightest interest in American Indians’ living conditions in these modern times. But it should also be read by anyone who is concerned about the effect of government micromanaging of citizens’ lives.
A Cautionary Tale
I see at least three ways in which the federal government’s treatment of Indians serves as a sample of what it would like to do with all citizens:
It’s coming from good – or at least utopian – intentions. In the case of the Indians, many people feel that the government owes them lots and lots of money and special rights because of the ways that same government mistreated them in the past. (Turns out, the money and “rights” are a new kind of mistreatment.) There is also an assumption that less development is better, because we don’t want to impact the environment at all. In the same way, there is a strong movement to put all citizens in the same position: “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.” Putting the most charitable interpretation on it, the idealists believe that this would bring about a utopia in which everyone has a high (but more importantly, “equal”) standard of living … there is no family loyalty or private property to cause conflicts … and everyone’s lifestyle is perfectly “green.”
It features forced assimilation. Schaefer Riley points out that Indians are in fact assimilating culturally to the United States, but forced assimilation is a very different story. A few generations ago, Indian children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools where they were not allowed to speak their own language. This idea that, if the parents don’t share the government’s value system, the government has a right to separate children from their parents and re-educate them, has not died away. The idealists have not yet gained enough power to practice forced assimilation on all American children, but they are trying.
It is collectivist. The degree to which Indians have been denied private property and individual initiative is the exact degree to which they have been brought to poverty and despair. In their case, this has been brought about partly from a sort of Rousseauian “noble-savage” myth about the way the Indians lived before Columbus (spoiler: they weren’t collectivists then either). In the case of other Americans, there has been an attempt to demonize private property, small business, and intact families as the problem with humanity. In fact, these things are key to human flourishing. Sin certainly shows up in them, but that is because it is present in human nature and shows up in whatever humans do.
They are making a really cool movie that is due to come in out 2026.
No, it’s not based on my books in any way, but it has all the themes of my series, turned up to 11. I mean to say, if you click on the link above, you will see that their web site features American Indians fighting a dinosaur. Things do not get cooler than that, and as it turns out, they also do not get better historically supported.
Here is a quote from their FAQs section:
The Walam Olum or “Red Record,” which is central to our movie, is very much not alone from multiple Native American historical narratives that provide a clear and consistent telling of giants—especially giants associated with the mound builders and earth works, of which there are tens of thousands in America. The Lenni Lenape’s account of the Nephilim is central to their history (see the “snake people” and the makowini, translated “big men” that existed before and after their Flood account, were part of the reason for the Flood, matching our Bible history). See the Glyphs in Book 2 and Glyphs 1-2 in Book 3. Several other historical documents also mention giants affiliated with tribes around the Lenni-Lenape people.
In other words, these people are kindred spirits, which is why they wanted to buy my url in the first place.
My little url is all grown up, and I couldn’t be prouder.
Still buy my books, I mean. They have their own peculiar charm. But by all means, go and see this movie too.
“The bright yellow flowers give way to a grapelike cluster of purple berries with whitish coating. In the fall, some of the leaves often turn bright red, orange, or bronze.
“The tart berries make a refreshing, lemonade-like drink and fine jelly or wine. The yellow inner bark was used by Native Americans as a yellow dye and as a medicine with many applications.”
Here was our sales booth at this year’s American Falls Days. We did OK. I sold two Long Guests and my son sold some paintings.
Here are a few other vendors, visible from our corner of the park. The Navajo Tacos are to die for: basically taco fixins on fry bread. I get some every year.
Vendors were ringed all around the city park, with food trucks parked on the street.
Also, there was this adorable dog, the tiniest sheep dog I have ever seen.
But the kickoff event for American Falls Days was the town parade. If you have never seen a summer parade in small-town America, may I just say you are missing out. I had to stay in our booth while the parade went by. (My son, meanwhile, went off to collect candy. All the floats threw candy.) Anyway, I was close enough to the street that I could zoom in and photograph the parade from a distance, as if in miniature. So here’s your guided tour.
First of all, we have veterans bearing an American flag and a state flag.
