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586 Search Results for "george ellison"
Cherokee masks come in many guises
Published: 2012-04-18 12:53:29A mask is a mechanism employed to cover the face as a protective screen or disguise. For protection, they have been utilized for centuries by medieval horsemen, welders, fencers, hockey goalies, and so on. Their most intriguing uses, however, have been a...
Read MoreSpring wildflower and bird pilgrimage
Published: 2012-04-18 12:51:49The 40th annual Spring Wildflower and Bird Pilgrimage will be held April 27-29, with registration at 6:30 p.m., April 27, in the lobby of UNC Asheville’s Robinson Hall. There will be 14 events, including talks and guided tours, focused on local flora a...
Read MoreWhen the kingfishers return
Published: 2012-04-04 13:05:48Belted kingfishers are one of my favorite birds, so much so that I wrote a poem years ago about anticipating their return to our creek each spring titled “Kingfishers Return.” A pair fishes along the small creek on our property during the breeding se...
Read MoreNomenclature has meaning when it comes to plants
Published: 2012-03-28 12:52:18What’s in a name? Well, sometimes a lot, especially when you’re considering the names we assign plants. The striking little early wildflower of deciduous woodlands with its yellow reflexed petals, long red stamens, and lush brown dappled green leaves...
Read MoreLearning and writing haiku
Published: 2012-03-21 14:15:29Lots of people write haikus or haiku-like verse. This past year we had several haiku-writing fests at our house. House rules during Lands Creek haiku fests are that each haiku must be of three lines with a 5-7-5 syllabic structure. More wine was consumed...
Read MoreFlowers are beautiful reminder of early settlements
Published: 2012-03-07 14:44:25As indicated in recent Back Then columns, I've been of late walking some of the old trails along creeks in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that were as recently as the early 1940s populated to a considerable extent. Occasionally, I'll detect an o...
Read MoreDifferent tribes treated captives differently
Published: 2012-02-28 22:28:21I conduct workshops on Southeastern Indian history and culture at the John C. Campbell Folk School for two full weeks a year and for various Elderhostels throughout the year. One topic that surfaces quite often is the manner in which these Indians treate...
Read MorePileated woodpeckers a mainstay in the mountains
Published: 2012-02-21 21:27:36The tapping of pileateds ... means attachment to a nest site and attachment of the members of a pair to each other . . . When one pair of pileateds is especially excited about meeting its mate, it bends its head and bill far back, waving them back and fo...
Read MoreOne of the Smokies’ finest poets
Published: 2012-02-15 14:05:58Olive Tilford Dargan is fairly well known in literary circles as the author of From My Highest Hill (1941), a delightful collection of autobiographical stories set in Swain County, originally published as Highland Annals in 1925. But she is also one of t...
Read MoreGeronimo’s brush with Western North Carolina
Published: 2012-02-07 21:54:52The names Geronimo and Gen. George Cook are interwoven in the lore of northern Mexico, southeastern Arizona, western New Mexico and the Indian territories in Oklahoma. An association with the Smokies region and the remnant Eastern Band of Cherokees in We...
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