This float belongs to Lamb Weston, a potato-processing plant and a major local employer. Near the front of the float you can see a giant box of French Fries. At the back is a giant potato with a face and, apparently, black hair, similar to Mr. Potato Head.
Lots of little golf-cart sized vehicles that you can barely see.
a trolley (?)
Politicians in open cars with flags. What parade would be complete without them?
The local Tae Kwon Do dojong’s float, with all the students in their doboks riding it.
Other students parade behind, doing poomsae moves.
I’m not sure who these purple-clad, Muppet-like people are, but they’re interesting.
Here’s a little yellow school bus. I know someone who would love this!
Now here come the utility vehicles. Fire truck, siren blaring …
Crop transport vehicle, a.k.a. “farm truck”
Teen volunteers riding on a ladder truck (siren also blaring) …
Senior citizens (your parade has to have them!) in a giant Radio Flyer
High schoolers (also mandatory)
A boat? What are people in Idaho doing with boats??? For your information, we have a reservoir, and many people boat recreationally on it.
Beauty queens. Every parade needs at least one beauty queen.
Classic car. The owner probably just wanted to show it off.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think this yellow thing may represent a bee hive. That’s a popular Mormon symbol for a large, happy (polygamous) home.
This is the coolest thing ever. Those large wheels are irrigation lines of the kind that you can spot in any field around American Falls. If you look closely, you can see that they are spraying actual water.
ACTUAL WATER!!!
Trailer, for some reason
This float was by the local Spanish-speaking evangelical church. They had a Tejano-style praise band, with speakers, loud enough to be heard past the sirens.
After the parade, they brought their float back, parked it in a nearby parking lot, and did some more songs and testimonies.
Being pulled behind the band is a small model of their church building.
This is the Green Machine. It had an entourage of people dressed in green marching behind it.
Now, for my absolute favorite float of all the floats. This is the Idaho Power cherrypicker truck. It’s the one they send out to our rural road to fix our power lines and restore electricity whenever a storm has blown the lines down, which has happened more than once. The brave Idaho Power employees will go out in winds and storm to restore power.
And look! It’s displaying a huge American flag, which strikes me as entirely appropriate. A local power company is indeed doing a lot to keep the country strong. If the power went off for any length of time, the region or country would quickly disintegrate into apocalyptic conditions. A nation needs its energy so its people can focus on anything except survival.
I’m not sure what the towerlike object on this float is, but I think it might be a model of the old town’s grain tower.
The town of American Falls used to be built closer to the banks of the Snake River. When the dam was built, the entire town was moved uphill, out of the way of the waters of the coming reservoir. (A lot of Shoshone-Bannock lands were also flooded.) To this day, when the water is low, you can still see the remains of the old town’s foundations. The most striking of these is a cement grain tower, which still sticks out of the water year-round. You can gauge the water level by how high up the tower it comes, or whether the tower is, in fact, on the shore.
A piece of construction equipment holding a beam. We small-town folks love our construction equipment.
And of course, a John Deere tractor. One of many.
And last but not least, beautiful cowgirls riding horses and carrying an American flag. These girls may be Indians. One year, the parade featured the Sho-Ban rodeo queen riding a horse, with a leather “crown” that fitted over her cowboy hat.
I’ve taken a lighthearted tone with this post, but honestly, I loved this parade and I love this town. Every community has parades to celebrate the things they love or that they are being made to love, whether it’s Dear Leader or a god or goddess. In this parade, we had: old people, young people, first responders, and people and vehicles who build, maintain, power, and farm the land. Horses. A float dedicated to praising the God of Heaven and proclaiming His goodness. This is just about the best, most wholesome parade you could ever hope to see.
It’s an older Asian couple taking each other’s picture in front of a teepee, in Yellowstone.
I also saw a Pakistani family doing the same thing, which was also super cute.
I can’t remember who it was, but one commentator I listen to pointed out, in response to the move to take American Indians out of team names and products, that American Indians are famous all over the world.
Anyway, I’m here at Yellowstone with the fam and it’s very international here. Languages I heard in the space of a few hours:
Hindi (? – pretty sure)
German
Mandarin
Korean
Spanish
British English
They all came to see Old Faithful, the geyser. Even more faithful than old faithful were the people. We all came at the time it was predicted to blow. We all sat quietly, as if at church, except that occasionally someone would say, “It’s starting! It’s starting!” – and it would be a false alarm.
When Old Faithful did demonstrate its power once again, we all raised our phones in unison, and faithfully recorded it.
The human kindness continued the next day at this lookout point (veiwing Grand Teton peak), reachable by tram from Teton Village. 10,450 feet in the air, we faithfully offered to take each other’s family photos in front of the panorama, exchanging phones and then giving them back.
Human beings can be faithful, and kind, for a couple of days while on vacation.
The One who made the mountains is faithful forever.
If you have been an Out of Babel (Books) reader for many years, you may remember that I have a hopeless crush on all things American Indian. I happen to live near a reservation, complete with casino (the casino is not so much my crush). This Spring, I went and bought a lovely hand-beaded item from the many on sale there.
Just look at all the man- or woman-hours on that thing!
The beads are sewn into a leather cover that’s attached to a hair barrette. (Fun fact: My grandmother, when she was alive, knew how to make beaded earrings in this style and she taught me how. That’s how I know this item would have taken a looong time!)
Anyway, my little sister, aware of my love for all things American Indian, bought me this lovely yarn, which struck her as being in colors typical of the tribe who live near us. I promptly searched Etsy for a knitting pattern that would showcase this yarn according to its potential. I settled on The Drifter Shawl, by NarrowPathKnitDesign, here.
The Drifter uses a Center Double Decrease stitch to create the chevron shape in the middle of the shawl. The center chevron “drifts” towards one side of the shawl (compensatory increases are made on one side but not on the other). The chevron is supposed to go all the way to the edge of the shawl, but I ran out of yarn, so I just bound off early. That’s why there is a slight notch in the finished product. I still love the shawl and get tons of compliments on it.
It can be worn with almost any of the colors found on it: blues, oranges, pinks, duns. In my mind, the Platonic ideal for this shawl is to wear it with black.
Here are some close-ups.
One great thing about the Drifter pattern is that it’s so versatile. The pattern includes a three-color or a two-color option, and obviously, the colors you pick can drastically change the feel of the shawl. I’m already working on another rendition of this shawl for a friend, for which I have bought sufficient yarn this time.
Sphaeralcea coccinea, Greek for “scarlet sphere mallow.”
Grows in the “dry prairies of the valleys and plains and foothills zones as far as the Bitterroot Valley, MT; Bannock County, ID; and parts of OR.”
“Scarlet globe mallow has slimy, viscous sap that can stick to skin or mucous membranes and thus provide a protective coating. The native Dakota people chewed the plant and applied it to inflamed sores and wounds as a salve. It was said to cool inflammation and promote healing.”
I can’t believe the first two wildflowers I chose to blog about this year both turned out to be medicinal. But there ya go, God puts ’em in the ground for us to find! Once again, the Falcon Guide Central Rocky Mountain Wildflowers has shown its usefulness. All in the information in this post, except the photographs, came from page 93. I took the photographs at Citadel of Rocks, where the sphaeralcea was obediently growing exactly where described.
This spring also [1634], those Indians that lived about their [the Plymouth settlement’s] trading house there, fell sick of the small pox and died most miserably; for a sorer disease cannot befall them, they fear it more than the plague. For usually they that have this disease have them in abundance, and for want of bedding and linen and other helps they fall into a lamentable condition as they lie on their hard mats, and pox breaking and mattering and running one into another, their skin cleaving by reason thereof to the mats they lie on. When they turn them, a whole side will flay off at once as it were, and they will be all of a gore blood, most fearful to behold. And then being very sore, what with cold and other distempers, they die like rotten sheep. The condition of this people was so lamentable and they fell down so generally of this disease as they were in the end not able to help one another, no not to make a fire nor to fetch a little water to drink, nor any to bury the dead. But would strive as long as they could, and when they could procure no other means to make a fire, they could burn the wooden trays and dishes they ate their meat in, and their very bows and arrows. And some would crawl on all fours to get a little water, and sometimes die by the way and not be able to get in again. But of those of the English house, though at first they were afraid of the infection, yet seeing their woeful and sad condition and hearing their pitiful cries and lamentations, they had compassion of them, and daily fetched them wood and water and made them fires, got them victuals whilst they lived; and buried them when they died. For very few of them escaped, notwithstanding they did what they could for them to hazard of themselves. The chief sachem himself now died and almost all his friends and kindred. But by the marvelous goodness and providence of God, not one of the English was so much as sick or in the least measure tainted with this disease, though they daily did these offices for them for many weeks together. And this mercy which they showed them was kindly taken and thankfully acknowledged of all the Indians that knew or heard of the same.
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, pp. 302 – 303
Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec Empire. (We call them Aztecs after the legendary land from which they said they had come; they called themselves the Mexica, so as you can see, all of Mexico is named for their empire.)
The city was built out in a shallow, semi-salt and semi-fresh lake, Lake Texcoco. It was reached by large stone causeways which had forts guarding them and had gaps in them where bridges could be lifted to repel invaders. The city itself was honeycombed with canals. It had four residential quarters and a large central plaza where all the main temples were. Buildings tended to have flat roofs.
When I read Cortez and the Aztec Conquesta while back, I found out that, as you might expect, the geography of Tenochtitlan played a huge role in all that went down there. The Spanish were first welcomed (uneasily) into the city. They later got trapped there and had to fight their way out, with catastrophic casualties, when things went wrong. When they returned, fortified with Tlaxcala Indians and additional Spaniards, they spent months building a fleet of boats and then capturing the towns that ringed Lake Texcoco to use as bases. Even then, they had to besiege the city for 50 days. Even then, the construction of the city was so useful for street fighting that the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans eventually had to literally tear down the buildings in order to take the city.
It’s funny how a person’s most eccentric interests sometimes come in useful. This year, I was given the task of teaching the period of about 1400 – 1800 A.D. to young minds. When we came to the part about Cortez, I thought it would be useful to have a model of the city. I thought I could use model-train materials to build it. For sources on how the city layout looked, I drew on Cortez and the Aztec Conquest by Irwin R. Blacker, The Aztecs by Brian M. Fagan, and maps I found on Pinterest. There is not perfect agreement among all sources about the exact location of the different villages and causeways, and there were far more settlements in the hills surrounding the city than I will be able to show. I also had to leave out some causeways for the sake of simplicity.
So, here goes:
I took a wooden display board (actually meant to bear an inspirational slogan) and painted in Lake Texcoco.
Then I set out the variously-sized wooden blocks, slabs, and matchsticks I had purchased at the hobby store, planning where the city, towns, and causeways would go.
Based on this plan, I was then able to add the “land.” The first step was crumbled packing paper, masking taped down.
Then, paper-mache strips that can be dipped in water and smoothed down to make the hills.
I then painted the hills. I had to mix colors several times, so some of the hills are more greenish and some more greyish. That’s not a huge problem because I have “jungle” greenery to add, and also, the area is somewhat arid.
Meanwhile, I painted the blocks white. Actually, the city was probably very colorful, but I am going for a basic look. White represents stone. If desired, I can add color to the temple area over the following years.
Then it was time for the fun part: the hobby store sells “greenery” in a shaker can. I painted glue onto the hills and shook the greenery on. It sticks amazingly well. Let dry, then vacuum up the extra.
Now I placed the city and towns and glued them down, then added additional glue and greenery to make “islands.”
The city is actually two cities: Tenochtitlan, and Tlatelolco slightly to the north and west. I have given each city its own central plaza with a temple in it. The “temples” in my model are actually way too big relative to the size of the city, but this model is not meant to be perfectly to scale.
Final step: photograph in slanting sunlight.
Epic!
In days ahead, I plan to add a compass rose out in the lake and fancy title on the side, but for now, this ain’t bad.
Out of Babel Books 